[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage 577, Pentecost 19, 10/7/07

[Roland McGregor]

Pentecost 19 – October 7, 2007


Lamentations 1:1-6
Psalm 137:1-9
II Tim 1:1‑14
Luke 17:5‑10

The Stretch Between Faith and Humility

Beginning with the fourteenth chapter, Luke develops a series of the  
sayings of Jesus that counter self-righteousness in its various forms  
with "the Pharisees" as the name for the self-righteous.  Our text  
marks an end to that series and the beginning of Jesus' movement  
toward Jerusalem and the cross.  Within these six verses is the  
tension that, on the one hand, gives the life of faith its dynamic  
and, on the other, makes it unstable in the human heart.

If I had the faith, I could say to a mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and  
planted in the sea," and it would.  If I had the faith and uprooted  
the tree before a local TV crew, I would say, "Build me a bigger  
church," and somebody would.  I would not say, "I am a worthless  
slave and only did what I ought to have done."  And that is why I  
can't uproot trees with my faith.  I haven't the inner strength to  
uproot trees with my faith without becoming self-righteous.  Now, I  
might have the strength to tithe and not become self-righteous...  
might.  It would be a stretch.  This is the way faith can increase in  
me, though:  on the one side, to become more obedient  --  that is,  
act on faith; and on the other side, to become less proud of my  
obedience -- that is, to think of my obedience as being for someone  
else.

It is like the capillary action of water in a fine glass tube.  The  
surface tension of the water tugs on one side of the interior wall of  
the tube, then on the other, and thus the water lifts itself up the  
tube from the surface of water surrounding the tube.   My faith can  
only increase as my humility increases.  They are the reciprocal tugs  
of the Christian life.  My power can only increase as my submission  
to God increases.  If I could uproot trees with my faith, I would  
also need to be able know myself as a mere slave of God.  I am  
encouraged by this scripture to let the Lord increase my faith, but I  
am in no way ready to move trees with it.

Paul, the definer of faith, is pleased to know himself as prisoner  
for Christ's sake, and that is why he can say to Timothy, "But I am  
not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am  
sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to  
him."  (2 Timothy 1:12)  In order to maintain such faith, first he  
had to know himself a slave for Christ.  As great as the  
accomplishments were that sprang from his faith in Christ, he would  
be the fist to say that he did no more than what he was charged to  
do.  Apart from that humility, his accomplishments could not have  
been what they were.  His faith would not have been sufficient to  
support them.

Paul uprooted trees with his faith.  Actually he did something more  
remarkable.  He bulldozed a Jewish sect into a Greco-Roman world.  He  
planted the seeds of the Reformation and reformation itself.  But  
Paul was nothing.  The message was everything.  We are nothing.  The  
in-breaking of the kingdom of God is everything.

Tossing a tree into the sea is a metaphor for something more  
difficult, rising up from utter defeat. How did the Jewish people  
rise above the loss of Jerusalem? How did the disciples rise above  
the crucifixion of Jesus? For this, Jeremiah, the Psalmist, Timothy,  
you and I need our faith increased, that we may be the slaves of the  
reign of God on earth for the sake of Christ for the sake of the world.



May these thoughts strengthen you.



An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors

 From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor

(an e-mail service)



[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated  
with these lections.]



http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/



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