This week, we welcome Rev. Kristin Joyner, our Pastor of Community Engagement, to the pulpit. Her sermon transcript is below:

I’m reading a book called Nomadland and I want to share something from the book, it’s about chapter 12 – close to the end of the story.

“While Linda put on a good face, the crisis had worn her down. ‘I was getting exhausted,’ she told me. ‘I am still helping, but I’ve pulled back.’ Meanwhile Thanksgiving dinner was still happening in the now-empty home. Costco and Ralph’s had run out of turkeys, she said, but the family would do just fine with ham.

In late December Linda and I spoke again. She told me that LaVonne had come to Mission Viejo and helped her get the family settled in to the RV. After that, Linda was ready to go back on the road. Everyone was sad she wouldn’t be around for Christmas. Audra cried.”

I realize that you don’t know what crisis this paragraph refers to, you don’t know who Linda or LaVonne are, why the home was empty, why she’s out on the road, who “she” is, and why was Audra crying!?

That’s how I felt when I heard the scripture for today!

Today is the 3rd in a series of “Life of Faith.” Two weeks ago, Pastor Wim talked about wandering in our faith and having other people support us which then would also encourage us to support others in their important journey of faith. Last week, Pastor Joe reminded us of the cloud of witnesses that we are surrounded by towards the building of God’s vision. We do not do it alone.

Today we look at the end of Hebrews 12.

Sometimes, reading a passage well into the letter can make sense right off the bat. But for me, dropping in on chapter 12 felt like coming into the middle of a conversation and it made me wonder “what got you here?”

I needed to do a review of the whole letter to the Hebrews in order to understand the importance of this scripture for today. So let’s go through a summary here together:

This letter of Hebrews is very concerned with convincing the audience, or the recipient of this letter – or some call it a sermon - of the divinity of Christ, and the importance of following Christ’s example. Which is the main point of our scripture today, to be honest, but you need the first 11 chapters to have it really hit home, or at least I do.

From the beginning, God spoke to us through prophets. Throughout this letter, Moses is brought up frequently as a familiar example. However, now that we have Jesus, we have an actual reflection of God and an exact imprint of God’s very being (1:3). Moses was not that.

Jesus is also superior to Angels. The messages through Angels were valid, so we are to understand that the Word of Jesus is even clearer than those messages from Angels and prophets.

Jesus was a human, a sibling to the rest of us humans. In the ways that Jesus served God, he too was tested and suffered. He is approachable.

All of this points out that Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses (3:3)! And, we know that there were people who were not obedient to what Moses had to say, and they received the wrath of God. The point will be emphasized later, if God’s wrath was on those who didn’t follow Moses – how much more wrath would come if you don’t follow Jesus!

For those who were not obedient were not allowed to enter the place of rest, the salvation of the land of Canaan.

That promise of “rest” is still open! The author of Hebrews doesn’t want another failure.

WE have Jesus – more important than Prophets, more human than Angels and who carries more weight than Moses. Jesus is a new High Priest.

Jesus wasn’t actually a High Priest, but what was the author saying about this? High Priests are humans called to (5:2-4) deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, who can sympathize with the person’s weaknesses, and it is the High Priest who will offer a sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. He does this because he is called by God to do this. For the people.

Jesus, the author points out, was called to this as well. However - High Priests had to offer sacrifices day after day for their own sins and for those of the people. Jesus offered the sacrifice once and for all time. His priesthood is permanent, while the others’ came and went. In addition, it is noticed that the law, which was so important to follow, well, “the law made nothing perfect” (7:19).

In the Temple there was the Holy Place where priests would go to carry out their ritual duties. But only the High Priest could go beyond that curtain into the Holy of Holies. The place called the Holy of Holies was where God was thought to be present. Once a year, the High Priest was to take the blood that he offered for himself and for the sins committed unintentionally by the people into this place in the presence of God. This had to be repeated yearly. About that, the author says that the Law and the Sanctuary were only a sketch and a shadow (8:5). Sacrifices there could never perfect the people. If they did, this ritual would not have had to be repeated yearly (10:1-2).

This is why we have the New Covenant. Of course, there would be no need for a New Covenant if that old one was still in play. A new covenant makes the old one obsolete.

Jesus Christ offered his sacrifice once and for all. This sacrifice was not in a man-made tent, a facsimile – this sacrifice was an actual entrance into the presence of God on our behalf. This had never happened – people could not enter into the presence of God, a High Priest had to do it for us! And this one - it couldn’t ever be done again. It was one time, for all, for eternity.

Jesus opened a path through the curtain, directly into the presence of God.

