Beeson Podcast, Episode 385
March 27, 2018
Heidi Kinner

www.beesondivinity.com/podcast/2018/Today-Might-Be-The-Day

Announcer:	Welcome to the Beeson Podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George.
Timothy George:	Welcome to today's Beeson odcast. Well this is the week in the month when we get to listen to a sermon. And Dr. Smith and I are here to introduce you to a wonderful sermon by the Reverend Heidi Kinner. Heidi Kinner is associate chaplain at Christ Memorial Chapel on Jupiter Island in Florida. She has a fascinating background. 
	She was born and brought up in England. She was, for a while, a part of the United States Marine Corps. She has also been the dean of an Episcopal Cathedral in Montana. This is a person of great accomplishment in many different places and fields. And I want to tell you, she's going to bring us a message today that will stir our souls. What are we going to hear from Heidi Kinner?
Robert Smith Jr:	Heidi Kinner gives us her proposition up front, Dean George. It's simple. Trust in Christ. Follow him. Trust him every day, and then that recurring word that reverberates throughout her sermon today. In fact, she lifts up four times St. Benedict's quote: "Keep death daily before your eyes." That's crucial for her. And she lifts this passage out of Hebrews, this sermon out of Hebrews chapter 3, verses 1 through 11, and highlights this phrase: "Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your heart." 
	It's personally informed, that is, the sermon is, by this St. Benedict quote, and by her own personal experience. She says near the very end of the sermon, watch for this now, "I've come through cancer. I don't know about tomorrow, but I know who holds tomorrow. So we have nothing to fear from anything on earth, not even from death itself." According to Reverend Kinner, the divine intention is this: why does God even care that we listen? And her response is, relationship. And she proves this by lifting up the incarnation. 
	She frames the sermon, Dean, around the comparatives between the first-century Jewish Christians and the 21st-century contemporary Christians, and those Jews who in the wilderness were tempted to go into the wilderness and to withdraw from the faith after witnessing the marvelous works of God. Urgency, immediacy, are crucial for her. "Today, when you hear his voice, don't harden your heart." Here is a sermon that is Christologically concentrated and soaked and saturated throughout the sermon. 
	Christ, she says, is greater than Moses because Christ is the son of the owner of the house, whereas Moses is the builder of the house. Well, I would say to the hearers, pay close attention to the final two thoughts that I would offer. She encourages Christians to hear the voice of God with fresh ears. And then she encourages Christians to tell others who were in church but are no longer in church, and have stopped listening to God, to listen to God once again, today, today, today.
Timothy George:	Today might be the day. So this is a compelling sermon, Dr. Smith …
Robert Smith Jr:	It is.
Timothy George:	… preached originally here in Birmingham at the Cathedral Church of the Advent as a part of their annual Lenten preaching series in 2015. Let's go and listen to Reverend Heidi Kinner.
Heidi Kinner:	May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Yesterday I talked about the appointed reading for the day from the letter of Hebrews, and I will pick up in that letter again today. I began by noting that, just as a recap today, that Hebrews was written at the end of first century to a primarily Jewish Christian audience. And the overall setting of the letter is that the readers, the author was afraid, were beginning to turn away from Christ and back to their Judaism. 
	And so he wrote this letter to encourage them to continue in their faith in Christ and their daily walk with Christ. I also noted that the letter to the Hebrews is contoured broadly along the lines of the exodus, that great Israelite journey out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land, with Moses being one of the key characters that the author uses as a comparative. And he also compares our daily faith walk to the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel for those 40 years.
	The main point, though, of Hebrews being that Jesus is greater than Moses, and that he is leading us somewhere greater than the promised land. Jesus leads us to the kingdom of heaven. Now yesterday's appointed passage for the day highlighted the incarnation and the fact that God the Son became a man and dwelt among us so that he would truly know our struggles and our temptations and that through that he could be our faithful and merciful high priest. That Christ, as fully God and yet also fully man, is both our savior, through his self-giving death on the cross, but also our brother, our very present help in the troubles of everyday life.
	And so the author of Hebrews says to his readers, says to us, “Trust in Christ. Follow him. Turn to him every day, today.” And that's really where I want to pick up. Hebrews drives home the need to persevere and follow Christ every single day. But I also know what a hard journey that is for us. We in this modern world can be busy, distracted, tired. We often forget, or frankly, just don't bother to think about following Jesus today. That's what Sunday's for, right? But the call of Ash Wednesday: “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust shall thou return.”
	Or the more shocking paraphrase, “Remember that you are going to die,” is really a reminder that all that we have is today. Again I know St. Benedict's advice from yesterday, "Keep death daily before your eyes." Now I know that that sounds depressing, but it is not intended that way. It's not intended to make us fearful or depressed. Quite the opposite. Benedict wanted people to live each day deliberately with their eyes fixed on Christ, so that we can make the most of each and every day that we are given as a gift from God.
	So as I read today's appointed passage from Hebrews, think about that metaphor of the wilderness wanderings, as our journey of faith. And think about what it means for us to keep death daily before our eyes as a call to follow Christ today. A reading from the letter to the Hebrews, "Therefore holy brothers and sisters, 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 of 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 40 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.''" Now in this passage the author of Hebrews states outright what he has earlier implied: that Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses was a builder of the house, but Jesus is the son of the owner of the house. The argument then, that the author is making essentially asks the readers why they would abandon their faith in the son to follow the builder, and exhorts them to hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
	In other words, hold on tight to faith in Christ, and to our hope in salvation and eternal life with God. The author then quotes from Psalm 95. Now you're all familiar with first portion of Psalm 95 that we read week by week in morning prayer. The beginning of Psalm 95 is this wonderful uplifting hymn of praise to God. But what's interesting about it ... We sing it as the Venite in morning prayer every week. What's interesting about the bit that we leave out in the Venite is this last chunk, which is essentially a commentary on the wilderness wanderings.
	"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, even though they saw my works for 40 years." Now this psalm as a whole was very well known to those first readers of Hebrews, with its call to avoid making the same mistakes as their ancestors did. That rebellious exodus generation who, during the wilderness wanderings, even though they had seen God's amazing works, chose to turn their backs on God and rebel against him. 
	The author of Hebrews uses this very challenging, and frankly, accusatory portion of Psalm 95 to stop his readers short and snap them out of their half-hearted complacency. He begins, though, by making an interesting editorial change in his use of Psalm 95. The Psalm itself speaks of the rebellions at Massah and Meribah. But you'll notice that in the Hebrews translation, in his use of it, he doesn't use those two place names. Instead, the writer of Hebrews returns to the original meaning behind the place names. Instead of Massah, he says testing.
	Instead of Meribah, he says quarreling or rebellion. He wants his readers to understand that their ancestors' rebellion against God was not tied to a place, but is an ever present heart issue, and that his readers are in fact committing the same rebellion against God as those ancient Israelites did. But now their rebellion is because they are rejecting Christ, even though they have seen Christ's mighty works. 
	Hebrews continues with the psalm, and its recounting of this rebellion of the exodus generation by really saying, “You've seen his works for 40 years,” of course reminding them that their ancestors had seen the Passover, had walked through the Red Sea on dry land. But he says they didn't enter God's rest because they did not believe in God, because they did not trust in God and rebelled against him. And so Hebrews here applies this to the readers by detaching the idea now of God's rest from the place of the promised land. He broadens the understanding of what it means to enter God's rest by keeping one eye on Genesis, and one eye on Jesus.
	From Genesis one and two, the author connects entering God's rest with God's sabbath rest after creation, but not in the sense of God just taking a day off on Saturday. Rather in the sense of humanity walking with God in the cool of the evening, of being with God in an eternal day of rest from toil, during which we enjoy the goodness of God, and of his creative works. He also, though, directs us towards the connection with Jesus. Do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11?
	"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Sabbatismos. In other words, if we're looking for the true rest that God offers, the way we get there is through Jesus. If we want to enter the door into the fullness of that sabbath rest, the author of Hebrews says we can't turn our backs on Christ. For Christ is the way to that rest and the only one who can lead us there. Later in chapter four, Hebrews tells us that the door is still open, and so his readers should go through it. How? By believing in Christ. 
	When? Right now. Hebrews says that God appointed a day for us to enter into the sabbath rest with Christ, and he says that day is today. And he quotes again from that first portion of Psalm 95: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." For the author of Hebrews, the time to follow is Jesus is today. Right now. The time to listen to the Word is today. Keep death daily before your eyes. Today is all that we know we have. Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
	The point that Hebrews makes over and over again is that today is the day to choose Christ. Today is the day to follow Christ. Today is the day to hear the Word of God in Scripture. Today is the day to give our lives to the Word of God, who is Christ. And we all who are here today have heard the Word. We know all about Good Friday, about Easter Sunday. We know that Christ has freed us from slavery to the law and sin and death. Today is the day to follow Jesus.
	Why would those readers back then want to turn back? Why would we want to turn back to the law, knowing all that we know? How could we rebel like the Israelites of old and reject Jesus? Just as Moses was confounded that the Israelites could turn their backs on God, who had done so much for them, who had parted the Red Sea, who had provided for them in the wilderness, so the author of Hebrews was confounded that his readers could be lukewarm and turn away from Christ, knowing of his mighty works of healing, of redemption, of resurrection.
	And the author cries from the pages of this letter, just crying out to us, almost shouting to us sometimes, that God is speaking to all of us, that Christ has brought us out of slavery to sin and to death, don't grow cold hearted. Don't be faint hearted. Follow him today if you hear his voice. That cry resounds for us still with the same immediacy and personal challenge that it did 2000 years ago. God speaks to us. He calls us to listen today. Why should we listen? Or perhaps, when you really think about it, why does God even care whether we listen?
	Have you ever thought about that? Why does God care if we give our lives to him? Well, as amazing and as curious as it is, God created us for relationship with him. We broke God's heart when we turned away from him in the Garden of Eden with that first sin. God could have just started over, couldn't he? But he didn't. For some unfathomable reason, he loves us so much, he has such care for us as his creation, as his children, that ever since that first sin, he has been calling us back. He has been calling us to hear his voice ever since.
