Homily – August 7

Faith

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  There is much to discuss in this morning’s lessons, but this one phrase from Paul is more than enough all by itself.  For we are Christians, followers of Jesus Christ; people of the way.  But let me ask you a question.  Which of you has actually seen Jesus Christ?  Who has met him, talked with him, laughed and cried with him?  I am not talking about prayer, I am talking about real physical, of this world interaction.  You see, that is my point.  The last people to see, hear and touch Jesus were the apostles.  Since the ascension, no one has had the physical experience of Jesus, yet we are all Christians.

How do we claim this?  By Faith.  We believe not because we have seen, but because we have faith.  The faith that is an assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.  For we are not like Thomas, who had to see before he would believe.  We KNOW that Jesus was born as one of us, lived, died, and rose from the dead, not because we saw it happen, but because we want to believe it.  That is what the assurance of things hoped for means.  That we believe because we want to believe.

But make no mistake, faith is far more than simply wanting to believe something is true.  That is mere rationalization, the act of willing something to be true simply because we want it to be.  No, faith is more than that.  It is believing that the scriptures are the word of God and are intended to teach us what we need to know for our lives and to contain all things necessary for salvation.  Faith is more than simply wanting something to be true, it is betting everything that it IS true and living your life in support of that.  Abraham did that.  He set out for a place he didn’t know and wandered there in a foreign land living in tents with no permanent home.  Noah did that.  He heard God’s call and built an ark when there wasn’t a drop of rain in the sky.  These men, men who others surely derided as crazy, stepped out in faith, choosing to stake their fortunes and their very lives on God’s call.

So how did it work out for them?  Not very well it would seem.  Abraham would indeed become a father, only to have God test him by asking him to sacrifice that very child.  Thankfully, once God saw that Abraham was faithful, he stopped him.  Noah did indeed survive the flood, but ran into some uncomfortable family troubles with his sons afterward.  So if these great heroes of the bible displayed great faith and didn’t see the reward they expected, why then should we have faith?

Paul tells us “All 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, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.  But as it is, they desire a better country, a heavenly country.”  Abraham understood that this was not his world, this was not his home.  He sought after something more.  For while he was satisfied living in tents in a foreign land for a time, he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  Like Abraham, the heavenly city is our goal, and with that in mind, this world is but a small stop on the journey.

As I said last week, we are but a colony, an island of one culture living in the midst of another.  We exist here, not permanently, but merely as resident aliens.  We are but aliens for while we inhabit this world, we are not OF this world.  For our real home is not here, our real home is a permanent home, one prepared for us by God.

Well, that is all well and good.  But for the moment we live here.  So what does this all mean for us today.  How are we to prepare ourselves for this new home in the heavenly city?  Isaiah gives us a roadmap.  “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

We don’t prepare ourselves for heaven by offering sacrifices, by our piousness or by making ostentatious shows of reverence to God.  Isaiah is telling us that God is not interested in what color vestments we wear at church, how many candles we put on the altar, or how many Bach cantatas we sing.  God doesn’t care about pomp and circumstance; he cares more about what we actually DO.  As Jesus tells us in this morning’s reading from Luke, “make purses for yourself that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there you heart will be.”

Storing up treasures here on earth is foolish, as this is but a temporary home.  Remember the man in last week’s gospel who had accumulated much and was finally ready to enjoy it all?  For all of his work, his life was forfeit that night and he had nothing to show for it.  His wealth would not be going with him, for as the old Scottish saying goes, “there are no pockets in a shroud.”  The man didn’t understand that this is not home, but we are merely foreigners abiding in a land not our own.  He had not cared for his fellow man; he had been too busy focusing on himself.  While his bank account here was large, he had not stored up much treasure in heaven.

So while we live here for now, we are just temporary residents, squatters if you will.  Like Abraham, we know that we seek a permanent homeland, one prepared for us by God.  While we wait for it, we cannot simply sit idle.  We are told what to do.  “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”  We do these things out of faith, the faith that though we have not seen God and have not seen heaven, we KNOW them to be true.  For we walk by faith, not by sight.