A, Post-Pentecost 4 Proper 7 - Matthew 10:24, 38-39 "The Calmness of Christ"

Jesus says, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.   And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:24, 38-39 ESV)

One can imagine being in the centre of a tornado would be an extraordinarily frightening experience.  Your attention would be drawn to the whirling winds and debris swirling around you, threatening to kill you.  Therefore, one can assume one would not be focusing on the calm eye of the storm.

Unlike a tropical cyclone, a tornado is very narrow!  Many who have experienced a cyclone directly overhead, report of an eery stillness in the eye of the storm, before the other side of the storm arrives with opposing winds.  In a tornado’s eye, being much smaller, one might be still, but your attention would be drawn to the close proximity of the cyclonic danger.

Jesus’ life was like the eye of a cyclonic storm.  Chaos surrounded his calm, disorder around order! In the three years of his ministry leading up to his death, Jesus was the calm eye of the storm.

At the beginning of his ministry after his baptism, the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tested.  This was the beginning of the storm!  One might imagine it as a brewing tropical storm, a low deepening in depression, becoming a cyclone.

However, at the other end of his ministry, Good Friday had developed into a full-blown tornado.  The chaos intensified as the swirling winds of darkness and death closed in, making his worries in the wilderness, look like a minor inconvenience.

We are going to be tempted by ourselves and the world, as well as receive satanic attention, just as Jesus did in the wilderness through to the cross. 

We are baptised into Jesus’ subordination, into his humility, his cross!  The Holy Spirit is leading you in your wilderness, just as he led Jesus from the wilderness to the cross, and through death.  Jesus relied on the strength of the Holy Spirit and the faithfulness of God the Father!  Now you are called to rely on the Holy Spirit as he leads you in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ!  He continually seeks to place Jesus in you, as you’re called to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

But as we walk his way of the cross, we’re called to walk in faith rather than fear.  It’s understandable that one might be fearful as they walk.  In his earthliness and humility, Jesus was acutely aware of the fear we face since he bore our flesh and was constantly in the centre of the raging storm of sin against him.

Jesus’ fear, however, was not a negative frightful fear, but rather, a faithful fear that looked not to the chaos around him but to the faithfulness and peace of our Heavenly Father!  Jesus calls you to the same reverent fear he had for our Heavenly Father.

He says of those who seek to distract us from the Father into fear as a result of their cyclonic chaos, “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,  but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:26, 28, 31–33 ESV)

In the cyclone of your life, your Father and your Saviour, Jesus Christ, want you to spread the calm of Christ, making the eye of other people’s storms, the salvation of Jesus Christ. 

In our baptism we are given the ability to acknowledge Jesus, having been baptised into his calm over chaos, his order over disorder!  Just as Jesus bore the Holy Spirit, you are given the Holy Spirit who faithfully seeks to reveal the reality of sin, but even more so our worthiness having been baptised into Christ. 

When we acknowledge Jesus, as Lord, we acknowledge our need to be baptised into his death.  Therefore, we acknowledge our sin and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent.  We do this acknowledging in the reality of the chaos, because despite the chaos of the storm, we have been turned and calmed by Jesus at the centre of our storm.

Your acknowledgement of Jesus to others, spreads his calm, because Jesus is the only peace in every storm that leads to death.   Acknowledgement of Jesus is knowing our cross and death, but even more so our life in him.  We pass on this life when we acknowledge Jesus before others!

Denial of Jesus is a denial of the life he gives through death.  Our denial before others leaves them without life, in eternal death too!  When one leaves the calmness of Jesus Christ, they enter the tornado and chaos of drowning in eternal death and darkness. 

Left in this state, Jesus denies and does not acknowledge the denier before the Father.  Why?  Because in denial one has not considered Christ to be a worthy Saviour.

However, Saint Paul tells young pastor Timothy, a trustworthy saying, “If we have died with him, we will also live with him;  if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;  if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.”  (2 Timothy 2:11–13 ESV)

Paul reiterates what Jesus has said!  But proclaiming Jesus after the resurrection he adds,  “if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” 

Now that Jesus has died, been raised, and ascended, he sends the Holy Spirit in baptism.  If we are faithless, Jesus remains faithful to us.  He knows the Holy Spirit will be faithful within the baptised.  The Holy Spirit will seek to lead the lost back to our Heavenly Father by showing them Jesus’ worth through his word.  He might also give the lost glimpses of death with the experience of suffering to shock and recreate faith.

Although suffering sounds bad, it is actually good news for all who doubt their salvation, their baptism!  Jesus faithfully cannot deny himself!  So, while there is life in someone who has denied their baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit seeks to kill that which does not believe and give the newness of life in Jesus Christ.

Pauls says to the Romans, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”  (Romans 6:4–5, 8 ESV)

What Paul says to Timothy he repeats to the Romans, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  (Romans 6: 8, 2 Timothy 2:11 ESV)

Believing is made possible in us, by the Holy Spirit.  Our suffering and death centres us on the eye of the storm, Jesus Christ.   He is the only one who saves us from the storms of life and places us in the tranquillity of his resurrection, in the peaceful presence of our Heavenly Father.

Jesus also so says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34 ESV)

There is chaos yet to come, even within our own households!  This should not surprise us since the chaos comes from within each of us.  However, our knowledge of the cyclonic chaos of our sin, revealed and covered by forgiveness, is what stops a believer becoming conceited, keeping one humble!

Because of your sinfulness, there will always be chaos inside and outside the church.  What keeps order is the calmness of Jesus Christ.  Ironically he does this with a sword.  He keeps calmness in the church with the double-edged sword of his word, saving us from the disorder of human words and ideals.  Jesus’ calming word is the silencing word of Law and Gospel.

The cross reveals the reality of the Law and the Gospel.  One who allow the Holy Spirit to bring them to the calmness of Christ, knows his worth and follows.  The person who joyfully takes up the cross discovers they have this newness of life because of the Holy Spirit.   And therefore, willing allows the loss of the old life, their words, and the spirit of the self. 

Losing one’s life to the cross, in this world for Jesus’ sake, one will also find themselves eternally gathered by the Holy Spirit into the calmness of Jesus’ eternal presence, having been delivered from the storms of this life.

Jesus says, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10: 38-39 ESV)

Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 3 Proper 6 - Matthew 9: 36, 10:5-6, 16a, Romans 5:1–8 "Flayed and Flung"

Romans 5:1–8 (ESV) 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.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Matthew 9: 36, 10:5-6, 16a (ESV) “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.’”

Jesus paints the picture of sheep without a shepherd.   The sheep are harassed and helpless.  Harassed and helpless are rather tame words here in the English.  The Greek suggests the sheep are flayed and flung without a shepherd.  To be flayed is to be stripped of skin, to be skinned alive!

This picture is much grimmer when we realise the sheep have no protection from the shepherd or even their own skin, dispersed all over the place without the protection of numbers. They were walking meals for every wild beast out there.  That’s not good!  In our English slang we might say they were skint!  But it’s for these, skint, skinless sheep, Jesus has compassion.

It is to the sheep of Israel that Jesus sends his apostles.  They are ones sent to stand in the place of Jesus, having carried his command to “go” and “proclaim as you go that the kingdom of heaven is near”, in Jesus Christ and his word of promise.  The authority he receives from our Heavenly Father, is to send the apostles with authority to clothe the skinless, helpless sheep with his love.  To give them protection, he brings his kingdom into the world with his human presence, and with it, the authority to pass on what he brings from our Father to those he longs to clothe.

The reality is those whom Jesus sends are sheep too!  They are not called to go out with a thick skin, so to speak, but to go to the skint lost sheep of Israel, skint as well.  The only thing they were to take was the word of Jesus.  A word he promises is so powerful in judgement, that if those who heard it were to reject it, they would be in greater peril than Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement.

Yet, it is to these “sent ones” he also says, you sheep will encounter wolves.  Jesus paints a picture that is far from rosy and romantic.  There is no bait and switch in his word, but rather the unhidden truth of reality.

