“Famous for being famous”

Matthew 5: 1-12

In today’s landscape of reality T.V. there are some very wealthy and well-known people and families that seem to be famous for being famous and are viewed by many as living the dream. And maybe they are or are not living but that’s their business and not for us to guess. Yet when reading of their “followers”, many see these peoples fame as something to aspire to that will bring happiness and make them something in the world.

Fame, irrespective even if only being famous for being famous equates to a blessed life and happiness.

An equation that I wonder what the likes of those of unending fame would comment.

Vincent Van Gogh, Ludwig Von Beethoven, Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and some of the funniest and finest comedians through the years. Famous names not just etched in a few years or a decade, but famous names in the journals of history that our children’s children will still be reading about. Unimaginable fame, yet fame that did not quell for them what Winston Churchill called “The black dog”.

“The black dog”, a metaphor for depression: an-ever companion lurking in the shadows just out of sight, growling, vaguely menacing, always on the alert, sinister and unpredictable and capable of overwhelming you at any moment.

Famous yes, happy-maybe not so.

Martin Luther was noted to suffer melancholy, the word for depression of that time and “His name sake so to speak”, the great civil rights activist Martin Luther King Junior, so named because his father, A Baptist priest after travelling Germany changed his name by deed poll from Michael to Martin is said by most of his auto biographers as an “intensely guilt-ridden” and “depressed man.”

When asked if his fame, money and possessions had brought him happiness,  the very rich and powerful Rene Rivkin several years before his suicide answered, “no, just a better level of misery”.

Many of these people where blessed with things the world applauds, money, fame, courage, power and great minds. Yet it seems the equation of those things equalling a blessed and happy life as the world sees it may not have eventuated to the extent that some would imagine.

Is it a sin to be blessed with a talent that exceeds others and brings the fruits of worldly life-absolutely not?  Just as it is most certainly not a sin to want to be happy. In fact I would think it more the opposite that if a person purposely set out to be unhappy I’d reckon Jesus might be a little miffed.

The problem is not happiness, but what we equate happiness to be and if it’s only based on our circumstances and environment, or on fun and laughter, doing our own thing while being free from suffering, sorrow and hardship then happiness will most certainly be a never ending quest and this is Jesus point as He makes His famous sermon on the mount called “The beatitudes”. His sermon to help those, help us to not find fleeting happiness, but real true happiness that brings peace and as normal, Jesus ways of truth are, seem to come from “back to front land”.

Blessed are the poor in spirit are those
that are aware of how much their sinfulness is out of control; those desiring a greater faith and struggling cope with upsets in life.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Those living with loss those upset by the injustices in our world and grieve for the starving, the homeless, refugees and those suffering wars and those who know of and are distressed over their own stupidity and sinfulness.

Blessed are the humble

Those helping others at cost to themselves. Gentle with others and refusing to do anything for their own personal gain at the expense of others; People who don’t push themselves forward because they are satisfied helping others.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Those with a deep sense of what is right; they are passionate about justice for the underdog and won’t rest until something is done while also struggling in their own lives because of their want to live more as God intended.

Blessed are the persecuted.

Persecution because you are a peacemaker, or because you have shown mercy and compassion on someone whom everyone else thinks doesn’t deserve it, or being pure in heart you know what is the right thing to do and stick to it even though  no one else sees it that way and they retaliate.

The blessings of the beatitudes present to us a very different and somewhat challenging form of happiness to what the world and our head may suggest will bring happiness because he cuts out “the stuff” that promises yet never fulfils and gets to the core that at the end of the day, the only thing that will not perish or need to be updated is to know God and be accepted into his kingdom and ironically, just as those I listed earlier with their “cross to bear” of depression and doubts of self- worth help lead them to great things, so to in our moments where we are laid bare in the knowledge of our own sins and shortcomings and see that only in Christ can we be given rest from the “monkey on our back.”

Abraham Lincoln, a man very much fuelled to do the right thing for people because of knowing of his own pain in, 1812 made a speech proposing to advance his quest to end slavery and re-unite a country half free and half not and quoted Mark 3:25 in stating that a “house divided against itself cannot stand”.

We in our lives in Christ are totally free and yet we are still continually drawn to find other ways we need not. And if blessed by God with many things, be it employer of people or being employed, be it be a gift of certain ability or indeed the gift of insight through suffering, we like Abraham Lincoln can use our “gifts” as a blessing to serve our country, communities, families and neighbours and the Lord Himself.

All of us here are blessed with something that’s unique to us and it may or may not be something that brings overly fond feelings because any gift we have can subjective to the weather, the economy, youthful or aged bodies or a never ending array of “hits and misses” that we encounter over our journey.

In worldly terms a blessing can easily become a curse and vice versa and we ride those ways as best we can and that’s part of life. A part of life though that can only fulfil, only bring true happiness and true peace under the knowledge of our life in Christ.

Because outside of Christ, though we may be strong in mind and body we have to see we are weak and feeble. Yet though weak and feeble, He has come to us and gives us strength and though rich and gifted or of humble means and ways He has come that we who accept Him as He is, are accepted as we are. And that as we are, struggling in and with our own sin and indeed laid bare in our own shortfalls of living a life in Christ, we are given peace, hope and happiness when we accept Him as He is, the messiah, the Son of God who came into this world not to condemn but to save.

Jesus Christ the Saviour who gave His life for you that you need not fear or worry of things passing, for in accepting His underserved grace you know the truth of what awaits you at the end of your journey, and that while on the journey we may be given mountains to climb and tears to shed, we go forward not in fleeting happiness but rejoicing in all things and in all ways because of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who today, as He will most certainly on our last day says welcome home my dear brother, welcome home my dear sister and that we can still accept and acquire the perishable, our happiness thought often cloaked in hardship is in Christ.

That’s the truth of God in scripted in stone, a promise to us Christ will not break, and our joy and happiness that no other can take. Amen.

Sitting on the dock of the bay “Wasting Time”

Matthew 4:12-23

A few years back and being a collector of “things” I noticed that Elvis Presley’s personal bible was being sold and should I have been from another echelon of personal wealth,acquiring it would have certainly taken my fancy. That was never going to happen but just reading of it said something of the man himself where after having underlined a certain piece of scripture he had written on the side that “to be judged on a particular sin is like picking a single wave in the ocean”.

Elvis changed the world with his take on rock and roll, yet underneath it all his first and probably greatest musical love was Gospel songs and I still remember listening to one of those records in my grandma’s house when I was four or five years old. Later in life, I remember after his death his pastor saying that Elvis struggled his whole life wondering and asking God why He gave a man such as him the talent of such a voice.

Recently, without notice and put on the spot I was asked of what I had learnt in my first years in ministry and the first thing that came to mind was the reality of evangelising in our current times where the words from Luke 15:10 not only describe to me both reality of the roadblocks we face but also the gravity of what’s at stake as we are told “that there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”.

The picture and reality of the heavens rejoicing in song for each person who turns to God leads one to ask like Elvis did of his golden voice, why me, why such as us have we been blessed with the glorious gift of faith. Said so well in song by Johnny Cash when he asks:

“Why me Lord, what have I ever done to deserve even one of the pleasures I’ve known…Or the kindness you’ve shown…. Tell me Lord, if you think there’s a way I can try to repay all I’ve taken from you. Maybe Lord, I can show someone else what I’ve been through myself on my way back to you”.

Lyrics of life that sit so well with the Johnny Cash story that I am certain have led many others to access Christ in their own lives and never underestimate His love so great. Yet ironically, while this song was written specifically of John’s life, it was not written by him but by Kris Kristopherson who at the time was yet still to be acknowledged for the fine song writer he was to become, and so in not being able to get an appointment with John to give him his song, and that legend has it that he hired a helicopter and arrived at John’s door with demo tape in one hand and a bottle of whisky in the other somehow speaks to me about the magnitude of the Lord’s love for His people displayed in and with us when we least expect it or even understand it.

Elvis, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristopherson and the like, while not as obvious as a Billy Graham, a Wesley or a Luther, were even if they did not realise it themselves were in their own way fisher of people for the Lord as we see in them their awareness of, living in and clinging to the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Why me Lord? “Or “Why Lord?” is a question that is asked when the storms of life threaten to crush us, yet those same questions can be asked when we contemplate the miracle of faith given to us.

“Why me Lord?” I wonder if those fishermen in today’s Gospel asked that when asked to leave everything and follow Jesus. I wonder when suffering persecution those same men then asked the question again and after seeing the raised Son of God and knowing of their own shortfalls in abandoning Him prior, I’m sure that question would have been greater than ever if by then they had not come to know who Jesus was, what He stood for and the greatness of His unearthly and never ending love for all who walk this earth.

Like the apostles, the Christian Church is given the command to “Go therefore, and teach all nations (and all people) baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.

When getting taught things in my previous employment I always liked the “KISS” method in keeping it simple and often after I few minutes I would stop my instructor and say please don’t assume I know anything about this, thus so treat me like a five year old (because it won’t insult me, but help me).

“Go and teach all people of Christ and baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” seems pretty straightforward, yet like you can “take a horse to water but not make him drink” I think we all can attest to the same in our efforts of evangelising and while that may lead us wonder why things are not seemingly happening, we have no need to wonder what’s going on, because we know, that as with us, the Holy Spirit does not tire in effort that the truth of the Lord be heard and felt by those in faith, hanging onto faith or yet to experience it.

Teach, preach and baptise is our call and yet the only control we have is to throw the truth of Christ, the seed of Christ to the world and trust not in ourselves but that those seeds will land in fertile ground. The fertile ground that though to us may seems harsh and barren, for all we know may have  been prepared long before we came along through people we may never know and through ways we could not even have contemplated.

God does indeed seem to work in mysterious ways and what a blessing when he does and the shouts of joy abound in heaven as another hears his call. Mysterious ways that are God’s and God’s alone as we as mere mortals are mostly only asked to keep it simple by hearing the Word, living the Word and sharing it and our lives with those he brings before us.

In my previous employment I was working in a large department of a large organisation that had placed upon it sometimes, often unreasonable expectations. These unrealistic key performance indicators always resulted in the latest hired gun with an ascent being moved on and leaving behind a workforce completing their duties in spite and fear rather than thanks and gratitude.

It was an at times torturous soul sapping workplace. Enter CEO number four thousand who upon arrival met with our section of the leadership team of about nine members and talked at length about his plans to bring respect, ownership and an enjoyable workplace to those on the “shop floor”. I thought finally and as luck would have it, after having talked with him publicly in the meeting, not more than thirty minutes later I came upon him in the office space and as our eyes caught contact and I started raising my hand to formally introduce myself, he looked the other way and kept walking as if I was invisible. Yer right.

Two years later enter CEO number four thousand and one. Same job, same unrealistic and unachievable goals and eventually same outcome as number four thousand and two was being “head hunted”.

Yet this man was different and in one of our leadership training courses after his demise and after re-hearing the same principles that we had heard from the past bevy of trainers I made an observation of our recent removed CEO where I said what was different on the floor was that while their sometimes realistic expectations were the same, not once did I hear them blame him and when he was eventually given notice, they actually felt empathy for a good bloke given a rotten job. Asked why this was so I said that as far as those on the floor, the only difference was that he always acknowledged them with a friendly hello or goodbye.

After the trainer had publicly ridiculed me in front of my colleagues I did agree that there is a lot more to leadership but I did remark that being friendly and accepting people how they are might be a reasonable place to start. Previously I felt like the invisible man and now I seemed to be speaking in some strange dialect.

That sometimes the simple and seemingly peripheral things of life are actually the point can be hard to comprehend and after finally agreeing to taking my son Josh fishing when he was very young, it didn’t take long till a repeated question was being asked “how long till we catch a fish”, which was probably fair enough because we could see them there swimming past our hook and occasionally nibbling on a floating cigarette butt. .

I few hours later and leaving fishless I mentioned that when fishing I always look at it as a time of rest and when with another, a great way to spend the day chatting and spending time with them and should a fish be caught, it’s like a bonus. As we left the wharf I saw a few nods of approval although when loading the car with our gear and hearing Josh state that he at least expected to “catch an old boot” left me wondering.

Like Jesus walked past four fishermen and asked them to follow him he asks the same of us. For most, not that we re-invent the wheel or spend our lives in a monastery, but that we keep it simple by trusting in the truth that we are saved in Christ alone and have eternal life and that in the truth of what he has done for us on the cross and in our lives, He too has done for others, wants to continue to do for others, and wants them to know it as they come to know Him.

We are to be fisher of people for our Lord and saviour and though we may not be seeing the results as the disciples in the book of acts, we trust that as He did to us, should we do likewise and share the gift of the Gospel in action and words to those regardless of status high or low, of nationality or any human division, that in accepting them, they may accept Him and should in of our actions the seed land on the ground prepared by Christ and through others and we see that the heavens are rejoicing yet again like at that hour when we first believed, we too rejoice knowing that though they may still suffer and celebrate in equal portion, we know that as Christ suffered and celebrated with them in the past when they knew His grace not, that Christ will certainly in need suffer and celebrate with them again to ensure that they follow that grace home, and that as we fish, still standing on the wharf as the fish seem to pass us by unnoticed we do not need to concern ourselves as our concern is not that we are on the wharf without result, but that we simply remain on that wharf recasting our line.  Amen.

“U2 may be stuck in a moment”Luke 4:21-30

If you go into most Christian book shops you will find rubber wrist bands with the initials WWJD. As a reminder, these in themselves are good for when those tough or confusing situations arrive, that we should stop and think “what would Jesus do” in such a situation? It’s a good question, but what if the answer to yourself is against what you perceive as right by societies standards, is against what will acceptable to your social group, or even against what you perceive as what’s best for you-where “what Jesus would do” will come at a personal cost of giving something away, be it security, following instead of being followed, being judged unfairly or treated badly.

You have two sandwiches and a hungry person asks for one and you ask yourself “What would Jesus do?” But then, up the road another downtrodden looking person asks for a few dollars to buy a pie and without any conversation think, “they will only spend it on booze anyway” but then ask yourself “what would Jesus do?

You’re in a country blessed with free government and security. A country blessed with natural resources and even at the minimal level, is seen by many as a land of opportunity. But then others from lands where due to their birth status are given little in life, hear of your way of life and desire to be part of it and personally ask you, can I join you in your country so that I can make a better life for myself and my family? “What would Jesus do”?

In your work place you have been wronged, snubbed, talked about by colleagues and badly treated. Or worse, the same in your family or your church, and then we ask ourselves, “What will I do?”

“What would Jesus do” is a good question to ask ourselves, but we should only ask it if we want to hear the answer-because the answer may not be what we want to hear. Just as when we ask that other hard question, that if Jesus was walking the earth now and preaching his radical Gospel for the first time like he did 2,000 years ago with his messages of humility, turning the other cheek, forgiving others even when they are wrong and you are right, or even asking you to follow him in the sureness of being ridiculed, imprisoned, beaten and even being killed for doing nothing wrong. Would you receive him warmly? Would you look the other way and continue in life as if he weren’t there? Or ridicule him as an imposter, or even look to get him out the way for good?

If we ask ourselves that question seriously, it is a tough question. It certainly is for me because if I answer no to the “What would Jesus do questions” which are simple in comparison, how could I possibly think I would say yes to the Lord asking of me the same but also much, much more.

Would I, would we be different to those in today’s Gospel message, who upon hearing him preach of inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness, who preached not of their perceived rights, but by quoting scripture preached of the “right thing to do”, like them would we base our decisions on self and preconceived notions, and like them, although it was against their law and the very crux of their belief system, that on the Sabbath of all days, they would look to assassinate him.

