Sermon
No doubt you have heard the phrase, “If I have seen farther than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” The metaphor has traveled from medieval times, through the centuries and made its way to titles used by rock bands and heavy metal bands, television programs like The Big Bang Theory and The X-Files, as well as numerous scientists and scholars ranging everywhere from Professor Proton to Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking. It is a sentiment usually used when one wants to acknowledge that those that have gone before us have made it possible for us to have or do the things that make up our lives. It is primarily a statement of humility, giving credit for one's success to the advances made by predecessors.
Because of those before us, we don't have to re-invent the wheel, we don't have to start at square one, we can begin where those before us have left off – like a relay race. If I could draw a picture, I would try to draw lots of people running, holding the baton out in front of them, and one person ahead of them, looking back, getting to choose which baton they grab, and run with it. Scientists, running, holding out the baton filled with inventions, knowledge, ideas, and the next curious person taking the baton. Artists, running, holding out the baton filled with colors, shapes, sounds, textures, medium, energy, and the next curious person taking that baton. Teachers running, holding many batons out in front of them – which one will a student grab? Writers, engineers, musicians, doctors, athletes, leaders, scholars, parents – all standing on the shoulders of previous practitioners.
This is part of what we think about when celebrate the saints. Those that have gone before us and are now gone, but maybe passed a baton on to us. The people whose lives we celebrate today are those who have been saints to us. Loved ones who were family, or friends, or heroes, or just someone special. While we sometimes think of the Church and Saints as people like Mother Teresa, or people that the Catholic Church has beatified1 and thus has declared a deceased person one step closer to sainthood, we might think of saints as perfect people. Here is one description of what happens with beatification. “The Pope declared that one of the deceased faithful lived a holy life and/or died a martyr's death and is now dwelling in heaven. As a process, the beatification consists of a years-long examination of the life, virtues, writings, and reputation for holiness of the servant of God under consideration.” The saints that we celebrate today that are close to our hearts, are human, imperfect, flawed, loving people who are now in heaven with God. Our celebration of saints is not as rigorous as the beatification process. We don't have a list of criteria that has anything to do with a close examination of the life of our loved one in order to give them special status. Our faith through Christ tells us that everyone who is in Christ is worthy and that each person we love who we have lost to death is now with God.
Today's text from Hebrews is a perfect text to share on a day when we remember people who have died. All throughout Hebrews the author has been a kind of teacher, explaining how one function of Jesus and his impact on our lives is as a high priest, different from any other high priest. Finally, we read something about a high priest that we can relate to, even though we don't have high priests or temples or sacrifices in the same way as the audience for this letter would have. Before we can understand Jesus as a high priest who enters the temple, we need to more closely define what a temple is. The temple a high priest from ancient Israel would have entered was a human construct. It was a building made my human hands. A sanctuary, made by human hands. A mere copy of the true one – the temple Jesus entered into was the true temple, heaven itself. The place where Jesus was in the presence of God. Our trinitarian understanding of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit as one, helps us to read today's text knowing that when we die we will go to this same heaven, to the true temple, to remain in God's presence.
We can enter the true temple of heaven without a sacrifice of blood because our price of admission you might say, has already been paid. When Jesus died on the cross he gave a sacrifice through his blood for all. Everyone who believes this is a beneficiary of this sacrifice. Just belief. That's all. No specific acts required; no limitations on the type of person we are; no statements, speeches, proof of any status is required. Everyone who believes in him has life eternal, after their earthly life is over. We mortals who die only once, will be received by Christ who is eternally seeking us.
The concept of Jesus dying in our place, to pay our debt, to cover our admission, to forgive our sins, whatever language we use – is difficult to understand. We can only use metaphors. The most important thing to keep in mind when trying to understand this concept is that our reality is different than the reality Christ has in mind for us. One commentator says, “Christ draws us into a divine reality, a divine reality where suffering is neither requested nor required, particularly in a systematic, repeating sense.”2 In that divine reality when we say Christ died for us, we mean that as a community of believers, Christ died once for all of us. Listen to these two perspectives from which to view Jesus dying for our sins. Instead of thinking that Christ died for me, and for you, and for you, and for you, etc. until all believers are accounted for – where we add 1 plus 1 plus 1 plus 1 plus 1 until we come up with ALL – we can thing of starting with ALL and think of you, and me, and you, and you, and you as included in the ALL. While we do have personal relationships with Christ in our hearts, in our lives, thinking of Christ as dying for individuals doesn't emphasize the communal nature of the whole Christian faith, doesn't consider that we are the Body of Christ.
As it says in 1 Corinthians 12, we are both individuals and the whole, at the same time. 1 Cor. 12 says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
Hebrews is unique in that Jesus' sacrificial act is finally put in a context where the impact of that act is explained. Just as the high priest would have to offer blood that was not his own, over and over and over again, Jesus becomes both the high priest and the offering. The impact and magnitude of that is that the new covenant was initiated by that act. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper this morning, we remind ourselves of that fact. Commentator Israel Kamudzandu writes, “The meal as it is celebrated in many congregations is a reminder of the implications, meaning, and function of the “Christ Event,” which is in essence, the inauguration of the new covenant. In fact, Jesus makes it a point at the Last Supper, when he lifted the cup and says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20; Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24). It is only in Hebrews that readers would fully understand the magnitude of Jesus' words, and consequently help Christians to appreciate the partaking of the meal as a celebration of the new covenant.”3
As a community we have seen death quite a bit just in the last few months. As a community too, you have seen death too many times in the years you have known one another. Today is a day to remember that. It's okay to feel sad at the same time as we celebrate the lives we have lost. The depth of the loss may feel unbearable here on earth where we are constrained by time and space and gravity. While it may lessen over time, the pain is never completely gone. Gradually our experience of pain and loss becomes a part of us and we lean into our faith which reminds us of what a mystery life and death together really are. While these loved ones are gone from us physically, we know that they are eternally in the true temple, eternally in heaven with God.
Amen.
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1 Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name.
2 Katherine A. Shaner, Associate Professor of New Testament, Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Winston-Salem, N.C., Working Preacher commentary from 11/2018.
3 Israel Kamudzandu, Associate Professor of New Testament Studies, Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Mo., Working Preacher commentary from 11/2015.