William G. Cockrill Davidson College Presbyterian Church Davidson, North Carolina Sermon of August 12, 2007 Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 Luke 12:32-40 From Things Not Visible... What is seen was made from things that are not visible. In approaching today s text, two conversations come to mind. The first was with a young woman. The current anxieties of the world situation - warfare and terrorism, the expanding catalogue of barbaric acts such things have taken a toll on her. These gross examples of human cruelty have caused her to be anxious and somewhat despairing, with respect to both her worldview and her own life. And then there was a conversation with a man in another city. His marriage has broken up; his wife and children gone to another state. And his plans and hopes have gone with them. His life seems shattered beyond repair. What does one say? What does one say to such discouraged people? We do not know exactly why the writer of Hebrews writes what he or she does. This letter is really a sermon; but we do not know the specific problems the writer means to address. It is clear, however, from the whole of the letter, that the people for whom Hebrews was written are anxious about something, perhaps their contemporary permutation of warfare, terrorism, or global warming; we do not know. It may be that they have become discouraged as they have heard of persecutions of taking place in Rome. They may fear for their own safety, so much so that they have become reticent about the practice of Christianity. Moreover, it seems that those whom the writer of Hebrews addresses, because of this anxiety, are even about to give up their Christianity altogether, not just the outward practice, but the faith itself. They are discouraged. Some are ready to turn back to Judaism. Some are ready to give up on religion entirely. Thus, the writer of this sermon sets out to reorient his readers. He wants to help them put things into proper perspective. And so, what does he talk about? He talks about faith. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It is the conviction of things not seen.
Another way to translate this verse is to say that faith gives substance to things hoped for; faith convinces us of things not yet seen. Now, of course, we understand that the writer does not mean to give us a comprehensive definition. Surely, faith is much more than what is being said here; but it is at least what is being said here! Assurance, conviction. Here, we need to know that the word that is traditionally translated as assurance is hypostasis. A more literal translation is essence or reality. Faith is the essence or reality of things hoped for. Thus, we should note that by describing faith in this way, the writer is suggesting that faith is not merely subjective. It is not just an individual s understanding or apprehension. He is not saying that just believing something makes it true or real. It is not merely some kind of wishful thinking. No! You see, the writer is saying there is a substance to faith. Faith is the essence, the present apprehension of things that are hoped for. It is not just a wish; it is not speculation. It is an objective reality. You may remember the illustration of faith s being compared to a deed to a house or to a tract of land. You know, many centuries ago, if a person were going to buy a parcel of land, he would first walk over the property with its owner. They would look at the boundaries of the tract, noting its landmarks: a big tree here, perhaps a stream along one side, some boulders at one corner. And then, if the two parties were satisfied, the seller would reach down and scoop up some of the earth and then place that soil in the hands of the purchaser. This was a testament, a way of saying that the ownership was passing from the one to the other. That handful of earth was assurance to the purchaser that the land was now his. Well, somewhere along the way, people started using written documents. They are much cleaner and easier to work with! But you see, neither written deeds nor handfuls of dirt are, in themselves, the title to the land. They are not the ownership. They are only tangible symbols of the intangible concept of ownership. Thus faith! Faith is the assurance of realities that are invisible, but are no less real. And, if we think in temporal terms, the realities as to which faith is the assurance are just far enough away in time that we cannot yet lay hold of them. But you see, faith is our deed that says that they are there. We have a conviction that, though unseen, they are nevertheless real and true. Now, we might think for a moment how true this is about life more generally. The fact of the matter is that all people live by faith. Even the most irreligious person has faith. We all have faith in something; in fact, and we all have faith in many things. We have faith, for example, in the repetitions of nature. We have faith in gravity and the rotation of the earth. We have faith that when we walk out the front door after church this morning the world is going to operate in the same way as it did when we walked in - thanks be 2
to God! Experience has led us to that conviction. 3 To some degree, we place our faith in technology. When we turn on the water tap in the morning, we are confident that it will give us water and not gasoline! We have faith in traffic lights; we are confident that when our light is green, the traffic on the cross street faces a red light. It is increasingly problematic whether people will stop for that red light, but that s another sermon! But, more importantly, it is true that we live by faith in other people. Day in and day out we govern our behavior based upon faith in our relationships with others. We are able to go to sleep at night only because we take for granted that, though unseen by us, certain people will behave either in certain ways that benefit us (like the fellow who is at work at the Duke power making sure we have electricity -- remember the power failure we had the other day!). And we have faith that others will refrain from behaving in ways that will harm us. Now, it is true: occasionally, in specific instances, our faith in other people proves unfounded. The fellow that ignores the red light! People let us down, don t they! But, you see, the trauma that such failures cause, when people fail to do as we had trusted - that very disappointment emphasizes how much we live based upon faith. Indeed, we have faith in many things. As the hymn puts it, We walk by faith Were it not for the conviction of certain unseen things in which we nevertheless place our confidence, life would be an experience of constant uncertainty, even terror. It would surely be a life of miserable cynicism as we tried to live without trust in other people. Now, of course, our lesson speaks of a more specific kind of faith: faith in God. Our text says, By faith we understand the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. In a way, the writer addresses that basic philosophical question of Why is there something instead of nothing? For the writer of Hebrews, there is something because there is a divine intention that there be something rather than nothing! You see, the writer of Hebrews is talking about faith as assurance concerning this particular creator God. And so, throughout this sermon, the writer of Hebrews reasons using the analogy of a building. He says that every house has a builder, but the builder of all things is God. (3:4) And he says that God has prepared a city for his people. C. S. Lewis put it this way. Lewis said that, we trust not because a god exists, but because this God exists. Finally, then, the writer of our text says that just as we understand that the present world was created by the word of God, just as the visible creation came from that which was not visible, in a similar way, we can anticipate a future yet to be seen. Indeed, he says we can stake our lives on that future, a reality not yet visible but which we are confident that God has planned and that God continues to create, just as God has already created. Thus, the writer s point: that whenever we find ourselves disoriented, unsure of where we are, we are to steady ourselves by trusting in God's ultimate good and loving intentions.
