One day a mother sent her daughter on an errand.  She asked her simply to go to the shop on the corner of the street and bring some milk.  She expected her to be back in five minutes.  But those five minutes turned in to ten, and then to fifteen, and the woman began to worry.  She was just about to go and look for her when the girl opened the front door and came in with the milk.  Well, you know how parents get when they think their kids are lost, and so she demanded an explanation.  The little girl said that on her way she had met a friend who was crying because she had broken her doll.  “Oh,” said the mother calming down a bit, “so you stopped to help her fix her doll?”  “No, the doll was too broken to be fixed” replied the little girl. “I stopped to help her cry.”  Let me hear you say ‘ahhh’.  A little bit sugary, but it makes a good point which is the thrust of this morning’s epistle reading.

In today’s portion from Hebrews the writer gives his Christian friends five instructions.  About half way through the reading he says “Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter God’s sanctuary … let us

1          approach God with a true heart and full assurance of faith

2          hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering

3          consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds

4          not neglect to meet together and

5          encourage one another

Now the first of those, approaching God confidently, was the subject of a sermon I preached last month.  The second – holding on to the Christian hope is a pretty good subject for the first Sunday of Advent, so that’s what I’ll preach about in two weeks, which leaves the other three instructions for this morning.  Consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, do not neglect to meet together, and encourage one another.  Three excellent pieces of advice for any church in any age, including us today.   Consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, do not neglect to meet together, and encourage one another. 

The first command grabs our attention because of one word that seems out of place.  Provoke one another to love and good deeds.  Provoke.  We usually think of provoking people as a negative thing, don’t we?  You can provoke a dog by poking him with a stick, you can provoke your neighbour’s  anger by blowing leaves from your yard into theirs, and you can provoke an argument by saying something inflammatory.  But provoke people to love and good works?   How do you do that?  How can you inspire someone to love and acts of kindness?  Well, probably the best way is to give them an example.  If you want someone to show love, then show them love first.  If you want someone to good things for others then do good things to them first.  That way they will be challenged to do likewise.  Peer pressure is often a dangerous thing.  The fear of being different makes people do all sorts of harmful things, like young people smoking because all their friends do it, or people turning a blind eye to stealing in the work place, because everyone else is ignoring it.  But peer pressure can be a good thing too.  If everyone around you is loving others then it makes it pretty hard to stand out as the unloving person.  And if everyone is doing acts of service for others then you feel a lot of pressure to get involved too, and not swim against the tide of service.  So if every member of a church were loving the other members it would inspire love even from the coldest of hearts.  If we do not show love to someone how can we expect them to show love?  And if we ourselves are not performing good works how can we demand that others do so?   So, says the writer, let’s provoke each other, stir each other up to love and to do acts of service.

In the UK there are many museums and tourist attractions that commemorate the gruesome history of the country.  And my kids used to love going to old castles and exhibitions and seeing ancient instruments of torture.  And some of these things were very imaginative.  Clearly there were some very creative minds spent devising evil ways of inflicting physical and mental pain on others.  Some of them were so imaginative that you were left wondering, how could a human being think this up?  What sick mind dreamed up this?  I remember one particular exhibit we saw in York of a stone pyramid about six feet high.  Someone had taken a lot of time and skill to chisel and craft this rock so that it was a perfect pyramid with steep sides, and a smooth surface, and blunt top.  Now the way it worked was this.  When the authorities had a suspect that they were trying to get a confession out of they would tie the man’s hands with a rope and use a pulley to raise him up about 4-5 feet directly above the pyramid.  And then, if he reused to talk they’d let go of the rope, and he’d fall onto the top of the pyramid.  And if this didn’t bring about a confession they’d do it again.  I don’t know why it wouldn’t bring about a confession.  I’d confess to every unsolved crime in history if they threatened to do that to me.  I’d confess to shooting President Kennedy.  What sick imagination came up with that?   But of course the human imagination can dream up wonderful and creative ways of showing love too.  And when the writer says ‘consider how we can provoke one another to love and good works he’s using the same idea.  Use that wonderful imagination that God gave every human being to dream up ways in which you can bless members of the church.  A card, a little gift, a few weeks someone made me a pair of socks, someone had the creative idea to send parcels to our students, we can all give a word of encouragement to another church member if we just think about it.  Use that imagination to love and serve each other.

The second instruction is ‘do not neglect to meet together’.  One of the strongest and common beliefs in our society is the belief in our own individual power to live a happy and successful life.  It’s the thing we tell ourselves, ‘I can do this on my own.  I don’t need help.  I’m the master of my own destiny, and I can manage just fine.’  Now, of course, having a healthy sense of our own abilities is important.  We need to be confident in the gifts that God has given us.  But when it comes to living lives that are content and are pleasing to God we can’t do it on our own.  We need other people.  We need other Christians to encourage us, advise us, pray for us, sometimes even hold us accountable.  The vast majority of the population would describe themselves as Christians, yet millions of them don’t go to a church of any kind.  And that is a shame because they’re missing out on the love, prayers, and support of other Christians.  They are not learning the things that we can only learn together, like how to be a loving, caring family despite our differences.  You can’t learn that anywhere else.  We need the nurture we receive from the sacrament and the Scriptures, we need to share with other Christians and receive prayer, and we need to give that support as well as receive it.

We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.  The person in the next pew to us is our brother or sister. We have a responsibility to him or her. We are joined together in Christ’s body, we are fellow living stones in God’s temple, and we are bound together by ties of love that transcend normal friendships. We are called to be committed to each other - to pray for each other, to look out for one another’s interests. 

And that leads into the third instruction: ‘encourage one another’.  You see, it’s tough out there.  Living faithfully for Christ is hard.  The structures of society are set up to make it hard for us.  Our world runs on ideas that go against our deepest instincts as Christians – happiness can be purchased, you’re only as lovable as your looks or your youth, you’re only worth as much as you can earn, if someone hurts you fight back, you need money to feel secure.  These are the messages that bombard us every day.  Now, unless we’re daily reminding ourselves of the truth – that God loves us, that he loves the world, that he has a wonderful life for us that doesn’t depend on material things, then we can quickly have our faith and joy eroded.  And the best ways to bolster your faith and receive the support we need is by being part of a group of other Christians who will encourage you and remind you of the truth when all around us preaches the opposite.  We need the world of encouragement, and we need to give it.  Because unless we give of ourselves, we are not being truly human.  Someone named William Ward said, “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you.”

Encouragement is so important. The word of support, the hand on the shoulder, the simple message that lifts you inside and spurs you on to greater things. We all need those things and without them it is easy to doubt yourself, to doubt God and to fail in our Christian walk. The Duke of Wellington, the military leader who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, was not an easy man to serve under. He was brilliant, demanding, and not one to shower his subordinates with compliments. Yet even Wellington realized that his methods left something to be desired. In his old age someone asked him what, if anything, he would do differently if he had his life to live over again. Wellington thought for a moment, then replied. "I'd give more praise".

Let’s get practical.  Here are a few suggestions for how we can encourage others at St John’s:

·         If you see someone doing a good job, tell them. If you think the readers today did well, then tell them so. If you enjoy whatever’s being served at coffee hour (as you surely will) then tell those who provided the food. Tell the Sunday School teachers that you really appreciate their unselfish work on Sunday mornings.  Thank the alter guild for setting up the Holy Table.

·         If there’s someone here this morning that you appreciate then tell them. How encouraging is it to hear someone say, ‘I thank God for you, and really appreciate who you are.’  What happens when you receive and unexpected email or a card saying that someone appreciated you or thanked you something you did?  Well, if you’re like me it makes you want to do it again.  If someone tells me that they gained something from a sermon then it makes me want to come back next week and see if I can do it again.  Understand I’m not fishing for compliments, I’m just using myself as an example of what I think it’s like to be human.  When people encourage us it makes us what to get up and get stuck in.

·         If you sense that someone in the church is struggling in some way, then find a way to show them your love and support.  This doesn’t mean that you’ll smother them with attention or that you will cross their boundaries without being invited to do so. But it might mean a smile, a card, a word of comfort, an email. It might mean asking them how they are and then stopping and actually listening to the answer.

So this morning we have three instructions that together give us an important reminder of our duty as Christians and as members of St John’s.  Consider how to provoke one another to love and good works; do not neglect to meet together; and encourage one another.