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.

B, 2nd Last Sunday of Church Year, Proper 28 - Mark 13:1-2, Hebrews 10:11-28 "The Temple Body"

Mark 13:1-2 (ESV) And as Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”  And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. 

The temple in Jerusalem no longer exists.  In 70 AD the Romans levelled the place, due to a revolt by the Jews that began in 66 AD.

When Jesus was crucified, the curtain in the temple separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was torn in two (Mark 15:38).  Christians recognise this as the time when the Old Covenant ceased to function along with the sacrificial requirements of the Law.  And along with the end of the sacrificial requirements was Jesus Christ’s one time victory over death and the devil; sin and Satan.

As we are told in the book of Hebrews, “‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’  Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:17-18 ESV)

What the disciples didn’t know, Jesus was the new temple, replacing the temple at which they marvelled.  These mega stones and structures would be wrecked and razed in a mega-destruction.

So, here we have a picture of Jesus turning the attention of the disciples, from the temple, to him and his word of promise.

But it is interesting that this happens, since Jesus had overturned tables of trade in the temple (Mark 11:15-19). Through the parable of the Tenants, he revealed he was the stone the builders rejected (Mark 12:1-12)

He told the Pharisees and Herodians to render to Caesar what bears the image of Caesar and to God what bears the image of God (Mark 12:13-17). 

He told one of the Scribes, “love the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:28-34).  

He taught in the temple, that the Christ was the Lord of David, even though he was the son of David (Mark 12:35-37). 

And just prior to the disciples being impressed by the size of the temple, Jesus highlights the wealth of the poverty struck widow, who put all she owned into the temple treasury, against the perception of the scribes’ greatness and the greater condemnation they would receive (Mark 12:38-44).  

All along Jesus was painting a picture of himself as the temple but despite this, they didn’t get it.  When Jesus told the Scribe in the temple, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34), no one realised he was speaking about himself. He was not talking about the temple, nor an abstract understanding of the kingdom of God.

Jesus is the temple of God.  He is the Curtain of Creation through which we enter the presence of God, encouraged by the Holy Spirit to receive his blessing. 

“We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,  by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23) 

Jesus paints this picture.  The disciples don’t get it. It is interesting but we shouldn’t be surprised!  Why?  Because we too struggle to see Jesus as the singular curtain through which we are led into eternal life!  And we have a much better understanding of this picture because Jesus has completed the picture. Jesus waits for our response, now that he has been raised and ascended into heaven; the Holy Spirit has been sent; and the temple now no longer stands in Jerusalem.

Yet we find the confession of our hope in the church is being sorely tested at the moment.  As a community of faith and as individuals, hope appears to be suffering. Because our hope suffers, confession of our hope is next to non-existent.  But where a confession of hope does exist, it’s a wavering hope, darkened with deadly doubt and blended beliefs.

Rather than a confidence in Jesus’ return and restoration, one hopelessly doubts saying, “I hope Jesus returns!” 

What is going on in the core of our being when this happens?

Like the disciples invested interest in the wonderful temple, we too have invested in many other temples.  Like the temple in Jerusalem all these other temples will end in decay and be devoted to destruction.  Although our temples of worship, unlike the temple in Jerusalem, have never served any function in the salvation of humanity.  Rather, they do quite the opposite, and erode faith, hope, and love, breeding self-righteousness and arrogance, hopelessness and despair, looseness and unappeasable desires.

Social media, advertising, individualism and the pursuit of pleasure have had a subtle effect on us all.  But there is nothing subtle about what our indoctrination in these things is doing to us as a society.  The temples are taking our time and they are taking our souls.  Such are the temple towns in which our hearts are deceptively drawn to in wonder, but end in disappointment, dissolution and destruction.

Unlike the temples that licence us for licentiousness, misery, and deathly desire, Jesus is the temple of truth, and he is faithful in his deliverance from death.

Unlike the temple in Jerusalem and the temples of our heart that end in death, he is the temple that begins in death and ends in life.  Where disfunction caused the death of the temple in Jerusalem and where the decay of our bodies will end in death, Jesus is the temple that begins in death that restores faith to live, hope to die, and love to forgive. 

One might ask why God would have Moses receive and institute the Law, with the temple  requirements, that would become dysfunctional?  All the Law seemed to do was breed works righteousness rather than love and faith in God who made the temple his footstool on earth!

And despite Jesus being the new temple that was destroyed and raised in three days (John 2:19), we still struggle with unbelief, despair, and our desires to be divine in our temples of goodness. And so one might also ask, “Has Christianity become just as dysfunctional as the temple at Jerusalem?”

What is God doing?

He is waiting!

When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,  waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:12-14 ESV)

Jesus is waiting for that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet!  In other words, he is teaching us and testing us.  Our Heavenly Father is teaching us, Jesus is the only Curtain through which we have access to him, and through testing us, his desire is that we learn from our weakness and failures and seek him, rather than rejecting his help and becoming his enemies.

Saint Paul puts it best, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,  if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.  For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 5:1–5 ESV)

It is God’s will that the temple of our body will be swallowed up by life, the temple of Jesus, where faith, hope and love dwell.

In addition to this we can marvel at the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit who comes to us in baptism and brings us into Jesus as a community, by planting Jesus in each of us individually at baptism. This is God’s guarantee!

John realised the greatness of this guarantee and records it in his Gospel, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 ESV)

His dwelling among us, is Jesus making us his temple community in which he tents or tabernacles. This is where our Immanuel indwells. Doesn’t Jesus say, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20 ESV)

So, since we have God’s promise, his faithfulness, the certainty of hope of life through death, and Jesus’ love from the cross through our baptism.  “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love (to forgive) and good works (confessing God’s good works of forgiveness and our good confession of sins),  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, by confessing your sins to one another, and praying for one another, that all of you may be healed, and all the more as all of you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24–25, James 5:16)

Amen.

B, Pentecost 19 Proper 22 - Mark 10:11-12, 14-15 "Jesus on Divorce and Children"

God gave humanity co-creative power when he created Adam and then Eve from Adam and gave her to him in the Garden of Eden.  And in cleaving to one another they produced children.

One might say, “But the animals do the same, they have co-creative power too!”  And they do but only to a certain extent. 

God brought forth animals from the earth, whereas humans were created from the earth but are also created in his image, and in his likeness.

A male and a female human being have the co-creative power to make images of God in the likeness of God.  And further to that God has given humanity dominion over all he has created from the earth.

The blessing of God fell on Adam and Eve after he created them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV)

Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, without her cleaving to a man, without the effort of a man.  Jesus was both the Son of Man but also the Son of God in the one person.

Jesus is tested twice in the Gospel reading for today.  First by the Pharisees when they tested him on divorce and then by the disciples when they incensed him by rebuking those bringing children to him.

Jesus teaches his disciples from these two testing events.  First, he says in response to the Pharisees, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10:11–12 ESV)

Second, when he saw the disciples rebuking those who were bringing children to him said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:14–15 ESV)

Divorce, adultery, and hindering children; things have obviously changed somewhat since God placed Adam and Eve together to be fruitful and multiply.  Yet Jesus is placed right in the thick of humanity’s destructive ways. And in doing so brings the kingdom of God into the presence of these difficult situations.

Anyone who has had anything to do with divorce or relationship breakdown knows just how complex the issues are that feed the collapse.  At the heart of a separation one deals with guilt, fear, grief, anger, betrayal, role responsibilities, loss of trust, and insecurity. 

When Jesus is tested by the Pharisees, he tells the Pharisees it is because the hardness of heart that Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written.  He then takes his hearers back to the beginning of creation, to the foundational function of being male and female.

When we are in a relationship with another person, regardless of the type of relationship, we are in a relationship with someone who bears the image of God.  

We can ask God, “How am I honouring you in my dealing with the other person who bears your image?” Then we can think about our relationships with our spouse or our partner, and then our children or our parents, and then our neighbours, who all bear the image of God.  But as you do, ask yourself, “What is it that I want or need from that relationship?”

Now ask yourself, “What does Jesus want or need from his relationship with me?  Are my wants and needs from my relationships the same as his wants and needs with me?  What were Jesus’ wants and needs from his disciples and the Pharisees?”

Divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children quickly bring to the fore all the messes in our families, the church and society today, and with that judgementalism and egalitarianism issues. 

So determined has our society become to provide a safe place for children and to stop gender discrimination that in our zealousness we have forgotten we are blessed as men by God and blessed as women by God, both being created in his image.  And the children we’ve created in his image have been indoctrinated and confused by the judgementalism of gender rights, identity, and equality.  And with that comes the suppression of the blessedness of serving each other as men and women, and as children and adults.

Through this self-centred mentality of seeking our rights in sexuality, in gender equality, as autonomous children, and as individualistic adults; divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children, seems to be accepted as normal.  As divorce, adultery and the hindering of children becomes the norm we continue to lose the blessedness of being fruitful and multiplying on this earth.

But Jesus comes to us right in the heart of divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.  He shows us what it is to be blessed and fruitful without being the son of a human father, without ever being married, without having children and without hindering children.

How does he do it?

He comes as the Son of Man and the Son of God.  Jesus was sent as the new Adam.

In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.  (Hebrews 1:1b–3 ESV)

Jesus came to be the Saviour of us and our fallen relationships.  He does this through the forgiveness of sins.  He can do this because he comes in the image of God, without sin, but bearing all sin for the forgiveness of all sin.

He brings forgiveness within marriages, he brings forgiveness where marriages have ended in divorce, and he brings forgiveness in adultery.  Jesus also serves children who are caught up in divorces and relationship breakdowns, and he seeks to reconnect with children who have been hindered from coming to him.

God has put all things in our messy world under his control.

Now in putting everything in subjection to him [Jesus], he [God] left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.  But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.  For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:8–11)

We might not see that God is in control of our broken families, church, and community, but we are called to trust his word.  God conquers all broken marriages, all adultery, and all hinderances of his children created in his image.  He does it by teaching us in his word how we get it wrong, by showing us the righteousness of Jesus’ life, but gives us forgiveness and salvation through his death.

God calls us not to divorce ourselves from him or his church by seeing and hearing he is making all things new as he showed John, recorded in Revelation chapter twenty-one, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:2–3 ESV)

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and from it came divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.

You and I are called to eat from the tree of knowledge of sin and salvation, that is the cross, so you and I are forgiven and saved from this adulterous and Fatherless generation. 

Receive God’s invitation of blessing and fruitfulness, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9 ESV)

And, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2 ESV)

Amen. 

B, Resurrection of our Lord - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 "Holy Saturday"

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 (ESV) Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

In our culture most refer to the period of Good Friday to Easter Monday as the Easter weekend. However, Easter began today and continues for seven weeks right through to Pentecost Sunday.

But because most of us get caught up in the idea of Easter being a four day weekend there is one day¬—a very important day—that seems to be lost on us.

Ask most what the day is called between Good Friday and Easter Sunday and without hesitation most call it Easter Saturday. But in fact it is Holy Saturday, whereas Easter Saturday is to fall in six days time.

Although this needs to be mentioned here it is not the focus. We need not be too concerned about the right title for certain days. Instead we do well to visit Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and see the happenings of this day and how it affects us in our Christian walk.

After all, Jesus walked the way of the cross, for us. And now this walk, we walk hand in hand with Jesus through every part of our lives. Well, this is at least what Jesus wishes to do with us.

In First Corinthians we have heard Saint Paul was a hard worker for the Jewish cause, persecuting Christians and the new church. And after his conversion just as hard a worker for the church! But the language Paul uses in his letter to the Corinthians makes Jesus stand out in a most peculiar way. In fact, in completely the opposite way than that of Paul!

