But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal
gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and
to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and
to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that
speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)
…part of the Epistle next
Sunday. All those rich phrases may
however have a soporific effect -- people assume they are not likely to
understand all that, and wonder indeed if the reader does. But, as often is the case, it repays a closer
look. What we call the Letter to the Hebrews
is a bit of an enigma. We have no idea
who wrote it – Origen in the early 3rd century famously wrote that
God only knows who wrote Hebrews. It
certainly reads as though it was written for Jewish Christians of the Diaspora,
some of whom, when the Messiah did not quickly return, were being tempted back
to ancient and familiar Judaism.
But that is not us, and this
is not the early church or the Middle East. This passage is the writer’s
colourful way of explaining where we are who belong to Christ… who we are, and
what we’re doing here. It is
reassurance, intended back then for people once Jews, part of an ancient
identity with ancient laws and practices – but now exiled, adrift, Christians
now, in a new spreading faith of often warring factions, the old familiar
landmarks gone… Does this ring a
bell? In our day this writer’s message
is more likely to be meaningful to people like the historian Diarmaid
MacCullough who describes himself now as “a friend of Christianity”. He feels alienated from the church, being gay
and having suffered abuse and rejection, but as a scholar he deeply values the
treasures of Christian faith and often takes part in its rituals and
events.
So… the writer to the Hebrews
says essentially, remember who you are, where you are, what you’re doing
here. You are part of a vast Communion
of Saints, seen and unseen. You have come to Mount Zion, the city
of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem[1]…
Jesus himself put it: My kingdom is not
of this world. The kingdom is present,
in and among us, universal and true, while aspects of the visible church may be
indeed the opposite of the kingdom of God.
It is inwardly seen and inhabited.
Then the writer reminds us we are not alone here. We are among innumerable angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the
firstborn who are enrolled in heaven…
“Innumerable” in Greek is myriads –
so it is not just countless numbers of saints and sinners, but an endless
variety, in this Communion of Saints. … and to God the judge of all, and to the
spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant… That is where we are, simply in our prayer, silent and still, or
at the sacrament of bread and wine. Various
teachers have pointed out that there is really only one prayer in the universe
– it is Jesus’s prayer to the Father, a prayer of unity and love. It is echoed in John 17. Our prayers, our contemplative silence and
stillness, our praise and intercessions, are all part of this one great
prayer. When we come to prayer,
we join this myriad unseen company, all joining
in Jesus’s prayer of love and unity before a loving judge.
[1]
Mount Zion and the Temple, and the city, had been utterly destroyed by the army
of Titus in 70 AD, following a prolonged and terrible siege. This was a profound grief to the Jews of the
Diaspora.
