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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.

True cheers of Joy

True cheers of Joy

John 20:1-18

 

StMarksGood Friday I watched a documentary about two of America’s most infamous African-American gangs, the Crips and the bloods. South Central LA, a strip between Rodeo Drive and Hollywood that in the 50’s was separated by highways that were not to be crossed by those marginalised inside or those of racial anger or fear encircling this suburb of internment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Un yet still she cries.

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

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

So today we celebrate and far from hopelessness, should we weep our tears cry of thanks and hope. The sure hope in Christ that:

Because he lives, we can face tomorrow

                (that) Because he lives, all fear is gone

                (that) Because we know he holds the future

                That future is worth  living,  because we know that as He lives, so do we!

Amen.

Just what’s going on?

Mark 11:1-11

 

Just what is going on in this world? Sometimes it’s hard to fathom and wonder of what awaits us in the future.

StMarksIt’s the year 2020 and things have changed. Our country has been annexed by a brutal adversary. Our individual wealth has been taken, our right to free speech and travel is monitored and acted on should the government deem us a risk and daily we are humiliated that our spirit be broken and fall into line and for us in the Church, our last bastion of safety and identity is under attack in that if we persist to adhere to our principles of marriage, right to life and of the one true God and Saviour then first the Pastors and priests, and then those still holding firm will at the least be confirmed as a terrorist to the “state” and thrown in prison without the need for a court of law or any proof other than our statements of faith.

There seems no hope until we hear that finally, an allied nation of great strength is storming towards us with a great flotilla of warships laden with a vast cargo of highly trained and equipped military service men and women and as they arrive in Botany Bay our jubilation cannot be contained.

Finally we will be free again. But then nothing and our cheers turn to despair, confusion, fear and anger.

Best not to throw stones when we live in glass houses because should we be there in this fictional future day, would we any different from those of past.

Those of past who see their own flotilla of hope arrive at their Botany Bay that is Jerusalem. A Flotilla of twelve led by the promised one that is a man named Jesus Christ and alongside them we sing and voice with great joy “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” while shouting our customary cry of desperation of “save us now” in the form of the word “Hosanna.”

Hosanna, save us now-a word for those searching and confused people who knew one thing: that they wanted to be saved.

A word that gives voice to Israel’s anguish and misery and its hope too. Israel which had been ground into the dust by the brutality of the Roman Empire. They had been taxed into poverty by Caesar. They had been humiliated and had their pride taken away from them. And they wanted somehow to be rescued and restored. They wanted to see God’s power crush those who had crushed them. They wanted God’s might and majesty to destroy those who had destroyed their nation and their spirit. And they had seized on the promises of God in the prophets that He would send them a saviour who would do all this.

Singing and shouting: Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. But just a few hours after this, Jesus, who is carried into Jerusalem in triumph will walk through the same streets, this time himself doing the carrying – the cross.

Instead of a warrior king, what did they get? A man on a cross – somebody who was apparently as easily crushed as they were, somebody who (very soon after entering Jerusalem as a king) let himself be arrested, scourged and beaten and condemned to death.

Instead of a powerful rescuer who punished God’s enemies and expelled them from the land God had given them, they got a weakling – a king who would not even pick up a sword to defend himself, but instead hung pathetically on a cross and prayed that God would forgive his murderers. What power is there in that? How was that going to save them? Jesus was a victim. They wanted a warrior. Jesus was all love. They needed power.

And in their frustration and contempt, they shout at Jesus on the cross with the words “Come on you claim to save others but you cannot save yourself!”

If we enter their time we can see how they had no idea that all the time there was something much bigger and much more important than the fate of their little country at stake. They had no idea of the salvation being hammered out for the world, no idea that God’s power was being revealed here on the cross once and for all and can see the truth in Paul statement that “God’s wisdom in sending Jesus to die for all people seemed like foolishness to the world. “

At least the people of those times had a good excuse because they did not have the benefit of hindsight like we do in the books of the New Testament.

