The Power of Faith

October 7, 2007 World Communion Sunday Sermon: The Power of Faith Texts: II Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17: 5-10 Clare Boothe Luce was once our ambassador to Italy. While she was living in a beautiful 17th-century Italian villa, she began to notice that she was always tired. She lost weight and seemed to have less and less energy. She sought medical care, and after a period of intense testing it was discovered that she was suffering from arsenic poisoning. Everyone on her staff was given a security check, but it was soon established that none of her staff was trying to poison her. Which left the question: Where was the poisoning coming from? Finally, they found the cause: It was the ceiling of the bedroom. There were beautiful designs of roses, ornately done in plaster relief, and they were painted with an old paint that contained arsenic lead. A fine dust fell from the roses, and Mrs. Luce was slowly being poisoned in her bed by the dust from the ornate roses. From this incident in her life, we ask, "Are we in danger of being slowly poisoned by the ornate culture and society in which we live?" Can our attitudes, our concepts, or our values, be eroded or poisoned by the values around us that are opposite from our faith? This is what Paul is asking Timothy. Paul continues to write and counsel Timothy to be bold in his witness because he is fearful that Timothy is being slowly poisoned by the ideas and influences around him. He sees him as sincere in his faith and wants him to hold on to the attitudes, concepts, values he has taught him. What do you think? Can we be slowly poisoned by the ideas and influences around us? Can we be pulled away from the faith that has potential to sustain and guard us through the trails of life? Paul says to Timothy, in case this is happening, "Stir into flame the gift of God which is within you." He wants Timothy to step forward and claim God's gifts of power, love and self discipline. Timothy has choice. How will he respond? Early in my ministry career, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with young adults who were hungry to learn how to lead the life of a Christian. There was sincerity in many of the students I met in my days as a Baptist Campus Minister at the University of Louisville, at George Mason University in Northern Virginia, at the Community Colleges in the Miami Dade system of higher education. These were the day when campus ministry programs were funded in better ways than today! The song we sang over and over in some of our retreat settings was "Pass It On." The first verse begins, "It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing; that's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it: you spread God's love to everyone, you want to pass it on." We sang that song so many times! I know it by heart and immediately thought about as I read the familiar words of Paul to Timothy, "I remind you Timothy to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you." "It only takes a spark to get a fire going." Today we celebrate communion with followers of Jesus the world over because someone has fanned the flame. We mark this day as World Communion Sunday because about 67 years ago, a man named Jesse Bader started this idea of all Christians everywhere celebrating communion on the same Sunday, no matter where they lived or what denomination they belonged to. His dream was that we imagine ourselves as one big family of those who love and follow Jesus. Jesse devoted his life to the work of motivating Christians to worship and work together. He believed our faith would have an impact on the culture we live in and the attitudes that developed among our youth and young adults. His story reminds us of the life of another who "had a dream." In this study of scripture, another song comes ringing in my heart and mind. We usually sing it around Martin Luther King Sunday in January, but it seems fitting to speak of it of this World Communion Sunday. "We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday. Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday!" The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached while singing "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. (from "My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence") Jesus prayed before he died, "that we may all be one." Does this mean we fan into flame the gift of faith? Can the power of faith, the resurrection we celebrate each Sunday, enable us to cross all sorts of barriers in order to be united by Christ's love? I say yes. We read in our Gospel lesson of disciples wanting more faith. Maybe this is critical for us. We need to "want" more faith. The disciples yearned to know the secret of the holy life from their teacher, Jesus. He was able to tell them that the tiniest faith had great potential. He told them it mattered that we take this tiny seed of faith and let it multiply. "It only takes a spark to get a fire going." Paul say to Timothy as a brother in Christ, "fan into a flame the gift that God gave you." This is our encouragement as well. Spiritual Director Joan Chittister writes that there are two ways to live in the world. We live as if we were connected to it like a leaf to a tree or as if we are a universe unto ourselves. Which are we? When we are connected to the world like a leaf, we share what can have a great influence on the shape of the tree. These attitudes matter for those who yearn to know the power of faith: reverence for God , reverence for the body, reverence for the other who is younger and unimportant, reverence for the older, or the one in opposition to us and an irritant now. (Joan Chittister, "Daily Reflections taken form the rule of Benedict," www.eriebenedictines.org) The song we sing in our worship has the same message, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." We imagine that this is the message of Christ to the disciples, "It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing; that's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it: you spread God's love to everyone, you want to pass it on." God gave Timothy the gift of boldness, power, love and self discipline. God gives us the gift of boldness, power, love and self discipline because God wants to know and to experience the power of faith upholding our lives and keeping us connected to all creation. What can we take with us, daily, for encouragement and strength as we encounter the pressures of our culture and its demands on us? A few years ago, I visited Riverside Church in New York City (UCC and ABC affiliation). I was given a tour of the beautiful building and a copy of an article about renowned pastor in the 1930's, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick. On the back of the article were some words he gave defining a successful life: "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived." His words go with us and so does the power of faith contained in the small seeds of faith we sow. So friends, "pass it on," knowing that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. We approach this table believing that on World Communion Sunday, God will give us the grace to "stir into flame the gift of God within us! Amen.