Obfuscation (Luke 16:1-13)

Sermon as preached at Lambs UMC on 9/22/13

As you were flipping through your bulletin this morning looking to see what hymns are going to be sung, looking to see what scripture was being read, and checking to see if there was anything on the upcoming events; you may have glanced at the title of the sermon and simply seen the word obfuscation. Obfuscation, what in the world does that even mean?  Well according to Merriam-Webster dictionary Obfuscation menas, “ to make (something) more difficult to understand,  to make obscure, to be evasive, unclear or confusing.  If ever a word matched its definition perfectly, it would have to be this word. After all what word could sound more confusing or as difficult to understand as obfuscation. It truly is a strange word, which again means to intentionally make something more difficult to understand.

            So why do I bring this up, and why do I harp on this confusing word this morning?  Well, it is because after reading and rereading, studying many different commentaries about this passage, thinking long and hard about this strange parable that we get from Jesus here in Luke, I found that I continued to end up confused. This parable is hard to understand; not necessarily hard to understand what is going on, but rather it is hard to understand why Jesus told it. It is hard to understand the intended message for the readers.  There are bits and pieces that seem to make sense, and I have debated about preaching about those parts this morning, but I believe that that would be a disservice to all of you and to God.  Maybe, just maybe, we are not always supposed to have all of the answers. Maybe,  just maybe,  God does things to obfuscate the message. Before we explore those possibilities however, let us first look at this parable and see why it is that it is so troubling, so hard to understand.

            In our parable for today we have a rich man and a steward, that is, someone who is charged to take care of the property of the master. In the beginning of the parable we find out that the steward has been squandering the master’s property. We also find out that rich man has found out about and has confronted the steward about it. The steward then knows that he is about to be fired from his position and so he must think of what he must do to take care of himself in the future. First he thinks about manual labor, but realizes that he is too weak for manual labor. Next he thinks about begging, but the steward is far too prideful to beg. And so finally the steward comes up with a plan.  The steward, who is not yet fired and who still technically works for the master, goes and finds some of the people of the area who are in debt to the rich man.  The first one he meets he asks, “How much do you owe my master?” The man replies that he owes him 100 jugs of olive oil. The steward, still working with the authority of the master, but without his knowing, cancels half of that man’s debt. The steward goes to another man and asks what he owes and the man replies, “One hundred containers of wheat.” The steward then cut 20 containers off of that man’s debt.  Scripture tells us the reason that the steward was doing all of this was that so once he was fired he would have good will with these people so that they would help him.

            Finally we get to the end of the parable, where the master confronts the steward, after listening to so many of Jesus’s other parables this is where we expect the master to rail on the steward for being greedy, for being manipulative, and after this parable we have Lazarus and the rich man who is punished for not helping the poor. We expect this steward to be reprimanded, but what do we get? “ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”  The steward is commended by the rich man for being shrewd? I would say he was being manipulative. And if that’s not enough then Jesus adds another confusing line saying, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”  Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth? What that doesn’t sound like what we have heard from Jesus prior to this. And to make matters more confusing is that Jesus continues, and as he continues he says things that are more in line with what we are used to. He says, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “   Here we have sayings that seem to fit more with what we are used to hearing from Jesus. That if you can’t be faithful with a little, how can you be faithful with a lot. If you misuse your treasures on Earth how can you be expected to be faithful with your treasures in heaven. That we cannot serve both God and wealth. These are the type of statements that we are used to hearing from Jesus, and yet how does it all fit with what we read in the parable?

            Some try to take a more positive view of the steward in the parable. Some argue that after realizing that he is going to be fired that the steward is not dishonest, just clever. They claim that the steward probably has a commission that he collects when works for the rich man, and that when he is cutting the debt that people owe,  he is really only cutting out his own commission, since he won’t be getting it anyways once he is fired, and so that he may build up goodwill with the people. The idea is the that the steward didn’t do anything wrong, but simply found a clever way to provide for himself, and that is why he is commended by the rich man.  I must admit, I so badly wanted to believe in this scenario because it would put everything into a nice and pretty box, but there are things in this scenario that just don’t add up.  For starters the amount of debt that he cut between the two men are drastically different, and it is very unlikely that his commission would have changed that much between people. Secondly,  this scenario suggests that the steward was not dishonest, but just shrewd, and yet scripture itself calls him “the dishonest servant.” As much as I want to believe this scenario, it probably isn’t correct. What most likely happened, is exactly what it sounds like. That the steward, knowing that he was going to get fired, looks out for numero uno, backstabs the master by forgiving debt that is owed to him, and then for some reason instead of reprimanding the steward, the rich man commends him for being so shrewd.  This parable is so confusing, it is obfuscates the message.

            And that gets me back to this word, this idea, obfuscation; and I must admit that I did not just think of this word on my own, it was not already part of my vocabulary, but rather I saw as I was watching a short four minute film online by Barbara Brown Taylor, who is a world renowned preacher, author, and scholar. The name of the film is “A Stance of Unknowing”[1] and it is a poignant dialogue about not knowing. Taylor points out that there are multiple places in the Bible in which not only is the meaning not clear, but that it seems as though God obfuscates, that God intentionally makes something muddier. She points out that in the Exodus story that it was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart against the Israelites. She also recalls in the gospel when Jesus is asked about why he speaks in parables and he replies,  “He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.”  If we live under the presumption that we are supposed to understand everything about God, or that God is supposed to try to make everything understood for us, the we will be very disappointed when we see instances like these when God seems to obfuscate the meaning. Likewise with our parable for this morning, we can try our hardest to make sense of the difficult nature of the parable, and there may be some who can, but we also have to come to the realization that we will not always understand everything about God, nor does it seem that we are always supposed to.

            For many of us this is challenging, for many of us everything needs to make sense for us to believe. That is why so many of us say that God has a plan for everything, but how do we say that when there are senseless murders in the DC naval yard this week.  How can we say that God’s plan is for adults and children alike to die from chemical weapons being released on towns.  How can we say we understand God’s sovereignty and say that the reason a young person died in a tragic way is because God needed another angel.  These are not truths about God but rather claims that we feel as though we need to make so that things make sense for us. 

            Taylor in that short film makes the claim that one of the leading causes for atheism is the fact that Christians so often try to make these extravagant claims about the sovereignty of God.  That we make claims that since God are good God has to do this. Or that since God is all powerful that the hurricanes, and floods, and wildfires where his choosing, and that they must have been done for some reason.  We hear claims from Pat Robertson that hurricane Katrina was God’s response to homosexuality, that the horrible earthquake several years ago in Haiti was God retaliating against Haiti for neglecting God, and that the more recent hurricane Sandy was God trying to stop a Mormon from becoming president, and we can see why many people can become fed up and disillusioned with all of our claims of God’s sovereignty. As Taylor points out it quickly becomes of list of things that God has to do in order to fit our understanding of God’s sovereignty, when the truth of the matter is that there is nothing that God has to do. God is God, there is nothing that he has to do.  When we get upset about something that God didn’t do, we are really just getting upset at the fact that God is not acting in the way in which we expect God to act, that God is not acting in the way in which we want God to act. When God acts in ways that don’t make sense to us, when we read things such as this parable that don’t entirely make sense we tend to get disillusioned.

            And maybe that’s a good thing.  Maybe when we come to realize that God doesn’t always work the way in which we picture things, we can begin to realize that God does not work like us.  Most of all we may begin to realize that we are not God.  If everything made sense to us why would we need a God to save us, since we could simply save ourselves. And yet things don’t always make sense, we cannot save ourselves. We need God, and maybe being disillusioned is a way of placing even more trust in God. Trust that  even if we haven’t got it all figured out, we still rely on God. That even when God seems to be absent or silent, we still rely on God because maybe that silence can speak. That when a parable that Jesus spoke seems to confound us, confuse, go against what we expect Jesus to say, that it may be a time realize that we do not have it all figured out. That trying passages like this should cause us to continually reexamine our beliefs, challenge our faith, reconsider previously held notions, and yet do it all with an understanding that we simply don’t understand. That God is greater than anything we ourselves can imagine, and maybe that’s why we need God so badly.

---

[1] Retrieved from theworkofthepeople.com on September 17, 2013

99 & 9 (Luke 15:1-10)

Sermon as preached 9/15/13 at Lambs and Evington UMC

Today in our scripture from Luke we get two very short, and yet very well know parables from Jesus. They are of course the parable of the Lost sheep and the parable of the Lost coin. Though they are probably some of the shorter parables that Jesus told, these parables seem to speak to us, they seem to capture us and hold us captive. They are most likely some of the first parables that we learned as children, and still today we love to hear them told to us. The message of the parable has even leaked into our mainstream media. I was watching TV the other day and a commercial came on that made me do a double take, because I knew that this scripture was coming up for this week. It was a Chevy Silverado commercial, and in the commercial we see farmer out in the rain fixing a broken barbered wire fence. Then getting into his truck and searching all around for a missing calf. Goes over bridges and into ravines with his truck, he gets out and shines his flashlight all around looking for this little calf, and finally at the end we see the farmer, carrying this calf in his arms, in the pouring rain back to his truck to take it back home. When I saw this commercial, I was like, “wow, this is the parable of the lost sheep.” A friend quickly reminded me however that if this were the parable of the lost sheep, it would have been a dodge Ram commercial.

            All kidding aside, These two parables are ones that usually speak to us.  And why not?  There is a truly beautiful message in these parables. A message that we have such a loving God that though there are plenty of people who already follow, who already believe, and yet God is willing to leave those be to find those who have fallen away. That in a flock where there are still 99 good and useful sheep, that the Lord, our shepherd is willing to go out and search for that one missing sheep. That like a woman who lost a coin but has several others, the Lord will still tear the house up searching high and low for that lost coin until it is found.  It truly is a message of God’s love, of God mercy, and of God’s grace.

So often this parable speaks deep into our souls as well; it may have even been a message similar to this that has helped to bring us to Christ. It may have been this message of God’s  grace that has helped us through difficult times, knowing that God is there looking for us, desperately seeking to bring us back. It probably why we find the hymn Amazing Grace so powerful, because it speaks to this emotion of being lost and now found. It reminds us of God’s grace for us.  We all know these parables pretty well, in fact most of you could come up and give a good sermon all about this love and grace. Many could give testimonies of how they once were lost and now are found through the grace of God. It would be hard for me to get up here and to tell you something about these parables and your life that you don’t already know.

            But what if I told you this morning that these parables are most likely not about you, or at least not about you today?  Think about it these parables are about the sheep that have wandered away, or the lone coin that is lost, and yet we are all here this morning, gathered to praise and worship our God. And the truth of the matter is that most of us here have been coming for quite some time now, that most of us have been faithful followers for much of our lives. Now sure all of us have gone through times of trials and tribulations throughout out our lives, some maybe be even facing them today, but you are here, seeking the Lord not running away. There may be some here this morning that feel lost, and if that is the case then I hope that this message of grace and mercy does speak to you today, but know that the simple fact that you are here in the midst of feeling lost speaks to your faith and your love of God.  It is also important to note that we are all indeed lost in some way since we have all fallen short of the glory of God. That yes we all need God’s grace to lead us and guide us; but let’s be quite honest with ourselves this morning. When we read about the 99 sheep and the one lost sheep, or the 9 coins and the one lost coin, we love to picture ourselves as the lost sheep or the lost coin, but in all honesty most of us here are more like the 99 and 9, not the lone one. This may be a difficult truth to handle, but once we are able to wrap our minds around this concept, we may start to understand these parables in brand new ways.

            As I have been saying, far too often we have sentimentalized these parables to be personal stories about us, and at some point in our life maybe we needed that. We read these words as kind words, words of joy, which don’t get me wrong they are, but we forget the point of the parables being told; we lose sight of the fact that these parables also carried a rather harsh and prophetic message as well. When we step outside of the parables themselves, and see the context that they were spoken in, then we may start to see what I mean by this.

