2nd Sermon: Salvation by Works

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

In the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Hebrews 9:11-14
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation – he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.


Salvation by Works

As Christians we are often quick to claim our beliefs.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty. I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I believe in the Resurrection. I believe prayer is efficacious.But how do we understand such claims? And how do they differ from:I believe in unicorns? I believe candidate X will fix our political problem? I believe in myself?What are beliefs? We often treat them like propositions we can stand away from, objectively no doubt, to judge whether they are true or false as a mental exercise:Those candles are black or that oyster has a pearl in it.

If I said, “I believe I love my dog” to you every morning, and every evening you saw me beating that dog unmercifully with a stick, it wouldn't take you long to realize that I don't actually believe that. So then, our beliefs are only true insofar as our actions make them true. So then what about our beliefs as Christians? Do we believe the things we proclaim?

The writer of Hebrews makes continuous parallels between old High Priests under the Law and the new that is Jesus Christ. Often times these parallels are understood as the old ways being a shadow and the new ways being the perfect form of what the shadow represented. The veil separating humanity from the Holy of Holies is compared to Christ's flesh, the Holy of Holies to Heaven, the blood of goats and heifers to the blood of Christ, ritual purification to purification of the conscience, and so on. The tactic being to show to Christians how the priesthood of The Church and the Israelite priesthoods are similar. Now if we say something is new we don't mean it has completely different features, for if something had completely different qualities, then it wouldn't be the same thing. So if I said my red bouncy ball was made new by a bouncy ball craftsman, then described it as not red, not bouncy, and not a ball, most would say, “That's not a new red bouncy ball, that's just a completely different thing.” Thus the author of Hebrews uses language of shadow to explain how the old priesthood has been made new. So too then the altar is not gone, nor is the sacrifice, nor the priesthood, they are the same in a way and different in another way. 

We know the author believes his audience is still worshipping with a priesthood, yet is doing so wrongly. In Heb 10.11 he says And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. The author's problem with this audience seems to be that every priest in the community continues to offer the old sacrifices instead of the new one -- being Christ's blood. Furthermore in Heb 10.1 he says, Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach. The sacrifices made year after year refers to the one day a year, the day of Atonement, in which the High Priest with fear and trembling ventured into the Holy of Holies to make sacrifices for the forgiveness of the congregation's sins. But here the author tells us the old sacrifices are not efficacious towards sin nor do they give perfection, yet Christ's blood can do both. And it is given for y'all to purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 

Do we believe this?

What is a dead work? Remember what it is in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. The Ark of the Covenant which contains the Decalogue, Aaron's staff that budded, and the manna. All three are signs of Israel's disobedience. Thus nor did our Israelite ancestors believe much in the Law. So too the disciples are called faithless for not being able to heal a boy. What action makes “I believe the blood of Christ is the perfect sacrifice” make sense? We seek the action that will not make us hypocrites like the Pharisees and Sadducees Christ dealt with. 

We're offered the eucharist. 

We know this from the liturgy, and it is affirmed in our Scriptures. Hebrews says Christ is in the order of Melchizedek, who in Genesis is a priest and king just as our Lord, who offered wine and bread just as our Lord. Thus in light of all things of the Law being shadows of what Christ perfects, this includes the priestly office and kingship of Melchizedek's, as well as his offering bread and wine. Gee, I wonder where this is going? What bread and wine do we receive now as being the perfect sacrifice? So then the eucharist cleanses our consciences to not dead but living works to serve a living God. 

But, there remains the ability to profane the eucharist, which say is the blood of Christ's new covenant to us as Heb 10:29 states – How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?  

All have sinned and fall short though, so how can we ever receive eucharist rightly? Do we ever not profane the blood of Christ?

To have living works and a clean consciences is to be righteous according to Heb 10.38 my righteous one will live by faith, and 11.1 continues the logic -- faith is the assurance of things lived for. He further explains what faith is by citing actions of Abel, Enoch, Moses, Abraham, Noah, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel – where faith is bringing a son to an altar, building an ark, leading a people through the Red Sea. Thus faith is a sort of action. And so we can conclude that the eucharist will not be profaned should we do the works Christ has given us to do. 

