Obey your leaders and defer to them, for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account, that they may fulfill their task with joy and not with sorrow, for that would be of no advantage to you.
May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the Blood of the eternal covenant, furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will. May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:15-17, 20-21)
This reading is just a few passages from Hebrews. We do not know who wrote this letter, although it has been attributed to Paul. According to Marcus Borg in his 2012 book Evolution of The Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books were written, “Within its late first century’s historical context, the language of Hebrews is thoroughly subversive. It subverts the foundation of temple theology – the claim that only through the temple is reconciliation with God possible. The author argues that what we see in Jesus means that the need for temple sacrifice is over with…Hebrews is about the end of the system of sacrifice, not about its reestablishment in Christian doctrinal form.”
This reading has us focus on another sort of sacrifice essential in any community and especially during our never-ending pandemic: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.” Jesus is our great shepherd who asks us to carry out in us what is pleasing to him; that is, sacrifice through charity and sharing in the name of love.
Jesus is our leader to whom we must defer. He watches over us, and it is to him we must give an account.
Deacon David Pierce
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