I am a stay at home mom to an almost 2 year old so these days I’ve been reading more of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein than theology books or Biblical commentaries. In a lot of the books I read to my son and the shows made for kids his age you find stories about people who are afraid, unsure or scared and then they learn that they just need to believe in themselves and everything will be ok.
It’s the kind of story that makes for a great sports movie. The star player gets injured at a critical moment in the championship game. The back-up player is the underdog you have been rooting for the whole movie. It’s his chance but self doubt starts to creep in. In his head he hears all of the voices of those who have told him he is no good. And then a coach, parent, friend or mentor of some sort gives him an inspirational speech, the main point being he needs to believe in himself. With renewed vigor he runs onto the field, scores the winning points and his carried off on the shoulders of his teammates as the credits roll. You leave feeling happy, encouraged and with the message that you just need to believe in yourself.
And that is a great message. As kids are heading back to school we want them to go feeling good about themselves, trusting in their abilities and doing the best they can. We want everyone of any age to know that they are of value, they are capable and they are loved. So yes you should believe in yourself, have faith in your abilities and trust your instincts. But our reading from Hebrews today gives us a bigger story with a bigger message. The story told in Hebrews is about more than just trusting in yourself.
It is a hero story. A list of important figures in the Bible, but with the action of one main hero underlying the entire story. It starts with the people passing through the Red Sea during the Exodus with Moses. Then we hear about those who marched around the walls of Jericho and Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Then we hear about the many who at that point had already suffered for their faith. The early martyrs of Christianity. Those who were killed and tortured because of their belief in Jesus Christ. Perhaps I should have warned you, this story is not quite as family-friendly as the heart warming sports movies. The letter to the Hebrews is honest about what being a follower of Christ may mean, the sacrifices many have made and the bloody struggle of beginning a movement.
All of these people listed from the Old Testament prophets to early Christian martyrs, I am sure they all had some level of belief in themselves and their abilities. I’m sure that many had someone who reminded them that they are capable, of value and loved. I am sure that they were all able to trust themselves and their instincts in order to do what they did. But what they definitely had more of than faith in themselves was faith in God. They didn’t do what they did to be a hero. They did not sacrifice everything and follow God’s command so that they could be glorified. They were not carted off the field on the shoulders of their teammates to wild applause. Many of their stories ended tragically. It was never about having faith in themselves. It was always about having faith in God. God’s story is a story that is so much bigger than the length of one human life. This story that began in the waters of creation and culminated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For these people listed in Hebrews, this cloud of witnesses, the moral of the story is not “believe in yourself” but rather “believe in God.”
This is faith. It is the reason why people can smile through the rain, boldly walk into the fire and do much more than they ever imagined they were capable of. It is a belief in this larger story that we are all part of. This story of salvation history, of God and the people God created. It is a story of a God who loves us, chooses to be in relationship with us and redeems us. And it is bigger than you and me, but it is our story as a people of faith. It is the story of the calm patient awaiting surgery, the prayerful soldier in the middle of battle, the enduring soul when the world around is crumbling. Anyone who knows that there is so much more to life. That there is a much bigger story. That there is something to believe in beyond ourselves. Anyone who can put their faith in God.
Faith is a tricky thing to talk about because often we only use it when it is to our advantage. We pull out faith when we need God to give us what we want or get us through something difficult. But often we are still only putting our faith in ourselves. We are hoping that God can meet our needs, do our will and help us live comfortably. We are failing to see the bigger picture of God’s purposes. The story of salvation that began at creation. The way in which all of us are bound together in the unfolding of time in the loving arms of God.
As Christians we know this. We know the powerful story of the resurrection. We know the way in which God has been at work through history and is at work today. And yet, it is still so easy to get stuck in our own lives, our own worries and keep trying to get through life by putting our faith only in our self.
I see this happen time and time again with churches. Declining numbers, conflict, lack of funds gets us scared for our own survival and we turn inward. We worry about how the church will survive, how the bills will be paid, how we can keep everybody happy and we forget to have faith in God. We forget that we are all part of this greater story of salvation. That we are resurrection people and that means that love, mercy, redemption and peace will always have the final word. We forget that we are a people of hope, telling a big story about faith to a world that needs to hear it.
