Sermon

Sermon # 1030
March 6, 2011
Hebrews 13:1-8
Dr. Ed Pettus

"No Fear"

Hebrews is a unique book in the New Testament. It is not like the gospels or Acts which tell the story of Christ and the early church, nor is it like the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament that characteristically deal with church issues. Hebrews is more like a sermon filled with exposition and exhortation. The exposition of Hebrews is that of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial life. Hebrews forms a persuasive argument for who Christ is and what Christ has done in order to build a foundational theology which in turn exhorts Christians on how we are to live and what we are to do. Hebrews 13 is the last chapter of the book and a final "to do list" of exhortations; the final exhortations that seem to be tossed in at the last minute to insure various aspects of the Christian life are included: love, hospitality, remembering people in bondage, marriage, contentment with possessions, Christ’s presence, confidence, leadership, and Christ’s constancy.
This morning’s reading concludes at verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." The entire sermon to the Hebrews has laid out the work of Jesus Christ as priest and sacrifice. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday, Jesus continues to work today as high priest. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday and today, Jesus will continue to work as high priest forever. Jesus is the constant One who has spoken the words: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Because of that – we are able to say, “I will not be afraid.” No fear. Imagine a life with no fear because we have such confidence in the abiding presence of Jesus Christ our Lord. No fear.
The injunction of verse 8 seems a bit out of place, but this is the subject of the sermon – Jesus Christ himself and his work and how it affects the Christian life. That means that whatever else is said in this sermon to the Hebrews, it is said because of Christ…because the work and word of Jesus Christ has come, all of life is different. We now relate to one another through love. Marriages are held in honor. We seek contentment with what we have and we can be free from the love of money, but all of these things are not because of something we can do, only because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us.
Sometimes people affect us in special ways in different areas of our lives. Teachers influence our intellectual development and our desire to learn. Sometimes that may carry over into how we work or how we relate to others. A friend might influence us by talking us into things we would not normally do, but the person of Jesus Christ does more than influence our actions. Jesus makes us different, creates us anew, reshapes, remolds who we are and therefore what we do and how we understand life.
Only Jesus can keep a promise of never leaving or forsaking us. Life does not afford us the ability to keep such promises because anything can happen to us. But Jesus, because he has overcome death, is able to stay with us through anything as Paul tells us: "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ" (Romans 8:39).
Because we are changed from within, our conduct is affected, our relationships are viewed in new ways, and our allegiances change. The power of God enables new things to happen to our lives and in our lives. We can ask ourselves, "Are we confident and faithful enough to be able to say, 'The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid?'" Are there times when fear runs our lives rather than the Spirit of God guiding us?
We can pray for God to help our unbelief, to help our lack of faith, to give us more and more confidence so that we CAN say:

"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"

