{"id":4420,"date":"2025-02-18T07:27:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T12:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4420"},"modified":"2025-02-18T07:27:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T12:27:04","slug":"we-do-not-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/18\/we-do-not-have\/","title":{"rendered":"We Do Not Have"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Certain sermons have a way of getting stuck in your head.

My colleague Tim Gardner preached a message almost 30 years ago that I have never forgotten.

It was called \u201cWe Do Not Have\u201d \u2013 a rather strange turn of phrase that springs from a rather strangely-worded text in the New Testament book of Hebrews:

\u201cFor we do not have a high priest\u00a0who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are\u2014yet he did not sin.\u00a0Let us then approach\u00a0God\u2019s throne of grace with confidence,\u00a0so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need\u201d<\/em> (Hebrews 4:15-16).

That biblical author, who is unknown to us, chose to state one of the most enduring truths about the identity of Jesus as a double negative. Instead of positively declaring that Jesus is our faithful high priest \u2013 that is, one who graciously represents our concerns to God the Father, and compassionately represents the Father\u2019s concerns to us \u2013 he opted for, \u201cWe\u2019re not stuck with a clueless high priest who has no idea what it feels like to be human.\u201d

Our high school English teachers may have urged to us avoid double negatives. But ancient Hebrew writers found \u201cnot-not\u201d to be a powerful idiom.

Think of Jesus\u2019 words in the Lord\u2019s Prayer: \u201cLead us not into temptation.\u201d Instead of praying, \u201cKeep us on the straight and narrow,\u201d he says, \u201cDon\u2019t let us end up in places where we shouldn\u2019t end up.\u201d

In that spirit, Tim decided to compose a 100-point sermon. He itemized 100 things that our congregation did not have<\/em>. We should note that a 100-point sermon is generally the message you preach when you know for sure this is going to be your last appearance in that particular pulpit.

Mercifully, all of his points were brief.

Many were practical. We did not have pews in that church. Nor a narthex. Nor a vestibule. Tim then added, \u201cAnd we do not have a church where most people even know what those things are.\u201d

We did not have an organ. Nor a single, preferred style of worship, nor a standardized way of organizing services.

We did not have a clean church, he pointed out, because it was almost constantly in use by various groups. We did not have a pastor-driven congregation because we were blessed with scores of gifted lay people, and had just enough wisdom to turn them loose to fulfill their callings as the Body of Christ.

\u201cWe do not have doughnuts for everyone on Sunday morning, and I\u2019m not sure why,\u201d Tim added, clearly expressing his hope that our hospitality ministry might expand their order from the local bakery. I\u2019m willing to bet there were at least a few whispered \u201cAmens.\u201d

Along the way, Tim reminded us that we did not have a church that was untouched by the pain of childlessness and infertility. Nor did we have a congregation that thought kids ought to be seen but not heard.

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a church that can meet every need,\u201d he acknowledged, \u201cbut we worship a God who can.\u201d\u00a0

Significantly, we do not have the ability to make ourselves right before God. We do not have any hope of impressing God with our spiritual track records. What we do have is grace \u2013 God\u2019s assurance that there is nothing we can do to make him love us more, and nothing we can do to make him love us less. Hebrews 4 assures us we can approach God\u2019s throne of grace with confidence.

Likewise, we are infinitely blessed to have a high priest who understands our condition. We don\u2019t have a representative who has to guess what it feels like to be human. \u00a0

Even if we can identify 100 things we do not have, God has ensured that if we have Christ, we are rich beyond our wildest dreams.

Let me add one additional item that didn\u2019t make Tim\u2019s list.

We do not have time to keep wondering if this is the right moment to attach ourselves to this high priest.

Another church leader named Tim \u2013 Tim Wilson, a pastor in Colorado \u2013 remembers parachute jump training at Fort Benning, Georgia, in the United States Army Airborne School.

His instructor reminded them what to do if their main chute failed to deploy. They must immediately pull the handle of their auxiliary chute. What if that also failed to deploy? There was no need to panic, he assured them, with a smile. \u201cYou\u2019ll have the rest of your life to figure it out.\u201d

What do we have?

We have the rest of our lives to figure out what we are called to do and be \u2013 whether we\u2019re alone in the universe, or crafted by Someone who has an eternal stake in how our lives turn out.

What do we not<\/em> have?

We do not have the slightest guarantee that our lives will last longer than it takes to reach the end of this sentence.

But since we\u2019ve made it this far, the good news is that Jesus is not sequestered in a distant zip code.

He\u2019s just a prayer away \u2013 yet one more reason why he\u2019s a high priest like no other. \u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Certain sermons have a way of getting stuck in your head. My colleague Tim Gardner preached a message almost 30 years ago that I have never forgotten. It was called \u201cWe Do Not Have\u201d \u2013 a rather strange turn of phrase that springs from a rather strangely-worded text in the New… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[867],"class_list":["post-4420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jesus-high-priest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4422,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420\/revisions\/4422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}