First Reading:
146Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
3Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
5Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
6who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;
7who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all
generations.
Praise the Lord!
Second Reading:
7After Jesus had finished
all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered
Capernaum. 2A centurion there had a slave whom he valued
highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3When he heard
about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and
heal his slave. 4When they came to Jesus, they appealed to
him earnestly, saying, He is worthy of having you do this for
him, 5for he loves our people, and it is he who built our
synagogue for us.
6And Jesus went with them, but when he
was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him,
Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come
under my roof; 7therefore I did not presume to come to
you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be
healed. 8For I also am a man set under authority, with
soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes,
and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave,
‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.
9When
Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that
followed him, he said, I tell you, not even in Israel
have I found such faith.
10When those who had been sent
returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
In the four gospel accounts there are only two stories where Jesus was amazed… the first happened when he was rejected in his hometown. The gospel of Mark tells us that he was amazed at the people's unbelief and he wasn't able to do much in the way of miracles in their presence. The second is from our passage today and it's the complete other end of the spectrum, the polar opposite … Luke tells us that Jesus was amazed at the faith of the centurion and he healed the servant without even standing face to face, but just by drawing near.
For many of us, when we look back over the course of our lives, there
are people we've known and people we've heard about who have a sort of
faith that we look up to, that we try to understand and that we even
try to imitate… you know the people I'm talking about…
their faces are probably popping into your minds now. Sometimes it's
easy to see what we admire in them… other times it's the
intangibles or just a whole bunch of things that come together…
and I found myself wondering what was it about the centurion's faith
that caused Jesus to be amazed? I mean the words Jesus spoke about
him were strong! He said, Not even in Israel have I found such
faith.
Apparently the high priest, the scribes, the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, the elders, the rulers of the people, even Jesus' own
disciples didn't have a thing on this centurion when it came to faith.
And so I thought I'd explore a bit today what does this faith look
like? And, what might we be able to learn from the centurion? As I
prayed with the passage, there were three things I saw that I'd like
to share with and reflect on for a few minutes.
First thing about the faith of the centurion… he didn't live
within the normal boundaries when it came to who he loved and who he
took care of. By definition a centurion was a gentile… a
mid-level Roman military officer who had between 80 and 100 soldiers
under his command. The position came with a level of authority and
honor attached to it and it paid relatively well. There were probably
only about 60 centurions in the whole region where Luke's gospel was
written and proclaimed, and for many of the Jewish people, a centurion
would have been seen as the face of the occupation of their homeland.
So there were plenty who wouldn't have been big fans… but by the
way Luke describes this centurion, it would seem that he wasn't
typical. He didn't treat his servants like property or things. In
fact, the first bit of information we learn about him is that he
valued his servant enough to try to save the servant's life. That in
itself says something, but even more telling is that a group of Jewish
elders were willing to approach Jesus on behalf of this gentile
centurion to ask for help. And the report they gave Jesus about him
was glowing. He's worthy of having you do this,
they
said, because he loves our people, and he built our synagogue for
us.
He cared for his servant, he was loved by Jews, and so the
first thing I want to lift up about the centurion's faith that amazed
Jesus is that his love and care were not preconditioned by the usual
markers of economic or racial or social groupings. He cared across
the normal barriers.
