ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT
I have a good friend in this church who is likely sneaking up on 40 years of age. He has a wife and two young sons who are well into their elementary school years. Six or seven months ago his wife said to him, “We’re going to have a baby!” My friend likely responded, “We’re going to have a what? Lord, help us!” That’s what we do when we’re faced with challenges in life. We appeal to God for his assistance. Of course, I’m talking about Rick and JoLayne Green. Congratulations to them on the birth of a perfect little girl just last week.
Speaking of challenges in life, I came across some interesting data just the other day. It seems our nation is now more than 13 trillion dollars in debt. The debt increases at the rate of 4.06 billion dollars a day. Each individual citizen’s share of that debt is more than 43 thousand dollars. That means my family’s share of the national debt is more than 200 thousand dollars. But hey, that’s better than the Volnas. Their share of the national debt is nearly 300 thousand dollars. In the face of data like that, what can we say but, “Lord, help us!”
The disciples were faced with a challenge in the passage we read from the gospel according to Luke. Only they didn’t say, “Lord, help us!” They cried out to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” What was the challenge the disciples were facing? In order to discern that, we need to look at the passage that immediately precedes the passage we read a moment ago. There Jesus calls upon his disciples to forgive. He says that if a person sins against you seven times in a day, and comes to you seven times for forgiveness, you must forgive him. Perhaps the parallel passage in the gospel of Matthew is more familiar. There Jesus tells his disciples they must forgive – not seven times – but seventy times seven. Now Jesus is not telling them they only have to forgive someone 490 times and then they can exact their revenge. What Jesus is really saying is that they must forgive in perpetuity. Not an easy thing to do. You see, when a person offends us, they actually owe us a debt. It’s like we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Incidentally, someone once told me why Presbyterians say debts and debtors while Methodists and Baptists say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” or “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” The reason Presbyterians say debts and debtors is because most Presbyterians would rather have their debts forgiven than their sins! Must have been a Baptist who told me that. In any case, to forgive someone is to release them of that debt. Now I’ve heard people say, “I can forgive, but I never forget!” That’s not what Jesus is saying here. He’s saying, “Forgive and forget.” We must release them of the debt in our hearts, in our minds, and in our souls. That’s why the disciples cried out to Jesus, “Increase our faith! We’ll need an increase in faith if we’re to do what you’re proposing.”
Carlo Carretto was a 20th century spiritual writer. Regarding this issue of faith, he once wrote in his book, Letters from the Desert, “God has given you the boat and the oars. It’s up to you to row.” In other words, building faith is like building endurance or strength. Say you want to run a marathon. Do you immediately go out and run 26.2 miles? No! You start by running a block, then two blocks, then a mile, and so on. You gradually build yourself up to run a marathon. Or, say you want to bench press 500 pounds. Do you start by putting 500 pounds on the bar, then dropping it on your chest? No! That would kill you. You build yourself up a day at a time… gradually. You get bigger and stronger as you work your way up. Faith is similar. God has given you the boat. God has given you the oars. It’s up to us to row. It’s up to us to build our faith a little at a time.
God gives us opportunities to build up our faith a little at a time. Sometimes it happens when we’re behind the wheel of a car. How do we respond when someone cuts in front of us before it’s their turn at a 4-way stop? Do we yell at them, or do we smile and wave them through? That’s actually a test of our faith. One time when I was with my family and someone cut me off in traffic I blew a gasket and called them a half-baked moron. I don’t even know what that means! It just came out. Clearly I had failed my faith test there, hadn’t I?
Or how about when we’re accosted by panhandlers in the city? They always seem to find me. Maybe it says “sucker” across my forehead, I don’t know. Many years ago I was in Cleveland with my children. We were going to a basketball game, I think. Suddenly this young woman approached me and told me her sad tale of woe. She needed bus fare to get home to Akron. As she rattled on, all I could do was look at her boots. They were nice boots, but they were quite well-worn. Now I’d been to the bank that day, but all I had was twenty dollar bills. I couldn’t give her a couple of ones or a five, I had to give her a twenty. So I did. She was very grateful. Was she lying to me? I don’t know. But as Christians, we need to do what we feel in our hearts is right. If they’re pulling the wool over our eyes, they’ll have to answer for that one day. But we need to do what we feel compelled to do as Christians. Telling them to get a job or enlightening them on how hard we work for our money is not the right attitude. And if we help the poor on earth, trust me. That will not count against us in the courts of heaven.
God has given us the boat. God has given us the oars. It’s up to us to row. The more we strengthen our faith with the little things in life, the better we’ll be able to handle the big things in life. How does that old song go? “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream.” I would change the words to this: “Row, row, row your boat of faith so steadily. Then you will find yourself living a life of peace and harmony.” Amen.
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