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The Light Has Come

The Light Has Come

John 3:19-21 (256)                                                                                                  24 December 2016

012This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

 

Even in the middle of the day, when the suns at its brightest, you can find lights on in just about every building you go into.  It seems as if we put them on, and sometimes leave them on, whether we need them or not.

Of course, lights are very valuable, even during the day, especially when we’re doing work which requires us to be able to see exactly what we’re doing without having to strain our eyes.

If we drop our keys in the dark, we can search for them for a long time if we haven’t got a light that’s handy.  It’s so much easier when we’re reading if we have a good strong light behind us.  Good light can help us avoid tripping over things.

And when we’re cleaning something or repairing a tiny piece of equipment – we appreciate good lighting.  We could get very frustrated without it.

 

But we don’t always appreciate the light.  There are times when we’d rather have darkness.  On some occasions, we can be doing things that we’d rather not be seen doing.  And so we can cringe at the light.

A really strong spotlight, for example, which might be very valuable for us at one particular time, would be the last thing that we’d want shining on us if we were involved in some kind of embarrassing activity.  It exposes us.

And when there are bright lights around, showing up marks or stains on table-cloths and clothes, and dirt and smudges on walls and carpets, we can feel a little uncomfortable, too, especially if other people notice them.

Light certainly does make things very plain.  It enables us to see clearly what’s going on about us, and helps us to avoid danger.  It also exposes us, our actions and intentions; it brings out into the open that which we may be ashamed of and want to hide.

 

And Jesus, the Light of the World does both of these things too.  He exposes us for what we really are.  He makes us face up to and admit all our weaknesses, blunders, and selfish thoughts and actions.  He sees right through us.

There’s no way we can hide from the Light of the World, and there’s nothing that we can keep from him.  Everything we do and say that’s not perfect is uncovered and made visible by him.

Jesus wants us to front up, accept the fact that we don’t live up to his expectations, and acknowledge that we’re not the innocent models of virtue that we make ourselves out to be at times.  He comes to expose us so that we stop kidding ourselves into believing that all we need to do is try a little harder and everything will be OK.

And Jesus comes to convince us that by ourselves, by our own strength and initiative we’ve got nothing that we can do to make ourselves acceptable before God.  No efforts, no great acts of heroism, not even generous contributions of time, effort or money to the church, will make any difference.

Our efforts are all tainted by sin, and so of no use at all in our attempt to win God’s favour.  Jesus exposes us as we really are and shows us that we have no way of changing, improving ourselves or influencing God to change his mind about us.

 

But Jesus, the Light of the World, doesn’t come to just to expose our sin, nor to take great delight in us having to suffer because of our sin.  Jesus Christ came to help us acknowledge our sin – yes, but only so that we can see our great need and welcome him into our lives so that he can do something about our predicament.

God sent his Son into the world, not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

He came into the world to do what no-one else could do.  He came to free us from all stain of sin, so that we can stand confidently before God, and not have to squirm in our boots.

The punishment we deserve because of our sin has been wiped out by Jesus.  The Light of the Word has overcome all that we have deserved, and has given his light to replace the darkness in our lives.  So, no longer do we have to wonder whether or not we’re acceptable to God.  We’ve been made acceptable.  God no longer holds our sin against us, because Christ has wiped it out.

 

Everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  Believing means holding to be true everything that Jesus has said about God, and about the way to God.  It means trusting that God does love us and does care for us – that he does forgive and bless us, that he is our Father, who wants only to have friendship and fellowship with us.

Whoever believes in him shall, not could, not might, but shall have eternal life.  That’s what God wants, and that’s what he’s made possible for all of us.

 

That’s why we need to hear the Christmas message over and over again – even though we may know it off by heart.  The Light has come, and it’s come for us and for our good.  We gain by Jesus’ presence – maybe not physically or materially, but certainly emotionally and spiritually.  Jesus coming to us means that we have his promise of eternal life.

That eternal life has already begun for us.  And because of it we can make changes in our lives, and live a life of service for others.

Jesus has come to us.  He’s offered us God’s friendship and love.  He’s offered us God’s grace and mercy.  He was born so that he could be lifted up on the cross for us so that we could have life with him, now and forever.

 

The Light of the World has come.  He’s exposed our sin, and he’s covered it over with his brilliant perfect life, his innocent suffering and death, and his glorious resurrection.  We need that Light, even though it shows us as we really are.  We need that Light, because without it we remain in the darkness, bring judgement on ourselves and suffer the consequences of a life without God.

But Jesus has come.  He was born in Bethlehem so that he could be lifted up on the cross for us to turn to, believe what he offers us, and live confidently and joyfully as his people.  Amen.

Bishop Mark.

Who’s naughty or nice.

  1. MATTHEW 24:36-44   LENT 1

kotzurGrace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Christmas is coming, this is the first Sunday in advent and I’m sure that in the stores there is an abundance of the Christmas carols and songs being played. Unfortunately a lot of these songs and carols are played to prick our consciences;     so that we will spend more money in good-will toward one another. I have to confess that I haven’t been shopping yet this year, but I live in HOPE.  I’m hoping Yvonne has bought me something.
I have to confess that I don’t get the opportunity to listen to the radio all that much and I’m not aware of the Christmas tunes that are being played, but I remember a few years back there was a song that everyone was talking about, the title was, “GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER.”

I have never heard it, have any of you? I am led to believe that it has been around for quite some time.  I dread to think what the words must be.

One of the popular songs that I have heard is “SANTA CLAUSE IS COMING TO TOWN.” The words sound very much like an effort by parents to get children to behave during the next few weeks.
If you think I’m going to sing it your wrong, I will recite the words. “YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, YOU BETTER NOT CRY, YOU BETTER NOT POUT, I’M TELLING YOU WHY: SANTA CLAUSE IS COMING TO TOWN.
And especially the next few lines, “HE’S MAKING A LIST, CHECKING IT TWICE, HE’S GONNA FIND OUT WHO’S NAUGHTY OR NICE.” Some people think of God that way. People tell their children that God is watching them and if they be naughty God will punish them.Please don’t tell your children or grandchildren that, tell them instead that God is a loving God.
Lent is a time of living in expectation, of HOPE, waiting for our Lord. It is a time of preparation, a time to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.
It was Christmas many years ago when a soldier named  Rex  was stationed in Korea as a young  lieutenant. His wife and baby daughter, whom he had never seen, were home in Australia. On Christmas morning the thermometer hovered around zero with several inches of snow covering the ground.
Outdoor worship services were planned for that morning. Although no one was required to attend services, Rex went out of respect and “to set a good example for the even younger soldiers.” Nearly two hundred  turned out for the service. They sat on their helmets in the snow. They faced a small portable altar. The chaplain had no microphone, and the portable organ suffered from the extreme cold.Something happened to Rex in that worship service. God broke through into his life. He thought of all that was precious to him: home, his wife, his unseen infant child. In that moment as they tried to sing Christmas carols in the cold air he realized that Christmas does not depend on church architecture or fine clothing, expansive meals or expensive gifts. Instead Rex claimed, “Christmas is best celebrated as a voluntary act in which we replenish our personal faith; in the company of others.” Far from home and loved ones, Rex realized “that Christmas Day, in itself, is not important, but the faith it represents is.”

Let us not forget in the coming weeks that Jesus is the reason why we celebrate Christmas. Advent reminds us that God often breaks into our lives in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. At those times we discover that we must change our ways and realign ourselves with Jesus Christ.

 In Isaiah we read, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

 That name means “God with us.” That would be a sign that God would save his people. Centuries pass by, and finally;          the hope of the world comes through;      the hope of a girl.

 Saint Luke tells us about it. The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a little out-of-the-way town up in the Galilee district. He spoke a simple message to a simple peasant girl. Her name was Mary. She was just a teenage girl, whose future had already been planned for her by her family and the family of a man named Joseph, a carpenter by trade.

 But God had other plans for Mary. He chose her to be the mother of the Messiah.                God chose her because she was only engaged, and there would be no doubt this virgin was having God’s Son and the son of no other. But we know people, don’t we? And we know what they said about her.

 However, she and Joseph held onto what the angel Gabriel had said about him: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”

 It is here in this event that we see coming together in Bethlehem the hope of a girl and the hope of the world.     Young Mary, approaching marriage, had wonderful hopes about her own little family and the birth of her own little children.

 Her hopes came together with God’s plan about his Son who would be born to become the hope of the world.   The hope of this girl has become the hope of the world — AND HE IS OUR ONLY HOPE  This is what the Advent season says to us. Prepare to receive the hope of the world. The commentary on this passage in Luke says, “The glory of Christmas came about by the willingness of ordinary people to obey God’s claim on their lives.” I wonder if you are willing to do that, to obey God’s claim on your life?

If you are; you will experience the glory of Christmas, and you will find hope in your life, the hope of the world. I want to tell you why this child became the hope of the world.

 He is the hope of the world because he is God coming to us. Gabriel said to Mary, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.” He is God coming to us. He is bringing God into our world and our experience. We have him as a part of our lives today and will forever. That is what this Advent time of preparation is all about. We are getting ready to celebrate the fact that he is God coming to us.

 Years ago in a small European town a visitor noticed that on one of the streets THERE IS A WALL. And when the citizens of the town walked by it they would nod and make the sign of the cross. As he stood there and watched he observed that they all did this. He became curious about the practice and began to ask around.

 But no one could tell him what it meant. Finally, he obtained permission to investigate the wall. He began to chip away at layers of paint and dirt. He discovered underneath a beautiful mural of Mary and her baby.

 People had always made the sign of the cross as they passed by that painting even after it was covered over. They had passed on the tradition, though the reason for it had been lost.

 Remove some of the things in which we dress Christmas and there beneath the surface you come to the central meaning. And you find there this beautiful story about a young girl and her baby – the hope of a little girl and the hope of the world.

 On these Sundays we are thinking together about the theme, “They Came Together In Bethlehem.” And today we turn to this: “The Hope Of A Girl – And The Hope Of The World.”                                             

 Long ago the prophet Isaiah saw a time when God would send a Messiah to set his people free. In a few weeks we will celebrate the birth of our Lord! Jesus was born of a woman, lived on this earth and died for our sins; so that we could be free.

 The Isaiah passage has a beautiful image. At the close of chapter 10, the hopeless fall of Assyria is magnificently pictured as the falling of the cedars of Lebanon by the axe swung by God’s own hand.

 I’m told that a cedar once cut down will not put out any new shoots. So the great Assyrian power has fallen and will fall forever. The metaphor is carried out in surpassing beauty in the 11th chapter

 It, too, is the picture of a shoot growing out of a stump — but not a cedar stump — an oak, which everyone knows will put out new growth from the old. And Isaiah uses that to talk about the coming Messiah: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.”

Here is the beautiful prophecy of the coming Messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ out of the line of David,          specifically from the shoot of Jesse — a shoot that will grow up out of that stump to flower and bless all humankind.

It was that kind of longing for the coming Messiah that was expressed over and over again in the heart and mind and soul of ancient Israel.

That Messiah came in Jesus Christ — grew, taught, ministered, was crucified, was raised by God from the dead and ascended back to the Father from whom He had come. But now the Gospel writers are telling us that this One will come again. That’s the witness of Scripture. “Look up and raise your heads,” says Jesus in Luke’s Gospel, “because your redemption is drawing nigh.”

So we believe — so we pray “Come, O Come Emmanuel.” That’s the way we sing it; when singing;  it expresses far more than we can simply say. The promise of Advent is that word from the prophet Isaiah,

 “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” And the ringing call of Advent is the word of Jesus from Luke, “Look up and raise your head,  for your redemption is drawing nigh.”

 To-day the WORD is fulfilled in our hearing! To-day all that Jesus accomplished in His perfect life, His innocent death, His glorious resurrection, all that Jesus did is applied to us, fulfilled in our ears full of His word.

 Advent is a time of HOPE! Hope that our Saviour will come! Hope that we will be ready for HIM. Our hope is not in vain, as Jesus has promised us, HE WILL RETURN; He  is preparing that place for us.                                 His great love for us is real, HIS GRACE for us is real.   There is no need for us to fear, for Jesus loves us.So we believe — so we pray: “Come, O come Emmanuel.”

Amen.

Pastor Ian Kotzur

 

 

I will be good Mummy

SERMON ON REFORMATION

pastor-hans-cropWhen Robert Louis Stevenson was a boy he once remarked to his mother, “Momma, you can’t be good without praying.” “How do you know, Robert?” she asked. “Because I’ve tried!” he answered. This brings to mind a story about another little fellow — one who had been sent to his room because he had been bad. A short time later he came out and said to his mother, “I’ve been thinking about what I did and I said a prayer.” “That’s fine,” she said, “if you ask God to make you good, He will help you.” “Oh, I didn’t ask Him to help me be good,” replied the boy. “I asked Him to help you put up with me.”

 Dear Friends! God says in JEREMIAH 31:28 “And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.”

 The world around is broken, destroyed and is filled with evil and so God wants to Repair, Rebuild and Reform our lives but often most people are satisfied to be the way they are as long as others are able to put up with them.

THEME: “JESUS REPAIRS, REBUILDS AND REFORMS US FOR LIFE ETERNAL”

Dear Friends! Look at the world around us or switch on the news on your TV and we hear violence, breaking down of lives, destruction, persecution, hatred, injustice, bombing of the innocent and the list goes on. People in the Middle Eastern world, the ISIS or Talibans or the fundamentalists are trying to destroy this earth that God created.  We learn to put up with all the nonsense and these people take advantage. God’s word has the power to make us stand up and fight the good fight and run the race. We are not meant to just put up with rubbish around us but to stand up to the truth.
We as human beings are so comfortable in our lives as long as people around us are able to put up with us. We don’t see the need to change, to be repaired, to be rebuilt and to be reformed for life eternal.

God promises I will build you up and plant you to be a new creation. We are not called to live lives as unrepairable people, we are called to be people repaired by the Grace of God. A lot of people think they are beyond repair.

Do you feel you are beyond repair?

Hear the good news from Jeremiah 31 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. From the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more”.

The good news is we are repaired as the law is written in our hearts. Hans Peethala “When the law is written in your minds: we will be slaves to the law and will keep struggling to keep the law and be perfect, But when the law is written in our hearts, it repairs our hearts and rebuilds it so that we may be reformed for life eternal”.

The good news is God has written the law in our hearts and the law is reformed in our hearts and it transforms us to be Gospel living disciples.

Today we remind ourselves Martin Luther saw the church breaking down and losing the Gospel. The Catholic Church was so focused on being perfect and the whole emphasis was on keeping the law. It was all about good works and striving to get to heaven by paying purgatory. Martin Luther stood up and said “Enough is enough” I will not put up with this rubbish anymore.

Martin Luther had tasted the Gospel and he was not able to see God’s children being led astray by working on their good works to be saved. He wanted to ensure that things were put in place and the church was repaired, rebuilt and reformed by God’s Grace. He proclaimed that we are saved by Grace alone. He reminded the church that we need to undergo some repair so that our faith might be rebuilt with Grace, Mercy and Love of God.

Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands that I still possess”.

We cannot save ourselves with our good works, But the good news is God has placed us in the hands of Jesus and It’s by the Grace of our Lord Jesus we are repaired, rebuilt and reformed for life eternal.

God enabled Luther to use God’s word to repair, rebuild and reform the lives of the needy. The Church was reformed as the Gospel penetrated into the hearts of the people. The power of the Gospel has “Repaired, Rebuilt and Reformed our lives forever”.

Paul also was in a similar situation as he was ok as long as people were able to put up with him. But when his eyes opened, He saw that God had “Repaired, Rebuilt and Reformed his life”.

He said “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

Reformation is a reminder that we are Reformed people by the Grace of Jesus Christ our Saviour. We are made righteous by Grace and the Holy Spirit will guide us to live by faith. The world around us is being destroyed, plucked down and torn apart but we who have become righteous by Grace alone that we may live by faith. We do not live by seeing what is happening around us in this world, but we live by faith in what is promised to us by God our Saviour.

Romans 3:22 – 26 “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus”.

Dear Friends! We are justified by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be righteous before God. This is the truth that Jesus has given us. John 8:31-36 “Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

This is the truth. Jesus has “Repaired, Rebuilt and Reformed” our lives forever. We are set free by the Gospel, Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin”. 35The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”.

The Son of man has set you and I free by the truth. The truth is we are saved by Grace and a faith response to the Grace we have received is good works that builds our faith.  Go in peace. Amen

Pastor Hans Peethala

God Throws Rocks?

God Throws Rocks?

Colossians 3:1-4 (246)                                                                                                31 July 2016

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ image001sits on his throne at the right hand side of God.  Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory.

A builder was working three stories up on a construction site when he looked down and saw a woman unknowingly drop a parcel from her arms.  He tried to get her attention by calling out to her, but the noise of the traffic was just too loud.

So he searched for something in his pockets that he could throw down and hopefully to get her to look up.  He found a twenty cent piece – so he threw it down.  The woman didn’t realise where it had come from, thought that it had just fallen out of someone’s pocket, but she couldn’t see anyone around that was looking for a coin, so she picked it up and kept on walking.

The construction worker tried again – this time with a two-dollar coin, but with the same result.  So he looked around, found a reasonably large piece of scrap metal, and threw that down.  His aim was good, and he certainly didn’t hit the woman, but he did give her a bit of a fright.  She looked up, saw where it had come from and started to abuse the builder for his carelessness.

It took a little while, but he finally got through to her, that he wasn’t in any way trying to hurt her, but rather that he wanted to let her know that she’d dropped something.  The woman did thank him in the end, but she was still a little shaken by what had happened.

It can sometimes take a bit of a shock to get our attention too.  We can be absorbed in our own lives, busy with lots of important things – even busy helping people, serving in the church and community, doing the work that’s expected of us, raising our families and caring for others.  One day can run into another, one week into the next, and even one year after another.

And things might be going quite smoothly and pleasant.  We might be quite content with what’s happening, and not aware that anything should change, or that we might we missing out on something else.

We can be walking along the footpath of life, perhaps blissfully unaware that we may have lost something, be missing out on something, or that there’s something more that we could have to make us even more happy and joyful.

 

At times like this, our Lord God may be wanting to get our attention so that he can say something to us.  He throws some blessings down to us so that we’ll look up and see who’s talking.  He gives an exciting new opportunity for us to enjoy, or a recovery from an illness, or healing in a relationship, or an unexpected bonus from work, or a win in a competition, or satisfaction from some job completed, or a new friendship, or passing an exam.

Whatever it may be, whatever the gift or experience, it may be our Father saying through it: “Hey you, look up and thank me for it, and listen to some other things that I want to say to you”.

Often though, we can receive what we’re given, smile to ourselves with a sense of satisfaction, and just continue on our journey through life, with no thought of looking up.

 

So maybe, God has to drop some lumps of metal, some rocks, around us to really get our attention.  And sometimes it may seem as if the rocks get a bit too close, maybe even hit us and injure us a little – but that’s not God’s intention.  It’s never his desire to hurt anyone.  What he wants more than anything else is for us to look up and listen to what he has to say.

And when we do respond, we don’t hear him yelling at us, or making us always feel guilty or ashamed of what we’ve done; we don’t hear him demanding things from us like a dominating authoritative figure; and we don’t hear him telling us that we’ve got to come up to some kind of standard of behaviour before we can receive anything from him.

What he says and gives are things that can give us confidence, help us to cope better with life, and look to the future with real hope.  He comes to us with gifts and promises that can give us what we need to be able to have a good and positive attitude and a desire to serve him, despite what goes on around us.

He comes to us in and through his Son, Jesus Christ, to give us a hope that can enable us to live on despite all the struggles we face.  He comes to give us a peace of mind that can make us satisfied with what we have and not to always have to go after everything that seems bigger and better and brighter.  And he gives us a future to look forward to, a future that can give us certain victory over death and the grave.

 

There are lots of things that keep our attention, that stop us from looking up.  We spend time with our families.  We’ve got financial commitments.  Our sport and recreational activities are important.  And so are our homes and our work and our service in the community and the church.

And our Lord doesn’t want us to neglect any one of them.  We may be irresponsible if we did.  But God comes to us and wants us to have his perspective on all these things, and see how they fit into the overall scheme of his plan for our lives.

So he says, spend time with your families – and enjoy it.  See this as being the most important gift you can give them, and know that God wants to give you the peace, the patience and the wisdom to be a valuable family member.

Don’t forget your financial commitments – but believe that God can provide for you even when you have to pull in your belt and make some sacrifices.

Be involved in some sport or recreational activity – not to prove you’re better than others, but see that through it God wants you to enjoy life, build relationships with others, and use it as a way to help others to have a healthy outlook on life.

Put an effort into caring for your home, do your work to the best of your ability, and serve others in the community and in the church – but see these things not as burdensome or drudgeries, but as ways in which God can work in and through you to use the gifts he’s given you.

 

In everything then, look up and see the blessings God’s given to you, look up and thank your Father for the opportunities you have to touch the lives of others, look up and see that God has a plan for you and a reason for putting you here.

 

 

He doesn’t want you to be focussed on merely surviving or just putting up with the things of this world.  He doesn’t want you to spend your energies on doing things that are just going to make a difference in this world – because this world won’t go on for ever, and you won’t go on for ever, and because he’s got much more in store for you than even the best that you experience now.

God adds a new and exciting dimension to life.  Life is more than food and clothing, working hard and paying the bills, scrimping and saving simply to keep our heads above water.  It’s also more than having employment, raising a family and participating in and enjoying life in our community.  Those things are a part of life, but they don’t make up the full meaning of life.

 

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right hand side of God.  Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory.

You have been raised to life with Christ.  The fact is that we may not always want to hear that.  We can be so content to just live this life – where things are reasonable and comfortable, and maybe most of the time happy.

But God has something more that he wants us to have, something greater, something better, and he invites us to look up to him, listen to him, and receive what he has to offer.

We have life in and with Jesus Christ.  We have God’s presence with us, God’s promises for us and God’s protection over us – in Christ; we have forgiveness for our sins; we have the opportunity of a new start in life every day; we have hope for the future; we have the free gift of eternal life.

 

God just might throw some rocks our way at times to help us see this and appreciate his gifts, but his intention is always good.  He wants to get us to look up and listen, and receive what he wants us to have.

So lift up your eyes.  Set your sights on the rich treasures that you can’t buy with cash or a credit card.  God has new and rich experiences that he wants you to enjoy.  He wants you to have real joy and peace in your lives, and a confidence that when this life is over, you’ll have another better life to enjoy forever.  Amen.

Famous Last Words

Famous Last Words

Acts 1:8 (236)

 

image001You’re watching an exciting movie on TV, and one of the characters is about to die.  As he lies there on a hospital bed, he whispers some final words to his family.  You quickly turn the volume up, but can’t quite hear what he says.

They may have been words of farewell, words of advice, words offering forgiveness, or maybe words that told the rest of the family where the treasure was buried.

People’s last words can often be significant.  They can have some importance.  They can even be remembered and passed down from one generation to the next.

And that’s the case when it comes to a number of “last words” that some characters in the Bible have spoken.  We’re going to have a look at a few today and see what significance they have for us today.

We’re going to start with Moses.  Towards the end of his life God took Moses up on to a mountain, and while he was there God showed him the land that the Israelites were going to inherit.

Just before he died, Moses pronounced a blessing on his people, and the last words of his blessing were these: Israel, you will live in safety; your enemies will be gone.  The dew will fall from the sky, and you will have plenty of grain and wine.  The Lord has rescued you and given you more blessings than any other nation.  He protects you like a shield and is your majestic sword.  Your enemies will bow in fear, and you will trample on their backs.  (Deuteronomy 33:28,29).

In these last words of Moses, he acknowledged that Israel was very blessed because God was their Lord.  He had led them safely through 40 years wandering in the desert, and was about to give them a country where they could settle down, grow crops and plant vineyards, have victory over their enemies, and live in security.  They could be confident that God would continue to provide for them.  God was in control.

Famous last words from Moses: God was in control!

Another very well known Old Testament character was David, King David.  He had some “famous last words” as well.  We read in 2 Samuel 23:3-5.  Our Mighty Rock, the God of Jacob, told me, ‘A ruler who obeys God and does right is like the sunrise on a cloudless day, or like a rain that sparkles on the grass.’  I have ruled this way, and God will never break his promise to me.  God’s promise is complete and unchanging.  He will always help me and give me what I hope for.

David was chosen by God to carry out a specific task.  He was to make Israel a great nation, and bring honour and glory to God.  David didn’t do this perfectly by any means.  In fact, there are episodes in his life that can only be described as being very questionable.

But at the end of his life he could look back and see that through it all, it was only because of God that he and his kingdom survived.  It was because of God’s covenant, God’s promise that David was able to achieve anything.

Famous last words from David: God was in control!

You might remember three men by the name of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  They were three friends of Daniel, who were thrown into a fiery furnace because they weren’t prepared to bow down and worship anyone but God himself.  They were prepared to die and to remain faithful to God, rather than to obey King Nebuchadnezzar.

As they were about to be killed they cried out to the king: Your majesty, we don’t need to defend ourselves.  The God we worship can save us from you and your flaming furnace.  But even if he doesn’t, we still won’t worship your gods and the gold statue you have set up. (Daniel 3:6-18).

There was no way that they were going to turn their backs on God, because he’d never let them down.  And even though it meant certain death for them, they were confident that God would watch over them

Famous last words from Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: God was in control!

As it turned out, these weren’t their last words at all, because God rescued them, but they weren’t sure that he was actually going to, so we can still consider them being “famous last words”.

Then there was Simeon, a priest in the temple in Jerusalem.  God had promised him that before he died, he would see with his own eyes, the fulfilment of God’s promise of a Saviour.  Simeon would see Jesus.

So just after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple; Simeon took the baby in his arms and said: Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your Word.  For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all people; a light to reveal you to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32).

Simeon thanked and praised God that he was able to see what God had promised hundreds of years before.  He was prepared to die in peace, knowing that Jesus the Saviour had come. So “famous last words” for Simeon were that God was in control!

Not too many years afterwards a man called Stephen spoke some words too that have been acknowledged as being “famous last words”.

He’d preached a fairly strong sermon, and some people had taken exception to it because they couldn’t accept the fact that he’d said they were partly responsible for Jesus’ death.  They dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him to death.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed: “Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord do not hold this sin against them.”  When he had said this, he died. (Acts 7:59,60).  Stephen was prepared to face death, confident that God would give him all he needed to remain strong in his faith, confident that God would take him to himself in heaven.

Stephen’s “famous last words” – God was in control even in the face of a difficult and painful death.

And that was very similar to another situation.  When Jesus was hanging on the cross he spoke a number, seven in fact “famous last words”.  And the last of these was: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.  (Luke 23:46).

The work that he had come to do was completed, and he was giving up his life, so that we could have life after death.  In the face of what seemed like failure and tragedy, Jesus acknowledged that God was in total control.

This was no unlucky and unhappy ending to Jesus’ life and ministry.  It was the beginning of something new and exciting.  There was no misfortune or catastrophe here.  God was in control and everything was going to plan.  Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was just around the corner.

But these weren’t really the last words of Jesus.  Forty days after his resurrection, just before he ascended into heaven he spoke some “famous last words” again.  He had his disciples gathered round him and said: The Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power.  Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.  (Acts 1:8).

Jesus was leaving, but the Holy Spirit was coming.  The disciples wouldn’t be alone.  Jesus was going but nothing was going out of control.  God the Father still had, and has, control over the work that Jesus began.  Through his Spirit, this work was going to continue.

And through his Spirit that work continues today in and through God’s spirit-filled people – you and me.  We look around and see what’s happening in our world, and even in God’s church at times, and wonder how we can ever be a positive influence, and what little good we can do.

But God’s still in control – and always will be.  That’s his promise.  That’s his “famous last words” if you like – words that he wants us to hold on to, to trust in, and to look on as being all that we need to continue to serve faithfully.

Have you ever thought what your last words may be?  They may be words of farewell, words of advice, words offering forgiveness, or maybe even words that let your family know where the treasure is buried.

Whatever you last words may be, you can be sure that as you face death, you can be absolutely confident that death is not the end of your existence.  Christ has overcome death, and nothing can ever separate you from his love.

But this assurance is yours not just as you face death – it’s also there for you as you face life, and all the difficulties and challenges that you have before you.

God was, and God is, in control.  Amen.

Bishop Mark Leischke

I will see you again.

Revelations 7:9-17
Psalm:23

“Down the lane I walk with my sweet Mary, hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they’ll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.

Then I awake and look around me, at the four grey walls that surround me
and I realize, yes, I was only dreaming.
(But) arm in arm we’ll walk at daybreak.
(and) Again I’ll touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they’ll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree
as they lay me neath the green, green grass of home.”family

image001It doesn’t seem that long ago that in my first year here I sat at the bedside of one our sisters in Christ in the hospital as she was about to see the Lord face to face and with the curtain around her bed drawn I read plasm 23. It was the last time I saw her but I’m sure I’ll see her again, but as I departed the lady in the next bed loudly said “thank you so much for reading that.”

Today we have heard the scriptures read in a different order, but the order in life of how things work out. The Gospel of Christ pronounced to those before Him. The epistle of how His words work out in our lives, and finally revelation of how it works out at the end of earthly life, and all we could say encompassed by that beautiful psalm, psalm 23.

It seems strange to me now, but there was a time where I could not see any comfort in that psalm as it did not seem to show I was closer to Jesus but further apart. Where were my green fields and still waters? Where’s my comfort and my overflowing cup?

Two of America’s most infamous African-American gangs are the Crips and the bloods from South Central LA. A piece of land between Rodeo Drive and Hollywood that in the 50’s was separated by highways that were not to be crossed by those marginalized inside or those of racial anger or fear encircling this suburb of internment.

A suburb that has grown from young men forming their own clubs in the fifties because of not being able to join the boy scouts because of the color of their skin, to now open warfare between the gangs where most families are broken. Young men who grew up without role models to a future where a quarter of them will be either in prison or dead.

A future where many, many of them have never been outside their turf never mind feeling the breeze at a beach and all must not be caught “slipping.” Which is not to be caught unfocussed at all times because to do so at the edges of the gang territories, be it at the petrol station or the deli caught well get you killed by those wearing other colours. Blue for the crips, red for the bloods.

In the Middle East, Arab against Arab except for the universal hatred of Israel. South Central L.A. Afro American against Afro-American except for the universal hatred of the Authorities of Law that they see as wardens.

A climate of anger, un yet fear not to be showed, and hopelessness that saw one young 19 year old voice that “he did not choose that destiny, it chose him, a life that he knows God did not want in society, yet trapped, his only way out is if someone will come down into the pit with him and show a way out.”

In the beginning God created the earth, the heavens above and all within and saw that it was good, only for us to fall to sin.

Sin that has seen nation rise against nation and those within, brother against brother and sister against sister and in the church, Christian against Christian and maybe the most fierce of all, the inner fight of self against self.

Mary Magdalene standing at the Tomb in the presence of Jesus was asked “Woman, why are you crying”

Her tears that could not be quelled for she saw not the risen Christ, but a tomb of lost hope.

On Jesus Cross, Pontius Pilate wrote an inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews” and when those present sought for that truth to be distorted, Pilate answered “What I have written, I have written.”

I read this and for you, and for those still fighting the emptiness as I bring it before you as it was to me.

Woman, why are you crying?  I’m crying because the one who gave me hope, the one who accepted me not for what I do but for me as a person, my friend, Jesus, is dead!  I’m crying for all those who pinned their hope on him; for all those who saw God like they’d never seen him before; for those who felt unburdened by chains which bound them, chains of oppression, chains of hopelessness, chains of feeling you have to do the right thing but never being able to do it well enough, chains which said you weren’t allowed here, you couldn’t go there, you weren’t the right race, didn’t have the right background, weren’t rich enough, religious enough, healthy enough, weren’t the right gender to be a part of God’s plan for his people.

I’m crying for all those people who felt a sense of liberation in the message of Jesus who are now shattered because he is dead.  I’m crying for all those through the ages who have lost a loved one, for those who have experienced what it is to be separated from someone they thought they would have for ever, for all those who know the pain of sickness and disease and tragedy and have sat by the bedside of a loved one as they slowly let go of the breath of life, or have been stunned, shocked, numbed by news of an inexplicable tragedy, those who in the death of Jesus see nothing more than that he went the same way we all go.

I’m crying for all those with emptiness inside, all those who search for meaning, and all those who are confused and lonely and wanting to give up.  And I’m crying for a world which is without direction, spinning hopelessly out of control, a world marked by millions without a home, without enough food, without the security of knowing how safe they will be tomorrow, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, for all the displaced people, all the orphaned, for the unborn who are terminated before they see the light of day and the elderly and frail who wonder when it will be their time to be extinguished– I cry for all those who could have found hope in this Jesus who have now been left hopeless as Jesus lies cold, dead in the tomb!

And I’m crying for me and for those like me, for those who lived before me and believed that God would one day set things right, and all those who come after me. And I’m crying because a man like this, a man we thought was God’s man, the holy one, should be treated this way.

But then like a voice from the dead, Woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? “Mary, Mary it is I who you seek.”

Un yet still she cries.

Woman, why are you crying?  Lord my tears now are for this moment where my joy no one can take away from me.  My hope was dashed but now it has been restored.  I wept for others, but now I know that they, too, can have the experiences I’ve had of Jesus and everything he brings.  I cried because my Jesus, the Rescuer, the Saviour was dead, but now I smile because I know that my Redeemer lives!

The average age of death for those gang members of South Central L.A. is 20 years and 5 months. One of those more fortunate was former gang member Robert Martinez who like many of his once colleagues sported religious tattoos to which he stated, that “we all believed in God but we never talked about it. Everybody was afraid they were going to die and we wanted to be ready. Now a practicing Christian he still carries the same tattoo of Christ on his left arm that he carried into those mean streets of his youth. Christ with that boy on the streets and Christ with Him now in Church.

I, like Robert Martinez have come to see Psalm 23 through our trials and tribulations caused by self and others not as a separation from Jesus, but rather see His underserved and unfaltering love and presence amongst it.

Martin Luther King Jnr, the day before he was shot and killed finished his speech with these famous words: “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter to me now, because I’ve been to the mountain top. And I don’t mind. Like everybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place but I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land! And so I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Yes our redeemer lives. Jesus having been into death itself, came out of it as Victor; having trumped Satan’s last trump.  Having verified, underlined, and confirmed everything he did, everything he said as real, genuine, believable, trustworthy, life-changing.  Not a loser but a winner.  Not defeated but victorious.  Not just one with us in our pain and our dying. Not just one with us, but one who is in front of us, who has gone ahead of us, offering us healing and help and hope.

Like a thief on a cross we too have seen the Promised Land that is Jesus Christ next to us. Like to that gang member lost, angry and fearful, God stands with us with His presence tattooed into our soul when we saw Him not and like Martin Luther King we know the glory of the coming of the Lord and though some of us may reach the promised land early or later than others, in that number will we be:

“One of the great multitude from every nation, tribe and peoples of earth. Standing before the throne of the lamb, clothed in white robes washed clean by the blood of the lamb. The lamb Jesus Christ who has lead us beside still waters and restored our soul. Who has lead us in paths of righteousness for His names sake. Jesus in goodness and mercy who has followed all the days of our lives that there in the house of the Lord shall we dwell forever, sheltered with His presence to neither hunger nor thirst any longer. To never shed a tear in sorrow nor ever again tremble in fear.

Like a thief on the cross we have seen the Promised Land that is Jesus Christ and asked that He remember us. And in knowing His response I leave you now with the same departing words as those I have said in confidence to all our brothers and sisters in Christ about to enter the Promised Land. Whether tomorrow here on this earth or not-I will see you again. Amen.

Just do our “job” as Christians

image001Acts 9:1-6

Often in society and in the Church we like to see, or even expect some positive changes in people when we extend our hand in help.

Well who said so? And for that matter what is positive change. Maybe the change needs to come in us. To have that perseverance and staying power when to us it seems a futile and lost cause. To just do our “job” as Christians and persevere and stay, knowing that God is somehow in that person’s life doing His job.

The same perseverance we suffer under in our own “stuff”. To persevere in our own hardships and disappointments knowing that God’s amongst it. To persevere in the knowledge of our sin, the stuff we detest of ourselves yet continually fall for, but stay clinging to what Christ has told us-that he is amongst it with us-seeing it and knowing it-yet staying firm in his commitment to bring us his grace.

And in these times of enlightenment and self-help, when we have to rely completely on someone else when we have no answer to the situation it can be the gaining of wisdom outside of “self”.

A man was a successful Wall Street analyst until drink drove him into deep depression which led to his mental disintegration. Following an accident which resulted from him being drunk, he decided to deliver himself from the depths into which he had sunk and became a member of an organisation called the “Moral Re-Armament”-an organisation that stresses do-it-yourself redemption. But instead of gaining his freedom through self-help, he sank deeper and deeper into the depths and after a three day drinking binge he ended up in a Manhattan hospital completely shattered. In his moment of complete and utter helplessness he prayed to God for help and said “suddenly, the room lit up in light and he was caught up into a feeling that words cannot describe”. This changed his life and what had been impossible for him to achieve was achieved in him through the power of God. From the depths of his defeat, degradation and despair he was “resurrected” from a living death and made alive. A “resurrection” that would be felt in the lives of millions, as this man Bill Wilson was to go on and be the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

A gift, a miracle-an encounter with God that saved him and countless others.

A gift, a miracle and encounter with God that changed the apostle’s Peter and Pauls lives and the lives of the countless millions others who saw and heard the truth of Christ in the lives of these two men who accepted his offer to leave behind their mistakes and live instead under His grace.

Peter who denied Christ three times and went missing in his time of need and Paul, a leader of those inflicting death and punishment on Christians who when they met the raised Christ came not to just know what he stood for, but what he came for-to set them free of themselves, of their failures, character flaws, and most importantly-of the things that they could not undo themselves-their sin.

These direct encounters, miracles if you like may seem reserved for the few but all who encounter Christ are offered his same life changing power.

A team mate of Shane Warne’s once remarked that no matter how much turbulence and media attention he was getting because of his personal life, when he walked onto the oval he left all his troubles on the ovals picket fence and was free to be the champion he was.

In our lives Christ is the picket fence that surrounds us. In our lives Christ brings the truth that sets us free:

“For I am the Lord, I change not. If you come to me, I will not cast you out. Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heaven burdens and I will give you rest”.

We may not seem to have that moment like the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Peter or Paul, but those same gifts and miracles are hidden in every aspect of our lives. In our joyous moments Christ is there just as he is there guiding us as we walk through the chaos and confusion.

Like Paul, we may have a thorn in our side that we wish wasn’t there, but like Paul we have God’s grace and that is enough because living in that grace, we have the sureness of the resurrection on our last day and the sureness, that now-today we can serve God the Father by leaving our mistakes, burdens and sins from the past with our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The knowledge of our inability and failure to live as we should is the start of wisdom. The knowledge of Christ’s power and love is the emergence of that wisdom. To live in Christ’s forgiveness and his total acceptance of you in every facet of your life is to understand that wisdom.

To give Christ our past and present burdens is to answer his call and whether we answer that call and lay them off to him or not, in his name we are still forgiven and free in this world-that will not change. But his desire is that we join with a man that God said “was after his own heart”, yet a man that fell to adultery and murder.

A man called King David who in his sin truly came to know restoration in the grace of God. That restoration is what Christ craves we know and join with King David in testifying, and giving evidence of in our lives: From Psalm 55: verses16 to 18:

“As for Me, I will call upon God; and the Lord will save me…He shall hear my voice. He has delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me” (Ps. 55:16-18).

The Lord has blessed you and kept you. The Lord has made His face shine on you and been gracious to you. The Lord has looked upon you with favour and the Lord gives you his peace.

This man Thomas.

John 20:24-29

 

image001People have often been hard on Thomas. He has been nicknamed ‘Doubting Thomas’ and some have portrayed him as almost a coward, when in actual fact, the evidence in the Scriptures is that Thomas was a man of great courage.

Thomas is sometimes treated as though he is a person who doesn’t want to believe, like many people today in society today. But maybe Thomas wanted to believe but found it hard to.

This man Thomas?  The other Gospels tell us nothing about him except his name. It is only here in John’s Gospel that Thomas comes alive for us. Thomas is portrayed as a man of great courage. There is the time Thomas speaks up when Jesus and his followers received news of the illness of Lazarus, the close friend of Jesus. News comes that Lazarus is near death. Jesus makes no move for two days to go to his friend. There had recently been two attempts to stone Jesus, so Jerusalem was a dangerous place for Jesus and his disciples.

Suddenly, Jesus announces he will go to his dying friend. The disciples think this is a bad move! It would be suicidal for them to go near Jerusalem. The danger is so great the disciples are near to abandoning Jesus at this point. But Thomas speaks up and says, “Let us go, that we may die with him.” Thomas can only see disaster lying ahead: nothing else. But this is no reason for him to turn his back on Jesus to try and save his own skin. He loves his Lord and because of Thomas’ courage, all the disciples go with Jesus to visit Lazarus.

And now here in today’s situation-again before we judge Thomas, we must also remember that while the other disciples were locked away for fear of the Jews, Thomas wasn’t there – which means he must have had the courage to venture outside.  And in regards to faith-Thomas is no worse than the other disciples.  They also didn’t believe until they saw Jesus.  They didn’t believe Mary’s testimony that she had seen the Lord. Yet Thomas is the one who is labelled the doubter.

What we see in Thomas is that human courage and faith in God are two different things and sometimes the two are easily confused.  The human strength that allowed Thomas to be absent from the safe place behind the locked doors is not going to help him when he needs faith.  Just as it wasn’t Peter’s human strength that allowed him to obey God rather than the human leaders.

When the other disciples tell Thomas they have seen the Lord, Thomas cannot accept it. The return of Jesus from the dead is too much for Thomas to believe, ironically even though he had seen the raising of Lazarus back to life.

So Thomas didn’t doubt that people could be raised from the dead. But he couldn’t believe that Jesus, the raiser of dead people could be raised himself. So when Jesus does appear to Thomas and invites him to touch his hands and his side and realises it is indeed the Lord-he in joy and excitement bursts out with his great confession of faith, “My Lord and my God”.

These aren’t the words of a man who is still pondering his findings! When Thomas sees the risen Jesus in person before him, he doesn’t need half an hour to detachedly examine the body of Jesus. The scriptures don’t tell us if Thomas even touched Jesus. Thomas speaks out with the courage of his faith, “My Lord and my God”. This is the greatest and boldest confession of faith any follower of Jesus made, and it comes from the mouth and heart of Thomas. It is a courageous confession and the same confession of faith we make about Jesus in the Creed.

Yes-The tomb is empty, but yes: sometimes so too is the place where we go to look for help from God.  Yes-Jesus deals with Thomas’s doubts, but yes-he declares that this won’t be how he will deal with the faith/life struggles that we go through.  And yes-Jesus will use our faith and says that we will be greatly blessed when we believe without seeing,

In Thomas’s struggles we see that God is the one, the only one, through whom our life questions can be answered.  God is the initiator and it is God to whom we must go in our life struggles.  When we allow God to direct our life and trust him it won’t always be “up” – it will sometimes be “down”.  But it will always be forward to eternal life in heaven.

On the seventeenth day of the second month the Lord shut the door of the Ark and the water beneath the earth burst open and the floodgates of the sky were opened for forty days and nights. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared and after forty days Noah opened the window. A dove was sent out to see if the water had receded to sustain life. It returned as it left-empty handed, or more precisely-empty beaked. . Seven days later he sent it out again and it returned with a fresh olive leave. Seven days later he sent out the Dove again and it did not return to the Noah, but returned to the world where it once was.

I have met several Thomas’s in our world who want to believe, but struggle. Just as we struggle when those we want to believe seemingly want not to, and with those that are yet to believe that we know and love that can be very hard emotionally.

Jesus rose and left the tomb and it remained empty and returned to the Apostles’ who were hiding in fear carrying His scars for their freedom, and in another seven days Thomas saw for himself the risen Lord.

Jesus said to Thomas: “Because you have seen me you have believed, blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” The Word of God as recorded by the apostles in the room has not returned empty we have believed and are blessed. And as blessed we are, in prayer and in service to our Lord do we make known Him known to those who doubt or know not.

Isaiah 55:11: “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Mark 11:24: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

No less than the very Words of God that the more so should we respond too in faith in our homes, in our workplaces, schools and here in this house of God.

So I ask you now in prayer to bring your needs and those of others before the Lord in Prayer. To in prayer offer to the Lord your fears and trials and in faith leave them with Him, and ask that’s the Lord Will be done to see those we know who still doubt or deny  Him, will in God’s time together with the apostles, Thomas and us. Together with those in Christ that have gone before, those with us now and those yet to come and together with the angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven see, know and bellow in sure and joyful voice “My Lord and My God “

We bring our prayers before the Lord. Amen

He is taking the blame

Good Friday

StMarksIn the Garden of Eden we fell into sin and to begin to understand the depth and seriousness of what happened with the tree in the Garden of Eden, we need to look at Jesus on the cross. There is Jesus, on the cross suffering and dying and taking the punishment for the broken relationship.

He is taking the blame for people’s sin and on the cross Jesus calls out the opening words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” It is the cry of people down through the ages who have felt the suffering that people go through because of their broken connection with God. Jesus closed that gap and he still reaches out, with his arms stretched out to all the people who are on the other side.

This includes people who want nothing to do with God. It includes people who are as evil, and it includes you and me, and even enemies.

When we look at Jesus on the cross we begin to grasp the depth of sin. Our guilt becomes clearer to us. Our sin is destructive and it hurts God.

Looking at Jesus on the cross, we begin to see how deep and costly is the love of God for people.

The depth of God’s love reaches out to enfold his enemies. The love of God goes deeper than our sin. It reaches out wide enough to include all people on this earth. The love of God that overwhelmed the thief on the cross next to Jesus,

and it reaches as far as you and me. The love of God is a healing love. It connects us up with God again like a new family.

Yet we humans are still weak. It is a one-sided relationship. God is the strong one. But it is a new beginning and it gets better as the Holy Spirit reaches out to us in the Scriptures to strengthen us. The Spirit that brings Jesus to us in Baptism, and again and again in the Lord’s Supper. The Holy Spirit that brings us to trust in the truth. Jesus: the one who died on the cross in our place.

At school we might have collected footy cards. Actually I never did but I have in the past several years been the financier of such a practice were cards are bought, then swapped and traded with other such parties. On the cross Jesus swaps places with us and traded not the discards for something better, but traded himself for the discards so that he could call them, call us his own.

Today is called Good Friday because we can focus on Jesus on the cross, and know that he is there for each one of us.

We know that, no matter what comes, we are loved with a love that is deeper and stronger than any of our enemies. The love of God that reaches down deeper than death. It reaches out to rescue us from the worst evil powers that might attack us. It reaches deeper than any sin that has been a part of our lives. God doesn’t say to us, “If you show a bit of good heart to me for a change, I will make it up with you.” He doesn’t even say, “If you’ve got some good intentions about spiritual things I’ll accept you back again.” No. He reconnects us to himself even when we humans are killing his son. In Romans 5, verse 10, the Spirit of God assures us, “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.” God accepts you and me despite the mess we might have made with our lives. God does not accept you and me because we have lived a respectable life, but only because of Jesus.

The good news on Good Friday runs against the grain of our human nature so much that we need to hear the news again and again. The Christian faith is not about looking inside ourselves all the time. Saving faith is to look at God’s love and faith focuses on what Jesus does for us, especially what he did for us on the cross.

We conclude with the words of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:38 and the following verses about God’s love.

“And I am convinced that nothing can separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t.

Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen.

Sounds too good to be true

Luke 24:5

StMarksThere is a saying: “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is” and in this day and age of scams that is pretty good advice. Interestingly, yesterday when I was researching that saying on Google, I was directed to another statement or saying to that of “Opportunity knocks but once” in which alongside the English explanation of such a phrase- was an advertisement from “Charm Date.com” inviting me to date beautiful Russian girls. How in the world this saying was linked on the World Wide Web to the previous saying about being “too good to be true” I’ll never know, because if you had seen how that young lady in the advertisement was dressed and looking at me-you too would have known it was not a scam.

Obviously, I had to turn her down but at least I did reply to the email I received from a compassionate Nigerian General promising me great wealth if I gave him my bank details.

When I receive it I might send some to that girl so that she can buy some more suitable clothing for the Russian winters.

From the book of Proverbs: Chapter 31, verses 4-6: “It is not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. Let beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish!”

And the Apostle Paul’s words to “Pastor/Evangelist” Timothy in the 1st book in his name: 1St Timothy Chapter 5, verse 23: “Do not drink water only, but take a little wine to help with digestion and illness.”

It’s like looking in a mirror: Beer for the struggling, wine for the Pastor. Twenty four hours in a day and twenty four beers in a carton: co-incidence-I think not.

Words used for myself out of context and most unlike those of the two angels at Jesus’ empty tomb who after seeing Mary Magdalene and friends looking to tend to His body greet them with a quizzical: ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’ and then continue with ‘He is not here, but has risen.  Remember how he told you that on the third day he would rise again.’

And as we heard from the scripture reading: Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.  But these words seemed to them ridiculous – too good to be true – and they did not believe her (Luke 24:5b-11).

We face the same challenges today.  People will believe in just about anything.
Pills that burn fat so you don’t have to diet or exercise.
Creams that make you look younger.
Ancient secrets to living longer.
People will spend money to take the risk in case it is true.  But try to tell them about Jesus, who rose from the dead and now offers eternal life to anyone who believes? I’m sure you would off heard some more than once: ‘It’s all make-believe.’  ‘I’ve never heard of such a thing!’  ‘It’s too good to be true.’

And, you’ve may have even heard other, not so nice responses to the news of the Resurrection.

Believing in the resurrection was never going to be easy.  It wasn’t then; it isn’t now.

But why?  Isn’t this what everyone wants?  And if it’s true – isn’t this then it is the answer to all of life’s concerns.

Life is full of suffering: death; grief; worries.  Knowing that at the end of this life we will experience eternal life means that the hurt is limited.  The emphasis of Paul in his writing today is that the resurrection of Jesus is victory over every oppressive power in our life, including, and especially, death (1 Corinthians 15:19-26).  The last enemy to be destroyed is death!  And so whenever we doubt or disbelieve in the resurrection of Jesus, death is still the power in our life.  That is when we and others look for anything that will help relieve the suffering, pain and death.  For many it becomes their life search – their job, their wealth, their success.  And when these fail, as they ultimately do, then so does hope for the future.

Even as Christians, these other things can all too often become the focus to bring hope and meaning into our lives.  But when we look to anything but the resurrection then the message of the angels is spoken to us too: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  Nothing in this life can bring us any comfort despite the promises they make.  When we listen to the media telling us about how to find true meaning and happiness in the idols of this world, then we are looking for the living among the dead.

Amos, the first earthly prophet announced to the Jewish people that: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.  People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east: They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.”

Words said to those awaiting the Messiah in Old Testament, and yet, Words that could be said for those looking for the meaning of life still in these days, and Words said to us when we seek the idols of our world that never stop asking for more and more of the same.

Copy a recipe from the endless cooking shows: but still hungry the next day. A world traveller: but still weighed down with those 22 countries I “haven’t done yet.” The latest and greatest gadgets: that are already outdated by the time they’re released. Good things in life that we know are gifts from God, like that of the Gift of God truth’s truth that shows that they still are only things.

Because our hope is in the resurrected life. Our hope that changes the way we live our lives from as if our earthly life is the only life we have, to a life living as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and declare with absolute joy and confidence like that of Mary Magdalene that  “We have seen the Lord.”

It’s natural to feel the pain and heartache of this life.  When we suffer, we hurt.  When a loved one dies, we grieve.  When we lose a job, we are concerned about paying the mortgage and other bills.  But it’s where we go to for comfort and assurance that matters.  Mary went to the right place, but was looking for the wrong answer.  She went to see Jesus, but didn’t understand the meaning of the empty tomb.  Mary was despaired, but was pointed to Jesus.  When we face our own empty tombs – when we face those times when we feel loss and despair, pain and grief – we are pointed to Jesus.  The empty tomb meant that Jesus was no longer in the grave but is now living with us and in us.

Jesus said before his death, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it” (John 2:19).  On the third day Jesus rebuilt his temple – His risen body, His Holy Church and in His people

We are now living witnesses to the Lord. We have seen the Lord and now we share this living hope in a dying world that has put its hope in the wrong things and still looking for the living among the dead.

Proverbs Chapter 31, verse 6: “Let beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish.”

Yes there is an element in that proverb of deadening the pain of life, but greater the element of deadening the pain of death.

The death faced by the criminals on their way to execution on the cross who were given by  the ladies of Jerusalem a drink of medicated wine to help deaden the pain of suffering.

The wine like that offered to Jesus said to be of vinegar, gall and myrrh.  A cheap Roman wine mixed as a drug to dull the senses of the person being crucified that they may a little easier endure their cross.

The same pain relief offered to but rejected by Christ who willed to taste the full bitterness of death and suffering, that we when bearing our cross see not hope in the perishable of the world, but in the imperishable of Himself, the Risen Lord Jesus Christ here with us today as we will be with Him in eternity.

The Easter story is our story and as He has risen, forgiven in Christ so shall we.

So whether you are here each week, each month, each year – or whether it’s your first time here – let this Easter Story be your story.  Let it renew your life and hope in the living Lord, so that you no longer look for the living among the dead but become the place where others can find life. Amen.