Sermon: Faith, courage, patience and readiness

Preacher:

Chris Hollingshurst

Date:

Sunday 10th August 2025

Venue:

Guildford Cathedral

Service:

Cathedral Eucharist

Extempore prayer

It barely seems possible that football’s Premier League season begins again on Friday. Quite apart from the fact that the cricket season still has weeks to run, I’m really not ready to leave the summer behind yet.  

But it’s happening, and as an Arsenal fan of over 50 years, I have faith that my team might finally win something this year. Give that it is five years since Arsenal’s last FA Cup and 21 years since the last league title, it takes a certain amount of courage (even bravado) to believe that.

As always, patience will be needed if early results are not what I would hope, not least as this year’s new signings blend into the team. But I will stand ready to celebrate if things go well – by which I mean more than just finishing above Tottenham.

Faith, courage, patience, readiness. The life of longtime Arsenal fan. And, if today’s readings are taken together, the life of all God’s people.

Our first two readings speak of Abraham’s faith that God will honour a promise of heirs for Abraham. In the first reading God tells Abraham that his heirs will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham’s faith enables him to believe and to be counted as righteous in the sight of God.

As the second reading puts it, ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ – and anyone who lives by faith allows that conviction to shape their actions.

How might this be? Well, I have always liked the notion of Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian, who said: ‘Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards’.

In other words, while we navigate life day by day, moving into the future, it's only in retrospect, through reflection on past experiences, that we can truly grasp the meaning and connections along the way. 

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews gives the three great Patriarchs - Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob – as examples of those who did just that. As the lengthy book of Genesis describes, the Patriarchs didn’t ever yearn for they had come from but walked – by faith – into new and uncertain futures.

Understanding backwards and looking forwards is a vocational concept. Both in the Church and in the world, the only certain thing is change. How then do we know what to do? And how can we be sure of our present and future calling?

The lives of the Patriarchs teach us that it begins with courage.  Many potential steps of faith – if you like, the adventure with God - are never taken, because of fear. We fear getting things wrong. We fear failure. We fear others thinking less of us. What happens if we mess up? We all know the score.

Those things may happen, to a greater or lesser extent, but they are not the worst thing. And in any case, we can learn from failure.  As my 1990s management training in the Post Office put it, when you fail, fail fast – and then begin again.

No - the worst thing is letting fear and failure defeat you. It takes courage to face failure, and then to move forwards.

With faith, and with courage, we can begin to walk into the future with patience.  I often think that we Christians spend more time living in waiting and in hope than in actually seeing results. Given that Jesus and Paul both taught on the importance of sowing properly, the reaping sometimes has to be left to others – and that’s ok.

On the days when we feel discouraged by our failures, we might remember that our journey of discipleship is measured over the entire course of a life, or at least from the point at which we come to faith. It takes a long time to understand and appreciate our calling, and we will need to be patient, yes with others but mostly with ourselves.

There is so much that in Christ we have been given by God, with the consequence that there is much we have been called to, both to do and to be. Understanding backwards and patiently living forwards, we can make a real difference, one day at a time.

Our calling to respond to Christ’s love and grace is not about affirmation or success, but about faithfulness. When we are presented with new steps of faith, we are called not to success but to an obedient and patient walking with Christ. This is so simple and yet such a difficult lesson for individuals, congregations, and even whole denominations to take to heart.

Faith… courage… patience… and, from this morning’s Gospel reading, readiness.

Luke chapter 12 comprises a number of Jesus’ warnings and encouragements to his listeners. I don’t want to blank out the first few lines of this morning’s extract: it seems to me that if our lives are rooted in God’s love and purposes, then we will grow to realise that finding security in material goods and not in heaven’s spiritual treasure is a waste of time.

But I want to focus more on the rest of the reading.  Eventually the wisdom of understanding backwards and living forwards will bring us to a place of urgency in light of Christ’s promised return. It has to.

Jesus’ phrase ‘dressed for action’ used to be translated more dramatically as ‘your loins girded’. That original imagery suggests ensuring that your robes are pulled up and fastened high enough to allow your legs to run forwards with arms open and ready to embrace what comes, even to embrace the Lord himself.

It is interesting to wonder what those hearing Jesus live, as it were in the flesh, would have made of it. However the first readers of the Gospel manuscripts, including Luke’s Gospel may have heard it differently. Specifically they might have been wondering why Jesus hadn’t yet returned. Christians hearing Paul’s letters in the years before the Gospel accounts were fully formed most certainly did.

Wouldn’t these words of Jesus have caused Luke’s readers difficulty, doubt, and suffering as they wrestled with what may have felt like an unfulfilled promise?

And what about us? Why have evil and pain yet to be ended by the final reign of God and earth?  Why is the price of patience so often to do with waiting for justice?

Yet whilst we remain patient, we are also called to be ready. Indeed, for Christians, all things are yet unfinished. We hear so often that faith, our discipleship, is a journey and, although the imagery can be overused it doesn’t mean that it isn’t true!  And our journey – if you prefer, our pilgrimage – requires us to be alert, to live with readiness to be able to discern right decisions with faith, courage and patience.

As individuals, and as a Cathedral community, can we be continually expectant? Will we be open to the Holy Spirit to be able to see Jesus when he comes to us, yes in worship but also in the frightened, hurting, oppressed and ignored who turn up unannounced? Or will we miss him when arrives at ‘an unexpected hour’?

Faith, courage, patience and readiness…

Understanding backwards and living forwards, we will discover more and more of who we are called to be, and of the One who calls us and promises us a share in his eternal kingdom.

Faith, courage, patience and readiness…

May it be so in all our lives, and in this place. Amen.