A New System

Posted on May 18, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 9
11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Thoughts:
That one phrase “the good things that are now already here” reminded me of the “beginning” in Genesis when God repeatedly used that word “good” to describe his creation. Then he turned it over to mankind to manage and maintain.

The priestly system had seemed so reasonable and efficient but turned out to be not good enough. Our value to God is so much more than what “this creation” [us], can come up with to manage and maintain what God has created. There’s A New System that does not confuse ritual with redemption.

“But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here…” [us], he brought us relief from the confusion of whether our value to God is in ritual that makes us “outwardly clean” or redemption, through him, that can “cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death.” We no longer have to depend on the ability of creation to fix itself!

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Wednesday

Tagged , , ,

Open Concept Faith

Posted on May 15, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 9
1-2 Now in that first agreement between God and his people there were rules for worship and there was a sacred tent down here on earth. Inside this place of worship there were two rooms…this part was called the Holy Place. 3 Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was a room called the Holy of Holies…6 Well, when all was ready, the priests went in and out of the first room whenever they wanted to, doing their work. 7 But only the high priest went into the inner room, and then only once a year, all alone with blood that he sprinkled on the mercy seat as an offering to God to cover his own mistakes and sins and the mistakes and sins of all the people…9 This has an important lesson for us today…The people had to keep these rules to tide them over until Christ came with God’s new and better way.

Sunday Thoughts:
The design and function of this place of worship, this “sacred tent down here on earth” is more than a description of a place, it’s a picture of us. God certainly had us pegged didn’t he? This earthly-body place of worship has those same two rooms; an outer one and an inner one.

That first system was comfortable, most of the time. The outer room, a Holy place, was maintained to make sure it was possible to get to that inner room with it’s limited access. The inner room was the place where “mistakes and sins” could be dealt with by the right person at the right time and “all alone.”

Faith compartmentalized like that is comfortable for us. We do have a place we can manage the maintenance of that Holy outer room. We call it church. We have someone we call pastor or priest we can depend on doing their best work to make us acceptable to God. But there’s still that curtained-off room where Holy is actually changed into Holiness.

“This has an important lesson for us today.” There is no more need for separate rooms to “tide us over.” No more mere maintenance waiting for the right time to come. No more limited access. No more “all alone.” “Christ came with God’s new and better way,” Open Concept Faith.

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Sunday

Tagged , ,

The Revised Story

Posted on May 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 8:10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
11 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

The Revised Story
There was no confusion about Adam and Eve’s genealogy. God had created them himself and placed his own DNA within them. The tragic story of what they lost when they were expelled from that first Garden became human destiny. They had to leave minus God’s genetic link; his own DNA.
DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid. 1. a self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the carrier of genetic information.

Our genealogy was created there in the Garden and that never changed. We are still God’s creation…but with that big genetic loss. We no longer carry God’s unique and perfect DNA within us but Hebrews tells us The Revised Story.

Adam and Eve’s loss no longer has to be our destiny. We no longer need to be satisfied with just a cover-up. God has dealt with our genetic loss with his promise: “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Wednesday

Tagged , ,

A Big Shake-Up

Posted on May 8, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 7:11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? 12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. 13 He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.

Barclay on Hebrews 7: “…religion is access to God…That was the theory of the matter. But in practice life showed that was precisely what the priesthood and the sacrificial system could not do. There was no escaping the human estrangement from God which followed sin; and the problem was that not all the efforts of the priesthood and not all the sacrifices could restore that lost relationship.”

Thinking:
There’s a whole slew of words that might apply to this odd [and confusing] reference to Melchizadek who apparently had no genealogy at all. Call it an allegory, parable, analogy or metaphor. No matter which word you choose it speaks of a change that was A Big Shake-Up.

Jesus has completed the complexity and confusion of that old system to restore us to God. It’s called the reality of grace and forgiveness. We no longer need to be in the right place at the right time making the right sacrifice to cover the right rule…it’s finished.

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews

Tagged , ,

The Safety of a Useful Crop

Posted on May 4, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

These people are “enlightened,” thought, decision and discipline are key to their faith. They’ve “tasted the heavenly gift.” Their faith has also included feeling and experiencing the power and goodness of God. These people “have shared in the Holy Spirit” and yet they “have fallen away” and there’s no going back. Why hasn’t their faith kept them safe?