The saying is true for Paul, “when the going gets tough the tough get going.” But surprisingly it’s not for Jesus, who rather than being active was passive and on Holy Saturday, stopped in grave for the Sabbath of all Sabbath resting in death and, at the same time, descending into hell.

Listen to the language of Saint Paul in these verses… 

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

The repetition is a little lost on us in the English, but Paul pushes the passivity of Jesus in his death and resurrection in the text. That, Jesus was buried, he was raised, and (in the Greek text) he was caused to be seen by all from Peter(Cephas) to finally himself.

Jesus fulfilled his mission of salvation in the stillness of the cross, he fulfils the Old Testament law by his stillness in the grave on Holy Saturday, and he fulfilled the will of God, restoring the relationship between God and humanity to what it once was in the Garden of Eden.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 2:2–3 ESV)

On the cross and in the grave, Jesus puts a stop to earning our salvation through works or self-righteousness. In the stillness of his death and in the grave Jesus fulfils the Sabbath and the Jewish Law; he was still and knew that the Father was God, even though he was God too. And in this stillness of death and descent into hell, without any help, from any of us, he took the Old Adam on himself and gave us himself, atoning for our sin, making us holy and giving back our relationship with God the Father.

So how are we to reflect on Holy Saturday; the passivity of Christ on the cross, his stillness in the grave, the true unity his holiness gives us when we rest in him verses the activity of the sinful nature within, and God’s desire to rest—to rest with us?

As restless as we are, how do we rest in these days that are far from passive, while our secret thoughts and actions are anything but holy, in our constant desire to do what we want rather than be in God’s presence? How often do we seek to add our deeds to Jesus stopping on the cross and his Sabbath rest in the grave?

Take care, brothers (and sisters), lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV)

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. (Hebrews 4:1–2 ESV)

Satan, the sinful nature within, and sins committed take their toll on us.

It so easy to fall into unbelief, to stumble into thinking I haven’t done enough and therefore actively seek to add to what Jesus has done. Or, to be deceived into running from God and your sin believing that you’re no longer worthy.

Then there are many when tested by the trials and tribulations of this life lose faith in Jesus’ trials and tribulations on the cross for them and their loved ones and the power of his taking sin on himself to the grave and hell.

On the other hand, in trying to unburden one’s self, many trivialise sin, believing what we are or what we have done is of no consequence. Or at least as bad as what someone else has done or is doing. In this way many make God out to be a liar; cheapening his death for sin and the sinful nature.

It seems each of us is dammed if we do or dammed if we don’t! The old Adam within sins when we try to do almost anything, and the old Adam is right there again when we try to hid or divert guilt away from the sneakiness of our human nature.

This is where we as Christians are called to let the passivity of Jesus’ death on the cross, stillness in the grave, and descent into hell, work our salvation.

We can be still in Christ; in his passivity we receive his complete belief and trust in our heavenly Father. His stillness now resides in you and me. That which is completely contradictory to our human nature; Jesus’ stillness works "fulfilled Son of God'' activity within us. The Holy Spirit grows faith, and enables us to stop and rest in God’s word, and rest in the work Jesus did on the cross by being completely still.

For us sharing in Christ is now believing to the point where we can stop in him, enter his holy rest, and let the word and work of God, work in us. With the eyes of faith we are caused to see in his word our story, our life, as one with each other and God in the garden of eternal paradise. This only happens when we, like Jesus in the grave, remain passive and still, and he having been raised now powerfully works within the stillness of our trust in him together with the Holy Spirit to bring us into true refreshing rest not found anywhere else in this life.

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:9-10 ESV)

And we know… the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 12–13 ESV)

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:11 ESV)

As Jesus Sabbathed in the grave, pray to the Lord for the grace to stop, enter his rest and Sabbath in him, Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 14 Proper 19 - Matthew 18:21-35 "Kings of Forgiveness"

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 What is the thing that torments you most?  You know; the course of events that frustrates you no end because of an unjust agenda against you or your family or friends!  The person who picks on you and never seems to let up; perhaps they torment you!  Maybe, the success of one whom you believe has come at others’ expense; maybe at your expense! Does this torment you? It could be anything upsetting your perception of fairness or righteousness that torments and twists you as you try to go about your everyday life!

On the other hand, you might be tormented by guilt from wronging someone else.  Just like Joseph’s brothers who feared Joseph might take revenge after the death of their father, Jacob.  They were tormented by what they had done and by what might happen to them.

Or even when you haven’t wronged someone, but they believe you have done something against them.  There is still torment because of the soured relationship between the both of you.  Whatever the cause, torment can make one feel sick in the stomach, from the ordeal with others and from the stress within.

When we sin against each other, torment is usually not far away.  Loneliness, feelings of dread, deep deep sadness, anxiety, misunderstanding and a myriad of other sufferings wash over us and can torment us in the face of sin.  When sinned against; or, after sinning against someone else!

This torment arises from the hurt sin causes within us!  It matters not whether we’re the perpetrator or the victim; sin seems to wound both and then in the wake of sin comes torment and then perhaps more sin.  We would all agree, in spite of sinning or being sinned against, breaking free from this cycle of sin and its torment is a terribly hard thing to do.

 Practice has shown even when we remove ourselves from all company and isolate ourselves, the torment is not removed.  Rather, we might observe the opposite happening!  If I cut myself off from community to escape from torment, it leaves me vulnerable to the real source of my torment, myself — my old Adam!

Even more so when we isolate ourselves from God, the community of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, working in us, with us, and through us, we cannot escape our own torment. 

In fact, we need community to overcome torment.  And that community is a community of forgiveness. 

See what torment did to some of the lonely souls whom we hear of in God’s word.  Job, Jonah, King Saul, Simon Peter, and Judas Iscariot to name just a few!  Some ended up back in community — forgiven, and some were tormented into destruction!

 Looking at what goes on within ourselves helps us get a handle on the gospel reading for today, where Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?” (Matthew 18:21 ESV)  How many times does Peter have to put up with being sinned against before he doesn’t need to forgive?  How long do I have to sit back and take it before I can right my own wrongs?

Peter’s motives, my motives, all are called to examine their motives, as Jesus caries on with the parable comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a king settling accounts with his servant and that very same servant settling an account with his peer. Jesus calls us to look at our hearts and how we forgive. 

In fact, we can now look at not just how we forgive, but why it’s so crucial for us to forgive with a right heart, to free us ourselves and each other from subjecting ourselves further to the cycle of sin and torment.

God does not want you to chew on torment.  This is not the daily bread God wants you to eat.  Rather God’s will for you and me, between himself and us, and then, us with each other, is played out in the words of Jesus’ parable.  In fact, in this parable we hear Jesus petition us with the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6 to pray, “…forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12 ESV)

Returning to Peter’s question, we might see his desire to be god of his situation.  How long does Peter have to listen to God before he can be god of his situation?  And we can hear and examine the very parable with which Jesus responds, showing a servant lording it over his fellow servant in the wake of his king lording it over him in a completely compassionate way.  If there is an end to when Peter needs to forgive, then surely there too is an end to when God needs to stop forgiving Peter!

And us too!  If you deem it necessary not to forgive, would you continue to stand if God were to use that very same judgement against you!  I know I need God’s grace and mercy, and so do you; if there is to be any peace in this life!

Rather, we are called to judge each other with a judgement that our Lord, our Saviour, our King, our Rescuer continues to use on us!  Jesus says, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24 ESV)  This is a judgement that condemns sins to the cross, forgives and frees the sinner, and restores us to a community of peace, both within, with each other, and with our Father in Heaven.

But this decision to forgive is not meant to be a laborious task.  Yes it might cost us something to forgive, namely our pride, but in the wake of forgiveness, torment within is put to an end.  In fact torment can be turned into joy! 

