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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’.

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

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