Jesus preaches love, not of self: but of others. Jesus teaches not wanting our way: but his way, which is doing what’s best for others. Jesus teaches that should we be wronged intentionally or unintentionally, instead of returning fire in hurt or anger, but to put ourselves in their shoes-to see they are not perfect. Jesus asks us to see “the stick in our own eye before the speck in others”. We all know this is where Jesus stands and unfortunately for me, he means it. Unfortunate for me because at some time I have failed every person I have ever met. I’ve walked past those put before me, I’ve given myself excuses for returning fire with fire towards people or giving some of their own back and yet worst of all, I know I wanted too, and then I see the truth. That at the very least, if I was present 2,000 years ago and Jesus was being marched too the cross-at the very least, I see myself looking the other way.

I see myself in times of war with men of their own free will boarding a boat to Gallipoli, the battle fields of France or Vietnam, yet I don’t see myself with them.

I see myself living in a country where to hold the Christian faith sees them set upon, tortured and killed, yet I don’t see myself holding firm in the faith with them.

I see myself along with my Christian brothers and sisters in the Colosseum being asked to renounce the faith or be fed to the lions, yet I only see them in the arena. Then I wonder of the future, and see myself in a world that may yet repeat its past to where that in order to spread the word of God in a Godless world, would mean giving up the right of salary and financial security, yet can still see myself basing decision’s to take “a call” of ministry to other parishes based on my wisdom, and not that of God’s.

I see what’s gone before and what may be ahead, but like parents in the grip of addiction and wanting to spend their money to feed the children, they cannot as they are stuck in a moment that they can’t get out. That like a person in depression and of hearing their friends truthfully telling them of their worth and knowing those words to be true and that their own negative thoughts of themselves are irrational, they are still stuck in that moment that they can’t get out. And I hear Christ telling me “to be in the world but not of the world”, yet I see myself stuck in my moment “of the world”, that I can’t seem to get out of, and sometimes don’t even want to get out of.

In 1984, along with a few thousand others, on the grounds of the Memorial Drive tennis courts in Adelaide I saw a young man named Michael Hutchence perform in front of his band INXS, and that he and his band would later become one of the greatest bands in the world performing in sold out concert arena’s such as Wembley stadium in front of 74,000 people did not surprise.

Michael was a man of rare musical genius and in 1990 along with band member Andrew Farriss wrote a song called “the stairs” about hardship and of a person trying to hang on and survive while considering suicide:

“The nature of the tragedy is chained around your neck ……. Are you sure you don’t care. There are reasons here to give your life and follow in your way. The passion lives to keep the faith. Though all are different, all are great”.

On 6 February 1998, after the New South Wales State Coroner presented his report that ruled that Michael’s death was from suicide while depressed and under the influence of drugs and alcohol, his friend Bono from U2, sang this of him

“I will not forsake the colors that you bring. But the nights you filled with fireworks, they left you with nothing. I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me. I listen through your ears, and through your eyes I can see. …I know it’s tough, and you can never get enough of what you don’t really need. You’ve got to get yourself together, (because) you’ve got stuck in a moment and you can’t get out”.

Michael had the world at his feet and we wonder how it could have got to this and maybe even place judgement on him like when we “are stuck in our moment” and people are quick to judge us, and we too wish someone would understand and stand up and say of us like Bono did of Michael:

“I listen through your ears, and through your eyes I can see, (and) I know it’s tough.

We are all stuck in our moments that we may fight, but can’t get out of. Moments where we judge, moments where we react not how Jesus would, where we hear the truth, yet react like those against Jesus.

Stuck in our moment where we ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?” Yet do not heed the answer. Stuck in our moment where we see our errors and weaknesses, but nevertheless hope that someone “Will listen through our ears and see through our eyes and see that it’s tough” and answer that call from Christ, to not discard-but bring us in. To not push down-but to lift us up. To see us as Christ does, flawed, not perfect and in need and yet respond to us as Christ does-to bring hope to the hopeless and help us on our way home. Pray we receive this in our times of need and pray we have the strength of spirit, to perceive that need in others. Amen.

Luke 4:14-21

 

“Back to basics”

 

In today’s Gospel in Luke, Jesus gives us a sermon. Firstly he reads from the prophet Isaiah about the future coming of the Messiah then finishes with “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. That’s it and while the audience were receptive to him, we know that later things change and the people then aren’t so sure.
Last night’s much needed rain reminded me of a situation in a rural community that was in the grip of drought. The area was doing it tough, so unbeknown to the community; the local hotelier started putting away a percentage away from profits to give back to those who had supported his business. When he had accumulated enough, he wrote a cheque for the same amount of money to each of the families that frequented his business. While initially grateful for such a gesture, once the details became apparent that all received the identical gift, arguments started because some thought they deserved more than others due to their time in the district, size of the farm, amount of money they spent at the hotel and so forth to that in the end, the publican became despised by many because they had lost sight of the gift they had received.

Sometimes we all lose sight of the big picture and the real deal. Sometimes big words, ceremony and the “offshoots” become the focus. Sometimes less is more and in today’s Gospel Jesus says all that is needed in few words, that he is the one. He is the one and we know that in those words the fathers gift of life to us, is in Jesus. He is the one and though in Luke 4: 14-21 his words are few, they being all we need to know. For in those words we are brought back to basics.

That one Friday, an innocent man, a Holy man, deserted by even his closet followers, nailed to a cross like a criminal, alone and on a lonely hill died that others may have life. Three days later, this man was raised from the dead and brought life to the world.

In our risen Lord we rejoice, for Christ’s victory over death, is our victory over death. On his way to the cross, Jesus brought earthly and eternal sight to a blind man. Raised Lazarus from the dead and gave him and many others earthly life and the promise of eternal life. After his resurrection, Jesus met the two Mary’s, the sisters of Lazarus and said “Do not be afraid” and greeted the apostles that abandoned him and did not lecture them, but greeted them kindly. Today he says to us, don’t be afraid and welcomes us as family. Now, we receive our Risen Lord, and receive life- today and eternally, AND REJOICE, and never again need to be afraid. Today, storm clouds don’t threaten, they bring soothing shade. Today, there are no tears of sadness, only of joy. Today we don’t see the sun setting on our lives, but the rays of sunshine in the beautiful break of day, WE REJOICE that in our resurrected Lord, we live in the sure promise that will be fulfilled on our last day. That we too will be raised up, to meet our Lord and be welcomed home. And meet those that have gone before us, and see their smiling face’s again. We rejoice in the truth, that the Words of our Lord have been fulfilled, that in his death, we died to sin, and in his resurrection, so to will we be raised up.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has told the Jews present and to us, that the saviour has arrived, that the promises from Isaiah has been fulfilled in Him, he is the one that has been promised and later he will tell of the result, “believe in me and receive eternal life”. Yet there are those who conspire against this truth.

The genious of Bill Gates was to take a highly intellual process and make it simple and easy to understand and available to all. Yet, his vision of making computer technology accessable to the masses and not just the select few, caused many to conspire against him.

Jesus on a cross died for sinners, not for a chosen few, but for thieves, prostitutes, the poor and the rich, the lowly and the highly, and made forgiveness assessable too all. Was raised to life-and says here take it, says to us there’s no catches, believe in me-repent and follow me and receive forgiveness and life.

Forgiveness is in Christ alone-it is that simple, and it is assessable to all, that through no efforts of our own, Christ has won our battle over darkness and death- that is the Gospel. The battle has been won and the biggest conspirator of all, the devil knows it-that he was defeated on the cross yet though he knows his days are numbered, he still works against the truth. Beaten by Jesus on the cross, he now attacks the Word of God. Sometimes blatantly, and sometimes to subtly attacks the Church and its people-to make them doubt the truth, to hide the truth behind lies.

Jesus, the truth is the centre of our lives, the truth that others conspire against.

Like Judas was bought off to hand over Jesus to those who wanted to kill of the truth, after the resurrection, the same people bought off the guards in order to hide the truth. A blatant attempt to hide the truth-that we see clearly as a lie.

