B, Post Pentecost 2 Proper 4 - 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 "Clay Jars that We Are"

Clay jars need rest!  But the power to rest in the right way does not come from the clay jar!  In its fragility the clay jar does not know how to rest, it needs a knowledge greater than the lack of knowledge it contains.  Clay jars can hold many things, but one thing they cannot hold is knowledge.

Saint Paul speaks of us as the clay jars holding the light that shines out of darkness.  A clay jar that has an absence of light contains only darkness.  Like creation we are clay jars without form and void.  Likewise, to creation, we need God to say, “Let light shine out of darkness,” “Let there be light”.  We need God the Holy Spirit to shine, “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)

Clay jars need rest to be reformed and recast.  I’m not talking about pottery anymore, but the earthenware of our humanity, our flesh, our soul or being, both physical and spiritual.  We need the light of God that’s more powerful than the strongest laser light.  To cut with greater precision than a plasma cutter.  To open us and expose what’s hidden within.  And to burn out what’s rotting away inside of us!

Some clay jars believe that the darkness within is light, and therefore do not want to be reformed or recast.  At some point though, without rest, clay jars will return to the dust from which they’re made.  “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19 ESV)

All clay jars will crack and fall apart, explode in a shower of shards from pressure, or on Christ’s return God’s decree will be fulfilled in him.

From Psalm two we hear, “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’” (Psalm 2:7–9 ESV)

We, clay jars, need rest in God!  Why do we need this rest?  And what does this rest do?  How do we get this rest?  What does this rest look like? 

Returning to Second Corinthians four, we know that without God, there is nothing within shining the necessary light to recast and reform us in Jesus Christ.  Even Paul says, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants (slaves) for Jesus’ sake.”  (2 Corinthians 4:5 ESV)

Even Paul needs rest as a servant slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, as do all who preach and teach for Jesus’ sake!

So, why do we need this rest?

The fragility of our being is evident in this world.  This world is one bound by death.  In fact, death is the great unifier of all people, all animals, all things, in all of creation.  Everything is dying!   You, me, the person next to you, your animals, everything ever built, everything ever created.  This is fact, this is the world in which we die.  It’s not life we’re living, but death we’re dying!

After God created the heavens and the earth, on the seventh day he rested.  God called Saturday the Sabbath, to repose from work.  After the fall into sin, where humanity’s being got its clay jar fragility, to sabbath, or to rest in God, requires more than just a physical sabbath, but our fallen nature also needs a spiritual sabbath.  After God chose the Israelites as his own, he called them through the law to faithfully rest with him in repentance and atonement through the sacrifice for sin, performed by God’s representatives in the temple.

After the Word became flesh, Jesus Christ fulfilled the Word of the old covenant.  The Word enfleshed, revealed the fragility and futility of our flesh, and finished what Israel could not finish in the weakness of its human flesh.  The sabbath, the day of rest, had become for the Jews, a day of rules, rather than a day of faith where one could rest with God after atonement was made for sin.  Jesus said to the Jews, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27 ESV)

What Jesus was saying is, the day of rest, God’s holy day, or holiday,  is made for us to faithfully rest with God.  It’s not a day for a self-justifying stoppage of work.  The Jews had turned the Sabbath into a work of righteousness, by their good works of not working.  The focus was on themselves doing, rather than being with whom they were called to be!  Their motivation was on what they did, rather than being with God!

What is your motivation in coming to church?  If it’s for a work of some kind, let the example of the Jews of Jesus’ day, stand as a warning to you!  If your primary reason for coming to church is for community, morale, making an appearance, to be seen, to be a leader, to do a certain job, to move others by one’s own motivation, or for good morals, then you’re coming for the wrong reason!

As honourable as the tasks performed might be, (I include myself as your pastor in this), if I or you come for reasons other than to rest in God, through the forgiveness of sins, atoned for by Jesus Christ, you and I have come for the wrong reason!  We’re not here to work for God, but to be arrested by him, to allow him to work for us, in us, so we can rest in him.  And in doing so we glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their honourable tasks of reposing, recasting, and reforming the clay jars that we are!  

In Paul’s leadership as a slave or servant of Jesus Christ, even he needed to rest in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  So too with you and me, now that we have been recreated and recast in Jesus Christ, as Sons of God in his works of righteousness, having been reborn with water and the word, as kings in God’s creation.  We are returned to Psalm two where we’re reminded, “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”  (Psalm 2:10–12 ESV)

Every one of us who remains and rests in God’s Son, glorifies God by acknowledging God’s righteous judgement.  As we have just heard,  “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”  What does this rest do?  It blesses us or balances us in the truth of God’s Word.  Hence, we find ourselves fleeing to this rest for refuge. 

We might think God’s judgement is Jesus’ anger as Psalm two says!  But it says this for us and others when we focus on ourselves.  When we kiss ourselves, someone, or something other than the Son of God.  However, when we’re led to kiss the Son, we trust in him and what he’s done to balance us with forgiveness and blessed rest with God our Father.

So, how do we get this rest?  We get this rest or sabbath, firstly, through Jesus Christ who being the only one to rightly rest in God the Father, paradoxically died for us who through sin struggle to rest with God.  Ironically Jesus’ rest was so perfect, this “Holy Clay Jar” rested in God’s holy judgement on Holy Saturday,  “that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,  in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.”  (1 Peter 3:18–19 ESV)

In the continuation of Jesus’ perfect work and rest, the Holy Spirit continues this work by bringing us in faith into God’s rest.  We kiss the Son because the Holy Spirit brings us to the Son through his holy word and holy sacraments. 

The Holy Spirit calls you and me through the holy work and holy rest of Jesus, in other words, the gospel.  The Holy Spirit enlightens you and me with God’s gifts, of forgiveness, to confess, and forgive as we have been forgiven.  This happens with the enlightenment of God’s holy word and faithful trust in Jesus’ holy communion for the forgiveness of sins, continuation of life in the midst of death, and salvation from eternal death.  The Holy Spirit also makes us holy; he covers us with the robes of Christ’s righteousness, so we have free access into God’s holiness to pray and confess.

So, what does this rest look like?  We are still clay jars, fragile and easily broken.  We are holy with “the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”   But the darkness of our original state still lingers.  However, the Holy Spirit now works within you and me, so we, “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”, as we hear in the Third Commandment.

In his explanation, Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “We are to fear and love God so we do not neglect his Word or the preaching of it, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it.”

The Holy Spirit leads us to church to hear the word, to stand under it in understanding, to unpack it in its truth and relevance for us, and to give us joy in gathering as forgiven people in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  However, we, being clay jars, don’t always appreciate the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Our fragility and futility, tends to lead us to see without eyes of faith, where we overlook the reality of what resting in God is all about.  Then we neglect his word and the preaching of it, regarding it as common, and turn against hearing and learning it. 

Every person struggles with this.  After all we are clay jars!  This is where we have the Holy Spirit to help us, to once again fear and love God, in a way where we no longer “have got to” read the bible.  Where we no longer “have got to” go to church.  And where we no longer “have got to” serve our neighbours as Christ serves us. 

Rather, we keep knocking on God’s door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to give us a hunger “to want to” read the bible, to give us a desire “to want to” go to church and rest in God, and to give us a longing “to want to” serve our neighbours as Christ serves us.

When you keep praying for the Holy Spirit to give you a love for God’s Word, he will lead you to Jesus Christ, deepening your knowledge of his grace and the depths of your sin in your self-justifying knowledge of good and evil.  You will get understanding as to why you might have struggled to find true joy in church, and why being daily in the Word is difficult. 

In God’s time you will find yourself looking forward to coming into rest in God.  To be forgiven and fed!  Rather than coming in cold to hear the Word of God on Sunday morning, your joy in the Word of God, will see you put off the world, so the Holy Spirit can prepare you, the clay jars, in the Word of God for rest with God in his word and sacraments.  Amen.

B, Trinity Sunday - Isaiah 6:3 & Romans 8:14-15 "Holy Abba"

Isaiah 6:3 (ESV) “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 

Romans 8:14-15 (ESV) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba!  Father!” 

Today is Trinity Sunday and we celebrate God in his thrice holy being.  We can do so only because of Jesus Christ who gives us access into the presence of one who is so almighty, if we dared to have an audience with God without Jesus’ atonement we would drop dead.  Such is the omnipotent glory of God in heaven and our human impotence.

If anything comes into the presence of a Holy God without his chosen covering of mercy, one of two truths has to occur.  God’s purity is diluted, and he is not really holy!  Or, any impurity, be it ever so slight, has to be consumed by the radiance of his holy glory.

Isaiah was very well aware of this.  He knew that to be in God’s presence demanded nothing but perfection.  Such is the holiness of God, it cannot tolerate any error, lest it be unholy.  Like Moses and Gideon before him, Isaiah knew, to see God, meant death.

Isaiah also knew that the king of Judah, Uzziah[1], sought under his own power to enter the temple of God in Jerusalem and burn incense, not “consecrated”, or “made holy” to do so.  Because he did the king lived the rest of his life in separation as a lepper, despite doing what was right in the eyes of God right up until this unauthorised entry into God’s holy presence.

So, when the vision of the Lord was revealed to Isaiah, of God’s presence shaking the temple and filling it with smoke, with the seraphim singing, “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of hosts”  Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”  (Isaiah 6:5 ESV)  Like the King who died in that year, Isaiah lamented he too was lost to death!

But rather than leprosy appearing on his forehead as it did with King Uzziah, he didn’t die.  Being completely right in saying he was unclean and deserving of death for just seeing a vision of the Lord in the temple, the seraph took a burning coal from the altar and touched his mouth saying, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:7 ESV)

The holiness of God took away Isaiah’s guilt and atoned for his sins.  God now gave him the lips with which to proclaim his word to his people who did not recognise their uncleanliness before a Holy God.  And it wasn’t a pleasant message God sent Isaiah to say…

The Lord said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’  Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”  Then I (Isaiah) said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,  and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.  And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.  (Isaiah 6:9–13 ESV)

Immediately we will recognise a couple of things.  God was disciplining his chosen people with the harshest of judgements, to turn away from the Lord so that the Lord will remove the people far away and the tenth who remain would be burnt to a stump. 

We also recognise the burnt stump that appeared to not have any life within it, is in fact, the holy seed, the stump of Jesse, the promised Son of David, Jesus Christ.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims the fullness of God’s Law and Gospel.  The holiness of God the Father, the holiness of God the Son, and the holiness of God the Holy Spirit.  The full supreme holiness of the triune God in his perfect justice and jealous love, pours out his word of on his chosen people. 

In human eyes and understanding it appears we, like Isaiah, and the Israelites, are dead men!  And rightly so before a God whose holiness cannot partake of anything short of perfection, lest he has made himself out to be a liar.

But God is no liar, he is our God of truth, exposing what needs to be exposed, so he can fix what needs to be fixed.  God’s word is holy and with it he works to make us holy.

Against this picture of God’s almighty threefold holiness, shaking and filling the temple of Isaiah’s vision with smoke, is the picture Paul paints for the Romans and us.  Worked by the Holy Spirit and not a human spirit of slavery this is a most beautiful and gracious picture.

It’s a picture of Fatherly love, a picture of nurturing, a picture of adoption, a safe picture of submission and stability, a picture of inheritance together with our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is a picture of the stump with the Tree or Life growing out of it.  This is our Stump of hope.  It’s our connection with the holiness of God, it’s a picture of Jesus our brother putting us in our Father’s arms.

Because of the truth of this picture, you’re called to believe and receive you’re being gathered with God the Father and his Son by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit enables you and me to put to death the deeds of our flesh, through repentance, the uncleanness that Jesus Christ has covered with his robes of holiness.

The Holy Spirit now touches our mouths with his holy fire of faith, so rather than crying out, “woe is me in unbelief.”  We can joyfully sing to each other before our Loving Father, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3 ESV)  This God who is so huge and almighty, who fills heaven and earth with the hem of his holy, holy, holy glory, intimately takes us in his arms, and as his children wills us to call him “Abba”, “dadda”, “daddy”, “Father”.  

A couple of weeks back there was much excitement over the auroras present at both poles of our planet.  It was the strongest it’s been for a couple of decades.  I was fortunate to see it and photograph it. 

I wonder if the sense of smallness I had was similar to that of Isaiah when he saw his vision.  But not only Isaiah’s vision but that of John’s revelation of the throne of heaven where he saw, “one seated on the throne.  And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”  (Revelation 4:2–3 ESV)

Picture that display of holiness!

As I remember marvelling, in my smallness, at this spectacle of nature in the colours of the aurora, it makes me look forward to the reality of finally being face to face in the Father’s holiness, through the holy atonement of Jesus Christ, in the holy fulfilment of the Holy Spirit.  Where around the throne of God all the holy will join the angels, the archangels, and the whole company of heaven, praising God, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8 ESV)

Picture this reality in your adoption as sons of God.  Amen.

Let us pray.  Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.  (Revelation 4:11 ESV) For the kingdom, and the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever, Amen.

 

 

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[1] 2 Chronicles 26:1-23 (Uzziah was known as Azariah in 2 Kings 15:1-7)

B, Pentecost Sunday - Romans 8:22-27 "Eager Expectation"

Text – Romans 8:22-27

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.  In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. 

Decay, degradation, decomposition, dilapidation, deprivation, deficiency, dispossession, disrepair, and disorder – these are some of the things that cause suffering, pain, despair, despondency, depression, and dejection.

There is something in everyone and everything which causes a continual breaking down.  It might be the chilling cold of the winter onset affecting your bones, and your bodies; the lack of rain falling from the skies; the financial crisis taking a toll on your security for the future; or the ever-spreading threat of diseases and sicknesses, covid, or some other disaster that seems to pursue you.  Everything in creation has something working against it, causing it to lament, to sigh, to cry out — causing it to groan.

