A, Palm/Passion- Isaiah 50:4–9a "That Sinking Feeling"

We’ve all experienced that terrible sinking feeling somewhere and at some time in our lives. 

It may have been only for the briefest of moments.  It may have lasted for a considerable amount of time.  That terrible sinking feeling may have occurred in public before many people; it could have happened when you were alone or with one other person.  You might be feeling it right now!  In any situation, this feeling gives a sense of ugliness, feeling dis-easy, your skin and mood descends into clamminess and coldness.

Impending doom, loss of control, something gone horribly wrong gives one this feeling.  The moment before impact, the moment after the doctor gives the diagnosis, so much pain you think you’re going to die, so much pain you worry you’re not going to die, watching someone suffering.  Am I God forsaken?  Are we forsaken!  That sinking feeling.

The pain of grief and loss, tears so bitter they hurt.  The loneliness after the loss, that sinking feeling.

Being caught out, publicly humiliated, guilty facing your accuser, that sinking feeling.

The calm suddenly becomes chaos, conflict with others, anger, confrontation, harsh words spoken, accusations flying, going past the point of no return, regret, that terrible sinking feeling.

The injustice of the situation, falsely accused, no one believes the truth, helplessly unable to stop the inevitable, depression, anxiety, despair, hopelessness, that sinking feeling.

Promises broken, expectations shattered, the height of joyful excitement stopped with fright and fear, desire unfulfilled, frustration, that sinking feeling.

We’ve all experienced that terrible sinking feeling somewhere and at some time in our lives.  All these contributors, from whatever it was, that’s caused that terrible sinking feeling, is a sense of death that causes the fight or flight instinct to kick in. 

When that sinking feeling occurs, do you run to God or run away from him?  Do you struggle with God, or do you give up on him?  Do you seek a knowledge of good and evil, or a knowledge of Jesus Christ, trusting in yourself, or trusting in what Jesus promises in his Word?  When that terrible sinking feeling of death touches you, how do you respond?

Feelings were running high when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  But the tone changed, the crowd turned, victorious excitement turned into vicious incitement.  Sunday saw Jesus ride into Jerusalem in majesty, not to overthrow the Romans as expected, but to overturn the tables of the traders in the temple. 

The Jewish leaders felt fury when Jesus taught crowds, while confronting, confounding, and silencing them with the very words in which they sought to trap him.

The feelings of the disciples were sorely tested, when Jesus told them the temple would be torn down, and the coming of the kingdom of heaven will be proceeded by chaos and tribulation.  Judas feeling his way as he betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, feelings running so deep one of the captor’s ears is cut off.

That sinking feeling was present everywhere, in so many ways!  The disciples scatter, Judas regrets what he does, he changes his mind, he loses his mind, he hangs himself.  Peter too promises much, but three times fails, outside he wept so bitterly. That sinking feeling was everywhere!

The rage of the chief priests and the elders,  Pilate’s wife sends word, “have nothing to do with this man”, the crowd cries, “crucify him”, Pilate feels trapped, that sinking feeling.  He washes his hands, injustice, and Barabbas is released.  The women of Galilee watch on from a distance, they see the unfairness, they see the wrong.  O can anyone stop that sinking feeling?

See him nailed to the cross.  Six hours of suffering till he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He breathes his last, he hangs his head, it is finished!

Much happened in Holy Week!  High emotion, feelings flying to-and-fro!  Just like us when we have those negative sinking feelings, so too did those in Jerusalem.

These feelings led folk to fight or flee.  Even once Jesus was dead and the graves opened, and the dead came out of their tombs, and when the soldier realised Jesus was the Son of God.  That sinking feeling! 

When the temple curtain tore from top to bottom, and the Jews suspected Jesus would be stolen from the tomb, placing a guard to protect their image, rather than protect the glory of God.  That sinking feeling.

These sinking feelings are all feelings of death.  Everyone was feeling a sense of death.  People scrambling left, right, and centre, to preserve their position, their ideals, their futures, their advantage from death.  When that sinking feeling of death approached, everyone sought to protect their knowledge of good and evil!

What was Jesus feeling during Holy Week when the crowds joyously welcomed him on a donkey?  When he taught and tested in the temple?  What was Jesus feeling when he celebrated his last supper, sharing his bread with Judas Iscariot, who would betray him, and not be around to see his resurrection, believe and receive forgiveness?  With Peter, who was promising so much but would deny him, not just once, but three times?

Of Jesus we hear in Isaiah, “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.  The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.  I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.  But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.  He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.  Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty?”  (Isaiah 50:4–9a ESV)

Jesus was sent into this sinking world with our sinking feelings of death.  The stink of death was constantly before him.  Unlike us, he never put it aside, tried to forget about it, while secretly worrying about it.  He never fought or fled from the situation before him, even when everyone else did. 

Jesus felt that sinking feeling.  He wept over death, he lamented over Jerusalem, he suffered under sin.  He became estranged from his Father, abandoned on the cross.  Yes, Jesus felt that sinking feeling, your sinking feeling that gives you a taste of death, and died for you.  Your sinking feeling led him to sink into death, for you to feel forgiveness, receive forgiveness, hear, and taste forgiveness, so you  believe his forgiveness!

When you were baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection, he was baptised into your terrible sinking feelings of death!  Jesus was baptised into your guilt, your conflict with your work colleagues, your estranged family, your shame and embarrassment, your failures, the unfairness you bear, the prejudices you produce, the injustice you induce. All that causes that sinking feeling in you, Jesus was born into, was baptised into, die for, and has risen over.

When he was incarnated in Mary, he saw your mess.  When he rode into Jerusalem, he carried all your cares.  When he healed, he took on your illnesses.  When he confronted the proud and arrogant, he called out your vanity and selfish ways.  When tempted by the devil with sinking feelings, know he overcame your temptation before the devil.  Know, when the Holy Spirit allows a sense of death, in that sinking feeling, he is leading you from death to life in Jesus Christ!

Whatever it is, causing that sinking feeling of death, fall into the arms of Jesus.  Let Jesus carry you to the cross.  He is the only one who can carry us through death and into life as it should be. 

When that sinking feeling is forced upon you, at the moment you realise your good and evil is incapacitated by death, let Jesus Christ love you with his flint-like face!  Let his good over evil be your only good!  Let your death be his death!  Let his victory be your victory! Amen.

A, Mid Week Lent 5- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Cross Living"

Matthew 27:50 (ESV)  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Mark 15:37 (ESV)  And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.

Luke 23:46 (ESV)  Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

John 19:30 (ESV) When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

By the cross of Jesus, Lord teach us how to live.

As Lutherans we believe in a theology of the cross, rather than a theology of glory. 

One who believes in a theology of glory looks for blessings in this life and the next, through the works they do for God.  That God would make them prosperous, give them health and long life, give them success in the way they live, and welcome them into heaven for being a good person.

The problem with a theology of glory is it’s unbiblical and out of touch with reality.  Rather than being from God, it originates out of the expectations of the self that one can be acceptable to God through what one does.  The outcome of this is pride and arrogance towards God and with those with whom one lives. 

This is not the reality of Jesus Christ.  It is not the way he lived.  It is not the way he died.  If a theology of glory can be justified, then Jesus Christ did not need to be sent. He did not need to put aside his divinity and submit to being born, living with pain and suffering — the suffering of circumcision, the hurt of humility and hunger’s desire unsatisfied, and the pain of the passion!

This is the theology of the cross.  Jesus lived knowing he would die on the cross.  He had no free will but rather submitted to the will of our Father.  He died because in our freedom we willingly turn our backs on God, to pursue the pleasure of the will.

The expectation that comes from a theology of glory is a human idol and one that is short lived.  The reality of living with a sinful nature in a sinful world, will always be shown for what it is, by one’s own pain and suffering, in the endeavour of seeking pleasure.  Sooner or later, this human expectation for  pleasure will hurt others as a result of one’s haughtiness.   

Human haughtiness, pride, finds its ultimate opposition before God.  This is so, because in our pride we usurp the place of God and seek to take his place.  When we become second to none, we have no fear in God, no trust in God, and as a law unto oneself, one’s desire becomes the number one law.

Jesus was sent by God the Father to put this human mess right.  How did he do it?  And how is it practically beneficial for living today?

Jesus actively became passive, so he could passively become active.  What is this?

Everything Jesus did, from his birth to his resurrection, was not done by him, but done to him and through him.  Being God the Son he could have done everything of himself but rather in humility he lay his divinity aside and was born as a weak human.  The Holy Spirit was given through the word of archangel Gabriel to create his humanity, and the Holy Spirit guided him in his humanity to the cross.  Jesus received John’s baptism in submission in the Jordan to fulfil all righteousness.  There, the Holy Spirit was seen coming down on him, as a dove, to work the righteousness of God within him.

This was Jesus actively becoming passive, from his incarnation to his resurrection and ascension, he did not birth himself, he did not baptise himself, he did not crucify himself, and although he had power as God the Son to raise himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit caused him to be raised and seen, till his ascension to the right hand of God the Father in glory.

In this passivity, Jesus seemed to be weak!  But this is the paradox where sin, death, and the devil are beaten.  In the Son of God becoming actively passive, his passivity was powerfully active in the Son of Man.  Jesus passively served to powerfully save you and fulfil all righteousness for you.

This is the theology of the cross, this is the way of the cross!

When disruption, decay, and death confront those with a theology of glory, the gory reality of life reveals trust in oneself as dead living.  This is also a paradox.  But it’s a very dangerous paradox, as one is tempted to hate God for removing their idols of glory and walk away from God in despair or defiance.

Like Lazarus dead in the grave, those with a theology of glory or with a theology of the cross have no power to raise themselves.

The last sign Jesus did before Holy Week was to raise Lazarus from the dead.  When Lazarus was still dead he told his sister Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”  (John 11:25–26 ESV)

The only thing Lazarus, and his sisters, had in life, that was worthy, was trust in Jesus.  Those who live with a theology of the cross, live with faith in Jesus’ faithfulness to his Father.

