Sermon 22nd April 2012

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Hebrews 11, verses 1 to 12.

651 million – approximately! If I then tell you that figure took all of 0.15 of a second to arrive at, you’ll think that I have been Googling again. Well, I have indeed been; and that is the number of results for an internet search on the word ‘faith’: 651 million; give or take!

I’d best be honest, in case you try this yourself. The first results pages include links to Faith shoes, guitars, beauty products; or to musicians, albums, songs, or TV channels with that name – for example. So I then did a more specific search, for ‘definitions of faith’. Given the current general UK myth that we are so past faith, you might expect there to be a dramatic reduction in the number of links. And so there is, in fact: the result numbers drop all the way down – to 140, million, again approximately (in .11 of a second this time)!

The initial conclusion that I dare to offer you, then, is that there really is still a great interest ‘out there’ in matters of faith. People want to know about the nature of faith, it would seem: what it is; what it looks like; what difference it makes; what it achieves. And if we think that Christianity has nothing to say to or about that, then we may as well just pack up and go home right now. Not only is it known as ‘the faith’; Christianity has faith at the very core of its essential nature. I’d guess that’s probably why our Bishop has chosen faith as the first of the 3 keys of his Call to Mission.

Yes, as promised earlier in the year, we will be spending some time taking up this Episcopal challenge. So, if you didn’t get a letter about it before Lent – or have lost it – do collect one from the back of church. As you will have seen (or will do), this isn’t a strategy, or a programme, as such. What it is, rather, is an invitation: to respond to God’s call. It’s a chance for us to do that as individuals. It’s also a chance for us to respond together, both as a congregation and as a Diocese. The leaflet suggested that we do this in Lent. In Herne Hill we think that the very best setting to do that in is in this one – of us considering what it means to live as God’s Easter people.

Now of course it would be easy to return to life as it was before Easter. There’s plenty enough to be getting on with: in the world; at work, or home; in church – take your pick, if you have that luxury. Either way, Easter has been; it might have been a good time for you – or not. But now it has gone, and life is carrying on apace. Before we know it, the Diamond Jubilee will be upon us; then it’s the London Olympics (less than 100 days to go now); next the summer break; followed by the whole back-to-school routine; then it’s Christmas; and hello 2013! I’m not wanting to wish your life away here, but off we will go, into another cycle of the same routines and events, albeit with some variations. But. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. I’d go so far as to say it’s meant NOT to be that way; and Easter is God’s biggest shove telling us so!

I was very struck by a common theme in people’s reactions to Good Friday’s service. Having spent 3 hours reflecting on the cross in different ways, there was a real sense of ‘So what am I meant to do now, after all that?’ Well, that’s the best question that we can ever ask, I’d say – not ‘just’ on Good Friday, but any time we consider what God has done. It is especially relevant for us to ask it in the aftermath of Easter. If we did have to pick out the one event that changed all things for all people for all time, Easter weekend would be my best offer. On Good Friday Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. On Easter Day God raised him to life, and so broke the power of death itself. Hallelujah! Nothing is, or can be, the same again after that.

Yes, of course life could carry on as it did before. But, in keeping with our focus at the start of 2011, we can choose instead to live on purpose. Specifically, we can choose to live in purposeful response to these wonderful, universe-changing realities that we have just celebrated. Feeling bold, I’d say actually that this is the only right choice that we can make. If we believe what we say we do as Christians, then how can we keep on living the same way as before? Yes, it is hard for us to live every day at Easter-intensity; but God gives us so many chances to renew our commitment to be His people and live as people of faith. The best chance that He offers us for that is Easter; and now here is one way to help us to take it up.

So, faith; hope; love: those fine Christian qualities that Paul extolled to believers in ancient Corinth. They are also “The core values which lie at the heart of our lives as witnesses to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour”. At Bishop Christopher’s invitation we are going to examine each of them in depth. Once is not enough for such major themes, of course; so we’ll do them twice through, in sequence. The plan is to help us to be sufficiently grounded in faith, hope, and love that when Pentecost arrives we’ll be ready to move on to the next stage of this process. You see, as I’ve said, this isn’t just an exercise for our heads (though that is where it starts): this is about living it out; and each of us must take responsibility for doing that.

