C, Post-Pentecost 3, Proper 8 - Galatians 5:1,13-25 "The Divine Dance"

The Apostle Paul writes to the Galatians because they’re in the process of turning their backs on the freedom they have won in Jesus Christ. 

He gets straight to the point in chapter one, saying, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6–9 ESV)

The issue is a group was seeking to reintroduced circumcision as an addition for salvation, and the Galatians were welcoming it.  Circumcision is nothing in itself, but the requirement to be circumcised is righteousness through works, that destroys all the works of God that brings a person to baptism and keeps one in their baptism. 

Saint Paul uses strong language since any works that one adds to God’s works, makes you, me, and the Galatians liable of sinning against the Holy Spirit.   When you and I use freedom to sin against God, you and I are addressed as ill witted Galatians, as Paul brings shame on them, saying, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith.”  (Galatians 3:1–5 ESV)

The Galatians were on the brink of piling contempt on the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit through their actions of freedom.  To those who were forcing the Galatians back to circumcision, Paul says, “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!”  (Galatians 5:12 ESV) In other words, rather than forcing others into works of circumcision, he would rather those who demanded this would amputate everything off themselves, so there was no possibility of circumcision.

However, rather than circumcision or emasculation, that “cuts off”, Paul points out that all have, “put on” Jesus Christ in baptism — both Jew and Gentile, slave or free, man and woman.  All now share in the same discipleship!  Anything one thinks they need to add to this, to be effective, undermines the work of the Holy Spirit and submits one to a yoke of slavery once again.  Anyone who requires someone else to do these additional  works, be it circumcision or any other work, works contrary to Jesus Christ, with a “different or distorted gospel”.   When one seeks or orders this for effective discipleship, Paul says, “Let them be accursed”!  

Emasculation and being accursed are strong words that hopefully move you to consider how you function as a Christian and as Christians.  Or, better said, how you allow the Holy Spirit to give you life!    Paul says to you, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13 ESV)

Today “love” can be a slippery word.  Love is love, the worldly banners proclaim, but the hidden truth, of the world, is all love is not the love the Holy Spirit works in and through us!  Three types of love can be noted here, but there is only one love to which Paul points.

The first two are passions of the flesh.  This is desire from within that is either vulgar evil desires, or seemingly good righteous desires that sees one climb up to God to do the greater good. 

Vulgar evil desires or passions are self-explanatory.  You and I know exactly what they are when one lusts after, or hates, another person in their heart.  But good righteous desires are a little more difficult for us to discern.  These desires subtly deceive the faithful because they seem godly!  But in fact, they’re the same fleshy desires that deliver us ultimately into death. 

Firstly, and foremostly, these good desires were the works of circumcision amongst the Galatians.  But the works can be any works of righteousness that dilute and desecrate the holy work of God the Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. 

The problem of climbing up to do the work of greater good, assumes we can climb up to God in the first place.  Even in our minds, if we believe we have ascended to the heights of God, we want to be like God.  Then, like the circumcision party or any other pietistic or self-righteous group, our own law is proclaimed for others to follow.

In the second place, the problem of climbing up to do the work of greater good shows contempt for God’s will, his Word of law and gospel, and for God himself, who always comes down, to create and recreate.  We heard on Pentecost Sunday at Babel when the world worked as one to build themselves up to God, God still had to come down.  And once there, he destroyed their collective good, which in reality was not good at all. 

Similarly, any greater good worked in God’s church needs to be enacted by the Holy Spirit, lest it’s only an act of self-righteousness against God’s righteousness.  A work of Divine love always begins with God, and ends with God, and it works in us to work for God.  Any other work just does not work.

When we realise our passions and desires don’t work, the work of God has begun to bring Jew and gentile, slave and free, man and woman, into step with the Holy Spirit.  This is the Holy Spirit, two step, of law and gospel!  This is the place where the Holy Spirit begins to teach you and me how to be one church, in a beautiful dance with our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit perfectly aligns us, the body of Christ, and individual members of it, with the Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ came down to us and allowed the Holy Spirit to choreograph him in his life and ministry.  This is the love of God to which Paul and the Apostles point us in God’s Word.  Now, Jesus and our Father send the Holy Spirit to choreograph us, with the Word, to dance with Jesus in a Divine Dance. 

With this picture we can see how Paul calls us to allow the Spirit to direct us into the fluidity of Christ’s love with him in this Divine Duet.  This is not a dance like a disco, where individuals decide to do “whatever they like”, chaotically bouncing up and immediately falling right back down, crashing into each other, like out-of-control human pogo sticks!

Paul says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”  (Galatians 5:16–18 ESV)

And so, Paul gives us the first of two lists in which we are called to see ourselves in the reflection of God’s Word.  In showing you the law in the first list, you see the fickle fleshy reality of your dance moves, so the Holy Spirit can move you and lead you, from the disjointed desire for a disco disaster, into the dance that bears all the holy fruit in the second list.

In our dance with Jesus Paul tells us exactly what the work of the Holy Spirit is.  “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24 ESV)

Therefore, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5: 25 ESV) Let us let the Holy Spirit keep on crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires. Amen.

Extras for Contemplation

Let’s now look at the lists to hear how the Holy Spirit works to keep us with in step with him, Jesus Christ, and our Father in heaven.

Unhelpful fleshy desired dance moves Paul warns won’t work to inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19–21 ESV)

Sexual immorality – the Greek word used here is from where we get the word pornography and includes all sexual vulgar activities in heart or deed outside what God orders in creation.

Impurity – is to not be cleansed, pruned, purged, or expiated by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Sensuality – is to be incontinent or filthy in the sense of lacking self-restraint of emotional actions.

Idolatry – is worship of created images.  An idol is anything that breaks the First Commandment, created physically, spiritually, or mentally.

Sorcery – this is a Greek word from where we get the word pharmacy, and means magic and crafts, including but not limited to, means of medication.  The spells and potions of occultic activity.

Enmity – Hostility, hatred, being contrary or an adversary.

Strife – quarrelling, disputing, wrangling.  

Jealousy – indignation, being offended, to covert.

Fits of Anger – heated impassioned outbursts

Rivalries – Factions that stimulate undermining behaviour.

