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Sunday, April 13, 2014

"So Great A Salvation"

A Sermon Based Upon Hebrews 1: 1-4; 2: 1-4
By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Passion Sunday, April 13th, 2014

“Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.  For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1-3a NRS).

Escape what?   
Back at the beginning of February, the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was fresh in the America public mind.  Hoffman was noted as ‘perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired Actor of his generation.’   He won an Academy Award for his starring role as renowned literary figure, Truman Capote, was nominated three times for supporting roles in other films and also known as a Broadway star and director, taking on some of the most challenging and ‘burdensome’ roles.   In his final appearance on Broadway in 2012, Hoffman portrayed one of the most demanding, but most esteemed roles; that of Willy Loman, Arthur Miller’s title character in “Death of a Salesman.”  No one could portray “all-American optimism” mixed with the realities of “uncertainty” and “doubt” than Philip Seymour Hoffman, wrote one critic.  (http://www.nytimes.com/2014 /02/03/movies/philip-seymour-hoffman-actor-dies-at-46.html?_r=0).

Philip Seymour Hoffman could not ‘escape’ his addictions.  According to the NY Daily News, when they discovered his 46 year-old body in his rented New York apartment, they also found a heroin syringe with the needle still sticking in his arm.   It is reported that they seized 70 baggies of heroin, at least 50 of which were still unopened.  They also seized 20 hypodermic needles and five prescription drugs, including one drug used by heroin addicts to help kick a habit.   Hoffman became addicted to heroin all the way back in High School, when his talent was first discovered.   He has been fighting that addiction all of his life, being sober at times and then crashing again.  

For those who don’t find or respond to treatment, there little hope of escape.   Names of the gifted and talented who did not escape stand out in our minds;  names like Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison who all eerily passed away at the same young age of 27.   Others who could not escape, both sooner or later, have famous names Corey Montieth, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_drug-related_deaths).  Despite their talents, gifts, success or wealth (or perhaps partly because of them) they could not escape. 

Whatever you do, as you reflect upon this tragic death, don’t right off Hoffman as just another ‘drug addict’.  He was a devoted family man.  He was not only extremely talented in his work, but he related well to people and was much loved by those who worked with him.  When Phil Hoffman was only nine, his parents divorced.  Hoffman gave his energies to sports, but due to a neck injury, he started acting.  It was about that time, that young Phil Hoffman started drinking and became addicted.  Anyone who knows what addiction is, knows that it is a way to ease the unhealed pain of the soul.  The emotional and physical pain Hoffman experienced without healing,  along with the wealth that gave him easy access to the forbidden, left this gifted young man with no way to escape (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/03/philip-seymour-hoffman).

HOW CAN WE ESCAPE?
It is estimated that perhaps 10 to 15% of the human population, have what is known as “addictive personalities” and don’t know when to stop (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/look-it-way/200903/the-addictive-personality ).  I would reason that the figures go even higher, because the addiction problem is tied very closely to an emotional ‘co-dependency’ problem, which affects about 96% of the population (http://www.nytimes.com /1990/02/11/books/chances-are-you-re-codependent-too.html ).  The so called “Drug Czar” and right wing morality champion Bill Bennett, was also an ‘addictive personality’, hooked on both food and gambling.   His so called ‘War on Drugs’ was not simply about the ‘addiction’ of others, but it was more about a more common human struggle of the unhealed soul.   The truth is, people like us, that is, people who know pain in life, can get hooked on most anything: going to sporting events, lottery tickets, profanity, being political, and even on good and meaningful work, whom we innocently label as ‘workaholics’.  And guess what?   You can even go to Church too much, not just every Sunday, but why not twice a day, or 3 or 4 times a week?  Some people think that the more you go to church, the more faithful you are too God.  Some preachers don’t tell them any different, but encourage it, because it boosts attendance.  Some of the newer, contemporary churches are known as 7 day a week churches, becoming the only way to keep the ‘addictive’ society in church these days.   In other words, the way to grow church today, it seems, is to trade one form of addiction for another. 

Several years ago, the church I pastored, had a supportive relationship with a local “halfway house” for men who struggled with alcoholism.  That “halfway” house had a success rating higher than most other private or government sponsored institutions.  We had residents to speak to our congregation as part of their recovery effort.  What I noticed, from hearing their testimonies, is that the recovery strategy was to replace the very harmful addiction these men had with alcohol with a less harmful addiction to work and religious faith.  You could see that their new habits, like strict religious devotion and over regimented lifestyles, were just as overboard or excessive as their alcoholism.  But that kind of extreme discipline worked as a rehabilitation program because it fit their personality, until grace and health could reshaped their souls.   As I listened to these men speak, I was filled with more compassion for them and came to see them not as ‘those who struggle’ with an addiction, but as fellow strugglers in life.  It made me remember what I heard someone say when I was in clinical training for being a pastor: “We are all dysfunctional, but the only question that remains is level of our dysfunction.”

When the writer of Hebrews wrote ‘WE must pay greater attention’ so that “WE don’t drift away from what WE have heard’, and when he asks the rhetorical question: “How shall WE escape if we neglect so great a salvation’, he uses the word ‘WE’.   He is not talking about a problem that troubled some people, or a problem that put ‘other’ people at risk, but the writer of Hebrews is talking about a very human struggle that puts everyone at risk: “How shall WE escape…?”  What he writes about is a matter of life or death.  Why else would you listen to a really long sermon?  I’m not talking about this sermon, but the book of Hebrews is one, single argument, which makes for a very long sermon of 7, 281 words; almost 3 times longer than a normal sermon.  Why would we still be considering such an archaic, ridiculously lengthy argument?    

Of course, no one would have the attention span to listen so long, unless it was a matter of life and death.   If we ‘neglect’ or ‘lose’ our salvation---salvation from addictions, salvation from our worst selves, and salvation from our own best efforts to stay alive---such ‘neglect’ it is a matter of life of death.   For if we ‘drift’ away from the truth---the truth about ourselves or the truth about life---how can we escape the endless struggles, addictions, conflicts, and threats of life?   How can we escape the threats which can leave us forever and always vulnerable and susceptible to negative powers and influences which can take away both physical life and can rob us of our soul?   Our human ‘soul’ makes us more than living cells of protoplasm, but contains the ‘spirit’ and ‘image of God’.   Our soul reminds us that we are indeed made ‘just a little lower than angels’ and have been ‘crowned with glory and honor’ (Psalm 8) and that our lives are gifts that matter. 

But no matter how gifted or invincible we think we are, we are still at risk.  We are at risk of many things, but we are surely all at risk in our struggle with sin, death and the devil.  Jesus too said that his ‘spirit was willing’ but ‘his flesh was weak’ (Matt 26.41).   We are weak too, even if we think we are now very strong.  We are all ‘weak’ and ‘dependent’ creatures in need, which is a truth we will not always be able to neglect or deny, even if we are doing a pretty good job of it this moment.   

IF WE NEGLECT
Who would ‘neglect’ the loving rescue that would enable release you from destructive behavior that leads to a demoralizing, diminished life or destroyed life?  Why would someone with so much to live for give into powers that rob you of our loved ones and your own life?   But it does happen, doesn’t it?   Even talented, smart, and much loved people, neglect the rescue that is offered.  Hoffman neglected going back into rehab.  He neglected doing what rehab had taught him before.  He neglected the support from AA and NA.  He neglected to listen to ‘tough love’ from his girlfriend and he neglected his children, who needed him.  Why do people ‘neglect’ to do what they know they need to do?  We may write off Hoffman’s tragedy to the power of addiction, or the negative lifestyle of an addictive personality, but the truth is that even the ‘addictive personality’ has to neglect working against their own weaknesses, as do we all.  Even though we may not have an addictive personality, no matter how smart, how well grounded, how gifted or how blessed we are, we too can ‘neglect’ to do the things we know are good for us, right for us, or necessary for us to maintain our lives, our love and our faith in the future.

The writer of Hebrews speaks of ‘neglect’ because there was a real potential for ‘neglect’ (2.1) of the ‘heavenly gift’ (6.4) in the early Christian community.   And strangely enough, the writer of Hebrews says the kind of ‘neglect’ which put the Hebrew Christians at most risk was not what they were doing wrong, but it was what could fail to get right.   What they were about to ‘neglect’ or fail to get right was unthinkable, unreasonable, if not outright ridiculous: They were about to leave Jesus.  These Jews who had once decided to risk all and to follow, were now wondering whether Jesus was worth it, whether Jesus made any real difference in their lives than did Moses and the Law.   Of course they wouldn’t outright denounce Jesus, but perhaps they would pay less “attention” to him (2.1), or ‘neglect to meet together’ to worship him (10.25), or just ‘shrink back’ from going forward in faith (10.38).  

Let me simply say two things about the ‘neglect’ that was possible them, and still possible now.   First, our neglect of some very small things can lead to the neglect of a much bigger, more important things.   Later, in chapter 6:1 of Hebrews, the writer encourages ‘us to go on toward perfection (completion), leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ….”    This writer is not saying these ‘basic teachings about Jesus’ are unimportant; things like ‘repentance’, ‘baptism’, ‘laying on of hands’, ‘resurrection of the dead’, and ‘eternal judgment’ (6.2).   But he is saying these things are ‘basic’ and ‘foundation(al)’ for even greater things in our life.  Because we repent of dead works, good works should come alive in us.  Because we are rightly instructed in Baptism, baptism becomes a model of how we live our lives sacrificially every day.  Because we lay hands on and bless others, blessings of grace, goodness and love will grow in our communities, and because we believe in resurrection and eternal judgment, we change how we live our lives right now.   This major point Hebrews is making is by neglecting these basic things, the bigger and better things won’t happen. 

Several weeks ago, while I was working on this sermon, I received a phone call from a person working to raise money for a worthy cause.   The call was, however worthy, interrupting and intrusive to me.  So as they lady began her well-rehearsed speech, I interrupted her, asking, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, are you making this call on my behalf of on behalf of my work?’   If she had answered that she was calling as ‘on behalf of my work’ I would have taken the call.   But if she had answered that she was calling me as an individual, I would ask her to call back again.   But when I interrupted her prepared sales pitch with a question, she became confused.   After I repeated my question, “Is this call for me, or about my work, she paused, then finally responded, “Thank you sir,  someone will call you back later”, and she hung up.   Evidently she was not well trained in the most basic skill needed in sales, how to talk to a real person who asks real questions and expects real answers.   Because she was not trained in the most basic way, she missed moving to the ‘greater thing’ she wanted to accomplish, which was raising funds for her cause.

SO GREAT A SALVATION    
So, one problem of ‘neglect’ in the book of Hebrews is the neglect of the most basic, foundational, and simplest truths we have received from Jesus.  When we pay less attention to them, neglect to meet together for worship, or when we draw back from going forward in faith, we start to go backwards.  And though we might think we are only neglecting small things, the neglect of the most basic, can lead to the neglect of the most important thing that matters most----the neglect of following Jesus.   This is the ‘neglect’ the book of Hebrews is most concerned about: Neglecting our ‘great salvation’ can take us to the worse thing of all:  losing the very ‘faith’ that saves us (12: 39). 

I know that to hear a warning about ‘losing salvation’ is controversial, especially for Baptists.  Southern Baptists once fired a greatly respected and accomplished Baptist teacher, Dale Moody, for teaching that Hebrews proclaims that “Apostasy” is possible.  Moody taught that Hebrews reveals that if we neglect our faith in Jesus, it could result in losing salvation, just as many Jews lost their salvation by when they refused to go forward with God.  Interestingly, every major Baptist group in the world, outside of Southern Baptists, believes that we retain our ‘free will’ to ‘fall away’ from Jesus, even after we have ‘tasted’ and ‘shared’ in the ‘heavenly gift’ of His blessings.  Some still prefer the non-biblical slogan “Once Saved, Always Saved” than to be warned by Scripture, which says, “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt (Hebrew 6:4-6 NRS).    

I know that’s very scary language, but this is not meant as an accusation or threat, but as a warning.   It is very important for us to realize that it does not mean we can slip and fall out of God’s love or lose your salvation accidently.  Remember Jesus explained that the Father shelters us in his hand, and nothing can snatch us out (John 10.28).   Neither does it mean that when you neglect God in your life, that God will neglect to forgive you (1 John 1.9).  The God of the Bible and the God of Jesus Christ does not work that way.  The God of the Bible sent Jesus to die for us ‘while we were sinners’ (Romans 5.8) and this certainly means that he still loves us, even if we fail, even we fall down or even if we sin again.   I think that the slogan “Once Saved, Always Saved” intended to convey this angle of assurance.  Even Hebrews says that Jesus’ sacrifice was made ‘once and for all’ (7.27).   But even though nothing can ‘snatch’ us out of God’s protective hand, this does not mean we can’t walk out on our own.  Who would want to do that?   Some of the Hebrew Christians did.  And even though it sounds like madness, there are still those who would neglect ‘so great a salvation’ that they leave Jesus behind by his Lordship over their lives trading him for some substitute. 

