Category: Lent

What qualities make a good mate?
We Aussies treasure a good mate.  In fact Australia was founded on mateship and mateship is what forges us as a nation.  Mates on the sports field, mates on school grounds, mates at work.  Without a good mate, someone to rely on, someone you can really trust, our lives can be very lonely and a lot harder to handle.

It is during the most difficult times in life, when the chips are down, that mates seem so important.  In fact, have you noticed, it is precisely in suffering, a special bond between mates is made; in a time of disaster, people pull together and mateship is forged; the sort of mateship we remember most.  The people of Nyngan endured a flood which engulfed their whole town, with most buildings over a meter under water and nearly everyone evacuated.

This happened nearly 20 years ago, yet even today, even though the people and the town continue to prosper, the thing they talk about most, is the flood and how they suffered together and how mates come together to see a mate through a hard time; mates who worked together to see this disaster through.

Yes, it is important to remember the hard times, the suffering and trials, and to remember mates who never gave up on us.

I often hear Christians say that the believer’s life is a life of victory, of joy and boundless possibilities; health and wealth gospel you could say. And many of the modern Christian songs of praise now reflect this thinking.  Yes, while it is true, Jesus has won the victory over sin and death, and we should be joyful over this news, is that all there is to know about God?  Is the God of victory and joy; the post-resurrection God, the only God we need to know?  Is the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus no longer the suffering Lord?  No loner the one called Emmanuel, God with us, even in our suffering?

Let me pose you another question, is having mates all about the good times, the joy and victories?  I think not.  Mates are there for us also in the hard times, and the suffering.  And if we can sing ‘What a friend we have in Jesus, well then Jesus needs to be our mate in suffering also.

The story of Jesus raising Lazarus is a story of mateship amongst suffering. And it is a story that all of us can relate to;   Its about the hard times, about suffering and sorrow and its about death;  It’s a story about how Jesus, a friend of Lazarus, a mate, came to those suffering ; to be with the people and to be a mate with them, even in death; topics, which most Christians rarely talk about; yet isn’t it ironic, that much of the bible is about God helping those in trouble and suffering.

As Christians, we need to recognise the reality of death and suffering, of family hurts and tragedies, because it is inevitable, and when it happens, we want to know that we have a God, who is not only understanding, but who is a friend who will be there with us, to help us, like a mate in a time of disaster.

Mary and Matha were in such a situation; distort, as Lazarus, their brother, was dying.  They were helpless; what could they do?  Who could they turn to?  Immediately, on realizing Lazarus’ dire situation, Mary and Matha sent a message to Lazarus’ dearest friend Jesus.  ‘Lord, the one whom you love is dying’, or in Aussie lingo, ‘Jesus, your best mate is dying’.  Yes, they trusted that their mate Jesus could do something, they were not sure what, but they knew a good mate would always see it through; they trusted in him and believed he would help.

When Jesus arrived at the place where Lazarus lived, he was greeted with Mary’s tears of helplessness.  ‘Lord, if you were here, my brother would not have died’.  If you were here, your mate Lazarus would not have died.’  It is as if Jesus failed to be a good mate and didn’t see a friend through a hard time; Lazarus had died and Jesus was nowhere to be seen.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus let Lazarus die, and when he did finally turn up, why he didn’t just go straight to the grave to raise Lazarus, but instead, went first to those most desperate; to those suffering most?  Why he came face to face with hurting mates?

Perhaps he did this to demonstrate his love; his willingness to share in the burden of a friend; to show that he is able to be called upon, even in the darkest hour, even when he has seemingly left them all alone.

Perhaps he did this to fulfil their deepest human desire,… to have God with them, amongst them in their hopelessness, amongst the tears, and in the midst of despair.  Perhaps he did this so he can offer an amazing hope; and he did just that!  Jesus stood among the suffering and said ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’

And with these words still resounding in the ears of Mary and Matha, and those present, Jesus calls Lazarus out of the grave; raises him from the dead, to show that his words are not empty; to show that he is in deed a good mate; faithful and true to what he says, and always there in time of need.  Jesus is among the dead and the mourning to be the resurrection and the life.

And can I assure you, he is among us still today, Jesus is Jesus and he is a friend of sinners, a good mate, still hang’n round those of us in need, answering our calls for help, coming to our aid and fulfilling our deepest desire;…to have Jesus with us.  However, his aid may not be what we expect, or when we expect it, as Mary and Matha found out.  Perhaps we too will call out ‘Lord, if only you were here’.  But it just maybe, in allowing us to suffer, Jesus is giving us time to be with him, so that he can be  amongst our hopelessness, amongst our tears, and in the midst of our despair, so that he can offer us an amazing hope.

