Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Fulton Porter, III
December 27, 2009
The First Sunday After Christmas
St. Thomas Church, Chicago
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
How Deep Is Your Faith?
In the name the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
As we come to the dawn of the last year in the first decade of the 21st century, perhaps it is appropriate to spend some time reflecting on the year that was. One of the most notable events of the year 2009 was the death of the iconic pop star- Michael Jackson. We or at least our children grew up with and on the artistic genius of Michael. From his days with the Jackson 5 to his solo career; from “ABC. It’s easy as 123” to “I wanna Dance with you” to”Billy Jean” to “Thriller” and “Bad” just to name a few of his platinum hits; we all learned to moonwalk and a lot of us even tried to emulate his style.
One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements feature multiple Guinness World Records—including the "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time"—15 Grammy Awards (including the "Living Legend Award" and the "Lifetime Achievement Award"), 26 American Music Awards (24 only as a solo artist, including one for "Artist of the Century")—more than any artist—, 17 number one singles in the US (including the four as a member of the Jackson 5), and estimated sales between 350 million and 750 million records worldwide making him one of the best selling artists in history. He was also a notable philanthropist and humanitarian who donated and raised over 300 million dollars through support of 39 charities and his own Heal the World Foundation.
Jackson's personal relationships and life generated controversy for years. His changing appearance was noticed from the late 1970s onwards, with changes to his nose and to the color of his skin drawing media publicity. He was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993 though no charges were brought, and in 2005 he was tried and acquitted of further allegations. He married twice, first in 1994 and again in 1996, and brought up three children, one born to a surrogate mother. While preparing for the This Is It concert tour in 2009, Jackson died at the age of 50 after suffering from cardiac arrest. He reportedly had been administered drugs such as propofol and lorazepam, and his death was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County coroner. His death triggered an outpouring of grief from around the world with his globally live broadcast memorial service attracting an audience of up to one billion people. His friend Elizabeth Taylor perhaps spoke for the entire world when she said that she couldn’t imagine life without him.But the fact of the matter is that the great Michael Jackson was as human as the rest of us and his life was just as fragile as our. In other words, we are all gonna leave this old earth someday.
Kanye West, wrote a song which spoke to me this year called I Heard ‘Em Say. In it he says “And I heard 'em say, nothin ever promised tomorrow today.” Nothing ever promised tomorrow today. And so as the year 2009 dawns, we must understand like Kanye does that nothing is promised.
Perhaps the clearest lesson that I learned and that we must all learn from the death of Michael Jackson is that we all must travel that way. This year is somebody’s year. Death will knock at the doors of countless millions bringing an eternal sleep which will continue until the coming of Christ. And so the question, in these unsure times and uncertain circumstances, and as we embark upon the newness of another year and the mercy of another chance, is “what then are we going to do with the time we have left?” How are we going to live our lives? Who are we going to live our lives for? What will our legacy be?
Many of us view the New Year as a time of beginning afresh and of setting new goals for ourselves and of making changes to our pattern of living. Some of us will begin the New Year saying to ourselves and to others, “I’m going to do things differently this year. I’m going to make some changes that I have needed to make for a long time. I’m going to be a different person.” Others of us don’t see ourselves making too many changes in our lives from the previous year. Though everything in our lives is not perfect, we are basically satisfied and reasonably content. Last year wasn’t that bad for us so we hope things will go on as before and that we will continue in the same way that we were heading.
But whether we see ourselves making many or few changes this year, we all at least have one goal in common. Every one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, the richest to the poorest, and the most educated to the least educated, the most pious and holy to the most worldly, ought to have this as our goal as we seek to live out the rest of our days. Each of us needs to strive for more depth in the Lord. Each of us needs to reach for a stronger faith and more growth in God’s grace. As we begin the new year, our prayer should be that we will by the end of the year find ourselves with more depth in the Spirit, more understanding of God’s word and more commitment to doing God’s will. And so in preparation for the attainment of that goal we must take a personal and spiritual inventory. We must begin by asking ourselves the searching question, “How deep is your faith?”
