Category: Epiphany

Luke 4: 21-30 hidden love

I brought some beautiful roses along with me.  Here, I will hand them out to you to hold while I give the sermon.  The rose…beautiful, colourful and fragrant, what does the beautiful flower remind you of?  Love;

Commitment;

Hope;

Future;

Life.

Yet, as those who are holding the rose stem would attest, on the same branch as the rose blossoms, there are sharp thorns.  What do the thorns remind you of?

Pain;

Danger;

Warning;

Suffering;

Death;

(holding and pointing to either rose or thorns) How could God allow this to be?  How could God create such beauty together with such ugliness?  Two complete opposites co-existing together, like love amid pain; commitment in danger; hope in the midst of suffering; life in the middle of death: beauty and ugliness together make up the whole that make up the rose.

As we live our lives and go through the ups and downs of hopes raised and hopes dashed; experience the joys of new life and the sorrows of death, God can seem to us to be a rose flower one moment and the next a thorn in our side.  One moment God seems to pour out his love upon us, blessing us with health, hope and certainty, the next moment, it is as if we have just grabbed the stem of a rose bush and have been pierced by the thorns; trouble, fear and suffering is all we experience.

We experience the same opposites co-existing together in our Christian life. One moment we seem to be full of faith, trusting in the certainty that we are God’s baptised child, secure in his love, living in his grace and forgiveness; we praise him and give him glory.  The next moment we are gripped with uncertainty, doubt and fear because we cannot break free from an oppressive sin we know God is anger about.  We lose our faith because we fear his justice and retribution for our wrong doing.  Our praise for God quickly turns to grumbling.  One moment we love him, the next we hate him.  In fact, such is our experience of God, it seems easier to hate God than to love him.

Our experience of God as either a rose or a thorn is not new, the people of Jesus time, those who were touched by the presence of Jesus, who listened to his message of salvation and followed him around, constantly struggled to come to terms with his apparent contradictive nature.  One moment he was to be praised for his message of hope, his miracles of healing, and his call to life, as shown after Jesus raised a widow’s son, ‘all were filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.’

Then suddenly, it seemed as if he turned 180 degrees and was out to bring pain on these very same people who were praising him.  Like a thorn on a rose, he stung their lives with words of warnings, and actions that brought danger, suffering and even death.  This sudden apparent turn about by Jesus made the hearts and mouths of those who once praised him, to curse him.   Once, confused after Jesus criticised the religious people around him, they turned against him saying “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us.’  They had ears, but they didn’t understand; had eyes but they couldn’t see, as Jesus often warned.

Jesus was in his home town, teaching in the synagogue, the people who came to see and hear him, ‘all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.’  Knowing Jesus personally, and hearing of the miracles he had performed in Capernaum, they gladly praised him, especially after he read the prophecy of Isaiah and declared ‘today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.‘  Jesus was their rose flower, someone who brought life, hope and a future.  He was their chosen one to set them free with the Lord’s favour.  Then the next moment the crowds were furious with him.  As Luke records ‘They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.’ Jesus had told them the Gentiles were the recipients of God’s grace because of their unbelief.

It is very easy for many us to continue to have a similar ‘love/hate’ relationship with God throughout our whole life.  It is very easy to remain in a constant wave pattern of love or hate depending on how we experience God; a constant flipping from hearing to not hearing. God is a rose to us today, but a thorn to us tomorrow because of what happens to us.  Erasmus, a theologian during Luther’s time, saddened by his sinful state said ‘[God seems] to delight in the torments of poor wretches and to be a fitter object for hate than for love.’  (Bondage of the will: 54-55)  He knew God is love, yet he often experienced the sting of God’s anger against sin.

Why is this?  Is it because God is bi-polo and loves us one minute and hates us the next?  Or is it that our love for God is dependant on the good or bad things that happen in our lives?  Or is it our sinful nature that causes us to hear but not perceive, as Jesus warns “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’? If only we could know this mysterious God and stop our oscillating!

Thank God we don’t have to search the mysteries of God, because it is impossible for us to know God in his hiddeness and sovereignty  apart from Christ, as St Paul writes in Romans 11 ‘How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? ‘.  It is impossible for us to explain and interpret why God in his majesty does what he does.  The good news is that Jesus entered into our life as the light of God to show us the heart of God; to demonstrate that he does truly love us, as St John writes ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.’  Apart from Jesus, we will continue to remain oscillating between faith and unbelief.  Christ, his life, death on the cross for our sin and resurrection for our justification, grounds our faith and brings certainty.

Jesus says ‘I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’  This simply means that like a child we listen to, and receive God for who he is in Christ Jesus, and not attempt to explore his mysterious ways apart from Christ.  St Paul also encourages us not to hate God when he seems to attack us, but to look to Christ in times of confusion saying ‘in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’

Our joy, our hope, our future, our life, especially in the midst of fear, suffering, sin and death, is the rose of God, Jesus Christ and him crucified for you.  Trust yourself to Christ; be humble enough to receive as God’s guarantee the word which God speaks to you in Christ, and trust yourself to Christ on the basis of that word however dreadful God may appear to you at times.

Faith trusts that just like roses are always found among thorns, God’s love will always be found even in the midst of sin and despair.  Luther once said ‘If I could by any means understand how this same God, who makes such a show of wrath and unrighteousness, and yet be merciful and just, there would be no need for faith.  But as it is, the impossibility of understanding makes room for faith…Now, the highest degree of faith is to believe that he is merciful, though he saves so few and damns so many.’

 In those times when  crowds around you become furious at God, and seek to condemn and reject you because of him, take hold of Christ and together with him, walk right through the crowd untouched; trusting he is God’s love amid pain; commitment in danger; hope in the midst of suffering; life in the middle of death: beauty and ugliness that come together in Christ is that which makes up the whole of faith, that which makes up the whole of life with our rose, Jesus Christ.  Amen

And the peace which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen

1 Corinthians 12_12-31 what matters most
Who remembers learning how to walk?  No one I know remembers purposely planning to take their first step and walking.  Walking is something natural. It just happens.  Almost invariably, at the appropriate time in our development, we learn to walk.  Our body learns to work as one.  Each muscle, bone, ligament and limb work together with all our senses to begin to go forward; to walk; to be one body in motion and with purpose.  No part of our body is any more important than the other.  All parts of our body, see and unseen, work together to walk.  Otherwise walking unassisted would be impossible.  Each step we take is really a God given miracle of the unity of our body.

When Neil Armstrong stepped off the Apollo 11 and onto the moon, he said these famous words (who can quote them?) ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ That special moment in history, when man first walked on the moon, was not Neil Armstrong’s individual achievement, it was humanity’s achievement as a whole that got him there.  It was a corporate body of people from all around the world who worked together as one that enabled history to be made; one step by one man, but it was the many steps of many men and women working together, as a body does, that enabled Neil Armstrong to make that one small step.

Two types of bodies working together to achieve, flourish and overcome, to step-out and to walk; Firstly, our own body working as one, the other, many bodies working corporally as one; both working together in harmony and unity; both walking together.  This is how it is to be in the church.  St Paul, frustrated with disunity, individualism, jealousy, division, boasting over spiritual gifts and prideful remarks between the members of the Corinthian church, wrote ‘The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body– whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free– and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.’

You and I as individual baptized people of God, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, actually make up the body of Christ, the church.  Two types of bodies, our own and then every Christian, make up the other body, the corporate body of Christ, the church, of whom he is the head.  Have you ever thought about this, the miracle of our walking as one body with Christ?  You did not have a say in your birth and you did not plan to walk, it all came about without your doing from the day you were born.

The miracle is that we became members of Christ’s body and walk with him in the same way, by no decision, effort or special talents of our own, but through the grace of God given to us at our new birth in baptism, as Jesus said in John 15:16 “you did not choose me, but I chose you.’  You, purely by virtue of your baptism were born again into a new body that is the body of Christ, our church here.  And it is in your new body that you now walk, together as one body in Christ.

When fishing on Yalata beach (yes I did catch the great big Snapper), with nothing but miles of beach, sand dunes and sea with no vegetation, you loose perspective of distance. I found this out very dramatically.  After casting my bait into the sea and putting by rod into its holder, I walked away to look for a place to camp for the night.  I happened to turn around and saw my fishing rod being pulled into the sea!  Thinking of nothing else but the possibility loosing the big fish that must have been on the end of my disappearing rod, I ran to grab the rod before it was pulled into the sea.  Well, I ran and ran, yet I didn’t seem to be getting any closer.  The distance was further than I thought.  Each step was agonizingly small compared to the distance I needed to travel.

However, I was so concerned about my own steps, that I forgot that my brother was just a few short steps from my disappearing rod.  I could have called out to him.  I could have trusted that his small step, though insignificant compared to my great steps, would have had an instant impact.  Instead I raced alone and risked loosing everything.

How do you view yourself as a member of Christ’s body and your walk with Christ?  Perhaps you are tempted to do what I did on the beach and try to run it alone.  In our passion to see results, see ‘fish’ caught for Jesus, we concentrate on what we are doing; on how our walk is making all the difference and when things get tough, we run that bit harder, not trusting or just forgetting that our brother or sister in Christ is just a step away from achieving the goal for us and together with us; forgetting that we were all given the one Spirit to drink, we are all one in Christ…walking together in one purpose.  Are you someone who is prepared to risk everything, even your own health, risking burn out and lose of faith all because you feel then need to run alone?

Unfortunately, there is a misguided emphasis in the body of Christ that promotes the belief  that what matters most is our ‘personal relationship with Jesus’.  Its unfortunate because it fosters members of the body of Christ to become individuals and personal walkers with Christ.  The emphasis on the Christian individual that ‘you can make a difference’ is not what Christ intended for his body the church.

St Paul uses the analogy of the human body to show how ludicrous it is when individuals try to walk alone in the body of Christ, ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?… As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.’

Perhaps living in this individualistic Christian environment you feel your small steps in Christ make no difference, that your Christian walk will make little or no contribution to the church.  Perhaps you feel jealous of others because God has given them greater and more important gifts.  ‘They can do far better, so why should I try’, you may think.  What if my brother, standing next to my fishing rod, that was hurtling into the sea, and knowing I was struggling to get to it, thought ‘what would my couple of little steps do?’  Let’s not lose sight of who we are.  You are a new creation, re-born into the body of Christ through baptism.  You belong to Christ and you are a vital and important part of his body, the church.  Not because of what you do, or who you are, but because of who’s you are and to whom you belong.

Let me quote Paul from the message bible ‘The old labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free – are no longer useful.  We need something larger, more comprehensive.  I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less.  A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge.  Its all the different – but – similar parts arranged and functioning together.  If Foot said ‘I’m not elegant like hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to the body,’ would that make it so?  If Ear said ‘I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,’ would you want to remove it from the body?’

Knowing that we are all valuable members of Christ and his body, and not just individuals walking alone, when we step out in mission or ministry, perhaps we could paraphrase Neil Armstrong’s famous words ‘One small step for me, one giant leap for Christ’s church!’  Then, what would matter most, is not what I say and do as an individual, but what the body as a whole is achieving as we walk together in Christ.  What would matter most is not what I proclaim, but what the church as a whole proclaims and is founded upon, Christ and him crucified and our new creation as people of God through baptism.

