“The Miracle of Being Human”

Hebrews 2: 1 - 9

Following the worship services next Sunday, Sandy and I will be heading off to New England for a few weeks’ vacation. We’ll be up at our place on Highland Lake in New Hampshire and get to experience once again some of the things that have made vacation time at the lake so very memorable. For instance, we’ll drive along the road that winds between the two cemeteries – the Catholic one on your left, the Protestant one on your right – with the big yellow highway sign smack dab in the middle that says, “Thickly Settled”. We’ll drive by the old Bible Hill veterinary clinic. It’s closed now but we once brought our girl dog Walter there. Walter needed some stitches checked and dressings changed. A very sweet little lady – about 300 years old, I think – greeted us and told us the doctor would be with us, just as soon as he woke up from his nap! She took down all the information about Walter our girl dog and invited us to sit down and wait. About fifteen minutes later, she looked up from what she was doing and - as if she had never seen us before - said, “Hello, may I help you?” Needless to say, that was a long afternoon!

We’ve been going up to Highland Lake for just about 30-years now, and there are many sacred memories and special experiences associated with it. Our kids just about grew up there, and now we’ll get a chance to add our grandson Ryan to the adventure. It’ll be so much fun over the years teaching Ryan how to fish, and swim, and water ski – and how to fix that old Sears water pump of ours that’s got more replacement parts in it than we’ve got artificial joints here in this congregation! And that’s saying something!

But most especially, I’m looking forward to the day Ryan is old enough to come with us at night down to the water’s edge where we lay in recliners and look up at the stars. The sky is always so black this far from the city lights, the stars so close it seems you can touch them. We almost always get to see the Perseid meteor showers while we’re there – watching hundreds of shooting stars streaking across the star-spangled nighttime sky.

There is always something in that experience that seems to pull me away from the worries and anxieties of life. Laying on my back, immersed in the sounds of the lake and the sparkle of the Milky Way, something transpires within that lifts me above my own internal turmoil. In those moments on the shore at night, I find a deeper sense of peace and a larger sense of purpose. I want to share that with my grandson.

This morning, we turn to a beautiful passage from the New Testament book of Hebrews. It used to be that St. Paul was credited with writing this book, but there is no support for that position either historically or in terms of it's style. Some scholars believe a very eloquent New Testament preacher by the name of Apollos wrote Hebrews, and the majesty of the author's use of words seems to me to make that theory plausible. But the fact is, we just don't know for sure who penned this brilliant book, which reads more like a sermon. Although we do know something about the author:

Like many of us, he obviously loved to look up at the stars at night! And when he did, he saw things that lifted his life higher, that stretched his love wider, that enlarged his humanity and deepened his ability to face life head-on!

The author of Hebrews centers his opening thoughts around an Old Testament Psalm. It is Psalm 8, and interestingly enough, it is a hymn in which the psalmist lays on his back at night, gazes up into the heavens at all the beautiful stars, and sings:

"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!…When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you created, I find myself wondering, 'What are human beings that you are even mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?'"

The universe is a pretty big place, isn't it! And full of awesome mysteries. When many of us were kids, we knew some things about our own solar system, and the Milky Way galaxy, but not much more. And as the years have gone by and astronomers and others have probed more deeply, we've learned other things - that there are billions and billions of other heavenly objects - some that can be seen, others that are so dense that light cannot even escape from their gravitational pull. You may have read in the paper a while ago about the discovery of some planetary systems that are not even connected to a star, and this finding has scientists puzzling over yet another stellar mystery.

You see, it doesn't matter whether you have a sheepskin from MIT, or if you just take care of sheep on a Judean hillside, we all look up at the heavens and say, "WOW!"

But it's what comes next that makes the real difference in our lives.

For some, looking up at the stars at night makes us feel very small, and unimportant - a tiny speck in a massive universe. Who are we in comparison to the cosmos? Why, we are mere dust, only human beings, meaningless cogs in the awesome expanse of the universe, powerless to overcome its forces.

And religious people are particularly susceptible to this view.

You may remember Earl Weaver, the irascible manager of the Baltimore Orioles. Weaver, it has been written, was almost allergic to religion. He just about broke out into a rash whenever the ballplayers wanted to take time to pray or have worship services. Once, an outfielder by the name of Pat Kelly was the team's chaplain, and he complained to Weaver about the coach’s resistance to allowing religion in the clubhouse. "I don't get it, Coach," Kelly said, "don't you WANT me to walk with the Lord?" Weaver thought about that for a moment, and then shot back, "Pat, I'd rather have you walk with the bases loaded."

But Earl Weaver had a point in his distaste for religion. "The trouble with the God-guys," Weaver once complained about the Christians on his team, "is that when they lose, they think it's the will of God!"