So, we’ll start at the beginning – with faith. Faith, hope, and love are intimately linked to each other, of course. In their context within Christianity, they are interdependent; not one of them can exist without the other two. But faith is where it all begins, for the simple reason that’s given here by the anonymous writer of this New Testament letter to the Hebrews. As it’s put at the end of verse 6, whoever comes to God must have faith (GNB) / believe (NIV) that God exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him. It sounds obvious, and it is; but it still needs saying: nobody can know that God exists, in the way we know something physical exists. Any relationship with God must then start with an act of faith: that He exists; that He offers hope; and that He is love.

There simply is no better statement about that faith than the one here, in Hebrews 11: “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. (GNB) / Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (NIV)”. Scholars have argued long and hard whether this is a definition of faith; or a summary of what faith does. We can’t know for sure; but there is something vital to note about faith. I’ve discovered that in the old Authorised Version of the Bible the word ‘faith’ only appears twice in the whole Old Testament! For people in Old Testament times faith wasn’t a noun, just as it wasn’t for the author of John’s gospel. He only ever used verbs, or doing words for faith, just as the Old Testament did. Those verbs are translated into English as words, or actions, like ‘believe’, or ‘trust’, or even ‘hope’ – because that is faith!

Martin Luther expressed it rather well too: “It is a living, creative, active and powerful thing this faith. The three other gospel-authors, and Paul, did write about faith as either a noun or a verb, and they did so rather a lot! Their special contribution to our understanding of what faith is is that faith is ‘into’ or ‘upon’ the person of Jesus. That turns faith into something active too, a doing thing, rather than a possession that we have, or get. In the New Testament faith is all about Jesus, as God’s Son. People are to have faith in him; so we believe in what he did on the cross; we trust in the fact that God has raised him from the dead; and so we hope, in the eternal difference that all this has made, for the whole of God’s creation.

This is the great crescendo that the author of Hebrews is working towards. But faith is a word that appears throughout the New Testament. Even though it is all about Jesus there, the same concept appears throughout the Old Testament too. So there’s mistake that we must not make: to think that faith is a New Testament invention. No, “It was by faith that people of ancient times won God’s approval (GNB) / This is what the ancients were commended for” (NIV). And, in case we might have missed this vital point, “Without faith no one can (GNB) / it is impossible to (NIV) please God”. That applies to everyone – whether we live after Jesus, or before his birth in Bethlehem. In fact it may have taken rather more faith to live before Jesus. Those of us who have lived after him have seen so much more of God’s bigger plan at work. Take this list of the ancients in Hebrews 11; not that we have time even for the shortened version of it. The writer is keen for us to see how each of them lived by faith in such very real – and challenging – ways, though.

Well, “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see (GNB) / Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (NIV)”, remember. So here is faith that looks at creation and sees a creator; that looks at death, and sees new life; that hears God’s promise, and builds a whole life on that. How big a challenge to our faith is all of that? The big question for us too is if we will have an active, living faith, and trust God for His promises – even when there is no sign of them being fulfilled. Good job we have time to ponder on this and to look at faith again later in this series, then.

In terms of that pondering, the Bishop’s leaflet has some ideas that we might explore. Not all of them may be for you right now, but do have a look. Feel free to write your own if you need to; but take this Godly time to think about how Christian discipleship is following in the footsteps of Jesus. So for example: what things do you do, or not do, because of faith? What is it about faith that you don’t understand? How can you grow in it? Might you dare to speak to one person about faith? Who? What might you say? And, when we get there, what will you want to write on the enclosed response card? What is your faith-response to the call of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us, and has been raised to life so that we can too?

We end by praying the prayer of this Call to Mission:

“God of faith, deepen our faith

so we may bear witness to Christ in the world;

God of hope, strengthen our hope

so we may be signposts to your transforming presence;

God of love, kindle our love

so that, in a fragile and divided world,

we may be signs of the faith, hope, love

which we share in Jesus Christ. Amen.”