In the midst of this picture of death, Jesus reassures those he sends, “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.  For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.  Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,  and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”  (Matthew 10:19–22 ESV)

As they go, they will suffer pain, hatred, and death, for bearing his name.  Yet here is the opportunity God will create for one to speak with authority the word, given by the Holy Spirit, from Jesus and the Father.

In Romans chapter eight, Saint Paul asks the church in Rome, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35–37 ESV)

One would assume that with the promise of being flayed and flung, that not many would accept the call to carry Christ, out into the world of wolves.  Yet, the history of the church, tells us otherwise, demonstrating over and over again the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than that of the human being.

The fear of suffering is real, we all know it and feel it!  Self-preservation kicks in!  We, in our natural state, will do anything to flee a fight, especially knowing we are not thick skinned.  But rather, are helplessly skinless, flayed and flung out into the wilds of the world without protection.  Such is our default human nature!

Paul speaks of Abram’s hope against hope to the Romans.  He says, “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations.’” (Romans 4:18a ESV)

However, we struggle with a fear and a hope that leaves us hopeless like sheep without a shepherd.  Our sinful nature tells us the love of Christ will separate us from the comfort in which we clothe ourselves.  Everything against the kingdom of God, tells us being killed for Christ, being regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, makes us conquered, not more than conquerors!

In our hopelessness we are tempted to believe against hope.  The opposite of Abram.  And in doing so we seek to clothe ourselves with the righteousness of the world.  These clothes of comfort might seem to be appealing but they are not clothes of endurance character or hope.  Rather they cover one’s flayed helplessness and provide no security or salvation.

Paul makes the claim that we who are in Christ, “stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”.  (Romans 5:2b ESV)   This is the hope in which Jesus called the apostles to stand and rejoice, despite the wolves, and it is the hope in which we are called to stand and rejoice too! 

These are the clothes of Christ put on by the Holy Spirit for helpless flayed and flung sheep, to be righteous and joyful as we face death all day long, knowing we are more than conquerors in the clothes of Christ’s righteousness.

Not only do we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but we also rejoice in our suffering.  How can this be?

In an age that’s so focused on pleasure, suffering is to be avoided at all costs.  In fact, ridding our lives of suffering, and not accepting suffering as an event that makes us mature as humans, has blinded people as they pursue pleasure and comfort.

Saint Paul says, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:3–6 ESV)

If we have no suffering, we have little to no endurance.  When we have no endurance, we have no character, and without character we have no hope.  Without suffering and the understanding of suffering’s function in the world, one sets themselves up for hopelessness!

Seeking self-comfort in the things of this world, while avoiding suffering, does not lead one in hope to Christ.  When we see ourselves with strength because of worldly comforts, our spirit might seem secure.  But when these comforts no longer give us comfort, or when they die, our hope too proves to be hopeless.  Rather than being, more than conquerors, we are more than conquered, we are flayed and flung, skint and skimped of salvation, helpless sheep without a shepherd. 

So, suffering allows one to grow to maturity.  This happens in a worldly sense, but also in a spiritual sense. 

Where suffering in a worldly sense makes us harden up, suffering in a spiritual sense softens us with the love of Jesus Christ, to be comforted, and to comfort, with forgiveness.  His love is why we rejoice in our suffering, suffering both physically and spiritually as believers and receivers of his love.

This love is a new skin!    For our peace with God the Father, the Spirit puts on the good news garment of grace in Christ.  This outfit bears the fabrics of faith and forgiveness.  We can hope to not only have our own sin conquered, but the wolves in sheep’s clothing will know their weakness and are given opportunity to receive forgiveness too.

In fact, the wolves are flayed sheep!  In their hopelessness, they look threatening, hidden in sheep’s clothing.  But in reality, they are sheepish and ashamed wolves, flayed and flung, skint and skimped of salvation too.

Because you are covered in the clothes of Christ’s righteousness, as the saved sheep of Israel, the Holy Spirit allows you to know that suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope. 

The Holy Spirit encourages us, as he does all he sends out, to put on the garments of suffering, endurance, character, and hope.  A covering that does not end in shame.  Instead, these four coverings you wear, and bear, are the clothes of Christ’s love.   

