Hebrews 2:9-18 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Welcome Home Sunday Sunday, October 27, 2019 “Welcome Home”
As you well know by now, today is Welcome Home Sunday here at Grace. That invites us to ask the question: do you feel like you are at home when you are here? I would suspect that for many, the answer is yes. This is a comfortable place, where people welcome you and are happy to see you. You enjoy spending time here with the people that you see on a regular basis. In fact, for some who likely fit this description, many of the people that you see here are your actual family members and relatives. Church does feel like home. But one of the reasons that we would set aside a special Sunday and designate it Welcome Home Sunday is that there may be a number of people who do not feel that way. Some may be surprised to hear that church could or even should feel like home. You may feel like a stranger or that you are not wanted. You may have to overcome a level of fear or discomfort any time you make the trip to come here to church. If that description fits you, I am especially glad that you did join us today anyway. Of course, I am glad for the first group, too. I am glad for all who have come today because together we get to look at the truth of God’s Word and hear the encouragement that he gives us. And as we do that, we realize that the way we feel about this place is not really what makes it a home. This morning we get to say, “Welcome Home” to each other because God tells us something very special about this place. He tells us that this is where our brother promises to be, and that this is where our brothers and sisters are. Church is a place where we can be at home because God has made us a spiritual family. That spiritual family is based on one very special and unique brother. The first chapter of the book of Hebrews speaks in incredible terms about him. It calls him “heir of all things…the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of the divine nature” It reminds us that this one “sustains all things by his powerful word.” That same chapter talks about God’s angels worshiping him, his throne enduring forever, and the fact that he had laid the foundation of the world. There is no mistaking: this one is the eternal God, the almighty Creator. And that is what makes it so amazing that he is also our brother. It has been said that you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. In this case, the saying is not accurate. Jesus Christ, eternal God, chose to be our brother. He chose to make us his family. He was willing to humble himself in order to do this. Our reading from the second chapter of Hebrews describes how he “was made lower than the angels for a little while.” He came as a dumpster-diving God who left his perfect, sinless, heavenly home in order to live through and search through the filthy rubbish of this world in order to find you and me. He didn’t just visit this place. He didn’t spend a long weekend here. He spent some 33 years in a world that he had created perfect but which had been ruined by the very people he had created it for. And he did it so that he could lead many sons to glory. He did it so that he could live under the expectations of God the Creator that were too much for any people to fulfill. He did it so that he could perfectly obey his heavenly Father for us. He did it so that even in the sin-damaged, dark world, there could be light and love and forgiveness. He did it so that he could finally “taste death for everyone.” He did it so that all of our sins, all of our failures, all of our rebellion against God would be nailed to the cross with him and paid for by him. Yes, as the writer to the Hebrews announces, Jesus was “leading many sons to glory…through sufferings.” He was accomplishing amazing things for us. He was making us his very own family, perfect and forgiven in him. As the lessons puts it, “For he who sanctifies [that word means to make holy] and those who are being sanctified all have one Father. For that reason, he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” We are a part of the family of Jesus. We share a heavenly Father. He is not ashamed to call us his brothers and his sisters.
Not ashamed. There are many earthly families who at times are ashamed of their relatives. There are times that we might want to distance ourselves from others because of the things that they have done. But that is not how Jesus reacts to us as his brothers and sisters. If anyone ever had a reason to be ashamed, it was him. Our lives have been so completely filled with sin that he ought to be ashamed even to know us, much less be related to us. But in his love he is not. He made us his siblings and now he is willing to stand and proudly point at us as if we were Olympic champions on the podium and to say “that’s my brother. That’s my sister.” And today, and every time we gather here around his Word, he is with us. Just as surely as I am standing in front of you, just as surely as those who are sitting near you, Jesus is here. Our verses from Hebrews quote the words of the Savior from Psalm 22: “I will declare your name to my brothers. Within the congregation I will sing your praise.” Our brother Jesus, as we sing his praises, joins in singing praises to his heavenly Father. What better welcome home could we have? What better reason could there be to return again and again? And he is not here only to sing praises with us, but also to build us up to live for him. He was tempted and now works to help us when we are tempted. He accomplished our salvation and is now with us to see to it that we arrive safely at our heavenly home. He gives us his Word. He washes us in the waters of Holy Baptism and he feeds us with the bread and the wine, the body and blood of Holy Communion. Here, at home. While the presence of Jesus with us here is the greatest blessing of being welcomed home, he is not the only one we meet at church. There are other brothers and sisters here, brothers and sisters who, like us, have been forgiven and adopted into the family of God. All of the brothers mentioned in our lesson, the brothers and sisters that we have through faith, have this blessed relationship with Jesus in common. We have in common the opportunity when we gather to offer mutual encouragement and support to one another. This is a chance for all of us to welcome each other home. Today is also an opportunity for us to admit that we are sinners, and that in this area of welcoming each other home to church, we have had our failures. Just like our earthly homes can hold different experiences for us—some homes are happy and loving, and others are not. Just like that, some people don’t feel all that welcomed at a church home, and sometimes we as sinful people are less than welcoming. That is true of all the members, who are all sinners. It is true of the pastors, who are also sinners. It is true of the organization that is made up completely of sinful people. There are a few lessons that we need to take home from that admission. One: we don’t rely on ourselves to get it right, figure it out, and make this congregation into the most welcoming place that it could be. What we do is go to our brother, Jesus, and ask him for forgiveness for all the times we have failed to be as loving toward others as he has been toward us. Two: based on the forgiveness that he gives, we will strive to get better and better at welcoming people home to this congregation and especially at pointing them to their brother Jesus. And there is another lesson to keep in mind: we dare not let the failures and shortcomings of our brothers and sisters, our spiritual family here, keep us away from the place where we meet our brother Jesus in Word and sacrament. We ought not let our disappointment pull us away from those who could give us encouragement and support. Remember what our First Lesson said about a cord with three strands that is not easily broken? Remember how it described for us the blessing of mutual love and support and encouragement? And of course, that third strand is that Jesus is also a part of that relationship! That’s what we have here. Ours won’t be a perfect church. It won’t be a perfect home or a perfectly welcoming one. It can’t be that while it is made up of sinful people like each one of us. But it is and can be a place where we meet with our brother Jesus who has promised to be here. It is a place that we can meet with and encourage one another as brothers and sisters. And it is a place where we can learn about and be built up for the place when we will meet our brother face-to-face, our permanent home in heaven. Until he welcomes us home there, let’s welcome each other home here. Welcome home.
The Text: Hebrews 2:9-18 (EHV) 9 But
we look to Jesus (the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone), now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. 10 Certainly
it was fitting for God (the one for whom and through whom everything exists), in leading many sons to glory, to bring the author of their salvation to his goal through sufferings. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified all have one Father. For that reason, he is not ashamed to call them brothers. 12 He says: “I will declare your name to my brothers. Within the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again: “I will trust in him.” And again: “Here I am and the children God has given me.” 14 Therefore, since
the children share flesh and blood, he also shared the same flesh and blood, so that through death he could destroy the one who had the power of death (that is, the Devil) 15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. 16 For surely he was not concerned with helping angels but with helping Abraham’s offspring. 17 For this reason, he had to become like his brothers in every way, in order that he would be a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, so that he could pay for the sins of the people. 18 Indeed, because he suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.