A Prayer for Peace

Dear friends of faith in Christ Jesus our Lord…

In the wake of the Sydney shooting massacre, let us pray:

Heavenly Father, yesterday, the third Sunday of Advent, should have been a day of joy, wrapped in the arms of hope, peace, and steadfast love - in your promise that Jesus is coming again.  Yet we tarry here in an existence that exposes the wretchedness humanity faces with its own human condition.  Sunday the fourteenth of December now stands as a day of great turmoil, terror, and tragedy, in the minds and hearts of Australians in the wake of the Sydney Bondi shooting.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Flood hearts and minds with soothing that only the Holy Spirit can bring at a time like this.  Be with those who grieve the death of loved ones.  Help them to grieve with a Godly grief and keep them free from vengeful sin.  Where hearts are angry replace this with the compassion of your Son, Jesus Christ, who as the Son of Man, became a servant of salvation to us all.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Be with those confused and traumatised by the chaos of the shooting.  Rally medical and mental supports around them so ripples of resentment do not radiate through them.  Empower our Australian community with the forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ who forgave us all from the cross and calls us to carry this cross of compassion and sacrifice in our lives.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Heavenly Father, the Jewish community are your chosen people, be with this community in Australia, and in Sydney.  Console hurting hearts!  Comfort them in their grief and confusion.  Give to them hearts to receive their Messiah, Jesus Christ who also died for them.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Renew your call to the Jewish community in Israel and throughout the world.  Help them to beat their swords into ploughshares, to lay down their weapons of war, and walk the way of peace.  Help them to see the way of Jesus Christ in his cross of salvation.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Be with the Gentile communities, especially here in Australia, but also in the Middle East, and across the world.  Give them avenues to express their hurt and anger that does not replicate the hostilities that have occurred.  Fill their hearts with compassion and forgiveness that can only come through your Holy Spirit.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Encourage your Holy Church, the body of Christ, with boldness to “come out” as Christians.  Help all Christians to join in with the works of Jesus, our great High Priest at your right hand, in his holy petitions of prayer.  Help all Christians to recognise that our prayers are powerful in Jesus’ name.  When we are so stunned and dumbstruck by what has happened,  help us to trust in the petitions of Lord’s Pray (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4) and the Psalms, knowing that the Word of God is a double edged sword given to us by the Word made Flesh, your Son, Jesus Christ.  That it’s a sword dissecting sin from the hearts of those who pray and from the hearts of those for whom we pray!

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Overcome the temptation in us to join the shooters in their sin.  Help us to place our self-righteousness, self-justification, and our natural tendency for revenge,  on the cross.  Show us by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ word that hatred is akin to murder in God’s eyes (Matthew 5:21-22).  Where we struggle with resentment and feelings of revenge help us take up the call to repentance and replace it with peace in your holy presence.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

As we stand before you in this season of Advent, help us all to consider our part in why you sent your Son to die on the cross.  Fill us with doubtless hope in the resurrection of the dead, in your peace that surpasses all human understanding, joy in the good news that you are coming again to put all things right, and love for each other as Christ loves us.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Come Lord Jesus come…      Amen. 

A, The First Sunday of Advent - Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24 32-44 "Living like We're Dying: The Armour of Hope"

Romans 13:12 (ESV) “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.”

Advent is symbolised with candles, with light.  The Advent candles represent the light of hope, the light of peace, the light of joy, and the light of love.  Without hope there is no peace, without peace there is no joy, and without joy there is no agape love or selfless love for others as God has loved us.

Today the focus is on the light of hope ­— the armour of light which gives us hope.  We have lit one candle for hope.  Let’s now hear just what real hope is!

Our hope is that Jesus is coming.  But what is this hope?  It’s not a worldly hope, a “maybe” hope, a hope full of hesitation and doubt.  No! Our hope is a certainty that Jesus is returning to judge the living and the dead!  So, how do we know this?

Jesus tells us he, the Son of Man, is coming and he calls us to be ready.  He says, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”  (Matthew 24:44 ESV)

Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, just before the reading for today, Jesus says, “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:32–35 ESV)

Some of you like eating figs, some not so much!  But regardless of liking or not liking the fruit, the fig is a marvellous indicator for the gardener waiting to sow summer crops, waiting for the last frost before planting the summer veggies.  At one manse, we had a fig.  The chooks got the figs I can honestly declare.  But once it started to shoot, veggies were planted and they wouldn’t get frosted, even though on the other side of the head-high fence frosts still fell.  I couldn’t tell you the day or the week this would occur but when the fig shot out shoots, it was time to plant.

Similarly, Jesus says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matthew 24:36 ESV) Jesus does not even know exactly when, but he knows the Father knows when it’s coming, and so he knows it is coming.  He also says,  Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34 ESV)

From this we know that Jesus is not necessarily speaking about the annihilation of the heavens and the earth.  Jesus tells “this generation” to be ready for he, the Son of Man, is near and is coming!  Then we hear about Noah’s generation where despite the signs all but eight people were drowned when God opened the flood gates and it rained for forty days and forty nights.

Like the fig tree giving signs that summer was coming, there was an ark shaped sign that a flood was coming, yet the people of Noah’s day didn’t read the signs and suffered for it.

Even now after the fact many are tempted to doubt the flood actually occurred.  They don’t believe that Noah heard God and faithfully built the ark, and that Noah’s generation was annihilated despite Jesus faithfully reporting the event.  We should trust Jesus because he was there, at the flood, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, administering the deluge and then drying it up as humanity was reset with eight people coming out of the ark.

 So, the promise is, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  (Matthew 24:35 ESV) Jesus is the word made flesh.  His word will not pass away, and neither will Jesus having eternally conquered death!

Jesus’ word will not pass away but our world will.  In light of the reality of Noah and the flood Jesus then speaks about the future of his return where two men and two women are working, one of each is taken and the other is left.  It’s ambiguous whether the one taken is taken to heaven or hell, or if the one who remains, does so dwelling in the new heaven and earth, or whether the one who remains misses out!  In the flood humanity was there before the rain, and then afterwards it wasn’t.  We tend to think that those who are taken are taken to heaven, but Jesus does not say either way. 

Therefore, we do well as “this generation” to understand Jesus’ coming happens in our death and will happen, similar to the recreation of creation, as it did in Noah’s time.

Paul tells us to “wake up”, “you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:11,14 ESV)

You are called to dress yourself in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.  In other words, you’re called to live like you’re dying , like Jesus lived like he was dying!  He was dying to forgive, that is, he was dying to give life through the power of forgiveness at the cross. When we refuse to repent and forgive, we remain with “this generation” that gratifies its flesh with its living to die attitude.  That’s death by one’s desires!

Paul calls us to put on “the armour of light”!  This is the Advent hope in Jesus Christ, to die to the passions of the flesh now, rather than when Christ returns when it will be too late.  But how do we put on this armour of light?  Or how do we cast off our works of darkness, which are revelry, intoxication, that’s not just limited to alcohol and drugs, but casting anything off that makes one toxic in the sight of God? And how does one cast off the desires of improper sexuality and sensual pleasures, quarrelling and zealousness for our jealous selves which shows our true colours, that we’re dressed in darkness?   How does one put on Christ, our “armour of light”?

We live like we’re dying!  In other words, we live like Jesus Christ who lived knowing he was going to die and having risen from death now lives and rules eternally.  But the question goes begging, “How do we live like we’re dying?”  How did Jesus live while he knowingly walked the way of the cross and death?

He lived knowing our sin was going to bring about his death on the cross.  We live in the sight of our sin, as a reminder of the death we still face.  Despite our sin being covered it uncovers the reality of death. However, the eternal death we should receive, has been covered by Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit clothes us in him.

Jesus Christ did not live hopelessly, resigning himself to recklessness, irresponsibility, and carelessness — rather, he lived faithfully.  Jesus bore the flame of the Holy Spirit who led him to live faithfully despite death.  You too are called to this life.  Rather than thinking, “I’m dying anyway, so I may as well burn out living recklessly in my desires and pleasures”, in your holy baptism you’ve been dressed in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. 

Jesus put off his divinity and put on the cloak of yours and my humanity and fulfilled the will of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Now having victory over the cloak of humanity’s darkness and death, Jesus lives, so we can continually allow the Holy Spirit to dress us with life eternal in Jesus Christ, because he has carried our eternal death on himself, and gives perfected life for all who believe they need it!

In the knowledge that our sin brings not just earthly death but eternal death, we’re not to be defeated by this, but rather allow the Holy Spirit to use it for God’s glory.  Our sin is  covered, our humanity is covered, God now allows it to be the catalyst, or a burning wick of repentance, within.  There’s no longer the need to justify yourself!  But rather, you can allow the Holy Spirit to turn you, and to justify you in Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father.

Let the Holy Spirit continually ignite your candle of hope in Jesus Christ and his eternal word!  As hope burns in you, the Holy Spirit will also enlighten you with the eternal candles of God’s peace, joy and love.  Amen. 

C, Post Pentecost 23 Proper 28 - Luke 21:5-19 "Eternal Endurance"

In the gospel reading before us today, Jesus speaks of the temple in Jerusalem and its desolation.  But not only its demise through destruction but also the collapse of creation in future events of chaos!

When what we know and have depended upon for everyday life disintegrates, the restless hearts of humanity will boil over with fear and horrors that history hasn’t even experienced.  The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple—a place where heaven met earth and God dwelt with man—all those years ago in 70 AD, stands as a reminder and warning to us that the collapse of creation is coming. 

God says, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” (Isaiah 65:17–19 ESV)

However, the hearts of those who elevated their created surroundings into their hope were overcome with unquenchable anguish.  Those who lift up this life as their heavenly paradise are heading for devastation just like the temple.

In stark contrast to these terminal times is the enduring name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  He is the new temple.  Through him, heaven meets earth.  He is created like you and me, but he is also eternally begotten.  Not only did he have a human beginning, conceived in the womb of a woman, God the Son has always been there eternally enduring with our Heavenly Father.

Like the temple in Jerusalem, we find a place with God in Jesus’ person.  No longer do we need to have our sin atoned for in the sacrifice at the temple with the spilling of animals’ blood, but we’ve had his blood spilt for us.  The temple of his body was bludgeoned, beaten, and bled; left like temple rubble was Jesus dead on the cross.

We know the temple in Jerusalem has never been rebuilt and will never be resurrected.  Nevertheless, Jesus has!  He lives and rules eternally at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  We also know Jesus lives and rules eternally in the hearts of those who allow the Holy Spirit to create life-giving faith.

As the walls of Jerusalem’s temple crumbled and Jesus’ days on earth ended in chaos, we can expect the same thing to happen to us.  As creation shows its signs of coming down, those living in Christ will increasingly be handed over to torturous times.

Human spirituality will increase, as people look for answers.  Those who are faithful to Christ and his word will be rejected by those seeking spirituality in fruitless idols. Those led by the Holy Spirit will get the blame when temporary human temples tumble down.

This includes “so-called” Christian people too.   Many who call themselves Christian, in whom Christ is temple-ing through Holy Baptism, will cast him out of the temple of the human body, perishing through delusion and deception. They will be caught up chasing myths, whipped into uncontrollable frenzies by mob mentality. In fact, some of the greatest attacks against Jesus Christ and his faithful, will come from within the ranks of dysfunctional church institutions.

Like Judas Iscariot, there will be those who act towards the faithful, as he did towards Jesus Christ. With Christ one minute, then against him the next.  There’ll be those who worship Jesus with us one day, and then the next, turn on us and hand us over to all types of torture, just as Jesus was, and the countless martyrs have been since.

As the true church of Jesus Christ is moved by the Holy Spirit to be God’s mouthpiece, it’s not going to win any favours from the those whose idols are exposed by the light of the truth!  However, when the world is shaken, and you begin to witness horrors happening around you, to you,  know the end is drawing near.

Jesus tells us not to be afraid, not to go after those who come seeking to stand in Christ’s place, or who seek to bully you with fear and dread.   Jesus calls you and all who believe to stand firm in what our help really is.  And our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. 

Confess your sins and call on the name of the Lord, and he will forgive the guilt of your sin.  In fact, you will only endure in him, his word, his flesh, enabled by the Holy Spirit, who will fire faith within.  He will empower you with endurance as the day of death destroys all temporary goods and evils.

You might wonder how you might survive these dreadful days!  These times are here and have been here ever since Christ ascended into heaven — the Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost.   From when the Jewish temple was sacked in Jerusalem in AD 70, and every temple and idol God has allowed destruction of since! 

These times of chaos and destruction also come to us individually in our death.  One day there will be a final event on earth, but for many, we’ll be faced with the destruction of our mortal frame first, just as the temple was destroyed and so too was Christ, on the cross.

But those who live in the body of Christ are adorned with the nobility and eternal beauty of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in the faith he gives.  Just like one who loves living in the light continues in the upkeep of the candle or the wick, those who allow Jesus Christ to be lifted up as their Saviour, will be lifted up in faith, hope, and love towards him. 

True believers will want to be in Jesus’ presence face to face in the warmth of his love, so they allow the enduring fuel of the Holy Spirit — faith, to burn within.  For them it’s no longer the temple of the human frame primarily important, but he who lives within making it a holy temple of the Lord.

So, it won’t be a surprise when others hate you for not upholding the righteousness they believe to be beneficial.  They won’t like hearing about the truth of our darkness as we confess our sins to the Lord. They will seek to deceive you and make you doubt Christ rather than enlighten you with the word for hope.  Why?  Because the true light of Christ threatens to expose their pleasure in their unrighteousness.

If you’re wondering if you’re one within the ranks of Christ, know you are when you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to repentance, returning you to Jesus’ righteousness, rather than a righteousness of your own. Trust Jesus is — the only way, the only truth, and the only life! 

When the struggle is real and it’s before you, Jesus promises, “This will be your opportunity to bear witness.  Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.  You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.  You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.  But not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your lives.” (Luke 21:13–19 ESV)

Hear what’s happening!  Some may be put to death, but not a hair of the head will perish!  Holy Spirit assisted endurance gains life.  In faithfulness to death, you gain true life!  Just as Jesus endured by the will of the Father, enduring in the Holy Spirit, and knowing full well he would die, we too can endure, knowing full well we too will die.  But like Jesus, death will have no hold over us, your death will be a restoration to whom you were always meant to be, not one hair of the head will perish.  Some of us might even get a few head hairs back, and some lose a few hairs from where they shouldn’t be growing!

In fact, even today as God allows the idols and temples of your heart to be destroyed, he is calling you to endure in the joy and love of having your sinful self, daily drowned in repentance, having all your righteousness die, so Christ might fulfil all righteousness within you. 

As you notice the kingdoms and nations raging, the earth shaking, and the hatred of those against Christ directed towards you, know that death has already been dealt its death in you, because having been buried with him in baptism …you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12 ESV)

In other words, what now can truly harm you?  Nothing, when you allow him to daily raise you through repentance in faith!  And in the true faith that God gives, he will faithfully fill you with peace, joy, and love. 

Do you realise hell is for Satan and his angels!  It’s not meant for humans! God's will for humanity is to daily raise and recreate within us the new enduring eternal nature of Jesus Christ.

Jesus says, “But when all these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28 ESV)  God is working in you, enduring in you, with the holy goal that you gain your eternal life in him.  Amen. 

A, Post-Pentecost 21 Proper 24 - 1 Thessalonians 1: 3 "Produced, Prompted, Inspired"

1 Thessalonians 1: 3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The verse we have just heard, directs us to meditate on three things; faith, love, and hope.  These three are not uncommon to us from scripture.  We hear of them in many places throughout the New Testament.  But more on these three in a moment.

There are also another three things in this verse we can examine too; work, labour, and endurance.

Whether one works or not, all know what work is; all know what work they should be doing, whether they have done it or not.  Work here in this sense refers to one’s deeds or actions; to ‘do’ something. 

Then we hear of labour.  We might assume labour is the same as work, and when we labour at something we do work at it.  However, labour is more intense than work in the general sense.  Mothers, more than likely, have the greatest understanding of labour, as a more intense part of motherhood, over against the regular duties of a mother’s work.  So, labour here implies that there is hardship and difficulty, requiring commitment and passion, lest the labour not be finished.

The third word is endurance.  It too has something to do with work, as does labour.  However, with endurance we have the quality of constancy.  One might see endurance as something one has to keep at, grinding away bit by bit, until the outcome is realised.  Guts and dogged determination, stamina and inner strength are needed for endurance.  Patience, fortitude, steadfastness, and perseverance are what endurance is all about.

Saint Paul, on behalf of himself Timothy and Silas, writes to the church in Thessalonica after a hasty retreat from the multicultural trade route town.  The new converts are left to face verbal and physical persecution as a result of their newfound faith.  There’s concerned for the fledgling church as they work, labour, and endure amongst those who have rejected Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel.

So, he writes his first letter to the Thessalonians to encourage them in the troubles they’re facing.  We hear his encouragement for their work, labour, and endurance.  But specifically for their work produced by faith, their labour prompted by love, and their endurance inspired by hope.  The three-fold theme — faith, hope, and love — common in the New Testament is present here, but Paul now couples it with their deeds and lives amongst the transient community of Thessalonica.

In these days we too live in a transient and temporary society.  In communities where once everyone knew who was who, there was a consistent stability people could count on.  But no more!   Our world has gone and got itself a whole lot busier, and we have been caught up in the busyness of it too.  

Our society is changing in many ways.  We can now find out news from anywhere in the world with only a moment’s notice.  People are becoming migratory in search of the almighty dollar.  And those who stay put, can’t afford to sit still or they get left behind and buried under a pile of debt.

The church too faces this change and Christians within it face the very real pressures of the transient, live-for-the-moment desires of our age.  Once upon a time Christianity was the centre of most communities; you would see the who’s who of the district in a church somewhere.  And everyone made the commitment to be in church on Good Friday and Christmas day.  But today, friends and family are sadly missed from amongst the ranks.  The pews are empty; leaving us behind wondering if we should remain in something that seems like it might die.

The saddest thing though, is not that our society is changing, getting busier, or even becoming more and more heathen.  The Thessalonians came through it and so has the Christian church in other ages too.  No! The saddest thing is that as a result of these things we allow ourselves to backslide; producing less and less works, labouring in love is lost, and endurance becomes uninspired, bland, and boring. 

The saddest thing is we let the godlessness of our age have more power in our lives than our Father in heaven, fearing godlessness more than God, giving it greater and greater power in our hearts and minds. We see numerical decline and lose trust in God who has his plan for his church which he ultimately sustains through thick and thin. 

After the collection of the weekly offering, we pray for God to receive it for the sake of Jesus Christ.  We use various prayers, but usually they give thanks for what God has given us; ourselves, our time, and our possessions.  We go on to ask God to accept our offerings as a sign of his goodness and as a symbol of our love. 

The offering on the plate is a sign and a symbol, but it’s not the sum total of what we give!  And so we can ask ourselves, regardless of how much or how little we might put on the plate, “With what intention do I give?”

The state of our faith, hope, and love are quickly revealed when we match them next to the offering of ourselves, our time, and our possessions. 

Does the handling of our possessions speak well of our love, of God or of our neighbour?  What does our time management reveal of our daily, hourly, and momentary devotion and glorification of God Almighty?  And what type of faith do we radiate to others as a result of the faith we have received from God? 

Faith and ourselves, our time and our hope, our love, and our possessions; we ask ourselves, “What do they say about my intention towards God?”

Today, in the days of the Thessalonians, even back when the Israelites created the golden calf, and right the way back to Adam and Eve, humanity turns from the one true and living God to idols of one kind or another. 

Much work, labour, and endurance has evolved from the hearts and hands of humans to serve these idols we’ve fashioned.  But the question is; how do I turn from this habitual sin and idolatry back to the one true and living God, so faith in me produces work pleasing to God, I labour for the love of God prompted by the love of God, and I persevere, inspired with enduring hope of my eternal home, before those who seek heavenly moments in the fleeting pleasures of this world?

We could become better focused on our work, labour, and endurance; but that still would lead us on a path into idolatry.  Even if faith, hope, and love within are fed by work, labour, and endurance could we together build something special and great?  No! We couldn’t even make something as special or great as a golden calf or a tower of Babel, even if we tried really hard!  And we know what God thought of them!

Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians because they didn’t do that.  Rather they turned from their idolatry to serve the living and true God, waiting for his Son from heaven.  They looked to Jesus Christ and to him alone who chose them through the gospel, convicting them deeply by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God has chosen you and me.  Although the deep conviction to work, labour, and love might temp us to focus on these things and turn them into idols, it is the Holy Spirit’s intention with faith, hope, and love, to have us focus on Jesus Christ.  And in him we will be productive in faith works, prompted to love, and inspired by hope. 

You see faith, hope, and love are ours in Christ Jesus our Lord; we are in Christ because Christ is in us.  Faith, hope, and love are in us and can only come from us because they are in Christ and are of Christ as a result of the Holy Spirit.

So let us not even be tempted to run after these other things which might seem good, lest they lead us away from God into the idolatry of ourselves.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and run after him, so that in him, he in us will produce prompt and inspire, faithful good works, labours of love, and enduring hope, to the glory of God — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 3 Proper 6 - Matthew 9: 36, 10:5-6, 16a, Romans 5:1–8 "Flayed and Flung"

Romans 5:1–8 (ESV) 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.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Matthew 9: 36, 10:5-6, 16a (ESV) “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.’”

Jesus paints the picture of sheep without a shepherd.   The sheep are harassed and helpless.  Harassed and helpless are rather tame words here in the English.  The Greek suggests the sheep are flayed and flung without a shepherd.  To be flayed is to be stripped of skin, to be skinned alive!

This picture is much grimmer when we realise the sheep have no protection from the shepherd or even their own skin, dispersed all over the place without the protection of numbers. They were walking meals for every wild beast out there.  That’s not good!  In our English slang we might say they were skint!  But it’s for these, skint, skinless sheep, Jesus has compassion.

It is to the sheep of Israel that Jesus sends his apostles.  They are ones sent to stand in the place of Jesus, having carried his command to “go” and “proclaim as you go that the kingdom of heaven is near”, in Jesus Christ and his word of promise.  The authority he receives from our Heavenly Father, is to send the apostles with authority to clothe the skinless, helpless sheep with his love.  To give them protection, he brings his kingdom into the world with his human presence, and with it, the authority to pass on what he brings from our Father to those he longs to clothe.

The reality is those whom Jesus sends are sheep too!  They are not called to go out with a thick skin, so to speak, but to go to the skint lost sheep of Israel, skint as well.  The only thing they were to take was the word of Jesus.  A word he promises is so powerful in judgement, that if those who heard it were to reject it, they would be in greater peril than Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement.

