C, Post-Pentecost 8, Proper 13 - Luke 12:13-21 & Colossians 3:1-11 "Good, Guilt, & God"

Luke 12:13–21 (ESV) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good for one’s existence.  Guilt though however, is an essential part of our created being through which we can learn about ourselves and our relationships with others.

Think about how you feel when guilt comes over you.  How do you react?  What do you do?  What do you think?  What do you try to hide?  Perhaps you’re defending a treasured idea or object! Reflecting on our guilt, despite the discomfort, helps us to identify what is broken within ourselves.  And once recognising what our guilt uncovers, it’s a powerful tool to rebuild what’s busted.

Jesus tells parables, to teach the truths of God the Father to those who have ears to hear.  He does this by exposing our emotions in the stories or parables he teaches.  In them he uncovers the emotional truths hidden within the hearer.  The parables can be painful because he gets to the core of our being where our human hidden reality bubbles and boils like lava deep within the earth.

Jesus tells parables to expose fault in our humanity.  So, in exploring the guilt and its cause, faults can be found, and our humanity can have the holy healing it needs. 

However, no one can fix their own guilt.  Trying only makes the fault line worse, because the internal tectonic plates of our emotions grind against each other only increasing guilt all the more.  Yes, one may be able to fool others with a calm external persona.  But in reality, we only fool ourselves, as the pressure builds before the emotions erupt and one emits the sulphuric state of their true being.

Instead, Jesus tells the parables, we hear his Word, so the Holy Spirit can expose guilt and guide us from it to the goodness of God.  As we’re reminded by the Psalmist in Psalm 107, to “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!  For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:1,9 ESV)

On the other hand, what we think is good, seems good, until good gives way to guilt.  In the parable of the rich fool, Jesus touches your heart to reveal guilt, so the Holy Spirit can teach you about your guilt, and the products of fear and anxiety that come from it.

That’s why just prior to this parable Jesus teaches and warns us about hindering the Holy Spirit saying, “…everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:10–12 ESV)

In fact, it’s here Jesus gives us the answer in the Holy Spirit, even before any questions can be thought of, or asked.  Any question only comes from our guilt being provoked by hearing this parable of the rich fool. 

This is the question: What is the good treasure that makes me rich in and towards God?  The Answer: It’s allowing the Holy Spirit to make me holy, through the workings of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ. Alternatively, one could ask: What are the treasures I lay up for myself that diminish richness towards God? The answer: Anything that leads me to put God in second place, cheapen the pricelessness of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and hinders the Holy Spirit from delivering us to Jesus’ forgiveness.

Therefore, Jesus begins the parable by warning the hearer to, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15 ESV)

The rich man covets his goods, and he believes this to be good.  His land is full of life given by God, and it produces plentifully.  But he doesn’t treasure the coming of God’s kingdom nor God for giving him good things.  Instead, idolatry takes a hold of him as he builds his kingdom of pleasures by tearing down and building bigger barns to house his grain and goods. 

The idol of pleasure is his treasure.  This seductive shortsighted “good” is ingrained in him.  Eating, drinking and being merry, appears to be a good thing for many years to come.  But the idol he has built and worked so hard to protect as a result of the productive land will be left to someone else.   He built his barn but didn’t fear or trust that God had built him.  Therefore, his kingdom of coveting collapsed when God demanded back the very life God had given him.

What goods are ingrained in your pursuit of pleasure?  What blasphemous barn are you building to cover your coveting?

The call to not covet is the last of the commandments, but coveting begins down deep in the seat of the emotions and boils up through a person, leading us to fail in some, or all, of the other commandments. 

When one covets, one desires what one thinks is good.  Coveting makes one feel good!  When we get what we covet, chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin are released in the brain giving a hit of immediate pleasure that quickly fades.  No one ever covets something that will make them feel bad.  Feeling bad comes after the apple is eaten; after our knowledge of good proves not to be good in the way we’ve imagined and idolised.  After this comes guilt and its various reactions.

Jesus doesn’t tell us about the reactions of the rich fool after God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20 ESV) The reaction is never heard from the rich fool, but instead the heart of the hearer is provoked by Jesus’ parable because of the goods coveted and treasured instead of God.

