Category: Pentecost

Luke 17.11-19  A study on the text

 

Today we are going to do something a little different.  Sometimes it is good to do some ‘theology’; today you will be theologians.  It means the study of God through the study of his word.

Luke begins with “Now on his way to Jerusalem”.  This is very important for the understanding of the healing of the leper.  Jesus was travelling, walking, or journeying towards Jerusalem.  Does anyone know why?  He was coming to the end of his ministry time on earth and Luke records how Jesus as now making his way to Jerusalem to be crucified; to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The most important building is Jerusalem was what?  The Temple.  Every Jew knew that the Temple was where God dwelt.  It was a holy place where the Levi priests and the high priest sacrificed birds and animals to atone for the sins of all the people.

Next Luke notes: “As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance.” and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Using one of the dirty lamps, explain the purpose for the temple.

 The dirt on the glass represents sin or some form of disease, like leprosy which is ‘unclean’.  In order to be healed or cleansed of sin, the person would go to the temple in Jerusalem. 

God is holy – clean:  Like this white cloth. 

We are sinners, or sick, like this dirty lamp.

God in his holiness dwelt in the holy of holies.

The book of Leviticus is all about the cleanliness laws.  How, through sacrifice and blood presented to God, the people of Israel are cleansed from un-cleanliness.

The priests would sacrifice a lamb, bring the blood of the lamb into the holy of holies to be made clean, then brought out of God’s presence and sprinkled upon the sinner or unclean person to ‘make them clean again’ (wipe clean the glass)

If the person is healed the priest would announce this and welcome the person back into the community.  If not, the person had to live in an ‘unclean’ colony outside of Jerusalem.

When Jesus sees the lepers, he knows they are unclean, like this second lamp.  What does he do?  Does he heal them?  No, “When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

Jesus is saying to go to the temple, to go where you are made clean because it is where God dwells in his holiness.  The 10 lepers, by simply going, would be presuming that by going to the temple, going to where God dwells, he would cleanse them, and when they turn up to show the priests, cleansed, then receive the forgiveness of their sins.

Instead of this, something amazing happens on their way…what? They are cleansed “

What does this miracle tell us about Jesus?

Jesus is God in human flesh.

In Jesus, rather than in the temple is where God is found.

Use the second dirty lamp to demonstrate the healing of the leper.

By healing the 10 lepers, Jesus takes upon himself the sin and sickness of the lepers, like the blackness that is now on the white rag, but not on the glass.

How would you feel if your son, got his ‘Sunday whites’ and wiped clean dirty black lamps?  Yes, you would be angry and would take the clothes and wash them clean to get rid of the dirt.

In the same way, God’s anger against the dirt of sin that now clung to Jesus, the blackness of sin for all people, rids the world of sin by having his Son crucified.

Jesus goes to the cross to die for our sin

He goes to the cross so that his blood atones for our sin

He goes to the cross to that by his blood we are cleansed

The healing of the lepers demonstrated before time, why Jesus was heading to Jerusalem.  His death and the shedding of his blood now bring healing and cleansing, and not in the continual sacrifices of the temple.

What happened when Jesus died?  The temple curtain, that separated God from humans, was torn in two.  It no longer had any use, God no longer dwelt in the temple by in the man Jesus Christ.

The once for all sacrifice of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb of God, now cleanses.

Luke writes: “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him– and he was a Samaritan.”

The Samaritan recognised that God now dwelt in Jesus and thanked and praised him.

Jesus is still healing us

His very same way Jesus’ blood still cleanses us

His word pronounces us cleansed and his blood cleanses us.

This is why we must still confess that Jesus is truly present here for us, under the guise of the bread and wine.  Only Jesus’ blood can cleans us of sin and make us clean, as St Paul urges us “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Remembers, by his wounds we are healed! 

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

In the church, in the liturgy of the worship service, God cleanses us by the blood of his Son Jesus, and by the absolution of your sins, you are also made clean.  We are lepers of sin who are made clean, like the cleaning of the lamp.  So let us give thanks to God and praise him for our healing.

Luke 16_19-31 Entertainment

 

Things are different today, here in Australia.  We are a far more compassionate, educated and a civil society than in Jesus day.   Wouldn’t you agree?  The average Aussie is now far more socially aware of the suffering of the poor, of the down trodden and the protection of the rights of the vulnerable, than when Jesus told this parable.   Christianity, with its core values and teachings of love for God and loving service for all, and that all humans are created in the image of God, has greatly influenced the way we now value the sanctity of every human life. 

Consider Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.  A rich man is so ignorant to the  inequality and the right to life for all people, that Lazarus lay dying at his front gate, while he continues to be ‘dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.’   The contrast from that day to this could not be starker…its chalk and cheese; it wouldn’t happen today.  So much so, the parable makes little sense to us here in Australia.

Who here regularly sees or reverses out of their driveway past a totally destitute, sore infested, near death beggar, dumped out the front of our house?  What rich man today would risk the media and public backlash of being accused of leaving a poor man to die at their front gate?  Of course no one in our community, you me, rich or poor, would stand for social inequality…everyone has a right to life; to a fair go!  We have the society we do, because our social conscience is built on and around our Christian roots.  We get it from what Jesus says of himself in Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”  He urges us to do like wise, saying ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  

It makes us wonder how the rich man got the point where he refuses to give Lazarus even a crumb that fell from his table. It puzzles us as to how a religious Jew, who was a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Israel, could come to the point where he is totally indifferent to God, to sin, to heaven, or whether there was a hell.  It troubles us as to what convinced this once religious man, to be so consumed with the philosophy common in that day, to ‘Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry“, that Lazarus was not worth his time, money and effort; that the commandment ‘thou shall not kill’, did not apply to Lazarus, as his life was worth less than his own.

