• "Faith :: The Belief That God Can, and the Trust That He Will"
• Sermon for the The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
• February 1, 2004
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

Jesus is revealed in today's epiphany season gospel through the healing of the leper and the centurion's servant. As the opening hymn says, "Manifest in making whole / Palsied limbs and fainting soul."

This is the first epiphany season gospel in which a person's faith has a role in the revealing of Jesus. Jesus said of the centurion, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." The centurion's great faith was his belief that Jesus could, by the power of God, exercise authority over sickness in the same manner that the centurion exercised authority over inferior officers-"Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed." Faith believes in the power of God.

The gospel brings out another aspect of faith. Faith trusts the goodness of God. We might believe that God is all-powerful, but we may not believe that God will use his power for our good. This distinction is seen more clearly in the gospel in the healing of the leper. The leper said to Jesus, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." In other words, the leper believed that Jesus could make him clean, but he wasn't sure he would make him clean.

Thus, faith consists of both the belief that God can, and also the trust that he will. As Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

Trust in God's goodness is more important than it may seem at first glance. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-29), the unfaithful servant took the one talent he was given and buried it because, as he said to his master, "I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow." He imputed ill motives to his master and, as a consequence, was unfaithful and lost his reward.

This attitude is demonic in origin. The devil believes that God is Almighty, but he refuses to acknowledge that God is good. As James says, "You believe that there is one God... Even the demons believe-and tremble" (James 2:19).

We can understand the distinction between belief in God's power and belief in God's goodness from our experiences with authorities in the world. We may work for a boss who has the authority to do something we think ought to be done; but we may not ask him to do it because we do not trust his motives. We believe that he can do what is right, but we do not believe that he will do what is right.

The Creed says, "I believe in one God the Father Almighty." Almighty means all-powerful. God can speak but the word and it will be done. We believe that God can. The question then is, will he?

We know there are certain things God will not do. If we each pray that God will put a million dollars in our cars before the end of the liturgy today, the answer will be, "no!" We pray for people to be healed; some are and some are not. We pray for certain outcomes in life and sometimes it does not work out as we prayed.

What, then, can we trust that God will do? Romans says, "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him and are called according to his purpose" (8:28). God will do this. He will work for good in our lives. Of course, this is not the same as saying that everything that happens to us will be good. It is to say that, in and through Christ, we will experience the redeeming presence of God in all things. He will take the evil we experience in this fallen world and bring good out of it. We can trust that God will do this.

In our life of prayer, however, we must remember that the horizon of God is eternity, while we have trouble seeing beyond near horizons of time. Much frustration in the life of prayer is born of the tension between our prayers, offered with our eyes firmly fixed on next month, and God, who sees the new creation (cf. Rev. 21:5) as an accomplished fact.

The good that God has for us will be fully seen only in the clear light of the Resurrection. Much that will be seen then as good is experienced now only as a painful cross. Good Friday only became good in the light of Easter. We may not understand this now, but we are called to believe, to trust that it is so.

Our goal in the life of prayer is to develop an eternal horizon in the things that we ask of God. God is certainly concerned with our success in time, but God knows that success in time is less important than salvation and holiness, which are eternal. He knows that every enterprise in time will eventually fail or run its course. He knows that each of us, no matter how many healings we experience, will die. His concern is primarily how this life is preparing our souls for eternity.

This is why the church looks at the healing miracles of Jesus as images of spiritual healing. The leper was cleansed of a skin disease. We are inwardly washed clean of sin. The servant was healed of a palsied limb. We are cured of the sin that paralyzes us and keeps us from living life to it fullest.

This is where the life of prayer gets exciting. For there is great power in prayer when we pray for eternal things. For example, James writes, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously...and it will be given him." We have just learned, in our reading of Proverbs in the daily offices, "Wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her" (8:11). We can pray for wisdom, knowing that God will give it to us.

We can pray for knowledge, increase of faith, and growth in virtues like patience and contentment. We can pray for the peace of God and for joy in the Holy Spirit. We can pray for the forgiveness of our sins and for eternal life. We can pray that God will show us how we are to serve Christ in this life. And we know that God has both the power and desire to give us these things. He can "speak the word only and our souls will be healed."

We believe in the power of God and we trust in the goodness of God. And we experience both in greater measure the farther down the road we look. As 2 Corinthians says, "We do not look at the things which are seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).