Heavenly

“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus”  Hebrews 3:1

Heavenly – “Oh, what a heavenly scene!”  “Why this place is just heavenly!”  Is that the sense of this verse:  that we experienced a “really nice” calling?  Get serious!  God has something more in mind than an advertising description.  So, maybe it means, “God’s call came from heaven”.  It’s like saying, “You have a long distance call from Paris.”  No, that’s certainly not it.  The idea of a “heavenly calling” (the Greek is epouranios) conveys the majesty and sacredness of our invitation.  We are caught up in something far beyond the best of this world.  We are part of God’s eternal purposes and we need to treat our invitation with the respect due to its author.

Do you remember the story that Jesus told about the invitation to a banquet?  Many of the invited guests had lame excuses about why they could not attend.  They were too busy or too occupied.  What did the host do?  He went out an invited people who would respond.  He invited those who considered the invitation a great honor.  The excuses of the first guests were an insult to the host.  Those people did not give proper respect to the host.  Consequently, they were left behind.

The author of Hebrews wants us to see that our calling to be partakers of God’s good pleasure is something that deserves total respect.  This is no “say a prayer and get your ticket stamped” attitude.  This is crucial to your very existence.   If you went to the doctor and he said, “Now I am going to invite you to take this medicine.  It will save your life.  But I won’t force it on you.  You can choose to leave the bottle on the shelf.  You’ll just die without it”, do you suppose any of us would go home and say, “Oh, well, I don’t really have to listen to him.  After all, what does he know?”  My guess is that we would pay great respect to his diagnosis.  We would take the medicine with great care and precision.  We want to live.

So, God comes to us and says, “I invite you to be partakers in my household.”  It’s the most important invitation you will ever receive.  RSVP with great respect.  Honor the host.