Category: After Pentecost

Think of a person you know, an everyday type of person; a person to whom you look as a role model.

This person is someone that you may have had dealings with,
but then again maybe they’re not.

They might be someone you have read about, or seen on television. They might be one of your parents, or grandparents.

This person might be a friend or someone with whom you’d like to be friends.

Perhaps they are someone with confidence, or wealth, a healthy lifestyle, successful in whatever they do, or they seem to be at peace with themselves.

Whoever this person might be, you see them as one who has it all together.
They are lords of their lives, it seems. You see them as masters of their domain.

We don’t use the language of lords much these days, when speaking of everyday people.

We no longer use the term to honour those whom we respect, and we don’t use it as a name for the rulers of our country, or for landholders, as they still do in other parts of the world.

Nor do we have a great cause to ponder the function of masters and slaves.

We might hear the word master when talking about someone skilled at the top of their trade, or when master is used as a definition of a principal, such as a master bedroom or a master builder.

When we uphold these role models as masters of their domains, or as lords of their lives;

we receive a terrible blow when these people begin to fade and struggle with life,

or when their domain comes crashing down around their ears.

When death comes to those we love and look up to, it usually hits hard.

Or when the person we have upheld as such a good example, is not who they first appeared,

the let down can leave us feeling deflated.

A harder shock for us all is when we find life harder and harder to master.

Our bodies and our wills seem to enslave us.

We find that we can’t do what we know we should be doing. Or perhaps we shudder when we find out someone else looks up to us.

Disgusted, perhaps you think, “If only they knew what I’m really like!”

We humans are very good at making ourselves slaves,

belittling ourselves, and burdening ourselves or others by our misconceived ideas as to who and what is worthy of lordship.

When we make these types of judgement, the very elements of life we uphold as being necessary, become the very things killing us and driving us to despair.

The best example of this is at funerals.

While hearing the deceased person eulogised, thoughts can arise that either crush you or confuse you.

As you listen you might wish you were as good as the person who has passed on, but go away crushed and downhearted.

Or you might wonder if you are at the right funeral, thinking to yourself, “Hang on, this person wasn’t as good as what they are being made out to be!”

And so we arrive at the reality of life.

This reality is revealed for every person at their death. Unfortunately though, it’s too late for the revelation to do anything, once we die.

However, for Christians, we who believe in, hold onto, and remain in our baptism, the reality is daily revealed why we die but also who is really worthy of being eulogised in our death, and in our being raised to eternal life.

Therefore, we find that baptism and funerals are inseparably joined.

And in the inseparability is the need for us to remain with Jesus Christ given at baptism, who is faithfully walking with us every day of our lives, and willing us to trust him for salvation even in our last breath of earthly life.

Death, and our need for baptismal living, reveals that no person can be lord of their lives, and that any mastery of one’s domain is temporary at best.

In fact we hear from Saint Paul that in our original condition we can only master one thing — that is sin leading to death.

We hear in Romans 5:19-21… For just as through the disobedience of the one man (that is Adam) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (Jesus Christ) the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul then goes on to speak of our struggle against sin and the reality in which we live as believing baptised children of God.
He says… 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:1-11)

No longer do we have to eulogise or uphold the things that end in death;

rather we can give all glory to Jesus Christ whose life we have received in baptism.

In other words we uphold and remain in the only thing that ends in life, our baptism into Jesus’ death.

In baptism we no longer have a master standing over us, enslaving us.

But we now have a Saviour who faithfully stands and has mastered sin and death in us.

In the gospel we hear,

“A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. (Matthew 10:24-25a)

We have already seen that Jesus is not our master in the religious sense.

We are not bound again as slaves doing works for righteousness.

But Jesus is our role model, the only worthy role model.

We look to Jesus’ baptism as our example as we hear John the Baptist declare,

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

Jesus was baptised with water and the Holy Spirit came,

we too are baptised with water and the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit came.

Jesus endured a baptism of fire ending in death at the cross, and we too will face many fiery trials in this life ending in death.

This is the cross we all must bear. But, like our teacher, we will be raised to life, because this teacher now lives in us.

His death has mastered our sin and our death. Sin and death have no power. They now are dying slaves of Christ; serving him in us so we might have life with him forever. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, you are Lord of lords, and you are master of all dominions, powers, and authorities,

and yet you live in us and daily win the battle of sin and death in us.

Thank you precious Lord Jesus, not only do we abide in you, but you faithfully abide in us. Amen.

“Minimum Chips”

Isaiah 65:17-25, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19

In the book of Genesis chapter 9, after the waters of the great flood had subsided we are told that “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. Yet only two chapters later we read that humankind has does just the opposite and have migrated back together as a united and single speaking community with the resolve to build a city with a tower “whose top may reach into the heavens so that they make a name for themselves lest they be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

God justifiably is less than impressed and with concern of the limitless self-interested and sinful pride of such a situation intervenes and confuses their languages making it impossible for effective communication within their society and in line with “birds of a feather flock together”, so too of those of the same tongue who formed groups and disbursed over the face of all the earth leaving behind a half built tower known to us Babel, coming from the Hebrew verb Balal which means “to confuse”.

Given that historians have dated these events at around the year 2,000 Before Christ it is some time later that we hear of the confusion of the apostles minds as while they are admiring the great temple of God with its dazzling white stones and shimmering gold finishes Jesus instructs them that “the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another as all will be thrown down” to which did come about in the year 70 A.D. by way of the Roman army offensive against Jerusalem.

Fast forward another 2,000 odd years and we see nothing has changed as we the inhabitants of God’s world still look to find security and happiness in earthly structures, be they be big bank accounts and possessions, big promotions, big superannuation or the like as it would seem that even in the gathering of the faithful in a so called “Mega Church” that big is better, and if we could get a few more each Sunday what a blessing that would be and the more the better to hear the Word of God and receive his gifts. Yet Jesus also talks of how he works with the small:

-That where 2 or 3 are gathered he is present and of the benefits of having a faith the size of a mustard seed, and that a pastor and theologian once said to me that instead of one great congregation of a thousand members, he would prefer four congregations of two hundred and fifty seems to make some sense.

Don’t get me wrong, whether in numbers large or small any coming together of those to worship and receive from The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit are being blessed and should we have the capacity in our earthly lives to fund a big holiday or my favorite, a big screen T.V. go for it. Yet the irony is that should the holiday be planned only around seeing as many countries and sights as possible-you see a lot but don’t get to understand much.

Similar with my fondness of big screen T.V.s in that its size has only managed me to see the same movie but at a further distance away underscores the problem of big, like where we may have a throng of “friends” that we communicate with through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, yet should the house catch fire the one who may come and help is neighbor that we live next to but were too busy to introduce ourselves.

There is a saying that ultimate power becomes ultimate corruption and while the gifts of our modern age are just that, gifts, it does give rise to scenarios like in my lounge sitting where I now sit afar from the contents of what is being displayed due the size of the object, the T.V. screen itself. So to with the smoke and mirrors of our age that we can become at a distance to the real substance of our lives-Jesus Christ, and then when our towers of Babel built on the changing sands of time come crashing down, so too would we if not for our neighbor who though we looked past, was waiting patiently to tame the flames with His waters of Baptism and love that we not only survive amongst the rubble, but rebuilt our temple not on sand, but on His unbreakable gifts to us. Our neigbour Jesus who we held at a distance  but comes to us and takes us in as His family, that in Him  we not perish, but flourish in the certainty of His life giving forgiveness and promise of eternal life.