In Colossians 3 Paul calls all who are raised with Christ and wish to appear with him in glory to, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 ESV) And to, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  (Colossians 3:5 ESV) This earthliness is that which is ground into your being.  It’s the dirt of Adam ingrained and deeply rooted in you.  This is the dirt of sin deep within one's mortality from where idols are cast from molten emotions deep within the earthliness of one’s humanity.

The human goodness ingrained in us does not like having its guilt revealed.  But those in Christ, we whose earthliness is revealed by the dirt of our deeds, know although it’s painful having our guilt revealed now, it’s a blessing from God.  It gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move us in the goodness of God who has sent the Holy Spirit, to give you faith.  Firstly, belief you are human. That is, earthly vessels or sinners who will perish.  But also, it’s belief that the death and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ, saves from eternal death.

God the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father and God the Son to bring us to the Father through the Son.  The Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus with life-giving faith.  Faith is a good gift from God through the Holy Spirit.  When the guilt of our ingrained greed is shown within, the Spirit wills you to run in repentance to Jesus Christ knowing that these trials test, “the genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 1:7 ESV)

Through repentance, the Holy Spirit puts to death guilt within, and covers forgiven sinners with the blood of Jesus.  We allow the Spirit to put to death what is earthly within because, “On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:6 ESV)

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good, but learning from one’s guilt, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reveals the eternal goodness of God in his Son, Jesus Christ.

When you allow the Spirit to teach you to treasure this, you are reassured, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4 ESV)  Because, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV)   Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 9 Proper 14 - Luke 12:32,37 Hebrews 11:12 "As Good as Dead"

Luke 12:32, 37 (ESV) “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

Hebrews 11:12 (ESV) Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Abram was a rich man, but he was as good as dead.  He had faith in God, but he wished to propagate his line, encouraged by his wife, Sarai, to take Hagar, her servant, and secure a future through her son, Ishmael.

You might find it interesting that Abram, come Abraham, after being promised by God that he would have his own heir, listens to Sarai, Sarah, has genital union with her servant Hagar, and has a son.  The faith in which Abraham and Sarah act, seems contrary to the faith they were credited with in the letter to the Hebrews.

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.  Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.  (Hebrews 11:11–12 ESV)

A world of hurt follows after Hagar conceived and gives birth to Ishmael.  Ishmael receives the blessing God gave to Abraham, becoming a multitude of peoples, but he does not allow Abraham and Sarah’s faith in themselves see Ishmael as the heir.  Instead, God allows Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness to seemingly fend for themselves with bread and water that quickly run out.

Hagar and Ishmael too are as good as dead, which appears to be not good at all.  Imagine being Hagar and Ishmael.  What would your faith be like in their situation?  The laughter and joy at the birth of Isaac, I imagine, was not shared by Hagar and Ishmael having been cast out into a certainty of being as good as dead.

The picture God paints for us in his word as being as good as dead, is not as bad in God’s eyes as it is ours!  He allows Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael to reach a point at which they are no longer able to act.  Within each of these characters God kills all faith, hope, and love, exhausting every human act, erasing every idea and all sentiment. 

Not only was Abraham as good as dead, but also, he couldn’t give faith to Sarah, Sarah couldn’t give faith to Hagar, and nor could Hagar give faith to Ishmael.  God is the only one to give faith.  But first he seeks to see in us the complete annihilation and obliteration of looking to the self.  He uses death for good, making us as good as dead.

Talking about death in this way, is counter cultural.  To be made nothing and erased rightly fills us with hopelessness and helplessness.  It may be your response to busy yourself, to try to overcome the feelings of fear associated with this reality.  Worry can drive one to work with a desire to force these feelings out.

On the other hand, becoming nothing and being erased may leave you struck with fear.  So much so you are frozen by fear and are overcome by the poverty of your hopelessness and helplessness.

In a society driven by the pursuit of pleasure it is a strange paradox that we are faced by so much fear and unhappiness.  However, when faith in oneself and the pleasing of oneself no longer pleases, fear and unhappiness must come when our treasure of pleasure is dead.

This death of pleasure occurs inside and outside the church, and it seems a terrible thing, but God allows us to be as good as dead so goodness might come through death.

For you and me, inside the church, we learn a valuable lesson.  We learn about being Christian is not necessarily about doing Christian things. 

In fact, there are many outside Christendom that do many greater things than those inside the church.  In the eyes of the world, philanthropists do good deeds spending millions on selfless works in society.  Humanitarians too, also seem to improve society with the good work they do.  Their love for their fellow human is second to none, outdoing us in the church doing “Christian things”.

Doing Christian things might please some!  But doing Christian things to be seen as a Christian, does not please God.  One needs to prayerfully consider what one’s pleasure actually is, in doing Christian things.  If I do things to feel pleased, am I not pleasing the god of myself?  I am using the things of God to worship myself.  And what happens when the things I do, no longer gives me pleasure?

Being a Christian, calls us to be in the pleasures of death; to be as good as dead.  That sounds strange.  It sounds like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.  How can there be pleasure in death?  Death is about annihilation, becoming nothing, obliteration, or being erased from existence. 

Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  (Luke 12:34 ESV)  Where your treasure is, there is your pleasure.  If your pleasure is doing Christian things, then your treasure is the doing of the deeds. 

However, when we are as good as dead, our pleasure cannot come from doing anything.  But,  when we are as good as dead, our existence or having our being must come from God and this pleases him because he is the only one who can truly do it.

In our Lutheran Confessions it says… But before people are enlightened, converted, reborn, renewed, and drawn back to God by the Holy Spirit, they cannot in and of themselves, out of their own natural powers, begin, effect, or accomplish anything in spiritual matters for their own conversion or rebirth, any more than a stone or block of wood or piece of clay can.  [Isaiah 45:9; 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:19–24]

For although they can control their bodies and can listen to the gospel and think about it to a certain extent and even speak of it (as Pharisees and hypocrites do), they regard it as foolishness and cannot believe it.  They behave in this case worse than a block of wood, for they are rebellious against God’s will and hostile to it, wherever the Holy Spirit does not exercise his powers in them and ignite and effect faith and other God-pleasing virtues and obedience in them.[1]

It pleases God when he finds us ready.  We are made ready by the Holy Spirit, and he readies us in the Word of God and the Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit places us in the cycle of faith, breathing life into that which is as good as dead. 

In fact, he must make us ready for the coming of the Bridegroom by making us dead.  God finds us as nothing, so he can give us everything and make us something, a Christian being, working and moving in the being of Christ, doing the things of God as the Holy Spirit wills us.  For “In him we live and move and have our being”.  (Acts 17:28 ESV)

Jesus tells us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32 ESV)

We see in war movies, when one is injured on the battlefield and cannot escape the enemy patrol, looking to finish off those who are still alive, some survive by playing dead, so the killers pass by giving the injured a chance to escape. 

Opposite to this is the Christian who is ready for the Father’s good pleasure.  He needs us not to play alive, as if we do not need his help and can save ourselves.  We don’t need to play dead either, our reality is that we are as good as dead.  It pleases God when we know and trust this in his word and make ourselves ready for his coming, because “our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV)

When we ready ourselves in the knowledge as being as good as dead, it pleases God to rescue us from the “no man’s land” of suffering and sin.  Jesus tells us what he does for us, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12:37 ESV)

Faith that pleases God, is a faith that places its pleasure in the death of self, the death of desire and sin as well as the death of do-gooder righteousness.   A faith that pleases God is a faith that treasures Jesus Christ and his service to us in the forgiveness of sin, giving life to sinners. 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  (Romans 6:3 ESV)

It is better, to be awake and ready to the reality of being as good as dead, than to be so busy pleasing and saving the self that one shuts out Christ, knocking at the door of one’s heart!

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, as Jesus comes and knocks on the door of our hearts, may he find us ready, enter, and serves us with the bread of faith, hope, and love, in his word and in his body and blood.  Send you Holy Spirit to work the death of faith, hope, and love in the things of this world, our sin, and our sinful being, so he might continually serve us with your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, that each of us may remain in the goodness and treasure of his death.  Amen.

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[1] Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000).  The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, 2:24 (pp. 548–549).  Fortress Press.

C, Epiphany 7 - Luke 6:27–38 "On Being Merciful, Perfect, & Holy"

Luke 6:27–38 (ESV) “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.  “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.  Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.  “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;  give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

There are a lot of commands laid out here by Jesus in the Gospel reading before us.  Love your enemies, do good, bless, pray for those who abuse you.  Offer the cheek to those who strike you, do not withhold your tunic.  Give, do not demand back.  Love, do good, lend, and expect nothing.  Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.  Judge not, condemn not, forgive, and give.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  Jesus makes seventeen demands in this text. 

He goes on to say, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,  for each tree is known by its own fruit.  For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.  The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks”.  (Luke 6:43–45 ESV)

Sitting down to write this sermon proved interesting as there was commotion going on in the manse yard.  Our dog was excited by all the noise as chaps from the church assisted a fellow removing trees from the gardens.  And there I sat trying to write a sermon on mercy, while outside no mercy was being shown to the pencil pine that had to go because it had outgrown its position and was lifting the paths and fence around it.  And out back trees were being removed so fruit trees can be planted with the hope of getting a sweet crop.

A member who will remain unnamed, but use to be an accountant, asked me if the activity around the manse was inspiring me with my sermon writing.  I told him it’s hard to write a sermon on mercy when trees were mercilessly being chopped down.  To which, with a cheeky grin, he replied, “it’s for the greater good of the pastor.”

This made me ponder why Jesus has given us these seventeen rules!  Has he done so for the “greater good” or is there another point being made?  What fruit is being produced by doing these seventeen demands?  If it is for some greater good, what is this greater good? 

Thinking about trees, now chopped down and cleared away, I know I didn’t hate those trees.  In fact, they looked quite good.  But I know the pine out the front was going to cause ongoing problems that the parish would not love addressing.  And as for the trees on the back fence having to go, I love the pleasure of growing and picking one’s own produce more.

Jesus’ first command is to love your enemies.  But what if they bear bad fruit as the text says?  Am I to somehow love them, for the greater good?  Anyway, what is the greater good, the summum bonum, the ultimate of all goodness?  What would my motives be for doing so, and what measure would I use to determine how to love them.

It’s here I realise loving my enemy is difficult, to say the least.  I am unsettled by the fact that perfectly good trees are cut down for reasons that might be based more on my desire being deemed “the greater good’ or the desire of the parish to not have the “greater evil” by getting rid of the pencil pine now.  And these are non-issues, compared to my desire to have little to nothing to do with one that might be considered as an enemy.

If my thought process is so fickle,  and I can deem my enemy as a bad tree, what is to stop them from considering me the same?  Perhaps I’m a tree that’s lost its purpose and needs to be chopped down in the scheme of someone else’s greater good!   Whose greater good is more important?  World Wars have started over thinking like this!

Our motives are exposed like raw nerves by Jesus in this text.  He shows us we are constantly investing ourselves, our time, and our possessions in schemes that will benefit ourselves.  It may be for financial gain, acceptance of others, a selfish desire to smooth things over, creating a pseudo-peace, because we don’t want to give the time or effort to open and heal wounds in need of healing.  Our motives seem to follow the path of least resistance to pleasure within.

This being the case, then, how do I love my enemies?  How do we as a community under Christ, love our enemies?

Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36 ESV)

In Matthew’s account Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48 ESV)

Jesus here points us to the Law.  Jesus’ call, to be merciful and perfect, is the same as God’s call to be holy. 

Jesus is reflecting what God said through Moses to the people of Israel.  “For I am the LORD your God.  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44 ESV)

Jesus calls us to cleanse ourselves of anything that defiles his holiness.

Why does God the Father and Jesus demand holiness?  The short answer is because he loves us and wants to preserve life?  This is the life he has given to us in love, and he wills us to have for each other. 

This love is not love for myself or my motives.  But it’s a love that brings a community together in God’s presence, where there is perfect peace, where God gives, where we receive together with joy, and where we worship him with fervent love for loving us.

Jesus reinforces God’s call to be holy, through being perfect and merciful, to reveal the lies of our love, no matter how great we think our good is, or how bad our evil actually is.  There are no lies in God’s love and holiness.  All is brought out into the light by Jesus.

As much as we, who are in Christ, have been given the holy will to be merciful, perfect, and holy to please the Father, we cannot be this by our own effort.  Jesus was incarnate in our human flesh, he lived a perfect and merciful life, and died in all holiness, because through our love, we cannot do it.

So, should we give up striving?  Well, yes and no!  Yes!  Because we will condemn ourselves if we believe we can be holy by our own efforts?  And no!  Because when we give up, we demonstrate faithlessness in he who is working salvation within us?

God’s holy plan for us is to show us we are as far away from perfection as ice is from steam, as white is from black, as sour is from sweet.

But God bridges the divide between holiness and evil; God’s good and our good intentions; his perfection and mercy and our motivations; his love, and our love.

Jesus is the good tree bearing good fruit, but he bore it on the terrible tree of the cross.  He takes that terrible tree, your terrible tree and makes it his.

Jesus’ love for you is a perfect and merciful love.  His love is compassionate towards all who call upon his name, for the forgiveness of sin. 

Jesus’ love for you is so great he sends the Holy Spirit to do the work of germinating and growing faith and love within you.  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to mature us into healthy trees producing good fruit, the fruit of faith and love. 

This fruit of love for God, is confession of sin, allowing God to prune us of the dead wood within.  The fruit of love is faith, allowing the daily death of self, the carrying of our crosses, and the bearing of our neighbours’ crosses in prayer and works that spur them onto salvation. 

This fruit of love leads us to see the cross as the place showing us our blessed helplessness.  But it also shows us Jesus is our blessed help at that very same cross.  The cross is the good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, and put into your lap. 

On the cross, Jesus was measured, and shown to be the only one, who has the only good and holy motives, the only perfect love, and the most merciful compassion.

He is the Son of the Most High, higher than the highest good.  He is the Holy One of God, sending the Holy Spirit to help us in his Holy Word. 

We are being made holy because he is holy, we are being made perfect because his love is perfect, and we can give and forgive because of his mercy. Amen.

C, Advent 4 - Hebrews 10:5-7,10 "God's Mighty Arms"

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”   And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  (Hebrews 10:5–7,10 ESV)

These are the strengths of God in our lives: For Jesus to save us, and the Holy Spirit to help us!

From his mighty arms he gives us all we need in this life.  Salvation and sanctification are two arms of love outstretched toward us, from the Father of light, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  For God to save us and make us holy, is his will for all people on earth.  God’s will is your forgiveness of sin, and his will is for you to believe you are forgiven.

Not only is salvation through Jesus and being made holy by the Holy Spirit, God’s strength in our lives; it also pleases God when we take every opportunity to immerse ourselves in his salvation and holiness. 

When we do this, it’s a “win win” situation for us.  When one is immersed in salvation and holiness, God the Father is justified in his power and plan, and we are forgiven.  This forgiveness comes through the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of his Son, Jesus Christ.  And the Holy Spirit continues bringing forgiveness, first at Pentecost, then through the Word of God and through baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection and through his body and blood in the bread and wine.

When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “your will be done”, it pleases God no end, to hinder and defeat every evil scheme and purpose of the world, the devil, and the old Adam within us.  In fact, when God’s will is done in heaven, he forgives us, sin is conquered by Jesus in his death and resurrection. He has victoriously ascended to the right hand of God the Father, finishing our separation from our Father in heaven.  Jesus now stands as the embodiment of the resurrection as the first born from the dead for all people who trust in him.  This includes you and me!

Although God’s will is done in heaven by God forgiving us our sin, and the devil has been conquered and thrown out of God’s presence, the devil still has limited power on earth.  And because of this, God’s will continues to be done on earth.

This makes earth the testing ground for humanity, where within each of us the battle rages between the will of God and the will of fallen humanity.  With his plan and power of salvation and holiness, God seeks to work forgiveness and good will as we live together.  Yet, the old Adam within each of us struggles to dominate with its knowledge of good and evil, driven by the devil.  And the devil is delirious and riddled with rage because he knows he is judged and is heading for eternal destruction with limited time left to deceive the world.

