The Letter of James
Two “James” are well-known in the history of the early church, James the brother of John and a son of Zebedee, martyred in 44 CE by Herod Agrippa, and James, the brother of Jesus, leader in the Jerusalem church from about 36 CE until his martyrdom in 62 CE. Given the early death of James the brother of John, it seems that he is an unlikely candidate to be the James referred to in 1:1. Most likely, then, the book before us was put forward in the name of James the brother of Jesus. It is unlikely that this James is the actual author of the book. This letter is written in elegant Greek and uses sophisticated Greek grammar and rhetoric. There are only two direct references to Jesus in the entire letter, which would be odd if James the brother of Jesus were the author. Furthermore, the letter does not address the issues central to early Jewish Christianity (circumcision, Sabbath, food laws, the place of Gentiles in the church). Finally, the letter itself was embraced rather late in the process of forming the New Testament – it appears in no lists of books until 200 CE. Again, this seems unlikely for a letter written by James the brother of Jesus. In all likelihood, then, we have another example of a pseudonymous letter in the early church, that is, a letter written in the name of another person.
Given uncertainty about the author and the general nature of much of the letter, a time and place of writing are difficult to determine. It seems that the letter may have been written to Jewish Christians, but it may also be a general letter to Christians everywhere. It seems directed to groups of people rather than to a specific community of faith. It addresses a number of issues that might arise in a community of faith.
James is not addressed to a specific church; instead, it appears to be a general letter written to numerous churches…. It adopts a style of instructional speech characteristic of Greco-Roman ethical teaching…. The most striking features of this style involve questions from a fictive (imaginary) opponent, words attributed to particular characters as well as rapid-fire questions and answers. These questions need not represent actual problems within the community. Another feature of the… style involves dense use of metaphor. Many comparisons are derived from nature. Others involve human activities. Figures from the past serve as examples. (New Interpreters Study Bible)
James has suffered among Christian readers, especially Protestant, since Luther’s unfortunate reference to is as “a right strawy epistle.” More recent students of James have found the tension between Paul and James overdrawn and unfair to both, failing to credit Paul with attention to works and James with attention to faith. (People’s New Testament Commentary)
If Luther found this letter in many ways spiritually deficient, its spiritual power is attested to by an introduction to the book written by an unlikely commentator upon the Bible, the Dalai Lama (Revelations). His words give us some indication of the potential spiritual encouragement and challenge in this work.
I am struck by the similarities between this beautiful letter in the Bible and some of the texts in my own Buddhist tradition, especially those that belong to the genre known as “lojong,” literally meaning “training the mind.” As with “lojong” texts, I believe this epistle can be read on different levels. On the practical level, however, it encapsulates many of the key principles that are crucial for learning how to be a better human being. More precisely, it teaches us how to bring our spiritual vision to life at the highest possible level…. The real test of spiritual practice lies in the practitioner’s behavior. There is sometimes a tendency to think of the spiritual life as primarily introspective, divorced from the concerns of everyday life and society…. Faith that does not translate into actions is no faith at all. When we read this text from the Bible today, two thousand years after it was written, it reminds us that not only are many of our fundamental spiritual values universal, they are also perennial. (Revelations, 359, 361, 364)
I will refer back to some of the Dalai Lama’s comments about the book as we are reading through it. If you have an interest in finding out more about Buddhist lojong teachings, two works by the well-known Buddhist teacher, Pema Chodron might be consulted – Start Where You Are and Always Maintain a Joyful Mind. The title of the latter book is taken from one of the lojong slogans – “always maintain only a joyful mind.” Like such teachings, the Letter of James wants us to live faith more deeply and offers instruction for doing so.
James 1
James 1:1: This greeting is the only familiar feature of a letter, and as we have noted, is probably a literary device. One note about this device – James is Greek for “Jacob” and so the letter is from “Jacob” to the “twelve tribes in the Dispersion” – a strong reference to Jewish Scripture and tradition.
James 1:2-26: “Taken as the rhetorical introduction to what follows, this section presents Christianity as a way to perfection” (People’s New Testament Commentary). A number of themes are introduced here that will be found in other parts of the letter.
One way to completeness, maturity, or “perfection” is to face difficulties with joy. The “trials” may be external circumstances that create difficulty (persecution for faith, difficult socioeconomic circumstances) or may be internal conditions which need to be contended with. The advice to face difficulties with joy should be given carefully. When someone is suffering, it is best to listen and suffer with them. These words are best given when one’s suffering is not acute. We can cultivate an attitude of mind that sees in difficulties opportunities for growth and learning. All experience can teach us something, though our first response when we see others suffering should be to alleviate the conditions of suffering. Peterson’s translation of verse 2: “consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides” (The Message) strikes me as a little too sanguine.
Perhaps such an attitude is a quality of wisdom, and wisdom is seen here as a gift of God, a gift of a generous God. If one lacks is wisdom, one is advised to pray for it, pray for it in faith, trusting deeply that God will grant wisdom. The kind of doubt that James is concerned with here is not intellectual doubt, but a lack of trust that even in difficulty and doubt one may grow in wisdom. Honest doubt, that struggles with faith questions, is still a sign of faith. If one lacked faith, one would not bother to continue to ask questions about one’s faith tradition.
Lack of commitment and a wavering mind are among the greatest obstacles to a successful spiritual life. However, this need not be a blind faith, but rather a commitment based on personal appreciation of the value and efficacy of the spiritual path. Such faith arises through a process of reflection and deep understanding. Buddhist texts describe three levels of faith, namely: faith as admiration, faith as reasoned conviction, and faith as emulation of high spiritual ideals. I believe that these three kinds of faith are applicable here as well. (Dalai Lama, Revelations, 360)
Wisdom, in addition to being able to seek joy in the midst of struggle and difficulty, sees that riches are transitory. Being rich is like a flower that that withers away. People of faith who are poor should take heart. People of faith who are rich should take note.
As mentioned before, trials may be inner, and here the writer calls blessed those who endure temptation. In verses 2-8, endurance produces maturity, completeness. In these verses, endurance leads to life at its best and the opposite of endurance is giving in to one’s desires which leads to a kind of death. The writer argues that God is not the source of temptation, but that it comes from within. Desire should not be wholly condemned on the basis of these verses. Human desire comes in all shapes and sizes, and healthy persons are aware of their desires. Awareness is different from acquiescing to desire. Some desire should be acted upon, though how one acts upon it matters. Some desire needs to be rejected. Wisdom knows the difference.
God is giver of wisdom and life, and in fact, of every good and perfect gift. God’s love and good intentions are unchangeable – that need not mean God is in every respect unchangeable. God’s purposes continue to move forward, and the writer asserts that the recipients of the letter are a part of the fulfillment of God’s purposes. This is a wonderful poetic passage intended to evoke faith/trust in those reading it. Trust God in the midst of struggle and difficulty. Trust God for wisdom. Trust God for life.
One “desire” that a person may experience is anger, or the desire to express anger. Anger must always be handled with great care. The writer argues that anger does not produce God’s righteousness. That is perhaps too sweeping a warning, but an effective warning. I recall an essay written by the feminist theologian Beverly Harrison entitled, “The Power of Anger in the Work of Love” in which she argues that anger can have a place in the work of love. I think it may, but it needs to be handled with great care. “More listening and deliberate speech help keep anger in check” (People’s New Testament Commentary) Verse 19 reflects the Apocrypha book Sirach (5:11): “Be quick to hear, but deliberate in answering.” The Message: “Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.”
The epistle reminds us of the power of the destructive tendencies that exist naturally in all of us…. These two verses [19-20] encapsulate principles that are of utmost importance to a spiritual practitioner, and for that matter, any individual who aspires to express his or her basic human goodness. This emphasis on hearing as opposed to speaking teaches us the need for open-heartedness. For without it we have no room to receive the blessings and positive transformation that we might otherwise experience in our interaction with our fellow human beings. Open and receptive, swift to listen to others, we should be slow to speak, because speech is a powerful instrument that can be highly constructive or profoundly destructive. We are all aware how seemingly harmless speech can actually inflict deep hurt upon others…. The instruction that we should be “slow to anger” reminds us that it is vital to ensure some degree of restraint over powerful negative emotions like anger, for actions motivated by such states of mind are almost invariably destructive. This is something we must both appreciate and strive to implement in our everyday lives. Only then can we hope to reap the fruit of living a spiritual life. (Dalai Lama, Revelations, 360-361)
That the Dalai Lama can be so insightful about this book says something about its values and about the type of literature it is. Its closest relatives in the Bible may be the wisdom books of the Hebrew Scriptures (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) and of the Apocrypha (Sirach, The Wisdom of Solomon). Wisdom literature is often accessible across religious traditions in ways that other types of Biblical literature are not. James may be an early Christian wisdom book.
Not only should anger be handled with care, but we should reject all “sordidness and wickedness.” Instead we should be open to the “implanted word” the word and Spirit of God that has power to make a saving difference in our lives.
Openness to this word and Spirit of God is not a passive activity. Openness to the word and Spirit leads to life lived differently. In Greek, “hearing” and “obeying” are from the same root (People’s New Testament Commentary). What kind of activity is evidence that one has been open to word and Spirit? - - - Watching one’s tongue, caring for widows and orphans, and keeping oneself “unstained by the world.” The Message: Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God… is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. The word “religion” is rarely used in the New Testament, but seems to fit this work as a wisdom work.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Hebrews 12
Hebrews 12:1-17: Having spoken of faith of the history of faith from which the Jewish Christians to which he is writing draw their strength and inspiration, the author again encourages perseverance and endurance. “The race easily lent itself as a metaphor for moral and ethical struggle, involving as it did rigorous training, self-discipline, intense effort, and laying aside anything that encumbered the contestant” (People’s New Testament Commentary). This metaphor as explained in the commentary seems an encouragement to a life of spiritual discipline, spiritual practice. We trust that God’s grace, love and forgiveness are given to us as we are, and require nothing from us. At the same time, if we are to grow in grace and love, if we are really to know the Christian life at its deepest and best, this requires effort. It asks of us self-discipline and effort. It asks that we leave behind those things that hinder us in running the race – sin is defined as such a hindrance. There is a cloud of witnesses cheering us on, and Jesus himself is a prime example of running the race to the finish, against difficult odds. Jesus endured, and so should those reading this letter (then and now). Jesus endured “so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.”
The writer notes that others have endured to the point of shedding blood, beyond what the readers have endured to date. The readers are invited to consider their sufferings and difficulties as a form of discipline, a form of guidance in love. Does this mean that people should interpret all suffering as some kind of lesson given from God? I don’t think that is a very adequate theology. Rather than say, “God never gives us more than we can endure” – which some may argue from verses 5-6 and following, and which implies that God is responsible for causing all human suffering; I prefer to say, “Nothing ever happens that we cannot with help from God and others, endure, and even learn and grow from.” This latter statement also fits this Scripture, I think, without making God directly responsible for suffering. When we can ask about learning from all our experience, even our difficult ones, then we open ourselves to growth in the Spirit. It is about growth and training, not punishment. The writer seems to suggest that the alternative to seeing difficulty and suffering as an opportunity for growth and learning is to see it as something completely outside of God’s redeeming possibility. Our goal is to nurture “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” – when things are easy and when things are difficult. “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees – be healed.” “Pursue peace with everyone.” This is a communal project as well as an individual one – “see to it… that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.” Don’t give up long term benefit for short-term gain, like Esau.
