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Growing up, I remember someone at church at one point, some lay leader, saying that not everyone that comes to church is a believer. Some just come to make specific types of connections, like they were on the golf course or at a business lunch. For these people it wasn’t about God but what they could gain from others.
I was probably in late middle school/early high school at the time. To be honest, in my youthful and loving naïveté, I could not believe this. I did not see how or why anyone would come to church not believing in our Lord Jesus.
It took some time, though I have come to see that this mysterious lay leader, whose identity I have completely forgotten, was correct. Maybe, in hearing this story, you can see the wisdom in these words too.
This isn’t to say that connecting with others isn’t important, and doing so certainly doesn’t have to be about financial gain. We are social creatures. We crave being with others, even the introverts among us. We need to be in community.
But the “social club” aspects of church aren’t what we are all about. It’s not what we are called to do. The church, at the end of the day, has as the core it’s purpose bringing us closer to God. Everything else has to stem from that.
Each of our readings shouts out this truth to us. Jeremiah is calling us not just to think about God or following the right path. Jeremiah’s hope is that God will “write” the Law “on their hearts.” Even further, Jeremiah’s hope is that we won’t have to “teach one another” or even say “Know the Lord” because we will know God. God’s presence will be such a part of our lives that we won’t have any idea what it is to be without our Lord.
Everything Jesus does is to deepen this relationship, this connection with the Father. In our Gospel today, Jesus speaks and the Father responds in a voice coming from Heaven. Jesus tells those around Him that they haven’t heard this voice for His sake, but for theirs. This voice is intended so that the others around Jesus might believe and come closer to the Lord.
This is the same reason Jesus is getting ready to die. As He tells His Disciples, if “a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies” “it bears much fruit.” That fruit will be Jesus drawing us all closer to God when He is lifted up on the Cross.
Jesus is able to do this through His death because of His role as a priest “in the order of Melchizedek”, which Hebrews lays out for us. Now Melchizedek gets mentioned a fair amount in Scripture, though he himself appears just once in Genesis. We are told he serves as both a priest and a king, and it is clear from his interaction with Abraham that he serves the Lord and does so well enough that Abraham respects him and gives him a tenth of his goods.
Being a priest in the order of Melchizedek speaks to Jesus’ role as both priest and king, as Hebrews lays out beyond just our reading today. It speaks to the sacrifice Jesus makes, even the sacrifice of Himself. It also speaks to His role as the Messiah. But it’s more than that. Jesus is a king not just because He is the Messiah. Jesus is a king because He is God the Son, the form of God come down to be a fellow human being with us.
Priests, in the Tanakh, the Old Testament, are stand-ins representing the people to God and God to the people. That’s the role we still have. Jesus, though, doesn’t have to be a stand-in at all. As fully-God and fully-Man, when we speak to Him, we are speaking to God directly, and when Jesus speaks to us we are hearing straight from the mouth of God, from “the Word made flesh” even.
Even our Psalm calls us back to God. Our Psalm today depicts David’s personal coming to repentance. He even asks God not to “cast” him from God’s “presence”. David’s hope is that he will remain connected to God and repair the tear in their relationship.
The goal and role of the church is to bring people closer to God. That is what we hear in our lessons today. That is what Jesus is trying to do for us.
When we come here, the point isn’t just to connect with one another from a social aspect. The point is to deepen our relationship with God. If we aren’t doing that, we aren’t being the church. If we aren’t helping you know our Lord better, then there’s no point in our being here.
It’s not that coming together as community isn’t important, but we have to ask “what centers us as a community?” The point of our gathering is to deepen our connection to God. That is true not just for ourselves individually, but for all of us together. As you gather, remember why we are here. Try to be a means and a tool for God to use to deepen God’s relationship with each and every one of us present in this place.