Category: Lent

Jesus Christ: he’s the real thing. John 4:5-42 The older I get, the more nostalgic I become. If I hear a song from the 70’s or the 80’s, I’m taking right back to the context in which I used to listen to that music. Recently I went to ACMI, (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in Federation Square. It was part of my resolution to do all the things I had never done in Melbourne. I absolutely loved it, and could have spent all day watching excerpts from the TV shows that I watched as a child. And with the shows went the ads. And there’s one company that I think does it better than most-Coca Cola. This company has been masterful in the way that it has marketing Coke. The formula incorporates young, vibrant people, indulging in exciting activities, complete with Coke in hand. There’s no doubt. The hype that surrounds Coca-Cola makes the drink out to be something that has the power to change lives. And the promise is that if you drink Coke then you’ll have a rich and wonderful experience of life with gorgeous, popular people right at the centre of the crowd. There’s a quasi-religious dimension to it.

It’s possible to substitute the word ‘God’ for ‘Coke’ in some of the slogans, and come up with an entirely legitimate statement. “Things go better with God.” “God adds life.” And my favourite one, which I used to have as a sticker inside my childhood Bible: “Jesus Christ; he’s the real thing.” Coke promises big things, but delivers little. It does quench thirst, but only to a point. And sadly, I’ve never found the consumption of CocaCola adding to the quality of my lifestyle, or acting as the elixir of youth. But Jesus is a different matter altogether. He truly is the real thing. The living water, in fact, as the woman at the well discovered to her amazement that hot afternoon. She was there for one thing only; to draw some refreshing water from the deep, cool well. And ostensibly, that’s why Jesus was there too. He had been walking all day in the heat, and simply needed a drink.

This story begins at the physical level. Both Jesus and the woman need water because of their biology. But Jesus takes this starting point and takes this woman down the path to a full revelation of his identity as the Messiah. In the process, he gently uncovers her ignorance and her needs. But first of all, we should be amazed that the conversation ever took place. Jesus was breaking convention on two points. There was great racial hatred between Jews and Samaritans. Most Jews travelling between Judea and Galilee would bypass Samaria completely, even though it was the most direct route. But Jesus, as always, took the road less travelled.

Secondly, speaking with a woman who was not an immediate relative just did not happen. It’s in response to the woman querying him about this that Jesus moves the conversation from the physical to the spiritual. “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.” Living water. It sounds appealing. But to start with, Jesus has no bucket. Is Jesus claiming some source of water better than this well dug by Jacob himself? Jesus elaborates. “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I will give will never thirst ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” Now that sounds better. No more trips in the heat of the day to replenish the supply of water.

Jesus and the Samaritan woman are simply talking past one another. She’s stuck on the physical level. Jesus wants to lead her deeper. Jesus asks her to call her husband. And with that question, he breaks her life wide open. Her answer that she has no husband is greeted by Jesus with the remarkable revelation about her personal life. It’s a trail of emotional pain, and her current living arrangements transgress God’s law. It’s a life in need of God’s healing touch. That’s exactly why she’s here, in the middle of the day. Her shame keeps away from those who judge her for what she’s done. Better to avoid them altogether.

So this woman knows that Jesus is a prophet. Yet she’s not certain what Jesus wants to do with this information. Is he too going to shame her? Perhaps it’s best to shift this conversation away from the personal. Jesus, what do you say about the controversy between Jews and Samaritans about the proper place of worship.

But Jesus doesn’t want to play religious games. His concern is for this woman’s heart. In this encounter, he has been moving her through a process of spiritual discovery. The place of worship is immaterial. It’s what’s in the heart that matters. “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” With majestic simplicity, Jesus short circuits the discussion. He simply announces, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” “I am the one who offers you living water. I am the one who connects you to the realm of the spiritual, to the life of God. I am the one that can satisfy your thirst for something substantial, meaningful, foundational, in your life.”

We all thirst. We’re desperate for acceptance from others. We want to feel that our lives are meaningful. We look for many ways to satisfy this thirst. From the woman at the well’s history, we might conclude that she tried to find meaning and security in her relationships with men. People thirst for all sorts of things that they think might provide them with meaning; a healthy bank balance, house, possessions, career, a degree at the right university. Pick your security blanket. But deep down we also know that “moth and rust destroy, and… thieves break in and steal.” And what then?

The mythology of the CocaCola ads themselves point to our desperate thirst, which cannot be quenched by any physical or human source. Our ultimate problem is spiritual. We need something to believe in that will go the distance. Jesus says to us, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Jesus says to us: “Unless you are trying to get your spiritual thirst quenched through me and not through these other things, unless you see that the solution must come inside rather than just pass by outside, that [whatever] else you worship will abandon you in the end.” The early church saw in this story a reference to the blessings poured out in baptism. This story was painted on the walls of the catacombs, a place symbolizing death, yet the place where new life in Jesus was proclaimed. So Jesus can say “The water I give…will become…a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” This is the same Jesus who on the cross cried out in agony, “I thirst,” and who suffered the loss of his relationship with his Father so that he could endure God’s judgement on a broken and disobedient creation. There was no relief for his thirst, only the agony of separation from the true source of life, his Father. Now, through his cross and resurrection, Jesus has come to us and filled us with the life of God through the Holy Spirit.

This is the Spirit of God, as Jesus explains it: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” This is the well that will never run dry, from which we can draw hope no matter how hot it gets, no matter how shameful our past, or how broken our present, when life doesn’t play out for us like a happy, smiling Coca-cola ad. The woman at the well suddenly leaves Jesus. Her water jar is left standing there. The thing she came for is not important any more. She needs to tell others what she’s just experienced. “The spring of water gushing up to eternal life” is overflowing, and is now quenching the thirst of her friends and neighbours.

She is the first missionary in John’s gospel. So much so that the people of that place request Jesus to stay a few days. They too, want to drink from the living water. How and where is God calling you to share this same living water? Let God continually refresh you with living water, the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. Drink deeply of him, as you are doing today in worship, through his word and holy meal, and in your own prayer and Scripture reading time. Don’t go looking for other things to provide meaning and significance, from Coca-Cola upwards. You have all you need in Christ to live an abundant life, overflowing in praise to God. And see how that praise impacts those around you, all the thirsty people. Remember those Coke slogans. Placing God as the subject God makes much more sense. “Life goes better with God.” “God adds life.” And my favourite one. “Jesus Christ; he’s the real thing.” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pastor AndrewBrook

Jesus answered (Nicodemus), “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.” 

Born from above.

There are some very confusing things in our world. For example, Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when a baby wakes up every three or four hours?

If olive oil is made from olives, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride; he sticks his head out the window and enjoys the breeze?

Nicodemus was a man looking for answers. He was a good man. He was a Pharisee and Pharisees were very enthusiastic about being good. Nicodemus was a very religious man and spent a great deal of time trying to do the right thing.

Nicodemus was not only a good man but was also a confused man. He was confused about Jesus, who he was, how he could do miracles and why people like John the Baptist called him “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.

So one night Nicodemus went to visit Jesus.

Why did he go to see Jesus at night? Did he go at night because he couldn’t sleep? Was he afraid that his fellow Pharisees would not think highly of him for meeting with such a troublemaker as Jesus of Nazareth?

To be honest, we don’t know why he went at night?

Maybe there is some symbolism in the fact that he came in the dark. We could say that here is man who is caught up in the darkness and he comes to the one who is light in the darkness of this world. John the Baptist said this of Jesus just a couple of chapters before, “This was the real light – the light that comes into the world and shines on all people” (John 1:9) The darkness of night might be seen as a symbol of the darkness that was in the heart of Nicodemus.

Nicodemus is fascinated in Jesus and begins his conversation with Jesus in this way, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God” and we know that “no one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him.” You might not think much of us Pharisees but we aren’t stupid. “We know…” There is a smugness here. He and his Pharisee colleagues know all there is to know about God and how to live a godly life.

