Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6:4-6 is a tough saying. We are likely to dismiss it and go on. What if we struggle with it for a minute?

Heb 6:4-6 But what about people who turn away after they have already seen the light and have received the gift from heaven and have shared in the Holy Spirit? What about those who turn away after they have received the good message of God and the powers of the future world? There is no way to bring them back. What they are doing is the same as nailing the Son of God to a cross and insulting him in public! CEV

The Greek starts with a preposition that means "it is impossible that". At minimum one must realize how serious God is and how important it is that we do not fall away. The writer warns the readers to not decide to quit the church, go back to old beliefs without considering the consequences. The writer often contrasts Jesus' new revelation with the older Jewish revelation. This new revelation of God is much greater, much stronger, much closer to God. And it is not a good thing to give it up, as is implied the people this is written to are considering.

But what about what he writes here? Is it true that once one falls away, repents of being a Christian there is no way back? The Greek uses the word "tasted" twice. Once we have tasted God, can we give it up? Certainly there is only one salvation, only one crucifixion. Jesus will not do it again. It is once and done. But wasn't that one time sufficient, even if we fall away and attempt to come back again?

Perhaps he is speaking about us. How hard will it be for us to repent a second time after rejecting it once? It will take a lot more humility than most people have. The first time took humility but we can tell ourselves we did not know any better. But now we did. We did taste how good God was. And we rejected it for a bowl of porridge. Are we going to be able to fully and honestly repent again? It will be much harder for us a second time. Perhaps that is one way to look at it. But are we being honest with the text?

I think one thing is true. If we decide to fall away to try other things, to sin a lot with the idea of coming back later, one may never get back. That is too risky. Certainly we have been tempted to do some sin: have sex with some person casually, steal money from a business or the government, live a lie with the idea that later God will have to forgive us and we'll be good. There are lots of reasons not to do that but one reason is we may get permanently trapped or we may die while still fallen away. Would God's forgiveness still apply while we are in flagrant sin? The writer here leaves some room for doubt. And I think we should struggle with it, if we are serious about being a disciple of Jesus.

The writer goes on to say those of us who have tasted God but then go on to produce bad fruit, what will God say about that? But after warning them, the writer then encourages them that the works they have done in God's name will be remembered by God. He encourages them to be steadfast, not lazy.

He concludes the chapter by reminded them of the revelation to Abraham and then beginning to show that Jesus is a priest of the order of Melchizedek, whom Abraham acknowledged as an agent of God. That he will continue into the seventh chapter.

picking dewberries

Sunday - Barbara and I picked three cups of dewberries at our regular spot off Leeland. We disturbed a homeless guy's "home". He had accumulated lots of aluminum cans hidden in a waste area very near downtown. He wanted to walk his bicycle up a path where Barbara was picking. I asked him why. He said, "None of your business." I soon saw why he said that. I soon saw what his business was. Good luck to him.

I followed directions on the recipe and made a very good looking dewberry pie.

Saturday - A Jehovah's Witness came to the house around 11 AM. I was in the midst of chopping but nothing was pressing. So I went out on the front porch and talked to her for a while. I enjoyed preaching, teaching and exhorting her. I do sincerely hope God will speak to her heart about her error.

Recycling

Recycling has gotten to be an obsession with me. I feel good about recycling. I feel excited about it. Why do I feel so excited? Right now my major effort is recycling citrus fruit that otherwise would not be picked. It is still going on, despite the fact that citrus is already blooming and budding for this fall's crop. Some trees still have last year's crop on the trees. This fruit will eventually shrivel up and drop off if not picked. Amazingly most of that fruit on the trees is still good. Citrus stays ripe in the trees for months. I know of many grapefruit still in trees. There are oranges too but orange trees are taller. I cannot reach most of the remaining fruit.

There are also plenty of sour oranges. People largely do not pick this stuff. Kids probably pick them to throw at one another. I am working on ways to use the sour oranges. You cannot eat them. They make your mouth pucker they are so sour. But orange pies are excellent. They take some effort though. I have also developed an orange aide that is not half bad. But it's an acquired taste. One third juice, two thirds water and add 1/4 cup of saccharine for sweetener. Not too sweet and dietetic for me. There is also sour orange marmalade. It tastes pretty much like regular marmalade.

As I go to my car I see other evidences of recycling, leaves and grass from bags left for trash, soil washed out of yards and into the gutter on the side of roads. Getting that soil is pretty hard work. Soil is heavy. A man walking by saw me shoveling soil into a container last week and just shook his head. Yeah I'm crazy.

As I walk for exercise I find some fairly interesting things to reuse. I am pretty obsessed.

In the home we accumulate a lot of stuff. When I am straightening up I find a lot of things that have not been used for years. I either think of some way to use them, place them in a box to take to Goodwill, or toss them. I imagine Goodwill tosses a lot of this stuff without trying to sell it. But that is there problem. I do not give them broken things, just unusual ones. Things that would take imagination. Yet I believe there is someone out there who would pay a little for it. But I admit these things would be hard to move.

I am constantly looking at the food we have in the freezer and pantry to see how to use things long forgotten. If they are still remotely edible I will think of a recipe to use them in. Sometimes I have a great time combining seasoning where we have two containers of the same thing. I love doing that too. We also have lots of little body lotions and body washes. This morning I tried to combine some of those. I know the scents are different. The girls will howl. But these lotions are long forgotten. They were not going to use them anyway. I might use them, just to get rid of them.

In a broader sense jail ministry is about trying to recycle people. That is not as easy. The results are not as readily apparent. So one has to enjoy the process. Helping at the retirement home is similar I suppose. These people are often forgotten by others. And they need visiting in any way possible. People need "recycling" in a sense, we all do. In this context recycling means discovering or enhancing someone's talents and virtues. They are there. God knows it. They are not getting used as much as they could be. Be at peace with that.

I am going through Hebrews right now (Chapter 2 and 3). I've been missing my daily Bible readings lately. Salvation is like recycling to me as I have expanded the meaning of the word. Jesus has redeemed us. His redemption is big. The writer says we (they) will regret having walked away from so great a glory. Jesus is both high priest and victim. He suffered, he was tempted. He redeemed suffering. He overcame temptation. There is recycling in there.

Last night we read and meditated on Isaiah 43:1-2 which starts, "Fear not for I have redeemed you." God did a recycling project on the Israelites. He took them from the Chaldees and chose them. He saved and redeemed them out of Egypt. The second verse says when you are over your head in water, when you go through fire God will be with you. You will not drown or be burned. God will save you. It is a promise first for the Israelites but do we take this to be a promise for us as well? I think we do. I know I do. God is always with us. He is in the process of using and reusing us. Perhaps that is why I like recycling so much. I think it is a model of how God takes us, broken as we are and finds a use for us. I find that so exciting.