Once For All

Sunday, October 29th, 2006
Proper 25 B
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Hebrews 7:23-28

23Furthermore, the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; 24but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. 28For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Once and for all, once is enough, only once. No need to do it over. How many different ways can it be said?

As we’ve been going through the letter to the Hebrews these last couple of weeks, the central theme has been the sufficiency of Christ as both priest and sacrifice, as set against the requirement in the Hebrew religion to have the high priest to offer sacrifices, as well as, of course, the sacrifices themselves.

This goes to the heart of the critical distinction between the Christian faith and all other faiths, and it is what is essentially counterintuitive about our faith, this ‘once and for all’ business. For some reason, it goes against the grain of human nature to believe in an easy out – maybe that is why we are so drawn to it when it presents itself.

If we were to sit down and compare other faiths of the world – and I have to preface what I am going to say with the statement that I am knowingly using a broad brush here – each of the other world religions has an element of the need to somehow through some form of repetition – whether of actions – sacrifices or otherwise – prayers, or even LIVES – for those that believe in reincarnation – that we will somehow attain righteousness, worthiness, enlightenment, in one way or another, in a word: salvation. The essential distinction between Christianity and other faiths is that it is a central tenet – in other words, a central belief – of the faith that it is not by anything we DO that salvation is attained – it is a gift; unmerited – or undeserved, and unattainable. There is nothing we can do to affect our position in relation to it. That is what was scandalous foolishness to the Jews and the Greeks of the first century. Even today, we are sometimes unknowingly of the same mind that considers our salvation something that we can influence. It is reflected in the comment we so often hear surrounding the death of someone “he was such a good person, they HAVE to be let into heaven.” The connection is made, consciously or not, between the way a life is lived and the attainment of salvation.

It’s an understandable struggle when we see the world around us reflect that causal relationship between action and response. “If I do this, if I work hard, apply myself, sacrifice … I will one day reap the rewards of my labor.” There is a universal understanding that in order to receive something, we must somehow, someway, somewhere, PAY for it.

How do we square that …cycle, that system … with what we are presented in the Gospel? That is what I mean when I say that it is counterintuitive of the Gospel to essentially offer something for nothing when our culture – this North American, Capitalistic, Hedonistic, Materialistic culture of ours – tells us at every turn that that is the way it works and that is the RIGHT way!

The short answer is, the Gospel was not born in the United States, and it is not constrained in any way whatsoever by the dictates of any earthly culture – ANY culture, but by the heart of God in relationship with humankind.

Christ was born into a context – a nation, a land, a people, a point in history, that necessarily informed the way we read the relationship he modeled for us, but that is not to say that the RELATIONSHIP is limited by the parameters of that context.

It is helpful and informative and illuminating to know and understand the layers of meaning that are brought out in any given passage by studying and understanding their context – what was going on in the region, at that time, what certain words and images meant to a people at a particular time, how the use of them might have resonated with the folks who first heard a letter read to them. That is why it is not wasteful to take time to study and learn about these things – whether in seminary or in small study groups – in Sunday School or in Bible Study. It is what we are doing on Monday mornings at 10:30 and on Wednesday evenings here at Jerusalem. But ultimately, it is the nature of the relationship that makes all the difference in our lives as Christ-followers. Following is a section from a commentary on the passage. As I read through it, listen to what is happening – the discussion is about images, about the context of what the hearers – those people who first received the letter – might have been thinking as they heard it read to them.

The perfect adequacy of Christ in his moral qualifications as High Priest is emphasized in such a high priest. Holy sums up the perfect piety of Jesus including his possession of such virtues as obedience, faith, humility, loyalty, and reverence. Blameless denotes his perfect innocence. He not only had no harmful attitudes toward others, he practiced no evil deeds against them. Unstained carries the picture of the essential moral goodness of Jesus in contrast with the ceremonial purity of the Levitical priests, who were required to separate themselves from all people for seven days before the Day of Atonement, that no defiling touch might disqualify them to offer a pure sacrifice. In contrast, Jesus was so essentially good that he did not have to be hypersensitive about mingling with sinners.

These phrases, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens, unite to show that, when Jesus sacrificed himself for the sins of men once for all, he had no further contact with sin in the priestly sense. The only vital contact he ever had with sin was in his perfect resistance of its temptation and in his perfect sacrifice for the sins of others. Now that such a sacrifice has been completed, his work for sinful men is over. He does not have to sacrifice repeatedly as did the Levitical priests. He now resides in a higher sphere, immune to the contagion of human sin. (Charles A. Trentham, The Broadman Bible Commentary, © 1972, Broadman Press, Nashville)

Do you hear what is happening? There’s a filling in going on – a fleshing OUT, may be more appropriately stated – of the gaps in our knowledge, of the words on the page. But it doesn’t move us to become more like our first century Jewish and Gentile brothers and sisters; it moves us towards Christ, and towards God.