Hebrews 12:18-29: The writer now moves to another comparison of Christian faith as an outgrowth of Judaism with the Judaism that has been left behind. Again, this is not a final word about Judaism from a Christian perspective, but part of a letter encouraging Jewish Christians to keep the faith in Jesus. In contrast to Mount Sinai, those to whom the author is writing are said to have come to Mount Zion – “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” While a fuller realization of all that God promises remains in the future, much of it can be experienced even now, according to these words.
Positive words of encouragement are followed by rather harsh words of warning. You have all this, don’t turn away, don’t refuse “the one who is speaking.” This is quickly followed by a more positive word – “since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with awe and reverence” – and a more challenging word – “for our God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 13
Hebrews 13:1-19: From challenging words and more difficult images to more practical advice on life in Christian community. In the New Testament, theology seems always wed to advice on how to live the faith.
“Let mutual love continue” – another great short verse in the New Testament. “Show hospitality to strangers.” “Remember those who are in prison – those who are being tortured.” How do we hear such words in our day and time, when our prison population has skyrocketed and we debate torture as a means of fighting terrorism. Such words don’t give us simple answers to these complex questions, but they invite deep reflection. They won’t let us ignore the difficult issues of our day. The marriage covenant should be honored and the marriage bed “undefiled.” Seeking to live the faith does not mean an asexual existence as some have insisted, viewing healthy sexuality as somehow inappropriate for the pure. It does mean a self-discipline and self-control. “The Christian community continued Judaism’s high regard for marriage and its strong prohibition against adultery” (People’s New Testament Commentary). “Keep your lives free from love of money.” How we relate to our possessions remains an important spiritual issue, and a measure of contentment with what we have is part of a healthy spirituality. This does not preclude a hope for people to better the circumstances of their lives, but focusing too strongly on such a thing can harm one, can warp one’s spirit.
Apparently the community possessed some good leaders. They are held up for esteem and imitation. Of course, the person most to be imitated is Jesus Christ – whose enduring character is proclaimed here. What the writer is commenting upon is the character of Jesus as the Christ, his faithfulness to the end of his life. He is not dismissing the possibility that theological understandings of the meaning of Jesus may undergo revision over time so that they speak to people in new circumstances. The letter writer himself has been quite creative in using elements of the Jewish tradition and story to understand Jesus and the Jesus way of life.
At the same time, understandings of Christian faith and life are not infinitely elastic. Some strange teachings carry one away from Christ and are to be avoided – teachings about food. “It is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace.” With such strength we can endure some of the same abuse that Jesus suffered while we wait “for the city that is to come” – for that time when God’s dream for the world will be fully realized. The writer seems, in places here, to again be comparing the new faith with the old and arguing for the superiority of the new using imagery from the old. In our life in Jesus we praise God, do good and share what we have.
Leaders are to be followed. There are limits to this, to be sure, but communities seem to require leaders of some kind, people whose task it is to remind the entire community of the story, of what is important, of where we need to be going. Good leaders are empowering and listening leaders, but leaders nonetheless. Good leaders can’t make people go where they are unwilling to go, but good leaders can open up possibilities so that people might go places they never thought possible. When community is working well, leaders do their work with joy and not with sighing. Too much sighing indicates a community that may be less than healthy.
Hebrews 13:20-25: Verses 20-21 are a prayer-benediction, asking the God of peace to make the readers “complete in everything good.” What a nice prayer to pray for our lives and our communities of faith. The God of peace is also the God who brought back Jesus from the dead – this is the only overt reference to the resurrection in the New Testament. In the early church, different parts of the Jesus story received different emphases. Hebrews seems much more focused on trying to understand Jesus’ death, and trying to understand it in various ways – as sacrifice, as a priestly act, as a model for endurance in faith.
The final verses complete this sermon in the form of a letter. It has been a word of exhortation. The reference to Timothy seems to indicate that the letter was written within the Pauline circle of early Christianity.
Hebrews 12:1-17: Having spoken of faith of the history of faith from which the Jewish Christians to which he is writing draw their strength and inspiration, the author again encourages perseverance and endurance. “The race easily lent itself as a metaphor for moral and ethical struggle, involving as it did rigorous training, self-discipline, intense effort, and laying aside anything that encumbered the contestant” (People’s New Testament Commentary). This metaphor as explained in the commentary seems an encouragement to a life of spiritual discipline, spiritual practice. We trust that God’s grace, love and forgiveness are given to us as we are, and require nothing from us. At the same time, if we are to grow in grace and love, if we are really to know the Christian life at its deepest and best, this requires effort. It asks of us self-discipline and effort. It asks that we leave behind those things that hinder us in running the race – sin is defined as such a hindrance. There is a cloud of witnesses cheering us on, and Jesus himself is a prime example of running the race to the finish, against difficult odds. Jesus endured, and so should those reading this letter (then and now). Jesus endured “so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.”
The writer notes that others have endured to the point of shedding blood, beyond what the readers have endured to date. The readers are invited to consider their sufferings and difficulties as a form of discipline, a form of guidance in love. Does this mean that people should interpret all suffering as some kind of lesson given from God? I don’t think that is a very adequate theology. Rather than say, “God never gives us more than we can endure” – which some may argue from verses 5-6 and following, and which implies that God is responsible for causing all human suffering; I prefer to say, “Nothing ever happens that we cannot with help from God and others, endure, and even learn and grow from.” This latter statement also fits this Scripture, I think, without making God directly responsible for suffering. When we can ask about learning from all our experience, even our difficult ones, then we open ourselves to growth in the Spirit. It is about growth and training, not punishment. The writer seems to suggest that the alternative to seeing difficulty and suffering as an opportunity for growth and learning is to see it as something completely outside of God’s redeeming possibility. Our goal is to nurture “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” – when things are easy and when things are difficult. “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees – be healed.” “Pursue peace with everyone.” This is a communal project as well as an individual one – “see to it… that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.” Don’t give up long term benefit for short-term gain, like Esau.
Hebrews 12:18-29: The writer now moves to another comparison of Christian faith as an outgrowth of Judaism with the Judaism that has been left behind. Again, this is not a final word about Judaism from a Christian perspective, but part of a letter encouraging Jewish Christians to keep the faith in Jesus. In contrast to Mount Sinai, those to whom the author is writing are said to have come to Mount Zion – “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” While a fuller realization of all that God promises remains in the future, much of it can be experienced even now, according to these words.
Positive words of encouragement are followed by rather harsh words of warning. You have all this, don’t turn away, don’t refuse “the one who is speaking.” This is quickly followed by a more positive word – “since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with awe and reverence” – and a more challenging word – “for our God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 13
Hebrews 13:1-19: From challenging words and more difficult images to more practical advice on life in Christian community. In the New Testament, theology seems always wed to advice on how to live the faith.
“Let mutual love continue” – another great short verse in the New Testament. “Show hospitality to strangers.” “Remember those who are in prison – those who are being tortured.” How do we hear such words in our day and time, when our prison population has skyrocketed and we debate torture as a means of fighting terrorism. Such words don’t give us simple answers to these complex questions, but they invite deep reflection. They won’t let us ignore the difficult issues of our day. The marriage covenant should be honored and the marriage bed “undefiled.” Seeking to live the faith does not mean an asexual existence as some have insisted, viewing healthy sexuality as somehow inappropriate for the pure. It does mean a self-discipline and self-control. “The Christian community continued Judaism’s high regard for marriage and its strong prohibition against adultery” (People’s New Testament Commentary). “Keep your lives free from love of money.” How we relate to our possessions remains an important spiritual issue, and a measure of contentment with what we have is part of a healthy spirituality. This does not preclude a hope for people to better the circumstances of their lives, but focusing too strongly on such a thing can harm one, can warp one’s spirit.
Apparently the community possessed some good leaders. They are held up for esteem and imitation. Of course, the person most to be imitated is Jesus Christ – whose enduring character is proclaimed here. What the writer is commenting upon is the character of Jesus as the Christ, his faithfulness to the end of his life. He is not dismissing the possibility that theological understandings of the meaning of Jesus may undergo revision over time so that they speak to people in new circumstances. The letter writer himself has been quite creative in using elements of the Jewish tradition and story to understand Jesus and the Jesus way of life.
At the same time, understandings of Christian faith and life are not infinitely elastic. Some strange teachings carry one away from Christ and are to be avoided – teachings about food. “It is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace.” With such strength we can endure some of the same abuse that Jesus suffered while we wait “for the city that is to come” – for that time when God’s dream for the world will be fully realized. The writer seems, in places here, to again be comparing the new faith with the old and arguing for the superiority of the new using imagery from the old. In our life in Jesus we praise God, do good and share what we have.
Leaders are to be followed. There are limits to this, to be sure, but communities seem to require leaders of some kind, people whose task it is to remind the entire community of the story, of what is important, of where we need to be going. Good leaders are empowering and listening leaders, but leaders nonetheless. Good leaders can’t make people go where they are unwilling to go, but good leaders can open up possibilities so that people might go places they never thought possible. When community is working well, leaders do their work with joy and not with sighing. Too much sighing indicates a community that may be less than healthy.
Hebrews 13:20-25: Verses 20-21 are a prayer-benediction, asking the God of peace to make the readers “complete in everything good.” What a nice prayer to pray for our lives and our communities of faith. The God of peace is also the God who brought back Jesus from the dead – this is the only overt reference to the resurrection in the New Testament. In the early church, different parts of the Jesus story received different emphases. Hebrews seems much more focused on trying to understand Jesus’ death, and trying to understand it in various ways – as sacrifice, as a priestly act, as a model for endurance in faith.
The final verses complete this sermon in the form of a letter. It has been a word of exhortation. The reference to Timothy seems to indicate that the letter was written within the Pauline circle of early Christianity.
Hebrews 11
Hebrews 11:1: The writer concluded the previous chapter by saying that the readers were not those who would shrink back, but were those who had faith. He will now spend time delineating what it means to have faith. We find not a “definition” of faith; after all, the word “faith” will sometimes indicate trust or belief and sometimes refer to the quality of loyalty or faithfulness. Rather than offering a definition, the author provides thematic unity to the discussion…. As used here, faith cannot be severed from hope. (People’s New Testament Commentary) I am not sure I agree entirely with the commentary writers here. The author of Hebrews is not engaged in an abstract discussion of the meaning of “faith,” to be sure, but he is trying to characterize it in order to encourage it in his readers. These readers are suffering for being Christian, and they need faith, an assurance that they are on the right path – the path of life and of God’s promise, even though the way is difficult at present. The remaining commentary will be edited excerpts from my Sunday sermon, March 30.
Hebrews 11:1-38: I think it is helpful to see the first verse of this chapter in various translations:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (KJV)
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (NRSV)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain about what we do not see. (NIV)
Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. (CEV)
Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for; it means being certain of things we cannot see. (Phillips)
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. (The Message)
All of this still seems a little difficult to grab hold of. What we can be certain of is that for the writer of Hebrews, out of sight should not be out of mind, but, in fact, what is “out of sight” seems quite important. He defines “faith” in terms of what cannot be seen. “Faith” is an important word for us. As Christians, we are sometimes called “people of faith.” But if the definition of the writer of Hebrews is a little hard to get a hold of, maybe the history of Christian thinking can help. As a theologian, in my training, I encountered a number of definitions of faith. Let’s see if they can help.
“Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned” Paul Tillich (Dynamics of Faith, 1)
“Wonder and expectancy are its barest psychical manifestations. Trust, connoting a psychical resolution of issues raised by wonder and expectancy… can be regarded as a more settled form of faith.” Bernard Meland (Faith and Culture, 14)
“Faith looks to an ultimate order beyond the incoherences, incongruities, and cross-purposes, and creates or accepts the presupposition of a divine providence, related to the ultimate source of the temporal process.” Reinhold Niebuhr, (Faith and Politics, 8)
“Faith… is primarily a matter of the basic emotions, attitudes and commitments from which one’s behavior follows…. Faith is fundamentally a mode of existence.” John B. Cobb and David Ray Griffin (Process Theology, 31)
“Faith means fighting against the prevailing cynicism and standing up to it…. To have faith means to have a vision… Without faith our life can only go as far as we are able to see right now.” Dorothee Soelle,(Choosing Life, 11; Not Just Yes and Amen, 55, 54)
Though she is not a theologian, I cannot help but bring one of my favorite theological writers into the mix. Anne Lamott writes about hope, but her words are a wonderful definition of faith – “choosing to believe this one thing, that love is stronger than any grim bleak [stuff] anyone can throw at us” (Plan B, 275)
I have shared these various translations of Hebrews 11:1 and displayed this theological parade to remind us all that faith is a complicated matter. It is complex because life is complex. The writer of Hebrews doesn’t do too bad, in trying to define faith in terms of confidence and assurance even when we don’t see everything we might like to see. Faith has to do with a basic trust – a trust that things we cannot touch with our hands or see with our eyes or snap a picture of, deserve our deepest commitment and loyalty. They deserve our time and attention and effort. Out of sight should not only not be out of mind, it is that which is out of sight that should be foremost in our hearts, our minds, our lives, according to the writer of Hebrews and others who have tried to describe “faith” in words eloquent and complicated. God cannot be seen, but is to be trusted. The world as God would have it, God’s dream for the world, is not the world we live in. God’s dream for the world is of a world of beauty, peace, justice, forgiveness, reconciliation, love, care, healing, kindness, gentleness, compassion. It is not the world we see around us, and much of what we see tells us that to live in the way of God’s dream for the world is to live foolishly, naively. Faith says, live it anyway. Trust that this is the way of life. Trust that life lived in this way has value well beyond its years.
The essence of faith is trust (assurance, certainty, conviction – synonyms). Faith as trust is both an inner attitude and a motivation to action. Genuine faith needs to be both.
Deep within myself I find conflicting tendencies. Some lead me to affirm life, some to deny it. Each day there is a struggle. The issue is which tendencies will prevail. It is up to me whether I call upon the life-affirming tendencies or ignore them, whether I resist the life-denying tendencies or acquiesce in them. (Donald Evans, Struggle and Fulfillment, 1) The most crucial personal struggle in religion, morality and life is between trust and distrust (2). With basic trust, “the initial assumption… is that something positive may emerge” (2).
Faith as an inner attitude of trust is to trust that God is present and active in our lives and in our world so that something positive is always possible. It is to trust that God is present and active in our world so that the world can be different, better, sometimes dramatically so – the Easter message continued. To have such an inner attitude is to pay attention to the world differently – to be willing to look wide-eyed at it, its beauty and its ugliness, its joy and its pain, and to trust that beauty and joy and justice are stronger, that love is stronger than any grim, bleak stuff life can throw at us. To have such faith, such trust means to be willing to quiet the mind so that we can see more clearly.
Sonya Vetra Tinsley – singer, songwriter and activist: Every day presents infinite reasons to believe that change can’t happen, infinite reasons to give up. But I always tell myself, “Sonya, you have to pick your team.” It seems to me that there are two teams in this world. And you can find evidence to support the arguments of both. The trademark of one team is cynicism. They’ll tell you why what you’re doing doesn’t matter, why nothing is going to change, why no matter how hard you work, you’re going to fail…. Then there’s another group of people who admit that they don’t know how things will turn out, but have decided to work for change…. They’re always telling stories of faith being rewarded, of ways things could be different, of how their own lives have changed…. They believe we’re partners in God’s creation, and that change is really possible…. There are times when both teams seem right…. We’ll never know who’s really going to prevail. So I just have to decide which team seems happier, which side I’d rather be on. And for me that means choosing on the side of faith. Because on the side of cynicism, even if they’re right, who wants to win that argument anyway. If I’m going to stick with somebody, I’d rather stick with people who have a sense of possibility and hope. (The Impossible Will Take a Little Time, 346-347)
Faith is not only this inner attitude of hope and possibility, of quieting the mind and of seeing the world differently. Faith also means to live and act differently. If we trust God, if we trust that God’s way in the world (justice, peace, beauty, joy, reconciliation, peace, healing, care for the earth, care for others, kindness, gentleness, compassion) is the way of life, we will live differently. When you read the entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews, though it begins with a definition of faith as inner attitude, it becomes clear very quickly that such an attitude finds its way into living. In many ways, this is the first rhythmic Christian sermon. By faith, Abraham obeyed… By faith, he stayed for a time… By faith, he received the power of procreation… By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac… By faith, Isaac invoked blessings on Jacob and Esau… By faith, Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph… By faith, Moses was hidden by his parents… By faith, Moses refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter… By faith, he left Egypt… By faith, he kept the Passover… By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea… By faith, Rahab the prostitute received the spies in peace - - - And what more should I say – Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel, the prophets – through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness……
Faith as trust is both inner attitude and outward expression. In 1970, Miles Goodwin was discharged from the army after serving a year in Vietnam. He was on a plan from Oakland back home to Dallas. He was concerned about encountering hostility and just wanted to get home without incident. Sitting on the plane, in uniform, in a window seat, he avoided contact with others. He felt alone and isolated. A young girl, not more that ten years old, suddenly appeared in the aisle. She smiled and without a word timidly handed me a magazine. I accepted her offering, her quiet “welcome home.” All I could say was, “Thank you.” I do not know where she sat down or who she was with because right after accepting the magazine from her I turned to the window and wept. Her small gesture of compassion was the first I had experienced in a long time. Miles Goodwin is now a real estate attorney in Milwaukee, and he shared this story on NPR’s “This I Believe” series. He ended by saying: Since then, I have followed her example and tried, in different ways for different people, to do the same for them. Like me on that long-ago plane ride, they will never know why a stranger took the time to extend a hand. But I know that my attempts since then are all because of that little girl. Her offer of a magazine to a tired, scared, and lonely soldier has echoed throughout my life. I have to believe that my small gestures have the same effect on others. And to that little girl, now a woman, I would like to take the opportunity to say again, thank you. (81ff).
When Bishop Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of El Salvador in 1977, he was seen as conservative, timid, “spiritual,” and in poor health. In other words, he was viewed as a safe choice in a difficult social situation – in an El Salvador of death squads and rebels. The Catholic Church found itself in a difficult situation. It had long been associated with the rich and powerful in the country, but some prominent priests were not voicing support for the poor in the country, and some of these priests were being killed by paramilitaries, some associated with elements in the government. Not long after Romeo became Archbishop, a flyer circulated in the country – “Be a patriot, kill a priest.” Romero grew to become a more active Archbishop as he saw priests killed, as he watched the plight of the poor in his country. In 1979, Romero issued a statement including these words: “The conflict is not between church and government, it is between government and people. The church is with the people and the people are with the church, thank God.” (The Religious Roots of Rebellion, 137) March 23, 1980 in a sermon, Romero appealed to soldiers and police: Brothers, you belong to our people. You are killing your own brothers and sisters in the peasants. God’s law, which says, “Thou shalt not kill” should prevail over any order given by a man. No soldier is obliged to obey an order against God’s law. No one has to carry out an immoral law. It is time to recover your conscience and obey it rather than orders given in sin. The church, defender of God’s rights, God’s law, of human dignity, of the human person, cannot be silent in the face of such abomination…. In the name of God and in the name of this long-suffering people whose cries rise every more thunderously to heaven, I beg you, I implore you, I order you, in the name of God: stop the repression. (150) The next day while celebrating communion, Archbishop Romero was shot and killed. Persons linked to paramilitary groups with ties to the military and some powerful people in El Salvador seemed responsible for this act. But Romero’s speaking out for his people, even in the face of a violence which eventually took his life was a way of living faith, faith that justice and dignity are what God requires, that poverty is not a part of God’s dream for the world.
Faith really is confidence, assurance, trust in what we hope for, a kind of certainty that the unseen God is trustworthy and God’s unseen dream for the world is coming and our task is to live it now. It is what makes life worth living. Faith really is to be ultimately concerned about life and love and justice and peace and beauty and forgiveness and reconciliation and care for the earth and care for others and kindness and compassion and gentleness. Faith trusts that though there are incoherences in life, incongruities, we move forward to do the good we can anyway. Faith really is about wonder and expectancy. Faith really is about a way of life. Faith really is about standing up against cynicism – and in faith we trust that love is stronger than any grim, bleak stuff life can throw at us. Faith is an inner orientation that trusts that life is about love, justice, peace, beauty, forgiveness, reconciliation, care for the earth and others, kindness, compassion, gentleness. In faith we trust God and God’s dream for the world, we trust that as we live this dream now God will use our lives, our work to bring that dream closer. In faith we see the world differently – with wonder and expectancy and hope, with a sense that something positive may emerge. We pay attention differently, keeping our minds both keen and quiet so that we can truly see. In faith, because we see the world differently, we live in the world differently. We make what is out of sight the center of our minds and hearts and lives.
Hebrews 11:39-40: Having delineated a history of faith, the writer goes on to say that none of these persons received all that God had promised. Only with the people of faith to whom he is writing will God’s promises for a new world be fulfilled.
Hebrews 11:1: The writer concluded the previous chapter by saying that the readers were not those who would shrink back, but were those who had faith. He will now spend time delineating what it means to have faith. We find not a “definition” of faith; after all, the word “faith” will sometimes indicate trust or belief and sometimes refer to the quality of loyalty or faithfulness. Rather than offering a definition, the author provides thematic unity to the discussion…. As used here, faith cannot be severed from hope. (People’s New Testament Commentary) I am not sure I agree entirely with the commentary writers here. The author of Hebrews is not engaged in an abstract discussion of the meaning of “faith,” to be sure, but he is trying to characterize it in order to encourage it in his readers. These readers are suffering for being Christian, and they need faith, an assurance that they are on the right path – the path of life and of God’s promise, even though the way is difficult at present. The remaining commentary will be edited excerpts from my Sunday sermon, March 30.
Hebrews 11:1-38: I think it is helpful to see the first verse of this chapter in various translations:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (KJV)
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (NRSV)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain about what we do not see. (NIV)
Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. (CEV)
Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for; it means being certain of things we cannot see. (Phillips)
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. (The Message)
All of this still seems a little difficult to grab hold of. What we can be certain of is that for the writer of Hebrews, out of sight should not be out of mind, but, in fact, what is “out of sight” seems quite important. He defines “faith” in terms of what cannot be seen. “Faith” is an important word for us. As Christians, we are sometimes called “people of faith.” But if the definition of the writer of Hebrews is a little hard to get a hold of, maybe the history of Christian thinking can help. As a theologian, in my training, I encountered a number of definitions of faith. Let’s see if they can help.
“Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned” Paul Tillich (Dynamics of Faith, 1)
“Wonder and expectancy are its barest psychical manifestations. Trust, connoting a psychical resolution of issues raised by wonder and expectancy… can be regarded as a more settled form of faith.” Bernard Meland (Faith and Culture, 14)
“Faith looks to an ultimate order beyond the incoherences, incongruities, and cross-purposes, and creates or accepts the presupposition of a divine providence, related to the ultimate source of the temporal process.” Reinhold Niebuhr, (Faith and Politics, 8)
“Faith… is primarily a matter of the basic emotions, attitudes and commitments from which one’s behavior follows…. Faith is fundamentally a mode of existence.” John B. Cobb and David Ray Griffin (Process Theology, 31)
“Faith means fighting against the prevailing cynicism and standing up to it…. To have faith means to have a vision… Without faith our life can only go as far as we are able to see right now.” Dorothee Soelle,(Choosing Life, 11; Not Just Yes and Amen, 55, 54)
Though she is not a theologian, I cannot help but bring one of my favorite theological writers into the mix. Anne Lamott writes about hope, but her words are a wonderful definition of faith – “choosing to believe this one thing, that love is stronger than any grim bleak [stuff] anyone can throw at us” (Plan B, 275)
I have shared these various translations of Hebrews 11:1 and displayed this theological parade to remind us all that faith is a complicated matter. It is complex because life is complex. The writer of Hebrews doesn’t do too bad, in trying to define faith in terms of confidence and assurance even when we don’t see everything we might like to see. Faith has to do with a basic trust – a trust that things we cannot touch with our hands or see with our eyes or snap a picture of, deserve our deepest commitment and loyalty. They deserve our time and attention and effort. Out of sight should not only not be out of mind, it is that which is out of sight that should be foremost in our hearts, our minds, our lives, according to the writer of Hebrews and others who have tried to describe “faith” in words eloquent and complicated. God cannot be seen, but is to be trusted. The world as God would have it, God’s dream for the world, is not the world we live in. God’s dream for the world is of a world of beauty, peace, justice, forgiveness, reconciliation, love, care, healing, kindness, gentleness, compassion. It is not the world we see around us, and much of what we see tells us that to live in the way of God’s dream for the world is to live foolishly, naively. Faith says, live it anyway. Trust that this is the way of life. Trust that life lived in this way has value well beyond its years.
The essence of faith is trust (assurance, certainty, conviction – synonyms). Faith as trust is both an inner attitude and a motivation to action. Genuine faith needs to be both.
Deep within myself I find conflicting tendencies. Some lead me to affirm life, some to deny it. Each day there is a struggle. The issue is which tendencies will prevail. It is up to me whether I call upon the life-affirming tendencies or ignore them, whether I resist the life-denying tendencies or acquiesce in them. (Donald Evans, Struggle and Fulfillment, 1) The most crucial personal struggle in religion, morality and life is between trust and distrust (2). With basic trust, “the initial assumption… is that something positive may emerge” (2).
Faith as an inner attitude of trust is to trust that God is present and active in our lives and in our world so that something positive is always possible. It is to trust that God is present and active in our world so that the world can be different, better, sometimes dramatically so – the Easter message continued. To have such an inner attitude is to pay attention to the world differently – to be willing to look wide-eyed at it, its beauty and its ugliness, its joy and its pain, and to trust that beauty and joy and justice are stronger, that love is stronger than any grim, bleak stuff life can throw at us. To have such faith, such trust means to be willing to quiet the mind so that we can see more clearly.
Sonya Vetra Tinsley – singer, songwriter and activist: Every day presents infinite reasons to believe that change can’t happen, infinite reasons to give up. But I always tell myself, “Sonya, you have to pick your team.” It seems to me that there are two teams in this world. And you can find evidence to support the arguments of both. The trademark of one team is cynicism. They’ll tell you why what you’re doing doesn’t matter, why nothing is going to change, why no matter how hard you work, you’re going to fail…. Then there’s another group of people who admit that they don’t know how things will turn out, but have decided to work for change…. They’re always telling stories of faith being rewarded, of ways things could be different, of how their own lives have changed…. They believe we’re partners in God’s creation, and that change is really possible…. There are times when both teams seem right…. We’ll never know who’s really going to prevail. So I just have to decide which team seems happier, which side I’d rather be on. And for me that means choosing on the side of faith. Because on the side of cynicism, even if they’re right, who wants to win that argument anyway. If I’m going to stick with somebody, I’d rather stick with people who have a sense of possibility and hope. (The Impossible Will Take a Little Time, 346-347)
Faith is not only this inner attitude of hope and possibility, of quieting the mind and of seeing the world differently. Faith also means to live and act differently. If we trust God, if we trust that God’s way in the world (justice, peace, beauty, joy, reconciliation, peace, healing, care for the earth, care for others, kindness, gentleness, compassion) is the way of life, we will live differently. When you read the entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews, though it begins with a definition of faith as inner attitude, it becomes clear very quickly that such an attitude finds its way into living. In many ways, this is the first rhythmic Christian sermon. By faith, Abraham obeyed… By faith, he stayed for a time… By faith, he received the power of procreation… By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac… By faith, Isaac invoked blessings on Jacob and Esau… By faith, Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph… By faith, Moses was hidden by his parents… By faith, Moses refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter… By faith, he left Egypt… By faith, he kept the Passover… By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea… By faith, Rahab the prostitute received the spies in peace - - - And what more should I say – Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel, the prophets – through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness……
Faith as trust is both inner attitude and outward expression. In 1970, Miles Goodwin was discharged from the army after serving a year in Vietnam. He was on a plan from Oakland back home to Dallas. He was concerned about encountering hostility and just wanted to get home without incident. Sitting on the plane, in uniform, in a window seat, he avoided contact with others. He felt alone and isolated. A young girl, not more that ten years old, suddenly appeared in the aisle. She smiled and without a word timidly handed me a magazine. I accepted her offering, her quiet “welcome home.” All I could say was, “Thank you.” I do not know where she sat down or who she was with because right after accepting the magazine from her I turned to the window and wept. Her small gesture of compassion was the first I had experienced in a long time. Miles Goodwin is now a real estate attorney in Milwaukee, and he shared this story on NPR’s “This I Believe” series. He ended by saying: Since then, I have followed her example and tried, in different ways for different people, to do the same for them. Like me on that long-ago plane ride, they will never know why a stranger took the time to extend a hand. But I know that my attempts since then are all because of that little girl. Her offer of a magazine to a tired, scared, and lonely soldier has echoed throughout my life. I have to believe that my small gestures have the same effect on others. And to that little girl, now a woman, I would like to take the opportunity to say again, thank you. (81ff).
When Bishop Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of El Salvador in 1977, he was seen as conservative, timid, “spiritual,” and in poor health. In other words, he was viewed as a safe choice in a difficult social situation – in an El Salvador of death squads and rebels. The Catholic Church found itself in a difficult situation. It had long been associated with the rich and powerful in the country, but some prominent priests were not voicing support for the poor in the country, and some of these priests were being killed by paramilitaries, some associated with elements in the government. Not long after Romeo became Archbishop, a flyer circulated in the country – “Be a patriot, kill a priest.” Romero grew to become a more active Archbishop as he saw priests killed, as he watched the plight of the poor in his country. In 1979, Romero issued a statement including these words: “The conflict is not between church and government, it is between government and people. The church is with the people and the people are with the church, thank God.” (The Religious Roots of Rebellion, 137) March 23, 1980 in a sermon, Romero appealed to soldiers and police: Brothers, you belong to our people. You are killing your own brothers and sisters in the peasants. God’s law, which says, “Thou shalt not kill” should prevail over any order given by a man. No soldier is obliged to obey an order against God’s law. No one has to carry out an immoral law. It is time to recover your conscience and obey it rather than orders given in sin. The church, defender of God’s rights, God’s law, of human dignity, of the human person, cannot be silent in the face of such abomination…. In the name of God and in the name of this long-suffering people whose cries rise every more thunderously to heaven, I beg you, I implore you, I order you, in the name of God: stop the repression. (150) The next day while celebrating communion, Archbishop Romero was shot and killed. Persons linked to paramilitary groups with ties to the military and some powerful people in El Salvador seemed responsible for this act. But Romero’s speaking out for his people, even in the face of a violence which eventually took his life was a way of living faith, faith that justice and dignity are what God requires, that poverty is not a part of God’s dream for the world.
Faith really is confidence, assurance, trust in what we hope for, a kind of certainty that the unseen God is trustworthy and God’s unseen dream for the world is coming and our task is to live it now. It is what makes life worth living. Faith really is to be ultimately concerned about life and love and justice and peace and beauty and forgiveness and reconciliation and care for the earth and care for others and kindness and compassion and gentleness. Faith trusts that though there are incoherences in life, incongruities, we move forward to do the good we can anyway. Faith really is about wonder and expectancy. Faith really is about a way of life. Faith really is about standing up against cynicism – and in faith we trust that love is stronger than any grim, bleak stuff life can throw at us. Faith is an inner orientation that trusts that life is about love, justice, peace, beauty, forgiveness, reconciliation, care for the earth and others, kindness, compassion, gentleness. In faith we trust God and God’s dream for the world, we trust that as we live this dream now God will use our lives, our work to bring that dream closer. In faith we see the world differently – with wonder and expectancy and hope, with a sense that something positive may emerge. We pay attention differently, keeping our minds both keen and quiet so that we can truly see. In faith, because we see the world differently, we live in the world differently. We make what is out of sight the center of our minds and hearts and lives.
Hebrews 11:39-40: Having delineated a history of faith, the writer goes on to say that none of these persons received all that God had promised. Only with the people of faith to whom he is writing will God’s promises for a new world be fulfilled.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Hebrews 7
Hebrews 7:1-10: Here we being the longest discursive section of Hebrews. Exhortation will not come again until chapter 10. In this section the writer develops the image of Jesus Christ as high priest.
The writer of Hebrews comes now to an earlier delayed subject: the high-priestly ministry of Christ. Nothing in the Gospel traditions of the preacher, teacher, exorcist Jesus provided a basis adequate to support a high-priestly Christology [“Christology” is the technical word used for a theology about Jesus as the Christ]. After all, Jesus was not a Levite, and never in his visit or visits to the temple in Jerusalem is he in the role of a priest. The writer looks, then, not to those accounts but to Psalm 110:4 for an exegetical foundation. The author goes back to the priesthood of Melchizedek to ground a priestly Christology in Jewish Scriptures and, most importantly, in the plan of God before there ever was a tabernacle or a Levitical priest. (People’s New Testament Commentary)
Again, what we have is an attempt to try and explain the meaning and significance of Jesus to a particular group of people – Jewish Christians, many tempted to return to some form of the Judaism they had moved away from. This is creative work on the part of a writer. We can learn from these images and be inspired by them for our own faith. We should also look to example of the writer himself and be creative in our own theological understanding of the meaning of Jesus for our lives and our relationship to God. Part of the creative genius in these chapters is the way the writer grounds the priesthood of Jesus in an image that existed before the Temple. If the Judaism to which some were tempted to return was a Judaism centered in Temple sacrifice, the writer here reminds the readers that a priesthood faithful to God preceded the Temple. He then argues that Jesus is a high priest of this type.
King Melchizedek of Salem – obscure figures of the Old Testament whose portraits are very briefly sketched or whose stories contain elements of mystery attracted great interest in subsequent generations…. The shadowy and mysterious Melchizedek belongs in this company. (People’s New Testament Commentary) If we think this strange or primitive, all we need do to remind ourselves of this continuing phenomenon is utter the name “Jabez.” His two verses in I Chronicles 4 have spawned a small cottage industry.
King Melchizidek was king of righteousness and king of peace – titles also appropriate for Christ. That we know nothing of his parents or his death makes him a mysterious forerunner of Jesus as the Christ. Because his death is not recorded, he remains a priest forever. As a priest he blesses Abraham – and the one who blesses is greater than the one who is blessed. The writer even claims that Levi, to whom all priest trace their beginning, paid a tithe to Melchizedek in the tithe given by Abraham. These are fascinating rhetorical flourishes. Jesus inspired and inspires wonderful creativity.
Hebrews 7:11-28: The writer continues to compare the Levitical/Temple priesthood with the priesthood of Melchizedek. He argues that the Levitical priesthood must have been lacking in some way for their to be another order of priests – a reference to Psalm 110. Jesus descended from Judah and not from Levi, but he is a priest in this other order, the order of Melchizedek, and became a priest not because of his genealogy but because of “the power of an indestructible life” (verse 16). This is probably a reference to the resurrection. This forever priesthood of Jesus is better than the Levitical priesthood, according to the writer – it introduces a better hope “through which we approach God” (verse 19). In Jesus we have a “better covenant.” Jesus priesthood is forever and continuous – he lives. Furthermore, he need not offer sacrifices again and again, but has already made the ultimate sacrifice in giving his own life.
Hebrews 8
Hebrews 8:1-13: The writer continues to develop the theme of Jesus as a high priest in the order of Melchizedek and continues to argue for the superiority of this priestly ministry over the Temple priesthood. Keep in mind the polemic context of these writings, where the author is encouraging Jewish Christians to continue on in their Jewish Christian faith. It is also helpful to remember that other forms of Judaism were developing forms of that faith that were significantly less focused on sacrifice and the Temple, e.g. Pharisaical Judaism which formed the basis for rabbinical Judaism.
The main point, the author says, is that in Christian faith, we have a high priest, a high priest like he has been describing. You want a high priest in your faith – it's in there with Christianity. He further argues that the tent this high priest serves is better than the earthly Temple – it is the heavenly tent made by God. This is metaphoric language, again comparing the superiority of Jesus Christ as a high priest to the Levitical priesthood. The ministry of Jesus is a more excellent ministry. Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, one that was needed. The writer refers to prophetic literature to make this point (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The writer argues that this new covenant has made the first one obsolete – “and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.” We should be careful not to make this statement the definitive judgment of Christianity on Judaism. Much of what the writer is arguing against disappeared within rabbinic Judaism as well. The author’s point is to encourage a community of faith to keep the faith.
Hebrews 9
Hebrews 9:1-22: The author has shifted slightly from a focus on Jesus as high priest to the worship requirements of the Levitical priesthood and the Temple – elements of the “first covenant.” The writer rehearses some of the requirements of the Temple system. The writer then uses the “two tent” set up of the Temple to make an analogy. In the first tent, sacrifices and rituals take place continuously to maintain ritual purity – and this is symbol to the writer of “the present time” – an imperfect time, a not-yet time. Christ is a priest of the perfect time, of the time when the promise is fulfilled. He goes into the Holy of holies and remains there, unlike the Levitical high priest who goes in once a year. He offers his own life as the sacrifice. This is metaphoric language for trying to grasp the significance of Jesus and of his shameful and painful death. It is one lens for viewing Jesus death, but it need not be the only such lens. Too often we in the Christian community have let this language become dominant, failing to understand that this language had a context. For most moderns, the entire notion of a sacrificial system as a way to relate to God is difficult to comprehend. The most important point is that through his life and death and resurrection, Jesus has purified our conscience so that we can worship and live for the living God (verse 14).
The writer not shifts imagery again, discussing the legalities of a will. An inheritance can only be granted once it is established that the person who has issued a will has died. He makes the conceptual leap from this to argue that the eternal inheritance that belongs to those of Christian faith required a death. Could it be that this language of blood sacrifice was already losing some of its grip, so that the writer feels the need to use the analogy of a will and argue that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”? This is not a statement of “fact” but symbolic language. In the gospels, Jesus forgave persons and there was not blood shed at that moment. Too much unfortunate use of this language has been made in the Christian tradition. We should see the creativity in the use of this language on the part of the author of Hebrews without being slavishly tied to it. Understanding Hebrews requires placing oneself within a cultus in which the above-mentioned vocabulary and actions were integral to rituals of cleansing, renewal, approaching God, and community forming. The writer presents the benefits of Christ for believers in these same images, obviously with hope for the same effects: cleansing, renewal, approaching God, and community formation. (People’s New Testament Commentary)
Hebrews 9:23-28: These verses offer a summary of the argument to this point – Christ as high priest enters the ultimate sanctuary (the heavenly sanctuary) in the presence of God, and need not offer continuous sacrifice, but has already, in his life and death, given the ultimate sacrifice. Christ will come again to consummate this work of salvation, to make everything right.
Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10:1-18: The writer uses the on-going nature of the Temple sacrificial system to argue that it is deficient. If you have to keep doing something, how effective is it? The author then turns to another Psalm, Psalm 40:6-8, which he puts into the mouth of Christ. Words that were used to relativize the sacrificial system itself are now used to push it even further back in importance. Jesus life devoted to God, a life that led to death, becomes the life that gives life to others. This single offering of a life ended the need for Temple sacrifices. It is almost as if the writer were saying, “Look, you can return to a Temple-based, sacrifice-based faith, but why would you?” The author ends his argument by quoting Jeremiah 31 again.
Hebrews 10:19-39: As in other sections of this work, the writer now draws lessons for encouragement from all that has come before, beginning with chapter 7 – “therefore, my friends…”
Jesus has opened a new a living way for us in relationship to God. Enter it, enjoy it, revel in it. Hold fast. “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds” (verse 24). “Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out” (verse 24, The Message). They are encouraged to meet together – apparently some have drifted away from the meetings. Doing good and gathering together are both important aspects of Christian life.
These positive encouragements are followed by words of warning – to persist in sin willfully negates forgiveness and opens up the prospect of judgment in a fury of fire. The writer uses metaphoric language that would have been common in his milieu. At its best, this language reminds us that our lives will be judged by God – that is, all that we do either contributes to God’s dream for the world or becomes something that gets in the way of that dream and has to be overcome. What we do either gives God something good to work with or becomes something that has to be discarded as useless in building God’s dream, something for the burning garbage pit. The writer encourages a life of love and good deeds.
The appeal to threatening language is short-lived. The writer now appeals to the community memory. Remember how you have already suffered for being “enlightened.” Don’t give it up now. Endure. He does not encourage in the end but speaks with distinct hope – “We are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.” The meaning of faith is explored in the next chapter.
Hebrews 7:1-10: Here we being the longest discursive section of Hebrews. Exhortation will not come again until chapter 10. In this section the writer develops the image of Jesus Christ as high priest.
The writer of Hebrews comes now to an earlier delayed subject: the high-priestly ministry of Christ. Nothing in the Gospel traditions of the preacher, teacher, exorcist Jesus provided a basis adequate to support a high-priestly Christology [“Christology” is the technical word used for a theology about Jesus as the Christ]. After all, Jesus was not a Levite, and never in his visit or visits to the temple in Jerusalem is he in the role of a priest. The writer looks, then, not to those accounts but to Psalm 110:4 for an exegetical foundation. The author goes back to the priesthood of Melchizedek to ground a priestly Christology in Jewish Scriptures and, most importantly, in the plan of God before there ever was a tabernacle or a Levitical priest. (People’s New Testament Commentary)
Again, what we have is an attempt to try and explain the meaning and significance of Jesus to a particular group of people – Jewish Christians, many tempted to return to some form of the Judaism they had moved away from. This is creative work on the part of a writer. We can learn from these images and be inspired by them for our own faith. We should also look to example of the writer himself and be creative in our own theological understanding of the meaning of Jesus for our lives and our relationship to God. Part of the creative genius in these chapters is the way the writer grounds the priesthood of Jesus in an image that existed before the Temple. If the Judaism to which some were tempted to return was a Judaism centered in Temple sacrifice, the writer here reminds the readers that a priesthood faithful to God preceded the Temple. He then argues that Jesus is a high priest of this type.
King Melchizedek of Salem – obscure figures of the Old Testament whose portraits are very briefly sketched or whose stories contain elements of mystery attracted great interest in subsequent generations…. The shadowy and mysterious Melchizedek belongs in this company. (People’s New Testament Commentary) If we think this strange or primitive, all we need do to remind ourselves of this continuing phenomenon is utter the name “Jabez.” His two verses in I Chronicles 4 have spawned a small cottage industry.
King Melchizidek was king of righteousness and king of peace – titles also appropriate for Christ. That we know nothing of his parents or his death makes him a mysterious forerunner of Jesus as the Christ. Because his death is not recorded, he remains a priest forever. As a priest he blesses Abraham – and the one who blesses is greater than the one who is blessed. The writer even claims that Levi, to whom all priest trace their beginning, paid a tithe to Melchizedek in the tithe given by Abraham. These are fascinating rhetorical flourishes. Jesus inspired and inspires wonderful creativity.
Hebrews 7:11-28: The writer continues to compare the Levitical/Temple priesthood with the priesthood of Melchizedek. He argues that the Levitical priesthood must have been lacking in some way for their to be another order of priests – a reference to Psalm 110. Jesus descended from Judah and not from Levi, but he is a priest in this other order, the order of Melchizedek, and became a priest not because of his genealogy but because of “the power of an indestructible life” (verse 16). This is probably a reference to the resurrection. This forever priesthood of Jesus is better than the Levitical priesthood, according to the writer – it introduces a better hope “through which we approach God” (verse 19). In Jesus we have a “better covenant.” Jesus priesthood is forever and continuous – he lives. Furthermore, he need not offer sacrifices again and again, but has already made the ultimate sacrifice in giving his own life.
Hebrews 8
Hebrews 8:1-13: The writer continues to develop the theme of Jesus as a high priest in the order of Melchizedek and continues to argue for the superiority of this priestly ministry over the Temple priesthood. Keep in mind the polemic context of these writings, where the author is encouraging Jewish Christians to continue on in their Jewish Christian faith. It is also helpful to remember that other forms of Judaism were developing forms of that faith that were significantly less focused on sacrifice and the Temple, e.g. Pharisaical Judaism which formed the basis for rabbinical Judaism.
The main point, the author says, is that in Christian faith, we have a high priest, a high priest like he has been describing. You want a high priest in your faith – it's in there with Christianity. He further argues that the tent this high priest serves is better than the earthly Temple – it is the heavenly tent made by God. This is metaphoric language, again comparing the superiority of Jesus Christ as a high priest to the Levitical priesthood. The ministry of Jesus is a more excellent ministry. Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, one that was needed. The writer refers to prophetic literature to make this point (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The writer argues that this new covenant has made the first one obsolete – “and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.” We should be careful not to make this statement the definitive judgment of Christianity on Judaism. Much of what the writer is arguing against disappeared within rabbinic Judaism as well. The author’s point is to encourage a community of faith to keep the faith.
Hebrews 9
Hebrews 9:1-22: The author has shifted slightly from a focus on Jesus as high priest to the worship requirements of the Levitical priesthood and the Temple – elements of the “first covenant.” The writer rehearses some of the requirements of the Temple system. The writer then uses the “two tent” set up of the Temple to make an analogy. In the first tent, sacrifices and rituals take place continuously to maintain ritual purity – and this is symbol to the writer of “the present time” – an imperfect time, a not-yet time. Christ is a priest of the perfect time, of the time when the promise is fulfilled. He goes into the Holy of holies and remains there, unlike the Levitical high priest who goes in once a year. He offers his own life as the sacrifice. This is metaphoric language for trying to grasp the significance of Jesus and of his shameful and painful death. It is one lens for viewing Jesus death, but it need not be the only such lens. Too often we in the Christian community have let this language become dominant, failing to understand that this language had a context. For most moderns, the entire notion of a sacrificial system as a way to relate to God is difficult to comprehend. The most important point is that through his life and death and resurrection, Jesus has purified our conscience so that we can worship and live for the living God (verse 14).
The writer not shifts imagery again, discussing the legalities of a will. An inheritance can only be granted once it is established that the person who has issued a will has died. He makes the conceptual leap from this to argue that the eternal inheritance that belongs to those of Christian faith required a death. Could it be that this language of blood sacrifice was already losing some of its grip, so that the writer feels the need to use the analogy of a will and argue that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”? This is not a statement of “fact” but symbolic language. In the gospels, Jesus forgave persons and there was not blood shed at that moment. Too much unfortunate use of this language has been made in the Christian tradition. We should see the creativity in the use of this language on the part of the author of Hebrews without being slavishly tied to it. Understanding Hebrews requires placing oneself within a cultus in which the above-mentioned vocabulary and actions were integral to rituals of cleansing, renewal, approaching God, and community forming. The writer presents the benefits of Christ for believers in these same images, obviously with hope for the same effects: cleansing, renewal, approaching God, and community formation. (People’s New Testament Commentary)
Hebrews 9:23-28: These verses offer a summary of the argument to this point – Christ as high priest enters the ultimate sanctuary (the heavenly sanctuary) in the presence of God, and need not offer continuous sacrifice, but has already, in his life and death, given the ultimate sacrifice. Christ will come again to consummate this work of salvation, to make everything right.
Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10:1-18: The writer uses the on-going nature of the Temple sacrificial system to argue that it is deficient. If you have to keep doing something, how effective is it? The author then turns to another Psalm, Psalm 40:6-8, which he puts into the mouth of Christ. Words that were used to relativize the sacrificial system itself are now used to push it even further back in importance. Jesus life devoted to God, a life that led to death, becomes the life that gives life to others. This single offering of a life ended the need for Temple sacrifices. It is almost as if the writer were saying, “Look, you can return to a Temple-based, sacrifice-based faith, but why would you?” The author ends his argument by quoting Jeremiah 31 again.
Hebrews 10:19-39: As in other sections of this work, the writer now draws lessons for encouragement from all that has come before, beginning with chapter 7 – “therefore, my friends…”
Jesus has opened a new a living way for us in relationship to God. Enter it, enjoy it, revel in it. Hold fast. “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds” (verse 24). “Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out” (verse 24, The Message). They are encouraged to meet together – apparently some have drifted away from the meetings. Doing good and gathering together are both important aspects of Christian life.
These positive encouragements are followed by words of warning – to persist in sin willfully negates forgiveness and opens up the prospect of judgment in a fury of fire. The writer uses metaphoric language that would have been common in his milieu. At its best, this language reminds us that our lives will be judged by God – that is, all that we do either contributes to God’s dream for the world or becomes something that gets in the way of that dream and has to be overcome. What we do either gives God something good to work with or becomes something that has to be discarded as useless in building God’s dream, something for the burning garbage pit. The writer encourages a life of love and good deeds.
The appeal to threatening language is short-lived. The writer now appeals to the community memory. Remember how you have already suffered for being “enlightened.” Don’t give it up now. Endure. He does not encourage in the end but speaks with distinct hope – “We are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.” The meaning of faith is explored in the next chapter.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Hebrews 5
Hebrews 5:1-10: These verses continue the stream of thought from the end of chapter 4, a meditation on Jesus as a high priest, a high priest who is compassionate. Jesus as the Christ, like the high priest in Jerusalem, was called by God to this position, and as a high priest he deals gently with others. Jesus was called by God into the position of high priest by virtue of his relation to God as son. Verses 5 and 6 make use of two psalms that have their origins in the installation of the king of Israel. The language of “you are my son” is from Psalm 2 (v. 7). The language of being a high priest after the order of Melchizedek is from Psalm 110 (v. 4). Melchizedek is the traditional priest-king of Salem (Genesis 14). Jesus behavior in offering up prayers, with a particular allusion to the Garden of Gethsemane, is noted and it is akin to the priestly prayers offered for all the people by a high priest. Yet Jesus suffered, and this makes him able to be a compassionate high priest. He knows suffering. His suffering love, his priestly behavior even in life, made him “the source of eternal salvation.” God has worked through Jesus to bring new life to others. This language has the potential to be more or less moving to us today. We have not been raised on the language of the high priest and may not be as touched by some of these images as were the original hearers of these words.
Hebrews 5:11-14: Perhaps even the original hearers were not as moved by these words as the writer thought they should be. Perhaps we have some shift in thinking in these verses, for we move now to exhortation and concern that some are falling away from the faith. The language about Jesus as a priest in the mold of Melchizedek will be picked up again in chapter 7. Maybe it is a little of both. Anyway, the writer moves from his explication of Jesus as high priest to exhortation and encouragement, along with expressing a little frustration.
If the readers are finding all this a little dry and esoteric, maybe it is because they “have become dull in understanding.” The writer uses two analogies to make his point – they are like people who should be teachers but remain only students and they are like infants needing milk not yet ready for solid food. Such words, at their best, are invitations to self-reflection.
Hebrews 6
Hebrews 6:1-12: After diagnosing the readers as a little behind where they should be, the writer encourages them to “go on toward perfection.” It is interesting that the educational metaphor continues. For John Wesley, going on to perfection had to do with being made perfect in love, and such perfection fits less well with the educational metaphor. No doubt the writer has more in mind that intellectual learning – something more like perfection in love. Such perfection does have an intellectual component, however. Failing to press on to a mature understanding of their faith, the readers seem deliberately to subscribe only to those elements of Christianity that overlap with Judaism. The basic teaching about Christ consists of six items also taught by Pharisaic Judaism: repentance from dead works, faith towards God, instruction about baptisms (washings), laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment (New Interpreter’s
Study Bible). Whatever the precise meaning of all this, it is clear that the writer expects growth in faith and life, and is frustrated that such growth is slow in coming.
The writer’s frustration with the slow growth of his readers comes out even more clearly in his view that those who have begun the journey of faith in Christ – who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come – cannot be restored if they have fallen away. It is as if they are crucifying Christ again, holding him in contempt. The description of what Christian faith offers is very moving, very powerful. It is almost as if the writer were saying, “How can you turn away from this?” The question can be raised, what does it mean to say a person cannot be restored again to repentance? Eugene Peterson renders this, “they can’t start over as if nothing happened.” The history of Christian faith has made allowance for the restoration to Christian faith and community those who have fallen away. Of course, the writer does not include his readers in the category of those who have fallen so far. His warning is rhetorical, arguing grave danger awaits those who stray too far. His concern is pastoral, not speculative. To use these verses to exclude persons from the possibility to come back to faith is to misuse them. Their point is precisely to encourage a deeper faith, a stronger growth in faith. The writer, in fact, is “confident of better things in your case.”
The rhetorical strategy shifts. The writer moves from warning the readers about grave danger to building them up. God will not overlook their work and their love. They are encouraged to keep on, to build on this good work. In my experience, this strategy to motivate people works much more effectively than grave warnings. There may be circumstances in which that strategy needs to be employed, however. Again, the point of this whole section is encouragement to keep the faith, to grow in faith and love, to continue in faith and patience so that one will inherit the promises.
Hebrews 6:13-20: Another Hebrew Scripture reference is used to elaborate on what it means to inherit the promises. God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham inherited this promise because he patiently endured. Such behavior is encouraged. The writer wants to assure the readers that God’s promise if good, that God will continue to work for God’s dream for the world. We are to be encouraged, to keep the faith, “to seize the hope set before us.” The hope we have in God as we know God in Jesus the Christ is to be “an anchor of the soul.” The author will shift images and thus move back toward the discussion of Jesus as high priest.
Hebrews 5:1-10: These verses continue the stream of thought from the end of chapter 4, a meditation on Jesus as a high priest, a high priest who is compassionate. Jesus as the Christ, like the high priest in Jerusalem, was called by God to this position, and as a high priest he deals gently with others. Jesus was called by God into the position of high priest by virtue of his relation to God as son. Verses 5 and 6 make use of two psalms that have their origins in the installation of the king of Israel. The language of “you are my son” is from Psalm 2 (v. 7). The language of being a high priest after the order of Melchizedek is from Psalm 110 (v. 4). Melchizedek is the traditional priest-king of Salem (Genesis 14). Jesus behavior in offering up prayers, with a particular allusion to the Garden of Gethsemane, is noted and it is akin to the priestly prayers offered for all the people by a high priest. Yet Jesus suffered, and this makes him able to be a compassionate high priest. He knows suffering. His suffering love, his priestly behavior even in life, made him “the source of eternal salvation.” God has worked through Jesus to bring new life to others. This language has the potential to be more or less moving to us today. We have not been raised on the language of the high priest and may not be as touched by some of these images as were the original hearers of these words.
Hebrews 5:11-14: Perhaps even the original hearers were not as moved by these words as the writer thought they should be. Perhaps we have some shift in thinking in these verses, for we move now to exhortation and concern that some are falling away from the faith. The language about Jesus as a priest in the mold of Melchizedek will be picked up again in chapter 7. Maybe it is a little of both. Anyway, the writer moves from his explication of Jesus as high priest to exhortation and encouragement, along with expressing a little frustration.
If the readers are finding all this a little dry and esoteric, maybe it is because they “have become dull in understanding.” The writer uses two analogies to make his point – they are like people who should be teachers but remain only students and they are like infants needing milk not yet ready for solid food. Such words, at their best, are invitations to self-reflection.
Hebrews 6
Hebrews 6:1-12: After diagnosing the readers as a little behind where they should be, the writer encourages them to “go on toward perfection.” It is interesting that the educational metaphor continues. For John Wesley, going on to perfection had to do with being made perfect in love, and such perfection fits less well with the educational metaphor. No doubt the writer has more in mind that intellectual learning – something more like perfection in love. Such perfection does have an intellectual component, however. Failing to press on to a mature understanding of their faith, the readers seem deliberately to subscribe only to those elements of Christianity that overlap with Judaism. The basic teaching about Christ consists of six items also taught by Pharisaic Judaism: repentance from dead works, faith towards God, instruction about baptisms (washings), laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment (New Interpreter’s
Study Bible). Whatever the precise meaning of all this, it is clear that the writer expects growth in faith and life, and is frustrated that such growth is slow in coming.
The writer’s frustration with the slow growth of his readers comes out even more clearly in his view that those who have begun the journey of faith in Christ – who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come – cannot be restored if they have fallen away. It is as if they are crucifying Christ again, holding him in contempt. The description of what Christian faith offers is very moving, very powerful. It is almost as if the writer were saying, “How can you turn away from this?” The question can be raised, what does it mean to say a person cannot be restored again to repentance? Eugene Peterson renders this, “they can’t start over as if nothing happened.” The history of Christian faith has made allowance for the restoration to Christian faith and community those who have fallen away. Of course, the writer does not include his readers in the category of those who have fallen so far. His warning is rhetorical, arguing grave danger awaits those who stray too far. His concern is pastoral, not speculative. To use these verses to exclude persons from the possibility to come back to faith is to misuse them. Their point is precisely to encourage a deeper faith, a stronger growth in faith. The writer, in fact, is “confident of better things in your case.”
The rhetorical strategy shifts. The writer moves from warning the readers about grave danger to building them up. God will not overlook their work and their love. They are encouraged to keep on, to build on this good work. In my experience, this strategy to motivate people works much more effectively than grave warnings. There may be circumstances in which that strategy needs to be employed, however. Again, the point of this whole section is encouragement to keep the faith, to grow in faith and love, to continue in faith and patience so that one will inherit the promises.
