FRIARPUK'S POSTINGS

B, Epiphany 3 – Mark 1:14-20 “Salted against Assault”

2012-01-20T12:05:00.011+08:00

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."(Mark 1:15 ESV)

The time is right! The kingdom of God is near! Time seems to be fleeting these days. No time for anything… anyone! How do you fulfil your time? Is your time… fulfilled?

Is your time… overcrowded, cramped, crazy, chaotic; perhaps passing by so fast it seems you can hardly get your breath? So much to do yet no time to do it! You feel exhausted from the demands on your time yet something is still missing. Your time is full yet you're caught out, catching up… unfulfilled!

Catching fish was the order of the day for the Galilean fishermen. They caught fish, they cleaned fish, they preserved fish, they salted fish, they sold fish, and they smelled fish! Now some here might think this would be great! A fulfilling holiday time, perhaps! But these men knew nothing else day in day out. They were salties; sailors of the sea! The name for fishermen is derived from the Greek word for salt. Yep old salties, insulted by seemingly smarter fish, and assaulted by the constant demands of their work!

These young men were net chuckers! Strong hardened fellows who could haul in the catch; hardened old salts who would have dragged in a whole heap of nothing at times. Sitting there on the bank of Lake Galilee fixing wretched nets, tangled and broken, probably just when the fish were schooling just out in front of them.

"The time is right and the catch of fish is at hand!" But your time is caught up in the race to fix your nets, and at the end of the day there's the possibility your nets will be unfulfilled!

Like a boat tied to the dock, these men were tied to the mundane frustrations of everyday life as fishermen. The joy of seeing a large haul of fish was not so much about holiday fun, but the need to fulfil the family's security for the future, and the rush to get the catch, cleaned salted and sold.

These were the everyday events Jesus came upon as he arrived at the Sea of Galilee. Simon and Andrew casting their net, James and John sitting in a boat fixing their net! I suspect their time was filled serving these nets. Looking at the nets, checking the nets, unsnagging the nets, fixing the nets, and if they were fortunate enough, taking fish out of the nets! As they say, fishing gear catches more fisherman than it ever catches fish.

"...the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."(Mark 1:15 ESV)

Jesus came proclaiming himself. "The King of heaven is near; stop and trust in what I will do!" Jesus walked onto the shore and into these men's lives. But their time was full, they had no time to stop; their nets deserved their full attention. They had too much to do!

And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17 ESV)

I wonder what it was! One too many tangles in the nets! Perhaps the fish weren't around that day! Or maybe they just had enough of fish scales and smelling like fish! What was it that made them leave and follow Jesus?

It wasn't any of these things! Rather, it was the powerful word of God, calling them away from themselves, their families, their father, their focus, and their frustration at finding fish.

Jesus was giving them time. Time to repent and believe the gospel! Would they have understood what was going on? No! Of course not! We know they didn't sort out what was going on until way after the resurrection, and even then the Holy Spirit was continually sent to cast light on the gospel, despite the gospel happening right before their very eyes on the cross outside Jerusalem.

What we can see here is none other than the powerful word of God at work. The King was near; the Word of God was at hand. And in him was the power to stop and enable these salties to trust him. It was the net of Jesus' word gathering them into the kingdom of God and turning them into fishers of men. This was good news for them and it's good news for us who are tempted in these times to believe the kingdom of God is not at hand. Well not just yet, anyway!

Perhaps you find yourself so busy preserving your way of life, that there is no time… for life. Too busy to stop and ponder the word of God and what it can do. Or what it has been seeking to do in your life all along.

You see Jesus gave these salty fishermen true salt, true preservation, the true light of life. No longer was it to be preservation of the fishing, the family future, fortune, or the family honour first. He netted them with his word. He promised to make them fishermen and preservers of people. They didn't know what the new net was going to be nor did they know how they were going to work with it. There was just the call to stop and trust this man proclaiming God was at hand.

And Jesus seeks to preserve you too. He seeks to make you fishers, salties too! He wants to fulfil your lives as he did the disciples. He wants to make you the salt of the earth.

We hear from Matthew, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?" (Matthew 5:13a ESV)

And again in Mark, "…everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." (Mark 9:49–50 ESV)

It's time to give time to God. To repent and believe in the gospel! To stop and trust in Jesus! To let him preserve you… to salt you for the fiery trials of life, so you might stand in him through the assaults of life.

Jesus says, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first." (Mark 10:29–31 ESV)

Therefore let Jesus salt you against assault! Let him give you the gifts of the gospel! Be still! Be salted in his word! Preserved eternally, trusting that the kingdom of God is at hand, that your time is now eternal. Let him show you are fulfilled with the fires of the Holy Spirit, so you might glorify God in your time. And even be used to salt others against the assault of sin and evil.

Lead us not into temptation that your kingdom is not coming to us, but in you let us persevere and therefore preserve us and those around us in times of holy peace. Amen.

B, Epiphany 2 - 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 "Girls, Gold, Glory"

2012-01-14T07:39:00.001+08:00

“Each age has its own peculiar temptations! Young fellows are tempted by girls, men who are thirty years old are tempted by gold, when they are forty years old they are tempted by honour and glory, and those who are sixty years old say to themselves, ‘What a pious man I have become!’” (LW 54 #1601)

This is a quote of Luther’s from the end of May 1532. Notice here Luther says nothing about those who are fifty years old — humorous since Luther was just shy of turning fifty at the time. One wonders what was tempting him at the age of fifty! Perhaps not telling the whole story! Or Wittenberg Bitter!

Nevertheless, he makes a good point. There is something that tempts everyone, the young and the old, male or female, well off and the not so well off!

What temps you? We all have our weaknesses. As Christians we are forgiven, we are being healed, but still the sore of sin oozes and festers. When we think sin is under control it soon breaks out again in another way.

When I was a young man this Corinthians text troubled me deeply. Perhaps it still should raise concerns in me today! Growing up as a Christian in a post-Christian culture, sex was everywhere. It was in the media, in music and their videos, on television, in ads... you couldn’t get away from it. Unfortunately, I failed to flee from it too. I failed in thought, word, and deed!

You see temptation is a sneaky thing. It comes about and succeeds because human nature always seeks to find fulfilment in the wrong thing. I thought if I could deliver myself from this sin, I would be a better person. And when I couldn’t I thought I was not good enough for God! But I also knew giving in to the lure of licentiousness and lust would also be disastrous and deadly. It seemed I was trapped.

As I grew older I soon realised the same sin raised its head again, not through girls, but through gold, and then glory. I see today I fall into the same trap thinking I am over sexual sins, because there is a foundational sin behind sexual sin, working me to want wealth, and harassing me to hunger for honour.

My sin is no better, if I begin to believe, I’ve conquered sin on my own and moved on from the days of my hot blooded youth, or the go-get-em working days for wealth and the weekend.

Yes! This text should still concern me today! Not because of sins of the past! No! They have been nailed to the cross and forgiven! But rather, because of the sins of the present! And no, not the sexual sins of today’s youth, but my sin, my temptation, and my failures before God today!

I am throwing stones in glass houses if I think this text is just about someone else’s sexual sin rather than the cause of it, and the true cause of all the various age specific sins.

You see there is just as much thought around that sex is bad. This is just as big a sin as sexual promiscuity and perhaps partly the cause of it in our society today.

Yet we hear right at the beginning of creation, after the fall, a recount of the conception and birth of Adam and Eve’s first son. In Genesis four we hear, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:1 ESV)

Therefore it’s good to know your husband or wife sexually. For sure it’s private, but God is glorified in right sexual conduct. And may I say, right sexual conduct between a husband and a wife, in the sight of God, with his blessing, is the most joyful, satisfying, exciting sex there is to be had. Contrary to popular thought that fulfilment comes through what one might do with their own bodies.

And here is where we begin to uncover the cause of sexual sin and why Paul calls us and the Corinthians to flee from sexual immorality. When we think of ourselves and our own sexual temptations, they occurred most likely when we were younger. Teenagers of every generation have been the same. Pimples and body odour occur because of what’s happening in the body; it is sexually developing. Stopping sexual development in the body is about as futile as stopping pimples and BO!

But learning what is happening in us while we develop as teens and young adults is crucial for fleeing from immorality when we’re young; as is fleeing from greed or self-glorification when we’re old. In fact, many struggle just as much with their senior’s sin, because the sins of their youth haven’t been dealt with appropriately. Rather than flee from the sins of youth, sexuality was suppressed and secretive.

But why and how does one flee from the sins of sexuality? Not only are we developing physically when we are teens, but also socially, emotionally and mentally. It’s at this age when the ego really begins to kick against authority. Mum and dad no longer know anything, it becomes about personal experience and excitement. Teenagers believe they should be bullet proof; they should know, and have everything!

Unfortunately we’re all taught to believe we must do stuff to find fulfilment. For a teenager sexual gratification is number one for fulfilment. Whether they do it or not is beside the point, it’s the belief of what fulfils the ego that drives the temptation. And it’s the thought process and belief of what one must do to find fulfilment that sets up a person’s life for temptation, failure, and seeking things that never fulfil anything.

The first thing we must ask ourselves, “What is the purpose of a person? What is my purpose?” What will give the sum total of my being fulfilment; physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally? Without this sorted out one will roll from various sexual sins, into greed for acquiring stuff, or seeking satisfaction in status, family, fortune, or fame. All falling short of the very thing we seek in these things; namely, fulfilment.

“What is my purpose?” may be the first thing we need to ask ourselves. But knowing what our purpose is takes a life time to really get. Nor do we fully get it until we’re raised to eternal rest with our Father in Heaven.

We need to see in this text that fleeing from sexual immorality, is the need to flee from the self, the ego, the need to self appease that takes our focus from God and glorifies myself. The rights of “I” need to be shifted from idolatry back to the righteousness of the great I AM!

Augustine of Hippo, a father in the church, back in the fourth and fifth century in his writing, The Confessions, said,

“Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”

Augustine was no stranger to the ways of the world. He was raised a Christian but strayed for some years, in search of pleasure. Also in his confessions he said of his youth,

“But I, wretched, most wretched, in the very commencement of my early youth, had begged chastity of the Lord, and said, 'Grant me chastity and continence (self-control), only not yet.”

So Augustine like so many of us are restless. Looking for fulfilment in all the wrong things. But bitter experience taught Augustine, Luther, and many others who have gone before us that allowing sexuality, status, wealth, reason and pride to enslave us will only leave us yearning for something more, unfulfilled and unable to raise us up on the last day.

Saint Paul says, “All things are lawful for me but I will not be enslaved by anything!” (1 Cor 6:12) In other words he’s saying he has freedom to do whatever he pleases but in exercising his freedom he must be careful not to become overpowered by the very acts of his freedom.

He continues, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:13–18 ESV)

Humanity was made to glorify God, to praise God, to be empowered by God. Until we rest in God’s power, trusting in him, we have no rest.

There are many things we can prostitute ourselves to in the name of bringing fulfilment to ourselves. These are idols and they have no power. God has power, it is the power of his love, in Jesus Christ crucified and raised, so he might raise us up daily to glorify him and eternally where we will be glorified with him forever.

Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God! You are not your own. You were bought with a price. We were created to glorify God in our bodies.

How do you do this? Trust not yourself but the power of the Holy Spirit who continually works to place you under the forgiveness of our risen Lord Jesus Christ and into the loving presence of your Heavenly Father.

The kingdom the power and the glory are his. Amen.

B, Epiphany 1 - Mark 1:8b "Power"

2012-01-06T21:09:00.013+08:00

Text: “…he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”(Mark 1:8b ESV)

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendour of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. (Psalm 29:1-4 ESV)

There is so much power around the place. Power in the readings! The majesty and power of God as he speaks! God called light out of darkness and it was! A power unleashed as Paul laid his hands on men baptised into the name of Jesus Christ! Heaven torn open as God declares he is well pleased with his Son!

Power is something that can frighten us. Especially when we misunderstand it! And even more so when power is viewed from a position of powerlessness!

As the storm rages its lightning and thunder, flashes and rumbles seemingly threatening its power against a child seized with fear. There is no way the child can stop the storm. And they reason by its violent noises and blinding flashes that it’s out to get them!

However, the same storm brings smiles to those who need water. The power of the storm in its light and sound show announces the coming of the saving soak on a sun scorched earth.

Then there is the power of electricity that comes into our homes. Perhaps the source of this power stands to some as a sore on the landscape… wind farms, coal or nuclear fuelled power stations! But from the very same source, the child seized with fear over the power of the storm, flicks a switch, turns on the light, to find comfort and reassurance from the power illuminating the room.

An even greater confusion and misunderstanding happens when we humans come before the power of God.

John the Baptist was baptising in the Jordan, preparing the way for the coming of God’s power. People who knew they had no power were receiving a baptism of repentance, cleansing them of things they had been powerless to do themselves. It seems here John wielded power as he plunged his parishioners into the Jordan for the forgiveness of their sins.

Yet John proclaimed one was coming whom he had no right to even stoop down and undo the dusty dirty straps of his footwear. One who was mightier and more powerful than him! And yet when the powerful Son of God comes to the river, he submits to John’s baptism.

Why? Why does Jesus Christ, the almighty Son of God need to submit to a baptism of repentance? He has no need to repent! He is God, without sin! Amazingly here the flow of power, as humanity understands it, is not as we would assume. And it’s here we can discover the greater depths of God’s power, and the power we have who believe in him for salvation.

Let’s look at John the Baptist for a moment. An odd sought of a character by any stretch of the imagination. He had not real value to the people other than the message he proclaimed. He ate locusts and wore shabby clothes yet he was caused to appear out of the wilderness and preach someone great was to come.

At face value John seemed to be void of any intrinsic value. He seems to be of no profit to anyone! Befriending him could win no one a better standing in the community… socially, financially, or religiously. In deed, John had no authority or power in the community. He appeared to be a lunatic who had come out of the desert. Nevertheless, this ragged and rough man came proclaiming a very powerful message.

And what can we attribute to Paul? Not the Paul who was once Saul, the powerful Jewish Pharisee, rounding up the riffraff believers after the crucifixion, dragging dozens off to prison. No! The Paul after his experience on the road to Damascus! The man met by Christ, converted, and used as an instrument of the gospel and suffering for Jesus’ name (Acts 9:16).

This Paul places his hands on the Ephesians, not as a powerful Pharisee, but now as a broken man having been blinded and restored by the risen Christ. He wielded power but whose power was it? After all Paul was chased out of towns, shipwrecked, and ultimately martyred for the message he proclaimed. How does the power of God flow, in Paul, in John the Baptist, in you and in me?

Jesus is our great example. In him we find the Son of God. Almighty and powerful! Yet he put his divinity aside and allowed himself to be made nothing. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit yet when he was baptised in the Jordan by John the Holy Spirit descended upon him. Jesus allowed himself to be like us allowing the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of God to flow through him. Jesus allowed himself to become weak allowing his faithfulness to show trust in his Heavenly Father. He became weak and helpless so we might identify with him and allow him to be our one true hope.

Yet in our weakness and powerlessness, humanity seeks to adopt a warped understanding of God’s power. Many of us believe if we are to be beneficial to God we must appear powerful. That weakness should be discouraged and hidden. Why do we do this?

Perhaps it’s because we like to put more trust in ourselves than God. We don’t want to believe the reality of our true selves; that we’re born weak and helpless! All of us lead the same short troubled life. That, in fact, we live in the face of death and we need a Saviour!

And that is what we have! An eternally powerful risen Saviour! Haven't you been baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?

Have you not received the same Holy Spirit as that of Christ, the same power of God that led Christ humbly to the cross?

The same power that caused John the Baptist to proclaim the Kingdom of God and baptise Jesus in the Jordan when he did come!

The same power that flowed through Paul as he baptised the Ephesians causing them to speak in tongues and prophesy!

We have received the promise of John. One more powerful than he has come! You have been baptised into him. The Spirit now lives in you and seeks to use you. God is glorified when we acknowledge our helplessness and trust in him for our salvation.

Allow the power of God, the power of love through his Son Jesus Christ to save you! Be content to be nothing, for that is what we all are! The power of love leaves us the moment we turn from our reality and claim the power for ourselves without letting the Holy Spirit work… flowing through us, using us, and leading us to Jesus Christ.

Most of us believe and know of the power of God. The problem is we are tempted to abuse the power of his love and grab onto the love of power which only leads us back into a helpless plight without the love of God.

However, we have a Saviour who loves us and continually finds us and rescues us. This is why we can ascribe or give to the Lord, glory and strength. We can give to the Lord the glory due his name as our Psalm for today so aptly calls us to do!

Despite our helplessness we still have access to God and we can worship the Lord in the splendour of holiness. The Holy Spirit dresses us in the splendour of Christ’s holiness despite our unworthiness and we can lay our lives before the Lord. He loves you and sent his one and only, almighty and powerful Son to receive the baptism of fire that should have been yours and my deadly cross.

Our help is in the name of the Lord. Therefore, confess your sins to the Lord! Tell him about your weaknesses and helplessness… the stuff that turns the power of love into a self-serving love of power. Trust the power of his love and forgiveness in the activity of the Holy Spirit, who continually reveals Jesus Christ in you. There is so much power about the place, allow it to take hold of you!

The kingdom, the power and the glory are his indeed! Amen.

A, Pentecost 16 Proper 22 - Isaiah 5:1-7 "Absorbing God"

2011-09-30T22:02:00.006+08:00

Have you ever wondered how a plant gets water into itself? Its roots appear to be nothing special yet somehow they extract water and nutrient from the soil around them.

This was first figured out by a French chap, Jean-Antoine Nollet, in 1748 when he discovered what we today call, osmosis. Osmosis put most simply is the natural transference of a less dense liquid into a more dense liquid through a membrane of some sort.

For instance if rain water is allowed to come up against salt water separated by a membrane filter, over time the rain water would penetrate and pass through the filter to dilute the more dense salt solution. The process stops once the water on both sides of the membrane becomes equal in density or pressure on the denser water become great enough to stop the natural osmotic pressure and flow.

Today we might hear more about reverse osmosis in water desalination plants which makes fresh water out of salt water. By overcoming the osmotic pressure by pushing salt water against a membrane the natural osmosis is reversed; therefore, forcing drinking water out of undrinkable salt water.

So a plant gets water through osmosis occurring in the roots of the plant. The liquid in the plant is denser than the liquid in the soil, the root contains the membrane and moisture passes through the membrane in a bid to dilute and balance with the liquid inside the plant. So the denser plant cells get the lighter water cells it needs to survive.

What this has to do with God’s relationship with us here today might not be obvious, but the osmotic discovery in the eighteenth century, some twenty-two years before Cook sailed up the east Coast of Australia, reveals not only the marvel and function of God’s creation in plant life but the function of everything in his once perfect creation.

When God created our world, what he created on the first day was created to serve what he created on the second, and the second the third, and so on. Water, sunshine, seasons, and soil therefore serve the plant. Osmosis is how the water and nutrient serve the plant.

God created people as the last of the living beings. Everything God created flows onto human beings, the pinnacle of his creation, so we might be with God, rest with God, and enjoy our lives here on earth with God through the very last thing he created – the Sabbath day.

The Sabbath day was not just a day of rest and enjoyment with God, but it was also a day of recreation (re-creation) in this perfect seven day cycle God had set in place. Just as osmosis is God’s way of serving plant life with what they need for life, God placed all things in this creation willing his love to flow onto humanity for the recreation he desires to share with us.

But creation and recreation today are far from what God intended for us. Humanity has reversed the natural flow of God’s love, and from the moment Adam turned his back on God’s love all of us sooner or later realise that we’re living lives of dehydration and death. Just like reverse osmosis, we seek to push out the God-given life-giving love leaving us to live on the toxic sludge that’s left.

What type of fruit do you think a plant will produce that makes the decision to reverse the osmotic effect? The same as the people we become when we choose to reverse the flow of God’s love.

The natural flow of God’s love in creation and osmosis can be seen in the picture painted in Isaiah 5 where Isaiah sings about his beloved Father in heaven and compares his fellow children of God to choice vines in the vineyard God lovingly prepares for the vines.

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1–2 ESV)

If the natural flow of God’s love was to be absorbed by the vines, then the vine would have produced fruit in keeping with the love bestowed on the vines. Yet the vines yielded wild grapes. The Hebrew word here is literally bad grapes derived from the word for poison berries, or a stench.

Israel’s gnarly roots allowed no growth from the love of God; rather bloodshed instead of justice, and an outcry due to a lack of righteousness. The vineyard has become dysfunctional so God responds…

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. (Isaiah 5:5–6 ESV)

It was clear to God that what he had created was no longer working as he intended. He had to intervene and fix things so his love could once again flow with the natural pressure he intended. He had to install a new filter since the law was not filtering and recreating humanity so he could rest with them and further recreate them with his love.

So he set about fixing the problem by sending his one and only Son. But the vine had overrun the vineyard and this new vine and new life for the old vine was rejected.

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” (Matthew 21:37–41 ESV)

So Jesus was killed, thrown out of the garden! But this enabled a new filter to replace the good old filter of the law which had become ineffective. The pressure to push out God had become so great creating a spiritual reverse osmosis, pushing out the love of God and therefore the life, leaving only dehydration and death.

Now the new membrane is in place! We are the vine branches and Jesus is the root. In him we have growth! In him we are rooted in osmosis, guaranteeing life, love and fruit. We are rooted in him in baptism and the cross, the Holy Spirit sees to it there is a natural flow of grace and growth into us which overflows into the fruit we produce. But it’s not really us! It’s the root and the nutrient, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which grows us the plant, and faithfully fills the fruit that hangs from us.

This is why Paul says to the Philippians he regards everything else as rubbish (or better translated excrement - that which is cast out of the body) in order that he might gain Christ. (Philippians 4:8)

What Paul was doing here was simply letting the natural order of salvation in Jesus Christ do what it is meant to do. And that is allowing the absorption of God’s love to wash out the stink of sin within. He let the Holy Spirit bring the holiness of Christ into him to allow the waters of grace give him faith, hope, and love.

Are you a vine which allows the fruits of God to grow? Are you allowing yourself to be rooted in Christ, absorbing God daily the way God intended you to soak up his forgiveness and love? Are you fulfilled in this life? Or are you allowing the pressures within leave you without the grace God so desperately want you to have? Are you reversing the osmosis of God’s love?

Now is the time to return to Christ and let him be the root of your being. Now is the time for him to fill you and grow you as his choice vine as you absorb him in hearing his word. Now is the time for him to produce fruit from you that lasts.

The naturally perfect being of Jesus Christ has been given to you, let him clean your filter, let him fill you with the water that wells up to eternal life. He wants holy grapes from you his choice vine. Amen.

A, Pentecost 14 Proper 20 - Jonah 3:10-4:11 "Jonah, Jesus, & Me"

2011-09-17T21:24:00.004+08:00

Text: Jonah 3:10-4:11 (NIV)

10 When God saw what the Ninevites did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. 1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Have you any right to be angry?” 5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.” 10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

Jonah sits on a hill in Assyria looking down on its capital, Nineveh. Sitting there like an angry child, out of sorts with his parents, he huffs and puffs to himself over the events which have unfolded before him. Jonah has had his wings severely clipped since he took flight from his home in Israel. Jonah’s actions after God had called him to go to Nineveh to preach repentance, proved him to be as flighty as a dove, which is exactly what the name Jonah means in Hebrew. Jonah the dove was startled by God and took flight in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

Anyway, why would God wanted such a ruthless mob of thugs to repent? Surly it would have been better if God had come down and slaughtered the Ninevites. The Assyrian army was know for it cruel barbarianism. Many Israelites had been slaughtered at the hands of the men of Nineveh; some were left to slowly die, impaled on sticks outside of the city, being heckled by the locals as they passed by. Nineveh was a place of sorcery and prostitution, full of deported and displaced people. The city was furnished by their reckless abandonment, death, and the booty they carted from the cities they left burning in their wake.

So when God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, no wonder he fled like a bird escaping from its cage. Why should he call them to repentance, when other prophets spoke harsh words to them, pronouncing upon them a seemingly more appropriate judgement? Such as that of Isaiah when God spoke through him saying, “‘Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!’ When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, ‘I will punish the king of Assyria for the wilful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.’” (Isaiah 10:5,12) Or, as is pointed out through the prophet Nahum, “From you, O Nineveh, has one come forth who plots evil against the Lord and counsels wickedness.” (Nahum 1:11) “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. “I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty.” (Nahum 3:1, 3b-5a) So if God was against them why didn’t he just kill them? Why did he want Jonah to preach repentance to them?