Dissensions – Disunion that causes two positions or standings.

Divisions – this is often confused with division between people but comes from the Greek word from where we get the English word heresy.  So, it is division or sect against God and his Word.

Envy (and Murder) – Ill will, character assassination, to spoil, to shrivel, to wither, to ruin, (therefore some manuscripts add murder).

Drunkenness – intoxication of various substances.

Orgies, and things like these – Revelry or rioting in various manners, from the Greek to lie outstretched for self-indulgent pleasures of the senses.

Helpful Holy Spirit worked fruit. (Galatians 5:22–23 ESV) The things the Holy Spirit wills to work within those who allow him.

Love – Greek here is agape, love of God that comes down.  Charity, benevolence, compassion, generosity.

Joy – a common delight or cheerfulness.  Greater than happiness.  Where one can be happy in themselves, joy involves more than just an individual.

Peace – from the Greek word “to join”, so rest, quietness, prosperity in the spiritual sense, but comes from being joined to that which gives the qualities of peace.

Patience – long tempered, as in holding one’s heated breath to cool.

Kindness – being useful, employable, easy, to furnish what is needed, to act towards one in a given manner.

Goodness – in all senses, benefit, goods (as in things), wellness, good.

Faithfulness – conviction, belief, reliance upon Christ, unhidden truthfulness, fidelity.

Gentleness – humility, to be mild.

Self-control – power over the self’s desires, and passions.

The Spirit doesn’t demand perfect footwork; He perfects as one yields their steps to Him. Learn trust in the trust-worthy Choreographer.

How does this Spirit-led dance shape the way we receive God and give thanks in the Divine Service?

In what ways did the early church’s gatherings reflect Paul’s call to freedom?

We thank God for Paul and the other Apostle’s determination to put glory in themselves aside so the Holy Spirit could use them in his instruction of the Church’s Divine Dance with Jesus Christ our Saviour.

C, Post-Pentecost 2, Proper 7 - Luke 8:38–39 "Making a Gentile Gentle"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) “The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”

The encounter between Jesus and Legion, the man possessed by a legion of demons, is a strange event in the ears of twenty-first century hearers. Who is this man confronted by Jesus on the gentile side of Lake Galilee?

He is a man portrayed as one in the depths of depravity.  The unclean of all unclean gentiles, living in the spiritual and physical uncleanness of death.  In his unclean state, he sees no need for the bondage of clothing, and when he is bound with chains and shackles for his own good and for the protection of those around him, his demonic possession is so powerful, he breaks free and withdraws to the wilderness, to the known dwelling of demons, in the desert.

Where no one else could bind this legion of demons within the man, Jesus is the only one to bind the sin and free the sinner.  At the sight of this gentile made gentle and clothed sitting at Jesus’ feet, fear strikes the hearts of the other Gerasene gentiles, and they ask Jesus to leave.  It seems the devil they know is better than the unexpected salvation they don’t! 

This is not the only extreme picture God’s word gives us today.  In the Old Testament, King Ahab and Jezebel, are arguably the most abhorrent people from amongst God’s chosen people.  So much so God uses Jezebel’s name in Jesus’ warning to the church in Thyatira, in Revelation, as a vengeful person or personification of those who lead others into immorality and idolatry against God.

Jezebel and King Ahab seek to kill Elijah, after he slaughters Baal prophets on Mount Carmel.  As Elijah is pursued, he is broken and desires death from God, rather than from the vengeful two.  From Mount Carmel he flees and is sent forty days to another, the mountain of God.  To where Moses first, saw the burning bush, and from where he received God’s word of Law, the Ten Commandments.  From here, Elijah is sent back to anoint Hazael, a gentile king in Syria, and Elisha, a prophet, to continue in his position.

These events all seem foreign to us.  Burning bushes, naked demon possessed tomb dwellers, and a prophet pursued by a rogue king and his evil queen seeking revenge.

From these two readings in God’s word, we’re called to hear that regardless of being an Israelite or gentile, God calls all people, and he does not let the demonic or death defeat him.  But that he seeks to defeat death and depravity in both his chosen ones, and those whom he calls to testify of his works.

These biblical accounts are extreme events.  How are we to picture ourselves in them? 

First, despite these biblical accounts reporting the greatest of abominations, we do well to see ourselves included in them!  We’re to view them as accounts that include everyone, leaving no one unaccountable.   Second, we do even better to see ourselves as the characters in these real stories, so we know what is really in store for us, in relation to how we respond to God’s actions.

We have opportunity to search ourselves to see if we’re a Jezebel or an Ahab type of character, unrepentant and unforgiving, on one hand!   Or, whether we’re like Legion.  Whether we receive and proclaim God or reject him and act with rebellion and revenge!

When the locals saw what happened to demons, to the pigs, and to the man from whom the demons departed, they were seized with great fear!  The people were more fearful that the demon possessed man was now not possessed.  If this Jesus is so powerful he can cast out demons from him who is the epitome of demon possession, how powerful is he to cleanse me of my seemingly well behaved publicly pleasing happy demons and my supposedly inoffensive idols?   

Or on hearing what happened to Ahab and Jezebel, we’re not called to think, that won’t happen to me because I’m not like them!  Rather, if God can do that to his chosen people, what can happen to me when I conduct my life without repentance and forgiveness, and in its place work with revenge and murderous thoughts!

The reality is we’re not all that different to Legion, whom Jesus delivered from death and destruction from within himself.  And furthermore, it takes very little for us to return to the ways of Jezebel and Ahab, when we take the kingship of Christ, implanted in us for granted.

In our baptism all have been made disciples of Jesus Christ.  All who remain in Jesus and his word are offspring of Abraham, bearing the faith that makes us righteous, just as Abraham was deemed to be righteous by trusting, not in himself, but God.  We are gentiles joined as one as God’s people, having been grafted into God through his Son Jesus Christ.  Just as Legion was made a gentle gentile we too have been made gentle gentiles in our baptism into Christ.  We are made disciples, disciplined in repentance and forgiveness, by Jesus Christ, the Light of the Nations, the gentiles.

In baptism we are God’s children.  In Galatians, Saint Paul says, “For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  (Galatians 3:27–28 ESV)  

Baptism has cleansed and saved you, remaining in that baptism continues to cleanse and save you, in baptism all baptised people have been given the gifts like Legion, to “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” (Luke 8:39a ESV)

Jesus did not allow Legion to come in the boat with him and the disciples he was to send out as apostles.  Instead, he commissioned him to declare in faith what God did for him.  And he did, “And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39b ESV)

The one who formerly bore the demons and declared, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” (Luke 8:28 ESV) Now goes and declares Jesus, as the Son of God, who saved him from depravity.

This is how God the Holy Spirit wants you to see yourself in his word, being cleansed and being forgiven.  Indeed, Paul wants you to see as he saw himself grafted into Jesus Christ, who though he was a Jew was in danger of being pruned from the Holy Vine of God.  Just as God told Elijah that there was a remnant in Israel, there is also a remnant of his people in Christendom, chosen by grace.

You have been chosen by grace in your baptism; this is a baptism where the Holy Spirit gives faith.  God’s Spirit leads us away from faith in the self, like the faith of Jezebel and Ahab, which saw them separated from God.  Therefore, they died in the most debased way possible. 

As Paul warns, “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” (Romans 11:20–22 ESV)

In faith, through repentance and the forgiveness of sins, you stand grafted into Christ as one legion of sinner-saints.  In the kindness of God, the Holy Spirit motivates you to tell others of the mighty works of God in Jesus Christ our Lord who has delivered you from the depravity of eternal death and clothed you in his righteousness. Amen.

C, Holy Trinity - Psalm 8 "God's Majestic Name"

Standing under an evening sky, with no light pollution from cities, is a wonder to behold.  To see the stars in the sky and know that many of them are so large, it would make our sun appear like a speck of dust, if they were alongside each other, makes the mind boggle.  Yet these massive stars join with all the other heavenly beings, to fill the darkened sky as microscopic pinpricks of light in the heavenly curtain of darkness.  As we stand and see their tiny lights radiating towards us, it blows the mind that the light we see now, has been in transit from that star, for years, lightyears. Arriving just now from the era when God created the heavens and the earth. 

But greater than the night sky is God in his magnitude, but also in the minute detail of something so massive and eternal.  We hear that God’s glory is still bigger!  We join with King David, the Psalmist, in contemplating his eternal question, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? You have set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1 ESV) David literally says, “O I AM, our ruler!”  The Existing One, is our keeper!  His majesty is immeasurably wide.  But, despite this, David realises we have access to him by simply calling on his name, “Yahweh”, which is “I AM”, I exist!  And furthermore, the glory of his name is greater the heavens!

As a child, on the farm, there were times when I would look at the majestic twilight sky and try to imagine the width and length of eternity.  I stared into the orange light, the cloud tails, and the fading into blue darkness with stars beginning to appear.  No matter what distance I could imagine.  I was in awe that my imaginings, were just that imaginings, only the beginnings, insignificant, terribly shortsighted, and childish.

King David reflects, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.” (Psalm 8:2 ESV)

One might think that my childish imaginings are still greater than the cooing and garbled words of babies and infants.  Yet, I am reminded, that before I could imagine and ponder, while I was still an infant totally dependent on my mother, God had set in place strength that stops his enemies or haters, his foes or those who are cramped by him, and the avenger or those who carry a grudge against him.

What is made clear by God to David and us, is that the Almighty, works completely contrary to our intellect and what we imagine to be strength.

It’s at this point David and all of us remember that we’re the babies and infants of Adam.  Imbedded in the way we think, feel, work and reason, is the original sin we’ve inherited from Adam.  This makes me, a child of Adam, ponder the brokenness of my existence in the face of God.  Why would he begin to consider me?  If I am the same as Adam, and the rest of humanity, why shouldn’t his glory write me off and annihilate me?

How often do I regard God as the enemy, when I am suffering, when I don’t get my way, when my actions work against the truth of his word?  Like Adam, I am tempted to see God as the enemy, to see him as a deceiver, and thereby, I am deceived by Satan, the father of lies.  So, standing under the stars, I stand humbly in awe of the privilege of being allowed to live.  My sinful work pales into insignificance compared to the works of God in creation.  I realise how much my sinful being is completely dwarfed by his being, who has created the heavens and the earth, and still preserves everything that exists.

Be it the exquisite minute detail of a flower.  How animals know to migrate at the right time?  The order of the planets revolving around the sun without crashing into each other.  My smallness and my lack of attention to detail is highlighted by God’s extraordinary control of creation.  I am brought back to standing under the stars, not to worship them, but to worship he who made them.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”  (Psalm 8:3–4 ESV)

Why is God mindful of me?  A child of Adam!  It’s right here at this point where all seems lost, we hear that God cares for the son of man.  He cares for the son of Adam, in spite of our weakness, despite our deadly ungodliness.  Saint Paul reminds us, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6&8 ESV)

The Son of Man is Jesus Christ!  We hear from the author of Hebrews, “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:8b–9 ESV)

Adam’s disorder, our disorder, has been handed over to Jesus Christ to reorder.  Nothing has been left outside his control.  This Son of Man is the Son of God.  King David says of God, “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.” (Psalm 8:5 ESV)

Indeed, Christ was made low, he was willing to go the opposite way to Adam.  Adam unfaithfully sought to be God.  But Jesus faithfully submitted to God the Father, and although he is God the Son, he was prepared to put aside his Godliness, and became human, for you, for me, for King David. 

This is the love of God the Father and God the Son for humanity.  Jesus Christ became the Son of Man.  He became lower than the heavenly beings, lower than the angels.  He became lower than sinful humanity, to serve and save humanity, because God considers humanity the jewel of his creation.

We were the gold of God’s creation but became fool's gold against God.  But God loves us so much he gave the gold of his divinity in his only Son, who suffer death and broke the crucible of hell.  So, we might have the impurities of foolishness removed from us, so we might be the golden children we were meant to be.

When I stand and look at the stars and know that God is greater than these works of his.  And as I ponder that Jesus who was with the Father in his work of creation, departed his dominion to descend below me to the depts of depravity in my place, then my heart leaps in the knowledge of God’s love for me. 

In knowing God’s love in his forgiveness of you and me, through Jesus’ death, see the greater works of God in his work of salvation!  You and I are his new creation, through Jesus Christ!  You and I are perfectly restored in him!

But the love of God does not end there!  The threefold being of love that God is, is for us.  In Christ we have been grafted into God’s circle of love.  The love of God the Father and God the Son is continued in us with the Holy Spirit who in being sent in love from the Father and the Son, now loves to lead us to the Father and the Son. 

With such love, see that we are restored as the golden pinnacle of God’s creation. 

We hear of God, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:6–8 ESV)

In Jesus Christ our care of creation has been reset, since God has given Jesus’ dominion over the works of his hands. The Holy Spirit now works with us, God’s re-creation, to cover our world with care and prayer in his name.  So that the world knows that Yahweh is the Lord, our Lord, through the majesty, the wideness, of his name in all the earth. Amen. 

C, Pentecost - Acts 2:11b-12, Genesis 11:1-9, John 14:12-14 "What Works"

Acts 2:11b–12 (ESV) “‘We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.’  And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’”

The salvation of humanity is about the works of God being heard, accepted, believed and received by humanity.  God has always worked to bring people into common oneness with him.  However, people have not always received the works of God and have sought other ways forward, contrary the work of God in his creation.

However, every person knows within their being, that everything exists and is created for a purpose.  We don’t exist for no reason!  But why we exist is a mystery to many, as God who created the heavens and the earth, is not real, but a myth.  Therefore, the transcendence of God Almighty is reduced to some kind of spiritual force somewhere in the cosmos.  Yet people today are still looking for spiritual meaning.  It has been no different since the beginning of humanity. 

At the first Pentecost after Jesus ascended into heaven, many were gathered for the Jewish harvest festival fifty days after the Passover.  This is the Passover where Jesus was crucified on the cross, buried, and raised from the dead on the third day.  Much had happened in these fifty days since.  We could imagine, if social media was a thing back then, phone screens would have been burning bright with speculation and social memes (short texts, images, or videos) as to what was going on. 

At this first Pentecost, after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, many Jews were gathered in Jerusalem.  Humanity being what it is, we know there would have been the same surge of social intrigue, albeit, without electronic devices!  So, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Apostles with the sound of a mighty rushing wind and the gathered people saw the tongues of fire over their heads, this would have only fed the feeding frenzy of gossip already around.

We know when feeding frenzies occur, the babble that occurs can be confused, to say the least.  It was no different at Pentecost in Jerusalem, some were amazed and surprised, some were perplexed and confused, and some were both.   We hear the Jews from different nations question, “What does this mean?” or more widely, the crowd determined to know, “What is this?  What’s going on? How and why is this occurring?”  Imagine if this happened today, everyone would have their phone cameras rolling, and social media would be abuzz!

Long before Abraham, Isaac, and Israel existed; about two thousand years or so before Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and this confusion at Pentecost, humanity was one.  It was the days after the flood and the descendants of Noah were pondering the dispersal from the location of the Ark.  They were also drifting away from God, having been saved from the flood.

We hear from Genesis eleven, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” (Genesis 11:1–2 ESV)

There was human oneness, many could only dream about today!  They had one will and determination.  Was their will good?  They thought so!

As they moved from the mountains they settled on the plains and said amongst themselves, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:3–4 ESV)

No one is sure exactly where Noah’s Ark landed.  Nevertheless, why leave a mountainous area, venture onto a plain, and then build a tower?  Why not stay on a mountain and build a tower there? Even if they built a tower as tall as the Twin Towers in New York, it would have been only as lofty as the lowest mountains in the area.

Mountains were the place where people met with God.  Yet, the population moved as one, to the plain, away from God, and built a tower to make a name for themselves.  Why they acted in this way could have been for many reasons.  Did they not trust God, or did they not fear God?  We will never know for sure.   What we do know is, it was a collective act against God’s work and creative call, to multiply and fill all the earth.

It seems today we are still seeking to build these towers to make a name for ourselves, to give us a place to which we can look upon what a cooperative community can do.  Our society needs these towers of oneness, to calm the collective confusion and fear, having turned from the eternal power and pleasure of the Creator, our Father in heaven.

But God the Father is the Creator.  As we look up to our best and biggest efforts, he comes down to see what the children of men build.  Where we praise ourselves for our oneness, looking up to things other than God, he comes down to reveal his contempt for our efforts.

So, having come down at Babel, God sees and does his work amongst humanity.  He sees the acts of humanity, he sees their collective cooperation where they say, “Come, let us make bricks! Come, let us build a tower!”  In reply, God says, “Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7 ESV)

Today, God still sees the acts of the human spirit, both individually and communally, and actively withdraws, leaving the human spirit in confusion and its worldly language in a babble like Babel. 

At Pentecost God consolidates what he confused at Babel.  He sends Jesus to bring humanity back together having come down into its chaos to carry it on the cross.  After Jesus’ ascension, God reinstates oneness through the power of the Holy Spirit, who truly brings people together, by connecting them to Jesus Christ.  But, in a chaotic confused world of Babylonian proportions, how does he do this?

Before Jesus died, he promised the Holy Spirit would come and be humanity’s help.  The Holy Spirit helps God’s work to happen in those who don’t reject the Holy Spirit’s help!  Help to do what?

With the promise of the Holy Spirit Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

When you believe, “why Jesus had to die for you, why he had to send the Holy Spirit for you, and why he and the Holy Spirit still continually work for you”, he promises, you will not only do the works he did, but do greater works, now that he is with our Father! 

These works you do, are the works of the Holy Spirit, working within you!  They are the acts of the Holy Spirit, the same acts or works of the Apostles, that the Spirit was working through them in the early church. 

Without the Holy Spirit, without the work of God, our acts are just that, an act!  It matters not how loving these deeds look!  It matters not how good the works appear!  It matters not how unified people believe they are in these acts!  Without the Holy Spirit to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify, those who work without the Holy Spirit, and their works, are just an act!  Many who continue to work their ways and build their Babels, build a Babylonian confusion as high as heaven, to their detriment, and sin against the Holy Spirit. 

