Come and Go Sunday School Lesson “Long Ago God Spoke-Part 35: Eyes to See” with Dr. Herb Prince & Dr. Frank Carter from First Church of the Nazarene in San Diego, California, United States for Sunday, 5 July 2015

Come and Go Sunday School Lesson “Long Ago God Spoke-Part 35: Eyes to See” with Dr. Herb Prince & Dr. Frank Carter from First Church of the Nazarene in San Diego, California, United States for Sunday, 5 July 2015

  Long Ago God Spoke                          

Part 35: Eyes to See

Hebrews 12:1 So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us, too, put aside every impediment — that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us, 2 looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting,[Hebrews 12:2 Habakkuk 2:4] Yeshua — who, in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him, endured execution on a stake as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.[Hebrews 12:2 Psalm 110:1] 3 Yes, think about him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you won’t grow tired or become despondent. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in the contest against sin.

5 Also you have forgotten the counsel which speaks with you as sons:

“My son, don’t despise the discipline of Adonai

or become despondent when he corrects you.

6 For Adonai disciplines those he loves

and whips everyone he accepts as a son.”[Hebrews 12:6 Proverbs 3:11–12]

7 Regard your endurance as discipline; God is dealing with you as sons. For what son goes undisciplined by his father? 8 All legitimate sons undergodiscipline; so if you don’t, you’re a mamzer and not a son!

9 Furthermore, we had physical fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them; how much more should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! 10 For they disciplined us only for a short time and only as best they could; but he disciplines us in a way that provides genuine benefit to us and enables us to share in his holiness.

11 Now, all discipline, while it is happening, does indeed seem painful, not enjoyable; but for those who have been trained by it, it later produces its peaceful fruit, which is righteousness. 12 So,

strengthen your drooping arms,

and steady your tottering knees;[Hebrews 12:12 Isaiah 35:3]

13 and

make a level path for your feet;[Hebrews 12:13 Proverbs 4:26]

so that what has been injured will not get wrenched out of joint but rather will be healed.

[L]et us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking

to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith . . . (Heb. 12:1c-2a).

[Christian practices] are things Christian people do together over time to address fundamental human needs in response to and in light of God’s active presence for the life of the world in Jesus Christ.[This definition is from Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass, “A Theological Understanding of Christian Practices,” Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life, eds. Volf and Bass (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 18.  According to footnote 3 on page 18 “in Jesus Christ” would strengthen the definition so the three words are added here to the original definition. ]

We must learn the practice of saying no to that which crowds God out and say yes to a way of life that makes space for God” (Copeland, 60).[M. Shawn Copeland, “Saying Yes and Saying No,” in Practicing Our Faith, edited by Dorothy   C. Bass (Jossey-Bass, 1997), 60.]  

I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air. . . (Paul, I Cor. 9:26).

Introduction

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) was an American writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, she wrote several novels and numerous short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer, relying heavily on regional settings. Her work   reflects her Roman Catholic faith, and frequently she examined questions of morality and ethics. She felt deeply informed by the Eucharist, and by the notion that the created world is charged with God.  A Christian realism, as she could have expressed it, flows through her work.[Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-1274) was never far from O’Connor’s thoughts. Thomas took the world known through the five senses more seriously (realistically) than the Platonic alternative] O’Connor describes her literary efforts this way:

My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel,--it is above all to make you see.  That--and no more, and it is everything.[This Flannery O’Connor quotation is taken from Robert H. Brinkmeyer, Jr., The Art and Vison of Flannery O’Connor (Louisiana University Press, 1989), 172.  The emphasis is O’Connors.]  

It is above all to make the reader see, she says.  That--and no more, and it is said to be everything.  Why is that important?  O’Connor has Henry James, novels and fiction in mind when she writes, “It is the business of fiction to embody mystery through manners, and mystery is a great embarrassment to the modern mind.”[O’Connor references St. Gregory the Great as saying “that every time the sacred text describes a fact, it reveals a mystery.” See Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1961), 184.] She writes,

The mystery . . . is the mystery of our position on earth, and the manners are those conventions which . . . reveal that central mystery (124).

