C, Lent 1 - Luke 4:1-13 "By The Authority"

By the authority of God the Father, a human being is given a renewed being of life in Jesus Christ!  When we are baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection, we receive life anew, full of the Holy Spirit, giving us a holy life before our Father in heaven! 

Just as Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, we leave the baptismal font full of the Holy Spirit and are led into a worldly wilderness that seeks to starve us of the holy spirituality we’ve received in baptism.

From the spiritual heights of holy baptism, we wander in the wilderness of earthly existence like a wandering Aramean, tempted to wonder if our baptism is really holy.  All of God’s baptised children are tempted to believe baptism is not eternally effective. 

Therefore, some wander away from God and their holy baptism into hopelessness, and find nowhere to dwell, so that their thirst or hunger is not satisfied. (See Psalm 107:4-9)

Some, like sheep flop down and sulk.  They clearly see the darkness of death, the painful reality that  life is death preceded by hard labour.  In flopping down in their darkness, they forget the light of eternal life given to them in baptism.  Therefore, they believe no one can help them in their trouble or distress. (See Psalm 107:10-16)

Some are led away by their desires, into foolish afflictions and addictions.  The food of life first given in holy baptism is rejected. The baptismal life first received then dwindles away and dissipates back into the death that baptism once overcame. (See Psalm 107:17-22)

Some, figure when the going gets tough the tough get going.  They seek to work their way out of the wilderness.  They don’t realise, in doing so, they’re putting aside the very things given to support them in tough times.  A baptismal faith in which the Holy Spirit causes one to be still and know that God is God.  A baptismal faith that demonstrates God’s strength in our weakness.  That in his power, God allows and tempers the tides of worldly turbulence and troubles, in which we’re tempted to wander and wane. (See Psalm 107:23-32)

Jesus faced all of this in the wilderness.  But he did not lose what he received in his baptism at the Jordan – the Holy Spirit, and his Sonship as God the Son.  In your baptism, you have been sealed in Jesus’ Sonship by the Holy Spirit. 

As you hear the Word of God, in this worldly wilderness, the Holy Spirit works belief in you.  Like Jesus, you have received the Holy Spirit in holy baptism, and the Holy Spirit seals you with the promise of salvation, in the good works of Jesus Christ. 

The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians, “In him we have obtained an inheritance…  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 1:11a,13 ESV)

And later, he warns, “…do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30 ESV)

Jesus seals us for the day of redemption by not grieving the Holy Spirit in the wilderness.  He faces the fiery trials of the devil but doesn’t succumb to his temptation.

Jesus put aside the power of his Sonship and took on the weakness of our human flesh.  Then, he was baptised into death as the servant Son of Man.  With the same weakness as us, he was given the Holy Spirit and was tempted as we are tempted, yet he did not sin.

We hear of three temptations put before Jesus by the devil.  The first is physical hunger and the temptation comes through a question, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:3 ESV)

The devil seeks to get Jesus to prove his Sonship, to use his heavenly power, by turning a stone into bread.  Later on, five barley loaves and two fish are used to feed five thousand, but not now in the wilderness and not the way the devil wants Jesus to do so.

Jesus doesn’t give in to the temptation to use his Sonship, to make bread when he was hungry, nor does he when he feeds the five thousand.  Jesus responds to the devil with God’s Word, “It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone.”  (Luke 4:4 ESV)

Jesus, the Son of Man, lives with faithfulness to the Father, not on bread alone!  At the feeding of the five thousand, with his divinity set aside, he faithfully prays to the Father.  Then, in the weakness of his human flesh, he faithfully feeds the five thousand as the servant Son of Man, full of the Holy Spirit. 

Then in Luke’s Gospel, the devil temps Jesus with pride and power to receive all authority and glory from the kingdoms of the world.  But to get this he has to turn his back on the Word of God.  He has to break the first commandment, bowing to worship the devil. 

Yet again, Jesus remains faithful to the Father in his baptismal mission of mercy.  Like in the first temptation, Jesus’ defence is the Word of God, and he rebuffs the devil, saying, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” (Luke 4:8 ESV)

The devil can’t separate Jesus from the Father, despite showing him humanity from one moment in time.  I imagine Jesus was shown humanity in all its ugliness and suffering.  But there is no way Jesus abandon’s his relationship despite the devil’s coercion that might seem rational to get control for the “greater good” of humanity. The only good is the good of the cross in all its ugliness.  Jesus is faithful to God, looking to the good and evil of the tree of the cross, to repair God’s creation for the greater good of God.

In the third temptation, the devil uses the Word of God, having been foiled by the Word of God in the previous two temptations.  Of all places to tempt Jesus, the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here…” (Luke 4:9b ESV)

Again, comes the questioning of Jesus’ Sonship but the devil uses parts of Psalm Ninety-One.  It’s shrewd, but like anyone who uses parts of God’s Word to deceive, a wider reading reveals the weakness and shallowness of their deception.

The devil begins his quote with the same words with which Jesus rejects the devil the previous two times, saying, “for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and  ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Luke 4:10–11 ESV)

Yet, as we have spoken in Psalm ninety-one earlier, we know the deception of the devil.  For the next verse of the psalm reveals the deceit of half-truths. We hear that Jesus will, “tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.” (Psalm 91:13 ESV) This is the promise and fulfilment of Jesus at the cross, first proclaimed by God in the Garden of Eden, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 ESV)

This is repeated by Paul for the encouragement of the Romans and us, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (Romans 16:20 ESV)

The devil who is bound and crushed by Jesus in his victory over sin and death, still has limited authority, but only on earth for a period of time. Though judged and condemned, the devil has been allowed to test us to further condemn himself.  We like Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit can crush the devil underfoot with Jesus and his Word, saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 4:12 ESV)

In Revelation chapter twenty, John sees the last day where, “the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10 ESV)

Be encouraged in these days of difficulty, walking in the wilderness, to walk with Jesus.  He went into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit and came out of it and into Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus endured in his hometown of Nazareth, full of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus having endured in human flesh endures in us.  In Jesus’ baptismal Sonship, walk in the wilderness by the authority of Jesus Christ, full of the Holy Spirit.

Know that being filled with the Holy Spirit in God’s holy baptismal reality, you are being daily renewed in Jesus’ reality because he endured our reality and promises, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18–19 ESV)

Amen. 

C, Post-Pentecost 23 Proper 28 - Luke 21:5-19 "Endurance and Opportunity"

Luke 21:5–19 (ESV)  And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said,  “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”  And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”  And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.  And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”  Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.  But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake.  This will be your opportunity to bear witness.  Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer,  for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.  You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.  You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.  But not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your lives.

People spoke with great pleasure about the appearance of the temple,  in the presence of Jesus.  Yet Jesus taught that all would be thrown down.  Jesus said the temple would not endure, and in seventy AD it was destroyed by the Romans. 

In the first century, after Jesus’ ascension, many believed he would return.  Still today we wait for his triumphant return.  And as those who gushed over the temple, still today we are tempted to glorify the goodness of the church’s buildings, denominations, and organisations.

In recent years denominations have become hated for the abuse that’s been revealed in its ranks.  Sexual misconduct and its coverup to protect the “good name” of the denomination has led to a royal commission and safe place policy being enforced in a bit to stop sexual misconduct within the denominations of Christendom.

Pleasure seeking in denominations has been a temptation and led denominations away from the centrality of enduring in Christ. 

It’s no different in the LCANZ either.  Our misguided pleasure is also having an impact on us too. 

However, unlike some denominations that have hidden their clergy to protect the good name of the denomination and its institution, we have gone to the other extreme to protect the “good name” of the LCANZ when allegations of sexual misconduct occur.

The temptation to which we’ve succumb is to throw clergy and parishioners out of Christ’s presence as soon as an allegation is made.  Pastors and parishioners are being delivered up guilty, hated, and considered as dead. 

In doing so we, the LCANZ, stand in contradiction to Jesus Christ, unable to give the forgiveness of sins to those who have sinned in this way, or be forgiven by those restored for wrongly being accused and thrown out into the darkness.

Where Jesus’ love should be coming to light in the forgiveness of sin as we walk with sinners in their accountability under the Law of the land, the love that comes to life is self-interested and cold; governed by the pleasure to preserve insurance policy law, the protection of the polity of the LCANZ, and uphold the popularity of the institution in the world.

The pleasure of the LCANZ in presenting itself to the world as one with the world, continues to reveal a terrifying truth amongst us that our church is no better than any other, and like the temple in Jerusalem, must die with all other denominations, must crumble with all of creation, for Jesus Christ to endure with us to eternity.

In recent years we have seen the world become increasingly polarised — morally, politically, and socially.  Fear has increased and so too has suffering.  The more we humans run after our pleasures the more we suffer from the pain of doing so!

Those of us who remain in Jesus Christ and endure in his love, don’t go searching for pain or pleasure.  Both find us as they did for our Lord Jesus Christ when he walked in the reality of his death and destruction, pain and suffering, and the reality of resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father.

Jesus did not need to go looking for suffering.  In his incarnation, he was born into a suffering world.  Nor did he need to seek pleasure.  He came to please his Father, to do his will, to forgive and bear the sin of the world.

In the midst of death and destruction, pain and suffering, righteousness and resurrection, Jesus had opportunity to bring peace between us and God the Father.  This peace surpasses our understanding, and it sustains us throughout the ages as worldly chaos continues to grow.  This peace, and the opportunity Jesus took to secure our peace, pleases God the Father who freely sustains all who endure in Jesus Christ.

In the LCANZ, things are becoming progressively worse, regardless of the best light one attempts to shine on the situation.  It is no surprise as we seek to progress with the world.  Practically progression with the world means living more by sight than faith. 

When we look for beauty in the superficial structures of the church rather than our One True Eternal Structure of the church, our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we will find an increase in our suffering, as God withdraws and hands us over to our desires.

Theologically this progression is not progressive but deteriorating regression.   Faith in the institution of our denomination, its numbers, its finances, its pastors, its buildings, or its history, are all idolatries and a regression of faith.  Nevertheless, God tells us it will be this way as creation continues to crumble into chaos.

How do you respond to this increased chaos? 

There is temptation to panic, worry, and doubt God.  However, Jesus tells us of the reality to prepare us, so we are not surprised as it occurs.  He gives us future truths, not so we plan protection for ourselves, but so we remain in him for our eternal protection and endurance.

We will not need to seek pain and suffering as Christians, but we can expect it!  It’s promised by Jesus here in his word. 

Nor do we need to seek to make the church a place of pleasure.  This will only bring suffering on us as a result of being sinfully disobedient.

However, God has already made the church a place of pleasure through the forgiveness of sins.  The many deaths and resurrections the Holy Spirit leads us through, to the final resurrection to eternal life, is also God’s pleasure in which we joyfully live in faith, hope, and love.

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)

Even as we enter deeper and deeper into the last days of deception and disarray, may the Holy Spirit polarise you in Christ’s love.  Just as Jesus shone his light in the midst of darkness and his death,  may you let the Holy Spirit reflect the brightness of Christ’s forgiveness, more and more, despite the darkness of our days. 

In the future, greater things will occur, despite worse and worse things happening.  Jesus promises greater opportunity to let God’s light shine bright as the darkness of corruption and chaos gets worse inside and outside the church.  For you who endure in Jesus Christ, he will endure within you, despite confusion and deception.

The prophet Malachi says of those under God, “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.”  (Malachi 4: 2a ESV) 

Just as Jesus endured and died to bring us peace in the face of death and destruction, we too are called to see and allow God to work in us as agents of peace and proclamation, even as things seem to become progressively more impossible in the LCANZ.  Don’t be surprised the greatest tribulations any Christian will face in the future, will be from within denominations seeking fulfilment in their own pleasure.

Jesus promises, “…they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake.”  (Luke 21:12 ESV)

But in the centre of the confusion and trouble we will face as Christians, just as Jesus endured trial and tribulation, he will be with us, and just as he bore witness to the truth, “This will be your opportunity to bear witness.”  (Luke 21:12–13 ESV)

Our endurance and opportunity won’t come from our meditation on our own sufferings or pleasures, but from Jesus himself who promises, “for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.”  (Luke 21:15 ESV)

Your great pleasure is Jesus’ faithfulness and love toward you!  Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father joyfully send the Holy Spirit to bring you to him and the Father, to endure, despite the greater descent of creation into depravity and coming destruction.

However, your destination is sealed by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  When you are tempted to join in with the hatred of those who oppose Jesus Christ, inside and outside the church, in the name of what pleases, cast yourself on Christ’s pleasure to forgive.

When you endure in Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives you the words of Christ to testify to your sin, confess his forgiveness of your sin, and give your accusers and haters opportunity to confess their sin and Jesus to work his pleasure of forgiving their sin too.  Amen.

C, Lent 1 - Luke 9:28–43 & 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 "Wealth in the Wilderness"

Romans 10:11–13 (ESV)  For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

When Jesus was confronted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus knew of a greater reality than Satan.  We might think, “Yes, he knew because he was the Son of God!”  But if it was because he had higher power as the Son of God, he could not be the Saviour of you and me, or any other person.  There would be an unbridgeable gap, between the greatness of the Son of God, and the weakness of humanity.

However, the greater reality to which Jesus was akin, was not his relationship to God as the powerful Son.  But rather, his human weakness and perfect trust, allowing him to put aside his divinity, and wander in the wilderness, knowing his Father in heaven would hear him in his human weakness.

Jesus was no less hungry than any person would be, having been wandering in the wilderness for forty days.  His desire for food would have made his stomach wrench in pain. 

As he wandered alone without kingdom or someone to talk to, the human desire for partnership and property, a place to call home, would have been made all the more painful by the searing heat of the sand and loneliness. 

And when Satan took him to God’s temple in Jerusalem, and challenged him with the Word of God, the temptation to justify the evil inclinations of Satan and listen to him rather than trusting God would have been just as enticing to Jesus as they would be for you and me. 

In all three temptations, Satan temps Jesus with the question, “If you are the Son of God?”  He tempts Jesus to reveal his power as Son of God, so Satan could use it against Jesus, and those Jesus calls through the Gospel.  Satan wants to demonstrate a divide between the divinity of God and the weakness of humanity.

But Jesus repels Satan, and because he does, we can too!  Like Jesus we need not tap into the wealth of our works, the abundance of our intellect, or the power of a higher lived life.

No!  Instead, we are called to “not” let shame, desire, or a need to prove ourselves worthy, lead us into temptation.  Rather, we are called to trust God with the wealth of weakness, just as Jesus bore his weakness as wealth in the wilderness.

After all, just like Jesus, you and I are travelling with the riches of God through this life.  Just like Jesus you carry his wealth of weakness in the wilderness.  How can this be?

When Jesus enters the wilderness, we hear he didn’t go by his own effort, but was led there by the Holy Spirit.  Mark’s Gospel says it even stronger, saying, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”   (Mark 1:12 ESV) Literally, the Spirit threw him out into the wilderness.

Jesus works with a greater reality, and we are called to do the same, even unto death.  He knows the suffering that this will bring to us. 

He says, “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.  Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.  Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”  (Revelation 2:9–11 ESV)

Just as Jesus entered the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit, you have been given the Holy Spirit and he will lead you in your weakness.  This is the richness of God’s wealth working for you, despite your human spirit desiring and scrambling to save face from the shame of being seen weak in the world.

Saint Paul tells the persecuted church in Rome, “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

So, what are the riches of God?  And how do we get them?

Firstly, Jesus himself, the perfect human man, submissive in weakness to our heavenly Father, is the greatest gift to all of us.  He is our wealth in the wilderness of our lives.  His love for the Father, trusting solely in him, and not in himself being the Son of God, is his gift to us.  However, because he is the Son of God who humbly submits in weakness and trust, makes this gift forever more profound and great!  

Similarly, as Jesus trusted in the Father, we are called to daily trust Jesus for giving us the gift of faith, and for the perfecting of faith within us, even as we have been made holy Sons of God in baptism.  We literally trust Jesus by calling on his name, and in calling on him we are saved.

Calling on Jesus’ name allows us to look 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 12:2 ESV)

Secondly, the great wealth or richness we have is the Holy Spirit.  When we call on Jesus’ name the Holy Spirit is given.  The Holy Spirit and Jesus are inseparable and when we call on Jesus, we get the Holy Spirit as well.

Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit after receiving the Spirit in baptism, we too have received the Holy Spirit in baptism.  In fact, we not only receive the Holy Spirit, but also God the Father and Jesus Christ, God the Son, in all his risen power and glory.  Therefore, just as Jesus is the founder and perfecter of faith, the Holy Spirit is the worker of faith within us.

When the Holy Spirit works faith within us, he is working holiness in us.  If we were to work faith, we would work faith in ourselves and work our way out of the weakness Jesus worked beating all the deeds of the devil and his evil entourage.  In fact, we would work Jesus and the Holy Spirit out of ourselves.  Ultimately, we would do what the devil sought to do to Jesus when he sought to tempt him in the first place.

Thirdly, the great wealth we have is the richness of the written Word of God.  Paul tells us in Romans chapter two verse four, the riches of God are kindness and forbearance and patience, and are meant to lead to repentance. (Romans 2:4 ESV)

This gift is not to lead us to shame and hiding but repentance through confession.  Shame is replaced by belief and trust in Jesus.  We too, endure in weakness, with the wealth of the cross, and despise its shame, looking with trusting joy to the Lord our God. 

The gift of the written Word keeps us from becoming delirious in the wilderness.  The richness of the Word stops us from becoming transfixed on any mirages of fleeting earthly wealth.  All this kind of wealth will vanish the moment we leave this worldly wilderness and stand before the Father, on the day of judgement.

Hear how Jesus both disciplines and loves us in his Word, so we can be saved.  He says, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.  Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:17–19 ESV)

What is this gold, refined by fire, which we are to purchase?  It's the wealth of his weakness where he trusted his Father, all the way to death on the cross, descent into hell, and resurrection from the dead to the right hand of the Father.  This gold of God is the forgiveness of all our sins.

How much does this gold cost?  It costs you nothing!  This gold makes us rich in the righteousness of Jesus, and it opens our eyes in this wilderness to the wealth of love God has for us.

Therefore, be zealous for the weakness of Jesus!  Covet his weakness and call on his name!  It will not lead to shame!  Instead, you will be saved by his wealth in the wilderness. Amen.

B, Last Sunday of Church Year, Proper 29 - Daniel 7:14 & Revelation 1:7-8 "Jesus Please Finish the Cheese"

 

Adam Cheeseman loves cheese.  For Adam, too much cheese seemed never to be enough. Cheese was Adam’s beginning and end.

To ask when cheese came into Adam’s life, showed that asking the question, meant one did not really know Adam.  Cheese was always there for Adam. It was a part of his being.  He lived for cheese. Without cheese, life had no purpose for Adam. 

It’s hard to know when cheese first became known to Adam.  It seemed that from the time his mother weened him off the breast he had a piece of cheese in his mouth.  As he grew and his mother asked what he wanted to eat, he would say, “cheese please!”

Because he loved cheese so much, he loved what his family did – milk cows!  To Adam it seemed that God put cows on earth for one purpose, and that was for milk to make cheese for Adam to eat. 

Adam met a girl in the cheese pavilion at the local show.  He fell in love with her from the moment he laid eyes on her, carrying a platter of cheeses for sampling.  Her name was Yvonne Curdle.

The Cheeseman and Curdle families were soon celebrating a wedding.  At the breakfast they toasted the speeches with the finest cheeses to ever come from the Cheeseman and Curdle family farms.

Adam and Yvonne lived on the Cheeseman farm, they milked cows, they made cheese, and soon there were little cheese men running around as they continued to live a cheesy life.  But sadness came when Adam’s parents died. At their wakes, they ate cheese.

But the life of Adam Cheeseman was not all that it seemed.  Those who didn’t like cheese were unacceptable to Adam.  He could not understand why folk didn’t like cheeses.  And soon all hell broke loose when Yvonne wanted to make a cheese with fruit in it.  This was sacrilege, you don’t put fruit in cheese, it’s just not right! 

But things grew worse when the children did not want to eat cheese anymore.  They became cheesed off and  loathed the sight of cheese.  They wanted to make the milk into blancmange, custards, and puddings.  For Adam this was nonsense.  The Cheeseman children eventually deserted the farm to follow their craving  for the sweet desire of desserts.

Life went on day in day out dairying, churning out cheese.  Adam could not stop making cheese and eating cheese.  When he closed his eyes to sleep there was cheese, when he had a dream, it was about cheese. When he had nightmares, what was it about?  Not having… cheese!  He never went on holidays and soon enough the cheesy lifestyle caught up with him.  One might say he was addicted to cheeses.

So, he died and was laid to rest in a cheese-coloured coffin.  But even in the afterlife there was an eternity of cheese.  Was this heaven or was this hell?  One thing for sure, it was more cheese.

What is the cheese in your life? To where do you run for comfort?  What competes inside of your secret self for supremacy?  Does the cheese you choose end up cheesing your off?  What cheese do you consume? The one you can’t stop eating, despite the desire becoming sour!

What is your choice of cheese in your life?  Is it pleasurable feelings from food, drink, or sex? Is it the need to be in control, to manipulate others with your will, or any other lust for power, ordering others from your ideals of goodness?  Is it amassing wealth or assets, or other things that profit you and enslave you in this life?  Or is it position and popularity where you act to be seen, and are seen to gossip, propping up and cutting down the poppies around you.

There is nothing wrong with pleasure, popularity, profit, and power in themselves.  They are all gifts from God.  But when they become like the cheese in Adam Cheeseman’s life, they are idols that wrestle one’s attention away from he on whom our attention needs to be focused, as we move towards the end of life here on earth.

Adam’s imbalance to cheese might seem silly.  But there’s nothing silly about our sin which turns the way we live, into evil.  Despite how good we believe it to be.  So significant is the seriousness of sin that Jesus hung in the balance to save us from sin.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  (John 19:30 ESV)

The sins that seem sweet at first and end up souring our lives need to be stopped, they need to be finished.  These sins are kingdoms that temp us away from God, just as Adam and Eve were tempted to start their own kingdom only to be thrown out of the Garden and God’s presence.

The question for you today?  As God’s Kingdom comes, are you for his Kingdom or are you building your own kingdom of cheeses like Adam Cheeseman?

God works to end your cheesy kingdoms that serves only to constipate your life, so you become bound up within yourself.  God wants to cleanse you from within.  He wants to finish you, your old Adam, so you give up your spirit and he can fill you with the Holy Spirit.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:7–8 ESV)

Life is not about what pleases us!  No one has ever come or will ever come to God the Father through nice cheeses.  Rather Christ Jesus is, and he was, and he is coming.  He is the Son of Man who saves us and had ended and finished all the cheeses that we seek to please us.

And to one like a son of man is given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14 ESV)

The greatest temptation in this life is to be deceived into believing God’s Kingdom is not coming.  This leads one into false belief, despair, and other sins.  But God’s Kingdom has come to you.  God is giving you his Holy Spirit; he has and will continue to do so. So, by Jesus finishing sin on the cross we can live a godly life of confessing our evil, letting Jesus win the battle over the cheeses that please us.

Finally, I encourage you with these words written by Gloria and William Gaither.

Yet in my heart, the battle was still raging. Not all prisoners of war had come home. These were battlefields of my own making. I didn't know that the war had been won.

It is finished, the battle is over. It is finished, there'll be no more war. It is finished, the end of the conflict. It is finished and Jesus is Lord.

To that we can all praise God and say, “Amen”.