Home Learning
What do we mean by? |

Faith?

Helen Jacobi wonders what we mean by the word ‘faith” 
Rev Cate Thorn

Only logged in users can comment on a video.

Faith?

Transcript
Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of Things Not Seen the writer of the letter to the Hebrews. I think probably gives us the best definition of faith that we can find in the Bible. It trips. Nicely off the tongue, like a line of poetry. Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for the conviction of Things Not Seen. But what does it mean? Exactly? Well, that's a whole other question. Faith is the Assurance of things, hoped for the word translated there. As a Assurance in, the Greek is hypostasis, and it really means something a lot more solid than just Assurance. It's not like I assure you, the check is in the mail. If we ever wrote checks anymore and sent anything in the mail, it means rather a foundation or something that's standing underneath, you, and supporting you. Makes me think of the upright poles and a fat anui the potok on Manawa in the center or the armored panels, at the front of the far a you know, how often there are carvings of the ancestors and one is standing underneath the other and they're all kind of reaching up and supporting each other and then reaching for the heavens. So the assurances moral Foundation. Someone who's standing under you and holding you up, one writer Amy. Peeler says, if hypostasis is something basic something, solid, something firm, then it provides a place to stand from, which one can then hope a place to stand from where we can hope a place to stand from where we can reach. So, where is your place to stand? It might be a place. You love your home or somewhere. You grew up somewhere special where you've holidayed your to run ryy or it might not be a physical place. Your place to stand might be with the person you love or with a group of people might be your grandmother, your family, a beloved partner, your children? Or your place to stand might be in your thinking or your art, your music, your creativity might be in your day to day, everyday work. Your place to stand might be in your spiritual life. Your prayer might be in the sent your sense of the other, your sense of God or your sense of self. And it's probably going to be a combination of a lot of those things. faith in is about finding this place to stand and then from that place, hoping and reaching And what are we reaching? And hoping for well in part, we reaching and hoping for those things not seen because we can't see God, we can't see the future. And yet we're told faith, is the conviction of Things Not Seen. And conviction is like evidence in a court room, which is usually pretty tangible these things, These Things Not Seen are going to become evident and obvious. How does that work? Join chill chat joined chidester says that as we reach and hope as we act in faith. We destroy the idol. That is ourselves. She says, it's only the deep down belief that we are not the be all and end. All of the universe that can save us from ourselves. It's the awareness of being part of something, vast and intelligent and well-intentioned that gives purpose to life. That leads us to seek beyond the horizons beyond the horizons of our smallness, to the hope that tomorrow we can all be better. so, by looking and seeking Beyond ourselves, we can, in fact, begin to see, or know the Unseen By being true to ourselves, knowing on what we stand. We can begin to see the Unseen. the example that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews gives us is that of Abraham and Sarah who felt called to leave their home and travel to a Strange Land with the promise that their descendants would be like the stars when they at that stage had no children and no hope of having any Jesus tells his disciples to be dressed and ready for action. Lamp slit. Like the servants waiting for their Master to return. He's saying live ready and open to what might come expect that God is going to show up in your life. So we come here this morning hoping to meet with God as well as meeting with each other and we have tangible signs of God's love and bread wine music and words. After the service, we're going to have a baptism, water, a tangible sign of God's love. But we come to experience all of those things knowing that God does not reside in church. In our book group that we had recently, we read the book grounded by Diana Butler bass and she tells a story about going to church on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in Alexandria near Washington. They had a guest preacher at her church that day and he was of course reflecting on the anniversary and then began to talk about the 4,000 people who had died in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result. And she set, they're really confused. What was he talking about? 4,000 people. There were tens of thousands, if not more. Shirley and then she realized all of a sudden that he was only talking about the Americans who were killed and she writes I gasped audibly and then hoping not to make a scene I slipped out of the Pew and left the building. I sat down on the stairs outside, trying to let my sorrow and my Fury sir. Signed, as I attempted to compose myself, I noticed many people walking around the neighborhood. Far, more than usual. They were all heading towards the main street. So without a second thought I followed the crowd. When I got there, I realized it was artwalk a yearly Festival painters and sculptors and Weaver's and musicians. And as I stood on the corner and looked out on the scene, all my senses were alive Coke's to fall attentiveness by vibrant colors bright. Chimes in the wind, the SEC, the call sound of a sexy phone children were laughing neighbors. Greeted, one another, the energy, the creativity, how wonderful Was. In my cell phone buzzed, a text message appear on the screen from my husband. Are you coming back to church? I don't know. I texted in reply. It seems so obvious, right then and I have no idea why I had never noticed it before for years. The church kept me safe inside a building and all the while the spirit was out here on the streets. Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things. Unseen faith is within us and around us. We find faith when we find a place to stand supported by others, and begin to Hope, This church, we hope as a place that can help us do that. After all, we claim here to be a spirited place, where people stand connect and seek common ground, but this church, or any church is not what faith is about in the end. Faith is about your life and the way that you live in God's world. Lamps lit and ready for action.