A Gentle Reminder (Hebrews 13:1-6)

A few interesting things happened in the previous week or two – well, lots of things actually – but one or two things I’d particularly like to share today.

 

You know of course that The Salvation Army has a drug and alcohol policy: we don’t drink or do drugs at work (or soldiers anywhere, anytime). I recently needed to print out our drug and alcohol policy and go over it with some of our volunteers, staff, or community partners. Apparently one or two folks may not have remembered (even though they all read it when they were hired or started volunteering) that they can’t use drugs at work with our clients. You'd think that would be self-evident, a ‘no-brainer’ as they say. We don’t want to harm people and we do want  to help people, but good, well-meaning folks actually needed to be reminded that they shouldn’t use drugs with our clients. There are many reasons for this and God gave us an object lesson, an example of being sober so we can help others out; as well as a lesson about the very real dangers of drug use, this week.

 

On this past Sunday, Rees, one of our employees, the one who saved the dog’s life a week or two previous, saved a person’s life as he was walking to work. The person overdosed outside of the OPS, the safe injection site; there was no one there who called 9-11; there was no one there who tried to revive him; there was no one there who was helping him; maybe he didn’t use inside the site, who knows? Rees saw the person on the sidewalk and Rees saw he was starting to turn blue. He stopped. He gave him some Narcan. He called 9-11. God used Rees to save his life. Praise be to God.

 

And thanks be to God as well for this gentle reminder of this self-evident, ‘no-brainer’ that we should be sober when at work and when heading to work – like Rees was – so that we can be used to help others.

 

Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated Hebrews concludes this letter or sermon with this gentle reminder of some very important points for anyone who serves Jesus to remember as we go about our daily lives.[1] The first four of which should be self evident for all Jesus’ followers so that we are available to serve God and others.

 

1)    He says that we should have genuine affection for one another, for fellow Christians. If you see me on the street tomorrow you shouldn’t duck and hide (as tempting as it may be!); wave and smile instead; do not try and run away before I notice you. We shouldn’t try to avoid one another; we should genuinely look forward to seeing each other. We are, after all, all on the same team – or at least we should be.

 

2)    Then he says that not only should we be happy to see each other and genuinely care about one another; we should also be nice to strangers, to people who aren’t part of our group here. (This may be referring to Christians you don’t know – such as itinerant preachers – but it should certainly apply to any stranger.)[2] This week, a fellow who is a stranger to us but well known to the Parksville Salvation Army came in here seeking help. Nichi and Leslie were right there helping. They called me from another part of the building and I called Major Norm in Parksville and we prayed together offering support and other help as we were able.

 

If there is some way you can build a relationship with a stranger that is great. I love to go down to the Bread of Life many days for lunch. I often have conversations with people on the street – the fact that I almost always wear my uniform or logo-ed gear helps a lot! When needed, I also direct people to opportunities for them to help others or to be helped as the case may be.

 

3)    Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or sermon to the Hebrews, gently reminds us that even more than genuinely looking forward to seeing each other, and being sociable to strangers; we should remember those who are in real need in our community. Pray for those who are mistreated in society. The letter/sermon here particularly mentions prisoners. As awful as our prisons are today – and they are awful – in the First Century Roman Empire, friends of the prisoners had to provide their food and basic necessities themselves;[3] so if you didn’t have any friends or if your friends were ashamed or afraid to be associated with you… Today, who are those with no friends and support? Who are those who are in real danger or jeopardy? How can we help them? How can we remember them? You can chat with people up here – I think we might start our coffee times up here again soon; we can have lunch at the soup kitchen; we can help out on the food truck – that is a great way to get to know those who are mistreated. And of course, we can all pray for those in need.

 

4)    Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or sermon then says that as well as genuinely looking forward to seeing each other, being sociable to strangers, and remembering those who are in real need in our community; we need to pay special attention to our marriages. He mentions two ways. 1) don’t commit adultery with outsiders and 2) don’t the two of you do anything immoral.[4] Honour one another.

 

Just like how this week, we had to actually put in writing that our staff and community partners may not do drugs with our clients, something that one would think would be self-evident, these first four items are what Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or sermon thinks are the self-evident. He gently reminds us that all Christians should honestly and almost instinctively:

 

1. look forward to seeing each other,
2.  be sociable to strangers,
3. remember those who are in real need in our community,
4. and pay special attention to our marriages.

 

And then Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or sermon, tells us something a little more tricky. He says that, just as we are to genuinely care for each other and love strangers, we are NOT to care for and love money in the same way (cf. 1 Tim 6:10). This plays out a couple of different ways. 1) We as individuals aren’t supposed to love money and 2) corporately, as a society we aren’t supposed to love money. The church, we know, is not a building, it is a community, a society and it is (or should be) a society that does not love money.

