Reflections on Hebrews and Ministry #5
When you come to the end of the sermon we know as the book of Hebrews, there is a pointed challenge to engage in what Charles Campbell calls “the practice of dislocation.”
Jesus suffered outside the city gate; so, “let us go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore” (13:13). We’re called on to step outside the comfortable places of security and certainties into “the heat of history” (as Orlando Costas put it).
As we prepare to lead into a new year, I wanted to note the bifocal framework with which Hebrews imagines this might happen.
First, we look back to our “leaders” who impacted our lives (13:7). These aren’t the heroes of faith from chapter 11; rather, these were the folks they had known. That’s important, because it’s often easier to imitate those we were never around. We can pretend that they – unlike all the people in our own churches – had it together and were consistent in their faith. But he asks us to “consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”
So, as you lead your own people into the places of dislocation, tell the stories of the people they have known: the formal and informal leaders. Remind others that they are part of a heritage that includes doubt and faith, failures and growth, uncertainty and courage. Name the names of the old, the young, the dead, the living. Tell of acts of prayer, of service, of worship, of healing, of loss.
And second, we look forward, motivated by the vision of the new creation of God. “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (13:14).
Our members can live in places of dislocation where they are aliens and strangers (11:9-19) because they are already members of God’s eternal people. Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, because of his daily interceding ministry (7:25), we are living in the freedom of his kingdom that has broken in. So we keep this vision of the culmination of the work of God before our churches. That is the future we are living into even now!
May you be blessed in your lives, in your ministry, this year, my friends.
“Now 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.” (13:20-21)
Mike