11 Pentecost, Proper 14
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
August 15, 2010
(The congregation got involved in this sermon, which made for a great conversation!)
Near the end of our parish retreat last weekend, my daughter and I walked the outdoor labyrinth at Shrine Mont. They’ve built it out of rough rocks into this beautiful clearing in the woods. It’s not entirely dissimilar from our labyrinth here, but bigger, so it takes longer to walk. And because it’s built with rocks rather than tape, the path feels much more structured. Somehow, it seems more like cheating to veer off the path. I was watching Sophie’s face as she walked and wondering what she was thinking when sometimes the path seemed to be taking her further and further from the center. But she was smiling as she walked and seemed to trust that she’d get there eventually.
It made me think about faith.
Our reading from Hebrews this morning is all about faith. But “faith” is a tricky word. It means different things to different people. For many Christians, faith is equated with either a conversion experience or agreement with a certain system of beliefs. Thomas Aquinas defined faith as “the act of the intellect when it assents to divine truth.” Faith has become a term of self-definition.
But for others, and from what I’ve read, this tack lies closer to the Jewish idea of faith, faith is not primarily an intellectual act but an attitude. It’s closer to fidelity – a sort of steadfastness and trust that allows us to look beyond ourselves. And this sounds like it might be where the writer of Hebrews is going as he talks about faith in terms of a race, as supplying courage or endurance.
I would love to hear from some of you all - How do you think of Faith?
It wasn’t just Sophie and I on that labyrinth at Shrine Mont. The Andersons were also on the path with us, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind. And Jo-Ann Muir was on a bench nearby and then started walking it herself. And I was struck by how nice it felt to walk the labyrinth with these other people, vaguely aware of their shadows on the ground next to me, or them stepping aside ever so gently to let me pass. I liked having companions on the journey. All walking towards the same goal, even when we weren’t always headed in the same direction or going at the same pace.
In Jewish tradition, there is a sense that faith resides in the community, not only in the individual. Our faith is part and parcel of our inclusion in the community of the People of God. Which, I think, is why the writer of Hebrews hopes that looking to the history of God’s people might help us on our journey of faith. Looking at how God has been acting throughout the ages – promising, leading, being in the midst of the people.
“By faith the people passed through the Red Sea,” “by faith the walls of Jericho fell”, “through faith” kingdoms were conquered and the mouths of lions shut. But the list in Hebrews doesn’t include only extraordinary heroes who get the job done with amazing results. It also includes people that seem to have nothing to show for their faith at all. People who endure awful things like being tortured, or stoned to death, or sawn in two. The Message translation of the Bible describes these people as “making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.”
For the writer of Hebrews, faith comes in the context of a larger story of promise. A promise that at any given moment might seem elusive, but is present anyway in the form of hope. We are reaching for what cannot yet be fully grasped. And so we can look to this cloud of witnesses for inspiration.
Your turn again - Who are your pioneers or paragons of faith?
All along it has helped God’s people to know that they were not alone. We follow in the footsteps of people who had no idea what the future held but chose to trust God anyway. People who were able to hope for joy even when their hearts were breaking.
And so now, as the book of Hebrews puts it, it’s our turn to run the race. But rest assured that we aren’t in it alone. We run along with Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Daniel, Mary Magdalene and Peter, and also all those folks ahead or behind or sometimes right next to us on the labyrinth of life.
Amen.
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
August 15, 2010
(The congregation got involved in this sermon, which made for a great conversation!)
Near the end of our parish retreat last weekend, my daughter and I walked the outdoor labyrinth at Shrine Mont. They’ve built it out of rough rocks into this beautiful clearing in the woods. It’s not entirely dissimilar from our labyrinth here, but bigger, so it takes longer to walk. And because it’s built with rocks rather than tape, the path feels much more structured. Somehow, it seems more like cheating to veer off the path. I was watching Sophie’s face as she walked and wondering what she was thinking when sometimes the path seemed to be taking her further and further from the center. But she was smiling as she walked and seemed to trust that she’d get there eventually.
It made me think about faith.
Our reading from Hebrews this morning is all about faith. But “faith” is a tricky word. It means different things to different people. For many Christians, faith is equated with either a conversion experience or agreement with a certain system of beliefs. Thomas Aquinas defined faith as “the act of the intellect when it assents to divine truth.” Faith has become a term of self-definition.
But for others, and from what I’ve read, this tack lies closer to the Jewish idea of faith, faith is not primarily an intellectual act but an attitude. It’s closer to fidelity – a sort of steadfastness and trust that allows us to look beyond ourselves. And this sounds like it might be where the writer of Hebrews is going as he talks about faith in terms of a race, as supplying courage or endurance.
I would love to hear from some of you all - How do you think of Faith?
It wasn’t just Sophie and I on that labyrinth at Shrine Mont. The Andersons were also on the path with us, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind. And Jo-Ann Muir was on a bench nearby and then started walking it herself. And I was struck by how nice it felt to walk the labyrinth with these other people, vaguely aware of their shadows on the ground next to me, or them stepping aside ever so gently to let me pass. I liked having companions on the journey. All walking towards the same goal, even when we weren’t always headed in the same direction or going at the same pace.
In Jewish tradition, there is a sense that faith resides in the community, not only in the individual. Our faith is part and parcel of our inclusion in the community of the People of God. Which, I think, is why the writer of Hebrews hopes that looking to the history of God’s people might help us on our journey of faith. Looking at how God has been acting throughout the ages – promising, leading, being in the midst of the people.
“By faith the people passed through the Red Sea,” “by faith the walls of Jericho fell”, “through faith” kingdoms were conquered and the mouths of lions shut. But the list in Hebrews doesn’t include only extraordinary heroes who get the job done with amazing results. It also includes people that seem to have nothing to show for their faith at all. People who endure awful things like being tortured, or stoned to death, or sawn in two. The Message translation of the Bible describes these people as “making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.”
For the writer of Hebrews, faith comes in the context of a larger story of promise. A promise that at any given moment might seem elusive, but is present anyway in the form of hope. We are reaching for what cannot yet be fully grasped. And so we can look to this cloud of witnesses for inspiration.
Your turn again - Who are your pioneers or paragons of faith?
All along it has helped God’s people to know that they were not alone. We follow in the footsteps of people who had no idea what the future held but chose to trust God anyway. People who were able to hope for joy even when their hearts were breaking.
And so now, as the book of Hebrews puts it, it’s our turn to run the race. But rest assured that we aren’t in it alone. We run along with Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Daniel, Mary Magdalene and Peter, and also all those folks ahead or behind or sometimes right next to us on the labyrinth of life.
Amen.
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