C, Post-Pentecost 4, Proper 9 - 2 Kings 5:1-14 "The Problem of Being Parochial"

So [Naaman] went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.  (2 Kings 5: 14 ESV)

There’s not a better feeling being clean after one has endured in the stench of a filthy body for some time.  Even better is the peace and tranquillity of health after the churning and trauma of illness.  Picture Naaman standing clean in health after he had suffered at the hand of skin disease.  No more sores, no more oozing, no more itching and stinging, the smell of failing flesh is gone, and so too is the social stigma of being a carrier of leprosy.

But there’s a stigma that’s even worse than the physical ailment seen by all; it’s one not seen by the naked eye of humanity.  Yet it’s more debilitating, and every one of us are long sufferers and loathers of this stigma we bear in the being of our flesh every day.  This is the oozing, rancid, reality of sin.  Like Naaman all of us have a deep-down desperate desire to be rid of the sickly stench of our sinfulness.

However, it’s surprising Naaman even had the opportunity to be cleansed, let alone the cleansing once he was given the advice which would free him from the foulness of his flesh.  We hear…

…Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.  And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”  But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.  Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.  (2 Kings 5:9-12)

Now it’s easy for us to understand Naaman’s anger.  Why?  Because each of us bear the same pride as that of Naaman.  This pride manifests itself in his parochial attitude; the same parochial short sightedness as all of us bear.

A little test will demonstrate our bias.  Are you a cat person or a dog person?  What about Ford or Holden?   After all we all know Fords are “Found On Rubbish Dumps”, and Holdens are Holes, Oil Leaks, Dents & Engine Noise.  Perhaps you’re a lover of the green John Deere over the mighty Red of the Case or blue of the New Holland.  How about your political alliance; that always causes the hackles to flair!  And when it comes to the footy, surely we all stand as one!  Dare I even mention the other code and how they hold and kick a football! 

The point of this little, perhaps humorous, exercise demonstrates how our pride leads us away from listening, into opinions which are more or less built on emotive judgments.  It’s more than coincidence when a “one eyed supporter” evokes a war of words, always with another who’s just as opinionated it seems!  Pride always rubs pride up the wrong way!

Naaman expected big things from Elisha.  And Elisha surely delivered, but not as the military man had expected.  No pomp and ceremony, not even a face-to-face meeting, and washing in the waters of the Jordan, that’s just laughable; ludicrous!  Like Naaman, being parochial causes us problems.

But how did Naaman come to the point where he was commanded to wash in the Jordan seven times?  These are a string of events that break the parochial single mindedness of the most powerful people, and they all start with the capture of a little child.  In the scheme of earthly things, this young girl is a nobody; she amounts to nothing in the big picture of Syro-Israeli relations.  We can be quite confident there wasn’t talk of her capture in the halls of power at Damascus or Samaria.

Yet this is from whom the whole even unfolds!  A captured child of Israel speaks to her mistress, the wife of Naaman, about what Elisha, the prophet in Israel would do.  This little child speaks and cuts through layers of protocol and parochial etiquette.  She could be mistaken as obnoxious for speaking out of turn; after all she is a slave.  But against pride and protocol the wife listens to her, then Naaman listens to his wife, and then the king in Damascus listens to his leprous military leader, and sends word to his enemy, the king of Israel.

And it gets a hostile parochial reception from the Israelite king.  As it would from any of us!  After all this is the enemy king, requesting for his unclean military commander, one who has been very successful in leading battle against Israel, to be healed of an incurable disease.  What would the Israelite king have thought, when confronted with a leprous, Gentile, warlord, breaking all the boundaries of parochial protocol?  Surely, he’s picking a fight with this request!

“Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” (2 Kings 5: 7)  Is the king’s conclusion!  The irony in his words names God yet exposes his lack of trust in God but rather trust in his own parochial godliness.

