2016 Sermon 6 - Hebrews 7-8

2016 Sermon 6 - Hebrews 7-8

Hebrews 7 begins with more material about Melchizedek, material that we covered in great detail last week. Here is a summary reprisal of the main points from Hebrews 7:

Hebrews 7:1-3

“1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 

2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." 

3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. . . . .”

Hebrews 7:11-12

“11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come--one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? 

12 For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. . . . .”

[Sidebar: This is a very important point because it indicates that what we have been referring to as the Age of Grace is really, semantically speaking, an age of a NEW LAW. Below we read of a BETTER COVENANT—what is a covenant but

“: a formal and serious agreement or promise

• law : a formal written agreement between two or more people, businesses, countries, etc.”

Notice the word “written” in the preceding definition; anything written implies verbal constraint, and anything verbal necessarily has a referent in the tangible world. Thus the NEW LAW of Jesus, the BETTER COVENANT, straddles the mundane and spiritual worlds, just like Beethoven straddled the Classical and Romantic Periods—the NEW LAW has one foot planted in the abstract and one foot buried in the human need to express experience in static packets of information. The scripture does not say the Law is done away with, it says, “when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. . . . .”. 

A CHANGE of the law. It is in this wherein lies the superiority of Christianity over other religions: we Christians get to play by different rules from the World; our citizenship, in the Divine Kingdom of Jesus, buys us the right to see the world from the perspective of the Christ Consciousness, rather than the perspective of SCIENCE, (or LAW): a discipline that is still stuck in the quagmire of material definitions. To be sure, there are some enlightened physicists these days who are blurring the distinction between SCIENCE and METAPHYSICS, but clearly SCIENCE will continue to be concerned exclusively with mundane matters—that is until SCIENCE becomes SOMETHING ELSE. Already, in the following sentence, the change of rules is forthrightly affirmed.] 

Hebrews 7:16

“16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. . . . .”

[The rule of ancestral law submits to the rule of eternal life!]

Hebrews 7:18-21

“18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 

19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. 

20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 

21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever.' " 

22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. . . . .”

[Sidebar: Remember the argument above associating “covenant” with “written” that is to say “verbal”; here, again, we are reminded of the “oath” of God—“oath” which, in a certain sense, translates into: “contract” (a written agreement). The author of Hebrews says, “a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”— hope for future rewards in exchange for: 

1. virtuous behavior in the face of adversity, 

2. patience in the face of persecution, and 

3. vision of a higher reality that relieves the pain of mundane reality. 

Some substance of our “hope” resides in our trust in the Oath of God in times of tribulation; indeed, hope resides in a positive attitude toward the future, when the underlying “greater good” of our sufferings is hard to see.]

Hebrews 7:24-27

“24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 

25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 

26 Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 

27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” 

[Sidebar: I question the phrase once for all. “Once and for all” implies an absolute ending, a halt to the processes of evolution, which go on constantly in any dynamic system, any LIVING system. “Once and for all”, being a parameter of time, has a certain resonance which may not necessarily imply eternal cessation of progress, but merely the articulation of some major historical era. Perhaps what we are talking about is the creation of a new paradigm, a paradigm which IRREVERSIBLY changes the direction of the currents of time; “once and for” all we have entered a new era of evolution. Certainly the “once and for all” for this era refers to the sacrifice Jesus made; that is to say, with His ONE sacrifice, a new consciousness was ushered in, and time immemorial may not alter this change. Jesus provided His disciples with a unique steppingstone—a steppingstone to give Man a boost up the ladder toward spiritual consciousness, from which he may never step back.

Hebrews 7:28

28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.”

I find a slippery argument in the distinction between “the oath, which came after the law” and Grace. Still, do-be-do-be-do, remember that Jesus 

“straddles the mundane and spiritual worlds, just like Beethoven straddled the Classical and Romantic Periods—the NEW LAW has one foot planted in the abstract and one foot buried in the human need to express experience in static packets of information.”

By “static packets of information” I, of course, mean WORDS—words which, when stitched together, create CONCEPTS.

In Steiner’s Philosphy of Freedom, I found this interesting way of explaining what a concept is: he says that when you observe an object there exist three entities: 

the thing-itself, 

the observer, and 

the idealization of the thing in the abstract. 

When you take away the thing-itself, and the subjective observer, what you have left is the CONCEPT. The WORD is such an archetypal Concept, which exists in an idealized world of abstraction.

I've often contemplated the humanity of words. Words are essentially abstract because they represent something in an ideal or an archetypal way; but they also are refer to things in the physical universe, the material universe. Hence, the expression “Word of God Incarnate” is such a power-packed concept because it leads us to contemplate the union of spirit and flesh, synthesized in the divine personality of Jesus.

