By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin.
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
2nd Sunday of Lent, February 21th, 2016
It’s a very beautiful drive on Highway 321, going from Lenoir to Blowing Rock, or vice versa. When I was a child, we made that drive almost every fall, and I was filled with the wonder of nature and mountains every time. And it wasn’t just the divine side of that view which amazed me, I must admit that the human side of that drive amazed me too, as I thought about how hard it must have been to build that road which either climbed or came down the side of mountains.
In more recent years, that drive has been somewhat ‘tamed’, if not, transformed once again. It’s perhaps even more amazing today how on Highway 321, mountains have been blasted, roads were made straighter, and valleys have been filled in and lifted up to make it even easier on travelers. Who would have imagined early in American history, how easy it would be today to travel through those mountains and gain those grand views on a pleasant Sunday afternoon?
In our text from Mark 11, Jesus speaks of having faith to move Mountains. Applying our understanding of human advancements over the scan of 2,000 years, just think of all the ‘impossible’ things that have been invented since Jesus’ day: Electricity, plumbing, refrigeration, air conditioning, trains, planes and automobiles, space travel, and now computers, internet, and of course, mobile phones. With so much human ingenuity to razzle and dazzle us, is it any one that churches are not filled, and God seems less important?
HAVING FAITH CAN BE DIFFICULT
However, when Jesus spoke about ‘moving mountains’ he wasn’t speaking about bulldozers moving a lot of dirt, rock or stone. Jesus was not even thinking about any particular kind of human advancement. No, when Jesus spoke metaphorically about moving mountains, Jesus was speaking about prayer and faith, which is made clear in this text, when he says, quite emphatically, “Have faith in God!
Of course, calling for prayer is one think, even wanting to pray is another, but believing in the kind of pray that demands ‘faith’ can sometimes be very hard to do. But isn’t that why Jesus is encouraging it. Faith is not easy, nor is prayer an ‘automatic’ way of getting what you want or even getting what you need. Again, let’s face this whole picture of having faith and praying as we know it can sometimes be, difficult! What is more difficult than praying, seeking, asking, and knocking, and it seems that not only does the door not open, but the door is bolted shut and it appears as if no one is home. That’s at least how one Christian expressed how it feels when you pray and nothing happens. If you recall, this is exactly why Mark Twain’s Huck Finn said he didn’t pray anymore. Here’s the quote:
“Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing
come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I
would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line,
but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the
hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. By and
by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a
fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way.
I set down one time back in the woods, and had a long think about it.
I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don’t
Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can’t the widow
get back her silver snuffbox that was stole? Why can’t Miss Watson fat
up? No, says I to myself, there ain’t nothing in it. I went and told
the widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying
for it was “spiritual gifts.” This was too many for me, but she told
me what she meant–I must help other people, and do everything I could
for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think
about myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it. I went out
in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn’t
see no advantage about it–except for the other people; so at last I
reckoned I wouldn’t worry about it any more, but just let it go.”
Some people, like Huck Finn, and most all of us, at some time or other, will see ‘no advantage’ about praying so we just ‘let it go’. I’ll talk more about the advantages of prayer when we reach Mark 14, but in this passage I want us to see the ‘disadvantages’ when people stop praying and just ‘let it go’. Can you see a little bit of what might happen in the very ‘context’ of Jesus own “prayer- less” and ‘faith-less’ situation? Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem and what does he find? He declares that “God’s house shall (should) be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But, instead, he declares, (they) made it a den of robbers." (Mk. 11:17 NRS). How did this happen? Did this happen when they lost faith in God or did they lose faith in God because their prayers weren’t working?
What we can know for sure is that ‘unanswered prayer’ can cause people to lose faith in both prayer and God. The story is told about a man who prays and prays for a woman to become his wife. He tells her about his constant praying that she will marry him and he keeps sending her letter after letter which the postman took right to her front door day and day. After receiving all these ‘prayer’ letters she ends up marrying the postman whom she got to know through the sending of all those letters.
This is funny, but unanswered prayer is no joke. It can be a matter of life and death. Sometimes we really need certain ‘prayers’ to be answered, but they aren’t. Some soldiers are prayed for, but still don’t come home. Some people need financial, medical, or immediate help, but no one or nothing comes. Mothers with young children do not always get better so they can take care of the children. Fathers do not always make it through a sickness, when the family depends on them. Children who are prayed to stay safe, do not always remain safe. Now, some people will say that you didn’t pray hard, long, or sincere enough, and others will say that there was some kind of ‘unconfessed sin’ that got in the way. Most will say that all prayer is answered in some way, either with a yes, a no, or ‘you have to wait’. While any or all of this may be true, we must still admit that Huck Finn is ‘correct’ to observe that prayer is not always what it seems to be. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, encouraging them to ‘Ask and it will be given to you, to seek and you will find, or to knock and the door will be opened” and then adds, that “everyone who asks receives, who seeks find, and who knocks has doors open” we all know that is sounds very much like an overstatement of the case. Prayer is seldom what the disciples or we thought we were being promised, when Jesus taught about prayer.
