Faith as a work

We do not presumptuously stride up to the judgment throne confident of being handed the Good Servant Award.  Rather, we throw ourselves on the mercy of God and plead his promises in Christ. It is not like getting a diploma at graduation exercises, the deserved and expected reward for being the good Christians we are.  Least of all is it the expected reward for being the kind of good Christians who are indifferent to the reward. - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon


The last sentence is a mild dig at those who insist we'll serve the Lord even if he will ultimately condemn us and yet hold the underlying conviction that surely God will not condemn one who has been so virtuously selfless.  Such might even deign to disdain those who hope for salvation in Christ as their only reward as ultimately being selfish in the eternal perspective.  I don't think I will jump into that fray.

Fr. Neuhaus' real point is that this idea we have that eternity with God is a reward that some will deserve and others won't -  and that the purpose of living as God calls us to is to gain it - has got to go. It all equates to an evaluation of some as better than others, or of at least some others as not as good as me. It's spiritual pride under another guise.

I will not plead that I had faith, for sometimes I was unsure of my faith, and in any case that would be to turn faith into a meritorious work of my own.


Sometimes I hear sermons that turn the humble prayer, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief," into something more like "You need to believe harder." Pray harder. Work harder. This is the prerequisite to God's power being more observably manifest in our lives, some seem to say. I hear it most often when someone is told that their prayers haven't been answered because they don't have sufficient faith. There's this underlying tone that seems to say, "My faith is stronger than your faith."  It even seems to underlie the cliche, "Let go and let God."  If you're struggling with this, you just need to let go harder!

Maybe I'm prone to chafe against that because I know that I myself don't have the strong faith I'd like to have. But Fr. Neuhaus has already addressed the pitfalls of setting our sight upon our faith rather than upon Christ. It isn't that my faith is sufficient but that God's grace is.