By Faith #1
(based on Hebrews 1:1-3,
8-16)
Everyone has their favorite verses or stories from
scripture. Although it’s difficult for
me to narrow it down to only one, this chapter from Hebrews – often referred to
as the Faith Chapter - is definitely at the top of the list for me.
The opening verses in this chapter are not a
formal definition of faith so much as a description of it. While faith ultimately focuses on the future,
it is firmly grounded in the past. True
faith stands on a solid foundation of objective fact. It is not a vague trust in God or just a
subjective response to personal experiences. It’s a reliance on past actions for future
blessings.
Today’s verses from Hebrews Chapter 11 are a
continuation of the encouragement from the previous chapter to believe in the
promises of God instead of giving up. True
faith is an inner conviction that results in continued belief even when life is
difficult and you do not yet see what God is doing.
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright
made history. Their motorized vehicle
deified the law of gravity and flew through the air. The idea of a machine that could fly wasn't anything
new. Centuries before Orville and Wright
took to the air, philosophers and inventors alike wondered if it was possible,
coming up with all kinds of possible ideas.
And years before the Wright brothers got off the ground at Kitty Hawk,
mathematicians and scientists had actually proven that motorized flight was
possible. But many people who read the ideas
and studied the facts about it couldn't believe that flying would ever become a
reality. The Wright brothers believed in
the ideas and believed in the facts, so they were the ones that built the first
motorized flying machine that took to the air and flew. When their vehicle got off the ground for 59
seconds, covering a distance of 852 feet, they demonstrated that you have to
believe the facts and act on them to be successful.
Personally, I don’t care how much or how many
times you try to explain it to me, but it makes absolutely no sense how a 175,000
lb aircraft gets off the ground and stays in the air. That simply defies all logic to me. And yet, I know that every time I get in one,
it will lift-off and carry me to my destination. I have faith in it doing so. Why?
Because, even though the logistics and science behind it is invisible to
me, I have witnessed the evidence in the past of every airplane doing exactly
that – gaining flight, regardless of the improbability of it doing so.
In relation to God it is a conviction that God
indeed exists, that God created the world and rules over it regardless of our ability
to see and understand. And our faith
grasps and trusts in the unseen future because it relies on the certainty of
God 's past actions and future promises.
The following passages after the opening in
chapter 11 mention characters from the Old Testament who believed the promises
which God made to them even though some did not see them come to pass.
Faith was the distinctive mark of these Bible
story saints in the Old Testament. They
affirmed, by their lives, that the promises of God were true. The rest of the chapter gives one example
after another of individuals who believed in the promises of God. They faithfully walked with God because of
their conviction that God was at work for them on their behalf. Throughout the
Old Testament people faithfully walked with God without knowing what the future
held. The point is not that they were
exceptional or special in and of themselves, but rather they were commended by
God simply for their faith.
We’ll get into more detail next week about the full
list of the faithful given here in Hebrews, but in today’s main example of
Abraham and Sarah, regardless of what they did not see, continued to trust in
God. And although they didn't receive
all of God's promises while they were living, they still continued to trust in
him. And God’s promises to them came
true. Our scriptures bear witness to them.
I do find it interesting that the writer of
Hebrews opens up this chapter, not by listing the saints who through faith
believed in God, but rather begins the chapter with creation.
Why? I
think it is because you must first believe that God created the world if you
are going to put your trust in God and have faith in what God will do. Therefore, you need to believe and have faith
in science, as well. When doing some research
and study for today’s passage, I did a search on what quotes there might be
regarding this combination of faith and science. Often these two fields of study are put at
odds with one another. For years it was
believed that you could not be a person of science and still believe in
religion. That the more you studied the
sciences, the more naïve were the beliefs of religion. Or you could not be a faithful religious
person and believe in the convictions and evidence of science. Our past debates regarding evolution have not
helped with the relationship and marriage of these two courses. However, in my research I found quite the
opposite to be true among scientists and theologians alike.
Carl Sagan wrote “Science is not only
compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of
light‐years and in the passage of
ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that
soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely
spiritual. So are our emotions in the
presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless
courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are
somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science
as a Candle in the Dark
And Albert Einstein said, “Science without
religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” He also said, “The more I study science, the
more I believe in God.”
Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., received the 1993 Nobel
Prize in Physics for the discovery of the first known binary pulsar, and for
his work which supported the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe said,
“A scientific discovery is also a
religious discovery. There is no
conflict between science and religion. Our
knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.”
And my last quote is from writer, Sarah
Maitland, “Natural history is not taught in seminary. This is curious, as most people in pastoral
ministry are about 567 times more likely to be asked about cosmology or
sub-nuclear physics or human biology or evolution than they are to be asked about
irregular Greek verbs or the danger of the patripassionist heresy. If we monotheists are going to go around
claiming that our “God made the heaven and the earth,” it is not unreasonable
to expect us to know something about what that heaven and earth actually are.”
And to follow up on those words by Maitland, it
has been my most profound religious and scientific experience to sit on the beach
at sunset and watch as the sun disappears beneath the waves. To witness the turning of a day, the cycle of
a single moment that began with the Word of God at the beginning of
creation. To know that God, who spins
the planets, orders the universe, spans the eons, the Holy One who knew Adam
and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Miriam, Deborah and David,
Peter and Paul, also witnesses and knows me – who witnesses and knows you – is
by far the most profound revelation and conviction of faith one can come to.
Just as God spoke the world into existence God
also speaks to individuals asking that they trust in him and act on his word to
them. We act on God's word by faith
because we trust in the God who created the world, which was created out of
nothing. God spoke and caused matter to
come into existence which God then used to create the world and everything in
it. If God can do that, God can certainly
handle any problem you face. Trust in
Him, believe and have faith.
Thanks be to God. AMEN
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