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Ezekiel 34_11-16-20_24 Sheep with a Shepherd.

 

 

I have some wool here, what can you tell me about sheep?

 

Sheep are not that dumb!  In fact, they are quite smart.  They are very good at being sheep.  They are very good at looking after number 1…themselves.  Sheep are very self-centred.  A sheep spends countless hours finding new and inventive ways of getting to the other side of the fence to eat the green grass and fill their stomaches. They use all their craftiness and cunningness to elude the farmer and his barking dog. 

 

To leave them to their own devices, without any shepherding, would only mean disaster for the sheep.  Their natural instinct, to run from the shepherd and seek greener pastures, would ultimately lead them down a path of self destruction.  They could unwittingly wonder onto a road and be run over, be caught by a pack of dogs, become entangled in a fence or die of hunger and thirst lost in the wilderness.

 

The bible often describes us as sheep, Ezekiel says ‘the Lord himself will look after his flock, rescue his sheep; the people of Israel’.  And certainly, like sheep, we are not dumb!  In fact we are very good at being human beings.  We are very good at looking after number one…self!  Self-centeredness is the catch cry of our times.  This sheep ideology of self-importance comes at the expense of others, including our own family.  The results of our sheepish lifestyle are now beginning to bear fruit. 

 

Domestic violence is at an all time high as husbands and wives fight to gain dominance in their relationship.  Money and greed contribute to fights and family break-ups, with both parents under pressure to ‘make it’ on their own. 

 

In an article written in the Australian last Tuesday it has been revealed that Australian children are being removed from their homes at a staggering rate; there are today 28,000 children in care, double the number than in 1997…double…in 10 years.  According to the article, these children go into care at a very young age, ending up with attachment and trust issues.  By the time they are 10 years old, many of these children are so damaged they can no longer stay in foster homes.  They spend a few years bouncing around the system, from one foster carer to another, then bouncing from youth hostel to police station to the street, before ending up in jail.

 

Another report released by the white ribbon foundation; people against violence towards women, states these alarming statistics:

As a direct result of family breakdown and violence within the family home

• One in three boys believe it’s no big deal to hit a girl.
• Nearly one in three boys believe ‘most physical violence occurs because a partner provoked it.’
• One in seven girls between the ages of 12-20 has experienced sexual assault or rape.

 

We are indeed sheep that have gone astray; gone our own way.  In some way or another, as members of society, we are all part of this.  We are all part of the problem, as St Paul says ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’  The results of sin are self evident.  Just as sure as a sheep straying from its shepherd, will ultimately come to a disastrous end, as the statistics are currently showing, we who stray from our shepherd, Jesus Christ, will ultimately come to a disastrous end. 

 

When we try and gain self-importance without God, instead of finding it, we end up bitter and angry.  We end in frustration, violence and oppression. Why?  Because our selfish desires always promise, but never deliver.  Like with sheep who are constantly unsatisfied, the grass will always be greener in the other paddock.  The more we chase worldly things for our selfish use, the more elusive they become.  Mike Foss in the DVD’s a number of us have been watching puts this very cleverly, ‘God has made the desires and hopes of this world like a block of ice in our hands.  The harder we try and hold onto them, the quicker they melt and seep through our fingers.’

 

So are we totally lost, like sheep without a shepherd?  

 

The answer to this is yes.  Left to our own devices and effort, like sheep, we will continue to do what sinful humans do.  But we can thank God that the answer is also a resounding no, we are not totally lost, we do have a shepherd.  God himself saw our condition and like a good shepherd took it upon himself to rescue us.  The prophet Ezekiel foresaw God doing this when he said ‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.’

 

500 years after this prophecy, the Christ child was born in Bethlehem, with the name Jesus which means ‘he will save his people from their sins.’  God sent his Son Jesus into the world, our world, into your life, to bring you back into the safety of God’s pastures.  Jesus made this clear while he walked among the people of Israel, he said ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’

 

This is the message the church proclaims today to a world still lost and scattered ‘Jesus, the shepherd of our souls has died and risen again to give us a new life; a new way to live’.  A life we can live to the full as he has promised; a life that breaks the circle of bitterness, anger and violence.  By his death he has destroyed our deepest fears of isolation, insignificance and bitterness brought on by sin. 

 

Because Jesus gives us everything we need to fulfil our life, self-worth, forgiveness and love, we no longer need to be like lost sheep; people who desperately search for importance and value through selfish ambition.  We no longer need to find a purpose in life by asserting our rights upon others and dominating them.  

 

Jesus the good shepherd gives our life value and importance because we are his sheep.  Baptism is a clear symbol and action of God that shows us he values us and loves us.  It is the fulfilment of Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning God ‘I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.’  Oliver will become a valued child of God.  The water and the word of God, ‘whoever is baptised and believes will be saved’, combine to give Oliver a new life in Christ and eternal life with him in heaven.

 

As Oliver grows up in faith, as we all grow up in our faith, given to us in baptism, our grace filled relationship with God, will transfer into our personal relationships with each other.  St Paul in Romans says ‘through baptism…just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may walk in newness of life.’  Forgiveness and understanding, love and concern for others will be our newness of life and the backbone of all our relationships.

 

Everyone dreams of having good and stable relationships and God uses his church, you and I, to make this dream become a reality.  As members of the church, we play a vital part in the dreams of those around us.  As stewards of Christ’s grace, we bring Jesus into the lives of struggling families.  A simple prayer, a quiet word of God, a caring act, all bring Jesus the good shepherd into people’s relationships and break the cycle of bitterness.  What grace we have received and what joy we bring.  Let’s celebrate what a wondrous shepherd we have as our King.  Amen       

 

 

Matt 25_14-30  entrusted with God’s wealth- Pentecost -16_11_08

 

A Scotsman, Jock McTavish was a very careful with his money.  Once he took all his money out of the bank for a holiday.  After it rested in his pocket for a week he put it all back.  Jock McTavish was very prudent indeed, once he got down on his knees to propose to his girlfriend when a 50 cent piece dropped from his pocket and rolled under the sofa.  In the twenty minutes it took him to find it, she had lost interest.

 

If Jock McTavish thought he was wise about investing money, he was wrong.  Hiding money away in a cupboard will never bring great riches.  To lose a wonderful relationship with his girlfriend for the sake of 50 cents, will never make him rich…in money terms and in relational terms.

 

I have some money here.  I will give you some of it to hold and feel.  As you hold it, I want you to imagine how you might invest the money to bring more wealth.  Would you be someone like Jock McTavish and hide the money away or guard it with such passion that you lose many friends?  Or will you be like a wise investor, someone prepared to make the money work for them? 

 

Hold the money and imagine what lengths you might have to go to in order to get a great return. Imagine the people you would need to see.  How many different investors you would speak with.  Imagine the places you would visit and how well you would make yourself known in the financial industry in order to get the best deal.  

 

Hold the money and imagine what a privilege and honour it would be to be given such a great responsibility of investing someone else’s wealth.  And how great it is that they have entrusted you with doing whatever you think is right.  Wow!

 

Jesus, when he was speaking to the believers said ‘the kingdom of God is like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.  To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.’  In the same way as this parable, the money you have in your hands, is symbolic to holding the treasures of the kingdom of God that you have been given. 

 

You and I, as believers in Jesus have been given every treasure of heaven; All that makes the kingdom of God until Jesus’ return; you have, in Christ Jesus, been given the treasures of his mercies, grace, forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  You and I are rich in God’s treasure, as St Paul says ‘Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!’

 

You and I have been entrusted with God’s wealth until Christ’s return and we are free to handle God’s wealth in whatever way we seem appropriate.  We can invest his wealth or we can hide it.  We can be reckless with it or we can be reverent.  

 

That sounds just too great a responsibility to be true, too great an honour to be given to people like us, to a church as small as us.  Yet hear the words of Jesus again ‘the kingdom of God is like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them’.  And St Paul also states ‘In Christ Jesus we have all the riches of God’s grace that he has lavished on us all’

 

Every one of us who are baptised and believe in Jesus, have personally been entrusted with and lavished with the wealth of God’s kingdom.  And as members of St Mark’s (St John’s) we have been given the treasure of Jesus’ words and the treasures of his sacraments which bring grace and forgiveness, to invest in those around us; we are investors for God’s kingdom.

 

Imagine, as in the parable, the money you have in your hands represents all the riches of God’s kingdom, his word and his sacraments, given to you until Christ’s return.  Note how not every one of us has been given the same amount, not everyone has been given the same abilities and gifts to invest his riches.  Each one of us is a unique investor of God’s wealth. 

 

Some of us may only have a little to invest.  Some of us have a great amount.  Yet each of us is equally important before God; each of us are significant investors for God, because it is his wealth we are investing.

 

As you hold God’s treasure, think how might you invest it?  Should we be like Jock McTavish and guard this treasure and let no one know about it? Should we hide it in our church and only take out once or twice a year for a holiday, at Christmas and Easter? Or for the sake of keeping right doctrine, should we break off a relationship with someone who wants to Jesus, because we fear they might misuse or not rightly understand these riches? 

 

Hold God’s treasures in your hand and ask yourself, ‘can I afford to risk this treasure by investing it in someone?’  ‘Can I afford not to?’ Do I play it safe as in the past practices of the church and hide it away like the third servant did, or do I just go and invest like the first two servants in the parable?

 

The good news is, this question is not ours to ask.  Jesus has not given us rules about how to invest or who to invest his riches with.  He has not demanded a doubling or tripling of his treasure.  He hasn’t even asked that we be careful about how we handle his treasures. The good news is that we are free to just go and invest, even the littlest amount, wherever God has put us in our daily life, to even be reckless and take risks, because God himself is reckless with his grace. 

 

God has never withheld his mercies from sinners ‘for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.“,   God was so reckless with his treasure in order to bring salvation to us, that it cost him the death of his Son.  ‘He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?’

 

Yes, we have been given all things, faith, life and salvation because God was reckless with his treasure and did not keep it to himself.  As the third servant’s words confess ‘God is a hard man, harvesting where he has not sown and gathering where he has not scattered seed.’ 

 

If God is a hard investor, harvesting and gathering rewards from where he has not scattered, without fear or favour, investing recklessly, what do we have to worry about!  With a king like that, we have nothing to fear when we invest his treasure, whether large or small. 

 

Like a money investor who is always on the lookout for investment opportunities, as we go about out daily life, at work or among friends, always be ready to invest some of God’s treasure into the lives of people we meet.  Every time you handle some money this week, hold it in your hand for a moment and remember the treasures you have been given in Christ Jesus. 

 

Begin to imagine the lengths you might go to, in order to get a great return for God. Imagine the people you might see, how many different opportunities for investment you’ll have.  Imagine the places you could visit and how well you would make yourself known in order to get the best deal for God. 

 

Don’t worry whether it is the right time or place, the right person or investment opportunity, God will harvest even where he doesn’t sow and he will not hold you accountable for losses.  For the only loss he is concerned for are those who are lost to the devil, as St Paul says ‘God our Saviour wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’  Amen

 

  

The good oil! Matt 25-1-13

 

I don’t know if any of you are aware or not, but I’ve decided to play professional NRL.  I’ve got all the gear.  Here’s my jersey, let me put it on.  Here are my socks and boots, let me put them on.  Now, most importantly, the Dencor rub…got to have the locker room smell.  Now I am ready to play a professional game of NRL. 

 

Would I be a fool to go out onto a field of pro football players and tackle (name)?   How long do you think I would last after the starting siren?  You would call me a fool for trying.  Any one who plays football or follows it, knows that being a pro football player is not about the gear and the smells, its about having talent.  To make the A grade you need to develop talent, you need to train, be in a team, be professionally coached, have weights training and be fit; you need to take the game seriously.  No one in their right mind would go out onto a football field and grapple tackle…just because they are wearing the right gear; that is stupidity.

 

For the five virgins to go out into the night to eagerly wait for a bride groom without any oil in their lamps is just as foolish.  Who in their right mind would not first check their lamps to see if they have oil in them before they go into the dark, yet these five did.  For me to go out onto a football field without having the talent shows that I am foolish and I don’t take football seriously.  For the five virgins to go out into the night without oil shows they were foolish and didn’t take their duties seriously.

 

Perhaps in their excitement to meet the groom they just forgot to fill their lamps.  Or perhaps they didn’t think it would be so dark.  No, how dump!  There is no excuse for not having oil, they are just fools, and that is what Jesus wants us to hear as the point to this parable; only a foolish person would dress to impress; only a foolish person waits for God without oil.

 

Before the groom arrives, by all outward accounts, all 10 virgins act and look the same.  All have lamps, all are waiting, all are virgins and all 10 don’t know the time of hour of the groom’s arrival.  Only when the call comes ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him‘, are the true welcomers of the groom revealed.  Only then are the foolish virgins separated from the wise.

