Cause I Gotta Have Faith

Young at Heart Message

Has anyone here ever been to a Hall of Fame?

I have not, but I know several exist!
​
There’s the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

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Or, there’s the Baseball Hall of Fame:

Or the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto:

​And I’m sure there’s tons more examples we could find.
 
Sometimes, a Hall of Fame is a physical place you can go, but often, a Hall of Fame is just a list of award winners over the years. This is especially true for smaller organizations.
 
Today’s scripture reading is often referred to as the “Faith Hall of Fame,” or the “Hall of Faith” because it refers to characters in the Hebrew Bible who had tremendous faith.
 
But this begs the question… what exactly IS faith?
 
Faith is belief and trust in God, despite the fact that we can’t actually see God, or experience God in the same way that we experience other human beings.
 
But, there are lots of things we can’t see but still know exist.
 
Can you see the wind?
 
Not really.
 
But we know wind exists because we can see the leaves moving on the trees, we can feel it on our skin or in our hair, and we can hear it as it hits objects in its path.
 
Can we see the air we breathe?
 
Not really, unless it’s very cold, but even then, we really just see the air we breathe out.
 
We can see particles in the air, like when there is a lot of smoke, but we can’t actually see the air.
 
And yet, we hold deep faith in the scientists who tell us that air exists. We trust it’s there because we can breathe.
 
And, what about God? Can we see a physical God?
 
No, we can’t. There are a lot of images of God out in the world, but none of us can actually see God the person.
 
And yet, we can experience God by other means.
 
Sometimes, we can’t see things that we know are there, or that we know exist in the world.
For example, I have never seen a moose in the wild, but I have faith that they exist. You all have told me they do, and some of you have actually seen a moose in the wild.
 
So, either you all have created an elaborate lie to fool this silly American, or moose do exist in the wild even though I’ve never seen them.
 
And our faith in God can work in similar ways.
 
We may not be able to see God, or hear God, or touch or smell or taste God.
 
But we can experience God in other ways.
 
What are some of the ways we can experience God even though we can’t see a physical God?
 
The Message
 
So, ultimately, faith is a belief and trust in God even though we aren’t able to see God in the way we see other humans.
 
Our scripture passage today says that “faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see… because of our faith, we know that the world was made at God’s command. We also know that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.”
 
That’s an important line right there: what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.
 
We know this is true from a scientific perspective, for sure.
 
Air, for example, is made out of molecules that are proven to exist, but cannot be seen.
 
Every object is made from compounds and molecules that we cannot see, and yet, the object itself exists in our world.
 
Even we are made from a combination of molecules that form each of us uniquely.
 
So, it is not that far of a stretch to have faith in a God we cannot see, and to believe that the God we cannot see created all that we can see.
 
This passage from Hebrews gives us numerous examples of people who, because of their faith, became heroes in our stories about God, faith, trust, and hope.
 
These people believed in and followed God, some of them almost to their own detriment.
 
Abraham’s faith was so strong that he almost sacrificed his son for God.
 
Now, I’m not advocating human sacrifice, and I do wonder about a God that would insist on such a thing, but the point in that story is that Abraham had such a deep trust in God that when God tested his faith, he was willing to follow through even though what he was being asked was extremely difficult. 
 
The people mentioned in this passage believed in God’s promises and trusted that following God would result in great things, even if not in that exact moment.
 
They held a deep faith that God would take care of them, even though sometimes they suffered in their lives.
 
Their suffering did not imply that God did not care about them or love them, nor did it cause them to give up on God.
 
They suffered – as we all do because we are human – and still maintained their steadfast faith and trust that God would protect, provide, and deliver on God’s promises.
 
So how does this translate for us in our own lives?
 
We all suffer. Perhaps we can look at our lives and believe that we suffer less than other people do.
 
But that does not mean that we do not suffer.
 
And yet, despite whatever we suffer through – whether it is momentary discomfort, a short-lived problem, or a chronic, long-term suffering that we must endure forever – we can maintain our faith that God will protect, provide, and deliver on God’s promises.
 
Perhaps we won’t see the immediate delivery of those things the moment we ask. But if we maintain our faith, God will fulfill God’s promises.
 
They don’t always look the way we think they will look, though.
 
And that is not always easy!
 
For example, what if I asked God for something seemingly simple and silly, like helping me get better at chess so that I could win more often.
 
Well, these kinds of things don’t tend to happen immediately. So maybe I play chess for 10 more years, and I start to notice eventually that I win more than I lose.
 
Perhaps by then, I’ve completely forgotten my prayer to God, and yet, God has answered!
 
Maybe it doesn’t seem like it, because it took so long, and I’d probably forgotten about my prayer completely at that point.
 
But just because I didn’t perceive that my prayer was being answered doesn’t mean it wasn’t, it just wasn’t on the timeline I would have preferred.
 
And, poor God! I likely wouldn’t even thank God because I’d forgotten that I prayed to get better at chess in the first place.
 
Which makes me wonder, actually, how many prayers I’ve lifted that have eventually been answered, just perhaps not in the way I expected or imagined, and I’ve completely missed the gratitude piece because I didn’t realize the prayer had been answered!
 
Regardless, the point is, through whatever suffering we might endure, we must hold onto our faith that God works in our lives in so many different ways.
 
This reminds me of the story behind the song “It Is Well with My Soul.”
 
The hymn was written by Horatio Spafford after a series of devastating personal tragedies.
 
Spafford, a successful Chicago lawyer, faced financial ruin due to the Great Chicago Fire and then the deaths of his four daughters in a shipwreck.
 
While traveling to meet his grieving wife, he passed over the site of the sinking and was inspired to write the hymn.
 
The lyrics express profound sorrow alongside unwavering faith in God's peace.
 
I know Spafford wasn’t a character in the Bible, but he could be added to the “Hall of Faith” for maintaining his faith in God despite his tremendous and profound suffering.
 
So, may we maintain “hall of fame” level faith.
 
Even as we experience small or significant suffering, may we remain steadfast in our trust and faith in God.
 
May we remember that God loves us always – in our deepest sorrow and our most profound and glorious joy.
 
Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
Loving God, we come before you today to lay our suffering at your feet. We pray that You would take our burdens on your shoulders because we know you can hold them for us, even when we struggle to hold them ourselves. Cradle us in your arms, protecting and loving us through whatever we may encounter in this life. And help us maintain our faith in You, always. In your Holy name we pray. Amen.