In this sermon I want to attempt something quite specific. I want to try and look with you in depth at the opening phrase of the Hebrews reading.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
What sort of thing is faith that it can bring us conviction or certainty of things that we cannot see ? The word used for conviction elenchos simply means proof. Faith brings proof of something. Faith delivers something to us that gets us out of agnosticism and uncertainty into assurance and certainty. So this grabs my attention. Where is faith looking, what is it faith in? And how does this bring me proof?
I want to put a couple of things on the table, let them stay there a while, and then come back to them. Blaise Pascal. Hugely important scientific figure. Born in France 1623 and died 1662. He contributed to concepts of vacuum, probability theory, geometry, theories of economics and social theory, corresponded with Fermat on mathematical concepts and notably built several calculating machines but died at the age of 39. He was a devout Christian. After his death, a small piece of paper was found sewn into the corner of his cloak. It said these words describing an experience he had at the age of 32.
"Feast of St Clement, Pope and Martyr and other of the Martyrology, from about half past ten in the evening to about half past twelve...
| FIRE
| God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob
| Not of philosophers or scholars
| Certainty, Joy, Certainty, Feeling, Vision, Joy
| God of Jesus Christ.
| My God and thy God.
| Thy God shall by my God...
| Joy, joy and tears of joy" |
The second thing I want to put on the table are the words of Peter from John's gospel. Jesus tells the crowd that he is the living bread which has come down from heaven that takes away all our hunger. Many of his disciples found this just too much and abandoned the cause. He says to Peter, the leader, what about you? Peter says," Lord to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God" It wouldn't always seem this clear but on that day faith (we have believed) brought its own proof (and have come to know) something utterly unexpected which changed everything.
Two stories about men who moved from uncertainty to certainty. Fire. Courage. Commitment. Resolution. These are the ingredients of the faith which brings its own convictions.
Is faith a verb or a noun?
Do you have it or do you do it? My suggestion it can be either but the faith that is spoken of in Hebrews is more like a verb than a noun. When I think of faith as a noun then it is a possession I have acquired or even that someone has tried to give me. When I sit in the congregation Sunday after Sunday the preacher tries to give me faith or more faith than I had. I am a willing recipient of the gift. But life can be difficult and the gift of faith that was secure in my hands on Sunday has, by Thursday often been mislaid. Did I lose it round the house? I look around for it like car keys I put down and forgot. Where did it go?
My understanding of what it means to have faith as a verb was refreshed a couple of years ago in that I had an unpleasant experience that I share with some in the congregation. Redundancy. Ollie and I came to Malvern 4 years ago because after 9 years of being Director of a counselling agency in Bristol, I was recruited by the YMCA movement to be their national advisor on personal and spiritual development. So we moved to Malvern where I could jump on a train at Malvern Link and go round the country visiting different YMCAs. And then after 18 months the YMCA fell in a huge pension deficit hole and decided all the trainers and advisors were surplus to requirements. To be made redundant at 62 was a bit of a body blow but by the time I had driven back to Malvern from Banbury, the place of execution, I had written a business plan, marketing plan etc. I am a resilient person. But later I understood, walking on that hill, that the real challenge was not to handle this so I got tougher but to handle so I knew God better. It wasn't going to about having a faith but using it, dealing with faith as a verb not a noun. And that meant at the heart of my strategy to pay the mortgage, pay the pension, keep Waitrose in business had to be some radical prayer.
Did I believe the God could intervene? Did I believe the Christ I tried to serve could provide for us? I rediscovered faith as a verb not just a noun. It was something I had to do. And it caused me to realise something else. I hadn't really needed God like that for a long time. While I had faith, I didn't need faith for the ordinary things of life. In retrospect I understand that I had become a lot more uncertain and thus a little joyless as a Christian. I wasn't receiving the real benefits that only come when faith is a verb not a noun.
Faith as a verb does four things and when those four things are added up they equal proof. But not scientific proof. Let's pick up Pascal again. He said, The heart has reasons, reason knows nothing of". And you can understand why he said that, after hearing his experience. Not the God of philosophers and scholars. The God of Jesus Christ. Joy. Certainty. Joy. I believe faith has reasons, reason knows nothing of. It's not that kind of certainty. Not a certainty based on numbers but love, experience and surrender.
Faith as a verb creates a different internal landscape. I wonder whether you have watched any of the programmes about these charming Amish young people. It is very moving watching them negotiate their way through a culture which is completely strange to them. What is evident, it seems to me, is that the practices of silence, singing, loving, physical work, solidarity and heart felt faith have created in them a different internal landscape. People are moved by them because they sense it. These kids are different on the inside. They have been changed. When we really worship with our hearts, when we pray because we utterly need God, when we allow ourselves to feel the love that reaches for us, then we become different inside. That new internal landscape makes it seem to us more likely that we are created, more likely than not we are loved and redeemed and more likely there is nothing in life or death to fear. Faith has reasons, reason knows nothing of.
Faith as a verb develops a different foundation for living. The foundation for living I get from my western culture is prudential - I am careful with money, sometimes anxious, have insurance, road side help if needed and paid advisors. This is not wrong but having faith in this God should give me a careless joy in living, a freedom from anxiety, a conviction that His creative power is enough to turn round the worst of circumstances. The older hymns, written in a less healthy and more fragile time, reflect this. Gerhardt, the German Pietist, writing not so long after Pascal says
| Now I have the ground wherein
| Sure my soul's anchor may remain...
| Fixed on this ground will I remain
| Though my heart fail and flesh decay,
| This anchor shall my soul sustain
| When earth's foundations melt away,
| Mercy's full power I then shall prove,
| Loved with an everlasting love |
His foundation for living is the certainty that whatever happens, God is for him, God is with him, God can be trusted. Faith has reasons, reason knows nothing of.
Faith as a verb leads us into a new solidarity. We call that solidarity church but it is better to think of it as the fellowship, the koinonia. I work a good deal with clergy and I try to urge them that they before all else should identify themselves with the faith commitments and faith journey of the congregation. We are members of each other before all else. We brothers and sisters in learning how to pray and trust and lean on this invisible God. As Anglicans we are often not so good at bearing witness, giving testimony of what God has done for us, what we ache for him to do for us. Someone said that learning is a contact sport. But then so is doing faith. Our work of faith as a verb brings us together in fellowship and understanding and warmth. Faith has reasons, reason knows nothing of.
Faith as a verb catches fire in love and joy. Joy is the keynote of a life where faith has become the core activity. So it feels like a gift because to give oneself to Christ in faith is a delight and joy and a burning. Fire, said Pascal, fire. The fire of love. The theme dominates so many of the hymns of Charles Wesley. This is the last verse of his great hymn Spirit of Faith come down:
| Inspire the living faith
| That whosoer believes,
| The witness in himself he hath
| And consciously believes.
| The faith that conquers all
| And doth the mountain move
| And saves whoe're on Jesus call
| And perfects them in love". |
Faith has its reasons, reason knows nothing of.
So we have believed and come to know. Assurance comes through the exercise of faith. Faith as a verb brings and delivers the evidence, the proof, the conviction of things not seen. The unseen, invisible love of God, the unseen invisible presence of His Son, our blessed Saviour. The unseen, invisible presence of the Spirit to heal and animate and guide. Because when we add all this up - this internal landscape, this new foundation of carefree trust in living, this solidarity of those who pray and this warmth and fire in our hearts. Then we have as much proof as we might want. A proof that moves us from doubt to conviction, from worry to joy, from agnosticism to certainty. Because faith has its reasons, reason knows nothing of.
Tim Marks
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