How often do we listen to the parochial god within rather than trust the eternal Father in heaven whose desire it is to free us from the longsuffering stigma of sin which kills and causes our narrow-mindedness?  How quick do we depart from the word of God and trusting in our own limited understanding lose sight of the cross?  And when the going gets tough, how habitually do we fall into the mindset that the tough must get going rather than allowing the Holy Spirit access into our being so we can pray and ponder God’s word, therefore glorifying all that has been done for us?

Like Naaman we get angry; like the king we tear at ourselves fearing the worst and unlike the little Israelite slave girl we hang onto our parochial ways to the detriment of grace, mercy and peace.

 After he is encouraged to listen to the command, I imagine Naaman went down into the Jordan, just to prove a point.  “I’ll show them all how ridiculous is bathing in the Jordan!”  Defiantly he doesn’t even wash, but just dips in the river seven times and is healed.  Now Naaman, the mighty military man from Syria is released from his scourge and like the little slave girl through whom God began the whole process now too carries the same innocent clean smoothness of her flesh and faith.

Surely the events recounting Naaman’s healing are a reminder to us Gentiles to return to Word of God.  To repent and daily trust in the actions of God in his Word, and what he has done for you having been baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Having had the old parochial sinful self, buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Col 2:12)

Let the Holy Spirit continue leading you from the stigma of all your sin, into the promised peace and holiness of your heavenly home, together with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son, your Lord and Saviour.  Amen.

B, Lent 2 - Mark 8:31-38 "The Contrary Christ Cycle"

Mark 8:31–38 (ESV) And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

The cycle of life in which we exist requires death to occur.  From the moment we are born, cells in our bodies are dying and new ones are being created.  The cycle of life before the fall, was not one of dying while living, life then death.  Rather, it was life and renewal of life, around the tree of life.  After the fall we lost access to the tree of life and death became the norm. 

Although we now exist in a realm of death, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we now have access to the tree of life, and live in the hope of our resurrection.  Yet in the meantime, we exist with the reality of death.  We call this existence, life, but it is really one of dying.

Most think this life is as good as it gets!  Putting aside suffering, most chase mirages of pleasure while waiting for the inevitable evil of dying.

Jesus’ life on earth, was an existence of death before life.  In fact, he is the only human born into the necessity of dying.  All other life on this earth was not created to die.  It was created to live and continue living in the renewal of the tree of life.

Any person with a knowledge of biological science knows life is meant to continue in renewal.  Scientists know this, and many have spent their lifetime searching for the secret of life, but to no avail.   All have gone the way of death searching for this mysterious elixir for the renewal of ongoing life.

Scientists, knowing life should keep continuing, have no answers to why it would ever stop.  They can only examine the existence of what we know.  That is an existence after the fall into sin.  And from this standpoint, philosophers and other great thinkers join them to determine what is good and evil in this existence.

Life then death, pain and a bit of pleasure, then a deadly oblivion or extinction.  It’s not much of an existence to look forward to!  It’s an existence that says, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we will die”.

Jesus came teaching the contrary.  He came teaching death leads to life.  That our existence now, is death, and the one to come, is life! 

Instead of making the most of life before death, he was bringing life to our existence of death, he was making the most of his death for true life to occur.

Jesus is the tree of life, giving life on the tree of death, the cross.  Jesus taught that he, the Christ, the Son of Man, was going to serve humanity by being rejected by those who were God’s representatives and be killed by them, yet after three days rise again to life.

Peter, having confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, was intent on a life of glory now, rather than a life lived under the cross.  He seeks to rebuke Jesus, but Jesus rebukes Satan within Peter, saying “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Mark 8:33 ESV)

Within Peter, Satan had blinded him to an understanding and knowledge of humanity, rather than a knowledge of God.  This is the default knowledge in which all of humanity exists, after the fall, having turned its back on God.  

After Jesus harshly rebukes Peter, he again teaches Peter and the other disciples.  But now he also teaches them with the crowd that had gathered!  Jesus teaches a paradox, contrary to humanity’s expectation of life then death. 

He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:34–37 ESV)

Do you come after Jesus?   If I am to come after Jesus, let me deny myself, take up my cross and follow him! 

But how do I do this?  How do I deny myself and carry my cross?

This is not a human work!  If we could deny ourselves and take up our cross, God would never have had to send the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, he would not have needed to send his Son Jesus Christ, if just one person could have been faithful to God, as was Jesus Christ, incarnate in flesh, to die for the life of the world.

Today we celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving.  We thank God for what we have.  For the most part we continue the Pharisaic practice of giving thanks for our food when we sit down for a meal.  In our practice we invite Jesus to be our guest. 

We say, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and let this food to us be blessed.” And to this we say, “Amen.”  But the prayer can continue, “Blessed be God who is our bread, may the world be clothed and fed.  Amen.”

Some might believe our prayer is a kind of gate, that on concluding the prayer we open the gate and start eating.  But the Holy Spirit gathers us in prayer in Jesus Christ to be our guest.  And as the addition to the payer says, it is God who truly is our bread that blesses, us, all we produce, all we have, all we eat, and all we share.  Unfortunately, as with Peter and all of us, what spoils our trust in this, “are the things of man”, encouraged by the father of death, the devil himself! 

But the Holy Spirit, fights the deathly human spirit within each of us!  He plants Christ in us, so we take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow him.  With Christ planted within, we no longer live to die, denying others in favour of ourselves.  But rather, we die to live, denying ourselves so the Holy Spirit might use us to serve, as Jesus served!

In the same way you can plant a seed in the ground, and it sprouts and grows, Jesus is the seed planted in you!   His “death and life” cycle is planted in you, conquering the former “life and death” cycle.  This new Christ cycle is the death and resurrection cycle of God’s Holy Seed, promised to Adam and Eve just after the fall in the garden of Eden.  The promise still exists!  The Spirit wills you to be grafted into the cross!

Just as a watered seed has all the life it needs within to germinate, faith germinates in us, with water and the Word of God.   The Holy Spirit enlightens us with God’s Word, sinking the roots of faith even deeper into the eternal powers of God’s Word.  This increases the death to life cycle of the cross even more!

Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  (John 12:24–25 ESV)

Jesus is the Seed of Life, planted in you.  All life comes from God, a wonderful thing for us dying to live, with all that God provides for us on the way to eternal life.  Even greater is our Lord Jesus Christ who lived to die,  dying to produce the fruit of eternal life within you.   

But there is still another twist!  Now that Jesus has reversed the life then death cycle to a death then life cycle, he gives us true life here on earth now, even as we wait for death then eternal life to be unfolded before our eyes. 

He says, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” (Mark 9:1 ESV)

Some saw a brief glimpse of the kingdom of God in the Transfiguration.  Judas and perhaps some in the crowd did taste death before Jesus’ resurrection. 

But, with the eyes of faith, see and know that the kingdom of God has come with power.   This cycle has begun in your baptism.  Baptised into death at the cross, dying to live in eternal life!  In the midst of death, we are in life, life eternal, right now, because we follow our Lord Jesus Christ!  Amen. 

B, Lent 1 - Genesis 9:8-17 "A Re-Creative Covenant"

Refraction of light causes light to be bent and through different degrees of bending comes various colours on the spectrum of light.   God created water droplets to refract light showing it to Noah after the flood.  We see the result of this still today, when standing between the sun and a rainy sky to see a rainbow in the clouds. 

When we stand on the ground, we only see half the refracted circle of light, which is a rainbow.  Become elevated in the right position, one would see a full circle of colours being produced from the sun shining on a backdrop of falling water droplets.

God caused this wonderful display to make humanity a promise!  He says, “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:  I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” (Genesis 9:11–13 ESV)

God’s promise to all living creatures is called a covenant.  God establishes the covenant with Noah.  When we enter into a covenant, usually the agreement is made between two parties, but the rainbow covenant is different.  God makes the covenant without any input from Noah or his sons.  God’s covenant with Noah is a one-sided agreement.

Even today the covenant is still binding since it relies only on God’s word.  However, other covenants are broken because they rely on both parties keeping the agreement. 

Humanity sees the rainbow as a symbol of hope.  A rainbow flag was used as early as the sixteenth century as a symbol for the peasants’ cooperative movement in the German Peasants War.  In the nineteen sixties the rainbow peace flag became a common sight.  Today when some see a rainbow flag displayed, they immediately assume it as being a symbol for diverse sexuality.

However, the rainbow seen in the sky, surpasses all human flags or cooperative movements.  After a storm has passed over, a rainbow can allow us a breath of relief, to come outside once again, to give thanks for the rain, or  to begin cleaning up the damage.

But the transcendence of the rainbow, as a covenant of God, gives us even more relief than knowing a storm has passed.  And it does so, not because of what we remember when we see a rainbow, but what God sees and remembers!  We hear, “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”  (Genesis 9:16 ESV)

God not only makes a one-sided covenant, but he also makes an everlasting covenant!  Regardless of what humanity sees in a rainbow, God sees and remembers his promise to all living creatures of the earth, forever!

The refraction of light comes from a source of pure light.  The light of the rainbow comes from the light of life, God the Father who transcends all life, and from whom all life is lit and living. 

The light of life shines God’s love upon us.  The love of God is pure light, and it shines on all humanity, regardless how humanity views love, and refracts it into the coloured corrupted desires of the human heart.

In the days of Noah, the love of God had been fractured,  and people had completely fallen away from him.   Humanity continued in the pursuit of pleasure, that saw Adam and Eve, fall.  The sons of God, those born to Seth, and the descendants of Adam’s other children who followed Seth, were attracted to the daughters of man, those born to Cain and his followers.

Attractive here means good.  The sons of God saw the daughters of man as good.  This was greater than a lust over good looks, but a temptation and turning from God, continuing humanity’s pursuit of good and evil knowledge,  just as Adam and Eve had turned from God at Eden.

Therefore, in the days of Noah, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”  But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD.” (Genesis 6:5–8 ESV)

So, God made a covenant with Noah, and after he rebirth the earth in the flood, he put the rainbow in the sky.  God sees the rainbow and remembers he will not flood the earth, despite humanity bending the bow of God’s covenant!  Refracting it into a fractured rebellion against his light in a corruption of colours.  

Despite the many colours of humanity’s knowledge of love.  Despite those Luther opposed who sought to climb up to God in love for the “greater good”.  Despite those today whose knowledge of love is governed by what feels good.  God sees the rainbow and remembers his covenant!

But you who see the full circle of God’s love sees his Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  You know the coloured light of your emotions, your will, and your deeds are tainted.  Even if we became wholly inclusive in our diversity, collecting together all our colours once refracted from the original pure light of God, we know our colours are contaminated with impurities.  No longer do all the colours of the rainbow reverse in refraction back to the pure light of God.  Our colours combine to block out God’s light and create darkness.   Whatever colour we refract, we identify as sinners!  We know God’s light gets bent in us!

When God sees the rainbow, he remembers we are dust, and to dust we shall return.  He sustains us in this life as we suffer in it.  Yet we hear and trust, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”  (1 Peter 3:18 ESV)

God commanded Noah to build the ark, and in faithfulness to God, he built it.  Noah was maligned when he did not join others in their flood of debauchery.  He suffered for it, but God saved him through water.

Jesus Christ is the light of God.  The Holy Spirit gives the life of God in Jesus Christ!  God shines the full gamut of light in Jesus Christ.  It’s the full circle of Christ’s light that shines on us in baptism.  Here, Noah is a picture of Christ for us.  “God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.  Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, …through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 3:20–21 ESV)

In these days when it has become illegal (in Victoria, Australia) to reflect on certain sins, according to God’s Word, we live under God’s re-creative covenant.  Not only do we know God will not kill all flesh through a deluge.  But we also know in the waters of baptism, God has made a greater covenant with us.  In Christ, we too will be raised to see the colours of God in his eternal dwelling.  This will be the full circle of light Christ once shone on earth, that the Triune God will shine in heaven forever!  

See these colours, revealed to John, recorded in Revelation chapter twenty-one.  “The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.  The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,  the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.  And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.  And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,  and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.”  (Revelation 21:18–25 ESV)

See the re-creative colours of God’s eternal covenant with you, refracted with water and the Word through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

C, Epiphany 2 - John 2:9-11 "Change"

John 2:9–11 (ESV)When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”  This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

We’re living in times of change.  Indeed, even days and hours of change!  Things seem to be evolving at such a rapid rate of change. 

Technology has much to do with this, but in recent times our health in the face of the pandemic has heightened such change in such a short time.  Who would have thought we would be into the third year of a global virus with all its restrictions and debilitations?!

In these uncertain times of radical change, one certainly feels bashed and beaten by the unexpected readjustments we are required to make in our day to day lives.  We wonder when or if things will ever return to what we expect as being normal.  Whatever “normal” is now!  We talk of coming to terms with living with Covid.  But what does that really mean for us?

This uncertainty and change affect us!   Are our expectations in life in need of change?  How we live our lives; even our purpose in life is being questioned.  Confidence is being lost in the stability of things we took for granted as being rock solid.

How has this time of accelerated change, affected your hope? 

If we look to the media, it testifies humanity is miserable, getting poorer, afflicted with disease, on the verge of blowing ourselves to smithereens, as well as facing a climate catastrophe.  Humanity’s hope has changed for the worse!  It all sounds dismal, but perhaps it is not as bad as the media is making it out to be.

The loss of hope and confidence in humanity’s progress seems quite alarming, but the reality is our hope and confidence has been a house of cards tottering on the edge of collapse for some time.  Our towers of trust are being torn down revealing we should never have put our trust in them, and our motives for building them in our hearts prove questionable.

At the centre of our loss of hope the Holy Spirit seeks to refocus your confidence and restore hope in Jesus Christ. 

As all the things you love are removed, the Holy Spirit moves you to trust in him who loves you.  The great thing to come out of the uncertainty and change of the last three years is the renewed brightness of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

But there is a temptation to be distracted by the arguments of our human spirit and the world, over knowledge of, the good and evil of Covid immunisations, lockdown limitations versus the freedom of choice, health versus wealth, a growing Chinese threat, climate change, and gender rights.  

On the other hand, the change Jesus Christ puts in front of us, now shines ever so much brighter as all worldly temporary hopes in us become exhausted and die.   Ironically, they always were going to die.  But we have breathed so much life into these gods of microchips and memes, the modern-day idols of wood and stone!

Unfortunately, over the last decade, personal electronic devices have become so dominant in our lives, it has distracted and led us into chaotic waters.   And like a covid riddled cruise ship unable to dock, we’re so preoccupied and paralysed from our personal pursuits of pleasure.

In the same way, this mobile phone and app god is dying too, and many will soon need Jesus Christ to board their boat and change their lives as well, lest their paralysation renders them eternally lost.

A French writer of the 19^th century, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, is quoted as saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.  And this is true of humanity as it seeks to make change for what it believes to be “the better”.  But as humanity idolises change for the sake of progress it continues in its hopeless plight contributing to evil.

However, Jesus Christ introduces change that’s contrary to all other human endeavours of change.  Jesus Christ is the only true agent of change.  He makes all things new, eternally new and eternally different! 

We get a picture of this change today as we hear what he does at the wedding at Cana, and who it revealed him to be. 

Jesus takes the water for old covenant purification and changes it into the best wine, eternal pleasing wine!   In the wedding at Cana, a glimpse of his glory is revealed, which would become fully uncovered at his death and resurrection.  He makes change at the wedding, turning water into wine, and it reminds us of the change we have undergone in our baptism into his death and resurrection.

You now carry the knowledge of Jesus Christ as a result of being baptised.  You are forgiven and fed with God’s word and sacraments, the Holy Spirit works Jesus Christ in you every time you hear his word and eat and drink his body and blood.

The wedding water, changed into the best wine, reminds us that there is now no longer need for purification through the Law.  Fulfilling the requirements of the Law are finished in Jesus’ death on the cross.  The ritual to be cleansed and washed, to be purified was put aside after Jesus, the true bridegroom, washed the feet of his disciples and made way for our entry into the wedding feast of the Lamb, through the purification and sacrifice of his death.

In the book of Revelation, we are reminded of the promise given to John when he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and commanded to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9 ESV)

Weddings are joyful occasions.  How much greater is the joy of the eternal wedding between Jesus and his bride, the church, now that God promises our purification through the death and resurrection of his firstborn Son.  Our hopelessness, and helplessness, is covered with the life-changing robes of Jesus’ righteousness.

There are changes happening all around us. But God calls you away from those distractions to focus on Jesus Christ and the change he has made for us and in us. He sends the Holy Spirit to change us, and this work continues to happen throughout our lives.

In fact, we are engaged to God’s Son in this life.  God has placed his Holy Spirit in us as a very good deposit, sealing us for the day of hope, our resurrection from the dead and marriage with our faithful eternal Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

Let us proclaim the true change Jesus is bring to us at the conclusion of this life here on earth.  As we look forward to Jesus’ return where he will make all things new, let us remind each other and tell others of the unlimited good wine of eternal abundance that awaits all who allow themselves to be changed into the wedding clothes of Jesus’ righteousness. Amen.

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory.”  (Revelation 19:6b-7a ESV) The marriage of the Lamb is coming!  Let his Bride be made ready!

Amen.

C, The Baptism of our Lord, Epiphany 1 - Luke 3:18-22 "The Heavens were Opened"

Luke 3:18–22 (ESV) So with many other exhortations he (John the Baptist) preached good news to the people.  But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done,  added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.  Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened,  and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

It seems strange that Luke would set out his account of Jesus’ baptism in this way.

We know from the other Gospel writers; Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan.  But here in Luke’s account of the Gospel, when the people suspect him of being the Christ, he says, “I baptise you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.  He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16 ESV)

After this, Luke has John detained by Herod the tetrarch before Jesus was baptised.  Why does he do this when we know John baptised him?

After this, twice only is John the Baptist, mentioned in Luke’s Gospel account.  In chapter seven Jesus speaks about him and quotes Malachi 3:1 as one being sent as a herald for the Messiah’s coming.

He says, “This is he of whom it is written,  ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’  I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John.  Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:27–28 ESV)

In chapter nine Luke reports Herod as being perplexed by the rumours that Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the other prophets raised from the dead.  Luke has not even reported John’s death but uses Herod’s words to declare his death, how he died, and his interest in seeing Jesus, saying,  “‘John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?’ And he sought to see him. ” (Luke 9:9 ESV)

It appears Luke is deliberately setting out his account to make it extremely clear that John the Baptist and what he represents is closed.  His calling of those being baptised to repent is finished.  He was the last prophet of God and therefore the last herald of the Messiah.

With John finished we hear of Jesus having been baptised and while praying the heavens were opened.  In this opening the hearer of the Gospel is given a revelation of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descending in a bodily form, like a dove, and the voice of God the Father declaring this Jesus of Nazareth as his beloved Son.

Heaven is open and the full Triune Godhead is made known at Jesus’ baptism.  Not only is John finished, but Jesus is the first born of a new way of salvation.  One that is pleasing to God, through his beloved Son.

With the baptism of Jesus begins a transitional period.  Apart from Jesus’ disciples reported baptising at the beginning of John chapter four, the only mention of baptism is of Jesus being baptised with the baptism of the cross. 

Jesus says, “I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50 ESV)

And again, Jesus says to his disciples in Mark 10, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised?”  And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised.” (Mark 10:38–39 ESV)

It's not until Jesus’ baptism of fire at the cross, his descent into hell, and resurrection from the dead that the transitional period is complete. 

