Homily for the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Year C – Where faith comes from

Good morning bus riders!

We are now at the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, or Proper 22 if you count that way.

The theme for today centers on faith, or the lack thereof.

As I have said before at this bus stop, there is a significant difference between belief and faith. This is hard to grasp, as the Greek word “pistis” primarily means “faith” or “faithfulness,” but it is allowed in usage to equally mean “belief, trust, confidence; and even fidelity.”

A priest-scholar, who taught religious studies at a prestigious university before retiring and filling in at churches with priest vacancies, was also a licensed airplane pilot, who owned a small single engine propeller airplane.

He said the difference between belief and faith came on stormy days, when he would announce in class that he would be flying to a nearby town after class; and, anybody who wanted a free ride should see him after class.

Nobody ever took him up on his offers. He said, “The students all knew I was a skilled airplane pilot, so they believed me when I said that. However, on stormy days, nobody had faith that I was skilled enough to keep my plane in the air during storms.”

We need to be able to understand that difference when going through today’s readings.

The Track 1 Old Testament reading choice for today comes from Lamentations 1. This book was written by Jeremiah and records the pains and sufferings of the Judean people as Judah had fallen and Jerusalem was finally captured. It is vital to understand that loss is a reflection on lost faith.

Belief in themselves being the children of God, but then doing nothing to live up to that self-billing, means all the protections allowed by Yahweh, given to Joshua and David, had been squandered.

Jeremiah spoke in the first verse of a widowed woman who “sits alone in the city full of people,” where all the greatness afforded her – Jerusalem and its Temple – died when the woman – a “princess” – lost her most Holy Husband. That speaks of lost faith, because Yahweh is not dead, nor has He ever been.

The “princess,” on the other hand, has become a “slave” by losing her faith in Yahweh.

Slavery is then called “hard servitude,” bringing about the “tears” of sorrow – her lamentations.

Jeremiah wrote, “for Yahweh has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions.” Those sins come from serving self, not Yahweh. Slavery to Yahweh affords one strength, but servitude to oneself brings the hard realities of weakness.

This Sunday, the accompanying Psalm for the Track 1 Old Testament selection comes with two options. The first is to continue singing the sorrows of Lamentations, from chapter 3, or sing Psalm 137. There are no options that I leave out; so, we’ll go over both.

The verses selected for singing today from Jeremiah 3 turn the focus to “hope,” which is the only possible when connected to Yahweh.

Verse nineteen begins by Jeremiah singing, “remember my affliction and roaming the wormwood and the gall.” In verse twenty he sings, “my soul remembers” and never forgets the sins that turns one lost away from Yahweh and the connection to His hope.

In verse twenty-one he sings that remembering leads the “mind” … the “inner man, the will, and the heart.” That awareness connects a soul to Yahweh and is the core of hope, because Yahweh has married with one’s soul.

This brings about “faithfulness,” and that leads to “salvation.” None of that is possible without Yahweh.

In verse twenty-five, Jeremiah sings, ““Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, the soul that seeks him.” The term “wait” is important to see as the servitude that keeps a soul connected to Yahweh. While patience is an element of “waiting,” the service aspect is greater. Each soul must do as Yahweh leads our “inner man” or “mind” to do. We must “wait” on His needs and commands.

When the alternate option to accompany Lamentations 1 is Psalm 137, the theme of hope disappears and we find David seeming to channel the sorrows and tears of those learning the “hard servitude” of selfishness.

David cried about Babel and Zion, while focusing in Jerusalem. He sings, “remember Yahweh against the sons of Edom , the day of Jerusalem who said raze raze ; until , very foundation its .” This repeats “remember Yahweh,” as read in Lamentations 3.

In verse five, David wrote, “if I forget you Jerusalem , let forget my right hand .” Here, it is vital to realize that the word “Jerusalem” means “Teaching Peace.”

To “forget you Teaching Peace” means to no longer “remember Yahweh.” It means to turn away from Him no longer be a “right hand” of Yahweh on the earth. This forgetting means one’s ability to “Teach Peace” in the name of the Son will be not only “razed” from one’s flesh, but it will be “razed” from one’s soul.

In David’s use of “Babel” (twice), rather than him worrying about Babylon going to war against his Israel, the meaning behind the name is “Gate of God.”

