Sunday,
November 13-19 (B) – Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25
Focus:
The Posture of
Faith, Hope, and Love
word
of life
“Let
us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he
who has promised is faithful.” Hebrews
10:23 (NRSV)
Read
Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25a
Our
lessons over the past five weeks have come from the letter to the
Hebrews. The author has written extensively about Jesus as the great
high priest who offers the perfect sacrifice of himself to restore
our relationship with God.
- What have you learned about Jesus as the high priest?
- What questions do you still have?
The
verses for today offer yet one more point as proof of the superiority
of Jesus’ sacrifice; but it is a subtle one. This proof is seen in
the posture of the priest. Read Hebrews 10:11-12 again, and note the
contrasting postures. Every earthly priest stands day after day,
continually doing his service, never completely finished, offering
again and again the same sacrifices, yet never fully taking away sin.
Contrast this posture with that of Jesus, the great high priest.
When
Christ offered the single sacrifice of himself, he “sat down at the
right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12 NRSV) The perfect sacrifice has
been made; his work was complete. The bridge between God and
humanity had been built and can never be destroyed. The task of
atonement – of restoring the relationship between God and humanity
– the gracious gift of forgiveness was accomplished once for all.
Jesus’ final words on the cross were validated and true: “It is
finished.” (John 19:30 NRSV)
- Why do we need a bridge between God and humanity?
- What questions do you have about atonement?
Having
established and validated the unique, superior sacrifice of Jesus,
the author turns to the response that the believer should make to
this once for all gift. “Therefore, my friends, since we have
confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new
and living way … and since we have a great high priest over the
house of God….” (Hebrews 10:19 NRSV) Knowing all this to be
true, the response is in the form of an exhortation: “Let us …
approach … hold fast … and consider ….” (Hebrews 10:22-24
NRSV)
- How do you respond to something you know to be true?
- What is your response to God’s gift of forgiveness?
In
the Greek New Testament, verses 19-25 (of Hebrews chapter 10) are
written as one extended, eloquent sentence, thereby suggesting a
unified faithful response. The response has three elements: 1) “let
us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith…” (verse
22) – the response of faith; 2) “let us hold fast to the
confession of our hope without wavering…” (verse 23) – the
response of hope; and 3) “let us consider how to provoke one
another to love and good deeds…” (verse 24) – the response of
love. Paul wrote of the same three-fold response to God’s gift of
grace through Christ: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these
three; and the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13
NRSV)
- How do we live to reflect these three elements of our response to God?
- Do you agree that “the greatest of these is love?” Why or why not?
word
among us
Stand
for the opening. Kneel for confession. Stand for the hymn of
praise. Sit for the reading of the Word. Stand for the proclamation
of the Gospel. Sit for the sermon. Stand for the profession of
faith (the creed). Kneel for the prayers. Stand for the sharing of
the peace. Sit for the offering. Stand for the Great Thanksgiving.
Kneel at the altar to receive the bread and wine. Stand for the
closing hymn.
WHEW!
We certainly get our exercise Sunday mornings as we do our
liturgical calisthenics!
- Why do we go up and down so often in worship?
- What does our posture say about the various elements of the service?
Posture
is important for the writer of Hebrews. It indicates the superiority
of Jesus the high priest (whose sacrifice of himself fulfills and
completes the need for sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins) over
the inadequate sacrifice of the earthly high priest. The earthly
high priest stands because his task is never fully done; Jesus, the
great high priest, is seated at the right hand of God because he
offers a perfect sacrifice which spans the chasm between God and
humanity. We confess this in the words of the Apostles’ Creed:
“He
(Jesus) is
seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty ….”
- What can you learn by observing someone’s posture?
- What posture do we take before God?
The
confession that Jesus seated at the right hand of God calls forth a
response from the believer. The author of Hebrews articulates a
three-fold response that is familiar to the Christian. We are freed
from having to offer sacrifices because of the once for all sacrifice
of Jesus, the great high priest. We are to approach God with a full,
confident faith; we are to stand fast in a sure and certain hope in
the power and promises of God; and we are to consider ways to foster
love and good deeds, following the example of Jesus, the great high
priest.
- What does it mean to you to be able to approach God with a full, confident faith?
- How might a Christian foster love and good deeds?
faith
practice in daily
life
Serve
all people, following the example of Christ
We
have been joined to Christ in our baptism. This relationship gives
us forgiveness, life, and salvation. No longer do we have to rely on
our feeble attempts to please God; Christ has done it all for us.