Therefore we cannot say our beliefs, our faith, is something we judge as a true thought. So then is the oft quoted “I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior” said from a clean conscience and a sort of action? If so how? Is being a Christian one day of the week enough? God forbid. Are we the person who believes he loves his dog but his actions say otherwise? Do we have faith that is living works? Or do we have a faith that is without works, which is to say dead works and dead faith? Then it is the eucharist that allows our faith to be something we do in thought, word, and deed – not something done only with our lips, but also with our lives. Come, let us reason together to examine our beliefs, our words, our thoughts, and our actions, for though we be crimson like blood, our Lord will be make us white as snow.
The author of Hebrews makes it clear not to neglect to meet together. What is this other than the Mass? So then let us never miss the Mass, presuming nothing prevents us, if we wish to truly believe, for we earnestly need the eucharist to believe in God. Then we might take up our crosses.


Furthermore, let us test the ways of the world we live in to discover what we often believe. For example -- I don't really believe Christ's blood gives eternal redemption because when I get sick I'm suddenly aware of my mortality, running to my doctor for the solution - medicine. I say I believe in the Christian hope, that is Resurrection, yet I still treat death like a terror and the worst thing that could happen to me. I don't really believe the Scriptures are right when they say usury is wrong, aka accumulating interest on money, because I allow banks to borrow my money at interest, ie a checking or savings account. I don't really believe I need to give away all my things to act like Christ, instead I accumulate massive amounts of shit I don't need. I don't really believe the poor are blessed, because I believe being a priest and still having a middle to upper middle class life is a blessing from God. I don't believe treating others as myself is true, for when one of the poor asks me for a dollar on a hot day, I question if they'll buy booze with it. And yet if it's a hot day and I had no air condition I'd want a cold beer. Why do I expect the poor to be more virtuous than myself? Why do I hold them up to a standard higher than I hold myself? For I will be judged on that Day according to the standard I declare. And finally, we don't really believe Christ's passion, his crucifixion, was a good thing, for we often say, “Follow your passions!” when asked how we ought to live our lives. So it follows I must think also think that the blood of his passion, which was not a following of but a suffering of passion, was a stupid, stupid, thing for him to shed. And so many other absurdities follow from my actions once compared to the words that I call my beliefs.

And what of suffering? How might we suffer in a world so nicely packaged to comfort us?
Duke University requires medical insurance for every student. If I refuse to buy some, I'm automatically given it and charged accordingly. My college loans and Bursar debts will accumulate interest which I will be required to pay, so I'll also suffer usury. Our world constructs organic grocery stores and fair trade products that make us responsible consumers who are globally conscious of workers who aren't given fair wages, simultaneously condemning fast or processed food. And yet our poor here in Durham are restricted by their poverty to eat fast food. They can't afford a $10 meal, but they can afford a $1 burger. And so the poor must suffer from us. What we declare is good, that they cannot afford, and what they can afford we declare evil.
When the reality is if I buy cheap food it is unhealthy and is made with slave labor, and if I buy expensive food then it is healthy and I condemn the poor. It's suffering either way for both parties.

So too rural farmers, blue collar workers, laborers – all suffer because they are second class citizens in our great, enlightened nation with the best education in the world. We try to help them with literature and meetings saying they have value. And in doing so we only say, “You're still a commodity. You were worth $7.50 to us, but now that we give you value and your dignity back you're worth $15 an hour now. Aren't we good people? You were a cheap whore, now you're an expensive one. So we suffer from the logic and concepts that created the suffering of the laborer, and we add to the worker's suffering.