So when you feel persecuted or unworthy, or don’t know your place in the body, or are suffering on account of body of Christ, remember you are a member of the church, who together with share your pain.  What matters most however, is that Christ is the head and thus when we hurt he hurts with us.

Let me conclude with Luther’s encouraging words in his commentary on Galatians ‘…the church suffers on Christ’s account, as Christ himself testifies when he says in Acts 9:4: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?  Saul had not done any violence to Christ, but only to his church.  But whoever touches this, touches the apple of his eye (Zech. 2:8).  The head is more sensitive and responsive in its feeling than the other parts of the body, as experiences teaches.  When the small toe or some other tiny part of the body is hurt, the face immediately shows that it feels this; the nose contracts, the eyes flash, etc.  In the same way Christ, our head, makes our afflictions his own, so that when we, who are his body, suffer, he is affected as though the evils were his own.’

6th Sunday after epiphany 1 Corinthians 9:24-27  An athlete of Christ

In order to compete and be competitive, an athlete trains hard for his goal and sheds off anything that may hinder his chances of wining the prize.

What sort of athlete would have a diet like this? (fast food pac
kets, coke and beer).  Would these be a hindrance?  Would this diet help to win the prize?  Would an elite athlete wear this? (a heavy jacket, hold a suitcase and then a blindfold)?  Would he know where he is going in a race?  Would he be able to compete competitively carrying a sports bag?  No, all of these things need to be removed as part, of an athlete’s strict training.  Everything is seen as a loss in comparison to the final prize and crown of victory.

Being in Athens and Corinth, it is more than likely St Paul enjoyed sport and even attended sporting events in his free time.  He would have seen how hard athletes trained.  Living in Greece, he would have witnessed firsthand the determination of an athlete to finish the race.  He may have applauded with the crowds as they saw the joy on the faces of those who won the crown of victory.  Historical records found in the excavations of ancient Corinth show that around the exact dates of Paul’s mission work in Corinth, the Isthmian Games were held.

This prestigious event, second only to the Olympics in Athens, was run in Corinth every two years.  Ancient records show athletic events included racing, wrestling, jumping, boxing, hurling the javelin, and throwing the discus.  Paul, having lived in Corinth for many years, would have seen the athletes training in the streets; running, throwing and practicing for their events.  It was required by decree that all athletes devote 10 months to strict training.

As we know, this sort of dedication to winning requires an athlete with determination and commitment.  It meant that a competitor would voluntarily renounce not only unhealthy habits, like junk food, drinking and smoking, but also give up many things that are fine, like holidays or parties, in order to focus totally on the goal.

Perhaps St Paul wrote part of his Corinthian letter sitting in the stadium watching athletes striving for the crown of victory.  Perhaps he was sitting there thinking, why is it an athlete trains, strives and competes so hard to win a temporary crown made only of olive leaves, yet his converts in the new church of Jesus, the believers in the way, showed little sign of this enthusiasm; showed no real commitment to studying God’s word or striving for the sake of the gospel.

Perhaps Paul just finished watching a running race when he wrote, ‘members of the church in Corinth, Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.’

Paul had preached the good news of Christ crucified as he writes ‘For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.’  It is in this good news that the believers in the new church in Corinth were awarded salvation and eternal life as a crown of victory.  This good news of salvation, a free gift from God, should have spur them on to holy living; to striving and renouncing things that would hinder them from winning the prize, like an athlete would do.  But Paul found very little of this.  The freedom of the gospel was for many, freedom to do nothing!

Martin Luther found this same problem in his new church of the reformation, in a sermon preached on 9th March 1522, he made these scathing remarks ‘We must have love and through love we must do to one another as God has done to us through faith.  For without love faith is nothing…And here dear friends, have you not grievously failed?  I see no signs of love among you, and I observe very well that you have not been grateful to God for his rich gifts and treasures.

I notice that you have a great deal to say of the doctrine of faith and love which is preached to you, and this is no wonder; an ass can almost intone the lessons…Dear friends, the kingdom of God, and we are the kingdom, does not consist in talk or words, but in activity, in deeds, in works and exercises.  God does not want hearers and repeaters of words, but followers and doers and this occurs in faith through love.’

Certainly perhaps, we are not in the same league as those in Wittenberg, or even Corinth.  I do indeed see that everyone here is thankful to God for the gift of salvation and do indeed love and live lives worthy of the gospel.  Yet Paul’s words, like a coach speaking to his players at half time, can spur us on to greater appreciation for the crown of eternal life and a renewed determination to train our bodies, our minds and our spirits in the word of God.  Paul encourages us not to ‘run our race like an athlete running aimlessly or fight like a boxer hitting the air.’  Rather, we are to be like great athletes, making our bodies slaves to Christ so that we do not miss out on the prize’.

The prize, the crown of victory is the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life because of Jesus death for our sins on the cross.  You have already been crowned with this victory when Jesus declared you forgiven; justified you or put you in a right relationship with God in and through you baptism.

Just like Naaman, by the power of God’s word and the washing of water, he was cleansed from leprosy, in the washing of baptism, you have been cleansed from sin and given new life, as written in Titus 3 ‘He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour.’

Yet, as we know, this crown is only received fully, in death.  We are still running our race, still enduring hardships and disappointments like any athlete running a race.  However, God has not left us alone in this event, in his compassion he has graciously given as all the training equipment needed for our faith, so we don’t lose the race and the crown of victory.

