B, Post Pentecost 13 Proper 15 - Ephesians 5:15–17, 21 John 6:51-58 "Flesh Vs Flesh"

Ephesians 5:15–17, 21 (ESV)  Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. …submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wisdom verses wisdom.  Understanding verses understanding. Feelings verses feelings.  Passions verses passions.  Human flesh verses the flesh of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ, the Son of humanity, the Son of God, came to bridge the divide between the fallen flesh that dies and our Father in heaven who is the light and life of all creation together with his Son and the Holy Spirit.

John’s gospel begins with words written to remind us of Genesis chapter one. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  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 1:1–5,14 ESV)

The flesh of God meets the fallen flesh of humanity at the feeding of the five thousand.  In the wake of this extraordinary meal, the Word of God made flesh, engages with the flesh of humanity, the understanding, the feelings, and the passions of humanity.

A Lutheran pastor on moving to a town was targeted by the local Jehovah’s Witness, who lobbed on the manse doorstep not long after the minister was installed into the congregation.  After the Witnesses gave their usual testimony of heresies and half-truths, the Lutheran pastor spoke about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Holy Baptism, and the body and blood of Jesus, that we’ve heard Jesus say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”  (John 6:53–55 ESV)

Once the pastor said this truth to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they erupted with scorn and contempt, at the implications of eating and drinking Jesus’ body and blood.  The Jehovah’s Witness don’t believe in blood transfusions, and these Witnesses construed the consumption of Jesus’ body and blood as cannibalism.

As Jesus taught this to those in the tabernacle at Capernaum, it’s understandable how the Jews and the disciples would have heard a similar message to that of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  After all, sense would have only been made of Jesus’ words in John six, after the resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  As well as through the lived experience of the early church as they were called, gathered, enlightened and made holy by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God.

Similarly, we who have been baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection have been drowned in his body and blood in the waters of Holy Baptism, fed on his Holy Word of life, and given his body and blood in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.  In all three of these holy elements, we continually receive the Holy Spirit who gives, sustains, and builds faith in those who do not reject the holy three — Word, Water, and Wine — of Jesus’ bread of life!  

Now that you and I have the Holy Spirit in the Holy three, faith is generated within, lighting up the darkness that needs lighting up with the fires of the Spirit within.  The battle that ensues within all of us is now the battle of… human wisdom verses Jesus’ wisdom…  human understanding verses Jesus’ understanding… our feelings verses God’s feelings…  our passions and desires verse the passion of Jesus Christ. 

The human flesh and spirit of our old Adam and its works is confronted by the Holy Spirit’s work to daily enflesh us in the body and blood of Jesus Christ, for forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation!

But the human will is strong!  The old Adam seeks a resurrection of its own.  Our human spirit, in seeking a knowledge of good and evil from within the self, works within to push out the Holy Spirit, together with the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This battle wears on each of us and makes one tired.  Eventually this battle leads to the breakdown of the self — mind, body, and soul — resulting in death. 

But the will of God is such, that even despite death this does not have to end in eternal death, and the separation from God, that the devil, the world, and the old Adam seeks!

What the devil wants the old Adam to hear in the world is a message of confusion.  That muddled message is loud and strong today!  It’s a deceptive message of unity while our way of living is one of disunited individualism.  We’re being taught to fight for the longings of identity, equality, and rights of the individual’s understanding and feelings over everything else.

Saint Paul reminds the Ephesians not to be driven by feelings.  He calls them not to be foolish!  Not to be moved by the will of what is within.  This is literally to not be driven by gut instinct!  To exchange faith in Christ with the desires of the self in one’s own knowledge of what one thinks is good and evil.

Paul’s command is just as important for the internal confusion of your learnt individualism, and the disorder in today’s creation!  Just as much as it was for the troubled church in Ephesus, existing between pagan female cultic worship and the witness of Judaism rejecting Jesus Christ.

Paul warns, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:15–21 ESV)

Paul speaks to the Ephesians concerning the powers and principalities at Ephesus (Ephesians 1:21, 2:2, 3:10, 6:12). Jesus confronts the powers and principles within each of us in his call to consume his flesh and blood when he spoke at the synagogue in Capernaum.  You are warned to look within, to oust worldly wisdom, and make way for the Holy Spirit who brings wisdom in the will of God. 

We are warned that the days are evil, contrary to what the world is telling us!  We’re to understand in what we’re taught in the Word of God that the unity with the nations that Israel sought was contrary to the will of God.  The church today is still being tempted into a unity with the nations against God’s will rather than God’s call for the church to make disciples of all nations.

In Paul’s warning there’s a caution for us to guard ourselves against consuming a worldly wisdom, of feeble flesh, fleeting feelings, and chaotic misunderstanding of what is good and evil.

