An Interlude on Faith

"These were commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised."  Hebrews 11:39

We Interrupt this life...
By Rev. William Dohle

What has interrupted your life lately?

Good or bad, interruptions come to all of us, disturbing us and challenging us, moving us in ways we never expected.

Some interruptions are good.  A newfound love where love wasn't expected.  The surprise birth of a new child.  The interruption that comes when family arrives for the holidays.

And other interruptions aren't so good.  These we wish had never come because, after the interruption happens, life is never the same.

That was my day last week...and the week before that day as well.

It all started with my son saying loudly in the narthex: "There's a tornado warning!"  And it all ended with the news that a large tornado had hit the communities of East Peoria, Pekin, and, most of all, Washington, Illinois.  As pictures appeared, the worry started.  Who was affected by this tragedy?  How might they be handling it?

That, in retrospect, wasn't the beginning of the interruption but rather the continuation of it.  It began before the tornado when we heard news that a member of the congregation lost her two infant twin girls.  It began when I heard how she and her family held their two little girls in their arms until they passed away later that evening.  The interruption began with that sad news.

And like all interruptions...it disturbed the routine.  Coming to work on Monday after the tornado seemed ridiculous.  How could I continue to work as if nothing had happened knowing that others were suffering just miles away?  Writing a sympathy card, being supportive, seemed hard for me as well.  What could I say to this family that would help?

I really struggled with the interruption.  "Why, God?" I prayed.  "Why has this happened now?  Who is affected by this tragedy?  How will they cope?  What will this do to their faith?"
Of course that does nothing but exasperate the interruption, for interruptions thrive in such questions.  Why questions fuel the interrption's power over our life and immobilize us.

Often we try to answer these questions with our own personal prosperity gospel.  If we are faithful and good enough, (and we always think we are) God will be good to us and nothing bad will happen in our lives.  I've already heard their voices and the estimation of the tragedy has just begun.  I've already heard of the family who cries to the heavens, "I can't pray or believe in a God who would do this to us!"

That's the prosperity Gospel at work there.  That's one answer to the question.  We all have a little bit of that.  It's truly a human response.  We all want some sort of resolution or answer to our problem. Someone to blame always gives us just that.

But that way doesn't lead to any resolution.  It only leads to despair.  The only way to face the interruptions in our life is, not to ask why they happened to us, but how we can get through.  And the only way to get through is through faith.  Our faith may not protect us from all of life, but our faith can carry us through.

The book of Hebrews speaks of faith this way:

"And what more shall we say?... Women received back their dead, raised to life again.  Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, while others were chained and put in prison.  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.  They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated--the world was not worthy of them.  They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.  These were all commended for their faith."  (Hebrews 11:32, 35-39a)

What these verses are saying is:  Faith doesn't guarantee life.  Some were stoned and sawed in two and put to death for their faith, not because they didn't ask to be released but because, sometimes, that's where faith gets you.  Sometimes the end result of a faithful prayer is the same as it would have been had you not prayed.

Two people experience a tragedy.  One has faith.  The other does not.  Both have experienced the same thing, but each looks at it in a completely different way.  One looks beyond the tragedy.  One focuses solely on the event.  One sees the country ahead.  The other looks solely at the country they are in.  One deals with the present.  The other strives for the future.

That's faith.  Faith gives you eyes to see beyond your current situation.  Faith is the means by which you patiently hold out for something you cannot see or experience or taste or touch, but something you know is more real than the tragedy you are experiencing.

Faith is what Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego had when they responded to King Nebuchadnezzar this way: "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods..."(Daniel 3:17-18)

Do you hear what they said, "...even if he does not."  That's faith right there.

Faith realizes that sometimes prayers are not answered in the way we think they should be answered.  Tragedy comes upon us all.  And yet, faith asserts that, despite the evidence at hand.  Despite God being quiet, we will still worship.  We still still hold on.  As one amazingly faithful mother said upon the death of her twins, "God is good."

May God grant us such faith that we too might, even in the face of death and destruction, might boldly say, "But still we shall live!"

Faithful God, you have surrounded us with such a cloud of witnesses who held on to you in life and death.  Give us faith that we might trust, not in what we see, but in who you are.  Amen.