B, Easter 7 - John 17:17-19, Psalm 1 "Truly Sanctified"

John 17:17–19 (ESV) Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Jesus prays to our Father in heaven, “Sanctify them in the truth: your word is truth.”  These words are familiar to our ears because many pastors begin their sermons by also praying, “Sanctify us in the truth: your word is truth.”  What is it to be sanctified in the truth?

Another way of saying “sanctify” is “to make holy”!  We can view holiness in two parts to understand what being made holy, or sanctified, is and does!  First there is the practical conception of being cleansed.  Second, when a person is cleansed, they are set apart.  Like cleaning the dishes or washing the clothes and then keeping them separate from that which is dirty.

But being sanctified is much more than just being clean!  Cleanness in our world is common.  Many things are clean and common but are still not holy or sanctified.  Many common things can also be dirty or are desecrated and defiled.  But what Jesus prays for, here in John chapter seventeen, is the common holy perfection that is found in God alone.

The holiness to which Jesus seeks for those he prays is a holiness that separates people from the common cleanliness and goodness of the world.  After all, how good is good enough for God?

The first we hear of holiness in the bible is in Genesis chapter two, where after God worked the creation of the world in six days, he set aside the seventh day as a holy day of rest.  This is where we get the word holiday; God created the sabbath holy day once a week, so we might stop or sabbath from working, to rest with him. 

God’s original intention was for his holy created humans to stop and recognise God above all that he created.  Or to put more simply, to see him as holy and the source of true holiness.

The first Psalm of one hundred and fifty Psalms, is divided into five books and parallels the five books of the Law (Genesis – Deuteronomy).  As the first Psalm it paints a foundational picture of God’s judgement, discerning what separates true holiness from what is not holy in God’s eyes.  We hear…

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;  but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:1–6 ESV)

This Psalm gives a picture of a man who neither walks, stands, nor sits with those God sees as wrong, guilty, and contrary scoffers.  Instead of being caught up in their ways, this man delights in God’s law and ponders it day and night.  It likens him to a tree planted by a stream.   Here we need to understand in the Middle Eastern context, this is a date palm in the desert with its roots receiving life from a stream of water.  Date palms are evergreen trees, and their fruit is “the sugar” of the Middle East.

Against this, God pictures those who walk the wrong way forward, as chaff that’s blown away!  Those who stand unrepentant with the guiltiness of sinners, will not survive judgement!  Or those who scoff, with contrary teaching, will not be a part of the righteous congregation!

Why?  Because God knows the way of the righteous, as the only way forward, the only sanctified way, because it is his way!  However, the wrong way forward, the way without the word of God, is a wicked way and it will perish with those who persist in following it!

So, who is this man who doesn’t walk, stand, or sit with the wicked, the sinners, and the scoffers?  Why does it have to be a man?  It has to be a man because the man is Jesus Christ!  All other men, women, and children are not set apart as Jesus Christ is set apart, clean as Christ is clean, perfect as Christ is perfect.

As we have heard in John chapter seventeen, Jesus prays to the Father, “I consecrate myself”. No one else can do this!  No man!  No woman!  No child!  Those who think they can consecrate themselves, or make themselves holy these days, reveals the fruit of their foolishness sooner or later.  Like chaff they are blown away and do not endure.  Like a deciduous tree they not only lose their leaves, but they fall over dead, and are used as fuel for the fire.

But Jesus does not consecrate himself for vainglory, he does it for us!  He says, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Jesus does this for those who know the truth in every sense of the word “truth” and God’s word.  Jesus is not just the word made flesh, he is the Word of God set apart in flesh, set apart from all other flesh!  Jesus is the word made flesh, to also reveal the truth of all flesh, all men, women, and children!

The irony of Jesus’ life on earth is he dwelt in the flesh with sinful humanity, but he did not walk, stand, or sit in our ways.  Jesus was set apart for a very different way, the only way forward!

Jesus sets himself apart from all other ways of walking, sitting, and standing, to take up his position on the cross.  When John heard Jesus pray the prayer of chapter seventeen, just before he was crucified, he and the other disciples would not have understood what this self-consecration was.  But later they knew this consecration was the fulfilment of God’s word, to fill them and all believers with the joy that was in him, which led him to the cross for us!

At the cross a truly profound thing occurs!  The blessedness of the man Jesus Christ, who consecrates himself, who does not walk, stand, or sit in the counsel of the wicked, is crucified for those who know and confess the truth, that they are not like him but fail with wayward walking, standing, and sitting. 

At the cross the truth of what is hidden is unhidden in the perfect flesh of Jesus Christ. 

At the cross the truth of our unhidden unholiness, our being set apart from God as his enemy, is covered by the holiness of Christ’s perfect flesh and sinless blood.

We are sanctified, made holy, in the truth of Jesus Christ because he is the Word of God, and he is truth in every sense of the word “truth” and the Word of God!

In the New Testament the Greek word for truth is, “what is not hidden”.  At the cross Jesus does just that, he exposes in his wretched crucified body, he takes what is hidden in humanity and makes it public! 

The Old Testament Hebrew for truth is, “Amen.”  The “ truth” work of Jesus Christ’s consecration or setting himself apart as our sin, and exchanging it for his sinless perfection, is truly our Amen!  This is the great “yes” of Jesus’ joy, our joy, and that of our Father.  This is the end of our way forward!

Jesus sanctifies us in his words of repentance and forgiveness of sin in calling us to believe his work at the cross.  Just as Jesus was sent into the world by God the Father, he sends all of you into the world as his learners, as his disciples, made holy, sanctified, set apart to carry Jesus Christ and his cross before others.

The truth of the matter, the great Amen of Jesus’ prayer on earth, is he is now at the right hand of our Father, interceding on our behalf, so we allow the Holy Spirit to make him visible with his word in us.  But also to make his crucifixion consecration visible for others to repent and be forgiven as we are!  Jesus’ sanctified way in his word is the only way forward!  Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, even though the cross reveals us as sinners, thankyou for covering our sin at the cross, so we can walk, stand, and sit, before God our Father, to continually confess our sin.  Thankyou for also sending the Holy Spirit, to set us apart as holy in your work at the cross, to receive life-giving faith, in your Holy Word and Holy Sacraments.  Amen. 

B, Lent 3 - Psalm 19:14 John 2:13-22 "Acceptable Fellowship"

Psalm 19:14 (ESV) Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.  Amen.

The words of Jesus’ mouth and the meditation of Jesus’ heart, as he drove the traders and their stock out of the temple, destroyed the fellowship of both, those changing money, and those selling animals for Passover sacrifices.  It seems Jesus was angry as he bound cords, made a whip, and drove them out of the temple!  What type of fellowship was Jesus dispersing?

Jesus’ disciples remembered words from the first half of Psalm sixty-nine verse nine, “For zeal for your house has consumed me.”  (Psalm 69:9 ESV)  Also, we can consider Psalm one hundred and nineteen, verse one hundred and thirty-nine, as Jesus rouses the temple traders and their wares, “My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words.”  (Psalm 119:139 ESV)

Rather than anger, Jesus was jealous for his Father’s house!  His words were solely concerned with our Father’s word!  If we consider this jealousy as anger, his anger was restoring fellowship rather than wrecking it.

However, anger does destroy fellowship!  We all know when we become angry, or someone becomes angry with us, we lose connection with the other party.  This is the sin of presumptuousness; when one seethes and becomes high-handed.  Fellowship and peace fly out the window when our feelings and the musings of the heart, become words unacceptable in God’s sight.

Instead of God being our rock and redeemer, in our anger, through our fear and lack of trust in God, we presume from our internal reckonings, we are good and righteous, they are bad and wrong.    Therefore, we presume, “they” need correction. 

However, our presumptions are assumptions with little to no evidence. God is put out of the picture and is replace with our assumed divinity!   What  is good for us is not necessarily good for God who knows what is truly good and evil, the true reality of our way, our truth, and our life!

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life of God the Father.  His way in all things, including his way in the temple, is begotten of the Father.  Jesus’ word is “the truth” and is begotten of our Father in Heaven.  The life Jesus lives, being led to the cross by the proceedings of the Holy Spirit, is also begotten by God our Father.

What appears to be anger on Jesus’ part is far from the divisive anger you or I perpetuate.   Even the most righteous human anger kills fellowship.  Whereas Jesus’ jealous word, works to restore our fellowship with God and our fellow human beings.

At the sermon on the mount Jesus equates our anger with murder.  Murder kills fellowship!  Yes, literally for the one murdered.  But it kills fellowship with God, for the one who has lifted his hand in murder.  Even an insult of “you fool” cost the name caller their fellowship.  Jesus tells us, “Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”  (Matthew 5:22 ESV)

Jesus takes our words of anger and stretches them, so neither you, nor I, are free of God’s judgement in the Ten Commandments.  God knows all active aggression hidden behind closed doors!  God knows all passive aggression hidden behind a polite smile!  He knows the disobedience of your human heart.  Anger in all humanity’s activities.  Anger in the buzz of business.  Anger within cultures and between countries.  Anger over lack of other’s discernment.  Anger instead of empathy.  Anger born out of frustration.  Anger between generations, and anger even between the sexes!  God sees all unacceptable fellowship played out between people today, as sin.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Paul tells Timothy what to expect as a result of the fellowship breakdown of humanity before Christ  returns.

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,  treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.  For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,  always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”  (2 Timothy 3:1–7 ESV)

Today as God is being killed in our society, it’s as if humanity is a hive of bees busy buzzing away in  human activity.  Yet, when the beekeeper comes to check on the hive, his workers become increasingly agitated, for being disturbed, and attack he who has given them their hive as their home.

Before Jesus came,  temple Judaism had become like a hive of bees devouring themselves!  Their hive was empty of honey, God’s word was used presumptuously, against each other, therefore, against God.  Fellowship had failed.  Paul reminds us in his letter to Timothy that in the last days this will happen too.  God and his fellowship will not only be killed in society, but bold presumptuous attempts to kill him will occur inside the church before Christ comes again.  This is because we in the church busy ourselves with the same love of self, as those outside.

Yet Jesus says to the Jews of the temple, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19 ESV)

Begotten by God, Jesus was raised by God the Father, and by the Holy Spirit who proceeded from the Father to raise Jesus from the dead!  Like a seed planted in the ground, the life of God contained in the perfect husk of Jesus’ human flesh, sprouted back to life.

The temple was destroyed, and the Son of God, raised up the temple of his church.  You and I are seeds of the Son, grafted into fellowship in Christ.

But what of the fellowship Jesus dispersed with a whip of cords?

We return to Psalm sixty-nine to the words of God the Son, written down by King David…

“Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonour through me, O God of Israel.  For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonour has covered my face.  I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.  For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” (Psalm 69:6–9 ESV)

”Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.“ (Psalm 69:16 ESV)

“You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonour; my foes are all known to you.  Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.  I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.  They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”  (Psalm 69:19–21 ESV)

Jesus’ zeal consumed him!  He cleansed the temple!  Yet he became the reproach!  He allowed his fellowship with our Father to be severed, so God might temple within us, and reseed in us fellowship with the father.

No longer do we need to fear the world, or what the world is doing within the church.  After all, it is God’s church, and those who resist God’s correction, God’s call to confess and receive forgiveness, will not be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

But for those who willingly receive God’s word, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring them to confession so that they not only glorify God for the gospel of salvation, but even love the Law of God despite its condemnation of their sin.

God’s Word in the church is sweet like honey.  In Psalm nineteen we hear, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;  the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;  the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.  More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.  Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”  (Psalm 19:7–11 ESV)

When we hear and busy ourselves under God’s word, God’s church is a harmonious hive.  May we like the Psalmist, be kept from presumptuous sins, so they do not have dominion over us, nor separate us from the forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Rock and Redeemer.  Let us pray.

Lord God Holy Spirit may the words of our mouths be Jesus’ Word of forgiveness and fellowship, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in the eternal sight of our Father in heaven.  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.