How many prayers of yours have been “unanswered”? How many times have you felt as if you were losing faith in God? We do at least know that Jesus doesn't encourage faith because its easy, but he is encouraging ‘faith in God’ because sometimes its not easy at all. Sometimes faith get hard, real hard. Sometimes there is seems to be no rhyme and no reason. You pray, you ask, but you don't receive. Why should you still have faith?
We can’t say everything that was behind Israel’s loss of faith. Perhaps the law seemed to be hard and much too harsh. Anyway, the nation had failed to measure up to it, and probably never did. The prophets had been stoned too. Even John the Baptist was beheaded and Jesus was about to be rejected and crucified too. And even after all these political adjustments had been made, Israel was still not saved.
Could it have been that it was a loss of faith that cause Israel to 'lower' temple standards? Maybe it wasn’t always a den of thieves. Many become ‘thieves’ when they lose hope or believe there is no use to hope? Some became excited when Jesus came to town, but by the end of the week they would lose all hope in Jesus too. Jesus said Have faith! But they didn't, and maybe they couldn't, at least not yet.
Regaining ‘faith’ is not something that can be recovered all at once, can it?
FAITHLESSNESS WILL LEAD TO HOPELESSNESS
But we must try. We must pray and try to regain our faith, even when things are not as we would like them to be? Do you know why we must ‘have faith in God’ even when we don’t feel like it? Jesus shows us why. Right after Jesus reminds them of their need for faith, he does a very strange thing to make a point. Jesus ‘curses’ a fig tree that does not have figs, even when it was not the season for it to have figs.
A tree can't help not having figs, can it? Especially when it’s not the season for figs? Why does Jesus do something as cruel as this? But what Jesus is doing is not really based on what's wrong with the fig tree, but it's based on what's gone wrong among the people, and especially with the temple in Israel. The temple is no longer what it was intended to be. It had ceased being a place of prayer where people of ‘all nations’ could be made aware of God’s presence. As Tom Wright says the problem in the temple was not simply commercialization; it was much worse. It was about corruption and it was about bad politics and bad religion which lost faith. Since they had lost faith in God they were now becoming so nationalistic they had become fruitless in their worship and unfaithful in their service to God. Israel’s religious, social and political life had become worthless. It was showy like a tree putting on a bunch of leaves, but it all this ‘show’ was without real substance or productivity. Without real spiritual fruit, Israel had no life. And the problem was not that Israel was just ‘faithless’ in this moment, Israel, like this tree was cursed because she had become "hopeless" for the future Jesus' is merely announcing what is already obvious: Israel is hopeless because she has lost faith.
Last year, I saw Oprah on national TV promoting a new show on her network entitled Belief. Oprah, the queen of popular religion in America, said her show was a show anyone could watch, even atheists, because everyone has to have some kind of faith; “Everyone believers in something!” Those were her exact words. With this they ran a preview from her new show, depicting how a young orthodox Jewish boy’s life was given hope by having a robust faith. Again, Oprah preaches, “God has given us all that same capacity and need to have a faith that gives us all hope. “ Without having faith we will eventually lose hope.
An even better example of how faith can sustain hope was shared with me recently when I heard about a doctor in a bible study group who told how someone made a huge impact on them. A young man was critically injured in a logging accident. His parents came with to the hospital as he was not yet married. When this doctor realized his head injuries were too severe, she dreaded having to go out and tell them. After they lost him, she went out to inform the mother and father. They were first in a moment of silent shock, but then, suddenly, without warning, the mother raised her hands and started shouting “Thank you, Jesus!”
The doctor, not being a person of faith, could not figure out what was happening or what she meant. She decided to stay with family and learn for herself. Later the mother explained that she was thanking God for the years she had with her son. She was not ‘thankful’ for his tragic death, but she mustered the faith to be ‘thankful’ for the days she had with her son. It was her thankfulness and faith that kept her from losing all hope. The doctor told her Bible Study group that that mother’s faith is what impacted her so much, she became a person of faith herself.
FAITH GIVES NEW POSSIBILITIES
Keeping Faith is about finding hope. Without ‘faith’, even when faith is hard, life will become hopeless. This is why Jesus looks at his disciples and says, emphatically: “Have Faith in God!” But what does this mean? Most of us can understand that we need to try to have faith, even when it’s not easy. But it is this final word from Jesus, when goes beyond ‘hanging on’ and challenging us to have the faith to ‘move mountains’ that seems like ‘overkill’ and makes faith even ‘harder’, doesn’t it? As one popular preacher preaches, it doesn’t just sound like prayer ‘moves mountains’, but it sounds like Jesus is telling us to “speak to our mountains” and they will move. They will move, one preacher says, because our ‘faith moves’ God into action. (www.resource4us.net/docs/SpeakToYourMountains.pdf).
