A, Post-Pentecost 11 Proper 14 - Matthew 14:22-33 Romans 10:5-15 "Faith Boat Afloat"

Romans 10: 6–10, 11, 13 (ESV)  “But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’  For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Getting in and out of boats is difficult.  Anyone who has ever climbed into a canoe or kayak for the first time becomes aware of the instability immediately!   If sitting in boats is not easy, standing in them is even more difficult.  Standing in a kayak is a sure sign that one is about to get very wet.  Standing in a canoe is not much better!  Even standing in a regular small boat is problematic, not to mention moving around.  One loses their balance very easily in a boat. 

Hopping out of a boat is not much simpler, either at a jetty or at the water’s edge.  Going from the instability of a boat to the unknown of what’s under the surface of the shallows can bring a person unstuck.

Once I experienced getting out of an inflatable rubber dinghy thinking the water was ankle deep.  Awkwardly stepping over the round inflatable edge of the boat one foot descended into the water while the other stayed higher on the floor of the vessel.  At the point of no return one must throw their weight from one foot to the other.  The other foot in the salt water had not touched anything solid. The waves rocked the boat from side to side.  Straddling the inflatable side of the rubber craft meant a moment of uncertainty and lack of control as I couldn’t see what was under my foot.  So, knowing I could see sand nearby, I presumptuously threw my weight and went to stand up on the leg in the water.

I can only imagine what this looked like from the beach.  A man in a trendy blue chambray shirt, cargo trousers rolled up a bit, with sunglasses on and mobile phone on the belt clip, going topsy-turvy head-over-heels into the shallows of the surf.  Apparently, I didn’t see that hole in the sand!  

Total immersed, I stood up quickly, as you do, to see if anyone was looking.  Everyone was looking!  It was holiday time at Byron Bay, the beach was packed from frolicking families to topless tourists sunbaking, and all seemed to be watching the inflatable rubber boat come in to make land fall.  Everyone saw me fall, ego first into the drink!  Embarrassed, everyone watched me walk dripping wet, head down, away from the beach! 

The people of God, gathered to hear God’s word and receive his sacraments, are sometimes pictured as those gathered in a boat, just as were the disciples on the Sea of Galilee.  We call this gathering, church.  Church is the congregation not the building in which it gathers.  In fact, the centre section of the building where the people gather is called the nave, from the same Latin word from where we get navy!

The disciples were having a hard time of it in their nave as they struggled through the night to cross the lake.  They were in the vessel having been made to go without Jesus, while he dismissed the five thousand and went to pray. 

Jesus was alone praying while they were alone at sea.  It was the last watch of the night, the hours between three and six A.M.   This is restless time, the witching hours of the night, when one dreams or has nightmares, or just cannot go back to sleep!  Awake, or dreaming a nightmare, one has their aloneness impressed upon themselves.

So too the disciples as they fought exhausted by the turbulence all around them.  It appeared no one was around to help them!  Then someone does appear, walking towards them.  “Walking!  How can this be?”  Terrified they’re spooked by a phantom, an apparition of calm light walking through the nightmare towards them.

Jesus immediately calms them with his word, saying, “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.”  (Matthew 14:27 ESV) He tells them, “Have courage, be bold, dare not to be troubled, within themselves, with their situation, with the wind or the waves, and with him!”

Peter is invited with a single command by Jesus, “Come!”  But on entering the water and seeing the wind and waves he doesn’t trust Jesus’ word over what is within him, he sinks and sings out to Jesus, “Lord save me” (Matthew 14:30 ESV) Jesus rescues him from the two-timing faith within himself, saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31 ESV)

This is the second time Matthew records the disciple’s faithlessness on the Sea of Galilee.  In chapter eight Jesus was amongst his disciples in the nave of the boat.  While the disciples were nauseated by the thoughts of perishing, Jesus slept.  The fishermen woke Jesus calling him to fish them out and save them from this stormy situation.

Little did they understand these were previews of the greater seismic event of the cross when they would all be faithlessly scattered in fear.  But even before going to the cross Jesus tells of troubled waters ahead where the church will be shaken.

Jesus tells his disciples, “See that no one leads you astray.  For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.  And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.  “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.  And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.  And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.  And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.  But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  (Matthew 24:4–14 ESV)

So, we continue to gather in Christ, knowing trouble is coming, but so too is the end.  If it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, we would soon forget that Jesus Christ is the ballast in the boat.  We like Peter would quickly revert and return to trust our own spirit, what we see, hear, and feel!  If it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, we would not know Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us! 

God the Father’s church is one of Law and Gospel!   We are in a community of commandments and faith.  One in Christ, believers gathered as one by the Holy Spirit!

Jesus is the ballast in the boat, having fulfilled the commandments.  The Holy Spirit gives us our balance in the boat, having made us righteous with the ballast we need to remain upright in the Father’s eyes.

Saint Paul paints a picture of those gathered in the nave of Christ’s presence.   Those gathered as church by the Holy Spirit in faith do not ponder in their hearts, “who is going to heaven and who is not going to be saved.”  When one does this, they expose their double-timing faith, falling out in fear, and temp finding out just how deep the hole is they’re presumptuously stepping into!

Wondering who has faith and who hasn’t, immediately excludes you from faith as well!  Why?  Because the only way anyone has faith, is through hearing the word of faith.  While one wonders and ponders, the ears fail to hear, and the mouth is mute and unmoving!

So, what do you hear?  And from it, what do you believe and confess?

We hear that Jesus is in the boat!  Not only that, but we hear he’s the ballast having borne the burden of fulfilling the commandments and our failure to fulfil them. 

Those in church who appear as “good people”, we no longer believe are going to heaven because of their goodness.  That dethrones Jesus from heaven!

Those in church who appear as “not very good people”, we no longer believe are condemned by their deeds.  That brings Jesus up from the dead as if he was never raised in victory over sin and death.  Your sin and death or any other “not very good people’s sin and death”!

No!  Those very people with which you and I are called together, by the Holy Spirit, are called to confess with our mouths that, Jesus is Lord, believing he is in the boat, and we are with him in it.  The Holy Spirit gives us balance in the boat.  That balance is faith, trust in Christ our ballast!

That faith fills our hearts and our mouths so the faithful confession of those gathered to be forgiven and fed the Word of God, as it’s preached, prayed, sung, confessed and consumed, will fulfil the full cycle of faith.

Let us persevere in this holy faith feeding faith, even when we experience trouble and restlessness in the last watch of the night, seemingly falling out of the boat topsy-turvy head-over-heels.  Let us not walk away from the boat ashamed of the Gospel.  But rather let faith empower faith.  Let the Holy Spirit balance the boat and keep you afloat! 

As the Holy Spirit inspires the Romans through Pauls words of faith at the beginning of his letter to them, let it empower you as you hear his confession of faith, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  (Romans 1:16–17 ESV)

It is the last watch of the night!  Faith reveals Jesus in the boat.  Faith waits for Jesus’ return.  Faith hears Jesus say, “Surely I am coming soon.” Faith says, “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!”  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.  Amen”.  (Revelation 22:20–21 ESV)

Those who have ears, let them hear!  Amen. 

A, Post-Pentecost 6 Proper 9 - Matthew 11:15–19, 25–30 "No Need - Know Need"

Matthew 11:15–19, 25–30  (ESV) Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.  But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;  yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Boastful big-mouthed immature children, call out and scoff at those passing by.  They are obnoxious youths, who have no need.  They do not listen.  Therefore, they do not hear!  They are children who do not know what they want!  They don’t want to mourn, nor do they want to rejoice!  Nothing is good enough for them!  They mock and scoff at those who mourn, as well as those who celebrate.  These are the children Jesus compares to the generation around him.

Jesus likens those who reject John the Baptist as children who do not mourn at the singing of his dirge, at his call to repentance before the coming of the kingdom.  He quotes Malachi and follows it up, saying, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’  Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:10–11, 15 ESV)

The children who reject John the Baptist have no need for the past.  They do not need the law to call them to repentance, nor do they need a prophet to expose their need for a saviour!  They need neither Elijah nor John the Baptist.  As they scoff, “He has a demon”, they have no ears with which to hear.  They languish, with a bad spirit, because they do not listen.

Similarly, these children also refuse to celebrate the coming of the Son of Man.  They have no need either way!  Either mourning in repentance nor rejoicing at the coming of the Redeemer is not what they want or need.  It seems nothing is good enough for them!  They are brash boastful children who do not have ears with which to hear!

Jesus speaks of this generation like children in a town’s public marketplace.  He also addresses himself as a child too!  He calls himself the Son of Man!  A son, a servant of those in the public place. 

Despite the shaming of those mocking him in public, Jesus declares, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:19 ESV)

Jesus is not only the Son of God and Servant Son of Man, but he is also the Wisdom of God, personified, in flesh, and Wisdom is justified by her deeds.

Some of the ancient manuscripts do not say “deeds”.  Rather, they say, “Yet wisdom is justified by her children.”  This is the same as what Jesus says in the parallel account in Luke seven chapter thirty-five.  Therefore, the Wisdom of Jesus Christ is justified in the children produced.

So, who are these obnoxious children in the marketplace?  The children that chide and scoff are not those from the outer but rather from within the town centre.  They are those who should have ears to hear, to have received the Wisdom of God, through hearing what has been taught to them.  Rather than having no need for the Word from John the Baptist and Jesus, they should have listened as those who knew they needed a Saviour.

They should have known what Paul reports, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”  (Romans 3:19 ESV)

But the mouths of the children were not stopped by the Law, they did not receive a knowledge of sin.  Therefore, they boastfully block off their ears having no need for salvation.  Without knowledge of sin, they did not know they needed to stop their mouths, and hear with their ears, to receive the Word of Life!

We are the generation to which he says these things.  Jesus speaks to every generation.  He is the New Adam, the Servant Son of Man to all children of Adam.

Like Paul, we are called to a knowledge of sin, having had our mouths stopped, and our ears opened.  We know we need!  We know nothing good dwells in us.  Our sin makes us tired and heavy burdened, often leading us to dis-ease with God and therefore, disease.  We are debased and cry out, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 ESV)  Such is the reality of all recreated from Adam!

God peels back the layers of our blindness to sin; he repeatedly stops our boasting.  He replaces it with Holy Spirited repentance.  In our knowledge of sin, we know our need.  As God the Holy Spirit reveals the depth of our sin, peeling and re-peeling us, he shows us the eternal magnitude of Jesus’ generosity and forgiveness.

Even the children chiding and scoffing in the marketplace are offered a new place under Jesus’ forgiveness.  This is the Wisdom of God, justified in Jesus Christ, and him alone.  All people need Jesus Christ, some know, and some don’t want to know and say “no”.  He takes the depraved children who know their need, burdened and heavy laden with sin and gives them the yoke of forgiveness and rest in the promise of his Word!

We are the children in the marketplace.   But unlike us, the Son of Man is the Son of God who is not haughty nor hollow.  He is meek without being weak.  He is humble and serves all people in his fulness as the Son of God, but he does it in humility.       

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit.   We who allow the Holy Spirit to remain within, allow him to stop the unruly child within, recreating us as the children of God.   Therefore, as God’s children, with the Holy Spirit within, we know we need and have received our Saviour Jesus Christ!

Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;  yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” (Matthew 11:25–26 ESV)

We once, boastful children, have been stopped and given the Holy Spirit.  We are the little children of God!  Literally, we become non-speakers, as opposed to the brash foolish bad-mouthed babblers we once were.  As non-speakers, we become hearers of the Word in the Holy Spirit.  This is God’s will and his good pleasure.

As children of God our ears are opened, and our mouths are shut.  Our mouths open only to receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ and tell others of our forgiveness.  We are the body of Jesus Christ!  As his body under the headship of Jesus Christ we are the Wisdom of God for the whole world, as we remain in his Word. 

The wisdom bestowed upon us, gathers us as the faithfully receiving church of God.  The church is the new bride of the New Adam being born from his side.  Not like Eve, who was created from Adam’s side with his bone and flesh.   But the church is the justification of Jesus’ death at the cross.  From the cross, the Wisdom of God flowed as water and blood from the side of the New Adam, Jesus Christ. 

