This morning we are going to look at faith, focus and fame in the book of Luke.

1. Faith is not always the same

The Paralytic: Luke 5 It is the faith of his friends.

The widow with the dead son: Luke 7 No mention of faith at all. His heart was touched.

The man with the withered hand: Luke 6 No mention of faith but a rebuke to the Pharisees.

The man with leprosy: Luke 5 “Lord, if you are willing.” It’s almost a question.

But in these next cases there are even more expressions of faith.

The faith of the centurion – Luke 7:1-10. This is a man who deserves a miracle for all the good he has done. I think he might have sent the lobbyists at first and then changed his mind. It is not unlike the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts. His faith is based in humility and an understanding of the authority of Jesus. What’s surprising to me is Jesus’ response. He does not bristle and say there are no special favors for powerful people or tell them he can come and stand in line like everyone else.

The faith of the woman who touched his robe and is healed – Luke 8:40-48. Her faith is completely desperate. She has spent all she has on medical help with no results. There is nothing she can show to prove she deserves it. She just took the chance.

Again, Jesus does not respond as you would think. Because she is so desperate and the condition is so personal, you would think he would just let it go but he stops everything until she comes and publicly admits what she has done.

The faith of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. Faith in spite of the facts. He is told to have faith in spite of those around him urging him to “not bother” Jesus. While it sounds pretty cold the way his friends respond, it is a surprise to see Jesus delay by paying attention to people on the way and then tell Jairus to believe anyway. It is the same response as Jesus has to the news that Lazarus has died. Excruciating delay for everyone.

Each expression of faith is different. There is no formula or magic words. There are no books to tell people exactly how to gin up the kind of faith that will guarantee a healing. “Your faith has healed you” is an elusive explanation and I am not sure we are to look for generic lessons about having enough faith in these accounts. They are individuals and not pieces of a theological puzzle that we put together for an answer. We are tempted to read these stories like fiction or allegories with a secret meaning instead of true accounts of Jesus encountering real people who were different in each case. As we have said before, it is almost impossible to say, “What would Jesus do?” He does it so many different ways.

2. Something else you notice in these encounters is that Jesus went with people. He did not demand they come to him. Over and over we read about Jesus going to a house or walking along with people. He is not a guru but a companion. The road to Emmaus or going to the house of Peter, Jairus, and the Centurion are good examples.

3. In Acts 10, Peter says that Jesus of Nazareth “went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” One of the characteristics of Jesus’ ministry and life was his simply going around doing good. When the disciples of John came to him asking if he was the one who was to come, his answer is a list of what he has been doing. Only the Messiah could do those things. What he was doing was proof of who he is.

At least during this part of the ministry – and that changes in chapter 9 when he sets his face toward Jerusalem – he is simply walking through towns and responding to people. The word here is “dierchomai” and Luke uses it 10 times – more than any other Gospel writer. He wants to show a pattern and a way of life. Jesus did not have a strategic plan in the way we would define it. He did not identify a particular disease he was going to eliminate. He did not target a particular town or people group. He responded to those he met. He was available to the Spirit.

Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message, talks about his own life as a pastor in much the same way.

Some people set their eyes on a goal and don’t let anything or anyone interfere.

That was not the Eugene Peterson’s approach.

Eugene likend his life’s path to that of a dog, sniffing his way “from bush to hydrant to tree.”

“Intently haphazard” is the term he uses, quoting a line by poet Denise Levertov, in his book, “The Pastor: Every Step an Arrival”.

Overland to the Islands

Let’s go—much as that dog goes,

intently haphazard. 

Under his feet rocks and mud, his imagination, sniffing,

engaged in its perceptions—dancing

edgeways, there’s nothing

the dog disdains on his way,

nevertheless he

keeps moving, changing

pace and approach but

not direction—’every step an arrival.’

“There is obviously no lack of intention in the dog’s behavior, but if you could have asked him what his intention was and he could have answered, he wouldn’t have been able to tell you where he was headed — just one scent after another. Seemingly haphazard. But not without purpose,” he writes.

I always think about the way Wendell Berry puts it in the novel “Jayber Crow”

“If you could do it, I suppose, it would be a good idea to live your life in a straight line – ..But that is not the way I have done it…Often I have not known where I was going until I was already there. I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better than I deserved…I am an ignorant pilgrim, crossing a dark valley. And yet for a long time, looking back, I have been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led – make of that what you will.”

“Let’s go” is the way Jesus describes much of the way he led the disciples. Dierchomai over and over again. They never knew from one day to the next what that meant – but he did. For those of us who like everything on a calendar this is not a comfortable way to live, is it? “Every step an arrival” does not describe our lives because we are so much on the way to somewhere in our lives. Anything that disturbs that is an interruption.

