Jeremiah 1:4-10August 21, 2016
Hebrews 12:18-29Pastor Lori Broschat
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE ULTIMATE
Seven-year-old Katie was thrilled when her parents took her to Disney World for the first time, and she headed straight for Space Mountain. Mom worried that the roller coaster would be too scary for her, but Katie insisted. To her delight, they rode it twice. The next year, the family returned to the Magic Kingdom, and Katie, now 8, again dragged them to Space Mountain. As they stood in line, Katie was soberly studying the signs that warn about the ride's speed. Finally, she said, “Dad, I don't think I want to go.” Dad asked her why she would be nervous when she had enjoyed herself last time. Katie said, “This year, I can read.”[1]
They say knowledge is power. If so, then you should be very glad you have the ability to gain knowledge in regard to God’s plans for the end of the world. I may have jumped into that topic a bit too quickly, without time for you to adjust after thinking about your fear of roller coasters. Or is it just me? Okay, moving on.
We have nearly come to the conclusion of the book of Hebrews. Just a few housekeeping items in the final chapter, but before we reach that end we need to keep informed about the end I mentioned a moment ago, the end of the world. Were you ready yet? Well, just bear with me. This passage in chapter 12 is not the encouraging, uplifting story of a race witnessed by many, but it only starts out in a negative way. Okay, fine, it ends with a bit of a scare too, but we’ll see why that’s good once we get there.
The point of this passage is preparation for what is to come, and we get there through the means of comparing and contrasting the former things of God to the future things of God. We begin with the author’s use of the image of two mountains. Though only one of them is named, we know from the historical reference the name of the other. One is Mount Sinai, the other is Mount Zion.
Sinai you may remember from such scenes as the handing down of the law of Moses, otherwise known as the Ten Commandments, and the fashioning of a golden calf by an impatient bunch of Israelites while waiting for Moses to come down with the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, the sight of the golden calf angered Moses, causing him to smash the first set of commandments and resulting in his needing to go back up the mountain for God to write them again. Not unlike me when I fail to save my documents as I go along.
Sinai appears in the Old Testament as a focus of purpose. God used the place as a reminder of where He had spoken, where He had appeared to Moses and where the people were afraid. That last part is revisited in the book of Hebrews as part of the comparison of Sinai to Zion. We cannot overlook the fear the people had on Sinai because it was purposeful. It was meant to rouse them out of their complacency and disobedience.
So what memories did they have of Sinai, carried down through the generations as story? Let’s hear it again from the author of Hebrews: You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
Cheery, huh? Burning with fire, darkness, gloom and storm with words so terrifying people begged not to hear another word. Even their leader was trembling. That doesn’t bode well, does it? How would you approach a situation like that? This is what the Israelites delivered from slavery in Egypt encountered as God handed down His law for their lives. It reminds me of the mournful song from the old Hee Haw episodes, “Gloom, despair and agony on me!”
So I’m really dating myself with that reference, but then time does matter in how we understand the world. The memory of Sinai obviously lived on in the Jewish converts to Christianity represented by the recipients of this letter to the Hebrews. We remember things from our past, but it is especially important to remembering things about the pasts of those who came before us, particularly religious matters.
So Sinai was a scary place, a place no one dared even bump up against for fear of destruction. Yet it was the place where God’s most profound set of rules was given for their own welfare. No wonder our kids sing about God being an awesome God. As the song says, there’s thunder in His footsteps and lightning in His fists. And apparently something about His face, because those who saw it would die.
Would we rather have a tame God or a God who knows how to get the best out of us? That’s our legacy, that’s why we have been studying Hebrews to better understand that the history of the Jews and the Christians is our future. There is a day coming in our future in which all those who believed in God will be reunited and relocated to a new earth and a new heaven.
Enter Mount Zion, a name some have come to fixate on as a particular physical location where all things must take place for the return of Christ to occur. I’m not much of a Zionist in my theology, in fact, I tend to believe that most things in Scripture with regard to future events are symbolic and that God does not have to be limited by things like three different religions all fighting over the same piece of property in the Middle East.
That being said, we look at Mount Zion in this passage as the foundation for where Christ will return and God will bring heaven and earth into new relationship with each other as our home forever. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written inheaven.
