SACRIFICE

November 8, 2015

Pentecost 24

Hebrews 9:24-28

Mark 12:38-44

(prayer)

I have mentioned before that my teen and young adult years were highlighted by the years I spent working at a church camp on Pigeon Lake.

Even thirty years later, I credit that time as the genesis of who I have become today.

I developed practical compassion and leadership skills that continue to assist the life I live in 2015.  As I look back and reflect back on that time, I see that I was afforded opportunities to learn as I went - to grow skills and knowledge through experience.  I was not expected to be an expert, but I was invited to learn from others and (more often than I sometimes admit) make it up as I went along.

It was a liberating time.

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I remember the time (1983, 84?) when I was asked to be part of the staff team for a canoe camp.  This week long,  off-site adventure for junior high aged campers involved a couple of days of orientation and practice on the lake before we bussed to Red Deer and embarked on a five day trip down the Red Deer River to Drumheller.

My role on the trip was to be the group's lifeguard.  I had the minimal required qualifications: basic first aid and the Bronze Medallion lifesaving course.  What I didn't have was any experience being a lifeguard.  And - by the way - I had never canoed on a river before.  In fact, my canoeing experience was limited to the few hours once a week on Pigeon Lake over the years I had been a camper and counselllor at the main camp.

I was so nervous when we first arrived at the river.  Now, as far as rivers go,  the Red Deer River in August is pretty tame - flowing maybe 3-5 mph.  It was probably the perfect kind of tributary for me to wet my feet in.

Even so, when I first pushed my canoe off the shore, it took off on me.  My first realization of the difference between lake and river canoeing was that the boat wasn't going to just sit still waiting for me to get in.  I learned right away, that even a calm, tame river needed to be respected. 

My role on that trip was to be the harbinger of safety and - here I was - struggling not to fall on the slippery river rocks as I attempted not to lose my ride down stream.

The questions flowing through my mind were:

"What am I doing here? "

"Do I belong here? "

Quite literally, I was swept up into a situation in which I felt that I was not prepared.  The experience was unfamiliar and I was going to have to adjust to the realities of a situation that was beyond my control.  I would have to adjust to the river - it was not going to change for me.

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In the years that followed Jesus' life, the early Christian movement grew quickly in dozens of communities.  If we read through the Book of Acts, we hear how the Apostles' message of God's compassion, personal redemption, and social responsibility and support was popular. 

Relatively quickly, the group grew beyond it's Aramaic-speaking roots in Galilee and Judea to include Greek-speaking believers from the Jewish diaspora.  In Acts 6, we can read that the original disciples had to appoint seven new leaders from among the Hellenistic believers to ensure that everyone was able to benefit from the the community's support.

The early church was evolving so quickly that the people were forced to react to changing circumstances around them.

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By the time the Sermon-Letter to the Hebrews was written (probably mid to late 60s CE) the Christian movement had further evolved to include people who had no Jewish background at all.

The practices of this new religious expression varied from community to community.  It is understandable that there were disputes and conflicts between believers whose backgrounds differed.

In some of the letters of the Apostles Paul, attention is paid to trying to bring harmony to the whole body of the church.

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It can make perfect sense to us to understand that the transition to a more broad-based Christian church was a challenge for those Hebrew believers who did not seek out to turn their back on Judaism to follow Jesus; it was - for them - a natural expansion of the faith they grew up with.

But, the quick flow of the wider Christian experience and practice was making the melding of the old and the new harder as time moved on.

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In our reading from Hebrews chapter nine today, we see some of this struggle.

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In the Hebrew tradition, the redemptive work of God was symbolized in the rituals of offering and sacrifice at the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem.

In the Hebrew religious practice of the first century, people expressed their faithful commitment to God by adhering to centuries old rules for faithful living.

This included ancient ritualistic codes about making regular Temple offerings from the day-to-day activities of life as a reminder that all of that which a person enjoys in life comes from God and that a right relationship with God was central to life.

In some cases, according to the Torah, people were expected to bring animals as offerings to the Temple - and in some of those cases, the animals were ritualistically killed as part of the action of offering.  There were times when such offerings involving the slaughtering of the animals was a prelude to a feast for the giver (like with lambs at the passover) - these might have been called 'blood offerings'; at other times, the meat and grains supported the diet of the temple workers and enabled the community's call to support those in need within the society.  Seldom was item offered in the rituals of the temple simply destroyed gratuitously.  In most cases, what was offered served a community need in some way beyond the symbolism of the act itself.

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When we give something that is ours to another, we are sacrificing part of who we are in the service of something wider than ourselves.

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In the Hebrews passage, there are references to sacrifice.  I want us to understand something significant about that language that has implications about how Christians speak about Jesus: particularly his death at the hands of his executioners.

