The Power of Faith

  

Text: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Focus: faith

Function: to help people put faith into action

4:¹What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” ⁴Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. ⁵But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

¹³For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.

¹⁶For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us, ¹⁷as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Good morning to the beloved children of God.

I pray that Christ’s peace abound in your hearts and minds fully as we celebrate the faith that God has given us expressed in our confidence in God’s covenant when when we baptize Oliver.

At one time I was asked to consider taking the role of pastor at a United Methodist Church and they asked me specifically about my practice of baptism since the tradition in the Church of the Brethren has been to dedicate babies and wait to baptize them until they were old enough to know whether or not it was their choice.

And I told the person questioning me that the Scripture supports both modes of baptism and that I could defend either one. I believe strongly that we are on a journey together and that the Holy Spirit is leading us and that the Spirit celebrates the diversity of all the religions in the world, not making one superior to the other but calling us all by faith to love one another.

And in that diversity, I am certainly willing to begin the covenant into this Christian journey with Oliver according to his parent’s personal convictions and baptize him. His baptism into the Christian faith is a covenant between him, God, his parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles and this Church to provide the spiritual nurture necessary to bring him securely into God’s family of faith.

And Faith is what we are looking at today.

Through faith Abraham found favor with God. Because Abraham trusted God, God declared him to be righteous. Having faith in God, trusting in God, living by his promises and love for others is one of the goals we have as we practice our faith in God.

In the passage, and in the context of the book of Romans, Paul is explaining how trusting Christ brings us to this place with God whereby God is present in our lives and is healing and restoring us to the design that God has for us and humanity.

Paul contrasts the difference between living by faith in Christ with trying to earn our salvation through the religious practices that we prescribed to the Jewish people through Moses.

It is referred to in the New Testament as the law of Moses, or The Law. And the problem was that it didn’t take into account the Holy Spirit’s leading in the life of the believer to bolster their ability to trust in God.

The emphasis on the power of faith is that it brings us to the grace of God and God’s mercy.

Abraham was a man of faith because he took the risks God that God lead him into.

Abraham walked with God in his problems and rested in God’s protection. God walked with him through the difficulties of life.

Abraham’s life story is a metaphor for us in taking the risk to obey Christ rather than live by the greedy values of this world.

God doesn’t promise to deliver us from risk, but to walk with us through it. And sometimes, we see the providence of God intervening even in miraculous ways.

When God led him, Abraham obeyed, even to the point where he was willing to risk the life of his son because he knew that God could raise his son from the dead. He trusted God promises.

God declared Abraham righteous because of his faith. What does it mean to be righteous? It means we are in the right place with God. And it springs from the fact that we righteous people do the right things.

Today it takes faith to do the right things. It takes faith for us to be different from the culture around us. It takes faith to do the right thing in this world. I takes faith and courage for us to present love for others in a culture that worships rugged individualism and machismo to the point where they refuse to care for the least of these.

Abraham is called the father of our faith, and I might add, not just ours but also the father of the Jewish and Muslim faith as well. We all worship the same God.

And one of the joys of that worship to me is the way that God includes everyone.

When Jesus was involved in all of his important teaching and ministering to people and in the thick of it, some children were brought to him and the disciples thought he was too important to bother with them.

But Jesus instead welcomed the children and told us that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

He reminded us that it is in love and care that God is present.

And today we baptize Oliver Gerald Lee Manning into the Christian faith here at Painter Creek Church.

Today, we begin the Christian journey with Oliver here at Painter Creek and we commend him to God’s favor and protection.