We Are Stronger Together

---

Hebrews 10:19-25 (NRSVUE)
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

First, I want to clarify that when I refer to a relationship with God, I don’t just mean Christians. I believe that anyone who sincerely seeks Truth, or Love, or Life has a relationship with the Divine, with our Source and our Creator.
 

All right. How many of you remember telephone books?  Hundreds of thin sheets bound together, sturdy enough to last a year? Well I’ve been going to strength training and now I am strong enough to tear a telephone book in half. I’ll show you. [Lift banner, rip paper.] That joke is as old as telephone books.
 

Obviously I couldn’t do that with a real phone book. All those thin pieces of paper stacked together would be impossible to tear as a group. I’m sure you catch the analogy: as a community, we are stronger together.
 

Community is often messy, occasionally uncomfortable, sometimes painful. For most of my life, due to childhood trauma, I have felt that I was safer alone. That was an understandable response to being hurt, but it kept me from being free to live more fully. You may feel safer alone, too. I still struggle, but I know that with patience and persistence, we can gradually move away from fear as we become more deeply aware of the transformative and restorative love of God that surrounds us and indwells us.
 

In a godly community, the primary focus must be on God. We do good works forGod and we enjoy being together in God. When that focus changes – when we care more about the good work than we do about our Creator, when we start feeling that if church is not fun or easy then there’s no point in going – well, we’re just looking for a social aid and pleasure club.  
 

If we are building a godly community, we strive to trust God. We are willing to trust each other. And we work to be trustworthy. I think that bears repeating: In a godly community, we strive to trust God. We are willing to trust each other. And we work to be trustworthy.
 

We seek to be part of a community not built on dogmatic certainty but on confidence in love and grace. Not based on what we can give but on what we have received. It has nothing to do with whether we look alike but whether we have the same priorities: to glorify God and to share true Love with others.
 

The book of Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Christians in Rome, where Nero had begun persecuting them. It was a dangerous time. Judaism was a recognized, protected religion but Christianity was not, so people in the congregation were tempted to revert to Judaism, or at least keep their newfound belief a secret, to avoid persecution.
 

Yet the author of the book of Hebrews urged the church to stay together in spite of the peril. They needed to maintain community, and the author told them how to do that in the passage that we just read.
 

The first step? A godly community has to start with individual relationships with God. We have to maintain clean hearts, says Hebrews—that means walking in mercy and forgiveness, repenting when necessary and gladly striving to do better. This is something that we each must do for ourselves. It’s the only way that we can confidently be a part of a godly community, and maintaining the relationship with God is something that we must do on a daily basis. Like brushing our teeth.
 

The second step is what the author of Hebrews called “the confession of our hope.” That first step is between you and God; the second step is between you, God, and other people. We are called to speak aloud, to testify, about our hope and our history. My early spiritual formation was in churches where we had testimony services on Friday and Sunday nights—people would just stand up and tell what they’d experienced in the past week, and how they’d been strengthened and encouraged. They helped themselves, and everyone listening, through their confessions of hope.
 

And the third part of building a godly community is to come together: to worship, and to do good work. Community is often difficult and inconvenient. But it is worth the effort because we were not created to live alone. And we are not as strong when we work alone. I remember a chilly day, 56 years ago, in Washington, D.C. It was November, 1969. By myself I would have had no impact, but I was with half a million other people who were there to protest the Vietnam War. Helicopters hovered ominously overhead. We felt the burn of tear gas in our eyes and its sting in our lungs, but we were together. United in a cause. And strong.
This is a day when we need to be strong, and active. When we witness the obscenity of the world’s richest man stripping life itself from the world’s poorest people, we have to know: it is time to do something. Something.
 

Write a representative, come work in the food pantry, campaign for decent politicians, volunteer at Luke’s House, tutor a child, or visit a lonely elder, pray and pray and then pray some more….it is time for good works, for godly work. No matter what happens, we will always be able to help, somehow, if we maintain that connection with God. We will never be without recourse in the face of evil; there will always be something that we can do to help.
 

As troubles increase, let us encourage each other—gently motivate one another, primarily by example—to love and to good deeds. We will not use shame, or guilt, or fear to motivate; those are cheap, easy ways, but they are not godly and they do not last. When difficulties rise, let us not despair but “serve the Lord with gladness,” as the psalmist said, in the midst of chaos.
 

We can do this because we are learning to see the face of Jesus in all whom we encounter. And we know that this earth is not our home. We are moving together up the road toward glory. We bump shoulders sometimes and accidentally step on toes but we know we are stronger together, marching up to Zion.
 

That is still the third step in building community. Let’s circle back around to the second step and talk a little more about “holding fast our confession of faith without wavering.” We can do this because God is faithful no matter what changes in the world around us. When we speak to one another about the news, let’s make an effort to also mention the presence and promises of our Creator. Let’s be sure our hope is godly by basing it in what Scripture says, rightly interpreted.
 

Then let’s proclaim our hope, say it out loud, so those around us – family, friends, co-workers, angels, powers, principalities – will hear us say that WE BELIEVE GOD and will see us walking in the light.
 

Finally, let us never, ever neglect that first step in building godly community: we are each responsible for our relationships with the Divine. Let’s talk with God often and always be honest, voicing every feeling in prayer: when we’re angry, or disappointed, or afraid, or anything else – take that to the Lord in prayer and then add, “But I want to stay with you, Lord. I want to walk close to you, I want to preserve our relationship. Whatever else happens, I want to be your friend.”
 

As we maintain our strength through prayer and the study of scripture, we will have those clean hearts with full assurance of faith, unshakeable confidence that we have access to God. Because this is why Jesus came and died. It’s why he said on the cross, “It is finished.” He knew that he had been obedient to God up until the bitter end; he’d proved to this weary world that sin and shame and sorrow and death and evil have been defeated.
 

So this is the faith that we proclaim as a community. This is our glad and confident expectation:

--God will never turn away from us.

--We will always have access to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

--We will one day be made whole, one day be free from sin and fear, and one glorious day rejoice in full community with all the saints who have gone before us. 

--Until then, we will not turn our backs on those who are suffering but we will run toward them, fueled by the love of God, in the power and anointing of the truth that sets us all free.
 

We are a godly community. We won’t give up, we will not quit, because we are confident –

--EVIL CANNOT WIN. 

--WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER. 

--And THE LOVE OF GOD WILL SUSTAIN US.