We train our bodies by reading God’s word and as we do, his Spirit makes us holy and cleanses us of sin.  The Spirit in the word trains our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, so we can recognise the sins that are hindering our race for the prize and leads us to put off the devil and all his works and ways.

Our training as Athletes for Christ consists in eating the right spiritual foods, and that too, has be provided by God himself.  Jesus body and blood are given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  His body is truly present in the bread and wine to strengthen our faith for the race.  Jesus said ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

We don’t need to run our race aimlessly, like a blindfolded runner.  We know where to go to receive refreshment and renewal for our tired souls.  We know where to go for strength to love and serve even our enemies; we go straight to the power of God’s word and sacraments, just like an athlete goes straight for the Gaidorade.

We don’t box the air like a shadow boxer, not knowing how to defeat our opponent, we know the target, the devil and we know how to knock him out cold, for one little word of Jesus can fell him.  Yes, an athlete of Jesus trains and remains in the word of God, for it is in this power that the victory will be won, as in the final verse of ‘A mighty fortress is our God’

‘The word shall stand despite all foes-No thanks they for it merit- For God is with us, and bestows his gifts and Holy Spirit.  And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife: Though these all be gone, yet have our foes not won; the kingdom ours remaineth.’

Amen

Epiphany 5 Isaiah-40:21-31 and Mark 1:29-39   God4me

I have on me, a good pair of walking shoes, a hat, a walking stick, a back pack with food and water.  Also, if I am really going to get up close and personal with nature, I am going to need these; binoculars.   Most people love to go bushwalking and get close to nature; to get away from it all and find rest and even themselves, in the beauty and grandeur of creation.

When I picked up my Subaru in Wollongong, I got talking with the previous owner about my job and how my role is to bring God’s word and grace to people; I work to bring people closer to God.  The young man replied saying ‘When I surf, I am close to God; the beach is my church and while I am riding the waves, I am closest to God; in nature and in the waves is where I find peace for my soul.’

When we go sight seeing, it is so easy to lose ourselves to its beauty and wonder.  The next slides explain what I mean (slides of nature).  The beauty of creation relates to us in some spiritual way and makes us feel close to God, or for many, like the surfer, closer to some spiritual force.  This is not uncommon and even biblical.  St Paul says ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities– his eternal power and divine nature– have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.’

St Paul is right, for Christians, a walk through nature can make us feel closer to God and as we look through the binoculars at the view, or look through them into the heavens, and we try to grasp the awesomeness and glory of God, we might want to recite the words of Isaiah ‘God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.’

Perhaps we may even begin to sing the words of popular Christian songs which focus on God’s power and glory ‘Our God is an awesome God, he reigns on heaven and earth, yes, God is an awesome God.’  Or ‘Proclaim your awesome power, declare your mighty deeds and my eyes always look to you and I am captured by your majesty’.

Yes, God is indeed awesome as he says ‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Yet, is this how God wants us to know him, in his power and majesty, and is this the way God assures us that he loves us.  Perhaps the surfboarder is right?  Perhaps creation is the church of God; nature is where we are closest to God and in his glory and majesty is where can come to know him best?”  Perhaps our focus on sin and the cross, suffering and servant hood, word and sacrament is not authentic Christianity; its not how God would want to be known?

If the surfboarder is right, and God is to be known best by his power and glory in nature, what sort of God would we have when we see this (pictures of destruction).  When we try and come close to God only in his majesty and power, only in his creation, we are going to get burnt like a moth to a flame.  One moment the flame of creation and God’s majesty is beautiful, the next, it can destroy us and our faith that God is love.   One moment we can be praising God as awesome, the next moment, we can hate him because he destroyed all we have, like Job experienced.

God is indeed awesome and glorious, as shown by his creation, but to only know God in his glory is to have an uncertain God; a God of contradictions.  A God who is two faced; a God of beauty and destruction, of glory and anguish, of life and death, of love and hate.  We don’t know for sure if God loves us or hates us. To trust God because he is an awesome God, will only leave us uncertain and in doubt when suffering or when we fall into sin and constant temptation.  The unanswerable and age old question stunts our faith ‘how can a loving God allow suffering?’

Yes, we believe God is awesome, as we say in our, “I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth”.  But the true awesomeness and wonder of God is not that he is sovereign over us, not that he created heaven and earth, not that we cannot compare him? Or that no one is his equal?  For us, the real miracle of God is that he came to us in his Son Jesus.  He made his heart and love known to us in Jesus, ‘Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.’

The uncertainty and contradictions we have of God are totally dismissed when we place our trust in Jesus.  In him we truly know God and his will for us sinners.  In today’s gospel Jesus clearly demonstrates God’s love and his willingness to heal and restore human life, even in the midst of suffering.

Simon’s mother-in law was suffering a bad fever when Jesus healed her, clearly demonstration God’s love.  Yet he didn’t stop there, Jesus, as a way of showing the will of God towards us, heals many with sicknesses and demons, as Mark records ‘the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.’

Jesus showed the love God has for us throughout his whole earthly ministry, not in glory and signs and wonders, but by healing, cleansing and restoring people caught in suffering; people like you and I.  (slide) Yet even more than this, we have a graphic and compelling demonstration of God’s love for us, when Jesus suffered and died for our sins on the cross.  At this point, with his hands and feet pierced, his blood that run down the cross, cleansed and healed us from all guilt and sin.  Hidden under suffering and death, Jesus brings healing and shows the Father’s love.

For St Paul, the cross was central to faith and the only way we have certainty of salvation, as he says in Romans 5:8 ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’  Knowing God in suffering is to have certainty of faith that he loves us and forgives us, even in the midst of our sinfulness and messed up lives.  Luther called this sort of faith a ‘theology of the cross’.

