The Faith That Lives

“But the righteous shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4b ESV) The words of the Prophet Habakkuk still ring true today. Our lives as the children of God are lives of faith because for many of us we are like Habakkuk and we wonder how long injustice and violence will be seen in our everyday lives. And while we join his cry “How long, O Lord?” Still the Lord says, “Wait for it.” Today at International Lutheran Church and throughout this month of October we will be contemplating the Solas of the Reformation, namely that we are made right with God by Faith Alone, by God’s Grace Alone and through His Word Alone.

The Gospel lesson today from Luke 17 also emphasizes this theme of Faith Alone as we hear the disciples’ prayer that their faith be increased and Jesus’ reply concerning the amazing feats done by even the smallest faith (Luke 17:5-6). It isn’t the quantity of our faith that matters but rather the object of our faith that makes the difference. In other words, our faith is not in our own believing or ability to believe, but rather our faith is in the God who created all things from nothing, who raised the dead, and the same God who speaks to us a word of forgiveness through frail human beings. The Epistle (2 Timothy 1:1-14) similarly focuses on the reality that faith is a living gift that is passed from one person to another through the daily course of life. Paul notes how he first encountered Timothy’s faith in his grandmother Lois and then his mother Eunice and now that same faith lives on in him. Faith is not a construct of our own will as if we even put the pieces together or can muster it up within ourselves, but faith is rather, as Luther taught in the Small Catechism, a gift of the Holy Spirit without whose help and aid we are incapable of creating in ourselves. Luther taught concerning the Holy Spirit that when we say “We believe in the Holy Spirit” we are in a sense saying that we believe we cannot believe in our own strength or power (Explanation to the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed). Rather, that only the Spirit working through the Word (both preached and distributed in the Sacraments) can and does create faith in our hearts. It is no wonder that the disciples would cry out “increase our faith” as Jesus described the Christian life of faith as one of constant, unending forgiveness to our brother or sister where – even if they come to us seven times in the same day with the same fault – we “must forgive.” In our day that would seem like a radical misuse of justice.

So back to Habakkuk. This odd prophet with an odd name had an even odder sense of reality: “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV) This is faith and trust in God’s providential care in spite of what we experience or see. In a real way it is the walk that we are on all our days.

While we celebrate Chuseok here in Korea and recognize God’s gifts and blessings in the abundance of His provision, it is also true that we see even more clearly His provision for us in the cross and emptiness that is still before us. As we gather with friends and family, we pray that God would increase our faith, this faith to share with all our loved ones.

Pastor Carl