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John 15: 5-10 Remain in me and you will bear much fruit

 

Here I have in my hand a beautiful red wine from the Barossa Valley!  Growing up in South Australia and having relatives who grow grapes and produce wine, I know when I taste a good red.  And part of the Lutheran tradition and the German heritage in the Barossa is to share and fellowship with one another, neighbours, friends and fellow church members, the bounty of the Lord; to share a glass of red from the vintage over a meal, to share with others something wonderful that they neither toiled or laboured for; a gift given freely, because it was first given freely by God.

What makes a good red?  Well I am no expert and perhaps Father Martin could call on the Catholics at the Seven Hills Monastery in Clare SA, who make a great red, to inform us in some detail.  But what I do know is that the best red wines come from the grapes that grow on the oldest vines; the vines that were planted more than 100 years ago.  These grapes produce the best wine because their juice is sourced from a knotted vine which has roots spreading deep below the surface.  The grapes provide the best juice because they grow on stems that bud out of and remain in age old branches that are every reliable and able to provide life through its veins 

Jesus said ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a person remains in me and I in him, they will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’  Jesus uses the beautiful analogy of the vine and grapes to teach his hearers, his disciples and you and me, the churches here in Gilgandra, the source and power to produce good fruit in our life comes only through him.  Only by remaining in Jesus, only by receiving from Jesus, can we do anything at all, that is seen by God to be ‘good fruit’.  If the citizens of Gilgandra are to enjoy the fruit we produce, the fruit of the Christian churches, we, who are believers, and who attend church, actually need to freely receive before we can freely give.  A bunch of grapes are filled with nutrients because they receive from the vine; we are first filled by what Jesus offers before we in turn can give.

Many of us, particularly those who are passionate about being disciples of Jesus, have fallen into the modern trap of believing that Jesus is the CEO of his church.  And like a corporate executive, he demands results from his workers.  He is only pleased with us, we imagine, when we go it alone on our own efforts and initiatives to bear fruit.  He is only happy, we believe, if we bear fruit by applying to our lives our own biblical principles for improving our moral standards. 

We train ourselves in spiritual disciplines and implement our own rigorous personal development programs in order to bear the fruit…the fruit he expects of us as disciples.  With this image in our mind, we take Jesus to be our task master and we work harder to produce results, to bear fruit and work longer hours to see the benefits and of course, in this financial crisis, he expects us to do this efficiently and cost effectively! 

Our modern work ethic would have us believe the harder we work, the more effective we will be in bearing fruit.  But what is Jesus saying to us in today’s context?  How are we to bear more fruit so others may receive from us?  What is Jesus business principle, if you would be game to call his word that?  Work more to bear more?  No…’remain in me and my word and you will bear fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.’  First receive then give. 

This is Jesus word to his church, to us today who so dearly want to bear fruit so that more people may to come to faith.  Jesus is not our CEO, director or even our task master, who takes, takes, takes.  The good news is that he is our savior, our shepherd, our vine who gave his life, his blood, and who gave of himself so that we may live and grow in him, as he says ‘for the Son of man gave his life as a ransom for many.’

A grape must first grow full of juice through the nourishment of the vine, before it gives of itself so we may enjoy a nice red.  We need to remain in Jesus and feed on him and be nourished by him, grow full in his grace and truth, before we can bear fruit in our lives to give of ourselves to the community.  Jesus, in John 6 encourages us to remain in him and feed on him, like a grape feeds on a vine, ‘Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.’ 

We need to receive something before we can bear fruit and give, we need to live before we can die; die to bear fruit in service to others.  And the spiritual nourishment that Jesus provides and that we receive when we remain in him, is his word of forgiveness.  A word of pardon that says ‘neither do I condemn you go in peace’, and a word of forgiveness that says ‘the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.’

Jesus is our source and strength, the fountain head of grace that empowers and equips us to bear fruit.  And what fruit and blessing are we as Christians, freely empowered with, that people need most in their lives?  Forgiveness!  We are forgiven and are now in a right relationship with God, as Paul writes in Romans ‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’

Forgiveness is a free gift from God, given and received by faith.  Freely received, now freely we give.  A word of pardon from Jesus himself that brings peace and not condemnation into a broken relationship; A word of forgiveness that builds up someone living with shame; A word of release from a cycle of violence and bitterness that imprisons so many families, so many couples.

Government agencies can provide money and housing.  Police can provide protection.   Community groups can provide food and clothing.  But only Christians, empowered with the gospel of Jesus, can provide forgiveness.  Only the church, that has freely received can freely give of itself for the sake of others, even its enemies.  Only the church, the one body and one Spirit; only the church, empowered with the one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, can bear fruit and bring the peace that passes all understanding. 

Jesus said ‘If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.’  You are loved by Jesus, remain in that love, be filled by that love and go in the joy of that love and bear much fruit in that love, as he has promised.  Amen

Glory in suffering  Mark 10_35-45

 

An opportunity too good to miss!  Two fishermen, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, with nothing but a small boat, smelly clothes and a few torn nets, heard the voice of Jesus say ‘come follow me!’  Not knowing what lay ahead, or where Jesus would lead them, they left everything and followed him.  Now, once again, an opportunity too good to miss beckons them.  Jesus, the one they left everything in order to follow, is talking about God’s kingdom and how he is about to inaugurate its rule in heaven and on earth.  James and John sense something important is happening, and want a big part in Jesus’ kingdom;

“Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.  They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”  James and John have an opportunity too good to miss, at last, a chance at glory, at honour and a chance be someone important.  A big ask you may say, wanting glory out of someone else’s hard work and effort; taking the cream without the cake.

For Jesus said to the disciples, just a few words before, how he was to reign in his kingdom ‘We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.’  Failing to understand or comprehend the suffering Jesus must endure to be king, James and John only see an opportunity at glory; they ask to be rulers with him at his right and left; rulers in a kingdom they know very little about.

Yet isn’t this sort of behaviour, taking the glory for our selves without the hard work and suffering, what we are all doing?  What is advertising and commercialism all about…giving you and me an opportunity too good to miss!  This year on Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Holden won the prestigious ‘king of the mountain Bathurst 1000’.  But now, thanks to advertising and commercialism, you and I can be part of the glory without any suffering or hard work.  You can be like James and John and demand your part of the glory, simply by wearing Holden merchandise.  (hand out stickers and hats etc.)

By wearing the name Holden, people see you as part of a winning team; you are now someone who also won on that day; by wearing the team colours, by possessing the badge of the lion, you are now someone who can celebrate as if you own the team.  By the trickery and allusion of advertising, you, who are really a ‘nobody’ in the world of car racing, instantly become part of a winning team.  Yet all this without touching a spanner, changing a tyre, or putting your life on the line by driving at 300 km/h.  Commercialism offers  an opportunity too good to miss…for us who are no bodies, we can have glory without suffering, winning without racing and be kings in a kingdom we know very little about.

It is very easy for us to transfer the idea of advertising and its promises of glory without suffering into our church and commercialise Jesus and our faith in him. Are we the James’ and John’s of the 21^st century?  We are at a point in time now, when we need to ask ourselves a sobering question…who is Jesus to me and what do I expect from him?  If you believe in the Jesus of the advertising hype, you can be part of the glory of God’s kingdom without the suffering, without even knowing anything about Jesus. 

No longer do you need to go to church, forgo weekends and evenings for studying God’s word.  No longer do we need to repent of our sins, put to death our sinful lusts and call on the Spirit to renew our hearts.  No, commercial Christianity, or as Luther put it, a theology of glory, says, ‘ticking ‘Christian’ in the sensus papers,  wearing a Jesus tee-shirt, having a Jesus coffee cup in the cupboard, and buying a snazzy looking bible for the book shelf , is suffice enough to demand of Jesus ‘Let me sit at your right hand in your kingdom of glory’. 

Like all advertising, a commercialised faith, without baptism, without confession of faith, without the means of grace in Holy Communion, without servant-hood and suffering, can only promise glory but never deliver.  A theology of glory can be as empty and irrelevant to true faith and salvation as it is for me to claim to be the winning Holden driver just because I wear a Holden Jacket. 

Jesus urges and teaches James and John, and us and all believers that suffering and persecutions, servant hood and self-denial come before glory.   The kingdom of God is like an upside down pyramid; the panicle must carry the greatest load; the first and greatest must be the least and servant of all; they must carry the load of others.  That is why Jesus answered James and John ‘You don’t know what you are asking for”. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?’  

Isaiah foretold of the cup Jesus must drink to the dregs for our sin and the baptism he is to endure for our glory.  Jesus is to be the pinnacle of the upside-down pyramid of God’s kingdom; he is the greatest, yet becomes the least; the king of heaven becomes our servant who bears our load;  ‘By oppression and judgment he was taken away… For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth…Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.’  And Jesus adds ‘For the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many.

We want the glory without suffering, Jesus had the glory, but chose to suffer, in order to share his glory with us, as the writer of Hebrews says ‘But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.’

In our baptism, we died to ourself.  Jesus took our old life of sin and false glory and gave us his life.  He exchanged his glory for our sin; he gave us what is his and took upon himself what is ours…we are born again by water and the Spirit into God kingdom through the suffering Jesus endured on the cross.  As St Paul says, ‘our life is hidden in Christ.’  We already live in glory with Jesus, but it is hidden from sight, it is a statement of faith, as we confess in the creed ‘I believe in the holy Christian church, the communion of saints’.

Since we believe and know this to be true, in Christ, we are now called to lay down our pursuit for glory and to suffer just as Christ suffered.  We too are to be the least and servant of all.  We too now exchange glory for servant hood, exchange power for service of the gospel, exchange the Jesus coffee cup, for a cup of suffering.  So do not be surprised if your life in Christ is not what you expected or what the commercialised Jesus claims it should be.  Living a theology of the cross is what Jesus meant when he said ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.’

Are we prepared to suffer for our faith?  Is the church shrinking because it no longer wants to suffer persecution for the sake of Jesus?  Is suffering for the sake of the gospel an opportunity too good to miss?  Let me close with some quotes from famous Christians who have received their reward in heaven, and let you make up your own mind.

‘Every time her blood was shed, each drop became a man, and each man thus converted stood prepared to pour out the vital current from his veins to defend the cause…Christ’s church never sails so well as when she is rocked from side to side by the winds of persecution…Nothing has helped God’s church so much as persecution – Charles Spurgeon.  And ‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man.  We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’  Hugh Latimer, to Nicholas Ridley as they were being burned at the stake.

Suffering for the sake of the gospel…an opportunity too good to miss…!!! or ???

Mark 10_17-31 the righteousness of Christ

 

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city?  Over a half century ago, Prespyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.  Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, all the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other.  There would be no swearing.  The children would say, ‘Yes, sir’ and ‘No ma’am, and churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached. (Christless Christianity by Michael Horton pg 15)

Quite the opposite to what you or I may have envisaged, yet very insightful, and could very well be close to the truth. Why?  Why would Satan want everyone be well behaved, loving and accepting toward each other, attending church, and doing all the right things, and yet not hearing Christ preached?….Then sin would not be preached.  The great divide which separates us from God…our sinful nature, the fact that ‘no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born again’, would not actually be addressed. 

The offence of preaching the cross would be replaced with the more acceptable preaching of love and moral improvement.    Everyone would be obeying the law, but no one would be keeping it; not to God’s standards, as Jesus demands in Matthew 5 ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ Everyone would be nice, but no one would be saved.

A rich young ruler came to Jesus and said ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  This is a question about justification; a question which asks, ‘HOW perfect do we need to be to enter heaven?’; a natural question that you and I may even ask; a question that presupposes and has as its premise the assumption that we CAN do enough to get to heaven and the decision is ours.  You may not ask this question to God in such an arrogant way, as this young man did, but there are other more subtle ways we ask the same justification question, which ignores the reality of our sin ‘what must I DO to inherit eternal life?’

Deep in your conscience you may be making deals with God; deals that involve improvement on our behalf to gain God’s favour?  Perhaps, you may say, if I just put more effort into my marriage, then God will look favourably upon me and forgive my continuing failings.  Perhaps if I can just curb my lustful thoughts then God will be more gracious and overlook my sin.  Or perhaps if I am more accepting and loving to the ‘someone’ no one else loves, then God will love me more…then I will inherit eternal life…with God’s help of course. 

All deals about how WE are to justify ourselves …how WE are to enter eternal life, but all these deals between you and God are of no use because they do not flow out of the gospel of Christ; and as long as Christ is absent, we remain under the demands of the law and original sin is not dealt with and eternal life is not inherited.

When the rich young man came to Jesus with a question on justification, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’, Jesus saw that he was living under the demands of the law.  He could see that this young man, try as he might, had spectacularly succeeded in missing the point of the law in relation to being right with God.  He had fallen into Satan’s world where everything is nice, where being good is the train bound for heaven and self-righteousness is the ticket to hop on board.  This man needed to hear just how hard the law’s demands really are.  We need to hear it is not what we do that justifies but who justifies!