            So what was the context for this parable?  Well scripture tells us quite clearly what it was. In the previous chapter, chapter 14,  Jesus is invited to dinner with some of the Pharisees. While at dinner Jesus begins to talk about inviting others to the feast as well; I believe that Jesus was being both literal and figurative in this instance. After telling them a parable of the a great banquet in which none of the nobles decide to attend and so it is opened to everyone on the streets, we can imagine that Jesus began to upset many of the Pharisees. Jesus was talking about not only eating and congregating with those who were viewed as moral deviators, he was also talking about being with those who were ritually and societally unclean. I don’t think Jesus made many friends with the Pharisee that evening.

            And so now we find Jesus here in chapter 15 taking it one step further. No longer is Jesus talking about eating and congregating with the morally and ritually unclean; Jesus is actually doing it. The Pharisees were not too happy about this fact either. Our passage tells us, “And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." The Pharisees were grumbling, how dare  he associate with those types of people. You see, it is to this protest by the Pharisees, it was to this disgust that Jesus responded with these parables. If you had 100 sheep and one of them was lost would you not leave the 99 behind and go looking for that one lost sheep?  Or if you had 10 coins and lost one would you not search high and low until that coin was found?  Jesus’ words are words of hope and grace to the lost, to sinners whom Jesus eats with; but we cannot miss that they are also tough, harsh, pointed questions back at the Pharisees for them to answer.  In essence Jesus is saying, I am looking after and reaching out to those who are neglected, who are troubled, who need my love the most; should you be doing the same? So why then do you sit there and grumble instead of celebrating with me that these people are listening to my words. “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “

            This passage may be speaking a word of hope and truth to you this morning if you truly are the lost sheep or the lost coin, but if you are like me than these words may feel more like daggers in the heart. If you are like me then you may be realizing, I’m not the lost sheep or the lost coin, I’m the 99 & 9, or maybe even worse, I’m the Pharisee grumbling about who we choose to associate with. It is hard to hear, but sometimes we  need to hear these harsh words, that far too often we are more like the Pharisees than we are like Christ, whether we mean to be or not.

            It reminds me of a meeting that I was attending about the Vital Congregations program that the Methodist Church is doing to try to revitalize churches so that they may become more faithful and fruitful congregations. You have probably heard something about it already, but each church is asked to measure 5 categories that are believed to be indicators of a vital congregation and to use the statistics to see for themselves where improvement may be needed. These five categories are Worship attendance, Number of small groups, Number of people involved in hands on mission, Amount of money given for mission, and number of professions of faith.  Many of these categories probably make sense to you for why they would be good indicators of a vital congregation, but you may be wondering about why professions of faith. Why not member? While member is extremely important as it is a commitment to the local church and the church to that person (as we will see later in the service)  professions of faith are those who have never professed before. Membership can transfer, but someone coming on profession of faith is representative of the lost sheep and the lost coin being found. Professions of faith are the celebrations that Christ talks about. So getting back to my story about the meeting, we were talking about this category of professions of faith, and how most churches are struggling with it, and that even many of our professions of faith are from the children who have grown up in the church. We were debating about why this is the case, many people mentioned that the members were even really good about inviting people to church and yet there are so few professions of faith, when finally someone boldly spoke up and said, “maybe it’s because we don’t know that many people who aren’t already Christians.”

             That should make us think, do we really know that many people who aren’t Christians, who aren’t baptized?  We may think that there just aren’t that many around us, but trust me there are. So then when must ask ourselves, Are we eating with the sinners and tax collectors. Are we following the example of Jesus Christ and associating with the poor, the dirty, those who language could make a sailor blush, those who see violence instead of peace as the answer, are we associating with those who are different ages, races, even nationalities than us? Or are we inadvertently being like the Pharisees and sitting back grumbling, judging others for not being as holy as us?

            As the passage says.  “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  The overarching message of this parable of grace is joy. It is a celebration that God will seek after those who are lost, those who are weary.  Yes, repentance is part of the story too, but how can someone find the truth in their hearts of their need to repent if we are far off grumbling instead of out searching, out eating with those who need God’s grace the most. We are to follow the example of Christ. Not hiding behind our thoughts and beliefs like the Pharisees, but actively reaching out and engaging with others; not judging but rather offering love. For we may not all be the lost sheep or the lost coin, but through these parables we can see how much God cares for all of his people. Are we going to share in this love or are we going to mock and judge those who do?  God’s preference is evident, let us rejoice with the one sinner who repents, let us celebrate that God’s grace extends to all mankind.

On The Basis of Love (Philemon 1:1-21)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC  9/9/13

Today we are going to study the entire book of Philemon. That’s right we are going to look at every chapter of this letter from Paul and we are going to do it all during this morning’s service. Now, for those who are frantically trying to think about how they are going to get to the doors and out of here discreetly, don’t worry; for although we are looking at the entire book of Philemon this morning, the entire book is only one chapter long. In fact it is quite a spectacular letter that is often overlooked by many churches. It is one of the few letters in which Paul writes to a specific person rather than to a congregation. And still it is even different than other personal letters such as Timothy, because in Philemon, Paul is not giving instructions on how to lead the church, instead Paul is seeking a personal favor. It is an amazing letter in which we truly get to see the heart of Paul on display. So why then is this letter often neglected?  Is it because it is so short that it is simply overlooked? That may be possible, but I believe that the biggest reason that this letter is often neglected is because of some of the content of the letter and how that has been used in the recent past.

            This letter from Paul to Philemon is centered around a slave Onesimus and how he should be treated by his master. Right away we may become a little uncomfortable with the fact that this letter involves slavery, but that tension is only made worse by the fact that for years in America this letter from the Bible was used to support the institution of slavery in America. In fact this book in particular was used to encourage laws requiring people to return runaway slaves to their rightful owners since after all that is what Paul did with Onesimus.

            This book of the Bible is then a perfect example of the need to look at the historical context of the Bible so that we do not miss what is at the heart of this wonderful letter. By focusing on the slavery in this letter we may be unable to see the forest for the trees. With that being said, if we understand some of the historical context of this letter, we may better be able to put this matter aside. First and foremost, just because an institution exists in the Bible does not mean that the Bible is saying it is good. In fact there are indications in this letter that Paul does not agree with slavery. “Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother--especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”  One may wonder then if Paul was against this institution of slavery then why did he send Onesimus back to Philemon instead of helping to keep him as a refugee.  It is a difficult question to answer, but often there are multiple ways of fighting injustice and all are needed. Sometimes injustice is fought head on with demonstrations, protests, and rallies;  other times injustice is fought within the system, finding a way to transcend the oppression. It appears as the latter is true for Paul, but we will get to that later.

