Living by Faith
A sermon by Revd Richard Carter
Readings for this service: Samuel 15.34-16.13, Corinthians 5.6-10, 14-17, Mark 4.26-34
“For we walk by faith” says St Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians. But how easy is it to do that, to walk by faith? Is it even desirable? In the age of risk assessment and the increasing need for constant vigilance and accountability can we really afford to walk by faith? Walking by faith may seem like walking blind- putting trust in an unknown and unquantifiable, even none existent God. Is it walking without due diligence? Or is it rather the opposite. Could walking by faith actually mean walking with your eyes, your heart and your deepest human intuition wide open.
This week I have had two Melanesian Brothers staying with me. They are not used to the big city. In fact they live in a group of islands in the South Pacific that though threatened by global warming and rising sea levels have actually one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world. Drop Melanesians in the middle of London and not surprisingly they look a bit surprised by the mad scrum of people and traffic and noise and the speed of this rush. A rush so busy that in the morning it’s almost impossible to get across Church Path without being swept away by the incoming tide of commuters or even cross the road on a green pedestrian light without being mown down by cyclists accelerating towards you like a cavalry charge in lycra. No thick velvet night or the sound of crickets and panpipes, rather 24 hour neon, the scream of a buskers trumpet or a homeless buskers rendition of Always look on the Brightside of Life, or Meet the Flintstones played on an upturned traffic cone endlessly outside their bedroom window. As Brother Michael sits staring out of the window onto the endless pandemonium of Trafalgar Square I explain to him jokingly “We call this civilisation.” But Brother Michael’s constant refrain to me throughout the week has been “Do not worry” He means it. “Do not worry” You see he doesn’t worry-because he is living by faith.
Last Wednesday these two Brothers were down to lead the evening Eucharist at St Martin’s Bread for the World. English is not their first language or even their second. Brother Michael has never been out of Solomon Islands before and has never had to speak in English in public. And yet tonight they are both leading the reflection. What’s more there is a lot of people who have come into the church to listen to them. “Don’t worry” says Brother Michael. But I am. I am worried for him. How will they cope? In fact will he say anything? Sometimes if Solomon Islanders don’t know what to say they sensibly just keep silent- but how will that go down in front of our congregation. I think of a western back up option- I know I will use power point. Set up a screen in church. Show photographs of where he’s come from. Keep people occupied. But later I drop that plan. It seems like a cop out. No, let these Solomon Islanders be who they are. For better for worse. “Don’t worry” says Brother Michael again smiling. “Live by faith.”
So standing in front of the congregation I ask him “How do you live by faith? In answer he tells a story. A story which happened a few years ago when he and a group of five brothers and priests were crossing the sea in an open canoe to visit the Christian community on the remote island of Vanikoro. One hour out to sea their boat was hit by a large wave and simply sank. There he was- he and six others in the midst of rough and shark infested sea. “Are you a good swimmer? “ I asked him “No” he replied “I am a bush man. I have never swam.” This is true in the Solomon Islands the ‘salt water people’ living by the coast are the fishermen – the swimmers. But the ‘bush people’ who live up in the hills are the farmers and gardeners bartering their sweet potatoes and bananas for fish. So here was Brother Michael, a bush man in a rough sea unable to swim. “What did you do?” I asked
“I prayed” he said”
“But what more?”
“When my head went under water I saw how the others with me were moving their feet and paddling their arms and I copied them.”
“How many hours did you do this for?” I asked
“I did this for twenty one hours” By this stage our congregation at Bread for the World are transfixed. You could have heard a pin drop.
“You mean you swam like this for twenty one hours?” I repeated
“Yes,” he said. “If I panicked I knew I would drown, so every one hour the six of us came together and we prayed together, through a whole day and a whole night in the sea. We kept praying. When very thirsty the rain came so we opened our mouths and drank.”
“What about the sharks?” I asked
“I don’t know” he said “we didn’t see any perhaps our prayers made them sleep”
“What was your prayer?”
“Well the priest prayed a long prayer, but mine was a short one- help!”