	He has been calling us to return home to him ever since. He has been crying out to us ever since. Calling us home to be healed and restored. Calling us to enter into the joy of his rest. Calling us to stop wandering around, lost in the desert, to be with him. But our hearts are hard. Our necks are stiff. And so finally, God sent the final word. And as the very first verse of Hebrews says, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son." 
	To hear the voice of God now is not just to listen to the words of God in Scripture, but is fundamentally to be in relationship with the WORD, all caps, Jesus Christ. Sadly in my ministry, one of the things that I hear people making fun of is all of us preachers like me who go around and say that we need to have a  personal relationship with Christ. But here's the thing, that is exactly what God wants from us. That is exactly what God wants with us. This whole crazy world, God's patience with fallen humanity, the cross, the resurrection, they have all been about the fact that God wants a personal relationship with us, with you, today.
	He loves us that much. He wants you to know him that much. And that's what this amazing book is all about. That is what the cross, and the Eucharist are all about, that God wants to be with you today. Keep death daily before your eyes. Today is all we really have. God doesn't want you to miss one moment of time with him. He don't want you to spend one more hour outside of the blessedness of his rest. Now I know that here at the Advent I am preaching to the choir, but I also know that the time in between the cross and the second coming can seem long.
	And I know how easy it can be to lose heart, to simply grow lukewarm and wander. So even though you hear it week by week here, I am going to presume to call you to hear God's voice again today, with new ears, to engage every day with the Word in Scripture so that we can know the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, every day, so that you can find rest with him, and in him today because that is what God wants with you and for you.
	But I'm going to also leave you with a challenge, because I know that you do know the Word of God. I know that you do know Jesus Christ. God longs for a relationship with others too. And even though it may seem that in this nation people know the gospel, let me tell you something, they don't. All over people have not heard the Word of God. All over this nation, there are people who do not know Jesus, and who have never heard what this book contains. All over there are people who have not a clue of the kind of relationship that God wants with them.
	So today, what if we shared what we have known and heard with somebody else? If today is all we have, if today is your last day, what more fitting way to honor God than to share the gospel with someone who doesn't know it? After all, if we truly believe what we say, that this gospel is the best news in the world, how can we not want to share it? Yes, I know, it can be outside our comfort zones. And yes, I know, trust me, that it can be incredibly challenging to share the Word in this day and age.
	So many people in this country today are essentially inoculated against Christ. They maybe tried church once a long time ago and had a bad experience, or were hurt in some way, and left in anger. Or maybe they just got bored from boring preaching, or doing the same thing, or not knowing when they're supposed to stand up and sit down and kneel. And so they just stopped coming, and they drifted away. But whatever the situation was, they left. And now many of them are hostile. Many of them are skeptical.
	Many of them just simply do not care and do not want to hear it. But let me tell you, you have no idea what God may be doing in their hearts and their lives today. And today might be the day that God has prepared their hearts to receive the gospel. Today might be the day that the Holy Spirit has opened their ears to hear the Word. But how will they know if we don't speak? And let me tell you, it doesn't have to be a massive theological treatise. It doesn't have to be a verbal bludgeoning with the Bible.
	Sharing the gospel with somebody who has never heard it, or with someone who is skeptical, can be as simple as a prayer offered with genuine love, as sharing your story of faith with sincerity, or of simply being willing to listen to their story and discuss their questions or problems with church or with the Bible with kindness and respect. And the willingness to be graceful toward them as they wrestle with their faith as Christ has been graceful to us. Today, what if they hear his voice? Who knows what God might do today.
	Today. My friends, I've come through cancer, I live with MS. Let me tell you, I never expected any of that. Today is all we have. We don't know what tomorrow brings. We don't know what the next day holds for us. But I know who holds our tomorrows, Jesus Christ. So I know that we have nothing to fear from anything on this earth. I know that we have nothing to fear from death itself. So by keeping death daily before our eyes, but knowing who holds our tomorrows, and trusting that we have nothing to fear, live today for all it's worth.
	Live today with the courage that God has you in the palm of his hand and that nothing in heaven or earth can separate you from his love. Live it for every second that you have it. Don't just drift through it, but ask God what he wants you to do with it today. Today, hear his voice. Today, follow where he leads. Today, let's see where God is going to take us and what he's going to do through us. And may God bless your ministries. May he bless the ministry of this parish, and may he give you the courage to live today for all it's worth, for his honor and glory.
Timothy George:	The sermon we have just heard by Heidi Kinner is copyrighted by the Cathedral Church of the Advent. All rights reserved, and it's used here on the Beeson Podcast by special permission.
Announcer:	You've been listening to the Beeson Podcast with host Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson Podcast at our website, beesondivinity.com. Beeson Divinity School is an interdenominational, evangelical divinity school, training men and women in the service of Jesus Christ. We pray that this podcast will aid and encourage your work, and we hope you will listen to each upcoming edition of the Beeson Podcast.