Sermon Pent 20, yr A, 2024
Another Sunday when the readings are all over the map! There are a dozen sermons in these readings and twice as many topics! So, today I decided to focus on Hebrews, an odd name for the letter today, because it wasn’t written to Jewish people. The community it was written to was a into it’s second or so generation of Christianity. Far enough down the road that the initial excitement of Christ’s teachings had begun to fade and those who had met Christ or heard the apostle teach had begun to die out. These were Christian who had begun to wonder why those promises of Christ’s return, of peace, of God’s kingdom on earth had yet to happen.
These were Christians much like us, who had waited and began to wonder. Does God still speak? Where is Christ? When will he return as promised? If Christ has not returned, what is he doing now?
“When Christ had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…It was fitting that God, (for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory,) should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,”
Hebrews is telling us that Christ is acting as high priest now, making intercession and sacrificial offering on behalf of the Children of God, so that they, we, can be raised to glory. Hebrew’s is tells us that what Christ has done is to have gone first, as both priest and sacrifice so that through his sanctification we can all be made children of God. So that we can be made be as he is.
Hebrews 2: 14-16 “14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”
Christ, we are reminded is our true priest, not a priest like me…flawed and limited, but the greatest priest and pastor. One who offers their own flesh and blood to free those who live in fear of dying…live in fear of pain and sin and brokenness. A priest who has walked among his people, in their shoes, and knows their journeys intimately.
The Greatest High Priest in the ancient Jewish sense, the only one who can offer the sacrifice of atonement and transfer the sins of a nation onto himself, and then through death wipe them away; only to rise and live; forever destroying the need for atoning sacrifices because through Christ the consequence of sin has been paid. Hebrew’s tells us that what Christ is, what he has done before his eternal return is to become the one Priest and pastor who can be just and fair in judgement, having been where you have been and known what you have known.
The way Hebrew’s explains it though can be theologically complex and hard to understand. What it brought my mind for me however, was a novel I read decades ago and which is ready for a re-read, and which explains this theology in a way that is much more relatable.
The book is called Byzantium and it is a fictional and very colourful story of the life of St. Aiden of Lindisfarne. The gist of it is that Aiden, a priest in an Irish monastery sets off on pilgrimage to Byzantium to present a gift to the head of the church. Lots of bad things happen, he is captured by Vikings and enslaved multiple times, exposed to the brokenness of the world and when he eventually reached Byzantium, instead of the peace and blessing he expected he finds corruption at the center of the church.
All this causes him to lose his faith, and renounce his vows. However, at the very end of the book…A Viking named Gunner who he had been enslaved along side has converted to Christianity and has come to find Aiden and have him build a church. Aiden refuses and tells this new convert that God doesn’t deserve his faith, but Gunner doesn’t understand how Aiden could have disowned the faith that had sustained him and Gunner through the evils they had experienced. He explains, more clearly than Hebrews what Christ has done for us. Gunner says …
“Do you remember when the mine overseer was going to kill us? There we were, our bodies were broken, our skin blackened by the sun, how hot it was! remember?
Sure, answers Aiden it is not a thing a man easily forgets.
Well, I was thinking this very thing. I was thinking: I am going to die today, but Jesu also died, so he knows how it is with me. And I was thinking, would he know me when I came to him? Yes! Sitting in his hall, he will see me sail into the Bay, and he will run down to meet me on the shore; he will wade into the sea and pull my boat onto the sand and welcome me as his wayfaring brother. Why will he do this? Because he too has suffered, and he knows, Aiden, he knows. Beaming, Gunner concluded, is this not good news?”
Is this not good news?! Is this not comforting and lifegiving news? It is indeed especially to those who have or are suffering, to those whose life has been troubled and unfair. To those who live in fear of death. To know there is life and understanding and blessing for those who suffer and that God, GOD! has suffered as you do and walks with you in your suffering so that you have a promise of salvation. This is good news, indeed!
But perhaps those in Hebrews and perhaps some of us have had a relatively good life, a reasonably easy life not impaired by the fear of death at any moment. So, that when the tragedies of this broken world knock on our doors it is shocking and painful enough to knock us off our assumptions that if we believe then everything should be fine.
For Aiden, who believed himself to be a good and faithful man, a monk…a priest! Blessed and loved by God…all his suffering seemed unjust and wrong, proof that God either didn’t exist or didn’t care. The pains Aiden endured physically and spiritually had knocked him flat. However, God still does speak and in the story Aiden hears God speak to him in a dream, like those of old. Aiden was challenged…
“Do you really think that Christ would blunt the spear points, deflect the lash, cause chains to melt away when they touched her skin? Did you expect to walk in sunlight and not feel the heat, or to go without water and not grow thirsty? Did you think that all the hatred would turn to brotherly love the moment you strode into view? Did you think both storms and tempers would come because of the tone sure on your head? Did you believe that God would shield you forever from the hurt and pain of this sin riven world? That you would be spared the injustice and strife others were forced to endure? That disease would no longer afflict you, that you would live forever untouched by the tribulations of common humanity? Fool! All these things Christ suffered, and more. You have been blind Aiden. You have beheld the truth, stared long upon it, yet failed to perceive so much as the smallest glimpse of all that was shown to you.
Sure, this is the heart of the great mystery: that God became man, shouldering the weight of suffering so that on the final day none could say, “who are you to judge the world? What do you know of injustice? What do you know of torture, sickness, poverty? How dare you call yourself a righteous God! What do you know of death?”
Hebrew’s tells us…”it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
“he knows, Aiden, he knows!”
God still speaks to us, like in the bible of old, but especially now through his son, Jesus Christ, that great high priest and perfect pastor. The perfect pastor, Shepherd, who knows his flock so intimately and deeply because he has walked in our shoes. We are never lost, never alone, never suffering silently and abandoned because whatever pain this broken and sin filled world throws at us, Christ has been there.
Not only that, Christ has made reparation, began the healing and is at work even now to reconcile all things so that no pain, brokenness, illness, loneliness or death is forever. Christ guides us into himself, into peace and solace…into good harbour ready to welcome us with open arms, and fold us into his breast in deep understanding and love. Then walk with us, hand in hand to the promise fulfilled…when peace, love, salvation and healing are the order of the day.
We are never alone. We are always loved. And never forget…even in your darkest hour…
He knows!
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