Just as Jesus lived and died under the will of the Father, led and driven by the Holy Spirit, we too live under the reality of the cross.  Just as Jesus lived being led by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit leads us to live in submission to Jesus Christ and the Father, as we, like Jesus, live under the cross, the reality of death.

After Jesus had raised Lazarus, on the night before he was crucified, died, and was buried, he told his disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6 ESV)

Now after Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit actively brings us to the passivity of Jesus Christ in his Word, so we believe, and like Jesus, passively become active in God’s will for us.

After his resurrection, Jesus has been glorified with all power to the right hand of the Father.  Now Jesus actively works the Holy Spirit within, to make you, an active sinner passive, forgiven, and receptive.  God does this so you can passively become an active saint by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is your life under the cross.

God gave Jesus the authority to die, and therefore now gives us the authority to live in Jesus Christ’s righteousness.  Jesus Christ has taken on himself our sin, so we have the power to die to self, laying down our lives, and receive life in his righteousness. 

One’s power to do this is activated by the working of the Holy Spirit within, in hearing and believing: Jesus Christ, commit and yield his spirit, breathe his last breath, lay down his life, and finish what the Father commanded him to do in his life, for me and you.

Jesus did this act once in history!  But the Holy Spirit continues to enlighten and enact it within, throughout time, till Christ returns, in the preaching of the Holy Word, through Law and Gospel, and administration of the Holy Sacraments. 

In the Word and the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit kills one’s old self.  That is, he works to lay down the perverse human spirit within the hearer, in the death of Jesus, when Jesus laid his life down by the will of God.

The Holy Spirit also works to raise the sinner, by making them one as the resurrected temple under the authority of the victorious resurrected Jesus Christ.   The Spirit works to tabernacle Jesus Christ within the receiver who has been made dead and raised in Jesus Christ by the same Holy Word and Sacraments.

God sends the Holy Spirit, to you who believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sin, to empower this death and life within you.

Saint Peter tells us, “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”  (1 Peter 4:19 ESV)

Those who live under the theology of the cross, know they suffer as a result of sin, do good by glorifying God by hanging that sin on the cross, and wait in hope for the “promise of a new heaven and earth in which righteousness dwells.  (2 Peter 2:13)

We who live under the cross, live by the Holy Spirit who leads us in the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ, trusting the Holy Spirit is finishing within us our death and resurrection into Jesus Christ’s new creation. 

So, when we breathe our last, having already yielded up our human spirit to the Holy Spirit, we sleep peacefully in death,  knowing we will be raised eternally in Jesus Christ, Amen.

A, Lent 5 - Ezekiel 37:1-14 "A Bone to Pick"

Dry bones in a dead paddock paints a picture of desolation!  What was once covered in life with flesh and sinews is now deserted of life lying in the dust.  Dry bones tell us death has put an end to life.

There’s not much one can do to make bones live.  But bones have been used by people since the earliest of times to make tools, such as knives, hooks, and spears.  Still bone a lifeless object can be used to take life away when it’s used as a weapon.  But then again bone has been used as needles, buttons, and in corsets.  Yet still it’s used as a result of the lifeless cravings people had in the Garden of Eden.

Ezekiel, under the hand of God, had a vision of a valley of bones.  These bones were dry as dry.  They were completely void of water, of life.  But these bones were not the bones of animals.  No!  They were human bones!

It might be one thing seeing bones of animals lying out in the open, but human bones in mass numbers, surely would run a chill up anyone’s spine.  The sight of human skulls and empty bodily frames would cut to the bone of any living person.  We’re thankful we are spared having to witness such a gut-wrenching sight.  But, in the past some have uncovered mass graves from human atrocities such as those of World War Two and more recently in places like Bosnia.

But even so these bones were discovered in graves; however, the bones Ezekiel saw were in a valley, out in the open.  Only the bodies of those most contemptible would be left out to rot for all to see.  There would be no honourable burial for those who defiled themselves while alive.  One only has to think of Jezebel, the evil wife of King Ahab, who was thrown into the street, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs.  Only the despicable would be left this way. Human bones scattered like excrement exposed for others to stand on.

And so, God shows Ezekiel bones exposed like these.  Thousands upon thousands of human fragments absent of life, bones as dry as… a bone!  Left desolate, deserted, defiled, and dead!  And God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” To which he replies, “O Lord God, you know.” (Ezekiel 37:3)

God addresses Ezekiel as “the Son of man”.  Immediately this title might resonate within as the title Jesus used of himself over and over again on his march to the cross.  To be a “son of man” is being a son of Adam, a human, a created being from the earth who’s received the breath of life from God. 

Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man.  The eternal and omnipresent Son of God is born the Son of Mary, the Son of Man, in the line of Adam!  Created out of Adam as a servant to those of Adam!  The Son of humanity is also the servant of humanity!

  Ezekiel is called to serve God in this vision by serving these bones.  The question is asked if the bones can live.  We might say in despair, “God only knows!”  But Ezekiel replies, “O Lord God, you know.”

