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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 suffering from a threateningly hostile environment, that is the larger society or majority culture.” 143 The temptations that arise out of suffering were part and parcel of the life of Jesus, and as One who overcame them, he so equips his followers. 7. Abandonment: The visceral question posed almost immediately by the liberated Israelites was “Is the LORD among us/in our midst or not?” This is indicative of a fear of abandonment and likely a hangover from their slave-‐mentality and having an abusive despot as their master. Can we see parallels today? What is the Biblical solution? 8. “All and some”: Paul and the author of the book of Hebrews are keenly aware of the “all” and “some” dynamic. They were convinced that appearances and benefits due to proximity to the people of God were no assurance of salvation, and both issued dire warnings. Sheer numbers of so-‐called ‘insiders’ meant nothing to them. Both see the possibility of standing on the threshold of the Promised Land, and failing to enter it. 9. History: The pilgrim motif which embraced liminality had profoundly positive effects on attitudes to life and death of true followers of Jesus throughout history. Might the absence of the words ‘pilgrim’ and ‘sojourner’ on a Google Search of the International Journal of Frontier Missiology indicate that they might have missed a goldmine? 10. Slippage: The danger of slipping from the moorings of the Christian faith was no less true for Abraham than it is for the old and new covenant Hebrews. The antidote is not more theological experimentation, it is to fix ones eyes on the author and perfecter 143 Geerhardus Vos. The Teaching of the Hebrews. (Grand Rapids, Mi: Eerdmans, 1956), p. 13; Walter Überlacker, “Paraenesis or Paraclesis -‐ Hebrews as a Test Case,” in Early Christian Paraenesis in Context Troels Engberg-‐Pedersen and James M. Starr eds. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), p. 335. 266
St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 of the faith (Heb 12:1-‐2) like Moses who ‘persevered by seeing him who is invisible’ (11:27). 144 11. Paralysis: In the wilderness sojourn there were those who were paralyzed with fear to believe they could enter the Promised Land. The new covenant Hebrews are addressed about their paralysis and the need to “strengthen… the weak knees…” (Heb 12:12-‐13). 145 William Manson comments on this dynamic as a means of retarding the spiritual growth of the Hebrews: “…it is possible that the danger to their faith lay not in a return to Judaism as such, but in a retardation of their Christian progress by factors having their causes in the Jewish element in their Christianity, in other words, by an undue assertion of their Jewish-‐Christian inheritance.” 146 Might an undue preoccupation with one’s old religion in this modern day have the same effect? 12. Community: For the Hebrews, as deSilva mentioned, “The liminal state involves both “humiliation and ordeal, but also...sacrality and power.” 147 The desert was the place of consummate danger, but also the place of consummate provision. It was the place of the greatest temptation to despair, but also the place of greatest reason to be encouraged. Might systems that avoid liminality, in so doing, actually avoid all of the blessings of this state? Might this avoidance actually cripple the health of the global church, by trying to remove some from the blessings of this liminal state and so crippling it as a community? 144 See S.D. Mackie, “Heavenly Sanctuary Mysticism in the Epistle to the Hebrews,” The Journal of Theological Studies, 62:1 (2011), pp. 77-‐117. 145 P. J. Arowele in his “The pilgrim people of God: an African's reflections on the motif of sojourn in the epistle to the Hebrews” is convinced that this reference to limbs and paths is derived from a pilgrim motif in Hebrews. In the Asia Journal of Theology, 4:2 (1990), p. 443. One could link this into “The Way” title for Christians in Acts, as those who are on the pilgrim way are getting enfeebled. 146 William Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1951), pp. 15-‐16 as cited by Bauckham, p. 197, fn 17 147 deSilva, Perseverance, pp. 70-‐71 267
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