The irony in the account of Jonah is that in Jonah’s decision to flee from God, and his responsibilities as God’s prophet before the Ninevites, Jonah actually became just as disobedient before God as were the people of Assyria and its capital, Nineveh.

We all know the events that preceded Jonah going to Nineveh. God called Jonah, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:2) But Jonah ran from the Lord, he wanted nothing to do with what his word called him to do. Maybe if Jonah ran away from God his conscience wouldn’t be troubled and the Ninevites wouldn’t hear God’s word and get what was coming to them. So Jonah when down—down to Joppa, down to the boat, down into the hull; and when God shook the boat in the storm Jonah asked the others on the boat to throw him into the sea, down into a hellish place where surely God would not be. But God was there and he caught him with a large fish. God’s compassion for Jonah was so great, that even while Jonah was in flight from God’s presence, God still sought out Jonah and saved him after spending three days in the belly of the fish.

Now having been saved and having preached repentance to the Ninevites, Jonah sits on the hill outside the city. He is angry that God would lead the people of Nineveh to repentance, beginning with the king who hears God’s call through Jonah and calls the whole city to repent, some one hundred and twenty thousand people. But God had done the same thing with Jonah. By pursuing him with the same goodness and mercy right down into the depths of the sea, and calling him to repentance.

The story of Jonah is our story. We like Jonah often work with the assumption that God surely wouldn’t want salvation to go to all those sinners, but the fact is salvation has come to us, we who are sinners too. Even when we turn away from the will of God he patiently pursues us with grace, he is slow to anger and abounding with steadfast love found in his Son Jesus Christ. So if the story of Jonah is ours, who are we in the story, and, how does God come to us?

If we let ourselves be placed in the story as Jonah, we see that we often let ourselves be subject to God’s graciousness and compassion, and are often saved by his patience with us and gracious means given to us as we struggle in this life. Even when all has gone wrong in this life and we sink into a seemingly unsolvable situation – God saves us. We willingly receive the help of God sent to us through his Son Jesus Christ.

However we, like Jonah, become fixated on the trivial things God places in our lives, just like Jonah sitting on the hill under the shade of the plant, thought that it was his good fortune to have that plant grow over him. We like Jonah become disgruntled when that plant is taken away but at the same time are irritated when salvation shades those whom we think don’t deserve it. As if the shade of God’s grace should fall on us and no one else, unless we give God the approval to do so.

So if Jonah requires the same salvation as the Ninevites, then surely we too can be placed in the story as the Ninevites as well as Jonah. We are the ones caught up in the lustful harlotry of life as were the Assyrians. We may not kill, and plunder, as the Ninevites did. But we hate, covert, lust, and assassinate the character of those around us. And every one of us plots evil in opposition to God and his compassion, grace, and love, every time we worry or doubt. And surely if God would come to Nineveh calling them to repentance through the words of Jonah, we too are called to repentance by the gracious actions of God who sent his only Son to die on the cross for us.

However, if justice is to be done to the Word of God written in Jonah, if justice is to be done for the sake of Christ and his gospel action of going to the cross, and if justice and righteousness is to come to us, we must see how God fits into the Jonah story, we must see how God fits into our story.

We have seen ourselves and humanity in the shoes of Jonah and the Ninevites, but until we see Jesus as Jonah we miss what God intends for us. We fail as Jonah, in fact Jonah fails too. Jesus was called to go to the lost Jonahs and Ninivites of this world and he was the only one who obediently did so. He was the only one who went the right direction, which led to the cross. You see God too was angry as Jonah was angry, he was so angry with sin—our sin, the sin of the Ninevites, and Jonah—that he would die. And he did die to overcome the sin of all the wayward Jonahs, Assyrians, and Ninevites of this world on the cross. God’s compassion and graciousness meant that he was quick to anger over our sinful nature but slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love for us who suffer from the effects of this same sin in our lives.

Although Jesus, unlike Jonah, followed God’s will completely, Jesus still ended up in the tomb for three days after being crucified on a cross for all to see and mock. He like Jonah went down, down into hell, before being raised by God, just as God had the fish spit Jonah onto dry land. He was not flighty like Jonah, but on him rested the dove of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that rests on us and constantly leads us to Jesus.

God brought Jonah to repentance and saved him. God worked through Jonah to bring repentance to the Ninevites. God has worked through Christ’s death and resurrection to save us. And now like the fish, we too have Jesus Christ, the perfect Jonah, in us. Are we going to keep him hidden inside or are we going to be the agents through whom God’s compassion and steadfast love are made know to all, who like us need forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life? Amen.

A, Pentecost 13 Proper 19 – Genesis 50:15-21 “Not Just 9-11 but 24-7”

2011-09-09T22:19:00.001+08:00

Not Just 9-11 But 24-7
In these hours ten years ago, chaos on an unimaginable scale brought us to a standstill as two buildings came tumbling down in New York. Two planes flew into the Twin Towers, another into the Pentagon in Washington, while the attempts of another failed despite all on board being killed too. Just over three thousand victims and hijackers were killed in these acts of terror. Citizens of ninety nationalities died at the World Trading Centre together with those who died at the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania.

You will most likely remember where you were when the news came flooding through. Our TV screens and radios were filled with the images and the sounds of this unimaginable chaos, leaving nothing to our imaginations.

In his address to the US nation on September 11 2001, the US President George W. Bush, said…

A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America — with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbours who came to give blood and help in any way they could. (11/9/2001)

In the years leading up to this day, many had succumb to the post-modern mantra that what was good for you was good for you and what was good for me was good for me! Therefore what was being said was there was no wrong.

But despite how sympathetic one might be towards people resisting the economic oppression of Western greed, the terror of 9-11 was just plain wrong. And perhaps George Bush's remake, "Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature" will be remembered as a marker for change in human thought.

Up unto this point, apparently there was no such evil! Well, so we were told! Yet within each of us who live in reality, we know not only that evil exists, but that all of us are capable of it.

In fact the reason why there was, and perhaps still is, in some, a push to exclude evil in favour of everyone having their own good, is so the conscience doesn't have to deal with the holy. Because when one is confronted by the holy, our true reality is illuminated by what is truly good, showing our goodness, no matter how good, as not good enough, as not being holy.

And this unholiness breaches us into the area of judgement and death. And this sits uncomfortably with all who live in denial of their mortal reality. But those who face the reality of their helplessness, having their sinful nature and deeds continually dealt with, have a completely different view of judgement and death.

So if we've learnt anything from 9-11, it's that there is evil in the world. But the greater lesson is not only is there evil but really we're helpless in fighting it, and in fighting it the chances of propagating further acts of evil are just as likely. The war on terror has freed the world of terror just as much as World War One was the war to end all wars.

Terror had overcome the brothers of Joseph after their father Jacob had died. The evil within led these brothers to envy Joseph, leading them to sell him as a slave, wishing he was dead, and telling their father than in fact he had been savaged to death by an animal.

Now they stood without the protection of their father before he who was second in command of Egypt; second only to Pharaoh, and the very brother they had despised as nothing and lorded him over into slavery.

Hear the evil they pre-empt from their brother whom they thought would now seek his revenge.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, 'Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. (Genesis 50:15–17 ESV)

We are not much different than the brothers of Joseph. We too pre-empt judgement from others, and from God. Yet because our consciences are pricked by judgement we're quick to say others cannot judge.

Just like Joseph's brothers, we know we're guilty of many different things, thinking we're going to get it for what we've done. But still we seek to defend ourselves by demanding no one has the right to judge us, even though it's our judgement of others and God, that has put us in the situation in the first place. And the primary offence we make is we judge ourselves better than others and therefore seek to be god of our own lives and other's as well. Our helplessness is hidden while deploring the helplessness of others.

But what does Joseph do when his brothers seek to defend themselves behind the words of their dead father Jacob? He weeps! We hear…

Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50:17–21 ESV)

Joseph's brothers pre-empted an evil response to their evil actions; they expected judgement. And there was judgement, but not as they thought! His judgement neither dismissed what they had wrongly done, nor did it involve retribution. Joseph made his judgement as one who stands under judgement from God. He named their actions against him as evil, yet he viewed it in the context of God's will.

But we hear in Romans 14 not to pass judgement and again in the Gospel in Matthew 18, through the judgement of the unforgiving servant. So should we or shouldn't we judge? What is meant here when we're told not to judge?

Surely a world without judgement is a world in chaos at such a level, it makes the terrors of the World Trade centre, and the recent natural disasters in Japan and Queensland pail into insignificance, next to the evil of a world without judgement!

Joseph had every right to reign down terror upon his brothers, yet he wept over them. He was handed over to death, judged as unworthy, and despised. He could have returned the evil but God meant it for good. Through many evil events Joseph was anointed as a son of Pharaoh, so he could be a saviour to those who sold him out. Therefore Joseph stood as a Christ-like figure pointing to the coming of the Messiah some two thousand years before the fact.

We stand two thousand years after the fact. But for us it's not just a historical standing. We stand judged and the cross is our judgement. We welcome the judgement so we might stand in the justification and righteousness of his resurrection for our justification, righteousness and resurrection. We live knowing it's not just the evil of 9-11 from which we need salvation but the internal evil within that terrorises us 24-7. Not only do we welcome the judgement, but in fact we need the judgement that recognises us as helpless.

And so we're called to live in the hope of our adoption as sons of God through the death and resurrection of God the Son. With each other we're called to also bear and share Christ's work of judgement so we might met out the same forgiveness on others who are as blessedly helpless as we are.

Today see the very worst of human nature; see your potential for evil in those who've nailed Jesus to the cross. But also see the life he gives to those who trust their baptism is the judgement which immerses the judged into his death and into a continuing existence of being daily raised to a life of faith, hope, and love in the name of Jesus Christ and for his sake. Not just on 9-11, but 24-7! Amen.

A, Pentecost 12 Proper 18 – Matthew 18:15-20 “Binding & Loosing”

2011-09-03T11:14:00.001+08:00

Binding and Loosing
A sermon on Matthew 18:15-20
The 12th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18 (Year A) 04/09/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

When someone sins against you, what do you do?

Is it difficult being open about how someone's sin has or is affecting you? Even if they approach you, confess and apologise it's usually dismissed with, "Ah, that's alright!" When both of you know very well it's not alright because you've been hurt and they've seen the need to say sorry!

If your brother, neighbour, spouse, or family sins against you, there's sometimes not enough peace within to go and confront them about the offence without the sin being relived in you. So how does one even begin the task of putting right the offence, and the relationship between you and the offender?

Besides! It seems naming the sin to expose the problem is inappropriate these days. As if everyone has the right to do as they please and say what they want, not being accountable or correctable despite the hurt it might cause. Nevertheless, living as a community and caring for each other out of love for Christ, requires us to put aside our rights, silence our voice, and serve each other with our ears and our hearts.

You see when sins are kept hidden and are not named they retain their stinging power. Therefore, many of us don't even get to first base with this text, let alone appropriately allowing the congregation in on how one's been sinned against, so the church can mediate the restoration of the relationship.

Rather what happens when a brother sins against an individual these days is, the one sinned against allows themself to smoulder, to the extent where he or she cannot go to the other person and name the sin. The sin cannot be buried, and rather than going and seeking others to help with the situation, sin is allowed to ripple out from the original offence. The recipient of sin, now becomes the perpetrator by bearing false witness, gossiping, and assassinating the character of the original perpetrator.

Our society is overrun by "smiling assassins" who politely smile to one's face, but stab in the back once the face is turned. It seems we have got it completely back to front in our individualistic, so-called "politically correct" world today. The result being we are all pushed further and further apart, and this seemingly polite interaction is really devilish dishonesty causing community living to become more and more dysfunctional and fractured.

There is a way to stop this from happening however! Our relationships in the church and in our everyday lives with others are curable. This way will restore your peace and bring a real and true peace back to your relationships – with neighbours, family, your spouse, church members, and even your enemies.

All believers are given a mighty weapon to combat the assassins "out there" in our relationships as well as the assassin within ourselves, so we might be able to approach others with the love of Christ to restore our relationships.

This weapon is the omnipotent, all-powerful, name of Jesus Christ. This weapon is prayer in Jesus' name. Its power is so rich and almighty yet a small child can wield this weapon with great effect.

Jesus tells us, "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." (Matthew 18:18–20 ESV)

It seems we need to know what requires binding and what requires loosing. In this mixed up world we get bound up in sinful acts yet these very sins are allowed to remain untied and free to continue wreaking havoc, destroying relationships long after they're committed.

This is what happens when we do things in our name, praying to ourselves, muttering under our breath, serving the sinful nature within. Putting ourselves first, relationships are hindered, and lonely love-starved individuals are created in this age of individualism.

On the other hand, when we rely on Jesus' name and not our own, we are loosed, he unties us from our sin and the cross of eternal death and damnation. Yet our sins are bound to the cross! We're freed to live with the promise we're eternally bound by Jesus' death and resurrection to an eternity in heaven. Even despite our constant inner struggle here on earth, between the sinful nature and our new being which relies on the name of Jesus Christ, you and I can be confident the right things are being eternally loosed and the wrong things are already bound to the cross.

The all-powerful name of Jesus Christ runs contrary to our individualistic thinking, causing a congregation to gather, constantly recreating a community of love, freed to be people of God wielding the weapon of prayer! Imparting forgiveness, peace, confidence, calmness, faith, hope, and love in a world which dearly needs these things.

Still there are many in God's church who don't have a whole lot of faith in prayer. Perhaps you struggle to pray, you find it difficult, or you just think it's a waste of time. Yet we hear in Scripture; Jesus, alone in prayer for much of his ministry on earth while being prepared for the cross. One might ponder, why he needed to pray, since he is "God the Son"!

Consider this: Jesus gave up his godliness, his divinity, and became nothing, relying completely on the Father in all he was called to do. Jesus displayed the same helplessness as us. But rather than fall into sin as we do, he remained sinless, yet bore our sin, helpless on the cross, so now our help is in the name of the Lord, our helplessness is overcome by God's powerful hand working when we ask him to in prayer.

Therefore, the first rule of prayer is having this same "blessed attitude" of helplessness as did Jesus.[1] In knowing our helplessness, we might see the common helplessness of ourselves and others and freely name sin with the desire to forgive it and receive forgiveness for it.

Also knowing our helplessness leads us to draw on God's mercy in reuniting the relationship with those who have wronged us, and us them. We can call on him in need to open our ears and hearts to each other so compassion flows, words are not misheard, and new sins are not committed.

The second rule [2] of prayer is to pray in Jesus' name or for Jesus' sake. As mention above when we do this we are tapping into an all-powerful source of existence.

The third rule [3] of prayer is to name our need or the need of others without the belief we need to help him answer the prayer. God doesn't need us to tell him how to fix the problem, he just needs us to ask him for help. He knows how to fix every problem even before we ask him.

The fourth [4] and final rule of prayer is we don't need to make use of prayer as a means of commanding God to move according to our will and timeframe. When we do this we just set ourselves up for a fall. God knows what we need before we ask for it or before we ask for it on behalf of someone else. We need to leave "the when" and "the how" up to God! We must remember we are asking him because of our helplessness. How quickly do we pray, leaving it up to God, but yank it back through unbelief!

God answers all prayers prayed in Jesus' name or for Jesus' sake. Unfortunately unbelief causes us to miss seeing them answered.

Perhaps a beginning point for all who struggle with prayer is to ask God in prayer to help us in our unbelief. Then we allow God to assassinate the sin and the unbelieving sinful nature within. It's better our prayers give God the glory and freedom so he can act as God in our lives, rather than our prayers failing because we seek to stand as assassin or executioner over God.

We who pray for others do best to also pray for our own perseverance and patience, that God might give us enduring peace and confidence in his omnipotence and the power of prayer in Jesus' name. Therefore, staying ourselves from assassinating ourselves and committing spiritual suicide.

And rather than the character assassination of those who have sinned against us, we might ask God to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts to counsel us in Christ, saving both of us from ourselves, assassinating our sin rather than each other and the relationship.

When someone sins against you, what do you do?

We can be secret agents wielding a weapon of great power. We can be assassins of sin and forgivers of sinners. This is prayer in Jesus' name and its use of binding sins and loosing sinners for Jesus' sake, Amen!

1. "It often happens that we slip out of this blessed attitude of helplessness before God. Our former self-conceit and self-sufficiency reassert themselves. The result is that we fail again to grasp the meaning of helplessness. Once more it fills us with anxiety and perplexity. Everything becomes snarled again. We are not certain of the forgiveness of sins. The peace of God disappears from our lives. Worldliness, slothfulness and lack of spiritual interest begin to choke our spiritual lives. Sin gains the victory again in our daily lives, and an unwilling spirit works its way into the service we render to God.” p. 26 in Prayer by Ole Hallesby
2. p. 55ff Prayer by Ole Hallesby
3. p. 44ff ibid.
4. p. 49ff ibid.

A, Pentecost 11 Proper 17 – Matthew 16:24 “The Scandal of the Cross"

2011-08-27T09:32:00.005+08:00

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24 ESV)

These words would have been total shock in the ears of the disciples. Why?

One has to put aside post-resurrection or salvation thinking to begin understanding what went through the hearts of people living in the Roman empire two thousand years ago. And especially in the hearts and minds of the Jews who lived under oppression from Roman occupation.

A cross was a blood barbaric affair. Being hung out to die was not just a Roman torture practice. In the minds of all Israelites would have been stories of Assyrian atrocities when people were displaced from the northern kingdom of Israel and exiled, whom some were impaled on poles, stood up and left to slowly die, further terrorising their captives with fear and horror. And now this same order of oppression terrorised the Jews, right in the heart of Judah, at Jerusalem.

This overwhelming fear of such a death, with massive amounts of pain and suffering, was not just physically horrific. This type of death was without honour. One was exposed, stripped of dignity, naked, humiliated, ridiculed by some who passed by, while others were forced to look upon the shame and embarrassment of the dying person on the cross. This humiliation was not just of the person hanging there, but for the family, and even the nation and their Jewish practise.

The sight of a bloody Jew crucified in contempt would have made their hearts churn as they passed by. It was a sign the people had lost their inheritance and their land was being defiled. The words of the law from Deuteronomy would have been at the fore of their thoughts.

"And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance." (Deuteronomy 21:22–23 ESV)

The sight of a cross to a Jew, was a sign of guilt. Even if they were wrongly crucified by the Romans, they were still hung on a tree, and therefore cursed and guilty before God. Being hung on a cross meant you were unclean, outside the temple courts, outside the city, out with the refuse where the unclean lived. Prohibited from entering into the loving kindness of God, the cross was the place where one experienced total wrath, from both God and man.

It's now we might start to comprehend what could have been going through the hearts of the disciples when Jesus talks of taking up one's cross. To take up one's cross means the practice of lifting one's guilt up for all to see. To admitting to one's guilt even before being found guilty. To expose the scandal of one's existence by continuality putting the hidden reality of the heart out to be dealt with every day.

This is the scandal of the cross. This is the stumbling block Jesus was putting in front of his Jewish disciples, and this is the foolishness put in front of us gentiles. But we're told the weakness and foolishness of the cross is greater than us. The cross, the ultimate bloody barbaric guilty-man's death machine surpasses any person's wisdom.

When Jesus began to announce God's scandal, Peter took exception, and led Jesus aside to give him a piece of his mind. He did this since Jesus had just announced to him he was to be the rock on which the church was to be built. But rather than Peter's wisdom being received, Jesus quickly uncovers the scandal within Peter, who was being deceived by the devil.

Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." (Matthew 16:23 ESV)

Literally when Jesus says to Peter, "you are a hindrance to me", he says, "you are a scandal to me", "you're bent, you're as crooked as a dog's hind leg". Perhaps we might say, "he was hell-bent on looking after himself" since Satan was leading him to look away from God's purpose.

But before we get on our high horses against Peter, we must look at what we've done to the cross. Haven't we sanitised the cross somewhat today? We hang it around our necks as a nice ornament. We stick it up in our church buildings, and on signs in the street, and with the familiarity we forget this scandal is our scandal, this is our guilt, our shame, and our cross. Perhaps our removal of the Corpus Christi (the wretched broken body of Jesus) from our crosses is our way of taking Jesus aside, just as Peter did causing him to receive condemnation from Christ.

Perhaps it's the work of Satan deceiving us from reality so we might overlook our guilt and the scandalous reality of ourselves and therefore forget the treacherous and horrific reality Jesus went through to bear the burden of your scandalous life; the inner hidden horrors of every human heart.

So the scandal of Jesus' word here in Matthew 16 and the brutal Good Friday cross meets the scandal of your life. We're called to see the stark reality of God the Son beaten, broken, humiliated, bearing the complete wrath of God, outside with the dogs where there is no access to any loving kindness. But it's your reality Jesus was bearing. He was on your cross, he was hell-bent, because you and I are bent. The scandal of the cross is the announcement and advertisement of your scandal. Being exposed for who you are is the horror of every human as we all face decay and death.

And it's right here where the scandal is increased even more. Where Peter takes Jesus aside to reprimand, where Jews might do just about anything to avoid the horrors and separation of crucifixion, where we try our hardest to sanitise our realities and the reason we all must die, Jesus says, "take up your cross and follow me".

Deny yourself and take up your scandal and follow Jesus. What Jesus calls you to do is virtually turn yourself inside out! To not put yourself first, but the very motives and hidden urges that cause you to put yourself first, he calls you to hoist up for all to see and then follow him.

The true you, out there for all to see. Nakedness not in the physical sense but to peel off the flesh exposing the mental and spiritual nakedness of your soul. Who of us has the faith to do this?

Thankfully our scandal is born by Jesus. Our cross became his cross. Satan was ultimately put behind Christ at the cross, and as we're led by Christ towards our cross, our earthly death, Jesus' faithfulness towards you is moving the Holy Spirit in you to confess and bear the horrors of your sinful nature so your scandal is won over in victory by Christ's resurrection over your scandalous nature and my scandalous nature too!

As God lovingly leads you to admit and confess your scandal. The scandal of Jesus on your cross is believed more and more for your victory. Your daily bearing of this cross is one which you can faithfully bestow more and more on Christ, trusting the Holy Spirit to move you in repentance, faith, hope, and love. The Holy Spirit gives you the right practice, he places Christ in you and you in Christ.

Therefore, those who believe they are sinners and allow Christ to be their scandal will receive eternal life when Jesus comes to eternally remove the scandal which causes us so much horror in this life. This is why the peace of God surpasses all human understanding, and it can keep your hearts and minds (in peace) in Christ Jesus, Amen.

A, Pentecost 10 Proper 16 - Matthew 16:13-18 “On This Rock”

2011-08-20T09:56:00.007+08:00

Matthew 16:13–18 (ESV) Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

On what type of rock is best for building the church? What type of rock is Peter?

Rocks come in many different shapes and sizes, textures and degrees of hardness! One can picture a good rock as a huge block of granite – too heavy to move easily. With much toil does one move it and reshape it with tools to build a structure.

Or just as big are great big blocks of sandstone, beautifully layered with warm colours, hard to move like granite, but much easier to shape into the blocks needed to erect a building.

Some rocks are jagged and sharp. They cut the feet and hands of those who climb over them. Especially if they're encased with sediment and shells as a result of massive compression. Then again they might be smooth and slippery after being constantly washed in a stream or in the ocean.

Smaller smooth rocks make great marbles, manhandled by children and rolled down the hill for fun. And even smaller ones are good for skimming across the water. Or these stones stood on have the power to marble and manhandle us, toppling a person off their feet to the ground.

A rock can be so hard it can barely be crushed, but after doing so one might find blue metal inside to make a bitumen road solid enough to carry heavy machinery. Or it might be so easily powdered into mineral which can blow away as dust, or perhaps after being contained and mixed with water and left to set, the powdered rock can be used in bricks or concrete.

So what type of rock was Peter? On what type of rock did Jesus Christ build his church?

Simon Peter, Simon the rock, made the bold confession who Jesus is, saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." This son of Jonah, was then told before the disciples, the church was to be built on him. And the gates of hell would not overcome or consume it.

