There was a woman in a community who was well known for her simple faith and great calm in
the midst of many trials. Another woman who had never met her, but had heard of her, came to
visit one day. “I must find out the secret of her calm, happy life,” she thought to herself.
As she met her, she said: “So you are the woman with the great faith I've heard so much about.”
“No,” came the reply. “I am not the woman with the great faith, but I am the woman with the
little faith in the great God” (Sermons.com, Donald Deffner).
So often we think that faith is all up to us. But I think we have that wrong. We have faith in
God, and God can do amazing things. Listen now to God’s word that is often quoted as the
definition of faith followed by Abraham and Sarah’s acts of faith. It comes from Hebrews 11:1–
3, 8-12.
This sermon is titled “By Faith” because that phrase is repeated through this chapter. “By faith”
Abel, Enoch, and Noah are each recalled before we focus on Abraham. Hebrews chapter 11 is
called the Hall of Fame of Faith with Jacob, Moses, Rahab and David each remembered as
exemplars of faith from Israel’s history. The context here is an unknown author writing to
Christians who might be losing faith and wanting to return to Judaism. The verse before our
passage states, “We are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who
have faith and so are saved” (10:39). This hall of fame of faith sustains their faith, helps them all
recall their connection to all who have gone before, confirming they too belong to Christ.
So, I ask you, what does faith mean to you? Trust in God, hope for the future, your relationship
with Jesus? Faith can be many things. Yet here we learn faith is “the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen.” Let’s unpack that a little. First, faith is assurance or
hypostasis in Greek, which means standing under or foundation. Interestingly it is the same
word used to describe the substance of Christ. Faith is the substance of hope. In other places it
means, sharers in Christ, or foundation of belief. One commentator writes, Assurance “is
something solid, something firm, it provides a place to stand from which one can hope”
(Working Preacher, Amy L.B. Peeler). Secondly, faith is conviction, elegchos, which is harder
to define. It means proof, conviction, or evidence. But it can also mean rebuke or evidence one
does not want to hear. Faith presents that proof of things that you have difficulty seeing. If this
community is beginning to struggle with following Christ, they may need new conviction. One
commentator translates it this way, “Now faith is the foundation for things being hoped
for, proof for things we do not see.’ Faith is the reason they hope for things, trusting that God
will fulfill his promises, and faith provides proof (in a manner of speaking) that unseen things
exist” (Working Preacher, Madison Pierce).
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen. This declaration
offers us comfort and strength in how we connect to God and each other through faith. Here is
that same passage from a modern translation the Message, “ The fundamental fact of existence is
that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth
living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. By faith, we see the world called into existence by
God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.” I love this. Faith, trust in God, is the
fundamental fact of existence. Faith gives us a handle, a way of dealing with the things we
cannot see. Faith is the acknowledgement that everything was created through God’s word. And
we are included in that faith. So, what does faith look like?
Faith is the rare courage to act on that which you cannot yet prove to be true.
Faith is leaving a fresh grave with enough hope to carry on.
Faith is writing a song of thanksgiving when the rent is due.
Faith is accepting forgiveness when it seems nothing more than a distant dream.
Faith is proclaiming peace while you still feel the turmoil inside.
Faith is letting your hair down enough to receive the mercy of God. (Sermons.com, J.H. Olds)
Abraham and Sarah are held up as models of faith. By faith, Abraham was willing to obey
God’s call to a new place. He faced his fears, he set out and then lived as a stranger in this new
land. How many of us have faced our fears and moved to a new place, thankful that God would
travel with us and welcome us in our new location? But that is an act of faith because we cannot
see all the changes and possibilities before we go. We must trust that we will find our way and
that God will stand beside us in the unknown. For Marian, Gene, Bonnie and Don who are all
about to move I want to share this reflection from Stanley Jones. “I am inwardly fashioned for
faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so mad that worry and anxiety are
sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear,
doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath these are not my native
air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely these are my native air. We are inwardly
constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that
way.” (Sermons.com).
How did Abraham do it? “He looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect
and builder is God” (10). When our home is in God, it does not matter where we lay our head.
When we have faith in Jesus we know and trust we have companionship for the journey. Our
Psalmist reminds us the eye of the Lord is upon those who hope in (God’s) steadfast love (18).
That is faith. Trusting that God sees us and cares for us. God loves us and we hope and trust in
God. God’s steadfast love is upon us even as we hope in God. The same God who created our
world and watches over us still.
By faith, Sarah who was barren, was able to conceive a son. God continues creating. The focus
here is on Abraham and his faith, but let me tell you, carrying a child in your old age certainly
was an act of faith. It is a herculean task when your body is young and healthy. Sarah, however,
was 90 years old when she had Isaac. Other ancient authorities read, “By faith, Sarah herself,
though barren, received power to conceive, even when she was too old, because she considered
him faithful who had promised” (NRSV footnote). Sarah considered God faithful in the promise.
That is faith. That might even be called blind or miraculous faith. But it certainly is the
assurance of things hoped for. We all know how long Sarah wanted and prayed for a child.
Sarah hoped for something that for most of her life she did not have. Yet she held onto hope.
That is faith. Sarah also had conviction that God would be true to the promise.
God has the power of procreation which God gave to Abraham and Sarah. God’s word is a
power that creates “what is seen … from things that are not visible.” So our faith is not about us,
and our doing. Rather faith is assurance and confidence in God and the power of what God is
doing. “In other words, one who trusts God’s promises is God’s own witness to the new creation
that is breaking into our “everyday” visible world through the gospel of Christ Jesus. Here
“resurrection,” is not only a source of such faith, (but provides for new life to come from
Abraham and Sarah who were as good as dead)…In short, God’s invisible work of new creation
becomes visible, is incarnate, in the life of the one who trusts God. As Hebrews itself puts it
(from a more “literal” understanding of the Greek), “Faith is the ‘substance’ of things hoped for,
the ‘proof’ of things not seen.” (Working Preacher, Erik Heen). Amen.