4 The writer is saying that faith is a firm and certain knowledge of God s benevolence toward us. And, he bases this upon the experience of the revelation in Jesus Christ freely given to us by this Creator, God. [See John Calvin, Institutes III, 2.7.] In Jesus and his promises to us we have certain knowledge of God s benevolence. You see, Friends, we have this deed! It is the title, as it were, to our deepest longings for peace and wholeness. Now, that title, that ownership, cannot be scooped up out of the ground. Possession is not yet in our hands, but the substance of it surely awaits us. Well, to further his point, the writer gives examples of a number of people who lived in reliance upon God s promises. They are cited as role models. Our lectionary passage singles out Abraham. This text reminds us that Abraham did not know where he was to go; but he was assured that he was supposed to make the journey. And we know that Abraham was not a particularly good man; he was surely not a perfect man. But his righteousness was a function of Abraham s willingness to trust God. You know, in those times, it was customary for travelers on the open plains and deserts to announce themselves when approaching a caravan or city. They started shouting the moment they appeared on the horizon. You see, without such a long-distance greeting, the motives of the approaching party would be suspect; but a greeting from a distance was assurance that the traveler meant no harm! Thus, for Abraham, some of the promises of God remained only a speck on the horizon. He and his descendants greeted those promises from only afar. But you see, the promises were really there. Their fulfillment was really there. And as people of faith, they were able to apprehend and trust what God had prepared for them as though it were already in their grasp. We see, then, that these role models of faith lived in reliance on God's promises. Their actual fulfillment was still only on the horizon; but that very prospect shaped the way these faithful people lived. They lived always looking to the horizon and were not cowed by whatever was happening to them at any particular point in time. Our text says this: great lives of faith are lived in reliance on God's benevolent intentions. This marks a critical difference, doesn t it: to live in steady reliance on the promises of a loving God, and not just in reaction to things that happen to us. Such trust in God s providence enables faithful people to live with gratitude, patience, and freedom, even during the worst of times. [See John Calvin, Institutes I.17.7] In so many ways then, the story of Abraham could be our story, couldn t it! Yours, mine. I mean, who among us, as we look back on life, who of us could have predicted that we would be where we are now? We had our own plans. We may have had our life s journey all mapped out! But I suspect a show of hands today would reveal that most of us have taken some major detours, haven t we! Yes, some of us are now at places we may not have wanted to be. Some of us have been pleasantly surprised by life. But most of us have arrived at a destination that we never would have imagined! I know that is true for me; I suspect it is for you, as well.
5 Well, this gets us back to my conversations! Faith is the means by which God's people maintain our perspective. It is by faith that we are empowered to assess those things that are only temporary and those that are more lasting. And it is by faith that we are able to assign to them their proper, relative values. Contemporary events may seem overwhelming. Think here of terrorism, or global warming, or the economy, or social tensions and yes, the personal failures of ourselves and others. But our text urges us to look at the horizon, to take the longer view in order to orient ourselves. Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said that everyone takes his own vision for the limits of the world. Schopenhauer was no Christian; but I think he rightly admonishes us Christians to lengthen our view beyond the immediate and to look out to the horizon! And this, I think, raises the relevance of this text beyond the individual and to the larger Church. Remember, this was first of all a message to Christian congregations. And the writer urges that congregations live in reliance upon God s promises, too. We are to live in trust, more than we live in reaction to any particular event or condition. This kind of faith has been referred to as confident wandering. And you see this is what the people of God are called to do. Like Abraham and Sarah, we, too, are wanderers. In some ways, we do not know exactly where we are going, do we! But we recognize that each new turn and passage of life is but another step by which we move closer to grasping of God's benevolent intentions. On a recent trip to Ireland with our family, I was struck by a sense of this. It was an epiphany of sorts. Kathy and I were walking in Dublin. It was a beautiful day. The streets were full, great crowds of people, all engaged in their personal pursuits. I cannot explain why this thought occurred to me as it did perhaps it was that such crowded streets are so rare in this country; we have crowded parking lots at the mall; but that is very different. Or perhaps it was some reading about chaos theory that I had been doing not long before. Anyway, seeing all of those Dubliners, it suddenly hit me that in all that seemingly random, even chaotic activity, something larger, something more purposeful was happening. Now, I cannot say exactly what it is, but I was somehow convinced of a reality, a substance that, amid all of that human activity, God was at work. I guess you could say, I saw that speck on the horizon! At times, God s destination for persons and for his people is hardly visible. It may be only a speck out on the horizon; but, Friends, by faith, we are assured that it is there! And as confident wanderers, we greet it from afar. the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen. So may it be! Amen.