B, Pentecost Sunday - Romans 8:22-27 "Eager Expectation"

Text – Romans 8:22-27

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.  In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. 

Decay, degradation, decomposition, dilapidation, deprivation, deficiency, dispossession, disrepair, and disorder – these are some of the things that cause suffering, pain, despair, despondency, depression, and dejection.

There is something in everyone and everything which causes a continual breaking down.  It might be the chilling cold of the winter onset affecting your bones, and your bodies; the lack of rain falling from the skies; the financial crisis taking a toll on your security for the future; or the ever-spreading threat of diseases and sicknesses, covid, or some other disaster that seems to pursue you.  Everything in creation has something working against it, causing it to lament, to sigh, to cry out — causing it to groan.

But why do these things cause us to respond in such a way?  Scripture tells us that it’s not just us but the whole creation groans as it waits to be delivered from bondage, decay, and frustration just as a one who struggles with the pains of childbirth. (Romans 8:19-22)  If we take a look at our creation we see its pain too — more and more weeds, saltier soils, erosion, deforestation, and climate changing through humanity’s climate changing from following, to rejecting God.  There are many ecological disasters troubling our creation today!

In Romans we’re told creation is waiting in eager expectation.  Sometimes it’s hard for us to wait with the same eager expectation when we experience the same old thing over and over again.  The same weaknesses causing creation to suffer and us to suffer too!  Be that as it may,  what are you waiting for?  What’s your eager expectation?

Creation’s eager expectation is not waiting for humanity to change the climate, but for the sons of God to be revealed!  Are you waiting for that too?  Perhaps in your weakness there’s the temptation to turn and be burdened by the seen reality of a world going crazy, a creation in chaos? 

Then again, you might think life’s good, it’s all going well.  All this groaning and moaning stuff is just negative nonsense.  People are good, there’s no climate change!  You might be eagerly expecting many good things in life, not concerned by anything too much.  But in your daily happiness are you eagerly expecting Christ’s return?  Or are there a few things you’d like to do and see before God returns to reveal his children?

It is okay to have expectations and concerns in this life.  However, when they become desperate or demand top billing and push our hopes in God’s  heavenly place aside, to second place, these earthly expectations and concerns are sin.  And regardless of these earthly expectations being pleasant or bitter, once they’re revealed in us as sin, our sin makes each of us groan!

Creation groans too, but it waits for our redemption.  Why does it do so?  Creation has been God’s witness as humanity has plucked its eager expectation from the tree of knowledge of good and evil time and time again.  Creation was again God’s witness when it opened its mouth to receive the blood of Abel.  And today creation is God’s witness every time we breathe contempt of others or eagerly spray spirited gossip into the air. 

But that’s not all!  Creation knows it’s Creator who made it from nothing except his word spoken in love.  Creation also knows its Creator whose blood trickled down the wood of the cross and soaked the soil with redemption, and now creation waits for the Creator’s return to finalise the faith of those who believe. 

Creation also bears the Spirit of God who hovers over the water and comes through the word of God revealing the hidden Triune God of creation.  When God is revealed God will return creation’s climate from sinful heat and coldness, to a perfect creation that glorifies the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who made it!

We celebrate Pentecost today!  At the first Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, God sent the Spirit to walk beside us and counsel us in faith and hope.  Although we so often eagerly expect everything in creation other than the Creator, God has eager expectations of you and me!  He is faithful to all his baptised children willing us to come into Jesus’ presence to receive and believe the redemption we have been given, as we continually have our sin forgiven. 

The Holy Spirit’s job is to bring us to Jesus.  His job is not to enable us to fix God’s creation, but to work a climate change within us so he can bring us as one under Jesus!  God will then fix the climate when humanity allows the climate within to be changed from turning away from God to returning to him in repentance.

The Holy Spirit’s work is to make the invisible visible through faith given when we hear the word of God (Romans 10:17).  It is the Holy Spirit’s task to put flesh on the Word of God, so the Son of God — the Word made flesh, is revealed in us, to us.  He also gives us real hope in the day when Jesus returns, and we see him as he is.  Not only this!   But he gives us eager expectation of what we will be, as we groan in the frustrations, bondage, decay, and deadly weakness of our human suffering and sin.

When our weakness gets the better of us and we begin to eagerly expect creation more than the Creator himself, it’s the Holy Spirit’s mission to bring us back to Jesus.  We might expect the Holy Spirit as one who makes us happy but he who counsels us in God’s will sometimes needs to give us a short swift kick refocusing us back on Christ. 

Jesus says… When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11) 

But the Holy Spirit will also comfort us in Christ too.  If he didn’t do this his conviction would surely drive us away from Jesus in remorse or lead us away as pharisees justifying our sin.  King David knew he needed the Holy Spirit’s help when his sin was exposed.

He prayed… Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:10-12)

The Holy Spirit gives us a willing spirit, and this spirit bears the Spirit of Christ.  With Jesus Christ en-fleshed in us we also bear the eager expectation of redemption and resurrection.  Redemption, because Christ saved you at the cross by taking your place in death; and resurrection, because he was raised in all power over your sin and your death, so you too might eagerly await your resurrection into heaven.

Because the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son he speaks only what he hears from the Father and the Son.  Therefore, he bears the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the truth of God that names what needs to be named in us.

Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."  (John 8:34-36)

So, the Holy Spirit, names you a sinner, but a sinner whose sin has had its power removed by the Son who sets you free.  Right now, you are being released from bondage, weakness, and frustration, even in the midst of decay and death.  God has freed you so you can allow the light of Christ to dispel the darkness of sin within.  God has freed you and now continually and faithfully sends the Holy Spirit to guide you and keep you in Christ.  And you can wait in hope when on the last day the Holy Spirit will raise you and give you an eternal life of peace and joy.

And as we wait for Christ’s return God’s promise to you is this: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Acts 2:17a & 21)  Amen.

B, Easter 3 - Acts 3:14-16, 1 John 3:2-3, Luke 24:45-49 "The Author of Life"

Acts 3:14–16 (ESV)  But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,  and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.  And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

1 John 3:2–3 (ESV)  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Luke 24:45–49 (ESV)  Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,  and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

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The Author of life is raised by God from death.  The Author of life opens the minds of those who are gathered before him.  And he calls those gathered to wait;  to wait to be clothed with power from on high.

The power with which the church is clothed is the power of life!  This life-power is the authority of Jesus’ resurrection.  The promise of God is this: we are made his children.  Life is authored within us by the resurrected Author of life, Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

God has placed us in a holding pattern of life.  Although we experience the corruption of dying and death in our daily existence, we are called to expect the revelation of being like Jesus.  But this will only be realised when we see him as he is, at his return, at our eternal resurrection.   Until then, we are dying in this existence!  But we’re dying to live! 

The holding pattern is revealed within us as faith, having been clothed with power from on high.  Faith is not a feeling, although faith can make us feel good at times, for which we are thankful!  But faith gives each of us an expectation of being made like Jesus, despite what our experiences and feelings tell us in this world.

As we age, we experience, the effects of sin on our bodies.  Some of the things we suffer might have come as a result of sinful deeds.  From the sinful things we’ve done!  But the reality is, even if we did nothing wrong, if we did not sin, we would still suffer from our human being, being human, that in its very nature is sinful.

The nature of our being; its feelings, its thoughts, its works, the mechanics of our physical bodies, our senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing, exist and fail in the deconstruction that’s death.  Therefore, we all suffer!   

Jesus came into his own dying creation to reinject it with life, lost when humanity was separated from the tree of life.  For Jesus to fix his creation, he suffered in his creation, suffering that led to death.  The Creator died in his very own creation, so life could be recreated within a creation existing in death.

After Jesus was raised and ascended into heaven, and was hidden from our sight, it may have seemed that all returned to what it was before.  After all, death still exists!  People are still given to following the deadliness of their human nature and hide their sin.  But the reality of true life is now a reality of faith, that exposes the truth about us and the truth about Jesus Christ!

Peter and John are in the temple after the first Pentecost.  The apostles’ minds had been opened by Jesus as he appeared amongst them after the resurrection.  They no longer cowered and hid from the Jews.  In fact, at Pentecost they proclaimed the risen Lord to the Jews, and many became believers.

A man, lame from birth, begging at the temple, walks as a result of Peter’s  proclamation.   They who had their minds opened by Jesus, now open the minds of others.  This was not an act of Peter or John, but rather an act of the Holy Spirit, working with and through the apostles, and within the man who having been healed, “entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.” (Acts 3:8 ESV)

The irony of this first healing event should not ever be lost on us!  Here the man whose sinful nature prevented him from entering the temple, now enters the temple.  His inability to enter was not from any sin that he had done, but rather it was the consequences of the nature he received at birth. 

Like him we are lame in every way before God and have no earthly way of entering into his presence.  But now like the lame man who walked and leapt his way into the temple, praising God, we can praise God in his presence too!

But the temple curtain has been torn, and God is no longer found at his mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.  Where is God if he is not in the temple sanctuary? 

Well, God is in his sanctuary!  However, the sanctuary has changed!  God now lives within his children.  He tabernacles within!  God now enters the Jerusalem temple, as Peter and John enter the temple, as the dancing praising healed man enters, and also enters in those who had received the Holy Spirit, as a result of that first Pentecost.

We know that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in seventy AD.  From Good Friday, God no longer sits on his mercy seat in the Jerusalem temple.  In mercy he now rests in the hearts of those who believe.  God now covers the sinful nature of believers, despite the sin that still comes from believers.   By 70 AD, the believers had long been dispersed by persecution from the Jerusalem temple.  God’s mercy now sat in the hearts of the dispersed, and the temple was sacked.   It no longer had a purpose in God’s plan of salvation!

Today, God gathers us as church in Jesus’ resurrection victory.  He gathers us by the power of the Holy Spirit and will continue to do so as he has promised!  The promise we have is that we are God’s children now, called together in power from on high.  Faith in the name of Jesus has made you strong.  Jesus sees and knows you!  The faith that’s received from Jesus, by the Spirit, gives you the perfection of Jesus, for life eternal as we die. 

So, God authors holy life in you now, through his holy word and holy sacraments.  Repentance and forgiveness of sin, confessed, received, believed, and seen only through faith, enlivens and enlightens you, despite the corruption you see working within.

As God opens your mind in his word, he shows you two things, which matures faith within. 

First, he enlightens us with an ever-increasing sight of the sinful nature and its deadliness.  This would drive us to despair and eternal death if he did not graciously and mercifully reveal it to us in a timely manner.  God does not expose us to more than we can bear.

The second thing he does after revealing an ever-increasing sight of our sin is an ever-increasing sight of his merciful presence in his word and sacrament.  This occurs when we are gathered, being forgiven, and fed, so he might continue to tabernacle within us as church.  We then disperse, taking the mercy of God out into the dispersion where others have an opportunity to see Jesus working within us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to confess him and to confess his forgiveness of our sin.

The maturing of faith allows you to witness what Jesus Christ works within your being, despite being sinful.  You clearly see your sin and inability to work your way out of it.  But through knowledge of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and the acts of the Holy Spirit, mature faith finds it’s completion in hope. 

Therefore, everyone who hopes in Jesus Christ is purified as he is pure.  The Holy Spirit works this deposit of the pure holy of holies within you, where the Father sits enthroned on his mercy seat.  Jesus is the mercy seat of God, the Author of life within. 

So, as forgiven and covered sinners, we trust less and less in ourselves, and wait more and more, for the Author of life and his eternal lifegiving goodness. 

Amen. 

A, Holy Trinity Sunday - Genesis 1:1–5, Matthew 28:20b "Let There Be Light"

Genesis 1:1–5 (ESV) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

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

With headlamps on our helmets, we descended into the entrance of the cave, descending down a series of stairs into what seemed the bowels of the earth.  Once underground our family stood in a large cavity looking up at the light streaming in through the entrance.  It was dark, but still we could see what was in the cave. 

We saw tree roots from trees above, sending down their feelers through the roof of the cave for water some twenty metres below.  There on the bottom were bones from animals who had unexpectantly fallen through a hidden hole in the forest floor to their death in the darkness below.

At the bottom of this large cavity, we walked past the bones into a smaller area with crystal formations of stalactites growing down and stalagmites growing up from the bottom.  The light from our headlamps lit up this subterranean wonderland.

We went further and further into the cave, following the directions, many other tourists had followed before. The light from the entrance was now far behind us, and the only way we could see was with our head lamps and torches.

At one point we had to squat, moving nearly on our hands and knees, to get through the narrows of the cave into the last open section to explore.  In there, we sat on a bench and marvelled at the rock formations.

 It then occurred to us if our lights went out, we would have been in a bit of bother.  There was no one around to show us the way out, if our five headlamps went out.  I suggested as we sat there in the silence that we should see what the darkness is like.  So, we turned off our lamps.

