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From sin to Grace

2 Samuel 12 From sin to Grace

I have a balloon here. I just love balloons; they remind me of parties, of celebrations and of good times. I have been told not to touch this balloon as it is to be used for a special birthday, for someone special, but I love balloons. It’s here just asking to be blown up! Surely I should be able to blow it up. I enjoy balloons more than the person this is meant for anyway. No one will know or care if I were to bend the rules and blow it up for the birthday party. (start blowing it up, then as it gets bigger, walk among the people continuing to blow it up. The people will cringe and worry that it will burst. Finally, pop the balloon). Ask what they felt as I walked among them blowing up the balloon? Was it ‘my private fun, or did my actions have an affect upon them?

What I just did demonstrated the infancy, progression and final result of sin; it also demonstrated that there is no such thing as a private sin! The balloon represented the progression of David’s sin, from lust, to adultery with Bethsheba, to finally murder. Originally, this was a private affair, a secret and mutually consenting sexual fling, totally natural, rationally explainable; an act satisfying the needs of two lonely people; gratifying their felt need, harming no one.

David’s natural desire for a woman and Bethsheba’s willingness, bought out perhaps by desperate loneliness, excused, in their mind, God’s command to not do such a thing. Their felt needs became the catalyst to reinterpret the 6th commandment, ‘not to commit adultery’, in a way that excluded them.

As we witnessed with the balloon, which got bigger and bigger, affecting everyone, and then finally bursting, David’s sinful affair got bigger and bigger, until finally affecting a whole community. Bethsheba became pregnant, and David, wanting to ‘look good’ before God and others, tried to hide the affair by having her husband ‘accidently’ killed in battle. David’s affair had an effect the whole community.

Like an expanding balloon, the adulterous affair expanded its reach. First the commanders of Israel’s army were affected by being forced to put Uriah in the front line of the army. Secondly, Uriah was killed. Thirdly, Israel’s army were put in danger because their best fighting man was lost. The widening affects continued, with family and friends left to mourn Uriah’s death.

Sin, our re-orientating of God’s word to suit our felt needs, does not remain stagnate. Like ripples radiating out from a stone dropped into a pond, wave after wave of ramifications swamp innocent people, destroying lives, families, relationship and even churches, long after the act done; long after all appears to be normal. We all have something that tickles our fancy, floats our boat, and attracts our attention.

Something we know in our heart is wrong, know from the Ten Commandments is wrong, yet because it feels right, because it fits comfortably with our wishes, suits our inner hopes and desires, we use them as a catalyst and excuse to re-interpret God’s commands against such things, in a way that suits our needs.

We are not just talking about the so called ‘big sins’, like adulatory, or murder, and let’s face it, you and I know that we are not likely to go and suddenly kill someone. However, the same destructive forces that ripple through whole communities and separate us from God, when there is a murder or adultery, are at play even in our smallest desires. Envy, jealousy and lust, or bitterness and anger, are only inner feelings, but we use them as a catalyst to re-interpret God’s word to suit our needs and then act on them, destroying our relationship with God and others around us; just as Adam and Eve did, believing that “Surely God did not say?”

We excuse ourselves of sin by saying “If God created our feelings and they form our natural behaviour, then we must be the ultimate guide to what is right and wrong.” Sadly, even our smallest feelings and desires are tainted with sin and do not give a true indication of God’s will for us. Acting on feelings and desires contrary to what we read and know of God’s will, is sin, and as with David, sin has an ever increasing affect on our relationship with God and with others.

The rippling affects on the community continue because behind our re-interpretation of God’s law stands an angry God, who condemns sin and commands that his law, which protects relationships, be kept, and who clearly warns ‘for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.’ David experienced firsthand the result of an angry God, as Nathan announces “You are the man!… the son born to you will die.” God, in righteous anger, put a stop to the ripples of sin by calling David and Bethsheba to account; he popped their balloon! The word of God pricked David’s conscience, deflating his ego by pointing out that his feelings and felt needs are not the measure for interpreting God’s word, or the guide to building good relationships. It was his sinful nature that had led him astray, and what he had done had broken the relationship between him and God.

The Lord did not bring an end to David’s sin out of spite or revenge, but revealed his sin in order to restore David back into a proper relationship with him and the Israelite community through the cleansing of repentance and forgiveness. When his sin was publically found out, announced through the prophet Nathan, David soon realized that first of all his sin offended God and had broken his relationship with him; David confesses “I have sinned against the LORD.” Only once this vertical relationship was restored, between David and God, could the horizontal relationships between David and the community begin to be restored. Only through the vertical and horizontal plains of the ‘cross’ can true healing begin.

He also calls us also to account, not out of malice or nastiness, but as a servant king, offering to firstly restore the vertical relationship between him and us, then to rebuild the horizontal relationships with each other; cleanse our lives through Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins. It is only through the way of the ‘cross’ that true relationships are forged. God first pops our balloon, sometimes by allowing our actions to become public, so that we can acknowledge that God is king and that our feelings are not. Only then, like with David, can confess that Jesus is Lord and saviour who washes us clean, and only then, by the grace given to us, can we do the same, restoring the horizontal relationships through confessing our sin and mutual forgiveness. God, the servant king begins with us through the cross, washing us clean, as Isaiah foretold ‘by his wounds we are healed’. Then he calls us to do the same ‘washing’ with each other.

Jesus demonstrated the washing and restoration he gives and calls for, achieved by him through the cross, when he washed the disciple’s feet. There, he humbled himself, as he would soon do on the cross, and washed the dirty feet of the disciples; people who had no idea they needed washing. They were embarrassed to have their ‘dirtiness’ revealed to all, and they were ashamed that Jesus, their master, needed to wash them. Some even protested saying “you shall never wash my feet.”

Determined to clean; determined to demonstrate how his blood, soon to be poured out on the cross, will wash us of sin, determined bring restoration on the vertical plain, Jesus said “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Only once the vertical relationship between us and God is restored through the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross, can we have a true heart to confess our sins, and bring restoration to the community; it is only through the relationship restoring cross do the ripples of sin change into ripples of love, joy, peace and forgiveness.

The relief and comfort that comes thorough Jesus’ washing is expressed by David in Psalm 32 “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long…Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”– and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” The same relief is expressed to Jesus by the sinful woman when she poured out her appreciation for the grace she received with tears and expensive oil. Jesus washed her clean, saying ‘your sins are forgiven’, their relationship was restored; she then began to ‘love much’. Restoration of relationships begins at the cross of Christ, from there, with ever increasing ripples of grace, we too love much. Amen

Jesus raises a widow’s son.

Luke 7:11-17 Jesus raises a widow’s son from death

Wouldn’t it be good if we could have a second chance at life?  If we could just have another go, how we would do things differently!  What would you do, or what would you change, or who would you be if you could have a second chance in life?  (question) Would it mean that you would be a different person than you are today? Would it mean that you would have done things differently or not have done them at all?  While we are mostly happy with our lives, there are the times which we wish never happened, and we want to have a second chance at life, or at least turn back time so things would be different. 

Cher if you are old enough to remember, had a famous song called ‘If I could turn back time’.  And not too embarrassed to admit it, you might remember the lyric’s going like this, and no, I’m not going to sing. ‘If I could turn back time
If I could find a way I’d take back those words that hurt you and you’d stay

Then she goes on to sing…
I didn’t really mean to hurt you I didn’t wanna see you go I know I made you cry, but

If I could turn back time
If I could find a way
I’d take back those words that hurt you…
If I could turn back time

This song really reflex’s all the instances in our lives in which we messed up, in which, if we had a second chance, we would change the things we said or done.  But what about the things that happen to us that are out of our control?  The things that can never change, no matter how many chances we have at life?

What about death?  Either our death or the death of loved ones?  Dying is something no one can avoid.  And when we hear of tragic deaths, we are saddened and even angry.  A ship carrying relief supplies and medical equipment is raided by army commandos; there is death and injury.   

The two processions of people.  Both heading in different directions; one procession trying to get into Gaza, the other trying to keep them out.  Both on a journey, both however, with different intentions, and unfortunately, both collide, with catastrophic consequences.  8 people are killed and we pray to God that he would bring his comfort to those in mourning.  Yes, our hearts go out to them. 

And sure, if both sides could turn back time, if we all had a second chance, perhaps something could have been done, but ultimately though, there is one thing that we can never change; dying.  Whether of old age or suddenly in an act of aggression, the wages of sin is death, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Jesus, in today’s gospel, is in a procession.  A group of people on a journey with Jesus, and they also have a destination, a little town called Nain; a little more than a day’s walking journey apart. You see, Jesus had just the other day, in Capernaum, healed a centurion’s son; a great miracle of life.  And now he, his disciples, and a huge crowd who witnessed the healing, were journeying in a joyful procession to another town; the town of Nain which means ‘a pleasant place’.

However, Nain is not the pleasant place its name suggests!  No, definitely not.  There is another procession of people in progress.  A group of people on a journey to the grave yard.  And this procession of people, are deeply grieved.  They are face to face with the reality of death.  They are carrying the dead body of a boy, the only son of a widowed mother.  And I suspect no one would be grieving more than his mother.  Not only has she lost her only son, but also her status and well being in the community.  A widow in Jesus time had no way of supporting herself.  The death of her son was the end for her as well.

Yes, this was a sad procession of people with one goal; to reach the grave yard.  So here we have it, Jesus procession going into Nain, and the widow’s procession going out of Nain.  Two processions of people, both heading in different directions, both having different destinations….Both collide at the gate of Nain.  One group of people going out to bury the dead, the other group going in to celebrate a life.  Life and death collide at the gate of Nain. 

However, unlike the collision between the activists and the commandos, which ended up in death and suffering.  The collision between Jesus, the resurrection and life, and death, the wages of sin – the death of a young man, has completely the opposite result.

Jesus, seeing the distraught widowed mother, feeling the anguish of her heart, had compassion on her, and the two processions stop in their tracks.  They stop while Jesus goes; goes and reaches out to the woman and reaches out to the dead son in compassion.  Jesus knows he has the power over death and he just can’t stand by and allow death to have its way; not yet. 

The compassion Jesus has, according to the Greek, is a deep out pouring of emotion; a spilling out of his insides.  The sort of compassion a Father has when he sees his prodigal son return and he runs out to greet him; the sort of compassion which urges Jesus to feed 5000.  Yes, this is exactly the compassion of God our Father, the pouring out of his heart which caused him to send his Son Jesus into the world to rescue the world; rescue you and I, from the power of death, as Jesus said ‘For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’

Yes, the compassion of Jesus collided with death that day and it resulted in new life; a second chance, both for the mother and the son.  Jesus reaches out, touches the coffin, reaches out touches the heart of the grieving mother, and says ‘do not cry mum’, son, I say to you get up’.  In an instant, with a mighty Spirit filled word, Jesus turns back time, he gives a second chance to those who are without hope.  The young man is raised from the dead.  And what is most touching is Jesus next action ‘he brought the young man back to the mother’.

Today, it seems as if we are two processions, both going in different directions.  One procession, Lutheran have had to make the break from regular worship here in Nyngan, the other procession, Uniting, remain and have had to accept this sad reality.  Two groups of people, both with different intentions, both going in different directions, meet together today in God’s house.  We too meet at a gate.  Not the gate of Nain, but with Jesus who said ‘I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.’

We meet today in the presence of Jesus, just as the widow did, and we come as one procession mourning the loss, or ‘death’ if you want to call it, of our joint Uniting/Lutheran services and fellowship.  It is not ‘accident’ that we meet today, we come deliberately to The gate, for through Jesus we are all saved and given a second chance.  Yes, today is our opportunity to give thanks to God for the past 30 years of Lutherans worshipping here, and we meet to praise God for the past 10 years of joint worship together and for the blessings this has brought.

Most importantly we come today as one procession, gathered by Jesus to meet him.  For we know and believe Jesus is ‘the resurrection and the life’ and he is present to give us a second chance.  His word and sacraments give us new life in him, resurrecting us from sin and death and bringing us to eternal life.  This is our common faith and what unites us.  Even though we are going in different directions, our second chance at life in Christ is what still unites us as one.

So, how might people who have a second chance at life, have a new life in Christ, live?  How might you here in Nyngan, who now have your own minister to serve you and bring God’s grace, see this as a second chance in ministry?  Perhaps, this second chance may mean you can be as Christ to one another and like him have compassion for those in need around us.  While other stop, caught in mourning and death, we go, go like Jesus and reach out and touch other people’s lives. 

Let our new life collide with others so that they to may experience the goodness and compassion of God, rather that the cold hand of injustice and rejection.  We may not change the world, but we may, by the power of God, change a life.

And in doing this, in bringing others to Christ for healing and new life, those who have been touched and those who have witnessed the new life will praise God and say ‘God has come to help his people’.  Amen

Explaining the truth.

Trinity Sunday John 16_12-15 Explaining the truth

Here’s a little survival trick (get water out of mud through a sock)

Now I learnt about this while watching Bear Grill on ‘Man verses Wild’…watched that show?  What’s Bear’s purpose?  He wants to demonstrate and pass on some survival trips in the case that you may become lost or marooned on an isolated island or remote area in foreign country.  With a few survival tips from Bear, we have a better than even chance of getting out of our situation alive; we have been equipped with the necessary knowledge, tools and skills to survive.

While survival training is on the extreme end of preparing for a holiday and I doubt anyone here intends to use this sort of skills.  Yet it would be foolhardy if we thought we could go off on a trip across Central Australia, or to the Kimberly region, or to Cape York without first making some inquires and seeking advice on making the trip.

What are some of the things you would do or ask to be prepared?  A good thing would be to talk with a local about what to expect, or at least converse with and seek tips from someone who has already made the trip; that’s what magazines and books are for.  Even better than this, would be what…?  To actually have a local guide with you; someone who let’s you take the trip, but who also guides and shows you all that is needed to ensure you make it safely.  Now to have such a companion would be something special, we would enjoy all the remote locations in the security and knowledge that we are in safe hands.  To do otherwise would be foolhardy.

What if I was to tell you that there are people among us who are taking a very dangerous journey without any preparation, having no skills or equipment or even considering the free offer of a guide for their journey…what would you say, they are foolhardy?  What if I were to say that perhaps some of these ‘foolhardy’ included me or you …what would you say?

Since our baptism, we are all on a journey of faith; a journey that started at the font with the in pouring of the Holy Spirit, as John the Baptist said ‘I baptize you with water, but [Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’  And this journey of faith continues to this very day with the Spirit’s power, as Jesus promises ‘…the Spirit of truth will guide you…’

A journey in spirit and in truth that will take us to the greatest heights of human experience; pinnacles of joy and mountain top revelations of God’s love with vista’s of his grace spread out before us; where we echo out from the peaks, the words of today’s Psalm ‘O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’  Then also, this journey of faith drags us down to the lowest of valleys, to the darkest of caverns where God’s presence has vanished, where it seems to be a place of devil’s; like howling hyenas, our troubles just wait to gobble us up and we can barely even stammer the words of Psalm 22 ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

Foolhardily we often take this journey of faith without any thought, preparation or guide.  Each day, each rising of the sun, we step out into a dangerous journey without a thought, without a survival tool, skill or guide, and head off into the spiritual temptations and dangers, as if we were the Bear Grills of the spiritual world; as if we were lone survivors capable of enduring whatever comes before us.  It may seem a little dramatised, a little over the top, but sadly it is more often the case.

Our journey of faith is not visible, nor the dangers seen, and so we think we are safe and are able to journey alone without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, without reading the bible, without prayer or without going to church to receive the sacrament where the Holy Spirit is given, as Jesus promised, and without starting the day in the name of the Triune God; the name in which God claimed us as his own and so protects us.

We live in a safe country physically, without wars or terrorist, we can journey to the Top End knowing we are not going to step on a land mine or be shot by a sniper.  We convince ourselves then, that this safety transposes over to our spiritual journey.   However, this is certainly not the case and never has been, the journey of faith is dangerous, as Jesus warned the 72 followers ‘Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.’

And even said evil attacks would come upon all who believe ‘Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man’   We cannot presume that that we, our husbands or wives, our family members, our brothers and sisters in Christ here at church, will remain safe and immune to spiritual danger; will not be attacked and fall for the devil’s lies or fall away from the faith.

Foolhardiness is to journey through remote areas of Australia without preparation, without the survival skills and without a guide.  To journey in faith without the same sort of preparations, and having the Holy Spirit as our guide, is also foolhardiness and even more so as St Paul warns ‘fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.’  Jesus returned to the Father, not to leave us as shipwreck survivors, like lonely lost people in a wilderness, without hope or rescue, but in order that the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the Spirit of truth, would equip and prepare us for our journey.

In fact the Holy Spirit does more than just prepare us, he is our very own guide for our earthly journey of faith, who protects, leads, gathers and unites us to Jesus.  He speaks the truth to us, about Jesus, about sin, about the world and about salvation, as Jesus said ‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.’  Everything that we need for salvation is given through the Spirit, who together with Jesus and the Father announces the victory Jesus won for us over sin, death and the devil on the cross.

This is the gospel, the truth that the Spirit conveys to us, to empower us and guide us in our journey; the very truth of the Spirit that also spoke through Paul when he wrote in Romans 5 ‘since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.’

As our Holy guide, the Spirit gives us all that is needed for this life’s journey, like faith itself, like discernment over false teachings, like power to overcome temptation, like authority to say no to sin and evil, like protection from evil, and like fire, which ignites hope and endurance in the face of adversity and suffering.  Sometimes we may wonder why we should go to church, why we should regularly read the bible, receive the sacraments, be committed to daily devotions and pray, when after all, everything seems fine.  Well, seasoned explorers and travelers will always tell you, it is precisely because you are prepared and are equipped that you don’t meet disaster and everything goes fine.

In the same way, as we remain in the word of God, in devotion and in prayer, and continue to partake of the sacraments, we receive the promised guidance and protection of the Spirit. It is precisely because we remain in the Spirit that no spiritual disasters have overcome us, as Jesus said ‘…apart from me you can do nothing.’   We can never be over prepared for our faith journey; we can never have ‘too much’ of the Spirit’s guidance, too much of the truth of the gospel, too much of the Spirit’s protection from evil.  This is why the writer of the book of Hebrews warns ‘let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.’

Jesus, together with the Father, through the Spirit’s power has given us everything we need for our journey of faith, for life and for salvation.  Let us rejoice in this gift and continue to seek and to receive the Spirit of truth and of life.  For, as Jesus said ‘The Spirit will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.’

Show me.

Pentecost john 14_7-18 Show me.

 

(in connection with a skit on trying to workout what a personalised number plate may mean)

 

For many people, perhaps even for you, the bible is like looking at a personalized number plate; you read the numbers and letters, but are left to work out what they really mean.  Like the HRT4GD plates on the car, where we have to unravel the letters to reveal ‘HaRT 4or GoD’, we read each book of the bible, each letter, gospel, each psalm and prophet and try to reveal its true meaning for today.  The message and purpose of the bible seems to be up for grabs.  Like the kids on the bus, is it true that all our different opinions are just as valid as anyone else’s?  Perhaps the bible’s message is depended upon our situation in life and therefore doesn’t have one central message, but rather a thread of relevant points to suit our felt needs.

The way the bible s quoted to validate so many different causes, it certainly appears that way;  its message is about rights, our rights, women’s rights, gay rights, human rights, for the rights of the unborn, for the rights of children, or for the elderly.  Others say it’s a message about morals and how to live the Christian life.  Its message dictates the role of women in society, men in the church, how children should look and act, how we are to love, to discipline, to guide even to the point of what we should wear.  Then others understand it to be a book of revolution; the world is evil and we must ‘win the world for Christ’.  We need Christian laws and leaders for our land to run the country with biblical principles, like Israel.  We need to use only Christian plumbers, electrician, lawyers and doctors so the jobs done better.

With all these voices, claiming to have the right answer to the bible, we get so confused…what is the bible’s message, will someone tell me!

There was a similar confusion over Jesus.  Though John the Baptist called out “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”, giving a definite answer, there was still great confusion over who Jesus was and what his message meant, particularly when it came to his interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.  Some, like the Pharisees heard him and took him as a threat to the Jewish faith and the laws of Moses.  Others, like the Romans, feared he was preparing an uprising against them.  Even the disciples struggled with his message.  John records Phillip questioning Jesus “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”  Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?”

We are certainly not the first to try and speculate or hold differing opinions and ideas about the central message of the bible.  Right from Jesus day until now, many falsely claim to hold the truth to the bible.  Jesus warned that this would be the case saying in Matthew 24 “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect– if that were possible.  See, I have told you ahead of time.”  So, ahead of time he also promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth teach us the truth about the bible’s message.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the church, Pentecost; the coming of the promised Holy Spirit 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection.  So it should be no surprise to us then, that we should pay special attention to the Holy Spirit’s message spoke that day.  Peter speaks publically for the first time about Jesus and explains the message of the scriptures.  The Holy Spirit came with signs and wonders, with flames and with the disciples speaking in many languages, and prophesying, but that was not the central message from the Spirit; not the truth. 

Though many today believe speaking in tongues and having power to prophesy is what makes a Christian.  Perhaps you have heard, like I have, people tell you they know, by direct knowledge from the Spirit, who and who hasn’t got the spirit, what your role in the church will be and what future is install for our church.  Somehow God has singled out them alone to tell the truth.  Others demand only some have the Spirit, those who speak in tongues or perform some miracle or possess some power from on high.

Yet, is this the truth of the Holy Spirit? Is it true only some have a word of knowledge, only some of us have the Spirit to interpret scripture?  Does this mean the rest of us then, remain confused and unable to understand the bible?  No, in the confusion that followed the coming of the Holy Spirit, when many we perplex and asked “what does this mean”, and others thought that the disciples were drunk, Peter, filled with the Spirit, speaks clearly and he speaks to everyone, in their own language.  The Holy Spirit has something to say to all people, and by his power, the disciples speak in tongues, to announce that his message is the truth about God and it was for everyone to hear, know, receive and believe.

There was no confusing word or special directive for a selected few to understand and pass on.  The Holy Spirit did not prompt Peter to speak about human works or the gifts of the Spirit or any other human endeavor, even those given by the Spirit.  Peter, filled with the Spirit announces the truth and thus the true message of the scriptures; “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  The coming of the Holy Spirit is to show everyone the way to Jesus; to show everyone now has the knowledge of Christ and him crucified, as St Paul would say.  The Spirit’s truth is that the bible points us to Christ alone as Luther would say and explained in his Small Catechism:

‘I believe in the Holy Spirit; one holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;

the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

 What does this mean?—Answer.

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him;

but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in

the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth,

and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and

richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give

to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.

The truth about the bible and its central message is to make known that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”   Peter continues to expand this in his speech.  I encourage you today, you and your children, to go home and read aloud Peter’s speech, and to know that through this gospel message, the promised Holy Spirit will enlighten your heart and give you faith to believe that there is no confusion, that in Christ alone “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.“  Amen

Relationships – The Passion of Christ

Relationships – The Passion of Jesus

John 17:20-26 (010)

I would find it a very interesting exercise to ask each of you what you are passionate about.  What are the things that excite you and stir you up?  What do you like to get involved in and talk about?  What are you willing to devote time and money and energy to?

People can be passionate about all kinds of things – sport, politics, homes, families, work, hobbies, cars, helping others, cleanliness, health, clothes, the environment, music, movies, travel – just about anything.  And because we’re all very different people, with different interests, gifts, abilities, skills, feelings, life experiences and personalities – we can all have different passions.

That’s one reason why it can be difficult for us at times to work together as Christians and as Christian churches.  We’re very diverse people and we can have different passions and interests even within our ministries as God’s people.

So one of the really important things for us as God’s people is to focus on what we have in common – what makes us the “one holy Christian church” here on earth.  And then, rather than thinking about our passions, we can think about Jesus and his passions, because that just may have an influence on us and what we do and say as we serve wherever God has called us to.

So what was Jesus passion?  What was important for Jesus?  What was so critical for him that he was prepared to die for it?

The last few hours before his crucifixion give us a clue.  It had been a busy week, starting with a dramatic entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey.  There were big crowds, cheering, shouting, waving palm branches, and throwing their coats on the road for him to ride over.

There was an argument in the temple with the money changers.  The religious leaders demanded him to answer their questions.  There was a unique meal with his disciples in an upper room where he spoke intensely about what was to happen to him.  And then a quick exit into a garden to pray.

One moment he was talking, teaching, sharing – the next moment he was pouring out his heart to his Father.  It was a prayer of deep intimacy and great intensity.  An urgent and impassioned plea to God for his people.

Father, may they be one as we are one (v1).  Father, you are in me and I am in you, may they be in us so that the world will believe that you sent me (v21).  Father, may they be brought to complete unity (v.23).  Father, may the love you have for me be in them (v26).

            This is a prayer of passion.  This is what is on his heart.  This is why he’s been sent.  This is the goal he has before him.

            Jesus may well have been passionate about many things and many people – but this prayer highlights what he wants to see and have happen more than anything else.  It’s a passion for unity.  That’s what he wants – unity among his people.  Harmony in relationships is what is really on his heart.

            This prayer of Jesus breathes relationship, fellowship and intimacy.  It’s an intimacy first of all between the God the Father and Jesus.  It’s a special and unique relationship: Everything you have given me comes from you (v7).  All I have is yours and all you have is mine (v10).  You in me and I in you (v21).  Here we catch a glimpse of an astonishing relationship between Father and Son.  This prayer reflects the intimacy of the Trinity.

And we hear Jesus’ greatest desire – that his followers enjoy the same kind of relationship – that they can be in a close and intimate relationship with him and with each other.  That’s his passion and the central focus of his prayer.  That’s what he wants to see more than anything else.

            The relationship between the Father and the Son is the example for all Christian relationships.  It’s the standard that we have before us.  It’s the model for marriages and families.  It’s the model for small groups and meetings and committees and teams within churches.  It’s the model for relationships within and between local congregations.  It’s the example for the world-wide body of Christ.

            That’s Jesus passion.  His desire is that the respect, the cooperation and the depth of relationship enjoyed by him and his Father, might be what we experience in our relationship with him and other people.

            That was God’s purpose in creating people – so that we could live in peace and harmony, and have good relationships with others.  Imagine then how God felt when sin came into the world.  His dream was destroyed.  Relationships were broken, intimacy was smashed, trust was annihilated and unity was wrecked.

            Where are you? God asked Adam in the Garden of Eden.  What have you done?  And he asked the same of Cain after he’d killed his brother Abel.  His children, whom he’d given everything that they’d needed, had hurt him.  He didn’t create them for brokenness and division.  He created them, and us, so that we could have fellowship, security and joy in our relationships with him and others.

            That’s not how things worked out.  So Jesus, knowing the ache and pain in his Father’s heart, left his Father’s side to walk the dusty paths of Palestine that led him to the cross.  He came to make it possible for relationships to be restored, restored between God and people, and between people themselves.

That’s the core of the Gospel message.  That’s what Jesus agonised over in the garden of Gethsemane.  That’s why he was so prepared to face all that he did.  That’s why he was so passionate about doing something.  All so that healing could take place in our relationships.

            The price we pay for something gives us an idea of its value.  The price that Jesus paid so that there might be healing and health and security in our relationships, gives us a pretty clear idea of how much he values us as people united in love and fellowship.

            That’s where his passion lies.  That’s what’s important for him.  And that says something vitally significant about how we can grow and develop our passions.

In his passion for restored relationships, Jesus spent time with people – especially those people who were rejected by society at large.  He argued against the traditions of his day – especially when it meant people’s needs were disregarded as a result.  He had no desire to build an organisation – but he felt strongly about people being part of a family, about them being welcomed and made to feel at home.  He didn’t come to put a program of ministry in place or give us seven or twelve steps to follow to be a healthy church, but to show mercy and give forgiveness to sinners.

            That doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with traditions or organisations or programmes or working through steps to better life and growth in the church.  It just means that what’s more important than all of them put together is us having healthy relationships.  Father may they be one as we are one.  That’s Jesus’ passion.

            So what does that say about what’s important for us.  We may have or develop interests or passions in lots of different kinds of ministries or service in our churches.  They are a variety of things that we can do as we use our gifts and as we meet the needs in our churches and community.

            But if in the process we ignore or take for granted what Jesus’ greatest passion is, and not take that on board as the basis for our thinking, praying and planning – then whatever we do won’t be too effective.  We might get a job done, we might meet a deadline or a budget, we might even achieve all our objectives and meet all our goals – but if we’re content to let our relationships with others take second place, then we’re spoiling God’s plan for his people here.

            As hard as we work, we’re never going to have perfect relationships here.  Our churches, our congregation, our families, will always have struggles and challenges, and we’ll all make mistakes and make a mess of things at times.  But the same Jesus, who cried in the garden and prayed for our unity, also gives us what we need to work at our relationships so that we can continue to be effective.  He provides us with his help, his patience, his wisdom, and his grace and forgiveness – especially when we run low on ours.

            He not only had this passion for healing relationships when he walked this earth.  He still has it now.  And so he gives us all we need so that we can be working on building our relationships every day.  We’re not left to our own devises and strength, but can receive power to do what may seem at times the impossible.

            Jesus committed himself to us so that we can grow our relationships with others.  That’s his passion.  That’s his desire.  That’s what he wants to see happen more and more in his church.

            And as we explore our particular passions and work out our individual commitments, we can have that as the basis for our ministry and service.  We can grow in having quality relationships with others, because that’s what Jesus empowers us to do.  Amen.

Pastor Mark Leischke

Change of focus.

John 5_1-9 Change of focus.

Ex gambling addicts say that the worst thing that could happen to a first time gambler is to have a win.  Why?  What worked once, surely will work again.

The win seemed so easy.  Go to the pub, just put in a few dollars and jackpot!  No more worries about money, you’re a winner!  It is just a matter of playing at the right machine at the right time… when it hits the jackpot.  Sadly however, the jackpot is hit very rarely hit.  You never know just when it will happen.  The slight chance that you will be playing the machine when it jackpots causes despair and anxiety, because you can’t afford to leave the machine; the next dollar you put in might bring the jackpot.  Despair and anxiety drive a false hope.  You have to win now, as its cost everything, there is nothing to lose, money, home, family and even quality of life itself are gone, and so they play on in desperate hope.

Being on ‘that’ machine, playing for ‘that jackpot’ becomes the sole purpose and focus in life.  Nothing else matters, nothing could be more important than being on the machine; being there when it jackpots.  The machine has become a false god, as Luther explains a god, ‘A god is whatever a person looks for all good things and runs to for help in trouble.’  There are halls full of people gathered around machines, despair driving a false hope.  It worked once, surely it will work again.

There is a man, a crippled man ,waiting by a poor of water called Bethesda, Jesus sees him.  In fact he sees a great number of paralysed, blind, lame and sick people, all gathered around a pool of water; a pool of water that supposedly has healing powers when it is stirred.  It may have worked once, perhaps someone was healed when the water stirred and this one ‘jackpot’ drives those in despair to false hope that this same jackpot will happen to them; they too will be healed.  The catch is they need to be present when the water stirs and they need to be the first into the water.  And so they wait, driven by anxiety and a false hope…perhaps it will be their turn next.  The water had become their sole purpose and focus in life.  The supposed healing properties of the water had become their false god; the giver of all things good. 

So many sick and desperate people gathered around this ‘water god’, that colonnades were built over the pools to protect the sick and lame from the elements of the weather.  Jesus, walking under the colonnades, asks the cripple “do you want to be healed?”  An obvious and somewhat silly question.  Of course he wants to be healed!  Yet, does he answer “yes I do”?  No, his focus is still on the water.  He has invested so much time and effort on his attempts to be cured, he can’t afford to look away or consider what Jesus might be offering, the water may stir, and so answers “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 

Jesus’ question was not silly at all.  Knowing this man was still waiting to be healed after 38 years, Jesus had identified the stirring water to be this man’s false god.   The question, “do you want to be healed.” deliberately changes the focus off the water, off the false god, and onto him, the true God, Son of the Father, as God said at his baptism “This is my Son, whom I am well pleased, listen to him.”  The paralysed man’s answer, the “yes but…” only confirmed his false god.  Yes, I want to be healed but I need to get into the water’; he did not recognise that Jesus was not offering help, he was offering a healing.

Perhaps you have something similar in your life?   A worry of some sort, in which you have invested so much time and effort to cure, that it has become your sole purpose and focus?  Something so important to you, like having enough money, earning a good reputation,  or even wanting to be healed of some sickness or addiction that the means to the cure has now become your sole focus.  Perhaps your ‘cure’, has become like the paralysed man’s water, occupying all you thoughts, hopes and plans?  Even to the exclusion of everything else?  If so, perhaps you also are relying on a false god. 

When we hear Jesus words “do you want to be healed”, perhaps we also answer “yes but…”:  Yes but…I just need to work first to earn the necessary money:  Yes but…I just need to improve by behaviour:  Yes but…I just need to have more faith first:  yes but… tells us we have a false god.  We, like the paralysed man are so focused on what we have to do to cure ourselves that we fail to recognise that that Jesus never offers help, he offering total healing. 

Before another ‘yes but’ came from the paralysed man’s mouth, Jesus destroys the false god with a simple command ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.  Did the man have to enter the water to be healed, as he thought?  No!  Did he have to first have faith?  No!  In fact this man didn’t even know Jesus name, as verse 13 reveals ‘The man who was healed had no idea who it was.’  Did he have to stop sinning before Jesus healed him?  No, Verse 14 dismisses that when Jesus says to the healed man, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ 

Jesus’ word has the power and authority to heal, to forgive, to bring back to life with no help from us, destroying our false gods and false hopes; freeing us from the bondage and despair of having to try and heal ourselves by our own efforts, as he indicates in Matthew 9 ‘Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

St Paul says in Romans 5 ‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’  While we were still placing hope in false gods, Jesus healed us.  In our baptism, God brought the healing waters to us, he brought righteousness, forgiveness, and eternal life to us, while we are still dead in sin and did not even know Jesus.  This is the good news of Jesus life, death, resurrection and ascension.  By his blood he has already healed us and has given us life.  This grace comes to us anew each day and simply speaks a non-threatening word of healing.  He says to you, even though you may say ‘yes but…’ “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk”  Walk in the forgiveness I offer.  And as sure as the paralysed man got up and walked, you also walk in newness of life.

As healed and restored people, with our false gods destroyed, and with the words of Jesus on our lips, we have the healing of Jesus to offer to others.  So many people’s lives are being wasted, desperately relying on false hopes; desperately trying everything to heal their hurts and cover their guilt from sin.  Many of these people used to know and believe in Jesus as the only one who can heal.  But slowly, the ‘means to be healed’  have became more important, and now they too have joined the multitudes ‘hanging around the pool false healing’, desperately hoping to enter into its healing waters, not knowing for sure if they are really going to be healed.

