Some people are confident—we kind of admire them.  Some are over-confident.  Confidence isn’t a bad thing—quite good, actually.  We need confidence daily, even when we don’t think about it, as when we’re driving.  We become confident drivers with experience, practice.  We won’t become confident if we don’t act.  Confidence requires us to do something.  We’ll never have confidence in the blood of Jesus if we don’t practice that confidence.  That doesn’t mean we live to sin boldly that grace may abound.  Our journey is slow, difficult.  We have a knack for getting into ruts and rough patches.  We turn off to the right hand and to the left; sometimes we see it coming for miles ahead; other times we suddenly lurch off into the brambles.  Confidence in Christ means, when we stumble again, we keep getting up, back onto the way, keep walking forward.

The preacher of Hebrews encourages us, implores us, to practice that confidence and thereby draw near to God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of                     Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a                   great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance             that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies             washed with pure water.  (10:19-22)

That was all just one sentence—yes, with many parts!  That’s a lot to take in.  Let’s focus for a moment on the main thing: draw near, do draw near, don’t be afraid to draw near.  Come!

The preacher of Hebrews packs a lot into each sentence.  Although sin can keep people from going to God, it’s not sin that keeps us from going to God.  If anything keeps us from going to God, it is the fear that God doesn’t want us, that we aren’t good enough, clean enough yet to draw near.  I mean, we welcomed Jesus and all, and then . . . It’s that guilty conscience—more accurately, it’s the Enemy using our guilty conscience against us.  It is God who first and always draws near to us, knowing us through and through, fully, seeing all we have done, for good and ill, to others and to ourselves.  The bread and the juice upon this table are for us always reminders that it is God who comes to us, offers Himself for us, and asks us to receive Him.  I am here, He says.  Please let me in.  A real, true, and perfect sacrifice was made on our behalf.  We don’t make ourselves fit for God.  God makes us fit for Himself by the blood.  God comes to us in the body; the way to God is open now for us through Christ’s body.  Let the Sacraments and especially the Lord’s Supper be for us reminders.  Invitation, love, confidence—this is grace, to the praise of God’s glory.  Come!

Christ is our confidence, the blood of Christ.  We go boldly, in faith, because of faith.  Yes, Christ’s divinity was hidden in flesh; the divinity shone forth many times in many ways: in teaching for blessing, for salvation, in healing, helping, visiting, calling, praying.  All this divinity in action prepared the way to make the way open.  The preacher reminds us that it was Christ’s self-offering, his sacrifice, that opened the way prepared through the teaching, the healing, the foretelling.  Without the sacrifice for us, the teaching, healing, and foretelling remain a dead end.  Christ’s life is not for this life only.

The way between us and God is open, clear, through the ministry of Jesus.  This is God’s will, God’s plan.  There is no obstacle, not even our sin: God removes that for us in Christ.  The only thing now that could keep us from availing ourselves of God’s openness to us, the only thing, at heart, is a lack of desire to go to God, a lack of interest, perhaps a lack of conviction that it matters or makes any difference.  And God overcomes that, also, in those He has selected for salvation.

We’ve heard much about blood over these past Sundays.  We have heard much about Jesus as our priest, our great high priest, now in heaven, continuing his priestly service.  Confidence.  We have an Advocate, a friend, a brother at the judgment seat, at the throne of mercy.  Indeed, he is on the mercy throne.  Christ prays that God would continue to provide us with all we need to make our journey, together, with God, through this wilderness.  Christ prays that God would give us strength, wisdom, truth, light, grace, hope, faith, and love, for one another and above all for God.  The Father does not refuse to give what the Son asks.  The Son does not ask for himself; he has all he needs and knows it.  The Son asks for us, his friends, his new brothers and sisters in the covenant family.

“[L]et us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (10:22).  A sincere heart, fully trusting God.  If God promises to save us, let us trust God and His promise.  A less than sincere heart does not fully trust God.  Perhaps it is a sadly divided heart, fearful, angry, a disbelieving heart.  Surely there’s more to it!  Surely God doesn’t do everything for us!  Surely there must be something for us to do!  Surely there’s a catch!  We bring doubt, hurt, roughed up histories.  God gives faith.  Apart from God-given faith, we won’t trust.  Apart from God-given faith, we cannot have a sincere heart, a trusting heart.  It is God-given faith that causes the heart to be sincere, God-given faith that causes trust.  It is God who causes faith.  Left and right, low and high, before and behind, God.  But what about choice?  We could not choose God, until God chose us in Christ.  What about will?  Whatever will we have for God is God’s will for us.  Human brokenness is such that, apart from the grace of God, we do not, will not, and cannot will ourselves towards God.  Shall we then condemn God for being pleased to save us?

