“Constance”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, January 28, 2022
Hebrews 10:11-25 (Forward, p. 91) CEV p. 1266
I know that Constance, like Verity, Faith, Chastity, and Temperance are some of those old ‘virtue’ attributes that have fallen out of favour today as girl’s or women’s given names, but there is, to my way of thinking, still something good about them.
If there was one word that epitomized today’s Scripture passage, it would be that one word, Constance, or Constancy. Interestingly, our author holds up that virtue in a number of contexts, all of which just ‘happen’ to also start with the letter ‘c’”
Courage: we can have the necessary courage to enter the Most Holy Place, a place that was once barred to all but the High Priest, and even that, only once a year. And why is that? It is because an even greater sacrifice has been offered, a once for all sacrifice, in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The sacrifice of the priests needed to be continually offered, day after day, because they could never suffice for the sins of all of humankind. But now the sacrifice of Jesus is good forever, for all time. And, now instead of the fear and trembling that characterized the yearly ‘visit’ of the High Priest to that Most Holy Place, a natural born hesitancy lest he be struck down, we can have courage, even boldness, in accessing it.
Confidence: we can have confidence because of what Christ has done for us, and because we have set our faith upon Him and His once for all time sacrifice. We know resolutely that He has ‘done the job’ for us, and that that ‘job’ sticks!
Conscience: nevertheless, it is of the utmost importance that we keep our hearts and consciences clearly fixed upon Jesus Christ, pure and free from evil. It is so easy, because of the deceitfulness and lure of sin, to drift away from that hope and that confidence that our ours because of what Christ has done.
Community: and finally, we should help each other, encourage each other, and above all, stick together. That means that we should continue constantly with our corporate worship and our fellowship, and not fall away from either. This way we can encourage each other in the faith, of course, but also in being thoughtful and helpful to each other.
All of this presupposes one other ‘c’, which actually is the entire focus of the Letter to the Hebrews, which is Christ. He is the be-all and end-all to everything in our lives and in our faith, and we should constantly stick to Him, and trust in Him in everything that we do, think or say. Amen.
Forward notes: “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (verse 23-25).
“Hope is a courageous thing. To hold hope in the face of suffering—to grip hope when we’ve lost and endured so much—is a brave deed. I think of those who migrate from country to country, seeking freedom to speak, freedom to work, freedom to find rest, and much more. It takes an insurmountable amount of hope to journey from one country to another, to traverse borders into new lands, languages, and cultures. People who migrate have their feet in multiple realities: they do not know if they will be welcomed with open arms or closed doors.
“What kind of hope does it take to make a new home in a foreign land? How might we be agents of God in embracing that hope and provoking one another to love and good deeds?”
MOVING FORWARD: “Have you ever moved to a new country or community? What role did hope play in that transition?”
