Greater and More Perfect, message 5

Hebrews 9:11–28 ESV

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 places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

We haggle with fragility, Christ offers sufficiency

I have been in ministry for 16 years. 11 as an associate and the last 5 as a lead. When I first got into my role in Mass I realized something very quickly. Everything that had gotten me to that point could not take me any further. Have you ever heard of the peter principle? That everyone rises to the level of his or incompetence? I felt that. But I realized that all the things that God did were blessings that got me to the role could not any longer move me.

I realized that I needed something else entirely. I realized that all the stuff before me as good as it was was fragile. So I called a pastor I used to work for in mild desperation and just asked Him questions.

I realized that what I needed in a lot of ways was the admission that things were fragile and there were other things that would work in this new season.

And I sought mentors and the Lord and God Himself in many ways rebuilt me.

And I think we are in a space where as a church we are looking at the same thing. What got us here won’t get us there. Now there are the foundational areas of theology that cannot and will not change. But there are forms in our lives that look different than we have previously experienced.

These are fragile and copies. What these times of transition do is help move our attention from copies to what is real and eternal.

Hebrews 9:23–24 ESV

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Life experienced is fragile

the idea of copies and shadows runs through the book of Hebrews. Because the author wants us to see the problem of trusting in copies. Even though copies are what is most easily trusted.

this passage tells us that there are things that are copies of things that are real things that do the job better than the copies of the things.

The copies of things remind us of the real things but aren’t as good or true as the real things.

- Plato tells a story about copies and real things. And the author of Hebrews would known that parable and would have understood the concepts of neoplatonism and gnosticism. But the story of copies and real things goes like this.

Imagine that there is a group of people living in a cave. And those people have never seen the real world, They only see shadows of the world projects on one of the caves walls. They see people come and go and they see life come and go and they believe because they have never known anything else.

One day one of the people in the caves breaks out and escapes and makes it to the real world. They see people for who they are and they see life for what it is. It amazes and astounds them.

He goes back to the rest of the people in the cave to tell them what he has found. What they have been seeing isn’t real! They are only projections, copies of reality! Reality is so much better!

But no one believes him. It is incomprehensible to them. THey cannot begin to know what is really true.

Plato stated that there is a real life beyond what we see. There is a real experience outside of what we experience on a daily life. And the author of Hebrews continually points back to the real over the shadow and copy.

and it is pointed out but because our desire always extends into the shadow. We often see and believe the shadow over the real.

We are given a real distinction that Hebrews is telling us that there is a life that God has allowed us that is fragile but then there is life we can know that is antifragile.

We are going to define the distinction in life as one that is fragile and antifragile.

Nicolas Tasim Talib created the idea of this distinction in his book aptly named : Antifragile

He discussed the concept of fragility as being one that breaks under volatility. That cannot stand up under stress. It breaks under stress.

From his book: “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

You would think the opposite of that is robust. something that holds up under stress. But it’s not. robustness is exemplified by a wall. A wall is robust . But no matter how long you press up against it, it stays the same, it does not get better. Talib created a term because he couldn’t find one that existed for the opposite of fragile.

There are some shadow areas that show up that are antifragile in application

complete secularization and disenchantment of the world

over the last 500 years people have moved into believing there is a God out there to trusting that we are enough for ourselves. That instead of Christ being the effecient and final cause, we believe we are. We have tried to make the cosmos internal. And in so doing have removed the concept of transcendence. The thought of human flourishing does not happen because of God out there but happens from us in here.

Secular humanism is severely limiting.

There is no invitation beyond ourselves.

fragile because we desire more than we ourselves can offer.

Isolation and moving away from community

because of secularization we are constantly moving further and further away from others. Technology helps us to do that as well. Unless we are intentional it is easy to stay distant.

Easier to turn on a sermon than it is to come to church

Fragile because we are called to follow Christ together.

overwhelming number of choices at any given moment.

This is just fatiguing.

Josiah and backing out. Were you just not thinking?

HE stated back, he was overthinking.

I think we are in a generation of overthinkers

These are shadow areas they are showing up in our lives and are showing up to be fragile. They are areas that can’t live up to what it has promised.