A theology of the cross is for us, better understood as a ‘faith of the cross’.   A faith of the cross does not try and know God in his glory and majesty.  A faith of the cross does not look for signs and miracles in our life.  A faith of the cross looks for God hidden in suffering and ordinary things.

That same healing power of God and the same love for us that Jesus demonstrated is to be found for us in the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Jesus is hidden, present and available for us in the bread and wine to give us the forgiveness and healing he won for us on the cross.  A faith of the cross, your faith, believes this is true because it does not attempt to find God in his glory, but where he has promised to be found; in his word the bible and in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

We really are in the true church of God; this is authentic Christianity.  So instead of wearing all this sight seeing gear and walking around to find God in his glory and power, we who have a faith of the cross carry around with us the bible, and look, not into binoculars, but into the waters of our baptism to find God.  And we, who have a faith of the cross, don’t drink and eat plain food and water on our journey with God, we have stomachs filled with Jesus body and lips moistened by his blood.  These are the things of God we wear on our earthy journey and wear to give us certainty of salvation.  Amen

Authoritative word Mark 1:21 28

 

President Eisenhower once said ‘Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.’  And the famous Lutheran pastor, who was shot by the SS for attempting to assassinate Hitler said ‘It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.’  We love to hear quotes from important people.  This is because words have power when people in authority speak.  We listen to them and act on what they say because of the authority of the person saying them

When a doctor says ‘you are very sick, we instinctively respond and believe exactly what the doctor says; even when we don’t feel sick!  We don’t know why or how we got sick.  We just believe what the doctor says, because his words have authority.  Words of authority bring about change and they bring about action; we want to be healed.  Perhaps you know other examples, like the words of a parent or even a judge.  It is a fact that words and authority combine into action and are change agents.

Mark records an incident in Jesus ministry when his words and authority came together as a change agent to bring about action.  Listen again to what happened when Jesus spoke.  ‘When the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.  Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are– the Holy One of God!”

Jesus spoke and things happen.  Instantly, people recognise Jesus as someone who has authority; someone who knows what he is talking about and embodies his teaching.  His words spoke to their heart and conscience; they are amazed at how his words moved them and acted upon them.  Yet they, like us, should not have been surprised at this, after all, the prophet Isaiah says this about God’s word ‘As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, … so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.’

Yet, just as in Jesus day, so it is today, many people do not want to hear God’s word.  Even many Christians fail to understand the spiritual importance of hearing God’s word.  Perhaps you have been told the bible is just words on a page; a message and nothing more.  I once had a person tell me ‘why should I go to church, the message is all ways going to be the same.  Jesus is always going to rise from the grave; I’ve heard it, nothing’s going to change, I agree with it, so why go?’

Why go to church if the message never changes?  Perhaps we all think this at times, why go to church, nothing changes?  That would be true, if God’s word was only a message on a page, but its not.  God’s word has power and authority, as Jesus says ‘my words are Spirit and they are life.’  What if that man with the evil spirit chose not to come and hear Jesus, would he have known he had an evil spirit?  Would he have been healed? Do you think he knew?  Do you think the others sitting around him that day knew of the spirit with in him?  Of course not.  As he listened, Jesus’ words had an effect on him.  They revealed the sin, removed it and restored this man’s soul; Jesus words and authority are change agents.

As you and I sit hear, listening to God’s word, none of us can fully know and understand just what action and effect his word is having upon us, just like that man with the evil spirit.  God has not given us the privilege of having spiritual eyes to see into our heart, only he can do this, as the psalmist pleads ‘search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.’  His word will reveal the evil and sin hidden within us, or remind us of the sins we try and hide deep within us.

This action of God, where his word convicts us of sin and evil, Luther called the ‘foreign work of God, or his alien work’.  It is where, Luther said, he speaks a word of law and demands an account of what we have done.  It is where he says ‘have you served other God’s?’  Have you taken part in violence?  Do you hold bitterness and anger or partake in wrong sexual acts, all of which attract evil spirits?  It is where he makes us realise we are sick and in need of a physician, as he says in Matthew 9:12 ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.’  The words of Jesus combine with his authority, as change agents, to reveal and deal with the sin in our lives.

However, we dare not stop there!  A doctor doesn’t just diagnose and say ‘you are sick’, then send you on your way.  No, a doctor will immediately say what needs to happen in order for you to be cured; he begins to heal you.  In the same way, God’s word doesn’t stop at its alien work, its work of revealing sin, it also heals and restores.  Jesus said sternly to the man, well, actually to the evil spirit ‘”Be quiet!” “Come out of him!”  The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.’  Jesus’ words combined with his authority as change agents and effected change upon this man’s life; he was healed and restored as a child of God.

This action of the God’s word Luther called God’s ‘proper work’.  The proper work of God’s word is to save and restore; to sanctify and bless, just as a doctor’s proper work is not to diagnose but to heal.  And God does this through the gospel; the word of good news.  St Paul points this out saying ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.’  The gospel is the word of God which declares you right before him; that your sins are forgiven, you are healed and a child of God, because of the atoning death of Jesus on the cross for yours and my sin.

The proper work of God, his healing word, comes to you and me as a change agent through what the church calls sacraments.  It is where God has promised to heal you and give you grace, mercy and forgiveness.  The proper work of God, the pure gospel happens in and through baptism and Holy Communion.  In these, the word and authority of God are change agents, which declare you forgiven, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.  Many call the sacrament of baptism and Holy Communion, the medicine of eternal life.  We are given them as a doctor gives his patients medicine.