Yet Peter had just been the one whose faith was sinking when Jesus invited him to get out of the boat and walk on water. He was one of the twelve who didn't understand the feeding of the five and the four thousand, and was criticised by Jesus for their faithless understanding when he said, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." (Matthew 16:6 ESV)

Peter, this pillar of the church, seemed to crumble and fall at every moment of testing. It seemed like Simon Peter was no match for the gates of hell because in the very next breath Jesus turns to Peter and says, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." (Matthew 16:23 ESV)

What type of rock is Peter? A building block or a stumbling block! Hadn't he watched or been aware? Had he not risen to the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Didn't he rise to the occasion cutting off the ear of Malchus when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus? Didn't he deny Jesus before the roster crowed? What type of rock was Peter when he ran from the court and wept bitterly over what he had said?

Peter was the man who stood up at Pentecost and proclaimed Christ crucified in a sermon which brought three thousand Jews to baptism in a day. And even after Jesus' death and resurrection, Peter's reinstatement and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit just prior to Jesus' ascension, we find the Apostle Paul having to chastise Peter for crumbling under pressure from the circumcision party of Jewish believers.

On what type of rock was Christ building his Church? And how was the gates of hell not going to overcome one who seemed to be so easily rolled out of the way or blown away like dust?

What is the best type of rock for building the church? What type of rock are you? Are we any different to Peter? Are you so tough you can't be cracked? Or are you so fragile and brittle you're crushed and blown about like dust? How is the church today not going to be overcome by the gates of hell?

When Paul addressed the church in Galatia he speaks of his reprimand of Peter (or, Cephas) saying…

…when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (Galatians 2:11–14 ESV)

Paul does not say this to grandstand over Peter, but carries on using the incident to make the critical point…

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavour to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:15–21 ESV)

The church is built on faith. Not on Peter's personal faith, because out of the mouth of Peter came things that caused Christ and Paul to condemn him. Rather the church is built on faith not of flesh and blood but of that given by our Father in heaven. And this is the faith given by the Holy Spirit which leads us constantly to the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Daily reinstating us as Jesus first did with Peter on the shores of lake Galilee after the resurrection.

What type of rock are you?

Whatever you are, allow yourself to be one which Christ can use in the building of his church, his kingdom. It matters not whether your are hard or soft, smooth or jagged. Jesus is the master craftsman and he seeks to craft himself in you, regardless of your weakness.

After all in our earthly use of rocks, it's their weaknesses which allows us to exploit them for their strengths. And Jesus seeks to use us in our weakness and brokenness as the building blocks of his eternally fortified church and kingdom.

In next week's gospel reading we hear Jesus reprimand Peter telling Satan, "to get behind me". Jesus goes on to say, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Matthew 16:24 ESV)

This week ask yourself "what is my cross? What does a cross actually represent? What did the sight of a cross say to a Jew? What is Jesus telling you, the rocks of his church, to do when he says, "take up your cross and follow me"?

Let us pray: Lord, move us to allow the Holy Spirit to mix and mould Christ in us with the substance of his word and the waters of daily baptismal repentance so we are built into the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

A, Pentecost 9 Proper 15 – Romans 11:29-32 “Mercy for Sinners”

2011-08-12T15:39:00.011+08:00

Mercy for Sinners
A sermon on Romans 11:29-32
9th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15, Yr A) 14/08/11
by Ps Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Text Romans 11:29–32 (ESV)

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

Sermon

Can a person measure their faith? How do I know whether I've got great faith, or fragile or unstable faith? Really, should one seek to measure faith?

Last week we heard in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing the gospel preached. And today we hear Jesus finds himself in two places and receives two very different responses as he, the Word made flesh, moves, teaches, and preaches amongst the people of his day.

In fact when confronted by Christ and his Word, the reality of God in my presence quickly reveals just who I am as well as what I think, do, and feel. Usually one of two things happen, sometimes both things happen at the same time. Either I become proud, arrogant, and conceited, or I become crushed and confused, and sometimes even both, somehow at the same time.

Indeed even in the bible readings we have heard this morning, my mind races and makes me feel certain things and makes me want to do certain things too.

The first thing that jumps to mind in the readings is from the second half of the Gospel reading. I see the way Jesus approaches a Gentile, a Canaanite woman who has heard the word and approaches Jesus with faith. I struggle with the fact that Jesus does three things before the woman that for me, seems a bit harsh. He ignores her, then refuses to speak to her, saying, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." And finally when he does speak to her he calls her a dog.

Two things happen in me as I hear God's word, I question and then doubt. Surely Jesus is a God of love; why does he do this? I am tempted into doubting God's word and seek to alter it to suit me; making it a little less offensive. And once this happens then the threat of either conceited arrogance or crushing confusion hangs over my head because it appears that his Word is not completely true as far as my thoughts and feelings are concerned. It seems if I were to evaluate my faith at this moment I might be in danger of not finding any! Or would I? Or perhaps, instead of faith, I see disobedience working in me!

Then I think about the first half of the Gospel reading. Those wretched Pharisees; what right have they got to be offended at my God. If I was there I wouldn't doubt Jesus for a minute; I am so much better than them. But just when I become proud of my pharisaic ways over the Pharisees, Jesus' Word rings in my ear, 'Are you so dull?' He tells me the things that come out of my mouth and heart are the things that make me unclean; evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. Then depending on the day, I respond with pompous pride, "I don't do any of those things", or I justify myself with a big yeah-but and change God's word to suit me so I mightn't have to address the things I'm doing in my life. Or, on the other hand, at other times I see Jesus lift the bar of the law that much higher so there is no way I can jump over it, and utter shame fills my heart, "how can I go near God when I am such a bad sinner!"

And furthermore I hear the words of Isaiah, "foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer." (Isaiah 56:6-7a ESV) I hear these words and ask, "How can I bind myself to you Lord? I don't always love your name; in fact most of the time I really don't understand who you are! And worship seems so pointless and unconnected with the reality of my life! Oh no! I shouldn't think these things! But my feelings tell me I would rather be doing something useful that sitting here. Is Jesus really in the bread and wine, am I really saved, is baptism effective? I can't think these things; I've got to do better than this! Oh what's the point!

The point is: you and I are inherently sinful. Sin is not just what I do, it is who I am! When presented with a model of Jesus' life I see that there is no way possible for me to make it to heaven by my own efforts. In fact my efforts push me further and further away from God, every time. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. (Romans 11:32 ESV)

In fact God hands us over to see our sinfulness so that the gift of Christ is recognized for what it is: the greatest gift anyone has every received. God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Even in the midst of so much sin and selfish behaviour God continues to have mercy on us. My sinful nature, with all its doubt, worry, and pride, is continually being exposed by the light of God. The closer we are drawn to the light of God the brighter the stain of our disobedience stands out next to the brilliance of Jesus Christ. I am not able to wash the disobedience from my clothes; I need the Holy Spirit and the blood of the lamb to cleanse me once and for all. But I also need to be reminded of it, so I am reassured of my cleansing as more and more disobedience comes to light.

It is Jesus who has kept the Sabbath holy, so much so by the will of God the Father, he truly rested in death in the grave on that Sabbath Saturday, between Good Friday, when he died, and Easter Sunday, the day of his glorious resurrection.

It is Jesus' perfect model life in me, winning me, leading me, and forgiving me for my disobedience. It is Jesus blood which covers my sinful nature yesterday, today, and tomorrow. God does not go back on his Word; in baptism, in the bread and the wine, in his Word, his gifts are irrevocable, irreversible and universal. You are 100% sinner so God the Son can be 100% your Saviour.

Even in the midst of our disobedient natures his gift of faith will never be withdrawn. Faith comes from God and leads us to God. Faith comes from the Word and leads back to his Word. Faith comes from the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father and God the Son, and faith leads us to Jesus Christ, God the Son, and through him to our loving Heavenly Father. Is there a need to measure faith? No! God gives us the measure of faith we need, and he never breaks his promise to us: that he will give us his gifts and continually call us!

When the Word offends us and we become conceited like the Pharisees in Jesus' day. When the Word of God increases the depth of your sin; shedding light on the disobedience of your heart. When the Word of God shows that you and I are foreigners in God's eyes with no way of being persuaded to follow God's Law by our own efforts. Marvel that Jesus himself graces our hearts with his blood that makes us righteous. Be overwhelmed that as sinners we can be confident in his glorious presence, when we really deserve nothing but death. That because of his victory and resurrection from death we can come to him with great faith, knowing that his gifts and his call are irrevocable, and cry out to Jesus, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Amen.

A, Pentecost 8 Proper 14 – Romans 10:13-15,17 “Practising Faith”

2011-08-06T10:44:00.005+08:00

Romans 10:13–15, 17 (ESV)

For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Faith and worship are connected! One doesn't exist without the other!

Practising the faith is coming into God's presence to confess real sin, acknowledging the reality of the sinful self, thus the need for the real Saviour, and hearing and believing God's word of forgiveness in the absolution through the Saviour.

Practising the faith is hearing the word of God preached; hearing and believing your total need for a Saviour. This is the proclamation of Jesus' death and resurrection for you, the sinner, so your trust grows all the more as you allow your sin and your nature to be daily buried with him in baptism, and raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God. (Colossians 2:12 ESV)

Practising the faith therefore increases faith—as you are drawn further out of yourself; away from trusting your deeds, listening to your own understanding, and believing in your way of life. The faith given in worship comes from God and his word, transforming and conforming your understanding, your deeds, according to his way and will—his life.

Faith and worship are connected! One does not exist without the other! However this can be abused too, when one trusts in themselves, allowing faith to be individualistic, personal and exclusive of God and everyone else.

This abuse is often verbally expressed like this, "I don't go to church, but I believe in my heart." When this type of nonsense comes from within us, God challenges us, "What do you actually believe?" Because true saving faith comes from hearing the word of God, the good news of Jesus Christ. Whereas scripture clearly tells us…

…from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." (Mark 7:21–23 ESV)

So practising faith is not practising what comes out of us. When you and I do this we practise a faith in ourselves, rather than the "one" true faith which can only come from God and lead us to him. Furthermore, we can stop and ask ourselves, "Where is the glory going here?" If one seeks God and uses "Jesus" sounding language as a means to bring glory to the self, one may as well go and heap burning coals on the head right now, because this faith is spiritually doing just this!

The world is full of this type of self-centred worship, outside and inside, the church. Why? Because all of us are human. All of us yearn to have power and control. We seek our comfort and security from what we own. And with the right to lay these things up for ourselves, we use them as status once we've got them. But the kingdom, the power, and glory are God's, alone! Amen.

Yes they are! Therefore, faith is moulded by what we hear and receive from God. This happens with persistent perseverance and endurance.

You see, all of us seek glory for the self. But the difference between those outside and those inside the church, is those outside are cutting themselves off from the sole source of faith that saves. This also stands as warning and encouragement to those inside the church too. To keep allowing ourselves be brought into the proclaimed presence of God, where we are grafted into his forgiveness. And in turn allow ourselves to be gatherers of God, bringing others back so he might graft them into his forgiveness too.

Paul speaks about the Jews and us, and faith, in Romans eleven.

…if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." That is true. 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 11:17–22 ESV)

Worship is the root of faith. To be in Christ is not the other way around. Faith only every preceded worship for one person. This person was faithful unto death, whereas the rest of us flee every time the going gets tough.

The faithfulness of Jesus Christ sees him alone on a mountain in prayer before the Father. Jesus faithfully prayed, giving up his own divinity, and in doing so acknowledged the kingdom, the power, and the glory as solely our Heavenly Father's.

The faithfulness of Jesus Christ sees him walking on the waters of chaos, saving his church, and those within it who are daily drowning, raising to life you who honestly acknowledge you're sinking in sin.

If you're asking the question: How do I believe? Is my faith of the one true faith? As your pastor I appeal to you on behalf of the Great Shepherd of our souls, to keep on keeping on in Christ! To endure in the only good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To persevere in the hearing of God's word, the forgiveness of sins, your grafting into the nourishing sap of salvation and forgiveness of sins.

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way. (Psalm 85:8–13 ESV)

Faith comes from listening to God, receiving his peace. Jesus meets you with his ever-present love and faithfulness in his word and sacraments. God's glory continues to shine on Jesus' righteousness which can give you peace.

In faithfulness to the Father, and to you, Jesus was crucified and buried. On the third day the Faithfulness of God was raised, spring up from the ground, and the Father looks upon those who trust Jesus as their righteousness.

Walk in the ways of the Lord, allow his righteousness to be your forgiveness. Allow endurance in the things which give life and salvation; the word which puts to death sin and daily raises you to life eternal. The Lord gives what is good, to those who willing receive the word of God. God will gather into his harvest. His holy land will yield its increase!

All glory to the Father, all glory to the Son, all glory to the holy Spirit, now and forever, Amen.

A, Pentecost 7 Proper 13 – Isaiah 55:2-3, Psalm 145:8-9 “Real Rest”

2011-07-30T10:37:00.009+08:00

The feeding of the five thousand is an impossible picture for us to comprehend. We could expend much energy trying to work out how it happened — rationalising, justifying, questioning, thinking, defending, explaining, ignoring or even attacking the reality of this miracle written in the Word of God. How did Jesus do it? Five loaves, two fish — 5000 men plus women and children — 12 baskets of leftovers. It all seems to be a bit too much.

Today we are not going to focus on this miracle as such, but use it as a catalyst, to allow God to delve right down into our inner being, and address the toilsome troubles buried in the core of our person. What happens in you when you hear the feeding of the five thousand? Rationalising, questioning, thinking, defending, explaining, ignoring or even attacking? Do you look for a way to comprehend or justify what the word of God says next to your everyday reality of heartache, labour, toil, tiredness, and exhaustion?

You see, what is going on in all of us today, is a deep yearning for rest. We hear pleasant pictures painted in the Psalms: the shepherding, the lying down in green pastures, the table set, and the cup overflowing before us. A place of no worries or concern. A place where no harm can come to us, a place of complete rest, a place where we’re served in tranquil peace having been caused to stop and rest from the frantic pace outside these walls. And even more — the worry, doubt, and pride inside, in your heart.

In fact, it’s not really the frantic pace of our western society that’s the cause of the problem. Each of us could be carried a million miles away and yet once there in an isolated corner of creation still feel the effects of a world out of control. Like the feeding of the five thousand in the word of God, the restless world is also a catalyst to your deepest realities of heartache, work, toil, tiredness, and exhaustion. What’s going on in you? Isn’t it time for some real rest?

I’ve been asked on a number of occasions why we use the Psalms; it’s said, they don’t make much sense and are hard to understand! And this is true if they are gleaned into the vacuum of individualism. You definitely will not get the nourishment that’s truly there. The truth is the Psalms, like all of God’s Word, are very personal, it is there to serve you. However, the noise of our inner being, the rationalising, questioning, pondering, defending, explaining, ignoring and attacking effectively blocks the intent of God, who seeks to address the “whole” of your situation in the most personal way.

The Psalm or even the feeding of the five thousand fills our ears, and straight away our heart blocks by challenging from within with the question, “What’s it mean?” And in this noise of seeking to conform the word to our ways, God’s way is lost.

So let’s not ask “what’s it mean?” for the moment, but let’s just let it “do” to us what God seeks it to do. And in letting God do, there will be more meaning in it for us personally than we can ever consume; there will be an eternity of leftovers, lashings of love and mercy, forgiveness and faith. Baskets of leftovers for us to lavish on others!

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. (Psalm 145: 8–9 ESV)
God intends you to rest in him. In the Psalm God seeks to serve your innermost being by drawing you out of yourself to look on him. He wants to reveal the greater reality of your hidden depths within. With these verses of comfort he seeks to enter into the place where lies your greatest fears, your most powerful prejudices, and your most sacred of sins, and there let the beauty and peace of his goodness enlighten you with his grace and mercy — his enduring refreshing forgiveness and favour!

We might want to ask “How can this be? Letting God see the reality and rottenness of my darkest depths and desires, as well as the things I’ve done will get me into big trouble with him!” But nothing could be further from the truth! God is rightly displeased with our sinfulness. However, he seeks to rightly deal with it too! After all he is abounding with wave after wave of rich, overflowing, wealthy, generous love focused on you. And he is slow to anger too.

This slowness to anger, is not over who you are, a sinner. But over not allowing him to deal with you and your sin. Nevertheless, this anger is slow in coming, and he patiently waits your lifetime to deal with your sin, be it ever so gently with you personally, having dealt harshly with it on your cross through the crucifixion of his Son, Jesus Christ.

So at the end of this earthly life, those who have rested in God’s steadfast love, Jesus’ death and resurrection, will be given even more. But those who are exhausted from their efforts to find peace in this life, even the mercy they rejected will be eternally out of reach.

So God has brought you this far into his rest. He has been working on you as you’ve been listening. If you’ve been listening and resting? The inner voice of our sinful humanity still seeks to rise up - rationalising, questioning, thinking, defending, explaining, ignoring and attacking. Our sin filled inner self-appointed authority verses the authority of God and his word, second-guessing what’s being said against the more easily seen exhaustion of daily existence in the twenty-first century. The human spirit struggles to subdue the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing the sinner to salvation, into real rest.

Nevertheless, God is patient. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

He has made you and he waits for you. In your exhaustion and struggle he asks you, Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:2a ESV) And after we’ve given all our righteous answers, born out of rationalising, questioning, thinking, defending, explaining, ignoring and attacking. He still patiently asks his question.

He does this so we might come to realise it’s not so much about our frantic activities expending energy to make money, or working for satisfaction, but rather the tiring and failing internal activities of the sinful nature trying to live up to our expectations reflected by us and everyone else encouraged on all the more by the father of lies.

So why do you do it? Let this word from God rest on you. Let the word of God, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of “your” heart. (Hebrews 4:12 ESV with “personal” emphasis). None of us are hidden from God, let’s be honest with ourselves and God, so we might get some real rest now, and forever!

When we allow this to happen, we no longer continue on the self destructive path of rationalising, questioning, thinking, defending, explaining, ignoring and attacking the deeper reality of God, and the hidden truths of our inner being. But we come face to face with Almighty God stopping, resting, hearing, confessing, receiving, trusting, believing, adoring, glorifying, and hoping.

This is the narrow path of God. Those who traverse it know it's not by their energy expended they walk it but rather it's by Christ and his Holy Spirited energy who carries them on it into eternal life.

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isaiah 55:2–3 ESV)
This steadfast sure love for David, is also for you. This love is Jesus Christ. Come, hear, incline your ear, stop and listen. Come to Jesus! Pour your true selves, your depths of sin on him, that you may have real rest, rich eternal food, and your soul may live. Amen.

A, Pentecost 6 Proper 12 – 1 Kings 3:5-12, 16-28 “Wisdom from God”

2011-07-23T20:22:00.004+08:00

Two prostitutes plying themselves to their whorish trade find themselves in a predicament. Both of them are tripped up in an obvious work hazard and give birth to babies. As was their practise the mothers slept and nursed their children in their beds. Unfortunately one of the mothers smothers her baby by accidentally rolling on it while she slept during the night. The next morning the two mothers awoke to find one child dead. Accusations fly that the mother of the dead child swapped the two children during the night and now both argue that she is the mother of the living child.

Being the only two in the house the prostitutes need someone to come and judge who is the mother and who is lying. There was no DNA test to show the maternal mother, only equal claims on the child. These two women needed a person who might hear the case and understand exactly what had happened. They needed a person who could hear not just the words from their mouths but also the thoughts and motives concealed within; one who truly understood, one who knew the truth of what was going on.

King Solomon was that man. In fact he was the king of Israel and highly respected by people near and far. Everyone who knew of his wisdom came into his courts for advice. From social misfits to the queen of Sheba, all came because of Solomon's ability to discern between right and wrong. He was blessed with wisdom; with the ability to hear and understand just what was going on.

So how did Solomon decide which mother was the true mother of the living child and who was the mother who had rolled on her child and smothered it. Solomon's wisdom put the mothers to the test and he called the living child to be sawn in two and half given to each woman. One mother thought it was a reasonable idea, but, in a bid to preserve the life of her child, the other mother pleaded Solomon to give her baby to the other woman to spare its life. Solomon's wisdom led him to make a seemingly foolish decree that would allow him to simply hear and understand the truth of the situation. The true mother in her desperation to preserve the life of her flesh and blood ultimately winning out and Solomon returned the child to her.

From where did this wisdom come? How is it that Solomon knew to use such deadly words to find the true mother? We are told when all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, …they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. (1 Kings 3:28 ESV) Solomon had wisdom from God.

We have heard in text that Solomon was a weak man. When Solomon first became king he said to God, And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. (1 Kings 3:7 ESV) Solomon was weak; he was immature and hadn't developed the ability to govern what his father had left him. Solomon was not a baby or a toddler; in fact he was probably about twenty years old when he took up his father's leadership. But he knew he needed to suckle on the wisdom and experience of someone else if he was going to survive as king and lead the enormous kingdom of Israel.

Solomon was a weak man, his immaturity led him to sacrifice and burn incense on the high places originally built to worship Baal. But in his weakness and immaturity God still came to Solomon, even after he offered a thousand burnt offerings at Gibeon's high place. God appeared in a dream and said, Ask for whatever you want me to give you. Aware of his short fallings Solomon asks, Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours? (NIV) Discernment—the ability to distinguish or judge correctly—to be able to truly hear and understand without being led astray by coloured words or by his own wayward heart. This is what he asked for, and this is what God gave to him.

God gave Solomon wisdom and in this wisdom Solomon leaves the high place at Gibeon and returns to Jerusalem going to the Ark of the Covenant, the earthly footstool of God, and burns offerings to God. Solomon then went on to build the temple of the Lord, to house the Ark of the Covenant, in Jerusalem. He built God's earthly dwelling on the plot of land that King David bought, the threshing floor of Araunah.

Unfortunately Solomon lost his wisdom in latter days. He lost sight of God and the understanding that only God could give. He became a whore to his wives and their Gods, and built altars and high places for them. His discerning heart was severed from its source; when he turned his back on God the wisdom also went. His seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines became the centre of his attention and without God and the wisdom he gave, Solomon's weakness ruled his life once again. He gave up his God given, God glorifying judgement, and turned to judgement without the wisdom of God.

God calls us to be discerning in all we do. But if Solomon in all of his wisdom can lose it, how is it that you and I might retain the wisdom God has gifted us with in our lives?

Like Solomon we are weak in our sinfulness, we are not able to get ourselves out of our predicament. But God came to us while we were still sinners and gives us wisdom and maturity. In fact the most mature person is one who has no need to take the wisdom of God and colour it with worldly understanding. The most faithful person is surely a young baby at baptism, lying in the arms of Jesus, trusting completely in his gift of eternal life. Unfortunately as we grow we learn to become weak and immature and chase after the things of this world. And then it takes a life time for us to recognise and surrender to the maturity and wisdom of God which was placed in us at baptism.

So how does God affirm and reaffirm that maturity he places in us at baptism, even though we continually seek to dilute it with the immaturity of our worldly thinking? And how is it that God allows you and me to become wise and discerning, first of ourselves and then of others? So that the maturity of God allows us to have faith like that of a child, and to follow God like a little child follows its daddy? And so we can lovingly encourage others to hang onto the wisdom God has given them?

Solomon's wisdom came from God, and our wisdom, to hear and understand with the heart of God-like compassion, comes from Jesus Christ alone. Unlike Solomon, Jesus didn't just receive the wisdom of God; he is the wisdom of God. Solomon was merely a custodian of the wisdom and so too were the Pharisees and the scribes, the teachers of the law, in Jesus' day. Their understanding and ability was incomplete and far from perfect, whereas Jesus is perfect in discerning just what you and I need, so much so that in complete wisdom he was crucified, buried, and raised for you and me. He knows you and understands you perfectly; he hears exactly what you need. He knows your inner most thoughts—your misery, your joy, your suffering, your secret sins—he knows your human plight. In Jesus you find the perfection of wisdom, not Solomon in his earthly kingdom but rather the King of kings in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. When Jesus spoke—he spoke not like a scribe, a teacher of the Law, a secretary of the Word—he spoke with authority and wisdom as God the Son, the Word of God living as a human amongst humanity. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God, and he speaks as the King of Heaven, here on earth as a man to you.

Jesus is the wisdom of God and he lives in us right from our baptism. Some grow and bury Jesus under a whole heap of garbage in their lives, gathering around them many gods just as Solomon gathered and worshipped his wives and concubines. But no matter how much garbage you have in your life, and we all have our favourite whorish activities, Jesus is still there in you living his wisdom. His perfect wisdom is hidden in you and in his perfect wisdom he intercedes on our behalf before our Father in Heaven together with the Holy Spirit. And these two members of the Trinity take our prayers and present them to, Abba, God our Father, as a pleasing aroma even while we struggle to surrender and lie in the arms of God with the maturity of a little child, confident in faith that we will receive for what we ask and for what we need.

How can we be confident that this all happens for us? The word of God promises us if God is for us who can be against us! Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. That is: nothing will separate us from his wisdom in our lives and his Kingdom in eternity. There is not one thing in this life that anyone can do to sever the promise God makes to you in Christ Jesus; there is nothing anyone can do to sever God from the wisdom found in his Word, written and incarnate.

You have been predestined to be God's child, hear his word, his promise, and joyfully receive the child-like maturity and wisdom he places in you, which leads you and calls you to his Kingdom. Jesus lives in you, wisdom lives in you, the King of Heaven lives in you; this wisdom has predestined and called you by his word to be a part of his kingdom forever. Amen.

A, Pentecost 5 Proper 11 - Matthew 13:24-30 "Wheat & Weeds"

2011-07-16T09:26:00.003+08:00

Key Text Matthew 13:24-30

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 ”‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 ”‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

Sermon

Who are the weeds and who are the wheat? In my life, do I produce weeds or do I produce wheat? These are good questions for us to ask as we examine the gospel reading for today? In fact the parable of the weeds and the wheat is very timely at this time of year since many have just finished planting their crops and the paddocks are carpets of green.

However, these carpets of green are not just the infant wheat, barley, and oat plants. There are weeds growing amongst the crops too! Who put the weeds there? When farmers plant, do they inadvertently sow weeds too? Jesus says that the enemy plants the weeds in the good soil. Who is this enemy? In most cases there’s no sinister neighbour who would go to the effort or have the time to sow weeds amongst your wheat.

So two questions remain: Who are the weeds and the wheat? Or more importantly, am I wheat or weeds? And secondly, who is the enemy if I don’t have an adversary climbing over my fence to plant the weeds?

This agricultural picture is one to which we can all relate. Every one of us knows what a pain weeds can be; literally, for children who get prickles stuck in their feet; and financially, for those who spend much time and effort to rid their gardens and paddocks of weeds.

In last week’s Gospel reading Jesus tells of the parable of the farmer who plants his seed which falls on different types of soil. God is the farmer and we are the soil. But in this parable God is not the only farmer! The soil, or the world, which receives the seeds of God’s word also has the seeds of weeds—the seeds of sin, the seeds of Satan—planted in it too.

Are you a weed or wheat; a bad seed or a good seed? It’s a scary question if we honestly examine ourselves. And if the weeds weren’t sown in us how is it that we keep on sprouting up the weeds of sin in our lives?

As any farmer knows looking after good soil and keeping it that way takes a lot of work. One must be careful not to introduce weeds as one seeks to improve their dirt. Gardeners know of this problem. Manure and straw is good for the garden but sometimes the weeds in the straw and the manure do more harm than good.

Well God doesn’t introduce weeds or sins when he fertilises us with his word, but when we take his word and mould it to suit us there’s a big danger that weeds might be sown in the good soil that God has made us to be with his word.

Also sometimes the weeds of sin still appear even when everything seems to have been done right. Clean mulch and organic matter is placed on the soil of our hearts by God, and the fruit of sin still grows from us. Where do the weeds come from? Have you ever found yourself suffering from the exasperation of recurring weeds? Seeds of sin may have laid dormant in you, way past the point of you remembering when the sin first occurred, and them something happens only to bring back the sin of the past.

The good news in all of this is that asking the questions and recognising the weeds in us is half the battle won. God has given us all the ability to look into our hearts and recognise weeds. Unfortunately though, we even abuse this gift too by then taking this ability of noticing the weeds and look over our neighbours’ fences and criticise them about all the weeds of sin growing in their dirt. But God calls us to look at ourselves and see the weeds of sin that need rooting out of us.

So how does this all happen? How do we notice the weeds in the garden, when we can’t even see the garden because of the weeds that obstruct our view of it? In Paul’s letter to the Romans he says, ‘if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.’ (Romans 8:10-11) The Spirit of Jesus which lives in us is none other than the Holy Spirit and it is he, through God’s word, which opens our eyes to the weeds which need rooting out.

Paul goes on to say, ‘If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.’ (Romans 8:13b-14) So it is the Holy Spirit living in us, by God’s grace and the power of his word, who puts to death the misdeeds, the bad habits, the weeds of sin, our corrupted natures. After he does that he then places in us Christ, so, to the Father in heaven we appear as ‘Sons of God’. God the Holy Spirit places the richness of Jesus, God’s only Son, in our hearts, so we can stand before God holy and blameless as his forgiven children. All this happens when the Holy Spirit reveals the weeds in us, and encourages, leads, and gives us the words to say sorry to our Heavenly Father in repentance. Our sin is shown for what it is and we surrender saying, ‘yes God, you are right and I am wrong, no ifs or buts, I am sorry!’

One of the greatest feelings there is, is the feeling of having the burden of sin lifted off one’s shoulders. When we say sorry God has already forgiven us, but if we think it is not appropriate to say sorry well then our sins remain, and the weeds continue to grow. God calls us to a life in Christ; the Holy Spirit enables that to happen through the word of God for Jesus’ sake. Because of our weedy existence though, he calls us to continually let the Holy Spirit root out the weeds in us.

Now that we are Sons and heirs with Christ, we can confidently call out to our Father for all that we need. Just like a little child dependant on its daddy we too can call out to God our Father, our Heavenly Dad. We can pray for all we need and be confident that God hears us. And we can be confident that even though we struggle with weeds of sin in our lives we are God’s children.

When God sends Jesus Christ to the final harvest he will find us cleansed and pure like a golden head of wheat, the weeds of sin already bundled and burn through the fires of the Holy Spirit at baptism and God will harvest us and take us to be with him in glory. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

A, Pentecost 4 Proper 10 Matthew 13:9; Isaiah 55:10-11 “He who has Ears”

2011-07-09T16:53:00.006+08:00

He Who Has Ears
A sermon on Matthew 13:9; Isaiah 55:10-11
Pentecost 4 Proper 10 (Year A)
10/07/11 Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Jesus says, "He who has ears let him here!" This is a strange phrase! It sounds as if there were those around the place without ears. Some people are born without ears, some loose the outer ear through accident or skin cancer, and some are born deaf. But this is not what Jesus is talking about here. The deformity was not physical but rather spiritual, as the people had perfectly good ears, but some were not prepared to stop and hear Jesus speak to their hearts; into their personal situation.

One of the teachers at seminary, often remarked, the organ of faith is the ear. Faith enters us through the ear. We believe in many things that grow out of our experience, our education, or our environment, but true faith comes to those whose ears are permitted to hear the word of God.

The reason faith may not come to someone is because the person fails to trust in the word of God. The readings this week focus extra attention on the word of God, calling us to see it is not God nor his word that need to be reviewed, but rather you and me need to render our hearts so we can be returned to the only thing that matters in a mortal's life. In other words if you wish to dwell in the eternal kingdom of heaven, let you who have ears hear!

In Isaiah 55 we're told quite clearly, "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:10–11 ESV)

Yet mistrust over things like rain coming are common, and even greater faithlessness in God to provide regardless of feast or famine. So if we can't even trust God's promise in his word to provide seed and bread, the earthly things, how much more is the unbelief in the eternal things promised which are never seen in this life without faith? If you can't trust God for the simple seen things, how do you expect to trust him for the hidden treasures of heaven?

Make no mistake, we stand at the crossroads. It's time you allowed Christ to lead you as he did St Stephen. Is this congregation going to glorify Christ in its members' move towards death? And therefore grow in faith as a congregation in this place. Or, is it going to die not having allowed God to let his word water it and return to heaven having done what he intends it to do?

Jesus tells the parable of the seed scattered in different places; on a path, on rocky ground, amongst thorns, and then in good soil. What is the same for each seed? It dies! Every seed the sower casts, dies, but only the seed sown on good soil brings glory to he who has sown it. Like Saint Stephen it is God's will for you to lay down your lives as living sacrifices bringing glory to God and allowing faith to increase within, rather than continue dying while trying to keep up appearances.

At this point there will be some of you who are shutting down to what God is saying to you. Indeed the hammer of the law has fallen hard, and it needs to! But my prayer and God's will is that a majority of you are struck in the core of your being by the Holy Spirit and want to know, how we might be this "good soil" so God is glorified in our dying and we as individuals are caught up into the bountiful harvest at the Lord's return?

It can all be summed up in the simple words of Jesus – He who has ears let him here! Now one might joke that without ears, someone who needs to wear glasses will not see either. On what does one hang their glasses if they have no ears? But spiritually speaking this is no joke, it’s truth. Without ears to hear, one will not see or eternally experience God’s love, instead only his wrath and separation.

The greatest problem is not that we don’t have ears, but that you with ears are keeping them from hearing God’s word. This is either done practically by not regularly bringing your ears into the hearing of his word, mainly due to hardness of heart. Or, the worries of this world choke you and deafen you to his word. Or, there’s an expectation that the word is a quick fix and when in sinfulness it doesn’t suit you, you let the word within die.

But why anyone would have that for themselves by thinking they don't need to hear God is beyond me! Jesus has already bore the wrath of God on the cross and now he seeks to lift us up in glory through his resurrected power over death! St Stephen died full of the Holy Spirit trusting in this resurrection power. In fact he saw the glory of the Father and Jesus at his side as his assailants covered their ears and stoned him to death as he proclaimed the resurrection. God calls you to unblock your ears and hear. He who has ears let him here!

Just about any soil can be made good if it's acted upon. Even good soil not acted upon in the right way can become saline and good for nothing. So while we have ears to hear there is hope. But you who cut yourselves off from hearing God is like soil which refuses to receive water and nutrient becoming more and more a wasteland. Yet it need not be like this at all!

Hearing with ears connected to the heart allows the Holy Spirit to work deep within us, rooting out the darkness of sin, taking the salinity out of the soil. Unlike the saltpans left to produce nothing, showing the dying and dead trees of a bygone era, when God exposes the salinity of sin in you he excavates it leaving rich organic soil worked by the Holy Spirit. And the sin he takes out is heaped on a hill called Calvary.

He who has ears let him here!

But there's a final part to this message. When you allow yourself to hear, you are allowing the community of God to work upon you.

We are not called to read the word of God. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with reading the bible, but it happens in response to hearing it. Hearing however, calls you into community, first with the Trinity, and then with all others who have been called into this triune fellowship.

It takes one to read but it takes a community to hear. God the Father speaks to you, he speaks his Word, and this is Jesus Christ – the "Word made Flesh". And when he speaks the Holy Spirit is the carrier of the Word made Flesh to the ear and the heart. This in turn switches on the eye of faith so we might see the faith community here on earth and those who are in need of hearing the word of God. Others who like us were once dying seed on rocky, hard, thorn strewn ground.

And as the Holy Spirit uses us to enrich others with Jesus' gifts, he also continues his residual effect in us of tilling and fertilising us with forgiveness and faith in the gifts of Jesus' body and blood and written word.

So what is it for us and our congregation? There are worse times just ahead. Strife we Australians have never experienced is coming and it will devastate all who trust in themselves. But for those who have ears to hear, faith will only increase in the midst of suffering, just as St Stephen's faith held fast in his hour of death.

It's more crucial to rend the heart at the moment, than the garment! Now is the time to allow the depths of the heart to be worked with the Word of God, so the salinity of sin deep within can be saturated in forgiveness and salvation. Those who have ears to hear will allow God's word to return to him having done what God sent it to do! Amen.

A, Pentecost 3 Proper 9 – Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30; Romans 7:15-25a “It Croaks and then it Croaks”

2011-07-01T12:10:00.008+08:00

It Croaks and then it Croaks
A sermon on Matt 11:16-19, 25-30, and Romans 7:15-25a
3rd Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 9, YR a) 6/07/11
by Ps Heath Pukallus Katanning Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Key Texts

'15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?' (Romans 7:15, 18-19, 24 NIV)

18 "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."' But wisdom is proved right by her actions. 27 All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:18-19, 27-30 NIV)

Sermon

There was a little frog who came up out of the ground when it began to rain. As he came up through the mud and darkness he realised he had company with many other frogs. They sat in the rain and croaked; in fact so much so, that the croaks of a thousand frogs created such a din that nobody could hear a thing. These frogs are noticeable and identified by their call; yeah-but yeah-but yeah-but yeah-but. Maybe you have heard one lately!

From the Word of God Jesus says, 'Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest'…yeah-but yeah-but. 'Go and make disciple of all nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have told you'…yeah-but yeah-but. 'Blessed are you when people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me'…yeah-but yeah-but. 'If you forgive those when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive them their sins your Father will not forgive your sins'…yeah-but yeah-but. 'Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved'…yeah-but yeah-but

The frogs get very noisy these days. It's hard to hear the word of God with all their croaking. From where is that sound coming, I wonder? Sometimes it's even harder to hear Jesus tell me just what he has done for me. 'I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me'…yeah-but yeah-but. 'I am with you always even to the end of the age'…yeah-but yeah-but. 'The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a random for many'…yeah-but yeah-but. 'The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life'… yeah-but yeah-but. 'Take eat and drink this is my body, this is my blood given and shed for you'…yeah-but yeah-but. I'm sick of that noise where is it coming from?

That frog is wallowing in the mud alright, wallowing and croaking doubt within me! You've probably heard that same species of frog croaking in you. It never really seems to go away. Yeah-but Jesus that's too ridiculous to believe. Yeah-but they are not Christians see how they acts. Yeah-but if I can just prove it then I will believe. Yeah-but why should I forgive them I am much better than them. Are the frogs of doubt, the frogs of mis-trust, the frogs of self-importance, the busy feel good frogs of human understanding so loud in you that you fail to hear God or receive the benefits from being in his rest?

Jesus likened his generation to children rather that frogs. Kids playing with each other in the marketplace squabbling and fighting because one won't play and dance while others won't be mellow and mourn. A parent might say, 'you shouldn't have started the fight!' And then all the excused follow, 'yeah-but yeah-but yeah-but'. In Jesus' generation and today he calls us to be discerning; he calls us to sharpen our focus, train our ear, and silence our tongues so we might hear his word, repent, and receive the forgiveness we all need so desperately.

Jesus tells us those who are not discerning are in dire trouble on the day of judgement if they do not repent. Against those who excuse him Jesus denounced their cities in which his miracles were performed, because they did not repent. Like our little frog croaking, so much so, he doesn't stop long enough to be fed, dying once the mud returns to a hard clay pan, so too are those who find every excuse to croak about themselves rather than receive the life giving food of God and repent. The one who croaks loudest croaks it first! These little frogs are prophets of evil and death!

Who are you? Who am I? Why am I the way I am? What makes me do the things I do? These are all very good questions for us Christians on the quest of recognising who we are, as we struggle with sin, and all the baggage these noisy little frogs croak up in us, trying to distract us and those with whom we come in contact.

In Paul's letter to the Romans, he gives us a very privileged look at his disgust with the frogs of evil that harm him. Paul bears his soul to us and struggles with who he is; he is a Christian and hears the Word of God, he is a sinner croaking within and carrying it out. This text in Romans seven is a hard text to digest. I encourage you to dissect it, but for now hear the confusion and angst bubble over as Paul writhes with his reality under Christ and the reality of living with sin in this life. Hear and know that it is not just you who struggles with the frogs of evil. '15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?' (Romans 7:15, 18-19, 22-24)

These would have to be some of the most passionate words spoken by Paul. You might think he should have it all together being a noteworthy apostle; having been confronted by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus and undergoing the definitive conversion experience. But troubled by sin and death he cries out, 'Who will rescue me from death?'

It might seem that we are failures in our Christian lives. So often we only hear the croaking death knells of sin. In fact we see the destruction we cause to ourselves and others all around us, and continually croak, yeah-but to excuse it. But Jesus calls us to stop croaking and rest in him. Yes, stop, listen, and rest!

Listen to this, 'No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.' That is you to whom he has chosen to reveal the Father. And before those little frog croaks begin again, let me give you a "but" from God. One to silence all the yeah-buts within. 'But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. (Rom 3:21-24) God says, 'you are a sinner, yeah-but you are my child now because of Jesus Christ'.

In the gospel we hear that John came neither eating nor drinking and they said yeah-but he has a demon. Let God's messengers reveal to you the demon-like yeah-but frogs croaking in you, so you might repent and seek forgiveness. We also hear Jesus came eating and drinking and they said yeah-but he is a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Let Jesus carry the gluttony and debauchery of your sinful lives. Let him take your sin to the cross so that it no longer weighs you down, let him take the guilt of your sin on himself, so that sin has no power in your lives even though the frogs will never go away while you live in this life. Let Jesus, the wisdom of God, prove you right before God. After all, as we have heard in the gospel, wisdom is proved right by her actions. (Matt 11:19) God is proved right by the actions of Christ on the cross, for you and me!

Jesus says in the Word of God, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So hold back the croak of death and put on the yoke of Jesus instead. To Jesus Christ and him alone, let us flea. Amen.

Prayer
"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to us, your little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." Amen

A, Trinity Sunday – Matthew 28:16-20; 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 “God With You”

2011-06-18T20:34:00.004+08:00

God With You
A sermon on Matthew 28:16-20; 2 Corinthians 13:11-14
Holy Trinity Sunday (Year A) 19/06/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

The church is full of language not common to the person on the street. In fact, even amongst us who use these words regularly, if tested we would be hard pressed to justify the jargon we use.

What is faith? What is grace? What is justification or righteousness? What is the gospel? What is peace, or sanctification? What are these things and just as important, what are they not?

If abruptly approached in the street and asked, "Why do you go to church? What do you believe? What does all this church jargon mean?", how would you respond? All of us would be set back on our heels, gasping for an appropriate answer.

So let's unpack the jargon a little, which in fact is a part of what happens in Sunday School and Confirmation. But, why should we be jargon busters? Why deconstruct church terminology? So we know what it is we believe and so we're better equipped to engage the friend, the neighbour, or even the enemy when they inevitably ask about who we are and what makes us tick as Christians.

But before we do this, a word on why we teach our children in Sunday School and around the family table, and our young adults in Confirmation, and all of us in sermons and bible studies.

We hear in the Gospel today Jesus' command to baptise! Not just baptise but to teach as well! He commands saying…

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19–20a ESV)

Do you hear the commands? Go! Make! Baptising! Teaching! Here Jesus gives parents and the church the how, the what, and the where. We might well also ask, "What does this mean?" But from experience, I believe, this is where many of us become confused seeking to explain how God's work affects my being – what's it mean to me? However, it's better to answer the primary point of the Gospel and that's not "what it means" but rather "what God does and why he needs to do it"!

The work of God is a whole lot easier to explain than the confusion within us, which really only God understands! Besides, how God works is the same for every person! But on receiving his work through baptism and teaching, there's a myriad of possible responses in those who believe what they've received. Therefore, the exercise of testifying to what we believe is best left to concisely explain what God has done and is doing, rather than delving into the "what's it mean for me" question.

So what does the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do? And how do they do it? The most critical point in all of God's doing can be read in the last verse of Matthew's Gospel account. God promises you and me with yet another command…

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

Matthew end's his account with lasting words of Jesus by saying "behold", or perhaps better understood as "See!", "Look!", "Attention!" We hear Jesus' promise with an exclamation, "Hey! Know I am with you always!"

This comes as comfort to us for we don't go, make, baptise, teach, or do anything without God being present. Although he's not seen in the regular sense, we can rest on this promise as we live out our calling as Christians.

It's actually in God that we live and move and have our being. No longer has God withdrawn his presence from us who believe, as he did for four hundred years when the Israelites were in Egypt or for four hundred years prior to Jesus' birth as Immanuel. So just as Jesus was born as Immanuel, God with us, he continues to be with us, being born in us so we might live in peace with God.

And so the next piece of Jargon we need to unpack is the last verse in Second Corinthians. In doing so we can apply the simple but often overlooked practise of letting the word of God interpret the word of God. Rather than seeking to conform God's word and will into of our will. In other words, we need to let God do what God needs to do to our desires and determination rather than being determined to force God and his word into our narrow-minded perception of ourselves and the creation around us.

We hear the last words from Paul to the church in Corinth… Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:11–14 ESV)

Here is a whole bunch of church terminology set to baffle the untrained ear. Words like peace, grace, fellowship, comfort, love, restoration, and saints can confound us in knowing what is going on. But from the outset we have the same promise here as in Matthew 28… that God will be with you.

How is he with us? By the blessing promised in his word as we hear it. The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the Holy Spirit's fellowship are exactly what we receive. But what are they, what do they do, and how do they do it?

If I were to ask confirmation students what grace is? I would expect that after much of the confirmation course hearing me bang on about grace, they would say it's "Jesus' death on the cross – for me!" And they might also tell me grace is, a gift, the Good News, or the Gospel.

What does Jesus do with this grace? That's easily explained if grace is a gift, the Good News or the Gospel "for me" – Jesus gives it to me; he gives it to you, for free, as a gift! This is why it's such good news!

The love of God the Father is next. What is his love? And what does it do? Firstly, his love is about being in the same place as God, co-existing, living under his favour, free from blame.

And Secondly, how is this done! The example we look to here is Jesus cry to God the Father in Gethsemane, "Abba"! God's love allows us access to God just as a child has access to its father by saying "dad-da or daddy". God's love for Jesus his Son allow Jesus complete confidence to call out, "Dad-da, Abba save me from this hour of death".

God's love allows us to call out to him as our most personal caring Daddy. But his love comes to us and we can come into his being of love because of Jesus' grace given to you and me at the cross and at baptism. God's love is all about restoration and rejoining us with him and the creation he lovingly gives us but has been polluted because of our sin. God's love is about living in peace, being at peace, and allowing his peace to flow through us so our hearts and minds are kept in him.

How does this happens? How do we know about the Father and his holy loving being that allowed Jesus to be the great love offering for us on the cross? How do we know it's safe for us to be in God's perfect presence without copping it as a result of our far from perfect existence? Furthermore, how do really know about Jesus, and the work he's done for me?

Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit doing what the Holy Spirit was sent to do. This is the work of fellowship! This is the work of making holy individuals, bringing us together into a community with each other and God, and teaching this community how it is they as individuals and as a common group believe they are saved sinners with access to a loving God. In short his work is to give us faith.

The Holy Spirit comes from Jesus Christ and God the Father, to bring you to attention to make you holy, to gather you, and teach you. That is why Scripture says, no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3).

We bust jargon for one purpose: to know how God's relationship with us occurs in a practical way. Then, we can live with eternal confidence and bear witness to God's assurance in a life eternal with him.

But even here on earth, as we struggle with understanding, living, and seeking to do the right thing by our families and neighbours, we know we have God with us despite who we really are, but usually keep hidden.

We can as Paul encourages — be joyful, aim for reconciliation, and agree, comfort, and live in peace with each other. Why? Because God is doing the very same thing with us by means of the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

In grace God brings joy, through the love of God he seeks reconciliation, and in fellowship the Holy Spirit brings us as one holy community into community with each other worshipping and glorifying God.

God is with us and we are with God. This is what God calls us to see. Perhaps this is the difference others see in us leading them to ask about "what we believe"!

God is with you! Therefore go and make disciples of all people because it is God who seeks to do it by using you! Amen.

A, Easter 7 – John 17:11b-12 “In His Name”

2011-06-04T14:11:00.005+08:00

IN HIS NAME
A sermon on John 17:11b-12
The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year A) 5/06/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

This prayer in John 17 is known as "the High Priestly Prayer". Jesus prays it just before his betrayal, arrest and crucifixion. Perhaps what we hear here in John 17 might have been some of the content of Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane recorded in the other Gospels. Yet as Jesus is led to the horrendous events about to be subjected upon him, we find him praying this High Priestly Prayer.

He is about to enter in and make the atonement sacrifice just as the high priest would have done in Old Testament Israelite tradition. Yet here he is the not only the high priest he is the sacrifice too. He is entering into death for you. And it's his sacrifice on the cross which enables him to pray in the way he does, atoning for your sin and unifying all of us, forgiven believing sinners, with him before the Heavenly Father.

