Christ the New Way to Hope, Faith and Love

November 14, 2021 Year B Hebrews 10:11-25 Opening Song Welcome Opening Prayer Holy One, there is no God like you. In praise and thanksgiving, we come before you ready to learn of your power, ready to follow your path for our lives. Through days of jubilation as well as dejection, help us realize your influence in the world. We ask simply for ears to hear, eyes to see, and minds to comprehend the blessings you bestow. Amen. Call to Worship Leader: This nation, under God, depends on each generation accepting the call to serve both God and country. People: Everywhere we look we are reminded of the commitment our veterans made in presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice. Leader: So today we honor them as we shout a resounding…. People: THANK YOU! Leader: THANK YOU! That we are free to come and to worship the One who presented His body as the ultimate living sacrifice for ALL. People: Come, let us worship! Stewardship Moment Do you shake your head, sometimes, when you read of the confusion and seeming slow-wittedness of Jesus’ disciples? It almost makes me laugh when Peter, James, John and Andrew (the first-to-be-called) want Jesus to give them private info about when the Temple would be destroyed. Were they hoping to avoid the place when destruction began? Or wondering if they could be the first to tweet the news, grabbing the rights to a “breaking news” story? Jesus doesn’t oblige. Rather, he suggests they beware! Don’t be led astray. We don’t get private info given to us, just because we’re followers of the Jesus Way (like the State Farm commercials of all the folks who believe they’ve been given special rates). Rather, our task is to stay aligned with Jesus — no matter what “birthpangs” we may observe around us. Despite the wars and rumors of war, despite the earthquakes and famines, our task is clear. Day by day we act out our faith. Week by week, we register our intention to follow Jesus with the gifts we bring. We deliberately give away some of what is “ours”, offering financial support along with our time and talents, to proclaim our desire to move the dial one more tick toward God’s Realm. What will you offer, today, as a sign you choose to follow Jesus? Offering Prayer (1 Samuel 1, Psalm 113, Hebrews 10, Mark 13) Today, O Lord, we offer you our sacrifice of time, energy, and love, knowing full well they are mere tokens of the awesome faith you inspire within us. Accept these gifts, that they may continue the good work in Christ — in our church, in our community, and in the world. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Scripture Hebrews 10:11-25 Common English Bible 11 Every priest stands every day serving and offering the same sacrifices over and over, sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right side of God. 13 Since then, he’s waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for his feet, 14 because he perfected the people who are being made holy with one offering for all time. 15 The Holy Spirit affirms this when saying, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them. After these days, says the Lord, I will place my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds. 17 And I won’t remember their sins and their lawless behavior anymore.[a] 18 When there is forgiveness for these things, there is no longer an offering for sin. Second summary of the message 19 Brothers and sisters, we have confidence that we can enter the holy of holies by means of Jesus’ blood, 20 through a new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, which is his body, 21 and we have a great high priest over God’s house. 22 Therefore, let’s draw near with a genuine heart with the certainty that our faith gives us, since our hearts are sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies are washed with pure water. 23 Let’s hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, because the one who made the promises is reliable. 24 And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds. 25 Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near. Sermon Christ the New Way to Hope, Faith and Love I had the strangest dream this morning. I was walking down the street this morning. I was with two of my clergy colleagues and we were walking down the street. And one of them got arrested for something and we were all put in jail. We were put in this plain white room with no furniture. The one who had been arrested started to debate whether he was a good man or a bad man. He didn’t know whether he had committed the crime or not. Some how I got the key to let all of us out. I was about to open the door, but before I opened the door I needed to know if he was going to attack me if he discovered he was a bad person. He got really upset and came after me, and I told him, you are not a good person, or a bad person – you are just a human being – we are a little bit of both, and not really either. And just as the other colleague had to hold him back from coming at me – my alarm went off and I woke up realizing that it was just a dream. I am not sure of what brought that dream on – was it the heartburn from eating Mcdonald’s just before going to bed, or the guilt from staying at the game too late and being too tired the write my sermon – I am not sure. But as I got going I realized that that was the point of my sermon – everything that I was going to preach about was right there in that story. If I right the outline of my sermon before I go to bed, my mind had a way of putting it all together. It is all there, but I guess I have to break it down for you for it to make any sense. You see this is the third and I hope final sermon on the book of Hebrews. There is one more chapter, but luckily we are coming to the new year. I love the book of Hebrews, but I didn’t think I could say anything else about Jesus being the high priest of heaven and offering us the