Hebrews is one of those Scriptural
books that many people have to look up in their Biblical Table of Contents for
a page number in order to be able to zero in on it quickly. Thumbing through the Bible, people often,
because of the book’s title, flip to the first half, the Old Testament, seeking
Hebrews out among stories of the early Israelites or Hebrew slaves.
However, the Book of Hebrews is most
definitely in the New Testament. Perhaps
it was originally a letter, perhaps a sermon, but clearly it was written to a
group of Jewish Christians in the days of the early church. Hebrews was penned to a struggling
congregation whose very existence was threatened by opposition and persecution,
a community that was in danger of abandoning its faith in Jesus. Hebrews
then was a word of encouragement for men and women who were trying to hold on
to their Christian beliefs even as they faced extensive pressure from the
broader pagan society.
Hebrews was one of the very last books
to become an accepted part of our Bible – mainly because no one has ever been
sure who actually wrote it or even exactly when.
However,
particularly in the passage we just read, its words, though written to a
congregation far more than a millennium ago and half a world away, have an
eerie sense of timelessness as we look at the role of the modern church – our
church - the modern moderate church – in the broader society, a society where
the evangelical Christian right has, in many ways, usurped the label of
Christian and molded it to its own socially, politically, and theologically
conservative religious interpretation.
The same question raised in the book of
Hebrews nearly 2000 years ago surely applies to us in the moderate church today. Lutheran scholar Bryan Whitfield articulated
it like this: “How do we go about living
as (moderate) Christians in a society where we find ourselves increasingly on
the margins?”
Seriously – have you never felt a bit
out-of-fashion being here in church every Sunday morning? And have you not spoken with friends who,
even though they may be seeking an intergenerational community, moral compass,
and deeper spirituality, would not consider seeking those essentials within the
context of a church, often because they are apprehensive about what they will
find here, many of them
fearing that they will be in the midst of Biblical literalists and people like
Rush Limbaugh who recently warned his listeners that “if you believe in God,
then intellectually you cannot believe in manmade global warming….that we can’t
even stop a rain shower, but we can destroy the climate. And how? With barbecue
pits and automobiles, particularly SUVs. It’s absurd.” (His words)
When Scottish theologian and musician
John Bell visited a few years ago, I took him to dinner in Portland. He was wearing the prominent wooden cross he
always wore. Our waitress was fascinated
and questioned him extensively about its meaning. She could not understand why he wore it in
public and also what it could possibly say that was positive about what she
understood as the Christian faith. For many people like that waitress,
“Christianity” and “church” have become, if not dirty words, then ones to keep
at a safe distance.
“How do we go about living as
(moderate) Christians in a society where we find ourselves increasingly on the
margins?” This passage in the Book of
Hebrews answers that question. In it, we
can find long ago words that are relevant for us as we struggle to be a new
church, an emerging church in our world today.
Bryan Whitfield writes, “The writer of
Hebrews rounds out his sermon with… an interconnected series about how to live
as a community of faith in an indifferent or even hostile world. They provide
practices that set our community apart…..(and) keep us on the path and on our
way to the goal. “ Let’s take a brief
look at these distinguishing qualities of a Christian church, as outlined by
the author of the Book of Hebrews.
The foundational characteristic is
love, mutual love that comes in two varieties.
The first is what I would call internal love – “philadelphia” in the
Greek – love for your brothers and sisters of the faith – a recognition that,
as a faith community, we are indeed a family.
We are called to love one another here in this congregation – love even
the ones who irritate us. We are called
to stand by each other, to support one another, to nurture our gifts and strengthen
the bonds between us.
The second manifestation of mutual love
is externally focused – “philoxenia” in the Greek – love for the foreigners in
our midst. We call this love “radical hospitality”
because it calls us to love the ones we fear, the ones who are different than
we are – by race or ethnic heritage or sexual orientation.
Bryan Whitfield goes on to say: “in the
first century, hospitality was a practical virtue because inns were
disreputable places. There were no Ramada Inns or Motel 6s. Though our
circumstances are different, hospitality--paying attention to the
stranger--remains a vital demonstration of love. We must become welcoming and
inviting congregations….(And) when we are hospitable, we too receive gifts
because we may entertain "angels without knowing it" (13:2).
Perhaps the writer was thinking about
Abraham (Genesis 18) or Gideon (Judges 6) or Manoah (Judges 13). For all of
these (Old Testament) characters, hospitality led to new stories of good news,
new possibilities, new life, and new avenues of service.” Being the church is loving those in the faith
community coupled with a radical hospitality and welcome to all. When we love in this way, then as a church we
are growing. When we do not, then we are
deteriorating.