And that is where, in a wonderfully miraculous and contradictory sort of way, we DO become more like our first century brothers and sisters, or 10th century, or 15th or 18th or 21st … regardless of the time and the place, because that is what happens when we open scripture and our hearts and minds, all at the same time.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

When we open scripture, we are confronted with Jesus. We are faced with the Jesus of history, and the impact he had THEN on those who chose to follow him THEN. And we have the testament of history, of the church, and of that cloud of witnesses that preceded us in the faith. Through the hymns and stories of our faith, we see the fruits of that heritage, that legacy. As Virginians, we stand on a history that includes the first statute on Religious Freedom, and right here in this sanctuary, we stand just about 12 or 13 miles from where 4 Baptist preachers were imprisoned for practicing that freedom even when the law of the land had not yet changed to OFFER it.

What we also stand on is the promise of God in Christ to be our welcome, be our home, and to be our strength. To be our intercessor, our pray-er, and the sacrifice in our place. It is a solemn and joyous promise, this salvation that is so freely offered.

The question for us here today is if we can take that gift to heart and offer it just as freely in the way we live our lives, share our dreams, and hopes, and talents – with each other, with the community, with the world?

(Below is a transcription from the conclusion of the message – extemporaneously given in conversation with the congregation)

How will we do that? (I’m done with the manuscript). How will Jerusalem live that out? How will we … how DO we? We have ways that we do it already. Can you name them? Go ahead! How do we share this gift, how do we … shine?

(Telling others of Christ), okay,
(The youth meals), yes,
(Going and visiting people), yes,
(Shoeboxes), yes,
(Visiting Farnham Manor), um-hmm,
(Visiting the sick and the bereaved), yes.

On an introspective level, gathering on Mondays and Wednesdays – because it’s not just to study, it’s to pray, it’s to intercede.

(Our prayer chain), yes, it has sometimes worked overtime, but that is also an example.

(In the Women’s Missionary Union), learning about missions around the world, yes, and working to support that, yes,

(Not only internationally, but locally as well, through the Hispanic Ministry of the Association, this church shares its Pastor.) Yeah, you do.

And I am forever grateful for that – the willingness to open up to the possibilities.

Everything we’ve named for the most part has been things that we’ve done all along. It’s what in a lot of ways … we’re getting ready to celebrate one hundred and seventy-five years of history … it is what ties us to the cloud of witnesses that preceded us.

(To Lottie Moon) – Yes, supporting Lottie Moon, yes.

It is what makes us greater than who we are individually or even as a local congregation – we are part of The Church, and the body of Christ in the world.

Coming up on the anniversary will be a time to look back on 175 years, but it is not ONLY that. I think in looking back on 175 years we’re going to realize that those 175 years have been … have created a momentum for us as a church to move FORWARD, not just to look back. The 175 years have built a legacy and built, (again the physics) built up the motion that is going to push us forward.

The challenge is to figure out what we’re going to look like as that happens. The challenge is stepping out of our comfort zone, away from the manuscript J and open up to what God can move us to do. Things that we could hardly imagine ourselves doing, we could DO! Because …

(This row is our future, the front row – our future is sitting on the front row) (FYI: the front row was filled with the children of the church)

Yes, but not only. Everybody in every row is our future, because y’all don’t stay here when we finish the service on Sundays. Everybody in this room … scatters.

(the comment was something along the lines of the fact that the future starts with us – our children learn from us and from the family of faith that is the church) That’s right, yes, it does.

So it’s not just a matter of leaving it to the children. It’s a matter of walking alongside them, guiding, mentoring, directing ... and allowing for the freedom for the Spirit to move them in directions that we might not be comfortable with, but which are yet a reflection of the glory and the love of God in the world.

… What’s the song, ‘Holiness’? You all know the words, I think.
“Holiness is what I long for, holiness is what I need.
Holiness is what you want from me”

In one sense, holiness is perfection, but in the sense that we’ve mentioned before, perfection is completeness, we need to understand that that holiness is the holiness that we have through Christ, it’s not our own holiness.

Let’s sing.

Holiness, holiness is what I long for
Holiness, holiness is what you want from me

So take my heart, and form it
Take my mind transform it
Take my will conform it
To yours, to yours, oh Lord

Faithfulness, faithfulness is what I long for
Faithfulness is what I need
Faithfulness, faithfulness is what you want from me

So take my heart, and form it
Take my mind transform it
Take my will conform it
To yours, to yours, oh Lord

Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for
Brokenness is what I need
Brokenness, brokenness is what you want from me

So take my heart, and form it
Take my mind transform it
Take my will conform it
To yours, to yours, oh Lord

So we have this opportunity, we have this gift; we have this wonderful push behind us. How will we take advantage of that motion? Be open to what could happen as we leave this form of worship, and move into the worship that is our daily life. Be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, maybe in the smallest thing, in the smallest detail, in the single word that can change somebody’s day.

Let’s commission ourselves:

And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you,
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you.

May God give you grace never to sell yourself short,
Grace to risk something big for something good,
Grace to remember that the world is now
Too dangerous for anything but truth,
and too small for anything but love.

So may God take your minds and think through them,
May God take your lips and speak through them,
May God take your hearts and set them on fire,
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.