A, Post-Pentecost 4 Proper 7 - Matthew 10:24, 38-39 "The Calmness of Christ"

Jesus says, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.   And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:24, 38-39 ESV)

One can imagine being in the centre of a tornado would be an extraordinarily frightening experience.  Your attention would be drawn to the whirling winds and debris swirling around you, threatening to kill you.  Therefore, one can assume one would not be focusing on the calm eye of the storm.

Unlike a tropical cyclone, a tornado is very narrow!  Many who have experienced a cyclone directly overhead, report of an eery stillness in the eye of the storm, before the other side of the storm arrives with opposing winds.  In a tornado’s eye, being much smaller, one might be still, but your attention would be drawn to the close proximity of the cyclonic danger.

Jesus’ life was like the eye of a cyclonic storm.  Chaos surrounded his calm, disorder around order! In the three years of his ministry leading up to his death, Jesus was the calm eye of the storm.

At the beginning of his ministry after his baptism, the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tested.  This was the beginning of the storm!  One might imagine it as a brewing tropical storm, a low deepening in depression, becoming a cyclone.

However, at the other end of his ministry, Good Friday had developed into a full-blown tornado.  The chaos intensified as the swirling winds of darkness and death closed in, making his worries in the wilderness, look like a minor inconvenience.

We are going to be tempted by ourselves and the world, as well as receive satanic attention, just as Jesus did in the wilderness through to the cross. 

We are baptised into Jesus’ subordination, into his humility, his cross!  The Holy Spirit is leading you in your wilderness, just as he led Jesus from the wilderness to the cross, and through death.  Jesus relied on the strength of the Holy Spirit and the faithfulness of God the Father!  Now you are called to rely on the Holy Spirit as he leads you in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ!  He continually seeks to place Jesus in you, as you’re called to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

But as we walk his way of the cross, we’re called to walk in faith rather than fear.  It’s understandable that one might be fearful as they walk.  In his earthliness and humility, Jesus was acutely aware of the fear we face since he bore our flesh and was constantly in the centre of the raging storm of sin against him.

Jesus’ fear, however, was not a negative frightful fear, but rather, a faithful fear that looked not to the chaos around him but to the faithfulness and peace of our Heavenly Father!  Jesus calls you to the same reverent fear he had for our Heavenly Father.

He says of those who seek to distract us from the Father into fear as a result of their cyclonic chaos, “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,  but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:26, 28, 31–33 ESV)

In the cyclone of your life, your Father and your Saviour, Jesus Christ, want you to spread the calm of Christ, making the eye of other people’s storms, the salvation of Jesus Christ. 

In our baptism we are given the ability to acknowledge Jesus, having been baptised into his calm over chaos, his order over disorder!  Just as Jesus bore the Holy Spirit, you are given the Holy Spirit who faithfully seeks to reveal the reality of sin, but even more so our worthiness having been baptised into Christ. 

When we acknowledge Jesus, as Lord, we acknowledge our need to be baptised into his death.  Therefore, we acknowledge our sin and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent.  We do this acknowledging in the reality of the chaos, because despite the chaos of the storm, we have been turned and calmed by Jesus at the centre of our storm.

Your acknowledgement of Jesus to others, spreads his calm, because Jesus is the only peace in every storm that leads to death.   Acknowledgement of Jesus is knowing our cross and death, but even more so our life in him.  We pass on this life when we acknowledge Jesus before others!

Denial of Jesus is a denial of the life he gives through death.  Our denial before others leaves them without life, in eternal death too!  When one leaves the calmness of Jesus Christ, they enter the tornado and chaos of drowning in eternal death and darkness. 

Left in this state, Jesus denies and does not acknowledge the denier before the Father.  Why?  Because in denial one has not considered Christ to be a worthy Saviour.

However, Saint Paul tells young pastor Timothy, a trustworthy saying, “If we have died with him, we will also live with him;  if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;  if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.”  (2 Timothy 2:11–13 ESV)

Paul reiterates what Jesus has said!  But proclaiming Jesus after the resurrection he adds,  “if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” 

Now that Jesus has died, been raised, and ascended, he sends the Holy Spirit in baptism.  If we are faithless, Jesus remains faithful to us.  He knows the Holy Spirit will be faithful within the baptised.  The Holy Spirit will seek to lead the lost back to our Heavenly Father by showing them Jesus’ worth through his word.  He might also give the lost glimpses of death with the experience of suffering to shock and recreate faith.

Although suffering sounds bad, it is actually good news for all who doubt their salvation, their baptism!  Jesus faithfully cannot deny himself!  So, while there is life in someone who has denied their baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit seeks to kill that which does not believe and give the newness of life in Jesus Christ.

Pauls says to the Romans, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”  (Romans 6:4–5, 8 ESV)

What Paul says to Timothy he repeats to the Romans, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  (Romans 6: 8, 2 Timothy 2:11 ESV)

Believing is made possible in us, by the Holy Spirit.  Our suffering and death centres us on the eye of the storm, Jesus Christ.   He is the only one who saves us from the storms of life and places us in the tranquillity of his resurrection, in the peaceful presence of our Heavenly Father.

Jesus also so says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34 ESV)

There is chaos yet to come, even within our own households!  This should not surprise us since the chaos comes from within each of us.  However, our knowledge of the cyclonic chaos of our sin, revealed and covered by forgiveness, is what stops a believer becoming conceited, keeping one humble!

Because of your sinfulness, there will always be chaos inside and outside the church.  What keeps order is the calmness of Jesus Christ.  Ironically he does this with a sword.  He keeps calmness in the church with the double-edged sword of his word, saving us from the disorder of human words and ideals.  Jesus’ calming word is the silencing word of Law and Gospel.

The cross reveals the reality of the Law and the Gospel.  One who allow the Holy Spirit to bring them to the calmness of Christ, knows his worth and follows.  The person who joyfully takes up the cross discovers they have this newness of life because of the Holy Spirit.   And therefore, willing allows the loss of the old life, their words, and the spirit of the self. 

Losing one’s life to the cross, in this world for Jesus’ sake, one will also find themselves eternally gathered by the Holy Spirit into the calmness of Jesus’ eternal presence, having been delivered from the storms of this life.

Jesus says, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10: 38-39 ESV)

Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 7 - Luke 8:38-39 "Legions of God's Love"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,  “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The power of God’s word causes belief or unbelief.  It does not cause one to be half hearted or apathetic.  This is because God’s word has power over the desires of the flesh.

When Jesus sailed across Lake Galilee, he calmed the storm causing fear amongst the disciples.  They were learning what kind of master Jesus was, as they saw and heard him rebuke the wind and the waves.  And they saw the immediate response of the wind and waves become calm, just like a child who’s shushed by its parent.  The word of God is such, even the wind and the waves believe in the power of God’s word.

They arrive at the Gerasenes, a place on the eastern side of Lake Galilee.  This is a place of Gentiles, also known as the Decapolis, or the ten cities.  Having arrived, Jesus walks into another storm.  However, this storm was a wild and woolly man tormented by demons.  Not only was he a Gentile, but controlled by the demons, he was the most unclean and depraved of Gentiles.

But we hear something most remarkable as Jesus approaches this naked, vile man, a man who lives as though he was dead amongst the tombs.

We hear, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.’” (Luke 8:28 ESV)

How is it that the most unclean knows the Most High God?  Out on the lake the disciples didn’t know, and Jesus said to them, “‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” (Luke 8:25 ESV)

Jesus does not torment the demons but allows them to leave the man and enter pigs.  Mark’s gospel records some two thousand swine.  But tormented by the demons these unclean animals race down the hill and are stilled by a drowning death in the sea, Jesus had just commanded and calmed.

Remarkably the man, Legion, in whom many demons had controlled and tormented, who could not be contained by chains and shackles.  But broke free and roamed in deserted places.  Where it was thought evil lived and God was not present, amongst the uncleanness of death and decay of graves.  The word of God controls him, and the convulsing demons beg Jesus not to torment them.

Demons recognise Jesus immediately, but the disciples don’t, such is the reality of humanity who have been blinded by the knowledge of what they perceive to be good and evil, whereas the demons know there is only one source of Good and that is God, their All-Mighty enemy.

But the All-Mighty enemy does not torment them, such is the God of love.  He grants them their wish and they leave the man.  The legion of demons enters the pigs, unclean animals, where God surely would not be present to further torment them.  But the unclean pigs would rather die than to have this evil wallow within and they rush into Lake Galilee and die.

On the bank of the lake, the demon possessed man is healed, he sits calmly with Jesus.  He wants to be a disciple of Jesus; he wants to come with him.  Just as the demons begged to go into uncleanness, the man free of demons, begs to remain in the restoration of his rescuer.

It might appear that Jesus rejects his request, that he sends him away and does not allow him to come with Jesus.  But quite the opposite occurs!  He is sent in the same way as the disciples are later sent, as Apostles, as a sent one!  He is sent as one set apart and freed to confess how God had set him free, to no longer be a slave of death, binding himself no longer to the flesh, and the demons that control the flesh, but to the powerful word of God, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, who gave permission for the demons to enter pigs, and Legion to take Goodnews to the Gentiles.

Who do you associate with in this narrative?  The disciples, Legion, the pigs or perhaps the people who ask Jesus to leave?  What is your fear?  Are you afraid of getting to know Jesus as the Most High God, who exposes the depraved piggishness of your most low desires and deeds? What does Jesus wish for you to take away from his word here today?

Paul’s letter to the Galatians helps open up what is happening here in Jesus’ interaction with Legion as he does with us all who daily drown the piggish demons of our sinful selves in the waters of baptism.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.   (Galatians 3:23–29 ESV)

Like Legion, we have been made one with Jesus Christ.  Legion’s oneness, however, was not made complete here in this narrative as Jesus sends him off to proclaim what God had done for him.  Rather, Legion, along with all whom Jesus healed in his ministry, and all who today are healed by the work of the Holy Spirit, are healed by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This is the completion of Legion!  This is the completion of you and me!  This is the completion of creation which waits on God for the restoration as did the wind and the waves who heard the word and were stilled, and the pigs who could not carry the sin and torment of even one man, but rather chose the stillness of death in the sea.

We no longer are captives of sin or death.  We are captivated by faith!  You are Abraham’s offspring.  What does that mean?

We wait for Jesus.  We are Sons of God.  Male or female, slave or free, Jew, or Gentile or Greek.  When God sees you, he sees Abraham’s offspring.  He sees Jesus.

When you see Jesus, what do you see?  When Jesus the Most High God reveals himself to you, what do you see?  Do you see the swine within and send them to their death in the waters of Baptism?  Do you let the Holy Spirit deliver death to the demons of the Old Adam or Eve within?  Or are you resisting the Holy Spirit and feeding his pearls to the pigs?  Are you wasting the wealth of God, the word of God, and feeding on the desires and deeds that lead to death?  Do you fear God, or do you fear family, friends, what others think, fortunes, lack of fortunes, more?

Let the Holy Spirit return you to Jesus!  If Jesus can control the wind and the waves, if he can deliver the man from a legion of demons, he can deliver you from the legion of temptations you face every day.  Like the complete number of pigs, one herd of pigs, let us rush as one in Christ, to the stilled waters of baptism, time and time again, so we might have the demons of sin drowned within.

Let us be sent out like Legion, as a legion of Christ’s love, as reflections of forgiveness, confessing to others what God has forgiven in us.  Fear God, not humanity!

Let us have the power of humility to boldly proclaim how Jesus has found us debased and rebased us as Sons of God, taking our depraved and piggish deeds and desires on himself, and replacing them with the Holy Spirit.  So, we have faith through this life, hope in death, and love for our neighbour so we might serve them with Jesus’ gifts of confession and forgiveness.

Sons of God, be encouraged by the voice of the Almighty Son of God in Psalm 66, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” (Psalm 66:16–20 ESV)

Because God has not rejected Jesus’ prayer or removed his steadfast love from him, believe he does not reject your prayer or remove his steadfast love from you, who remain in him!  Amen.