To be connected to Yahweh is to “sit at the Gate of God” as a “daughter of the Gat of God.” The feminine “daughter” reflects the essence of the earth, which is the flesh being a prison for the soul. We come from the “Gate of God” and we must strive to return to Him through that “Gate of God” that is His Son.

To accomplish that mission, we must retain “faith,” which enters our souls when the “daughter has been destroyed through sainthood” – Yahweh’s “blessing” – which comes when we repent our sins and become Yahweh’s slaves in “repayment” for our past transgressions.

In that way, our self-ego and self-worship must be “dashed upon the rock” that frees our souls from “hard servitude.” Instead, we become slaves of love, in a return to a connection to Yahweh.

The Track 2 Old Testament reading selection then comes from Habakkuk, the first four verses of his first and second chapters.

As to the name Habakkuk, it is not rooted Hebrew. Scholars believe it bears similarity to a foreign word that means “a garden herb,” such as mint or basil. This being the intent behind this name implies the known fact that such herbs quickly lose their flavor and should be applied to a dish last, just before eating.

This means the word “Habakkuk” is a statement of someone chosen, perhaps at random, to be an oracle of Yahweh, so the future “beheld” was automatically blurted out, so others were drawn to this divinely inspired “spokesman.”

This says there was no man named Habakkuk, who questioned Yahweh. The oracle began someone speaking as the voice of those Judeans who were lost, having turned their backs to Yahweh.

The verses read in chapter one (two through four) are then the cries of all the people about to be taken captive and led away into slavery to the Babylonians.

Those cries were made by people who had lost their faith.

In chapter two, we read of Yahweh (again speaking through the oracle) saying the way to return to faith is to “write down the vision and make it inscribed on tablets, that he may guard who proclaims it.”

The “tablets” must be read as the stones brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses, which began the engagement and marriage of the Israelites to Yahweh. Those marriage vows had long since been broken.

The Judeans were adulterers who cheated on Yahweh, breaking their marriage. To write a new covenant, based on a vision of lament spoken by an oracle, telling them their tears were the result of what happens to those who lose their faith, means the only way back is to renew the vows and renew faith.

Thus, the end of verse four in chapter two has Yahweh telling them (through an oracle), “the righteous by his fidelity will live.” The word translating as “fidelity” also means “faithfulness.” The element of “will live” refers to eternal salvation.

Before that, we read that “the “vision is for an appointed time” so “wait for it.” Here, the element of “wait” must be understood as the actions taken that proven the divine marriage vows are where one’s commitment lies.

In David’s Psalm 37, which is the accompanying song for the Habakkuk reading, he sings what a soul in the possession of Yahweh, with His Son as one’s Lord within. Faith is demonstrated by those who “do not fret evildoers or become envious of the doers of unrighteousness.”

In verse two, where it says, “For they shall soon wither like the grass, and like the green grass fade away,” I want you to think about what I said the word behind Habakkuk means.

An oracle of Yahweh comes and goes just as quickly. The reason the “vision” has to be “written down and inscribed on a tablet” is for those who come later to know the same “final addition” that adds the ‘flavor of life’ is belief. Before one can experience faith, one must plant the seeds, tend the garden, and reap the harvest that comes from following the vows of commitment to Yahweh.

David then sings, “trust in Yahweh,” which sings of faith, such that “souls of the land [flesh] will feed on his faithfulness” means reaping that harvest.

The Judeans who cried in the vision shown by the oracle had done no work to bring forth the fruit of the flesh. They had lost their commitment to the Law and had no faith.

A soul must find “delight in self,” through marriage to Yahweh. A “self” is one’s “soul,” so “delight in one’s soul” is the presence of the Spirit and the soul of the Son resurrected. When a soul is joined divinely with Yahweh, then it becomes “silent.” It accepts the Will of Yahweh, as a faithful wife-soul.

That is when Yahweh “brings forth the light” that is His Son’s soul, to be one’s Lord.

David then sang, “those waiting on Yahweh they shall take possession of the earth” as His priests. The words saying “wait patiently” and “wait on those” are found in verses seven and nine. Again, to “wait” does not men sit back and do nothing. It means to “serve” Yahweh. One serves with patience, bringing other souls to read the writing on the tablets.

