C, Post-Pentecost 12 Proper 17 - Psalm 112 "Blessed"

Psalm 112:1–10 (ESV) Praise the LORD!  Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!  His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.  Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.  Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.  It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.  For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.  He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.  His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.  He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honour.  The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!

The readings for this Sunday all dwell on the biblical theme of blessedness; that is, to be blessed as a state of being, to be blessed by someone, or to bless.  What does it mean to bless someone, to be blessed by someone, and the state of blessedness?

To be blessed in its simplest form is to be happy or fortunate.  But if a person seeks to bless themselves or deem themselves as blessed, it’s actually one of the quickest ways to become angry with everyone around them as well as themselves.  So, to be blessed and to bless is much more than being happy, being fortunate, being pleased or pleasing someone else.

At the end of the gospel reading today, when dining in the house of a Pharisee ruler, Jesus says, “when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,  and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. ” (Luke 14:13-14a)

Straight away in this text, we see being blessed when one gives a feast to those who cannot repay, is not about being happy.  One may be happy to do this but more is going on.

The biblical definition of “blessedness” has a much deeper function than just happiness and being fortunate.  In Psalm 112 we hear, “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!” (Psalm 112:1 ESV)

The person who is blessed here can be happy or pleased.  But the question one must ask, “Is why can they be pleased or happy?” 

The Hebrew word for blessed has at its root the meaning to be straight or level.  When one is on the straight and narrow, they move forward with confidence, with honesty, in the right way, on a level path.  Or, if one is “on the level” they are honest and are being truthful. 

When a person is level or blessed, they are balanced.   A good way of understanding blessed as balanced is like that of a level set of scales.  Neither leaning to the left nor the right, but evenly balanced.

The straightness of being blessed also means, straight up and down too.  That is to be upright.  It is no accident therefore, in Psalm 112 that after it says, “Blessed the man who fears the Lord”, it continues in verse two, “His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.  Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.  Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.”  (Psalm 112:2–4 ESV)

Twice the Psalmist says “upright” in these verses.  So, one who is blessed, balanced, level or upright, can endure forever in righteousness.  This person can move forward on a level plain in the face of the ups and downs of trials and tribulations.

In these verses it says, “the generation of the upright will be blessed.”  The Hebrew literally says, “the blessed will be blessed”, when it says “the upright will be blessed.”  But these two Hebrew words have different meanings.

Whereas the first “blessed” we’ve looked at, means “upright or balanced”.  Here the second “blessed” means, “to kneel or bend oneself in adoration or to curse”.  This adoration or cursing is what one does in worship when they’re in awe of someone, or if they hate and curse them because they’re believed to be awful. 

Blessing here is about praise and its opposite; what one says about someone else.  So when it says, “The blessed will be blessed” it means, “the upright or the balanced will be bowed down to, praised and spoken well of”!

Notice these two forms of blessedness are pictures of body language.  One is straight up and down, or balanced and level, while the other is bent bowing, honouring, and saying good to others about them.  This is not surprising as the Hebrew language was originally a spoken language of oral tradition, an unwritten picture language, whereas the Greek of the New Testament is an academic written language.

In the New Testament, the most well-known verses on blessings are the Beatitudes where Jesus teaches the crowd and the disciples at the Sermon on the Mount.

The other word for bless in the New Testament is a Greek word familiar to us in English, eulogy, which means to speak good words about someone.

The readings today all deal with the theme of “blessedness”.  If one seeks to be blessed in one’s own sight and takes the seat of honour, the writer of Proverbs tells us, this can lead to being humiliated.

“Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great,  for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.”   (Proverbs 25:6–7 ESV)

Jesus heals a man at the house of a Pharisee ruler.  His fellow diners could not answer Jesus’ logic for healing this fellow on the Sabbath.  Jesus then tells a parable about those who took the honoured positions at a wedding feast. 

Put yourselves in the place of the guest?  What happens when you take the positions of honour?  Will you bless the host, or expect to be blessed?  How level-headed or balanced are you if you take the honoured position, especially when someone of greater honour arrives?  Not only is blessedness about body language.   It’s also about one’s prominence, status, or social standing in society. 

Blessedness not only deals with body language but also reputation.  What is your reputation like with God?  Are you blessed by God?  What does that actually mean?  It means, when Jesus returns in his glory to separate the sheep from the goats, will you be one of the goats who have blessed oneself or one of the sheep blessed by God?  What type of reputation do you have with God?

Jesus says, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  (Luke 14:11 ESV)

I cannot imagine a worse thought than the humiliation of being labelled by God “a goat” or a person of ill-repute on judgement day.   Do you want to be treated by the Eternal Host of heaven the same way you have hosted those God puts before you here on earth? 

What makes us good blokes, good sheilas, good people in God’s eyes?

Let Psalm 112 be the text that judges you.  It starts out with the command to “Praise the Lord!”  Do you praise God as Lord all the time or do you Lord it over others, or do you busy yourself, so others praise you?

Do you fear the Lord, do you delight in his commandments.  What makes your offspring mighty?  When others bless you does it turn people to God or away from God?  Does your wealth and riches fuel righteousness that endures… forever!  Are you gracious, merciful, and righteous?  By whose justice do you conduct your affairs?  Will you be remembered forever?  Is your heart firm in the face of death, or even as you hear these questions?  Are you considering the poor when you leave here today?  Or perhaps, this line of questioning irks you and makes you get angry?

We realise very quickly that our blessedness, when built on ourselves, makes us no better than a ruling Pharisee or his guests, angry because we’re not getting the honour, we believe we deserve.

Yet we praise the Lord!  How can that be, since God clearly shows us through Jesus’ parable, we present ourselves as honoured guests but are quickly humiliated by the Word of God? 

It’s here we’re called to see that God is the one who is inviting us to his banquet.   He invites us, his church, as the bride of the Bridegroom.  You and I are the poor, crippled, the lame, and the blind.  Now married to Jesus Christ the Head of the heavenly house, we can be compassionate to those who like us are poor, crippled, lame, and blind.  Like us who have been made friends in the wedding feast of the Lamb, we can befriend our enemies, just as Jesus has done with us.

So, praise the LORD, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Why? 

Because Jesus is the man who fears the LORD, and delights in his commandments.  We are his offspring, mighty in the land, we are the generation of the balanced, blessedly helpless forgiven sinners to whom God bows and blesses, because we confess our sin and forgive those who sin against us!  The light of God has dawned in the darkness of our hearts, showing us sin to confess. 

Why do we do this?  Because God deals generously with you.  He lends you his Son and the Holy Spirit.  He is justifying you with the justice of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  You won’t be moved while you allow the Holy Spirit to remain.  You are not afraid of bad news; you are firm, trusting in the Good News.  God has won the victory over your sinful self!  You can now distribute freely; Christ has exalted you and in him your righteousness endures forever.

Your old Adam will be angry!  But that is a good sign of your salvation too.  He is angry because he is dying, he might gnash his teeth, but he is melting away, he and all his desires are dying, leaving Jesus the Bridegroom of heaven to take you as his bride, the church.  He forgives and feeds you and me, in his eternal wedding feast! 

Praise the LORD!  Jesus has balanced your scales!  God blesses you; you are blessed!  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 11 Proper 16 - Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 Hebrews 12:22-25 "Pleasure"

Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 (ESV) If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.  If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Tina Arena wrote and released a song called, It’s time to go to church, on  April 30, 2021[1].  In it she sings, “I forgive you for everything.  For all the nights I couldn't sleep.  I forgive you for surfacing.  When I was looking for what I need.  Now I tell you everything.  Now I know my worth.  It's time to go to church.  It's time to go to church.”

Being a listener of her music, I must say I was surprised by her song when it came out.  After all, she sings, it’s time to go to church.  And being a pastor in a church, thought, “Okay!  That’s a pretty good thing to sing!”  I was tempted to justify it as a wholesome song.  But the lyrics are vague and unclear.  Who is she addressing in the lines of the song, and what is the church to which she believes it’s time to go?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the song very much.  But because I do, there’s a strong desire within me seeking to justify the ambiguity, as I like both the song and the artist.

She sings on, “Love forgive me for not listening.  To myself and to my truth.  I forgive you for questioning.  I'm still breathing, that's my proof.  Now I tell you everything.  Now I know my worth.  It's time to go to church.  It's time to go to church.”

The “you” she addresses in this verse reveals itself as “love”.  She asks love to forgives her for everything.  Tina forgives love for the nights she couldn’t sleep, for surfacing, for questioning, and now tells love everything.  Because of love she now sings, “I know my worth.  It’s time to go to church.”

