Our Sunday Message

Real-World Faith: Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Rev. Richard Wright
September 2, 2007
Fourteenth Sunday of Kingdomtide

  Who doesn’t enjoy the moment when the fortune cookie arrives at the table? A well prepared meal has just been consumed and the waiter tops off the experience with several of those uniquely wrapped surprises with a message inside. The enlightenment of a message in a fortune cookie is typically appreciated due to the conversation that you had during your meal. Let’s say the conversation has centered on a bad morning at work and then your fortune reads something like, “It takes one minute to change your attitude. In that one minute, you can change your entire day!”   Instantaneous enlightenment over lunch! Of course, my fortunes are less meaningful now that my children are growing up because the little game that we play offers Carson, my six year old, a chance to come up with an alternate ending before reading the message. As a result it reads something like, “You will always be surrounded by good friends….and spaghetti.”
  The writer of Hebrews begins the 13th chapter with instructions that come across as short independent themes that, upon first glance, seem unrelated to anything that else that has been mentioned. Similar to little messages on how to live a better life. One can read the first eight verses and wonder, “Did the writer place these verses in a hat and simply throw them up in the air before permanently writing them in his letter?”
  · Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters
  · Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers
  · Remember those who are mistreated
  · Be faithful in your marriage
  · Do not love money…be satisfied with what you have.
  · Remember your leaders. The ones that have gone before you.
  Although these verses seem at best, loosely connected, we will discover how the writer engages in a type of practical theology that can only emerge out of a community of faith; in other words, not found in the seminaries or the books of well-known writers. This particular community of faith was under heavy persecution and criticism. Theory and systematic theology won’t help them here. What the recipients of this letter need are concrete principles for real-world, faithful living; practical instructions on how to carry on in the real-world of fear, disappointment, disillusionment, and ridicule.
We’ve heard it before. The opening verse should seem very familiar. We really didn’t need the writer of Hebrews to remind us of it again. Verse one encourages to love one another. The church couldn’t survive without it. Meaningful relationships couldn’t exist without it. The world wouldn’t know us if we didn’t show it. Love is one of those overused words that often comes cheap in our culture. But in the context of the Christian community based on the love of Christ, we find it all but cheap. In fact, love in the practicing Christian community comes at a cost. It’s costly because it compels us to treat others in the same way that Christ treats us. When practiced in the name of Jesus Christ it lives and breathes no matter what the circumstance.
  Sometimes we are fortunate enough to entertain angels as we reveal Christ’s love within us. But often it is rooted in the everyday details and busyness of live.
  Several years ago I had the opportunity to spend a week with an organization called Touching Miami with Love. The ministry sought to transform a specific area of downtown Miami through volunteers and the efforts of struggling local churches. It was that week, in late July, that I truly discovered what heat and humidity really were. Each day I was assigned to the overgrown kickball field in the middle of a drug-infested housing project in the heart of Miami, Florida. The infield umpire position primarily existed for making the correct call in the right way as to not cause a fist fight among the young boys playing.
Among all of these active, strong boys, there was one little, out of shape child that was described, by the director, as “going through more than we could ever imagine.” James had it all. The verbally abusive parents, the drug deals in his living room, falling asleep in front of the TV at 2am, and potato chips for dinner each night. Well, it was this young man’s time to kick the ball and the adults in the field knew that redemption was close at hand. James was going to have a good day. It was the last day we were certain that James was finally going to arrive safely at first base so he could point his finger at the others and proclaim how great a kicker he was. The ball was rolled and James kicked it down the third base line. James was off to the races. The third basemen tracked down the ball with effortless speed, began to run the ball all the way across the pitcher’s mound, and threw it James’ direction. I kept thinking, “no one can really be that slow” but my optimism stayed intact even as the ball flew through the air. And then it happened. Seconds before John’s foot touched first base he felt the stinging reality of the ball hitting him in the back. Our mission’s coordinator had no choice but to say, “Sorry James. You’re out!” and you would have thought the little boy’s world had come to and end. He fell into the mission’s coordinator’s arms, weeping amidst embarrassment and the laughter of friends.
And I just sat there behind second base telling myself, “This is just terrible.” “Can it get any worse than this?” “I came all this way to Miami, Florida, to sit in an abandoned kickball field for 6 hours a day, to experience this!”
  I wanted, no I demanded, to see angels that week but all I saw was evil winning and a lack of hope in southern Florida. I left that place everything but inspired.
