Hi First Presbyterian Church,
It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! The Penny Pincher Sale is this week! The Presbyterian Women volunteers and others have been hard at work getting the sale ready. Don’t forget that the sale is open on Thursday (tomorrow) from 10am - 5pm. On Friday, the half-price sale is from 10am - 12pm, and the “big bag” sale is from 12:15pm - 1:30pm.
Today is also the last call if you want to attend the spiritual renewal retreat I am leading from October 24 (3pm) through October 26 (10am). If you want learn and practice spiritual disciplines of prayer and scripture-reading along beautiful Canandaigua Lake, let me know today! I still have some spots open. The cost is $80/person for a private bedroom and $50/person for a shared bedroom.
This Sunday, my sermon will focus on Hebrews 11, which is where we encounter this profound and well-known verse of scripture: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). I will be exploring what it means to step out in faith to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. I want to share with you today an excerpt from the fourth-century theologian Augustine of Hippo, who is reflecting in a sermon on this verse from Hebrews. He says that faith, hope, and love are connected. He says that when we trust in the promises of God, because we have hope in their reality, it leads to love. Here is what he says:
When you hope, you do not yet have what you are hoping for, but, by believing it, you resemble someone who does possess it. For faith will eventually take hold, but our very faith stands for the thing itself. I mean, you do not have your hands on anything when you have them on faith, nor are they empty if they are full of faith. The reason faith is greatly rewarded is that it does not see and yet believes. I mean, if it could see, what reward would there be? ... But faith does not falter, because it is supported by hope. Take away hope, and faith falters. How, after all, when you are walking somewhere, will you even move your feet, if you have no hope of ever getting there? If, though, from each of them, that is from faith and hope, you withdraw love, what is the point of believing; what is the point of hoping, if you do not love? Indeed, you cannot even hope for anything you do not love. Love, you see, kindles hope; hope shines through love. But when we attain the things that we have been hoping for while believing in and not seeing them, what faith will there be then to be praised? Considering that “faith is the conviction of things not seen,” when we do see, it will not be called faith. After all, you will be seeing, not believing.
I HOPE to see you Sunday.
Peace,
Pastor Aaron