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Sermon for Ordinary 21
The Reverend Dr Sam Cappleman
‘Much Better than expected’
We had many people come to our Woodland Burial Ground Open day yesterday.
Many of theme were new to the burial ground and had come after hearing
Charlie and Janet on the radio or seeing the advert in the papers. Some had
been following the progress of the Woodland on the web and had now come to
see what it was all about.
It was a great day and typical of the comments that were made was, ‘I’m not
quite sure what I was expecting but this is much better than I expected’ and
‘…its better than I ever imagined’
That s the kind of message that the writer of Hebrews is trying to get
across in our Epistle reading today. ‘You haven’t come to a mountain that
can be touched and that is burning with fire and so on… …to darkness gloom
and storm…’, ‘…but to Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem…’
Mount Sinai was the mountain where the God of the Old Testament met with
Moses and gave the 10 commandments, where God spoke in the burning bush, the
wind and the fire.
But now through Christ all Christian believers were offered an opportunity
to meet with God, have al relationship with Him and the promise of eternal
life in the heavenly Kingdom, something which was infinitely better.
As the book of Hebrews name implies it was almost certainly written to a
group of readers thoroughly familiar with the Old Covenant. They were Jewish
Christians, perhaps even a group of Jewish priests, as there is a huge focus
on ceremony of Jewish worship in the book.
Whether priests or not, having become Christians they have now left
Jerusalem to find a place to live and worship, possibly Antioch or Caesarea.
It would appear that they are now tired of exile and think longingly of the
splendour of Temple worship and the place they played in it.
Their (new) faith is not very strong and they don’t fully understand it,
they’re increasingly persecuted and are on the point of giving it all up and
reverting back to Judaism. You could imagine them thinking that their life
and worship had begun to loose meaning and wondering if their faith in
Christ was a big mistake and that they have been duped.
The letter to them (Hebrews) is written to try to prevent this from
happening…
We’re not sure who the author of the book of Hebrews is. It has the analysis
and thinking of a Paul but does not use his structure and vocabulary so it’s
unlikely to be him. The author could have a Hellenistic background because
of the constant use of the Platonic construction of the contrast between the
heavenly and earthly realms, possibly Appolus.
Hebrews presents the Christian life in the context of a story which is
fundamental to Judaism, the Exodus and the importance of faith from the Red
Sea encounter forwards
But for the writer of the book of Hebrews every thing about the new faith is
infinitely better than the old. The destination is not the promised land of
Israel but the promised land of the heaven Jerusalem. Jesus is presented as
being superior of the angels, to Moses, to Joshua and of a higher priesthood
of Aaron, that of Melchizedek.
The worship and sacrifice of the Aaronic and Levitical Priesthood of the Old
Covenant has been superseded by the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. The
Passover of the Jews has become the Passover of Christ
The exodus and the way to the Promised Land of the heavenly Jerusalem is
guided not by Moses but by Christ as an incomparably superior leader
The letter therefore shows how the early Christians understood the harmony
between the Old and New Testaments and how they understood the redemptive
work of Jesus in terms of God’s whole plan of salvation.
Because of this, combined with the instructions it contains regarding the
central points of Christian faith, it make Hebrews one of the most important
books of the New Testament
The Hebrews needed a fundamental change to the way in which they viewed, and
experienced religion. Up to now the Jewish faith had been a very sensual
faith with elements that could easily be touched and felt.
For the Jews this sensual element of religion was critical, the sacrifices,
the incense, the priests entering into the Holy of Holies, the blood of the
sacrifice, the wearing of prayer shawls (Tallits) and phylacteries, the
re-enactment of the exodus each year and so on were central to expressing
their faith.
But now the focus was not so much on the sensual but the spiritual, the
relationship with the creator God through His Son Jesus Christ. And in some
ways, although that made their faith more dynamic, it made it harder to
express.
They needed to add a spiritual dimension to their sensual one and then focus
on the spiritual not on the sensual, focus on the core of their belief
rather than the trappings which surrounded it. Focus on Christ and their
relationship through Him with God rather than the law.
And in so doing, God was able to transform their faith into something better
than they ever imagined and give their life and worship new meaning.
The law, with which the Jews were so familiar, was only a means to and end,
not an end in itself. Over the years they lost sight of that reality.
And whilst we may smile at the Jews and their somewhat slavish adherence to
the law it’s very easy for us to fall into the same trap.
We can do the same, when the structures of our religion become the end in
themselves not the means to an end, a deeper and more spiritual walk with
God. We can get carried away with the material things that surround our
faith, our churches, our organisations our structures, forgetting that at
its core our faith is centred on having a spiritual relationship with God.
We end us settling for second best, a faith that is based almost solely on
ritual.
God wants our relationship with Him to deepen day by day. To be dynamic and
real. To be based on us being open to Him to touch and transform our lives
as we expose more of them to Him. To become more Christ like day by day.
Structures such as church services can have an important role to play as
they help us understand more about Jesus and help us worship Him together.
Our church structures, the forms of worship we use, following the cycles of
the Christian year are all part of the way in which we open ourselves to
God. In our worship we meet to, to ask his forgiveness of our sins, to hear
and receive his holy word, to offer Him praise and thanksgiving, words we
use week by week in our services.
Opening ourselves to be more Christ centred and less self centred, giving
everything that we do meaning and purpose. Hence the old hymn writer writing
‘We have a purpose to fulfil’. Without that the rituals themselves just
become more and more empty and meaningless, just as they were doing for the
Hebrews
Hebrews, perhaps more than any other book in the bible reminds us of the
importance of our spiritual heritage. It also reminds us too that our faith
needs to be firmly fixed on our spiritual relationship with God through His
ultimate sacrifice of His Son Jesus. As we focus on Christ, our faith, our
worship and our lives themselves becomes ones which take all of our life and
experiences (of worship and more) to date, just as it did for the Hebrews,
builds on them to turn them into something better then we ever imagined.
Slowly the Hebrew Christians got the message. Their faith moved from the
ritualistic faith of the Old Testament to the dynamic and living faith of
the New. Life empowered by their dynamic faith, became much better than they
ever imagined.