A, Lent 4 - John 9:5, Ephesians 5:6–14,18c,21 "God's Light and His Power"

John 9:5 (ESV) “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14b ESV)   

How?  How does one, who sleeps with the dead, rise?  Is this an impossible proposition?  A human cannot raise themselves!  But with God, all things are possible!

Jesus comes to a man born blind in the precincts of a synagogue.  One could imagine the blind man wondering how he might exist with his blindness.  He has to live off the charity of those coming and going to hear the Rabbis teach.  There was no way this fellow would ever expect to enter the synagogue physically or spiritually, because of his blindness and the religious stigma he bore for being blind. 

The disciples testify to the reality of their blindness and lifeless thinking by questioning Jesus about the sinfulness of either the man or his parents causing his blindness.

“He obviously did something really bad to deserve this!” 

“What do you expect when his parents are the way they are!”

These may or may not have been the thoughts of the disciples, who didn’t suffer with the same physical blindness.  Yet these very same thoughts, easily come from our hearts when we’re faced with the same kind of situation. 

God calls us to judge with a right judgement.  But this is judgement made with all the blindness of self-righteousness, without seeing ourselves in the Light of God.

Just as Samuel looked with blindness at Jesse’s sons, and the disciples at the blind man, we look with blindness too.  We need to hear what God says to Samuel, “For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”  (1 Samuel 16:7b ESV)

Why is it we do not see as God sees?  And how can we look, as God looks?  

Jesus says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5 ESV)

We need the “Light of God”, “the Light of the World”.  The light of God is Jesus Christ, and the power of this illuminating Light in our lives is the Holy Spirit.

Notice here the Holy Spirit is the power of the Light!  He has to be, since Jesus is still in the world, but hidden by his ascension to the right hand of God.  God the Father and God the Son are present, since they are greater than time and space.  In fact, time and space exist in God’s eternal hands!

In the peace of our Heavenly Father’s presence, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to be convinced in the Word made Flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, who says to you, “I am the Light of the World.”

But the problem remains.  How, if we are blind, can we see this light?  If we are blind, out in the cold, stumbling around in death, is it by sheer accident that we feel its warmth and enter into the light?

No!  It’s here we need to hear the word of God from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians chapter five.  Hear from verse six, a couple of verses before the start of the lectionary reading for today.

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ …be filled with the Spirit, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:6–14,18c,21 ESV)

If someone tells you, you must find Jesus or have more faith, realise these as empty words. Like the disciples judging the blind man, Samuel looking for a King of Israel, or you and I projecting our blind judgement on sinners (as opposed to us), we first need the power of the Holy Spirit to illuminate us, so we can see ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. 

The illumination of the Holy Spirit makes us children of the light.  All the fruit of this light is found in Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who is good, and right, and true! 

Therefore, because our baptism is a Holy Baptism, because our communion around the body and blood of Jesus is a Holy Communion, and because the Holy Word of God has its fulness in the holy risen Son of God, we are forgiven and fed with the power of God in the Holy Spirit. 

As a result, we can discern what is pleasing to the Lord.  The works of darkness can then be exposed.  The first work of darkness exposed by the Holy Spirit is the darkness within.  This darkness is your apathy towards hearing God and allowing the Holy Spirit to reenergise you with his power.  Over against continuing in your own power to judge good and evil. 

Allowing the Holy Spirit to power your judgement will immediately enable you to see your sin.  Do not be frightened of this!  The fear that arises within you, is the same fear Adam and Eve felt in the Garden.  The devil seeks to do the same to you as he did to them by separating you from God’s peace through your sin and sinfulness!   

However, you now have the power of the Holy Spirit illuminating Jesus Christ, so trust in what you have received.  The knowledge of Jesus Christ always wins out over a knowledge of good and evil.  The Holy Spirit empowers you in the knowledge of Jesus Christ!

It seems Paul makes a statement of contradiction, saying, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” (Ephesians 5:11-12 ESV)

Do we expose, or do we not speak about the works of darkness?  It all depends on how we talk about these works and whose they are!  Exposure through confession, brings all into the Light of Christ, giving sight to those once blind.  Whereas, speaking about them boastfully or as gossip, plunges us into darkness, and exposes our blindness. 

So, we take no part in unfruitful works by exposing our own works of darkness in confession.  This is the Holy Spirit removing the blindness.  Similarly, praying with others in their confession, intervening on their behalf also brings them into the Light of God. 

When we walk in the light of God, we allow God the Holy Spirit to use us in leading others out of death into life.  This is submission to one another out of reverence for Jesus Christ.

It may seem shameful to talk to others about the struggles we have with our sinfulness.  But if it is spoken of, in the power of the Holy Spirit,  the power and shame of secrecy is dispersed by the Light of Jesus Christ.

Some might charge us as being boastful about our sin or trying to justify it.  But in reality, “coming out” to others as a forgiven sinner, by the power of the Holy Spirit, requires one to sacrifice their pride and be exposed as weak and in need of divine help. 

No one boasts over the sin one needs forgiven; over the sinful nature we know condemns us to death.  Rather we cry, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!” 

So, in God’s Light and in the power of the Light we boast, having been forgiven, and not our sinful nature or the sin that comes from it!

Just as it was not the will of God, that the man at the synagogue was born blind because of someone’s sin, it is not the will of God that you continue under the condemnation of sin either. 

But rather, just as Jesus Christ removed his blindness to display the works of God’s light and power,  the Holy Spirit is the power of God, to enlighten you in the forgiveness of God’s Holy Word and Sacraments!  Amen.

Let us pray.

Lord God, Holy Spirit, you are the true and constant support in every need, a Spirit of truth and promise, God’s finger, the water of life, a heavenly fire, which warms cold hearts and ignites them with true love for God.  You have revealed yourself to the apostles with wonderful gifts in a powerful wind and fiery tongues.  We ask you now therefore, to come into our hearts, to strengthen and gladden our ignorant consciences.  Sanctify us with your blessing and be unto us the holy assurance of our redemption and salvation.  Amen.[1]

---

[1] Prayer by J. K. Wilhelm Loehe, from Treasury of Daily Prayer, p1111, Concordia Publishing House

B, Pentecost 17 Proper 20 - James 3:13 "The Great Bone of Contention"

James 3:13 (ESV) Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

The great bone of contention in the church is sin.  But it is a hidden and buried controversy in many ways. 

We as Christians are fearful of being seen to sin, as being sinners.  However, in the bible we learn that we are never free of sin because we all carry the nature of sin from our earthly origin in Adam.

As Christians many of us are led to believe we are to appear as though we are without sin, that we are good people, without much consideration over what goodness is in the eyes of God.

Then, there is the degree of the sin committed.  A little white lie or a devilish delight is believed not to be as bad as murder or adultery.  Theologians discuss the differences of these as venial sins or sins that are minor and forgivable, as opposed to mortal sins that are deadly and separate one from God.

However, on the one hand, scripture teaches, sin that is forgivable can become unforgivable, when one believes they don’t need forgiveness for it. Therefore, in not asking for forgiveness show themselves as unbelievers.  But on the other hand, a sin that appears to be unforgivable and mortal can indeed be forgiven by God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Luther pointing to our baptism into Christ Jesus says, “Even if a Christian would, they could not lose their salvation, however much they sinned, unless one refused to believe.  For no sin can condemn except unbelief alone.  All other sins, so long as the faith in God’s promise made in baptism returns or remains, are immediately blotted out through that same faith or through the truth of God, because he cannot deny himself if you confess him and faithfully cling to him in his promise.” (The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, LW 36:60 edited here with inclusive language)

The flip side of the sin coin is forgiveness and grace, where cheap grace is pitted against unaffordable grace.  Unfortunately, this discussion is more about the individual and their justification for forgiving or not forgiving rather than the expensive but free grace that comes from God for us all.  In fact, grace is cheapened or made unaffordable when sin is not dealt with appropriately. 