However, the contest between the devil and God is unbalanced.  God is not going to lose.  He is going to win, and it pleases him when we choose to remain with him.  It’s no wonder evil causes so much fury within those who desire to be in control and do not want to be delivered from evil by God into eternal holiness.

Not only is the devil on the losing side and is limited for a brief time in the restricted realm of creation amongst humanity, but he can only be in one place at one time.  On the other hand, God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.  This means God is present everywhere, he knows all things and he is all-powerful.  And the devil is not, nor is humanity, nor is the old Adam within each of us.

Furthermore, this evil axis of the devil, the world, and our sinful self, is up against the three-fold divinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  The Trinity is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere in creation and outside of it.

Since God’s will is done in heaven, we know it is done on earth.  Jesus is at the right hand of the Father doing his work of interceding on behalf of you and me.  The Holy Spirit is at the left hand of the Father being our help, giving us the words to pray and leading us into knowledge of our sin and salvation in God’s Word.  The Holy Spirit also brings us into fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ and with each other.

The good news for you and me is that the Triune God embraces all who trust in him with the steadfast love of salvation, intercession, and holy help.  And this pleases God when we allow him to love us with his Trinitarian holy hug.

Mary says of God, “for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.  And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.  He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy.” (Luke 1:49–54 ESV)

Mary declares God’s love as an embrace of mercy.  Mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation… in remembrance of his mercy.  In his mercy, he helps, fills, and exalts those who look to him.  But dismisses those who won’t receive his mercy, but rather, trust in their thoughts, thrones, and treasures.

But, our thoughts, our thrones, and our treasures all come from God in the first place!  It doesn’t please God when we trust in them instead of him.  Nor does it please him if we give him what he first gave us as a sacrifice for our salvation. 

Both trusting, in what God has given us, and, giving it back to him, is a feeble attempt to justify the human spirit, the old Adam within or the collective spirituality of worldly humanity.  And it’s a deception of the devil seeking to have us believe we can deliver ourselves out of evil into the holiness of God by doing such things!

But God has a Mighty Righthand Man praying for us.  Jesus Christ is the almighty power of God’s right hand!  God has fought and won the battle with the strength of Jesus’ love, faithfulness, and submission unto death.  And even despite God giving the knockout punch to sin and death in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Father and the Son to help us, and deal with the human spirit with which the old Adam seeks to control and deliver us into self-destruction and death.

God’s will for you is to give you life, today and into eternity!  Psalm 80 testifies to God’s righthand man, the son of man, Jesus Christ, who is made strong for God’s good pleasure, for our salvation, and for goodwill amongst humanity. 

Yet, in our existence it might not always be apparent that God’s will for you is to give you life.  In fact, most of the time it appears God has delivered us over to death and decay.  

Similarly, when you look at Jesus’ ordinary entrance into the world, his life of struggle and opposition received, it looks like Jesus was not God’s righthand man.  That God had left him to die and decay also. 

Still, as Jesus stared death in the face, as the cross and crucifixion awaited him, he was faithful and steadfast towards God’s will, which is your forgiveness.

You too are called to faithfulness and steadfastness, despite what might appear as if you have been left for dead.  But just as Jesus was raised, you too are called to see your resurrection in Jesus’ resurrection.  It pleases God when you see and hear his plan for your salvation fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

For God to give you life, he needs to show you darkness, destruction, and death within yourself, so you might willingly receive his restoration and let his face shine on your darkness so you might be saved. 

Hear Psalm 80… But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!  Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name!  Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!  Let your face shine, that we may be saved!  (Psalm 80:17–19 ESV)

Jesus now shepherds you in his forgiveness.  His face shines on you in his good pleasure.  But it also shines in the darkness to show the way of peace.  Jesus, together with the Father, sends the Holy Spirit to guide you and help you remain within his boundaries and to live, the life he won for you, in peace. 

God promises Jesus will shepherd you in his church.  The prophet Micah declares on God’s behalf, “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.  And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.  And he shall be their peace.” (Micah 5:4–5a ESV)

In God’s mighty arms there is peace and love, to the ends of the earth.  Amen.