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A modest family in a modest town

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13, Mark 4:26-34.

In our Old Testament reading we heard of the amazing story of King David. David the shepherd boy and the youngest of the StMarkseight Sons of Jesse.

David’s father Jesse who was of no social consequence within his Bethlehem community except for maybe ridicule as hinted by in this piece of scripture.

So David, born in a “modest” town to a “modest” family whose first occupation being that of a shepherd would have seen him viewed by the smug religious rulers of the time as second class, incompetent, untrustworthy and despised in everyday life.  In fact despised so much were the shepherds that they were deprived of civil rights and could not fulfill judicial offices or be admitted in court as witnesses. No wonder I suppose then that to buy wool, milk or a young goat from a shepherd was forbidden on the assumption that it would be stolen property, and to which in the Mishnah, Judaism’s written record of the oral law goes as far to say that “no one should ever feel obligated to rescue a shepherd who has fallen into a pit,” and from this Inexplicable situation God calls David who would become a charismatic leader who would overcome a split and waring Israel, overcome the tribal suspicious and resistance to the idea of a king by ingeniously invading and setting up camp in the neutral and independent city of Jerusalem. A move that would centralize the state and provide the infrastructure through which a new national identity could there emerge with the internal social stability and external security in which saw him having the  allegiance of all the Israelite tribes and regions and establish Israel as a dominant political force in the land, and if that not enough-in his decision to employ workers from regions far and wide to construct these new fortifications and infrastructure he established for himself significant relationships with the foreign powers from which they came.

I’ve always found it quizzical that his successor, his Son Solomon who in a dream saw the Lord appear to him and after the Lord telling him to “Ask for whatever you want me to give you”, asks not for riches for himself nor the death of his enemies, but that he be given a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. “

In short his request was for the gift of wisdom to which as God had promised, was granted. Quizzical for me because in order to ask for wisdom, I would think you need a share of wisdom to start with, but as we’ve seen through his Father David, it would seem he had a bit of a head start.

So we fast forward about 900 or so years and after the short period of time where the shepherds gained some recognition through King David’s rise to fame, now here again have they returned to be scorned in a society of religious snobbery and class prejudice, and low and behold who is the first people that the angels tell that the awaited messiah has arrived. The messiah born holding the lineage of King David through Joseph, again born in the town of Bethlehem (as was David). And while Joseph was not a shepherd, Jesus is born in a stable with the sheep and goats. And who is the first people that the angels tell of this earth shattering event in history. Yep-those bottom of the social rung shepherds again.

An amazing story and as we know the rest is history where this child Jesus, born to a virgin from God the Father. God from God, Jesus: who would walk the earth befriending sinners and calling the unlikely to follow him that they carry on his work after unfathomably, the Son of God, the waited Messiah for 2,000 years is tortured and killed on a cross as a criminal by his own people.

Everything, the whole story seems to come from “back to front land” and so it’s no wonder that Jesus needed to basically tell us in today’s Gospel that when it comes down to it, that most of the time we’ve got basically no idea of what’s going on where He talks of the largest of the garden plants coming from the smallest seed despite half the time the earthly human gardener being asleep, and in our present time where it seems that the kingdom of God is under attack, particularly in its once strongholds this gives us great comfort not just for our world, but for ourselves because this truly is a great time to be a Christian and trust that God’s still in control in both the now and in the bigger scheme of things.

How we became to believe I’m not sure as even though we do know from scripture that faith both comes and is strengthened from reading and hearing those Words of that scripture, in its teaching, in Baptism and Holy Communion, we also know from the book of John that “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

So why me, why us? Quite frankly I don’t care. I’m just happy that we’ve been blessed with the spirit of truth. A great blessing that we got before we asked for it. A gift that we not withhold from others or throw in their faces, but a gift that could be said of as did Chris Judd did of his career as an AFL footballer who on retirement this week and being asked of his great talent remarked with “I have never thought of myself or footballers better than those in any other occupation because being born in Australia means we’ve already won the ovarian lottery in the first place and after that it’s all a bonus.”

It’s a great comment because being renowned for his hard training ethic and preparation and a career that any elite footballer be proud of, he did not deny those things as why should he because they’re true. But then put’s it into perspective of what he couldn’t control through birth place, time and situation. A perspective and understanding that gave him the mindset of being neither elitist nor subservient to those who do or don’t care of his football ability or the game itself.

Is this not that of a Christian, of us? Somehow we’re won the ovarian lottery to be born in a country where Christianity can be freely practiced. Won the ovarian lottery that be our background be of this or that, that the spirit has blown our way that we can now here as Christians learn of our craft by increasing our knowledge of the gifts we have been given. The gift of that being a Christian that we know that though in Sin we are forgiven in Christ. The gift that having been forgiven in Christ we are reunited with God the Father and the gift from those gifts that sees us assured of eternal life in the world to come.

Our standing in God’s kingdom is a fact, and in that whether we be before great religious leaders or before the madding and ridiculing crowds, we neither be pompously elitist nor fearfully subservient, but simply tell and know how it is, and that is one who now rests in the shade of the tree of Christ’s Cross and nests in the mighty branch of His resurrection.  That’s who you are and though all of that may have come through the seemingly “back to front land” of how God works is a further testament to His testament that “His Word does not return empty.” His Word that assures you that you are a saved child of God. His Word that we take before the world in our humble or highly exclaimed social statuses that it pierce the soul of those who do not know or believe it not. Not that it drive them away in despair and anger that they not return, but simply take His Word as best we can in our actions, in prayer, in recital and understanding to those that God places before us, knowing that amongst it all, be we insecure of language or in doubt of worthiness, amongst it all God will be God that the humble will stand and the proud kneel before the same throne and that though here on earth it may all still seem as “back to front land”, that they too will see like we will see when all is revealed in our heavenly home. To see how our roads were straightened, our valleys raised and the mountains flattened, that as we made our way home, it most certainly was a great time for a Christian, to be a Christian. Amen.

A notorious Australian

Mark 3:20-35

 

Chopper Reed is a notorious Australian who Wikipedia tells us:

StMarksWas born on 17 November 1954 to a former army father and a mother who was a devout Seventh-day Adventist. He was placed in a children’s home for the first 5 years of his life. He grew up in the Melbourne suburbs of Collingwood, Thomastown, Fitzroy and Preston. He was bullied at school, claiming that by the age of 15, he had been on the “losing end of several hundred fights and that his father, usually on his mother’s recommendation, beat him often as a child. Read was made a ward of the state by the age of 14 and was placed in several mental institutions as a teenager, where, he later claimed, he was subjected to electroshock therapy.

When he was still young, Read was already an accomplished street fighter and the leader of the Surrey Road gang. He began his criminal career by robbing drug dealers, based in massage parlors in the Prahran area. He later graduated to kidnapping and torturing members of the criminal underworld, often using a blowtorch or bolt cutters to remove the toes of his victims as an incentive for them to produce enough money so that Read would leave them alive.[1]

Read spent only 13 months outside prison between the ages of 20 and 38, having been convicted of crimes including armed robbery, firearm offences, assault, arson, impersonating a police officer and kidnapping.[2]

Later in his life he claimed to be involved in the killing of 19 people and the attempted murder of 11 others. In an April 2013 interview with the New York Times, Read said “Look, honestly, I haven’t killed that many people, probably about four or seven, depending on how you look at it.”[6]

In today’s Gospel we have the revelation of the unforgivable sin where in verse thirty-one we are told: “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. [32] And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

We may think it strange to hear Jesus telling the Pharisees of the unforgivable sin in a Gospel text, but in reality what he shows us is the depth’s and heights to which the grace of God searches to bring salvation.

But here in this passage, what exactly had these Pharisees done that would cause Jesus to say that they could “not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come?” The word “blaspheme” literally means “to speak against.” The scribes and Pharisees were guilty of “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” because they were attributing the work of the Spirit to Satan. But is to simply “speak against” the Holy Spirit enough to bring about irrevocable eternal condemnation?

Let’s look at the facts.
The apostle Paul was himself, guilty of that sin. He writes, “Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; [14] and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:13).

Paul had been guilty of saying the exact same things — and worse — as the other Pharisees, before he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. We often hear the name of God or Jesus being used in vain or blasphemous ways, even today. How can God forgive words spoken against His Son, and yet not forgive the words spoken against His Spirit?

Obviously there is something deeper implied, than simply speaking against the Spirit; if not then the beloved Apostle Paul would have been lost eternally as well. So what is meant by “blasphemy against the Spirit?” Let’s consider some of the sinners we read about in the New Testament.

The “tax-collectors and sinners” were acknowledge by others and admitted by themselves to be notorious transgressors of God’s Law. Yet, when they came to Jesus in Luke 15:1

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. read more »

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, they certainly found more than enough grace to forgive their sins.

Take the case of the sinful prostitute in Luke 7:36-50 who was scorned by the apostles when she washed Jesus feet with ointment and tears.

Or the woman who was got caught in bed with a man not her husband in John 8:11 and who the Pharisees demanded be stoned only for Jesus to renounce their actions.

Does God forgive such scandalous behavior? Yes! Both found that Jesus had grace enough to cover their fleshly sins.

What about a traitor — one of the inner circle who forsook the Lord “with his eyes open,” even after he had been warned? Peter was all these; he denied his Master three times the night that the “Friend of Sinners” most needed a friend. He cursed and swore that he did not even know the man. Could God forgive such a one? Yes. Jesus forgave Peter and gave him a place of honor as the “key-note speaker” on the Day of Pentecost.

What about murderers? Surely there is no sin worse than killing another person. And yet, the Apostle Paul, again, had been involved in murder. Even those on whose hands God saw crimson stains that matched His Son’s blood type were told: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit

Even murder — even the murder of Jesus Christ — could be forgiven.

All of these sins, in fact every sin that a person commits, can be forgiven. But even so, the Pharisees had not done any of these things; so none of these could be the sin against the Spirit. What sin had they committed that meant they could not be forgiven!?

Understand that Jesus did not condemn His enemies because of what they said or because of any single act. Rather, He denounced them for their obstinate hardness of heart. Their words gave evidence of the evil in their hearts. The sin against the Holy Spirit is not a matter of speech; the words spoke are only “fruit” from a sin-filled heart. That is why Jesus states very clearly: [34] “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” How had the scribes and Pharisees reached such a deplorable condition? By constantly and consistently refusing to accept the Spirit-created evidence that proved Jesus to be the Messiah.

So what is “blasphemy against the Spirit?” It is the final and complete rejection of Jesus Christ. This sin is a denial of the Spirit’s message and rejection of the Lord’s deity. Jesus made it clear that all sins can be forgiven. Adultery, murder, blasphemy, and other sins can all be forgiven; they are not unpardonable. But God cannot forgive the rejection of His Son. It is the Holy Spirit who bears witness to Christ and convicts the lost sinner.

So when it comes right down to it: The only sin, for which there is no forgiveness, is the sin for which no forgiveness is wanted. The Pharisees had so hated and hardened their hearts against Jesus, that they were guilty of an Unforgivable Sin. Salvation is denied them, not because it is not offered, but because they have permanently rejected it.

So what of us. Should we try not to sin? Absolutely. Try to be more charitable and better people? Absolutely.

Will we ever be good enough or do enough to not need Christ as the door to salvation. Never. As never will the door to salvation be closed to those who throw themselves at the feet of Christ desiring mercy.

At the introduction to this message I talked of the life Chopper Reed. Now here at the conclusion I add that in March 2008 he revealed he only had two to five years to live and required a liver transplant. However, he refused to agree to the procedure, stating that while a transplant would save him, he did not want one when an organ could be provided to someone else.[14

Did he lead a sinful life? Yes. Did he die an honorable death? It would seem so. Will he be in heaven chatting to the Apostle Paul, Martin Luther and the Wesley Boys? We don’t know because we don’t know if he committed the unforgivable sin which is to reject Christ’s forgiveness.

And quite simply it’s none of our business to wonder because our business is towards the still living and whether that be to those of Choppers ilk or the saintly lady in here twilight years, it is to bring or remind them of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Christ that we need to know for others when the world judges, and the Gospel for ourselves that we too must hear again and again as we too smell the stench of our own sins.

The Gospel of Christ not twisted, distorted or confused.

But the living Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.  Amen.

Till death us do part

Romans 8:12-17

StMarksAfter the wedding, an invited guest after being asked how it went replied: “Oh they’re very much both in love, he with himself and she with herself.”

Hardly the recipe for a long life together when the “for better or worse, for richer or poorer” are realised as not some silly words put together to get a laugh from the crowd, but prophetic words of how relationships continue to remain strong when the rose tinted glasses are taken off.

The saying to “Burn one’s boats” alludes to certain famous incidents where a commander, having landed in a hostile country, ordered his men to destroy their ships, so that they would have to conquer the country or be killed.

No retreat and no surrender and in 1st Corinthians we are told to “Be on guard, stand firm in the faith: be courageous, be strong.”

Burn our boats and stand firm in the battles knowing that come what may be it for better or worse, that our relationship with our Lord will hold together strong and intact.

In the last verse of our Romans reading today Paul talks of suffering and ironically, we may just be at the pointy end of the wedge where we are heading into a time where the rules of society  stand in clear contradiction to that of the Word of God. A time where standing firm would be seen and felt in a tangible manner. A time where fence sitting is not a quantifiable response to the world or our Lord. A time to take a side and stand firm come what may.

Serious stuff that unless grounded on an absolute truth would see us drifting in oceans of despair like that of a refugee still hoping to find dry land.

The Word of God is that absolute truth and in his Word, though we may occasion to feel still at sea, God the Father gives us the solid ground that we can stand firm in our lives with Him of not that of a refugee looking for a home, but that of his child already home.

The Word of God like Jesus parables can cause wonder, debate and different perspectives while in our growth in Christ and that’s O.K. as it’s all in the growing of ourselves in His Kingdom.

In some of the things of God it is good that we ponder on them through our experiences and see them gradually unravel in a time that befits our situation.

Today’s message is not one for another time yet to come, it is for those times that have and will come.

The message not to the refugee that he seeks, but to his child he has found.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. For you not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”

These spirit filled Words of God through Paul were given very clearly in the context of the day to those present they stand firm for what may await them because in the Roman world, adoption like now was taken very seriously. When you are adopted into a family you truly become part of that family and this was true of the Roman emperors who frequently chose their successors not from the child born to them, but from the children whom they had adopted. The adoption into the family so real that an emperor could even pass the inheritance on to somebody who was adopted over the child of his own loins and similar, should it be a slave-that slave would no longer live under the bondage of his former master but as a free person able to serve not in fear, but in love. Living no longer as a slave but in being son or daughter.

Paul’s words and imagery were not imagined but from God himself. God’s words to us that don’t say “I will think of you as though you were my sons and daughters”, but his Words stressing that in Christ, “You are my sons and daughters in the fullest sense of the word.”

The first funeral I conducted was my Fathers and too this day I’m not sure how I got through it. But the fact is I did and so now when conducting similar work in God’s name and feeling vulnerable I think back to that time because though I don’t understand how, I do know it happened-it’s a fact that cannot be changed. A fact that I can draw on when situations of the like present themselves.

You too would have experienced times of past that once the dust settled you came to clearly see Jesus in it with you. Times that give you courage in the face of times of adversity since and to come.

That’s the faith that sees the words of Romans 5: 4 come alive for us  that that we trust “tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and (a)hope (that) does not disappoint.”

A faith as 1st Peter tells of as tested by fire.

But what if the fires so hot its smoke clouds our vision and confuses us like that of the ambulance officer who when tending to a man hit by a car and asking him if he was comfortable, heard him reply “Yes I make quite a good living.”

Life can be confusing and we may wonder what’s next, but let us never wonder of God because God does not lie.

God who promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars, and though later when Abraham and Sarah were aged, it came to be through the birth of Isaac. God’s promise to Abraham of a homeland as resulting after his descendants release from Egypt, following Moses through the desert for forty years and eventually led home at God’s command by Joshua.

God does not lie as seen when the Jews were gathered together once again as a nation after World War 11.

God does not lie and so matter the circumstance, the spiritual attack or the physical attack: stand firm and rejoice that in Christ you are forgiven and saved, and rejoice that in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, we know the truth of God the Father, our Father whose will cannot be changed nor contested by our opponents, but his Will and Testament written in the blood of his Son that declares his gift of eternal to all his sons and daughters. His unperishable gift to you and me that allows us to not be guided by earthly currents or the cry of societies whims, but to stand firm in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ who will not disappoint. Amen.

Where is the Holy Spirit today?

John 15:26,27; 16:4b-15

StMarksDuring a conversation, a parishioner was stunned that I was a Pastor yet could not speak in tongues. I agreed, not with the speaking in tongues bit, but with the being a Pastor bit.

Similar, over the years people have asked why it is that the Holy Spirit seems so absent from the Lutheran Church, or more so from a particular congregation in which the questioner has been worshipping, and if we dig a bit into that question, we’ll usually discover that this dissatisfaction with their own congregation has arisen because of a visit to another church’s worship service where it seems clear that the Holy Spirit is really active.

A statement said something like this, “I found that service like a spiritual electric storm: people speaking in tongues and falling over, people laughing, dancing and singing. It was like nothing I’d ever seen. I was freaked out and literally unable to speak for about an hour afterwards. If that was real spirit-filled worship, then it seemed to me that the church I’d grown up in doesn’t have the Holy Spirit”.

An experience that starts them to question whether they are Christian at all; whether the Holy Spirit was actually working in them or the church they belonged to because if the Holy Spirit really is at work in their life then shouldn’t they feel, experience or see more signs that the Holy Spirit is central to their life as a Christian and to those in the church?

It’s a feeling I know all too well, not the feeling of being second rate because I don’t have such outwardly spirit filled surreal “abilities”, but simply because I still often feel like a prick and having been baptised, how can that be? Baptised mind you not as an infant, but as a 29 year old. Baptised old enough to know, feel and see the before and after of the effects of Baptism and while I can’t remember a lot of my feelings before that day, I must have been one sorry son of a mother if this is the glorious result. Hardly an advertisement for Baptism and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

So what of me, you and our Church-are we full of the Spirit or just kidding ourselves.

To answer questions like this, one of the best places to go to find out more about the Holy Spirit from Jesus himself is in John chapters 14-16 on which does today’s gospel reading come, and so disregarding our own highly acclaimed or lowly disposition of ourselves, let’s hear the truth of the situation from the man himself, Jesus the Son of God who has brought you forgiveness and salvation, who in this Verse and those chapters of scripture teach us that the Holy Spirit’s role and work is not to get us to focus on the Spirit and dazzle us with all kinds of experiences that cause us make these the-be-all and end-all of our Christian faith, but tells us that the task of the Holy Spirit is to draw us to Jesus;
to make Jesus the centre and focus of our lives;
to teach us about Jesus;
and to lead us again and again to Jesus after we have been led astray by the world, or Satan or our own sinful nature. Summarised when Jesus says “the Spirit will “tell you all about me”, “he will give me glory” and “he will reveal to you whatever he receives from me”.

So why at times do I feel such a prick? Why? Because the focus is all wrong. The same misdirected focus that can lead the other way to where one thinks they are some type of law unto themselves immortal super being.

Two different outcomes from the same inwardly focussed photo shopped lives.

A Facebook type of life where I can make myself be whatever I want and Photoshop my life where I’m taller, thinner and have 5,000 friends that are so interested in me that I need to tell them that I just went to the toilet.

A life as stated by a mid-twenties university lecturer who said that in our world of self-focus, it does not allow for the realities of failing or dancing to another’s tune, but only to the tune of self and so hence, given that reality is what we make it, there can be no place for a higher force to answer to or be guided by.

A photo shopped life that made one of my group ask a simple yet complex question.

So what happens when reality hits and it all falls to pieces?

A one worded answer: Suicide.

That’s easy to say from the outside and I know that is far too simple an explanation. Yet it does get to the heart of the Holy Spirit who brings the focus to the help and the truth that is Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit that leads us to focus not on self, but to believe and have faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit that in opposition to our own assessment of self, brings the grace and love of Jesus and reminds and comforts us with the certain knowledge that even when it seems God is far away, or that people don’t care, or that life is throwing at us every hurt and grief that it possibly can, the Holy Spirit points us to the love of our God as shown to us through Jesus death and resurrection.
He assures us that Jesus’ love for us is right there with us in the most severe situations.
He reminds us of the promises that the Scriptures tells us over and over again that the love that God has for us can never be quenched.
He strengthens us and helps us to be confident and strong by pointing us to the cross and reminding us that with Jesus’ we can endure any circumstance and trouble.

And so where is the Holy Spirit working; what is the sign of his presence and his power? Certainly it is not in experiences and large crowds, healings and supernatural gifts – good and God-given as they are. Jesus teaches that the Holy Spirit is wherever he – Jesus Christ – is proclaimed and confessed.

So where is the Holy Spirit working; what is the sign of his presence and his power? He is wherever Christ is being spoken about, wherever the words of Jesus are read and spoken. He is there in all his fullness wherever people worship and pray in the name of Jesus. When you believe and trust in Jesus you have that faith through the Holy Spirit’s work in you and the Holy Spirit filling you that you need not wonder of the Holy Spirit, but understand as Martin Luther who so eloquently stated that if you“ Believe, you’ve got it”

The grace of God the Father given to us in Jesus and brought to us through the Holy Spirit that lets us understand that it does not matter what else we feel, experience or don’t experience. It doesn’t matter whether we are stressed, depressed, average or exhilarated with joy and enthusiasm, but that in all are we covered by the righteousness of our Lord Jesus who says to you-in me regardless of how you see yourself, my Father sees you as his beloved and forgiven child. Saved from ourselves by being saved in Christ is our deal, and in knowing that we need not look in the mirror and see the reflection of what we know or think we know of ourselves, but lift our vision and see a man hanging from a cross look you in the eyes and not ask why did I come for such a person as you, but declare it is for such a person as you that I did come.

The Lord who came for you that He bless you and keep you. That He make His face shine on you and be gracious to you and that He look upon you with His favour and + give you the peace of God which passes all human understanding. Amen.

Back in the old days

John 17:6-9, 1 John 5:9-13

StMarksOn school holidays back in the day, the T.V. used to play Abbott and Costello movies. Abbott was the straight man and Costello
the funny one.  They were great and while most episodes are only a vague memory these days, one I remember one clearly (reasonably).

They are both on foot in a sand dune swept desert.  They are worn and thirsty and on their last legs and in the sweltering heat they keep seeing these mirages of water in the distance that they trek towards but never arrive at and so are ready to pack it in. But then Abbott sees one more in the distance and follows it and low and behold it is an oasis like you see in the Middle East. Eventually Costello catches up and sees Abbott on his back in the water, refreshed and gargling out water like a fountain surrounded by palm trees in a picture straight from like in a children’s pictorial bible. Abbott is in paradise found and loving it but when Costello arrives he says stop hurting yourself you’re only imagining it and so while Abbott splashes around, Costello just sits alongside on a rock waiting for his friend to come to his senses.

It’s very funny and I assume not meant as a comment on society, yet in pondering this week’s message it did make me reflect of the Christian life. Still looking for paradise or having found it, still confused and trying to work it all. Sought of like being told how to ride a bike but having no idea what a bike actually looks like and sometimes while living in the kingdom of God it does feel like we’re stuck in the desert thirsty and beaten.

A feeling not just reserved for us of when we read of Jesus in the desert being tempted by the devil for forty days. Not a feeling, but a reality that Jesus suffered and the blessed reality for us that He wasn’t beaten. Sustained by prayer and the Word of His Father Jesus persevered and won a battle we could not and in today’s Gospel we see Him again drawing strength from the Father through prayer and Word, only this time His prayer is for us as we hear Him praying for the disciples. The twelve closet and most beloved friends of Jesus that He prays to the Father for. His “prayer that God the Father not take them out of the world but that he protect them from the evil one.” (As)” For they are not of the world, even as I am not of it. (So) sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

A few years ago I was asked to visit a lady on her death bed. She had been severely ill and bed bound for a significant time and while hard to understand, I understood. She told me that as an early teenager that she had died on the operating table and visited heaven. Then surrounded by weeping family and soon to be shocked family and most certainly doctor, awoke back in earth. This side of heaven I cannot make sense of those things and she must have known of what people’s reactions would have been because apart from those present around that operating table and her later born son, she mentioned that I was the only one she had told. I don’t understand such stuff but I did see the outcome of hers as here on her deathbed in pain, not only was she prepared to leave this earth, she anticipated with great joy to feel and reside in that place that she experienced all those years ago and so at her request, we prayed that the Lord’s will be that she depart this world and so it was, and at her funeral and hearing in the eulogy of some of the hard times she experienced yet with a seemingly joyous and free spirited heart, it did seem that those desert moments seen through of what she knew were not dry and barren but covered in carpets of wild flowers brought to life from the winter rains.

Most of us won’t have an experience like that lady but undoubtedly to an extent we will have our desert moments like our Lord and saviour.

Matthew 4:1-11

4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Our desert or wilderness moments may not be as clear or understandable as that placed before Jesus, yet they will be there cloaked in some form or another and as with Jesus, the answer to our accuser and ourselves cannot be of what may seem but of the truth as told to us in the Holy Word of God.

During the week I watched a movie about General Patton. The American general feared by the Germans in world war 11 and the General who was instrumental in regaining Europe and the General who in the movie was described by his enemy as “a man who prays on his knees but stands swearing like a trouper.”

Unfortunately that description is sometimes a little close to home but it does make a statement that we can learn from amidst our own warfare of will. A statement that wether in seeming defeat or at a loss to situation or thought, we too pray on our knees not to rise feebly, but rise to standing assured not in ourselves but in the Word of God. To still harbour some fears but override them in not logically putting two and two together, but by hearing the Word of God as seen in His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and placed into our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit.

Martin Luther after once doubting the authenticity and right of the book of revelations in the New Testament would later through hardship and persecution come to say that in those moments it had become like an old friend that travelled with him, assuring and comforting him of the blessed heavenly oasis that awaits.

We too at the worst of it may know of that feeling, and if not, at the very least it will be our sure Hope of when we face our earthly death.

Scripture tells us “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.  A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.”

Our time is now and after we kneel in prayer we arise in the knowledge of the Word of God that “our, your Sins are forgiven”, and forgiven we hear in the background the promise fulfilled in the book of Revelations of where together as one, we alongside all those of the past, present and future stand together before the throne of God rejoicing with all the heavenly angels and beings of what has come to be.

Our time is now and in the season we reside, in the Word of God we rise to our feet and see not our wilderness of loss, doubt and despair. But rise to our feet and see our world the same yet transformed and see amongst the dry creek beds and sparse deserts His Word come to life. See His Word come to life in our lives and bring water to the creeks and flowers to the desert.

In the Word of God in this world do we rise, and though those of the world may not see our creeks flow or our landscapes bloom, we can for we know that though we have been left in this world, Christ the Son of God prays to His Father on our behalf asking that we be made Holy and sanctified in the truth. A request fulfilled in you as you be in the world, but not of it. Fulfilled in us who though poor in spirit and weak in strength, see the Holiness of Christ and trust in His Words for ourselves. Fulfilled in us who though wether bowed down be it in earthly shame or pride, rise up restored in His forgiveness. And fulfilled in us who see as those of the world, yet understand as those of Christ that yes, though we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death , hurt and suffering, we need not fear nor reside in earthly doubt or anxiety, but see Him with us and in prayer alongside the author of Psalm 119 ask for His steadfast love come to you and His salvation according to His promise.

 To hear the words of 1St John for yourselves “that you may know that whoever believes in the name of the Son of God has eternal life.”

And to rise up with the Psalmist and know, that according to thy Word do you have the answer to any that reproach you, for in the Word do you trust. Amen.

A Faith that overcomes

            1 John 5:1-6

A Faith that Overcomes

 

StMarksI was working late one evening in the bank completing a long winded, boring and mind numbing meaningless task that someone in management had introduced to be seen to be seen. I knew it, we all knew it, but regardless it had to be done and while doing so a colleague and friend walked past expressing to me that “you must have done something horribly wrong in a previous life.”

There are people in society who will try to give you explanations for the terrible things that happen. For example; one well known identity rationalized that the tragedy of 9/11 happened because of the sinful activity in New York City. He later apologized and said he really didn’t mean to say that. We hear people do this all the time because they have a need to connect the bad things in life with some misbehaviour or sin. Or, we want to believe that the bad things that happen are God’s punishment.

Similar some people of faith want to believe that their faith is like an insurance policy, that because they “believe” nothing bad will happen to them. Or, when something bad happens they say their faith wasn’t strong enough. They play the “if only” game…. “If I had only believed more, if I had only loved more, if I had only followed all the rules.”

Or, some may say, “What good is it to believe or have faith, when bad things still happen?” I imagine it’s a question some have asked amid times of great trials, and there are no simple explanations.

The letter of I John was written to believers who wanted to be connected to God and strengthen their faith. But, they were being misled by false teachers. There was confusion about what it meant to be people of faith and the faith community was struggling to be a cohesive group of people, and similar the way they were treating others was not overly endowed with neighbourly love. Confused and being led astray what they needed was some concrete teaching of Jesus and not that of those who think they can read God’s mind.

So, the writer of I John tells us (4:1) to “test the spirits.” In other words, make sure that the voices we are listening to are sincere. Those who offer simple explanations for the difficulties of life could be misleading you.

Some want you to believe that all you need to do is follow a list of do’s and don’ts. Others suggest that there is some formula you have to abide by that will make you a believer and television preachers tend to fit into one of these categories.

But the writer of 1 John states that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”(4:4) Meaning that to have faith means we don’t always understand. God is much bigger than we are. God’s ways are beyond our ability to understand everything that happens and yes in retrospect we often can see God’s hand in situations, but there are also those things that we will never understand this side of heaven, and to have faith, sometimes we will need to just trust in our Lord even when things make no sense what so ever. Like the man who was walking the streets of Sydney searching for employment. He finally found Girard, a well-known businessman who offered to give the man a job. He said, “See that pile of bricks over there? Cary them to the other end of the yard and pile them by the fence.” By nightfall the man had finished the job. He then asked if there would be work the next day. Girard told him to come back tomorrow and he would give him another job. The man returned the next morning and Girard told him to carry the same pile of bricks he had stacked the day before by the fence to their original spot. He never said a word. He did exactly as he was instructed. It became evident to Girard that he could trust the man and therefore he gave him a full time position.

God wants us to realize that there are things we don’t understand, yet God alone is in charge of the big picture. Faith is trusting in God when we don’t know what the outcome will be.

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, who wrote, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, said that the ways of God cannot always be explained.

The challenge for us is to continue to love God (and others) even when something bad happens to us. That’s faith in action. Faith in Christ grown from seeing what the Son of God, the sinless and perfect one who let himself be led like a lamb to slaughter to cover the sins of those He loved. Those He loved-, the lost and “the found”, the sad and the happy, the high and the low, the hungry and the full, the thirsty and the quenched. The imperfect, and the imperfect. The who of the human race, the whole of us and though we may become confused of events that take place in our lives, He asks us not to be confused of that event that took place on the cross for in His death, and resurrection He asks only that we know and believe that He is the Son of God, the Holy one who has brought us forgiveness and in that belief, then we are forgiven and saved. That is faith, and that is the faith known that allows us to also see past the flaws of others like He has to us.

A lesson I learnt first hand Early one morning I was walking down the street in North Adelaide to withdraw my last $20 from the ATM when near I saw a lady badly shaking and another body lying on the footpath and I immediately thought not today because of being down to my last few dollars. But as I got drew near, she didn’t ask me for money, but quite the opposite, because as I approached and as she was aware of people’s judgements-like mine she leant against the wall so that her arm stopped shaking and after being up close and not looking not from afar: I saw a young lady, well dressed talking to her son dressed in his school uniform, tired and lying on the footpath while they waited for the bus and while I withdrew my money I heard their conversation and it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

To hear the love between this mother and her Son. This mother with a handicap talking to her tired son lying on the pavement in his school cloths. No judgement of each other-Just love for each other regardless of appearances to the world and people like me.

That morning I learnt that from afar sometimes things are not as they seem. But importantly, probably more so is that even if they are, should that change the way we love each other and treat each other.

And so I, like you, live a life trying to love one another regardless if friend or foe. And live a life failing to do so as much we would wish. That’s life and whether in times of trial and tribulation or in times of falling short it is all about trust.

The trust that regardless of the hardships we face, to know that Christ is with us.

The trust that regardless of the hardships of others that we fail to help with or mess up, that Christ is still with them.

And the trust that sees us rise another day to love one another: To achieve in it and to fail in it, yet know that in both, that Jesus Christ loves us so much that He died for us. To know in both be it in love’s success or love’s failure that Christ forgives us. That’s faith and that’s the faith that you have.

You have been forgiven in Christ, and in that forgiveness will His love lead you home. And in that love we can lye on the footpath dressed in our good school cloths like that boy. In that love can we still love and cherish others though we have our personal “handicaps”. In that love we rise after we fall, and in that love shall we forever dwell to when we fall in our last moment and rise for the last time and see our blessed Lord and Saviour with angels singing and multitudes cheering halauhah, and maybe even see a little boy in crisp clean garments with his mum. And see his mum holding him close with arms strong in the strength of love. Amen.

I don’t want to go to school!

1 John 4:7-21

 

A mother who went to wake up her son:StMarks

Wake up son, it’s time to go to school.’
‘But why mum,’ he replied, ‘I don’t want to go to school.’
To which his mum replied: ‘Give me two reasons why you don’t want to go.’
‘Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me too.’ he replied.
‘Oh, that’s no reason not to go to school. Come on now, get ready.’
To which her son replied, ‘Give me two reasons why I should go to school.’
‘Well,’ his mum said ‘for one, you’re 52 years old, and for another, you’re the principal.’
Jesus has told us: “As I have loved you, love one another”

Two men:

The first, born in the great depression, his mother left shortly afterwards and his father remarried and also moved away leaving him to be raised by his grandparents.

He has spent time in jail for a marijuana-possession charge.

A bar brawling heavy whiskey drinking husband of four marriages. A nomad hitchhiking from town to town and occasionally sleeping in a cold ditch.

A man who both once had the audience of the President of the United States of America and the taxation department to the tune of back taxes owed of $32,000,000.

The second, Born in a small town of 400 people who went on to be a central part in issues of his time. In 1985 he was one of three that set up “Farm Aid” to assist and increase awareness of the importance of family farms. He heavily supported fundraising events for those suffering from the September 11 World Trade Centre attacks yet was critical of the retaliationary attack of Iraq, and is a strong supporter of the “green” Bio-fuel like we see in our petrol stations together with being an advocate against animal cruelty.

The man who has said of him of “his deep unshakeable faith” who once released a Gospel album containing favorites like Amazing Grace, Sweet Bye and Bye and the man who in turning 81 last Wednesday stated that he now looks back on his life with a clear appreciation for the blessings he’s received and that song we heard at the opening of the service titled the “Family Bible” were those of his own words and his first hit as a songwriter.

“There’s a family Bible on the table each page is torn and hard to read
But the family Bible on the table will ever be my key to memories
At the end of day when work was over and when the evening meal was done
Dad would read to us from the family Bible
And we’d count our many blessings one by one
I can see us sittin’ round the table when from the family Bible dad would read
I can hear my mother softly singing rock of ages rock of ages cleft for me. Now this old world of ours is full of trouble this old world would also better be
if we’d find more Bibles on the tables and mothers singing rock of ages cleft for me.”

The two people of seemingly different character I have put before you who are the same person-Willie Nelson.

On a study trip at the seminary a doctor who seemed to understand Christianity mentioned that of his Christian patients that visited him with self-worth problems, the common denominator was those who had received from other Christians, and pacifically those in “power” the message that they are not being Christian enough. Not being good enough and that they need to get their act together.

Hearing the law, yet not hearing the Gospel. The law without the Gospel that can only lead one of two ways, either striving for self-rigtheousness through works or as in those who came before him, despair. Fight or flight. Fight to show them you’re good enough, or flight and turn from the church that the accusations at least if not from inside, are quietened from those outside.
The law is good, Jesus told us that but the law without Gospel leads to anger and fear. A situation Martin Luther knew well who after being raised with exceptionally high Christian standards to attain believed that when the bible spoke of God’s righteousness, it referred to God the Father being very judgmental and strict to those humans who did not measure up to God’s perfection. A belief that caused him to be over zealous in performing the acts of penance and devotion in order to please God and yet though he tried so hard, he still knew that he could never attain perfection and so was left in great depression that resulted in him more on more than one occasion stating that he hated God because he was so judgmental towards him.

An early life of shame that led him through others and the guidance of God to find and know the blessed Gospel of his and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

To not like a parrot list of some feel good you’ll be right” aloof “Jesus loves you” comment. But truly understand the saint and sinner in one. A sinner in ourselves with nothing to offer and no right to salvation. Yet in Jesus, though we be earthly sinners, in Christ those shortfalls have not only been covered over for our salvation, but accepted and loved in Christ like a love we cannot grasp that though still falling to our weaknesses, faults and wayward ways, we are right with God, accepted into His Kingdom and given both a life in this world without fear of how we sit before God, as too a life without fear of where we will sit on judgement day.

God loves and accepts us because we accept His Son as our Saviour. That’s it and if we are to “love one another as He has loved us” it can only be borne from knowing that fact.

Not perfect, still stuffing up yet not to hear those who look to judge and ridicule, but look to the truth in the Word of God as the only answer. The truth of God up and against the thoughts and judgments of others and indeed ourselves upon ourselves that again Luther came to know all too well who gives us some good advice:

To “provide yourselves with armour from scripture concerning justification, which takes place through faith. Collect I say, a number of Scripture passages that ascribe righteousness to God. Then if you put your reliance of these passages, you will be able to stand even after a fall, as for example, after acts of fornication, murder and other sins.”

Work/ life balance. Yes it has a place but the both are the same people that carry both good and not so good traits. Likewise with husband and father and wife and mother. Christian in the world, yet not of it. Christian at church and Christian at the pub. Does not Christ see all and yet still accept both the Mother and the wife, the Father and the husband, the Christian at work or at home, the Christian in church or at the pub.

Willie, me and you. Saint and sinner. Jesus Christ Son of God and Lord and Saviour, unlike those who look, judge and give opinion from afar see’s the whole package and yet does deride or ridicule, but rejoices with His Father that against the flow of this world you still believe in His Words.

His words that tell us not that when a sinner sins no more, but that when a sinner comes to belief that the whole of the heavens erupt in Joyous song.

“Love one another as I have loved you.” An impossible task for us unless we see first ourselves and then Christ. And impossible for us to others unless see Christ first and then the person.

What a glorious day it will be when division, fear and judgment will be no longer. That day is not today, and so today we resist the urge to drop our eyes from the Cross, but fight the good fight to not focus on what may seem, but that which is. To that which is too see Jesus Christ the Son of God, die on a cross and be raised up and urge us not to judge the stick in the others eye when ours has a log. Urges us not to fear for ourselves or weaken the faith of others with misplaced messages of what it is to be of Christ.

But to see as vividly and real as the apostles saw Jesus come to them, see Him come to us and say peace be with you, do not fear for in me your sins are forgiven and so love each other as I have loved you.

But how. We are now complex people in a complex world where it not just “give me my daily bread” but give me a good car, house, job, superannuation fund and some time in between working for them to actually enjoy them. All good things and nothing wrong with them but sometimes we are the ones that bring in the complexity.

So “love each other as I have loved you.” But how. The guilt I carry, my inhibitions, my lack of confidence and my desire to be something, to prove myself.

How do I bear my cross, those crosses in our complex society that asks so much.

Yes, we all have crosses to bear just as do non-Christians do and as did Jesus Christ beyond what we can comprehend.

Yes Jesus loved and served and serves us. He healed the sick, turned water into wine to save the bride and groom embarrassment and raised Lazuras from the dead. Big ticket items but what of us, how can we top that. We can’t because we’re not Jesus and though our love and service for others will always be a little tainted, we can still follow in Christ’s steps. His steps where he did not have to prove anything to himself because He knew who He was: The Son of God and knew He would be raised from the dead.

He was free to serve because He knew who He was and He knew how it ended.

Love one another as I have loved you. This is not the chains of religion, but the freedom of Christ because we too know who we are, and that is forgiven sinners in Christ-He’s told us that. And in that comes the freedom to live a life free of proving oneself.

Free in Christ is to be free of seeing things not as a chore but as a life expereince. A gift.

Knowing who we are and where we end. Forgiven in Christ with eternal life waiting turns things around.

To give up smoking and in withdrawal feel the pain and strain of it and rejoice because of the awakened senses and know you’re really alive. To go to shops for groceries and not wonder if we have time, but see the wonderment of the things around us. To admire the genious of a motor car and be amazed that we can drink a glass of wine in Australia that was grown in France. To take a step back and see all this coming together and see the love of Christ in it, and see the love of Christ in those put before us who serve Him and us in their occupations and lives. And see we are not just a part of those serving in His kingdom here to get by. But can serve and live in every moment and every situation and who can love others as Christ loves us, because having being freed from ourselves, we have become free to do so, and that is a blessing to us, as much as it is to others. Praise be to Christ. Amen.

We will remember them

Psalm 23, John 10:11-18

StMarksIn World War 1, boys as young as 16 years old having lied about their age to serve, lye dying on the battle fields of Gallipoli and
France asking for their mother.

So to in Vietnam but with the age lifted to 18.

Yesterday a soldier who had been awarded the Victoria Cross in Afghanistan and after being asked if he was fearful in battle replied, yes. But predominately the fear of letting down his mates when under fire.

A statement that was on the lips of those who survived the horrors of Anzac Cove who when retreating did so with a heavy and remorseful heart knowing of the mates they were leaving behind buried in the mud.

A statement of the lips of the soldiers of the South in Gettysburg during the American Civil war. Groups of soldiers, farmers, shop clerks and all parts of society led by a leader they loved and would prefer to die for than give up.  Their leader Robert E Lee who did not lead on the basis of slavery or politics, but purely on the basis that he was from the South.

The same man who when in church and noticing a southern slave resume his seat when he realised that the whites were about to take communion, went to him, put out his hand and responded that before God we are all equal.

Gallipoli, a tragedy and a lost battle that helped shape a nation of whose citizens are the only ones of any country in the world that flock in such numbers to a losing battlefield half way around the other side of the world.

I wonder what the Anzacs that lay in those fields would say to those of today who go to pay homage, and I wonder what those who go today would say to those of 1915 in the trenches waiting for the thrill of a whistle that would see them charge into no man’s land and fall next to the fallen.

Yesterday at Anzac Cove Australians, New Zealanders, British and the French remembered those who had fallen in that attack on a foreign land as one, together with those who came to remember those of their own country who saw 80,000 of their own Turkish Brothers fall protecting their homeland.

If we could turn back time what would those of past say of such an outcome and what would those still fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Kenya and the troubled and bloodshed countries of today say if we said the same to them of what may await.

If we could turn back time and visit our parents and tell them it will be O.K. as they see their child in fear and hurt, and would they listen. And if we could turn back time and visit that child and say to yourself it will be O.K., could it have changed anything.  And what if it could?

Old foes of the past, now united in death. New foes still apart and those of us saved despite our past and those still walking through the blood and guts of their personal battlefield.

Scattered and lost, United yet alone.

War, trouble and pain cause divisions of those for and against. Fighting for our freedom against the oppressors and the oppressors against those looking to return oppression.

In the book 1984 written by George Orwell in 1949 he saw a future in our time where governments would change from being allies with one country to that of enemies with the stroke of a pen. One minute fighting for a friend then fighting against them and if we look to what’s going on now in the world he’s not far from the truth.

Political bias. Deception, lies, misinformation, greed, individual ties of the past and self- preservation dictating who to die for and who to kill.

A confused world and people not unlike those who cheered Jesus arrival into Jerusalem just as they cheered as he made his way beaten and scourged to the cross. Confusion we suffer not unlike the twelve that followed Jesus only to turn their back and to deny Him.

Jesus who on the cross did not see allies coming to save, but only enemies intent to exclude.

The stone that the builders rejected, who become the cornerstone that those that rejected he, not continue to tear down His house, but be built in it.

The Good Shepherd who before we were formed in the womb, knew us.  The Good Shepherd on His cross who when we knew Him not, asks His father to forgive us for we Knew not what we did. And the Good Shepherd that knocks on our door and enters our lives that we may enter into His righteousness and see and know those words of Psalm 23 for ourselves.

See that though we strive for self, in Him we need not want.

See that though we strive in the anguish of worldly goods, fame and happiness, in Him only do we find green pastures and still waters.

See that though we heed to the darkness and strive for perfection and a life without remorse or guilt, find that such a peace of heart can only be of His righteousness freely given.

To see that though our enemies surround us in contempt and rant, in hatred and threatening noise, we hear His whisper comforting our troubled hearts as our cup overflows through His gifts of Baptism and Holy Communion.

And yes, rather that though it seemed a shadow of the valley of death, it was but a road paved in mercy, girded from the wood of a cross and its light not of this world, but that of the light of Christ and see that though we may wonder, our shepherd walks with us that we not need wander of His love for us, but see that the grace that others saw on the cross we too see in ours and know that in Him, that for however it may seem, the Shepherd has guided the lost home, and no matter what may become, because of the love that He maintain, in His house there shall we remain. Amen.

What’s the chances

“What’s the chances”

 

Luke 24:25-35StMarks

 

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne, and his wife, Sophie, were shot dead in Sarajevo by a group of six assassins with the political objective to break off Austria-Hungary’s provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassins’ motives were consistent with the movement that later became known as Young Bosnia. The assassination led directly to the First World War when Austria-Hungary subsequently issued an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, which was partially rejected. Austria-Hungary then declared war. Franz Ferdinand’s car in which he was assassinated had a license plate that read “A III118″. World War 1 ended with an Armistice, a peace agreement on 11-11-18, and during the second world war, when Soviet archaeologists opened the tomb of Tamerlane, a Mongol descendant of Genghis Khan, they found an inscription that read, “Whoever opens my tomb will unleash an invader more terrible than I”. It was June 20 1941. Germany invaded the Soviet Union two days later on June 22.

Two amazing co-incidences that some may label mysteries.

 

Next Saturday is Anzac day, a day that we pay tribute to those who have served us in and with their lives, that we live our lives in a free country.

But today we look to our Lord, to revere, praise, worship and thank our Lord for the life He has given to us in both our lives now, and when the times arrives, in our death.

 

And today, through our Lord we look at three mysteries from our Gospel text.

  1. There is Jesus who walks with his two disciples and talks with them, and they don’t recognise him.
  2. Jesus explains the Scriptures to the two disciples who don’t recognise him, and it is like a fire burning inside them.
  3. There is the mystery of the breaking of the bread, the moment when the two disciples recognise Jesus, and he disappears.
  1. The first mystery

Jesus comes to his disciples as a stranger. It happens on the beach, early one morning after the disciples had fished all night and caught nothing. The Scripture says,

 

“but all that night they did not catch a thing. As the sun was rising, Jesus stood at the water’s edge, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.”

 

It happens again in the locked room, when his disciples think they are seeing a ghost. They are scared out of their wits, but Jesus keeps assuring them “Don’t be afraid! Peace be with you!” Jesus shows them his hands and his side and asks them to touch him to be assured it is he, and not some scary phantom from Hades or wherever ghosts come from.

And it is important to note that Jesus comes to people whether they recognise him, or not. He comes whether they are ready for him or not. Jesus comes when he is ready. When he comes, he shows himself to be fully and completely alive. It is really him. Ask Thomas! But his risen body has also been made new in a way that goes beyond the laws of nature and physics that rule us and our bodies. Jesus is able to enter and leave the disciples presence in an instant – even when they are in a locked room. This is a mystery of the risen Lord. We have difficulty grasping the miracles we see in nature. A flower, opening into a beautiful bloom or a tiny bird hatching out of an egg. Our world is full of delightful miracles. How much more are we in awe of the mystery of Jesus alive again, gloriously raised from the tomb?

It hard to fathom, the Creator of all miracles walking around as a human being, obeying the laws he put into nature. It is even more fascinating when he is greater than the laws of nature and physics. He who works miracles in nature, turning water into wine, walking on water, appears back from the dead after three days. Jesus is God at work. We can’t explain his work in mere scientific terms. We leave the mystery at that.

When Jesus appears to us he might still come as a stranger, and we might not recognise him. In Matthew 25 we read how Jesus might come and visit us dressed down as a beggar in dire need of help, desperately needing a glass of water, or a bite of food to eat, or needing some of our clothes to wear. He might even come to our home as a stranger who needs a place to rest.

Jesus is thankful for our care for him when he comes to us as a stranger. Jesus says,

“I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me”.

And that may be a little scary! And so He still comes to us with the words of truth that wqe need to hear “Don’t be afraid. Peace be with you. Your sins are forgiven”. Go in peace.”

 

  1. The second mystery

Jesus comes and explains the Scriptures to the two disciples.

If there was ever a conversation that we would love to overhear, it would have to be when Jesus opened up the Scriptures to his two disciples as they walked along together. Of course the Scriptures he used are what we now call the Old Testament. We might think of it as a book. In those days it was a collection of scrolls, all written in Hebrew. How does one fathom the meaning and main purpose of the Scriptures? Again, the Word comes to us in human form and words. This in itself can be a mystery to us. We might prefer that God would sit in heaven, write it all down, and hand it down to us. But it comes to us in human form! What do we make of it?

Some people treat the Bible as a magic book, with secret numbers and hidden messages about the future of people on our earth. Some people like to kiss it, and bow down to the Scriptures. Are we meant to worship it, or do Christians only worship the living God who comes to us in the Scriptures?

Is there a secret to the Scriptures? Yes. There is a secret key to understanding the Scriptures. In verse 27 of our text we read, “And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the book of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.”

