Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Pentecost +12 - Year C

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Blessed are those who are persecuted for their faith. Twice blessed are those who later have someone join them to continue faithfulness in the face of persecution.

Should you pay attention to the host of ancestral models, everywhere you look there will be a challenging forerunner in the faith. While you won't be breaking any new ground, you may be able to heal some old ground simply by continuing the ancient tradition of taking any consequence that comes along by way of holding to any of the myriad ways of justice and release from captivity (your own or someone else's). As long as there is a continued need for justice to be enacted, there is an ancestor still uneasy apart from your joining them on the journey of life.

The promise here is not that we will be the final iteration of faithful folk that will complete all those who go before, but that we are on the same journey. Should we not complete a task, we will have the privilege of joining a cloud of witnesses, encouraging those who come after us to pay attention to the justice needs of their time. This is helpful in that there is a benefit from simply running as faithfully as we can. We may find ourselves blessed with the completion of a task. We may find ourselves blessed with taking that task one step further along the way to completion. Either way, we find ourselves blessed simply to do what is ours to do - regardless of the outcome.

So, who is your avatar in the faith? Gideon, Deborah, David, prophetesses? To note this person is to discern the arena of your faithfulness. May you go pro in your field of faithful endeavor. You may still be an amateur in some other arena, but improving your ability to be just in a particular life issue is possible and desirable.