A, Last Sunday of the Church Year - Ezekiel 34:11-16 "Sheep Need a Shepherd"

The picture of a grazier feeding grain to sheep from the back of a Land Cruiser has become a dim picture in the minds of most Queenslanders in the past ten years or so. In fact most kids would not have ever seen or experienced an economy riding on the backs of sheep, unless they live on one of the few properties that still graze sheep. When driving around the Tara-Meandarra area one will notice there aren’t many sheep left. Thousands of sheep grazing in paddocks, a common sight in the 70’s and early 80’s, are not there anymore. The pictures of the caring grazier feeding his sheep grain on drought stricken properties are gone, and, so too, the pictures of sheep grazing on green grassy paddocks are just memories of the past.

So as Australia moves away from being a country dependant on an economy driven by wool and mutton, the picture painted in the texts today of a shepherd caring for his sheep two-thousand years ago in the Middle East gets just a little bit dimmer on the horizon. If we look at what a shepherd does and see the sheep for what they are, these texts can give us a very good picture of what God does for us, how he does it, and who we are. We can put aside the far-fetched picture painted by the movie ‘Babe’, where sheep, a little pig, dogs and a duck seem to be as intelligent as, or even more intelligent than, the old man who farms them.

Anyone who has ever had to work with sheep will know that they are not the brightest animals to ever walk the earth. Left to their own devices they will get into trouble. Some say they are thick or stupid. Sheep easily sulk, flopping down, refusing to be brought back to the herd when they have gone astray. These animals need boundaries and protection. Their wool which once made them so valuable is also the very thing that can harbour their death, if it gets wet and fly blown. When sheep are chased through a gate, if you can get them to the gate, one will jump then the next and the next and so on. Maybe you have heard asked, ‘If someone jumped off a cliff would you?’¬– well a sheep probably would! Graziers have to spend much time and money building and mending fences, to hold the sheep in, and, in some areas, to keep wild dogs out. He might spend a great deal on vehicles, sheepdogs, and pasture improvements to guard and protect these dumb animals. These animals need to be shepherded; the Australian grazier uses these means to do this task of shepherding.

So sheep need pasture or land on which to graze. They need protection from disease and attack from wild animals, and they need someone to watch over them. Farmers have paddocks to protect and keep the sheep together, but when these paddocks run out of feed, the sheep can’t find a new one, and rarely do they find their way back to the paddock if they get out. When their protector approaches them to catch and care for them, they become scared and struggle to get free or go into sulk mode and flop down as if they would give up their life in an instant.

The picture of a shepherd in the Middle East is not really that much different. There are no fences, the shepherd travels with his sheep; he in a sense is the fence for his sheep. He finds the right pastures for them, if he left them to their own devices others would steal them, wild animals would eat them, or they would wander off and get lost from the flock. He calls his sheep with his word and uses his rod to protect, and his staff to save them. Whereas motor bikes, dogs, and Land Cruisers are the identifying sounds and instruments of an Australian shepherd or grazier.

But the fact is without a shepherd, of some sort, sheep are not going to survive. In their temporary existence away from their shepherd or the things put in place to shepherd them, their quality of life will be next to nothing. We are God’s sheep, and he is our shepherd. Are we thick, dumb, or stupid like sheep? Well no, we are not! But our actions are similar to that of a sheep’s because of sin. So we too, need a Shepherd.

The pastures in which God originally placed us, was the lushest garden ever. The Garden of Eden was a paradise of infinite gifts to us from God, with one boundary, and that was not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But like sheep left to their own device, the grass seemed greener on the other side of the fence, outside the boundary, and humanity shepherded themselves into death and separation from God and his garden of gifts, by crossing that boundary. They turned their backs away from the Shepherd and his green pastures, to the fruit which has made us all rotten to the core. Now there is no way that you or I, can get back into the garden that is eternal life, or paradise, no matter how much we try to look like good sheep outside the fence.

So what does God have to say about weak stray sheep outside the fence of paradise and eternal life? He says: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. (Ezekiel 34:11-16)

God has placed a hole back in the fence, so we can enter back into paradise. But guilty as we are, we flee further from God, seeking to be fed outside the fence. The opening he gave us only exposes the boundaries we ignored and crossed. Such is the Law of God which shows us how we sin; the Ten Commandments expose our desire to turn away from God, his will, and the bountiful gifts he wants us to have in our lives. God gives us an entrance back in, but the same craving which led us to break the boundaries and be thrown out of the Garden in the first place, only causes us to run further away.

So to bring us back to his garden of paradise, the Shepherd, in an act of brilliance, sent his Son to shepherd us. He came to make us content to dwell in his garden, or his paddock of perfection, and to heal us and cleanse us of our stricken state. We once again have value as his sheep because he came to seek us and lead us home to our Father’s property, named, Heaven. The Shepherd came to us not as the Shepherd but as a sheep; he came as the Lamb of God. Just as the economy of our country once rode on the sheep’s back, God put his household in order by placing the burden of obedience on Christ’s back. Jesus came as a sheep to heal our waywardness, protect and cleanse us from evil, and to carry us home on his back.

Jesus bore the punishment for our corruption of paradise and subsequent expulsion; he makes us acceptable and gives us access back into the Father’s presence. The Shepherd gave up his position as Shepherd and came as the humble Lamb who bears your sin and mine. And now having been raised, the Lamb of God leads his flock back into God’s eternal paddock of paradise. The economy of God’s church is carried on the back of the Lamb of God. The head servant, Jesus Christ, shepherds us back into God’s presence where he causes us to live forever on his green pastures of paradise.

You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord God (Ezekiel 34:31).

[So] come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care (Psalm 95:6-7a). Amen.

A, Pentecost 27 Proper 28 - Judges 4:1-24 "The Queen Bee"

Joshua led the people of Israel out of the Sinai wilderness across the Jordan into the land of Milk and Honey. He finished what God had commanded Moses to do and led the Israelites into Canaan.

However, once the land was conquered and Joshua sent the tribes off to possess the land, Joshua died and he was not replaced. So there was no single leader to direct the twelve tribes in the ways of the Lord as they went about their business in the land they had acquired.

It was during this time that God raised up judges. These judges didn’t hand down sentences in the way a judge might today. They were called by God to put right what had gone wrong. Therefore, these judges were more like a sheriff from a wild-west town, who was given authority to right wrongs between individuals for the sake of the community.

Just like a wild-west society lawlessness was also at a premium in the days of Israel’s inhabitation as God’s people became an authority to themselves. A phrase in the Book of Judges is repeated over and over again, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” The authority of God, which had earlier come from God in his word, spoken by Moses and Joshua, was now being forgotten.

Why was God’s Word, and his statutes, being forgotten? It was basically a failure of vocation! People were no longer doing what they were supposed to be doing. The roles in society needed for orderliness were crumbling. Those stationed in positions of authority were avoiding their responsibilities and those called to remain under the authority of others were not doing so.

God had commanded the Israelites to teach, speak, bear, and live all his decrees and statutes before their children. His command was that they made his word alive by speaking it to the following generations, but this wasn’t happening. Therefore, people were deliberately sinning against God’s law, and there were also those who sinned in ignorance because they had not been taught.

In this time God raised up judges. However, one he raised up was a judge different from all others. God raised up a woman to sheriff the community of Israel, and her name was Deborah. This is peculiar and it shows just how bad things had become. Disobedience of vocational responsibilities had become so great God had to work outside the box to bring orderliness back to Israel.

We do well to hear the whole story, and as we listen take note of Deborah and Jael, the other woman in the story, and see how they act in relation to the men around them.

1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.

4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” 9 “Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honour will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.

12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.

17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.

18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.

19 “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

20 “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say ‘No.’”

21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.

23 On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him. (Judges 4:1-24)

Notice it is Deborah who was taking court under the palm tree. This woman was settling the disputes of the Israelites. One has to wonder, where were the elders and the leading men of the villages? It was custom for the men to sit at the town gates and take court, to settle matters people had with each other.

But it is Deborah who was bringing order when it should have been the leading tribesmen. In fact, Deborah is the Hebrew name for a bee, and comes from a word which means to subdue, command, speak, or arrange. And so we can see the orderliness of a bee hive and see how the bees work as one under the queen bee for the benefit of the hive. Similarly God used Deborah to bring order once again to the hive in the land of honey, the land of Canaan.

Where it might be normal for the commanding bee to be a queen, it is not customary for a woman to lead in Israel. So what might seem to us today as a sign of equality and political correctness is, in fact, a marker that something was completely out of wack with the orderly society of Israel, as God had originally intended for them in the land of milk and honey!

The evil done in the sight of the Lord, had reached a new depth. The dominion and subduing was left to Deborah while those entrusted with God’s leadership — within individual families, groups of families, and the twelve tribes — did evil in the eyes of the Lord, appearing more as drones in the hive than leaders leading the nation out of sin.

Deborah was the wife to Lappidoth, and his name means wormwood, with connotations of being cursed or poisonous. Not surprisingly due to the evil of the Israelites, they had become cursed and poisonous to God. So God called Deborah to lead Israel, and she called Barak to go in the name of the Lord and take on Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army.

The Israelites in their evil brought continual oppression on themselves as Jabin reigned down terror on them, but Jabin was no slouch. His name gives testimony to this, as Jabin means to be cunning, to be a perceiver, and one who is intelligent. He must have thought, “If a woman was leading the Israelite, then there has to be problems on the home front!”

Added to this was Barak’s whimpish response when Deborah commanded him to rally men to fight. He wouldn’t go unless Deborah went. Barak wasn’t even bold enough to fulfil his vocation of leading God’s army into battle, even though the attack had been commanded by God. The ways of the Lord had surely been forgotten as they placed their fear in a force other than God. Therefore, Deborah promised Barak, on behalf of God that Sisera would be handed over to a woman and honour would not fall to him.

God clearly worked through Deborah, Jabin’s army was defeated and slain. Jabin’s general, Sisera, fled to the home of Heber the Kentite. Heber welcomed him and Sisera commands Heber’s wife, Jael, to hide him. He tells her to stand at the door and lie for him, telling Sisera’s pursuers that he is not there.

Ironically we’ve heard how Deborah took the place of men in court, which was usually done at the gate of the town, and now another woman is called to stand at the entrance of her home protecting a man cowering from his enemy. But Jael whose name means to do good, or ascend (like that of a wild goat up a mountain), rises to the occasion and kills Sisera as he hides. Just as Deborah had forecast, the honour went to a woman, when Sisera was handed over to Jael.

At this time of rebellion, God restored stability through Deborah. The queen bee had ordered the hive, and it remained that way for another forty years.

We do well to reflect and meditate on this piece of Israel’s history in these days as God is forgotten more and more, as fathers fail to foster the faith in their families, as family authority is undermined time and time again. Isn’t it time men in our society stood up once again in the vocations into which God has called them? That women be encouraged to take hold of the extraordinary vocations God has created for them! That men and woman be subject to one and other out of reverence to Jesus Christ, while fulfilling the necessary and critical functions that benefit our whole society!

Shouldn’t we once again encourage those in authority to be students of God’s word, so we might fulfil our vocations to teach, speak, bear, and live the word of God, in our homes, in our communities, and in our country?

Even greater than the statutes and laws of Deborah’s time is the greater gift of the Gospel we bear today.

Surely our vocation as Christians is to teach, speak, bear, and live the daily forgiveness that comes to us from Jesus’ death on the cross. If we as pastors and parents don’t teach, speak, bear, and live Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins, who will?

Let every one of us stand under the authority God places over us, so he can put us right. So we might be judged right in his sight! And in doing so may he use us in his kingdom, to work through us, to teach and lead others to where true forgiveness and eternal peace can be found. Amen.

A, Pentecost 26 Proper 27 - Matthew 25:1-13 "Rest Ready"

What are you waiting for? Waiting is one of the hardest things to do. Waiting for something to finish; waiting for it to start. Waiting for Christmas; waiting for work to finish, waiting for the weekend. Waiting for first love; fiancées waiting for their wedding day. Waiting for morning, for sickness to end, waiting for it all to be over. Waiting to become pregnant, waiting nine months to see who your child is, and kids always waiting for mum or dad so they can get going! What are you waiting for?

Ten girls were waiting. They were bridesmaids, they were virgins. As their excitement built while they waited it took its toll and they fell asleep. There was no way they could maintain this enthusiasm without exhaustion setting in.

These ten girls had come to honour the bride and groom at the wedding breakfast. Perhaps to entertain and dance for them and their guests! And accompanying them were their torches; poles with rag bound to one end and soaked in olive oil. These torches would burn for about fifteen minutes before going out, and the girls would then have to trim off the burnt rage before re-soaking in olive oil and relighting the torches once again. They knew they needed to be ready with more oil as they waited for the groom to arrive.

We know that five of these girls were not prepared as they waited. As the night wore on their excitement turned to slumber, so when the bridegroom arrived and they were called into service, a startling jolt raised them from sleep as they dashed to soak their torches to be ready.

The ill-equipped girls’ actions were inexcusable. Their lack of preparedness showed them to be quite naïve. One wonders what they must have been thinking; this was an important occasion. They were quite disrespectful if they thought the event would be over in fifteen minutes. They demonstrated they hadn’t thought about what was going to happen, nor did they think about what they needed. Their insolence revealed their immaturity and ignorance and when the groom finally arrived they had no one else to blame but themselves. Whatever was going on within their hearts and minds, they grossly misread the importance of the event and their negligence caused them to be excluded at the end.

However, the ten girls waiting for the bridegroom is a parable. It’s a story Jesus told to illustrate what’s going to happen when he returns at the end for the resurrection and judgement of all people. This parable of the five prepared and the five unprepared girls is about you, me, and all people as we dwell here in the times before Jesus returns.

It’s a sobering thought for us all. We’re in the last days and Christ’s return could happen at any moment. The seriousness of our situation also confronts us as we ask ourselves: What am I waiting for? Am I prepared? How should I prepare myself? And which of the five girls am I in this parable?

If we are quick to judge ourselves by what we do, we need to do so with caution. The ten girls essentially all did the same thing. They all had their torches and they all fell asleep. They were the same, their appearances didn’t negate them from entry into the wedding banquet, but rather it was their unpreparedness. Five of the girls were resting ready, and five were resting on their own laurels, waiting in naïve ignorance.

So what should we do? Should we give up working, sit on top of a hill and wait for the rapture? No! I guarantee that like the bridesmaids our enthusiasm would quickly wear off and we would end up of use to nobody, not even ourselves. After all, all ten girls were sleeping —not watching out for the groom to arrive — yet five were still taken into the banquet.

Therefore, thinking the act of sitting in wait for Christ’s return will earn us the reward of eternal life is just plain wrong. Rather, patiently waiting, resting ready, being prepared everyday, is much more beneficial than being completely unprepared when it comes.

So the question is this: How do I become prepared so when Christ returns he might take me into the wedding breakfast of eternal glory forever?

Imagine the ten girls standing around waiting for the groom to arrive looking each other up and down. After all they all look the same, they all act the same, and they all fall asleep as they wait. But as they wait those with reserves of oil would have continued to wait patiently while those without spare oil would have been secretly convincing themselves, thinking, “We’re alright we’ll get in, we’ve got plenty of time yet!” Or perhaps they thought, “If he lets the others in, he’ll let us in too!” And when the bridegroom comes and they get caught out, even still they thought their efforts would get them in the door, “She’ll be right, we’ll talk our way in!” But as we know it’s not to be as they come to work their ways at they door the bridegroom replies, “I tell you the truth, I don’t know you!”

Therefore, what should surely grieve all Christians is when we hear of others who call themselves Christian, yet do not think it necessary to go to church! They rest on their own laurels thinking they have done enough to be welcomed by the bridegroom at the end of the age. Or they’re too ashamed to come and receive the essentials to cleanse and prepare them for the bridegroom.

But even more dreadful are those who think going to church is some kind of justifying work that earns them the right of entry. However, in all the time they spend working their glory, churching themselves, they never stop long enough to obediently receive the one thing that prepares them for eternity. As a Christian and a minister of Jesus Christ, it distresses me to see brothers and sisters too busy to really hear and receive the message of Christ!

The one thing we all need is forgiveness, this is what prepares us. It is essential for our preparation for the bridegroom’s return. Forgiveness cleanses us of all our sins before God the Father. Forgiveness gives us peace with God the Father. And forgiveness from God gives us the victory Christ won on the cross. Forgiveness is the good oil, you need his forgiveness! This good oil makes you holy; be anointed with the Anointed One, the Messiah, God’s Son. To be prepared, rest ready having heard and believed the good oil of forgiveness given for you!

However, this good oil is not cheap. For God to forgive us our sins against him, it cost Jesus his life! Although we can forgive each other we can’t give God’s forgiveness to each other, nor can we produce it ourselves, it comes from God himself, through his Son, Jesus Christ. And this good oil makes us candles of Christ burning with the Holy Spirit until Christ returns. We get the good oil through the essential things Jesus gives us so we might bear the forgiveness of sins.

