Access! Sermon Preached June 29, 2014 Jeremiah 31: 31 34 and Hebrews 10: 11 22 McCormick United Methodist Church, McCormick, SC Paul A. Wood, Jr. The Letter to the Hebrews was written for Christian people about thirty to forty years after Christ s death and resurrection. The author wrote for people who knew the Old Testament. The first people who read Hebrews also knew the rituals in the temple in Jerusalem. It was there at the temple, once a year, that the high priest would approach the altar. It was the holiest part of that holy place and thought to be God s earthly house. Only one time a year could anyone go through the curtain. The high priest would offer a sacrifice for his own sins and then a sacrifice for the people s sins. This was the place and the moment for him and for the people to be forgiven of their sins. Looking back we can tell it was a very ineffective system for gaining forgiveness from God. For one thing, the high priest and the people continued to disobey the commandments of God. That annual sacrifice behind the curtain didn t seem to lead to more obedience on anybody s part. And second, that ritual had to occur in a unique place and be conducted by a certain person. All buildings are temporary, right? Well in 70 CE, just a few years after Hebrews was written, Roman soldiers destroyed the temple. They leveled it. All that was left was the famous Wailing Wall. There was no longer a temple. That brought the sacrificial system to a quick and final end. But Jesus is the Great High Priest. That is the joyous proclamation of the Letter to the Hebrews. Because of Jesus death on the cross anyone can approach God. Anyone can be forgiven because Jesus made one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. And his sacrifice was for all time. It did not need to be repeated. So today I am preaching about the access we have to God through Jesus Christ. It is about the new and living way that Christ opened for us. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews coined the phrase the new and living way. Jesus, he says, opened the way for us. His sacrifice was perfect, and his sacrifice was final. He broke through the curtain by dying, and he gave us all access to God. (So access to God s holy presence comes no longer through the curtain of a building but through the person of Jesus Christ.) So good news! You and I can take the living way and enjoy access to the presence of God almighty. I used to pass a certain Baptist church near Darlington,
Page 2 of 5 SC, when I traveled from Cheraw to Florence, SC. It is the Living Way Baptist Church. Good name! Do you dream of being with God? Do you long for a time when you can enjoy the presence of God and bask in God s goodness? You are not unique if you yearn to be with God. God made us to desire to be with God. Jonathan Kozol is a strong and respected advocate for children especially children who live in poverty. Jonathan Kozol wrote a book entitled Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation (New York: HarperCollins, 1995). It is about children who lived in the South Bronx in the early 90s. Kozol went there and lived among the people. The South Bronx, at least at the time he wrote the book, was the poorest congressional district in America. Kozol tells of the many children whom he met there. One of them was a twelve-year-old name Anthony. Throughout his twelve years of life Anthony had been exposed to street violence, many other crimes and grinding poverty. But here s the good news: the boy had also been in church all of his young life. He was growing up in a Christian congregation. The author noticed that Anthony often referred to the kingdom of God. So he asked Anthony to write a description of the kingdom of God. At first Anthony hesitated. But a few days later he showed the author three pages in a notebook entitled God s Kingdom. He wrote: No violence up in heaven. There will be no guns or drugs or IRS. You won t have to pay taxes. You ll recognize all the children who have died when they were little. Jesus will be good to them and play with them. At night s he ll come and visit at your house. (p. 238) So the twelve-year-old reminds us that the presence of God is wonderful and loving The kingdom of God is a beautiful place of restoration. And I appreciate how young Anthony knows that Jesus will be there when he gets there. And it won t be Jesus all high and mighty on a throne. Jesus will play with Anthony and children who have been killed on the streets and enjoy their company. That is access! That is a child, taught by the Church, who knows that Jesus is his friend and his brother. I want all of us to know that as well. Jesus lived and died a long time ago, and he is now in the eternal realms. But at the same time, Jesus is our friend and brother. He loves us and wants to be with us. That s what the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews is saying. Jesus opened the way for us to enjoy the presence of God. He gave us the new and living way.
