Sunday, August 10, 2025

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 15:1-6
Psalm 33:12-22
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:22-34 (35-40)

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

We live in a world of instant gratification. We don’t write letters because it is faster to text or send an email. We have overnight delivery for products we buy online; we can even get things delivered within hours. We don’t have to go into a grocery store anymore because we can order our groceries online and they will have it waiting at a pick-up spot. A few clicks on an app, and our fast food will be ready when we arrive at the store. We still wait in lines, of course. There is a fast-food place that always has a line twenty cars deep, though the employees are fast and efficient so that you will have your food within minutes.

We don’t like to wait. We pick the shortest line at the grocery store. We follow recommendations at the theme parks to visit the busiest rides early in the day to avoid the crowds. We pay extra for expedited shipping. If we don’t get an answer to a text or email immediately, we think that the person is ignoring or rejecting us. We can have just about anything we want instantly, gratifying our deepest wants and our basic needs quickly so we can spend our time chasing after other wants and needs.

I’ve heard it said, “Don’t ask God for patience because He will give you opportunities to test it.” Patience is difficult for us all. Imagine what it must have been like for Abraham. When Abraham first arrived in Shechem after being sent away from his home and family in Genesis 12, God promised that his offspring would inherit that land. Abraham was already an old man, as was his wife Sarah. She was sixty-five, well beyond childbearing years. Yet, God promised him offspring. This was possible legally because Abraham could adopt a child as we hear in today’s lesson. We don’t know exactly who Eliezer of Damascus was to Abraham; he was obviously a very trusted member of Abraham’s household. Some suggest that he was a slave. God promised in Genesis 12, however, that the son would be flesh and blood, the fruit of Abraham’s loins. Abraham believed, although in Genesis 15 Abraham questioned the promise.

“Behold, to me you have given no children: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir,” said Abraham. Thankfully, God is not bothered by our doubts and questions. When we are uncertain about God’s plans for our lives, we aren’t called unfaithful when we ask Him to explain. As a matter of fact, despite the ridiculousness of the fulfillment of this long-awaited promise, Abraham “believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness.” Faith in God means trusting Him, even when it seems like the promise will never be fulfilled.

Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old. Decades had passed between the promise and its fulfillment. We heard about the visit of the Lord to Abraham a few weeks ago, but today’s passage happened much earlier. Between the divine visit in Genesis 18 and our text from Genesis 15, Abraham and Sarah took God’s plan into their own hands. Sarah gave him to her maidservant Hagar and a child was born.

We don’t need to take God’s plan into our own hands, but we like to see results. The clock is constantly ticking in our world. God might not be limited by time or space, but we are. So, like Abraham and Sarah, we do whatever we think is best to make God’s will happen. We justify it with catchy little slogans like “God helps those who help themselves,” but by doing so we prove that we don’t really trust God to be faithful. There are those who blame Sarah, especially since we know that Abraham’s faith is extraordinary, but Abraham allowed himself to be swayed. He believed, but he also doubted.

We can look at Abraham as an example in holding out hope even when there appears to be none. Abraham had been promised a child for many years, but in this passage he was old enough to think there was no chance for it to happen. The LORD came to Abraham in a dream and said, “Fear not.” Abraham complained that he had waited so long, but the LORD reaffirmed the promise, “Your descendants will as many as the stars.” Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. He believed God’s Word and it gave him hope about tomorrow. He still did not have a child, but he knew that God would be faithful.

The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.” It’s all about faith. This is an easy statement to make, but it is much harder to live. After all, what is faith? How do we define something so intangible, so incomprehensible? The scriptures are filled with faith stories, and we all have our own stories to tell, but can we really define what it is? And what happens when our actions are faithless? What happens when we question God about how or when He will accomplish His promises? Does this mean we don’t have faith?

We won’t necessarily see the promises of God fulfilled as we want or expect. Think about the people in Jesus’ day who were expecting a military or political king. They didn’t get what they expected, they got something better, and yet most of them did not see the truth. There are many today who are still waiting for the Messiah to come to make Israel great again. They want God to make things happen in their time and in their way. The point of faith is to believe that God will do what He promises in His time and way.

That’s the hard part. We have a difficult time waiting and recognizing how God is fulfilling His promises. We really are impatient, but I don’t think that’s a quality that is missing just from those of us who live in this age of instant gratification. Abraham waited longer, but even so, he didn’t wait long enough. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and yet he didn’t trust God enough to wait. The people in Jesus’ day trusted that God would send His Messiah, but they didn’t trust Him enough to believe that He was doing it differently than they expected. Despite all their failures, God was still faithful. Despite all our questions and doubts, God is always faithful.

The Old Testament and Epistle lessons today remind us that Abraham had faith. He trusted God and followed Him out of the world He knew into a world he did not know. He left his home and his people to become a nomad, to journey to a strange and foreign land because a God he didn’t know called him. There is nothing reasonable about Abraham’s story, at least from our point of view. How do we react to those who say, “God told me to do this?” Usually we laugh or ridicule them, or we reject the notion that God might speak to an individual in such a specific way.

