With the exception of last week, we have been exploring the Letter of Hebrews. It is unfortunate that time doesn’t permit us to go back and read the chapters leading up to today’s lesson. If we did, you would notice how strange chapter 13 is. It is strange because Hebrews is a deeply theological work. William Johnson has suggested that it is a series of "betters." Jesus is the better revelation of God, the better name, the better leader, the better priest, the better sacrifice leading us to a better country and a better city. It builds, rising higher and higher as it goes.

But then we come to Chapter 13, and all of a sudden the style changes. The soaring rhetoric of the previous chapters cease and what one commentator calls "a shopping list" begins:

So different is the style that some scholars have argued--unsuccessfully--that this chapter wasn’t even written by the same hand.

Yet I don’t think we need to view this chapter as somehow odd or different or of a lesser quality that the rest. What we need to see is that in this chapter the writer answers the question every good preacher has to answer. That is "So what?"

"Yes, Jesus is the better revelation, name, leader, priest, sacrifice and so on, but ‘so what?’ What difference does it make?"

Here in this chapter the author moves out of abstract theology and into application. He tells us what difference believing in Jesus makes in the way we live. He does so by running down five quick traits that mark the Christian life. So what are they?

The first is love. "Let mutual love continue," the author says.

There is a church in California--San Francisco, I believe. It is a relatively new congregation--meeting in an old bar. Yet this congregation has developed a reputation for ministry to Baby Buster or Survivors, the 20-something generation.

The pastor was asked what had been the key to the church’s effectiveness. He said one was a personal transformation. He said that for many years he had been consumed by the issue of truth. He wanted to make sure that everyone "believed rightly." Then he noticed what Jesus commanded was not truth but love. "Jesus said, ‘Love one another.’ Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbor.’ Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies.’ Once we started focusing on loving one another rather than correcting one another, we became a community that people wanted to join."

Love is the clearest manifestation of the the faith. It is the very heart of who we are to be as a people. And yet, how often has that simple truth escaped us. At the General Assembly I witnessed both ends of the theological spectrum--liberals and conservatives--put their "orthodoxy" above loving. Outside the convention center members of a Baptist Church carried signs preaching hate against those in the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ who are gay. Inside the convention center, many Disciples spoke of and treated evangelicals with disdain. Both seem to have

forgotten that loving one another is at the heart of the faith.

If mutual love is what we offer to one another, then the second characteristic is what we offer others. That is hospitality. The author of Hebrews says that the people of God are people of open arms, welcoming others as we have been welcomed.

In Thomas Long’s commentary on Hebrews, he says he finds great comfort in the fact that one of the most theologically elaborate works in the New Testament comes down to the dinner table. He says, "It is almost as if the Preacher had said, ‘Because Jesus Christ, the first-born of all time, the heir of all things, is the great high priest who offered a perfect and lasting sacrifice and now sits at the right hand of God, ... polish the silver and set the table for company."

Recently a colleague told me he had designed his whole evangelism program around this call to welcome the stranger. He said he began to ask his congregations questions like:

If we would do such in our homes, how much more important is it for the people gathered in the house of God to welcome the stranger, to extend open arms to them as children of God, to be hospitable people.

There is a third characteristic of the Christian that the author of Hebrews identifies. It is empathy.

"Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them," he writes. "Remember those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured."

Notice his language. This is not a call for some disengaged, benign, toss-a-dollar-in-the-plate to help the hurting response. Because Jesus entered the world so fully that he could sympathized with our weakness, so too are we take the pain of others personally. We are to walk in the shoes of others, particularly those brothers and sisters who have been wounded for the faith.

Three years ago, The Oregonian, the newspaper in Portland, ran a five-part series on the persecution of Christians. The stories they told were frightening.

What was reported three years ago continues today. Some estimates suggest that there are three dozen nations in which Christians are being persecuted for following Jesus Christ. Yet rarely do we even hear of such abuse. Even more rarely do we pray for or express our concern for them. Yet the author of Hebrews reminds us that we cannot ignore the pain of others Christians. If any part of the body of Christ is hurting, we are to feel that pain. Such is the call to empathy.

Or consider another characteristic of the Christian life.

Clinton, Condit, Crowe, Bakker, Swaggart--all men who have been quite accomplished in their fields, yet whose lives and reputations have been marred by the failure of one Christian virtue--that is marital fidelity.

The author of Hebrews urges the hearers of his letter to honor marriage and to keep the marriage bed undefiled.

At the time Hebrews was written, marital fidelity was not a prime virtue. In fact, the Judeo-Christian notion of faithfulness in marriage was an extreme minority view. The pagan culture took its identity from a pantheon of lustful, impetuous gods. Worship of them frequently meant visits to cultic prostitutes. Even the idea of marital faithfulness was derided.

And while temple prostitution has long since vanished, the challenge to fidelity remains. Marriage has been devalue in much of our culture. Sex without commitment is sold in ads, on TV and in movies. Even social science researchers have gotten into the act. A few years ago, Time magazine ran an article from researchers who argued that marital fidelity was unnatural, that evolutionary biology suggested fidelity was counterproductive for the human animal.

Maybe they are right, but for Christian marital faithfulness remains an important virtue--not because it is noble in-and-of-itself but because it is consistent with what Christ has done. Earlier in Hebrews, the author used the language of purification. He said that Christ the great high priest had purified our hearts and bodies. That language returns here. To defile the marriage bed, to dishonor one’s vows, is to defile what Christ has purified. It is to mar that which Christ has made holy. It is inconsistent with the saving work of Christ.

Finally, the author of Hebrews says that Christian’s life is to be marked by contentment.

Much has been made of the rampant consumerism of our age. The passion for bigger homes, better cars, more toys has been well-documented. Greed has been the subject of more than a few sermons and even a handful of films. Yet the author of Hebrews recognizes that greed is not the disease but the symptom. It points to a deeper problem--the fear of being abandoned.

The author of Hebrews suggests that the people of God need not have such fears. We can be content with life because God will not abandon us. "I will not leave you or forsake you," God has promised. And as the Psalmist noted:

The Lord is my helper;

I will not be afraid.

What can anyone do to me?

Because of our confidence in God’s care, we can be content with what we have and reject the assumption that our worth or our future consists of what we possess.

I don’t know anyone who understood that better than Jimmy Godman. Jimmy was a tobacco farmer. If you know anything about tobacco, you know it was, for a long time, quite profitable, but for the last number of years some of its value has been diminished. Throw in the occasional drought or flood, and it can be hard just to break even growing tobacco. Yet despite the ups and downs of his finances, Jimmy seemed always at peace, always content with what he had. Even at the supper table, no matter what was spread upon it, you were likely to hear Jimmy say: "The rich folk won’t do any better than this tonight." And he meant it. For Jimmy, God was in heaven and all was right with the world. That is contentment.

Love. Hospitality. Empathy. Fidelity. Contentment.

Certainly those are not the only characteristics of the Christian life. Any one of us could probably identify others we would want to add. But all in all, the list the author of Hebrews gives us isn’t a bad list by which to measure our lives. Nor is it a bad standard for which to strive in response to the grace of God.