13th Letter to our Church Members

Letter 13 1(10/06/20 MFR)

 

My dear friends, these are tumultuous days in which we are living, but I suspect they are not altogether unique or unprecedented in the human experience. Poet William Blake wrote, “It’s an easy thing to triumph in the summer’s sun; it’s an easy thing to speak of patience to the afflicted, to speak the laws of prudence to the homeless wanderer”. He was right. It’s an easy thing to talk about faith too when all is well, much harder to live a life of faith when it seems like all is crumbling around us.

Our sermon on Sunday is based on the famous faith passage from Hebrews Chapter 11. Its writer tells the church: Don’t give up. Don’t turn back. Keep believing. It is especially necessary now that your backs are against the wall. That’s when you’ll need faith. It sounds so easy. It’s an easy thing to sing of victory when all is well and when the seats in the stadium are filled. This is what the writer is telling his scattered church. He’s telling them the stories of their forebears who walked and lived and died by faith – telling them to follow suit. Not so easy. You must have faith. So what is this faith? What does it look like? What does it do? I wrote the following reflection three years ago which seemed appropriate then and it still does. Whatever the state of your life of faith I offer it to you to you to encourage you in your walk with God – you are not alone.


You must have faith “Faith recognises that with God there is always something more – than this…Something better – a city, a homeland, a heaven, a great hope…Faith - the best is yet to come…

Faith looks hopefully to the future…Faith has vision of a kingdom to come…Faith chooses where it fixes its gaze…to the promises made by God…And refuses short-cuts, short-term satisfactions.

A parents’ persevering faithYou must have faith!

 

And faith perceives past Egypt’s easy trinkets. Moses’ faith…Faith in a dark world which sees as through a glass darkly but, through heaven’s brighter eyes…You must have faith!

Faith tests…Faith obeys – it walks, believing someday it will fly, translated to the bosom of God - Enoch’s faith.

Faith chooses trustfully in the here and now…Even against the odds. Abraham faith, Sarah-faith,

The –impossible-faith-that-moves- mountains- faith…Faith does sometimes bend…

But it does not bow to oppression…In frailty Faith trusts in the greater power of God.

Faith is for fools, they tell us – Noah’s faith-You must have faith!

Faith it takes courage…It will mean suffering, struggle…and doubt more often than not…

Faith invariably knows its thorns. Paul’s afflicted, apostles Faith…Faith chooses to believe God even when it hurts…Faith will falter but it will never fail… You must have faith!

 

Faith will find the great and the good, the prophets and poets – men and boys alike…The wise-woman-of -singing faith like Deborah’s…

But faith will find the most unusual homes, too…The foreign harlot, Rahab’s dare-to -faith…The wimp who needs to hold a woman’s hand, Barak’s faith…

Faith will find – the unlikely hero, in the child of the outcast – Jephthah- faith…And the vessel whose less-than-brave, Gideon’s faithYou must have faith!

 

Faith – we’ve got so little of it and yet, thank God, He tells us we don’t need much more than a little seed to succeed - for Faith to win wars through weaklings who are…strong enough, ultimately, to trust in God…

And not in their own small (mustered) strength …Samson’s faithYou must have faith!

And out of that weakness the strength and grace of God! More than fair-weather faith, a Faith that walks forward, determined, to a cross…Faith that lives and dies and lives again – always…

A better Faith, a Saving Faith! Abel’s FaithJesus’ Faith! A gift given. Only received. Not earned. Not faked…

 

And a faith that brings down tyrant’s walls…You must have faith! Faith recognises the source of its real strength…Faith in God – the object of unshakeable faith…A faith that boasts in God! In God’s faith – His faithfulness…

 

You must have faith in God! FAITH IN GOD from first to last – Your Faith and mine.”


 

A Reflection by Mark Faris-Robertson

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