During Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s eight years in
Russian prison camps, his parents died and his wife divorced him. Upon his
release from prison he was dying of a cancer that was growing in him so rapidly
that he could feel the difference in a span of twelve hours. It was at that
point that he abandoned himself to God and wrote this beautiful prayer: ‘Oh
God, how easy it is for me to believe in You. You created a path for me through
despair…Oh God, you have used me, and where you cannot use me, you have appointed
others. Thank you.
There’s an image of faith if
ever there was one!
People say they find faith hard
but it’s simply a matter of opening your inner eye as suggested in today’s
second reading from the letter to the Hebrews: Faith is the conviction of things not
seen.
When we possess faith, that
conviction is practical wisdom. Solzhenitsyn’s faith was something very
practical that gave him purpose even as he faced death. It was a wisdom
nurtured by Scripture and the worship of the Church.
Faith is practical in that it counters
our fears, which is why Jesus says to his disciples in today’s Gospel Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is
your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Faith sets your sights on the
big picture of things, as we read in the letter to the Hebrews, it is to desire a better country, that is, a heavenly
one. As for Abraham in the first and second readings faith is taking God at
his word when he promises you something good ahead of you. By faith Abraham obeyed when
he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance;
and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he
had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and
Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has
foundations, whose architect and builder is God… because he considered
him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good
as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the
innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’
We, people of God, are the descendants
of Abraham who is our father in faith!
So this morning let’s be
reminded of our mission action plan here at St Giles Church, which is to grow in faith, love and numbers.
How can we grow in faith?
We need to commit to God in Jesus Christ. God,
give me a vision of yourself more to your dimensions and less to mine. Open my
inner eyes! If we really prayed that prayer day by day we’d have an
awareness of God in the present moment that wouldn't just satisfy inner
restlessness but make our faith a blessing to those around us.
I take the Blessed Sacrament to
a number of housebound folk. Last week I was sitting with one home communicant
looking out, as one can do in many a home in Horsted Keynes, on a terrific
view. The lady said to me she was astonished her children and grandchildren
failed to see God behind that beauty. For her and for me the view stirred up
the thought, what must he be like who
made such beauty? For them the beauty was just there as a backcloth
to busy lives and no eye opener to God.
To grow in faith, as our Hebrews
passage said, we need the conviction of things not seen…By faith we understand that the worlds
were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things
that are not visible.
Thomas Aquinas wrote wisely that to one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without
faith, no explanation is possible. The wisdom of this saying is brought out
in the story of the acrobat who wheeled his son in a wheelbarrow as part of his
high wire act. When they asked his son how he felt about the exercise his only
comment was I trust my dad.
Here is faith defined as the extra sense it is, quite beyond
the natural senses, but nevertheless based on experience. The boy needed no
explanation for the faith he had in his father though few others would rise to
it. By analogy Christian faith in God is the certain conviction you will be
carried forward in all the perils of life by one who loves you beyond reason.
The strength of Christianity lies in this revelation of God as the Father of
Jesus who acts by his Spirit to carry us forward through all the pitfalls in
our life to resurrection glory.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good
pleasure to give you the kingdom Jesus
says.
How can we grow in faith?
Commit yourself to God – and see
yourself more fully as he sees you. This means more prayer, more space
to ponder God in his creation.
It also means a certain biblical
literacy, that is, getting into scripture, where there are so many promises
addressed to believers. Those praised in today’s purple passage from Hebrews
are praised like Abraham for taking God at his word. Only when you experience a
passage of scripture being underlined to you by God and the consequences of
that, can you see the powerful implications of taking God at his word.
To grow in faith we need a
fuller sense of who we are as God’s children, filled with his Spirit, promised
his provision and destined for his glory.
Seeing yourself more fully as
God sees you is a real eye opener. It comes though from a readiness to allow
the opening up of those inner eyes that are the Spirit’s gift to every human
being, even if, mysteriously, so few seem graced to see them opened.
As something God-given, faith is inevitably mysterious.
Believers hold things together in their experience that live in tension from a
rational perspective. Hence faith is seen as both a virtue and a gift, a human
act yet one prompted by God, a personal act yet inseparable from the corporate
faith of the church. The paradox of faith is captured in the famous definition
of Thomas Aquinas: Believing is an act of
the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God
through grace.
Though seen as a human virtue, faith is seen as something moved by God through grace.
So here we are this morning open to grace, seeking those
inner eyes to operate more fully in an unbelieving culture. Here we are encountering God in word and
sacrament, coming close to God who embraces us in the eucharist, as a mother
embraces her children, to assure them they are loved.
May the love of the Lord be upon us as we put our faith in
him!
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