Hear what John heard the angel from heaven say, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit.” (Revelation 18:2a ESV)

Then John heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”  (Revelation 18:4–5 ESV)

But when the Holy Spirit acts within, you will know your sin!  Therefore, hear and act in his call to repentance, receive forgiveness of sin, be gathered as one believing this forgiveness through Jesus’ work.  Jesus promises you who allow the Holy Spirit to act within, will truly confess, and witness his forgiveness, to the ends of the earth.  This is the working acts of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.  Amen.

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. (Psalm 104:24 ESV) May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, (Psalm 104:31 ESV) within his creation, within his creatures, within us.  Amen. 

C, Easter 7 - John 17:20-26 "Perfectly One"

John 17:20–26 (ESV) Jesus prays, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.  I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

In the fictional movie, Gladiator, released in 2000, two Roman Senators, Gracchus and Falco, discuss Emperor Commodus’ attempts to win the hearts of his people by staging games that are bloodthirsty and barbaric for our times.

Gracchus comments, “Fear and wonder, a powerful combination!” To which Falco responds, “You really think people are going to be seduced by that?”  Gracchus suspecting what Commodus is up to continues, “I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the Colosseum. He'll bring them death - and they will love him for it.”

Although Gladiator is far from a correct portrayal of Roman history, Gracchus’ monologue, we’ve just heard, pretty much sums up the hearts of humanity then and now.  The seduction of the human heart through fear and wonder, is as real today as it was back then when people gathered at the Colosseum.  Rather, today the mob is wowed and wooed at coliseums like the MCG (the Melbourne Cricket Ground), the State of Origin at Lang Park, the Olympics, a theatre of some kind, perhaps even a large church gathering.  Wherever the mob masses, there will be someone there, to capitalise from the gathered crowd.

It seems sound, that as the masses gather around a central belief, they are one.  Their oneness draws others in.  The popularity of the gathering brings out desires in others, individuals want to join the group, to be a part of an ideology, to feel a part of something, to fill the hole of loneliness in the heart, to be accepted by others, to be one.

Others see the masses gathering and use the opportunity to ingratiate themselves to them.  So, having become popular with the mob, the mob makes them masters of the mob.    In Roman society the two senators realise democracy, the rule of the people, can be manipulated by the pleasures of the Colosseum, albeit bloodthirsty and brutal.  Democracy, the rule of the people, can easily be “corruption of the people, by the people”.

If a crowd is corrupt, those who want to adhere to it, cannot continue uncorrupted if they want unity with it.  To remain unspoiled and untouched by the ideology of the masses means sticking out in the crowd as one being at odds with the crowd.  Those who stood their ground against the mob, usually became the deadly entertainment for the Colosseum crowd. Life is defined by the mob, and death is delivered by the mob.  Or, is the mob delivering itself over to death through its own desire?

Our society, today, doesn’t have a coliseum, that hands over those at odds with the mob, to death!  Or, does it?  Perhaps the advancement of our society over the Romans, is that, at the moment, we have many more subtle ways of assassinating those who stand at odds with the mob.  Hidden coliseums where the sports of gossip, slander, half-truths, and the good of the whole are carried out!

This oneness is far from the perfect oneness to which Jesus calls you and me.  Unfortunately, our sinful human nature tries to incorporate democracy, the rule of the people, with the perfect oneness of God, the rule of God.  

However, the oneness of God does not grow out of the mob, or popularity. It starts with one and it ends with one.  Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end!  When Jesus prays to our Father in heaven, he prays as one man.  He did not ingratiate himself to the mob.  In fact, he didn’t suck up to the mob that welcomed him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Rather, the mob wanted to make him the leader he was never meant to be.  Once the mob realised this, the unbelieving Jews used popularity to turn the mob on him, to crucify him.

Knowing all this was about to happen to him Jesus prayed for those who were given to him.  Not only was this prayer for the apostles and disciples!  It was for the many who would not see but would still believe the apostolic witness, throughout time.  It was for those for whom Jesus prays, who died in many ways, at the hands of the mob, defending the perfect oneness of Jesus and his holy body.  It’s for those today whose witness of Jesus Christ puts them at odds with the common defilement of the masses.  And to be clear, the biblical Greek word for “witness” is “martyr”. 

“But we don’t martyr witnesses of Jesus Christ, in our society today”, you might say!  But the words of the Roman Senator in the fictitious Gladiator movie reveals the truth of our society just as much now, as it did, then!  As magic is conjured we’re distracted. Take away the freedoms given by God and still we roar! Bring us death - and the mob will love their leaders for it.

The only problem is the death we’re brought to is our own. Our fear and wonder, for the mob, distracts us from fearing and loving God.  Jesus did not fear the mob, your opinion nor mine, but out of fear and love for God, he loved the masses, you and me, by becoming the spectacle of death for which we, the mob, so desperately thirst.

Starting from one, Jesus was raised by our Father and the Holy Spirit from death and calls you and me out of the mob that has brought death on itself.  The mob is dying.  The ideals of the mob are dying.  Jesus is coming soon!  But until he comes the Holy Spirit and the “one true church” says, “come”!

In Jesus’ day the mob were the Jews, God’s very own people.  Those who followed Jesus, were called from the mob.  Many were martyred, for their departure from the mob, and for their witness of Jesus’ perfect oneness, with our Father and the Holy Spirit. But they were united in Jesus’ perfect oneness, together with the Triune God, in one accord, as his body, his bride, his church.

At the Reformation, Luther and the reformers were accused of departing the one catholic church which had gone the way of the Jewish mob.  Instead of being catholic, gathered as one in the oneness of Jesus Christ, the church prided itself in being Roman Catholic and became the mob from which the Lutheran Church left.

Many of our forefathers and mothers, came to this country and other countries when oneness was forced upon them in Germany.  A oneness that had nothing to do with the oneness of Jesus Christ, rather a political oneness from a German mob. 

Powerful fear and wonder to generate the mob, persists today in a seemingly new world order, distracting people in so many different ways, to a worldly oneness, away from the oneness of Jesus Christ.  Fear is created by those who want to control the mob, and great wonder is attributed to institutions that emphasise this unity.

