Faith in action

Over the last few Sundays, we have been making our way through Luke’s version of Matthew’s Sermon of Jesus from the Mount. Luke’s collection of Jesus’ teachings, called the Sermon on the Plain, also began with his version of the Beatitudes, followed by some key teachings on love and judgement. Which brings us to today, with a series of short parables: the blind leading the blind; the splinter verses the log in one’s eye; the comparison of the fruit we produce; and the store of goodness we are to have.

Each of these little parables has a lesson—in the form of a warning—for how to live good lives. The blind leading the blind teaches of the perils of thinking we are self-reliant. The slinter and the log warns us to use the same standards in judging ourselves as we use in judging others. In the sound and rotten fruit, we learn that we can judge people only by their actions. And the store of goodness provokes us to look to the virtuous practices of our hearts and heads to see if our hands are following what we preach.

Jesus didn’t just teach the things we are to believe. He also taught us to look to the things we are to do. In a very real sense, our beliefs cannot be true if our deeds do not match. I believe … and I do … We see it in Jesus himself. His call to live in God’s kingdom is played out in his actions, especially towards the poor and struggling. He showed his true belief by means of his true practice.

Typical of St Paul, he captures this truth in the teachings of Jesus Christ in his own teaching. As we heard today, ‘Never give in then, my dear brothers [and sisters], never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain.’ The good work of our belief is a manifestation of the good work of Christ. Christ, in his death, has overcome our death in sin. Christ in his resurrection has afforded us the gift of life and hope.

May I suggest that this is evident in the work of Stella Maris. Life, from death. Goodness, from difficulty. Hope, from toil and burden. These are characteristics of this wonderful mission to seafarers. Faith in action; belief in practice. One cannot help but think of another parable of Jesus; the great judgement parable at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, separating the sheep from the goats.

The call of each of us, nonetheless, is to always ask the questions that matter: Am I leading with my sight enlightened by Christ? Do I look to the good of my neighbour, not in comparison to myself? Is the fruit of my actions close in quality to the fruit of Christ’s actions? Am I working for what is good? These are the questions that will help us to judge our faith in its practice.