FAITHFUL GOODBYES

SCRIPTURE READING: Hebrews 11:1-3; 8-16

Pastor’s kids have it tough. I was reminded of that the other day when I came across this humorous story. This pastor’s little boy had been out playing in the yard all afternoon with his dump trucks, moving dirt from one pile to another, getting lost in his imaginary world. His mother called him in for dinner. Famished he raced to the table and sat down. His mother took one look at him and said, “I don’t think so, young man. You go in the bathroom and wash those hands before dinner. There are germs living in all that dirt.” Being a P.K. and ornery as any preacher’s kid is, he said, “NO!” And then complained, “Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That’s all I ever hear around this house, and I’ve never seen either one.”

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

We, in the church, tend to use the word faith a lot. We talk about having faith, getting faith, being full of faith, losing faith, holding onto faith, being led by faith, and looking to faith. We even talk about the faithful, faithful service, faithful living, and so on. But, what is faith? What do we mean when we talk about faith?

Over thirteen years ago, when I interviewed here, I remember John McFadden asking me, “So, is faith a noun or a verb?” I remember thinking to myself, “Now isn’t that it an odd question.” But since then, I have come to realize what an astute question it was, as the answer said a lot about where I stood theologically. At the time, my response was that faith was a verb, as I believed (and still believe), that faith is not some thing, but a process of trust and transformation, born out of an active dynamic relationship lived in communion with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit – one that leads us to be the people God calls us to be and to serve as God calls us to do.

But today I’m not sure that we would enter into a faith relationship if it were not for the witness of those who have gone before us, those who lived a life of faith, had their life’s journey’s transformed by faith, and shared their stories of faith with us. “From those stories of hero and heroines of faith, we can obtain a glimpse of what God is also able to do in our lives.” (T.B. Maston) The life stories of people who lived and live in close relationship with the triune God are the testimonies of God’s living Word to us, the good news of God’s compassionate love, of God’s justice and mercy, of God’s saving grace and peace, and the promises that await.

Today, if I were answering the same question, I would say that faith is both a noun and a verb. Faith is both a testimony to what I believe, and “how I believe.” “Faith is both a noun (the substance of things hoped for) as well as a verb (evidence of things not seen.)” (Reverend Donald Denton)

How we live out our relationship with God is faith. How we respond to God by how we choose to live within community and the world is faith. Faith is active living. But faith is also the testimony of what we believe about who God is and how God operates in the world given in grace to us through the faithful witnesses of God who have gone before us and those who surround us now. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

The letter to the Hebrews was written at a time when the faith community was under severe persecution. Christians were marginalized and living in fear, fear of what the future may hold for them. They did not know where they were going, where their journey would lead them, or how God would provide. This letter was written to offer the community assurance, encouragement and hope. The author recounts the life stories of many of the faithful – Abraham and Sara, Jacob and Esau, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Daniel and David, and all who experienced extreme hardship and desperation, uncertainty and fear. Through grace they were able to cling to faith, to their understanding of God, and God’s promises to them. Through their lives, by God’s grace, marvelous things happened. But those things would not have happened had they not acted on what God revealed to them. As William Temple said, “Every revelation of God is a demand, and the way to knowledge of God is obedience.” Without stepping out on faith, Abraham and Sarah would never have set out for the Promised Land. Without having wrestled with God in faith, Jacob (being the liar, sneak and thief that he was) would never have been transformed, had his life reconciled with his brother, and become a pillar of faith for others. Without having obeyed God, although somewhat reluctantly at first, Moses would never have freed the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians. And, without having acted in faith, hiding and protecting others, Rahab’s life and the life of others would not have been spared. The list of faithful witnesses goes on and on. All listened to God, trusted in God, and obediently followed God’s leading not knowing where their journey would lead them, how God would provide, or what God would call them to do. But they acted in faith.

As Frederick Buechner says, “Faith is the eye of the heart, and by faith we see deep down beneath the face of things – by faith we struggle against all odds to be able to see that the world is God’s creation. It is God who made us and not we ourselves; made us out of his peace to live in peace, out of his light to dwell in light, out of his love to be above all things loved and loving.”

Often, acting in faith means leaving the people, the places, the ways of life that are so familiar to us. Faith is a risk and is risky business. We would rather stay with the known than risk venturing forward into the unknown, even if it is God’s call. “Much of the time we tend to play it safe. We prefer to stay with what we already have, with what we are familiar with. For the most part, we are not about to trade that for some uncertain future. Yet, the biblical witnesses, like Sarah and Abraham, show us again and again that faith means saying goodbye to the familiar and setting out in faith in some new direction, a direction that God wants us to go. Before Abraham and Sarah were able to make progress to the new homeland God intended for them, they first had to show their willingness to say goodbye to their current homeland. In like manner, when Jesus called the first disciples those fishermen had to say goodbye to their boats, their nets, their families, before beginning the new life Jesus was offering them.” (Lection Aid, vol. 15, number 3, p. 41) In my own life, in order for me to enter into ordained ministry, I had to surrender a well-paying job, take on debt, and go back to school, all the while supporting two young children as a single parent, and leaving them three days a week in another’s care in Vermont while I commuted to Boston for seminary. I needed to say goodbye to a life that was familiar, relatively safe, and risk a whole new way of life, not knowing where the journey would lead.

What is God inviting us to say goodbye to? Is God calling us to venture forth in new ways, a new way of life? Is God calling us to say goodbye to make a change in our employment? Is God urging us to say goodbye to a way of life that may be self-serving and find ways of serving others? Is God leading us to say goodbye to destructive habits or destructive relationships? Is God calling us to make a change in how we relate to ourselves or others? “What is it that holds us back from making those faithful goodbyes in our lives and living fully and faithfully with and for God? (Lection Aid, vol. 15, number 3, page 41) “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is a both noun and a verb. “Faith is what I believe and how I believe.” As Diana Butler Bass said, “The text in Hebrews invites us to look at ourselves as being on a journey with God. Instead of merely glancing at the Bible and viewing it with detached curiosity, we are urged by God through those stories to enter into a lifetime pilgrimage with God.”

Faith is a spiritual pilgrimage in which we are called to rest in certain places, but not for long, for God is always urging us to say goodbye and move on to new places, meeting new people, living a new way of life, and being with others in the world and beyond this world God’s ray of loving light. We can only venture forth, trusting in God and God’s Word to lead us into light and life. To both live by faith and faithfully live we must have a desire to be in communion with God.

I invite you to join me in this prayer, a prayer written by Thomas Merton:

“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. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” Amen.

Sermon preached by Reverend Jane B. Anderson at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Appleton, Wisconsin on August 12, 2007.