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15.11.2009_Hebrews 11
| 16.11.2009, 10:21 | |
| Rev. Tatiana Cantarella Hebrews 11:1–6, 23–26, 30–40 Faith – assurance of what we hope for and confidence in what we cannot see When people say that they believe they might mean very different things that can be so far from the biblical idea of faith. For some people faith means believing in God’s goodness to them. They believe that the good God can only allow good things in the lives of those who live their lives well. This is the so-called health-and-wealth gospel: you believe in God so that you can always have a comfortable, blessed and well provided for life. For others faith is equivalent to confession: you believe if you completely accept all the points of the Christian Creed: believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; accept truths of the Scripture that Christ has risen and there is life after death and so on. Still for others faith that contemplative life of spirituality (it doesn’t even matter what it’s based on – Christ or Krishna), the main thing is that you sincerely believe and thus have a chance to become a better person in the process. For them to be a believer is the same things as being a spiritual person For some others believing and hoping are one and the same things. But as someone noted well, "it’s one thing to have a hope and completely another when under this hope lays the faith that makes it firm!” I can hope that the world will become a better placeе and I can hope for life after death but if I don’t believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, my hope is nothing but mere optimism. A well knows preacher Tony Campolo spoke about growing up in an African American church where he was the only white member. He told of his first time when he attended Christian funeral when his friend Clarence died. He was fascinated with the pastor who preached about death and resurrection and spoke about life after death so beautifully that he, just a 17-year-old kid, wished he was dead right away. Then pastor came up to the family and spoke words of comfort to them. At the end he approached the casket and for the last 20 minutes he preached to the corpse! Can you imagine that?! He called out, "Clarence! Clarence!” with such confidence that no one would be surprised to hear a response. He spoke to him, "Clarence, you left us so soon that we had no chance to thank you” and then spoke beautiful words about what Clarence managed to do in his life with God. At the end he slammed the lid on the coffin and cried out, "That’s it, Clarence! What else can be said? Good night! Good night, Clarence, for I know, yes, I know that God will give you a good morning!” And the choir began singing something about how everyone who is in Christ will one day rise to a new life. And people stood and hugged and kissed each other and even danced. Campolo says: "I stood as well and hugged and kissed and I know that I was in the right church, where even funeral can become a celebration”. This is faith – the promise of eternal life even in the midst of this life, so that death is no longer threatening. Some of us just live with a general sense that there is an unseen reality around us, or even a good power that we should have a relationship with. But if we do not believe in God whom we know in Jesus, this hope in the unseen will lack any confidence. That’s why the author to the Hebrews begins this chapter, showing us how much hope and faith are interconnected. To believe is to look at God and to trust Him in everything! To hope is to look to the future and to trust it to God even in the face of death! And it’s this confidence and assurance that characterized those people of faith that this chapter describes. The author began with a biblical definition of faith and then unrolled before us this beautiful tapestry that tells the story of God’s people examples of some of which we read today. So how is faith, this confidence in what we hope for and assurance if what we cannot see played out in the life of God’s people year after year and century after century? In their faithfulness to God and the things of God. The author begins his story from the very beginning of humanity, Abel whose faith was in his righteous faithfulness to God and desire to give God the best he had. Genesis tells us that Abel offered God a sacrifice that was more pleasing than that of his brother Cain, but doesn’t explain why. All we know is that Abel offered "fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock”, which is the best of what he had and Cain offered "some of the fruits of the soil”. Scriptures says that the LORD looked with favor first on Abel and then on his offering – noted his righteousness but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. There was something in Abel that was pleasing to God; God saw his heart while Cain had a different nature, which then demonstrated itself in jealousy and even murder of his brother. God from the very beginning saw their hearts and the heart of Abel was faithful. And although he died having become the victim of his brother’s envy, the story of his faithfulness remains a strong testimony for us until this day. Of Enoch’s faith it is said that he "pleased God”. According to Genesis Enoch didn’t experience death but was somehow taken to be with God. In Gen. 5 it is stated twice that Enoch "walked with God”, that is he lived a life pleasing to God. Jude says that Enoch spent his life prophesying about God and warning people about how they live their lives. Author of Hebrews says "and without faith it is impossible to please God”. For until you believe with your whole heart that there is God and he desires that people seek Him and will reward their search, you cannot truly pray to Him or worship Him. Hebrews 10:37–38 says that God is not pleased with those who "shrink back” from their faith in Him. Enoch, however, was faithful and God testified to that by taking Him to himself without going through death. Faith of Moses began with his parents who were not afraid of the royal edict to put all Jewish children to death. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t feel the emotion of fear; their disobedience could cost them life. But they acted contrary to their fears for they saw that "the child was beautiful”. Acts 7:20 says of Moses too "he was beautiful before God”. Parents saw in him something special and perhaps even sensed that he was to play a special role in their people’s story and wanted to be part of God’s plan even if that meant risking their lives. They were proved to be right when Moses grew and became a faithful servant who led the people of God out of slavery to freedom. Moses, having been raised in wealth and comfort of the Egyptian courts, however, chose to identify with God’s people rather than with the ungodly. He chose to identify with those who suffered for their faith in the Living God; turned away from riches and status and accepted abuse and wonderings in response to God’s call to save his people from slavery. He preferred the "disgrace of Christ” to the sinful treasures. He suffered the same rejection that Christ would suffer many centuries later: the rejection of the prophet who stands for God, and boldly proclaims His