Just as the simple words of Jesus ‘come out!’, sent the evil spirit from the man, Jesus word to you and me, ‘your sins are forgiven’, combined with the water’s of baptism or as we partake in his body and blood in the bread and wine in Holy Communion, send the devil flying.  He has no power over us.  This is the living and active word of God that is a change agent in our life and this is why we continue to come to church and this is why we hear and read God’s word in our homes.

To sum up, let me finish with a quote from John Kleinig, an OT lecturer at Australian Lutheran College, in a book by called ‘Grace upon grace’.  Dr John writes
‘The power of Jesus [word]does not just apply to what happened in Capernaum.  It applies equally, and perhaps even more fully now in the light of Easter, to us and our situation.  All people remain in the darkness until Christ comes and teaches them his Father’s word with authority…with that word he sends Satan and his spirits packing.  Everything, therefore, depends on Christ and his victory.  Through his self-sacrificial death for our sins and his resurrection for our justification he has won the victory for us.’

Amen

 

 

3^rd Sunday after epiphany Mark 1_14-20 good new/bad news

 

“I have some good news and some bad news’, the chair person of the ladies guild said to the pastor.  ‘The good news is that we voted to send you a get well card.  The bad news is the vote passed by 31-30”.

 

Good news/bad news.  “The good news, said the elder to his pastor, is that the congregation accepted your job description just the way you wrote it.  The bad news is that we were so imprest by it, we formed a call committee to find someone to fill the position”.

 

Good news bad news, they always seem to come as one.  When there is good news, there always seems to be bad news, or the other way around, there is always good news in bad news: as the saying goes, ‘there is a silver lining behind every dark cloud’.  Millions are celebrating the good news that the first black man Barak Obama has been installed as the new president of the United States, however, the bad news is, despite all the words of hope and determination, Obama is only one man and only human and we know the record of human attempts to ‘redeem the world’. 

 

We are currently in the church season of Epiphany.  A time set aside in the church to explore the revelation of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.  It is a time for us to learn about how God reveals himself to us through his word.  The observable fact that good news and bad news come into our lives, gives us a simple but profound way of understanding how God deals with us.  The bad news/good news reality is a formula for understanding the bible or as Martin Luther explained it ‘God always speaks to us in two ways; in law and gospel’.  Understanding God’s word as being both law and gospel is unique to our faith tradition and the simple key that opens the scriptures to us.

 

The first words Jesus spoke in his earthly ministry were words of bad news and good news.  But unlike the good news bad news jokes I just told you, Jesus was not joking when he spoke these words, “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!“  He is not joking about the bad news ‘repent of your sins’, he means it, but just as important he is not joking when he says ‘believe the good news and be saved; believe in me…believe also in the one who sent me.’ 

 

Repent and believe, God’s word of bad news and good news is the simple message of Jesus, and it was the simple message of John the Baptist, of the Apostle Paul, of the bible and is the simple yet life changing word of God to you and me;

 

Law and gospel, the bad news/good news formula is the window which enlightens us to God’s word.  It gives us a paradigm or platform from which to understand our relationship with God and his word to us.  When we read the bible, when we hear God’s word spoken to us, the widow of both bad news/good news together enables us to understand what Jesus means when he says ‘repent and believe.  The bad news ‘repent’ convicts our conscience of sin. 

 

It tells us what God expects of us and reveals to us, that we can never achieve what it demands, as Jesus says “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery (you think you can keep this command, well).’ I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’  The bad news of Jesus’ ‘repent’, tells us that when we read the bible are hear Isaiah say ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.’

 

We can know for certain that even the good we do for others, the good deeds in our service to the church are never good works to impress God enough to get us to heaven.  This is the law, the bad news.

 

The good news however, which must always accompany God’s word of bad news, comforts us and releases us from the terrors of sin and guilt.  It demands nothing of us yet gives everything.  It assures us and gives us certainty that despite our failure to keep what the law demands of us, we are forgiven because of Jesus death on the cross.  This is what Jesus meant when he said ‘believe the good news’.

 

 The goods news is that ‘whoever is baptised and believes will be saved’.  The good news is as  St Paul says ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’.  The good news is as Luther discovered, that we are save by no merits of our own, but by faith alone in Christ alone.  This is the good news Jesus was speaking about and is now speaking to you.

 

The good news is spoken most clearly in Holy Communion.  It is here in this meal, where Jesus says ‘take and drink this IS my body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’  We eat and drink pure good news, pure gospel.  The bad news is dealt with and destroyed as we partake of the supper.  Holy Communion is the observable and tangible forgiveness of God.

 

We must in no way confuse this pure good news with the bad news and doubt our forgiveness, doubt the grace of God.  When God forgives it is complete, or in Jesus words on the cross, ‘it is finished’.  When God says it is done, it is final!

 

And with these words of Christ ‘your sins are forgiven’, our Christian life begins.  It begins anew each time we leave the Lord’s Table.  We walk free from here to live our life travelling the road between God’s bad news and good news.  As an analogy similar to our Christian walk between law and gospel, when Julie and I lived in Alice Springs, we decided to travel to Adelaide via an outback road through William Creek.  Well, it rained all night which made the road very muddy and slippery.

 

 I used to wonder why outback roads were so wide when very few cars travelled them.  Now I knew.  When they are wet, the wide road lets you slide from one side of the road to the other around corners.  Bouncing off one embankment you are corrected back to the centre of the road, then as you slip off the other side around the next corner, the embankment corrects your direction and you are able to continue on the road. 

 

The embankments on the wide road keep you from falling off the road into a bog and also keep you going in the right direction; the wide road between the two embankments gives you freedom to negotiate the road.

