This week’s lectionary gets us thinking about faith, one of the key concepts of our faith, yet one we don’t spend much time describing. Hebrews picks up on Abram’s faithfulness to God and trust in God’s promises. Abram steps out in faith, pretty literally, as he leaves home to head for the promised land and a promise of many descendents. But, despite the delay of results from God, Abram keeps plodding along, trusting God. In fact, from the New Testament’s perspective, it was his diligent plodding along which defines his faithfulness. He acts as if it is true, even without actual confirmation, even without tangible results. As Hebrews puts it famously: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen… by 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.” Hanging in there for God to come through on God’s agenda is a solid working definition of a solid working faith. That’s why the Bible keeps bringing Sara and Abram up as examples for us.
We’re
generally pretty good with that concept, and generally keep putting one foot in
front of the other as we keep walking behind Jesus’ example. Sometimes it’s hard to keep going, and
sometimes we get really, really discouraged trudging along waiting for God’s
something to happen. Honestly, that’s why
it’s called faith! If we actually had it
all coming together in front of our eyes, it would be easy reality; it takes
faith to stick with the unseen program.
Most of
us keep the faith, personally, as we move through our days and years. But one place I find churchgoers particularly
prone to falling apart is in the arena of a pastoral transition. Sure, we can have faith our grandmother will
get well after surgery, but we go completely blank on trusting God to bring us
a pastor in due time. Actually, I think
it is the “in due time” part we mess up on.
We and God seem to part ways on what “due time” is. We think a couple of months is plenty of time
to give God for the project, forgetting that God has a cosmic time frame not
bound by human impatience. In fact,
sometimes I think God likes to take longer for things just to force me to slow
down, think, pray, and wait…. wait in faith.
But like Abram, churches learn from the time they spend waiting in
faith, so take a deep breath as we move into the planning for our next interim
steps and remember that sometimes the lesson God is teaching is trust and
patience! And sometimes God is reminding
us that Abram didn’t see the big picture all at once but in little bits at a
time. I like the quote from Martin
Luther King, Jr., that “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see
the whole staircase.”
Let’s go
exploring the staircases in front of us and in front of First
Congregational. Join your sisters and
brothers this Sunday as we tiptoe ahead with faith in things not yet seen. (And invite someone along with you!)
In Christ,
David
David
Texts for Sunday
From the Epistles Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
From the Gospel Luke 12:32-40
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