Hebrews 10:19-25 - Therefore, my friends,
since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for
us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the
house of God, let us approach with a
true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 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.
Continuing to talk about fostering our faith, I call your
attention to v. 25 (in bold and underlined) above. If you have listened to me for any length of
time, you have heard me say in different ways that our faith is not primarily
an individual faith. We need to do our
faithing with other people. One of the
reasons for this is that we have a really hard time sustaining our faith by
ourselves. But if I practice my faith
and talk about my faith and serve with my faith all with other people, all of
sudden, it becomes easier. You all know
my favorite thing about being a pastor is teaching. One of the many reasons I love it so much is
that having to teach has done more to grow my faith than anything else I
do. Knowing that I have to teach faith
and preach faith with others “makes” me grow my faith. If you want to grow your faith, make yourself
responsible to others for living your faith out loud.
“Not neglecting to meet together.” This phrase has definitely taken on new
meaning in the wake of a pandemic. Meeting
together right now has been a habit that has been broken for many. Hugs, handshakes, holding hands, and the like
are still a bit awkward. Singing and
hearing others sing around you has never sounded better to me. Noticing the lady in the row in front of you
on her phone and the kid crawling under the pew. Teenagers whispering a little too loud (By
the way, I was that teenager many moons ago).
People giving me a hard time about not wearing a robe or for wearing a
robe. Hearing a “Hmmm” when I say
something during the message that makes someone think. Hearing people laugh. Watching people’s faces during prayer (I
admit it . . .I do that sometimes). I
cherish it all more now. Meeting together is essential.
I’m going to be honest here.
We gotta fight for this one right now.
We took for granted the built-in gatherings each week that helped us
practice our faith together. In order to
do it now, we gotta work for it. We
might have to call someone when you hate talking on the phone. We might have to learn a technology that we
swore we’d never learn so that we can see other Christian faces. We might even have to handwrite a letter to
someone to connect in a deeper way. But let’s
not fool ourselves. There ARE ways for
us to “meet together” even when we can’t meeting together is strained. But we have to really work for it.
I have had some really good conversations over the last tow
years with people I could not physically be with. I have connected deeply with people who have
emailed or texted me back and forth. I
felt the Holy Spirit connecting us across distance and time while I was leading
online communion this past week. I
have connected with friends and family on Zoom when I would have never done
that before. I like to say it’s all been
good. It hasn’t. At times, it is really
frustrating. I find myself crying more
often than I did before. It’s hard
work. But you know what. I can’t find any scripture that tells me,
“faith is easy.” (Just in case you’re
thinking about quoting Matthew 11:28-30 to me, that’s not what Jesus was trying
to say 😉). Let’s
take what we learned over the last two years and do it in addition to our
coming back together.
One of my Facebook friends said a while back “I’ve said this
a thousand times and will say it a thousand more. If you don’t have a tribe you
need one.” It is so true! You will always need a tribe – a group that
you share life with, get support from, lean on from time to time, AND, practice
your faith with. If you’re reading this and you don’t have a tribe, join
us. You can find us at hernandoumcfl.com
every Sunday at 10:00am in person or streaming
on Youtube. If not us, find another tribe. You need one.
Prayer: God, we at HUMC
are blessed with a wonderful, loving, crazy and quirky tribe. Help us to stay connected to our tribe and
see our faith grow in the process.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for your tribe or tribes today.
Song: Come Together
(Third Day) If you don’t like screaming guitars, at least read the lyrics to
this one. I’ve listed them below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv6UMX-yA5U
You can all call me crazy
For the things that I might say
You can laugh all you want to
I know there will come a day
When we all will come together
And learn to set aside our hate
If we could learn to love our neighbors
Just like we would love ourselves
We've got to come together
'Cause in the end we can make it - alright
We've got to brave the weather
Through all of the storms
We've got to come together
'Cause in the end we can make it - alright
We've got to learn to love
You can call me a dreamer
But these dreams will come true
Yes, I am a firm believer
In the things that we can do
If we would all just come together
And let the Lord lead our way
There is nothing that we can't do
There is nothing we can't face
I know that there will come a day
When the Lord will call His own away
To a place that He has made for all of us
But until the day of His return
There's a lesson that we've got to learn
We are brothers and we're sisters
We are one