Hebrews 6:13-20: Another Hebrew Scripture reference is used to elaborate on what it means to inherit the promises. God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham inherited this promise because he patiently endured. Such behavior is encouraged. The writer wants to assure the readers that God’s promise if good, that God will continue to work for God’s dream for the world. We are to be encouraged, to keep the faith, “to seize the hope set before us.” The hope we have in God as we know God in Jesus the Christ is to be “an anchor of the soul.” The author will shift images and thus move back toward the discussion of Jesus as high priest.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Hebrews 3
Hebrews 3:1-6: In 2:17, the writer has called Jesus a “merciful and faithful high priest.” In the coming sections of this work he will elaborate on these themes. Here the focus is on Jesus as a faithful one. The readers – “holy partners in a heavenly calling” (the terms are endearing as well as inviting – the writer wants to keep his readers in the partnership) – are to consider Jesus, “the apostle and high priest of our confession.” Just as Hebrews is the only work to call Jesus a high priest, so it is also the only work in which Jesus is called “apostle” (one sent).
Jesus was faithful to his calling from God, just as Moses was faithful. The writer does not denigrate the Jewish tradition, but he does argue for the superiority of Christian faith. We need to remember the context, a group of Jewish Christians who have suffered for their faith are tempted to abandon it for a more traditional understanding of Judaism than the one they adopted when they became Christian. We need to be careful, then, in our own context. I am not sure these arguments should be used to argue the absolute superiority of Christianity to Judaism. It strikes me that doing so would be to de-contextualize them dramatically. Rather, I prefer a reading which allows that the writer is encouraging people to stay true to Jesus because in Jesus that already have everything they would have by returning to a previous Judaic understanding of their relationship with God. The writer argues for the superiority of Jesus to Moses by using an analogy of a house and its builder. God is viewed as the ultimate builder of all, and Jesus is associated with this work. Moses is seen as part of that which is built. Moses was a servant and Jesus a son, to use another analogy. The primary point of these comparisons, which don’t grab me as much as they may have grabbed the original readers is found in verse 6: “if we hold firm the confidence and the pride the belong to hope” (“keep a firm grip on this bold confidence” The Message).
Hebrews 3:7-19: To make his case stronger, the writer quotes Psalm 95:7b-11 in verses 7-11. He begins by asserting that the Holy Spirit speaks through these words to the readers. That view of Scripture, that God uses its words to speak to the community of faith, remain important to all Christians. While Christians disagree on the nature of Scripture and how precisely to read it, we agree that God’s Spirit can continue to speak to us through these words. Why else spend all this time reading through the New Testament?
Psalm 95 begins as a Psalm of praise but concludes with a call to pay attention and a warning from Biblical history about the cost of not paying attention. The Psalm recalls the wilderness wandering of the Hebrew people. With verse 12, the author of Hebrews begins his sermonic commentary on the Psalm passage he has just quoted. The point remains the same as that made in verse 6 – hold firm. If the readers abandon Christianity and return to their former Judaism, they will be turning “away from the living God.” This is part of the author’s urgent admonition and does not mean that God was no longer to be found in Judaism. (New Interpreter’s Study Bible) Hold on, don’t let your heart become hard. The author refers back to the Psalm and the story behind it of the wilderness wandering. “Unbelief is here unfaithfulness rather than intellectual doubt” (New Interpreter’s Study Bible)
Many Christians today were raised in homes that were Christian to one extent or another. We may find these arguments about not reverting to a previous faith a little distant from our reality. Maybe there is something to be learned even in our circumstances. Sometimes we find teachings or practices from other religious traditions attractive to some degree. I find a great deal of wisdom in certain Buddhist writings, for instance. What would happen if I were to abandon my Christian faith for Buddhism? It would mean starting over again in another tradition. I might hop from faith to faith, and in so doing never plumb the depths of any tradition’s teachings about life and relationship to God. Instead, by staying faithful to my Christian faith, and finding within it some of the things I find attractive in Buddhist writings, a different kind of growth is possible. In engaging in this thought experiment, I am not trying to be a complete religious relativist. As a Christian, I witness to the profundities of my faith and how I encounter God as a Christian. I believe there are things in my faith which commend it to others, especially to others who have not been practicing within their own tradition. So I seek to remain a faithful Christian. I witness to my faith. I exhort others.
Hebrews 4
Hebrews 4:1-11: Continuing to refer to the Psalm and the story behind the Psalm (entering the rest is a reference to the Hebrew people entering the promised land), the writer asserts that a rest is available even now. “Rest” here becomes synonymous with being a part of God’s people, a part of God’s work in the world, being a part of God’s saving work. This has both present and future dimensions. The readers are encouraged to “take care” so they do not fail to reach it. The rest, is, in part, “a deeper kind of spiritual rest intended to be the possession of Christians” (New Interpreter’s Study Bible).
The Israelites had received good news, but did not receive it with faith. To “take care” seems to mean to have faith, and faith is demonstrated in remaining faithful. The “rest” image is taken in a new direction, now referring to God’s rest at the conclusion of creation. The writer flips back and forth between Scripture references and images, sometimes in a confusing manner. The basic point remains – have faith, keep the faith, hold firm with bold confidence.
Hebrews 4:12-13: The writer has been interpreting the Scriptures, and pauses to make a point about these sacred writings, but also about the Spirit of God which speaks through these writings. The focus is not the writings but the activity of God’s Spirit – alive and active, penetrating to the depth of the human heart and mind. The writer is encouraging the reader to listen, to take care, to pay attention – and that includes attentiveness to the inner life. Faith and faithfulness are intended to reach deep into the human heart and mind, and God’s active Spirit reaches us there. These are justly famous words that can be Spirit words to us, as well.
Hebrews 4:14-16: The writer now returns to an image he left back in chapter 2 – Jesus as high priest. There he referred to Jesus as a merciful and faithful high priest, and he has been exploring the meaning of “faithfulness.” This high priest is Son of God and has been in the presence of God, like the high priest in the Temple – but as a son. Again the message – hold on. Not only has Jesus “passed through the heavens” an allusion to the work of a priest in the Temple, but he is also sympathetic to our plight. The result of the combination of these images is not only the exhortation to keep the faith, but also an invitation to approach God boldly, to receive mercy and grace. Significant elements of the Christian faith are found in these few verses. Our faith always includes the encouragement to keep living it out, to keep at it, to let all that we do be done in love. It also always includes the invitation to find forgiveness, mercy and grace. In the fullness of the Christian faith there is rest and there is effort (v. 11: “make every effort to enter that rest”), there is doing and there is being. Combining these in the right way at the right time in our lives is the on-going adventure of living as God’s people in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 3:1-6: In 2:17, the writer has called Jesus a “merciful and faithful high priest.” In the coming sections of this work he will elaborate on these themes. Here the focus is on Jesus as a faithful one. The readers – “holy partners in a heavenly calling” (the terms are endearing as well as inviting – the writer wants to keep his readers in the partnership) – are to consider Jesus, “the apostle and high priest of our confession.” Just as Hebrews is the only work to call Jesus a high priest, so it is also the only work in which Jesus is called “apostle” (one sent).
Jesus was faithful to his calling from God, just as Moses was faithful. The writer does not denigrate the Jewish tradition, but he does argue for the superiority of Christian faith. We need to remember the context, a group of Jewish Christians who have suffered for their faith are tempted to abandon it for a more traditional understanding of Judaism than the one they adopted when they became Christian. We need to be careful, then, in our own context. I am not sure these arguments should be used to argue the absolute superiority of Christianity to Judaism. It strikes me that doing so would be to de-contextualize them dramatically. Rather, I prefer a reading which allows that the writer is encouraging people to stay true to Jesus because in Jesus that already have everything they would have by returning to a previous Judaic understanding of their relationship with God. The writer argues for the superiority of Jesus to Moses by using an analogy of a house and its builder. God is viewed as the ultimate builder of all, and Jesus is associated with this work. Moses is seen as part of that which is built. Moses was a servant and Jesus a son, to use another analogy. The primary point of these comparisons, which don’t grab me as much as they may have grabbed the original readers is found in verse 6: “if we hold firm the confidence and the pride the belong to hope” (“keep a firm grip on this bold confidence” The Message).
Hebrews 3:7-19: To make his case stronger, the writer quotes Psalm 95:7b-11 in verses 7-11. He begins by asserting that the Holy Spirit speaks through these words to the readers. That view of Scripture, that God uses its words to speak to the community of faith, remain important to all Christians. While Christians disagree on the nature of Scripture and how precisely to read it, we agree that God’s Spirit can continue to speak to us through these words. Why else spend all this time reading through the New Testament?
Psalm 95 begins as a Psalm of praise but concludes with a call to pay attention and a warning from Biblical history about the cost of not paying attention. The Psalm recalls the wilderness wandering of the Hebrew people. With verse 12, the author of Hebrews begins his sermonic commentary on the Psalm passage he has just quoted. The point remains the same as that made in verse 6 – hold firm. If the readers abandon Christianity and return to their former Judaism, they will be turning “away from the living God.” This is part of the author’s urgent admonition and does not mean that God was no longer to be found in Judaism. (New Interpreter’s Study Bible) Hold on, don’t let your heart become hard. The author refers back to the Psalm and the story behind it of the wilderness wandering. “Unbelief is here unfaithfulness rather than intellectual doubt” (New Interpreter’s Study Bible)
Many Christians today were raised in homes that were Christian to one extent or another. We may find these arguments about not reverting to a previous faith a little distant from our reality. Maybe there is something to be learned even in our circumstances. Sometimes we find teachings or practices from other religious traditions attractive to some degree. I find a great deal of wisdom in certain Buddhist writings, for instance. What would happen if I were to abandon my Christian faith for Buddhism? It would mean starting over again in another tradition. I might hop from faith to faith, and in so doing never plumb the depths of any tradition’s teachings about life and relationship to God. Instead, by staying faithful to my Christian faith, and finding within it some of the things I find attractive in Buddhist writings, a different kind of growth is possible. In engaging in this thought experiment, I am not trying to be a complete religious relativist. As a Christian, I witness to the profundities of my faith and how I encounter God as a Christian. I believe there are things in my faith which commend it to others, especially to others who have not been practicing within their own tradition. So I seek to remain a faithful Christian. I witness to my faith. I exhort others.
Hebrews 4
Hebrews 4:1-11: Continuing to refer to the Psalm and the story behind the Psalm (entering the rest is a reference to the Hebrew people entering the promised land), the writer asserts that a rest is available even now. “Rest” here becomes synonymous with being a part of God’s people, a part of God’s work in the world, being a part of God’s saving work. This has both present and future dimensions. The readers are encouraged to “take care” so they do not fail to reach it. The rest, is, in part, “a deeper kind of spiritual rest intended to be the possession of Christians” (New Interpreter’s Study Bible).
The Israelites had received good news, but did not receive it with faith. To “take care” seems to mean to have faith, and faith is demonstrated in remaining faithful. The “rest” image is taken in a new direction, now referring to God’s rest at the conclusion of creation. The writer flips back and forth between Scripture references and images, sometimes in a confusing manner. The basic point remains – have faith, keep the faith, hold firm with bold confidence.
Hebrews 4:12-13: The writer has been interpreting the Scriptures, and pauses to make a point about these sacred writings, but also about the Spirit of God which speaks through these writings. The focus is not the writings but the activity of God’s Spirit – alive and active, penetrating to the depth of the human heart and mind. The writer is encouraging the reader to listen, to take care, to pay attention – and that includes attentiveness to the inner life. Faith and faithfulness are intended to reach deep into the human heart and mind, and God’s active Spirit reaches us there. These are justly famous words that can be Spirit words to us, as well.