What is one’s church?  If you are thinking of a building or a denomination, yes, these are what you could consider as a church!  However, I invite you to think broader of what church can be in one’s experience as well as what kind of church God is seeking to bring you into.

In Tina Arena’s song, she addresses love.  Love here is still ambiguous, and I believe it is most likely unclear for a deliberate reason.  To make it pleasing to the ear, love is vague so the listener can make love anything they want.  Love could be a person, an object, an animal, or even the self.

Love in our age is left unclear so we can love whatever or wherever we find pleasure.  One can go to a church, a creation within, for worship of what one loves.  Or, what pleases the person.

On any given Sunday one can drive around and see people attending to activities of pleasure.  These activities of love don’t just happen on a Sunday, but over the years have invaded our lives.  Sundays have become increasingly busy, diverting people from coming to rest in God’s presence, in his church.

All people find time to go to church!  However, the church most seek, and most attend is the place of their pleasures.  This actively involves turning one’s back on God because it requires one’s pleasure to be above God.

One could say they, “find church in themselves”.  They stimulate their feelings of pleasure by gathering around themselves things that give them pleasure.  

The problem is these things kill.  Whereas, trusting God, letting him serve you and bind himself to you, gives life.  All other pleasures in which we put our trust become yokes, burdening, and binding us to unhappiness and uncertainty.  They make us anxious and eventually they lead to death.  

Look what happens in humanity’s first worship event without God, when they seek not to rest with him, in his pleasure. 

“…when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”  (Genesis 3:6–7 ESV)

In these two verses from Genesis three, we see the extremes of desire and shame.  Knowledge of good and evil in the one event!  What appeared to be good was also evil!

Eve sees the fruit is good, it delights her, and the promise of wisdom also stimulates desire.  Did it taste good?  We’re not told!  However, immediately there is knowledge, and a wisdom that leads to shame of their nakedness. 

Over the years humans have continued to worship without God.  In these times our worship of the self, plays out in the same theatre of good and evil.  This is not without effect on our conscience as conscience literally means, “with knowledge” or “knowing within”.

Like Eve, we look and delight in what we see.  A feel-good chemical is released, and we want more.  Ironically one of the devices used to get the feel-good release is called an apple device.  But it’s not smart phones that are the issue.  No, it’s the yoked and bound individual who can’t let go of the electronic apple.  Why?  Because it gives the feel-good hormone, leading one on the path of least resistance to pleasure.

It’s not just the phone that yokes us in addiction to pleasure.  We get something new – we get the feel-good kick.  We eat chocolate or something else we like – we get the feel-good kick.  Receive a phone or snap chat notification – there’s the feel-good kick.  Coveting in the catalogue – O, it feels so good.  Look at porn or lust after someone you’ve seen in the street – and there’s an injection of feel-good hormone that gives pleasure.

Tina Arena sings, “Something within places I've been.  Blood running thin, I'm sorry.  Somewhere between Heaven and sin.”

So, the chocolate becomes guilty weight.  The pleasure of porn turns to shame and hatred of self.  The joy of the app, computer game success, the social media message, a Facebook like, or a product purchase; they don’t last, they don’t give the pleasure we sort from them.  To get that feel-good buzz.  You want more, more, more! 

These things all act like drugs because they produce a natural drug within you, called the dopamine hormone.   Eventually you’re yoked and addicted to the feeling this pleasure hormone gives, becoming no longer an isolated want, but a need you can’t do without.  Your worth is now reliant on the thing you love, and one must worship what they love, even when one hates it and dislikes what it’s doing.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people and yet they, like Adam and Eve, and us, were always being drawn away from God to other pleasures, and Isaiah was sent to proclaim God’s word to them.

He says, “If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.  If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” ( Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 ESV)

We live in a time when the pleasures of this age have drawn our children away from God’s church.  Also, many who are brought into God’s church, resist, because they’re under the bondage of the pleasures to which they are yoked for the other six days and eleven hours of the week. 

How am I to break freed from this bondage?  How can my children be freed too?  How can we look on God once again as the one and only true God?

We need to let our brains and our bodies rest with God from busying ourselves from the pleasures we’ve become addicted to.  We need put aside our pride and no longer be the rulers of our synagogues of sin, the creators of our own churches, and let the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ deliver us into the holiness of God’s Church.  This only happens when the Holy Spirit can lead you to the stillness of Jesus on the cross.