 

 The wise, with oil and lamps ablaze, go and meet the groom and enter the celebrations. The fools, those dressed only to impress, those who never had the oil, never met the groom and never entered the wedding feast.  In fact, the groom says ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’

 

Jesus is warning us that he will return as a bridegroom returns for his wife; Jesus will return for his bride the church, as St Paul says in his great passage on marriage ‘”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery– but I am talking about Christ and the church.’  At the end of time Christ will come to take his wife the church to be with him forever in heaven, where the two will become one.  You and I are part of the church, we are disciples of Jesus, his children and we are waiting for the day Jesus comes to bring us into heaven. 

 

Since this is the case and since St Paul says ‘It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.’ Can we afford to be fools and be dressed to impress Christ, yet be without oil? 

 

Can we afford to be like me, all dressed up but not actually the real thing?  Can we afford to look like Christians, act like Christians, go to church like Christians and yet all along be like lamps without oil?  Can we be a church that looks like a church, is friendly to everyone and welcoming to all, yet fails to have the good oil and give this oil to members?

 

A lamp burns bright and lights a path through the darkness because it has oil to burn.  A wick that is not soaked in oil only flickers and then goes out, it cannot burn on its own.  Oil is the essential ingredient to a blazing lamp.  The essential oil for you and I to be ablaze for Christ and be ready for his return is his word of grace.  The good news of Jesus himself who said ‘whoever is baptised and believes will be saved’, and again ‘For 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. 

 

God’s word of good news is the word of life and gives us life like oil does to a lamp.  The word sustains and nurtures us and enables us to believe and gives us the Holy Spirit.  Like the five wise virgins, who never worried about the time or the hour of the groom’s return because they had oil in their lamps, in the same way, we don’t have to worry about whether Jesus is coming today or tomorrow or in our life time.

 

 For as long as we have the oil of God’s word in our hearts, we know that we will always be ready; we know we will always be welcomed into the final wedding feast with the Lamb of God and his church.

 

Oil is the hidden force that ignites and sustains a lighted lamp; it is the hidden power that made five virgins wise and its absence that made five virgins foolish.  God’s word of grace, his forgiveness and word of mercy is our hidden force that ignites faith in us and makes us ablaze for Christ.

 

It is the hidden power in us that makes us wise unto salvation, as St Paul says ‘But as for you, continue in what you have learned …known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’.   

 

This is our oil…the good oil…the oil of God’s word.  This is why we as a church are working towards starting the faith five every night in every home, as from next year.  Faith five is a practical way of bringing God oil, his word, into your life; to keep you soaked in his word.  1. By sharing your highs and lows, 2. Reading from a devotion book.  3. Talking about the text and relating it to your day 4. Praying for one another and 5. Blessing each other. 

 

By proactively being soaked in God’s word in this way, everyday in every home, we will continue to be wise; God’s word will dwell within us and will be the hidden power to make us ablaze for Christ and the words of the psalmist will ring true for us ‘your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path’.   

 

 

 

 

 

We are having a BBQ for lunch today and I have brought along some tomatoes. Who would like to have some with their meal?  (hand out some tomatoes, once done this go back and get a knife and cut off a portion of the tomato to keep).  I’m just taking a share to pay for the transport and purchasing costs of the tomatoes.  After all, they’re my tomatoes and I am giving you the privilege of having them.  Aren’t I entitled to take a portion?

 

It doesn’t seem right to be given something only to have a portion taken away.  In fact we feel that once we have something its now ours and we can do with it whatever we want.

 

This is a bit like having to pay taxes to the government.  Its our money, shouldn’t we do with it what we like?  In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, “In this
world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Nearly 150 years later (1936), Margaret Mitchell used a similar phrase in _Gone with the Wind_: “Death and taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.”  Yes, and there is one more certainty, we always hate paying taxes. 

 

We hate having to pay back part of what we feel is ours; pay back what we think is our right to keep and to do with whatever we want.  Aren’t we entitled to it?  Perhaps we ourselves have done some mathematical gymnastics to twist figures around so we don’t pay as much tax as we should have.  We justify our ‘stealing’ from the government by arguing that its our money and we deserve to do with it what ever we want.  Yes, we hate paying taxes.  

 

The Pharisees felt the same way.  In fact they had even more reason to hate paying taxes.  The Romans were charging them to live in their own country.  The Roman Empire defeated Israel and invaded and took them over as rulers.  Their God-given homeland was under foreign occupation and they were charging them for the privilege.  This is why the Pharisees hated Jews who were tax collectors.  They were seen as working for the enemy, traitors who could not be allowed to be a part of the worship life of Israel. A true man of God stood up for the faith of Israel.