            The second thing to keep in mind before we proceed is that the institution of slavery that we read about here in Philemon is very different than that which we had here in the United States. First of all, slavery was not a racial institution. Whereas slavery here started with the slave trade in Africa and evolved into a twisted racial institution where black people were seen as being a lesser human, as three- fifths of a person. Slavery in the time of Paul was not racial. Slaves were either conquests of war, criminals, or those who were financially indebted to their master.  There was also a common practice that after thirty years of faithful work a slave would be let free. This could even be a reason Onesimus ran away, because he felt as though he should have been released and wasn’t.  All of this being said, the slavery in the time of Paul was still a horrible and despicable act, but we should not confuse it with the slavery that we are used to learning about here in the states. We should also not let the fact that the institution existed, and even the fact that Paul is working within the institution hinder us from seeing the truth and the message that is here in the passage.

            And so with all of that finally out of the way, let us look at what this wonderful letter does have to say to us. We have already touched on what is happening here in the letter, but let’s do a little bit of a recap. In the letter we have Paul, writing to a man named Philemon who from what we know about him is a land owner, a slave owner, a leader in a small house church, and apparently a friend or an acquaintance of Paul.  Paul, himself is writing from jail and while in jail has met a former slave of Philemon named Onesimus. Onesimus has become a Christian thanks to Paul and has gained the love and the trust of Paul, so much so that Paul says, “I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment.” Throughout the letter Paul speaks of Onesimus with endearment, and asks a favor of Philemon.  Paul tells Philemon that he is sending Onesimus back to him, as would be normal when one finds a runaway slave and knows the master; but Paul tells Philemon to treat Onesimus well, and to forgive any wrong doings that he has done. And so we have the story for what is going on in this letter.

            Let us look closer however to find out the importance of what Paul is saying. Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon and telling him to take care of him, but under what authority is Paul saying this; after all Onesimus is Philemon’s slave.  In those times, a person returning a slave to a master did have the legal right to admonish or reprimand the slaveholder for any of his practices, and yet Paul waives this right, this is not the authority that Paul is using. Maybe Paul is using his own authority, since after all Paul has made quite a name for himself as a leader of the new Christian movement. But Paul does not use this authority either. Paul and Philemon are friends or at least acquaintances, so perhaps he is appealing as friend to do this favor, and while there may be some elements of this in the story, still this in not the basis Paul is appealing on. Finally, maybe he is appealing on the basis of duty, duty as a Christian. This one is more interesting because Paul in fact does say, “ For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty,  yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.”  Here we get our answer.  Paul says to Philemon, this is something that is your duty to do as a Christian; I could command you to do your duty, but I won’t. I could tell you that Christ commands us to Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  I could tell you that the sheep and goats will be separated by who does unto the least of these. I could tell you that what the Lord requires of you is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. I could tell you all of these things and then command you to take care of Onesimus because of them, but I won’t. I won’t to do that, instead I appeal to you on the basis of love.

            Paul appeals to Philemon on the basis of love. That though there is this overriding sense of duty that Philemon should have as a Christian;  Paul’s hopes and dreams is that Philemon does not offer hospitality to Philemon out of duty, but does it out of love. Paul sees the transformative power of love. Paul sees a runaway slave, a fugitive, and does not see a criminal, but instead embraces him as a son, and as a brother in Christ. Paul sees the system and powers that be, and sees away to bring them tumbling down from within.  Paul does not see a slave and a slave owner, but rather two brothers in Christ. It is this love that Paul is appealing to Philemon to recognize. “ Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever,  no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother--especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”  Paul had a beautiful vision, a vision of love. A vision where there was no longer a slave master and his slave but instead, two brothers in the love of Christ. This should not come as a shock to any of us, we have heard this before from Paul in Galatians 3. “ Before the coming of this faith,^j we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 2So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” 

            Paul is telling us that the law gives us guidance on how we should live, but that we no longer live out of a duty to the law. We have been clothed with Christ and now act in love. That there is not separation between us, neither jew nor Gentile, male and female, and yes neither slave nor free, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. We are all bound together by the love of Christ, and our actions, our motives, or thoughts, should be reflective of that love. For us this seems like yeah of course, but Paul claim here in Galatians, as well as in our passage from Philemon was really quite visionary. In a world in which divisions of power existed, Paul saw these divisions as being toppled by the love of Christ. That through love, a slave and a master were equals as brothers of Christ. That through love men and women, were equals through the being brothers and sisters in Christ, an idea that was quite revolutionary for that time. Paul is begging Philemon, to embrace this vision of love, and to accept Onesimus back now as more than a slave, but as a brother.

            This truly is a powerful request, to request that a slave-owner view a slave as a brother. For such an appeal its seems as though Paul would have to appeal to some sort of authority, some sort of upper hand, and yet as we mentioned Paul simply asks on the basis of love.

            Paul does take it a step further and gives examples of what that love may look like.  Paul does not have anything to gain from helping out this slave, and yet he teaches and embraces Onesimus. As mentioned Paul has built a bond with the slave, so much so that he compares himself to being like a father to him.  And so now it must be a painful experience to send Onesimus back knowing not knowing how Philemon will receive him. In fact Paul even says, “I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.”  Paul shows his own love for Onesimus in the letter as an example for how Philemon should love him. Still Paul goes one step further; out of love Paul puts himself at risk on the behalf of Onesimus. He says, “If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it.”  Paul puts his neck out for Onesimus, the ultimate sign of love, the same love that we learned from Christ’s love for us on the cross.