Although not the central focus for the address today, there's a healthy lesson here for us to see modelled in Jesus' actions. And not only is it modelled for our observation, Jesus does it for us too.

As Jesus nears the chaotic events of Good Friday and his death, he is drawn into prayer. As the going gets tough, Jesus doesn't get tough, nor does he get going; rather he stops to pray more and more.

This is a reminder for us to turn from our faithless efforts in times of fiery trials towards our Father in prayer. When we pray we face God and not the problem. The action of prayer literally leads us from anxiety and worry working within, to exhausting the issue onto God's plate. And in doing so we open up the avenue for God to give us peace despite the trials we face.

But even greater than this moral lesson is the fact that as we enter into times of trouble Jesus has not just given us a template of prayer, we can be reassured that he has entered into the eternal realm face to face with God the Father, and prays for us. Now that we are one with him through baptism into Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection, the prayer Jesus prayed here on earth in John 17 is fulfilled and is eternally being fulfilled for all who trust in him.

Why can we trust in Jesus, why can we know he prays for us? Because we're told just that in his word over and over again. As you listen be reassured by the what is written…

…We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. (Hebrews 8:1–2 ESV)

and…

Christ has entered… into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. (Hebrews 9:24 ESV)

And still if that's not convincing enough, it is written…

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25 ESV)

So while he was on earth he prayed and now before the Father he prays. And as he prays we know this prayer is effective because Jesus prays…

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:11–12 ESV)

His prayer for those who believe him is effective because we are kept in God's name. That is the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And we know the Father and receive the Holy Spirit as a result of the work of God's Son, Jesus Christ.

But what is it to be kept in God's name? Why do we pray in God's name? Why is our help in the name of the Lord? What's this "name" business? Are we not one with God, surely then we can just speak to him? We can and should speak with him just as a child speaks to its loving father, but we should also address him by name, call on him by name, and believe we are heard and helped by praying in his name.

Firstly, Jesus prays that all believers are kept in God's name, the very same name he has given to Jesus. This is the name of identification. We know being in Christ is being in God the Father. We are identified as God's children, through Jesus' identification as being the One and Only Son of the God. This is reassuring for us having been adopted as God's children. If Jesus hadn't received God's name then how could we be sure we could enter into God presence and receive peace that will endure into eternity?

So being kept in God's name allows you to know God, but it also allows you to be known as his child too. You receive God's identity and being which are one and the same as his name. In the same way you are known as the child of your earthly father by name, and if your family is known then your name reveals a lot about you to others, even before they might meet you face to face.

We are identified as beings of God. We have God's stamp on us, we bear Christ inwardly and outwardly as he lives in us and the Holy Spirit bears the fruits of Christ from within us. Just like a coin which bears the image of its country's sovereign. Or, the envoy who bears a letter or message from a monarch whose seal is placed on the letter by way of their signet ring. We bear the image of our Creator, Saviour, and Sanctifier.

And because we know God as our Father, Jesus as our saving brother, and the Holy Spirit as the one who works our wills with God's word, and are therefore known by those around us as his children, you all can be sure you will not fall into eternal destruction. You can trust this new holy identity, and existence, given to you and sustained in you.

Jesus prays that we are kept or guarded in his name. The holiness of God's name sustains and keeps us like a boundary or a fence placed around us to protect us from danger. This is danger both from that which is around you, as well as that which is within you, which if left without God's name being placed on you all of us would soon walk into eternal destruction.

God's name is holy in itself but we call on his name that it might be kept holy in our being. As this occurs in us we knowingly and unknowingly live out our everyday lives as living sacrifices to God; giving glory to him and shining his glory on those whom he calls you to serve.

There are many stumbling blocks in this life, which seek the undermine our identity as God's children and lead us away from knowing him and trusting in the power of his name. Peter tells us…

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8 ESV)

We cannot resist the devil by ourselves; yet firm in the faith given by the Holy Spirit, you can pray, turning away from his temptation towards your Father from whom you have his name of blessing and protection.

This boundary of protection we have in God's name, is best demonstrated by the words of Luther in his well known hymn "A Mighty Fortress" where in one verse is written…

Though devils all the world should fill,
All eager to devour us,
We tremble not, we fear no ill,
They shall not overpower us.
This world's prince may still
Scowl fierce as he will,
He can harm us none;
He's judged, for e'er undone;
One little word can fell him.

This world's prince is the devil whom Peter tells you is your adversary prowling around like a roaring lion looking for one to devour. But you need not be anxious, nor tremble, nor fear. Nor do you have to advance out to take on the devil at his own game. If you did he'd win every time!

Rather we stand against him and his evil entourage and resist by trusting in one little word — the name which keeps us. Our trust in his name proclaims their judgement and destruction as it keeps us and surrounds us with protection.

And the name that cuts down the devil and his demons is given to all of us to pray, as you pray with him — the Word made flesh — who is also interceding for you before the Father. And his holy name is Jesus Christ, our risen Lord. Amen.

A, Easter 6 – Acts 17:22-31 “Religious Men”

2011-05-28T12:37:00.004+08:00

Religious Men
A sermon on Acts 17:16-31
The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A) 29/05/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Acts 17:16–21 (ESV) Now while Paul was waiting for them (Silas and Timothy) at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean." Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

God caused Paul to stop, sit around, and wait in his ministry. So he waited there in Athens the Greek city of many remarkable structures built for a pantheon of gods. We might think of temples like the Parthenon, dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of the city. Or the Acropolis where it and other temples stood above Athens.

No doubt visitors to Athens are overwhelmed by these massive temples raised up out of the city's centre. But as Paul sat around seeing these monolithic monuments to the idol gods of Athens agitated and irritated him. And so after he witnessed and absorbed so much idolatry he could be quite no longer. Paul began to ask questions. He began speaking and preaching to the Jews and the devout believers in the synagogue. And amongst the pagans in the marketplace.

What makes this all a bit of a surprise to us is Paul was supposed to be just waiting in Athens after being banished from the northern Greek trading city of Thessalonica and pursued west through Macedonia by militant Jews to the city of Berea. This caused the believers there to take Paul, by sea, south to Athens, to escape false allegations and punishment whipped up by the jealous Jews of Thessalonica. And yet Paul being Paul, embittered with passion for the Gospel starts speaking with the Jews and locals of Athens. And soon after finds himself addressing the men of the city at the Areopagus, a lesser hill overshadowed by the Parthenon and other pagan temples.

This brings us to the text set down for today, where Paul address the thinkers of Athens. These Greek men were Epicurean and Stoic philosophers among others. All Greeks viewed the human being through the eyes of Plato, in that people were both physical and spiritual beings. But they separated and distinguished these two as a dichotomy — two parts mutually exclusive of each other.

The Epicureans therefore viewed life to be enjoyed since the physical life on earth was to be left some day for the higher spiritual life. Although not just pleasure seekers, Epicureans held the mindset of many today whose belief it is to, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die!" They sought to gratify the desires of the emotions. They thought they could do whatever they wanted with the physical body as it would have no consequence for the spiritual body of the next life. This led to many living immorally and it's the lifestyle Paul denounces at Corinth. We hear his attack on their orgies and sexuality written in First Corinthians.

Then there were the Stoics who under the same platonic dualism, sought a higher life of stoicism by denying the emotions and rising above them through dedication to moral and intellectual perfection. Many today still operate with the same stoic ideal that the body is evil and must be punished. And in doing so they believe they make themselves better people by denying any sort of emotion outbreak — good or bad.

It seems as if Paul has been taken from the frying-pan and put into the fire! But this doesn't stop Paul from honouring Christ the Lord as holy, and making a defence before the men of Athens as the reason for the hope templed in him. (1 Peter 3:15)

So Paul addresses them in the Areopagus saying, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for " 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, " 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:22–31 ESV)

Paul addresses the men as religious. He sees they are overwhelmed by what is around them. Paul uses a strong word for religious here which comes from two Greek words equivalent to delirious and demon. Negatively he said they are deliriously demonstrous, or overly superstitious. After all, Paul was agitated in his spirit by the idolatry around him! But since they don't react negatively to being called religious men, they probably took his words in the positive sense of being devout adherents to their pagan efforts. Or, perhaps being men who like open discussion on philosophical matters they neither saw being demonic nor delirious as negative as we do today.

Nevertheless, Paul finds an opening to proclaim God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, to these religious men. They believing in many gods, allowing Paul to tell them about this "unknown god" whom they had no name and to whom they had an altar. He even shrewdly and eloquently uses the words of pagan poets' to convince them about the truth of God announcing to them that we are God's offspring, and we live, move, and have our being in him.

We must notice here with these words, Paul is moving them towards Christ. Humanity did live move and have its being in God, yet sin has corrupted these things in us and Jesus was sent to bring us back to the Father, by moving us once again into God's presence by his way, by giving us and showing us our being in his truth, and healing the way we live through his life. We live, move, and have our eternal being in Jesus Christ.

However, Paul doesn't even get to mention the cross or Christ to these men. He calls them out of their ignorance to repent of the images of their imaginations for which they have built temples in their idolatry. But their ears became sealed at Paul's mention that a man will come in righteousness to judge the world whom God has raised from the dead.

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. (Acts 17:32–34 ESV)

Why did some mock Paul? Because it was foolishness to a Greek to hear of returning to a physical body in resurrection after attaining the higher spiritual body. To them this was ludicrous and inferior.

Perhaps the events of being chased by jealous Jews and mocked a mad man were in Paul's thoughts when he later wrote to the Corinthians saying…

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:22–25 ESV)

There are still many religious people today, inside and outside the church. A mixture of those within and without Jesus Christ and the faith the Holy Spirit seeks to give in the preaching of God's Word. There are some whose righteousness sees them seeking to staunchly do the right thing. They think that because they're good people and law abiding citizens they have earned the right to a higher life.

Then there are others hell-bent on having a good time, living life with the misconception if God is a god of love he won't hurt me. Yet both are idolatrous acts of self-righteousness, and trusting these delirious delusions destines one for a date with the devil on judgement day, regardless of church attendance or not.

It's God's wish for you not to be religiously righteous in its delirious deceptive way, in church or in any part of your life. Rather than being religious he calls you to be Christian instead. This happens when you stop and let Jesus religiously serve you through his death and resurrection, through your being buried with Jesus in baptism and raised through faith by the Holy Spirit as you continually hear the Word, repent, and believe in him whom we live and move and have our being. Amen.

A, Easter 5 - Acts 7:54-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10 "A Stone Like Stephen"

2011-05-21T21:46:00.004+08:00

One would have to agree being stoned would be up there as one of the worst ways to die. Next to crucifixion it would be an equally painful and slow death. Each body blow would tear at your flesh and smash your bones, disfiguring your body ever so slowly. For someone to willingly stone another person the intent would have to be personal as they saw and heard each rock wreck the person in front of them.

Stephen was chosen as one of seven disciples, to distribute welfare to the gentile believers so the apostles could focus solely on the work of preaching and teaching. We don't hear much about these seven, except that Stephen's faithfulness was truly born of the Holy Spirit, and this caused him to be recognised amongst the seven, and all those who came in contact with him.

What then arises amongst the people is what is known as "the tall poppy syndrome". False allegations are secretly brought against Stephen by some who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." (Acts 7:11 ESV)

Notice how dissension grows out of secrecy. Grumbles from those whose pride was offended by the exposing reality of having had their sinfulness revealed, leads them further into sin.

Nevertheless, Stephen under complete submission to God freely allows the Holy Spirit to radiate from him in all wisdom and power from God, revealing wonders and signs through this disciple who was originally called to serve in the seemingly tedious task of handing out food, to the gentiles, no less!

We have cause to reflect on the instance in Lazarus' house when Mary sat at Jesus' feet while Martha worked to prepare the meal, and was far from joyful in doing so. (See Luke 10:38-41.) She was not happy in her vocation, choosing to meditate, or grumble, about Mary not helping her in the kitchen. Often it's heard Martha should have been out at Jesus' feet too, but this is wrong.

Rather it was Martha's calling, or vocation, to be "at Jesus' feet" in the kitchen, while Mary's was literally at his feet as he spoke. Stephen got it right serving and seeing the holiness of his vocation, even if it could be easily seen as a lesser task, compared to the work the apostles were doing, preaching and teaching.

Stephen is found to be the faithful and submissive servant, joyfully allowing God — to be God through him — in his vocation of serving. He is tenacious in the faith given to him as he does the work he is called to do — a contented Martha figure, if you like! However, others fell into the discontented and disgruntled ways like those of Martha. And from this deep-seated secret sin flourishes the actions that see Stephen stoned.

But as Stephen is pelted with the deadly assault he assumes a position that should surprise us. Beaten down by the blows he does not recede into himself as we would expect. Our natural human instinct is to protect our vital organs by huddling in a foetal position. But the picture the scriptures paint of Stephen is far from a man cowering in on himself as he is beaten to death.

In fact as the opposition gnarled its teeth at him, as the mob gathered, and as it was whipped into a feverish frenzy, Stephen gazed! Now to gaze here means to cast one's attention at something. It can be to stare in complete earnestness or in a way that is what we refer to as day-dreaming. Nevertheless, one's focus is completely on a single person, thing, or event.

On what would your attention be if a mob was hurling stones at you? Surprisingly Stephen's was on God. He gazed at God! By the power of the Holy Spirit he saw into heaven, he saw God's glory, and he saw Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God the Father. And as he saw these things he testified to what he saw, saying, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (Acts 7:56 ESV)

So full of the Holy Spirit, despite being smashed by stones, he testified to the risen presence of Jesus Christ. The reality of the situation allowed Stephen to be drawn out of himself to focus on a heavenly reality, a witness the ears of unbelievers could not stand and still cannot stand today.

Despite the earthly reality we face here day after day, like Stephen you and I are called to see the greater reality. This reality grows when you allow yourself to hear who God says you are. If you don't, then your reality will always be clouded by your own efforts, your own understanding and your own mortal shortness of attention.

With the reality seen through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, repentance is produced, together with a craving for the pure spiritual milk of God. You want to pray; you want to study the scriptures and come to know how they are being unfolded in your day to day life. The desire is there and with this desire comes the Spirit's cry within you, as you pray for spiritual, scriptural understanding.

You begin asking more and more for your life to be conformed to that of Jesus' life, and your will to that of the good and gracious will of your Father in heaven. And as you peer into the word of God, you pray that its truth is embedded in you by the Holy Spirit, and your ways and life are understood according what is written.

As this happens, throughout your walk with God in this life, all areas of unbelief are revealed and challenged. There is a continual loosening of your ears and heart and the stiffness of sin is softened so you might repent, and you gaze more and more on the glory of God as you realise it's his grace and power filling you so you do even greater things than Jesus did before he was nailed to the cross and raised from the grave.

This is the position in life, the vocation, Stephen was fulfilling. This is the vocation God seeks to fulfil in you. He wants to be God with you, in you, and through you. He wants you to allow him to be the God that he truly is — healing your sin, giving you faith, that's forgiving, tenacious and fully focused on the greater reality which awaits all who allow God to be God within.

Your vocation is one of holiness and it tastes good. If your Christian life does not taste good, then you've been eating the wrong stuff! So pray that you might stop and allow God to give you the food of life – his holiness, his way, his truth, and his life.

Like Stephen your immediate circumstances most likely won't change. Perhaps they might even deteriorate. But like Stephen and all who trust in Jesus you will be growing into salvation, fed by the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus. You will become so heavenly minded the world may think you have no earthly use, but nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the prayers you pray, the life you live, and the compassion you give will be as result of your willingness to see your weakness and trust in God's strength. His power will not only move you but flow through you polishing the faith of those around you.

Those who believe in Christ are like polished stones. Things happen and we encounter all sorts of people throughout the course of our lives. Some of these are far from pleasing, and they come about because of humanity's sin, although many often blame God for them and the suffering experienced!

However, God doesn't take these irritating and hazardous stones away from our lives, rather he allows them to remain, to agitate, and to knock off the many edges of unbelief! So when we come out of the mix of life, we are not just stones of death but rather polished jewels reflecting the light of the Son — the glory of God.

So the question is this: Are you allowing God to polish you so you might have a place with Christ — the Cornerstone in the eternal kingdom of God? Or: Are you stumbling over Christ, has his Church left a sour taste in your mouth, or are you so earthly minded you are no use to yourself or anyone around you? Also does the truth of his word offend you so much you'd rather join others in being the agitators of those focused on their eternal reality?

If you are then it's time to talk if you don't want it to be this way! Talk by praying to God, tell him exactly what is going on right down in the secret part of your being. Enlist pastors, called to help those who honestly seek help. You can't shrug off reality nor can you afford to lose sight of the eternal goal.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thankyou for allowing the things of this life to rub us up the wrong way, to agitate us, and knock off the things that cause us to lose our reflection of you! Continue to polish us so we might live out the many vocations in our everyday lives as your holy priesthood, reflecting the glory of God to all those around us, so they too might be polished for eternal life with you. Help us to gaze upon you and your reality, just as Stephen did, and send the Holy Spirit into our hearts so we might taste and see that your are good and continually present spiritual sacrifices acceptable to you through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

A, Easter 3 – Luke 24:13-35 “The Emmaus Twist”

2011-05-07T12:24:00.004+08:00

The Emmaus Twist
A sermon on Luke 24:13-35
The Third Sunday of Easter (Year A)08/05/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

The Emmaus resurrection account is a most fascinating resurrection account in the literary sense and also because of Jesus' mysterious interaction amongst his disciples. Added to this no one can say with certainty where this town of Emmaus was located.

Meditating on this text we hear two of the seventy-two disciples were walking away from Jerusalem with downcast faces, and in disbelief. As the two walk along the road to Emmaus they burn with hopelessness and despair. Whereas after Jesus' resurrection revelation through the breaking of bread, there is an immediate return of the disciples' hope as they urgently return to Jerusalem.

However, we first hear their mood is low. Their walk to Emmaus is lethargic, melancholy, and short-sighted. They're on the road to "nowhere special" in particular; staggering along recounting the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday completely confused and impassioned with remorse. Jesus meets these men on their Emmaus walk and they don't even have the ability to recognise he is the Risen Lord.

In fact we're told in Luke 24:16, their eyes were held back from seeing him. Either they didn't see him because they were so self-absorbed in their sinful nature to be able to recognise him. Or, they were held back from seeing by God himself, so the hidden risen Lord had an opportunity to teach them in their brokenness. Then again it could have been a combination of both. But either way Jesus was with them in all his risen power and glory, and they failed to notice this — they were completely powerless as they looked into themselves.

So as these two unimportant disciples walked towards the nowhere in particular town, as hopeless and powerless nobodies, discussing events that gave them no answers, they are met by a man who they thought to be a stranger or a 'nobody'. Jesus is this supposed nobody and he asks them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" (Luke 24:17)

Cleopas, one of the two disciples reacts abruptly to the question saying, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?" (Luke 24:18)

Unknowingly, his snapping reply is also a testimony to Jesus' status as a heavenly visitor who was seeing these events through very different eyes! However, we know Cleopas was speaking to he who was cast out of Jerusalem and crucified, but now stood raised by God the Father in all his glory.

Jesus walks with them on the road, although hidden from sight, and he encourages them to look out of themselves by asking them to talk about these things that had just happened. So with hearts burning within they tell this "stranger" about Jesus of Nazareth.

Notice what they say. They don't understand Jesus is the Christ, so they say he was Jesus of Nazareth, and that he came to be a prophet or a man with great power before God and humanity. Ironically Jesus of Nazareth stood before them in the flesh bearing all the power of the Risen Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ. Here the glorified risen Son of God stood before them veiled in the body of a seemingly ignorant stranger.

After the two disciples report the mysterious events of the crucifixion and the vacant tomb, Jesus begins to turn them from their downheartedness. He does it with some very straight words too. We heard Cleopas' snapping reply to Jesus' question, now Jesus mirrors his action with some stern chastising words too.

He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:25-26)

Notice here that Jesus doesn't speak of the man, Jesus of Nazareth, as a person in the past! But in fact builds on the disciples' testimony, focusing them on the scriptures pointing forward to the messianic title and work of Christ.

If before the disciples thought he was an ignorant stranger, they must have now known otherwise in the wake of his sudden rebuke and authoritative teaching from God's word. Yet still they did not see their Lord, even though they were looking right at him as he taught.

They walk along the road and on reaching Emmaus Jesus acted as if he was going further. However, the two disciples encouraged him to stay with them. We notice here these two disciples who had been so caught up in themselves are now actually looking outward. Such is the power of God's word, which Jesus had just opened up to them. The two disciples had received Jesus' rebuke and teaching well and now they invited their mysterious teacher to keep company with them.

Once in doors, this visitor took his place at the table. But in the same way he opened God's word with all authority, he also took the bread gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them.

Guests typically received the bread from the host who distributed it, not the other way around. But now having heard the word and on seeing this mysterious visitor break the bread in the way he had done before his death, the veil falls from their eyes and they see the Lord Jesus Christ.

They don't just see a foreign visitor, they don't just see Jesus of Nazareth, they don't just see their teacher, but they see the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, who had been before them the whole time. How their hearts must have jumped! Perhaps with joy but also with shame too, at not recognising him!

Now the fascinating twist occurs. They had Jesus with them the whole time, they could have touched him as he walked with them, yet they didn't see it was him. Now they see him for who he is and in an instant he disappeared from their sight.

In a moment they went from not knowing he was there, although they could see him, to knowing he was there, although his physical presence disappeared. At one minute they thought the crucifixion meant there was no Lord and hence no peace. Then in the next minute, having heard the word and seeing him break bread, they did know the Lord had overcome death, and they did know of peace. Peace beyond all human understanding, transforming their hearts from downheartedness back to hope in Christ.

They immediately leave Emmaus and return to Jerusalem, hurrying along with hope and joy to tell the others the great news.

From this point on the whole church would proclaim the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday with joyful uplifted hearts, trusting that the Lord is risen.

Unlike the downhearted recollection of these events in Jesus' hidden presence on the road to Emmaus, we now stand with boldness and proclaimed our hope in he who is raised and is faithfully present with us, although hidden in his Word and in the Sacraments.

How wonderful it is for you and me when the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus Christ to us, even when we burn with downheartedness or hardheartedness, so much so, we have no power of our own to recognise him.

What a fantastic sense of relief and peace it is that settles on us when we realise, our Lord has been there, faithfully walking with us, the whole time.

What a privilege we have as bearers of this peace when we point others to Jesus in his Word and the Sacraments.

Do you realise when you declare to others, "It is true! Jesus Christ is risen!" Not only are you declaring this truth, you are also bearing the Risen Lord himself before others, and giving them access to the peace that passes all human understanding which can keep every person's heart and mind in him — Christ Jesus our Lord — Amen.

A, Easter 2 – All Readings “Recalled to the Manufacturer”

2011-04-30T13:07:00.006+08:00

Recalled to the Manufacturer
A sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-9, Acts 2:25-28, John 20:19-22
The second Sunday of Easter (Year A) 1/05/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

There's nothing more disappointing than the day one gets a product home and on using it for the first time, finds that there's a problem and it needs to be returned to the manufacturer to be corrected, to be put right or fixed.

This is made worse when it's a present for a child whose long expected gift doesn't work, while everyone else's toy is fine. It's not hard to hear and see their disappointment.

Or you've just built something, sewn some choice material, or planted an expensive tree, to watch it not function in the way you'd expected, or to die for no known reason.

When this happens, we tend to feel let down, but to save face we take the product or part back to the retailer, so it might be returned to the manufacturer for replacement or repair.

Then again you might have bought a car or gone shopping and purchased your regular groceries. Everything seems fine, but then through the media or post comes the news there's a product recall in full swing, and your car or product qualifies to be returned to the manufacturer to be modified, fixed, or replaced. Perhaps there is relief, because you had noticed some ill effects starting to creep in, or consumption might have meant grave illness or death.

Last Sunday, all creation celebrated the anniversary of the resurrection of God's one and only Son, and many of us ate chocolate eggs in celebrating Jesus' new life, and ours with him too.