I wish God would talk to me with such clarity. I’ve been asking Him what He wants me to do for as long as I can remember. I’ve sought His will about career, family, and future. Sometimes I think I know what’s He’s saying, but most of the time I just muddle through. I’m not very patient, you see, and so when things don’t fall into place as soon as I think they should, I begin to second guess myself. Even now as I wander through each day with the faith I have, I wonder if I’m headed in the right direction. God does not always seem as clear to me as He seems to have been to Abraham. After my mission trip, I’ve wondered if there are other opportunities for ministry I should pursue. Could I leave my home and family like Abraham to follow God? I’d like to say “Yes, I have that much faith,” but I’m not quite that confident. Even with questions, I love the life God has given me and wonder if He would really ask me to give any of it up for His sake.

The point of our scriptures today is not about how much faith we have, but about trusting that God is faithful even when we feel like we are faithless. It is comforting to see this story of Abraham from Genesis 15, because even though this text lifts up Abraham for his faith, we also see Abraham’s faithlessness. He trusted God even while He doubted God. Abraham questioned how and when God would provide him the promised offspring because he didn’t see how any gift or blessing really made sense to His world view if he has no heir to which it can be passed.

We learn that we might have to wait, but that opens the question of what we should do while we wait. Our world of instant gratification means never having to wait, but that’s not how it works with matters of faith. God’s promises take time. Take the promise of eternal life, for instance. We know we have eternal life now, but it is a future promise that we won’t see fulfilled until we pass from this life into the next. We are not foolish enough to take that matter into our own hands, suicide is never the way to fulfill God’s promises.

I look forward to the end of my days because I have a hope in the eternity God has promised. I even cry out “Come, Lord Jesus” often as I struggle with the world I see around me. “I’m finished,” I think, but I’m not really. I know there is work to be done; there are people who need to be saved. Jesus will not come until, as Paul wrote to the Romans, “...the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Christ will not come until everyone who is meant to believe does believe. How will they believe? Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The way we wait is to share the Gospel with our neighbors so that they, too, might believe and be saved. Besides that, there are people to be fed and clothed, strangers to be befriended and prisoners to be freed. Living in faith means using every gift and blessing for God’s glory even while we wait for His promises to be fulfilled.

Living in that faith is not easy. Jesus told the disciples not to be anxious about their lives because God will provide whatever they need. Yet, He also told the disciples to be active in their faith. “Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys.” God is probably not calling us to leave our family and homeland to go to an unknown place, but He does want us to let go of the expectations that we think define us. He wants us to believe, not just in our hearts, but with obedient feet. That faith is credited to us as righteousness.

Jesus continued, “Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.” Abraham heard God’s voice and followed. We may not experience Him in that way, but we too can hear His voice. Have you ever experienced one of those moments when you knew you were exactly in the right place at the right time without knowing quite how you got there? Did you have a feeling, a thought, or possibly a compulsion? I’ve heard stories of people who have turned down the wrong street, only to find themselves face to face with someone in need. When it was over, those people knew without a doubt they had met the Lord in the eyes and heart of the person they helped.

Patience for God’s promises means waiting and watching and walking in faith. When our ultimate concern is our own selves, we miss those divine appointments. However, when our ultimate concern is God, we know that He will be faithful according to His good and perfect will. He will always provide for us as we wait so that we can share out of our abundance in faith and trust that He will be true to His Word.

There may be promises that we long to see fulfilled, promises about our lives and future that God has spoken into our hearts. We believe that God can and will provide for us in those ways, but as we wait we should always remember that God will fulfill all His promises as He plans. Blessed are those who trust in God because they know what truly matters. We have faith in something we will not see in this world, an eternal Kingdom where we will dwell in God’s presence forever. We have this hope by faith and this is what is credited to us as righteousness. God remains true even when we question and doubt. He watches from heaven above and knows all, into the very depths of their souls.

There was a movie called “The Rat Race” about a bunch of people who were racing toward a bag filled with money. The winner of the race kept it all. The film with filled with hysterical cliché experiences as the characters ended up in the craziest situations. They all suffered setbacks. In one scene a couple of women lost their way to the highway. They stopped at a roadside stand where a woman was selling squirrels. They didn’t want a squirrel, they just wanted directions to the highway. Despite their refusal, the lady described a shortcut to the highway. They expected that following her very detailed instructions would get their to where they wanted to go, and were more confident with every turn. They were excitedly expectant as they turned the last corner when they realized they had made a big mistake. As they were careening down a very steep hill, they passed a bunch of signs that said, “You,” “should,” “have,” “bought,” “a,” “squirrel.” Then their car fell over the cliff into a large pile of other vehicles whose owners refused to buy a squirrel.

