A, Post Pentecost 7 Proper 10 - Matthew 13:3–9, 18-23 Good Dirt Gospel

Matthew 13:3–9, 18-23 (ESV) And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” …“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

When farmers go out to plant a crop these days they plant broad acreages of land.  It’s ironic that they plant broad acreages but the way in which they cast the seed into the ground is done in the narrowest of ways.   The implements may be still large, pulled behind large tractors, but each seed is sent from a bin of seed down a relatively small pipe into the earth that has been opened and then closed by combine or air-seeder feet and press wheels.

Jesus’ parable of the sower speaks of sowing seed by broadcasting seed widely over a smaller area.  It seems contradictory that we plant on a large scale with large implements via such a precise narrow casting system, where once the opposite occurred with seeming reckless abandon.  They planted a smaller number of seed over a relatively small area with a less accurate broadcasting of the seed, a handful at a time, with a wide cast of the arm.

But that’s how it was done once!  It wasn’t mechanical but rather it was more hands-on and personal.  Thankfully how Jesus acts with humanity is not impersonal and mechanical, but organic and hands-on with each person!  And the parable of the sower, is a parable where the Word of God is not piped into perfectly prepared places but is cast far and wide into the hearts of all types of people.

Jesus paints a picture of the sower casting seed, and it falls into four places.  A path, a rocky patch, thorn and weed infested ground, and good soil.  One might be quick to criticise the sower for his seemingly careless casting of seed.  But anyone who has cast seed or fertiliser by hand, knows that to cover every part of what you have to cover, there will be over castings that don’t end up where they’re meant to land.  Nevertheless, we will come to see why it’s good that the Word of God is cast in less than perfect places, for the benefit of you and me.

Jesus sits to teach the crowd telling them the parable. Afterwards the disciples ask Jesus why He spoke in parables, He says, “I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13 ESV) The irony continues in that Jesus explains the parable to His disciples.  It almost suggests that Jesus knew the real reason why the disciples asked Him why He speaks to people in parables.  Although they were blessed in hearing what they heard did they really understand what Jesus was saying?

We know the Apostles only saw, heard, and understood what Jesus was saying in parables or plainly about His forthcoming crucifixion only after the Holy Spirit chose to reveal it to them after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

We know one of the twelve apostles chosen from the wider group of disciples was Judas Iscariot.  He received Jesus’ teaching of this parable, yet he went on to charter a path not unlike the seed scattered on the path, of which we hear, “the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19b ESV) Why would Jesus give of Himself and His time knowing that Judas would betray Him?

Peter “the Rock” on which Jesus says the church would be built along with all the other apostles and disciples hear and receive Jesus with joy. But when Jesus speaks of His crucifixion their understanding of Jesus’ Word is tested. Jesus rebuffs Peter’s refusal to hear the truth, saying, “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) Later on Peter scatters after the rooster crows, along with all others, leaving Jesus alone to bear the burden of sin and death on the cross. 

So again, why would Jesus give of Himself to anyone like them knowing they were so shallowly rooted in themselves and their own understanding? They didn’t even endure for a minute without Him and fell away like seed cast on rocky ground the moment He walked the narrow rocky way of the cross?

And thirdly, after Jesus was crucified where were the eleven apostles found?  On account of hearing God’s purpose and plan for Jesus’ crucifixion through parables and prophecy they didn’t continue the proclamation of Jesus’ promise made through parables and His prophetic Word!  No! They were hiding in fear of the Jews, choked by fear and the loss of riches in themselves that they too would be crucified like Jesus.

It appears Jesus’ three years of ministry was for nothing since even His disciples didn’t understand as they hid in the upper room on the evening of His resurrection. Nor did the two disciples recognise Him walking with them on the road to Emmaus because they were so worried and distracted like seeds choked by thorns—thorns that crowned Jesus’ head on the cross!  

Why would Jesus die for His disciples knowing that the riches of their understanding would fail in misunderstanding and be what saw them stricken with poverty over the death of their leader on a cross for criminals?

The reason is because Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father as the Word made Flesh, and being the very Son of God, He was sent by God whose Holy Word is powerful and is given for a purpose.   We hear from Isaiah, “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)

Jesus is the Word of the kingdom sent to accomplish and succeed for God’s purpose, in the face of our loss of understanding of God. Yet mysteriously He is not just the Word, but the Word made Flesh.  What is that flesh?   

His flesh is the flesh of humanity, the same flesh as you and me, the same flesh of the disciples and apostles, yet His flesh understood who the Father is and He lived in that flesh without the dirtiness that was man after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Ironically when they ate the fruit of the tree the knowledge what resulted was not knowledge of good and evil but a loss of knowledge of themselves and God, so that they neither feared God as the Creator, nor trusted Him.

Before the fall, Adam was created from the earth. God gathered the dust of the ground and breathed His breath, or spirit of life, into him. We hear in Genesis two, “…the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7 ESV) Literally He moulded man from the dust of the dirt.  In Hebrew Adam is moulded from the dust of the Adamah!  Adam was created by God moulding and breathing life into powdered dirt—Adam from the Adamah—dirt became a living creature in the image of God!

This dirt was not dirty but was the holy pinnacle of God’s creation.  The dirt of Adam and Eve’s flesh became dirty, after the fall into sin. 

Jesus did not fall into sin but was sent down into the dirt that humanity’s flesh had become.  Jesus experienced the paths and ways of humanity but was never led down the garden path into sin as was Adam, you, me, or His disciples.  He understood what it is to have perfect hearing and understanding.  He was never plucked from His path by Satan!

Jesus was not rocked by what God sent Him to do, nor did He turn stones into bread when He was tempted by the devil to do so!  Rather, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)

Jesus was never deceived by riches or tempted by the cares or worries of this world. But He continually looked to the Father despite being sent by Him to die for those who could not understand or misunderstood what He was sent to do!

That is why Jesus became our flesh, the cleanest of dirt, to cleanse us of our dirtiness.  Jesus is the Good Soil­—Good Dirt.  The seed of God’s Word is sown in the good flesh of Jesus.  The mystery is this: Jesus is both the Seed and the Soil, broadcast by God the Father into all the nooks and crannies of humanity to save us from ourselves.  To save us from our hardened ways!  To save us from our rocky hearts with no depth of soil! To save us from the deceptions of this world that cause us to look away from Him to our desires and cares caused by our deadly knowledge of good and evil. 

Better than any farmer, Jesus Christ seeks to till us with His Word, to make us good soil like Him, producing yields of a hundredfold, or sixty, or thirty, by the Holy horsepower of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

***

Sermon Summary and Reflection

Sermon Summary

This sermon reflects on Jesus’ parable of the sower in Matthew 13, showing that the Word of God is not distributed narrowly or mechanically, but cast widely and personally into the hearts of all people. The four soils describe the different conditions of the human heart: hardened by unbelief, shallow through lack of root, choked by worldly cares, or made fruitful by hearing and understanding the Word.

The sermon then turns from the soils to Christ Himself. The disciples, including Judas and Peter, reveal how easily human hearts can resemble the path, rocky ground, or thorny soil. Yet Jesus still gives Himself for such people. He is the Word made flesh, sent by the Father to accomplish God’s saving purpose. Unlike fallen humanity, Jesus remains faithful, undefiled, and fully obedient, even through temptation, suffering, and the cross.

The central gospel comfort is that Jesus is both the Seed and the Good Soil. He enters the dirt of human flesh to cleanse what sin has made dirty. By His Word and Spirit, He tills hardened, shallow, and distracted hearts, making them fruitful in Him. The sermon ends with the promise that Christ continues to work in His people, producing fruit by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection

This sermon invites hearers to examine the condition of their own hearts before God’s Word. At different times, each person may recognise hardness, shallowness, fear, distraction, or attachment to worldly cares. The parable is not merely a warning about others; it is a mirror that reveals our need for Christ to break, deepen, clear, and renew us.

The sermon’s strongest comfort is that fruitfulness does not begin with our own spiritual strength. It begins with Jesus, who is faithful where we are faithless, rooted where we are shallow, and fruitful where we are barren. He does not abandon imperfect soil but comes into it with His Word, His cross, and His Spirit.

A faithful response is therefore not self-reliance, but repentance and trust. We pray that Christ would keep sowing His Word into us, protect it from being snatched away, root it deeply in faith, free it from the choking power of worry and desire, and make our lives bear the fruit He promises.

Questions for Personal or Group Reflection

• Where do I see hardened, shallow, or thorny places in my own heart?
• What cares or desires most often compete with God’s Word in my life?
• How does it comfort me that Jesus is both the Seed and the Good Soil?
• What fruit might Christ be seeking to grow in me through His Word and Spirit?
• How can I make space this week to hear, receive, and dwell in God’s Word?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

B, Lent 5 - John 12:31-32 Jeremiah 31:29-34 "Behold, days are coming"

John 12:31–32 (ESV) Jesus answered, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Unlike the prophet Jeremiah, Jesus says, “Now!”

Jeremiah points forward to this “now” from Jesus. 

Fifteen times Jeremiah prophecies, “Behold, days are coming!” This is a call to notice something is going to occur.  Expect the unexpected at a time that is unexpected. 

Jeremiah is called to speak on behalf of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, “In those days they shall no longer say: “ ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’  But everyone shall die for his own iniquity.  Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,  not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.”  (Jeremiah 31:29–32 ESV)

The days are coming when everyone will be responsible for their own sins.  No longer will children suffer from the sins of the fathers!  Nor will wives, children, or others in the household be covered by the father’s piety.  Everyone who eats sour grapes will have their teeth set on edge!  Everyone shall die for their own evils.  In other words, God only has children, he does not have grandchildren.

God’s covenant with Israel had become ineffective.  Not from God, but from what Jeremiah describes as Israel’s whoredom.

This whoredom was through the worship of Baal, a fertility cult, to make the land productive by appeasing Baal.  In a bid to become wealthy off the land that God had given them, they made this Canaanite god their master.  “Baal” literally means “master” or “husband”.  God was their master, their caring husband, who took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt into this land of milk and honey.

But in the land of Canaan, the Israelites were unfaithful, and God who brought them in as their husband and master, withdrew and tested them with their wanton ways.    The God of providence stopped providing.  Therefore, the livestock produced no milk, and the bees produced no honey, in the land of milk and honey!

We can see the vicious spiral occurring in Israel’s bad choices.  Things going from bad to worse as Israel the bride, no longer desired her husband, but became contrary with God and his rule.  What does God’s rule look like next to our deeds, desires, and choices? 

God’s rule over Israel, became tough through Jeremiah.   Not only did the Israelites and Jews struggle, but as God representative, so too did Jeremiah.  You could imagine his words of prophecy against them were not well received.  Through Jeremiah, God’s call to repentance and prophecies of judgement, fell on deaf ears, and stubborn hearts, landing Jeremiah in gaol.

Imagine being a faithful partner in a relationship, imagine being the unfaithful partner.  It is not what a healthy relationship looks like.  This relationship broke down between God and man at Eden.  There were consequences for Adam and Eve and these consequences continued between God and Israel, in the days of Jeremiah.  God was the faithful husband or master, and Israel the unfaithful partner.

This strain on the relationship appears first in the wording of Genesis chapter three verse sixteen by the double meaning of the text.  God says to Eve, “Your desire shall be for your husband”, but it can also mean “Your desire shall be against (or contrary) to your husband.” (Genesis 3:16 ESV)

Like Eve, Israel’s desire should have been towards God as a faithful and giving husband, yet Israel’s desire was for God’s position and therefore contrary to God.

As mentioned earlier, the language of husband, used by Jeremiah, is the confrontation between God and Israel over "the other man” in Israel’s life.  This other man is Baal.  He has become their master when their master was God.  Yet Israel’s desire for Baal worship is really a desire for their own prosperity at the expense of their relationship with God and the land they received from him.

Fifteen times we hear Jeremiah say on behalf of God, “Behold, (the) days are coming.”  These are all calling the Israelites to look backward, focusing on what has occurred beforehand, while walking into the future.  The days are coming for Israel’s judgement, but also their restoration back as God’s faithful bride.

God would do this work of restoration through a new covenant.  This covenant looks backward while striving forward, much like a swimmer, backstroking their way up the lanes of a pool!

God will etch the law on each person’s heart.  They will know him by his forgiveness of sin.  In these days every generation, every person, knows, God will deal with their evil. 

Not only will each person have their teeth put on edge from eating sour grapes, but each person will have the law written on their hearts.  Jeremiah continues…

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33–34 ESV)

At first glance, this seems like God is going back on his word.  Each will die for their own sins, yet God promises to forgive and no longer remember sin.  How can this be?  Israel and Judah had proven themselves as harlots deserving divorce.

The clearest hint God gives through Jeremiah has already been given by another “Behold the days are coming” statement.

In Jeremiah chapter twenty-three verses five and six we hear, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23:5–6 ESV)

For us today we know that the days were coming and came in Jesus Christ!  Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Jesus is the righteous branch!  He is the Israel and Judah that Israel and Judah could not be!  “Now” is the day of salvation for all who are drawn to Jesus.  Once someone has heard the name of Jesus, proclaimed for the forgiveness of sin, the law is etched on their hearts.  Jesus draws all people to himself for the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus is the Lord, and the Lord is our righteousness!

As Jesus walked to the cross, he said, “For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’  Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’  For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”  (Luke 23:29–31 ESV)

Here Jesus tells us what to expect as his followers on earth.  As the days increase after Jesus’ death and resurrection, in the last days, the green wood of the gospel, the righteous branch, will be attacked and burned, the drier and more mature it gets.

We will suffer because of our sinful being.  We will also suffer as we believe and receive forgiveness while others take offence at the law written on the heart.  Just as generations of Christians have before us.

Incidentally, those who take offence, know the truth of the law and gospel, having heard the name of Jesus.  God’s word is repulsive to them, because they are rejecting the Holy Spirit who gives faith in his word written on each heart.

Jesus also gives another “Behold the days are coming” statement, but gives it in two parts, to the Pharisees and then the disciples…

“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,  nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.  And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.”  (Luke 17:20–23 ESV)

As God’s children today we have the word of God stamped on our hearts!  The kingdom of God is in our midst.  The kingdom of God is within us!   As we desire the return of Jesus in these last days, we know days are coming when we will see Jesus, face to face.

We remember, at the cross, our Baals, our Old Adam, our human spirit, and Satan the ruler of this world, the deceitful master, are judged.  Our master, Jesus Christ, has eaten our sour grapes!  His teeth have been put on edge!  He has died for your sin, and my sin!

“Now”, when Jesus returns, behold, the day will have come for the prince of this world to be cast out forever!   “Now” that Jesus is lifted up in resurrection glory, let him take you by the hand, draw you to himself in repentance, and lead you into the eternal land of milk and honey.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 11 Proper 16 - Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 Hebrews 12:22-25 "Pleasure"

Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 (ESV) If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.  If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Tina Arena wrote and released a song called, It’s time to go to church, on  April 30, 2021[1].  In it she sings, “I forgive you for everything.  For all the nights I couldn't sleep.  I forgive you for surfacing.  When I was looking for what I need.  Now I tell you everything.  Now I know my worth.  It's time to go to church.  It's time to go to church.”

Being a listener of her music, I must say I was surprised by her song when it came out.  After all, she sings, it’s time to go to church.  And being a pastor in a church, thought, “Okay!  That’s a pretty good thing to sing!”  I was tempted to justify it as a wholesome song.  But the lyrics are vague and unclear.  Who is she addressing in the lines of the song, and what is the church to which she believes it’s time to go?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the song very much.  But because I do, there’s a strong desire within me seeking to justify the ambiguity, as I like both the song and the artist.

