Hebrews 12.18-29; Luke 13.10-17
Some time ago I mentioned that I gave a talk at the Men’s Breakfast in Pontesbury entitled “The Mind Boggles”. The word boggles means “to be astonished or baffled when trying to imagine or understand something”. And this wonderful world is full of examples - you perhaps can think of some yourself. Here’s two or three. The tiny bird, the swift staying on the wing all its life, only coming to land to build a nest and hatch out its eggs. It migrates to Africa and as far as South Africa flying over 3,000 miles twice a year and it is able to fly on the level at nearly 70 miles an hour. Or think of a human being growing from a single fertilised cell to become a unique human being. An atom with its particles whizzing around forming molecules. Or, my favourite boggle, a cell which has many chemical reactions per minute inside it and working in harmony with trillions of other cells to produce a functional human being. Truly we live in a wonderful world.
But how much more wonderful when we try to imagine God. The passage from Hebrews describes, as best it can using pictures taken from the book of Exodus, that we come to a blazing fire and a tempest, the sound of a trumpet, a voice which made the hearers beg not another word to be spoken - utterly and absolutely terrifying. And that is born out by present day science which tells us that everything started with a sort of big bang and has evolved into a universe of billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars. Then God, who created all this wonderful world with all its glories went on to create, over hundreds of thousands of years, the human race and conditions on this planet ideal for growth. The human race with all its potential both for incredible inventiveness and sadly for destructiveness. When we think of this amazing God, all we can do is bow down in trembling and fearfulness. How can we think of approaching such power and majesty, such purity and holiness? Truly Hebrews is right when it affirms our God is a consuming fire.
But then comes the paradox of our faith. This same God, God who created this vast universe and probably created much more, came to live among us and showed us that the ultimate power in this world, however much it is torn apart by strife, is actually love. Love so great that in Jesus he endured the worst kind of suffering but in enduring it took on himself the wickedness, including ours. We proclaim that when we say, “Lamb of God you take away the sin of the world.” I find that very comforting that in some way, Jesus will take away my own sins which I certainly have committed but also somehow or other the suffering that has gone on for many centuries and includes that experienced by the children of Gaza. I don’t know how and meanwhile we must do all we can to alleviate suffering as Jesus did on earth. The Gospel story is an example and while I haven’t experienced or read about a miracle as dramatic as that I have experienced three or four miracles and read about more. But because I affirm that the lamb of God takes away the sin of the world I know that somehow or other those killed or injured through the sins and violence of others will eventually find that their lives have been infinitely worthwhile despite their suffering.
To go back to the passage from Hebrews. It adds still more to this wondrous pattern of God’s creation. It points out that we have not come to a blazing mountain, we have actually come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. We have a destiny through the sprinkled blood of Jesus, to share the life of heaven but again a life we simply cannot understand or imagine. We have some indication through the life of the risen Lord Jesus, that our resurrected life will be made out of our life in this world and that we shall know each other but we do not know a great deal beyond that. So again, as we try to think what we are destined for, we are caught up in a mystery.
But there is yet more to be wondered at in this passage from Hebrews. The writer tells us that the mountain on which Moses spoke to God was shaken by the voice of God. And the writer goes on to say that at some time both earth - and heaven as well - will be shaken. Other scriptures make this a little clearer in telling us that Jesus will come again. The trumpet will sound and both earth and heaven will be established in a form which cannot be shaken. This world has a destiny but what that destiny is to be we do not know.
There are other truths inherent in our faith not mentioned in this passage of Hebrews and I will just mention one more. That is the truth contained in this service. The expression “the mind boggles” is far too trite to describe it for it is a really an incredible truth. It is simply that when we receive the bread and wine we receive Jesus Himself. Jesus through whom all was created comes into our lives ever more fully and as much as we are prepared to receive him. We can’t imagine how this can be but as you receive this scrap of bread and drop of wine the life of Jesus comes into you afresh.
So just a few moments of silence to think about these staggering truths. God, utterly beyond us, creator of such an immense universe, shows his love for each one of us. He comes into our lives in many different ways but particularly through the bread and wine of this service. I would like to end with the closing words of the hymn which starts with words from Isaiah:
“Do not be afraid...”
“You are mine O my child, I am your Father and I love you with a perfect love.
Do not be afraid for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name, you are mine.”
Amen.