            And so this morning as we reflect on this wonderful letter, we must ask ourselves how are we going to go forth into the world?   Are we going to go forth and treat those we encounters as equals or will we continue to allow divisions to remain in this church, in this community, and in this world. Are we truly going to embrace others as brothers and sisters in Christ? And if we do why? Do we do it out of some duty that we feel? Do we do it simply because we feel as though that is what the Lord requires of us, or will we do it like Paul says, on the basis of love? When we serve, when we treat others, when we simply live on the basis of love; we may just find that it can be more transformational than anything we could have ever fathomed.

A Tale of Two Mountains (Hebrews 12:18-29)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 8/25/13

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only” This is the famous opening lines from the classic novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. And quite frankly it is one of my favorite books of all time, which I’m sure many of my friends and family are tired of hearing about. The book contrasts the successful times in London with the uprising happening just across the pond in Paris.  This opening line seems to capture the contrast so perfectly, it was the best of times it was the worst of times.  Our passage from Hebrews today also works upon a contrast and comparison, but this is not a tale of two cities, this is a tale of two mountains; Mount Horeb and Mount Zion. One big difference should be pointed out here; the comparison of Mount Horeb and Mount Zion is not a best of times, worst of times scenario, it is instead a good times, better times situation.

            With that being said, let’s jump right into our text for today and see how this comparison takes place. The author of Hebrews begins by talking about the Israelites and how they had experienced the presence of God.  As we have noticed throughout our study of Hebrews, the author likes to use Biblical examples in poetic ways in order to make his point, and once again the author does that here. He says, “You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.”  The early readers of Hebrews who were well versed in Biblical stories, would have automatically equated these types of descriptions with stories of encounters with God. There is a fire in the burning bush with Moses as well as fire on the side of the mountain with Elijah as well as a tempest for him as well.  Darkness and gloom categorize many of the prophet’s call stories from Ezekiel to Isaiah. More importantly, most of these descriptions also retell the Israelites encounter with God at Mount Horeb. That is why the passage continues by saying, “(For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death."  Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.")  

            Now the importance of the Israelites encounter of God at Mount Horeb is often missed by Christians today.  We tend to view it as a great story, with awesome events; portrayed by Charlton Heston.  This encounter for God for the Israelites is more than just a great story, this encounter is crucial to their faith.  Prior to Moses God has made a covenant to Abraham of land and descendants. Many of these descendants ended up as slaves in Egypt and so God tells Moses that he will be faithful to his covenant and tells him, “You will be my people and I will be your God.”  After escaping Egypt and wandering in the wilderness, many began to wonder how does this covenant work?  How are we to be God’s people, and how God our God?  And so we come to this critical juncture in the story, where Moses goes up the mountain and receives the law from God. Once again, we often misunderstand the importance of the law for the Israelites. This law was the answer to their question. These laws where the way in which they were to be in covenant with God. These laws showed the Israelites God’s desire for them, and it helped them to live faithfully to will of God.  It was in this experience, this encounter with God that many began to understand and live out the covenant that God made with his people.

            And so the author of Hebrews comes back to this crucial event to make an important point. He points out that in this most pivotal of events, God seemed to be something and someone who was far off and distant, something that could not be touched.  He points out all of the frightful ways in which God was revealed: fire, darkness, gloom, tempest, trumpets. He points out that if an animal touched the Mountain they would die. He points out that Moses himself even trembled with fear as he approached the mountain.  The author of Hebrews points out here that the typical experience of God was that God was unapproachable, that God was untouchable.

            The author shifts quickly from this description of God at Mount Horeb and talks about God in a new way saying, “But 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.  The author now talks about the Mountain of Zion, the city of God.  A mountain in which we are able to gather with the angels in a feast. This is no longer like the separation, the distance, the gloom like we experienced at Mount Horeb; this is a feast, in the presence of God!

            So how did this happen? How did we get from an unapproachable mountain full of fear and trembling, and arrive at a mountain of joy and festivities?  The answer is Jesus, of course. “and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”  Once again a comparison and contrast is being made here, between the blood that Jesus offered and the blood that Abel offered. Now when we here blood and Abel, our first instinct is probably to think about the death of Abel and the spilling of his blood at the hands of Cain; but this is not what Hebrews is talking about here. Instead Hebrews is most likely referring to the offering that the two brothers brought before the Lord. Cain brought fruit, but Abel brought fat portions from the firstborn of his flock, which caused the Lord to look upon Abel with favor. Therefore the blood talked about here in Hebrews is the blood of a sacrificed animal.  Once again it is important to understand the importance of this sacrifice.  Ever since this event, the sacrifice had become a central aspect of worship, especially worship in the Temple once it was constructed.  It was expected that a sacrifice would be brought before the Lord in the Temple. When it was brought forth it would be taken by the priest behind the curtain and offered to God.  Only priests and Levites were allowed behind the curtain, because it was seen as the holy place in which God dwelt.  Once again Hebrews is using this imagery to show the distance that seemed to exist between God and the Israelites.

            However the sacrifice of animals is compared and contrasted here with Jesus. Whereas the blood of Abel was actually the blood of an animal sacrificed to God, The blood of Jesus was in fact his own blood; it was his own sacrifice.  This sacrifice was not hidden behind the curtain, but instead Jesus was raised up on Calvary for all to see.  Jesus broke the seeming distance between us and God. Jesus after all is God incarnate; Jesus after all is Emmanuel, God with us.  Jesus is the great priest that intercedes for us. We no longer need to bring sacrifices to the Temple, because Jesus ‘sacrifice covers us all. Jesus metaphorically brings God out of the Temple, brings God off of the mountain, and makes God obtainable and present. And with his ascension we are given the Holy Spirit to be with us and to lead us. This is how we are able to look towards the mountain of Zion with hope, because of the sacrifice and presence of Christ, of God with us.