The point of this passage is that there has been a system where we have redundantly acted in ways to deal with our sin. We have been desperate with ways to deal with our stuff. We use ministry to deal with our sin. And the Scripture tells us that for the millions of times we have tried to heal or carry burden or show ourselves worthy, Christ has gone once as a sacrifice and is sufficient for all our running and is sufficient for all our working.

Watch your time and maybe cut this

There is a podcast called Exvangelical, hosted by a man named Blake Chastain who sets up interviews with people who have left the evangelical faith, who are, as the term goes, deconstructing.

In a recent episode Chastain interviewed comedian Pete Holmes. Holmes grew up in a typical evangelical home but then in his adulthood tossed aside the labels of Christianity entirely for a pseudo spiritual view.

In their interview while Holmes stated an agnostic viewpoint, he talked nostalgically about his Christian upbringing, and fondly about the people in his church that he attended.

There were forms that he appreciated but there was no depth.

He was talking about a copy that pointed to all the right things but didn’t actually offer the right thing.

The copy pointed to something but it didn’t produce anything.

Copies cannot create, cannot offer anything. They only point.

The opposite of fragile is something that is antifragile. When you apply pressure to something that is antifragile, that object gets better. When it experiences volatility, it gets better.

The things we pursue instead of Christ are always copies and every copy is fragile.

Life given by Christ is anti-fragile

Hebrews 9:11–12 ESV

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 places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

God has made sure that Christ is greater and more perfect.

He only entered once by His own means

and anything less than that is our attempts to enter by our means.

Our work is to know the God who went once, who is greater and more perfect. Who is not a copy, who is not fragile.

But the ways of God are anti-fragile.

And His ways help us to live antifragile.

I noticed this during the pandemic. this idea has likely been the idea that has run through my brain the most in the past 2 years. It has been the idea of what is fragile and antifragile. The Bible gives us an ecclesiology that is defined with incredible antifragility. But this became apparent to me the first week of the pandemic. Within one announcement that we were closing down, everything that was fragile showed itself. Our ministries were all shut down: fragile. Our building was shut down: fragile. Our metrics for how we count success: fragile.

So knowing that we began to look at what wasn’t fragile. We took out a page of paper, drew a line down the middle and defined the fragile and antifragile things. And I learned very quickly that most of my work and most of my trust was based in fragility. Based in things that could easily break.

And so we spent some time looking at what ministry looked like doing antifragile ministry. Along the way as I was working with Nate Marshall we came up with some fun videos but we did look at ways where antifragility was possible

show pics of nate

What we found was there were three areas that seemed to have the opportunity to, when pressure was applied, for things to get better. And we found the places that we get better is in the distance between relationships.

The distance between us and our relationship with God

Our relationship with one another

Our relationships as family.

We saw these areas either get better or have the opportunity to get better under pressure. We audited every ministry and every event we did and nothing held up under pandemic scrutiny. But relationships did.

So we shifted and have been working to developing events and ministries to help develop and empower those areas.

Now this is obvious. But what separates it from obvious is that these areas are tested. And under testing there wasn’t much that holds up.

We see this in the book of James. I love his opening

James 1:1–4 ESV

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James tells us immediately in his letter that when pressure is applied we get better.

and the pressure certainly has applied. We get to, on this side, see where Christ applies life. We get to see where things flourish. And I found that the places where life is applied is always in terms of relationships.

I’m not saying that all our realtionships are great through the pandemic but I am saying that the antifragile life is one where Christ pours out His life in our life into relationships.

When and where Christ is life is always antifragile.

Which then removes the issue of circumstance

No matter what we face Christ can build up where we can’t

In our realtionship with Him

with others

in our famliies.

Christ can do that which is greater and more perfect in our lives.

There is something amazing about Christ that, when we are infused with His life. When we are known by Him and when we gather together. Then when we go through difficult things, we get better. We grow.

That means that our context is not the fragility around us, it is Christ who is in front of us.

He through whatever difficulty we are facing is making and shaping and forming us the church into something better than useable, He is making something beautiful .

We can trust His one success over our infinite attempts.