A, Last Sunday of the Church Year Proper 29 - Matthew 25:31-46 "To Be Confessional"

“Jesus is coming!  Look busy!”  These are far from the most theologically sound words to have come from someone’s lips or be written down!

Apparently, these are the words written on the buttocks of the phony conspirator, disguised as the Archbishop of Canterbury, who’s a part of the plot to remove the British monarchy and anoint an imposter to the royal throne.

Does this sound a little farfetched and comical?  That’s because it’s the plot of the comical spoof movie, “Johnny English”.  Rowan Atkinson plays Johnny English, a bumbling idiotic English secret agent, seeking to save Great Britian and the Commonwealth from the evil French megalomaniac, Pascal Sauvage.   Johnny English is no James Bond!

“Jesus is coming!  Look busy!”  As hilarious and as silly as it sounds that an archbishop would have this inked on his backside, the idea of being busy when Jesus returns, is buried and hidden deep within every person’s psyche.

From where does this come?  Every child, every employee, in fact, every person knows, what this is about.  “Quick, quick, mum is coming!  Dad is coming!  The boss is coming!  Stop doing what you’re doing and look busy!”  We’ve all done it; we’ve all caught someone else out, doing it!

This sense of guilt and shame does not have to be taught to anyone!  From the moment we become aware in infancy, we seek to hide what we’re doing from those who are responsible for us and our upbring.  Be it parents or any other authority! 

In the Garden of Eden, the same thing happened.  We hear, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”  (Genesis 3:8 ESV) You can almost hear what Adam and Eve were thinking when God came looking!  “Quick, quick, God is coming, look busy!”

Busy doing what?  Every parent knows the sound of silence, then scampering feet and excited expressions of children trying not to get caught out!  None of us seem to learn that looking busy, makes you look guilty, and trying not to look guilty, just makes you look even more guilty.  I can hear mum saying, “I wasn’t born yesterday!  I didn’t come down in the last shower!”

“Jesus is coming, look busy!”

It’s actually comical we think this way, when like our parents, Jesus already knows who you are and what you’re doing! 

However, the silliness and the hilarity of who we are and what we do has a serious consequence if we continue believing in these foolish and faithless ways!  Jesus will judge the sheep from the goats.  Neither the sheep nor the goats say to Jesus, the King, “When were we busy?” Or “When were we not busy?” Rather the sheep and the goats both say, “When did we see you?”

Jesus has been here the whole time!  What is it he sees?

What is Jesus looking for in us?  What is he seeing buried in the depths of your being?  A sheep or a goat!

The picture of sheep and goats Jesus wants us to see is a picture of passivity verses a picture of  roguish deviousness.  Sheep by nature if left to their own devices will spread out over a field to feed, but when led by a shepherd they flock behind him. 

Goats, like sheep will follow a shepherd.   However, unlike sheep goats are opportunist.  They don’t need a shepherd.   Unlike sheep, goats travel together, they feed together, and they get into trouble together. 

This opportunistic herding instinct in goats, however, works in one’s advantage when yarding young goats.  They all want to be first!   They all race to see what’s in the yard; to beat everyone else to the unknown.  Sheep don’t herd as well, especially lambs!  They need a good dog to keep them together!

But regardless of the passivity of a sheep or the devious desire of a goat, neither knows what the shepherd knows, nor sees what the shepherd sees!

To the surprise of this son of a goat farmer, these days a goat has embedded itself into the modern vernacular in a new way.  To most people when you ask, “What is a goat?”, they will tell you, “It’s an animal that bleats and eats!”  Once, if a person was referred to as being “a goat”, it was not a compliment!  But to teens and young adults a G.O.A.T., is an acronym meaning, “Greatest Of All Time”.

Nevertheless, this new meaning for a two-legged goat, still fits nicely with the opportunistic desire of the four-legged animal to which Jesus refers.

Goats don’t need a shepherd.  Those who strive to be the greatest of all time, usually don’t flock behind a shepherd!   No, rather, one usually sees them out in the lead, herding the desires of those longing to be like the goat to whom they’ve flocked.

But the goat who thinks it is the greatest of all time, is seen by the God Of All Time who “is” the greatest of all time.  He sees, and he will sort the sheep from the goats! 

So, what is the desirable quality Jesus seeks in the sheep?  The sheep know Jesus is coming, but there is neither the need to look busy, nor the need to look bored.  No!  The sheep are not interested in looking anywhere but to Jesus.  They are not interested in a knowledge of goodness, nor a knowledge of evil.  They are concerned about gaining a knowledge of Jesus Christ, the King coming to his kingdom, who has busied himself for all, and won the battle.

His sheep know, knowing him is greater than a knowledge of goodness.  His sheep know he is so good, he bore all evil knowledge, and its deeds on the cross.

When you think “Jesus is coming”, and you act like a goat looking busy, you’ve already missed the mark.  When you think “Jesus is coming”, and you think you have to act like a sheep, you are a goat disguised as a sheep.  You will end up being like a fat sheep who acts like a goat!

When you think “Jesus is coming”, confess to your heart, “I am Jesus’ little lamb!”  

Rather than think, don’t do, but be!  If you think, and you do, then you’re dead!    But you’re already dead to sin, and now you’re alive in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit!  So don’t do!  Be!

Let the Holy Spirit, lead you, in the Word of God, to the Lamb of God, to be with the King of creation!  You are standing under the cross with Jesus, like Jesus, being led like Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is coming, he is the greatest of all time.  Therefore be!  Because you are!

See Jesus in your enemies, the weak, criminals, the poor, the rejected, all those with whom you do not want to associate!  Then you will see why Jesus has come to you! 

Jesus is coming, he is the greatest of all time, therefore be because you are!

Know you are a redeemed sinner, a sinner being redeemed, and a sinner who will be redeemed! 

The Redeemer is coming, be redeemed!  Because you are redeemed, and he is your Redeemer!

Be a confessor of Christ, a seer of sin, within, without!  Therefore, be a faithful forgiver!  Be a servant of salvation!  You can!  Because Jesus is your Saviour!

St James tells us, “The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.  And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”(James 5:15–16 ESV)

On this last Sunday of the Church year, it’s a reminder to us to “come out”, as sinners.  To be what God sees!   But also, to see with the eyes of faith, Jesus in those he wills you to serve!   Let the Holy Spirit lead you, to confess the reality of your full being, as a forgiven sinner, forgiven of true tangible confessable sins, that have lost their deadly power and received lifegiving power at the cross.

In your confession of Christ forgiving you, and your confession of the deeds he has forgiven you, you will stand under those in whom you see Jesus Christ.  And therefore, you will be serving them with Jesus Christ, under whom you stand!

Then, through your being in Christ, the Holy Spirit can lift up, the poor, the lonely, the destitute, and the undesirables to the Lord.  Therefore, confessing your “full” being in Christ!  They will hear what you have received, what you are receiving, and desire to share in what you will receive.  Forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation!

This is the fullness of Jesus Christ who fills all in all.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 25 Proper 28 - Matthew 25:14-30 "Invested Interest"

When Jesus told the parable of the talents, his hearers would have been astounded by the sheer size of what the master had entrusted with his servants before he departed to a foreign land.

These servants were bondslaves.  These three slaves were his property, they were bound to him, to do with whatever he pleased!

So, he invests in each of his workers, what they were capable of working with, and goes away.  We hear, “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.  Then he went away.” (Matthew 25:15 ESV)

It pleases the departing master to entrust to his bondsmen, what would have been a large responsibility for them.  He lays a burden of five talents on one, two on another, and one on the third bondsman.

One talent was twenty years of wages for a worker of that day.  So, two talents is forty year’s wages and five is one hundred year’s wages.   The master invests eight talents in these three men; that is one hundred and sixty years of worker’s wages.  That is not to be sniffed at.  The hearers of Jesus’ parable would have been both amazed and overwhelmed by the trust and generosity of the master sizable entrustment invested in these three characters!

