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Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith … (Hebrews 12:2).

Faith can sometimes be a little hard to get a handle on.  There is the terrible error of a “name it and claim it” understanding of faith that says that the only reason a person is sick, poor and unsuccessful is the lack of real “faith.”  My obvious lack of “results” is tied to my equally obvious “lack of faith.”

Or there is an approach to faith that locates it exclusively in our heads.  Faith means holding to certain ideas, truths and doctrines, which are to be kept safely locked up in my noggin and never allowed to do anything in or with the rest of my life.

Or a faith that is primarily about keeping all the rules and always coloring within the lines: if I could only perform perfectly, God would owe me … or faith as a kind of hopeful optimism towards the future … or faith being the ticket that gets you into heaven but has little to nothing to say about what I do and how I live here and now.

For the author of Hebrews faith is focused on learning to live in alignment with and in allegiance to Jesus.  Faith is my life – my health, family, wealth, job, preferences and priorities, the whole shootin’ match – lived in personal communion with and obedient response to Jesus.

Jesus is the author of our faith: his life wrote out what it means to live aligned with God and in allegiance to God.  We’re characters, participants, in the story Jesus is writing.  He is the source of the story and the conclusion to which it is headed.

Another translation puts it that Jesus is the pioneer of our faith, the one who traveled the entire trail, every step of it.  He didn’t cut the trail and then hand us a map; he cut the trail and now accompanies us all along it, every step of it.  

Jesus is the perfecter, the finisher of our faith. Don’t picture a beautiful ceramic vase or painting safely displayed in a museum or gallery; picture instead a company of trail-worn, trail-wounded but trail-wise pilgrims, finally arriving, to their astonishment and inexpressible joy, at the summit, the destination, the goal of the journey.  

They have no idea how they ever made it, except when they catch the shining smile of their Chief Pioneer who walked the way with them.  And as their now-radiant faces look back over the trail, they better see and understand why every obstacle, every challenge, every moment when they wanted to quit but found themselves carried forward nonetheless – somehow, it was all needed, all necessary, because it made them into the kind of people who could enjoy the view of the kind of glory they now behold.

Faith: alignment with, trust in, allegiance to, dependence upon, rest within, and love for Jesus.  None of it perfect at the start, none of it yet complete or mature on the way, but all of it finally perfected in and by the One who authored both us pilgrims and our journey, in lines written by his blood and released into Creation by his resurrection from the dead.

What is Jesus working on, authoring, in your life these days?  How’s it going?  Pray about it now.

Is there a “cross” or a “shame” that you are currently called to endure?  If not you, someone you know?  Pray now for yourself or for them.

What about the faith we put into practice together in Chatham Church?  What might God want to be polishing, refining, buffing up in the days ahead?