A, Post Pentecost 6 Proper 9 - Matthew 11:28-30 A Balancing Yoke

When you read or hear God’s Word, does God reveal His message to you? Does hearing or reading His Word leave you wanting to know more, or do you find yourself thinking, “I’m glad that’s done; now I can do something more constructive”?

If so, you may be weighing up God’s Word in the wrong way, and the depth of God’s power in His Word may remain hidden from you. Perhaps you are not allowing God the Holy Spirit to open God’s Word to you. Perhaps it is not important enough in the scheme of your life.

Or perhaps your stubborn, independent self-sufficiency is not allowing the Holy Spirit the time to work His will in you. Like stubborn Pharaoh placing a harsh burden on the Israelites through hardheartedness, you may be placing a harsh burden on yourself through your own stubborn self-sufficiency.

The question we must ask ourselves is this: “Do I want to continue in self-sufficiency, letting my heart become darker and harder through stubborn perception and deception, with the very real possibility that God hands me over to drown in my sins and their consequences?” No! I believe most of us don’t.

Next Sunday we’ll hear Jesus’ address what can happen to the Word of God when it has been sown in the heart. For now, He invites those who are weary from human hardheartedness to come to Him, take on His yoke, and learn from Him.

This invitation from Jesus is not simply a comforting saying; it reveals what God is doing with our weariness. He is drawing us away from the exhausting burden of self-sufficiency and towards the rest that comes from being yoked to Christ.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30 ESV)

We’ve all heard the saying, “there’s no rest for the wicked”.  This saying finds its origin in God’s Word where in Isaiah 48:22 we hear, “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” (Isaiah 48:22 ESV)

But we’ve also just heard in Zechariah chapter nine, “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.” (Zechariah 9:12 ESV)

We are prisoners from our wickedness, but ones with hope of restoration from the strength of God!

Chances are God is allowing your weariness to reveal something about yourself, just as He has done with individuals and groups throughout history. Perhaps God is teaching you how you relate to Him, especially when self-sufficiency leads you to forget or refuse to let Him be your God. Yet He remains the God whose kingdom, power, and glory are, were, and will continue to be.

God’s kingdom, power, and glory manifest themselves to us through His steadfast love. Our God is a God of generosity and mercy. So too are God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit invite us to receive Their generosity and mercy, and to live in the steadfast love of Their providence, salvation, and will.

We mostly think our heavy burden and weariness is a negative that has been inflicted upon us by the sins of others.  However, the reality is unlike Jesus, we are far from gentle and lowly in heart.  When push comes to shove from the sins of others our meekness or gentleness vaporises like an oasis in the desert, proving to be a mirage or deception.  Any lowliness of heart hardens in the heat of the moment.

Yet Jesus invites you to take on his yoke. A yoke still sounds like a burden to us. Most of us picture oxen yoked to a plough in the paddock, or a dray hauling heavy loads up a hill while the bullocky breaks the sound of shackles and chains on straining cattle with his most colourful language.

Jesus is not like a coarse bullocky, nor does His yoke make beasts of burden. No! “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Psalm 145:8–9 ESV) So too is our Lord Jesus since He and the Father are one!

But what is His yoke if it is not a beastly yoke? Another yoke is similar to that which rests on the neck of the beast, and it does carry things. However, the focus is more on balance than burden. In fact, if the balance is not right on a yoke the burden can be unbearable. So, what can we learn from Jesus about His yoke and the balance of what He bears and how He bears it? In other words, what does Jesus invite us to learn from Him?

As humans, we tire and weary ourselves with the old knowledge-of-good-and-evil narrative. As we all know, this is as old as humanity itself, reaching back to Adam and Eve. Since then, we have embellished this knowledge in countless ways. Unfortunately, these embellishments exhaust humanity more and more, as each of us uses this knowledge on others while it’s used on us.

As humanity prides itself on advancement in technological, social, academic, and practical knowledge, how much do these advancements become the very things that create a greater burden upon us? The things we thought would make life better often make us more anxious and burdened about living. This tiredness ends in eternal death when the knowledge of good and evil remains as one’s yoke.

What we learn from Jesus is that our balance is way out of whack! Judging ourselves and each other with a yoke of good and evil misjudges and misunderstands the yoke of Jesus. His yoke is a yoke of holiness built on the Law, that shows us that both the good and evil deeds that come from our natures are wicked. Our wickedness is that we do not fear and trust God but that we would prefer to fear and trust the desires of our hearts above God.

Jesus’ yoke rebalances the holiness of God in human life. In His meekness and humility, He removes the burden we place on ourselves and each other. Jesus’ yoke took Him to the cross, and He calls us to bear our cross. Yet the yoke of our cross is not the yoke Jesus bore in His death. That yoke has already been borne.

We learn from Jesus that bearing our cross is about putting off the very things that weary us. What we learn from Jesus is not that we must be good like Him and use Him as a method for our salvation. That would place Gospel before Law: Jesus did it, showed us what to do and how to do it, and now we must do it to be saved. Put simply, this is just a revised version of the knowledge of good and evil.

Paul shows us the reality of trying to make ourselves self-sufficient in Romans chapter seven, where he cries out, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”(Romans 7:19 ESV)

In the exhaustion of Paul’s good and evil he celebrates, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a ESV)

What we learn from Jesus while on earth, during life, ministry, cross, death, and resurrection is that He rested His divinity as the Son of God and was wearied with what worries every human being. But in the weakness of yours and my flesh He remained holy and without sin. Unlike us He was not wicked, and unlike us He lived life solely to please God the Father, setting Him aside in all holiness. And He did not do this from His own divinity but was led by the Holy Spirit in hallowing God and His name before all.

This is what it truly means to be gentle and lowly in heart, or meek and humble in heart. Where we become soft and sin making us hardhearted, Jesus was hard against sinning while becoming soft towards those who know their reality and call on the name of the Lord for help.

Jesus now yokes us with His Word of Law and Gospel. The Holy Spirit uses that Word to show you the weight of your sin and the weariness it brought upon Jesus Christ on the cross. Yet the same Word gives you the gift of His sinless life, which did not deserve the cross. By the power of God’s Word, you are made holy and given rest in the holiness of the Father’s presence, in peace.

Since this yoke balances yours and my debt with our Father, surely it gives you and me the will to walk in meekness and humility, to love others as Christ loves us, and to serve others as Jesus served us at the cross and as He continues to serve us before the Father in Heaven. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we bless You for blessing and balancing us with the yoke of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to speak of the glory of Your kingdom and tell others of Your power. Let the Spirit dwell in us so Your power is made manifest in meekness and humility to others. Let us make known the glorious splendour of Your everlasting kingdom, now and forever. Amen.

***

Sermon Summary

This sermon calls hearers to recognise how easily God’s Word can be treated as something weighed, judged, and managed by human self-sufficiency rather than received as the living Word through which God reveals Himself. The burden addressed is not only the suffering caused by others, but also the heavier burden created by stubborn independence, hardheartedness, and the old knowledge-of-good-and-evil narrative by which people judge themselves and one another.

Against this weariness, Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28–30 is presented as more than comfort. It is the gracious call of Christ to come to Him, take His yoke, and learn from Him. His yoke is not beastly oppression but holy rebalancing. By His Law and Gospel, Jesus exposes the weight of sin and gives the gift of His sinless life, which has already borne the burden of the cross for us.

The sermon therefore moves from human exhaustion to divine rest. Christ, gentle and lowly in heart, does not leave sinners to carry the crushing yoke of self-justification. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus joins us to Himself, we’re taught meekness and humility, and willed to rest in the Father’s presence. To bear the yoke of Christ is to be freed from sinful self-sufficiency, rebalanced by grace, and drawn into a life of humble service.

Bearing the yoke of Jesus in the wider context on Matthew 11

Matthew 11 places before us the picture of children in the marketplace calling, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.” Jesus uses this image to expose a generation unwilling to respond to God’s visitation, through Him and John the Baptist. John comes with the solemn dirge of repentance, yet they will not mourn. Jesus comes with the joyful music of the kingdom, eating and drinking with sinners, yet they will not dance. They reject both because they do not want God to set the tune. 

Reflection: What unrepentant things do I do to set the tune for my life?

This refusal is unrepentance. Christ’s mighty works are the music of God’s kingdom breaking into the world: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor receive good news. Yet Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum remain unmoved. They have heard both flute and funeral song but answer neither. Their burden is not lack of revelation but resistance to it; their hearts remain yoked to themselves.

Reflection: What goods and evils need to be unyoked from my life with the yoke of Jesus Christ?

At that time Jesus rejoices that the Father has hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. These little children are not childish in stubbornness, but childlike in dependence, receptiveness, and trust. They receive what the Father reveals through the Son. Here the mourning of the burdened becomes blessed: those who labour and are heavy laden know the dirge of sin, disappointment, judgement, and death, yet Jesus does not leave them under that load. He reveals the Father and calls them to Himself.

Reflection prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, send the Holy Spirit to move me to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to respond with thanksgiving when I hear it.  Help me to mourn over my sin, so in repentance I daily place it on the cross.

To take the yoke of Jesus Christ is allowing the Holy Spirit to teach and move us to respond to God’s music. His Law teaches and moves us to mourn what sin has done; His Gospel teaches and moves us to dance before God’s mighty works in Christ: His mercy, healing, forgiveness, cross, resurrection, deposit of the Holy Spirit, and promised rest. His yoke is not the heavy yoke of performing for God, nor the stubborn yoke of refusing God. It is the gracious yoke by which Christ brings mourners into joy and the weary into rest.

Reflection:  How does the yoke of Jesus encourage me to be humble in my blessings, and endure in the hardships, of this life?  How does the yoke of Jesus enable me to be “like Jesus” to my neighbour? 

A Prayer for Peace

Dear friends of faith in Christ Jesus our Lord…

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

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

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

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer.

Come Lord Jesus come…      Amen. 

A, The Second Sunday of Advent - Matthew 3:10-12 "Three Fires:Destruction,Spirit,Refinement "

Matthew 3:10–12 (ESV) Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

It looks like a forest full of eucalyptus trees, but on closer inspection the trees are in uniform rows and not scattered like they are in a forest.  No! These eucalyptus trees are a plantation grown for the purpose of harvesting hardwood. Because the trees were all planted at the same time they have competed for sunlight and have grown tall and straight to make good timber for construction. 

One week the plantation stands tall, and then in a relatively short time it’s flattened.  The timber is harvested.  It goes on to serve its purposes for many years to come.  But the dying limbs and leaves are pushed into piles and burnt.

The plantation forest is a dismal sight compared to its former self. The only thing left is stumps.  Over time the seemingly dead stumps show signs of life and green shoots appear.  Within a year or so, these shoots form a mass of leafy bushes growing out of the stumps.  But these eucalyptus bushes that replace the tall trunks from the tree’s former life are stunted and twisted — not good for any use.

In time the owner of the field looks to a new type of harvest, the collection of electricity in a solar farm.  But first, the stumps are laboriously and painstakingly dug up one by one and burnt with the now dying leafy bushes.  Then the land can be cleared and cleaned for a solar farm to be constructed.

Matthew’s Gospel reports John the Baptist accusing the Pharisees and Sadducees of being a “brood of vipers”, to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance”, if they were “to flee from the wrath to come.” (Matthew 3:7-8)  John refers to them as the trees at which an axe is laid at the roots waiting to see what type of fruit is produced.

Last week we heard Jesus speak about signs of his coming. With the picture of the fig sending out shoots as a sign, we hear about bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.   Here we are reminded of the fig again, when Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit as he walks the way of the cross to bear the bad fruit of humanity.

On the day after Palm Sunday, Jesus, in hunger, seeing a fig tree, “found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once.” (Matthew 21:19 ESV)

These decisive words from Jesus’ mouth destroy the fig tree. Similarly, John the Baptist’s words to the Pharisees and Sadducees are equally significant as he warns of their destruction without the fruit of repentance.

Three times John speaks of fire.  First, trees are cut down and thrown into the fire.  These trees are those that are not repentant.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees have arrived to see what John was doing at the Jordan River.  Perhaps some were intending to be baptised with others who were fruitful in confessing their sins.  Were they coming to flee the coming wrath through repentance, by confessing their sin?  Or were they coming to make a show before others who were confessing sin and being baptised with a baptism of repentance?  Either way John warns that the axe lies in wait!

Second, John compares his baptism of repentance with the coming of Jesus, saying, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11 ESV)

Here John connects Jesus’ baptism in (by, or with) a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.  This is John’s second mention of fire.  We know that tongues of fire appeared at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given.  This was good fire.  When Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan, he was baptised to fulfil all righteousness.  The fulfilling of all righteousness meant Jesus faced the fires of hell and death at the cross and gained victory over the fires of hell that were meant for us.  This is also good fire, when we allow the judgement to fall on Jesus at the cross through our confession of repentance.  Otherwise, as John rightly mentions these fires of judgement await all those who stand stubbornly unrepentant and will be chopped down and burnt bearing their unrepentant sin.  Then the fire becomes dire and deadly!

John mentions fire a third time to the Pharisees and Sadducees after Jesus winnows the wheat from the chaff that burns with an unquenchable fire. 

Unquenchable fire paints an ugly picture of those whose unquenchable passions resist the refining fires of the Holy Spirit.  Like one in the path of a raging unquenchable bushfire, so too is one who does not allow the Holy Spirit to backburn the human heart and the unquenchable sin that lies within.

Fire may be frightening, but I put it to you, a life “without fire” can also be frightening.  Since the first humans worked out how to make fire, we rely on it for everything.  Without fire, we all bathe in cold water, all food is cold and uncooked, and warmth in winter is just a memory.  Without fire, minerals stay in the ground and never become the metals relied upon in every part of modern life.

One might think fire and peace are mutually exclusive of each other.  The three fires John the Baptist proclaims speak differently. 

The first fire is the promise of destruction for all those who reject the two fires that follow.  Rightly, this fire fills hearts with fear.  As Luther says of Holy Baptism in his Small Catechism, “our sinful self, with all its evil deeds and desires, should be drowned through daily repentance; and that day after day a new self should arise to live with God in righteousness and purity forever.”  In other words, in the face of this fire, we flee to the cross as knowledge about our sinful selves is daily brought to light.  Like the Prodigal Son in whom the Holy Spirit wins out over the human spirit, you and I are prodigals brought to a right mind and daily returned to the graciousness of God the Father, in his Son Jesus Christ!

We are returned to the second fire which John proclaims!  This is the baptism of Jesus in the Holy Spirit and fire.  In fact, this second fire is essential to overcome the first fire! 

In his baptism Jesus was baptised into the fires of humanity’s sin — your sin!  Having put aside his divinity as the Son of God, as the Son of Man in human flesh in his baptism he received the Holy Spirit on which he relied, to sinlessly be the sacrifice for our sin — your sin! 

Just as under the old covenant God lovingly consumed the sacrifices for the atonement of sin by fire, God joyfully receives the sacrifice of our sinful pride, as we confess our sins in repentance.  Humility is a small price to pay for the reception of Jesus Christ’s sinless death,  for our sin that deserves death and the eternal fires of hell.

In light of Jesus’ sacrifice, the need to make fiery sacrifices under the Law is finished.  All who know their works are not good enough for salvation would agree this fire is very good.  Just like fire is very good for cooking food, washing oneself, and for feeling warm!  The fire of the Holy Spirit that allows us to burn our sins in repentance through Christ is truly very good.  This fire makes us warm when we are cold!  It makes us warm in Christ, as he takes the coldness of death on himself on the cross.

Where the forest, the plantation of Israel was destroyed and thrown into the fire, Jesus has become Israel for the repentant, and we the church are his body of repentant confessing believers.   Jesus is Israel’s shoot from the stump of Jesse, and now stands as the tall, towering trunk into which the church is grafted. 

The Spirit of the Lord that rested upon him, rests upon the repentant church.  This is the Holy Spirit that gives wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and fear of the Lord to the body of Christ – his holy church.  Despite our humanity looking like a fruitless fig tree, Jesus does not judge us by what he sees or hears, but by his righteousness sifting the wheat of Holy Spirit-germinated righteousness from the chaff of our humanity.

This brings us to the third fire after Jesus winnows or sifts us.  As we live in Christ, daily allowing the death of self in our baptism and being raised to life in the resurrection of Jesus, we are refined  by the fires of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The fruit of the Spirit is sifted from the chaff of our humanity.  We are being constantly pruned and used as pieces of Holy Spirit-treated timber for the building of Christ’s church on earth. We are Holy Spirit-refined wheat, cleansed to be germinators of God’s word wherever he’s put each of us in this world.

The Advent candle of peace is lit!  Let the peace of God burn in you as the Holy Spirit leads you in your repentance and confession for the forgiveness of sin.  You have been grafted into Christ to bear the fruit of Christ to others.   In the name of Jesus Christ, you are fruitful — let grace and peace be multiplied in you as the Holy Spirit makes him known to you. 

Let the Holy Spirit make you fruitful and faithful in Christ!  May his fire warm your heart, refine your spirit, and strengthen your witness. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, now and always. Amen. 

C, Post-Pentecost 18, Proper 23 - 2 Timothy 2:8-15 "Chewing the Fat of Faith"

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “chewing the fat”. This is what people do when they sit round the campfire, the bar with a beer, or at the kitchen table — killing time, talking, perhaps gossiping, or just discussing the day’s events in a bid to overcome boredom. One chews the fat by having a chat with someone else. Chewing the fat is usually done with friends.

But from where did such a saying arise? Is chewing the fat a healthy thing to do, or not? Or is chewing the fat neither good nor bad — just a way of remembering and reminding, a mental regurgitation, coughing up what was once buried deep within the mind?

There are a number of legends that seek to explain how the phrase “chewing the fat” entered common speech. However, in recent times there’s an army of health experts warning people off eating fat. To eat lean, they say, is to live a serene, healthy life. One must deny oneself fat, let alone chewing the fat.

Yet this is what soldiers would do to pass the time of tension and boredom before battle broke out. They would chew on tough salted meat or fat to distract the mind and socialise with one another — in the calm before the storm, to keep calm.

Or “chewing the fat” may have been a saying that arose from people doing so in times of food scarcity or on long voyages across the ocean, chewing the fat to get every last morsel of goodness out of a limited supply of food. Even so, it was still a communal activity.

Another possibility is that the saying came from a Native American cultural practice where, during peace talks, “chewing the fat” was a ritual.

Another possible derivation is that “chewing the fat” may have come from another saying, “chewing the rag”, where musket ammunition was kept in paper or cloth soaked in animal fat, which was bitten off when loading the musket. It is thought that the bitten‑off ends of rag or paper soaked in fat would then be chewed to reduce nerves amid the battle. Here again, chewing the fat was a communal exercise amongst comrades.

Saint Paul calls himself a soldier bound in chains as he encourages Timothy also to be a good soldier. He says to Timothy, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” (2 Timothy 2:3,8–9 ESV)

Chewing the fat, like chewing gum, requires muscle memory. Paul encourages Timothy to chew over the word of God, which is not bound as he is bound. Remember Jesus Christ, remember his resurrection, remember he is the offspring of David, remember my preaching of these things — which is my gospel, for which I am suffering. Make it yours too! Chew over the word of God, remember the word of God.

Although “chewing the fat” of God’s word is not literally tearing pages from the Bible and eating them, the symbolic saying does bring to light an issue from Old Testament law. The fat was the most valuable part of a sacrificial animal; eating it, let alone constantly chewing it, was forbidden. The fat and the blood belonged to God:

“And the priest shall burn them (that is, the fat on the entrails, together with the kidneys, the liver, and the fat covering them) on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the Lord’s. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.” (Leviticus 3:16–17 ESV)

There would be no literal eating or “chewing of the fat” in Jewish practice. Yet today we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. We remember what Christ did to be our Saviour at the cross as we eat his physical and spiritual body and drink his physical and spiritual blood, hidden in the elements of bread and wine. In this we gather as congregation to remember Jesus Christ, to chew the fat, one could say!

Paul, imprisoned, encourages Timothy to share in these things with him despite being separated by prison bars and fifteen hundred kilometres as the crow flies — and further if on foot. Likewise, we gather not just here, nor just at this time, nor just as a parish, nor as a Lutheran denomination, but with angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven as we are faithfully gathered by the Holy Spirit to “chew the fat” of God’s word, and his Word made flesh in the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

This is a mystery that takes Holy Spirit‑given faith to grasp, and it also takes Holy Spirit‑given faith to pass on to others so they too can “chew the fat” of this faith mystery and receive salvation.

Paul also reminds Timothy of this, since he is a minister of these mysteries at Ephesus. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul lists what is required of Timothy and others who serve, saying: “if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15 ESV)

Then Paul calls Timothy to chew over the following trustworthy saying: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3: 16 ESV)

Now in his second letter he gives Timothy another piece of truth to chew over as he says: The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:11–13 ESV)

On hearing this saying at first you might hear the law of God, as Paul says, “if we deny Jesus, Jesus also will deny us.” This certainly is a dire place to be! I imagine none of us want to be denied by Jesus Christ. Chewing the reality of being Christless is more hopeless than an Anzac assault from the trenches of Gallipoli.

However, I want us to hear the inclusive language of Paul to Timothy: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:11–13 ESV)

One might think the last statement, “he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself”, is not inclusive. However, Paul wants Timothy to chew over the richness that has been given to all: to him, Timothy, the congregation at Ephesus, and to us as well. Even though Jesus can deny us when we deny him, and leave us to our own devices, to discipline us, he will always be faithful to us, because the Holy Spirit has been planted in us in baptism. The Holy Spirit reminds us to remember and endure — or remain — in Jesus Christ, and to chew over the truth that allows us to reign with Jesus. Although it is hidden and only seen by faith this side of our physical death and resurrection.

Where Paul calls Timothy to remember Jesus, his works of denying and being faithful, now he encourages Timothy to continue being faithful to his call as pastor at Ephesus, saying: “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:14–15 ESV)

Paul calls Timothy to rightly handle the word of truth, by remembering and reminding. Like a cow chewing its cud, Paul remembers and reminds as he “chews the fat of the faith”. He calls Timothy to do so too. And Paul does this so the church can continue to be gathered and pass on the faith, chewing the fat of God’s richness in Jesus Christ, given and shed for the salvation of souls, so people might participate in the reception of God’s peace. To “chew the fat”, to receive the peace of God.

As we hear Paul speak to Pastor Timothy too, we’re called to chew the fat of faith for our eternal peace as well. We’re called to remember and remind others of God’s faithfulness to us. To gather with our friends and family, our colleagues and neighbours, to chew the fat of our faith and peace. Be it sitting round a campfire, at the bar with a beer, or at the meal table — killing time, talking, demonstrating our desire to glorify God, as we discuss the day’s events in the light of our salvation from sin as we patiently wait for Jesus’ return.

Amen. 

C, Easter 2 - John 20:19–22 "Reception of Peace and the Holy Spirit"

John 20:19–22 (ESV) On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

Today, we in the kingdom of God, hear of God’s first ordination in the evening of Jesus’ resurrection.  Ten men are ordained in very simple fashion.  Twice he says to the ten, “Peace be with you”, before saying,  “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”  (John 20:21)

These men, referred to as disciples, are sent or called to be apostles, by our Risen Lord Jesus, just as he was by his Father.

Earlier in his ministry, Jesus had designated twelve disciples as apostles and sent them out.  (Matthew 10; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16)   After his resurrection, Jesus prepares ten of them with peace and the Holy Spirit.  He does this so they can function in the way God intended them to function as shepherds in his body, his church, after Pentecost.

The last time Jesus spoke of peace was to his eleven disciples after Judas had departed to betray him.  Three times Jesus teaches them about why they need peace, and how they would receive it.

Notice two very important things that cannot be separated from Jesus’ peace and love — God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.

 “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.  “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:23–27 ESV)

Jesus then goes on to elaborate about the works of the world’s hatred, and the works of the Holy Spirit in those who love God.  They leave the location of the foot washing and travel to the location where Jesus prays his high priestly prayer.  But before he prays, he places his peace upon them for the third and final time, before his crucifixion, saying, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 ESV)

Three times he leaves his peace with them before his resurrection.  Now after his resurrection he recalls to remembrance and reinstates this peace.  Twice with the ten disciples and the third time a week later with Thomas the eleventh disciple.

When Jesus left his peace with his disciples before his death, he also taught them about the gift of the Holy Spirit.   So too after his resurrection!  Jesus places his peace and breathes the Holy Spirit upon them with his Word. 

God’s love in Jesus Christ, the peace of God, Jesus’ Word, and the Holy Spirit cannot be disconnected and seen in isolation from each other.  Therefore, here after the resurrection Jesus no longer promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, he makes it a command.   Hear Jesus’ command, “he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22 ESV)

Although the Holy Spirit is a gift, the ten apostles are commanded to “receive” the Holy Spirit.  Some might say, Thomas did not receive the Holy Spirit a week later.  However, Thomas, the doubting one, receives the peace and then receives the Holy Spirit after Jesus gives him the command to believe. 

Receiving the Holy Spirit and believing are one in the same thing.  If you don’t believe, you don’t receive the Holy Spirit.  If you believe Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to put off all doubts, as well as beliefs in the self and the world that oppose Jesus Christ and his Word.  One who allows the Holy Spirit to do this, allows God’s Word to remain supreme and lives in peace, despite how much the world hates you for bearing the peace of God.

Jesus ordains the eleven apostles in two ways.  The ten get one command, to “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Thomas, the doubter, however, gets five very practical commands. 

He said to Thomas in the presence of the other ten, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:27 ESV)   Thomas then makes the confession of belief, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28 ESV) Not only is Jesus, master or Lord, but Thomas confesses him as God. 

The eleven apostles have received the Holy Spirit and the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, so their hearts and minds are guarded in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7).  The eleven apostles and all other disciples need the Holy Spirit to guard their hearts and minds.  The treatment Jesus received, they received and more, as the body of Christ, the church, grew.

We hear the high priest questioned them,  saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”  But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.  The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.  God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.  And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:27b–32 ESV)

Here again, God’s Word and the Holy Spirit are connected.  The Acts of the Apostles are really the acts of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  The apostles are the means through which the word and the Holy Spirit work.

Today we need God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to function as church.  In John chapter fourteen to sixteen Jesus prepares his eleven disciples with his peace, teaching them about the hatred of the world, loving one’s neighbour, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Just as Jesus appointed twelve apostles from the disciples and sent them out.  Pastors have been called and sent to shepherd the flock, to be under shepherds and slaves, of Christ and those sheep whom Christ has called them to serve.  Similar to the apostles, they serve in the love of Christ with the command to bind and loose sinners and their sins, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, in the stead of Christ.  

We call this the office of the keys in the Lutheran Church.  Those who reject the call to repentance, actively work against God’s work through his servants, to bind their sin to the cross and free them, a sinner.  They’re in danger of sinning against the Holy Spirit, as their sin remains free from the cross, treating Christ’s crucifixion with contempt.

During Jesus’ ministry, he also sent out seventy-two disciples ahead of where he went.  The post-Pentecost church is a church of disciples and disciples called in the apostolic tradition to be pastors.  Disciples are learners of Jesus Christ, students of the Holy Spirit.  Parishioners and Pastors, alike, are all disciples in the body of Christ. 

John tells us what being a disciple is, at the beginning of Revelation, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:5b –6 ESV)

Every one of us are priests in God’s kingdom, called to practise our priesthood in the world, by loving others with forgiveness as the Father has forgiven us.  Inside God’s church, however, we live in a two-fold priesthood.  This has been the case throughout the history of God’s redemption of humanity.

God called Moses and Aaron to be his mediators or priests for Israel, so he could consecrate Israel through them, saying, “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5–6a ESV)

The Apostle Peter picks this up calling all disciples of Christ’s body “living stones” and Christ “the corner stone”.   He says, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV)

In these days of disobedience, it seems God’s peace has disappeared.  To some it has for the very reason that they have not received the Holy Spirit, nor have they hung onto God’s Word.

John speaks further to this in our situation today, saying, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.” (1 John 2:18–20 ESV)

You have been anointed in baptism, as one in the royal priesthood of believers.  Don’t be ignorant to God’s Word nor the world’s influence on you and God’s church.  Remain in God’s kingdom, remain in Jesus Christ, receive his Word, allow it to breathe the Holy Spirit on you, and the Holy Spirit to breathe Christ in you.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7 ESV) Amen. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 13 Proper 18 - Luke 14:25-35 "Counting the Cost"

Jesus had gained a following.  A great crowd of disciples and people were following him.  To where were they following him?  But could they follow him?  Or was he really following them?

The Gospel text before us today has a threefold warning written into it.  Three times Jesus says, “If you do x, y, or z, you cannot be my disciple”.  Let’s examine the X, Y, and Z of why he says one cannot be his disciple.

The first “cannot” word Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26 ESV)

Luke records the harshness of Jesus’ words with the call to hate.  How can this be?  Mathew’s Gospel softens this harshness by replacing  whoever “hates” with whoever “loves (x) more than me”.  So, Jesus’ first call to discipleship is not to love one’s family and life more than Jesus. 

It seems Jesus seeks to scatter us from our relationships.  But Jesus walked towards Jerusalem to do something so much greater than this.  He needs to take us from our family heritage, our culture, and our identity.  Then he can awaken us with his life, in the Holy Spirit, in our eternal heritage with the Father, and in our adopted identity through his suffering and death.  After this he gives us back to our families, our nation, and our society as agents of his supreme love.

In our age of individualism and our regression into social tribalism, Jesus is exposing our idols of pride built on one’s identity; be it race, class, family.  Or, even today as some think we have freewill to choose what we identify ourselves as!  Also, Jesus is laying bare, the shame that comes from our fallen identity’s narrowness and individuality.

Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, just after Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, he also spoke about taking up the cross and following him.  Jesus then says, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels”.  (Luke 9:26 ESV)

God’s intention for us is that being firstly a member of his heavenly family, like Paul, we confess to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16 ESV)

And as Paul says to young Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”.  (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV)

And the writer of Hebrews says of Jesus and us who allow him to make us holy, “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.  That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Hebrews 2:11 ESV)

Peter in his epistle to the persecuted church says, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” (1 Peter 4:16 ESV)

With the weight of God’s word just heard, are you more ashamed of the gospel or your family?  Is honour before the world more important than honour before God in his church,  including those in this church our shame and pride would naturally exclude.

Like Paul who formerly prided himself, as a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees blameless under the law, confesses to the Philippians, that hanging onto his former identity is as shameful as keeping and showing your poo[1]. 

Jesus calls you to hate your own life like your manure or that which is cast aside as waste.  And he is not just talking about the things you consider as evil or shameful.  But also, the things in which you seek honour, and deem as good, shaming God to second place.

His call to hate others or love him the most, then flows into his second impediment statement for discipleship, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 27 ESV)

Earlier in Luke’s Gospel when Jesus speaks to his disciples about those ashamed of him and his words, the Son of Man will be ashamed on his return.  Just before saying this, he invites them to take up their cross (Luke 9:23).  But here in the second of his “cannot” discipleship statements his call is not just to “take up” one’s cross but “to carry” or “bear it”. 

This is stronger language again.  The disciples knew to carry a cross was the Roman way of making one carry one’s instrument of death to the place of their crucifixion and death.  Jesus makes it clear, if you are going to walk with me, death will occur! 

Hate your family, now make a faithful stand which will lead to death!  What?

It’s here Jesus takes a break before pointing out the third reason why one cannot be his disciple, his learner, or one who truly understands, to do the will of the Father.

Jesus says, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,  saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.”  (Luke 14:28–30 ESV)

Counting the cost of loving Jesus more than anyone or anything!  Hating my life so much I would forsake it and follow Jesus to death!  It makes you wonder, “How on earth can I do this?  How can I make this work?”

The picture of building a tower and being humiliated by not being able to finish its city, immediately makes us think of the Tower of Babel.  The spirit of humanity collectively sought to work their way up to God, but God confused their language and dispersed them before they could build themselves up as a collective human god.

As the Babel event rings in our ears, know that just as Jesus says, those who cannot “finish their towers will be humiliated”, they too will be shamed like those of Babel whom God mocks.   After they built their tower “up to heaven”, God still has to “come down” to see what they were doing.  They are humiliated and dispersed!  

Surely before you or I work to love Jesus more than our family, social status, or state, before we seek to die for our sin, we might sit down and count the cost. 

Jesus then paints another picture for us saying, “what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31–32 ESV)

We might regard King David as the greatest king of the Old Testament who battled and overcame hundreds of thousands in battle.  Yet before God he cries out, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:2, 7 ESV)

Here is God’s chosen King of Israel, trembling and found short before God!  Crying out for peace before God!  No sacrifice could please God, no offering could cleanse, nothing he did could recoup the cost!  And David knew it!

What is the cost of our unfinished work?  Can I pay to have peace within?  How can I have terms of peace without God?

This brings us to Jesus’ last hindrance on being his disciple.  Counting the cost and seeking terms of peace, Jesus says, “therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”  (Luke 14:33 ESV)

The deeds, intellect, and the life one lives, will only bring shame if we try to use them as a bargaining chip at the table of life and death.

This is well and truly proven by the Israelites, who, on entering the promised land, heard Moses say, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” (Deuteronomy 30:15 ESV)  But they lost their land of milk and honey, first to the Assyrians and Babylonians, and finally to the Romans. 

God set before them life and death, living a life of good over evil under the Law.  Yet the good they lived was for themselves, and they lost their land, the paradise of God being with them in the temple in Jerusalem and received payment for their sin.  God’s wages for sin, is always death!

Jesus then says, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile.  It is thrown away.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  (Luke 14:34–35 ESV)

If Israel’s good was not good enough, and our good, is not good enough either, if our lack of saltiness is too shameful to put on the dung heap, consider the cost, seek terms of true peace!

Those who have ears let them hear!  Taste and see it is the Lord who is good!  No one could follow Jesus to the cross, just as none of us can make salt, salty again if it loses it saltiness.  We lose favour and flavour with God, when we seek the poopy pleasures of good and evil. 

God gives our flavour back, in a cleansing bath in baptism, rejuvenating saltiness, preserved “with and in” his word.  He flavours you once again and delights in you as his own, with the work of the Holy Spirit and our risen ascended Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus counted the cost and paid the price. He was cast out of the city like poo and nailed to the cross, clean and innocent, in the place of uncleanness and shame.

Now the shame of our sin is not confessing it and repenting.  True discipleship relies on the Holy Spirit to honour God through our confession as sinners being daily forgiven!

As King David said, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”  (Psalm 32:1–5 ESV)

In Jesus Christ, the guilt and shame of your sin is taken away.  By allowing the Holy Spirit to bring you daily to Jesus, in confession and repentance, making him your Messiah, is the highest form of worshipping and following God.  Amen.

___________________________________________________________

[1] Philippians 3:8 “rubbish” here in the Greek is vulgar meaning “excrement/filth”. 

C, Easter 3 - John 21:19 "Summoned to Death"

John 21:19 This he (Jesus) said to show by what kind of death he (Peter) was to glorify God. And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

In the three readings today, Saint Paul, still as the Jewish “Sargent at Arms” Saul, is challenged by Jesus.  Saint John is also challenged as the hidden realm is uncovered to reveal the transcendent dominions of good and evil.  Likewise, Saint Peter too is challenged as Jesus reveals himself a third time to him and the disciples fishing on Lake Galilee.

These three men are challenged to glorify God in their deaths.  However, for us, it is important to know when their deaths occurred, and for what purpose?

We might presume that their deaths came at the end of life.  And in a very narrow context they do.  But death for them, and for us, is the process (or the event) of our existence in this world as we submit to God and his will for us. 

We may call this event, life or living, but the reality is, this existence is one of dying.  But only after our resurrection, or Christ’s return, death will cease to exist and then all will truly live.  That is living with God in glory and victory or living without him in eternal unfulfilled desire and darkness.

So let us hear more about the three examples we have before us in today’s readings.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus is revealed three times after his resurrection.  The first is during the evening after Jesus’ resurrection, Easter Sunday, when the disciples were locked away in hiding, so they wouldn’t be found by the Jews.  The second a week later when Thomas is present.  And in the Gospel reading before us today, while the disciples fished on the Sea of Tiberias or Lake Galilee.

When something happens three times in God’s Word, we are called to stop and pay extra attention to what God is saying to us.  Here at the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus is revealed to the disciples three times.   These are accompanied by three bestowals of peace, together with his breathing the Holy Spirit on them.  Then Peter is summoned three times to feed and tend Jesus’ sheep and lambs, after being asked three times if he loves Jesus.

Peter the archetypal disciple, who denies Jesus three times at his crucifixion is restored with three calls to love. 

Hear Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit and the threefold bestowal of peace he gives the disciples before the crucifixion, so that they might endure all the tribulations of his crucifixion.

Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:25–27 ESV)

“Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.  I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:32–33 ESV)

Now after the resurrection, after he had overcome the world, Jesus reinstates Peter in threefold peace and love.  The archetypal leader and blunderer is restored to be the archetypal administrator of Jesus’ love, and be the prototypical recipient of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  Peter is called to follow Jesus and pass on the peace of God.

The second of the three men in our readings today is Saul.  He too was challenged in a very physical way on the road to Damascus.  But, within the physical challenge of blindness, Jesus lays upon Saul a greater challenge. 

Saul persecuted the church after approvingly watching Stephen be stoned to death.  After this he went house to house dragging people off to prison.  He was going to Damascus, to do the same there, when Jesus confronted him.  But Jesus doesn’t strike Saul blind for persecuting others, rather Jesus says, “‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’  And Saul said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:4–5 ESV)

Jesus challenged Saul’s righteousness and ironically in his blindness revealed to Saul that he was the Son of God at the same time.  In his revelation on the road to Damascus, Jesus killed any faith Saul had in his ravaging assault on the believers of the resurrection.

In his letter to the Philippians, Saul now Paul, speaks of his death, saying, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;  as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.  But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:4b–8 ESV)

Peter and Paul, both are summoned to die in Jesus’ resurrection and revelation. 

The third person in the text for today is John.  He was the last of the apostolic witnesses left alive.  He survived all the other witnesses of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.  When they were martyred, John had to patiently endure with the knowledge of their deaths, of which his brother James was the first to die at the hand of Herod.

Years after witnessing the resurrection, Peter’s reinstatement, the Ascension, Pentecost, and waiting for Jesus’ return, John endured and led others through tribulations.  Like the last one to be picked on a school sporting team he waited and watched to be chosen next.

But different to Peter and Paul, John is allowed to see the revelation of what is to come, after he has suffered many deaths throughout his life.  Before he finally dies, he is given a glimpse of the heavenly victory to assist us and sustain us as we too are summoned to undergo the many deaths of self we suffer in this life.  And as we do, we glorify God in the many deaths he summons us to endure.

Like Peter, Paul, and John, you and I too are called to glorify God in the many deaths we face. 

Every time we forgive others who sin against us, we die and glorify God.  When we confess our sin, bringing it into the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we die to self and live to righteousness.  Learning about our sin leads to the death of pride, the death of privilege, and the death of vain pleasure.

Added to this, the death of health and self-confidence, are all deaths we endure so God can be glorified and worshiped above all.

From our existence in this world, we only see glimpses of the holy life to come.  We patiently endure tribulation in what we call this life, which is really an event of death. 

But just as the dawn of Jesus’ resurrection followed the darkness of night, we follow Jesus.  The darkness of our existence in this world of death is endured in the joy and hope of waiting to see for real what was revealed to John.  We now live eternally, despite death, knowing we will be raised to eternal life at the dawn of eternity, at the death of death. 

Through the work of the Holy Spirit, may Jesus glorify God the Father in your death and mine, in our baptism, in our existence, and in our resurrection.  Amen.