The church, the faithful body of Christ, is the new woman, created by water and the Word, and sustained with the blood and body of Jesus Christ, as his body of Wisdom in Christ.  In Christ the church gives life to those the Holy Spirit calls through his Word and sustains with the sacraments.

When the church uses things other than Jesus Christ and remaining receptive to his Word, the church loses its wisdom in Jesus Christ, and she soon finds herself turning away from God’s Word in worldly pursuits of good and evil.  Confused at best, she returns to join the children in the public marketplace pursuing the popular opinion of folly and foolishness.

But the church remains wise, she remains Christ’s bride, when she allows the Holy Spirit to return her to the knowledge and forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ, the Word of God in flesh. 

Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Amen. 

A, Lent 1- Romans 5:19 "Hypo-Hearing"

Romans 5: 19 (ESV) For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

The foundational disobedience event for humanity is the Old Testament reading for today. 

In Genesis two and three, humanity lost its innocence when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s command.  One negative command in the Garden of Eden.  One “no” in a pleasant place of seemingly infinite “yeses”.  Eden literally means “soft, delight, or pleasure.  It was God’s Garden of Pleasure for Adam and Eve!

Living this side of the fall, our eyes are immediately opened, hearing of Eden being a garden of delight and pleasure.  We live with increasing hardship in these days, we seek to recreate, but fail in finding the pleasure to which humanity lost access when they chose to break the one prohibition in creation of innocence and blessing.

In Romans five Saint Paul reflects, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”  (Romans 5: 19 ESV)

We stand at the start of Lent reflecting on this event today.  And as we do there is temptation to think, “if only Adam and Eve didn’t make that one simple mistake”. But although we have no way of knowing how history would have unfolded if they didn’t, after the fall they, and we, continue to fall and add to the first act of disobedience at the start of time.

Adam and Eve did not make one mistake and then lived without any more sin.  Immediately after the fall and being thrown out of the garden, Adam and Eve continue in their disobedience.

But before we hear about this, we need to understand what this disobedience is, so we can understand ourselves, and the obedience of Jesus which saves us and makes us holy.  Then the Holy Spirit can continue bringing us to, and infilling us with, the holiness of God.

Because we live this side of the fall, our natural tendency is to think obedience is about “doing” the right thing.  Although this is somewhat true, it is only partially true.  Because we are turned in on ourselves, we think, “if I do the right thing, then I am a righteous person”.  But the problem with our doing is in the “I think – I do” logic.

If obedience is about, “ I think, I do”, then most of humanity is obedient.  But what happens when what I think and do is different to what you think and do?  One’s thinking and doing will end up harming someone else’s thinking and doing.

Any parent that’s frustrated with their children, practises obedience teaching every time they lose it with their children. 

If and when one raises their voice at our children we do not usually say, “you are not being obedient, or stop being disobedient”.  Nor does one usually say, “stop doing what you’re doing”. 

No!  One who is frustrated with their children will raise their voice and say, “stop, you’re not listening.  Listen to me!”

Obedience is primarily about listening, and once hearing is heard, then the secondary act of doing can occur! 

This is because obedience occurs in community.  The parent is frustrated with their child or children in the nucleus of a family.  This is God’s original community.  In fact, all community is an extension of the household community of parents and children.  All authority flows from God to humanity through the family unit.  But since the fall, disobedience and loss of innocence also comes to us, not from God, but from Adam and Eve!

Notice it’s Adam who is named as being the one through whom sin came into the world.  Eve took the fruit, but it’s Adam who bore the responsibility for the sin.  Adam did not listen to God and broke the authority invested in him by God.  And in not listening he turned his back on God towards Eve and the serpent, to listen to their distortion of God’s Word, then participated in the act of eating themselves into death.  Community broke down between Adam and God when he listened and acted with Eve.  As a result, his relationship with Eve was also corrupted.

At this point I delight in telling you one of my favourite quotes from Luther’s Table Talk.  Martin Luther, being a very earthy Middle Ages man, said, “Almost every night when I wake up the devil is there and wants to dispute with me… I instantly chase him away with a fart.” (Luther’s Works 54:78)

Crass, yes!  But it is excellent classic practical theology!  For when you’re breaking wind in the devil’s face one is reversing the authority order of the fall at Eden.  If only Eve had turned her back on the devil, it would have been the holiest and most blessed and pleasant fart known to humanity. 

To turn in the devil’s hearing and blow flatulence in his face would have been a turning to her husband, and he with her, a return to the Lord.  They would have remained in the authority of God’s command, not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Instead, they could have partaken in the many delights of the garden, including the tree of life, and pleased God in doing so.

But they didn’t and as the cliché goes, “the rest is history”, until at the right time in history, God sent Jesus to do what Adam could not do.

Here too the doing is not the primary action but rather it is the listening.  “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”  (Romans 5: 19 ESV)

Disobedience and obedience are not just about hearing or listening, then doing.  Rather Saint Paul and the other Epistle writers speak of literally “hypo-hearing” or “under-hearing” when listening to God.  This is listening in submission to God’s Word, and for us it is the listening of the body, or the church, to the head of the church, which is Jesus Christ.

Disobedience here in Paul’s Epistles is “para-hearing”, “contrary-hearing”, or “proximity-hearing”.  One might not listen properly, only hearing in part, or mishearing.  Or a person might read into what they hear, and act on that, like a Chinese whisper gone wrong.

This is what happened at Eden when God told Adam not to eat of the tree.  Somehow, Eve tells the devil a slightly different command from what God had said to Adam.

Adam was commanded, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16–17 ESV)

To this Eve added, when quizzed by the devil, “but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Genesis 3:3 ESV)

When touching it, they did not die.  So, they ate, they knew death, and knew they were disobedient.  Instead of “under-hearing” they “contrary-listened” and became “hyper-hearers” they stood over God’s word, placing the authority of God’s Word below their understanding, their touching, and their tasting.

And what followed was the eternal “oops” once the sweet fruit of knowledge soured in the reality of whom it was that they had not listened.

But they continued in this “oops” by believing their immediate offspring would be the one to crush the serpent underfoot, promoting Cain as a champion man.  Wrongly they believed, and therefore named their second born, Abel, which means “second-rate, vain, or unsatisfactory”. 

We know Cain’s sacrifice to God was second rate, where Abel’s offering received God’s favour, leading to Cain murdering Abel, and being cursed by God.  This occurred as a result of Adam and Eve’s expectation and hyper-hearing of God’s promise.  Seth, however, is the one named as son, from which Jesus Christ is later born.  Incidentally, Abel was the first fallen human to enter the Kingdom of God, and second only to Jesus Christ!

Into our fallen world Jesus was born.  He is the true “Hypo-Hearer” of God.  He does not listen contrary to the Word of God, nor does he place himself over God’s Word, even though he is “the Word made Flesh”.

Jesus Christ was sent from the perfect community of the three-person common-unity, “threefold community or Trinity”, of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

At the start of his ministry, Jesus was baptised, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him.  Have you ever wondered, “why”?  Why does God the Son need God the Holy Spirit to come down on him in his earthly ministry?

There are two primary reasons.  First, God is a community of life and love, God works in community, everything he created is for community. 

Second, for Jesus to be the perfect servant, the true “hypo-hearer”, “under-hearer”, or “Obedient One”, he had to become as we are, as Adam and Eve were.  With the same nature as us.  But one hundred percent without sin. 

Jesus had to come in complete submission, not resting on a hyper-hearing or para-hearing, but weak, and led by the Holy Spirit, showing himself to be like you and me in every way, sin excepted.

Because of the Holy Spirit’s work of leading him to the cross, and his atonement for us on the cross, we now walk in the holy priesthood of all believers, baptised into Jesus’ “hypo-hearing”, or submission. 

And in receiving Jesus and his Word, we also receive the Holy Spirit, to will us, to inspire us, and lead us from the temptation of disobedience to the holiness, righteousness, and pleasures of God our Father in Jesus Christ.  Amen.