As I said earlier, it doesn’t happen in our society, in our day…or does it?  Perhaps we also are part of the rich man’s story?  What are we indifferent about today?  While we are not as barbaric as publically leaving people to die on our doorsteps, and while we are not outwardly flaunting the philosophy ‘Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”, as the rich man did, we are, as a society, perhaps even as Christians, dangerously indifferent.  Indifferent to God, to faith and right theology, indifferent to whether there really is a heaven or a hell; indifferent to wether Jesus really is the only way, truth and life, and apart from him we can do nothing.  And this indifferent attitude towards God has had social consequences that have now crept slowly, like a noxious weed, into our society.

The right to life, and the sanctity of life for all people, especially the vulnerable, is being eroded away by our self interest in enjoying life.  We don’t leave a terminally ill man like Lazarus lying on the front path to die, but we are now open to debating the right to euthanize the terminally ill…with their supposed consent of course.  We as a society, like the rich man, are prepared to turn a blind eye to the suffering and loneliness of the sick and elderly, encouraging them to end their life, so we can “eat drink and be merry.”

We are all guilty of being too busy today, and indifferent ‘dressed in purple and fine linen and living in luxury every day, to spare even a crumb of our time for God and the sick and dying, which might fall from our busy ‘timetables’.  We are all infected with the rich man’s terminal disease called ‘indifference.’   

Sin is indifference to God, not caring that he is angry and offended by our not loving him with our whole heart, mind and soul, as he commands.  Sin is to eat, drink and be merry, while having no regard for the life and welfare of others.  Sin is to be indifferent to Jesus call to “go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” And as the rich man in the parable found out, St Paul’s words ring true for us “the wages of sin is death.”  We may be indifferent, not really comprehending the depth and nature of our sin, and the decadence and indifference of our society, but God is not, and in this parable, Jesus warns us of the fires of hell are ready for those who live in this manner.

Like dead men walking, there is nothing in this world we can do to change our fate, as Jesus says in Revelation 20: 15 “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”  Yet there is good news imbedded in the parable, there is grace to be found.  Did you notice from the start, Jesus gives a name to the beggar, Lazarus? 

The rich man has no name.  Even though many of his friends would have known him, God does not know him.  His name may have been written in all the social columns of the newspapers, but his name was not written in the book of heaven.  He may have been an upright and moral gentleman, but because his name is not known by God, he was thrown into the lake of fire.  

Lazarus was given a name, though he did nothing, had nothing, and was an outcast and beggar; his name didn’t even get a mention in the death notices…he was not buried, but left for the angels to take him away.  Yet because his name is written in the book of life he enters heaven, as Jesus tells, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.”  Jesus names him because he is one of his own.   

Lazarus may have suffered while still living, and we don’t know what caused it.  Perhaps it was his fault, perhaps he had squandered his money like the prodical son, perhaps he was struggling with the results of years of alcoholism, and that’s why the rich man didn’t help, but the stunning fact of God grace in this story, is Lazarus’ name was written in the book of life, and he was taken into heaven. 

Lazarus’ name was know by God, and the rich man’s wasn’t, not because he was a better bloke, but because Lazarus heard and believed in Jesus, the promised saviour spoken about in ‘Moses and the Prophets’; that Isaiah spoke of “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  Jesus went to the cross, suffered and died for us, who are hopelessly caught up in the riches and indifference of sin. Isaiah says “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death” 

But God raised him from the grave that he may live forever.  Death could not hold him, and now death and hell has no power, no sting for us who are named in Christ.  This is the grace that is announced in the parable; the grace that is now poured out upon us through the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments.  What we hear today, what we eat and drink today, are the very grace giving words of Jesus, who was anointed to preach to the poor and to bring freedom to us who are prisoners to sin.  In baptism, we are named as a child of God. 

God makes us his own, giving us his Spirit and putting our name into the book of life, as St Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:22 says “He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”  Since we are God’s children, and have our names in heaven, let us now be attuned and attentive to God’s word, and to give more than just crumbs and token efforts to the suffering people of this world.  Let us no longer entertain ourselves, but rather hear the words of Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Luke 16_1-13  Nothing counts in the end

 

Who has heard of the term poker face?  What is it?  A poker face is used when a card player looks at his cards and sees that none of them are good enough to win.  Once faced with this reality, a poker player has to weigh up all options, try and find a way out of the crisis they are in; do I give in and loose everything; do I cheat; do I upturn the table?  No, he would think to himself, they are really impossibilities because he would still end up having to pay back the huge dept.  There is however one and only one slim and final chance at survival.  He thinks to himself, ‘I must keep a straight face that neither smiles nor frowns; a face that only shows confidence.’  Why?  Yes, a poker face is used to trick others into handing over their fortune to the losing player because they think he has a winning hand.

A poker face is a last ditched, shrewd effort, to extract oneself out of a mess.  Jesus tells us of one such instance of a manager using a poker face.  He was caught out by his boss for deliberately wasting money and has to give an account of his actions.  He knows he is going to lose his job, he knows he has wronged the boss, so he analyses his options ‘I could dig dirt or beg for a living.’  But that’s not an option because he still has to pay back his debt, and will still lose his job.  So what does he do…he has no other option but to pull a poker face.  He shrewdly uses his honourable position, while he still had it, to develop friendships with the boss’ renters.  He uses his best poker face, his years of expertise at fiddling the books, in a way that now benefits himself once again, because he swindles the boss’ money to lower the debts of the renters, and thus make friends!   The boss commends his worker for his shrewd behaviour!

Well have all used a poker face of some sort to get out of a personal crisis.  We are all very skilled and shrewd experts at using our worst to get the best for ourselves when under pressure.  Right from a very young age we have discovered how successful it can be for us to manipulate and control people and situations to make what was a crisis for ourselves, into one that benefits us.  For some of us, our poker face becomes a learnt behavioural pattern; our success at manipulating people and situations to benefit ourselves has been so great, that we become evermore craftier and confident.  When caught in a losing situation, what poker face do you use?  What manipulative behaviour are you an expert at and what gets results for you? 

