Pastor Dan Eddy

Hebrews 3:1-6

A Heart this is a Home

2-14-10

Happy Valentine’s Day

I. Introduction….Statements that make no sense

People say the strangest things. Fix your thoughts on these for a moment.

A friend of mine once heard a student ask his literature professor: “Did Julius Caesar despise Shakespeare’s portrayal of him?”

At the seminary I heard a student ask a historical theology professor the following: “What did Thomas Aquinas think of Luther’s theology?”

But my favorite is part of an answer supposedly put on an essay exam: “Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin he built with his bare hands.”

None of these statements logically make sense. They have their history time-lines all messed up.

But if you were listening closely to this morning’s Epistle reading from Hebrews 3:1-6, the writer of this letter to the early Church was basically saying: Jesus Christ was born in the house of faith that He created long before Moses. Fix your thoughts on that for a moment, because if you really think about it…it makes no sense.

II. Fix your thoughts on this: Christ was before Moses; Jesus came after; Christ Jesus is the greatest!!

Here’s what the text actually says in verses 3 and 4 (NIV): “Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” In other words, Moses is the house and God as Christ is the builder.

The writer is basically saying Christ existed before Moses, but Jesus came much later. What? That logically doesn’t make sense. How can someone exist way before and way after…if they aren’t God.

The Hebrews’ writer connects Jesus to God, as God, like Paul did in Colossians 1:16 (ESV): “For by [means of] him [meaning Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth….—all things were created through him and for him.”

You see a lot of you don’t have a problem with this, because you know the Son of God has always existed even if He has not always been the human, you know as Jesus. But to the Jewish Christians of the early Church this was a huge problem because they held biblical figures like Moses in such high regard that it was difficult for them to believe that a man who walked the earth only 20-25 years before this writing was truly God made flesh who dwelt among them. It would be like saying that one of our U.S. presidents of the past 30 years was greater than Abraham Lincoln. Not enough time has passed to make that determination.

But when it comes to Jesus, you take on faith what was hard for them to fathom. It was hard for them to believe that Jesus has greater value that Moses. It was hard for them to believe that this man who suffered and died on the cross was the one who built the house of faith and furnished our hearts fully with His love.

It was hard for them to believe that Moses was good and faithful but not perfect and a sinner. And because of his sinfulness God wouldn’t let him go in the Promised Land but merely see it before he died as our Old Testament lesson stated.

It was difficult for them to trust that Jesus is both good and faithful and also perfect… perfect because He is God. And therefore because of this, Jesus is greater than Moses. He is the greatest, period. Christ built the house of our faith at creation and fully furnished it with love upon His death and resurrection, and that we should listen to Him as our Gospel reading stated. Listen as in obey and trust.

Moses was one of many warm-up acts in the Old Testament preparing the way for the main attraction: Christ Jesus.

Fix your thoughts carefully on Who Jesus really is…for those you have faith in Him, He is the builder and occupier of your heart. (Put heart on front of pulpit) He makes your heart His home, to show others His light (point to glow stick) to scatter the darkness of sin. House does not just refer to the collective body of believers assembled in a building on Sunday morning.

Now the question is…do you consider Jesus greater? Not just greater than Moses, but greater than anyone or anything? Greater than your family; greater than science; greater than your accomplishments in life; greater than your possessions, greater than your career; greater than you? Do we really trust that our heart is the home built by Jesus Christ? That Jesus is the engine that drives your faith. Or is He just a nice spiritual metaphor?

III. Hard and soft hearts

It’s easy when we’ve heard this all before to harden our heart toward Jesus and be soft to the ways of the world. We do this by spiritualizing Jesus and not seeing Him in our everyday life…we think of spiritual as invisible: Out of sight, out of mind, out of our heart. It’s as though when we hear the word “spiritual” it’s code word for “less than real.” There’s a part of us that wonders what all this stuff about Jesus Christ has to do with our lives today.

Well to help you better appreciate why Christ is the greatest…let me see how you respond to the following article from the Religious News Service dated September 24 of last year:

“You’ve never seen Jesus like this before: dripping red nail polish around the nails in his feet and hands, an irreverent riff on the crucifixion wounds. The provocative title of the painting: “Jesus Does His Nails.

“Blasphemous? Absolutely. Deliberately provocative? You bet.

“It is part of an upcoming art exhibit in Washington that will mark the first-ever International Blasphemy Day next Wednesday (Sept. 30) at the Center for Inquiry DC near Capitol Hill.

“Artist Dana Ellyn says her ‘Blasphemy’ paintings are a tongue-in-cheek expression of her lack of belief in God and religion. The self-described ‘agnostic atheist’—she doesn’t believe in the existence of any deity but can’t say for sure one doesn’t exist—says her introduction to religion was in college when she studied art history. Stories from the Bible, she says, are just that: stories.

“‘My point is not to offend, but I realize it can offend, because religion is such a polarizing topic,’ Ellyn said of the exhibit.

“Atheists, skeptics, freethinkers and free-speech advocates around the world will mark Blasphemy Day by mounting their soapboxes—figuratively and literally—and uttering words and displaying images that may cause offense.

“And they’re making no apologies.”

What is your response to this? Anger? Indifference? Or love?

As builder of the house and the occupant of our heart Jesus is saying “I am the One sent by God the Father to be the High Priest who died for all sinners, no matter what disgusting things they say or do, so hardened you heart towards sin in the world; soften your heart for sinners; even ones that act like this.”