Page 3 of 5 Many people do not believe that we have access to God. I think that some of them think that God is too busy to bother with them. They know that God has an entire universe to look after. So they think that God is just too busy to give them any attention. But that s not true! God knows us and cares for us and grieves for us whenever we stray or suffer. I wish more people knew of the open arms of God and God s gracious welcome. Other people frankly are angry with God, so they don t take advantage of the access which all of us are granted to God s presence. They are mad because something terrible has happened in their lives. They have concluded that God allowed it to happen. They have concluded that God could have prevented that horrible event or loss from occurring but chose not to. So they are angry with God. What do you do when you are mad at God? One option is to avoid God. So you don t pray to God, and you don t worship God. You can t forgive God for supposedly letting you down. Or you don t approach God for fear that God will punish you for speaking unkind, angry words. Friends, if you have a gripe with the Lord I think the better course is to take your anger to God. Speak to God about the great loss in your life. Let God know you feel unfairly treated or abandoned. Of course, God already knows how you feel, but the venting will do you good. And your words cannot hurt God. God has heard a lot worse. And there s another big misconception about God which keeps people from approaching God as they might. They think that they are not worthy of being in communion with God. They think that their human failings and foibles make it impossible. They feel guilty and ashamed, so they think that they should not approach God in prayer or worship or in any other way. Their shame stands in the way. So here s a story which I think illustrates the power of shame and guilt. There once was a little boy named Johnny who had a big sister named Sally. The boy and his sister spent most of their summer visiting their grandparents on their farm. Someone gave the boy a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced and practiced but could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged he headed back towards his grandparents farmhouse for lunch. As he was walking back, he saw Grandma s pet duck. Just out of impulse, without thinking, he lifted up the slingshot one more time and let fly with a rock. He hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked. He was grieved.
Page 4 of 5 In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the woodpile. But then he looked up and saw that his big sister was watching him. Sally had seen the whole thing. But Sally didn t say anything. After lunch that day, Grandma said, Sally, let s wash the dishes. But Sally said, Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today, didn t you, Johnny? And then she whispered to him, Remember the duck? So Johnny did the dishes. Later, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, I m sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper. But Sally smiled and said, Well, that s all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help make supper. And she whispered again, Remember the duck? So Sally went fishing with Grandpa, and Johnny stayed home. After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally s chores, he finally couldn t stand it any longer. He went to Grandma and confessed that he had killed her duck. She knelt down and gave him a big hug. Then she said, Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window, and I saw the whole thing. But because I love you, I forgave you. But I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you. Friends, in that story I see not just the Grandma standing at the window, but I also see Jesus Christ standing there, looking at us as we conduct our lives. He sees the whole thing. He sees how we hurt one another, damage the earth, evade the truth, disobey the Lord and then act as if everything is alright. Jesus knows our every sin. But because he loves us, he will forgive us. All we have to do is ask. He will forgive! Our guilt, no matter how great, can be beaten and conquered. It has been beaten! And as a result we can have access to the Lord God Almighty and Jesus Christ. I think that guilt feelings and shame keep many of us away from communion with God. We just don t feel that we are worthy. It s true that we are not worthy! But because of Jesus Christ we can have communion with God. We are welcome to come to the very side of God and be received with open arms. Here s another way to put it: Ours is a handicap-accessible God. We may be handicapped by sin, but God has made it possible for us to easily go into God s presence. So friends, I hope that you see that communion with God is not some distant hope for us. It is not just a heaven thing that awaits us in the sweet by and by. We can experience communion with God now. Access to God is possible. So we can come to God now. We can come to God every day! In prayer, in worship, in meditation, in reflections of the heart and mind, we can approach God and be received and welcomed and accepted. Let s don t let the awesome nature of
Page 5 of 5 God scare us. Let s don t let our shortcomings and guilt stop us. Let s move ahead and approach the throne. Let s enjoy the presence of God now here in this place and when we approach the Lord in the fullness of glory. Jeremiah 31: 31 34, NRSV The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, [a] says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, Know the LORD, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. Hebrews 10: 11 22, NRSV 11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ [a] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since then has been waiting until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds, 17 he also adds, I will remember [b] their sins and their lawless deeds no more. 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 19 Therefore, my friends, [c] since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.