A Better Country
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Ordinary 19C
Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA
Hebrews 11:1-16
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
4By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks. 5By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and “he was not found, because God had taken him.” For it was attested before he was taken away that “he had pleased God.” 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith. 8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. 9By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” 13All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
I’ve lived in many places in my life. I’ve lived in the driest desert in the world, where there are areas that have NEVER recorded any rainfall. I’ve lived in a city of nearly 5 million people; all squeezed in against the foothills of the Andes, and thoroughly enjoyed (and still miss) the view of those mountains even today. I’ve lived in the rain-soaked northern coast of Spain, where I hung my wash out to dry and it took 3 days to get a little less than damp. I finally brought it inside and rewashed it and found places to hang it and let it dry in a slightly less-damp environment. I’ve lived on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, looking out over the sea towards North Africa, (which I COULDN’T see) and felt the heat of the wind that blew across from there and sent temperatures soaring to around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. I washed my laundry THEN, and almost by the time I finished hanging my laundry at one end of the porch, it was dry at the other end.
I need you to hear me when I say that the living on the Northern Neck is an experience that stands over and against all those previous experiences and holds up well. In fact, in many ways, the charms of living on this little piece of land between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers jutting out into the Chesapeake Bay has surpassed them all.
It took a while, but I learned some time ago that you should not compare one place to another, if you want to learn to appreciate where you are for what it is.
I’m sure you’ve seen the local bumper sticker that reads “Virginia’s Best Kept Secret: The Northern Neck.” And I’m also sure you’ve realized that what comes after the colon, the NAME of the place, is changed according to where you live in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It goes to show, that for whatever reason, people who live in a particular area are partial to where they live, generally speaking, otherwise, they usually find a way to move.
What we are dealing with in the passage this morning is that the writer of this letter is talking about what we all, as children of God, citizens of heaven, need to remember: that, as attached as we may be to our physical surroundings, we truly are citizens of a better country. And the writer begins with what has become known as the Roll Call of the faithful. It is a litany of the faithful – people who have formed that cloud of witnesses that we will talk about next week, who have built up our faith through THEIR faithfulness, who through their example have strengthened ours, who have informed and shaped our understanding of what it means to live BY faith, even while we have been exploring what that means to us – FOR us – in our own context.
This passage begins with a discourse answering an implied question: “What is faith?” And we hear a well-known answer, often quoted when speaking of faith: it is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1, NRSV).
There is no mistaking the importance of faith in Christian community, and it’s good to know what we mean when we use this powerful word. Yet there are two key things to be careful of in reading this passage.
First, “faith” is often invoked as an antidote to reality, belief in spite of the evidence. But this passage does not quite say that. It only says that we trust in, we look towards, and we set our hearts upon things which we know, but which are not yet in view.
There are plenty of things that are invisible whose existence we do not doubt. While 7/8s of an iceberg is under water, we understand that what is unseen is still there. We do not see the wind, but when we feel it on our cheek or hear it blowing through the trees, we know it is real. We cannot see beyond the horizon, but we believe that if we keep walking, we’ll get to a new country.
Faith is itself a mode of perception. Through “the eyes of faith,” we can see things not otherwise visible or clear.
It’s also important to understand the author of this letter is not asking an abstract question or debating a point of philosophy. His people need to know what faith is because they are being tested, not by God to see how faithful they are, but by persecutions, public abuse inflicted upon them, their families, and friends in the gospel (especially Heb 10:32-33). Faith is not an object of academic interest – it is essential for survival.
Their persecutors aimed to make them submit, not to the faith-worthy and faithful God, but to the lesser gods of empire and culture in which these human outposts of good news were embedded.
It might have worked. But there is this little thing called faith...
Faith is linked not to evidence, but to hope. (Perhaps the Apostle Paul was thinking of something similar when he joined faith, hope, and love together in 1 Corinthians 13:13.) Faith looks ahead to things which are not yet in view, but which are real, are known, and are hoped for with urgency.
Perhaps a more recent example may help both our faith and our sight. Looking at Montgomery, Alabama in 1954, not many people could see that bus segregation would soon be ending. But Rosa Parks and a mighty host set out in faith, because they desired a better country, one more in line with a heavenly one (Heb 11:16) – as seen in an integrated bus system.
In 1963 as Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the Lincoln Memorial’s steps and looked out over America, there wasn’t much proof that America would repent its sin of racial segregation. But his dream of an integrated and just America was not based on fact, but on faith. His faith in God’s transformative power was, to him and to many others, the assurance of the things they hoped for. He stepped forward in faith, because he and millions more desired a better country, a land well-watered by justice and righteousness.
Today we’re telling faith stories of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. much the way Hebrews recalls Abel and Abraham. And that old letter-writer knew that the hope of heaven was not separate from the hope for a transformed earth. The trials of today are connected to the Promised Land just across the horizon. We step forward in faith not because we’re sure everything will work out in the next few days – but because we put our hope in God’s beautiful dream for creation.
(thanks to Paul Bellan-Boyer, at
We are ultimately drawn to the question: what does it mean to live by faith? What does it mean for us here, today, this morning, at Jerusalem Baptist Church, in Emmerton, on the Northern Neck Peninsula of Virginia, on August 8th, 2010?
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there is still much work to do. It seems that we manage to address one injustice and another falls in right behind it, we are able to uncover one hidden evil and mostly eradicate it, and another takes it’s place even before we can turn around. Many days it feels like a losing battle. Imagine what it felt like for those early Christ-followers. Surrounded by a culture that was not quite so subtle as ours at hiding it’s idols.
While we may reside here, we do not belong here. We do not draw our way of life, our impulse and our inspiration from what is around us, but from the one who is inside us.
So, brothers and sisters, remain strong in the faith, remembering that we live in the certainty of what we cannot see – we live towards the hope – looking forward with eager anticipation to that day when our trust – our faith – becomes sight.
Let’s pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment