B, 2nd Last Sunday of Church Year, Proper 28 - Mark 13:1-2, Hebrews 10:11-28 "The Temple Body"

Mark 13:1-2 (ESV) And as Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”  And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. 

The temple in Jerusalem no longer exists.  In 70 AD the Romans levelled the place, due to a revolt by the Jews that began in 66 AD.

When Jesus was crucified, the curtain in the temple separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was torn in two (Mark 15:38).  Christians recognise this as the time when the Old Covenant ceased to function along with the sacrificial requirements of the Law.  And along with the end of the sacrificial requirements was Jesus Christ’s one time victory over death and the devil; sin and Satan.

As we are told in the book of Hebrews, “‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’  Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:17-18 ESV)

What the disciples didn’t know, Jesus was the new temple, replacing the temple at which they marvelled.  These mega stones and structures would be wrecked and razed in a mega-destruction.

So, here we have a picture of Jesus turning the attention of the disciples, from the temple, to him and his word of promise.

But it is interesting that this happens, since Jesus had overturned tables of trade in the temple (Mark 11:15-19). Through the parable of the Tenants, he revealed he was the stone the builders rejected (Mark 12:1-12)

He told the Pharisees and Herodians to render to Caesar what bears the image of Caesar and to God what bears the image of God (Mark 12:13-17). 

He told one of the Scribes, “love the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:28-34).  

He taught in the temple, that the Christ was the Lord of David, even though he was the son of David (Mark 12:35-37). 

And just prior to the disciples being impressed by the size of the temple, Jesus highlights the wealth of the poverty struck widow, who put all she owned into the temple treasury, against the perception of the scribes’ greatness and the greater condemnation they would receive (Mark 12:38-44).  

All along Jesus was painting a picture of himself as the temple but despite this, they didn’t get it.  When Jesus told the Scribe in the temple, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34), no one realised he was speaking about himself. He was not talking about the temple, nor an abstract understanding of the kingdom of God.

Jesus is the temple of God.  He is the Curtain of Creation through which we enter the presence of God, encouraged by the Holy Spirit to receive his blessing. 

“We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,  by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23) 

Jesus paints this picture.  The disciples don’t get it. It is interesting but we shouldn’t be surprised!  Why?  Because we too struggle to see Jesus as the singular curtain through which we are led into eternal life!  And we have a much better understanding of this picture because Jesus has completed the picture. Jesus waits for our response, now that he has been raised and ascended into heaven; the Holy Spirit has been sent; and the temple now no longer stands in Jerusalem.

Yet we find the confession of our hope in the church is being sorely tested at the moment.  As a community of faith and as individuals, hope appears to be suffering. Because our hope suffers, confession of our hope is next to non-existent.  But where a confession of hope does exist, it’s a wavering hope, darkened with deadly doubt and blended beliefs.

Rather than a confidence in Jesus’ return and restoration, one hopelessly doubts saying, “I hope Jesus returns!” 

What is going on in the core of our being when this happens?

Like the disciples invested interest in the wonderful temple, we too have invested in many other temples.  Like the temple in Jerusalem all these other temples will end in decay and be devoted to destruction.  Although our temples of worship, unlike the temple in Jerusalem, have never served any function in the salvation of humanity.  Rather, they do quite the opposite, and erode faith, hope, and love, breeding self-righteousness and arrogance, hopelessness and despair, looseness and unappeasable desires.

Social media, advertising, individualism and the pursuit of pleasure have had a subtle effect on us all.  But there is nothing subtle about what our indoctrination in these things is doing to us as a society.  The temples are taking our time and they are taking our souls.  Such are the temple towns in which our hearts are deceptively drawn to in wonder, but end in disappointment, dissolution and destruction.

Unlike the temples that licence us for licentiousness, misery, and deathly desire, Jesus is the temple of truth, and he is faithful in his deliverance from death.

Unlike the temple in Jerusalem and the temples of our heart that end in death, he is the temple that begins in death and ends in life.  Where disfunction caused the death of the temple in Jerusalem and where the decay of our bodies will end in death, Jesus is the temple that begins in death that restores faith to live, hope to die, and love to forgive. 

One might ask why God would have Moses receive and institute the Law, with the temple  requirements, that would become dysfunctional?  All the Law seemed to do was breed works righteousness rather than love and faith in God who made the temple his footstool on earth!

And despite Jesus being the new temple that was destroyed and raised in three days (John 2:19), we still struggle with unbelief, despair, and our desires to be divine in our temples of goodness. And so one might also ask, “Has Christianity become just as dysfunctional as the temple at Jerusalem?”

What is God doing?

He is waiting!

When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,  waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:12-14 ESV)

Jesus is waiting for that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet!  In other words, he is teaching us and testing us.  Our Heavenly Father is teaching us, Jesus is the only Curtain through which we have access to him, and through testing us, his desire is that we learn from our weakness and failures and seek him, rather than rejecting his help and becoming his enemies.

Saint Paul puts it best, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,  if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.  For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 5:1–5 ESV)

It is God’s will that the temple of our body will be swallowed up by life, the temple of Jesus, where faith, hope and love dwell.

In addition to this we can marvel at the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit who comes to us in baptism and brings us into Jesus as a community, by planting Jesus in each of us individually at baptism. This is God’s guarantee!

John realised the greatness of this guarantee and records it in his Gospel, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 ESV)

His dwelling among us, is Jesus making us his temple community in which he tents or tabernacles. This is where our Immanuel indwells. Doesn’t Jesus say, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20 ESV)

So, since we have God’s promise, his faithfulness, the certainty of hope of life through death, and Jesus’ love from the cross through our baptism.  “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love (to forgive) and good works (confessing God’s good works of forgiveness and our good confession of sins),  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, by confessing your sins to one another, and praying for one another, that all of you may be healed, and all the more as all of you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24–25, James 5:16)

Amen.

B, Pentecost 19 Proper 22 - Mark 10:11-12, 14-15 "Jesus on Divorce and Children"

God gave humanity co-creative power when he created Adam and then Eve from Adam and gave her to him in the Garden of Eden.  And in cleaving to one another they produced children.

One might say, “But the animals do the same, they have co-creative power too!”  And they do but only to a certain extent. 

God brought forth animals from the earth, whereas humans were created from the earth but are also created in his image, and in his likeness.

A male and a female human being have the co-creative power to make images of God in the likeness of God.  And further to that God has given humanity dominion over all he has created from the earth.

The blessing of God fell on Adam and Eve after he created them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV)

Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, without her cleaving to a man, without the effort of a man.  Jesus was both the Son of Man but also the Son of God in the one person.

Jesus is tested twice in the Gospel reading for today.  First by the Pharisees when they tested him on divorce and then by the disciples when they incensed him by rebuking those bringing children to him.

Jesus teaches his disciples from these two testing events.  First, he says in response to the Pharisees, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10:11–12 ESV)

Second, when he saw the disciples rebuking those who were bringing children to him said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:14–15 ESV)

Divorce, adultery, and hindering children; things have obviously changed somewhat since God placed Adam and Eve together to be fruitful and multiply.  Yet Jesus is placed right in the thick of humanity’s destructive ways. And in doing so brings the kingdom of God into the presence of these difficult situations.

Anyone who has had anything to do with divorce or relationship breakdown knows just how complex the issues are that feed the collapse.  At the heart of a separation one deals with guilt, fear, grief, anger, betrayal, role responsibilities, loss of trust, and insecurity. 

When Jesus is tested by the Pharisees, he tells the Pharisees it is because the hardness of heart that Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written.  He then takes his hearers back to the beginning of creation, to the foundational function of being male and female.

When we are in a relationship with another person, regardless of the type of relationship, we are in a relationship with someone who bears the image of God.  

We can ask God, “How am I honouring you in my dealing with the other person who bears your image?” Then we can think about our relationships with our spouse or our partner, and then our children or our parents, and then our neighbours, who all bear the image of God.  But as you do, ask yourself, “What is it that I want or need from that relationship?”

Now ask yourself, “What does Jesus want or need from his relationship with me?  Are my wants and needs from my relationships the same as his wants and needs with me?  What were Jesus’ wants and needs from his disciples and the Pharisees?”

Divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children quickly bring to the fore all the messes in our families, the church and society today, and with that judgementalism and egalitarianism issues. 

So determined has our society become to provide a safe place for children and to stop gender discrimination that in our zealousness we have forgotten we are blessed as men by God and blessed as women by God, both being created in his image.  And the children we’ve created in his image have been indoctrinated and confused by the judgementalism of gender rights, identity, and equality.  And with that comes the suppression of the blessedness of serving each other as men and women, and as children and adults.

Through this self-centred mentality of seeking our rights in sexuality, in gender equality, as autonomous children, and as individualistic adults; divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children, seems to be accepted as normal.  As divorce, adultery and the hindering of children becomes the norm we continue to lose the blessedness of being fruitful and multiplying on this earth.

But Jesus comes to us right in the heart of divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.  He shows us what it is to be blessed and fruitful without being the son of a human father, without ever being married, without having children and without hindering children.

How does he do it?

He comes as the Son of Man and the Son of God.  Jesus was sent as the new Adam.

In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.  (Hebrews 1:1b–3 ESV)

Jesus came to be the Saviour of us and our fallen relationships.  He does this through the forgiveness of sins.  He can do this because he comes in the image of God, without sin, but bearing all sin for the forgiveness of all sin.

He brings forgiveness within marriages, he brings forgiveness where marriages have ended in divorce, and he brings forgiveness in adultery.  Jesus also serves children who are caught up in divorces and relationship breakdowns, and he seeks to reconnect with children who have been hindered from coming to him.

God has put all things in our messy world under his control.

Now in putting everything in subjection to him [Jesus], he [God] left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.  But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.  For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:8–11)

We might not see that God is in control of our broken families, church, and community, but we are called to trust his word.  God conquers all broken marriages, all adultery, and all hinderances of his children created in his image.  He does it by teaching us in his word how we get it wrong, by showing us the righteousness of Jesus’ life, but gives us forgiveness and salvation through his death.

God calls us not to divorce ourselves from him or his church by seeing and hearing he is making all things new as he showed John, recorded in Revelation chapter twenty-one, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:2–3 ESV)

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and from it came divorce, adultery, and the hindering of children.

You and I are called to eat from the tree of knowledge of sin and salvation, that is the cross, so you and I are forgiven and saved from this adulterous and Fatherless generation. 

Receive God’s invitation of blessing and fruitfulness, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9 ESV)

And, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2 ESV)

Amen. 

B, Pentecost 16 Proper 19 - Mark 8:27-38 "Jesus' Love and Death of Peter"

Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”  And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”  And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. (Mark 8:27b–30 ESV)

Why did Jesus charge the disciples to tell no one about him?  This seems to go against the proclamation of the Gospel.  He came to be the Christ and now that they had learnt enough to know Jesus was the Christ, they are not allowed to tell anyone. 

This is peculiar.  Here in the Gospel of Mark it’s the first mention of Jesus being recognised as “the Christ”.  So why does Jesus immediately seek to shut down word getting out that he is the Christ?

Jesus’ language recorded here in Mark is a strong rebuke.  It’s not just a casual suggestion but a stern warning not to speak. In the same way Mark reports Jesus rebuking the demons in Mark chapter one, he admonishes the disciples not to tell anyone he was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ!  Why?

The answer reveals itself in what happens next. 

“And he (Jesus) began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’” (Mark 8:31–33 ESV)

First Jesus rebukes them not to tell anyone about him. Now he rebukes Peter in the harshest way calling Satan, literally the accuser, to get behind.  How could Peter proclaim Jesus as the Christ when he was influenced by Satan to accuse Jesus’ explanation of the Christ as being wrong?  After Jesus says not to tell anyone about him being the Christ, Peter rebukes Jesus speaking of his anointing through suffering, rejection, death and then resurrection.

There was nothing inside of Peter that could have prepared him for that kind of Christ.  All the ideals and presumptions Peter had of the Christ were wrong.  Not only did they come from his human spirit as well as the expectations of a Jewish community in waiting; but as Jesus reveals, it came from Satan himself!

There is only one place from where true faith and understanding can come!  And this is from God himself.  It must come from the divine holy work of God! 

It was God the Father who provided Jesus so he could be the Christ.  It was Jesus, Son of God, and Son of Mary, who would do, and has done, the passive work of being anointed as the Christ.  And it’s God the Holy Spirit proceeding from God the Father and God the Son who reveals the Christ to us and within us as he opens the word to us and within us.

All tongues need to be silenced, and Jesus needed to send the Holy Spirit to reveal and teach before anyone could proclaim the Christ. The generations from Adam to Abraham, from Moses to Malachi, time and time again proved that following God by one’s own effort was not doable. Peter was no different, nor were the disciples, and even today we need to be taught why Jesus needs to be the Christ that he is. And we the Christian chuch he needs us to be.

Jesus’ love for Peter required Peter’s death.  Peter didn’t understand this; nor did he understand what Jesus being “the Christ” entailed.

This picture of Peter stands in stark contrast to the same Peter of many jokes who stands guard and meets people on their arrival at the pearly gates of heaven.  Unfortunately, most of these jokes portray the wrong idea of what it is to be a Christian and therefore represent a Christ that is not what Jesus Christ is all about. The following seems to do the same but with a twist at the end.

There was a man who died and went to heaven and met Peter at the pearly gates.  Peter says to the man, “This is the deal.  You need to acquire one hundred points to get into heaven.”  The man thinks then says, “I went to church regularly.” Peter replies “Ok that’s two points.” “Oh” says the man, “that’s not many! Then he says, “I was faithful to my wife for fifty-two years”, thinking, “that should get me a few brownie points.”  “That’s another two points”, replied Peter.  “Well, I tithed and volunteered every week of my life”, the man expectantly says hoping for a big addition to his score.  “That’s another point”, says Peter.  “What!  At this rate it will be only by the grace of God that I get into heaven”, the man retorts in exasperation!  “Spot on sir”, says Peter, “That’s one hundred points!  Come on in!”

A silly joke yes!  But it captures the essence of what it is to be a Christian and what it isn’t.  Also, it points to something other than our works that allow us entry into heaven.  And it helps us focus on the function of the Christ; what Jesus allowed happen to him for him to be the Christ; that the generations before and since are not able to do.

The grace of God sent Jesus to the cross.  The grace of God raised Jesus from the grave. And by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit comes revealing, through the cross and death, Jesus as the Christ.  Jesus is the only one anointed to be the Messiah, the Rescuer of humanity.  And to this end he reveals in his word through the Holy Spirit what it is to be a Christian. 

“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he (Jesus) said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’” (Mark 8:27–38 ESV)

I imagine the crowd not having much of a clue to what Jesus was referring when he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  They knew the cross to be a barbaric punishment of death meted out by the Romans and they also knew from the Law in the book of Deuteronomy that anyone hung on a tree was cursed (Deut 21:22-23).  However, they did not know this was to be the way the Christ was to redeem humanity, beginning with the Jews.

But we do!  And still, we like Peter, those before him, and many since, still fail to grasp just what the Christ is and therefore, who we are as Christians.

Enter 2020 and Covid-19 and our inability to worship the way we use to.  Perhaps we have been spoilt or even deceived in the past believing we need our ideals of community and friendships to be church. 

The reality of the Christian Church is that we are community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ, alone.  Jesus rebukes all community based on anything other than him. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred by the Nazis at the end of World War Two wrote: 

Just as surely God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great general disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. (Life Together: 26,27)

What does this mean?  Regardless of how good our intentions might be, if our community is based on yours or my desire, it’s a wish dream.  And like Jesus putting Peter’s desire to death, he calls us to the same death, by saying to us, “Get behind me, Satan.”   And he does so because so often what we believe to be church is not what Jesus knows as church.

The good news in this is Jesus’ death and resurrection! In him putting Satan behind us, the Holy Spirit puts Christ before us!  Indeed, within us!  He did it in baptism and he continues to renew us in him daily as we allow the death of sin within though confession, and Holy Spirited belief we are forgiven.  This is forgiveness realised by faith in the word of God where God reveals his promises to us.

Perhaps in this time of isolation you might be led into a deeper sense of community in your time alone with Jesus Christ in his Word. 

Jesus’ love of Peter required Peter’s death.  Jesus Christ’s love for the church requires the death and resurrection of the church in him.  Jesus love for you and me requires his death, and our death, so we can pick up our cross and follow him.  Our love for others requires our death to self so we can pick up our cross and lead others to Jesus the Christ. Let us pray:

Dear Heavenly Father send you Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can deny ourselves, pick up our cross, follow Jesus the Christ, and be his messengers of forgiveness and love even in these days of lockdown and isolation. Amen.

B, Pentecost 14 Proper 17 - James 1:17-27 "Doers of the word"

 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.  Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.  Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.  If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.  James 1:17-27 (ESV)

Dear Heavenly Father, we believe! Save us from our unbelief. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Doer of the word.  He is the Word made flesh.  Within his person he carries the perfection of God but this person like all of us was capable of sin.  Yet he did not sin but chose to be a doer of the word.

In James we are called to be doers of the word.  In our quest to discover what being a doer of the word is, what better place to go than into the word to see just what that is!

How we hear the word and what we do with it, however, makes a world of difference!  Said another way, using the word to please us as opposed to letting it work on us to please God separates Jesus Christ from the word, and leads us into error.  We must allow the word to work on us, so we do what God wants.

Jesus reveals this in his word to the pharisees (Mark 7). They were doer of the word but worked the word in a way that did not please Jesus nor our Father in heaven.  They were like those James spoke of who peered into a mirror and immediately forgot what they looked like.

It’s interesting to note that the Pharisees came into conflict with Jesus not because of any radical differences, but rather due to their similarities.  Although their work looked like that of Jesus, their work was completely different due to their motivation.

This stands as a warning to us who like them can easily see only part of the picture and be doers of deeds that please us and disturb God.

Another warning for us is Martha and Mary.  Mary sat at Jesus’ feet while Martha worked in the kitchen.  Martha complained to Jesus that she had to do all the work.  She was a distracted doer of the word.  Martha’s motives were brought into the light by Jesus showing her that her service, and Mary’s lack of it, was not the issue. Rather Jesus’ concern with Martha was her wanting Mary to turn away from him and serve her, placing Mary back in bondage. (Luke 10:38-42)

A third example are the sons of Sceva.  They saw Saint Paul miraculously casting out demons and sort to do the same for their own advantage.  But on trying to exorcise a demon the demon-possessed man overpowered them leaving them naked and wounded. (Acts 9:11-20)

All three examples are religious illustrations.  What they were doing looked like they were doers of the word.  But what they did was blind and faithless work.  They investigated the mirror of the word and forgot what they looked like.  They remembered the flesh but forgot whose image they bore.  They failed to see that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  (James 1:17 ESV)

King David askes of God in Psalm 15, “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?”    It’s not clear whether David has become an adulterer and murdered when he led the people of Israel with this word.  However, for us after the fact we know David did not walk blamelessly and despite penning this Psalm it was not even he who this Psalm speaks of.  David like the Pharisees, Martha and the sons of Sceva could not persevere and fulfil the law of freedom.

However, Jesus could, and did!  And the Holy Spirit continues to put us in the place were we can be doers of the word.

Jesus is our answer to all the questions of David’s psalm 15. He is David’s answer too.  In Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, God announces before the world an affirmative “Yes!” to Jesus.

Who shall sojourn in your tent Lord?  The eternal answer is “Jesus Christ” Son of God and Son of Mary, Doer of the word.

Who walks blamelessly, does what is right and speaks the truth in his heart?  Jesus, Doer of the word! 

Who does not slander, does no evil, nor scolds his friends?  Jesus, Doer of the word! 

Who is it who can truly discern between one who is vile and one who truly fears the Lord?  Jesus, Doer of the word! 

Who is it who stands firm and does not move even to his own detriment, who doesn’t sell out for his own gain, who doesn’t even take a bribe against the guilty or the innocent?  Jesus Christ, Doer of the word!

James speaks of those who are “religious”.  Many of us today like to appear religious, to be doers of the word, but like David, Martha, the pharisees, and the sons of Sceva in the face of Jesus we learn very quickly our religion is worthless. 

Jesus shows himself to be the only true religious one.  And in demonstrating this at the cross in his faithfulness unto death, God the Father raises him with a heavenly eternal “yes”!  And says “no” to all other religious activity or attempts of doing the word.

Jesus tells us what type of religion humanity emits, and what it does to the person who produces this type of religion.  He says, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”  Mark 7: 21-23 (ESV)

Being doers of the word, allows the word to do things to us.  God’s Word made flesh takes the religion we put our trust in and shows us it defiles us before God.  His written word reveals to us that Jesus bears the only true marks of religious fervour before God the Father.  But it also teaches us to trust the freedom won for us through Jesus Christ, the Doer of the word.

You and I now stand on God’s holy hill!  We dwell in his temple! Why? Because Jesus temples in us by the power of the Holy Spirit!

So, what does this look like?  What is it to be doers of the word to the fulfilment of God’s eternal joy? Well, this is not the place to dive back into our religious individualisms for answers.  Rather, we go back into the written word of God and seek the Doer of the Word, Jesus Christ the Word made flesh, and the Doer of God’s word in us, the Holy Spirit. This is what pleases God the Father. 

James says pure and undefiled religion before God is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Orphans have no fathers, and widows have no husband, both have no inheritance and hold no power or advantage for the person who visits them in their need.  In fact, they are those who in their need will drain you of all religious value. 

God has work for all of us which he has prepared in advance for us to do.  But we struggle to do it because of the dead religion we hold within us, with all its idols whatever they may be.  Yet as we stand on God’s holy hill, he calls us to confess these worthless religious idols – that is, our sin.  Confessing sin pleases God!

So, in the freedom of forgiveness we doers of the word can do even greater works than Jesus, The Doer of the word.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, we believe! Save us from our unbelief. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

B, Palm/Passion Sunday - Philippians 2:5-11 "Seven Days of Holy Week"

On Palm Sunday Jesus was glorified by the crowd but just five days later they screamed for his crucifixion.  What happened in this week changed the course of humanity forever. 

On the surface it looks like chaos and a complete miscarriage of justice, but those who received the Holy Spirit and believed the resurrection testify to the crowd,

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—  this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.  God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:22–24 ESV)

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart. (Acts 2:36–37a ESV)

Now we who have been baptised and received the Holy Spirit submit to God’s Word, dwelling on it as we carry our crosses on the road to eternity with Jesus.  But what can we take away from this Lenten season, from this Palm Passion Sunday and our Saviour’s death on Good Friday?

Yes we know the eighth day is coming! The day of Jesus’ resurrection!  And we know in trusting God and his word we will be raised too.  But how can we reflect on these seven days of Holy Week, and every seven day week in which we live until our final week here is replaced and we’re resurrected into the eternal eighth day of God’s heavenly reality?

It is very easy for us to hear of the events of Jesus’ passion and ponder that we are people like the Palm Sunday crowd, and that maybe so!  But what was the motive of the crowd on Palm Sunday, especially after Jesus enters the temple and upturns the tables when they hoped for him to overturn the Roman government and throw them out of Jerusalem.  Had Jesus wronged them? 

Maybe Jesus is not living up to your expectations!  Perhaps he is not giving you what you want, seemingly wronging you, letting you suffer like a slave rather than letting you kickback like a king.

Saint Paul tells us, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5–11ESV)

Here we are told we’re given the gift of this mind amongst ourselves from Jesus himself.  Jesus did not see himself as God.  He emptied himself!  He became a servant!  A slave! He was truly they Son of Man, the servant of man!  Even though Jesus is not only the Messiah, the Anointed King, he is the Son of God.  But he humbled himself to be the Servant Son or Slave of Man.  In short he became nothing.

But in the horror of being made nothing he has made us something.  He has made us someone before God!  Unfortunately, more often than not, we take this someone to be something other than the humble creature servant kings and children of God, and once again take our being liked by God, recreated in the likeness of God, and seek to usurp him by being like God.

Jesus knew we would continue to struggle in this old creation of seven days.  This is why he lay down his life for us, and why he sent the Holy Spirit to guide us in his Word through this life until he ends the old seven day creation once and for all and carries us into the eighth day of his eternal kingdom at our resurrection.

So Jesus gave us a prayer in which the Holy Spirit helps us to pray and we can use its petitions this week to reflect on our sinful condition and why Jesus had to die for me, you and all people.  This prayer is the Lord’s Prayer and it can help those who believe to look deeply into the loving heart of God and our hearts that need this steadfast, constant, merciful and generous love.

In fact this pray and its seven petitions is a perfect mirror of reflection on the seven days of Holy Week, and for that matter any seven day week made holy for those who believe as they wait for the kingdom, power and glory to be made manifest for them at their resurrection.  Ironically, each petition reflects the actions of the crowd as they descend from Palm Sunday’s “Hosanna” to “Crucify him” on Good Friday.

In Luther’s explanation of the introduction of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven”, he writes, “Here God encourages us to believe that he is truly our Father and we are his children”.  In other words, this prayer is a recognisation of our restored creatureliness in the presence of God.  We receive the gift of Jesus’ kingship and it’s a kingship of servanthood.  We live in a relationship with God similar to that of God and Adam before the fall, but now after the fall we live it in the reality of sin, death, and evil.  We pray to our Father in heaven, in the hope of our restoration through the perfect creaturely New Adam, Jesus Christ.