            And so the author of Hebrews goes on to talk about what is shaken and what is not, saying, “At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain. The author is reminding us that at Mount Horeb, when God spoke, the earth trembled; the people trembled for fear. The author however is also using the term shakable to talk about those things are finite. And so he talks about how once again all will be shaken so that what cannot be shaken may remain. In other words the finite will be separated from the infinite, the everlasting.  It kind of reminds me of a device I got to use in my college biology course called the centrifuge. The centrifuge helps you to talk a mixed compound and separate the mixture into a more basic form. How does it work? Well through shaking, or spinning to be more accurate. You pour the compound into little tubes, put the tubes into the centrifuge and turn it on. The centrifuge starts to spin and the lighter part of the compound falls to the outside; kind like on some of the carnival rides, while the heaver substance is then separated and falls into the middle where it can be collected.  This shaking that we talk about in Hebrews is a lot like the centrifuge, where that which is finite, meaning that which is not everlasting, is pulled away, extracted, so that all that remains in infinite, is everlasting. But why is this important? Why does it matter that the infinite is separated from the finite?  Is this a message of doom and gloom intended to scare us into believing? No.  In fact it is quite the opposite, this is a message of hope.  This is a message that we are able to sit in the company of God.  Just follow the whole passage and you can see that this is what they are building up to.  That at one time on Mount Horeb God seemed so distant and so fearful, but that at Mount Zion we are in God’s company with joy. That in the beginning an offering of sacrifice in the Temple was the way to interact with God, that the Law given to Moses and the Israelites were the way to be in covenant with God, but that now there is a new covenant through the blood of Christ, Through God who became flesh and died and rose again for our sins.  It is a message of hope that in a world that can often confuse and hinder us from truly seeing God, there will be a time where that will be no longer a hindrance and that all that is eternal remains. It truly is a message of hope, for that beautiful Kingdom of God.

            And so the question remains how do  we act now. What do we now that we have hope in this kingdom?  What do we do now that we have Jesus Christ who is our great priest? How should we act? Well, Hebrews gives us the answer and it may not be what you are expecting. For while this whole time Hebrews has been contrasting the difference between Mount Horeb and Mount Zion, it has never said that they were wrong in how they acted towards God. Hebrews tells us that, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.”  We should respond in reverence. We shall remember that the God that is so close to us is still God Almighty. That we should gather in praise for what God has done for us. That we should gather with hope for what is in store, but that we should always remember that God is God. And so we worship God not to get something out of it for ourselves, but we bring ourselves as a living sacrifice before God.  We go forth from worship and serve, and gather again to praise God’s glorious name. When we do this, when we listen to the Tale of two mountains and take it to heart, then maybe we won’t be saying it was the best of times it was the worst of times, instead we may lift up praise like in the end of Dickens’classic book saying, “

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

Breakfast With Nana (Hebrews 11:29-12:2)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 8/18/13

 

 

If you remember last week when we looked at the book of Hebrews we talked all about faith. We talked about how faith and hope so forever tied together, and that our hope lied in the fact that the Kingdom of God was brought forth by Christ and yet not here in its completion. We talked about how this gives us a hope of a transformed world even in the midst of the brokenness we see around us, and we found that this hope gives us faith to live by each day.  We found that this chapter of Hebrews liked to use Biblical examples of people living by faith, and in particular last week we talked about the faith of Abraham and his descendants.  Today we pick up in the same chapter, and once again the author is using Biblical examples of faith. The reason for this however has seemed to change.  Last week we saw that the author used Abraham in particular to teach us about faith and about hope. Now in this part of the chapter the author is no longer focusing on one person, but is giving a long list of those who have lived by faith, from The Israelites in the wilderness, to Rahab, to David, and yes Daniel. This list seems to indicate a switch from explain what faith is, to showing how faith has been faithfully lived out. Hebrews is giving us a long list of saints for us to admire, to learn from, and to emulate their faithfulness.

            When we start to talk about saints in today’s church it becomes hard for us to relate to them. We usually picture saints as those old men and women who are now etched in stone on the side of cathedrals. At Duke Chapel for example as you enter into the massive doors leading into the chapel, stone figures of John Wesley, Francis Asbury, George Whitfield, and Martin Luther surround and watch you as you enter. If we aren’t thinking saints of the past such as these we start thinking about modern day saints such as Mother Teresa. And as is the case in today’s passage we also think of the Biblical saints, Abraham, David, Moses and so on. All of this usually leaves us feeling small and inadequate. We either beat ourselves up for never being as good as those saints, or we say, “They were special, I don’t need to learn from them.” And yet, here in Hebrews we find that we are supposed to learn from the faith of these saints.

            That is the good news however; we aren’t supposed to follow the actions of these great saints, we are supposed to follow their faith. As we discovered during the sermon series we did a month ago and as we are still discovering in our Bible study, all of us are called to live and serve God in our own unique way.  We all have different spiritual gifts, talents, experiences that shape how we live out our faith. Not all are called to lead an enslaved people into the wilderness. Not all are called to house spies that will eventually lead to the destruction of your hometown. Not all are called to imprisoned in a den of lions, and not all are called to be King. When we think about what each of these saints did, we realize that they were all called for very different and unique circumstances, ones that I doubt many of us will be called to do. We are therefore not supposed to simply emulate the actions of these saints, but instead we learn from the faith that leads them. How did Moses faithfully stand up to injustice? How did Rahab faithfully use what means she had to house and support other’s missions. How did Daniel remain faithful in the midst of trials and fear? How did David faithfully discern the will of God?  When we look to the saints these are the questions that we should be asking. These are the questions that will help us in our own calls.

            And still, it becomes easy to answer these questions by saying, “they were able to do all of these things because they were great people, special people, unlike us.” Yet many of these great saints also had great flaws. We celebrate David as the great King of Israel but he committed adultery and used his power as King to have Bathsheba’s husband killed in war. We lift up Rahab as one of the main reasons why the Israelites were able to take Jericho, but Rahab was a prostitute. We lift up Moses for leading the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses himself was a murder. To add to this, Hebrews all mentions the faith of the Egyptians as whole group, not singling out one “special” person but lifting up the faith of the whole people. If that wasn’t enough he talks about those special people who died for their faith, but the author doesn’t even name any of them. All of this tells us that learning from the saints is trying to just emulate them; because as we have seen many of the saints we revere we just as flawed as us, and that there are just as many saints who have lived in faith who we do not even know. What we do learn from them is how to live faithfully.

