Pentecost XIV
Psalm 112
Ecclesiasticus 10:7-18
Hebrews 13:1-8
Luke 14:1, 7-14
+ In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
THE BOOK OF HEBREWS is not so much an epistle as it is a sermon, in written form, with some personal remarks from the preacher tacked on at the end.1 Clement of Alexandria and Origen thought Paul had written Hebrews, but it’s so different from Paul’s other letters that almost nobody today believes he wrote it. It’s clear whoever wrote it was a pastor with a pastor’s heart, writing to people so beaten down by persecution that they were close to giving up on the gospel. The first part of chapter 13 has had more of an impact on me personally than almost any other portion of the bible when it comes to discerning our family’s vocation, our calling to ministry, to the city and to this church. In particular, I heard Tim Keller preach a sermon 2 on this passage that changed my life because God used it to show that my vision of Christian life had been a puritanical attempt never to sin, when what really makes life worth living is to know God, and you can’t know God by yourself: It takes authentic Christian community. I’d ask ten minutes to share some of what I learned, borrowing liberally from that sermon (as preachers do), because Hebrews 13 is not just another spiritual to-do list; it’s a description of authentic Christian community.
(1) It’s a community that loves inside itself – The passage begins “Let ‘brotherly love’ continue.” Philadelphia, in Greek, is affection for a fellow Christian, 3 love shared among the brothers and sisters inside the believing community. If we want an example of what it looks like, look at the love inside a family.
a. Family love is radically non-discriminatory and non-judgmental because of the diversity of the family – In a family, you don’t decide who is inside the family and who is outside: They’re just there. I don’t have any siblings, but one set of siblings lives in my house, so every day I learn a little about the relationship between brothers and sisters. There are at least a few minutes every day when Ellie and Patrick don’t like each other very much. They are family, but Ellie likes dolls, stickers and dressing up like a princess; Patrick likes baseball bats, crashing into the furniture and, for whatever reason, taking off his clothes. But at the end of the day, they are family; they belong to each other, and if you ask Ellie why she loves Patrick, it won’t be because they share hobbies. She loves him because he’s her brother.
b. Family love is radically generous – In some ways, a family only flourishes to the degree that its weakest member flourishes. In other words, if one family member has a need, the family can’t flourish until that need is met, so that need sets the priorities of the whole family. When Renee’ and I had children, we gave up the right to use our financial resources however we want. I’d like to use our money to buy a plasma TV to watch the Red Sox play, but I don’t have the last word about how I use my money because it’s not my money, it is the family’s money. As long as one of us has a need, our resources funnel to making sure that need is met first.
c. Our Christian family will look like that, too – We’ll be diverse, but we’ll love each other and do everything in our power to see that no one in the family has a need that goes unmet. We’re going to be Conservatives and Liberals who come from different races, different social strata, old money, new money and no money. Some of us like church to be steady and predictable because of the dizzying changes elsewhere in the culture. Others thrive on finding new ways to know and worship and serve God. But we’re a family, so we go all out to accept each other, love each other and meet each other’s needs no matter what. That’s the first mark of authentic Christian community.
(2) It’s also a community that loves from the inside out – While we’re letting “brotherly love continue,” verse 2 tells us not to forget to show “hospitality.” It’s not philadelphia;4 it’s philaxenia, love that looks outside the family for its object, love of the “stranger,” the outsider who may be “surprising, unsettling, sinister.” 5
a. What a balance! Dr. Keller put it this way in his sermon: “Verse one says work like crazy at loving the insiders, people with your same beliefs, people that you know. Verse two says make sure you work incredibly hard at loving outsiders. There is intensity and openness . . . . The word xenia in Greek means a stranger, but as a verb it means ‘to take in a guest,’ so philaxenia is an incredibly strong word and a very gospel word. Philaxenia means to love, to open your living space, to open your wallet, to open your resources to people who otherwise you’d be suspicious of.” 6
b. My own family has lived in small-town Mississippi and in a suburb north of Boston, and this verse is exactly why we want to build our lives in the heart of this city because there’s no better place to practice this aspect of community than in a city. Here at the corner of 12th and Mass., we are surrounded by thousands of people who live in these condominiums, walk by our church on the way to work, but never think about coming inside our doors. Our vision is to open our lives to the people around us in every way we can in pursuit of the joy this kind of authentic Christian community promises.
(3) Finally, this community loves “upside-down” because it puts the needs of others over the needs of its members – Instead of always trying to climb the social ladder by accumulating shiny friends and upward-mobility, Hebrews says “remember them that are in bonds . . . and them which suffer adversity,” and “keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have . . . .”
a. It’s fun to be hospitable to the people who know all the right restaurants. Our instinct is to be social-climbers. But what’s the upside to loving the outcast or the prisoner? An authentic Christian community selflessly loves people who offer us absolutely nothing in return because we aren’t always clamoring for status and power and things we don’t have; we are content. Today’s gospel: “Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14.12-15 (NIV))
When I heard Dr. Keller’s sermon and read these verses, I thought “That is what I’ve been looking for all this time. Christianity isn’t vowing not to drink, smoke, chew or go with girls who do; it’s this. This is what will really satisfy my soul.” But try to explain that to the average guy on the street and he’ll ask “Even if you wanted to live like that, how could you ever get the power to do it?”
The answer is the gospel gives us the power, and the Preacher of Hebrews shows us something of it in two places, one that’s just before this passage we’re studying today, and then toward the end of today’s passage. Chapter 12 (not in bulletin) ends with these words: “Our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12.29) It’s a quote from Deuteronomy warning the Israelites never to forsake their God to worship idols because God is jealous and would burn them up if they break covenant with him. (Deut. 4.24) They do eventually worship idols, just like today we idolize money and status or power and pleasure. But the Hebrews writer doesn’t stop with God being a consuming fire: In verse 5 he says “[God] has said ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’”
How can that be? How can a God whose anger flares against sin ever promise that no matter what we do, he’ll never leave us? The gospel says Jesus took our sin into himself and was crucified to reconcile us to God, so now we never have to worry about God turning his back on us again. And that sets us free. Free to become a community of philadelphia, even though brothers and sisters disagree and don’t always play together well. Free for philoxenia, to throw open our lives to strangers with no thought of what we get in return. Free from the fear that keeps us from standing with prisoners and the oppressed. Free to be content to share however much or little we have because Jesus “grasps our one hand in love and . . . frees us to open the clenched other one and let the money go.” 7 Free to follow this vision of a community of radical love that stands as a sign for the world of what real life can be.
+ In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
1. New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, D. A. Carson, et al., eds. (Downer’s Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1994): 1321.
2. Sermon by Dr. Timothy J. Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on 24 April 2005. An .mp3 of the sermon is downloadable from www.redeemer.com.
3. Bauer, W., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3d ed. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000): 1055.
4. Hans Freiherr von Soden, “Adelphos,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. I, ed. Gerhard Kittel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964): 145.
5. Gustav Stälin, “Xenos,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. V, ed. Gerhard Kittel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964): 2-3.
7. Thomas G. Long, "Hebrews," in Interpretation: A Bible Cmt for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, Ky.: John Knox Press, 1997): 144
© 2007 Sam Wood