Jesus tells the parable about himself.  He is the one going on a journey to a foreign place, so to speak, when he would ascend into heaven after the resurrection, leaving holy talents to manage. 

Although there are three bondsmen, there are two reactions.  To those given the five and two talents, they both willingly receive what the master has given and put the talents to work, both receiving back double.   The first, turning five talents, or one hundred year’s wages, into two hundred year’s wages.  And the second turning forty year’s wages into eighty!

To them the master says exactly the same thing, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21,23 ESV).

The two get the same accolade and are welcomed into the joy of their master.  This is the pleasure of the master.  Now that the master has returned, they both are endowed with the same benefit and favour. They not only enjoy the spoils of what the master had given, but now they dwell with the master in the fullness of his presence and his pleasure. 

What he had given them to manage was considered by the master as being puny and limited, which would have also made the ears tingle of those who heard Jesus say, “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much”.

In contrast to the first two servant slaves, the third acts completely different.  In fact, the weight of the parable sits with this fellow’s action and response to his master. 

We might say that he is contrasted by the fact that he received less.  However, what he received although smaller, was still indeed quite a substantial investment given to him.  In the same way as the other two, it pleased the master to consider the burden this slave could bear and bound him accordingly.  Even though the amount was less, the master’s trust was the same as was his expectations.

The third servant saw it differently, and it’s evident in what he did with the talent as well as what he said at the master’s return. 

The parable to this point has been deliberately repetitive, demonstrating that the master graciously entrusted his property to all three, he had fairly considered the abilities of all three, but nevertheless still gave equally what the servants considered much and what he considered little.

The third slave condemns himself with his own words saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed,  so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.  Here, you have what is yours.” (Matthew 25:24–25 ESV)

From where did the third servant get his impression of his master?  Not only was this bondsman ignorant of his master’s true character, the bondsman’s action, or lack thereof, treated the master’s invested interest, entrustment, and faith in his servant’s ability with utter contempt.  

The language Jesus uses of the third slave also differs somewhat, which is not made plain in English.  Most English translations say all three “received” five, two, and one talent, but the Greek stresses Jesus saying he who took possession of the one talent, “still” only held one talent.  The two who had received the five and two talents, had five and two talents only once, which on his return was a thing of the past, whereas the one who held one talent, continued to only hold one talent.

Why would the bond slave bury his master’s entrustment of property?  The answer comes from the master calling the servant, “wicked and slothful”. 

With regard to being wicked, this servant was starved of trust in both the master and what was entrusted to him.  The servant also was found wanting in his own identity as a trusted servant, starving the master of his service.  Not only was he wearisome and hurtful of himself, but the servant was also wearisome and hurtful to his master.

Not only was he wicked, but he was also slothful.  Slothfulness is being slow and hesitant.  This is not cautious and careful, but rather sluggish and slack.  The master reports, “you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.”  (Matthew 25:27 ESV)

We don’t know why, but this third bondsman thought the master’s being was hard, and he was afraid.  Where the first two servants were in awe of the master, the third for some reason thought him to be awful rather than awesome.

Jesus is the master in the parable he tells.  The goods Jesus leaves with us is the very essence of his goodness to us!  How one treats the goods of God is how one treats and considers our God who is good to us.

We are God’s bond servants; we are tied to Jesus Christ.  Like the servants in the parable, we can see our service and our being bound to God and his goodness as good!  Or, like the third servant we can loath God’s goodness, bury his goodness and actively hide what he has given to us.

The interest God has in you, is an invested interest.  He is so interested in you he sent his Son, the Son of God, to invest his goodness in you, to tie you to his resurrection and return, to bind your sin and set you free.

In Jesus Christ you have received an inheritance, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.   And believing in his goodness, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of your inheritance until you acquire possession of it. 

