Sermons

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Sunday 19th August at 8am and 10am

Maureen Williams
Readings: Hebrews 11: 29 - 12: 2; Luke 12.49-56

'Heroes of Faith'

Have you ever been on one of those open-top buses that take you for a tour round the city? I heard about a couple who had taken a city-tour round Vancouver and at the end of the journey, one word was ringing in their ears: 'awesome'. The driver used it about everything, buildings, statistics, traffic - even the electricity sub-station was 'awesome'.

We could not have a more appropriate word ringing in our ears when we read these verses from chapter 11 of Hebrews. This tour of Old Testament saints is 'awesome', and what they hold in common is 'faith'. Moses and the people who crossed the Red Sea ,Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel are part of this awesome tour through the Old Testament recorded in the reading as heroes of faith and part of the 'crowd of witnesses' which surrounds us.

Who are your heroes? Who is in your crowd of witnesses urging you on? It is an inspiring thought that people in more recent years can also be part of the crowd witnessing to us. I am thinking about the Roman Catholic priest, Max Colb who, voluntarily, gave up his life in a German concentration camp so that that another prisoner could live; of Bishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated in his cathedral in Brazil; of the missionary, Jim Elliot, killed by Auca Indians in South America, and I am thinking of one of my Sunday School teachers. These, and many more I am sure you could name in the world and in our church, are witnesses for us to draw inspiration from.

In the reading, the catalogue of heroes continues with the Israelites who had the faith not to turn back when they came to the Red Sea. Even with Pharaoh's army at their heels they pressed on, trusting God to open up a way ahead that seemed impossible.

In Jericho, the Israelites had the faith to wait for God to work. The walls of Jericho only fell after they had continued to march around them for seven days.

Rahab had the faith to see God's hand working in her situation. She recognised the invading army as God's judgement on her nation and she collaborated with the Israelite spies.

Gideon, after many struggles, had the faith to be obedient to God in standing up to the Midianites. David had the faith to compose great psalms of praise and Daniel, the faith to face persecution.

Let us consider this list -
Faith not to turn back; faith to wait for God to work; faith to see God's hand at work in our situation; faith to be obedient; faith to praise God in difficult circumstances; faith to face persecution. Are you, or is anyone you know, struggling to keep their faith in circumstances like these?

It is good for us to remember that not all these heroes were particularly strong or saintly people; Rahab was a prostitute; Gideon was timid if not cowardly; Samson had a weakness for women; David was not only an adulterer but a murderer as well. They were ordinary human beings. They had human failings. Is it too great a challenge to believe that God can work with our weaknesses as he did with theirs?

About half way through the reading there is a change. Before verse v35, faith has triumphed in all kinds of adversity - from Noah's ark to the walls of Jericho. After v35, it is not faith leading to victory and deliverance, but faith revealed in people whose suffering is on-going through stoning, flogging and imprisonment.
We know that there is on-going suffering for Christians today in countries like Iraq and Pakistan who are having to endure the torching of their churches and living under the threat of death for keeping their faith. Only a few weeks ago we, at St Edmund's, were asked by Jane Shaw our link missionary in Pakistan, to pray for seven families who had received threats like these.

Faith does not guarantee the absence of pain and suffering. There are people around us, people we know of in our everyday lives, whose suffering is on-going with no miraculous healing; and no apparent answer to prayer.

In ill-health, in bereavement, in circumstances beyond their control, people are living faith-filled lives which are an inspiration to us all. Their patience and steadfast refusal to give up on God surely puts them in that 'awesome' list of heroes we began with. We need to pray for heroes of faith we know of today who are living lives of on-going difficulty and pain.

Then, at chapter 12, the tour is over. The bus stops and the door opens at the first verse for us to get out and get ready to run the race of faith ourselves. We may feel weak and incapable of living an 'awesome' life like theirs, but it is in our weakness that we can know God's strength.

The help he offers is in verse 2. We are to 'keep our eyes fixed on Jesus'. He is the start and the finish of our journey; the one 'on whom our faith depends from beginning to end'; the one who is strong when we are weak; the one we are to trust to keep us faithful in our lives and in this church as we face a time of change.

In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul tells them to trust, that He 'who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.' So, in spite of our weaknesses, let us trust that He who has begun his work in us and in our church, will continue and carry it through to the end. Amen.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay