A, Post-Pentecost 15 Proper 18 - Matthew 18:15–20 "Remember & Forgive"

Matthew 18:15–20 (ESV)  “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.  Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

At the beginning of most Lutheran Services on a Sunday morning, we begin the new week confessing our sins for the past week and have them forgiven. 

We are forgiven, then we are fed with the word of God and Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.  Here again in the sacrament, we receive forgiveness of sins together with life and salvation.  You and I receive forgiveness for our sins while we endure here on earth, until we are taken to be with God.

God’s forgiveness of sin focuses us on the forgiving of our sin through our confession, together with his absolution, through words of forgiveness spoken by the pastor as his earthly representative.  One can view this forgiveness as God’s will being done in heaven, just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer.  This is the vertical will of God!

However, this is only one half of God’s will!  We pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!  What is God’s will for us on earth? 

As we also pray in the Lord’s Prayer, it is to forgive as we have been forgiven!  This is the horizontal will of God!

In the next couple of weeks as we hear the Gospel reading, we have opportunity to let God open us up so we can examine ourselves through the lens of this horizontal human to human forgiveness. 

In being forgiven we are invited to reflect on our forgiveness of others, and consider how we react within when we see others receive forgiveness.

Someone reminded me of the saying,  “We are to forgive and forget!”  At face value it sounds like a reasonable statement.  But in reality, who, ever really forgives and forgets?  Even when the most gracious person is wronged, they will not forget!  They’ll be just a little more cautious around the perpetrator next time.

However, the centrality of forgiveness is God’s will!  Forgiveness is the daily bread of our lives in Christ, as we are raised to new life, through the daily drowning of our old sinful nature.

At the cross the centrality of God’s vertical forgiveness meets the painful reality and suffering of the horizontal forgiveness we are called to share with each other.

Luke’s Gospel account of the crucifixion most clearly demonstrates the forgiveness theme of God’s will in Jesus Christ’s death!  We hear, “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.’” (Luke 23:33–34 ESV)

Outside of Luke’s Gospel account, both criminals writhed in agony on their crosses and railed at Jesus to save himself and them.  In Luke however, one of the criminals has a lucid moment of faith in his agony, realising Jesus as his Saviour, and the King of a kingdom greater than any earthly kingdom’s pleasure or pain.

We hear again, “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.”  (Luke 23:39–43 ESV)

Put yourself in the place of pain on the cross?  Would you ask Jesus to forgive you or free you from the cross?  If you were in Jesus’ place, suffering because of society’s sin, would you be able to forgive them, knowing that their sin is the reason for your looming death?

Forgiveness of another’s sin is the hardest thing we as Christians are called to do.  But after confessing our sin and telling others about our forgiveness because we believe, forgiving others is the next most important good work we do for their benefit to the glory of God.

In fact, this is all part of the believer’s new obedience in accord with the vertical and horizontal will of God to forgive each other as God has forgiven us.

The Lutheran Confessions tell us, “we cannot love God unless we have received the forgiveness of sin”[1].  Furthermore, we show God’s love by forgiving those who sin against us!  Just as God gives, just as Jesus gives, we need the Holy Spirit to work in us the ability to forgive.

Saint Paul tells us, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  …put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”  (Romans 13:8, 14 ESV)

Our old nature’s desire within, is not to put on Jesus Christ.  Rather, our flesh delights in having power over others, by not forgetting and withholding forgiveness, because of the wrong they’ve done.  In remembering their sin, the victim adds their sin to the perpetrator’s sin.

Jesus approaches our difficulty to forgive by calling us to name sin.  That’s a hard thing to do.  We can only do so by calling on God in prayer for the Holy Spirit’s help to do so.  In our fear to name sin and bring it to account, we actually leave the sin unlocked and loose.  And when we try to forgive and forget, we invariably do the opposite by remembering and adding our own sin to their sin!

However, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  (Matthew 18:18 ESV)

This is the second time Jesus has spoken about binding and loosing!  God’s church is built on binding and loosing!  It is the key to the church because it’s the key to God’s will.  Here in Matthew eighteen Jesus speaks to the disciples in the plural, when one sins against another.  This is horizontal love shown through our forgiveness of each other!

Previously Jesus spoke individually to Peter as the rock on which the church would be built, saying, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19 ESV)

This is the vertical love God shows to the church by forgiving us our sins through confession and absolution!

However, like Peter, by our own will, we bind and loose the wrong thing.  He sought to bind his sinful self to Jesus by not allowing Jesus to be bound to the cross.  In doing so he was freeing his sinful self and seeking to separate Jesus our Saviour from the will of God.

Australians for whatever reason, don’t deal well with righting wrongs!  When someone says, “Sorry!”  We usually reply, “No!  It doesn’t matter!”   But it does matter, lest the person would not have said sorry in the first place.

When we do not deal with each other’s sin appropriately, by not naming it or overlooking it, we set the sin free and bind the person!

However, when we do good works that please God, sin gets nailed to the cross.  In forgiving sin and allowing it to be confessed between each other, Christ binds our sin to the cross, and Satan and his angels are bound and sentenced for hell.  That’s why he works to lead us away from forgiving each other!

The other reason the devil works tirelessly to make us forget about forgiveness is because the forgiven person is set free from sin and death, when sin is bound to Christ on the cross for our forgiveness.

Rather than binding the person and setting sin free, when one graciously forgives and humbly receives forgiveness, sin is bound and locked up.  Therefore, we are loosed to love and loosed to be loved, we are free to forgive and free to be forgiven, knowing we are yoked to the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Forgiving sin is a hard thing to do!  It requires the sacrifice of the old nature within.  That is why the Holy Spirit works unceasingly for us, and within us, to lead us to forgive as we are forgiven!  He works tirelessly so we do not forget to forgive!  We might think we have to forgive and forget, but within us the Holy Spirit wills us to remember and forgive.

He works when we remember those who’ve sinned against us, reminding us of God’s great love for us, in the descent, death, and resurrection of his Son, so we are led and learn to love each other with forgiveness.

Rather than “forgive and forget”, let us “remember and forgive”!  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, you have forgiven our sins from heaven.  As we wait for Jesus’ return here on earth, send you Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can forgive those who sin against us, and so we can receive forgiveness from those whom we have sinned against.  Amen.

[1] Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Justification, Article IV:311 (Tappert edition)

C, Lent 1 - Luke 4:1-2 "Trials & Temptation"

Text

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. (Luke 4:1-2)

Sermon

Just when you'd think things couldn't get any worse, then it does! You see, he came from a privileged place. There was no pain or suffering, hunger or want. But where he found himself was a far cry from the fertility and luxury from where he had come.

Jesus walks in the wilderness; his stomach knotted from hunger. Now when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, old hairy legs shows up - the devil. He grabs the opportunity to take Jesus to task, testing him in the weakness of his hungry human state.

These forty days wandering in the wilderness follow a time where at the Jordan Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit came down on him, and God declared him to be his Son whom he loved. But on having received the Holy Spirit, and wonderful acknowledgement of his Father's love, he's led into a time of trial and suffering. How much worse could it have gotten?

After all, the preincarnate Son of God, before he was born to Mary, was at the Father's right hand in heaven. He was a member of the Holy Trinity! The Son of the Father from eternity, eternally begotten! God the Son was there with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of time and space. This God was untouchable by sin, suffering, trial and temptation.

But this is what God the Son gave up because he loved the Father. He became bound by time and space; born in Bethlehem and dependant on humans. God the Son became the epitome (e-pit-o-me) of weakness lying in a makeshift bed in an unwholesome environment!

Having been baptised he now walked in the wilderness. This is where the Spirit led him. And the Father who announced his love for his Son now allows him to flounder for forty day in the desert. Imagine yourself in this situation. If we had Christ's power, surely we would rationalise our situation with our sinful nature to improve our lot.

Just as Jesus walked in the wilderness for forty days, the Israelites had been in the Sinai wilderness for forty years. They stood on the edge of entry into Canaan. Just across the very same Jordan River in which Jesus was baptised before he went into the wilderness.

God walked with the Israelites in the desert during this time. Although the Israelites inherited their wilderness wanderings due to their wickedness and waywardness! Yet, God still remained with them and was faithful to his promise to deliver them into a land flowing with milk and honey - into the land of Canaan. All they had to do was remain faithful to God and things would get better and better.

The Israelites and Jesus walked the same road, but on it they walked the completely opposite direction. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came from his heavenly glory to be born a human, was baptised into death, and wanders in all human weakness in the wilderness. However, Israel, adopted as God's children, is delivered from trial and testing in Egypt, into the Sinai wilderness, and then into Canaan, an earthly paradise chosen by God in which for them to live. God's one and only Son, and God's adopted children, walked very different directions for a very good reason.

The Israelites were tempted by just about everything that came their way. It made no difference whether they were in a place of plenty or paucity, they whinged and wanted more and more all the time. They didn't trust God. In fact, they begrudged him even while he provided for them and protected them in the wilderness.

Jesus on the other hand, had everything, and gave it up, yet he didn't doubt God for a moment. Surrendering his Godliness, he was born with the same flesh as the Israelites, and as you and me. He was susceptible to sin and suffering, but he didn't fall into disbelief; not even once!

Jesus and the Israelites cross paths at the Jordan. Jesus came from paradise into the wilderness and the Israelites were delivered from the desert into the fruitful land of milk and honey.

They crossed roads at the Jordan and its where the X marks the spot. Israelites were being baptised by John with a baptism of repentance. And Jesus received a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, which landed him on "the Cross" and a descent into hell.

In fact, "the Cross" is the X which marks the spot. The Israelites walked to the Jordan with the guilt of sin, and away with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus too, walked to the Jordan, but not with sin and guilt. He came holy, pure and spotless and left carried by the Holy Spirit into forty days of temptation, and three years of trial ending in his death on the Cross; cursed by our sin, yet in himself was pure and spotless.

