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.

 ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word

 and believes him who sent me has eternal life,

 and does not come under judgment

 but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word

will never see death.’ (John 8:51)

²⁵ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,

²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11:25)

         Today is Halloween when many people will decorate with images related to death: graves, ghosts, witches, scarecrows, spider webs and more.  Children and youth will dress in costumes and collect goodies and party.  An anthropological way to think about reality is to suggest three spheres of reality, the physical world, the spirit world, and God.  Once my son and I were walking in tide pools on the Kenyan reefs.  I saw a water eel hiding in a hole and I quickly jumped out of the pool to the reef where I saw a sea turtle caught in a net as I stood beside my son.  The eel lived in a watery reality.  The turtle could survive in water and air.  We human cannot survive under water.  There were three levels of reality sharing the same universe.

         During the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Christians agreed that once we die, we are with God in eternal life if we are believers.  Hades or hell is a place for those who do not want to be part of the kingdom of heaven and exist under the kingship of God.  Purgatory, a holding place for souls until indulgences or prayers said for sins, was rejected.

         One of the famous stories in the Gospel of John involves the death of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, Jesus’ friends.  Lazarus became ill and died.  Jesus knew but did not rush to heal him but waited until he had been dead four days and then traveled to the grieving sisters.  Jesus told the sisters that he was the resurrection.  He then called Lazarus from the grave.  He had raised others who were thought dead but this miracle occurred right before his crucifixion and resurrection.  We quibble about just exactly how this will all happen but the one thing we don’t argue about is that there is eternal life in Jesus Christ.  Some day God will work it all out and I do not need to be afraid of evil spirits nor worry about what my eternity will be like.  I do not need to hide behind a mask.  I am safe in his love.  Thank you Lord.

Tomorrow, October 31, was the second largest commercial holiday in the United States, second only to Christmas.  Perhaps Black Friday has ooched into the stats now.  As I flew back to Florida last week from visiting my son’s family, the two ladies in the seats next to me chatted quite animatedly about how their families decorated their houses for Halloween and really did very little for Christmas any more.  In Kenya, one year when my children were young, I chatted with my house workers about our holiday.  She looked at me aghast.  Why would anyone dress up like an evil spirit or like a dead person?  My bubble was burst.  When we were in a remote area previously my friends shared that they had a holiday when milk libations were poured on the ground and bits of food were given to children who came begging.  Where did Halloween originate?  Halloween is a combination of “hallowed meaning holy” and “eve meaning the evening before.”  November 1^st is All Saints Day and tomorrow, October 31^st, is the night before.      

         As the Romans entered the British Isles they met the Celtic celebration of Samhain, which was a New Year’s Day celebration and the beginning of the dark time of the year.  It was considered a “thin place” or time when the boundary between the seen and unseen worlds. It was believed that spirits could cross over.  We might call it the “Twilight Zone.”  The ghosts of dead people could visit the living.  So large bonfires were built and sacrifices offered to appease these spirits.  The Romans had their own celebration for the passing of the dead, Pomona. The apple was their symbol. In 609 CE Pope Boniface IV declared May 19 as the day for the celebration of the lives of martyrs but later this date was moved to November 1.  By the 9^th century All Saints Days was firmly established as November 1.  The “eve of All Saints Day” or Halloween was October 31.  Costumes were worn in these celebrations to hide from the spirits of the dead who were believed to roam around seeking “treats” or threatening “tricks.”

         On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door calling for public debate.   He opposed the belief that the dead could return to life and seek help in their after life.  He opposed indulgences as acts of good deeds to help the dead spend fewer years in purgatory.  He opposed the authority of the Pope in selling indulgences. The newly invented printing press spread Luther’s challenges and so the Protestant Reformation is dated to October 31, 1517.

         As Christians, we do not believe we need to wear costumes to hide from evil.  We do not believe deceased ancestors return to play tricks on us.  We do believe evil was defeated on the cross.  And we certainly believe in welcoming the children in our neighborhood and getting to know people.  We need not fear for we know Christ is alive and that is not a trick.  It is a treat!  Blessings.

“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.”

         Martin Luther is credited for writing the Reformation hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” between 1527 and 1529.  Many churches will sing this song tomorrow on Reformation Sunday.  The hymn was inspired by Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Luther paraphrases concepts from this psalm about God being a stronghold and refuge for his people amid life’s trials.  Castles and fortresses were common in Germany and Luther compares God’s protection during the conflicts of the Reformation to such a castle. A fortress provided safety and protection for a town or city from attacking forces.  The metaphor conveys the idea of our God as a strong defense against evil.  Just as people ran to a fortress that shielded a city from harm and prevailed against a siege, God provides an unfailing refuge for His followers amid life’s hardships and trials.

         We might reflect on where people run when they feel life is against them.  Many run to alcohol or drugs, shopping malls or the Internet, and places that distracts from the pain of life.  Let us listen to the song and remember that our God is a mighty fortress, a strong castle, a place of refuge and strength.  We can always run to him.  Thank you, Lord.