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May 2008

Songspeak: Find Our Rest

by Kathleen Sieck

Two years ago, I was part of a Bible study on the book of Hebrews – a life changing study, in which I learned the gospel all over again. For me, who had grown up in the church and had absorbed the story of Christ’s character and purpose until the point at which I viewed it with little awe, Hebrews was refreshing and defining.

Around this time, an older woman started coming to my house and giving me tracts from the Watch Tower Society. We would have a little chat at the fence and she would ask me questions like Are you afraid of the end times? or Do you know what is going to happen to this earth when we die? She gave me a book to introduce me to the beliefs of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and hoped to welcome me, at some point, to a Bible Study.

It only took about two paragraphs of the book to show the glaring inconsistencies with the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ version of the gospel message and orthodox Christianity. The most obvious and certainly the most important was his assertion that there is no Trinity, that Christ is instead a subordinate creation by God the Father, and that our worship of Christ as God is errant.

Right away our talks over the fence reached new levels of intensity. It seemed to me that little else mattered if the Trinity did not exist, and that the whole interpretation of the Bible would be different. She told me Jehovah was offended that we would place Christ on an equal level with himself.

Over the next few months this little woman and I debated the Trinity. I read commentaries on the initial formation of the doctrine of the Trinity, I read all the scriptures pertaining to the Trinity, I read arguments of Jehovah’s witnesses who denied the Trinity.

I was more than a little shocked at how soft and undefined the doctrine in my mind had become. What is the nature of Christ? Why didn’t I have ready answers for this lady about exactly what the Trinity was?

I returned to Hebrews with a fresh eye, and right there in chapter one was God the Father calling his Son God.  The chapters blossomed open in front of me heavy with meaning and with the tenderness of a letter from parent to child.  The last page of my Bible (the blank one) started to fill with new scripture references to look at, and some of these became my dearest friends.

While scriptures were becoming close to my heart, the act of taking the Lord’s Supper also became incredibly poignant to me. In the fourth chapter of Hebrews, the author talks about approaching the throne of grace with confidence. I realized that without the authority of Christ, and without his sacrifice on our behalf, we would never be able to approach the throne of God at all, let alone approach Him with confidence. I imagined the attitude with which my daughter jumps into my lap and I thought about the new hymn In Christ alone, my hope is found...  Everything entirely revolved around the nature of Christ.

Along with being able to approach God with confidence because we come under the banner of Christ, we are also able to come to him to find our rest. In talking with my Jehovah’s Witness friend, I learned that, for them, rest is not part of the equation.  Their standing in God’s sight is directly relational to their ability to serve him. In fact, they are never really sure if they will get into heaven: a select few are allowed to enter in, and the rest can only hope to live on a ‘perfect’ earth, of which Jesus will be sort of a president. Additionally, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not take communion – that’s only for the few sacred believers who have worked really hard to get into the elite inner crowd.

Weekly, as we came down for the Lord’s Supper, I was reminded of my freedom in Christ. I was convinced of his necessity in the Trinity and I was yearning for the right words to express the peace that I felt. Hebrews 4 stood out in my head as a reminder of God the Son’s perfect dual nature of priest and sacrifice. I envisioned the momentous occasion of the feast in which we are able to come to the banquet table and enjoy the presence of God the Father, a place only allowed us by the presence of Christ.  In the midst of my anxiety and my newfound joy in the Lord, a song about communion was born.

Finally, I had this lady in to tea and a proper Bible Study! She had brought three of her friends with her and we sat around and debated the nature of Christ. For me, debating is not fun or natural and I’m really not very good at it. But bolstered by my study of Hebrews, the prayers of my people who knew that I would be meeting with her, and my “friends” on the last page of my Bible, I could at least say what I knew.

During the conversation it became evident that the love that I had for God, and the hope that I had in Christ (to live in communion with God the Father) was virtually unknown to them. They were amazed at my audacity in thinking I could have a relationship with God. They denied that Jesus was in any way on the same level as Jehovah. At the end of the day, nothing had changed in this woman’s mind regarding Jesus or our discussions, but I thanked her sincerely for the opportunity she had given me to reconfirm my faith in Christ as Lord and Savior.  I asked her if I could pray for them (awkward moment), and then the words came easily. Without Christ as our intercessor, there is no way that we could hope to have a relationship with God. It is only through his mercy that we can approach his throne, and yet we are encouraged to come confidently, as heirs of his kingdom. How precious is the love of God when we call on him. Through the pages of Hebrews he showed me exactly what was required of his Son in order for us to have communion with Him.