This is a sermon I delivered via Zoom for the Salt Lake City Community of Christ congregation on 10 August 2025.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K3ZDhwq3euPc8kFjU9wsr20cf4t0Oxv1/view?usp=sharing
Good morning!
Today’s passage from the book of Hebrews is part of a letter, or rather a sermon, believed to have been written to Hellenized, or Greek-influenced, Jewish Christians living in Rome. Now that they belonged neither in Roman society nor the Jewish synagogue, these early believers in Jesus had become deeply discouraged and marginalized. This was prior to the rise of heavy persecution of Christians in the empire, but they were still social and religious outcasts for believing in the way of Jesus.
The writer of this letter may have been Paul, but many scholars doubt that. What we do know is that the author was quite familiar with both Greek rhetoric and the stories of the Hebrew Bible. The author’s message is very clear – do not be discouraged, but rather have faith for a better way ahead.
The passage begins with an often quoted, yet somewhat enigmatic sentence:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
You might be more familiar with the The King James Version, which reads:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Okay? So, what in the world does this mean? This is one of the many places in the Bible that seem to raise as many questions as it answers.
What is the “assurance of things hoped for?” The word used here for assurance is also often translated as “reality” – the reality of things hoped for – is that any clearer?
How about faith being “the conviction of things not seen?” This word for conviction can also be translated as the evidence or proof of something. Does that help us?
We usually think of reality as consisting of things we can observe and measure. How can we see and measure faith? I believe that the best way to measure faith is by measuring what it produces. In other words, what does our faith compel us to do?
In the book of James, chapter 2, we read:
2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Sobering words, but words we may need to hear. Living by faith means doing, acting, being the body of Christ. It means welcoming the stranger, the marginalized, the hungry, the outcast. It means declaring the worth of all persons and loving as Christ loves.
Okay, Back to Abraham.
The passage goes on to tell us that God called Abraham to set out for a place that would be his inheritance, and that Abraham obeyed. He had faith and he acted on it. It says that “By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.” Abraham never possessed the promised land, he only got a tent, yet “he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
God also promised Abraham many descendants. Even though he and Sarah were too old to have children, it says that: “By faith, with Sarah’s involvement, he received power of procreation, even though he was too old, because he considered God faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’”
Abraham wasn’t alone in living by faith. Let’s look at the examples of a couple more people who did also:
By faith, Moses stood up to Pharoah. For decades, Moses led his people by faith – right up to the promised land. In Deuteronomy 34, we read about the final days of Moses:
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain—that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. The Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command.
Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land, but he wasn’t allowed to enter it. Like Abraham, he didn’t fully realize the dream during his lifetime, but had faith that the promised land was just ahead, just a little further.
Now, a more modern example… On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech to an overflowing crowd in Memphis, Tennessee. In part, he said:
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop… I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land” (King, “I’ve Been,” 222–223).
In the finale to his speech, King revealed that he was not afraid to die:
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will…. And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord” (King, “I’ve Been,” 222–223).
Less than 24 hours after these prophetic words, King was assassinated.
Let us return to our passage and see how it ends (vv 13-16):
All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
That better homeland, that City of Zion, still awaits people of faith, and it’s closer to us now than ever before.
In Doctrine and Covenants 164: 9a-b, we find these words for our journey of faith:
Beloved children of the Restoration, your continuing faith adventure with God has been divinely led, eventful, challenging, and sometimes surprising to you. By the grace of God, you are poised to fulfill God’s ultimate vision for the church.
It goes on to say:
When your willingness to live in sacred community as Christ’s new creation exceeds your natural fear of spiritual and relational transformation, you will become who you are called to be. The rise of Zion the beautiful, the peaceful reign of Christ, awaits your wholehearted response to the call to make and steadfastly hold to God’s covenant of peace in Jesus Christ.
I pray that these words might encourage us all to press on, to live by faith as those who have gone before us. Whatever it is that we long for in that better homeland – whether it be justice or equality or the true worth of all persons – may we live each day in faith that it will come. And, may our faith be turned to action to make this a reality. In the words of the late John Lewis: “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Let us work, by faith, for that better homeland just ahead.
Amen.