Monday, February 27, 2012

Reflection: The Ultimate Test of Faith (February 26, 2012)

First Sunday of Lent
Genesis 22:1-18; James 1:12-18; Mark 1:9-15


Our lives are filled with tests. Some don't have much of an impact on our lives, others have the ability to change our lives substantially. Consider the difference between a test of your knowledge of state capitals for a geography exam and a test for cancer in your body. The results of one will affect your GPA. The results of the other may very well turn your life upside-down. Despite the vast difference in the impact that these two tests could have in your life, they share the same purpose of every test: to show something. Like other tests, tests of faith are meant to show us something too.

Today's texts include several tests of faith along with the ultimate test of faith. Abraham's test was very dramatic. His trust in God's promises was tested when God told him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Without any idea of how God would keep His promise of a multitude of descendents through Isaac, Abraham obeyed God. By God's intervention, Isaac was spared. At the conclusion of this test, God told Abraham, "I have caused you to know …" The test showed Abraham that he loved and feared God above all things, even his only son Isaac. Dramatic, but not the ultimate test of faith.

The Epistle reading calls for us to stand firm in the Faith when we are under trial. We're promised that when we have "stood the test" that we "will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him." Those trials come to us in various ways, but, as the text indicates, they always come to us with and through temptation. We are reminded that those temptations are not tests from God, but the result of our own sinful desires. God does not tempt anyone, but He tests everyone. His tests often involve resisting temptation, but they are mostly about how we deal with our failures to do so. These kind of tests bring us to the ultimate test of faith.

The problem we have with the ultimate test of faith is that it isn't anything like what we'd expect it to be. Since faith is so important, we look for its ultimate test to be dramatic, like Abraham's, or oppressive, like the tests James is talking about. But the ultimate test of faith seems rather ordinary and far too simple. It's found in today's Gospel lesson, not in Jesus' struggle with Satan in the wilderness but in His call for us to repent. Simple, profound, telling, and life-altering, repentance is the ultimate test of faith.


Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection

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