Hebrews 6:1-12
“Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, 2instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And we will do this, if God permits” (Hebrews 6:1-3)
Today’s lectionary reading from Hebrews is a good reminder that sometimes these readings pick up in the middle of things and, if we don’t go back and come to understand that context, we can be easily led to very bad ends. Our opening verse, which tells us to “leav[e] behind the basic teaching about Christ,” is about a good of an example of the importance of context as you’ll find. So, in the interest of providing context, please also read these words from Hebrews 5:11-14, which immediately precedes our Hebrews reading for today (note: the NRSV labels this passage “Warnings Against Falling Away”):
About this [falling away] we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; 13 for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Once we establish this context, we can better understand that the author of Hebrews is writing to those who have abandoned that basic, simple practices of the church – prayer, Bible study, routine public worship of Jesus Christ, care for the poor, and the pursuit of justice in the world. To these such members of the church, the author unloads mountains of criticism, labeling them “dull in understanding” and “infants.”
I think the interpretive key to this passage rests in the final words of Hebrews 5, specifically “trained by practice.” Now, the thing about training for anything is that it is always obvious to those around the person training what exactly they’re doing. I mean, have you ever had a friend train for even a simple 5K run? Yeah, they definitely let you know about it, right? (Or, maybe, you’ve trained for a 5K and you were the one letting everyone know about it). This is okay. It isn’t showmanship. It’s part of taking something seriously enough to actively and intentionally train for it. If you’re committed to training for something, then it will just naturally crop up in your conversations. Heck, maybe you even intentionally share it with others because that provides a sort of built-in accountability to stay true to your training regimen.
So, if training is obvious, then it is obvious what people are training for. You just have to look at their life. And if what they’re training for is to be the sort of Christian who is trying to “go on toward perfection,” then this will be obvious too. Simply put, no one pursues Christian perfection in a less than public manner.
Now, all of this passage seems to be an invitation into judgment. But that’s not quite the case. Instead, I think we’re being invited into evaluation and discernment. If, as an example, you did want to commit to training for a 5K and if you thought you needed to do that in a community, then you should join a community of runners who, well, actually run. If you join a running group that merely drinks beer while eating McDonald’s and streaming Netflix, you’re probably not going to be a good runner. And if, after a while, you said, “You know, friends, I don’t think you’re actually training to run a 5K,” you couldn’t reasonably be accused of being “judgmental.” Indeed, if one of these sloths said, “Hey! Don’t judge me,” it would be pretty obvious that this appeal to non-judgment was just a smokescreen meant to obfuscate the obvious.
And so, this reading from Hebrews invites us – as a community – to hold one another accountable to growing in faith. And it does so in fairly strict terms, being willing to leave behind those who aren’t committed to what is necessary to follow the Lord.
Now, here’s the nice thing about this otherwise hard passage. The author gets what he’s saying is tough to hear. It’s why he goes on and says, “Even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do” (Hebrews 6:9-10). Did you catch that? “…the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints…” In this passage and “dull” “infants,” there’s still the assumption that as those who push into perfection do so, they are not severing relationship with the others, but rather that they are going to model the right way to live… while not allowing themselves to be held back from living that right way. That’s beautiful! That is so interpersonally and emotionally mature! It is a keen example of self-differentiation between yourself and your community, between your pursuits for perfection in Christ and your community. It doesn’t diminish community – there’s still that “love that you showed” – but neither does it require you to do whatever poor habits might be being done around you. It’s a great example of both liberation and interdependence. Simply put, it’s a great example of the gifts God gives us.
Today’s lectionary reading invites us into a posture of evaluation and accountability. Where there is a spiritual poverty in your life or the life of those around you, there is recourse for correction in the Lord. Where there are those whose practices don’t lead to perfection, there is permission to separate yourself from those practices. Let us, therefore, receive this Word from God. Amen.