But the unity of the cross begins with one and calls us to be one with our Lord.  Each day this unity calls for the death of self, institutions, ideologies, and mob rule.  Anything that takes the place of the perfect oneness that Jesus won for us in his death and resurrection by the will of our Father, and the work of the Holy Spirit, needs to daily die.

We are known by God and made known to those whom God leads us, as we die to self, and become known witnesses or martyrs to the masses—witnesses of God’s glory in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord.   Like Jesus, and many before us, the Holy Spirit seeks to lead you from the mob, to witness to the mob, the perfect holy oneness of God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

In God’s way, the mob will then know that we’re being made perfectly one, in, by, and with Jesus, so that the world might know that God sent Jesus to them, the masses, in the same way that the Father loves Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, the world does not know us, but we are known by you.  Send your Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can make Jesus Christ known to our mob, here in Australia, surrounding our congregation gathered in the oneness of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

C, Easter 6 - John 14:27 "God's Holy Peace"

John 14:27 (ESV) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Lutherans are people of the Word.  Our forefathers led us away from placing our trust in others telling us what to believe about the Word of God, by taking out submission to a middleman and directly placing ourselves at Jesus’ feet to hear, digest, and have his Word enacted in our lives.

However, for many today, being people of the Word amounts to reading a devotion, which begins with a bible text, then a few thoughts from the author, and a brief prayer to end the devotion.  Once that is done then the box has been ticked for us to go off and do something else.  

How often is the devotion done in haste?  As if God’s Word and a prayer is a legal warrant or a gate through which to get, so you can do, perhaps something, “more interesting or important”!

Don’t get me wrong.  There’s nothing wrong with this type of devotion, but it’s meant to lead to something more than the “set and forget” practice we’ve made it!  God calls his believing children to be keepers of his Word, to be kept in his Word.  He wants us to take hold of it and let it do things within us.  We dwell in the Word, so it abides or remains in us.  So, it can change our thinking and our ways, into God’s thinking and God’s way.  After reading a devotion, God wants you to take his Word with you into your day. So, his love can work, in your work, throughout your day.

We are told by Jesus, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:23–24 ESV)

First, we hear, “If anyone loves me…”  This “If” contains the law and gospel of God’s Word.  If you love me, you will keep my word, if you don’t you won’t keep my Word.  And he says, “by the way, my Word is God’s Word, I am sent by him to speak his Word, and the Father and I will come and live with the keeper’s of my Word.”

When we hear this, it will do one or more of the following:  Having heard Jesus I might ponder to myself “Yeah, I keep God’s Word. I read my devotion; I tick the box.  It’s all good!”  To those who do this, Jesus looks at in loves and says, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21 ESV)

Then there are the scoffers of God’s Word.  Authorities unto themselves they don’t believe they need to sit under God’s Word, they don’t need to keep God’s word, nor do they have to love or be loved by God.

However, most of us I suspect, will be challenged by Jesus in his Word.  You wrestle with thoughts like, “I want to love God, I want to keep his Word!  But reading it is one thing!  Keeping it is another!  And allowing it to work within me, within my day, is a struggle, in which I fear I’m failing!

This is not bad news!  This is how God’s Word of Law is meant to function in those who know the reality of sin that leads to death.  The challenge of Jesus may be uncomfortable, but it’s for a good reason.  It’s the same reason he said to his disciples, “If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” (John 14:28b–29 ESV)

The disciples did not believe nor rejoice because they too did not know how to love God, they did not know how to keep Jesus’ Word, let alone understand it and pass it onto others, as Jesus knew they were going to after his ascension.

This is why he promises his disciples, of which we are his disciples too, saying, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:25-26 ESV)

All of us, beginning with the disciples, need to be helped by the Holy Spirit.  Without the Holy Spirit the ways of destruction are wide and varied through which the narrowness of your heart is deceived for disaster and demolition within the world. 

The Holy Spirit takes the truth and love of God in his Word and funnels it into each of us, so we can be conduits of God’s Word in the world.  We are God’s tubes attached to a funnel, and the funnel is the Holy Spirit, who selectively takes God’s, truth and love, filling our being and flushing out our worldly ways.  So, as Jesus promises, we can be brought to remembrance and taught by the Word he has spoken and lived.

People think they are attacking Christians when they say we are narrow minded, but they unwittingly are testifying to the truth of our faith, which guided by the Holy Spirit’s narrow way in God’s Word alone, leads to life. 

Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13–14 ESV)

Those who find the narrow way, find it only by the Holy Spirit.  The gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of faith that he gives, is just as much the gospel gift as Jesus’ death and resurrection.  In fact, it’s all a package deal from God the Father to us and it’s the gift of peace he gives to believers who want to love him and be kept in his Word.  The Holy Spirit calls us by the Word of God.  He gathers us in God’s Word, he enlightens us in God’s Word, and he makes us holy in God’s Word.  The Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and the Father, to keep us in Jesus; the living, risen, Word of God.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit funnels the Word of Law and Gospel into and through us.  With the Law, he convicts us to keep the Word of God, to be kept by the Word of God, to love God, to be loved by God.  But the Holy Spirit also nurtures and assists us, by reminding and teaching us with the Word of God to remain in it, giving us faith to be loved by God, and the desire to love God.  This is all part of Jesus’ gospel plan that gives us peace.  

Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27 ESV)

With the wideness of the world, we all know in our heart of hearts, there’s no peace to be found.  The easy way the world promotes—what the mob wants—ends in trouble and fear, riots and destruction.  The well-worn path of believers is well worn because it’s narrow, not because it’s easy or traversed by many.  In fact, the easy path without obstacles is desolate, and proves itself to be a desert in which the devil dwells.  

But for those carried by the Holy Spirit, we are shown God’s glorious heaven where his church lives with God in peace, this is the heavenly city shown to John in his Revelation.

We hear, “And he (the angelic messenger) carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:10–11, 22 ESV)

You with the disciples who need the Holy Spirit to believe, to remain in the Word of God, to love God and be loved by God are a part of this holy Jerusalem congregation.  Even though we believe, yet know we are sinners and still struggle with sin, we have peace because Jesus has given us a holy helper in the Holy Spirit, who gives us the will and the way to hold onto God’s Word; to know we are loved by God through his Word of Law and Gospel.  So, we can love God and each other. Amen.

