Remember Our Way Into God’s Presence
Might we just hear a bit of that exquisite reading from the Letter to the Hebrews one more time? Though, this time from translation by David Bentley Hart, who has gone out of his way to keep the majesty intact while still making it understandable. Here it is.
God, having of old spoken to the fathers by the prophets, in many places in many ways,
at the end of these days spoke to us in a Son who he appointed heir to all things and through whom he made the ages.
Who - being a radiance of his glory and an impress of his substance
and upholding all things by the utterance of his power,
took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty in the places on high once he had accomplished a purification of sins.
Those first few line of the Letter to the Hebrews is the whole story of creation up to Christ’s ascension in one absolutely stunning sentence.
If we unpack it just slightly, it is the story of Jesus as the Word, through whom all things were made, and it could sound a little bit like this:
The opening of the Book of Hebrews is reminding us of the story of God speaking the Word through the prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Deborah, Esther, and Ruth.
Through their words, through their courage, and their deeds.
Of the story of a Man named Jesus who was born of a Woman named Mary in a stable, in a manger, the place from which animals eat.
Who was, who is, in fact, the appoint hier of stable, of that manger, of those animals, of that Woman, of you and I.
We are his; we belong to and are cherished like the finest jewels in the cosmos through the one who created the cosmos itself.
It reminds us of the story of God, who, from within his own fullness and perfection before all things were made, desired to be more fully known by his creation.
The story of Jesus, who was a being higher than the angels, coming down to be below the angels so that we might be able to give language and speak and feel how much God actually desired to be the one sitting beside us in hard times.
This is the story of God, transfiguring God's blinding eternal radiance into the radiance of a mortal Palestinian man who walked through markets, listening for the cries of the helpless so that he might take them by the hand and lift them to their feet or rub mud on their eyes and have them see.
This tiny bit we just heard from Hebrew is the story of Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, upholding the grief of his sisters, before calling him from that tomb.
Of his work that accomplished our purification from all of our sins. Through his blood, by his life, and in his death.
It is reminding us of the story of God rising from the dead and changing the last Word of life to life—not death.
Of the story that takes our mortal body and raises us up to the place where God, eternal almighty, dwells.
And through his institution of this last supper that we will have here tonight, it brings us right up there to the right hand of Majesty with him.
All of that and so very much more is contained in the first sentence of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Very little is known about this book in the Bible. There is enough speculation to fill volumes of books. Some of the guesses are Paul (though we're pretty sure it wasn't him), Barnabas, Luke, Silas, Priscilla, Aquila, Philip,
Clement of Rome, this is a good guess because the one piece of information that gives any sense of identity or place is that there is a connection to the Christians in Italy. And this is actually important because it means that this is not just some treatise written into the Christian ether of good ideas to be shared.
No, it means that it was written with real people with real hopes, and dreams, and challenges, and problems in mind. These are embodied words.
The other good guess is Apollos because this Letter is by far the most rousing and eloquent of all of the New Testament writings, and we learn in Acts that Apollos was an educated man who spoke with passion. And this first chapter is praised for both its lift and its eloquence. I wish I could read it to you in Greek well because the alliteration, cadence, and internal rhymes are a treasure in the New Testament. And it continues throughout the whole of the sermon.
As a crafted piece of writing, it ranks among the greatest.
Even though the title says it's a letter, we find in chapter 13 that it is, in fact, a sermon when the preacher says, "I exhort you, brothers and sisters."
It's the same Greek Word used here as is used as the sermons that are preached in synagogues.
Now, there are tomes and tomes of collected sermons from every age in our Christian world, and this is the very first sermon that Jesus did not preach that we have written down.
If it is a sermon, it begs the question, to whom is the preacher preaching? In his commentary, Thomas Long says the preacher is not preaching in a vacuum; rather, to somewhere in Italy, probably Rome, he is addressing a real and urgent pastoral problem, one that seems astonishingly contemporary.
"The preacher's congregation is exhausted. They are tired of serving the world, tired of worship, tired of Christian education, tired of being peculiarly and whispered about in society, or in our case, tirade against, tired of the spiritual struggle, tired of trying to keep their life of prayer going, tired even of Jesus."
The preacher's people were tired.
They were a first-century congregation living their lives. We are a twenty-first-century congregation living our lives.
Though we have been separated for almost two thousand years, I can't imagine that the feeling of exhaustion has changed that much.
Today we're a tired people too.
Useless, ego and fear-driven wars, peoples oppressed, whole countries run by criminals where people are afraid to even go for a walk around their own block, the effects of long covid both in body and in spirit, prices of everything going up, health failing in surprising and unsurprising ways again in body and mind, and that is just the start.
If the preacher of Hebrews was preaching to a tired people - they may very well be preaching right to each one of us here together.
And what is the message that this Biblical preacher chooses to preach to the congregation or any person who has ever felt exhausted?
Not how to better streamline your life so you can have more time to rest. Or even that you ought to follow that ever important commandment of sabbath so you can catch up on your sleep.
No, this Biblical Preacher does not start preaching about something you should or should not be doing.
They start by telling a story - by telling the whole story of God the Creator, made man who knew the very worst of any suffering anyone could know, the story of God who died that might be washed clean of anything we have that we shouldn't have or failed to do. The story of God who was raised from the dead to take from death their grasp on the last Word of life.
The story of God taking our wounded and broken mortal bodies through his up to the right hand of Majesty sitting right beside the Creator of all things seen and unseen.
Remember, this was a word preached in the style of the sermons heard in the synagogues. And the Word preached in those synagogues was one of remembrance.
Remember "the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
Remember the story of the God who remembers you, loves you, sanctifies you, justifies you, who gave up his life on the cross for you, who came back to life for you.
The preacher of Hebrews has preached The Word for every tired people, for each tired person.
Are you tired? Remember. Are you weary? Remember. Do you feel guilty? Remember. Do you feel shame? Remember. Are you joyful? Remember. Are you glad? Remember.
To Remember is enough to take us from the place in which we are - into the very presence of God.
It is why we do it each and every week at this table - when we take the bread and the wine in remembrance of Jesus.
So, come to the table, all you who are weary and remember what God has done for you and for all at all times and in all places that we may find rest, joy, and gladness. In his Son our Savious Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen,