In 1774, the French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier, was racing to discover the properties of a substance Henry Cavendish called “inflammable air.” Lavoisier believed, as did the two other scientists who were also bent on beating him to the discovery, that this “inflammable air” might be created by de-phlogisticating otherwise ordinary air. See, the going theory was that in addition to the 4 Greek elements of air, fire, water, and earth there was this fifth element (and, no, its not love!), this fifth element was contained in combustible substances and was released during combustion. They needed something to explain the processes of rust and oxidation, and phlogiston was it. At any rate, Lavoisier was trying to remove all of the phlogiston from the air to isolate this “inflammable air” - or, aether, as it was sometimes called.
As you might expect, he didn’t succeed. Or, he would later recognize that he didn’t succeed. He did find something. At the time he described his discovery as (and I quote) “the air itself entire without alteration except that it comes out more pure, more respirable.”
Lavoisier discovered oxygen, of course. But did he? He actually didn’t know what he had found – mostly because there was no place for oxygen in the chemistry in which Lavoisier operated, there was only aether. Before Laviosier’s discovery could be recognized for what it was, the old structure of air, fire, water, earth and phlogiston had to go: he had to provide a new structure in which oxygen did fit – a structure which came to be known as the periodic table of elements.
True story!
Thomas Kuhn, a professor Berkeley, told this story in his 1962 book called “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” In it Kuhn offered a new description of how scientific knowledge advances. Before Kuhn, scientists saw their work as cumulative in nature: like building a house, board by board, every new advance was built on the findings of those who came before. Kuhn, however, begged to differ: he claimed that every once in a while– like in the case of Laviosier –even the foundations of science had to be replaced.
Now, there were quite a few people – and lots of scientists, to be sure – who were not pleased with Kuhn’s book, and it might have sunk totally into total obscurity like similar books had– Alfred Korzibsky’s comes to mind - if it were not for one thing. You may have never heard of Thomas Kuhn or his book, but you have heard, and have probably used, the word he resurrected from obscurity to describe these scientific epochs. The phrase that Kuhn used? Paradigm Shift.
A paradigm shift represents a complete change: from the foundations up. Its as if John Cleese’s immortal line is ringing in our ears: “And now for something completely different”
It is just this sort of shift that the author of Hebrews wants to describe for us. Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and his messiah-ship had to be understood in the light of the Jewish Scriptures – the Old Testament. But because of Jesus’ actions as the Messiah everything was completely different. It was no longer workable to try and do the same things, to try and relate to god in the same way as before, only adding Jesus to it. Jesus just isn’t understandable within the old structure. Something new had happened in Jesus. He was someone completely different. It is because of Jesus’ difference that the author of Hebrews sets out to answer why Jesus made the old structure Obsolete for his or her Jewish readers. This was a serious question for the very first Christians. They had lived their lives equating faithfulness to God with obedience of his law. So it was shocking to think that because of Jesus the temple, all the sacrifices and festivals – all the formal ways that an Israelite related to God – were suddenly made un-necessary. The first and most important question that a Jewish reader would have had is: “How do we relate to God now that the temple and priestly system has been superceded?” or, “What happens when we sin, when we break God’s law?” The book of Hebrews was directed toward answering what being faithful to Israel’s God looked like after Jesus. Jesus had changed everything, and the book of Hebrews describes that change.
For us, it is equally true that we cannot simply add Jesus to the worlds from which we came. Of course, we all know this: we know that being a Christian is more than sprinkling some Jesus on an otherwise secular life. But sometimes we need to be reminded that we have to learn to be a Christian. That being a Christian requires us to adopt a new language as much as it does a new lifestyle. That to be a Christian is to be in the world differently. Our question of how to live like Jesus – to be a people after Jesus – is similar to the original Jewish readers of Hebrews: how do we understand and live the different life that Jesus calls us to? We live surrounded by a world that preaches to us – much more effectively than I could – that the path to happiness lies in ownership, that the proper way of dealing with conflict is the suppress the one with whom we are conflicted. We are surrounded by a world that places high value on commitment-less relationships, on instant gratification. Living in such a world makes it hard for us to imagine what living in Jesus’ kingdom might be like: we also need have a different imagination, an imagination shaped by Jesus’ story. We feel this need to be transformed, we feel the Uncompromising call of Christ to shift our perspective from this world’s to his. Erich Auerbach gave words to this call of Jesus in his book, Mimesis, as he compared Homer with the Bible:
“The Bible’s claim to truth is not only far more urgent than Homer’s, it is tyrannical – it excludes all other claims. The world of Scripture stories is not satisfied with claiming to be a historically true reality – it insists that it is the only real world, it is destined for autocracy. All other scenes, issues, and ordinances have no right to appear independently of it, and it is promised that all of them, the history of all mankind, will be given their due place within its frame, will be subordinated to it. The scripture stories do not, like Homer’s court our favor, they do not flatter us that they may please us and enchant us – they seek to subject us, and if we refuse to be subjected we are rebels.”
We often feel caught – even though I desire Jesus’ kingdom – to embody him and to reflect his character – I am still shaped by culture I have been called out of. I want to speak Christ, but don’t have the proper language. I want to think Christ, but my mind is untrained – or trained poorly. I want to love Christ, but I find that my heart is misshapen. I find myself to be a rebel, and unwillingly!