But the most deceitful lies are those that are partly based on truth. We are constantly reminded that we are sinners, and we cannot argue that-because even the Word of God confirms that. But the lie comes after. That in our sin, in our walking away from Jesus, in our weaknesses, and in constantly failing to live as we would wish, that we should doubt our forgiveness-that’s the lie.

Or alternatively, Christ did die and was raised for sinners-but not sinners like you. You’re too far gone, beyond help or at the very least-you better get your act together and become that perfect person you have to be. That’s the lie and the deception. A lie that if we only saw an empty tomb would leave us guessing, but in faith don’t see just an empty tomb but the living presence of Jesus.

The legendry American Gridiron coach Vince Lombardi once said that a players greatest moment, is not winning or losing, but when you are broken and busted and have nothing left to give, and you look across and you see your team mates-and they are the same.

In our lives, we still take the bumps and the bruises, and we take them with our families, friends and loved ones. But sometimes, we look across and they are no longer there, just emptiness, except for Jesus, and as he lifts us up, we see he wears our bruises, and says I am with you, I have always been with you and will be to the end. Fear not, my victory is yours.

In Jesus selfless act on the cross, and in his desire that we accept in him our victory over death, accept in him undeserved forgiveness-the lie is dispelled and we see the truth. We see the love of God, shown to us through His Son Jesus, given to us-to save us.

Jesus backs up his Words with actions. Jesus said he was the one to carry out his Fathers plan to bring us salvation, and he did. Just as he said he would be raised, he was. Just as he said he brings forgiveness, he has. In the garden of gethsemane, Jesus needed the disciples most, they slept. When Jesus was on trial, Peter denied him, and when he had risen as he said he would, they are nowhere to be seen.Yet when Jesus meets them after his resurrection he does not call them his disciples-he calls them his brothers. Jesus could have said many negative things of his disciples-and all would have been true. But what IS Jesus response: he calls them his brothers and welcomes them into his family.

In todays Gospel, Jesus has brought us back to the basic truth and Jesus says what he means and means what he says. He was called to give his life for us and he did, Jesus said he will be raised, and he was, Jesus said he brings forgiveness, and he has. Jesus says he has fulfilled the law and the answer to our sins is him and not in ourselves and in him we are given eternally life-and we have been, and we rejoice. Amen.

 

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and John 2:1-11

I’m sure most gardeners would have experienced the situation of buying two identical plants from the same shop, planting them close together in the same plot, nurturing both the same yet one flourishes and for some reason the other struggles.

There would seem neither rhyme nor reason.

Two brothers born of the same parents, one taken young, the other not. Two sisters brought up in Christ, one accepts him joyously and for the other to be united with Christ will only come after a life time of emotional turmoil.

Why?

As we come together today as our neighbours in Coonabarabran deal with their losses from fearsome fires and ourselves still in unbelief at the sudden passing of our dear Belinda, taken from us too soon, why?

We hear of people born of great physical difficulties who do wondrous things. Inspirational people, seemingly given mountains to cling in life, yet do it joyously and in open praise of the Lord. Yet as a group of us students in our church studies where told by a church elder whose daughter was born of life long illnesses “I don’t want any pastor coming up to me and saying how this will make me strong, I don’t want to hear that crap”.

God did not make us as robots and we all deal with things differently and at Belinda’s house on Friday morning a wise man said of our lives in the hurting, “we live with the cards dealt to us” and if there are two things I have learnt in my life is to accept what is the hardest to accept.

That when”whys” come along, the things that seem so wrong and confusing, to know I have no answer. Just as when I see myself as I am and yet hear that I am saved in Christ, I have no answer to how that could possibly be. Both these situations to us, in our earthly love and wisdom make no sense what so ever.

In the hardships it can be confusing just where our Lord is in it all, yet it is just as confusing that in our sin, the Lord is right amongst it bringing forgiveness.

I was recently doing some reading about Abraham Lincoln that I found amazing. Far from just this stoic looking figure he was described as humorous and loved a good time with his mates. But I was amazed when I read of his severe depression to where the author wrote that Abe was a president that achieved so much, “but the real miracle is that in carrying such a burden, it was amazing he got anything achieved at all”. But she went on and said that he came not to fight it, but used his struggle as an education. An education that can’t be bought but was placed on him and gave him great empathy, understanding and courage to do good for his fellow human beings.

Some of us here today seemingly simply believed in the truth of Christ from the start without question while for some of us it was a long journey, but for both the Lord has been present. Maintaining the faith of the believer and bringing others to faith. With the believer as they suffered the hardship of loved one’s yet to find Christ, and with those yet to find Him as they suffered.

When Jesus arrived after the death of Lazarus, his sisters showed great faith in stating if only you were here, and Jesus wept.

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus in joy at the wedding, and when the wine at the wedding ran out Mary shows great faith when she hands the situation over to Jesus and tells the servants to simple do as he says.

One a time of pain and he came and wept with them. One in a time of Joy and he celebrated with them, and in both in his concern and love for those involved, he responded.

Our theology is of the cross and that’s how it should be, where we stand at the base of the cross in sin with no hope in ourselves and only in Christ and when we come to know that no amount of our failures can take away his love and his salvation, in him alone, we know the truth.

But to know that truth can come at a cost because we are in a battle. Just as Jesus was tempted by Satan to not follow his father wishes so are we tempted to not believe in the truth. We may not see it but there is a fierce battle going on and that is why the Lord sticks so close. When we weep he weeps with us and when we feel joy he smiles with us.

We live under the cross because we know the truth of ourselves and Jesus walks with us because he knows the truth of the battle. The battle that he has won for us, and the battle he fights in us to see that truth. The battle that he knows is fierce.

We live under the cross yet although he knows our sin, sticks close to bring faith-faith that as we are told in Isaiah 62:5 that “like a young man taking a virgin as his bride, He who formed you will marry you. As a groom is delighted with his bride, so your God will delight in you”.

That we live in sin and that we cannot believe on our own behalf, and then hear that the Lord delights in us-holds us up as something special, even great. That is unbelievable until we remember that scripture has told us the magnitude of what’s going on that “when one sinner comes to faith the whole heavenly’s and angels in song celebrate joyously.

In you before me I see greatness, maybe not greatness as the world sees it but as Christ sees it.

In Corinthian’s we are told each is given gifts to serve the Lord. If you believe that in Christ alone you are saved you have the greatest gift you will ever receive. If you are still on a journey to faith he will not fail you.

Before me I see greatness, the greatness of our Lord that in his journey a man like Abraham Lincoln used the cards dealt to him to help many. The greatness of our Lord that looks at you today like a new bride over his groom, the greatness of our Lord that celebrates your faith.

The greatness of our Lord that has welcomed home Belinda with a smiling face and the greatness of our Lord that weeps with us in our grief.

We see ourselves standing at the cross in our sin, the Lord sees us resurrected with him.

Like Abraham Lincoln we know our shortcomings and crosses to bear, Christ sees the greatness that he will bring through our shortcomings and the crosses we bear. That we do not know of these outcomes is not of concern, just that they are now are in his hands and just as he has never failed us in the past, he will in the future and when we weep he weeps, when we laugh he laughs and when unbeknown to us, if his gifts to us contribute to a fellow sinner somehow coming to see the truth, the heavenly’s again erupt in a joyous song.

Your faith, not earnt but given freely is great in the Lord’s eyes, if you mourn, mourn passionately, if you laugh, laugh passionately because your formation is a great gift, to you, your neighbour and to the Lord himself.

 

An act of God

Text: Isaiah 43:3 The Lord says, “I am the Lord your God, the holy God of Israel, who saves you”.

On a cold winter’s day the congregation gathered at the river for the baptism of a young man. The preacher began by reminding those gathered that with baptism comes adoption as God’s child, the washing away of sin and the change that this brings to everyday life. After the man had been standing in the water for a while and the preacher had completely drenched him with the icy river water, he noticed the man turning blue and said to him, “Are you feeling cold?”

“Naa!” the man bravely replied not wanting to be disrespectful or spoil the moment.

Then a loud voice was heard from the congregation, “Dunk him again preacher, he’s still lying.”