That possession will occur for all who believe, when Jesus our good and gracious master returns.

Be like the two willing servants, who were willing slaves of their master, tied to his goodness, living in freedom from self to serve his interests.  Flee the fear of the other slave who buried and forgot the master’s goodness, becoming enslaved to his own spirit and perception of the master’s gracious gifts!

“By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.”  (2 Timothy 1:14 ESV)

Because you bear the Holy Spirit you are a helpful bondservant of God.  He gives to you according to your ability.  He gives grace upon grace, gift upon gift, good upon good.  He also gives all who believe the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit will enable you too!  God’s good is your good, his goods are your goods, his identity is invested in your identity!

In the joy of the Holy Spirit, see that you have been invested into the enjoyment of your master, Jesus Christ!  Amen.  

A, Post-Pentecost 24 Proper 27 - Matthew 25:1-13 "Expectation"

What do you expect from this day?  We all live with expectations everyday of our lives.  What are expectations and from where do they come?  To where do they lead?  Are your expectations healthy or unhealthy?

Expectations change from person to person, from place to place, and they vary in different times of life throughout the ages.

Our expectation for a meal, a bed in which to sleep tonight, an enjoyable day amongst likeminded folk, seems reasonable to us.  But, for those in war-ravaged places perhaps these expectations would lead to disappointment, resentment, and further hopelessness.  Our expectations might be quite trivial to those whose very existence hangs in the balance! 

The expectations we place on others can differ too.  What you expect of your parents or children changes over time.  Children learn to expect parents to care for them when young, but they expect to escape from their authority when they’re teenagers and young adults!  Likewise, parents expect to care for their children when young, and our mums and dads expect to be cared for, when they grow old!

Expectations are buried in our being from the time we’re born. 

Expectations remember the past, in the present, and furnish one’s future. 

Depending on the culture into which you’re born, will usually dictate the expectations you have of others, and yourself.   What you did and do, dictates what you will do.  Enjoying what you ate encourages what you will seek to eat.  Where you live, who you serve, who serves you, who and what you trust and don’t trust are learnt expectations.

Another word for expectations is wants!  Wants or expectations are fuelled by something deep within each of us.  Examining our inner wants and expectations can tell us a lot about ourselves.  Learning of another person’s wants, or a group’s expectations, can also help us discern much about the person or group.

For example, those who expect the world to continue to evolve into a better and better place, might have an expectation of society learning from its mistakes and not making them again.  There’s an expectation of humanity cycling round and round in an ever-rising series of events towards perfection.  On the other hand, those who expect the universe to one day spiral and explode into a chaotic oblivion will have very different expectations.  Both are expectations, both are not right, but they affect how humanity acts and reacts to events and other people.

So, what or who fuels your expectations?

Are your expectations, or wants, a false god?   Are your expectations premeditated resentments?  Setting yourself up, or others, for hurt and failure?

What do you expect of God?

What does God expect of you?  You might be surprised what God expects of you, written in his Word!

What fuel’s your expectations of God, and your understanding of his expectations of you?  It depends on whether your expectations submit to the Word of God, or you try to make God submit to your expectations and wants!

Ten virgins expect the coming of the bridegroom.  In this parable Jesus says five were wise and five were foolish.  The wise were those who have considered bringing extra fuel for their lamps.  The foolish have not thought things through and don’t have extra oil to fuel their lamps.

Jesus teaches the parable to prepare us for his coming and what we should expect.  So, what is the parable of the ten virgins teaching us to expect about Jesus’ return?

At the end of the parable Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13 ESV)  This sudden surprise is made explicit in the midst of the parable.  All ten virgins are asleep and startled when the cry comes for the bridegroom’s arrival.

Jesus previously says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”  (Matthew 24:36 ESV)  Not even Jesus knows, only the Father in heaven.  Obviously when Jesus is sent by the Father, he will know, but not beforehand.

Notice that in the parable all the virgins fall asleep, and they cannot lend their oil.  This is so, because when we fall asleep in death, what we believe and trust, is the fuel of our faith, and it’s this light that will expose us as followers of Christ.  What you believe, or what you expect when you die, cannot be changed when Christ returns.

When we think of lamps, we might assume that lamps were used to see the way.  They may have been, if the lamps were rags soaked in oil on sticks, but the parable tends to suggest a lamp that’s not a temporary torch to see the way, but a lamp made of clay with a reservoir to hold the fuel and a wick to draw the fuel and burn a flame.  Much like a candle would burn and produce a small amount of light.

This type of lamp is not for seeing the way, but for being seen.  Virgins walking in the evening moved about with lamps to illuminate their faces, so they could be plainly seen.  Women who moved around hidden within the cloak of darkness, were usually anything but virgins.  The virgins needed the fuel for their lamps, to be seen by the bridegroom on his arrival, not to see the way to the bridegroom. 

One cannot work their way to Jesus.  Just as he came the first time, he will come the second time.  We didn’t find him the first time, and neither will we find him when he returns.  What will be seen of you when he returns?

This is a key part of the parable because if one does not have the good oil, so to speak, when the bridegroom arrives, we cannot expect to bargain our way through the door of eternal life to be with Jesus.

Like the virgins who went to find oil and returned to begged to enter, Jesus also says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21, 23 ESV)

If we have an expectation that we can change our story on judgement day, Jesus clearly tells us it doesn’t work like that!  The fuel of faith we need when we die, is the fuel of doing God’s will, or what God expects and wants. 

He wants to see us waiting for him, illuminated by his presence, and not the back of us working, or changing, to get the good oil.  He wants to see the radiance and joy of our hopeful expectation in which we will enter the grave and will be woken at his coming.

So, what is this fuel?  The good oil of expectation!  It’s not an idol of our works, or a belief in a false image of God we’ve concocted in our hearts.

What is this fuel of faith that God expects to see in you?   It’s the fuelling trust in God’s Word, looking not to ourselves or finding our way to eternity.  It’s allowing the fire of the Holy Spirit to illuminate Christ’s death for our daily death of self.  This fuel of faith lets him shine his holiness in us.  So, when the Father sees us, our lamp of faith shows Jesus the bridegroom, shining for us, in his resurrection glory.

God expects you to be a sinner!  If he did not expect this, he would not have sent Jesus to be the only sacrifice for sin!  But God also expects you to be an enlightened repentant sinner, who despite knowing your sinfulness, willingly stands in his presence to confess, be forgiven, and forgive as Jesus has forgiven us in his death and resurrection.

Like the wise virgins whose faces are lit up with hope and joy at his coming, our wisdom is not so much about you or me, but about the wisdom of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, working and waking us with the Word of God.

God expects us humans to have doubts and troubles with faith.  Every day you can expect the old human self will seek its resurrection.  That, you can count on without a skerrick of doubt!   This is not a time to forget the oil reserve that is being deposited in you through God’s Word. 

When you have doubts, let the eternal resurrected bridegroom pour his Word into you with the Holy Spirit.  When you doubt, bash on God’s door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to open Godly expectations of his Word in you!  When you pray, trust the Holy Spirit to give you a desire and joy in God’s Word.  When you receive God’s Word as the good oil, expect this oil to be the oil to keep your lamps burning.

God wants your greatest expectation, to be of him. 

He wants your expectation of him alone.  

He expects you, to expect him, to be your God.  Amen.

A, Commemoration of All Saints - 1 John 3:1-3 "It is Finished"

1 John 3:1–3 (ESV) See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

“It is finish!” That is the cry of Jesus on the cross!  It is the joyful confession of those who have gone before us and are now worshipping around the throne of God outside of time!  It is finished!  What is finished?

When something is finished, it implies that at one time it began, it endured, and ended.  When something is finished it also implies something new has begun.