To be sustained in His promise and forgiveness and endure in times of trouble and destruction, as those told of in today’s gospel.

To endure knowing in His promise and forgiveness as we await our last day and unite with those who have gone before as told to us in the “New heaven and new earth” as described today’s Old Testament reading where “the wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like an ox and there will be no longer any hurt or destruction”.

And to live now in His promise and forgiveness heeding His Word of the epistle reading that having been saved in faith by Christ and free from the ways of the world, we are free to serve him by being in the world but not of the world.

In his song Me and Bobby McGee Kris Kristofferson penned the famous lyric of “Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose”, and having been saved Christ we have nothing that can be lost as we come to know John the Baptist words for ourselves and join with him in rejoicing that “therefore now this joy of ours in now complete, He must become greater and we must become less” for no longer do we need to ask like those in captivity in Babylon “how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land” but trust in where He has placed us in our lives and trust that through the Lord that “the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts will be acceptable in His sight” as we make our way towards our grand and eternal reunion. And though we often fail and fall and doubt our abilities, we know that Jesus is with us and works in the small as well as the great for He has told us “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”.

The sure grace of our Lord that gives us the freedom from self-interest to become less, that He become more and the sure grace of our Lord that gives us freedom amongst the turbulence of our lives because in the sure promise of Christ that your sins are forgiven in faith in Him alone, and that you may have known His love right from the start or been born with a restless yearning heart is of no consequence because now His Words are your words-That Christ Died for you, and you are saved, and being saved you are free to serve him in the big and the seemingly small.

Christ died for you may seem like four small words, but in realising that it is me and you individually and collectively those words transform like four words said to me by a five year old child who while sitting next to me on a plane flight from Adelaide to Brisbane and noting that I was not a comfortable flyer, after teasing me for about ten minutes about wings and all sorts of parts of the plane either falling off or being damaged remarked “but you’re not meant to be scared, because you’re the dad”.

“Because you’re the dad”. Four small words struck me with the awakening of the silliness of my worry that not only changed my fear of flying but somehow, even though we still struck regular turbulence brought me the freedom to actually enjoy the ride.

“Christ died for you” and you are saved. Saved from not needing to aspire to riches, yet saved from them controlling you if they do come your way. Saved from needing fame or to be top of the rung, yet if achieved is given as a gift to serve both the Lord and those he places before you, be it in earthly needs, spiritual needs or both.

“Christ died for you” that you are saved and though you may have been born with a restless yearning heart, no longer do you need to search, because He has found you with His love he held from the start-and His love that He won’t let part that through you as you are-whether in the big or the small, in the pro-active or re-active, in the known or unknown, that in trusting in Him alone that the Words of our lips and actions from our hearts will be heard and give light to a better way of living to those still in the captivity of earthly entrapments, sin and self. The Words of our lips and actions from our heart that gives light not to human towers, but to His cross. The Words of our lips and actions from our heart that gives light not to ourselves, but to Him, our Saviour Jesus Christ. .

That was where the message ended. Then as chance would have it, not long after and waiting at the fish and chip shop to pick up our order. A lady and her young son came in and counted up their coins to purchase minimum chips. If they’d come up short I think I would have had enough left to fix it up, but in hindsight with the view to not insult their sense of self-worth I should have offered them the piece of fish we had ordered by suggesting that I got the order wrong and so didn’t need it and if they wanted it, better them than me throwing it away. The point is that it reminded me of why I actually became a pastor. Being that having seen and sometimes trying to help the poor and homeless, it always upset me knowing that they would still be hungry the next day then realised for them what I had come to know. That hope amongst the adversity, that survival amongst the pain and the strength to carry on when the load is heavy is through having to come to know the love of Jesus, and we as Christians having been given the means and the faith, that no much how little or how great is a gift to us that the strength of His gospel and love is made perfect in their weaknesses, as it is with ours. Amen.

“Brothers and sisters in arms-Christs”

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5,13-17

 

As the church year draws to a close, the readings begin to reflect themes of eschatology, that is, the ‘last things’ and in our reading today from 2nd Thessalonians it would appear that some of the congregation at Thessalonica had come to understand from reading a fake letter, as if from Paul, that the ‘day of the Lord’ had already begun and not just initiated. Paul seeing how unsettling this teaching could be, and fearing a lasting disturbance, he reminds them that before the second coming of Christ occurs the antichrist-here termed the man of lawlessness- must appear in the church. This figure, empowered by Satan, would lead a widespread rebellion against the truth of Christ before the end comes. He is doomed, though, for destruction by Christ when he comes. To add further to the importance of not being swept away, Paul stresses their need to stand firm in line with the truth they had been taught.

A parallel text is that spoken of by Jesus himself in Matthew Chapter 24: “(Then) if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ Or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

In short whether regionally or globally, teachings that do not adhere to the Holy scriptures as recorded are to be rejected and should someone arise in outback New South Wales or in the Holy seats of Rome or Jerusalem and announce them to be God or a Saviour, unless Jesus has returned on the clouds of the sky seen by all, they are to be rejected as charlatans, no matter how persuasive their words, actions, signs and wonders may be.

Sobering stuff that Jesus has told us beforehand that should we be still walking this earth at that time, that we be not deceived in this final display of trickery that Martin Luther makes note: “Paul is not speaking about heathen kings, but about someone ruling in the Church. (As) God’s temple is not the description for a pile of stones, but the whole community of Christians described as one in which the Anti-Christ is to reign proclaiming himself to be God.

These are biblical lessons that we don’t talk of much these days which is fine because our lives lived under the grace of God are not to be concerned with past errors or anxieties of what awaits tomorrow, but lived in the here and now. Yet while we joyously live in the here and now in the sure knowledge of being saved in faith in Christ alone, today and on our last day, the Lord gives us these lessons so that we are prepared not only for the last great deception, but also for current time attacks on the Word of God and his people because to be forewarned is to be forearmed in opposition to being unaware and deceived.

The truth is that the end times started when Jesus won our battle on the cross. And knowing that to be the case, the powers of darkness have been “going down swinging” by attacking what they know to be true, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The “unworldly” gospel of Jesus Christ which tells us that in him, and in faith in him alone are we saved. Not through good works are we saved and not through our failings and sin are we condemned. But faith in Jesus and what he has done for us are we lifted up.

As Christians blessed with faith we know this and sometimes wonder how others could not. Truth is Christ’s promise is counter-cultural and I remember a noted theologian once saying:

“That when you are in small struggling parish, do not be despondent but joyous that the few there believe because in the world we live in, it’s a miracle that any one believes”.

That miracle is faith. Faith not from our own desire or planning, but brought to us from outside of ourselves by the Holy Spirit while we didn’t know it, yet reverberating through every facet of our soul, body and life to be the most precious thing that we cling. Faith that when we approach God the Father, nothing in our hands do we bring, but in faith in the cross do we cling. And standing there beneath the cross we come to see the truth of God the Father. Not a vindictive God, but our God of mercy known through the comforting words of truth from Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Peace with God, not through ourselves but in knowing the truth of Christ, and accepting his righteousness for ourselves. His righteousness from Isaiah 32:17: “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever”.

The Word of God tells us the truth, and the Holy Spirit brings us the faith to believe it and our lives are changed forever to know the peace and assurance that lets us hold firm and fear not when the foundations of society are being shaken around us. The peace and assurance to stand firm in patient endurance and as a strong witness to the unchanging truth of God amongst the changing and challenging times as described in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

Peace and assurance given to us in Christ to not fall to what may seem, but to stand in and for what truth is. His truth that we are told in Romans 10:9-17 will not disappoint:

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame or disappointed.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

The Word of God is powerful and the fictional movie makes interesting point of such where a post-apocalyptic dictator has his Hench men try and track down the last remaining bible on earth so that he use its words of power for himself and create his own kingdom.

It is fiction but the power of God’s Word is not and a respected pastor once told me that it is the truth about the truth recorded in Isaiah 55:11 that allows him to continue in his vocation:

“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

The Word of God through its hearing brings the miracle of faith to us through the Holy Spirit. That is a powerful Word. The Word that we ourselves must stand in and know its peace and assurance, and the Word that when attacked we must stand up for that others be not led astray.

The Word that gives us the power of humility should others be not. The Word that gives us the power to forgive those who forgive us not and the Word that gives us the strength and assurance to carry on in our vocations dwelling in peace and happiness knowing that in faith in Christ you are forgiven and saved today, and will be on your last day:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 838-39)

Amen.

 

“What you see is what you get”

Luke 19:1-10

On Monday I was reading an article written by a fashion journalist whose job ultimately led to regularly interviewing models and she said this of her experiences:

“I know it sounds terribly glamorous but if I’d gnawed off a finger every time a model told me her looks were due to water, sleep and whatever product she’s paid to spruik, I’d be digit-less. Honestly, in 20 years of asking – and I’ve had big names babble in to my voice recorder – not one has spoken the truth, namely: “I’m lucky to look like this. It’s all down to genes. Don’t let either of us pretend that it isn’t.”

But then she goes onto to talk of model Kate Moss who she says is a breath of fresh air because she just goes about her business, being herself in her chosen vocation allowed to her primarily through her gene pool. A “super model” with the eyes of the fashion world on her who’s made mistakes that she doesn’t deny or revel in. She quirky and flawed and in the street you’d barely know it was her which makes her more real. But mostly, it’s because she’s just like everyone else-just like us, and gives the whole of herself-just as she is.

It reminds me of a sports commentator who said that on nearly every occasion that he’s met a gifted athlete, he almost always has left stunned that besides that persons unassailable gift in their sporting field, they are just like us.

Today we are invited to look into the mirror of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Zacchaeus who we will see is pretty much just like us.

A lot has been written about Zacchaeus pondering and developing a background for him politically, socially, emotionally, religiously and psychologically. Truth is we don’t know much about him and why he was up the tree other than what we are told, that “he was a rich tax collector and being short in stature he climbed a sycamore tree so he could “see who Jesus was”.

All this makes logical non-ground breaking stuff when we know from scripture and history that while on His current journey to Jerusalem. Jesus just previously had an interesting encounter with a rich man in Galilee who was saddened when Jesus told him to give his possessions to the poor and follow him, to which Jesus replied that it was easier to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, and those around Jesus hearing this were amazed at His statement and asked “who then can be saved?” And we remember Jesus answering “what is impossible with men is possible with God.”

Then Jesus, in healing a blind man as he approaches Zacchaeus’ home city of Jericho it is understandable that he has attracted quite a crowd. Such a crowd that Zacchaeus needed to gain some higher ground to get a view and with Jericho being one of the wealthiest cities in Palestine with tightly packed-yet spacious villas and many parks, it easier to gain a height advantage by climbing a tree in the park than trying to commandeer  someone’s roof top.

Hardly ground breaking material and if the Annual Dubbo Autobahn V8 supercar race wound its way down Macquarie Street and up Ronald Street, a few of us would find ourselves trying to get the best vantage point available. Be it as a guest in the sponsors corporate box or hanging from one of the branches out the front of the manse. And afterwards like going to the movies or an AFL game, enjoy the entertainment, go home and life carries on as normal.

Well not for the tree hugging Zacchaeus whose life’s climate is about to change dramatically when the star of the show Jesus turns to him and tells him to hurry and come down as he wants to stay with him, and thankfully Zacchaeus response is not like that of the gentleman who by chance happened to be sitting next to Tony Abbott on a plane flight from Canberra to Sydney and after sharing an enjoyable flight together he asked if when they exit the plane, that when Tony sees that the man’s friends have welcomed him, it would give them a kick if Tony approached him like an old friend. Agreeing, Tony approached the man and with his friends present said: “George it’s great to see you again, what have you been up too” only to hear: “Oh not now Tony, give me a break I’m with my friends”.

Zacchaeus, being scorned by those religious in the crowd as a sinner does not fall to such a temptation of responding to Jesus with any big noting or look at me gestures. He just simply says yes and in doing so His life will never be the same again and we see he is no different to us.

Because Zacchaeus story is our story, we did not find Jesus, he found us. We did not invite Jesus in, He invites himself in and our lives are changed to know hope, peace and life.

We could stop right there but there still are a few loose ends that need answering.

Zacchaeus is a man of some means. He’s rich and we know that “just” prior Jesus told another rich man that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So how did Zacchaeus manage it? Well he didn’t, God did, because “what is impossible for men is possible for God.”

Maybe Zacchaeus at least played a part in it after all he did decide to give away half of his money and to pay back four times what he may have cheated anyone, surely that counted for something towards Jesus announcing that salvation had come to him and his house. No. Jesus words of salvation within this scenario as it plays out were directed to some of the bystanders who could not understand why he would stay in the house of Zacchaeus, a sinner. Jesus’ response is to tell them that Zacchaeus also belongs to God’s family, and on this day blessing and trust have come to him and only after that does Zacchaeus come through with his commitment to share his money and change his life.

Zacchaeus is just like us. Jesus found us. He invited himself in and forgave us and we see and know for ourselves, that in Jesus Christ “what was impossible for us, was possible for God”, and our lives as we knew them have changed.

Not changed that we look different. Not changed that we need to change the pattern of our lives in where we work, play or live. But changed because we now see ourselves and our lives through the forgiven eyes of He who came to us. Ourselves, quirky and flawed yet cherished by the Lord who does demand we be anything else. Our quirks and flaws that bring the light of his love to this world through those we meet in our normal lives, by being normal. By being ourselves and while that may not wash with some people, it will with those who we accept into our lives as they are, and realise not the chains of religion, but the freedom of Christ as they see, they are just like us-that in God’s love for us, that while we were still sinners he sent his Son to die for us, and for them.

Be we a supermodel, a tax collector up a tree, pastor, banker, mechanic, auto detailer, husband, wife, son, daughter, rich or poor-because Jesus Christ came to us and invited himself in, we need not be something we are not, but revel in what we are-and that is a saved Son and daughter of the one who gave everything and demanded nothing and in the fleeting time left to us, pray we too demand nothing of others, but give the whole of ourselves to them, just as we are to those just as they are that the light of Christ and his message of acceptance and forgiveness shines bright  to those in the crowd who know him not. Amen.

“(Re) Born Free”

Luke 18:1-8a

Here today we come as one. The old and the young. All different in earthly wealth, occupations and interests. Yet we meet today in faith as one body knowing we are free in Christ and knowing that through that faith in Jesus Christ our Saviour, that the chains of our sin have been taken from us and given the promise of being the Sons and daughters of God the Father both here in this world and in the world to come, I ask what could there ever be to want for or worry of.

But then I remember a speech from Nelson Mandela after apartheid was turned over in South Africa where he said (I cannot remember exactly but the point meaning) “we are now free people, but before us we still have the great battle to realise what freedom is and what it is to live in it”.

Free in Christ that are just words on paper if we don’t know what they stand for. But words that become alive and part of us when we realise the gravity of what has gone before that we may hear them for ourselves.

I really did not want to go over old ground, but I feel I must. At six years old I announced to my Mother that “there is something God wants me to do but I just don’t know what”. Thirty seven years later and having been just accepted to study towards ordination in the church I was confronted by a man whose world had turned on him. A man whose immense courage and strength had been replaced with fear and weakness and for the next three months I essentially became his pastor as he came to understand our Lord who does not look to punish and take life from those who turn from him, but our Lord who looks to reward and give life to those who trust him and in his last months he truly came to that trust like that of a little child and those words that I said to my mum all those years ago, once forgotten came back to me and I said to Cathy that, that was the moment that God had prepared for me my whole life. But then, just into my studies came the inner fight “you’ve done what it was, so leave”. I sought advice from those close to me in the church and from those close to me outside the church and that all offered the same advice-to stay, it was of no comfort to me and after weeks of internal warfare, beaten and bruised one night I laid at the Lords feet in prayer and over and over for hours begged for an answer. I cannot actually remember falling to sleep but when I woke I had the clearest words implanted that I have ever known, the non-judging and even comforting words of “it didn’t have to end this way”, followed by “know my word” and that I still don’t know and understand them all, I do understand those that bring freedom in Christ.

The Words of God the Father, the creator who always was and always is who gave His only Son to be shackled, beaten, tortured and killed only to weep for those inflicting the pain and ask His Father “to forgive them for they know not what they do”.

Shackled, beaten, tortured and un-merciless killed on the cross that those shackled, beaten and tortured in their sin and lives can kneel at the foot of His cross and be given mercy in Him that they may be restored and rise and walk in His freedom.

You and me here today and all those who believe and trust in our Lord and Saviour, though we fail-His success is ours, and though we our sin lives in us-we live in his righteousness, washed clean in His blood and accepted spotless before a God of love. Our God, God the Father. You and me, we are free in Christ to walk without fear or anxiousness of how we stand before our Father in heaven. Yet a freedom that the powers of darkness who with any means possible look to confuse and deny. The powers of darkness who tell Christians the truth of our sin to take that freedom, but the powers of darkness who lie to Christians of the consequences and have us not know that “there is no condemnation for those in Jesus Christ” (Romans 8.1).

Like to those Mandela spoke, that we know “we are now free people”, we still have that daily battle before us to realise what freedom is and what it is to live in it”.

Free in Christ to say I don’t know how baptism works but I know it does because I know the cost of our Lords life behind the promise “That those who believe and are baptised will be saved”.

Free in Christ to know that though in ourselves we have no right to approach Our Lord, but knowing in Him who gave His Body and Blood for us we come to stand or kneel at the alter in Holy Communion knowing that in His sacrifice we restored to walk forgiven and given life and salvation.

And free in Christ to evoke His name before God the Father and take it to him in prayer and know the words of 1 John 5:14-15 for ourselves, that “this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him”, and so “rejoice always; pray without ceasing. And in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Free in Christ to live in His freeing truth that some of us heard so well said in bible study on Thursday.

“A little boy brought a fistful of dandelions to his florist father who made beautiful arrangements from exquisitely lovely flowers. The boy came into the florist shop with a fistful of wilted dandelions that he had picked in a field. Without a word, he looked up to his father and shyly handed the dandelions to him. The father gladly accepted the fistful of dandelions. He told his son that they were beautiful. He took a vase, filled it with water, put the flowers into the vase, and placed it onto the middle of the counter so that everybody who came into the store that day could see the beautiful gift that his little boy had brought him”.

We are free in Christ to know His word for ourselves and free to honor Him by bringing our lives of wilted dandelions before him and calling upon Him in our day of trouble, that He may rescue us. Amen.

 

Luke 17:11-19

The maths seems simple. Ten lepers cry for mercy and are cured but only one returns to praise God and thank Jesus. The maths seems simple as so it can be when we see and make an opinion of people based on what they do and have done before us in our societies. It can seem very straightforward and uncomplicated, but it almost never is.

In my previous job in a bank we were undertaking a training session about the importance of “checks and balances” within the workplace to reduce the risk of embezzlement and the instructor said that on the law of averages if you have ten people, no matter what the situation one will always be honest, one will always be dishonest and for the other eight it will depend on their situations. Eight out of the ten that want to do the right thing but given the wrong situation, be it to feed an addiction, make the payments on a house they can’t afford or to just put food on the table are susceptible to fall into doing something they otherwise would not. It seems a damning statistic until I see Abraham and Isaac on a mountain top or God the Father giving His Son Jesus Christ to be nailed to a cross on a lonely hill in Jerusalem and realise that given the wrong situation or one of such gravity I am one of those eight, or in today’s Gospel-one of the nine.

Ten lepers. Nine Jewish and considered the people of God and one a Samaritan despised by the people of God. Two types from either side of the tracks normally separated by racial and religious differences but here united as outcasts by their societies because off their carrying a highly contagious and incurable disease that most certainly would result in premature death.

The diseased, dis-enfranchised and rejected hidden from society and living in those parts where only the odd passer-by may unwillingly stumble upon and hear their warning cries of “unclean” before taking a wide birth around them. All except Jesus who as we’ve heard heals all ten and in the commentaries I’ve read many summarise that nine of the ten in not returning took their physical healing for granted and as such did not accept His spiritual healing as evidenced in the returning and grateful Samaritan. They may be right and certainly Jesus commends the returning Samaritan but before we get on board with such judgements let’s have a closer look at these ten people and especially the nine.

Firstly, not just these lepers but with all lepers is it not a mark of high character that living under the bondage of a disease that they did not earn or deserve that they actually warned away those not inflicted from themselves. Then with these lepers, nine Jewish and one Samaritan “enemy” could they not have simply turned away from the one and had a tidy Jewish leper colony of their own. Then when Jesus approaches, as one they cry out to Him for mercy only to hear a most puzzling response “to go and show yourselves to the priests” and remarkably without hesitation or reasoned follow up questions, they do just that and in discovering on the way that they have been cured, only one returns to thank Jesus while the nine continue on their way. Which I might add is what Jesus actually asked of them never mind the thought of being able to hug loved ones for the first time in years and most importantly, to be able to once again worship in the temple to which due to their unclean illness were not able. An outcome that cannot be understated as even to this day, that the temple has been destroyed in war and cannot be rebuilt and worshipped in due to the Muslim dome on the rock being built in its place is considered by the Jewish a tragedy much greater than that of the World War II holocaust. So how could we place any judgement what so ever on these nine who for all we know gave a great witness to what Jesus did for them. Yet Jesus without condemning them, does make a favourable statement towards the Samaritan who did return and I wonder if he knew more of what was taking place than seems to be placed before us in this short piece of scripture. I’m sure he did but what He was placed before us clearly shows that at the heart of our lives should be Christ, but it still leaves me wondering of the nine what if this? And what if that?

We are left wondering and maybe that’s a good thing because that’s God’s business. Yet paradoxically, in knowing that it’s God’s business we aren’t left wondering because we know that if in fact they still haven’t fully grasped the situation we know he won’t give up on them. We know it because we’ve been there in the wilderness separated from the kingdom of God by the stain of our own illness called sin. Sin, that like leprosy for those in this scripture had no human remedy and no matter how much we could try and scrub ourselves clean with good works and pious living still could not be cleansed.

To ten lepers 2,000 years ago Christ came and gave them the simplest of instructions, to “go and show your selves to the priest”. No question and answers just seven simple words that followed in faith cured their disease. To you, me and all those in the world today Christ comes with a message akin to that of the ten. No questions, no catches. Just believe in me and you shall be saved.

So I ask you, do you believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross for your sins. If you have answered yes-then like to a Samaritan leper He now says to you “Your faith has made you well, so rise and go your way” and tell of me to the other nine that like you, they may be cleansed of sin and stand alongside yourselves before God, clean and pure through my blood.

Through the blood of Jesus Christ who gave himself on the cross you have been given eternal life and life in this world. So fall at His feet giving Him thanks and praising God with a loud voice-that those still lost, will follow His voice and receive His peace. Amen.

 

Sermon Hebrews 11:29-12:2

How will you run your race?

 

The atmosphere is electric. Excitement and anticipation is all around. People leaning forward in their seats, just to get a better look. Children standing on seats unable to contain themselves. Hearts beginning to beat faster. There are others too whose hearts are beating faster, excitement building, unable to stop the anticipation, as they look ahead and focus on one point. The dream to be the best and to do their best has now begun. The athlete in this Olympic race stands at the starting line with now only one goal. To reach the end.

It started four years earlier for this athlete. She had missed out on a chance to run in the last Olympic Games. The next day she returned to her training plan. The early morning starts, the repeated efforts, the weights sessions. How many times had she wanted to give up? How many times did this training regime feel like a treadmill?

You know the routine, you know how it is. Wake up, eat a carefully selected breakfast, train for two hours, home for more carefully selected nutrition, weighed and analysed, short rest, some study only to return to the track again that afternoon for another training session. Recovery that evening in an ice-bath, stretching, more study, food and then bed. Only to be repeated again and again. Now all of this hard work, the set backs, the muscle strain, the early mornings has been worth it as she stands ready for the starter’s gun.

In the Olympics and in many races in life the athlete tries to win, to be the best, but what would you do if after all of that training it came undone? On youtube you can see a clip of the Olympic Games in Mexico City where in 1968 a man from Tanzania ran in the marathon. Soon after starting the race he cramped up due to the altitude and fell heavily. His wounds were hurriedly dressed and although he was in pain with a dislocated shoulder as well as his knee injury he was determined to finish the race. After the sun had set, he entered the stadium to cheers from the remaining small crowd and finished the race over an hour after the rest of the athletes. When asked why he hadn’t withdrawn from the race, he simply replied ‘My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race, they sent me 5000 miles to finish the race.’ This man’s name was John Stephen Akhwari.

Have you ever been in a race? Perhaps not an Olympic race but a race where there was a start and a finish. How did you feel? Did you prepare your body and mind for the big event? Did you analyse your food and it’s nutritional value to assist you? Did you think about tactics or a plan for how to run your race? Perhaps you decided to go out hard and then fall over the line or hold back a bit and save some energy? What about perseverance? Would you continue even if like the Tanzanian runner you fell?

There are many ways to run a race. Our text today encourages us to, ‘run the race with perseverance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith.’ Yet unlike an Olympic race, this is the Christian race in life. The race that God has set before us.

In this race the vital thing is to keep our eyes on Jesus. The focus is not to run faster as in the Christian race speed is not important, rather perseverance and keeping our eyes on Jesus. Prayer, reading the bible and coming to worship are ways to help just that – to keep your eyes on Jesus.

There is only one tactic needed to run the race before you-and that is faith. Faith in Jesus Christ, the one who has run his race and now sits God’s right hand. Faith that is not earned, rather it is a gift. Faith that is so vital to us, faith that is already given in our baptism and it’s something that we grow into as we live our life in Jesus. Faith that is gift from God, strengthened by the Holy Spirit through hearing God’s word and receiving the lord’s supper.

We need to live our lives as best we can and be careful not to fall into sin, or return to sin when we have been made free from it. This sin that clings so closely to us and holds us back. When we are not sure if sin is holding us back, think about the commandments. Is there sin holding me back or clinging to me as I run my race?

When an athlete runs, he or she only wears the clothing they need for the race. They only carry what they need and no more that may weigh them down. So look at the clothes you put on. Not only the garments that cover our bodies but those other items we put on. Perhaps putting on more material things to make us feel more successful in life and to even give us more status in the race. Our texts encourages us to lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely and let us run. What is holding you back or weighing you down? Lighten your load by giving this all to God and run, not so much to win as you already share the victory in Jesus. Rather run as one who is free to run in faith with Jesus.

As John Stephen Akhwari said his country didn’t lay the race out for him to start but to finish the race. God lays this race out for you to not only in Jesus start it, but to finish it in Jesus. You have the victory in the one who has won the victory on the cross. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has won the victory over sin, death and the devil. This victory is offered to all who believe, who have faith in the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, as we have heard in the one who has run His race and finished.
Yet while you run your race, there are a great cloud of witnesses who will cheer you on. All of the faithful who have gone before, who have run their race with perseverance, now encouraging you to persevere and run with determination pointing you to Jesus. Imagine running along a road with the path lined with those who have completed the race in faith and now stand there waving and cheering. Imagine the great cloud of witnesses such as David, Samson and all the prophets. Alongside are all the faithful from this congregation who have lived and died in Jesus, who have kept their eyes on Christ and who now cheer us on in our race.

As you look at the people will you see some from your community who are pointing you to Jesus along your journey when you become tired or despondent? Will you point others to Jesus as a witness along their race? Will you pray for those who are burdened? How will the world see you and how will you treat your fellow runners? Just as some had given up on John Stephen Akhwari finishing, you too may have friends, family, team mates or colleagues who will also give up, unlike the faithful, the great cloud of witnesses that remain there until you have finished. They have died and now wait for you and all Christians until we all finally received our inheritance in heaven.

Let’s not forget that you are not running alone? Christ ran the race that God set before him – humbling himself as he ran the race, a path that lead to humiliation, suffering, scourging, and finally to the cross. Christ persevered with this even though he asked his Father if his race could be changed but not my will, not my race Father but yours. No one could run the race for Jesus and no one can run your race that God has called you to run.

