River Road Church Baptist

November 16, 2003

Dr. Cecil E. Sherman

“The Way We Are Supposed To Be”

Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25

…to catch your mind and be helpful. Church is not meant to be painful, it just sometimes is. But that’s not the intent; in fact, that’s a carelessness and it’s my job to package this in a way that makes some sense and holds your mind. There are free floating ideas in our culture that connect with Hebrews. Go into any bookstore and the material on religion and spirituality is abundant. Its abundance is reviled only by its variation. There are all kinds of stuff there. Since that’s what I do, I’m a preacher; I browse that part of bookstores from time to time. I’m amazed at the variety, and since they display that stuff at places like Barnes and Noble and Borders and what have you, I assume somebody’s buying it. They don’t keep it there just for looks. That means people are reading stuff on the occult, magic, pantheism, all kinds of Eastern religion, Judaism, Islam, all of these are put forward as ways to God. That’s the sense of that literature. We have for you a way to God. Now, they don’t put that on the jacket; that’s what it’s all about. Churches…if church keeps the promise to you, we point you a way to God. That’s what this service is. We don’t make it every Sunday, we don’t accomplish what we set out to do, but if you stay around here long enough, there’ll be some people here who will bear witness that out of this experience from time to time, they have intimations of divinity—they connect with God.

Now the writer of Hebrews lines out a way to God; Jesus has replaced all priests. He is our high priest, he once was on earth, and he actually is a priest in heaven. He can take us into the presence of God; that’s the argument. Jesus is the sacrifice. All previous sacrifices, repeated again and again, all of these are but shadows of the real. He is our once and for all sacrifice. So the invitation in Hebrews is come to Jesus to get to God. That’s the big idea. But midway through the tenth chapter, it’s almost as if a line is drawn across the page and he stops talking about sacrifice and priests and he’s been long into that for several chapters. He draws a line, “Because you have come to God through Jesus, therefore…” That’s where the sermon goes because it talks about the way we’re supposed to be. Since you have come to the God you know in Christ, therefore, the sermon, the way we’re supposed to be. Now, there may be a few of you here who have real misgivings about whether or not Jesus is the way you come into the presence of God, but most of you don’t, that’s why you’re here. If you had other ideas, there are other avenues for you. Probably your presence suggests either an unthought pattern or a considered judgment that makes you in some measure concur with the author of Hebrews. “Since you come to God through Christ,” what do you do? The first thing he says, “Let us approach God,” that’s the text, “Let us approach,” and he describes a pattern, a door is opened. God’s there, go through it.

You see the world of time and space crowds out the world of spirit and eternity. We live in two worlds. It’s not a case of one over the other or even one against the other, though that is sometimes the case. It is a case of both and…so regularly, we are to approach God. Now, this idea actually is not all that novel; in some ways it’s getting in touch with things you’ve known from childhood. Some of you were reared in homes where Bible reading and prayer was a part of each day. Let us approach God; you say, well, we don’t do that anymore. Well, that’s not the only way to get the job done, but if dropping that pattern means that God is but an occasional thought, you’re at variance with the text because we’re the people who approach God.

I’ve been interested in watching some patterns. I’m in and around Westminster Canterbury each day. At 4:30 each day, every day some of the residents gather in a small chapel to approach God. They do it every day. Season has nothing to do with anything; it’s at 4:30. That’s when they approach God. Most people don’t. But the text says we ought to do things like this more often. I recall the way my mother and father would gather us about 8:30 each evening and read from the Bible, have prayers, kiss mother and daddy, and go to bed. You want to understand me, that’s a little window into figuring out why that guy is the way he is. Now you say, well that messed you up. Yeah, it messed me up good though. I’ll take that to some of the other ways people mess kids up. Turn on the TV and go do your own thing. If you don’t think that has something to do with the way people turn out the way they do, you came to town on a load of pumpkins. You’re not thinking. Now, we are the people who are to approach God regularly.

