C, Post-Pentecost 10, Proper 15 - Hebrews 12:1-2 "The Fruitful Faithful Vine"

Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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 perfecter 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.

God the Holy Spirit works faith within the hearing hearts of believers, so we might do the things God wants us to do, to please him.  Doing what God wants is doing the will of God.  God gives faith so we receive what he does for us, and so we listen to him and do what he wants.  It’s God’s will to make you holy, so he can live with us, and so we want to live with him in peace. 

In Hebrews eleven, we hear “By faith” God’s people did this, and “by faith”  they did that.  By the will of God, the people of God were led by the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, despite being human and sinful, they did what pleased God and waited on him with faith.  By his will, God’s  people allowed the Holy Spirit to lead them to trust him, despite deprivation, degradation and death.

The writer of Hebrews calls us to take this word to heart and also follow the will of God, just as those who have gone beforehand have done.  But the encouragement goes further than just the witness of what they did in faith.  You and I are called to see that we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. 

They are alive in Christ in the great resurrection of the dead, that has transported them from this deathly existence within time, into life in the eternal now with God.  They have been perfected by faith.  They have allowed the Holy Spirit to give them the desire to wait for a Saviour, who didn’t come during their time, but has now come and redeemed all those who faithfully wait on the will of God.

These are the folk of faith recalled in the book of Hebrews: Abel, considered useless by his parents, but who faithfully offered a pleasing offering to God, then Noah, Abraham, Moses, the nation of Israel who was faithfully led out of Egypt and into the Red Sea, and Rahab the prostitute who faithfully honoured God, over against her trade, by helping Caleb and his crew spy on Canaan.  Plus, others who while struggling in their weakness, faithfully died by the sword, and were considered unworthy and useless, just like Abel was at the beginning.  Together they are witnesses — literally martyrs — pointing to Jesus Christ, who is their foundation and their perfection from sin. 

But these witnesses are alive, they’re not just memories written down, they’re martyrs resurrected with Jesus, willing you through the living written word by God the Holy Spirit.  Together with the whole company of heaven, they’re not dead, they’re living!

Hear it again, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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 perfecter 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)

In the Old Testament reading and the Psalm we hear how sin clung closely to his chosen people of Israel.  Israel was the vine and vineyard of God. 

In Psalm 80 the psalmist calls God — the Shepherd of Israel — similar to that of the 23^rd Psalm.  A warm and comforting image!  But three times in the Psalm there’s a powerful lament, where Israel faithfully honours God by crying out to him, “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!” (Psalm 80:3 ESV)

Israel was the vine that God transplanted from Egypt into Canaan.  God was completely faithful to them, despite periods of faithlessness from them.  Through his faithful servants God’s face shone upon Israel, and remembering this, Israel laments to God, “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.  Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.” (Psalm 80: 8–9, 14–15 ESV)

In a time of great rebellion, Isaiah sings a love song for God, his beloved, about his vineyard, “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; …but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry! (Isaiah 5:1–2a, 3-4, 7 ESV)

This too is a great witness to us.  Prophets like Isaiah suffered to reveal the sin of God’s people.  King David and his entourage of Psalm writers lament, calling God to return, and his people to repent, to stop being wild grapes, sour grapes of God’s vineyard, the poisonous stench that was growing on the vine God rescued from Egypt. 

Let this powerful witness work!  So, you die daily to self, allowing the Holy Spirit to return you and restore you in faith.  To once again see the shining face of God.  To bring you again and again back to the true source of salvation.

Also hidden amongst Israel’s lament at their failures in Psalm Eighty is a powerful promise. We hear, “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!”  (Psalm 80:17–18 ESV)

This Son of Man, made strong for God, is God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.  He is the fulfilment of Israel, the one who many waited for in faith, while much was going wrong in Israel.  Jesus is the new Israel, that those who endured by faith, were waiting.