After 21 hours they made it to shore. Every one of them survived. By the end of this story everyone in the church was listening to Brother Michael as though he were the Dali Lama imparting a life truth. “What would you like to say about faith to this congregation?” I ask. There was a long silence. I thought that Michael was not going to say anything and then he said “Smile”
“Smile?”
“Yes Smile. You must Smile because God is smiling at you. We are God’s smile. And don’t worry-live by faith.”
“But,” I said “how in the face of all the difficulties we face is that possible?”
Brother Michael replied “Love- the answer to all your questions is love. If you want to have faith you must first love -love God and love your neighbour as yourself”
On the way out of the service one of the congregation said to me: “That was the best service I have ever been to.”
“Why?” I asked. “What was wrong with all the other ones?” Surely she’d heard these things before.
“Yes but this was like the real thing” she said. “It was like God was really present.” There is no mistaking the real thing.
Living by faith. I wonder if we can live by faith not just in Solomon Islanders but here in the centre of London. Not as fantasy or escape but live by faith with our eyes wide open: learning again to read the signs of God’s presence at the centre of our lives.
You see the mystery and wonder of life is not something we can achieve or ever control: it’s so much greater, Its a hope beyond us, it’s something we learn to recognise in our guts, and hold and cherish in our soul.
Our lives can be like fast trains rushing through a station
So fast we cannot read the signs,
Only a flash of colour and blur of people and place.
No time to notice
Or see the signs of God,
The miracles of life in our midst
“The earth producing of itself. First then the head, then the full grain in the head.”
The kingdom of God here and now among us. Greater than us- greater than all conceiving. We cannot own this- only open our hearts- watch, be alert. If you want to live by faith you first have to realise that God is here now.
On Tuesday I knew I must go to visit Sibyl Allen. She is well over 90 and I had heard she had not been well and had arranged to go the following day- the Wednesday. But something in my guts spoke to me and kept saying- no go today. I had an important meeting and a lunchtime group with those who are homeless at the Connection. But still this inner prompting- no go today. So I listened to the intuition and reorganised. “I will be back for the group but may be a bit late.” I told Kaz the Deputy Day Centre Manager from the Connection but may be a bit late” But Kaz had a greater wisdom “Just cancel the group this week so you can be with Sibyl and not have to rush.” At the station there were no trains. I waited for ages getting more frustrated. Finally I got a train to Lewisham and then a 176 bus to Bromley. The journey seemed interminable. But I got there and Sibyl’s son Martin was waiting. So sorry it’s taken so long I had to come on the 176 from Lewisham” I told him.
“Well,” said Martin “all I can say is that my mum must have been guiding you. Every day of her life when she came to St Martin’s she always took the 176 to Lewisham. We couldn’t persuade her to take the train. Living by faith. I sat down with Martin at Sibyl’s bedside they had made up for her in the front room. Sibyl was breathing deeply. Martin told me how she had had refused to go to hospital when the ambulance was called. She spent hours telling the ambulance men quite clearly she wanted to die in her own home. There is no arguing with Sibyl. And here she was in her own room- with the piano that Alastair Anson had had tuned for our carol service held here with her last December, the stain glass window of St Martin in the hallway, tea cups and cake on the table. I said a prayer with her and anointed her. We said the Lord’s Prayer together the Nigerian carer joining in. We held her hand. Her breathing became more difficult. “I think she is leaving us.” I said to Martin. It was like I was breathing with her. “She has with her” Martin said, “the two things she loves most- her family and her church.” It is these times when you know that we are indeed just walking in faith. I said the 23 Psalm. “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” And we realised that Sibyl breathing had become almost imperceptible and then stopped completely.
Living by faith, dying by faith. It is not fantasy: it is the revelation of a deeper truth. The realisation of God’s presence.
“All things work together for good for those who love God.”
I wonder if we can let go of some of those worries that drown us and learn to trust that love again. Yes trust it even in the uncertainty and the storm. Like the mustard seed the smallest seed of all, the seed that grows not through its own power, grows up and becomes the greatest of all trees in which birds of the air come and find shelter in its branches. I wonder if we can have the faith of that small mustard seed and become that huge tree of God’s dwelling- becoming like Michael or Sibyl signs of faith to our world.
