Sermons

Tenth Sunday after Trinity
Sunday 8 August 2010 at 8am and 10am

Diane Flynn

Readings: Hebrews 11 v1-3, 8-16; Luke 12 v22-40

Minnie Louise Haskins (1875- 1957) poem

God Knows (The Gate of the Year)

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied: Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East

Links in with the theme of today which is about journeys - journeys of faith and of healing - both of which mean we need to have a trust in God, as her poem says.
(Trust in God. Have faith in Him and Step Out.)
The Hebrews reading this morning was aimed at Christians who had previously been Jews and who the author thought were in great danger of abandoning their new faith and returning to Judaism, because of the increased opposition to Christianity in the society around them. The unknown Hebrew author, whom some scholars believe may have been a friend of Paul, gives them examples from their old tradition, from Israel's past, examples of the faith shown by the Patriarchs or fathers of their faith - these stories of faith were an encouragement to the new Christians to remain faithful to their new faith, and not to give up.

This link for the new Christians back to their stories of old is very important. They were on a journey of faith - they had moved from Judaism to Christianity, from the Old Covenant to a new Covenant.

Journeying from their past knowledge and life and now journeying onwards towards God with Jesus now as their guide. The hearer and later reader of this Letter needed to hear about another journey by faith to encourage them to carry on journeying as Christians by faith.

Its the same for us - it is very important that we read and try to learn not only from the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible but from our New Testament and look afresh at what it has to say to us. We, as Christians today, are on our own journey of faith and by faith; we are attempting to trust God and journey ever more nearer to a relationship with Him.

In the Hebrew passage, it mentions the journey of Abraham from Genesis, where he is called by God to travel to a new place. He, by faith, obeyed God and set off - he went ' even though he did not know where he was going'.

He set out to go ahead, trusting in God. The words used a lot in this passage, in describing Abraham's and the others people's obedience and actions to God, are 'by faith' - everything he did, he did by faith.

I love that image from genesis of Abraham and his faith in God and the Hebrew writer is using Abraham's example of his journey, his literal journey and his spiritual faith journey as an example to encourage those early Christians.

And it can also be used to encourage us today.

The writer's definition of faith is 'faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see'

Abraham's journey was an example of this and shows that as he trusted the God of his past, he also trusted God for the present and the future.

Faith and Trust.

Abraham went ' even though he did not know where he was going'

I remember a time on my own journey of faith. I responded, eventually, to Gods calling to the priesthood and it seemed very scary and impossible, with family and other things. I didn't really know where I was going and what was going to happen. All I knew is that I had my faith and I had to learn to trust God who was doing the calling and step out in trust. And he did lead me and I did step out - just a little -certainly not as boldly as Abraham - being shown just small parts of the journey ahead. As each step happened, as I journeyed on, literally and spiritually, it became obvious to me that I needed to trust God more.

When I went on a 3 day selection weekend for the discernment process for the priesthood, it was scary - I had to trust God that no matter what happened, whether I was successful or not, I had to trust him that he would lead me to the right path for what he had planned and help me with any decisions made. And he did and he led and I followed, by faith, through selection, through college, and lots of journeying - each time, slowing learning to trust him more and understanding that if I followed by faith and trusted, then my faith was strengthened.

I had no idea at the very beginning, where I was going to end up, where I would journey, where listening to God and following him, would take not just me but my family as well. But I responded ' even though I didn't know where I was going'

When you are in your last year of college, you are asked broadly where you would like to be sent for your curacy. You can't name actual churches, just places etc, and we wanted to stay in Leeds for various reasons, but that was best for all of us as a family. I spent 6 months nearly, not knowing where we were going, until I got a letter about contacting David, - a time on my journey of faith when I had to step out, believing, by faith that God would then look after all the needs of not just me but my family. And he did.
And by this time I wasn't scared any more, I had great peace about it, because the journey up to that point had proved to me, by trusting in God, that our future journey was being looked over by God. By then I had such trust in God that I knew he wasn't going to send us to the wrong place for us as a family and he didn't - look where we are - I knew instantly that I was in the right place. He gave me a sense of that straight away.

Going back to the Hebrews definition of faith: 'faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see' and Abraham's journey. Yes Abraham had a major stepping out in faith, but we can start off a lot smaller. We can trust him with the small things first and then gradually increase that. This takes time and it takes a lot to start trusting everything, big or small, to God. But once we start that journey and see Gods faithfulness to us, it can encourage us to step out in our journey of faith even more, trusting God with everything in our lives. So it was with the genesis Fathers and the early Church - by faith, they trusted God and carried on their sometimes-scary journey of faith. So it was with my faith journey, I learnt to trust God with yes the important things in my life, but also the small things. I learnt to trust him with my studies, my finances, and all my family matters and everything really.

And we may ask the question: how can the God who cares about what's happening in Pakistan right now, also care about our problems - sometimes our 'problems' can seem so trivial in comparison to what is going on in the rest of the world -like with the floods.

But God is faithful to all his people. He cares about all those things in our life that are harming us - physically, spiritually, emotionally - harming us in any way. If we worry about someone and something, God wants us to know he can help, he can heal; he can show us how much he can help us.

Which leads me to the journey of healing.

As we journey on in faith with God, we sometimes are broken and harmed - in lots of different ways - we are all in need of healing - all of us -
When we are broken, or those we love are broken, or the world we love is broken and it hurts us, then our faith can help us. By faith, we can come to see that God came to share that with us, to become broken like us. Through Jesus we can be led back to wholeness with God. We can use the opportunities he has give n us - that he has given to his church - to feel his presence and to know he is with us on this part of our journey, journeying towards healing and wholeness with Him

God has experienced our brokenness, our harm our suffering and he want us by faith to TRUST HIM to sort it all out

Holy Communion is one way we can, by faith, sense Gods presence.
The words themselves, Holy Communion speaks of God in relationship with us.
we share in the presence of God through the body and blood of the broken, wounded Jesus.
We have Holy Communion with our God - we journey towards a wholeness with Our God, sensing he is very very near.

The ministry of healing that he gives to his church is another way to sense that God is very very near and wants to connect with us, to tell us how much he loves us and wants to make us whole. The prayer we hear when we have prayers for healing talks about healing us from all that harms us - all that harms us.

Anointing us, as Jesus was the anointed one, is part of the journey we step out on, in faith, trusting in his goodness, his healing touch, journeying towards wholeness with God.

The Gospel reading talks about the second coming - watch out for when Jesus comes. Well, at each Holy Communion, Jesus comes, each time we meet together and share bread and wine, Jesus comes. Each time, we receive prayers of healing and anointing within that, Jesus the anointed One from God anoints us with healing - God comes to meet us, be with us on this journey and helps us to trust in him for the future journey.

Healing definition from the archbishops Council: 'Progress Towards Health and Wholeness' - Healing is the progress towards God
Healing is the journeying to wholeness from our brokenness

Going back to the poem I read out at the beginning, about stepping out into the unknown, trusting in God and putting our hand in to the Hand of God to lead us.

Can we be like Abraham and be led by God and trust in Him for all of our lives, not just the small bits we want to give him - but everything. That's our challenge as Christians today - journeying on by faith, trusting in God with our lives, every part of them, journeying on towards healing and wholeness with Our God.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay