C, Third Sunday of Advent - Luke 3:8a, 16 "Joyful Repentance"

Luke 3:8a, 16 (ESV) John the Baptist said, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.

What is it that separates a Christian from all other people?  Is it sin?  By sin I include everything that threatens to dilute or weaken God’s holiness.  No!  We Christians are no less sinners than those who are not Christian.  Hopefully for us, though, we have knowledge of our sinful nature and the sin that comes from it.  In fact, if a Christian, does not believe they’re a sinner, they actually add sin to sin in their unbelief. 

We’re all warned, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”  (1 John 1:8–10 ESV)

If a person can be free of sin, then why aren’t they free of decay and death? 

From the moment we’re born, our existence decays day by day through death.

So, if sin isn’t what separates a Christian from others, is it that we are good?  Are all Christians good people free of evil?  This really is no different to the question of sin. 

If a Christian holds the view that to be a Christian one should be good, then all Christians should be good!  We know this not to be true. 

Are you one who makes judgements through your own knowledge of good and evil, rather than a right judgement made through a knowledge of Jesus Christ?  Why do we judge some as good, and some as evil?  We do so because we’re sinners!  We like to put aside right judgement, in God’s Word, and become the authority of good and evil, standing in the place of God, standing over his Word, sinning against the First Commandment. 

The Lutheran understanding of a believer or Christian, sees in God’s Word, we’re one hundred percent saint, and one hundred percent sinner, (simul iustus et peccator).  That is, “at the same time righteous and a sinner”.  This was rediscovered by Martin Luther who as a monk was seeking and failing to justify himself before God.  Rightly, he knew his love or good was never good enough in God’s eyes!

The joy Luther learnt, through the Holy Spirit showing him, in God’s Word, that although he failed to love God perfectly, God already loved him perfectly.  He was made right and holy in the work of Christ at the cross and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in his earthly existence.  Luther discovered he didn’t have to work his own righteousness.

But it’s not even a matter of being good.  Believers surpass goodness by being made holy, despite being sinners.  The holiness of God covers one’s sinful nature and its deeds in baptism.  As a result, the baptismal life is one of being continually led by the Holy Spirit, into the holiness of Jesus Christ, out of the sinful condition of our human nature. 

As we pray and learn in the Lord’s Prayer, we trust Jesus’ Word and deed, as the Holy Spirit delivers us from evil, leads us out of temptation, wills us to forgive others while he works the forgiveness of sin within us.  We live in peace existing on the daily bread God gives for our physical and spiritual needs according to his earthly and heavenly will, so we seek his kingdom and glorify his holy name.  The Lord’s Prayer actually teaches us how the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, moves us from evil to God’s holiness, through repentance.

The human desire to not repent, to not believe one’s forgiveness, to not forgive, to resist being led from temptation, to remain in evil are the very deeds Paul talks about in Romans chapter seven.  He does not give into sin, by saying, “all sin, I sin, so I’ll keep on sinning!”  That would be resisting the Holy Spirit’s work within, who seeks to daily return the sinner to the holiness of Jesus’ blood spilt on the cross.  

Rather he says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15–20 ESV)

Our Lutheran understanding of being a saint and a sinner, stands out as pure Gospel against other beliefs.  Such as, once one is baptised, the act of baptism saves, so the person can do whatever they like.  Or baptism is the decision of the person and once baptised, the decider has to work to keep their salvation.  Both of these strip the Holy Spirit of his power and dilute the necessity of Jesus’ work at the cross.

But the Lutheran understanding, is pure Gospel, because baptism is the work of God, and one’s Christian life is a work of God that we allow to continue within.  After baptism, when others fall into sinful deeds, or when the Holy Spirit chooses to reveal their deeds as sin, they have a crisis of faith.  “Am I really a Christian?”, they worry!  And others who observe their sin, are quick to hand them over as lost sinners unless they work their way back into the observer’s “good books” in their “good time”.

When a Lutheran falls into sin.  Yes! The Holy Spirit gives one a hatred of the sinful deeds and shows the sinner the Law. And the Law’s holy perfection rightly causes fear!  

But in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit also shows us Jesus Christ on the cross in our place.  He shows us the love of God.  Our revealed deeds of sin, testifies to the truth of God’s Word, that human nature is sinful. 

So, others see deeds of sin and immediately pass judgement that a person is condemned by their sinful nature because their decision for Christ and baptism appears contrary.  However, you and I understand our sinful deeds show our sinful human nature.  This is the very reason why we need God’s work in Holy Baptism, and every day after it, in the work of the Holy Spirit, to make us holy before a perfectly holy God.

So, the thing to truly set a Christian apart from all other people on earth, is a believer although a sinner, has freedom through Christ to come into God’s presence to joyfully repent of sins.  Covered in Christ, we don’t dilute God’s holiness, with our sinful humanness of being human.

Sin can see a person flee God or seek to stand before him in self-justification or through one’s works.  Both of which, make God’s love out to be a lie. 

But in the freedom to repent, we joyfully rush to the foot of the cross and pour our sins out in confession, repentance.  We throw ourselves completely at the mercy of God trusting our confession is not just a good work, but a mega-work worked by the Holy Spirit, now that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.

Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

God has forgiven us as repentant sinners! God forgives us now as repentant sinners! And God promises to forgive repentant sinners! 

Our sins are horrible, and they cause us hurt and death. They caused Christ to come and suffer and die for us, too.  But the willing confession of our sin, glorifies God, in the salvation Jesus brings us through the cross.  Our confession is a joyful “Amen” and “Yes” to God’s good works for us and in us.  God the Father’s and Son’s good works are glorified by the Holy Spirit’s good works within you, when you repent and confess your sin. This is the salvation event that sees your existence in death be transformed into life, even today in this existence of death!  But these days of death will give way to the light of eternal life!

At the resurrection, when Christ returns, the salvation event will finish.  Beforehand, any who make judgements, about who’s good or bad, are susceptible of falling under one’s own judgement, before God. 

So, joyfully I say, joyfully repent, sinners!   

God is patient where we are not.   Like an onion, God works with sinners during this earthly existence, to peel back the layers of sin in all of us.  So, there’s always something for which we need to repent. When earthly death comes, or Jesus returns, only then will God’s patience end. 

So, before this comes, joyfully I say, joyfully repent!  

John the Baptist prepared those at the Jordan with a baptism of repentance for the coming of Christ.  Now that we have been baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit moves us to continue in repentance through the hearing of God’s Word.  In God’s Word the Holy Spirit peels back the layers of death in our existence, so we can repent and be revived in the life of  Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself says to his church, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:5 ESV)

Again, he says, “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” (Revelation 3:3 ESV)

And a third time, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19 ESV)

Therefore, seek God’s will in his Word!  Allow the Holy Spirit to show you your sin and keep you holy!   

Joyfully I say, joyfully repent, for Jesus’ sake, Amen!

B, Lent 4 - Numbers 21:4-7 "Serpents, Sin, & Salvation"

God is patient.  He takes the long way round.  If he took the path of least resistance, humanity would have long been annihilated.

God is patient with humanity.  In the days of disobedience before the flood, God was patient.  God was patient with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  While the Israelites lived in Egypt, God was patient for four hundred years.  In the wilderness after the Israelites were exiled from Egypt, God continued to be patient.  Today, God continues to be patient with his church, and he continues to be patient with you!

So, what is it with — me, you, the church, the Israelites — all of humanity, that God needs to be patient?  What is it that allows all of humanity to stand as one before God’s patience?

God is patient with our lack of patience.  Our impatience can come from various things, but at its root is our displeasure with suffering.  Therefore, God suffers with our lack of endurance in suffering.

Ultimately, God sent his only begotten Son to suffer in our place!  Yet in this life, you and I will still struggle with suffering.  Nevertheless, God is pleased to be patient with us.  He takes the long way round, he takes the way of patience, the patient path.  And we can be very thankful for that!

When God lifted Israel out of bondage in Egypt, he could have marched them into Canaan in a relatively short amount of time.  But he took the patient path, leading Israel forty years, his way in the Sinai wilderness, the way of suffering that led to salvation in the land of milk and honey.

The bronze serpent story gives us a window into God’s patience and his mega-work of humanity’s salvation.  

The Israelites became impatient with the way of God!  They spoke against God and his servant Moses!  So, God sends fiery serpents amongst them.

Let’s take a moment to take this in!  God sends fiery poisonous serpents to bite his people.  Not only do the serpents look fiery, a bronze coppery colour, they are fiery, wielding the rod of God’s wrath.  Their mouths are fiery, in that their venom inflicts a hellish bite leading to agony and certain death. 

The Israelite’s impatience with God, his providence in the wilderness, and with Moses, was instantly removed by the Israelite’s immediate need for a remedy against the forced death from the fierce fangs of serpents sent by God.

Snakes are animals that cause fear.  Since Satan spoke from a serpent in the garden of Eden, snakes have been feared by humans.  Moses ran from his staff that turned into a serpent when God commanded him to throw it on the ground (Exodus 4:3).   So, there’s no doubt the venomous snakes got their attention.

The wilderness is a place of serpents.  The Israelites would have seen plenty as they walked the way of freedom!  Up until this event, we can assume God would have protected them from serpents, just as he protected them from other dangers as he led them out of Egypt.  So, God patiently works his way to will his people from their impatience.

When it comes to snakes, not many of us are heroes.  The thought of being faced with an infestation of fiery serpents is chilling!  Do you remember Indiana Jones encircled by stirred up serpents?  Or imagine the reality of being buried in a box of snakes, slithering over you in the dark.  As they do on the television show, “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”.  That’s truly the stuff of nightmares!

This is the living nightmare of the Israelites, and we can fully understand their fear!  Not only were the snakes just present in their vicinity, but they were sent by God to discipline their disobedience.

Can you see the people begging Moses?  Remorseful for being impatient!  Penitent for their impatience against God’s providence, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” (Numbers 21:5 ESV)

In Ecclesiastes seven verse eight, it is written, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV) 

God removed their pride when the serpents began to bite.  They cried out to Moses, for it to end, saying, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” (Numbers 21:7 ESV)

Moses prayed but the end of it was not the removal of the serpents.  Instead, God said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” (Numbers 21:8 ESV)

So, God sends the serpent, and he doesn’t take them away, but rather gets Moses to put the pest up on a pole.   This is the patient path consistent with God’s way.

Imagine if God did remove the snakes!  As soon as they lost sight of the serpents, their impatience and pride would have returned even more so!   But the serpents remained, and God added yet another serpent, calling them to turn and trust God’s way, even in the midst of their suffering. 

Knowing what human nature is like, some would have tested God on this.  The fiery serpent is sent to bite.  It does its job.  The tester is tested.  Do they turn to the serpent up on the stick, or do they stick to their digs and remain in rebellion?   It’s a life-or-death decision.

Now, this might seem like a pretty simple decision to make.  Yet many continue to choose the decision that leads to death.

Jesus says, “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14–15 ESV)

Not only are people impatient with God,  but now many also fail to acknowledge God’s existence.   Some think they know God, but they choose to create their own idea of God to suit their way through the wilderness of this world.  But when suffering of death comes, and it always does, crying out to a false god cannot save from death.

God is patient with humanity, but Paul warns God shows no partiality, saying, “…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?  He will render to each one according to his works:  to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life;  but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”  (Romans 2:4,6–8 ESV)

The serpents of sin and suffering still exist.  This sin and suffering left unattended by God will lead to eternal death.  Yet God is patient, he wants to save, and not condemn. 

The good work of God within us, exposes our sin, wills us into confession, keeps us repentant and enduring in belief of our forgiveness, as well as makes us patient.  This happens through the work of the Holy Spirit despite living in the reality of fiery sin serpents still biting and wounding us, causing suffering. 

However, the good works of repentance and belief in the forgiveness of our deadly sins lets us see God's patient reality!   We see our sin, but we see the Servant of Man saving us from sin, lifted up like the serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness.

The irony in all of this is that sin came into the world through the deception of a serpent.  Satan, the old snake, also sought to seduce Jesus to sin in the wilderness but failed.  Then at the cross he thought he had won, seeing Jesus nailed to a cursed sinner’s cross.

But death lost its eternal sting at the cross.  The devil was double-crossed.  The great injustice and evil of the cross became the hallmark of mercy and holy goodness stamped on those who allow the light of God to expose and forgive. 

Jesus steals the serpent from Satan and attaches the sin of humanity to it.  He becomes the sin, the serpent, and is lifted up guiltless for the guilty.  He takes the curse of your sin, exposing it in his broken body and spilt blood, and swaps it with his victory over death, for you!

Just as God sent serpents, and then placed one on a pole to save the Israelites, God allows us to suffer as a result of our sinful being and its deeds.  God wants us to see our sin, but even more he wants us to see our sin on Jesus, lifted up on the cross. 

Just as the Israelite’s saw and feared the reality of the serpents that bit them, we too see our reality too.  We can allow the Holy Spirit to continue the patient work of peeling the layers back, to expose the greater depths of our sin.  But in the suffering of that exposure, the Spirit will show us the endlessness and patience of God’s love, who takes our sin and makes our sin – crucify Christ on the cross. 

God is patient with you.  God hates your suffering.  Yet despite this he would rather you suffer in short through confession of your evil works, exposing them in the true light of God’s love and suffering on the cross.

We are reminded by Jesus in John three verse twenty-one that, “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their works have been carried out in God.” 

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts to work in us the good works of confession of our sin in daily repentance and belief in the forgiveness of sins.  Thankyou for sending your Son Jesus Christ to bear the slipperiness of our sinful being and its deeds on the cross, which should have been our cross.  Help us to patiently bear our cross with the help of the Holy Spirit with full expectation of our resurrection to eternal life with you.  Amen.

  

A, Post-Pentecost 11 Proper 14 - Matthew 14:22-33 Romans 10:5-15 "Faith Boat Afloat"

Romans 10: 6–10, 11, 13 (ESV)  “But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’  For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Getting in and out of boats is difficult.  Anyone who has ever climbed into a canoe or kayak for the first time becomes aware of the instability immediately!   If sitting in boats is not easy, standing in them is even more difficult.  Standing in a kayak is a sure sign that one is about to get very wet.  Standing in a canoe is not much better!  Even standing in a regular small boat is problematic, not to mention moving around.  One loses their balance very easily in a boat. 

Hopping out of a boat is not much simpler, either at a jetty or at the water’s edge.  Going from the instability of a boat to the unknown of what’s under the surface of the shallows can bring a person unstuck.

Once I experienced getting out of an inflatable rubber dinghy thinking the water was ankle deep.  Awkwardly stepping over the round inflatable edge of the boat one foot descended into the water while the other stayed higher on the floor of the vessel.  At the point of no return one must throw their weight from one foot to the other.  The other foot in the salt water had not touched anything solid. The waves rocked the boat from side to side.  Straddling the inflatable side of the rubber craft meant a moment of uncertainty and lack of control as I couldn’t see what was under my foot.  So, knowing I could see sand nearby, I presumptuously threw my weight and went to stand up on the leg in the water.

I can only imagine what this looked like from the beach.  A man in a trendy blue chambray shirt, cargo trousers rolled up a bit, with sunglasses on and mobile phone on the belt clip, going topsy-turvy head-over-heels into the shallows of the surf.  Apparently, I didn’t see that hole in the sand!  

Total immersed, I stood up quickly, as you do, to see if anyone was looking.  Everyone was looking!  It was holiday time at Byron Bay, the beach was packed from frolicking families to topless tourists sunbaking, and all seemed to be watching the inflatable rubber boat come in to make land fall.  Everyone saw me fall, ego first into the drink!  Embarrassed, everyone watched me walk dripping wet, head down, away from the beach! 

The people of God, gathered to hear God’s word and receive his sacraments, are sometimes pictured as those gathered in a boat, just as were the disciples on the Sea of Galilee.  We call this gathering, church.  Church is the congregation not the building in which it gathers.  In fact, the centre section of the building where the people gather is called the nave, from the same Latin word from where we get navy!

The disciples were having a hard time of it in their nave as they struggled through the night to cross the lake.  They were in the vessel having been made to go without Jesus, while he dismissed the five thousand and went to pray. 

Jesus was alone praying while they were alone at sea.  It was the last watch of the night, the hours between three and six A.M.   This is restless time, the witching hours of the night, when one dreams or has nightmares, or just cannot go back to sleep!  Awake, or dreaming a nightmare, one has their aloneness impressed upon themselves.

So too the disciples as they fought exhausted by the turbulence all around them.  It appeared no one was around to help them!  Then someone does appear, walking towards them.  “Walking!  How can this be?”  Terrified they’re spooked by a phantom, an apparition of calm light walking through the nightmare towards them.

Jesus immediately calms them with his word, saying, “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.”  (Matthew 14:27 ESV) He tells them, “Have courage, be bold, dare not to be troubled, within themselves, with their situation, with the wind or the waves, and with him!”

Peter is invited with a single command by Jesus, “Come!”  But on entering the water and seeing the wind and waves he doesn’t trust Jesus’ word over what is within him, he sinks and sings out to Jesus, “Lord save me” (Matthew 14:30 ESV) Jesus rescues him from the two-timing faith within himself, saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31 ESV)

This is the second time Matthew records the disciple’s faithlessness on the Sea of Galilee.  In chapter eight Jesus was amongst his disciples in the nave of the boat.  While the disciples were nauseated by the thoughts of perishing, Jesus slept.  The fishermen woke Jesus calling him to fish them out and save them from this stormy situation.

Little did they understand these were previews of the greater seismic event of the cross when they would all be faithlessly scattered in fear.  But even before going to the cross Jesus tells of troubled waters ahead where the church will be shaken.

Jesus tells his disciples, “See that no one leads you astray.  For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.  And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.  “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.  And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.  And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.  And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.  But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  (Matthew 24:4–14 ESV)

So, we continue to gather in Christ, knowing trouble is coming, but so too is the end.  If it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, we would soon forget that Jesus Christ is the ballast in the boat.  We like Peter would quickly revert and return to trust our own spirit, what we see, hear, and feel!  If it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, we would not know Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us! 

God the Father’s church is one of Law and Gospel!   We are in a community of commandments and faith.  One in Christ, believers gathered as one by the Holy Spirit!

Jesus is the ballast in the boat, having fulfilled the commandments.  The Holy Spirit gives us our balance in the boat, having made us righteous with the ballast we need to remain upright in the Father’s eyes.

Saint Paul paints a picture of those gathered in the nave of Christ’s presence.   Those gathered as church by the Holy Spirit in faith do not ponder in their hearts, “who is going to heaven and who is not going to be saved.”  When one does this, they expose their double-timing faith, falling out in fear, and temp finding out just how deep the hole is they’re presumptuously stepping into!

Wondering who has faith and who hasn’t, immediately excludes you from faith as well!  Why?  Because the only way anyone has faith, is through hearing the word of faith.  While one wonders and ponders, the ears fail to hear, and the mouth is mute and unmoving!

So, what do you hear?  And from it, what do you believe and confess?

We hear that Jesus is in the boat!  Not only that, but we hear he’s the ballast having borne the burden of fulfilling the commandments and our failure to fulfil them. 

Those in church who appear as “good people”, we no longer believe are going to heaven because of their goodness.  That dethrones Jesus from heaven!

Those in church who appear as “not very good people”, we no longer believe are condemned by their deeds.  That brings Jesus up from the dead as if he was never raised in victory over sin and death.  Your sin and death or any other “not very good people’s sin and death”!

No!  Those very people with which you and I are called together, by the Holy Spirit, are called to confess with our mouths that, Jesus is Lord, believing he is in the boat, and we are with him in it.  The Holy Spirit gives us balance in the boat.  That balance is faith, trust in Christ our ballast!

That faith fills our hearts and our mouths so the faithful confession of those gathered to be forgiven and fed the Word of God, as it’s preached, prayed, sung, confessed and consumed, will fulfil the full cycle of faith.

Let us persevere in this holy faith feeding faith, even when we experience trouble and restlessness in the last watch of the night, seemingly falling out of the boat topsy-turvy head-over-heels.  Let us not walk away from the boat ashamed of the Gospel.  But rather let faith empower faith.  Let the Holy Spirit balance the boat and keep you afloat! 

As the Holy Spirit inspires the Romans through Pauls words of faith at the beginning of his letter to them, let it empower you as you hear his confession of faith, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  (Romans 1:16–17 ESV)

It is the last watch of the night!  Faith reveals Jesus in the boat.  Faith waits for Jesus’ return.  Faith hears Jesus say, “Surely I am coming soon.” Faith says, “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!”  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.  Amen”.  (Revelation 22:20–21 ESV)

Those who have ears, let them hear!  Amen. 

C, Advent 2 - Luke 1:76-80 "Salvation Through Forgiveness"

Luke 1:76–80 (ESV) And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,  because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

There was silence in the land of Judah for four hundred years.  God was absent since the days of the prophets when Malachi was called to petition problematic priestly practices. Now Zechariah stood in the temple at Jerusalem to fulfil his priestly duties.

The glory days of Israel and its kings were long past.  The Jews, a fragmented dispersed people, after the rule of Alexander the Great and his Greco-Macedonian government,  now were being ruled by Rome and their appointment of Herod as the subordinate King of Judah.  To the displeasure of the Jews, Herod was not a Jew but an Edomite.

Zechariah came about his turn of duty in the temple through being chosen by lot.  Zechariah would have been honoured to have been chosen to perform this task.  His life would have been a quiet existence and this service at the temple would have been a high point even though events at the temple would have been far less grand than during the time of David and Solomon. Little did Zechariah know things were about to change.

And change things did!  Four hundred years of silence from God and then an angelic messenger speaks to him while he is in service to God.  Now having heard the message, Zechariah is struck with silence as a result of not believing he and his barren wife, Elizabeth, were to have a son and name him John. 

The angel says of John, “He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God,  and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:16–17 ESV)

Four hundred years beforehand, Malachi had proclaimed similar. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” (Malachi 4:5–6a ESV)

The silence of God for four hundred years is broken.  Now Zechariah endures nine months of silence, knowing God was to announce the Christ through his son which his wife, Elizabeth, was carrying. 

After John’s birth and at the time of his circumcision, full of the Holy Spirit, Zechariah’s lips are loosed, the silence is broken.  Zechariah praises God for John and what John was born to do. To be the messenger of God preparing the people for the way of the Lord.

Here again, Malachi had announced this, some four hundred years beforehand, saying, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:1 ESV)

Even during Jesus’ journey to the cross, he points to what Malachi had prophesied about the witness of John the Baptist. Jesus says, “What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’  I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:26–28 ESV)

But before Jesus’ ministry began, John had also been silenced.  He grew and became strong in the Holy Spirit, but he was consigned to a place in the wilderness until it was time to fulfil God’s mission to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins… to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:77& 79 ESV)

So, in God’s time, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ” (Luke 3: 2b–6 ESV)

When Zechariah’s lips were loosed, he reveals how John was going to prepare people for Jesus. This is by a knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.  Sin was put on the agenda.  John was proclaiming and giving a baptism of repentance to all who heard his call. John the Baptist was showing people that they were in darkness and needed a light.

We too are being prepared for Jesus’ coming!  Advent is a time of light in the darkness.  John the Baptist was called to be a messenger of light in the darkness, today as we travel through Advent towards the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas, we too are called to see the shining light in the midst of our darkness.

However, what most of us seek for a saviour is not Jesus.  There are so many other things in the world that promise empowerment, luciferous light, and love.  It seems since we have seen the salvation of God, we struggle to stay in the light, and hinder hearing the Holy Spirit reveal Jesus through his word to us increasing faith.

We live in a dark world.   But we are further deceived when we relegate the darkness as something we are without, as if we are not contributors to the darkness.  We live in a dark world because of the darkness within!  Within each of us burns the light of human desire that seeks to make us shine as lights of the world. 

We all do well to determine what kind of light we are seeking to shine.  Are we reflecting and shining knowledge of salvation?  Or are we shining a knowledge of our good and evil? 

This light of good and evil is a little light of Lucifer.  It is a deception leading one away from the light of God. Many are finding themselves and many more will find themselves in complete darkness and all alone. This light of Lucifer is a temporary temptation to follow a light that’s transitory then terminates. This light does not give us the gift of the knowledge of salvation.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:5–10 ESV)

It’s time for us as the church of God to allow the light to shine on sin. It’s time to practice the truth!  Just as people came to John the Baptist confessing their sin, and received a baptism of repentance, we too are called to return in repentance to our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Know and believe you have the light of Christ within you, willing you to confess your sin, so you receive the forgiveness of sin.  The Holy Spirit is shining the light of Jesus in the darkness within you, so you can stand before God without the consequences of sin. We have had our darkness demolished and it continues to be destroyed with the love and light of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, when we seek relief from long-felt grief turn us to the light of Jesus. When temptations come alluring, send your Holy Spirit to make us patient and enduring; guide our feet into the way of peace show us that bright shore where we weep no more. Amen.

B, Pentecost 17 Proper 20 - James 3:13 "The Great Bone of Contention"

James 3:13 (ESV) Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

The great bone of contention in the church is sin.  But it is a hidden and buried controversy in many ways. 

We as Christians are fearful of being seen to sin, as being sinners.  However, in the bible we learn that we are never free of sin because we all carry the nature of sin from our earthly origin in Adam.

As Christians many of us are led to believe we are to appear as though we are without sin, that we are good people, without much consideration over what goodness is in the eyes of God.

Then, there is the degree of the sin committed.  A little white lie or a devilish delight is believed not to be as bad as murder or adultery.  Theologians discuss the differences of these as venial sins or sins that are minor and forgivable, as opposed to mortal sins that are deadly and separate one from God.

However, on the one hand, scripture teaches, sin that is forgivable can become unforgivable, when one believes they don’t need forgiveness for it. Therefore, in not asking for forgiveness show themselves as unbelievers.  But on the other hand, a sin that appears to be unforgivable and mortal can indeed be forgiven by God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Luther pointing to our baptism into Christ Jesus says, “Even if a Christian would, they could not lose their salvation, however much they sinned, unless one refused to believe.  For no sin can condemn except unbelief alone.  All other sins, so long as the faith in God’s promise made in baptism returns or remains, are immediately blotted out through that same faith or through the truth of God, because he cannot deny himself if you confess him and faithfully cling to him in his promise.” (The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, LW 36:60 edited here with inclusive language)

The flip side of the sin coin is forgiveness and grace, where cheap grace is pitted against unaffordable grace.  Unfortunately, this discussion is more about the individual and their justification for forgiving or not forgiving rather than the expensive but free grace that comes from God for us all.  In fact, grace is cheapened or made unaffordable when sin is not dealt with appropriately. 

Therefore, while we fail continually to consider what sin is and fail to learn from our sin because we are pretending to be finished with sin or hide from the reality of sin because of our fear, we hinder God bringing us to maturity and giving us wisdom in Jesus Christ.

It seems we Christians when exposed to learning something from our sins, and the forgiveness of them, are like a dog who guiltily cowers because he’s been caught in the act of chewing his bone.  We quickly want to hide and bury the bone of sin.

Yes, it is true, we can become so focused on sin that we end up losing focus on God.  But the opposite is also true when we lose sight of sin, we end up becoming focused on gods and idols that have nothing to do with our Triune God!

Four extremes tend to arise when one is challenged on sin.  The first is, now that I am a Christian, I am no longer a sinner. And because I am no longer a sinner I no longer sin. 

This so-called “sinless one” naturally burdens others as they become puffed up proclaiming that stopping oneself from sin is easy.  Forgiveness for “the sinless one” also becomes a thing of the past because if one no longer sins then there is now no need for forgiveness.

The question then goes begging, “If they are no longer a sinner, why then do they need Jesus or the Holy Spirit anymore?” Rather, the so called “sinless one” really doesn’t have a biblical view of sin because they have become their own god.

Opposite to this is the second extremity: The Christian who believes their sin cannot be forgiven. This is either someone who cannot stop sinning because they struggle with sins of addiction or they commit a one-off sin they believe cannot be forgiven.

For the addict, the proof is in the pudding due to the cycle of sin in which they live.  This person lives a life of guilt and effort to work the guilt away.  They continually attempt stopping sin which entices them even more with its temptation to please.  However, pleasure quickly becomes pain as sin sours them the moment gratification is reached. The more one focus on the sin the more one is absorbed by sin. 

Or, the person may not struggle with a sin of addiction.   But having believed they were the “sinless one” the person is found to be with sin.  They are crushed by the shame of their misdeed.  They end up believing they have fallen too far from their Christian ideal to be forgiven.

Both the addict and the idealist fall into a cycle of shame. It’s a cycle that kills the person’s spirit and destroys any true faith that struggles to exist under the futile faith of their idealism.  This shame can lead a person to spiritual and even physical suicide.

These two extremes are one end of the bone of contention where sin is focused on too much.  One focuses on the extreme of one’s ability to not sin while the other is absorbed in not being able to stop sinning.

Then there are the third and fourth extremes on the other end of the bone of contention.  Where there is not enough attention to sin as defined by God’s word. 

The third extreme or “knuckle on the bone” is still a variant of the first.  This is where the presuming “sinless one” is confronted with God’s definition of their deeds as sin according to his word.  The result is they work tirelessly to demonstrate why they are not a sinner.  In reality, they are thrown into chaos by this revelation and work to blame and deflect their sin as someone else’s sin or they justify themselves by redefining God’s word on sin. 

This person is tempted to walk even further away from God because the ideal they have held, is shown for the hoax that it is, especially when life gets difficult, someone dies, or they are led into suffering.  The god they have upheld is an idol and not the Triune God. 

When a crisis comes the person cries out, “God if you will save me, I’ll be good, and start coming to church etc. etc.”  Then the moment they hit the clear God is jettisoned from their minds once again.  There is absolutely no importance attached to sin by this person. This person walks to the beat of their own drum.  God is not important to them. 

The fourth and last nub of the bone is the person who believes, “because I’m a Christian I can do as I please”.  Jesus’ death on the cross is a get out of jail free card to be played on judgement day.  They live life never learning anything from their sin or the forgiveness of it.  They ignore the reality of their sin.  Therefore, they have no understanding or awe of the depth of God’s work undertaken to forgive them. 

Between these four extremes there are many variants and mixes. Every one of us sits somewhere between the knuckles on this bone of contention.

In fact, sin is also the one great similarity between Christians and non-Christians.  Outside the church a person might call it human nature, passions, guilt, or narcissism rather than plain old sin.

If we are to reach out into a world that struggles with the same sin, we owe it to God for his sake and for the sake of our neighbour’s salvation, to understand our sin and the forgiveness of it, so we can share that forgiveness in the world.

Learning from our sin teaches us more about God’s work of salvation and in this learning, we are plunged further into the unfathomable depths of God’s grace and love for us. 

What a wonderful thing to be proclaiming to the world!

When we think we are facing enemies around us, when it seems like someone is going to steal our bone, and we try to bury and hide it, God wants us to chew on this bone and leave it in the light.  It is he who has given us Christ to chew on in the word of God. We are called into this meekness of wisdom. A good work to see our sin, confess our sin, and proclaim Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of our sins in this bone of contention. Amen.

Thankyou Lord Jesus for serving each of us and saving us from sin by taking your place on a cross that should have been each of ours.   Thank you, for continually sending the Holy Spirit into the hearts of your people to show us our sin but also to show us the way of meekness, maturity, and wisdom is found in no one else other than you.  Help us to learn from our sin, to trust you so we are freed to confess you and our forgiven sins to others who need the same forgiveness as us. Amen.

B, Lent 4 - John3:16 "No Cliché"

John 3:16 is possibly the most well known and quoted verse of scripture in the bible and therefore has become a cliché.  And because it’s so overused it has become commonplace and boring to most who use it.  They say familiarity breeds contempt, and human nature does the same with God’s Word.

But let’s change the stakes and turn the tables on our comfortable realities a little so we might get a proper understanding on what is actually going on, first with ourselves, and, then with God.

We can do this with asking ourselves the question scripture itself asks in Psalm 116:12, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?” What can I give back to the Lord for all his goodness to me?  What do I owe God?  What payment can I give?

Now let’s turn up the intensity.  Picture yourself on judgement day.  You are standing before God and God says to you, “What have you done? Give me an account of yourself!”  Before God you will answer truthfully.  There will be no fast talking to convince him you have done what is necessary.  There will be no Garden of Eden talk, Adam blaming Eve or Eve blaming the serpent.  God will open you up like a book and judge your life, for eternity with him or eternity without him.

There is really only one answer to give.  And it’s the answer we struggle to give every day of our lives.  As individuals we try to avoid giving it.  Even the church throughout history is mislead in its resistance to answer the question and it still does today as it seeks to be popular in a world of political correctness that is far from God’s truth about us.

The only answer we can give to God for all his benefits to us is no different than the Israelites in the wilderness dying from their sin as a result of being bitten by fiery serpents.  They said to Moses, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” (Number 21:7 ESV)

We have sinned.  We are sinners.  We needed to be saved from our sins. Not only do we need to confess this. We actually need to believe it.  Like the Israelites we need realisation of this truth in the inward being.  And as God teaches us in Psalm 51 it is what delights God when we confess this truth from the inward being.

But we need ask ourselves, “Why is it so difficult to confess our sin? Why is it easier for us from childhood to tell a lie?  Why is it easier for the denominations of the Christian Church to forge the line of popularity over against the confession of sin? Why is it easier for our own denomination and its leaders to ignore twenty odd years of God speaking through the synodical process, or worse, sitting in judgement over the Word of God rather than sitting in submission to it?  We do better to acknowledge our assault on his sovereignty as the broken creatures that we are. Broken, because the creature has sought to usurp its Creator!

The Israelites shame us in this text.  They turn and seek salvation. They confess and seek an answer from the Lord.  Our shame is not only written in the Old Testament.  The New Testament shows each of us our guilt. 

From James 5:16 we hear, “...confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

Take to heart what the Lord also tells us earlier in chapter 5,

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.  Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.  Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.  You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. (James 5:1–3, 5 ESV)

And before you excuse yourselves as not being rich, remember you are standing before God as an open book, with all the things, feelings and people you hold in value over God.

Its right about at this time we begin to realise we are condemned and we only further destine ourselves for destruction by appealing to any work or presumptuous attitude we might hold to justify ourselves.  And it is here we need to take a second look at the gospel pericope today to see exactly what Jesus is saying to you and me.

First, let’s take the cliché verse John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.”  Perhaps the truth of what God is saying here might connect more clearly if this verse is paraphrased this way, “God saw that you and I were so habitually self-interested, turned in on the self, proud, pretentious, presumptuous and willing to lie about our helplessness that he had to let his Son die for you and me. 

In short, even when we make ourselves God our love shows us not to be God and we fall far short of the steadfast love which we need for life.  When we live life back-to-front it not only spells evil, it is evil. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Second, just as Jesus gives power to Nicodemus, he empowers all people by giving us life through death.   As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man is lifted up.  The sin we find so easy to hide and lie about is made the centrepiece in a move only God could do or would think of doing.   The snake that bites becomes the snake that saves.  Similarly Jesus becomes the sinner lifted us that saves the sinner who believes he or she is a sinner. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Third, God loved this broken world and lifted up his Son as a sinner that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  The truth of God is that we need to believe the reality of our brokenness is so bad, personally and collectively, it needed a loving sacrifice, so steadfast, so selfless, so generous that he let Jesus die on the cross. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Fourth, the reality of our sin that kills God’s Son is such that if left to our own devices we could not believe this was for our good.  So Jesus himself confesses that it is not for the world’s condemnation but for its salvation.  How often do we see the sin of others on our televisions and in our neighbourhoods and join in the condemnation and the accusation of the world.  Here we need reminding that Satan is the accuser and when we accuse we are not working in the kingdom of God but rather following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Fifth, “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”  The little word “in” from the Greek is “en” and it means in, by and with.  So this work is completed in God, by God, and with God.  God works his work of salvation in us, for us, and because of us.  Now the Holy Spirit battles with your human spirit (the old Adam) to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

And God, in his love, continues to put a reality checkers in place for us here too.  He calls us not to reject his grace and therefore sin against the Holy Spirit by refusing to repent and believe.  When we do we stop the work of the Holy Spirit by not exposing our sin in the light of God lifted up on the cross. 

Judge for yourselves!  Is it better to expose your sin now and live in the light or to hide it and have it exposed on the day of judgement?  If you don’t want God as the centrepiece of your life now why would you want it on judgement day?  Further more why would God want you as a part of his kingdom then?  There is only on response to God here. Lord Jesus, we are sinners, forgive us our sin!

Saint Paul writes to the church in Ephesus to encourage them not to be deceived. He says, faith is not a feeling, faith is not a commitment derived within one’s self, nor is faith a good work.  He says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)

Another cliché appears here, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”  But what does this mean for us?  In short this is the work of God.  For by grace (that is Jesus’ death and resurrection) you have been saved (that is judged guilty but given the sentence of eternal life) by faith (that is the work of the Holy Spirit enabling you to believe despite your sinful nature).

Then Paul says these wonderful words, “For we are his workmanship” What is this workmanship?  It is that we are restored creatures of the Creator, re-created in Christ Jesus for good works.  And what are the good works of God?  Surely they are the works that glorify God and show his justification for sending his Son to the cross!  Jesus tells us that we will do even greater works when he goes to the Father.  He says in John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

And again, …they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:28–29 ESV)

So do what is true in the eyes of God.  We “come out” into to the light.  Don’t “come out” as the children of disobedience do who parade their sin as some sort of justification but “come out” in confession.  Confess your sins to each other and to God, remembering that we are called to forgive one another as God has forgiven us. When we lift up our sin in confession, it allows us to die. The old self dies, the human spirit suffers, but the new creature in Christ is raised in eternal life.

Judgement day is no cliché. It is coming, it will come, but it has already come to those who glorify God and his work in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Confess you are a sinner but believe you are a saint, baptised into Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we are sinners, but we have been forgiven, we are being forgiven, and we will be forgiven forever, truly truly, Amen and Amen.