All Saints Church, Worcester

Morning Worship - Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16

When the road is rough and steep!

Let me read you a little known section of the Highway Code, as we begin…

Highway Code Subsection 33, Paragraph B:
"When the road you are driving along becomes unstable, bumpy, or otherwise rough and steep, the foregoing rules of the road as detailed in sections 1-32 need no longer apply. You are released from all normal driving regulations. Drive how you like - just try not to hit anything."

Has anyone ever seen that section? Of course it doesn't actually exist - in case any of you were thinking of trying it! Whatever the road conditions, the normal rules and regulations for the journey still apply. If anything, when the driving conditions worsen, the driver needs to pay even more attention to the rules of the road.

And so it is with the Christian life. We have acknowledged a number of times over the summer that life isn't always a bed of roses. Last week we were talking about these 2 contrasting facts of life!

We live on an earth which can be shaken! BUT… We are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken.

Today as we reflect on living out the Christian life even when things get shaken up we are reminded that we need to keep hold of the basic rules of the Christian road! The temptation is to think that because the going is tough the rules can be relaxed - like that fake Highway Code I just read out. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that God doesn't understand or even respond to us with great compassion when our worlds are turned upside down. 'He knows' is an abiding theme of this letter to the Hebrews which was written to a persecuted people living in a turbulent age. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4: 15-16)

So there is compassion, mercy and grace from God but there is also the challenge to keep on living out the Christian life in community with one another. So as the letter to the Hebrews draws to a close let's draw out some guidelines for the journey which apply even when the road is rough and steep!

Guideline 1: Keep on loving one another!

The very use of the phrase "keep on…" suggests that maybe they weren't keeping on! Whatever else is going on in our lives. However hard it gets. No matter how unlovable or insensitive are the people around us, we have no permission to give up on this rule: "Keep on loving one another." (Verse 1) The Greek word for love here is 'philadelphia' - the special word for the deep and powerful love within families and close friendships that holds people together. This doesn't become less important when the road is tough it actually becomes more important if we are to keep on with the journey. Our children are amazing on car journeys and we don't have to sort out many fights, but even they will know that when we get to complicated bits of the journey we sometimes ask for extra cooperation from them so that we can navigate ourselves through an unknown city or get round the hairpin bends etc. First and most important guideline for difficult journeys: whatever the road conditions - keep on loving one another!

Guideline 2: Keep on Practicing Hospitality

The writer was thinking primarily about the hospitality which was so vital to the spread of the early church. Preachers like Paul and others travelled the whole world sharing the gospel by receiving the hospitality of those who they visited along the way. It's an outworking of our love for one another that we actually want to spend time together on that vital task of eating and drinking together! Those who had worked hard on the Worcester Festival did just that over a 'thank you' BBQ yesterday! Keep this up. Use it in your cells as a way of building relationships with others both within and not yet within the cell or even the church. But beware of one thing. Beware of getting so tied into a social circle that revolves around church that we don't have time to offer hospitality to others, including those outside the church and especially those who may not be able to repay us or invite us back. That's what Jesus was urging his followers in our gospel passage. And in the way that Abraham had done so many years before sometimes we will find as we open our doors to others - both these church doors and the doors of our homes, that we are entertaining not mere strangers but angels too!

Guideline 3: Remember to Think of Others

It can be so easy when our plates are full to forget that there are others who need help. That's why this rule for the road says: remember to think of others. The tip as to how to remember and help these people is to do so as if we ourselves were suffering. It's a 'put yourself in their shoes' piece of advice. The 2 particular examples mentioned here are those in prison and those who are ill-treated.

What would it be like to be in prison? Some of them knew because that is what they themselves had been through. What would it be like to be ill-treated? Those who had faced abuse, deprivation, those who had experienced little kindness in their lives. Some of them knew about that too, but all of them were to put themselves in the shoes of the suffering and remembering them, respond with practical concern. And in so doing to remember to offer practical help. Verse 16 reinforces this guideline by calling us to generosity and sharing with others as part of our praise to God.

Sometimes we will be helped by doing so. Turning outwards and focussing on others gives us relief from our own needs, sometimes reminding us that others have even greater needs. Of course, as we all know it is sometimes because the road is steep for us at the moment that we are particularly able to put ourselves into the shoes of others and all of us will have seen those who we know to be deeply suffering thinking so clearly of the needs of others. Paul said: "Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." (2 Corinthians 1: 3-4)

Guideline 4: Don't let Moral Standards Slip

Temptation is hardest to resist at the extremes of the Christian life. When many things are going well, we can be caught unawares. But when we are struggling, the world has shaken around us and God seems a bit distant, the enemy can have a field day. Why should you do anything for him, he's not doing much for you is he? And as we get worn down by circumstances, exhaustion sets in and we feel as if we have no resources left to resist. That's how it feels - of course that isn't the real truth. A promise from Paul's letter to the Corinthians says: "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (2 Corinthians 10: 13)

The writer identifies 2 areas of temptation where we might particularly be likely to give in - sex and money. Marriages should be honoured by all - those who are married and those who are not. Honoured here is in the sense of supported and not undermined by any sexual immorality. And at the same time as we keep our lives free from sexual temptation we keep also from the temptation to greed in financial matters. In terms of our journeying terminology it's like saying travel light - don't get hampered by having too much luggage on board. Have you ever driven a car when the boot is full and the back window is too and you can't see out the back? It's dangerous apart from taking up more fuel. The reverse of greed is of course contentment with what we have and reliance upon the God who goes with us. The best guideline for the journey is to travel light and keep our eyes not on the possessions of others but on the road ahead.

Our selected passage for the day missed out the next guideline which was about respecting those in authority over you so let's just register that that's not a bad guideline for the journey too! And I will move onto the last of our guidelines because they take us back to God.

Guideline 5: Keep on Praising God!

Verse 15 says: "Through Jesus therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name." Suffering and shaky times can squeeze the praise out of our lives. Sometimes it really is a sacrifice of praise isn't it? But God knows that too and I believe He is greatly blessed by the praise we offer from broken hearts and shattered lives. It may seem feeble to us. Our words may be spoken through trembling lips, our prayers prayed with tear-filled eyes, our songs sung with faltering voices, but if they are confessing the name of Jesus and offered as praise to his name they are acceptable and well received by God.

And because we are back with God it is worth remembering, in case all these guidelines for the journey seem too much, the unshakeable kingdom in our shaky earth. We have 2 wonderful truths. The unconditional nature of the divine promises and the unchangeable character of Jesus Christ.

The unconditional promise of God is the solemn pledge of his presence: "I will never leave you or forsake you." God will never abandon us to our own limited resources. Fear, panic, discouragement and despair might be appropriate responses if we were to travel without God, but remembering that God is with us on the journey helps us to respond: "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid! What can human beings do to me!" (Verse 6)

The unchanging character of Christ is summed up by that powerful phrase, worth holding onto at all times: "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever." (Verse 8) The conditions of the journey may change, the road may be gentle and easy or rough and steep, but Jesus stays the same. Circumstances may alter, but Jesus stays the same. Society changes, but Jesus stays the same. He identified himself with his people in the past at the most difficult place of all - the cross. He stays with us here and now in the present. And whatever else changes into the future Jesus remains faithful for ever!

"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13: 20-21)