How are these passages in Hebrews read this morning written for people thinking of returning to Judaism of their ancestors helpful for us? It does show how much better Jesus was than what came before him and thus help us to appreciate who he is. But it also has something to say to us all today in the situation we live in because

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3.16 that All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Think of the context of Jewish history

The Jews looked back to their great escape from Egypt and slavery to Pharoah as the birth of their nation, their independence day.

But their escape did not automatically lead to success every time.

First they complained about God's provision. They wanted to go back to Egypt.

When the spies were sent to scout out the promised land they came back with the first Project Fear: They reported in Numbers 13:31 "We cannot attack those people, they are stronger than we are. They spread a bad report about the land they had explored. The land we explored devours those who are living in it; All the people we saw there are of great size".

Because the people did not have the courage to go up into the promised land on God's timetable they were condemned to wander in the wilderness for 40 years till all those over 20 had died out.

Second, when eventually they did enter the promised land, eventually the kingdom of Israel was divided into north and south after the death of Solomon and eventually the people were exiled to Babylon and their temple destroyed. Later came the occupation by Rome and the destruction of their temple again,

So escape and a promised land did not guarantee that all would be well.

Israel and Moses left Egypt under Pharoah, but the covenant which they entered into with God as the writer to the Hebrews says, had some weaknesses.

Vs 18 The regulation about the Levitical priesthood has been set aside because it was weak and useless -- the law made nothing perfect.

Vs 28 The law appoints as high priests men who are weak

Hebrews 8 vs 7

For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said[a]:
"The days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, 'Know the Lord,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."[b]
13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
God has brought a better covenant a new covenant through Jesus and this is established at the last supper.
We read:
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body."
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 "This is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them.25 "Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Jesus brings a better covenant, one that deals with the heart of the problem, the disobedient human heart.

We have just voted to leave one covenant treaty -- a majority of the United Kingdom thought that despite some positive advantages it was flawed and a failure.

But even having voted to leave, we will still have corrupt, fear inducing people and politicians.

Following the death of Jo Cox we had promises of a better style of politics, but we
still had bad behaviour in the last stages of the referendum campaign.

Just as the people of Israel had nostalgia for the fleshpots of Egypt these New Testament Jewish Christians had nostalgia for the certainties of Judaism. They wanted the security of their past. Being Christian they discovered was risky and costly business. In the same way we might have nostalgia for a Britain that never really existed -- expressed in Downton Abbey or some presentations of the National Trust.

The argument of the writer to these wavering insecure Jewish Christians is
neither to retreat to nor deny their Jewish past. Judaism was good but was not good enough. It held seeds of being superseded by something better within it. It actually pointed to its own supersession. 8 vs 7

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
New Testament Christians embraced and did not reject the OT.

The writer argues that taking the risk in being a Christian is actually well founded -- for Jesus is a better priest forever and his sacrificial death brings a better covenant,

In fact he says, the very original you are looking back to for your security points you forward to what superseded it. That is the whole structure of the book of Hebrews. It is four sermons on four Old Testament themes, Moses, the Sabbath, the priesthood and the covenant which themselves point forward to their own replacement.

What the Old Testament promised was the law written on their hearts.

The issue was not what was wrong with the covenant, but what was wrong with the people:

God found fault with the people -- the former covenant was weak because while the law is holy and good it is not able to make right those who sin by breaking it, nor can it give the power necessary to fulfill its demands.

8 Vs 9 They did not remain faithful to the covenant

The goal is not outward compliance -- where ethics is outsourced to the compliance officer. What is needed is inner commitment. The best business is based on the pledge my word is my bond. This is in sharp contrast with the recent dealings around BHS.

The writer holds before these Jewish Christians a vision that is more faithful to their own past than the vision of the past they had. The very Judaism which they thought they could return to in fact he says points forward to the Jesus they have begun to worship and serve. So no turning back.

What might this have to say following the unexpected EU referendum result?

It tells us that whatever way it turned out was not going to produce Utopia. No structure can change the human heart and its disobedience, only the saving love of Jesus on the cross and his gift of the Spirit.

It tells us that we should neither retreat into nor deny our country's past. Our country is a Christian country not because we have a majority of Christians but because thus far Christian ideas of God, humanity, the law, and freedom are the basis of our laws and way of life. We should neither retreat into this nor deny it.

The EU lost its founding Christian vision.

The Bishop of Kensington wrote in last Saturday's Times:

The architects of the early European Union were key figures in the Christian Democratic Movement, They met to pray before the crucial Paris Conference of 1951. No one can turn the clock back to the post-War world but is it a coincidence that Europe seems to have lost its soul or vision not long after the EU made the mistake of erasing from its constitution any mention of Europe's Christian past?

In the referendum vote the majority of the country have rejected arguments based solely on how rich they might or might not be. They exercised choice, and particularly those who felt this was one opportunity they had to make a real choice that made a real difference to the bad deal they thought they had.

We now need to draw out the opportunities for the church with this vote. People can and have made choices that confound all the experts. The church can build on that by making people's choices an informed choice based on what the church can provide and has stood for. Camus said that democracy is the system that relies on the wisdom of people who know they don't know everything.

The Archbishops of York and Canterbury have said: The vote to withdraw from the European Union means that now we must all reimagine both what it means to be the United Kingdom in an interdependent world and what values and virtues should shape and guide our relationships with others.

So the church now needs to set out a clear and compelling vision of who we are as a nation, rooted in our shared history and Christian heritage which alone provide the foundation for the generous spirited Great Britain we truly are. This is not a time for crying foul about any particular aspect of the campaign or impugning the integrity of those who voted a different way than we might have.

We should not dismiss or lose what has been and is good about European co-operation at so many levels. These gains need to be preserved.

We need to restate and give substance to what we value about this country:

First, the referendum has been a restatement of a commitment to democracy. which spread to a great many parts of the world as a result of people being taught to read the Bible by Protestant missionaries, and thus being taught to read, to have ideas other than what the powerful told them, to debate, to develop newspapers and media, and to develop ideas of equality before the law. Democracy, said Camus, is the system that relies on the wisdom of people who know that they don't know everything.

Second our church, as the Queen said at the celebration of her 60 years on the throne gives freedom of religion and space for people of all faiths. She said:

The Church of England's role is to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country. Gently and assuredly, the Church of England has created an environment for other faith communities and indeed people of no faith to live freely. Woven into the fabric of this country, the Church has helped to build a better society -- more and more in active co-operation for the common good with those of other faiths.

Third, we need to restate and give substance to our tradition of common law which is derived from custom and judicial precedent rather than from government statutes. It developed in the Middle Ages in England and spread throughout the world. This is in contrast to statute law which is the basis of law in other European countries and makes a significant difference.

Hebrews draws its arguments that Jesus is greater than Moses, provides the final Sabbath rest, is the perfect high priest and brings a better covenant by encouraging us to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. And as we enter a time of great uncertainty in business, the markets and politics we need to do just that, trusting not in political wisdom for what the Government does now or who is chosen as the Prime Minister but as our final hymn says"We rest on thee, our shield and our defender'.

Our hope is not in our political wisdom but in God's guidance.

Canon Dr. Chris Sugden is married to Elaine, a retired cancer consultant and they have three married children and seven grandchildren. He is secretary of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life and chairman of the trustees of Anglican Mainstream. He is a canon of St Luke's Cathedral, Jos, Nigeria.