Hebrews 10:16-25 (Friday)

Year A - Good Friday or Annihilation Friday

April 18, 2014

Hebrews 10:16-25

Where there is forgiveness, there is no longer any offering for sin. The life of Jesus, and those he mentored, is merciful, forgiving. This is not just a momentary accomplishment, but a life-time achievement.

If you are not going to claim the power of forgiveness as a key key to the presence of G*D, there is nothing that Jesus’ death does that will substitute it for your responsibility to forgive.

Even here in the midst of a temptation to idolize crucifixion, we hear these strange and powerful words: “Let us provoke one another to love and good deeds.”

Jesus shows we can make it to and past the consequences of loving good deeds in the midst of a greedy and privileged culture. To claim any given moment of a nation to be the pinnacle of morality is an exercise in futility. Only a brief moment in time will reveal that the official history is but a cover for extending the current power structure one day more. The alternative history (read your Howard Zinn) always reveals a liberation rising from the grassroots to break through the cement (thank you Malvina Reynolds). We arrive at a better tomorrow by a whole series of sequential or persistent actions, not by protecting wealth and privilege with guns and armies.

Indeed, let us meet together in all our confusing and contradictory ways. Only in this time of meeting can we each provoke one another to love and good deeds. When we lose this connection, we lose our basic mission that has come at such a cost to so many. 

Today reflect on this image I found in Korea. I’m told the dress is of a scholar and the cross is a backpack I saw farmers in the community using for their chores. Scholars and workers are crucified for the wealth and power of a few. Listen to both saying, “We can do better.” This provocation to love and good deeds is the call we need to hear. Mourn death, yes, but do better.