 

Dubbo

Let’s not wait around for them to be disappointed, to fall into total despair because they never get to the healing they so desire.  Let’s make plans like Jesus did, to visit where they hang out; to speak a healing word from Jesus.  Let’s make an effort to reconnect them to Jesus, the true source of healing.  I am praying that we may find a way of bringing healing and reconnection to the multitudes who gather at the Dubbo North School every weekday.  ‘Reconnect’ is a great word and would make a great mission enabling statement; to reconnect people to God, to healing and to life.  Our church is perfectly sized and positioned to make today’s gospel a reality in the lives of those who frequent the school.

 

Gilgandra

Let’s not wait around for them to be disappointed, to fall into total despair because they never get to the healing they so desire.  Let’s make plans like Jesus did, to visit where they hang out; to speak a healing word from Jesus.  Let’s make an effort to reconnect them to Jesus, the true source of healing.  I am praying that we may find a way of bringing healing and reconnection to the multitudes that travel the highway each day.  Our church is perfectly sized and positioned to make today’s gospel a reality in the lives of those who frequent the road out front.

Let’s pray that God would make a gate for us to open, like the sheep gate, that leads us into the midst of desperate people, people who don’t even know they need Jesus!  Now that’s a radical prayer.  But then again, God works in radical ways, after all, despite our inaction, our false god’s, our continual sin, he still loves and forgives and still heals us saying ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk’.

Beyond human love.

Acts 11_1-18 beyond human love Easter 5

I have a gift here to give to you, but I want to ask the following question:  Don’t answer aloud, just put up your hand if you know the answer…How many days did it rain on the earth while Moses and his family were in the ark?  Who says 40 days and 40 nights?  Who says none?  The correct answer is none of course, Moses never built the ark.  Go and hand out the prize of chocolates to those who got the answer wrong.  The people who got the answer correct miss out!

That didn’t seem fair did it?  How is it right that undeserving people get the prize?  Shouldn’t those with the right answer be given all the rewards and accolades?  Deserving people deserve a reward.  That’s why we love to watch the reality TV shows like backyard bitz, that help deserving people who have had a hard time get some normality back to their lives.  We like the shows because they do a good turn for someone who has had a hard go, and they give us a warm feeling, knowing someone deserved has been helped and loved.

Who likes it when someone undeserving get’s an award, like I just gave?  When we see someone who knowingly or deliberately gets themselves into trouble, and yet is given support, help and love, we think its unfair.  Think about someone you know, a family member or friend who has got themselves into a bind, financially or relationally, a friend who has an addiction or caught up in public and deliberate sin…what do we naturally think?  “They made their bed, let them lay in it; let them suffer the consequences of their actions.’  Sure, we may give them lip service, say a few words like ‘I’m sorry, how sad, or better luck next time’.  But ask us to actually do something to improve their situation or outlook and we judge them unworthy, undeserving of our love and attention. 

Yes, there needs to be consequences for bad behaviour, but can we allow the consequences to overshadow love and the total radical grace of the gospel?  Can we allow our sense of unfairness to rule our responses? Perhaps we are afraid of what others might say about us if we do?  Or afraid that loving someone undeserving and speaking to them about Jesus might cause some ramifications within our church community; cause infighting and unrest?   

These were the sort of questions that would have haunted Peter as he come to terms with the gospel message of Jesus. Peter was a strong and committed Jew and of course one of Jesus’ disciples.  He was an apostle of the Lord called by him to spread the good news of Jesus death and resurrection for the salvation of the world.  He was sent by Jesus to love the world as he himself had loved the world. 

At that time, even though Peter had experienced Jesus mixing with sinners and outcasts and witnessed his death and the resurrection for the atonement of sins, he never comprehended the radical call of the gospel…that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’  For Peter, the WORLD Jesus died for was his world, the Jewish nation, those who had the law and promise of God; the chosen nation and so deserved the right to have Jesus as saviour.  Peter’s understanding of the gospel was constrained by cultural and religious pressures to conform to ‘the way things are.’  His love and compassion, like ours often is, was limited by personal boundaries and constraints; limited by fear of causing an affront to other godly people and so limiting the gospel to only those who deserve to be loved. 

When God caused Peter to fall into a trance, he asks him to eat religiously forbidden food.  Peter answers ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’  In the vision, God is showing Peter the radical nature of the gospel and says ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’  The vision showed Peter that the forgiveness of sins and salvation is for the WHOLE WORLD, for all people, not just the Jews, as the prophet Ezekiel foretold ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.’ 

Peter, acting in the power of the Spirit, comes to the joyous realization that salvation is for the undeserving.  When he witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the gentile household of Cornelius, he responded ‘So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”

As we look around our empty churches, it reminds us that perhaps things are not as they should be or could be.  Our broken relationships, our lack of love for undeserving people, our limited efforts to announce the gospel of Jesus, all remind us that somehow, perhaps, we are a little like Peter was.  That inadvertently we have only loved and spoke the gospel to those we felt deserve our gift and attention; those we think are worthy.  Perhaps deep down we feel guilty of conforming to cultural and even church pressure to keep ‘things the way they are.’, lest there be arguments and disunity over allowing such undeserving people to enter into fellowship with us and hear the message of salvation…all while still living in sin. 

Today, hear the Easter gospel message…that there is no one who deserves to be saved.  No one is guilt or shame free.  No one can claim to deserve God’s love or be undeserving of it, simply because of what they do, how they love or what they say; not Peter, not Paul, not you, not me.  All of us, by the pure grace of God, are forgiven and loved by God.  Grace, by its very meaning is ‘undeserved love.’ 

It is God’s choice and action to send his Son Jesus to the cross to pay for our sin and to raise him from the grave to make us into sons of God, as St John announces ‘to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-‘   You have been given this gift, you have the gospel word from the bible, you have the Spirit, you are rich in glory and have all that God offers…he has kept nothing from you. 

Though once we were like the forbidden food, outside of salvation, now, by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have been grafted into God’s family and this is the message we have been commissioned to proclaim.  The other day, my wife Julie went shopping with my youngest son Kyle.  He was lucky enough to be given a chocolate bar by Julie, who bought one each for the other children, which he promptly and joyfully ate.  He was so excited about his gift, that the moment he got home, he burst in through the door and announced ‘look what I got and mum has bought you one too!’  The joy of the gift could not be contained, it had to be announced.  Even when the others weren’t as excited over the gift and seemed undeserving of such a gift, out of his joy he handed the chocolates to them anyway.

We have this gift of salvation and we have the commission of Jesus to go and tell others, as Matthew records ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’, but often, the joy like my son Kyle, does not accompany the proclamation of the gift.  Old judgmental habits escort our mission efforts and taint our message and stunt the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church, like it was with Peter.  We fear we will cause arguments and conflict in the church because we might become uncomfortable with new and different ‘undeserving’ people sitting in the pew with us and this fear drives us to choose between the deserving and undeserving.

God released Peter from this fear as he prayed.  Just as he has released Peter, God will release you from this fear also.  Pray as Peter did.  Pray for joy.  Pray that God would give you his Spirit.  Pray that love, passion and joy will accompany your gospel message; a joy so great that you see that things do not have to be the way they are.  God is ready to give you and the church here a vision and purpose, pray as Peter did that the Spirit would reveal those he is calling.  Jesus encourages us to do this very thing and promises that when we pray, not only will he give us immeasurably more than we ask for, he will also give us his Spirit, as Jesus said ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’  Then perhaps we too might be like Peter, surprised by the working of God in town and announce with joy ‘who was I to think that I could oppose God?”  Amen

Wearing the right gear.

