B, Post Pentecost 11 Proper 13 - John 6:27&29 "Eat your Cake and have it too"

The desire to have something can be so strong.  So much so it can cause all sorts of emotions to occur, even physical reactions or mental torment.

Have you ever been shopping for groceries when you’re hungry?  Have you ever seen a fast-food ad on television when you’re starving?  You can almost savour the flavour of the herbs and spices in your mouth. 

The eyes sharpen the mind, the desire intensifies, your saliva glands prepare themselves, you want it, and you want it now.  Food glorious food, hot food — chips, burgers, chicken, a big juicy steak, with plenty of sauce or gravy!  It makes your stomach churns with delight.

Perhaps every time you past the car yard, the motorcycle centre, the bakery, the clothes shop, or the shoe store, your mind is filled with visions of sitting high in the seat of a shiny new machine, the best in the district.  Or you picture yourself stepping out in style with those new shoes or the latest outfit similar to what the movie stars are wearing these days.  Isn’t it interesting how desire works its way within!

As you salivate over these things from afar, your mind plots and your heart beats quicker, as you scheme how to make the imagination a reality.

Similar occurs when one is attracted towards someone else.   Most should be able to remember the time the blood rushed on seeing that someone for the first time!  You become sweaty, desperately seeking their attention!  The thought of separation causes you pain.  You want them, but for whatever reason you can’t have them!  You lie on your bed at night and desire fills your heart, you toss to and fro without satisfaction. 

You fanaticise over them; perhaps even let your mind become X-rated; you can get no satisfaction.  The fantasy only increases the desire, you burn with passion, and the pain is almost too much to bear.  

What we want, but for one reason or another cannot get, plays on our mind.  Have you ever noticed sometimes that the less chance we have of getting it, the more we want it.  The intense yearning debilitates our whole being — mind, body, and spirit. 

These strong feelings and desires make us do all kinds of things with our minds, our mouths and our movements.  From children throwing tantrums before their parents, to teenagers manipulating things to suit themselves, to God’s adult children growing more and more materialistic and self-centred, it’s all the same thing in God’s eyes.

King David burned with desire over someone he shouldn’t have been obsessing over.  In fact, he should never have let himself be in this position to do what he did.

As the saying goes, “Idle hands are the devil’s playground.”  And so, while David should have been leading his armies in battle out in the field, he hangs about Jerusalem not doing much.

He gets off his bed, probably aroused, but if not soon finds himself that way as he leers over Bathsheba, fanaticising over her beauty and her nakedness.

Instead of using his power to lead his fighting men, he misuses his authority and takes Bathsheba, another man’s wife into his bed.  The sin cannot be concealed when Bathsheba falls pregnant.  And so, David summons the husband, Uriah, and tries to cover his sin, but it doesn’t work.  So finally, he resorts to ordering Uriah’s murder to cover his guilt.

Nathan, the prophet of God, goes to see David, and feeds him a story which surely takes David in.  This is a story about a poor man who loves a lamb but when the rich neighbour has visitors, butchers the poor man’s solitary lamb instead of preparing one of the many lambs he owns.  David burns with anger against the rich man.  But God had set David up, and Nathan says…

 “You are the man! You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. …Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’  …“Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.”  …Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12:7, 9, 10, 11, 13)

David had free choice, but like us all who have free choice, the consequences are never free and so beginning with the death of the child he and Bathsheba conceived, his whole family begins to unravel.  And the ripple effect takes its toll on his family’s kingship and on every member of the kingdom of Israel.

Have you ever heard of the saying, “You can’t eat your cake and have it too.”?  David’s desire led him to eat his cake of desire, when he should never have had it in the first place.  He ate his cake in secret, but it soon soured in the belly.

The unravelling of David’s kingdom continued with a repetition of similar sorts when David’s son, Amnon, fell in love with his half-sister, David’s daughter, Tamar.  His desire led him to deviously set up a situation where they would be alone in his bedroom.  She is sent to him with bread as Amnon is apparently not well.  But once alone with Amnon he seeks to seduce her, but on her refusal, he rapes her. 

Amnon had his fill, then he treated Tamar as trash.  After such great desire and yearning for her, he ate his cake of desire and then he no longer had his idol of desire.  Therefore, the idol of desire turned into one of contempt and hatred. 

These are the results of David’s desire to not fulfil his kingship, leading Israel in battle, but rather, stay in Jerusalem.  Desire drove David’s delusion on that afternoon when he mused about Bathsheba; and desire continued to devastate in waves of consequence after the wake of Amnon pining over his sister.  Retribution came from Absalom, Tamar’s full brother, who kills Amnon, and then pits himself against his father, King David, for the kingdom of Israel.  In the sight of all Israel, he defiantly takes the concubines of his father into his bed.

Who would have known the twitch of David’s sexual desire would have led to this tangled mess of death and destruction?  We are always free to choose!  But the other half is choice always has consequences that are never free.  It’s why deception is a deception; because our desires delude and deceive us into overlooking the other half of the free choice reality.

Have you ever noticed that after coveting the new car, the new clothes, or whatever it is you just have to have?  That on receiving it, it loses its sheen extremely quick!  The new car smell disappears, and it gets dirty, the shoes and clothes end up wearing out and become rags, or they date and become relics in the back of closet.  This never seem a reality when we’re in the midst of desire.

What about those food ads on television, or going to the supermarket after you’ve had a big meal?  The smells don’t have the same effect as when you’re hungry.  The burgers might be better, but you can’t even bear to look at them!  You can’t eat your cake and have it too! 

Or more to the point, “you can’t satisfy your desires and have the desires too!”  The feelings of wanting, disappear the moment you devour what you’ve desired.  But then the mirage of desire soon pops up somewhere else, ready to deceive us all over again.

In the gospel of John chapter six, Jesus tells us,  “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (John 6:27 ESV)

Food that endures to eternal life!  This food is unusual!  We eat it, yet we still have it.  It’s the food which satisfies, really satisfies with lasting effect.  This food is unlike the food we crave one moment then reject once we’ve had our fill.  This is the food that gives us the sense of joy, but once eaten the sense of joy goes on and on and on, without ever becoming too much.  This is the food once eaten we still have it.  You can eat this cake, and have it too!

So, what must we do to eat and have this cake that endures into eternal life?  Jesus answers, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29 ESV)

God calls you to taste and see that the Lord is good.  Open your hearts and let God fill you with satisfaction that lasts into eternity.  Jesus really satisfies! 

So, what must we do to get the food that endures to eternal life:  Believe that Jesus is the Bread of Life!  He is the food of life; he is the only bread of eternal satisfaction!

Jesus is the cake.  Come and eat, you can eat this cake and have it too. “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!  Blessed are those who takes refuge in him!  Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!” (Psalm 34:8–9)

Amen. 

B, Easter 1, The Resurrection of our Lord - Isaiah 25:8 Acts 10:39b-40 "Contronym of God"

(There is no video due to technical problems with my radio microphone.)

Do you know words that have two meanings, completely opposite to each other?  These words are known as contronyms (or contranyms).  We use these words all the time, usually without realising the word can mean the opposite of itself.

Dust is one such word.  Dust means to add particles to something, like dusting a cake with icing sugar.  But it also means to remove particles, like when one has to dust the house.

To dust is a contronym conundrum, a challenging contradiction in the one word.

Cleave can mean to adhere to something or someone, like a husband and wife cleave to each other in marriage.  Yet cleave also means to separate, as in to cleave meat from the bone with a cleaver.  To cleave your spouse, misunderstood, could see you incarcerated!

Bolt can be to flee, or it can be to restrain.  He bolted from the burning building or bolt the door before you go to bed.  If one bolts from one’s bed, and the door has not been bolted you’re possibly sleepwalking out into the night!

Fast means quick moving, but it also means unable to move as in stuck fast or fasten.  First-degree can be the most severe, as in murder.  But it can be not so bad, as in a first-degree burn. 

When you put out something, you’re either exposing it or extinguishing it, put out the bin or put out the fire! 

Is tempering making something stronger or softer?   To temper the mood takes the heat out of an argument.  But to temper steel hardens it with fire. 

Being transparent can mean invisible, but also it can mean being obvious. 

Left means what remains, as in left behind, or it means one has gone.  One could even use a contronym in the one sentence.  The girl has left but has left her sister here. 

Our language is very adaptable, but that makes it confusing too!   It gets even more fluid and baffling with colloquialisms and generational nuances.  The confusion of contronyms only increases between age groups!  

Around the house, I’m often told, “Heath, you’re special aren’t you!”  But with the amount of sarcasm with which it’s said, I don’t think it’s a compliment.  Especially, when the kids agree saying, “Yeah, dad is real special!”

Then again, I have told my children that they’re geniuses.  Should they take it as a compliment when they haven’t thought the process through!  They usually don’t!   …think the process through!  … or take it as a compliment!

Listening to young people today, one might wrongly be led to assume many of them are not healthy, or the situation their friends find themselves in, is bad. 

Every bro is sick, eh!  Their best friends are sick, and they do really sick stuff.  I’m glad I’m not there when they’re sick!  So much sick would make me sick!  I hate the smell of my own vomit, even less other people’s!

Contronyms are sick, eh!

I ask a question and get the answer, “Yeah-na”!  Ah, excuse me, do you mean yes or no?  Or are you being indecisive, taking a bet each way?  How does that fit into, the yes means yes and no means no mantra we’ve taught our kids?

Contronyms, yeah-na!

But it goes on!  Some say, “that’s wild!”  But they exclaim it with jubilation.  However, on seeing a nasty tropical storm approach with green clouds full of car-destroying hail, or a fire storm raging towards your house, saying, “that’s wild!”  fills no one with joy!

The confusion of contronyms can be catastrophic!

Filthy when I grew up meant dirty!  When mum saw us come inside after playing in the mud she’d say, “You boys are filthy!”  But today amongst our younger generations, I think, being filthy means being cool.  Yes, we were cool after playing in the mud, but mum didn’t think we were all that cool.  From memory it usually made her a bit hot under the collar when we dripped muddy water through the house!

And for that matter, dirty meant being filthy!  Yet, in our sexually promiscuous society, being dirty is seen as being good.  Regardless of one being covered in mud or being covered in shame, being dirty or filthy is not good.  Especially when good order depends on cleanliness!

The contronym conundrum starts to take on a confusing but sinister tone when words can imply good or bad.  The word wicked is one such word.  Once it meant evil, but now it can mean good.  When good and evil are confused, no longer are we in a contronym conundrum!  We’re actually in a state of confusion and chaos.

Piano Man, Billy Joel sings, “They say there's a heaven for those who will wait.  Some say it's better, but I say it ain't;  I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints; The sinners are much more fun.  You know that only the good die young.”

Being good is good for some, but being bad is better!  That’s the message sung to us!  Not just by Billy Joel, but by most in society today.  Evil is good, good is evil.  Disorder and disobedience are good, because good order needs to be disobeyed as it’s destructive to the rights of the inner self.

In this age of good being evil, and vice versa, Jesus Christ has become a contronym.  When many use his name it’s not to glorify him!  The name Jesus Christ for many is a curse word.

But for us these two words are anything but a curse, they’re the most two blessed words in the world!

Many may use his name as a contronym, as a curse rather than a blessing.  But we allow him to be what he really is!   Therefore, we name evil as evil, and God as the only good.

In the hearing of the resurrection Gospel, all areas of society, all identities, all people, male and female, see in Jesus Christ what is good and what is evil.  The law of God is imprinted on everyone’s hearts having heard the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Perhaps this is why, rebellious humanity finds it so easy to use Jesus’ name as a cursing contronym.

In Jesus Christ conservatism and progressivisms are shown what is evil in them and what is good in them.  After all Jesus was conservative and progressive!  If we conserve anything other than Jesus Christ or progress anything other than his death and resurrection, we must truly ask ourselves, “Have I conserved or progressed Jesus Christ as a contronym curse?” 

However, to abide in his call to repentance and believe his word of forgiveness, conserves Jesus Christ in his Word and progresses his kingdom, the Kingdom of God!    You might identify with a certain identity.  But to be truly certain, we put aside being conservative or being progressive, for the certainty of being in Christ, a Christian!   That might not be good in the eyes of the world.  But then again, they are not saving you from death!