And he did know.  When we look at the context of this vision from chapter 37 in between chapters 36 and the latter half of chapter 37 we see God is restoring his creation and his people from their desolation to the chosen land once given to them.  God was promising to turn the desert back into a fertile place, a land of milk and honey, a place of promise, appearing like the Garden of Eden, with a shepherd serving them as King David once did.

Why was God doing this?  For the sake of his holy name.  He says, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  (Ezekiel 36:22,25–28 ESV)

God had a bone to pick with Israel, and like a bone picked clean by a dog, God had reduced his wayward people through exile and hardship leaving them as dry as a bone chewed clean by dogs.  Not only did he cut to the bone, he left the bone bare and now sends his servant Ezekiel, a Son of man, to be his mouthpiece of life, breathing God’s word back into Israel’s parched desolation.

Even greater than Ezekiel, God the Father sent his Son Jesus Christ as the Son of Man as his servant to restore holiness to all of humanity. And God still seeks to cleanse through Christ, he seeks to sprinkle his grace and mercy on all, cleansing from the idols that seem to pop up in our lives, to daily wash those who allow the Holy Spirit to drown the old sinful “bones” through repentance and resurrect us in forgiveness and faith.

Yes!  God has a bone to pick with you and me, but he has picked us clean in Christ.   But now we’re called to make no bones about it.  Like heart-warming soup on a cold winter’s day, we’re called to swallow the truth of his word with confidence and ease.  Rather than make bones about it, or to put bones in the soup, let God’s way be your way to his glory.

Make no bones about it – Jesus sees you in the hardships of your human existence.  And not only that – like Lazarus you are his friend, and he weeps over what your sin does to you.  But God has done something about it.  He left Jesus languish on the cross, to pay the price of your sin.  We hear Jesus’ heartbreaking cry of our human condition, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me.”  (Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:26) 

These words recorded first in Psalm 22 also testify to Jesus’ wretched bones on the cross, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast…  I can count all my bones — they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” (Psalm 22:14,17–18 ESV)

Your bones, the bones of all believers, the bones of Israel are now bound together by the sinews and flesh of Christ.  Our bodies are not left desolate in the desert for dogs to digest.  No!  Our graves are made holy by God and the Son of Man is returning to roll the stone away from our graves and our lives of sin.  Jesus promises to raise you to life, not in the earthly kingdom of Israel, but in fellowship with him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit in his Holy Kingdom of Heaven.

For… “Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:12–14 ESV) Amen.

A, Mid Week Lent 4- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Love"

By the love of Jesus, Lord teach us how to love.

The treasure of love Jesus gives us, is a treasure that lasts for an eternity.  What is this treasure?  It’s Jesus himself, his sacrifice, his life for your life, eternal life swapped at the cross for death and descent into hell.

Jesus’ treasure of love is all about life!  God the Father loves life, he loves to give life.  His love comes to all people regardless of them, knowing about, or, wanting his love.  God’s love flows to humanity through his giving of life in the world.  All that God created is a gift of love to humanity, and in this creation, he continues to love us by providing all we need.

God’s love also comes to us physically and effectively in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is sent and he comes to us because of the Father’s love for us.  Jesus loves us and he loves God the Father and therefore lovingly follows the will of God the Father.

Jesus giving himself to us in love, is about eternal life.  God the Father provides for us in this created world, and he gives us Jesus Christ so we might have new life in his eternal realm.  Jesus is God’s gift of eternal love to us!

We hear from Luke chapter ten, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’  He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’  And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’  And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’” (Luke 10:25–28 ESV)

The law man meets Jesus.  He is second to none in his knowledge and practise of the Old Testament Law.  He asks the Gospel Man about life who directs him back to the Law and from it we hear the summary of the Ten Commandments,  ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’  To which Jesus gives the Lawyer the “Law answer” to life,  “do this, and you will live”.

Notice the Law answer is about us doing the loving.  If humanity could love God the right way, then we could get eternal life.

Now, from Mark chapter ten, hear Jesus’ interaction with someone else who seeks eternal life, “And as Jesus was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments…  And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’  And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’  Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (Mark 10:17–19a, 20­–22 ESV) 

Jesus loved him!  He told him what to do, to get rid of his treasures to receive treasures in heaven.  To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself, is what one must do to love God, and to receive eternal life.

Two problems loom at this point.  Can we do this love effectively enough to receive God’s love and eternal life?  And secondly, when Jesus looked at the man and loved him, it does not sound like he loved him, in his response, and the man’s reaction.  What is going on?  What is this love?  How do we love as Jesus loved?

Jesus loving look at the man and reply does not invoke feelings of love from the man, but rather sorrow and looking away from Jesus back to his possessions.

Immediately after this, “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’  And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’  And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, ‘Then who can be saved?’  Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.’  Peter began to say to him, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you.’”  (Mark 10:23–28 ESV)

Peter and the disciples still did not get what this love was all about.  Yes, he and the disciples had left everything to follow Jesus, but they did not understand the fullness of “everything”, nor to where they were following him! 

To where was Jesus looking when he looked at the man and loved him?  To where was Jesus looking when he said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God.”

We hear from Luke chapter nine, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  (Luke 9:51 ESV)

Jesus’ love for the lawyer, and the man he looked at in love, was not that he gave them a method through which to love God and receive eternal life.  But rather Jesus’ love, for them, and us, is at the cross, Jesus loved God the Father with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength and with all his mind, and his neighbour as himself.  Jesus loves us in the fulfilment of the Law at the cross.

Notice the Gospel is about Jesus loving us where we fail to love him through the Law!

So, what do we learn from Jesus’ love for us, so we might learn to love one another?  Hear what Jesus says to Simon Peter after his resurrection…

“‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’  He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’  He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep’.  And after saying this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’”  (John 21:15–17,19b ESV)

Little do we realise we have the eternal treasure of love now, as we follow Jesus.  He allows the Law to show us our sin, and therefore our death, to face us towards eternal life.  Like the man asking what he should do to earn eternal life, we do well to not walk away disheartened, but to keep following Jesus to the foot of the cross.  It’s here he swapped and continues to swap our sin and sinfulness for his sinlessness and righteousness.

For us humans to enter into a relationship of love, we “follow Jesus”.  Like Peter, God is working in you with his Holy Spirit, teaching you the possibilities of God as he reveals the impossibilities of our perishable possessions, our time bound by death, and sinful selves.   God the Father, and God the Son continue to love us by giving us renewed life in the Holy Spirit. 

Notice the Holy Spirit loves to give new life in Jesus Christ’s work of love!

Like Peter, we are being taught and inspired by the Holy Spirit that giving up “everything” to follow Jesus, first begins with giving up the powers and principles within ourselves, which are really nothingness, so the powers and principles of our Triune God work in us and through us, giving us everything to die to self and love others as God loves us.   

Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.  These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”  (John 15:12–17 ESV)

God continues to love us, now we have the power to love God and others, because the Holy Spirit wells up faith within us.  This is a faith in the faithfulness of Jesus’ love toward us, and in it the Spirit empowers within us an enduring love to be faithful towards one another, to feed and forgive, and humbly seek forgiveness too.

A, Lent 4 - John 9:5, Ephesians 5:6–14,18c,21 "God's Light and His Power"

John 9:5 (ESV) “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14b ESV)   

How?  How does one, who sleeps with the dead, rise?  Is this an impossible proposition?  A human cannot raise themselves!  But with God, all things are possible!

Jesus comes to a man born blind in the precincts of a synagogue.  One could imagine the blind man wondering how he might exist with his blindness.  He has to live off the charity of those coming and going to hear the Rabbis teach.  There was no way this fellow would ever expect to enter the synagogue physically or spiritually, because of his blindness and the religious stigma he bore for being blind. 

The disciples testify to the reality of their blindness and lifeless thinking by questioning Jesus about the sinfulness of either the man or his parents causing his blindness.

“He obviously did something really bad to deserve this!” 

“What do you expect when his parents are the way they are!”

These may or may not have been the thoughts of the disciples, who didn’t suffer with the same physical blindness.  Yet these very same thoughts, easily come from our hearts when we’re faced with the same kind of situation. 

God calls us to judge with a right judgement.  But this is judgement made with all the blindness of self-righteousness, without seeing ourselves in the Light of God.

Just as Samuel looked with blindness at Jesse’s sons, and the disciples at the blind man, we look with blindness too.  We need to hear what God says to Samuel, “For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”  (1 Samuel 16:7b ESV)

Why is it we do not see as God sees?  And how can we look, as God looks?  

Jesus says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5 ESV)

We need the “Light of God”, “the Light of the World”.  The light of God is Jesus Christ, and the power of this illuminating Light in our lives is the Holy Spirit.

Notice here the Holy Spirit is the power of the Light!  He has to be, since Jesus is still in the world, but hidden by his ascension to the right hand of God.  God the Father and God the Son are present, since they are greater than time and space.  In fact, time and space exist in God’s eternal hands!

In the peace of our Heavenly Father’s presence, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to be convinced in the Word made Flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, who says to you, “I am the Light of the World.”

But the problem remains.  How, if we are blind, can we see this light?  If we are blind, out in the cold, stumbling around in death, is it by sheer accident that we feel its warmth and enter into the light?

No!  It’s here we need to hear the word of God from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians chapter five.  Hear from verse six, a couple of verses before the start of the lectionary reading for today.

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ …be filled with the Spirit, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:6–14,18c,21 ESV)

If someone tells you, you must find Jesus or have more faith, realise these as empty words. Like the disciples judging the blind man, Samuel looking for a King of Israel, or you and I projecting our blind judgement on sinners (as opposed to us), we first need the power of the Holy Spirit to illuminate us, so we can see ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. 

The illumination of the Holy Spirit makes us children of the light.  All the fruit of this light is found in Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who is good, and right, and true! 

Therefore, because our baptism is a Holy Baptism, because our communion around the body and blood of Jesus is a Holy Communion, and because the Holy Word of God has its fulness in the holy risen Son of God, we are forgiven and fed with the power of God in the Holy Spirit. 