The Cross marks the spot for us too. Christ meets us at the crossroads in baptism. St Paul challenges us in Romans chapter 6, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3-4)

You now walk in your baptism called to trust baptism's power in you for Christ's sake, allowing the Holy Spirit to do his perfecting work in and through you. You are called to trust the forgiveness of your sin, knowing that sin and death have no power in your life. And sin and death continue to have their power weakened by the light shone in our hearts through repentance that exposes the sinful things you're tempted to do. From baptism into Christ, you're called to walk and trust every day in the power of your baptism, through which the Holy Spirit gives you the newness of life.

However, unlike Jesus, we being born with a sinful nature continue to do sinful things. We go out from our baptism into the wilderness of this world and succumb to temptations all the time. We see our trials and the suffering we still must go through in this life and become hesitant of the Holy Spirit's leadership, doubtful of the Son's salvation, and are quick to replace faith in God through his Word, with faith in ourselves through our own works.

This is exactly why Jesus was the only one who went to the cross. Everyone else fell and continues to fall to the temptation that God and his kingdom will let them down. And Jesus knew this too. So he sends the Holy Spirit to continue turning us back to him and the power won at the cross given in our baptism that we might turn and return to Christ and his Word.

The greatest temptation we face as God's adopted children is to think God has abandoned us and left us for dead. Just like the Israelites did so many times in the Sinai wilderness, we are quick to toss our God-given faith away in favour of a faith, which comes from our morals, our understanding or intellect, and our feelings. This temptation is ultimately ground in a disbelief which wills us to believe God's kingdom is not near us or for us because of who we are as sinners.

Jesus knows we struggle to believe his kingdom is coming to us, especially when we seem to be having so many trials and troubles in this life. We're blinded seeing our day to day lives only in negative unbalanced Godless ways. Then temptation quickly comes willing us to throw out our trust in God who promises to lead us through the wilderness of this life and through death.

Jesus addresses our temptation to believe the kingdom is not coming to us. In the Lord's Prayer he gives us his very own personal words which move us to trust our Father, whose kingdom comes, and to trust the Holy Spirit's leadership away from the temptation that God's kingdom is not coming to us.

In the Lord's Prayer we are lead into a deeper and deeper belief that despite how things might appear, God is providing our daily bread in this life and will continue to do so right through into the resurrected life he has for us in eternity.

In fact, in Jesus' hunger he rebuked the devil with God's word, in part, from Deuteronomy 8:3, "man does not live by bread alone." (Deuteronomy 8:3, Luke 4:4) But this whole verse points to the very thing every person needs to receive throughout their earthly lives. Let's hear the full verse, "And he (the Lord your God) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 8:3)

And so for us the food that leads us away from all temptations and specifically the temptation to believe that the kingdom of God is not for us is the Word of God. In fact when we hear the word of God preached we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive faith, and we are grounded in the assurance that "Jesus is Lord" and "God has raised him from the dead" (Romans 10:9)

So it's right at the point where everything seems to be getting worse, and we realise how weak we truly are, that we come to the crossroads where we're called to trust in he who has already walked the other way towards death and hell for us, but then was raised and glorified.

Through the Word of God the Holy Spirit works to plant in us faith that the kingdom of God is for us, and near us, despite the wilderness in which we walk today. Amen.

A, Maundy Thursday - Matthew 6:9-13 "The Lord's Prayer in the Lord's Supper"

The Lord’s Prayer has been the centre of our Lenten focus and tonight we conclude our study of the Lord’s Prayer by seeing how it works in the Divine Service as it appears in the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper.

The church most often celebrates the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day, or Sunday, and it is celebrated amongst the Lord’s people, who pray the Lord’s Prayer. One can’t but help notice that the Lord is at the centre.

Our celebration in partaking of Holy Communion as the children of God, and as brothers and sisters of Christ, who join in with him in the prayer he gave us, proclaims God’s loving-kindness and mercy to us through and through. God is with us and he serves us with his word, in the bible readings, and in hymns, songs and the sermon which also proclaim his word. Having received God’s word of forgiveness and promise, we respond in prayer.

Prayer is not so much our work or will, but rather it is the result of God being present in us through his gifts. The Lord’s Prayer is the most excellent prayer we can pray because not only does it announce God’s presence, but it is given by the Son of God himself to sustain us in faith, hope, and love. Therefore, the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of the faithful, joining in with Christ, adhering to the will of God, as they approach the Lord’s Supper. We are the faithful, believing that God is present in all his power for our personal being and the being of the church community.

Last week we heard how the central petition of the Lord’s Prayer, is prayed asking God to give us our daily bread. Since early times in the church this petition has been connected with the bread and wine of communion – which when consecrated is the body and blood of Christ.

Our daily bread, both, Christ ‘the bread of life’, and, all the things we need for this life, are gifts from God to encourage trust in our Father, who forgives us and gives us the ability to forgive, so his will is done in heaven and on earth and we can live in peace with God and our neighbours.

We also receive our daily bread, so our faith is increased against all temptation; especially the temptation in believing God’s kingdom is not for us, when Christ clearly promises us that it is. This promise comes to us in a very special and personal way in the sacraments where Christ ordains our salvation in our baptism into his death at the cross. The promise of his kingdom comes also when he commanded that the bread and the wine be consecrated as his body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins, as we eat and drink it in remembrance of him. We receive his kingdom in these things, when we believe Jesus Christ in his word and put off temptation to think otherwise.

When we believe we are forgiven, we believe his will is done in us, and we believe his kingdom is our hidden reality. Because this is the truth, we are also made holy by Christ who comes to us in the daily bread of the Lord’s Supper. This is the holy life we receive in exchange for the life of evil we need to be delivered from so much. God the Father together with God the Son sends the Holy Spirit to continue in us the belief and holiness given at the cross through baptism.

And if we are holy forgiven members of God’s kingdom, we have access to God the Father through his Son who gives us his prayer, and he makes this prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, work for us by his innocent suffering and death worked on the cross. We say the Lord’s Prayer to our Father, whose kingdom, power, and glory are his, which he gives to you as the eternal gift because of Jesus’ death for our sin, and resurrection power over eternal death.

In the context of the service of Holy Communion the pastor announces the reality of God’s presence with us by saying the greeting, “The Lord be with you.” And we respond, “And also with you.” Then in our helpless state we lift up our hearts to God who is present and wills us to receive his gifts of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Because of this we give him thanks because it is the fitting and right thing to do, since he is our only help and our only hope.

The pastor then declares why it is fitting and right to give thanks to God through Jesus Christ. It’s at this point that extra sentences can be added appropriate to the church season. After this we acknowledge our fellowship in the whole company of heaven, seen and unseen, amongst those who have died in the faith and now dwell with God outside of time. And we also fellowship with those inside of time, seen and unseen, who faithfully worship in God’s hidden presence. We who worship in time also wait for the hour when we too will have our helplessness lifted so we see ourselves as God sees us through his Son, and we in turn see him as he is in all his eternal glory.

Now that we have proclaimed the hidden presence of God’s kingdom, seen and unseen, in time and outside of time, gathered eternally around Christ, we join in with the choirs of heaven and sing the Sanctus — the Holy, Holy, Holy. This is a combination of Psalm 118:25-26 which was sung at the Old Testament Passover festivals, blended together with the hosannas of victory and deliverance sung on Palm Sunday and in the Old Testament when the king rode back into Jerusalem in victory over the enemy. And the Sanctus we say or sing also combines the worship of the heavenly choirs which John witnessed and recorded in Revelation 4:8.

In the same way that the angels sang Glory to God in the highest in the presence of the shepherds and the Christ-child born to Mary, we too sing before God in heaven and on earth joining in with the heavenly choir giving the highest honour to God who gives us victory and deliverance over our helplessness and is the supreme centre of all existence.

It is in this context that we pray for God to give us our daily bread which he will grant us in its best form, Jesus himself, in the mystery of the bread and wine. Because it is Christ who ultimately prays his prayer before God the Father in heaven, traditionally the pastor prays the Lord’s Prayer and the congregation joins in with the doxology. When the Lord’s Prayer is prayed before the words of institution it is prayed as a prayer of consecration over the words of institution.

On the other hand, in some services of Holy Communion the Lord’s Prayer is prayed after the words of institution. It is the congregation that traditionally prays it at this place in the service, as a petition for itself and as an intercession for the world.

But regardless of the Lord’s Prayer being said before or after the words of institution, the fact of the matter is that Christ is present with the Father and the Holy Spirit, amongst us. Paul points out to Timothy that, “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:4-5)

It is the Lord’s Day, the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Prayer, and it is for the Lord’s people. So you and I can say his prayer in confidence knowing that he prays it before our Father, and he and the Holy Spirit will us to pray this prayer from within us. God has done everything here and it is good, and is not to be rejected, but rather he is to be believed and received, as we pray his prayer and eat his holy body and blood.

Because Christ has given himself and his prayer to us we know we have been recreated as children of God, for Christ’s sake. In Galatians we’re told …because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:6-7)

And if we are heirs, we continue to carry Christ’s full, wholesome and most excellent prayer on our lips because we stand with him before our Father in heaven. So his prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, is our ever-present call for help, so we might continue petitioning God in the struggles and sufferings of this life and participate with God in God’s work of salvation interceding for those who struggle and suffer in their helplessness too.

We are encouraged by God in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians… For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:9-11)

The Lord’s Prayer, the Lord’s Supper, for the Lord’s people, on the Lord’s Day. Amen.

Lord God heavenly Father continue to send the Lord and giver of life, the Holy Spirit, into our hearts, so we might continue to believe what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us and continues to do in us. Amen.

A, Midweek Lent 5 - Matthew 5:9-13 "The Lord's Prayer - The Now Bread"

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen

The fifth sermon in the Lenten series on the Lord’s Prayer centres on the petition Give us today our daily bread. We look at the diagram of the Lord’s Prayer and see that this petition is at the centre of the cross. And next to the petition is written, Bread or Tree of Life for believing sinners destined for Adam’s death.

