Sermon October 28, 2012

First Presbyterian Church – Willmar

October 28, 2012

“Once and For All”

Hebrews 7:23-28

Margaret Mitchell’s original working title for what we know as “Gone With The Wind” was “Tomorrow Is Another Day.”  “Tomorrow” is a mantra for Scarlett, and the final line in the book says:  "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."

We get a bit obsessed with tomorrow.  Remember the lines from Annie:

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

I’m sure somewhere, some poet or songwriter must also have written about the day after tomorrow.  We sometimes think that we can take in greater horizons.  We sometimes even call things “long range plans” or even more humorously we make long range weather forecasts.

The problem is that we are human, so very human.  The further out in a time horizon that we go, the more clouded and subjective our thinking becomes.  It’s nice to have goals, but stating our goals is not the same as plotting an accurate forecast.

It’s not much wonder that we have a hard time with God’s concepts of “eternity” and “forever.”  Even when we apply these concepts to God’s reign, they are just words.  They are the best approximation of what we think might describe God’s attributes in terms that we can understand.

For ever is a long, long time.  In Hebrews the writer says that Jesus “continues for ever” as our high priest because he “has been made perfect for ever.” Perhaps more importantly, from our own selfish perspective, His priestly sacrifice is sufficient for our need because His sacrifice was given and accepted once and for all for our redemption.

Perhaps “once and for all” is a notion that we can relate to a little better.  Parents break up a fight between children and say:  “That’s it!  It’s over!  No more!”  Or we may say: “Just this once.”  Or simply, “Once and for all, here’s my answer.” 

Then again, maybe it’s not any easier to actually observe than “forever.”  When you say “Once and for all…” how many more times do you think you are likely to say the same thing? 

In Christ, God has given us some pretty incredible gifts.  Have you ever said that?  When you say that you are acknowledging that what God has given us in Christ is literally beyond our capability to understand.  From a rational point of view it is not believable.

But there you have it.  The gifts that God has given us are beyond human comprehension. 

A few minutes ago we celebrated the sacrament of Baptism.  We prayed:

Pour out your Spirit upon us and upon this water, that this font may be your womb of new birth. [How’s that for a female image of God?] May all who now pass through these waters be delivered from death to life, from bondage to freedom, from sin to righteousness.

We have been redeemed, restored to life anew.  It is once and done, now and forever.  But “once and done” and “now and for ever” are not things that we can live up to.  We stumble.  We fall.  We crash.  Again and again.

Thank God our redemption is not left up to us! 

The other night Karen and I were watching one of our favorite English detectives on a DVD:  Inspector Morse.  The story involved a scam involving the liberation of one’s “self.”  We spend a great deal of money in this society pursuing what we euphemistically call “self help.”

Despite the incredible good news of the Gospel people still become obsessed with the notion that they can save themselves!  Perhaps it’s because the good news is indeed so incredible.

A lot of people even treat the Bible as if it were a “self help” manual. They thumb through the scriptures looking for Band-aid verses to stick over the cuts and bruises in their lives. Today’s epistle text pointedly reminds us that the whole of the gospel is the antithesis of a “self help” message.

The epistle lessons that we have been following for the last few weeks use a very old fashioned example of human priesthood to show us just how different the priesthood of Jesus is.  What the author is saying is that there is no “self help” that works for humanity.  There is no human priest who can offer a lasting sacrifice for our redemption. 

There is only the redeeming sacrifice willed by God and obediently followed and fulfilled by Jesus.  After the life, and the victorious death, after the resurrection, there is no illusion of any “self help” formula. We simply have the assurance that “Jesus saves,” once and for all, now and for ever!

And it’s all so very incredible; so very hard to believe.  God doesn’t ask us to try and appease God’s wrath.  God doesn’t ask us to be perfect.  God asks that we believe what has been done for us in the unbelievable gift that is Jesus Christ, and that we live our lives in grateful response to this grace that we cannot begin to comprehend.

We will stumble today.  Despite all our optimism, we are likely to stumble tomorrow as well.  There is no magic in tomorrow for we are still human.  But there is redemption.  There is salvation open to us today and tomorrow and into eternity because of God’s Son who has been made perfect forever. 

Like blind Bartimaeus in our Gospel lesson this morning, we will never come up with our own solution; we will never be able to help ourselves in any meaningful way.  But by placing our faith in the eternal lordship of Jesus we shall be made whole and “be delivered from death to life, from bondage to freedom, from sin to righteousness.”

Thanks be to God.

Amen.