Yet, it is to these “sent ones” he also says, you sheep will encounter wolves.  Jesus paints a picture that is far from rosy and romantic.  There is no bait and switch in his word, but rather the unhidden truth of reality.

In the midst of this picture of death, Jesus reassures those he sends, “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.  For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.  Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,  and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”  (Matthew 10:19–22 ESV)

As they go, they will suffer pain, hatred, and death, for bearing his name.  Yet here is the opportunity God will create for one to speak with authority the word, given by the Holy Spirit, from Jesus and the Father.

In Romans chapter eight, Saint Paul asks the church in Rome, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35–37 ESV)

One would assume that with the promise of being flayed and flung, that not many would accept the call to carry Christ, out into the world of wolves.  Yet, the history of the church, tells us otherwise, demonstrating over and over again the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than that of the human being.

The fear of suffering is real, we all know it and feel it!  Self-preservation kicks in!  We, in our natural state, will do anything to flee a fight, especially knowing we are not thick skinned.  But rather, are helplessly skinless, flayed and flung out into the wilds of the world without protection.  Such is our default human nature!

Paul speaks of Abram’s hope against hope to the Romans.  He says, “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations.’” (Romans 4:18a ESV)

However, we struggle with a fear and a hope that leaves us hopeless like sheep without a shepherd.  Our sinful nature tells us the love of Christ will separate us from the comfort in which we clothe ourselves.  Everything against the kingdom of God, tells us being killed for Christ, being regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, makes us conquered, not more than conquerors!

In our hopelessness we are tempted to believe against hope.  The opposite of Abram.  And in doing so we seek to clothe ourselves with the righteousness of the world.  These clothes of comfort might seem to be appealing but they are not clothes of endurance character or hope.  Rather they cover one’s flayed helplessness and provide no security or salvation.

Paul makes the claim that we who are in Christ, “stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”.  (Romans 5:2b ESV)   This is the hope in which Jesus called the apostles to stand and rejoice, despite the wolves, and it is the hope in which we are called to stand and rejoice too! 

These are the clothes of Christ put on by the Holy Spirit for helpless flayed and flung sheep, to be righteous and joyful as we face death all day long, knowing we are more than conquerors in the clothes of Christ’s righteousness.

Not only do we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but we also rejoice in our suffering.  How can this be?

In an age that’s so focused on pleasure, suffering is to be avoided at all costs.  In fact, ridding our lives of suffering, and not accepting suffering as an event that makes us mature as humans, has blinded people as they pursue pleasure and comfort.

Saint Paul says, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:3–6 ESV)

If we have no suffering, we have little to no endurance.  When we have no endurance, we have no character, and without character we have no hope.  Without suffering and the understanding of suffering’s function in the world, one sets themselves up for hopelessness!

Seeking self-comfort in the things of this world, while avoiding suffering, does not lead one in hope to Christ.  When we see ourselves with strength because of worldly comforts, our spirit might seem secure.  But when these comforts no longer give us comfort, or when they die, our hope too proves to be hopeless.  Rather than being, more than conquerors, we are more than conquered, we are flayed and flung, skint and skimped of salvation, helpless sheep without a shepherd. 

So, suffering allows one to grow to maturity.  This happens in a worldly sense, but also in a spiritual sense. 

Where suffering in a worldly sense makes us harden up, suffering in a spiritual sense softens us with the love of Jesus Christ, to be comforted, and to comfort, with forgiveness.  His love is why we rejoice in our suffering, suffering both physically and spiritually as believers and receivers of his love.

This love is a new skin!    For our peace with God the Father, the Spirit puts on the good news garment of grace in Christ.  This outfit bears the fabrics of faith and forgiveness.  We can hope to not only have our own sin conquered, but the wolves in sheep’s clothing will know their weakness and are given opportunity to receive forgiveness too.

In fact, the wolves are flayed sheep!  In their hopelessness, they look threatening, hidden in sheep’s clothing.  But in reality, they are sheepish and ashamed wolves, flayed and flung, skint and skimped of salvation too.

Because you are covered in the clothes of Christ’s righteousness, as the saved sheep of Israel, the Holy Spirit allows you to know that suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope. 

The Holy Spirit encourages us, as he does all he sends out, to put on the garments of suffering, endurance, character, and hope.  A covering that does not end in shame.  Instead, these four coverings you wear, and bear, are the clothes of Christ’s love.   

The picture of us as flayed and flung sheep is not as grim as we would expect.  Now knowing we wear ,so to speak, the eternal skin of Christ, we awake and wear this bright new reality every day. 

Death no longer has power over Jesus Christ, whose skin bears the marks of death but has risen in power over death.  So too with us!  We are conquerors of death, the devil, and the wolves of the world, with the covering of Christ.  No one can flay from us the flesh of Christ!  Nor can we be flung from the kingdom of heaven, while the Holy Spirit leads us, in, with, and under, the forgiven body and blood of Jesus Christ!  Amen. 

A, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 5 - Genesis 12:1–3, Romans 4:13,18-25 "Dead Promise"

Romans 4: 13,18–25 (ESV) For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.  In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.  No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”  But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,  but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,  who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. 

Retirement awaits!  You are in the years of your life when you are beginning to take things easy.  Perhaps this is the case because your body is not what it used to be; it’s wearing out!  Or, you are just backing off the gas, enjoying the fruits of the years you worked.

You are comfortable, it’s time to enjoy the twilight of your life.  Your life ahead promises to be one of relaxation and retirement amongst known people – family and friends!

You had plans earlier in life, to do great things.  Perhaps to be a trendsetter.  But now having done what you’ve done, you are just content to be.  The energy you had in your younger days has long since passed!