But first we notice in the context of the whole prayer, we see that this petition is different to all the others. After the introductory invoking of God’s name through Our Father we confess and learn God’s character and will. God is holy, his holy kingdom comes, and his holy will is done.

Then after the petition Give us today our daily bread, we learn about our will and character, and therefore implore our holy Father to forgive us, lead us from temptation, and deliver us from evil, the evil one, and death into his holy kingdom, which is rightly God’s alone.

At the cross road of God’s holy character and will and our character and will to return to the old ways of the sinful self, we ask God in our present context between heaven and hell to give us our daily bread. This is a petition for now, so that at the cross roads we turn towards God and nothing or no one else!

What is this daily bread? In the small catechism Luther tells us… Daily bread includes everything needed for this life, such as food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favourable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbours.

Notice Luther says our daily bread includes everything we need to live, and then gives us examples of what some of these things are. But these examples are not our daily bread in themselves. In fact, they are included in something much greater. What must this greater daily bread be?

We return to the diagram of the Lord’s Prayer and see that our daily bread is the Bread of Life, or the Tree of Life, from which we have been excluded, ever since Adam and Eve with all humanity were destined for death when knowledge of good and evil was desired more than peace with God in paradise.

So this is the background of the petition Give us this day our daily bread, because we are experiencing all types of afflictions and sufferings on our way towards the bitterness of death.

When we see the petition in its true light, we quickly realise that all the things included in our daily bread, are just that, included. They are a secondary food included with the one true Bread of Life.

But it is in these secondary things of food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favourable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbours that we experience the reality of our sinful human condition and suffer as a consequence.

Even if we were to have all these things we would still suffer. Yet we place our faith in them, and are tempted to believe that if we get favourable weather, good health, wealth of property, a spouse or a family, etc., then life would be better. But even when we receive these blessings from God, our mirage of hope and peace in these things disappears, only to reappear somewhere else with something else.

God knows that we need these things, and we do well in the context of our earthly sufferings to see that in trusting God we can have hope in the midst of these trials. God will not forsake us.

After all why would God go to such trouble in sending his one and only Son into the world, to be born into all the strife of hunger and homelessness, toil and no earthly possessions, a family that questioned his ministry, a corrupt Jewish community and Roman government, treacherous weather conditions (especially on Lake Galilee), no peace as he absorbed the chaos of death with the illnesses of those he healed on his walk to the cross, to be born with a name that today is still bantered around as a curse word, and to have not one friend as he neared his death on the cross. And even further to this, why would God allow himself to suffer by turning his back on Jesus Christ; taking away his loving kindness and leaving him hang with the full weight of his wrath on his Son’s shoulders?

We need to ask ourselves as his children, why we endure even the smallest percentage of what Christ suffered, if God went to so much trouble to make us holy, and give us our inheritance of eternal life with him in peace forever?

When we suffer and struggle in this life, we might first worry that we are going to die, and doubt that God will sustain us unto eternity. But perhaps God is willing us to worry that we won’t die in him, that we must live and suffer forever, even with all the blessings of physical daily bread. Perhaps God wills us to see that our prayer for earthly things is not enough!

When we pray, Give us today our daily bread, we are not just praying for ourselves either, we are praying for all Christendom, hence we pray for us and for our bread. Speaking about this petition, Luther quotes Chrysostom, one of the patriarchs of the church who lived in the fourth century, who said, “All of Christendom prays for the person who prays for it.” (LW 42:60) In other words, “When we pray for the whole Christian church we join the whole Christian church in praying for it, and therefore pray for ourselves who are members of God’s church on earth.

So when we pray, Give us today our daily bread, we pray for God’s will to be done in and amongst us. And although God doesn’t cause sin and evil in the world — our sinful nature is the number one avenue through which sin, evil, and death enter the world — God does surely use our suffering in our sin to bring us back before he who is the Bread of Life, who died on the tree that gives real fullness of life.

Jesus is the bread of life, he is our daily bread. Jesus has given us access to his Father, his holiness, his kingdom, and his will, despite our being tempted, our continually being wooed by evil, and the desire to place our will first so that we turn from God’s will, to be forgiven and to forgive. God the Father went to all the trouble of sending his Son, and Jesus endured the curse of the cross and was stripped of all “daily bread”, so that as we suffer the crosses of lost daily bread at the hands of our sin and the powers of evil, we might turn to he who is the bread of life, so we might have peace with the Father who adopts us as his children.

As we pray, Give us today our daily bread, we allow God to discipline us as his children, since we acknowledge him as Our Father. And out of love our Father does discipline us so we turn to trust the one and only thing that will give us our eternal Sonship. And that is his powerful written word, where in it we receive the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, our daily bread, our Tree of Life who will lift us up in death and give us eternal peace and life with our Father in heaven.

Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:35, 38-40)

And he continues, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” Amen.

Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and let your word to us be blest. Blest be God who is our bread, may the world be clothed and fed, Amen.

A, Midweek Lent 4 - Matthew 6:9-13 "The Lord's Prayer - What does God want?"

We return once again to the well known prayer that Jesus himself taught us to pray, the Lord’s Prayer.

Recapping previous weeks we first heard a different way of viewing the Lord’s Prayer as a series of brackets or layers like that of an onion.

The outer layer gives glory to God who is God alone. We pray Our Father, because Jesus gives us access to his Father, by fulfilling his Father’s will at the cross. Now as “Our Father”, we can rightly proclaim the kingdom, the power and the glory are his now and for ever.

The next layer consists of declaring his name as holy, and that we also need to be made holy by being continually delivered from all evil. Then having received his holy name we pray in the next layer that we are not led into temptation to believe that his kingdom is not coming to us. God reins in us, he is all powerful. Therefore, we can be sure when temptation does come, it’s a trick from our own sinful nature, or from evil forces outside of us. And in confidence, we can disbelieve the temptation by simply saying, “No! God is my Father and his kingdom is my home, because Jesus said so!”

Now today we move into the second last layer, the two petitions, your will be done… forgive us our sins. But notice that both of these petitions are two part petitions. Firstly we hear your will be done — on earth as in heaven. That is we pray God’s will is done on earth and as his will has been done in heaven. Then we hear forgive us our sins — as we forgive those who sin against us. This is in fact a repetition of the former petition, and the two can be mixed and matched as we will see later on.

But first we must ask, “What is the will of God?” In Hebrews chapter ten we hear, “you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:36) And from 1 John chapter two, “the world and its desires pass away, but the person who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:17) Here we learn two things; that the will of something is what it desires or wants. And secondly, those who follow what God wants live forever, but those who follow the desire of the world will perish and die.

Then we must consider Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane kneeling down before God and praying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) Jesus is holy, he is without sin, and he had the purest desires of any person who ever walked the earth; that is his purpose, his pleasure, his will is without blemish or spot. But nevertheless, he placed it aside, in favour of his Father’s will.

Now for us, even if there was a possibility that our will, our desires, could come near the will of Christ, God’s expectation is the same with us as it was with Christ. God calls us to have the same attitude as Christ, who said, “not as I will, but as you will, Heavenly Father!”

That’s hard for us to do. In fact it’s impossible. No matter how good our deeds might be, there is always something selfish in our doing condemning us before God. The bar is set so high and although Jesus could jump the bar, his will being completely just, yet in humility he put it aside as God required and did what God wanted without question.

Who on earth can do this? Who of us can do the will of God, if the will of God is even greater than the will of his own righteous Son? We see that even when we try to do what God wants, God’s will crashes headlong into our own will, and struggles with us giving us no peace.

If this was the whole story, we would be left in a sad and sorry state. We would be utterly hopeless and condemned by our own inability.

But it’s at this point, where Christ’s own will was crushed and ours with his too, that the good and gracious will of God is done without our prayer. However, we pray that it is done in us too. The will or purpose of God for Jesus at the cross grants us forgiveness of all our sin. God’s will is done in heaven, when he sacrificed his Son for the sins of humanity. We are called to acknowledge that our will, our desires, our purposes — what we want, needs to be broken so that his will is done in us and we are forgiven.

And what is God’s will for us? God’s purpose is that we recognise the power of sin in our lives, and that we believe in the one he sent to conquer the power of sin in our lives, with the forgiveness of our sinful nature won at the cross where Christ was crushed in complete obedience to the will of God.

Jesus himself says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:38-40)

Having now seen that our forgiveness is in deed the will of God, we can now pray these two petitions as one and the same thing. In fact, we can mix and match the two petitions before us today, so that when we pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and then forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us we acknowledge to God that his will is done in heaven when he forgives us our sin.

What a marvellous thing that happens in these few short words. We see that our will is bound with all the wretchedness of death and the grave, but right here God gives us access through his Son to flee to the cross. He even sends the Holy Spirit to aid us in his will. And there at the cross we receive the benefits of his gracious will, which are; forgiveness of sins, a heavenly kingdom as our eternal home, and a holy name, before our Father whose kingdom, power, and glory are rightfully his alone!

So God brings us from the extreme of complete rebellion against him and his will, but adopts us, forgives us, and gives us what is rightfully his alone because he sent his Son to put aside his will, to suffer and die bearing all the wretchedness of death and the grave.

But if we mix and match the heavenly axis of these petitions then the earthly axis must be recognised too. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking for God’s heavenly peace and righteousness which rests on us because of Christ, to carry over into our earthly life. We pray for God’s will to be done on earth as we forgive those who sin against us, just as his will is done in heaven when he forgives us.

You are a bearer of forgiveness, which is Christ himself living in you bringing peace between you and God in heaven, Jesus then continues to live the will of God in you, by empowering you to forgive those who sin against you. You show the power of your God given faith when you forgive your neighbours and your enemies their sin.

When we pray forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, we ask for God’s will to be done in us in heaven and on earth so that all people will receive forgiveness and be united with he who seeks to be our Father. Amen.

