Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Fourteenth after Pentecost

Proper 16C1 Hebrews 12: 18-29
The Rev. Daniel J. Isadore


Hebrews 12:18-29 – “What Lasts?”

So, what lasts?
-        What can we bank on?
-        What is sure and sturdy, able to endure, come what may?

A few common answers…

Especially in the near future, politics is certainly something that people lean on…
-        We hear it all the time…
o  “This election will determine not only the future of the United States, but of the world.”
-        Billions of dollars and millions of hours will be, and maybe have been already, put into this upcoming election…as if a particular outcome is the one thing we can bank on…
-        …the one thing that, against all odds, will really bring lasting change. (pause)

Another answer has to be sports, silly as that may sound…
-        People wept when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship. (pause)
-        Fans celebrated like there was no tomorrow when the Penguins won the cup.
-        Spectators paid thousands just to be in the arenas where these championships were won.
-        Think about all the time, money, and effort that has had to go into preparing for the Summer Olympics in Rio…
o  …and the risks that accompany competing in and watching those events.
-        …as if these competitions are worthy of it, worthy of our total investment of money, time, and passion. (pause)

And then think about the way that we treat our jobs…
-        For many, 8, 10, 12 hours per day…5,6, or even 7 days per week….
-        For 20, 30, 40, or 50 years…
-        Passion, worry, effort, money…all toward securing tenure, or gaining a promotion, or getting a raise…
-        …as if these are sure things that we can trust in, that will hold up come what may.

Maybe some of us would even answer by turning toward our religious acts…
-        At the end of the day, we count on the creed we confess, or the traditions we enact, or the conduct that we adhere to…
-        We look to our public and private acts of goodness, the prayers we say, and the songs we sing…
-        …as if, finally, we place our hope in what we’ve done for God (pause).
-        …just like many of the ancient Jews who believed that their actions performed according to Torah and in the Temple made them who they were…(pause)

When it comes down to it, what will indeed last? (pause)

The writer to the Hebrews would take issue with each of the answers that I’ve mentioned…
-        …not because they are unimportant things, or evil things to spend time, money, and effort on…
-        …but because all that I’ve mentioned are dependent upon what we do. (pause)
-        Whether politics or sports, jobs or acts of religious devotion…we remain the primary actors…
-        …and it doesn’t take much time to realize that the work of human beings isn’t stable. (pause)
o  We are fickle creatures.
§  For every step we take forward, we take one (or more!) backward.
§  Every good decision we make is inevitably followed by one that isn’t so good.
§  We may experience health for a time, but all of us get sick or injured eventually.
·      We break down.
§  And, deny it though we may, all of us will taste death. (pause)

And so, what are we left with? (pause)
-        If not our actions, where can we look to find a stable place to stand?
-        Will anything ultimately remain? (pause)

“But you…you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect…and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (pause)

There is a reality, says Scripture, that has been constructed to last, a reality promised and established by God Himself…
-        …a reality, we are told, to which we have come. (pause)
o  Or, perhaps more accurately, that has come to us.
-        In, through, and as the man Jesus, God has done a new thing.
o  He has laid a foundation that cannot be shaken for a city that will not crumble in which a celebration that will never end is even now taking place (pause)…
-        And we are included…
o  …not by virtue of how well we have or haven’t performed…
o  …not because of how we look or what we’ve achieved…
o  …but because the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh, and through the Word and the Sacraments, has met us, embraced us, and made us partakers of this unshakable reality. (pause)
-        Here, in the Eucharist, in Baptism, in the Scriptures read and preached, in the Absolution, we are promised a share in something good, something that will endure…
o  …we are given the new creation that God has set in motion and will one day complete, when all wrongs will be righted, all tears will be wiped away, and everything will be made new. (pause)

That’s why the writer to the Hebrews pleads with us in this morning’s epistle, “See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking!” (pause)
-        Don’t turn away from God’s gift of God’s Kingdom in our midst, giving ultimate allegiance to lesser things! (pause)

We can participate in politics, and cheer on our sports teams...we can pursue our careers and go to church…
-        …but we are to do so freely and joyfully, in order to give and grow and live life well
-        …not under the pressure of thinking that what we do is definitive of who we are or where this world is ultimately headed. (pause)
-        We have been claimed by the God who is a consuming fire, and who will surely set this world right…
o  …and so that’s not our role.  We are not meant to assume the pressure of being God. We can…we must, allow God to be God.
-        And when we do that, we can finally be human, not worrying about securing ourselves or our destiny, but rather being concerned with how we can participate with God and His unshakeable Kingdom of agape…
-        …how we can love each other, providing hints, tastes, and glimmers of that which God will surely bring about on earth as it is in heaven. (pause)

What lasts? The living Christ, His Kingdom, and the new creation to come. The forgiveness of sins, and the promise of total restoration.  The reign of love, and the fullness of shalom.  The Good News of the Kingdom of God.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.




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