By Faith, Not Guarantee (Reformation Sunday)

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Especially when I was younger, I used to love it when I saw that something was “guaranteed.” A guarantee was supposed to mean that something was a sure thing. “Your satisfaction is guaranteed!” “Your rate of return is guaranteed!” and “This product is guaranteed for life!”

But as an older and perhaps more cynical person now, I’ve come to realize guarantees aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be! I was reminded of this a couple of years ago when I needed to fix one of my favorite chairs – a great Lazy-boy recliner that I bought new over 30 years ago. It was probably my first purchase of a new piece of furniture. It cost a noticeable chunk of money for my income back then, but it came with a “lifetime guarantee.”

But, 30 years on, the gear that worked the recliner mechanism had become worn and wouldn’t hold the chair in the reclined position anymore. And because I’m me and like to mess with stuff, I realized that it would be relatively simple for me to replace this gear myself. I just needed the part.

And so I called Lazy-boy and told them my story of woe, and they told me I needed to get them the model number, which I found. I called them back and gave them the model number, whereupon I was informed that parts for that model stopped being manufactured about 5 years before, so they couldn’t get me the part.  They would, however, give me a coupon if I wanted to buy a new recliner from them!

Now in fairness, the “lifetime guarantee” didn’t indicate whose lifetime the guarantee was valid for – mine or the chair’s!  But, my point is that “guarantees” – even “lifetime guarantees” aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be.

After all, “guaranteed satisfaction” doesn’t always mean you’ll be satisfied, or even sometimes get all your money back if you’re not. A “guaranteed” rate of return may turn out not to outpace taxes and inflation. And a “guaranteed” job may turn out not to be so guaranteed after all.

And yet, most of us are used to living by “guarantee.” We’d desperately like to hope and expect that we can “guarantee” our lives against pain and disappointment.  And we cling to the hope that our “guarantees” will give us some leverage if things go south on us.

And when things don’t work out, we sometimes look for a better “guarantee”. People have probably always done that. And yet it’s in this context that, on Reformation Sunday, St. Paul reminds us that we live by faith, and not by guarantee.

That is, our hope and our trust should be based not on fleeting and unsure certificates of guarantee, but on the promises of God in Christ Jesus. That’s what faith is all about.

In the context in which Paul is writing, “doing the works of the law” was the way you got a “guarantee”. People figured that if they did certain things (or refrained from doing certain things) that this would “guarantee” that God would so control the outcome of their lives that no bad things would happen to them. Or perhaps, they weren’t really sure they could trust God, and so they imagined that by “following the rules” they’d have some kind of leverage or legal recourse in the event that their eternal salvation didn’t turn out well for them.

But a relationship with God – like a relationship with your kids, your spouse or your friends – can never be fully lived into by guarantee. God gives us life, and calls us to live fully into that life by trusting the relationships and connections we’re given with God and with one another. But as long as we’re looking for guarantees, we can’t really invest ourselves in the life God calls us to.

And in the end, the most important things in our lives just can’t be lived by guarantee. Instead, the only way to live boldly and confidently is when we decide to fully invest ourselves in the promises of God and in the relationships with the people whom we love. That’s really what it means to live by faith.  

And that’s why when we ask our Confirmands to write “faith statements”, we’re not asking them to solve big theological problems or define what a person should think if they want God’s guarantee. Instead, we ask them to reflect on their relationship with God; on the relationships and gifts God has given them; and on how they’ll continue to live into those relationships of trust and hope with God and with others – because that’s what living by faith is all about.

Oh, so I should also tell you the end of the chair story! I gave up on the guarantee and found an aftermarket gear on Amazon that fixed the chair. So now I’m comfortably reclined when I sit in the chair. And each time I do that, I’m reminded that it really is better to live by faith than by guarantee!

Amen.