 

 As followers of Jesus, we are living on this earth as dual citizens.  We live in two kingdoms that are both under God’s rule.  Luther taught that the government of this world is God’s Kingdom of the Left, through which he rules to give us food, clothing, homes, money, health and all that we need for our earthly life.  Our coins have the image of Queen Elizabeth;  The image of our government.  Jesus said ‘give to the government what is the governments, so that they are able to enact God’s will for us. 

Jesus’ response upholds the authority of earthly government, and asks us to give our support to government, not in just paying taxes, but in everything.  In doing so, we are joint rulers with God.  Jesus upholds the role of government most clearly at his trial before Pilate when he said to him ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above’.  God used the government of the day to fulfil his mission of salvation.  St Paul also asserts the importance of obeying God ordained government repeatedly in his writings to the early Christian churches, telling them that believers are to respect governmental authority.

 

Yet, this is only one side of the coin.  Jesus continued his answer saying ‘give to God what is God’s.’  God also deserves our allegiance, as citizens of his heavenly kingdom. This is the Kingdom of the right, through which God rules in grace and mercy.  He rules to give us life and salvation through his Son Jesus, by the power of his word and Spirit.  As citizens of this kingdom as well, clearly, God deserves our tithes and offerings, our worship and thanksgiving for his gift of redeeming grace as members of his church here on earth. But what else belongs to God? 

 

The Roman coin that Jesus held bore the image of Caesar, therefore it belonged to Caesar. But what bears the image and name of God? Nothing but our whole being! In the very first chapter of Genesis, we are told that God said, “Let us make humankind in our image.” And the author of this first book of the Bible concluded, “So God created us in his image…”

We are the coins of God’s realm, of his kingdom. If we are to “give to God what is God’s,” then we must conclude from Jesus’ answer that there is no limit to what we owe God. We owe God our whole being, our very life, all that is ours. No part of our life is excluded from our new life given to us in our baptism.  We were redeemed from sin and death and made citizens of his kingdom, as Saint Paul encourages ‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.’

 

We need to think about our faith seriously, and to realize that we are citizens of two kingdoms, to which our greatest allegiance belongs to God.  As we live our life, think about how our whole being belongs to God, and let it influence and impact every part of the way we live.

A tomato cannot divide itself into other fruits, keeping the tomato bit for BBQ’s and becoming a grape for desert, no, it is always and only ever will be a tomato. You cannot be divided either. (cut up tomato)  Christian bit for church, prayer, and public life; then worldly bit for cheating, stealing and hidden sexual and immoral desires.  No, as we give ourselves to different things, work, family, church, sport, government, every part of us has been redeemed.  Every part of you has been bought at a price.  Let this great news influence everything you do. 

 

 

Matthew 21:23-32 who runs this show anyway

Anyone here had a car breakdown?
Today’s modern cars have a unique feature. If something goes wrong, like the engine overheats, the computer system goes into default mode. That means, the car’s computer goes into a mode that is preset by the factory, and will run like that until the error is fixed. In other words, under extreme pressures, the car automatically goes back into default.

We have a default mode. A mode of operating we go into automatically when confronted with an extreme situation; when we sense an error or hurt against us. Our default mode is ‘look after me at all costs’. If our buttons are pressed, we automatically run on self-importance mode, our default mode; we become selfish and protect our right to exist and have to justify ourselves, even if it means we hurt and destroy others. And we can be included in this, is going into default mode to protect itself from harm. There is a credit crisis which threatens our comfortable way of life, so ‘click’, we go into default mode; self-importance mode and spend $840 billion to prop up dodgy banks and faulty investors so we can keep our way of life. Yet we refuse to spend money to prop up and save the lives of millions of people in third world countries who are dying because they have nothing.

We even refuse to fix the housing crisis in our own country; where we now have the situation of people so desperate for a place to live, they physically fight with other prospective tenants, to get the only affordable home in Sydney. Perhaps this is a sign that our default mode has become our normal way of running. Self-importance is the new way of life…its all about me.

Self importance is the essence of sin. By nature, or our default mode is that we are sinful as Peter writes ‘if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.’ When the pressure is on, its so easy to go into default mode and run purely on self-importance; we all do it. Even as baptised children of God, we still fall into self-importance.Life is a race and the winner takes it all, at all cost! Take a look at a clip from the movie ‘cars’. (cht 1 7.07-9.58)

Perhaps we can see some of ourselves in that car ‘lightening McQueen’? When the pressure’s on, we go through life as if we own the race; as if we control everyone and everything.

