Text: Luke 7:1-10

Theme: Jesus comes to us in faith.

Dear Friends in Christ - Grace to you and peace, from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Most of us remember one of the themes of the 70's which was displayed on many of our bumpers - I FOUND IT! The response by many of us was - I NEVER LOST IT or WHAT DID YOU FIND?

In our Gospel lesson for today, the Centurion seems to "Have Found It." What exactly is it that he has found?

The Centurion has found that Jesus has an authority which is even greater than the tremendous power which existed in the Roman Military Machine which ruled most of the world during the lifetime of Jesus. He knew that Jesus had the power and authority to heal his slave if only he would say the word. In other words, the Centurion had discovered that faith in Jesus would produce the miracle of healing his slave.

Before the story of the Centurion, Jesus had just completed the Sermon on the Plain. In this he gave us many examples of what we should do and how we should live. It seems that by placing the Centurion story immediately after the Sermon, Luke is emphasizing that even though all of these things are important - that we live a Christian Life - That a Christian Life has rules - that a Christian Life has results depending on what we do - for example - in his Sermon on the Plain Jesus says things such as:

Why do you call me Lord-Lord and not do what I tell you

Or

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit

Or

Judge not and you will not be judged - condemn not and you will not be condemned

All of these statements really concern Christian ethics, but the story seems to emphasize that Christian ethics are not the final answer.

The final answer for the Centurion was not - as the Jewish Elders reported - that he had been a good man, he had helped build a synagogue.

The emphasis in the story and the important aspect of the Centurion was his great faith in his slave being healed by Jesus.

Jesus not only thought his faith was great enough to allow the gift of healing, but he also made a point of saying - Not even in Israel have I found such a faith. The story indicates that faith is more important than who you are or what you have done, and who your friends are.

Again, the most important aspect in our lives and the life of the Centurion is this faith in Jesus Christ.

In the January Lutheran Standard, there is a story written by a woman from Northfield, MN. The story was titled Pollyanna or Simply a Joyous Christian. Mrs. Hero talks about how she had contracted a fatal disease, but she finally turned herself over to God and in faith accepted whatever God would give her and simply acknowledged that God would walk beside her no matter what happened. In the article she says:

I know at last the peace that passes all understanding, although I had my moments of fear. No one looks forward to pain. I still feared the act of dying but not death itself. I suffered no depression, no bitterness, no - Why Me?

We sometimes tend to think that if faith is all that is required why do we need God at all.

In the same Lutheran Standard, the Lutheran theologian, Martin Marty, had an article titled Where are we going? He mentiones that our religious experience in the 70's seem to have led us to a more individualistic, experiential type of religion - to quote Mr. Marty The sense that the Church is one, that it is the body of Christ suffered in the 70's. In its place is the feeling that religion is something each individual locates ( I Found It).

We Lutherans react quite strongly to this, because we believe that we have salvation by grace and grace is a gift.. But… grace as a gift is not a gift unless that gift is accepted. We must realize that God is the kind of God who gives us not necessarily what we want -- but what we need. Once we have come to that conclusion, we do not try to say - this is what I want you to do - If you don't do it - well then I guess I will have to find another God. In other words, a source that can and will do what I want it to do!

The story of the Centurion looks - on the surface - like the Centurion has this kind of an attitude - that he says to Jesus "All you must do is to say the word and my slave will be healed, assuming, of course, that is what Jesus will say. But we can learn a lesson from how he says this. He does not say you must say this word, but merely states his belief that if Jesus says the word, the slave will be healed.

I recall a time when I could have graphically portrayed the effects of prayer and faith. I was Superintendent of a Sunday School and was working very hard to use all of my organizational skills to build attendence, but we still were averaging only about 40% attendence.

One Saturday morning, as I was soaking in the bathtub, thinking of what I might do to try and improve this, God seemed to say to me You are trying to do it all, I will help you if you only pray. So I did a lot of praying and the attendence figures began to climb. As attendence improved, success made me proud - I forgot to pray - and the figures went down. The cycle continued just like a well designed graph.

The point is -- Jesus will come to us in many ways - when we, in faith, place our trust in him and not in our works, not in our organization, not in our friends, but only in Jesus.

When we have this faith and live in this faith, we will with Mrs. Hero have that peace which passes all understanding.

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