An Introvert's Encouragement To Be Together (Hebrews)

The strangeness of a year spent mostly away from people brings much reflection. 

After many busy years of raising children and teaching high schoolers and rushing through life and rarely being alone or truly still for very long, I “retired” this year from teaching to be a better helpmate to my husband (although his verdict’s still out on that . . .). He gifted me with solitude, and as a result, I have had the precious gift of multiplied time in the word daily instead of rushed minutes before hurrying out the door for a day that wouldn’t wait. Then COVID-19 hit and revealed that what I had begun to think of as solitude was only the tip of the iceberg. Intentional time spent away from people and with God is good, but enforced isolation from the body wears, even for this introvert, and easily causes a disconnect. 

I confess I have rarely left my house for months even before COVID-19 (having yet to use three tanks of gas in almost four months, and one of those was spent on a trip to visit my parents) beyond what it has taken to provide food. Two weeks ago, our church began meeting again but with six-foot constraints and no contact, which feels very odd still. Human touch, hugs, are sorely lacking (and this from a selective hugger). But on an outing last week to Sam’s for provisions, I popped into Hobby Lobby to buy some fabric and sewing notions. As I listened to the praise music playing over the speakers and saw real people out and about living their lives in a more ordinary fashion, a little piece of me began to unthaw. Then while checking out (in a very long line of people trying diligently to stay six feet away from each other and politely deferring to others), the cashier looked at me and said, ‘You’re hair is naturally curly isn’t it?” With one question and eye contact that inferred a sympathetic understanding of both the joy and pains of being a curly-haired girl, she made an instant connection with me, and I thought to myself how much I had missed the camaraderie of human contact. Pitiful, in a way, that a stranger in a checkout line could communicate such a sense of humanness, but it was thought provoking.

Much has been made of our ability to keep things revolving in church life through technology during the days of quarantine, and I am grateful for it as it far beats the alternative of no contact. However, Zoom meetings and videos did not and cannot compare to two or more gathering together in Jesus’ name, whether that is in a small group Bible study or a larger worship service. We are not made for isolation. We are made to be part of the body of Christ, and we cannot do that in isolation. We need each other.

Hebrews reminds me of this need. This letter, written to beloved people far away that the author cannot be with, reinforces the need for encouragement that we all have. The author reminds them (and now us) of the wonderful name and work of Jesus and what He’d done. He reminds them to pay attention to what they’d heard and hold fast to it lest in temptation they fall away. He reminds them they need to encourage one another: “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called, ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (3:13). He reminds them Jesus understands our struggles, having experienced them Himself (2:18; 4:14-16). He reminds them that they should “hear and fear” the exhortations found in the word (as Matthew Henry has said elsewhere) lest they fall short of entering His rest (4:1). He reminds them how sharp and penetrating the word of God is, thus the importance of staying in it (4:12-13). He reminds them they should be growing steadily (5:11-14). He reminds them of the hope they have “as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast” (6:19). He reminds them that God can “save forever those who draw near” to Him through Jesus, who lives to intercede for them (7:25). He reminds them of a better new covenant (Ch. 8-9). 

The author reminds them to “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (10:24-25), emphasizing again the importance and encouragement of being together, which he couldn’t presently offer them. Then he shares the triumphs of the faith as encouragement to these he writes to and encourages them to “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles” and to “run with endurance the race” that is each person’s life, with eyes fixed on Jesus (12:2). Again, he offers the encouragement of fellowship (which is as Derek Gentle would say, “two people in a boat rowing in the same direction”) saying, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God” (12:15). 

Then the last chapter arrives emphasizing an ongoing “love of the brethren” (v. 1) and hospitality (even to strangers in v. 2) and support of those suffering imprisonment (v. 3). He reminds them that Jesus, in order to sanctify His own, “suffered outside the gate,” and we are to go to Him and bear His reproach (v. 12-13). 

All of this is not offered as a stance of rebellion that we were quarantined for a time for the wellbeing of others and ourselves, as Hebrews 13:17 also reminds us to obey our leaders and submit to them and to conduct ourselves honorably. What it is offered as is a reminder that we need each other. As Hebrews authors says at the end, much prayer is needed so that a quicker restoration may be accomplished (v. 18-19). 

The Benediction (Heb. 13:20-21):

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. 

Amen.