Observation: The sermon in Hebrews recounts example after example of what faith looks like in the lives of people in the Hebrew Bible: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. Important note: it always involves taking action. Even Abraham, whom God has asked to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, trusts enough in God's promise, "It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you," that Abraham goes forward, believing that God will provide a solution. I'm also drawn to the words about Moses, who was raised by Pharaoh's daughter, and in theory, could have lived in privilege all his days, yet instead took the side of God's people against the most powerful nation the world had ever known.
Application: Something that seems to hold all these examples together: Faith is always about making choices. Not just one choice, but repeated choices. And those choices do not make sense unless God is good. It reminded me of Martin Luther's quote, "faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times."
We've got the wrong idea about faith a lot of the time. Faith isn't about checking off boxes of very extraordinary or unlikely Biblical events, and whether we can intellectually assert that they historically took place. And faith doesn't mean following religious rules for fear of punishment, and excluding all the right people to keep ourselves morally pure. Neither of those definitions of faith are any use to God or the neighbor God asks us to serve. That's not what faith looked like for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, or Moses.
Instead, faith is living. Faith is daring. Faith is not just in God, but in God's grace. Faith is waking up each day, and making choices that would make no sense if God were not good. Speaking up for those with no earthly clout of power. Rejecting comfort in favor of doing hard work on ourselves. Listening when we would rather get defensive. Advocating when we would rather be silent. Speaking out and doing the right thing when we know ahead of time we'll be called naive or even ignorant.
If God were not good, none of these choices would make sense. If God were not good, we would have to spend all our time and energy defending ourselves, our property, our reputations, our little fleeting bit of happiness in a meaningless existence. But since God is good, we err on the side of grace, for the world, for each other and for ourselves.
Prayer: God, you are good. Help me live like it today. Amen.
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