I wonder how many of
you reading this ever had fear instilled in you by your parents. I’m not talking about fear of being injured
by your parents although I know that some of you may have experienced that kind
of fear. Way too many of our world’s
children suffer at the hands of abusive parents. However, that is not the kind of fear I am
asking about now. I am speaking of a
healthy fear. That fear of knowing what
is going to happen if you disobey the rules they have set out for good family
living and for health and for safety.
You know that fear that you are not going to get to do that thing you
wanted to do on Friday night, or that fear that is instilled when you hear
those words “wait until your father gets home.”
You know when you hear those words that you are going to get something
worse than a spanking, you are going to get that “I’m very disappointed in you
speech” because the last thing you want to do is disappoint your father whom
you love so much. The same father that
instills this fear in you is the same father who cleans your scrapes, who rubs
your aching knees at night, who brings you sprite and coloring books when you
are sick. He is the same father who
comes to your recitals and coaches your ball team even after he has worked 80
hours in a week to make sure you have food on the table. The mother who warns you to always have clean
underwear on in case you get in an accident, who warns you of the natural
consequences that can happen when you make bad decisions such as getting
pregnant, or getting a disease or getting in a car accident when you aren’t
paying attention or getting assaulted when you choose to be in the wrong places
is the same mother whose arms you run to when you fall down, who holds you
during your first heartbreak, who you call once you are an adult anytime you
run into a situation you don’t understand or know how to handle. Parents play two roles. They love us, nurture us and care for us and
out of that love they also discipline us.
The author of Hebrews today reminds us that our Heavenly Parent is also
one who not only shows us love, grace and mercy but out of that love also
disciplines us. God’s love and care and discipline
leads to a Kingdom that cannot be shaken and we are called to respond with acts
of gratitude through worship and service.
Before getting into
the text let’s remember what we have learned so far from this sermon for the
Hebrews. We have learned that the
Hebrews of the first century were facing many obstacles and trials in their
life and that it was very tempting for them to give up on following Christ
sometimes to even preserve their life.
We have learned that the book of Hebrews is a sermon given to those
people who were suffering to encourage them not to give up. We have learned that Jesus paid the ultimate
price of suffering and became our high priest and our sacrifice. He is the pioneer and perfector of
Salvation. We have learned that we
should learn from the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us how to run
the race with perseverance and leave the world a little bit better than the
generation before. Today the author points us to two different attributes of
God and encourages us to enter into God’s presence with Praise and
gratitude.
In the first verses
of today’s focal text we are transported back to the book of Exodus and the
experience of Moses and the children of Israel as they approach God at Mount
Sinai. This encounter with God is one
marked with fear much like that fear we get when we hear those words “wait
until your father gets home.” There were
lots of restrictions regarding how close the people could get to the
mountain. There was fire and loud
thunder and a voice so commanding you closed your eyes and covered your
ears. The author then tells the
Christians of his day that is not the Mountain they are approaching. The children of Israel, the ancients of our
faith, our forefathers and Mothers are the ones that had waited at that
Mountain to receive their instructions for faithful living and all through the
centuries leading up to Christ’s birth they fumbled around the wilderness and
the Promised Land breaking that covenant and being forgiven only to break it
again. Finally God shook things up by
coming to earth in human form, in the life of Jesus. It is through Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection that a new covenant was born.
This covenant is more inclusive.
This covenant requires no high priest to mediate for us because in Jesus
we have direct access to God. This
covenant requires no blood sacrifice to be brought to the temple because the
blood of Jesus poured out was the ultimate sacrifice. This covenant allows the Christian of that
day to approach God directly at Mount Zion.
How is Mount Zion
different? Mount Zion is a place full of
angels who are engaged in festive celebration, Mount Zion is full of those
cloud of witnesses that have gone before us paving the way for us. Mount Zion is the place where we approach
God, judge of all. Mount Zion is the
place of all those who have gone before us and have been made perfect, fully
sanctified. Mount Zion is the place
where we approach Jesus, our mediator.
This description reminds me of a song that the Hope Trio in the church
of my youth used to sing. At the chorus
they sang “Heaven, I’ve had a little taste of heaven, I’ve had a little touch
of heaven, I’ve had a little glimpse of heaven want to go where the milk and
honey flow no more sorrow pain or woe. I’ve
had a little taste of Heaven and I want to go there.”[1] When I read this description of the city of
Zion I immediately think, yeah I want to approach God there. But, to approach God there we must realize
that we have to listen to God when he is on Mount Sinai too. We must listen to the warnings and obey the
commandments, the greatest of which are love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul and all your might and your neighbor as yourself.
The sermon to the
Hebrews continues by saying “see to it that you don’t resist the one who is
speaking. Just like when we don’t listen
to our parent’s warnings, when we don’t listen to God’s warnings, we might not
be able to escape ultimate disaster. But,
we have hope. We have hope because the
same God that shook the earth with his voice at Mount Sinai is the same God
that shook things up when Jesus came to earth and was crucified and resurrected
and is the same God that will continue to shake things up getting rid of
everything that can be shakable, leaving us with an unshakeable Kingdom. So friends, we must not let our faith be
shaken by the troubles and hardships of this world. We must run the race with perseverance toward
this unshakeable Kingdom we are promised and we must do so with Gratitude,
Praises and service to the one true God who is in control, who loves you so
much that he sent his son to earth to teach us how to live and to die a
sacrificial death as the pioneer and perfector of our salvation. So, “enter his courts with thanksgiving in
your hearts. Enter His courts with
Praise. Say this is the day that the
Lord has made. Sing I will rejoice for
He has made me glad.”[2] In the name of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Lyrics
found at http://www.newmusicgospel.com/legacy-five/a-little-taste-of-heaven/
accessed 8/22/2016
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