We know that a voice was heard the day that Jesus was baptised but not from the crowd gathered at the River Jordan. It was the voice of God that came from the heavens saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you”. The gospel writers leave no doubt that Jesus was baptised by a man known as John the Baptist in the Jordan River. This happened as Jesus was about to begin his ministry of teaching about the Kingdom of God, and doing acts of love and mercy including suffering and dying on a cross.

Today focuses on the baptism of Jesus and gives us an excellent opportunity to centre our attention on the meaning of baptism. It’s a real shame that the sacrament of baptism, like Holy Communion, has created division among Christians over the centuries. What constitutes a “valid” baptism has been a point of contention. Fortunately a number of the churches have agreed on what baptism is but there are still disagreements amongst certain section of the Christian community.

The disagreement sometimes focuses on whether the Bible allows children to be baptised. The argument might go something like this, “Show me solid evidence in the New Testament that the early Christians baptised infants. When whole households of adults were baptised, children are not specifically mentioned”. The counter reply to this goes like this, “Show me undeniable proof that the people of the New Testament didn’t baptise infants. Are there any passages that specifically forbid the baptism of infants or state that children must reach a certain age in order to be baptised?”

You see, we can argue over this till the cows come home but it won’t bring us any closer to an understanding of who is or who is not allowed to be baptised according to the New Testament.

Another disagreement focuses on the way the water is applied. Some argue that the New Testament word for baptism means to immerse and that’s undeniable. In fact, there is great symbolism in baptism by immersion. It visibly demonstrates the drowning of sin, Satan and death as the person is immersed under the water, and the rising of the new person, the new creation, the new child of God as the person emerges from the water. Luther draws on this image in his catechism when he says that baptism is a drowning of the old nature in us, everything that is sinful and selfish dies and a new nature arises that seeks to do what is right and good – a new life that will extend beyond the grave into eternity.

On the other hand there are those who say quite correctly that baptism also means to wash, like washing dishes, washing our bodies, the washing of a baby, and the ritual washing of hands before performing sacred rites where only a very small amount of water is used. There is plenty of evidence in ancient writings that supports the ‘washing clean’ aspect of baptism. When a baby has water poured over him or her in baptism, this is a visible sign of the power of God’s grace. The baby has nothing to offer God, no self-righteousness, vows of commitment, or promises of loyalty and yet God is there for that child giving his grace and bountiful love.

You can see whether we talk about the age a person can be baptised or whether baptism is by immersion or by washing or by pouring we can get all uptight and say that one form is more “valid” than another and argue about words and their meaning but in actual fact not get any closer to understanding what baptism really is.

What makes the matter even more complicated is when we look at some of the attitudes toward baptism.

When it comes to baptism of an adult whether by immersion in a river or creek, or by pouring at a baptismal font, I get really uncomfortable when the emphasis is placed on the repentance or the commitment or the discipleship or promises of loyalty and dedication of the person being baptised. It’s as if the person in some way has earned the right to be baptised and made a child of God through some kind of righteousness and holiness that has been achieved through the person’s own repentance and rightness before God.

The grace of Christ which seeks us, calls us, heals us, claims us should always be the primary focus. The sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion celebrate God’s free generous grace that loves us and accepts us even though we are stained through and through with sin and evil. We are accepted in baptism not because of some kind of “worthy” repentance or correct understanding of faith or somehow feeling especially close to God.

We fall into the same trap when it comes to Communion and what makes a person ready to receive the body and blood of Christ. We can easily focus on our worthiness or the commitment to discipleship of the person being baptised that we lose sight of what baptism is all about. It is not a human act but an act of God and all that counts is the grace of God. Paul writes, “God’s love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved… It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift (Ephesians 2:4,8).

When it comes to the baptism of an infant, whether by immersion or by pouring, we get somewhat uncomfortable with some of the attitudes that people have towards this sacrament. Parents casually fulfil some kind of family or social expectation to “have the child done” and when they say they will bring up their child to know Jesus and his love for them, bring him/her to worship, and teach them about God, how to pray and what their baptism means we wince with disbelief thinking that they don’t have any intention of carrying out what they are promising.

Over the years members of congregations have expressed their concern that this wonderful sacrament has been degraded by the attitudes of parents and godparents to baptism. Some parents have considered the lack of understanding that a child has about what is happening in baptism and so have opted for a dedication of their children and “let them decide for themselves when they are older”.

This is a very real concern. What do we do with this kind of uneasiness?

Some churches have laid down some rules like – parents need to attend worship 4 Sundays in a row before their child can be baptised. Others have decided that parents need to attend 6 weeks of preparation classes. Others have ruled that only people above a certain age can be baptised. Others have decided that only children of active members of the congregation can be baptised. The trouble with making rules is that there needs to be other rules to define the rule; like, what is an active member of the congregation?

I can understand why this line of thinking is followed and sympathise with those who want to protect the sacrament of holy baptism.

But all of this leads us into the trap of self-righteousness again. We focus on the lack of commitment and faith of the parents. We only see the flaws in the beliefs and the casual attitude of the parents to the Christian faith. We fail to see the magnificent and complete grace of God that is being celebrated in baptism. We fail to see that the grace of God doesn’t need human assistance to be effective. We fail to see that sin doesn’t neutralise the grace of God – it’s the other way around.

I struggle with all this when I baptise a child whose parents I know from our pre-baptismal chat that their understanding of baptism is flawed and their commitment to following through on what they promise is quite shallow. However, I have decided that I can live with the inadequacies of parents just as God and you as a congregation have to deal with my inadequacies. If the effectiveness of baptism depended on the worthiness of the candidate or the parents then who indeed would have the right to claim the grace of God?

The grace of God is not claimed it is given. And in baptism we focus on what God is able to do regardless of human effort. Let’s not sell God short on what he can do in the lives of people either in the immediate future or way down the track.

In the Old Testament God makes a covenant with his people. Yes, they are disobedient, proud, self-righteous, eager to follow the path of evil rather than God’s ways and yet God promises, “I am the Lord your God, the holy God of Israel who saves you. … You are precious to me. Do not be afraid – I am with you!” “I have called you by name – you are mine” (Isaiah 43:3-5, 1). That’s what I want to focus on when I conduct a baptism or witness water being poured on a person’s head in holy baptism. This is an act of God who loves us dearly even though we are imperfect, blemished, disobedient, uncommitted and often far too slack when it comes to acknowledging God as the Lord of our lives.

God knows all that and yet he calls us and claims us with his grace. In baptism, as in Holy Communion, the focus is on God and what he does for us. In the times when we give up on God, despair about our own sinfulness, are frustrated by the turn of events, we remember God’s baptismal promise to us that remains firm and sure regardless of how unworthy we may feel. His promise is certain, “I have called you by name – you are mine”.

© Pastor Vince Gerhardy

Reading: Ephesians 3:5-6

Tell me,  what is the difference between  Christmas and Epiphany?

Say to any  Christian: “It’s Christmas next week!” and they will know exactly what you  mean. Say to most other Christians: “It’s Epiphany next week!” and they will  mostly look blankly at you.

Funny thing  is that the festival of Epiphany was celebrated long before Christmas was ever  thought of. Historically speaking, Christmas – at least as we know it – is  actually quite a recent development.

We might  have assumed Christmas was one of the oldest Christian festivals there was, but  actually all of the great traditions we associate with Christmas only came  along in the mid 1800s. The singing of Christmas carols was only revived around  then. The Christmas tree only became popular in the British Empire after it was  introduced to England by Prince Albert – the German born consort of Queen Victoria. Sending  Christmas cards and giving gifts has only gradually become popular from around  the turn of last century. And Father Christmas – the fat happy man in the red  and white suit – only became highly popular in his present form in the 1950s.

Christmas as  a festival was first celebrated only towards the end of the period of the early  church, when a Christian Roman Emperor wanted to Christianise a pagan Roman  festival called Saturnalia. Because this festival happened in the calendar  fairly close to Epiphany, it was nominated as a festival specifically celebrating  the birth of Jesus. And it grew from there and has gradually taken over from  Epiphany ever since.

