on faith

In today's 1st reading from Hebrews we hear:

Brothers and sisters:
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for
and evidence of things not seen.
Because of it the ancients were well attested.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place
that he was to receive as an inheritance;
he went out, not knowing where he was to go. ...

All these died in faith.
They did not receive what had been promised
but saw it and greeted it from afar
and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth,
for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland.

As I was sitting in the chapel this morning, these words reminded me of the opening section of our community's constitutions:

Peace is God's gift to us,
given in Christ,
a gift we experience and enjoy now,
though not in its completeness.
We believe that peace
points beyond itself in hope
to the fullness of time.

It's the balance between being present in the now but living with the not yet. It's believing in faith, sometimes against all seeming reason, that God and good will prevail. It's living with the imperfectness of the world, with the imperfectness of ourselves, but yet realizing what is hoped for in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. It is letting God be God and believing that what has been promised will come. We may see it from afar, but it will come ... in God's time.

I'm also reminded of another of my favorite passes from Habakkuk:

Then the LORD answered me and said: Write down the vision Clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.