These essentials are the forgiveness of sins given in Baptism, and the burning of the Holy Spirit in us making us yearn, to return time and time again, to be forgiven by God himself through the words of absolution spoken by the pastor. This forgiveness also comes when we take the bread and drink the wine, which is the good oil of Christ’s body and blood. And through the preaching and hearing of God’s Word where the Holy Spirit is given, we are fed the good oil so we might rest ready, alive in Christ. Just like the five girls prepared with reserves of oil for when the bridegroom made his surprise return!

So we return to the first question: What are you waiting for? Perhaps a better question is this: What are you waiting with? Jesus calls us to be ready — to keep watch — yet all the girls fell asleep. So we have the peculiar occurrence that five of the girls slept but in fact were keeping watch, or were being kept in their watch as they rested in Christ. But the other five slept and were not ready. In fact they were sleeping in the slumber that leads to eternal death.

To keep watch is keeping watch over ourselves, to remain vigilant, resting in Christ and remaining immersed in the means he gives us, supplying us with the good oil of his grace.

Therefore, encourage one and other to return and receive the forgiveness and the refining fires of the Holy Spirit that God so dearly desires all to have. Allow the continual cleansing and preparation of yourselves with the good oil of God’s grace. Rest ready in Christ; trim your torches!

Do not put out the Spirit’s fire… Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. Amen. (1 Thessalonians 5:19,21-24)

A, All Saints - 1 John 2:28 - 3:3 "We are All Saints"

If I was to inform you that you had ten minutes left to live, what would be important to you? If you were going to die in ten minutes what would go through your mind? How would the things you have done in the past and the things you are doing now impact the way you might react to this shock news?

On hearing of your imminent death would the ‘church things’ you have been doing bring you comfort or distress, would they reassure you and give you peace, or would they cause you to doubt or even resent God?

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of him. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 2:28 – 3:3 NRSV)

Here John encourages us to abide, remain, or stand, in Jesus; to hold onto him, his Word, and the promise he makes to us in his Word. The only way we will have confidence and not be put to shame when he is revealed is to abide in him, hold up as truth what he gives to us as truth, and hang onto the things he puts in place for us now, so we might be with him forever. We know when we have been doing these righteous things we can boldly say we are children of God; brothers and sisters of Christ our Saviour.

If you found you had ten minutes to live, would you trust in the things Jesus has done for you, or would you guilt yourself over the things you think you should have done?

Today we celebrate All Saints day. We remember those who have gone before us and are now continually celebrating around the throne of God together with the angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven. God calls us to see that we too are a part of that company. We have been rescued and although Christ has not been revealed to us, face to face, and we still live and struggle in the reality of this world, we are called to see our reality is also unseen and that we too are gathered around Christ as a result of abide in him through the means he has given us.

This is why John says to us, ‘See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.’ If you found you were to die in ten minutes, God calls you to trust in what he has given you and who he has made you to be, not what you might do in the minutes remaining.

In fact we do already know just who Jesus is! Jesus reveals himself to us in his Word, he continually sends the Holy Spirit to direct us and open our eyes to him when we hear the Word. So through faith we know of his hidden presence with us in this world; our view into the unseen realm is the Word of God.

But there are many who do not know Jesus or his Word. They live by sight and not by faith. They don’t know God’s Word thinking they don’t need to hear, read or study it, and subsequently don’t see the hidden reality of Jesus. So they neither abide in him, trust him, nor do they know him, the Holy Spirit, or our Heavenly Father.

Instead of trusting Jesus, when death approaches, some think they might be able to broker a deal might with God, saying, “If you save me God, I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll be a good person for the rest of my life.” Maybe you too have been tempted to trust in yourself and try this kind of approach?

But we know an even greater deal has already been signed and sealed by God. If you trust in Jesus Christ, if you abide in him, if you receive him through the Word of God, then he, the Word made flesh saves you for free. Just say you did find out you were going to die in ten minutes. God calls you to trust in this free salvation, which cost God the Son his life on the cross.

Christ is hidden by the curtain of eternity and we have access through the Word of God to see Christ behind that curtain and trust that we are God’s Children. The same can be said of us too; Christ is hidden in you so when Jesus returns you will finally see who you are with your very own eyes.

The Word of God will be needed no longer because everyone will see him in his glory. Faith and hope will be no longer required because the object of your faith and hope, Jesus Christ, will stand in front of us and wipe away all your tears and your sinful nature – which is the cause of all our tears. And having the veil of your sinful nature wiped away and removed once and for all, you will we see your true self.

We will see exactly who we are in Christ, having abided in his Word and trusted in his means of salvation, through the work of the Holy Spirit. This will be the final result of our entering eternal life at baptism through Christ’s promise in his Word. When Jesus is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

But while we are here we live in two worlds; the seen world, and the invisible world only seen through faith. As we wait on God the Father to take us home, we place our hope in his Son, Jesus Christ, and the things he gives us in his church. And these things let us look through the curtain of eternity as Christ comes to us in his Word and in the bread and wine.

Take a glimpse at yourself through the glasses of God’s Word. See that in you — lives Christ; see the holiness of God hidden behind the veil of sinful flesh. And as we come here into this place each time, see through the curtain of eternity into the timeless realm outside of space. See yourself around the throne of God with all those who have been purified by abiding in the things Jesus calls us to trust.

Just like those saints who are now made holy by the righteousness Jesus gave them, place your hope in these righteous acts too, in which Jesus calls you to abide. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

If you found out you were going to die in ten minutes, trust in the fact you have already died in your baptism and in ten minutes you would pass through the curtain of eternity into life and celebration forever with God and all the saints. Amen.