Just as in earthly tragedies, which heighten our desire for a close friend to be with us, our trials and our struggles in life also heighten and reveal the true longing for God we all have; that desire to fulfil a need to be with God.

In trials Jesus comes to us, not to just fix up the problem, but to just be with us, to fulfil our longing for him, just as he did with Mary and Matha.  Jesus fulfils our need to see and experience God; Jesus makes God personal; here is God face to face; here is God who we can know and handle, feel and name.

How is Jesus present with us?  Simply when a fellow Christian visits and reads God’s word to us and prays with us, because Jesus has given as an incredible promised ‘where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also’.  And he is with us bodily when we partake in the sacrament of Holy Communion.

And in Jesus just being there, amongst our daily struggles, whether we realize it or not, Jesus is calming our restless hearts; filling our yearning for him with the promise of hope and a way out.

Lent is a good time to remember that Jesus left the glory of heaven and suffered for us; a time to remember that through his suffering and death he forged a new mateship with us; and it is a time to ponder once again how he is with us in our need by his body and blood, in the bread and the wine, so that his word may continue to ring in our ears and splash on our lips ‘whoever believes in me  will never die, but be raised to eternal life’.

He came through with Lazarus, and raised him from the grave; and he will come through with us, in this life, and in the life to come.  So who better then, to have as a mate in times of suffering and strife than Jesus; who is not only he for us on earth, but here for us in eternity; yes what a mate indeed. Amen

It has been suggested that the origins of denominations occurred when all the healed blind men in the bible met each other. At first they were all excited about the miracle of sight that Jesus had given them, but as they talked about how Jesus had healed them, they began to discover some significant differences. For some, the healing came with simply a touch from Jesus (Matt 9:29; 20:34). Another proudly boasted that he had enough faith so that Jesus didn’t have to touch him to perform the miracle (as recorded Mk 10:52).

Another meekly exclaimed that Jesus not only touched him twice, but also “spit on his eyes” in order for him to see clearly (as Mk also records 8:23). The final one really felt embarrassed to admit that even though a touch wasn’t part of his healing, Jesus’ “spit” wasn’t enough. Jesus had mixed his saliva with dirt and put the mud on his eyes and then told him to go and wash in some pool of water (Jn 9:6-7). Since each one thought his healing was normal and better than the others, they divided into spittites and non-spittites; muddites and non-muddites; touchites and non-touchites. Denominationalism was born.

Isn’t it funny how we often admit we are not an authority on one particular thing; we don’t have all the answers; we are prepared to take another opinion or view; we are, as the saying goes, more a ‘jack of all trades, and master of none’.  But when it comes to God, and who he is and how he works…well, we are all experts; we’re masters and everyone else is a jack of all trades.

Like the spitters or the non-spitters, we know best and we know exactly how God acts or would act in every situation.  We know he worked in our life in this way, therefore he must work in the same way for everyone else; we have our religion down pat and God all squared off; there is nothing new about God we don’t already know.

We all have religious glasses through which we look at God and understand him.  You through the lens of the Uniting, me and others here, through Lutheran lenses; each of us, looking at God, seeing him work within the boundaries and scope of our glasses.  We are confident, and we are sure that we have the right glasses because surely after 2000 years, we aught to know God; know his ways; know how he saves.

But has God ever surprised you?  Has he ever done something so radical in your life, that he left you gob smacked; unable to say for certain that this is God working?  Have you even been confronted with a situation that made you realize, that when it comes to God, we are not masters, but rather a jack of all trades?  Why is it that God sometimes shocks us?  Could it be that we are so darn certain we know God, so focused on our glasses through which we see God, when some miracle, or some tragedy happens in our life, we are actually blinded to God; we cannot see him in our situation and think it cannot be from him; he just wouldn’t do that; its fate, or good planning or just luck…but not God.

This is how it was for the Pharisees and the Jews in general.  They had God down pat.  He only works within the focal range of their glasses; through the confines of their lenses; the perimeters set by the laws of Moses.  After all, God spoke to Moses and told him everything the people of Israel needed to know.  The Pharisees’ glasses where not bifocals, they didn’t have another view of God; another way to see him.  They were certain they knew God the only way.

Then, a man turns up, a man who was blind but now sees; a man who was once a beggar but is now free.  A man that claims God did it; a man named Jesus did it.

How can this be they exclaim!  This cannot be so, God doesn’t work this way. ‘”How were your eyes opened?’…‘Where is this man?’…‘How did you receive your sight?’… ‘This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath?’… ‘How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?’… ‘What have you to say about him?’………………………

‘How is it that now he can see?’

Jesus spat on the ground, made mud, put it on the blind man’s eyes, he washed and he could see.  Simple, powerful… a miracle; A God action.  Yet they found it hard to believe, because God does not work this way, healing on the Sabbath, mixing with sinners and welcoming the unclean. It just doesn’t fit the glasses through which God is understood.  And because of this, they can’t actually see Jesus is God.  How ironic is that!  The blind man sees and the seeing are blind!  This is why Jesus says to them “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

Yes, we can be so sure of God, so sure that our glasses are the perfect lens to see God, that we are actually blind to him.

Let us then contrast this sort of faith; this sort of certainty about God that actually blinds to the truth, to faith of the blind man.

Did he claim to know everything about God?  Did he claim to have all the answers; the perfect ‘theology’ about God?  No, all he knew was this ‘I was blind, but now I see’.  His healing by Jesus; the opening of his eyes, did not give him the final and ultimate answer to God.  And neither was it the end of his relationship with Jesus.  Rather it was the beginning; the start of a journey of discovery about God; to discover who God is and why he did such a thing as heal him of his blindness.

Jesus never gave him all the answers, and with good reason.  He wanted the man to grapple with the God questions; to struggle with why and how faith is relevant in daily life, and to debate and discuss with others the questions about Jesus, who he was and why he come.  Jesus wanted the blind man to not only see the world, but to also see him; to have eyes of faith that are not dependant on others and their vision of God, but to have eyes of faith that are his own and that are dependant on him alone.

The man had to struggle with all the questions and doubt, the fears and persecution, the confessions and ultimately, the isolation of being kicked out of the temple.  But as he took each step in his journey, as he made a confession about Jesus, God was opening his eyes of faith.  From ‘I don’t know who he is’, to ‘he is a prophet’, to ‘he is from God,’ to finally ‘Lord, I believe, you are the Son of God; his eyes of faith are opened.

From the day of our baptism; the day we received the miracle healing of Jesus; the miracle of forgiveness and eternal life, to this present day, we are on a journey of discovery; a journey to discover the wonderful and glorious mercies of God; and to discover what it means in everyday life.  We did not receive all the right answers about God that day.  Our healing by Jesus did not give us the final and ultimate answer to God.  Every one of us needs to grapple with the God questions; to struggle with why and how, to debate and discuss with each other the questions about Jesus, who he is and why he did such a thing as save a wretch like me.

And as we continue to do this, to confess out faith to others, to admit we don’t have all the answers; to allow ourselves to be surprised, to be baffled, to even be disappointed and persecuted for the sake of Jesus, then our eyes are opened to see God; our faith is strengthened to see him as the God who saves and redeems us from the grave, through the death and resurrection of his Son.  To see him in Jesus Christ, who comes to us to give us his body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

And when our eyes of faith are open, we can confess our own faith, together with the healed man and together with each other, and we can say ‘Lord, I believe’ and we can join with the blind hymn writer, John Newton, and sing ‘Once I was blind, but now I see.’

I know a number of you have gone in to the outback.  How would you express what you saw, or if you haven’t what word would best describe the outback?  Barren.  Yes, the outback can seem a God forsaken place, where nothing lives, where many dreams have failed, lives have been lost and hopes dashed.  Many have tried to make a future in the outback, brought with them sheep and cattle, families and workers, but were only turned back by the bareness of the country.  Barren, it is a word that describes hopelessness, emptiness, and the end of the line.  I want you to keep this image in your mind.

And when bareness becomes a part of our lives, when all looks to have come to an end, we begin to look for a way out, and for many, the first way out is to reject God; to see him as the cause rather than the solution to our problems, or to make him irrelevant and non-existent.

Richard Dawkin’s search to prove that God is real came to a barren end, he could not find proof that God exists, so he concludes there must not be a God and so rejects him and religion as a whole saying ‘A case can be made that faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the small pox virus but harder to eradicate.  Faith, being belief that isn’t based on evidence, is the principal vice of any religion’.

Dawkins believes its up to humanity to better our own lives, there is no God, faith is the wall which stops us from being in control of our destiny; faith hides reality.  Really?  Well our world is littered with the remnants and legacies of past generations’ attempts at improving our life by rejecting God; thinking we have the power to better our lives.  The remnant and legacy we have been left, speaks for its self; war, starvation, tyranny, loneliness and depression.

Does this sound like a better society? Does this sound like we have things in control?  Billy Joel wrote a song about this called ‘We didn’t start the fire.’ In it he lists all the failures of the world, and he ends with ‘JFK blown away what more do I have to say’, we didn’t start the fire, its always burning, since the world’s been turning’.

Yes, the first few chapters of Genesis sounds like it could have been written by Billy Joel.  We didn’t start the fire, the world’s been burning since the world’s been turning ‘Adam tries to better his own life, rejects God’s word and ends up kicked out of the garden.  Cain tries to better his life, rejects God’s word and kills Abel; whole nations want to better their lives, reject God and are drowned in the flood.

The whole of humanity wants to better its self, builds a tower to heaven, only to end in confusion.  Yes, we didn’t start the fire against God, but we are certainly part of it, stoking it with our failures to trust his word.

Perhaps there have been times when you and I have found, as Dawkins did, that we need to take control of our own lives, why wait for God to act.  Why wait for a future promise that may never come true, why wait for evidence that God is real in our life, why wait to see his blessing when they may never happen, live for now; act now, before it is too late.  Leave faith in God to those who are afraid to take control.

When we begin to read the story of Abraham, we begin with the genealogy from Adam to Noah and then the genealogies from Noah to Abraham.  And when this concludes, we realize that Abraham had every excuse to take his life into his own hands; to leave faith to those who are afraid.   There is no proof God had things in control.  You see, his family line concludes the list with ‘Abram married Sarah, who was barren.’  It stops there; at a point of hopelessness; no longer can the family line go on.

What does this tell us?  Humanity can go on for ages and ages, but it will end in nothing, unless there is divine intervention, grace. It tells us, Humanity, you and I, have nowhere else to go. Barrenness- be it war, devastation, destruction- is the way of human history without God. It tells us, there is no foreseeable future, only hopelessness. Human power, apart from God, cannot create or even invent a future for its self.

But the story doesn’t stop there.  No, this is the pivotal point in human history.  The point in which God, in the face of bareness, despair and hopelessness, breaks into the world with a word of hope for humanity.  And its also a story about faith and trust in God, who by his grace, restores hope in the bareness of Abrahams life. What seems to be an end is actually the future for God’s people; our future.

God says to Abraham ‘go to a land that I will show you and I will bless you and make you into a great nation’.  Wow!  What a word; what a promise…what a contradiction.  Abraham saw bareness and hopelessness, an end of an era; God saw a start of something new.  By making Abraham’s wife Sarah, barren, God was showing that he was closing off the old, ending the human tragedy of sin and death  and assuring in a new way, a new creation, a new people who will be his own, who will live by faith, not by sight.

Abraham, as in previous generations, could have rejected God’s word.  He could have looked at his situation, looked his hopelessness and did as Adam did and said ‘God, you must be joking, I’m doing it my way’; but he didn’t.   Adam chose disobedience, Abraham chose faith. He believed God where Adam did not. He trusted, despite physical evidence to the contrary.   And as St Paul writes ‘His faith was credited to him as righteousness;’ that is, he is in God’s blessing because he trusted his word.  He received because he believed.

Abraham stepped out in faith and anticipation of the future.  God’s word of promise seemed imposable, yet because it was God’s word it seemed plausible; plausible enough for Abraham to stake his life on it.  He believed enough to trust that at some point in the distant future, final confirmation of the promise would take place.  In the mean time, he is perfectly prepared to live with the unresolved tension.  He lived and thought as if the promise had already happened, even thought he knew only future generations would have the luxury of knowing and actually living in the promise.

You and I have the same promise of God, to bring you into the Promised Land.  Jesus says to you in your baptism ‘you are part of God’s family, you are my child of the promise, arise from this barren way of life, and I will take you to the Promised Land.’ And if you have not heard the promise for a while, here is.  The promise straight out of today’s gospel ‘”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’  Let’s say that together…..

This is the promise for you, given at your baptism ‘you shall not perish but have eternal life’.  This is the word of God to you, the same word of God Abraham heard and trusted.  Is it plausible enough for us to believe?  Plausible enough to stake our life on it? To trust that at some point in the distant future, final confirmation of the promise will take place.  Are we perfectly prepared to live with the unresolved tension of living now, yet for eternity?  To live as if the promise had already happened?

This is the question of faith, stepping out on a promise.  Dawkins is right, there is no proof, only the word and promise of God.  The scriptures say ‘faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’  So let’s live today as Abraham did, as if the promise has been fulfilled.  Leaving the bareness of our own ways, leaving the emptiness of life without God and his word, and live as if in his presence; listening to him, studying his word and loving and serving each other.

Let us live with a hope so strong that everyday we hand over our life to him.  For we know, that the same word of God, who had the power to raise Jesus Christ from the grave, is the same powerful word that will bring us into eternal life; the fulfilment of the promise. Amen