So too with the uneducated. We make great spaces for reconciliation, but it turns into blaming the uneducated for their prejudice, and we marginalize one group to save the others. Then we stand on pedestals saying if only these poor idiots had more education they wouldn't be so prejudice. Now we suffer from the prejudice of the uneducated, and they suffer from ours. Yet we laud the Academy over someone born in a small town, and our churches find it difficult to find anyone called to Bumblefunk, Egypt – yet have no problem finding 25 called ministers to a big city with one spot open.
Or do we stand up preaching the gospel as myself, pretending I am not under immense judgment for declaring all these things?  

Do we really believe most of the things we are so quick to spout off? If so God help us all.
What we really believe is blessed are the successful, that if we could just make all the poor middle class the world would be better and God's will would be done. We believe immortality is through medicine or memory when he have memorial services, a perfect imitation of the pagan heroes. We believe usury is just how the world works, that money talks and makes the world go round. We believe we don't need to suffer because suffering is an evil that needs wiping off the earth. We believe reducing our carbon footprint is how we find a pure conscience. We believe being a consumer means you can still buy all the shit you want to, so long as no suffering is incurred in its production. We believe the eucharist teaches us nothing about how to be a consumer, for you never see someone kneeling at a cash register, arms outstretched for but a few crumbs of bread and a sip of wine. No the poor, who might beg for a nickel or dime aren't allowed in the store precisely because they are beggars all their lives, while we are but beggars once a week during the eucharist. Shame on them for infesting 9^th Street. 

Should the poor beg seven days a week we have them thrown out of stores, arrested in so called public areas. Like our Lord they have no where to rest their heads, wondering our streets, parks, woods. Even in our churches which once upon a time opened their pews to the poor for rest, we now find the doors barred. Now we fear the poor, let them in when it's convenient, because we are not ready to suffer their vices because we are all so righteous. We believe voting for institutions and bureaucracies will bring about the eschaton because they'll order everything perfectly and bring about a better political situation – the kingdom itself! We believe that passions are good things. We believe the eucharist doesn't do anything. 

And so more often than not, I profane the blood of Christ. And I think there is much to be said about taking caution in approaching the altar. For Hebrews tells us that the eucharist as “the chief means of grace” comes with a cautionary tale.

But there is hope. For in Christ taking on our nature, me made it possible for us to participate in his divine nature through his blood. This process of being divinized comes in degrees so too our belief comes to be true in degrees. Our beloved Apostles were called “little-faithers” in the gospel according to Matthew. But after Christ's death we see most of them go from fleeing the cross to embracing it, many ultimately being crucified, perfecting their belief in Jesus Christ. So too then God loves us when we are little-faithers, but demands we suffer and endure, even unto death. Then we too might come increasingly to operate as the Church instead of “good Americans.” If good Americans then we pat ourselves on the backs for going green when we won't make eye contact with the poor as if they are not part of creation, when the meek shall inherit the earth, and the last shall be first. If good Americans then we promote a social justice separated from the blood of Christ – as if Christ was a liar when he said No one is good but God alone. If good Americans then we describe belief as a choice to accept God, as if a mortal stands on equal footing with God in virtue of a free will. If good Americans then we worship our own will by speaking of it as self-determined, as if Christ was a fool when he cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane for God to take the cup from him, but added, ultimately not my will

but thine be done, thereby resisting the temptation of his human nature – and by his crucifixion doing the will of his divine nature.
Therefore let us not be driven by the sacrifices of our forefathers, neither those by the Law nor those by our American forefathers. For the former is not efficacious towards sins, but has reached perfection in the eucharist. And the latter openly contradicts our Lord in so many ways. Let us never confuse a phrase or confession as being entirely sufficient for salvation as if it were a magical incantation. We will all do well to remember belief, faith, are actions made possible through Christ's blood. We will no doubt sin and continue to believe in things other than Christ. We will be guilty of idolatry. But as our Baptismal Covenants tells us, when we realize it, we shall confess and repent, and be absolved of our sins, to receive the eucharist so that we might stand back up after the fall. Therefore, as your brother in Christ, I exhort you all in love to continue in good deeds. Take up the eucharist and suffering and be saved 

with Christ's blood

through the Holy Spirit
to God the Father
by our works

Amen.