She sings on, “Love forgive me for not listening.  To myself and to my truth.  I forgive you for questioning.  I'm still breathing, that's my proof.  Now I tell you everything.  Now I know my worth.  It's time to go to church.  It's time to go to church.”

The “you” she addresses in this verse reveals itself as “love”.  She asks love to forgives her for everything.  Tina forgives love for the nights she couldn’t sleep, for surfacing, for questioning, and now tells love everything.  Because of love she now sings, “I know my worth.  It’s time to go to church.”

What is one’s church?  If you are thinking of a building or a denomination, yes, these are what you could consider as a church!  However, I invite you to think broader of what church can be in one’s experience as well as what kind of church God is seeking to bring you into.

In Tina Arena’s song, she addresses love.  Love here is still ambiguous, and I believe it is most likely unclear for a deliberate reason.  To make it pleasing to the ear, love is vague so the listener can make love anything they want.  Love could be a person, an object, an animal, or even the self.

Love in our age is left unclear so we can love whatever or wherever we find pleasure.  One can go to a church, a creation within, for worship of what one loves.  Or, what pleases the person.

On any given Sunday one can drive around and see people attending to activities of pleasure.  These activities of love don’t just happen on a Sunday, but over the years have invaded our lives.  Sundays have become increasingly busy, diverting people from coming to rest in God’s presence, in his church.

All people find time to go to church!  However, the church most seek, and most attend is the place of their pleasures.  This actively involves turning one’s back on God because it requires one’s pleasure to be above God.

One could say they, “find church in themselves”.  They stimulate their feelings of pleasure by gathering around themselves things that give them pleasure.  

The problem is these things kill.  Whereas, trusting God, letting him serve you and bind himself to you, gives life.  All other pleasures in which we put our trust become yokes, burdening, and binding us to unhappiness and uncertainty.  They make us anxious and eventually they lead to death.  

Look what happens in humanity’s first worship event without God, when they seek not to rest with him, in his pleasure. 

“…when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”  (Genesis 3:6–7 ESV)

In these two verses from Genesis three, we see the extremes of desire and shame.  Knowledge of good and evil in the one event!  What appeared to be good was also evil!

Eve sees the fruit is good, it delights her, and the promise of wisdom also stimulates desire.  Did it taste good?  We’re not told!  However, immediately there is knowledge, and a wisdom that leads to shame of their nakedness. 

Over the years humans have continued to worship without God.  In these times our worship of the self, plays out in the same theatre of good and evil.  This is not without effect on our conscience as conscience literally means, “with knowledge” or “knowing within”.

Like Eve, we look and delight in what we see.  A feel-good chemical is released, and we want more.  Ironically one of the devices used to get the feel-good release is called an apple device.  But it’s not smart phones that are the issue.  No, it’s the yoked and bound individual who can’t let go of the electronic apple.  Why?  Because it gives the feel-good hormone, leading one on the path of least resistance to pleasure.

It’s not just the phone that yokes us in addiction to pleasure.  We get something new – we get the feel-good kick.  We eat chocolate or something else we like – we get the feel-good kick.  Receive a phone or snap chat notification – there’s the feel-good kick.  Coveting in the catalogue – O, it feels so good.  Look at porn or lust after someone you’ve seen in the street – and there’s an injection of feel-good hormone that gives pleasure.

Tina Arena sings, “Something within places I've been.  Blood running thin, I'm sorry.  Somewhere between Heaven and sin.”

So, the chocolate becomes guilty weight.  The pleasure of porn turns to shame and hatred of self.  The joy of the app, computer game success, the social media message, a Facebook like, or a product purchase; they don’t last, they don’t give the pleasure we sort from them.  To get that feel-good buzz.  You want more, more, more! 

These things all act like drugs because they produce a natural drug within you, called the dopamine hormone.   Eventually you’re yoked and addicted to the feeling this pleasure hormone gives, becoming no longer an isolated want, but a need you can’t do without.  Your worth is now reliant on the thing you love, and one must worship what they love, even when one hates it and dislikes what it’s doing.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people and yet they, like Adam and Eve, and us, were always being drawn away from God to other pleasures, and Isaiah was sent to proclaim God’s word to them.

He says, “If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.  If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” ( Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 ESV)

We live in a time when the pleasures of this age have drawn our children away from God’s church.  Also, many who are brought into God’s church, resist, because they’re under the bondage of the pleasures to which they are yoked for the other six days and eleven hours of the week. 

How am I to break freed from this bondage?  How can my children be freed too?  How can we look on God once again as the one and only true God?

We need to let our brains and our bodies rest with God from busying ourselves from the pleasures we’ve become addicted to.  We need put aside our pride and no longer be the rulers of our synagogues of sin, the creators of our own churches, and let the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ deliver us into the holiness of God’s Church.  This only happens when the Holy Spirit can lead you to the stillness of Jesus on the cross.

There is hope only in your Lord Jesus Christ.  It was his pleasure to endure the cross for your victory.  There too is forgiveness, when you have perverted God’s church into a church of selfish pleasure as did the ruler of the synagogue. 

If Jesus can heal a woman bound by Satan for eighteen years, Jesus can make you straight by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the support of others whom he is healing too.

Are you coming to church but not allowing the church of God to come to you.  Are the things you worship so powerful they are rewiring your brain, away from resting in God, being busied pursuing pleasure and its deadly trap?

You have a pastor that struggles to rest in God too.  He along with all of us are products of the fallen world in which we live.  He will not condemn you in your struggle or confession.  But, in love for the Lord and you, he will name God’s forgiveness in your confession and assist you to keep your eyes on Jesus and what the Holy Spirit brings you into when you come to God’s church.

“…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,  and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.  For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.  (Hebrews 12:22–25 ESV)

Amen.

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ9Y7jif1C8

C, Christmas 1 - Luke 2:41-52 "In the Father's House"

Luke 2:41–52 (ESV) Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.  And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.  And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it,  but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances,  and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.  After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.  And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”  And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.  And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.  And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.

Losing a child would have to be one of the scariest things a parent could experience.  Even if a child is lost for a short length of time, it can make a parent fear the worst.  Imagine losing a child for a number of days and how the mind would race over all the evil possibilities.  Think of families who have lost children mysteriously, never to see them again.  And to the relief of those who take their child back into their arms after being missing and feared dead.

Picture Mary and Joseph racing around in confusion after realising they had lost Jesus.  And after returning to Jerusalem, looking for three days before they found him.  They, like any parent, would have been fearing the worst while Jesus was missing.

But Jesus was not missing, and he adds to his parents’ confusion when they find him sitting amongst the teachers in the temple.   For three days they were taunted and tortured, churning in a wish wash of emotions, then they find him completely at peace.  Mary and Joseph were beside themselves in distress and astonishment. 

How would you react having lost your child only to find them completely unconcerned by the three-day separation?

We might try to attribute blame to Mary and Joseph for not providing a safe place for Jesus. Especially, since they had gone a day’s journey and not noticed he was missing.  Despite not knowing exactly what had occurred, it was custom for travellers to move in a group, and somehow Jesus was overlooked amongst their family and friends.  Nevertheless, Jesus was in the safest of places, in his Heavenly Father’s presence. 

Rewind back to the Garden of Eden, where God is walking in the cool of the evening, looking for Adam and Eve.  This is a very different picture; God is neither confused nor distressed.  However, Adam and Eve, unlike Jesus were distressed and afraid and hid themselves from God.

Two very different images; one, of a boy happily at rest in God’s presence, and the other, a couple guiltily hiding and covering themselves in shame.  One, parents frantically looking for a son, and the other, the Father of Creation walking in the cool of the evening looking for his first-created son and daughter.

Jesus Christ is the new Adam, born into humanity as the son of man and as the Son of God.  There was no guilt in him when he was found.  He responds to Mary’s distress and rebuke, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49 ESV)

Literally, Jesus says, why were you seeking me?  Why were you worshipping me with worry?  I was in the things of my Father!  Unlike Adam and Eve acting like two guilty kids caught in the act, Jesus was not into mischief with his Father’s things.  He was not hiding from them, nor was he turning his back on his Father, as did Adam and Eve when tempted by the devil, and left cowering in naked shame when God came looking for them.   

There are two different outcomes from these two events.  Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden and lived under the curse of sin in the productivity of their environment and humanity’s reproduction.  But Jesus went back to the destitute village of Nazareth in full submission to his parents.

We hear, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52 ESV)

As Jesus grew up, he increased in wisdom and in favour as the Son of God and as the son of man.  He not only grew in favour with God, but he also grew in favour as the Son of God.  Here we can picture Jesus’ submission in a whole different light than that of our human submission.  

We best get an understanding of his submission when we consider how we react when we are treated without respect or if we are treated like children or as inferior.  When we perceive we are being treated with contempt, we want to snap back at the condescender, to regain our position.  Jesus too would have been sinned against as a youth and as a young man by his family and friends.

But, as Jesus grew in wisdom, of humanity’s sin and his divinity, his wisdom grew in levels of generosity and steadfast love towards both God the Father, and compassion and steadfast love towards the sinfulness of his Father Joseph and his family.  And indeed, all of his brothers and sisters in the family of Adam.

This is the man from Nazareth who returned to Jerusalem in full submission to God and man as Son of God and Son of Man.  Jesus’ wisdom and favour seemed to be dashed at Jerusalem when on returning on Palm Sunday in victory riding on a donkey, within the week was cursed by the crowd and hung on the cross.

For Jesus’ wisdom we can be truly thankful.  As God’s children we are called into the wisdom and stature of Jesus Christ.  As we grow, we are called to a deeper understanding of our sin and our need for forgiveness and the need to forgive others.

We are called to be like the growing Jesus of Nazareth as we learn of our Sonship though our adoption as God’s children.  Because Jesus grew in wisdom, we are free to grow in his holy chosen and beloved character. 

Because we are saved sinner we can put on love, that is; put on Christ Jesus.  We are free to put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Just as Jesus was all these things in wisdom as he carried your sin to the cross with the sin of the world.

When you struggle to put on Jesus, pray for the Holy Spirit to clothe you in Jesus Christ.  Pray for deliverance into holiness, being led from temptation into God’s Kingdom, and the will to forgive as God has forgiven you.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you Jesus as your daily bread, giving you the hunger to worship in your Father’s house.

We no longer have to hide in fear of God, like Adam and Eve.  Nor, like Joseph and Mary, do we have to go searching for him in great distress.  As forgiven sinners, God now temples in us, now we are free to clothe ourselves in him.  Amen.

Come Lord Jesus and be our guest, you are our holy bread, and we pray that through your Word and your church, the world may be clothed and fed.  Amen.  

B, Pentecost 19 Proper 22 - Mark 10:11-12, 14-15 "Jesus on Divorce and Children"

God gave humanity co-creative power when he created Adam and then Eve from Adam and gave her to him in the Garden of Eden.  And in cleaving to one another they produced children.

One might say, “But the animals do the same, they have co-creative power too!”  And they do but only to a certain extent. 

God brought forth animals from the earth, whereas humans were created from the earth but are also created in his image, and in his likeness.

A male and a female human being have the co-creative power to make images of God in the likeness of God.  And further to that God has given humanity dominion over all he has created from the earth.

The blessing of God fell on Adam and Eve after he created them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV)

Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, without her cleaving to a man, without the effort of a man.  Jesus was both the Son of Man but also the Son of God in the one person.