Not so much today, but in past times, there was an institution known as a “finishing school”.  It was a place where well to do families sent their daughters to become ladies.  Grooming and deportment of young girls prepared them to hold themselves appropriately within the social circles they were expected to mix.

One can imagine there would be an opportunity for comedy to occur in seeking to finish a rough diamond of a girl into a prim and proper lady.  Plays and movies like “My Fair Lady, Nanny McPhee, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Sound of Music, and Pretty Woman, all are stories about such “rough diamonds” being polished with all the drama and comedy one would expect with the transition of a person from one lifestyle to another.

With much drama and comedy, God seeks to finish us as his children.  In fact, the creation in which we live, the bodies in which we breathe, and the society in which we seek to survive, is God’s finishing school.

Like the movies our lives don’t always follow a simple, rags to riches script!  There are many setbacks and deviations in our stories.  Some are God directed, some are from our own misdirection, and then some come about from the deception of others.

The movie, My Fair Lady, is one such movie!  Actress, Audrey Hepburn, plays a poor Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, who becomes the centre of a wager by Professor Henry Higgins, that he could make her “well to do” and pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball.

Most known for the phrase made popular by the movie, “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain!” Eliza practises these words to polish her speech!  And there is comedy when she relapses back to her Cockney ways amongst the dignitary at Ascott racecourse, as she inappropriately calls out, “Come-on Dover, move your bloomin’ a_ _ _ (hind quarters)!”   Eliza proves not to be completely finished, as Higgins had hoped her to be!

This movie comes from a play called Pygmalion.  One can understand, looking at the name, why they changed the name to My Fair Lady.  Similar to the story of Pinocchio, Pygmalion in Greek mythology is where a sculptor falls in love with the female ivory sculpture he has finished, in rejection of the young female prostitutes around him.

We are in God’s finishing school!  He seeks to put to death the deeds of our old sinful nature.  This is an all of “this life” project!  In fact, this life is not really life, rather it is the prelude to the life that God originally intended for us and gives us after the resurrection.

In reality this life is not life, but death!  Where the world puts their trust in this life with the hopeless reality of death to come, those who believe and trust Jesus Christ, exist in this finishing school, having the old self killed off, and finished, waiting patiently in hope of the life to come.  This is life with Jesus Christ, the Almighty Father, the Holy Spirit, the angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven.

St John sees the whole company of heaven in his revelation as one of the elders tells John just who the company is, clothed in white robes…

 “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:14–17 ESV)

Those who have gone before us, who are in Christ, spur us on!  They urge you on, in the knowledge that they are with Jesus by no effort of their own, but by the great love of our Father in heaven!  They have finished and have been finished in Jesus Christ alone!

When were they finished?  They were finished in baptism, they were finished when Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!”, bowed his head and died.  Their finishing became an unhidden reality in Jesus’ resurrection, in their resurrection, in the resurrection when this life bound by time is finished!

Yet, here we are, still in this existence we call “life”!  But it is a penultimate or second last life!  It is the night before the sun rises on the new eternal day!

It might appear that we are not quite finished!  Like Eliza we fall back into the old ways of our old Adam!  We become sculptors of ourselves, taking the tools out of God’s hands, only to fall in love with the self, or despair of what we cannot create!  What becomes apparent is we cannot finish ourselves!  Or we exist knowing our finish is a sham, trying to fool others, but only fooling the foolish self within!

But despite not being finished in this world, we, like those who have finished their earthly time, are finished too!  How can that be when it seems God has not finished finishing us for eternity?

God has given us the finishing requirement for eternity, and life with him, in our baptism!  When Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”, on the cross, “and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30), he gave up his spirit for you, and me!

Jesus was the perfect sculpture of humanity, incarnate, created, in Mary.  Sent in love by God the Father, who loves you so much, he sent his only beloved Son, so that “right now” we are God’s children, God’s beloved children, even though we only see it through faith in God’s word of promise.