The preacher does not order us to cleanse ourselves before we even think about going before God, as the Jewish priests were required to do.  We are told it is God Himself, in Christ, through the Spirit, who sprinkles us, washes our hearts, “to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.”  A guilty conscience is not a false conscience, as those who wander this earth in their preferred fantasy and fiction: the controlling lies that enable their ongoing indulgence of the sin that rules them.  A guilty conscience is the conviction that you deserve judgment, know your guilt and that you are indeed guilty.  The guilty conscience, without hope, awaits the verdict and execution of the sentence.

The guilty conscience does not see life and has no hope: doom and condemnation are all such a conscience can see.  If you were raised Catholic, I think you have a good idea what I’m talking about.  Christ removes the guilty conscience: it’s nailed to the cross and washed away in Christ’s blood freely offered for us; his blood sets us free.  The sprinkling and cleansing that happened in the Temple in Jerusalem was not only sprinkling and washing with water, there was also blood.  It was the blood that purified.  In Christ, God has sprinkled our guilty conscience with atoning blood, and in His sight we are cleansed.  We do not yet fully live our cleansed life in Christ; we cannot fully do so, yet.  We do not let such sorrow dishearten us.  We must not let ourselves become discouraged, no matter what life throws at us.  God has pledged Himself to save us, raise us, change us.  He does not change His mind or go back on His promise; He does not later renegotiate the terms because of our failures, or successes.  He is saving, raising, and changing us according to His plans and His timetable, His way.

We must learn to love the Lord.  “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (10:23).  We must learn how to hold on for dear life to the hope we have in Jesus.  We must continue to learn the fullness of this hope: breadth and depth, height and length.  We must learn what faith is and, to do that, we must practice the faith we have been given: confidence.  Jesus tells us that faith even as much as a mustard seed can do great, beautiful, inspiring, mighty things.  No, neither you nor I have commanded any mountain out of the way, but we each have what feel like huge obstacles in our lives that we are working on, and also some that we’ve sort of given up working on because they seem so huge, so fixed, so impossible.  Faith, beloved: confidence.  Let us continue to learn faith as we practice faith.  And let us learn to love the Lord who gives faith, who makes a promise and gives us His Word.  We must continue to learn, to remind one another, blessedly, that “he who promised is faithful.”  God will do it.

This table is here so that we may continue to learn faith as we practice faith.  We practice faith as we receive the Word, as, through the ministry of the Spirit, we make the Word the foundation of our life, the material with which we are building our lives, each day.  Bread and cup, body and blood—life for life.  Grace for living.

We receive and encourage one another, we continue this journey of upbuilding unto Christ together because the Spirit is with us, prompting and guiding us in all this ministry.  So, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (10:24).  What is love without good deeds, without God deeds?  Love works, beloved.  Let us also remember that good deeds, without God, are no good.  If God isn’t guiding our actions, our choices, you can be sure that something other than God is.  Let us then strive for more love, more love blossoming in good deeds, good deeds bearing the fruit the Spirit has prepared beforehand.  Let us urge one another on and help each other along.

How to cultivate this mentality, this life, this faith among us?  I hope I’ve never been a discouragement to any of you in what I’ve done, said, or preached.  I hope I’ve never said or done anything to wound the hope you have in Christ.  My aim has always been and will always be to encourage, to upbuild, to try, all imperfectly, God knows, to keep clearing the way for Christ to be evident among us, in us, and through us.  This is my promise to you and the vow I made to God.

I need something from you to fulfill this promise and discharge this vow, a gift you can give, and a gift is no gift if it isn’t voluntary.  It’s a gift you also give one another and a gift you give to God.  The preacher of Hebrews reminds us when he urges the congregation “not [to] giv[e] up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (10:25).  To have the benefit of the Word, to have the benefit of the congregation, to have the benefit of the Sacrament before us this morning, to have the benefit of Christ Jesus among us and within us, one thing is needed: you, here.

Yes, some are called away one time and another because of work or family commitments; it is difficult for others to come because of poor health or advancing age.  As for the rest . . . Sunday after Sunday, after Sunday, where are they?  I can’t cause them to avail themselves of the benefits and blessings of gathering together.  You can’t cause them to.  Therefore, let us pray, let us encourage, let us stay in contact and commit to doing what we can to maintain relationship and love, and let us be inviting in the love, truth, and humility of the Spirit.

We are invited.  Love invites.  Love invites us.  This table is here so that we may continue to learn love as we practice love.  We practice love as we receive the Word, make the Word the foundation of our life, the material with which we build our lives, each day.  Bread and cup, body and blood—life for life.  Grace for living.