It might be time to ask you how your race is going? How is your nutrition going for your race? What if you run out of puff and can’t complete the journey? Be nourished and strengthened to keep running by the power of the Holy Spirit as you gather around God’s word and participating in the foretaste of heaven in Holy Communion. In faith then run, run as a free person by receiving forgiveness of sin and living under the grace bestowed upon you by God. Unlike the Olympic Games where the athlete runs alone, relying on his/her strength and preparation to finish, placing all their faith in themselves, the Christian race has something special about it. Let me re-emphasise the runner never runs alone and the runner places faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus runs with you, he walks with you and binds up your wounds when you stumble and dusts you off, yet also Jesus runs ahead clearing the way for you too. He removes stumbling blocks and carries you when you no longer can move. He is the pioneer and perfecter of your faith. He begins your faith and perfects it along the way. He is the beginning and the end of the race, so live in him and finish your race in him to finally receive, as you have now but fully then your eternal salvation.

Amen

Mark Gierus

 

Luke: 16:19-31

This Word of our Lord is to be understood with the message and setting of the Gospel we heard last week concerning the parable of the unjust Steward where Jesus was primarily talking to His disciples about a man who eventually saw the need to use his limited time not to gain worldly acceptance, but to prepare for the future, death and eternity by using wisely the temporal things they possess.

The Pharisees were listening to this and when Jesus said in verse 13 that “No servant can serve two masters; for he will either hate the one or love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” Jesus hit a raw nerve with the Pharisees who were listening because in verse 14 we are told that when “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, they scoffed at him”. Unperturbed Jesus went on and hit them with an inconvenient truth, that “You are those who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts”

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus addressing them and explaining to them his message, and he does this by holding up a mirror of themselves in the rich man as they are told that as the rich man enjoyed his wealth that they too, the Pharisees were lovers of money. But a significant connection is to as what they are actually doing wrong, -which both the rich man and the Pharisees don’t understand, and before we ridicule them, we need to take a step back-because the Pharisees did not break and enter houses or rage and pillage, just like we are not told of any such like activity of the rich man. For both of these, seen in the context of their world-what are they actually doing wrong?

So Jesus gives them a stark picture and shows the rich man and Lazarus as polar opposites in regards to their worldly situation, as far apart as east to west.The rich man is not struggling in the middle class, the scriptures description of his purple cloths of fine linen were the height of expensive fashion and the description of the gates that Lazarus lay at indicate his house was more like a palace, or at the least a mansion which stresses that this guy is loaded, just as we see Lazarus as homeless, destitute and with no social security back then, if he received some scraps from the rich man’s table he would consider himself fortunate and point of the dogs licking his sores is significant as this does not show sentiment towards Lazarus as dogs were considered unclean, so confirming that he was both in physical misery and an outcast. Lazarus is at the bottom of the heap.

But then the great leveler, death, and we see the roles reversed. Lazarus has been received in heaven and the rich man in hell and in his torment simply asks Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his tongue from a single drop of water from Lazarus finger.

 But there is no drop of water for him, just as there had been no food for Lazarus before. The measure by which the rich man lived was now being measured to him, and the irony abounds, while in his earthly life, the rich man feasted and lived the high life and I note that the scriptures don’t say he actually gave the scraps to Lazarus, they only say Lazarus wanted them-in his earthly life it is like he doesn’t even notice Lazarus at his gate. Yet here he knows his name, suggesting he had seen Lazarus in his pain, actually knew him but had ignored him, looked the other way, or mainly only looked after number one-himself.

 Abraham’s response is not harsh, his address as son is tender, but gives a reasoned refusal to his request and points out that in his earthly life he could have spent time with the things of God and been enlightened in the Word of God, but he chose the “good things”-fine linen, daily merriment and feasting. He had chosen what he wanted and now he must abide by his decision, and now there’s a great chasm between him and Lazarus, as far from east to west-and it cannot be crossed.
The Rich man knows his situation and implies if he knew of all the information he needed, he would have acted differently, and now asks that Lazarus be sent back from the dead to warn his brothers. This guy is one serious wheeler and dealer, no wonder he was such a good accumulator of wealth in his time of earth.

 Again we see the contrast between Lazarus and the rich man, because while the rich man is still asking for, negotiating, wheeling and dealing Lazarus is silent like he has been throughout the parable. He neither complained about his time on earth, nor does he gloat to the rich man after death, and nor does he express any resentment of the rich man’s endeavors to have him sent on errands-Throughout, he accepts what God sends him.

 But Abraham denies his request and says you had all the information you required because in his response in referring to Moses and the prophets means he had the scriptures, he had the poor at his gate-but denied both. This all seems straight forward, so why was this so confronting to the Pharisees? To answer that we look at the charge against the rich man? Was he charged because he was rich, no? Was he told to sell all his belongings and become poor himself, no?

So what was it? It was his total lack of compassion, he put himself first and foremost, and after that had no place for others in need. He had the Word of God, it told him of how he should live, how to use God’s gifts in justice and support of others yet he chose not to.

 And in honesty that can be difficult, because like the rich man, I know what I should do-but it is difficult. Look at our society, people work extremely hard, come home exhausted, flop on the lounge, put on the T.V. only be blasted with advertisements imploring that they need this and this: then all of a sudden-we seem to need it, it goes from I would like to have to a I must have. But the Word of the Lord, says no, take a step back so you can see things clearly. And this reminds me of the reporter talking to one of the early Astronauts, who asked what was it like? And he responded, “I looked toward earth, a peaceful blue world shining in the darkness, it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, but then I could see my mind, wars, starvation, famine, arguments over insignificant “garbage”, and I asked, what are we doing down there? And I think to myself, what if I was showing an intergalactic visitor around earth who

remarks what a wonderful place, it’s so beautiful-look at the treasures you have. Your food, your friends, your technology-What a great place. But then he notices amongst my beautiful world, some homeless up the street, people downtrodden, no respect being given to the aged, injustice. Then on T.V. he sees a documentary on countries where scores of people are dying of starvation and where people endeavoring to escape such places, are jailed because, seemingly to him, the one’s with plenty, like myself seem to think they are a threat to my way of life. Right now I think I would be trying to change the subject.

 Even more sobering is what if that intergalactic visitor who I was talking to was God the Father? Our God who works in mysterious ways. With one of his most mysterious being his game plan of allowing humans to care for his people. And we do, Christians and non-Christian’s alike. Walt Disney’s only reason for building Disneyland was because when was young he could only look through the gates at the other children enjoying themselves- in theme parks: so as a young child, his dye was set in that he would build a park where all children could afford to visit. Bill gates gives enormous amounts of money to charities. And some may say, yes it must be hard because after giving he’s down to his last few billion. But the point is he doesn’t have to give, and significantly, he hasn’t only been charitable since acquiring his extreme wealth. Because, when he was about to marry, his mother only gave his wife to be one word of advice “our family thing is we give to the needy, way before we became so fortunate, that’s what we do, Bill will not change about that”.

And down to our level, we show compassion to those in need. Being rich is not the problem, and yes we are the rich man-but we do show compassion. But then, I think back to St. Paul’s words-I do what I do not want to do, and don’t do what I want to do. And this is the problem, with our world’s rampant consumerism, our sin; we give, have compassion, but sometimes fall asleep at the wheel. Ironically we know God is working through us and what an honour that is, but we also know our efforts are sometimes tainted, sometimes we’d rather not, and sometimes may look the other way. We have shown compassion as directed by the Word, yet no matter what we do, how much we give-we know we come up short. Our whole life seems like a battle. Now we see we are not only the rich person, we are Lazarus-we need and desire for compassion. Even when we seem to be doing the right thing, it can still seem like its three quarter time, we’re ten goals behind and kicking into the wind and we need a miracle. So what can we do?