Jesus has now come, he has died, and he is risen from the dead.  In faith Israel looked forward to the coming of Christ, and in the same way we too look forward, but to Christ’s second coming!

As we struggle, we are called to cast off “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 perfecter of our faith.”  (Hebrews 12:1b–2a ESV)

Jesus continues to send us the Holy Spirit, so we too, live with faith, and die in faith.  But also, we do so with hope, because Jesus is the new Israel, the perfect Israel, and we are grafted into this Holy Vine of Israel and God the Father is the vinedresser. 

This is the promise:  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:1, 3-5, 7–9 ESV)

Jesus is our true vine, and we are his branches.  We bear the will of God because we are grafted into the resurrected Israel of God.  We are fruitful and faithful because the Holy Spirit wills us to look to Jesus, our founder and perfecter of faith!  Amen.

B, Christmas 1, New Year's Eve - 1 Peter 1:22-25 "The Word of God"

1 Peter 1:22–25 (ESV) Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,  since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;  for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

In 2023 the Lord God has given, and the Lord God has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21)!   Whatever it is he has given you in 2023, he has given so you look to him and give thanks.  Whatever it is he has taken from you, he has taken from you, so you turn and learn to trust in him.

In 2023 God has given you, his Word!  His Word is given, and the Holy Spirit has moved in you with his Word, to discipline and disciple you, so you abide and remain living with Jesus, the Word made Flesh. 

If you have been faithful to God’s Word, the Holy Spirit brings comfort through the forgiveness of your sin.  If you have fought against being brought to repentance in the Word of God, or you have failed to hear the Word through disobedience, or have used God’s Word to your own glory, the Holy Spirit will let you suffer, to save you and return you to God’s Word, and his one true church.

It is the Holy Spirit’s job to call and gather you, enlighten you in the Word of God, and make you holy by keeping you united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.  Push against the Holy Spirit from bringing you to Jesus Christ, and you place yourself on sinking sand, and in grave danger of sinning against the giver of faith.

God wants what’s good for you!  He wants to work his goodness for your good.  The Holy Spirit has been sent from God the Father, and God the Son, to bring you to our Father through the Son.  The Holy Spirit does this work by gently walking beside us, like a friend walking with his arm around our shoulder, comforting us as he moves us to the safety of the cross.  But sometimes he needs to walk behind us, giving us a sharp swift kick that might hurt a bit!  But it’s done for our eternal benefit returning us in repentance to the cross and worker of our salvation!

As individuals the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes us holy as God’s one church.  We remain in God’s church when we allow the Holy Spirit to set us apart. 

However, when we, the church of God, set ourselves apart from the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, we place ourselves in corporate danger.  Collectively gathering as one human spirit, we may think we have the Holy Spirit, but end up sitting in authority over the Word of God, judging the Word of God with a human spirit.  In other words, we use our powers and principles, which are our works and will, and not God’s!

Do you think that a loving Heavenly Father, will not seek to return us to him?  God indeed will fight for us, to correct us, and lead us back to Jesus Christ, to the Word made Flesh, so we re-submit to the written Word, from where he gives us light and life!  All prodigal sons and self-righteous sons are called back to our Heavenly Father through “the Son of God”, with his Sonship, worked within, by the Holy Spirit!

Like a fig tree that hasn’t been bearing fruit, we have been allowed to continue as the Lutheran Church in Australia by our heavenly Father.  Faithful pastors have dug around the roots and fertilised the tree of the church with the Word of God.  Some however have chosen to fertilise with a compromised word, leaving out the call to repentance, rather encouraging God’s children to follow their feelings. 

But Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will recognize them by their fruits.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”  (Matthew 7:15–16a, 19–20 ESV)

And again he warns “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36–37 ESV)

God calls us to return to the Word of God over against the feelings, the opinions, and the words of our hearts.  Our fleeting words will not save us.  Like rotten fruit will be thrown out or a fruitless tree will be taken to with an axe, those who persistently deny God and his Word, dangerously put themselves on the wrong side of God’s Word and his judgement!