The point of Hebrews is making is not that we lose our salvation accidently, nor that we lose it by committing a sin, but the point is that we can lose salvation by neglecting the very ‘source’ (5.9) of the ‘great’ salvation’ we have been given(2.3).  We put ourselves at risk when we ‘fall away’ or ‘neglect the “Son”,  whom God has “appointed’ to be the ‘reflection of God’s glory’, the ‘exact imprint of God’s very being’, who ‘sat down’ in the God’s place of power, and now ‘sustains all things by his powerful word.’( 1. 2-3).   All this overwhelmingly religious language is simply a reminder to them and for us, that Jesus is the true way God has chosen to ‘speak’ and to ‘save’, and if we neglect, leave, or deny him, we lose everything God has to give. 

Several years I came across a testimony of a Christian pastor, who admitted that as a teenager, they left Jesus.    They grew up Presbyterian, graduated Harvard, got involved with Unitarian churches, and eventually became a Unitarian pastor and then ministered to faith and hope without Jesus.  They talked about all the great lessons of faith, and even challenged people in the matters of faith and life, but they left Jesus out of it.   It all went well for a while, but then one day, this preacher had to admit something:  They swallowed hard and admitted they missed Jesus.  They missed the stories, the songs, and the worship of Jesus.  They missed the great fact that Jesus is only one who says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son….”  They missed everything taught them in their childhood.   But now, suddenly, after leaving Jesus they now apprehended just how important Jesus is to faith and they realized how much they needed his presence in life.  It was sort of like like the person who wrote, “Everything I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten.”  They realized,  that everything they ever needed, for life and for salvation, they had received from Jesus.

Is Jesus really the ‘reflection of God’s glory’?  And do we really risk losing everything if we neglect him?  During the hype and height of Nazism in Germany, it is frightening to look back at the German Churches, and to see how they neglected and eventually surrendered their faith in Jesus and put faith in Adolf Hitler.  It could have been otherwise.  In those days, most people in Germany were members of the two state churches: Lutheran and Catholic.  So where was the voice of sanity against Hitler’s insanity?  Most of the Church, gave in to the rhetoric or to the fear, and only a few stood up to say, “Only Jesus is our Lord and the Kingdom of God is our goal, not Adolf Hitler or the Third Reich (Kingdom).”  Although there were a few who realized what was happening, they were either too late, or outnumbered by the majority’s opinion and by Hitler’s ruthless tactics.  But what those few faithful Christians also realized was even more sobering, according to Eric Metaxas, an evangelical writer, who has recently written a biography of one of the Christian pastors who did oppose Hitler.   That pastor noted that because the of church and the people’s neglect of Jesus as being God’s only true word, even Christians would share in the judgment that was about to rain down from the skies above.  In fact, he even prayed for defeat of his nation, so they would pay for the suffering they had brought to the world (From Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Thomas Nelson, 2010,  p. 387).       


In this world, there are many distractions,  ideas, opinions and even faiths that can lead you away from “Jesus”, but  Hebrews says only Jesus, is the ‘reflection of God’s glory’, and the ‘exact imprint of God’s very being.’   This does not mean that God cannot or does not speak to us in other ways, and even through the hungering for truth in other religions.   But whenever God speaks, whether in nature, through religion, in the Bible or in our hearts, God will never speak contrary or greater than he ‘spoke to us by a Son’ (Hebrews 1.2).  Hebrews reminds us, and it also warns us, that if we deny, if we leave, and if we neglect the ‘word’ that has spoken the truth, and if we ‘fall away’ there remains nothing else that can save us.  There is no other way of ‘escape’ from the inevitable reality we all face, for there is no truer ‘voice’ for God or way to the heart of the Father, but through his Son, Jesus.  Don’t neglect the “great salvation” you still need in him.  Amen.      

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