They go to Bible study every day and worship every week.

They fast, they give more than a tenth of their income to the church, they spend hour after hour in prayer.

Before Nicodemus is able to say anything else, Jesus says, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”

No mention of being good or religious. No one gets into the Kingdom of God by being a “good person”! Nicodemus had devoted his life to being good, committed to being faithful to God, devout in his worship and prayer. The Pharisees had something like 10,633 rules they had to keep to live a truly godly life. No doubt Nicodemus was a good Pharisee and a good man but Jesus blows a hole in this idea of goodness. No amount of goodness is good enough to establish a relationship with God or to get us into the kingdom of heaven!

Let’s look at it this way. Eight year old Peter went to Dreamworld with his two older brothers and mum and dad. He wanted to be able to ride all the rides that his older brothers could ride. But there’s only one problem: he’s too short. He is about 5 cm too short, only a mere 5 cm. At the entrance to the rides there is a sign with a line drawn across at a certain height from the ground indicating that only those so high or above could get on the ride.

Now Peter was tall for an 8-year-old, but he was still 5 cm too short to ride those rides. And no matter how he strained and tried to “act taller” he just couldn’t measure up!

He tried begging the ride operator. But he would not let Peter get on to that ride.

The operator didn’t say, “Well, because you are taller than 95% of all the other 8 year olds in your class at school, you can ride”.

He didn’t say, “You are almost tall enough, I’ll let you on to the ride.” The plain and simple truth is that if you don’t measure up, you don’t get on to the ride.

No matter how hard we stretch and act “good”, our goodness is never good enough to get into the Kingdom of God. That’s quite a blow. Like Nicodemus we’re good people!

We think of ourselves as upright, moral, decent kind of people.

We worship on Sundays, we pray, we give generously to the offering, we support the church’s programs.

We aren’t unfaithful to our spouse.

We treat our kids well.

We pay our taxes.

We don’t lie… very often.

We don’t steal from our employers… much.

We try to be kind, gentle and caring people … most of the time.

We try not to hurt people … as best as we can.

And all of that may be true – up to a point. But no matter how much we strain and try to “act taller” we just can’t measure up!  When measured against God’s absolute perfect standard, not one of us measures up. We all fall short. And not just by a few centimetres, we fall short by miles and miles. And deep down we all know it. Paul gives this diagnosis of our human condition from God’s perspective: “There is no one who is righteous. … No one does what is right, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).

Like the operator of the rides, there can be no compromising of the rules. No one can get to heaven by being good because no one can ever be good enough! You are going to have to go about it another way! And there is another way!

Jesus says that it’s not a matter of being “good”, it’s a matter of “being born anew”, or perhaps better “being born from above” (both meanings are possible). Jesus said that means “being born of water and the Spirit.” Just as Nicodemus contributed nothing to his own birth into the world, likewise he contributes nothing to his birth into the Kingdom of God. Life is a pure gift in each case! But the new birth into the kingdom of God is a gift by God’s power.

In other words, Jesus is saying, “You can’t do it, Nicodemus, but God can! He can transform you from the inside out and make you good enough!”

It’s as though you are lying on a hospital bed in the final stages of a terminal disease and Jesus walks into the room.

You look at him and say, “Jesus, am I good enough to make it out of here?”

And Jesus says, “No, you’re not good enough! But I will do something for you. I will take out of your body the disease that is killing you, and I will put it into my own body. I will make the swap at no cost to you but at great cost to me. The result will be: I will die… you will live!”

What a gift! Jesus, God of the universe, says to us, “I will give you my goodness as a gift and take your badness into myself. I’ll take your sin and in its place I’ll give you my righteousness. I’ll die on the cross and you will live forever.” Out of love for us, God gave us his Son. He is God’s gift to each of us. Forgiveness and eternal life are ours through his Son’s death and resurrection.

When a person is baptised we hear what is about to happen through those drops of water, and the Spirit working through that water, “God washes us clean in the waters of baptism, and we are born again as his children. Through baptism our heavenly forgives us our sins and unites us with our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we share in his resurrection” (From the baptismal service of the LCA).

Or to use the words of Jesus, we have been “born again through the water and the Spirit”, “born from above” and made holy, fresh and clean.

Forgiveness for all sin, promised a place in heaven, made members of his church, given a fresh start.

He has promised to be our refuge and strength, our comforter and helper, our friend and saviour even when we are led astray into a far country fall into all kinds of evil and trouble, even when we feel as if life has taken us down a rough road, the covenant that God established with us at baptism assures us that Jesus’ love and forgiveness is certain and sure. We have been new and holy with another person’s holiness.

Born again – born from above – new life in Christ – a new relationship with God and the people in our lives.  We have been given a new life; making this new life a reality in our everyday interaction with other people is the challenge that is ahead of us. The New Testament often says, “You have been made new through Christ so then every day you must put off the old self and put on the new life in Christ”. This newness that you have received from God should impact on everything we do and say

the way we love and serve others,                                                                                                                                     the way we put God and his will first in our lives.

This is not just about being religious – this is about a new life that arises out of our relationship with God – this is about reconciliation, in fact, daily reconciliation with God as we repent of the wrong we have done and ask God to forgive us, and then strive to live as God’s holy people who with the help of the Holy Spirit, want to be the light of Christ in the lives of the people around them..

Nicodemus was confused and asked, “How can this be?” Simply, this is God at his most mysterious and amazing best. This is grace! This is God’s gift to you through Jesus. Celebrate it and live it!

May the love and peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Pastor Vince Gerhardy

Matthew 4:1-11   5^th MARCH 2017 DUBBO

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Today God has adopted two new children, Annabelle and Harry. As parents James and Katrina, Rhys and Elisha you have the responsibility to teach your children, so that they grow up knowing that through Jesus they have eternal life. As parents there will be many, many times that they will bring you great joy, children are very good at saying the most wonderful things. Due to their innocence they can come up with real gems which will bring laughter into your home and memories that you will remember all your life.

 There is a story of a little girl who was sent to her room for misbehaving. Sometime later her mother happened to pass by her door and heard her praying. “God, I am stuck up here because of YOU. Last night I prayed for you to help me be a good girl. Well, you didn’t, so it’s your fault!”

 Sounds a bit like the conversation between God and Adam and Eve in the Garden. God asks what’s going on, Adam responds by admitting that he ate the forbidden fruit, but then he blames God (“It was the woman who gave it to me,  YOU PUT HER HERE …”)

 Is SHE responsible?  apparently not! For she says; “The SERPENT DECEIVED ME, and I ate.” Poor Eve – she was only a victim. She could not be held responsible for eating the fruit. Neither could Adam. “The Devil made me do it!”

 But scripture is very plain – “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God;” there is none righteous, no not one.” In fact, there has been only one totally innocent victim in human history…         that is Jesus. Yes, he had opportunity to sin. And if he had succumbed, he would have had wonderful excuses – no one could blame him.
The Gospel message from Matthew which I read today has three strong temptations presented. Satin speaks to Jesus. Jesus,  you are incredibly powerful; use that power to meet your own needs. If you don’t take care of yourself, you will not be able to take care of anyone else.

 On top of that, if word gets around that you turn stones into bread, think how many folks would follow you. Everyone can use a little extra bread. Who could have blamed Jesus for doing something like that?

 The second temptation was equally enticing. Let folks know beyond the shadow of a doubt that YOU ARE THE MESSIAH, the Chosen One of God. What a spectacular stunt to leap from the Pinnacle of the Temple, drop the 450 feet straight down into the Kidron Valley, and land unharmed. God’s angels will protect you. People will SURELY listen to your message when they hear what you have done. Would anyone legitimately reproach Jesus for deciding to take that course?

 The third temptation was enormous – unchallenged political power to right all the wrongs…all the kingdoms of the world. How incredibly simple,

Jesus: you can ORDER folks to listen. You can ORDER justice and an end to all oppression. What a wonderful opportunity!
All it will take is a tiny compromise, an ever-so-slight division in your loyalties. You do not have to stop worshipping the God of heaven, just spread that worship around a bit. Jesus, this is the offer you cannot refuse.  Who could have blamed him for accepting?
Its interesting how Jesus avoided giving in. After each of the temptations was offered, he quoted scripture. Perhaps that should not be surprising. After all, spiritual maturity only comes when we have a deep relationship with the God of the universe whom we meet and learn from in the pages of the Bible.

Since the beginning of time our first instinct has been to blame others for our own failures. Instead of accepting responsibility, we claim we are victims of cruel and callous forces. It would serve us right if God simply turned away and allowed us to stew in our own sins. But that is not the God of love we meet in scripture.

 Do you remember what Adam and Eve did after their trip to the tree? In coming to the sudden realisation that they were naked, they made themselves fig-leaf loin cloths.

 Well, as the old movie says, “Stupid is as stupid does,” and this was a stupid move. Have you ever felt a fig leaf? It is NOT “the comfort of cotton.” In fact, IF IT comes in regular contact with sensitive skin, it is REAL  ITCHY.

  Back there in the Garden, God saw what was happening and, in a gesture of divine grace, said, “Here. Let me give you something that will work better… animal skins.” AARh-h-h. What a relief. We face temptation all the time. Temptation hangs in our environment like flu virus, always threatening to break down our resistance. We are tempted to break our diets, flirt with somebody at work, cheat on our taxes, gossip about a friend, lie our way out of trouble … you name it.

We are always being tempted to do what we know we shouldn’t do. We don’t need any instruction about temptation. Temptation we know about.
But, do we really? Do we really know what temptation is? Today’s lesson from the Gospel of Matthew is a story about the nature of human temptation — Jesus’ temptation and ours — and it throws a surprising light on what temptation really is. What does it mean, really, to be tempted?

 In ordinary terms, we think of temptation as the urge to do something we really would like to do but know we shouldn’t do — one more cigarette, one more fling, one more drink, one more juicy rumor. But the deepest temptation is not the urge to misbehave, to do what we know we shouldn’t do, but rather the enticement to compromise our baptismal identity, to be who we are not called to be.

 That’s the message in this story of Jesus’ temptation. The devil is not tempting Jesus to misbehave. He is not tempting Jesus to steal a wallet, or cheat on his taxes, or pick a fight with his neighbor. It’s deeper than that. The devil is tempting Jesus to ignore his baptism, to deny who he is, to forget that he is the child of his Father in heaven.

 It is significant that Jesus comes to the temptation immediately from his baptism, when the skies opened and a voice from heaven said, “You are my beloved Son, the one with whom I am well pleased.”

 That’s who he is. “You are my beloved Son. You are the heir to the identity and mission of my people. You are my prophet, my priest, my anointed, my suffering servant. You are the one I am sending down the long and painful road to Jerusalem.

 You are the one I am calling to drink the bitter cup of sacrifice. You are the one I am delivering into the hands of those who will kill you. You are the one I am sending to bear the cross for the salvation of all people.

You are the one to whom I am entrusting the promise of redemption. You are the one. You are my beloved Son, and I am well-pleased with you.”

 It is, then, when Jesus’ vocation and identity are most clear that he comes to the season of his tempting. It is precisely Jesus’ identity that the devil seeks to destroy. That, after all, is what temptation is all about.

 Notice how the tempter begins, “If you are the Son of God …” He could have attacked directly: “You are not the Son of God,” but he was too crafty for that. Much better to generate self-doubt — “If you are the Son of God” — since self-doubt is the cancer that eats away at identity.

 The devil picks away,  at Jesus’ son-ship, at his baptismal identity. The three temptations — to turn stones into bread, to throw himself down from the top of the temple and to worship the tempter — are not enticements to do bad things; they are, at root, invitations to be somebody else, to live some life other than that of the beloved son of God.

 Everything about the early chapters of Matthew — from the genealogy that opens the Gospel to the account of Jesus’ baptism — makes it plain that Jesus had been given a narrative to follow, a storied identity, the narrative of God’s salvation.

 The devil wants him to change the script, to trade God’s story for some other story. Notice that Jesus combats the devil’s attack not with theological innovation, skillful counter-arguments, but by citing the story, quoting each time scriptures from Deuteronomy that he was taught as a child.

 In other words, Jesus resists the devil’s tempting by quoting the Holy Scripture. He will not change the script; he will not live a narrative other than the one he has been given; he remembers his baptism, and he knows who he is. Because we belong to Jesus Christ, we, too, have been given a part in the story, a role to play in this holy drama of redemption.

 We have been called, called in our baptism to be God’s beloved children.

 In a world where THE STRONGER RULE, we have been named ambassadors of reconciliation. It is our baptismal identity to be those who sow love; where there is hatred,    hope where there is despair,                 faith where there is doubt.

 Because we are called, we are also tempted, tempted to change the script, tempted to live out a DIFFERENT LIFE, tempted to be someone other than who we are called to be. To yield to temptation is far more serious than to commit some transgression;

To yield to temptation is to say, “I am not a child of God, and I will not take my part in God’s drama of redemption.”

 Jesus was cast into the lead role in the drama of God’s redemption, and the devil tempted him to change the script, improvise on the character, deny who he was called to be. But Jesus knew who he was and he trusted his Father and he never wavered.

 Like Jesus, WE WHO are part of the church have been baptized, and the words have been said about us, “You are a son of God … you are a daughter of God.” We, too, have been given our parts to play in the drama of God’s redemption.

 “Seek first the kingdom of God, pray without ceasing,  repay no one evil for evil, feed my lambs,  bear one another’s burdens, be kind to one another, forgive one another  love your enemies,  be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

 Even now the tempter whispers in your ear, change the script, make up your own lines.

 Everything is at stake, and the one who has poured his life into preparing us is watching. Jesus loves us and will help us in serving HIM by serving others. Jesus is always near to help and guide us, LET US ALWAYS REMAIN IN HIS LOVE.                Amen.

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

 

 

Luke 13:1-9of

In the book of Job, Job after suffering tragedy after tragedy is visited by his good meaning, but unknowing friends who suggest
he must be suffering such events because he is not right with God, and in today’s Gospel, Jesus feels the same sentiment from those who bring him the news of Pilate’s murderous actions against the Galileans.

News from Galilee of the murder fellow Jews, God’s people murdered as they were before God offering up sacrifices! Why Jesus, what did they do or not do to deserve such a horrible end to life?

Jesus responds, but not as was expected. He does not question over the details of this horrific tragedy and nor does He make a statement over the actions of Pilate, but asks those bearing the news: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?”

Before Jesus stood sinners who saw not their own sin, but only the sin of the Galileans who most surely must have greatly angered God to deserve such a death and so, like Job’s friends they clearly see this must be a logical cause and effect situation.

They must have deserved it.

Sorry guys but in Jesus statement “Do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans?” He has cut straight to the real issue he sees before Him, not the problem of those in Galilee, but rather the problem of those in His presence who know of sin, but know not their own. Jesus, not judging or breathing fire and brimstone, but rather out of His concern for them jolts them out of such flawed thinking and dangerous state of mind by stating to those around him, ‘Unless you repent, you too will all perish!’

Brian Jones: founder and original leader of the Rolling stones at age 27 was found dead in his swimming pool with greatly increased heart and liver size due to years of drug and alcohol abuse with the coroner’s report stating “death by misadventure”, and shortly after Peter Townshend from the band “The Who” wrote a poem titled “A normal Day for Brian, A man Who Died Every Day.”

Jim Morrison lead singer of the Doors and Jimi Hendrix in song also wrote and sang his tributes. Both would be dead within two years. Jim Morrison found dead in his bathtub from heart failure, said by many due to cocaine abuse and Jimi Hendrix choking on his own vomit. Both were 27 years old.   Kurt Cobain: lead singer of Nirvana found dead next to his shotgun. Amy Winehouse: alcohol poisoning and Janis Joplin from drug overdose, all only 27 years old with Janis once writing that she endures 23 hours a day only for the 24^th when she can be herself, perform and feel happiness. A statement that makes those words from her number 1 hit (written by Kris Kristofferson) Me and Bobby McGee seem hauntingly appropriate:

“One day up near Salinas, Lord, I let him slip away,
He’s looking for that home and I hope he finds it,
But I’d trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday
To be holding Bobby’s body next to mine.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,
Nothing, (and yeah) that’s all that Bobby left me.”

All 27 years old. Tragedies-I think so. All caused from their own actions-pretty much. Selfish in death and deserving our judgement?

“There bar the grace of God I go.” As with us, did God know them before they were created in their mother’s womb? As with us, did they not come from their mother’s womb in the love of the Saviour? As with us would they not have grown with a desire for life and happiness? And why, why are so many people who have trod the same path of abuse and recklessness still be walking this earth? Some still under the curse of self-abuse, and some still with the scars but restored.

It’s a long way down and a long way out and the difference between life and death at the bottom can sit on a knife edge. “There bar the grace of God we go”, and for some of us, there through the grace of God have we come out.

Did those who spoke of the Galileans repent and be saved? God knows but we don’t.

Did these talented musicians repent and be saved before the age of 27? I don’t know. But what I do know is that God says to me, and to you “Repent” that we not perish but be saved, and if that be a dying bedside repentance or a daily lifetime of repentance. Be it repentance from the heart of Jimi Hendrix, a world dictator, Judas Iscariot or from us here today-God’s grace shall not see us perish but in His forgiveness and salvation have eternal life in heaven. The Grace of God that we trust in to receive eternal life. A never ending life that I expect we need as we see come to grips with and understand just how in all things and in all situations was God doing His stuff to save.

A Pastor, scholar and teacher asked us third year theological and pastoral students “How our prayer life was going.” More out of fear than anything else did we nod and reply “”pretty good.”

And he, more out of knowing the human heart and mind than his observations replied, “No it’s not. But don’t worry about what you haven’t been doing, just re-start and keep working on it.”

If he was in our congregation today, he could ask the same of me in regards to repentance and I’m guessing both my and his responses would be like that of ours to each other those six years ago.

Repent of not repenting?

And what of the statement of Martin Luther in his letter to his friend and fellow theologian Phillip Melanchthon saying, ‘Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one.’ And again, ‘God does not save people who are fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly but believe and rejoice even more boldly… As long as we are here in this world we have to sin.’

Then there’s Paul in Romans chapter six, verse one who after telling us that “in Jesus’ obedience that many are made righteous. That the law came in to increase trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” but then to us, as like Jesus knowing the confused thoughts of those before him, Paul likewise answers against what human logic would make of such a statement with so:”What shall we dot then? Are we to sin that grace may abound? By no means.”

No way.

“Sin Boldly”, and yet, “by no means sin?”

I am really starting to see myself at the base of that hill in Jerusalem 2,000 ago and hearing a guy called Jesus on the cross ask His father to “forgive them for they know what they do.”

Truth is Luther in stating to “Sin Boldly” is talking of matters of conscience. A bad conscience of those who the devil has successfully tempted to sin so that he can then accuse, ridicule and mislead that they’ve finally gone too far. To get them to doubt and wonder if they are really saved in Faith in Jesus alone. Lies of deceit and trickery to which Luther answers: yes you’re right, I did sin, but I am forgiven. And guess what, no matter what you say in your lies, when I sin again I am not going to listen to you, your lies and words of damnation, but to the Words of truth of that the Saviour and know, that in my confession, my desire for forgiveness from Him has been granted.

Repentance, it is a change in direction, where one stops doing what they are doing, about faces, and then finds themselves on the correct course of action.

Repentance, is that not was Luther was talking of, turning from one’s lies to the truth of the Lord?

Repent of not Repenting enough. By no means sin, but still falling to sin. Statements akin to those who ask through worry of having fallen to the unforgivable sin. Statement’s or thoughts that clearly show that the one thinking it is clearly repenting, clearly uncomfortable with their sin, and clearly not to have broken the unforgivable sin, which is basically not wanting forgiveness. Clearly not broken because if are they worried about it, in itself shows they haven’t. Repenting of not repenting enough not wanting to sin, but sinning, same thing.

After that last merry go round are you know as confused as I am?

Yes, again I see myself at the base of that hill in Jerusalem 2,000 ago and hearing a guy called Jesus on the cross ask His father to “forgive them for they know what they do.”

Truth is, we pretty much  do know what we do and that is why we are no longer at the base of a hill, but now at the base of a cross where an innocent man named Jesus has been murdered. A tragic death not at the age of 27, but pretty close at only 33.

Those mentioned earlier in the 27 club as it’s called and Jesus not much older. Did they all have a hand in their death. In a way- yes. Were those in the 27 club and Jesus loved by God, absolutely.

The same, maybe in those two things but that’s where it ends because the reality of repentance is not that of our often seemingly logical yet false conclusion that unless first we repent, then will only God come to us.

The reality is that God did not call humanity to repent so that Jesus might come. He was sent to be with sinners, dying for them, so all might repent because of him, and now, now He comes amongst those He calls to repent, and because He is amongst us, we repent. To daily hear those words from Romans Chapter six.  That: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death. We were therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the Glory of The Father, (that) we too might walk in newness of life.”

Three days after we stood at the foot of that hill and then the cross of a man Jesus do we know He was raised in Glory.

There at the base of that hill do we no longer stay that we hear a man named Jesus “cry to His Father that he forgive us because we do not know what we do”

But there at the base of the cross of Jesus Christ our Saviour we do we remain for though He came when we knew Him not, there at the base of that cross no longer do we see a just man named, but hear the very son of God, Jesus Christ our Saviour cry to His Father that we receive forgiveness for what we now know. That we know the greatest story ever told and know the man who walked the greatest life ever lived.

To kneel before our Saviour on bended Knee and know and accept the grace and forgiveness of God the Father because of faith in His Son Jesus Christ who lived and died, so that we too daily will be raised here on our earthly journey to walk in a newness of life.

To daily repent, receive His forgiveness and know that in faith in Jesus Christ alone it to be so. To know that when we are called home that we will then with Jesus, remain in the newness of life eternal, as we too most surely know now, that He will remain with us here as we run, limp, crawl or in need, be carried towards that great day. Amen.

Mark 11:1-11

 

Just what is going on in this world? Sometimes it’s hard to fathom and wonder of what awaits us in the future.

It’s the year 2020 and things have changed. Our country has been annexed by a brutal adversary. Our individual wealth has been taken, our right to free speech and travel is monitored and acted on should the government deem us a risk and daily we are humiliated that our spirit be broken and fall into line and for us in the Church, our last bastion of safety and identity is under attack in that if we persist to adhere to our principles of marriage, right to life and of the one true God and Saviour then first the Pastors and priests, and then those still holding firm will at the least be confirmed as a terrorist to the “state” and thrown in prison without the need for a court of law or any proof other than our statements of faith.

There seems no hope until we hear that finally, an allied nation of great strength is storming towards us with a great flotilla of warships laden with a vast cargo of highly trained and equipped military service men and women and as they arrive in Botany Bay our jubilation cannot be contained.

Finally we will be free again. But then nothing and our cheers turn to despair, confusion, fear and anger.

Best not to throw stones when we live in glass houses because should we be there in this fictional future day, would we any different from those of past.

Those of past who see their own flotilla of hope arrive at their Botany Bay that is Jerusalem. A Flotilla of twelve led by the promised one that is a man named Jesus Christ and alongside them we sing and voice with great joy “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” while shouting our customary cry of desperation of “save us now” in the form of the word “Hosanna.”

Hosanna, save us now-a word for those searching and confused people who knew one thing: that they wanted to be saved.

A word that gives voice to Israel’s anguish and misery and its hope too. Israel which had been ground into the dust by the brutality of the Roman Empire. They had been taxed into poverty by Caesar. They had been humiliated and had their pride taken away from them. And they wanted somehow to be rescued and restored. They wanted to see God’s power crush those who had crushed them. They wanted God’s might and majesty to destroy those who had destroyed their nation and their spirit. And they had seized on the promises of God in the prophets that He would send them a saviour who would do all this.

Singing and shouting: Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. But just a few hours after this, Jesus, who is carried into Jerusalem in triumph will walk through the same streets, this time himself doing the carrying – the cross.

Instead of a warrior king, what did they get? A man on a cross – somebody who was apparently as easily crushed as they were, somebody who (very soon after entering Jerusalem as a king) let himself be arrested, scourged and beaten and condemned to death.

Instead of a powerful rescuer who punished God’s enemies and expelled them from the land God had given them, they got a weakling – a king who would not even pick up a sword to defend himself, but instead hung pathetically on a cross and prayed that God would forgive his murderers. What power is there in that? How was that going to save them? Jesus was a victim. They wanted a warrior. Jesus was all love. They needed power.

And in their frustration and contempt, they shout at Jesus on the cross with the words “Come on you claim to save others but you cannot save yourself!”

If we enter their time we can see how they had no idea that all the time there was something much bigger and much more important than the fate of their little country at stake. They had no idea of the salvation being hammered out for the world, no idea that God’s power was being revealed here on the cross once and for all and can see the truth in Paul statement that “God’s wisdom in sending Jesus to die for all people seemed like foolishness to the world. “

At least the people of those times had a good excuse because they did not have the benefit of hindsight like we do in the books of the New Testament.

Yet if we look around at how lives are lived today we see the same thing going on – now as then.

People want to be saved. We live in the grip of the same fears and struggles and burdens as the people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. We want understandably to be saved from the threat of terrorist attack. We want to be saved from illness and death. We want to be saved from unemployment and financial problems and poverty in our old age. We want to be saved from loneliness and grief. We need a powerful saviour – somebody or something who can beat all our enemies. “Hosanna!” we yell. “Save us!”

And just like Israel, the natural thing is to turn to some source of power. Maybe we need to turn to the kind of power that comes out the barrel of a gun and declare war on terror, and kill all the terrorists before they kill us. Eradicate our enemies. Or there’s the power of money in that if we have enough security and protection and possessions, perhaps we will be safe.

And yet, sooner or later we face up to the fact that no matter how much we surround ourselves with the arsenal of the world and its comforts and protectors, we will never be safe for eventually death will still find us and tragedy’s can still knock on our doors.

Yes, we were in those crowds and we still are. “Blessed be the Lord” and then in confusion and hurt “why Lord?”

Yet hear our Saviour beaten and bruised by us and for us ask His Father to “Forgive them they no not what they do. “

To stand alongside Paul and know that we do what we don’t want to and don’t want we want to do and cry to the Lord “to take these thorns from our flesh” only to hear “my grace is sufficient for thee”

The words of God that seem to deride and ridicule. Words that in our hardest of situations seem foolish. “She’ll be right mate” or in contemporary society “to suck it up,” and so fall to our knees like Jesus in agony and prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest, torture and death and ask  God the Father is there another way? And then see not ridicule and derision but see our God of all wisdom and love proclaim that “my grace is sufficient for thee.”

His grace given to us through his Son Jesus Christ who after crying for another way finished with “but not as I will, but as you will.”

The will of the Father that when the cheers and joy around us fade we still kneel at the foot of the cross and see his grace that lets us stand with the resurrected Christ.

The will of the Father that as we travel through our valleys in the shadow of death see we are not alone, but with by our resurrected saviour who guides, strengthens and in need, carries us that we not perish in our sins, but reside in the grace of God the Father.

The will of the Father that does not unleash his wrath on our world, but his will that we accept his Grace won for us through his Son and with the apostle Paul profess like him: that

^ I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. ^6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, ^7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ^8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ^9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ^10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2^nd Corinthians 12:5-9).

The Lord’s grace is most sufficient for us and in that when we are weak we are strong. Weak in self, yet strong in Christ that we fight our thorns of the flesh that they be not a wall between His grace, but a bridge to safety.

A bridge that we cross carrying our thorns yet leaving them behind as we instead bear our crosses as we follow Jesus. Fighting the good and running the good race in faith that come what may; His will has been done in you when you came to faith.

And in that faith, let us all pray for the help we need today, not that boast in ourselves, but that in the power of our Lord and Saviour we heed His wish that:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

And so today. Though weary and burdened we may be-we put our todays in the Lord’s hands as we have put our heavenly tomorrows and know, that there is no other way, for on our travels and in the grace of God, both kneeling at the Cross and standing in exultation with the risen Christ, we have been brought to see, trust and be thankful that yes, Jesus Christ is our only way, our truth and our life. Amen.

Look up and live

Numbers 21:4-9, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21

Psalm 121 begins, “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”

How often in life do you find yourself in the depths of despair or frustration only to feel a call within yourself to lift up your eyes and search for help?

Our emphasis today is on lifting up and looking up, what does it mean for us, how does it take place and what are the benefits.

Moses and the Israelites were taking the long way round to get to the Promised Land, they were bickering and moaning to Moses and against God for taking them away from a life that even though it was unpleasant and hard work, provided them with food and water and a place to rest. They felt that they would probably die in the wilderness and the food they were getting was a bit bland. So what did God do to fix it? He didn’t remove them from the wilderness, he sent venomous snakes among them and many of the Israelites died!  The wrath of God on display and yet when Moses prayed to God on behalf of the people God said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”  And so, an antidote given from God that when the people were bitten they looked up and lived.

We could be a little perplexed by this scenario because last week we heard that “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” And here is God telling Moses to make a snake from bronze and place it on a pole and get the people to look at it!  The thing to realise in this case is that God commanded Moses to make it, and also in the original commandments they were told “You shall not bow down to them or worship them”, they weren’t bowing down and worshipping, they were looking up and being healed and in doing so they were reminded of how God provides for their healing and his power over all things.

Another important point is that God didn’t stop the snakes from biting after Moses prayed, he still allowed the snakes to bite the Israelites, but then provided them with the antidote in the snake lifted up for them to see.  The antidote, being supplied by God, and so God himself providing the healing that is needed to bring them from death to life.

Our gospel reading makes the connection for us between the snake being lifted up in the wilderness for the Israelites and the son of man being lifted up.  We know in retrospect that Jesus was lifted up on the cross at Calvary, he was hung there for all to see, even if it was only for a short time, he was hung up there.  So what is the connection between a slithering and silent killer like a snake and the son of man who came to give his life for our sake?  You know the answer to that as well as I do…when the Israelites looked to the snake they were healed, saved from certain death.

Jesus was hung on the cross to save us from our certain death.  The healing that takes place through him on the cross takes us from death to new life in him.  Our second reading today describes this healing beautifully for us.  “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live…like the rest we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us , God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”

Just like the Israelites who were bitten by the snakes, we were bitten by sin, through the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve.  We are surrounded daily by the slithering silent evil that longs to tempt us away from our focus on Christ and the cross on which he died to bring us healing from that sin.

Each and every one of us struggles with sin on a daily basis, there are events and challenges in the lives of all of us that threaten to swamp us, they feel like quicksand dragging us down feet first, like weeds wrapping around us and trying to trip us, like nets binding us hand and foot.  But even someone who is desperately trying to cling onto life can look up and live.

The Israelites looked to the bronze snake on the pole and they lived.  We have Christ on the cross to look to and to remind us that in fact we are already healed, and even better than that, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

This takes us beyond the cross, we need not only look at the cross, but through the cross and see the resurrection of Christ in victory over death and to his ascension into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the father.  From there he prays for us, just like Moses prayed to God the Father on behalf of the Israelites, Jesus is sitting in his place in heaven bringing our needs before God.

None of this is our doing, as we heard in the opening, from Psalm 121, “our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”  And then in our second reading another way of saying it, “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

God gave us his son, to be lifted up on the cross, just like Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so that when sin bites us and threatens to bring about our spiritual death, we too have somewhere to look for help, we lift our eyes to the cross, but then through the cross to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, all the while knowing in our heart of hearts that it is by grace that we have been saved, this isn’t something just for the future, but also saved here in our todays.

When I was young I was not tough enough to get a tattoo and now old I’m not cool or hip enough. That’s fine but what we should all have inscribed with un perishable ink of our hearts and minds is that most loved and to the point text from John 3:16 and the accompanying verse from John 5:24:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

(and) “Truly, Truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life..(and)..does not come into judgement, but has passed from life to death.”

So yes today, we can, we should and we must, in the truth of what we were and of what we have become stand at the base of the cross with our earthly sin and to lift our eyes to the Son of Man who was lifted up for our sake and see ourselves lifted up with Him that we carry on in the time allotted to us. Heavy in our sin, yet unburdened through His righteousness, knowing our inadequacies yet flourishing in His sufficiency and abundance and wether in self-disdain or denial, look up and see a saviour, our saviour, your saviour with eyes moist in affection toward you who He loves so great. The love He asks you accept without regard to your human standards, but to His standards which He has brought to your lives in the grace of God, the forgiveness of your sins and the peace of that in faith so shall you remain that you are given the ability to carry on no matter what your position or situation in life. To to lift up the burdened and free the chained as He has done to you. Because in you, regardless of your own thoughts, doubts, maybe’s if’s and buts, in you do I and the world see the masterpiece of God. And that is a sinner saved through the grace of God who will live in and for eternity. That is our truth, and that is our statement to this world, not that we boast or they envy, but that they hear of the unfathomable love of Christ through the simple words of those like us, and know that yes-it must be true for there could have been no other way. Amen.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

In a philosophy class one of the first things we were asked was that if a tree falls in the forest but no one was there did it really fall?

I would say yes, but more importantly, who cares?

Don’t get me wrong I like pondering over things and when I used to visit my Father, Cathy tells me she and my mum would say “well that’s politics and sport done and so only religion to go.”

Philosopher “sizing” about things can be interesting, eye opening and fun and yet, without the gift of the Holy Spirit the smartest philosophers in the world can’t tell us a thing about God’s love.

A person could read about human beings and their great love stories in a novel, but still not know that God’s love is deeper and higher than any human love

We could study the rich variety of trees and animals, the seas and its creatures, the stars and black holes in space, and anything else in the universe caused by the creative genius of God.

But these majestic pieces of the cosmos still can’t tell us that the real essence of God the Father who is a God of Love.

One could philosophise and knowingly say, “Whoever designed and caused the human beings to live on this planet must have been more than super ingenious and whoever created the stars and space and time has it all perfect, and must be the finest and most powerful craftsman ever.” All true.

One might also conclude that God is not only supremely powerful, but at the same time cruel, the way death is part of nature and human existence. So then, in that manner-no, creation does not show us the God of love.

We really can only know the full depth of God’s love by looking at the cross.

That the all-powerful God would personally go to be crucified for you and me is shattering, mind blowing stuff. The cross teaches us more about God the creator than any study about his creation.

On the cross we see God seemingly at his weakest. People do with him what they like! The spit on him, mock him, humiliate him, whip him, and God bleeds.Only a few nails hold him to the cross. God is held by a handful of nails to the timber – part of his own creation.

There God dies, seemingly as weak as the day he came into the world.

Our Saviour Jesus who entered the world a helpless baby. Who depended on a couple of humans called Mary and Joseph to look after him and keep him alive only to leave the world helpless, along with a couple of criminals for company who also hang and die on several pieces of wood.

Yet in that picture of the cross we see the love of God reaching out to all types of people.

The love of God that continually in our confused lives reaches out to you and me that we know that:“The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is     stronger than human strength.”

There, on the cross, we see what our sin has done to God and what it can do to us.

We destroy the genius who designed us and gave us life: the same one who brought us into this world and gave us the freedom to enjoy it with him, and with one another.

The freedom to reject him and drive him out so we can claim the universe for ourselves, and keep all the glory and praise for ourselves.

Would we willingly let anything we made turn on us and destroy us. No we’d use force. If we invented human beings we’d keep full control. Humans would be like puppets that couldn’t move unless we pulled the strings. To our way of thinking it is foolish of God to let people think for themselves, or have the power to turn on God.

Yet the one with all the power, God the Father doesn’t rule people by force but chooses to win people by his divine love.

God prefers people to show love and praise and trust rather than rule with an iron fist.

God chose to enter the world in Jesus so he could be close to us, and we could be close to him. He came because he cares.

Our weakest point is our selfishness and can separate us from God. So God chose the cross to meet us in our weakness. His Son Jesus given to us in love, who came to us in love so we would never be separated from God and his love again.

God could use his power to wipe out the human race. He could send a terrible disease that doesn’t respond to any treatment; or a meteor that would smash the world and destroy all human life. But God chooses to use a cross, made of wood. A cross the same as any other cross the Romans used for executing criminals.

And yet on this one hangs the Son of God. The Son of God taking our places.

To those there. The Son of God, yer right. The apostles after following Jesus seeing miracles of untold power and words of mighty love and wisdom see him seemingly defeated and ask themselves “what was that?”

Given the circumstances a fair enough question.

Yet they would soon understand as we have that God chooses that way to show his loving concern for them, for you and for me. Our God who wants to win people by his love, and not by brutal force.

The cross of Jesus is the place we see the power of human sin. Our sin that was so great in God’s eyes that Jesus went ahead and paid for it even before we were born.

Things happen in our lives that we simply don’t understand and often unfairly God gets the blame.

He understands that sometimes we would like a puppet master God who clears the path by forcing us this or that way but we all know how that works out when we are told not to do something without understanding why, we try to do it or at the least become resentful of our inequality of freedom.

But if we really just think for a moment: if there were no cross of Jesus, then the song “Amazing Grace” wouldn’t exist. And Amazing grace it is-and it’s our grace. It’s your grace and no matter what we think of ourselves or each other.

In belief in Jesus Christ as your saviour, my saviour-We are saved. And that is: The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding. Amen.

“Genesis 17:1-7, 15, 16: Mark 8:31-38: Romans 4:13-25”

Apartheid in South Africa was a terrible thing and rightfully condemned by the world. Two sets of people in one land separated by the colour of their skin. One child unbeknown to itself born into an earthly life of good fortune, and one child unbeknown to itself born into an earthly life of misfortune.

The “same” children separated by a controlled fence between The United States of America and Mexico. The “same” children separated through royal blood line and those not and the “same” children in our communities separated unbeknown to themselves to be born into a stable home environment or an environment of physical or emotional abuse that may shape their understanding and actions that seem inexcusable to those who have not walked that path.

As a child, many times when someone nationally or in our own community was having their character attacked I remember how my mum used to mention the chorus from an old song that says

“Walk a mile in my shoes, before you abuse, criticize and accuse, walk a mile in my shoes”

It goes on:

“If I could be you, if you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind,
If you could see you through my eyes instead of your own
I believe you’d be surprised to see that you’ve been blind.

Now your whole world you see around you is just a reflection
And the law of Karma says you’re gonna reap just what you sow
So unless you’ve lived a life of total perfection
You’d better be careful of every stone that you should throw

And there are people on reservations and out in the ghettos
And brother, there, but for the grace of God, go you and I..”

In sin there bar the grace of God we all went because we all, unbeknown to ourselves were to be born sinful because of things outside ourselves that took place 4,000 years before in the Garden of Eden.

We never asked to be sinners, yet we sin because we were born that way. Born into sin yet ironically, still of the blood line of our very first ancestors born as his created children and of the likeness of himself, God our Father.

 God our Father who gave his Son Jesus to walk in our shoes that in Him in the Grace of God we do go.

Saved not in works or merit, but saved in faith in Christ alone. The truth that we know and yet because it is so opposite to our natural thinking we are tempted to limit God to the size of our purposes or to doubt the breadth of God’s generosity or the surprising power of his activity.

It’s a condition in which we were born and that is why we not dwell on our own logic and human wisdom but on that of the Word of God. The same Word of God given to us as that to Abraham who as a hundred year old man and with his wife Sarah beyond child bearing years was to be given a Son that of which would come great nations and kings.

A promise from God to Abraham that against all probability we are told in verse 18 from today’s Romans text that in “faithful” hope he believed against “earthly” hope.

A promise that would see his birth lineage become the Jewish people of God, and a promise that would see the gentiles, us become part of that lineage as the people of God through the birth of Jesus to Joseph and Mary.

In Jesus, we are part of that bloodline and so, to us as to was Abraham the book of Romans through the Apostle Paul sets forth the gospel of justification by faith apart from works of the law and maintains that, since that is so, no one can boast about being able to obtain justification by works of the law, for both Jew and Gentile.

And in today’s particular text itself, Paul takes up the story of Abraham as a proof that justification is by faith, not works. After all, he says, the great patriarch Abraham was justified by faith, not by observing works of the law. He was justified while he was technically still a Gentile, since he was declared justified prior to being circumcised and moreover, as the law of Moses was not given until many centuries after Abraham was declared righteous, he clearly could not have been justified by doing works of the law.

In researching this message I found how the blood lines and associated promises play out as both interesting and comforting. Yet these are not mere words on a piece of paper, these are the Words and promises of God that are alive and working even when we don’t realise it.

The Word of God given to a sinner like me who when at my worst, in a car troubled and anxious in life and with the tell-tale signs of alcohol and tobacco smells and packaging as my passenger, was approached by what we would judge to be a homeless drunk, who peered through my window without judgement nor in a state such as my own, and announce both forcefully and with urgency “that Jesus knows who you are, and you are one of His.”

A few words said to me when I deserved them least, but needed them most that changed if not my life, changed how I viewed it and most importantly, how I was viewed by a loving Lord who has crossed the tracks, and though he did not sin, walked those paths and knows the pain and knows the need.

Jesus Christ knows who you are, and you are one of His and regardless of your current state, He comes to you today.

Today in His Word He comes to you and says you are mine and always will be, and in faith rather than in our self, He asks we take Him on face value. To accept in Holy Communion not just a piece of bread and sip of wine, but the very body and blood that He gave on the cross that you need not doubt, but know as He knows that the fence between sinners and God has been torn down that now here today, be we in soiled clothing and poor in spirit or joyous and abounding in faith-as one we can trust that in Him, God the Father sees not that little baby born to a life of self- hatred and self-abuse, sees not that little baby born of affluence yet still bound to a body of sin. Sees not what has become but still sees that little child who He knew would have to walk regardless of birth circumstance and location through the great tribulation of this fractured world.

The walk that He walked not that we see barriers between poor and rich. Not barriers between black nor white and nor heaven itself. But before God standing as one in faith hearing both collectively and individually-I know who you are and you are one of mine and I forgive you of your sins, and so come what may-I am in you and you in me and forever shall I stand alongside you on this earth, and the one to come. Amen.

Genesis 9:8-17, Mark 1:9-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22

The great flood

Our first reading today talks of the great flood and funnily enough, yesterday I had dropped into the manse a box of books from a family member of a dearly departed loved one and when looking through I found a book about the great flood written in 1956.

It was very interesting and so, there went two hours of sermon writing time “out the window” so to speak.

It had many interesting points and seemingly in 1956, from his quotes it would seem that a large percentage of scientists actually believed that the bible stacked up not against their scientific outcomes, but actually informed, sat alongside and confirmed them to be true in regards to both creation and that the flood of Noahs time caused things such as the geological rock layers from a great floods after effects rather than from billions of years in formation. A flood of such ferocity that from the mixing and smashing of waves and so forth would see sand, rock and fossils settling from various weight and so forth to the levels as they are now from seeping through the soggy ground. Of course this can be said of forming the same over billions of years to the same effect, except, that going through these levels can be found tree trunks and other matter that dissects between them. How’s that work if not from a sudden almighty incident. Maybe a tree that stood firm for a billion years. That’s one tough tree.

Another thing that interested me was of course of what we already know. Being that oil is from fossils and coal from wood. But if we can imagine the mighty wash of the flood it makes sense that whole forests and schools of fish would be covered with soil that would later bring about those reserves to be found in a later period like ours.

As Christians that is a pretty universal understanding but what interested me was the thoughts from the author and many scientists of his time was that prior to the flood, the earth was not on a tilted axis as it is now. Meaning not the seasons as we know them now, but an even climate throughout that supports how the animals of all regions could gather in one spot and co-habitat in the one habitat as in the ark.

Could sound a bit like lunacy but good old google tells me that current day scientists such as Richard Gross of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has stated that earthquakes such as the magnitude 9.00 earthquake in Japan last year may have shifted the earth’s axis and shortened the length of an earthly day by 1.8 millionths of a second.

Hardly anything to worry about but if as many great flood commentators believe, that at the time of the flood that both the underground water gushing up and the climate to bring such rain was through the eruption of massive amounts  of volcanoes going off together, I imagine good old earth may have got a wobble up.

All interesting stuff from a “scientific”” nature.

But what of poor old Noah and his family because as based on biblical blood lines it is said that they took 120 years to build the ark. I imagine that adds up to a lot of ridicule from the locals watching them building a boat in the “middle of nowhere.”

And what of God who after seeing the world in such an evil mess, after his decree to start again still has to watch another 120 years of such evil. Evil not just of fornication and gluttony, but that God had taken such a decision there must have been killings, rape and torture of magnitudes we could not imagine.

So a cleansing of sin through the waters of the flood, and yet a way out for the remaining few led by Noah who still following and listened to God the Father. The same Noah that directly after the flood account is found in what must have been years in the making but told as if in the next moment, finds Noah smashed to the eye balls on wine.

So much for the greater than thou Christian brigade seeing themselves as a mighty fortress of piety and goodness up and against those heathen swine living a life of “wine, women and song.”

Of course I imagine Noah, along with Abraham, Moses and King David and the like were better Christian people than those like myself. Better yes, but sinless-no. All these guys stuffed up at one time or another, but what was different too each in different ways was like what was aid of King David on Ash Wednesday. King David called by God “as a man after his own heart”, not because he was sinless-but because in his sin and mistakes, he continually turned back to God in repentance, prayer and thanks.

The Ark was a vessel of safety too save those at that time who believed, followed as best they could and still worshipped and trusted God.

A rich picture that has continued again and again throughout the bible.

The decree from the Pharaoh in Egypt goes out that all the Jewish boys are to be killed and so Moses’ mother places him in a basket. A basket that becomes his ark and drifts to safety along the river into the hands of the Pharaohs daughter.

The exodus of the Israelites led by Moses.  The people of God who facing certain death trapped in front of the Red sea with the Egyptians chasing behind, only to have God part the seas that they pass to safety and destroy their enemies in the same sea behind them, and in finally reaching the promised land after forty years in the wilderness, the surviving Jewish generation led by Joshua are told by God to enter the land of milk and honey by crossing the river Jordan with the priest leading the way with the Ark of the Covenant out front. Being the chest they carried containing the Word of God on the stones to which was carved the Ten Commandments.

Water and arks that saved the earthly life of God’s people and yet, though they certainly served God’s purposes, like all things in scripture-all point to the great truth of Salvation in Jesus Christ His Son-the Ark of safety to heavenly salvation.

Jesus our Saviour, our Ark to heavenly safety and salvation through the waters of baptism that when attached to the word of God and in our faith in Christ alone for forgiveness, delivers on the promises from God himself.

The promise given to Noah in the form of a rainbow that never again shall the waters again become a flood to destroy all flesh, and though tsunamis and torrents have raged, we know that promise given to Noah has come to fruition.

The promise given to you in Baptism and though your lives still ebb and flow lurching left and right on our earth suspended in space wobbling on its axis as it too feels the sting of a broken world, it is still supported by the hands of its creator our all mighty God. Brocken, suffering, used and abused and a shadow of its days before sin arrived. Yet the same earth that will be replenished on the last day and be restored to its former Glory and again be home to lion and deer that will lye together in harmony alongside Noah, Abraham, Peter, James and John. Alongside black, white and yellow and alongside you.

On the sixth day God created humans, saw it was good and rested.

Baptised and with faith in Christ Jesus, God now looks at His sixth day creations through His Son Jesus Christ and sees not our sin, but the righteous of His Son and sees it is good, and most assuredly like His Son who on the cross announced “it is over” before rising back to His heavenly home, God the Father waits patiently that others may come to faith and stand alongside you within the multitudes washed clean by the blood of the lamb Jesus Christ our Lord, and after again and again having carried His people to the promised land, welcome us home and give us the rest, that we have taken from him. Amen.

Sermon John 11:1-45

 

In the Gospel we see Jesus in a way that covers all bases. Jesus against the advice of his disciples has his eyes toward Jerusalem, and walks to the cross in the Will of his Father. We see his compassion and love, his humanness in going to Lazarus and weeping with those mourning. We see his wisdom; the miracle he would perform, the last miracle of his public ministry in raising Lazarus would Glorify God and bring many who witnessed it, to faith.

But the high point in the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead is the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah. Here, before his own resurrection we can clearly see Jesus as the Messiah as he raises a body that is already decomposing-the Messiah who brings life-to Lazarus that day, and life eternal to those who witnessed it. Just as he has brought us life eternal in his own death and resurrection.
That’s the big picture, we can see that and we know that in faith. We can see it clearly, and even though in the human mind, without faith it seems foolishness but we do not doubt it, and nor should we because it’s the truth. We know that one day; we will pass from earth to heaven, because Jesus has told us this. It’s an unshakable truth-to be given forgiveness, to have faith that when the saints go marching in, that we will be in that number is nothing short of a miracle.

Eternal life, we can see it, feel it. It is clearly evident and we know Jesus won’t let us down. Yet on our way there, sometimes it can get hard to see the trees from the forest. We can still see that picture, that miracle in the distance, but in the here and now, the events our daily lives sometimes blur our vision. Not of our last day, but of what’s going on now. The day to day picture, the daily miracles, the beauty of life, the love of God sometimes can become a bit hazy, or at the very least-take a bit for granted.
Coming from a financially humble background, when I was young I used to think how blessed some of my friends were. Although they were in the workforce and undertaking occupations like me they were from wealthy families who owned businesses. I used to think, how freeing that would be that they could do their job with that safety net that if things turned out badly they could just return to the family business. But I came to see, I was actually free myself-I didn’t have that financial safety net, but having come to faith, knowing the big picture-eternal life, it brought freedom here on earth. With that truth of the future, in the light of Christ daily struggles look different.
Like Martha knew and gave testimony to at the death of Lazarus, we can say of ourselves “I know that we will rise again in the resurrection on the last day”. As Christians we know this to be true and rejoice in it and give thanks to the Lord. We hear the Words of God from 1^st Thessalonians “Rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances.” The thought of being re-united with those that have gone before, talking with and worshiping Jesus: Yes, at the thought, how could we not rejoice?

Yet there was a time when I considered those Words and thought that if you are rejoicing and giving thanks amid suffering and hurt, well then you can’t be suffering and hurting enough. A friend of mine once urged to me to go see a movie, he didn’t tell me anything about it-just its title. So I went along to see it. I got there a little late and missed the opening credits, but I could still work out what was going on. So I was watching this movie, and the longer it went the worse it seemed to get-but I persevered, and at the end I thought what was my friend thinking, that was garbage. Anyway, when I walked out I saw that the movie he had recommended to me had actually been showing on the screen in the next room. I had walked into the wrong movie.

Sometimes our lives can seem like that-where we start to wonder what is actually going on, where the script of our lives is different to how we imagined it. Where the “rejoicing always” doesn’t seem to fit the situation, Until we take a step back,   and sometimes the ability to take that step back can only come with the healing of time. Now I can look back at those times when I found it hard to rejoice and give thanks, and it’s like reflecting on a Wilbur Smith novel where this lead to this and eventually you see how things have fallen into place. And it can be funny how things can turn out.

Test Cricketers have remarked, that at the height of his powers that when Shane Warne released the cricket ball, it would spin so furiously that they could hear it zinging past them. When Shane was asked of his freakish ability he remarked that he believed it was due to an accident he had as a child were he broke his hand, and having not gone to the doctor-the bone’s set incorrectly, that later seemed to give him an un natural ability to spin the ball. But our lives are not a game of cricket or from a fictional book or movie script with only our fleeting emotional attachment. Our lives are real as are the things that come our way. Things that come our way, where like Martha and Mary we too say “Lord, if only you were here”. My dear Christian friend who lost his teenage son to illness would go out into the paddock,Look to the heavens and shout “Why Lord, why my boy? I cannot imagine the pain of my friend-I could not even try.

We could look piously at people in these situations and say “Trust in the Lord”, or give some, “get some faith type of comment like Job’s mates gave him, until it’s us. Until our moment brings us to our knees-where the hurt is so absorbing we cannot rejoice. And only ask why? But far from being a faith issue, that question is a faith statement. Just like Marta and Mary saying to Jesus “If only you were here” is a statement of faith, in my friend asking “why”, he is saying “I know you have the power to do anything”-It’s a statement of faith, but a statement of faith while suffering what this world has to offer.

Lazarus, my friend’s son and in our own hurts. God did not send down the grim reaper upon these people to prove a point. Just as natural disasters are not God getting a little payback. Death was not brought into the world by God. Sin brought it into the world. God does not bring the death he brings the life. Even when Adam and Eve fell to sin, God responded by clothing them. Jesus met those mourning at the death of Lazarus to only be greeted with essentially “why weren’t you here” But he doesn’t lecture them, he weeps with them. Just as Jesus wept for those who persecuted him. On his way to the cross Jesus came to a man who had died a sinner. Lazarus, a good man but a sinner, and Jesus came to him and raised him up. And in this, the Gospel tells us many came to believe.

When Jesus hangs on a cross dying, a black cloud lay over a hill in Jerusalem, but above it shone the love of God. An innocent man’s death, that many more may come to believe. Like Lazarus will be raised on the last day, so too will we. Like Lazarus died in sin and was raised in Christ, so too are we. Daily we sin, daily we doubt and daily we follow our own way and not that of the Lord. Yet in our failure to walk with Christ, he walks with us.

He does not meet us in scorn, but meets us in love, and reveals himself to us. At the fall in the Garden, God clothed two sinners for their protection and warmth on their earthly journey. On the cross, God gave sinners his Son, gave us His son for our protection and warmth on our earthly journey, and clothed us with the righteousness of His Son for salvation.

Like Paul, who described himself as the chief of sinners we too can say “For it pleased God in his kindness to choose me and call me. Then he revealed his Son to me, and now I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me”.  Daily Jesus meets us, washes us clean with his blood, and daily we die too our sins-to be restored us and strengthened in Christ.  To be given life and we rejoice and give thanks and go forward, knowing Christ is with us-come what may.Amen