'They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were refugees and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.'
During this first week of Advent, in most Christian traditions, we are invited to remember and re-tell the lives and stories of people who are part of our faith heritage. They speak of times and places that for many of us are unknown; stories that reach back not just centuries, but thousands of years. And though our lifetimes and circumstances might be entirely different; though our minds struggle to comprehend the timespan that separates us, their stories are part of ours, and ours are part of theirs. For in all these episodes and encounters, we can trace the thread of God's salvation, that in this generation is now ours to receive.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us of how these characters have inspired and nurtured the faith of the generations that followed, and in today's Biblical reflection speaks of them as refugees and strangers; seekers of a better land. And on this basis, God identifies with them and promises them a heavenly city.
We may or may not be called to be great history makers; we may or may not live lives that take centre stage, but whatever our life journey entails, we can live as seekers of that same heavenly city. So while we may exist in an era of earthly uncertainty, we do so as those whose security lies elsewhere.
We might easily look at any of those great characters that these words refer to, and recognise how the dynamic of faith runs through their life story. Abram, for example, left the safety and familiarity of his home town, with little tangible proof of God's promise, but convinced that a new land awaited him. Joseph endured rejection by his own siblings, slavery, injustice and neglect, yet eventually emerged as an influential and powerful ruler.
Each story has its own message, yet they also combine into an even more profound narrative of hope, purpose and salvation. This is not simply a catalogue of individual witnesses, but a single, unfolding story with many and varied episodes.
We are where we are in the history of our world and nations, immediate events are but another episode of history; a history through which God's purpose has always prevailed. We do not respond to our world with indifference; we accept its reality, but our confidence is found in accepting and seeking God's reality in its midst.
Timeless God, though we walk in a world of darkness, may we walk towards your light, inspired afresh by the stories of those who have trod this way before.
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