If you think there are no ravenous wolves in the LCANZ, you need to wake up to the reality of the world and the church.  Do not accept what any pastor says, just because they are a pastor, me included! 

Submit what every pastor teaches and preaches to the glory test!  What is the glory test?  Does it glorify Jesus Christ eternally, or does the glory go somewhere else, dying before the fullness of time?  Investigate and judge for yourselves with a right judgement, to where the glory is going!

2024 will be a year of chaos for the LCANZ.  Many other churches of Christendom have chosen to walk away from the Word by following the ways of the world.  Modern heresies abound in the denominations of the Reformation, where the Word of God is watered down more and more to accommodate the confusion and chaos of the world.

The light and life, of God’s one true holy apostolic church gathered around Jesus Christ, has been diminished in many denominations, including the Lutheran Church of Australia.  The cult of the LCA has been caught up in the chaos and confusion of the world. 

The powers and principles the church has sought to trust, has moved from God to man, from trusting God and his Word, to seeking popularity and approval from the world, by reading the world into the Word, to make the Word and the LCANZ more accommodating to Australia’s sinful society. 

The LCANZ has realised it cannot discern from the Word of God that women should be ordained.  Yet because the desire is strong, we’re making the same mistakes as others and are stepping away from the Word, to become engaged in wilful mischief, deliberate sin, and self-glorifying righteousness. 

Where God is silent, some have become presumptuously boisterous, actively scoffing, and seeking to shame those who seek to follow the Word of God!  How have we got to a point where the spirit of the world reigns over the Holy Spirit?   Many refuse to repent, but rather travel the way that’s wide, that leads to eternal death!

The chaos that is unfolding in the church, is evident.  God is handing us over to our will, withdrawing and leaving us to our own devices.  Synod in Melbourne in February saw due process and the Word of God held ransom to the procedural direction of a few.  Chaos and confusion reigned, but submission to the Word was fleeting at best!

Rather than God speaking through gathered congregations in synod, a top-down directive occurred.  Where congregations once got together as synod to do what they could not do individually, now a small group of individuals has usurped the authority of the Synod, the Pastor’s Conference, but more importantly God and his Word.  Just like what happened in the Garden of Eden, the authority has been reversed!

It's no surprise that in 2023, a small group, without the authority of the synod, decided to secretly change the call of lecturers at the seminary without their consultation and has decided to sell off the seminary and national office in Adelaide.  In its best light, it’s a poor business decision, at its worse it is the complete mismanagement of God’s gifts to continue supplying confessional Christ centred pastors to feed, forgive, and prepare God’s flock of Lutherans to bear God’s Word in the world. 

2024 will be a year of chaos for the LCANZ as it continues on its path against God and his Word.  While the LCANZ follows the flesh, its glory will fade and fall like that of grass flowers.  “The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” 

Jeremiah talks about good figs and bad figs.  Just as we have taunted God for twenty-three years since the 2000 synod, Jeremiah informs the bad figs, the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, saying, “For twenty-three years, …to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.  You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets… Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.”  (Jeremiah 25:3-4, 7 ESV)

We might say, “But we have Jesus, we have Jesus!”, just as they said, “We have the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” (Jeremiah 7:4)   But where is that temple of the Lord today?  It’s gone!  It disappeared into the echelons of time.

God calls you to follow his Word, and not the world, as he has done throughout the history of mankind.  We are no different to any other generation.  Moses called Israel to choose life and live!  Jesus calls us to abide in his Word, as branches live in the vine (John 15:1-9).   Paul and the Apostles proclaimed Jesus Christ, so we choose life and live.  Luther also calls us to choose life in the Word of God, and so too do many others. 

They all call us, to not stand over God’s Word for our short-term gain, but rather call us to remain in submission to God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, and the Holy Spirit who truly works the Word within for our repentance and salvation.  Amen.