So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.- Romans 10:17

Pastors, like music teachers, have to think about Christmas a little earlier than anyone else. I’ve got my mind on Christmas. I’ve been putting together an advent study, and I’ve been putting together my sermons for advent. I’ve also been in discussions with others about what Christmas Eve might look like this year with COVID. So naturally my mind is also on the rest of the Christmas season: George Bailey, Charlie Brown, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa, hot chocolate, and John McClane.

I’ve also been thinking about Christmas presents. I’ve got a few already purchased, and I’m trying to figure out what else I might get. It’s very appropriate that we exchange gifts on Christmas, because the exchange of gifts reminds us of grace. Grace, as Paul uses it, means the favor that accompanies a gift. When God shows us grace, God is showing his unmerited favor in the gift of Jesus Christ. Faith, then, is our response to God’s grace. It is our response to the unmerited gift of Christ.

When I get a gift I feel grateful, I feel joy, and I feel the need to return a gift that the gift giver might share in my joy. Faith is similar in that way. Faith is our joyous response to God’s grace. But it is also the gift of God, in that we would never know faith were it not for the gift.

Paul tells us faith comes from hearing. That is to say, faith comes from hearing the gospel call. Faith is not something that we have to do. It is not something that we have to conjure up in ourselves. I am not the source of my own faith. But rather God is the source of our faith, the faith we are gifted by encountering God in his gospel.