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.

Sermon for the 1st Sunday after Epiphany – The Baptism of our Lord.

Bible reading: Mark 1:9-11

A few years into the Vietnam War, and two years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, one of the most popular songs of last century hit the charts in 1965:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
It’s the only thing that there’s too little of,
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some, but for everyone.

And if the world needed love then, it needs it more than ever now. From the Middle East, to the average home of Adelaide, there seems to be too little love. But is that true?

If God is love, and God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him should not die but have eternal life, how can we say there’s too little love? There is plenty of love. God has enough love for the whole world. God didn’t just love some, but everyone. Everyone who believes in God should not die, for lack of love,but have eternal life, filled with love for God and for one another.

From Eden on, people have turned away from the love of God, to find love elsewhere. Always without success. God is love. Love comes from God. (see 1 John 4) To look for love anywhere but in God is to seek in vain, to find nothing more than “clayton’s love”, to be left disappointed and ultimately cynical. Sin is the rejection of divine love, turning away from a relationship of love with God.

And that’s how we find our world. Turned away from God’s love. Not believing there is a God of love. Not loving God. Struggling to love their partners in marriage, their neighbours, their enemies. There’s plenty of love, yet people are starved of love. It’s crazy!

But God is filled with love for the world. He loves the world so much he sends his dearly loved Son into the world, to become one of us. And finally his Son grows up and joins the crowds flocking to the Jordan for Baptism, not because he needed baptism, but because we loved-starved ones do. And God his Father spoke to him at his Baptism.

What did God his Father say to Jesus at his baptism?

You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.

What a wonderful way to speak to your Son. These are the first words the Bible records the heavenly Father speaking to Jesus his Son, on earth, and they are words of love and affirmation: You are my Son … I love you … I am very pleased with you. At his Baptism, and launch of his ministry, the Father makes quite clear that Jesus is his Son, that he loves Jesus, that he’s proud as punch of him.

Isn’t it good when we hear a Father telling his Son how much he loves him and how proud he is of him? But there’s more. Jesus says: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. The love the Father has for Jesus, Jesus passes on to us. Through Jesus we are drawn into this relationship of love between the Father and the Son. But there’s more:

Jesus goes on to say that: those who love me will be loved by my Father. As the Holy Spirit softens our hearts to love Jesus, the Son, God the Father also loves us.

What a breakthrough! So many people only see God as angry, punishing, judging. They think Jesus seems quite friendly, but not God his Father. They like the God of the New Testament, but not the God of the Old Testament. Yet both are the same. The love of Father & Son is the same.

In some churches this Sunday (the Baptism of our Lord) is Baptism Sunday. Elsie never liked Baptism Sunday, but because she was such a committed Christian she endured it. What made it worse this Sunday was that somebody had taken her seat – probably some of the families of those to be baptized.

Elsie’s church had a custom that after the baptism, the pastor would take the newly baptized infant to a member of the congregation to hold as the pastor prayed for the child.

This day the pastor headed strait to Else and to her dread gave her the infant to hold. That week Elsie visited the pastor to explain why she was so uneasy on Baptism Sunday. She’d fallen pregnant at 16. Her father pulled her out of school on the pretext that she was needed on the farm. When the baby was born it was not well. She did not call the pastor for fear he would condemn her. She did not have the baby baptized. The child died at 14 days. After all these years she still worried about it. Every Baptism Sunday drove her to sorrow and guilt.

The pastor used the Baptism of Jesus to explain how loving God is. As Jesus came out of the water …

he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven saying: You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.

Only in one other place does Mark tell us anything is torn apart. That is when the curtain of the temple is torn apart at the death of Christ, showing that through Jesus we have access to the love and mercy of God. God takes dramatic measures to drive home to us how much he loves us. He tears open the heavens; he tears open the temple curtain. Through it he shouts: I love you …I love you …I love you.

Is something holding you back from hearing and experiencing God’s love for you? Something you’ve done long ago, or been told long ago by a pastor or parent or teacher?

God tears open the heavens, and the temple curtains, to shout: I love you… I forgive you.

In a world of voices shouting: you’re no good… you’re not worthy… you’re a failure…you’re a sinner… God breaks open the heavens to tell his own Son how loved and precious he is – and his only Son loves you the same way. See the way Jesus treated all the people he met in his ministry; see how Jesus loved even his enemies as he died for all our sins on the cross; see how Jesus came to you in your baptism and welcomed you into his family of love; taste how Jesus still comes giving his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

Remember how Jesus said: love your neighbour as you love yourself? Because God and His Son Jesus love you so much, and are pleased with you, you can be pleased with yourself, you can accept yourself, you can love yourself. You don’t have to walk around as a miserable sinner, burdened down with guilt, despising yourself. In Christ, God loves you and forgives you and renews the image of God in you. You can breath in his love, and go out to love your neighbour as you love yourself.

All around you sit people who are equally loved by God, and Jesus says about them: love one another as I have loved you. (You might even want to glance at one of them now!) And Jesus said that because God is totally loving and compassionate we can go even further and love our enemies, those who for whatever reason have no time for us. And finally, when God opens our ears to hear his love, and our eyes to see it, and our hearts to receive it, His Spirit will move us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

In God, the world has all the love it needs. Through God’s love breaking into the world in Jesus there is enough love to go around, not just for some, but for everyone. Amen.

Text: Luke 2:25-27

There was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved. The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah. Led by the Spirit, Simeon went into the Temple. When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required, Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God.

 
Knowing that I liked to travel and visit new and different places someone in the family gave me a book entitled Unforgettable places to see before you die (Steve Davey, BBC Books). As the title suggests the author travelled around the world with a photographer and produced a beautiful book of places that, in his opinion, were unforgettable and worth visiting. If you were going to make a list of things to do and see before you pack your bags for the last time, the places mentioned in the book are worth considering. If you look around book stores or check out the internet you will find lots of advice on things you should do and places you should travel to before you die.

One author had written a similar book with 100 things to do and see before you die and intended to do them all before he was too old to travel. However, he died at 47 barely halfway through his list.

There was a man named Simeon. He had done everything he had wanted to do in life except for one thing – to see the Messiah God had promised in the scriptures. We are told that he was a good, God-fearing man who longed for the day when God would send the saviour. We are also told that the Holy Spirit had promised him that he would not die before he had seen the promised Messiah.

Because Luke emphasises this fact we are led to believe that Simeon is now an old man and still waiting for that day when he would see God’s promise fulfilled. Maybe because of his advanced years Simeon knew that God would do as he had said very soon.

We don’t know what Simeon expected to happen and I doubt very much that he was expecting a baby. One thing was clear there was still one more thing he wanted to do before he died and so we have this image of an old man waiting and watching, looking and searching for a sight of the Saviour.

Mary and Joseph had bundled up their six-week-old baby boy and made the trip from Bethlehem to the temple at Jerusalem, where they planned to present their firstborn son to the Lord and make a sacrifice for Mary’s purification, as the Law of Moses required.

Simeon is led by the Holy Spirit to the temple that same day. Maybe it wasn’t on his list of things to do that day but somehow he knew that going to the temple was what God wanted him to do. Since he had been promised that he would see the Messiah before he died, he couldn’t afford to ignore the fact that for some reason God wanted him to be at the temple on that day and a certain time.

It seems strange that we don’t have any recorded conversation between Mary and Joseph and Simeon, but it seems the parents from Bethlehem sensed the deep spirituality of this old man with his outstretched arms asking if he could hold their child. Old Simeon sees in this tiny child the salvation that people have been waiting for. Here in his arms is the one who will save all people. Simeon says that now he had done all the things he had wanted to do in life and was ready to die now that he had seen the promise of God fulfilled. Cradling the infant Jesus in his arms, Simeon prays to God.

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace. With my own eyes I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles and bring glory to your people Israel.”

And after he had blessed Mary and Joseph, he went on to tell them more. Simeon had described this baby as a bright light that will reveal God’s will to all people. As you know the brighter the light the deeper and darker the shadows. Many people rejoiced to learn who Jesus was but there were also many who would clench their fists out of anger.

The Saviour would force people to choose whether they really wanted to get close to God or not. He would expose those who didn’t.

He would remind them that he and the Father are one and that to reject him would also mean rejecting the one who sent him.

There will be those who will deny that he is the only way to be reconciled with the God of the universe and it is only through him that it is possible to enter into the Father’s presence in heaven.

This child will cause a great divide throughout all humanity – those who will believe and trust him as their Saviour and those who will reject him and do their best to get rid of him.

Simeon said to Mary as he passed the baby back to her, “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God which many people will speak against”. We know that throughout his life on earth and ever since this has been the case.

Simeon didn’t know that Mary would see Jesus die on a cross but he did know that, when Jesus suffered rejection and humiliation, she would also suffer. “Sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart,” Simeon said.

There was a woman whose name was Anna; eighty-four years old, and she too was looking for and speaking of this Saviour who was to come. The Bible says that she never left the temple; she stayed there day and night, fasting and praying that one day she would see the One whom God had sent to redeem Israel.

Again, God brought them together at the right time, and Anna prophesied that this child would redeem Israel. All her years of watching, waiting and fasting suddenly came to an end, as she told the people in the Temple who this child was. For Anna too her life was now complete. Of all the things that she had experienced in life, and of all the things she had achieved and done, this was indeed the most important and most exciting. Her list of things that she wanted to do before she died was complete.

There are reasons why these two people are featured on the first Sunday after Christmas.

The first is the irony that, while Simeon could not die until he met the Saviour in person, we cannot really live until we meet the Saviour. We can journey through life, happy enough, perhaps. We can be successful, and comfortable, and joyous people, but we cannot be at peace until we know that the Saviour has come to love us – one by one – love us into the Kingdom of God. Simeon’s joy was complete when he encountered the Saviour sent by God. Likewise our joy can only be complete when we encounter Jesus as our Saviour. He is not just a figure of interest from the stories of the Bible. He is our Saviour, the one who has been sent into our lives to drive out the darkness of sin and death and bring us the light of forgiveness and eternal life. It is only when we realise that Jesus came into the world for each of us personally that we can find true joy that will rise above any of the hurts and dangers that we will encounter along life’s path.

Secondly, we see in these stories of Simeon and Anna, evidence that the religious life is not a brief sprint, as we sometimes presume, but it is a marathon.

In an age of instant gratification, where the pursuit of a particular passion may last several weeks or months, these figures from the gospel of Luke spent many years seeking God’s blessing.

In an age where religious fervour lasts as long as it makes people feel good, and when things are no longer exciting they go on to something else that will give them a buzz, these two elderly figures remind us that faith and trust in God, commitment and dedication to what God wants of us, and religious fervour and commitment to God’s church is not a matter of a few weeks, months or even years.

For us, waiting for next Christmas might seem like forever; for Simeon and Anna, their watching and waiting spanned many decades. I’m sure there were times when they must have been impatient with God, depressed about their fellow Jews and their misguided ideas of worship and how God should act, and wondered whether God would really carry out his promise of a Saviour, but none of that deterred them from hanging in there, trusting God and waiting for that moment when God would bless them and they would be blessing to others as they pronounced to one and all that they have seen the salvation that God had promised. In fact, they could describe to others what it was like to hold the fulfilment of God’s promise in their arms.

The third reason why Simeon and Anna feature straight after Christmas is that they bring us back to why there had to be a Christmas in the first place. We have seen the baby in the manger and heard the story about the angels and the shepherds. We have heard the ancient prophesies about the Saviour. Simeon and Anna remind us that God’s plan of salvation will include cruelty, pain, torture, whips, nails, and dying.

God has come to earth – this child is a light revealing God’s love and bringing salvation for all people. He is our Saviour 24 seven, 365 days of the year for the rest of our lives. That’s something to get excited about. Jesus has come from heaven to earth for me – for you.

Let’s take this Christmas joy with us into the New Year. Even if we should die this coming year, suffer illness or face various kinds of misfortune, we can have that deep down joy and confidence knowing that Jesus is Saviour. He is our light, our strength and comfort every moment of the year ahead and every day of our lives.

Epiphany 8

Matthew 6:24-34

“You look worried”, one man said to another. His friend answered, “I’m so worried that if anything happens to me today, it will be two weeks before I can worry about it!”

Dear friends in Christ,

Test your memory. Try to recall the things you worried about this day last week. Those who are habitual worriers have been called back-seat drivers. Worry has been likened to a rocking chair: it gives you something to do, but gets you nowhere. All the talk in our newspapers about the difficulty people are now having in making ends meet due to the rising cost of living is increasing the worry and anxiety of many folk in our community.

It has been estimated that 40% of things we worry about never happen, another 30% have to do with things we cannot change, and 12% of our worry has to do with needless health fears. Most of the time, the troubles of tomorrow are unexpected, rather than things we have already worried about. Many people worry because they have no invisible means of support. The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel are some of the most liberating words ever spoken. The freedom from anxiety our Lord speaks of comes like a welcome song from a lost paradise. To help us get our cares and concerns into perspective, Jesus adds a note of humour to his message.

Have you ever seen a bird drive a tractor and pulling a seeder? Or drive a harvester and then carry bags of wheat into a barn? Of course not. But it makes a humorous picture, doesn’t it? Then Jesus adds the picture of flowers spinning cloth to make garments. Our Lord isn’t opposing all planning for the future. Rather, he wants to liberate us from worries that so consume us that there’s no room left for joy and thanksgiving. Worry is due to an over-focussing on negative factors, and failing to factor God and his goodness into our thinking. We are so easily tempted to want more than we have. When we’ve got the more that we longed for, there are still more things we feel we’ve just got to have. “Life doesn’t consist in the abundance of what we possess”, Jesus reminds us. A proverb advises us, “If you want to make someone happy, don’t add to their possessions. Rather, diminish their desires.” Jesus wants any self-serving wishes and desires we have to leave us, and to make room for new desires of love, kindness and trust in God. He wants us to believe that God is at work in the economic affairs of our state and nation, and yet not only there.

Our gracious God is also at work in the regular and normal activities of daily life, in the rising of the sun, the falling of the rain, and the growth of flowers, plants and trees. Everything speaks to Jesus of the activity of his heavenly Father, from the tiny mustard seed to the blowing of the wind. We can view a sparrow’s death without questioning the goodness of God’s creation, because even such an insignificant creature doesn’t die unnoticed by its Maker. The things that happen in nature have a spiritual meaning as well as a natural one. Creation speaks to us of God’s unmerited goodness: “God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45).”

Rain and sunshine speak to us of God’s kindness to his enemies. Every bird we see and every flower growing on its own, uncultivated by human hands, is a sign from God telling us of his care for us and His provision for our needs. In today’s Gospel, our Lord displays an appreciation of the beauty of nature without parallel elsewhere in the Bible. No one led a fuller life than Jesus. Yet he took time to delight in and enjoy the beauty of “the flowers in the field.” They are more beautiful than the gold and jewel-studded robes of King Solomon.

Those things we consider of insignificant value, like wildflowers, are esteemed so highly by their Maker that he adorns them with an excessive profusion of colour and varied shape and style. God doesn’t begrudge the space they occupy. Flowers tell us how much God treasures us. Their beauty is of no less value because of their temporary nature. Instead they tell us a powerful message about God’s Word: “Flowers fade, but the Word of our God endures forever (Isaiah 40:8).” Jesus speaks of native flowers as someone who is very fond of them. They remind us not to fuss and fret over what we should wear. The famous inventor Thomas Edison avoided this hassle by wearing the same kinds of clothes everyday!

Perhaps there was a stork or swallow flying overhead as Jesus invited us to “look at the birds of the air.”

Martin Luther’s comments on our Lord’s words here are peerless: “He (Jesus) is making the birds our schoolmasters and teachers. It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the Gospel a helpless sparrow should become a theologian and a preacher to the wisest of people.” Luther prefers birds to be free and not kept in cages. “Their singing of Lauds and of Matins to their Lord early in the morning before they eat is more excellent and more pleasant.” The birds of the air continually challenge us to trust God for the needs of tomorrow.

