(Sermon by Vicar Kelly Huet 09/09/07)

INTRODUCTION:

What do you do with a lesson like this?  I mean, it looks like the author to the Hebrews finishes his letter with a laundry list of items that he covers quickly, yet at the same time we know he is expressing God’s will.  Let’s examine these points of God’s will and see where that leads us.

“Keep on loving each other,” almost gives the impression that the Hebrews were getting along, but perhaps were not caring for each other as much as they could have been, or even worse, starting to grow factions.  We do not quite know, but the author says, “Continue to love your brothers and sisters.”

Next is an encouragement to entertain strangers.  I cannot help but thinking back to Abraham who once entertained two angels along with the Lord one hot afternoon.

The next two are tandem encouragements, “Remember those in prison,” and “those who are mistreated.”  Remembering those in prison seems easy enough to understand, but who are “those who are mistreated”?  Mistreated is a reference to those who have been persecuted, those who are sick, the outcast, the orphan, and the widows.  The encouragement is strong – remember to do it “as if you yourselves were suffering.”

And (wow!) an entire sermon, or series of sermons could be preached on the next item on the list.  The words are clear, “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”  These words are so simple.  The message is clear, yet it is one that is often overlooked, forgotten or just ignored.

On the heels of honoring marriage the Holy Spirit (almost with the same breath) warns against greed!  Greed is wanting more, or thinking my life isn’t complete until I have ___________.   The Holy Spirit offers the reminder and encouragement that what we have is more than sufficient for us.

The next item on the list seems most appropriate for us at anniversary time – remembering our past leaders.   Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you… and imitate their faith.  Faithful leaders who’ve lived and died in the Christian faith, who preached the gospel to us – we are to remember them.

This is truly a laundry list.  Things don’t seem to connect.  The words are important but they don’t seem to connect.  We finally come to the last encouragement on the list.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  Jesus, the same yesterday, today and forever.

Christ Never Changes!

This isn’t the same as the rest of the items on the list.  The rest are encouragements, exhortations, but this statement, this one line appears to be the over arching theme of the whole section!  Let me explain.

Christ doesn’t change.  He is the holy Son of God, who came to earth to forgive us for what we haven’t done and for what we have done!  As we read through the list the first time did you get a sinking feeling in your stomach at any point?  A reminder of things you haven’t done?  Or have that you shouldn’t?  Let’s now go back through those verses and see how "Christ Never Changes" works as a theme for this section.

“Keep up the brotherly love.”  Have you kept up the brotherly love?  Have you loved your fellow Christians as brothers?  Or have you loved them as brothers to the point that you only tolerate them because they are your Christian brothers?  Keep up the brotherly love.  We haven’t done this.  We have failed from the start, failed to love our brothers!  But Jesus perfectly showed the brotherly love that we haven’t.  Christ kept up the brotherly love.

“Be hospitable…visit those in prison… and remember those who are mistreated”. We all , “have had the selfish thoughts of, “Right now isn’t convenient for me,” or “I’m too busy to help someone else.”  We haven’t been hospitable, haven’t visited those in prison.  Often we scoff and are repulsed or scared to go to the places where help is needed.  How we have failed at even this simple command.  We failed, but Jesus didn’t.  Christ fed the hungry, healed the sick, and remembered those in prison.

“Marriage is to be honored by all.”  Honored by all!  How wretched we are!  We are told that he who looks lustfully at a woman commits adultery.  The words are clear.  There is no loop hole, no wiggle room!  The words are condemning – all are to honor marriage and we haven’t, but Jesus did.  Jesus perfectly honored marriage, for us.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.”  Be content!  It is hard to look this one in the face.  There are so many toys out there, so many temptations: the bigger TV, the new Jet Ski, or personalized clubs, or memberships to this or that organization.  It doesn’t matter what it is, we want it!  Greed, not one of us can honestly say he has never been guilty of being greedy!  We are guilty of being greedy, but Jesus wasn’t.  He was content and free from the love of money.

This laundry list of Hebrews 13 condemns me for all that I have done that I shouldn’t, and all that I should have done but haven’t.  God has a bill for each of my offences and the cost owed is death!

Jesus took our imperfect life, our life full of immoral thoughts, greedy intentions, unloving actions, our inhospitable nature and bore them in his body on the cross.  He removed them once for all.  This was his love for us - that he removed all of our guilt forever.  What is more – God doesn’t see my faults anymore.  He looks at me and he sees me as if I had kept the whole law perfectly!  Jesus lived and perfectly followed his Father’s will and credits his perfect life to us.  What a blessing it is to have the assurance that Christ never changes.  The same Christ who forgave Abraham for his lack of trust forgives my lack of trust.  The same Christ who forgave David for murder and adultery forgives me for my unloving attitude and lustful thoughts.  Christ never changes. The same Jesus who forgave them forgives us – He never changes!  He is not one who forgives one minute and the next recants.  No, Christ never changes and this reassures us of our forgiveness .

Permit me to take you back to confirmation class for a second.  In our lesson we saw how we haven’t kept God’s law by doing these things.  This is a vivid example of the first use of God’s Law.  As a mirror, God’s law shows us our sin.  We were shown our sin as we looked at how each of us could be convicted on any one or all of the points in this short list.  That was the first use of the Law, the Law that Show our Sins.  But we have also been Shown our unchanging Savior.

We have the assurance that Christ has forgiven us, and that we are his children, created to serve him.  Now we also view this list as a guide to sanctified living.  Wow, big words, sanctified living.  Sanctified living is living our life by faith as a life of service and thanks to the Lord.  It isn’t as though we all of a sudden become a robot and do all good things all the time, because we have been reprogrammed to run right.  No, we as sinful beings daily ask for forgiveness and then trust God to carry us through the day to live a life pleasing to him and worthy of being called his child.  We do this not by our own accord but by him working through us.  And we have the assurance that Christ never changes.  He will empower us to live such a life.  This is who he is.  He has been doing it for a long time, for others, and for us.  It is his unchanging nature!

So how do we apply this to our daily lives?  We get up every morning and thank God for the new day and trust that he will empower us to live our life for him in everything.  What a difference it makes to know that today, Jesus will get it done!

Jesus empowers us to keep loving our brothers and sisters, showing them love and unity both at home and at church.

Jesus enables us to remember those in prison, traveling, and mistreated.  We offer up prayers for them and financially and physically support ministries that serve them on our behalf.

Jesus empowers us to keep honoring marriage, whether we are single or married 50 years.  Christ enables us to keep ourselves pure.

Jesus enables us with his power to trust in him and be content with what he has given us.  Not always seeking more, but seeking how best to use that which he has blessed us with at this time.

And finally, Jesus also helps us to remember our leaders.  Remember and thank God for the message they shared with us and continue to share with us!  He reminds us to pray for them, support them, and imitate their faith.

Christ is the power for all of this, for everything we do in our lives.  Without him all we can do is fail.  But he lived perfectly in our place and promises that he will empower us to live for him.  Christ never changes, he “is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  He is forgiveness for yesterday’s failures, strength for living his will today, and our Redeemer, Savior and Friend forever!

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