We also heard that the resurrection events will also shake us and our world. Jesus is coming again to take us to himself, but in the meantime he warns us in his word that rough times are ahead and calls us to stand firm through them. All earthly things and our reliance on them, and perception of them will be torn away, and for very good reason. As we are shaken by these stripping events we will see our Saviour come and your resurrection will be revealed in all of Christ's glory.

Today continues that resurrection glory theme, one week after our resurrection remembrance at Easter, as we focus on the events of the first week surrounding the disciples' world view being shaken through Jesus' death and resurrection.

These men were shaken in every way. We heard in the gospel that they cowered behind closed doors in fear of the Jews. If the Christ, the Son of God, who came to take away the sin of the world, could be crucified, then it's not hard to sense the fear these bumbling fishermen, tax collector and other disciples felt after one so powerful would die, in such a weak and humiliating way! They thought it was the end, and bitter death was forthcoming at any moment.

We know Christ died and was raised for the sake of God's love and will to forgive us, so we might live in peace with him forever. In fact, we have perfect twenty-twenty vision of these past events through his word, and receive the peace of God that passes all human understanding quite freely. But like the disciples, waiting and peering into the unseen future, peace is sometimes harder to find, as we hang onto our perishable old world perception.

Let's now look at this from God's point of view. Imagine how disappointed God was when saw us — his new creation born into the world — fragile and easily shaken. Like a new gift, not working properly, in the hands of a child, God saw us as defective from the day we were born.

We were born malfunctioning! Left to our own devices, we were on a course leading to self destruction. God created us for life with him, and that means life forever. But our life was flawed by our sinful being; our living is actually the thing that is shaking us to death. Yet, this temporary life of self destruction is the life we seem to think is normal. But God knew it wasn't what he intended from before we were unwrapped from our mothers' wombs. Some of us don't even survive long enough to be born, and for us the ones who have survived birth, it's a mystery how we've existed as long as we have being as dysfunctional as we are!

So we operate in this life very much in a temporary existence, and like a dodgy piece of machinery we can and do conk out at any time. That in itself causes us to be shaken. We can be like the disciples waiting and cowering behind closed doors at the prospect of sudden death — fearing the worst at any time. We are tempted to hang onto and trust that which is perishing over against that which will live on forever.

But Jesus who was raised from the dead and now lives and rules eternally, has the same words for us as he did for the disciples. He says, "Peace be with you!" Using his written word, he then shows us he is present, risen and all-powerful over death. And naturally, we praise him for what he's done. He says, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on you in baptism and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:19-22) Now having received the Holy Spirit, it is his will to forgive you all your sins through those he calls to do so, as pastors, so you might live in peace, even in the midst of so much dysfunction and malfunction.

Realising the importance of King David's resurrection hope in Christ Luke quotes Psalm 16 in Acts 2 telling us, David said about him: "'I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.' (Acts 2:25-28 and Psalm 16:8-11)

So even as we operate in our temporary existence, and our whole world could be turned upside down at any time, we know God is with us, and although things might shake us we know that just as the Holy One was not eternally abandoned to the grave, nor will we.

You see God saw us in our haphazard state, and although he was disappointed with what we had become because of sin, he did something very powerful about it. We now live because of what he did; and that was to send us his Son to give eternal longevity to our lives. He also sends the Holy Spirit as well to show us Jesus' hidden presence. And the Holy Spirit makes us work in the way God intends until God himself recalls his faulty product to be eternally freed and fitted with the same risen glory in which Christ stands.

This is why Peter says… Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Let the inheritance, which is imperishable, rise in your lives as the perishable things are shaken away as you wait for the glorious day when you're recalled to the manufacturer for eternal improvement. We live temporary lives enduring many things, but we do so in the hope that one day we will live in permanent peace with he who intended us to live this way from the beginning of time. Amen.

A, Easter Sunday – Colossians 3:1-4 “$0 to Pay!”

2011-04-23T10:00:00.005+08:00

Zero Dollars to Pay
A sermon on Colossians 3:1-4
Easter Sunday (Year A) 24/04/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

$0 to pay! …sounds too good to be true! But what an advertising slogan! I saw this in a big bold type plastered all over the front of a shop the other day. No doubt it was for an Easter sale.

We all seem to love sales of sorts! A garage sale, a seasonal sale, an end of year sale, a back to school sale, a run out model sale… Bring your wallet, bring your trailer, we won't be undersold! Bring your husband, bring your wife, bring the whole family! Grab a bargain before they're all gone! Guaranteed lowest price around! At this price it won't last long! Save, save, save… it's the once a year three day sale. Come in today, nothing to pay!

Looking away from the $0 to pay banner, I cast my eye over the stock inside the shop. Ooh! One of those would be nice, and that over there, now that looks good. I could get that, I don't have to pay. It's free! Well that's what my mind is telling me, anyway! So I glance back at the $0 to pay banner.

$0 to pay it says, then I realise what else it says. In smaller print I read …till 2013. 0$ to pay till 2013. But it's too late; the seed has already been sown. The thought of getting has imbedded itself in my mind. Ah well! I'll get it today and think about paying another day!

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1–4 ESV)

Imagine if God advertised the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. Perhaps this advert might appear as the ultimate three day sale. Because in fact it is!

0$ to pay! A call to cast your eye to eternity! This is the lifetime EternaVision sale. $0 to pay! Full Stop! That's it; no hidden cost.

Well that's not entirely true! There's no hidden cost for us! Nevertheless, there was a cost and it wasn't hidden. It cost God the Father separation from his Son! It cost the Son his life on the cross. It might have appeared that the fine print got him, the devil in the detail, was in fact the devil.

But not as a victory for the devil as he might have thought. He didn't win, and now he never will win over Christ. The devil got done in the detail. The fine print means he now has limited power for a limited time and eventually he will be bound forever and get what Christ experienced on the cross. He and all his cronies will experience compounding alienation from God's glory, from any glory, and experience an eternity of God's wrath.

In their suffering there will be no more to pay! They won't be able to work their way out of God's wrath. The greater the effort to seek separation from suffering, the greater the realisation they will not be able to pay their way out, for they will be living an eternal life of pain, paying forever.

However, in this age it seems that many would rather this than the $0 to pay of an eternal vision, where there is truly nothing to pay!

It seems people want the $0 today but want the devil in the detail, and fatality in the fine print. Nothing to pay today, until eternity! And then pay dearly – deadly!

Imagine if there was a sale in the shops that truly claimed $0 to pay. Yes! At the beginning it would be treated with suspicion, but then the floodgates would open, and like a Boxing Day sale, people would be falling over themselves to grab a bargain.

Many though seem to look this gift horse in the mouth, and put conditions on God. However, when most of us go into a shop and make a purchase we accept their conditions. It's later on when the fine print comes into play that we might get caught out and whinge about the retailer.

But with God's $0 to pay there is a 100% reduction in cost! Not a 20%, 50%, 80%, or 99.9% reduction, but a genuine 100% reduction. If only our world would recognise this then the pews would be full and people would be hanging from the rafters in places like this.

So the price is paid, and it pays for us, hidden in Christ, not to continue hiding stuff from him…

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:5–10 ESV)

The text reads on with what some might say is the cost in this earthly life…

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12–14 ESV)

It seems the cost of Christianity is one must do humility, patience, forgiveness, and love. But then the $0 to pay begins to look like there is still at least a small percentage to pay. And if this is the case then it's no wonder many look the gift horse in the mouth and believe it's too long in the tooth to be of benefit to them!

However, those who do this are misreading what is not only the sale of the century but salvation into all eternity! We read on in Colossians 3…

…let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15–17 ESV)

We have so much to be thankful for! Not only does Jesus give us a new way, there is truly nothing to pay! We don't have to do love, do humility, do forgiveness, patience, compassion and all the things we're called to do. Rather they're done in us and through us by the Holy Spirit. Let me say that again! We don't do them; they're done in us and through us by the Holy Spirit!

All it costs us is for us to stop and allow God to pay our way, and work in our place today. Surly that is not too much to ask, since he is the one doing all the work?

So grab a bargain today! Save, save, save, by believing you are saved, saved, saved! This three day event, Good Friday to today, Easter Sunday, is on sale now. Bring your husband, bring your wife, bring your whole family, bring your life! Come in grab the bargain today, while you're alive it's never too late! Take home Jesus today, take home Jesus tomorrow! Let Jesus take you home to eternity! $0 to pay; it's the only way! Amen.

A, Manudy Thursday - All Readings - "Mandate Thursday"

2011-04-20T14:47:00.006+08:00

MANDATE THURSDAY
A sermon on the readings for Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday (Year A) 21/04/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Texts

Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1, 2, 12-19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35.

Key verse: (John 13:1) Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

Sermon

Have you ever wondered why Maundy Thursday is called Maundy Thursday? It's a strange name. In fact, I spent most of my youth mispronouncing it Maun-day Thursday. Maundy sounds a bit like an Australian way of saying Monday, or Mond'y, but it is not what Maundy means. Maundy comes from a Latin word similar to 'mandate' meaning commission, charge, order, or command. Maundy Thursday is mandate Thursday.

So what is the mandate given on the Thursday, the day before Jesus was nailed to the cross outside Jerusalem? If we take a look at the readings for Maundy Thursday there are plenty of mandates or commands given to us to follow. All the readings are filled with commands to do something. Are they all the same? Or are they different from each other? Let's take a look at them and see what mandates are given.

The first group of mandates we have heard are the Ten Commandments, and as we listened we were called to let the Lord show us our sin through them. These surely are a complete set of mandates. God has commanded us through the Ten Commandments to be holy so we can enter into the presence of a holy God. But wait there's more…

Even before God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai he gave a mandate to them in Egypt. This mandate was the preparation for the Lord's Passover, protecting households with blood and eating a meal in haste, as the Lord passed over Egypt and killed the first born of the households who had not fulfilled the mandate. God's command through Moses saved the Israelites' first born children from death. But wait there still is more…

Jesus gives his disciple a mandates to love. First he washes the feet of the disciples and when he finishes doing this menial task he asks, "Do you understand what I have done for you?" 13 "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:12-17)

Jesus has washed feet in humble service and now we ought to do it too. He lays out the mandate to 'do as he has done', to serve one another, to forgive one another and emulate his self sacrificing love.

Also at the end of the Gospel reading Jesus lays out the well known mandate to love, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35)

In fact it is because of this mandate that the Thursday before Good Friday came to be know as Maundy Thursday. Jesus gives a new commandment. If we are to be his disciples, we must love. As Jesus has loved you, you must love. Have you loved as Jesus has loved? When others look at the way you conduct yourself do they see someone who loves? Do they see someone who serves, who forgives, who sets an example of love? What do you see in yourself? Are you a person of love?

Having come from God, Jesus knew God had placed all things under his power. But what did Jesus do? He became a servant and loved his disciples in his service of them. Not only did he wash their feet but he cleansed them from the power of sin through his death on the cross. It is in the light of his death on the cross that Christ gives us the command to love as he has loved us.

So we have mandates laid out before us; the Ten Commandments, to teach and celebrate the Passover, and now Jesus gives us a new commandment to love as he loved us. Hearing the question, "Have you loved others in the same way as Jesus loved?" makes for unsettling times for you and me. How is this commandment to love any different than the Ten Commandments Moses gave to the Israelites? Actually, Jesus lifts the bar higher. After all, a mandate is a command, and Jesus has given a greater law. Jesus took all laws into himself and has called us to follow just one; that we love as has he has loved. And how has he loved us? He has served us, not through washing feet, but taking our place in death while keeping all Ten Commandments. With a mandate like this every one of us is set to fail.

This is a hard act to follow: to love as he has loved us. Jesus gave the command to love then Judas left to betray him (Jn 13:18-30), and then Jesus said to Peter, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!" (John 13:38) Surely there is more to this mandate to love! Surely Jesus didn't come into the world just to give us a template to follow so we might obtain salvation; to give us an even harder law to follow! How do we follow through with Christ's mandate to love, when the disciple couldn't even do it?

There is one other mandate which must underpin this mandate to love others. Without something else Maundy Thursday is just a repeat of every other day lived under the Law, and Jesus' command to love is an even more oppressive law than the Ten Laws, Moses received on Mt Sinai. This other mandate is one which is similar to the Passover, in that blood was spilt to save people from death. But this mandate does not stand or fall on our ability to be able to perfect what is commanded – to be able to perform all the right deeds. No! This mandate is grounded in complete love towards us!

Jesus shows us the full extent of his love on the cross. The mandate of Maundy Thursday to love is grounded in Christ's loving action on Good Friday. He let his blood be spilt for you and me so we can stand before a Holy God as his first born children.

Peter received a true washing in the blood of the lamb when Jesus took his sins of denial, among others, to the cross. We are all washed in the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Our God has mercy on us! After Jesus' resurrection Peter is reinstated, but listen how Jesus calls Peter to love.

15 Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." 16 Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." 17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. (John 21:15-17)

Christ was sent to suffer and die for the sins of the world by the command, or mandate, of his Father. We do well to connect others with the true love of Christ's forgiveness and atoning death on the cross first shown to those who lived around him and now shown to us today. We God's sheep do well to let ourselves be fed and forgiven so we too can love others. We who are sinners and beggars before the Lord do well to show others where to beg for this holy food of mercy too.

As Jesus sat at the table with the twelve disciples on that first Maundy Thursday, he spoke some words that must have seemed odd. Little did the disciples know that these words would be filled out by his actions on the cross the next day. In these days, we hang onto these words in faith because Jesus has commanded us to 'take, eat, and drink', and in doing so we proclaim his death until he comes again.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, and said (gave us this mandate), Take and eat; this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way he took the cup, after the supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said (the second part of the mandate), Drink of it, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. (From Holy Communion liturgy, commanded by Christ in Matt 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:17-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25)

It was only after Good Friday, that we truly knew what love is; that Jesus died for us on the cross. It was only after Good Friday, that we truly understood his mandate to take, eat, and drink, his life, his body and blood, in bread and wine for forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Ever since that first Maundy Thursday, pastor's, in the same office into which Peter and the other Apostles were called, have been feeding the sheep, and parishioners have been receiving Christ's body and blood in this holy love feast commanded by Christ. Therefore, just as we are being loved by Christ and are given his gifts, we can go out and love one another because Christ has loved us first. Amen.

Let us pray. What can I offer to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord. I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call on the name of the Lord. I will keep my promises to the Lord in the presence of all his people; in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Amen

A, Palm Passion Sunday – Philippians 2:8 “Understudy”

2011-04-16T20:51:00.007+08:00

UNDERSTUDY
A sermon on Philippians 2:8
PALM PASSION SUNDAY (Year A) 17/04/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Being an understudy would have to be one of the most difficult jobs. The stage actor gets all the accolades while the understudy remains in the limelight. The work load is the same though! The understudy must know all the same lines to stand in and keep the show running in the event the actor, for whatever reason, cannot be on stage.

The actor gets their name up in lights outside on the Broadway billboards yet the understudy hangs in the shadows ready, yet never knowing if he or she will get the opportunity to let their talents shine.

Nevertheless, the understudy is an important job. Theatre companies need understudies as an insurance policy for their shows. The actors out front might be responsible for drawing the crowds, but the understudy, stands by as a "fill in" so even if the crowd are disappointed by the absence of one actor, they might still have opportunity to see all the other name actors fill their parts next to the "fill in" understudy.

During the Lenten season we have heard and spoken a phrase over and over again. "Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." It's part of what is known as the Christ hymn from Philippians chapter two.

We hear it again here: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Pauls calls us to have this mind, which indeed we already have because Christ lives in us. However, this mind or attitude of Jesus so often gets squashed from within because we like to be the ones who have out names recognised — up in lights like an actor.

But the attitude of Jesus is like that of a faithful understudy. He is the archetypal servant of society, humbly listening to God, seeking his will in his word, throughout his ministry right to the point of death.

Jesus Christ deserved to have his name up in lights — the Son of God, Co-Creator of all things with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But he put that all aside and became the Son of Man; a servant who was killed by the very folk he sought to served.

Our attitude so often runs contrary to the attitude of Jesus. The very things Jesus did, when we contemplate attempting them, seem second rate. No one seeks to be the understudy.

How often do we hear about the glitz and glamour of an understudy? But this is exactly where we're called to focus our efforts and attitudes. So how do we do this when it's so different to our way of thinking?

It's not so much about how we do it, but rather in enduring in Christ, returning to hear his Word of life over and over again, the mindset of Jesus grows within. This growth is cultured by the Holy Spirit so that over time we come to realise Christ has been our understudy the whole time and all the glitz and glamour we sought in the past, perishes with the past.

Alternatively, those who try to live in the glory of this fickle glitz and glamour end up washed up like so many Hollywood types these days.

A world away from seeking glory for one's self is Christ's attitude. This attitude is obedience. It allows us to remain faithful to God. It's not about doing anything in particular. Rather it's about letting God undergird us with his will, his way, and his word. He insures a safety net of salvation for us by giving us Christ as the understudy. Jesus Christ obediently listened to the Father, and now continually listens for when we lose our way, forgetting the lines of holiness we're called to before the Father.

His obedience as the understudy meant no glitz and glamour, rather it meant the opposite. He humbled himself and became your understudy, to the point of death… even death on a cross.

There an old saying, "being hung out to dry". And Jesus was literally hung out to dry; he was hung on the cross to die.

In the ancient world being hung out for all to see was a horrendous way to be killed. Slowly dying, choking on your own body, suffocating yourself to death, usually outside the town gate where everyone passed by and hurled insults at you as you slowly suffered and died.

Scripture tells us that any one hung on a tree is cursed (Deut 21:23). The Assyrians barbarically sharpened sticks like pencils and impaled people on them to die for all to see. So death on a cross or a tree is a blight on any person guilty of the punishment. We don't have crucifixion for punishment these days, but if we did, what kinds of crimes would deserve this type of cursed death? Only the worst, for sure!

So Jesus, your understudy, knew he was going to receive not only death, but death deserved by those who have committed the most abhorrent crimes. And he did it obediently, all the way, despite his innocence. There's just no way we could ever do what he did.

But we don't have to! He has done it; all we're called to do is believe it.

Trust Jesus as your faithful understudy, who saves your reputation before the Father in heaven.

In believing, you'll never expect whom you will be used to serve as an understudy as you focus on faithfully following the will of him who obediently, faithfully, undergirds you as your understudy, until the glorious day of your resurrection into the realm of eternal bliss. Amen.

A, Lent 5 – Ezekiel 37:1-14 “A Bone To Pick”

2011-04-09T12:47:00.006+08:00

A Bone To Pick
A sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14
THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT (Year A) 10/04/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A, Lent 4 - John 9:1-6, 35-41 "Blinded by my Sight"

2011-04-01T18:41:00.008+08:00

BLINDED BY MY SIGHT
A sermon on John 9: 1-6, 35-41
THE FORTH SUNDAY IN LENT (Year A) 3/04/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Is it possible that human beings are blinded by their sight? I'm reminded of a song written by Bruce Springsteen, which was made a hit in the seventies by a group called Manfred Mann's Earth Band. This song has the title: Blinded by the light. And it is a line that's sung over and over again during the course of the song.

In comparison to the texts we've heard today, being blinded by the light, or by one's own sight, seems to be a contradiction. And it is when we speak of our Lord being the light of the world.

In John nine we hear: As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. (John 9:1-6)

This blind man was not blinded by the light, for he was blind from birth. This man was not blinded by anything he did wrong, nor was it as a result of something his parents did wrong either. But Jesus came into this man's life and gave him sight.

However, later on in John nine, after the blind man has received his sight and after being ridiculed by the Pharisees as being a sinner from birth, Jesus asks him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38)

Isn't it interesting that having been given sight by God's own Son, the man who now sees still didn't have the ability to know just who the Son of Man was, who had come to be the light of the word! It's only after Jesus names himself with his spoken word that the fellow falls down and worships him.

Then in the hearing of the man, and the Pharisees, Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?" Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (John 9:39-41)

A couple of things are happening here which we have to be careful not to overlook. The blind man is given physical sight, yet didn't spiritually see and worship until hearing the spoken word from Jesus. Jesus also pointed out that because of his blindness he has no way of missing the mark so he might be guilty of committing sin. Yet at the same time he can't see that Jesus is the Son of Man because of the human sinful nature's inability to see, regardless of him performing a sin or not.

The other thing we must observe is the deeper reality of the Pharisees' jeer at Jesus, "What? Are we blind too?" Earlier they hurled insults about the man who had received his sight, claiming, "We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from." The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes." (John 9:28b-30) They were blinded by their sight, and when the light of God came along they were so blind they refused to see the truth.

Like the blind man they too didn't have the power in themselves to see. But in placing faith in themselves, claiming they could see, they rejected he who had the power to give the fulfilling sight of salvation.

What happened here is what still happens today! We are called to see the Son of God, yet we are tempted to place our faith in those things on which the sun in the sky shines. Humanity has been deceived by its own tainted sight, refracted by the darkness of sin, ever since Adam and Eve laid sight on the sun-ripened apple at Eden. And up until Christ's cross and resurrection there was no way we could regain sight of the other tree without the apple, the tree of life. We were completely unable to see the tree of life or find it because we were blinded by the cherubim with the flashing sword guarding any way back into God's paradise of peace and the eternal tree of life in it. (Genesis 3:24)

We are blinded by the light from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and we need Jesus' spit in our eyes to clean out the mortal mud, that always seems to stick to us. We are blinded by our sight, or rather the short-sightedness of human nakedness, reason, and understanding.

St Paul states to the Corinthians …we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)

So while the sun shines on us here we are away from the Son of God, but even so we look to the eternal Son who is not seen by human sight, but rather by the sight of faith given by the Holy Spirit.

Even when we appear to do every humanly good thing under the sun, these are not the good things that will win us favourable judgement under the Son of God. But rather when God sees us faithfully looking toward the unseen Son of Man, by the power of the Spirit, then the Son's salvation truly warms the hearer's heart, and God sees us as his children.

The blind man in this text was rather quiet, Jesus came to he who was silenced in complete darkness and gave him sight. But at other times as Jesus moved around the place during his earthly ministry the blind sung out to him, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us! (Matthew 20: 30) These men knew they were blind, they were not deceived by their sight, or any other ability they thought they had. They were powerless to see. Yet as Jesus approached them they received the warmth of his word in their hearts. God's 'Word Made Flesh' healed them and gave them better sight than they could have ever imagined.

We are called to look to the Son of God for our salvation too. Looking at the sun in the sky, or trusting anything on which the sun might shine, both make us blind. However, the Son of God will not blind us. He will shine in our darkened hearts as we walk in this world blind with darkness. When we look at this Son, the one and only Son of God, we will be boldly led through the darkness, walking with infallible accuracy.

We can all picture the pirate who sails the high seas with a patch over his eye. We Christians are like that pirate. He wears the patch not because he's had an eye gouged out as many think. He wears it so when he goes from darkness to light, from below deck to above and vice versa, he swaps the patch over so his darkened eye sees perfectly in the darkness and the uncovered eye sees without being blinded by the light.

Similarly we Christians are called to trust the patch that God places over us, giving us the ability to see, regardless of being blinded by the light or the darkness. This patch is his word and because of it we can see the Son of God who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. This eye patch is the patch of faith allowing us to fear no evil whenever it attacks us, day or night. With it on we wear the Son of God with his flashing rod of protection and his staff of salvation. With this patch of faith covering our human short-sightedness, we can see the light of our salvation, and the tree of life. Amen.

A, Lent 3 - John 4:5-42 "A Promiscuous Person"

2011-03-26T10:56:00.004+08:00

The choice of title for this sermon and its content may shock some of you. In it is the concept and word promiscuous which today means to have many different sexual partners. However, promiscuous has not always had a sordid meaning that’s been frowned upon. It’s only been viewed negatively in the last couple hundred years. Promiscuous is from the Latin word meaning “mix”, with the suffix “pro” which can mean “out in view”. And it’s this greater definition, “to be indiscriminate” or, “to willingly and openly mix”, to which the title points.

Nevertheless, one should not dismiss the pejorative and derogatory definition altogether, as there is a thread of similarity between one who takes indiscriminate sexual partners and the encouragement we will receive to throw caution to the wind in being faithfully indiscriminate in our calling as Christians.

A couple weeks back I received an email which told the readers to place themselves in the following position. I invite you to do the same.

You have just won a contest! You did not enter it but you were entered in it by someone else. Each morning your bank deposits $86,400.00 into one account for your use. But there are rules with this prize. The fine print! I know some of you are thinking, “Well that’s just typical!” But every game has rules! In fact everything has boundaries in place for a good reason. There are five rules in this prize.

