Pentecost 9C - Lectionary 19
August 7, 2022
Good Shepherd, Wells, MN
Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16
My grandpa Johnson owned and operated a milk can re-tinning business in Rice Lake, WI back in the early 1900s. When World War II started, he transformed it into a truck body business, which continued after the war. (Those Schwan's trucks you see all over the place were made by my grandpa’s business.) Business was so good that he brought his two brothers into the business, but it didn’t work out. They were forcing him out of the business and, as a strong Christian he turned the other cheek. He and grandma packed up six of their eight children and headed west to start a new life. The family story that is told says he would have gone all the way to the Pacific Ocean but at Spokane, WA, grandma said, “No farther.”
I thought about my grandpa and grandma, their stepping out in faith to begin a new life, as I worked with the text from Hebrews that lifts up the story of Abraham and Sarah’s faith. This is the first of three sermons on successive texts in Hebrews, a most unusual book. Hebrews is not a letter as it claims, because it doesn’t contain the usual elements that New Testament letters contain. And it probably was not written by the Apostle Paul for the same reason. Most likely it was written by a second generation apostle. Hebrews may be a sermon or collection of sermons because it appears to be a theological treatise on Jesus as the Christ followed by exhortations to Christian living.
In today’s text and following, the author unpacks the meaning of faith in Jesus Christ and how important that is for how we live as followers of Jesus. In other words, what we do flows out of what we believe. Faith is not something that comes out of nowhere; it is really real. But neither is it timeless, unchanging doctrines that we can check off a list. Faith is dynamic because it is in the final analysis about a living, loving relationship with a God who is perfectly faithful to us. Faith gives rise to hope and it is that which hope rests upon. But hope also nourishes the faith upon which it depends.
In the example of Abraham and Sarah, and by extension my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson, faithful people set out for new places because God has stirred up in them faithful restlessness. Our God is an active God who is continually on the move and propels us to attempt bold things. This faithful restlessness makes us willing to stretch our imaginations, to dream of possibilities even in the midst of seemingly impossible situations, and to see life in the midst of barrenness.
This isn’t as impossible as it sounds, for we all have stepped out in faith, not knowing what will happen or where we’ll end up. By faith we go to school hoping for a career that we’ll love, not knowing where we’ll end up. By faith we fall in love and get married trusting we’ll spend our lives together. By faith we start a family not knowing what kind of future they’ll have. By faith my wife married me thinking she got a businessman for a husband and ended up with a pastor.
Back in the 1800s two immigrant Lutheran congregations were started in Wells, one German and the other Norwegian, not knowing what the future would bring. Those two congregations came together in 1963, stepping out in faithful restlessness to do something that was very unusual at the time. Germans and Norwegians; who would have thought?
So, what faithful restlessness is God stirring up in you today, the good people of Good Shepherd? The Wednesday night folk suggested these things. Maybe God is calling you to faithful restlessness to grow by welcoming people from our community who don’t look like you. Perhaps God is prodding you to help members and the community make connections with each other in a time of disconnectedness. Finally, perhaps God is stirring you to (gasp!) remodel the sanctuary, turning the pews, so you can feel more like a community. Abraham and Sarah, my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson, and your forebears in the faith were stirred up. What do you think, people of Good Shepherd, where is God stirring up faithful restlessness to follow him? Amen.
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