The second thing about the centurion's faith… he was actively
seeking an understanding and relationship with God. There were no
bookstores, he couldn't go out and buy a copy of the scriptures…
they didn't have the Internet back then… the only way he was
going to be able to hear the scriptures read and proclaimed was to go
to the synagogue. We don't get to know how he first heard about the
God of the Jews, but we do know that the only way he was going to have
a clue about the character of God and what God was up to in the world,
was for him to make the effort to go, listen, and be a part of the
synagogue… remember, he was a gentile and an occupying
soldier… it certainly wasn't an expectation that he would go to
synagogue, but he did. He wasn't going to let tradition or popular
expectation, or anything else stand in the way of him learning about
and being a part of what God was doing in his neighborhood. He went
looking, and he was excited enough about what he found that he didn't
just go. The Jewish elders who reported to Jesus said that
he built
the synagogue… We don't get to know from our
text if they meant that literally, something like when the contractor
ran out of money he was out there with a hammer and nails, (…for
those of you who don't know it, that's part of the story of this
congregation…) or if they meant that figuratively in the sense
that he gave his resources: money, time, talent and influence for the
good of the synagogue… Anyone who's ever tried to build a
church, in any sense of the word build
knows that it can't be
done without a lot of people doing a lot of different things:
exercising their gifts and exercising their passion… and it was
clear that the elders were grateful for what the centurion had had
done… and so the second thing I want to lift up about the
centurion's faith that amazed Jesus is that he didn't let anything
stand in the way of getting personally involved where he was
passionate about what God was doing.
The third thing about the centurion's faith… ultimately he
trusted God's power and goodness. As a centurion he knew something
about authority. In the Roman army, the penalty for failing to carry
out an order was swift and it was severe, so when an order was given,
action was taken, something would happen… it was as simple and
as clear as that. And yet the centurion also realized that whatever
authority he had came because of his chain of command. In his job as
a soldier, he probably served Pilate, maybe Herod, and he knew the
limit of their authority… even if they cared enough to try,
which they wouldn't have, they could not prevent the death of the
servant. But theirs wasn't the only power the centurion knew. There
was another line of authority, one that had the power to bring life,
not just destroy it. Apparently while he was building the synagogue
he paid attention. He had heard about the God who spoke into
nothingness and created everything that is. He had heard about the
God who breathed life into every living being. He had heard about the
God who led people out of slavery. It wasn't a terribly big
town… because of his involvement at the synagogue he certainly
knew people who believed that the power of God was made alive in Jesus
of Nazareth and he most likely knew people who had come into contact
with Jesus and had their lives changed … and so he approached
this source of power and authority with humility… the Jewish
elders said he was worthy of Jesus' healing power… but he said
it's not a matter of being worthy- and if it is, I'm not, but I will
ask anyway. Faith is characterized by trusting that God will do for
us, and with us, and in us that which we cannot do on our own. Faith
recognizes that what God will do is a gift, not to be demanded but to
be honored and received in gratitude… and the centurion trusted
that Jesus could speak the word and let his servant be healed.
And we read the story, the servant was healed… and so the third
thing that I want to lift up about the centurion's faith that amazed
Jesus is that he trusted God. He trusted God's goodness and God's
ability to work in the situation he was in.
So we get this picture of such a faith that amazed Jesus… and in reality it's similar to someone else we've seen… In fact I would argue that were we to look, we would see something of this kind of faith in every person that came to each of our minds when I talked earlier about the people we know whose faith we look up to and want to emulate and imitate… They love, extending care across the barriers that usually stand in the way. They devote themselves to something that God's doing in their corner of the world that they're passionate about. And they trust that God is there, God is able and God is good.
That's the kind of faith that amazed Jesus… it's the kind of faith Jesus was living and that Jesus was trying to instill in his disciples and it's the kind of faith we're invited to. And on this day, the day that we celebrate the charter of the United Parish, and how God has been faithful in all that we've been through as a church, I am grateful. I'm grateful for the people who have built this church with that kind of faith. I'm grateful for those people who have been examples for us to learn from and to follow throughout the years. And I'm grateful that with every chartering celebration, we get the opportunity to look forward to many more. Because the centurion's faith, and ours is not misplaced… God is trustworthy, God is here and God is good! As we gather around the table and as we celebrate God's faithfulness we are nourished to care beyond the normal boundaries… to devote ourselves to what God is doing in our corner of the world and to continue to build the church with such faith. Thanks be to God. Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on Homecoming (Chartering) Sunday, June 6, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
