Yesterday, Today and Forever

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
Fourteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Hebrews 13:1-8; 15-16

1Let mutual love continue. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. 4Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 6So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” 7Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 15Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

What exactly does it mean to say for something to ‘continue’? What is implied in the use of the word? How is it different to say ‘continue’ as opposed to saying ‘start’? (Take answers)

To say ‘continue’ is to understand that something is already happening.

Does it seem unusual to you to jump into this morning’s passage and hear the writer of the epistle tell the folks being written to to continue to love each other mutually?

In terms of familiarity with scripture, no, it probably is not that unusual to read it. There are, after all, many other instances where the exhortation from the writers to the listeners was to continue to love each other.

But remember, we are not the original recipients of these letters. We ARE, I believe, INTENDED to receive these scriptures, but in purely physical, logistical terms, ours was not the address on the envelope when the letter was first mailed. But here we sit, nearly two thousand years after the pen was first laid to parchment, or papyrus, or vellum, or whatever medium was used to write on, thousands of miles from where the letter was first circulated, and we are supposed to figure out how this passage applies to us here today in Emmerton, at Jerusalem Baptist Church.

That is the beauty of having access to the Living Word of God. Even though it was written so long ago to a PEOPLE so far away, it is still relevant to US, here and now.

So we’re being told to let mutual love continue. Again, that is presupposing that the love was there before.

I’m going to take a few moments and invite us to share in another moment of silence. Not as long as our DISCIPLINE of silence, but I want us to concentrate for just a couple of dozen seconds on the people who are no longer in this room, but who once WERE.

I want us to think back over the last several years, even before we came to be with you, and I want us to play back in our minds, at random, just one or two events in which we interacted with one or two or three of the people who are no longer here. Whether that person is not here because they have passed away or have since moved on to another fellowship or moved away from the area is not important right now. What I want us to focus on is what emotion is coaxed from us by replaying that memory we have of them.

So, close your eyes and spend the next few seconds remembering. It can be a memory associated with being in this building or anywhere else, it is not geographically limited, but it TEMPORALY limited. It DOES need to involve someone with whom you have more or less lost contact. Ok. Go.

What is the emotion associated with the memory? Is it joy? Is it sorrow? Is it anger? Is it … indifference? Do we miss that person? Are we secretly relieved that that person is not around any more? Do we wonder how they are doing, if they are still alive? Do we miss talking to them, miss interacting with them?

Okay. Hold that thought, that emotion, that memory for a few minutes. We’ll come back to it.

Next question: what does it mean to be a Christian, to be a follower of Christ? Is it to hold to a certain set of beliefs and tenets of faith? Is it to understand the world and the universe in a certain way? Does it mean to behave in certain ways at certain times? (Take answers)

I think we can all agree that it’s not any one of those things, but rather a blend of all of them. To be a follower of Christ is to believe certain things, to have a certain perspective on the world, AND to DO certain things – and in truth to NOT do certain things – as a result of holding to those beliefs and views.

Any conversation, any definition of what it means to be a follower of Christ is incomplete from our perspective as Baptists if we do not also recognize and name the single most radical (basic) issue in being a follower of Christ – and that is to have a relationship with the risen Lord.

That having been said, the question we need to ask ourselves this morning is, how have we lived our lives this past week in a manner consistent with that? Is being a Christian a matter of culture for us? Are we Christian because we live in a supposedly predominantly Christian country? Are we Christian because it is easier to be a part of this community if we are identified as such?

In the first century Roman Empire, being a Christian was counter cultural. We became aware of that term in the 60’s, with all the social upheavals that decade brought, but it may have predated that decade and the term may actually have been coined in the 50’s with what was known as the “beat generation” … people who were intentionally living against the grain of the prevailing culture. I suspect that if we studied our history closely enough, we’d find counter-cultural pockets throughout.

The Christians who first received this letter were embarking on a life experience that was much more perilous for them than ours probably is for us. Choosing to follow Christ in the first century frequently involved the risk of losing at the LEAST one’s standing, job, family, or even life in a community and culture that would have been predominantly pantheistic, that is, that believed in a multitude of gods, would have been … let me make up a word here – polymoral – that is, society understood that by virtue of the fact that there existed a multitude of gods, there existed also a multitude of moral codes … which is to say, in essence, that there WAS no ONE moral code, no absolute sense of right and wrong. It was, in practice and in fact, an amoral society – one with NO defining moral outlook. Hmm … does THAT ring a bell? Have you taken a look at the magazines that are on sale in the checkout line at the grocery store? I believe on the whole, that the Church has had a positive influence on our culture, but not so much as to yet consider the Kingdom of God to be broken in.