We need to be taught how to be a Christian. And so, we too, come to the book of Hebrews, seeking to understand what it means to live a life shaped by Jesus. To be a people shaped by him. There is a big difference between us and earliest Christians, however. In order to understand the difference that Jesus makes, we have to start with their story, with Israel’s story. Jesus changed everything, and the book of Hebrews calls us to enter into Jesus’ new story.
The author of the book of Hebrews – and we have no idea who this person is – he or she wants for us to understand that Jesus represents something different – from the foundations up. Most scholars think that the author of Hebrews was writing to Jewish Christians who were – well – trying to fit Jesus into their old religious structure. They were trying to add Jesus to the temple sacrifices and the regulations associated with the Law. The author of Hebrews is very clear: Jesus represents the culmination, the climax, of God’s story and after Jesus and because of him God’s people cannot operate as they had before; even the words that we use – justice, peace, priest, community, faith – are redefined for us by and because of Jesus.
Look at Hebrews 1:1 with me:
After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Thus he became so far better than the angels as he has inherited a name superior to theirs.
Peter, Paul and John wrote letters, but this book of Hebrews, this is a sermon. If you’ve read the New Testament through you know that Hebrews sounds unlike any of the others books. And, excepting the Revelations, you probably found this to be the hardest and most baffling book in the New Testament. Even the Revelations bears some similarity to the Old Testament prophets Zechariah and Daniel, but there is nothing in the Bible quite like Hebrews.
So, We’re going to preach through Hebrews this Fall. But before we jump right in, we need to get our bearings straight. Fortunately for us, the author of Hebrews provides an introduction to his book here in the first four verses.
Lets read it again, this time more slowly:
“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets”
1. Right off the bat, we see that the story of Jesus is connected to the story of Israel. This means that in order to understand the story we have to understand it as part of Israel’s story. As you remember, God’s relationship with his people, Israel was really rocky. As often as God bailed Israel out, she managed to run back into trouble. God called this “unfaithfulness,” in-fidelity. God sent along Judges and Kings and prophets who, speaking for God, called Israel back to faithfulness. The prophets also spoke of a time when Israel would have God’s law – written not on tablets of stone, but written on their hearts, a time when all the nations would come to the throne of Israel’s god to worship, a time when Israel would finally experience the rest in the land that was promised through Moses. This time was often referred to as the “last days”
2. As we move into the book of Hebrews, we will see that in addition to explaining Jesus in light Israel’s story, we as readers of the book of Hebrews are also placed, rhetorically, within Israel’s story. Here’s what I mean. The author of the book of Hebrews imagines his or her readers as standing along side the Jordan River. Israel stood in this place twice: the first time, at the end of a long journey from Egypt and Mount Sinai, they rejected the promise of Rest in the Land because they were afraid, and as a consequence a whole generation of Israelites died in the desert. 40 years later a new generation stood on that same river bank, but they entered in, crossing the Jordan on dry land holding the ark of the covenant aloft. The author of Hebrews imagines us standing there also, on the edge of the Jordan River, as he or she appeals to us: will we enter Jesus’ kingdom, leaving behind the leeks and onions of Egypt, the manna of the desert, for the land flowing with Milk and Honey?
Lets continue reading:
“but in these Last Days he has spoken to us a Son.”
1. This is as close to a main idea of Hebrews as we’re going to get: “but in these Last Days he has spoken to us a Son.”
a. As I said before, the phrase the “last days” functioned as shorthand for a whole lot of stuff for the Old Testament Prophets. It represented a climax in Israel’s history, a time when God’s himself would take the throne and be His people’s king. When is that time? Jesus inaugurated it: He is the climax of history.
b. Unlike the prophets who were merely messengers of God’s word, and faithfully delivered it, Jesus embodies God’s word. He is God’s message. The author if Hebrews is clear: The difference between the prophets and the priests and the kings that had gone before is in the very person of Jesus. Lets keep reading:
“but in these Last Days he has spoken to us a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.”
1. Jesus is different than the prophets and the priests and the kings because they could but point toward God: Jesus embodied God. He showed us God not by telling us about him but by being God: by being in his Life and by being God in his death and resurrection. This is a huge shift from our expectations about who God is: that God’s character is most accurately and profoundly exhibited to us in the Cross! What a scandal! That we should know the God who sustains our very life best in a Roman Execution.
2. When we were called out of the desert of our former life, we were also called to reflect Christ’s character just as he Reflected God’s. This table behind me, when we partake of it, it is a reminder that we should return from it reflecting Christ’s glory, and that we carry His imprint, having been filled by him. In that sense, the Table of Bread and Wine encapsulates the church’s role as the People of God.
“When he had made purification for sin, he sat down at the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he had inherited is more excellent than theirs”
1. Here is the Cross, “when he had made purification.” This person, who exemplified God to us by dying, this person is not placed between us and God – interceding on our behalf: he is our Priest before God. It is this person, Jesus who is our prophet, who pointed the way for us to live and to be a faithful people of God. It is this person who is our King!
So this is what the Book of Hebrews is about: its about Jesus; who is our priest, who is our prophet, and who is our King. Jesus, who was broken for us and poured out on our behalf, invites us to participate in His Kingdom, he invites us to something Completely Different. And he invites us to this table, so that by ingesting him, we might also reflect the glory of our father.
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September 5th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I’m glad that you are teaching on Hebrews at church, because I’m gearing up to do the same thing…except in our home community and hot preaching, per se. It helps at least knowing that someone else is going through the trenches, too. Do you have any texts you’d recommend?