Faith

Sunday, August 12, 2007
Hebrews 11:1 - 12:2

Faith.

It’s just a five-letter word.
It wouldn’t earn many points in a game of Scrabble.
It might even be laughed at
by those who take their Scrabble a little too seriously.

Faith.

It’s just a five-letter word.
It’s not the biggest or most impressive sounding word
a seminary-educated individual, like myself, could use.

There’s words and phrases like
eschatological imagination,
hermeneutic of suspicion,
subjective atonement,
soteriology,
and pneumatology.

Now those would be some big, five-dollar words
to leave you with on my last Sunday.
But they aren’t the words for today.
There’s just one word today,
maybe even the one word: faith.

Faith.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)

“Faith is the firm foundation under everything
that makes life worth living.
It’s our handle on what we can’t see.” (The Message)

“Faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” (dictionary.com)

“Faith is a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us,
founded upon the truth of the freely given promise of Jesus Christ,
both revealed to our minds & sealed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” (Calvin)

Those are some good definitions –
from a couple different translations of the Bible,
and from a dictionary and from good ol’ Calvin
(can’t forget about him) –
but what does it all mean …
What is faith … really?

Pushing aside the English geek or grammatical fanatic,
and the fact that the word “faith” is listed as a noun in the dictionary,
I think faith is really best thought of as a verb,
as an action word.

You know:
Billy and Susie ran.
Spot jumped.
Mommy yelled.

Because as author Kathleen Norris puts it,
faith is more than just a thing that you either have or you don’t.
Faith is not just an abstract concept.

It’s trust in God in the every day stuff.
It’s obedience to the Lord’s commands.
And those two things require some doing.

And so,
faith is an action word.

We see that word in action in chapter 11 of Hebrews.
There is a whole litany of the actions of the faithful over the years.

In the past,
faith has been
building a ginormous ark
even though you haven’t ever seen a torrential downpour or a flood;
faith has been
setting out for a new, promised land,
even though you have no idea
what a land flowing with milk and honey
actually looks like or if it even exists;
faith has been
walking around a city and blowing trumpets
even though you have never seen such actions
bring a city to its knees.

Faith has been about the doing (the verb part)
the building and the setting out and the walking,
despite reason, and “even thoughs,”
“althoughs” and “neverthelesses.”

And faith is still an action today.

It’s offering to God a portion of our money
even though we might be unsure about the bills later in the month
or the retirement savings and fund.

And faith is sharing food and clothing with neighbors
even though we’re worried about them both running out
and we’re not sure if the person is even really our neighbor.

And faith is worshipping the Lord our God with song and prayer
even though we might not be certain about everything.

Faith is more than lip service –
saying “I believe this” or “I don’t believe that.”

It’s putting those beliefs into action –
into the actual offering and sharing and worshipping.

It’s living faith.
It’s faith as an action word.

And those actions come from ordinary people.

Ordinary people –
like you and me
and the person on the street corner
and the one with a lisp
and the one who was barren
and the ones who liked to complain.

Ordinary people who were willing to move and do –
do some confident wandering,
rather than just some stationary wondering.

Ordinary people
who trust in and obey an extraordinary God.

So more than the five letters and the smart sounding definitions,
faith is moving beyond the “I believe” to the “therefore, I do …”
It’s about adding on some good verbs:
singing;
praying;
listening;
sharing;
serving.

What does your faith do?

Faith.

That’s it …
and that’s everything.

Thanks be to God. Amen.