One of the problems that the Church has had to live with over the years is bad theology. There are all kinds of different theological arguments about all kinds of different subjects but one of the most controversial is over the question of faith.
There was a lady who had become a devout Christian – she was told and firmly believed that Faith can not just move mountains, but actually remove any mountains at all from our lives, and bits that get difficult or awkward. And she began to apply this theory in her life with some incredible results. Obstacles seemed to just disappear – she got over illnesses quickly, she got a better job, her financial position improved – she even seemed to find parking spaces more easily than other people. It was an incredible faith.
But then she became ill, and the illness didn’t seem to get any better. Eventually she was diagnosed as having cancer. First she denied it, then she claimed Biblical promises that would her recover, then she became resentful and angry. And then incredibly, she began to look at herself, "If only I could have more faith; if only the right person had prayed for me. If only . . ."
It was only at this point that she finally accepted the inevitable – her illness was terminal and God was not going to provide a miracle cure. At that point she stopped questioning, she stopped bargaining with God and just sought out his help to cope with whatever would follow.
Her theology had been bad. Promises had been made to her which could never be delivered – just as some of the television evangelists make their promises about great wealth and happiness and contentment, if only we have enough faith.
Yet, the remarkable part of this bad theology is that a lot of it comes from our reading from the part of the letter to the Hebrews that we have heard this evening (11:29-12:2). Faith is an incredible part of our Christian lives, and yet what we do when we’re challenged with a huge block in front of us that we can’t move becomes the real test of our faith.
I suspect that at one time or another, perhaps even constantly people battle with faith – the questions we can’t answer, the times when it seems all we’ve ever believed still isn’t enough. And yet part of this reading from Hebrews suggests faith can indeed do everything… that is, until we take a closer look.
It’s natural enough I think to want to take the good bits out of every book we read, and every lesson we learn - In Hebrews, faith stands tall; faith pleases God. Faith conquers kingdoms, slams shut the jaws of lions, puts entire armies to flight, and rescues its possessors from firing squads. In Hebrews, faith celebrates the achievements through faith of a great list of Old Testament celebrities, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah…
And that’s what people have tended to concentrate on, but in that same chapter there’s another group – we’re told they ‘were tortured, refusing to accept release ,in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill- treated…’ (11:35-36)
And so if we just take faith as the key to all happiness then there’s obviously something wrong with the faith of these people… Yet, remarkably, these outcasts are deliberately held up before us as models of faith! By faith Noah built the ark; by faith Abraham became the Father of a multitude. By faith Sarah received the power to have a baby when she was nearly 90. By faith these people faced all kinds of torture and punishment and misery… And so, what is the writer trying to tell us about faith?
I think it is that God wants faithfulness, not just faith. This makes more sense when we think of the first recipients of this letter. We know that a missionary effort had reached their part of the world. It may have been Paul, it may have been Apollos. But the result of the missionary effort is clear, and that is that people had begun to form a Church.
But when the missionaries had moved on to new places, things began to get more difficult – people started to question more, people were persecuted, people started to have problems, and faith, or lack of it, was what was often blamed… And so some of the people began to slip back into easier religions. And it was in response to this that this letter was written…
The Message Bible which is a modern translation quotes part of Chapter 10 like this, ‘Don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan . . . we’re not quitters who lost out. Oh no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way (Hebrews 10:35-39)’.
Endurance is another word for faithfulness; it means sticking it out. People who endure are so convinced of the outcome of God's promise that nothing will keep them from enduring. Endurance is keeping going when your world starts to cave in; staying strong when mountains don't move…
One of the great examples of endurance was during the Olympics in Barcelona back in 1992. Derek Redmond was competing in the 400 Metre Semi-finals. He had spent eight years preparing for that race, and less than 150 metres from the tape he was manoeuvring into position when he fell to the ground. A severely pulled hamstring had ended his chances of a medal.
He was in agony and sobbing and yet he got up and hobbled toward the finish line dragging his right leg behind him. The crowd jumped to their feet and began to cheer him on. Then Redmond’s father broke through the security and put his arm around his son and five minutes later the two of them crossed the finish line together. They had not finished first, but they had won.
Few are called to sensational feats of faith; but all of us are called to faith-full-ness. To endurance. To finish the race that God has set before us. Our reading ends with two motivations to turn us into marathon runners. First, we have surrounding us those who have already finished the race - they’re all standing at the finish line cheering us on! Abraham, Sarah, Rahab, our own loved ones…
They’re all there urging us to endure, to do our best. But One other stands out among all the others. Jesus. "Looking to Jesus," the writer says, who is the creator and the perfector of our faith. Jesus urges us on and even supplies all the faithfulness we’ll need. We just need to keep our focus in him.
And so we’re called not to sensational faith, but to faithfulness, and that is the quality that can turn every one of us into heroes. We may not move mountains, we may not all achieve wealth or fame, but one thing is certain as we continue our Christian journey and that is that God will be with us, and there can be no more important fact than that. AMEN
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