A programme last Sunday under the title ‘Britain’s favourite view’ was the first of four in which 16 iconic views will be presented by various celebrities. Viewers are being given the opportunity to vote on the one, which they consider the best of the 16 presented. One of last Sunday’s ‘views’ featured Blackpool and included the famous tower.
Nine years ago, the proprietors of the Blackpool Tower added a new attraction for visitors. It is called the ‘Walk of Faith.’
Sited some 385 feet up, or 116 metres, from the ground, it consists of a glass floor, 5 cm thick, which is capable of withstanding the combined weight of five baby elephants.
Visitors to the Tower are invited to walk out onto the glass floor, to view the world beneath their feet.
To literally take a ‘Walk of faith.’
Like many projects in life today, people are continually taking ‘acts of faith’ in terms of commercial projects. And as with the Blackpool attraction, someone had to come up with the idea in the first place and then carry out a feasibility study. Another person had to work out the cost of the project and yet another had to work out the profitable nature of the whole venture. Finally, the management had to take a decision, as to whether or not, to proceed, in the light of all the relevant facts available.
When God created the world, that was, as far as we know, the first great act of faith.
For as we read in Genesis ‘In the beginning God…’
At some point God had this idea of creating the universe, the heavens and the planets including earth.
He then had to consider what he was going to include in planet earth. At some point he must have reflected on the cost of allowing that which he had created, to have free will. God also might well have thought to himself – ‘Is it worth it?’ (and with the benefit of hindsight – he might well have shelved the project seeing what a mess we have made of it)
And finally he had to make an executive decision as to whether or not to proceed.
Planner, Architect, Cost Accountant, Risk Manager, and Chairman of the Board, it was God alone who was totally responsible for the project.
Some act of faith!
There were of course teething troubles in those early years. Giving anyone freedom, brings with it the likelihood of those persons given their freedom, choosing to follow another path, to do their own thing and so ignore the advice of others and thus suffer the consequences.
The good advice of parents is often ignored, by their children, and from time to time children are left to learn by their own mistakes. It is an act of faith, albeit sometimes difficult, when parents eventually let go.
But in those early days of a child’s life, there are also many acts of faith by the child, in trusting the parent.
The importance of bonding, in those formative years of a relationship, should never be underestimated – and holidays being taken at this time of the year, are an important time in a family’s life.
So it is in our relationship with God.
Our reading from the letter to the Hebrew’s today sets out many acts of faith by the people of God.
When the Israelites crossed over the Red Sea, whatever that, experience was for them, it was their faith, which saw them cross safely to the other side, whereas the Egyptians without faith wavered and were drowned.
The witness of those who have put their faith in God has been a continuous chain throughout the history of God’s people. There are the examples of those more high profile saints of God, such as those immortalised in stone on the front of our Cathedrals and Abbeys, together with the countless millions of ordinary men and women, who in the course of their every day lives, have borne faithful witness to the creator God for us to reflect upon. And even here in our own church, around the walls, the community of Cobham, have honoured those, whose faith was lived out amongst the people of Cobham, over past centuries.
Today, it is probably true to say that it is still easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle, than to get a faculty to commemorate a faithful member of the local church community.
But all of these speak of a faith, which is positive.
That is why it is good to share our faith, not only with those within our fellowship, but also from time to time, those without. I believe God works in each one of us, as he has created us and as he continues to re-create us, for his purposes. None of us need feel inferior when it comes to faith.
For faith is God’s gift to each one of us, and even if that faith is compared with the size of a mustard seed,
as we read in Matthew’s Gospel, ( Ch.17 v.20 ) we too, shall be able to move the proverbial mountains.
But what are we to make of today’s Gospel?
Sometimes we need to see the Gospel passage, which is a continuation from last week, in the full context in which it is set. Today’s reading is a call to be vigilant, to be ready and prepared. Luke’s version of the events in this Gospel reading is a call to meet the impending crisis, as Jesus’ ministry comes to a climax, and the judgement that will follow, for the people of Israel.
The Old Testament has frequent references to people passing through the fire of testing and judgement or overwhelmed in a sea of trouble – Psalm 66 and 69, - ‘You went through fire and water’, ‘I have come into deep waters, the flood sweeps over me.’ Or Isaiah 43, ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers they will not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the fire will not consume you.’
But baptism is a New Testament word. And here Jesus is referring, by using the word ‘baptism’ in the Gospel reading, to his own death. The discordant note struck by Jesus here in this passage, is surely the realisation by him, that the Gospel message is one which will lead to divisiveness between believers and non-believers – Jews and Gentiles, and even in the world today, Christians and other faith traditions.
Natalie, a young mother, was a member of this church some years ago, a Jewish convert to Christianity, and she would tell us of the way members of her own family would ridicule her and her Christian beliefs. Not many if any of us here today, face ridicule because of our profession of the Christian faith today.
Jesus’ desire for the message of the Gospel to be embraced by all brings with it, impatience because his Disciples seemed to be so slow in getting the message themselves.
Warning his followers to be on their guard, as Jesus does in this twelfth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, reflects Jesus’ uncertainty of when those in opposition to him will strike, and how the disciples, left leaderless, will cope. John the Baptist, whose prophesy of one who was to come, who would baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire, would not have realised that Jesus himself, would be the first to experience that, baptism.
The prophet Micah, in the seventh chapter of his book (verse 6), foretells the divisions in the family mentioned here by Jesus saying –
‘Your enemies are members of your own household.’
Telling the weather from the signs in the sky was one thing the Israelites were obviously good at doing.
But having an awareness of the events surrounding Jesus’ proclamation as the Messiah was quite a different situation. But the signs were there for all to see. The rejection of Jesus’ teaching, the conflicts with Rome, mounting enmity between Jew and gentile, were all situations, for which they were not prepared. As others had been used as the agents of God’s anger against the Israelites, so Rome would be the agent of God’s wrath against the Jews of Jesus’ day.
Unlike those on holiday, visiting the Blackpool Tower, and stepping out onto the glass ‘Walk of Faith’s platform, 385 feet above the ground, we as Christians are called to keep our feet firmly on the ground. Yes, maybe it’s ‘pie in the sky until I die’ but if we are to save this planet earth on which we live, no amount of protests, such as those taking place at London’s Heathrow Airport, will have any greater effect I believe, than responding to the challenge which faces us all as Christians, in rekindling the ‘fire’ of the Christian faith, brought to this earth by our Lord Jesus Christ, within our nation and the world,
Scripture tells us, ‘The faith you have, own as a gift from God’. Faith is his personal gift to you.
For stepping out in faith with Jesus Christ, with our feet firmly placed upon the earth, will bring with it the assurance of a way of life, which will continue for each one of us, and all of humankind. After all, this is God’s World, and having faith in him and Jesus Christ, is the only ‘walk of faith’, which will in the end not only save the world but lead to eternal life.
Peter Vickers 19th Aug 2007 (revised Aug 1998)