When you heed this warning, you allow a repentance of the heart, to turn back to God.  You turn from being conservative and progressive.  That is turning back to Jesus Christ from conserving or progressing your sinful self-directed powers and principles, as well as conserving or progressing the world’s powers and principalities. 

Having been turned, we feed not on our understanding, feelings, wisdom, faith or flesh.  But like Jesus who said to our Father in heaven, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”  (Mark 14:36 ESV) We too, allow the cup of salvation to come upon us as we allow the Holy Spirit to do the will of God within us.  To sacrifice our wisdom, understanding, feelings and faith in ourselves as we carry our cross too.

The Holy Spirit enables us to take up the faith with reverence for Jesus Christ and carry the cross we’re called to bear, rather than burden ourselves with a faith in ourselves.  Just as Jesus submitted to the cross for your forgiveness, the Spirit empowers you to submit to others out of reverence for the work Jesus Christ did to save you from confusion, chaos and death.

The light shines in your darkness, and your darkness has not overcome it.  So let the wisdom and understanding, the feelings and faithfulness, the power and passion, of Jesus’ Word made flesh, shine in your darkness.  The Holy Spirit seeks to reflect the glory of Jesus Christ from you into the places where God wills you to be.  Amen.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understand, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 24 Proper 27 - Matthew 25:1-13 "Expectation"

What do you expect from this day?  We all live with expectations everyday of our lives.  What are expectations and from where do they come?  To where do they lead?  Are your expectations healthy or unhealthy?

Expectations change from person to person, from place to place, and they vary in different times of life throughout the ages.

Our expectation for a meal, a bed in which to sleep tonight, an enjoyable day amongst likeminded folk, seems reasonable to us.  But, for those in war-ravaged places perhaps these expectations would lead to disappointment, resentment, and further hopelessness.  Our expectations might be quite trivial to those whose very existence hangs in the balance! 

The expectations we place on others can differ too.  What you expect of your parents or children changes over time.  Children learn to expect parents to care for them when young, but they expect to escape from their authority when they’re teenagers and young adults!  Likewise, parents expect to care for their children when young, and our mums and dads expect to be cared for, when they grow old!

Expectations are buried in our being from the time we’re born. 

Expectations remember the past, in the present, and furnish one’s future. 

Depending on the culture into which you’re born, will usually dictate the expectations you have of others, and yourself.   What you did and do, dictates what you will do.  Enjoying what you ate encourages what you will seek to eat.  Where you live, who you serve, who serves you, who and what you trust and don’t trust are learnt expectations.

Another word for expectations is wants!  Wants or expectations are fuelled by something deep within each of us.  Examining our inner wants and expectations can tell us a lot about ourselves.  Learning of another person’s wants, or a group’s expectations, can also help us discern much about the person or group.

For example, those who expect the world to continue to evolve into a better and better place, might have an expectation of society learning from its mistakes and not making them again.  There’s an expectation of humanity cycling round and round in an ever-rising series of events towards perfection.  On the other hand, those who expect the universe to one day spiral and explode into a chaotic oblivion will have very different expectations.  Both are expectations, both are not right, but they affect how humanity acts and reacts to events and other people.

So, what or who fuels your expectations?

Are your expectations, or wants, a false god?   Are your expectations premeditated resentments?  Setting yourself up, or others, for hurt and failure?

What do you expect of God?

What does God expect of you?  You might be surprised what God expects of you, written in his Word!

What fuel’s your expectations of God, and your understanding of his expectations of you?  It depends on whether your expectations submit to the Word of God, or you try to make God submit to your expectations and wants!

Ten virgins expect the coming of the bridegroom.  In this parable Jesus says five were wise and five were foolish.  The wise were those who have considered bringing extra fuel for their lamps.  The foolish have not thought things through and don’t have extra oil to fuel their lamps.

Jesus teaches the parable to prepare us for his coming and what we should expect.  So, what is the parable of the ten virgins teaching us to expect about Jesus’ return?

At the end of the parable Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13 ESV)  This sudden surprise is made explicit in the midst of the parable.  All ten virgins are asleep and startled when the cry comes for the bridegroom’s arrival.

Jesus previously says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”  (Matthew 24:36 ESV)  Not even Jesus knows, only the Father in heaven.  Obviously when Jesus is sent by the Father, he will know, but not beforehand.

Notice that in the parable all the virgins fall asleep, and they cannot lend their oil.  This is so, because when we fall asleep in death, what we believe and trust, is the fuel of our faith, and it’s this light that will expose us as followers of Christ.  What you believe, or what you expect when you die, cannot be changed when Christ returns.

When we think of lamps, we might assume that lamps were used to see the way.  They may have been, if the lamps were rags soaked in oil on sticks, but the parable tends to suggest a lamp that’s not a temporary torch to see the way, but a lamp made of clay with a reservoir to hold the fuel and a wick to draw the fuel and burn a flame.  Much like a candle would burn and produce a small amount of light.

This type of lamp is not for seeing the way, but for being seen.  Virgins walking in the evening moved about with lamps to illuminate their faces, so they could be plainly seen.  Women who moved around hidden within the cloak of darkness, were usually anything but virgins.  The virgins needed the fuel for their lamps, to be seen by the bridegroom on his arrival, not to see the way to the bridegroom. 

One cannot work their way to Jesus.  Just as he came the first time, he will come the second time.  We didn’t find him the first time, and neither will we find him when he returns.  What will be seen of you when he returns?

This is a key part of the parable because if one does not have the good oil, so to speak, when the bridegroom arrives, we cannot expect to bargain our way through the door of eternal life to be with Jesus.

Like the virgins who went to find oil and returned to begged to enter, Jesus also says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21, 23 ESV)

If we have an expectation that we can change our story on judgement day, Jesus clearly tells us it doesn’t work like that!  The fuel of faith we need when we die, is the fuel of doing God’s will, or what God expects and wants. 

He wants to see us waiting for him, illuminated by his presence, and not the back of us working, or changing, to get the good oil.  He wants to see the radiance and joy of our hopeful expectation in which we will enter the grave and will be woken at his coming.

So, what is this fuel?  The good oil of expectation!  It’s not an idol of our works, or a belief in a false image of God we’ve concocted in our hearts.

What is this fuel of faith that God expects to see in you?   It’s the fuelling trust in God’s Word, looking not to ourselves or finding our way to eternity.  It’s allowing the fire of the Holy Spirit to illuminate Christ’s death for our daily death of self.  This fuel of faith lets him shine his holiness in us.  So, when the Father sees us, our lamp of faith shows Jesus the bridegroom, shining for us, in his resurrection glory.

God expects you to be a sinner!  If he did not expect this, he would not have sent Jesus to be the only sacrifice for sin!  But God also expects you to be an enlightened repentant sinner, who despite knowing your sinfulness, willingly stands in his presence to confess, be forgiven, and forgive as Jesus has forgiven us in his death and resurrection.

Like the wise virgins whose faces are lit up with hope and joy at his coming, our wisdom is not so much about you or me, but about the wisdom of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, working and waking us with the Word of God.

God expects us humans to have doubts and troubles with faith.  Every day you can expect the old human self will seek its resurrection.  That, you can count on without a skerrick of doubt!   This is not a time to forget the oil reserve that is being deposited in you through God’s Word. 

When you have doubts, let the eternal resurrected bridegroom pour his Word into you with the Holy Spirit.  When you doubt, bash on God’s door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to open Godly expectations of his Word in you!  When you pray, trust the Holy Spirit to give you a desire and joy in God’s Word.  When you receive God’s Word as the good oil, expect this oil to be the oil to keep your lamps burning.

God wants your greatest expectation, to be of him. 

He wants your expectation of him alone.  

He expects you, to expect him, to be your God.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 16 Proper 19 - Matthew 18:21-22 Romans 14:7-12 "Living and Dying to Forgive"

Matthew 18:21–22 (ESV)  Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Peter questions Jesus, “How often should I forgive?”  This question doesn’t occur out of the blue, in a vacuum! 

Over the past four weeks we’ve heard Jesus teach the disciples about his purpose on earth!  He was leading and teaching them about life and death, forgiveness, binding sin and loosing sinners.  His life was the perfection of God’s vertical and horizontal will; to be your forgiveness so you can forgive!

We heard some weeks back, Peter confessing Jesus as, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)  Jesus goes on to tell Peter his confession, although coming from his lips, came from God.  God was working through Peter, in his confession!  Similarly, Jesus, the Son of God, was going to build his church on Peter, which means rock, and give him the keys to bind and loose.

Yet it doesn’t go well for Peter, as Jesus begins telling the disciples about his death and resurrection.  Peter takes Jesus aside to give him a talking to, since he is now the newly confessed rock on which Jesus’ church will be built.  But it is Peter who is given a verbal dressing down, as Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  (Matthew 16:23 ESV)

It's here Jesus completely puzzled the disciples.  With what seems like a riddle, he says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24 ESV) 

How can one choose or prefer to reject oneself, take up one’s death and follow Jesus?

In Matthew’s Gospel account, the transfiguration happens next.  Coming down the mountain Jesus speaks again about this strange phenomenon of “being woken from death”, commanding them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” (Matthew 17:9 ESV)

After this, there’s an incident where a son who suffers from seizures could not be healed by the disciples.   Jesus coins a name for them, calling them, “you little-faiths” and tells them nothing will be impossible for them, even with faith like a grain of mustard seed!  (Matthew 17:20)

They gather together in Galilee.  Again, Jesus says to them, “‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,  and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’ And they were greatly distressed.”  (Matthew 17:22–23 ESV)  They were listening to Jesus as God commanded them on the mountain.   But they had no idea and little faith on how or why Jesus needed to die!