  If I had only internalized this message by the writer of Hebrews! Not in a fortune cookie way of positive thinking; but a deep realization of how the love of Christ towards me should effect my love and hospitality toward others. When we love one another as Christians, something internal takes place to which we can authentically demonstrate that same love to others outside our close community of faith. It’s one of those details in which God finds enormous pleasure.
Just the other day I decided to look up the Touching Miami with Love website. This once unorganized, struggling ministry now has an adult ministry, a ministry to teenagers, a ministry to children, a ministry to the homeless, continuous supply of volunteers, and packed Sunday morning services. Who was I to demand that Jesus be on board with my interpretation of whether or not any good was going on? When I was in Miami, I wanted to entertain angels but God wanted to use me as a simple link in the chain of his Kingdom work.
  When we continue to demonstrate our love to fellow believers, only then can we show this proper hospitality toward others. The kind of hospitality produced from the hospitality that Jesus has shown us then we will be better equipped to do the things that God wants us to do. It means so much more than just being nice. I believe hospitality here is referring to Christ’s watchful eye to our every need. Just as we should identify and relate to the needs of a guest in our home, Jesus identifies those needs as he sees them and pays close attention to not abandoning us.
  Further, we need not demand heavenly experiences because one has already come from heaven. It’s the only time the world has seen anything like it. But he was not an angel. He was one who came in flesh and blood and identifies with us. Jesus relates to us in such away that it’s as if he is a sinner himself. He knows us that well.
It is Christ and Christ alone that allows us to take value in the things that he has given to us; whether it a local community of faith, the marriage relationship, or your own individual financial situation. God has promised to tend to our needs. Therefore, as the writer of Hebrews states, what can anyone do to you? Or as C.S. Lewis once said, “the person that has God and everything has no more than the person who only has God.”
  So my question is this. Has the goodness of God’s grace faded from significance? For this Christian community in which the writer of Hebrews pens his letter, the Christ-event was in the distant past, anywhere from 50-60 years, and there were temptations to give up or fall back into prior beliefs. But here is where we are reminded that the same Jesus that was so real in the beginning stages of their community remains at work in their own situation. The same Jesus that worked in the lives of their former leaders is the same, exalted Jesus which will minister to our every need. It is Jesus, who by means of his burial, resurrection, and glorification; that will not abandon them in their time of need. This is true for them as it is for us because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
  Circumstances may change in life. This church has gone through many changes, not only in the past few months but over the past several years. But Christ never changes. And the comforting words that were expressed to these recipients are the same words that should comfort us as we continue to find where God is working. It begins with Christian love toward one another, an expression of that common bond through Christ, a respect for what God has done in the ones who have gone before us, and a great value placed on the things that have been provided to us.
  So now we have a set of moral guidelines that span across our individual faith, our social welfare as we relate to another, and our religious functioning as a church. We should never simply consider them as a quick fix to holiness based on our own idea of what morality is all about. Rather, it is necessary that we understand that these moral guidelines are only possible through our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ; a covenant relationship that is based on Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Although the world around us may change and become unpredictable, his covenant based on his status as the Son of God will never change. It is on this verse that the global church can stand firm in a world whose moral compass shifts with the next best savior.
  Jesus never changes. We however, due to the human condition, have a tendency to sway. As he is faithful to his promises of the new covenant, unchanging in his promises to us, we also should strive under the power of his Holy Spirit to be unwavering in our commitment to him; not based on our own moral creeds, or schemes, or code; but by the daily, internal transformation that takes place within us. Remember, the ultimate purpose for the Christian is to become like Christ himself; to exhibit Christ-likeness. To become more like him would be for us to become increasingly unwavering and dependable.
  I am confident that this is why the writer of Hebrews reminds Christ followers to offer up a continuous sacrifice of praise. Because while people change, while people doubt, while people take his goodness for granted, while people make Jesus into what we want him to be; we can quickly be reminded that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
  At the end of the day the primary sacrifice that we can sincerely offer to God is one of praise and adoration for the good things he has done. For it was while we were still sinners, Jesus died. For while we sometimes resort to holiness quick fixes or our sense of God’s grace fades away due to circumstances bearing down upon us, Jesus’ promise of the new covenant stands unaltered. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that confess his name.” And we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to cause us harm?” We continuously offer up our sacrifice of praise because his ONE sacrifice for us was enough. And for this reason our praises are offered up to God and demonstrated through our Christ-like love for others.