But God has other plans for you.  In your latter years he makes a promise to you, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1–3 ESV)

You say to God, “What do you mean?  I’m already blessed in my retirement!”  You’ve heard plenty of promises before, many of them broken.  How would you feel getting a command and promise like this? 

To leave the comfort of what you know, the security, the known faces, those you can trust in a community you know!  To enter the discomfort of changing your medical carers, those who know you, your doctor, pharmacist, hairdresser, those at the shop who know what you order, the shops you know where you can get exactly the item you want.  Entering the uncertainty of what you do not know after leaving the blessings of what you do know, does not seem like it would be a blessing.

For Abram to leave his land, his inheritance, from his father, Terah’s house, and known people was a sure sentence of death.  Abram was seventy-five years old when he left his family, having heard the promise of God.  Why would he go?

Let’s look at the promise God makes and to whom it is made.  It appears the only descendant of Abram would be his nephew Lot.  Lot’s father, Haran, had died, so Lot is taken into Abram’s family.  Abram’s wife, Sarai, could not have children.  But despite this he leaves his homeland and inheritance to follow the promise of God.  For all intentions and purposes, Abram is literally a genetic and patriarchal, dead end.

The host of the television show, Hard Quiz, eliminates the lowest scoring contestant, saying to them, “if you get the question wrong, you’re dead to me”, and when they get it wrong are thrown out with the abrupt command, “Out!”

But the promise of God is not to cast out this man, Abram, who was as good as dead,  even though he appeared to be a dead promise.

Just as surprising, Abram also responds to this promise made by God.  Why would he go?  He had everything to lose, since there did not seem to be much going his way!  Why not stay put and preserve what little blessing he had?  There was obviously something greater compelling him to go.

Abram responded to God’s promise some three hundred years after God confused humanity and dispersed them across the world with various languages.  Abram is the archetypal “needle in the haystack”.  He is one of many in the generations after humanity left Babel to fill the earth.  Yet he was a needle as good as dead, with a wife whose baby bearing capacity was also dead.  To be blunt, they were blunt needles, living, dead ends!

All worldly hope in them was dead.  As one would hope to have children, receive an inheritance, and pass it on to offspring, all expectation had died.  But God calls them to a new hope that seems even more hopeless in the eyes of the world, having been called away from the only security they had left, their inheritance and home.

Paul says of Abraham (Abram), “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s (Sarai’s) womb.  No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4: 13,18–25 ESV)

We hear plenty of dead promises from people and politicians and they make us laugh with sarcasm.  So many promises we hear these days are “dead to us” as soon as we hear them.  We’re sceptical, and our hope, at best, is a doubtful hope, with an expectation to be let down.  How do you feel when promises are made that you expect will be broken?

In the Gospel reading today, we hear, “when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,  he said, ‘Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him.”  (Matthew 9:23–24 ESV)

We too may laugh in disbelief, or with a hope that the world possesses.  But God’s promises are built on things that are dead to the hope of the world.  Sarai also laughed when God promised to make Abram a father.  But together Sarah and Abraham laughed with joy at the birth of Isaac, God’s promise of life given to a husband and wife, as good as dead!

Our faith is built on the death of Jesus Christ.  It looked for all intentions and purposes, a dead promise!   However, he became nothing to make our nothingness something.  He, who did not know sin and death, became sin and death, to give us salvation and life.  Dead to God we were made something through Jesus’ death.

Jesus did not sacrifice like a priest sacrificing an animal under the Law, but through his mercy and steadfast love became the sacrifice for sin, that makes us something.  He does this when, like Abram ,we are as good as dead, or should be dead to God.

Jesus says, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13 ESV) 

A righteous person might make a sacrifice, but a sinner cannot even enter God’s presence to make a sacrifice, they are dead to him.  Someone dead can only be made alive by a love that becomes the sacrifice.  You have received the mercy of God’s sacrifice on the cross.  You have been made alive by the Holy Spirit in the steadfast loving mercy of Jesus Christ.  

The Holy Spirit leads you to step out in faith!  It may not be something as geographically displacing as Abram’s call, or as life changing as leaving family.  It may be seemingly something small in your life, but something that God is calling you to, that will make you as good as dead in the eyes of those around you.  But when the world says, “you’re dead to me”, this will be the Holy Spirit’s affirmation that you're alive in Jesus Christ. 

Like Abram, why would you go?  Why would you follow Jesus Christ?  Or more to the point, “why wouldn’t you?”  Especially if the Holy Spirit is moving you in God’s Word, to do the works of faith that glorify God.  To pass on the steadfast love and mercy, to sinners who like you need to be made something by the blood of Jesus!

When the Holy Spirit works, in, through, and with, the Word of God, he moves with steadfast love and mercy, bringing sinners to the knowledge and blessing of God the Father in Jesus Christ.  He brings what should be dead to God, to life!  The Spirit enlivens the will of God within, to the glory of God.

These works are not sacrifices done with a hope of getting something.  But rather the Holy Spirit enables us to do works of mercy and steadfast love, passing on the blessing of faith, just as Abraham was a blessing to many other nations as the father of faith.  Through us the Holy Spirit will encourage the hope of God over the hope of the world, which really is hopelessness!

If Jesus died for your sin, and was raised so you too are raised, making what was nothing before God something, why wouldn’t you want to follow him in faith, and share this blessing as well?  Amen.

A, The Second Sunday of Advent - Romans 15:1-7,13 "Advent Pleasure"

God has placed you and me, on this earth, at this time, and in this place, we know as Australia.  Living in Australia, along with the rest of the western world, we are privileged to experience a lifestyle that many in the world don’t get to experience.  We have been blessed with prosperity that gives way to pleasures, people in other parts of the world would not even be able to begin to imagine.

