A Communion Meditation on The Superiority of Christ

Psalm 26; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12

The word “apostasy” is a heavy, foreboding word. It means to abandon or renounce one’s faith.  Someone who abandons or renounces his or her faith is an apostate.

  In the Catholic Church, baptism is normally administered as an infant.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this: “Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the person baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated” (CCC 1272).

What if, when you reach age 50, you no longer believe in the church and its teachings?  What do you do then?  Not just the Catholic Church, any church.  What if you reach a point where you no longer believe?  Some people are choosing to be de-baptized.  Some call it un-baptized.  You can purchase a Certificate of Debaptism from the National Secular Society.  In part, it reads this way:

After due deliberation, I, ____________________, having been subject to the Rite of Christian baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the church that carried it out.  In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and other such superstition….

A man in France sued the Catholic Church, demanding that they strike his name from their baptismal records.  The Church responded saying that it was impossible.  “One can’t be de-baptized,” a dean of Canon law said.  A judge ruled in the man’s favor.  The Church has appealed, and the case is pending.

Scholars believe the book of Hebrews originally addressed Jewish Christians who were considering apostasy.  Some argue that Hebrews was originally a sermon delivered to a congregation where members were contemplating abandoning their Christian faith.  The issue was not that they didn’t believe in God or the church anymore.  No, they were under intense persecution, and some wanted to retreat to places less threatening. “It’s not worth it,” some apparently were saying.  “We can leave the church and live in peace.  We can renounce our faith and not have to endure the harassment, the imprisonment, and all the other insults that come with being a Christian.”

Some were becoming apostate, and others were considering it.

So the writer of Hebrews makes an impassioned plea that they not leave the faith, but that they remain faithful to Christ who was faithful to them.  He does so by making a moving argument for the superiority of Christ. 

As we anticipate coming to this Table, a Table that reminds us of the sacrifice that stands at the center of our faith, let us hear this impassioned plea and embrace anew our own faith.

      He reminds them that through the ages God has spoken in many ways.  God spoke through a burning bush on the side of Mt. Horeb.  God spoke through a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  God spoke through the weeping prophet of Anathoth, Jeremiah, the fiery prophet who spoke harsh words during a season of ease, Amos, and even through the unusual antics of the prophet named Ezekiel.  All of that was wonderful, but the writer of Hebrews argues that those were the days of old.  In these present days, he argues, God has spoken to us through a Son.  That, he says, is superior to anything God has done in the past.

This Son, he continues, is “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.”  When you look at the Son, he is saying, it is as if you are looking directly at God.  That wasn’t true of Jeremiah.  That wasn’t true of Amos.  The superiority of Christ

The Son, while he lived and taught, did the work of purifying the world of sins.  When that work was completed, the Son took his rightful place “at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”  Therefore, the Son is superior to the angels, he tells them.  He will go on to argue that the Son is superior to Moses.  The Son, he will say, is superior to the Levitical priesthood.

Therefore, they should not abandon their faith.  Instead, he challenges them to hold onto their faith, like the great heroes of the faith: Abel and Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and even the unlikely hero, Rahab the harlot.  He writes of these heroes of faith:

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life.  Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated…wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves the earth.

The writer of Hebrews wants them to evaluate carefully their options.  Option one: abandon the faith.  Turn your back on things you once considered holy and precious.  Become an apostate.  Some were choosing that option.  Or option two: remain faithful, like generations of people have.  Remain faithful, knowing that many have suffered for their beliefs.  Remain faithful because Christ is superior to any other option.

Today is World Communion Sunday.  Christians around the world are coming to Tables like this one.  These Tables invite us to evaluate our faith.  Have the embers of your faith grown cool?  Have we become distant?  Have we allowed something to distract us from a vital faith?  When you take the bread into your hands today, remember what Jesus said, “This is my body broken for you.”  When you take the wine into your hands, remember what he said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”

May these words rekindle our faith.  May this experience renew us.  May this Table remind us of the superiority of Christ.

A Prayer of Confession is printed in your worship guide.  Join me as we confess our sins together.