Revelation 7_9-17  Wearing the right gear

 

Who here can surf? Is there anyone here who can play league at top level?  Who can race a v8 supercar? Yep, that’s what I thought.  Yet with the right clothing we can look like and act like the best surfer or racing car driver ever!  Don the right gear and you or I can go to Surfers Paradise and look like a pro-surfer. Everyone does it.  The moment you step into Queensland, for some reason you feel you have to clothe yourself in the right gear…the board shorts, the Oakely sunglasses, the Billabong tee shirt and thongs; you got to look like you can surf.

The same goes when we attend a sporting event like football or car racing.  We buy and wear the clothing that makes us look as if we could tackle () or out lap the Stig!  Unlike Dorcus, who voluntarily make clothing for the poor out of necessity, we make clothing to cover who we really are and we use clothing to hide our insecurities and inabilities; we wear designer clothing to blend into the crowd. 

In a way its fun to look like a star sportsman or women…but please don’t ask us to play!  The clothing might say ‘Holden Dealer Team race driver’, but it does not and cannot empower us to do what it says.  We are reminded of this today on ANZAC Day.  We can dress like a soldier, but don’t ask us to be the one to go to battle and be killed.  Don’t expect us to take a bullet for our country and have our clothes ruined and stained by our own blood.

Adam and Eve were the fist to put on designer clothing, hoping to blend in to the surrounds, hoping not to be noticed, hoping to cover their true self.  Genesis records their moment of discovery, when Adam and Eve realised they had sinned against God and for the very first time felt shame and guilt: ‘When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.’

Sin brought shame.  They were naked before God and each other, both physically and spiritually.  They were not a god in their own right after all, and so fig leaves became the first designer clothing.  By covering themselves with clothes, perhaps God wouldn’t notice them.  Perhaps the fig leaves would cover their sin, insecurities and inability to truly fear and love God; perhaps they would look like they did before. 

However, as you and I are fully aware, designer clothing, made and chosen by us, only covers and hides, it does not do what it says.  The leaves were of no use to Adam and Eve, God still found them and still knew they were sinners hiding under clothing; they were punished and kicked out of the garden. 

Still today we try to look as if we can hide from God’s anger over our sin.  We still try and wear designer clothing, chosen by us, to cover our shame.  The moment we have a bad though or sensual desire, a bad word is spoken by us or we lie, like walking into our wardrobe to put on a new change of clothes, we pick out cover ourselves with a particular excuse; a clothing we knew worked last time.  We clothe ourselves to justify our thoughts or actions by wearing the blame game; blaming the TV show, blaming the other person, blaming even God.  We cover our unrighteousness, our shame and guilt with home made clothing, perhaps even condemning others for doing the very same thing we do, hoping this would cover our deeds.  Yes, it often fools those around us.  No one in the church would ever find out.  Perhaps no one would even know in our family…but we know.  And guess what….God knows.

Isaiah warns ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’.  God cannot be fooled, he sees beyond our clothing, our nice exterior, and casts them off as nothing but filthy rags.  He knows what we are hiding underneath, and so do we.  He asks us to do what our clothing says…be righteous, but we can’t.  God asks of us what we cannot deliver.  Like wearing the army clothing knowing full well we cannot fight.  St Paul laments saying ‘What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?’

When St John had the privilege of looking into heaven itself, out of all the glorious and mysterious things he saw, out of all the wonders, like seeing the Son of Man and the seven spirits, one mundane and rather ordinary thing was pointed out and noted; the white robes of the believers in heaven.  John records ‘Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes– who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’

The clothing of the saints in heaven, the clothing of those who have died and gone to heaven before us are singled out by God to tell us of their significance.  They are not wearing clothes fashioned by their own works, excuses or righteousness…the old filthy rags that Isaiah speaks about; the fig leaves of the old Adam and Eve.  No, the clothing they wear are not their own, they are white robes washed in the blood of the lamb.  The blood of Jesus covers them and it is only this clothing, made out of Jesus blood that was poured out on the cross, and worn by the saints in faith, that covers the true sinful nature that once lied beneath.  It is only this clothing that is good enough for God because it is really the clothes of his own Son Jesus.

The robe of righteousness, the clothing worn by the saints, washed in the blood of Jesus, is singled out to show it is the only clothing that makes us righteous before God; it is made known to us because we cannot see it…it is spiritual and it is put on by faith, as St Paul says ‘the righteous live by faith not by works’.  This is the gospel, the good news. 

Unlike the clothing of excuses and good works we wear to cover our shame and guilt before others, but do not cover before God, the robe we are given by the lamb covers before God, yet it is hidden for it is by faith that we trust we are wearing it.  In baptism we are given this white robe washed in the blood of Jesus, as St Peter says in 1 Peter 3:21 ‘baptism now saves you … not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,’

Even though we may not feel or even look like a Christian, clothed in the white robe of righteousness, we are not play acting or pretending to be Christians, we really and truly are Christians who are saved and will enter eternal life.  You and I truly are disciples of Jesus and saints before God; we have salvation by the very clothes we wear, given to us by God in baptism.  While baptism clothes us with Jesus blood, we continually wash our robes in the blood of Jesus in Holy Communion, and in confession and absolution.  Here our sins and guilt are covered again and again; we sin, we come, we are washed and we go and we serve. 

This is the cycle of discipleship; always going out of and returning to Jesus to be covered in his blood.  He is our shepherd who will continually wash us clean as we do his work in our community.  Never fear about doing something wrong in ministry.  Never worry that you will make the unforgivable mistake.  Everything, when done in the name of Jesus, will be used by God and as long as we remain in the cycle of discipleship, all will be forgiven.  For it is Jesus who not only covers our sin, he is also shepherding our conscience and soul.  As you hear his voice and meditate on it, he will guide your thoughts and decisions. He will lead you into mission and service together with each other. 

By faith we know we wear the right gear for salvation, but it is often forgotten that we also now live by that same faith; there is a promise that Jesus shepherds us now in our daily service.  The promise is for now and it is for you that the Lamb at the center of the throne will be your shepherd; he will lead you to springs of living water. And that even though you may suffer and fall into sin, God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.’  Amen

Don’t hold on…Jesus is Risen

Don’t hold on…Jesus is risen John 20:1-18

 

He has risen!  We can only imagine what someone would say and do if they suddenly saw a dear friend alive, whom was thought to be dead.  We can only imagine what Mary did when she first saw her dearest friend and saviour Jesus, whom she was certain, was dead, now risen and standing before her.  What would you do if you thought someone you loved was dead, perhaps after a terrible accident or after being lost, and then you suddenly saw them?

Of course you would run and give them a great big hug and hold onto them tightly in great joy.  You would hold onto them, never wanting to let go, thinking, ‘Now we are together, nothing will separate us.’  Naturally, we would want things to return to the way they were before the incident, wanting everything the same, wanting the relationship to be the same, wanting the future to be a continuation of the past.

