Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "Searching For a Faith to Live By"
Date: August 12, 2007
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

I had the privilege of being asked by the family to speak at the memorial service yesterday for the man who taught my confirmation class 44 years ago.

Having said that, I must confess that I had to do the math two ways to make sure I was right.  I was confirmed in 1963; subtracted from 2007 equals 44 years.  44 years?!  I thought I’d better do it by age.  Confirmed when I was 15; subtracted from my current age of 59 still equals 44!  I can’t believe it was that long ago.

Irving Van Derveer was an east coast banker who taught our confirmation class of about seven ninth graders at the United Church of Christ in Los Alamitos between 1962 and ’63.  I didn’t think about it at the time, but since I now teach confirmation classes as a minister, it was this layman who took time to study, to share his faith with us in our Sunday morning classes, and challenged us to engage in discussion as we gave more thought to our Christian faith than the average ninth grader does in his or her day-to-day life. 

Irv Van Derveer was a man of faith and integrity who cared enough about young people’s entrance into the Christian life that he may well have stepped out of his comfort zone and background as a lifelong banker to ground us in the faith so that we would have a good foundation in preparation for joining the church as a full member.  Not only for our class, but his daughter, two years younger than I, told me he taught the confirmation class she and my sister were in also.  I don’t know how many years he did that, but, with respect, I admire him for his efforts on our behalf, and on behalf of the Christian church.

Now we all know faith itself is hard enough to define.  In confirmation, we teach about the tenets of our Christian faith, what the church believes.  But faith is also subjective.  Faith is what you have, what you believe, what gets you through some difficult, if not perilous, situations in life.

The author of Hebrews admits that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Then he holds up Abraham as an example of a faithful person.  He ventured forth on faith to a land God promised him.  An old man with a barren wife, his faith prompted God to give them a son, Isaac.  By faith, Abraham was even willing to offer his miracle son Isaac as a human sacrifice. 

Over the years, I have found people troubled with that as a story of faith.  What kind of father would offer to sacrifice their son?  (God did, of course.)  But we forget that Isaac was not killed.  God provided the ram in the thicket.  Abraham had enough trust in God to know that he could comply with God’s command in faith that a solution would be worked out.

Isaac later became the father of Jacob, who became the father of ten sons, and on and on—and so Abraham’s descendents continued “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”  These are the descendents who became Jews, Christians and Muslims, all of whom claim this one faithful person as their spiritual ancestor.

Persons of faith are not always models of perfection.  They were not always perfectly obedient to God.  They were not always pure and honest in their relationships with others, both relatives and not.  Barak refused to fight without Deborah holding his hand.  Samson had a weakness for beautiful, persistent women.  David cast his eye upon the beautiful woman bathing on the rooftop next door and later arranged to have her husband killed on the battlefield.  Peter denied three times ever knowing Jesus on the night he was arrested.  Thomas doubted that Jesus was really raised from the dead unless he could cast his hand into Jesus’ wounds.

People of faith are not always so special.  Sometimes they are very ordinary.  They don’t always win all the battles.  Sometimes they fail bitterly.  Early Christian martyrs were stoned, flogged, fed to the lions, executed.  Christians who defied Hitler or were caught hiding Jews in Nazi Germany were killed, just as millions of Jews were.

So what makes ordinary people people of faith?  How do we search out a faith model, a faith mentor to live by? 

People of faith were and are willing to act on a vision even though the fruit of their faith is not readily apparent.  The author of Hebrews tells us that all the people he listed died before receiving everything God had promised them.  From a distance, they may have seen what had been promised.  But they never fully enjoyed those promises in this life.

Those who live by faith may never understand that curious tugging which makes us long to leave home and move into unfamiliar territory, as in the lives of Abraham and Sarah.  What made Albert Schweitzer go to Africa to practice medicine, or Tom Dooley go to Vietnam and Laos in the 1950s to practice medicine? 

Those who live by faith may never understand why—even though they are faithful—they suffer indignities and persecutions.  Those who live by faith accept that life is mysterious and full of inconveniences, danger and temptation.  And yet those who live by faith carry on, still believing in the promises of God in spite of all appearances.

Faith does not guarantee power or beauty or riches or influence or freedom from pain or life’s afflictions.  Faith is merely—and miraculously—“the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  That is what that odd assortment of people in Hebrews 11 had in common:  they turned their faith into action; they became influential because of God’s influence on them.

On this weekend when I remembered the time given by my confirmation teacher, I wonder if I would be standing in this pulpit had it not been for Irving Van Derveer’s influence upon me and my faith 44 years ago?  Who is a person of faith who has influenced your life and faith?  That’s where to begin searching for a faith to live by.