Deborah Larsen Cowan
Excerpts from the Letter to the Hebrews 11:1-12
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
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“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going…”
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“For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
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“Therefore from one person, and this one good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’”
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How on earth did Abraham manage this? By faith, we are told again and again in the whole of today’s verses. The letter-writer must have had some mighty troubled, struggling readers in mind.
Even if faith does not totally falter, it can disappear from consciousness for a while. During 2020 we may have felt like Abraham: we had no idea where we were going.
The forces of actual and potential diminishment were all too obvious. For many of us (parents, applicants, priests, teachers, volunteers, nurses, etc.), fatigue and distraction set in and we may have dropped into a rocking chair and sighed, “I think I am the one who is as ‘good as dead.’”
During the time I was writing this message in December I sank into my rocker a time or two. But then something happened.
First, I watched the video, “A Christmas Welcome,” where our parish children read lines from “Twas the Night before Christmas.” Their faces shone with concentration and eagerness.
Secondly, I saw a photo of four young adults: the “Beloveds” of our “Beloved in the Desert” service group at St. Philip’s. And their faces were shining with good will and confidence.
What had happened to me? The young people of St. Philip’s caused faith to flame up in my conscious life; that flame remains.
I pray that we may wholeheartedly support our youth in their activities. May we, with them and the great Architect of creation, help co-create the foundations of a refreshed city.
Deborah Larsen Cowan