But we DO see Jesus …
Sunday, October 8th, 2006
Proper 22 B
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Hebrews 2:5-12
The Revised Common Lectionary maps out passages from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the epistles for each Sunday of the year, as well as for Holy Days on the Church Calendar, for those denominations that observe the church year.
Today’s passage, along with the passages over the next few weeks, will be drawn from the letter to the Hebrews. If you’ve still got your bookmark or ribbon in James from the last series of sermons, open there, and move the marker up a few pages. Hebrews is found immediately before James.
A little background on the Letter to the Hebrews: tradition holds it to have been written by Paul, but textual studies and comparisons with what can be called Paul’s undisputed writings bring out differences in style and form that lead scholars to present the possibility that, perhaps drawing from Paul’s notes, a disciple of his sat down to write the letter to the Hebrews – an undefined and unaddressed group of believers in the second half of the first century. By unaddressed, I mean that there is no greeting or identification of the writer at the beginning of the letter. It goes straight into the body of the message.
From the content of the letter – the drawing of the parallels between the duties of the high priest of Israel and the completion of that role by Jesus Christ – it would seem that it is written to a mostly Jewish congregation, but the arguments could just as well serve in addressing a congregation made up of a mix of Jews and gentile converts to Christianity.
The timeframe of the writing is also debatable. Since it speaks of temple sacrifices, a central element of Jewish worship, it would stand to reason that it was written before the destruction of the temple in the year 70. However, the strength of the arguments surrounding the sacrifices is not terribly diminished by the possibility that the letter was written after the destruction of the Temple, but not before the importance of the sacrifices performed there faded from the collective memory of the congregation to whom the letter was written.
Approaching today’s passage weighs heavy on me. Not because it’s a particularly difficult text, but because of how inadequate and … unfaithful I feel when I think of the trust that has been placed in me as a child of God, and how I am guilty of at times having squandered that trust.
Did you get where the writer to the Hebrews says “God left nothing outside their control”? Let me read it again – starting at verse 7:
Proper 22 B
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Hebrews 2:5-12
5Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. 6But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? 7You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, 8subjecting all things under their feet.” (Ps. 8:4-6) Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, 9but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
The Revised Common Lectionary maps out passages from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the epistles for each Sunday of the year, as well as for Holy Days on the Church Calendar, for those denominations that observe the church year.
Today’s passage, along with the passages over the next few weeks, will be drawn from the letter to the Hebrews. If you’ve still got your bookmark or ribbon in James from the last series of sermons, open there, and move the marker up a few pages. Hebrews is found immediately before James.
A little background on the Letter to the Hebrews: tradition holds it to have been written by Paul, but textual studies and comparisons with what can be called Paul’s undisputed writings bring out differences in style and form that lead scholars to present the possibility that, perhaps drawing from Paul’s notes, a disciple of his sat down to write the letter to the Hebrews – an undefined and unaddressed group of believers in the second half of the first century. By unaddressed, I mean that there is no greeting or identification of the writer at the beginning of the letter. It goes straight into the body of the message.
From the content of the letter – the drawing of the parallels between the duties of the high priest of Israel and the completion of that role by Jesus Christ – it would seem that it is written to a mostly Jewish congregation, but the arguments could just as well serve in addressing a congregation made up of a mix of Jews and gentile converts to Christianity.
The timeframe of the writing is also debatable. Since it speaks of temple sacrifices, a central element of Jewish worship, it would stand to reason that it was written before the destruction of the temple in the year 70. However, the strength of the arguments surrounding the sacrifices is not terribly diminished by the possibility that the letter was written after the destruction of the Temple, but not before the importance of the sacrifices performed there faded from the collective memory of the congregation to whom the letter was written.
Approaching today’s passage weighs heavy on me. Not because it’s a particularly difficult text, but because of how inadequate and … unfaithful I feel when I think of the trust that has been placed in me as a child of God, and how I am guilty of at times having squandered that trust.