The tension builds for Jesus and the disciples!  As they move towards this deathly event, they did not understand this new kingdom of the church, was to be built on Jesus’ death and resurrection.   They had little faith in forgiveness!  Little faith in how humanity would be set free!  Little faith in how Jesus could be the sacrifice for sin! That it would come down to sin being bound to Jesus when he was nailed to the cross to die.  And they had completely no idea that the life of the church would require their daily death, which would propel most of them onto martyrdom!

Furthermore, they had no concept of the resurrection from the dead!  And why should they have?  Death was the great leveller, no one could get past it, and no one could be raised again to life.  Atonement for sin came through the sacrifice of animals under Levitical Law, and life after death was not an earthly resurrection.  

Peter again takes centre stage as Jesus asked, “‘What do you think, Simon?  From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax?  From their sons or from others?’  And when he said, ‘From others,’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then the sons are free’”.  (Matthew 17:25–26 ESV)

Here Jesus speaks about freedom of a king’s sons, they pay no tax, they are not bound, but are loosed from paying tax.   But the disciples with “little faith” ask Jesus, “The Greatest” in the kingdom of heaven,  “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  (Matthew 18:1 ESV)  To which Jesus puts a little one in the midst of the “little faith” disciples and tells a number of stories about receiving little ones, temptations, and not despising the little ones, but rather seeking them out like lost sheep.

Last week we heard more about binding and loosing for forgiveness.  Jesus put a little child in front of the disciples with little faith, to make his point about binding and loosing through receiving and  not hindering the little ones from perishing. 

However, what Jesus was showing the disciples, and what he seeks to teach in his word, is forgiveness is what he and his church is about!  Without forgiveness won through the cross, and new life through the resurrection, Jesus’ church does not exist, Peter cannot be the rock of Jesus’ church.  And there is no calling humanity to repentance and forgiveness at Pentecost, today, or until Jesus returns.

So, what does all this mean for us today, as we look forward to the return of Jesus, when he physically and visually returns again, or as we meet him in our death and resurrection from the grave, just as many who have gone before us lie in the grave in hope?

Peter asks Jesus how many times to forgive?

Jesus gives a parable about the King who forgives a servant a large debt who in his wickedness does not do the same for his fellow servant’s small debt.  This is a reminder of the vertical and horizontal will of God, to forgive as you have been forgiven.

What does this require of us?  We find the answer in Romans chapter fourteen…

“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.  For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.  Why do you pass judgment on your brother?  Or you, why do you despise your brother?  For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;  for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”  So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”  (Romans 14:7–12 ESV) 

If one is a child of God, it requires a death within.  It required the death of the Greatest in the Kingdom of heaven on the cross.  Now Jesus requires that, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24 ESV) 

How can one choose or prefer to reject oneself, take up one’s death and follow Jesus?

How does one not live for themselves?  How does one not die to themselves? How do we live to the Lord?  And how do we die to the Lord?  What is this death?

These are important questions since all will stand before the judgment seat of God.  As Paul tells the Romans, he tells us, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”  (Romans 14:4 ESV) 

When one sits down and reads these pages from Matthew’s Gospel as a whole, one will begin to see Jesus preparing the disciples, little by little, for his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.

When you daily allow the drowning of the old sinful nature in your baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection and allow the Holy Spirit to open your heart to his word, you too are being prepared!

This is the centre of God’s will for humanity, for you!  Beginning at the cross, forgiveness was carried from it, by Peter and the apostles, to Jesus’ church of Jews and gentiles!  You and me!

Jesus makes it clear what happens to those who don’t forgive like the forgiven wicked servant, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”  (Matthew 18:35 ESV)

Paul also warns those who pass judgment, putting stumbling blocks in the way of others, rather than making judgments in love that seeks forgiveness, peace and the mutual upbuilding that serves Jesus Christ.  Just as he has served us.

The Romans judged and bound others over what one ate or drank.  But Paul corrects them, saying, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 14:17 ESV)

For us to forgive as we have been forgiven, the Holy Spirit is given to work remembrance.  He returns us to the foot of the cross with our sin to receive the great forgiveness of Jesus the Greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.  He became the least and allow the Holy Spirit to lead him to the cross, of death and forgiveness.  In the same way the Holy Spirit is leading us all to a daily death of self, and a resurrection to take up one’s cross to follow Jesus to eternal life!

We are the little one’s of God.  Like Peter and the disciples, we struggle with little faith, and need the Holy Spirit to continually deliver us from ourselves, into the death of Jesus Christ, for the righteousness and peace, that forgiveness brings and gives. 

In God the Holy Spirit doing this, we can live as one church under the headship of Christ, with joy in the Holy Spirit.  Amen.