C, Pentecost 2 Proper 5 - Psalm 146 - The Silence of the Lamb

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Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. 2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mere mortals, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— the Lord, who remains faithful forever. (Psalm 146:1-6)

Silence! What happens in silence? It’s something we’re not very use to today. If it’s too quiet we turn on the television or the radio. Even when we seek seclusion we rarely seek silence once there. We read a book, or perhaps we listen to our thoughts. The noise of dreams and nightmares disturbs the silent peacefulness desired in sleep. But when the reality of death hits home as the coffin quietly descends into the earth the silence seems to almost deafen us. It appears we would choose busyness, voices, and noise over silence. Why is that?

The English word ‘idiot’ is a Greek word meaning, a ‘private person’, ‘one on their own’, or “an ignorer of everyone except the self’. An idiot was one who kept to themselves, through choice, arrogance, class separation, or was separated by the misfortune of disease, sickness, or uncleanness. To understand the Greek sense of the word today we do well to consider an idiot as a person in seclusion, who only has themselves to talk to. These persons would seem silent, but perhaps they were preoccupied with the noise within themselves. Whereas our understanding of an idiot is someone who does foolish things that no one else would do, hence we would say they’re mad or an idiot.

Perhaps we seek sound over silence so we’re not perceived as idiots. As much as we seek our space, and our own identity, we don’t want to be left out, all by ourselves, with no one else to talk to except ourselves.

But then again maybe we don’t fear the label of idiot coming from outside ourselves as much as we fear it coming from within us. Perhaps we fear silence, and seek to cloud our lives with so much noise so we have no time to stop and see the reality of who we truly are! Maybe in the reality of true silence, we see our fragility, our insecurity, our dis-ease with God, our helplessness and need to be dependant on someone else, or we see our dying mortality.

In the silence of ourselves, in the core of our hidden being, we see sin and chaos are killing us. I’m not talking about the academic knowledge of sin, but the ugly bitter stuff that makes you suffer and grieve and churn and doubt, time and time again. You know - the things you do, the shame and the struggle you go through failing to stop going back to what you promised you wouldn’t do. Left alone to our own devices we see the idiocy, the ugliness, and our complete inability to save ourselves.

If I hid the idiot within— that is, hiding my inner person who tells me what I’m really like— then perhaps I won’t hear the idiot telling me, I have no control, I haven’t got the answers. I’m an idiot, I’m a sinner, and there’s no way I can save myself from the wages of my sin – death. It’s no wonder we find our silence so painful as we watch the reality of humanity’s sin sink silently into the grave at a funeral.

Unfortunately, the very nature of preaching means I make noise! So having just heard about the gravity of our hopelessness, let’s have some silence in the presence of God, to think about all the times we’ve ignored God, to think about the idiotic moments of worry and doubt, and pride, to think about the things we have coveted – ourselves, our time, our possessions. Let’s sit in silence before God who sees and knows everything and will judge us according to what we have done. (Take at least one minute of silence)

It’s a hard thing to do! Notice the noise still trying to creep in, creep out. External noise, internal noise – deafening the silence. No doubt some of you sat here in silence feeling the crushing weight of sin. Some of you thought this to be nonsense or perhaps were embarrassed by the silence, so you became noisy in negativity. Some of you probably felt uncomfortable, like you had to do something, sitting there willing me ‘to get on with it’! Then maybe some felt a bit guilty that nothing was coming to mind, guilty at the sound of silence. Perhaps some of you became busy side-stepping your sin, thinking it’s not really that bad. And then even some of you might possibly be thinking about the ugliness of someone else’s sin.

When we stop and listen to ourselves in silence, we soon see sin. Sin as a result of what we’ve done, what we haven’t done – shame from shame, pride from pride, true sinner from true sinner. Whether we like it or not, in the silence we see our gods. But also whether we like it or not, God of God, Light of Lights, very God of very God, comes to us in the silence and sheds his light on the idiot, revealing the pathetic plight of the pitiful private person.

It’s just as well God has placed the idiot in humanity’s midst. Not so much the idiot or the self-centred person within, but others through whom his strength is demonstrated in their weakness. It was God who fed the widow through Elijah, and when her son died, she saw in the silence of her son, her sin, her hopeless plight, against the perfect holiness of God. All were rendered silent before God, and it was God who saved from death.

Saint Paul too was taken from publicly persecuting the church into private retreat. After he saw the foolishness of his zealous crusade on the road to Damascus, when the Lord blinded him and reduced him to an idiot. God silenced him, spoke to him, and then he used him.

But the greatest is he who came as the least, Jesus Christ. The Son of God came in such a way, many thought he was an idiot, many today still think the church is full of idiots, and they’re completely right. Jesus walked through life toward death; he trusted his Father, submitting to him completely, and was often found alone in prayer. Jesus was a private person, a loner. Yet his loneliness led him to be publicly crucified on the cross. The silence of this Lamb, was idiocy at its greatest, making the loneliness and foolishness of Christ on the cross our greatest victory. Now every one of our idiot gods of folly is nailed there forever, and we have a God privately giving us his silence and peace in our noisy sinful beings.

In the stark reality of death. At the point in time where our inner being runs out of answers and the idiot within is silenced. When our sin and suffering seem to have success, salvation comes in the suffering and silencing of God’s own Son, sent to be our idiot, sent to be the Holy One of God on his own, on the cross. Just as Jesus met the funeral procession on his way to the cross, let him lead you out of yourself and into him at the cross. So in the midst of the noise and clamour of our fallen creation, where death seems to silence forever, stand in the silence of the cross and in the faithful promise God makes to you there in the silence of his death. Amen.

Heavenly Father, when your Son, the Lamb of God was silenced for our sin on the cross, you saved us. And in raising Jesus Christ in victory over sin and death, all who trust in him now look forward to the eternal silencing of sin and death. Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts who now gives voice to your Word, so we might know Jesus is risen, trust that Christ is with us, and believe we too will be raised with Jesus to be with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever, Amen.

C, Holy Trinity Sunday - Romans 5:1-2 "Leap of Faith"

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You’re at the age of eighty and someone says to you, “Jump!” Would you? How about at the age of fifty? Thirty? Fifteen? Seven? Or what about if you were just two years old? It’s a hard question to answer not knowing just what the jump involves.

At the age of eighty, the chance of jumping anything, or to anyone, might be considered ludicrous or frightening. Bodies and bones at this age need special care not to be broken; to jump is not even a consideration when falling fills the heart with fear. But an elderly person will jump at the opportunity to share a cuppa and conversation to avoid loneliness.

At fifty one might consider jumping something, but hopefully wisdom is starting to kick in. So jumping a puddle or the fence should make way for one to find an easier way around the water or to find a gate through the fence.

Thirty, on the other hand, is a relatively better age to consider a jump of any kind. At the age of thirty one might even consider jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane, as long as a parachute was strapped to one’s back. However, if a father suggested a thirty year old jump into his arms, the father would be met with ridicule or even flattened if the thirty year old took up the challenge.

A fifteen year old, overflowing with oestrogen or testosterone might gladly jump into the arms of the one they adore. Or, they might dare do a feat that fills even a thirty year old with fear, jumping into something completely silly or dangerous. Thinking they were invincible, they might push aside their wellbeing for the thrill of a jump, making even jumping out of an aeroplane look safe.

A seven year old would possibly hesitate at taking an unsafe jump. Or perhaps they wouldn’t even be old enough to dream up a deed that’s too dangerous. But a seven year old would definitely be at risk of being reprimanded by a parent for jumping on the lounge or a bed. And most seven year old children love to jump on a trampoline.

A two year old, on the other hand, is still mastering the art of jumping. Their jump looks more like a hop to the rest of us. Their little feet barely leave the ground. Even just hopping without falling over sees the small child filled with delight at their achievement. However, a two year old child will out jump every other person if asked to jump to their parents. Without hesitation a trusting child will lovingly launch into the arms of mum or dad!

So would you jump? It depends of the circumstances of the jump; the age of the jumper, their ability, perhaps their sense of what’s right and wrong, and the environment of the jump.

Faith might be viewed in the same way as “taking a jump”. In fact, the term “leap of faith” connects faith or belief and jumping or launching one’s self. If we’re to go back and look again at the calls to jump at different ages and replace jump with faith, what type of faith pictures would be painted? For an eighty year old, a thirty year old, or a two year old?

So how do these pictures of jumping or faith, fit God’s view of faith? Does faith grow from the context of the circumstances, the abilities of the person, or even from the environment in which one is called to have faith?

As varied as the reason people might or might not jump, as we have seen, is also as varied as the views of just what faith is believed to be in this world. You see, everyone has faith in something. Even the most godless individual has faith.

If a person claims to be without faith they fail to have an existence. Or, at the least, those who can’t grasp what they have faith “in”, have trouble reconciling just what their being consists “of”, in this life. So faith exists in every person but a faith in God often falls into confusion and misunderstanding.

There’s just as much confusion over just what faith is in the church as well! What usually happens is some of us use our worldly understanding of this faith and then projects our ideas of faith onto what it is to have faith in God.

The result of this understanding of faith is that we credit ourselves for our faith, believing it comes from something we’ve done, or how we feel, or how we think or reason. Then when suffering comes and we’re tested we find the faith we’ve had deserts us when we needed faith the most.

On the other hand, the faith God gives is different. We’re told faith justifies us and gives us peace before God.

In Romans 5:1-2 Saint Paul addresses the origins of faith and what it does in us. He says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Note we are justified by faith, not justified by our faith. Paul repeats himself by then saying, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We hear before God we must be justified to have peace. Justification must occur for peace to exist, for peace to occur we must be made just or righteous before God.

So we are justified by our Lord Jesus Christ! We are made right before God by what happened to Jesus. We live in peace with God, through Jesus’ faithfulness and love towards his Father, and towards us. For our sake and because he trusted his Heavenly Father he endured the cross and the grave. Jesus was faithful even unto death.

We are justified and have peace with God because of Jesus Christ and his faith. Therefore, we are justified by a faith that comes to us from Christ, a faithfulness that has already led to his death and resurrection, a faith which had caused us to be drowned in baptism and raised to new life because of his death and resurrection, and a faith which is leading us towards an earthly death but also towards the reality of a powerful resurrection into the peaceful presence of a loving God.

Saint Paul continues in Romans five verse two, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

That is to say, through Jesus we have also been given access by his faithfulness into his death and resurrection in which we now stand. Grace is nothing other than Jesus’ death and resurrection – for me. Every eternal beneficiary of grace knows that despite their sin they can confess that Jesus’ gift of grace is “for me”.

So our faith, the faith that saves us from the eternity of hell, is his faith and it comes as a result of the work he did on the cross when he faithfully stood under the condemnation of yours and my sinful reality.

Nevertheless, we now have access to all the blessings of grace; that is Jesus’ death and resurrection for us, for me, as we stand or remain under the cover of his faithfulness.

Standing in the faith of Christ also allows us to rejoice in God’s presence, despite the sinful nature which still struggles within. All believers stand as one in and under Christ. That is why we hear in Ephesians chapter four “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)

From faith comes works, from faith comes understanding and reason, and from faith one gets to experience a myriad of emotions from troubling exasperation to joyful exhilaration. But it never works the other way around. Faith forms the foundation of our Christian being, and the being of the whole Christian church under Christ. But the things that come from our human beings are never the essential ingredients of faith. Why? Because every part of our humanness is tainted with the weakness of individualistic self-centred sin!

A little further on in chapter five Pauls says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6) We had a faith but this was the faith of the ungodly; it was a faith that was anti-God, and pro-everything else in his creation, but primarily centred on ourselves. In our weakness by our own efforts we’re only capable of unbelief when it comes to God.

But God came to us while we were sinners; Jesus died for those who are weak. This is the promise of a God who is faithful to you and me.

In the same way God was faithful to Abraham. This man struggled to believe he would have a son to Sarah. He even lay with Sarah’s maidservant Hagar to have a child, yet God was faithful to him and despite his weakness Abraham grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:20-21)

So as you struggle with your human weakness, know that while you were completely weak in your being Christ died for you! And the faith God gave to you in your baptism, was the faithfulness of Christ, so you might be fully convinced by what God has promised you.

You bear the faith enflamed by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God, the faith which lays you in the arms of Christ, and the faith which cause you to be at peace with God, confident to stand in his presence and name him Father, rejoicing and glorifying his holy name. Amen.

C, Pentecost Sunday - John 14:12 & 27 "Greater Things"

To do what Jesus did and does! How is this possible? What did Jesus do, anyway? What’s it mean for us when Jesus says “you will do even greater things”; that is, greater things than the things Jesus did before he was taken to the right hand of the Father in heaven. And what can you expect to be doing when you allow yourself to be guided by this promise Jesus makes to you here in John chapter fourteen?

To know the greater things God desires to constantly do in, with, and through us, we first need to know just what it was that Jesus did, while he was on earth.

We might look to him turning water into wine! Or making a small meal of bread and fish feed five thousand. These things are great, yet we do greater.

How about the healings he performed as he dwelt amongst the people of the day! During Jesus’ ministry he did many miraculous things amongst those who were sick and dying. But Jesus still did greater than this, and he promises that now we can do greater things than these. How can this be?

Jesus walked on water, he made storms go calm, and a fruitless fig tree withers at his curse. He raised Lazarus from the grave three days after he was had died, as well as Jairus’s daughter and the widow’s son at Nain. He cast out demons, yet he still did greater than all of these things.

So we might come to the conclusion that the greatest thing Jesus did was to die on the cross and come back to life on the third day. This is surely great, however, Jesus didn’t do these things, but rather he was passive in these events. In fact, they were done to him! He never crucified himself, nor did he raise himself from the grave. We human beings crucified him and God raised him.

In all these events plenty of marvellous and miraculous things happened. That’s for sure! However, in these astonishing things a more specific greatness occurs, but is not immediately obvious. This is the greatness to which we have been called since Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father.

Jesus first had to be raised so he could have access to all people, in order for us to do the greater things than the things he did. He and the Father also then had to send the Holy Spirit, so we might be connected to the Father and Jesus Christ as one, and so the greater things can occur.

But before Jesus was raised what he did which was the greatest work, was his faithfulness to the Father, even though he knew it meant his life would be taken, even though he knew he would be killed, he trusted and was obedient unto death.

Jesus greatest works began immediately after his baptism in the Jordan by John when he was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He didn’t succumb to temptation but remained faithful. And the greatest work of faithfulness is illuminated by the glory it gives to the Father in heaven.

There was no glory in his forty days of suffering in the wilderness! He could have thwarted the devil with a legion of angelic hosts and revelled in the victory, yet he didn’t and he suffered every trial of his and our humanness. And he continued to this pattern for the duration of his earthly ministry.

In all his miracles he often told the disciples not to tell anyone. Have you ever wondered why? Our rationale would have us spread the news around to drum up support. But support in what? It definitely wouldn’t be support that brings glory to God! No! It would be a masked glorifying of God — it would seemingly glorify God — but in reality would glorify us.

This is why Jesus constantly sought to stay out of the spot light so the glory due to God alone was not distorted into a praise of the healing or those being healed. In fact, on healing individuals he commanded them not to tell anyone but rather go and show themselves to the priests in the temple and worship God.

When we hear in John 14:12 that we will do greater things than Jesus, after he goes to the Father, we always set our minds on the obvious extraordinary circumstances of the events surrounding Jesus’ ministry on earth. But once we peel back the extraordinary exterior the greater, but less obvious, is revealed. And this greater work is what we can do, now that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, and present with, in, and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as the Father and the Spirit were present with Jesus as he walked to the cross, God is present with us. He is hidden from physical sight, that’s for sure! And just as Jesus trusted his Father, giving him the glory, we now do greater things than Jesus because we do them by faith through the power of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit hidden in his church, in his word, in his holy means that he gives to the church; and because of these things, hidden in us.

The greater things we do are, in fact, still done by God in us! Just as Jesus was passive, we too are passive when we do the greater things. When we allow the full power of Christ’s resurrection and glory to dwell and work in us, the Holy Spirit uses this power to glorify Christ and the Father in heaven, and in the works done through us the Spirit glorifies the Father and the Son before all people here on earth. And finally we too will be glorified with Christ when we pass through death into God’s sinless eternity.

So for greater things to happen, God must be glorified “alone”. We become less, so Christ becomes more! And we take on the nature of Jesus being servants in a world that doesn’t recognise it desperately needs to be divinely served by God the Father who sustains, God the Son who graces us with forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit who unites us into Jesus Christ. And all the while, it’s not we who are glorified when doing the greater things individually and collectively in the church, but God “alone”.

Today, we celebrate Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit, to the church, to gather the church around Christ as one, and to give glory to God alone. For us we also celebrate with Lois in her confirmation; as she affirms what the Almighty Lord has done for her. And in a short while she will be called to greater responsibilities in the church in the rite of Confirmation. Lois, how are you to fulfil these greater things?

These things are greater than memory work well learnt, greater than your excellent attendance in class, your comprehension of the faith, or any of the other human gifts you have. This is the greater work of faith.

And not just you Lois, but today we are reminded that all of us who have affirmed our faith in confirmation are called to greater responsibilities and work in God’s church. What are these greater responsibilities and works? How are you performing in doing greater works than Jesus?

It all comes down to faith, or trust in God and his means! This means we come to a realisation that nothing from within our humanness is worthy of glory, but rather is only a cause for despair. That worry and doubt, both born of sinful pride, together with the same boastful pride are allowed to be daily drowned in repentance, so we stand under the authority of Jesus Christ, giving glory to him. Even our failures, which are many for us all, can give glory to Christ, by our allowing Christ to deal with them through confession and allowing his forgiveness to reign supreme though faith.

This is the greater work, the greater responsibility to which all of us have been called with Lois today. Are you prepared to give God the power in your life, let him deal with your weakness, and carry you through the trials of this life?

This greater work happens now in those who believe in him. Greater things happen because God’s faithful children persist in the things God has given — hearing his powerful Word, receiving full forgiveness in our believing reception of Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, and Holy Absolution.

Furthermore, by allowing ourselves to be immersed in these greater things by the Holy Spirit glory is given to God, and we are faithfully led to participate with Christ in the greater work of prayer for the sake of our neighbours and the world. So they may know of God’s glory and be led into his forgiving presence further glorifying God. Whatever you ask in Jesus’ name, will be done, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13)

It comes down to faith and worship, not the faith and worship of our self-centred society, but belief in the ways of worship given by God. This is not all that popular these days! In fact more and more, those who faithfully follow God will be persecuted from inside and outside the denominational churches because of God given faith. Why? Because nobody likes their glory being stolen! One’s pride always takes a big hit when all glory is returned to God. And this happens irrespective of a person being seen to do “the Christian thing” or not.

But take heart when your pride is knocked down or you are persecuted as a result of someone else’s sinful pride, because we know suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:3-5)

And lastly hear the promised gift Jesus leaves with those who believe in him, and rejoice that despite the trials we face, we now have the power of a God who has overcome death and is daily giving us the gift of life. Hear and believe what Jesus says to you right now…

…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27) Amen.

C, Ascension - Acts 1:1-11 "Hidden Here"

We don’t know exactly how Jesus went into heaven; all we know is he was hidden by a cloud. Was it a glory cloud similar to that which shrouded Mt Sinai when God spoke, or the cloud which covered the mountain of Transfiguration? We don’t know! What we do know is Jesus was taken into heaven to be at the right hand of the Father in glory, and once this happened the Holy Spirit would come.

Now if it was you or I who had done what Christ had done, wouldn’t we want to stay about and bask in the glory amongst those whom we had helped? A nice little ego massage perhaps! But it was not Jesus’ style nor was it his will to do such a thing.

In fact his whole ministry was one of humility and hidden glory. The spot light was not the motivation for his ministry here on earth, rather this man from Galilee seemed to be much the same as every other ordinary person – maybe even a little weak. His family was in the line of David but they held no priestly office. His dad was a carpenter, a simple man no doubt, and Mary his wife kept the house. As a matter of fact, we know little about Jesus. Only what was needed to be revealed for the sake of our salvation is written about Jesus. The gospel witnesses write specifically about only three years of this man’s life.

In their books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John, we hear Jesus commanding those he healed not to tell anyone. We hear Jesus allowing the devil to come into his presence to try and tempt him, when at any moment he could have repelled him with his divinity. He never sought the high place at banquets and gatherings, but rather served. Think of Jesus washing his disciple’s feet or the outcasts of Jewish society amongst whom he dwelt. When he did find himself in the position of honour he was compassionate and humble, as he was when the woman wiped his feet with tears, perfume and her hair. And in the extraordinary events such as the transfiguration, he asked for the disciples not to make what happened know until after he was gone. Most of the things he did were done in humility before only a few witnesses.

In the four gospels we hear of the events of Holy Week; one week leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Weakness seems to be the theme. He didn’t strike back when captured but submitted to the Father’s will, even though it appeared that through his death he had lost and it was all over. The disciple were very ordinary men, he chose the weak of this world—the unschooled, the unpopular, and the ordinary—to continue his ministry, even after they had all failed in standing with him as he was condemned to die on the cross.

Under all these things God’s glory was hidden. Under the flesh of this man was an all-powerful or omnipotent God. He suffered death and now has risen from the dead. The disciples witnessed these things, and then Jesus appeared only to a certain number for a certain time before ascending into heaven. He didn’t stay with the disciples to build the church first in Jerusalem and then out in the nations of the world. However, as the disciple stood there and watched Jesus disappear into a cloud, it was still only the beginning. The work was not complete and humanity had not given the glory to Christ nor recognised him for who he is. In fact today the work is still not complete, nor has all humanity recognised Christ as glorious Lord of all.

Ever since Christ has ascended, however, he has become powerful. He had to rise from the earth to be omnipotent, all powerful. His all-knowing, or omniscient, presence once only found with the disciples in Jerusalem and the surrounding districts two-thousand years ago is now present everywhere. Jesus is present everywhere, his infinite knowledge is there for everyone, a gift for all people, to know, as he knew. And the power and glory given to him is available to all people.

The disciple’s looked up into the sky and lost sight of Jesus. Two men in white appeared, just like two appeared with Jesus in glory at the Mountain of Transfiguration. Was Jesus still there standing with the two men shining in glorious white clothes? After all, his ministry had only begun and the kingdom of Israel still had to be restored (Acts1:1,6). He was now hidden, first by a cloud just as God was hidden by a cloud when he spoke, and then by his glorious omnipresence throughout creation. What the disciples saw at transfiguration, what Saul saw on the road to Damascus, and what John saw and recorded in the book of Revelation is the reality which is all around us now. These two men dressed in white, representatives of the unseen realm of God which is all around us, announce Jesus will return. Surely their presence was also a testimony the kingdom of heaven was still near even though the King of heaven was now hidden.

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray your kingdom come. Has not it already come to us in baptism? Hasn’t Christ come to us? In the explanation of the Second Petition in the Small Catechism, Luther asks us, ‘when does God’s kingdom come?’ And then he says: God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so by his grace we believe his holy Word and live a godly life on earth now and in heaven for ever.

You see Jesus vanished out of sight, but he is still with us, he promised in his word to be with us. He had to become hidden from the physical sight of a few so he could be physically present through the eyes of faith to many. Jesus was not on earth for only thirty-three years and now is absent. He is God with us today and to the very end of the age.

It shouldn’t surprise us he is hidden from the sight of most. Although many saw him two-thousand years ago, they failed to see him as their Saviour and rejected the things he taught them while he was with them. He remains hidden to many today. We do not see him face to face but we do see him. He has sent the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to his hidden presence – in us, in the forgiven sinners we congregate with in church, in the bread, in the wine, and when we hear his word.

It shouldn’t surprise us the church still appears weak to most. But we know it is powerful because the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the reality that the glory of God is not hidden in a cloud but concealed within the limbs and sinews of you and me. We need not look into the distance to see Jesus, he is here with us right now, and he is faithful to you every day regardless of your recognition of him. Now that is powerful!

Jesus did not stay with the disciples to receive commendation for his work of salvation on the cross. His power, once hidden in him on earth, is passed onto us by the Holy Spirit so we might do what Jesus did and continue to do even greater things because he is now with the Father (Jn 14:12). The power which was hidden in him while he was on earth is now revealed through the Holy Spirit, given to, and hidden in us.

How do we handle his power? We look to Jesus as our guide? The power he gives us is only effective if it brings glory to God. Harnessing and restricting this power just for ourselves is like trying to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; it never happens. When we seek to use God’s power for our glory it vanishes like a mirage.

Picture God looking at us from the unseen heavenly realm. What does he see? He sees Jesus hidden in multitudes of Christians, witnessing to the ends of the earth. He sees the Holy Spirit encouraging his church to speak the word of God boldly, bringing glory to his holy name. In our weak human frame he sees the ascended Jesus Christ glorified and powerful.

All power and glory to the God the Father, his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.