“Seeing as”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Friday, April 7, 2023

Hebrews 10:16-25 (Forward, p. 68) CEV p. 1266

One of the most telling words found in the New Testament—at least in the Authorized Version, the King James Version—is the word ‘therefore’. We don’t find it in today’s passage, but it certainly is implied. The idea here is that ‘seeing as’ God has done certain things, therefore we should be responding in certain ways.

So, what is it that God has done?

-He has made a new covenant with us, one that is now written upon our hearts;

-He has forgotten our sins and evil deeds: no more will they be remembered against us;

-God, in Jesus Christ, has provided a new and living way to come into the nearer presence of God, namely through His blood, through the Cross;

-there is no longer any need for sacrifices as Christ has done it all for us.

But ‘seeing as’ God has done all this, we should act in certain ways:

-we can have a confidence, and indeed a boldness and a kind of courage in our dealings with God;

-we should keep our hearts pure and our consciences clear and free from all evil;

-we must hold on firmly to the hope that is ours and keep on trusting the one who has made this new covenant with us;

-we should encourage each other, be thoughtful to each other and try to be helpful with each other as we can;

-we should make it a habit to keep on worshipping together.

But, I think that it is rather interesting—and indeed, significant—that the word ‘encouragement’ shows up twice in this list of ‘do’s. I think that a lack of encouragement, a kind of wearing, insipient, pervasive discouragement is probably a sign and the prevailing condition of our times. Seldom do we find much to encourage ourselves—or each other—in this hectic and often disorderly and jumbled world. And so, if we can encourage each other in the church, and in the faith, in light of what God has already done for us, it would be good, very good indeed. Amen.

Forward notes: “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope” (verse 23a).

“Good Friday, the Great Vigil, and ordination services have my favorite collect. It begins: ‘O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him.’

“On this day when we remember Jesus’s crucifixion, may we also remember that our hope for the church is the hope of the cross: despite pain and suffering (and despite the church’s complicity at times with cultural genocide of Native peoples), there is still hope for racial healing, for listening to one another’s stories without judgment, for new ways of being and doing church. Before we confess our hope, we must first confess our sins, the ways in which we have sought not God’s will, but our will. Have mercy, Lord.”

Moving Forward: “Pray this prayer today, and confess your sins to God.”