The next characteristic is
compassion. Though the author of Hebrews
refers to those imprisoned or being tortured, he understands that the
linguistic root of the word “compassion” is “suffering-with-others.” As United Methodist pastor Melanie Hughes
writes, as the church, “we are to act in full
solidarity with those who suffer…We are to provide food, clothing…to those who
hurt. Compassion
is not something you can participate in by absentee ballot; such a practice
requires our full selves.” Being the
church is being fully committed to mission, outreach, and sharing in the pain
of the world even as we seek to alleviate it.
When we are compassionate in this way, then as a
church we are growing. When we are not,
then we are deteriorating.
The third quality of the Christian
community is fidelity. The author
emphasizes marital fidelity. Striving to
be faithful in marriage – but also faithful in all that we do and say – sets
the church apart from the broader society.
The author recognizes too that being unfaithful – be it in marriage or another
aspect of one’s life – is not a private matter.
Relationships that lack faithfulness and are not grounded in trust weaken
the fabric of the whole community. Being the church is taking our covenants and
commitments with one another seriously. When we are faithful in this way, then as a church we are growing. When we are not, then we are deteriorating.
Contentment is a fourth characteristic of
the Christian community. In a nutshell,
it means not being greedy, not hoarding money and resources. Instead,
it means being satisfied with what we have and not seeking more out of a
deep-seeded need for security –even as we continue to live in a culture, as UCC
pastor Stephen Silvers writes, “devoted to acquisition, expenditure, and the
celebration of wealth…where we remain the targets of incessant advertising
urging us to get more, borrow more, spend more, for only by doing so will we
find our true selves.”
The church then is to live with open
hands, trusting that our God is a God of abundance, trusting that if shared,
there is enough to go around even in an uncertain future, trusting that God
will not leave us or forsake us. When we are content in this way, then as a church we are growing. When we are not, then we are deteriorating.
Loyalty and constancy is the fifth quality
of the Christian community. It is an
overt recognition that Jesus is always with us – in the tough as well as the
easy times. We are not left alone or
abandoned. Jesus does not turn his back
on us, but rather holds us always in a loving embrace. Jesus – and his message - never changes –
yesterday, today, and forever.
A man rented a
room in a boarding house where the hostess served the same meal each night. Day
after day as he sat down to his evening meal he muttered under his breath:
"Hebrews 13:8, Hebrews 13:8" over and over. One of the other boarders
was curious about his clearly Biblical reference and approached a local pastor
who was only too happy to read him the passage in question. Imagine his
surprise when the man heard: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today
and forever." In a world characterized by dramatic change and
technological transformations, being the church means trusting in the one whom
we follow, the one whose message of justice and compassion never changes and is
always relevant. When we are
loyal in this way, then as a church we are growing. When we are not, then we are deteriorating.
The final characteristic of a Christian
community is proper worship, worship founded on vibrant praise and thanksgiving,
worship filled with positive energy, worship that bores neither God nor
ourselves. However, such worship does
not end at 11:00 A.M. Sunday morning. Proper worship infuses our whole
lives - and most particularly our lives
when we leave this building after the postlude and coffee hour.
We have come full circle now because, in
our love for one another and for the strangers in our midst (characteristic #1
of a Christian community), we are worshipping God and being the church. In our compassion, in our outreach, in our
sharing in the world’s brokenness (characteristic #2), we are worshipping God
and being the church. In our
faithfulness to the covenants we make with one another (#3), we are worshipping
God and being the church. In our
intentional living with open hands, turning our backs on the “more and more”
culture in which we live, sharing what we have, trusting in the age-old
promises of abundance (#4), we are worshipping God and being the church. And finally, in affirming the unchanging
nature of Jesus as the Christ whose Gospel message we acknowledge as the Way,
our Way (#5), we are worshipping God and being the church.
The modern moderate church has done a
pretty terrible job articulating who it is and what it stands for. No wonder membership has declined so
precipitously in recent years, and Christianity in general has been lumped
under the single label of the evangelical right.
So what do we tell people who think we
in the moderate church are a little bit weird and outdated when we gather in
this place on Sunday mornings? What do
we say to people who ask us moderate Christians about the cross we wear around our
necks (if we even dare to wear one so prominently)? What do we tell people who assume that we
enjoy the bombastic rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh?
Maybe we refer them to this 13th
chapter of the Book of Hebrews. After
all, as Uniting Church in Australia pastor William Loader writes, “These few verses offer us snippets of what Christian community meant. It
wasn't a holy huddle of worshippers scared for their lives and totally obsessed
with religious rituals. It was a community which expressed and shared love and
in that context praised God.”
Maybe in
these verses these critics, who perhaps are still seekers themselves, will
learn that, as the moderate Christian church, we strive to love both “philadelphia”
and” philoxenia”. We strive to be
compassionate and faithful. We strive to
live with open hands because we affirm a God of abundance rather than
scarcity. We
strive to proclaim that Jesus and his message is relevant and transformational
not only in the past, but also in the present and the future. And we strive to worship God not only for an
hour on Sunday mornings but even more so in the way we live our lives.
by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church (U.C.C.)
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