Author: admin

Luke 19_11-27 A king’s treasury

I had to go to the dentist the other day.  I hate going to the dentist for a number of reasons, but one reason sticks out more than any others.  All your hidden sins of eating sugary foods when no one was looking, and then not cleaning your teeth, are all revealed in the moment when the dentist opens you moth and takes a look!  There I am, sitting in the waiting room, waiting.  Waiting for my time of reckoning when the dentist will see what I have been hiding from the world.  And while I’m waiting, I see a plaque on the wall (no pun intended) that caught my attention; it read “You don’t have to clean every tooth, just the ones you want to keep!”  As if I wasn’t feeling guilty enough!  These dentists sure know how to lay it on.

You don’t have to clean every tooth, just the ones you want to keep!  How true is that!  No one can force you to stop eating bad foods, no one can stop you from being lazy and make you clean your teeth, its just that if you don’t, well, you will lose what was given to you.

Jesus intends to give a similar message in telling the parable of the minas; a parable about a great noble man who has many subjects and who is going away to become king.  Before he leaves however, he entrusts 10 slaves, each with a mina, to do business until he returns.  The time of reckoning comes, when the noble man returns now as king.  He demands an accounting of each salve’s mina, asking what they have done to increase the gift they were given by him.  Like a dentist asking you to open your mouth, and demanding a look, the slaves had to open their wallets so the king could take a look.

To those who had used the mina given to them to make more, the king entrusts them with even more, doubling their use of the kingdom’s wealth, but to the one who did nothing, even the gift was taken away and given to those who had been given more.  As Jesus says “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.”  Like the plaque on the wall of the dentist waiting room that read ‘You don’t have to clean every tooth, just the ones you want to keep!’  You don’t have to use every gift of the king, just the ones you want to keep!

There are two themes to the parable that are running consecutively.  The first and primarily theme is, that the noble man goes away and becomes king, and secondly, that he gives gifts to be used and returns to call for an account from his servants.  Jesus tells the parable as he is entering Jerusalem to be betrayed by Judas, crucified, and buried.  He tells the parable to all who had gathered, because he can see that they were planning to make him king now, through an insurrection.  Yes, Jesus fitted the criteria, he was of noble birth, in the family linage of King David, but as Jesus said to Pilate just days later “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

In the parable, Jesus is picturing himself as a noble man who is to be crowned king, and his kingdom which is heaven, is the faraway place that he must go to and then return.  St Paul, in Philippians chapter 2 speaks of Jesus’ kingdom and how it is not of this world ‘For [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,’ and how Jesus is king above all other kings, ‘God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,’ 

This is the context from which we can begin to understand and apply the parable to our life.  We need to know that Jesus has been crowned with glory and all authority has been given over to him.  He has been crowned king through his going away; his travel to the far away land; through his birth as a man, his death for our sins, and his resurrection for our justification.  And now his kingdom reigns in grace and forgiveness.   We gladly hear and believe this, not so we can lord it over others, demanding submission and surrender to Jesus, demanding that Jesus rules as king in our hearts through new laws and commands, as though Moses didn’t quite get the 10 commandments right. 

No, we need to know that Jesus’ kingship is good news, the gospel, because as King, Jesus now gives us his kingdom, so we can rule together with him in grace and forgiveness, love and servant hood, as St Paul in Romans 14:17 says “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  We need to know this so that we are not disciples of Jesus like the third slave who said “I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.”

What the final slave said was true, God is to be feared, as the prophet Nahum declares “The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.  Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.”  His wrath and anger against our sins has already been poured out upon his Son Jesus; the prophet Nahum calls out “who can endure God’s fierce anger”…Jesus did.  His death was a result of God’s anger; the sun was blacked because of his anger; the earth quaked and the Temple stones shattered before him, because of his anger.  But what shattered the devil and shook hell was the final word of good news from the cross “it is finished.”

God’s anger has been dished out.  The kingdom of his Son now reigns in peace, as Jesus said after his resurrection ‘peace be with you.’  Jesus now bespeaks to us the gifts of his kingdom, which is his righteousness.  We are declared righteous, spoken righteous, or given righteousness as a gift through the proclamation of the gospel and through the receiving of baptism and Holy Communion, and we take hold of this by faith, trusting God at his word.  God’s word and sacraments, our righteousness and even faith, are the gifts of Jesus’ kingdom, or the mina given to each servant, as Jesus alluded to in the parable.  St Paul says this very thing in 2 Corinthians 5:21 21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In Australian’s iconic movie ‘The Castle”, Darryl Kerrigan, played by Michael Caton, is a proud dad.  Every time he is given a gift by his children, he says… “This is going straight to the pool room.”  In other words, the gift is too good to be used, it might get damaged, or lost; its best left only for display.  The gifts of Jesus are not to be treated in the same way, as Jesus explains in the parable; “he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.” 

The gifts of the kingdom, God’s word, the sacraments, forgiveness, mercy and peace are to be put to work.  They are not dust collecting relics to be on display in some archaic Cathedral.  Nor is our righteousness in Christ to be hidden away, like a mina in a handkerchief, for fear that God will be angry with us if we mix with the wrong crowd, or dare to do what Jesus did ‘eat and drink with sinners.

 God is reckless with his gifts.  “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”  And in the parable of the vineyard workers, the owner replies to complaints about his generosity by saying “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”  We are called to be salt and light of the earth; gift givers, slaves to righteousness, as Paul encourages us “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”  This is what Jesus means in the parable by asking his slaves to put the gift of the mina to work.  The gift is God’s to give, and the gift is what does the work, we are simply asked to put it to work.  So when Christ returns, we too will hear our king say to us “Well done, my good servant!‘ 

Amen

Luke 21_5-19 I got a plan

Begin by showing a video clip (or slides) of people who said “I got a plan”

Just because we got a plan, doesn’t mean we will get the results we expected.  It is said that “those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”  And yes, that is true in many ways.  However, as you saw on the power point, our plans often come undone by unexpected results! In fact the opposite of what we expected can happen, and when they do, we think all is lost.

The disciples were marvelling at the great Temple in Jerusalem.  They would have been impressed by how each giant stone was intricately placed, one upon another, layer upon layer, just as planned.  Each stone a testimony to the detail that went into its planning and how all this great work was all dedicated to God.  Things were also going to plan for the disciples.  Their plan to leave everything and follow Jesus, were going well.  They were becoming well known, Jesus was having an impact upon the established religious orders, and many others were dedicating their lives to Jesus as their Messiah.  Surely, you do your best and God will do the rest.

God did indeed do the rest, but God does not stick to our plan.  In fact, he does it all.  The Temple which the disciples admired so greatly, saying how it was all dedicated to God, was destroyed only a few years later, as Jesus foretold “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”  The disciple’s plans for Jesus also soon tumbled.  When Peter witnessed Jesus being whipped and beaten, his plan “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”, fell in a heap, denying knowing him three times.  And the rest of the disciples ran in fear of their lives from the garden of Gethsemane. 

Their plans backfired and came to nothing, because Jesus had other plans.  In the middle of everything falling apart, they must have been wondering what could come of all this; where is God in all this; how could God be working to plan through their crucified and dying Lord?  We now know and believe, and have the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the very words of those disciples who endured their plans being destroyed, as Jesus hung on the cross, that God, through the cross and suffering of his Son Jesus, was indeed working according to plan.  In the midst of their confusion, the prophetic words of Isaiah were being fulfilled “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

In the very midst of our unravelling plans and hopes, God works wonders, and not only that, he also thrusts us into his plan of salvation, as Jesus did for the criminal in the midst of his failed plans “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” 

God’s plan and vision to redeem the world of sin, death and the devil was originally cast in the midst of Adam and Eve’s toppled plan to be like God.  It was right in the middle of their hopelessness and confusion, that God thrust Adam and Eve into his plan and said to the devil “the child of the woman will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”  God’s plan of salvation was recast when Joseph’s brother’s plan to kill him by selling him as a salve toppled.  God, through Joseph explains, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”    

We like Adam and Eve, like Joseph’s brothers, and like the disciples, all have plans for our life and plans for others; plans for the way we think God can and should work in our life and in the life of others.  How often have your plans worked out just as you anticipated, and prayed for?  Whose walk with the Lord has workout exactly as you thought the day of your confirmation?  What about the plans you had or still have for your children…have they grown up and made the choices and lived the lives just as you wanted?  What about you own life, would you say “yep!  Just as I planned.”  

And the plans we have for our church.  We could almost say, “what haven’t we planned and tried?” Surely God wants to work through our ministry and bring about his purposes of salvation through our plans and visions.  Yet right at this point, I together with you, am thinking “We had a plan Lord, why is it seem like it is toppling, why has it changed?”  

Wouldn’t things work out better if only God stuck to our plans?

This is the problem we have with God…he seems to say one thing and do another.  To us, he is a God of paradoxes, of contradictions.  God says one thing in Jeremiah 29: 11 “I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Yet many who heard that message died in exile, never to see a future.  And even today this promise is spoken to Christians being persecuted, tortured and even killed for their faith in Jesus…yet where is their hope and future?  Stephen was chosen by God to be a herald to the good news of Jesus, that he died and rose again to pay for the sins of the world, yet he was only days into his ministry when some men stoned him to death during his maiden speech.

(Video if works) Martin Luther King, after a famous speech about his plan for equality between blacks and whites, was assassinated the next day.  Many black people in America at that time would have been calling to God, asking “why…how can this be, we had plans.”  Yet, look what has happened, look what God has achieved in the midst of death and toppled plans.   

In today’s gospel reading Jesus reveals how God’s plan to prosper us, and to bring hope to others through the gospel of Jesus Christ, is often enacted in the midst of our failed and toppling plans.  The disciples are planning for glory, admiring the Temple, however, Jesus warns them saying “the time will come when not one stone will be left on another.”  God’s salvation comes through another way and the cross of Jesus shows this, when he made satisfaction for the sins of the world, then rose in glory on the third day. 

It is often in and through our own suffering and the toppling down of our selfish plans and desires that God brings change, hope and salvation to us, and others we never even imagined.  It is in the breaking down of our plans that God’s plan is enacted and we are thrust into his plan of salvation, as witnessed throughout the bible.   Jonah had a plan.  There was no way he was going to call the Ninevites to repentance.  Even when he was cast over board in the storm, did you know that Jonah’s admission that God was to blame for all the trouble, the sailors then repented and believed?  “At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.”

The gospel speaks most clearly into our lives and to the lives of others when we are embroiled in the unexpected.  Have you thought about this?  John the Baptist got it, when his disciples complained that everyone was suddenly going over to Jesus, John said “He must become greater; I must become less.” 

The writer of Hebrews says “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  And there is no better time to have faith than when we do not see how our plans can work, when we do not see how God could be at work; there is no better time to expect God‘s plan of salvation to be working in and through our lives, than in the midst of our own tumbling down plans.  For right in the midst of what we think is a disaster and an end, God thrusts us into his plan, giving us, as Jesus promises, the words to say at this time  “For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”  Jesus says he will give us his words, when our own have failed; that he will give us his wisdom when our own wisdom has failed.

He has a plan when our plans fail.

Amen

Luke 18_9-14 Polishing or being renewed.

Who loves shiny chrome?  I went to the “Show and shine” car show here in Dubbo yesterday, and yes, there was plenty of chrome on display.  Here are two ornaments that used to look shiny and bright, but are now tarnished. 
Their appeal and beauty have faded as the metal beneath the chrome breaks down due to the effects of rust.  It is simply dying from the inside out.  Being the precious objects they are, we want to save don’t we?  There are two options we have.  Firstly, we could polish the outer chrome like this (polish), there!  To everyone this now looks great.  I can even see my face beaming in the Holden badge!  But is polishing the outside chrome really the solution?  What is going on underneath?  Yes, the metal is still being eaten away by the rust.  It looks good, but underneath, it is rotten.

The other option is to strip off the chrome, rub back the metal, so that all the rust is taken out (rub the metal back to reveal the new metal).  This is a more difficult solution, its messy, it looks like we are wrecking the ornament, but it is the best option.  We are removing the source of the rot, and we can then resurface the metal and it will last a lifetime. 

Luke writes, Jesus observed people “were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else.”  We are not told by Luke where Jesus saw such displays, but going by his parable, he most likely witnessed it within the context of worship.  Jesus must have observed how some, when gathered together for worship, treated this time in the presence of God, as an opportunity to show and shine; to parade their polished religious lives for all to see and admire; to show and shine before God and others, just how morally good religion has made them.  Jesus is angered by such polished behaviour, particularly in the temple, for it is his Father’s house, and as Jesus said a little later, while overturning the tables of the money changers, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer.’ ” 

He begins a spiritual cleansing of his temple by telling a parable about a polished Pharisee praying in the temple for all to see.  Note the amount of references to himself “God, I thank you that I am not like other men– robbers, evildoers, adulterers– or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”  Yes, he was a super shiny, sleek religious man, so much so, he could see himself reflected in everything he did.

Then Jesus turns the parable away from the bright and shiny, to a dull looking man, a tax collector, a sinner, whose life was far from polished, in fact you could say it was very religiously rusty.  “The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Yet, Jesus concludes that this man went away from God’s presence forgiven, while the Pharisee, even though he led a good life, went away unforgiven.

Both men desired to be accepted by God, but only one man, the rusty sinner, went away forgiven; Why?  Why was Abel’s offering to God accepted, yet Cain’s wasn’t?  Why was Peter forgiven for denying Jesus, but Judas wasn’t?  Is God at fault for this abnormality, or does God simply arbitrarily predestine some to eternal damnation and others to eternal life?  No, the problem is not with God, it is with us.  Jesus tells this parable to show that being religiously nice and shiny, well-polished on the outside does not cover the rot that is going on in the inside; it is the rot that needs to be dealt with, and that can only happen by God’s doing.   

The problem lies with us because we confuse law and gospel.  We make the law into something that can save us and the gospel, that Christ died for our sins, into something we must do.  Jesus’ depiction of the Pharisee praying about his polished obedience to God’s commandments, as something that would earn him favour before God, is a good example of how we wrongly use God’s commandments.  He uses the commandments, particularly “you shall not steal, you shall not murder” and the sixth commandment “you shall not commit adultery”, to polish himself up, to make himself look squeaky clean before God and other worshippers. Like me polishing the outside of this ornament, it looks good, but underneath is where the problem really lies; it is the rusting metal causing the tarnish. 

We are the same, we can look good by polishing ourselves with keeping the commandments, doing good and holy things, but underneath, our sinful nature taints all we do; everything, we do apart from Christ, God still sees as sinful, as King David declares “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  And as Jesus says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”  Simply using the commandments to polish up on our morals, thinking our religious life merits God’s approval, only exacerbates our problem, only causes our sin to rage all the more under the guise of good deeds.

Had the Pharisee used the commandments as a tool to reveal the rot of sin underneath, like the tax collector obviously did, then he would have joined him, beating his breast, pleading ‘‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  He would have known that underneath his polished life was a robber, an evil doer and an adulterer.  Had he have been humbled by the law, like the tax collector, he would have realised he was really the robber.  What was he robbing?  By boasting in his own glory, he was robbing God of all the glory that is due to him!

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, shows us the right way to use the commandment, not to polish our works, but to reveal sin.  Jesus applies the commandments in such a way that none of us could ever keep them. “”You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Luther called the unachievable demands of God, the proper use of the law, or the spiritual use and taught that rather than making us shining Christians, the law always accuses us.  Applying the commandments to ourselves in this way, is the right way, because it cuts back our glossy exterior to reveal the rot inside; it causes us to cry out, as we do in the liturgy “Lord have mercy.”  We should feel more sinful than ever before, and that’s good!  Luther in his commentary on Galatians writes “But you say ‘How can I be holy when I have sin and am aware of it?’  “That you feel and acknowledge sin – this is good.  Thank God, and do not despair.  It is one step toward health when a sick man admits and confesses his disease.”  “But how will I be liberated from sin?”  Run to Christ, the Physician, who heals the contrite heart and saves sinners.”

The tax collector, beating his chest, ashamed of his sin, is the one who went home justified that day.  He placed all hope on Christ who said “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”  He knew that only the gospel of Jesus can save, the law has no place and no part in the justification of sinners before God.  He knew that faith alone in Christ alone saves.  The good news is that we now are in the right place.  That Christ is hear, bidding us to come to him, to place our faith in these little words “your sins are forgiven.”  No more is needed for salvation, if there was, it would not be the gospel, but the law.

The right distinction between law and gospel is of utmost importance for the comfort of our soul; to have the assurance of salvation and the certainty that we will be welcomed into heaven when we die.  Yet to understand and to remember the right use of the commandments and the gospel is as easy as remembering the distinction between polishing and stripping.  To polish ourselves with keeping the commandment, is only to cover up sin, and that is the wrong use, just as it is wrong to polish a rusting hubcap.  To strip ourselves of all pride, by letting the commandments accuse us to reveal our sinful nature, is the right way; just as it is right to strip back a rusting cap to reveal the bare metal.

When this is done, then the ointment that cures the rust can be added.  In the same way, once the law has done its work on us, Jesus pours on the healing ointment of the gospel, which cures us of the guilt of our sin.   Jesus beckons you to hear and believe the ointment of his word, that heals, forgives and restores “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Luke 17.11-19  A study on the text

 

Today we are going to do something a little different.  Sometimes it is good to do some ‘theology’; today you will be theologians.  It means the study of God through the study of his word.

Luke begins with “Now on his way to Jerusalem”.  This is very important for the understanding of the healing of the leper.  Jesus was travelling, walking, or journeying towards Jerusalem.  Does anyone know why?  He was coming to the end of his ministry time on earth and Luke records how Jesus as now making his way to Jerusalem to be crucified; to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The most important building is Jerusalem was what?  The Temple.  Every Jew knew that the Temple was where God dwelt.  It was a holy place where the Levi priests and the high priest sacrificed birds and animals to atone for the sins of all the people.

Next Luke notes: “As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance.” and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Using one of the dirty lamps, explain the purpose for the temple.

 The dirt on the glass represents sin or some form of disease, like leprosy which is ‘unclean’.  In order to be healed or cleansed of sin, the person would go to the temple in Jerusalem. 

God is holy – clean:  Like this white cloth. 

We are sinners, or sick, like this dirty lamp.

God in his holiness dwelt in the holy of holies.

The book of Leviticus is all about the cleanliness laws.  How, through sacrifice and blood presented to God, the people of Israel are cleansed from un-cleanliness.

The priests would sacrifice a lamb, bring the blood of the lamb into the holy of holies to be made clean, then brought out of God’s presence and sprinkled upon the sinner or unclean person to ‘make them clean again’ (wipe clean the glass)

If the person is healed the priest would announce this and welcome the person back into the community.  If not, the person had to live in an ‘unclean’ colony outside of Jerusalem.

When Jesus sees the lepers, he knows they are unclean, like this second lamp.  What does he do?  Does he heal them?  No, “When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

Jesus is saying to go to the temple, to go where you are made clean because it is where God dwells in his holiness.  The 10 lepers, by simply going, would be presuming that by going to the temple, going to where God dwells, he would cleanse them, and when they turn up to show the priests, cleansed, then receive the forgiveness of their sins.

Instead of this, something amazing happens on their way…what? They are cleansed “

What does this miracle tell us about Jesus?

Jesus is God in human flesh.

In Jesus, rather than in the temple is where God is found.

Use the second dirty lamp to demonstrate the healing of the leper.

By healing the 10 lepers, Jesus takes upon himself the sin and sickness of the lepers, like the blackness that is now on the white rag, but not on the glass.

How would you feel if your son, got his ‘Sunday whites’ and wiped clean dirty black lamps?  Yes, you would be angry and would take the clothes and wash them clean to get rid of the dirt.

In the same way, God’s anger against the dirt of sin that now clung to Jesus, the blackness of sin for all people, rids the world of sin by having his Son crucified.

Jesus goes to the cross to die for our sin

He goes to the cross so that his blood atones for our sin

He goes to the cross to that by his blood we are cleansed

The healing of the lepers demonstrated before time, why Jesus was heading to Jerusalem.  His death and the shedding of his blood now bring healing and cleansing, and not in the continual sacrifices of the temple.

What happened when Jesus died?  The temple curtain, that separated God from humans, was torn in two.  It no longer had any use, God no longer dwelt in the temple by in the man Jesus Christ.

The once for all sacrifice of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb of God, now cleanses.

Luke writes: “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him– and he was a Samaritan.”

The Samaritan recognised that God now dwelt in Jesus and thanked and praised him.

Jesus is still healing us

His very same way Jesus’ blood still cleanses us

His word pronounces us cleansed and his blood cleanses us.

This is why we must still confess that Jesus is truly present here for us, under the guise of the bread and wine.  Only Jesus’ blood can cleans us of sin and make us clean, as St Paul urges us “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Remembers, by his wounds we are healed! 

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 recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

In the church, in the liturgy of the worship service, God cleanses us by the blood of his Son Jesus, and by the absolution of your sins, you are also made clean.  We are lepers of sin who are made clean, like the cleaning of the lamp.  So let us give thanks to God and praise him for our healing.

Luke 16_19-31 Entertainment

 

Things are different today, here in Australia.  We are a far more compassionate, educated and a civil society than in Jesus day.   Wouldn’t you agree?  The average Aussie is now far more socially aware of the suffering of the poor, of the down trodden and the protection of the rights of the vulnerable, than when Jesus told this parable.   Christianity, with its core values and teachings of love for God and loving service for all, and that all humans are created in the image of God, has greatly influenced the way we now value the sanctity of every human life. 

Consider Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.  A rich man is so ignorant to the  inequality and the right to life for all people, that Lazarus lay dying at his front gate, while he continues to be ‘dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.’   The contrast from that day to this could not be starker…its chalk and cheese; it wouldn’t happen today.  So much so, the parable makes little sense to us here in Australia.

Who here regularly sees or reverses out of their driveway past a totally destitute, sore infested, near death beggar, dumped out the front of our house?  What rich man today would risk the media and public backlash of being accused of leaving a poor man to die at their front gate?  Of course no one in our community, you me, rich or poor, would stand for social inequality…everyone has a right to life; to a fair go!  We have the society we do, because our social conscience is built on and around our Christian roots.  We get it from what Jesus says of himself in Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”  He urges us to do like wise, saying ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  

It makes us wonder how the rich man got the point where he refuses to give Lazarus even a crumb that fell from his table. It puzzles us as to how a religious Jew, who was a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Israel, could come to the point where he is totally indifferent to God, to sin, to heaven, or whether there was a hell.  It troubles us as to what convinced this once religious man, to be so consumed with the philosophy common in that day, to ‘Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry“, that Lazarus was not worth his time, money and effort; that the commandment ‘thou shall not kill’, did not apply to Lazarus, as his life was worth less than his own.

As I said earlier, it doesn’t happen in our society, in our day…or does it?  Perhaps we also are part of the rich man’s story?  What are we indifferent about today?  While we are not as barbaric as publically leaving people to die on our doorsteps, and while we are not outwardly flaunting the philosophy ‘Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”, as the rich man did, we are, as a society, perhaps even as Christians, dangerously indifferent.  Indifferent to God, to faith and right theology, indifferent to whether there really is a heaven or a hell; indifferent to wether Jesus really is the only way, truth and life, and apart from him we can do nothing.  And this indifferent attitude towards God has had social consequences that have now crept slowly, like a noxious weed, into our society.

The right to life, and the sanctity of life for all people, especially the vulnerable, is being eroded away by our self interest in enjoying life.  We don’t leave a terminally ill man like Lazarus lying on the front path to die, but we are now open to debating the right to euthanize the terminally ill…with their supposed consent of course.  We as a society, like the rich man, are prepared to turn a blind eye to the suffering and loneliness of the sick and elderly, encouraging them to end their life, so we can “eat drink and be merry.”

We are all guilty of being too busy today, and indifferent ‘dressed in purple and fine linen and living in luxury every day, to spare even a crumb of our time for God and the sick and dying, which might fall from our busy ‘timetables’.  We are all infected with the rich man’s terminal disease called ‘indifference.’   

Sin is indifference to God, not caring that he is angry and offended by our not loving him with our whole heart, mind and soul, as he commands.  Sin is to eat, drink and be merry, while having no regard for the life and welfare of others.  Sin is to be indifferent to Jesus call to “go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” And as the rich man in the parable found out, St Paul’s words ring true for us “the wages of sin is death.”  We may be indifferent, not really comprehending the depth and nature of our sin, and the decadence and indifference of our society, but God is not, and in this parable, Jesus warns us of the fires of hell are ready for those who live in this manner.

Like dead men walking, there is nothing in this world we can do to change our fate, as Jesus says in Revelation 20: 15 “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”  Yet there is good news imbedded in the parable, there is grace to be found.  Did you notice from the start, Jesus gives a name to the beggar, Lazarus? 

The rich man has no name.  Even though many of his friends would have known him, God does not know him.  His name may have been written in all the social columns of the newspapers, but his name was not written in the book of heaven.  He may have been an upright and moral gentleman, but because his name is not known by God, he was thrown into the lake of fire.  

Lazarus was given a name, though he did nothing, had nothing, and was an outcast and beggar; his name didn’t even get a mention in the death notices…he was not buried, but left for the angels to take him away.  Yet because his name is written in the book of life he enters heaven, as Jesus tells, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.”  Jesus names him because he is one of his own.   

Lazarus may have suffered while still living, and we don’t know what caused it.  Perhaps it was his fault, perhaps he had squandered his money like the prodical son, perhaps he was struggling with the results of years of alcoholism, and that’s why the rich man didn’t help, but the stunning fact of God grace in this story, is Lazarus’ name was written in the book of life, and he was taken into heaven. 

Lazarus’ name was know by God, and the rich man’s wasn’t, not because he was a better bloke, but because Lazarus heard and believed in Jesus, the promised saviour spoken about in ‘Moses and the Prophets’; that Isaiah spoke of “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  Jesus went to the cross, suffered and died for us, who are hopelessly caught up in the riches and indifference of sin. Isaiah says “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death” 

But God raised him from the grave that he may live forever.  Death could not hold him, and now death and hell has no power, no sting for us who are named in Christ.  This is the grace that is announced in the parable; the grace that is now poured out upon us through the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments.  What we hear today, what we eat and drink today, are the very grace giving words of Jesus, who was anointed to preach to the poor and to bring freedom to us who are prisoners to sin.  In baptism, we are named as a child of God. 

God makes us his own, giving us his Spirit and putting our name into the book of life, as St Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:22 says “He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”  Since we are God’s children, and have our names in heaven, let us now be attuned and attentive to God’s word, and to give more than just crumbs and token efforts to the suffering people of this world.  Let us no longer entertain ourselves, but rather hear the words of Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Luke 16_1-13  Nothing counts in the end

 

Who has heard of the term poker face?  What is it?  A poker face is used when a card player looks at his cards and sees that none of them are good enough to win.  Once faced with this reality, a poker player has to weigh up all options, try and find a way out of the crisis they are in; do I give in and loose everything; do I cheat; do I upturn the table?  No, he would think to himself, they are really impossibilities because he would still end up having to pay back the huge dept.  There is however one and only one slim and final chance at survival.  He thinks to himself, ‘I must keep a straight face that neither smiles nor frowns; a face that only shows confidence.’  Why?  Yes, a poker face is used to trick others into handing over their fortune to the losing player because they think he has a winning hand.

A poker face is a last ditched, shrewd effort, to extract oneself out of a mess.  Jesus tells us of one such instance of a manager using a poker face.  He was caught out by his boss for deliberately wasting money and has to give an account of his actions.  He knows he is going to lose his job, he knows he has wronged the boss, so he analyses his options ‘I could dig dirt or beg for a living.’  But that’s not an option because he still has to pay back his debt, and will still lose his job.  So what does he do…he has no other option but to pull a poker face.  He shrewdly uses his honourable position, while he still had it, to develop friendships with the boss’ renters.  He uses his best poker face, his years of expertise at fiddling the books, in a way that now benefits himself once again, because he swindles the boss’ money to lower the debts of the renters, and thus make friends!   The boss commends his worker for his shrewd behaviour!

Well have all used a poker face of some sort to get out of a personal crisis.  We are all very skilled and shrewd experts at using our worst to get the best for ourselves when under pressure.  Right from a very young age we have discovered how successful it can be for us to manipulate and control people and situations to make what was a crisis for ourselves, into one that benefits us.  For some of us, our poker face becomes a learnt behavioural pattern; our success at manipulating people and situations to benefit ourselves has been so great, that we become evermore craftier and confident.  When caught in a losing situation, what poker face do you use?  What manipulative behaviour are you an expert at and what gets results for you? 

Jesus told in his story, that the rich boss commended his manager for his shrewdness, so perhaps Jesus is trying teach us something about God and of ourselves; that God knows we revert to unrighteousness when confronted with a crisis, and that we all, like the dishonest manager, will have to give an account of our lives, as he says in Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” 

Yet even more pointed, is that Jesus, while not approving, is highlighting and even commending, just how good we are at swindling and manipulating the people around us, to save our own skin in this world.  We will contrive just about plan, trust in any dishonest gain, act on learned behaviour, and try any poker face, just to get ahead in this life.  Jesus questions, yet why is it then, you who are so shrewd in this world, when it comes to saving your own life from eternal destruction, at most you are a little ho hum?  Why is it, when spiritually, you are doomed and have no hope of saving yourself, as Jesus said “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born again”, we don’t even attempt to make friends of God, or shrewdly use any means possible to us, to ensure we are born again.

Just consider our lives, and just how successful we have been at achieving what we want.  Just think about how hard we have worked to get where we are; the trials we have put ourselves through, the planning and the strategies we have put in place, to gain material wealth and achieve personal goals.  Think about the people we have used to get where we are.  All of us can say we have given this life our very best shot. 

However, our backs are up against the wall spiritually, we are dead in our sin, and are separated from God, as St Paul says “He one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.”   So Jesus, by commending the shrewd manager is asking, why don’t we use the same earthly passion and shrewdness, which only gains for us worldliness and destruction, to gain heavenly things and eternal life?  He queries why we, who are people of the light, those who know the truth, should not also seek after the truth with all our effort. 

God has given us everything, and provides for every physical need, for our use and enjoyment in this life, and he has given this to all people, whether they believe in him or not, as Jesus said in Matthew 5: 45 “My Father causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”  He has also provided everything we need for gaining eternal life.  He sent his Son Jesus, who has won for us life eternal and is the only means through which we are saved.  God has provided Jesus as the way the way, truth and life, so that everyone, that is, all people have the opportunity to call on him and be saved, as John writes “For God so loved the world [all people] that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

There is no reason in heaven or earth for you not to enter heaven when you die.  This is the good news, the gospel, the proclamation of the church, as St Paul reminds us, “Now, friends, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.” 

It is by faith alone, in Christ alone, we are saved.  And we attain, or take hold of this faith in Christ, this saving faith, through hearing and believing the good news, the announcement that Christ died for our sins and so we have a way out of our crisis.  We also receive saving faith in our baptism, and God nurtures and grows our faith through Jesus’ body and blood, given to us in and through the bread and wine of Holy Communion, the medicine of eternal life.  Jesus, in commending the manager for his shrewd success, says for us to do the same in gaining eternal life, for “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

In the same way, we are encouraged to be bold, to do everything in our power and use every means we have to ensure for ourselves the free gift of eternal life.   God is generous with his grace, like the rich man in the story, and is encouraging us to use his means of salvation extravagantly; to gladly hear the gospel and receive the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion.  St Paul urges us saying, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ”

Get as much of this gift of grace as you can, Paul also encourages us saying “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”.  Find new ways of being available to receive the means of salvation.  Be shrewd in the way you use your earthly skills to weight up all options and see that, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”  Play your best poker face, so that you can create for yourself opportunities to be in the presence of God, to be friends with Jesus, for he promises ‘”Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

Luke 15_1-10 Lost in Christ

We just heard two parables Jesus gave about being lost and then found; one about a lost sheep, the other a lost coin.  How many times have you heard the parable of the lost sheep?  Yet, ask yourself if you have ever stopped to reflect on the lost sheep, why it was lost, how it was lost and what is meant by lost?  Have you ever stopped to consider who Jesus’ intended hearers were and what he intended to reveal about certain attitudes and behaviours?  So often we gladly and quickly jump over the lost bit, to the good news, to the happy ending.  The lost sheep was found by the shepherd…hurray!  And they all lived happily ever after.

 Jesus did not tell this parable to make his listeners feel good, nor did he intend for us to make it into a fairy tale, though we often do, where the emphasis is on everyone living happily ever after.  Jesus’ parables are intended to teach the truth about our selves and about God, and Jesus always directed his parable’s toward particular people, their behaviour and attitudes.  Parables may be stories, but they are God’s word in story form, to speak to the soul and conscience, as written in Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Jesus only ever told his parables to those who were somehow connected with him and the Jewish faith, whether they were his disciples, the Pharisees or the crowds that followed him.  They were his key teaching tool.  So as followers of Jesus, we need to take them as seriously as we do the other words of Jesus.  We need to examine and apply them to ourselves, see how they teach us the truth about ourselves and God.  After the parable of the sower, Jesus said “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Luke sets the context of Jesus’ parable of the lost amid two groups of people who couldn’t be further apart, yet in a way, they are in an identical situation; they were all gathered together because there was something about Jesus that attracted them; he touched their conscience because he spoke with authority. The group consisted of two opposing lifestyles.  There were sinners and tax collectors, those who lived a life of selfishness, pleasure and were morally challenged, to put it mildly.  And then there were the religious synagogue types, the regular ‘church folk’, those who were upstanding in society and generally good people.  So we have together, the good, the bad and the ugly!  Seeing how the good put down the bad and ugly, Jesus takes the opportunity to tell a parable about a lost sheep.  Why a parable about a lost sheep?  What is it about being lost Jesus wants to teach about?

Do you know the definition of being lost? I don’t know the official one, but I think this comes close: the definition of being lost is ‘being certain of your position!’  Would you agree?   No?  Well think about the last time you were lost, either in a shopping centre or driving to a destination.  At what point did you realise you were lost?  Well, usually its when you never find you goal or arrive at your destination, then you confess that you are lost.  But that’s the outcome of being lost; weren’t you really lost long before that; making wrong turns and incorrect decisions?  You just didn’t know it or were too proud and certain to admit it, and perhaps, out of spite and to save face in front of your wife, you charge on? 

Being certain of your position, that’s what it means to be lost.  Sounds like a contradiction, but this is one point of Jesus’ parable he wants to get across.  The Pharisees, by muttering, “This man [Jesus] welcomes sinners and eats with them,” reveals to Jesus they are certain of their salvation and how to attain it, while convinced the ‘sinners’ are the ones who are lost. 

The ‘sinners and tax collectors’ on the other hand, were certain they had no need for God or religion and perhaps felt the Pharisees were the ones lost up their own sanctimonial white garments!  Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to two groups who where certain of their position before God, yet Jesus knew they were both lost, they were both seeking the kingdom of God by their own righteousness, apart from trusting him as their saviour and rescuer; the messiah shepherd promised in Ezekiel 34 “As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock…so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered.”

Jesus’ definition of lost is to be certain you know the way to heaven apart from him.  In the “I am” statements, Jesus makes this very clear, that to be lost, like that sheep, is to reach for heaven apart from the shepherd.  He says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me; “I am the vine; you are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing; “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.”

Let’s ask ourselves a few modern questions to remind us that we too, like either a Pharisee or a sinner, are lost.  That is, to allow the parable of the lost sheep to speak to us, as it spoke to both the Pharisees and the sinners; to see that, even in a little way, we believe there is a way to heaven apart from Christ alone.  You are lost if:

• You are certain the onus is on us the accept Christ
• You are convinced people are generally good and nice people go to heaven, including yourself
• You are convinced that Christian bumpers sticker slogans apply to you, even though you never or rarely go to church and value the church only for baptisms, weddings and funerals.
• You are sure your good intentions count for something
• You are certain Christianity needs to be entertaining and relevant to your needs
• You are certain you must feel good about yourself, have a high self-esteem and live a moral life

All of us have to admit, deep down, we still think, that in some small way, we must do something to be saved.  To do so is to be lost, and that is what we truly are.  St Paul plainly sets out the truth in Romans 11:32 ‘For God has bound all humanity over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.’  That is, each one of us is the lost sheep in the parable.  We can never be found if we remain certain we are not lost, but we are found, if we believe we are lost!  This is the gospel, the good news of the shepherd.  God has bound our very being over to sin, so that he can have mercy on all people.  We are sinners, lost and condemned, separated from God, unable to contribute one bit to being rescued from sin, death and the devil. 

Yet this is God’s good purpose for us and the meaning of the parable of the lost sheep.  We are to be totally passive, like a sheep caught in a thistle, so that his Son Jesus, the good shepherd, may take us to be his own, lift us upon his shoulders and bring us into his kingdom.  By faith alone, in Christ alone are we found, and only in him are we saved, as St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:22 ‘For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” He did this through the cross.  Jesus became the lost lamb for us.  He refused to be saved from the wrath of God against our sin, and endured the scorn of the cross for our sake; By his death he became the lost Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

By the power of God, he was raised again, so that he may be the one who comes to rescue us.  By the very word of God spoken over the waters of our baptism, our shepherd lifted us up on his shoulders and there, with him we passively remain.  Infant baptism is the best example we have of how passive we really are in receiving grace.  Jesus word “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”, is the action, we are the receiver.  Jesus said “[the shepherd] calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice”.  We hear the voice of our shepherd through the word of God and in the sacraments, in the confession and absolution, and in the mutual encouragement and fellowship of the faithful.  And all this is we passively hear and receive in church. 

Christ himself is the head of the church.  The church, were the gospel is preached and the sacraments are rightly administered, is the shoulders of Christ.  It is in the church that we are carried by the shepherd, and it is on his shoulders we the lost are comforted with our shepherds words ‘For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Hebrews 13:1-8_15-16 Learn from the master

Get the congregation to make a paper origami pencil.  Get the people to follow each step and fold as you do it, but don’t tell them what they are making.  Emphasis how they need to follow each step.

When we first attempt something new, and perhaps this was the first time you have made an origami pencil, what was one of the key things you needed to do?  Yes, you need to follow exactly each step the teacher is doing; you need to listen to the instructions, step by step, and then attempt to implement the steps, so that you will finish up with the same results as the teacher.  It doesn’t matter what we are doing for the first time, we can only learn by observing, copying and doing what we are taught and shown.  Children are great at learning this way. 

When we first start, consciously following the steps precisely in order, it takes all our effort and is the main aim of our learning.  Even when we work together in a group, we observe other people following the steps, and even correct each other, if the steps have not been followed exactly how the teacher taught.  When we become proficient however, at say origami, the steps and following them to the exact word and crease, are no longer our sole focus; the final goal, the end result, is what we now aspire to; the steps to get there are just that…steps.  We know the folds, we know what to expect and can even vary the steps as we find new and innovative ways of making new designs.  All this is achieved because the end result is our focus and not following the steps.

Hebrews 13, were the writer gives us instructions for Christian living, is exactly like me giving you instructions on making an origami pencil.  It is intended to give Christians a step by step instruction for living a life of discipleship in Jesus.  The exhortations at the beginning of chapter 13 are a step by step instructions for all Christians to follow, but they are set out plainly and simply so that even the beginner can follow and learn each fold from the teacher.  There are five folds to be made; five Christian virtues that are listed: brotherly love, hospitality, compassion, chastity, and contentment.  Set out plainly, with each fold making up the final Christian life.

Fold one: Keep on loving each other as brothers.

Fold two: Do not forget to entertain strangers,

Fold three: Remember those in prison and those who are mistreated.

Fold four: Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure.

Fold five: Keep your lives free from the love of money

Each five folds of Christian virtue are of course modeled after Jesus’ life and are summed up in Jesus’ command in John 13: 34 ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.“  Jesus, being the true man, tempted in every way, just as we are– yet was without sin’ being God in the flesh, was not only our saviour, but also our perfect teacher.  Jesus’ simple expression ‘love one another’, is expanded in Hebrews 13, simply to give us the detailed pattern, the steps we follow, as beginners in the new life of faith, to achieve the life of Christian love Jesus commanded. 

As with all people who begin learning a new skill or job, and as you experienced with the origami, we as Christians have a new beginning and so need to deliberately and consciously follow every step, and also help and show each other how to make the folds, the decisions, and the actions that lead to a godly life, as set out here in Hebrews 13.  Be warned however, the fivefold steps of virtue, and other exhortations found throughout scripture, are simply steps that reflect the teachings and life of our true teacher Jesus. 

Be warned, the steps and folds required of a believer, like those found in St Paul’s great list in Romans 12, where he begins ‘I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,” are not what make us Christians; are not the focus or the purpose of Christianity; they are the virtues of a Christian; the things we do ‘as Christians’ that bring about a final goal of loving one another.  Like with origami, the folds we do, we do because we are origamists and the folds bring about a final result.

We are not Christians because we do the virtues, we are Christians because of Christ.  If, you and I remain focused on the steps, and think that this is what Christianity is all about, we will never reach the purpose and goal Jesus set out for us; we will never actually ‘love one another as he first loved us.’  If we just passionately concern ourselves with the fivefold virtues, we will destroy one another by constantly looking at each other’s life folds, spying on who is or who isn’t folding correctly; challenging each other to aspire to greater and more folds.  Even boasting we have reached the final outcome, listing off all five virtues.  

It is not to be like that.  To focus on the folds of our work and not on Christ, is a confusion of law and gospel; it makes the law more important than the gospel; it destroys rather than builds up.  St Paul, in Galatians 5:15, warns not to make this mistake saying ‘If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.’ Lutheran theologian, Scaer said ‘‘It is … the proper distinction between Law and Gospel that the gospel be recognised as the ‘higher Word’, which is to be God’s final Word for the terrified sinner.’ (David P. Scaer; 21)

Christianity is not about moral improvement or even achieving an honourable life.  Jesus never called for a new moral religion.  He called for repentance and faith in him.  He calls us to repent and to let go of our personal attempts at using passages like Hebrews 13 to fold and mould ourselves into better people. Instead, he announces that it is by faith in him alone; in his life, his death and his resurrection, as the only way, truth and life that will make us godly people pleasing to him. 