Jesus told in his story, that the rich boss commended his manager for his shrewdness, so perhaps Jesus is trying teach us something about God and of ourselves; that God knows we revert to unrighteousness when confronted with a crisis, and that we all, like the dishonest manager, will have to give an account of our lives, as he says in Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” 

Yet even more pointed, is that Jesus, while not approving, is highlighting and even commending, just how good we are at swindling and manipulating the people around us, to save our own skin in this world.  We will contrive just about plan, trust in any dishonest gain, act on learned behaviour, and try any poker face, just to get ahead in this life.  Jesus questions, yet why is it then, you who are so shrewd in this world, when it comes to saving your own life from eternal destruction, at most you are a little ho hum?  Why is it, when spiritually, you are doomed and have no hope of saving yourself, as Jesus said “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born again”, we don’t even attempt to make friends of God, or shrewdly use any means possible to us, to ensure we are born again.

Just consider our lives, and just how successful we have been at achieving what we want.  Just think about how hard we have worked to get where we are; the trials we have put ourselves through, the planning and the strategies we have put in place, to gain material wealth and achieve personal goals.  Think about the people we have used to get where we are.  All of us can say we have given this life our very best shot. 

However, our backs are up against the wall spiritually, we are dead in our sin, and are separated from God, as St Paul says “He one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.”   So Jesus, by commending the shrewd manager is asking, why don’t we use the same earthly passion and shrewdness, which only gains for us worldliness and destruction, to gain heavenly things and eternal life?  He queries why we, who are people of the light, those who know the truth, should not also seek after the truth with all our effort. 

God has given us everything, and provides for every physical need, for our use and enjoyment in this life, and he has given this to all people, whether they believe in him or not, as Jesus said in Matthew 5: 45 “My Father causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”  He has also provided everything we need for gaining eternal life.  He sent his Son Jesus, who has won for us life eternal and is the only means through which we are saved.  God has provided Jesus as the way the way, truth and life, so that everyone, that is, all people have the opportunity to call on him and be saved, as John writes “For God so loved the world [all people] that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

There is no reason in heaven or earth for you not to enter heaven when you die.  This is the good news, the gospel, the proclamation of the church, as St Paul reminds us, “Now, friends, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.” 

It is by faith alone, in Christ alone, we are saved.  And we attain, or take hold of this faith in Christ, this saving faith, through hearing and believing the good news, the announcement that Christ died for our sins and so we have a way out of our crisis.  We also receive saving faith in our baptism, and God nurtures and grows our faith through Jesus’ body and blood, given to us in and through the bread and wine of Holy Communion, the medicine of eternal life.  Jesus, in commending the manager for his shrewd success, says for us to do the same in gaining eternal life, for “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

In the same way, we are encouraged to be bold, to do everything in our power and use every means we have to ensure for ourselves the free gift of eternal life.   God is generous with his grace, like the rich man in the story, and is encouraging us to use his means of salvation extravagantly; to gladly hear the gospel and receive the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion.  St Paul urges us saying, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ”

Get as much of this gift of grace as you can, Paul also encourages us saying “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”.  Find new ways of being available to receive the means of salvation.  Be shrewd in the way you use your earthly skills to weight up all options and see that, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”  Play your best poker face, so that you can create for yourself opportunities to be in the presence of God, to be friends with Jesus, for he promises ‘”Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

Luke 15_1-10 Lost in Christ

We just heard two parables Jesus gave about being lost and then found; one about a lost sheep, the other a lost coin.  How many times have you heard the parable of the lost sheep?  Yet, ask yourself if you have ever stopped to reflect on the lost sheep, why it was lost, how it was lost and what is meant by lost?  Have you ever stopped to consider who Jesus’ intended hearers were and what he intended to reveal about certain attitudes and behaviours?  So often we gladly and quickly jump over the lost bit, to the good news, to the happy ending.  The lost sheep was found by the shepherd…hurray!  And they all lived happily ever after.

 Jesus did not tell this parable to make his listeners feel good, nor did he intend for us to make it into a fairy tale, though we often do, where the emphasis is on everyone living happily ever after.  Jesus’ parables are intended to teach the truth about our selves and about God, and Jesus always directed his parable’s toward particular people, their behaviour and attitudes.  Parables may be stories, but they are God’s word in story form, to speak to the soul and conscience, as written in Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Jesus only ever told his parables to those who were somehow connected with him and the Jewish faith, whether they were his disciples, the Pharisees or the crowds that followed him.  They were his key teaching tool.  So as followers of Jesus, we need to take them as seriously as we do the other words of Jesus.  We need to examine and apply them to ourselves, see how they teach us the truth about ourselves and God.  After the parable of the sower, Jesus said “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Luke sets the context of Jesus’ parable of the lost amid two groups of people who couldn’t be further apart, yet in a way, they are in an identical situation; they were all gathered together because there was something about Jesus that attracted them; he touched their conscience because he spoke with authority. The group consisted of two opposing lifestyles.  There were sinners and tax collectors, those who lived a life of selfishness, pleasure and were morally challenged, to put it mildly.  And then there were the religious synagogue types, the regular ‘church folk’, those who were upstanding in society and generally good people.  So we have together, the good, the bad and the ugly!  Seeing how the good put down the bad and ugly, Jesus takes the opportunity to tell a parable about a lost sheep.  Why a parable about a lost sheep?  What is it about being lost Jesus wants to teach about?

Do you know the definition of being lost? I don’t know the official one, but I think this comes close: the definition of being lost is ‘being certain of your position!’  Would you agree?   No?  Well think about the last time you were lost, either in a shopping centre or driving to a destination.  At what point did you realise you were lost?  Well, usually its when you never find you goal or arrive at your destination, then you confess that you are lost.  But that’s the outcome of being lost; weren’t you really lost long before that; making wrong turns and incorrect decisions?  You just didn’t know it or were too proud and certain to admit it, and perhaps, out of spite and to save face in front of your wife, you charge on? 

Being certain of your position, that’s what it means to be lost.  Sounds like a contradiction, but this is one point of Jesus’ parable he wants to get across.  The Pharisees, by muttering, “This man [Jesus] welcomes sinners and eats with them,” reveals to Jesus they are certain of their salvation and how to attain it, while convinced the ‘sinners’ are the ones who are lost. 

The ‘sinners and tax collectors’ on the other hand, were certain they had no need for God or religion and perhaps felt the Pharisees were the ones lost up their own sanctimonial white garments!  Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to two groups who where certain of their position before God, yet Jesus knew they were both lost, they were both seeking the kingdom of God by their own righteousness, apart from trusting him as their saviour and rescuer; the messiah shepherd promised in Ezekiel 34 “As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock…so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered.”

Jesus’ definition of lost is to be certain you know the way to heaven apart from him.  In the “I am” statements, Jesus makes this very clear, that to be lost, like that sheep, is to reach for heaven apart from the shepherd.  He says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me; “I am the vine; you are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing; “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.”

Let’s ask ourselves a few modern questions to remind us that we too, like either a Pharisee or a sinner, are lost.  That is, to allow the parable of the lost sheep to speak to us, as it spoke to both the Pharisees and the sinners; to see that, even in a little way, we believe there is a way to heaven apart from Christ alone.  You are lost if:

• You are certain the onus is on us the accept Christ
• You are convinced people are generally good and nice people go to heaven, including yourself
• You are convinced that Christian bumpers sticker slogans apply to you, even though you never or rarely go to church and value the church only for baptisms, weddings and funerals.
• You are sure your good intentions count for something
• You are certain Christianity needs to be entertaining and relevant to your needs
• You are certain you must feel good about yourself, have a high self-esteem and live a moral life

All of us have to admit, deep down, we still think, that in some small way, we must do something to be saved.  To do so is to be lost, and that is what we truly are.  St Paul plainly sets out the truth in Romans 11:32 ‘For God has bound all humanity over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.’  That is, each one of us is the lost sheep in the parable.  We can never be found if we remain certain we are not lost, but we are found, if we believe we are lost!  This is the gospel, the good news of the shepherd.  God has bound our very being over to sin, so that he can have mercy on all people.  We are sinners, lost and condemned, separated from God, unable to contribute one bit to being rescued from sin, death and the devil. 

Yet this is God’s good purpose for us and the meaning of the parable of the lost sheep.  We are to be totally passive, like a sheep caught in a thistle, so that his Son Jesus, the good shepherd, may take us to be his own, lift us upon his shoulders and bring us into his kingdom.  By faith alone, in Christ alone are we found, and only in him are we saved, as St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:22 ‘For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” He did this through the cross.  Jesus became the lost lamb for us.  He refused to be saved from the wrath of God against our sin, and endured the scorn of the cross for our sake; By his death he became the lost Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

By the power of God, he was raised again, so that he may be the one who comes to rescue us.  By the very word of God spoken over the waters of our baptism, our shepherd lifted us up on his shoulders and there, with him we passively remain.  Infant baptism is the best example we have of how passive we really are in receiving grace.  Jesus word “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”, is the action, we are the receiver.  Jesus said “[the shepherd] calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice”.  We hear the voice of our shepherd through the word of God and in the sacraments, in the confession and absolution, and in the mutual encouragement and fellowship of the faithful.  And all this is we passively hear and receive in church. 

Christ himself is the head of the church.  The church, were the gospel is preached and the sacraments are rightly administered, is the shoulders of Christ.  It is in the church that we are carried by the shepherd, and it is on his shoulders we the lost are comforted with our shepherds words ‘For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Hebrews 13:1-8_15-16 Learn from the master

Get the congregation to make a paper origami pencil.  Get the people to follow each step and fold as you do it, but don’t tell them what they are making.  Emphasis how they need to follow each step.

When we first attempt something new, and perhaps this was the first time you have made an origami pencil, what was one of the key things you needed to do?  Yes, you need to follow exactly each step the teacher is doing; you need to listen to the instructions, step by step, and then attempt to implement the steps, so that you will finish up with the same results as the teacher.  It doesn’t matter what we are doing for the first time, we can only learn by observing, copying and doing what we are taught and shown.  Children are great at learning this way. 

When we first start, consciously following the steps precisely in order, it takes all our effort and is the main aim of our learning.  Even when we work together in a group, we observe other people following the steps, and even correct each other, if the steps have not been followed exactly how the teacher taught.  When we become proficient however, at say origami, the steps and following them to the exact word and crease, are no longer our sole focus; the final goal, the end result, is what we now aspire to; the steps to get there are just that…steps.  We know the folds, we know what to expect and can even vary the steps as we find new and innovative ways of making new designs.  All this is achieved because the end result is our focus and not following the steps.

Hebrews 13, were the writer gives us instructions for Christian living, is exactly like me giving you instructions on making an origami pencil.  It is intended to give Christians a step by step instruction for living a life of discipleship in Jesus.  The exhortations at the beginning of chapter 13 are a step by step instructions for all Christians to follow, but they are set out plainly and simply so that even the beginner can follow and learn each fold from the teacher.  There are five folds to be made; five Christian virtues that are listed: brotherly love, hospitality, compassion, chastity, and contentment.  Set out plainly, with each fold making up the final Christian life.

Fold one: Keep on loving each other as brothers.

Fold two: Do not forget to entertain strangers,

Fold three: Remember those in prison and those who are mistreated.

Fold four: Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure.

