The assurance of things hoped for ... A sermon by Peter Prove

The following is a sermon by Peter Prove, director of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
Preached as a Monday morning reflection at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 9 August 2010
You can find the order of service and Bible reading here.

This week in the ecumenical prayer cycle, we journey again in prayer to Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. We underline our relationship with our sisters and brothers in Christ in those countries. We express our solidarity with the peoples of both countries in their challenges and struggles. And we affirm again with the author of the book of Hebrews that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”.
This classic definition of the irreducible essence of faith was originally offered to an early Christian community struggling with persecution, marginalization and fear; a community in need of support; a community - like so many of us still today - yearning for concrete reassurance that the madness and lostness we see all around us and within us are not the last truth about the world, but only the next to last truth.
Reassurance is given in the example of Abraham, who obeyed when he was called to go out from his place, not knowing where he was to go, but looking forward to the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. It is given in the example of Sarah, who by faith received power to conceive - and to become the mother of a nation - though she was long past the age of child-bearing. And though they did not reach the promised land, they saw it from afar, and died in faith as “strangers and exiles on the earth”. They did not think of the home they had left, but desired “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” Such is the nature and example of faith.
In my own home country of Australia, a political revolution has taken place - a revolution at least by Australian standards. A sitting Prime Minister was brought down, to be succeeded by his deputy and giving Australia its first female Prime Minister. This welcome and historic sign of the growing maturity of Australian politics and society seems, however, to have a darker shadow. The issue at the crux of the political upheaval in Australia was the previous Prime Minister's proposal for a 20% 'super-tax' on mining industry profits. Though a reasoned debate might have concluded that the nation and people of Australia have a perfectly legitimate claim to a greater share of the proceeds of exploitation of its natural resources, mining industry lobbying and political influence ensured that no such debate would need to take place.
And now an election campaign is in full swing, driven largely by slogans and rather less largely by policy choices. Except of course for the fact that the super-tax proposal has been quietly shelved by our first female Prime Minister. And anyway, there is a certain irony in a nation founded on dispossession being dispossessed of the wealth of its soil. The historic apology delivered by our former Prime Minister to the Aboriginal Peoples of Australia still lacks adequate practical consequence.
It's confusing. In which direction is the better country?
In Aotearoa New Zealand a public debate is raging over large-scale foreign (i.e. Chinese) acquisition of dairy farm properties. A small competitive nation that sought greater access for its products in large emerging (i.e. Chinese) markets is now challenged by the flipside of liberalization. In this context, racism bleeds all too easily into the debate about national sovereignty. And again, national sovereignty becomes a contested concept from the perspective of the Maori people, who have seen the legal commitments of the Waitangi Treaty repeatedly and blithely disregarded.
It's confusing. By what path may we approach the land of God's promise?
The question is, do we really desire a better country, as Abraham and Sarah did, or are we content with the one we have? Do we look forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God? Do we have faith in God's promise, and are we willing to go out, leaving our familiar homes, not knowing where we are to go, but trusting in God's promise to lead us there? Are we willing to be strangers and exiles on the earth, and to die in faith, not having received what was promised but having seen it and greeted it from afar?
Such a faith is not an antidote to reality; it is not belief in spite of the evidence. It is trusting in, looking towards, and setting our hearts upon things which are real, are known, and are urgently hoped for - knowing that the hope of heaven is not separate from the hope for a transformed world. The trials and confusions of today - this very day - are connected to the promised land just across the horizon. We step forward in faith not because we know the path, but because we trust in God's promise. Because we desire a better country, a heavenly one.

copyright Peter Prove