Sitting with the Sacred

Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

This weekend, my pastor said that another way to put this verse would be to say that faith makes what we believe in come to pass. I find this interpretation a lot easier to understand than a more literal English translation of the original Greek. That doesn’t mean I find either version any easier to live.

When I’d like to imagine a certain outcome, and conditions don’t seem to lend themselves to that outcome, I have such a hard time believing it will happen. Yet when I’m dreading a certain outcome, I experience it not just as if it’s going to happen, but as if it’s already happening.

The understanding of faith I began this post with is a good reminder to keep my eyes on the spiritual prize while I make choices that do my part to make a good outcome possible. My mind, heart, and body can get in the way or out of the way of the unfolding Ultimate Good. My mind, heart, and body can also cooperate in bringing about that Ultimate Good.

The parable in Luke 12: 35-40 is about expecting that Ultimate Good — expecting to be united with God — in mind, in will, in heart, in body, and in deed. I believe the Ultimate Good can be experienced in the clearest and fullest way after death. For me, this total, unobscured union is what Heaven means.

I usually hear and read that the parable in Luke 12:35-40 presents two scenarios:

1. what it’s like to be in Heaven with God, to have had God’s heart and mind and have done God’s work even at times when a person hasn’t been able to experience the fullness of God’s presence.
2. what it’s like, at the end of life, not to have recognized that Heaven is a possibility, not have sought union with God, and without reconsidering, to have done the opposite of what God would do.

But I think there’s also room in this parable for the story to be about expecting the good that God brings each day, acting and thinking as if I know today’s the day, that, like a package I received notification of, Divine goodness will arrive.

More often than a package does, a gift from God waits on the threshold of my awareness. However, unlike a package, I don’t always see a Divine gift with my physical eyes or recognize it with my wounded soul. When I don’t expect to receive God’s love each day, I may not ,experience it when it arrives. And not experiencing or recognizing it can feel — emotionally and spiritually more than physically — like receiving the beating the unfaithful servant receives in the parable.

Lord, give me the grace to expect, to receive, and to share Your love each day. Amen.

Work cited

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.