In a real sense, Jesus lived with no interruptions. He had complete flexibility because he left his daily life up to God. Sometimes the Spirit of the Lord was present to heal and sometimes it was not. He could change directions or go with someone or respond to an individual with no disruption. He had a purpose that was clear and focused – but not a plan in the way we would think about it.

How did he do that?

Simon Sinek in his book “Start With The Why” describes individuals and companies that never lose sight of the “why” of what they are doing. Others get distracted by what they do or how they do it and they lose their way. People are attracted to people who never lose sight of why they are doing what they are doing. “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you are doing it.” That was the case with Jesus. He always knew why and so he could make the what and how secondary. That is why we are frustrated looking for a formula for faith or why some people were healed and others were not. We get caught up in the how and the what.

Look at Luke 4:42. “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

What do you notice? He knew why he was sent. What else? How did he keep from becoming distracted? He spent time in a solitary place. Five times in the book of Luke he describes Jesus going to a solitary place to pray. It was not time to go over his plan but time to pray and obey. His firm grasp of why kept him from being off course or distracted. But you never feel that people and their pulling at him are getting in the way of his goal. People are, in a sense, his goal.

The disciples were always losing track of the why and getting caught up in the what and how. They turned away children. They were upset about those with lack of faith. They were angry about others doing miracles. They argued over who would be the greatest. They scolded Jesus for talking about suffering. They wanted to constantly guard him from interruptions or do crowd control.

Jesus never lost sight of why and that gave him the confidence to respond to people and to preach the good news – not as a crusade but as he went along. He was never looking at his watch or checking his schedule. He simply walked along.

Some scholars have read the text of the Great Commission in Matthew 28 in the same way. “As you are going make disciples” and not come up with a strategy for a crusade to win people. Our witness in our every day lives is what Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 4.

“..and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

4. The crowds never became a means to an end for him. Part of his solitary time was staying clear about his constant and real temptations. “Turn stones into bread.” “Chase after authority and splendor.” “Put God to the test.”  We might say it this way. “Give people what they want.” “Be a celebrity.” “Give in to the secret excitement of risky behavior.”

Modern ministry can become all about numbers and image. It is the way we describe success and influence. In Baptist life we describe how many we are “running in Sunday School” or how many attend services. Increasingly, pastors are encouraged to sell to the crowds they can gather.  Publishers want to reach captive audiences and leaders with platforms. The constant temptation is to become a brand. A brand is created by forming a relationship with a consumer that says, “This is who I am. This says things about me that I cannot even find words for. This is not about content but about image.” Brands are powerful. They connect with our emotions and not just our minds. When pastors or ministry leaders become celebrity brands they have influence they could never have otherwise. But ministry can easily become an enterprise.

Consider the scale of the evangelical business enterprise that survives by perpetuating this system. The Christian Booksellers Association, representing 1,700 Christian stores, sells $4.63 billion worth of merchandise a year. And that doesn’t count retailers like Amazon and Walmart. Some estimate the total evangelical market to be over $26 billion a year. Evangelicalism is a very, very large business enterprise.

“In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and womencentering on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, whereit became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture.And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise.”

– Richard Halvorson, former Chaplain of the United States Senate

“And this massive market has grown in conjunction with the rise of megachurches since the 1970s. Megachurch leaders offer publishers pre-existing customer bases (their own congregations), and publishers make megachurch pastors into celebrities to perpetuate and expand their bottom lines. As a result, evangelicalism is not a meritocracy where talent, gifting, character, or wisdom result in a broadening influence. It is an aristocracy where simply having a platform entitles you to ever-increasing influence regardless of your talent, gifting, character, or wisdom.”

So, as more people begin discussing and worrying about the existence of a celebrity-class of pastors and parachurch leaders, we need to see beyond our human tendency to idolize leaders or even the historical fact that celebrity preachers have always existed. Today it isn’t simply Christians who are creating celebrity pastors, it’s the Christian market. We live in a new age where consumerism and mega-congregations have resulted in a self-perpetuating evangelical enterprise that not only creates, but also depends upon a growing number of celebrity pastors.  The most recent scandals related to Hillsong and Ravi Zacharias are painful reminders of what results from our creating and building up celebrities who increasingly give people what they want, what will create a brand and engage in risky behavior.

Jesus never lost sight of why he was sent. He never thought of crowds as markets. He lived an intently haphazard life in these chapters – not caught up in strategies and plans but open to whatever God had for him that day. He was hard to predict and sometimes even inconsistent to our way of thinking. He was comfortable with ambiguity. Can we say the same? Can we live life with purpose and direction but without detailed plans and strategies? Can we keep our eyes on why we are doing what we are doing and not become distracted by what and how? Can we be relaxed and confident enough to simply go about doing good in obedience to God?

“Follow me” is not the same as follow the plan.

“Follow me” is sometimes unclear but that is the focus in the life of faith.

It is not study, quoting or imitating but “follow me” wherever that leads.

Dierchoma. Let’s go.