We hear, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,  but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.” (Acts 10:39b–40 ESV)

There was much confusion on the morning of that first Easter.  Jesus was dead and then he is alive again.  Despite the confusion, death on a cross since the resurrection, now means life for us! 

The world has no contronym for death.  Unlike the use of Jesus’ name as a curse word, most avoid using the word “dead or death”.  Death scares people, yet in the confusion and chaos of death Jesus Christ, and his word, stand out from all other words!

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, life and death are a contronym on the cross.  “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1:21 ESV)

Living in Christ is dying!  Dying in Christ is living! 

When Lazarus had died Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,  and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26 ESV)

And from Isaiah, “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.”  (Isaiah 25:8 ESV)

God has spoken!  God has acted!  In Jesus Christ the conundrum of death is resurrected as an eternal contronym for life!  Amen. 

A, Post-Pentecost 24 Proper 27 - Matthew 25:1-13 "Expectation"

What do you expect from this day?  We all live with expectations everyday of our lives.  What are expectations and from where do they come?  To where do they lead?  Are your expectations healthy or unhealthy?

Expectations change from person to person, from place to place, and they vary in different times of life throughout the ages.

Our expectation for a meal, a bed in which to sleep tonight, an enjoyable day amongst likeminded folk, seems reasonable to us.  But, for those in war-ravaged places perhaps these expectations would lead to disappointment, resentment, and further hopelessness.  Our expectations might be quite trivial to those whose very existence hangs in the balance! 

The expectations we place on others can differ too.  What you expect of your parents or children changes over time.  Children learn to expect parents to care for them when young, but they expect to escape from their authority when they’re teenagers and young adults!  Likewise, parents expect to care for their children when young, and our mums and dads expect to be cared for, when they grow old!

Expectations are buried in our being from the time we’re born. 

Expectations remember the past, in the present, and furnish one’s future. 

Depending on the culture into which you’re born, will usually dictate the expectations you have of others, and yourself.   What you did and do, dictates what you will do.  Enjoying what you ate encourages what you will seek to eat.  Where you live, who you serve, who serves you, who and what you trust and don’t trust are learnt expectations.

Another word for expectations is wants!  Wants or expectations are fuelled by something deep within each of us.  Examining our inner wants and expectations can tell us a lot about ourselves.  Learning of another person’s wants, or a group’s expectations, can also help us discern much about the person or group.

For example, those who expect the world to continue to evolve into a better and better place, might have an expectation of society learning from its mistakes and not making them again.  There’s an expectation of humanity cycling round and round in an ever-rising series of events towards perfection.  On the other hand, those who expect the universe to one day spiral and explode into a chaotic oblivion will have very different expectations.  Both are expectations, both are not right, but they affect how humanity acts and reacts to events and other people.

So, what or who fuels your expectations?

Are your expectations, or wants, a false god?   Are your expectations premeditated resentments?  Setting yourself up, or others, for hurt and failure?

What do you expect of God?

What does God expect of you?  You might be surprised what God expects of you, written in his Word!

What fuel’s your expectations of God, and your understanding of his expectations of you?  It depends on whether your expectations submit to the Word of God, or you try to make God submit to your expectations and wants!

Ten virgins expect the coming of the bridegroom.  In this parable Jesus says five were wise and five were foolish.  The wise were those who have considered bringing extra fuel for their lamps.  The foolish have not thought things through and don’t have extra oil to fuel their lamps.

Jesus teaches the parable to prepare us for his coming and what we should expect.  So, what is the parable of the ten virgins teaching us to expect about Jesus’ return?

At the end of the parable Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13 ESV)  This sudden surprise is made explicit in the midst of the parable.  All ten virgins are asleep and startled when the cry comes for the bridegroom’s arrival.

Jesus previously says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”  (Matthew 24:36 ESV)  Not even Jesus knows, only the Father in heaven.  Obviously when Jesus is sent by the Father, he will know, but not beforehand.

Notice that in the parable all the virgins fall asleep, and they cannot lend their oil.  This is so, because when we fall asleep in death, what we believe and trust, is the fuel of our faith, and it’s this light that will expose us as followers of Christ.  What you believe, or what you expect when you die, cannot be changed when Christ returns.

When we think of lamps, we might assume that lamps were used to see the way.  They may have been, if the lamps were rags soaked in oil on sticks, but the parable tends to suggest a lamp that’s not a temporary torch to see the way, but a lamp made of clay with a reservoir to hold the fuel and a wick to draw the fuel and burn a flame.  Much like a candle would burn and produce a small amount of light.

This type of lamp is not for seeing the way, but for being seen.  Virgins walking in the evening moved about with lamps to illuminate their faces, so they could be plainly seen.  Women who moved around hidden within the cloak of darkness, were usually anything but virgins.  The virgins needed the fuel for their lamps, to be seen by the bridegroom on his arrival, not to see the way to the bridegroom. 

One cannot work their way to Jesus.  Just as he came the first time, he will come the second time.  We didn’t find him the first time, and neither will we find him when he returns.  What will be seen of you when he returns?

This is a key part of the parable because if one does not have the good oil, so to speak, when the bridegroom arrives, we cannot expect to bargain our way through the door of eternal life to be with Jesus.

Like the virgins who went to find oil and returned to begged to enter, Jesus also says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21, 23 ESV)

If we have an expectation that we can change our story on judgement day, Jesus clearly tells us it doesn’t work like that!  The fuel of faith we need when we die, is the fuel of doing God’s will, or what God expects and wants. 

He wants to see us waiting for him, illuminated by his presence, and not the back of us working, or changing, to get the good oil.  He wants to see the radiance and joy of our hopeful expectation in which we will enter the grave and will be woken at his coming.

So, what is this fuel?  The good oil of expectation!  It’s not an idol of our works, or a belief in a false image of God we’ve concocted in our hearts.

What is this fuel of faith that God expects to see in you?   It’s the fuelling trust in God’s Word, looking not to ourselves or finding our way to eternity.  It’s allowing the fire of the Holy Spirit to illuminate Christ’s death for our daily death of self.  This fuel of faith lets him shine his holiness in us.  So, when the Father sees us, our lamp of faith shows Jesus the bridegroom, shining for us, in his resurrection glory.

God expects you to be a sinner!  If he did not expect this, he would not have sent Jesus to be the only sacrifice for sin!  But God also expects you to be an enlightened repentant sinner, who despite knowing your sinfulness, willingly stands in his presence to confess, be forgiven, and forgive as Jesus has forgiven us in his death and resurrection.

Like the wise virgins whose faces are lit up with hope and joy at his coming, our wisdom is not so much about you or me, but about the wisdom of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, working and waking us with the Word of God.

God expects us humans to have doubts and troubles with faith.  Every day you can expect the old human self will seek its resurrection.  That, you can count on without a skerrick of doubt!   This is not a time to forget the oil reserve that is being deposited in you through God’s Word. 

When you have doubts, let the eternal resurrected bridegroom pour his Word into you with the Holy Spirit.  When you doubt, bash on God’s door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to open Godly expectations of his Word in you!  When you pray, trust the Holy Spirit to give you a desire and joy in God’s Word.  When you receive God’s Word as the good oil, expect this oil to be the oil to keep your lamps burning.

God wants your greatest expectation, to be of him. 

He wants your expectation of him alone.  

He expects you, to expect him, to be your God.  Amen.

C, Epiphany 2 - John 2:9-11 "Change"

John 2:9–11 (ESV)When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”  This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

We’re living in times of change.  Indeed, even days and hours of change!  Things seem to be evolving at such a rapid rate of change. 

Technology has much to do with this, but in recent times our health in the face of the pandemic has heightened such change in such a short time.  Who would have thought we would be into the third year of a global virus with all its restrictions and debilitations?!

In these uncertain times of radical change, one certainly feels bashed and beaten by the unexpected readjustments we are required to make in our day to day lives.  We wonder when or if things will ever return to what we expect as being normal.  Whatever “normal” is now!  We talk of coming to terms with living with Covid.  But what does that really mean for us?

This uncertainty and change affect us!   Are our expectations in life in need of change?  How we live our lives; even our purpose in life is being questioned.  Confidence is being lost in the stability of things we took for granted as being rock solid.

How has this time of accelerated change, affected your hope? 