At this time and in this place, with this privileged prosperity and its pleasure, people are experiencing suffering at a level never experienced before.  The pleasure, privilege and prosperity that is our expectation from life, takes the prosperity, the privilege, and the pleasure for granted, rather than receiving these things as a gift with thanksgiving to God. 

At this time and place we find our pleasure no longer gives pleasure, our privilege reveals selfish partiality, and our prosperity exposes our poverty.  We suffer at the hands of our pleasures to such a degree, people in other parts of the world would not even be able to begin to imagine.

Advent is the season for hope and peace, joy and love.  A season for waiting.  A season of patience.  A season to depart from the darkness and be delivered into the light of new life.  And a season of expectation to receive and pass on the gift of forgiveness.

John the Baptist came baptising with a baptism for repentance.  There was expectation the Messiah, was coming.  Israel and the Jews had not experienced any revelation from God, for approximately four hundred years.

There was hope, and where there’s hope one prepares oneself for what one is waiting.  Expectation of the Messiah meant many were flocking to the Jordan River, where John was baptising with a baptism of repentance. 

Over the course of one thousand years, the Israelites lived in prosperity, privilege, and pleasure, given by God through King David and others.  But in the time and place of John the Baptist this was all just a distant memory.

The pleasures of Israel no longer gave them pleasure.  The privilege given to the people of God was lost.  And the prosperity of God’s chosen nation, was taken and tossed about between the powers that overran them.

In this time and in this place, you and I suffer at the hand of pleasures that no longer please, you and I suffer at the hands of prosperity that no longer prospers, and you and I suffer at the hands of privileges that enslave.

Perhaps like the Israelites it’s time to turn from what’s within to that which we have been without!  What is it that you have been without?  Hope?  Peace?  Joy?  Love?

Instead of hope, our society today promotes, wanting without the waiting.   Patient expectation through endurance and encouragement, waiting for the fullness of time, where a community wills one in its group to grow and mature, is impatiently shoved out of the way.  Growth and development are trampled, along with fellowship and community building, in favour of instant gratification. 

The problem being since what is wanted is easily gotten, easy come - easy go, the mirage of desire moves and something else is wanted.  Impatience prematurely gets what it wants and wastes unripe fruit.  Without waiting, one does not learn to be satisfied with what one has been given, by God.

Instead of peace, our society today promotes a peace that builds walls.  When these walls are built by us in the name of peace, fellowship is broken, and individualism ends up oppressing us.  One ends up locking oneself in on oneself.   We become slaves to the darkness within, and stuck there, find a whole bunch of loneliness and despair. 

Instead of joy, our society today promotes, sickly sweet happiness.  In one’s impatience we can’t wait for the fullness of time.  We eat unripe fruit, and it sours the second it hits our palette.  So, we go looking for artificial happiness.

Happiness is different to joy.  Joy is built by people in community creating fellowship, while happiness can be celebrated by an individual without any outside influence.  Artificial happiness is saccharine and extreme and it’s usually found to be a cover for loneliness and despair.

Instead of love, our society today promotes unleashed desire.  Rights revealing what is wrong with us and our society, while our wrongs are recognised as right.   Love is no longer about sacrificed and service, but rather about satisfaction of feelings. 

However, two things are experienced when love is centred on the self.  First, confusion and chaos rules as each person’s love competes for supremacy.  Second, people seek satisfaction that’s never fulfilled.   The more one desires this kind of love, the more allusive love proves to be!

In the season of Advent, in this time and place in history, we find ourselves between two competing realities.  The hope, peace, joy and love of Christ’s coming has been departed from and  forgotten in favour of the advent of new and renewed human ideals. 

So, what have we found there?  The advent of new and renewed ways of suffering!         

Now we might think this is a terrible thing.  It might be, if it continues to deliver us into the darkness of ourselves.  However, this is also the time and place of great opportunity for true hope, peace, joy, and love, in its advent through Jesus Christ.   Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”  (Revelation 3:20a ESV)

Every day and in every place, Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, meets you in the suffering of those in our society.  Jesus makes his Advent to them through you, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring sufferers to the Advent of Jesus’ suffering and death for true hope, peace, joy, and love!

Saint Paul describes Jesus’ Advent of knocking and waiting in this way, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, to build him up.  For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me’”.  (Romans 15:1–3 ESV)

While we please ourselves, we follow the ways of the world, in the same way as did the Israelites.  One’s suffering at the hands of seeking these pleasures, is a reminder Jesus continually sends the Holy Spirit knocking on our doors.  To enter and forgive.  To restore and return us through Jesus’ suffering and victory on the cross.  To see in our forgiveness, the pleasure of God to forgive those who have not the will nor the way to turn to the Saviour who suffered for humanity.

Just as those waited for the coming of a messiah in the time and place of John the Baptist, we continually wait for the final Advent of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  As we wait for this final most glorious and treasured advent, like those in John’s day, we allow ourselves to be prepared for Jesus’ final victorious Advent.  

The Holy Spirit prepares us by leading us from our sinful suffering into the Word of God, where we endure and are encouraged.  This is also the place and the time in which Jesus makes his Advent through us.  He returns us to his first Advent where he saved us through our baptism into his death and resurrection.   

As we rightly suffer reproaches for being in Christ, know the reproaches of those who reproach you fall on Jesus.  Paul points us to God and his word, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.  May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (Romans 15:4–7 ESV)

The strange thing that occurs when God leads us from our suffering as a result of seeking our pleasures to suffering for the things that please God, we find ourselves waiting in hope, living in peace with joy and love, for those who suffer at the hands of seeking their pleasure, as well as with those who suffer seeking to please God.

As puzzling and paradoxical as it might seem in this Advent, this is the profound prosperity, privilege, and pleasure God seeks for all who suffer within, without him!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  (Romans 15:13 ESV)

Amen.

