B, Advent 1 - 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Psalm 80:17-19, Isaiah 64:5-9 "Pots and Moulds"

It’s an ugly mess.  It has no form; it’s a great big pile of brown goo.  It’s sticky and damp; good for nothing it seems.  It’s dirty; perhaps to some it’s even a bit smelly; and if you get it on yourself it can stain.  But someone is looking for exactly this; a useless formless piece to be formed into something that is good and pleasing to the eye.

This someone takes the goo and plonks it on the table.  The table begins to spin, and his hands descend on the formlessness to mould it into something pleasing to the eye; a thing pleasing to the one who turns the tables on something so seemingly useless.

Clay can be troublesome stuff.  It can cause heartache for anyone who comes across it.  When it’s dry it’s like rock and jars the arms of those who try to break it.  But when it’s wet, it’s so sticky, it seems to latch onto anything that touches it, and it won’t let go.  Anyone who wants to use it has their work cut out for them; such is clay in its natural environment.

However, to the potter clay has a use, a very good use.  He knows just what to do to work the goo into something exquisite.  The stickiness is worked with wet hands, so the clay moves and grows into something good.  Its stickiness actually is a quality that keeps the pot adhering to itself.  And when it’s put in the kiln and baked the clay is returned to a state that is rock hard to keep its form so it can be used to hold things, perhaps even water.

But clay being what it is can still be trouble.  As the potter caringly tries to mould it the clay can collapse and become misshaped.  It has to be returned to the lump in which it was originally found, and the potter starts again.  When the clay becomes a pot, its hardness also makes it brittle and if the pot is not treated right it can shatter into a myriad of pieces.  Even if it gets a fine crack, the owner takes to it with a rod reducing it to pieces of potsherd.

When we consider that God is in fact the potter and we are the clay and the pots that he moulds to hold his holy presence we are encouraged to examine ourselves and see the imperfections that cause us and our Heavenly Potter trouble.  Isaiah did exactly that when he lamented over his people Israel.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people. (Isaiah 64:5-9)

Perhaps you have noticed the imperfections and cracks in the shell of your being. You worry that you’re in danger of being dashed to pieces and thrown on the scrapheap of life.  Maybe like Isaiah you see the reality of your hidden human nature — the content of your fragile fatal life — and tremble because you know God sees the sin within. 

So, hiding the sin is fruitless; it still oozes out the cracks.  And even your most honourable and worthy acts can’t exist without containing just a hint of self-centeredness.  So, you know in the depth and core of your being you can do nothing righteous in God’s all-seeing sight. We look in the pot knowing we were moulded and formed to hold something so much better than the pot of filthy rags we have become.

Like the Psalmist we are reduced to see the reality of who we are before God Almighty as we plead…

Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.  (Psalm 80:19)

The fact of the matter is this: we need to be saved.  Without intervention and restoration, the potter will return and take to the pots with an iron rod and dash us into pieces of potsherd.

Knowing this the Potter sets to work at the wheel yet again and moulds another pot to contain the core of his being.  Just as in the days of old when Solomon used clay moulds to cast precious metals for the temple, Almighty God cast Christ Jesus, his holy and precious Son, into the same fragile clay shell as you and me.  And in this mould was veiled the depth and breadth of God’s complete holiness and generosity. 

This is very good news for us full of cracks and imperfections who know we need restoration so God will look on us favourably.  Our prayer should be the same as that of the Psalmist who also sees he cannot save himself…

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.  Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. (Psalm 80:17-18)

So, God sent his Son; he cast Christ as one of us.  The Son of Man at his right hand, the one on whom God’s hand of blessing rested, was sent, and born a baby, a fragile clay pot, capable of the same failures as you and me.  Yet he did not crack under the pressure that show us for who we are.  He stood the test of time, a fragile pot holding the holiness of God, more precious than any silver or gold. 

But then the Potter took his rod of wrath.  The rod we know we deserve and having his Son raised up, let him be smashed to pieces.  The pot was broken, the mortal mould and holy contents was made to die.  Christ was cast; then Christ was crucified!  God’s hand fell on Christ so the prayer of the Psalmist, together with your prayer, is answered.  You are restored!  We are revived!  God’s face shines on us and we can call on the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  We can confess our sins, our brokenness to God.  And even more, God wants us to see ourselves and seek him in confession, so he can forgive the guilt of our sins.

Jesus was poured out like water, he was dried out like potsherd, he was cast as Christ but then he was cast out, the outcast.  On the night before he was betrayed and crucified on the cross, he said…

This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. (Luke 22:20)

And so, God’s pot was broken like bread and the cup was lifted up for the forgiveness of your sins.  God has wet his hands in baptism to mould your mortal clay, so you carry what was poured out of the cup of his Son for your salvation.  You now contain the life blood of Christ himself in you, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.

So, as we hear from Paul from the beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians, grace and peace has come to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  That God can be thanked for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.   You can trust that in him you have been enriched in every way.

Therefore, know, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. Also know as you struggle with your fragility, only Christ who continually sends the Holy Spirit through his written word will keep you strong to the end, so you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.  He won’t let you down, but he will allow you to be poured out and broken so Christ might flow onto others.  But after it is done those who trust his faithfulness will be raised like Christ, to be with Christ, restored and revived, in all the holiness and peace of eternal life, forevermore Amen.

A, The First Sunday of Advent - Matthew 24:42-44, Romans 13:11-14 "Stolen From..."

Written on a one metre ruler in my High School’s woodworking shop was, “Stolen from the Manual Arts Dept.”   

I have forgotten many things learnt from school, but I’ve never forgotten this quirky identification on the teacher’s blackboard ruler.  It probably says quite a bit about the sense of humour of my manual arts teachers.  Humour blended with sarcastic cynicism, that appeals to the Australian psyche, which no doubt has come about through experience of misfortune.

Imagine finding this ruler in the English or science classroom!   It would have been enough to have the teacher’s name on the ruler, but seeing, “Stolen from the Manual Arts Dept.”, one is entertained by the comedy of the teacher going to rule a line on the blackboard, or whiteboard, only to discover being ruler-less.

In Matthew chapter twenty-four, Jesus seems to say something equally as quirky as that which was written on the teacher’s metre ruler.  Jesus says, “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”  (Matthew 24:42–44 ESV)

So, are we to be ready, staying awake, so that we will be stolen?  Or are we to be ready, staying awake, so we are not stolen?  Is Jesus coming to thieve us from the master of this world, Satan?  Or is the call to stay awake, a call to stop the forces of evil stealing our salvation, through being lured back into a sleep of unbelief and death?

Jesus uses what seems to be a mixed metaphor or contrary image in his warning, making us ponder, “who is the master of the house, who is the thief, and for what must one be ready?” 

Like the manual arts ruler identified in the science classroom, are we staying awake to be picked up and found?  Or, are we staying awake so we’re not picked up and stolen to a place where we just should not be? 

If I am the master or the servant, do I need to be stolen or do I need to protect myself not to be stolen?  If Jesus is the thief, from what am I being stolen?  What am I staying awake and waiting for?

If the thief is sin, death, or the devil, how does staying awake protect my identity, so it’s not stolen?

One must let the context of Jesus’ words determine what he is teaching us here.  Jesus continues, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time?  Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.”  (Matthew 24:45–46 ESV)

But the servant who has not stayed awake, eats and drinks in drunkenness and violence, and is sleeping in a wicked life that leads to death.  This is the person who has not remained awake and has been stolen by death.

In Luke’s parallel account, Jesus says, “But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  (Luke 21:36 ESV)

Here Jesus calls us to stay awake so we can escape and not be stolen by the cares of life.  As chaos increases, we’re not stolen back to a hopeless sleep of eternal death.

So, the anomaly to “stay awake”, is one that can be viewed both ways.  We stay awake ready to be rescued and stolen by Jesus when he returns, and we also stay awake, so we are not stolen by worry and doubt, which allows sin, death, and the devil to break into those whom Christ has made holy!

But how does one stay awake?  How is one stolen by God?  Or, how does one remain awake so they are not stolen by death?

In Revelation twenty, John reports the hidden reality of how we are stolen from the jaws of the evil one, kept awake,  sustained and saved from eternal death.  This is the picture he sees and reports to the church…

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.  And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years…  Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.  They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.  Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!  Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.  (Revelation 20:1, 2, 4a, 4c, 6 ESV)

For the sake of brevity, I haven’t given you the full text.  However, I encourage you to read the whole of Revelation chapter twenty through to the end.  When you do you will see and hear the victory that belongs to Jesus Christ and all who remain awake in him.  Or, who allow themselves to be stolen by him from our sinful selves and the deceptive world in which we suffer and by which we are tempted.

But a few things are worth noting from what I have read to you from Revelation twenty. 

The devil is bound for a thousand years.  He has limited power in this era that began at Jesus’ incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension and will end upon his return.  The thousand years is the perfect time only known to God the Father.  In the fulness of this time when his purpose is complete, God the Father will send Jesus Christ, and Jesus will come again to this world.

In this era of the church, perfected by Jesus Christ, we reign with him having already died in our first death, and that death was at our holy baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection over sin and death.

In fact, those who stay awake in Jesus Christ, are continually being woken through the waking work of the Holy Spirit as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes us holy in the Gospel of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and forgiveness. 

Jesus will come, returning like a thief in the night.  But let us remain awake to the reality of our reign with Christ.  Though, for now, it is hidden from all those who have not been baptised into Christ or who have fallen back into a sleep ending in death!  We live in a generation that is stolen!  In a culture that is not awake to Jesus Christ.

But when we allow the Holy Spirit access to keep us awake, we are blessed!  The devil has been bound.  We live in the daily resurrection of our baptism into Jesus Christ.  We live with the freedom to be witnesses and martyrs of the faith.  We do so, because the second death and the devil, have no power over us.

We might think of our hope in Jesus Christ, as Hell Out and Permanently Eliminated for those awake in Jesus Christ.  Or, Jesus has stolen those he loves from eternal death, Jesus is stealing those he loves from eternal death, and Jesus will steal those he loves from eternal death.

