A, The Sixth Sunday of Easter - John 14:15-21 "The Help of the Holy Spirit"

John 14:15–21 (ESV) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

When a child calls out in the night, it’s usually mum who responds.  If it’s not mum and it’s dad who responds, it’s most likely still mum who hears the cry and digs dad in the ribs to get out of bed and go and help the child.

Most mums are the primary caregivers in the household; they help the children, and they help the husband, before they help themselves.

Today is Mother’s Day.  How do you remember your mother?  Some of our mums are living some have departed this life.  Some cherish the relationship they had with their mother, and some not so much.  Some mothers help us and some hinder us.

Despite today being Mother’s Day, the day is not so much about our mothers but our Father in heaven who gave us our mother and our father through whom we have life.  God gave us parents to help us.  We might harshly judge the help they give us as being overbearing or absent.  We might be tempted to worship them more than God himself, if we see them as the be all and end all of our existence in this life.  Even so, we’re called to recognise them as the primary representatives of God’s authority on this earth, regardless of how good or how bad their parenting might seem.

It should be obvious to us why we need our mother’s and father’s help.  As babies we are helpless and need the nurturing of a mother and a father’s protection.  Those who have lost their parents, receive this help through agencies and people that stand in the place of parents, under the authority that God gives to parents.  Such as governments, law enforcement, welfare agencies, and other social structures.

Although we might understand why we need parental help from mums and dads, today Jesus tells us that God the Father sends us another helper, the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is another helper, who  is our original help?  Are our parents­—our mums and dads—the original help?  And why do we need another helper in the Holy Spirit?

The first we hear of a helper in Scripture is in the Garden of Eden.  God creates Eve from Adam to be a helper fit for Adam. Eve was created to complement Adam.  They were created to be one flesh in each other since Eve was taken from Adam’s flesh.  Adam and Eve are our primal parents.

Adam was created in the likeness of the image of God, and Eve was taken from the flesh of Adam to stand opposite Adam—face to face—as a helper fit for him.  But in what way was Eve to help Adam?  Eve was to encourage Adam in being face to face with God in the garden.  Likewise, Adam was to lead the other half of his flesh in the goodness of God’s Garden of Eden, to Sabbath face to face with God in his holiness.

However, both Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the serpent.  Instead of being a help to each other in their worship of God in the goodness of his garden, created to celebrate the life he gave them, in the likeness of himself, to have face to face fellowship with him. Their complementary relationship became opposition to each other.

Rather than eating the fruit of fellowship, the fruit they ate finished their fellowship and they hid from God.  The perfect three-way community between God, man, and woman was desecrated.  Man desired to be like God!  Woman desired to be like God!  God’s first family, his first son and daughter, helped themselves to his knowledge of good and evil; to be like God rather than knowing and trusting in the love of God.

Mother’s Day falls on the second Sunday in May.  We give thanks to God for the help of our mothers and fathers.  Ironically though our primal mother and father became helpless when they should have helped each other to worship face to face with God.  We can see Adam as the original pastor who gives Eve instruction to join him in worshipping God in the garden.  Yet Eve didn’t receive this leadership from Adam when it counted most. 

So, we come back to the promise of Jesus who says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:16-17a ESV)

This “another helper” is the Holy Spirit but the original helpers are not our primal parents, Adam and Eve, nor our mum and dad.  The function of the helper Jesus speaks of is one who is “called alongside”.  The Greek word is Paraclete (paracletos).  This word is found only in the writings of John’s Gospel and  First Epistle.  Here in John 14 to16 the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit because he is going to the Father. 

We hear in John’s First Epistle, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  (1 John 2:1 ESV) Here paraclete is translated in English as advocate—one who defends or speaks on behalf of someone.  Jesus has now ascended to the right hand of the Father; he’s called alongside the Father to advocate for us through his righteousness. 

So, we have received the Holy Spirit to be our helper, our paraclete on earth, and at the same time Jesus is our helper, our paraclete, before the Father in heaven preparing a place for us there. It’s a comfort to know that in our helplessness we have a helper here and a helper there.  With these two helpers we are called out of ourselves and into God’s Word where, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV) Rather than hide from God we can walk in the light of his Word and do what God now commands us to do in Christ. 

Therefore, whenever we cry out in the darkness of our sin, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are here to help us to receive and believe the Word of God.  So, when we confess our sins, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)  Now that we have the Holy Spirit as our helper, Jesus promises us when we do the greater works of confessing sin and asking for forgiveness, he will do it and cleanse us!  (John 14:12-14)

God calls us to thank him for our mothers today regardless of them being a help to us, or a hindrance.  We also thank God that Jesus is the New Adam—the Holy bridegroom­—and he awaits the coming of his bride.  As his holy church we thank God that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be our helper who guides his church in the works of peace on our way down the aisle towards the heavenly wedding breakfast in God’s eternal garden of paradise.   We are his holy body who receives help from the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and who makes us—his church and bride—holy in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ our bridegroom. Amen.

*****

Sermon Summary

The sermon begins with the familiar image of a child crying in the night and a parent—often a mother—responding. This everyday experience highlights the deep human need for help, care, and presence. On Mother’s Day, we rightly give thanks for our mothers and the help they provide, yet the sermon reminds us that the day ultimately points beyond earthly parents to God the Father, who gives us life through them.

Human parents—whether helpful or flawed—serve as representatives of God’s authority and care. But they are not our ultimate helpers. Scripture shows that even the first parents, Adam and Eve, failed in their calling to help one another remain face to face with God. Their fall broke the perfect fellowship between God, man, and woman.

Into this brokenness, Jesus speaks a promise: the Father will send “another Helper,” the Holy Spirit (John 14:15–21). The Greek word Paraclete means “one called alongside”—a helper, advocate, comforter. Jesus himself is also our Paraclete, now advocating for us before the Father in heaven (1 John 2:1). So we have a helper on earth—the Holy Spirit—and a helper in heaven—Jesus Christ.

These divine helpers call us out of hiding and into the light of God’s Word. When we cry out in the darkness of sin, the Spirit leads us to confession, and Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Through this ongoing help, we are drawn into the life of God, empowered to keep Christ’s commandments, and prepared as the Bride of Christ for the heavenly wedding feast.

On Mother’s Day, we thank God for our mothers, but even more, we thank him for the new Adam, Jesus Christ, and for the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the Church—Christ’s holy Bride—on our journey toward eternal life.

Reflection Questions

1. About Help and Dependence

•      When you think of the word “helper,” who comes to mind first—your parents, a friend, or God?

•      In what ways do you still try to “help yourself” spiritually instead of relying on the Holy Spirit?

 2. About the Holy Spirit

•      How does understanding the Holy Spirit as “one called alongside” change the way you think about his presence in your daily life?

•      Where have you recently sensed the Spirit calling you into deeper obedience or trust?

3. About Jesus as Advocate

•      What comfort do you find in knowing that Jesus is advocating for you before the Father right now?

•      How does this truth shape the way you approach confession and forgiveness?

4. About Family and Mother’s Day

•      How has your experience with your own mother shaped your understanding of God’s care—positively or negatively?

•      What does it mean to honour your parents while recognising that God is your ultimate helper?

5. About the Church as Bride

•      What does it mean for you personally to be part of the Bride of Christ?

•      How is the Holy Spirit preparing you—and the Church—for the “wedding feast” to come?   

A, Palm Passion Sunday - Matthew 21:9-16 "Hosanna! Save us, we pray!"

Matthew 21:9–16 (ESV) And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

Palm Sunday gets its name from the fronds people cut from palms to line the road into Jerusalem at Jesus’ triumphal entry.  Those who had cloaks lay them on the road in homage, but others used palms, in the same way we might “make do” if we didn’t have the “red carpet” to roll out in honour of someone we recognise as royalty.

The people shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  This was the expectation of victory and peace from a king who rode in on a  donkey as recorded in Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9 ESV)

The expectation of the crowds harks back to the “glory days of Israel” with David as its king. When King David returned to Jerusalem after battle—victorious—the city welcomed him shouting, “Hosanna!” “You have caused us to be saved, we pray!”

Hosanna is an exclamation of adoration for being saved or delivered!  It was also a war cry for success as David and the congregation proclaimed in the temple, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray (Hebrew: hoshi’ah na), O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.” (Psalm 118:23–26 ESV)

The crowd anticipated that Jesus would become their Messiah, their King, by entering Jerusalem, the Praetorium, the official residence of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, and throw him out to seize power and save Israel.  But instead of entering the Roman ruler’s residence, Jesus enters the temple and overturns the self-justification in which Israel had turned, away from God’s mercy.  They missed the mark, believing their ritual sacrifice would atone for their sin so they could carry on by themselves without faith in God’s merciful presence.

Just as they had used the law to justify themselves apart from faith in God and his mercy, they sought to use Jesus in the same way, to glorify themselves as a nation autonomous from God.  But they didn’t realise that the Messiah who was to be raised up as king was God’s own Son, sent to be faithful unto death, even death on a cross.  He was singled out to be alone on the cross, so Israel could worship with God in peace, so we too might never be left alone in our helplessness!

Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 ESV) Here Jesus is mirroring the cry of anyone who has ever stood alone before God, with all expectations exhausted, completely spent, with nothing more that can be done.  The ego stripped of all pride, the idols of expectation proven worthless.  Jesus became the epitome of humanity, exposed in the rawness of one’s true helplessness.

For Jesus this was the abandonment of God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus had put off his divinity as God’s Son and hung nailed to the cross as the bare helpless epitome of human wretchedness.  He hung there uncovering the truth of your reality—humanity’s reality.  In our sinfulness we try to hide the reality of this wretchedness and loneliness behind our pride and pleasures. 

Now Jesus has become the scapegoat, the stone the builders rejected! Yet, because of this, he is the capstone of humanity’s salvation—your salvation—when God’s help is sought!

When we as God’s children come to the point that seems like we’ve been totally abandoned, it’s not God who has abandoned us!  Rather, it’s the realisation of my false beliefs in my feelings, my abilities, and my understanding that has caused us to seek abandonment from God! Allowed to feel completely helpless, thoroughly wretched in our human state, we cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  

Although it feels horrible, it’s actually a blessed state of realisation, returning to God as the only answer to our helplessness!  That we need to be “Holy Spirit filled” rather than “human spirited” or full of ourselves.  We are blessedly helpless, and we need to be continually grafted into God, we need God to reconnect his umbilical cord of mercy that we thought we could do without and so often seek to sever.

And this is exactly what God the Father allowed to occur to his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, Son of David, the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.

The irony of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and the Passion of Jesus Christ is that on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem the crowds welcomed him. Yet, even by the end of the day, the end of Holy week, all had turned away from “the Messiah” people wanted Jesus to be.  In much the same way we do the same welcoming him with our expectations, but our humanity gets offended when its idolatry is exposed. 

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem led to his triumphal entry into the grave, hell, and resurrection from the dead, raised up as the Messiah God knew you and I needed!  God allows us to arrive at that seemingly hellish dead-end place and cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The irony continues for us in that when we hit rock bottom, Christ has been lower—for you, for me—for all.  God reverses the tables for those who cry out to him for help.  When the epitome of our humanity is revealed as sin, we too seek the Son of David, pleading to God for “hosanna in the highest”—“help in the highest”—when we realise we’re the lowest.  In our sin we confess, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV) “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 32:5 ESV)

Jesus became sin, though he was without sin.  He became nothing, helpless, and through his nothingness and helplessness our help is “Hosanna in the highest”! Salvation in the highest! We no longer live as those who think we can help ourselves. We are blessedly helpless and therefore helped by the Holy Spirit to repentantly live knowing our help is in the Lord who made heaven and earth. 

We pray, “Save us Lord!” when the going seems good and when it’s bad, knowing that despite our deceptively good or bad feelings, we are never alone!  For those in Jesus Christ we have a holy helper in our helplessness. 

Jesus saves us from ourselves and our human predicament when the Holy Spirit shows us our blessed helplessness. Sometimes God needs to overturn the tables of our expectations that have become religious idols standing in the way of our salvation.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit has to stop us from  resurrecting our humanity to the place of God and robbing him who has recreated our bodies to be his holy temples through our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  

If out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies God has prepared praise, he can help you when you realise your helplessness in yourself. As children of God the Holy Spirit moves you to suckle on his word, so our hosannas are thanksgiving prayers for what God has done, our hosannas are daily prayers for God’s guidance now, and our hosannas are prayers of deliverance through death into salvation, victory, and eternal life.  Amen.

Palm Sunday – Hosanna! Save us, we pray!

Sermon Summary:

Palm Sunday begins with crowds joyfully welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, laying cloaks and palm branches before Him as one would honour a king. Their cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, echoed Israel’s ancient longing for deliverance and victory, recalling David’s triumphs and the prophetic promise of a humble, saving king riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).

Yet the people misunderstood the nature of Jesus’ kingship. They expected a political liberator who would overthrow Roman power. Instead of marching to the Praetorium to confront Pilate, Jesus went to the temple to confront something far deeper: Israel’s misplaced trust in ritual, self-justification, and religious autonomy. He overturned tables not only of commerce but of false confidence.

Jesus exposes the human tendency to use God—even the Messiah—to reinforce our own agendas. But the Messiah God sends is not the Messiah we try to fashion. Jesus is the Son who becomes the suffering servant, faithful unto death, even death on a cross. His cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, reveals the depth of His identification with human helplessness. He enters the absolute loneliness of sin’s consequence so that no one who cries out to God is ever truly abandoned.

In this divine irony, the triumphal entry leads not to a throne but to the grave, hell, and resurrection. Jesus becomes the rejected stone who becomes the capstone of salvation. He becomes sin so that sinners may become children of God.

The sermon invites us to recognise our own “Palm Sunday expectations”—the ways we want God to serve our plans. God often overturns these expectations so that we may discover our blessed helplessness, the place where true hosanna arises: “Save us, Lord!” This helplessness is not despair but the Spirit’s work, drawing us back to dependence on God’s mercy.

If God can prepare praise from the mouths of infants, He can certainly sustain his children when they realise they cannot sustain themselves. Our hosannas become prayers of thanksgiving, guidance, and deliverance—cries of faith from those who know their help is in the name of the Lord.

Reflection Questions for Personal or Group Use

1. What expectations do you bring to Jesus?

Where might you be tempted to shape him into the Messiah you want rather than the Messiah God has sent?

2. When have you experienced God overturning your “tables”?

How has God disrupted your plans, assumptions, or religious habits in order to draw you back to His mercy?

3. What does “blessed helplessness” mean in your own life?

Can you identify moments when reaching the end of yourself became the beginning of deeper faith?

4. How do you respond when God feels absent?

What does Jesus being forsaken by God on the cross reveal about God’s work in healing your spiritual isolation and salvation?

5. How does Jesus’ journey—from triumphal entry to cross to resurrection—reshape your understanding of salvation?

What does it mean that Jesus became “the stone the builders rejected” for your sake? What is the capstone of your kingdom building?

6. What does it look like to live daily with a “Hosanna in the highest” posture?

How might your prayer life change if you embraced dependence on God rather than self-reliance?

C, Post-Pentecost 9 Proper 14 - Luke 12:32,37 Hebrews 11:12 "As Good as Dead"

Luke 12:32, 37 (ESV) “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

Hebrews 11:12 (ESV) Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Abram was a rich man, but he was as good as dead.  He had faith in God, but he wished to propagate his line, encouraged by his wife, Sarai, to take Hagar, her servant, and secure a future through her son, Ishmael.

You might find it interesting that Abram, come Abraham, after being promised by God that he would have his own heir, listens to Sarai, Sarah, has genital union with her servant Hagar, and has a son.  The faith in which Abraham and Sarah act, seems contrary to the faith they were credited with in the letter to the Hebrews.

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.  Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.  (Hebrews 11:11–12 ESV)

A world of hurt follows after Hagar conceived and gives birth to Ishmael.  Ishmael receives the blessing God gave to Abraham, becoming a multitude of peoples, but he does not allow Abraham and Sarah’s faith in themselves see Ishmael as the heir.  Instead, God allows Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness to seemingly fend for themselves with bread and water that quickly run out.

Hagar and Ishmael too are as good as dead, which appears to be not good at all.  Imagine being Hagar and Ishmael.  What would your faith be like in their situation?  The laughter and joy at the birth of Isaac, I imagine, was not shared by Hagar and Ishmael having been cast out into a certainty of being as good as dead.

The picture God paints for us in his word as being as good as dead, is not as bad in God’s eyes as it is ours!  He allows Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael to reach a point at which they are no longer able to act.  Within each of these characters God kills all faith, hope, and love, exhausting every human act, erasing every idea and all sentiment. 

Not only was Abraham as good as dead, but also, he couldn’t give faith to Sarah, Sarah couldn’t give faith to Hagar, and nor could Hagar give faith to Ishmael.  God is the only one to give faith.  But first he seeks to see in us the complete annihilation and obliteration of looking to the self.  He uses death for good, making us as good as dead.

Talking about death in this way, is counter cultural.  To be made nothing and erased rightly fills us with hopelessness and helplessness.  It may be your response to busy yourself, to try to overcome the feelings of fear associated with this reality.  Worry can drive one to work with a desire to force these feelings out.

On the other hand, becoming nothing and being erased may leave you struck with fear.  So much so you are frozen by fear and are overcome by the poverty of your hopelessness and helplessness.

In a society driven by the pursuit of pleasure it is a strange paradox that we are faced by so much fear and unhappiness.  However, when faith in oneself and the pleasing of oneself no longer pleases, fear and unhappiness must come when our treasure of pleasure is dead.

This death of pleasure occurs inside and outside the church, and it seems a terrible thing, but God allows us to be as good as dead so goodness might come through death.

For you and me, inside the church, we learn a valuable lesson.  We learn about being Christian is not necessarily about doing Christian things. 

In fact, there are many outside Christendom that do many greater things than those inside the church.  In the eyes of the world, philanthropists do good deeds spending millions on selfless works in society.  Humanitarians too, also seem to improve society with the good work they do.  Their love for their fellow human is second to none, outdoing us in the church doing “Christian things”.

Doing Christian things might please some!  But doing Christian things to be seen as a Christian, does not please God.  One needs to prayerfully consider what one’s pleasure actually is, in doing Christian things.  If I do things to feel pleased, am I not pleasing the god of myself?  I am using the things of God to worship myself.  And what happens when the things I do, no longer gives me pleasure?

Being a Christian, calls us to be in the pleasures of death; to be as good as dead.  That sounds strange.  It sounds like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.  How can there be pleasure in death?  Death is about annihilation, becoming nothing, obliteration, or being erased from existence. 

Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  (Luke 12:34 ESV)  Where your treasure is, there is your pleasure.  If your pleasure is doing Christian things, then your treasure is the doing of the deeds. 

However, when we are as good as dead, our pleasure cannot come from doing anything.  But,  when we are as good as dead, our existence or having our being must come from God and this pleases him because he is the only one who can truly do it.

In our Lutheran Confessions it says… But before people are enlightened, converted, reborn, renewed, and drawn back to God by the Holy Spirit, they cannot in and of themselves, out of their own natural powers, begin, effect, or accomplish anything in spiritual matters for their own conversion or rebirth, any more than a stone or block of wood or piece of clay can.  [Isaiah 45:9; 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:19–24]

For although they can control their bodies and can listen to the gospel and think about it to a certain extent and even speak of it (as Pharisees and hypocrites do), they regard it as foolishness and cannot believe it.  They behave in this case worse than a block of wood, for they are rebellious against God’s will and hostile to it, wherever the Holy Spirit does not exercise his powers in them and ignite and effect faith and other God-pleasing virtues and obedience in them.[1]

It pleases God when he finds us ready.  We are made ready by the Holy Spirit, and he readies us in the Word of God and the Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit places us in the cycle of faith, breathing life into that which is as good as dead. 

In fact, he must make us ready for the coming of the Bridegroom by making us dead.  God finds us as nothing, so he can give us everything and make us something, a Christian being, working and moving in the being of Christ, doing the things of God as the Holy Spirit wills us.  For “In him we live and move and have our being”.  (Acts 17:28 ESV)

Jesus tells us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32 ESV)

We see in war movies, when one is injured on the battlefield and cannot escape the enemy patrol, looking to finish off those who are still alive, some survive by playing dead, so the killers pass by giving the injured a chance to escape. 

Opposite to this is the Christian who is ready for the Father’s good pleasure.  He needs us not to play alive, as if we do not need his help and can save ourselves.  We don’t need to play dead either, our reality is that we are as good as dead.  It pleases God when we know and trust this in his word and make ourselves ready for his coming, because “our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV)

When we ready ourselves in the knowledge as being as good as dead, it pleases God to rescue us from the “no man’s land” of suffering and sin.  Jesus tells us what he does for us, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12:37 ESV)

Faith that pleases God, is a faith that places its pleasure in the death of self, the death of desire and sin as well as the death of do-gooder righteousness.   A faith that pleases God is a faith that treasures Jesus Christ and his service to us in the forgiveness of sin, giving life to sinners. 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  (Romans 6:3 ESV)

It is better, to be awake and ready to the reality of being as good as dead, than to be so busy pleasing and saving the self that one shuts out Christ, knocking at the door of one’s heart!

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, as Jesus comes and knocks on the door of our hearts, may he find us ready, enter, and serves us with the bread of faith, hope, and love, in his word and in his body and blood.  Send you Holy Spirit to work the death of faith, hope, and love in the things of this world, our sin, and our sinful being, so he might continually serve us with your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, that each of us may remain in the goodness and treasure of his death.  Amen.

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[1] Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000).  The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, 2:24 (pp. 548–549).  Fortress Press.

C, Ash Wednesday - The Lord's Prayer #1, Matthew 6:1-21 "Prayer Introduction - What, Why, & How"

Matthew 6:1–21 (ESV)  “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.  “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread,  and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,  that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

During the midweek Lenten services we will be examining prayer. 

Why do we pray?  Why did the disciples asked Jesus how to pray?

What is prayer and why would we want to pray? 

There are different kinds of prayer, but all prayers begin deep within the human heart.  Prayer begins with a deep yearning for something.  What puts the deep yearning in the heart will determine what kind of a prayer it is!

For a Christ-centred understanding of prayer, we examine what Jesus says about prayer.  That is, to put forward a wish or make a plea that glorifies and justifies our Father in heaven.  If we do not do this, prayer would simply be human coveting, and not prayer as God would have us understand it.

The Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, does not specifically give us the Lord’s Prayer, but the text before and after it.  Nevertheless, the Lord’s Prayer is taught by Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount, but what he says before and after it, on giving and fasting, also applies to prayer.

He warns, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.  Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.”  (Matthew 6:1,2 ESV)

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room, and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:5–6 ESV)

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,  that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16–18 ESV)

So, we get the picture!  Prayer is not done as a work of righteousness, to be seen, to get acknowledgement, to be a hypocrite.  “Hypocrite” is an interesting word biblically when it is broken down, as a hypocrite is a hypo-critic.  In Greek, hypo means under, by, or with; and critic is from krino, to judge or decide.

Understanding this, makes Jesus’ words stand out for us, where he says to those criticizing him for healing on the Sabbath, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24 ESV)

Surprisingly perhaps, the Old Testament word for prayer, is from a word meaning, to judge – (פָּלַל) pâlal, and it functions as making a judgement to ask or intercede.  Another word commonly used in the Old Testament, to judge, is shâphaṭ (שָׁפַט), but it functions as judgement to vindicate or punish.

One who prays to justify themselves or to punish others would be one who hypocritically judges or prays. The truth is we probably wouldn’t even recognise this as prayer, but rather as coveting or bearing false witness.  Whereas one who judges with a right judgement, prays also with a judgment that pleases our Heavenly Father.

So, prayer is judgement, but right prayer is right judgement which makes a judgement that justifies and glorifies God. 

But why would we want to pray?  Even if we wanted to pray, how can we pray with a right judgement?

We need to be taught how to pray.  The disciples became increasingly aware of this the longer they spent with Jesus.  Why?

We hear from Luke eleven, Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1 ESV)

Their request demonstrates one very simple point.  There is nothing or no one in all of creation that can help us to pray.  We are helpless and cannot come to God in prayer unless he first comes to us.  As is written in one of the liturgical orders of absolution and confession, the pastor sings or says,  “Our help is in the name of the Lord.” And the congregation responds, “He made heaven and earth”.  This is from a Psalm of David, Psalm 124:8. 

The King leads the congregation of Israel in declaring he and his congregation needs help from the maker of heaven and earth.  And we too are the same, regardless of our status in this world as princes and princesses or paupers.

If God did not exist, we would be completely helpless.  However, because God does exist, we are blessedly helpless.  “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV)

So blessedly helpless, we are taught how to pray.  Before Jesus was on earth, the job of teaching was through the priests, the prophets, and the family.  The last in the old era was John the Baptist who taught his disciples how to pray.

But Jesus teaches a new and right way to pray which truly acknowledges the help we need, and we get the help to pray from the Holy Spirit who proceeds from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, God the Son.  

Just as Jesus bore the weakness and the helplessness of human flesh and perfectly relied on his Father through the Holy Spirit, to pray, we too are given the Holy Spirit to help us pray.  We are also encouraged to continue asking for the Holy Spirit in prayer, reminding us it is he who guides us in right judgement and right prayer.

Jesus teaches us in Luke eleven, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13 ESV)

Therefore, we want to pray because the Holy Spirit has been given to us.  The Holy Spirit uses both, guilt produced by the Law to make us flee to God in prayers of confession, and also, the Gospel to reassure us we have the invitation as adopted Sons to join our prayers with Jesus’ prayers, the petitions of our great high priest.  This is all because, Jesus has been raised to the right hand of the Father.

The Holy Spirit gives us the will and heart to love God and pray to him calling him Abba, Father.  This is not an official title of fatherhood, but a personal loving title of Daddy.  Just as a baby learns to say, dad-da  or mum-ma, the Holy Spirit, teaches us in God’s Word to say, “Our Abba.”

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”  (Romans 8:14 ESV)

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26 ESV)

Jesus teaches us to pray because he wants us to have the right relationship with our Father in heaven.  This is a restored relationship that was lost; impossible to reconcile ourselves to God, and come to him in complete confidence.

Therefore, three things we are taught about prayer are…

1) We are created to be in fellowship with God.

2) Since the fall we are helpless.  But, because of Jesus, we are now “blessedly helpless”.  

3) All right prayers are Holy Spirited prayers. 

We the blessedly helpless are blessedly helped both by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  We now have the freedom of loved children to call on our Father in prayer. Amen.

Next Wednesday we will look at the oneship Jesus teaches us when we pray his prayer, the Lord’s Prayer to our Father, and what this does for us.