            Here lies one of the most crucial elements of this whole chapter. Why is it important for us to learn this faith from the saints who have gone before us? Do we learn faith for our own personal benefit, for our own welfare?  The answer here is no.  As we talked about last week, our faith is rooted in the hope in the Kingdom of God.  If we learned our faith from these saints simply for our own benefit we would be greatly disappointed. Sure, some of these saints that were listed received great success. The ones that come to the top of the mind are once again the Egyptians and their freedom,  David and his rise to King, and Daniel and his safety in the lion’s den.  For as many success stories Hebrews lists, it also however lists just as many hardships and trials. “Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”  And Hebrews reminds us that both who found success on Earth as well as those who found hardship and trials, “all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised,” If we follow the faith of our fathers and mothers, the faith of the saints, for our own personal benefit, then we have to be prepared for the fact that is quite possible, even likely that we will not receive what we are looking for.

            Why then do we lead lives of faith like those saints before us?  It is because we are called to work together with the saints in working towards the Kingdom of God. Just as the saints faithfully followed the will of God; bringing some great success and others hardship, we too are called to faithfully follow God’s will. As Hebrews puts it, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,”  The author of Hebrews compares it to a race. A race in which requires training; by laying aside those things that hold us back and slow us down from running the race. A race that also requires perseverance, which is why it is so critical to have the faith of the saints. Learning from them seeing how to persevere in our success as well as in our failure. It is not a race not is not unique to us; it is a race that has been run by so many before us, and most likely will be run by many after us.  It is a race in which we run, “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”  What makes the race even sweeter is that we are surrounded so great a cloud of witness. It is not just that others have gone before us, but those that have run the race are still with us.

            We may wonder how this is possible, are we talking about ghosts or spirits that surround us? I would have to say no, that is not what we are talking about, what we are talking about is presence.  So what do I mean by that? First and foremost I must start this discussion by saying that there is an element of mystery to the cloud of witnesses, and I think that may be a good thing. Too often in our society we have to have all the answers or it just doesn’t make sense to us; but by embracing the mystery we acknowledging that we are not the sources of all knowledge and that things exist that are beyond our realm of understanding.  With that being said, there are ways to help us understand how the cloud of witnesses are present with us.  One of the actions within the church in which we celebrate this the most is during Holy Communion. During communion we not only celebrate our communion with Christ, and we not only celebrate our communion with each other, we also celebrate our communion with all the saints, both living around the world as well as those who have passed away. Through the sacrament of Holy Communion we are bound together through the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, and we are able to get a glimpse of the heavenly banquet laid before us when Christ returns in final victory.  It is an amazing union of believers from all places, and yes even from all times.

            Still the question may be, how is this possible?  Well, there is a Cheerios commercial that has been on T.V. recently and someone online, (and I wish I remembered who it was so that I could give them proper credit), but someone pointed out how the commercial is a lot like our understanding of the communion of saints.  The  commercial starts off with a mother and son eating breakfast together.  The boy looks at his mom and says, “Mom, did Nana ever give you cheerios when you were a little kid.” The mother nods and says, yeah she did. The boy continues his questioning by asking,  “Were Cheerios the same back then?”  The mother replies,  “Cheerios has pretty much been the same forever. “ Here the boy makes such a profound statement that catches the mother off guard and brings a tear to her eyes.  He says, “So, when we have cheerios it is like we are having breakfast with Nana.” Breakfast with Nana.  In a way that is what communion is like.  Though it may be celebrated in different ways, the essence of Communion really has not changed since Christ himself.  For two thousand years people have come to the table to be in communion with Christ and with each other. When we come to the table it may not be breakfast with Nana, but it is communion with the saints.

            And yet Hebrews reminds us that we are surrounds by that cloud of witnesses. That everything we do through Christ we do in participation with the saints. We run the race before us, the same race as David and Daniel, the same race as St. Francis and Mother Teresa, and yes the same race as many of our parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and friends. If that doesn’t excite you I don’t know what will.  This service that we are called to is one that people have been called to all over the world and throughout time. That our lives are not some insignificant blip on the radar of history, but that each of us are part of a much larger story, and greater race. That we can find assurance from those who have gone for us; celebration when things are good, and solidarity with the martyrs when things go bad.  With this cloud of witnesses surrounding us, I don’t know about you, but I have more confidence,  more endurance to run this great race before us, knowing that Christ is before us leading us in our way.

Gotta Have Faith (Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16)

Sermon as preached 8/11/13 at Lambs and Evington UMC

 

 

When I was growing up, there was a cartoon on Nickelodeon called Hey Arnold about all of the mishaps that a bunch of kids in the inner city would get into.  One of the episodes that I remember well, was one called “the vacant lot.”  In this episode, the kids get tired of playing baseball in the middle of the street because they would have to keep stopping for cars and because they kept breaking things.  One day as a few of them were walking home they saw an old abandoned lot, full of trash and debris. These kids did not see a trashy lot however, they saw a baseball field.  So each day these kids went to work clearing out the debris and pulling up the weeds all while the adults looked on and thought that they were nuts. But as days went by the lot became cleaner and cleaner until the only debris left were a hub cap, a tire and other debris used to designate bases. Finally as the kids start to play ball in the lot, the adults start to see the potential of this empty lot. One lady starts a garden in the outfield, The butcher uses the lot as a free range for his chickens, some of the elderly adults set up checker boards in the infield, so much so that the kids could not play ball anymore. To make a long story short however, adults realized what they had done and came together to make the lot a true baseball field with real bases and everything.  What the adults saw as an empty lot, the kids saw as a baseball field. They put their hope and faith to action and created and made a fine ragtag field, and even with the overtaking of the field by the adults, and may I say even because of the overtaking of the adults, the lot eventually became even more than what they had ever hoped for.   To see that empty and trashy lot turned into a real baseball field took a lot of faith by those kids.

            Faith is something that is so special, and yet something that we often don’t truly understand. For many faith is simply their belief system. After all one of the ways in which we describe different religions is by calling them faith traditions.  For others faith means trust. Like when we say we put our faith into someone, we are saying that we trust them. Still, others see faith as an expectation, I have faith things will turn around, and still finally for others faith is assurance; I have faith I am going to heaven. The tricky part about faith is that all of these ways of thinking about it are in some way correct. And yet all of these ways of thinking about faith are also incomplete by themselves.