You see in this passage in Hebrews it isn’t all about people who had faith and then all good things happen to them. Nowhere in this list of the cloud of witnesses do I see a story about a church who successfully met their budget and did all of the magical things that are to make your church grow. Nowhere in this list do we hear about people who led an easy life, encountered no problems and never had to suffer. Instead we hear about people who risked everything, people who took courage in God, people who left behind everything they knew for God’s bigger story. It is realistic about what faith is and what faith is not. Faith is hope in those things that are not yet seen. Believing in something bigger. Risking for what is believed. Faith is not crossing your fingers and hoping everything will all work out the way you want it.
I recently heard a story on the news about a couple who lost their 8 month old child because they refused to give the child medical treatment. Instead they turned to prayer. Just four years ago the same thing happened to another one of their children, a two year old who died of untreated pneumonia. The parents refused to call a doctor or use any kind of medicine because they said they were relying on their faith. This is such a tricky issue. As a parent I can’t help but be appalled at their ability to watch their child suffer needlessly. As a Christian I struggle to understand the reasoning that tells them medicine is not ok.
But I get that faith is tricky. We hear these stories of people boldly doing what God calls them to do because of faith. We read in the scriptures that we are called to live by faith. We worry that our faith is not strong enough, not even the size of a mustard seed. And we are heartbroken when we pray and pray for a loved one who is ill and we feel that our prayers go unanswered. It is a hard thing to talk about because there are no easy answers. None of us has it all figured out. We are not God and anything we try to tell ourselves to make sense of it all falls short. So we just use our human reason, our hearts and the people around us to keep at this faith thing, keep reminding each other of the hope of Christ and keep living faithfully the best way we know how. But when I hear the stories of the people in Hebrews and then that story about the couple whose children died I can’t help but think of the difference between putting your faith in your own ideas, own positions, own thoughts on how things should work out instead of faith in the larger story of God. The difference between the kind of faith that inspires self sacrifice and the kind of faith that inspires selfish stubbornness … sometimes with tragic consequences.
In my time in ministry I have met a lot of people with amazing faith, a great cloud of witnesses here on earth. The self less kind of faith in the bigger picture of God. One man that I visited a number of times had some serious medical problems. He was a relatively young guy, not yet into his senior citizen years and yet he required repeated surgeries, intense brain surgeries. Every time I visited him whether it was before or after a surgery I found myself amazed by his faith. I would ask him how he was doing, how he felt about everything and what his fears were. He answered me honestly but always with a sense of calm that took me by surprise. He had faith in his very skilled doctor, the medical staff and procedures. He had faith in all the people who were praying for him and especially the group of those closest to him who always filled the waiting room. He had faith in himself, in his body and his ability to get through it. But mostly he had faith in the bigger story. He had suffered losses in his life, tragic losses. He knew that faith meant something deeper than hoping to avoid pain or getting all of your needs met. He believed that God was at work in the world, throughout time, redeeming us and loving us. He had faith that it would all be ok, whether in this life or the next. That his story was just a part of the divine unfolding of time. His faith was and still is in God, even though God is bigger than we can see and more than we can understand.
Lately when I put my son to bed he asks me to sing him a song. And then another, and another, and another. So after I sing his lullabies and kid songs I start singing hymns. He especially likes Amazing Grace, but usually I am just awake enough to sing the first and last verse. The last verse always reminds me of the many funerals I have sung that line at and pushed back tears. It is such a bold and faithful verse to sing in the face of sadness. “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun;
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise. Than when we first begun!” Maybe this was what those people in Hebrews thought of when they suffered or risked it all or acted on pure faith. It’s about the bigger story. A story that lasts longer than a lifetime, a story that is bigger than one person, a story that we all get to be a part of because God loves us. And so with faith we sing God’s praise. With faith we can breathe easy despite all that life throws at us. With faith we can know that it’s not just about believing in ourselves. It’s about believing in God. And that faith is how we find strength, how we can endure and become part of that great cloud of witnesses singing God’s praises for 10,000 years and beyond. Amen.
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