Not only can we say that, but we can live with the confidence of that statement affecting what we think, and say, and do. We will not be afraid to love, to show hospitality, to honor marriage, and so forth.
Only in Christ are we able to let mutual love continue. God is love and without God we could not continue in love. Only in Christ are we able to show hospitality to strangers. In New Testament times, when Christians traveled they sought out Christians homes where they could rest. We are still called to show hospitality to others as our Christian conduct. Only in Christ could we remember prisoners. The Hebrews exhortation especially includes those who were imprisoned for their faith. We also shall remember those who suffer injustice and bondage of any kind because of faithfulness and for the sake of justice.
The most beautiful marriages are those rooted in Christ, held in honor, without abusive conduct. Only in Christ can we begin to keep free from the love of money and be content with what we have. You can begin to see what Christ means in our lives. The conduct we practice in every area of life is shaped and molded by Christ and his work on the cross and in the resurrection.
The action of Christ permeates the Christian life. Nothing is left untouched by God. There is no area of life where faith is separated. There are no parts of life where God is absent or where God is to be omitted. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever in that he is constantly with us, Emmanuel. Jesus is constant in faithfulness, loyalty, and love.
Therefore our lives of love and honor and faith are shaped and reshaped as we grow and learn more about Christ and his consistency. Our lives become lives of praise to God through right living as described in Hebrews. Our lives become lives of worship through the Christian conduct shaped in Christ. Our lives become sacrifices of praise and glory to the one who makes us his own.
Central to the reading this morning is the promise and confession: "I will never leave you”, resulting in our faithful response: "The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid." Words have power to shape us. When I was about 12 years old, a coach told me that I would never make it as a quarterback – I didn't have the ability. His words hurt me but also gave me the determination to try my best to prove him wrong. (No, he wasn’t using reverse psychology!)
When someone who loves you tells you you look nice, or complements your efforts, or says anything that makes you feel better about yourself, you tend to gain confidence and feel good about yourself. The words that are spoken to us and by us help to give shape to who we are and how we respond to life. Sticks and stones will break our bones…and words can hurt as well, or they can build us up, building our confidence and trust.
That is why it is so important for us to study the scriptures and to worship. It is here that we say the words of promise and confession. It is here that our lives are reshaped in the image God intended so that we can let mutual love continue or be content with what we have. Without these words of promise we would have little hope for the future. Without these words of confession, we would be at the mercy of the words of the world.
Life comes from the promises of God and from these confessions of faith that we make and that we live by. I do not believe that the author of Hebrews accidentally placed promise and confession in the middle of exhortation. I believe it was intended to show us something about its power for life. Out of the word the world was created and out of the word Jesus brought healing and life and the word is still filled with power for life and healing.
A concern is that our confidence falls short and our fears overcome us. I struggled this past week with what text to preach for today. Hebrews 13 was not a part of the lectionary but I brought it to the Bible study group searching for a message. Part of my struggle has been my concern over the direction of the Presbyterian Church USA in recent years over things like divestment from Israel to this past Tuesday as our Presbytery voted on proposed changes to our constitution. I recognize in myself that fear is one concern, my fear of what will happen, my fears of what it will mean for me personally, but also for our church and for the larger church in general. Change is always difficult for us. We fear the unknown, we fear the unfamiliar, we fear opening our lives and our thoughts to others. I found in this passage from Hebrews a word of encouragement, confidence, and comfort. The Lord may be our helper through this passage in Hebrews. The Lord shows us that we have no need to fear.
As the Bible study group was studying this passage on Wednesday we spoke of the first line, let mutual love continue and how very important we grow in love for God and for one another. But we also noted how fear often prevents us from loving one another and even loving God as we could. The same could be said for showing hospitality, how we fear people, especially in this day and age – so our hospitality suffers due to fear. Or take the issue of money as another example, our culture is obsessed with the love of money. We pine for games like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I read part of an article about the Texas lottery and the author joked that the slogan could be: “the family that plays together can claim together”, no doubt mimicking “the family that prays together stays together”. Fear drives us to love money, to hold back our love, and to fail to show hospitality among other things.
I began to look for texts of fear and the Bible has much to say, but one thing the Bible constantly says is “do not fear”.
In Mark 5 Jairus, a synagogue leader, came to Jesus to plead for his daughter who was deathly ill. “While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’” In this instance the counter to fear is belief, trust in Jesus.
When Gabriel appeared before Mary, the angel said: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). Fear is set aside with the good news that God has shown her grace.
When Israel was in distress, the Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name” (43:1).
We are very familiar with the words of Psalm 23 – “even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me.”
The antidote for fear is God’s presence, God’s word of encouragement, trust in the Lord, redemption. The word in Hebrews is the promise of constant companionship which gives us confidence to declare that the Lord is our help, we will not be afraid.
Fear is not easy to overcome. It takes prayer, experience, confidence, trust. I have fears over the future of the PCUSA, fears about getting my girls through college, fear that holds love back, fear that I do not know God deeply enough and yet fear to get to God more deeply. I fear publically telling you that I have fears! Such fears will only dissipate through confidence in Christ. I pray that we can gain more and more confidence in Christ our helper who promises to never leave us or forsake us, for in that trust I will not be afraid. In that confidence, we will not be afraid. Amen.