            This is why in this section of the book of Hebrews, faith and understanding faith becomes the central theme. Before we dive into our lesson for today, let’s have a quick lesson on this book of the Bible since we will be studying for the next few Sundays. Hebrews is probably one of the less read books of the New Testament, and with its name Hebrews, many would probably expect to find it Old Testament. It is instead similar in some degree to many of the letters that we have in the New Testament from Paul such as 1 and 2Corinthians or Ephesians. Except for those letters are obvious to whom the audience it, churches in the those areas; Corinth and Ephesus and so on. This letter which may have been written by Paul as well, but more likely someone close to Paul such as Barnabas or Apollos, is vague on who is the intended audience.  The title Hebrews may make us think it is addressed to some of the Jewish communities, but when we read the book we find that many of the tenets of Christian faith are already assumed. It is then likely that it is addressed if not to a community of Jewish Christians, or at least to a community that understands and recognizes many of the Jewish traditions. All of this means that the letters were not meant to convert, but rather to teach and to instruct.

            And so in our passage for today the author begins to teach about faith and hits us right out front with the crux of the lesson. Verses 1-3 tell us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.” Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction things not seen. What deep and profound words. Here we begin to see many of our definitions of  faith merge together, assurance, hope, tradition, trust. Let us break down verse one and try to understand it even better. First the author says, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith and Hope. This is hopefully not the first time that you have heard these two terms used together. In fact over time these have developed into two of the three what we call theological virtues; Faith, Hope, and Love.  Now may be getting more and more familiar with you now, you may recognize it from 1 Corinthians 13; a chapter very popular at many weddings. " For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  As we see these things, are inseparable, faith, hope, and love, and so when we talk about faith here in Hebrews, it is difficult to do it without talking about love and especially without talking about hope.

            The author of Hebrews makes this connection between hope and faith by tapping into some of the familiar Biblical stories, especially that of Abraham. For the author, the faith of Abraham centers all around the covenants that God made with him. The first covenant was that of a promised land that he would inherit. The second covenant was that of descendants. This was the hope that Abraham had, a hope for descendants and a hope for a promised land; and yet this was a hope that was nowhere near being realized. Hebrews reminds us that as far as land, Abraham had stayed in the promised land as a foreigner, not as the owner.  It also reminds us that the hope for children seemed ludicrous since Sarah was old and seemingly unable to have children.  This hope seemed unfounded, this hope was something that seemed to be intangible, and yet our passage today tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for.  Abraham had faith in God. Abraham had faith that God would not go against his covenant, that God would not break his word; Abraham had assurance that his hope was merited. Abraham had faith in God.

            There is a second part of that first verse that is equally important to understand.  It says, faith is “the convictions of things not seen.” Once again we see how faith and hope are so integrally tied together. Not only is faith the assurance of things hoped for, but it is also the conviction of things not seen. Once again going back to Abraham, we see that the hope that he has of having descendants has no real tangible basis. While though he may have been an alien in the promised land he as least could see and imagine what it is that he hoped for. When it came to having a line of descendants that dream seemed distant, impossible, even unimaginable.  How could he have descendants when he had no children?  How could he have children with Sarah being too old to bear them?  Still, Abraham had faith, he had a conviction in the promise that God made with him even if it seemed unimaginable. After Isaac was born the dream seemed alive, until in faith Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son.  If Isaac dies how could the lineage continue?  And yet once again we Abraham had the conviction that God would not fail on his promise even if it seemed that there was no way it could come true. Abraham lived in faith, though he could not foresee that the Lord would save Isaac, Abraham trusted the Lord and followed his commands.

            And yet, sometimes it seems as though it doesn’t matter how much faith we  have, what we hope for does not come true. It is like what we were talking about with prayer the other week, What happens when you pray for something and it doesn’t happen? The same question can be asked here, what happens when what you hope for is never actualized?  The author of Hebrews seems to anticipate this question, because as he is talking about Abraham he shifts and talks about Abraham’s descendants. He says, “Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore." All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.” The author of Hebrews reminds us that even the descendants of Abraham lived as faithful servants of God and never received the promised land.  We know that even Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness never himself made it into the promised land. So what do we make of this? What do we make of the fact that there were so many who were hoping for that inheritance of the promise land and yet never lived to see it? It seems easy to give up, quit, to lose faith when our hopes and dreams aren’t realized.

            We must ask ourselves whose hopes and dreams are they? Are they the dreams that we desire, or do we desire the dreams of God? Hebrews says about those faithful descendants, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.” They desire a better country, a heavenly one. We see that the hope that these descendants had was more than just an earthly hope of land, riches, and power. Our passage tells us that if any of them sought that homeland, they could have simply turned back; and yet they continued on faithfully with the conviction of that which was unseen, a Kingdom of God.  In in the end we find that though they died without seeing this come to fruition, that upon their death they did receive a heavenly home.

            And yet heaven itself can become a stumbling block for many people’s faith. As I said we must ask whose hopes and dreams do we hold dear; is it our own or is it the Lord’s. If you are here this morning simply so you can claim your place in heaven when you die, I am sorry but you are here for the wrong reasons. Heaven has far too often become the reason for our faith, we become Christians so that we can avoid Hell and get to Heaven. For many churches this is the crux their of mission and evangelism. This is not why we become Christians. We become Christians because we love Jesus Christ, and seek to serve and grow closer to him. Heaven of course is of extreme importance, it provides us great hope, especially to those who are marginalized or killed for their faith. Still,  heaven is not the goal of Christianity; it is the assurance of rest from our labors of Kingdom building here on Earth” Through Christ we have been given a new hope, the hope of the Kingdom of God here on Earth.  Through his life, death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus initiated the Kingdom of God, and yet the Kingdom is obviously not fully here. It is what Wesley calls, “the already and the not yet.” Through Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live faithfully, working with God towards bringing forth that Kingdom. We can look around at a world full of terror and violence, and have faith; have an assurance of that hope given to us by Jesus Christ. We like the friends in Hey Arnold who can look at trashy empty lot and see a baseball field, are able to look at a broken world and see the Kingdom of God.