“Drawing in the Sand”
Hebrews 10:19-25
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen
Hannah declares, “For the pillars of the earth are the
Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.”
These words are part of an ancient hymn of
This excerpt from the Song of Hannah celebrates that God has
answered her prayer: barren without hope of a child, ridiculed by her husbands second
wife she has now at last conceived and will bear a son.
So taken is she with God’s response to her prayer that she
dedicates her son to God – he shall be called Samuel and shall be a Nazarene
and live at the temple serving in God’s holy place his whole life long.
“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he
has set the world.” In the 12th century it was believed that the earth was a platform that
rested upon great pillars. We no longer
subscribe to the theory but we are nevertheless still
fascinated by the idea of what upholds the earth and connects us to
heaven.
Ken Follett used the words, “Pillars of the Earth” for the
title of his extraordinary novel about the construction of a medieval cathedral
in
Their lives are mysteriously intertwined
as they endure civil war, famine, and religious strife all the while the
magnificent spires rise into the sky. We
read along and learn about the pillars that uphold their respective lives.
God’s
The Letter to the Hebrews, composed in approximately 90, not
by Paul but an unknown disciple is all about God’s intervention in our life.
Professor Tom Long asserts that this is not a letter at all but a sermon. The
words we hear this morning provide ample evidence of that. He is kind of bossy.
This preacher believes in Divine Providence – God has saved
us – however he focuses on a fact we all too often let slip: God is
providential in all ways save one: our free will.
This good old fashioned sermon has three parts: first he
tell us that Christ died for us once and for all and for all time – we are
loved and redeemed and the price of that love was the cross. Solid
theology.
Second he tells us what God has done
he tells us what we ought to do: “Let us approach God with a true heart in full
assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.” We
just did that: celebrated the miracle that we confess our sins and are assured in
Jesus of pardon. This is our foundation for everything we sketch out and build
day in day out.
The third part is the problem: “Let us consider how to
provoke one another to love and good deeds.” What? Provoke each other? In my experience
“provoke” is a highly charged negative word – I usually hear it when someone is
being pretty darn unhappy with someone or something.
Why use that word? Provoke means literally to call forth:
from pro forth and vocare to call to someone. The
Oxford Dictionary defines provoke this way: to instigate, challenge, call to
action and, are you ready for this, change. Let me give you an example.
Every morning a little old lady
stepped onto her front porch, raised her arms to the sky and shouted: “Praise
the Lord.” The atheist next door was
irritated so each morning he waited for to finish and then
stepped onto his porch and yelled, “There is no Lord.”
Time passed, the tradition continued but one winter morning
she stepped out and said, “Praise the Lord! Please Lord, I have no food and I
am starving, provide for me, O Lord!”
The next morning she stepped onto her porch to find two bags
of groceries. “Praise the Lord she cried
out. The atheist neighbor jumped out of
the bushes and shouted “There is no Lord; I bought those groceries!”
The little old lady threw both arms
into the air and shouted even louder “Praise the Lord! He has provided me with
groceries and made the devil pay for them!”
She provoked her neighbor to prove there is no God but who
opened his wallet? And
we have an example right here in our congregation. The Stewardship Committee has provoked us to
step up and I heard a rumor they even got Presbyterians to move up in the pews
and that it was fun. And last Sunday one of our own
even said he liked asking us for money!
I have never seen a stewardship campaign so peppered with
humor yet so serious abut our destination: the cross on the rock.
Pledges and worship can never be compulsory: compliance is
for prisons not holy ground. After we have say yes to Jesus we have to choose detail by detail
what time, money and skill we will offer to Jesus.
And God always invites us to
choose.
Scholar William Barclay thinks there is a good chance the
letter to the Hebrews was composed by Barnabas – remember him from Acts – His
name means “the encourager.”
I agree with him here these words, “Not neglecting to meet
together, but encouraging one another.” Earlier we saw Jack, a seasoned member
and Jessie, newly confirmed in faith, encourage our youth to draw their faith
in the sand.
Stewardship Campaigns are a work of art too – an invitation
to imagine being the people God calls us to be: people
who understand that there is a direct connection between worship, service, money
and time.
Why is it so important to not neglect
to meet? Because otherwise we will likely drift away.
What connects us is not an idea but a relationship and the foundation for all
our relationships is Jesus.
The fish symbol is an acrostic: a word formed from the first
letters of five words and those five words are Jesus, Christ God’s, Son, Savior. In ancient times the Greek
letters were printed in the middle of the fish and the letters in Greek spell
fish!
So it is more complicated that it first appeared, no? It always is: but
the sign lives on thousands of years later because it is so simple: we need
each other – where two or more are gathered in my name – there I shall be says
Jesus.
We gathered at the Lord’s Table with the children earlier
and soon we shall gather at table for our Thanksgiving feast and then the
session will gather around still another table and light the Christ candle to
begin to discern God’s will for our church.
God does not need our gifts but we need to give for two
reasons: to make our faith tangible and to support the mission and ministries
of the church.
Now the question no one want to
ask: What if we fail today and have to revise the budget – what if we just
cannot give what we want to give? Hebrews gives us the answer: we encourage
each other in faith and provoke each other to do more with less cash and more
hands on deck.
God’s providence is not his control but his love. He has ordered all things except our will and
that my friends is why we must be grateful to this preacher named Barnabas who
provokes us even as he encourages us in
Christ to give even when, especially when,
it costs us time and money for that is how we know the true pillars of
our life. Let us pray:
O Holy God
May hear your invitation to new life as we
meet and encourage one another in faith and consider these words of your
faithful servant Barnabas who loved you enough to risk everything. Amen.