The Assurance of Things Hoped For Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Transcription

1 The Assurance of Things Hoped For Hebrews 11:29-12:2 In the movie, Cast Away, Tom Hanks' character, Chuck, is stranded on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean. To keep himself company, he finds a volleyball that has washed up from the wreckage of the plane he had been flying in before becoming stranded. Chuck paints a face on the volleyball with his own blood and names him "Wilson." Wilson becomes Chuck's only companion while he remains on the island. He talks to and sometimes even for Wilson to keep himself company during the lonely months. After four years on the island Chuck builds a raft that he hopes will take him out to sea, where maybe someone will find him. He puts Wilson on a wooden post on the raft, because he can't leave without his friend. At one point, as they are floating on the sea, far from the island, Wilson falls off his post while Chuck is sleeping. When Chuck awakens, he notices that Wilson is missing. He looks out at Wilson on the horizon. We see the depth of his attachment to Wilson by the anguish he feels trying to recover the wayward volleyball. Despite his efforts, he cannot reach Wilson. Chuck cannot let go of his raft, because he might not be able to return to it. He watches helplessly as Wilson bobs off into the distance, gone forever. The author of Hebrews is afraid that the same thing that happened to Wilson is happening to Christians. He fears that the Christians, perhaps in Rome, who are reading the letter, might drift away from the faith (2:1). The whole purpose of the book of Hebrews is to swim out to rescue church members who are bobbing off into the distant horizon away from the faith they have professed. Perhaps they are weary of persecution. Perhaps they were tired of waiting for God to establish the full dominion, the time when God will bring peace and justice to all creation. Early Christians had been promised such a time, but the wait was beginning to weigh on them. At least some of them wanted to go back to their old faith. Maybe they just weren't as diligent as they once had been. In any case, they are in danger of drifting away.

2 The author of Hebrews remains a mystery to us, but he was passionate about bringing the church back to a strong, vibrant faith. The author of Hebrews was a brilliant person who had studied deeply. He draws on the Greek translation of the Old Testament, philosophy, and Jewish traditions to convince his readers to maintain their faith. Before we focus on our passage, it will be helpful to look briefly at what the book of Hebrews accomplishes. We often call this book the letter to the Hebrews, even though it doesn't start off like a letter. It may well have been a sermon. Whatever it was, the author dives into the deep end from the very first verse. Without any pleasantries, Hebrews launches into a deep reflection on who Jesus Christ was. In the first three verses, the author associates Jesus with prophets, priests, and kings. In the first chapter, the author uses some of the most creative ideas in the New Testament to describe Christ's divinity: Christ is the reflection of God's glory, Christ is the exact imprint of God's very being, Christ is the instrument of creation. With this cascade of ideas, the author firmly exalts and establishes Christ's place in the Godhead. Then, in the second chapter, the author works just as hard to communicate the humanity of Jesus. Jesus became lower than angels, Jesus tasted death, Jesus endured testing and suffered. Throughout the book, these two aspects of Christ's identity exaltation and humanity affect every argument the author makes for maintaining faith and not drifting away from it. The very reflection of God's glory knows what it is like to live in our skin. When we come to chapter 11, the author recounts the history of some of the heroes of the faith from the Old Testament. Chapter 11 condenses these stories into a highlight reel. He writes out of a conviction that these stories feed our faith. And he introduces these stories with a remarkable

3 sentence. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (11:1). Each part of that statement reinforces the other part. The author states that faith is the assurance of "things hoped for." And that resonates with us: We hope that God forgives our sins through Christ. We hope that God will heal creation of its sin and pain. We hope that God will redeem our present suffering. We hope because of who Christ is. These things that we hope for are not seen, because they remain to be fulfilled. Faith is the persistent trust that these things will come to be in God's time, even though we don t see them. Faith keeps us going when those things we hope for have not yet been realized. Faith is strong because hope is well grounded in Christ. Faith feeds our hope and hope feeds our faith. In looking back to the Old Testament, Hebrews begins with creation, "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" (11:3). Can creation inspire us? You bet it can. Everything that exists is a miracle. Looking at God's creation gives us new insight into God's power and sense of beauty. A mountain, the ocean, the stars at night, the tender fragility of a newborn bird all touch something deep within us and fuels out faith. After talking briefly about Abel and Noah, the author lifts up the example of Abraham. Abraham, the great patriarch who left what was familiar and comfortable to set out for the place God instructed him to go. Abraham s story begins in Genesis 12:1 where the Lord tells him, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." Abraham set out into an uncertain future, but he was obedient. The Abraham story raises an important question for us. Can our faith grow if we are too comfortable?

4 Do we not have to take some risks in order to find our faith? Don't we have to venture out into the unknown if our faith is to stretch? Hebrews wants us to understand something about these heroes of the faith. Despite their obedience and their courage, their trust and devotion, they did not experience fulfillment of their hopes and expectations. They only saw them and greeted them from a distance (v. 13). Abraham went through trouble after trouble, threat after threat, test after test. Hebrews wants to make that point that striking out with God on a great adventure isn't always easy and that at times the community of faith is tempted to drift away. We may feel a similar temptation. Church members rarely decide that they no longer believe the elements of the faith. They don't sit down one day and decide that they don't believe in God anymore. They don't consciously decide that the church has no mission. They don't decide that Jesus was just a man after all. That kind of thing is rare. Christians move away from the church in a different way. They tend to drift away. Too often, this drifting happens when youth leave high school after years of participating in church. They go off to college, only to drift away from church. Other things seem more interesting, more helpful. Without the familiarity of their home church they don't have the motivation to get involved. Adults drift away, too. Sometimes one bad experience at church, one argument, one incident of hurt feelings will cause people to drift away. The change in pastors sometimes will cause people to drift away. The death of a loved one, marital struggles, divorce sometimes causes people to drift away. Underlying these reasons may be the feeling that we don't see much happening. Rather than ushering the dominion of God, the church seems to fall into a routine. What Hebrews may be calling us to do is to see how God is working even in the routine, even in the ordinary, even when it seems like nothing much is happening.

5 If we are tempted to drift away, how exactly do we feed our faith? How will faith grow? Where will we find the assurance of things hoped for? Hebrews teaches us that what we believe will feed the faith of our hearts. Hebrews teaches us to accept Christ as both divine and human, and then to wrestle with the Old Testament stories of faith, each of which has its own nuance. Hebrews teaches us that to have faith is to maintain confidence in God, even when we are still hoping. That when we wrestle in our heads with what we believe and step out in faith, our hearts will follow. And that a sense of trust can begin to grow. Hebrews teaches us that if we hang in there and wrestle with our faith until we have strengthened our faith, until we trust in our hearts, we will find something that surprises us. A faith like Abrahams. Which, much to our shock, will allow us to become a hero of faith to someone else in need of the assurance of things to come. Amen.