A, Pentecost 23 Proper 24 - 1 Thessalonians 1:3 "Produced, Prompted, Inspired"

1 Thessalonians 1: 3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The verse we have just heard, directs us to meditate on three things; faith, love, and hope. These three are not uncommon to us from scripture. We hear of them in many places throughout the New Testament. But more on these three in a moment.

There are also another three things in this verse we can examine too; work, labour, and endurance.

Whether one works or not, all know what work is; all know what work they should be doing, whether they have done it or not. Work here in this sense refers to one’s deeds or actions; to ‘do’ something.

Then we hear of labour. We might assume labour is the same as work, and when we labour at something we do work at it. However, labour is more intense than work in the general sense. Mothers, more than likely, have the greatest understanding of labour, as a more intense part of motherhood, over against the regular duties of a mother’s work. So labour here implies that there is hardship and difficulty, requiring commitment and passion, lest the labour not be finished.

The third word is endurance. It too has something to do with work, as does labour. However, with endurance we have the quality of constancy. One might see endurance as something one has to keep at, grinding away bit by bit, until the outcome is realised. Guts and dogged determination, stamina and inner strength are needed for endurance. Patience, fortitude, steadfastness, and perseverance are what endurance is all about.

Saint Paul, on behalf of himself Timothy and Silas, writes to the church in Thessalonica after a hasty retreat from the multicultural trade route town. The new converts are left to face verbal and physical persecution as a result of their newfound faith. There’s concerned for the fledgling church as they work, labour, and endure amongst those who have rejected Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel.

So he writes his first letter to the Thessalonians to encourage them in the troubles they’re facing. We hear his encouragement for their work, labour, and endurance. But specifically for their work produced by faith, their labour prompted by love, and their endurance inspired by hope. The three fold theme — faith, hope, and love — common in the New Testament is present here, but Paul now couples it with their deeds and lives amongst the transient community of Thessalonica.

In these days we too live in a transient and temporary society. In communities where once everyone knew who was who, there was a consistent stability people could count on. But no more! Our world has gone and got itself a whole lot busier, and we have been caught up in the busyness of it too.

Our society is changing in many ways. We can now find out news from anywhere in the world with only a moment’s notice. People are becoming migratory in search of the almighty dollar. And those who stay put, can’t afford to sit still or they get left behind and buried under a pile of debt.

The church too faces this change and Christians within it face the very real pressures of the transient, live-for-the-moment desires of our age. Once upon a time Christianity was the centre of most communities; you would see the who’s who of the district in a church somewhere. And everyone made the commitment to be in church on Good Friday and Christmas day. But today, friends and family are sadly missed from amongst the ranks. The pews are empty; leaving us behind wondering if we should remain in something that seems like it might die.

The saddest thing though, is not that our society is changing, getting busier, or even becoming more and more heathen. The Thessalonians came through it and so has the Christian church in other ages too. No! The saddest thing is that as a result of these things we allow ourselves to backslide; producing less and less works, labouring in love is lost, and endurance becomes uninspired, bland, and boring.

The saddest thing is we let the godlessness of our age have more power in our lives than our Father in heaven, fearing godlessness more than God, giving it greater and greater power in our hearts and minds. We see numerical decline and lose trust in God who has his plan for his church which he ultimately sustains through thick and thin.

After the collection of the weekly offering we pray for God to receive it for the sake of Jesus Christ. We use various prayers, but usually they give thanks for what God has given us; ourselves, our time, and our possessions. We go on to ask God to accept our offerings as a sign of his goodness and as a symbol of our love.

The offering on the plate is a sign and a symbol, but it’s not the sum total of what we give! And so we can ask ourselves, regardless of how much or how little we might put on the plate, “With what intention do I give?”

The state of our faith, hope, and love are quickly revealed when we match them next to the offering of ourselves, our time, and our possessions.

Does the handling of our possessions speak well of our love; of God or of our neighbour? What does our time management reveal of our daily, hourly, and momentary devotion and glorification of God Almighty? And what type of faith do we radiate to others as a result of the faith we have received from God?

Faith and ourselves, our time and our hope, our love and our possessions; we ask ourselves, “What do they say about my intention towards God?”

Today, in the days of the Thessalonians, even back when the Israelites created the golden calf, and right the way back to Adam and Eve, humanity turns from the one true and living God to idols of one kind or another.

Much work, labour, and endurance has evolved from the hearts and hands of humans to serve these idols we’ve fashioned. But the question is; how do I turn from this habitual sin and idolatry back to the one true and living God, so faith in me produces work pleasing to God, I labour for the love of God prompted by the love of God, and I persevere, inspired with enduring hope of my eternal home, before those who seek heavenly moments in the fleeting pleasures of this world?

We could become better focused on our work, labour, and endurance; but that still would lead us on a path into idolatry. Even if faith, hope, and love within are fed by work, labour, and endurance could we together build something special and great? No! We couldn’t even make something as special or great as a golden calf or a tower of Babel, even if we tried really hard! And we know what God thought of them!

Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians because they didn’t do that. Rather they turned from their idolatry to serve the living and true God, waiting for his Son from heaven. They looked to Jesus Christ and to him alone who chose them through the gospel, convicting them deeply by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God has chosen you and me. Although the deep conviction to work, labour, and love might temp us to focus on these things and turn them into idols, it is the Holy Spirit’s intention with faith, hope, and love, to have us focus on Jesus Christ. And in him we will be productive in faith works, prompted to love, and inspired by hope.

You see faith, hope, and love are ours in Christ Jesus our Lord; we are in Christ because Christ is in us. Faith, hope, and love are in us and can only come from us because they are in Christ and are of Christ as a result of the Holy Spirit.

So let us not even be tempted to run after these other things which might seem good, lest they lead us away from God into the idolatry of ourselves. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and run after him, so that in him, he in us will produce prompt and inspire, faithful good works, labours of love, and enduring hope, to the glory of God — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

A, Pentecost 22 Proper 23 - Exodus 32:1-14 "A Big Heap of Bull"

A Christian fellow, who had previously been a devout Hindu in India, reflects on his former religion at a time when he decided his Hinduism would lead him to worship his cow. Cows are sacred in India. They are gods allowed to roam the streets, enter houses, and to eat them would be a crime of sacrilege.

The Hindu honoured his cow; however, he began to question his faith when this god of his charged him. The consecrated cow, became a beast of burden, thinking nothing of the honour the Hindu had given him.

I’d suspect it would make you wonder, what you’d done wrong, after giving much homage to the cow. Yet all you get in return is wild-eyed rampage coming at you to gore you for your trouble.

Perhaps one should have fell prostrate seeking mercy from the cantankerous cow, but I must admit I’ve never witnessed too many farming folk from around these placed bowing low in the dust and filth of a cattle yard to earn the favour of a snotty animal that’s just been seared with a branding iron. No. The wise thing to do is let the adrenaline take over in super-human style and leap the impossible fence in a single bound.

So the blessed bovine became a beast of burden. The Hindu knew his god of wrath was no god at all and after some time circumstances brought him before the God of creation and his Son, Jesus Christ. In time he believed and he became a Christian.

This might seem like nonsense — worshipping a cow, not being able to eat them, believing they have divine powers. One might say it’s foolish or just a big heap of bull!

But humans have been burying themselves in it from ancient times up until the present. The Israelites having been led out of Egypt with much power and supremacy by God himself, now sit in wait for Moses who had disappeared up Mount Sinai.

While Moses is before God, hearing what was to be put in place so God could have a personal relationship with the Israelites through the giving of the ten commandments and instructions for building a tabernacle — a footstool for God on earth, the Israelites put there own building plan into action. They built themselves an image and declare it to be God’s representative. What was taking time and preparation between God and Moses on the mountain was contrasted by the immediate rush down below for Aaron to dream up a golden image to take the place of an infinite God.

For us this too might seem like a load of bull. They built an image of a calf, and covered with their gold. It was a personal creation of the people, but it was impersonal — unable to speak, see, or act. It could do nothing unlike the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had done everything for them in the past.

However, the people had waited quite a while for Moses. They must have wondered if he was returning. The Israelite failed to see it was not Moses who brought them up out of Egypt, but rather it was God using Moses as his mouthpiece and mediator.

But why a golden calf? What has a cow got to do with God? Why did they make an image of a young bull as God’s representative on earth?

The Egyptians and Canaanites saw the bull as an object of fertility and power and worshipped it as a representative of the sky or storm gods. The Israelites had just recently left Goshen where they would have been accustomed to this style of worship.

Bulls in ancient times were seen as the kings of domesticated animals, just as eagles were the kings of the birds, lions were kings of the wild animals, and the cedars of Lebanon were the kings of the trees.

So God seemed to have become even more distant, now that there leader, Moses, had not been seen for some time. He had disappeared in the glory cloud of thunder and lightning on the mountain. Therefore a bull would have seemed a fitting image of God who was hidden in the Sinai storm of fire and smoke with such power and might.

But we know that the whole exercise was a load of bull. The glory of God and his personal relationship with the people of Israel was exchanged for an impersonal idol. In fact they acted disobediently before God, who had commanded them not to make graven images out of gold or silver. They turned from the person of God Almighty to their own personal thoughts and created a god. They sinned against the Creator and became creators themselves and after they made their impotent god of gold, their self-glory sat them down in revelry against God.

Worshipping living cows or golden calves might seem to us like a big load of bull. However, you and I too struggle with self-glorification. All of us create sacred cows in our lives and bow down to them. We do it wittingly and unwittingly, making gods of the created, and placing them above the Creator.

The problem is that when we create these gods for ourselves, it’s just not they that are the gods. We worship them before God, placing our faith in them, because they have come from our own power. In fact, it is you and I who make ourselves god, when we place other things before God Almighty. In reality, we distant ourselves from the One True God with a pantheon of pseudo gods. We busy ourselves in service to them, so we don’t have to face the reality of our sinful nature before God Almighty.

These gods in our lives are very impersonal. They take away our identity, further destroying the image of God which was originally intended for you and for me. Like the Hindu’s cow god, the gods we create end up charging us, becoming beasts of burden. They kill rather than give life. Like the golden calf our impersonal gods serve us by being a dead weight around our necks, dragging us down into darkness.

Before we exchange the glory of God for our ideas about God we do well to remember the idolatry of the Israelites and the Hindu cow worshipper, was, and still is, a big heap of bull. Before we seek to implement our own ideas of what worship is all about, perhaps we need to hear and study the word of God, and hear what God has put in place for us.

The glory of God is the God who saves us. The glory of God is he who names our sin, calls it to account so he might forgive it, so we might live in peace with him. The glory of God is he who feeds us with his Holy Word and embodies that word of peace and forgiveness in us through the bread and the wine, so we might bear the glory of God before the world showing that our own created false gods and idols are a big heap of bull. The Glory of God is Jesus Christ alone; who served us by bearing our sin on the cross; and continues to serve us in his resurrected glory.

And that’s no bull! Amen.

A, Pentecost 17 Proper 18 - Romans 13:8-10 "How can I Love?"

How do we love? What is love? Is there a part of our bodies from which love comes? We often say the heart is from where love comes, but it is just an organ that pumps blood around our bodies.

