Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

What faith really means

11 What then is faith? It is what gives assurance to our hopes; it is what gives us conviction about things we can’t see. ² It is what the men and women of old were famous for. ³ It is by faith that we understand that the worlds were formed by God’s word; in other words, that the visible world was made from the invisible.

⁸ It was by faith that Abraham, when God called him, obeyed and went out to a place where he was to receive an inheritance. Off he went, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ It was by faith that he stayed in the promised land as a stranger, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were joint heirs of the same promise. ¹⁰ He was looking ahead, you see, to the city which has foundations, the city of which God is the designer and builder.

¹¹ It was by faith that Sarah herself, who was barren, received the ability to conceive a child even when long past the right age, since she considered that God, who had promised, was trustworthy. ¹² Thus it came about that from one man, and him more or less dead, there was born a family as many as the stars of heaven in number, as uncountable as the sand on the seashore.

Faith that looks beyond death

¹³ All these people died in faith. They hadn’t received the promise, but they had seen it from far off, and had greeted it, and had recognized that they were strangers and wanderers in the land. ¹⁴ People who say that sort of thing, you see, make it clear that they are looking for a homeland. ¹⁵ Had they been thinking of the place from which they had set out, they would have had plenty of opportunity to go back to it. ¹⁶ But as it was they were longing for a better place, a heavenly one. That’s why God is not ashamed to be called “their God,” since he has prepared a city for them.

³² Don’t be afraid, little flock. Your father is delighted to give you the kingdom.

³³ “Sell your possessions and give alms. Make yourselves purses that don’t wear out, a treasure in heaven that lasts forever, where the thief doesn’t come near and the moth doesn’t destroy. ³⁴ Yes: where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be too.”

Jesus’ call to watchfulness

³⁵ “Make sure you’re dressed and ready with your lamps alight,” said Jesus. ³⁶ “You need to be like people waiting for their master when he comes back from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and knocks they will be able to open the door for him at once. ³⁷ A blessing on the servants whom the master finds awake when he comes! I’m telling you the truth: he will put on an apron and sit them down and come and wait on them. ³⁸ A blessing on them if he comes in the second watch of the night, or even the third, and finds them like that!

³⁹ “But you should know this: if the householder had known what time the thief was coming, he wouldn’t have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰ You too should be ready, because the son of man is coming at a time you don’t expect.”