Jesus came into a world full of people like Lightening McQueen, who, through sin, were one man shows; running on default mode and consumed with self-importance. A world, as John records ‘that was made through him, but did not recognize him, a world that was his own, but did not receive him.’

After entering Jerusalem, one of the first things Jesus did was to visit the temple, a place of prayer, healing and mercy. Yet what did he see? According to Matthew, a ‘den of robbers; people who were not praying for others, loving and serving as he created them, but instead were running on default mode, were one man shows, grabbing as much money as they could from the poor and needy. Angry at this, Jesus cleared the temple, up turned the tables of the money exchangers and made way for the needy to be healed. He drove out the self-important and opened the temple to the repentant; to those who were truly seeking God’s mercy.

When the religious leaders saw this, the pressure was on them to respond and ‘click’, they went into default mode and puffed themselves up with self-importance ‘by what authority do you do these things’, they asked. ‘Who gave you this authority?’ Instead of getting into a power struggle, going into a default mode of self-importance, Jesus told a parable, one that would hit at the core of the issue

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard. “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” Can you answer Jesus’ question?

 

So could the religious leaders.  ‘The first’ they answered.  The son that was right with his father was the one that turned from his self-importance and went out and did what was asked of him. In answering that this son was the son that did the father’s will, by repenting and doing what he was asked, the religious leaders convicted themselves.  They were all ‘yes, yes’ to God, but never repented of their pride and self-importance, never changed from running on default and remained only concerned for themselves.  Oh, publicly they said they would, but as soon as the pressure was on ‘clack’, back into default mode.

 

We also answered Jesus’ question by saying the first son…have we convicted ourselves?

 

John the Baptist pointed to a fix for our default mode ‘repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’.  Jesus also proclaimed the fix in the Sermon on the Mount ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’  Jesus is offering a way out from our default mode.  He is calling for repentance and a humble heart.  This is what it means to do the fathers will, as the first son in the parable did; to turn and recognise our sin and receive the forgiveness he is freely offering. 

 

Here today, once again, as he did in the temple, Jesus is offering a way out; a chance to get out of our default mode, a chance to break the code and enjoy the freedom of living as God intended.  He is truly present with us in Holy Communion, calling all of us who are tied of sticking up for ourselves to turn and receive forgiveness and mercy. 

 

He is calling all who of us who are tired of thinking we have to justify themselves and burdened from putting others down in self-importance, to repent and receive a fix for our problem.  If this is you, then the blood of Christ is for you, and this promise is for you ‘”Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. .For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’  Amen       

On our knees Matthew 18  Kids club service in the park

 

I’ve just done the washing, and I didn’t have time to hang the clothes out to dry.  So if its alright with you, I’ll hang them up now while I talk with you. 

 

At kids club we have been talking and learning about faith changing people’s lives.  We’ve had a look at how faith changed the lives of people like Abraham, Noah, Jonah and also people like St Paul; whose life was dramatically changed when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.  Yes, faith changes lives alright.  Faith in Jesus has changed the life of each and every one of us.

 

As I hang these pants up, (can you please pass me the top pair of pants) it reminds us of all the different sorts of lives people lead.  The clothes reflect the work and life of the person. 

 

What sort of pants are these? What sort of person might where them?  Yes, perhaps someone who works with their hands; someone who is skilled with fixing cars or perhaps good at wood work or welding steel.  The pants are tuff and hard to withstand the tuff and hard conditions the person works in.

 

Look at these, who might wear these?  Yes, a student at school; a person who learns and grows in knowledge.  Someone who studies, so that they can understand things about the world they live in.  These are made of a softer material than the work pants, why?  So the person wearing them is comfortable during the long hours of learning; they are soft so that the student is not distracted from their learning.

 

Wow!  Check this pair out.  Who might wear these?  A sportsperson perhaps; someone who might run races or jump hurdles.  The Olympics have just been held and we have seen a lot of men and women wearing these sorts of pants.  They are called track suit pants.  Why?  Yes, they are made of light material so that the runner is not slowed down by their clothes.  These pants are specially designed for athletes.  To give them better agility, speed and endurance to run the race.