Well, call it the will of God. Call it fate. Call it inevitability. Whatever the name, the passive acceptance of life's losses and problems is rooted in the belief that we humans are so small and powerless, and the universe is so big and powerful. And it's not really just religious people who become overwhelmed by the powers that seem to control our lives. All around us, people of every stripe are overwhelmed with this sense of insignificance. We have come to believe that war is inevitable and true peace is unachievable; we don't believe for a moment that poverty can be overcome, or that hunger can be eliminated; we doubt very seriously that loving our enemies is actually better than hating them, and that forgiving others is a smart thing to do; we declare that we are unable to do anything about the limiting circumstances of our lives, or about our need to be rude to others or tolerate people who burden us because, after all, we are just tiny specks of stardust that don't really matter, that can't change, and whose lives, words, and actions don't really count for anything important.

Oh, some people gaze up at the stars at night, and see nothing but how small they are.

But the writer of Hebrews, looking up at the nighttime sky and singing Psalm 8, sees something else altogether. And he invites you and me to see it too! Why, he sees the glory of being human!

Yes, you heard me correctly. The glory of being human. Not the frailty, not the weakness, not the insignificance, but the GLORY of being human!

Why, somewhere along the line of our lives, we have lost sight of what it truly means to be human. For many of us, being human means we make mistakes, we succumb to temptation, we cannot help but screw things up. And when we do, we sing the chant, “What do you expect? After all, I’m ONLY…HUMAN!”

But the author of Hebrews invites us to sing another song! For in the ancient lyric of Psalm 8, we learn that when we gaze up into a nighttime sky, we are offered a new glimpse into our own humanity.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you created, I find myself wondering, 'What are human beings that you are even mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?'"

“AND YET, you created them to be for awhile a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put ALL THINGS under their feet…"

In other words, what you see when you gaze off into the marvelous beauty of the sparkling nighttime sky is not a universe that has dominion over you, but a universe that God has given you dominion over!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. When the doctor tells you it's cancer, and you have only a limited time left to live, it sure doesn't seem like you have dominion over anything, let alone the solar system! When you're a person of color living in a society where racism is both tolerated and practiced, it sure doesn't seem like the universe works for you! When your children are hurting and there's nothing you can do to make the hurt go away, when there's an addiction gripping your life that just won't let you go, when life is unfair to people, leaving them poor, or hungry, or ostracized and you just can't fight city hall or Washington, D.C., it sure doesn't seem like humanity is bigger than the stars!

And it's true. We don't right now live in a world whose problems we can always overcome. But now the author of Hebrews leads us to a crucially important lesson in life. Though we don’t see a world over which we have dominion now, we do see something crucially important.

We see Jesus!

We see a man who himself was made a little lower than the angels for a time. We see a man who was tempted as we are. We see a man who was subjected to ridicule and abuse. We see a man who was constantly faced with human suffering and the need to do something about it. We see a man who wept over the loss of loved ones, and was angered by injustice, and was frightened when facing his own death. And yet, though it seemed like the powers of the universe took control of his life, this man Jesus made it through! By the power of God, he found strength to love when the powers-that-be tempted him to hate. By the power of God, he found resources to do what was right when the powers-that-be tempted him to do what was wrong. By the power of God, he walked into the valley of the shadow of death – and walked out alive!

Oh yes, though it seems like our world is out of control, and sometimes it appears evil is winning the day, but in the midst of all these scary scenes we see Jesus! Crowned with glory and honor, and victorious over life!

And the author of Hebrews makes a startling claim. This Jesus is the pioneer of a faith others of us can take up ourselves. Jesus makes it possible for you and me to become gloriously human again!!

Human enough to love our enemies. Human enough to forgive those who sin against us. Human enough to do what’s right. Human enough to resist what’s wrong. Human enough to make peace, and overcome injustice, and make the world a better place! Human enough to die, and to live again!

And this morning, we are given an opportunity to face up to the challenges of our own lives and our own world. We are invited to focus our attention on Jesus, and learn how to be human again!

So I want to invite you today to make three crucial affirmations about yourself:

Here’s the first: “God has made me a glorious person!” Will you say that with me? “God has made me a glorious person!” In a world that constantly strips people of their dignity, this is such an important affirmation to make. You are a beautiful person filled with the glory of God!

Here’s the second one: “My life counts for something!” Say it with me. “My life counts for something!” How you live, what you say, how you conduct yourself in the world has a far-reaching ripple effect that influences how others experience life and that either brings credit or discredit to God. Your life counts for something!

And here’s the third, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” You can face the reality of life as it really is with faith and confidence and integrity. You don’t need to give up on the future even though the present is scaring you to death. You don’t need to give up on love, or the pursuit of peace and reconciliation with the people and the world around you. You don’t need to cave in to destructive behavior patterns and addictions. You don’t need to give up on yourself because you’ve made a terrible mistake. You can find happiness again, even though life has brought you great sorrow.

And how is this possible? How is it possible to find a future, and live in love, and be a peacemaker, and reconcile yourself with others, and break free from addiction, and believe in yourself again, and discover new joy?

It is possible because Christ will bring strength to you to do it! That’s one of the great promises of the Christian Faith. You don’t have to go it alone!

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Say that with me. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Oh, it is true. Sometimes when we look up at the stars at night, we see ourselves as meaningless specks of so much stardust.

But God asks you today to see things differently.

You are a glorious person! Your life counts for something! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!