Why Just Why Are We Here

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

What a gloomy bunch of readings.  I have to admit that I found them almost entirely uninspiring this week.

I sat for a while with our first reading from the first book of Samuel.  Hannah is a great character.  Maybe I could find something in her that tied in in some way to this community.  Perhaps something about being happy with what we have rather than despairing because of what we don’t have.  There was some promise there, but I just wasn’t feeling it.

Our canticle and gospel both talk about destroying things to make way for a new, better creation.  I could have talked about this.  I have talked about this at least a few times in the past.  It is a painful topic and if I felt you needed to hear it, we would be talking about it.  But I don’t think you need it.  You all understand the need for renewal and the counsels of this church are talking and praying about what needs to be done in this parish.  Preaching a sermon on it would just be unnecessary pain.

Well, that leaves our reading from Hebrews.  “Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.”

It’s always nice to hear that I’m useless.

‘But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.”  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.’

What is this all about?  The part about a single sacrifice for sins is clear.  We talk about that all the time.  Christ gave up his life on the cross to free us from the power of sin and death.  And then he didn’t have to do it again, because that sacrifice was not just for those who followed him at the time, but for all who were yet to come.  If was for everyone, including all of us.

But that last sentence.  “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”  What does that mean?  One of the odd words, “perfected,” I’ve talked about before.  Does anyone remember what it means to be “perfect” in the Bible?  It means to be whole or complete.  So to be perfected means to be made whole.

That leaves just one more odd word: “sanctified.”  Does anyone know what sanctified means?  It means to be made holy.  It can also mean to have your sins forgiven.  So when we rewrite that sentence in everyday language, it is: “For by a single offering he has made whole for all time those whose sins are forgiven.”

And whose sins are forgiven?  Ours.  So who is made whole?  Us.

So why do we bother to come here?  Why do we say the confession and why do I pronounce the absolution?  We don’t need to.  By the grace of God we are already forgiven.  Nothing we do here can make us any more whole that what Jesus already did for us.  So why do we do it?

We do it to remember.

Think back to last week.  Do you remember what it means to remember?

We do all of this to make Jesus’ sacrifice new in our lives.  We do it to experience again the grace of God.  We do it so that the hope of the resurrection can lift our hearts and inspire us to do great things in God’s name.  Or much more likely, we do this to open ourselves to God so that God can do great things through us.

And we do all of this so that we can inspire and push each other to be the best that we can be and to follow God’s call every day of our lives.

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

This we ask in Jesus name.  Amen.