Prayer and Faith before and after Irma.

In Luke 17:11-19, we find a Bible story staple.  It is the stuff you learned in Sunday School back when that was a thing.  But like most Bible stories it is much deeper than we realize with a casual reading.  It is the story of 10 lepers who meet Jesus as He is going to Jerusalem.  As Jesus enters their village they cry out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  

They had heard of the healings of Jesus no doubt from the comings and goings of the villagers.  As Jesus approached, word would have spread that the great miracle worker of Galilee was coming their way.

Three points need to come first.  First, they all had enough faith to position themselves in such a way as to meet him, even if it was at a distance.  Second, they all had enough faith to ask for mercy.  Mercy means to take action based on sympathy or pity.  It is the word that describes action to alleviate the suffering caused by life in a sinful world.  Third, they all had faith enough to, at the command of Jesus, take off to find a priest that could declare them clean.    Clearly all of the lepers had faith enough to receive God’s mercy for their need.  But only one, when he saw that the cure was affected, returned to give thanks and glory to God. 

There is a level of faith that can ask for God’s help in the time of the crisis.  When the hurricane is bearing down and we can see the trouble we can have enough faith to say, “God help me”.  God, to quote the Anglican liturgy, “whose property is always to have mercy” often grants us help and rescue.  We often live at this level of faith, never considering that there is a deeper kind of faith.  Sadly, many preachers today proclaim this level of faith as if this is all there is to faith, and never talk or teach about a faith that is much deeper.  God has rescued us and we feel that that is enough and we are content.  In one very shallow way it may be enough. 

But that kind of faith is like drinking warm water out of a garden hose.  For a person in danger of dying of dehydration warm water from a water hose is pretty wonderful.   But when we are comfortable, the AC is running, and the hurricane has passed we don’t really need faith, unless it is to be more comfortable, have a cooler AC and need perfect weather for our weekend.  Faith that God will rescue me from a storm and take care of me in a crisis is a faith that I will only practice when I have a want or a need.  It is not a very practical faith except in the storm.

One of the lepers had a different kind of faith.  It was the faith that was deeper, richer, and stronger.  It was a faith that returned to give glory to God.  Nine men had enough faith to go and enjoy the blessings God had given them.  One had the faith of submission, love, and relationship.  Nine men went away healed, one man stayed in the presence of God.  Nine men had their bodies changed; one man had a change of everything. 

As Irma was bearing down on Florida last week multitudes of people were praying.  They were asking God, “Whose property is always to have mercy” to rescue them, their loved ones, or even strangers.  I believe those prayers were answered.  But now that the storm is passed, now that the AC is humming in the background do we worship God?  And what about those people for whom God’s answer to their prayers of rescue was, “No, you must walk through this suffering.”  That is the great thing about this deeper kind of faith.  The shallow faith is shattered if the rescue doesn’t come.  If the storms destroy, the cancer kills, the condition is unrelenting, the relationship is never restored then their faith is wrecked.  But the deeper faith will survive.

Lazarus died again; Mary and Martha stood at the tomb and cried again.  This time there was no rescue, this time Jesus didn’t show up four days later and do His thing.  But this time they didn’t need it; they had moved to a deeper faith.  

There will be another hurricane that will pound the coast.  The names have already been picked out.  Maybe it will be hurricane Debby, Gordon, Isaac, Leslie or Oscar.  In 2019, one of the names picked out is Hurricane Wendy (I think that is in bad taste).  If not a hurricane there will be a crisis from which there is no earthly rescue.  When that happens will we have the deeper faith that worships?  Or will ours be a faith that only whines because we didn’t get what we wanted when we wanted it?