Fold five: Keep your lives free from the love of money

Each five folds of Christian virtue are of course modeled after Jesus’ life and are summed up in Jesus’ command in John 13: 34 ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.“  Jesus, being the true man, tempted in every way, just as we are– yet was without sin’ being God in the flesh, was not only our saviour, but also our perfect teacher.  Jesus’ simple expression ‘love one another’, is expanded in Hebrews 13, simply to give us the detailed pattern, the steps we follow, as beginners in the new life of faith, to achieve the life of Christian love Jesus commanded. 

As with all people who begin learning a new skill or job, and as you experienced with the origami, we as Christians have a new beginning and so need to deliberately and consciously follow every step, and also help and show each other how to make the folds, the decisions, and the actions that lead to a godly life, as set out here in Hebrews 13.  Be warned however, the fivefold steps of virtue, and other exhortations found throughout scripture, are simply steps that reflect the teachings and life of our true teacher Jesus. 

Be warned, the steps and folds required of a believer, like those found in St Paul’s great list in Romans 12, where he begins ‘I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,” are not what make us Christians; are not the focus or the purpose of Christianity; they are the virtues of a Christian; the things we do ‘as Christians’ that bring about a final goal of loving one another.  Like with origami, the folds we do, we do because we are origamists and the folds bring about a final result.

We are not Christians because we do the virtues, we are Christians because of Christ.  If, you and I remain focused on the steps, and think that this is what Christianity is all about, we will never reach the purpose and goal Jesus set out for us; we will never actually ‘love one another as he first loved us.’  If we just passionately concern ourselves with the fivefold virtues, we will destroy one another by constantly looking at each other’s life folds, spying on who is or who isn’t folding correctly; challenging each other to aspire to greater and more folds.  Even boasting we have reached the final outcome, listing off all five virtues.  

It is not to be like that.  To focus on the folds of our work and not on Christ, is a confusion of law and gospel; it makes the law more important than the gospel; it destroys rather than builds up.  St Paul, in Galatians 5:15, warns not to make this mistake saying ‘If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.’ Lutheran theologian, Scaer said ‘‘It is … the proper distinction between Law and Gospel that the gospel be recognised as the ‘higher Word’, which is to be God’s final Word for the terrified sinner.’ (David P. Scaer; 21)

Christianity is not about moral improvement or even achieving an honourable life.  Jesus never called for a new moral religion.  He called for repentance and faith in him.  He calls us to repent and to let go of our personal attempts at using passages like Hebrews 13 to fold and mould ourselves into better people. Instead, he announces that it is by faith in him alone; in his life, his death and his resurrection, as the only way, truth and life that will make us godly people pleasing to him. 

First and primarily, Christianity is about the Triune God.  It is not a religion of methods, of steps or of virtues.  It is a proclamation, an announcement that Jesus died in our place; that he rose again, that he ascended to the Father, that he now intercedes and lives for us, so that we can enter heaven together with him. Faith takes hold of and tells us that God, through our baptism is the one who folds us, moulds us and creates us into ‘Christ like’ people.  As St Paul says “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.”  The good news is that God does not seek out people that are pleasing and lovable to him, but that he makes us, who are unlovable, into people who are loved by him and pleasing to him. 

The fivefold Christian virtues are not rules simply to be observed, thus becoming the catalyst to destroying one another.  They teach us, as beginners, how we can fold our lives in ways that appropriately respond to our saviour and teacher Jesus, as St John writes “We love because he first loved us.”   As we grow in this, the folds we make, over and over again, become less and less significant; the five virtues in Hebrews 13 just become who we are.  Our focus changes from us to others; from our efforts to the results, from me and what I am doing, to you and how you are benefiting, thus fulfilling Jesus command “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Luke 13_10-17 Use it or they lose it.

I have a certificate here which certifies that I am a qualified motor mechanic; its my ‘ticket’.  How did I come to be qualified?  I didn’t get this certificate out of a Wheat-Bix box.  My boss chose to spend his own money, his own time and effort training me.  He risked his reputation and quality of service by allowing me to learn my trade on his customer’s vehicles.  Of cause it wasn’t all worry and fear, he’d also have some fun at my expense; sending me to  other work shops to ask for a ‘long weight’, or a left handed screwdriver, or a box spare volts of the battery charger!  And even then, it was his way of teaching me and growing me into a professional motor vehicle technician.

How would he have felt, having signed my certificate, if I were to then display the certificate on the wall, but refuse to work on cars.  How would he feel if I only used my ‘qualifications’ to boast about how much I know about fixing cars, but never fixed any!  Say I saw people with cars that have broken down engines, flat tyres, headlights not working, brakes that fail, and say ‘you shouldn’t drive or own a car in that condition, its dangerous, you’ll kill yourself or someone else, you must fix it, I’ll tell you how.’  What point was it, my boss would think, in investing so much time and money, if I only use the training to gain advantage for myself and not for others?

In a very similar way, the Pharisees were as well trained and certified in the scriptures, as I was in motor cars.  God had entrusted his word to them, he taught them and inspired them to grow in knowledge and righteousness; to be servants of his grace, giving out justice to the poor, healing the spiritually blind and bringing hope to the captives of sin.  They knew every dot and iota of the Law.  They were passionate about keeping every religious command and were even more passionate about teaching others about God, the scriptures, and in particular the holiness laws.  St Paul, who was once a Pharisee, testifies to his qualifications that he once held in high regard ‘I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.’

Yet how do you think God felt when the Pharisees chose to simply use their qualifications to boast of their achievements.  Instead of using their religious training to help others, they hindered them?  How do you think God reacted when they stood in the market places, telling others how they should be living; commanding they keep the law, abstain from certain food, stop living this way or that, yet never comforted or helped , never used their qualifications to inspire people to achieve what they demanded?  Did he think it was a waste of time when he heard the Pharisee’s prayer ‘‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men– robbers, evildoers, adulterers– or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

Yes he did. Did he get angry, yes!  Was he frustrated, yes!  Did God grieve that his grace and justice was bound up in human pride and tradition, yes!  The Prophet Ezekiel foretold ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?… You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally…’Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:… I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.”

Like a Master Technician taking on the work of his employees, God’s love for us was so great, and his compassion to save all people so unrelenting, that he sent his own Son to demonstrate and directly give his grace and mercy.  Jesus’ read out in the synagogue, his mission and mercy statement from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

Then, after being rejected by those he taught, Jesus lived and acted outside the official religious traditions, outside the human traditions; where other religious people feared to tread.  Luke records one special event: “On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.”

The essence of God’s love is expressed in finding the sick, the lost, and the sinners, calling them to him and healing them.  The physical healing Jesus performed, even on the Sabbath, when religious tradition forbid any work, demonstrated that God’s mercy transcends every religious institution, law and expectation.  It is the people God wants to reach, not religious perfection, as Jesus said “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”   

The gate keepers of the human institutional religion complained “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”  But “the regular folks were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.”  Jesus’ ministry of mercy to the broken and regular folks is the very expression of God’s love incarnate; love which has no bounds; the same mercy we call on in worship when we say “Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.”   

Jesus came to get his hands dirty for us.  No he didn’t, he came to get his hands bloody to heal us.  No he didn’t, he came to have his hands pierced by nails to redeem us.  Mission and mercy are always on God’s heart.  Luther explains in his Small Catechism ‘At great cost he has saved and redeemed me, a lost and condemned person.’

We are the benefactors of Jesus’ hands on ministry.  We are the redeemed people of God; the very people Jesus came to call, to heal from sin, death and the devil to be his very own.  In our baptism God made us his child and heirs of his kingdom.  Paul writes in Titus 3 “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” 

God has qualified us as Christians for Christ’s sake through the water’s of our baptism and he continues to come to us and heal our lives of sin and bring us his Spirit through the absolution and the sacrament of Holy Communion.  God has invested more than his time and effort to make us qualified for heaven, he invested his own son on us and for his sake we are here joining the healed woman praising God and to be delighted with all the wonderful things he has done and is doing in our lives.

It is in this delight in Christ that we have the courage and qualification to boldly live the redeemed life of mission and mercy and not hide behind our religious traditions; knowing everything but helping no one.  Christ can build a future for us as a church, as long as we hold to his word and remain delighted and joyful about what he has done for us.  We can dare to believe that God will work wonders through us, as we move outside the traditional church in mission and mercy, like the school, like the shed happens.  As with Jesus’ mission, which often took him outside of the institutional religion of his day, our mission does not have to conform to or look like church.  Mercy is not about religious perfection, it about people.

God is pleased for us to use our qualifications as his child, to help and serve others, just as a master technician is pleased when he sees his now certified mechanic using his qualifications to help others.  God is glad to reward those who have courage to try anything that may reach the lost, even if we don’t do things exactly how he would want us.  Did you know that Jesus said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  And he also said, when the disciples were afraid, ‘take courage, it is I.” Be full of courage and joy.  Today, Jesus has heard your prayer ‘Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.’   You are healed, forgiven and touched by the hands that have been pierced for your redemption; he has qualified you for heaven, go in peace and serve the Lord.

Luke 12:49-56 On fire for Christ or…

 

Fire is fascinating.  (talk about the bonfire last night) Have you ever lost yourself as you stare into a fire; losing all sense of time and worry as you gaze into the flickering coals of a camp fire?  What makes fire fascinating for you?

For me, its the way it seems to dance about above a burning log, suspended in midair, like a kite dances when held tight by its string in the wind.  Flames whip, flicker, rise and drop, they change colours from blue through to bright white.  And what about the warmth we get from fire, nothing is better!  There is a lot about fire that attracts us; it gives us life, light, heat and energy.  But we have to treat fire with caution and respect.  We have to understand fire, know its properties, anticipate its burn rate and heat.  You see, fire is two faced; it heats, but it also burns!  It shines light, but it also blinds.  It gives life, but also takes away. We know that fire gives warmth, but we also know that if we stand too close to fire and ignore the heat for the sake of comfort, we will burn and die.

Have you heard about the ‘boiling frog’?  The boiling frog story is a widespread tale describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The boiling frog story is generally told in a symbolic context, with the upshot being that people should make themselves aware of gradual change, lest they suffer eventual undesirable consequences. (Wikipedia)

The world is on fire…don’t worry Ros, it wasn’t because of your bonfire.  Jesus’ mission to the world has kindled the earth into a great big bonfire.  John the Baptist prepared his listeners for this declaring “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come,…and will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire…he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Jesus fulfils John’s prediction saying “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” 

There is indeed fire upon the earth, but at this point in Jesus ministry, he had yet to kindle it.  There had to be an ignition point, a flint strike from which his fire would ignite.  Jesus knew exactly when, how and where he would strike the fire saying “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!”  His death on the cross was to be Jesus’ ignition point; the event in which he would set the world ablaze.  In a way, Jesus is portraying himself as the match stick that had to strike a box ,and the striking point was the cross; his death as judgment for the world’s sin, as foretold in Isaiah 53 “he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Well, I hope you and I are not frogs in boiling water and about to be boiled alive, because I can’t feel any heat…what about you?  Yet perhaps we are, and if so we had better recognize, acknowledge and respond appropriately to the fire, or as the boiling frog story tells, we will suffer undesirable consequences!   St Paul reveals to us the fire of Jesus in 1 Corinthian 1:15 ‘the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

The gospel message of the cross is the fire of Jesus that now rages around us.  We can not ignore its seduction and draw; the gospel flame burns with an intensity that calls us to either life or death; to burn for Christ or burn in hell; it is foolishness to those who don’t believe, but it is the power to salvation for those who place their hope in Christ.  We are either spiritually blind, ignorant of the cross’ saving power and so, like frogs in boiling water, are doomed to death, or we respond the cross in repentance and faith and so be saved by the power of God. 