Yet if we look around at how lives are lived today we see the same thing going on – now as then.

People want to be saved. We live in the grip of the same fears and struggles and burdens as the people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. We want understandably to be saved from the threat of terrorist attack. We want to be saved from illness and death. We want to be saved from unemployment and financial problems and poverty in our old age. We want to be saved from loneliness and grief. We need a powerful saviour – somebody or something who can beat all our enemies. “Hosanna!” we yell. “Save us!”

And just like Israel, the natural thing is to turn to some source of power. Maybe we need to turn to the kind of power that comes out the barrel of a gun and declare war on terror, and kill all the terrorists before they kill us. Eradicate our enemies. Or there’s the power of money in that if we have enough security and protection and possessions, perhaps we will be safe.

And yet, sooner or later we face up to the fact that no matter how much we surround ourselves with the arsenal of the world and its comforts and protectors, we will never be safe for eventually death will still find us and tragedy’s can still knock on our doors.

Yes, we were in those crowds and we still are. “Blessed be the Lord” and then in confusion and hurt “why Lord?”

Yet hear our Saviour beaten and bruised by us and for us ask His Father to “Forgive them they no not what they do. “

To stand alongside Paul and know that we do what we don’t want to and don’t want we want to do and cry to the Lord “to take these thorns from our flesh” only to hear “my grace is sufficient for thee”

The words of God that seem to deride and ridicule. Words that in our hardest of situations seem foolish. “She’ll be right mate” or in contemporary society “to suck it up,” and so fall to our knees like Jesus in agony and prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest, torture and death and ask  God the Father is there another way? And then see not ridicule and derision but see our God of all wisdom and love proclaim that “my grace is sufficient for thee.”

His grace given to us through his Son Jesus Christ who after crying for another way finished with “but not as I will, but as you will.”

The will of the Father that when the cheers and joy around us fade we still kneel at the foot of the cross and see his grace that lets us stand with the resurrected Christ.

The will of the Father that as we travel through our valleys in the shadow of death see we are not alone, but with by our resurrected saviour who guides, strengthens and in need, carries us that we not perish in our sins, but reside in the grace of God the Father.

The will of the Father that does not unleash his wrath on our world, but his will that we accept his Grace won for us through his Son and with the apostle Paul profess like him: that

 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2nd Corinthians 12:5-9).

The Lord’s grace is most sufficient for us and in that when we are weak we are strong. Weak in self, yet strong in Christ that we fight our thorns of the flesh that they be not a wall between His grace, but a bridge to safety.

A bridge that we cross carrying our thorns yet leaving them behind as we instead bear our crosses as we follow Jesus. Fighting the good and running the good race in faith that come what may; His will has been done in you when you came to faith.

And in that faith, let us all pray for the help we need today, not that boast in ourselves, but that in the power of our Lord and Saviour we heed His wish that:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

And so today. Though weary and burdened we may be-we put our todays in the Lord’s hands as we have put our heavenly tomorrows and know, that there is no other way, for on our travels and in the grace of God, both kneeling at the Cross and standing in exultation with the risen Christ, we have been brought to see, trust and be thankful that yes, Jesus Christ is our only way, our truth and our life. Amen.

Look up and live

Look up and live

Numbers 21:4-9, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21

Psalm 121 begins, “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”

StMarksHow often in life do you find yourself in the depths of despair or frustration only to feel a call within yourself to lift up your eyes and search for help?

Our emphasis today is on lifting up and looking up, what does it mean for us, how does it take place and what are the benefits.

Moses and the Israelites were taking the long way round to get to the Promised Land, they were bickering and moaning to Moses and against God for taking them away from a life that even though it was unpleasant and hard work, provided them with food and water and a place to rest. They felt that they would probably die in the wilderness and the food they were getting was a bit bland. So what did God do to fix it? He didn’t remove them from the wilderness, he sent venomous snakes among them and many of the Israelites died!  The wrath of God on display and yet when Moses prayed to God on behalf of the people God said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”  And so, an antidote given from God that when the people were bitten they looked up and lived.

We could be a little perplexed by this scenario because last week we heard that “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” And here is God telling Moses to make a snake from bronze and place it on a pole and get the people to look at it!  The thing to realise in this case is that God commanded Moses to make it, and also in the original commandments they were told “You shall not bow down to them or worship them”, they weren’t bowing down and worshipping, they were looking up and being healed and in doing so they were reminded of how God provides for their healing and his power over all things.

Another important point is that God didn’t stop the snakes from biting after Moses prayed, he still allowed the snakes to bite the Israelites, but then provided them with the antidote in the snake lifted up for them to see.  The antidote, being supplied by God, and so God himself providing the healing that is needed to bring them from death to life.

Our gospel reading makes the connection for us between the snake being lifted up in the wilderness for the Israelites and the son of man being lifted up.  We know in retrospect that Jesus was lifted up on the cross at Calvary, he was hung there for all to see, even if it was only for a short time, he was hung up there.  So what is the connection between a slithering and silent killer like a snake and the son of man who came to give his life for our sake?  You know the answer to that as well as I do…when the Israelites looked to the snake they were healed, saved from certain death.

Jesus was hung on the cross to save us from our certain death.  The healing that takes place through him on the cross takes us from death to new life in him.  Our second reading today describes this healing beautifully for us.  “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live…like the rest we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us , God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”

Just like the Israelites who were bitten by the snakes, we were bitten by sin, through the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve.  We are surrounded daily by the slithering silent evil that longs to tempt us away from our focus on Christ and the cross on which he died to bring us healing from that sin.

Each and every one of us struggles with sin on a daily basis, there are events and challenges in the lives of all of us that threaten to swamp us, they feel like quicksand dragging us down feet first, like weeds wrapping around us and trying to trip us, like nets binding us hand and foot.  But even someone who is desperately trying to cling onto life can look up and live.

The Israelites looked to the bronze snake on the pole and they lived.  We have Christ on the cross to look to and to remind us that in fact we are already healed, and even better than that, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

This takes us beyond the cross, we need not only look at the cross, but through the cross and see the resurrection of Christ in victory over death and to his ascension into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the father.  From there he prays for us, just like Moses prayed to God the Father on behalf of the Israelites, Jesus is sitting in his place in heaven bringing our needs before God.

None of this is our doing, as we heard in the opening, from Psalm 121, “our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”  And then in our second reading another way of saying it, “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

God gave us his son, to be lifted up on the cross, just like Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so that when sin bites us and threatens to bring about our spiritual death, we too have somewhere to look for help, we lift our eyes to the cross, but then through the cross to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, all the while knowing in our heart of hearts that it is by grace that we have been saved, this isn’t something just for the future, but also saved here in our todays.

When I was young I was not tough enough to get a tattoo and now old I’m not cool or hip enough. That’s fine but what we should all have inscribed with un perishable ink of our hearts and minds is that most loved and to the point text from John 3:16 and the accompanying verse from John 5:24:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

(and) “Truly, Truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life..(and)..does not come into judgement, but has passed from life to death.”

So yes today, we can, we should and we must, in the truth of what we were and of what we have become stand at the base of the cross with our earthly sin and to lift our eyes to the Son of Man who was lifted up for our sake and see ourselves lifted up with Him that we carry on in the time allotted to us. Heavy in our sin, yet unburdened through His righteousness, knowing our inadequacies yet flourishing in His sufficiency and abundance and wether in self-disdain or denial, look up and see a saviour, our saviour, your saviour with eyes moist in affection toward you who He loves so great. The love He asks you accept without regard to your human standards, but to His standards which He has brought to your lives in the grace of God, the forgiveness of your sins and the peace of that in faith so shall you remain that you are given the ability to carry on no matter what your position or situation in life. To to lift up the burdened and free the chained as He has done to you. Because in you, regardless of your own thoughts, doubts, maybe’s if’s and buts, in you do I and the world see the masterpiece of God. And that is a sinner saved through the grace of God who will live in and for eternity. That is our truth, and that is our statement to this world, not that we boast or they envy, but that they hear of the unfathomable love of Christ through the simple words of those like us, and know that yes-it must be true for there could have been no other way. Amen.

Does anybody really care

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

StMarks

In a philosophy class one of the first things we were asked was that if a tree falls in the forest but no one was there did it really fall?

I would say yes, but more importantly, who cares?

Don’t get me wrong I like pondering over things and when I used to visit my Father, Cathy tells me she and my mum would say “well that’s politics and sport done and so only religion to go.”

Philosopher “sizing” about things can be interesting, eye opening and fun and yet, without the gift of the Holy Spirit the smartest philosophers in the world can’t tell us a thing about God’s love.

A person could read about human beings and their great love stories in a novel, but still not know that God’s love is deeper and higher than any human love

We could study the rich variety of trees and animals, the seas and its creatures, the stars and black holes in space, and anything else in the universe caused by the creative genius of God.

But these majestic pieces of the cosmos still can’t tell us that the real essence of God the Father who is a God of Love.

One could philosophise and knowingly say, “Whoever designed and caused the human beings to live on this planet must have been more than super ingenious and whoever created the stars and space and time has it all perfect, and must be the finest and most powerful craftsman ever.” All true.

One might also conclude that God is not only supremely powerful, but at the same time cruel, the way death is part of nature and human existence. So then, in that manner-no, creation does not show us the God of love.

We really can only know the full depth of God’s love by looking at the cross.

That the all-powerful God would personally go to be crucified for you and me is shattering, mind blowing stuff. The cross teaches us more about God the creator than any study about his creation.

On the cross we see God seemingly at his weakest. People do with him what they like! The spit on him, mock him, humiliate him, whip him, and God bleeds.Only a few nails hold him to the cross. God is held by a handful of nails to the timber – part of his own creation.

There God dies, seemingly as weak as the day he came into the world.

Our Saviour Jesus who entered the world a helpless baby. Who depended on a couple of humans called Mary and Joseph to look after him and keep him alive only to leave the world helpless, along with a couple of criminals for company who also hang and die on several pieces of wood.

Yet in that picture of the cross we see the love of God reaching out to all types of people.

The love of God that continually in our confused lives reaches out to you and me that we know that:“The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is     stronger than human strength.”

There, on the cross, we see what our sin has done to God and what it can do to us.

We destroy the genius who designed us and gave us life: the same one who brought us into this world and gave us the freedom to enjoy it with him, and with one another.

The freedom to reject him and drive him out so we can claim the universe for ourselves, and keep all the glory and praise for ourselves.

Would we willingly let anything we made turn on us and destroy us. No we’d use force. If we invented human beings we’d keep full control. Humans would be like puppets that couldn’t move unless we pulled the strings. To our way of thinking it is foolish of God to let people think for themselves, or have the power to turn on God.

Yet the one with all the power, God the Father doesn’t rule people by force but chooses to win people by his divine love.

God prefers people to show love and praise and trust rather than rule with an iron fist.

God chose to enter the world in Jesus so he could be close to us, and we could be close to him. He came because he cares.

Our weakest point is our selfishness and can separate us from God. So God chose the cross to meet us in our weakness. His Son Jesus given to us in love, who came to us in love so we would never be separated from God and his love again.

God could use his power to wipe out the human race. He could send a terrible disease that doesn’t respond to any treatment; or a meteor that would smash the world and destroy all human life. But God chooses to use a cross, made of wood. A cross the same as any other cross the Romans used for executing criminals.

And yet on this one hangs the Son of God. The Son of God taking our places.

To those there. The Son of God, yer right. The apostles after following Jesus seeing miracles of untold power and words of mighty love and wisdom see him seemingly defeated and ask themselves “what was that?”

Given the circumstances a fair enough question.

Yet they would soon understand as we have that God chooses that way to show his loving concern for them, for you and for me. Our God who wants to win people by his love, and not by brutal force.

The cross of Jesus is the place we see the power of human sin. Our sin that was so great in God’s eyes that Jesus went ahead and paid for it even before we were born.

Things happen in our lives that we simply don’t understand and often unfairly God gets the blame.

He understands that sometimes we would like a puppet master God who clears the path by forcing us this or that way but we all know how that works out when we are told not to do something without understanding why, we try to do it or at the least become resentful of our inequality of freedom.

But if we really just think for a moment: if there were no cross of Jesus, then the song “Amazing Grace” wouldn’t exist. And Amazing grace it is-and it’s our grace. It’s your grace and no matter what we think of ourselves or each other.

In belief in Jesus Christ as your saviour, my saviour-We are saved. And that is: The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding. Amen.

Walk a mile in my shoes

“Genesis 17:1-7, 15, 16: Mark 8:31-38: Romans 4:13-25”

StMarksApartheid in South Africa was a terrible thing and rightfully condemned by the world. Two sets of people in one land separated by the colour of their skin. One child unbeknown to itself born into an earthly life of good fortune, and one child unbeknown to itself born into an earthly life of misfortune.

The “same” children separated by a controlled fence between The United States of America and Mexico. The “same” children separated through royal blood line and those not and the “same” children in our communities separated unbeknown to themselves to be born into a stable home environment or an environment of physical or emotional abuse that may shape their understanding and actions that seem inexcusable to those who have not walked that path.

As a child, many times when someone nationally or in our own community was having their character attacked I remember how my mum used to mention the chorus from an old song that says

“Walk a mile in my shoes, before you abuse, criticize and accuse, walk a mile in my shoes”

It goes on:

“If I could be you, if you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind,
If you could see you through my eyes instead of your own
I believe you’d be surprised to see that you’ve been blind.

Now your whole world you see around you is just a reflection
And the law of Karma says you’re gonna reap just what you sow
So unless you’ve lived a life of total perfection
You’d better be careful of every stone that you should throw

And there are people on reservations and out in the ghettos
And brother, there, but for the grace of God, go you and I..”

In sin there bar the grace of God we all went because we all, unbeknown to ourselves were to be born sinful because of things outside ourselves that took place 4,000 years before in the Garden of Eden.

We never asked to be sinners, yet we sin because we were born that way. Born into sin yet ironically, still of the blood line of our very first ancestors born as his created children and of the likeness of himself, God our Father.

 God our Father who gave his Son Jesus to walk in our shoes that in Him in the Grace of God we do go.

Saved not in works or merit, but saved in faith in Christ alone. The truth that we know and yet because it is so opposite to our natural thinking we are tempted to limit God to the size of our purposes or to doubt the breadth of God’s generosity or the surprising power of his activity.

It’s a condition in which we were born and that is why we not dwell on our own logic and human wisdom but on that of the Word of God. The same Word of God given to us as that to Abraham who as a hundred year old man and with his wife Sarah beyond child bearing years was to be given a Son that of which would come great nations and kings.

A promise from God to Abraham that against all probability we are told in verse 18 from today’s Romans text that in “faithful” hope he believed against “earthly” hope.

A promise that would see his birth lineage become the Jewish people of God, and a promise that would see the gentiles, us become part of that lineage as the people of God through the birth of Jesus to Joseph and Mary.

In Jesus, we are part of that bloodline and so, to us as to was Abraham the book of Romans through the Apostle Paul sets forth the gospel of justification by faith apart from works of the law and maintains that, since that is so, no one can boast about being able to obtain justification by works of the law, for both Jew and Gentile.

And in today’s particular text itself, Paul takes up the story of Abraham as a proof that justification is by faith, not works. After all, he says, the great patriarch Abraham was justified by faith, not by observing works of the law. He was justified while he was technically still a Gentile, since he was declared justified prior to being circumcised and moreover, as the law of Moses was not given until many centuries after Abraham was declared righteous, he clearly could not have been justified by doing works of the law.

In researching this message I found how the blood lines and associated promises play out as both interesting and comforting. Yet these are not mere words on a piece of paper, these are the Words and promises of God that are alive and working even when we don’t realise it.

The Word of God given to a sinner like me who when at my worst, in a car troubled and anxious in life and with the tell-tale signs of alcohol and tobacco smells and packaging as my passenger, was approached by what we would judge to be a homeless drunk, who peered through my window without judgement nor in a state such as my own, and announce both forcefully and with urgency “that Jesus knows who you are, and you are one of His.”

A few words said to me when I deserved them least, but needed them most that changed if not my life, changed how I viewed it and most importantly, how I was viewed by a loving Lord who has crossed the tracks, and though he did not sin, walked those paths and knows the pain and knows the need.

Jesus Christ knows who you are, and you are one of His and regardless of your current state, He comes to you today.

Today in His Word He comes to you and says you are mine and always will be, and in faith rather than in our self, He asks we take Him on face value. To accept in Holy Communion not just a piece of bread and sip of wine, but the very body and blood that He gave on the cross that you need not doubt, but know as He knows that the fence between sinners and God has been torn down that now here today, be we in soiled clothing and poor in spirit or joyous and abounding in faith-as one we can trust that in Him, God the Father sees not that little baby born to a life of self- hatred and self-abuse, sees not that little baby born of affluence yet still bound to a body of sin. Sees not what has become but still sees that little child who He knew would have to walk regardless of birth circumstance and location through the great tribulation of this fractured world.

The walk that He walked not that we see barriers between poor and rich. Not barriers between black nor white and nor heaven itself. But before God standing as one in faith hearing both collectively and individually-I know who you are and you are one of mine and I forgive you of your sins, and so come what may-I am in you and you in me and forever shall I stand alongside you on this earth, and the one to come. Amen.

The Great Flood

Genesis 9:8-17, Mark 1:9-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22

The great flood

Pastor SteveOur first reading today talks of the great flood and funnily enough, yesterday I had dropped into the manse a box of books from a family member of a dearly departed loved one and when looking through I found a book about the great flood written in 1956.

It was very interesting and so, there went two hours of sermon writing time “out the window” so to speak.

It had many interesting points and seemingly in 1956, from his quotes it would seem that a large percentage of scientists actually believed that the bible stacked up not against their scientific outcomes, but actually informed, sat alongside and confirmed them to be true in regards to both creation and that the flood of Noahs time caused things such as the geological rock layers from a great floods after effects rather than from billions of years in formation. A flood of such ferocity that from the mixing and smashing of waves and so forth would see sand, rock and fossils settling from various weight and so forth to the levels as they are now from seeping through the soggy ground. Of course this can be said of forming the same over billions of years to the same effect, except, that going through these levels can be found tree trunks and other matter that dissects between them. How’s that work if not from a sudden almighty incident. Maybe a tree that stood firm for a billion years. That’s one tough tree.

Another thing that interested me was of course of what we already know. Being that oil is from fossils and coal from wood. But if we can imagine the mighty wash of the flood it makes sense that whole forests and schools of fish would be covered with soil that would later bring about those reserves to be found in a later period like ours.

As Christians that is a pretty universal understanding but what interested me was the thoughts from the author and many scientists of his time was that prior to the flood, the earth was not on a tilted axis as it is now. Meaning not the seasons as we know them now, but an even climate throughout that supports how the animals of all regions could gather in one spot and co-habitat in the one habitat as in the ark.

Could sound a bit like lunacy but good old google tells me that current day scientists such as Richard Gross of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has stated that earthquakes such as the magnitude 9.00 earthquake in Japan last year may have shifted the earth’s axis and shortened the length of an earthly day by 1.8 millionths of a second.

