Escaping from the shadows

Acts 2: 36-47, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35

“Escaping from the shadows”

 
In our reading this morning from the book of Acts our reading climaxes with (and) “So those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Today we celebrate with Heath and his family and friends his baptism and like for those 3,000, today Heath receives the words from the book of Romans for himself: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism in to death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Newness of life in salvation and heavenly life eternal, and newness of life in this world.

Knowing’s it Heath Birthday today and pondering of what a great gift to receive on his birthday I continued to read the continuation of the turn of events for those 3,000.

Verse 43 onwards: “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

“Selling possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to others and spending our days going from house to house and eating together.” I’m not sure Heath, never mind Laurie and Sharna saw that one coming.

That picture of those early Christians and their sense of community is marvellous if not humbling. Thing is that if I tried to imitate those 3,000 people back then, I think I might be getting a visit from one of my superiors seeing if I needed a change of scenery or some time off because really, it is a very impractical thing to do.

Still it is important we remember those early days in the Church like it is important to remember our birthdays and anniversaries. To have those days were we look back at ourselves in baby photos and see that innocence and untarnished naiveté, or look at our wedding pictures and remember the joy of the day. Snapshots of history of a by-gone time to remind us who we are and where we are from. Moments and memories to reflect on to bring joy to our hearts. Yet moments that as we look in the mirror can convict as we wonder just what happened to that innocence and wonder of life to that person in the photo, who now seems like a stranger.

In the movie “The legend of Bagger Vance” Actor Matt Damon plays the character of Junuh, who as a teenager was a golfing prodigy. But after his World War I tour of duty, returns to his home town psychologically marred and broken and lives as a recluse with the only moments that can quell the sounds of warfare within him being when at a gambling table and through the bottom of a glass.

Ironically there is a charity golf tournament coming up in his home town involving golfing legends of the time, and that the town needs a local to participate they track down Junuh  and after the arrival of the strange yet wise golfing mentor Bagger Vance, the character played by Will Smith who later we find out is an angel, Junuh eventually gives into their requests.

Throughout the movie while Junuh is seeking to find purpose and some sense in his life, he is fearful of just what they might be. To cut a long story short he is going very well in the tournament until on the second to last hole where he slices his tee shot deep in the woods. As he enters the dark forest to find his ball, panic overtakes him and the steam from the ground triggers memories of smoking battlefields, his hands tremble and he resigns to depart and seek solitude again in his self-medicating ways.

As he turns to leave, his golfing mentor Bagger Vance tells Junuh that the problem is not with his golfing grip, but with the grip the past holds on him and that “Their aint a soul on this entire earth who aint got a burden to carry he can’t understand. You aint alone in that. But you’ve been carrying this one long enough. It’s time to lay it down.”

Junuh replies, I know, but I can’t.

To which Bagger answers “Yes you can, you’re not alone. I’m right here with you. I’ve been with you all along. Now play the game. Your game. The only one you were meant to play. The one that was given to you when you came into this world. Now is the time”

A movie about a mythical game in the past. Our past and our experiences are real and can have enormous impact on where we are at now. Ending up with earthly success or hiding in the shadows through the bottom of a glass can be determined from very finite times and situations. Ironically, neither are guaranteed to give more or less happiness than the other should we be carrying a burden that we can’t understand or shake.

Sometimes knowing that our past has a hold on us we yearn for and know that it’s time to lay it down, and for just a moment we see a glimpse of light, only to realise in the next moment that the shadows still beckon and though we know there is a better way, we know the way that has been our “safe harbour” so far, and there we return. .

Jesus Christ gave His life to bring us forgiveness and eternal life because we could not bring it for ourselves.

Likewise, in this life when we cannot escape the shadows, He asks that we “Come to Him, all you who are weary and burdened, and He will give us rest.” (Matt. 11.28).

Though often we see Him not, Jesus walks with us and though He sees our stumbles mistakes and errors of our ways, he doesn’t walk with us to judge, but to guide and to offer us His peace as we travel our short journey on this earth. Our journey in which from beginning to end, from cradle to hearse there are so many variables that we can be left wondering where we are in scheme of things. The what if’s of life? The what ifs, that lead to the why’s and sooner or later, fear of what lies ahead-even if that be only the fear of the unknown felt on our last day.

 

Our God, God the Father of Jesus Christ is not a God of fear, but a God of love. His love so great that He gave us His Son Jesus Christ, who in turn gave His life that anyone who believes that He is the messiah, the Saviour sent to the world and that in trust in Him and in Him alone their sins are forgiven, they like Christ are given the promise that they too will be raised in the second life to reside forever with those who have gone before and who will go after in that same belief. That is the summary of Christian faith. No actually that’s the entirety of Christian faith.

 

A simple truth. Yet a truth so simple and unworldly that it is an easy target for the powers of darkness to attack and place before us the logical thoughts of our need to work our way to heaven, or alternatively tell us the truth of our sins to lead us to doubt that we could be saved. It’s a good trick because ultimately one part of it is true. We are sinners and if we look into the inner core of our soul where we hide the things we choose not to remember or at least would rather not, we see that yes, we have fallen short many, many times over our journey. But like our God, God the Father is not a God of fear, but of love, so is our Saviour Jesus Christ and in His love that we need not live our lives wondering and in despair of where we stand in regards to our heavenly status He gave us the gift of Baptism. The gift of baptism that closes the door on the wolf at the door as he tries to upset with human logic the sure truth of forgiveness and salvation in trust, and in faith in Christ alone.

 

Our Lord and Saviour walked this earth and knows the difficulties we face and the doubts that come to us and so He gave us Baptism. The gift of Baptism He will give today to this young boy so that should he doubt his goodness or his place before God, that he not listen to those human thoughts from inside, but listen to His Words from outside. His Words, His promise, that if you are baptised and believe that I am your Saviour-then nothing in all creation can ever break or take away from you your gift of eternal life.

 

Baptism is a gift of the sureness of what awaits, and a gift that allows us to live in the here and now and though in our lives we will still share happiness with sadness and comfort with hardship, we never need share the doubt of ourselves with the surety that He walks with us, guiding us and upholding us in love, and nor need we should we share the inner doubts of our worthiness with our salvation, for our salvation is from the worthiness and surety of our Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ.  Amen.

There is a garden

Acts 2:14a:22-32, 1 Peter 1:39, John 20:19-31

“There is a garden”

“Gallipoli has become a symbol of Australia’s national identity, achievement and existence,” according to Australian War Memorial principal historian Dr Peter Stanley.
He goes on to say “”In the event, the landing was a military disaster – it failed to meet its objectives. But merely hanging on in the face of determined Turkish attacks was triumph enough. Charles Bean, the Australian official correspondent, declared that with the landing on Gallipoli a sense of Australian nationhood was born. The idea took root.
Bean’s The Anzac Book defined what came to be called the Anzac legend. It encompassed bravery, ingenuity, endurance and the comradeship that Australians call mateship.
The Anzac legend has become elastic enough to span very different emotions. Fervent nationalists can exult; pilgrims can mourn. All can ponder what made that group of Australians able to endure one of the greatest tests their nation has ever faced.”
At the Anzac march on Friday, a speaker from the air force described Gallipoli for our country as a “Baptism of fire” and that though the fight was lost; it shaped and gave Australians an identity. Interestingly when writing this message my (15 year old.) son entered my office and read what I had before me on the P.C., which was only the whole nine first words I’ve already written, being “Gallipoli has become a symbol of Australia’s national identity”
and without discussion left the room singing in his finest ABBA voice one of their songs lyrics “Waterloo, sometimes I feel like I win when I lose.”
Gallipoli, a countries baptism of fire and that though the battle was lost at the time, has become a foundation that sporting teams and others called to our forces since have drawn on, and a presentation of our culture of “she’ll be right, mateship at any cost and the front bar wisdom of seeing what’s real and important from what’s not.
Our culture is not something that can be bought or sold-the freshness and fair go attitude of our country is a birthright born through those sent to a penal colony from the other side of the world, those who chose by free will to immigrate here, settlers in a harsh land of droughts and floods and those called back to the other side of the world to ensure our freedom remains.
It is not something we become, but somehow just are and something that we should hold dear to our hearts and inner being like Simon Peter writes and urges to his audience of converted listeners that now in faith, to not only remain steadfast in that faith,  but to increase through all kinds of suffering and good works.
“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, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
“Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Life can be a baptism of fire, but baptised into Christ, though darkness may surround, we live in the sure hope of what awaits us and these lyrics penned and sang by Archie Roach and given to me by a friend brought the light of Christ amongst the darkness:
“When all the trees have gone, and all the rivers dry. Don’t despair when all the flowers have died. For I have heard that there’s a garden somewhere. When you hear the children cry, when you see them die and a mother can’t sing a lullaby. (Yet) I can still smell the blessed warm spring rain.
When everything is gone, and you’ve lost all hope and you have come to the end of your rope, well I believe that the flowers will bloom again. We are young, we are old (and what we have) can’t be bought or sold. And we are paying for our crimes, but every day in every way, we get better all the time.”
Using Aussie vernacular, an Australian soldier once said to me that “when the bullets start firing and you’re stuck in a trench, you’re not thinking of mother England, you’re fighting for the bloke next to you on your left, and the bloke next to you on the right”.
The author of the book of Acts Luke gives us that same awareness telling us “I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.
”
At the close of the Anzac day services three words are always said. Lest We Forget – three words renown across most countries to show our remembrance of those who have fought, and those who have died fighting for freedom.
Anzac day is a day of recognition, those three words Lest We Forget speak what this day is truly meant to symbolize, and that is that we will never forget our history.
Let us never forget our inheritance that we have been brought through Jesus Christ. Our inheritance bought at the cost of His life and though now we still live live temporary lives enduring many things. We do so knowing that in the battles, be we on our knees in fear or standing firm in faith, that He is on our left and our right travelling with us and carrying us in need that as He has gone before us and now sits at the right hand of God, for as He had paid for our crimes, so too will He take us home that we too will stand before Him with those who have gone before us: in a place where the flowers have bloomed again, all the rivers flow and again a mother can be heard singing a lullaby and see that in every way and on everyday that we will be with Him, as He is for us today. Amen.

The monkey on our back

“The Monkey on our Back”

Based on John 14:23-29

fine lineIn 2009 a group of researchers in Hungary found that the saying “it’s a fine line between genius and madness” is genetically accurate and identified this as an explanation of why people such as Vincent van Gogh displayed such destructive behavior.

Yet when you hear a moving and emotional song or maybe sometimes a piece of advice or a viewpoint- you know that the author has lived it, both through it and with it.

The genes we are born with verses the environment and experiences we bear as the determining factor of who we become has long been debated, and while one person’s view I read that “genetics provides the clay, but the environment shapes” seems a reasonable and logical conclusion, it was of little practical use for a women I knew who was intelligent, very successful and happily married with great kids, but who up till she could no longer-stated that she fought her madness every day.

Yet for many, the studies of who we are and why, then research into appropriate medicines for both physical and mental ailments has been life altering if not life-saving, and while I personally believe some of our modern day advancements have been far from beneficial, after having walked through old cemeteries and seen the amount of head stones for both mother and baby lost during child birth, I thank God for those that he has given the passion, determination and intelligence to make our world a better place.

God provides and in today’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples, tells us that “he has given us his peace, but not as the world gives us peace”. The peace of the Lord “that releases us from distress and fear”. The peace of the Lord that sets us free.

Oh to know that peace for but a moment.

On the way home after the funeral of the lady I have spoken of, I heard this song- a conversation between a troubled soul and our Savior.

“You ask me where to begin

Am I so lost in my sin

You ask me where did I fall

I’ll say I can’t tell you when

But if my spirit is lost

How will I find what is near

Don’t question I’m not alone

Somehow I’ll find my way home

My sun shall rise in the east

So shall my heart be at peace

And if you’re asking me when

I’ll say it starts at the end

You know your will to be free

Is matched with love secretly

And talk will alter your prayer

Somehow you’ll find you are there.

Your friend is close by your side

Just hold my hand and we’re there

Somehow we’re going somewhere”

For some, peace can only be seen at the end, but oh to only know that peace now, even if but for a moment. But for a moment to be able to accept ourselves unconditionally like our Saviour does. But for a moment to accept ourselves as he accepts us and live in peace knowing of his covenant and the unbreakable agreement that he has brought to us from the Father.

An unconditional covenant taken like that between David and King Saul’s son Jonathon, that should one of them perish, the other would care for the others offspring.

A covenant realised after both Saul and Jonathan had been slain by the Philistines and what little remained of the House of Saul went into hiding with David being made King of Israel. After a few years had passed, David learns that Jonathan had a son, Mephibosheth, a crippled youth surviving in the squalor of an outcast camp. Because of his covenant with Jonathan, David has the young crippled boy bought to him, and not only restores his land but invites him to always dine with him amid the splendour of the king’s table.

