Hang On In There
Sermon
Although I love reading, I've never been a great lover of biographies. Novels are more my style, probably because they provide pure escapist pleasure. But I remember when I was first interviewed before being accepted on the course which eventually led to priesthood, one earnest cleric told me very forcefully that I ought to read biographies because there was so much to be learned from them. No doubt he was right, but I've never taken his advice.
These days, biographies seem to have changed their approach somewhat. Maybe it started with Princess Di and all those books claiming to be the only true biography of her, I don't know. But it does seem that biographies today stop at nothing. The famous seem to be always taking out injunctions against their nannies or their cleaners or their gardeners, in order to prevent details of their private lives being published in a biography. And even people long dead don't escape. Only recently a new television documentary about Florence Nightingale all but destroyed the image of her as 'The Lady with the Lamp', and instead castigated her as failing to prevent the deaths of hundreds of soldiers in the Crimean War. It may be that the truth is at last being told, instead of a bland, whitewashed version of the truth. Or it may be that people's names and reputations are being blackened with no holds barred, in order to sell books.
The Bible is an unusual book in that even back in the days of the Old Testament, no holds were barred in its descriptions of the failings of its heroes. The Bible doesn't attempt to gloss over anyone's misdeeds, even when that person was regarded as a hero. The murder of Abel by his brother Cain is recorded (Genesis 4:1-8), as are the dirty tricks of Jacob, who cheated his brother out of the family inheritance (Genesis 25:24-32). And all the exploits of David, universally revered throughout Judaism as the greatest King the Jews had ever known, are recorded. Many of David's exploits were exceedingly heroic, but some were utterly shameful and yet are still spelt out in detail. Things like David's lust for and adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah (2 Samuel 11:2-27).
The Bible doesn't gloss over any of that, but names it for the sin that it was and makes it quite clear that David didn't get off scot-free, but was later punished for his sin (2 Samuel 12:1-19). Because the Bible is so honest about human failings even in its heroes, the accounts of Old Testament faith are all the more impressive.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews uses impressive Old Testament heroic deeds to make his point that none of these wonderful historic people, even though they had immense faith, received God's ultimate promise.
That ultimate promise was kept for us. God provided something better than all that Old Testament history, and we're the ones who reap the benefit of that. The "better" that God promised was himself become human and living a fully human life amongst his people. God himself living on earth in Jesus of Nazareth.
Whatever happens to us throughout life, we can look to Jesus, for he shows us exactly how life can be lived - full to the brim with excitement and joy and delight, full of love and full of healing.
You might think that the Jewish Christians, for whom this letter to the Hebrews was written, were suffering from terrible persecution, so needed real encouragement to keep up their spirits. But the letter was written sometime during the first century probably before AD 70, before any real persecution started, and it's thought to have been written because the Jewish Christians were in danger of quitting Christianity due to a growing weariness with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to their calling (Hebrews 2:1; 4:14; 6:1-12; 10:23-32).
It all sounds very familiar! The Jewish Christians were surrounded by hostility to their faith, because the majority in Jerusalem remained Jews and would have no truck with Christianity. It's sometimes harder to remain true to your faith when you're constantly undermined by disapproval, than it is when you're actively persecuted.
Many of us are in a situation where we're surrounded by hostility to our faith. The media are usually hostile, so that Christianity rarely features on television and when it does, it tends to be ridiculed or marginalised in some way. It was great to hear that ITV were to televise the whole of an Alpha course and present it on television as a documentary, but it's not so good to learn that the Alpha course is now being shown at midnight. Almost no-one of my acquaintance watches television at midnight, so any impact Alpha might have had has immediately been diluted.
Like the early Jewish Christians, we too are constantly undermined by disapproval. I heard a Christian speaker recently who claimed that most of society regards Christians as "weirdos" - peculiar and odd and outside the main stream of society. It's hard to be regarded by your friends and neighbours as a weirdo.
The writer to the Hebrews counteracts all that by reminding the Jewish Christians of their heritage of faith, and going on to say that they have so much more! They know God very intimately, through Jesus. They have God on their side, supporting them and loving them and guiding them. They have the example of Jesus, showing them how to live even through the deepest shame and the deepest pain, that of the crucifixion. And Jesus is still alive, says the writer, even after all that, so surely the Jewish Christians can hang on in there despite the antagonism which surrounds them.
In fact, they weren't able to hang on in there, and Jewish Christianity came to an end. By AD 135, just a hundred years after Jesus died, few Jews were converted to Christianity. Christianity became an entirely gentile religion, totally separated from Judaism, and the Jewish Christians died out. It was a sad end to all that early optimism of the disciples which shines through the book of Acts.
We're in a similar situation to those early Jewish Christians. Perhaps some of us too are in danger of quitting Christianity due to a growing weariness with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to our calling. Let's make sure that our Christianity doesn't go the same way as the Jewish Christianity and die out. Let's make sure we're so filled with Christ, that he shines through us. Let's make sure we ask God to protect us from the kind of subtle hostility which gradually gnaws away at confidence. And let's make sure we discover the right ways of passing on our Christian faith to the coming generations. And then we too will be able to take our seats with Christ at the right hand of God, knowing we've done all that we could to keep his name alive.
