One For All, and All For One

Sermon as preached at Lambs UMC 9/9/11

Scripture: Hebrews 10: 19-25, 32-35

 

As I was driving to Lambs one day, I passed the Baptist church there on Gladys road and the church sign caught my interest. The sign had a simple but challenging message saying, “You could worship God at home on Sunday mornings, but do you?” When I read that sign I chuckled. It was a very clever sign trying to get people to come to Sunday worship. The jist of the message was you could have a personal relationship with Jesus at home, but we know that you are lazy or easily distracted, so you might as well come to church Sunday morning to guarantee that you actually worship. While I do applaud the church for trying to stress the importance of worship, I am afraid that the sign is playing into a dangerous way of thinking about worship that has become so popular of the past few decades. The potential danger of this sign is that it may lead us to think that worship is about us. Sure worship can and should be a deep and meaningful time in which we are connected more to Christ and that the word of God speaks to our hearts, but is worship really about us? And if we do believe that worship is about us, then who are we really worshiping?

            This question leads us to another question, which is the topic of this week’s sermon. That question is, why do we come to worship, or maybe the question is why should we come to worship? Why is our presence in worship so important to the church, that it is one of the things that we agree to when we enter the United Methodist Church? Through looking at the our passage from Hebrews, we may find some of the answers to these questions.

            In our passage today, the author of the letter has noticed that many people have stopped gathering together for worship. There may be many different reasons for this, some of them may have started to believe that all that mattered was their own personal piety, their own personal relationship with Jesus, others may have been facing much physical or social persecution for attending worship and were too afraid or found it too painful to worship. Whatever the reason may have been, this passage encourages them to worship publicly and explains why their attendance in worship was important.

            So why is our attendance in worship so important? Our passage gives us two reasons. The first may be the easiest explanation of them all, and it is simply because we can! Christ died on the cross for our sins, Christ rose from the dead conquering death and giving eternal life to us a undeserving, sinful and broken people. We have experienced that amazing grace of God, we have seen how the Holy Spirit has worked through our lives and through the lives of other believers, we read scriptures such as Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, and after seeing all of these works of God in the world why wouldn’t we want to worship. If you want to worship at home, that’s wonderful as well, but why not also celebrates that joy and grace with others who have experienced the same love and grace?

            Hebrews tells us more than just worshiping because we are excited, but it also shows us that through Christ there is also more freedom in worship. Our passage says, “¹⁹Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,²⁰by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God,²²let 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.” These four verses are packed with some wonderfully deep theological statements, so much so that a sermon series or Bible study could probably be done on these verses alone. Unfortunately we don’t have the time to dive too deep into these verses, but let me pull some crucial elements out for you. Much of the talk in this passage is in reference to traditional Jewish temple customs. If you remember from the Old Testament, the Israelites were told to build a tent, and in that tent is where they would encounter God, except only a select few could enter the tent. Later, the tent was replaced by the Temple. The Temple has specific dimensions for how it should be built and how it should be laid out, including a veiled or curtained area, which was considered to be where God dwelt. Only the priest could go behind the curtain and this was only to give sacrifices to God. People would bring their sacrifices to the temple for the atonement of their sin, and the priest would offer it up in the presence of God. 

            This passage compares the death of Jesus to the sacrifices that were once made by Jews to God  behind that curtain, and it is a quite fitting comparison. After all, the Jewish people recognized their own sin and so the custom was to try and atone for their sins through offering one of their prized animals to be sacrificed. Now different animals were sacrificed from poultry to lamb, usually according to the person’s wealth, but these sacrifices were not easy to make; for most Jews these animals played a crucial role in their livelihood. This was a great sign of their repentance and dedication to God. As I mentioned, the priest would then take the sacrifice behind the curtain and offer it up in the presence of God. But then there is Jesus. Jesus who sacrificed himself for our sins, Jesus put himself on that altar, and became the lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb that died for all of our sins. This sacrifice however was not hidden behind a curtain in Temple in the presence God, but was up on hill for all to see. Through the incarnation of Christ God was able to dwell amongst humans, as a human, and with his death we were able to see a new sacrifice, one for all to see, where all were able to dwell in the presence of God, and of course where all were able to receive pardon and forgiveness for their sins. As the gospels also tell us, with the sacrifice of Jesus, the Temple curtain was torn in two, symbolizing that God is now always present with us.