Mephibosheth does so, but then shortly vanishes to return to the outcast camp. Many more years pass, and suddenly one day Mephibosheth, in rags, shows up once again at King David’s palace. When David asks him why he left, Methibosheth in essence replies, that “My people told me you were not to be trusted, and I believed them. I thought it was too good to be true. But after watching you from afar I have come to realise, even though I do not deserve it, that your charity, your love and covenant is for real.”

And so it was that the poor, lame boy, now a man returned to the splendour of the royal table.

We too, sometimes to accept what is there, must walk in the wilderness carrying the burdens of both our genetic and earthly formations. The monkey on our back that won’t be dislodged as it whispers to us words of destruction and ruin, and at best with the only remaining strength we have left, hang on with feeble scar tissued hands to endure it and hope to one day know of that peace that the Lord speaks off, to again be that innocent child who knew not of what has come to be.

Sometimes, only after the journey through the wilderness do the words from the book of Romans let us understand “that endurance produces character, and character produces hope”.

The unseen hope that was there before we were born, the unseen hope in the depths of our despairs, yet the small ray of hope searched for and clung to in our times of endurance. Endurance to be suffered like that of Methibosheth, and like Methibosheth amongst it we see the truth of what was there from the start.

American born poet T.S. Eliot wrote:

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time”.

We too, after having travelled through the journey of our lives, the ups and the downs, the joyous and the desolate-after our exploration of this world and ourselves come to know the place from where we started from for the first time.

That He has told us that “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”, and during our path “The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring” until that day when our peace will be complete.

The Lord has told us that he “is our refuge and strength and a very present help in trouble”, and though we suffer experiences and pain that we carry with us through our earthly time that may or may not bring us peace, and though on our journey we may not gain peace as the world knows it, we have the peace that he offers, the peace brought to us from the pain suffered by our Saviour Jesus on the Cross. The pain he bore for us “that if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed”.

His endurance that gave us character, and his character that brought us the sure hope of salvation. The pain he endured for us, that until we meet again on the last day allows us to be free amidst a turbulent world-and free amidst the turbulence of the struggles which we carry.

Oh to know the peace of which William W. Purkey wrote:

“You’ve gotta’ dance like there’s nobody watching,

Love like you’ll never be hurt,

Sing like there’s nobody listening,

And live like it’s heaven on earth.

And speak from the heart to be heard.”

To know that regardless of what we know of ourselves, to know that Christ died for us is to bring the sureness of salvation and eternal life.

To know that regardless of what we have become, that in faith in him alone he has accepted us unconditionally give us freedom and peace today, and while we may not be able to dance like nobodies watching, we can still dance. While we may not be able to love like we’ll never be hurt, we can still love, and while we may not be able to sing like nobody’s listening, we can still sing-because we have heard him speak from his heart and ask that we lay our heavy burdens on him.

So live today and rest in his peace – knowing of the sure freedom, that to you he has bought with his life, and to you he has brought with his love.

 

Why me Lord?

“Lead us Lord. Lead us”

Based on Acts 11:1-18, Revelation 21:1-6 and John 13:31-35

refugeeJesus said “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

Last week, a presenter from the Australian Lutheran World Service talked of their work in those parts of our earthly home in great need. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and all manner of tragedies including the recent East African drought crisis.

Affecting 13 million people across the Horn of Africa, the drought forced quarter a million people to seek food and other assistance in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.

At the camp in Ethiopia, a tent city of 155,000 people to which each day another 1500 would be added to after having travelled weeks and months. At the entrance to this camp, in a country that has felt the suffering and stench of death from its own famines in the past, a country that could “legitimately” turn away those in need for fear of exhausting its own resources there is a sign that greats the daily flood of refugees:

“You are in a different country. We welcome you. Here you have peace and security. This is your home.”

The camp in Kenya is the largest refugee camp in the world housing 470,000 people and “in charge” and while living in a tent like the rest is an local elderly women who deals the United nations, the organisations like Lutheran World Service and the government in managing the resources to try and meet the needs of those before her. The displaced, those who have seen family beaten, tortured and killed before their eyes, those who have seen their villages decimated by warlords and famine. Those who have nothing and when she was asked how she can daily wake to a tragedy that seems to have no answer she said everyday she starts with the same prayer:

“Lead us on Lord. Lead us where we dare not go. Lead us Lord. Lead us each new day”.

Elvis Presley, aware of his own shortfalls was often led by a heavy conscious to ask the Lord, “Why me Lord, why did you give me the gift of this my voice, why me” and daily we ask ourselves or at least remind ourselves the same. Why us Lord. Why have we been given the gift of a free and plentiful country? Yes we have suffered and walked the wrong way, but why is it true that the words “there but the grace of God I go” are so true for us? And why have sinners such as us come to know and accept your forgiveness and grace, and yet others not?

Before his wedding, Bill Gates mother gave his wife to be a word of advice “We have always given to the needy, that’s who we are as people” and when asked what’s the greatest challenge of being rich, Bill answered “the responsibility it brings” and at the end of 2012, Bill, his family and his wife Melinda’s foundation had totalled 36 billion dollars of monies for charity.

Our gracious Lord, both in his earthly providences and his spiritual gifts when we knew him not took us in. When broken by hurt, fear and the pain brought from others and ourselves, the Lord lifted us up and as others walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he brings them to us that they too will see his love and fear no evil as they see his goodness and mercy, and see that he is with them.

We all have been on and are on a journey. We have all felt hurt and felt lost. Felt vulnerable. Felt that no one understands nor knows our pain. Maybe you lived on the street. It’s cold and you’re hungry. You are scared, but you are angry. As people pass you by, you can see disgust in their eyes, their fear of you, there pity. But you are alone. You think how did it come to this? You cannot even clearly remember how, it seems so long ago and yet like only yesterday, when you knew hope. But you still have a little hope and think, tomorrow, tomorrow it will be different. But it isn’t, maybe they are right, maybe I am worthless. If only someone understood.

You are sitting in a cell in the detention centre. You see your children-and you know you are responsible, but you had no choice. You only wanted to give them safety; you had to do it for they would have surely died where you came from.

They are playing soccer in the courtyard surrounded by razor wire and you know, at least for now they are safe. But you see the fear and confusion in their eyes. You just want to hug them and say, it will be O.K., but you can’t. If only someone understood.

Yesterday, the day before, or in the days to come-you have heard the back stabbing and the rumours. You have felt others judgement and betrayal just as you have felt your own self-condemning judgement and despair. You have wronged others and been wronged. You just want to start again and know hope in your life that one more time.

But then a person, a group of people or a nation say to you: “We have seen your misery; we have heard you cry out in your suffering. So come to our land, a land that abounds with nature’s gifts. Because “The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey”.

We will not judge you, for we “Do not judge, or we too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” but we will watch over you like “The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow”, you have been oppressed but now you are safe and we will never turn our back on you again. We give you a shelter from the storm and shade from the heat for “The lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble”. For we too were in need, so now we accept you as our own and give you food, clothing and love “for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who knows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens.”

No longer will you be oppressed, no longer do you need to fear of persecution for you are now free to live as you choose because we have been told that “If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him”

No longer will you live in fear because we do not fear you, but we will love you because we have felt the compassionate hand of love, so “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete”.

So do not be afraid. No longer have any concern for your life or your body and what you will eat or drink or what you will wear. But come and reside in us and you will receive these things as you hear the words we have heard as “Jesus said to his disciples: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more important than food, and the body more than cloths”, “And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well”

Should you fall in despair, affliction, are beaten and wronged, we will no longer pass you by, but will tend to your wounds and take care of you like the “man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his cloths, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to the inn and took care of him”.

Remember your misery no more. For when you need defending we will defend you and when you cannot speak we will speak for you that “you forget your poverty and remember your misery no more. (For the Lord has told us to) speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; and defend the rights of the poor and needy”.

No longer will you need to sleep on a park bench or the riverbank because our doors are open to you, because as the Lord to us, so we to you, that“ no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveller”, whether you are poor, crippled, lame or blind in body or spirit we invite you to our banquet, because like his banquet to us, he has told us “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous”. For we have been blessed with many riches which we now share with you as the Lord’s “desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality”

For no longer are you foreigners or aliens, but fellow citizens. We are all one people and members of the one household of our Lord “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ”. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”

Today we celebrate and rejoice, because like us, you too were dead and like us we you too were lost, and like the words that were said to those that took offence when we were welcomed home as the prodigal sons and daughters, we now hear said to us upon your coming home “My son, the father said, you are always with me, and everything thing I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”

In the verse that follows todays Gospel passage, before his death Jesus told Peter “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward”

Christ loved you so much that he gave his life for you, that you too, with the apostles and all those in Christ that have gone before, our loved ones, our husbands, wives, daughters, sons, brothers and sisters will sit at his feet without tear, death, crying, pain or mourning.

“Love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

“Through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come; Tis grace that has brought us safe thus far, and grace that we lead us home. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. We once were lost, but now are found; Was blind but now we see.”

Lead us on Lord. Lead us where we dare not go. Lead us Lord. Lead us each new day.

 

The Voice

 The Voice

John 10:22-30

 

the good shepherdOver the last few weeks the earth has been rocked by several earthquakes, including one at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and one in China, we’ve  had the volcano doing its best to ground all international flights. As you would expect there have been several claims by people that the end of the world is nigh. There was even a claim by someone that the earthquakes were being caused by the revealing clothes that western women are wearing! One commentator on the internet coined a new term that I quite liked, he called these people ‘Psycho-Ceramics’ in other words, they are crackpots.

These people seem to use selected parts of Mark 13;

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.

When you think about it that way they are right, there are wars and rumors of wars, there are earthquakes happening in various places, there are famines and floods and all sorts of things happening. But whose voice are they listening to? They are taking selected parts of the reading without looking at whole thing.

Here is the actual reading: “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs. They are missing some very important statements in Jesus’ words to them, do not be alarmed, the end is still to come, this is just the beginning. These things have been going on for centuries haven’t they and Jesus says that there is no need for alarm.

Jesus also said, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.”

Whose voice do you listen to, do you hear the noises that false prophets make, or do you listen for the voice of God through scripture and test it with scripture?

It’s pretty easy to get led astray these days isn’t it? We have talk back radio, more radio stations than ever before broadcasting there own propaganda. We have public affairs TV shows that seem to run with their own agendas. Newspapers bombard us with opinion and report on the stories that they think will sell their papers in a society that now relies far more heavily on the internet for its information. Then there is the internet, where you can search instantly for the answer to any question you may have and usually find answers that support you own theory if you look hard enough.

Whose voice do you listen to? The voice of reason, your own voice, the voice of a stranger? Or do you listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd, the one who was willing to lay down his life for his sheep? He won’t let anyone snatch you out of his hand. I read a good analogy of this during the week. Imagine a yo-yo, a toy that has had many rises and falls in popularity over the years. To use one you attach the string to your finger, you can then fling it up or down, in or out and if you have just a little bit of skill you can usually make it return to the palm of your hand. That’s what it is like with Jesus. He lets us have a little space to go and do our own thing, to spin freely at the end of the string, but then he gives a gentle tug and we return to the palm of his hand. Protected and safe from the evil one.

What the Father has given him is far greater than all else. He has given him the power to make us his children, members of his flock, he has given us eternal life through him and he will not let anything or anyone snatch us from his hand.

Yes the time will eventually come when we are called to leave this earthly life, but as we heard in our reading from Revelation this morning, “The one who is seated on the throne will shelter them, they will hunger no more, and thirst no more, the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the water of life and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Even though our current life might be difficult and there might be many things we are dealing with, we live in the knowledge and the assurance of eternal life. The Good Shepherd guides us through this life and protects us as we wait for the coming of our eternal life with him, as we walk through the valley he guides us in all that we do and prepares a place for us to be with him at the end of time as we know it.

I think it is appropriate as Australia and New Zealand today commemorate ANZAC day that we hear these readings. War is a terrible thing brought about largely by human greed and a lust for power. Millions of innocent people around the world have lost their lives in war. Today the people of Australia and New Zealand pause to remember those who have given their lives in battle. We thank their families for their service and for the price that they paid. During dawn services around the two countries and at other events as well the following words are spoken:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

I’ve been hearing those words since I was about eight years old, many of you have heard them for a lot longer. They too remind me of our Revelation reading, they will hunger no more, and thirst no more.

Not one of us knows the day nor the hour when we will leave this earth, we don’t know how it will take place. It could even be as a result of an earthquake or war, what we do know is that the Good Shepherd who has laid down his life, for us his sheep has called your name; he wants you to follow him, so that you will dwell with him and he can protect you in the palm of his hand. Listen for his voice, testing the call of false prophets against his word, so that you may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen

Pr Tim Stringer

Dave’s not home

John 21:1-19 & Acts 9:1-20

“Dave’s not home”

doctorsThose of my era may remember the comedians Cheech and Chong. In one skit they are two doctors and while looking over the waiting room they have a bet on whether one of the seriously ill people waiting will actually make it to his appointment. While they are talking, in the background you can hear the man heaving and stumbling as he gets his place in the queue at number 78 as over the loud speaker you hear them calling number 3.

It’s a satire but I have great respect for doctors, nurses, ambulance and emergency officers, the police and all the others that have to continually, with professionalism and empathy front up to the constant onslaught of circumstances that for the people involved, are “once only” and very emotional and fearful situations.

Once in Adelaide for the country cricket carnival and on our way to an infamous party street we stopped and talked to some ambulance officers having their dinner out the front of the main train station. They were very nice and as we departed one said, and in hindsight knowingly, “we’ll see you later tonight”. And they did as all bar three of us got a free ride to the hospital and I’ll always remember there was no I told you so or irate words of us bringing them into danger-they just did their job and I’ve heard the same about the salvation army people along those streets as they care for the same people night after night.

Often in society and in the Church we like to see, or even expect some positive changes in people when we extend our hand in help.

Well who said so? And for that matter what is positive change. Maybe the change needs to come in us. To have that perseverance and staying power when to us it seems a futile and lost cause. To just do our “job” as Christians and persevere and stay, knowing that God is somehow in that person’s life doing His job.

The same perseverance we suffer under in our own “stuff”. To persevere in our own hardships and disappointments knowing that God’s amongst it. To persevere in the knowledge of our sin, the stuff we detest of ourselves yet continually fall for, but stay clinging to what Christ has told us-that he is amongst it with us-seeing it and knowing it-yet staying firm in his commitment to bring us his grace.

And in these times of enlightenment and self-help, when we have to rely completely on someone else when we have no answer to the situation it can be the gaining of wisdom outside of “self”.

A man was a successful Wall Street analyst until drink drove him into deep depression which led to his mental disintegration. Following an accident which resulted from him being drunk, he decided to deliver himself from the depths into which he had sunk and became a member of an organisation called the “Moral Re-Armament”-an organisation that stresses do-it-yourself redemption. But instead of gaining his freedom through self-help, he sank deeper and deeper into the depths and after a three day drinking binge he ended up in a Manhattan hospital completely shattered. In his moment of complete and utter helplessness he prayed to God for help and said “suddenly, the room lit up in light and he was caught up into a feeling that words cannot describe”. This changed his life and what had been impossible for him to achieve was achieved in him through the power of God. From the depths of his defeat, degradation and despair he was “resurrected” from a living death and made alive. A “resurrection” that would be felt in the lives of millions, as this man Bill Wilson was to go on and be the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

A gift, a miracle-an encounter with God that saved him and countless others.

A gift, a miracle and encounter with God that changed the apostle’s Peter and Pauls lives and the lives of the countless millions others who saw and heard the truth of Christ in the lives of these two men who accepted his offer to leave behind their mistakes and live instead under His grace.

Peter who denied Christ three times and went missing in his time of need and Paul, a leader of those inflicting death and punishment on Christians who when they met the raised Christ came not to just know what he stood for, but what he came for-to set them free of themselves, of their failures, character flaws, and most importantly-of the things that they could not undo themselves-their sin.

These direct encounters, miracles if you like may seem reserved for the few but all who encounter Christ are offered his same life changing power.

A team mate of Shane Warne’s once remarked that no matter how much turbulence and media attention he was getting because of his personal life, when he walked onto the oval he left all his troubles on the ovals picket fence and was free to be the champion he was.

In our lives Christ is the picket fence that surrounds us. In our lives Christ brings the truth that sets us free:

“For I am the Lord, I change not. If you come to me, I will not cast you out. Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heaven burdens and I will give you rest”.

We may not seem to have that moment like the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Peter or Paul, but those same gifts and miracles are hidden in every aspect of our lives. In our joyous moments Christ is there just as he is there guiding us as we walk through the chaos and confusion.

Like Paul, we may have a thorn in our side that we wish wasn’t there, but like Paul we have God’s grace and that is enough because living in that grace, we have the sureness of the resurrection on our last day and the sureness, that now-today we can serve God the Father by leaving our mistakes, burdens and sins from the past with our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The knowledge of our inability and failure to live as we should is the start of wisdom. The knowledge of Christ’s power and love is the emergence of that wisdom. To live in Christ’s forgiveness and his total acceptance of you in every facet of your life is to understand that wisdom.

To give Christ our past and present burdens is to answer his call and whether we answer that call and lay them off to him or not, in his name we are still forgiven and free in this world-that will not change. But his desire is that we join with a man that God said “was after his own heart”, yet a man that fell to adultery and murder.

A man called King David who in his sin truly came to know restoration in the grace of God. That restoration is what Christ craves we know and join with King David in testifying, and giving evidence of in our lives: From Psalm 55: verses16 to 18:

“As for Me, I will call upon God; and the Lord will save me…He shall hear my voice. He has delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me” (Ps. 55:16-18).

The Lord has blessed you and kept you. The Lord has made His face shine on you and been gracious to you. The Lord has looked upon you with favour and the Lord gives you his peace.

 

More than a game

“When it’s more than a game”

John 20:19-31

hidingOn several occasions I’ve heard some of the greatest sporting coaches put things back into perspective and mention “that when all is said and done, it’s only a game”. I agree, except on one occasion.

I was fifteen years old visiting my school friends house on a farm and we were playing backyard cricket with his three older brothers when there was a disputed decision. Somehow negotiations degenerated to the point that we found ourselves hiding in the nearby corrugated chicken shed while they were shooting at us with a .22 calibre rifle. Maybe seeing my apprehension of the situation at hand he comforted me by commenting “don’t worry about it, they know where we are and are just shooting around us to scare us. But when they run out of bullets I am going “*&$%”, (well, words to the effect of severely retaliating). Eventually the shooting stopped and instead of further aggression we just somehow resumed playing. I made a point of never disputing another decision.

My friend, and his brothers for that matter did not display a lot, if any fear in life and when his schooling finished he left to do a bit of travelling overseas and didn’t return. For twenty years he worked for six months and backpacked for the other and in the end in having run out of places to visit, with his friends threw a dart at a world map to see where to go. It came up next to a small village in Ethiopia which just happened to be in the middle of a severe famine. So they hired a chopper, got dropped off and said pick us up in two weeks and as money was no good because there was nothing to buy, they spent those two weeks fishing the nearby river with some homemade fishing lines to survive while in the process loosing half their body weight.

Walking to work at 8.00 in the morning in Coober Pedy back in 1992 I noticed this familiar face amongst some locals drinking beer on the side of the road. It was him and after introductions he mentioned that Australia was the only place he hadn’t really journeyed through-and so here he was. It was great to see him again but I did mention that he “was getting an early start to the day (drinking)” to which he responded “always good to meet the locals and get to know the lay of the land early in the piece”.

That night having tea together he mentioned that having visited his home town they asked him if he wanted to play in the local football teams practice match-to which he declined and said to me “have you seen those country guys, I could have got seriously hurt”. To say I was surprised by his rationale was an understatement and I couldn’t help thinking “what has happened to you over those twenty years”.

The world constantly changes, and so do we. Most often things change without us really paying much attention but sometimes, like when the Berlin wall fell you know right there and then, that things will never be the same again. Defining moments that change the way the world looks and acts and defining moments that change our outlook on life.

You cannot get much more a defining “moment” than those of the apostles we have heard off this morning where the risen Lord presents himself before them while they are in hiding. The same disciples who had deserted him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter who had denied that he ever knew Jesus three times and others who has said they were prepared to give their own life for Jesus-yet fell away in fear. Here before the Lord stand his followers and allies. But his followers and allies who in fear failed to stand up when the time came to stand up. I imagine the saying “you could hear a pin drop” would have been appropriate for such a situation until Jesus “breaks the ice” and says “Peace be with you”. No reprimands, no criticism and no grudge to bear-only his words of reconciliation. His words of peace that heal their guilt heal their mistakes and heal their very being. “Peace be with you”, four words that he did not just say to bring a superficial peace, but words that brought his empowered peace. Christ’s peace that re-built them and changed their lives. The peace they came to finally and truly know that would see them dedicate their lives towards bringing the truth of Christ to the world. The truth of Christ that would cause eight of them to be killed as martyrs, but the truth of Christ that would be heard through the ages. The truth of Christ that we still hear today when in our sin and failings, in our fear and in those moments where we “fail to stand up”- comes to us and we hear the same lifesaving and life changing words of “Peace be with you”.

When Josh was only three or four years old we were having a kick of football and he hurt his hand to the point that he thought it might be broken. After looking at it and announcing that my diagnosis was that it was “only a sprain”, with a little indifference and annoyance he remarked “how would you know?”. After I’d mentioned those I knew of: Collarbone, nose twice, ribs, hands and so forth up to about twelve “Josh replied “O.K. it’s only a sprain.

When Jesus was talking to Thomas he showed him his scars from his crucifixion so that he would believe and know the peace he offered. When we are in despair of life and its hardships. When in despair of ourselves, our failures, the wrongs we do and the guilt they bring, Jesus doesn’t callously say “get over it because it’s only a sprain and I’ve had worse”. Rather it burns to his very core of existence as he sees the love of his life alone, scared and angry. The love of his life that he just wants to accept his outstretched hand and know the peace he wants to give freely.

On the Cross as Jesus was dying for those that despised him, ridiculed him and fell away from him he asked his Father to “Forgive them for they know not what they do”. On the cross Jesus died for the love of his life. You are that love and he pleads that you know it. Jesus Christ died to bring forgiveness and eternal life for those that accept him, the prostitutes, the drunks, the criminal, the rich and the poor. He died for the mighty and the weak.

Jesus died for those he loved that they may know and live under his most assured grace and know his peace amongst the storms of their lives and sins.

Jesus Christ died for the greatest love of his life.

Jesus Christ died for you. Peace be with you.

 

Is it a bird or a plane?

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17: 6-19.

“It’s a bird, it’s a plane….no it’s a duck”

That saying: “If it quacks like a duck, if it walks like a duck and if it looks like a duck-well it’s probably a duck” comes to mind upon hearing today’s scripture readings.

1st John “We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son… And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is his Son. He who has the Son has life…I write things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you know that you have eternal life”.

These words of John, where did he get them-the inspired Word of God-well yes, the bible is the Word of God but what has Jesus told us in Todays Gospel: Jesus is praying/talking to God the Father and says this of his disciples: “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They know with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me”.

God testifies salvation and eternal life in the Son. The Son, Jesus, gives this testimony of this eternal life to the disciples, including John-and then John to us-that in believing in Jesus Christ the messiah-we have eternal life.

I would say the ducks have well and truly lined up. Sometimes the cold hard facts are the facts-believing in Jesus-you know with certainty that you have eternal life.

Yes, sometimes against what our mind tells us, the facts are the facts.

A few years ago I went to the Doctor. He asked the usual questions, Date of birth, age-39 (O.K. it was more than a few years ago). And as he was writing them down, he asked again “what did you say your date of birth was?” Again I answered. He then went on to say well if this is your date of birth, that means you’re only 38. As I protested he got out his calculator and showed me on a piece of paper his workings and indeed I was only 38 at which he said anyway “what can I do for you?”.

To which I replied “Well nothing now I feel brilliant, just book me in for the same time next year” and off I went.

Well Jesus tells us, and God by the way, that he is not giving just us another year, but never ending years-eternal life, and they don’t even charge a $22.50 gap fee. What a bargain. It’s a bit like that movie, “I’ll have whatever she’s having.

Knowing this, indeed we are poor helpless sinners-but we don’t need to be poor helpless miserable sinners. This is where Martin Luther was coming from when he used his famous quote “sin boldly”. Was he saying go out and purposely sin to throw it in the Lord’s face, absolutely not. He was talked about when he was, when we are under spiritual attack. When the forces of darkness see us sinning and suggest that because of our sin, we’ve blown it. Luther in saying “sin boldly” was not to test God, but to answer these allegations-to say yes I did sin-there you go I admit it and no doubt I’ll sin again, but that does not and will not change the rock solid promise I have, the promise that we have received from our Lord and saviour so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Romans chapter 8: For you are children of God… You did not receive a spirit that makes you again a slave to fear…The spirit himself testifies that we are God’s children. Now if we are children of God, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Those who are saved are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus”.

At least with a walking, quacking duck there’s some subjectivity. It could be a Red Crested Diving Duck or just a low flying Mallard. But there is no subjectivity, no second guessing the Words of God that we have heard concerning eternal life.

In Jesus, eternal life is your inheritance. That cleared up, where to from here. Well don’t ask me, I don’t even know how old I am (or should I say young). So let’s ask Jesus? Today’s Gospel.

“I have given them your word..They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world…As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world”.

In the world but not off the world. That seventy million dollar lottery two weeks ago, three winners. Do you think they are at home now worrying that the price of petrol is up four cents a litre? Eternal life in the bank-what’s to worry about?

Kerry Packer was in a casino in the United States and he seen this rather loud guy who everyone was gushing over and asked him, “You must be important, who are you?” to which he boasted “I’m worth fifty million dollars” to which Kerry replied “I’ll toss you for it”.

Eternal life, it’s in the bank and we carry it with us now-during our lives. But do we boast of it, shove it in other people’s faces. No, because as Saint Paul said, “we do not boast of ourselves. We boast only of the Lord”.

