9 August 2014 - hooked on cacophony

9 August 2014 - hooked on cacophony

Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Here is a passage which is meant to challenge us.  We are being called out.  We run up against mountains all the time and yet they don't move.  Plenty seems impossible for us.  The mustard seed is the smallest and yet it becomes a massive plant capable of supporting not only itself but others.  But we don't even have a mustard seed, apparently.

So where do we begin?  Paul has the answer, "Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ."  We need to grow in listening to and hearing the word of Christ.

We don't need to feel guilty that we aren't good at this yet.  Even though they've already been following Jesus for a while now his disciples still have to hear that their inability to exorcise the demon this morning is because of their little faith.  Both us and the disciples get our faith from the same place.  We get it from the word of Christ.  We need to spend time listening.  We need to trust the promise Jesus gives us that "the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice" (cf. Joh 10:4).  Sheep, though, are stupid.  We have to be exposed to the voice again and again to learn to distinguish it from the cacophony of the world.  His word is meant to be a lamp unto our path and a light unto our feet.  We need to receive it like the Thessalonians, who received it not as "a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe."

Let us follow Habakkuk to our guard posts to watch and listen for what God wants to say.

I will stand at my guard post,
and station myself upon the rampart,
And keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what answer he will give to my complaint.

We need the integrity to wait even if we don't hear anything right away.  This will bring us to the faith that can actually give life to ourselves and those around us.

If it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash man has no integrity;
but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.

We come to believe more and more the words of the psalmist.

You forsake not those who seek you, O Lord.

Now we hear him.  Now nothing is impossible for us because nothing is impossible for the one whom we hear.  Now we experience the life he which he comes to the world to give in abundance (cf. Joh. 10:10).

Sing praise to the LORD enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations his deeds;
For the avenger of blood has remembered;
he has not forgotten the cry of the poor.