"Your Heroic Faith"
So,
Have you ever thought of yourself as a hero? Have you got a cape somewhere you are just dying to get out and wear?
Probably not, I’m guessing. Why is that?
For those of us who are parents, our children used to think of us as heroes.
Especially when we swooped down in the midst of one of their crises and saved them from the penalties of a late homework project or a lost lunch or a sippy cup that was leaking down their fronts.
But in our regular adult lives, not so much.
Most of us just don’t think that we have done anything particularly heroic.
We haven’t pulled someone from a burning car, rescued a person in danger from a wild animal, or been in a critical emergency where our CPR training saved the day.
We aren’t anything like Wonder woman or Superman or Black Panther or Flash Gordon (depending on your generation). We are just ordinary folks, wildly trying to muddle through this life, hoping and praying that somehow it all turns out right.
We aren’t much like Moses, the murderer, or Rahab, the prostitute, or even Gideon, the unbeliever (you can look up his story).
Isn’t it fascinating that most biblical heroes, were not exactly perfect people, some, not even close.
Do you remember that story back in Judges chapter 4, where the general who was opposing Israel ran away after his army was defeated and hid in the tent of Jael.
She gave him food and drink, and the scripture says, “Sisera was exhausted and soon fell fast asleep. Jael took a hammer and drove a tent-peg through his head into the ground, and he died.”
A biblical hero, I guess. But nothing like a perfect person.
Getting it into your head (no pun intended) that biblical heroes aren’t perfect people, aren’t holier than thou, aren’t made of different stuff than you and I, is one of the most important things that could ever happen to us.
Because as long as we think we can’t ever be heroes of faith, we can let ourselves of the hook for any responsibility to be building God’s kingdom, right?
But here’s the rub, the difficulty, the crux of the problem.
Heroes of faith are not perfect people! They don’t even have perfect faith.
Rather, they are people who though wildly imperfect, put their little bit of faith to work.
They listen to God and follow. They were and are folks open to the possibility, that even though they aren’t the right stuff, that God could use them anyway!
Because, ultimately, the story is never about us!
It’s about God’s kingdom. It’s about God’s power and presence and grace and mercy at work in us and through us in this wacked out world.
We are to love our neighbors as ourselves!
Have you ever met my neighbors?!
And we are to “… love the Lord our God with all our hearts, soul, and strength.
But after that, we are to get busy doing whatever God has put our hands and hearts to do, and the let God do the leading.
God can use you if you are willing, but there’s the challenge.
You have to be willing.
And if you are, the possibility that God could, in his own way, make you a hero of faith is entirely possible.
As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, there isn’t time enough to tell all the stories of the heroes of faith. Why? Because in every generation of the church there are more.
More folks willing to follow where God leads.
More folks willing to do things big and small for the Kingdom.
Imperfect people, just like us.
But who like Abel and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and Rahab, and all the rest, were willing to believe, that God was preparing for them an eternity in that new heaven and new earth God has designed, where he can be with his people forever!
So, it turns out, you too can be a Hero of Faith and you don’t even need a silly costume.
Amen.