⁵ By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and ‘he was not found, because God had taken him.’ For it was attested before he was taken away that ‘he had pleased God.’ ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:5-6

Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’
    They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts;
    there is no one who does good.

² God looks down from heaven on humankind
    to see if there are any who are wise,
    who seek after God.

Psalm 53:1-2

         The writer of Hebrews expounds on the life of Enoch that “pleased God.”  Enoch believed that “God existed” and that God rewards those who “seek him.”  So let us reflect for a moment about the existence of God.       When we think about God, what do we think?   Is he some sort of being sitting above the Universe and peering down on us?  Perhaps he is more like the Force in Star Wars.  Given all the gender discussions today, we might consider any god gender neutral even though the English language has traditionally identified God with male pronouns.  As a Christian, I find the life of the Incarnated Word, Jesus Christ, found in the Gospels, gives texture and depth to my image of God.  So when I am discouraged and dispairing I turn to the Gospels and not the explanations of the Epistles that seem one step removed.  Stope and jot five adjectives that describe to you the nature of the existence of God.

         Secondly, the writers says that Enoch sought God.  I suspect it is not a game of “Hide and Seek” where one party delibertly becomes inconspicuous and evasive in order to test the skills of the searcher.  I suspect “seeking” affirms the wholly otherness of God, his invisibility and differentness from life as we know it.  Seeking may be like tuning into the right frequency on the radio.  I just watched the Netflix “All the Light We Cannot See” feature from WW11 where “the voice” appeared on frequency 1310 that guided a blind girl and a German boy soldier to truth.  All parties are reaching out to communicate and “touch” each other, if only auditorially.          How do you seek to develop relationship and communication with a God-being who is invisible but who creates that which we see to bring about a future we pray about and give us hope?

         Blessings as you grow in your understanding of the existence of God and seek him in your life.

         Our next ancestor that mentioned in Hebrews 11 is Enoch.  This is how the writer refers to him.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and ‘he was not found, because God had taken him.’ For it was attested before he was taken away that ‘he had pleased God.’  (Hebrews 11:5)

         Here is the Genesis version from centuries before possibly written by Moses.

²¹ When Enoch had lived for sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. ²² Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah for three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. ²³ Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. ²⁴ Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.

(Genesis 5:21-24)

            Most of us probably know very little about Enoch.  He was the seventh generation down from Adam, through Seth, the son born after Abel was killed.  He is not of the bloodline of Cain.  In the 60s when end-times were in vogue, Enoch and Elijah were thought to be the two witnesses in Revelation who will be martyred.  That is not common talk now but interesting.  Enoch was seventh generation from Adam but he was also the father of Methuselah and the grandfather of Noah.  Enoch may well have been a formative influence in the life of Noah.  He may have known Adam, now a very old man, and Noah, his own grandson.

         Hebrews tells us that Enoch “did not experience death” and that “he pleased God.”  Genesis says Enoch “walked with God.”  We know of no great deeds like his grandson Noah did in building the Ark.  He left no sermons or miraculous encounters with the Holy.  We know he lived in a world that was becoming more and more corrupt – even as we do.  He is a hero of the faith, a saint, known because “he walked with God.”

         Think of the last time you walked with someone.  Perhaps you held the hand of a failing spouse, a young grandchild, or just rode in a golf cart with a friend as I did tonight.  Think of three adjectives that would describe that experience.  A “saint,” a hero or heroine of the faith is someone who is ordinary like you and me but who walks with God trusting their invisible relationship.  Thank you Lord for walking with me!

^6-7 God spoke to Cain: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking?

 If you do well, won’t you be accepted?

And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.”

 Genesis 4:6-7 (The Message)

         This was a life changing verse for me when I was a young adult.  I had always thought (as a child) that by age 21 I would be “healthy, wealthy and wise,” at least married and beautiful.  That was not my fate in life.  Like many young people, I blamed parents, siblings, brown hair and bad choices.  A friend confronted me with this verse.   Why was I angry?  If I did right, God would see and so I did not need to worry.  Cain had a choice also.  He could make an attitude correction.  He chose rather to murder his brother, Abel.  Bad choice.  That same mistake is being made today and we all grieve when we hear about it.  God saw.  Let me say that again.  God saw and confronted Cain.  Cain responded, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Cain paid the consequences for his actions.

         We hear the news today of the wars and mass shootings that horrify us.  Maybe we do not murder but hate and anger are common to all.  It seems like the difference between Cain and Abel was the ability to recognize and honor the relationships of life, to see the invisible God working in their lives.  Abel gave a blood sacrifice to restore relationship with God.  Cain spilt blood because he did not honor his relationship with his brother. 

         Let us spend a few quiet moments and ask the Holy Spirit to shine his flashlight of truth in our heart and bring to our awareness any relationships that we need to make right with God or others.  Lord, help us to refuse the tantrum and sulking and the urge to seek revenge when jealousy attacks and when we feel outshone by someone else.  Help us to forgive and seek you!

⁴ By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.

Hebrews 11:4  (The Message)

            Paul, interestingly, starts his list of heroes and heroines of the faith with Cain and Abel, not their parents Adam and Eve.  Cain was the eldest and Abel the younger.  We read in Genesis 4 that Cain was more like a farmer working with the soil and Abel worked with animals.  There is obviously missing facts, a need to read between the lines, between Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve are driven from the Garden of Eden and Genesis 4 when “sacrifices” were brought to God.  I like the way The Message translates it because it makes clear that the situation reflected the condition of the brothers’ hearts and the problem was not the nature of the gifts.  Later in the Old Testament when the sacraficial system was set up, grain sacrifices were for fellowship and blood/animal sacrifices were for sin.  We could certainly read a lot into this connection today as we reflect on how we seek to establish relationship with God.  Are we looking for fellowship, a grain offering, a friendly relationship OR are we looking for restoration of a broken relationship with God because we have sinned by what we have done and what we have left undone?  Usually it is a bit of both.

         As we kneel at the communion table and receive the bread and the wine, we go through the ritual “in rememberance” but we also hear the words “for the forgiveness of sin.”  God noticed the conditions of the brothers’ hearts and approved Abel’s as righteous.  As we come before God with our prayers today, let us check our hearts and remind ourselves that we are blessed to be able to talk to the God of the universe.  May we never forget that we sometimes are guilty of wrong and sometimes guilty of forgetting to do right.  Thank you Lord for forgivess and for relationship!

“Faith of our Fathers” based on Hebrews 11:6 is an “oldie but goodie” hymn I sang as a youth.  It was written in 1849by Frederick William Faber.  I was surprised to learn it was written in memory of the Catholics martyred during the establishment of the Church of England by Henry VIII and Elizabeth.   During that time in British history, a Catholic monarch declared the country Catholic and a Protestant monarch endorsed the Church of England.  A person could be martyred for being on the wrong side of the throne!  That touches our American heritage in the flight of the Pilgrims to our shores seeking religious freedom.

Faber wrote two versions of the hymn: one with seven stanzas for Ireland, and another with four for England. The Irish version was sung at hurling matches until the 1960s. But regardless of where it is sung, the lyrics remind us of the faith that we celebrated this week on All Saints Day and that is foundational to our spiritual heritage.  We thank God for those who have gone before us and who were martyred for their beliefs.  Let us pray for those for whom their life is in danger because of their faith.

Faith of our Fathers! living still In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword: Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy Whene’er we hear that glorious word.  Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith! We will be true to thee till death.

Our Fathers, chained in prisons dark, Were still in heart and conscience free: How sweet would be their children’s fate, If they, like them, could die for thee!  Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith! We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our Fathers! we will love Both friend and foe in all our strife: And preach thee too, as love knows how By kindly words and virtuous life:  Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith! We will be true to thee till death.

