Main Text: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 (Genesis 15:1-6; Luke 12:32-40)
“That’s just the way it has always been.” This is a statement of futility based upon the reality we see. Faith, hope and love, however, are different when based on that which is not visible. If this is all there is, then we are most to be pitied. But God has promised us a new reality grounded in the love of God in Jesus Christ. In the reading from Genesis, Abraham was losing hope because of the reality he saw. He had no offspring to share the promised inheritance. Based on what he saw, both he and Sarah were way too old to change that reality. Nonetheless, God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham believed in God more than what he saw, and it was given to him as righteousness. The reading from the Gospel of Luke affirms that God’s promise will be the new reality and not the reality in which they currently live. What will be the basis of your life? Will you build it on what you see, or will you instead believe in the promises of God that are yet unseen? Our reading from Hebrews reminds us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When our vision is based on the promises of God, our lives are formed from things that are not visible. Yet, our lives become the visual representation of what will be, rather than what we see. Made from the reality of God’s promise yet to be, let us live God’s love!