David Bahn – Reflections

Hebrews 13:7-8

⁷ Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 

Mr. Cook was my fourth or fifth grade Sunday School teacher. He was there every Sunday corralling a group of sweaty 10 year old boys in his class. His hands were hard and calloused. His speech was not the model of the Queen’s English which would mark him as highly educated. I don’t remember anything specific that he said. But of all my Sunday School teachers from my years at First Baptist Church, I remember him best. He was simply, powerfully, and faithfully present.

Mr. Cook was a leader. Now fifty years later he is one of the people I still most easily remember. I know little of the outcome of his way of life other than that he touched me profoundly. I realize today that I am imitating his faith in this: he gave what he had. He was real. He didn’t put on airs. He served Christ. If people would say that of me it would be enough; that is a life and faith worth imitating.

Sometimes we think of growing in our Christian faith and discipleship as primarily that of gaining further information. Indeed there are twelve chapters of deep and important theological truths leading up to this verse in Hebrews. Certainly there is a body of knowledge upon which we build our lives as followers of Jesus. I have often quoted a line in the movie Martin Luther Heretic, where the Staupitz advises Luther to “Eat more food. Get more sleep. Learn more about God.” Great advise to a man who was devoted to following his false notion of who God is.

But we who know Jesus Christ for who he really is move forward in our life of discipleship as we embrace this three-fold calling: remember, consider, imitate. Christian discipleship is about learning who Christ is and imitating those who obviously are following him. I hope you have a man or woman like Mr. Cook who you remember as a leader and whose faith you imitate. That’s not a matter of artificial, cheap fakery. It is a matter of realizing that there are those who really do live out their faith whose lives are worthy of emulating. For those leaders we thank our God.

Hebrews 13:1-16

Let brotherly love continue. ² Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. ³ Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. ⁴ Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. ⁵ Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ⁶ So we can confidently say,

⁷ Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. ⁹ Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. ¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. ¹¹ For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. ¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.¹³ Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. ¹⁴ For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. ¹⁵ Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. ¹⁶ Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.