I was intrigued this week by Paul’s word to the Galatian Christians, as he reminded them of the freedom that comes in faith in Christ. The theme of this letter is the freedom which comes from being born of God by the Holy Spirit. The churches of Galatia were founded by Paul himself. They seem to have been composed mainly of converts from paganism. After Paul's departure the churches were visited by individuals whom Paul regarded as troublemakers preaching a "different gospel" from that preached by Paul. The Galatians appear to have been receptive to the teaching of these newcomers, and this epistle is Paul's response to what he sees as their willingness to turn from his teaching. These "opponents" taught that in order for pagans to belong to the people of God, they must be subject to some or all of the Jewish Law. There was controversy concerning circumcision, Sabbath observance, and the Mosaic Law. Not only that, these opponents appear to have questioned Paul's authority as an apostle. And so Brother Paul tries to explain to them about Faith and its relationship to Jewish Law.
But after reading the passage over and over again, I heard God whisper to my spirit that we must continue to grow and go deeper in our faith, because any old person might just come along and tell you any old thing and lead you any old way. For some of us, our faith is so shallow that it only takes a good conversation to get us off track.
And so the Christian Journey is something that we must continue to strive to grow into. One does not reach the highest heights or the deepest depths by wishing it or wanting it. Some folks come into church with a bang and go out with a whimper. They are so gung ho that it seems that they become holy and sanctified overnight. But because there is no depth, no effort to grow, they wane and weaken over time and now they are right back where they started- disillusioned and disappointed. But true religion goes from strength to strength. While time wears down all we know, time, if used productively, should cause your faith to grow and deepen. We’ve got to spend the time with God in order to solidify our relationship with him. God has got to be able to show us some things that would make us proclaim even in our trying hour, “You can’t make me doubt him ‘cause I know too much about him!” How deep is your faith?
We have got to take some time with God. In time, the clothes we wear, no matter how fine or expensive will wear out. In time, the cars that we drive, no matter how exclusive, will wear out. They will rust and their engines will stop working. In time, the houses we live in will crumble. In time, our bodies will deteriorate. In time, the greatest athlete looses their coordination and agility and must retire. In time, movie stars once known for their beauty will fade and be forgotten. In time, old age will catch up with our youth and our steps will shorten and our energy will fade. In time, even the caskets that we are buried in, no matter how much they cost, will rot away to dust. But in time, the Christian life should go from strength to strength and from glory to glory. Every round should go higher and higher and each victory should help us some other to win.
There should be a difference between my faith this year and my faith last year. My faith ought to be stronger. I ought to have more depth and knowledge from coming to Bible Study and reading the scripture and living life and seeing God’s hand at work. I shouldn’t be discouraged as easily or quit so readily. I shouldn’t have my feelings hurt so quickly. I should be more convinced about the reality of the truth of some things now. I should be more firm in some things and more flexible in others. The world shouldn’t look the same as it did 5 years ago. If everything looks the same, I haven’t grown very much. Growth makes one see things differently.
It is not simply the passage of time, because the years can go by without much growth taking place. Some folks still think the same thoughts and talk the same way about the same people and the same things. They try to do the same things that they did years ago. Therefore, each of us needs to look at ourselves in the beginning of the New Year and take inventory and see how much or how little we have grown. We have no business looking at our neighbor, but we need to look at ourselves and ask, “How much depth do we have in God?” How deep is your faith?
If you will allow me to use my imagination a moment, it seems that wading through varying levels of water can be compared to the depths of our faith. Some of us have ankle-deep faith. Walking through water that is ankle deep generally is no problem and requires minimum adjustment on our part. All we need to do is take off our shoes and roll up our trousers a little bit and we can move easily through ankle-deep water. It is so shallow, we can easily run through it, and after we come out of it we just have to roll down our pants and put on our shoes. People usually can’t even tell that we have been through the water. Ankle deep faith doesn’t inconvenience us much at all. We may go to church provided we are not inconvenienced too much. We don’t have to slow down much at all. We still curse people out and degrade them just as quickly. We still cut up the same way as before. We take off a couple of hours to run through some church service, but we don’t change the way we live or talk or act. We don’t want church to last too long. We don’t want to become too spiritual. We don’t want to be challenged about our stewardship or discipleship. We want a convenient religion that we can run into and out of quickly. We go in and out so quickly that most people see no difference in us. We’re still hell to live with; still mean and grouchy to people that we work with. Ankle deep faith doesn’t last because it dries up as quickly as the water we wipe off our feet.
