C, Post-Pentecost 10, Proper 15 - Hebrews 12:1-2 "The Fruitful Faithful Vine"

Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

God the Holy Spirit works faith within the hearing hearts of believers, so we might do the things God wants us to do, to please him.  Doing what God wants is doing the will of God.  God gives faith so we receive what he does for us, and so we listen to him and do what he wants.  It’s God’s will to make you holy, so he can live with us, and so we want to live with him in peace. 

In Hebrews eleven, we hear “By faith” God’s people did this, and “by faith”  they did that.  By the will of God, the people of God were led by the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, despite being human and sinful, they did what pleased God and waited on him with faith.  By his will, God’s  people allowed the Holy Spirit to lead them to trust him, despite deprivation, degradation and death.

The writer of Hebrews calls us to take this word to heart and also follow the will of God, just as those who have gone beforehand have done.  But the encouragement goes further than just the witness of what they did in faith.  You and I are called to see that we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. 

They are alive in Christ in the great resurrection of the dead, that has transported them from this deathly existence within time, into life in the eternal now with God.  They have been perfected by faith.  They have allowed the Holy Spirit to give them the desire to wait for a Saviour, who didn’t come during their time, but has now come and redeemed all those who faithfully wait on the will of God.

These are the folk of faith recalled in the book of Hebrews: Abel, considered useless by his parents, but who faithfully offered a pleasing offering to God, then Noah, Abraham, Moses, the nation of Israel who was faithfully led out of Egypt and into the Red Sea, and Rahab the prostitute who faithfully honoured God, over against her trade, by helping Caleb and his crew spy on Canaan.  Plus, others who while struggling in their weakness, faithfully died by the sword, and were considered unworthy and useless, just like Abel was at the beginning.  Together they are witnesses — literally martyrs — pointing to Jesus Christ, who is their foundation and their perfection from sin. 

But these witnesses are alive, they’re not just memories written down, they’re martyrs resurrected with Jesus, willing you through the living written word by God the Holy Spirit.  Together with the whole company of heaven, they’re not dead, they’re living!

Hear it again, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV)

In the Old Testament reading and the Psalm we hear how sin clung closely to his chosen people of Israel.  Israel was the vine and vineyard of God. 

In Psalm 80 the psalmist calls God — the Shepherd of Israel — similar to that of the 23^rd Psalm.  A warm and comforting image!  But three times in the Psalm there’s a powerful lament, where Israel faithfully honours God by crying out to him, “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!” (Psalm 80:3 ESV)

Israel was the vine that God transplanted from Egypt into Canaan.  God was completely faithful to them, despite periods of faithlessness from them.  Through his faithful servants God’s face shone upon Israel, and remembering this, Israel laments to God, “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.  Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.” (Psalm 80: 8–9, 14–15 ESV)

In a time of great rebellion, Isaiah sings a love song for God, his beloved, about his vineyard, “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; …but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry! (Isaiah 5:1–2a, 3-4, 7 ESV)

This too is a great witness to us.  Prophets like Isaiah suffered to reveal the sin of God’s people.  King David and his entourage of Psalm writers lament, calling God to return, and his people to repent, to stop being wild grapes, sour grapes of God’s vineyard, the poisonous stench that was growing on the vine God rescued from Egypt. 

Let this powerful witness work!  So, you die daily to self, allowing the Holy Spirit to return you and restore you in faith.  To once again see the shining face of God.  To bring you again and again back to the true source of salvation.

Also hidden amongst Israel’s lament at their failures in Psalm Eighty is a powerful promise. We hear, “But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!  Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name!”  (Psalm 80:17–18 ESV)

This Son of Man, made strong for God, is God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.  He is the fulfilment of Israel, the one who many waited for in faith, while much was going wrong in Israel.  Jesus is the new Israel, that those who endured by faith, were waiting.

Jesus has now come, he has died, and he is risen from the dead.  In faith Israel looked forward to the coming of Christ, and in the same way we too look forward, but to Christ’s second coming!

As we struggle, we are called to cast off “every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”  (Hebrews 12:1b–2a ESV)

Jesus continues to send us the Holy Spirit, so we too, live with faith, and die in faith.  But also, we do so with hope, because Jesus is the new Israel, the perfect Israel, and we are grafted into this Holy Vine of Israel and God the Father is the vinedresser. 

This is the promise:  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:1, 3-5, 7–9 ESV)

Jesus is our true vine, and we are his branches.  We bear the will of God because we are grafted into the resurrected Israel of God.  We are fruitful and faithful because the Holy Spirit wills us to look to Jesus, our founder and perfecter of faith!  Amen.