As a result, we can discern what is pleasing to the Lord.  The works of darkness can then be exposed.  The first work of darkness exposed by the Holy Spirit is the darkness within.  This darkness is your apathy towards hearing God and allowing the Holy Spirit to reenergise you with his power.  Over against continuing in your own power to judge good and evil. 

Allowing the Holy Spirit to power your judgement will immediately enable you to see your sin.  Do not be frightened of this!  The fear that arises within you, is the same fear Adam and Eve felt in the Garden.  The devil seeks to do the same to you as he did to them by separating you from God’s peace through your sin and sinfulness!   

However, you now have the power of the Holy Spirit illuminating Jesus Christ, so trust in what you have received.  The knowledge of Jesus Christ always wins out over a knowledge of good and evil.  The Holy Spirit empowers you in the knowledge of Jesus Christ!

It seems Paul makes a statement of contradiction, saying, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” (Ephesians 5:11-12 ESV)

Do we expose, or do we not speak about the works of darkness?  It all depends on how we talk about these works and whose they are!  Exposure through confession, brings all into the Light of Christ, giving sight to those once blind.  Whereas, speaking about them boastfully or as gossip, plunges us into darkness, and exposes our blindness. 

So, we take no part in unfruitful works by exposing our own works of darkness in confession.  This is the Holy Spirit removing the blindness.  Similarly, praying with others in their confession, intervening on their behalf also brings them into the Light of God. 

When we walk in the light of God, we allow God the Holy Spirit to use us in leading others out of death into life.  This is submission to one another out of reverence for Jesus Christ.

It may seem shameful to talk to others about the struggles we have with our sinfulness.  But if it is spoken of, in the power of the Holy Spirit,  the power and shame of secrecy is dispersed by the Light of Jesus Christ.

Some might charge us as being boastful about our sin or trying to justify it.  But in reality, “coming out” to others as a forgiven sinner, by the power of the Holy Spirit, requires one to sacrifice their pride and be exposed as weak and in need of divine help. 

No one boasts over the sin one needs forgiven; over the sinful nature we know condemns us to death.  Rather we cry, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!” 

So, in God’s Light and in the power of the Light we boast, having been forgiven, and not our sinful nature or the sin that comes from it!

Just as it was not the will of God, that the man at the synagogue was born blind because of someone’s sin, it is not the will of God that you continue under the condemnation of sin either. 

But rather, just as Jesus Christ removed his blindness to display the works of God’s light and power,  the Holy Spirit is the power of God, to enlighten you in the forgiveness of God’s Holy Word and Sacraments!  Amen.

Let us pray.

Lord God, Holy Spirit, you are the true and constant support in every need, a Spirit of truth and promise, God’s finger, the water of life, a heavenly fire, which warms cold hearts and ignites them with true love for God.  You have revealed yourself to the apostles with wonderful gifts in a powerful wind and fiery tongues.  We ask you now therefore, to come into our hearts, to strengthen and gladden our ignorant consciences.  Sanctify us with your blessing and be unto us the holy assurance of our redemption and salvation.  Amen.[1]

---

[1] Prayer by J. K. Wilhelm Loehe, from Treasury of Daily Prayer, p1111, Concordia Publishing House

A, Mid Week Lent 3- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Work"

By the toils of Jesus, Lord teach us how to work; allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire work within us.  Amen.

If you’re going to do the job, you may as well do it right the first time.

But how was God to do the work of saving humanity?  He tested humanity and showed that anointing the Israelites as his chosen people was not good enough.  He placed kings over Israel and they too failed.  His most faithful king, King David, also turned away from God, trusting the strength of his own fighting men.  Even David, was not good enough!  God had to find the right way for humanity to fulfill all righteousness; one that was effective, functional, and perfect.

God needed the work to be more than just pragmatic, that is, done because a certain deed works, or  for the love of the deed.  No!  He needed the work done to convey his deep love for humanity.  This love needed not just be practical but personal, relational, and demonstrate to the recipient their worth to God the Father, and his willingness to make the recipient holy.  Only through becoming holy can a person come to God without fear of God’s almighty holiness causing death.

It seems God the Father was in a bit of a quagmire over how to sort out humanity’s sin and at the same time, give us access into his holy presence, for a relationship that brings life rather than death.

In Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father found the effective, functional, and perfect answer to bring the work of righteousness to completion.

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus at Jacob’s Well with the Samaritan Woman.  Here, Jesus proves to be the perfect mediator between a Holy God and a sinful woman.  Without fear the woman speaks to Jesus, and without condemning the woman, Jesus condemns her sin and gives her his Word of life, God the Father’s Word of life!

To the woman, Jesus teaches and says, “[T]he hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:23–24 ESV)

Then to his disciples, Jesus teaches and says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.  …Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. …Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”  (John 4:34,35b,38 ESV)

See how Jesus works!  He mediates the two together.  Sinner and teachers, so the sinner leaves to become the teacher, and the teachers learn that they are sinners. 