Right from the beginning, and right through to the end, these Scriptures are all pointing to Jesus. The key to understanding the Scriptures is Jesus. If we are to understand the Scriptures, then we need to look for Jesus in the words and paragraphs. Jesus is the key who opens up the mysteries of the Scriptures.

It would great to know which passages Jesus took from the Old Testament and said, “This refers to me,” but we aren’t told. Maybe it was Isaiah 53? There is a hint in Jesus’ words when he says, “Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things …”? Did Jesus tell them about the Passover Lamb, and how the lamb was taken in its prime, and sacrificed, and the flesh eaten with the unleavened bread? It’s probable the Passover Lamb was included, but again we are not told. It remains a mystery which passages of Scripture Jesus said pointed to him.

If we want to know which passages of Scripture are more important than others, then we know to look for Jesus there. He is the key for us to understand the Scriptures. There is much we don’t fully grasp about the Scriptures, and we don’t need to. What we know is that Jesus is the key to God’s central message of Scripture – the same one who suffered the worst on the cross for us.

It is interesting that the two disciples still didn’t recognise it was Jesus himself who was explaining the Scriptures to them. It is significant that their hearts burned within them – a pointer to the Holy Spirit and the fires that would burn at Pentecost.

  1. The third mystery is the breaking of the bread.

We cannot explain in scientific terms how this happened. When Christians try and explain what happens in Holy Communion they can easily empty it of its real blessings.

There is ordinary bread and wine. Jesus takes the bread, as God’s people had been doing for several thousand years. Jesus then breaks the bread, and gives it to them, saying, “Take and eat, this is my body, given for you.” And then he took the cup – we know the words!

Saint Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11,

“Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

 

The two disciples at Emmaus immediately recognise the risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread. There is a deep mystery here that we can’t explain in scientific terms. The two disciples are so excited and overcome with emotion and joy,

“They got up at once and went back to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven disciples gathered together. The two then explained to them what had happened on the road, and how they had recognised the Lord when he broke the bread.”

 

Holy Communion is our celebration of Easter, when the risen Lord Jesus comes to us, bringing victory and forgiveness in the bread and the wine. The risen Jesus who suffered and died for us comes to visit us in the bread and wine every time we join in the Lord’s Supper. He comes as the Lamb of God who was offered up in sacrifice for us. He comes bringing forgiveness, with the message, “Don’t be afraid. Peace be with you. Your sins are forgiven.”

 

The risen Jesus comes to us again and again as we travel through this life. We never travel alone. He walks with us. He talks with us.

The risen Jesus, the same one who was sacrificed for us on the cross, visits each one of us personally today in the breaking of the bread. A profound and wonderful mystery. But a mystery behind a truth that you never need doubt, that yes, Your sins are forgiven. Thanks be to God!

Amen.

To Church or not to Church

John 20: 19-31

StMarksLiving in our times of self, it seems that via the media, many people say we do not need traditional churches, and in a sense
O.K. it is true that going to church is not a requirement of salvation. But the one’s I hear on talk back radio saying to “get rid of the church because it’s not relevant” are mainly non-Christians.

Non-Christians who see no need for organised church and yet I would imagine still see the need for the Christian schools and the Christian hospitals because make no mistake if they were closed, whatever our current billion or so deficit is now, without these church run facilities, that deficit would look like chicken feed.

I think that’s something the church knockers miss. Never mind that it’s the churches that run many op shops for the short of cash. The churches that many people knock on the door for a hand for money to buy food and petrol.  And the churches that run many hostels that provide food and shelter to the homeless and needy.

I would hope that even the harshest critic could see some benefit of the churches still being in our society.

Real benefits, but real benefits that are the offshoot of a greater reality of which John emphases in his Gospel writings, and today’s closing Gospel verses Verses of 30 & 31 for all intensive purposes could be titled “The purpose of this book.”

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name”.

People commonly and mistakenly think that biblical books were written mainly to provide rules for godly living.

But here John, the author of this Gospel, clearly states its purpose and summarises its central message, and God Speaking through John, announces that the core message is the Good News that Jesus is His Son and that by His name; we have life and salvation, and we can imagine John writing the Gospel with the words on his lips and the desire in his mind and the prayer in his heart that he  “Gladly share this Good News, O God, that others may believe and live.”

And if we look at those closing verses of 30 & 31, in being the conclusion of the previous paragraphs, we see that John, and all followers of Jesus are sent out upon their task in the power of the Holy Spirit, and equipped with their own story in relation to being saved in Christ as a confession of their faith, says all that need to be said.

Jesus is our life, and in Jesus Christians although different in many or all ways, we stand united around Jesus in His church and when we think of all these different buildings this morning housing Christians of other denominations, we see not bricks and mortar, but see and receive in the mission of Jesus himself, which through the Spirit, is perpetuated in the mission of the church; and then the amazing reality that the church by its faith is related to Christ as Christ is to God.

And if that’s not amazing enough, another reality is that In when Jesus when he walked this earth-those people were not confronted by just a Jewish rabbi, but by God himself, and so then following, like to the apostles, the commission, the gift of the spirit and the authority are given to the apostolic church.

The Christian churches, our church that then follow in the apostolic mission of the church, where the world is not confronted merely by a human institution, but by Jesus the Son of God, and when we think of that, we see why it is so important to follow God’s scripture and not that of our own  making because as Jesus in his ministry was entirely dependent upon and obedient to God the Father, who sealed and sanctified him, so are the churches the apostolic church by virtue of being commissioned by Christ, and sanctified because  Jesus breathed the Spirit into it.

Now I would think that if I rang up a radio station and said all this on behalf of our gathering I would reckon the rest of the show would be taken up with all soughts of accusations with the old favourite sure to be there of “what a bunch of hypocrites. “

And that would be true if we thought we were the church and not Christ’s.

And it would be true if we thought we were perfect and like not that of Christ.

Hypocrites-no. Sinners- yes. Forgiven in Christ alone and from no part of our own-absolutely.

Yes the Church is still a big deal, because Christ is the deal and though we as individuals may not glow like the risen Christ before the apostles, we glow in the fact that those physical scars that his risen body still carried from His time of the cross were established for us. The scars He endured in death and still carried after His resurrection that we with our own scare tissue can in our work places and homes not be judgmental and intolerant, but rather like Jesus who when confronted by doubting Thomas, did not tell him of or ridicule him, but remained with him, taught and nurtured him and in doing so, talked of you: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.”

That’s some high praise of you “guys”. It may not seem like when God said that King David was a man after his own heart, but it’s up there.

Blessed are you because you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who died for your sins that you are forgiven and have eternal life.

And forgiven you are, forgiven so that you need not dwell on past sins. Forgiven so you not doubt the word of God, but forgiven that you here, no matter the scars you carry or the burdens you bear, blessed are you for you now have seen the Lord. Seen the Lord come to you when at your worst. Seen the Lord carry you when you could not carry yourself, and seen the holy and powerful Lord reduce Himself to be treated like a criminal and hung from the cross that sinners like you and me, that forgiven sinners like you and me not dwell in our own mortality, but dwell in the Lord’s immortality, raise our heads and cry “He is risen”, Yes he has risen indeed as too will you and those who put their faith in Him.

Not the words of insincere hypocrites, but the genuine and sincere witness of the church, of you and of me that we are blessed to take to the world. Amen.