C, The Last Sunday of the Church Year Proper 29 - Luke 23:33-43 "Jesus Remember Me"

Luke 23:33–43 (ESV)  And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.  And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”  The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine  and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”  There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”  One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”  But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”  And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

At the place called the Skull, or in Aramaic, Golgotha, everything in creation came to a head.  The Head of our faith, the Head of the body of Christendom, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, finished everything and brought a new beginning through his resurrection.

Here, life dealt with death, holiness overcame evil, hidden love was uncovered, true love was unhidden.  The Son of God was revealed and lifted up on the cross having been concealed in the flesh of humanity.  

Saint Paul uses the word “preeminent” in his creedal statement to the Colossians.  We hear of Jesus, “He is the head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” (Colossians 1:18 ESV)

In Greek, preeminent is “protos”.  Jesus is the first, the prototype, the one through whom all receive their identity and image. 

First, we receive our identity as human flesh.  Like Adam we are terrified by our sin, suffering, dying and death.  

Then, we get our identity as human flesh, forgiven by Jesus Christ, born in the flesh of Adam, but not prone to sin as are we.  

You do well to live with this remembrance as Jesus Christ, the Preeminent First One, remembers you!  

Speaking of remembrance, cemeteries are often referred to as remembrance parks.  On seeing or visiting a cemetery, what are you reminded of?  

When you look at the grave of a loved one, what do you remember?  Do you see their descent into the ground and remember loss?  Or do you look past the grave and funeral, seeing crosses that mark most graves and remember the resurrection?

When you remember, does the Prototype, the Risen Head of the church come to mind, welling up peace, purpose, and pleasure within?  Does the Head, fill you with delight and hope?

For those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, cemeteries are places of death, loss, and inconsolable grief and hopelessness.  The cemetery, for those who do not believe, is a place of remembering “what was – but is no more”.  In despair one might hopelessly think, “God did not save Jesus from death, nor has he saved this person in the grave.”

On the other hand, those who believe in Jesus Christ, cemeteries are places of sadness too!  But it is a sadness being overcome with hope and joy.  The graves of those who have died believing in Jesus Christ, have been made holy by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We remember this of those who have died in faith and now rest from the troubles we still endure.  We remember Jesus’ death.  We also welcome our rest in the grave, glorious resurrection, a perfected creation, and worship face to face before Jesus Christ.  In cemetery remembrance gardens we look forward to, and remember Jesus’ promised garden of, paradise.

We also remember the Head of the Church has crushed the head of the evil one at the place of the Skull, Golgotha, and through death brings life. 

St Paul encourages the Colossians to remember in the Holy Spirit that our Heavenly Father, “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13 ESV).  

So too, we are called to remember the work of God, by the Holy Spirit.  We are continually being transferred from kingdoms of darkness and hopelessness to his kingdom of light and eternal love.

However, in our weakness, we humans struggle with the reality of death.  The human spirit wants to avoid death.  The Old Adam does not want to trust what he cannot see and experience for himself.  He wants to continue taking and re-taking control.  He wants to double back on himself, like a deceptive fox, avoiding the revealing light and love of God’s work of forgiveness and love.

Like the first thief on the cross, your Old Adam, our sinful human spirit, wants the Son of God to sin by saving himself from death and then free us from impending suffering and death as well.  But cheating death like this, like criminals on the run, we would always have one eye over our shoulders knowing we cannot hide from God.  Death will return to enslave if Jesus didn’t die to pay our debt.

Like the other thief, we do well to remember our sin and guilt.  To know that God cannot be mocked, or shamed, into dismissing our sin.  If he did, he would no longer be God, my sin would desecrate his holiness, my debt would go unpaid, and knowledge of eternal destruction would make living seem like being on death row.

This thief knew his debt would bring him to his death.  Unlike the other criminal, he knew a last expenditure of power taunting Jesus to save himself from death, would not save Jesus, him, or the other criminal from death.

Something in this second criminal, made him believe that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, the King of the Jews, and that through death, Jesus would overcome death.  

Did he hear the blasphemous taunts of the soldiers, Jews, and other criminal and believe the truth hidden in their taunts?  Did he read the inscription above Jesus that he was the King of the Jews?  Did he hear Jesus’ word somewhere else in his ministry before the crucifixion? 

We don’t know!  But we do know, he remembered his sin, he remembered Jesus had done nothing wrong, and he also looked forward in hope to Jesus coming into his kingdom!

In faith and hope he said, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’  And he [Jesus] said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”

What a wonderful promise!  Today you will finish up with me, out of pain and suffering, past death in paradise!  Jesus then gave up his spirit and died on the cross.  Death was finished, full atonement was made, all righteousness was fulfilled.

Earlier before Jesus died, he said, “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:31 ESV)

But when he was crucified and as they cast lots to divide his garments, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” (Luke 23:34a ESV)

Today the wood is very dry.  There seems to be not much greenness in the cross, devoid of power, little hope is seen in the future of the church; dissolution and death of denominations within Christendom looks real.

We might want to cry out to God in disbelief, “If Jesus is the Son of God, let him save us and our church!”

But Jesus has saved the church, he is saving the church, and he will save those who are his church.  Those who are his church remember their sin, know Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Chosen One, to die in payment for sin.  

The wood of the cross has long dried.  But the power of the cross is still green.   Like Aaron’s staff in Moses’ hand covered in blossoms, Jesus’ death still oozes resurrection life.   

Jesus Christ is the evergreen verdant “Tree of Life” in the centre of Paradise.  The Holy Spirit wills you with the sword of God’s word to remember and trust in Jesus, to death, and through death.  He wills you to hope in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He is the Head of your salvation, the Chosen one!  He is the King of kings, and Lord of Lords!

Know and remember that God is with you through death.  That to death and through death, we believe, therefore confess, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, remember me.”  Amen.