But the work Jesus does just does not end there!  We know if the work was finished here, it would be left undone, and the sinners would not have the power to teach, and the teachers would lose the power to learn about their sin.  God needed to do the complete job.  If he was going to do the job he needed to do it right.  If there was to be righteousness on earth, Jesus needed to finish, complete, or fulfil all righteousness.

The mediation work of Jesus was completed on the cross, when Jesus cried out, “it is finished”!  He hung his head, and he died!  The work was done!

God now calls you to hang your heads, and know that, “it is finished!”  His work is done and so too is yours.  However, like the disciples Jesus taught, you are called to enter into the labour of others, to continue the work of others!

Therefore, the teacher-sinner paradox continues.  Jesus’ work is finished in you, but now through you he seeks to finish it in others.

It now seems we are in the same quagmire as God.  We have been finished, but death is not finished for all others.  In fact, certain elements of death still remain with us in this life, and will not be finished until the death of eternal death in our earthly death.  How do we demonstrate the death of eternal death to others, while we live on this side of death? Or, how do we teach others about life in the realm of death?

What does God’s Word say?  We go back to the work and Word of Jesus!  See how he functioned while he lived under the sentence of death, and listen to what he taught, knowing his death and resurrection justifies what he said and taught.

True worshippers of God the Father, workers of God, worship in spirit and in truth. 

Jesus said, “‘it is finished’, bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30 ESV)  You and I are called to give up our spirits and know it is finished.  This involves allowing the Holy Spirit to give us life, having died to sin, so he can inspire us to live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

We the sinners, learn from our sinfulness to become the teachers, continually being taught by the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ righteous work, what the toil of God is.  So, what is the toil of God, given to us?  It is the work of holiness.

Paul gives us the reality of Jesus’ finishing work, saying, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.  For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  (1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV)

The paradox of God’s holy work is strange to the world, and therefore, takes time to sort itself out in us.  This is because we still struggle with the works of darkness and death!  But God the Holy Spirit is constantly bringing us to the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  In fact, this is the work and purpose of the Holy Spirit in us, as individuals, and within the worshipping community of those needing to gather around Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit works to call, gather, and enlighten us with faith in Jesus Christ’s work.

Jesus left humanity’s visual presence, but he has not gone!  He is hidden but now we see him with faith, given through the Holy Spirit’s work. 

God the Father perfectly finishes the job by sending Jesus Christ, to work salvation on the cross.  He continues this work, by also sending the Holy Spirit, to finish this salvation in us, by constantly leading us to Jesus Christ, out of our sins.  You are both a student and a teacher of the Holy Spirit!

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12 ESV)

What is it you learn and teach?  What are these strange works, we both learn from, and teach?  What are the good works, the greater works we do now, since we are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes us alive in Jesus Christ, so we can reflect this life, to the masses who are dead and dying around us?

These are the works of confession!  Confessing our sin, learning from what God teaches us about his forgiveness of sin, and teaching others about how they can be forgiven, by sharing what God has forgiven, and how God has forgiven in Jesus Christ.

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

Let us allow the Holy Spirit to foster in us, “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 1:19–20 ESV)

Amen.

Next week: we hear about the love of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to love.

A, Lent 3 - Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95:6-9, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42 "Water and Word Aeration"

A new town and new experiences.  Not knowing what to expect, one hopes when turning on the tap one will have good water to drink. 

So, the tap is turned, the water seems clean, but there’s a strange metallic smell.  What on earth is this smell?  Suddenly sceptical of the scent, I warily taste the water.  Not great, but not bad either!  One might say, “mediocre”.  I thought to myself, “I’m just going to have to get use to this.”

Later on, I put a load of washing on.  After the cycle finished, there on my clothes was an orange stain.  “Woe is me, what on earth is this”, in all my life I had never seen anything as vile as this.

There was stain all over my clothes and orange gunk in some of the folds.  From where, had it come?  Later, I found out this was normal for the water supply.  The water reservoir was not enough for the city of forty thousand.  And the area where the water was dammed was high in iron, that is, the orange stuff staining my clothes.  I couldn’t believe an Australian city in the late twentieth century could have such an antiquated and disgusting supply of water. 

Three months after I arrived, the grand opening of the new water treatment plant was at hand.  Because I was working in the media, as a camera operator, I had the privilege of videoing the opening and the workings of the new plant.

This new plant did not use excessive chemicals to clean the water.  Instead, it used thousands of tiny air bubbles, pumped through the water, lifting the iron scum to the surface, and cleaning the water of orange metallic substance and smell.  Such a simple process and thankfully from then on, with all the other residents, I had town water that was refreshing, had no smell, and was colourless.  Liked the chocolate Aero bar advertisement, “it was the bubbles of nothing that made the water something!”

In the Old Testament reading today we hear the Israelites grumble to Moses about going thirsty in the wilderness.  Like me they whinged about water.  “Woe is me; we have no water!” 

Jesus in Samaria, likewise, is thirsty.   He asks a Samaritan woman, stained from ill repute, for a drink.