How in the world do rain and crops fit in? Maybe knowledge about God is like the rain. It falls often, and broadly, over the land preparing large portions of it to be able to grow. Our faith may be our personal plot of land drinking in the rain and prepared to grow…but there’s a big difference between a muddy field and a useful crop. Maybe our blessing is The Safety of a Useful Crop.

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Wednesday

Tagged , ,

Therefore Let Us…

Posted on May 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 6:1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.

Sunday Thoughts:
I would much rather be told what moving “beyond the elementary” looks like than to be reminded I haven’t. So after the warnings in Chapter 5, I’m grateful for the encouragement of this first part of Chapter 6 that begins “Therefore Let Us…”

Those three words include you and me – we are “us.” Us means I am not trying to figure this out all alone.  Jesus secured the foundation of our repentance for “us” with his forgiveness and his promises. God has revealed himself to “us” in his Word and in the sacramental events of faith. Worship is an opportunity for “us” to “…be taken forward to maturity…And God permitting, we will do so”…together.

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Sunday

Tagged , , ,

Small Doses

Posted on April 27, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews TLB
5:8 And even though Jesus was God’s Son, he had to learn from experience what it was like to obey when obeying meant suffering. 9 It was after he had proved himself perfect in this experience that Jesus became the Giver of eternal salvation to all those who obey him.

Dictionary Connection:
The Bible gives us a magnificently big picture of God in our world.  Here’s the good news for today; Jesus is God’s application for our daily experience.  When it comes to obedience we need both

ex·pe·ri·ence
1. Noun – practical contact with and observation of facts or events.
2. Verb – encounter or undergo (an event or occurrence).

1. It’s a big thought that Jesus had to learn what obedience was like from his practical  experience. He was fully divine and he proved it, but he was also fully human and that is what he has to share with us.  What if obedience is the remedy that cures us from the dis-EASE of being human?  I know it’s sometimes hard to swallow. That’s the “noun” part.

2. Life is the “verb” part of experience. It requires undergoing Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Wednesday

Tagged , , ,

Bottom Line of Confidence

Posted on April 24, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Dictionary Connections:
con·fi·dence –
1. the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.
2. a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities.

This dictionary turned out to be the key to my thoughts again this morning. Those two parts of the definition of confidence point out something we deal with in our daily lives; knowing the difference between confidence and self-assurance.

I know other versions of the Bible use the word “boldly” in place of “confidence” but I prefer this one. There are times when my grip on being able to live my faith as well as I speak it has been reduced by weaknesses to the Bottom Line of Confidence.

Those are the times when approaching the throne of Grace and getting to Jesus has very little to do with my boldness or self-assurance. The Bottom Line of Confidence looks more like a determined belly crawl through enemy lines, knowing I need to get to that throne no matter what. I may arrive there looking much worse for the wear but I’ll be there. There…where receiving mercy and finding grace become the reality of what I’m confident in, not how capable and self-assured I am on the approach.

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Sunday

Tagged , ,

The Mystery of Rest

Posted on April 20, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 4:9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Connections:
It’s interesting to me that sometimes just adding a dictionary definition to the study of the Word can enhance it’s meaning.

• re·mains – the parts left over after other parts have been removed, used, or destroyed.

What if God is reminding us that Sabbath-rest is an untapped resource that still remains after we’ve read, studied, prayed, taught and served in his name? Those are all good and essential things to do but I think Sabbath-rest is more complicated.

I know how difficult it is to get a handle on rest. Rest in my daily life often becomes the leftover time to do things I don’t have time to do when I’m busy working on something else.

I wonder if the Mystery of Rest is that God defines my work as that which keeps me too busy to dedicate my primary time to him? I do know this “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest…” It’s available. I don’t want to miss entering God’s rest by giving him only the leftovers after I’ve done everything else.

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews, Wednesday

Tagged ,

Another Chance

Posted on April 17, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hebrews 4:7 God again set a certain day, calling it. “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

It took me several readings of this passage before I caught that word “again” right there at the beginning. “God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.”  It’s Sunday. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just another day on the calendar that ends at midnight with a little church thrown in for good measure. This is the day the Lord has made…for you…again.

Thank God for that one little word, “again,” just in case you missed it the first time. Even if it was a long time ago, that one word “again” means this Sunday is Another Chance for you to hear what God has to say to you personally. This is the [certain] day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it…again.

Leave a comment

Posted in Hebrews

Tagged , ,