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A Study in Hebrews New Covenant Text: Hebrews 10:1-25 ● So much of God’s activity amongst humanity has been centered on the power of ‘image’ itself [as it relates to story]. When we attach some sort of sacredness to them (or it connects us with God), we call them “sacraments”. It seems that often God’s involvement with us is beyond ‘explanation’; we need a different way of understanding. In symbol/image, we come to sense a truth which can be ‘described’, but never fully ‘explained’. So, the force of the impact is most profoundly felt/experienced as it is connected to a deeper truth; a historical reality. ● In Hebrews 10, the writer is still attempting to help his readers understand the previous quote from Jeremiah 31: how the death and resurrection of Jesus actually brought the reality to which the sacrificial system had been pointing: forgiveness of sins. 1 Samuel 15:22 “…Samuel replied, "What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams.” [response to God] Hosea 6:6 “I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that's more important than burnt offerings.” [response to others] ● With all that was ‘good’ about the Law and it prescribed sacrifices, there were a couple of glaring insufficiencies (“dim preview...” ): ►They were “repetitious”. When something has to be done repeatedly, it most often indicates a lack of completion; the problem hadn’t really been remedied. Not that it’s “wrong”, just “incomplete” (‘not yet perfect’ ). ● In this system, standing was associated with working and sitting meant that one had completed their work. The priests are always seen as ‘standing’, indicating that their work was not completed. ►It could not deal with feelings of “guilt”. ~ Guilt is the often debilitating and lingering presence of failure/sin. Debilitating, in that it immobilizes us; prevents us from moving forward because we are forever tied to or connect with our past sin; it’s the lingering stain of wrongs committed; the residual effect of sin. ● Although the sacrifices seemed to provide a sort of temporary covering which would allow individuals to continue to sense that they were a part of God’s covenant people (i.e. ceremonial uncleanness), they could do nothing to touch/effect the guilt that the individual felt. In fact, the sheer repetition only turned the spotlight on their guilt. Guilt… Story of a man convicted of DUI and manslaughter in the death of an (18) year old girl. The young girl’s family filed a suit in civil court and won a settlement of 1.5 million dollars, but asked for another judgment: they wanted $936.00 ($1 per week for every year of their daughter’s life). The stipulation was this: the perpetrator would have to make out a check in the girl’s name for $1 every Friday (day she died) and mail it to the family. Eventually, the man became severely depressed and stopped writing the checks (this happened 4 times in 8 years). The man appealed the punishment as ‘cruel’ and offered a one-time pay-off: the family refused. ● In such an arrangement as the old covenant, although the spotlight was always on God’s mercy and faithfulness- always his attempts to get to us and convince us of his love, we could easily assume that the emphasis was on the ‘balance due’ to God; that every time a payment was made, I would feel some sense of relief, but never any sense of release… “guilt”. In that arrangement, the sounds of guilt always drown out the sounds of grace. ~ Guilt, as a condition, can only be satisfied when the wrongs committed have been ‘atoned’ for; guilt, as an emotion, can only be replaced by loving-acceptance- assimilating grace. So, punishment can never release us of guilt, only forgiveness can. ~ Forgiveness always loses its appeal if it can only satisfy a judgment and not restore a relationship. ● Part of the problem is that it is almost impossible to ‘feel’ forgiven; we most often attempt to ‘feel’ forgiven. We find ourselves in this cycle where we feel guilt because of something we perceive to be wrong, so in order to relieve the guilt, we act out again (i.e. over-eaters: over-eat, feel guilty, eat some more in order to relieve the guilt, and that doesn’t satisfy the cravings, et.) ● In the fall (crisis in the garden), we experienced this strange new sensation, this awareness of something being out of ‘order’; an intrusion, of sorts. Suddenly, we became more aware of self than God (us and others) and our unnatural response was to ‘hide’. The Bible introduces us, for the first time, to ‘shame’ (worthlessness). So now, not only do we feel disappointed with ourselves, we assume that God must be equally repulsed with me. ~ Guilt often causes us to reach the emotional conclusion: “I can’t be loved; I’m unlovable”. Nothing makes us more afraid than feeling we are unlovable and ‘fear’ is the feeling produced when we ‘assume’ we are disconnected from love. 1 John 3:20 “Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything”. [Apparently, we can feel guilt when we should be feeling love; our hearts can still be pointing the finger at us even when God isn’t] 1 John 4:18 “Love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love”. ● The only way to cleanse our conscience is to believe something else to be true of us; that we are no longer identified with/by our sin, but our identification with Jesus (whose sacrifice ensured that nothing could stand in the way of relationship with him). ~ Don’t expect God to stop loving you. Although it seems that it would be the most likely way to ‘punish’ us, it’s the most ‘counter-productive’ thing God could do (if he could). ● All that the old covenant was pointing to had now been made ‘reality’- Jesus was God’s final word; he is what God was saying and doing all along [Hebrews 1:1-3]: there was nothing left to do except “present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God which is your reasonable service…” (Romans 12) Here’s what we celebrate today in the Eucharist… ~ The new covenant offers us a ‘new identity’… (“sincere hearts” ) New creatures, with the old gone and the new having arrived. This new identity (which the story references most often as ‘in Christ’) allows me to: 1) live free of shame (because God’s loving movement in Christ validates my worth) and, 2) prevents me from judging you. True community expects failure but offers grace. [It doesn’t make ‘excuses for it’, but makes every effort to ‘call out the real you’]. ~ The new covenant offers ‘new passions’… (“fully trusting him” : because of the sense of completion and the extreme measures God has taken to display his heart of welcome) Something profoundly mysterious happens when people trust Jesus: God is at home with them; we are at home with God (created order restored). ‘Boldness’ is restored; not ‘arrogance’, but ‘confidence’. ● For the first time, our hearts can be trusted because they are being shaped by the life-giving Spirit of Christ; God ‘tabernacles’ with us. No longer are God’s laws something we see ‘pushing in’ on us, but something we find compelling us… motivating us from within. ~ The new covenant offers ‘graceful transformation’… (“he forever made perfect those who are being made holy…” ) We realize that the old patterns of life (independent of God) and old inclinations are strong, and we too easily revert to such lifeless behavior; but there is now a power even stronger at work within us: the Spirit of God. ~ I’m finally realizing that I don’t need to sin in order to appreciate grace! [and to keep sinning deliberately in the presence of grace is to treat God’s kindness with contempt: as ‘worthless’] Hebrews 10:23-25 “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of the return is drawing near”. ● Because I, too, have been made new, I can envision who you are in Christ and who you are becoming and not only ‘encourage’ that, but actually become an active part of the process (‘spur’); and, in that process, I can relax and not feel pressure to change you because that power is already present within you and, only love will draw it out.
It’s only
‘community’ when the new passions resident in me because of the Spirit of
God are arousing the new passions in you producing ‘life’. |