Let us pray. Spirit of our God, descending, fill our hearts with heavenly joy. The Father’s love, the love of Jesus Christ, your holy love, transcends all things.  Your love is holy pleasure that never becomes sickening nor sour.  Holy Spirit, with you provided, we are pardoned and guided.  Nothing can your peace­­­­—our peace—destroy. Amen.

C, Easter 5 - John 13:34-35 "Truth and Love"

Picture yourself in this situation.  You’ve being set up, falsely accused!  Your betrayer is one of your inner circle; a person in whom you have placed your trust.  It’s a person with whom you have been honest; you’ve been completely transparent and have told them the truth. 

You love them knowing they have set you up and will let you down!  They have heard the truth; the truth has revealed all things about yourself and them.  You love them anyway despite what they depart to do.

Judas Iscariot departed from Jesus to betray him.  How do you react to those who you believe have betrayed you?  This is how Jesus reacts…

“When he (Judas Iscariot) had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.” (John 13:31–32 ESV)

When I’m betrayed by someone in whom I trust, I don’t feel glorified.  I imagine, like me you don’t feel that way either!  Rather, the sense of being betrayed or deceived leaves us with feelings of debilitating disbelief and distress, at first.  Then after the shock wears off, sorrow and anger moves one to protect their self-interests, and even plot revenge.  There’s definitely not much love for the person whose betrayed your confidence!

However, Jesus knowing his mission as the Son of Man has been set in motion by Judas, testifies to the glory of God’s truth and love, and gives the commandment to love. 

As Judas leaves to betray him he charges his eleven disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35 ESV)

The love that Jesus brings to life just before his betrayal is a love that’s perfect.  At the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks to the truth of this love, saying, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:44–45a, 48 ESV)

Here Jesus reveals the love God expects of us and it’s a hard truth!   The love we so often submit to others as God’s love is not a love that submits to God’s truth.  Love without God’s truth can be just about any kind of passion or pleasure, desire or selfish whim, deceiving ourselves and others, with our love, opposing the love God commands.  God’s love and truth, reveals that all other “loves” fall short of God’s holy love, as imperfect, impassioned, partial, and eternally hopeless.    

The themes of truth and love run concurrently throughout God’s Word.  Paul tells the Corinthians that, “Love is patient and kind… it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth… Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8 ESV)

Love and truth are developed in John’s Gospel.  Right from the introduction, written down by his congregation we hear, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 ESV)

John proclaimed the grace and truth of Jesus to his congregation, and through John they saw Jesus’ glory, a glory that was manifested at the cross in his death for his believers, his church.

This is the glory to which Jesus himself testifies after Judas departs to betray him.  Peter could not follow the gracious glory of God’s love and truth in Jesus Christ.  Instead, Peter denied Jesus three times and deserts him at his trial.  Jesus was the only one lifted up in glory, but for the rest of us we only see the way of the cross as a gory death killing our human glory.

Love and truth come to us in that Jesus is the personification of truth and love.  Jesus says to you who believe him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32 ESV)

Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 ESV) And he prays for those who are his, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17 ESV)

Jesus makes us holy or sanctifies us in himself and his Word, which is truth, but with this truth he commands us to love, just as he has loved us.  He knows the heart of humanity, he knew the heart of Judas who rejected his Word, and he knew the heart of Peter who despite hearing the commandment to love, couldn’t see the love of God over his love of self in the face of death. 

Truth and love need to be bound together within us, and the only way that can occur is with external help.  We cannot keep the commandment to love, and we struggle with the truth the cross reveals about us.  We have an inbuilt inability to fear and love God, revealing us as fearful enemies of God’s glory that comes to us in truth and love.

For us to be made holy in the truth of Jesus’ glory, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit.  He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15–17 ESV)

Paul also agrees that the Spirit of Truth helps us to love, saying to the Romans, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5 ESV) And to the Galatians he proclaims, the fruit of the Spirit is firstly, love, then other things. (Galatians 5:22)

The theme of love and truth, developed in God’s Word, and especially the Gospel of John are pulled together in John’s three Epistles where John says, “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” (1 John 2:4–5 ESV)  And, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18 ESV)

In Revelation, Jesus Christ shows himself to John who, “saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” (Revelation 19:11–13 ESV)

Jesus, the Word of God, is Truth and Love, and he calls his church, his bride into his truth and love.  Like Cornelius we are Gentiles baptised into God’s church of Jesus’ truth and love.   We hear the circumcised believers glorifying God that the Gentiles have been granted “repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11: 18 ESV), after Peter brings this good news to Jerusalem.

Like Cornelius and his family, we have been granted by the Holy Spirit repentance that leads to life, through Jesus’ truth and love.  God is truth!  In the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all truth is revealed by the truth in his Word of Law and Gospel.  God is love!  This love is perfect, impartial, and holy!  In his Word of Law and Gospel, he shows you your sin, is saving you from it, and is making you holy!  By the power of the Holy Spirit he works in you deeds of truth and love.  That is, to be loved by God through continual repentance and forgiveness, to love the truth of God’s Law and Gospel, to love God, and to love one another as God has loved us.

Do you want to conquer and be a part of God’s one holy eternal and apostolic church?  Jesus, the faithful and true witness speaks his great word of the Amen, the Yes, the Truth and the Love, calling us from being lukewarm in God’s truth and love,  saying, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.’” (Revelation 3:19 ESV) Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, God of truth and love, remove all half-truths and  lukewarm love from our hearts.  Work in us the burning desire of Jesus’ truth and love, with the Spirit of truth and love, your Holy Spirit. Amen.

C, Easter 4 - Revelation 7:16-17 "Hunger and Thirst"

Revelation 7:16–17 (ESV)  “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.”

The transfer of power happens in many ways.  At its most elementary is the transmission of creative power that occurs to produce the following generation.  Man gives of himself in marriage to the woman; woman gives of herself carrying and giving birth to a child.  They both give to the child as a family and then the child grows and does the same with someone else’s  adult child.