Now that we know all this – it would be a huge mistake to willfully persist in our sinful ways. You see, the audience of this sermon was trying to decide which God to follow, there were – and still are – other choices. They were trying to decide which laws were important and which sacrifices they should still be making. But - the sacrifice has been made, and there will never be a bigger sacrifice made!

This was, and still is, a difficult path and it takes persistence. We live into our faith knowing that our faith is an assurance of what we hope for and we are convicted in things that we haven’t seen yet (11:1)!

We know about those who persevered: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses’ parents, Moses, Rahab. They were wanderers, tortured, mocked and imprisoned and more – yet still – after all of that, they too did not receive what was promised (11:39).

When we finally get to chapter 12, we realize the history of wandering and cloud of witnesses that has brought us to this point.

Persevere, be disciplined, endure, the author says, so that we may share in God’s holiness. This isn’t something someone else, like a High Priest, can do for us. It’s not something a law can do for us. And not only do it for yourself, do it for others so that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. (12:14)

Our text today begins with the reminder that we are not at Mt. Sinai, the physical tempestuous place where Moses received the law in fear and trembling, with no form of God to be seen and belief that you would not live if you heard the words from God!

No, we are at Mt. Zion, beautiful and joyful in the presence of God and the saints that have gone before us. And here, do not ignore and do not be disobedient to the Word of God.

We had Prophets. We had Angels. We had the Law. We had High Priests and sacrifices and tithes and offerings. We had the place of the Holy and the Holiest of Holies. None of this made us perfect.

Jesus moved us beyond the curtain, tore down the barriers to the Holiest of Holies and gave us a direct, valid, human connection with God.

Going directly to the Holiest of Holies meant being in the presence of God!

This is about salvation in a whole new way. THIS GOD, THIS JESUS is not the kind of ruler, King, or Prophet from old. Salvation from rulers and Kings were designed to bring economic stability, defeat foreign oppressors, restore their fortunes and bring peace to the people. Not bad stuff, but not salvation for eternity!

THIS JESUS brings salvation for all eternity, to our souls! That wasn’t a part of the conversation previously. The Torah and the previous covenants were not about eternal life, they were about life in the now. Jews weren’t waiting for salvation of their souls.

This news – this covenant - is a game changer!

This was a time when there was a new question, a new concern. It was no longer about bringing peace just for the now, it was about peace for all eternity! It was about a relationship with God for all time. It was about our souls.

Jesus was the answer to this rising concern about our souls and about our connection to God - in a way that hadn’t been part of the discussion in Israel.

Israel had been a poor, oppressed, and conquered people for so long they were still seeking that ruler, that king, that priest that would bring about economic stability and defeat their oppressors.

And it’s easy to want to go to our old habits when it gets difficult. When things are hard, we try to find comfort in the way we’ve always done things.

But this author is saying -

Don’t go back to your old ways. We have a new way and that way is Jesus. We’re talking about something more than now; we are talking about eternity. Don’t give up on what you are hearing, what you are learning – keep going – even though it’s tough. This is when we remember our faith that is an assurance of what is hoped for and a conviction of what we’ve not yet seen!

God is a creator – always creating – always creative. When something is being created, it changes everything around it! When a new road is put in, it creates paths to new places. Those new places create the need for new roads.

We are still there – we are experiencing something new every single day. We are in places anew and seeing needs anew. We can’t go back to the old, we have to keep creating the new. We’ve got this amazing history, people’s shoulders and clouds of witnesses, we are hearing a warning to not give up our faith!

This scripture, this whole sermon of the Book of Hebrews reminds us of what we have gone through to get here. Like the first 11 chapters in Nomadland – you have to know what she went through to get there!

I’m not going to update you on Nomadland, but I will recommend you read it, or watch it – it's been made into a movie. And then, I promise you that paragraph I read to you will have more meaning.

We must sustain our faith! The author of Hebrews was warning us against deserting our history, our knowledge, our cloud of witnesses. We are warned to not abandon our faith.

The end of our scripture today is verse 29 – “let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.”

It’s easy to read about God and Fire as a punishment, the discipline of a wrathful God. A dire warning about being consumed if we turn away.

But there’s something else. Fire has to consume something, it can’t start from nothing. Fire needs fuel, and oxygen, and while we talk about fire as a destroyer, it actually is a converter. It converts one thing into another. It converts wood into heat. It converts old dry shrubs into an opportunity for new forest growth. It molds sand into glass. Fire takes one useful thing and converts it into the next useful thing.

The old covenant worked for the time, but now is the time to continue to convert into the next useful thing. God, our consuming fire, did and continues to do that. Through our faith,

Let it be so.

Here are the action steps for this week:

1. Find yourself in the presence of God.

2. Notice God’s consuming fire in places of injustice and find a way to join in.