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Amen (Revelation 4:11)

A, Midweek Lent 3 - Matthew 6:9-13 "The Lord's Prayer - Will I be Saved?"

How do I know if I am going to heaven or not? Will I really be saved? Am I doing the right thing? Have I been chosen by God, if so much in my life seems to be going wrong? What if I haven’t done the right thing? Is there more I should be doing? So many are leaving the church these days, should I bother continuing to come? Is heaven really out there? Does hell really exist?

Anyone who has every asked these questions or pondered the relevance of church, is encouraged to take another look at the Lord’s Prayer and in particular the pair of petitions, Your kingdom come… Lead us not into temptation.

When you examine your inner being, away from having to impress others with a glitzy exterior, what do you really see?

Allowing ourselves the time to be still and see the cauldron of darkness within is a testing thing to do. In fact many gather around themselves so many distractions in a bid to stop any opportunity for this type of reflection.

However, for those who can’t avoid this bubbling blackness inside themselves will struggle with the key questions of life and salvation. Is there a God? Will I be saved? Am I missing the boat, and how do I get into it before it’s too late?

Judas Iscariot saw his darkness after betraying Jesus into the hands of the authorities, seeking to return the blood money, and then seeing no way out of this darkness hung himself.

When we pray to God, your kingdom to come, we are saying that we need his kingdom, and we can’t get it by ourselves. We acknowledge that the darkness within, doesn’t want to know the light of his kingdom, nor trust in his power. We honestly say to God that the power of our darkness is robbing him of his power within us. And because this is so, our darkness, this old Adam within makes a mockery of God’s omnipresence and omnipotence. It despises God from its dark hiding place, saying, “you are not an ever-present all-powerful God, you are not here in me, therefore God you are not omnipotent and omnipresent but rather you are just another impotent good for nothing god”.

This is the darkness that Judas saw, and it’s the self centred hopelessness that tempts every person into not believing the kingdom of God is for them.

Now we may or may not go the way of immediate suicide to where Judas went. But frightened by this darkness, we often seek to usher in the kingdom by trying to foster in ourselves the benefits that God’s kingdom promises. Or we seek to tirelessly work to buy the kingdom of God.

If one works to burn off the darkness and buy the kingdom, they might do lots of charity, donate multiple things to the church, or they might think they have to run off and do some extraordinary mission in an exotic place or take a career in a seemingly holier vocation.

If it’s not work then perhaps the poison of desire is to surround one’s self with the ideals of heaven, namely – peace, joy, and love. Unfortunately what happens is human-invented happiness, and it’s usually implemented through the means of pleasure, honour, or wealth.

Surely if we’re to believe Scripture, we’re to seek his kingdom and his righteousness first, all these other things will be perfectly received once we get there. However, we seek these other solutions first because of fear of eternal failure, as we all look and see the reality of our darkness within.

Before Jesus went to the cross, he taught us how to pray, addressing the reality of our darkened old Adam, the sinful human nature. And now that Christ has been to the cross, to death and back for us, we have been given access to his Father, so we might pray our Father, and receiving all the holiness of his name in us. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are reassured that his kingdom has come to us, is coming to us, and will come to us, despite what we see inside of us.

So how do we know? How does this happen? Luther tells us in the explanation to the second petition, God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy Word and live a godly life on earth now and in heaven for ever.

But we don’t just rely on what Luther says here, we see that in these words he is pointing us to the one true authority on issues of salvation and reality, namely God’s written word. One only needs to read the ‘Kingdom of heaven’ texts from Matthew’s Gospel, and the ‘Kingdom of God’ texts elsewhere, to know God’s kingdom comes by God’s efforts and on its coming God wills us to believe this reality.

One text we can ponder is from Luke chapter seventeen: Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

This last verse can also be read that the kingdom of God is among you, highlighting the living community of God’s kingdom in the presence of Christ the King, hidden in heaven and on earth, as well as within the person of the believer.

So the reality is this: The kingdom comes to those who hear the word. But in those who hear the word also lives the kingdom of darkness. Therefore, in this life there will be misery and suffering as these two realities fight against each other. But the kingdom of darkness is being slaughtered every time we hear the forgiveness of sins proclaimed and when we receive it in absolution and Holy Communion.

The person who seeks to dismiss this reality is like a soldier who in the face of war, acts as if there is no attack, and then when attacked does not want to defend himself or fight for his kingdom. He soon finds himself engaging in shameful conduct that will only get himself killed for insurrection against his king and country, or killed as an enemy of the invading army.

Therefore, when we pray to God for his kingdom to come, we also pray lead us not into temptation. Not because God will lead us into temptation, but because the reality of trials and suffering in this life might lead us to turn away from the hidden reality of his word and the ever-present reality of our sinful darkness. We pray to be lead from temptation towards the hope of God’s kingdom come, so we don’t seek to substitute other things in place of God’s way in order to gain his kingdom.

We live in two realities. The battle between good and evil is real. Where is this battle fought? The battle is fought in us, and we know it because we recognise we live in two realities. Moving the way of the cross means we experience pain, suffering, trials and temptation, but in these things we know the victory is ours in Christ. And if the victory is ours in Christ, then too, the kingdom is ours in Christ.

