Little Hops

 A preacher took to the pulpit one Sunday morning and proceeded to deliver a sermon on the virtue of faith. He said, in part, to have faith requires willingness to take risks.  To have faith requires willingness to accept disappointment.  To have faith requires willingness to reject safety and security as the primary conditions of life. To have faith requires willingness to love and be loved, regardless of any painful consequences.  To have faith requires courage.  The preacher then concluded the sermon, saying, I’ve given up expecting you to take that giant “Leap of faith” everybody talks about.  But it is nice to see you take a little hop now and then.   
       Jesus said to the crowd that had gathered to hear him preach his sermon on the mount: You must be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.  And, as followers of Jesus, as a people of faith in Jesus, that is precisely what we actually aspire to; that is our living goal; that is our purpose in life; that, hopefully is the direction in which we journey through life. But we must do it in “little hops,” so to speak.  In this, the earth-bound stage of our eternal existence, we are “perfect” only to the extent that we are actually trying to be perfect, only to the extent that we keep on hopping; only to the extent that we can keep the goal itself in sight!   
       There is a “Peanuts” cartoon in which little Linus is afraid to go to the library.  Charlie Brown tries to relieve him of his fear, saying, “Everyone is lonely in one place or another.”  Linus asks Charlie, “Where is that place for you?”  Charlie answers, “Earth!”   
       Our Christian faith offers us no illusion that we are a people chosen for exemption from loneliness.  It holds out no promise of a trouble-free life of easy comfort.  It grants us no immunity from evil and its consequences. Rather, our Christian faith provides us with the spiritual equilibrium - the spiritual stamina - that we really need to face up to the burdens and the evil days and the fears that overtake us, often in the most unexpected ways!  
       With the eyes of our faith we can see things as they are in the light of things as they will be.  With eyes of faith we see our own culpability for things as they are, and our own responsibility for things as they will be.  Jesus sums this up with precision in this weekend’s Gospel lesson by saying: When a man has had a great deal given him, a great deal will be demanded of him; when a man has had a great deal given him in trust, even more will be expected of him.  It is our Christian faith in Christ - God’s gift of gifts - that empowers us to be true to the responsibility with which we have been entrusted!  Think about it!!