The picture of us as flayed and flung sheep is not as grim as we would expect.  Now knowing we wear ,so to speak, the eternal skin of Christ, we awake and wear this bright new reality every day. 

Death no longer has power over Jesus Christ, whose skin bears the marks of death but has risen in power over death.  So too with us!  We are conquerors of death, the devil, and the wolves of the world, with the covering of Christ.  No one can flay from us the flesh of Christ!  Nor can we be flung from the kingdom of heaven, while the Holy Spirit leads us, in, with, and under, the forgiven body and blood of Jesus Christ!  Amen. 

A, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 5 - Genesis 12:1–3, Romans 4:13,18-25 "Dead Promise"

Romans 4: 13,18–25 (ESV) For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.  In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.  No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”  But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,  but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,  who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. 

Retirement awaits!  You are in the years of your life when you are beginning to take things easy.  Perhaps this is the case because your body is not what it used to be; it’s wearing out!  Or, you are just backing off the gas, enjoying the fruits of the years you worked.

You are comfortable, it’s time to enjoy the twilight of your life.  Your life ahead promises to be one of relaxation and retirement amongst known people – family and friends!

You had plans earlier in life, to do great things.  Perhaps to be a trendsetter.  But now having done what you’ve done, you are just content to be.  The energy you had in your younger days has long since passed!

But God has other plans for you.  In your latter years he makes a promise to you, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1–3 ESV)

You say to God, “What do you mean?  I’m already blessed in my retirement!”  You’ve heard plenty of promises before, many of them broken.  How would you feel getting a command and promise like this? 

To leave the comfort of what you know, the security, the known faces, those you can trust in a community you know!  To enter the discomfort of changing your medical carers, those who know you, your doctor, pharmacist, hairdresser, those at the shop who know what you order, the shops you know where you can get exactly the item you want.  Entering the uncertainty of what you do not know after leaving the blessings of what you do know, does not seem like it would be a blessing.

For Abram to leave his land, his inheritance, from his father, Terah’s house, and known people was a sure sentence of death.  Abram was seventy-five years old when he left his family, having heard the promise of God.  Why would he go?

Let’s look at the promise God makes and to whom it is made.  It appears the only descendant of Abram would be his nephew Lot.  Lot’s father, Haran, had died, so Lot is taken into Abram’s family.  Abram’s wife, Sarai, could not have children.  But despite this he leaves his homeland and inheritance to follow the promise of God.  For all intentions and purposes, Abram is literally a genetic and patriarchal, dead end.

The host of the television show, Hard Quiz, eliminates the lowest scoring contestant, saying to them, “if you get the question wrong, you’re dead to me”, and when they get it wrong are thrown out with the abrupt command, “Out!”

But the promise of God is not to cast out this man, Abram, who was as good as dead,  even though he appeared to be a dead promise.

Just as surprising, Abram also responds to this promise made by God.  Why would he go?  He had everything to lose, since there did not seem to be much going his way!  Why not stay put and preserve what little blessing he had?  There was obviously something greater compelling him to go.

Abram responded to God’s promise some three hundred years after God confused humanity and dispersed them across the world with various languages.  Abram is the archetypal “needle in the haystack”.  He is one of many in the generations after humanity left Babel to fill the earth.  Yet he was a needle as good as dead, with a wife whose baby bearing capacity was also dead.  To be blunt, they were blunt needles, living, dead ends!

All worldly hope in them was dead.  As one would hope to have children, receive an inheritance, and pass it on to offspring, all expectation had died.  But God calls them to a new hope that seems even more hopeless in the eyes of the world, having been called away from the only security they had left, their inheritance and home.

Paul says of Abraham (Abram), “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s (Sarai’s) womb.  No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4: 13,18–25 ESV)

We hear plenty of dead promises from people and politicians and they make us laugh with sarcasm.  So many promises we hear these days are “dead to us” as soon as we hear them.  We’re sceptical, and our hope, at best, is a doubtful hope, with an expectation to be let down.  How do you feel when promises are made that you expect will be broken?