 

In the same way God’s word of bad news and good news are like the embankments.  As we travel down the wide road of life, when things become slippery and we slid off our Christian walk, God’s word of bad news, calling us to repent, bounces us back onto the road again. It stops us from falling right off and loosing sight of Jesus.  God’s word of good news is the other embankment. 

 

After hitting the bad news we are speared off onto the other side of good news which comforts as and assures us that Jesus as forgiven us and that news sets us on the road of righteousness and the road that leads to eternal life.

 

This is what it means and this is what we do as you and I together live the life and walk the journey to the new Jerusalem between the two words of Jesus ‘repent and believe’.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, there is no sermon today!  Can I leave everything with you- I’m not doing this any more, I am off to follow this guy who came and asked me to join him on a journey.

You can probably now imagine how old man Zebedee felt when his own son’s just up fishing and left him.  Left him with the fish, the cleaning and even with an uncertain future.  Who was Jesus or what did he say to make these men leave everything and follow him?

Simon known as Peter and his brother Andrew where generational fishermen.  From all accounts, they were most likely well known and quite well off in the fishing industry; Peter had his own house and was married.  To suddenly do something as radical as leaving their job to follow Jesus, something special must take place when you follow Jesus.

Have you ever been called to follow?  Was it in a job, or a holiday or when you are learning some thing new- when someone said ‘follow me’.  So what does that entail?  Just mindless repetition, like a parrot that only dictates words and actions?  Or is to ‘follow’ something more?  It must be more than this or you wouldn’t follow; Simon and Andrew wouldn’t leave everything if all it meant was to be like a parrot.  No, to follow is far more.
Unfortunately, to follow is not very popular, who wants to be a learner under the control of someone else!  Yet Matthew makes it crystal clear what it means to be a “Christian.” A Christian is a “disciple” or “follower” of Jesus. Our fundamental identity, who we are as believers in Jesus, is not a “leader” but a “follower” or “companion” of Christ.  Jesus says ‘come, follow me’ not ‘come be a leader and fisher of men.’
Despite Jesus call to first follow, we still seem to chase after conferences on leadership and mission.  Yet has anyone here EVER seen a conference on “followership?” Or how about a conference simply on how to be a better disciple? Isn’t it very interesting how we are more interested in Jesus’ position of “Leader” than in our position of “follower?” Perhaps we are putting the cart by for the horse.  Perhaps we need to take a step back and refocus on what it means to follow and why we are followers of Jesus, before we tackle the mission field.

Let me show you a clip from Finding Nemo.

What happened?  Yes, confusion reigned!  Both were followers, one fish thought she knew how to follow and so called the other to follow, but because both of the fish didn’t know what they were following they both became confused and had to changed direction all the time and in the end never arrived no where.

Yes, to have a good leader is critical, but to know what it means to be good follower is just as important.  Only when we follow, can we truly begin to know the leader.  Only then, will we know where we are going, why we are following and where we will end up. After following, we will then be empowered to bring others with us; to follow along with us.

And the only way we can learn to follow is by following.   Jesus promises to make these fishermen into fishers of men, not by empowering them to do this, but by asking them to follow.  Empowerment to call others to follow only happens later in their discipleship, when Jesus ‘calls the disciples to him and gives them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.’  Before they are empowered to be missionary focused they are first missioned themselves by being a follower of Jesus.

Yes, Jesus makes fishers of men, not empowers them.  We are made or created or crafted by God himself to call others to be disciples, not suddenly by some sort of magical blessing, but through following him.  To be followers of Jesus means the same for us as it did to Simon and Andrew.  We are to study him, learn from him and watch the way he did things and have the same concerns and goals as him.  This can be hard work and takes a conscious effort.

In Jesus day, many others accepted his invitation, dozens, maybe even hundreds responded to Jesus’ call.  Crowds followed him around, but many only like a spectator might follow Tiger Woods around a golf course, only watching on, never being involved; never grasping and receiving the joy of salvation that only Jesus can give.

The joy they didn’t grasp, and many today don’t grasp, is the fact that Jesus makes us into followers; its not our doing.  This is why many give up, for them, being a Christian is about moulding and making themselves into followers; its about how hard they work and the goals they achieve in themselves.  But we don’t need to concern ourselves about that, or any other difficulties we will face.

To be a follower does not depend on how we are doing, or how our commitment compares to what others are doing.  Being a follower of Jesus means we follow, allowing him to work in us, even though there are times in our life when we think we have failed.  Yet St Paul reminds us as we follow ‘do not lose heart. Though outwardly we see nothing happening, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.’

And this renewal happens as we follow Jesus.  I opened a bob bon at Christmas, and you know the little sayings or jokes you get inside, well the one I got read ‘A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something’.  How true this is for us as followers of Christ.  As we listen to him, study is word and think about how it is relevant to us, after a while we will learn something.
This is what it means to be a follower; to learn about Jesus, why we follow and where we will end up.  It is through this that Jesus is renewing us and making us into fishers of men.  Once we have listened and learnt, then we are empowered to call others to come and follow.
So, as we as a parish look to embark on a mission program and become a parish of fishers of men, let us remember that first and foremost, our calling is to be followers.  So let us commit ourselves to the study of God’s word, make it a conscious goal of ours to provide times of study, and make ourselves available to attend studies or to devote ourselves to the word through home devotions.
Then we know that Jesus is making us ready to make other followers, and then we know, that it is not by our effort that we are followers, but that Jesus is renewing us day by day.  So come with me and follow Jesus.