Jesus tells us that we are much more than a body to be fed and clothed. He treasures us so much he did all he could so that we might live forever. Jesus says to each one of you, “You’re blessed because you’re already in My care.” To cure you of endless worry about yourself and your future, “cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).” Come to Jesus Christ when you’re weary and can’t sleep because of worry. Jesus said, “Come to Me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).” And especially bring your “trivial” cares and concerns to your Lord. Turn your cares into prayers then everything will look different, delightfully different.

Barry Chant and his wife’s business seemed to go all wrong. Their deli was low on stock. There were bills to pay. Then the deep freezer broke down and they lost a lot of frozen goods. A few other calamities happened as well. Barry went to bed miserable and woke up miserable. “I wonder what will go wrong today”, he’d think each morning. One night, however, he turned the whole situation over to God in prayer and left it in God’s hands. For the first time for weeks, Barry went to sleep peacefully and easily. Next day, he woke up happy and confident. Nothing had changed externally. The freezer still needed fixing. The shop’s stocks were still low. But he’d changed. Barry was a changed man. He went about his work that day singing. He and his wife had proven that you can really trust God in a time of stress, and it does make a difference!

Today’s text is full of encouragement to those whose faith is fragile and needs to grow. A fragile faith, a little faith that’s keen to grow, can do great things. Even Christians with a small amount of faith need not fear the future. Never underestimate what Christ can do for you. Instead, pray with the father of that mentally ill child in Mark 9, “I believe; help me where my faith falls short.” Prayer and the study of the Scriptures are more than spiritual resources. They influence how we feel and shape our values and our priorities. The more important Jesus Christ is to you, the more blessings you will receive from him.

Jesus invites you to do what needs to be done each day and leave the results in God’s hands. Accept each new day as fresh from God’s hands and let him worry about tomorrow. Trust his promises to you. Your prospects are as bright as the promises of God. Each breath, each heartbeat, each beautiful sight or sound is his gift to you. There’s no quicker slayer of worry than gratitude. In prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells a friend, “Please don’t ever get anxious or worried about me….My past life is brimful of God’s goodness and my sins are covered by the forgiving love of Christ crucified. I’m most thankful for the people I have met.”

Thank God for all the folk who have enriched your life. It’s gratitude that makes life rich. The larger place gratitude has in your life, the less room there is for worry. Finally, Danish Lutheran philosopher Soren Kierkegaard recommends walking as a wonderful way of getting rid of worry. He got rid of his burdensome thoughts by walking.

“Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God (Philippians 4:6).”

Amen.

Epiphany 7

Matthew 5:38–48

Imagine if we were put in charge of the rain and the sunshine in Australia this year!

Some Christians might suggest we send rain regularly for the Christian farmers who go to Church, but when they need it, not in the flood proportions we’ve seen this year – and no rain at all on the unbelievers! After some time farmers who had never been near a church might start going every week so they could get a good share in the rainfall. They’d be going to Church for what they could get, and not to praise God in response to his gifts of love.

I wonder do we sometimes worship God in the hope we might get some special goodies, or do we always come as a response to God’s generous love and care for us?

If we humans were in charge of the rain I think we would be tempted to use it as a weapon against our enemies. We might flood them out, and if they survived that tragedy we might frizzle them with sizzling sunshine.

Out of his generosity God sends the rain and the sunshine on the believers and the unbelievers. If there is a drought, the Christians share in it along with the unbelievers. We need to learn to live with what God gives us through nature. We worship God because of his generous love for us, and not for what we can get.

I notice that some of us came to Church today in cars. This was only possible because in this world God’s laws of physics are absolutely consistent for everyone. This is true of our car wheels turning on the axles, to the brakes working, to the controlled explosions in the engine that give it power to move along. Imagine the trouble we would be in if the laws of physics only worked sometimes – haphazardly – like in the steering wheel, and in the engine, for example. Think of the traffic on the highways in our cities if the rules of physics only worked now and then!

God’s laws in nature work absolutely consistently – for both the believers and the unbelievers. I think we tend to take them for granted. We also need to respect these laws of physics. God isn’t going to change the universal laws of physics so we won’t have an accident if we drive dangerously or carelessly on our way home today. If God were to jump a Christian’s car over another car to avoid an accident, how many times should God do this for the Christian? Would three times be fair? If we are involved in a serious accident, our bodies are subject to the same laws as for unbelievers, and we can be killed too.

We thank God today for the miracles of technology we enjoy in our time. All of the laws in nature – in our universe – are part of the genius of God’s creation. We humans never invent these laws of physics. We only discover them!

The danger with our discoveries is we humans use them in technology against our enemies. I think it is to our shame that much research goes into developing weapons to kill our fellow humans, and people starve to death.

Technology doesn’t make us better people. It doesn’t make us more loving people. For example, we don’t build better marriages in our day. We need to look elsewhere for help to become more loving and caring people. We look to the Spirit of God to touch our hearts and minds with God’s love.

We worship God in response to his love, and not for the things we can get for ourselves. We need the love of God to flow through us to the people God puts us next to.

It is to this world of rain and sunshine and laws of nature that Jesus comes. I wonder who would like to swap places with him? Laid in a manger, in the place for animals. He never got to buy a piece of land, let alone build a house to call his home. He relied on catching a fish with a coin in it to pay his taxes! He was tortured, crucified and died. The laws of nature are used against him. There is no favouritism for God’s son. Do we deserve better than Jesus? Jesus goes through it all out of loving care and concern for you and me. We come to Jesus, not for what we can get, but to say ‘Thank you’ above all for his generous love and care for us.

I think the wonder is that God provides food and clothing to the ungrateful, the selfish, and the wicked people, whether they thank him or not. He knows their needs, as well as he knows yours and mine. Isn’t God so much more generous than you or I? God uses the sunshine and the rain to bless his enemies. He is so generous, we might even take his blessings for granted. Or we might become obsessed with the gifts and have no time for thanks for the Giver.

God’s gifts are always gifts of love. He blesses the ungodly with his gifts, and his gifts are blessings to us too. God gives out of a generous heart of loving concern and care.

We need to become more like the loving God we have. A key to us growing in love, is to accept and treasure the love of Jesus for us. He paid the cost for our heartless love, so his love could flow on to others.

What we build up and make with God’s blessings can occupy much of our time. I can think of computers, cars, supermarkets, kitchens and workshops full of gadgets, vast mining projects, oil drilling plants out in the oceans as well as on land, tapping into resources God supplies.

What is far greater to God than all the gifts we might enjoy is for us to have a thankful heart. The gifts from God come in one direction – from God to us, and sometimes the line stops there. But when our hearts respond in thanksgiving to God, and our praises ascend to God, then the line goes full circle, and we are at one with God. We praise God for his delicate laws in nature. We stand in awe before God’s creation. For the rain and the sunshine. We see the gifts, and God sees the thanksgiving. He loves the trust in your heart that receives his gifts with joy.

God’s physical care for everyone is a miracle. Similarly his spiritual gifts are given in the same way. God’s eternal Word, like manna from heaven, continues to rain down on you and me. His Word brings the best gifts that God has for us. Forgiveness. A new start. Peace of heart and mind. The best gifts God has are for everyone.

Amen.

Epiphany 6

Matthew 5:21-37
We’re inclined to be very negative about the Pharisees, but we need to begin today by giving them some credit. They were totally committed to the law of God, which had been revealed to Moses on the mountain. You couldn’t accuse them of being slack. The Pharisee we heard from the other week in the temple was a pious man: ‘I fast twice a week and give a tenth of what I get.’

Jesus doesn’t criticise the Pharisees because they are interested in God’s law, but because they’ve gone about things the wrong way. They were interested in the outcome; God was interested in the attitude.

Jesus shows us that the Law of God, that is, his will for the way human beings should relate to another, is not something that we, as Christians,  can ignore. Jesus said: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.’ Jesus wasn’t tearing down the precious gift of God’s law, which he had given to Moses all those centuries ago. Through his life, he showed us how the law of God should be lived. From the heart. It wasn’t just a matter of going through the motions, and making sure you didn’t get caught out on the big things. That’s why the Ten Commandments are still God’s guidelines for the way people should relate to one another, even today. Which is why they’re also an integral part of our Catechism.