In the reading selection from 2 Timothy 1, it is like the reading from 1 Timothy 1, read aloud on the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, because both readings use names that confuse the reader. The confusion comes from not know the meaning behind the names.

In verse five, Paul wrote, “remembrance having receive of this within to your soul of sincere of faith.” This he wrote before going into the ‘naming’ of a “grandmother” and a “mother.”

The “remembrance” is relative to the marriage vows, when one is found “having received” the soul of the Son (Jesus – “of this”) “within to your soul.” It is “of this” personal experience of Jesus “within” that one’s soul is possessed “sincerely,” with “faith” found.

Later, in verse thirteen, Paul wrote, “within to faith kai love to this within Anointed (Christ) Yahweh Saves (Jesus).” While it is easy to read “Christ Jesus” and miss the depth those two words contain (as capitalized words in Greek), the importance denoted by the Greek word “kai” says “love to this within” describes the soul of Jesus.

Jesus is the truth of the “love of Yahweh.” It is an experience that goes far beyond the human emotions called ‘love.’ Thus, when this is “within,” sent “to” a soul (“within”) it importantly means knowing the “love to this within,” which is that soul.

Without needing to call that soul “Christ Jesus,” the meaning of those words say the soul of Jesus came from the “Anointment” of Yahweh’s Spirit, making one be a “Christ,” and that Spirit only comes from souls divinely married to Yahweh in a sincere commitment, where “Yahweh Saves” by sending the soul of His Son (made for that purpose of Salvation) is the “love to this within.”

I recommend, once again, everyone read the deeper meaning that comes from this portion of Paul’s second epistle in the name of Timothy.

Because of Paul’s imprisonment and the danger the Romans posed to the safety of true Christians, to name someone and ask for a letter to be hand delivered to him would mean his arrest and torture. So, names are not the intent of what Paul wrote, misleading the Romans.

In verse five, when Paul wrote, “whosoever it dwelt first within to this to grandmother of your soul , Lois , kai to this to mother of your soul , Eunice”. Knowing the meaning behind those names becomes most revealing.

The name “Lois” means “without husband” or "no husband," where the “grandmother” was the love of the feminine world, not married to Yahweh.

The name “Eunice” means “great victory,” where the “mother” of a saved soul has become reborn as Jesus, which is a “great victory” over death.

Discretely, Paul wrote of the reincarnation souls must go through, by seeing self as a “grandmother” of sin, not married in soul to Yahweh. The “great victory” for a soul comes when it becomes the wife of Yahweh (with Husband), who then becomes the “mother” of the resurrected soul of His Son.

This can then be seen as faith being called “Eunice,” as the crying of the lost Judeans wrote down the vision of the oracle in tablets that were the marriage vows for Salvation. To believe in those words and do the work necessary to show commitment to them become “the mother of your soul’s great victory” over sin.

This theme of faith is then culminated by the Gospel reading today, from Luke 17. In my main reference – BibleHub Interlinear – these selected verses are given the heading “The Power of Faith.” Still, to use the word “faith” without understanding what it means makes the lesson of this reading confusing and difficult to grasp.

In my searches for pictures that reflect faith, I saw several pictures that quoted what we read “the apostles” said, “Increase our faith!”

The pictures were designed to show how good it is for one to demand such an “increase of faith.”

Few (if any) see the response given to “the apostles” as a rebuke of that demand. It is a rebuke because it is impossible to increase faith.

Nowhere in these six verses is the name Jesus written by Luke. The reader assumes it is Jesus to whom “the apostles” commanded, “Increase our faith,” because Luke wrote they commanded that “to this to Lord.”

What is most easily missed (because the first four verses are skipped over) is how verse one begins by saying, “He Spoke now advantageous for these disciples of his soul”. The Greek possessive pronoun “autou” (in the third-person) typically says “of him,” but “the disciples” were not really students of the man Jesus. Whether or not they fully understood, they were students of the soul within Jesus, which was that of the Son of Yahweh, made on the seventh day.

By seeing this soul connection, when verse five changed the identity of “the disciples” to “the apostles,” this is then a statement about their souls, who were speaking to the soul that was their “Lord.” To be a servant commanding “the Lord” to “Add to our souls faith” – the literal translation allowed spiritually – they are asking for more Jesus soul to come into their souls.