 

And these?  What sort of work would someone be doing with a pair of pants like these?  Perhaps an accountant or a business person.  Someone who works indoors and works mainly with their brain.  These people spend a lot of time planning and programming so that things can happen in the correct order and under budget.  They wear pants that are made of wool or cotton.  Why?  Yes, they need to reflect the importance of their job.  Their pants need to have pockets for money to pay for all the luncheons and coffees and also to fit their mobile phones and gadgets into.

 

O dear!  Look at this pair.  Wow, they didn’t clean up very well.  There are dirty patches and stains all over them and look, they are ripped.  The knees are all worn away.  What sort of person would wear these?  Why would the knees be worn out?  Perhaps these pants belong to a beggar, to someone who has nothing of their own, but owes a lot of money to a bank or a money lender.  Someone in this situation would have dirty clothes and ripped knees…why?  What do we do when we beg?  Yes, we get down on our knees and plead for mercy.  Perhaps this is why these pants have holes in the knees, perhaps this person has been begging for mercy.  Let’s hang them up and look at them as we talk about how faith changes lives and what it means to live a life that is ‘changed by faith.’

 

Jesus tells a parable about a servant who owed a lot of money to his king.  Perhaps he wore these pants (point to the accountant’s pants) and he was in charge of the king’s money.  His job might have been to invest millions and millions of dollars so that the king would get even more money.  However, it is obvious that this person was not doing his job very well and had lost lots of the king’s money. 

 

Jesus says ‘the king wanted everyone to pay back to him what they owed.’  The person that owed the most money came before the king first and was told ‘you owe me 10,000 talents, which in today’s money is millions of dollars’.  After hearing this, shocking amount, I’m sure the servant needed a new pair pants!

 

There would be no way that a worker could pay that sort of money back.  In fact he owed the king so much, that the figure may as well have been a billion dollars.  The king wants his money but the worker can’t pay, so he’s going to jail, along with his wife and family.  So what does the man do?  He begs for mercy ‘Lord have mercy on me, be patient and I will pay you back’. 

 

He takes off his expensive pants and puts on the beggar’s torn and dirty pants.  In faith he trusts that the king would be merciful, so he falls to his knees and seeks the mercy of the king.  He has nothing to offer except a sorry heart and trust.  He realizes his mistakes and cover ups and wants to appeal to the good and gracious heart of the king.

 

Moved to compassion, the king gives in to the man’s plea and does something incredibly gracious…he wipes the man’s dept clean; he now owes nothing.  It as if he never even owed the king any money and now the worker can go free.  The king pronounces the dept ridden worker free from dept; he is justified…put in the king’s good books. 

 

The worker believes the king’s announcement, trusts in his mercy a walks out a free man.  Faith changed his life.  He owed much, but paid nothing.  The only exchange, was that the king took the dept upon him self and gave the man his freedom.  What an exchange!

 

Faith changes lives. Are we not this man?  Aren’t we all beggars before God our king?  Our dept is not money, our dept is sin.  St Paul says ‘the wages of sin is death’ and God WILL make an account of what we have done’.  He WILL ask that we pay up in full.  Can we pay up?  What can we give?  Nothing!  So by faith in the mercy of God, we also put on these dirty and ripped pair of pants and fall to our knees and say ‘Lord have mercy on me, a poor sinner’.  By faith we appeal to God’s merciful heart.

 

The good news is that God has had mercy on us and has forgiven us our dept.  His Son Jesus has exchanged our dept to sin, which is death, and took it upon himself and died on the cross.  And in exchange he has given us his freedom and his new life.  Because Jesus paid off our dept, given to us as a gift in our baptism, God does something incredibly gracious…he announces us justified; put right with him…we are in the king’s good books; we owe him nothing.  Faith changes lives.  We owed much, but paid nothing!  By faith in the word of God, we walk free.

 

The ripped and dirty beggar’s pants are the pants of people who live by faith, who have had their life changed by God. The ripped and dirty beggar’s pants are the ideal work pants of a disciple of Jesus, of you and me. They remind us that we live and breathe every moment of our life on our knees, seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness.  The dirt and rips remind us of the great exchange that changed our lives.  And when someone sins against us, we are reminded to forgive the dept they owe us, because Jesus took our dept and gave us his freedom and life.  What a great pair of pants, wear them proudly…wear them every day!