Jesus sees the man and loves him and in love does quite the opposite to what we imagine.  Jesus, who St John said, came from the Father, full of grace and mercy, puts the man under the law…gives him even more to do.  ‘”One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 

This friends is the correct use of the law…Jesus uses the sword of the law to cut through the sin of pride and self-righteousness, in order to reveal the futility of keeping the law to inherit the kingdom, as Paul writes in Galatians 3 ‘All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Jesus used the law to show this young man, that there is one thing he will not do.  One thing he cannot do; one thing he does not even have the will to do and that is, sell everything and follow him.  The conscience of the young rich man was hit by the double edged sword of God…swish…gotcha!  He went away with a sad face and unfortunately never hung around long enough to hear the comforting words of Jesus.

Jesus still speaks to us in our deals with him, in the same way.  If you want to justify yourself with God by trying harder to be good, you too, as I am, will be cut by the same sword of God’s word, and perhaps you have already experience this.  The more you try and stop lustful desires…the stronger and harder they become…the law demands ever greater obedience.  The more you try and love, ever more love is demanded of you.  The more you try to avoid temptation by your own effort, the stronger they become.  This will keep happening, and the sword of God will keep cutting our conscience, until we too join with the disciples and say ‘”Who then can be saved?”

Perhaps you have yet to experience this, or perhaps you are at this point now.  Or perhaps there has been a time in your life recently when you were sick of ‘trying to always be good’; sick of trying to live up to the ideal Christian life.  Perhaps you have even felt a failure before God and thought ‘Who then can be saved ‘?…good, that’s the law, the double edged sword of God’s word, cutting away any self righteousness to reveal sin and point you to Christ.  Hear Jesus’ words to Zacchaeus who also felt convicted ‘Today salvation has come to this house…For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.“  ‘Who then can be saved?’ For with us, salvation is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’

The good news is that we are justified, made right with God by trusting in Jesus who was put to death on the cross; put to death in order to put right the wrong.  Paul writes in Colossians 2 ‘When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.’ 

The gospel, or Christ preached into our hearts deals with sin; deals with the question of justification.  Once you take hold of this gospel by faith, that Jesus has already justified us and given us eternal life in our baptism, the question ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life’ becomes irrelevant; pointless.  

After all, its an oxymoron, you cannot work to gain an inheritance, an inheritance is given when you are born into the family.  St Peter declares ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade– kept in heaven for you.’

A historic decision was made at general synod last week, which will reinvigorate faith and joy by rediscovering the power of the gospel through the reintroduction of private confession and forgiveness into our church.  Private confession and forgiveness is a rite which enacts the sword of God’s word of law and gospel to bring repentance and faith.  This rite allows God to speak into our lives and into our hearts in a personal way by giving us an opportunity and safe place to confess our sins and to receive a personal absolution as if from Christ himself. 

Let me read (Pg 56 7.2.2)

I commit this to you for prayerful consideration and plan to teach and preach about the use of this rite in the expectation that this congregation will be able to make regular use of this gift to us from God in the following years.  Amen

James 5: v16b
The prayer of a righteous person is
powerful and effective.

 Prayer is an important part of the religious life. Remote tribes present offerings and then pray for every day things such as health, food, rain, children and victory in battles.
Moslems pray 5 times a day.
Martin Luther devoted two to three hours daily in prayer.
An order of nuns known as ‘The Sleepless Ones’ pray in shifts every hour of the day and night.

George Muller established orphanages in England and by 1870 had more than 2,000 children under his care and 23,000 children had already passed through his homes. He never asked anyone for financial assistance or went into debt even though building the homes for orphans was extremely expensive. Every day he spent several hours in prayer imploring God for the practical needs of his orphanages. Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God.

There are many great pray-ers in history but I wonder how many of us can claim to be among them. Maybe we are a bit more like the people Philip Yancey interviewed.

This is what he found as he asked, “Is prayer important to you? Oh, yes.
How often do you pray? Every day.
Approximately how long? Five minutes – well, maybe seven.
Do you find prayer satisfying? Not really.
Do you sense the presence of God when you pray? Occasionally, not often“.
Many of those he talked to experienced prayer more as a burden than as a pleasure. They regarded it as important and felt guilty about their failure to pray.

Prayer along with reading our Bibles has become a victim of our modern busy every day lives. We have the constant problem of not enough.
Not enough time,
not enough rest,
not enough exercise,
not enough leisure,
and certainly not enough time to pray.

If we want to bare our souls and find solutions to our problems there are therapists, counsellors and support groups. Who needs prayer?

Communication with other people has become shorter as we send text messages, emails, instant messaging, blogs and this kind of communication is being transferred to the way we communicate with God. Prayer has become like sending God a text message. Short, instant, not much thought, not much time or effort involved. There is a place for text message type prayers but it becomes a sad state of affairs if that is the only we communicate.

Prayer has been described and defined in many ways. Philip Yancey talks about prayer in a general way, “We pray because we want to thank someone or something for the beauties and glories of life, and also because we feel small and helpless and sometimes afraid. We pray for forgiveness, for strength, for contact with the One who is, for assurance that we are not alone”. (Philip Yancey, Prayer – does it make any difference? 2006 Hodder & Stoughton pg 5).

Henri Nouwen says, “To pray is to walk in the full light of God, and to say simply, without holding back, “I am human and you are God”. Prayer is a declaration of our dependence upon God.

O Hallesby states, “Our prayers are always a result of Jesus knocking on the doors of our hearts”.
“Prayer is simply telling God day by day in what ways we feel that we are helpless.”
“It is by prayer that we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness, the powers which can turn water into wine and remove mountains in our own lives and the lives of others”.
Hallesby has so many wonderful descriptions about prayer. One more quote.
“Prayer is given and ordained for the purpose of glorifying God. … If we will make use of prayer, not to wrest (force) from God advantages for ourselves or our dear ones, or to escape from tribulations and difficulties, but to call down upon ourselves and others those things which will glorify the name of God, then we shall see the strongest and boldest promises of the Bible about prayer fulfilled also in our weak, little prayer life. Then we shall see such answers to prayer as we had never thought were possible” (Prayer, 1994 Ausgburg Fortress pp 5, 26, 82 & 130). To pray is to let Jesus into our need and leave it to him what will best glorify his name.

At the time when the South African government was brutally enforcing apartheid, Archbishop Desmond Tutu addressed a gathering at a university. The crowd of students were clearly enraged about the violence in South Africa and asked what they could do to force change.

