Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
“The Heart of the Matter”
By: Rev. Kenneth Emerson Sauer
Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
Don Henley has a song in which he sings:
“I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it’s about forgiveness.”
When we’re trying to get down to the heart of the matter of Christianity, how often do our wills get weak and our thoughts begin to scatter?
Because the demands of the Christian life go so against the grain of our natural inclinations—that it is often much easier to have, say, a worldly Christianity or watered down version of Christianity.
In our Epistle Lesson for this morning, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews is basically trying to get down to the heart of the matter of what it means to be a Christian.
He says that being a Christian means that we will love each other, we will have sympathy for those who are in trouble, we will be content with what we have and will be willing to share it, and we will worship God with praise.
Of course no one in the entire world can live like that!
We’d love to be able to live like that, but that is just an ideal…
…or is it?
Verse one starts out with: “Keep on loving each other as brothers.”
The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible reads like this: “Let mutual love continue.”
1 Peter describes this kind of love as “genuine” and “deeply from the heart.”
And Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12 that “brotherly love” means we “honor one another above” ourselves.
Now before I was born again I had no idea of what this love could possibly be like—I didn’t even know that it existed.
I suppose I loved those who loved me back…
…and that was it—end of story.
If someone didn’t love me, or if I didn’t care to get to know them—I did not love them.
Why should I?
As a matter of fact, my world was filled with a lot of hate for others.
I hated those who stopped me from getting what I wanted.
I hated those who didn’t treat me just like I wanted to be treated.
And I didn’t have a big problem with that. I mean, gee, that was just the way the world worked.
But something happened in my life…
…the Holy Spirit got a hold of me and showed me a better way…a completely new and radically different way of looking at others.
This is why I believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don’t believe in it simply because someone else tells me that it’s true.
I don’t believe in it because I am just naturally inclined to have an unusual interest in a Jewish carpenter Who walked this earth 2,000 years ago.
I’m not a Christian because some person on t-v told threw a bunch of moral imperatives that no one can possibly follow perfectly at me.
I believe because I have experienced…I have gotten just a taste of God’s love in Christ…
…and ever since that first taste…
…nothing else has tasted right since.
How about you?
Have you gotten a taste of God’s love in Christ?
And, if so, has that love caused you to crave more and more?
Just before He died and just after He washed His disciples’ feet, Jesus gave a new command to His disciples: “Love one another,” He said.
Now on one level, that’s no sweat.
Think nice thoughts, do an occasional good deed, and center your life around the tenets of a Hallmark card.
We can do that at least part of the time…right?
But wait a minute.
Jesus doesn’t stop there.
He also says, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus doesn’t say to love…
…oh, just the people who love us…
…nor does He tell us that we can pick and choose those whom we will love.
No.
We are to love His way—just like He did.
Just like a Cross.
We can die loving His way…
…and as a matter of fact, we do have to die to self in order to love His way…
…but still, loving His way is not safe, nor is it easy.
But that’s His command…
…and it’s a non-negotiable command for those who choose to follow.
The late Harry Denman was once asked by a young person, “What is the new birth?”
Denman replied: “When you are born a person you have a physical birth and you love as a person loves which can be very, very selfish at times.
When you are born of the Lord you have a spiritual birth and you love as God loves.
That is what we call redemptive love.
That is what Jesus did, He lived a redemptive life.
He gave Himself.”
Jesus had lots of choices.
Look how He made them.
He chose persons over property.
He chose God instead of self.
He came to minister instead of having others minister to Him.
He took a towel and a basin.
He took a child instead of a rich young ruler.
Of course He loved the rich young ruler, but the rich young ruler would not love Him back.
He sought the unsought.
He loved the unlovely.
He wanted the unwanted.
He came not to judge but to save.
Jesus came to make love known, and when He left the earth in the flesh He sent the Holy Spirit to give us power to love like He loved.
Are we using this power?
The Greek word for “brother” in our Epistle Lesson means: from the same womb.
The word used for “love” means deep-seated affection and care, deep and warm feelings within the heart.
This is the kind of love that holds another person near and dear to our heart.
Now people who have this “brotherly” or “mutual” love have come from the same womb or the same source.
And haven’t all of us come from the same source?
We are taught by the Scriptures that a person is born of the flesh…or born of their parent’s will…
…but we are also to be born of God.
And this new birth occurs when we accept God’s free offer of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit enters each of us—and we are born again—all of the same Spirit.
And this Holy Spirit is what binds our hearts and lives together in love for one another…
…and also for those who have not yet been born of God’s Spirit—but who Christ loves and is seeking out—and is calling us to seek out as well.
We are immersed in a culture that has largely given up on God, and our credibility as Christians is based on our ability to be and produce disciples who love as Jesus loved.
Jesus says that the only way others will know we are disciples is to the extent that His love has a place in all we say and do.
“By this,” He says, “others will know.”
Sadly, and oh so tragically, in this day and age…when the public picks up a newspaper and reads something about Christians or sees Christians on television—very often we are fighting with each other instead of loving each other.
Oftentimes we are judging each other instead of loving and building each other up!
How did the Christian Church become so worldly?
How did we get so off course?
Instead of turning people on to Christ—we spend most of our time turning people off.
If we think that throwing a bunch of moral imperatives at each other and at the world is going to make disciples of Jesus Christ—well, we’ve got another thing coming!
As a matter of fact—we are the reason that many people want nothing to do with Christ.
But it’s not supposed to be this way…but it is, but it is.
A great Methodist evangelist once said: “Love has to be seen…If people do not see the love of Christ in us, I am not sure that we are followers of Christ. I am not sure we know Him….”
Do we know Him?
In Matthew Chapter 7 Jesus makes this statement: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
In our Epistle Lesson we are told: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
God is pleased when we allow ourselves to be crucified with Christ, so that we can love God and love our neighbor through both word and deed.
We are called to build each other up…not tear each other down!
Harry Denman is quoted as saying: “Today the only way one can see love is to see it wrapped up in a person…The only way to see Christ is to see Him wrapped in a person…We need to become a package of love, a package of Christ.”
Are we packages of Christ?
What better gift can we give the world?
And it doesn’t cost us a dime!
Although it might.
It might cost us every cent we have…and it might even cost us our lives…it will definitely cost us our natural sinful, selfish natures…
…but let the Holy Spirit take care of that…
…just be a willing participant.
Could this be the heart of the matter?
That we love one another?
A long time ago, as He hung on a Cross, Jesus the Lamb of God prayed for the very people who were killing Him.
“Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”
“Love one another,” He said.
Just like that.
Let us pray: Father, only You can enable us to obey Your command. Open our hearts, and may we receive Your gift of loving. In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray. Amen.
