29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. 30By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. 31By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. 32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. 36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— 38of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect. 40Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
Theologian and UM Bishop William Willimon has said that, “One of the best ways to keep moving forward is to occasionally look back.”
Our reading from Hebrews is one such backward glance down the corridor of our faith history. It’s lined with snapshots of faith. People who lived “by faith,” that is with the confidence that God will be God. And I think that’s a good definition of faith. Faith is living with the confidence that God will be God.”
By faith, these examples of faithfulness believed that God would never leave them or forsake them, and that despite the appearance of things God was working all things together for their good.
Verse 40, “God had provided something better.” That’s God’s plan for Creation, something better.
Hebrews presents two sets of “snapshots of faith.”
The 1st set are those who society would describe as successful, those who through faith, according to verse 33 & 34:
conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Faced with danger they stared it down and walked away unscathed,
they overcame their circumstances despite overwhelming odds,
and even in weakness, found the strength to win! No wonder their contemporaries called them “blessed.”
But then the author of Hebrews presents another set of snapshots of faith (beginning at v.35). What makes this 2nd set so different from the 1st is that by society’s standards they are failures! Wanderers, vagabonds, indigents. They were: tortured, imprisoned, mocked, flogged, some even killed. It’s easy to see why some considered them abandoned by God, even cursed.
“Not so,” says the author of Hebrews. Both are portraits of faith. And that makes sense to me. Life is seldom so cut and dry. We go through life criss-crossing back and forth between both camps. Sometimes we are full of faith and we “shine.” At those times it seems that life blesses us with good things, as if they were divine rewards paid for good behavior:
• We get a promotion.
• We receive praise from people who matter to us.
• Our child gets a scholarship.
• The pathology report is negative.
Then there are those not so “faith-full” times:
• Times when things seem to go horribly wrong.
• We feel trapped in what feels like a bad dream.
• Our children are struggling.
• Our health is falling apart.
And it feels like we are being punished for the sins of the world.
But for the “faith-full” in Christ, there is both good and bad, struggle and joy.
As Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, “[God] makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”
Which begs the question, so what good is faith (in God) if it is not going to protect us?
1) Is it merely “fire insurance,” to keep us from eternal punishment for sin?
2) Or is it merely something to look forward to; the promise of an eternity in the sweet by and by?
Honestly? Neither of these is the message I want the children of this church to hear concerning faith.
• Rather I want them to hear the assurance of the Psalmist who claims God is merciful and just, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Psalm 103:8)
• I want them to know that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) Folks, if suffering is punishment for sin then were all in a heap of trouble!
• I want them to know that God’s love comes as gift, and cannot be earned (Ephesians 2:8-9)
• I want them to know that “when they are weak, God is strong” and that there is a special place in God’s heart for the weak and those who suffer.
• And that, in the words of verse 40, “God has provided something better.”
Martin Luther King Jr. often said, “The arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice…” God provides something better then this.
With confidence that God will be God, the saints of our faith learned how to bend their lives toward God. They toughed it out, through the good and the not so good. To be “faith-full” (according to Hebrews, is to remain true to who you are and whose you are.
Hendric Kraemer, the Bishop of the Church of Denmark described the panic that overtook the church during the Nazi invasion during WWII. Priests flooded to his house all asking the same question, “What should we do?” His response was simply, “First, we must ask who we are. If we know who we are, then we will know what to do.”
We’re in the process of recruiting teachers of our Children’s SS program. I’m pleased that we first recruit our children’s teachers before we recruit leaders for the upcoming year. I think it sends a message that while leaders are always needed in the church, our children come first. They deserve our first consideration and our best efforts. It is an honor to teach our children about Jesus. The main qualification is that you love children. We can give you the Bible knowledge you’ll need.
So why should you, or anyone else teach Sunday School? Because we’ve all eaten fruit from trees we did not plant! We are beneficiaries of the faithfulness of others; saints who have nurtured us into faith in God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.
Isn’t it ironic that we have so much admiration for the saints in our lives but then find a mountain of reasons why we don’t have to spend the kind of time they did, nurturing our faith or the faith of others? in these same ways. And besides someone else will teach the children so we don’t have to. Right?
We have to remember who we are before we will know what to do!
A writer for Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitches, has written the NY Times Bestseller, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” He makes a compelling argument. No question, much harm has been done in the name of religion. But we’re kidding ourselves if we believe the world would be a better place without God. In my mind that makes it even more crucial we live as kingdom people. Do you know that so far 56 people from Holy Covenant have signed up to walk in this year’s CROP Walk addressing world hunger? Isn’t that amazing?! That’s putting feet to your prayers!
“Something better,” that’s what faith leads to. And I can’t imagine a world void of God’s love.
“What does God have to say about suffering?” There are many answers to this question in scripture, some seemingly contradictory to one another. So I think we have to consider this question in the broader context of the Biblical witness and who it says God is and how God has been experienced by people of faith.
One of my snapshots of faith is Harvey Harris. I remember something Harvey said to me on one of my visits to his bedside as he was dying of cancer. He said, “Don, I never thought my paralysis would be a blessing.” Harvey was a paraplegic and a man of amazing faith. He said, “If it wasn’t for my paralysis I would be in incredible pain.” Harvey was a microbiologist, he would know about that kind of thing. But he said, “I have absolutely no pain and I am so thankful to God for that.”
You see, Harvey saw everything through his lens of faith. He believed that God had provided something better for him.
Perhaps one of greatest challenges of the faith journey is learning
to view everything through the lens of faith.
Years ago I traveled with a group to Haiti on a mission trip. Many of the mountain villages we encountered refused to let me take their picture. Our host missionary explained that the people were superstitious. They feared that by taking their picture you were taking a little part of their soul.
Primitive and naïve, yes. But when you think about it there is a sense that a snapshot of faith communicates a little bit of this person’s soul (the essence of who they are). And that’s where the power of these snapshots comes from. It is their story told and retold, and told again that gives us the stuff to persevere, to find strength in weakness.
“One of the best ways to keep moving forward is to occasionally look back.”
I want to close by reading to you from Ephesians 3:17-18 (NLT)
May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
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