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Well meaning friends

 

Luke 13:1-9of

StMarksIn the book of Job, Job after suffering tragedy after tragedy is visited by his good meaning, but unknowing friends who suggest
he must be suffering such events because he is not right with God, and in today’s Gospel, Jesus feels the same sentiment from those who bring him the news of Pilate’s murderous actions against the Galileans.

News from Galilee of the murder fellow Jews, God’s people murdered as they were before God offering up sacrifices! Why Jesus, what did they do or not do to deserve such a horrible end to life?

Jesus responds, but not as was expected. He does not question over the details of this horrific tragedy and nor does He make a statement over the actions of Pilate, but asks those bearing the news: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?”

Before Jesus stood sinners who saw not their own sin, but only the sin of the Galileans who most surely must have greatly angered God to deserve such a death and so, like Job’s friends they clearly see this must be a logical cause and effect situation.

They must have deserved it.

Sorry guys but in Jesus statement “Do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans?” He has cut straight to the real issue he sees before Him, not the problem of those in Galilee, but rather the problem of those in His presence who know of sin, but know not their own. Jesus, not judging or breathing fire and brimstone, but rather out of His concern for them jolts them out of such flawed thinking and dangerous state of mind by stating to those around him, ‘Unless you repent, you too will all perish!’

Brian Jones: founder and original leader of the Rolling stones at age 27 was found dead in his swimming pool with greatly increased heart and liver size due to years of drug and alcohol abuse with the coroner’s report stating “death by misadventure”, and shortly after Peter Townshend from the band “The Who” wrote a poem titled “A normal Day for Brian, A man Who Died Every Day.”

Jim Morrison lead singer of the Doors and Jimi Hendrix in song also wrote and sang his tributes. Both would be dead within two years. Jim Morrison found dead in his bathtub from heart failure, said by many due to cocaine abuse and Jimi Hendrix choking on his own vomit. Both were 27 years old.   Kurt Cobain: lead singer of Nirvana found dead next to his shotgun. Amy Winehouse: alcohol poisoning and Janis Joplin from drug overdose, all only 27 years old with Janis once writing that she endures 23 hours a day only for the 24th when she can be herself, perform and feel happiness. A statement that makes those words from her number 1 hit (written by Kris Kristofferson) Me and Bobby McGee seem hauntingly appropriate:

“One day up near Salinas, Lord, I let him slip away,
He’s looking for that home and I hope he finds it,
But I’d trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday
To be holding Bobby’s body next to mine.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,
Nothing, (and yeah) that’s all that Bobby left me.”

All 27 years old. Tragedies-I think so. All caused from their own actions-pretty much. Selfish in death and deserving our judgement?

“There bar the grace of God I go.” As with us, did God know them before they were created in their mother’s womb? As with us, did they not come from their mother’s womb in the love of the Saviour? As with us would they not have grown with a desire for life and happiness? And why, why are so many people who have trod the same path of abuse and recklessness still be walking this earth? Some still under the curse of self-abuse, and some still with the scars but restored.

It’s a long way down and a long way out and the difference between life and death at the bottom can sit on a knife edge. “There bar the grace of God we go”, and for some of us, there through the grace of God have we come out.

Did those who spoke of the Galileans repent and be saved? God knows but we don’t.

Did these talented musicians repent and be saved before the age of 27? I don’t know. But what I do know is that God says to me, and to you “Repent” that we not perish but be saved, and if that be a dying bedside repentance or a daily lifetime of repentance. Be it repentance from the heart of Jimi Hendrix, a world dictator, Judas Iscariot or from us here today-God’s grace shall not see us perish but in His forgiveness and salvation have eternal life in heaven. The Grace of God that we trust in to receive eternal life. A never ending life that I expect we need as we see come to grips with and understand just how in all things and in all situations was God doing His stuff to save.

A Pastor, scholar and teacher asked us third year theological and pastoral students “How our prayer life was going.” More out of fear than anything else did we nod and reply “”pretty good.”

And he, more out of knowing the human heart and mind than his observations replied, “No it’s not. But don’t worry about what you haven’t been doing, just re-start and keep working on it.”

If he was in our congregation today, he could ask the same of me in regards to repentance and I’m guessing both my and his responses would be like that of ours to each other those six years ago.

Repent of not repenting?

And what of the statement of Martin Luther in his letter to his friend and fellow theologian Phillip Melanchthon saying, ‘Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one.’ And again, ‘God does not save people who are fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly but believe and rejoice even more boldly… As long as we are here in this world we have to sin.’

Then there’s Paul in Romans chapter six, verse one who after telling us that “in Jesus’ obedience that many are made righteous. That the law came in to increase trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” but then to us, as like Jesus knowing the confused thoughts of those before him, Paul likewise answers against what human logic would make of such a statement with so:”What shall we dot then? Are we to sin that grace may abound? By no means.”

No way.

“Sin Boldly”, and yet, “by no means sin?”

I am really starting to see myself at the base of that hill in Jerusalem 2,000 ago and hearing a guy called Jesus on the cross ask His father to “forgive them for they know what they do.”

Truth is Luther in stating to “Sin Boldly” is talking of matters of conscience. A bad conscience of those who the devil has successfully tempted to sin so that he can then accuse, ridicule and mislead that they’ve finally gone too far. To get them to doubt and wonder if they are really saved in Faith in Jesus alone. Lies of deceit and trickery to which Luther answers: yes you’re right, I did sin, but I am forgiven. And guess what, no matter what you say in your lies, when I sin again I am not going to listen to you, your lies and words of damnation, but to the Words of truth of that the Saviour and know, that in my confession, my desire for forgiveness from Him has been granted.

Repentance, it is a change in direction, where one stops doing what they are doing, about faces, and then finds themselves on the correct course of action.

Repentance, is that not was Luther was talking of, turning from one’s lies to the truth of the Lord?

Repent of not Repenting enough. By no means sin, but still falling to sin. Statements akin to those who ask through worry of having fallen to the unforgivable sin. Statement’s or thoughts that clearly show that the one thinking it is clearly repenting, clearly uncomfortable with their sin, and clearly not to have broken the unforgivable sin, which is basically not wanting forgiveness. Clearly not broken because if are they worried about it, in itself shows they haven’t. Repenting of not repenting enough not wanting to sin, but sinning, same thing.

After that last merry go round are you know as confused as I am?

Yes, again I see myself at the base of that hill in Jerusalem 2,000 ago and hearing a guy called Jesus on the cross ask His father to “forgive them for they know what they do.”

Truth is, we pretty much  do know what we do and that is why we are no longer at the base of a hill, but now at the base of a cross where an innocent man named Jesus has been murdered. A tragic death not at the age of 27, but pretty close at only 33.

Those mentioned earlier in the 27 club as it’s called and Jesus not much older. Did they all have a hand in their death. In a way- yes. Were those in the 27 club and Jesus loved by God, absolutely.

The same, maybe in those two things but that’s where it ends because the reality of repentance is not that of our often seemingly logical yet false conclusion that unless first we repent, then will only God come to us.

The reality is that God did not call humanity to repent so that Jesus might come. He was sent to be with sinners, dying for them, so all might repent because of him, and now, now He comes amongst those He calls to repent, and because He is amongst us, we repent. To daily hear those words from Romans Chapter six.  That: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death. We were therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the Glory of The Father, (that) we too might walk in newness of life.”

Three days after we stood at the foot of that hill and then the cross of a man Jesus do we know He was raised in Glory.

There at the base of that hill do we no longer stay that we hear a man named Jesus “cry to His Father that he forgive us because we do not know what we do”

But there at the base of the cross of Jesus Christ our Saviour we do we remain for though He came when we knew Him not, there at the base of that cross no longer do we see a just man named, but hear the very son of God, Jesus Christ our Saviour cry to His Father that we receive forgiveness for what we now know. That we know the greatest story ever told and know the man who walked the greatest life ever lived.

To kneel before our Saviour on bended Knee and know and accept the grace and forgiveness of God the Father because of faith in His Son Jesus Christ who lived and died, so that we too daily will be raised here on our earthly journey to walk in a newness of life.

To daily repent, receive His forgiveness and know that in faith in Jesus Christ alone it to be so. To know that when we are called home that we will then with Jesus, remain in the newness of life eternal, as we too most surely know now, that He will remain with us here as we run, limp, crawl or in need, be carried towards that great day. Amen.

The Fox and the Hen

“The Fox And The Hen”

(Based on Luke 13:31-35)

 

Grace, Peace and Hope to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

StMarksLet’s Pray: May the words of my lips and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you Lord-Amen.

Today’s Gospel begins with one of the Pharisees going to Jesus, and telling him to leave that place, because Herod wanted to kill him.

It sounds like he was trying to do the Lord a favour, but I’m not so sure.

The Pharisees are mentioned fourteen times in Luke before we get to this chapter, and all but one refer to the conflict that was growing between them and Jesus.

In 11:42 Jesus says:

“Woe to you Pharisees because you give a tenth of your Mint, Rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God…”

That’s a huge indictment against them.

In the following verse he says: Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the market places.”

In 11:53 “The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law began to oppose him fiercely, besieging him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he said.”

And in 12:1 Jesus says: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy;”

another strong indictment against them.

There’ a sample of Jesus’ last four interactions with the Pharisees leading up to today’s text, so you understand why I doubt that particular Pharisee was trying to do Jesus a favour.

In fact it’s far more likely he was trying to scare him off, which is a more likely fit for how the rest of the Gospel pans out.

Jesus’ response adds to that likelihood.

“Go tell that fox ‘I cast out demons and perform miracles today, and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal. Yet today, tomorrow and the next day I must be on my way, for it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’”

Jesus gave his itinerary to the Pharisee, maybe to pass on to Herod if he wished, but more likely to call his bluff,

because he knew his life wasn’t in Herod’s hands, but the eternal hands of his Father…

Jesus called Herod a fox, and I’m sure that has to do with the bad reputation foxes have always had for killing unnecessarily.

I remember hearing how a fox will chase a tiny lamb until it bleats, then bite the lamb’s tongue out, leave it to die, and move on to the next one.

It’s not a pretty picture, and reminds us of another fox, another Herod; the father of the one we’ve heard about today, the one who chased the lambs of Israel and had the baby boys under two years of age killed, after the Magi came enquiring about the new born “King of the Jews.”

So much senseless death!

It also reminds us how this particular Herod had John the Baptist’s head cut off and presented on a plate.

More senseless death!

He was a fox…

and then a little later,

Jesus is cast in the role of a Hen, whose natural enemy is a fox, and who will lay down her life to save her chicks… and we’ll come back to that later.

Notice the shape of the itinerary.

Jesus says he’ll be casting out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day he will reach his goal.

Then he reinterprets it to say:

“Today and tomorrow and the next day I must be on my way, because it is not possible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.”

The symbolic language Luke uses here is doing very much the same thing as the passage we heard a month ago when Jesus went to Nazareth where he was rejected.

Where they led him to a cliff, to throw him off and kill him, yet fortunately for us all, he walked away through the crowd and went on his way.

And that particular Gospel is a précis of Jesus’ earthly ministry right up to his death and resurrection.

His ministry that cast him in the role of the prophets, who were well received at first, then rejected and killed.

There’s a very similar thing happening here;

Jesus tells of his plans to carry out more ministry; casting out demons and performing healing miracles,

then he superimposes his movement toward Jerusalem, and the fate he knows awaits him there, to be rejected by his people and killed.

The part about him reaching his goal on the third day looks past Jesus’ death and alludes to his resurrection. And that’s been unanimously agreed on by biblical commentators as every other time Luke uses that formula;

‘on the third day,’

he’s referring directly to Jesus’ resurrection.

So the elements of Jesus’ mission in the world, his miraculous works, followed by his rejection, death and resurrection are all here, just not in chronological order.

And finally the last verse for today, where Jesus says: “You will not see me until you say ‘blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord.’”

When do you think that might have taken place?  It happened on Palm Sunday in the city that kills the prophets-Jerusalem.

Today’s Gospel is like a jig-saw of Jesus’ mission in the world, with Luke gathering all of the miraculous things together;

Jesus’ driving out demons, his healing ministry and the allusion to his resurrection are mentioned in the first itinerary statement,

With the second itinerary alluding to his rejection, suffering and death in Jerusalem.

Now this mightn’t seem so, but this is vitally important,

because those two aspects of Jesus’ ministry;

his glorious works, and his suffering and death,

validate him as God’s true Messiah.

He must have a glorious ministry, or it would be said that God hadn’t come in Jesus’ flesh.

But a glorious Messiah who doesn’t suffer for his people, could never bring the Gospel of God’s grace to us.

A glorious Messiah who didn’t suffer could only heap more condemnation from God’s Law on his people, which would only serve to inflame the war between Heaven and Earth.

There wouldn’t be any peace with that kind of Messiah, only death and destruction…

and yet how ironic it is; that is exactly the kind of Messiah the people thought they wanted!

But what really stands out for me today is the fox and the hen, because when you think about those two,

the fox is the aggressor,

and the hen is its prey.

So I wonder, what have hens ever done to foxes that might cause them to attack?

Absolutely nothing!

It is purely and simply the nature of a fox that it wants to kill and eat any hen it comes across… and their chicks.

The way Luke has cast those two creatures;

humanity in the guise of a fox,

and God in the guise of a hen,

really does capture the natural animosity that humanity has for God,

And this picture that Luke has painted with these words, helps us to see how that animosity is only one-sided because we all know that hens do not go around attacking foxes.

A couple of weeks ago a newspaper ran an article about the plan the South Australian Attorney General has to remove the Bible and references to God when witnesses take the oath and swear to tell the truth in court.

There’s some more degradation the current culture is imposing on us.

But what was also worrying were the comments about that in the opinion column on the editorial page.

Comments full of bitterness poured out on God and the Church.

Seriously, the malice that some of our fellow citizens feel free to express in those sorts of forums now, is frightening.

But what has God done to deserve it?

 

What God has done-deserves nothing but our thanks and praise.

Now, if it’s not bad enough that the unbelieving world maligns God,

worse though,

is that it wasn’t the unbelieving nations of the world who killed the prophets, or Jesus Christ.

It was the holy people of God; the people God had actually bent over backwards to bless.

A new low so to speak that emphasizes the appalling nature of human sin that just cannot be overstated.

And in that, we see the depth and wondrous beauty of the Gospel.

God in Jesus Christ wasn’t blind to any of this.

The Gospel shows us very clearly how his eyes were wide open to the treacherous nature of the human heart:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem; the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

He knew them through and through, and yet when Jesus answered the Pharisee he said:

“Today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.”

Why would he even bother with such unfaithful people?

Would we not just turn away in disgust.

Some of the foul treatment that I’ve seen that’s handed out to my loved ones, friends colleagues and brothers and sisters in Christ

Can make it be very, very tempting to take a stand against those people and sought them out both verbally and physically in a like manner to their own,

fortunately though for maybe both them and me did these thoughts of re-actions only come in hindsight        and when it was too late to do it.

Hindsight that gives us the time to remember or even realise, that just as for us, so it is for them.

As with us, God comes for them and not against them like the hen gathering her chicks.

We might like to punish them.

He comes to set them free

and to bless them.

The grace of God is breathtaking,

and fortunately so,

because if it wasn’t

then there would be no hope for us either.

So Lord,

we do thank and praise you for your loving kindness to us;

that you haven’t turned away,

but come to redeem us and embrace us as your beloved children.

And so we pray,

That in the days we have left,

That you help us

to grow in faith, hope and love of yours eternal,

and serve and love

regardless of actions, colour or creed,

serve and love those you place before us, as you have most certainly have too us.

In Jesus name, and for Jesus’ sake do we pray.  Amen.

AND The peace of God

 

which passes all human understanding

 

keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

 

Amen.

 

With thanks to Pastor Keith McNicol from which this message has been provided (with alterations)

Don’t be tricked

Luke 4:1-13

 

Dear heavenly Father, lead us by your Holy Spirit so that we may remain faithful during our trials and temptations, through StMarksJesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We pray in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Lead us not into temptation’.

We know God doesn’t tempt anyone, so when we pray for our Father not to lead us into temptation we’re really asking God to keep us safe from the devil, from our own sinful nature, and from those who are against God.

We’re praying God won’t let them trick us into losing our faith, giving up all hope, and doing other unsavoury things, yet while also praying that even though we are attacked, that in the end, we will win the victory.

Unfortunately we’re tempted often. We’re tempted in ways that are deceptive and attractive. Even though the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, he loves to dress up as a harmless lamb. He doesn’t wear a red suit, have horns and a spiked tail, and carry around a red fork. He dresses up in things that are attractive and desirable. He’s the king of deception and more likely to test and tempt us through things that seem good, right, and reasonable, just as we here he did in todays Gospel reading.

Jesus was hungry! He’s been in the wilderness without food for 40 days. The stones around him would look pretty tempting even after 4 days! Why not just turn them into bread? Surely God wouldn’t want Jesus to go hungry, would he? Don’t we pray ‘Give us today our daily bread’? Well, through a miracle, God may want to give Jesus his daily bread through these stones! Wouldn’t that seem good, right, and reasonable?

We too are often tempted to satisfy our physical desires. We want to gratify our stomachs, our pleasures, our lusts, and our passions and as it seems everyone else is doing it, it can seem a little unfair if we miss out, and just like those famous two people in a garden who were given everything it had-except of all things an apple:  Now I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, but I reckon I could have handled turning down that piece of particular fruit, never mind if the temptation was of the vegetable variety. But what if “the don’t go there” food was a mixture of ingredients that in our modern world we would label a pizza. And that’s the point-we are not tempted by things we don’t want, but things we do want and if it’s not fleshly gratifications, the powers of darkness endeavour to take our eyes of the Lord through the allure power and possessions

Think how much we crave the things of this world. We’re not happy with what we have and always want more. Our TV seems smaller than the one in the shops or in someone else’s house. Our mobile phones don’t look as flashy or sound as good as the person next to us. We want the latest car, the latest gadget, a bigger house; we want the next best thing. More than this, we don’t want to wait. We want glory, power and riches now.

Now I’m not standing up here as a hypocrite, because I fall for a mixture of those worldly things all the time. We probably all have and besides what’s wrong with having these things. Absolutely nothing. The problem is when they become our gods, because when they do, no matter how many things we gather around us, we’re never really satisfied. There’ll always be a new thing we want. We’ll never have enough money. We’ll never be fully satisfied with what we have.

The more we fill our lives with things, the emptier and lonelier we feel, while then being told by the deceiver knowing of how selfish we are, how we’ll never be able to make up for lost times with our families, friends, or with God. Tempt, accuse and tempt the same stuff again through telling us it will then take the pain away from our guilty conscience by doing the same things and all of a sudden, we go from a going to work to buy a beer scenario, to needing the beer to get through work.

We are tempted to put the kart before the horse just like Jesus was by the devil in today’s Gospel.

And Jesus reply, although starving and given a seemingly straight forward and appropriate suggestion given that he hadn’t eaten for forty days certainly had the power to turn the rocks around him into bread, or even Pizza if He wished.

But no, Jesus knew this was not about the devil feeling sorry for Him or caring for Him. This was the devil endeavouring to undermine His Father and the plan He had put in place to save the one’s he cared for and so with even with such a mouth-watering temptation, Jesus quotes a verse from Deuteronomy, saying “Man shall not live by bread alone”.

The context of the verse he quotes is the people of Israel were just about to enter the Promised Land. Before they enter that land, Moses reminds them of God’s law, saying “Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.  And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut 8:2-3)

For the Israelites, their hunger was to teach them the value, importance and necessity of God’s Word. Food will sustain you briefly, but the Word of God will sustain and satisfy you far longer. No one really lives, no matter how much food they have in their belly, without the Word of God. The testing and the hunger were necessary lessons. Jesus submitted himself to this lesson.  He would not be deceived by any desire for instant gratification. The Word of God sustains him.

So will we learn from our temptations and tests? Will we learn to resist the temptation to gratify our fleshly desires right now, or will we learn to wait patiently for what God wants to give us? Through our times of testing, we may learn to be more discerning between what seems good, right, and reasonable, and what really is good and right and reasonable for us.

These temptations are real. They’re real for us, and they were real for Jesus.

Jesus was tempted to abandon the road to suffering and receive the whole world and its inhabitants, but to do so would have meant turning his back on his Father. We are given the same temptations through whatever manner to do the same, to put the kart before the horse, to put things ahead of God.

Things that can be good, but only if subservient to what is truly, good and trustworthy and that is our triune God: God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and the Holy Spirit.

The dark side’s temptations and deceptions are for one purpose. The purpose of taking our eyes off God by manipulating his Word. To take our eyes off Jesus and seeing our self-first.

Not what a great gift and blessing that the Lord has provided me with employment, a roof over our heads and food, clothing family and friends.

Not what a great gift, but turns it to you deserve, it’s your right, if people are in the way cut them down: whatever form it takes is not for the persons care, happiness and a life gained, but the exact opposite.

It’s a “I will tempt with drugs, and once hooked, I’ll tempt to overdose so that they cannot hear the hope and life available to them through the true Word of God.”

So what to do when tempted and with the power of the Holy Spirit hold out. Praise God.

And if you fail, like so many times I do: Then we return to the true Word of God more than ever if that’s possible. Not the Word of God that’s been eroded to maybe’s, if’s and but’s. Not the maybe I’ll be forgiven and saved in Christ version that destroys the truth like a movie director using their creative licence. No we listen to God the Father and the one who lived it Jesus Christ. Jesus who battled and won that even if we do succumb to temptations, by faith, believe God won’t abandon us and doesn’t lead us into temptation. No matter what trials or temptations we face, either in times of abundance or times of scarcity, we can trust in God. He will prove true and faithful to us. We have been set free to put our trust in Jesus who has already walked through many trials and temptations and has proved victorious over them. Through trusting his obedience and victory we are saved. We can trust he’ll give us what we need to endure and persevere in your own times of trouble. We can be certain he will save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

 

And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Listen to Him

Transfiguration                                                      

Luke 9:28-36

 

Dear heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit on us so we may listen to your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

StMarksWhen pastors are at Seminary/ Australian Lutheran College, they are taught to ask a number of questions which can be very helpful when looking at bible texts.

One question is: What’s the picture?

This question helps, because many people learn and work visually. We like to visualize something in order to fully understand it. Then, when we understand the picture, the Scriptures aren’t just words on a page, but become real scenes and real people who live and breathe and still talk to us even today. Once we understand the picture, and even put ourselves into the picture, we can more easily apply it to our own life.

For example: in regard to this text, it can be helpful to put ourselves into the shoes of the disciples, who saw Jesus start glowing (which we’ll come back to later), standing with two men, who were understood to be Moses and Elijah, who hadn’t been around for hundreds of years! On top of this, a cloud suddenly appears and a heavenly voice commands them to listen to Jesus because he’s God’s own Son.

Can you imagine what that would look like?

With this picture in mind – and if you’re a little familiar with God’s Word – you might also start seeing some things which are more than coincidences. These things were happening on a mountain, and other important revelations of God have also happened on mountains, such as Moses receiving God’s commands on Mount Sinai, and Elijah seeing the back of God on a mountain.

Hang on! These men are the same ones who have heard God speak previously on mountaintops! Maybe it’s more than a coincidence these particular men are here! They’ve received God’s commands and God’s prophetic Word, and right now they’re speaking with Jesus about his departure. Or do they in fact use another word? In the Greek, they call it his ‘exodus.’

Well, that reminds us of the great salvation event in the Old Testament where Moses leads God’s people out of the land of slavery to the point of entering the Promised Land – that land which was flowing with milk and honey. And here they talk to Jesus about his exodus. Is he going to lead people from slavery into a new land of perfection and peace?

These are just a few examples on how all these pictures start coming together to help us understand more deeply what’s going on.

Another question pastors are taught is: What’s unexpected here?

This is important because for many of us who have heard God’s word for many years, we don’t find God’s Word surprising anymore. We’ve heard it all before. Sometimes we even consider it boring! We’re tempted to switch off and think about something else.

So, it can help to ask ourselves what’s so surprising in our text, and we don’t have to go very far before we realize something was happening to Jesus which would have totally freaked us out!

I mean, when was the last time you saw someone’s face start glowing? And I’m not talking about that proud glow of a pregnant woman, but a literal white glow coming from inside a person as if the sun was inside them!

Wow! No wonder the disciples didn’t know what they were saying, because we don’t usually have a ready response to seeing someone glow!

I mean, if someone sneezes, we might respond ‘bless you’, or if someone asks ‘how are you today’, you might respond ‘fine’ (even if you’re not), but because people’s faces don’t generally start glowing from within, we don’t know how to respond (except, you could say ‘hey, nice glow, man!’).

It’s unexpected. It takes us by surprise. It should still surprise us today because it doesn’t normally happen!

So, what does this glow mean? Does this mean Jesus is more than just a man? Was this glow to show he’s more than what meets the eyes? Did it show a glimpse of his divinity? And if so, why now?

And, how come Moses and Elijah were there? Weren’t they supposed to be dead? Or does this indicate God in fact isn’t a God of the dead, but a God of the living? Why were they there and not Noah, David, or Jonah? What do Moses and Elijah represent? What did they do which is similar to what Jesus was about to do? Why were they the people of the past sent to encourage Jesus on his journey to the cross?

You see what I mean? When you start asking what’s unexpected in a text, you start asking interesting questions. It’s like unlocking a mystery. You become curious and hungry for more because you want to hear some answers.

It doesn’t mean you’ll always receive a satisfactory answer, but in your digging and looking for what’s unexpected, you might find some hidden gems which lead you to grow in your faith and understanding.

Another question, which is helpful in devotion or sermon preparation is: what human problem is God speaking to here?

Well, one possibility is that we humans just don’t get it, and because we don’t get it, we miss the mark in our response to it.

Now, what on earth am I talking about?

Did you notice the disciple’s response to this most amazing and unexpected encounter with our God in human flesh and his deputies Moses and Elijah? What did they want to do? They wanted to build structures so this once-in-a-lifetime moment would last.

We humans just don’t get it!

No sooner does God give us a glimpse of his divinity than we immediately want to enshrine it. We want to capture it, keep it, and market it. The disciples thought this was a pretty important moment in history and wanted this moment to last.

We do the same.

For example, have you ever been on a holiday or camp and received such inspiring moments you wanted to bring it back into your daily life so you can receive a high whenever you want?

Have you ever visited another church, or heard a moving song, or heard some charismatic speaker and wondered why we can’t package them up and bring them here so we can experience this again and again?

Have you ever been disappointed whenever you’ve tried to re-create something and it didn’t work the way you hoped, and it may have even lost it’s ‘specialness’?

Then, if it doesn’t work like before, do you beat yourself up because you must have done something wrong, or you take it out on everyone else around you because it has to be their fault your special experience isn’t as great as it used to be?

Do you then unfairly judge and criticize people because they don’t want to do what you want and therefore they’re stopping you from receiving the spiritual highs you had previously?

If only we could capture the spiritual highs and re-create them with the right traditions, the right freedoms, the right buildings, the right speakers, the right music, and the right places! Why can’t we re-live our spiritual highs whenever we want?

Because we don’t get it. We think it’s about keeping a gift as if it’s ours to keep, rather than receiving it and thanking God for that moment and looking forward to his next surprising revelation.

Instead of enshrining this precious moment in history, what’s the one instruction God gave the disciples at the extraordinary event?

‘Listen to him.’

What do we struggle to do most in our life?

Listen to him.

We’d rather sing our favourite hymn or song than listen to him. We’d rather the sermons and readings were shorter so we don’t have to listen to him. We’d rather do something else on Sunday than listen to him. We’d rather read the paper or get on with our day than read the bible for a couple of minutes in the morning. We’d rather watch our favourite soap or the News or something else on TV than listen to him at our evening devotions.

We don’t get it, and sometimes we don’t want it. There’s a spiritual battle going on, and our faith is the casualty.

One of the biggest problems facing the church today is biblical illiteracy. This means those who come regularly to worship might listen to the readings and the sermon, and yet still don’t know the story of salvation. Many people have their own bibles (maybe even more than one translation), but hardly ever open them to see what’s inside them.

God said to his disciples, ‘Listen to him’, and unfortunately many good Christians fail that simple instruction! Most of us have lovely bibles at home, but not every page has seen the light of day!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we believe all Scripture is breathed by God and is given to us for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). The Word of God is our life-breath as Christians. As we hear what God’s saying to us in his Word, listening for what’s unexpected, understanding the pictures he gives us, and allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire us, we slowly start to get it.

We start to get what Jesus was about to do in his exodus; how he was going to the cross in order to die in our place and grant us forgiveness of sins through the shedding of his innocent and holy blood; how he was going on a journey to lead his people from slavery to sin through the wilderness of suffering and death into the Promised Land of eternal life with him in heaven; how he will sustain us in our own earthly journey through life by speaking to us through his Word; how he will also sustain our faith through his physical gifts of grace of Baptism and Holy Communion, which have been touched by his living and powerful Word; and how his Words still give us direction and comfort.

Can we all take up the challenge this coming Lenten season to listen to him? Can we dust off our Bibles, open them, read them, meditate on them, discuss them, and respond in prayer to what he’s saying to us? His Word is the life-breath for our faith and salvation.

May we all learn to listen to him so that…

the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Getting our own way

1 Corinthians 13

 

StMarksThe most amazing thing about God’s love is how vast it is. The arms of the cross of Jesus reach out to enfold every person who has ever lived (no matter how bad they were), and all those still to come. We sinful humans could never love like that! We can even have problems showing loving concern for those closest to us in our own homes.

In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians reading today, we heard a familiar text often read at weddings. It is a beautiful expression of God’s love, but the reality for us human beings is that it is difficult to build the other person up when we don’t get our own way. It is easier to work at nagging the other person in subtle attacks that lower their self-esteem.

Unfortunately, when we don’t get our own way it is hard enough to show the unselfish and loving concern to the people we are closest to in life, let alone showing loving concern to strangers. Jesus, on the other hand, gives an example of a person showing loving concern for a stranger in desperate need of help. We would all be familiar with the parable about the person who was robbed, then bashed up and left dying on the roadside of life. Three different people came past. Each one could have stopped and given the man some help. But it isn’t the pastor, or the church committee member who takes the risk to stop and reach out to give a helping hand. It is an indigenous person, a half-caste, like the Samaritans were. The Samaritan didn’t just give him a few dollars and wish him all the best, and go away feeling good about himself. He goes to all the trouble of loading the stranger onto his donkey, like a four legged ambulance, and takes him to the Inn. He pays for all the expenses in advance.

How unlike people in our modern society! Some would say it is stupid or even crazy to bother to do something like that. But that is the loving concern of Jesus for you and me and every person in the world! If in doubt, look again at the cross and the arms pointing out in every direction to go right round the world. The type of religion Jesus puts forward is a love that costs him everything. Jesus is the one who fulfils this beautiful chapter on love.

Jesus didn’t come into our world with fanfare, like a noisy gong or clanging cymbals. He came quietly in the still of night with a few animals and shepherds for company. Jesus doesn’t leave this world with a big send off or any national awards or medals. He exits via a public execution, a shameful way to go, and out in public for everyone to see. It is the cost of this love that reaches out to you and me.

Jesus doesn’t win people by using prophetic powers to impress them, or by having a smart answer to every question people might have. Jesus wins their love by changing places with people on the cross.  Jesus has prophetic powers, and he understands all mysteries and all knowledge, but he wins people by his self-giving love that costs him everything.

The key point today is that we don’t fulfil this law of unselfish love, described so beautifully in this chapter. We really struggle to show loving concern to others. It is Jesus who fulfils this law of love for us.

If one wants to know what God is like, don’t look for the answer on Google or in the stars. Don’t look for the answer in nature even though it is God’s genius and his creative mind at work out there too. No, if one wants to know what God is really like, then look at the arms of Jesus stretched out on the cross. “God’s love never ends”.

In conclusion, listen to verses 4 to 7 from chapter 13, with the word ‘love’, replaced by ‘Jesus’.

“Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Jesus does not demand his own way. Jesus is not irritable, and he keeps no record of when he has been wronged. He is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Jesus never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

 

 

And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

His task is completed

Luke 4:14-21

 

 

StMarksToday’s Gospel text tells us, that after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan, he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. He went to many synagogues and taught there. Wherever he went, people glorified him.

Perhaps news had spread of how well he spoke by the time he returned to the place where he had been brought up, his home town of Nazareth. As was his usual custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, he unrolls it and reads Isaiah 61:1. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’. He rolls the scroll back up and hands it back to the assistant and sits down, and while all eyes were fixed on Him, He says: ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’.

Jesus is declaring that this scripture is about him. Jesus is the anointed one, anointed not by oil as in the Old Testament, but by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Jesus begins, but begins what? The sermon? No, his sermon was short. He begins his appointed task of declaring salvation and freedom. He doesn’t just say that it is coming, but that it is actually here and has been fully completed.

Jesus begins his ministry of preaching good news to the poor. We poor ones, who have nothing to offer God, who don’t think that we have any talents to offer God, who struggle in our obedience, who lack spiritual discipline – we hear the good news that it is Christ who is obedient to death and who has accepted us as his own through baptism, despite how poor in Spirit, wealth or self-worth we are. It is us who have nothing to offer who hear his words as good news. For because we are in Christ, we are rich. Today we have salvation through Christ. We have more than we think because we are able to offer the very things he wants us to give him – prayer and praise. Ironically, quite often a response to those who have much to offer as they are reluctant to offer these because they are too busy selling themselves and their talents.

Jesus begins his ministry of proclaiming freedom for the prisoners. Who are the prisoners? We who are bound by the chains of the past, who are bound by feelings of guilt or shame for the things that we have done or not done in the past; we who wonder ‘did God really forgive me for that thing in the past because it was surely too big to forgive’. Receive the good news that we are forgiven and no longer bound by our past sins. We who are bound up trying to be a good person, chained to the thought of trying to be acceptable to God, receive the good news that we are free to be children of God. For all of us whose conscience is being held captive by the devil, we have been freed by Christ. For in Christ we are free indeed, free to be children of God, free to come to him and ask for forgiveness, free to be bound to Christ.

Jesus begins his ministry of giving back sight to the blind. Who are the blind? We who are living in the darkness of deception and temptation, we who are keeping our past sins in the dark where they can destroy our soul. We, who continue to live in the dark, are to receive sight and light. Jesus Christ is the true light who gives us a guiding light to live by. He opens our eyes to see the truth – the truth about our sinful state and the truth about his gracious words. He shines his light into our darkest past, not to destroy us, but to heal us through the precious words of forgiveness, those healing words that wash away our darkness so that we may live as people of the light.

Jesus begins his ministry of releasing those who are oppressed. Who are the oppressed? We who are burdened, shattered or weakened by life’s struggles with sin. We who have broken relationships because of the consequences of sin, who are broken in spirit, broken in body or soul – we are released. We are released from our sins because Christ offers us forgiveness. We are released from the binding power of Satan. We are released from our debts of the past, because now is the time of the Lord’s favour.

In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fiftieth year, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. In Judaism the Jubilee Year is currently not observed in modern times because it only applies when representatives of all twelve tribes have returned to Israel and a majority of the world’s Jews live in the Land.

In Christianity, the tradition dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII convoked a holy year, following which ordinary jubilees have generally been celebrated every 25 or 50 years; with extraordinary jubilees in addition (depending on need). The last Holy Year was celebrated in 2000, and Pope Francis declared recently that an ‘Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy’ will be held in 2016.

But what does that mean: I’m not really sure-maybe it’s as the conspiracy people are suggesting that with nearly all countries being in debt to each other, and that then combined a Global Financial Crisis Mark II, that somehow they’ll wipe the slate clean through some sought of “One world controlling bank.”

I’m not really sure: or maybe it’s like the guy dying of a terminal illness in a remote town who cashed out his credit card to the max. and used the money to make himself a burial casket out of galvanised iron, filled it with ice and alcohol drinks and invited his mates around knowing that upon his death the bank would simply write the debt off-“”That’ll shown them.”

However a Jubilee year looks in earthly terms I’m not sure, but in Christ Christians could argue that every year is a year of Jubilee because of Jesus reinterpreted of Leviticus that shows now, today we are able to live in freedom, knowing that the price of all our debts have been fully paid in the death of Jesus. This is the time when we can rest from our heavy labours and be served by God.

But how does Jesus release us and heal us? How does he give us rest? Jesus releases our sins through the words of absolution. The words the pastor speaks that are not his own,

but are words that Jesus himself speaks to us. We receive forgiveness of sins at our baptism. We return to our baptism with a contrite heart to be sorry for our sins so that daily we may be a new and fully restored person who can live before God in righteousness and purity. We receive forgiveness of sins at the Lord’s Supper where Jesus gives us his holy body, his holy blood for us to eat and drink so that we too become holy.

Today his task is completed for you today for you have been freed because for Luke, ‘today’ is a word linked with news of salvation. We recently heard those words ‘today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you’ (Lk 2:11). Later in Luke’s gospel account, Jesus says to Zaccheus: ‘Come down. I must stay at your house today’ (19:5) and when he gets there he says ‘today salvation has come to this house’ (19:9). And when Jesus was on the cross, during the last hours of a criminal’s life, he says to him: ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’. But this is a special ‘today’ because it remains fulfilled even today, the 24th of January, 2016.

His task is fully completed for you, but yet it is not fully completed until he comes again because there is still need for his word, which he has given to his body – the church – to preach to the poor, the bound, the blind, the oppressed. We live in this in-between time where even though it is fully fulfilled, we still look forward to its fulfilment.

It is true that only Jesus could read this text, for it is only completed in Christ, but we too can say ‘the Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor’. We too have been baptised, been joined to Christ, been anointed as his priests to go out into the world and preach the gospel, the good news to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed. He has empowered us to tell others that even in our ‘free’ country; we are still bound by our sinful nature and are prisoners of Satan. But even more importantly, we can now point to Christ and tell people that there is no freedom from our chains except through Christ. For even though forgiveness comes from God, it is through Jesus Christ and his precious gifts of absolution, baptism and the Lord’s Supper that we receive his forgiveness.

So now we can go out as true free people, freed from sin, death and the power of the devil and serve Him in that truth that all praise be to God through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Is your Marriage broken

Isaiah 62:4-6

 

StMarksMarriage is a special and unique relationship so in our readings today God uses this close and unique relationship to describe his relationship with his people.

As we know, marriage can turn into a disaster, and hence in the land of the rich and famous the prenuptial agreement is almost a given. I wonder what the lawyers would make of one of the worst non pre-nup. Marriages as described in Hosea.

A marriage that saw Hosea’s wife turned to prostitution and sold her body for money. Their relationship was broken. In Hosea 2 we read:

“But now, call Israel to account, for she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to take off her garish make-up and suggestive clothing and to stop playing the prostitute.”

Hosea’s marriage was a reflection of God’s relationship with his people. The unique relationship of God with his people had completely broken down. The people had left him and were chasing after other gods. What particularly hurt God was that everything his bride (the Israelites) had accumulated had come from God’s loving and caring hands: both her daily needs and her special treasures.

“She doesn’t realise that it was I who gave her everything she has – the grain, the wine, the olive oil. Even the gold and silver she used in worshiping the god Baal were gifts from me.” [Hosea 2:8]

 

It is amazing that God creates people to populate this flourishing earth, gives them everything they need and more, and yet these ungrateful people turn their backs on him and chase after the treasures, which become their gods. Everything they receive is from the generous hands of God – even their very bodies. Everything they might crave and lust after is his generous work. The creative genius of God is seen in every plant, and animal; every drop of life giving rain; each newborn baby, and the daily food we enjoy. But people prefer the gifts to the giver.

The bridegroom wants what is best for his wife and children. He wants his bride to be faithful to him and showers her with gifts but she prostitutes herself and chases after other men. Even the children are not his own.

“And I will not love her children as I would my own because they are not my children. They were conceived in adultery.” [Hosea 2:4].

There are many people today who live as if they have no husband – or God – even though everything comes from his love and care.

But God doesn’t give up on his bride – his people. He wins her back with a love so costly that people might say, “What a waste of a great love!” God’s love never gives up reaching out to people. That is the key message of Epiphany.

Even though only a few people visited the child Jesus, and they were foreigners from far away, God’s love doesn’t give up in reaching out to people. He doesn’t look at the few who turn up, and give up in disgust. He continues to reach out like the arms of the cross reach out in love to encircle the earth and everyone who lives on it.

There’s a saying of cheap grace by some towards others they see as accepting it a little too unrespectfully. God’s love isn’t cheap! The bridegroom is tortured to death, and blamed for the bride’s unfaithfulness. He gives up everything he has for his bride. This is the love that won you and me. In Isaiah 62:4,5 the Scripture announces:
“Never again will you be called the Godforsaken City, or the Desolate Land. No longer will you be called ‘Forsaken’, or your land be called ‘The Deserted Wife’. Your new name will be ‘the city of God’s delight’ and ‘the Bride of God’, for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his own. …Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.”

God spoils us! We receive everything from God’s caring and generous hands: just like a devoted bridegroom loves to spoil his bride with expensive gifts and provide for her. Like a bride, we can be proud of our God, and count on him for our future together. We are the bride he loves to spoil.

What an important day a wedding is! It can be one of the most important turning points in one’s life. It’s a time for celebration, and feasting and gathering together with friends and relatives. As we heard in our gospel today, the first miracle Jesus performs is to make the new start to a marriage a social success. He provides hundreds of litres of the best wine. He comes up with the goods where the bridegroom and his family had failed (explain). God cares about us and our relationships!

We belong in a special relationship with God. His loving care and concern for us never end. Any weakness in the marriage relationship is on our side. It can hurt him in many different ways, but he never gives up. In the wine at the Lord’s table we receive the best he has. The cup of wine offered to us isn’t just to forget our troubles: it is given so we can remain united with him forever.

Our earthly marriages are limited. We are reminded of this in the words of the marriage vow, “Till death us do part”. In the unique relationship we enjoy with God, death can not separate us. In fact the opposite happens. Death brings us closer together. It unites us with Jesus in perfect love.

In a marriage partnership it is probably true to say one can never fully understand one’s partner. In some aspects the partner can still be a bit of a stranger. So it is in our relationship with the God who loves us.

On our journey together we don’t always know what he is thinking or planning. We live in a relationship of trust. Part of this trust is that God knows better than we do about important things like love and forgiveness, and our future.

A future that sometimes is not as planned like that of this groom who after 11 years of being gainfully employed and approaching married did a tally of his possessions and most surely saw that I did not need a prenuptial clause in the wedding papers as a fading old falcon as some second hand furniture did not amount to a great deal of material value. A collective total of asset worth that amounted to less than I had been given playing country football. 11 years of wiping out brain cells even though I didn’t have a whole lot to spare, and 11 years times and situations that maybe I had to travel, yet was changed when my bride to be “re-introduced” me to our Lord Saviour.

Now 21 years later I can clearly see God at work before I properly knew Him, just as I can since.

Times even when He let me be boxed in with my own shortfalls and mistakes that I had no option than to go a certain way. To travel a road I’d prefer travel not, but a road that always seemingly against the odds ended in a positive way that I would not have guessed nor planned for.

Road’s where we all travel with God where not He, but we if anyone put in a prenuptial agreement to our Father to act and provide as we think He should.

The wisdom of the Lord like that spoken to Gideon who though having 32,000 men at his disposal, was told by the Lord to attack the enemy the Midianites with no more than 300 hundred of them.

Three hundred against the opposition camp in what the bible describes as “people laying along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels without number as the sand that is on the seashore.” Odds said to be off 450 to 1 yet with some crafty bluff tactics had the Midianites shaking in their boots as they ran for their lives.

The wisdom of the Lord and the road before us that sometimes we all travel like that of Jacob who though only needed to cross the road to become Israel, decided to take the long route with God constantly steering him back to the relationship that God had planned. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

A future here and a picture given to the end of our time on earth as pictured in the New Testament like a bridal party waiting for the groom to arrive.

Until then, we live in hope and trust in our Lord through faith. Faith that He is with us when decisions and situations are against the type. But faith that see us when he arrives knowing of and living in His perfect love. Our God is love. Now we know him a little – from a distance as it were. But through Jesus’ death, he has claimed us as his promised bride. Then our own death will mark the beginning of the closest and greatest relationship possible with the God of love. Our old self will have disappeared completely. We will be the perfect bride for the perfect bridegroom. We shall be united forever in perfect love with God and live with him in his home. It is the best union one can ever enjoy-today though it may seem overcast, and in that tomorrow when the clouds give way that we clearly see to the unencumbered rays of sunshine radiating from our Saviour Jesus Christ-and know not only through faith, but through touch, feel, sound and smell see that yes, when there was only one set of footprints on that sandy beach-they surely were not ours, but that of the Lord carrying His most precious cargo. His cargo not of gold, jewels or diamond that was in honour His to have, but that to what He had to have that could only be bought with the cost of His own life. That which is you. That not only you who He knows by name, but you who He knows as His brother or sister in both this life and in the one to come. Praise be to the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Amen.

Often tempted

Isaiah 43:1-7

  • StMarksThere are times in our lives when we are tempted to turn from the person we most love.
  • There are times in our lives when we are tempted to leave what we most treasure.
  • There are times in our lives when we are tempted to deny what we most believe in.

I’ve heard of a supposedly happily married man who went on a business trip and ended up in bed with another woman – why would he do that?

I’ve heard of a highly respected businessman who gambled away all his investors’ money – why would he do that?

I’ve heard of totally committed Christians who have totally renounced their faith – why would they do that?

People will give different answers for such erratic behaviour, but this much I know:

  • we need to be absolutely sure that we are totally loved by God, or we might fall,
  • we need to thank God and celebrate his love daily, or we might be led astray,
  • we need to pray for God’s help and commit to follow God daily, or we may sink.

Israel knew that it was created by God, and rescued and redeemed by God, and brought through the Red Sea into the Promised Land. Israel knew that God was faithful, and loving and that their future depended on God’s promises in his covenant with them, and their trust and obedience to live faithfully as God’s covenant people. But Israel constantly:

  • hankered after the fertility gods of the nations around them,
  • ignored the Sabbath in pursuit of materialism,
  • turned from the righteousness of God to treat the weak and poor & alien unjustly.

Despite all the warnings and calls to repentance from the prophets, God finally stepped in through invading armies and Israel was led into captivity. Here God lovingly wooed back the people he created and loved and had committed himself to.

But now says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you O Israel: Do not fear for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine … I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I give Egypt as your ransom … Because you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you.

God is always more loving than his people, always more faithful than those he calls to follow him. Just imagine hearing words like that spoken to you after you have turned from the one you love, or cheated dreadfully in your business, or doubted God because you could not understand his ways. God does speak to you like that when times are good, and when you are at your worst. God is always loving and always faithful, regardless of how you feel towards him or treat him. “God is the same, yesterday, today and forever,” even if you bob all over the place on the turbulent waters of this life.

But how can we know God is always loving and faithful even when our love for him and others grows cold? How can we know that God is still faithful to us, even when we become unfaithful to him, or to his call on our life, or to our relationships at home or work? Let’s discover the love and faithfulness of God at Jesus’ baptism.

Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘you are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.’

In 30 years all we know of Jesus is the stories of his birth, the visit of the wise men, and his parents taking him to the temple at twelve. After all these silent years, here Jesus stands in the queues waiting to be baptised by John. He looks like everybody else. He acts like everybody else. Nobody recognises him as different. In Luke’s Gospel, not even John is said to recognise him as the Son of God.

But suddenly the heavens are opened, and the Holy Spirit descended, and a voice spoke from heaven. This is no ordinary baptism. Every other baptism was a preparation for the coming of the Messiah. This was the Messiah. This was the Son of God. This was God announcing from heaven, that his Son was here and ready to begin his ministry.

Listen to God’s amazing words to his Son: “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Almost a repeat of Isaiah 43 “I have called you by name, you are mine … you are precious in my sight, and honoured and I love you.”

And if sinful Israel needed to hear such words from God, so sinless Jesus needed to hear them from his Father. Jesus was being called into a mission where he would be tempted every step of the way, every time he opened his mouth, and every time he acted in God’s name.

He would be questioned and ridiculed by church and state. He would be welcomed by the poor and needy, but rejected by the powerful. He came to bring life, but he was killed. What Israel did to God in the Old Testament, the people did to Jesus when he was on earth. How people rejected Jesus then is how people reject Jesus today. Yet he loves us. Yet he is faithful to us. “If we are faithless, he remains faithful.”

How could Jesus remain loving and faithful to God and us when faced with temptation, suffering and rejection and death? Because he heard God say at his baptism: “you are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” In the strength of that assurance he could face all that the devil and rebellious humanity threw at him.

And God spoke the same words to Jesus at his transfiguration. In the strength of that assurance he could face his suffering and death. Every day Jesus met with his Father in prayer. Every Sabbath Jesus met with his Father in the synagogue. Because he knew how loved and precious he was to God, his Father, he was able to be loving and faithful to God, and to love us to the end.

God came to you once, as he did to a baby baptised today, in the water, with the Word: “you are my child … I have called you by name … you are precious in my sight and I love you.” In your Baptism you were baptised into Christ, and the words the Father spoke to his Son at his Baptism, he spoke to you his child, at your baptism. “You are my Son [my child], the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

We need to hear those words ringing in our ears each day as we begin and end the day with Jesus. We need to hear God telling us how much he loves us, each time we face temptation, each time we make decisions, each time we are called to take a stand for God. We need to celebrate God’s love in regular worship, eat and drink his love in Holy Communion, hear his love in regular Bible reading, and be encouraged in his love as we regularly meet with God’s beloved people. Leave today knowing you are God’s beloved child, & never forget it … never, ever forget it.

I am God’s beloved;
I am God’s beloved;
I am God’s beloved.    Amen.

Pastor David Christian

Chosen by God– Yes you!

Christ esteem…chosen by God before everything – Yes you!

Ephesians 1:3 – 14

 

 

 

StMarksA few days ago we said goodbye to the Old year 2015 and saw the New year 2016 in. Maybe you even decided to make a New Year’s resolution.

New year’s resolutions usually mean, that we hope to change something in our lives, or give up something that is causing us grief.

We hope this will mean a new beginning, or a new start or maybe new things, all this to make us feel good about ourselves – to lift our self-esteem.

New Year resolutions are usually aimed at health, wealth, or a change of a behaviour. The reason we do this, is because we know that we are sick of the way we have become.

Maybe, you are like me who has struggled with my fitness – I have had good intentions to start walking and change my diet, but I can never quite get started.

Now unless we are truly strong willed and are really determined, our attempts to stick to our plan usually ends in disappointment, giving us a sense that we have failed, as we fall back into the same old habits that have been tormenting us.

Our self-esteem ends up in tatters and all seems lost, we feel alone, and helpless – What is the point?

At these times we feel utterly worthless, useless. We can’t even do what we want to do, let alone what we ought to do.

It could be that I would like to love others better, or get angry with others less often, or when people ask for help, that I actually do what I say I will do. I ask myself why is this so?

In Pauls letter to the Romans 7:19-20 we read, 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. It is because of sin, this is the reason why we have low self-esteem and no confidence in ourselves.

In all this we ask where is God? We feel distant from Him, maybe we are ashamed and don’t want to be close to God. Anyway, why would God even bother about me? Does God even care about me?

If you still have doubts – In our reading today Paul reassures us in verse 4, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love.

God has chosen you, in love. He knows you, because he Himself has created you. He knows that you are weak in sin, but in Jesus Christ he chose you and willed you to be his forever.

Listen carefully to the Words from Isaiah 43:1 ‘But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

In this verse we have five references that speak to you! Created you, formed you, redeemed you, called you, and you are mine!

God is speaking to you. Yes, you! He has called you by name, He has chosen you!

But how do we know that God has chosen you and me?

Firstly, something has brought you here to church this morning. Amongst the busy-ness of your lives you have come here to worship, when you could have been doing something else, like sleeping in or visiting friends

Well the reason you are here, is because you are in Christ.  Paul uses these two important words in Christ which appear Three times in our text.

It is here that Paul is focusing our attention on in Christ, as the key to our salvation. Paul wants you to know, that God gave his Son for you;

Just pause for a moment and think about this…

this is how much He thinks that you are important, He want’s you, Yes, you! God raised Jesus again for you, to give you eternal life. God’s great saving plan in Christ is for you, to lift you up, to show you what you are really worth.

You are special. God has chosen you and me. He has predestined us for adoption. Verse 5 says, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

In Baptism we have be adopted, reborn into God’s family through His Son Jesus and his atoning blood, death and resurrection. United together, we have been adopted as Gods true family. It is because of this we know that we inherit what is God’s (1:11; Rom 8:17).

Now here is the thing, it doesn’t matter about our self-esteem. It does and always will be destined to fail and disappoint us.

You start to doubt yourself. When this happens it leads to you no longer valuing yourself – you doubt your self-worth.

The reason that this happens is because of our sinful nature, our self-esteem just doesn’t cut it. But that’s not the end… in Jesus you have Christ esteem.

It is because Jesus has died for you – you have Christ esteem. Jesus values you and loves you more than his own life.

God has sacrificed his Beloved Son, who died for you, and rose for you, for your salvation. Now that is really something. You are special.

It is because of God’ love in Christ that you are special. Do you know why? Ephesians 1:6 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

What is Paul saying to us in this verse? It is because of God’s grace that he has chosen you. Because you have been baptized into Christ and united with Him, you too are beloved of God.

As God said to those who witness Jesus baptism “this is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased (Matt 3:17). So to when you are sorry and repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as your saviour, you become Gods beloved children. It’s not just Christ but we too who become Gods beloved.

Christ esteem is the there for you, Why, because God has redeemed you through the shedding of His blood. Verse 7 says, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

The prophet Isaiah says in 43:1 I have called you by name, you are mine. In 1 Peter 2:9 you are a chosen race. Yes, you.

Do we have a guarantee? We sure do. In verse 13, Paul speaks about us receiving the Holy Spirits seal, his absolute pledge – he is referring to something quite concrete, and that is our Baptism.

We have the seal of the Spirit, and we remain sealed in God’s love each day, as we hear the word of truth, the Good News of Jesus Christ, and believe in Him, we then receive our salvation in Christ

Nobody can take this gift away from you.

But wait there is more!

With this guarantee, you need to know that your name is written in the book of heaven. Luke says in 10:20, rejoice that your name is written in heaven.

As we come to the threshold of this new year, St Paul gives you something better than new year resolutions.

He gives us a new year’s gospel; he shows us that, despite our sins and failures in life, we are beloved and special to Him, and of great worth.

Remember then, that you have always been God’s precious heavenly people. God has predestined you to be his, by the shedding of Christs blood for you.

You have something better than self-esteem, you have Christ-esteem. He died for you and has given you every gift and blessing. Your baptism is the guarantee that you are truly special. No one can take that away from you.

Yes, you have been chosen by God. Yes, you are Christ-esteem. Yes, you are God’s, sealed by the shedding of Christs blood, and yes you have the guarantee of eternal life.  Rejoice then, because God has chosen you. Yes, you!

Amen.

Born in a stable, oh dear.

Luke 2:22-40

giftsAs was the custom of the day, 40 days after His birth Jesus like other babies was brought into the temple to be presented before the Lord. A big moment in any family’s life and to the untrained eye, not unlike any others before them. Yet a moment in time that a man named Simeon and an elderly women named Anna that through the gift of the Holy Spirit had been waiting for. The moment they would see the promised Messiah of the World. The Saviour who they now knew as this little baby named Jesus.

I imagine that when they went back to their normal lives they would not be able to contain themselves shouting this good news from the mountain tops.

If then was as now, which I suggest is more than likely, after Simeon and Anna left having such public conversation’s, a fly on the wall may have heard:

-You know the mother was pregnant before they married

-Very lowly people and from of all places Nazareth, ( A statement understood of the time as we hear later in the Book of John those saying not only “Can the Messiah come out of Nazareth,” but “Can there any good thing come?”)

-Born in a stable, oh dear. And you know who were there don’t you. Thieving low class shepherds.

-Messiah, yer right. You wouldn’t believe what they offered at the temple. A pair of doves-peasants. (Doves being the most modest of the different sacrifices that could be offered).

And no doubt upon Simeon or Anna suffering any unfortunate situation, I’m sure some would be going along the old almost gloating “where is your Messiah God now” line.

A line probably heard by all the apostles. Eleven killed for following Christ with only John dyeing a natural death though still living under exile on the island of Patmos because of his proclamation of the risen Christ.

And the 48 year old Mary, revered throughout time but then seen standing at the cross of her beloved 33 year old son seeing His pain and death while those around hurled ridicule and abuse.

A situation that no doubt, whether to you, or to another person you would heard the same unknowing words said in the tone of a viper. Words to hurt and ridicule but words that see us like little Jobs holding to the truth in faith as things happen in, to and around us that we would prefer not.

The myth of being a Christian: never have any more worries, life will be good, and if it’s not, it means your faith is not strong enough. A myth that even according to the odd late night evangelist is perpetuated with statements such as send in money and you will be materially rewarded tenfold.

Misguided, unrealistic and even sinister crap.

Becoming a Christian is like becoming a husband or wife and then a mother or father. Absolutely the joy increases, but so does the hurt-because their hurts and sadness’s become yours.

Having faith in Christ-in being a Christian we share with Christ, the injustices and hurts of this world and its people. We may get sick or we may not, we may struggle financially or we may not-so be it, that’s life. Jesus never promised either way, he promised that he would be with us through it all, to serve us and get us over the line.

We know that later as a man, Jesus enters Jerusalem and is welcomed as the great king. “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. The King of Israel”.

Absolutely true. Albeit misguided because those welcoming Jesus expected a warrior type of king to release them from the bondage of the Romans. To drive them out of town and when this doesn’t eventuate-we know the story.

Jesus had a bigger fish to fry. Yes Jesus would release them, release from the bondage of sin. To bring true freedom, not as the warrior king, but as the servant king.

Jesus didn’t come to run the bad guys out of town, but to bring the bad guys, the Jews, Gentiles, Greeks, Romans and Australians-you and me into town-into his kingdom.

Yet this side of heaven, living in God’s kingdom can sometimes feel a bit like starting pre-season training or renovating a house as when you look back you think if only I knew that was going to happen, I doubt I’d have made it to the end. Yet somehow we are all here today scars and all. Scars that God did not bring on us. But scars that somehow he used to bring us to hear of Christ, to somehow bring us to turn towards God in repentance and be free.

“Born down in a dead man’s town the first kick I took was when I hit the ground, (and) you end up like a dog that’s been beat too much till you spend half your life just covering up”. The opening lyrics from Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA”. A protest song about his country that he doesn’t much sing anymore since the tragedy of September 11 and instead wrote a song called the rising.

A song with biblical overturns directed towards his country, a song of rebuilding and a song of hope

“I make my way through this darkness

I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me….

There’s holy pictures of our children

dancing in a sky filled with light.

May I feel your arms around me

May I feel your blood mix with mine

A dream of life comes to me.

Come on up, lay your hands in mine

Come on up for the rising

Come on up for the rising tonight.”

Every person who walks this earth will at some time and at some level face persecution. And all will face death. That’s just how it is.

But in it all we know that:

Our pain upon Christ’s pain, is that, that has brought hope.

(and) Our rising upon Christ’s rising, is that, that has brought life.

In Christ what may happen is not what we dwell on; we dwell on what he has done. That he has brought us forgiveness, has brought us eternal life, has brought us freedom and has brought us life here today.

His love for us and joy of life he has given that cannot be taken from us by neither those who ridicule us, nor those who turn from us and treat us unfairly, nor the knowledge of our own sin, nor our own self- loathing.

For we are now free.

Free to cry and free to mourn, and free to live. Free to build up those who look to bring us down and free to love those who love us not. Free to climb the highest mountains or free to rest at the bottom.

Our lives of freedom from a man named Jesus. Jesus the human Son of Mary and the Holy and eternal heavenly Son of God who when entering Jerusalem as a fragile baby was worshipped by Simeon and Anna because they knew the truth.

Jesus who thirty three years later as a strapping young man and entering Jerusalem for one last time was greeted by the crowds who now saw him as the coming king by cheering and honoring him-yet only to fall away in his hour of need when he was beaten, bruised, ridiculed and slain.

When Jesus as a baby entered the temple Simeon and Anna saw the loved child of God who would change the world. .

When our neighbor enters our life in their hour of need, lowly, beaten, bruised, ridiculed and lost: in that person we may too may see them as the world does, but we too also see them as a loved child of God

The honor to see a loved child of come into our lives in whatever disguise: rich or poor: who is in need in this world-hungry, starving, wandering, looking for “something”, alone, angry, all self-centered, living a misguided high life or fragile and scared.

The honor to serve them that their earthly life may have meaning, and the honor to serve God that they know his meaning.

Like Simeon and Anna we have seen the Messiah our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ come into our lives.

Like Mary at the cross we have seen our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ unfairly beaten and killed.

And like Mary Magdalene standing by an empty tomb, the resurrected Jesus has met us in flesh and blood confirming every word of the Good news he had promised.

Martin Luther, called John 3:16 “the Gospel in miniature and the heart of the Bible,”

The Good news summarised From John 3:16 in just 26 words “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

26 words given to you feeling broken and suffering through the actions or self and others that allow you to if nothing else, rise up for another day appointed to you by God the Father.

26 words given to those of you with the means to be humbled that you serve and be served by both the obnoxious and the pleasant be it in either times of chaos and darkness, or peace and sunshine.

The Words of God that saw a little fragile baby born for our sake. The Words of God that saw that baby grow and be killed for our sake.

The Words of the bible that no matter what may seem, that you here-knowing the Lord and the Lord knowing you: can leave here today come what may-staking your life upon in both this earthly life and the heavenly life to follow.

Praise be to the: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit: for we know that as Jesus was born for us in this world, in Baptism we have been born again into His world.

Just as we know that as He was raised again from death to life on this earth, so too will we be raised to life to forever live in His heavenly presence. Amen.

Amen.