Hope – and experience miracles
Series: CREATIO | Bible text: Hebrews 11:8–19
Abraham is presented to us in the Bible as a great example of faith. And it is true, he did truly amazing things out of trust in God. The letter to the Hebrews reveals his secret. Abraham trusted in a future city built by God, he trusted that death is not the end and that one day all promises will be fulfilled. This vision of things to come made him act boldly and confidently in the present.
Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is the courage to dance to it in the present. Every living hope shapes the present. At the beginning of 1990, my studies at the Neu Technikum in Buchs were coming to an end. I lived with the hope that I would have an engineering job with a fat salary from the summer. This hope led me to buy an expensive racing bike with triathlon handlebars, even though I had no money. The prospect of being a «big earner» in the future shaped the present. I was ready to take bold steps.
Abraham, the father of the three great monotheistic world religions, is presented to us in the Bible as a model of a man of faith. This was solely because he possessed the extraordinary ability to see through the horizon.
Dancing to the music of the future
Christians are sometimes accused of a cheap comfort in the hereafter. This can be seen in the fact that a person lives a world-away and world-denying life. He feels compelled to serve out his time in this world in order to finally be with God afterwards. Real hope is different; it drives us to excel in this world and sees earth time as a dance stage. Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is the courage to dance to it in the present. In this day and age, the consolation of the hereafter is rather rare. The greater danger is to lose sight of the perspective on the new world. Jesus then becomes the coach who must help us to master the present life well.
Abraham’s dance in this world has the following expression:
Setting out for new shores: «By faith, Abraham obeyed when God told him to leave his homeland and move to another land that God would give him as an inheritance. He left without knowing where his path would lead him»(Hebrews 11:8 NLB).
Without a business plan or a guarantee certificate in his pocket, Abraham left home with his family and all his possessions. One could accuse him of naivety and recklessness. However, since God is the initiator, we keep these thoughts to ourselves. Transferred to us, it could mean that we quit a job without a follow-up solution because God asks us to do so. Or that we follow an impression and go to the neighbour’s house to give them a gift. For me personally, it also meant leaving home many years ago, with trembling knees and the uncertainty of whether God would give me what a pastor needs in his professional field in time.
Independent and free from property and status: «And even when he reached the land that God had promised him, he lived there by the power of faith – for he was in that land as a stranger dwelling in a tent […].»(V.9 NLB).
Abraham did not settle in the land of Canaan, but lived in a tent. He remained available to God because he did not bind himself to land and property. We like to manoeuvre ourselves into situations where we can hardly move because of our financial or idealistic obligations. Do you live independently of worldly possessions in a tent or have you settled down?
Experience miracles: «Through faith, Sarah was able to have a child with Abraham, even though they were both too old and even though Sarah was barren. For he believed that God would keep his promise»(V.11 NLB).
There was nothing to suggest that the two old men would have another child. Sara bore the stamp «barren» and both of them were far beyond the ability to conceive at their age. The only thing that made them hold on to hope was the promise of God. Sometimes we get into situations in which, rationally speaking, nothing speaks for a positive turn; e.g. in an illness, in a difficult relationship. Against all medical prognoses and experiences, we can hold on to the promise that Jesus has borne all illnesses for us.
Ready to let go of what is dear to us: «By faith, Abraham was ready to offer Isaac as a sacrifice when God put him to the test. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac, even though God had promised him: «Only the descendants of Isaac shall be called your descendants».»(v.17f NLB).
Considering that God himself was willing to sacrifice his only son, this act of faith by Abraham could be called «divine». The sacrifice of children was not exceptional in the cultural context of Abraham. But the fact that Abraham had a son 25 years after God’s promise makes the story so special. Abraham was ready to let go of his son. Letting go is an experience that we humans have to go through again and again. We are challenged to let go of children, self-reliance, abilities, health, etc. Recently, a woman told me some years after moving into a retirement home that she was now finished with her house. She was beaming.
