Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 23rd February 1997

From the Pastor: Betterness

It is human nature we are often told, to want something better, and advertising frequently plays on this theme: you need a better car, a better washing machine, a better suite of furniture, a better house, a better financial deal, and so on. But all these will either deteriorate or come unstuck at some stage. One of the New Testament epistles, that to the Hebrews, also plays on this theme, but for very different values: a better hope (Hebrews 7:19), a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22), better promises (Hebrews 8:6), a better country (Hebrews 11:16), a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35). "Better", that is, than anything realized under the Old Covenant; and better than any of the externals which that religion offered. But such things are also "better" than any of the externals on the smorgasbord today, whether the religion of formal "Christianity", of materialism, of humanism, or of the neo-pagan philosophies now popular. The New Testament offers a real hope, one which never fades away, and a real security in anticipation.