Hear again the promise, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”  (1 John 3:1–3 ESV)

God is no Pygmalion!  He did not keep his Son for himself but sent his beloved Son to conquer death and finish death, for you, his beloved.  Today we remember those who have conquered death in their baptismal death and have now victoriously been raised from the second death.  Let your remembrance of these perfected saints in Christ, spur you on in this earthly finishing school, and heavenly hope in eternal life after resurrection!

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”  (Hebrews 12:1–4 ESV)

But if you are required to shed you blood, praise God!  He who has been finishing you through the blessedness of repentance and forgiveness of sin is about to welcome you into his eternal presence!

Blessed are the finished, blessed are those being finished, and blessed are those who will be finished, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, they are the children of God.  Amen. 

A, Commemoration of the Reformation - John 8:31-32, 34-36 "Get the Message Right, Get the Message Out"

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…34 I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:31-32, 34-36)

Get the message right; get the message out. 

There’s a mindset occurring in the church today that threatens the very life of the whole church.  This philosophy is one that says, ‘we’re all Christians, it doesn’t matter what we believe; we’re all going to the same place’.   And although there is an element of truth to the statement; at the core, stands the same ideals and beliefs that led to the building of the Tower of Babel.  Did God bless that project?  No!  We must ask ourselves why? 

God gives us the message and the message is one a small child can get right.  The message we’re talking about is the gospel of our salvation, the message of redemption in the Word of God. 

To the believing Jews, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) 

The first half of this verse can be translated in a number of ways: If you remain in my word; if you abide by my word; if you dwell in my word – you are truly my learners; or, you are my disciples indeed.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  Get the message right!  Why is it so difficult for us to keep that message right?

The fundamental difference between the unity language cheaply tossed around in the church today and the unity that Christ calls us into is this: Christ’s way is centred on him, rather than focusing on the acceptance of other people’s ideas and words in a bid not to offend them.  Unity in Christ listens to Christ alone and not to the ideas of people.  So, in the text we hear that if we look to Jesus and abide by what he teaches us we are his disciples.  And having held onto his Word as the truth, it makes us holy, and it sets us free.

The sad fact today is that most people in the churches are all too willing to accept what someone else believes because they don’t really know what they themselves believe.  Christ is no longer at the centre and the message is no longer right.  They neither examine nor become learners of what their own church believes nor what the other churches teach. 

Most of us don’t even know the subtle differences which we, as Christ centred Lutherans, should reject in other church’s teaching, nor do we know the strengths that these other denominations might offer us and the greater church.

Most denominations are Christ centred, but their doctrines are being rejected in favour of a shallow, pop, pleasure cultured, me-centred theology; where “god” is the person seeking, “Lord just” prayers are the way to coerce Jesus Christ with our self-righteousness yearnings, and our ‘thou art God speak’ just makes us sound churchy.

Unfortunately, the message of the Gospel gets turned back into Law.  All the things that Christ gives us and has called us to hold at the fore – don’t get rejected outright, but have the importance taken off them in favour of things that appeal to the sinful heart.   The things that Christ has set in place and have been proven over time in the church are misplaced in favour of self-righteous feel-good things.

Such as: Corporate belief and understanding of God’s Word, or a church’s doctrine and theology, are replaced in favour of the life one must live.  The means of Grace or the things Jesus personally put in place for us to receive him and the Holy Spirit, are replaced by a public declaration of personal faith, most often expressing itself in the statement, ‘I made a decision for Jesus Christ, my personal Lord and Saviour’. 

‘Lord’ is turned from Redeemer or saviour into someone I must fearfully obey to be good enough to gain eternal life.

‘Grace’ is not God’s death on the cross in our place, but rather grace is reduced to a template for moral living, and salvation is only obtained if we live as Christ did. 

Ironically, nobody could live as Jesus did when he was here!  He walked to the cross alone!  So, what makes anyone think they can do it now? 

The  preaching of the Gospel, commanded by Christ, and passed on by the Apostles, Jesus’ first disciples or learners, is put aside in favour of group sharing sessions usually fuelled by worldly ignorance of God’s word. 