No longer do we have to carry around our self righteousness as a badge of dignity.  Rather we can, take up our cross, but in doing so see that the Lord Jesus Christ has taken up our greater cross and made it his cross of torment and suffering.

Listen to this advice about Jesus and his motives and his forgiveness in Hebrews chapter twelve…

…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV)

Now that Jesus has borne your sin on the cross, what joy is set before you?  Are you not called to be the righteous king of forgiveness for Jesus sake!  No longer do you have to torment yourselves with other people’s sin, even if it causes you to carry all kinds of crosses in this life.  Because Jesus has carried our eternal torment on “the cross” at Calvary and has risen in victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil! 

Nor do we have to hear this text and think we “have to” forgive because our Heavenly Father and Jesus, the King of Kings, will get revenge on us if we don’t.  Or say the Lord’s Prayer and fear the law heard in our torment, “if I don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive me!”

Rather we can forgive, because we “want” to forgive and because we “love” to forgive.  You are kings of forgiveness in the priesthood of all believers.  God has forgiven you, you can forgive yourself, and on learning Christ’s joy of eternally forgiveness you too can look to him to help you “willingly” and “wantingly” forgive others.  Times of torment can be opportunities of freedom and forgiveness in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Dear Lord God Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts so we no longer have to forgive each other, but rather because we want to, and love to forgive each other just as you have forgiven us and set us free to forgive, through our Redeemer, your Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen!

C, Pentecost 14 Proper 16 - Hebrews 12:28 "Awful and Awesome"

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Hebrews 12:28 (ESV) …let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe…

Have you ever thought about the word “awe”?  It’s a funny little word.  Place a suffix on the end of it and awe can have the opposite of meanings.  Such as the words “awful and awesome”!  Hearing awesome or awful leads today’s mind in two very different directions.

About one thousand years ago the word awful wasn’t negative as we use it today.  Back then being awful was being “worthy of awe” or “awe-inspiring”.  Similarly the word fear seems to have gone the same way.  Fearing God to many today means being scared of God.  But really to fear God, is giving him your full attention, addressing him, or facing him.  This could be in a positive or a negative way.  So too being in awe of someone, leads one to face someone giving them the honour they command, be it as one who is loved or loathed!  Therefore it’s easy to see today how “awful” takes on the meaning of causing dread or being frightful, very ugly, or horrible.

“Awesome” on the other hand came into the vernacular about five hundred years ago.  Being awesome back then meant something had “the quality of awe”.  But today from the influence of American culture delivered to us here in Australia via the media awesome means cool, great, or amazing.  Awesome has become a positive exclamation in our modern culture.

In light of these two words and their meaning today you might ponder, “What makes worship acceptable to you?” Is it the same which makes worship acceptable to God?  Is being in church awful or awesome?   Be brutally honest with yourself and with your Heavenly Father!  Is the prospect of coming to church something which is appealing or handsome, or is it a handful!  Just another laborious task, another job you’ve got to do in the juggle of all the chores demanding your time?

The very same thing was going on for those in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  The Sabbath day, Saturday, was set aside by God for man to rest from his work, but also to rest in God’s presence.  However, this had been turned into just another task!  A work lost in the demands of men rather than in the overwhelming joy and privilege to stop in God’s rest to hear his word and be served in its hearing.  After all God is worthy of being heard; acceptable worship in God’s eyes is when we stop and allow God to be God!

The Gospel reading today tells us, [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.  And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.  When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”  And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.  But the ruler of the synagogue [was] indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath… Luke 13:10–14a (ESV)

Notice the reaction of the woman and the ruler of the synagogue!  One focused on God, the other on the work that was done by this man, Jesus of Nazareth.  To think like the people of Jesus’ day, we must not immediately see Jesus as God, but rather as one who was teaching the word of God; calling the congregation at the synagogue to look to the Father in heaven.  In doing so, we can appreciate more the worship of the congregation who glorifies God the Father, and not God the Son, hidden in the person of the healer, Jesus Christ.