Sometimes, people speak as if the act of ritualistically killing the livestock is 'the sacrifice'.  We might say that the passover lamb was sacrificed.

That kind of language distracts us from where the real sacrifice is in the ritual.

The sacrifice is in the action of the giver.

The giver (by offering part of their living for a greater purpose) is the one making a sacrifice... compared to a more self-serving potential the item (that was offered) could have had if the gift had been hoarded.

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It seems to me that this is perhaps the greatest purpose of the Temple offering rituals: it was a recognition that being in right-relationship with God involves more than a focus on selfish achievements. 

Regularly participation meant that the well-being of the whole community was an on-going responsibility of the faithful.

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I think it is an over-simplication and misinterpretation of these ancient rites to say that God required blood as payment in order for sins to be forgiven.

The ancient Hebrews held to the covenant promise that Yahweh was their God and that they were Yahweh's people.

God was committed to this relationship.  God's compassion - in fact, this history of the bible attests - endured even in times of the people's unfaithfulness.

The blood sacrifices did not induce God to suddenly forgive the people's wrongs.  The acts of faithfulness that people chose to follow were a response to their desire to express a forgiving relationship with their God that already existed.

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Now, let's consider this within the context of the Hebrew Christians caught in rapidly moving current of the evolving Christian movement.

In some gentile-dominated early Christian communities, the opportunities for those with Hebrew to experience the ritual satisfaction of their traditional practices was limited.

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It is a matter of debate among biblical scholars where the book of Hebrews was written before or after the year 70CE.

That date is significant, because, in the late 60s, there was a rebellion in Jerusalem against the occupation of Roman forces in Judea.

As the a demoralizing act, the empire quashed this attempt at revolution by destroying the Hebrew Temple - where Jesus and his disciples had visited 40 years earlier.

Some scholars assume that the Letter of Hebrews must be pre-70 because the author never mentions the destruction of the temple.  Others argue that the whole thesis of not fretting over the lack of sacrificial offerings would have deeper meaning to a post-70 audience.

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To me, it is not a big concern whether the letter pre-dates the temple destruction by a few years or not.  By the time the text was being widely shared among the early churches (a decade or so later), the possibility of following (to the letter) the prescriptions of the Torah was no longer possible.

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Into this evolving context, language was shared to assure Jesus followers of Jewish descent that the lack of old rituals did not impede a person's ability to be in right-relationship with their God.

The author of the book of Hebrews chose the metaphoric language of the Temple to describe what was widely believed within the diverse Christian communities: that even in death, Christ Jesus was alive within the hearts of the people and created an everlasting faithful connection to God that people might have once felt at the Temple.

It bears mentioning here that - in the decades before the Temple's destruction, that leaders like the Apostles Paul clearly argued that this expanding group of followers of Jesus would not be required to adhere to many of the Levitical rituals of Jesus' own faith tradition.  Paul also argued that Hebrew Christians were free to continue to practice their faith in these ways as long as - in doing so - they did not inhibit the faith of others who had different spiritual backgrounds.

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As I said early, it was never understood by the Hebrews that blood was required by God in order for sins to be forgiven.  And even if it was (which it wasn't), the Hebrew rituals were not expected to be followed by the gentile Christians.

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In spite of the language used in some modern Christian circles, God never has required blood as a payment to buy forgiveness. 

The literalizing of this metaphoric language - intended to bring comfort to part of the early church in the context of rapid change - is one of the worst distractions to the truth of Jesus' message and mission.

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Again, as we read Acts, we see that mutual social responsibility was a hallmark of the Christian movement: that sacrificial giving for the common good (at the practical heart of the Temple rituals) was encouraged (and even expected).

This was not lost in the post-Temple era and it applied to all of the followers of Jesus: gentile and jew alike.

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Sacrificial language as the purpose of Jesus' death only serves to distract us from the example of his life-leadership and the inspiration Jesus continued to offer his followers (old and new) even after he breathed his last in this world.

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When we think of the pre-70 practices of offerings at the temple, our focus should be directed on the sacrifices of the giver to share from  their lives to enhance the life of their community.

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It would be hard to think of a better example than the story we heard from Mark, chapter twelve today.

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God's compassion for creation is best born out in our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for a greater good; to see beyond the self-focus that is only satisfied through the maximizing of our own pleasure and happiness.

We are not called to miserable.  That's not what sacrifice means.  But we are challenged to tie our happiness to the well-being of our communities.

If the depth of Jesus' mission of radical welcome and unconditional holy love is lived out, our happiness and connection to the compassion of our God will be shared with us by others - as their compassionate contentment will be enable by us, as well.

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Thanks be to God for this challenge and opportunity.

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Let us pray:

God, we will serve you in big and small ways.  You compassion for all of the world will be our guide and purpose.  Amen.

#506VU  "Take My Life and Let It Be"