November 7, 2021         Comm

First Lesson: Psalm 146

1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.

5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
6 who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
7     who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8     the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!

Second Lesson: Hebrews 9:24-28

24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

SERMON

Who here has offered an animal sacrifice?  I hope we all said no.  But in biblical times, the sacrifice was a way of atoning for sins, a way of being made right with God. An animal was slaughtered through a ritualized process seeking grace from God in return.   Through the priest, ne took action and then one would be made whole.  Some early Christians were wanting to return to Jewish practices and beliefs. Return to offering animal sacrifices.  The book of Hebrews was written to express the superiority of Christ’s priesthood over prophets and priests and the superiority of Christ’s sacrifice offered in the heavenly sanctuary.

To set the stage, here is an earlier verse in Hebrews about the high priest and the sanctuary: “The High Priests offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one; for Moses, when he was about to erect the tabernacle was warned, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain’” (8:5).   High Priests took great care to replicate that pattern, to offer sacrifices as was required by the law.  But now we are hearing how Christ changed all of that, once and for all.  Listen for God’s word to you.

Jesus is our high priest, the one who will save us from our sins.  Priests are the mediators between us and God.  I know most of us do not relate to priests that way, but that was the structure.  Hebrews uniquely describes Jesus as a great high priest who has passed through the heavens and sympathizes with our weakness.  Jesus empowers us to boldly approach the throne of God (4:14-16).  Atonement is the goal- being made right with God, having our sins forgiven. But it was a never-ending cycle; sin, make sacrifice, secure wholeness.  Until we sin again and have to repeat the process.  Sin, Wash, Repeat.  Sin, Wash, Repeat.

Jesus transformed that once and for all. Atonement is the end of sacrifices because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice.  Hebrews declares, “Jesus appeared once and for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself” (26).     Atonement through Christ means the death and resurrection of Jesus covers our sins yesterday, today and in the future.  One commentor notes, the Greek perfect tense of atonement “means that the effects of the so called “Christ Event” were not for that particular historical moment, but the results of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection are still in force today, tomorrow, and into the eternal future” (Working Preacher, Israel Kamudzandu).

Atonement is a powerful thing. The word atonement can be broken down to “At One” ment, or being at one with God.  But sometimes we try the do-it-yourself method.

“A gentleman wrote into Readers’ Digest and told of this real-life encounter. “While I was sitting in my parked car on the street one day, a young woman in the car ahead came over and asked me if I had a hammer that she could borrow. When I said no, she got one from the man in the car in front of hers. She then proceeded to smash out the vent pane on the side of her car. After returning the hammer, she opened her door, took out the keys and waved them at us with a triumphant grin. As she drove away, the fellow who lent her the hammer came over to me and said, ”If only she had told me what she wanted the hammer for I think I could have helped her. I am a locksmith.”

Oh, the brokenness we bring into our lives when we try to do a self-atonement job and fix our fallen nature” (Sermons.com, Eric Ritz).

This reminds us of our great need for the gift of atonement, that we can never make things right with God without the help of Jesus.  This same Jesus is not only our high priest here, but he is also our advocate in heaven where he is in God’s presence.  If that is not a superior kind of priest, then I don’t know what is.

Here are four takeaways from our passage:

  • Christ has entered into heaven to intercede for all humanity through his own self-offering.
  • Christ’s action is “once-for-all,” unique, unrepeatable and fully effective.
  • Christ’s first appearance and self-offering signal “the end of the age.”
  • Christ will come a second time to save those who eagerly await him. (Working Preacher, Susan Eastman)

I feel humbled by what Christ did on the cross.  Amazed that I have God’s abundant love through Christ and the work of his atonement.  Yet sometimes we forget how personal Jesus’ action on the cross is.

“One day a saintly African Christian told his congregation about a vision he had the night before. In the vision he was climbing up the hill to the church. Suddenly he heard steps behind him. He turned and saw a man carrying a very heavy load on his back, climbing that hill. He was full of sympathy for this man and spoke kindly to him. Then he noticed that the man’s hands were scarred. Suddenly he realized that this was Jesus. He said to him, “Lord, are you carrying the world’s sins up the hill?” “No,” said the Lord Jesus, “not the world’s sins, just yours!”

Jesus’ atoning sacrifice reaches out to the entire world, but it begins very personally with me and you (Sermons.com, Bill Bouknight).

Jesus died for your sins.

Jesus dies on the cross as a true sacrifice for human brokenness.

Jesus is in heaven in the presence of God on your behalf.

So, are we eagerly awaiting Jesus’ return?  Are we conscious of what Christ’s death grants us in being made right with God?  Today we are partaking in communion, our ritual of being made whole with God. Coming to Christ’s table is our action, our seeking, our thankful participation with the divine.  It is our remembrance of Christ’s death and resurrection and our blessed relationship with God which we share because of Christ’s sacrifice.     Christ’s atonement.

One commentator wonders, “I have always doubted whether many Christians grasp the meaning of partaking in the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. The reason underlying this hypothesis is that preachers tend to separate the Lord’s Supper from atonement. Yet, the meal as it is celebrated in many congregations is a reminder of the implications, meaning, and function of the “Christ Event,” which is in essence, the inauguration of the new covenant. In fact, Jesus makes it a point at the Last Supper, when he lifted the cup and says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20; Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24). It is only in Hebrews that (we) would fully understand the magnitude of Jesus’ words, and consequently help (us) to appreciate the partaking of the meal as a celebration of the new covenant” (Working Preacher, Israel Kamudzandu).

In heaven, in the presence of God, Jesus is advocating for you.  Yet the real work was already done over 2,000 years ago on the cross.   It was the end of an age.  It was the beginning of a new covenant in Christ’s blood.   It was the reconciliation of the world, one person at a time.  Today we get to taste and see that the Lord is good through the power of atonement made manifest in the breaking of the bread.  Amen.