People of Hope:
When the Angel Gabriel comes to Mary to announce she will bear the Son of the Most High who will sit on the throne of his ancestor David and reign over the house of Jacob forever, Mary asks, quite rightly, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
Mary is a virgin. Mary is not yet married. Mary is a nobody. The news of the Angel Gabriel is, truly, impossible. Yet the Angel Gabriel assures her: Nothing is impossible with God. In response, Mary demonstrates astonishing faith. She says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
As logical, intelligent, 21st-century people, Mary’s faith may seem naïve or even silly. Everything turned out all right for Mary, but how do we spot God’s call, God’s work, God’s voice in our personal lives and at Esperanza?
Well, we aren’t going to know for sure. That’s faith. We have faith in God, not certainty about God.
Faith and spirituality are a realm different from the sciences, where we test hypotheses, chart data, and update our prior knowledge when we learn something new. Through studies and tests and real-world experience, we figure out what is reliably true — until it no longer proves true or we reach the limits of its validity, such as updating the physics of Newton with the physics of Einstein.
By contrast, faith is a mystery.
I can tell you lots of things about the Bible, things I know are true — the translation of the Greek and Hebrew, the historical and social context, and the basic demographics of the original recipients of biblical texts. I can tell you how biblical scholars of the Lutheran tradition interpret the stories of the Old Testament, the letters of Paul, and the gospels. I can tell you that, as Lutherans, we read the Bible through the lens of grace, and I can tell you about church history, doctrine, worship practices, and the like. I have read and studied the Bible and theology for decades, and what I wish to do most of all in the world is to follow Jesus. But I cannot tell you, for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what God desires in the world, how God is speaking to us, and how God is calling us. Because faith isn’t science. Faith is a mystery.
Whether we are facing medical tests or the death of beloved people, whether we are worrying about who the next pastor of Esperanza will be or if our children and grandchildren will find joy and satisfaction, our faith in God does not provide us certainty. Our faith in God provides us hope.
Whatever fears or concerns you may be facing right now, whether they are personal, communal, or even global, we are not going to know for certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what God is doing and what God would have us do. Yet we are people of hope. So we can let go of our fears and trust God — wherever and however God leads.
With faith, hope, and love,
Pastor Sarah