“Genuine Faith”
March 16, 2014
The 2nd Sunday of the Christian Season of Lent
Genesis 12: 1 –
8/Psalm 33: 12 – 22/Romans 4: 1 – 17/John 3: 1 – 17
His Excellency
The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P.
Santos D.D.
of the
Archdiocese of Manila
the
National Church in the Philippines
and the
Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the
Charismatic Episcopal Church
We continue our Lenten
journey; we are on our second Sunday in this Season. I remind you that
our focus is our dependence on our God. Apart from Him we are
nothing. There is no life outside of God’s love and life. We are to
put our faith in Him and our dependence on Him – a genuine faith; not
just a form of godliness.
Abraham’s original name
was Abram, which meant “exalted father.” Put yourself in the shoes of
this man who for 75 years heard this name. Every time that he was called
he would respond. He would hear, “Hey, exalted father! Father!
Father!” For 75 years – three quarters of a century – he has never become
a father. Imagine the frustration of hearing that name. “I thought I was
a father, an exalted father. How come I am 75 years old and I don’t have one
child? How can I be an exalted father?” At 75 years old, God, whom
he had never met before, much less talk to him face to face tells him, “I will
make you the father of many nations.” We could imagine him saying, “I will
be happy with one or two children. Forget about being a father of many
nations. I am 75 and the clock is ticking. My wife is 66 years old
and I am concerned about her.”
Can you imagine the faith
that is required of him? Can you imagine him saying to God, “You will make
me a father of many nations? You who created the body and the
reproductive system will wait until I am 75 and my wife at 66 and then you tell
me, “This will be the start of you becoming the father of many nations?”
The thing is God did not wait that long. He waited
longer – 24 more years. Sixty-six was old; ninety is older for a woman to
give birth. Even just to live is that pretty old. She was to give
birth at 90 and Abraham was at 99. He did not receive the promise until
after 24 more years. After being frustrated for 75 years, God changes his
name to Abraham meaning the “father of a multitude.”
In the Old Testament, they
lived longer. Noah lived 900 years, but by the time of Abraham, 75 years
was old and 99 was older. In Romans 4, Paul said that Abraham with hope
against hope believed what God said. St. Paul says, “Contemplating his
body as good as dead inspired by the Holy Spirit and the deadness of Sarah’s
womb.” Abraham understood by that time that they did not live 900 years
anymore. Seventy-five was old for being a father and ninety for being a
mother.
Abraham did not know God
but he receives a promise from Him at 75 years old. He held onto the promise
for 24 years from a God whom he never worshipped before. He was
idolatrous before. His family did not believe the only Sovereign
God. He did not know Him before, but He believed Him. God
told him, “You waited 24 years, and now, you are 99 and your wife is 90.
Next year, she will conceive.” Abraham gets excited and God says, “But
first, you do this thing called circumcision.” Nobody have ever heard of
it before. Nobody knew what it was before. He asked, “What is this
circumcision?” God says, “It is simply cutting the foreskin.”
Abraham would think, “Wait a minute. This is the very instrument of
my being a father and the fulfillment of your promise and you want me to
jeopardize this promise by circumcision?” Probably God told him, “Be
careful not to cut too much because you might just forego of the promise.
Be careful as nobody has ever done it before and nobody knew what it was
before. The worst case scenario is that he may make the slightest mistake and
there goes the promise and his fatherhood. The best case scenario is that
he may cut it clean, jump into the clean river, with no infections. The
downside is that he had to wear a skirt for two weeks which he is used
to. Then, it further delays the fulfillment of the promise because he is
going to use that to become a father.”
Imagine the faith needed
to believe in God after being disappointed for 75 years and 24 more
years. How long have you waited for the answer to your prayers? 24
years? Is it as big as being the father of many nations? Or you
just want a pair of shoes or a watch? Genuine faith took a lot of it on
Abraham’s part. Then, Isaac was born. Isaac was another instrument
of Abraham being the father of many nations. When Isaac was about
12 years or so, God tells Abraham, “Now, I want you to go this mountain and
sacrifice your only son.” If Isaac was 12 at that time, Sarah would have
been 102 years old. In Abraham’s mind, and in your mind, you would think
this too, “If I sacrifice Isaac, I would need another miracle, a bigger one,
for my wife who is now 12 years older to conceive again so that God’s promise
to me to be the father of a multitude would be fulfilled.” Again, this is
faith. Did Abraham obey? Yes! The Bible said that he rose early
morning and immediately obeyed God.
This would indicate that
he did not doubt God. In fact, he told his servants, “You wait at the
foot of the mountain and the boy and I would go up and we will sacrifice and I
will come back to you.” Abraham had faith. He was severely tested
but his genuine faith was an anchor and that earned him the title, “The Father
of Faith” but more importantly, the favor of God. It was reckoned to him;
it was credited to him as righteousness – his faith in the promise and the word
of God. It was genuine faith because he had an intimate face to face
relationship with God. He talked to God face to face and God did the same
to him. They knew each other. The “know” meant an intimate union
between two persons. It is to be one with; it is the same closeness and
union that God describes in the relationship of a man and a woman. This is the
closeness that He wants from us. Ephesians 5 shares about the same love
of Christ for the Church and what He expects a husband to love his wife
with. It is supposed to be a union. To know is used in the sexual act in
the Old Testament. Abraham came from an idolatrous family and they worshipped
other gods but God revealed Himself to him.
