Yochtangee Park in Chillicothe is a delightful place to watch waterfowl. There are some swans, several varieties of wild and domestic ducks, and farm and Canadian geese. You do have to be careful where you walk. Wherever the geese go, the geese go. But Canadian geese do have other, more admirable qualities. They are devoted parents and they mate for life. Their faithfulness is astonishing.
Consider this true story: a pair of geese chose a rather unfortunate nesting spot located close to a road. A few days after laying her eggs, the female wandered into the path of a car. Luckily for her, all she suffered was a broken leg. But while she was whisked off to a veterinary clinic and admitted into the vet’s recovery ward, her faithful mate was left alone to tend their nest.
The male not only continued to do all the nest-sitting; he also established a unique “coffee break” ritual for himself. When he periodically left the nest to eat and drink, he returned by way of the road where his mate was injured. There he settled down and patiently waited for his wounded mate to reappear. When the call of the nest finally overwhelmed him, the male reluctantly made his way back to his solitary incubation duties.
Happily, the female mended nicely and the vet released her back to her family by the road a week later. This is a poignant example of true faithfulness and devotion. In a world of fads that quickly come and go, of technology that is swiftly outdated and replaced, of relationships that seem superficial, self-serving, and disposable, what does it mean to be faithful?
On this first Sunday in Advent, Paul’s opening words to the Christ community in Corinth reminds us that the ultimate example of faithfulness is demonstrated to human beings by God’s gift to us of the incarnate Word, the Word whose coming in the midst of humanity we are about to celebrate. In the coming of Christ, God is faithful. Faithfulness is one of the defining attributes of the Divine. God sit’s by the side of the road and waits for humanity.
For Paul, the faithfulness of God was undeniably part and parcel of the righteousness of God. If God was truly righteous, then God must be unquestionably faithful. The righteousness of God is the expression of God’s faithfulness to God’s own self, for without faithfulness, God’s redemptive activity in Christ would be empty and meaningless.
God’s providence is also bound up in God’s faithfulness—for a providential God to work out the divine plans according to the divine will requires unswerving faithfulness. The classic understanding of divine providence developed by John Calvin insists that God’s constant, providential governance of all that occurs directs creation toward a preordained and saving outcome. God created the world as “good,” and come the end of the age that “goodness” will be restored to the perfection God intended from before Creation’s Day One. Unless God is faithful to this providential trajectory, Calvin insisted, all creation will move along on its own accord in an aimless, unguided meandering.
Albert Einstein put Calvin’s position in a memorable aphorism: “God doesn’t play dice with the universe.”
When we stop and think about our lives, each of us can come up with events in them that may only be explained by God’s faithfulness. We don’t often see it before it happens, but only as we look in our life’s rearview mirror. Sometimes it is hard to see single events, but when you string a series of things together, the flow of God’s faithful love is revealed.
God’s steadfast faithfulness is something other than a theological mandate or a biblical doctrine. It is a loving, saving power working in our lives every day.
Here’s an example of how one person keeps God’s faithfulness present. Pastor Ronald Patterson, of Dayton, tells of visiting a parishioner’s home one early March day:
“We were talking, and suddenly I looked up on a corner shelf and noticed a Christmas ornament hanging—almost as though it had been forgotten in the mad rush to put away the holiday season. I quickly looked away, hoping that my glance had not been noticed. But the woman caught me. Before I could say a thing, she smiled and said: ‘No, I didn’t forget. Every year when I clean up the mess, I choose one ornament to leave up to remind me that Christmas is not just one day or one season—but a lifetime. That little bulb is my reminder that Jesus walks with me every day.’” (“Cleaning Up the Mess,” Shiloh Springs Church, 24 December 1994.)Could there be a better lesson in faithfulness to learn?
This is why Paul says that we were made rich through Christ in everything. God’s faithfulness was fully experienced in Jesus Christ. God’s eternal plan and providential care is the basis for our preparation for all the good things that God has in store for believers in this age and the final age. Just as Jesus’ hearers were familiar with the seasons of a fig tree, so our ongoing experience of God’s presence and activity in our lives – even if we view it only by looking backwards – guides us into the knowledge that God’s care does not diminish but increases throughout our sojourn of earthly life.
Paul reminds the Corinthian faithful that it is God and not just the gifts of God’s spirit which made them rich. God’s grace had increased their ability to speak about their faith, as well as their spiritual knowledge and understanding. The changed lives of the Corinthian believers validated the truth of the gospel message that had been preached to them.
The Corinthian church members had all the spiritual gifts they needed to live the Christian life, to witness for Christ, and to stand against the paganism and immorality of Corinth. These gifts would help the church battle sin both inside the congregation and outside in the world. These believers in Corinth lacked nothing—they had every spiritual gift—and because of this they more eagerly looked forward in faith and hope while they waited for the Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. As part of the gospel message, the promise of Christ’s ultimate return in triumph motivates all believers to live for him and eagerly await the time when they will live with him in his kingdom.
Because Christ has died for believers, given them spiritual gifts, and promised to return for them, Paul guaranteed the Corinthian believers – and us – that God will also consider them blameless. This guarantee was not because of their great gifts or their shining performance, but because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for them through his death and resurrection.
Which brings us to this table, Christ’s table, where all who believe in him can welcome his ministry in their lives and affirm their trust in the glory which he has prepared.
This first Sunday of Advent proclaims God’s faithfulness to the human race. Regardless of our disabilities, our failures, our weirdness, our belligerence, our seeming indifference, a faithful God works in our faithfulness. Receive the spiritual gifts which God has allocated to you at this point in your lives. Recognize the great care and blessing of God bestowed on us in Christ Jesus. And then be prepared, equipped and blameless as we remember the coming of the Lord.
General resource: “God is Faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:3-9), December 1, 1996, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=2498; accessed November 28, 2014.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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