C, Easter 3 – Revelation 5:11-14 “Worthy of What?”

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Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:11–14 ESV)

God has very interesting ways of dealing with us in the everyday ebbs and flows of our lives. Pondering, "What it is to be worthy?" for the purpose of writing this sermon has led me on a remarkable path this week.

After having a low day on Wednesday where I forcefully compelled myself to looking at my worth, I rose to go walking as I usually do each day, on Thursday morning. I am eagerly expected outside the back door by two Foxy Jack Russel cross Terriers. It takes a bit to stop them from yapping with excitement as I release them from our sterile backyard of six foot high Colourbond fences into a world of sights and smells set to tantalise and temp the senses of these two dogs. It's as if they are saying with their excitement, "Worthy is he who opens the gate and releases us hounds!"

Now when I walk my dogs I let them run around the place off the lead. I shouldn't, but I do. I figure they are so confined in that back yard they need to be free. But without the lead I still have control over them with commands and whistles so they don't run out in front of cars and get skittled.

Well that was until Thursday morning. Occasionally they decide their sniffing around is more important than listening to my calls which earns them time on the lead so I might retrain the animal to respond to my request.

One of my dogs, Susie, usually walks on my heel, yet she has the habit of walking on the side of me closest to the middle of the road. I would prefer her to walk on the other side, the side closest to the gutter. So when a car comes she can easily jump up onto the grass at my command.

However, being the type of dog that she is, when a car comes and I call her to "come off the road", she thinks I am rousing at her and she starts to slink away from me further out into the middle of the road, as if she is not worthy of me and I am going to treat her harshly. She is a funny dog like this! She does the same when I feed her and Rufee each night, as I try to call each dog to its own dish so there is not argument over dinner Susie slinks along cowering and peeing herself as if she's in trouble. I don't know why she does it! It's just the way she's always been since I adopted her from mum after she died.

On Thursday she grovelled across the road into the path of an oncoming car. The driver saw here and slowed until Susie was off the road. I called her to come back to me but there was no way she was coming back, she was terrified and shaking, expecting me to harm her. I walked across the road and bent down and put the lead on her and told her she was a silly dog.

Susie hesitantly followed me back across the road where I continued my walk with her between me and the gutter. As I walked along I called her, "off the road" and led her to jump the kerb. I did this a couple of time to reteach her what to do when a car comes along. Then in a quiet street I let her off the lead and continued walking.

She had quite successfully done as I commanded when on the lead, but now off I called her off the road. But no! She cowered, wouldn't walk on the gutter side of me, and started back to the middle of the road. I quickly walked to her other side to block her path and will her to the edge of the road. Susie suspected I was going to be aggressive towards her. Rather, I placed my foot under her tail and encouraged her to go to the grass with a sweeping motion of my foot and leg. She yelped as if I was kicking the living daylights out of her. Once off the road frustrated I put her back on the lead and continued walking.

I went through the process all over again and then wrongfully expecting she was starting to get what I was trying to teach. I leant down and started to undo her lead once again. I said to her, "You know Susie I don't want you to get cleaned up by a car you silly puppy!" But once off the lead her response was to bolt off around the corner and out of sight.

Well, then I was mad. I felt like giving her a good smack for not listening. I thought to myself, "Right you can stay at home tomorrow morning! Better still you can stay on the lead in the back yard too! That'll fix you!" I had time calm down as I walked home.

I hoped she had gone home ahead of me, but I wasn't quite sure having already wrongly assumed dog logic two times over. You can imagine my wildest thoughts of her being run over, or taken by some drive-by Jack Russel stealing stooge! But phew! She wasn't missing just sitting at the gate as I walked around the corner. As I let her in my discipline amounted to saying in agreement with myself, "Susie you are a stupid dog aren't you!"

How often do we act the same before our Lord and Saviour? Cowering over what we think God is going to do to us. Just like my dog Susie, believing we are not worthy enough to be led or fed, preferring to run from he who loves us and wishes the eternal best for us.

We do well to think about Peter's reaction at Jesus' command to fish from the right side of the boat and to feed the sheep. It's a far cry from Peter's reaction the first time Jesus calls him let down his net where "he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.'" (Luke 5:8 ESV) However in John 21, after Jesus' death and resurrection, this time Peter launches out into the water to get to Jesus, leaving the others to drag in the haul of fish.

How worthy was Peter to have done what he had done? After all he had denied Jesus three times leaving him to be falsely accused and crucified alone on the cross! Worthy of what was Peter after sinning at such a crucial time as when the Son of God was being condemned to death? Worthy of what was Peter having received Jesus' words of peace, having received the Holy Spirit and the ability to believe?

Worthy of what are the lambs of God? Worthy of what are you Jesus' little lamb?

You know I still lead and feed Susie, she is my dog. How much more worthy are we to be fed and led by he who was slain, who became the scapegoat for our sin. How I deal with Susie is one thing but how God deals with us is such that we are receiving the benefits of Jesus' eternal power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing.

Just as Christ was led to the cross for our benefit, and despite God having continually to teach us to turn back to him through the crosses we must endure in this life, we need not cower because he needs to lead and feed us.

Rather we can join in the hymn of all creation; with the angels, the archangels and the whole company of heaven, because you and I have been made worthy, having been forgiven so we can feast in this victory of this Lamb's power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour and blessing forever, Amen.

C, Christmas 1 – Luke 2:51-52 Colossians 3:12-17 “Being Favoured”

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From Luke 2:51 we hear… And he (Jesus) went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man. (Luke 2:51-52 ESV)

These are the last words spoken of Jesus till John the Baptist baptises him in the Jordan, baptising him into his ministry of death and resurrection, his ministry of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Interesting words are left with us to describe Jesus' years between the age of twelve, his puberty, and his baptism by the Holy Spirit and with fire, at the Jordan and on the cross outside Jerusalem. We hear Jesus "increased" in wisdom, stature, and favour. There is a sense with the word "increased" that one drives forward as if by beating one's way through something. "Increased" comes from the word to chop or cut down, to lament or beat the breast.

Jesus bore his position in humanity with submission. He honoured his mother and father; he was obedient to his parents. He struggled and learnt as a youth in the Scriptures and from everyday events in life. Here the Son of God allowed himself to be taught what it was to be human. In effect he was cut down to size from God to man, to a child, to a youth, to a young man who would bear the sin of the world on the cross.

But despite being the Son of God, he increased, he allowed himself to be pruned as a human, and struggled forward, advancing and growing, so in he whom wisdom and grace is personified was seen to come to grips with what everyone else experiences who is taught and tested in the tribulations of daily existence. In doing so, Jesus increased in favour with his fellow country folk. And with God, by his sacrifice and submission within the very creation he had created together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is God's favoured one, see to it he is your favoured one too. Paul tells us, who believe, that Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11) He calls you to see his sacrifice, knowing it was for you he made it. He doesn't do this to give you an ego boost, but rather he now commands us to put on the new self, to put on Christ. To put on his holiness as the Son of God, but to also put on the same humility that Jesus put on to save us from sin.

He calls us to put on Christ because we are God's chosen ones. We are favoured by God, not because we are good, but because Jesus was — in his birth, increase, death, and resurrection. We are favoured by our Heavenly Father, elected by God, and are being resurrected by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore Paul compels you to…

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:12–17 ESV)

In short he compels you to put on Jesus, doing everything in the name of our Lord Jesus, which means doing everything in the name of your favoured One, faithfully following the will of the father, not fighting or fleeing from confronting the truth, to honour yourself, but rather forgiving as God has forgiven you.

In the short time I have been here in this parish. I have witnessed your struggle to break free from sin, both as individuals and as a corporate body. I have faithfully called you to favour Christ over self, fame, fortune, and family.

As we struggle to do so, some have sadly witnessed the falling away of loved ones and as a consequence too succumb to the same, turning the back on God, and following the family out the door.

Then some have sought ways and means of growing the congregation, in a bid to bring those falling away back in, but this has not found favour in God's eyes either, nor has it in the eyes of those who have left. The cynicism felt towards today's economic and political environment is only exacerbated when we in the church seek to grow the church through the same powers as does business or government.

But the church will only ever be favoured, if at all in this world, when we allow ourselves to be "increased" or "painfully grown" in Christ, putting on his love, and abandoning all other ways favoured by humanity. We then will return to our first love and favour God once again before all other gods.

Yet in doing this, rougher weather will follow. Most of humanity will favour us less as we grow in Christ. Your own family who has turned its back on God will see your humility and weakness in Christ and their pride will cause them to dash you to pieces, you who are close to them but closer to God. Deep down they will know those who are faithful, by your unwillingness to yield even to the point of death.

And contempt towards you will be heightened by your ability to forgive, seemingly the unforgiveable. Others will not want you to forgive them, because owning the forgiveness will expose the reality of their natures. Nor will they want you to forgive others, lest these "undesirables" be seen equal with those of more favourable standing.

But that's okay. Others unbelief and scorn will be a testimony to you being the favoured ones of God. The sacrifice and martyrdom of those in the church will become familiar once again in the western church. And it will only spur the church to look all the more into the word of God, the songs of God in the Psalms, and into the rich tapestry of hymnody sewn in the sacrifice and deaths of God's saints from over the past two thousand years.

Favour God over all other gods. Our Heavenly Father favours you more than any of your other gods do! So put on Jesus, be chopped down to size, so he might resurrect you in his holiness and compassion, kindness and humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, bearing your cross for one another.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 ESV)

You are God's favoured ones, remain in his favour! Amen.

C, Advent 4 /Christmas Day 2012 – Micah 5:2, Luke 2:4-7 “Fruitful Bread”

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And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:4–7 ESV)

The name Bethlehem in Hebrew means, house of bread. Around the town were grain fields and sheep grazing country. Bethlehem is also referred to in the Old Testament as Ephrathah, which in Hebrew means, to bear fruit. Bethlehem or Ephrathah was a place associated with food and fruitfulness. It seems to focus on life being created but it hasn't always been that way.

We all know the Christmas gospel — baby Jesus born at Bethlehem. But Bethlehem appears in a number of places in bible. Let's look at them to give us a fuller picture of what happened at Bethlehem because of us and for us.

The first mention of the town is in Genesis, and it's a sad occasion. Rachel was the wife of Jacob, and the mother of Joseph. She had trouble conceiving and bearing children and as the family moved towards Bethlehem, or Ephrathah, Rachel went into labour with her second son. She gave birth to him and on her death bed named him Ben-Oni, which means, son of my sorrow. But Jacob renamed him Benjamin, which means, son of my right hand. And then he buried his much loved wife, Rachel, in a grave at Bethlehem.

So here in Genesis we have a prototype or preview of the gospel at Bethlehem. Jesus was the son of Mary's sorrow because of her birth pains and his death on the cross, and like Benjamin, Jesus is the Son who now sits at the right hand of his Father.

Then in Judges chapter seventeen, a cloud is cast over Bethlehem, as it becomes the location from where an idolatrous Levite came as priest to serve a man called Micah in Ephraim. This is not the prophet Micah who spoke out against idolatry, but rather he and the Levite became the fathers of idolatry in the tribe of Dan after the tribe overran Micah's house and carted off his idols and the Levite priest.

And from events starting in the Bethlehem, in Judges nineteen, unfaithfulness, rape, murder, bodily mutilation, war and near genocide took place between Benjamin, a tribe of Israel, and Israel's other tribes.