One can only wonder how this healing would be received today.  Would we as a congregation worship God as did the woman who was healed?  Would you be displeased the service was not adhered to?  Or would you place you awe struck attention on praising the healer or even the person healed?  Who or what would you glorify?  To what would your heart be drawn?  What here would be offering acceptable worship to God?

The answer to these questions, tells us if our worship is awesome or awful.  It reveals whether we revere God as awesome or awful!  Honestly delving into the depths of our own heart with these questions will show us that each of us has a heart like the synagogue ruler.  We humans like to take the things of God and twist them to please ourselves. Both pastor and parishioner shrewdly turn events so they serve us rather than what God originally sought them to do.

And so we come to the word “worship”.  What is worship?  To worship God pleasingly is what?  Let’s not look for its meaning, but rather the function and purpose of worship.  If we look for meaning then we end up having to do something that might or might not please God.  But when we look for function and purpose in worship, we allow worship to work, or rather the word of God to act in us while we rest in God’s presence.  This then is God pleasing worship which does something with us.  So in turn worship is then both functional and meaningful!

Unfortunately, worship has become a very slippery word these days due to individualism and focus on personal experience or on what pleases the self.  The Greek word for worship is from where we get the word “liturgy”.  Liturgy is not originally a “church word” but simply means “public service” or “the work of the people”.  And it also means “to minister”.   So when we participate in God pleasing worship the work of the people of God will naturally be pleasing to God.  

We begin to see that acceptable worship, with due reverence and awe towards God is much more than what we do for one hour inside church walls each Sunday.  That in fact acceptable worship beings and continues each week in the hearing of God’s word and allowing the Holy Spirit to live it out in us every hour of every day.

Once the Sunday service was called the “Divine Service”!  It then became known as the “Worship Service”.  And many today look for a one hour “Worship Experience”.   But I admit that I have never felt a worship experience for every hour of any day, let alone all the time!  In fact if I am brutally honest with myself I experience doubts, worries, and a desire to please myself most of the time.  How then can I offer acceptable worship with reverence and awe to God when what comes from me should be awesome but rather is awfully bad in God’s sight most of the time?

Isaiah offers us an answer…

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13–14 (ESV)

These are good words!  But how do I turn from my own entrenched self seeking ways?  When my mind desires to serve and please me!  My deeds lead me to want to lord it over others!  So much so, I constantly seek to replace God with the idols of my own heart!

Thankfully Isaiah was looking forward to the day of deliverance when Jesus, the son of Mary, where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took your place on the cross and gives you his eternal life.  No more blood, sweat, and tears trying to earn it.  Jesus has done it for you on the cross!  In a truly awful but awesome way on Good Friday!  Let’s now hear of the eternal congregation into which we are called.

…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,  and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:22–24 (ESV)

Letting Jesus Christ be God the Son in your life is truly awesome.  His desire, together with that of the Father and the Holy Spirit, is for you to allow Jesus to do the work for you.  When we allow God to serve us he makes us his children and prepares us for a kingdom that cannot be shaken.  Surrendering to God’s plan and action is God acceptable worship.  You show God reverence and awe trusting the Spirit’s work in your baptism into Jesus’ death which raises you to faith and eternal life.  Just as Jesus was raised from the dead and now lives too.

There’s no experience greater than knowing God’s pleasure is to give you the kingdom.  There’s no pleasure greater than letting God have complete power over your life to forgive sin, ease your troubled consciences, to lead you away from temptation and to deliver you from your own evil heart, and the tricks of the evil one into faith hope and love. 

Having heard these awesome things from the written Word of your awesome God, being grateful, seeking forgiveness, striving to come closer to God, so the light of his Word might expose and forgive the deeper imbedded sins of your old nature is acceptable worship.  Using God in the very way he desires to be used accords him all honour and reverence.  And for this we can praise him!  Knowing all this and not allowing an awesome God access into your heart, is an awful waste.

Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe… Amen.