Believing is Not Seeing – 7 August 2022
Luke 12:32–40
Jesus calls his followers to be steadfast in their faith in him. The instructions given by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading require the kind of faith of which Hebrews speaks: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Jesus tells a parable about being faithful even when the promised return of the master is long in coming. Disciples must not seek security in things of earth, but in treasures found in the reign of God. –– Joseph F. McHugh
Genesis 15:1–6
A childless couple in the ancient Near East would adopt one of the male servants who had been born into the household. This “son” would be their heir; he would care for the couple in their old age and would inherit their property at the time of their deaths. Following this custom, it would seem Abram has decided that Eliezer of Damascus would be his heir. Abram probably figured this arrangement made sense. After all, God had not done anything about descendants to be born to Abram and Sarah.
But God was promising much more. Eliezer would not be Abram’s heir. Sara would bear a child by Abram, Isaac. In him the covenant promises would continue. God then took Abram outside to tell him his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. –– Joseph F. McHugh
Hebrews 11:1–3, 8–16
Contrary to the popular saying, “Seeing is believing,” the Letter to the Hebrews would say, “Not seeing is believing.” “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
The author of Hebrews uses Abraham as an example of such faith. Abraham left his home and journeyed to the land of Canaan. He did not see, yet he believed in God’s promise of descendants. “By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’”
Yet an even greater test came when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, through whom the promise of descendants was to be fulfilled. “All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.” Abraham clung to God’s promise of descendants, even though to him it seemed an impossibility. He did not see, yet he believed. –– Joseph F. McHugh
Joseph McHugh is a freelance writer from New Jersey, and a former weekly newspaper columnist writing on lectionary readings whose writing includes a revision of Rev. Melvin L Farrell’s Getting to Know the Bible (ACTA Publications, 2003).
Homily Service 43, no. 3 (2010): 100–108.