Trust that Jesus is the builder and occupier of the house that is at home in your heart, and that home is available to anyone. (Point to the glow stick) Let them see the light of His love glowing in your heart to scatter the darkness of sin.

III. What are we to do with this text?

So what is this text asking us to do? Confess Jesus’ name, as verse 1 says. Do you know what the word confess means? It’s saying the same thing God says. It’s an agreement with God where we understand what’s been done freely for us and how we can lovingly respond. Jesus is the object of our confession. That’s why we confess our sins…to believe in His forgiveness; that’s why we confess our faith using the words of the Creeds…to speak of His love. Confessing Jesus means keeping our hearts filled with love for the Lord by loving others. It’s how we live with our lives as believers.

Let me give you an example: Amongst my myriad of emails I received the following this past week:

“Hello Pastor…I found you by surfing the web and am hoping that you can help me and my family. My sister-in-law lives in Scituate. She is in her 70’s and has recently suffered some major orthopedic health problems. The family is looking for creative ways to uplift her spirit and support her artistic life. Specifically we are looking for someone who would visit her once a week for an hour or two and help her in writing her memoir. Is there anyone that you know of in your community that I could contact to about this healing project? Thank you kindly for your time. I look forward to hearing from you. Signed: Deanna Anderson”

Deanna and I talked on Friday. She lives in Northern California. She said we were the only people who responded to her email. I have permission to share the following: Her sister-in-law has had extraordinary health problems with knee surgeries, in rehab for the past nine months and deep struggles with M-S, and it has not gone well. Deanna is looking for someone to just sit and listen to her sister-in-law, and just love this person.

So I present this to you…here is a way to show that your heart is a home for Christ Jesus and to share the Greatest with someone who feels their life has been reduced to the least. If you’re interested in knowing more, see me after the service. I pray we can find someone in our own congregation who can help make a difference this woman’s life.

Hardened you heart towards sin in the world; soften your heart for sinners; just like Christ has for you. Trust that Jesus is the builder and occupier of the house that is at home in your heart and in this congregation, and that home is available to anyone who won’t reject His love. Show them His light…scatter the darkness of sin.

And the ultimate love: Jesus said it best in John 15:13 (NIV): “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

The history behind St. Valentine is little fuzzy. According to the New Advent Encyclopedia three saints are known as Valentine. One was a bishop; another lived in Africa and the most popular account was a priest in Rome. None are remembered for being romantics, or writing great poetry. But, the priest in Rome married Christian couples and helped others Christians in distressed. Unfortunately around the year 270, doing these kind acts to Christians was a crime in the Roman Empire. And when Father Valentine shared his faith in Christ with Emperor Claudius, the story has been told, he was beaten with clubs, stoned and finally beheaded.

Valentine’s heart was hardened toward sin in the world, but softened for sinners, just like Christ was for him. That’s a heart that was home to Jesus. Valentine’s sacrificial love in a small way reflects the ultimate sacrificial love Christ did from the cross for you and me as we really do share in His loving death and victorious resurrection by our baptism and at His Supper.

V. Why is this all important?

Why is all of this important? Why do we go through such links to love? Because not only is Christ made our heart His home, but as verse 6 (NIV) says: “We are his house, if we hold onto our courage and the hope of which we boast.” The sense from the text is the courage described here is meant more as a confidence…literally a freedom to speak and live Christ’s hope. And the boasting is not about us but the object of our hope…Jesus.

And the more boasting that goes on, the more hearts that are built as homes for the Lord. And the more courage that is exhibited, the more love that is confessed as Jesus. And the more that’s done, that more who will stand firm to the End.

Let me illustrate with one final story which I have permission to share: Charlie MacPherson called me a week ago Wednesday night. For the past 25 years he and his wife go out to eat with other couples….known as the Wednesday Night Gang. Linda and Bob were part of that group. Although that Wednesday night they weren’t in Scituate for their usual gathering, Linda and Bob were vacationing in Florida. Charlie talked to Linda on the phone and expressed how much she and Bob were missed. Less than hour after that call, Linda suddenly died of cardiac arrest. Linda was in excellent health and there was no warning this was going to happen. The news shocked Charlie, his family and friends, and was devastating to Bob and his children.

Charlie was asked to give the eulogy at Linda’s funeral. As he recounted the many good things that God in Christ Jesus had done through her, he reminded those assembled that “as a baptized Christian, she is assured of her eternal salvation - and that means that we WILL see her again. From John 3:16 (KJV) – ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’”

Then he added: “If we truly believe these words of Christ Jesus then my friends, while we gather today and comfort each other in the days, weeks and even the years to come, we KNOW with COMPLETE assurance that we will see Linda again in Heaven. Our goodbye is not forever. And in God's eternal plan, I suspect, it won't even seem that long.”

We are mini-Christ’s, pointing to the Greatest, what He has been, what He is now, and how He will come again. We are, in a way, like Moses…we see the Promised Land of Heaven but have not yet entered it.

VI. Conclusion. On this Valentine’s Day Sunday…fix your thoughts on Jesus: Hardened you heart towards sin in the world; soften your heart for sinners; Like Christ has for you. Trust that Jesus is the builder and occupier of the house that is your heart, show others His light, scatter the darkness of sin by being His house to bring others His eternal love. Amen.