Hebrews 4:14-16: The writer now returns to an image he left back in chapter 2 – Jesus as high priest. There he referred to Jesus as a merciful and faithful high priest, and he has been exploring the meaning of “faithfulness.” This high priest is Son of God and has been in the presence of God, like the high priest in the Temple – but as a son. Again the message – hold on. Not only has Jesus “passed through the heavens” an allusion to the work of a priest in the Temple, but he is also sympathetic to our plight. The result of the combination of these images is not only the exhortation to keep the faith, but also an invitation to approach God boldly, to receive mercy and grace. Significant elements of the Christian faith are found in these few verses. Our faith always includes the encouragement to keep living it out, to keep at it, to let all that we do be done in love. It also always includes the invitation to find forgiveness, mercy and grace. In the fullness of the Christian faith there is rest and there is effort (v. 11: “make every effort to enter that rest”), there is doing and there is being. Combining these in the right way at the right time in our lives is the on-going adventure of living as God’s people in Jesus Christ.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Hebrews 1
Hebrews 1:1-4: The writer begins by affirming the common Judaic tradition of his recipients. He affirms that God once spoke through the prophets. However, more important to this writer is that now, “in these last days” God has spoken “to us by a Son.” The phrase “a Son” is the better translation, not “his Son.” The writer subtly begins to make a case for staying true to Christian faith, not return to the pre-Jesus Judaic faith which was their root. The “Son” is described in some detail – as one through whom God created the world, as a reflection of God’s glory, as an imprint of God being, as the sustaining force in the world. The writer ends by noting the superiority of the Son to angels.
Hebrews 1:5-14: Apparently one religious alternative being offered to the Hebrew Christians was one in which angels were held to be the primary intermediaries between God and persons. It is rather amazing how often in the religious history of the West, some kind of intermediary between God and human beings is sought. Our vision of God is frequently of a being rather removed, distant, so “other” that we have a difficult time relating to this God. Within the Christian tradition we have a long history of praying to Mary or other saints as intercessors on our behalf. Angels are another popular choice. It obviously has a long history, including the recipients of this letter. However, in this case, the author thinks that the view of angels held by some demotes Christ to an inappropriate role in genuine Christian faith.
Why all this attention to angels? We have to assume that asserting Christ’s superiority over angels is important for both writer and readers. It is not a matter of debating the existence or nonexistence of angels; these beings were common to the assumed worlds of early Judaism, Christianity, and other religions of the Near East. (People’s New Testament Commentary)
The remainder of this chapter consists of quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures – seven of them, as follows: verse 5 – Psalm 2:7 and II Samuel 7:14; verse 6 – Deuteronomy 32:43; verse 7 – Psalm 104:4; verses 8-9 – Psalm 45:6-7; verses 10-12 – Psalm 102:25-27; verse 13 – Psalm 110:1. All these are used to make the case that the Son is superior to angels. If you look the verses up and there seems to be some discrepancy between the version here and the version in the Bible, that may be because the writer of Hebrews makes use of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures whereas our versions are based in Hebrew versions of the text. The chapter ends with the writer asserting that angels are “in divine service.” The Son, on the other hand is enthroned with God.
Hebrews 2
Hebrews 2:1-4: This opening discourse on angels and the superiority of the Son is brought together in a practical application. “Therefore, we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” Drifting away can be as problematic to the life of faith as an outright abandonment of it. It may be more pernicious. We lose interest, we slowly move away and before long we find ourselves in a place we would rather not be. The writer again makes a case from shared Jewish tradition, what has been declared through the angels was the Law (a tradition had developed within Judaism that angels were involved in the transmission of the Law). The writer's understanding of the Law was that it demanded a penalty for every transgression – which may or may not be the best reading of the Law. In any event, a great salvation has come through “the Lord” – Jesus as the Christ. The truth of the message of Christ was confirmed by those who heard him, by the signs and wonders and miracles “God added” and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit among the followers of Jesus. Truth seems to have a very practical dimension – does it make a positive difference in people’s lives?
Hebrews 2:5-18: The writer returns to the topic of angels. He begins by making note of the status of human beings as described in Psalm 8, a marvelous piece of writing and a grand status for human beings. Human beings will somehow have great significance in the “coming world.” That world is still coming. Human beings have not attained the status intended by God – we don’t see it yet. What we see, according to the writer, is Jesus. Jesus was human, a little lower than the angels, and he suffered death. Yet he is now exalted. Part of the wonder of Christian faith is that it made a tragic and in many ways shameful death a path to significant status. The human Jesus, executed shamefully, is now crowned with glory and honor. In some way, not yet explained, God’s grace can work to make Jesus’ death a way of tasting death for everyone.
The writer elaborates. He deems it fitting that God, “for whom and through whom all things exist” (quite a grand philosophical notion of God) should make “the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” We may find this a little challenging, but recall that this community of Christians is suffering. Suffering is not an option for them, and the writer is offering a very assuring word. They suffer, but so did Jesus. Many Christians throughout history have discovered great comfort in the picture of a God who suffers with them in Jesus. The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead put it beautifully, describing God as the great companion—the fellow-sufferer who understands (Process and Reality). The writer of Hebrews goes on to make even stronger the connection between Jesus and the followers of Jesus – they are brothers and sisters with a common parent in God.
Coming back to angels, the writer asserts that Jesus, in freeing persons from the fear of death, did that for human persons and not for angels. Freeing persons from the fear of death is yet another New Testament image for what salvation is all about. It is a rich concept. Consider how fear of death can be enslaving. What would Martin Luther King, Jr. have accomplished had he let threats against his person get the better of him? Not long ago, I heard the story of Gene Robinson, an Episcopal bishop – the first gay man to be consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church. Whatever you think about the appropriateness of that, Bishop Robinson is a courageous person in living out his convictions in the face of vicious threats to his life. Fear of death can enslave us and Jesus came to free us from such fear. Perhaps part of the fear of death for some of the recipients of this letter was fear of the judgment of God. If their religious landscape was filled with images of a judging God who would not forgive a transgression if the appropriate sacrifice were not made (and this is a distortion of Judaism, but perhaps not an uncommon one for some at the time), then they needed to hear a message of forgiveness. The writer evokes Jesus as a high priest, always on duty making the appropriate sacrifice in order that persons might be forgiven. The writer of Hebrews creatively uses images and symbols from Judaism to interpret Christian faith. Jesus is not only the high priest, but the sacrifice as well. Only in Hebrews do we find this image for Jesus, Jesus as high priest. Jesus is a high priest who can sympathize with those on whose behalf he works.
Hebrews 1:1-4: The writer begins by affirming the common Judaic tradition of his recipients. He affirms that God once spoke through the prophets. However, more important to this writer is that now, “in these last days” God has spoken “to us by a Son.” The phrase “a Son” is the better translation, not “his Son.” The writer subtly begins to make a case for staying true to Christian faith, not return to the pre-Jesus Judaic faith which was their root. The “Son” is described in some detail – as one through whom God created the world, as a reflection of God’s glory, as an imprint of God being, as the sustaining force in the world. The writer ends by noting the superiority of the Son to angels.
Hebrews 1:5-14: Apparently one religious alternative being offered to the Hebrew Christians was one in which angels were held to be the primary intermediaries between God and persons. It is rather amazing how often in the religious history of the West, some kind of intermediary between God and human beings is sought. Our vision of God is frequently of a being rather removed, distant, so “other” that we have a difficult time relating to this God. Within the Christian tradition we have a long history of praying to Mary or other saints as intercessors on our behalf. Angels are another popular choice. It obviously has a long history, including the recipients of this letter. However, in this case, the author thinks that the view of angels held by some demotes Christ to an inappropriate role in genuine Christian faith.
Why all this attention to angels? We have to assume that asserting Christ’s superiority over angels is important for both writer and readers. It is not a matter of debating the existence or nonexistence of angels; these beings were common to the assumed worlds of early Judaism, Christianity, and other religions of the Near East. (People’s New Testament Commentary)
The remainder of this chapter consists of quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures – seven of them, as follows: verse 5 – Psalm 2:7 and II Samuel 7:14; verse 6 – Deuteronomy 32:43; verse 7 – Psalm 104:4; verses 8-9 – Psalm 45:6-7; verses 10-12 – Psalm 102:25-27; verse 13 – Psalm 110:1. All these are used to make the case that the Son is superior to angels. If you look the verses up and there seems to be some discrepancy between the version here and the version in the Bible, that may be because the writer of Hebrews makes use of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures whereas our versions are based in Hebrew versions of the text. The chapter ends with the writer asserting that angels are “in divine service.” The Son, on the other hand is enthroned with God.
Hebrews 2
Hebrews 2:1-4: This opening discourse on angels and the superiority of the Son is brought together in a practical application. “Therefore, we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” Drifting away can be as problematic to the life of faith as an outright abandonment of it. It may be more pernicious. We lose interest, we slowly move away and before long we find ourselves in a place we would rather not be. The writer again makes a case from shared Jewish tradition, what has been declared through the angels was the Law (a tradition had developed within Judaism that angels were involved in the transmission of the Law). The writer's understanding of the Law was that it demanded a penalty for every transgression – which may or may not be the best reading of the Law. In any event, a great salvation has come through “the Lord” – Jesus as the Christ. The truth of the message of Christ was confirmed by those who heard him, by the signs and wonders and miracles “God added” and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit among the followers of Jesus. Truth seems to have a very practical dimension – does it make a positive difference in people’s lives?
Hebrews 2:5-18: The writer returns to the topic of angels. He begins by making note of the status of human beings as described in Psalm 8, a marvelous piece of writing and a grand status for human beings. Human beings will somehow have great significance in the “coming world.” That world is still coming. Human beings have not attained the status intended by God – we don’t see it yet. What we see, according to the writer, is Jesus. Jesus was human, a little lower than the angels, and he suffered death. Yet he is now exalted. Part of the wonder of Christian faith is that it made a tragic and in many ways shameful death a path to significant status. The human Jesus, executed shamefully, is now crowned with glory and honor. In some way, not yet explained, God’s grace can work to make Jesus’ death a way of tasting death for everyone.
The writer elaborates. He deems it fitting that God, “for whom and through whom all things exist” (quite a grand philosophical notion of God) should make “the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” We may find this a little challenging, but recall that this community of Christians is suffering. Suffering is not an option for them, and the writer is offering a very assuring word. They suffer, but so did Jesus. Many Christians throughout history have discovered great comfort in the picture of a God who suffers with them in Jesus. The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead put it beautifully, describing God as the great companion—the fellow-sufferer who understands (Process and Reality). The writer of Hebrews goes on to make even stronger the connection between Jesus and the followers of Jesus – they are brothers and sisters with a common parent in God.
Coming back to angels, the writer asserts that Jesus, in freeing persons from the fear of death, did that for human persons and not for angels. Freeing persons from the fear of death is yet another New Testament image for what salvation is all about. It is a rich concept. Consider how fear of death can be enslaving. What would Martin Luther King, Jr. have accomplished had he let threats against his person get the better of him? Not long ago, I heard the story of Gene Robinson, an Episcopal bishop – the first gay man to be consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church. Whatever you think about the appropriateness of that, Bishop Robinson is a courageous person in living out his convictions in the face of vicious threats to his life. Fear of death can enslave us and Jesus came to free us from such fear. Perhaps part of the fear of death for some of the recipients of this letter was fear of the judgment of God. If their religious landscape was filled with images of a judging God who would not forgive a transgression if the appropriate sacrifice were not made (and this is a distortion of Judaism, but perhaps not an uncommon one for some at the time), then they needed to hear a message of forgiveness. The writer evokes Jesus as a high priest, always on duty making the appropriate sacrifice in order that persons might be forgiven. The writer of Hebrews creatively uses images and symbols from Judaism to interpret Christian faith. Jesus is not only the high priest, but the sacrifice as well. Only in Hebrews do we find this image for Jesus, Jesus as high priest. Jesus is a high priest who can sympathize with those on whose behalf he works.
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