The Pharisees tried hard to obey the letter of the law. And failed. If we try the same approach we are doomed too. It’s mission impossible. If you’re not convinced, what Jesus says today about life in the kingdom will convict you.

Following God’s law isn’t a matter of not getting caught on the big things and ignoring the little failures. Take, for example, the fifth commandment. ‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder.’’ It was said to Moses by no less than God himself. So it’s the authoritative word of God. ‘But I tell you’ Jesus says. ‘There is more to this commandment than you’ve been taught. It’s not just the act of murder that’s the problem, but the attitude that leads to it.’

You and I can sit here comfortably while Jesus talks about murder. But suddenly Jesus widens the net, and we’re caught. ‘Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement.’  Who hasn’t been angry? Who hasn’t cursed or muttered about someone else, someone here today in this church as well. What kind of impossible standard is Jesus laying down. It’s not so hard to evade the letter of the law, to make ourselves as small a target as possible. Murder is a big thing. But anger. Everyone gets angry.

Or what about the other commandment that Jesus focuses upon. ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ Does that mean that if I haven’t committed the physical act, I’m safe. No, Jesus says. ‘I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’ It’s not just the act but also the attitude. You and I aren’t off the hook just because we haven’t done the deed in the flesh.

What is Jesus asking of us, by tightening up the law of God so much that we have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide? He’s pointing to the inherent dishonesty in our human nature, that makes us think that we can appease God by only committing little offences. God sees into the heart. He is showing us that our need for him and what he brings us is greater than we ever appreciated. We simply cannot obey God’s law as natural human beings.

What’s needed is a whole new approach, a change of attitude. Which is exactly what we, as kingdom people, have received from Jesus. A new heart and a new mind. The Holy Spirit to safeguard our thoughts and direct our actions. God’s law, as Jesus teaches us here, forces us to examine ourselves. Jesus asks us to be honest about out deception, our self justification, in which we excuse our anger, or our lust, because we can’t help it.

And even then, we still fail. We aren’t always people of integrity. We drag our old nature around. ‘Don’t hide your failures’, Jesus says. ‘Bring it out in the open, repent of it, and aim for kingdom values.’ ‘When you fail, remember that I died for you, so that your sinful failures would be forgiven. Remember my words at the Last Supper: ‘this is my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’

The reality of forgiveness means that we can honestly confront our failures. Our anger at our spouse. Simmering disputes with people in this congregation. Threats and spiteful words against workmates. Lustful thoughts, even the act of adultery itself. The sad dissolution. breakdown of a marriage, which breaks the promise of a life-long union. All the things which Jesus today brings to our attention. We can let God’s word convict us and lead us to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ It’s then that we are freed from our failures, to begin fresh and energised.

Free to live in a loving, constant relationship with Jesus, who promises us; “I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ There’ll never be a time when we’re on our own. Free but guided and protected by a loving God, who asks that we call him Father, and who is always listening for our prayers.

This is the background against which we must place the words of Jesus today. Words which people have criticised for being unrealistic, harsh, impossible. Today Jesus gives some shape to his call that we are to be ‘the salt of the earth…and the light of the world’

What Jesus never meant to do in the Sermon on the Mount is to give us a complete handbook entitled ,’How to be a Christian in 3 easy lessons.’ Instead, he focuses on certain aspects of life and teaches us how kingdom values are to be lived out in that environment.

As kingdom people, Jesus urges us to let go of the mistakes and failures of the past and to aim to live like him. He specifically addresses our life in relationship with others and with a spouse. Don’t let anger rule. Let the fruits of the Holy Spirit be in evidence. Love. Peace. Joy. Patience. Self control, etc. Seek reconciliation with people who have wronged you. Why? Because that what God has done for you. He has sought you out and made peace through Jesus. God doesn’t nurse grudges. Nor should you. Try as hard as you can to live in peace with other people. Don’t let things deteriorate to the point where legal action is contemplated. Be aware of the temptations to adultery that you face. Work hard at growing you marriage relationship. Give it your all.

These are some of the ways that kingdom people live out their personal relationship with Jesus. This is just a tiny segment of the whole shape of kingdom life. Place yourself at God’s service, and let him fill in the whole picture of life under his guidance. Amen.