Read the Lectionary Texts

When I was a youngster, our family used to vacation on Cape Cod. Some of my fondest memories are of the evenings when we Singley’s would go over to the Wee-Packet restaurant in Harwich, buy some fried clams for supper, and then drive to the beach at West Dennis and sit there in the parking lot, wolfing down the clams and watching the waves pound against the shore. Once finished, we might spin over to Holiday Hill to play a round of miniature golf. This was almost always a mistake because we are a family of very aggressive competitors. By the time we finished 18 holes, we would be engaged in heated debate about who beat who, and who – even if they lost – was better than everybody else, losing this round only because the others cheated. Needless to say, miniature golf usually ended with a family engulfed in conflict and no longer speaking to each other. And so, in strained silence, we would drive back over to the beach – now draped in the evening’s darkness – and without a word, go and lay in the sand, gazing upward at the brilliant stars of the milky way as the mighty roar of the raging surf drowned out our competitive disdain for each other. Still today, I love to sit on the shore and look up to the heavens.

Today’s text is from the book of Hebrews.  It used to be that St. Paul was credited with writing this book, but there is really 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 and the fact that it reads like a sermon seems to me to make that theory plausible. But the truth is, we just don’t know for sure who penned this brilliant book.

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 the 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 big place, isn’t it! And full of awesome mysteries.

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 very unimportant. A tiny speck in a massive universe. Who are we in comparison to the cosmos? Why, we are mere human beings, meaningless cogs in the awesome expanse of the universe, victims of its powerful forces.

And religious people are particularly susceptible to this view.

You may remember the late 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 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 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, this passive acceptance of life’s losses and problems is rooted in the belief that we humans are at the mercy of the universe. And it’s not really just religious people who become overwhelmed by this. All around us, people of every stripe are overcome by this sense of insignificance. For instance, we have come to believe that war is inevitable and true peace is unachievable; we don’t really 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 because, after all, we are just tiny specks of stardust that don’t 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 night sky and singing Psalm 8, sees something else!

And he invites us 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 what? 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 learn 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’re facing all the uncertainty of chemotherapy and all the fear of the future, 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 seem to let go, when life is unfair to people, leaving them poor, or hungry, or ostracized and you just can’t fight city hall, 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 the first important lesson of his book. 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 triumphantly! 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 died – 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, 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, he says, is the pioneer of a faith that’s designed for others to follow. Jesus makes it possible for you and me to become 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 become human again!

So how can we do this?

First, by placing Christ at the very center of your life. Learn about him. Come to know him as a good friend. Set him as your example of true humanity. Part of what it means to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior is to raise the bar of your humanity to the height of his humanity. And then – with God’s help – striving to jump as high! So the first step in becoming truly human is to center your life on Christ.

And second, by discerning the difference between being sinful and being human. For instance, many of us think that it is only human to open our mouths and carelessly say things that hurt other people. But shooting off at the mouth is not really being human, contrary to popular opinion. Being truly human in the Jesus sense means exercising great care with what you say! To be human is not to once in awhile succumb to the temptation to laugh at a racist joke. Being truly human in the Jesus sense is to pledge to never allow such destructive humor into your life again. To be human in the Jesus sense is not to be selfish, but to be self-less!  It is not to put off God while you doubt, but to trust God in the midst of your doubt. It is not to get angry with others and build walls between you and them, but to overcome your anger by building bridges that bring you together. It is not to resent others, but to work hard to forgive them. It is not to fail and give up, but to confront failure by picking yourself up off the ground, and with God’s help, trying to do better.

You see, there are two ways to be human. One is a low way that leads to human  insignificance in the face of all the challenges of life. The other is a high and glorious way in which being human means becoming like Jesus.

May I ask, which way will you take as this new week begins?

Yes, life is hard. And the challenges are many. We do not yet see the full victory of faith.

But we see Jesus!

And that makes all the difference in the world!