Sermon at First Presbyterian
Church Lockhart
by James Greene
Today’s sermon title is “Faith is in the Putting”. I don’t mean to disappoint the golfers today,
but it is Putting – not Put-ting.
There is a saying from back in the 1500’s
that “the proof is in the pudding”. This phrase was a shorter version that the “proof of the pudding is in the
testing”. It is where the true value of something was in the
actual test.
By putting something to the
test, it
verifies the quality of the product.
Mother Teresa said: “If we want a love
message to be heard, it has got
to be sent out. To keep
a lamp burning, we have to keep putting
oil in it.”
The testing of our
faith, is
where we place
(or where we put) our faith.
The trials we go through
is the test of that faith. Our
faith, is in the putting.
Do
we put our trust in the God of the universe,
or do we place it in things that do not endure. This is the subject in the readings we have today.
In
Isaiah we see the way God cares for
In
Psalm 80 we see an over view and outline of the purpose of the coming of the Messiah and the call to God to save and
restore his people. This is one
of 12 psalms credited to Asaph, whose name means “God has
gathered to himself”. It is a plea of the psalmist who calls upon a righteous God “to be righteous”. In this psalm he calls upon God to return
and watch over
The metaphor “O
Shepherd of Israel” is used to describe
God, and God’s relationship with
his people. (This is mirrored in
the 23rd Psalm) The term shepherd is used in the prologue to The Code of Hammurabi, where it is the king’s role to lead and to protect the people.
This describes the personal
relationship between God, and
His people in the Covenant. The Covenant
was a binding promise from, the
one with Power, to the powerless.
We also see the same metaphors
of the vineyard used in Isaiah, and the same
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mechanics of breaking down the walls, and the ravaging of the
vineyard.
The request of the
psalmist that God to “make your face
shine upon us,- that we may be saved”, and is intensified with each request. The face
in the Old Testament was the part of the body through which a person’s attitudes were most clearly
expressed. For someone to, set their face against
someone, was to reflect their hostility towards them, for
them to make their face to shine upon them, was to reflect their acceptance. The shining is a dwelling presence. Just as God’s presence dwelled in the midst of
Again, like Isaiah,
the Vine as a metaphor and as a symbol of
It is a blue print of the coming of Christ and his purpose to redeem not just
We
see in Hebrews, God’s mighty acts demonstrated because,
of the faith
put in God’s blessing, protection,
and power. We also see that there is a price paid for where we put our faith. It is in and through trials that our faith
is tested, and refined. It
is tested through being destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. We remember the Greek word for witness is martyr. This gives us insight to the phrase “great cloud of witnesses”. It is the great
cloud of martyrs that have demonstrated
their faith in action. It is the proof test of their faithfulness
and belief in God. The faith of martyrs is proved in facing flogging, imprisonment, stoning,
and death. We are called to
keep our focus on Jesus, who is
the author and perfector of our faith.
He has endured the trial
of the cross. His faithfulness
to the Father is accomplished
with the salvation of mankind,
and creation. 2
He
is, as the psalmist says “the son of man
you have raised up for yourself”, that “we may be saved”. Christ is the demonstrated faith in the
putting, in trusting God,
the author of our life. It is in his faith through his baptism by trial that we see the Will of the Father.
In
our reading from Luke, we see
Jesus talking about the baptism of fire he must undergo. It is His faith is in putting God’s work, and purposes first. He
talks about the price we will pay
for being faithful. It is about what
we will undergo because of
our faith. It is where we are
putting
our priorities in our life, in spite of
the conflicts that will divide even our own families. We can understand the weather and the seasons of the world, but we cannot understand the spiritual winds and seasons that surround us in the conflicts of our lives.
Our
faith is in the putting! Our faith
is putting up
with and enduring through the
trials of this life to attain the
prize, which is Christ, and His Kingdom.
It
is in all of our putting:
we are called to put on
Christ. We are to put
off this world. We are put our trust
and our faith in God through
Christ as our savior. We are called to put our treasures in heaven, because that is where our focus and our hearts should be. We
are called to put our
love and invest our time
in God and God’s people.
In the Name of … the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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