Thoughts going in, Sunday September 1

Hebrews 13:1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." 6 So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can human beings do to me?" 7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

         This week concludes our mini study of the book of Hebrews.

         Chapter 13 gets around to what nearly all new testament letters get around to--the ethical portion. As I've blogged here before--most recently with St. Paul's letters to the Galatians and Colossians--sooner or later the letter which begins with doctrinal matters ends with ethical matters. The ethical section, as one commentator puts it, is the "so what" portion of the letter. It's where the faith in our hearts is encouraged to live differently and make a difference at ground level.

         So, as I say, this is that part of Hebrews. And at first glance it appears as if the author is just sort of shot-gunning some stand-alone pithy statements: love one another; be neighborly; be faithful to your spouse; be content with what you have, etc. etc. More than one writer has noted the challenge for the preacher with this passage. Which nugget should the pastor preach on? For the person sitting in the pew, no doubt the most puzzling aspect is vs 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Really? The writer is likely referencing certain Old Testament stories such as those concerning Abraham and Gideon...but he seems to be saying that such could continue to be the case in his day, and perhaps even ours?

         And while the angel part may appeal most to the average person in the pew, the average pastor may feel compelled to focus in on that part about money in verse 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, as after all, this is a very counter-cultural message to the consumer-driven society in which we live where we're constantly being told we don't have enough and we need to spend, spend, spend, charge, charge, charge... in order to be content.

         All of that is wonderful, but it seems to me that there is a tie that binds all of these pithy statements together, and that tie is found in vss 6 & 8: So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. In other words, the tie that binds is about change; our innate penchant for change. Why do we need to be told to have brotherly love (v1) toward our sisters/brothers in the faith? Because something may change about them or us that would make us not want to love them anymore. Why do we need to be told to be risky with our hospitality? Because times change and now more often than not we fear strangers. Why do we need to be told to have great empathy toward those imprisoned or those who are suffering? Because times change, and that may be us in prison tomorrow. Why do we need to be told to be faithful to our spouse? This is perhaps the easiest one to acknowledge in our culture of casual sex, and "friends with benefits." Because people change; couples who were madly in love with each other yesterday are just mad at each other today. The constant in these verses is human change.

         And so the question becomes, how do we deal with this? Where do we get our 'power' to confront all of this change? Is there some pill that we can take? Are there certain exercises we can do? Can we buy an insurance policy against human change? Can we find the universal pause button and press it? Of course the answer to all of those questions is NO. And the writer knows this. So, he points us to the only solution. While there's nothing we can do to prevent human change from occurring, we can prevent ourselves from being swept away by it... by faith in the CHANGE-LESS ONE. Jesus Christ, the **SAME** yesterday, and today, and forever. And, he is our helper...so we need not be afraid.

         Lack of fear doesn't mean change won't come; it doesn't mean change won't happen. But it does mean that in faith we can confront those changes with that CHANGELESS ONE at our side.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday August 25th

Week of 14^th Sunday after Pentecost:  Hebrews 12:18-29

18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death." 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." 27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."

This is a passage about encountering God…which is another way of saying, this is a passage about worship. The writer’s method in this passage is to use contrast. He begins by telling the readers where they have not come… they haven’t come to Mt. Sinai—which, while not specifically named—is the obvious reference point of the place “burning with fire; darkness, gloom and storm, etc.” (See Exodus 19). He then contrasts that with where they have come…

to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant…

Of course the thing that’s truly interesting about what the author is saying is that the readers haven’t actually come to either place… the literal Mt. Sinai OR the literal heavenly Zion. Their worship was meager, even mundane—especially when compared to the great pomp and ceremony that accompanied the worship in the Jerusalem Temple (earthly Mt. Zion). In other words, wherever these readers lived, their assembly was a small unimpressive gathering, very likely held in someone’s house, around a very simple liturgy that emphasized recalling the teachings of Jesus and a ritual meal of breaking bread. For those who long for an encounter with the divine, for those who long for fellowship with the Creator, for those who long for the ability to step outside of their mundane lives and enter—even for a moment—into a mystical reality that transcends time and space, the little weekly table fellowship in someone’s hut probably didn’t seem like much.