If we are stolen from Satan, and he is bound in what he can do, we still need God’s waking protection in the Holy Spirit.  This is because there’s still limited power and principals of evil being exercised in the world.  By our sinful human spirit, and our corporate human spirit, feeding and fuelling the desires of a corrupt world.

Finally, Paul encourages us in Romans chapter thirteen, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”  (Romans 13:8 ESV)

Then he continues, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.  The night is far gone; the day is at hand.  So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.  Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:11–14 ESV)

Here he calls us from the desires of selfish love to being loved by God!  When we remain in God’s love, like the manual arts ruler, we bear the quirky sign of God, “Stolen by God, stolen from sin, death and Satan.”

Let us continually remain awake in the Holy Spirit!

Rather than being identified as “Stolen from God, stolen by sin death and the devil”.  We endure being “Stolen from sin death and the devil because we’re stolen by Jesus Christ.”  Amen.

C, Advent 1 - Luke 21:27-28,36 "Stand Before The Son Of Man"

Luke 21:27–28, 36 (ESV) And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

A man and woman, a dog, a horse, and a chicken, all find themselves standing before God after their time on earth, and he asks them, “What was your purpose while you lived in the world?” 

The chicken tells God that her purpose was to lay eggs for food for the man and the woman and to have baby chickens so they too could produce eggs and more chickens.  Some of us chickens would also be food for humanity too.  The chicken testified to its practice of scratching around the place eating insects, grubs, and grains of seed during the course of each day.  The chicken also joyfully tells of its production of chook poo and how it fertilises the ground.

The horse is then called to testify to its purpose to which it tells God it is a beast of burden.  We horses carry humanity on our backs, pull loads of goods, and plough paddocks with our horsepower. And, like the chicken, the horse also confesses its poo is good for the garden.

The dog is then brought forward to attest to its function in the scheme of daily activity.  The dog reveals its purpose as a protector and a friend of the man and woman.  It tells of its dogged determination of chasing down other animals like cattle and sheep, to help humans round up their herds and flocks.  But the dog also freely bears witness to the not so nice practise of eating rotten flesh, scavenging, and even returning to its own vomit from time to time.

Finally, the humans stand before God to give evidence of what their function is in the world.  But the humans don’t know what to say to God.  They didn’t realise they had to stand before God.  In fact, they had forgotten God existed and thought they were the ultimate reality on earth.

Humanity has forgotten its function!  What is our purpose in life?  When Jesus returns how will we stand before the Righteousness of God. 

How does one stand before the Son of Man?  Face to face, toe to toe with Jesus Christ on the last day we will all stand before the Son of Man!  And as we stand before him, the full account of our lives will be revealed down to the last dot and tittle. How does one stand before the Son of Man?

The Son of Man is a title that Jesus often used for himself and often connected with his coming at the end of time.  Jesus is also the Son of God, but he never uses this title. Rather, it is spoken of him by Gabriel the Archangel when Jesus was conceived in Mary. He is named the Son of God in the linage of man in the genealogy of Adam.  The Devil, demons, and the Jews all accuse him in connection with being the Son of God.  But Jesus lived, suffered, and died as the Son of Man, and during this time promised his return as the Son of Man.

In stark contrast to Jesus calling himself the Son of Man, we position ourselves as sons of ourselves, second to no one.  Each of us would prefer to be recognised as heroes of humanity rather than a son of man. 

Man in his misogyny and females in their feminism, both challenging each other and turning in on the centrality of their humanity, seek to stand aloof in one’s own righteousness. Being a son of man like Jesus doesn’t appeal to us, as something to which we might want to attain or to one whom we would want to submit.

But Jesus promises, “…they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  (Luke 21:27–28 ESV)

And he continues, “But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36 ESV)

To understand what Jesus is telling us about straightening up, raising your head, and standing before the Son of Man in the future, we need to see what Jesus teaches us about standing before the Son of Man in the word of God.

Jesus addresses how a person stands when he tells a parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:  “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.” (Luke 18:9–14a ESV)

Jesus stands before humanity as the servant Son of Man.  Then Jesus will stand before humanity with power and great glory at the end of time.

Jesus tells us, the Son of Man comes to us in this life and knocks, he says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20 ESV)

And, “…once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’  But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.”  (Luke 13:25–28 ESV)

Jesus stands to serve, and he will come and stand to see if we have received his service.  Those who do not want his service in this life will continue in that.  Those who realise they need his service and allow him to be our servant will enter the eternal service of God the Father where there is eternal peace.

Jeremiah looked forward to the time of Jesus’ service of righteousness in a time when salvation and security on earth seemed fleeting.  He says, “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 33:16 ESV)

It is advantageous for us, as we enter the Advent season,  to let the light of Christ serve you.  Let him illuminate your sin and save you as he stands before you and knocks.  Let God function in your life as your God so you can stand in his eternal kingdom functioning as saints saved for all eternity. 

For the kingdom and the power and the glory belongs to the Son of Man. And he stands before us, offering himself as gift, today and every day, until he returns with all power and glory. Amen.