But why do these things cause us to respond in such a way?  Scripture tells us that it’s not just us but the whole creation groans as it waits to be delivered from bondage, decay, and frustration just as a one who struggles with the pains of childbirth. (Romans 8:19-22)  If we take a look at our creation we see its pain too — more and more weeds, saltier soils, erosion, deforestation, and climate changing through humanity’s climate changing from following, to rejecting God.  There are many ecological disasters troubling our creation today!

In Romans we’re told creation is waiting in eager expectation.  Sometimes it’s hard for us to wait with the same eager expectation when we experience the same old thing over and over again.  The same weaknesses causing creation to suffer and us to suffer too!  Be that as it may,  what are you waiting for?  What’s your eager expectation?

Creation’s eager expectation is not waiting for humanity to change the climate, but for the sons of God to be revealed!  Are you waiting for that too?  Perhaps in your weakness there’s the temptation to turn and be burdened by the seen reality of a world going crazy, a creation in chaos? 

Then again, you might think life’s good, it’s all going well.  All this groaning and moaning stuff is just negative nonsense.  People are good, there’s no climate change!  You might be eagerly expecting many good things in life, not concerned by anything too much.  But in your daily happiness are you eagerly expecting Christ’s return?  Or are there a few things you’d like to do and see before God returns to reveal his children?

It is okay to have expectations and concerns in this life.  However, when they become desperate or demand top billing and push our hopes in God’s  heavenly place aside, to second place, these earthly expectations and concerns are sin.  And regardless of these earthly expectations being pleasant or bitter, once they’re revealed in us as sin, our sin makes each of us groan!

Creation groans too, but it waits for our redemption.  Why does it do so?  Creation has been God’s witness as humanity has plucked its eager expectation from the tree of knowledge of good and evil time and time again.  Creation was again God’s witness when it opened its mouth to receive the blood of Abel.  And today creation is God’s witness every time we breathe contempt of others or eagerly spray spirited gossip into the air. 

But that’s not all!  Creation knows it’s Creator who made it from nothing except his word spoken in love.  Creation also knows its Creator whose blood trickled down the wood of the cross and soaked the soil with redemption, and now creation waits for the Creator’s return to finalise the faith of those who believe. 

Creation also bears the Spirit of God who hovers over the water and comes through the word of God revealing the hidden Triune God of creation.  When God is revealed God will return creation’s climate from sinful heat and coldness, to a perfect creation that glorifies the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who made it!

We celebrate Pentecost today!  At the first Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, God sent the Spirit to walk beside us and counsel us in faith and hope.  Although we so often eagerly expect everything in creation other than the Creator, God has eager expectations of you and me!  He is faithful to all his baptised children willing us to come into Jesus’ presence to receive and believe the redemption we have been given, as we continually have our sin forgiven. 

The Holy Spirit’s job is to bring us to Jesus.  His job is not to enable us to fix God’s creation, but to work a climate change within us so he can bring us as one under Jesus!  God will then fix the climate when humanity allows the climate within to be changed from turning away from God to returning to him in repentance.

The Holy Spirit’s work is to make the invisible visible through faith given when we hear the word of God (Romans 10:17).  It is the Holy Spirit’s task to put flesh on the Word of God, so the Son of God — the Word made flesh, is revealed in us, to us.  He also gives us real hope in the day when Jesus returns, and we see him as he is.  Not only this!   But he gives us eager expectation of what we will be, as we groan in the frustrations, bondage, decay, and deadly weakness of our human suffering and sin.

When our weakness gets the better of us and we begin to eagerly expect creation more than the Creator himself, it’s the Holy Spirit’s mission to bring us back to Jesus.  We might expect the Holy Spirit as one who makes us happy but he who counsels us in God’s will sometimes needs to give us a short swift kick refocusing us back on Christ. 

Jesus says… When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11) 

But the Holy Spirit will also comfort us in Christ too.  If he didn’t do this his conviction would surely drive us away from Jesus in remorse or lead us away as pharisees justifying our sin.  King David knew he needed the Holy Spirit’s help when his sin was exposed.

He prayed… Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:10-12)

The Holy Spirit gives us a willing spirit, and this spirit bears the Spirit of Christ.  With Jesus Christ en-fleshed in us we also bear the eager expectation of redemption and resurrection.  Redemption, because Christ saved you at the cross by taking your place in death; and resurrection, because he was raised in all power over your sin and your death, so you too might eagerly await your resurrection into heaven.

Because the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son he speaks only what he hears from the Father and the Son.  Therefore, he bears the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the truth of God that names what needs to be named in us.

Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."  (John 8:34-36)

So, the Holy Spirit, names you a sinner, but a sinner whose sin has had its power removed by the Son who sets you free.  Right now, you are being released from bondage, weakness, and frustration, even in the midst of decay and death.  God has freed you so you can allow the light of Christ to dispel the darkness of sin within.  God has freed you and now continually and faithfully sends the Holy Spirit to guide you and keep you in Christ.  And you can wait in hope when on the last day the Holy Spirit will raise you and give you an eternal life of peace and joy.

And as we wait for Christ’s return God’s promise to you is this: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Acts 2:17a & 21)  Amen.

B, Easter 7 - John 17:17-19, Psalm 1 "Truly Sanctified"

John 17:17–19 (ESV) Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Jesus prays to our Father in heaven, “Sanctify them in the truth: your word is truth.”  These words are familiar to our ears because many pastors begin their sermons by also praying, “Sanctify us in the truth: your word is truth.”  What is it to be sanctified in the truth?

Another way of saying “sanctify” is “to make holy”!  We can view holiness in two parts to understand what being made holy, or sanctified, is and does!  First there is the practical conception of being cleansed.  Second, when a person is cleansed, they are set apart.  Like cleaning the dishes or washing the clothes and then keeping them separate from that which is dirty.

But being sanctified is much more than just being clean!  Cleanness in our world is common.  Many things are clean and common but are still not holy or sanctified.  Many common things can also be dirty or are desecrated and defiled.  But what Jesus prays for, here in John chapter seventeen, is the common holy perfection that is found in God alone.

The holiness to which Jesus seeks for those he prays is a holiness that separates people from the common cleanliness and goodness of the world.  After all, how good is good enough for God?

The first we hear of holiness in the bible is in Genesis chapter two, where after God worked the creation of the world in six days, he set aside the seventh day as a holy day of rest.  This is where we get the word holiday; God created the sabbath holy day once a week, so we might stop or sabbath from working, to rest with him. 

God’s original intention was for his holy created humans to stop and recognise God above all that he created.  Or to put more simply, to see him as holy and the source of true holiness.

The first Psalm of one hundred and fifty Psalms, is divided into five books and parallels the five books of the Law (Genesis – Deuteronomy).  As the first Psalm it paints a foundational picture of God’s judgement, discerning what separates true holiness from what is not holy in God’s eyes.  We hear…

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;  but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:1–6 ESV)

This Psalm gives a picture of a man who neither walks, stands, nor sits with those God sees as wrong, guilty, and contrary scoffers.  Instead of being caught up in their ways, this man delights in God’s law and ponders it day and night.  It likens him to a tree planted by a stream.   Here we need to understand in the Middle Eastern context, this is a date palm in the desert with its roots receiving life from a stream of water.  Date palms are evergreen trees, and their fruit is “the sugar” of the Middle East.

Against this, God pictures those who walk the wrong way forward, as chaff that’s blown away!  Those who stand unrepentant with the guiltiness of sinners, will not survive judgement!  Or those who scoff, with contrary teaching, will not be a part of the righteous congregation!

Why?  Because God knows the way of the righteous, as the only way forward, the only sanctified way, because it is his way!  However, the wrong way forward, the way without the word of God, is a wicked way and it will perish with those who persist in following it!

So, who is this man who doesn’t walk, stand, or sit with the wicked, the sinners, and the scoffers?  Why does it have to be a man?  It has to be a man because the man is Jesus Christ!  All other men, women, and children are not set apart as Jesus Christ is set apart, clean as Christ is clean, perfect as Christ is perfect.

As we have heard in John chapter seventeen, Jesus prays to the Father, “I consecrate myself”. No one else can do this!  No man!  No woman!  No child!  Those who think they can consecrate themselves, or make themselves holy these days, reveals the fruit of their foolishness sooner or later.  Like chaff they are blown away and do not endure.  Like a deciduous tree they not only lose their leaves, but they fall over dead, and are used as fuel for the fire.

But Jesus does not consecrate himself for vainglory, he does it for us!  He says, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Jesus does this for those who know the truth in every sense of the word “truth” and God’s word.  Jesus is not just the word made flesh, he is the Word of God set apart in flesh, set apart from all other flesh!  Jesus is the word made flesh, to also reveal the truth of all flesh, all men, women, and children!

The irony of Jesus’ life on earth is he dwelt in the flesh with sinful humanity, but he did not walk, stand, or sit in our ways.  Jesus was set apart for a very different way, the only way forward!

Jesus sets himself apart from all other ways of walking, sitting, and standing, to take up his position on the cross.  When John heard Jesus pray the prayer of chapter seventeen, just before he was crucified, he and the other disciples would not have understood what this self-consecration was.  But later they knew this consecration was the fulfilment of God’s word, to fill them and all believers with the joy that was in him, which led him to the cross for us!

