R is for Relapse

SCK: What struck me in your conversation with our Australian Crossers is how much their struggle to be Christian nowadays resembles our struggle in this country. And the more you unpacked the Hebrews text, the more our struggle today -- Australians' and Americans' -- resembles that of the New Testament "Hebrews," also in sheer seriousness.

MCH: Actually, we don't know much about the social life and circumstances of the "Hebrews" themselves. What we do know from this text is that they were sorely tempted to give up on their distinctive Christian identity, so strong was the pull to conform to their old culture. Really, the "Hebrews" were giving up their struggle for the faith. They were in danger of relapse, of falling back into the old ways of the world from which they came.

SCK: Why was that? Were they under persecution?

MCH: Not directly, although it does seem that some of the "Hebrews" did, in the initial days of the congregation, suffer outright persecution and imprisonment for the faith. (13:3) On the whole, they seem to be pretty typical citizens of their community. In that respect their social setting is much like ours. The challenge, in general, seems to be the daily routine of living the Christian life, rather than any outright persecution. Besides, there is the challenge of that extra discipline that being a Christian placed upon them, as it does all Christians. As one commentator (Robert Smith) put it: "They are tired -- tired of serving the world, tired of worship, tired of Christian education, tired of being peculiar and whispered about in society, tired of spiritual struggle, tired of trying to keep their prayer life going, tired even of Jesus. Their hands droop and their knees are weak (12:12), attendance is down at church (10:25), and they are losing confidence. The threat to this congregation [like so many today in America and Australia] is not that they are charging off in the wrong direction; they do not have enough energy to charge off anywhere."

SCK: This "extra discipline" seems especially foolish in cultures which, on the surface, seem to be pretty good -- cultures like that of the "Hebrews'" and, perhaps, our own American and Australian cultures.

		MCH: If there is one truth about being a Christian, it is this: There is and always will be, this side of the grave, struggle. We call it the "way of the cross." It is a struggle between what is "new" (emerging in Christ) and what is "old" (passe, passing away in Christ). Thomas Long recalls a humorous illustration of this struggle. "According to the old tale, on the wall of a city phone booth was plastered a sticker that read, 'If you are tired of sin, read John 3:16.' Below this was scribbled a hand written note: 'If you are not tired of sin, call 555-1176.' The Hebrews' congregation is tired all right, but they are not exactly tired of sin. And it is not precisely accurate to say that they are tired of sainthood, either. What they are tired of is the struggle between the two, the constant warfare that trying to be faithful entails."
Hebrews 12

SCK: That's what the writer of Hebrews calls "discipline," the "struggle against sin" (12:4), that daily process of dying to sin and rising to Christ whereby we "share [Christ's] holiness." (12:10)

MCH: That's right, yet the struggle is not just against sin in general but against our own sin. And its not simply our struggle, as though we are the primary doers. It's the struggle of Christ within us, the evidence of which is our faith and our suffering.

But to compound matters, in our postmodern world there is abhorrence to any kind of discipline. That makes this Hebrews text difficult for us to hear. For example, when I shared this text with my family at one of our devotions, there was a strange silence. Then my teenage son said sarcastically, "Gee, Dad, that's a real cheery text." What he heard was all the talk about a parent disciplining his child -- although I never really thought that he has been chastised too much under my parenting. Then my wife chimed in and pointed out that in our culture the idea of discipline can come off sounding like a sanction for abuse. And, of course, she is right. The problem of child abuse and the oppression of women and minorities in the name of discipline does rightly call us to be on our guard against that danger. But abuse and oppression are not what the writer to the Hebrews has in mind. Hebrews is challenging Christians to take seriously their struggle against sin, especially when that struggle calls them to stand up for the abused and the oppressed and in a way that costs them financially, socially, intellectually, emotionally or politically, which inevitably it is bound to do.

SCK: Your son's response is hardly unusual, especially nowadays. It reflects that deep-seated inclination to overlook our own need of discipline. Accordingly, we tend to see our disciplinarians as illegitimate, and to treat them with resentment and contempt -- if not outwardly, then at least, inwardly, that is, in our hearts. This kind of antinomianism is becoming more and more typical of today's wider culture. Teenagers are probably just more outspoken about it.