In the world but not of the world, how does this look. Are we to hide ourselves away in a monastery? To withdraw from society in prayer and meditation? This would sadly seem a reduced version of the faith that Jesus died to bring to this world. Of course there is need of prayer, meditation and quiet times when we shut the door to the world to be alone with God, absolutely-but we are still to be in the world.

So how does this look? Look in the mirror, that’s how it looks. Sometimes life is the six inches in front of our face. Christianity does not release us from our problems, it offers us a way to solve our problems or even live with them ala’ Paul when he asked God to “take away his thorn in the flesh”, only to be told “My grace is enough”.

Christianity does not offer us a life in which troubles are escaped and evaded; it offers us a life in which we can face our troubles.

However much it may be true that Christians, you and me are not to be of the world, it still remains true that it is within the world that we live out our lives as Christians.

Because of Christ, we don’t live of the world, likewise we live in the world because of the will of Christ. His will that all people may come to know him.

Our world, where we live in the six inches in front of our face. Living in our sin, amongst others sinners. Yet living with forgiven sin-in the freedom of knowing where it all ends, in eternal life. This freedom that lets us have a crack at befriending our neighbour across the road. The freedom that allows us to be ourselves, that allows us to live in our lives as they are under the sure and joyful knowledge-that, that face in the mirror belongs to a forgiven sinner, and that, that face in the mirror belongs to a person who living in the grace of God, and trusting in God, can go about their normal business-living in this world and truly trust and believe that even through us and our seemingly small or error ridiculed attempts of serving our Lord that others may come to see and know his peace-We can live joyously and just have a crack without the need to see any results-Because he has told us “That His Will, will be done”. Amen.

 

A mother’s love

John 15:9-17

“In the part of town where you hit a red light you don’t stop”

What could be more appropriate on Mother’s Day than today’s Gospel. Jesus talking of his love for us and our love for each other.

Yesterday morning at 9.30am, after having this Gospel message churning through me all week, I had the sermon all organised in my head and basically just had to get it on paper.

Then, on her baptismal anniversary Cathy put on a CD of love songs, and the first song I heard was Joshua Kadison singing “Beautiful in my eyes”.

A song that brings back a rush of memories and I knew that the sermon I had mentally prepared will have to wait for another day.

Beautiful in my eyes:

“The world will turn and the seasons will change, and the lessons we will learn will be beautiful and strange. We’ll have our fell of tears. Our share of sight. My only prayer is that you realise, (that) you’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.”

A mother’s love.

Early one morning I was walking down the street in North Adelaide to withdraw my last $20 from the ATM when near I saw a lady badly shaking and another body lying on the footpath and I immediately thought not today, not today I just cannot afford it. But as I got drew near, she didn’t ask me for money, but quite the opposite she was aware of people’s judgements-like mine. So as she leant against the wall and her arm stopped shaking I saw a young lady, well dressed talking to her son dressed in his school uniform, tired and lying on the footpath while they waited for the bus.While I withdrew my money I heard their conversation and it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

This mother with a handicap talking to her tired son lying on the pavement in his school cloths and their love for each other, no judgement of each other- Just love.

A mother’s love.

Five or so years ago, my mum left a note on the wallet of a wayward sinner who had been called to study the Word of God at the Lutheran Seminary.

It’s a little worn now but I know the words well enough: “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling”.

Two weeks later, on the 11th of January 1996, two weeks before the start of my studies I heard the song I have mentioned.

It was the first song I heard after receiving a phone call from my dad.

“Steve, it’s over” and the hysterical screaming of my mother in the back ground haunts me to this day.

Four years later, my mum buried her husband next to her son and today my mum will be sitting on her own in a little cemetery in the Adelaide hills, weeping by the headstones of two people taken tragically before their time.

Jesus has told us: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love… and this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you”

What have you just heard, law or Gospel?

“I command you, to love one another as I have loved you” and let’s not forget, that includes that “we are to love our enemies”.

I hear law, sure maybe on the odd moment of love happens-but as a person: this commandment has shown the darkness of my heart.

Today a wayward sinner stands up the front and is talking to you, fellow sinners about love.

What a joke. To do so it may help if I had a little bit of credibility in the subject

We hear law, the law that we can never fully adhere to, that crushes us- and that’s the way it must be because then we can hear the blessed gospel of our Lord and Saviour.

The subject of love.

We have all the credibility in the world because we do know love.

Not our imperfect love outwards, but the perfect love we receive.

Our credibility is in knowing our shortfalls, but receiving Christ’s love all the same.

Abiding in that love, when things don’t seem so, but clinging to it-knowing that in Christ, we are given mercy-

knowing that before God, because of Christ’s love and action of dying for us-that when we pray in Jesus name to the Father- he sees us clothed in the righteousness of his son-sinless.

Yes, we can truly in full credibility talk of love.

“Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross we cling”.

Even that wonderful outlook is a result of Jesus ‘action. Yes we cling to Jesus,

but only because he clings to us.

Our love is the same as our spiritual condition. Saint and sinner. Yes we are sinners, but in Christ are saints-warts and all.

Can we love each other like Jesus loves?

Absolutely not,

but in Jesus no matter how small a portion of love we can offer-he uses it in HIS love.

Late one night I was travelling home after leading a bible study. As I drove past mecca, being the small suburban Alberton oval-the home of the Port Adelaide Football club all was good in the world as I reflected how well the study went and how some 100 plus people have had their ashes spread on this oval that has seen so much joy.

As I turned the corner onto a large thorough-fare I was later to be reminded of Bruce Springsteen where he sings “in the part of town where when you hit a red light you don’t stop”.

Well I did stop and the next minute the door opened and someone jumped into my car screaming “drive, drive”. Well what do you do? You drive.

When the dust had settled and as I looked across at this young lady, she apologised and told me that while working the streets she had become fearful with a customer and had to flee and now wished to go home and asked if I could give her a lift.

What can you do, so I turned around and drove her home.

On the way she talked openly about herself, how her mum was home looking after her darling son, and of her dreams for him and herself.

But while she was doing this, all I could think about was that my car was running on empty and there was a high probability that I would be stuck in this neck of the woods in the middle of the night with no money and no way to contact anyone.

Still thinking this, we arrived at her house she looked me in the eyes and said “God Bless You”.

A pastoral student gives a lady a lift home-not out of love, but because there was no option. To a lady that is using the only asset she has available to give her child a chance of his dreams-and only one of the two see’s Christ in this. Yes Jesus uses our imperfect love.

The bible tells us that people have been visited by angels without being aware.

I was visited by an angel, not one without sin and not one with wings. But an angel none the less, because those three words at that time: “God Bless You” touched me as if they were said by Christ himself.

