26th Sunday after Pentecost
November 18, 2018
Hebrews 10:19-25
(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn3JFVcWlY4
)
A billboard campaign came out in 1998 in Florida called
God Speaks.[1] It
was sponsored by an anonymous donor who had this idea to use billboards to get
people thinking about God. “Billboards would be put up with simple,
easy-to-read messages in white type against a black board, all with quotes
‘signed’ by God,” but no logo, company name or any other identifying feature.[2] You may have seen these even if you didn’t go
to Florida, because in 1999 the Outdoor Advertising Association of America
picked them up and started posting them nationally. Some of the original
messages said, “I love you… I love you… I love you. God” and “That ‘love thy
neighbor’ thing… I meant that. God.” One of the funnier ones said, “Keep using
my name in vain and I’ll make rush hour longer. God.” Anyone remember these?
There was another one that said, “Let’s meet at my house Sunday before the
game. God.”
 |
| Apparently these billboards did not make it to Maryland; no one in my congregation recalled ever seeing them. I know I saw them in North Carolina. Perhaps they weren't so nationally spread after all? |
Meaning, before Sunday afternoon football, come to the pre-party at
church. Some people use a big football game as an excuse to skip church. Others
make it a point to come to worship first, even if they leave early. They know
it is important to gather together at God’s house, and now you can come before
the game or after the game if you
come to our new evening service. The point is you come meet God with the community
of faith. Let’s meet at God’s house, period.
At children’s time, I asked the kids, why do we come to
church? The children’s answer is to learn more about Jesus and to be with other
people who want to learn more about Jesus. Yes, you can learn some about Jesus
at home on your own. But you can learn more when you hear what other people are
learning about Jesus, too. The best mission statement for worship that I’ve
ever heard isn’t one I come up with on my own, but one I heard from someone
else. She said, “The mission of worship is to build up the Body of Christ for
its work in the world through encounter with the Holy Living God.”[3]
Why do we gather? So that we can encounter the Living God, so that we together
as the church, as the body of Christ, can be built up, so that then we can go
“into the world to go and do likewise as disciples of Jesus Christ.”[4]
That’s the point of the “sweet hour of prayer.”[5]
It’s the time to intentionally meet with God. Verse two of that hymn says,
“With such I hasten to the place where God my Savior shows his face, and gladly
take my station there, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer.”[6]
Do you ever hasten to meet with God? Do you ever hurry to church, at a time
when you’re not running late? When’s the last time you were excited to come,
when you looked forward to coming, when you couldn’t wait to see what God was
going to do and how God was going to show up?[slower] Do you not think you
should look forward to encountering the Holy Living God? Or are you afraid of
what God’s going to ask of you? Do you want your life to be transformed, or
don’t you? Do you want our church to be transformed, or not? Yes, change is
scary. Yes, it means we’re not in charge of it; God is. Do you hasten to the
place where God your Savior shows his face? Or do you come out of a sense of
obligation, or habit, or because you have nothing better to do? I hope, and
pray, that when you come to worship, you come expecting an encounter with the
Holy Living God. I hope you come expecting God to touch you in some way. I hope
you come looking forward, anticipating, what God might do.
In Hebrews this morning we read, “Therefore, brothers and
sisters, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.
