14th Sunday after Pentecost ~ September 2, 2007

Today we continue in our theme of “Renewal” seeing how God renews us and how we renew our love for God and our neighbor. Today’s selected text from Hebrews 13 focuses on our love for our neighbor.

But first I must say that I got excited when I read this text and especially verse 17. Let me read it to you from another translation and I think you will see why I like this verse. “Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives and work under the strict supervision of God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things harder for them?” (Hebrews 13:17, MSG) As you can see I like this verse since it speaks to you to treat me well as your pastor. But I am not here to toot my own horn; I believe the deeper meaning here is that we work together as a team to renew our brotherly love for our fellow humans.

The writer of the book of Hebrews focuses on Jesus being our High Priest, ties in His death with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament and even gives us a picture of the Old Testament figures of faith in chapter 11. Chapter 13 is the conclusion of Hebrews and contains some practical advice also tied into the idea of sacrifice. “Let brotherly love continue,” is the opening of this chapter and underscores what the writer is calling all Christians to do.

We first begin with showing hospitality to strangers. Not to friends and family, not to people we know, but to strangers. We are being pushed out of our comfort zone and are being told to show love and hospitality to strangers. God wants our love to flow to the world and to do that we need to move away from our comfort zone and out into the world. Mission happens outside of our church walls and so we are invited by the writer and the Lord to show hospitality to strangers.

Then we move deeper into the idea of helping the prisoner and mistreated people as if we were in their shows. Not only are we to go to strangers but now we are invited to go to those in need, those who may be on the fringe of our society. First the prisoner which can take the form of going to those who are in jail because of breaking the law; some of us have the ability and compassion to do that. But I also think this can be interpreted as those who are imprisoned by life. We have also faced the prisons of life that can be summed up in sin. And we who are in Christ know what it means to be set free. We who have been freed are now called to show love to people who are imprisoned, either in a physical jail or by the sin that is in their life. We are called to show love not only those in prison but also to those who have been mistreated. We all know what it is like to be mistreated and we are called to reach out with love to those who are being mistreated by the world.

Then the writer draws our attention to marriage and that love relationship that needs to be respected. Here it seems we are taking a new turn but I think we are still focuses on the idea of showing brotherly love or respect for other relationships. The marriage relationship is one of the most basic relationship and the first one established by God in the Garden of Eden. From there all other relationship build and by respecting the marriage relationship we are showing that we respect people, which is showing brotherly love.

We are also told to keep our life free from the love of money. It is so easy for us to fall into this trap, that the things around us, the resources we have accumulated, are to only be used for us and in turn draw us away from trusting in God for all. Also, when we fall into the love of money we tend not to use it to show love to others. I believe that is the heart of stewardship – using all that we have to help our neighbor. Using our resources for others is to continue in our brotherly love.

Now we are drawn back into the image of sacrifice and namely Christ’s sacrifice which is said to have occurred outside the city. The writer to the Hebrews is now drawing our attention to what Jesus did for the whole world and not just Israel. Jesus went outside the city to die for you and me because it is there on the outside that we truly are. When we strive to be on the “inside” we lose sight of the world and of where God leads each of us. We who are dead in our sins live on the outside and it is there that God in Jesus came to us.

Using this image the writer is challenging us to think outside ourselves and our own comfortable area of living. The church is about mission, and mission happens outside the walls of the church. “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Hebrews 13:16) Did you hear what makes a good sacrifice for God? Not going to worship regularly, not putting money in the offering plate, not serving on a board or committee – but doing good and sharing what we have (which by the way I believe will make going to church, putting money in the offering plate and serving in the church so much more if we begin with doing good and sharing) God invites us to show love to the world and today He is inviting us to renew our brotherly love.

The Lord is challenging us to reach beyond ourselves and offer care and love as we build others up. Funny, that sounds like something we all know – our church’s mission statement; “We are called by God to reach out, care for, and build people toward maturity in Christ.” Reach, Care, Build summarizes our mission and in this passage alone all three our fulfilled as we show brotherly love to the stranger, prisoner, and mistreated. We reach outside these walls to others, offer care and brotherly love and in so doing we build people up to maturity in Christ. Reach, Care, Build by renewing your brotherly love through the love God has shown to us.

Be renewed Mount Olive, be renewed in brotherly love. Amen