The “Work” of Believing (Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost)

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“That’s nice.  But what have you done for me lately?”

That’s a question that often gets asked of politicians in an election year.  It’s a question employees sometimes feel they’re being asked during annual performance reviews.  And it’s essentially the question people ask of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading.

To set the stage for this question, Jesus has just performed a great “sign” – the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 with five loaves and two fish.  Afterwards, as we read last week, Jesus withdrew himself up a mountain, while his disciples got in the boat and headed out on the lake.  In the middle of the night, Jesus came walking on the water, which scared the heck out of the disciples, but Jesus told them not to be afraid.  And then, all of a sudden, they arrived at the dock in Capernaum, a town where many of the disciples came from, and which they apparently used as a base of operations.

Since nobody really knew were Jesus and his disciples went, many folks in that crowd of people who ate the food decided to get into boats themselves and go looking for Jesus in Capernaum. Who knows?  Maybe Jesus will do this trick again?

So when they arrive in Capernaum, they find Jesus, and they’ve clearly been telling others about what had just happened.  Yet they act all surprised and say, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

Jesus, on the other hand, knows the deal and tells them, “you’re not looking for me because you saw God at work, but because you want more free stuff from me!” 

Undaunted, the folks in the crowd say, “OK, if you want us to believe in you and see God at work, what sign are you going to give us?”  That is, “yes, we just saw this great sign, but that was SO yesterday!  What have you done for us lately?!  Or what are you going to do for us now so that maybe we’ll vote for you for Messiah?

But Jesus tells them that if they really want to see the “sign” of God’s presence in the world around them, they have to be about “the work of God.”  And that “work” is to believe IN the one whom he sent.

Now, as Lutherans we generally recoil at the idea that “believing” is a “work.”  After all, faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit that empowers us to trust God and live boldly as God’s people.  It’s not something we can do for ourselves.

But that’s not really what Jesus is talking about here.  Instead, Jesus is calling people to understand that the “work” of believing is not about doing something so that you’re worthy of God’s love and help.  Instead, this work of believing is about living in such a way that you see and feel and appreciate the signs of God’s love and presence in the world around you.

And particularly in John’s Gospel, “believing” isn’t about cognitive assent to some set of doctrines or principals.  Instead, “believing” is about:

• Focusing on God instead of all the other chaos in the world around you – it doesn’t mean putting your head in the sand and not dealing with the chaos, but it does mean not letting God get lost in the midst of the storm, as seemed to happen when the disciples a couple of weeks ago got so caught up in the wind and the waves that Jesus, who was in the boat with them, didn’t seem to be important (except as a guy who, if he woke up, could help them bail…)

• Trusting God instead of yourself – this is really the problem with the question “what must we do?”  The folks who asked that question wanted to know how they could control God.  IF I do this, then God has to do this other thing.  Therefore, I can manipulate God to give me what I want.  But, that isn’t trust in a loving and caring God.  It’s more of a contractual idea that God only works if I work, too.  And in that case, I’ll never be looking for God to do something generous and undeserved – like feeding those 5000 – because I’m too busy worrying about whether I’ve done enough to earn stuff from God…

• Acting in the ways Jesus calls us to act – one of the keys to understanding what “believing” is about in the Bible is to realize that believing is never a passive thing you just think in your head or feel in your heart.  Believing is about taking leaps of faith and doing things you feel called by God to do even if you don’t know what difference it’ll make.  This is what the disciples did when they shared the bread and fish with the crowds – they didn’t know how this would actually help or even work, but believing meant taking action…

And the important point is, that when you “believe” in those ways, you actually may begin to see the “signs” of God’s presence working in the world around you and even working in and through you. 

And that’s why this “work” of “believing” is important for us.  It’s not so that we can earn God’s love or approval, or so that we can get lots of neat stuff from God.  Instead, it’s so that we, also, can be people who can see, feel and appreciate the presence of God’s love in and around us.

And if we want to see a “sign” of God’s love and presence, it’s often found when we:

• Focus on the ways God acts, instead of the chaos that often swirls around us – you know, there was a lot of political and social upheaval in the first century, too, but the “sign” Jesus gave was simply the sharing of bread and the feeding of hungry people; and sometimes, for us, the “signs” we should be looking for are the simple and almost unnoticed signs of people being helped and healed and befriended; those are signs of God at work in the world…

• Trust God instead of ourselves – it’s often the case that when things get messy, I want to try to get things back under control!  But often, the “signs” of God’s presence are the things that happen outside of our control, and which indeed seem to happen in spite of the fact that people aren’t cooperating…!

• Actually act to be the hands of Jesus in the world around us – whether it’s been on mission trips or simply collecting school supplies, it’s often been the case around here that people have felt and seen the signs of God working in our lives when we stop wondering about ourselves and act to be agents of passing out “bread” in the lives of others; and sometimes, that’s meant experiencing the signs of God working in and through us…

In John’s Gospel, there are 5 things Jesus did that John calls “signs.”  But when Jesus did those things, he didn’t do them to show off, or to say, “hey, this is all you get!”  Instead, he did those signs so that his disciples, like us, could begin to recognize the signs that God is always doing in the world around us.

But to actually see, feel and appreciate those signs, we often have to be about the “work” of believing.   And for us, like the first disciples, the work of believing often means focusing on the small acts of love and mercy in our lives, instead of the noisy chaos around us. For us, like those first disciples, the work of believing often means giving up on our need to control what’s going on around us, as though life the universe and everything depended upon us.  And for us, like those first disciples, the work of believing often means taking leaps of faith to act in ways that open us up to being signs of God’s presence and care in the lives of others.

Amen.