Sermon for 24 Pentecost Yr B, 19/11/2006
Based on Heb 10:11-14, 19-25
By Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, &
Chaplain of The Good Samaritan Society’s
South Ridge Village, Medicine Hat, Alberta
“Responding to Christ’s Sacrifice”
The Letter to the Hebrews, as I’ve said before, is rather difficult to understand. In order to see a clearer picture of our passage today, it’s helpful to review some of the important background information of Hebrews.
Biblical scholars are not certain who wrote this letter, the author’s identity remains a mystery, although he or she was probably Jewish, since he or she appears to have been well versed in Israelite history. The original audience of this letter was also most likely a Jewish-Christian one, since there are so many references to the Hebrew Bible. Although it is called “The Letter to the Hebrews,” it seems to be more like a series of sermons. The main theme of this letter is the supremacy of Christ and his sacrifice over against everyone and everything. One of the issues the author may have been struggling with was the temptation of the audience to either return back to Judaism and/or to stop attending worship services on a regular basis.
In today’s second lesson, the author focuses on, first of all the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, comparing and contrasting it with the sacrifices of the Jewish priests in the temple. The writer tells us that the sacrifices of the priests in the temple are repeated over and over again, but to no avail, as they do not forgive sins. On the other hand, Christ’s sacrificial suffering and death, and shedding of blood on the cross only happened once, and was effective for all time and for all people for the forgiveness of sins. The writer continues, utilizing the picture of the temple, to emphasise that thanks to Christ’s offering and sacrifice through his flesh, his incarnation, this has resulted in the opening of the curtain as it were, of the Holy of Holies, giving access to God. In the Jewish sacrificial system, the high priest was only permitted to open the curtain and enter the Holy of Holies once a year, on the Day of Atonement to make the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Now, thanks to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, says the author, it is as if the curtain were permanently open and all of us can enter the Holy of Holies and thus we have access to God and receive the forgiveness of sins at all times.
From this, the author turns to a threefold exhortation, emphasising what is to be our response to Christ’s sacrifice. The writer states: “Let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Here the author seems to be linking our faith with the act of confession, repentance, and the Lord’s Supper as well as the sacrament of baptism. These two sacraments of the Church allow Christians to receive forgiveness of sins and have the assurance of faith. In the early Church, there were hostile forces that threatened people to give up their faith. The author of our second lesson exhorts the original audience to remain strong in their faith to see them through such hostile or opposing influences. The same is true for us today. In an increasingly secular world, there is hostility towards the Christian faith. In many nations, Christians are pressured to give up their faith or they are persecuted and even killed. Yet, it is their faith that gives them the most comfort and strength in life.
The second exhortation of our passage is: “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.” As Christians, we are a people of hope by virtue of the resurrection of Christ.
Eminence, a novel by Australian author Morris West, tells the story of Luca Rossini, a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. Luca who now serves in the Vatican, lives in the shadow of a terrible experience he suffered as a young priest in Argentina. It was the 1970’s, a time when the military junta that ruled Argentina, acted with terrible brutality. Luca was brutalized in front of the villagers. Lucky to escape with his life he was spirited out of Argentina. Yet the scars across his back are an outward symbol of the scars he bears within. By the time we find him in West’s novel Luca is 50 years old, a confidant of a rigidly conservative Pope. In one scene the Pope reflects that he, the Pope, will have much to answer for when he comes to judgement before God. Luca responds, “We pray every day that our trespasses will be forgiven, Holiness. We have to believe that our end will be a homecoming, not a session with torturers!”
“Do you really believe that, Luca?” asks the Pope.
“If I did not Holiness,” replies Luca, “I think I could not endure the chaos of this bloody world or the presence of whatever monster called it into being.”1 In short, we cannot live without hope.
The author of Hebrews then continues with a third exhortation: “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” The phrase “provoke one another to love and good deeds” is a difficult translation, since that word provoke has negative connotations of irritation, annoyance, coercion, and so forth. Perhaps the New American Standard Bible has translated it better: “let us consider how to stimulate one another.” The word stimulate seems more positive, and has the sense perhaps of being inspired to love and good deeds. Yet, the word provoke, in relation to its Latin roots “pro,” meaning “forth,” and “vocare,” meaning “call,” is definitely instructive. God has “called forth,” has given each of us a “calling,” a “vocation” to serve him and one another in love. Agape love, that is not self-serving, but focussed on Christ’s servanthood to all manner of people, without conditions or reservations—a freely shared, self-giving love, embracing all people. This is our calling and vocation as followers of Jesus.
The author then goes on the say that this all happens when people gather together for worship and community fellowship. Followers of Jesus encounter him and are strengthened and nurtured by him in worship. Also, Christianity is not a lone ranger kind of faith; the heart and core of our faith is kiononia, community, that’s why we confess in our creed that we believe in the communion of saints.
Some people don’t need much of an excuse to stay home from church. If it even looks like it might rain, they don’t want to risk getting a little wet. The hymn writer Frances Havergal gave several reasons for attending church—especially on rainy days.
1. God has blessed the Lord’s Day, making no exceptions for stormy days. 2. I expect my pastor to be there. I would be surprised if the pastor stayed at home because of the weather. 3. I might lose out on the prayers and the sermon that would have done me great good. 4. For important business, rain doesn’t keep me home; and church is, in God’s sight, very important. 5. Bad weather will prove how much I love Christ. True love rarely fails to keep an appointment. 6. Those who stay home from church because it’s rainy frequently miss on fair Sundays, too. I mustn’t take one step in that direction. 7. Christ said that “where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). 8. I don’t know how many more Sundays God may give me. It would be poor preparation for my first Sunday in heaven to have slighted my last one on earth.2
We all need encouragement, that’s what the communion of saints is all about. That is one way we live our love by being here for each other. So thank you for coming to worship today, may Christ bless each of you and continue to draw you closer to him as you grow in faith, hope and love.
1 Morris West, Eminence (New York: Harper Collins, 1998) pp. 106-107.
2 Ron Hutchcraft, Wake Up Calls (Moody, 1990), p. 80.