Listening to the music of the future
Setting out for new shores, living independently and free of possessions and status, experiencing miracles, being able to let go of what is dear – Abraham indeed had a good and adventurous life! Do you want that too? Ulrich Zwingli spoke the famous sentence: «For God’s sake, do something brave!» Why was Abraham able to live such an amazing life? Answer: Because he heard the music of the future!
«Abraham was able to act in this way because he was waiting for a city with a firm foundation, whose builder and creator is God himself»(V.10 NLB). Abraham saw the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, before his inner eyes already 4000 years ago. This – and only this – was the reason for his independence and freedom from worldly status and possessions. Through this freedom we become available for God’s good guidance.
«All these people believed until they died without having received what God had promised them. But they saw what was promised to them from afar and looked forward to it, for they had recognised and testified that they were only guests and strangers here on earth. And they confessed with it that they were searching for a land they could call home»(v.13f NLB).
People like Abraham did not receive everything that was promised to them on this earth. A person of hope adds eternal glory to this. Death is not the end, but merely a caesura before the grand finale. Abraham and co. could see through the horizon. Do you also want to experience great miracles with God? The key is the basic feeling and mindset of a guest on earth and the inclusion of life after death in the new creation. If there were no eternity in the presence of God, then there would be no justice and many of God’s promises would be nothing more than fantastic ideas.
«Abraham assumed that God could bring Isaac back to life when he had died. And in a sense, Abraham did indeed get his son back from the dead»(V.19 NLB). This is amazing: Abraham trusted God with everything; even that he could raise Isaac from the dead. We have a great advantage: namely, we know that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. There is no doubt that Jesus has conquered death. Almost mockingly, Paul writes: «Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?»(1 Corinthians 15:55 NLB). We can incorporate this reality into the way we live our lives.
Abraham had a very concrete future hope consisting of resurrection, a city built by God and the fulfilment of the boldest dreams and promises. This is the key to a heroic life of faith on this earth.
Do not be ashamed of hope
In our Bible text there is an interesting sentence about God: «But they were looking for a better place, a home in heaven. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has built them a city in heaven»(V.16 NLB). God would be ashamed to be considered the God of Abraham if Abraham’s hope ran into nothingness. God would also be ashamed to be called your God if your hopes were not fulfilled. He connects himself to your destiny. But God has built us a city in heaven. Because He did it, He does not need to be ashamed, even if people often die with unfulfilled hopes. This is not a cheap consolation from the hereafter, but well-founded consolation from the hereafter..
Is it all true? Resurrection from the dead, a city built by God, the fulfilment of all promises? Sometimes these things seem too fantastic to be true. I doubt and am ashamed of my hope. Frederik Büchner spoke a sentence that is important to me: «Doubts are the ants in the trousers of faith. They keep it awake and moving.» Doubts can give impetus to faith just as affliction can give impetus to hope. When I read biographies like Abraham’s, it strengthens my faith. For I cannot imagine that Abraham’s hope for the city built by God was disappointed. God is not ashamed to be called their God. God Himself vouches for the truth of the Bible. «Therefore, let us continue to hold fast to the hope we profess, for God is faithful to his promises»(Hebrews 10:23 NLB).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer turns the tables: «It is not our hopes that we will one day have to be ashamed of, but our poor and fearful hopelessness that trusts nothing to God.» And so I will continue to listen to the music of heaven and try to dance to it in my life. I want to anticipate the future and take steps of faith today that I would not take without an eternity perspective.
Possible questions for the small groups
Read the Bible text: Hebrews 11:8–19
- It is worth reading the Bible text aloud with each other!
- What bold deeds of faith do you know about Abraham?
- According to Hebrews 11, why was he able to do such courageous things and experience such miracles?
- What is the difference between a consolation of the hereafter and genuine Christian hope, using the example of Abraham?
- Hypothetically: What would be different in our everyday life if we had the same living hope as Abraham?
- Do you agree that people with living hope experience more miracles than others? Why?
