The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Let Us Draw Near... To Where? Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Today’s Epistle cries out to all Christians, “*Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, and with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water*.” Dear Christian friends: God’s gifts of Baptism and Holy Communion make His Scriptures easier to understand. This is especially true of the book of Hebrews, and especially true of the Words in today’s Epistle, “*Let us DRAW NEAR to God*.” Drawing near to God is a repeated idea in the book of Hebrews. · Today’s Epistle echoes what was written earlier in Hebrews chapter 4: “*Let us… DRAW NEAR to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need*” (Hebrews 4:16). · Again, from chapter 7, “*Through hope we DRAW NEAR to God*” (7:19). · “[Jesus] *is able to save to the uttermost those who DRAWN NEAR to God through Him*” (v. 25). · Finally, from chapter 11, “*Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would DRAW NEAR to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him*” (v. 6). These important Bible passages make it clear that I need God’s gift of faith (11:6) and hope (7:19) and even a “*true heart*” in order to “*draw near to God*.” That is good. However, these Bible passages say nothing about where exactly God is, how I shall go about drawing near to Him, or how I will that have arrived there. To be fair, there are plenty of other places in the Book of Hebrews that speak about where God is, but these passages only seem to make it more difficult—more impossible—for me to “*draw near*.” Where is our God, according to the book of Hebrews? Seemingly, far away. Thus it is written. · “*After making purification for sins*, [Jesus] *sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high*” (1:3) where “*God has put everything in subjection under His feet*” (2:8). · “*We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God*” (4:14). · “*Christ did not enter holy places made with hands… but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God*” (9:24). All of these passages, and others like them, make our God sound very far away. This seems to make the question more complicated, what does it mean that I should “*draw near to God*”? How do I do that? · It would be ridiculous to think that we could build a ladder or tower that could bring us “*through the heavens*” (4:14) to the “*throne of grace*” (4:16). The people in the town of Babel got that big idea, and they ended up incurring God’s judgment against them (Genesis 11). We should also bear in mind that we have thrown hundreds of satellites and rockets into space, and none of them have ever crashed into heaven. · Of course, many people will tell me that I am being deliberately stupid with the ladder idea. They would say that our “*drawing near to God*” must be done spiritually, in our hearts. After all, today’s Epistle states, “*Let us draw near with a true heart*.” That is all fine and good, but this second idea about spiritually ascending into heaven might be as bad as the first idea, which required a ladder. After all, how can I make my faith or my spirit rise above me? How can I tell the difference between spiritually drawing near to God and simply thinking of God in my imagination? Even if I could spiritually travel get to “*the throne of grace*” and how will I know when I have spiritually arrived? Forgive me for sounding glib, but I can listen to a hymn and say a prayer and tell myself that I am now spiritually with Jesus—and the guy who spends his Sunday morning worship time on the golf course can make the same claim. I’ll say it again: God’s gifts of Baptism and Holy Communion make His Scriptures easier to understand. · Yes, the Book of Hebrews makes our resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus sound as though He is very far away. The Holy Communion teaches us to believe that the far-away Jesus has actually drawn quite near—as near as the bread and wine that are His body and His blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of you sins. The Holy Communion allows us to see that drawing near to God in today’s Epistle is as simple as these Words, “*Take, eat*.” · Drawing near to God thus builds upon the idea that our God has first drawn near to us, and continues to do so. That was the point of John the Baptist’s preaching, who told spoke about the arrival of Christ by saying, “*The kingdom of heaven is near*” (Matthew 3:2). The twelve apostles were given the same sermon to preach concerning Jesus, saying to the people, “*The kingdom of God has come near to you*” (Luke 10:9). Even the book of Hebrews wants us to know that heaven is already in our midst. Hebrews chapter 12 speaks in the past tense: You have come [you have drawn near] to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24). All of this falls into place when we allow God’s gifts of Baptism and Holy Communion to explain His Scriptures. Do you wish to be near to God—near to His mercy, near to His forgiveness, near to His strength? Even more so, do you wish to be certain of your nearness? Come to the Holy Communion! As you heard in today’s Epistle, “*Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, and with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water*.” Look at that! Today’s Epistle not only calls upon us to “*draw near*” to our God almighty God and His throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) but it also explains how we may do so without fear: “*in full assurance of faith, and with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water*.” If that is not a reference to your Baptism into Christ, I do not know what is! In Baptism: · your body was miraculously washed with pure water. This washing of your body is not the sort that is done with shampoo or soap, but sort that is carried out with the Word of God, joined to water. Stated another way, when you washed your sins away in Baptism (Acts 22:16), you also washed onto your body the hope and the certainty of the resurrection. · your body was sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. That means you have nothing to fear from God. The Lord your God sees all things and He sees everything inside you—including and especially the things that burden your conscience. What does God in particular does God see inside of you? God sees that Baptism has sprinkled your conscience clean, even though you still feel as though your conscience is dirty. Simply stated, God sees stuff that you cannot see. Baptism is the “*sprinkling*” and “*cleansing*” that makes us worthy to “*draw near*” to God in the Holy Communion. Stated another way, we may gather at the altar of God to eat and drink the body and blood of our Lord, and we may do so in “*full assurance of faith*,” without condemnation, without doubt, without fear, without halfhearted devotion. We draw near with sprinkled consciences and cleansed bodies. By the power of Baptism we draw near to the power of the Holy Communion. That is where today’s Epistle takes us when we allow God’s gifts of Baptism and Holy Communion to make His Scriptures easier to understand. That is a good place to be.
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