"What Faithful Living Looks Like: Seeking the Unseen" - Sermon, 8/6/2016
Community UMC, Quincy
“What Faithful Living
Looks Like: Seeking the Unseen”
Pastor Andrew Davis
August 7, 2016
Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16
Luke 12: 32-40
11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen. 2 Indeed, by faith[a] our ancestors received
approval.3 By 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.[b]
8 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. 9 By 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. 10 For he
looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is
God.11 By 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.[a] 12 Therefore 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.”
13 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, 14 for people who speak in
this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they
had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had
opportunity to return. 16 But 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.
Luke 12: 32-40
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your
possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an
unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth
destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.
Watchful
Slaves
35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps
lit; 36 be like those who are waiting for their master
to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as
soon as he comes and knocks.37 Blessed
are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you,
he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and
serve them. 38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or
near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
39 “But know this: if the owner of the house had
known at what hour the thief was coming, he[a] would
not have let his house be broken into.40 You also
must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
“I’ll
believe it when I see it!” How many of you have said or heard this phrase
before? I think when it comes to things,
like, let’s say sports, you’ll often hear it said. For instance, the Sacramento Kings will make
the playoffs this year…I’ll believe it when I see it. The San Francisco 49ers will win another
Super Bowl in the next five years…I’ll believe it when I see it. The San Francisco Giants will make the World
Series this year…well, based on the way they’ve been playing as of late, I’ll
believe it when I see it. You get the
gist. Same goes for fish stories too,
especially when there isn’t proof in pictures.
So often I’ll read the fishing reports from Western Outdoor News and get
out to one of our lakes only to catch a sunburn instead of any fish. I’ll believe those reports when I catch
something. Or some days, I feel like Tom
Cruise’s character in the 1996 movie, “Jerry Maguire” shouts, “SHOW ME THE
MONEY!!!” from his office.
It sometimes feels like we
need to have proof and empirical evidence, or want to demand “show me the
money” in order to believe. In other
words, seeing is believing. There also seems
to be a need for certainty in our world today, only because we live in a time
where uncertainty abounds. But, some
things are just not meant to be seen.
That’s where faith and faithful living come into play, as today we
embark on this new miniseries “What Faithful Living Looks Like.” These next few
weeks, we will be exploring what it means to deepen our faith and life of
discipleship as we explore chapters 11 to 13 in the Book of Hebrews. We’ll be exploring what believing without
seeing looks like, having faith in ALL situations, and showing faith towards
God with reverence and awe. However, we
must first ask what exactly faith is?
The author of Hebrews gives a good answer right off the bat by saying
that “faith is the assurance of all things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen” (Heb. 11: 1, NRSV). It also
stems from the Greek word, hypostasis which
means substance, support, or foundation.[i]
This assurance and conviction of the things we don’t see serves as a foundation
to what faithful living looks like, but also leads us into how we can seek the
unseen as we deepen our faith. It is one
of the ways that we experience the nature of faith.
Seeking
the unseen is definitely a challenge because of that yearning for proof and
certainty in order to believe. However,
the author of Hebrews gives some concrete examples of faithful living through
seeking the unseen by linking the us to the story of Abraham and Sarah found in
Genesis chapters 12, 15-18, 21-22, and 24-25.
I think we know the gist of the story of Abraham and Sarah, but if it’s
been awhile, I’ll give you an abridged version: God calls Abraham to leave his
land and promises Abraham and Sarah that they will be parents of many new
generations even though they are in their nineties. While on their journey to the promised land, Isaac
is born to Sarah despite her age, then later on, Abraham is told to sacrifice
Isaac when Isaac is an adolescent only to see God halt Abraham, in which Isaac then
grows up and marries Rebekah, receiving the same blessings and promises from
God that Abraham did.
Amidst the vast ground
covered that the author of Hebrews links with Genesis, the one thing that
stands out in the example of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac is how they still
believed and were still faithful to God, even though they could not see God, nor
what was ahead for them. They didn’t say
“I’ll believe it when we see it, God,” or “show me the money,” but instead
followed God and listened to God each step of their journey. The same went for other characters in these
stories through the rest of Genesis, particularly in Isaac and Jacob, in which
the author of Hebrews says in verse 13, “all of these died in faith without
having received the promises” (Heb. 11: 13, NRSV). While God promised each person in the story a
new land and a whole new city, all of them died before reaching it.
How
true is that in our own lifetime and journey?
We do our best to be faithful to God and listening for God’s promises,
even though we cannot see God and that we may not see God’s promises fulfilled
in our lifetime. Even in our Gospel
lesson this morning, Jesus even points that we do not know when God’s timing
will pan out, particularly in Jesus’s return, even though we believe that it
will happen at some point (Lk. 12: 40). We
just don’t know when. And in this era of
the desire for certainty and proof, it sometimes feels like we are under
pressure to be more faithful and likewise, there are times that we may not feel
faithful enough. I know there I times
where I wrestle with this.