A long time ago a monk talked about practicing the presence of God. He’s into this text. Brother Lawrence is talking about what we’re supposed to do with some regularity. You say, well, if I do that I’ll turn into a religion nut. There’s no possibility. That’s off the screen. I’m just trying to nudge you towards the text. Think about your other citizenship and reach toward God with regularity; it anchors, it steadies, it gives balance, direction, all of that comes out of regularly approaching God.

The second idea in the text – we’re supposed to confess our hope. “Let us confess our hope.” Now this means going public with our faith. It’s hard to confess faith in the modern setting. In the first place, cynics make fun. I don’t like to be made fun of any more than you do. Second, faith nudged makes me pull back from it. You know the type. I remember when in Asheville I used to go to meetings of the Democratic Party and when I listened to some of those people it made me want to be a Republican and then I went to the Republican meetings and I wanted to go back. Have you ever been around people who are so goofy? You know, is there any way I can straighten these folks, can we get a little balance here, can they stand up straight? Now, it’s hard to confess faith, given some of the people who are confessing. But I’m not sure that lets you off the hook. The things that really matter are things that need to be spoken in some kind of public way.

This church has tried hard to give some balance, some space; we still call you to confess faith. You want to join the church? We ask you to come down here. You don’t have to open your mouth, but you’re confessing something. Everybody in this church has been baptized one way or the other. A baptism is a confession. It’s something that’s done out, in front of, and it is beyond just a confession, it is a confession to hope and maybe that’s why it’s there. You see, if you’re not real careful, life can kind of spiral down. At church, we confess to hope. Robert Lewis Stephenson said, “If in the morning I woke up in hell, I would still believe in decency.” Nicholas Pordive wrote of Western Civilization, “We’re entering into the realm of the unknown and the unlived and we’re entering it joylessly and without much hope.” Not here. Every Sunday we confess, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.” And we all stand and sing together until finally even our teenagers know the words, which is a minor miracle. They confess with us. We say, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” And we are confessing; we’re saying something, that’s where blessings come from. It’s not just our ingenuity and energy. We are a blessed people under God. We are stewards to God. It’s a confession. We say together every week a prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven.” That means though my parents are gone, I’m not an orphan. That means ultimately life’s going to make some sense and sometimes I have to work hard to hold onto that idea. But the people who come to God in Christ hold onto hope and confess it.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to make you stand without blemish in his glory,” even in our benediction we are confessing. Even when we come to a funeral, we confess our hope. Literally Paul said we’re saved by hope. We need to hang onto it. But you’re not only to just hang onto it—you hang onto it, and confess it.

Finally, the way we’re supposed to be—we’re supposed to worship, we’re supposed to confess, and finally it says, the most interesting language, “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” What are Christians supposed to be? They look for ways to be kind, helpful, loving, to each other and to others. Sometimes it’s a bother and sometimes it’s a burden. I recall the deacon at Asheville when I asked him to give to missions at Christmas said, in those days it was Lottie Moon, “When are we going to get that girl through Mars Hill? Does this go on forever and ever and ever and ever?” Well, as a matter of fact it does. It goes on indefinitely. Provoke one another to love. I like the language; provoke. It gives the preacher a little license. If I irritate you trying to get you to be loving, I’m in the text. I like the liberty. We need to work toward kindness. Now, you say, well, we do pretty good on that. As a matter of fact you do.

I have not checked with my source here and I may lose a friend on this one. Friday night I was a guest with others with George and Kitty Davis for dinner. They were taking in strays and I was included and I am grateful. One of the other strays in the room at present said, “I wish I could speak to the congregation again to thank them for their care of me in sadness.” Well, it was a tender word and it was an honest expression of how a people provoked to love reached out and tried to stand with a family in hard times. That’s what we’re supposed to do. And when we do it, we’re acting a little bit like Jesus; anticipating the time when in all of our ways, we will act like Jesus. Friends, that’s where we’re supposed to go. We’re supposed to worship, confess, and provoke to love, right out of the text, because that’s the way we know what God’s like in Christ.

Now, we’re going to have an invitation here and this is an occasion when some of you can use this moment to confess who you are and to identify with this house. Given the text, it’s a good day. I hope you’ll take us up. Let us stand.

CES; lmk, mt