³ By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Hebrews 11:3

         Paul starts his discusssion of the heroes and heroines of our faith at the point of creation.  They were people who believed, had faith, in an unseen God to bring about an unseen future dwelling place that they never entered in this life!  So where does Paul start to tell his story?  At creation.  God who is unseen spoke and created all that we see and experience.  The invisible created the visible.  The painting, the carving, the music or vision for a building or a garden starts in the heart or mind of the creator.  Paul identifies that creator in John 1:1-5 as Jesus Christ, the Word.

         “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things      came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into        being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life, and the life was       the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the      darkness did not overcome it.”

         It is by faith that we accept this basic truth.  As we walk in nature, as we talk with friends, as we listen to music and possibly just walk through life, God is speaking to us and revealing himself.  What we see draws us to a God we cannot see.  Heroes and heroines tap into this faith.

         But more than that, it draws us to hope.  The sunrise promises a day when the unexpected – good and bad – can happen and define us as we respond.  We hear about the wars around the world but we also hear about the acts of kindness in the face of evil.  We will choose the flower over the decay almost everytime.  I suspect Paul is going to show us that heroes and heroines are not super special people but they are people like you and me who look for the hand of God in the ordinary events of our days.

         Lord, give us eyes and hears today to see and hear your creative efforts to bless us.  Help us to use our creativity to bless others.

11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,

the conviction of things not seen.

² Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.

Hebrews 11:1-2

         This month we are looking at Hebrews 11.  Paul reviews the heroes and heroines of old whom we think of as the saints that laid the foundations of our religious system.  I like the way The Message puts it in simpler English:

         11 ^1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth    living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what     distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

We talk about faith but what does it really mean?  We will see the people listed were not perfect but through their trials and hardships, they learned to trust God, a God they could not see, for a future that was yet to arrive.  If we sneak a peek at verse 16 we see that  “they desire(d) a better country, that is, a heavenly one” that they believed God would bring about.  None lived to see that place in this world. Paul starts chapter 12 by reminding us that we are surround by people, “a crowd of saints,” that believe in a God who can bring about a better future.

         So how would you describe faith?  You might read John 20:24-29.  The disciple Thomas, after the resurrection, had trouble believing that Jesus was really alive, really did what he said he was going to do.  Jesus did not ridicule Thomas’ doubt but appeared and challenged him and then said blessed are we who believe without seeing.  Believing the promises of a God we do not see to give us a future we have yet to receive, we shall see is the basis of faith of ancestral heroes and heroines.  It is the foundation of hope. What do you believe?  Thank God that he can bring it to reality in the best possible way.

Today we celebrate All Saints Day.

         “Luther calls Christians “simultaneously saint and sinner” because he redefines “saint” as a forgiven sinner. We are   called saints not because we change into something different but   because our relationship with God changes as a result of God’s grace.”

I must admit I squirm a bit to call myself a saint because I know my failings.  Somehow “forgiven sinner” seems more accurate.

           In November I like to think about Old Testament heroes and heroines who laid the foundation for the coming of Advent and the Christmas season in December.  We will be going through Hebrews 11 where the writer talks about the great heroes, our ancestors who lived in ways that are foundational to our faith.  Hebrews 10 introduces our devotions for the month.

³⁶ For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. ³⁷ For yet

‘in a very little while,
    the one who is coming will come and will not delay;
³⁸ but my righteous one will live by faith.
    My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.’

³⁹ But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.

         Did I hear anyone say “amen?”  I need endurance.  I don’t want to  shrink back but sometimes I do.  To learn about saints who did not shrink back during rough times I pray will encourage us.  My friends who stood by me during the death and funeral of my husband were a big encouragement.  Let’s look at the faith of our ancestors in chapter 11 of Hebrews and encourages ourselves.

         In preparation, think of someone who has encouraged your faith.  What was it about their life that inspired you?  Perhaps there is someone you can encourage today.  Blessings.