This all came about when a concubine left her husband and returned to her home at Bethlehem. On fetching his concubine and travelling through the Benjamin countryside, he stayed in Gibeah and when his life was threatened, he gave his concubine to the wicked men of the city and they raped her and left her for dead. Her master cut her into pieces and sent her body to the far corners of Israel. So distraught at what had happened to the concubine, Israel fought against the city and their brother tribe of Benjamin, and nearly destroyed it forever.

As we can see, Bethlehem was anything but fruitful or a house of wholesome food in these times. Rather, from the events of this town, we see very clearly the sin that permeated the Israelites; sin that commits humanity to death; sin that shows our need for a Saviour.

This fruitlessness continues at the beginning of the book of Ruth. Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, fall on hard times as they battle drought at Bethlehem, so they move to Moab with their two sons. After moving, Elimelech dies and the sons marry two Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Eventually the two sons die as well, leaving the three women widowed. Orpah returns to her family in Moab, but Ruth stays with Naomi, who returns to Bethlehem just in time for the barley harvest.

On returning to Bethlehem, Naomi requests she be called Mara, which in Hebrew means, bitter. Naomi in Hebrew means, pleasant or beauty. She told them she had left for Moab full, but the Lord had brought her back empty. One could understand why she might have felt this way, with no welfare system and having lost all the men in her life, Naomi's future looked more bitter than pleasant.

But the Lord had not left Naomi and Ruth bare and bitter in Bethlehem. Her husband — whose name Elimelech, incidentally means, my God is king — had relatives at Bethlehem. And the Jewish custom was for the family of the dead husband to support the widow and children with a kinsman-redeemer. Boaz was the redeemer and eventually married Ruth and looked after Naomi. Therefore, Ruth remained faithful to her mother-in-law and found favour with Boaz, a relative of her father-in-law, and continued the line of Elimelech. It is no accident that Boaz and Ruth are the great-grandparents of King David.

As we all know, David was a shepherd who came from Bethlehem. God laid his hands on David through Samuel and also made him shepherd and king of Israel. There were numerous times in David's kingship that he looked to God as his "Elimelech" — his God as King. We can see, despite the horrors and bitterness surrounding Bethlehem, God was making the town, Ephrathah, fruitful!

Therefore, it is no accident Jesus Christ, humanity's Kinsman Redeemer, was born in Bethlehem. Just as the human spirit of Elimelech lived on through Boaz and Ruth in King David; our God — the King of Creation — was conceived in Mary, lived on earth, and was raised to life through the Holy Spirit, in the person of Jesus Christ, beginning at Bethlehem. It comes as no surprise to us that God fulfilled his promises made through the prophets, such as the prophet Micah…

"But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days." (Micah 5:2 ESV)

When Jesus was born and laid in the manger; he was born to lie in the darkness of death for you and me. Bethlehem has much to do with us. We are weak; our lives without a Redeemer, God, and King, would be bitter; much more bitter than Naomi and Ruth's life without a kinsman-redeemer.

In fact you are this Bethlehem; you are God's fruitful house of bread! You may see your life as less than ordinary, not extraordinary in the least. But God does. He has laid his Son in you, in the manger of your heart. Right in the place where out of the human heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. (Mark 7:21–22 ESV)

Bethlehem dished up some horrendous daily bread for those who lived there. And at other times it would have seemed just an ordinary boring town amongst the flocks of sheep and fields of wheat. So too you may feel nothing special, or in times of strife in your life, your daily bread may make it seem that God is nowhere to be found.

But surely if our Father in heaven would lay his son in such a place to suffer and die, and then raise him to his right hand! Then wouldn't he also bear his eternal fruit in us having laid his Son is us? You are Ephrathah Bethlehem, smallest of the small, but within lives he who is not only ruler of Israel, but Lord of creation! The single most fruitful bread and our only daily bread that will sustain you forever! Amen.

C, Advent 3 – Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice Always?” Confirmation Sermon

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Here's a little song I wrote might like to sing it note for note, "Don't worry be happy!" Well perhaps I didn't write it but you may know this song or have heard it some time.

