Hebrews 13:1-8
We have turned the page, as it were, in the Letter to the Hebrews. Chapter thirteen highlights the practical aspects of our faith. One commentator began the chapter in a captivating manner:
“Sex, power, money, suffering. Tomorrow morning’s newspaper will be full of it; it’s what sells, it’s what some people think makes the world go round. Meanwhile you can look through the newspaper from end to end for a mention of Jesus. There may be one or two hints [probably not], but he won’t dominate the urgent trivia that is pushed at us day by day and week by week.
“Yet here, in the closing chapter of one of the great documents of early Christianity, we find sex, power, money, suffering – and Jesus. What’s more, he’s the one who makes sense of all the rest. He is the same ‘yesterday, today and forever’. The writer wants us to realize that, if your faith is firmly rooted in him, none of the forces that blow people off track and into the newspapers need harm you.” (N.T. Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, p.168)
If we get our picture of Jesus right, the huge issues in the other verses will begin to fall into place. The practical life of the Christian community must be ordered in such a way that generosity and love – the love, of course, that reflects and continues to embody God’s own self-giving love – will be its central features.
Join us this week as we begin this final chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews and learn how it is that God wants his church to be ordered. Hope to see you Sunday.
In His Grace,
Pastor Wayne
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