In the gospel, we
encounter Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and a teacher in Israel. He was
raised in church, a member of the church; he was faithful; a leader and a
teacher. He did not know God nor the things of God. He did not
understand them. This born-again teaching was preached by Jesus not to an
unbeliever but to somebody who was raised in church and was religious in church
attendance and church activities. Born-again is not about the
knowledge of commandments or the rules, but of the Giver of the
commandments. It is not about securing an eternal destiny but
experiencing the reality of God’s kingdom. It is not belonging to a
certain group within Christianity. Being born-again is Christianity
itself. It is believing in Christ, knowing God, and walking with Him
every day in a real personal way.
Abraham did not even had
the Old Testament, but he knew God. Nicodemus knew the Law, but he
obviously did not know God. To Abraham, God was real. To Nicodemus, He
was not. In the life of Paul, he was blinded and he persecuted the church and
thought that he was following God. God wasn’t real then until the road to
Damascus and the coming off of the scales from his eyes. They were
blinded, partially hardened until God touched them, came to them and they responded.
Nicodemus was also
blinded. He was of the church, but did not know God which is why Jesus
spoke to him those famous words, “Except a man be born-again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God and enter the kingdom of God.” It was only by genuine faith
in Him can we experience this. Not by the works of the Law, not by the
knowledge of the verses of the Bible, but by knowledge of the Author of the
very Bible that we study. St. Paul says in Romans, “Righteousness
apart from the law, a set of rules.” I am not saying that obedience is
not important. This comes after. When you have a relationship with
God, obedience comes naturally because you want that relationship to
grow. The knowledge of God is based on our obedience to Him and our faith
in Him.
Being born-again literally
means being born from above. This is why Jesus said, “No one ascends to
the Father except Him who has descended from the Father. You cannot
ascend with Me to the Father. I, who descended, was sent from the Father;
and unless you accept Me who was sent from the Father, you cannot go to Him
without Me. No one goes to the Father but through Me who came down from
the Father.”
You cannot understand
this. You cannot see His kingdom. You cannot enter it unless you believe in the
only begotten Son who came for us and gave His life for us. We only
need to respond to His call. This is why the tax-gatherers, the harlots,
went ahead of the kingdom. They saw and entered the kingdom ahead of the
Pharisees, ahead of the religious because they received Christ, accepted Him,
heeded His call and they dined and communed with Him. They had fellowship
with Him and knew Him. Does that mean that He condones their being
sinners? No, for He always says, “You are forgiven. Sin no more.”
Like many of you, my
testimony is boring. I wasn't a criminal. I wasn’t a drug addict or
a bad, bad, boy. I wasn’t a problem child. I grew up in
Church. We never missed Sunday Mass. I spent my elementary and high
school life in a Catholic Church. I was raised in Church. My
father, my mother and my grandmother were religious.
When I was 19 years, I was
working at the counter at McDonalds Greenbelt and a male person who was in line
came to me. When it was his turn, after he ordered, he asked me,
"What time are you off?" I thought he was one of those I would
rather not have a thing to do with and I thought he was interested in me.
He came often enough and he would always ask that. He wanted to
talk to me. One time I said, “At one o’clock, I am off.” He said,
“I will be at the lobby and wait for you.” One o’clock came that day and
I went through the back door. He saw me and he called me and all that I
could do was scratch my head and say, “I have to take off the trash.”
What he did was to
introduce Christ to me. We prayed and I accepted Christ. From that
day on, I knew Christ in a real way. It took a while, but that was the
point where God to me, through Christ, became real. I was aware of Him
every single day. Did I hear of Him before? Yes, I have heard His
name. I have studied Him. We were taught about Him in religion
class, and I received the Sacraments. There comes a point in one’s life
where God means business. It is not just about Church. It is about a
relationship. It is in the Church where it is enhanced.
You can have the same
story. You may have been raised up in Church but God is not really
intimate with you. He is really a stranger. I want you to
know that God wants this intimate relationship with us. The song, “Yahweh
I Know You Are Near” became real to me. From that point on, I knew God
was near to me. My question is this: have you been
born-again? It is not through a technical way, through a sacrament.
Have you been born-again? Maybe you have or maybe you seem to have
divorced yourself from the relationship.
I want you to close your
eyes and bow your heads and I want you raise your hands if you believe that you
need that born-again experience. It doesn’t matter whether you have
experienced it before but it is knowing that you need God right now. This
is nothing to do whether you have been in Church, whether you are clergy or
lay. This is my prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I know that
Your will is for me to know You. For us to have communion, for us to have
fellowship. Only through You can I know the Father. Eternal
life is knowing the Father and You. I ask that You come into my life once
again. If I had done that before and I have shunned You away or this is
the first time, I want You to come into my life in a revolutionary way; in a
way that would change my life, in a radical way so that from this day forward,
I know and will experience the fullness and the reality of eternal life.
It doesn’t have to do with escaping hell and securing eternity in heaven,
but it is spending every day from now on with You.
Lord, come into my life;
change me the way I cannot change myself. Overpower and overshadow all
the bad things in my heart and in my mind and in my life. Take the hatred
off. Replace it with love. Take the jealousy off and replace it
with contentment. Take the anxiety off and replace it with Your peace.
Father and Lord Jesus, I
want You in my life. Dwell in me from now on because nothing compares
with You. You are all I want in my life. This is our prayer, Lord.
Hear it for the sake of Your Son and for Your glory, in the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
If you prayed that and
meditated it in your heart, God hears. I mentioned a couple of Sundays
ago that you have eternal life and it is just we are missing out on the
fullness of it by shunning Christ and getting Him out of our lives. His
will for us is the fullness of that life. May you experience that and may
God be more real to you in a way that you have never experienced Him before.
This is my prayer; that is
our prayer because when you experience Him in His fullness, you actually will
understand that’s really the way it is in the kingdom of God.
LET
US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF
HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF
THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
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