Introduction to Hebrews

“Christianity Rediscovered” is the story of how Vincent Donovan, an American Catholic missionary, successfully brought the gospel to many of the Masai tribes of Tanzania. It’s a wonderful book, not least for Donovan’s honesty about how his encounter with the Masai changed him and his understanding of what the church really is, and how God is at work in the world.

“God was there before we ever got there” he writes. “It was simply up to us to bring him out so they could recognise him”.

In his first few weeks and months, Donovan spent most of his time listening to the Masai, so that when he spoke, it would be with a better understanding of their culture and their belief system. “Tell me about your God” he asked them. “What is he like?”

“Then they told me of Engai, their God, who loved rich people more than poor people, healthy people more than the sick, the God who loved good people because they were good and rewarded them for their goodness. They told me of God who hated evil people – ‘those dark, evil ones out there’ – and punished them for their evil. Then they told me of a God who loved the Masai more than all the other tribes; loved them fiercely, jealously, exclusively. His protection saved them from all the surrounding hostile, Masai-hating tribes and assured them of victory in war over these tribes. His goodness was seen in the water and rain and cattle and children he gave them.”

Donovan listened, and when his time came to speak he said that they reminded him of another great nation – the Hebrew tribe. A tribe famous for having pursued the one true God. But even for them, that pursuit wasn’t easy. They often tried to restrict God to their tribe, and their land, and so made him seem less of a God than he really was.

“The God we are all looking for”, said Donovan, “is not the God of one tribe only; but the High God over all the peoples. This is the one we should worship. This is the one we should seek”.

Donovan’s book charts the progress of some of the Masai peoples from their tribal religion, towards faith in the High God as we meet him in Jesus. And the book of the Bible we’re going to be looking at over the next few months, the book of Hebrews, tells a very similar story. The story of a group of people beginning to discover that the truth about God is far more expansive and comprehensive than they could ever have imagined.

Hebrews is pretty unique in the New Testament canon – it’s 13 chapters long - more of a sermon than a letter -  and unusually, we know very little about its origins.

We’re not clear about who wrote it. It’s often been attributed to Paul, but recent linguistic studies suggest it’s more likely to have been someone connected with Paul than the apostle himself.

We don’t know when it was written; though it’s pretty safe to assume that it was before 70AD because the author of Hebrews writes about the Temple in Jerusalem as a going concern, and we know that the Temple was destroyed in 70AD

And we don’t know to whom it was written; but even a quick scan through the letter shows that it had Jewish themes at its heart.

Wordle – bigger the word, more often it occurs in the text.

Top 50 words, Top 10 – God, faith, priesthood, covenant, sins, blood – where Jesus fits into this.

So it looks like the author was speaking to a community with Jewish roots who’d come to believe in Jesus, and if you know a little New Testament history you’ll remember how hard it could be for folk in that position.

They were put out of the synagogues, they’d lose their place in Jewish society, they’d be shunned in their neighbourhoods. They could even be persecuted and martyred. Paul himself, before his conversion, oversaw the systematic persecution and stoning of many Jews who’d become followers of Jesus. That’s what he was heading off to do when he had his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus.

And reading between the lines, it’s clear that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews knows these people and has insight into how things are for them. He knows that they’re tired; tired of serving the world, tired of worship, tired of learning, tired of being thought of and treated as different from everyone else. Tired of the spiritual struggle, tired of trying to keep their prayer life going.

And they’re afraid. They’re wondering if it’s worth all the hassle; some might even be hankering to go back to the old ways. In dark corners, with people they trust, some are whispering that maybe following Jesus has been a mistake. Maybe they ought to cut their losses and see if the door of the synagogue’s still open to them, if they go back and make their apologies.

When Paul writes to the churches in Colosse and Corinth, he has to rein those congregations in to stop them charging off in all kinds of wrong directions. But these Hebrews don’t have the energy to go charging off anywhere.

That’s where they’re at.

And maybe you’re beginning to understand why this might be a useful book to be studying. A tired church, facing a lot of criticism from society, wondering what the next move might be, low on energy and spiritual reserves? Isn’t that much of the story of the mainstream churches in Western Europe? Different in Africa and China – they’re Colosse and Corinth – storming ahead! But perhaps we’re more like the Hebrews. We need to get back to basics and rediscover the God who is with us in Christ.