In the Gospel reading today, we hear, “when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,  he said, ‘Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him.”  (Matthew 9:23–24 ESV)

We too may laugh in disbelief, or with a hope that the world possesses.  But God’s promises are built on things that are dead to the hope of the world.  Sarai also laughed when God promised to make Abram a father.  But together Sarah and Abraham laughed with joy at the birth of Isaac, God’s promise of life given to a husband and wife, as good as dead!

Our faith is built on the death of Jesus Christ.  It looked for all intentions and purposes, a dead promise!   However, he became nothing to make our nothingness something.  He, who did not know sin and death, became sin and death, to give us salvation and life.  Dead to God we were made something through Jesus’ death.

Jesus did not sacrifice like a priest sacrificing an animal under the Law, but through his mercy and steadfast love became the sacrifice for sin, that makes us something.  He does this when, like Abram ,we are as good as dead, or should be dead to God.

Jesus says, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13 ESV) 

A righteous person might make a sacrifice, but a sinner cannot even enter God’s presence to make a sacrifice, they are dead to him.  Someone dead can only be made alive by a love that becomes the sacrifice.  You have received the mercy of God’s sacrifice on the cross.  You have been made alive by the Holy Spirit in the steadfast loving mercy of Jesus Christ.  

The Holy Spirit leads you to step out in faith!  It may not be something as geographically displacing as Abram’s call, or as life changing as leaving family.  It may be seemingly something small in your life, but something that God is calling you to, that will make you as good as dead in the eyes of those around you.  But when the world says, “you’re dead to me”, this will be the Holy Spirit’s affirmation that you're alive in Jesus Christ. 

Like Abram, why would you go?  Why would you follow Jesus Christ?  Or more to the point, “why wouldn’t you?”  Especially if the Holy Spirit is moving you in God’s Word, to do the works of faith that glorify God.  To pass on the steadfast love and mercy, to sinners who like you need to be made something by the blood of Jesus!

When the Holy Spirit works, in, through, and with, the Word of God, he moves with steadfast love and mercy, bringing sinners to the knowledge and blessing of God the Father in Jesus Christ.  He brings what should be dead to God, to life!  The Spirit enlivens the will of God within, to the glory of God.

These works are not sacrifices done with a hope of getting something.  But rather the Holy Spirit enables us to do works of mercy and steadfast love, passing on the blessing of faith, just as Abraham was a blessing to many other nations as the father of faith.  Through us the Holy Spirit will encourage the hope of God over the hope of the world, which really is hopelessness!

If Jesus died for your sin, and was raised so you too are raised, making what was nothing before God something, why wouldn’t you want to follow him in faith, and share this blessing as well?  Amen.

A, Holy Trinity Sunday - Genesis 1:1–5, Matthew 28:20b "Let There Be Light"

Genesis 1:1–5 (ESV) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Matthew 28:20b (ESV) “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

With headlamps on our helmets, we descended into the entrance of the cave, descending down a series of stairs into what seemed the bowels of the earth.  Once underground our family stood in a large cavity looking up at the light streaming in through the entrance.  It was dark, but still we could see what was in the cave. 

We saw tree roots from trees above, sending down their feelers through the roof of the cave for water some twenty metres below.  There on the bottom were bones from animals who had unexpectantly fallen through a hidden hole in the forest floor to their death in the darkness below.

At the bottom of this large cavity, we walked past the bones into a smaller area with crystal formations of stalactites growing down and stalagmites growing up from the bottom.  The light from our headlamps lit up this subterranean wonderland.

We went further and further into the cave, following the directions, many other tourists had followed before. The light from the entrance was now far behind us, and the only way we could see was with our head lamps and torches.

At one point we had to squat, moving nearly on our hands and knees, to get through the narrows of the cave into the last open section to explore.  In there, we sat on a bench and marvelled at the rock formations.

 It then occurred to us if our lights went out, we would have been in a bit of bother.  There was no one around to show us the way out, if our five headlamps went out.  I suggested as we sat there in the silence that we should see what the darkness is like.  So, we turned off our lamps.

We had a saying in my family, when I was growing up as a child, that something is as dark as the inside of a cow!  Now I’m not sure how that saying ever came about!  I don’t know of anyone ever going inside a cow, to know how dark it might be.  But sitting there in that cave, I suggested to my family that this is what the darkness must be like inside a cow!

