August 11, 2013
Pentecost 5
Hebrews 11:1-16
Luke 12:32-40
(prayer)
I am hoping that you will be patient
and forgiving with me this morning, since this is my first Sunday back in the
pulpit since late June. For the last six
Sundays, I have sat in the pews and worshipped in Devon, Edson, Fort
Saskatchewan and Leduc. There were two
Sundays that I wasn’t able to get to a church.
As Jim Steinman once melodically wrote: “two outta three ain’t bad.”
I hope I am ready for this task
today. I think I have all of the things
I need here: I have my guitar, my
chorded hymnbooks; my tablet is charged up: I have my sermon notes, clean
underwear, a microphone or two.
Physically, I’m ready for the acts of preaching and helping lead
worship. To paraphrase Jesus (as quoted
in the Luke passage this morning), I am dressed
for action and have my lamp lit.
//
Being physically ready is not
enough. Even more important is the place
of my heart and mind – am I (inwardly) ready for this valuable task in our life
together as a church... today?
I think so. I hope so.
//
“Faith is the assurance of things
hoped for.”
Am I ready for this? I guess that I will have to rely on faith.
//
The letter to the Hebrews is a bit of
a puzzle within the New Testament. It is
clearly a letter-like sermon, but if it ever included a specific reference of
who wrote it and who the original recipients were, those sections have been
lost to the void of history. In the final chapter,
there are personal greetings – mention of early church leader Timothy and the
church in Rome, but that’s as close as it gets.
One unique aspect is that (based on
its content), it seems that the audience was primarily made up of Jewish
Christians – people like Jesus’ original followers, the apostle Paul and others
in Judea, Galilee and throughout the diaspora who came to faith in Jesus as a
natural evolution of their Jewish faith.
Most of the New Testament is written with a particular approach that
would be understandable by the increasing population of gentile Christians.
One thing that is pretty much
universally agreed to by biblical scholars is that the Apostle Paul (author of
letters to the Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon, Corinthians, Galatians and
Romans) is NOT the author of the Hebrews letter. The main reason for this assertion is that
the style of greek used in this letter is the most formal, most sophisticated
in the New Testament. Paul’s letters are
written in a very colloquial style: conversational – everyday greek. But Hebrews is formal, poetically flowing, scholarly,
more essay than letter.
You could compare it to a letter
written by me to Patti ("it was nice getting to know you at camp
this summer") to something
written by Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett ("I love your
verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett... [their] fresh strange music, the
affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought.")
I am not a greek scholar. I barely recognize the letters of the
alphabet. But I trust what I read in the
commentaries and textbooks about this subject.
Hebrews is unique among the New Testament letters.
//
Hebrews
chapter eleven is an
astounding essay on faith. Not everyone
in churches can identify it as Hebrews 11:1, but many people have probably
heard before the words of that verse in some form or another: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen.
Faith is knowing what you are hoping for and being convinced by what you can’t
see.
This a very similar theme to what
comes out of the story of Jesus’ follower Thomas, who cannot take the other
disciples at their word and has to see the resurrected Jesus for himself before
he will believe. In John 20:29, the
Risen Christ is quoted as saying: “Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
//
The author of Hebrews supports his
thesis by listing off a litany of faithful people from the past: Abel, Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob. The
Abraham story is particularly highlighted in Hebrews 11.
The crux of the essay seems to be
that, when we are experiencing hardship and despair, we can be inspired by the
old stories of faith – the example of those who did not look back, but looked
forward. They were able to focus on the
promise of what was to come (things unseen) and trusted in those promises. The Hebrews author even notes that not all of
these people lived to see the fulfillment of what they hoped for but that their
faith sustained them along the way.
Obviously, the implication for the
early Christians who received this letter was that they were encouraged to do
the same.
Again, I have no fluency in greek, but
my understanding is that the word translated as ‘faith’ in Hebrews 11, pistis (πίστις)
can perhaps best be expressed as ‘trust’ and ‘reliability’.
Abraham trusted God. That was the centre of his faith. And Abraham and Sarah’s faith informed their
actions moving forward.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to
believe.
I like the way that Jim Wallis (editor
of Sojourners Magazine) puts it: “faith
is believing, in spite of the evidence.”
Wallis often follows that statement up
with a future focused phrase: “Faith is
believing, in spite of the evidence. And
then watching the evidence change!”