 General Norman Swartzkof, the commanding general in Desert Storm one when the allied forces regained Kuwait was asked what do you do when in a battle situation and you are confused and are unsure of the direction to take. He responded and said, when in a situation as you have suggested, I return to rule 4 of the US forces handbook, which states make a decision, back it all the way and do not second guess yourself. Some where do we go when we need a miracle, so we don’t have to second guess ourselves about where we stand in relation to our life to what God desired of us. We turn to Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Who does not reject our request for a drop of water to sooth our lips in our torment, but gushes forward soothing water in our baptism. Gives us himself in Holy Communion and in His Word So that we no longer need to doubt, but to go forward to meet God the Father who no longer sees our ways and shortfalls, but sees us washed clean by the lamb his Son, and saved in faith in Christ alone your sins are taken from you as far apart as from east to west and welcomed home as His good and trustworthy servant. Amen.

 

“Losing to gain”

Luke 16:1-13

In studying this text it was very clear that this is a tough piece of scripture to understand and some theologians differ in their viewpoints to some of its many parts.

In preaching and teaching, like in our Christian lives the topic is always the good news of Jesus and that is how it always must be. But like we don’t look from afar to those in need, nor did Christ to us as he came to us in the muck to bring us the truth.

Our muck that cost His life that we may for ourselves understand Him when he tells us “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free”

This is a difficult text and I pray that “the words of my lips and the Meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you Lord”.

Everyone in this life has and will experience and live with pain. That’s just how it is and we all deal with it differently, or at least we think we do.

In the last year of studies at the Seminary/Australian Lutheran College the potential pastoral graduates take together a three month “physc.” type class that is not designed to understand others but to bring out our own stuff and help with understanding ourselves. It is a little like the “Better Blokes” concept where in a safe and non-judgemental environment the participants sometimes for the first time lay it all on the table.

For some, to re-live the un-liveable is too much and a horrific and harrowing experience. And that I would prepare for sleep knowing that my regular nightmares and thrashing of arms and legs awaited me in my sub-conscious state, it did not concern me and the lecturer made comment to the unusual, almost callous strength I had of carrying on without any wounds from the pain of life’s hardships.

Yet when I found out this week that our good friends and a colleague of mine is coping with the harrowing prospect of losing their 15 week old baby still in the womb, I realised I was wrong and for the first time, I think I understood Jesus’ words He has told us today because while Jesus sets this parable about mammon (money) it could be any of the multitude of “retail therapies” that we gravitate towards to hide our innermost fears of not being as successful or strong in our earthly dream as it was meant to be and try to deceive others and indeed ourselves like a photo shopped portrait on Facebook, and “stop me in my tracks” on a first reading of this passage of scripture Jesus seems to be impressed with the wisdom it takes to pull off such a charade. Jesus knows cunning when he sees it, yet the cleverness he acknowledges here is the type displayed in a guy I once worked with who had remarkable ways of avoiding work, yet ironically he spent more effort getting out of work than simply doing the work put before him in the first place.

Like to that man, Jesus warns us of spending a lot of effort focussing on hiding our shortcomings, our shame, our fears and our sin from others and ourselves to “fit in” and be accepted because eventually and ultimately our eyes will be drawn away of our relationship with God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We all like to be accepted by those around us but should our Facebook portrait be different to the one we see in the mirror each day we are building our self-worth on a house of cards that will sooner or later come tumbling down and that is the central point of this text found in verse 9 of the steward only wanting hospitality now, up and against Jesus pointing to His eternal welcome saying:

“And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal wealth”.

An earthly rise before our fall to where we have to face those things hidden in the nether regions of our sub conscious minds and souls and throw the guilt, the shame and the pain at our Lord’s feet and understand the words “Lord have mercy” truly for the first time and line up alongside a slave trader and know for ourselves what he found in the depths that “we were once lost, but now are found. Was blind, but now see that it was grace that taught our hearts to fear and grace that relieved them”.

Jesus said “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” His truth and freedom that came in the darkness of His death and in the light of His resurrection. His truth and freedom that shines into the darkness of our souls that we too are raised up in our earthly lives and understand the words of Isaiah not from ourselves, but for ourselves from our Lord and Saviour who has accepted you as you are, forgiven your sins, and wherever you may go continues to travel with to lead you home. And “Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men and women stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” and in each of our hearts heed His words “That my grace is sufficient for thee, for most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me”. That together as one we can profess, that “The Lord is our strength and our song, and he has become our salvation; this is our God, and we will praise him our father’s God, and we will exalt him.

The other day while driving, I noticed a boy walking not to school, but away from school and later found out that he misses a lot of school because after he’s dropped off, he wanders the streets till classes finish and can then return home”.

As our offerings to the Lord are accepted, I would like to play two songs in the same order as John Schumann has placed them on his “Behind the lines album”. The first of a young nurse named “Rachel” broken by the reality of war and life, followed by his singing of “Wings of an eagle” because I was wrong, the pain can hurt and I beg and pray to Christ that he “will mount that school boy and others like him up with wings like eagles. That they too will run and not get tired and that they will walk and not become weary” and that though through many dangers, toils and snares they still travel, that the grace that has kept them safe so far will become known to them, that they too may follow it home.

Amen, let it be so.

 

Peace and grace to you. Amen.

Text: Luke 15:4-6

Jesus said, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it. When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbours together and say to them, “I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!”

As you may or not know, Cathy and Josh took me to Sydney over the last 3 days.

A few things stick out, the beauty of the harbour, how the architecture is so mixed up-bran new next to old, how friendly all bar 2 or three people were and how the car drivers see a gap a few feet wide when changing lanes and go for it-those drivers would be great NRL/Aussies rules players.

It was a wonderful 74 hours from departure to return home with memories that will never leave me. All of them, and not the least when on my why back to the motel in middle Sydney, a young man of about 25 years old, well dressed in a suite bought a muffin from the deli or a

Billy Baxter’s type of place knelt down and gave it to a homeless man on a bench with his bottle of cheap wine and after, as he walked away, looked back with an obvious heartfelt compassion.

Who knows the homeless mans story, and who knows the story of the well dressed professional. Maybe underneath they are the same-and maybe this is, or was their story.

As the sun slowly peeked over the horizon, the sheep one by one opened their eyes to greet the new day. Their shepherd had herded them into the sheep pen last night and they felt safe and secure because they knew that the shepherd was watching over them and protecting them.

Suddenly there was a panicky bleating that started with one voice and then the whole flock joined in. The shepherd was not sleeping in the gateway to the pen as he did every night. Where was he and why would he leave us?

They thought “He’s abandoned us. The shepherd has abandoned us!” The flock was in blind panic and they all joined in the cry condemning him as an irresponsible and reckless shepherd. They would all die. A bear or a wolf would soon see that the shepherd was not there and what would follow was too horrible to think about.

