Living by faith. That is the theme of today 's three Bible readings. The reading from Hebrews reminds of us of the many Old Testament heroes who kept their faith in the midst of dangers; and even when they did not know the future, they kept being faithful to the Lord God. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Samuel, David, Daniel and others. They lived by faith. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." It is an encouragement for us to keep faithful, also.

The big example of faith is Abraham. God gave him the two-fold promise of land and descendents to live in that land. Believing that promise, Abram left his home country of Ur and headed toward Canaan. That was his new country, but he never had a permanent city there, he never really settled down, he lived his whole life in tents. He was an old man and his wife was an old woman and they had no children. When Abraham was discouraged about the promise of descendents, the word of the Lord came to him. "[Your servant] shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir." And the Lord brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." And Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness."(Genesis 15). When Abraham died at the age of 175, he was able to see his son Isaac and his two grandsons Jacob and Esau, plus his other son Ishmael and the sons of Ishmael. But still Abraham lived in a tent. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."And so Abraham believed in the promise of God for a country, the Promised Land and the promised citizens. He believed God and he lived by that faith.

The New Testament promise of Jesus is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. This country is not limited to the area of Palestine. It is not the same homeland as that promised to Abraham. The Kingdom of God has no borders; it is not limited by space or time. It is now on earth, it is forever in heaven. This is the promise that Jesus has given us. We believe that promise of Jesus and like Abraham we too are counted as righteous.

Jesus told his disciples, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father 's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." That is our problem as being the flock of God. We do fear. We are anxious. We do worry. We do panic. Jesus calls this a faith problem. "O you of little faith!" he says. Think of it like this. It is a matter of which country you hold citizenship in. Are you a citizen of heaven or only a citizen of this world? To you have faith in God or in your national government? Is God your King or is someone else ruling your life? When you are worried about what to eat or what to wear or where to live or that thieves might break in your home, then look to your local city government and the local police. Those are the things everyone in the world seeks after. Jesus said, " And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you." God knows what you need. And so, when we pray in the Lord 's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," it is like a thank you prayer. " Thank you Lord for giving us our daily bread." And when we can pray that, we are no longer worried about the things of this world. At that point we are seeking the Kingdom of God and his righteousness: "Thy Kingdom come. �c For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen."

That is living by faith. Of course we will have problems. There are times when we will wonder how God is going to get us through our problems. Then we await the miracle of God working in our lives.

We can live by faith because God is faithful to us. We can be faithful to God because God is faithful to us. God has made promises and he has kept them and he will keep them again. He kept his promise to Abraham. He kept his promise to King David. Jesus kept the promise that he would die for our sin and rise on the third day. The promised Holy Spirit came on Pentecost. And so we know that Jesus will be faithful to his promise. He will come again and take us to heaven. These are the promises of God.

We have made the promise to be faithful to God. In our Baptism we made that promise, in our Confirmation we confirmed that promise, and each time in the Sacrament of the Altar we renew that promise, that New Covenant in Christ 's Blood. And in the Sacraments, Christ renews his promise to us, the promise to be faithful.

That is what it means to live by faith. It means to live in the faithfulness of God 's promise to us. And so we can take a journey by faith, like Abraham. It means we can stand up for faith, even if like Daniel and his friends we find that we are standing in a den of lions or a fiery furnace. Living by faith means we are free as the birds of the air and as lovely as the lilies of the field.

Amen.

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father 's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."