Mary of course acted in the same natural way we would if our dear friend whom was dead, but now stands before us alive!  She grabbed hold of him, she hugs him and does not want to let go of him.  Things were going to be the same again; going to return back to normal.  Jesus was once again going to be walking with his disciples and caring for them again, teaching about the kingdom of God; by his very presence, his victory over death, shows that he is right in his claim to be the messiah, the resurrection and the life.  What a joyful future it will be, now that the future is going to be the same as the past.

But can it ever be?  Can the future be the same as the past, now that Jesus has risen from the dead?  Can the past be held onto, now that Jesus has over come the past?

As Mary clung to Jesus, he said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’  With these words Jesus announces that the past is finished with, there is no going back or holding on to the past.  His death and resurrection dealt with the past.  Things are not the same the other side of death and resurrection.  Here, where Jesus lives forever, dawns a new life forged in forgiveness and sustained by his presence with us through his word and sacraments.

Jesus’ telling Mary ‘not to hold on me, I’m going back to my God and your God’, is not a word of rejection, but a word of hope and acceptance.  A word that tells us that the past is over; there is no need to hang onto it anymore.  Our God, because of Jesus atoning death on the cross, does not hang on to our past sins, as Psalm 103 announces ‘The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.’

Mary certainly understood Jesus’ words in this way and released her grip on Jesus, knowing she will never lose him again, even in her own death; for he is the resurrection and the life.  She does not have to hold onto him for fear of losing him again, because from now on he is going to be present in a different way.  He is to return to the Father, in order to be present always and at all times and in all places, bringing forgiveness and peace through his word and sacraments.  Jesus is giving her the freedom to now go and live without hanging onto burdens of the past.  Guilt and shame of the past, are forgiven.  Now she has the freedom, courage and hope to announce ‘I have seen the Lord!’

Today we witnessed the baptism of Logan and Gus.  Baptism brings the cross and the resurrection to us now.  Through his ascension to his Father, Jesus is present now by his living word and holy sacrament, giving victory over sin, death and the devil, as his word promises ‘whoever is baptised and believes will be saved.’

Here today, in the waters of baptism, Logan and Gus died to sin, went to the grave with Jesus where the old sinful nature was put to death, and now by the power of Jesus resurrection, the living word of God brought Logan and Gus to new life in Jesus.  St Paul says ‘We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ‘   You can go from here today and say ‘I witnessed a death and resurrection!’

Each baptism is a new Easter miracle, a new death and a new resurrection to life in Jesus.  From this moment on for Logan and Gus, and from the moment of your baptism on, the past is finished with; we no longer hang on to the past or live as we did in the past.  We may want things to be the same and naturally, we still try and hold on to our sin or grievances, like we hold on to a friend.  But in baptism the old sinful nature was put to death with Jesus and our new self, which is brought to life in Christ, now lives.

Jesus words ‘do not hold on to me’, give you and me the freedom to let go of past guilt, to let go of past hurts and sinful ways, let go of fear and of anxiety, because in letting go, we are confessing our sin and allowing Jesus to forgive.  Our future is now no longer a continuation of the past, but is a new freedom, forged in forgiveness and sustained by his presence with us through his word and sacraments.

In fact, every time we confess our sins to God and to each other, and receive a word of forgiveness from God, either through the pastor or when in private, through another Christian, the miracle of a new Easter happens; a new death to self and a new resurrection to life in Christ is enacted upon us by the very words of Jesus, ‘If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.’

The life of a Christian is always about the cross and resurrection.  Going to church always revolves around our dying and living, and discipleship is always centred on Christ’s call to let go of the past and to live in the forgiveness of Jesus, just as the prophet Micah said  ‘And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’

Our life is a life worth dying to live for, because Christ died for us and now lives in us by faith.  His resurrection is ours through baptism, his life is ours, his righteousness is ours, all that is his is ours by faith, trusting in Jesus very words to you and me today ‘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.’  Amen

I can’t bear to look.

I can’t bear to look Isaiah 52:13-53:12

 

There are some things in this world that we just can’t bear to look at or dare to love.  Mould is something we all hate to see or smell, especially if it is growing on something we just took a bite out of!  It looks horrible, all fury, bluey and black in colour and it also smells terrible.  What good could come out of such a disgusting growth?   Penicillin!

Yes, from something so foul actually extrudes something that is a life giving antibiotic.  Out of a dying, mould infested piece of bread is harvested a life saving drug named penicillin, a drug that ushered in the new world of antibiotics; a drug that now save hundreds of lives each day. From something we cannot bear to look at comes a life-giving drug.

While there were no cameras in Jesus day, the prophet Isaiah gives us a word picture of God’s chosen messiah, Jesus; whom we picture in our minds as beautiful, with long flowing blond hair with strongly contoured cheek bones.  Isaiah, prompted by the Spirit, 1000’s of years before his birth, depicts Jesus like a piece of mould.  Someone we could not even bear to look at.

He writes ‘there were many who were appalled at him–his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness—He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him–Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.’

Jesus, hanging on the cross, looks for all purposes like a dying piece of bread covered in mould, rather than the ‘bread of heaven’ that he said he was.  He is bruised by his beating, bleeding from his whipping; agony is on his face.  His flesh cut so badly you could see his muscles and tendons being ripped from his joints as he is suspended by just three sharp nails.  His bones are all showing.  There is nothing of him that would make us want to look at him.  No, he was to be despised.   Jesus, the bread from heaven, the life giving bread hangs dying, like a piece of bread covered in mould.  What good could come of this?

He is indeed the bread of heaven, the bread of life, because out of Jesus veins pour a life giving flow of blood.  He is precisely the bread from heaven because he is dying, disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.  We can’t bear to look at him because he is our sin; he is the ugliness, the smell, the horror of our sin;  he is the bread from heaven, covered in the mould of our sin, so that through his death for us, out of his veins would flow the life giving blood that will heal us from death.

Isaiah foretells this saying ‘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.’   It was our sins that he died for, it is his blood that gives life.

Penicillin was invented many years ago, but today we receive its benefits as we take its healing properties into our bodies.  In the same way, Jesus died on the cross some two thousand years ago, but his blood still flows for us today, filling us with its healing properties as we drink of the cup in Holy Communion.  Jesus comes before us today, in the word of God through simple bread and wine, nothing to look at, no beauty or majesty to attract us to it, nothing in its appearance that we should desire it.  Many– hide their faces and esteem it not.’  Yet, by the very word of God, this simple bread and wine is the body and blood of Jesus that freely gives us the forgiveness of sins and victory over death that he won for us that first Good Friday.

Martin Luther speaks of it this way ‘If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there. Nor must I hold to the suffering of Christ…in knowledge or remembrance, for I will not find it there either. But I will find in the sacrament or gospel the word which distributes, presents, offers, and gives to me that forgiveness which was won on the cross. Therefore…whoever has a bad conscience from his sins should go to the sacrament and obtain comfort, not because of the bread and wine, not because of the body and blood of Christ, but because of the word which in the sacrament offers, presents, and gives the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for me.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus this Good Friday.  Amen

[1]Luther, M. (1999, c1958). Vol. 40: Luther’s works, vol. 40 : Church and Ministry II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther’s Works (Vol. 40, Page 214). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.