The foregoing summary, in Chapter Seven, of all the qualities of the the Priest/Messiah paves the way to Chapter Eight wherein the features of the NEW COVENANT the NEW LAW are described.

Chapter 8 of Hebrews is subtitled: The high Priest of the New Covenant. The chapter begins with a a further affirmation of the authority of the priesthood, but then goes on to deeper issues, all beautifully expressed. First, we have this, which graphically places Jesus in Heaven, AND in the familiar setting of the Sanctuary, a sanctuary not of Man, but the TRUE TABERNACLE, the ABSTRACT TABERNACLE. 

Hebrews 8:1-2

“1 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 

2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. 

But after affirming Jesus’ divinity the author goes on to remind of Jesus’s HUMANITY:

Hebrews 8:3

3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer.”

The “something to offer” line refers to Jesus’ humanity—the vital link between Himself as God and Himself as Man. 

The following passage tells me something about the Human/God idea. When I read it, I see in my imagination a phantom, a ghost, (the HOLY GHOST?) ministering to poor helpless humanity from behind  a curtain, like the Wizard of Oz, only more holy and more human. 

Hebrews 8:4-5

“4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 

5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ ” 

Additionally, of note is the expression, “a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven”, an image that is practically identical to Paul’s “through a glass darkly” image in 1st Corinthians. On the strength of this one passage one might be persuaded that Hebrews was IN FACT written by Paul; but, then again, a student of Paul would have picked up this idea from him, which he states in different ways, many times in his letters.

Also, note the idea of  COPYING as faithfully as possible, (or you might say IMPRESSING) the patterns of the heavenly sanctuary onto its Earthly shadow. Heavenly PATTERNS. This idea presents the problem that all artists face when summoning up “images” of eternity—how does one recreate the forms of eternity in a material medium? William Blake says:

“Eternity is in love with the forms of time.”

The expression: “the pattern shown you on the mountain”, is so tantalizing to an aesthetician, because the idea of “as above so below” must necessarily be a constant preoccupation of the artist. The artist always attempts to recreate, in the materials of mundane expression, the heavenly forms perceived “on the “high mountain”. Previously I have given sermons on divine forms as they manifest in nature and in art, and the idea appears again, here, with the word “pattern”— "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ ” We are instructed to seek the divine perfection in mundane things, as if, as above so below, Heaven might echo through the portals of time.

But my interest, at this point, is not in the ramifications of heavenly patterns as they pertain to sacred art, but merely as an observation that here we have one more context in which the divine and the mundane may be seen to overlap. 

Another interesting question is: does this overlap happen by itself, as Deepak Chopra would say, driven by deeper, impersonal karmic forces; or do we create the proper conditions, for these syntheses of spirit and matter to take place, though act of will, as articulate expressions of existence?

Going on:

Hebrews 8:6-9

“6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. 

7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 

8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 

9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.” 

The history lesson, contained in this reference the Jews’ escape from Egypt, is one of the features of Hebrews that makes it such an attractive work—morality, mysticism and history all in one. Always striving for credibility with the traditional Jews in Jerusalem, the author of Hebrews never fails to take advantage of any possible connection to be made with the JEWISHNESS of his/her audience. Not only is the book unusually well written, not only does it express high vibratory spiritual truths which make us stronger and better, it also includes adorable, edifying notes whose purpose is to help put all of this new material into a perspective which the Jews of Jerusalem could better relate to. Including historical precedent to support the author's arguments is a strategy we have seen before in Hebrews, and it is a very Jewish thing to do.

As I contemplate the spiritual evolution of man, as we know it, in its very slight and truncated form, I'm fascinated by the idea that Jesus brought the world a better idea, a better way of living. Always in a practical way, Jesus makes our lives here and now more rewarding, more intrinsic, more integrated, more real. The Age of Rationality, the age of Good and Evil and the Law, must have burdened its inmates with a perspective on life that, to us now by comparison, seems painfully limited. I thank God every day for the universal perspective Christianity has given me, allowing me to see such a big picture. This bigger picture carries implications as to specific behavior: Jesus made the world better by raising men's expectations of what they were able to give to each other, to give to their friends and to tolerate from their enemies. Jesus never says that our enemies will be done away with, he just instructs us to love them; He trusts that the operation of love on evil will have a disinfecting effect.

Remember that the: 

“covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”

The expression, “better promises”, focusses us somewhat on the future because it has to do with karma and the reward the righteous living, but it also implies better living in the here and now, since now is the only piece of eternity that we can experience on this consciousness level.