The first three rules are: (1) Everything that you don’t spend during each day will be taken away from you. (2) You may not simply transfer money into another account. (3) You may only spend it. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400.00 for that day. Do you think these are good rules or bad rules?

Okay let’s hear the last two rules: (4) The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, “It’s over, the game is over!” (2) It can close the account and you will not receive a new one. What would you personally do? You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right? Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right? Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right? You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right? How would you use the money? How would you use your prize? What would you do?

These rules highlight in us something very elementary about our natures. The rules might not seem fair because we tend to want to hoard things for ourselves; to have control, to have a little extra for a rainy day, so to speak! But the prize far outweighs our desire to amass the prize into a stockpile of wealth for all to see.

With this prize is so much money, would you end up losing it, having it taken away at the end of each day? After all there are only so many friends and family you could give money to. You could give it to others but at what cost? You might be seen to associate with those your friends and family do not approve. Even more so, you might begin to like these folk for their raw honesty in amongst the wrongness of their deeds, the weakness of their lives, the blame you think they deserved. Then again maybe you might perceive the cost to your image too great and let the money go each day, wasting it without giving it, perhaps? More on the prize later!

Recently, I heard the comment made that Christians should be promiscuous with their money and prudent with their sexuality. On pondering this thought for some weeks perhaps Christians could be promiscuous with their time and their talents as well. In that they could openly mix with those they wouldn’t normally mix, because of prejudice or perception.

Maybe this is the shrewdness into which Jesus is calling his followers, so the harvest is not wasted now that it’s ripe. Is God calling you to be promiscuous with yourself, your time, and your possessions? Is he calling you to be indiscriminate with others so they might receive the prize you have received? In your promiscuity are you like John the Baptist who allows Jesus to increase while you decrease?

Our society today is promiscuous in all the wrong ways. We are a little better at being prudent people when it comes to money, time, and our talents. We hoard for ourselves the very gifts we ought to be sharing with others, and yet more and more people are becoming more and more promiscuous in their sexual dealings.

What is happening in our person? What is happening in us? What are you allowing to happen in you? Could it be we’re trying to hoard for ourselves feelings and fun? How much fun is having time for acquiring wealth, possessions, sex, and individualism without love for neighbour, intimacy in marriage, and a caring community?

Jesus’ disciples went off to find food leaving Jesus to rest by Jacob’s well at Sychar (soo-khar) in Samaria. Incidentally, this town’s name is derived from a Hebrew word meaning “to get drunk or tipsy”. So when his disciples returned and found Jesus speaking to a woman, who leaves when they arrive, they were surprised, amazed, they wondered and marvelled by what they witnessed. In other words, they looked down their noses at Jesus, for he a Jew was speaking to a Samaritan no less, but even greater a Samaritan woman. And for that to happen it made the disciples uncomfortable with suspicion.

Perhaps they thought she was a promiscuous woman plying Jesus with her sexuality. They said nothing though, for they really didn’t know anything. Imagine how their suspicions would have spiralled if they found out she had been married five times and was now with someone who wasn’t married!

But in fact, the Samaritan woman wasn’t being promiscuous as we know; she had just come to get water from the well. However, Jesus was being promiscuous, not sexually, but rather with the love of God and by love’s power. He was openly mixing with all people, allowing his life to be a well of water springing up to eternal life. He was indiscriminately and shrewdly opening the way of faith, so his heavenly Father might once again be the Father of many nations.

This was the promise made to the old man Abraham as God showed him all the stars in the sky, and confirmed at the temple in Jerusalem by the old man Simeon in his joyful blessing of God as he took the infant Jesus in his arms and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29–32 ESV)

God the Father sent Jesus to be a promiscuous person. He was not sexually promiscuous as are many today, but he came to those who are! He came to the watering hole thirsty, to a town whose name is Tipsy, not to get drunk, but to give the drink of life. He came to indiscriminately give of himself, in time, with the holiness he possesses discreetly hidden within. Yes! Jesus was every bit promiscuous as his heavenly Father intended him to be so all people might win the prize.

Now it’s time to return to the completion and your prize. $86 400 per day! It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, it is true. All of you get this prize every day! All of you have the mysterious bank account with the five simple rules. But your wealth is not money, it’s time!

Every one of you awake each day with a bank account of time – 86 400 seconds of life per day. And every one of you living as baptised children have a life to spend, prudently, shrewdly, and promiscuously so others too might receive each day a bank account of life, that is welling up to an eternity of life with God.

It’s not a magical competition, rather it’s life in all its mystery, being brought to completion in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension in glory to the right hand of the Father. Each awakening morning we receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is not credited to us. Yesterday is forever gone.

In the email I received, it said this: What we haven’t lived up to that day is forever lost. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time… without warning. Well, what will you do with your 86,400 seconds? Aren’t they worth so much more than the same amount in dollars? Think about that, and always think of this: Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think. So take care of yourself, and enjoy life!

This is true to a certain extent. However, the mystery of life we live in Christ is even better than personal enjoyment. It’s a life of love with the Saviour of the world; it’s a life of believing we’re receiving Jesus’ faithfulness to forgive. It’s an eternal life of faith and hope, “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5 ESV)

In you is the ability to be promiscuous, but what is it you are promiscuous with? God seeks to harvest through you, individually and as his church. He sends you out into this promiscuous world, into the harvest fields where not only are people being sexually promiscuous but where the deeper cause is a promiscuity of faith — an indiscriminate mixing of beliefs in all sorts of stuff people hold up as worthy.

What are you doing with yourself — your talents, your time, and your possessions? Are you prudently protecting these things for yourself as your gods? Or are you fully focused on Jesus Christ? If not let the Holy Spirit lead you to the Saviour of the world for forgiveness, so God might use you to be promiscuous, promoting his eternal love offered at the cross together with the gifts he has given you in this eternal life. Amen.

A, Lent 2 - John 3:1-17 "Nicodemus Nonsense"

2011-03-19T15:49:00.004+08:00

Holding a little baby after it’s been baptised, one is possibly holding the most mature Christian. This child carries Christ in all his perfection without the need to: perform the right or wrong way; think good or bad thoughts; or, hinder how they feel at any one moment.

No this little one’s works are sucking, poohing, peeing, and crying. Its understanding is infantile, and this child shows any emotion at any time or place. Yes! Little children are totally reliant on God for the grace they receive, and for the works God does in and through them.

The focus here is not on what the child does but on who the child is! A newly baptised person is “freed from doing” to be accepted by God. And now God is free to do what he needs to do to make this child holy. There is nothing the baby can do to hold back hearing the word of God and receiving the Holy Spirit. Completely at the mercy of all around them, they receive mercy from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now the child is a child of God, and its being is one of faith that leads to love for God for the eternal life he gives.

There is now no need to become worried about works. Abiding, remaining, upholding, and standing in baptismal faith requires no active work to make a decision towards God, he is already there working. The Holy Spirit is giving faith, a conscience that yearns to be forever free from sin, seeking repentance, forgiveness, looking to forgive. This faith is holy and it hungers in hope to be brought to completion in Christ; fed through the grace he gives at the cross — at our baptism — at a believer’s resurrection each Sunday, and on the last day.

The only decision to be made is to walk away from this “being or existence or reality of belief or faith.” Rejecting the faith is not a rejection of belief! And so what’s pursued in the absence of God-given faith is a self-sought knowledge of good and evil which gives a faith built on individualism and works.

Previously one was expected to work the law of God to have a relationship with him. Keeping the law dealt with a person’s impurity. But now the decision to seek for the self leads back into impurity and separation from God.

So back in old covenant days one’s focus was on “doing”! Now the focus for us is on “being” — Christ’s being is now our “ new being”. Our existence is Christ’s existence, both lived on earth as he walked from the Jordan to the Cross and in us today from the font to the funeral — the greatest cross we must all bear — our earthly death.

This is why Christ was sent into the world. He came to stop your earthly death, being an eternal death — an eternal never-ending process of perishing with undying pain and suffering. …God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17 ESV)

The fact is, we all face death, regardless of age, as a result of the old being within. The old Adam still seeks to make a decision to go off in search of its own knowledge of good and evil.

Therefore, within the believer there’s a battle of beings. At the same time in the same person there’s the being who works good and evil in opposition to God; the power is centred on work — doing it or not having to do it. And then there’s the new being given in baptism that seeks first the kingdom of God, knowing by the grace of God, he will unleash the faithfulness of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to produce the fruits of faith from within.

As a baptised infant grows, so too their knowledge of good and evil matures! The old Adam is caught out by the maturity of grace and faith suddenly implanted within. And so the maturity of the newly baptised child is a world away from many people’s concept of being mature.

One of these so called mature people was Nicodemus a leader of the Jews and a Pharisee. He came to try to figure out what this Jesus character was all about. Listen to his doing language. [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2 ESV) This is an honest statement from one whose life was committed to doing what the law required.

But a note on Pharisees first. They get a bad rap today. To us the name Pharisee is a derogatory term. There are not many of us who’d appreciate being called a Pharisee. But there are not many of us whose commitment can compare to that of a Pharisee either. In fact, our condemnation of the Pharisees, wrongly grows from the same “do or don’t do mentality” Jesus criticises the Pharisees for, rather than their loss of being before the Father — their life together with God.

Pharisees were, what today, we would call good blokes. They were not priest but laity whom sought to be good, or righteous, by following the letter of the Law. But they had forgotten what the function of the law was all about; that it was to regain a relationship with God, who was otherwise untouchable. This wasn’t because he’s a cruel and nasty God, rather if sin was not dealt with, experience of his holiness would be a curse and not a blessing. The Pharisees were doing what the law required but not so much to re-enter God’s holiness for a relationship with him but to use his power and glory to justify their knowledge of good and evil.

It’s not clear if Nicodemus came to condemn Jesus or just to see what he was about. We’re not even sure of his Pharisaic practice at this time, but we know later on he spoke up for Jesus in the Sanhedrin and helped in giving him an honourable burial. Nevertheless, what Jesus tells Nicodemus in this first meeting confuses him.

Earlier Jesus told the Jews at the temple, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:18 ESV) Jesus was speaking of himself but the Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it in three days?” (John 2: 20 ESV) They were speaking of Herod’s temple, but one wonders if they were unconsciously speaking about themselves after using God to build themselves into temples during their lifetime.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus wanting to know how he can do this sign along with others he was doing at the Passover Feast, and Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 ESV)

Nicodemus must have thought this to be completely nonsense. He knew he couldn’t do the work of being born again. He knew he didn’t do anything to be born of flesh the first time! And so he asks a question a small child even knows what the answer is. Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4 ESV)

If Nicodemus thought Jesus was a simpleton up to this point, Jesus’ response challenges the very foundation of Nicodemus’ practice “doing” what was required of the law. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5–8 ESV)

These words of Jesus begin the change in Nicodemus. Knowing he cannot do any of this Nicodemus becomes hungry to receive from Jesus, rather than placing his trust in what he could do. He didn’t ask, “How can I do this?” Instead he said, “How can these things be?”

Humanity tends to credit itself with its ability to understand and fix things. Recent events are challenging our technical knowhow, our environmental knowhow, and even more our inner knowhow. It is not God who is the simpleton but it is us. As we grow the old Adam is always deceiving us. Our sinful nature seeks to down play faith in God in favour of faith in ourselves. However, the only true way we begin to know ourselves is when we believe God knows us better than we know ourselves and believe he knows who we were originally meant to be.

Flesh gives birth to flesh — how little we really understand about the mystery of human birth, or the life of the human body? And the Holy Spirit gives birth to spirit! If we have trouble knowing, understanding, and believing us and our world, how can we truly know of heavenly things?

Jesus goes on teaching Nicodemus by talking about heavenly things that only he can do, saying, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” (John 3:13 ESV) But with this exalted ability comes the service and putting aside of all heavenly doing in favour of being the suffering servant sacrificed for our sin of seeking good and evil.

The Son of God became the Son of Man; he became the servant of the Father. He put aside all doing, and like a little baby who needs to be brought to baptism, Jesus faithfully allowed himself to be carried to the cross and lifted up. So with this faithfulness implanted in us at baptism we might be lifted up to eternal life.

Maturity is not our intellect, but our willingness to be carried by Christ, in all that we are and in all that he seeks to do in and through us. The maturity of faith we have as baptised babies can get deeply tested and confused as we grow into adults. God works in our lives to reverse the immature need to seek knowledge of good and evil for ourselves. He does this by slowing our abilities, and intellect, and cares; returning many of us to helpless childlike ways in our elderly years. Then we might learn to live once again like mature Christians fully believing our help is in the name of the Lord!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 ESV) Activate the faith in all baptised people so they do not perish but have eternal life in you Lord Jesus, Amen.

A, Lent 1 - Matthew 4:1-11 "A Healthy Hunger"

2011-03-11T18:44:00.004+08:00

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (Matthew 4:1–11 ESV)

How long can you survive without food? Perhaps if you were in a comfortable environment — unstressed, not having to do anything — you might live from four to eight weeks. But to do so by choice, one needs to be mentally prepared to overcome the cravings of the body crying out for nutrition.

Some survive without food through no choice of their own. Extreme poverty is one cause of hunger. Emergency situations too can stop people from eating — being trapped or lost for instance. But surviving through these types of ordeals needs a tenacious will and grit determination!

Imagine you’ve turned up today, having had nothing to eat since the 1st of February. This is forty days. Can you remember what you have done since that Tuesday? How many times have you eaten since then? I’m guessing you really haven’t kept count. If you had three meals a day without any snacks in between, perhaps you’ve had one hundred and twenty meals. Now imagine life without those meals. Can you?

Regardless of whether you chose to fast or you were forced by circumstances not to eat, your condition mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually would be very different to being well fed with one hundred and twenty meals. I suspect a lack of food would cause you to look at life in a completely different way than how you’re looking at it right now!

The three readings before us today, show two very different situations, and how these relate to each other. In Genesis 2 & 3 God gives Adam and Eve a garden with plenty, and with it comes a fall into temptation, and in Matthew 4 Jesus is in the wilderness, hungry after 40 days of fasting, but even so doesn’t succumb to Satan’s temptation. Then in Romans 5 Paul connects the two contrasting events with all people through the oneness of Adam and then Christ; in that sin comes to all through Adam, but life is there for all through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

So you’ve come here today having not eaten since the 1st of February. What type of condition are you in? Not the best! There are three possibilities you’re considering.

A voice inside you might be telling you to motivate yourself to save yourself. It’s tough but after all, the tough get going. Like Bear Grills on his television survival show, you become a John the Baptist type of character and live on your immediate environment — eating nasty snakes and scorpions, and crunchy gooey insects from amongst the sparseness!

We hear how Satan approached Jesus in the wilderness after forty days, and in the garden Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent, the devil in disguise. Maybe the devil didn’t disguise himself as a serpent in the wilderness before Jesus, because Jesus might have turned stones into weapons to kill and eat him. Perhaps only characters like Bear Grills and John the Baptist subject themselves to these crazy antics whereas Jesus even more fervently focuses on his Father and his word.

You might not eat snakes or insects out of desperation, but would you turn in trust to the Word of God, or would you let the craving of your stomach, justify your actions for survival? In what way would you address your need?

The second thing you might consider doing is giving up. Like Jonah you might be so angry with God you could die. Like an over stressed sheep just sit down and sulk! Or, like Elijah, on the run from Jezebel, you might lie down to die when it all gets to be too much. You might come to an understanding that there’s no way out. The truth of the situation becomes too great to bear! You would come here after forty days, famished and finished! The hunger and desolation have destroyed you.

The third possibility might lead you to do what’s necessary to survive. Whatever works is where it’s at! If you have to grovel for food then you’ll do it. If you have to beckon to someone else’s call, then so be it, as long as you satisfy your insatiable appetite now, the consequences can be dealt with later. Giving up your life you devote yourself to something or someone to maintain yourself.

If you can place yourself in dire need, hungry after forty days, then one of the three options is very real for you. Not just hunger for food but an appetite for anything will cause us to employ one of these three paths desire causes within us.

In the Garden of Eden it was not so much hunger for food causing Adam and Eve to eat but rather it was the desire to be like God, by gaining knowledge of good and evil, that the fruit on the tree became so inviting. And ever since our insatiable appetite to be in control causes us; to repeatedly abuse what’s around us by the way we do things; to compromise the truth for something less; and to allow our hearts to seek and value a life we think will make us feel better.

These are the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness after he had fasted for forty days. One might say he chose to go out into the wilderness, but in fact he was led there by the Holy Spirit, and by his Father’s will, so he might be tempted as Adam was, and as we are.

However, unlike us he didn’t succumb to these three temptations our human nature always gravitates towards. In our worry we cast out the Holy Spirit, the faith he gives and Jesus’ faithful way. We doubt the Word made flesh which makes us holy in the only truth. And as a result seek to live a life lost in sacrifice to our human desires.

We might say these temptations are easier for Jesus to resist; after all he is God and we are not. But we need to know while he was here on earth born of the virgin; he gave up his divinity and lived a life of obedience under earthly and heavenly authority, the same life as you and me. He made the supreme sacrifice by not listening to the desires of his human heart, but sought the will of God.

He listened to God, he was obedient! He didn’t compromise his innocent walk amongst our human sufferings and death by turning to his divinity. He didn’t rationalise God’s word to serve him, but remained subservient to his Father and the truth of his word. And his heart remained focused on the life he was called to live despite the suffering it caused him.

There was no compromise in what Jesus did; he didn’t allow his hunger or the devil to cause him worry or want. His understanding was complete and trusting, it was free of doubt. And Satan couldn’t rise up selfish pride in him. Rather Jesus lived seeking his Father’s kingdom, his will, and his righteousness even though he was righteous and holy in his own right.

Jesus did not turn stones into bread to serve himself, but through him God distributed five loaves and two fish to the five thousand, and still today his body and blood nourishes thousands of those who live under his forgiveness and allow the Holy Spirit to move them in the ways of Christ.

Yet if Jesus had succumb to the temptation of the devil, and turned those stones into bread, how much more would this sinful generation worry what to do, compromise the word of God and walk away from the Son of God?

Jesus didn’t turn from the truth of God’s word. He didn’t allow the devil to tempt him at the temple. He didn’t compromise God’s word to prove his power over the temple and the law, rather he upheld the law, and remained in submission to it and the will of God.

He demonstrated the word of God to be holy, but not by a life of pride and power, rather by his death to atone for sin. He bore blindness, leprosy, sickness and disease. He let the law cast him down into the depths of hell. In his holy understanding of the truth, he swallowed up your death by his death.

If he had allowed himself to fall from the temple, how much more would this sinful generation doubt and divide God’s word and fall even more by our thoughts and voices of sin within?

And Jesus didn’t bow to Satan, to get the job done. Rather he sought to glorify the Father and not his own pride. He remained under God the Father and lived a life of servanthood and suffering. He calls us through his death on the cross, not by glorious domination over the princes and people of this world, through submission to Satan. So like a mongrel dog Satan is commanded to, “Get!”, “ὕπαγε σατανᾶ” (who-par-gee sar-tar-na) by the Son of God.

How much greater would the pride of this sinful generation be, if Jesus compromised his Father’s authority and will, to do whatever it took to have all worship him? Surely if Jesus hadn’t told Satan to “nick off” he would appear as a servant of Satan, and our pride would know no end!

Thank God Jesus walked in the ways of God the Father without worry. Praise God our Immanuel is the walking Word of God, in flesh, in truth, and in us. Glory to God alone for our Saviour’s complete faithfulness to our Father and to us today! Be immersed in the Word of God! Fervent faith and fellowship from the Holy Spirit will come in ways you least expect!

Blessed are those who allow the Holy Spirit to work the word in the heart. He will raise forgiveness within, give enduring faith to seek Jesus, and provide peace here amongst all the trials and temptations faced in this life.

If you go without food, the lack of nutrition will kill your earthly body. But a diet without the word of God leads to something even worse — eternal death, unquenchable hunger, cravings and crying which never shall be satisfied.

So let Jesus, the Risen Word of God — your Saviour — strengthen his hold on you today, because… “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”. (Matthew 5:6 ESV) Amen.

A, Epiphany 8 - Isaiah 49:14-16a, Matthew 6:30-33 "Satisfaction Seeker"

2011-02-27T00:57:00.004+08:00

There’s an old saying, “It’s hard to get good help!” And in today’s fast-paced consumer driven society, there’s no doubt this saying is true.

We all seem to want it immediately — it must be glossy, it must be cheap, and it must be now! “Fast food, cool clothes, and plenty of possessions!” There’s another saying used in the retail industry, “The consumer is always right.” So, we the consumer, who’s always righteous, gets what we want; we get it fast, it looks cool, it’s so glossy, and it’s unbelievably cheap too! We open it with great excitement and it’s BROKEN!

In our quest for the best there’s no time for rest! Quick! Get in the car, we need instant action. Arriving at the shop in the nick of time, frustrated with the old fogey in his vintage car, but nevertheless getting there just before closing time with our piece of broken expectation, and there’s a cue. Aaaaah!

Still twisted and snaky from swerving through the torturous traffic, avoiding pedestrians who believe they own the road, one finds themself nervously waiting, jiggling anxiously from the not so cool, not so glossy, now expensive piece of junk, that’s caused suffering in the search for satisfaction.

It’s hard to get good help! “You’ll have to come back tomorrow”, says the salesperson who barely looks old enough to count let alone magically fix the faults and fulfil us yet again with our craving for satisfaction. “That’d be right!” is the thought, “It’s hard to get good help these days!”

Have you ever been frustrated by not getting what you want when you want it? Some shops turn into ghost towns when you need help or want to return something. But when you just want to browse, sellers seem to drop from the ceiling seeking to help you spend your savings.

It’s hard to get good help! Will anyone work unless it’s seeking to sell? Why won’t anyone fix the broken stuff any more? Do I have to chuck it out and buy again seeking to restore satisfaction from dissatisfaction?

Most of us, I suspect, will resonate with the deep desire we have to be properly served. Have you ever wished you were a king or queen having slaves appease your every whim and want? You say “jump” and they all joyously reply, “How high, O great one!”

It’s hard to get good help! No one wants to jump in and help any more unless they get something out of it.

In Isaiah 49 we hear the call for the heavens, the earth, and mountains to jump for joy because of the comfort the Lord has for his people. He serves them by showering compassion on their affliction.

However Zion, also known as Jerusalem, the mountain where the Lord dwelt with his people in his temple, doesn’t respond in the way the mountains around it are called to do. But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” (Isaiah 49:14 ESV)

It was as if Zion went into a shop for service and no one was there. They thought God had abandoned them, had he disappeared in their hour of need for service and satisfaction? It’s hard to get good help! And it seemed like God didn’t want to help them either.

But the reply comes, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” (Isaiah 49:15–16 ESV)

Even more perfect than a loving mother nursing her child, is God’s compassion for his children. God will not forget — he was constantly in their presence — within the walls of Jerusalem.

What do you do when you think you might forget something? Have you ever written information on your hand to remind you late? God never forgets yet they’re engraved on the palms of his hands. His hand is not written on, rather his hand rests on those he loves, touching lives, moving with his Holy Spirit to comfort and console.

Israel was engraved on God’s hands not because he forgets, but because they constantly forgot about him! It was hard for them to find good help, because they chose to turn their backs on the fixes God put in place. All they had to do was follow the house rules and be faithful stewards of the Law in his holy house on his holy hill, at the temple in God’s earthly Zion, Jerusalem.

So when they became despondent thinking they were slaves of misfortune and God had abandoned them, he reveals them his hand. They are etched and imprinted on his hands, carried by he who created them.

This is a remarkable thing God does; he’s sovereign and almighty over all things yet he’s got them on his hands. Usually the practice was to tattoo or brand the name of the master onto to hand of the slave, but here God shows he is enslaved to them, just as is a nursing mother to an infant still on the breast.

It seems nothing changes much throughout the ages. The Jews were finding it hard to get good help while Jesus walked amongst them two thousand years ago! Yet again they were still seeking satisfaction in all the wrong places.

They were anxious over what they would eat and drink, where they would live and what they would wear. Anxious here in the Greek text literally means “becoming disunited” and “divided within”. They were unable to get good help because in their struggle for satisfaction they were literally coming apart; they were cracking up and breaking at the seams.