If we look to the media, it testifies humanity is miserable, getting poorer, afflicted with disease, on the verge of blowing ourselves to smithereens, as well as facing a climate catastrophe.  Humanity’s hope has changed for the worse!  It all sounds dismal, but perhaps it is not as bad as the media is making it out to be.

The loss of hope and confidence in humanity’s progress seems quite alarming, but the reality is our hope and confidence has been a house of cards tottering on the edge of collapse for some time.  Our towers of trust are being torn down revealing we should never have put our trust in them, and our motives for building them in our hearts prove questionable.

At the centre of our loss of hope the Holy Spirit seeks to refocus your confidence and restore hope in Jesus Christ. 

As all the things you love are removed, the Holy Spirit moves you to trust in him who loves you.  The great thing to come out of the uncertainty and change of the last three years is the renewed brightness of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

But there is a temptation to be distracted by the arguments of our human spirit and the world, over knowledge of, the good and evil of Covid immunisations, lockdown limitations versus the freedom of choice, health versus wealth, a growing Chinese threat, climate change, and gender rights.  

On the other hand, the change Jesus Christ puts in front of us, now shines ever so much brighter as all worldly temporary hopes in us become exhausted and die.   Ironically, they always were going to die.  But we have breathed so much life into these gods of microchips and memes, the modern-day idols of wood and stone!

Unfortunately, over the last decade, personal electronic devices have become so dominant in our lives, it has distracted and led us into chaotic waters.   And like a covid riddled cruise ship unable to dock, we’re so preoccupied and paralysed from our personal pursuits of pleasure.

In the same way, this mobile phone and app god is dying too, and many will soon need Jesus Christ to board their boat and change their lives as well, lest their paralysation renders them eternally lost.

A French writer of the 19^th century, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, is quoted as saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.  And this is true of humanity as it seeks to make change for what it believes to be “the better”.  But as humanity idolises change for the sake of progress it continues in its hopeless plight contributing to evil.

However, Jesus Christ introduces change that’s contrary to all other human endeavours of change.  Jesus Christ is the only true agent of change.  He makes all things new, eternally new and eternally different! 

We get a picture of this change today as we hear what he does at the wedding at Cana, and who it revealed him to be. 

Jesus takes the water for old covenant purification and changes it into the best wine, eternal pleasing wine!   In the wedding at Cana, a glimpse of his glory is revealed, which would become fully uncovered at his death and resurrection.  He makes change at the wedding, turning water into wine, and it reminds us of the change we have undergone in our baptism into his death and resurrection.

You now carry the knowledge of Jesus Christ as a result of being baptised.  You are forgiven and fed with God’s word and sacraments, the Holy Spirit works Jesus Christ in you every time you hear his word and eat and drink his body and blood.

The wedding water, changed into the best wine, reminds us that there is now no longer need for purification through the Law.  Fulfilling the requirements of the Law are finished in Jesus’ death on the cross.  The ritual to be cleansed and washed, to be purified was put aside after Jesus, the true bridegroom, washed the feet of his disciples and made way for our entry into the wedding feast of the Lamb, through the purification and sacrifice of his death.

In the book of Revelation, we are reminded of the promise given to John when he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and commanded to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9 ESV)

Weddings are joyful occasions.  How much greater is the joy of the eternal wedding between Jesus and his bride, the church, now that God promises our purification through the death and resurrection of his firstborn Son.  Our hopelessness, and helplessness, is covered with the life-changing robes of Jesus’ righteousness.

There are changes happening all around us. But God calls you away from those distractions to focus on Jesus Christ and the change he has made for us and in us. He sends the Holy Spirit to change us, and this work continues to happen throughout our lives.

In fact, we are engaged to God’s Son in this life.  God has placed his Holy Spirit in us as a very good deposit, sealing us for the day of hope, our resurrection from the dead and marriage with our faithful eternal Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

Let us proclaim the true change Jesus is bring to us at the conclusion of this life here on earth.  As we look forward to Jesus’ return where he will make all things new, let us remind each other and tell others of the unlimited good wine of eternal abundance that awaits all who allow themselves to be changed into the wedding clothes of Jesus’ righteousness. Amen.

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory.”  (Revelation 19:6b-7a ESV) The marriage of the Lamb is coming!  Let his Bride be made ready!

Amen.