Reflection - Books

By Steve Hall

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013021.cfm
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Mark 4:35-41

You may have noticed that those selecting the readings for today skipped from verse 2 all the way to verse 8 before continuing with the next twelve verses. In a sense the chosen verses are complete in themselves; but the original author continued with his point, not just in verses 3 to 7, but also on to verses 20 to through 32. Throughout this section, he traces the persistence of faith — the faith of Able, Enoch and Noah; the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the faith of Joseph, Moses and those who followed Moses out of the land of Egypt. In the end, when he stops, it’s only out of necessity. “And what more shall I say?” he continues, For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.” (Hebrews11:32) Yet, even as he stops he persists, identifying others of varying times and circumstance, as people of faith. “For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews11:6)

The author opened this chapter with a statement regarding the meaning of ‘faith.’ “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith . is . the assurance . of . things . hoped . for, the . conviction . of . things . not . seen. In some ways the assertion is a puzzle. What exactly are the things hoped for? What are those things not seen. The timelessness of the truth being spoken speaks to different things that are either hoped for or unseen. That’s not to say that these matters are contingent upon the fantasies and whims of different generations or individuals. Rather, consider with me and you will see that the truth that is at the heart of the statement is surprisingly constant and surprisingly changing with every new generation. Regarding this matter St Thomas Acquinas had this to say:

Faith is distinct from all other acts of the intellect. It is defined as assurance, which distinguishes it from opinion, suspicion, and doubt; it adheres to things not seen, which distinguishes it from science, whose object is something apparent; and it is directed toward things hoped for.
(Nature and Grace — Aquinas)

Abraham could not see a posterity as numerous as the stars, nor a fertile land in his descendant’s possession; but that is what God had promised him. Moses had difficulty, even along the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, recognizing this rag-tag mob following him as a nation, but he knew the Lord saw them as such. The Lord’s message is a bit different for every generation and yet amazingly consistent. Take the most fundamental aspect of the Old Testament belief. The Israelites, through their ancestors, had been involved in the establishment of a Covenant between God and their ancestors. That Covenant was essentially summarized in the words of God: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” This Covenant underlies all that follows. Only with faith is assurance in the Covenant possible. Concentrating on the ‘what’ that is hoped for or the ‘what’ that remains unseen diffuses our attention and defuses its import. It is not the ‘what’ but the ‘who’ that deserves our regard. Only with faith is it realistic to hope that the revealed promises are true. Only with faith can one have conviction that what evidence is provided is indeed authentic. That brings us to a different, but profoundly interrelated topic.

Many identify it by the simple word: Bible. Others are more descriptive, identifying it as Sacred or Holy Scripture, The Word of God, or Salvation History. Some are content with a more prosaic reference, calling it the Good Book or simply The Book.Those harboring a touch of skepticism might identify it as Ancient Writings, a Collection of Books or even a Collection of Stories.

All of these are accurate to a degree, but none capture the dynamics of this living word. The problem may lie in our post-Gutenberg world where books are commonplace. The non-comital phrases Ancient Writings, Collection of Books and Collection of Stories may be technically accurate, but tell us little. ‘Bible,’ of course, is accurate only in the sense that that is the name this collection of writings has been given. ‘Sacred Scripture’ and ‘Holy Scripture’ fail because other religions, with their own literature, apply them as well. Similarly, that is also true of ‘The Word of God.’ ‘Salvation History’ has more recently come into use but is most often mistakenly applied to the Chosen People, their history and how they were saved.

Referring to the books of the Bible as Salvation History is most accurately understood when taken to mean it is the history of God saving his people. It is an account of God acting in both the affairs of men and in the lives of individual men. That account sometimes tells of God speaking directly, as he did with Abraham; or speaking through the prophets, as he did with Isaiah and Jeremiah; or speaking through angels, as when he spoke to Mary, to Joseph and to shepherds. The account sometimes tells of incidents where he used natural forces to bring about his will as he probably did when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed; as when the Chosen People were given dry passage across the Reed Sea; as when the Assyrian army abruptly abandoned their siege of Jerusalem. It tells of incidents where the plans of men were used to advance his plan, as when the Persian King, Cyrus, conquered the Babylonian empire with the result that the Jews in exile were allowed to return to Judea.

That work of Salvation was also moved along when the people were given the Law at Mt Sinai in the time of Moses. God had not done this for any other nation. Even the critical elements of proper worship were given as divine directives. That began with Abraham and the Lord’s setting aside the practice of human sacrifice, and was more definitively established with the institution of the feast of Passover — the feast where the death of the lamb brought life.

Up to this point all the references have been to events from the Old Testament. The human author of Hebrews recognized the shift in God’s approach way back in chapter one: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things . . ..” (Hebrews 1:1-2) Not only has he spoken to us by his Son; he has sent his Spirit to live within us so that his word to us is readily available. So now we need to return to the matter of the Bible.

The author of Hebrews could confidently speak of the faith of so many in Israel’s past because those people were the present generation’s heritage. What they were was the product of what had been; and the faith which they exemplified was a treasure passed from generation to generation. The stories of God’s saving work necessarily involved the corresponding story of the recipients. So those stories were part of their story. And that’s not the half of it.

We all know the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) give us a description of God’s earliest recorded work of salvation among men. Scholars tell us that internal evidence demonstrates that these accounts existed in verbal form for several hundred years before being recorded in writing. When that final record was made, the Spirit inspired the human author to include three verses that disclose the attitude toward Biblical works which should be ours as well. As you hear them or read them remember the time gap between the historical event and these few lines:

“The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb [Sinai].
Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive this day.
The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire.”
(Deuteronomy 5:2-4)

History is more than our heritage. It is what we are today. In the spiritual realm, religious history is also more than our heritage. It is what we are today. And those words spoken by God in the past are not just a record of what he has done, but a living record of what he is doing with us, who are all of us here alive this day.