Word in the face of godless generation. And his faith paid off for the whole people of God for they crossed the sea on the dry ground and saw the promised freedom while their enemies drowned in those same waters. After Moses’ death the people were lead by Joshua to the Promised Land through many obstacles. Jericho was just one of them but by faith its walls fell down when Joshua and his people obeyed God and did as He said to them. Six days they walked around the city once a day carrying the arc of the covenant. On the seventh day they went around it seven times and sounded the trumpets and the walls came down and the city was given to them as the Lord has promised. If you ask any military expert, they will tell you that this was not a normal military operation. Jericho could not be taken with ordinary attacks and Joshua and the people obeyed God and acted although God’s tactics seemed strange. Their walking around the wall was in a sense a dramatic prayer asking God for a miracle. And God did the miracle. By faith Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho did not perish with others because she welcomed the Israel’s spies in anticipation of the city falling. She told them when they came of how the fear of the God of Israel filled all the people in Jericho. And although she was a very unlikely candidate for the "hall of faith” she was spoken of in Mt. 1:5 as one of Jesus ancestors. When she didn’t know the Living God she lived in sin but having learned of Him she proclaimed, "I know that the Lord has given that land to You for I heard how He dried the sea waters before you… The Lord Your God is the God of heaven and earth”. Her faith was in her confession and in her brave act of saving the Israelite’s spies lives. Her faith saved her and her whole family. At this point author to the Hebrews knows – he cannot tell the whole story of God’s people even if he only mentions their names: Gideon who with three hundred people overcame a great army of Midionites (with torches and empty vessels), Barak who lead Israel to victory over Canaanites, Samson who despite his vices was a great champion in the days of Philistine aggression, Jephthah who despite his stupid and horrible promise to God lead Israel to victory over Amorites, David who with his failures and sins was able to repent and remain committed to God and doing amazing things for us, and Samuel and the prophets who stood for God in this godless world, who with their words and deeds lived for the invisible God in very difficult circumstances. These are just a few examples of people and events that represent many others but they all have something in common – their faith, their confidence in God in whom they set their hope and assurance of fulfillment of things they have not yet seen. Their faith was not in words it was active. They all did things by faith: "conquered kingdoms and administered justice” (David), "persevered to the end until the fulfillment of the promise” (Abraham for his son), "shut the mouths of lions” (Daniel), quenched the fury of the flames (Daniels’ friends in the furnace), escaped the edge of the sword (prophets Elijah and Jeremiah), became strong in their weakness (David in his battle with Goliath), received their children alive (Zarephath widow). They radically trusted God and God did the impossible things in their lives. But not all of their faith led to miracles. For some of them it led to suffering and even death. From what we read, some were beaten, chained, tortured and put to death and the author very likely is talking about the martyrs of the Maccabean period when being faithful to God meant suffering harsh persecution and mistreatment! We don’t know their names but there are many stories in history about believers who were tortured and killed during the rule of Antioch. They preferred death to denial of God and breaking His law. And all of them, because of their faith, received God’s commendation for He Himself "testified” about their faithfulness. All these people remained faithful despite their circumstances. Their faith looked to creation and celebrated the Creator. Looked at death and saw the promise of life on the other side. Looked to God in the face and trusted Him and built its whole life so it pleased and honored God. They were resolved to remain faithful even if they will not see the fulfillment of the promise during this life, they hoped primarily for the "heavenly inheritance”. All these heroes of faith understood what Augustine later spoke of: "faith is believing in what we cannot see, and the reward for such faith is the ability to see what we believe”. The greatest mistake we can make, however, is to say today: "but I am no hero. They are special, not like me. After all they are in the Bible”. But saying that we miss the main point of the story: the life of faith is normal for the people of God. C.S. Lewis called it "mere Christianity”. All these heroes are ordinary people who doubted, failed, had tons of weaknesses just like us but they lived by God’s grace. And they are calling us, doubting Christians, to live boldly, to live by faith in the God and His grace. They call us today in the midst of our comfortable life to remember that earthy life is far not everything there is and the most important is still ahead of us and we need to strive for it. We are called to be ready to stay faithful to God in our every day life: finances, work places, in opportunities we have. We are called to move from the faith we talk about and from some general hope into something better into the ranks of those who are faithful to God in all things, because they know that while yet unseen the most important things are still waiting for us in eternity. Do we have faith? That confident assurance that plays out in different situations through actions of ordinary people in response to unseen God and His promises? Faith that sometime results in miraculous things already here on earth and will certainly result in God’s commendation at the end. Do we have faith which in family life, work or study, in intellectual or social lives motivates us to set aside fear and live and act boldly, with confidence in the invisible God, His Word and ultimate vindication? True biblical faith joins every day life with what is unseen to the eye, cannot be touched or bought and lives faithfully to God and His truth. By faith a businessperson builds his business honestly and transparently out of love for Christ and is fired by an unbelieving boss as an unprofitable employee. By faith missionaries toil for decades in a Muslim nation having seen no conversions. By faith a financial specialist gives away ¾ of his income to compassionate ministries setting a humble life style for himself and his family. By faith a successful manager leaves her work for the sake of studying in seminary believing that God calls her to ministry. By faith a church dedicates itself to the ministry to the disadvantaged knowing that it will not receive anything in return. By faith a high school kid overcomes his fear of his evil classmates who resist the gospel and continues to love God and those around him. Many have lived out this faith but will we become a part of, a continuation of this story of faith? | |
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