Sermon Hebrews 11:29- 12:2

Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Hebrews 11:29- 12:2
Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church
April 19, 2007

In the year 70 AD the Roman Legions destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. They had reacted to the constant violence that occurred when so called messiahs tried to raise armies to overturn their rule. The real messiah, of course, had no intention of leading such a violent overthrow. He spoke of loving another, and not responding to violence with violence, but he was executed anyway. With the destruction of the temple the old Hebrew religion with its High Priests and animal sacrifices came to an end. Jews had to reinterpret their religion, both those who had acknowledged Jesus as their messiah and were now going to churches as well as those who continued gathering together in synagogues with their teachers or rabbis waiting for the messiah to come. The new Christians wanted to know were they now stood. With the destruction of the old system who would now be their High Priest? How should Christians do sacrifices? And how should the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, be used in light of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?

The author of Hebrews told them that Jesus was their High Priest. And Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was a sufficient sacrifice for all of their sins. Their faith was the same faith in the same God as all the saints who had preceded them. Christianity was never meant to be a new religion. Rather it was the fulfillment or perfection of that which had come before. If you think of the people of God as a bush with Abraham at the root, then all Jews are the branches and leaves. Gentile Christians, those not directly descended from Abraham, have been grafted onto the bush, and adopted into the family of God. The relationship between Jews and Christians is as part of an extended family. We are cousins. We disagree about Jesus being the messiah. But we share a common history and scripture. The covenant that God made with Abraham applies to us. God loves us so that we will be a blessing for others.

In the 19^th century scholars were debating different techniques for interpreting scripture. Some argued that we needed to understand to nuances of the original languages and investigate the historical circumstances of the period when the books of the Bible were written. New insights could be gleaned by analyzing biblical texts in their historical contexts. But others argued that since each word in the Bible was inspired, literally “breathed”, by God the historical context was irrelevant. It was only important to understand the meaning of the words. One Bible scholar from this period was John Nelson Darby who came up with the idea that verses from one part of the Bible could be paired with verses from another part revealing new truths. Studying the Bible for Darby was like doing a crossword puzzle. You could pull words out of context and put them back together creating whatever meaning you want.

By the early 20^th century Darby’s ideas were popularized by Cyrus Ingerson Schofield. Using Darby’s technique of putting unrelated verses together Schofield came up with a dispensational system. He used this system as notes which he included with a King James Bible to form the Schofield Reference Bible. In his system Schofield said that God relates to his people differently at different times. God related to the Jews from Moses to Christ by the law and to the Christians after Christ by grace. According to Schofield, God’s primary purpose was to create a Kingdom on Earth through the Jews, but when that failed God went to plan B building a gentile church which will one day be taken to heaven. In this dispensational system Christians have replaced Jews as God’s chosen people.

The author of Hebrews was no dispensationalist. He clearly saw a strong relationship between the Jews from Moses to Christ and Christians. We worship the same God and read same scripture. Jesus had come not to abolish that which came before but to perfect it. The promises made to the historical faithful were fulfilled in Christ. God’s people of the past, a great cloud of witnesses, are watching what do now.

Today, Christians disagree about how to interpret the Bible. We Presbyterians have always placed a strong emphasis on understanding the original languages and historical contexts. Others read the Bible believing that the Holy Spirit will reveal truths without the preparatory academic work. This method of interpretation and has become hugely popular in the United States by the preaching of certain fundamentalist preachers and popular works like, The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey and the more recent Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye. Building on the work of Darby and Schofield that have constructed elaborate schemes of what the end times will be like, often combining verses from the Old Testament with others in Revelation to reveal what they say are new truths. The result is a picture of the end of the world focused on a great war called the Battle of Armageddon.

When the State of Israel was created in 1948 the dispensationalists believed that this was the trigger for the end of the world. The dispensationalists received political clout when one of their own was elected President of the United States in 1980, Ronald Reagan. The reason all of this is so important is that it explains why peace in the Middle East is so elusive. A significant percentage of the electorate and their representatives want nothing to do with peace in the Middle East because they believe that an all out battle with many lives lost, the Battle of Armageddon, is just what is needed for Jesus to return.

The Prophet Isaiah, speaking to ancient Israel, had a very different view. God had richly blessed Israel by giving them the land and everything needed to have a prosperous nation. God had placed them in the land so that the people would be treated justly according to God’s love. But ancient Israel had not done this. Instead of justice there was bloodshed. As a result Isaiah said the God was preparing to remove his blessing and protection. The modern State of Israel should take note. God is watching how you treat the Palestinians in your land. If you treat them with justice and righteousness then you will continue to possess the land, but if you treat them unjustly then God will deal with you harshly.

Today Christians are divided over how the view Palestinians. The dispensationalists see them as pawns in God larger plan at the end of the age. We see them as people, created in God’s image, and deserving justice and righteousness.

