What is Faith?

What is faith? Is faith agreeing with a set of intellectual statements? Do you have faith if you can recite – and understand – all the statements of the Apostles and Nicene creeds? Is faith conscientious observance of all the traditional spiritual disciplines and practices? Do you demonstrate great faith if you receive communion every Sunday, fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, or dress up in fancy vestments? I think our reading from the prophet Isaiah this morning had something to say about that! Is faith being able to quote Scripture? Do you show great faith if you can win an argument by proof-texting your opponents by referring to verses in the Bible – or the Torah, or the Qur’an, or the Bhagavad Gita?

If you were listening to the reading this morning from the Letter to the Hebrews, you already know the answers to those questions. You already know that the answer to each one is “No.” Actually, all four of our readings have something to say about what faith is. Our reading from Isaiah, from whom we will hear again next week, and our psalm warn us about relying on religious rituals alone, especially when our rituals don’t connect with how we live our lives outside the temple – or on the other side of the red doors. In our reading from the gospel of Luke, we hear Jesus encouraging us to hang in there, stay alert, and keep on doing what we discern God has called us to do – words that strengthened Luke’s community and still comfort us.

However, it is the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews that provides us the most compelling description of the nature of faith. Actually, we don’t often hear from the Letter to the Hebrews in worship – and probably less in preaching! Most of us would rather preach about Jesus! Hebrews was probably written sometime after the fall of the temple in Jerusalem, i.e., after 70 AD. Although its author is anonymous, we are virtually certain that it was not written by Paul – its language and subject matter are very different from those of the rest of Paul’s letters. Actually, it’s not really a letter. Rather, it’s an extended sermon – and far longer than most Episcopal priests would dare to preach! And despite its traditional title, it was probably addressed to a mixed community of Jews and Gentiles, not to an exclusively Jewish Christian community. Even so, clearly its author expected that his hearers knew about the details of temple worship, and that they were well acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures.

One thing we can surmise from reading this sermon is that it was addressed to a community facing hostility and conflict with the wider culture around them, and that its members were ridiculed and shamed for professing to be followers of an itinerant rabbi who had been executed as a common criminal. These early followers were not subject to martyrdom yet, but they were possibly also wondering when Jesus’ promise to return would be fulfilled. So this sermon was written to console and encourage them and to bolster their commitment to Jesus. The writer sought to reassure them that, despite their hardships, they had made the right decision to follow him.

Much of the early part of this sermon deals with various aspects of temple worship. The writer argues that Jesus is the fulfillment of all sacrifices, the final sacrifice, and that sacrificial worship is now no longer needed. At the end of chapter 10, just before today’s reading begins, he gives his hearers a charge: “Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised” (10:35-36). Chapter 11, some of which we have just heard, is his attempt to flesh out that endurance, by offering a definition of faith and examples from the Hebrew Scriptures of faithful people.

Our passage opens with that definition a faith – actually a definition that is often quoted but not well understood, since the Greek uses words that are extremely difficult to translate accurately. Essentially, what the writer is telling us is that faith is absolute assurance that God is real, that there is a spiritual dimension to the ground of life, that there is a deeper reality to life than we can see on the surface of things. Faith is the conviction that all that we see and know, the cosmos, all creation, has been brought into being by God and is sustained by God. Faith is the deepest possible trust that God has made promises to us, that God has fulfilled God’s promises to us in the past, and most especially in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that God will continue to fulfill God’s promise to renew all things. Most important of all, the writer is certain that faith is a dynamic force that leads us to answer God’s call to us, even when we are not certain where God might be leading us.

The writer then provides examples from Scripture to illustrate his definition and encourage his hearers. In the verses omitted from today’s reading, the writer mentions Abel, Enoch, and Noah, who especially displayed trust in God by heeding God’s warning and building the ark – even under cloudless skies. However, for this writer, Abraham is the primary example of faithful response to God’s call. The early chapters of the book of Genesis tell us in detail how God called Abraham and Sarah to leave their ancestral home in Ur and to journey to a completely new land. God also promised that Abraham and Sarah would have thousands of descendants, even though they had reached old age without any children. For new followers of Jesus, who were hearing this sermon, Abraham and Sarah must have been truly encouraging and apt examples of faith in their willingness to follow God’s leading and trust God’s promises, even when they could see the end of their journey only in the distance.

And so they are for us too. We too trust in God’s leading, even when we are not sure where we are going. Certainly anyone who has agreed to go back to school, take a new job, have another child, retire, or discern for ordained ministry, has faced that moment when we say, “Are you sure, God? Is this right?” Even Thomas Merton, a deeply contemplative Trappist monk, knew such moments, when he said, “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end…. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Like Merton, who in his last years also developed a profound respect for Buddhist contemplation, we too are called to continue our spiritual journey. We know that the font was just the beginning of the journey. We acknowledge that we are called to not stop permanently at any stage of spiritual practice or understanding, but to “live in tents,” to continue to grow in wisdom and compassion. We too understand that we are called to put our faith into action, to embrace others, and to work to make God’s promises real in our own time.

And do we too have examples of faith in action? Certainly, like the hearers of the sermon to the Hebrews, we can find models of faith in the Bible, in Isaiah and Jeremiah, who struggled with the political movements of their own days, and in Jesus’ friends and followers, who sought him out for healing, and who witnessed his death and resurrection. The Apostles creed reminds us that we believe in a “communion of saints.” Open a copy of Holy Women, Holy Men. Examples of faith in action, both of people traditionally on the calendar of saints, and those closer to us in time, will leap off the pages for you.

And we also have examples of faith right in the world around us. Twice a week, volunteers from All Saints Episcopal Church near Brussels, Belgium travel twenty miles to the central Brussels trains station. There they serve a meal and deliver much-needed clothing, toiletries, and sleeping gear to the refugees flooding into Belgium, people often arriving with only the bare minimum: the clothes they are wearing, and their only link to home – a cell phone. In support of this ministry, members of All Saints donate some of the food supplies to serve approximately 100 people at each meal, supplemented with additional food purchased with parish funds and special fundraising efforts. Like the volunteers, who have ventured forth trusting that God would bless their efforts, the refugees, most of whom have come from Syria and other war-torn areas, have also been people of faith, who have left everything in search of a better life. For the refugees, “The Episcopal community in Europe has been inspiring in its compassionate effort to bring safety, comfort and fellowship to those who are displaced,” said a program officer for Episcopal Relief & Development, which helps support this ministry. “The people of All Saints’ Church in Waterloo especially have taken initiative, continuing to increase their activities and motivating the wider community to get involved in outreach efforts as well.”

We have not been refugees. We have not been tortured or murdered for our faith. Most of us have not been ridiculed for our faith. Even so, as we continue to commit ourselves to following God’s leading, we too are called to faith. We too are called to live our lives knowing that the ground of all is love, that Jesus has shown us the nature of that love, and that there is a divine spark within each of us that helps us to trust the promises of Scripture and work to bring nearer the reign of God.