Hardly anything to worry about but if as many great flood commentators believe, that at the time of the flood that both the underground water gushing up and the climate to bring such rain was through the eruption of massive amounts  of volcanoes going off together, I imagine good old earth may have got a wobble up.

All interesting stuff from a “scientific”” nature.

But what of poor old Noah and his family because as based on biblical blood lines it is said that they took 120 years to build the ark. I imagine that adds up to a lot of ridicule from the locals watching them building a boat in the “middle of nowhere.”

And what of God who after seeing the world in such an evil mess, after his decree to start again still has to watch another 120 years of such evil. Evil not just of fornication and gluttony, but that God had taken such a decision there must have been killings, rape and torture of magnitudes we could not imagine.

So a cleansing of sin through the waters of the flood, and yet a way out for the remaining few led by Noah who still following and listened to God the Father. The same Noah that directly after the flood account is found in what must have been years in the making but told as if in the next moment, finds Noah smashed to the eye balls on wine.

So much for the greater than thou Christian brigade seeing themselves as a mighty fortress of piety and goodness up and against those heathen swine living a life of “wine, women and song.”

Of course I imagine Noah, along with Abraham, Moses and King David and the like were better Christian people than those like myself. Better yes, but sinless-no. All these guys stuffed up at one time or another, but what was different too each in different ways was like what was aid of King David on Ash Wednesday. King David called by God “as a man after his own heart”, not because he was sinless-but because in his sin and mistakes, he continually turned back to God in repentance, prayer and thanks.

The Ark was a vessel of safety too save those at that time who believed, followed as best they could and still worshipped and trusted God.

A rich picture that has continued again and again throughout the bible.

The decree from the Pharaoh in Egypt goes out that all the Jewish boys are to be killed and so Moses’ mother places him in a basket. A basket that becomes his ark and drifts to safety along the river into the hands of the Pharaohs daughter.

The exodus of the Israelites led by Moses.  The people of God who facing certain death trapped in front of the Red sea with the Egyptians chasing behind, only to have God part the seas that they pass to safety and destroy their enemies in the same sea behind them, and in finally reaching the promised land after forty years in the wilderness, the surviving Jewish generation led by Joshua are told by God to enter the land of milk and honey by crossing the river Jordan with the priest leading the way with the Ark of the Covenant out front. Being the chest they carried containing the Word of God on the stones to which was carved the Ten Commandments.

Water and arks that saved the earthly life of God’s people and yet, though they certainly served God’s purposes, like all things in scripture-all point to the great truth of Salvation in Jesus Christ His Son-the Ark of safety to heavenly salvation.

Jesus our Saviour, our Ark to heavenly safety and salvation through the waters of baptism that when attached to the word of God and in our faith in Christ alone for forgiveness, delivers on the promises from God himself.

The promise given to Noah in the form of a rainbow that never again shall the waters again become a flood to destroy all flesh, and though tsunamis and torrents have raged, we know that promise given to Noah has come to fruition.

The promise given to you in Baptism and though your lives still ebb and flow lurching left and right on our earth suspended in space wobbling on its axis as it too feels the sting of a broken world, it is still supported by the hands of its creator our all mighty God. Brocken, suffering, used and abused and a shadow of its days before sin arrived. Yet the same earth that will be replenished on the last day and be restored to its former Glory and again be home to lion and deer that will lye together in harmony alongside Noah, Abraham, Peter, James and John. Alongside black, white and yellow and alongside you.

On the sixth day God created humans, saw it was good and rested.

Baptised and with faith in Christ Jesus, God now looks at His sixth day creations through His Son Jesus Christ and sees not our sin, but the righteous of His Son and sees it is good, and most assuredly like His Son who on the cross announced “it is over” before rising back to His heavenly home, God the Father waits patiently that others may come to faith and stand alongside you within the multitudes washed clean by the blood of the lamb Jesus Christ our Lord, and after again and again having carried His people to the promised land, welcome us home and give us the rest, that we have taken from him. Amen.