“A Conversation About Faith”

A sermon summary by Hunter Stewart

 November 12, 2011

Pastor Emmanuel Jackson of Living Word Lutheran Church gave his sermon on

“A Conversation About Faith” on February 18, 2010. He developed his sermon from the

Gospel of John 4:14-21 where Jesus goes to the temple and reads. After the reading,

Jesus tells the people that as of that day, the scripture has been fulfilled. In his sermon he

talked about how he posted a question on Facebook and Twitter asking what people

defined faith as. One person replied it was discipline. Another replied that it was that

they could drink wine and not feel guilty. He then went on to talk about viral emails and

how every week he got one saying, ”send this out to 20 people and in 5 minutes you will

receive a blessing,” or asking him to sign a petition to put up crosses on buildings and

signs in the streets or commandments on a building. He said people would come up to

him after hearing his story and say, “Wow, what good faith you have!” This got him to

thinking about what faith really was.

Pastor Emmanuel was born in Liberia in Africa. His father was a Lutheran

Minister who during the civil war there was assassinated by what Pastor Emmanuel

described as children. The militants or rebels were young boys and men who stopped his

father while on his way to a small town to preach the word of God. The militants stopped

him and asked what his job was. He replied that he was a minister. The young rebels

assumed that meant he was a minister of the government and shot him in the head. He

and his family then went on to live in the refugee camps and were later allowed asylum in

the United States. Even though he lost his father at a young age, he still maintained his

 

faith in God and in the grace of Jesus Christ. He went on to become a Lutheran minister 

like his father.

Pastor Emmanuel said that faith pushes us to see not how things are but how they

ought to be. That we should go from the “are” to the “ought”. Ask yourself, “how

should things be or what should I be doing?” It doesn’t matter how many crosses or 

commandments you put up on buildings for they do nothing for faith. Some people say

that not having crosses on buildings is an attack against faith. Pastor Emmanuel

responded with if you just put crosses up on buildings and don’t put actions behind those

crosses then that is an attack against faith. Faith calls us to help the poor, needy and

helpless people in any way we can and sticking crosses on buildings will not help those

 people.

Examples that Pastor used about faith were Peter and Silas being shackled in

 prison where it was dark, gloomy and hopeless. They were able to find grace in that dark 

 place and began to sing. Also, even the exiled Israelites on the shores of Babylon, who

should have had no hope, began to sing. Isaiah told the barren Israelite women (which

was not good in those times) to sing for they would have many children. These are all

examples in the Bible where people found the faith to sing to God even though they were

hopeless. Because of their faith, their situations were able to change and God was able

to work through them to make what was, what ought to be.

This goes along with what Moses did for the Israelites. The people cried out in

hopelessness and despair. Their cry was heard by God and God sent Moses to change

what was to what ought to be. During their stay in Egypt, the people never lost faith in

 

God. Moses did not lose faith in God either and was able to deliver the Israelites out of 

Egypt and the shackles that kept them in slavery under the Pharaoh.

I agreed with the method of presentation and the message that was given. It

moved me and helped me understand more about what faith is. It showed me that even in

the darkest times, God will be there and my faith will help me to know that He is there

 beside me. Pastor Emmanuel clearly made his point through the sermon. He gave

examples from the Bible and from things that we see day to day. I found his part about

“what is” and “what ought to be” especially interesting and it put a new perspective on a

lot of things.