All this raises important questions:
- What are you going to do, now that you don’t have to do anything to earn your salvation?
- How do you live into your baptism?
Hebrews
offers the answer: Live in faith, with hope, to love. It’s a
posture of grateful trust in what God has done in Christ once for
all. It’s a posture of hopeful anticipation of what God will do in
the future. It’s a posture of what we can do now as faithful,
hopeful servants of the great high priest, Jesus Christ.
- What posture do you hope to take during the coming weeks?
Prayer
Help
us, O Christ, the great high priest, to live with faith, hope, and
love in response to all you have done for us. Amen
used with permission
Daily
Faith Practices
Written
by John and Robin McCullough-Bade
Copyright
© 2012 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
May
be reproduced for local, non-sale use provided the above copyright
notice is included.
www,ekca,org/dailyfaithpractices
Question 7 in the section "daily life" is the most interesting to me so I'm going to restructure it a bit and add a bit.
ReplyDeleteIf my salvation is assured by the work of someone else what else is left for me to do? Why do anything at all.
Faith requires good works. Faith without good works or the desire to be like Christ (Christian) isn't faith at all. I believe that it is because we are saved, we can do good works. Somewhere in the New Testament the line goes something like let your light shine so others will see your good works and be pleasing to God. So it is because we are saved, we have the spirit in us to want to please God through what we do. When we fall short of this, (which sometimes is on a daily basis), we have the knowledge that we are forgiven because we are saved through grace and our faith in Jesus. We can embrace the new day ready to work to do good and try to please God with our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteI have questions about forgiveness. I know when I do things that are not good I need to ask for forgiveness. That's a given. My problem is that even though I understand there is forgiveness, I still feel bad and dwell upon my wrong doings. How do you fully accept that forgiveness even though you don't want to do wrong, and try not to but do the same thing again?
ReplyDeleteFirst we recognize that some sins are harder to forgive than others. If someone cuts me off in traffic, I mad for minutes. If someone verbally assaults my wife I'm mad for hours, days and maybe longer if they really crossed the line. And some hurts are huge, and take years, decades or lifetimes to wrestle with.
ReplyDeleteSecond, we recognize that forgiveness is relational. One mistake we make is that by forgiving the other that they are now "off the hook" and no longer carry that sin. We took it away and now they do not have to carry that sin debt anymore. When we take this approach with the huge sins it is really easy to think "they deserve what they get, why should I let them off the hook". Followed by "they are just going to do it again. It isn't like they are going to change". All of which is very human.
The problem is that there are two people involved in the sin committed. It is not simply about releasing them from their sin debt like a bank forgives a loan. We are still hurting even if we simply forgive their debt. We also need to find a way to let go of our hurts or make peace with the wound.
Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”
Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Jn 20:22–23.
If we do not forgive the relationship remains strained or broken and we the sinned against continue to carry the weight of the sin not just those that committed the sin.
When it comes to big, really damaging sins, I take the approach that it is more like grieving. We tend to use all 5 phases of grief: Denial/avoidance, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. The myth about the stages of grieving is that they are linear; they are not. We can bounce around between them all, even after we have reached acceptance something can trigger the grief and we are back wrestling with all the other stages.
Forgiveness can often work the same way. We deny that we are hurt or avoid the person that hurt us and pretend it will get better. We get really angry that they did this and they have this much influence in our life. We bargain "if they just X than we can forgive them". This internal battle and carrying around this sin burden wears us down. We beat ourselves up for not being able to forgive and question whether or not we are good person; it is depressing. Finally we reach some moment where we are able to let go of the pain or want the relationship more than we want the anger and find a way to make peace with being hurt.
Now I have primarily been speaking of the one sinned against but it is the same for the person that committed the sin. When we are the sinner we often feel like we do not deserve the forgiveness. We move through the same stages.
All of the above is pretty much based in this world and thus is driven by the Law
The Good News is when we cannot forgive, God can and does. When we cannot receive forgiveness, God can on our behalf and does. The Good News is as we wrestle with our sins and those sins done against us God is with us, caring for us, praying for us, holding us and not judging us.
We get there when we get there. It doesn't mean we don't work at it, all it means is that we need to be patient. Remember God does not see the same sinner we see when we look in the mirror. God only sees a child of God whom they love.
A windy answer. I hope it helps