The Hope of One Another as a Reclamation of Wonder

A Call to Persevere

¹⁹ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:19-25

Over the past number of weeks my church has been in a series called “one another.” The premise is simple: the phrase “one another” runs through the entire body of the scriptures, being one of the most oft repeated phrases in the canon. So much so that it feels necessary to say, this emphasis on how we relate to one another and how the Gospel is transforming the one anothers running throughout the pages of the scriptures (and forming the world behind the text) indicates the aim the Gospel. Just as, which I uncovered in my recent studies of James’ letter, the culmination of this letter is found in the phrase “pray for one another,” the overarching aim of the Judeo-Christian Tradition is that two-fold phrasing: in Christ we are a transformed body, therefore live as a transformed people. The way to do so is the “one another” of our participation in the Gospel of Christ.

What holds it all together of course is Love itself. This interconnected phrasing to love God, and love one another, which are so tightly intertwined that we cannot pull them apart without losing the whole. The qualities of this Love, which is a qualitative source, not an action, a gift not an accomplishment, are what reveal the nature of God, humanity and creation. In other words: the Gospel is revealed through particpation in the reality the Gospel brings about.

This morning brought us to the simple call to “encourage one another.” And yet, as our pastor pointed out, we don’t have to look far to see that a simple idea has deep roots. Starting with the opening argument: the underlying reason to take this seriously is, as the letter states, “since we have confidence.” Confidence in what? in the Gospel. Or more precisely, the accomplishment the Gospel proclaims. Meaning, the audience of Hebrews is assumed to have good reason for this confidence. This is assumed in the backdrop of the letter’s context.

There is a second assumption at play here as well, and that is the idea that the audience of the letter to the Hebrews was needing change in their given circumstance, and this change is what the Gospel affords. Without needing to dive into what that circumstance is (rooted as it is in the world of second temple Judaism), what can be said is, since they have good reason to believe the Gospel, the invitation that follows is in fact the life of participation. The “change” has removed a barrier to this end. It has made a new way, a fresh path.

As my pastor parsed out, what drives the structure of this passage is the “let us” statements that follow this invitation to participate in this new reality brough about by Jesus.

Let us approach

Let us hold fast

Let us consider

It can be said that the point is found in the final “let us” invitation: let us consider “how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” My pastor fleshed out this word provoke, which despite having a narrowed definition in modern language nevertheless retains this dual nature in being both positive and negative, sometimes one or the other and often both at the same time. Which is precisely the point of the call to “consider” how we engage in such provocation. How we engage this in relationship to “one another” can lead in different directions, one which is destructive, the other which transforms.

But, it’s also important not to miss this: the provocation is nevertheless seen to be a necessary thing. Here my pastor pointed out another word association in the Greek which can be helpful, a word that can also translate the phrase “consider how to provoke” as “beholding.” Which is to suggest, the sort of provocation this has in mind is an act of seeing, an act of knowing. This is what brings about love. Which gives a whole new force to why it matters to the author of Hebrews that provocation only happens when we “meet together.” This is where the call to encouragment takes it’s shape and is given it’s potential.

But of course, the pattern is equally necessary to uphold. Without approaching we cannot come to see the other, and without holding fast we do not have confidence in our reasons to approach. In the context of Hebrews, it imagines a space where all that is seen is the hopelessnes of a world that has not been transformed. That this hope flows from the transformation of one figure in the middle of history is the thing that invites them to see the world through a different lens. one in which we are handed a resurrected imagination, one that can reenchant the world and fill it with a renewed wonder. A wonder that produces hope. This then becomes the interconnected force of this argument. If we are not participating in transformed communities, the one another of it all, we lose sight of the Gospel. At the same time, it is the Gospel that moves us into the one another of it all. This is, indeed, how community works and why they matter.

I am reminded here of a citation from Brian Zahnd’s newest book, Unseen Existences, where he speaks of the wonder of this resurrected imagination in the following way:

“To cease to wonder is to fall plumb-down from the childlike to the commonplace- the most undivine of all moods intellectual. Our nature can never be at home among things that are not wonderful to us.”

• George MacDonald

“We have the fact, let us seek the mystery.”

• Saint Augustine

“In the pilgrimage of the soul toward the homeland where we’ve never been, wonder is one of our most reliable way markers.”

• Brian Zahnd, Unseen Existences