Therefore, while we fail continually to consider what sin is and fail to learn from our sin because we are pretending to be finished with sin or hide from the reality of sin because of our fear, we hinder God bringing us to maturity and giving us wisdom in Jesus Christ.

It seems we Christians when exposed to learning something from our sins, and the forgiveness of them, are like a dog who guiltily cowers because he’s been caught in the act of chewing his bone.  We quickly want to hide and bury the bone of sin.

Yes, it is true, we can become so focused on sin that we end up losing focus on God.  But the opposite is also true when we lose sight of sin, we end up becoming focused on gods and idols that have nothing to do with our Triune God!

Four extremes tend to arise when one is challenged on sin.  The first is, now that I am a Christian, I am no longer a sinner. And because I am no longer a sinner I no longer sin. 

This so-called “sinless one” naturally burdens others as they become puffed up proclaiming that stopping oneself from sin is easy.  Forgiveness for “the sinless one” also becomes a thing of the past because if one no longer sins then there is now no need for forgiveness.

The question then goes begging, “If they are no longer a sinner, why then do they need Jesus or the Holy Spirit anymore?” Rather, the so called “sinless one” really doesn’t have a biblical view of sin because they have become their own god.

Opposite to this is the second extremity: The Christian who believes their sin cannot be forgiven. This is either someone who cannot stop sinning because they struggle with sins of addiction or they commit a one-off sin they believe cannot be forgiven.

For the addict, the proof is in the pudding due to the cycle of sin in which they live.  This person lives a life of guilt and effort to work the guilt away.  They continually attempt stopping sin which entices them even more with its temptation to please.  However, pleasure quickly becomes pain as sin sours them the moment gratification is reached. The more one focus on the sin the more one is absorbed by sin. 

Or, the person may not struggle with a sin of addiction.   But having believed they were the “sinless one” the person is found to be with sin.  They are crushed by the shame of their misdeed.  They end up believing they have fallen too far from their Christian ideal to be forgiven.

Both the addict and the idealist fall into a cycle of shame. It’s a cycle that kills the person’s spirit and destroys any true faith that struggles to exist under the futile faith of their idealism.  This shame can lead a person to spiritual and even physical suicide.

These two extremes are one end of the bone of contention where sin is focused on too much.  One focuses on the extreme of one’s ability to not sin while the other is absorbed in not being able to stop sinning.

Then there are the third and fourth extremes on the other end of the bone of contention.  Where there is not enough attention to sin as defined by God’s word. 

The third extreme or “knuckle on the bone” is still a variant of the first.  This is where the presuming “sinless one” is confronted with God’s definition of their deeds as sin according to his word.  The result is they work tirelessly to demonstrate why they are not a sinner.  In reality, they are thrown into chaos by this revelation and work to blame and deflect their sin as someone else’s sin or they justify themselves by redefining God’s word on sin. 

This person is tempted to walk even further away from God because the ideal they have held, is shown for the hoax that it is, especially when life gets difficult, someone dies, or they are led into suffering.  The god they have upheld is an idol and not the Triune God. 

When a crisis comes the person cries out, “God if you will save me, I’ll be good, and start coming to church etc. etc.”  Then the moment they hit the clear God is jettisoned from their minds once again.  There is absolutely no importance attached to sin by this person. This person walks to the beat of their own drum.  God is not important to them. 

The fourth and last nub of the bone is the person who believes, “because I’m a Christian I can do as I please”.  Jesus’ death on the cross is a get out of jail free card to be played on judgement day.  They live life never learning anything from their sin or the forgiveness of it.  They ignore the reality of their sin.  Therefore, they have no understanding or awe of the depth of God’s work undertaken to forgive them. 

Between these four extremes there are many variants and mixes. Every one of us sits somewhere between the knuckles on this bone of contention.