Mothers, fathers you and me-Sinners yet saints in Christ. Imperfect in love, yet perfect in Christ.

Mothers-angels no, but in Christ-yes angels-but without the wings.

The song I mentioned: “Beautiful in my eyes”, while it brings back a flood of memories, I also hear it differently.

I am going to play it and I ask you think of it as I always have, of our love towards each other-but also, when you listen to the words-think of it as Jesus saying these words to your children and loved ones, to all the families that will visit cemeteries today, to people judged by society but not by Jesus and to young mothers plying their dangerous trade on dark streets, and to you.

The song: Beautiful in my eyes by Joshua Kadison is played.

Amen. 

“Eat your greens, there good for you”

John 15:1-8

“Eat your greens, they’re good for you”

For the past week and a half I have come to know the local vet quite well. Our little puppy Koby contracted the “parvo” virus. A virus that is fatal without serious attention. Koby was in the animal hospital on a drip for four days and since coming home, we still have had to ring them, basically daily for advice, or take him down for injections. That know that saying when others are ill “I know how you feel” is easily reeled off the tongue and often not totally true, but ironically Koby and  me do   have a common distinction, that of both having being treated by a vet. Kobe, as mentioned and myself back in 1992. It was the morning of the football Grand final, and two nights before I had pulled my hamstring and was hobbling. The coach had given me right up to near the start to see if I good play. The two of us referred to the club trainer and the prognosis was not good. But our club trainer was no ordinary trainer; he also trained horses and offered me one of his horse tablets. I played and we won and lived to tell the tail and all was good in the world: except he had told me there would be no side effects, which I assume didn’t include the tongue lashing I received later from my fiancée and mother.

In many things we reminisce of the good old days, but medical treatments are not one of them.  Medically, compared to centuries past, we truly do live in a blessed time. It is amazing of what can be done to us to keep our bodies physically functioning.

Yet, emotionally it can be a different matter. When physically ill we go and receive medication from the doctor (or in some cases the vet). Emotionally, sometimes we can tend to try and self-medicate to get rid of the pain. Anything, for a few moments of peace away from the pain and will do. George Best was a brilliant soccer player, yet searching for peace as seen in his words describing his journey of life, when he said: “Most of my money I spent on grog, women and gambling, and the rest I just wasted”.

We can self-medicate but in the end, the medication itself can become the problem. There is but one sure source of spiritual medication and unlike the others, it’s free and we don’t take it, we receive it. Every facet of our spiritual life with God is dependent on Jesus.

John chapter 15, verse 5: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in them bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing”.

Now I don’t know about you but as soon as I read the words “good works” and bearing fruit” I get a little edgy.  Indeed I can relate to the Prophet Isaiah’s words that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”.

Sure some days we might spring out of bed, feeling full of the Holy Spirit, hearing the Word, full of love and good deeds: feeling like a Christian “should feel.” (and)These truly are blessed moments, just like the other just as blessed moments-Lord blessed moments that is, when we may feel at the other end of the scale.

Those vegetable moments when we know that reading and hearing God’s Word is good for us, but it doesn’t seem to taste as good or be so mouth-watering. When instead of being cheerful in Christ we are bored or worrying about the mortgage payments.  When we cannot live up to that “real”

Christian life ethic.  Where it’s a bit vague to us. Where we feel a bit like Prince Charles, who when asked on his engagement to Lady Dianna if he was ‘in love’ answered “Whatever ‘in love’ means”. In these moments we might not feel as we’re much of a blessing to others or ourselves. But the Lord is still blessing us.

But what is a “real” Christian anyway. Good works-producing fruit: certainly yes, these are good things that we should always endeavour to act on, just like non-Christians do.

Let’s go back to those previous verses: Firstly Isaiah, Now I reckon there’s a fair chance he was a “real” man of God:

“all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”. Two key words here, “righteous acts”. Not good deeds but righteous acts and there is a big difference. Good deeds are done in honour of our Lord towards his people, but they are not saving acts. Righteousness is to be right by God. Good deeds do not bring us righteousness, only Christ makes us right before God.

John 15: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in them bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing”.

There we go again, “good fruit”. But let’s look a little closer. Jesus is the vine, the source of nourishment, the one that feeds us, the branches, not the other way round, not even a little each way-no all the feeding comes outwards.

“Whoever abides in me and I in them bears much fruit”. While this sounds a little like the old ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg’ scenario, it is far from it. “Abide in me and I in them”, seriously, I can’t even force myself to really accept rugby league never mind abiding in the Lord.

No, the key, the Gospel is Jesus: Jesus abiding in us. Jesus does all the work, in Jesus we are brought to faith and only in Jesus is there fruit.

This is so freeing, a release from thoughts of inadequacies spiritually and indeed of our lives. In Jesus we cannot go wrong. One day full of zest, the next tired, one person a novice pastor the other a brain surgeon in a city hospital-Jesus uses people, times and places to serve others and that they might even become  Christians. ‘Real’ Christians that although they  in themselves fail in deeds and thoughts, in Christ are they nourished, forgiven, saved and given life.

Real Christians like you.

In the movie Breaker Morant, Breaker an Australian soldier in the Boer war, has returning from his controversial court martialling and is asked by his colleagues how he went and sternly replied “Shot at dawn”.

While our bodies are attached by old age and illness, our spirit is strengthened, renewed and protected by the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

Martin Luther during the reformation was often attacked by the powers of darkness that would ask “Who do you think you are and you’re just a sinner: to which he would reply-yes, but I am a forgiven sinner who is a baptised child of God.

In our day to day lives, in our families, our home and work. When we rise in the morning or rest at night, whether we feel very saintly or not is not the issue.  Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once concluded it’s not what we feel, but what we think. I would go a little further, it’s not what we feel or think it’s what we know.  In the strength of Breaker Morant when your backs against the wall and in sureness off Martin Luther you can proclaim it’s not what others think of me, it’s not even what I think of myself-it’s what the Lord has done for me, what he has told me:

These Words of the Lord be with you:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not onto your own understanding” Prov. 3:5

“For when you call upon God, the Lord will save you. He has heard your voice and delivered your soul in peace from the battle that was against you” Ps. 55:16-18

“For the Lord your God holds your right hand, saying fear not, I am helping you” Isa. 41:13

“Fear not, for the Lord your God goes with you and he will not fail you nor forsake you” Deut. 31:6, 8

“Your faith has come from hearing the Word of God” Rom. 10:17

“(and) being justified by faith, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ” Rom. 5:1

“(and) I give you eternal life, and you shall never perish and no one will pluck you out of my hand” Jn. 10:28

Yes, the Lord is with you. Amen.