Jesus is tested twice in the Gospel reading for today.  First by the Pharisees when they tested him on divorce and then by the disciples when they incensed him by rebuking those bringing children to him.

Jesus teaches his disciples from these two testing events.  First, he says in response to the Pharisees, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10:11–12 ESV)

Second, when he saw the disciples rebuking those who were bringing children to him said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:14–15 ESV)

Divorce, adultery, and hindering children; things have obviously changed somewhat since God placed Adam and Eve together to be fruitful and multiply.  Yet Jesus is placed right in the thick of humanity’s destructive ways. And in doing so brings the kingdom of God into the presence of these difficult situations.

Anyone who has had anything to do with divorce or relationship breakdown knows just how complex the issues are that feed the collapse.  At the heart of a separation one deals with guilt, fear, grief, anger, betrayal, role responsibilities, loss of trust, and insecurity. 

When Jesus is tested by the Pharisees, he tells the Pharisees it is because the hardness of heart that Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written.  He then takes his hearers back to the beginning of creation, to the foundational function of being male and female.

When we are in a relationship with another person, regardless of the type of relationship, we are in a relationship with someone who bears the image of God.  

We can ask God, “How am I honouring you in my dealing with the other person who bears your image?” Then we can think about our relationships with our spouse or our partner, and then our children or our parents, and then our neighbours, who all bear the image of God.  But as you do, ask yourself, “What is it that I want or need from that relationship?”

Now ask yourself, “What does Jesus want or need from his relationship with me?  Are my wants and needs from my relationships the same as his wants and needs with me?  What were Jesus’ wants and needs from his disciples and the Pharisees?”

Divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children quickly bring to the fore all the messes in our families, the church and society today, and with that judgementalism and egalitarianism issues. 

So determined has our society become to provide a safe place for children and to stop gender discrimination that in our zealousness we have forgotten we are blessed as men by God and blessed as women by God, both being created in his image.  And the children we’ve created in his image have been indoctrinated and confused by the judgementalism of gender rights, identity, and equality.  And with that comes the suppression of the blessedness of serving each other as men and women, and as children and adults.

Through this self-centred mentality of seeking our rights in sexuality, in gender equality, as autonomous children, and as individualistic adults; divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children, seems to be accepted as normal.  As divorce, adultery and the hindering of children becomes the norm we continue to lose the blessedness of being fruitful and multiplying on this earth.

But Jesus comes to us right in the heart of divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.  He shows us what it is to be blessed and fruitful without being the son of a human father, without ever being married, without having children and without hindering children.

How does he do it?

He comes as the Son of Man and the Son of God.  Jesus was sent as the new Adam.

In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.  (Hebrews 1:1b–3 ESV)

Jesus came to be the Saviour of us and our fallen relationships.  He does this through the forgiveness of sins.  He can do this because he comes in the image of God, without sin, but bearing all sin for the forgiveness of all sin.

He brings forgiveness within marriages, he brings forgiveness where marriages have ended in divorce, and he brings forgiveness in adultery.  Jesus also serves children who are caught up in divorces and relationship breakdowns, and he seeks to reconnect with children who have been hindered from coming to him.

God has put all things in our messy world under his control.

Now in putting everything in subjection to him [Jesus], he [God] left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.  But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.  For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:8–11)

We might not see that God is in control of our broken families, church, and community, but we are called to trust his word.  God conquers all broken marriages, all adultery, and all hinderances of his children created in his image.  He does it by teaching us in his word how we get it wrong, by showing us the righteousness of Jesus’ life, but gives us forgiveness and salvation through his death.

God calls us not to divorce ourselves from him or his church by seeing and hearing he is making all things new as he showed John, recorded in Revelation chapter twenty-one, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:2–3 ESV)

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and from it came divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.

You and I are called to eat from the tree of knowledge of sin and salvation, that is the cross, so you and I are forgiven and saved from this adulterous and Fatherless generation. 

Receive God’s invitation of blessing and fruitfulness, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9 ESV)

And, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2 ESV)

Amen.