A Motivational Message

Tony Campolo is one of the most well-known and well-loved inspirational speakers in the Church today. I have heard him speak several times over the past thirty years and have several tapes of his talks in my library.

He's Italian, he's passionate and funny as all get out. He is the Professor of Sociology at Eastern College outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And he has befriended many of the African American pastors and congregations in that area.

One of his classic stories that has been retold countless times has to do with an invitation he got from these black pastors to preach at their annual "preach off:" a day filled with one sermon after another with each preacher trying to outdo the one before. Tony was the only white guy invited to preach, and he was a little intimidated because black preachers are masters at getting a rise out of their congregation.

But when Tony's turn came he "did good," especially with the black congregation egging him on. "I was so good I wanted to take notes on myself!" So when he sat down he looked over at the next preacher as if to say, "Top that." And the next preacher looked back at him as if to say, "Son, you just watch."

I cannot do justice to the way Tony describes the next preacher's sermon. It was actually a very simple message that he kept repeating over and over again, elaborating and building as black preachers do. "It's Friday," he began softly. "Jesus is on the cross. The disciples are cowering in fear. The sky is black with doom. It's Friday. But Sunday's comin'."

The preacher kept hammering home that same message: "It's Friday - but Sunday's comin'." He kept describing the discouragement and powerlessness of Friday but then the hope and victory coming on Sunday. And the more he got into it the more his voice rose in volume and intensity, and the congregation was doing the same thing, until at the very end he just screamed one word, "Friday!", and the congregation shouted back, "Sunday's comin'!"

It was inspirational preaching at its best because it got a rise out the congregation.

Hebrews is a sermon written by a master preacher who is trying to do the same thing. He's preaching to a congregation that has "drooping hands and weak knees" (12:12). It's Friday. They are living in a world that is extremely hostile to Christianity. They are tempted to withdraw and regress in their faith, and this preacher is pulling out every inspirational preaching tool he has to keep their eyes on Jesus Christ. "Sunday's comin'!"

In the first and last verses of this passage there's a certain word that is repeated. It is only found here and nowhere else in the whole bible: (Gr.) nothros - "dull of hearing," "sluggish," inertia, no longer ready to respond in radical obedience to Jesus.

In one Peanuts comic strip Charlie Brown is at Lucy's 5-cent psychiatrist office, and Lucy says, "Charlie, life is like a deck chair. Some people have their chairs pointed backwards so they can see where they've been. Others

have their chairs facing forward so they can see where they are going. Which way is your deck chair facing?" Charlie replies, "I've never been able to get mine unfolded!!!"

Inertia. Shut down. Life can be so overwhelming at times that you can't even get your deck chair unfolded, much less engage with what is going on in the world. The Christians in Hebrews had been bold and zealous for Christ and being his people in the world. But it was costly. Looking back, they had to endure one threat after another, and looking ahead there would only be more of the same. And they just wanted to fold up their deck chair and regress to some former way of life, a time when it wasn't so hard.

Nothros. They are no longer listening and responding to Jesus Christ with the same zeal and confidence they once had. The preacher knows this is serious, very serious. Everything is at stake. He wants to inspire them and motivate them not to become sluggish but to persevere to the end. "Sunday's comin'."

Of course he is no black preacher or Tony Campolo, but he is very gifted in pulling together those tricks of the trade that we all tend to use when we want to motivate those we love. I want to point out three different methods he uses to get a rise out of his listeners: 1) Reverse Psychology; 2) Threat of Danger; 3) Vote of Confidence.

Reverse Psychology (5:11-14)
What parent hasn't resorted to reverse psychology to prod their child on to more grown up behavior? Whether it's getting them to quit sucking their thumb or to leave their "blanky" at home when they go to school or to use their "grown up voice" instead of baby talk. Children want to be perceived as bigger and older (even by half a year) and more grown up than they are. So, if you say, "Well, I guess you are just a baby and aren't ready for this big kid stuff," you are hoping your child will think, "Wait a minute! I'm not a baby! I want to do what the big kids do!" and then act their age.

That's exactly what is happening in the first paragraph of our passage. The preacher is comparing them to babies who still need bottles instead of solid food. He's telling them they are like the little children sitting on the tiny chairs down in the Sunday School class in the Rainbow Room who are being taught instead of being the adult teachers.

The truth is these Christians are not babes in Christ. They have a very vital Christian faith and amazing spiritual maturity. But they are regressing to an old, more comforting and more comfortable way of behaving. So the first thing this preacher says is, "Well, I guess you are all still immature in your faith and aren't ready for the hard stuff" - hoping he will get a rise out of them. "Hey, who are you calling immature Christians!"

Threat of Danger (6:1-6)
If we can't get anything to happen with reverse psychology, sometimes we try the scare-them-to-death approach. I remember they did that in Drivers Education in High School. They showed us a video filled with all these hideous car wrecks. Scared us to death.

In this second paragraph the preacher in Hebrews paints a very sobering picture of what it means to regress so much in your faith that you actually reject the gifts of God and fall away from Christ completely. He scares them to death with this solemn warning (6:4-6)):

I know a man who struggles with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), which causes you to latch on to certain worries and not let go of them. He latches onto passages like this and drives himself crazy over whether he has actually lost his salvation. Occasionally his wife will contact me and ask me to reassure him of God's grace, which I do.

But this sermon in Hebrews is not being preached to people who struggle with OCD and who need to be reminded of God's grace. It's being preached to people who are ready to fold up their deck chairs and return to the comfortable religion they had before they were saved by Christ, and get out of the line of fire. There's urgency here, a life and death struggle in their relationship with God, and the scare-them-to-death approach is appropriate.

These Christians knew the passage in Deuteronomy (11:26-28) that talks about the blessings and cursings that are tied to being obedient or disobedient to God's Law. They knew that there's no standing still, no neutral ground. Either you are good soil that is obedient to God and producing a useful crop, or you are nothros, dull of hearing, disobedient, cursed soil that produces thorns and thistles. There's no folding up your chair and becoming a bystander. You are moving in one direction or the other: obedience or disobedience, blessings or cursing. Which is it?

Vote of Confidence (6:9-12)
After the reverse psychology and scaring them silly, the preacher in Hebrews gives them his strong vote of confidence (6:9):

Three great techniques to motivate this weary congregation.

Last August 28th many people gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech given on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C. The question was raised, "How far have we come since that speech was given?" Some progress has been made, but King's dream is far from being realized.

But that speech still inspires us today almost as much as it did forty years ago.

In the same way, Hebrews has been saved to inspire and motivate us today. Where are you drifting and regressing in your faith? Perhaps you are just dabbling in Christianity, keeping a safe distance when Jesus is calling you to make a commitment and surrender your life to him. Perhaps you have been coming to church but you prefer to remain anonymous, and Jesus is calling you to sink down roots, to become a member and to be

actively involved in Christian community. Perhaps you have been a member for some time, but you keep rehashing the basics of the faith instead of moving out to serve, to teach, to risk, to give.

Jesus is trying to get a rise out of all of us here. What is it? Especially if you are weary and ready to fold. Jesus has a dream for you and me, a big dream, a dream that he will make happen. Therefore, do not become sluggish, but together let us become "imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." By God's grace let us live the dream.