Rector's Reflection—12 Pentecost, Proper 15
August 15, 2010

For you English teachers—or for those who simply love grammar and literary devices—this piece of the letter to the Hebrews (which was begun last week) is enough to make you swoon. It's got a healthy dose of anaphora and a generous helping of asyndeton mixed up nicely with multiple examples and a rhetorical question or two.

Asyndeton is essentially the absence of conjunctions. Each sentence packs its own punch when it isn't conjoined to sentences before and after (e.g. "I came. I saw. I conquered.") Anaphora cunningly drives home a point with repetition—in this case, 'by faith.' Nineteen times in just two chapters, the writer says "by faith," leading you to believe that it must be important. "And what more should I say?..." is a rhetorical question. 'Multiple examples' speaks for itself.

Clearly faith is the primary concern for the writer of the letter. The Hebrews are to hold tight to faith, even in the midst of their disappointments and sufferings. After all, "by faith the people passed through the Red Sea." Yay for faith! "By faith the walls of Jericho fell." Yay for faith! "By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish." Yay for faith! "Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight." Yay for faith! "Others were tortured." Yay for... Hmmm. "Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death... sawn in two... killed by the sword; they went... destitute, persecuted, tormented." Umm. Are we still talking about the same thing?

In short order, Hebrews offers us triumph and tragedy... and they're both a part of faith. I think we sometimes either want to ascribe or evaluate faith based on one's circumstances. Good things happen = faith has its benefits. Bad things happen = where is your God? The problem with drawing conclusions based on results is that it makes faith into a commodity. If you think good things happen because of faith, then those who suffer must not have enough of it. If you think that hardship fosters faith, then those who have it easy must have compromised theirs.

Without further analysis, the writer of Hebrews simply presents two examples of faith. Faith is not a response to good results (that would be gratitude) nor can any conclusions about the measure of someone's faith be drawn from their circumstances. I think what the writer is trying to show here is that both triumph and tragedy have always been true for believers. If there were only tragic examples, that certainly wouldn't encourage the Hebrews to hang in there—'you mean this is as good as it gets?' If there were only triumphant examples, that would probably just make the Hebrews feel guilty—'what did we do wrong?'

Too bad the Hebrews couldn't come to our summer book studies of Rabbi Kushner's books—When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough and especially When Bad Things Happen to Good People. They would have watched us look at the triumphs and tragedies inherent in the life of faith (to be filed under "the more things change, the more they stay the same"), and they would have understood that, then and now, the reasons for the differences are hidden in the purposes of God.

Susan+