Hebrews 7:23-28
Proper 25 (30) - Year B
Since Jesus is unendingly persistent in saving, such is always available to us in this world and in whatever is after.
It is this sense of constant intercession that brings John Wesley to so often connect verse 25 with his understanding of perfection.
As The Message has it, Jesus is always "on the job to speak up" for us and any. When we tie a persistent response to this incessant intercession - wholeness of being is attainable.
Do you have a sense of intercession being made for you? Are you willing to respond as often as you sense an intercession? This response includes paying attention to works of mercy and works of piety and means of grace and development of virtues. Such a response moves us inexorably toward maturity.
J. W. accepts that perfection does not exclude the possibility of error. It does, however, include the development of a heart like unto GOD's heart.
Would you have connected this passage so closely with growing up in Christ had not John done some of the laying of the groundwork? If you now can glimpse the connection, will you persistently respond to the persistent intercession being made on your behalf by Christ and Church? (I suppose we should ask whether persistent intercession to make folks whole is part of the priesthood of the church? Is the Church imitating Christ in this or have we taken to judging first and hoping afterward instead of interceding first and trusting after?)
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/october2003.html
= = = = = = =
Hebrews 7:23-28
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 or Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22) or Psalm 126
Mark 10:46-52
So many cry out for mercy!
They cry here and there, directing their cry in the direction of their heritage (that which narrowly points a direction to a source of mercy). So some cry inwardly. Some to a process that may alleviate suffering, Some to Allah the Merciful, or YHWH, or Jesus. Some to some yet unknown over an invisible horizon.
Those of us who are not an ultimate source of appeal for mercy are caught in the middle. We hear the cry. We hear a response to go to the crier and carry them to the source of mercy they seek.
We are in a privileged position and need to find it in ourselves to behave honorably within such - responding to both calls with alacrity even when we are not part of the system currently at work. As a Muslim we might help a crier to the Mercy of YHWH; as a Christian, to Allah the Merciful; as a Jew to Buddha's Paths; as Wiccan, Native Person of any tradition, Atheist, Egoist, New Ageist, or whatever, to any other journey.
This position is one of friendship that goes beyond Job's friends who had their own agenda of how mercy might be engaged. We help folks move to an experience of mercy rather than convince them of some reason for their suffering.
- - -
when our cries for mercy
found their source
and we were able
to cease our weeping
we were like those
who dream without
desiring to wakeour dream mouth
was filled with laughter
connected with joy
rather than irony
seeing new sources
for rejoicing
than our previous oneto find our dream
and our awaking
so closely allied
stunned our reason
into silence
weeping became
joy seed harvested
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
And why is a permanent high priest needed? In most ways Jesus is anti-king and anti-priest. This whole priesthood thing seems to be more in keeping with our desire, Adam-old and Saul-deep, to avoid responsibility and set up someone to blame. When this eternal high priest is established we have taken our desire to the n-th degree. Jesus is not only perfect man and perfect god, but a perfect out for our maturing. Go Jesus! Speak up for us, save us!
It would be helpful to hear the author of the Letter to the Hebrews respond to Jesus' question, "What do you want from me?" This section would seem to say that we want a buffer between humanity and G*D, that we don't want to see any further to our heritage.
Until this restrictive view of participating with G*D changes, we won't hear those challenging words from Jesus, "Go on your way!" May you be well on your way today.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
We do look for immortality. We look back and see how many have gone before. This is discouraging for our sense of importance and star-power. If we are a part of this parade, “Another one done gone” will be said of us, too. If we look ahead we see how soon we will shift position within a cloud of witnesses - from active to supportive - we could become even more discouraged.
So it is we are drawn to concretize ideals and models of permanence. We are also creatures of habit and so our ideals are shaped by our past as well as a vision of a preferred bright future glimpsed through unpolarized and darkened glass.
It was once easy to envision Jesus as a High Priest writ large. But a question needs raising: “Any progress been made in 2,000 plus years?” Does a model of external authority, expanded to also be an excellent and expansive authority, still work in a quantum oriented world. When sun and moon and stars were seen to orbit around us, this model may have had some redeeming quality. But now seeing ourselves in an outer spiral arm of one of billions of galaxies and gazing into what were previously unseeable fields, the whole book of Hebrews needs a make-over. Go ahead, add your version.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/10/hebrews-723-28.html