Rightly, “the woman said to Jesus, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’” (John 4:11a,13–14 ESV)

Jesus, like the Israelites, is without water.  He has nothing with which to gain access to the water.  The Israelites in the wilderness have no water.  Why is it that Jesus trusts the Samaritan woman for water, yet the Israelites do not trust God working through Moses to quench their thirst?

The Psalmist says to the hearer, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!  For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.  Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,  when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.” (Psalm 95:6–9 ESV) 

This Psalm together with the account from Exodus seventeen, places a warning before us to realise we need to come before God our Father, trusting he is our Maker, and he will shepherd us through the wilderness of this life.  Indeed, Lent is a time to stop and take stock of how God has sent Jesus to shepherd us in the wilderness of this life.

Jesus came not as the shepherd but as the Lamb of God.  But now, in the wake of his victorious death and resurrection, he is the Shepherd of his people, and he guards us with the Holy Spirit in his Word. 

Yet, we do well to clearly see the picture of Jesus at the well and understand just how lowly a picture this is.  We also do well to heed the warning of testing God, as the Israelites tried him in the wilderness.   But also see just how kept the Israelites were, having been freed from slavery in Egypt, and protected by God through the words of Moses in the wilderness.

Here Jesus has nothing, and he was thirsty.  He was in Samaria, Samaritans were nothing to Jews, but Jesus in all humility asks an adulterous Samaritan woman for water.  She is nothing to a Jew and yet Jesus comes to her with nothing but his Word.

On the other hand, the Israelites quarrel with Moses, they fight with the one through whom God’s word came. 

What is going on, in these two events?  The Israelites saw God’s Word as inferior in Moses and forgot his work.  Jesus trusts the work of God, and therefore his Word works.   

How does this play out practically for you and me?

It’s as simple as the bubbles of air removing the orange iron from the water.  In fact, the issues the church faces at the moment, understanding just what the substance of love and unity actually is, and how it plays out in the church’s cleansing, understanding, and obedience to God’s Word. 

In distinguishing issues of gender equality in the church, apart from society, discernment must return to, and be seen in, the simple process of how the Holy Spirit gives faith and understanding of God’s Word.  Just as the water is made clean with bubbles of air to remove impurities.

The Holy Spirit wells up the purity of God’s refreshing Word in us.  We cannot do this ourselves and nor should we begin the futile exercise of trying!   One will end up sinning against the Holy Spirit if they do!

When we are baptised, we are washed with water and the Word.  Like the Israelites, we are cleansed of sin in the water, just as the Israelites were of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and at the end of forty years were led by Joshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus) across the Jordan into Canaan, into a paradise, the land of milk and honey.

But because Israel continued to sin in the land of milk and honey, Jesus reverses the order to fulfil all righteousness.  He comes from paradise, from the right hand of God the Father, is born into the bondage of humanity, baptised into death, and given the Holy Spirit at the Jordan,  and goes into the wilderness of human existence to be tempted, but does not succumb to the temptation.  From temptation he enters the Red Sea of death, where his innocent blood was spilt in bondage on the cross.

Today, we live with God’s Word too, so we might have faith in Jesus Christ.  But what is this faith, how do we get it, how does one believe?  Seeking faith  in oneself, individualism, vainglory, or self-worship are always the reasons for confusion and chaos in the church.  When these occur, the ways of the world invade our thinking, muddying the waters of God’s Word, and stain his church!

Jesus gives clarity in what he says to the Samaritan woman.

“‘But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’  The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’  Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’” (John 4:23–26 ESV) 

Like Jesus, who received the Holy Spirit in baptism, so too do we.  The water and Word are one in baptism.  The water receives its power from the Word.  We receive the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and we receive the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit aerates the Word of God with in us and separates the sin from the self.  He removes our stained being and gives us faith in Jesus and his Word.  He wills and moves us to place ourselves in submission to God.  Rather than disagreeing with God, returning to the bondage from where we’ve been freed, we bow to God hearing the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the effervescence of the Holy Spirit bubbling within.  

Saint Paul gives us a theological trinitarian summary in Romans five, saying, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God… …and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1-2,5 ESV) 

Let us come and worship God, not what we love, or think, or feel.  These are the idols and ideologies the Holy Spirit is trying to cleanse from you.  These are not bubbles of nothing, nor are they hot air coming from our own nothingness, puffing, or pumping up our ego.  No!  These bubbles are the loving works of God the Holy Spirit, with the softening waters of God’s Word within.  So, our hearts are not hardened by our goodness or our evil.

Jesus Christ seeks to aerate his Word in us by the Holy Spirit, to bring the muck and stain to the surface to be removed.  Like Jesus, we have nothing with which to get the water, but his Word together with the water are freely given through which the effervescence of the Holy Spirit works, welling up within to eternal life.  The fizz of the Holy Spirit kills and clears the muck, pouring the loving purity of Jesus Christ into our hearts.

Do not let your sin, my sin, or another’s sin harden your heart, so you cut yourself off from hearing the Word of God, hearing God’s forgiveness, and receiving the love of God in Jesus’ body and blood, through which the Holy Spirit unifies and wells us up to eternal life.  Amen.