It is easy to believe in something that we experience with our senses. Our mouths water in expectation when we smell banana bread baking in the oven. We experience real connection with others when we touch a hand, hear a voice, or see a face. Just as we are people who desire instant gratification, we also prefer tangible experience. It is much easier for us to have faith in people and situations when we experience them with our senses.

Would you believe someone if they told you that your great-great-great-granddaughter would be the president of the United States? Would you trust that person’s prediction? You would probably be skeptical. There is no way for you to know if you would even have a great- great-great-granddaughter. We can’t even know whether the United States will exist in a hundred years. We would like to believe it could happen, but we do not know what is going to happen tomorrow let alone in a century. We can’t rest our hope in someone that does not exist today or in something that might not exist tomorrow.

But the faith that trusts in God is not really faith if it is about things that we can see, feel, hear, taste, and touch. Faith, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, is the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. Faith is believing in something we can’t experience with our senses. It is believing in something that is beyond this world. Faith is believing in the better, heavenly country which was promised to our forefathers. They believed and it was not even within their reach. They believed and never saw the fulfillment. It was a distant promise, one that was given to their descendants. It was given to us.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the people who came before, the faithful from every generation who believed in God’s promises even though they would not receive it during their lifetime. We have been given that which they desired – we dwell with the One to whom they committed their lives. We have received the promise. Is it something we can grasp? No, eternal life is not something we can touch or see or hear. However, we can be assured that it is true by faith. We are convicted by God’s Spirit and His grace of that which is real though unseen. We believe not because we have done anything to deserve that which is to come, but because God is faithful. We have Abraham as an example of faith, but even more so we have Jesus Christ who is our life and our hope and our peace. Everything else is like the squirrel lady, unreliable, unpredictable and perishable.

When we listen to Jesus speaking to the crowds in the Gospels, it is easy to assume that He isn’t speaking directly to us. After all, His examples and stories talk about aspects of life that do not match our modern daily lives. Most of us do not know anything about agriculture, we don’t understand their way of life. We have a much different point of view in our world, many different problems, and many different expectations. Our economic world is different. Our political world is different. Even our social world is different. How can Jesus expect us to fulfill the expectations He gave to people in a different time and a different place?

Yet, the scriptures have been given for us as much as for them. When Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock” He means that we, in our time and place, should not be afraid. When Jesus says, “Do this” He calls us to do it. His expectations are sometimes outrageous. How can we possibly sell our possessions and give everything as alms to the poor? Do we really have to give up everything to go out into the mission field?

Jesus raises the bar on our behavior. We think that because we are Christian, we are called to be moral, or righteous, or just plain “good,” but Jesus calls us to be more. He teaches us how to be Christ-like. He has called us to be like Him, to turn away from the life of this world to live the life of faith in Him. We do have to live in this world, to live our lives in the culture into which we have been born, but God’s grace transforms us into something new. It is that new person, the person of faith, to whom Jesus is speaking.

So, is it any easier to follow Jesus’ directives? Can we, by our own power and might sell all our possessions and give the money to the poor? Should we stop working for a living and go live in a foreign country to share ? No, the bar to which Jesus has set the expectations in our lives is so high that we do not do very well achieving it. We fail, miserably. We fail, daily. We fail, desperately. So, we often look at those expectations as something that isn’t meant for us. We justify our failure because we live in a different world, a world in which Jesus can’t expect so much from us.

However, Jesus did not give us these expectations so that we could find loopholes. He gave them to us so that we might strive to be like Him. He knows we will fail. He knows we will make mistakes daily, but He also forgives us when we fail. We think that we have to be perfect to experience His grace, but Jesus doesn’t reward us because we are the best or most righteous people. Sadly, that’s what too many Christians believe when they think of faith, that if we are righteous enough, we will have the relationship with God that we desire. The truth is, we will never be strong enough. We will never be righteous enough. That’s why Jesus came. He came to overcome our failure, to stand before God in our stead.

He still calls us to live according to His expectations, to strive to be the best we can be. Thankfully, when we fail, He is there to forgive. He is there to encourage. He is there to continue building us up in faith and hope and peace so that on that glorious day when God’s promises are finally fulfilled, we’ll stand face to face with our Father for eternity. The rules are meant for us, just as much as they were meant for those who heard them from Jesus. They are meant to challenge us, but even more so they are meant to show us how big and wide and wonderful God’s grace is, even when we fail. His love is greater than our mistakes. Faith is not about our faithfulness, maturity, or morality. Faith is about trusting God, living obediently to His call on our life, and looking forward to that heavenly country which is ours by faith not according to our goodness.

The psalmist reminds us, “Our soul has waited for Yahweh. He is our help and our shield.” This is what it means to have faith. Patience may be one of the most difficult traits in our age of instant gratification, but we are called to live in faith trusting that God will be faithful. We might not understand His timing or His way, but faith means waiting and watching, using the gifts and blessings that God has provided for us in the meantime so that all might trust in the God who has promised all who believe a place in His Kingdom forever.