These days, biographies seem to have changed their approach somewhat. Maybe it started with Princess Di and all those books claiming to be the only true biography of her, I don't know. But it does seem that biographies today stop at nothing. The famous seem to be always taking out injunctions against their nannies or their cleaners or their gardeners, in order to prevent details of their private lives being published in a biography. And even people long dead don't escape. Only recently a new television documentary about Florence Nightingale all but destroyed the image of her as 'The Lady with the Lamp', and instead castigated her as failing to prevent the deaths of hundreds of soldiers in the Crimean War. It may be that the truth is at last being told, instead of a bland, whitewashed version of the truth. Or it may be that people's names and reputations are being blackened with no holds barred, in order to sell books.
The Bible is an unusual book in that even back in the days of the Old Testament, no holds were barred in its descriptions of the failings of its heroes. The Bible doesn't attempt to gloss over anyone's misdeeds, even when that person was regarded as a hero. The murder of Abel by his brother Cain is recorded (Genesis 4:1-8), as are the dirty tricks of Jacob, who cheated his brother out of the family inheritance (Genesis 25:24-32). And all the exploits of David, universally revered throughout Judaism as the greatest King the Jews had ever known, are recorded. Many of David's exploits were exceedingly heroic, but some were utterly shameful and yet are still spelt out in detail. Things like David's lust for and adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah (2 Samuel 11:2-27).
The Bible doesn't gloss over any of that, but names it for the sin that it was and makes it quite clear that David didn't get off scot-free, but was later punished for his sin (2 Samuel 12:1-19). Because the Bible is so honest about human failings even in its heroes, the accounts of Old Testament faith are all the more impressive.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews uses impressive Old Testament heroic deeds to make his point that none of these wonderful historic people, even though they had immense faith, received God's ultimate promise.
That ultimate promise was kept for us. God provided something better than all that Old Testament history, and we're the ones who reap the benefit of that. The "better" that God promised was himself become human and living a fully human life amongst his people. God himself living on earth in Jesus of Nazareth.
Whatever happens to us throughout life, we can look to Jesus, for he shows us exactly how life can be lived - full to the brim with excitement and joy and delight, full of love and full of healing.
You might think that the Jewish Christians, for whom this letter to the Hebrews was written, were suffering from terrible persecution, so needed real encouragement to keep up their spirits. But the letter was written sometime during the first century probably before AD 70, before any real persecution started, and it's thought to have been written because the Jewish Christians were in danger of quitting Christianity due to a growing weariness with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to their calling (Hebrews 2:1; 4:14; 6:1-12; 10:23-32).
It all sounds very familiar! The Jewish Christians were surrounded by hostility to their faith, because the majority in Jerusalem remained Jews and would have no truck with Christianity. It's sometimes harder to remain true to your faith when you're constantly undermined by disapproval, than it is when you're actively persecuted.
Many of us are in a situation where we're surrounded by hostility to our faith. The media are usually hostile, so that Christianity rarely features on television and when it does, it tends to be ridiculed or marginalised in some way. It was great to hear that ITV were to televise the whole of an Alpha course and present it on television as a documentary, but it's not so good to learn that the Alpha course is now being shown at midnight. Almost no-one of my acquaintance watches television at midnight, so any impact Alpha might have had has immediately been diluted.
Like the early Jewish Christians, we too are constantly undermined by disapproval. I heard a Christian speaker recently who claimed that most of society regards Christians as "weirdos" - peculiar and odd and outside the main stream of society. It's hard to be regarded by your friends and neighbours as a weirdo.
The writer to the Hebrews counteracts all that by reminding the Jewish Christians of their heritage of faith, and going on to say that they have so much more! They know God very intimately, through Jesus. They have God on their side, supporting them and loving them and guiding them. They have the example of Jesus, showing them how to live even through the deepest shame and the deepest pain, that of the crucifixion. And Jesus is still alive, says the writer, even after all that, so surely the Jewish Christians can hang on in there despite the antagonism which surrounds them.
In fact, they weren't able to hang on in there, and Jewish Christianity came to an end. By AD 135, just a hundred years after Jesus died, few Jews were converted to Christianity. Christianity became an entirely gentile religion, totally separated from Judaism, and the Jewish Christians died out. It was a sad end to all that early optimism of the disciples which shines through the book of Acts.
We're in a similar situation to those early Jewish Christians. Perhaps some of us too are in danger of quitting Christianity due to a growing weariness with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to our calling. Let's make sure that our Christianity doesn't go the same way as the Jewish Christianity and die out. Let's make sure we're so filled with Christ, that he shines through us. Let's make sure we ask God to protect us from the kind of subtle hostility which gradually gnaws away at confidence. And let's make sure we discover the right ways of passing on our Christian faith to the coming generations. And then we too will be able to take our seats with Christ at the right hand of God, knowing we've done all that we could to keep his name alive.