But  Epiphany started as a festival of the Christian Church. The word Epiphany means  “disclosure or revelation or unveiling”, and the purpose of the festival was to  celebrate not just the event of Jesus’ birth, but what it actually means for  the world; what its significance and importance is.

And this is  exactly what Paul was on about in this reading from Ephesians 3 – the  revelation or unveiling of God’s great plan for the redemption of the whole  world. This is more than just the Bethlehem  story. This is more than shepherds and angels and the manger and the star in  the East. Epiphany is the whole unfolding of God’s wonderful through Jesus,  including the baptism of Jesus (that we will celebrate next Sunday), his  miracles, his healings, his teaching, his cross and his resurrection, and  importantly, his ascension.

This  unfolding plan does not just take place in New Testament times, but also  throughout the whole Old Testament. Jesus Christ is not just the last phase of  God’s plan. He is the key to the whole thing. The arrival of God’s Son in the  world as a human being is the key that unlocks and reveals and makes clear and  explains the whole mystery of God’s plan that has been unfolding ever since the  dawn of creation. The birth of Jesus is the great epiphany – the last piece in  the jigsaw that suddenly makes the other pieces fall into place, the final  drawing away of the veil that reveals at last what you could only see vague  hints of before.

Paul says  “in former generations this mystery has not been made known to humanity, as it  has now been revealed to His holy prophets and apostles by the Spirit”.

Jesus is  the key that unlocks what God has been doing for all these millennia: the Son  of God in human form. He is the only and the perfect redeemer for the world.  The human race has been lost in sin, and its ultimate result, which is death.  The only answer to this plague is one who can deal with our sin and with death  and conquer them finally through his own death and resurrection for the  forgiveness of our sins. The only answer is in the one who shares God’s divine  nature and power to break the death-grip of sin, and who also truly shares our  human nature in order to truly take on himself our sin and our death and  release us for eternal life.

This is the  final opening up, the final epiphany of what God is doing – hidden and secret  from past ages, but made clear now in Christ. Read the Gospel readings for the  rest of the Epiphany season and you see how Jesus progressively throughout his  ministry unfolds the reality of who he is and what he is doing, through  miracles and signs and teaching, and finally of course through the ultimate climax  of the eternal plan; his passion, death and resurrection.

Here at  last is the fulfilment of everything the prophets have been saying in ages  past, the completion of the Old Testament’s story, the salvation and restoration not just of Israel, but (as Paul  says in verse 6) of all the nations (the Gentiles) as well, including us of  course. This is the Gospel – the good news for the whole planet.

And this  season of Epiphany is a great time to read the Bible and learn and grow in your  understanding of this amazing Gospel and how it unfolds through time. And I  would like to invite you to do just that – look ahead and read the Bible  readings listed for this season. It will open up your understanding.

Christmas  is wonderful, but one of the things that becomes a problem for us in the church  at Christmas time is that we tend to lose our focus a bit – it’s all become very cuddly and cosy in the  stable. And we tend to get stuck at Bethlehem.  We see the babe lying in a manger. We hear the story of the journey to Bethlehem and the shepherds visited by angels and told to  go to Bethlehem and the wise men coming to Bethlehem. And so at Christmas  time we too go to Bethlehem,  and sadly many Christians stay there and never leave. This story warms us and  tugs at our heart strings. But there’s more isn’t there. We need to leave the  stable and move on to Epiphany.

Why was Jesus born? As one carol puts it,  Jesus was “born that man no more may die,  born to raise the sons of earth: born to give them second birth”.

Epiphany  takes us further than Bethlehem.  It does not leave us at the manger; it takes us also to the cross, where our  sins were paid for once and for all. It takes us to the empty tomb where Jesus  Christ rose to give eternal life to all people. It takes us – each of us – to  the place of our “second birth”, to the baptismal font, where we Jesus makes  his forgiveness and salvation ours.

And this is  where Epiphany happens in each of our individual lives. This is where the  manger and the cross and the empty tomb all converge to change our individual  personal destinies. This is where we meet Jesus. This is where he reveals his  plan for our lives, His plan to forgive and renew and recreate us for this life  and the next

And Jesus  reveals God’s plan for us every time we return to our baptism by confessing our  sins and receiving His forgiveness, every time we come to receive His body and  blood, every time we open and read and hear His Word.

Jesus is at  work in our life everyday. Your life is in fact a mini-Epiphany, because His  grand plan for us is unfolding in our life minute by minute. Jesus is calling us to grow in our knowledge  of him and in our relationship with him, calling us to grow and to move and to serve, and more and more reveal  his light to others around us, his we become more like him, as our lives reveal  and unveil him to the eyes of others.

And so it’s  time to leave Bethlehem.  It’s time for Epiphany. Because Jesus Christ wants to reveal his plan for  saving the world not only to us, but through us to the whole world.       

Pastor Stephen Pietsch

Mark 1:40-45

A few months ago, while holidaying in one of our large capital cities, I was taken aback by the amount of people asking passers’ by for some change, initially I felt sorrow for them-in that the passers’ by were simply that-they passed by as if the person wasn’t even there-

But after a few days, due to the regularity of being approached, I could see how easy it is to forget that each of these people  are unique: different in hurts, backgrounds, passions and loves.. 

It seems that without even trying, but due to the regularity of the situation-they seem to become as one.

Just this bunch of people-that when we encounter or think of as a collective, are easy to just pass by.  To not get our hands dirty so to speak.

There was a cartoon in a recent paper that spoke volumes of this type of situation. There’s a hall all lit up and full of people in fancy cloths. Out the front, standing next to a sign that reads “Charity Gala ball for the homeless” is a bedraggled and needy looking man, and upon looking to enter is advised “no ticket, no entry”. 

It’s a satire-tical look at the situation that hits home.

Thankfully for humanity, Jesus is not scared to get his hands dirty.

As we heard:

“a leper came to him and falling to his knees before Him, and said to Him, If you are willing, You can make me clean. And moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand, and touched him, and said I am willing, be cleansed”.

The significance of Jesus touch is great.

Because leprosy is of a highly infectious nature, lepers were shunned by society.

Kicked out of society.

They had to live in camps, leper colonies outside the towns and cities-Leper Colonies. They were not to approach or touch no one and should anyone begin to walk near them, they had to call out “Unclean, Unclean” to warn them to stay away.

A doctor who recently conducted research into this disease in India said, “It’s a repulsive disease. It attacks the nervous system which causes the victim to lose all sense of touch and pain, initially in the fingers and toes, then spreading up the arms and legs.

Without a sense of touch, the ill person eventually damages their toes, fingers and feet. They will knock them, cut them, get infections and not even notice”.

He said that upon seeing so many people in this leper colony without fingers and toes he asked them how it happens. Some said they knocked them off, but many said they did not know, but they seemed to lose them at night and in the morning there was no trace of them left.

One night, he sat with a leper while he slept. He saw rats chewing the persons toes and fingers-but the victim did not wake, for he felt nothing.

If we were in Israel, would not we too stay away from this leper?

But Jesus reaches out and touches him-and cures him.  

But this was much more than a physical disease.

It was a disease of hopelessness.  Because being deemed “Unclean” they could not attend the temple or tabernacle worship.

They could not enter the house of God.  In a sense, they were banned from God, from hope.

The seriousness at that time of this leper’s inability to attend the temple cannot be understated. A Scholar noted that the trashing, or destruction of the temple in Israel by the Romans

is regarded by the Jews as much worse a tragedy than the Holocaust.

This leper, this man, had no physical hope, and worse, seemingly no spiritual hope.

But Jesus reached out touched him. Reaching out his saving hand-and gave him access to His Father.

Gave him hope. The same hope that we received when Jesus reached out and touched us.

In sending the leper to the priest, Jesus is preaching through illustration,

He is providing an opportunity for the priests and others, to see and hear the leper’s testimony. A testimony that is much more complete and moving than only if it was a statement about his physical healing.

