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

Sermon on faith and fear by Julio de Santa Ana

Sermon preached by Prof. Dr. Julio de Santa Ana in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, 22 June 2009

Texts: Hebrews 12, 1-4; John 6, 16-21; Matthew 14: 22-33

There is a trend among Christian believers that makes us think about faith without recognizing most of the time the relationship that exists between faith and some aspects of reality. These aspects are different from what makes us believe. However, we need to be be aware that they are somewhat close to faith.
Generally we think about faith as a theological virtue, as the driving force of our Christian existence. We think of faith as God-given reality, necessary for the existence of Christian communities. Therefore, faith is a fundamental component of what makes us believers. However, generally we do not consider some aspects which are in tension with faith, and which may weaken it in many cases.
I must say that during the last years I have become aware of the tense relationships that I am talking about. Some situations experienced by Christian communities in Latin America brought me to read the Bible while trying to be attentive to ways which help clarify why their faith, in different circumstances, was endangered, threatened, challenged. I want to share now, with this community at the Ecumenical Centre, some of the lessons learned by groups of Christians and few reflections that have grown up in my mind. I need to say that, although the motivation was something which happened in Latin America, it is something that may also take place in other contexts.
One of the aspects that strikes me is the relationship that appears between faith and fear in some narratives of the New Testament. We often say that faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. We claim that faith is the rock where Christian life is anchored. Therefore, there are frequent cases of Christian communities repeating these words. It is a traditional affirmation. Nevertheless, it happens that there are many Christian groups who, at the same time as they repeat these words are actually giving up their faith. For example, it is happening to many Christians who, while saying loudly that they want to be followers of Jesus are not ready to give account of their faith.
Unfortunately, what frightens them, what makes them to be fearful, has more power than their faith. I do not want to make a negative observation. Rather, it makes me consider some narratives of the Gospels where stories are told of Jesus walking on the waters of Lake Gennesaret. In the text of the Gospel of Matthew that I read, it says that, when the disciples saw him walking over the sea, “they were terrified”. Jesus told them: “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid”. After the answer, Peter questioned Jesus: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come on the water”. Jesus did so; Peter got out of the boat and started to walk on the sea. But, after a moment, Peter was frightened again and began to sink; he cried: “Lord, save me!” Jesus helped him and said: “You of little faith; why did you doubt?”

This narrative reminds me that often we are like Peter and the other disciples: we say that we have faith. But facing the challenges that we experience, we are afraid. Our faith becomes smaller, irrelevant: we are like the disciples, persons of “little faith”.
This is a narrative of the Gospels (it can be read in the story told by Matthew, Mark and John) that helps to understand the situation of many communities of faith in our own time. Faith is linked with fear. The tension between both cannot be denied nor neglected. Trying to understand these texts, we can say that the opposite of faith is fear, rather than agnosticism. Faith is something that transcends knowledge; it looks to be an existential bet, a wager where we apply all of ourselves. Juan Luis Segundo, who was a theologian from Uruguay (like me), used to say that faith is the gate which opens the way to hope. I share the distinction that he used to make between theological faith and anthropological faith; they are different indeed, but both types of faith require the overcoming of fear.

It seems that it should be easy, natural, to do it. But it is not so. Like Peter, when he was walking over the sea, we are very often more attentive to the signs of the storm around us than to the words of Jesus. In cases of this kind we can be called “people of little faith”.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find the text of chapter 11, where there is a long list of men and women who were firm in their behaviour, keeping their faith: even before Abraham such persons bore witness to their faith. They persevered and were stubborn, steadfast in their attitude of faith.

After remembering some of those who preserve their faith, we are challenged to be like these people. We are called to run with perseverance the race which is before us. The most important condition is that we have to do it looking to Jesus: he has been, continues to be and will be the one who has manifested that kind of faith that overcomes fear and death. Such affirmation is made in chapter 13 of the Epistle to the Hebrews: “The Messiah Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever” (13:8).
We are called to give witness to our faith in situations that are not favourable. Sometimes our faith is at stake because the storms of life threaten our existence and the winds that rock the boat seem to turn our small ship; other times we may have the impression that powerful institutions want to impose their logic and their traditions, and that we cannot face them. There may be moments also where we become aware of how small and petty we are as we consider the power of those who want to bend us. In situations like these we may be tempted to leave aside our faith becoming afraid. Then, we may be called: “You, of little faith”.
How to be faithful to Jesus, the “pioneer and perfecter of faith” (as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews called him)? The text of the Epistle of Hebrews give us a clear orientation to fulfil this objective, which I think is coherent with the one that we find in the narratives of the gospels, where the disciples are called to keep faith and do not give up.

Let us pray;

Beloved God and Father of all:
We thank you for the gift of faith. Help us to live it with courage, facing the difficulties that are unavoidable to the situations we have to experience. We ask you, our God, that the balsam of your grace be especially with those who feel that their faith is threatened. Give them that spiritual force that confirms their faith.

In the name of Jesus,

AMEN.

Copyright (c) Julio de Santa Ana