But the writer tells them there’s more than meets the eye. In our liturgy, whether held in St. Peter’s Basilica, a local rented gymnasium, or a clearing in the middle of the jungle, believers are participating in a reality that includes much more than is visible to the naked eye. The mystical JOINS the mundane; just as the heavenly body and blood are joined to the earthly bread and wine, rank and file believers here are joined with thousands upon thousands of angels, and the joyful assembly of believers in heaven.

I see two very important spiritual truths here for the life of the believer. FIRST, to those who routinely say “I don’t need to come to church to worship God, I can worship much more devoutly walking in the woods or sitting in my back yard observing nature, I would partially agree. Adoration of our Creator God can occur anywhere and can occur alone. But the stuff being discussed in Hebrews chapter 12 cannot. One need look no further than the KJV version of the text to see this. Vs 22 in the KJV reads: But **YE** are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, etc. Point being, *YE is plural. The worshiping community experiencing the mystical reality of Hebrews 12 is A COMMUNITY. Maybe, as in the words of Jesus, it’s only “two or three gathered together in his name,” but it’s plural. As people of faith and disciples of Jesus we need to challenge ourselves on this matter. Adoration of the Creator can happen alone, but worship in the mystical gathering of heaven cannot.

SECOND, while there is nothing overtly sacramental about Hebrews 12 (it nowhere mentions holy communion), I take for granted that every gathering of Christians at this time included the ritual meal (see Acts 2:42, 20:7, 1Cor 11:23). In other words, the catalyst behind the mystical reality described in Hebrews 12 is more than just meeting as a group; it’s meeting as a group around the sacrament. Coming into the divine presence is conditioned upon the presence of Christ—and Christ is never more fully present than when his body and blood are joined to the earthly elements of bread and wine. Point being, not only should our worship be in community, it should also be sacramental.

If so… then we have had A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE in the truest, most biblical, and even most mystical sense of the word. Think of it… the sermon can be boring; the choir can sing off key; the organist can hit a wrong note; it can be raining and you can have forgotten your umbrella; the group can be smaller than expected; you can even be snubbed by a church leader…but NOTHING can dampen, and NOTHING can take away the fact that you have had this experience.

Cheers,

TM

Sunday, August 18th

I will be out of town on vacation Sunday, August 18th.... hence no "thoughts" to share about the upcoming readings. Please welcome our guest pastor, Rev Tom Noll

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Aug 11th

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

            This coming Sunday marks the first of four weeks in Hebrews 11-13, an extended meditation on the nature of faith (this week & next), the awe-filled nature of the God we serve and the salvation we have entered (in two weeks), and the implications of these for our life as church (in three weeks).

            Hebrews 11 is sometimes referred to as the “faith hall of fame,” or the “roll-call of faith.” Great ‘heroes’ of faith (and The Faith) are mentioned by name, along with a synopsis of why they’re mentioned. For part 1 of the ‘mini-series,’ however, the emphasis isn’t so much on a particular person or persons of this great roll-call, but rather on faith itself. Of all of the comments I’ve read so far, I particularly like the opening remarks of Wiersbe on this topic:

This is not a *definition of faith but a *description of what faith does and how it works. True biblical faith is not blind optimism or a manufactured ‘hope so’ feeling. Neither is it an intellectual assent to a doctrine. It is certainly not believing in spit of evidence! That would be superstition.

True biblical faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences. This faith operates quite simply. God speaks and we hear His Word. We trust His Word and act on it no matter what the circumstances are or what the consequences may be. The circumstances may be impossible, and the consequences frightening and unknown; but we obey God’s Word just the same an believe Him to do what is right and what is best.

The world does not understand true biblical faith, probably because it sees so little faith in action in the Church today. The cynical editor HL Mencken defined faith as ‘illogical belief in the occurrence of the impossible’ The world fails to realize that faith is only as good as its object, and the object of true faith is GOD. Faith is not some feeling that we manufacture. It is our total response to what God has revealed in His Word.