 

There was a meeting of the ACRD’s Emergency Support Services this week. These are some of the people who help in emergencies in our community. The Salvation Army has an MOU with the ACRD to provide various services, so I was there. The meeting was at the Beaver Creek Firehall. It was great to get a tour of the building, see the fancy expensive trucks, and hear what the fire chief and others had to tell us before our regularly scheduled meeting.

 

One thing that came out of the side conversations was how much our society’s love of money is adversely affecting volunteer fire departments, service organizations, and even employment in our country. When the Beaver Creek Fire Department was founded, they were able to staff the department entirely with volunteers from Beaver Creek and they were able to acquire enough resources to keep it going. As a result, a team could be ready to respond to a fire in 5 minutes or less. Now it takes them much longer as they have to wait for people to come from all over the valley to assist at a fire in Beaver Creek. There aren’t enough local volunteers. Even if people are interested in volunteering, now qualifications and equipment are so expensive (and/or take so long to get) that they are having trouble getting enough people and money to keep it going at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if volunteer fire departments started closing around the country the same way that service groups and other volunteer organizations are quickly vanishing from our landscape.

 

Currently, at a time when people in our country are spending more money on leisure activities than in any previous era – trips, sporting events, lessons – people are spending less and less time volunteering and working together. The more a society orients itself towards money, the more the gap between the rich and the poor grows. The larger the chasm between people grows.

 

Property is a prime example of this: a realtor friend pointed out to me that housing has now become primarily a commodity, an investment and as a result more and more people can’t afford housing. The most recent homelessness count results were published just recently – I read them this week. Did you know that the percentage of actual homeless seniors right here in Port Alberni (this doesn’t include people who live in shelters, slum housing, or on someone else’s couch) has literally doubled from 9% to 18% of the homeless population? A society cannot be oriented towards money and at the same time be oriented towards God and our neighbour (cf. Mt 6:24-34; Lk 6:13).[5] These are anchored in opposite directions. We cannot love both God and money. Corporately, how are our churches oriented? We need to be aware of this. Are we church members – like the Scriptures say - content with what we have?

 

This brings us to the individual aspect of this very important point. Do each of us here love God and people more than we love money (cf. Dt 31:6, Ps 118:6-7)? Do we spend more time acquiring, spending, and saving money or do we spend more time loving God through helping others? As Christians, we are not to look forward to getting money; we are not to be sociable in order to get money; we are not supposed to serve others with the intent of getting money, etc. He gently reminds us, we are supposed to be content with what we have. We are supposed to love our spouses, each other, and our neighbours – we are not to love money![6]

 

If you can give something to someone who will actually benefit from receiving it, instead of selling it to them for money; give it to the person. Hebrews 13:5-6 contrasts loving each other and loving money. The Bible says that if you love God, you will love your neighbour and the Bible says that if you serve money, you do not serve God (Mt 6:24). And then Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or sermon gently reminds us that for perfect peace and harmony, for salvation, we really must be content with what we have.

 

This contentment is simple, but it is also very important – especially since we live in a capitalist society, a society that by definition has chosen to serve money. Our motivation, what we love, our reason for doing something should never be to get a paycheque and pay-off. Our motivation should always be to serve God and our neighbour. Here is a gentle reminder, Hebrews 13:1-6, that as followers of Jesus we will,

 

1. look forward to seeing each other,
2.  be sociable to strangers,
3. remember those who are in real need in our community,
4. pay special attention to our marriages,
5. and be content with what we have

 

Friends, this is key to being able to survive, to being able to be saved in our world today. We need the church and we need to be the church. And this is what the church is, it is a group of people who

1. look forward to seeing each other
2.  be sociable to strangers,
3. remember those who are in real need in our community,
4. pay special attention to our marriages,
5. and be content with what we have

 

So this is my encouragement today: May our group of people here be a people who continues to do just this for as we are, we will experience God’s salvation in our lives and He will use us to be a transformative influence in our community for now and forever more. 

Let us pray.

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[1] Cf. Thomas G. Long, Hebrews (Interpretation: a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1997), 1.

[2] Cf Tesfaye Kassa, ‘Hebrews 13:1-21: Practical Evidence of Faith’ in Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1532 and Simon J. Kistemaker, Hebrews, NTC (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic: 2007), 408 but conversely cf. Fred B. Craddock, The Letter to the Hebrews (NIB 12: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1998),162 which contends that ‘strangers’ are itinerant preachers or other Christians who aren’t part of one’s own congregation. While this is possible, I concur with Tesfaye Kassa’ and Simon J. Kistemaker that the term as broader than that.

[3] Fred B. Craddock, The Letter to the Hebrews (NIB 12: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1998), 163

[4] Leon Morris, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Hebrews/Exposition of Hebrews/IX. Christian Living (12:1-13:19)/F. Love (13:1-6), Book Version: 4.0.2

[5] Fred B. Craddock, The Letter to the Hebrews (NIB 12: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1998), 164

[6] Simon J. Kistemaker, Hebrews, NTC (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic: 2007), 409