First and primarily, Christianity is about the Triune God.  It is not a religion of methods, of steps or of virtues.  It is a proclamation, an announcement that Jesus died in our place; that he rose again, that he ascended to the Father, that he now intercedes and lives for us, so that we can enter heaven together with him. Faith takes hold of and tells us that God, through our baptism is the one who folds us, moulds us and creates us into ‘Christ like’ people.  As St Paul says “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.”  The good news is that God does not seek out people that are pleasing and lovable to him, but that he makes us, who are unlovable, into people who are loved by him and pleasing to him. 

The fivefold Christian virtues are not rules simply to be observed, thus becoming the catalyst to destroying one another.  They teach us, as beginners, how we can fold our lives in ways that appropriately respond to our saviour and teacher Jesus, as St John writes “We love because he first loved us.”   As we grow in this, the folds we make, over and over again, become less and less significant; the five virtues in Hebrews 13 just become who we are.  Our focus changes from us to others; from our efforts to the results, from me and what I am doing, to you and how you are benefiting, thus fulfilling Jesus command “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Luke 13_10-17 Use it or they lose it.

I have a certificate here which certifies that I am a qualified motor mechanic; its my ‘ticket’.  How did I come to be qualified?  I didn’t get this certificate out of a Wheat-Bix box.  My boss chose to spend his own money, his own time and effort training me.  He risked his reputation and quality of service by allowing me to learn my trade on his customer’s vehicles.  Of cause it wasn’t all worry and fear, he’d also have some fun at my expense; sending me to  other work shops to ask for a ‘long weight’, or a left handed screwdriver, or a box spare volts of the battery charger!  And even then, it was his way of teaching me and growing me into a professional motor vehicle technician.

How would he have felt, having signed my certificate, if I were to then display the certificate on the wall, but refuse to work on cars.  How would he feel if I only used my ‘qualifications’ to boast about how much I know about fixing cars, but never fixed any!  Say I saw people with cars that have broken down engines, flat tyres, headlights not working, brakes that fail, and say ‘you shouldn’t drive or own a car in that condition, its dangerous, you’ll kill yourself or someone else, you must fix it, I’ll tell you how.’  What point was it, my boss would think, in investing so much time and money, if I only use the training to gain advantage for myself and not for others?

In a very similar way, the Pharisees were as well trained and certified in the scriptures, as I was in motor cars.  God had entrusted his word to them, he taught them and inspired them to grow in knowledge and righteousness; to be servants of his grace, giving out justice to the poor, healing the spiritually blind and bringing hope to the captives of sin.  They knew every dot and iota of the Law.  They were passionate about keeping every religious command and were even more passionate about teaching others about God, the scriptures, and in particular the holiness laws.  St Paul, who was once a Pharisee, testifies to his qualifications that he once held in high regard ‘I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.’

Yet how do you think God felt when the Pharisees chose to simply use their qualifications to boast of their achievements.  Instead of using their religious training to help others, they hindered them?  How do you think God reacted when they stood in the market places, telling others how they should be living; commanding they keep the law, abstain from certain food, stop living this way or that, yet never comforted or helped , never used their qualifications to inspire people to achieve what they demanded?  Did he think it was a waste of time when he heard the Pharisee’s prayer ‘‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men– robbers, evildoers, adulterers– or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

Yes he did. Did he get angry, yes!  Was he frustrated, yes!  Did God grieve that his grace and justice was bound up in human pride and tradition, yes!  The Prophet Ezekiel foretold ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?… You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally…’Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:… I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.”

Like a Master Technician taking on the work of his employees, God’s love for us was so great, and his compassion to save all people so unrelenting, that he sent his own Son to demonstrate and directly give his grace and mercy.  Jesus’ read out in the synagogue, his mission and mercy statement from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

Then, after being rejected by those he taught, Jesus lived and acted outside the official religious traditions, outside the human traditions; where other religious people feared to tread.  Luke records one special event: “On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.”

The essence of God’s love is expressed in finding the sick, the lost, and the sinners, calling them to him and healing them.  The physical healing Jesus performed, even on the Sabbath, when religious tradition forbid any work, demonstrated that God’s mercy transcends every religious institution, law and expectation.  It is the people God wants to reach, not religious perfection, as Jesus said “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”   

The gate keepers of the human institutional religion complained “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”  But “the regular folks were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.”  Jesus’ ministry of mercy to the broken and regular folks is the very expression of God’s love incarnate; love which has no bounds; the same mercy we call on in worship when we say “Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.”   

Jesus came to get his hands dirty for us.  No he didn’t, he came to get his hands bloody to heal us.  No he didn’t, he came to have his hands pierced by nails to redeem us.  Mission and mercy are always on God’s heart.  Luther explains in his Small Catechism ‘At great cost he has saved and redeemed me, a lost and condemned person.’

We are the benefactors of Jesus’ hands on ministry.  We are the redeemed people of God; the very people Jesus came to call, to heal from sin, death and the devil to be his very own.  In our baptism God made us his child and heirs of his kingdom.  Paul writes in Titus 3 “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” 

God has qualified us as Christians for Christ’s sake through the water’s of our baptism and he continues to come to us and heal our lives of sin and bring us his Spirit through the absolution and the sacrament of Holy Communion.  God has invested more than his time and effort to make us qualified for heaven, he invested his own son on us and for his sake we are here joining the healed woman praising God and to be delighted with all the wonderful things he has done and is doing in our lives.

It is in this delight in Christ that we have the courage and qualification to boldly live the redeemed life of mission and mercy and not hide behind our religious traditions; knowing everything but helping no one.  Christ can build a future for us as a church, as long as we hold to his word and remain delighted and joyful about what he has done for us.  We can dare to believe that God will work wonders through us, as we move outside the traditional church in mission and mercy, like the school, like the shed happens.  As with Jesus’ mission, which often took him outside of the institutional religion of his day, our mission does not have to conform to or look like church.  Mercy is not about religious perfection, it about people.

God is pleased for us to use our qualifications as his child, to help and serve others, just as a master technician is pleased when he sees his now certified mechanic using his qualifications to help others.  God is glad to reward those who have courage to try anything that may reach the lost, even if we don’t do things exactly how he would want us.  Did you know that Jesus said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  And he also said, when the disciples were afraid, ‘take courage, it is I.” Be full of courage and joy.  Today, Jesus has heard your prayer ‘Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.’   You are healed, forgiven and touched by the hands that have been pierced for your redemption; he has qualified you for heaven, go in peace and serve the Lord.