Faith Is the Assurance of Things Hoped for

Dear Friends,

If I were to name a theme for our gospel readings for the past few weeks, it would be “the problem with possessions.”  Last week, we heard Jesus tell the crowds that life does not consist of the “abundance of possessions.”  In our gospel reading for this week, Jesus connects the accumulation of possessions to fear. He advises his disciples to let go of all that they cling to so tightly and trade their fear for faith—faith in a different kind of security other than coins in a purse or treasures in a chest.  Instead, “make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This has me wondering…how does one make the move from fear to faith? When I look at back at my own life to the times I was most afraid, I am aware how tightly I clung at first to the things that offered some measure of comfort or security or familiarity.  My routines, my closest friends, my credentials, my bank account, even as those things were slipping through my fingers.  It wasn’t until I released my grip on whatever remained of my “security” that I was able to take the leap of faith toward the new version of myself that God was inviting me to become.

In our reading from Hebrews, we hear that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” To illustrate this point, the author of the Hebrews talked about how Abraham was called by God to a place he was to receive as an inheritance, “not knowing where he was going.” He, too, had to move from fear to faith by letting go of the familiar, the comfortable, the secure, in order to become the new version of himself that God invited him to become—the parent of all nations, held in the very heart of God.

I have heard it said that the freest kind of life is one in which we strive to live lightly enough, unafraid enough, faithfully enough, that we could pack up all we possess and be ready to leave for our next assignment within the hour. Not because possessions are bad—houses and clothes and food bring beauty and comfort and are a blessing to share—but because it gives God such pleasure, and by extension the rest of us as well, when we are unafraid to go, or unafraid to stay, when we are unafraid to move from fear to faith.

As the great spiritual guide Henri Nouwen sees it:

When Jesus talks about faith,
he means first of all to
trust unreservedly that
you are loved,
so that you can
abandon every
false way of obtaining it.*

In Christ

Amelie+

*Henri Nouwen, from Letters to Marc About Jesus