In June of 2000 I had the privilege of traveling to Israel and Palestine on a pilgrimage from the National Presbyterian Church. The pilgrimage was led by Don Kruse, a retired Foreign Service Officer. Don’s passion is to introduce American Christians to Christians who live in the Holy Land. I had not known until then that Christians live in the Middle East. I thought everyone there was either Jewish or Muslim. But I found that Christians do live there, and their families have been there worshiping Christ for 2000 years. After seeing the biblical sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Nazareth and Capernaum I stayed with a Palestinian Christian Family living in a small village called Bir Zeit just north of Jerusalem. The father, Labib, had been educated in the United States and had returned to Palestine to care for his ailing mother. He had fathered four teenage daughters and a nine year old son named Hathan. One day while I was staying with the family, some neighbors came over and were very upset. All of the water had been shut off to the town. When I asked Labib what was going on he began to tell me about water in Palestine.

Since biblical times water has been an issue in Palestine. Abraham had negotiated for a well in Gaza and there are well knows wells in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. In 1967 Israel captured these important water systems and placed them under the control of the Israeli military. Despite the tremendous increase in the Palestinian population since 1967 and their greater need for water for agriculture, water is severely limited. Israeli agriculture and settlements on occupied territory, however, get all the water they need. The cutoff of water to the village was a common and very inconvenient occurrence. The practical effect of not having enough water is that the fields at the far edge of Palestinian villages cannot be watered and are therefore unused. These unused fields are then seized by the Israeli army, and the land is turned over to Israeli settlers. As settlers from Israel move into this land they form rings around Palestinian villages. After violence broke out in 2000 the Israelis began construction of a wall separating Israeli settlers from Palestinians. Given the settlement patterns these walls ring the ancient villages imprisoning the people inside.

Some Christians hear the cries of the Palestinian people and rejoice because they believe that the louder Palestinians cry the sooner Christ will return. Their political allies turn a deaf ear to those cries and support whatever harsh measures are used against these defenseless people by the State of Israel. And great stores of munitions are stockpiled in Israel waiting for the day that will signal the return of Christ with the Great War of Armageddon at the end the age.

But when we Presbyterians hear the cries of Palestinian people we do not rejoice. The Palestinians are not pawns in a violent game God is playing to bring the world to an end. They are people, like you and me, created in the image of God and surrounded by their ancestors, the same cloud of witnesses, who preceded us in faith. They deserve to be treated with love and respect. God demands justice and righteousness.

Today three million Palestinians live side by side with three million Israelis. They long for the day with the 1967 borders are restored and a new Palestine would exist next to the State of Israel. But this is becoming less and less likely. Jews, following what they believe is a mandate from God to possess the land, are settling in occupied territory on the west bank of the Jordan River and in East Jerusalem. Their presence and the infrastructure that is created for them in the form of roads and protective walls make it less and less likely that a two state solution will ever come about. The alternatives to an independent Palestinian state are being considered. One solution is to forcibly remove millions of Palestinians from their homes. The other option is to create one state with the Palestinians in a permanent second class status to preserve the Jewish majority. Both of these options are clearly unjust. Sadly, an independent Palestinian state evokes fears in all concerned. Many Palestinians and Israelis are filled with anger over the injustice and violence of the past. This makes it very highly likely that the injustice and violence will continue leading to even more injustice and violence.

Solving the problems in Middle East requires perseverance. We will be discouraged while trying to find peaceful solutions to the growing violence. The sin of injustice and violence weighs us down. But Jesus wants peace in the land where he walked. Jesus chose to face death on a cross instead of leading a violent overthrow of the occupying powers of Palestine in his day. He chose the path of humility leading to a shameful death rather than the glory of a military victory.

Christ is our example to follow. He wants the sin of injustice and violence that has plagued the Middle East for so long to end. He wants everyone involved to adopt his spirit of humility. He wants peace in the Holy Land. Is this possible? Yes, by faith, the same faith that the people had when pursued by the Egyptians and God parted the Red Sea, the same faith that caused the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down, the same faith in Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven with supreme power and authority and might. By faith in Jesus Christ peace will come for people of Israel and Palestine.

As the church of Jesus Christ we should pray for peace. If the Bible seems to say that we should pray for violence and injustice than something is wrong with our interpretation. The Bible never tells us to rejoice in the destruction of people. Rather it tells us to love one another, pray for peace and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We also need to join with other Christians in working toward peace in the land of our savior. For many years now I have been involved with the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation. This organization raises money for churches in Palestine, has a annual conference in Washington DC, and leads pilgrimages to the Holy Land so that American churches can meet, support and pray for churches in the land where Jesus once lived.

The Christians in Palestine today are praying for peace. They long for the day when they can peacefully live side by side with Muslims and Jews. They need us to remember them and pray for them. When possible we should visit them and listen to their stories of faith in the midst of great hardship. They need know that they are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses so that they can cast off the sin of injustice and violence and with our support grow in faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.