The archbishop replied, “I’m going to tell you all what you most need to hear, the single most important thing you can do for South Africa.” The building fell silent. “Pray,” he said softly. “Pray for my people. Pray for us and with us, daily. Pray. That’s what you can do. That will change the world.” Desmond Tutu was saying that violence, revenge and hatred do not bring glory to God. Pray for the solution that will.

Not quite what the crowd expected but it was clear that the archbishop believed that prayer was the answer to the helpless situation in his country. This is taking God at his word, “Call to me when trouble comes; I will save you, and you will praise me” (Psalm 50:15). It is taking Jesus’ invitation seriously, “Everyone who asks will receive, and he seeks will find, and the door will be opened to him who knocks” (Matthew 7:8). Tutu believed that “the prayer of a righteous person (a person who is reconciled to God through Jesus) is powerful and effective”.

William Barclay tells this story. In the days when the work of a domestic servant lasted all day and half the night, a servant girl said, “I haven’t much time to do things, but at night when I go to bed, I take the morning newspaper with me. I read the birth notices, and I pray for the little babies who have just come into the world. I read the marriage notices, and I pray that God will give these people happiness. I read the death notices, and I pray that God will comfort those who are sad.” Barclay continues, “No one in this world will ever know what blessing to unknown people came from an attic bedroom from one who prayed.” This young woman spent her precious spare time interceding for the needs of others, for strangers. She knew their names but not their faces, but that didn’t stop her bringing their needs before the throne of God in prayer. As James states, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”.

In 1540 Luther’s good friend, Frederick Myconius, fell ill and was close to death. When Luther heard of his illness, he immediately wrote a letter saying, “I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church. … The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying because I only seek to glorify God.” Myconius had already lost his ability to speak by the time Luther’s letter arrived. In a short time he was well again and died 6 years later – two months after Luther. “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”.

I refer to Desmond Tutu again. After the changeover in South Africa, Tutu was given the arduous task of presiding over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For two years he heard horror story after horror story of beatings, rape, murder, torture and cruelty. One day he was asked, “Why do you pray and how do you find the time for prayer and meditation?” Tutu’s answer was simple. “Do you think I’d be able to do this stuff if I didn’t?”

We might not be under the same strain and pressure as Desmond Tutu as he tried to reconcile all parties involved in the atrocities, but we certainly have our own difficulties and problems that puts us under strain and pressure. Shouldn’t we be saying what Tutu said? “How can we expect to deal with all this stuff if we don’t spend time with God in prayer and meditation?”

When the forces against us are greater than we can endure or possibly hope to deal with and when our own resources whether physical or emotional or spiritual are at a low point, how can we hope to rise above everything that rages against us? We might try but we can’t. It all seems too hard and hopeless. And as we wallow in despair and frustration Jesus is inviting us, calling us, commanding us to ask and seek and knock in prayer. He is ready to use his power on our problems. He urges, “Call to me when trouble comes; I will save you, and you will praise me”.

But why is it that we find it so hard to pray? Why do we neglect this rich source of strength and power for our daily lives? I probably don’t need to tell you the reasons why because we are all guilty. I guess at the bottom of it all is that it takes effort to pray.
It takes effort to make time available every day to pray.
It takes effort to be quiet and still for just a short while.
It takes an effort to stop during a busy day and to spend time talking with God.
It takes an effort at the end of a long day to stay awake long enough to pray.

We readily and easily pray when there is a pressing need, when sickness or despair strike, but for the rest of the time prayer is often seen as a burden, as an effort, though it takes far less effort to pray than taking the wheelie bin out to the curb.

We may doubt the value of prayer; we may lack the confidence that it really does anything. In fact, if we truly believed in the power of prayer we wouldn’t have any problems spending time with our heavenly Father in prayer. Prayer requires practice and perseverance if it is to become a gift from God that is well used. Prayer is not a quick fix to everything that upsets us. Maybe God’s answer is quite different to what we expected. But whatever the answer we know that it is an answer that comes from the perfect love of God and that our prayer then ought to be asking for a willingness to accept the answer God gives.

Remember Paul prayed again and again for healing but God’s answer wasn’t the healing that he expected. God’s answer drew Paul into a deeper and closer understanding and trust in God’s grace to help him through the most difficult times – a lesson that would stick with him as he sat in gaol or was taking a beating. The answer was different to what he was praying not because Paul lacked sufficient faith, or that what he was asking was unreasonable, or that God wasn’t interested. God’s answer assured Paul that he was loved and cared for in a most wonderful way every day as he struggled with his debilitating illness.

Sometimes when we are at our lowest words are difficult. Prayer then becomes relaxing and sitting quietly in his presence. Focus on a verse from the Bible that reminds you that the Lord is able to take care of you in even the most extreme circumstances. Let God speak to you rather you do all the talking. Prayer and meditation go hand in hand. How can we know what God wants for us if we never listen and are always talking?

If you aren’t able to pray, ask for the Holy Spirit to help you in your prayers and to assure you that God has not deserted you and his love for you is even stronger in your time of need even though you might not necessarily feel it at that moment.

Our loving Father and Saviour assure us that prayer is never wasted energy. We are certain “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”.

© Pastor Vince Gerhardy
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Caboolture – 27th September 2009
E-mail: gerhardy65@hotmail.com

Mark 9_30-37 Freed for service not idolatry

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When you or I leave for a journey, the first few days are always the best, aren’t they.  The excitement of seeing and experiencing new things, meeting new people and the anticipation of reaching our destination, keeps us focused on the road; the journey.  All of us travel on a journey at some point in our lives.Â

In today’s gospel, Mark records how Jesus and his disciples were on a journey.  They had been travelling around Caesarea Phillippi and had just arrived in Capernaum.  Jesus and the disciples often journeyed together.  Walking the dusty roads from one town to the next, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those they met about repentance and faith in the Messiah.  In fact, God’s ministry and the mission of God’s kingdom, is by nature travel, is by definition a journey; a journey to go and announce the good news.

  To ‘announce good news’ in the original Greek is the word ‘angello’,  from which we get angel…the angels were sent on a journey from heaven to earth to announce the good news concerning the birth of Jesus ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’  In keeping with this word, ‘angel’, to go and spread the good news of Jesus, we get  ‘evangelise’ and those on the journey with the good news of Jesus are ‘evangelists’. The disciples were evangelists on a journey with Jesus…who was and is still today, the content and embodiment of the good news.

Yet, have you noticed that while journeying, before reaching our destination, about in the middle, the excitement diminishes with the stresses and tiredness that comes with travel, and arguments start?  The kids in the back of the car ‘are we there yet!’, or to give a good example, a caravan park manager once told me that he could always tell when a newly retired couple were halfway through their first trip together.  When arriving at the park, both the husband and wife would jump out of the car, red faced and not talking.  The husband would have white knuckles from tightly hanging onto the steering wheel, and the wife would refuse to even book the van in; both knowing they still had many for miles to journey together.Â

All of us have stories to tell about arguments that occurred while journeying, all of which took our focus off of the joy of travel, our focus off the purpose for the journey and off the anticipation of reaching our destination.  It was just one of these occasions when Jesus arrived at in destination.  ‘They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?”

Somewhere along the journey between Caesarea and Capernaum, somewhere between the call to follow Jesus and the desire to fulfill the call, the disciples argued.

Perhaps it was the heat of the journey, the difficult walk, exhaustion or perhaps the length of the journey, whatever the cause, the result was arguing among them selves.  Mark writes, ‘They kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.’  The evangelicals no longer journeyed as ‘evangelists’ of good news, announcing the kingdom of God everywhere they went.  Rather, they proclaimed the importance of themselves.  They were no longer ‘evangelists’, in the true sense of the word, but had become announcers of ‘idolatry’, believing themselves to be more important than the message they proclaimed.Â

Somewhere on their journey between Caesarea Phillippi and Capernaum, the disciples lost sight of Jesus and got caught up in an argument, boasting about being the greatest.  Sound familiar?  Sounds like something we do?  Good Christian ‘evangelists’ on Sunday, but as our week goes on, as our daily journey continues, we, like the disciples, change from evangelists into idolaters.Â

Perhaps in your weekly journey you are confronted by a situation that requires a choice between your best interests or the interests of another person, even someone we don’t like; what would you do, demand to be the greatest?  Or there is an opportunity to show yourself to hold the high moral ground, showing up someone who has failed; would you be an evangelist or idolater?Â

Would you be one to confess yourself to be a sinner before God on Sunday, then, during the week claim to be sinless and demand everyone else live a faultless life; would you act as a servant in compassion or as a ruler who is the greatest?Â

It is clear by Jesus question ‘What were you arguing about on the road?” that Jesus didn’t hang around to listen to and debate who was the greatest.  Even though he indeed is the greatest, as scripture declares ‘God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name’.  Jesus refused to engage in such an argument and promote himself as the greatest.   Rather his evangelistic mission journey was to be a servant, as the prophet Isaiah foretold ‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.’

And I am sure Jesus still refuses to listen to our arguments about our right to be the greatest in his kingdom.  Self-righteousness, or idolatry is the enemy of Jesus mission to save.  Jesus often argued against the self-righteous who claimed they were the greatest saying ‘For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’  Luther used to say ‘since Jesus came to save sinners, we had better be found among the sinners, rather than the righteous’

While the disciples argued, Jesus continued with vigor, his journeying as an evangelical, a preacher announcing the good news, as he said in Luke’s gospel ‘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.”Â

Jesus knew his journey would be one that leads to the cross; He needed to be a servant who must serve the world so that all people would be freed from the tyranny of the devil.  This is the journey that love takes, as Paul writes ‘love is not rude, it is not self-seeking’, and this is the message Jesus installs on his disciples “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”  Why?  Because God in Christ Jesus first served and loved us…and what is love?  John writes ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.’

Jesus continues his evangelical mission journey from heaven to earth for us still today.  He is present with us in worship as a servant in service to us, announcing his good news of forgiveness and pardon through his word and in and through his body and blood;  giving us the benefits of his earthly mission, the good news that ‘he was pierced for our transgressions, and was crushed for our iniquities.’Â

This is why we come to church.  Not because we want to show that we are greatest Christians, but precisely because we are not the greatest.  We come because Jesus is here to serve us and bring us the evangelical message ‘it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.’  This is why we should still call our worship ‘the divine service’, because this is in keeping with Jesus’ mission to serve us.

Our journey in life began at the cross of Jesus.  In baptism, we are born again into a life of servant hood, not glory, just as Christ served us.   We are served by God each Sunday and in turn we go out as evangelists in our weekly journey, not to argue over who is the greatest, but to serve each other.Â

Listen to the words of St Paul, and may his words be yours this week. ‘as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;… in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;…dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.’

James 3_1-12 Taming the tongue

 

(spray some deodorant or perfume into the air.  Then ask people to put their hand up when they smell the perfume)

 

You think about the great area of space and volume of air in this room, yet one small spray of this perfume and in a very short space of time, everyone here can now smell the aroma.  There must be one part of perfume to a million parts of air, but very quickly the aroma is smelt by everyone; it has spread throughout the room.  Such is the power of Perfume.

Have you considered that even one word spoken by you, spreads throughout a group of people in the very same way as this perfume?  One small word or demand, a put down, a derogative comment, a boast, an accusation, or a lie, spoken to just one person, soon spreads to everyone, like an aroma into the ears of many.  Such is the power of our tongue.  St James recognised the power of our words and said ‘the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.’

Unless we do an experiment like we just have, we don’t quite realize how powerfully our words spread and change the air like an aroma.  They come from our mouth and once in the air, our words spread throughout a group of people like an aroma in the air.  Our comment goes from one ear to the next.  Soon, everyone in our home, place of work or school knows what we said, and even some we didn’t want to hear have heard.Â

 I had no control over the perfume once I sprayed it.  The aroma spreads with its own power.  In the same way, we have no control over our words once said.  We have no control over how far they spread, who will hear them, and how strongly people will react to the words.  Words, once said, change the atmosphere, the feeling, the air within a group.  With power like this at our finger tips, or should I say, on the tip our tongue, we have learnt to use our tongue to control and manipulate other people to get what we want. Â

Right from a very young age, we have used our tongues to make noises and bring attention to ourselves; an aroma of screaming and crying fills the air and before long, mum or dad come and satisfy our needs.  As you and I grow into adults we still use the power of our tongues to get what we want.  We learn to become crafty and manipulative in the way we use our words, deliberately knowing they will spread the aroma of what we want for ourselves to those around us.Â

We become expert word perfume-chemists, developing ways to say things that will have maximum effect with the littlest amount of words spoken…a bit like developing a powerful perfume.  We mix different ways of saying things so that people are forced by what we say do what we want.  All the while we appear to say very little.  The old saying rings true, ‘its not what is said, its how it is said.’  Jesus, the Word of God in human flesh, knew how we use our tongues to gain control, all while we look innocent on the outside.  He said ‘the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, false testimony, slander.’

Now days, we have become even craftier with our tongues, we speak through our fingers.  What was once said is now emailed or texted, which has even more power to spread because there is no stopping a word once said on the internet, or a word on a text that is forwarded on from phone to phone.  We must as parents warn our children about using the internet chat rooms and texting as a legitimate forum for personal conversation.  Electronic words are never personal!

