Welcome to St. Michael's Episcopal Church Colonie, N.Y.

Pentecost 20B

Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:35-45

October 18, 2009

Hebrews: “Since we have Jesus as our high priest, and since he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Sooner or later, we will all travel to this throne of grace. A good time for a travel guide. So, what does Scripture tell us about the throne of grace? How do we prepare for the throne of grace?

Rev. 20:11-15; 21:1-6 tells us:

            Each person is to be judged according to what they have done.

            There will be no more death, mourning or pain.

            The one on the throne will make all things new.

            Whoever is thirsty He will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

Whoever overcomes will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Then--we are to be judged according to what we have done.

Does this mean lists are kept of our good deeds and our bad deeds?

            BE CAREFUL HERE. MANY OF US DO KEEP OUR OWN LISTS.

            WE ALSO TEND TO KEEP LIST OF OTHERS OFFENSES—WE SHALL COME BACK TO THIS.

If we are to be judged, who does the judging? After all, Jesus is our great high priest.      Matthew 16:27: “The Son of Man will come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” So Jesus does the judging. Might be good if we know him, then.

John 5:22 explains more about judgment from the throne:

“Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father…Truly, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. A time has come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”

The plot thickens—we are judged on what we do, but we are granted life if we hear.

So many are to busy to hear his voice. Jesus said, “You diligently study Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

We fall into this trap where we try to measure our goodness by how good we try to be and hoping our good deeds outweigh our bad. [One dying woman claimed “I have never done wrong.”] Recall last week, when the rich young man came to Jesus. He had kept all the law, but still had a hunger, a thirst for eternal life that did not come from his good efforts.

This is then when the story becomes complete. Jesus says: “Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.”

Moses stands as accuser before those who claim to be perfect because they kept the law. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Scripture will accuse our efforts of goodness in ourselves. Even before the law was given to Moses, another accuser accused us. Satan, the accuser, even accused Adam and Eve in their sin. He told them to flee from God and hide from God, since God wanted to punish them for their sin. Meanwhile they run away, fleeing also forgiveness, grace and mercy to those who confess and repent and turn to God. 

Satan accuses us also. We are to hear not his voice, but the voice of Jesus…”Those who hear my voice will live…Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.”

We are judged on what we have done, and on what we have heard. The voice we have to know, we have to hear, is the voice of our Savior. We are judged not so much on HOW we follow, but that we follow.

We love, not for what we get, but for what we give.

How then do we prepare for the throne of grace? Lose our lists—Our own, and others---[whatever you retain in heaven…] otherwise we too can become someone else’s accuser in heaven. No matter how much we try to do good, to be good, sooner or later we must come to Jesus and cry our “Save me, Lord. I am lost without you. I give you my heart and my life—let me share in yours.”

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