Proper 14 – What on earth is faith?
Genesis 15:1-6 The Lord makes a promise, Abram believes; it’s counted as righteousness
Psalm 33:12-22 The Lord is our help and our shield; in their Name we put our trust
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-18 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, evidence of things unseen
Luke 12:32-40 It is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom
Collect: Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Give ear O heavens and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth, for I will proclaim the Name of the Lord, and ascribe greatness to our God.
I want to talk with you this morning about faith. Faith is one of those words we use a lot, but I’m not sure we always know what we mean by it.
In our reading from HEBREWS (11:1) we read: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
What is “faith” though? What exactly do we mean?
We say we are members of the Christian faith. When we say that, we mean we are Christians, and if push comes to shove, if we’re asked what that means, we may point to the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed and say, “That. That’s what we mean.”
But that really doesn’t clarify things, does it?
When Jesus says, “If you have faith as a mustard seed you can move mountains,” does that mean we can toss a copy of the prayer book at a mountain and it will be moved? Now, I find the creeds quite moving, but I don't think mountains do.
In Hebrews, the writer says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” or as we have it in the King James version, which is the verse I memorized a century ago, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
I like those two words better: Substance and Evidence.
Assurance sounds like something a parent does when a child is scared: “Now, now, now, everything’s going to be OK.”
As human beings, there are times we need assurance. One of the things we look for in our elected leaders when there is a catastrophe or major, bad, scary event, is for them to reach out and say, “We see what’s happening, and we’re on top of it. We’re going to be right there.”
Assurance is something we look for at every level of life. We look for it on a national and international level; on a state and local level; at work and at home.
We live in anxious times, and we worry. We worry about inflation. We worry about the economy. We worry about our neighbors getting dragged away by masked agents. We worry about our kids going to school and wonder if we will see them again.
The world we live in is no more scary that the world Jesus lived in or the one who wrote the book of Hebrews. People were scared. You had construction accidents where towers fell down and killed construction workers. You had the Romans standing on the necks of the local population with their hobnailed boots – disappearing people then, just like they are today.
You had children suffering from diseases, the mentally ill living among tombs, scaring people like wild boogey-men. You had tax-collectors beating folks for taxes, more taxes, and even more taxes after that – getting rich off the sweat of YOUR brow, the blood, sweat, and tears of YOUR labor.
The world hasn’t changed; it’s a scary place; it’s a dangerous place; it’s a challenging place, so the author of Hebrews wants to encourage his readers, encourage his listeners – to assure them that everything is going to be OK.
How do we know? Because God is with us. Not in the sense of affirming everything we say and do. There’s a lot of stuff we say and do that’s not so good, not so healthy. But that’s no different from everyone else in the list of saints Hebrews is talking about here.
So what does faith look like? Whether it’s substance or assurance, what does faith look like?
For Abraham, it was to set out on a journey, trusting that God had a place for him and Sarah – a place for them and for their children and for their children’s children – even though they were childless at the time.
Faith is moving out, moving out in trust – like Abram who had a vision that God was leading him, leading them to some place that would be theirs.
They had no idea where God was leading them, but they trusted God was with them. They stumbled and fell at times on this journey. They had their struggles; they feared for their lives at times; they lived in tents rather than homes. God promised to make a mighty nation of them, which seemed pretty silly as they couldn’t seem to bring even one child into the world.
But God said, “Don’t worry about that; that’s my department, not yours. You do what you need to, I’ll do what I need to!”
And that’s the second thing about faith I want to talk about. Not only is it the substance of things hoped for – a home, a family – but it is “the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is understanding that we are accepted by God. Not that we have accepted God, but that God has accepted us.
God said to Abram, “I’ve got a place for you.” Abram believed God, and God counted his faith as righteousness. In other words, “Abram, you’ve got it.”
Jesus takes the same approach in the Gospel today, doesn’t he?
“Do not be afraid, little flock,” he says, “for it is God’s great pleasure to give you the kingdom.
“Empty yourselves; be generous. Make purses that don’t wear out; an unfailing treasure in heaven where you don’t have to fret over moths coming in and destroying it or thieves breaking in and stealing it.”
What is that treasure that never wears out?
I’d like to suggest it’s joy, happiness, peace, and trust in God. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Some years ago Barb and I and the family were returning home from visiting her sister in Fairfield (CA), and as we pulled up to the house, it was surrounded by police cars and flashing lights, and helicopters flying overhead.
“What’s going on here,” I wondered. As it turned out, police driving by had noticed a couple of men carrying things out of our house, and when they stopped to ask them who they were and what they were doing, the men dropped the goods and fled.
All the activity was about US! We were being burgled, and it’s amazing the trauma that comes with that; the violation of our space and security. I’m not overly materialistic; I try to be generous in time and treasure; I want to forgive 70 times 7 times, but this was like a dagger to my soul.
Even today I can’t go on vacation without wondering in the back of the mind just how safe our house will be. Will it be broken into? Will the water break and flood the house for weeks on end?
Jesus understands the trauma and says, “Rest assured, that’s important, but better yet, I’ve got you. I’ve got your back. I’ve got your soul. YOU are my treasure. You are my pearl of great price.”
And you know, when you know that deep down in your heart, that you’re loved, even when you don’t feel it 24/7 (because our hearts and minds just can’t do that 24/7) – but you’re loved – we’re loved – and what we can do is realize, like with Abram and Sarai, that God has a place for us, and our only responsibility is to believe it, and act like it.
I’ve said here before that “believe” has its root in the Old German “belieben” or beloved. Belief isn’t what goes on up here between our ears, but down here within our hearts, so when we say We Believe (like in the Nicene Creed), what we’re saying is we embrace the One who created us (who creates us), we embrace the One who redeemed us (who redeems us), we believe the One who spoke to us through the prophets (who speaks to us to this day through the prophets).
As we believe God, as we embrace God, we do the things we are called to do. We are called to “act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).
As Jesus says, “Be dressed for action; have your lamps lit. Be ready to open the door and welcome home the lord of the house.”
You and I, you see, are the substance of God’s hope, the evidence of what God has not seen! Faith isn’t just what we’re about, but what God is looking for, too.
When we look at the scriptures, when we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, we see that God never acts alone; the saints never act alone. God and the people of God always work together to discern the will of God, to catch a vision of what God is saying, to catch a glimpse of where God is leading.
Our visions may not always be perfectly clear, but Jesus invites us to try it. There’s an old saying: we’re not called to be successful, but to be faithful.
So we open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts, and open our hands, and trust God will have something of value for us to do and to be:
The people of God, in Jesus’ Name.
AMEN.
The Rev. Keith Axberg, Retired
Sermon delivered 08/10/2025 to Christ Episcopal Church, Anacortes, WA