The frenzy carried on until after sunup, when one of them saw the shepherd coming over a distant hill. The sheep rejoiced. They jumped and frolicked and bleated with joy but their celebration didn’t last long. There, on the shepherd’s shoulders – was a sheep! One of their own who was always getting into trouble, always the last to do as told, losing the way and sending everyone into a panic. Just different and didn’t really fit in with the other sheep. Truth was No-one had even missed one of their own that morning.

The sheep were dumbstruck. What was the big idea? The shepherd had left all the good, cooperative, and well-meaning sheep to go rescue an uncooperative and silly one.

The sheep held a meeting and appointed the ram to take the flock’s complaint to the shepherd. They had it all written out and their complaint read like this:

Whereas, some days ago, we, the sheep were left alone to fend for ourselves, and

whereas, we were given no indication that the shepherd intended to return and

whereas, the uncertainty over the shepherd’s return caused serious distress amongst us, and

whereas all this distress was caused over a sheep that nobody really likes very much in the first place,

therefore be it resolved:

that we, the sheep, do strongly protest our abandonment on the night in question,

that we demanding a full explanation of the reasons for said abandonment, and

that we demand an apology for such thoughtless and irresponsible action on the part of the shepherd.

We demand better care and consideration.

Signed … The Flock

When the shepherd received the message, he called a meeting of all the sheep, and responded to each of the items in turn.

“Yes, it’s true I left the flock a few nights ago, and you were left to fend for yourselves for a while, but one of your own was in danger and goodness knows where she might have ended up. Nobody objected those other times I went out to look for one of your lost lambs.”

“Yeah but it’s different – that was a lamb,” answered one of the sheep,

“As to the part about not knowing whether I’d come back,

Haven’t I always come back and never abandoned you before? Haven’t I always protected you from wolves and taken you to fresh pastures and streams of clear water? I have never abandoned you before, why would I start now?”

“And as to this part about it being unfair, what was unfair about it? Wouldn’t I have done the same for any of you?”

“Well,” said the ram, “going out and saving all the rest of us, that’s one thing. But, you put all the rest of us in jeopardy for her.” He pointed to the once lost sheep who, true to form, was already starting to nibble her way some distance from the rest of the flock and would most likely need the shepherd to get her back again.

“That’s what really bothers us”, said the ram, “Why didn’t you just let her take her chances? She didn’t deserve to get saved. She doesn’t deserve so many chances. When will you go off again to look for that ditsy sheep and leave us alone?”

And for once, though he probably didn’t know it, the ram had told the truth. The lost sheep didn’t deserve to get saved but neither did any of the others deserve the care and protection the shepherd gave them.

This story would have had a movie type happy ending if it concluded with “the lost sheep never wandered off again, the flock never complained again and they all lived happily ever after”. But In real life at some time the shepherd had to carry every one of the sheep on his shoulders even when they were uncooperative, unwilling and complaining.

The ram and the rest of the sheep were right when they said that the lost and wandering sheep didn’t deserve to be loved by the shepherd the way she was. Jesus had the same problem because people were saying that the people he mixed with and shared dinner with didn’t deserve to be sitting at the same table as this distinguished teacher. They complained, “This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them!”

They didn’t understand the kind of love that Jesus has. It’s a love that looks past the ugliness of disease and sin.

He reaches out to social outcasts, and touches the oh so shabby and contaminated lepers.

He didn’t shy away from the demon possessed.

He had no problem with the Samaritans even though they were despised by everyone else,

and when he spoke about the Good Samaritan, and talked with the Samaritan woman at the well and the Samaritan leper, the love of God was shown in even brighter colours. Jesus had no problem with the tax collectors or with those who openly showed their hatred toward him.

Even the Pharisees were not beyond the reach of his love. We call it “grace”. Jesus loves sinners and even dies for them even though his love is completely undeserved.

We know it makes more sense logically for the shepherd to forget about the wilful disobedient sheep and look after only those who were willing to trust him and really appreciate everything he does for them. That’s how we operate mostly.

If someone does something nice for us we respond with a similar nicety and when someone hurts us we respond with equal and even greater hurt.

Rarely would we respond to unkindness with extra generous kindness or reply to rude words with gentle and tender words. It just goes against the grain to respond in this way.

And this is the point that Jesus is making to those who criticised him for mixing with social outcasts, open sinners, the helpless, the marginalised, the dispossessed and the oppressed. He doesn’t treat them with the scorn and disgust expected from a holy man. He does the opposite. He welcomes them and even eats dinner with them – a sign of acceptance as people whom God loves and wants them to be a part of the Kingdom of God as much as anyone else. Jesus is making a statement through his eating with these people that they are valuable and treasured by God as much as, and perhaps even more so, than those who think they are righteous and well-connected when it comes to sitting at table with Jesus.

In Jesus’ parable it made more sense to look after the ninety-nine sheep who had stayed near the shepherd Jesus and not been tempted by greener grass elsewhere, rather than go tramping all over the wilderness looking for one silly sheep who will repeatedly wander away from its caring shepherd because it thinks it can take care of itself in a hostile world.

To the shepherd every sheep is a treasure; every sheep is valuable; no sheep will be lost if he can help it even if that sheep is obstinate and rebellious. That’s the kind of love that Jesus has for us.

It’s the kind of love that led God’s Son to leave the safety of heaven and became one of us, he suffered and died for us, he risked everything for us, because of his love for the lost. He is passionate about the lost and did everything possible to make sure that the lost don’t stay that way and are safe by his side. He wants none of his sheep to face God’s judgement for rejecting the love that is shown to them in such a generous and unrelenting way.

Jesus concludes his parable with the shepherd saying, “I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!” Each of Jesus’ stories about seeking the lost ends with a party.

In the kingdom of God, when the lost are found there is great rejoicing. When one sinner repents and responds to the love and care of the shepherd there is great rejoicing in heaven. You can imagine the angels happy and celebrating every time someone who is lost is found and welcomed home by our heavenly Father. Each time Jesus talks about the lost being found you can sense something of the passion he has for making sure that no-one stays lost. His passion for the lost even extended to the cross where he gave his life for those who had lost the way and nailed the Son of God to a wooden beam.

A question that needs to be asked in view of this parable is this – how passionate are we about seeking out the lost and returning them to the safety and grace of their shepherd? It’s easy to deflect that kind of question to others or to the congregation as a whole and in that way let ourselves off the hook. It’s easy to hear this Word of God and say, “When will the congregation take God’s passion for the lost seriously” or “When will this person or that committee or council take seriously the seeking and saving of the lost?”

Rather than looking around at others first of all we need to ask ourselves that question, “Do I have the passion of the shepherd to leave all else behind and seek out the lost?” “What have I done to seek out and carry on our shoulders those who are lost – lost not only in the sense of missing from the side of the shepherd but also those lost in trouble, or sickness, or sin, or whatever else causes them to be separated from the One who truly values and loves them? Have I had reason to join the angels in heaven and rejoice over one person who is lost but has now been found?

God’s grace is to be shared. It comforts, soothes, forgives, reassures, values each of us as individuals and it also drives us to ensure that everyone gets to know and appreciate how much God loves them and wants every single person who is in some way lost to return to their heavenly Father.

God’s grace seeks us out and through the blood of his Son restores us to his flock again and it challenges us to be like Jesus to seek and to save the lost. Amen. Adaptation of message from Pastor Vince Gerhardy.