“A future hope”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, February 5, 2022
Hebrews 12:12-29 (Forward, p. 7) CEV p. 1269
Hope, as defined in Christian terms, is a far cry from how it is popularly envisioned. In popular terms, ‘hope’ is basically a kind of wishful thinking as in, ‘I hope that I will win the lottery’, that has absolutely no basis in reality. Or, it is what is basically a kind of fanciful longing as in, ‘I hope that there will be peace on earth’, that is pretty unlikely.
Hope, for us as Christians, is something entirely different. It is a confident belief in something that while still unseen and still in the future, it is still something that we can rest assured in. It is sort of like a will. If we are the designated beneficiaries, we know for sure that we will one day receive what has been left to us, and so we can live ‘in hope’ for that to happen. I say ‘to live in hope’ because it is entirely in the future and so has not come to pass quite yet. (The only hiccups could be if the person changed his or her will or never died—which is entirely unlikely--, or if we died before he or she did.)
In today’s passage, our author talks about two things that we hope for, that are assured and definite and yet are still unseen and still in the future. The first is our heavenly dwelling place, here described as Mount Zion or the heavenly Jerusalem. There we will dwell with God, the myriads of the holy angels, the saints who have preceded us, and Christ Himself.
The second thing that is promised is an eternal destination, an eternal inheritance, one that can never be taken away from us, one that can never be shaken. The heavens and the earth can be shaven—and indeed will—be what we have from God will never pass away. Indeed, as our author says, all of creation will be shaken and pass away, but not God’s kingdom.
Our author, however, does not leave it just there. There is also the ‘so what?’ In other words, what are we to do, how are we to behave, in light of all this? Here he is most definite:
-we are to live at peace with everyone, to follow after it. In other words, this is to something strived after, sought after deliberately and intentionally, rather than ‘just happening’!
-we are to live clean, spotless, pure, exemplary lives. We are to seek to have a holy life, to follow holiness, without which no one can see God. Again, this is a matter of an active intention, a deliberate decision on the part of each believer;
-we are to refrain from being bitter (from any root of bitterness). It is interesting, and note-worthy to see how the Good News Bible translates this: “Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows us and causes many troubles with its poison”. Or as the CEV says, ‘causes trouble for the rest of you’. Bitterness tends to have an impact that is far more deadly and troublesome than being simply personal in nature.
-we are to avoid living for the moment, the short-term gain, as did Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal (here he is described as being immoral and ungodly, but the KJV translates him as being a fornicator and profane person.). Certainly, he is a person who lived for the moment, and made hasty, unthinking decisions!
-we are to obey God when He speaks to us (unlike many of the people at Mt. Sinai), and certainly to receive His offer and means of salvation;
-we should thank Him, worship Him and show Him the great honour and respect, the reverence and godly fear [awe] that is His due.
I can see many points of contact here between us today and the admonitions of our author. Often people tend to live for the moment, for the short-term gain, without weighing the pros and cons or thinking about the long-term consequences. And seldom are we really intentional, deliberate, about pursuing peace or holiness. More likely, we say to ourselves, ‘well, if it happens, it happens.’ And yet, almost certainly, there are people that we are not at peace with. I am sad to say for myself that rather than pursuing peace with them, following peace, I simply avoid them! And likewise, with bitterness and holiness: am I intentional, deliberate, in rooting out the first and seeking the second? Probably not.
The whole rationale for these types of behaviour—to go back to our beginning—is as a response to what God has promised us, a response to the hope that sustains and impels us. Seeing as we have all of this from God as an unbreakable and infallible promise, we behave thusly. Amen
Forward notes: “Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (verse 14).
“Out of context, this verse sounds like a generic instruction for being a good person. Of course we should seek holiness. Of course we should pursue peace with our neighbors. There’s nothing new there. Right?
“But the letter to the Hebrews is trying frantically to prepare its readers for the Second Coming of Christ. Hebrews 12 goes on to describe arriving at ‘the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,’ and appearing before ‘God the judge of all.’ The author tells us to pursue peace with everyone while we can, not as a tepid instruction for us to try to become better people but as a warning that we are running out of time.
“I wonder how our lives might be different if we took this caution to heart. What could it mean for us to treat others the way we would if it were our last day on earth? Would we stop putting off the hard work of rekindling marriages, reconciling with siblings, and reconnecting with parents or children? Maybe we should give it a try—our time is always shorter than we think.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Do you have a relationship that needs mending?”
