Forward in faith

Photo: iStock

I LOVE the climactic scene in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade in which Indiana Jones steps out over the abyss, trusting that there are steps there to balance on. If he’s wrong, certain death awaits and yet, given that going back isn’t an option, he takes that first step and sure enough finds himself supported by a series of steps that were not otherwise visible.

It’s a move that comes firmly into the category of ‘leaps of faith.’

Sometimes, it’s required of us that we ‘walk by faith, not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5:7.)

What did Abraham know about the ‘land I will show you’ before setting off in response to the invitation of the Lord? And did Simon and Andrew, James and John have a detailed plan of what they were getting into when they responded to Jesus’ call to drop their nets and to follow him?

They were, as the song suggests, ‘looking forward in faith.’ Simply put, faith is what we’re employing when we step into an unseen and uncertain future.

We should clarify from the outset that faith is not the same as fate, which imagines that the future is ‘written in the stars’ - whatever that means - and so turns its attention to horoscopes and refrains of Que sera sera.

Faith is different in all kinds of ways but not least because it’s active rather than passive and because it is faith IN something or someone. For the Christian then, it’s not just that we exercise faith; it’s that our faith is IN the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as made known, most clearly, in the person of Jesus Christ.

Our faith in God is what gives us ‘bright hope for tomorrow’ even when we can’t be sure what that tomorrow is going to look like.

Scottish New Years are generally associated with the consumption of liberal amounts of alcohol and plenty of Auld Lang Syne, but there’s no reason why they are any less ‘faith occasions’ than the Christmas celebrations which they follow - and no less so this year.

The truth is that we can never be sure of what a new year will hold but 2021 brings with it added layers of uncertainty and, therefore, anxiety. None of us will quickly forget 2020 - an annus horribilis a thousand times over! - but can we be absolutely sure that this year is going to be plain sailing?

Of course we can’t - but we can be absolutely sure that the One who knows the end from the beginning will be with us. That’s faith - might we say ‘New Year Faith.’

I love the poem, The Gate of the Year, that King George VI quoted from in his address to the nation at Christmas in 1939:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.

And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

I invite you to put your hand into the ‘Hand of God’ trusting that God will surely lead you - lead us - towards the breaking day.

The Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2020/21 and is minister at Arbroath: St Andrew’s.

This article appears in the January 2021 Issue of Life and Work

Click here to view the article in the magazine.

To view other articles in this issue Click here.

If you would like to view other issues of Life and Work, you can see the full archive here.