At the cross a truly profound thing occurs!  The blessedness of the man Jesus Christ, who consecrates himself, who does not walk, stand, or sit in the counsel of the wicked, is crucified for those who know and confess the truth, that they are not like him but fail with wayward walking, standing, and sitting. 

At the cross the truth of what is hidden is unhidden in the perfect flesh of Jesus Christ. 

At the cross the truth of our unhidden unholiness, our being set apart from God as his enemy, is covered by the holiness of Christ’s perfect flesh and sinless blood.

We are sanctified, made holy, in the truth of Jesus Christ because he is the Word of God, and he is truth in every sense of the word “truth” and the Word of God!

In the New Testament the Greek word for truth is, “what is not hidden”.  At the cross Jesus does just that, he exposes in his wretched crucified body, he takes what is hidden in humanity and makes it public! 

The Old Testament Hebrew for truth is, “Amen.”  The “ truth” work of Jesus Christ’s consecration or setting himself apart as our sin, and exchanging it for his sinless perfection, is truly our Amen!  This is the great “yes” of Jesus’ joy, our joy, and that of our Father.  This is the end of our way forward!

Jesus sanctifies us in his words of repentance and forgiveness of sin in calling us to believe his work at the cross.  Just as Jesus was sent into the world by God the Father, he sends all of you into the world as his learners, as his disciples, made holy, sanctified, set apart to carry Jesus Christ and his cross before others.

The truth of the matter, the great Amen of Jesus’ prayer on earth, is he is now at the right hand of our Father, interceding on our behalf, so we allow the Holy Spirit to make him visible with his word in us.  But also to make his crucifixion consecration visible for others to repent and be forgiven as we are!  Jesus’ sanctified way in his word is the only way forward!  Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, even though the cross reveals us as sinners, thankyou for covering our sin at the cross, so we can walk, stand, and sit, before God our Father, to continually confess our sin.  Thankyou for also sending the Holy Spirit, to set us apart as holy in your work at the cross, to receive life-giving faith, in your Holy Word and Holy Sacraments.  Amen. 

B, Ascension of our Lord - Acts 1:1-11 "Hidden Here"

We don’t know exactly how Jesus went into heaven; all we know is he was hidden by a cloud.  Was it a glory cloud similar to that which shrouded Mt Sinai when God spoke, or the cloud which covered the mountain of Transfiguration?  We don’t know!   What we do know is Jesus was taken into heaven to be at the right hand of the Father in glory, and once this happened the Holy Spirit would come.

Now if it was you or I who had done what Christ had done, wouldn’t we want to stay about and bask in the glory amongst those whom we had helped?  A nice little ego massage perhaps!  But it was not Jesus’ style nor was it his will to do such a thing.

In fact, his whole ministry was one of humility and hidden glory.  The spotlight was not the motivation for his ministry here on earth, rather this man from Galilee seemed to be much the same as every other ordinary person – maybe even a little weak.  His family was in the line of David but they held no priestly office.  His dad was a carpenter, a simple man no doubt, and Mary his wife kept the house.  As a matter of fact, we know little about Jesus.  Only what was needed to be revealed for the sake of our salvation is written about Jesus.  The gospel witnesses write specifically about only three years of this man’s life.

In their books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John, we hear Jesus commanding those he healed not to tell anyone. We hear Jesus allowing the devil to come into his presence to try and tempt him, when at any moment he could have repelled him with his divinity.  He never sought the high place at banquets and gatherings, but rather served. Think of Jesus washing his disciple’s feet or the outcasts of Jewish society amongst whom he dwelt.  When he did find himself in the position of honour, he was compassionate and humble, as he was when the woman wiped his feet with tears, perfume and her hair.  And in the extraordinary events such as the transfiguration, he asked for the disciples not to make what happened known until after he was gone.  Most of the things he did were done in humility before only a few witnesses.

In the four gospels we hear of the events of Holy Week; one week leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Weakness seems to be the theme.  He didn’t strike back when captured but submitted to the Father’s will, even though it appeared that through his death he had lost and it was all over.  The disciple were very ordinary men, he chose the weak of this world—the unschooled, the unpopular, and the ordinary—to continue his ministry, even after they had all failed in standing with him as he was condemned to die on the cross.