He opened for us a new and living way, through the curtain—that is, through his
own body. We have a great priest in charge of God’s house. So let us come near
to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith.”[7]
What the author of Hebrews is getting at here is the old temple, the temple
where Jesus worshiped, had a curtain blocking off the holiest part. Only the
high priests were allowed behind that curtain. But, when Jesus died, on the
hill in Calvary, over in Jerusalem, that curtain tore in two. Jesus is that
great priest in charge of God’s house. And there is no more diving line;
everyone can go into the most holy place. “Jesus has cleared the way by the
blood of his sacrifice.”[8]
We can walk right up to God, approach God ourselves. We don’t need a priest to
intercede for us. It’s nice, and helpful, and a good act of communal faith for
others to intercede and pray for us, but it’s not required like it used to be. We
can have an encounter with the Living God without anyone else making it happen
for us. That’s why we can approach the throne of grace boldly and confidently. That’s
why we can expect God to show up. That’s why we can anticipate an encounter with
the Living God, who will not leave us the same. So, “let us draw near to God
with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings… Let us hold
on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his
promise.”[9]
Lastly, “let us consider how to provoke one another to
love and good deeds.”[10]
‘Provoke’ is a word that is usually used with negative connotations. He
provoked me; he started it. I was provoked by a rude driver; that other driver
was rude and so I responded by being rude, too. But out of the three
definitions for ‘provoke,’ only the first one is “to anger, enrage, exasperate,
or vex.”[11] The
other two definitions are neutral, not necessarily positive or negative. To
provoke is also “to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or
activity),” such as “the mishap provoked a hearty laugh.”[12]
The third definition is “to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to
action.”[13]
These are the kinds of provoking we’re talking about here. There’s enough of
the provoking to anger and exasperation. Let’s add more provoking to love and
good deeds. That’s the appropriate provocation for the church. That’s how the
bazaar and the candy-making happen. Ann and Puzz and Gayle and others provoke
us to help out; they move us to action, to good action. This is the building up
of the Body of Christ. This is part of why we come together every week. We
encourage each other. We provoke each other to show love and to do good. We
gather for mutual support and reassurance and inspiration. We come to listen to
how God is moving in each other’s lives and to hear what each other is learning
about Jesus. It’s why we share joys and concerns every week. Sometimes, we just
need reminding who we are and whose we are. We need re-membering, as in to
become a member again. This passage from Hebrews ends by saying, don’t “give up
the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one
another.”[14] When
we get discouraged, when we are negatively provoked, that’s when we find other
things to do than to come to God’s house. So instead, let us encourage each
other and positively provoke each other to love and good deeds.
After
all, we aren’t here for discouragement. We can get that just by turning on the
news. No, we are here for an encounter with the Holy Living God, we are here to
be touched by God, we are here to be transformed, so that God can use our
transformed lives to transform the world.
This
past week was the Bishop’s Pre-Advent Day Apart for clergy. The speaker’s theme
was about taking the time to intentionally engage your soul in deliberate,
sustained dialogue, what he called “soul talk.”[15]
The very last point he made, at the end of the day, was that when you talk with
and listen to your soul, you are blessed by an abiding sense of God’s grace.
And he mentioned the great commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel. The last
verses of Matthew read, “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the
mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped
him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And
surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”[16]
This speaker pointed out the audience to whom Jesus was speaking. In the crowd,
some believed and some doubted. “When they saw Jesus, they worshiped him; but
some doubted. Then Jesus came to them,” came to all of them, both those who
believed and those who doubted. Jesus didn’t separate the crowd before making this
promise. Both believers and doubters get the same promise. God’s grace is for
everyone. God’s grace holds us even when we don’t, or can’t, hold back. It
holds you when you’re discouraged. It holds you when you’re provoked. It holds
you whether you’re in the habit of gathering at God’s house or not. Yet we
gather together as the church so that we can encounter the Living God, so that
we, the body of Christ, can be built up, encouraged, provoked to love and good
deeds, so that then we can be sent into the world, believers and doubters,
sharing the good news that God’s grace is for everyone. So, let’s meet at God’s
house on Sunday.
[2]
Ibid.
[3] Think Like a Filmmaker: Sensory Rich Worship
Design for Unforgettable Messages by
Rev. Dr. Marcia Mcfee, p. 4
[4]
Ibid.
[5]
UMH 496
[6]
Ibid.
[7]
Hebrews 10:19-22a, mix NIV and GNT
[8]
Hebrews 10:20, MSG
[9]
Hebrews 10:22-23, mix NIV and GNT
[10]
Hebrews 10:24, NRSV
[12]
Ibid.
[13]
Ibid.
[14]
Hebrews 10:25
[15]
Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones, BWC Bishop’s Pre-Advent Day Apart for Clergy,
November 13, 2018, from my notes
[16]
Matthew 28:16-20
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