Reformátusok Lapja, 1970 (70. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1970-06-01 / 6-7. szám

REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

11

IT IS OUR FAITH

1. Thess. 3:7,5:12-27

As we are about to go into the 32nd Annual Meeting of our Synod, God wants us to make it a source of renewal, a source from which we and our churches may draw a fresh breath of air. It almost sounds like labeling our gathering as a workshop of survival. Isn’t that exactly what every church meeting is? How to preserve, not the church as an institution — but the faith that makes it a living organism — the faith that makes the church a powerhouse from which the believer draws strength sufficient to face the incredible and tackle the impossible at the urge of our Lord, “Nothing is impossible to them that believeth.”

Now that powerhouse that has generated this mighty faith — the Church gives every indication that along the way, it suffered some sort of a mishap and most of the vital power of faith seems to have escaped from its ruptured structure through its loosened valves of creed. “Who cares?” — comes the unconcerned reaction from many places — from many hearts. We do! We care, because it is our church too. It is our source of faith also! Our faith hanging in the balance! What are we to do to preserve it? We take our clue from the three astronauts of Apollo 13 momentarily stranded in space when a mysterious explosion crippled their space craft. When they found that the damage was in the tank that stored their vital resources: oxygen and electricity, they did not panic but proceeded on their way around the moon, the long way back home by explicitly following the instructions of the ground crew in Houston. This is exactly what we must also do. In order to save our life-giving faith — life-renewing faith, we must never panic, instead follow the instructions of God’s crew, specifically Paul the apostle as he warns: “Do not be easily fooled or let anyone fool you. Do not restrain God’s Spirit. Pray at all times. Stand firm ... in the Lord.” Then your faith will make it! Come what may, it won’t let anything separate you from God — from the love of God.

1 — It is our faith! We cherish and protect it. We brought it along with us from home and take it wherever we go. There have been in the past new roads for us — new fellowships of which we became a part. As things stand, there is every indication of a new future for us in a new fellowship if the proposed Church Union goes through. If it will materialize, we shall be a part of it. Some won’t like the structure — others the credo — many perhaps that it will be more man than God-centered. I read it carefully and many times, but for the love of God, I cannot figure out what “socio-economic wholeness of life” means. But we all understand what the love of God means! We believe in that divine love. It is this belief, this faith into which we were born, by which we live daily. This faith of ours will be a great contribution to the proposed union. By this

faith we can excel in that union. In this faith, we could contribute more than those who make the blue-print now, or those who will do the building later.

2 — It is this precious faith of ours that can comfort us in our fragmented life. It takes off the edge of bitterness when we think of our futile efforts and obvious failure to bring about a unity, a union, one denomination for all Hungarians of the same spiritual upbringing and creed. That failure keeps haunting us — our unfortunate fragmentation and division often sets us one against another. When we pass judgments and fix blames, we ought to remember that it is the same God we all worship — the same Spirit that guides all of us — and the same faith we all profess. Acting on this reality, we still could have some sort of unity — perhaps in services rendering together, or cooperation to attain a goal that would benefit us all. Any effort for such “togetherness,” such as the “ecumenical letter” of our Synod president must be regarded as nothing less than indeed an act of God, who reminds us, “Thou art mine” (Is. 43) so act like brethren of the household of the same faith!

3 — It is our faith! “We are encouraged by your faith” (I Thess. 3:7). When Paul wrote this to the Thessalonians, he meant to point out that in the fellowship of a church all activity, all effort must be centered on strengthening faith. Pastors, presbyters, organizations, of course, have many other things to do. I cannot help, however, but wonder about the futility of our priorities: that budget into which we put so much work — those projects into which we rally so many helping hands or the number of those meetings that consume so much of our time. Wouldn’t it give us a more successful church life, if we shifted the primary emphasis on faith, “faith- activities” to make ours and everyone’s faith stronger. Jesus put it this way, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all other things will be given unto you” (Mat. 6:33). He meant, strengthen your faith in God and you won’t have to worry, at all! More specifically, worry about the future of your church, our church.

It is our faith. What is this faith? Jesus defines it in one word: “light.” The believer is not so much — the light itself, but the keeper of the light of faith! When our Lord says, “Let your light shine before men” He means, let our faith shine so people seeing it “may glorify God” in whom we believe, whom we trust, through whose help we do good works. The world needs some good works. The world, evil as it is, needs goodness to prevail in every aspect of life. It is not impossible at all for goodness to prevail, to reign, to rule at every level of life. It is possible with the help of God. This is still the gospel, the good news for us and our churches to spread — the gospel of which we must never be ashamed as Paul never was. Amen.

Joseph Marsalko