 

Amen       

 

    

 

 

Matthew 20_1-16

 

I have a number of prizes here.  Who would like to win something?  All I am going to do is read out some questions about today’s gospel reading, and you can correctly answer them for me…who’s in?
In today’s gospel reading:

1) How many times did the land owner go out and hire workers? 5 times

4) Who payed the wages to the workers?  The foreman

 Give those who didn’t answer the questions the prizes.  Explain that I never said I would give the prizes to the people who answered the questions.

 

Don’t you hate it when you are not rewarded for your efforts?  It just doesn’t seem fair to us that someone else gets what we deserve.  We put in the effort, but get nothing in return.  I have a collection of trophies here which recognise and reward the recipient for competing in an event or even winning it.  Perhaps you have a collection of trophies or medals which reward you for the effort you put in 

In fact, if you think about our whole upbringing, our childhood development, is all about being rewarded for our good effort.  ‘Because you did the dishes, you can have extra desert.’  Or, think about the words the song ‘Father Christmas is coming to town’ ‘he knows whether you have been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake’.  Even the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas is dependant on whether we have been good or not; we are only rewarded with Christmas presents if we have been good enough. 

 The story preceding today’s parable is a real life account of someone who wanted to be rewarded for his good efforts.  The story lays down the background or the context to the parable of the labourers in the vineyard.  A religious man who had done everything required of him, and was now looking for God to reward him for his efforts; he wanted a prize from God for answering the questions correctly. 

 

‘Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honour your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.'” “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

 

He had answered every question correctly, yet Jesus never rewarded him.  He was sent away empty handed and sad.  He never got what he thought his efforts deserved.  Why?  Because even his best efforts at answering God’s expectations were not good enough, as Isaiah prophesise ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’.  This is the background to Jesus’ parable; the background to Jesus ministry, his coming to earth, his death and resurrection and the kingdom of God.  All our efforts to please God in the hope of gaining the reward of heaven are futile, totally useless like filthy rags, because our hearts are in the wrong place; they are sinful and rebellious towards God, even when we are doing our best, as the rich man found out.  Often, when we are doing our best, were doing our worse because we are doing things out of pride. 

 

Volunteering in community groups, attending bible studies, donating blood, giving money to the poor, even going to church, while all good and important things, will never be works worthy enough of our heavenly Father’s reward.  They will never open the way to heaven.  The tragic fact is that we will all go away sad as long as we think God will reward us and give us a place in heaven with him because of what we have done.

 

The first workers to be employed in the vineyard worked for the landowner from dawn to dusk.  The second wave of workers toiled from morning tea until dusk, the third and forth group worked from lunch on.  The final workers employed, worked for only an hour; a huge difference in effort put in between the first employed in the vineyard and the last. 

 

Yet what happened when payment time came?  Yes, every worker was payed the same wage.  There was no extra reward for effort. No special trophies or medals for those who endured the heat of the day.  In fact, those who were employed last and worked the least hours where paid first.  The first were last and the last first.  Totally unfair in our eyes because we are so accustomed to being rewarded for our effort. Yet, this is how God works.  This is how the kingdom of God is. As one Christian said “Grace is always amazing grace. Grace that can be calculated and ‘expected’ is no longer grace.

 

God’s grace is that he saves all people by faith in the efforts of his Son Jesus Christ, not in our efforts, as Paul writes ‘God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.’  Whether we are seasoned campaigners for Christ and have lifted high the cross all our lives as the famous hymn says, or are converted on our death bed after 90 years of living a sinful life, all who come to faith in Jesus are treated the same by God our Father who judges each man’s work impartially.  

 

The only works worthy of salvation have been accomplished by Jesus Christ, whose work was that he gave himself as a ransom for us.  God’s grace, his salvation, is given to us as a gift through faith in Christ and by the power of our baptism.  In the kingdom of God there is no hierarchy of Christians.  What great news this is for us who believe and are baptised, we have already been given our reward; all of us, from the longest service member, to the newest.  Yet, as the workers in the vineyard found out, they still needed to work for the reward, still had to endure challenges and difficulties as part of the owners demands. 

 

But they did this because of the promise they had received.  They worked because they believed in the love and faithfulness of their boss.

St Paul also encourages us to do the same ‘Therefore, I urge you, friends, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God– this is your spiritual act of worship.’  We work for our Father in heaven, not to receive our reward, but because we have already received it.

 

Can I tell you a story that happened earlier this year? I think it sums up the parable well.  (story of the man in hospital)

 

Amen