Liturgy is deserted in favour of free unscripted prayer; the Lord’s own prayer is rejected as dead in favour of the prayers that come from the heart.  If Christ and his prayer are rejected from the heart, one must ask, “In what condition is the heart to pray a free prayer anyway?” 

In fact, ritual is seen as bad, even though every one of us needs ritual.  Why do you think babies become unsettled if they don’t have a regular pattern of living?  All humans need ritual for stability and reassurance; it’s the same in the church for Christians!  

And finally, the church or the assembly of the saints, the gathering of all who confess and believe in the Triune God is moved to one side, sacrificing things such as repentance and forgiveness, through confession and absolution.  In its place conversion experience becomes more important than God’s justification.

Don’t hear me wrong.  As good as these might seem, when they are put first before God, they become destructive in our reception of the One True God and the holiness he chooses to give through his way — his chosen means of grace.

The Reformation was all about placing Jesus back at the centre; remaining in his word; getting the message right!  The church of Luther’s day had turned from Christ and his means to other means of coming before God.  So, the church of the day had taken what was given to them as right and got it wrong. 

Jesus Christ coming down in love, was pushed out, in favour of a gospel of love climbing up to God, doing the greater good, which is no gospel at all.

Later on, others came along and rejected all things catholic (that is gathered by the Holy Spirit, according to Christ), but Luther and others who followed him stood against them.  Luther and his supporters fought against extremists reforming the church too far in the other direction which also led to Christ still being pushed out of the centre. 

As much as Luther stood against the Roman church of the day, he still recognised that through Christ-centred-catholicity (cath-o-liss-ity), God proclaimed the Holy Gospel and gave himself through the means of Holy Baptism, Holy  Communion, and the forgiveness of sins.  

Getting the message right must come first, it must come before getting it out.  If you are not focused on Christ, if you are not a learner of his, how then can you get the right message out? 

Luther reminds us in his Large Catechism in the Third Article that where Christ isn’t preached, there’s no Holy Spirit to create, call, and assemble the Christian Church, outside of which nobody can come to the Lord Christ.  Ask yourself, “When I get the message out, to where does it lead?” Jesus Christ, or something else!

Get the message right; get the message out!  When we as Lutherans place ourselves under the confessions of the church, we place ourselves under Christ and become his disciples, learning what the truth is and what freedom from the Law actually is. 

If we call ourselves Lutheran just for the sake of being Lutheran, we then lose sight of the Gospel and take what is right and get it wrong.  The great joy of being a Lutheran is that we have a confession that trusts Jesus at his Word and calls us to submission under what he did and continues to do through the Holy Spirit.  This is the truth, and it sets us free!

So, in having the right message, now we are called to get it out.  Why?  Why do we need to get the message out? 

Our Lutheran confessions are a strength to the greater church.  They rightly show us who we are as people: sinners who do sinful things, brought about by our own sinful natures.  But they also rightly show who we are once we allow Christ to rid us of the curse of eternal death, and allow the Holy Spirit to place trust, or faith, in our hearts; leading us to say, “God you are right, I am wrong, take me, do it your way and set me free”. 

Having received such grace and faith, we can trust in these things to be enough, so we can confidently say, “Yes, I am going to heaven, I have been forgiven and saved, I will be saved!”

Knowing that you have been set free from the bondage of sin, and, ‘what I have to do to get to heaven’, you can rest in the freedom of the Gospel, being blessed completely by the obedience of Christ’s death and resurrection on the cross. 

The passion of Christ’s death and resurrection for your salvation lived by Christ and the Holy Spirit in you,  put you right!  Then surely this message which put you right, will be the message you might passionately want others to have as well.  This should make getting the message out a joy, not a task!

God gets the message right, and he gives it to us as a free gift and it saves us.  Let the Holy Spirit lead you in getting this right message out, so others might live in the freedom of the Gospel too. 

Amen.