The same picture, the same testimonies can be heard today, or at least they should be. Physically, God provides for us with shelter, food and clothing. He provides doctors, nurses and a government with a social conscience. Everything good we receive is a gift from God.

But like the leper, we have received more, much more.

Our gracious God gave us his Son. Who has brought us forgiveness and restored our relationship to God the Father. He covers with his blood the hurtful and hateful things we have done. The pain we have caused on others and the messes we have made.

His gives us life and we rejoice.

The Lord got his hands dirty in dealing with our sin, to bring us back to him.

The same hands he reached out to the Leper, to clean him.

The same hands that reach out to non-Christians.  Not a group of nameless people. But individuals that hurt, love and yes, are looking for hope.

But hope that is misplaced and fleeting if outside of Christ. God knows the hope they need, the only hope this world has to offer-

hope in His Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

God loves us and he loves them. God has brought us peace, and he looks to bring them peace-they just need to see it and to feel that blessed hope. Christ died for our sins, and he died for theirs.

His hand reached out to us, and he reaches out his hand to them. How did his hand reach out to you, maybe as an infant  you were carried to him in Baptism? Maybe as an adult someone brought you before the Word of God.

How does his hand reach out to those that as yet do not know him?

Through his church, through its members and through us.

Luther’s morning prayer basically covers our daily life as a Christian.

“In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  I give thee thanks, heavenly Father, through your dear Son Jesus Christ, that you have protected me through the night from all harm and danger. I ask you to keep me this day, too, from all sin and evil, that in my thoughts, words, and deeds I may please you. Into your hands I commend my body and soul and all that is mine. Let the holy angel have charge of me, that the wicked one may have no power over me. Amen.”

(and) Daily, the Lord carries us out to them, the people he has placed before us, so that we can carry them back to him. We are not the saviours, but we are the cleansed lepers who go to them with our testimony of Jesus. Go to them with Jesus testimony, that no matter what their ills, he wishes to wash them clean. To bring them peace, love and hope. To give them life, now and eternally.  Amen.

Text: Isaiah 40:31

Those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak.

 

 

Ever wondered what it would be like to fly? I don’t mean flying in a plane, or dangling beneath a kite or parachute. I mean sticking your arms out like a bird, or out front like superman if you like, and soaring above the earth; banking over the forests; skimming over the rivers; darting through mountain canyons; diving down and scaring the living daylights out of the members of your family; breathing deeply in the fresh air of free and effortless flight! And if you are someone who is scared of heights, imagine if you had no such fear. You could come and fly with the rest of us.

From the early pages of history people have looked at the birds and wanted to fly. You may have seen on TV people flying in a wind tunnel but that’s not soaring high above the clouds. You have seen people jump out of perfectly good planes and ‘fly’ at least for a while, but gravity does it job and the skydiver has no choice but to pull the ripcord on his parachute.

I’m sure every kid at some time has wanted to fly. Maybe it’s been a theme in your dreams but like all dreams there comes a rude awakening when you wake up and discover that you are still a prisoner of gravity. As much as we really wish we could fly, we have to walk to the bathroom, walk out to the kitchen for breakfast and walk to school or work. We aren’t built for flying.

As adults we don’t think about flying as we did when we were kids. Not only aren’t we built for flying but we also carry a lot of baggage – we carry too much weight. Not only the kind of weight that shows up on the bathroom scales but the weight of worry, anxiety, paying bills, keeping the boss happy, and how our health crisis will turn out. All this weighs us down.

If you own your own business and you wonder if you’ve thought about everything and planned for every contingency. You do care about those who work for you, and you realise that there may come a time when you will have to put off some of them. And this weighs you down.

Then there’s your family. The people you love. You see your parents getting older; perhaps becoming infirm. You see your children struggling in this or that. Perhaps you’ve hit a rough patch in your marriage. When you were a kid love wasn’t so difficult and so demanding. But that’s because you were mostly on the receiving end of it. And now you are called to be the one who gives it; called to be the one who loves. This too can weigh you down.

So what about those dreams of flying high above the world in complete freedom and in the open spaces where there is not a worry in the world? Nah! Not anymore! Life is way too heavy to entertain such thought. Flying – that’s okay for kids to dream about because they don’t have the worries we have but for us the world is too real. A bit like gravity – we can’t ever get away from it.

And yet, what does the text from Isaiah say? “Those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary.” Hmmm. “They will rise on wings like eagles”. With renewed strength they will soar above the earth with the powerful wings of an eagle. I don’t know about you, but Isaiah’s got my attention! Suddenly my childhood interest in being able to fly is renewed. Floating, drifting, circling, free as a bird. Is there a way to overcome the gravity of our lives, a way to lighten our loads, a way rise above it all? Is this just a dream, wishful thinking, belonging to the world of fantasy along with fairies, flying dragons and magic carpets?

Just to put these words about flying like eagles into context. The prophet Isaiah was writing to the people of Israel during a time, when they felt like their strength was sapped and they had no hope. Like us, they were worried. The news wasn’t good. The dreadful Assyrians were breathing down their necks, and later it would be the Babylonians who would take them all away to live in exile. As they thought about all the stuff that was happening around them, they were weighed down and overwhelmed by the seriousness of their situation.

They started to say things like, “God doesn’t really care about me! How can he? Look at all this bad and difficult stuff that is happening all around us. He’s not really in charge of things!” (Isaiah 40:27).

You see what was happening here? They began to see their problems as being bigger than God himself. They forgot that the creator of everything, the everlasting Lord, whose love for his people means he will never grow tired of helping them, just might be able to help them with all their worries.

You see over the years a subtle exchange had taken place. They exchanged their faith in God for a kind of do-it-yourself kind of attitude. We do the exact same thing! This DIY kind of Christianity excludes God from certain areas of our lives. I know God is there but I can handle this myself.
“Let’s see, my work, hmm, no that’s not God’s problem.
Finances, no. I can fix that.
Relationship problems, no. That’s my responsibility.
My love life, no God doesn’t know anything about that, that’s my area.”

Without even giving it too much thought we exclude God from different aspects of our lives. We can fix it we say and maybe it works okay for a time. But then we begin to feel the weight. Our blood pressure rises. We toss and turn. We get sick. We become depressed. The joy goes out of our lives. We despair. We slowly realise that the DIY approach isn’t all that successful after all.

I’m sure that a lot us, including myself, have to admit to doing this at some time, if not more often than we care to admit. We sideline God and try to be our own god. We believe that we can do it alone, but that’s something God never intended us to be. God didn’t make us to stand alone against everything that threatens our safety and happiness. God made us to rely on him.

This is where Isaiah comes in and we have this wonderful passage that was read earlier. He asks, “How can you be so dumb. Don’t you know who stretched out the heavens, made the earth and filled it with people? Don’t you know that it is God who created the stars? There are millions of them, and yet he knows when one of them is missing and if God knows each individual star, it follows that he knows each one of us personally and calls us by name. He knows when we are in trouble. No one can ever accuse God of turning a deaf ear to our needs.

Then comes these wonderful words,
“Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God; he created all the world.
He never grows tired or weary.
No one understands his thoughts.
He strengthens those who are weak and tired. 
Even those who are young grow weak; young people can fall exhausted. 
But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed.
They will rise on wings like eagles;
they will run and not get weary;
they will walk and not grow weak.” (40:28-31)

Jesus affirmed what Isaiah said when he said things like, “Come to me, all of your who are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” or “Your heavenly Father knows all about the sparrows even though there are so many of them and he knows when a hair falls from your head. In the same way, he knows each of us intimately and personally” or “I am the good shepherd and I know each of my sheep and if one should get lost, I will go so far as to sacrifice my life to rescue that lost one”.

Jesus assures us that there is not a moment when we are not under his love and care. Yes, there will be times when we will intentionally and unintentionally lock him out of our lives. There will be times when we could have saved ourselves a heap of stress and pressure if only we had trusted in the Lord for help and realised that he is ready, willing and able to give us renewed strength and a fresh outlook on life and its problems.

