Paul's purpose in this Scripture passage is to bring out the superiority of Christ's sacrifice over the ritual system of the old covenant. That ritual system, while commanded under the law, were inadequate to ransom the life of any human. Instead they are to be seen as a constant reminder (a sign) that human sin must be atoned for. Look at verse three where Paul expresses this succinctly. "But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins". Before this passage ends we are faithfully informed that only Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to cover our sins. The ancient ritual is set aside even as Christ's indwelling Spirit becomes our New Covenant guarantee. Our section ends with the assertion that no longer is there any need for continued sacrifice. And within a generation of Christ's sacrifice the Lord allowed the city on Zion's Hill to be utterly destroyed. And with its destruction, the Jewish ritual ceased.

However, even as the true faith grew and expanded in the face of constant competition and persecution, mistakes in communicating that faith were made by Christ's Church. It was not for nothing that Paul wrote Timothy to be faithful in the public reading of Scripture, preaching and teaching. It is by these means that the true faith has been communicated down through the centuries.

Years ago a family visited the Church where I was preaching. When I followed up with a visit I was bluntly informed that this was the twentieth century and I ought to do what their last congregation was doing and use audio-visual methods exclusively! The lady of the house pulled out a picture and explained how she was taught to meditate on the symbols in that picture.

Again, while I was in Seminary our preaching class was treated to a demonstration by a creative theological team that encouraged us to imitate Johnny Carson in dramatizing our lessons. One testimony about their effectiveness was shared. A member had written that they dared not stay home from church because they might miss the creative genius of the pastoral team.

Again, in my summer art course I was struck by the fallible good intentions of the Medieval Church in its commitment to creating a audio-visual learning experience in the paintings, statues, architecture, ritual and psychology of the Roman Church of the Middle Ages.

When all heaven broke loose in the Protestant Reformation, very many ritualists and humanists were dismayed when whitewash was painted over the walls, the icons and statutes thrown out and the performed music replaced by new hymns set to bar room harmonics. The entire ritual was revised and simplified and a proper emphasis was returned "to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching".

In reaction to such terrible depredations to the old cultus, Saint Ignatius of Lyola wrote in his Spiritual Exercises for the Jesuits these instructions: He "advocated that the spiritual experience of the mysteries of the Catholic faith be intensely imagined, so much so as to be visible to the eye. The content of the faith was to be visualized, and the sacred objects of the Church were to be venerated as defenses against false doctrines and the powers of hell." My Art History textbook proclaims that "this is still the function and warranty of religious art throughout the Roman Catholic world."

Now, certainly we will acknowledge that there were true believers in the Church prior to Martin Luther because the true church is properly "catholic" or universal in nature. However, to remain orthodox in that time it might have been a real blessing to have become blind and deaf immediately upon conversion.

In the seventies I was approached by some of my members to allow drama and dancing into the Church. When I asked what weekday evening they were interested in, they looked puzzled. What they wanted, was to introduce it into the worship service itself! They wanted to dramatize the word so that people could visualize the faith.

In another Seminary case I was horrified when my Senior Pastor performed an infant baptism by dipping a red rose to symbolize the love of God into the baptismal bowl and then sprinkled the water upon the little child. He encouraged me to draw away from the barbaric necessity of cleansing from sin to an emphasis upon the unlimited love of God.

Do you see the dangers inherent in going beyond the reading of scripture, preaching and teaching? This is the essential problem of the Roman ritual. In order to demonstrate the reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the performance of the Mass, the entitlement of clergy as Father and Priest, the insistence upon a bodily presence in the elements and the effectual intercession of the elect saints living and dead has replaced the true faith in the minds of many who celebrate the High Church Masses.

Certainly, there are other reasons why we are protestant and the most important of these is our dependence upon and use of Scripture alone for preaching and teaching about salvation. One language specialist wrote that the Hebrews were the first people to attain an almost universal literacy. This fact he said explained why they were able to comprehend an abstract monotheism.

In our time, one of the greatest problems facing the modern church is the minimal comprehension of the written word and a complete lack of instruction in the meaning of such written words. In those years when I have been successful in getting my classes to read, very many are amazed that great literature is something more than mere words on a page. J.R.R. Tolkien, Ben Franklin, William Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe actually come to life for them and in nine short months they begin to appreciate that these men now dead actually have something important to say about the human condition. Of course, I have to start the year with some video lessons from specific movies, but by the end of the year we can almost wean them away from such a visual crutch.

As we come to a close in our discussion of the limits of High Church ritualism, let me be sure to acknowledge that some of God's people are indeed within the High Church Communion even as the elect are scattered amongst many Christian denominations. However, any who have more than a passing interest in the ritual and are dependent upon the regular and continuing sacrifice of Jesus in the mass may miss the whole point of what God says through the psalmist that our writer to the Romans quotes : "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am - it is written about me in the scroll _ I have come to do your will, O God.'"

Remember it is Jesus here who is saying "I have come" to do the will of His Father in heaven. Any technique, any program or organization that does not effectively communicate the once for all sacrifice of Christ for our sins has failed. And just like the Jumbo jet that was one degree off in its flight from Alaska a few years ago, any religious organization that takes off in its own flights of fancy will lead its cargo over the air space of an evil empire where it may be shot down. May we as Christ's Church be very careful that we do not establish our own religion in place of the true faith. Amen.