Some might think of the sexual organs, but our society is full of sexually active people still starved of love. Maybe love stems from the brain, but some of the greatest thinkers of the world live depressed lives because they have no love. How about the nervous system, the tingly feelings of touch and nurture? But the nervous system is just a heap of electrical currents running around the body. Is the organ of love the eyes, the ears, or the tastebuds? No! It has to be more. Perhaps it is the whole person from whom love evolves?

Being honest though, we know that left alone by ourselves, love evades us. In fact, we don’t even know what love is, when we are alone!

What we do know is that we all need love to survive in this world; a world starved of love. At the close of World War II a soldier was on sentry duty on the outskirts of London on Christmas morning. Later in the day, as he walked the city with a couple of his military mates, he came to an old grey building in amongst the ruins left by bomb blasts. On this building was a sign, “Queen Anne’s Orphanage”. He wondered how they might be celebrating Christmas inside, so he and the other soldiers knocked on the door. An attendant told him that all the children had lost their parents in the London bombings.

The soldiers went inside and seeing no tree, no decorations, and no gifts, gave out as gifts whatever they had in their pockets – a stick of gum, a coin, a stubby pencil. The soldier saw a boy standing all alone in the corner. He went up to him and said, ‘My little man, what do you want?’ Turning his pale face up to the soldier, the little boy answered, ‘Please sir, I want to be loved.’

Just like that little boy, we too want to be loved. We need to be loved.

This boy starved of love, knew there was nothing in him capable of love. War had stripped all love from him, but he knew he needed to be loved. That too is our world – in desperate need of love. Not knowing how to find it, not knowing what it is, every person has a hole within needing to be filled with love. No organ produces love – not the brain, the eyes, the ears, nor the heart.

St. Paul tells us, ‘Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.’

So if love fulfils the law, how then can we love? Aren’t we like little children in the orphanage, unable to find love or even know what it is? Love must come to us from outside. When that soldier heard the words from that little boy, tears filled the man’s eyes and he fell to his knees with outstretched arms, took a hold of the boy and hugged him.

Look at the arms of Jesus outstretched (picture Jesus Christ at Calvary on Good Friday, and the crucifix on the altar) for you. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16) Even greater than the sacrifice the soldier made for the little boy is Jesus’ sacrifice for us. We are orphans adopted by the Father through the sacrifice of his only Son.

So God loves us and in him we know what love is. Love is not something that begins with us, but we need it so much to survive. We have received God’s love because he sent Jesus to die for us and then raised him from death. The love of God is now with us; God has sought us out from amongst the ruins of this life. Jesus is the soldier doing sentry duty, standing guard over us.

So then how does God’s love come to us? It comes though people; in a very special way through the office of a pastor, and also through all of us in the priesthood of all believers.

We heard last week Jesus tell Peter to, ‘Get behind me Satan!’ And we know that Peter denied Jesus three times just prior to his crucifixion. But it is what Jesus says to Peter after his resurrection which addresses love in our context today. In fact it tells us how the fulfilment of love in Christ on cross is given to all of us orphans, adopted by God.

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.” 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.” 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)

Three times Jesus asks of Peter, ‘Do you love me?’, and Peter says, ‘Yes Lord, you know that I do.’ But what does Jesus say to Peter in response to Peter’s confession of love? ‘Feed my lambs, take care of my sheep!’ If Peter was to love Jesus he was going to love him through loving others. God was calling him to allow Jesus to stand guard over others through him. Peter was called to take his post and do sentry duty on behalf of Christ.

After all of Peters failures and they continued right through his life, even after Jesus ascended into heaven, Jesus calls Peter to love. You see Jesus won forgiveness for Peter’s sins on the cross and he has won forgiveness for your sins too. We can love ourselves and others, with the love that comes from God, in his Son Jesus Christ. Through means given by pastors—forgiving of sins against God, preaching, baptising, and administering Holy Communion—and also through people praying and forgiving each other, plus through all our other wholesome vocations God gives love.

Christ is present in your whole being and no matter what we are called to do God gives us the ability to love other people. God lives in us standing watch over us and through us over others too.

That little orphan boy had no way of knowing the soldier was going to walk into his orphanage and give him the loving hug he so badly needed. Jesus finds us and gives us the hug of life, when we had no way of finding love or knowing what it was.

So how do you think all those lost from God, might come to know his love? God loves us, he loves all people, and because Christ lives in you and me, even while we still struggle with sin, God wants to love others through you and me too. Jesus Christ, himself, stands guard in us and through us, seeking out the lost to love. Amen.

A, Pentecost 16 Proper 17 - Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28 "Love without Hypocrisy"

Peter gets it right. Then Peter gets it wrong. Well actually God first works faith in Peter to enable him to get it right and say of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. (Matthew 16:16) Peter believed Jesus was the Messiah, that he was the Christ. But he sure didn’t understand what that meant. Nor did he understand what faith had done within him; he had no idea what made him say what he said.

Because Peter didn’t understand what and why he said what he said, Peter turned to pride after Jesus replies, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17-19)

Put yourselves in Peter’s place. You have just been blessed by the Son of God. He tells you that on you the whole church will be built. To you the keys of the kingdom of heaven will be given. To you is given a new name, the name of rock, you will be the foundation of something new. Even the gates of hell will not overcome you, and therefore on you the whole church will be built.

Can you understand what happened here? Can you see what would happen to you if Jesus said these things to you? Placing ourselves in Peter’s shoes, and hearing these words from Jesus, it’s as if we can almost feel our backs straighten up, our heads are raised up lifting just a bit higher, so we look down our noses, feeling just a little more distinguished, as if we were chosen by something that we ourselves did.

Now that you are the rock, now that Christ is going to build his church on you. He then tells you he is going to die and be raised. Imagine that! Nothing would seize up the wheels of glory quicker than hearing the one who blessed you go on to say something so ridiculous.