Let’s now look at the seven days of Holy Week and see how they sit with the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

Sunday’s petition, Hallowed by your name.  It appears the crowd were hallowing God’s name with shouts of Hosanna!  But were they hallowing it to glorify God or were they worshipping what they wanted Jesus to be for them.  Here we can reflect on our motivation and confess that we so often seek to use God for our own benefit.  This is using God to justify our own godliness.  A godliness that is not sacrificial like Jesus. A godliness that sits in judgement over God and his Word rather than one that sits in submission and servanthood!  

Monday, Your kingdom come.  As we go off and pick up the regular beat of the week, have you taken God with you?  In other words, are you still the creaturely servant God has called you to be?  Or have you put God back in his Sunday box and picked up pursuing your kingdom?  Are you 100% for God as Jesus was?  Are you carrying your cross or are you tempted to put off the cross to keep face with the world?  God’s kingdom comes when we allow the Holy Spirit to turn over the tables of our human spirit so we believe that God’s kingdom has come in baptism, is coming despite the crosses we bear, and will come at the resurrection.  Let us confess Jesus in the kingdom of this world through our confession of sin and Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins.

Tuesday, Your will be done on earth as in heaven.  What is God’s will for you?  Firstly, it is his will to forgive us our sins, for we know not what we do.  He doesn’t just forgive us for what we do, he forgives us for who we are.  In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39 ESV)  God’s will is to forgive sin.  This is the steadfast love of God for we who struggle with a steadfast natures of sin. 

And God’s will for us on earth is to be the new Adams and the new Eves as fulfilled in Jesus.  As kings and servants in the kingdom of God on earth we forgive as God has forgiven us.

Wednesday, Give us this day our daily bread.  Hear God gives us a petition of prayer showing us the reality of our need.  As creatures we ask for all we need.  The going is tough so we are reminded to turn to God just as Jesus did.  We pray, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let this food to us be blessed.”  But there is a second more important part that points us to Maundy Thursday which the church can pray, “blessed be God who is our bread may the world be clothed and fed!” 

Thursday, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  The first three petitions encourage us to look to God in his holiness and love, now after the fourth, we can reflect on why he has to be gracious with us. 

Our creatureliness is fallen but our sin is covered by Jesus’ body and blood, given and she for forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  If we change this petition to first person it reads, “forgive me my sin as I forgive those who sin against me.”  This is the only active part of the Lord’s Prayer attributed to us, to me, all other actions are attributed to God. 

Our lives in Christ are a calling to forgive others as Jesus forgives us.  But notice how the petition is worded in reverse. We ask God to forgive us the same way we forgive others.  How do you forgive others?  If you are anything like me you will be made humble by just how gracious God is despite our ongoing struggle to forgive others.  The cross we bear in forgiving others requires the death of our pride and all that our human nature and spirit trusts other than God.

Friday, Lead us not into temptation.  Good Friday is the day of the great exchange.  Crucify him, Crucify him. God crucifies your kingdom and gives you his when you were baptised into his death and resurrection.  When you are tempted to not believe God’s work in your baptism, see that God did not send his only Son to his cross for nothing.  His blood covers you sin, don’t be tempted you are now no longer in need of forgiveness as if you now no longer need his crucifixion. 

Our temptation is also to crucify others with our accusations. This is a temptation back into the kingdom of darkness.  We now live in the kingdom of light and it’s a kingdom of forgiveness. Do not be tempted to toss away and crucify God’s eternal kingdom.

Saturday, But deliver us from evil.  This is the final and seventh petition.  On Holy Saturday Jesus showed his sinlessness to those in hell.  Now that Jesus has been crucified his death crucifies all unholiness. You are delivered from evil into holiness. 

But just as Jesus remembered the Sabbath and made it holy with his perfect sinless rest in the grave and descent into hell we are called to ponder the holiness we have received in baptism. No longer are we commanded "be holy for the Lord is holy" as a work with which to busy ourselves. Rather our being is holy because the Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus. 

We can now do the work of bringing our evil into the light through confession of sin, which might seem to be the wrong thing to do but it pleases God because it shows trust in the good work Jesus did at the cross and the good work the Holy Spirit continues us to do by bring us to Jesus every day in repentance.

As you go from here into this week walk the Holy Week with Jesus. Walk with Jesus to the cross and in carrying your cross know it is Jesus who truly bears your load of sin and death, and it is he who carries you through to the resurrection.

Our Father in heaven, the kingdom, and the power and the glory are yours, now and forever, Amen.