Wednesday Wonder – November 20, 2024

Faithfulness

This word, faithfulness, brings up other words when we think about it. Words like commitment, loyalty, fidelity, maybe even right living. How we see faithfulness shapes how we live faithfulness.

There are many things in which we can be faithful. Within marriage, friendship, work, teams and groups we belong to, whatever we do with our time can involve faithfulness. What we might wonder about is if the faithfulness we talk about in these parts of life is the same as the faithfulness we might think of when it comes to faith in God/Christ and our behaviour regarding church?

Faith means many things to many people so it should not be surprising that a word which builds upon it would do the same. What worries me at times is how I might judge the faithfulness of others when I see their actions. I know that there is often that niggling feeling that the minister will judge you as less faithful if you are not sitting in a pew every Sunday morning. Maybe some ministers, not this one. While church attendance may be one way to be faithful, it is not the only way.

Sometimes it is easy to see where we might consider ourselves less faithful. Do we pray every day, read the scriptures daily, attend church regularly, or keep our focus on God/Christ at all times? Even I can’t live up to that kind of faithfulness. We are all human and while we may want to judge ourselves by these types of things, we also know that there will be times we do not live up to our own hopes and expectations. We are not perfect after all.

But faithfulness, to me, is about more than just churchy things, it is a wider, deeper thing that touches on our spiritual life as much as the physical, outward one everyone, including ourselves, can see. Faithfulness is about living out what we believe. It is about living in a way that shows you believe in God’s love, in Christ’s teaching about how to live that love, and in the Spirit’s ability to help you do these things.

Each day we have the opportunity to live our faithfulness. Do we treat others with dignity and respect? That sounds like faithfulness to the love I so often preach about. Christ treated everyone he met with dignity and respect. He met people where they were and did not put unrealistic expectations upon them. When we allow people to be who they are we do the same. We are faithful to the gospel message of love.

Now, I am not going to say this is easy, or lets us off the hook for the hard work of being faithful in many things. There are times, like at the end of a long day when I just want to sit and have a quiet meal that someone else prepared and I have very little tolerance for the noisy family sitting nearby. Giving grace in the face of that small amount of tolerance left can be difficult. But then I remember, I had a child who could be obnoxious at times. A gentle smile goes a long way to getting closer to the quiet I hoped for than does a dirty look. But I would be lying if I said the dirty look wasn’t sitting very close to the surface. The smile won out, this time. This was an easy test of faithfulness, outwardly. I do worry about all the less than faithful thoughts that went through my head before that smile though. These are the things that make me question, am I truly faithful?

In the end, we each have to decide for ourselves if we are being faithful to what we believe. I have a friend who does a lot of church work around stewardship. She says, “Stewardship is everything we do after we say we believe.” I would say the same thing about faithfulness. Once we say we believe, our desire becomes to live that belief.

In Bible study we have been hearing the Apostle Paul say we are justified (saved) by faith. God loves us no matter what. Paul also says, that works are not needed for that justification but that if we truly believe, works, or following the law, tends to follow anyway. If we are faithful, then we want to do good works, behave in a way that displays God’s love and shows others we do believe.

As I have been writing this I keep typing ‘faithfull’. When we are full of faith we tend to act in a way that shows this to others. We continue to work on ourselves to live that love more clearly.

I know many of you are faithfull. I see that fullness of faith lived out in the Kingsview community of faith every day. Maybe you don’t even realize you are doing it at times. I am seeing it, others are seeing it. And you continue to share how faithfull you are in all you do.

We all hope to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant,” as our life ends. Let me tell you now, “Well done, good and faithfull servants. You are sharing your faith and God’s love wherever you go.”

Peace,
Rev. Mary-Jane