Therefore, one generation serves the following generation.  They continue the creative process which God began and sustains in every generation since.  God gives each successive generation breath, having first breathed life into Adam.

From this first transmission of life in Adam comes all other transmissions of power between humans —  their empires, in politics and business, in sport, society, institutionally, sexually, and family. Where power passing began and was broken between Adam and Eve and their sons Cain and Abel.

The transfer of power can occur chaotically with bloodshed, or with order.  However, just because it occurs with bloodshed does not mean it’s bad, and similarly just because it occurs with order doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. The transfer of power between humans is corrupted.   

Because of our sinful nature, it’s hard to tell if bloodshed or order has been ordained by God.  Yet at the cross bloodshed and order that brings eternal peace are bound together in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom all in the heavenly realm glorifies, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10 ESV)

The reality is the Lamb of God is our Shepherd, and to him belongs salvation.  This is the truth and love by which God works in our sinful world through his bloodshed and peace, rather than our perceived truths or the peace and order in which we take pleasure, and love.

Last week and today we’ve heard from Revelation of the Lamb’s sevenfold worthiness, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12 ESV)

The transfer of power from God’s perspective, as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, sees that these seven elements of worthiness always remain with him.

We can see the corruption within ourselves and within the world when we see ourselves and others seize these seven elements of worthiness, as God’s alone, and steal them for ourselves.

Like the world, we hunger and thirst with desire to bask in our own power, wealth, wisdom, might, honour, glory, and blessing.  But when this occurs within a believer, they know it’s sin, and in having the knowledge of sin within revealed, they flee to him to whom salvation truly belongs — the God of truth and love.

When Simon Peter is called to the death of a disciple, Tabitha, or Dorcas, he is met by widows displaying her works.  She is dead and has been bathed for presentation to those who’ve come to pay their last respects before her burial.  Why has Peter been invited to come by the disciples who mourn her death?  We’re not told! 

This event in Acts occurs between Peter healing Aeneas, paralysed and bedridden for eight years, and the call of Cornelius’ a Gentile, and the conversion of him and his family, the giving of the Holy Spirit and their baptism into God’s church.

Although we don’t know why Peter was called to Tabitha’s side in her death, what happens on this occasion and the events before and after, calls us the hearers of God’s word, to understand the transfer of God’s power works contrary to transference of power everywhere else.

Living in our society today, I am pleasantly surprised, when hearing of Jesus’ healing in the Gospels, God is glorified and not Jesus.  Most didn’t know Jesus was God’s Son, so they didn’t know they were glorifying Jesus when they glorified God!  Now when we hear of Peter’s work in his healing, preaching, and raising of the dead, those who witness don’t believe in Peter, but believe in the Lord.

God’s transfer of power stands out, way ahead of the rest of the world.  When power is passed on in our world, the glory passes onto the next generation.  It matters not much whether there is order or bloodshed in this passing of power, glory does not remain with those who were before.  Sporting finals fade as future finals come and go, politicians riding the wave of an election win are put to pasture, corporates sway and institutional supremacy falls and rebuilds elsewhere, and a family’s fortune is usually inherited by the next generation. 

The power and glory pass on, and the previous powerful party is relegated “to history” as they pass away in death.  In today’s climate, history is not always looked upon favourably.  Unless you’re a keen genealogist, most would not be able to name our ancestors beyond our grandparents, at best.  Their glory and power have been drained down to us.

The transfer of God’s power is different!  This is because the hunger and thirst stay with God; those who believe, hunger and thirst for salvation that comes from God.  Or, to put it another way, God satisfies the hunger and thirst of those who hunger and thirst for him.  The Shepherd satisfies the sheep, because the Shepherd causes his sheep to remain in places where they’re caused to be fed and watered, producing restoration and righteousness within, through the worthiness of God’s name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

For those who hear God’s Word, and respond to his call within it, receive the transition of power just as Peter received it and passed it on to Tabitha. However, the transfer of God’s power from Jesus to Peter, Peter to Tabitha, and Tabitha to those who witnessed her resurrection, didn’t transfer the power from God, so that God passes away, becomes unglorified, and forgotten. 

This is what the devil, the world, and our sinful human nature wants.  They want the hearer of God’s Word to forget everything comes from God’s kingdom, power, and glory, and for the hearer to return to believing in themselves and the world.  The devil, the world, and our sinful selves tempt us to transfer all power to ourselves; to believe salvation doesn’t belong to God alone.

In his nature as God the Son, Jesus didn’t hinder the glory from going to God in his ministry.  Yet when he was born and baptised into his ministry the Holy Spirit was given to him.  This demonstrated to his disciples, and us, that Jesus became the same as us.  Jesus put aside his Godliness, and relied on the Holy Spirit, as we too, need the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Not because we have a divine nature like Jesus to put off!  But in Adam’s transfer of corrupted power, we have lost the original ability to see our salvation in God alone.

Peter and the disciples saw the Holy Spirit’s work in Jesus, and even so, didn’t receive the transfer of power without misunderstanding and misuse.  After Jesus’ resurrection they needed continual acts of the Holy Spirit, so they could act in the stead of Christ.  Because of the Holy Spirit, they served as Jesus served and allowed all worthiness to be recognised in Christ alone.

Two thousand years on from Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, the worthiness of the Shepherd’s salvation, sees all power, wealth, wisdom, might, honour, glory, and blessing remain with him, who together with our Father and the Holy Spirit are worshipped and glorified!  As we so often pray.

If the Holy Spirit was not given, Peter, nor you or I, would be able to receive the sevenfold worthiness of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and would not allow this Lamb to be our Shepherd, nor pass on his truth or love.

Jesus taught us to pray, for our Father’s kingdom to come, because salvation belongs to God. The Holy Spirit empowers us to pass on the power of God’s truth and love, through our daily baptismal bloodshed in Jesus’ death, and resurrection in repentant peace, having had our hunger and thirst satisfied in our salvation through Jesus’ body and blood.

For the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, are in the Shepherd.  He satisfies the hunger of his sheep with his pleasing pastures, and he quenches the thirst of his lambs with springs of living water.  Amen.