That is the impossibility; and, it why we hear the spiritual response of “this Lord” saying, “If your souls possess faith even as a seed of mustard,” where the “If” is a scenario that the soul of Jesus has come within another soul.

The meaning of that retort is this: “If you have any faith whatsoever, then you have Yahweh’s Spirit surrounding you and the soul of His Son within your soul.” There is nothing more that can be “Added” to one’s soul, that can make one have a greater experience of those sources of true faith.

The example given, which says, “you would have commanded to this [demand of more faith] to mulberry tree to this [addition of faith] You Be Uprooted kai you be planted within this to sea”. Here, the symbolism of a “mulberry tree” is an ‘expediency of wisdom.’ The “sea” is all the souls amassed in bodies of flesh in the world. Each of “the apostles” becomes the “mulberry tree,” not commanding “to this to Lord,” but commanding to their own souls, “Be Uprooted” as fixed in one position [at the feet of Jesus] and enter ministry in the name of your “Lord.”

This element of servitude to Yahweh, in the name of His Son, is then spoken of in metaphor, where each “apostle” was then termed “a servant plowing or shepherding.” For them, “the field” must be read as the ministry they take to the “sea” of souls, in the name of Jesus.

As “servants” or “slaves” to Yahweh, the word “recline,” when used relative to eating a meal, becomes a statement that having become an “apostle” is believed to be a honor of being born into royalty. This is how the Jews saw themselves; so, the question is: Are you truly apostles or are you Jews thinking physical lineage is a right to special favor?

The issue of being possessed by one iota of faith is then dealt with when the scene turns to appearing to be at a table for dinner. Because “the Lord” and “the apostles” are all spiritual presentations, not physical, the element of “Preparing what I may eat” and the elements of food and drink, is a focus placed on the spiritual food – the bread of life – that the Spirit and the Son bring – serve to – “the apostles.”

The body and blood of Jesus – being a physical human (soul in flesh) reborn in his name – says everything needed by an “apostle” is fed to them through their soul’s commitment in marriage to Yahweh. There never is a time to request to be served, as everything an “apostle” needs is already “Prepared” for him or her.

This becomes the “thankfulness” that all “apostles” express daily to Yahweh, having all faith in His Spirit and His Son as their Lord leading them.

The final verse then says all “apostles” are “Servants.” All are “unworthy” of the presence of divinity, due to a life of past sins. Therefore, none of “the apostles” ever “command the Lord” for anything. Certainly, they do not “command, “Add to our souls faith.”

Sinners, like those in tears hearing the oracle speak of the “vision written down on tablets,” beg for forgiveness. The sacrifice of their souls to always serve Yahweh as His wives, as His Son reborn.

They command nothing and do everything told to do … willingly and lovingly.

These lessons on faith must be seen as only being possible through personal knowledge of Yahweh and His Son’s soul one with your soul, as your Lord.

Unless you take Yahweh up on his offer for divine marriage and submit to Him fully, one is like a student in that religious scholar’s classroom on a stormy day. He invites you to fly with him in a storm; but when you refuse that offer, your belief that he is a good pilot becomes worthless.

To take that professor up on his offer and follow him to the airport and get into his plane in a driving rainstorm is an act towards having one mustard seed’s worth of faith; but if the rocky flight has your head in your hands, begging God to forgive you for every sin you ever committed, just so you can change and serve Him after the plane lands safely … well that is a lack of faith.

The only way to “Add to your soul faith” is to submit your soul to Yahweh totally. You must sacrifice yourself by agreeing with the Covenant … and understanding what that means.

You cannot command this addition of faith. You have to seriously get on your knees and beg Yahweh to save you.

You have to be like the failed Judeans being led in tears to servitude in Babylon. You have to know the failure caused by your own actions, before you can have a priest in the name of Jesus sow one iota of reason to seek faith into your soul, where that grows into daily study of Scripture and Yahweh whispers to you as did Jesus talk to his disciples.

You have to come to know Yahweh and His Son’s soul as your Lord in order to have true faith.

I see the bus is coming down the road to this stop; so, I will end here. Please think about these lessons presented today.

Faith is not a religious cult, sect, branch, or denomination. Faith is a personal relationship with Yahweh. Faith is the only way to find eternal Salvation.

I look forward to seeing you again next Sunday. Until then, do take care of your souls.

Amen