Very recently, I observed a gentleman pulling up to a tire pressure pump at a local garage. I watched him from a distance as I was filling my car up with gas, and realized that he was struggling. He walked around the machine two or three times, pressed all the buttons, yanked on the cord. He undid the caps on his tires, and he looked frustrated because there was no air coming out of the machine. I gave him a nod. He then asked me, “Can you tell me how to get air out of one of these things?”
I said, “Have you put in any money?”
He said, “You mean you have to put money to get fresh air these days?!”
I said, “Yes, you need a dollar to put in the machine before it will give you air.”
He looked disgusted. He didn’t have a dollar, but I did, and so I gave him a loonie that I keep in my car for when my tires are getting a bit low.
He started to pump the tires up but didn’t know how much to put in, for he had never done this before, but I noticed the car started to rise up and up and up and up! I finally went over to him and said, “Maybe it is time to stop.”
He said, “How do I know how much to put in?”
I said, “It says on your car here to put so many PSI in.”
He said, “I don’t have one of those meters to be able to tell (a tire gauge)”
“Ah,” I said, “I have a tire gauge”
I checked his tires. He had put in fifty pounds per square inch in each of the tires! It was meant to have thirty-two! The thing was about to explode! I gently suggested to him that we let some air out. He looked mortified. “Why was he mortified?” I thought. His rationale was this: If you put in a lot of air now, if I continue to lose air, it will be a long, long time before I have to put more air in again. For two months, he is driving around on bricks – and not very safely!
I said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I explained to him tire pressures, said that I would leave a little more in than usual just so that he wouldn’t have to go back soon, but it would be a good idea to have them at the right level. I don’t think he was overly convinced, but I left him with tires inflated and a sense that he had had a good day.
I thought about that man and what he was trying to do and it dawned on me that in many ways there is a great similarity between him and his car and us and our faith. This thought that somehow the more we put into our faith, the more we will get out of it; the more that we put in the more spiritual and accepted by God we will be. I like to call this the “If only...” syndrome. By that I mean that those who take the faith seriously, that deep down in our hearts we say, “If only we were more religious, God would like me more. If only I were more pious, fewer bad things would happen to me. If only I had more spiritual gifts, I would be of more value to my church. If only I had a greater sense of spirituality, I would have more peace in my life. If only......” Does this sound even remotely familiar? That deep down in our hearts we truly, honestly, ask ourselves if we were more religious, maybe these good things would happen. We make a correlation between our own activities and our eternal security.
We are not the only ones to suffer from the “If only...” syndrome. It was very prevalent at the time of the writing of the Book of Hebrews. It was probably written to a group of early Christians in Jerusalem, possibly in the early 60s AD. We don’t know who the author is, some have speculated that it was the Apostle Paul or maybe one of Paul’s followers, but we don’t know. What we do know is that it was a sermon preached to people who were living within a Jewish culture and tradition. All the language, all the imagery is Jewish. That is why sometimes for those of us who have not been brought up in that milieu to read the Book of Hebrews might seem a little complicated and disorienting. Yet, there is within this profound lessons for the Christian community and profound lessons for our own day and age.
This is because, while this might have been written to a congregation of new Christians within Jerusalem in the first century, they faced some of the same challenges and problems we face. Here was the big one: They were in a Hebrew culture, which believed that there was a need to atone for sins before Almighty God, and that atonement was rooted in the sacrificial tradition of The Old Testament, highlighted in the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would go into the Temple and take an offering on behalf of the sins of all the people in order to please God. God would grant forgiveness to those who had made sacrifices, and people thought, “If only I gave more sacrifices, if only I did more to atone for my sins, then I would get God’s pleasure, God’s forgiveness, and God’s grace.”
It had become distorted, particularly in first century Judaism, by mythology that suggests there was also a heavenly temple that reflected the earthly tabernacle. What was occurring was a theory, a very complex, very difficult form of sacrifice in the earthly temple in order to gain favour with the heavenly temple, coming mainly from philosophers like Philo, an Aristotelian, but also others who saw an ideal heavenly tabernacle, that we have access to by making atonement for our sins here in the earthly tabernacle. The danger being that it became a system of oppression for people. Jesus addresses this in so many of his own teachings. He talks about the poor and the unclean being unable to make their sacrifices at the Temple, and therefore not being able to have access to it. Jesus didn’t believe that, but he was concerned about the state of people. Also, priests were taking over this mediator role for people. They were making sacrifices for individuals, for individual sins, over and over again, and if only they had made enough sacrifices they could have won the favour of God, not only on earth, but in heaven as well.
The writer of Hebrews comes into this situation and he has very, very strong words for the Christian community. He says that this is not a matter of “If only...”, it is not a matter of earning God’s faith, it is not a matter of multiplying the sacrifices that you make; rather we come into the presence of God with confidence because we know that it is not us who makes atonement for our sins, but that it is through the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here was the cornerstone of the belief of Hebrews: Jesus was the mediator between God and ourselves, and that God had borne our sins on himself in order that we might receive his forgiveness. This is the heart of the Gospel, my friends! It is because Jesus Christ has done this for all, there is no sense now of trying to earn the favour of God. It is not like we can add up credits anymore, because we are credited as righteous through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lord. The writer of Hebrews describes him as the new High Priest, and that rather than year after year, over and over again having to go into the Temple of the Lord, God has come for all in the form of his Son to be the High Priest. There is peace between God and us. There is peace between our consciences and God. There is peace between ourselves as sinners and God and his reconciling atonement. It is The Gospel! Therefore, there is no longer “If only...” It is not as if you can build up your credits – it doesn’t matter how religious, how spiritual, how gifted, how powerful you are – you cannot earn it. It is the free gift of God in Jesus Christ, the High Priest. It is done!