Could it have been that Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke him because he now believed the church would be founded on him through his actions to defend the church? Could Peter have taken Jesus aside to rebuke him, because he saw in Jesus’ death, a whole bunch of trouble for himself? Perhaps he just saw death as weakness; and this being raised again, was just crazy man talk! And if Jesus is crazy or his authority is undermined by death, then perhaps Peter saw his being blessed somewhat weakened?

We will never know what Peter was really thinking. But Jesus knew exactly what was going through his mind and came down on him like a ton of bricks, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Matthew 16:23) If hearing Jesus say he was going to die and be raised didn’t confound Peter’s understanding of Jesus’ blessing and leadership, his reprimand as being Satan, would have completely stopped him in his tracks and brought him back to earth.

Jesus then explains, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” (Matthew 16:24-27)

Whatever Peter was thinking as a result of hearing Jesus bless him as Peter “the rock”, Peter’s hidden response was one that would have left him on a trail towards the loss of his soul, and his reward would not have been good, since what he’d done was accredit Christ’s words of blessing as words of glory for himself.

Similarly, we all struggle with the same thing as did Peter. God had done something wholesome in Peter, yet Peter’s pride grabbed it and moulded it just enough so that he believed it was he who was the catalyst for receiving the blessing, rather than God. God has also done something wholesome in you and me, but the same thing Peter is guilty of, we are guilty of too. In short we derailed God’s glory for ourselves.

We too, struggle with the same pride issues. We love to be seen. Either by advertising ourselves for what we’ve done “Look at me, boy I’m good.” Or by going the opposite way and marketing ourselves in the negative, “Nobody’s ever had it as bad as me!” Either way it’s exactly the same thing! It’s the same pride as Peter, which received Christ’s call for Satan to get behind. Jesus’ harsh words to Peter are understandable since through pride Satan became Satan, one hundred percent anti-God or antichrist.

Although we are God’s very own children, still present in our nature is our sinful will pushing and pulling us away from God and his Son Jesus Christ. Even as we remain with Christ and he stands right beside us, our antichrist nature, like Peter’s, underhandedly seeks to work its ways.

In Romans 12 we have heard we need to use sober judgement of ourselves, not thinking we are loftier than we are. Even though we are a part of the body of Christ, just as Peter was the foundation of the church, Christ and the church would have survived despite Peter, and it will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ despite you and me.

In this light, Paul then tells us love must be sincere. Or, let love be genuine. Or, the New King James translates it best, let love be without hypocrisy. Paul is telling the church in Rome and you today, to love without hypocrisy, or literally to not under judge. That is to not have one judgement for yourself and one for everyone else. He immediately follows the command to be sincere in love with a call to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. And it’s best that we first look into ourselves and hate what pride does to us even while God continues to do immeasurable amounts of good.

Luther comments on the verse from John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” saying: What else is Jesus saying to us here but this, “Through me you now have in faith everything that I am and have: I am your very own. You are now rich and fully satisfied through me. For all that I do and love is not for my sake but namely, how I can be useful and helpful to you and fulfil all that you desire and need. Therefore never lose sight of me as your example. Do to one another as I have done for you. Consider also henceforth how you can live for the benefit of your neighbour and do whatever you see to be useful and of good benefit to him. Your faith has enough in my love and goodness: therefore you should now give your love to others.” (SL.XI.1580,18)

We might see how short we fall in loving our neighbour as God loves us by cutting out love and grafting in pride in Romans 12.

Pride is not sincere. Pride cleaves to evil and hates good. Pride is devoted to nobody in brotherly love except the self. I honour myself above everyone else. Pride is never slack on zeal, it’s always spiritually fervent. Unfortunately it serves itself. It’s joyful in itself, impatient in affliction, and has no time for prayer or just forgets about praying altogether. It doesn’t share with anyone, but rather pride demands we get, get, get! And it only practices hospitality, if there is something in it for pride’s sake. Pride says it’s ok to be proud, and not associate with people of low position. After all they’re getting what they deserve! Pride knows everything; therefore, pride never says sorry!

However, despite the foolish, despicable ways that thrash and convulse within, something better is happening within by a holy power that comes from God, despite pride and the suffering it causes the self and those it seeks to make suffer. It’s the power of love, the power of faith, the power of Christ, the power of forgiveness; calling us to stop making excuses to justify ourselves and be sorry before God and each other.

This power comes from the Holy Spirit and it wills us to see Jesus and see his forgiveness. Now having been caused to see Jesus in you, see to it that same forgiveness flows onto those who have wronged you. Learn the lesson that Peter had to learn. The glory is God’s, it comes from him, and works in us, and returns to him, despite all the things we do to keep it for ourselves and hinder it from returning to God.

Jesus is love. Jesus is sincerity personified. He is the perfection of anti-hypocrisy. Yet he judges righteousness from evil. When he walked on earth as man, he clung to that which was good. Jesus was devoted like no other in brotherly love, honouring all above himself. He was zealous, fervent, and always hopeful despite facing death. He was patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. He didn’t repay evil, but suffered unto death. He was not proud or conceited, bearing the diseases of sinful humanity. Jesus overcame evil, by his goodness. He suffered death for sins he did not do, overcoming both sin and death by his humiliating and sinless death on the cross.

Although this is the greatest template and example for each of us to follow, Jesus did all this because of you. He did this because we could never hate evil enough; we could never love perfectly without even just a bit of pride entering in to do its disruptive work. And he still walks with us today in our struggles and suffering calling us to see it’s sin within causing us to stumble.

But he still walks with you, picking you up and calling you to trust him, so you joyfully walk towards sufferings and death knowing you will be raised to rejoice in him in glory forever. Amen.