Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

"Good Faith for Bad Times"

From the Epistle: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. [Ephesians 6.12]

From the Holy Gospel: Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. [John 4.50]

On this 21^st Sunday after Trinity, your attention is directed to the discourse between Jesus and an unidentified nobleman, whose son is dying of some unidentified disease. What is identified in this text is that Jesus is God and that His Word is God’s truth and God’s power and God’s comfort and God’s gift of life. This act of healing brings forth the awareness, not only that Jesus is God, but even more important as a message is the power of the Word of God. So we take this event to heart, for it offers and even creates "Good Faith for Bad Times."

I.

When you consider the Old Testament of the Day, the overview of creation, the question might well come to mind, "Why this text on the Sunday known as "The Faithful Nobleman Sunday"? But, the match-up between Old Testament, Epistle, and Holy Gospel for this Sunday is quite appropriate and quite unified in message. Let’s see how!

There are two accounts of creation in Genesis, the longer overview, which you heard today, and the shorter description which follows in the rest of Genesis chapter 2. Many people, even many learned Bible scholars would tell you that what we have in Genesis 1 and 2 are two different, even contrary presentations of the creation of our universe. But such views, no matter how learned the scholars who maintain these positions, do not take seriously the pattern that Moses follows in setting for the "Book of the Beginnings," Genesis. For throughout this book you can see a clear and important pattern. Ten times, Moses introduces a topic by setting forth a longer overview, followed by a narrowed focus on the most important aspect of that long overview. Hence, here in Chapters 1 and 2, Moses first sets forth the Seven Days of Creation, which is our Old Testament of the Day, and then, in Chapter 2, verse 4 to the end, he brings the readers’ focus to the important central feature of the creation week, namely, the creation of mankind. Thus, both so-called "Creation stories," are really one story, one true and accurate story of our beginnings at the hand, and out of the love, of God.

In this narrative, you see that everything, as God makes it and sees it and evaluates it, is good, and the final verdict of the entire creation is: "very good." And the days in the Garden of Eden were, for Adam and Eve, days of joy and days of goodness. These were not, properly speaking, days of faith. For, as St. Paul tells you, "we walk by faith and not by sight," and "but now – in the days of this present fallen existence – we see dimly, but then – when faith gives way to certainty – face to face." So, the days of faith are not yet in the experience of Adam and Eve in their lives in paradise, but that, as we painfully know, is soon to change. Thus, we see the events and results of the creation are days prior to the days of faith.

II.

But, sadly, you no longer live in the days of the Garden – you live in days of the curse, days following the life of access to the purity and wonders of perfection. And – to the point of the miracle in today’s readings – you live in the days of faith. It might well be said that these are days of faith precisely because these are days of evil. These are days of the goodness of faith in the midst of the experience of bad times.

This is St. Paul’s point in the Epistle of the Day. For bad days you need, and God gives you, the "shield of faith." Without faith, the enemies’ deadly arrows would find their mark, and you would be mortally wounded, eternally. Hence, the shield is good – the shield of faith is necessary – and by it you live in the midst of bad times.

This shield for bad times is a gift of God – that is clear from the events of the fall, until these very day. Faith doesn’t come by your say-so, or from your wish-so, or from your choosing. Faith is God’s creation and God’s gift. It is created by the Word of God, as you see it in the Holy Gospel. The nobleman knows of Jesus, not by sight – for he is far from where Jesus is, and he must travel to him. The nobleman knows of Jesus by the Word of God, the word of mouth of those who saw Jesus and reported it to others, and the word of the page that the nobleman heard from his youth in what we now call "The Old Testament."

He comes to Jesus by faith. He appeals to Jesus by faith. He demonstrates that faith when Jesus, to prove precisely to you that this is a moment for faith, He accurately but painfully insults the Jewish mindset of His day, that will not believe without proof. The nobleman is not deterred by Jesus’ comments, but continues to speak out of faith, "Sir, come down before my child dies!" And, when Jesus again speaks with the creative power of the Word – "Go, you son will live" – the nobleman turns back toward his home, and he goes in faith. It is good faith at work – good faith created and sustained by God through His Word – good faith for bad days. And indeed, when the day is over, and all the household of this nobleman learned by the Word of God how to understand the sudden healing of the boy, they all believed, a new household for Jesus, a new household of faith!

III.

But, "that was then and this is now," speaks the voice of unbelief. You hear that voice all around you, and you hear that voice, even more deadly in its effect, within you – "That was then, and this is now! If you understand my situation, then you would know what God’s Word doesn’t apply to me, at least not now, at least now in this particular trouble!" That is the voice of unbelief. It lives by the denial or twisting of God’s Word.

God’s Word creates and sustains faith, and without that Word there is no faith. The devil’s purpose, and that of all his minions, who attack you day by day, is to twist, neutralize, or destroy the Word that creates and sustains your faith. This is why St. Paul warns in the Epistle of this day: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." God gives you His Word, so by its full store of defensive and offensive weaponry of the inner man, weapons of the Spirit, you might keep the faith, and thereby keep yourself for eternal life. For it is true – Only God creates faith, gives you that faith, and sustains you in that faith! Without it, bad times become deadly times, damaging you in this life and in the life to come, when all fallen mankind who reject or kill God’s gift of faith, will spend the everlasting life in hell with the devil and his minions who today battle against your God-given, God-sustained faith.