It was dark!  Usually after one’s eyes adjust to the darkness you can see something.  We sat there for some time, and one couldn’t even see their hand in front of their face.  It occurred to me that getting out of the labyrinth of tunnels of rock would be near impossible, even with guided walkways.  What would it be like in the darkness with nothing?  There was nothing to see!  One could only hear the sound of darkness. 

The sound of darkness is deafening silence!  But the sound of darkness within myself, my wife, and children, was a clamouring cry of chaos and uncertainty.  It would have been some hundreds of metres of ups and downs, lefts and rights, ducking under stalactites and steps back up to the cavern of light and rebirth back into the light of day.

In the beginning God said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good.  And God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”  (Genesis 1:3-5a ESV)

We don’t realise how much we need God to let the light be light for us.  It came very apparent to us in the bowels of a cave, we needed light.  Even though we had torches and headlamps, the thought of not having them was frightening.

We take the light of God’s creation for granted.  The light God shone to create the first day of creation was not so much the light we get from the sun, moon, and stars.  But rather, the light of time and the light of God’s presence in time, bringing light to the chaos of darkness.  The light of the sun, moon and stars was only to be created on the third day to order time into the brightness of day, and the soft night-time light, of stars and reflection from the moon.

But even the lit darkness of night, brings fear, like being in a cave in the dark with treacherous jagged crystals and rocks lying in wait, to cause injury to flesh and bone.

Little children are often fearful of the dark, not being able to see, their imaginations see the worst in what they cannot see.  Likewise, the elderly, prefer not to go out into the night, for fear of falling over, falling into the hands of the ill repute, or the coldness of the night.

However, since the fall of humanity just after creation, the opposite is also true.  Jesus says, “this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (John 3:19 ESV)

The truth of the matter is, we have become accustomed to darkness.  Then, once the light is returned, it’s like having a torch shone in our eyes after being in the dark.

Yet, from creation, God has continued to “let there be light”!  Every day that comes to be, God has let it be.  In God’s creation he provides for us, he uncovers the darkness for us, and he gives us life.

In the beginning of John’s Gospel we hear,   “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (John 1:1–5 ESV)

The light that provides for us, uncovers darkness, and gives life, has not, and will not, become overcome by darkness.  This is the light of God’s Word which said, “let there be light”, and continues to say, “let there be light”, despite the darkness.

Jesus is the continuing Word of God’s light.  He says, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 ESV)

However, the question is, “How do we follow Jesus, when there is darkness within and all around us?”  We know that no one followed him to the cross!  All fell away from supporting Jesus in the darkness of night, leaving Jesus to bear the darkness of Good Friday alone.

But we also hear,  “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV)

Having just passed through Pentecost, we have heard how after Jesus’ death and resurrection, those who fled from the day of crucifixion, boldly bore the cross in their conviction and confession, even unto death!  God has sent the Holy Spirit, to let there be light in us. God is still letting the light shine in the darkness!   God is still saying, “let there be light!”

The same light of life that sustains all of creation, now sustains us with the light of his Son.  This is not the knowledge of good and evil, discerned through the human spirit of desire.  But it’s through God giving us the knowledge of God’s glory in the forgiving face of Jesus Christ, shone in us by the Holy Spirit.

This is why Paul says to the Romans, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand.  So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.”  (Romans 13:12 ESV)

We can do this because the day of our resurrection has been enlightened within us, casting out the chaos and fear of darkness.  The Holy Spirit has ushered in God’s creative Word, enacting within us God’s baptismal power, which says, “Let there be light”.

Even when everything around you is suggesting the darkness is winning, God wants us to remember that the darkness has not overcome the Light of God.  We have a God of Triune creative and recreative power! 

In addition to this, the Son of God, who is the Light of the World, promises you and me, saying,  “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b ESV)

Even when creation dies, and God promises us that it will, even then, without sun, moon, and stars, the light of eternal life will shine on us, as we glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever around the Triune God’s throne of glory.  Amen.