When we fight the good fight of faith, allowing the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection to remain in us, there is hope, and there will be perfect peace and love for us in God’s kingdom. As Luther says, we pray that God would watch over us and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful self may not deceive us and draw us into false belief, despair, and other great and shameful sins. And we pray that even though we are so tempted we may still win the final victory.

As Christ is winning the victory in us, we who are honest about the battle of the two realities within, can then encourage others to hold onto the victory Christ has already won despite the battle raging within them too.

Let us stand shoulder to shoulder and support each other as our leader marches out ahead having won the victory over your darkness and the darkness of those standing next to you. Amen.

A, Midweek Lent 2 - Matthew 6:9-13 "The Lord's Prayer - A Good Name"

Having heard the whole council of Jerusalem condemn Jesus, then spit in his face and strike him with their fists, Peter is asked if he knew Jesus of Galilee. Three times he denied it and the rooster crowed just as Jesus said it would. Peter left in shame and wept bitterly.

Peter sought a good name. He was a proud man, and it was his pride that brought him undone. In fact this pride and desire for a good name was first sought when he replied to Jesus, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” (Matthew 26:35) And then his going back on these words and subsequent denial of Jesus was also an attempt to preserve his name amongst Jesus’ accusers. But having heard the rooster crow, he knew his name before God, didn’t hold up to the holiness that God demanded. Peter knew it and he wept with the gut wrenching bitterness of all hopelessness.

This picture is as good a background as any to continue our look at the Lord’s Prayer. And tonight we continue our examination of the First Petition coupled together with the Seventh Petition, which reads, Hallowed be your name – but deliver us from evil (or the evil one).

Last week we began with the introduction and doxology as the two book ends, Our Father in heaven – the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen. Jesus gives us access to his Father through the cross and therefore we can pray believing that he is truly “our Father”. The kingdom, power and glory which are God’s alone are now place in us by Christ’s death and resurrection.

Now having gained access to God who is God alone, we move in one petition from the beginning and pray, “Hallow be your name.” or “Holy is your name.”

We know that we do not hallow God’s almighty name by our prayer. In fact, his name is eternally holy, because he is eternally holy. But as Luther says in the catechism, God's name is hallowed [in us] whenever his Word is taught in its truth and purity and we as children of God live in harmony with it. But then he adds, help us to do this, heavenly Father!

It’s right here at this point that we can most clearly see how the Seventh Petition parallels the First. We ask God to help us to hear and live in harmony with his taught word, and when this is not hindered we are continually being delivered from all evil. This is the threefold: evil one - the devil himself, his agents of evil - seen and unseen around us, and the deadly nature within - seeking to re-emerge having been drowned in baptism.

It is necessary that we ask God’s name to be hallowed in us. Every person on earth is no different to Peter. We all seek to have our name honoured amongst others and in doing so dishonour God’s name in us and outside us.

Luther says — No one on earth hallows God’s name satisfactorily. A person who does so, however, does not belong to this earth, but only to heaven. Therefore we ought to pray and plead as long as we live that God may hallow his name in us. (LW 42:33)

Therefore, it is truly amazing that Jesus gives us this prayer and access to God, since we are not hallowed, and are in need of being daily delivered from evil against God.

On the other hand, if we push aside this plea to be made holy and seek only to be delivered from evil, perhaps we are more concerned about our own will over against God’s holy and precious will.

Here again Jesus is our example, and we might pray, My Father deliver me from the evils that persist in and around me, I cannot resist them by my own will. But only if this is in accord with the honour and glory due to your hallowed name and will. If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me? Yet not as I will, but as you will. (Matthew 26:39) We pray for deliverance from evil not for the benefit of our own honour and name, but for the glory of God’s name which makes us holy in a world that’s far from being holy. We pray for deliverance from evil and to be hallowed so that the perfection of God’s holiness is one day made complete in us, where God’s eternal kingdom also comes to us.

We like Peter cannot move an inch towards having a good name in God’s eyes, yet the reality for those who live under the cross is that we bear the name of Jesus Christ, to whom all glory, honour, and holiness is given.

Jesus was crucified having put his own will aside and now his name is the greatest name in all creation. It’s the name by whom Peter was forgiven and ministered, it is the name by whom you are forgiven and ministered to. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made and is redeeming heaven and earth.

When we pray our Father, hallowed be your name, deliver us from evil – we proclaim our true source of daily bread is the best and only name given to humanity, our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives life today in this troubled world. And will also carry us into eternity where we will hallow our Father perfectly forever.

Because Jesus Christ gave himself to us and is our daily bread we can pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name …deliver us from evil, for the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. Amen.

See diagram from Midweek Lent 1

A, Midweek Lent 1 - Matthew 6:9-13 "The Lord's Prayer - Our Father Intro"

There is no transcript for this sermon. However see the table I presented to the congregation. You might listen to the sermon/study by clicking on the player at the bottom of this site or by going to http://friarpuk.podbean.com/