SERMON 24 OCTOBER 2021

 HEBREWS 7 23-28

Is there someone or one particular event in your life about which you might say?

“That or they changed everything for the better?”

Because in summary, for the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus changed everything for the better.

The author of Hebrews (the general view is that it was not the work of St. Paul).

The theologian Tom Wright puts it like this:

“The writer just can’t get enough of thinking through who Jesus was and is and what he achieved in his death and in the new life that emerged the other side.”

It’s very easy for us in our digital age to ignore the message from the Hebrews reading about the “Great High Priest” –addressed to an audience with which we have little in common –Jewish people living in the era of 60 AD. They had heard of Jesus, might be believers or are considering whether he was the son of God.

I’ll come back to the comparison with the High Priest because that does take a bit of explaining.

For both the writer of Hebrews and for the blind Bartimaeus (our Gospel reading), Jesus changed everything for the better.

Today’s readings are reminders of this.

We too should also be people who:

“just can’t get enough of thinking through who Jesus was and is and what he achieved in his death and in the new life that emerged the other side.”

Let’s briefly pause our churning minds and join the writer of the Hebrews:

To think through:

1. Who Jesus was and what this gift does, could and should mean to us.

2. How it links to our forthcoming Eucharist

Hebrews has a huge influence on how we celebrate the Eucharist.

What mode should we be in as we conduct this exercise?

St. Paul said:

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

We should be optimistic. Let’s press our “Optimistic” button

Talking Optimism, you may have heard of the saying:

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier

Its been in the news quite a bit this week.

Because it is one of Colin Powell’s, the American Secretary of State who died this week, 13 rules of leadership.

Our readings today, reflecting the New Testament, are good news.

The Hebrews letter links into the activities that took place in the Temple. It was central to Jewish life. It was where Heaven and earth met and the centre of the Temple was the “holy of holies” where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. And only the High Priest could enter it, on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

Today for us, our altar (just behind me) and our Eucharist is our holy of holies, given to us by Christ the great High Priest.

The earthly High Priests, as the writer of Hebrews says, cannot hold the position permanently, because they die.

The Roman historian Josephus calculated that from the date of Aaron (the first High Priest) until the destruction of the Temple in AD70, there were 83 High Priests.

But in contrast to the Temple High Priests, the Priesthood of Christ is permanent for three reasons.

Jesus the Mediator, Jesus the Saviour, and Jesus the lasting and ultimate sacrifice.

1.      As the Son of God, Jesus is the Unique Mediator between God and humankind, someone who fully understands human frailty. Sitting on the right hand of God, Jesus “summons us to live in endless light, the never-ceasing Sabbath of the Lord.”

2.      Jesus the Saviour. His mission is to save all people in all times.

3.      Christ is present in our world; we sense this embrace most closely in the Eucharist and in the praying of the Daily Office.

Unlike the other priests who offered sacrifices, Jesus has no need to offer sacrifices for himself for he was, our writer says “blameless and undefiled.”

Jesus does something completely different. He offers himself as the sacrifice. Thus the Son of Man gives himself to be a ransom for many, as he had foretold when He said “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

So it is that we derive from the writer of Hebrews, our understanding of Jesus as the Great High Priest which is so influential in the liturgy of the Eucharist.

Three years ago I asked you to write down in one sentence, following the example of Hebrews “who just can’t get enough of thinking through who Jesus was and is and what he achieved,” how Jesus has changed your life.

This year let’s do this exercise. Write down in one sentence how Jesus has changed your life. Email or send it to me? By next Sunday. We could pull them together on a “no names” basis and share them.

And, following the example of Colin Powell, St. Paul and all the evangelists, when you leave here, remember that perpetual optimism is a force multiplier

Fr. Peter Wolton

24 October 2021