Under all these things God’s glory was hidden.  Under the flesh of this man was an all-powerful or omnipotent God.  He suffered death and now has risen from the dead.  The disciples witnessed these things, and then Jesus appeared only to a certain number for a certain time before ascending into heaven.  He didn’t stay with the disciples to build the church first in Jerusalem and then out in the nations of the world.  However, as the disciple stood there and watched Jesus disappear into a cloud, it was still only the beginning.  The work was not complete, and humanity had not given the glory to Christ nor recognised him for who he is.  In fact, today the work is still not complete, nor has all humanity recognised Christ as glorious Lord of all.

Ever since Christ has ascended, however, he has become powerful.  He had to rise from the earth to be omnipotent, all powerful.  His all-knowing, or omniscient, presence once only found with the disciples in Jerusalem and the surrounding districts two-thousand years ago is now present everywhere.  Jesus is present everywhere, his infinite knowledge is there for everyone, a gift for all people, to know, as he knew. And the power and glory given to him is available to all people.

The disciple’s looked up into the sky and lost sight of Jesus.  Two men in white appeared, just like two appeared with Jesus in glory at the Mountain of Transfiguration.  Was Jesus still there standing with the two men shining in glorious white clothes?  After all, his ministry had only begun and the kingdom of Israel still had to be restored (Acts1:1,6).  He was now hidden, first by a cloud just as God was hidden by a cloud when he spoke, and then by his glorious omnipresence throughout creation.  What the disciples saw at transfiguration, what Saul saw on the road to Damascus, and what John saw and recorded in the book of Revelation is the reality which is all around us now.  These two men dressed in white, representatives of the unseen realm of God, which is all around us, announce Jesus will return.  Surely their presence was also a testimony the kingdom of heaven was still near even though the King of heaven was now hidden. 

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray your kingdom come.  Has not it already come to us in baptism?  Hasn’t Christ come to us?  In the explanation of the Second Petition in the Small Catechism, Luther asks us, ‘when does God’s kingdom come?’  And then he says: God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so by his grace we believe his holy Word and live a godly life on earth now and in heaven for ever.

You see Jesus vanished out of sight, but he is still with us, he promised in his word to be with us.  He had to become hidden from the physical sight of a few so he could be physically present through the eyes of faith to many.  Jesus was not on earth for only thirty-three years and now is absent.  He is God with us today and to the very end of the age. 

It shouldn’t surprise us he is hidden from the sight of most.  Although many saw him two-thousand years ago, they failed to see him as their Saviour and rejected the things he taught them while he was with them.  He remains hidden to many today.  We do not see him face to face but we do see him.  He has sent the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to his hidden presence – in us, in the forgiven sinners we congregate with in church, in the bread, in the wine, and when we hear his word.

It shouldn’t surprise us the church still appears weak to most.  But we know it is powerful because the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the reality that the glory of God is not hidden in a cloud but concealed within the limbs and sinews of you and me.  We need not look into the distance to see Jesus, he is here with us right now, and he is faithful to you every day regardless of your recognition of him.  Now that is powerful!

Jesus did not stay with the disciples to receive commendation for his work of salvation on the cross.  His power, once hidden in him on earth, is passed onto us by the Holy Spirit so we might do what Jesus did and continue to do even greater things because he is now with the Father (Jn 14:12).  The power which was hidden in him while he was on earth is now revealed through the Holy Spirit, given to, and hidden in us.  

How do we handle his power?  We look to Jesus as our guide?  The power he gives us is only effective if it brings glory to God.  Harnessing and restricting this power just for ourselves is like trying to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; it never happens.  When we seek to use God’s power for our glory it vanishes like a mirage. 

Picture God looking at us from the unseen heavenly realm.  What does he see?  He sees Jesus hidden in multitudes of Christians, witnessing to the ends of the earth.  He sees the Holy Spirit encouraging his church to speak the word of God boldly, bringing glory to his holy name.  In our weak human frame he sees the ascended Jesus Christ glorified and powerful. 

All power and glory to the God the Father, his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

B, Easter 6 - John 15:9-12, 1 John 5:1-6 "Joy-Full"

John 15:9–12 (ESV) As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

God’s love flows down the vine through his Son, Jesus Christ, to us, the branches.  The Holy Spirit flows through Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, and he works in us through God’s holy written word and holy sacraments.  The promise of God is that if we abide in this flowing love, if we do not cut ourselves off from the conduits of Christ’s commandments, his joy will be in you and your joy will be full.

Yet as we travel along the road through parched places, it seems there’s not much occasion for joy!  The joy of being known by Jesus Christ, shimmers like a mirage on the horizon.  But weariness wears us down as we work getting to that mysterious place of joy.

Like seeking the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, we peer into the future, driving hard to get to the place of joy, getting to where we think it is, only to find it’s moved away from us, to somewhere else.

There’s a real temptation to think remaining in God’s love is like a donkey walking while working to eat that proverbial carrot from the end of the string.  Is God dangling a carrot in front of us, leading us through life, without us ever receiving the carrot of joy?

