Proper 14 :: Genesis 15:1 – 6 / Psalm 33:22
– 32 / Hebrews 11:1 – 3, 8 – 16 / Luke 12:32 – 40
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 7, 2022.
“UNDERSTANDING FAITH: THE CHAIR AS AN EXAMPLE”
(Homily
texts: Genesis 15:1 – 6 & Hebrews
11:1 – 3, 8 – 16)
Our
well-chosen lectionary choices for this morning all concentrate, to one degree
or another, on the matter of faith.
If
we consider what it means to have faith in someone, or something, we come to
the conclusion that we’re dealing with the matter of the visible and the
invisible. Indeed, the write of the Letter to the Hebrews captures this reality
by saying, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
We
might explore what it means to have faith, and specifically, to have faith in
God, in God’s promises, and in God’s ability and power to permit us to overcome
whatever challenges might come our way, by looking at chairs.
Where
would the world be without chairs? To some of us (myself included), we welcome
the opportunity to be able to sit down, and not to be standing for long periods
of time. Chairs enable us to do more throughout the day, to be more
comfortable, to concentrate on something other than any physical condition that
might capture our attention (discomfort or pain, e.g.), and so forth. Chairs
allow us to do thins that would be very difficult to do otherwise, things like
writing and eating. Chairs are such a blessing in so many ways, it seems to me.
Chairs,
I believe, can tell us a lot about faith. In fact, it’s probably safe to say
that most of us haven’t really given much thought to our use of chairs, except
in the rare instances when a chair proves itself to be incapable of supporting
us, like when a chair’s components are coming apart, or one or more of its
components is broken.
So,
here’s my own personal list of observations about chairs, and our use of them:
·
The most important thing a chair has to
do is to be able to safely hold us up when we sit on/in it. So the question we
ask ourselves (consciously or otherwise) is “Will this thing hold me?” before
making use of it. Asking this question is a matter of faith, having faith in
the chair’s ability to do what it’s supposed to do.
·
We engage in a review of the chair’s
appearance and its characteristics, often without realizing we’re doing so. We
look at its components, at how well its various parts are held together, the
nature of its design and workmanship, and whether or not there’s any visible
damage.
·
We rely on our past history with chairs
to assess the suitability of the chair in front of us’ ability to serve us
safely and well. In so doing, we’re matching our past history with our current
reality.
·
We might also rely on the experience of
others in assessing whether or not the chair we’re about to sit in will serve
us in the same way it’s serving others. An example of this would be at a
banquet or similar gathering where others are making use of the same sort of
chairs that we intend to make use of.
In
all of this review, what we’re doing is relying on our past history with chairs
in order to bridge into the future of our use of chairs, passing through the
present to do so. Seen this way, relying
on our own past experience allows us to have faith that we can face our future use
of chairs with some degree of assurance.
Assurance.
That word brings us back to Hebrews. Notice that the writer says that faith is
the assurance (some translations say “substance”) of
things hoped for, the conviction (some translations say “evidence”) of
things not seen. We read in verse three that we have faith that God created the
visible world we see out of nothing, so that the things we can see were created
out of things we cannot see. The visible world is the proof that God did all
this creating. God’s past action in creating all things “visible and invisible”
(as the Nicene Creed states) allows us to have faith in God’s creative power.
Our
Old Testament companion reading for this morning, relates Abraham’s predicament
in being childless. Abraham complains to God, saying that “Eliezer of Damascus
is to be my heir.” God replies by saying, “This man shall not be your heir,
your very own son shall be your heir.”
God’s
assurance of Abraham’s blessing by being a father is based not on God’s past
direct action in providing Abraham with any children, but by God’s past
faithfulness in leading Abraham out of his home and into the land which God had
promised to give him. Genesis relates that Abraham believed God’s promise, and
this was “reckoned to him as righteousness”. The writer of Hebrews relates
Abraham’s faithfulness in following God’s leading into the promised land,
continuing on to relate the gift of Isaac as Abraham’s son.
Our
passage from Hebrews then reminds us that Abraham (and other) faithful servants
of God in times past ventured out from their known past into an unknown future,
trusting God to lead and to provide.
That
journey, from the known past through our present experience and into an unknown
future, reminds us of our engagement with chairs….we trust our past experience
to guide and inform our present and to allow us to face tomorrow with
confidence and assurance. So it is with the things of God. And, perhaps, just
as we might gain confidence in our ability to make use of a chair that is before
us if we see others making the same use of the same sorts of chairs that we’re
contemplating using, so it is that we can gain assurance from the accounts of
God’s faithfulness with others in times past. That is, obviously, one major
reason for the existence of Holy Scripture, to bolster our confidence in
uncertain times, and to enable and grow our faith.
Perhaps
our own journey of faith might prompt us to look back over our shoulders at our
life’s trajectory until this present moment. When we do, where will we see
evidence of God’s faithfulness, of God’s presence, especially in difficult and
trying times?
AMEN.