The people of God had lost their glossy appearance. And with their backs turned from God, busy seeking satisfaction, their anxiety was not only breaking them open for all to see them seeking a sinful reality, but was also tearing them away from God.

Jesus addresses them, “O you of little faith? …do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:30–33 ESV)

Jesus tells them our Heavenly Father looks after the birds of the air, the lilies and grasses of the field, which come and go with regularity. And he likens their faith to that of short-lived grass.

Their faith was not so much as little, like that of a mustard seed, but rather the phrase is better translated as puny, brief, vain and disappearing like a puff of steam from the mouth on a cold morning. It was slow to grow and fast to fall, lacking perseverance and endurance. Their faith was broken, here today gone tomorrow, like a cheap glossy piece of costly junk.

So Jesus seeks to rekindle their faith as he encourages them to once again seek the Father — as their help, as one who serves, who never forgets, and who is faithful like a nursing mum. However, this time it was different! God the Father was revealing his hand, and engraved on it with love and compassion, is his Son Jesus Christ.

But how were they to see this hand of mercy? Time and time again God had raised his hands to bless. Right from the day God gave his word to Moses and Aaron, the Israelites heard God’s promise. Over and over again God promised to bless them and keep them; that his face would shine upon them and be gracious to them, and they would be looked upon with favour, and given his peace. How were they to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness this time, when every other time in the past they failed to see or seek his help?

If it’s hard for humans to get good help, how hard do you think it is for God to find good help when we can’t even seek the right help for ourselves? Well, it’s so hard God had to send his own Son to be our sole help. The Law, as holy as it is, proved to be no help; we always fail as stewards of the Law, breaking the house rules.

In fact, it’s not the system that’s out of order, we’re out of order. We’re the broken possessions of God, and we need returning to the manufacturer for repair. But God sends his repairer to us! The reality is help is at hand, God’s hands have been lifted up in death and now in victory.

Are you obedient to God’s word and will? Are you seeking his righteousness and his kingdom? Or do you seek a righteousness that seeks to set up a kingdom of its own? Do you wish all around you would fall to your will – give you traffic free roads, service when you want it, solitary, and satisfaction? Do you wonder why no matter what you do, or seek others to do for you, the peace from these deeds never lasts, if it even really starts?

Jesus calls you to seek God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When you stop, when you’re still, you allow him to be the sole source of your help. Then you will know he is Lord, that he jumps to your attention, making his kingdom yours, and so too his righteousness.

Jesus Christ is your righteousness, you are God’s prized possession, like a bride bearing the ring engraved with her husband’s name, and he bearing hers, you have his name written on you, and yours on him.

Our help is now in the name of the Lord, and that name is our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Spirit is given to give you the will to seek his righteousness, by faith alone. You’re righteous before God because of this gift of trust, or faith, by which he seeks to conform you to his will to do his works.

His hands now bear the engravings of your sin, the nail marks of the cross are your reminder. We not only have the written word of God’s blessing and service, we have the Risen Word, the Son of God. He was faithful towards God even unto death, and he is faithful to you today even as you struggle unto death. That’s got to give peace beyond understanding!

So trust him, the work of his Son, the immediate ceaseless activity of the Holy Spirit, who jumps to serves you in your brokenness. There is true satisfaction to be had!

It might be hard to get good help, but that doesn’t mean it’s not available. Seek satisfaction in his righteousness! It will save you from yourself. It will save you from the anxiety within which seeks to have you believe you must work your righteousness. Amen.

A, Epiphany 7 - Leviticus 19:2; Matthew 5:38-48 "A Tale of Two Traditions"

2011-02-19T20:01:00.007+08:00

There are many saying of wisdom in the world. There are also just as many sayings contradicting these wise words, but are they any less wise? For example the idiom, “history tells us” or, “tradition has it” is a good reminder of worldly wisdom’s opposites.

History tells us many things have improved our lot in life, but history also tells us we’ve become a lot worse off. One will say, “History never repeats itself” while someone else will say, “History has to repeat itself” and yet both are wise sayings in different contexts.

One thing worldly wisdom does is builds an authority, common amongst a community of people. This authority common to the community is called commonsense. Within this authority of common wisdom there is a generally accepted human model which sees us divided folk into good and the not so good — good blokes and lovely ladies as opposed to gullible girls and blokes who are jokes.

Those we tend to label as jokes or gullible are those we don’t like for one reason or another. They don’t match up according to the common authority of worldly wisdom’s sense of right and wrong. Nevertheless, we seek to be seen as good people under this tradition, this authority, and this wisdom — lovely ladies and good blokes.

In total contradiction to this authority, tradition, and wisdom of being either good and not bad, Jesus began teaching a new wisdom, a new Tradition, and a new authority.

On the Sermon on the Mount, many good folk gathered — well many came and listened who appeared to be good. But Jesus addresses the hidden folly of their wisdom, their traditions, and the authority under which they sought to live.

In the last couple of weeks we have heard sections of his address on the mountain. Beginning in Matthew chapter five, Jesus lays out the foundation of this new wisdom in the beatitudes. The beatitudes begin his teaching, acting like a summary of the contents, after which he unpacks these sayings.

He tells those gathered what it is to be blessed, and then he instructs them they are the light and salt of the world. They will be the bearers of this new foundation on which we’re taught to believe the church is built today.

Next Jesus prefaces the unpacking of this new wisdom by saying their old ways were not wrong, just misguided. The Tradition which was laid out by God through Moses was made to look like a joke. But the Israelites had in fact become the brunt of the joke — gullible to the ways of the world.

Many of them and their religious leaders had corrupted the ways of God so his authority, wisdom, and God’s Tradition, written in his wise words of Law ended up being used to point to them and their authority, wisdom, and traditions. And the leaders loved looking like good blokes leaving many of the followers wondering how they too could copy their pious virtues and dutiful deeds.

However, Jesus upholds the old covenant wisdom saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them”. (Matthew 5:17 ESV) The Greek word for think in this verse comes from the Greek word for law. So Jesus tells them not to law a new law, don’t write off the wisdom God has already written.

Jesus knows the way we think and the way our wisdom works. At the Sermon on the Mount he returns humanity to the holiness of God’s Law, telling them not to outlaw the holy Law given though Moses. What he needs all of us to know is our wisdom, our authority, and our traditions make us outlaws against God and his good and holy Law.

So Jesus says, “…I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5:20 ESV)

We can understand this must have astonished those who listened on. Why can we identify with their astonishment and shock? Because it still comes as a shock to us who seek to be good blokes and lovely ladies in our good person — bad person perception!

You need to know — unless your goodness surpasses the practices and commonsense of all worldly wisdom, authority, and tradition you will not enter the kingdom of heaven!

Jesus continues to unpack his teachings by reminding the listeners each time what was common wisdom by saying, “You have heard that it was said… (Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη)” If we use today’s language, he said, “History tells us... traditionally you have done this… the common practice might be… or, you might have it on good authority…

Five times Jesus points out what they have heard said to be the common practice; six times if we count his continuance from adultery onto divorce. He points out the status quo but then six times says, “BUT! But I say to you… (ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν)”

Today we hear the last two of these teachings of Jesus, which herald a new wisdom, and the new Tradition, refocusing Israel with all humanity back under the true wisdom, the true authority, and the intended tradition God put in place for all people.

Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:38-39, 43-45a ESV)

Next to these new Traditions announced by Jesus our commonsense wisdom sees God’s way as nonsense. “How can one have any sort of authority by not standing up against evil? And ‘loving your enemy’ what’s this all about? This sounds like we should be submitting and serving the very type of people we’re called not to be as Christians — the evil, our enemies and the enemies of God! Surely we can’t be associated with those condemned as jokes, or those who are gullible?”

The reality though is when we allow ourselves to go the way of the world and return to the deeply rooted desires of our hearts, our wisdom, our authority and our traditions, love and compassion are lost to revenge and hatred. Regardless of history repeating itself or not, we repeat ourselves by constantly turning back to the nonsense of the heart. God and his word reveal humanity’s commonsense as mostly nonsense.

Why is this so? Because there is more to righteousness, wisdom, authority, and tradition than being good or bad! True wisdom will move us to see through the good bloke and lovely lady sentiment to a reality which asks, “How good is good enough for God? Can I ever be good enough?” and “Why do I need to be accountable to God anyway?”

True wisdom places itself in the Traditions of authority outside this world, so we might be seen as Sons of heaven. This wisdom gives us a sturdy footing on which to stand in this world, in this life, in the face of evil. This authority enables us to endure evil by standing up in something other than retaliation or revenge. We’re lifted in holiness by the Holy Spirit, who stands us in Christ, and therefore stands us in good stead with God the Father, and causes us to be the light of world and the salt of the earth.

I know I no longer have anything on good authority from the world! My experience and worldly traditions show me up as the same as those in whom I see evil and whom I believe to be the enemy. Therefore, I also know I’m trapped by the wisdom of this world, and need a Saviour to redeem me, and make me truly good before God.

Jesus concludes this section of his teaching on the mountain by stating what the status quo must be, to be truly good before God. In one line he tells us what fulfilling the Law is all about. He says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48 ESV) Jesus repeats what God told Moses at Mt Sinai when he said, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2 ESV)

Your righteousness must be perfect, not one motive out of place, not one thought out of place, not one deed out of place, nor one emotion out of place. So how do you do it? Do you think, feel, or act as if you can do it, even for just a moment?

You’re under the most burdensome wisdom if it’s all about being a good bloke. You’re tradition of trying to stand as a lovely lady only ensnares you as a gullible girl in this life.

God’s perfection is not about being good or bad; rather it’s about being holy. He needs us to be holy so his holiness won’t destroy us. But how can we live when perfection or holiness is out of our grasp?

The first part of God’s capital “T” Tradition is in fact knowing it’s out of our grasp. The second is trusting that God has reached out and grasps us? There is no more struggling to be a good bloke or a lovely lady, rather God makes us better than this, he makes us holy.

How does he do it? Jesus was not just a teacher teaching a new Law, he wasn’t another prophet calling for a return to the Law. He came with a new Tradition, a new wisdom which continues to confound the wise of this world, and came with authority so good it was holy.

Jesus is our wisdom personified! Jesus’ has authority to make you good blokes and lovely ladies, pleasing to our Father in heaven. And he does this by loving us even though we feel, we act, and think like enemies by being continually seduced by the traditions and wisdom of this world.

Jesus does this by not standing up to the evil of the world, but by being lifted up as a capital criminal on the cross. He took all our sin and evil, and in return gives us the holiness of his Sonship. He now seeks to stands up in us so we might stand up in faith focused on him as we endure all enemies and evil.

This is the new Tradition, the capital “T” Calvary cross Tradition, and it makes you God’s holy temple where the Spirit grows heavenly wisdom. And this new wisdom produces faith and hope enabling you to see God’s Traditions are life-giving eternal traditions.

In conclusion Paul tells us, "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness,’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ So let no one boast in men." (1 Corinthians 3:16–21a ESV)

Let no one boast about being a good bloke or a lovely lady, but let us trust our Lord Jesus Christ who loved us, even unto death. Amen.

Epiphany 6 - 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 Deuteronomy 8:7-18 "His Holy Harvest"

2011-02-12T13:52:00.006+08:00

In the Old Testament God promised to give the Israelites a new land. The land in which they dwelt was Egypt, a land of slavery and oppression. Having been freed from that place it seemed they went from the fry-pan into the fire. They found themselves wandering around in the Sinai wilderness, amongst snakes and sand. It seemed they found themselves between a rock and a hard face – a very hard place indeed.

But the Old Testament tells us of a promise made, that God would deliver them into a better place as the chosen race. He would give them an inheritance, a land of their own overflowing with milk and honey. And those he would deliver into this land of plenty would be a great nation, too numerous to count, as he had promised Abraham all those years before when he called him to look at the night sky and see his family numbered like the stars.

We know Abraham never saw the multitudes for himself. He only had one son, Isaac. Isaac too, never saw a large family. In fact, both of these men had wives who struggled to fall pregnant and have children, and the land in which they inhabited was not their own.

It was only when the land in which Isaac inhabited descended into drought and desolation that God began to grow Israel, but still only as a family. Jacob, and his wives and concubines, had a large family, but with no food it appeared they too would perish and die. If it was not for Joseph being sold into slavery and God raising him as Egypt’s second in charge, they would have surely become dust in death.

And so Jacob was the first to see a large family, but only after a series of severe testings throughout his life. He saw his family on the brink of starvation, he saw his family squabble and secretly sell one of his sons into slavery. And only in his last days did he see Joseph had survived and his family fed through God’s preservation. But was the land they were to inhabit the land of Egypt on the fertile Nile river?

We know it wasn’t, and for four hundred years it seems God goes quiet before he severs them from the slavish hell their lives had become in Egypt. Nevertheless, while they were there they grew as God had promised. From about seventy in the household of Jacob, saved from famine, not until after four hundred years and generations past, did they number like stars in the sky.

God delivered them through the Red Sea into the Sinai wilderness and God gave them the Law on Mount Sinai. Moses came down from the mountain with two stone tables and inscribed on them were Ten Commandments, given to guide the Israelites. They were commanded to look not to themselves but to the Lord. But what of God’s promise they would inhabit a land of their own? Moses tells the people…

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:7–18 ESV)

Can you imagine how they must have felt hearing this promise? Food and freedom; no more building bricks with mud and straw! Iron and copper, crops and vineyards, water and wealth; they were going to be masters in this land of promise and plenty.

Just like a child wide-eyed at the prospect of getting a gift, the Israelites promise to acknowledge the Lord, follow him adhering to the Law, and remember it was he who gave them power and wealth. “Yes Lord, o course we will listen to you, follow you, acknowledge you, and remain under your almighty guidance!”

However it seemed the Lord was a long time in coming good with his promise. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness just outside this place of plenty for forty years. For many it was a lifetime and most of them died never trusting God nor seeing the land of Canaan. God was again testing them and teaching them to trust him, his promises, and to follow him. If they weren’t going to follow him in the tough times how would they be able to do it in the good times?

So Israel’s promise is an inheritance of land. God grew the nation. He opened the wombs of Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel to do this. He carried them into Egypt and fed them, and while there he grew their numbers despite slavery and suffering.

He delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians, and made his presence known in the desert. And as they wandered in this wilderness he fed them, watered them, and increased their number and power. And then he delivered them into the land of plenty; a land flowing with milk and honey, an inheritance promised through adherence to the Law given on Mount Sinai.

What is God’s promise to you? What is God’s promise to us in his church? What is your inheritance?

Things are a little different from the days of the old covenant, the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments. Or are they?

Jesus Christ has come but the Law remains. In fact, he increases the Law. Do not murder, is increased! Now if you hate, you are guilty of murder. Settle your disputes lest the Law calls you to pay back “every” last penny! Just one look in lust and we’re guilty of adultery. And don’t make promises you can’t keep, by swearing or making oaths.

Jesus calls for impeccable thoughts, words, and deeds – to flee from all evil and acknowledge your lack of power. He says, “…do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:36–37 ESV)

And what of our inheritance? The Israelites received land through the promise and remained in it as long as they adhered to the Law. And the Law led them to remain faithful to God. The Law reminded them, focused them, and revealed the reality they faced in their hearts every day.

Our inheritance is not our farms, our gardens, the milk and honey, the wheat and barley, the bread and water which we take from the earth. These things are the things God gives us as we walk in this wilderness towards the inheritance promised in Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, our struggle is still the same as that of the Israelites, the Corinthians, and every other person. Paul tells the church in Corinth…

For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. (1 Corinthians 10:1–14 ESV)

The greatest temptation we face today is doubt, worry, and pride. To believe God’s promise is not for us, to think our inheritance is what we work for now — our power, our time, and our possessions. We’re tempted and so often fail to trust God is in control, and seek to seize power for ourselves. We turn from God to the greatest idol in our lives; we the idolater become the idolatry. You and I set ourselves up as the great “I am” and our ego left to its own devices always turns to worry, doubt, and pride.

All of us are the same. All of us in this building, all in this generation, our parents, our children, all those we place on a pedestal and all we avoid in the gutter! Every temptation you face people have faced before, and they will be faced again. You have not been tempted by a temptation so great it can’t be resisted, or forgiven. God is still faithful and he provides a way out.

So what is the way out of our wilderness of sin? How do we depart from our deeds of destruction; the thoughts of temptation; and our testing times? What is our inheritance; our land of plenty?

It is not an inheritance here on earth, but rather this is the place of God’s harvest. Rather God wants us as his prize possessions. He longs to let his eternal glory rest on us as we rest in him. Yet in these days he calls us to let his glorified Son Jesus Christ, grow you into his kingdom.

St Paul says… I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labour. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:6–9 ESV)

Your inheritance is you! God seeks to harvest you as he originally intended you to be; united with all in his kingdom as one before him!

Seek this heavenly holy fellowship. Soak up the water of God’s Word, be fertilised and fed in the body and blood of Christ. Allow yourself to repent; to be rebuilt through the testing times you face in this life. Let the Holy Spirit grow faith in you. You are God’s field, let him weed you! Be one in God’s holy house; let him build you as a believer. Let God grow you like grain, into his holy harvest gathered in Christ. Amen.

A, Epiphany 5 - Matthew 5:13-20 "How Salt Saves"

2011-02-05T15:57:00.002+08:00

Jesus speaks about two elements in the Gospel reading today – salt and light. Light is a concept used many times through the bible! We hear of light and darkness. Light is used in relation to holiness, goodness, and as radiating from God’s glory, etc. Light is the opposite of darkness, and darkness is the realm of the hidden, the shady, the underworld, the realm of evil; a place where God is not present nor is the light of his glory.

So when Jesus says, “You are the light of the world”, and “Let your light shine” it’s easy to grasp what he wants us to do. And that’s to let others see our good works and give glory to God.

So before we move onto the element of salt, let’s be clear about this light we’re called to shine – these good works that will cause people to glorify God. Notice though, these good works don’t cause others to glorify us rather just God. That’s important not to forget, lest we employ good works to be seen righteous and therefore seek glory for ourselves.

This is illustrated by the simple picture of a light hidden under a bowl. Why would you light a candle only to put it under something to cover up the light? One may as well not light the candle in the first place! It’s a complete waste of time and useless! One lights a candle so it can shine and remove the darkness and reveal the environment around it.

Just like a city on a hill whose light cannot be hidden, Jesus tells his disciples to let their light shine. But the light they shone was not a light which brought glory to them.

As a matter of fact the light they shone after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, won them imprisonment and martyr-hood. Like Christ, whose death on a hill continues to shine salvation on all who let this light shine in their lives, the disciples’ witness of our Lord shining at transfiguration, Calvary, and ascension, causes many others to give glory to God. To this day the disciples’ good works continue to bring glory to God even as they lay in their graves.

So the light we shine is, in fact, a light not of ourselves, but God. Covering God’s light by parading it as something that might bring glory to ourselves, is the same as putting a candle under a bowl - it’s completely useless and dysfunctional. Our good works are God’s good works set apart for us from before the creation of the world.

Believers don’t even know most of the time when they are shining this Christ centred light let alone have the opportunity to hide it. You can trust God is shining in you as you continue returning to him with a repentant heart, knowing your sinful nature always seeks to hide this God-glorifying light in you, from you, and others so that his light is hijacked for our glory.

The other element Jesus speaks of is salt. He said to the disciples and he says to you, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” (Matthew 5:13 ESV)

One might ponder, “How can salt lose its saltiness?” This immediately moves us to think about one aspect of salt – the one most of us use salt for today – for taste. Salt for many of us is an additive used to enhance flavour, but it has many other qualities too.

To see how these qualities are important for us as disciples of Christ, and the reason why Jesus tells us we’re “the salt of the earth”, we might look at salt in the same way as we do light.

Light shines in the darkness to dispel the darkness. Where light shines, darkness cannot exist. So salt flavours the flavourless, but if salt loses it saltiness, what actually is it? Or better still we can ask, “What is the opposite of salt? Is there an opposing element of salt that makes things bland?”

Now it might be a simple job to distinguish the opposites of light and darkness, however, salt is a little more complex. But when we examine the opposites of salt we can know what it is, what it’s not, and why it’s such a good image for Jesus to liken believers to.

So what is the opposite of salt …?

Sweet? Pepper? These two also give taste. Some might find sweet more pleasant than saltiness, but they both give taste among other things. And pepper it’s a spice, a taste agent too! All three add flavour, but what takes flavour away, a subtracter as opposed to an additive; how can salt lose its saltiness?

Salt is not just a taste agent. Salt is also a preservative. It’s used to sustain food from spoiling, and it’s used in the leather tannery process. Salt is a retainer, a keeper, an absorber. Salt in a body retains water, salt cleans by attracting moisture. Spill red wine on carpet and the best thing to get out the stain is lots and lots of salt. It preserves by sucking up the mess with the moisture.

It appears we can only find opposites of salt’s action. Salt gives flavour, it purifies and preserves, it stops food from rotting, and salt retains water by drawing it from other things. So we get a picture of what salt does and what it wouldn’t do if salt could lose its saltiness.

Jesus uses these pictures of salt and light to lead us into a deeper understanding of who we are as his children. He uses this illustration to show how the kingdom of heaven functions. He teaches a way lost on most cultures — the way of servanthood, suffering, and submission. Jesus teaches the way of righteousness lost even amongst Jews in favour of a righteousness built on pride, status, and self-achievement. But Jesus’ pictures of salt and light show how true righteousness and servanthood functions in the kingdom of God’s glory.

Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17–20 ESV)

Jesus didn’t come to take the saltiness from the salt, nor did he come to turn off the light. Rather he came rubbing salt into the wounds of sin, and he came letting the light expose all the deeds of darkness. The righteousness required by God is perfection, and the servanthood necessary, complete submission. Jesus came calling humanity back to the saltiness of God’s word and he came to shed light on a new way of righteousness.

When Jesus called the disciples to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, he was calling them to let the salt and light of the law do its work within them. Unless they first were preserved and given flavour by the Word, how could they have been salt and light to those around them?

Many of us today have a great faith and a high level of righteousness. Unfortunately though, this righteousness and faith does not find favour with God. It brings glory, respect, honour, veneration, fame, reward, pleasure, and power. But this righteousness and faith only lasts for fleeting moments and has no value in the kingdom of heaven.

The scribes and Pharisees were masters of this type of righteousness. They used the word of God to believe in themselves. They had a high moral conduct, they sought to follow the law, yet it was still not good enough. They were passing over the dots and iota’s, the bits and pieces, leaving their righteousness incomplete despite how astute they appeared to be.

Unfortunately for humanity, as hard as we try to do the righteous thing, there is always a dot or an iota left out. These are the motives for our righteous deeds. Motives which seek glory for the self — fame and fortune fought for by the follower!

So as good, clean living, honest and upstanding citizens as the Pharisees and scribes were, it was not enough to earn the kingdom of God, and unless your righteousness exceeds theirs you too will not enter the kingdom of God.

If the law is left to do its holy work. It lights up all unrighteousness and gives us a dose of the salts. It exposes and cleanses us first. Think of what it’s like when you’ve had a stomach bug. One is literally cleaned out, exhausted, and weak. This is spiritually what the law does to us. We are left in need of food that will strengthen our being. And we receive it, and more. The food we receive is forgiveness and faith, salt that preserves and purifies and a light which leads us in all righteousness.

Jesus fulfils all righteousness in his life, death, and resurrection here on earth. He gets right the bits and pieces of the law, the dots and the iota’s. Jesus Christ dots all the “I’s” and crosses all the T’s, and yet he hung on the cross as if he was guilty of all unrighteousness. And for those who trust in him and allow his righteousness to persevere in us it will preserve us eternally.

Those who believe they are weak, who let the law do its work, freely receive the grace of God’s forgiveness and a faith that’s born of his Word through the action of the Holy Spirit. God’s will is grafted into us; our will is washed in the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And God enables us to live repentant lives as he shines into the world through us and seasons the earth with the righteousness he intended from the beginning.

Pray God lets his good works shine in you. Ask for him to give you strength to endure and persevere. And know through you he can implant the hunger of righteousness in the hearts of all who come your way. Let us give thanks to God and give him all praise and honour till his kingdom comes and all is preserved and enlightened forever, righteous in the glory of God. Amen.