However, my colleagues at
Discipleship Ministries, Taylor Burton-Edwards and Dawn Chesser explain that
when it comes to faithful living,
faith is something that happens in the
world, in the real world of our actual lives. It also means that faith is not
something that happens the way “the world” typically depicts it—as some rash, “heroic”
decision that changes everything from that time forward. Faithful living
pursues the promises of God consistently over a lifetime.[ii]
In
other words, it’s a lot simpler and we should not have to feel that pressure by
simply being ourselves in how we live our faith, as well as showing
encouragement for those who are new to the faith or seeking that relationship
in faith. Faith is something that is
active, not passive. We too participate
in these same stories of faithful living centuries later as we pursue the
promises of God when living a life filled with hope and in turn, sharing that
hope with others and encouraging others in hope and faith. We live faithfully by being the hands and
feet of Jesus in our world, as Jesus demonstrated to us how to serve God, even
though Jesus himself could not see his heavenly father. We live faithfully by letting our actions
speak louder than our words when faith is simply lived out in our everyday
lives.
However, as St. Augustine puts it, “Christians
want to understand what they believe, what they can hope for, and what they
ought to love.”[iii]
And so, the author of Hebrews states that “faith is the assurance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” we want to understand what the
nature of faith in God is and what we can hope for, even though we cannot see
God. Dan Migliorie, who is professor of
theology at Princeton has a very good way to describe faith in God, even though
we cannot see God by saying “faith is knowledge of and trust in the living God
who ever remains a mystery beyond human comprehension”[iv]
Faith is being able to seek and believe in the unseen by trusting in those
promises that God gives to us. It’s also
trusting in God’s grace.
God
indeed is a mystery and God is much bigger than we can ever comprehend or even
imagine, but that is where faith comes into play and where faith necessary for
us. Sometimes we just have to go out on
a leap of faith into something unknown and trust and believe that God is going
to take care of it, even when we cannot see God. I remember when I struggled with faith in my
early 20’s, I had a conversation with someone about not being able to see God
and wanting proof and certainty in which I was told, “that’s what faith is
for.” That’s where faith indeed comes
into play. And moving forward in faith
and moving towards God’s promises, even when they’re not readily seen or
whether they even happen in our lifetime is what hopefully keeps us moving and
keeps us on the journey.[v]
Faithful living by seeking
the unseen is “forward looking, oriented toward the future, trusting that God
will keep promises made to those who believe. In other words, faith and hope
are one, and life is pilgrimage.”[vi]
Life indeed is a journey and my hope for you this week is to think about where
you trust God in looking ahead and think about people in your own life and even
people in our church through the years who have lived and served God
faithfully, even amidst seeking the unseen and who still do so today. In listening to a couple stories this last
week, I think of John Ellison, our former organist who passed away last week
who was faithful and generous with his time and presence. I think of some of the homebound members that
I used to visit with in their retirement home while interning in the
Presbyterian Church, seeing them loving God and living faithfully even though
they could not see God, just in the same way that Abraham and Sarah lived
faithfully amidst not seeing God, all while trusting in God’s promises.
The
author of Hebrews says it best by saying that “by 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” (Heb. 11: 3, NRSV). We don’t see God, but we definitely see signs
of where God is active in the world and community, particularly in good deeds that
people do and in God’s handiwork around us here in Plumas County, aka “God’s
Country.” We also show others what faithful living looks like when we take up
good attitudes and show good deeds by living out our own faith in God for
others to see and encouraging others in their journey of faith. So perhaps, we can get past the whole notion
of “I’ll believe it when I see it” because although we cannot see God directly,
we can certainly see signs and actions by God, even through the people we
encounter each day. That’s how Abraham
and Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Enoch were able to live out their lives, as they
believed God without seeing God, and continually went seeking the unseen, as
faithful living is not a race, but a journey.
As we go into our new week,
·
What
does faithful living look like, even in the face of adversity?
·
What
does it mean to you when we go by faith without seeing what we believe in?
·
And
where has your faith been challenged, yet you remained steadfast in faith?
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, Amen.
[i] New Interpreters Study Bible Notes (Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 2003), 2165.
[ii] Ministries,
Discipleship. ‘Lectionary Calendar’. 2016. Accessed August 3, 2016. http://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship/lectionary-calendar/twelfth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-c-2016.
[iii]
Daniel L. Migliorie, Faith Seeking
Understanding, 3rd. Ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2014), 2.
[iv]
Ibid., 3.
[v] Ministries,
Discipleship. ‘Lectionary Calendar’. 2016. Accessed August 3, 2016.
http://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship/lectionary-calendar/twelfth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-c-2016.
[vi]
“Commentary on Hebrews 11: 8-22” in The
New Interpreters Bible Commentary (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998),
135.
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