There is hope only in your Lord Jesus Christ.  It was his pleasure to endure the cross for your victory.  There too is forgiveness, when you have perverted God’s church into a church of selfish pleasure as did the ruler of the synagogue. 

If Jesus can heal a woman bound by Satan for eighteen years, Jesus can make you straight by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the support of others whom he is healing too.

Are you coming to church but not allowing the church of God to come to you.  Are the things you worship so powerful they are rewiring your brain, away from resting in God, being busied pursuing pleasure and its deadly trap?

You have a pastor that struggles to rest in God too.  He along with all of us are products of the fallen world in which we live.  He will not condemn you in your struggle or confession.  But, in love for the Lord and you, he will name God’s forgiveness in your confession and assist you to keep your eyes on Jesus and what the Holy Spirit brings you into when you come to God’s church.

“…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,  and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.  For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.  (Hebrews 12:22–25 ESV)

Amen.

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ9Y7jif1C8

C, Post-Pentecost 10 Proper 15 - Luke 12:49-59 Hebrews 12:1-2 "Discerning the Division"

Luke 12:49–59 (ESV) “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.  For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens.  And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens.  You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?  As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.  I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

The word of God creates fire.  Fire consumes, but it also purifies what is burnt.  Jesus came to cast fire on the earth, saying, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”  (Luke 12:49–51 ESV)

With these words he says a little later to both the crowd and the disciples, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:56–57 ESV)

Many years have past since Jesus roamed the Middle East, enduring life in the flesh of humanity from his baptism in the waters of the Jordan to his baptism of blood at the cross, resurrection, and ascension to his rightful place in victory over sin and death.  He now intercedes for us sinners before God the Father, and together they both send the Holy Spirit, to bring us in daily repentance to the cross through our baptism into his death. 

In the present time his call to judge for ourselves what is right, is still relevant, as is his question, why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?  Interpreting the present time with considerable time having passed since Jesus’ has returned to the right hand of the Father, is made challenging, to say the least, with the divisions we need to navigate on the way to our eternal Judge.

Divisions and splits have been occurring since just after the dawn of time.  As we’re faced with deciding what to do, who to follow, who to overlook, who to ignore, distress and disillusionment works on us.   Our society is probably more cynical than any society before us, and this cynicism puts pressure on faith in God.

It’s no surprise when cynicism overwhelms humanity, we shelter within the safety of ourselves, seeking to align ourselves with those with whom we feel safe, those who share the same views as us, and those who don’t seek to stop us from doing what we want.  And in doing so, we only add to the fostering of further divisions and distress.

Fear today is real.  Financial collapse, disillusionment with democracy, instability from political polarisation within world powers leading to weaponization and wariness, unhealthy health systems, social pleasures that produce increased social pain, and the paradoxical fear of climate change verses the fear of not wanting to give up our machines, all lead to further division and fear.

However, these things that cause divisions are distractions that lead to deception, and we’re not immune to these deceptions within the church either!

In recent times there have been divisions over whether to be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated.  Churches have become divided over musical styles, in what have become known as worship wars.  In the LCA division is threatening over the ongoing debate on women’s ordination. 

On both sides of these debates, folk waist the present time, critical time, vilifying the other side as evil.  But I suspect in God’s eyes, both sides of these divisions are on the opposite side to that of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ comes to bring fire on the earth, yet we end up kindling fires of our own that have little to nothing to do with the righteousness of God, instead have everything to do with our own division from the one true faith.

Here Jesus Christ rightly stands as our accuser while we fail to judge what is right.  Jesus warns, “As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.  I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.” (Luke 12:58–59 ESV)

So, what is it that Jesus accuses us of?  Sin of course!

As we walk on the way to the Judge Eternal, how are we to settle with Jesus who accuses us of sin?  If we point the finger, we justify his accusation and we will surely never be able to pay neither the first nor the last penny.

God the Father delights in the truth in your inward being.  In fact, he teaches wisdom in the secret heart.  What is the truth taught within and how is it taught?

King David tells us exactly what it is in Psalm fifty-one, saying, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  (Psalm 51:1–5 ESV)

The secret wisdom is that we are sinners, what Jesus rightfully accuses us of!

But how is this wisdom taught in the secret place within?  Again, David tells us as he craves for it in his confession, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”  (Psalm 51:10–12 ESV)

A clean heart comes from a right spirit.  A right spirit exists within, while the Holy Spirit remains.  And when the Holy Spirit remains, he is the Willing Spirit within us.

What does he will us to do?  He wills us to walk with Jesus to the Magistrate and Judge, God the Father.

This is where the right discernment of the division occurs.  We see ourselves as one with those whom we have divisions, we confess our sin, we forgive each other.  The Holy Spirit generates faith, to will and work within us as individuals and as a faith community.  We are rightly distressed because of our sin and the divisions we have practised.  We allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to whom it is that accuses.

We realise he who walks with us through this life accusing us, causing fire within, does not want to divide us from God the Father, but wants to bring us to the Father, the Eternal Judge, to put us right and divide sin from us.  Our Heavenly Father is also the Magistrate, who seeks to pronounce a sentence of forgiveness and eternal life on us too.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we realise our rightful Accuser is actually our Saviour, having  paid the last penny and freed us from the eternal prison of hell.

On realisation of this, we no longer are dragged to the Judge by the Accuser.  No!  Rather we run to him by the power of the Holy Spirit, confessing, forgiving, each other.  We praise God having been put right with him, and those from whom we were divided and with whom we were disillusioned.  The Judge now hands us over to the Officer, not to put us in prison, but to keep us in protective custody.  Who is God’s Officer?  He is the Holy Spirit!

On discerning the division, we see those from whom we were once divided and whom we waisted time fighting, actually on the same side forgiven, as we too are forgiven; running and encouraging each other to run toward Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  (Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV)

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, let us interpret the present time correctly and judge what is right.  Send your Holy Spirit to fire in us faith, turning sin to ash, and purifying us with forgiveness in the founder and perfecter of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 9 Proper 14 - Luke 12:32,37 Hebrews 11:12 "As Good as Dead"

Luke 12:32, 37 (ESV) “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

Hebrews 11:12 (ESV) Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Abram was a rich man, but he was as good as dead.  He had faith in God, but he wished to propagate his line, encouraged by his wife, Sarai, to take Hagar, her servant, and secure a future through her son, Ishmael.

You might find it interesting that Abram, come Abraham, after being promised by God that he would have his own heir, listens to Sarai, Sarah, has genital union with her servant Hagar, and has a son.  The faith in which Abraham and Sarah act, seems contrary to the faith they were credited with in the letter to the Hebrews.

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.  Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.  (Hebrews 11:11–12 ESV)

A world of hurt follows after Hagar conceived and gives birth to Ishmael.  Ishmael receives the blessing God gave to Abraham, becoming a multitude of peoples, but he does not allow Abraham and Sarah’s faith in themselves see Ishmael as the heir.  Instead, God allows Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness to seemingly fend for themselves with bread and water that quickly run out.

Hagar and Ishmael too are as good as dead, which appears to be not good at all.  Imagine being Hagar and Ishmael.  What would your faith be like in their situation?  The laughter and joy at the birth of Isaac, I imagine, was not shared by Hagar and Ishmael having been cast out into a certainty of being as good as dead.

The picture God paints for us in his word as being as good as dead, is not as bad in God’s eyes as it is ours!  He allows Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael to reach a point at which they are no longer able to act.  Within each of these characters God kills all faith, hope, and love, exhausting every human act, erasing every idea and all sentiment. 

Not only was Abraham as good as dead, but also, he couldn’t give faith to Sarah, Sarah couldn’t give faith to Hagar, and nor could Hagar give faith to Ishmael.  God is the only one to give faith.  But first he seeks to see in us the complete annihilation and obliteration of looking to the self.  He uses death for good, making us as good as dead.

Talking about death in this way, is counter cultural.  To be made nothing and erased rightly fills us with hopelessness and helplessness.  It may be your response to busy yourself, to try to overcome the feelings of fear associated with this reality.  Worry can drive one to work with a desire to force these feelings out.

On the other hand, becoming nothing and being erased may leave you struck with fear.  So much so you are frozen by fear and are overcome by the poverty of your hopelessness and helplessness.

In a society driven by the pursuit of pleasure it is a strange paradox that we are faced by so much fear and unhappiness.  However, when faith in oneself and the pleasing of oneself no longer pleases, fear and unhappiness must come when our treasure of pleasure is dead.