The last portion of O‘Connor’s quotation fits nicely with where we ended in the last lesson.  We were discussing the importance and place of practices in the Christian life. Various accounts of what has been seen in recent years in various places of worship were shared: regret over the loss of some practices   formerly valued (e.g., testimonies) as well as reservations about some newly acquired (e.g., drinking coffee during a worship service!). Generational elements may account for some differences in what used to be termed ‘manners’ but the significance of what we do as Christians cannot be minimized.  Gestures, symbols, rites, all feed into who and what we are as Christians.  However large or small the manner may be it can well count in the life of faith.  

The Faithful Life

It is quite a stretch to go from O’Connor to the author of Hebrews in one breath.  It is a move from O’Connor’s commitment to fiction to the Hebrews writer’s historical setting in the Biblical text.  And yet, her references to mystery, manners, conventions, and central mystery intrigue a philosophical mind.  Is there not a broad affinity between her quotation and what we are finding in the sermon by the preacher in Hebrews?  The vocabulary may differ but in both cases questions that all of us face make their appearance.   As some wag in the past said (I think it was Bertrand Russell), “Who are we? Where are we going? What do we do in the meantime?” The Hebrews writer wonders, too:   

What are human beings that you [O God] are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet (Heb. 2:6-8).  

The same logic follows when it comes to ‘Christian practices.’ What Christians do stands in well and perhaps even deepens O’Connor’s notion of ‘manners.’ In so doing Christian practices are those conventions which reference the central mystery!  And who (not what!) is the central mystery?  

We do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:9).

Years ago Edward Farley wrote about the strangeness that characterizes the Gospel.

We cannot avoid it, it seems. A certain ‘strangeness,’ a certain ‘peculiarity’ marks everything which concerns in any way the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This means that everything in the church, including the church itself, is touched with this strangeness.  Talking about the Gospel is strange. . . . Worshipping and praying have their peculiarities, and they are not exactly identical with these phenomena in all religions.  Everything introduced into the church and its concerns is bathed in this strangeness.[Edward Farley, “Does Christian Education Need the Holy Spirit?” Religious Education 60 (1965), 432.  ]  

Farley sees this Gospel strangeness as the freedom that comes when our fears are relieved and the strange gift of grace is received.  What Christian practices provide are means for trust to be encouraged and sustained.  Craig Dykstra says, the Gospel’s

fundamental fact is that the everlasting arms of a gracious and loving God sustain the universe.  So our basic task is not mastery and control.  It is instead trust and grateful receptivity.  Our exemplars are not heroes; they are saints.[Craig Dykstra, Growing in the Life of Faith, 2nd ed. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 76.]       

If so, then there is an unacknowledged richness in Christian practices.  They   are means of enhancing growth in Jesus’ likeness.  They are not treasured only for their outcomes.  Just by participating in them is somehow good in itself.  Do we see riches?  Craig Dykstra admits (54),  

Each time I look at the list of [Christian] practices, it occurs to me how ordinary most of them seem. Worshipping?  But of course, we know all that!  And we do it all the time. . . . Telling the Christian   story to one another?  Yes, we do that.  It seems obvious that Christians do that.  We have Bible classes for all age groups. And we cover that stuff.  We don’t do much church history (and maybe we should to do more); but telling the Christian story?  Yes, we do that.  

Indeed we do those things Dykstra cites and more.  We practice our faith through such means as honoring the body, hospitality, stewardship, ‘Saying Yes and Saying No’ (discipline), keeping Sabbath, testimony, discernment, shaping communities, forgiveness, healing, dying well and singing our lives.[Chapters on these practices by various authors are found in Practicing Our Faith, edited by Dorothy C. Bass (Jossey-Bass, 1997).  ]   But do we see? Do we see our theology in and through such practices as our way of life?  Is intelligible action taking place?  Is there a gap between beliefs and practice, a separation of thought and action?  Who would want to admit to such a division—few if any!  To do so would be counter to the Wesleyan tradition and even more importantly counter to the way in which scripture has been taken and applied in our practice.      

The Hebrews writer does not see a separation of belief and practice.  Wherever we go in his sermon/book the point at hand is grounded in Jesus Christ--in his life, his crucifixion, his resurrection and in his place at the right hand of God the Father.  The Hebrews writer knew the lode-stone: “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (12:2).

The scriptural text this morning drives home the point of seeing Christian practice as fundamentally grounded in Jesus Christ.  Also apparent is a resolve to put off those things that choke off the fullness of life that God intends for us.  

