I asked another chaplain to lead the service this morning, since my unit is about to leave and seems to enjoy unpredictability as a lifestyle choice. What a refreshing change of pace! There is something about the old school, black Gospel style of singing and preaching that can nurse the soul (probably has something to do with the style being forged through suffering).
The passage utilized for the sermon today was Hebrews 11, which is a fitting jumping off point for a deployment. The passage chronicles many Old Testament heroes of the faith, but it is not about them. It is about the promise of Jesus Christ that sustained them.
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. By it, the men of old received testimony." (Heb. 11:1-2--mostly KJV).
Faith is not a feeling or vague hope. Some modern translations change "substance" to "assurance" and change "evidence" to "confidence." The substance here produces assurance and the evidence here produces confidence, but the older terminology better captures the original Greek.
The unseen things--the hoped for things--were the person and work of Jesus Christ and the effects of what He acccomplished. They were heavenly realities, for example, "a city whose builder and maker is God," that were ultimately bound to Jesus Christ as the focal point of the great cloud of witnesses (12:1-3).
The substance--the evidence--that sustained them was God's Word and its redemptive promise that pointed forward to Christ. We walk by faith, not by sight, and that faith is sustained by God's Word and Spirit. As a result, the Old Testament "heroes" were enabled to walk by faith because the Word and promises that sustained their faith was just as real as the fulfillment to come.
Boiling it all down, faith is a God-given gift that enables the blind to see reality that surpasses the microscope or telescope or present experiences. God's revelation is more substantial and speaks with an uninhibited authority and clarity that cannot be matched. It can be perverted by the human mind, but unlike the scientific method, is not dependent on the human mind for its truth.
And faith, in its true form, has Christ alone as its object. There is no substitute. I have no faith in myself or my potential. I have faith in my Savior from sin. I can do no ultimate good apart from Him. And I walk by faith, which is no less valid than any other guide, but rather, because it relies upon God's Word as its substance, trumps all other quests for truth and meaning.
And as I walk by faith into this deployment, I have assurance and confidence, knowing that for me and each of my soldiers, not a bullet or piece of shrapnel shall graze us but by the divine appointment of God. And unless that appointment was made in the eternal counsel of His will for His own glory, we are untouchable. This does not negate our responsibility and wisdom, but cloaks them in security. To God be the glory!
