Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19 (Sunday, August 12, 2007)

This reading from the book of Hebrews is in my opinion an excellent teaching on the meaning of Christian faith. The writer says that “faith is the realization of the things hoped for.” This means we are certain of the things that we hope for. As Christians, we hope for eternal life – this is not empty hope or what Sigmund Freud would call “the future of an illusion.” We are absolutely sure that there is eternal life. We are so sure of this because Jesus Christ, who is the singular descendant of Abraham taught us so and not only that he taught us to believe in eternal life, through the event of the Cross and his subsequent resurrection and ascension, he assured us of his power over death and guaranteed us everlasting life with him in heaven.

When God makes his promises to us, we must always take them serious because God does not make empty promises – He doesn’t make promises that he cannot keep. Our acceptance of God’s promises even when we do not know the outcome is what is meant by faith. The people of Israel suffered in the wilderness for forty years because they lacked faith in God. When in the book of Numbers, God commanded Moses to Choose one man from every tribe to go survey the land of Canaan, (the land of promise) he is giving to them, the people doubted the power of God to give them that land. They went and surveyed the land for forty days came back with the confirmation that it was truly flowing with milk and honey. However, they started doubting the possibility of getting this land. They started spreading the rumor that in the land, they saw the Jebusites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and even the Anakims (who were giants.) Not only that, they described themselves as grasshoppers. Due to their lack of faith, God told them that they will receive what they wished for themselves. As grasshoppers their bodies would be buried in the wilderness.

Our lack of faith can turn our blessing to a curse. This is what happened to the people of Israel. The blessing of a land flowing with milk and honey was turned to a curse of forty years in the wilderness suffering. This is the path that was not taken by our father in the faith, Abraham. In his story as portrayed by the book of Hebrews, we learn three significant things about faith:

Ø Faith is a leap into the unknown. When God directed Abraham to leave and God to a land he was going to give to him, Abraham did not know where this land is; he did not know the conditions he will face there; he did not question the Lord. He trusted in him and he proceeded to the unknown. Sometimes God confronts us with such difficult challenges. How do we respond to him? Faith requires that we drop our own plans for our lives and let God lead us. Sometimes we work out our own template of our lives and then we want God to conform to our own template. Faith means working according to God’s template for our lives. It means letting God take charge of our lives; it means becoming a blank check in his hands so that he will write any amount he wants on it and cash it whenever he wants. This is a very difficult thing to do, yet it is just what Christians are called to do. How wonderful it is to be in a situation where you do not want to worry about anything because God is in control. That is how life would be if you surrender to God in faith.

Ø Faith means trusting that God will make the impossible things possible. In our day to day language, we do not hesitate to use sentences such as “it can never happen.” I want to assure you today that, that sentence is not in any of God’s books or scripts. Christians should never use such languages. With God, “all things are possible.” That situation you were just thinking today that is irreversible, God can reverse it within a twinkle of an eye. The scripture abounds with great miracles where things that human beings thought were impossible became possible. The whole event of the resurrection is what would seem like impossibility to human beings. Yet, Jesus did it. He even brought his friend Lazarus back to life. Don’t give up yet and Christians should never give up. We need to always hold firm to Christ because he may change that situation in the split second. Abraham and Sarah having a child at that point of their life was an impossibility to human beings but they trusted in the Lord and it came to pass. Put your faith in God and not in the human person.

Ø Faith demands that we are ready to make sacrifices when God wants us to. We must be open to sacrifice our most precious treasures. Isaac was the precious child of promise. When God demanded of Isaac from Abraham, he trusted in the Lord and he offered Isaac for sacrifice. You may have been saving money all through your life to buy yourself, your dream car at retirement. You just went to a dealership and negotiated for a 2008 Mercedez. You will return the next day with a Cashiers check from your bank. On your way home, you hear a story on West Virginian Public radio of children dying of hunger and disease in Darfur. You could hear God speaking to you to give away that money to save lives in Darfur. What are you going to do? Will you say Lord, I have saved all through my life to buy this car, I cant give this money out; or would you say, Lord, this is your gift to me, you will bless me more, I will give out this money. This was a similar situation Abraham found himself in. In his own case, it was even a human life. When God calls us to make sacrifices to him, we must make them because that is the seed of more blessings in our lives.

We are called today to have the faith, like the faith of Abraham. He is our Father in the faith and we all who believe in Christ are his descendants. If we have the kind of faith he has, we too would share in the blessings that have been extended to Abraham.