Embodies the Good News
Hebrews 13:15-16
Introduction
I will be honest and say I don’t remember a lot about my church experience growing up. I remember being there, but a lot of the information did not stick. But one thing did stick and surprisingly it was a banner that was hanging on the wall in the sanctuary. It had a statement that was made up of two phrases that a mother might exclaim in exasperation but when combined made a profound statement. The banner said “What on earth are you doing for heaven’s sake?” Something about that really grabbed my attention. I am not sure where they got that statement from but I suspect that it was a response to common critique of “So heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.”
Both of these statements should get us thinking. Where should our minds be focused? Should we mediate completely on heavenly things? There is something attractive about that. Or should we be practical and focus on the things that are all around us? I like that option, but then how is the church any different from any service organization or club?
If Jesus appeared to us right in this moment and we asked him “Jesus, should we focus on heaven or on earth?” What would he say? I suspect he would say something like “What did I teach you to pray? Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” It is not an either/or but a both/and. This focus on the vertical and the horizontal is found throughout Scripture. It is why the greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbour.
This brings us to the fourth marker of a mission edge church. We are to embody the good news. Last week, we looked at being fluent in the good news, that is understanding the good news and being able to communicate it. But just speaking the good news is not enough. As the saying goes, talk is cheap. Anyone can speak with a religious vocabulary but does their life reveal that they both believe and embrace the message they are trying to communicate? That’s what we are going to look at.
A Sacrifice of Praise
We are returning to Hebrews 13, the same chapter where we looked at the importance of hospitality. One of the things that I love about the book of Hebrews is that it really contains the ideas of being heavenly minded and being earthly good.
In Hebrews, worship is described in the context of sacrifice. This book is a deep dive into the Old Testament and how it points us to the truth of Jesus. In the Old Testament, worship was primarily through sacrifice. You could not just worship anywhere. It had to be the tabernacle and later on the temple. That is because there was only one place where sacrifices of animals and other valued commodities could take place. It is hard for us to imagine worship that would be made up of the killing of various living things and many of us are likely happy that is not what our worship looks like today.
The author of Hebrews speaks of two kinds of sacrifices for us as Christians. The first is a sacrifice of praise that comes from the words we speak. This is typically what we would consider worship today. It would be the singing of songs, the praying of prayers, the reading of Scripture. It could also include testimonies about God’s faithfulness. This completely makes sense to us as worship. How is this a sacrifice? First, the author wants to make that Old Testament connection. But secondly, our words have power and it is a sacrifice because we are making a choice about how we use our words. Referring to our tongues, James says this “With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.” (James 3:9-10) How we use our words is our choice and when we use our words to glorify God, that is a sacrifice of praise.
The author of Hebrews could have stayed there but instead offers another example of sacrifice. We are told “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” From my experience, many Christians would say something like worship is mandatory for Jesus followers but sharing with those in need is an option for the most generous of us. And yet what the author is saying here is that doing good to others and sharing what we have is actually a part of worship. That might be hard to get our minds around and yet that is kind of full bodied worship that God is looking for. We are to speaks words of praise to God and we are to do good to other people. This too is a sacrifice, a sacrifice that is pleasing to God.
Embodying Good News
A mission edge church embodies the good news. What is the good news? Jesus has come into the world and this changes everything. It is not just about where we spend eternity, it is about how we live this life here on earth. It is about answering the question “What on earth are you doing for heaven’s sake?”
Unfortunately, there are many church people who fail to see the connection between our love for Jesus and how we treat people, especially among the most needy among us. I would like to let Jesus answer this question for himself:
“‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:31-40)
According to Jesus, you cannot separate our love for him and doing good to others. Jesus may have ascended to heaven after the resurrection, but in some way, Jesus is still present among us through those in need.
I remember having a conversation about this at a church I attended a couple of decades ago, not long after returning to the faith. We were discussing the role of helping people in need and there were some that were pushing back, seeing that as a distraction from the spiritual message of how to get to heaven. Some saw a ministry of helping as being permissible, only as a tool to communicate the spiritual message. Both of those positions were wrong. Helping people in need is central to the faith and we do it not as a gimmick for another purpose but because it is the right thing to do.
Conclusion
The church is designed to embody the good news. Too often we think of spiritual things to be more important than physical things. And yet what does the Gospel of John say about Jesus? The Word became flesh. The incarnation is about God as Spirit taking on human flesh. God was embodied. If God was embodied, surely the good news must be embodied as well.
We, as the church, have been entrusted with this incredible good news about Jesus. This is not just spiritual truth to be spoken but a new way for us to live. It is not that we are so heavily minded that we are no earthly good but that we are so heavenly minded that we are earthly good. Worship God with your words in church. But also worship God by doing good to those in need.