highest level of salvation and access to God. But chapter 10 has a really good message – a message about perfection. When we are ordained, all United Methodist pastors are asked a set of questions which is in the book of discipline. One of the most important questions is are you going on to perfection. And of course the right answer to that question is yes. That is not a question of good and bad, right or wrong. It doesn’t mean that United Methodist Pastors are supposed to be perfect people. Actually the founder, John Wesley asked that question of all Christians. Are you going on to perfection? Hebrews 10 says that we are all made perfect through Jesus Christ. The reality is that we never get there in this lifetime. We are only made perfect when we get to heaven. Perfection is not about anything that we do, it is about what Christ does for us. Whereas most priest or preachers stand when they are preaching or praying – Christ sits at the right hand of God. Whereas most priest and preachers have to preach and pray every Sunday, christ only had to do one act of sacrifice and it made all of the difference in the world for anyone who believes in him. That is why Christ is the high priest. On this veteran’s day we thank our veteran’s for the sacrifice that they made for our freedom. But we also thank Christ today – because it was his sacrifice on the cross that opened the door for all of us to go on to perfection. If it wasn’t for that sacrifice – we would all be weighed down by our sins. I heard a saying this week that says that perfect people are not real and real people are not perfect. We all have a story to tell. And yet when Christ died on the cross – he asked for our forgiveness. And that is all that it took. We don’t get into heaven because we are perfect, we get into heaven because we are forgiven. There is an old story about a girl who was in a coma for a very long time. When she woke up, she told her parents that she had spent time with Jesus. So the preacher asked her if Jesus had a message for anyone in the village. She said that Jesus knew everyone present. He knew all about everyone and he knew everything that everyone had ever done. So they asked what he had said about them – he said he knew, but that he had forgotten everything. That is the definition of forgiveness – as humans we like to hang onto everything. We forgive, but we don’t forget. And yet in Christ forgiveness – our slate is wiped clean. According to Hebrews 10 – when God forgives us – we don’t have to continue to be sorry. Because in Christ, not only are our sins forgiven, but they are forgotten. We don’t have to hold onto to them in our spirit. When we come face to face with Christ in heaven, we stand in perfection. Not our perfection, but in Christ’s perfection. Perfection is our faith in the power of Christ, not in our actions. I think that first time that I went downtown Chicago, I would have been a child about 9 or 10. The one thing that sticks out about that trip was a man standing on the corner, preaching to people walking past telling them to give their lives to christ before it is too late. If you continue to live in your sins then you are going to hell. When I started going downtown by myself, he had moved across the street, but he was still giving the same message. I think the last time that I was downtown he was still there. I haven’t been downtown in a while, but I remember that he would stand in front of walgreens – preaching the good news of Christ forgiveness for a sinful world. I don’t think that he preaches anymore, but for over 45 years he was there telling people that they were going to go hell if they don’t give their lives to Christ. See that is the difference between a priest and a high priest. Rev. Samuel Chambers had to give the same message everyday over and over again for 45 years. Christ preached for three years, but when the people killed him for his message – that one act made a difference for eternity. Recently, I heard one of the best benedictions in the world – that summed up all of the sermons in the world. I don’t even think the lady was a Christian But as she ended her lesson – she told us to remember one thing – God created us to be free. Go out and live in that freedom. We are created to be free. Free in spirit. Unfortunately, as we go through life day to day – we forget that. We get caught up in relationships, we get caught up in situations, we get caught up in conditions, and life can get so heavy. Sometimes we even get to the point that we think that our problems are all that there is to life. We listen to preachers telling us everyday that Jesus is the answer – and we tune them out and think of their message as irrelevant. Hebrews 10 message for all of us is simple – have faith, hold fast to hope and care for one another in love. When John Wesley asks us if we are going on to perfection – perfection is a way of life, not a destination. We are made perfect when we choose to live in love. Amen. Veteran’s Prayer and Acknowledgement You, O God, are our God. You are with us in all the times of life to offer hope and light and comfort. We come to you now with thanks: thanks for our freedom; thanks for our peace; thanks for our prosperity and security. On this Veteran’s Day, we thank you, especially, for the women and men who gave of themselves in times of war to help to ensure the blessings that we enjoy. The names, the faces, the stories come to us, once again, and we honor them, their courage, their sacrifice, their willingness to put themselves in harm’s way for a better cause. May we never forget. We pray that wars and rumors of wars would cease, but if there is a need, let those of us of younger generations go forth as faithfully as did our ancestors that the cause of peace and justice may be defended and upheld. That freedom found in our county and the freedom found in and through Christ is always worth fighting for. With our Freedoms today we pray for the sick of our congregation and community. On this day, we lift up in prayer …. (here each should take the time to call out those you are praying for) Be with them and all of us offering healing and hope and strength to see beyond our problems to the glory of your Kingdom. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. who taught us to pray… Lord’s Prayer Great is Thy Faithfulness Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Go in peace, remembering a mother’s faith in God — a faith that provided her with comfort and strength in her time of need. May you pray unfailingly, grow steadily, and love constantly. Amen. Community Time Benediction Benediction (1 Samuel 1 & 2) May we leave this house of worship reconciled, redeemed and renewed by our time spent in the presence of God. May we leave this house of worship full of the hope our Savior provides. May the grace, hope, peace and love of the God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer be with us now and always. Amen. Additional Illlustrations Obviously most of us are not now dwelling in a building called a prison, but there is more than one kind of prison. You may know of no one who is presently under legal arrest, but there is more than one kind of arrest. And when Jesus says in the gospel that the Spirit of the Lord has sent him "to proclaim release to the captives," I don’t think he was talking only about those who were in the Jerusalem jail. I think his words are meant for me and you too. His very life was intended to discharge people from the prisons of their own making - the prison of sin, the prison of illusion, the prison of despair. "A Lady Named Olive" is a modern parable written by Pat Ryan, and it is really the story of a jailbreak. A lady named Olive owned two shopping bags full of words. One bag was plain brown, very old, and filled with the kind of words that could reach out and connect her with other people. Words like share and care, grow and touch and listen and love and yes. Olive’s other shopping bag was white with a big shoe printed on the sides of it. This bag carried words to keep people away. Words like no and ignore and don't and mine and who cares. Olive carried both shopping bags everywhere with her. But she only used the connecting words on very special occasions like Christmas or somebody's birthday. The separating words, on the other hand, were used every single day. Olive used them well. She flung them about like darts whenever someone got too close. After a while people moved away without a word. One day as she was walking to the discount store, Olive’s plain brown shopping bag broke and spilled out all its words. Suddenly Olive was connected to everyone around. and it wasn't even Christmas.4 Olive had been arrested. Now Olive was free. And how about you? Are you under arrest? I happened to be leaving the small frame office building which also served as the police station, when I saw a lot of people running toward the office. Leading them was a man running from a woman holding a knife in her right hand as she chased him. A crowd was running alongside them. She chased the man around the building before the police came out and caught hold of her. They took her knife away and pushed her to the ground, where they started kicking her with their boots. She didn't try to defend herself. She just lay there and took it. I was at the road then, getting into my Suzuki jeep. When I saw the policemen start to kick her, I got out of the jeep. I flinched each time they landed a kick on her defenseless body. But I didn't do anything more. I was afraid. They were armed. I was an outsider. Whatever, I drove home feeling sick. Years later, as I reflect on that moment, I imagine the concentric circles of guilt for the evil I witnessed, with pain at the center. At the center, the woman and her husband. I have no idea what the man had done to his wife to make her so angry with him. I don't know who started it all, or when. I'm sure there was enough blame for everyone. The first circle, the police who broke their rules to kick her, and seemed to enjoy it. And the police who stood by. The next circle, the neighbors-become-spectators, some of them snickering. The expanding circles of sin and guilt included me, too, for not helping. And then the tribe and its culture, for allowing this type of thing. And other nations, for the tragic byproducts of colonial rule. The dark circles of guilt get thinner as they get farther out, maybe ... but in a way they come all the way to include you. Where were you? What were you doing to help her? Of course, the woman being brutalized by the police in Kenya was not the only thing in the world that went wrong that day, thirty years ago. Or since. The world is awash in sin and guilt. If you don't see it, it's because you are not looking. You cannot opt out. A youngster in Sunday School asked the pastor, "If Jesus died on Friday, why do we call it good?" It seems contrary to reason to call this day Good Friday, when congregations around the world remember Jesus' death with black and an empty chancel. Images like these recount the day: forsaken, scorn, thorns, despised, grief, sorrow, wounded, tears, darkness, and death. How can we use a word like good in the same breath? What good can come from Jesus' death on the cross on a day long ago on a hill called "the place of the skull"? We can pray with Soren Kierkegaard, that melancholy Dane who prayed his way through cross-marked Fridays: "Lord, hold not our sins up against us, but hold us up against our sins; so that the thought of you, when it wakens in us and every time it wakens, may remind us not of how much we have sinned, but of how much you have forgiven us; not how we went astray, but how you saved us" (paraphrase). Good Friday! It is a good day to die; it is a good day to live. Amen. CSS Publishing Company, THE VICTORY OF FAITH, by Mark J. Molldre