Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Proper 22 (27) - Year B
Let's look at two interrelated sections.
2:5-6, 8b -- "Now G*D did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, 'What are [men]* that you are mindful of them, or the [son of man] that you care for him'.... Now in subjecting all things to them, G*D left nothing outside their control."
Friends the future has been put in our hands. The author can also be heard to say the future has been put in Jesus' hands. It has been put in the hands of both and all. Let's act as though our acts have significance for the future. We are not just the momentum of the past or living for this moment only.
2:11 -- "For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified [are all of one]. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters...."
It is important to look beyond Jesus to our commonality, sons and daughters of One. May we not be ashamed to call Jesus our brother as well as savior; mother as well as redeemer. If we can see One's grace at work in all people, sanctification begun, we are also called to call all, "Sister," "Brother."
We are in this endeavor of life with one another, with the future, with Jesus, with One. This both takes the pressure off (it is up to all of us) and puts the pressure on (it is up to each of us). Enjoy the fluid flowing flux; the holy wind produced between the low pressure and high pressure ridges of life.
* Stuff in the [brackets] is a more literal reading of the Greek.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/october2003.html
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Psalm 8 or Psalm 26
Job 1:1; 2:1-10 or Genesis 2:18-24
Mark 10:2-16
To walk in my integrity implies an understanding of what has been joined to G*D and therefore is joined to me. It is easy to see good joined to G*D, not so easy to see evil having a connection. This is probably a function of our ability to see rather than G*D's experience of good and evil.
It is easy to see inherent relationships between lovers who find themselves in one another, not so easy to see divorce as a sacred event (only a state event). Yet, for integrity's sake, we find we cannot live only one side of an equation. What is being joined and separated in our living today? What is defined and named and to what are we still so blind we cannot see to name? This state of already and not-yet is the interface where we find the energy and experience of life.
May your helpmeet (experienced, whether legalized or not) assist you, with integrity, to both curse G*D and die, and come to yourself.
- - -
I wash my hands in innocence
again and again
I am washed away by life circumstance
again and againmy very same hand hugs my brother
again and again
that slaps my sister
again and againso I define and define
again and again
and am in turn defined
again and againuntil I cannot tell
again and again
truth from falsehood
again and againand am joined to the cosmos
again and again
and divorced from myself
again and againredeemed
again and again
gracious
again and again
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
G*D's articulation of intent has improved over time. What was episodic and variegated has come clear in the life of Jesus. An important focus here is the temporal circle of G*D => Prophets => Angels => Creation => Humans (sufferers) => Jesus (grand sufferer) => Jesus (mature/completed) => G*D.
Fred Craddock, in his Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections on The Letter to the Hebrews in The New Interpreter's Bible reflects:
"From the outset the reader is reminded that the subject of the Christian faith is God. It is a regrettable fact that theocentricity is absent from much Christian teaching and preaching. To be sure, writing and speaking about Jesus Christ in a community already firm in its faith in God as Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer is appropriate. Such is the case with early Christian documents written from within or addressing Judaism in which faith in God lay at the heart of a long history. But when those writings are taught or preached in cultures for whom faith in God may not already be present, beginning with christology is beginning too late. The appropriate starting point is "In the beginning, God . . ." even if the discussion will eventually focus on Christ or the Holy Spirit or the church. The writer of Hebrews does not forget this, and by stating rather than assuming the centerpiece of Christian faith reminds the church to be discerning in what it can and cannot assume about the culture to which it speaks. It could be calamitous to get people attached to Jesus without any faith in God."
Consider the culture you are in. How might you speak G*D back into being without being covered up by Church and attached to Jesus?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
The authoress of Hebrews claims a Son is more persuasive than a Prophet. In the end, it turns out not to be the case. Jesus as prophet is still a better image than “son of G*D”. It turns out that G*D does not have an exact clone, reflection, image — even that of Jesus.
There is also an attempt to make Jesus a better messenger than angels. It turns out that people don’t listen, no matter what the supposed pedigree of the messenger.
Finally we don’t see the past, present, or future worlds under the control of our better angels. The same goes for Jesus. It has taken more than two centuries, but it is clear that building a theocracy in the midst of a fallible world fails as ever greater claims need to be made connecting rulers with their identified overlord. And, soon or late, the faults of temporal leaders are projected on what is more and more seen as an idol. When this happens both fall and fade.
No amount of scriptural jujitsu of some subjected suffering becoming an atoning action will lift such a limited theory into the realm of eternal truth. Religious spin is no more persuasive than political spin. Eventually you can’t even fool some of the people.
Let’s go back to the deleted first verse of chapter two with a key clarification: Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have “experienced”, so that we do not drift away from a “deeper wholeness”.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/10/hebrews-11-5-25-12.html