Then there are those who have knee deep faith. Knee deep faith is not quite as convenient as ankle deep faith. It slows us down a little more. We can run through ankle deep faith but only walk through knee deep faith. Knee deep faith inconveniences us some but not much. We can still keep on our same clothes but just roll up our pants a little bit higher. When we have ankle deep faith we are not inconvenienced at all. When we have knee deep faith, we don’t mind being inconvenienced, but not much. We want some faith, but not much. We want some Jesus, but not much. Not so much that we can’t control it or might have to change. We’ll give some service, but not much. We’ll tip the Lord on Sunday, but surely won’t tithe. We’ll do some things as long as they don’t take up too much time. Knee-deep faith… Luke-warm faith… When troubles come and problems arise it will not hold us. When we get discouraged and feel like giving up, it will not hold us. When the enemy attacks, we are not shielded, so our world can be destroyed and our joy is gone. Knee deep faith cannot unlock the marvelous mysteries and the sweet joys of our religion because it is not deep enough. We can walk away from it as easily as we walked into it, looking and acting the same way.
And then there is waist high faith. Most of us are waist high. Waist high faith requires a greater commitment than the others. We have to go out a little farther and we cannot get out of it as easily. We can run through ankle deep and knee deep faith, but waist deep faith allows us only to wade through it. Waist high faith has some depth to it and we cannot hide the fact that we have been in the water because the lower half of our bodies has been totally immersed. When we have waist deep faith we have had sufficient experience with Christ to have some changes in our lives. Although there are places in our lives which remain dry, places where the gospel has not yet taken hold, much of our living has been submitted to Christ. And though people see the dry parts, they also see how wet we are and realize that at some point we have had some experience with Jesus. We are wet enough that when we get out we have to put on new clothes and we look differently and act differently.
That’s where most of us are. We have waist deep faith. Our commitment to God and to church are strong enough that we can’t run away from them, so we spend our lives wading through, waist deep in God’s spirit; waist deep in God’s love; waist deep in God’s grace; waist deep in God’s Word. You can’t easily pull waist deep folks out of the water. Most of us are firm and secure in our religious commitment. No matter who comes or who goes, we’re going to stay with the church. We’re going to continue serving the Lord. The problem is that most of us make the mistake of not striving for something more than a waist deep faith. God is calling us deeper, deeper in faith and deeper in grace and deeper in love and deeper in the will of God. I’m glad that there is something deeper than waist deep faith, as rewarding and fulfilling as it might be, we are called to go deeper.
We need to experience a faith deep enough to swim in. We don’t hold any dry areas back for ourselves but we give ourselves totally and completely to God. When faith becomes deep enough to swim in, we don’t become perfect or stop making mistakes, but we are able to give ourselves to God as never before in spite of our imperfections. When faith becomes deep enough to swim in, we no longer stand on our own two feet or try to walk or wade through on our own power. Instead we rely on God’s word and put our trust in God as never before. Our prayers truly become, “Thy will be done.”
Live or die, sink or swim, we move on through life’s turbulent seas knowing that there is one who upholds us as the billows roll and the breakers dash! Faith that’s deep enough to swim in can be frightening because of the commitment and trust it calls for. But it is that kind of Faith that will carry us through. Only faith that is deep enough to swim in can make us more than conquerors.
And so my brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to know today, “How deep is your faith?” Is your faith deep enough to help you pick up the pieces of your life and go on triumphantly when one that you love departs in death? Is your faith deep enough to help you keep your head up when things aren’t going right; when misfortune strikes and the very foundation of your life is shaken? Is your faith deep enough to keep your heart from panic and your courage from leaving you when there are hellhounds all around? Is your faith deep enough to preserve your joy when sadness is at your doorstep? Is your faith deep enough to hold you when people disappoint and dreams disappear? And, when you come to the end of your journey, weary of life and the battle is won, is your faith deep enough to make up a dying bed and then bear you up on the wings of the morning to the bosom of your heavenly father who will wipe away all tears from your eyes and give eternal rest to your soul?
How deep is your faith?