John 1 29 to 42 20_1_08

Take away- what does this mean to you?  We live in a take away society. Everything revolves around ‘taking things away’.  I don’t mean just take away food; I mean ‘everything we do is based on ‘take away’.  And I really noticed this on our holiday over to the far West Coast of South Australia.  Out there, where there is nothing, no shops, no amenities and no facilities; just a beach surf and sand, I soon realized the importance of ‘take away’ and how we rely on it for our very being.

Living on a beach really puts life into perspective.  We can’t do anything without ‘take away’.  What was I do with all my rubbish, who was going to ‘take it away?’.  There is no bins, no dumps, no garbage collection to take it away.  I had to carry it around with me all for the whole week.  Then when we left, I couldn’t just leave the rubbish on the beach, I had to take it with me.  And I still have it with me.  There has been no one to take it away from me.

We love take away because it means we don’t need to deal with things.  Someone else deals with our needs, our food, our coffee, and most important for us – our waste.  We love it when someone else is responsible for the things we don’t know what to do with.

There is one take away that every one of us does not know how to deal with; sin.  It is always with us, our constant companion.  We are never rid of it because it is who we are, as St Paul reminds us ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’, and St John ‘If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’.  Its like we are all sitting on Yalata beach with no way of disposing of our rubbish, we just have a big black bag of garbage and call out– ‘will someone deal with this stuff.’

Ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin by wanting to be like God, we have had to carry around with us a big garbo bag of sin; full of guilt, shame and embarrassment over the wrong things we have done in our lives.  Or perhaps we are carrying around a garbo bag of addiction or anger which stops us from being a loving person and stops us from having close relationships with our husband or wife.  And we just can’t get someone to ‘take it away’.

More and more people today are finding the load just to hard to bare and are trying to deal with it themselves.  Suicide, especially among our young people, is becoming an accepted alternative to actually facing the problem.  Many are turning to therapists and self help gurus to alleviate their guilt, or just becoming isolated from society and live lonely lives.  One other way of trying to ‘take away’ sin, which is now very popular, is to play the blame game; its not my fault its my upbringing or alcohol or drugs or my bad schooling.  Yes, we have all done it, the blame game, yet somehow nothing seems to be taken away.

People in Jesus time had the same problem; sin, and were lining up to see John the Baptist.  He was known as the prophet could take away sins by baptising ‘repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’.  Matthew reports ‘Confessing their sins, the people were baptised by John in the Jordan’.  People could unload their guilt, drop of their waste; their garbo bags of shame and sin’.  The water would take away sin.  This was a new thing, a great thing, a way of letting someone else deal with the things we couldn’t.

Yet what was wrong with this?  What are the short comings of John’s take away service?

Yes, it was only local; for those in Israel and it was only around while John was alive and it was only temporary, it could never totally and fully take sins away, because there is no payment for the sin; no atonement.  It was like dumping everyone’s garbo bags at the tip gate but not paying the fee to dump it in; the sins are taken away from the person, but still not dealt with, not buried, never to be seen again.  The price had yet to be paid.  John knew this and told of one to come that would pay the cost to rid us totally of our sins; who would bury them for good.

Then suddenly this person, the one spoken about, turned up.  But John doesn’t say ‘there he is, the one I was talking about’, no, he says something unheard of until that moment ‘Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’.  John instantly connects the person of Jesus with his mission ‘to take away the sins of the world’; a universal mission; a world wide mission’.  Jesus is the great ‘take away-er’ of sins.  He will be the one who deals with our waste.  No longer will we need to be on an empty beach with a garbo bag full of waste with no one to take it away.

And how will he do this?  By paying the price for sin, taking them and burying them –totally and forever.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  And this title ‘the lamb of God’ connects Jesus with the lambs used for the sacrifice for sin in the temple and so indicates how Jesus will take away sin; through his death. In giving Jesus this title, John may have even had in mind the time God called Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.  On building the altar Isaac asked ‘”The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.”

Jesus is the Lamb provide by God himself, as Abraham implied.  He is the perfect sacrificial lamb to take away sin.  Why? Because we are unable to take away our own sins, we will die for them, as Paul reminds us ‘the wages of sin is death’.  And God holds us responsible for each and every one of them, and for who we are.  However because he is compassionate and full of grace and love, he provides Jesus as the person to die in our place- to pay the admission price to enter the tip and dumb all our bags of rubbish, to be buried forever.  Once and for all.

If you want to know more about this, the paying for our sins by Jesus death, can I encourage you to read Hebrews.  It will help to explain this great and wondrous gift to us.

While Jesus is the once for all payment for our sins, his sacrifice is an ongoing action that is just as valid today as on the day he hung on the cross.  The baptism we have today,  the communion you receive today, the announcement of forgiveness you hear today, is as if Jesus is speaking to you directly from the cross saying ‘your sins are forgiven’.   The blood of the lamb which paid the price for the sin of the world, is the same blood we drink to pay for the sins of today.  This is why the sacraments of baptism and communion are so inseparable from the church and Christian faith, they are the means of grace; the means through which our sins are taken away.

To have a place where my sins are taken away is a big relief, its like taking this bag of rubbish, the same rubbish I could not get rid of on the beach, the rubbish I carried around the whole holiday and being able to dump it off in this garbage bin for someone else to deal with.  And sure enough, I know that in the coming week it will be taken out to be destroyed.  This is literally what happens with our sin when we come to church; we dump it and Jesus takes it away.

How much easier it is to walk with no garbage to carry.  We are not loaded down and no longer looking for someone to take it away.  This is the good news about Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  And this is what gives us the freedom we now have and what makes us rejoice and give thanks to God.  Let us now do this very thing as we sing the following song ‘Shine Jesus shine’.