Did you get where the writer to the Hebrews says “God left nothing outside their control”? Let me read it again – starting at verse 7:
7You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, 8subjecting all things under their feet.” Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, 9but we do see Jesus …”
That gets me. Right here (the heart). Right where I know God knows me. While there’s some consolation in the very next phrase, insofar as it is an admission of the fact that falling short of the mark is not unique to this generation, there is still no release from the initial fact that we have been left in charge. In other words, we have been made caretakers of this world we live in.
And what kind of a world is it?
It’s a world where enough food could actually be produced to feed everyone, and yet, every 5 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from hunger.
It is a world where the citizens of the developed nations fund aid and relief organizations in their work in war-torn countries through charitable giving in the millions, if not billions of dollars, and it is a world where the governments of those same nations are the largest arms providers to the nations that are receiving that same aid.
It is a world where it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Christ died for ALL of us – for the entire world, IF we continually focus on the interior life of faith. Unbalancing the message of the Gospel opens us to loss of perspective. While it is appropriate and necessary – even crucial – to nourish that interior aspect of our faith, we cannot, MUST not, neglect, as we found in James, the faith that is expressed through action.
Have you seen those white plastic wristbands that have the word “ONE” on them? I did a little research on the organization, and found that the focus of the organization is on eradicating poverty and AIDS. It is set up on the simple premise that if we all act as One, we can achieve what we set out to accomplish. Though the organization is not strictly a Christian organization, some of the leaders in it are. It would be nice to think that the Church gave THEM the idea – it IS, after all, a deep parallel to the Gospel – we all, being individual members of a body, function as one body – the body of Christ. But realistically, perhaps it would be wiser to hope that the learning would go in the other direction – the church might learn from them what it looks like to act as one.
If you had a chance to read the brief article on the back of your bulletins this morning, granted, the statistics quoted are from a couple of years ago, but you would have read of 12 to 14% increases in requests for emergency food assistance, and of the fact that 20 % of those requests went unmet, and also of the fact that over half of those requests came from families – children and their parents … of which slightly more than a third were families where the adults were employed.
What does that say about how we are taking care of what has been entrusted to us? What does that say about how we are taking care of each other?
While there are rays of hope in new technologies being developed, and a more conscientious effort being made by more companies, organizations, and individuals to be better stewards of that for which we have been made responsible, we still fall far short of the mark.
Grace is found in the fact that God tarries. God is waiting. God has extended the invitation, and the ball is still in our court.
We are still on the open side of the invitation. We have been asked to care for our world. We have been tasked with it. To paraphrase the opening words of a somewhat popular television show from the 1970’s, “our mission, if we choose to accept it.”
Because we really do have a choice. We really DO have the option. That is in part why the world is in the state it is in. It is in no WORSE shape by the same token. Decisions and choices can be made on the very local level that will impact the world at large, maybe not in ways immediately apparent, but nonetheless, significant in the long run.
Today happens to be World Hunger Day. That is part of the reason for the statistics earlier. But we cannot lose sight of the interrelationship between hunger and poverty, justice and peace, freedom and opportunity. Those are things we can not only pray for; we can also actively work towards eradicating the former and strengthening the latter.
That is Christ’s invitation to the table; to be an active participant in the breaking in of the Kingdom of God. To take into ourselves the life of Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit and to let him move us in ways that can change the world.
The invitation IS open, but when we accept it, the cost is … high. Grace is the free gift of God. Discipleship is costly. Christ asks for nothing less than our lives.
Just as his body was broken and his blood was shed, he calls us to be ready to give him our all.
We share a common loaf, and we share a common cup. When we tear off a piece of the bread, we are signaling our investment, our belief, our hope, and our prayer that as we leave this place, we will take Christ with us wherever we go. Christ does not remain here, to be visited on Sundays and Wednesday nights. When we dip that piece of bread in the cup, we are signaling our willingness to be poured out for each other – both those who are in this room with us, as well as those who are outside these walls and do not know what it means to know Christ.
How will you respond to the invitation?
(Communion)
(Blest Be the Tie That Binds)
No comments:
Post a Comment