What is faith?
In our scripture reading we are told of
Abraham . . . the one whom God had promised as many descendants as there are
stars in the sky . . . the one whom God had promised to make into a great
nation . . . and we are told of the generations who followed that struggled to
keep their eyes on the promises of God.
The writer tells us: “All these people were still living by faith
when they died. They did not receive the
things promised . . .” These
were the “faithful” and in the end they did not see the reality of what they
had been promised.
It doesn’t seem to be quite right, and
yet, the writer states that “this is what the ancients were commended
for.” They were commended for
hoping for something that they would never see fulfilled in their
lifetimes. The writer tells us that “. .
. faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” And, we the faithful buy into it whether or
not we really understand it.
To live one’s life in faith is tough,
but I probably did not have to tell any of you that. You know.
You know because you get up each morning and spend the day trying to
live up to faith, hoping that by the end of the day you got at least some
little part of it right. Life makes
faith difficult . . . and, I am not talking about all the big things we hear on
the news. I’m talking about our every
day lives. If you listen during our time
of sharing “joys and concerns” you hear the struggles of daily life being
shared. Life is hard. Because life is hard, it is hard to keep the
faith. And like clockwork, we get up
every day and do it again.
Is that faith?
In the 2016 French film, The Innocents, this question of faith is
played out throughout. The movie is set
in Poland after the end of the Second World War and Russia has come as the
liberators and conquerors of the Polish people.
It is a brutal liberation and conquest in which the Russians inflict
much savagery and pain upon the people . . . including nuns in a convent. Based on a true story, we learn that the
Russian soldiers had come to the convent and repeatedly raped the nuns leaving
them to deal with the aftermath of what has taken place.
Well, what has taken place is that the
nuns have been traumatized. A trauma
that they are constantly reminded of as several of the nuns become pregnant by
those who raped them. Traumatized
because the rapes and consequences had broken their sacred vows of chastity . .
. that they had betrayed and let down God . . . that they had sinned and were
doomed for hell. Traumatized as the
babies are born and are taken away by the Mother Superior to be taken care of
but are more or less abandoned off the grounds of the convent. Traumatized as their faith is being tested.
It is tough to reconcile faith when
trauma wounds the soul deeply. The
sisters struggle with reconciling their beliefs with what has happened to
them. Surprisingly most find comfort in
God. This reaction perplexes the young
French Red Cross doctor who is secretly helping the nuns have the babies. She wonders how they can find peace after
such an ordeal. But one of the sisters,
Sister Maria, gently reminds her, behind all joy lies the cross, and faith can
often feel like 24 hours of doubt with one minute of hope. In the end, God can bring good out of even
the worst of situations.
The nuns had put their faith in God . .
. that God would take care of them. They
had no control over the events that happened to them, nor did they have any
control over the consequences of those events.
They were raped . . . they became pregnant—out of wedlock, against their
vows. The new communist government had
no need for the religious and they especially had no need for pregnant
nuns. Pregnant nuns, whose secret if
discovered, would scandalize them in the eyes of the community and its people. That is a pretty heavy cross to carry and
still remain faithful.
Sister Maria sums it up beautifully when
she quietly states that “faith can feel like 24 hours of doubt with one minute
of hope.”
One minute
of hope
. . . that is all that it takes.
The writer of our reading this morning
tells us: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do
not see.” As Sister Maria
reminds the doctor that even in the worse of situations God can bring out
good.
So it is that Abraham and the
generations that followed—despite their doubt—were faithful. Though they could not see the end results
that their parts played in the greater scheme of things, they still hoped for
what was yet to come. This is what the
writer calls for the readers of this letter to embrace . . . even if for a
minute . . . that there is something better still to come. That despite the world looking and feeling
like it is going to hell in a handbasket, there something better out
there. God promises it.
The writer encourages the readers to
continue to live life by following Jesus . . . following his words and
example. Encourages them to get up each
and every day living life in the pursuit of love . . . love of God, love of
others. Encourages them to do this no
matter what life throws at them . . . in the good times and in the hard times .
. . in war and peace . . . and, even in trauma.
Despite how difficult it might be, there is always hope . . . even one
minute of it is more than enough to get up and do it again.
In that minute of hope we are reminded
that we are not alone . . . God is with us.
In one of the scenes in the movie, the
French doctor is attempting to examine all the pregnant nuns to see how close
they are to delivering. Several of the
nuns refuse to allow the doctor to examine them because of their vow of
chastity made to God. The doctor tells
Sister Maria to tell the nuns to put God aside for awhile so that she can
examine them. Sister Maria tells her
that even in this God is still with them.
God is still with them through the rapes . . . through the births . . .
through all the trauma . . . through it all.
God has not abandoned them and in their darkest hour, the nuns cannot abandon
God despite the situation they are in.
God is with us . . . always with
us. If we can remember that, even for
one minute, then we discover hope. In
that minute we discover we still have faith.
We can make it another day. Amen.
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