This death of pleasure occurs inside and outside the church, and it seems a terrible thing, but God allows us to be as good as dead so goodness might come through death.

For you and me, inside the church, we learn a valuable lesson.  We learn about being Christian is not necessarily about doing Christian things. 

In fact, there are many outside Christendom that do many greater things than those inside the church.  In the eyes of the world, philanthropists do good deeds spending millions on selfless works in society.  Humanitarians too, also seem to improve society with the good work they do.  Their love for their fellow human is second to none, outdoing us in the church doing “Christian things”.

Doing Christian things might please some!  But doing Christian things to be seen as a Christian, does not please God.  One needs to prayerfully consider what one’s pleasure actually is, in doing Christian things.  If I do things to feel pleased, am I not pleasing the god of myself?  I am using the things of God to worship myself.  And what happens when the things I do, no longer gives me pleasure?

Being a Christian, calls us to be in the pleasures of death; to be as good as dead.  That sounds strange.  It sounds like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.  How can there be pleasure in death?  Death is about annihilation, becoming nothing, obliteration, or being erased from existence. 

Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  (Luke 12:34 ESV)  Where your treasure is, there is your pleasure.  If your pleasure is doing Christian things, then your treasure is the doing of the deeds. 

However, when we are as good as dead, our pleasure cannot come from doing anything.  But,  when we are as good as dead, our existence or having our being must come from God and this pleases him because he is the only one who can truly do it.

In our Lutheran Confessions it says… But before people are enlightened, converted, reborn, renewed, and drawn back to God by the Holy Spirit, they cannot in and of themselves, out of their own natural powers, begin, effect, or accomplish anything in spiritual matters for their own conversion or rebirth, any more than a stone or block of wood or piece of clay can.  [Isaiah 45:9; 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:19–24]

For although they can control their bodies and can listen to the gospel and think about it to a certain extent and even speak of it (as Pharisees and hypocrites do), they regard it as foolishness and cannot believe it.  They behave in this case worse than a block of wood, for they are rebellious against God’s will and hostile to it, wherever the Holy Spirit does not exercise his powers in them and ignite and effect faith and other God-pleasing virtues and obedience in them.[1]

It pleases God when he finds us ready.  We are made ready by the Holy Spirit, and he readies us in the Word of God and the Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit places us in the cycle of faith, breathing life into that which is as good as dead. 

In fact, he must make us ready for the coming of the Bridegroom by making us dead.  God finds us as nothing, so he can give us everything and make us something, a Christian being, working and moving in the being of Christ, doing the things of God as the Holy Spirit wills us.  For “In him we live and move and have our being”.  (Acts 17:28 ESV)

Jesus tells us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32 ESV)

We see in war movies, when one is injured on the battlefield and cannot escape the enemy patrol, looking to finish off those who are still alive, some survive by playing dead, so the killers pass by giving the injured a chance to escape. 

Opposite to this is the Christian who is ready for the Father’s good pleasure.  He needs us not to play alive, as if we do not need his help and can save ourselves.  We don’t need to play dead either, our reality is that we are as good as dead.  It pleases God when we know and trust this in his word and make ourselves ready for his coming, because “our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV)

When we ready ourselves in the knowledge as being as good as dead, it pleases God to rescue us from the “no man’s land” of suffering and sin.  Jesus tells us what he does for us, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12:37 ESV)

Faith that pleases God, is a faith that places its pleasure in the death of self, the death of desire and sin as well as the death of do-gooder righteousness.   A faith that pleases God is a faith that treasures Jesus Christ and his service to us in the forgiveness of sin, giving life to sinners. 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  (Romans 6:3 ESV)

It is better, to be awake and ready to the reality of being as good as dead, than to be so busy pleasing and saving the self that one shuts out Christ, knocking at the door of one’s heart!

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, as Jesus comes and knocks on the door of our hearts, may he find us ready, enter, and serves us with the bread of faith, hope, and love, in his word and in his body and blood.  Send you Holy Spirit to work the death of faith, hope, and love in the things of this world, our sin, and our sinful being, so he might continually serve us with your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, that each of us may remain in the goodness and treasure of his death.  Amen.

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[1] Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000).  The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, 2:24 (pp. 548–549).  Fortress Press.