The words don't worry be happy might be a catchy lyric to sing, especially when feeling in a good mood, but what about when the chips are down, in the midst of worry, doubt, and danger? Being told to be happy sounds more like a command that condemns rather than encouragement when one is far from being happy! Who wants to sing any little light-hearted song when there's no reason for happiness?

In this day and age, one only has to listen to some angry metal music, or blues music to know it's impossible to be happy all the time. In fact, those who radiate happiness all the time seem false and once away from others, one wonders what they're really like behind the jolly veneer. Shiny happy people cannot be shiny happy people all the time. In fact, happiness often covers the reality of hopelessness and loneliness in our lives.

So when Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice." (Philippians 4:4 ESV) Is Paul deluded? Is he calling us to live in delusion? How on earth can I rejoice always, are we meant to pretend? It's hard to rejoice when the family is fighting, friendships are fracturing, farming is futile in the fickle weather we're having these days, and so on!

Today is Confirmation day; this day has its line share of focus on you young folk. In fact you may feel the day is about you, and that's okay, but you need to know these feelings are fleeting. The high of today will lead into the valleys of tomorrow; and continue right through the ups and downs of everyday life.

Today doesn't mark the end of Confirmation, nor does it really mark the beginning of something although you will be receiving Holy Communion for the first time. Today rather, is a continuation of what has already begun, and looks forward in hope to what is to come! Today in Confirmation you will affirm what God is doing, has done, and continues to do in your lives. This all began when God made you his child in baptism.

When you were baptised it was not only into Jesus' death, but also his resurrection! When Pauls says to you, Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice!" He's saying rejoice in Lord's death always furthermore rejoice in his resurrection. Or, rejoice in your death always furthermore rejoice in your resurrection!

But rejoicing in one's death seems rather harsh. Especially when you are young and entering what many would say is the prime of your lives. Things are changing, schools are changing, where you live will change, your bodies are changing from children to young adults, both physically and mentally. So rejoicing in death goes against the grain of our thinking.

To be specific we need to realise being happy and rejoicing are two completely different things. You and I can be happy all by ourselves within one's self, but joy always happens in community looking out of one's self to something greater. True joy looks to things eternal, and leads one to view things from an eternal perspective.

Therefore, happiness never hangs around for long, because one looks into themselves for happiness. Even events around us, or from a gift we receive, all this soon fades and eventually fails because the happiness is centred on me, my emotions and feelings. Putting faith in things which cause happiness in the end will lead to hopelessness.

But joy and rejoicing are much different, in joy or with rejoicing one sees things for what they really are rather than falsely looking for happiness in things that can be equally as bad as what might seem good. We hear what Jesus did for joy...

...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1–3 ESV)

Now Jesus was not happy when he went to the cross, scripture tells us of his suffering and death. Yet he went there for "the joy" set before him and was raised to the right hand of the throne of God. In himself he suffered a horrendous death but he suffered it for joy. Jesus struggled against sin to the point of death and did so in joy because now even if you are called to the ultimate sacrifice in this life, it is not an eternal death but just an earthly one.

In just a moment you will affirm your baptismal faith. This is the faith that trusts God into eternity, and in joy the Holy Spirit had given it to you. 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)

So rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. So let the joy of Christ live in you in good times, furthermore let the joy of Christ live in you in bad times. I am not saying to put on a happy face, far from it, but carry the promise of Jesus' death and resurrection in you, letting your patience, moderation, and endurance be known to everyone. This is the steadfastness and love of God himself that allows you to stand firm, even when you are weak, worried, and cannot be happy.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4–7 ESV)

When you are tempted to worry or have doubts, rejoice because Jesus is at hand. When you feel anxious in yourself, leave trusting yourself and ask God to help, look to him, even beg him, he wants to be your God in every situation and trial of life. In your lives believe that…

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. (Isaiah 12:2–4 ESV)

Here's another little song I didn't write,

"Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice,

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!

Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say rejoice,

Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say rejoice!"

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, always. Amen.