Pentecost 2 Proper 4, Year A
by The Rt. Rev. Richard Shimpfky, Retired Bishop, Diocese of El Camino Real and Interim Rector, St. George Episcopal Church, Flushing, Queens

Sunday, May 29, 2005

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand – words of Our Lord from today’s gospel, the 26th verse of the 7th chapter of the gospel according to St. Matthew.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. +

It is a great joy for me to be able to be with you all here at the Church of Our Savior this morning. When I was first rector of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the Times Square, in 1979, Father Albany To became a great friend of our parish, and through Father To we began a mission of several years’ duration working with refugees from Southeast Asia who were arriving at that time in considerable numbers in the United Sates. As a result of that friendship I also met Mr. Peter Ng, and through Peter the Church of Our Savior for many years printed our parish magazine, AVE, which St. Mary’s sends not only to its parishioners but to a reading public scattered across the world. So today is my first time at this altar and in this pulpit, yet I feel as if I have known you all for many years.

In today’s gospel we come upon Jesus as he is finishing that remarkable discourse that we know as the Sermon on the Mount. What he is preaching about to that great crowd of people is the relationship between faith and good works, the connection, if we will look for it, between the faith that we profess and the lives that we live in the world around us. It is a relationship that has not always been easy for us. It raises a question for us that has been answered in different ways over the course of the centuries. The question is this: is my faith in Jesus Christ, my commitment to him as my Savior and Lord, is my faith essentially a private matter between Jesus and me? Or, by contrast, does my faith in Jesus as my Lord rather have a broader dimension, a dimension that connects me with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and that even governs the way in which I participate in the society in which I live? In other words, is religion a private matter, simply a deeply personal relationship that I have with Jesus as my Loard, or does religion also have social implications, implications that involve me deeply in the world around me? Is Christian belief essentially an individual response, or is it also the response of a community of believers? In today’s Old Testament lesson we are told that faith is essentially the response of a community of believers. What God is telling the Jews in the book Deuteronomy is that they are to put his words into their hearts and souls, and that if they will keep God’s laws as a community of faith no one will be able to stand against them. The problem was, by the time of Our Lord’s birth many Jews thought of salvation as a simple matter of observing the law, and being faithful to it. If you lived a good life and kept the commandments you were acceptable to God. What Jesus did in his ministry was to free people from the law and it commandments, and to call them instead to a life of freedom through faith in him. Thus, when St. Paul wrote that we are saved by grace through faith, what he was saying was that God saves us not through our own endeavors but by Christ’s Death on Calvary and his resurrection on Easter Day. It has nothing to do with the law. It has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with God. It is a gift. It is pure grace. Which is why St. Paul says this morning that we are justified by God’s grace as a gift, a gift that was made to us when Jesus died on the cross. Paul calls Christ’s death a sacrifice of atonement, the means by which you and I are made one with Christ.

But to return to the question raised by our readings this morning, is my Christian faith essentially a private matter between Jesus and me? Or is my Christian faith something I exercise within a community of believers, and does it affect my participation in the world around me? When we read the epistles of Paul, what we find is a great emphasis on the faith of individual believers. Only I can adequately describe the faith that is in me. Only I can utter the first words of the Apostles’ Creed which were recited at the moment of my baptism: I believe in God the Father Almighty…… I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord. Those are my words. They are yours as well. No one can utter them for us. But by the same token, when you and I come together as the Body of Christ to celebrate the Eucharist, when we recite the Nicene Creed, we do so as a community of believers. We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth…… we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. Something has happened. I am no longer alone. I am part of a community of faith. I cannot be a Christian by myself. And beyond this, the faith that I profess has got to be translated into the life that I live in the world around me. Faith and good works belong together. We don’t just hear God’s word, we act on what we hear. Jesus says this morning, Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall.

Yes, my friends, only you and I can confess the faith that is in each of our hearts. It is as we act on our faith, and as we influence the world and society in which we live, that our faith is translated into good works, good works and can change and transform our world. As individual Christians we often seem to be alone with God. As a community of faith, as the Body of Christ, we are the most powerful witness in the world to God’s love for the human face.

Amen.