We had a saying in my family, when I was growing up as a child, that something is as dark as the inside of a cow!  Now I’m not sure how that saying ever came about!  I don’t know of anyone ever going inside a cow, to know how dark it might be.  But sitting there in that cave, I suggested to my family that this is what the darkness must be like inside a cow!

It was dark!  Usually after one’s eyes adjust to the darkness you can see something.  We sat there for some time, and one couldn’t even see their hand in front of their face.  It occurred to me that getting out of the labyrinth of tunnels of rock would be near impossible, even with guided walkways.  What would it be like in the darkness with nothing?  There was nothing to see!  One could only hear the sound of darkness. 

The sound of darkness is deafening silence!  But the sound of darkness within myself, my wife, and children, was a clamouring cry of chaos and uncertainty.  It would have been some hundreds of metres of ups and downs, lefts and rights, ducking under stalactites and steps back up to the cavern of light and rebirth back into the light of day.

In the beginning God said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good.  And God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”  (Genesis 1:3-5a ESV)

We don’t realise how much we need God to let the light be light for us.  It came very apparent to us in the bowels of a cave, we needed light.  Even though we had torches and headlamps, the thought of not having them was frightening.

We take the light of God’s creation for granted.  The light God shone to create the first day of creation was not so much the light we get from the sun, moon, and stars.  But rather, the light of time and the light of God’s presence in time, bringing light to the chaos of darkness.  The light of the sun, moon and stars was only to be created on the third day to order time into the brightness of day, and the soft night-time light, of stars and reflection from the moon.

But even the lit darkness of night, brings fear, like being in a cave in the dark with treacherous jagged crystals and rocks lying in wait, to cause injury to flesh and bone.

Little children are often fearful of the dark, not being able to see, their imaginations see the worst in what they cannot see.  Likewise, the elderly, prefer not to go out into the night, for fear of falling over, falling into the hands of the ill repute, or the coldness of the night.

However, since the fall of humanity just after creation, the opposite is also true.  Jesus says, “this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (John 3:19 ESV)

The truth of the matter is, we have become accustomed to darkness.  Then, once the light is returned, it’s like having a torch shone in our eyes after being in the dark.

Yet, from creation, God has continued to “let there be light”!  Every day that comes to be, God has let it be.  In God’s creation he provides for us, he uncovers the darkness for us, and he gives us life.

In the beginning of John’s Gospel we hear,   “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (John 1:1–5 ESV)

The light that provides for us, uncovers darkness, and gives life, has not, and will not, become overcome by darkness.  This is the light of God’s Word which said, “let there be light”, and continues to say, “let there be light”, despite the darkness.

Jesus is the continuing Word of God’s light.  He says, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 ESV)

However, the question is, “How do we follow Jesus, when there is darkness within and all around us?”  We know that no one followed him to the cross!  All fell away from supporting Jesus in the darkness of night, leaving Jesus to bear the darkness of Good Friday alone.

But we also hear,  “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV)

Having just passed through Pentecost, we have heard how after Jesus’ death and resurrection, those who fled from the day of crucifixion, boldly bore the cross in their conviction and confession, even unto death!  God has sent the Holy Spirit, to let there be light in us. God is still letting the light shine in the darkness!   God is still saying, “let there be light!”

The same light of life that sustains all of creation, now sustains us with the light of his Son.  This is not the knowledge of good and evil, discerned through the human spirit of desire.  But it’s through God giving us the knowledge of God’s glory in the forgiving face of Jesus Christ, shone in us by the Holy Spirit.

This is why Paul says to the Romans, “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.”  (Romans 13:12 ESV)

We can do this because the day of our resurrection has been enlightened within us, casting out the chaos and fear of darkness.  The Holy Spirit has ushered in God’s creative Word, enacting within us God’s baptismal power, which says, “Let there be light”.

Even when everything around you is suggesting the darkness is winning, God wants us to remember that the darkness has not overcome the Light of God.  We have a God of Triune creative and recreative power! 

In addition to this, the Son of God, who is the Light of the World, promises you and me, saying,  “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b ESV)

Even when creation dies, and God promises us that it will, even then, without sun, moon, and stars, the light of eternal life will shine on us, as we glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever around the Triune God’s throne of glory.  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.