By voice or by electronics, we are constantly adapting our words, finding new ways to say things to get what we want.  James warns ‘[our tongue] is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.’  One smell of the deadly aroma of poison and you will die, in the same way, when people hear a word laced with poison, they die emotionally.Â

One manipulative word, which demands a response from someone against their will, takes away a person’s right of choice and freedom to express their thoughts.  If we manipulate someone with our words, to try get them to do something for us against their will, we take their life from them.  We poison the life out of them with our words.

In a similar way as we do, St Peter often used his tongue to voice his opinions.  From what we know of him from the gospels, Peter often spoke up as the disciple who wanted to be the one with all the knowledge, power and the authority over the others.  Like us, he would have learnt from a young age, how to use words to manipulate others in order to get ahead, to control people against their will.  Peter’s skilled use of his tongue is dramatically displayed in today’s gospel.  He rebuked Jesus for saying ‘the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.’Â

We are not told what Peter said in his rebuke, but by Jesus response, Get behind me, Satan!” “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men’, we can surmise that he wanted Jesus to rule the world in the way we think is best; with power, manipulation and control; getting people to do things against their will.  However, this is not the way of God, he never poisons with his words as we do.  His word brings life and sustains life. Jesus is the word of God, with all power, majesty and authority, and as John says ‘Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.’Â

We think we have powerful words which spread widely!  Well, the aroma of God’s word has reached to the everlasting, beyond the known universe.  Yet, the word of God did something for us so powerful that we are compelled by love to respond ‘[Jesus] being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!’

God used the power of his word to put to death sin…our sins of the tongue.  On the cross, which Peter rebuked Jesus for, he crucified in Jesus, our poisonous words; he put an end to us having to manipulate people to feel worthy and valued.  On the cross Jesus died to redeem us from the deadly aroma of our self-righteous words that put down and control.  This is why Jesus rebuked Peter, he knew he had to put to death our sinful way of life.  Where there is death there is no more, it is an end; an end to poisonous words…but it is also the beginning of something new!

Jesus rose from death to live forever, and now he reigns to speak a word of forgiveness and new life to all for all eternity.  He reigns forever to renew our life each day, through the power of his tongue; the fire of his Spirit…His Spirit filled word is the aroma of God that saves all who hear it and believe.   The word of Jesus you hear today, is the word of God in action, spoken from the cross to you personally.  He died on the cross for all, but he redeems you personally, when he comes to you by the power of his Spirit filled word and announces ‘whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.’

These life-power words of Jesus have already acted upon you and me.  We lost our life, died to sin in our baptism.  But just as Christ rose from the dead, we too now live forever through our baptism, as Paul says in Romans 6 ‘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.’   And today you are redeemed anew from the poison that brings death that still flows from our tongue and from the tongues of others, when you eat and drink of Jesus body and blood in Holy Communion; for he is truly present for YOU, to bring you back to life again, as Luther constantly emphasized.

Let us with our tongues, as James encourages, praise our Lord and Father.   Allow the aroma of Christ to fill your hearts, your homes, your relationships and the words that flow from your tongue.  Then, as we read and speak, live and breathe his word, by the power of his Spirit we will be renewed day by day into the likeness of Christ.  For this Word brings the aroma life, and Christ himself.

Deuteronomy 4_1-9 Tragic confusion

 

This is the tree on the banks of the Cooper Creek that Burke and Wills saw when they arrived, near death, after a journey of discovery to the top of Cape York.

 

This is the ‘life saving’ inscription carved into the tree, telling Burke and Wills where to dig to fine food and provisions.

 

What happened?  Why didn’t the life saving message not save the life of Burke and Wills?  Yes.  They misunderstood the meaning of the writing, dug in the wrong spot, never found the provisions and so died.  By digging in the wrong spot, they never received the gift of life that was left for them. 

Can there be such confusion about God’s word to us?  Could we get God’s life saving word so wrong that we fail to find the real treasure of God’s gift to us and die?  I would argue yes!  And what is our confusion? Its the mixing of Law and Gospel; a confusing of God’s commands with God’s blessing.  We are digging for life in the law, in our obedience to Jesus’ commands, when the actual treasure is only found in the gospel, in receiving rather than in doing. 

The Law, the 10 commandments and other statutes, were revealed by God on Mount Sinai to Moses and the people of Israel.  These commands were written on stone tablets as a testimony and covenant pointing to how our life with God needs to be.  Like the writing on the dig tree, that said what needed to happen in order to find the hidden treasure.  The law pointed out what needed to happen to find the treasure of being God’s people.  It laid out how to live in the presence of God himself and receive from him the blessings of the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey.

Just before the people entered the Promised Land, Moses gathered them together and re-read the Law to the people, reminding them that the Law of God intended to bring life and blessing.  ‘Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.’… ‘what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?’

The Law, the 10 Commandments brought life with God because they showed the Israelites and now show us how God intends us to live.  Its like God is saying ‘I created you to be in my image, and these commandments are righteous because they reflect that image.  Live up to them, obey them with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and you will live.  Don’t and you will die.’ 

Silently now for a moment, in your heart, are you thinking ‘yes, I must try harder and live up to God’s Commandments, or else I will also die?’

This is our first fatal confusion about God’s word.  We miss-read, confuse or fail to understand the intended function God has for his law.  In the same way as the Pharisees did, we think that if we try hard enough and have enough successes in keeping the law as God intended, we will live and be blessed by him.  Surely this is what the Pharisees were thinking when the questioned Jesus ‘So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?” 

They, like us confuse the intention of God’s law; ‘we dig’ for life in the wrong place, like Burke and Wills.  No, there is no life with God or blessing from him by trying to keep his law.  We can’t, as St Paul warns in chapter three of Romans ‘Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ 

The proper understanding of the Law, the purpose of the law, for the Jews, and for us Christians, is to reveal our sin.  God set his Law in place to show us who we really are on the inside…sinners who break the law and that we are not the people God intended us to be.

If we think we are pleasing God by obeying the law, following every command, even those Jesus calls us to do.  And if we think that if we point out and correct others who don’t keep every command, like the Pharisees, and are certain God is pleased with us for doing this…let us hear what Jesus has to say ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’  All we are doing by outwardly keeping the law in order to please God, is masking our sin in good works; papier-mâchéing over the sin inside that God intends to reveal.  We are confusing the law into gospel.  Luther says in his commentary on Galatians ‘The principle purpose of the law in theology is to make a [person] not better but worse.’

Why is the Law life if we are made worse?  Why is it righteous?  Because it reveals our sin so God can deal with it.  Most importantly, the law points us to Jesus, the hidden treasure, who fulfilled the law for us.  The function of the 10 Commandments is to point us away from our righteousness and point us to the righteousness of Jesus.   It says ‘dig here’ and receive the righteousness of God.  If we don’t clearly understand this, we will be like Burke and Wills and perish looking for our righteousness in the wrong place.

Life with God or our righteousness is found only in our treasure Jesus, who ‘was pierced for our transgressions, was crushed for our iniquities… and by his wounds we are healed.’  We are given the gift and blessing of forgiveness and eternal life only by trusting Jesus at his word.  Trusting that if by faith we ‘dig here’ in Jesus, we will receive the hidden treasure of life, because Jesus promised clearly in John 11 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  

As loud as the law condemns us, even louder the gospel saves us.  It illuminates our hearts and makes us alive.  It discloses what grace and the mercy of God are; what the forgiveness of sins, blessing, righteousness, life, and eternal salvation are; and how we are to attain to these. (Luther; Galatians -1535, pg 313)

The gospel of Jesus that we hear and receive from the bible and in the sacrament of baptism and Holy Communion, is like finding the hidden provisions under the sand near the dig tree.  Its like reading and understanding what was written on the Coolabah tree and receiving life out of the hidden parcel of food; we eat and drink salvation!

Sadly…this is where our second fatal confusion over God’s word happens.  This good news, the gospel, seems too good to be true and so we place the gospel of Jesus, the free gift of forgiveness and life for his sake, back under the law.  We add conditions upon grace as if some sorts of requirements are needed.  Once our heart takes hold of Jesus and we receive life, instead of trusting and leaving it at that, we feel we need some works to help our doubting conscience.  ‘I must improve my ways’; ‘I must commit myself to mission; ‘I must do this or that in order to be certain I am saved’.

Put a condition on grace and you have a law.  There are no conditions, which means we cannot judge who is a Christian or not, or who is saved or not by what they do, how they dress or how committed they may seem.  Yes, that grinds in our ears and doesn’t seem right, but as Jesus said to the man who worked the longest in the parable of the vineyard ‘Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

When we do not confuse the law with the gospel, then we have found the hidden treasure of life. Had Burke and wills found the hidden provisions, they would have lived and been forever grateful.  When we receive the free gift of forgiveness from God, we are also forever grateful.  The gospel empowers us to love God and love others freely.   Only the gospel can do this, because the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:’   Amen

The armour of God  Ephesians 6

Did you realize that every time you get into a modern motor car, you are putting on an armoury of protection?  Many of us take this for granted, and don’t understand and even despise all the lights, beeps and warning tones that go off in our car, every time we turn the key.  We take little notice of what is happening around us as we click on our seat belt and drive out onto the road.  But did you realize the car has now provided an armour, a safety cell for us, that protects us against impacts from outside.

The instant there is an impact, often, before we even respond ourselves, the armour around us defends our bodies, our life from being killed in an accident. A plethora of safety systems deploy: front and side airbags, curtain airbags, seatbelt retractors, crumple zones collapse absorbing energy and the strengthened cage around the cabin transfers the impact load through to the crumples zones.  All this armour remains hidden yet always active, ready for when there is an impact that could kill us.  Without it, we would certainly die.  Its our modern day armour.

St Paul uses the imagery of armour, that of the Roman soldier, the helmet, the belt, the breast plate, the shield and sword, that protects them from the enemy’s weapons, to describe what Jesus victory over sin, death and the devil really means for us in our lives.  The gospel of Jesus, as Paul describes it in Romans 1:17 ‘a righteousness from God…a righteousness that is by faith from first to last’, is the full armour of God; the armament given to us for protection against the day of evil.  Today, it is equally valid to state this armour of God, this righteousness from God, as being like the safety cell in our car that surrounds us and protects us every moment we drive.

After watching  video advertising, who here would not put on their seatbelt?  Would any of you dare to disconnect the airbags?  After seeing the protection a safety cell provides, would you want to go back to the old cars, like my Valiant, which I am sad to say, has no safety features at all?  We would never do that.  It would be too dangerous…we might be killed.  Have you thought the same way about using the armour God that he has given us to protect us from the fiery arrows, the impacts of the devil?  It’s a sad reality for many of us, and I am often just as much at fault, that we take more care of our physical safety than we do for our spiritual safety.

When we begin each day, because there is no automatic alarms, sirens and flashing lights reminding us of the protection we have around us, we often go though our day without a thought of using God’s full armour.  We face the day, so to speak, with all its impacts from the devil, in an old car, without a seatbelt, without a safety cell, and still expect to be alive and well at the end of the day.  In spiritual terms, we go to work or school, face constant attacks from the devil, all without relying on any protection from God’s armour.   We have no thought about the truth of Jesus; the righteousness we have because of him; the power of the Spirit that can transform our lives, nor understand  the influence that being saved by grace can have on our decisions and on our daily struggles with other people or  in our temptations to sin.    

Have you ever experience a day when you got home in the evening and thought…’what went so wrong?’  How could have I allowed myself to speak like I did, or lose my temper the way I did?’  Or have you lay in bed at night worrying about what the next day was going to bring? Or how you are going to handle your anxiety over a conflict or a desire to act on something you know isn’t right?  Sadly, it is so easy for us to feel confident to face our crisis alone and by our own armament and capabilities; as if our faith is nothing more than an ideology and Jesus word has no power to protect us from such a deadly foe.

You are a Lutheran, I am a Lutheran and Justification, being made right with God through faith in Christ alone, a righteousness of God from faith to faith, as St Paul says, is the central teaching of our church and is what we believe.   This central belief is the armour of God and is the power to enable us to stand in our most difficult days.  How, you may ask?  We have two options when facing a difficult time or an attack from the devil; either we stand and face evil with our own righteousness and works or we put on the armour of God and rely on the righteousness of Christ:  which of these will you choose?

Stand against the devil by your own power and you will spiritually die.  In the same way as you would physically die if you were in a car without a safety system.  Stand in the armour of God and Jesus fights for you and you will live, as Jesus says ‘The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.’ In other words, you can’t fight on your own.

St Paul encourages us then, to put on Christ as our armour or safety cell, ‘be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.’  We have no mamby pamby God on our side.  Jesus has defeated the devil and sin on the cross and by rising again he has defeated death.  Evil can’t harm us anymore.  Luther writes ‘if sin makes you anxious, and if death terrifies you, just think that this is an empty phantom and an illusion of the devil – which is what it surely is.  For in fact there is no sin any longer, no curse, no death, and no devil, because Christ has conquered and abolished all these.  Accordingly, the victory of Christ is utterly certain.’ 