It is most unfortunate when people, even some, even well-meaning preachers, take this wonderful saying from Jesus and try to turn it into praying that seems like saying ‘magic words’. Is this really what Jesus really means? Just speak up, or ‘faith up’ and God will spring into action?
Robert Capon tells about a worker in a synagogue who one day went to the Rabbi to announce his resignation. The Rabbi responded with surprise. “How can you do this? You have been one of our most valued employees for over thirty years! Why are you acting so impulsively? The worker countered, “I will be honest. I do not believe in anything we are doing here. It’s all a sham! “How can you say that?” the Rabbi responds. The worker explains: Every Friday afternoon, as the sun is going down and the Sabbath begins, I have gone into our holy space where the ten words of Moses on the wall and I’ve prayed, “Yahweh, Lord the universe, please help me win the lottery tomorrow night.” I have done this for over thirty years and nothing has ever happened. Thus I’ve concluded that there is no one on the other end of this praying business.”
The Rabbi looks at him and answers, “I don’t that this is a valid text, but the Sabbath is about to begin. Let me go in with you into the holy space and maybe I can discern what the problem is.” They went in together and the worker repeated the request he had been making all those years, and suddenly, out of the great silence came a deep, resonating voice which boomed, “Mosey, Mosey! Give me a break. You could have at least bought a ticket!”
When Jesus tells his disciples that they can ‘speak to the mountain’ and it will move, he was not just saying any “mountain” Jesus was speaking of THE MOUNTAIN, which was the temple mound, where the temple of the Lord stood that had become a ‘den of thieves’ rather than a ‘house of prayer’. This ‘mountain’, which should have represented God’s presence alive and active in the world, had no real vision or witness. Since this ‘temple’ failed to portray the truth about God, it will be moved, and after that, the temple will no longer be a place but a person—a son who has come to put ‘life’ back into God’s people, who are called to renew their faith in God and prayer. When God raises Jesus from the dead as the new ‘temple’, those who trust him will become the place, that is the ‘temple’ where God is present and at work. All they have to do now is ‘speak the word’ of faith and they will become the temple themselves.
We still have a tendency to turn this passage “faith” that gives us magic words for instant, dramatic results. But what if it is just what Jesus says, it’s about having faith, no matter what the results are, because the greatest result of faith is us---that God is with us and in us, as we, though our faith and life of prayer, become the “temple where God is at work? Isn’t that how this text ends, not with ‘mountains moving’, but with a call to prayer, who by a people who need to realize they have God’s great ‘spiritual’ power within themselves. Isn’t this what Jesus means when he says “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions. …. (11:25).
But really what is faith? What kind of ‘power’ is it? Is it an attitude like positive thinking? Or is it something more? It may be all of this and more. One thing for sure, faith has a power all on its own and it can change our perception of reality which helps us deal with the challenges of life, keeping us steady, giving us confidence and bringing out our best.
Coaches, better than most, understand the importance of having the kind of faith that brings confidence, perception, and attitude. The story’s told about much-beloved basketball coach Jim Valvano who was seeking to lead North Carolina State to the 1983 championship of the ACC. Freshman Lorenzo Charles was going to the free throw line in the closing seconds. Valvano called time out. “After Lo hits these two free throws,” Valvano said to his team, “I want us to guard the inbound pass . . .”
The team broke from the huddle and walked toward the free-throw lane. At the last second, Coach Valvano is rumored to have pulled point guard Sidney Lowe aside and whispered, “If Lo misses these two shots . . .” and he proceeded to tell him what to do in that case. It is clear that Valvano did not want to plant the idea in Lorenzo Charles’ mind that he might miss even though Charles was only a 67% shooter. He knew the freshman needed a shot of confidence. And so he said, “After Lo hits these two free throws . . .” Charles’ first attempt missed the rim it wasn’t even close. But his second shot fell through the net. N. C. State won the game and went on to win the national championship (Eddie Jones, My Father’s Business: 30 Inspirational Stories for Finding God’s Will For Your Life (Kindle edition 2012) as quoted by King Ducan at www.esermons.com).
Did Coach Valvano’s positive affirmation helped Lorenzo Charles at that critical moment. Perhaps? Attitudes are powerful. Attitudes of faith can be life-changing, especially when they give us the confidence to give life ‘our best shot’.
When we allow ourselves to be the faithful, praying, trusting, confident and forgiving people we are supposed to be, we too can experience the power of the ‘new possibility’ Jesus brings into the world. This is not a new possibility about buildings, about new ideas, nor is this the kind of possibility that leaves our souls and spirits the way they are. No, when we have enough faith to trust God, following God’s will and God’s agenda, we experience the beginning of all the possibility that will one day make ‘all things new’ taking us all to a whole, new world. This is a world that can begin to happen now, by faith, but is finally fulfilled in our hopefulness of our resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, who did not, cannot, and will not, disappoint. Amen.
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