I’m not much of a gambler. About 46 years ago, I hit three oranges on a slot machine at a small gas station/restaurant in Elko, Nevada that paid for my dinner. About fifteen years later, I lost $20 in a slot machine in Atlantic City. I guess that means I did a little better than break even, which is all I’ve ever heard from any gambler. That’s about it. It’s just not fun to me.
Our oldest son was 11 that day in Atlantic City. Dazzled by the lights and sounds he was begging for a turn, which was illegal. I told him, “Always remember that they did not build all these hotels to give you money.” That was good advice then but it’s better now that gambling is legal just about everywhere in our country and heavily advertised.
But the truth is we all gamble all the time. The old joke is that the only certainties in life are death and taxes, but even taxes aren’t certain. And so, we live by probabilities. For example, we expect the light to come on when we flip the switch, water to come out of the tap or the car to start and on and on. We get on planes. We merge onto I-4.
Every day is a gamble. The odds are our minds and bodies will work tomorrow about like they do today, unless and until illness, injury or aging mean they won’t.
You expect I’m going to tie this back to the Gospel somehow. (I will!)
Another way to frame that reality is to recognize how much we live by faith. Few of us know the intricacies of how electricity gets everywhere, how clean water gets everywhere, how our vehicles work. I mean, I used to know how a car works, not anymore. We have faith the planes will get us safely to our destinations. Thousands of them are in the air right now! We have faith our cars will start and we’ll get to our destinations. Eventually.
Those are all tangible things and processes. What about the intangibles that actually drive our lives? No one lives by things and processes. We live in relationships. We find our niche. We take on responsibilities. We think about how we might be able to make things better. We develop hopes and dreams, plan for our future. How important are those intangibles? How certain are they? They, too, are gambles. The first time we say “I love you” you hope you hear it back.
Oh yes, we are creatures who live entirely by faith, whether or not we admit it or accept it. The issue is where we put our faith and how strongly we put it there.
Before Jesus joined his disciples that first Easter night, traditionally thought to be the same room where they met for the Last Supper, they had no certainty about anything. They didn’t know if or when the authorities might come for them as co-conspirators of Jesus. They had taken out their leader and the next step could easily have been to take out the next layer of leadership. They went “all in” but had no idea what tomorrow might bring, or despite all of Jesus’ instructions what they should do next.
Fear grows in the absence of faith. Unresolvable uncertainty breeds anxiety. Theirs must have been extreme.
When Jesus comes, their fear is displaced although not so much by faith as by the shocking wonder of his presence. And he fulfills promises he made to them the night before he died. It’s really him. He is physically with them. He still carries the wounds of his crucifixion, yet he is perfectly fine. He gives them what they need, first peace then the Holy Spirit. He renews their commission to re-present him.
Upon encountering the risen Christ, their faith in him, in their mission is fully restored. Their fear is gone, never to return even when they are rejected, persecuted, arrested, imprisoned and (most of them) eventually put to death because they refuse to recant or deny this outrageous truth that Jesus is Lord and was raised by God from the dead.
Thomas wasn’t there and refused to take their testimony on faith. But Jesus comes again to give him what he gave the others, with the caveat, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” John 20:29 That would include us!
All that we see in this moment is underscored in John’s first letter. He declares to us what he has seen with his own eyes and touched with his own hands so that we can join in fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. The light of Christ builds our faith, and drives out all darkness, including our sin as we repent from it. He has atoned for all of it once and for all.
We are so very blessed to have the Apostle John’s personal testimony of these events. His witness, along with the other Gospels and books of the New Testament draw us to Jesus and, I pray, opens us to relationship with him and with the power of the Holy Spirit build our faith so as to drive out all fear – including of death and taxes.
That is the great blessing of faith in Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and direction for our whole lives radiate from him. And that is what these parents and godparents hope and promise for Breit, Lexi Grace and Sela.
These girls are all blessed with very good and faithful parents who love them more than they love themselves. They will, to the very best of their ability, provide for them in every conceivable way. They will encourage them in every healthy interest. They each have very good and strong extended families who will support them as well.
Those will all be reliable points of faith for these girls to navigate the probabilities, risks, challenges and opportunities, joy sand sorrows life will bring. Their potential, individually and collectively, is impossible to grasp.
And their very best point of faith will grow out of the relationship they will have with Jesus, which we consecrate today in Holy Baptism through the symbols of water and oil our prayers and our promises. I pray that relationship will bless and guide them all their lives. “We will, with God’s help.” That’s the very best we can offer.
AMEN
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