If we were to translate directly from the Greek, Jesus described his death on the cross as ‘throwing fire upon the earth’.  The message of the cross is fire, because it is two faced like fire.  It does one of two things, it warms, but it burns; it empowers, but also destroys; it brings life, but it kills.  Some will hear, confess their sins thinking; if God’s own Son had to die for my sin, there must be no other way to heaven than repent, be baptised into Jesus death and believe.  Others will reject the cross as stupidity and a remnant of our primitive society.

Jesus foretold the effect of his cross’ fire saying “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.” Has this happened to you?  In your family? Among your friends?  Have you lost the urge to speak about your faith because people reject your testimony?  Have you stopped encouraging others to come to church because nothing happened?  Perhaps you may have put the cross further down the list of priorities in life because its fire is too confronting, unreasonable, getting in the way or even powerless to help in life?

If this is you; if you are experiencing division, rejection or feeling your faith being challenge by the world, then you are experiencing the fire of the cross; its power and heat are upon you and you need to interpret it as the power of salvation; that the gospel message of the cross is burning its way through your life and you can either remain ignorant and indifferent, like the frog, boiling to death in our Western culture’s indifference to Christ, or you can interpret your division, suffering and even failures as the marks of the cross for blessing and salvation.  Jesus said, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. How is it then! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. Yet you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”

Without spiritual understanding and faith in the cross, our present time, with many rejecting the gospel, turning away from regular church attendance; where sport, sex, wealth and good times are promoted as the first priority for our lives, we would be tempted to conclude that Jesus’ fire of the cross has been extinguished.  But don’t be fooled.  These very events and signs Jesus wants us to take note of and to interpret, that the message of the cross is taking effect; to respond with repentance and faith in the message of the cross and to not give in to today’s indifference as, well ‘sign of the times.’  It is the fire of the cross causing the division, with some repenting and believing, while others are rejecting and persecuting. 

St Paul always proclaimed Christ and him crucified and nothing else.  He passionately proclaimed that the only way to salvation is through the message of the cross, announcing “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”  He chose to preach and live the cross and so spread the fire of the gospel.  However, in doing so, he had to endure the marks of the cross; suffering as Christ did, enduring the scars and pain that the fire of the message inflicts.  Instead of giving in, he interpreted his suffering as signs from God that the fire of the cross was alight and spreading.  

In 2 Corinthians 6 St Paul gives us an account of what it means to be faithful in enduring the shame and fire of the cross  for the sake of spreading the gospel “as servants of God, he writes, “we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;  in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Fire gives light, heat and life, it burns, destroys and kills, it gives and it takes away.  So it is with the message of the cross; it gives and takes away…yet blessed be the name of the Lord!  We all have scares, burns and wounds, suffered for the sake of the cross, but we all hold steady to the cross of Christ, for through it Jesus has redeemed us, let us not forget or be indifferent, but rejoice in this present time, and hold firm in faith saying together the words of the hymn O the old rugged cross by George Bennard

“O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.”

 

Luke 12_35-40 Ever-ready

 

(let the hymn finish and remain in my seat playing Nitendo.  Play the game until people start to get agitated and worried something is wrong.)

Oh no, I’m not ready!  Oops.  I forgot I had to have a sermon for this Sunday.  Perhaps someone could give a sermon for me?  Do you have one ready?  Do you?  Or do you?

Oh no, I’m just not ready, today came too fast, I wasn’t expecting to have to give a sermon so quick after last week!  I mean, I have been so busy with ministry.  I had to visit a number of people, I have taught at the women’s guild, went to Nyngan, taught at JAM and supported the ‘Shed Happens’ display at the vintage truck show.  I though I had plenty of time yet to prepare a sermon, but here we are!  Well what now, the time is here and I’m not ready.  And do you know what?  No one else can be ready for me; no one else can be me.  I am the one called to be ready for this time.

Jesus warns us as his disciples to be ‘ever-ready’ for his return “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.”  As Christians and disciples of Jesus, we are to be like ‘Ever-Ready’ batteries, ready and powered up to welcome Jesus at a moment’s notice.  For Jesus has promised to return at an unknown hour, and when he returns, it will be the end of time and life as we know it; in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, St Paul says, Jesus will suddenly appear before us.

When this happens, the time will be at hand.  Like with my sermon, in which I was not ready, yet the time came, and no one but me was responsible for being ready, so it will be at Jesus’ return; as the saying goes ‘time waits for no one.’  Jesus will appear whether we are ready or not…are you ready?  Are you watching?  Are you prepared with a lamp lit, in the right clothing and ready to open the door for Jesus at a moment’s notice?  Are you an ‘every-ready’?  If Jesus had have returned yesterday, would have you been ready?  Or tomorrow, will you be ready? 

Many of us would say yes, but our yes is one that is tainted with doubt and uncertainty, fear and weariness about what being an ‘ever-ready’ servant really means and what not being ready actually is.  After all, aren’t we all ready?                                                                                                                  

Perhaps someone can comment on what it means to be ready or not?

Jesus warns us to be ‘dressed ready for service, with lamps burning.’  What does this image conjure up in your mind? 

Perhaps we should be wearing overalls and work boots, and all have a torch in our pockets?

Dressed and ready for service in Jesus day, meant men and women had to hitch up their long cloaks under their belts, so their long clothing would not hinder their run, or cause them to trip.  When God was about to kill the first born of every Egyptian in the last Plague, God wanted his people to be ready for this and to be dressed to run, once the Pharaoh let them go, as recorded in Exodus, “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.”  However, Jesus is not asking his followers to be ready in this physical way, constantly dress in robes tucked under their belts. 