            I would have a hard time improving on Wiersbe’s comments. I once heard that old Mencken quote paraphrased as follows: A Sunday school teacher asked her class of young ones what faith was. After a long silence, one little boy ventured: “faith is belief in something you know isn’t true.”

            Two things make Wiersbe’s observations worth reading: (1) the fact that faith is a response in the life of the believer. It’s not intellectual ascent, it’s not a fuzzy feel-good emotion; if anything, it is a way of life. Others have keyed in on that way of life aspect, citing the fact that the ‘heroes’ mentioned in Heb 11 didn’t just make a ‘heroic once-for-all decision, but rather lived an ongoing commitment seeking a ‘homeland,’ as the writer puts it, day by day, year by year, as part of the very fabric of their lives. (2) The other great point he brings out is that Christian faith is unique, and uniquely valid, because its object is God. There is no shortage of faith in our culture. People put their faith in politicians, in a political system, in a ‘vision’ of America and what it’s supposed to be, in science, in medicine, even in their own friends. Only God, and the promises found in his word, however, can ultimately support true faith.

Cheers,

TM

Sunday, August 4th thoughts going in...

Col 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Chapter 3 in Colossians represents the ‘typical shift’ that scholars tell us to expect in the New Testament epistles—namely, the shift from doctrine to ethics; the shift from what a Christian believes (or should believe) to the tangible difference those beliefs should make in our lives.

The first 3 verses are especially interesting when we recall that one potential issue plaguing the Colossian congregation included some form of asceticism. The lectionary didn’t include these verses, but in chapter 2 we find Paul saying:

16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. [snip] 21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

It seems to me that the typical Colossian believer might well ask how Paul could instruct them to set their minds on things above, not earthly things… shortly after telling them to stop messing around with pointless rules about do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.  Whatever was meant by vss 21-23 of chapter 2, couldn’t the Colossians say that INDEED by not handling, tasting or touching, they **ARE setting their minds on things above? In order to reconcile these thoughts it seems clear to me that one must ACCEPT that these are 2 separate matters; that the ascetic practices adopted by the Colossians (or at least some of them) are of human invention and have no value in the life of the Christian. If so, this leads to several conclusions: (1) Even (or especially?) within the church there is a propensity to get sidetracked with manmade values; abstaining from this or that because it’s too worldly, etc. Paul’s point is that our ascetic values have no value if they don’t originate from God. (2) This propensity to invent a false/ascetic piety hasn’t died out. The Colossians did it…and well-meaning Christians are still doing it today. I recall as a boy being around believers who refused to touch a deck of playing cards because they could be used for gambling purposes, or because they had faces (images) on them. An Anabaptist chaplain friend of mine once said that in her tradition “being plain” was a theological matter, so one was often judged regarding the color of the car they drove; dark blue or black is plain, red isn’t. (3) The solution to false ascetic piety is to return to THE WORD. In chapter 3 Paul directs the reader’s attention to those things that do belong to a legitimate Christian ascetic: Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature (v5)….he then goes on to list behaviors. The point seems to be that as far as Paul is concerned there is such a thing as both pagan licentiousness (anything goes) AND pagan asceticism (false piety based on giving things up). The common denominator is that both are pagan.

This brings him to the key point in vss 9-10: 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. This, again, is baptismal language. As every commentator points out, the practice in the ancient church was that adult converts, at their baptism, would remove their clothes and be immersed naked (women were baptized by women, men were baptized by men); upon coming up out of the water they would be given a white robe symbolic of Christ.

The ACT itself was one-time, but the spiritual reality was ongoing in the life of faith. We are to daily put off the old and put on the new. Paul directs us to this metaphor repeatedly throughout his letters. It is in this spiritual discipline that we tap into the power of the new life of Christ that has been given us. To avoid playing cards, or driving a red car, or not eating meat on Fridays? These are personal choices that we may or may not desire to incorporate into our lives….but from a spiritual perspective, they shouldn’t sidetrack us. Let’s stick to the list. There’s more than enough to engage us in terms of lust and greed, not to mention anger, malice and slander.

Cheers,

TM