Sunday 10th August 2025

Isaiah 1: 1, 10-20

Psalm 50: 1-8, 23-24

Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16

St. Luke 12: 32-40

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one…” Hebrews 11: 16a

In the children’s story The Wind in the Willows, one beautiful summer day – just when the sun is rising above the eastern horizon – a Mole hears the most beautiful music being played on a flute! The music is exquisite – it’s beautiful beyond words… Mole longs to hear the music better!… He wants to meet this inspired musician, and he runs forward, trying to get closer to the source of the music… Frustratingly, though, as he tries to pursue it, the music gets fainter and fainter, until his ears can hear it no more… The little creature is confronted with his everyday life… He tries to explain what he heard to a sympathetic friend, who doesn’t really understand… But – the memory!… O, he carries the memory of that beautiful music!… The memory of that exquisite music helps make the every day natural world a little more beautiful, a little more precious…

There are many metaphors, many pictures, to try to capture the sense of the hope of heaven… In early societies, gold was often used as an image to try to describe the grandeur of heaven. (Going well beyond the images from scripture and the early Church, it was a way to try to describe beauty beyond words…)

American slaves took up the image of God’s people fleeing slavery in Egypt, and crossing the Jordan River to freedom. That’s the image which spoke deeply to them… We still hear people speaking of “crossing the Jordan” as a way of speaking of the life to come – just as the ancient Greek poet Hesiod imagined crossing a river which is the divide between life and death…

For others of us, the language and gift of music is a way to communicate the rapture and the beauty of heaven… The gift of beautiful music has the potential to point beyond ourselves, to a state of the soul which is beyond words – and which points towards God…

Another way to describe our longing for heaven – our longing for eternity – is to speak of heaven as our true “home…”

The author of Hebrews puts it this way:

(The great heroes of the faith in the past) confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desire a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them (11:

14-16).

So, “home” is sometimes uses as a metaphor for heaven… For many of us, “home” is

associated with warmth; rest; safety; and belonging….

Now, I acknowledge that some of us were raised in homes which were not safe, and perhaps another metaphor is more helpful to you, to think about heaven… Or perhaps, we can see our broken experiences for what they are, while being confident that God in his mercy can redeem our deepest brokenness, in the process of making us beautiful by the Holy Spirit…

Whatever metaphor we might use to talk about the life to come, I am convinced that deep in every human heart, there is a longing for something more; a longing for wholeness; a longing for God…

The great African bishop Augustine of Hippo wrote a spiritual autobiography of his life, The Confessions. In it, he famously wrote to God, “You have made us for yourself; and our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in you…”

So, deep within every human heart, many of us are persuaded that there is a longing for something beyond this life – a place of rest; a place to be with God for eternity – for the kingdom of heaven… Jesus Christ taught his friends that to know this presence and peace of God, we’re invited to encounter Jesus Christ himself… It is by encountering the presence of Jesus by his Spirit, that we come to know the presence and peace of God…

Now, for some people, the tension between our present broken-ness and this longing for unending peace is too much: They might try to numb themselves, or distract themselves, through alcohol or other drugs, or through some petty entertainments – all an attempt to distract ourselves from life’s big questions – from the longing of our hearts for the peace of eternity… However, I suggest these distractions are never really successful…

Rather than shy away from it, it’s appropriate to long for the presence of God even deeper in our lives, to know the peace which passes understanding!…

Today’s readings help us know how to receive this peace. The prophecy from our first reading points that the way to peace with God is by not empty rituals, but by having sincere, open hearts… This spiritual openness always include engaging for those in the world on the edges of our lives who need our help… Spiritual peace, fellowship with God, begins with a humility to be open to whatever God may do in us…

In today’s epistle reading, the author of Hebrews recalls all the great heroes of the faith who have gone before us. As they dared to live in response to the presence of God, in some sense, they had faith in Jesus – even when they lived before Christ walked on this earth! True faith is not constrained by time, for these ancient heroes…

God is surely faithful. By grace, we are mysteriously and perfectly washed in the blood of the perfect self-offering… We are a new creation (II Corinthians 5: 17)… Our past and our sins no longer define who we are… For our part, today’s readings invite us to have faith – that is, to take the promises of God, and to dare to believe them. We are invited to simple worship, and living as God would have us live day by day. That is the direction of God’s peace…

Part of what it is to be human is to desire on some level to carry God’s peace, to be close with God for ever. Like music in the background, we can easily overlook the call, but let’s embrace it. Let’s seek God, while living faithfully and lovingly, all our days…

Amen.