And here we have this writer telling people to again, CONTINUE to love one another, to show hospitality to strangers, to honor the marriage covenant, to be sexually pure, to not be greedy, to be content with what they have, to remember their leaders, and if they live THEIR lives as good examples, to follow those examples.

These are fairly basic, nuts and bolts ideas on how to live their lives as followers of Jesus Christ. The thing about these instructions, though, is that … they are not in ANY way that I can tell LIMITED in their applicability to the people who lived during the first century. ALL of these are just as relevant to our lives today in 21st century Virginia as they were to 1st century Asia Minor.

Did you hear that? That was the sound of 20 centuries of intervening history melting away through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. (grin)

So let’s get back to that first thing we were doing.

Remember the emotion you felt in relation to that certain person or those certain people that you brought to mind in our exercise at the beginning of the message?

It’s easy to do that exercise thinking of someone with whom you are unlikely to have continued contact. There’s a buffer built into it in the understanding that to whatever degree it might be the case, what’s done is done. There’s very little that can be done about that relationship now – very little expectation placed on us in a situation that cannot be resolved or addressed without both parties present.

It is a little harder to face the completion of that exercise with a slightly more immediate focus. Look around. Go ahead, look around. I want us to get a really good idea of who is here in the room with us. Now, while you are looking around, as different people come into your line of sight, I want you to think back on some interaction you had with each of the people you are seeing. Now we go back through the same questions as with the other person: What is the emotion associated with the memory? Is it joy? Is it sorrow? Is it anger? Is it … indifference? Or is it a little stronger? Are you feeling an emotion that you would rather not associate with being in Church? Are you having trouble being in the same room with the person?

Now let’s get to the point. What this means for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton on the 2nd of September of 2007.

We are each wired different. You’ve heard the term polar opposites? Do you know where the term comes from? It is a description of magnetic forces. Have you ever tried to force the two positive or the two negative ends of two magnets together? It can’t be done. You may be able to hold them together by applying continual force, but once that force is removed, or eased, the two ends move apart.

I’m not naïve enough to expect us all to get along.

We are not called by God to become identical to each other, seeing the world the same way, holding the same views, understanding things in exactly the same way, LIKING the same songs, the same forms of worship, the same versions of scripture, the same Sunday school literature. God’s infinite creativity made us each as individuals, with equal worth in God’s eyes.

If the emotion you were feeling a few minutes ago in any way caused you to view the person prompting those feelings as anything less than a beloved child of God, then your relationship with that person is broken. God didn’t call us to be like each other, God didn’t call us to like each other. God DID call us to LOVE each other, to be in relationship with each other just as the different members of our bodies are part of one body. You’ve heard the passage from 1st Corinthians 12 – if you are not familiar with it, start reading at verse 12 and keep going. The RUB is the difference between not liking someone and yet being called to love them. That can be hard at times.

Folks, this is basic elemental Christianity. If we can’t treat each other with love and respect, accepting our differences and still agreeing to join together in genuine fellowship and in working toward the inbreaking of the kingdom of God, all we’re doing is going through the motions, we’re paying lip service to what following Christ means. In case you were wondering, that means we’re SAYING one thing, but actually living a totally different reality. More to the point, Jesus talked about thoughts as much as deeds. What is in your HEART makes as much difference as what comes out through your lips.

Jerusalem has a challenge for the incoming year. It’s actually the same challenge that faces each of us each day of our lives. Will we let our lives reflect what we say we believe, or will we just lay low, pretend to be a family when in fact we would just as soon not be anywhere near each other, not feel the need in any way to pick up the phone or to knock on the door, or … maybe even walk across the room and say ‘you are my brother in Christ, you are my sister in Christ, I DO love you, but I need you to help me reestablish our relationship, because it has not been there for some time now.’

This is where the reality of what the writer to the Hebrews was dealing with intersects with our own reality. What is more important to us? Being right or being forgiven? Will we forget that we are all fallen sinners, none deserving, but blessed by the grace of God to have received God’s forgiveness? Or will we let pride keep us from taking that first step towards redeeming relationships?

Let’s pray.

You have, O God, shown us the way. You made yourself human and lowered yourself to the form of a servant even unto death. So teach us to die to ourselves not just in our relationship with you, but even in our daily relationships with each other, so that it will be YOU shining through in ALL that we do, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Our hymn of response is ‘Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It’, number 544. I would caution you that as you sing it, don’t for a minute think that we can sing about being redeemed by the blood of the lamb for salvation and it have NO bearing on ALL our other relationships, ESPECIALLY with those whom we call brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s stand and sing.