Today is the third Sunday in which we have read, from Saint Luke’s Gospel, words of Jesus which constitute a discourse on Faith.  . . . Jesus has told us, so far, that Faith is a grace:  . . . it comes from God.  We have, every one of us here, . . . we have, each of us, sufficient Faith to do remarkable and holy things.  Each of us has sufficient Faith because God gave it to us.  And God gave us Faith because, like the vital organs He also gave each one of us, . . . Faith has a number of important functions essential to life:  . . . Faith saves, Faith strives, and Faith absolves.

    Two Sundays ago Jesus told us that Faith saves by evoking gratitude.  Faith evokes gratitude, and gratitude brings us into the presence of God where we are bathed, body and soul; . . . we are bathed in the wholesomeness -- the shalom -- of God’s precious Being.  . . . Faith saves us by bringing us into the Presence of Life.  … Your Faith makes you well, Jesus says.

    And then, last Sunday, Jesus told us that Faith strives.  . . . Faith strives by evoking prayer; . . . but not prayer which lectures God, telling Him or coaxing Him to do what He ought to do because we want it, nor does Faith evoke prayer which asks God for stuff(!).  Faith evokes prayer which wrestles with God.  Faith evokes prayer which strives to cling to God.  By the prayer of Faith we encounter God so that, like Jacob, the light and peace and loveliness of the divine life brings us to confess our sinful nature.  . . . And God blesses us.  . . . He illumines us with the divine light that drives out darkness, . . . giving us a new name; a name that reflects our true nature as it has been sanctified in Christ Jesus.  Faith evokes prayer which changes you.  Faith evokes prayer which strives with God and makes you holy.

    And now, today, Jesus tells us that Faith absolves.  He tells this to us very directly.  He says that two men went into church to pray:  one was your very best friend . . . and the other was a drug dealer who sells porn on the side.  . . . Both men have Faith (because they desire to pray); . . . both men have Faith, but each man offers a very different prayer.  Your very best friend is full of gratitude.  And so, he comes up to the altar rail and offers a prayer of thanksgiving to God; . . . a prayer of thanksgiving that God has guided him along the path of good so that he has not become befouled by sins of unrighteousness or injustice.  . . . Your best friend especially praises God that the Lord has kept him from being like that man over there, who deals in drugs and porn.  Your best friend is grateful to God that his life is one of generosity in which he gives liberally to the Church and to charitable causes.  . . . Your very best friend is filled with gratitude, and he offers God a prayer of praise.

    The drug dealer/porn peddler, on the other hand, Jesus says, cannot bring himself to even look upon the altar, let alone look up to heaven.  And so, he prays way back there by the entrance to the nave.  He beats his breast which is full of shame and revulsion at his life and the things he does with it.  The drug dealer/porn peddler beats his breast and begs for God’s mercy; . . . he says the prayer of Faith; … he simply clings to God and confesses his sinful name.

    . . . Jesus tells us that, of those two men, it is the drug dealer/porn peddler who shall leave the church and go down to his home justified; that is to say, he shall leave the church and go down to his home forgiven.  It’s the drug dealer/porn peddler who understands that God acknowledges and embraces him as a son; . . . not your very best friend.  . . . Your best friend simply goes home self-satisfied.  . . . Why?  Well, Jesus tells us, at the very beginning of His parable, that while both men had Faith, when your very best friend began to pray, he “prayed thus with himself,”  Jesus says.  True enough, the man’s Faith made him grateful enough to pray, . . . but his gratitude never quite got him into the presence of God.  . . . The man became distracted by what God had made of him, and his gratitude stopped there.  It was as if he’d been on the way to answer what he thought was a knock at the door, . . . but got distracted by the image of his handsomeness in a hallway mirror . . . and stopped to admire it.  Your very best friend became distracted by the godly image of himself, . . . and that is to whom he prayed:  himself.  But, you see, the object of Faith in evoking gratitude and prayer, . . . the object of Faith is to bring humility into the hearts of the Faithful.  The gratitude of Faith brings us into the majestic and holy Presence of God.  . . . Because, you see, . . . God is not your friend.  Jesus is your friend, but God is not.  The Lord God Almighty is the Ineffable One, wrapped in the darkness of eternity, traveling with the swiftness of the lightning that goes before Him; Whose passage is like the awful thunder which follows Him and shakes the whole earth.  The Presence of God takes your breath away and so dazzles you that you cannot stand.  The voice of God deafens the ear and the sight of God blinds the eye.  . . . So that the striving of Faith in God’s presence reduces us to simply clinging to Him; . . . the striving of Faith reduces us to clinging to God as a frightened child might cling to its father.  . . . And clinging to our Father, we discover His regard for us . . . and His love.  And the blessing of our heavenly Father’s love . . . humbles us.  . . . Faith absolves us by making us humble.  Because, you see, if we can be humble before God, then we can keep our lives and our relationships in their proper proportions.  If we are humble before God, then we know that God is God and does His will according to His schedule.  And if we are humble before God, then we know who we are in relationship to God and choose to be obedient to His Commandments.  The humility of Faith can give us an accurate estimate of ourselves:  who we are and how our uniqueness might contribute to the dance of Creation; . . . how our lives can manifest their portion of joy and hope and mercy and shalom and creativity that shall delight the heart of God and all His creatures.  . . . And so, the humility of Faith absolves us.  It makes us available to God to be forgiven; . . . it brings us into communion with God so as to live by His grace, . . . with simplicity, . . . detachment, . . . and obedience to God’s Word.

    Now, you must understand that Faith is not a device for escaping the consequences of sin.  I quipped the other day to someone that there are only two lifestyles which the magisterium of The Episcopal Church does condemn to Hell: . . . pedophiles and white males over the age of fifty.  . . . But we must not deceive ourselves.  Our drug dealer/porn peddler friend, whom Jesus has told us about, lives a life contrary to the precepts of Holy Scripture and which is abhorrent to God; . . . our drug dealer/porn peddler friend shall, in one way or another, be required to make restitution for his sins.  But God’s forgiveness has made a way for him.  God’s forgiveness has given him a chance to become himself; . . . God’s forgiveness has given him a chance to come to Life; . . . to become an icon of Christ, Who is his Lord and Saviour in Whom he may place his entire trust and love.  For, the one whose Faith makes him humble, Jesus says, . . . the one whose Faith makes her humble . . . the Lord God Almighty’s forgiveness has made a way for him or her to be exalted by the Risen Christ.  The one whose Faith makes him humble has a path by which to come to Jesus and be comforted by His touch; . . . to come to Jesus and be touched by God’s sublime Presence and Love.  . . . And the other fellow?  Your very best friend?  Well, his Faith has made him well, but he still needs some work.  But that’s why God made us a human family; . . . it is why the Holy Spirit has made us the Church.  So that the ones who cannot pray have us to pray for them.  That is one of the duties; one of the vital functions, essential to life, which your Faith serves.  God intends that your Faith not only save your life, . . . but that your grateful, prayerful, and humble living . . . bring life to others.