Today’s Lectionary Reading includes the following reading
from the Book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 3:1-11 ESV – Therefore, holy brothers, you who share
in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our
confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was
faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory
than Moses--as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than
the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all
things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to
testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over
God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our
confidence and our boasting in our hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the
rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me
to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with
that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not
known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'"
In the past
several months, I have been pondering what it means to be called by God. I know that all people have a threefold calling:
1. Each
person is called to accept the salvation by grace given to us through the
atoning act of Christ’s incarnation, life, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection,
and ascension.
2. Each
person is called to a vocation (not a career) that God specifically prepares
them to do. This is not a job, but an
act of service to God.
3. Everyone
is called to something in the immediate present – your, church, family, circle
of influence. What does God have for you
right now?
As much as I am sure that God has called me to be a
minister, I am not sure what mode it will take.
I think I am supposed to be a chaplain, but is that because I like the
idea of the chaplaincy, or is it really God’s call. I guess that God will open the doors for me,
and if I am supposed to be in the Navy, I will make it into the program, pass
the medical, get endorsed, and every other of the seemingly endless things that
have to be filled out before I get commissioned. I do know, however, that if the chaplaincy is
not my calling, I will be a minister. It
is my vocational calling.
I find the
contrast between Moses and Jesus to be expected. Jesus was greater than Moses? No way!! But then I have to remember, that the people
to whom this book was written were Hebrews, and Moses and the Mosaic Covenant
were pretty much the gold standard for religious excellent. So now, the Apostle Paul, or whomever you
believe to be the writer to the Hebrews, has to remind the people that, “Yeah,
Moses did a pretty good job as the mouthpiece of God, but Jesus was God
incarnate.
Do we boast
in our Hope? A. R. Fausset says that “boasting in our hope”
is believing that which we hope for (eternal union with God) has already come
to pass. When I doubt my calling, or
when I don’t know what to do, I am supposed to rejoice that I have the gift of
everlasting life, and be confident in the promises of God. Not that everything will be easy, but that
God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, and are
called according to his purpose.
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