Here again, we must not take the mention of Jerusalem to mean that this is physically the city of Jerusalem. It is symbolic of the Christian church, and though it is called a city, it represents a body of believers with no physical domain on earth. The book of Hebrews simply shows us how the Bible has moved from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament, which means covenant, to the New Testament, from the old self to the new self.
Everything is about to change, and if you haven’t grasped that yet, go back and read Genesis again! Or at least Exodus, which is where this covenant began. The old was tangible, therefore transient. The new is invisible, spiritual, the land of the real. The old inspired dread. We come to the new with confidence. The old covenant could not assure us of sins forgiven. The new is equal to our deepest need.[2]
Let’s continue in our identification of what Zion holds: You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. There was an understanding in Jewish belief that the righteous were those who upheld a particular way of living.
They had conquered all brutal appetites and gross passions. They had stood in the time of temptation. They had given alms with a sincere heart. They worshiped the true God only. They were not hateful, and from them God had taken the evil desire and given them the good principle.[3] Though they obeyed the law to the utmost of their ability, these righteous people still needed the sacrifice of Christ to make them perfect.
We are the same. Nothing we do on our own will ever satisfy the righteousness of God, and so, like them, we wait. We do not wait idly, however, sitting on our hands or looking up to the sky. We have work to do. More on this in a while, but now there is one important piece of information we cannot overlook.
God will shake the heavens and the earth so that what is temporary and transient will fall away and what will remain is permanent and real. We might wonder why anything has to be shaken at all? Couldn’t we just come to a calm and peaceful end? As they say, through great adversity comes great strength.
God wants to reveal His completed kingdom by removing from around us those things that hinder our progress. As with many passages of Scripture, we can’t let this imagery hold us back from having faith. God would not take the time to record the names of the saved and the righteous and have us greeted by a multitude of celebrating angels if we were not going to make the cut.
I will draw your attention, however, to one important verse, perhaps the most important of this chapter if not this book as we approach the end of our reading in Hebrews. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
Remember how the book of Hebrews began, by telling us that in the past God spoke through prophets but in the last days He speaks to us through His son. Jesus’ blood is its own testimony to the importance of listening to Him. We have been given every opportunity to listen, to study, to hear Him, but sometimes we use selective hearing like we do with those around us.
The voices of the world compete with the voice of God, and if we let them, the world’s voices will shout louder and the impact of their message will be stronger. The risk of our falling away is greater now than it was when God spoke on earth. Now He speaks from heaven, still calling us to follow Him. The act has been accomplished and the covenant is complete. Now we are waiting for the final curtain.
Might I suggest that we take a page from the ancient teaching of Hebrew theology? Remember the way the righteous lived and then look at verse 28: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. Actually, the word thankful does not do this verse justice. It actually encourages us to hold on to the grace of God and worship Him accordingly.
Where does reverence and awe take us if not to the throne of God? What will we find there but a chance to be continually made perfect? That’s what the Hebrews believed and through a combination of life choices and sacrifices offered they continually sought to be made perfect. Our life choices still matter but the sacrifices are more personal. They come from us.
Do our lives reflect righteous choices? Do we stand in times of temptation? Do we worship only the true and living God? Can we offer gifts with sincerity, without hatred in our hearts and with purity of mind and body? It’s a lot to ask, but God is right in doing so. Maybe hearing the word of God without rejection means we live our faith out in community, in worshiping God by attending to His children.
Go home and read Matthew 25 if you need assurance of this. What if the word of God is only truly heard when it results in care for others? In reducing suffering and increasing joy around the world? I said this passage ended with a frightening image, none other than God as a consuming fire. This is no idle threat at the end of the page meant to make us shake in our boots.
This is the image of God’s presence and purifying nature throughout the history of His people. If God wants to consume the filth and the impurity of the world, He can do so easily. If we want to be spared from this cleansing act, our task is before us. Great things happen on both Sinai and Zion, but there can only be one winner in this comparison. Put your trust in Zion, not as a location, but as a completion of God’s long and patient work begun in us from the beginning. He who has promised is faithful.
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[2]The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume XI, pg. 746-747
[3]Clarke, Adam, Clarke’s Commentary, Volume VI, pg. 746