            The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus changed everything. Now we can enter in the presence of God with confidence because Jesus tore open the curtain so that all may be in the midst of God. We are able to come to worship now and be in the living presence of God! We no longer have to give our burnt sacrifices on the altar, but not we are able to come to the altar and partake of the flesh and blood of the one who was sacrificed for our behalf! We come to worship because there is freedom in worship to celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ.

            Some may argue however, doesn’t the ripping of the curtain mean that we can experience God outside of the church? The only response to that is yes, we believe that God always present taand there are multiple ways to experience the grace of God, but if anything that reminds us that worship is not about us, it is about coming together to celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ. Our passage does give us more practical advice for why our presence in worship is important, and that is each other. The passage says, “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.²⁴And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Once again the scripture reminds us that worship is about more than just us, but that our presence in worship helps to build each other up. In worship we are able to each other to keep strong in their faith, we can help others experience the joy that we have found in Christ. As the scripture says, “But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,³³sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.³⁴For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.³⁵Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.” We have all experienced difficulties sometime in our lives. It could have been the death of a loved one, a divorce, the loss of a job, a serious injury, whatever it may have been, in that time we needed God in our lives. If you are like me, then in those times, the place and the time that I would see God the most was when I was gathered with other Christians. When my difficulties were lifted up for prayer, when people would stop and ask me how I was  doing, when I would receive emails, calls, cards all just reminding me that people were thinking about me, I could see God in that moment. And now the author of Hebrews is reminding us that although we may not be going through those difficult times anymore, that there are those around us who are. When we gather together for worship it is also a time for us to reach out and comfort those who are struggling, it is our chance to praise God for the people who may at the time see no reason for praise. How is this done? I already mentioned through our prayers, through praying for and with one another, but it is also done in ways we may not even realize. I was talking to someone a few months back and they were telling me an experience that they had at a funeral. They did not know the person that well and was there more as a support for their friends and family. They said that at one point in the service the congregation stood to sing a hymn, I can’t tell you which one, but it was a beautiful hymn one that expressed both the sorrow of death but also the hope that we have through our faith. This person said that they looked at the family and that the family was too distraught to sing, tears and sobbing had stopped them from joining in and singing, and this person at that moment realized that they did play a crucial part in that funeral. Although they did not know the person who passed away that well, and although they had not even said much to the family to console them, they realized that they had the opportunity to sing for the family. They were able to sing this song of sorrow and hope, they were able to stand strong and profess our faith as Christians, they were able to sing, for those who could not sing.  Through worship we can comfort and serve those who are going through difficult times that at one time or another we went through as well. Sometimes we don’t recognize the import role that we play, even if it singing on behalf of those who are unable to sing.

            Our presence is important for worship because we are as Paul puts in many times, all members of Christ body. We all have our own special gifts that we bring to worship. Sometimes we feel that we may not be bringing much do the body, we don’t view ourselves as the heart, or arms or mouth of the body, sometimes we see ourselves as some insignificant body part, like the little toe, but have you tried to stand with a broken toe. Have you ever tried to grasp something with a broken pinky? Even our eyelashes, help to protect damage to our eyes. All of our presence in worship is important to worship because only as a full functioning body can we worship Christ to the best of our abilities. It is like the Three Musketeers saying goes, One for all, and All for one. Except in the church that one is not ourselves, but Christ, the one and only son of God. He is the one who died and rose for all of us, and we all worship together for the glory of the one. One for all, and All for One.