The apostle Paul realised that he knew what he ought to do and trust God more but found more often than not that he did what he knew he shouldn’t do. There were times when he was physically exhausted and drained, not knowing what will happen to him next. But in each case he came back to this one point, “God can raise me above all this. His love is so powerful that I can be confident, content, and certain no matter what the circumstances. The Lord will help me to face each thing that terrifies me and give me the strength to continue”. In the end Paul says, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

As Isaiah said, “Those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak”.

In other words, trusting in God to give us the strength that is beyond our own strength to deal with any situation, we can rise on wings like eagles. We can fly. We can soar high above our problems; we can fly free with the sky as the limit. God wants us to fly like eagles.

When we trust in God and his love for us and entrust our lives to the one who gave his life for us on the cross, everything else is dwarfed in comparison to the largeness and authority of the Lord. He is bigger than any problem we might face. And as we learn to trust him, we begin to see things from his perspective. He draws us upward in faith, so that we begin to get a bird’s eye view of things, or more correctly, a God’s eye view of things.

Remember the dreams about flying, the fantasy stories like Peter Pan where children could fly; well they are not too far off the mark. We too can fly even though our feet never leave the ground. We can rise above everything threatens our security with a strength that comes from God. “Those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles”.

Text: Psalm 40:1,2

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.

 

What a week this has been. Last Sunday we were thinking about and praying for the people up north in Rockhampton, Theodore and other places out west as flood waters surged through their communities leaving a trail of mud and debris, flooded houses and ruined businesses and farms. I was worshipping with my parents thousands of kilometres from here and we prayed for those people up north.

Within a few days unexpectedly this whole situation came closer to home than we would have preferred. The day I was due to fly back from Adelaide ferocious storms and subsequent flooding hit our community. Then there was the devastation that hit Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley and the loss of life that accompanied such an “inland tsunami” as it has been called. Then the flooding of the Brisbane River with homes, schools, the central business district of Brisbane shut down, sports facilities inundated with muddy sludge.

We witnessed on our TVs the bravery of those who rescued people being washed away by fast flowing water or from the roofs of their homes. We witnessed the despair of those who tried to save people only to watch helplessly as those in the water were swept away. We saw men and women, some victims of the floods, others rescue workers, others state and community leaders fight back tears as they recalled what had happened and what was still unfolding.

Right now people are going back to their homes and discovering the devastation. Some houses have been completely destroyed, cars wrecked, slimy oozing mud covering everything in their homes and businesses.

People and congregations around the world Canada, USA, Denmark, Japan, – around Australia who have come to know St Paul’s through the internet have emailed that they are praying for those affected by all that has happened. WE are told that this is the largest natural disaster that our nation has ever had.

One man in his email said that he couldn’t help but ask the question, “Where is the hand of God in all of this?” Maybe he is reflecting the same thoughts as the psalmist when he calls on God to help him. He wrote in Psalm 69,

Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck.

Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold to stand on.

I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me.

I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched and dry.

My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me.

The writer isn’t talking about floodwaters in a literal sense but using this image to refer to the many things that are threatening to overwhelm him and drown him in grief and pain, and yet in spite of this he calls on God to help him. He is exhausted from praying. He believes that God knows what is happening and wonders why God has let all this happen – he is waiting for God to intervene. The imagery of these verses about floodwater, mud and sludge and being overwhelmed emotionally could well be a description of the experiences of this past week and how people are feeling. We understand and can sympathise with those who join the writer of Psalm 22 and ask, “My God, where are you? Why have you abandoned me just at the time when I need you the most?”

The writer of Psalm 147 says that God sends the snow and frost and hail

God speaks, the ice melts. God breathes, the waters flow.

If we believe that God directs the weather

that God speaks and the earth shudders

that God can calm the waves with a word

it follows then God has power over a flood and a bushfire.

Is it possible to take one more logical step and say that God causes disasters like those we have seen this week or perhaps stands back and lets them happen?

In recent memory we have had bushfires, drought, tsunamis, cyclones, other places have had snowstorms and blizzards and now floods – all involving loss of life. That’s not to mention all the human tragedies like September 11, wars, abortions, suicides, and so on. It only takes a small step to conclude that if God is a loving God as Christians claim then why does he do nothing to prevent floods, tsunamis, and bushfires, brain damaged babies and youth suicide? How can anyone be expected to believe in a God like that?

Sometimes we try to defend God and in the process give pat simplistic answers that really aren’t very helpful when people are struggling to come to terms with personal loss and suffering as experienced by our fellow Australians at the moment. Answers like –

“God has sent this to test (or strengthen) our faith” or

“One day we will be able to look back and see why God has allowed this to happen”.

We might even say that these natural disasters were never intended when God created the world, but to use Paul’s expression “because of death and decay, all creation is groaning” – groaning as a result of the sinfulness of humanity.

Though there is truth in these statements from a head knowelge point of view, they aren’t all that helpful in a situation of overwhelming emotional pain and anguish. They don’t help the suffering person who is trying to make sense of his/her pain. They only add to the conflict in their minds of how God can allow this to happen to the people he claims to love.

There is one thing that is clear. We have more questions than we have answers. There is certain hiddenness about God. There are so many things that we don’t understand about the way God works.

 

As Christians it’s ok to question God and ask him what he thinks he is doing. The writers in the Bible did that when trouble overwhelmed them. Didn’t Jesus call out from the cross quoting Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me”? No doubt there will be times when each of us in the depths of trouble and overwhelming emotion question God and ask where he has been during everything that has been happening.

We are people who like to have answers. We are uncomfortable with the whole notion that something is beyond our grasp. We have an acute sense of what is fair and just and what we have witnessed this week doesn’t match what we would consider to be fair and just. What have people done to deserve this kind of trouble? We have to admit that we don’t have all the answers.

We have to say that the indiscriminate way that natural disasters strike people confuses us, makes us sad and even angry and we wish we had more answers to the questions that fill our minds.

The question that faces us is this: In pain, in suffering, in bewilderment and confusion, in sickness and in disasters, can we still trust God to be our God?

Can we love God in spite of the cards that are dealt out to us in life?

I guess for many of us we can keep on trusting most of the time, but occasionally something hits us and really overwhelms us like a raging torrent. It strikes us so deeply that our love and trust in God is rocked.

Because we have been shaken to our very core, we find it hard to have the faith, the strength and the trust to hang on to God. Our own personal resources to cope are as low as they can get.Thank goodness God is right beside us, holding on to us and keeping us safe. Even when we think God has left us all alone in our personal sadness and grief, God promises that he will keep on loving us and holding on to us and supporting us and helping us whatever may happen. As Christians we know that when we have come through it all we realise that it has been God’s strong hand that has held us up above the thing that wants to drown us.

It just so happens that the psalm set down for today is Psalm 40 and it says it so well, “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along”.

The writer has come to the realisation that even when it seemed that God hadn’t heard his prayer and his pleas for help, he was there all the time. He did hear his cry and he has lifted him up out of the mud and sludge of despair; he has set his feet on solid ground and steadied him when he felt as if would fall again.

As we think back on all that has happened in our lives, the mistakes, the tragedies, the one thing that enables us to keep our senses is knowing that the love of God supports us through every tragedy and difficult time. It is the love of God we see in Jesus that assures us that God does care. Even when we are in the murkiest and muddiest places the psalmist reminds us that the love of God will hold us up and steady us as we move on with our lives and that he will hold on to us even when we are too weak to hold on to him by ourselves. In the arms of Jesus we know what kind of heart God has for us no matter what may happen.

Without a doubt, we struggle to make sense of the disasters that cause so much ruin and pain in our world. There will be times when we will seriously question God’s wisdom.

We will struggle to make sense of the disasters and find ourselves saying again and again, “I don’t understand”.

But one thing we do understand is that God’s goodness and love can be trusted, that gives us a new hope for the future and that’s all that counts.

As the writer of the psalm said,

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.