St Paul says the same ‘we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’  By faith we believe this to be so; trusting in Jesus as our shield, breastplate, helmet and belt.  When the devil impacts us, accuses us of fault and guilt, justification instantly springs into action on our behalf. 

When there is a severe impact to our car, the strengthened cage around the cabin transfers the impact load through to the crumples zones, so that we remain safe and unhurt.  In a similar way, when the devil or sin impacts on our life, Jesus becomes our crumple zone; he is our armour around us who absorbs the impact to keep us spiritually safe.  Suddenly, as an attack happens…the devil accuses us, or someone hurts us with a lie or there is some sort of abuse against us, Jesus takes upon himself all the attacks.  By faith in him we allow the impact to be transferred onto him. 

To put the armour of God at a time like this is to remember and recite passages of scripture like ‘Isaiah 53 ‘Surely he took upon himself our infirmities and carried our sorrows.’ Or 2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’  Better to be safe than sorry.  Begin everyday by being strong in the Lord, remembering to put on the armour of God, saying ‘I am a child of God, I am baptized and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.’  Let’s put on the armour of God now and say after me ‘I am a child of God, I am baptized and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.’  Amen.

Only fools observe. Ephesians 5-15-20

 

(hold up the Valiant service manual) How do you think I became a motor mechanic?  Did I just pick up this book, put on a pair of overalls, tuck the book under my arm, and walk into a garage? No, of course not!  What makes a mechanic a mechanic?   For someone to be a motor mechanic, they have to be totally involved in the job; working on cars, studying how they work, pulling engines and gearboxes apart and …hopefully, putting them back together again.  By actually doing the job you grow in knowledge, confidence and ability and before long, you become what you do…a mechanic.  

This is the same with every thing we do isn’t it?  Both for our good..or…for our bad.  The fact is, whatever we involve ourselves in, we become.  We become a cyclist when we ride a bike or we become a criminal when we steal.  While we might intentionally want to become a mechanic or become any other profession, by immersing ourselves in the work and allowing the very job we do transform us, very few of us intend to become what we don’t want to be. 

No one wants to become an alcoholic; none of us intentionally become addicts to sex or gambling; none of us intentionally become adulterers or murderers.  It literally just happens.  It really does.  What we involve ourselves in, we will finally become.

Listen to a testimony from a reformed gambler.

 Many years ago, on odd occasions, I would, as they used to say, go into a club and have a “pull on the machines.”
What that meant was, having a bit of a flutter on a “one-armed bandit” or poker machine.
I was always able to go into a club with no more than $5 or a few coins, have a bit of fun and then when all that amount that I had allocated for that time had run out, then I would leave and was content in that. This would happen only about three or four times in a year. So this was for about thirty years.

 But one day, I won $100 on a 1c machine and that is when I really started getting “hooked.” Can you see how subtle Satan works? All addictions start out so small scale, so innocent. And you may say, that as a Christian, I should not have been in there anyway. Yes that is true, but every now and then, we do veer off “the path” (exert from www.Life Connection Ministries)

Did you hear what this person found out the hard way?  Slowly, over time, as we involve ourselves in something, we become what we do.  Simply knowing about gambling doesn’t make you a gambler. Gambling is what makes you into a gambler; knowing about unjust anger won’t make you an angry person.  Harbouring anger will make you an angry person.  Participating in such things, bad or good, will turn us into what we are doing. 

St Paul warns ‘Be very careful, then, how you live– not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.’   Be careful, Paul says, there are real consequences in the way we live; both for now and in eternity.  He gives a very relevant example of actions that change us.  ‘Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.’  No one sets out drinking a few beers to intentionally become wicked, depraved and be involved in acts of indecency.  It just happens.  The alcohol becomes a part of us, and changes us to do what we would not normally do.

Paul here chose wine as an example, but I am sure we could all think of one bad influence in our life that, if we continue in it unabated, we would become what we do; It just happens, as St Paul says in Romans 7 ‘I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 

Even though we are baptised, born again by the Spirit and have all the gifts of Jesus; forgiveness, life and salvation, our inclination is not now to always do good, but to still always err on the side of sin.  An unwise believer, as Paul puts it, is one who thinks they can, once baptised, live their Christian walk by their own strength of will and determination. 

An unwise or foolish believer is one who thinks they can participate in worldly acts and not be changed by it.  Have you thought that yourself?  Sorry, but this won’t cut it, Paul says ‘the days are evil.’  And since this is the case, we who are by nature sinful and unspiritual, if we continue to feed on the evil the world provides, we will, slowly become as evil as the age.   

So what is the point here?  To make us feel horrible and stop us trying to do the right thing, since we will end up being evil anyway? No.  St Paul writes this to shine forth the glorious gospel of Jesus.  He says ‘do not be foolish, but rather, know what the will of the Lord is’.   The writer of Proverbs also encourages us to do the same ‘leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.’   As a Christian be clear on the gospel!  Know the will of the Lord, then you will be truly wise and will walk in the way of understanding; in freedom and in joy.  Do you know what the will of God is?…

Jesus clearly states it, just a few sentences before today’s gospel ‘For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.’    The will of God is for us to hear the word of Jesus, look to him for salvation and believe. 

And again, at Jesus’ transfiguration the Lord states his will ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!  And the word of Jesus that our Heavenly Father, the Lord, wills us to hear and believe is this “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him and I will raise him up on the last day.’ 

Many Christians think the will of God for us is all about just living a good and moral life.  But, thanks to St Paul’s promptings, we discover here the true will of God; to believe in Jesus that he is our savior and to listen to his word and to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus.  The good news is that as we continue to do this, he remains in us, and we in him.  Or put another way, we become what we participate in.  By faith in Jesus, as we indulge in his body and blood truly present here in the bread and wine, we become what Jesus is, righteous, holy, and the honor of being adopted as sons of God.

By reading, listening to and studying God’s word and taking the sacrament of Holy Communion, or ‘doing’ God’s word, we become what we do, or better still we become what is given to us.  Luther called this the great exchange he writes ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin.  You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours.  You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not’.  He made your sins his own and has made his righteousness yours’

The good news is found in will the of God; that we are made into Christians by God himself as we eat the body of Jesus and drink his blood, hear and believe in him.  As we ‘do’ God’s word.  And as we ‘do’ God’s word, Paul encourages us that we will be filled with the Spirit; speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; singing  and making music in our heart to the Lord, and always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That’s joy in the gospel and the gospel is what you have with you and in you.  Praise God.
Amen