Feeding God's People

Hebrews 4:12-16New International Version (NIV)

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

This time of year allows me to do a lot of thinking.  I haven’t yet figured out if that is a good thing or not.  As I have been hauling the crops in and putting them into a bin, I couldn’t help but to think about how farming has changed over the course of time.  We fed some protein tubs to the cows and calves yesterday and I couldn’t help to think about how the April and May calves have grown since they were born.  I look around the area and see the massive combines, auger carts and semis and wonder what my great-grandpa Art or great-grandpa Wallace would say at the sight of these machines.  I would venture to say that the could have never imagined the size of modern day equipment.  From 1860-1940 the average corn yield per acre was around 30 bushels for the US.  But starting in 1956 the average corn yield in the US has been steadily increasing through the years with its peak in a recent year that was more than 160 bushels.  The averaged dressed weight for a slaughtered calf has gone from 541 lbs in 1921 to 784 lbs in 2009.  So you can see the increase in corn yield and dressed calf weight.  Farming has changed dramatically.  Farmers are now able to produce a lot more product on the same amount of acres.  Today’s farmer is way more efficient with their time, money and energy than their historical counterparts.  The greatest benefit of this increased production?  We are better able to feed those who cannot produce their own food.  I know farmers do not like the sound of this but the increased efficiency of production also keeps the prices lower giving the poor a better chance to access food.  Now, this isn’t a lecture on modern farm practices and its correlation to feeding more people.  But these changes in farming practices will help us to better understand our scripture for this morning.  

“The word of God is alive and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  There is a certain brutality to this scripture.  It almost sounds threatening.  God’s word, logos, will penetrate our innermost being.  But we too will have to give an account and be judged according to God’s words.  Our lives, actions, thoughts and deeds, will be laid bare before God.  The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that God knows and sees all.  The imagery of the sword penetrating both body and spirit seem to serve as a warning and not a pleasant one at that.  “Nothing is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.”  These scriptures seem to be a threat to “straighten up or else.”  The church and society has used this model through much of its history to keep people and culture in check.  Fear has been used to help keep us in line.  For example, why do I not go rob a bank?  For fear of going to prison.  Why do I not speed.... that much?  For fear of having to pay a fine.  There are countless examples of this kind of behavior correction that is used to keep Christians and society in check.  Why do I go to church?  For fear that I will lose God’s favor.  Why do I give each week?  For fear that God will cast me down if I don’t.  For much of our history, church leaders would stop their sermons after verse 13 and use fire and brimstone to scare people to God.  Just like the farmer, if we are going to feed more and more people we need to change our practices.

Today, prisons are full so the fear of going there must not be keeping people from doing things that land them there.  There are still people who speed and have to pay fines for doing so which means the threat of paying a fine is not enough to deter that behavior.  Every week but one this year we have had a mass shooting so the fear of taking someone else’s life no longer bothers a very small portion of our society.  And on that note, more details of the shooting in Oregon have emerged.  We know that the shooter targeted Christians but I couldn’t help but to think about those who answered the question he posed.  They had to know the result of answering that question.  If they didn’t at first, the second person who answered that question most certainly knew their fate.  And yet they found the strength and courage to answer that question of whether or not they were Christian.  I am not certain I could have answered as they did knowing what was about to happen.  It breaks my heart to think about it.  Someone so filled with hate tried to scare Christians into not confessing Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  And it didn’t work.  There continued to be others who answered that fateful question looking down the barrel of a gun.  More proof that fear doesn’t work.  That person tried to scare faithful Christians into denying their faith.  In the face of evil, even Satan, the reward of eternal life and the impact God had their life trumped that evil, they conquered that fear in the truest meaning of the word.  Fear and scare tactics do not work and it is not how God operates.  

The High Priest was the only one who could enter the Holy of Holies one time out of the year.  It was an appointed position by his peers.  In the daily and once a year sin offerings the High Priest could temporarily cover the sins of believers.  When the writer of Hebrews declares Jesus the New High Priest all of that changed.  The Holy of Holies, the presence of God, was opened to all.  This position was appointed by God Himself lending the term eternal to the title.  And the sacrifice for sin was no longer temporary.  That is what it means to declare Jesus a new, and much different, High Priest.  Jesus is able to empathize and understand our weakness because he lived it.  He faced temptation and did not sin.  Jesus lived just as we do.  He understand us both physically and spiritually.  Jesus didn’t come to earth as a worldly leader and use force to spread his message.  He didn’t conquer and scare.  He loved and understood.  Here is the key that ties it all together: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  God knows everything about you and He doesn’t use that knowledge to scare you into faith.  He uses that knowledge to help us to understand just how big His grace has to be.  We do not have to fear.  We can now approach God with boldness.  The same kind of boldness exhibited by Treven, Sarena, Lawrence, Jason, Lucas, Kim, Quinn, Lucero, Rebecka, and a man who helped take down the deranged Oregon gunman Chris Mintz.  Where do we find strength and courage when facing heartache and evil?  It is at the throne of grace that we now can approach with confidence.  

Farmers have changed their practices to better feed the world.  Christians need to take note if we are to continue to do the same.  God could DEMAND our lives as a sacrifice but He doesn’t.  Instead, He gives mercy, grace and love.  God gives instead of takes.  Evil demands, takes, pillages, steals,and threatens.  Jesus, the New High Priest, gives.  Approach God’s throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in your time of need.  Approach in confidence and boldness, not fear.  Amen.