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Hebrews 4:14—5:4

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

This passage makes me think about a special aspect of the Christian faith. The God of our faith knows what it is to be human. We humans are frail, “ignorant and wayward”, as the passage has it. We don’t act with the perfection of an all-powerful being. Jesus knows about our ignorant, wayward frailty very intimately, because He has lived as a man.

Churches and congregations share all those human qualities; we are perfectly capable of collective ignorance and waywardness, not just the individual versions. We require motivation, from each other and from inspiring leaders, to do good and to become better.

In a sense, I have been studying leadership over the past couple of years as I complete an MPA program part time. MPA stands for “Master of Public Administration”, a degree I hope to attain by Christmas 2022, if not sooner. I’m getting close. Studying administration often, and rightly, veers into discussions of leadership. My current class is called “Public and Nonprofit Management I”, and we’ve been reading and discussing recently about motivation theories. A lot of the material focuses on the fact that employees in government and nonprofit contexts find motivation in equal measure to how much their own beliefs and ideals match the organization.

As members of Holy Apostles, we aren’t employees of a nonprofit. But we are voluntarily engaged in an organization, and every organization, including our church, has beliefs and ideals. There is a mission statement, and it comes from Jesus: “Love everyone.” I come to church and am a member because I believe in that message, even if in my human frailty, ignorance, and waywardness I can’t perfectly live up to it. Our motivations as churchgoers and church members work similarly in some ways to nonprofit employees. Can our organization, our church, come close (or closer) to what we believe in?

That’s where our own priests and spiritual leaders come in. In our case, we are deeply fortunate to have Mother Kimberlee and Mother Sarah, Deacon John and Canon Sandye, offering us their leadership. They are frail mortals, too, able to understand and deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, being themselves subject to weakness. But they are, in many important ways, bringing us as a congregation closer to our own beliefs. Even though it’s hard, and even though all involved are far from perfect, our motivation to continue in our church and our joy in our beliefs is increased through their efforts. I feel immense gratitude for our leadership, and continue to grow in my own motivation, joy, effort, and love.

² Corinthians 4.3-6

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“We do not proclaim ourselves.” That these words were written nearly 2000 years ago is quite amazing to me. St. Paul could have been writing this as a message to us today. Spending our time and energy proclaiming ourselves, instead of proclaiming and living out the love of God, is a highly popular and time-consuming activity for most of us in the age of social media, self-promotion, and personal brand-building. But St. Paul knew then, as we know now, that proclaiming ourselves isn’t the right path or the Christian way of living.

The Christian way of living, as we are reminded here, is to serve others. We are asked to make deep commitments to those around us and honor those commitments. We are asked to love everyone. Personally, I need this reminder from St. Paul now and always. That we should live in commitment and active love is difficult, because we are tired, distracted, selfish, human. But through the difficulty it is the right path for us to choose. And it happens to also be the only path that brings anyone profound and lasting joy.

Let’s not let the love of God be veiled to us, or allow our minds to be blinded by the god of this world. Let us not proclaim ourselves. Now, in this Advent season, the time of darkness and of anticipation, let’s take a chance to proclaim the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Now is the time for living in commitment and active love.

¹ Corinthians 12:1-11

¹²Now concerning spiritual gifts,* brothers and sisters,* I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. ³Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

This passage declares, very clearly, the power of diversity and cooperation.  Each and every person is given, through the Holy Spirit, different gifts, talents, and abilities.  But Paul’s words here remind us that they are all holy, and come from God. A community cannot exist at its fullest potential without all kinds of people and each person’s uniqueness.  We cannot be whole without each other.

We can see this to be true in many aspects of our lives.  We see the power of diversity in community at church, where all of us can share our strengths and talents in different ways to make a powerful whole.  I see it in my work at the public library. The library has a large and very diverse staff, with different interests, strengths, passions. The patrons who come through our doors every day are varied and wonderful.  New York City itself, a wildly diverse human ecosystem, a true city of the world, is made more powerful by the array of millions of amazing and unique New Yorkers.

So I know this passage is true, because I live in the evidence of its truth.  We cannot be whole without each other.

This idea may seem ironic and painful, during this time of “social distancing”, quarantine, and isolation.  But I think we are seeing the power of diversity and cooperation distinctly, even now. I felt joy and relief and gratitude to be together with you all (as much as we can be right now) for our virtual church service on Sunday morning.  There have been a lot of phone calls with family and friends in these past two weeks, and we’ve seen an amazing amount of digital connection efforts, from famous celebrities to public organizations to the individual people we know and love.  Even in this very difficult and scary time, we see all kinds of people, inimitable and beautiful, bringing their talents to bear to bring us together, to unite us, with the power of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you, each of you, for sharing your gifts and talents, and for making me and everyone around you more whole.  I wish the best to you and your families and loved ones.