Faith Outside the Box – David Brubacher – June 8/08

 

Faith Outside the Box

June 8, 2008

David Brubacher

Text:

Matthew 9:9-13

Genesis 12:1-9

 

 

 

Introduction:   I like boxes. My Myers-Briggs personality type would tell you why. I like things in order. Boxes are excellent organizational and storage tools. When piles of paper get too high I can put them in a box and still know where they are. I can also store things of sentimental value.  Boxes also come in handy when moving. They are a convenient way to organize the smaller items difficult to pack by themselves. And when it comes to packing those boxes in the truck, it sure is handy when they are all the same size.

 

If I am honest I also like boxes in my life of faith. I like to see things in order here as well. That does not mean I have everything sorted out. But boxes allow me to gather things together and say, “There it is!”  Maybe I don’t understand everything that is in the boxes I establish but at least I know where things are.  If there weren’t so many people here I would confess another thing about boxes and my life of faith. Oh well, I might as well tell you. I am tempted to put God and other people in nice uniform boxes as well so that they fit more neatly into my truck of faith.  Yes, I like boxes, but as a pastor they also depress and frustrate me. There is so much about God and the way God moves among people that does not fit in my nice neat boxes. Honestly, the things that really excite me in my life of faith happen outside my neatly piled boxes. All this brings me to conclude enthusiastically that there is faith outside the box.

 

Our scriptures today introduce us two individuals, Abraham and Matthew, who respond to calls of faith that moved outside the box of the status quo. Both hear the call of God and respond in a way that models faithful discipleship. Abraham’s response came at considerable risk. Homeless and without the prospect of heirs he left what security he knew to follow God’s leading to new land. It seems only God knew the external road map. Abraham followed his internal compass and trusted God’s promise.  Matthew on the other hand was clearly outside the box. Jesus’ calling Matthew to be one of his disciples offended the religious insiders. While those “inside the box” grumbled Matthew responded in faith. Both stories confront us with the character of human response to the gracious initiative of a promise making and a promise keeping God. These stories are also our stories.

 

Depending on how we look at it Abraham either had everything or nothing to loose. Being retirement age he was financially secure in his ancestral clan. Still he lacked a land to call home and he had no biological heirs. If you were Abraham and God said, “Leave everything you have and I will give you the two things you desire most,” what would you do? Do you stay in the box where everything has its place, or do you exercise every ounce of faith, trust in God’s promise and move outside the box. With no visible guarantees, Abraham staked his claim for the future with God’s promise. It was a promise that would not only be of blessing to Abraham, but through Abraham’s family all the world would be blessed. People of faith trusting in God’s promise live justly and with compassion, blessing others. Today Abraham is known as the forerunner of faith for many people.

 

But what was Abraham’s faith? At its core lies the conviction that God is powerful even over death and nonexistence. Without land and heirs Abraham was as good as dead, non-existent.            Yet the promise toward which Abraham journeyed was only a trusted promise not a guaranteed promise. And when he came to the land of promise he discovered it was already occupied. Abraham reached a potential crisis of faith.  Abraham’s situation continues to be reflected in the reality of life today. What do we do when what we desire most is just beyond our reach? Can we continue to trust in God’s promise? Life in the real world is often ambiguous. It is not as black and white as it seems inside our neat boxes. Abraham made a choice, a choice to live the promise precisely at the place where the promise was in question and at risk. He did two things. First he built an altar, making a dramatic public declaration of God’s presence in this land. Whether it belonged to Abraham or not at this time, God was present and God’s promise was alive. Next he invoked God’s name acknowledging the power of God’s promise in his life and his readiness to live into that promise.

 

If Abraham was an insider called to move out, Matthew was an outsider called to move in. Both scenarios create a crisis of faith for some. The call to Matthew and his response also comes rather abruptly. Like Abraham, Matthew risked leaving the familiar to follow God’s call.  Matthew was a tax collector. In the Sermon on the Mount tax collectors were singled out as the prototype of sinners. In actual fact, Matthew likely worked in a customs post that collected duties on goods moved from one region to the next. The Roman Empire allowed private contractors to add to the duty collected as their own wage. Tax collectors were frequently shunned for their collaboration with the Roman Empire, their link with Gentile money and for their reputation of being dishonest.  The immediateness of Matthew’s response is striking. In comparison the religious insiders grumbled and were offended that Jesus would extend to Matthew the gift of gracious hospitality.

 

In the second part of the text, not only Matthew but many “tax collectors and sinners” are invited to table fellowship with Jesus. Those offended by Jesus’ hospitality asked his disciples why their teacher eats with outsiders. In their neatly organized world they knew who belonged in the box and who did not. Jesus’ behaviour threatened their world in blurring the line of who was in and who was out. The grace Jesus so freely offered threatened the smug security they felt in their own religious identities.  To these people Jesus directs a well known rabbinic formula for reflection and learning.
Quoting Hosea 6:6 Jesus said, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy more than sacrifice.’” Clearly what the religious insiders were to learn is that showing mercy to tax collectors and sinners is more important than maintaining all the proper boundaries of who is in and who is out.

 

As I have pondered these texts I wonder how they speak to us in seeking to offer Christian faith as a relevant option to those for whom organized religion makes little sense. For some organized religion is a deterrent to faith. Even as one who has invested thirty years of leadership in organized religion, I resonate with their point.

Several years ago I traveled with a group of MCEC young adults on the annual Northern Exposure trek. I wanted a chance to hang out with young adults and ask about their hopes for the Christian church. They clearly articulated two things. They want the church to speak to the issues of the day. Issues such as justice, racism, peace, poverty, sexuality and the environment are front and centre in making faith relevant. The second thing they said is that we want a church that is open to being led by God’s Spirit. I hear that as a clear call to move beyond the nice and neat religious parameters we have packed away somewhere in our boxes. It is a desire to see people in tone with God and to be ready to move with God’s Spirit like Abraham and Matthew.

 

I further wonder how we will get to that place. Will it be an external road map that will guide folks to the place of God’s promise? Or will it be an internal compass that is activated through spiritual formation? I also wonder if the life of faith these young adults see as relevant will be more like a baseball game or an off road motorcycle race or some other extreme sport? Baseball is a game of strategy and a matching of wits. Motocross racing requires exceptional physical fitness and nerves of steel that are ready to respond in a split second to whatever might come across the path.

 

Go to a park on a summer day and I suspect you will see more people engaged in some form of extreme sport (ultimate Frisbee or beach volleyball) than baseball. Maybe if we are going to engage that generation in active faith we need to think of faith more as an extreme sport rather than a baseball game. Maybe we need to move outside the comfort zones of our neat and tidy boxes. Maybe we need to celebrate that much of what inspires transformation happens outside the box.

 

One of the values that we have identified in reflecting on the shape of TUMC for the future is spiritual formation and transformation. As this value is embeded within our mission we give people an internal spiritual compass and cultivate a life of spiritual fitness that is ready to respond faithfully, with mercy rather than concern for who is in or out.

 

Conclusion:   Are we ready to step outside our boxes and extend hospitality like Jesus? I am sure some of you, like me, are feeling a little uneasy with this suggestion. Perhaps we need to own it as a crisis of faith not unlike Abraham when he discovered the land he was promised was already occupied. Like Abraham let us and erect an alter to declare that our trust is in God and invoke God’s name to acknowledge the power of God’s promise and our readiness to trust in that promise. When all this comes to be, on the matter of faith outside the box, I am certain we will say, “What box?” Amen.