There is another side to this coin, and that is not the “If only....”, but the “Why bother?” syndrome. Here was the challenge of the early Christians. Why bother doing anything? Why bother believing? Why bother worshipping? Why bother even recognizing God? If God through his own Son has already forgiven us, given us eternal peace, given us everything that we need, why bother doing anything? Can we just go on sinning? Can we just live our lives as if nothing has happened? No! The writer of Hebrews says, “No, on the contrary, you give up your sinning because of the example that we find in Jesus Christ.” What he deals with in this passage is something else. He says, “Now there is a time for us to draw near to God.” In other words, we can come closer to God because of what Christ has done for us. We can have assurance of peace because of what Christ has done for us. We can come in to his holy presence because of what Christ has done for us. Rather than causing us to step away from God, the Gospel brings us ever closer to God, but not only nearer to God – and this is central to the writer of Hebrews – but nearer to one another. It is no secret that the earliest Christians in Jerusalem were persecuted for their faith. They were terrorized for their beliefs, and the writer of Hebrews is concerned that the community continues to spur each other on, “to push each other on” is a good translation, to push one another towards love and good deeds. It is not that you stop caring for one another or you stop doing good deeds, or you stop loving because Christ has done it all, but rather because Christ has done it all, all the more reason in freedom and in love to reveal the very love, power and the grace of Jesus Christ himself. You need to encourage one another.
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that if the challenge in the first century church was becoming discouraged and not supporting one another, is it surprising that throughout the ages we Christians have been hard on one another? We are hard on one another because we judge each other on the basis of the “If only.....” We judge and we condemn one another by looking at the “If only more religious, if only more spiritual, if only more pious, if only...”, and we make judgements about each other. That is not encouragement! It is based on a false understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and what he is saying to that earliest Christian community is that you need to draw even closer together. He also says – and this is not a new phenomenon that we have today – you also need to meet together more regularly. You need to get together and worship. True, they were frightened of gathering together. They were frightened of being persecuted if they were identified with each other. Thank God, at the moment we don’t face that problem! Nevertheless, the imperative to worship together, to meet together, to encourage one another is so strong. You can’t live the life of a Christian in isolation. You can’t be a pious little pariah; you can’t sit on the sidelines. To be a follower of Christ is to come together in the Temple in the presence of Christ.
I have a story that I read a long time ago about a minister who went to visit a member of the congregation who hadn’t worshipped for a long, long time. He invited himself over to have tea and cakes with the individual. The individual is a little terrified about the pastor coming to visit, but nevertheless said, “Okay, if you really want to see me, I am not going to say ‘No’.” And so the pastor went over to the house of the individual. It was a cold afternoon, and they exchanged niceties and talked about the weather and sport and politics and a few other little things, but never got around to actually talking about worship. The minister was terrified to bring it up in case he would get a negative reaction. Basically we are chickens at heart, we really are! So, he didn’t say anything. But then, just before he left, he said, “Can I do something for a moment?”
The man said, “Sure.”
So the minister went over to the fire and got out the tongs and pulled out one piece of coal and put it on the hearth by itself. He watched as it flamed, for it was now surrounded by air, but then gradually it started to fade, and the light and the heat went out of it, and it died as an ember, but the fire continued. The minister didn’t say anything more. He started to get up and put on his coat and walk to the door.
The man said, “Reverend, I got your fiery sermon today. I get it!”
What he got was that an ember out of the fire cannot keep its light for very long, and that there is a need for it to burn with those around it. For the earliest Christian community, who faced persecution, how hard it was to remain faithful if you didn’t have a community of people around you who helped you in your walk with Christ.
The writer of Hebrews said something more. It wasn’t just to encourage; it wasn’t just a word to worship, it was about keeping the faith. As I read this passage, and reflected on it over the last few days, I thought about that song – and this shows my age! – by the group Journey: ‘Don’t stop believing’. As I listened to it over and over again, I thought, “You know, that is exactly what the writer of Hebrews is saying to the Church: that no matter what it is facing, don’t stop believing. Now, we are not ‘streetlight people’, which is what that song was about, but the writer is encouraging people to keep the faith, and he talks about a day coming, the return of Christ, when all that they hope for, all the dreams that they have, will be fulfilled by the nature of the sacrifice of Christ.
In 519 BC, there was a horrendous incident. It was during the time of Xerxes, the Persian leader, who was invading Greece. To get to Greece, he had to go through a very narrow pass. Many of you will have read this story in history. In this pass, according to the historian Herodotus, there were three hundred Spartans there to take on an army of an estimated million – certainly a great number. Not a hope! When Xerxes arrived there, he observed Leonidas, who was the head of these Spartans and his people, combing their hair and doing calisthenics! He said to one of the knowledgeable people of Greek culture who was with him, “What are they doing, these three hundred?”
He said, “They are getting ready to die.”
Those few, who were gathered in that pass, were ready to give their lives to try and save their people.
If you think of the ministry of Jesus and all that we believe in the Gospel, it was for the sake of trying and succeeding, of saving, of restoring, and of bringing to life. The writer of Hebrews called this “A new and a living way”. I cannot help but think, as we had the moment of silence at the beginning of the service for Paris, that in a world where some people are willing to give their lives to take lives, that the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is desperately needed to be affirmed and heard again. For the message of the Gospel is the message of a life laid down for the sake of the salvation and freedom of others. At the very heart of God Almighty is this sacrificial self-giving, redemptive love. It is not something that is apart from God; it is at the very heart of God. It is that which gave those Christians in Jerusalem hope in the first century. It is that very message that gives our community hope this day. May God in all his glory, through the sacrifice he has made for us, receive all honour and glory and praise! Amen.