Saying ‘Yes’ and Saying ‘No’

(Hebrews 12:1-13)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—

“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; 6for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.” 

7Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. 9Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness.11Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

12Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

As noted the readers/hearers are urged to live out their commitment.

Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame,

and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God (12:2).  

To run with perseverance is a strong exhortation. A key term in the verse is the preposition anti, variously translated as “for,” “for the sake of,” “instead of.”  Prior to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century the most common translation of the preposition in this case was “instead of.” “Instead of” suggests that Jesus self-consciously chose to suffer instead of enjoying his pre-incarnate life.  Fred Craddock points out that it is common for Christological hymns in the New Testament to begin with a relative pronoun “who” (as in Phil 2:6-11; Col 1:15-20; I Tim 3:16) and then to present Christ in two states, in heaven and on earth.[7For what follows see Fred Craddock, “The Letter to the Hebrews,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, ed. Leander E. Keck and others, Vol. XII (Abingdon Press, 1998), 149.] If the pattern of inverted parallelism is followed here and the earlier “instead of” is cited then the following result occurs:

Who instead of the joy set before him           [heaven]

endured the cross,                                [earth]

disregarding its shame,                        [earth]

and is seated at the right hand of the

  throne of God.                                         [heaven]

Since the Reformation most English translations and commentators prefer “for the sake of,” as in the present NRSV rendering:    

Who for the sake of the joy set before him    [heaven]

endured the cross,                                [earth]

disregarding its shame,                        [earth]

and is seated at the right hand of the

  throne of God.                                         [heaven]

“For the sake of” agrees with an earlier reference in Hebrews 12:1; namely, that “set before us” refers to the forward-looking aspect of faith.  Jesus, too, looks forward.  He endured by looking ahead to the joy of God’s right hand.  It is assumed that the reference is shaped by the situation of the recipients of the book.  The goal of their endurance is expressed negatively–“that you may not grow weary or lose heart.” A shift to the situation of the recipients occurs in verse 4. The recipients are not being martyred; rather, social ostracism and humiliation may be underway against them for their faith.  The writer may also be preparing the readers for what may lie ahead in terms of more severe hostility.  A note of rebuke in verse 5 occurs with respect to what had been forgotten but the rebuke is paired with a note of encouragement through the citation of Proverbs 3:11-12:  

My child, do not despise the

Lord’s discipline

         or be weary of his reproof,

for the Lord reproves the one he loves,

         as a father the son in whom he delights.

God treats the recipients like a parent treats one’s offspring.  Discipline is the mark of one who cares.  For leadership at times it is necessary to say “Yes.”  Other times it is more appropriate to say ‘No.’ But for those who serve under such leadership it also means having to hear the “Yes” or “No” and response accordingly.  To hear such may be difficult but necessary if growth or improvement is to take place. In the present case the author could have well said, “Do not take discipline lightly!”  As the early preacher Chrysostom commented: “It is those very things in which they suppose they have been deserted by God that should make them confident that they have not been deserted” (noted by Craddock). By the end of this portion of text a more positive resolve is given (12:12-13):  

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Revelatory Practices

Several writings of Søren Kierkegaard have been up front and center for the last two months in this class. Sometimes it has been obvious, sometimes not.  Four times in his brief but intense life of forty-two years SK intended to terminate his writing but each time additional reflection or change of circumstance moved him to change his mind.  The publication in 1850 of Practice in Christianity marks the third time for a new self-understanding of what it meant to be a Christian.[Practice in Christianity, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Wong, Kierkegaard’s Writings, XX (Princeton University Press, 1991), xi.  The volume also marks the beginning of a more direct confrontation with Denmark’s Christendom.  ]  As he later reflects on the Practice book that was actually written in 1848 he says,  

The requirement should be heard—and I understand what is said as spoken to me alone—so that I might learn not only to resort to grace but to resort to it in relation to the use of grace (italics in original).[Quotation taken from SK’s private papers as quoted by Howard and Edna Hong in For Self Examination/Judge For Yourself! Kierkegaard’s Writings, XXI (Princeton University Press, 1990), xi]   

SK’s autobiographical turns are reminiscent of what takes place with Christian practices.  Each time we see them in a new light, each time we use them, there is a possible advancement in one’s life of faith. But even deeper down, do our Christian practices reveal the central mystery which is Christ?