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Return to Vocal Ministry
ESR Programmed Worship, Sept. 14, 2006
Tim Seid, Associate Dean & Asst. Prof. of NT Studies
Some people never want to grow up. Some young people —and even some adults —have the Peter Pan complex. They never want to grow up and face the maturity of adulthood.
In the B-rated movie The Librarian, the perennial grad student, played by Noah Wylie, is working on yet another advanced degree. The other students treat him like an older person who doesn't "act his age." It's six months before graduation, yet the school agrees to award him the degree early thereby forcing him to leave graduate school after 22 degrees, finally grow up, and face the what it means to mature in the real world.
Once in a while, students here at ESR like it so much that they want to take it slow and hang around here for awhile before making their way into their own places of growth and ministry. We were surprised last year when the pioneer students in ESR Access wanted to wait another year to graduate, even though they could have graduated at the end of the five years it took us to roll out the program. Instead, those who were on track for graduation held themselves back in order to graduate with their cohort.
This section of Hebrews makes use of the metaphor of education. Education in the ancient Greco-Roman world was a graduated series of instruction in basic subjects leading to an advanced level of studying rhetoric to prepare for a career in law or politics. One option was to join a philosophical school. The goal was not just to learn about philosophical or metaphysical concepts and the use of logic and argument. It was most of all to develop and progress in maturity, to be formed into someone who was stable, virtuous, and a productive member of society. During most of the adolescent years, being a certain age meant being at a certain level of education. One didn't decide to give up the study with rhetorician in graduate school and return to the grammaticus to begin studying the alphabet again or to go back to an earlier phase of learning to read Aesop's Fables.
What has always been true of education is, if someone doesn't make the grade in school, the result is the person flunks out. A misbehaving student gets expelled. The student who doesn't make progress may be held back, but it's not possible to back up a few grades. There's no option to go back and start all over again. You can't become an adolescent and have another try.
Hebrews is making this point to his audience: As a Christian community, it is in danger of repeating the errors of the people of God in biblical history, a failing that could mean the removal of God's blessing and favor in this new age. Each member of the community must continue to mature in a way that leads to productive and virtuous Christian living, a life characterized by faithfulness and obedience to God.
The message for us is that not only can we not simply stay at the same grade all our lives, we must go on to graduate to maturity, because there's no chance for us to turn back time and start it all over again. Failure as the people of God can mean expulsion from the blessings of God.
Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, 2 instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And we will do this, if God permits.
The exhortation to the people is for them to move on together toward perfection, to graduate, as it were, to maturity. The cohort needs to move ahead to advanced levels and leave behind the beginning phases of Christian education.
The topics that Hebrews lists reflect the circumstance of a group heavily influenced by Jewish practices. In fact, the contents of this list might lead us to the possibility that Hebrews is written to Gentiles who had become part of a Jewish community. Repentance from dead works refers to beginning stages in which a pagan convert to Judaism or Christianity would turn from idolatry. Idols were works of human hands, objects that were dead in contrast to the living God. Along with the renunciation of idols is the worship of the one God, here described as "faith toward God." Compare this with 1 Thessalonians 1:9 "For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God." The instruction about "baptisms"—notice the plural—most likely refers to the Jewish practice of ritual washings, either in the washing of the hands and/or feet, or the regular practice of descending the steps of a mikveh until the body is completely immersed as a form of ritual washing. The laying on of hands probably refers to the rites of passage in which a young convert is given a blessing and an appointment to new levels of responsibility. The common teachings of Pharisaic Judaism included teachings about the resurrection of the dead and about the future judgment. Hebrews expresses the desire that God may permit them to move on to the stages of mature living.
There are ways that we can return to the basics, relearn the fundamentals. A violinist, for instance, might start learning to play the violin with some bad habits and poor technique. At some point, the instructor might say to that person, "you need to begin again and learn to play correctly. You'll never progress without knowing how to do it right." Sports teams often begin a new season, particularly after having had a poor season, with relearning the fundamentals. Get back to basics. Dribbling, passing, shooting. The coach makes them play defense with their hands always up in the air to mold new habits and break old ones. School teachers might start a new year by going back over the basics before moving on to new material. But there comes a time when, if you haven't got the basics done and you're not making progress, that you risk being cut from the team. The team that doesn't improve can't expect to have a winning season and make it to playoffs. They are out of the competition. It's the expression, fish or cut bait. You have to begin to excel in what you're doing or you are going to be sidelined.
Individual Christians and whole churches can become stagnant. As a matter of fact, many churches exist in a continuous state of stagnation, which inevitably leads to decline. People also don't tend to make improvement. From one year to the next, there can be no marked change in their understanding of the Christian life or in their growth in Christian maturity. They remain the same year after year, not learning anything new, not becoming more mature in their practice of virtuous and faithful living in fellowship with God. In our churches and meetings we must learn how to graduate people from year to year to new levels of maturity. If we don't, we are all failing.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.
Hebrews puts it in no uncertain terms. There's is no chance to start over again. It sounds very harsh, but what we have to remember is that Hebrews is talking about the experience of groups of people, the Israelites who disobeyed in fell in the wilderness, and the other group, the followers of Jesus who, if they are not careful, could repeat the situation and fall away. As a group of people, they have been enlightened, they have experienced the power and goodness of God's new work. But there's no chance for them as a group to start over again. What Hebrews means is that they can't go back to earthly life of Jesus and go through the historical experience of Christ's death, resurrection, exaltation, and the presence of God's Spirit in the world. It would mean crucifying Jesus again, putting Jesus on the cross again, all because they didn't get it right the first time.
I've been out of graduate school now for 10 years. In the last two or three years I've been doing a great deal of reading in philosophical texts from around the first century. This had been the kind of study my professor had expected us to do in our program. But I wasn't getting it and I dropped several courses because I wasn't understanding. It's only now in the last year or so that I've started to understand what my professor had been trying to teach us. I've been doing my best to catch up to where I should have been about 10 years ago. Two years ago, when I attended the Society of Biblical Literature conference in San Antonio, I had a chance to talk to my professor, Stan Stowers. I told Stan, "I'm finally getting it." I related how excited I was by the implications of the study of the philosophical schools as it relates to early Christianity. Then I said, "I really wish I could go back now and start over, knowing what I know now." He replied, "I wish I could too." But of course we can't. I can't get Brown to reinstate me as a student and give me my scholarship again. I can't get my colleagues to return to school with me. I certainly can't make myself younger so I can tolerate writing term papers for 24 hours straight. I can't go back and change the type of education I had, so I would be better prepared. I can't turn back the clock and start over again.
Jesus came into this world 2000 years ago to give people another chance. The history of the Old Testament, though it contains some success stories of individuals who excelled in faith, is a repetition of failure on the part of the people of God, culminating in the Roman occupation and a leadership largely controlled by people who lined their own pockets and who oppressed large portions of the Jewish population. For us as heirs of those who watched the life of Jesus, who were witnesses of the resurrection, and who experienced heaven breaking into the world through the presence of the Holy Spirit coming to reside within people, we are obligated to build on that, to continue to progress, to move ourselves forward in God's mission in the world. We can't expect that God will say, "Once, twice, three times a charm," and then start over again with some new work in the world. This is our time, this is our opportunity to move forward. There is no chance to go back and start again.
Hebrews 6:7-8 7 Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.
This simple agricultural analogy is meant to illustrate the point Hebrews is making. Various authors in the Greco-Roman world made such an analogy between education and agriculture.
"if you should say that the mind ought to be cultivated, you would compare it with land, which, if neglected, produces briars and thorns, but when tilled, supplies us with fruit" (Quintilian 5.11.24).
In agriculture, soil that absorbs the frequent rainfall produces a crop for the farmer. That's considered a blessing from God. Soil that fails to produce a crop but instead yields weeds, the worst of which are thorns and thistles, the soil is unprofitable and instead of blessing from God, it is cursed. The only option then is to give up the possibility of producing any crop in that field and to burn off the weeds. The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, Philo, develops the analogy in a similar way.
AGR 1:17-19 17 IV. These then are the professions and promises made by the husbandry of the soul, "I will cut down all the trees of folly, and intemperance, and injustice, and cowardice; and I will eradicate all the plants of pleasure, and appetite, and anger, and passion, and of all similar affections, even if they have raised their heads as high as heaven. And I will burn out their roots, darting down the attack of flame to the very foundations of the earth, so that no portion, nay, no trace, or shadow whatever, of such things shall be left; 18 and I will destroy these things, and I will implant in those souls which are of a childlike age, young shoots, whose fruit shall nourish them. And in those souls which have arrived at the age of puberty or of manhood, I will implant things which are even better and more perfect, namely, the tree of prudence, the tree of courage, the tree of temperance, the tree of justice, the tree of every respective virtue.
In education, the student who fails to soak up the knowledge and become a creative user of that knowledge is not going to graduate. There is no other option than dismissal and expulsion. Someone whose conduct in school is characterized by misbehavior and who never shows any hint of being a productive member of society will not be helped toward the next level of education or recommendations for placement and advancement.
At Earlham School of Religion we evaluate students periodically to gauge whether they are making progress. There are some who might pass their courses, but whose character and conduct raises red flags. Before they participate in field education and allowed to graduate, they must demonstrate that they are making progress, maturing in character and spirit, responsible people who are fit for ministry. Not everyone makes it.
The formation of Christian maturity is the same way. But I don't think the author has in mind primarily the experience of individuals. It is the cohort of students, it is the community of faith who either receive the blessing of God and continue on to experience God's rest or end with a curse from God and fall by the wayside in the wilderness of unfaithfulness and disobedience.
Let me repeat: Not only can we not simply stay at the same grade all our lives, we must go on to graduate to maturity, because there's no chance for us to turn back time and start it all over again. Failure as the people of God can mean expulsion from the blessings of God.
I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I shouldn't be a home owner. In spite of the example of my father, who was a jack of all trades and could do about anything around the house, in the yard, or in the garage, I have very little desire and even less know-how to keep up house, yard, and automobile. I can get up enough energy to mow the lawn and even do some trimming and edging. A week later, and you have to do it all again. There's no end to it. I love to see winter come, because it means I no longer have to mow the grass and hopefully there will be just enough snow to cover the overgrown grass and the last bit of leaves I didn't take care of without there being so much snow that I have to shovel every day or so. I didn't trim the shrubs for a year, and this year received a notice that I was in violation of a city ordinance along the back alley. Little flags marked my yard in the back telling everyone how delinquent I was. The yard needs to be mowed, the shrubs need to be trimmed, the trees need to be cut back from power lines, the trim around the house needs painting, and I had my doubts whether the wild flowers in the front were ever going to look like anything more than weeds.
Our spiritual lives are like that. Our faith community is like that. If we don't tend to our lives, we begin to deteriorate, our vitality begins to decline, the red flags go up informing everyone that we are not fit for ministering to others, that we ourselves are in danger of losing the privilege of serving God and representing God in this world. It takes work. It takes cooperation. It means being devoted to God and the community of faith. But we must move on and we must move on together. We cannot stay spiritual adolescents. We must grow up.