In fact, sin is also the one great similarity between Christians and non-Christians.  Outside the church a person might call it human nature, passions, guilt, or narcissism rather than plain old sin.

If we are to reach out into a world that struggles with the same sin, we owe it to God for his sake and for the sake of our neighbour’s salvation, to understand our sin and the forgiveness of it, so we can share that forgiveness in the world.

Learning from our sin teaches us more about God’s work of salvation and in this learning, we are plunged further into the unfathomable depths of God’s grace and love for us. 

What a wonderful thing to be proclaiming to the world!

When we think we are facing enemies around us, when it seems like someone is going to steal our bone, and we try to bury and hide it, God wants us to chew on this bone and leave it in the light.  It is he who has given us Christ to chew on in the word of God. We are called into this meekness of wisdom. A good work to see our sin, confess our sin, and proclaim Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of our sins in this bone of contention. Amen.

Thankyou Lord Jesus for serving each of us and saving us from sin by taking your place on a cross that should have been each of ours.   Thank you, for continually sending the Holy Spirit into the hearts of your people to show us our sin but also to show us the way of meekness, maturity, and wisdom is found in no one else other than you.  Help us to learn from our sin, to trust you so we are freed to confess you and our forgiven sins to others who need the same forgiveness as us. Amen.

B, Lent 4 - John3:16 "No Cliché"

John 3:16 is possibly the most well known and quoted verse of scripture in the bible and therefore has become a cliché.  And because it’s so overused it has become commonplace and boring to most who use it.  They say familiarity breeds contempt, and human nature does the same with God’s Word.

But let’s change the stakes and turn the tables on our comfortable realities a little so we might get a proper understanding on what is actually going on, first with ourselves, and, then with God.

We can do this with asking ourselves the question scripture itself asks in Psalm 116:12, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?” What can I give back to the Lord for all his goodness to me?  What do I owe God?  What payment can I give?

Now let’s turn up the intensity.  Picture yourself on judgement day.  You are standing before God and God says to you, “What have you done? Give me an account of yourself!”  Before God you will answer truthfully.  There will be no fast talking to convince him you have done what is necessary.  There will be no Garden of Eden talk, Adam blaming Eve or Eve blaming the serpent.  God will open you up like a book and judge your life, for eternity with him or eternity without him.

There is really only one answer to give.  And it’s the answer we struggle to give every day of our lives.  As individuals we try to avoid giving it.  Even the church throughout history is mislead in its resistance to answer the question and it still does today as it seeks to be popular in a world of political correctness that is far from God’s truth about us.

The only answer we can give to God for all his benefits to us is no different than the Israelites in the wilderness dying from their sin as a result of being bitten by fiery serpents.  They said to Moses, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” (Number 21:7 ESV)

We have sinned.  We are sinners.  We needed to be saved from our sins. Not only do we need to confess this. We actually need to believe it.  Like the Israelites we need realisation of this truth in the inward being.  And as God teaches us in Psalm 51 it is what delights God when we confess this truth from the inward being.

But we need ask ourselves, “Why is it so difficult to confess our sin? Why is it easier for us from childhood to tell a lie?  Why is it easier for the denominations of the Christian Church to forge the line of popularity over against the confession of sin? Why is it easier for our own denomination and its leaders to ignore twenty odd years of God speaking through the synodical process, or worse, sitting in judgement over the Word of God rather than sitting in submission to it?  We do better to acknowledge our assault on his sovereignty as the broken creatures that we are. Broken, because the creature has sought to usurp its Creator!

The Israelites shame us in this text.  They turn and seek salvation. They confess and seek an answer from the Lord.  Our shame is not only written in the Old Testament.  The New Testament shows each of us our guilt. 

From James 5:16 we hear, “...confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

Take to heart what the Lord also tells us earlier in chapter 5,

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.  Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.  Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.  You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. (James 5:1–3, 5 ESV)

And before you excuse yourselves as not being rich, remember you are standing before God as an open book, with all the things, feelings and people you hold in value over God.