Hoy and Kuhl They sure don't look "disciplined"

MCH: True. Yet I see signs of this same antinomian religion also in today's church. In our own late-twentieth century parishes, at least in America, there is often the cry for something "new," something exciting, something fun, in contrast to a message that lifts up the call to "struggle against sin." Even the clergy get caught up in being crowd pleasers, especially when contributions are at stake. I take this to be a subtle way of stripping the cross out of Christian practice. Take, for example, the so- called "worship wars." Some contend that in order to "convert" the world we must adopt more worldly standards for liturgy, especially the world's antinomian spirit. Others, often more worried about abandoning the historic practices (sometimes for stilted and legalistic reasons), argue for a closer preservation of the tradition. While I will not elaborate on this battle here, the best line I have heard (admittedly from the side of a traditionalist) is "who is converting whom?" That question deserves more careful inspection in the midst of the problem facing the "Hebrews" and us. In the midst of the struggle for Christian identity, there is a pressure to give up our Christian identity -- the way of the cross.

SCK: On the other hand, your wife's response picks up on something sound in our culture which we do need to hear -- and which tallies with an accent in our Hebrews text. She raises the issue of legitimacy, which has become an issue for us post-moderns but was also an issue in the New Testament. Your wife obviously was not discounting discipline out of hand. But she was throwing the onus back onto the "disciplinarians," questioning their motives and trustworthiness, their intentions and qualifications. Parents -- and all authorities for that matter -- especially feel the pinch of this critique today. This "legitimation crisis" seems to me to be closer to the issue which The Letter to the Hebrews is addressing.

The deeper issue, in other words, is that of faith. Which disciplinarian could they trust? Which disciplinarian really has their -- our -- best interests at heart: Moses or Jesus, the way of the cross or the way of the Levitical law (their old familiar Jewish culture)? The "Hebrews" were not just weary and tired of the struggle. They were becoming unsure of Jesus. They were questioning whether or not trusting Christ and his way of the cross was really all it was cracked up to be as the way to holiness (1:15, 16; 2:5; 3:1; 7:26) and perfection (6:1; 7:11, 19; 10:14), as the way that really pleased God (10:6, 8, 38; 11:5-6; 13:16, 21).

Thus they were guilty not only of antinomianism (lawlessness) but legalism (enforceable law) as well. Really, the one is just the flip side of the other. They wanted a scaled-down way of life, a do-able "discipline," a cultural religion, one they could manage given their middle-class, Levitical resources. By scaling down the law of God to cultural expectations they could at least have the appearance of holiness. And isn't that precisely the temptation of the American and Australian churches? Aren't we, too, tempted to exchange Jesus, not of course for Levitical culture but for its present-day equivalent, post-modern, capitalist culture? Isn't that the substitute "disciplinarian" in which we are tempted to place our faith, rather than in Jesus and his struggle?

MCH: That is precisely our temptation, or more truthfully, our illusion. Culture, whether Levitical or post-modern capitalist, harbors but a "shadow" of what God means by righteousness, holiness, and perfection. (10:1) That's not to say that culture is evil but that it is limited, both in terms of expressing and fulfilling what God demands. It cannot save. But the deeper truth, which signals the "eternal problem," is that our doubts about Jesus' legitimacy as the "pioneer of [our] salvation" (2:10) will actually boomerang on us. Not Jesus or God, but we will be the ones who are deemed "illegitimate and not his children." (12:8) Then, we are not only outside the discipline of the cross, but outside the household of God. (3:6)

SCK: As the stepfather of a difficult child, (Joshua has Aspergers Syndrome, a condition that hinders him from picking up social cues, that is, self-disciplinary cues) I know something of this phenomenon, especially how delicate it can be. Actually, I learned it from my wife. As loving parents we know that we must discipline Joshua (even if that strains our relationship for the short run) precisely so as not to lose him in the long run. And what all might we lose him to? As my wife points out, not simply to the forces of evil -- the peer pressures and temptations that diminish life -- though that too. But even more, her greater fear is that we would lose him to the wrath of the state. What if he so dismisses our discipline that he ends up in jail? That would be equivalent to deeming him an illegitimate son: no longer someone in our house nor under our discipline. This is precisely what all is at stake when the writer to the "Hebrews" warns them against "losing heart." (12:5) Not to be under the "discipline of the Lord" is to be subject to the anger of God. (3:9-13) Illegitimacy is the eternal danger in spiritual lethargy -- for the Hebrews then and for us now.