Today’s Scripture Reading (February
19, 2015): Hebrews 4
New York
City’s Trinity Church is set to enter a legal battle with the box store giant,
Walmart. It turns out that Trinity Church, a well-to-do church that sits in New
York’s financial district, is a very minor shareholder in Walmart. And they
have a problem with an item that Walmart is selling. According to the church, the
items at issue are Walmart’s sale of guns that contain high-capacity magazines,
the sort that have been used in mass killings all over the United States.
Trinity is not trying to block the sale of these guns, but rather is asking
that the board have a plan with regard to the sale of the guns. Trinity wants
to know that these items have been passed through the board and that the board
has a marketing strategy that protects both Walmart and its shareholders. While
Trinity is not admitting this, it seems likely that the church believes that
any kind of strategy and discussion over the sale of these weapons, and the
public relations fall-out that would occur if a Walmart weapon was ever used in
a mass shooting, would likely result in the giant retailer pulling the weapons
off of it shelves. The question remains that if Walmart is marketing itself to
hunters, do hunters really require these sort of weapons? Trinity is betting that
the answer is no. Walmart is resisting the Trinity question because it would
change the day to day operation of the company. There are too many items for
the executive board to give attention to each one. Could Trinity stand aside
and just ignore the sale of these weapons? Of course, but as a Christian Church
Trinity seems to feel that its obligation to Christ is such that they cannot,
in all good conscience, stay quiet. As well, the church has been in existence
for over 300 years, and so they feel that they are ready for a long fight.
The question
of what, as Christians, we should do with the “voice of God” has long been
argued over in religious circles. We are not even sure of what we mean when we
say the words “the voice of God.” Does it mean an audible voice, or is it
something qualitatively different. Here, the writer of Hebrews continues an
argument that he or she has been trying to make throughout the early chapters
of the letter. And the argument is that when God freed Israel from captivity in
Egypt, it was because Israel was willing to listen to the voice of God spoken
through Moses. But when Israel was directed to take their rest in the Canaan a
short time later by the same voice of God, Israel refused. Hebrews stresses
that while God entered into his rest on the seventh day of creation, Israel was
refused that same rest because of their disobedience. Five hundred years later,
David asked Israel to be careful. If they heard the voice of God the way that
their ancestors had, David was encouraging them to obey. To harden their hearts
against God’s word was not going to take them where it was that they wanted or
needed to go. And in the first century, the author of Hebrews wants to make the
same assertion. Don’t harden your heart against God – if you hear his voice,
however you may define that, listen.
This idea of
reacting to the voice of God is at the heart of what it means to be Christian.
Our reality is that there are many “voices” that desire to speak into our
lives. And sometimes these “voices” want to make believe that they are from
God. But experience has shown us that the easy way out is seldom God’s way –
whether it is in our marriages, our businesses or the legal battles of certain
churches. God demands more. And the result of not understanding that is dire.
It is summed up in the idea of an inability to enter into a rest that we
desperately need. And that just might be the epitaph of our generation – they needed
rest, but they could not find it because they refused to hear the words of God –
their hearts were hardened against him.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hebrews
5
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