Good Advice?

"GOOD ADVICE?"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

August 10, 2025

Hebrews 13:1-6 NRSV

¹ Let mutual affection continue. ² Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. ³ Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. ⁴ Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. ⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” ⁶ So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

Do you remember the best advice you’ve ever gotten? Or perhaps who you could count on to give you the best advice?  Was it a parent, a friend, a coworker or boss?  It can be hard to find good advice.  Maybe even harder to take it.

This morning, I offer you this reading from Scripture as “good advice.”  “The Letter to the Hebrews” sounds like it would be found in the Hebrew Bible.  It is in the Christian Scriptures.  And it isn’t really a letter, it’s more of a really long sermon.  And it is written for Christians - who probably had a Jewish background - but who identified as followers of Christ.  Despite all that, I think it might be counted as “good advice.”

I had a hard time choosing what to use from this “sermon to the Hebrew Christians” for my message today.  It has a lot of negative language towards the Jewish people.  That really wasn’t something I wanted to call “good advice.”  Christians have a long history of badmouthing the Jewish people – and a lot worse than badmouthing them, without me doing more of it. This negative attitude came out of that first era when some who had been Jewish came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.  That led to a lot of conflict between the Jewish community and the people who became followers of Jesus.  It was kind of like a “messy divorce.”

On top of that, this book uses two other references a lot that I don’t think most of us would find very meaningful.  The first is that the writer speaks a lot about Jesus being a “great high priest.”  I don’t think that is an image that is meaningful for most of us.  There are a also lot of references in this book about sacrifice.  It uses the language of the Jewish worship culture of the time which used animal sacrifices to worship God.  I don’t really find that theology either particularly meaningful today, or even necessary to understanding what following Jesus means.  To use the metaphor that the Bible Study uses, it isn’t a lens that I find helps me clearly see Jesus.

For me, following Jesus is much more important than getting a theology of Jesus 100% perfect.  For me that means, instead of having a bumper sticker that asks, “What Would Jesus Do?” I’d rather have one that says, “Do what Jesus did!”  Way too many Christians are way too busy fighting with other Christians and others instead of doing what Jesus did.  Or as Clarence Jordan, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, is quoted as saying, “We’ll worship the hind legs off of Jesus, and yet we never do a single thing Jesus did.” 

All this is to say that I chose this passage of Hebrews because it seemed to have some good advice.  Call me right or wrong, but I will strive to be consistent on believing that doing what Jesus did is more important than proving I’m a real Christian because of my beliefs.  So, let’s get down to specifics. This list has a pretty good number of “what Jesus did” things.

By my count there are five specific pieces of advice.  It begins with, “Let mutual affection continue.”  That doesn’t seem too radical or hard.  Except that, as my comments above noted, some Christians seem to be more noted for fighting each other, condemning others, and trying to violate the Constitutional rights of every one they don’t agree with in the name of Jesus.  Hm.  Seems like we could use some more mutual affection – for more than those who we would rather hate than show affection.  Didn’t Jesus say something about “Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you?”  “Let mutual affection continue,” seems like good advice.  And if we haven’t been showing affection to others, seems like a good time to start.

Number 2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  Anyone remember that icon I showed last week about Abraham entertaining 3 angels?  Anyone remember Jesus saying, “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”  It was in Matthew 10:42.

Number 3:  It seems some think it is good advice for random, illegal, and unconstitutional arrests of anyone who looks like an immigrant and locking them up without due process, legal representation, the setting of bail or any number of other violations of our rights.  Meanwhile the Letter to the Hebrews offers us this advice: “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.”

Number 4 might be a bit touchy:  Hebrews says: “Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.” I mean, forgive me for observing that many people loudly proclaim their Christianity while violating virtually everything Jesus said to do. We have elected and unelected officials proclaiming “family values,” while having babies with one woman while married to another,

And Number 5 is a bit challenging too, isn’t it? “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.” Too many of those same officials are making bank off insider stock trading while they take away money for feeding children, and providing medical care for the most at risk.  One of our own Florida Senators complained he can’t live on $174,000 a year salary as a member of Congress. So while money is not evil, how one acquires it and uses it can be, at least according to Scripture.

Perhaps I am being awfully judgmental this morning. I tried to stick with the theme of our Scripture. Hebrews is focused on a group of followers of Jesus who are facing persecution. They were being attacked left, right, and center.  Many of us are feeling that way right now. We are wondering if our faith can carry us through. We wonder if our nation can survive the current chaos.  We need good advice.

Let me end with what the writer of this said to those siblings of ours so long ago.  After giving those five points I repeated above, he adds this for them and for us: He [Jesus] himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So we can say with confidence, ‘the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?’”

People often use power to harm other people. We must choose the power of our faith to bless others.  God has the power to bring justice, what Scripture often calls “righteousness.” God’s wisdom can give us power.  As we celebrate the new school year, the beginning of a new season of learning and teaching and growing mentally, physically and hopefully, spiritually, let us trust the power of God to help us bless others.

The mighty power of God is the power of love. That power is so great death could not – and cannot - defeat it. Let me give the greatest advice I can ever offer.  Let us believe in the power of God’s love, let us live by the power of God’s love, and let us sing the power of God’s love, now and always!  AMEN.