Hebrews is a wonderful book and times a difficult book, but as we go through it, don’t get too hung up on the language of priesthood and blood and sacrifice and covenant – language that naturally meant far more to folk with their roots in First century Judaism than it does to us. When you get behind that language, their questions are essentially the same as ours:

How does God speak to us?

Is God on our side?

Does he understand what it is to be human?

What do we need to do to have peace and friendship with God?

What does it mean to live a good life?

And where can we find the resources to do so?

And the book of Hebrews gives us the answer, and the answer is always and everywhere, Christ.  The book of Hebrews unashamedly holds that we find the answers to all of these questions when we fix our eyes upon Jesus.

How does God speak to us? In many ways and at many different times, but ultimately, uniquely, in Christ.

Is God on our side?  Of course he is – that’s why he sent Christ.  To be with us; to live and die and rise again for us.

Does he understand what it is to be human? Yes – he knows, because in Christ he has shared our humanity.

What do we need to do to have peace and friendship with God? We need to place our trust in Christ and what he’s already done to reconcile us to the Father.

What does it mean to live a good life? – To follow the way of Christ. To live as he would have us live.

And where can we find the resources to do so? – Through prayer and communion with Christ.

Now in the weeks ahead, we’ll get to the detail. But if there’s one thing we need to take away from this series on this particular letter in the New Testament, it’s the all-sufficiency, the utter centrality  of Christ. And I know how dogmatic that sounds in the multicultural, multifaith society we live in, where talk about God is just about tolerated, but talk about Christ consistently gets people’s backs up.

But I make no apology for placing Christ front and centre because I believe with all my heart that that’s what the Bible teaches, and that’s where he belongs.

Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus – that’s the book of Hebrews in a nutshell. And if you forget everything else you hear over the next couple of months – that’s the one thing you need to hold on to.

And it sounds easy. But it’s much harder to put into practice.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently. Ever since I became a minister and took on a pastoral role within the church, I’ve found it much harder to focus on God in prayer. I know that sounds daft; but when I sit down to pray my mind is generally racing with churchy things. People I need to see, things I need to arrange or prepare, emails I need to send. All valid enough in their own right, but not when they’re suffocating the time I’ve set aside for prayer – for focusing on God.

My mind, left to its own devices, will naturally slide back to all the things I have to do and all the things that are happening in the church unless I make a conscious effort to keep my focus on Christ. To remember that I’m in his presence; and before he wants me to do anything or say anything or be anything or ask for anything he simply wants my company and my attention.

When I focus on him, the rest seems to come together. If I focus on the rest and forget him, that’s when things tend to fall apart. I should know that after 30 years as a Christian! I’m a slow learner, I guess. I’m in good company with the Hebrews

Fix your eyes upon Jesus says the writer. And maybe that’s enough of a word for today, because it’s a hard word, and you know it is.

We’re a bit like Zacchaeus before he climbs the tree in last week’s story, aren’t we? Jesus is walking by; he’s right there. But there are a lot of other things in the way that make it difficult to see him. Can’t see past those health problems. Can’t see past that work issue. Struggling to see beyond those words that were said, and the person who said them. Can’t see him because of all those questions and doubts in the way.

Where does your mind tend to slide off to during the day? The next piece of work, the next pleasure, the next worry? We’re all different – only you can answer the question, but it’s a question worth asking.

So with that in mind, let’s make a pact as we start out on this journey together. Let’s make a real effort in the days and weeks to come to try and fix our eyes on Jesus. Make those times of prayer, yes, and try to keep your focus in them. But during your day, keep turning to him in your heart and in your imagination. Talk to him, silently, as you go about your work; as you find yourself waiting in queues or stuck in traffic.  As you do the things you love to do, the things you have to do and the things you wish to goodness somebody else would do. Keep looking in his direction.

One of the church’s great pray-ers says: “A little lifting of the heart suffices; a little remembrance of God, one act of inward worship are prayers which, however short, are nevertheless acceptable to God.”

Acceptable to God, yes. But more than that – necessary to help us grow into the kind of mature faith the author of Hebrews wants his people to have. The kind that remembers that Jesus is with us always, and we can always look to him.