Its right about at this time we begin to realise we are condemned and we only further destine ourselves for destruction by appealing to any work or presumptuous attitude we might hold to justify ourselves.  And it is here we need to take a second look at the gospel pericope today to see exactly what Jesus is saying to you and me.

First, let’s take the cliché verse John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.”  Perhaps the truth of what God is saying here might connect more clearly if this verse is paraphrased this way, “God saw that you and I were so habitually self-interested, turned in on the self, proud, pretentious, presumptuous and willing to lie about our helplessness that he had to let his Son die for you and me. 

In short, even when we make ourselves God our love shows us not to be God and we fall far short of the steadfast love which we need for life.  When we live life back-to-front it not only spells evil, it is evil. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Second, just as Jesus gives power to Nicodemus, he empowers all people by giving us life through death.   As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man is lifted up.  The sin we find so easy to hide and lie about is made the centrepiece in a move only God could do or would think of doing.   The snake that bites becomes the snake that saves.  Similarly Jesus becomes the sinner lifted us that saves the sinner who believes he or she is a sinner. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Third, God loved this broken world and lifted up his Son as a sinner that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  The truth of God is that we need to believe the reality of our brokenness is so bad, personally and collectively, it needed a loving sacrifice, so steadfast, so selfless, so generous that he let Jesus die on the cross. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Fourth, the reality of our sin that kills God’s Son is such that if left to our own devices we could not believe this was for our good.  So Jesus himself confesses that it is not for the world’s condemnation but for its salvation.  How often do we see the sin of others on our televisions and in our neighbourhoods and join in the condemnation and the accusation of the world.  Here we need reminding that Satan is the accuser and when we accuse we are not working in the kingdom of God but rather following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Fifth, “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”  The little word “in” from the Greek is “en” and it means in, by and with.  So this work is completed in God, by God, and with God.  God works his work of salvation in us, for us, and because of us.  Now the Holy Spirit battles with your human spirit (the old Adam) to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

And God, in his love, continues to put a reality checkers in place for us here too.  He calls us not to reject his grace and therefore sin against the Holy Spirit by refusing to repent and believe.  When we do we stop the work of the Holy Spirit by not exposing our sin in the light of God lifted up on the cross. 

Judge for yourselves!  Is it better to expose your sin now and live in the light or to hide it and have it exposed on the day of judgement?  If you don’t want God as the centrepiece of your life now why would you want it on judgement day?  Further more why would God want you as a part of his kingdom then?  There is only on response to God here. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Saint Paul writes to the church in Ephesus to encourage them not to be deceived. He says, faith is not a feeling, faith is not a commitment derived within one’s self, nor is faith a good work.  He says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)

Another cliché appears here, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”  But what does this mean for us?  In short this is the work of God.  For by grace (that is Jesus’ death and resurrection) you have been saved (that is judged guilty but given the sentence of eternal life) by faith (that is the work of the Holy Spirit enabling you to believe despite your sinful nature).

Then Paul says these wonderful words, “For we are his workmanship” What is this workmanship?  It is that we are restored creatures of the Creator, re-created in Christ Jesus for good works.  And what are the good works of God?  Surely they are the works that glorify God and show his justification for sending his Son to the cross!  Jesus tells us that we will do even greater works when he goes to the Father.  He says in John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

And again, …they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:28–29 ESV)

So do what is true in the eyes of God.  We “come out” into to the light.  Don’t “come out” as the children of disobedience do who parade their sin as some sort of justification but “come out” in confession.  Confess your sins to each other and to God, remembering that we are called to forgive one another as God has forgiven us. When we lift up our sin in confession, it allows us to die. The old self dies, the human spirit suffers, but the new creature in Christ is raised in eternal life.

Judgement day is no cliché. It is coming, it will come, but it has already come to those who glorify God and his work in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Confess you are a sinner but believe you are a saint, baptised into Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we are sinners, but we have been forgiven, we are being forgiven, and we will be forgiven forever, truly truly, Amen and Amen.