But we know that God temps no one to think this way.  In Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  (Luke 12:32 ESV)  So what’s going on with the joy, always seeming to be as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Or thinking joy is just a vain expectation in an oasis mirage, seen only to move with the horizon on our weary walk?

The Apostle John adds yet another dimension to what he teaches us here in chapter fifteen of his Gospel with what he says in his epistle…

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments are not burdensome.  For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”  (1 John 5:1–6 ESV)

The love that flows through Jesus from our Father, does so because Jesus is born of God.  Jesus is eternally begotten of our Father.  That is, he is eternally being born of God through God’s being of love.  The Holy Spirit is the great and holy proxy in this work of creating the love of God within us.  He helps us on our way, by helping move our works out of the way, so he can help us in Jesus’ way through the wilderness.

As John tells us in his epistle, this victory is not burdensome.  Which tells us immediately, where the task of loving others is a burden, then we are toiling for the wrong victory.  A burdensome faith is something other than the one true faith!  A burdensome faith is not one that overcomes the world but is a faith in the world that creates a world of burdens, within us, within itself.

However, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, he carries out the true work of Jesus within, creating faith, helping us to believe in God’s word and sacraments, with God’s word and sacraments, to remain and abide in the only Saviour in this world, Jesus Christ!  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to remove the burden so we can delight in God’s word of law and gospel!

Here the Holy Spirit helps you get back on the horse, as it were!  We’ve been donkeys running in the midday sun, like the mad Englishmen who sought to survey and explore the Australian wilderness in our early colonial days.  But even worse than these madmen, we’ve sought to run by our own effort when the horse has been following us with the water wagon of God’s word in tow!

The joy has been right there with us the whole time.  It’s been under our noses!  We’ve chased the mirage of water, while the refreshment walks with us.  Indeed, God works to refresh us and seeks to carry us in love towards the final goal.  The oasis of a heavenly paradise. 

It’s sinful fear that tempts us to get off the horse in the first place and then run with delirious anxiety in the wilderness.  The call to remain in the shade of God’s love seems unreasonable to us.  Perhaps it’s impatience!  Perhaps it’s contempt for what’s familiar!  Perhaps it’s just plain old donkey stubbornness!  Which does reveal a foolish irony, in that, we stubbornly got off the wagon of free food and transport, only to need a carrot dangled in front of us to make us walk in our stubbornness towards a mirage of freedom from the true joyful freedom we’ve just abandoned!

Loving God and his commandments is remaining in him, trusting him, believing in his word, with the means of transport he has given us through the wilderness.  We trust his way, his work, and his help.

Throughout this sermon, a picture has been painted of moving through a parched place towards an oasis, a paradise.  Most likely you have formed a picture of trekking in the wilderness by yourself.  And rightly so if you picture loving God as a toilsome and burdensome task. 

But climbing back on the transport God provides to bring us to him and his kingdom, the Holy Spirit driven church, we realise when Jesus says, “I have loved you!  You, abide in my love!  If you keep my commandments you will abide!  My joy is in you!  And, your joy may be full!”  The “you or your” is not singular!  It’s not just me on the journey but it’s a community on the move.  The “you” is the gathering of the Holy Spirit.  It’s not just me in which the Holy Spirit works one faith.  Rather one faith is worked in we who are the body of Jesus Christ.

Joy, therefore, is not an individual thing, strived for now or in the future!  If it is, it’s a fruitless futile joy.  It’s a transient happiness in oneself, that exhausts itself, and dies in the expectations coveted and idolised in the wilderness of this world.

However, true joy, is unhidden joy!  It’s the joy of God’s holiness!  It’s the joy of faith in knowing God’s kingdom has come, and God is doing his will, here, right now, in our midst, while we wait patiently in hope for it to be unhidden after death!  True joy is the “yes yes”, “truly truly”, and “verily verily”!  The amen amen!

Before he went to the cross, Jesus openly said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.  You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”  (John 16:20 ESV)

True joy is trusting Jesus finished your journey, when he said on the cross, “it is finished!” 

You are not alone!  Not only does the Holy Spirit call you through Jesus, to Jesus, to enlighten you with his gifts, setting you apart as holy, and faithfully keeping you as a baptised holy believer, he does it with the whole hidden church, gathering it around Jesus, inside and outside of time!

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

Jesus is no mirage!  You are the pot of eternal gold, like him, already in his possession!   So, may the Holy Spirit grant you a restful race in the fullness of Jesus’ joy, enduring in the peace of God, which wins out over all our understanding and transient happiness, so your hearts and minds are kept in the joy of your baptismal eternal journey.  Amen.