C, Post-Pentecost 14 Proper 19 - 1 Timothy 1:15-16 "Jesus' Perfect Patience"

1 Timothy 1:15–16 (ESV) The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.  But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Saint Paul’s ministry was one of patience!  Jesus had to be perfectly patient with Paul as an example to those who were to believe Jesus for eternal life.

We might think the patience needed, is what was required of Paul to perform his ministry.  He definitely was taught to be patient, but this was only secondary to Jesus’ perfect patience with him. 

After his conversion on the road to Damascus, you might expect, there was preaching to do, and people to seek, now that Saul the persecutor of Christ and his church had become Paul the proselyte of this fledgeling movement centred on Jesus’ life and death, resurrection and ascension.

However, if Saint Paul’s ministry, or any ministry is to be effective in the Lord, God’s patience needs to be demonstrated with us who share the gospel, whether we are pastors, lay leaders in congregations, youth leaders, parents and grandparents praying for their prodigals to return, or young kids telling their friends about Jesus in the playground.

When God was handing out patience, I reckon I must have been away that day!  I, like so many in our society today, desire immediate results, or I get impatient.

As I get older the need to –go, go, go– is slowing, physically!  But mentally and emotionally my patience is slowing too.  Or my impatience is growing proportionally to the years I live or the hairs that are getting greyer.  The slower I go, the slower I am at being patient.  Or the quicker I run out of puff, the quicker I expect others to pick up their act and get going.

The old Adam in us, our human spirit, turns its expectation into a god.  Unfortunately, sin has rewired our brains and hearts this way.  But the Holy Spirit leads us back to Christ’s overflowing love. 

When the god of our expectations is not met, we get frustrated and impassioned with each other.  In our minds we become impatient and secretly judge, “I expected so much more from you!  Or, I didn’t expect you to do something like that!”  Our expectations can be idols in our lives that cause us to sin against others and God.

After Saint Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, at the least, he spent fourteen years away from Jerusalem in Arabia, Syria, and Cilicia.  God was patiently preparing Paul for his ministry, and no doubt Paul too was learning patience having been shown patience.  It’s believed during these fourteen years; God was patiently preparing him as an apostle.  Saul the Pharisee who knew the Law was being patiently revealed by the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is the only fulfiller of the Law.

Sometime later Paul confesses to young pastor Timothy, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

What a way to start off!  Confession that he is not just a sinner but the prototype of sinners!  Only through Jesus’ perfect patience does someone learn this, and, have the willingness to confess it.

Paul prefaces his confession as the prototype sinner stating, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15 ESV)

He confesses to Timothy that Jesus Christ, this Saviour of sinners, and his sinfulness, is proclaimed in faith and this deserves Timothy’s full reception.  Paul wants Timothy to perfectly understand what he is saying here! 

In naming himself a sinner, Paul does a number of things.  He’s no longer ignorant in his unbelief.  He now has faith that he’s a sinner.  His sinful being is now covered by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  His former sinful deeds are also covered by Jesus’ forgiveness.  He’s no longer a servant of his sinfulness, but rather a servant of sinners needing the same forgiveness as him.

Paul places himself under the authority of God’s word.  One might think that he was already doing this since he was a Pharisee.  However, Paul was using the Law of God to justify himself and his position.  This made him guilty of blasphemy and idolatry.   As a ruthless Pharisee he was worshipping a graven image, not made with his hands, but with his mind.  And in breathing murderous threats against the followers of Christ, he was blaspheming God the Son.  

From Pauls legal background as an Old Testament Lawyer, he knew very well that God is impartial.  And so, with sound teaching in the Law and knowledge of Jesus’ overflowing grace he knew God had to continue being patient with him because his human nature would still strive to be partial to wrongly justify or condemn those with whom God is perfectly patient. 

It was no longer about his Law or justification, but about Jesus’ fulfilment of the Law through his righteousness and our justification through his sacrificial death on the cross.  And this wasn’t done to Paul’s timeframe but in the fullness of God’s time it was finished by Jesus Christ.   This perfection continues to be finished by the power of the Holy Spirit, who seeks to bring the human spirit to the fullness of Jesus’ perfect patience.

Paul goes out of his way to embellish just who he is to Timothy, so Timothy does not place an expectation on Paul that makes Paul a god in Timothy’s eyes.  And so, Timothy does not make himself an impatient presumptuous super apostle to those to whom God calls him.

Patience goes hand in hand with forgiveness!  So too, impatience and frustration go hand in hand with unforgiveness.  Patience grows out of our judgement!  Judge one way and we forgive, judge the other way we don’t forgive.   However, Jesus’ perfect patience with Paul is an enduring lesson in love.

In his letter to the Romans Paul speaks of Jesus’ all-encompassing love.  But before he does, he speaks about the all-encompassing debased love of each human for themselves.  (Romans 1:21-32)

He says, “For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  (Romans 3:22–24 ESV)

Impatience goes hand in hand with presumption.  Paul knew this too well when he acted with zealous fervour in ignorance under the Law.  He says, “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”  (Romans 2:3–4 ESV)

Paul was acutely aware of Jesus’ perfect patience of him in his ministry.  There was no presumption he was any better than those he taught regardless of them being Jew or Greek, young or old, pastor or parishioner.  They all needed Jesus’ perfect patience, as did he!

Jesus’ perfect patience not only manifested itself in love at the cross.  But also, in his sending of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the helper of sinners who trust in Jesus Christ.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, “we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,  so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:11–12 ESV)

The writer goes on to cite Abraham as one who inherits through patience.  Abraham was patient but the greater weight of patience was from God who not only witnessed Abraham and Sarah’s disastrous affairs with Hagar and Ishmael, but also the nation that grew out of him all the way down to Paul.

Peter says in his second Epistle, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)

Jesus’ perfect patience is also a perfect faithfulness too.  Not only does he send the Holy Spirit to give us faith, but he also remains faithful to us as well.  Rather than expectation, he serves with example and is patient with us.

He gives us the fullness of time as he peels back the layers of our sinfulness while bringing this sinfulness into the light of his revelation and his forgiveness of our sin. 

We’re all on different parts of God’s road to salvation.  Some are more mature in the faith.  Like Saint Paul, we are called to recognise with ever increasing clarity the weakness in which we walk.  But at the same time learn with increasing knowledge the overflowing grace that shows its perfection in Jesus’ patience. 

The fullness of time will come for us all.  Only then will we know who has believed they’re sinners and who trusted Jesus’ perfect patience.  Till then let us, in the complete knowledge and acceptance of our weakness, walk together sharing with each other the perfect patience of Jesus Christ, who walks in our midst as our forgiving Saviour God, and gathers us together in him with the Holy Spirit.

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever.  Amen.  (1 Timothy 1:17 ESV)

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.

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

C, Post-Pentecost 12 Proper 17 - Psalm 112 "Blessed"

Psalm 112:1–10 (ESV) Praise the LORD!  Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!  His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.  Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.  Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.  It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.  For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.  He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.  His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.  He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honour.  The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!

The readings for this Sunday all dwell on the biblical theme of blessedness; that is, to be blessed as a state of being, to be blessed by someone, or to bless.  What does it mean to bless someone, to be blessed by someone, and the state of blessedness?

To be blessed in its simplest form is to be happy or fortunate.  But if a person seeks to bless themselves or deem themselves as blessed, it’s actually one of the quickest ways to become angry with everyone around them as well as themselves.  So, to be blessed and to bless is much more than being happy, being fortunate, being pleased or pleasing someone else.

At the end of the gospel reading today, when dining in the house of a Pharisee ruler, Jesus says, “when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,  and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. ” (Luke 14:13-14a)

Straight away in this text, we see being blessed when one gives a feast to those who cannot repay, is not about being happy.  One may be happy to do this but more is going on.

The biblical definition of “blessedness” has a much deeper function than just happiness and being fortunate.  In Psalm 112 we hear, “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!” (Psalm 112:1 ESV)

The person who is blessed here can be happy or pleased.  But the question one must ask, “Is why can they be pleased or happy?” 

The Hebrew word for blessed has at its root the meaning to be straight or level.  When one is on the straight and narrow, they move forward with confidence, with honesty, in the right way, on a level path.  Or, if one is “on the level” they are honest and are being truthful. 

When a person is level or blessed, they are balanced.   A good way of understanding blessed as balanced is like that of a level set of scales.  Neither leaning to the left nor the right, but evenly balanced.

The straightness of being blessed also means, straight up and down too.  That is to be upright.  It is no accident therefore, in Psalm 112 that after it says, “Blessed the man who fears the Lord”, it continues in verse two, “His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.  Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.  Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.”  (Psalm 112:2–4 ESV)

Twice the Psalmist says “upright” in these verses.  So, one who is blessed, balanced, level or upright, can endure forever in righteousness.  This person can move forward on a level plain in the face of the ups and downs of trials and tribulations.

In these verses it says, “the generation of the upright will be blessed.”  The Hebrew literally says, “the blessed will be blessed”, when it says “the upright will be blessed.”  But these two Hebrew words have different meanings.

Whereas the first “blessed” we’ve looked at, means “upright or balanced”.  Here the second “blessed” means, “to kneel or bend oneself in adoration or to curse”.  This adoration or cursing is what one does in worship when they’re in awe of someone, or if they hate and curse them because they’re believed to be awful. 

Blessing here is about praise and its opposite; what one says about someone else.  So when it says, “The blessed will be blessed” it means, “the upright or the balanced will be bowed down to, praised and spoken well of”!

Notice these two forms of blessedness are pictures of body language.  One is straight up and down, or balanced and level, while the other is bent bowing, honouring, and saying good to others about them.  This is not surprising as the Hebrew language was originally a spoken language of oral tradition, an unwritten picture language, whereas the Greek of the New Testament is an academic written language.

In the New Testament, the most well-known verses on blessings are the Beatitudes where Jesus teaches the crowd and the disciples at the Sermon on the Mount.

The other word for bless in the New Testament is a Greek word familiar to us in English, eulogy, which means to speak good words about someone.

The readings today all deal with the theme of “blessedness”.  If one seeks to be blessed in one’s own sight and takes the seat of honour, the writer of Proverbs tells us, this can lead to being humiliated.

“Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great,  for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.”   (Proverbs 25:6–7 ESV)

Jesus heals a man at the house of a Pharisee ruler.  His fellow diners could not answer Jesus’ logic for healing this fellow on the Sabbath.  Jesus then tells a parable about those who took the honoured positions at a wedding feast. 

Put yourselves in the place of the guest?  What happens when you take the positions of honour?  Will you bless the host, or expect to be blessed?  How level-headed or balanced are you if you take the honoured position, especially when someone of greater honour arrives?  Not only is blessedness about body language.   It’s also about one’s prominence, status, or social standing in society. 

Blessedness not only deals with body language but also reputation.  What is your reputation like with God?  Are you blessed by God?  What does that actually mean?  It means, when Jesus returns in his glory to separate the sheep from the goats, will you be one of the goats who have blessed oneself or one of the sheep blessed by God?  What type of reputation do you have with God?

Jesus says, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  (Luke 14:11 ESV)

I cannot imagine a worse thought than the humiliation of being labelled by God “a goat” or a person of ill-repute on judgement day.   Do you want to be treated by the Eternal Host of heaven the same way you have hosted those God puts before you here on earth? 

What makes us good blokes, good sheilas, good people in God’s eyes?

Let Psalm 112 be the text that judges you.  It starts out with the command to “Praise the Lord!”  Do you praise God as Lord all the time or do you Lord it over others, or do you busy yourself, so others praise you?

Do you fear the Lord, do you delight in his commandments.  What makes your offspring mighty?  When others bless you does it turn people to God or away from God?  Does your wealth and riches fuel righteousness that endures… forever!  Are you gracious, merciful, and righteous?  By whose justice do you conduct your affairs?  Will you be remembered forever?  Is your heart firm in the face of death, or even as you hear these questions?  Are you considering the poor when you leave here today?  Or perhaps, this line of questioning irks you and makes you get angry?

We realise very quickly that our blessedness, when built on ourselves, makes us no better than a ruling Pharisee or his guests, angry because we’re not getting the honour, we believe we deserve.

Yet we praise the Lord!  How can that be, since God clearly shows us through Jesus’ parable, we present ourselves as honoured guests but are quickly humiliated by the Word of God? 

It’s here we’re called to see that God is the one who is inviting us to his banquet.   He invites us, his church, as the bride of the Bridegroom.  You and I are the poor, crippled, the lame, and the blind.  Now married to Jesus Christ the Head of the heavenly house, we can be compassionate to those who like us are poor, crippled, lame, and blind.  Like us who have been made friends in the wedding feast of the Lamb, we can befriend our enemies, just as Jesus has done with us.

So, praise the LORD, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Why? 

Because Jesus is the man who fears the LORD, and delights in his commandments.  We are his offspring, mighty in the land, we are the generation of the balanced, blessedly helpless forgiven sinners to whom God bows and blesses, because we confess our sin and forgive those who sin against us!  The light of God has dawned in the darkness of our hearts, showing us sin to confess. 

Why do we do this?  Because God deals generously with you.  He lends you his Son and the Holy Spirit.  He is justifying you with the justice of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  You won’t be moved while you allow the Holy Spirit to remain.  You are not afraid of bad news; you are firm, trusting in the Good News.  God has won the victory over your sinful self!  You can now distribute freely; Christ has exalted you and in him your righteousness endures forever.

Your old Adam will be angry!  But that is a good sign of your salvation too.  He is angry because he is dying, he might gnash his teeth, but he is melting away, he and all his desires are dying, leaving Jesus the Bridegroom of heaven to take you as his bride, the church.  He forgives and feeds you and me, in his eternal wedding feast! 

Praise the LORD!  Jesus has balanced your scales!  God blesses you; you are blessed!  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 10 Proper 15 - Luke 12:49-59 Hebrews 12:1-2 "Discerning the Division"

Luke 12:49–59 (ESV) “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.  For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens.  And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens.  You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?  As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.  I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

The word of God creates fire.  Fire consumes, but it also purifies what is burnt.  Jesus came to cast fire on the earth, saying, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”  (Luke 12:49–51 ESV)

With these words he says a little later to both the crowd and the disciples, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:56–57 ESV)

Many years have past since Jesus roamed the Middle East, enduring life in the flesh of humanity from his baptism in the waters of the Jordan to his baptism of blood at the cross, resurrection, and ascension to his rightful place in victory over sin and death.  He now intercedes for us sinners before God the Father, and together they both send the Holy Spirit, to bring us in daily repentance to the cross through our baptism into his death. 

In the present time his call to judge for ourselves what is right, is still relevant, as is his question, why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?  Interpreting the present time with considerable time having passed since Jesus’ has returned to the right hand of the Father, is made challenging, to say the least, with the divisions we need to navigate on the way to our eternal Judge.

Divisions and splits have been occurring since just after the dawn of time.  As we’re faced with deciding what to do, who to follow, who to overlook, who to ignore, distress and disillusionment works on us.   Our society is probably more cynical than any society before us, and this cynicism puts pressure on faith in God.

It’s no surprise when cynicism overwhelms humanity, we shelter within the safety of ourselves, seeking to align ourselves with those with whom we feel safe, those who share the same views as us, and those who don’t seek to stop us from doing what we want.  And in doing so, we only add to the fostering of further divisions and distress.

Fear today is real.  Financial collapse, disillusionment with democracy, instability from political polarisation within world powers leading to weaponization and wariness, unhealthy health systems, social pleasures that produce increased social pain, and the paradoxical fear of climate change verses the fear of not wanting to give up our machines, all lead to further division and fear.

However, these things that cause divisions are distractions that lead to deception, and we’re not immune to these deceptions within the church either!

In recent times there have been divisions over whether to be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated.  Churches have become divided over musical styles, in what have become known as worship wars.  In the LCA division is threatening over the ongoing debate on women’s ordination. 

On both sides of these debates, folk waist the present time, critical time, vilifying the other side as evil.  But I suspect in God’s eyes, both sides of these divisions are on the opposite side to that of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ comes to bring fire on the earth, yet we end up kindling fires of our own that have little to nothing to do with the righteousness of God, instead have everything to do with our own division from the one true faith.

Here Jesus Christ rightly stands as our accuser while we fail to judge what is right.  Jesus warns, “As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.  I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.” (Luke 12:58–59 ESV)

So, what is it that Jesus accuses us of?  Sin of course!

As we walk on the way to the Judge Eternal, how are we to settle with Jesus who accuses us of sin?  If we point the finger, we justify his accusation and we will surely never be able to pay neither the first nor the last penny.

God the Father delights in the truth in your inward being.  In fact, he teaches wisdom in the secret heart.  What is the truth taught within and how is it taught?

King David tells us exactly what it is in Psalm fifty-one, saying, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  (Psalm 51:1–5 ESV)

The secret wisdom is that we are sinners, what Jesus rightfully accuses us of!

But how is this wisdom taught in the secret place within?  Again, David tells us as he craves for it in his confession, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”  (Psalm 51:10–12 ESV)

A clean heart comes from a right spirit.  A right spirit exists within, while the Holy Spirit remains.  And when the Holy Spirit remains, he is the Willing Spirit within us.

What does he will us to do?  He wills us to walk with Jesus to the Magistrate and Judge, God the Father.

This is where the right discernment of the division occurs.  We see ourselves as one with those whom we have divisions, we confess our sin, we forgive each other.  The Holy Spirit generates faith, to will and work within us as individuals and as a faith community.  We are rightly distressed because of our sin and the divisions we have practised.  We allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to whom it is that accuses.

We realise he who walks with us through this life accusing us, causing fire within, does not want to divide us from God the Father, but wants to bring us to the Father, the Eternal Judge, to put us right and divide sin from us.  Our Heavenly Father is also the Magistrate, who seeks to pronounce a sentence of forgiveness and eternal life on us too.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we realise our rightful Accuser is actually our Saviour, having  paid the last penny and freed us from the eternal prison of hell.

On realisation of this, we no longer are dragged to the Judge by the Accuser.  No!  Rather we run to him by the power of the Holy Spirit, confessing, forgiving, each other.  We praise God having been put right with him, and those from whom we were divided and with whom we were disillusioned.  The Judge now hands us over to the Officer, not to put us in prison, but to keep us in protective custody.  Who is God’s Officer?  He is the Holy Spirit!

On discerning the division, we see those from whom we were once divided and whom we waisted time fighting, actually on the same side forgiven, as we too are forgiven; running and encouraging each other to run toward Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  (Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV)

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, let us interpret the present time correctly and judge what is right.  Send your Holy Spirit to fire in us faith, turning sin to ash, and purifying us with forgiveness in the founder and perfecter of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 8 Proper 13 - Luke 12:13-21 "The Rich Merry Fool"

Luke 12:13–21 (ESV) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”  And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,  and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

When someone in the crowd says to Jesus, “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  Let’s say Jesus says, “Okay!  I will.”  And they go, so Jesus can tell the enquirer’s brother to divide the inheritance.  The inheritance is divided, what then.  Does everyone live happily ever after?  Maybe, but most likely not!

What type of relationship do you think the two brothers had, after Jesus intervened in the dispute?  If the two could not settle their differences beforehand, there is a very good chance the relationship would have deteriorated even further after the fact. 

What would the two brothers’ opinions be of Jesus?  Both would have been wrong!  One brother would have been bitter and resentful for Jesus doing what he did, and the other although he may have been pleased with Jesus’ intervention, would have believed the wrong things about Jesus’ purpose for coming into the world.

But no!  Jesus is not a divider of inheritances, and nor is he a divider of relationships.  He came to be a reconciler, resolving each person’s relationship with God the Father.  And only in our reconciliation with God, can a person expect to have a God-pleasing settlement with another person.

Jesus does not name the person in the crowd, nor does he call him friend.  Rather, he impersonally and abruptly says, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:14 ESV)

Jesus cannot be a friend of covetousness, justifying and mediating a person’s greed for riches that don’t allow God the Father to be first.

He says to the man and the crowd, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  (Luke 12:15 ESV)

Possessions here are literally, “things under which you submit first”, or the things you serve as your gods. 

These things we call goods.  But the problem with making these goods our gods, they destroy human relationships and ultimately our relationship with God the Father.

Jesus tells a parable to demonstrate to the crowd, what happens when we make gods out of his gifts by conserving them, trusting them for our security.  Or liberally using them, to extravagantly serve ourselves in pleasure.

If Jesus had helped the man to get his share of the inheritance, Jesus would have helped him become like the rich man in the parable.

Notice in Jesus’ parable to whom the rich man speaks…

“The land of a rich man produced plentifully,  and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” (Luke 12:16–19 ESV)

Who does he talk to? No one!  In the culture of Jesus’ day this would have immediately stood out for the listeners.  Not so much for us today!  Which says something in itself for us who perhaps are more like the rich man than we would like to admit. 

In the middle eastern culture of the day, the rich man would  have discussed with his contemporaries, what he might do. 

Here though however, he only has himself to talk to.  No children, no brothers, no parents, no community, no one!

It’s here we begin to understand why Jesus does not do one’s bidding, telling the brother to divide the inheritance.  A lot more than the inheritance would have been divided if Jesus followed the wishes of the one whose life consisted in the abundance of possessions.  Jesus does not serve the sinful self in its sin.  Rather he serves the sinner in being freed from the power of death, freeing the sinner from the deeds and desires of sin.

The rich man in the parable has possessions and property,  but he is all alone.  The wealth he received from his land producing plentifully, reveals the poverty of his position in life.  He has made himself god of his dominion.  The rich man has taken the place of God, forgetting God the Father, and also fails to remember the problem humanity has, when it takes God’s place.

Because we are not God, we fear losing our identity as top dog, and to protect our position in life,  rid ourselves of the competition, and find our self only with our self for company.  As the saying goes, “it’s lonely being at the top!”  Humans were never created to be God or to be alone.

However, in our wealth-based society that’s exactly what’s happening.  The greater our wealth grows, the more we withdraw from our neighbours, the higher the fences and walls become around us.  Time is spent submitting to and serving our wealth, and in the fullness of time we find ourselves alone separated from God and from our neighbours.

The rich man finds himself alone talking to himself, focused on himself.  Self, I have my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods, with my soul.  But are they really his?  Are the goods you have really yours?  Can you have your cake and eat it too?

It seems Jesus is pointing us to Solomon’s deliberations written in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.”  But unfortunately, the rich man in the parable and perhaps us too, when we are presumptuously consumed by our possessions, overlook the next but most important part of the verse which continues, “This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 ESV)

But really, is the rich man content?  When I observe my goods to which I attribute worth and wealth, it’s not long before the mirage of “satisfied desires” moves and I am unsatisfied once again.  Our goods as gods cannot give us the peace which is only found in God.

Early church father Augustine, rightly says of God the Father, “My soul is restless until it finds its rest in you.”   When wealth and property control us, we get so easily caught up in the belief that our restlessness will stop once we have an overabundance of food and drink.  But it doesn’t.

Jesus knows this.  In fact, in the flesh of a human, he experienced the temptation in which we are tempted and fail.  But, although tempted, Jesus does not succumb to temptation as we do, but faithfully followed our Heavenly Father.

The rich man talking to himself is like a person who chases one’s own steamy breath that vanishes in a moment on a cold  frosty morning. 

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.  I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2,14 ESV)

To put it in today’s vernacular, “The rich man is full of hot air, and not much else!”  At the end of the day, he doesn’t even realise his own life is not his own.  Life is not a right but a gift to us – on loan from God.

The rich man puts his feet up in relaxation, eating and drinking in merriment.  Here Jesus uses a play on words.  The words “merry” and “fool” in Greek are both related to the word “diaphragm”.  We might say to be in a good frame of mind.  But diaphragm here suggests a good gut feeling in the torso or midriff.  Think of a relaxing sigh or breath when one has a contented tummy and is in a good frame of mind.

But in the parable God says, “Fool!”  “You, rich man, are hot air and deluded in your comfort.” When God says, “Fool”, Jesus is literally saying the rich man has no diaphragm. He doesn’t have a good frame of mind.  His gut feeling of security is vanity and a chasing after the wind since his goods and possessions are but a breath.  So too is his life!

The Psalmist says, “the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough — that one should live on forever and not see decay.”  (Psalm 49:8–9 NIV)

Our lives are on loan from God.  He is the source of life.  Our life sees decay and death because of sin.  But, despite this, God gives life through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is our daily bread.  He is today’s bread, and he is our tomorrow eternal bread too.

Saint Paul tells the Colossians, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices  and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”(Colossians 3:9–10 ESV)

Jesus gives you your new self, the Holy Spirit comes to see the old self put off, destroy your false gods, and renew you in the knowledge of your new self, Jesus Christ the new Adam, in the image of your Creator, our Father in Heaven.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 7 - Luke 8:38-39 "Legions of God's Love"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,  “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The power of God’s word causes belief or unbelief.  It does not cause one to be half hearted or apathetic.  This is because God’s word has power over the desires of the flesh.

When Jesus sailed across Lake Galilee, he calmed the storm causing fear amongst the disciples.  They were learning what kind of master Jesus was, as they saw and heard him rebuke the wind and the waves.  And they saw the immediate response of the wind and waves become calm, just like a child who’s shushed by its parent.  The word of God is such, even the wind and the waves believe in the power of God’s word.

They arrive at the Gerasenes, a place on the eastern side of Lake Galilee.  This is a place of Gentiles, also known as the Decapolis, or the ten cities.  Having arrived, Jesus walks into another storm.  However, this storm was a wild and woolly man tormented by demons.  Not only was he a Gentile, but controlled by the demons, he was the most unclean and depraved of Gentiles.

But we hear something most remarkable as Jesus approaches this naked, vile man, a man who lives as though he was dead amongst the tombs.

We hear, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.’” (Luke 8:28 ESV)

How is it that the most unclean knows the Most High God?  Out on the lake the disciples didn’t know, and Jesus said to them, “‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” (Luke 8:25 ESV)

Jesus does not torment the demons but allows them to leave the man and enter pigs.  Mark’s gospel records some two thousand swine.  But tormented by the demons these unclean animals race down the hill and are stilled by a drowning death in the sea, Jesus had just commanded and calmed.

Remarkably the man, Legion, in whom many demons had controlled and tormented, who could not be contained by chains and shackles.  But broke free and roamed in deserted places.  Where it was thought evil lived and God was not present, amongst the uncleanness of death and decay of graves.  The word of God controls him, and the convulsing demons beg Jesus not to torment them.

Demons recognise Jesus immediately, but the disciples don’t, such is the reality of humanity who have been blinded by the knowledge of what they perceive to be good and evil, whereas the demons know there is only one source of Good and that is God, their All-Mighty enemy.

But the All-Mighty enemy does not torment them, such is the God of love.  He grants them their wish and they leave the man.  The legion of demons enters the pigs, unclean animals, where God surely would not be present to further torment them.  But the unclean pigs would rather die than to have this evil wallow within and they rush into Lake Galilee and die.

On the bank of the lake, the demon possessed man is healed, he sits calmly with Jesus.  He wants to be a disciple of Jesus; he wants to come with him.  Just as the demons begged to go into uncleanness, the man free of demons, begs to remain in the restoration of his rescuer.

It might appear that Jesus rejects his request, that he sends him away and does not allow him to come with Jesus.  But quite the opposite occurs!  He is sent in the same way as the disciples are later sent, as Apostles, as a sent one!  He is sent as one set apart and freed to confess how God had set him free, to no longer be a slave of death, binding himself no longer to the flesh, and the demons that control the flesh, but to the powerful word of God, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, who gave permission for the demons to enter pigs, and Legion to take Goodnews to the Gentiles.

Who do you associate with in this narrative?  The disciples, Legion, the pigs or perhaps the people who ask Jesus to leave?  What is your fear?  Are you afraid of getting to know Jesus as the Most High God, who exposes the depraved piggishness of your most low desires and deeds? What does Jesus wish for you to take away from his word here today?

Paul’s letter to the Galatians helps open up what is happening here in Jesus’ interaction with Legion as he does with us all who daily drown the piggish demons of our sinful selves in the waters of baptism.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.   (Galatians 3:23–29 ESV)

Like Legion, we have been made one with Jesus Christ.  Legion’s oneness, however, was not made complete here in this narrative as Jesus sends him off to proclaim what God had done for him.  Rather, Legion, along with all whom Jesus healed in his ministry, and all who today are healed by the work of the Holy Spirit, are healed by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This is the completion of Legion!  This is the completion of you and me!  This is the completion of creation which waits on God for the restoration as did the wind and the waves who heard the word and were stilled, and the pigs who could not carry the sin and torment of even one man, but rather chose the stillness of death in the sea.

We no longer are captives of sin or death.  We are captivated by faith!  You are Abraham’s offspring.  What does that mean?

We wait for Jesus.  We are Sons of God.  Male or female, slave or free, Jew, or Gentile or Greek.  When God sees you, he sees Abraham’s offspring.  He sees Jesus.

When you see Jesus, what do you see?  When Jesus the Most High God reveals himself to you, what do you see?  Do you see the swine within and send them to their death in the waters of Baptism?  Do you let the Holy Spirit deliver death to the demons of the Old Adam or Eve within?  Or are you resisting the Holy Spirit and feeding his pearls to the pigs?  Are you wasting the wealth of God, the word of God, and feeding on the desires and deeds that lead to death?  Do you fear God, or do you fear family, friends, what others think, fortunes, lack of fortunes, more?

Let the Holy Spirit return you to Jesus!  If Jesus can control the wind and the waves, if he can deliver the man from a legion of demons, he can deliver you from the legion of temptations you face every day.  Like the complete number of pigs, one herd of pigs, let us rush as one in Christ, to the stilled waters of baptism, time and time again, so we might have the demons of sin drowned within.

Let us be sent out like Legion, as a legion of Christ’s love, as reflections of forgiveness, confessing to others what God has forgiven in us.  Fear God, not humanity!

Let us have the power of humility to boldly proclaim how Jesus has found us debased and rebased us as Sons of God, taking our depraved and piggish deeds and desires on himself, and replacing them with the Holy Spirit.  So, we have faith through this life, hope in death, and love for our neighbour so we might serve them with Jesus’ gifts of confession and forgiveness.

Sons of God, be encouraged by the voice of the Almighty Son of God in Psalm 66, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” (Psalm 66:16–20 ESV)

Because God has not rejected Jesus’ prayer or removed his steadfast love from him, believe he does not reject your prayer or remove his steadfast love from you, who remain in him!  Amen.