After this we hear the great baptismal proclamation of heaven remaining permanently open, where Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  (Matthew 28:19 ESV)

And from the end of Mark’s Gospel Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16 ESV)

This transitional period was the opening of heaven through the baptismal opening afforded to us by Jesus being the Messiah.  What does this mean?

Jesus being the Messiah, or the Christ, is, the Son of God,  the Son of Man, being anointed to bear all the things confessed by those who received John’s baptism of repentance.  To bear all the infirmities of those he healed, to bear all from those he cleansed of evil spirits, to bear all the sins of those who heard him and believed, as well as bearing those who came to belief after he was raised and ascended into heaven. 

Jesus opened the gate of heaven by fulfilling all the requirements of God to be holy.  Jesus was not just good!  His goodness was second to none, so much so he was as perfect as his Father in heaven is holy.  But on the cross, he became all your sin and evil, and mine too!  He perfectly pleased the Father and opened the way closed to Adam and Eve because of sin.

The heavens were opened for the forgiveness of sins.  Now we no longer repent in fear as those did before John the Baptist, but we repent knowing that our sins have been forgiven, our sin is being forgiven, and our sin will be forgiven.

How is this possible?  How are we able to come to God now that he has become all sin for us?  Even though Jesus has done all this for us, if left to our own means we would flee straight back into the darkness and deny his forgiveness is “for me, for you”.

We need to go back to the Jesus’ baptism to hear once again what John the Baptist said and what happened at his baptism.

John said of baptism,  “I baptise you with water…  He (Jesus) will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16 ESV)

Now, we know when Jesus was baptised with water, the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form, as that of a dove.  And he underwent a baptism of fire on the cross.  We also know, he did not baptise anyone.  But John says, “he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.  Is this a mistake, a contradiction?

What we need to realise is the Holy Spirit was revealed when Jesus was revealed as the Son of God.  The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are inseparable as far as the forgiveness of sins, our faith, and our willingness to repent are concerned.

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is named only three times.  Once in Psalm 51 and twice in Isaiah 63.  Incidentally, these two passages speak of David’s and Israel’s sin and God’s mercy.

Turn to the New Testament and the Holy Spirit is mentioned numerous times.  In fact, by the time Luke reports the Holy Spirit coming down on Jesus in bodily form as a dove, just after his baptism, he has already mentioned the Holy Spirit seven times.  And after Jesus was baptised, Luke tells us he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan.

Luke also gives us the book of Acts.  Commonly it is called the Acts of the Apostles, but in reality, it is the Acts of the Holy Spirit, beginning with the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at the festival of Pentecost just ten days after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven.

The heavens were opened, and they remain open.  The Holy Spirit keeps it open in our ears, and in our mouths.  He enables us to pray to our Father in heaven, he empowers us to believe we join in with Jesus, praying the ceaseless petitions of our great high priest and Saviour.  The Holy Spirit wills us to return to the Law to see our sin, so we can confess our sin, and remain in the holiness of God, where we’re kept in the true faith.

Because the heavens are open, we live in the open reality of the Triune God.  The Holy Spirit is not just present by himself, but is present with the Father and the Son, with us, in the realm of heavenly forgiveness.  Here again, the Holy Spirit works to open our hearts and minds to this reality.  He does this through God’s Word and the Sacraments, continually reminding us of, and bringing us to, Jesus Christ.  He does this so we might receive the forgiveness of sins.

Now that heaven is open, let the light of God shine on you.  Are you reading this sermon,  watching it  online, or falling into habits disconnecting you from the light of God shining on you?

In the office of Christ, I encourage you to pray and let the Holy Spirit return you to the light of God’s forgiveness and receive your Baptismal booster, face to face with the Triune God in church!

The heavens were opened at Jesus’ baptism, and the narrow door remains open through the forgiveness of sins.  Amen.

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” (Revelation 22:17 ESV) Amen.