I recently stumbled across the section from Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom, which bears on the subject of “mediator. Note, below, that Steiner expresses the idea of creating concepts out of words with the word “thinking”:

“Concepts cannot be gained through observation. This follows from the simple fact that the growing human being only slowly and gradually forms the concepts corresponding to the objects which surround him. Concepts are added to observation. 

A philosopher widely read at the present day -- Herbert Spencer, -- describes the mental process which we carry out with respect to observation as follows: 

“If, when walking through the fields some day in September, you hear a rustle a few yards in advance, and on observing the ditch-side where it occurs, see the herbage agitated, you will probably turn towards the spot to learn by what this sound and motion are produced. As you approach there flutters into the ditch a partridge; on seeing which your curiosity is satisfied -- you have what you call an explanation of the appearances. The explanation, mark, amounts to this; that whereas throughout life you have had countless experiences of disturbance among small stationary bodies, accompanying the movement of other bodies among them, and have generalized the relation between such disturbances and such movements, you consider this particular disturbance explained on finding it to present an instance of the like relation.”

A closer analysis shows matters to stand very differently from the way described above. When I hear a noise, I first look for the concept which fits this observation. It is this concept which first leads me beyond the mere noise. If one thinks no further, one simply hears the noise and is content to leave it at  that. But my reflecting makes it clear to me that I have to regard the noise as an effect. Therefore not until I have connected the concept of effect with the perception of the noise, do I feel the need to go beyond the solitary observation and look for the cause. The concept of effect calls up that of cause, and my next step is to look for the object which is being the cause, which I find in the shape of the partridge. But these concepts, cause and effect, I can never gain through mere observation, however many instances the observation may cover. Observation evokes thinking, and it is thinking that first shows me how to link one separate experience to another. 

If one demands of a "strictly objective science" that it should take its content from observation alone, then one must at the same time demand that it should forego all thinking. For thinking, by its very nature, goes beyond what is observed. 

We must now pass from thinking to the being that thinks; for it is through the thinker that thinking is combined with observation. Human consciousness is the stage upon which concept and observation meet and become linked to one another. In saying this we have in fact characterized this (human) consciousness. It is the mediator between thinking and observation. In as far as we observe a thing it appears to us as given; in as far as we think, we appear to ourselves as being active. We regard the thing as object and ourselves as thinking subject. Because we direct our thinking upon our observation, we have consciousness of objects; because we direct it upon ourselves, we have consciousness of ourselves, or self-consciousness. 

Human consciousness must of necessity be at the same time self-consciousness because it is a consciousness which thinks. For when thinking contemplates its own activity, it makes its own essential being, as subject, into a thing, as object.”

What we mean to say here, is that consciousness creates both the material world, and the egoic world. Seen from this Perspective, our mundane sensations may be magnified and transformed into radiant heavenly energies, which resonate with both the lower and the higher consciousness levels simultaneously. Indeed, the new covenant, which includes the promise of a better life, was a change in Perspective for humanity from the rational to the spiritual, the essence of the spiritual being LOVE. The new covenant is a message of love brought to a cold and loveless world. Reaching out of themselves, grasping the connectedness between themselves and others, Man sought this love through acts of will. The Age of Rationality always worked to separate man from man by enabling him to make distinctions, distinctions emphasizing separateness. The Age of Grace has taught us that this separateness, this isolation, is healed by Love—Love made available to us through grace, NOT WILL. Distinctionless, bottomless, unconditional love is the impersonal force that forges a pathway to God.

Going on:

Hebrews 8:10

“10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

“I will put the new laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.” This is an interesting expression. To write the new laws of spirituality on the heart is definitely a new age expression. It also brings the mediator into the spotlight again, because the mediator’s main medium of expression is the heart. The higher spiritual truths are only understood in the language of the heart.

Going on:

Hebrews 8:11-13

“11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 

12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." 

13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”

The Eighth Chapter of Hebrews describes and prophesies the New Covenant—everything new, everything different. All of the properties of the New Covenant, so described, reside in the abstract—everything real refers to spiritual reality: The New Covenant, the True Tabernacle, the Change of the Priesthood, the Oath of God, and Patterns of Heavenly Forms. It is such a glorious message of Hope that it sort of helps to put yourself back in the days of Paul and imagine what this message would feel like to those who were hearing it for the very first time. Then we ought to really feel the newness of spiritual experience, as each anomalous now parades us through the halls of time where, at the end of the tunnel, we meet Jesus.

Let us pray: Jesus, thank you for this message of hope and for the newness of life contained in every moment we spend with You. Amen.