Faith, Trust and Risk

The Reverend Douglas Scharf joined us from Holy Innocents’ Church in Valrico, FL today and gave a sermon on the nature of Faith.  He began by describing his experience at his first camp where he encountered the "trust fall" as part of a low-ropes course.  He recounted that familiar, scary sensation when his feet left the platform before he felt the reassuring arms of his fellow campers.  Father Doug described that moment of no-return as embodying the nature of faith.

Fr. Doug then turned his attention to today's Gospel reading, Matthew15:21-28.  The story of the Canaanite woman who knelt before Jesus is a story of faith.  In fact, Fr. Doug pointed out that this is the only story in the Bible where a person's faith was described as "great."  He then pondered what it means to live lives full of faith and concluded that the essence of faith is trust without reservation...and without trust, there can be no relationship.  The Canaanite woman's kneeling before Jesus is a literal position of trust and Fr. Doug notes that this is just the position in which we often find ourselves.  This is especially true for times when we are gripped by fear and uncertainty...like the woman pleading for her daughter's sake, all we can do in these cases is put our trust in Jesus. 

Fr. Doug then explained that trust requires taking a risk...trust without risk isn't really trust.  We are all inclined to latch onto what is safe and comfortable, but Jesus asks that we trust with complete abandon and surrender.  The Canaanite woman was risking shaming herself kneeling at the feet of a Jewish person knowing that Jews despised her people.  She demonstrated her trust in Jesus even when Jesus was uncharacteristically indifferent to her first requests as the disciples were asking that she be sent away. 

Fr. Doug concluded by explaining that God calls for faith grounded in radical risk-taking...do we trust Him with our whole lives?  We are standing on the edge of our own "trust fall"...Jesus is calling for us to fall into his loving arms with the promise that he will never let us go. 

Submitted by M. White