//
That’s the next step isn’t it. Faith
is more than belief. Faith is about
trust and loyalty and where we dare invest ourselves. To say we have faith in God is
to do more than simply ‘say it’ – to have faith means to live in a radical was,
trusting that tomorrow is not faced alone:
that tomorrow is taken care of in the hands of God. (Seasons of the
Spirit Fusion P1 2013)
//
//
Life for the people of Jesus’ day (in
a land occupied by empire and controlled by an elite whose power relied on
roman complicity) was desperate and hard.
The same goes for the early Christians later in the first century. There were real experiences and good reasons
to be skeptical of hope and faith: the evidence was hard to see.
It is into this context that Jesus
says (and Luke writes) Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good
pleasure to give you the kingdom.
The kingdom represented a power they
didn’t have: a life devoid of worry and fear.
That’s how they viewed Pilate in Judea, Herod in Galiee, Ceasar in Rome. It was a life they could only have dreamed
of.
The ‘kings’ of the world had all the
excesses the needed to give away whatever they wanted or waste as much as they
desired without a worry of whether they would have their next meal or a secure
place to live.
When Jesus says to ‘his audience’, sell what you have and support the poor,
the future was far less certain. Would
these people still be able to support themselves? Would they have a future?
Jesus’ next words are all metaphorical: to those tempted to hoard what they have, he
notes that their purses are vulnerable.
Time will eventually decay away the material, if the moths don’t get
them first. So, make purses of faith
that hold the treasure of your trust in God’s promised presence in this world
and the next.
Put
your money where your heart is!
What is important to you? Invest in that. Trust that you are cared for now and in the
days to come.
//
Jesus wants his followers to live now
as if the kingdom of heaven was a present reality. Don’t hold off on living your faith, hoping
to bring it out at exactly the appointed time.
Do it now and you will be ready for whatever the future holds.
Jesus used the image of a group of
faithful servants who dutifully waited and were ready when their master came
home from a wedding feast. In a second
image, Jesus talked about a homeowner who was alert enough to not let a thief
rob the place.
//
As an image for this message this
morning, I chose a picture of Matthew in his football uniform, down in his
three point stance – dressed and ready for action.
There is a scene in the football movie
“Friday Night Lights” where (late in a game that they were way ahead), the
coach (played by Billy Bob Thorton) wants to give his star running back a rest
and get the backup some game reps.
This could be a modern sports fan version of the parable that
Jesus told about being ready.
It's more than having the right
equipment ready, you’ve got to get your head in the game!
In community, it is all of our best
interests that we “are ready” together.
It is the combination of our readiness that can make a difference in
this world.
//
Jesus' vision for this kind of life is
far less possible in isolation. One
person on their own taking on (say) the task of a ministry with the poor is
going to have a minimal impact and is likely unsustainable as a solo act of
faith.
Jesus’ promise is most trustworthy in
the context of community – where people support and care for each other –
sharing joys and burdens.
That was the original vision for the
church as described in the book of Acts: All who
believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the
proceeds to all, as any had
need. Day by day, as they
spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and
having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their
number those who were being saved. (2:44-47)
Basically, this is the way modern
churches function and operate today – the pooling of talents and treasure in an
environment of mutual support and common mission – so that the blessings of the
kingdom can be shown and known in the world.
//
//
“Faith is being sure of what you hope for and
being convinced of what you can’t see” (Hebrews 11:1). At its best this is
exactly what faith is – a deeply held assertion that has no proof attached,
just a feeling that it is true.
I have to admit that in my experience, Full Faith like this can be elusive,
hard to grasp. I suspect that (more often) we experience something a little
less convincing – To paraphrase Hebrews a practical faith is having a “pretty
good idea of what we are hoping for and a willingness to accept that we can’t
see everything.”
I do believe that this assertion is just strong
enough to encourage us to move forward as if it were true. This Less Certain Faith is as good as it gets
sometimes ...
and it is good enough.
The bible promises us that as we are able to
be ready for “what might be” by trusting in God’s faithfulness and compassion,
we will have a spiritual wealth more valuable than all the kingdoms of the
world.
//
It begins with an openness to the feeling
that we are not alone that we live in God’s world and that we are loved, just
as we are.
Let’s be ready together.
//
Let us pray:
Loving God, we try to journey by faith
each day. Sometimes it is easy,
sometimes it is not. Help us to know in
heart, mind and soul that we are not alone.
Amen.
#603VU “In Loving Partnership”
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