Lent IV: Confessional Address (15-Mar-2015)

This confessional address was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 8.30am, 10.30am.

Often as Christians, we might say something like: I don’t have a strong faith. Or people might say, especially when they are feeling miserable and downcast: I wish I had a strong faith, but I feel so weak.

We Christians are saved by faith, but we are not saved by strength. If we want to be saved by our strong faith, then we are saying that we want to be saved by our strength of faith, and not by faith.

This is so important—otherwise we might look down upon someone else who is really struggling with their faith, and say, “That person’s not as strong in the faith as me.” But don’t you know that faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit? If the fire of faith has been kindled in that person’s heart, even if it’s a small flickering candle, who are you criticise the Holy Spirit’s work? When you boast and say, “I have a strong faith”, that arrogance is not from the Holy Spirit.

Have a think at our Old Testament reading today where we read about Moses puts a bronze serpent on a pole, and if anyone simply looks at the bronze serpent, they would be healed. Can you see the people in all their weakness simply looking up at this bronze serpent? Or in our epistle reading from Ephesians today, we will hear St Paul’s words: You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Not strong in faith, but dead. And then he says: By grace you have been saved, not by strength, but by faith. Faith in all its glory, and faith in all its weakness.

You see, what makes faith strong is not us who believes, but the thing or the person in which we trust. Jesus is the one who is strong, and we believe in him. His suffering and death is perfect, and we believe in it in all our imperfection.

We are going to come and confess our sins—to be weak people. But then we are going to hear the words of forgiveness coming out of heaven from our strong God, and our strong Saviour. This forgiveness is a solid rock which we can build our house on.

Jesus says in our Gospel reading today: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Let’s pray…