We are not to be ready by wearing joggers, tee-shirt and trackies.  Neither is he asking us to dress in some special ‘Christian clothing’, our Sunday bests’ to show others around us we are more ready than they.

If not, what is Jesus expecting of us?

He is challenging us to be spiritually ready for his return.  Urging us to be as ever-ready for him in faith, hope and love, as the Israelites were every-ready in girded clothing, lamps and oil; ready to take that journey to the Promised Land.  To be ever-ready for Christ, fully charged and challenged to move at an instant’s notice, is to be spiritually prepared for the journey that Jesus’ return inaugurates, our personal journey to the Promised Land of heaven, as Jesus promised in John 14, let’s read  “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

 Jesus also announces in today’s gospel the great reward we will receive for being ready to welcome him saying “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.”  Jesus will be serving us in heaven!!

To be ever-ready, ever-charged and challenged in faith, hope and love, is to be spiritually ‘packed light’ for Jesus coming.  Having nothing in our spiritual lives that may cause us to be sleepy and lose our sense of urgency; nothing keeping us from always having Christ on our mind, believing, hoping, doing and planning, serving and loving as if he were to come at the very next second. 

To be an ever-ready packed light Christian, is to cast off anything in our hearts that may cause us to trip or entangle us, slowing us down or stopping us from running to open the door when Jesus knocks, as he said “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”  As a long cloak in Jesus day stopped people from being ready to run, thus they had to hitch them up in readiness, our greatest burden and load stopping us from being ready is worry.

Our worries greatly load us down, paralyzing us, stopping us from being ready, blocking our ears to the knocking of Jesus. 

What are some of your worries?

Worry for you could be shame and guilt about your past, perhaps they are weighing you down so heavily that you struggle to have faith.  Perhaps it may be anger and bitterness that burden you to a point where we can’t even lift a finger in hope or even dare to love.  You may even worry about being ready!  Always loaded down trying to outdo yourself in good deeds, hoping this good may make you more ready than in the past. 

All of us have spiritual baggage that loads us down, stopping us from being every-ready.  An Ever-Ready battery will not be ready for use when the time comes, if it has been slowly drained or loaded with a power drawing device.  In the same way, worry drains our readiness, spiritually killing us by drawing out and draining all our faith in Christ, our hope of eternal life and our love for him. 

Interestingly, its not our suffering that causes us this burden of worry, but our lack of suffering, as Ravi Zacharias from “The real face of Atheism” wrote, “despair comes not from being weary of suffering, but from being weary of pleasure.”  No wonder Jesus warns against wealth, pleasure and worry in the verses previous to today’s gospel…have a read when you get home.

Does it mean then, to be spiritually light, we just don’t worry, as the song goes ‘don’t worry be happy’, or eat, drink and be merry, like the rich fool we heard about last week?  No!  Its how our worries are dealt with.

On whom can we ‘unload’?

Jesus himself takes our worry.  He says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  The good news about being ever-ready is that Jesus himself makes us ready, by taking all that burdens us and inhibits our faith and places it upon himself.  Jesus offers himself as a person to dump upon, unloading our worries so that we are every-ready to enter his kingdom and feast with him. 

He takes our burdens, not like a psychiatrist or therapist, who can do little more than listen and prescribe new ways of living, but as a healer.  Jesus actually heals us and restores our life again, keeps us charged in faith, hope and love.  This is why we are encouraged to do this in James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

Soon we will confess our sins and then partake in the heavenly feast with Jesus.  Use this opportunity to really unload your heart of worry, so that you may be healed and ever-ready.   If this is not enough, come to me privately during the week, as Jesus’ very ears, and unburden and then hear Jesus comforting words of forgiveness and healing.  Now is the time to be every-ready, now is the time to encourage others in our community to be ready.  For this very hour Jesus may come and say ‘“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” 

 

 Amen

Col 2_6-15  The fullness of Christ

Dubbo (Gilgandra) really is quite a nice place to live.  Why do you live here? (some examples).  Yes, its special to belong in a place that is safe from war, has good services, and where we actually want to live.  However, to live here comes at a cost!  Did you receive your rates bill from the council this week?  (show my bill) Yes, to be part of our community; a place were we want to be, actually costs us and demands payment from us.  We all have a letter telling us to pay up or we will lose our right to be citizens of this town; pay our dept or be forced to leave.  This seems totally unfair and expensive.  Would it help to complain?  Would it help if we just ignore the charges against us by throwing the bill into the bin?  Would it suffice if we just try our best and pay half or perhaps 2/3rds of the bill we owe?

No!  The charge to us remains standing.  If we want to remain citizens of Dubbo (Gilgandra) we must pay our dept in full!

There is also another city we a citizens of, the heavenly city of Jerusalem.  When we were baptised, by the power of God’s word and promise to us, we became members of God’s family who also live in heaven, as St Paul declares in Philippians 3 “our citizenship is in heaven.” St John also describes our heavenly citizenship in his vision recorded in Revelation  “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”  Do you want to be a citizen of heaven?  Why? Yes, St John describes heaven in this way “God himself will be [our] God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Who wouldn’t want to be living in heaven, as the Psalmist declares in Psalm 84 “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD.”  Well I have something for you.  (hand out envelopes with windows and get people to open them and read the bill.  On the account is the list of the Ten Commandments).  For us to be a citizen of heaven it costs.  Here is an account from God, straight from his word.  A list of his demands, the dept we own him to live and be citizens of heaven.  And worse, I am going to stamp the bill (an overdue stamp).

It doesn’t seem fair that God would demand a dept from us, especially since we want to live in a place with him; that he would command we be perfect when there is no possibility of us paying this sort of bill!  And worse, we must pay for it before we die!  What if I were to die in the next hour?  How would all this account be paid for?  Would it help to complain?  Would it help if we just ignore the charges against us by throwing the bill into the bin?  Would it be suffice if we were to simply try our best and keep half or perhaps 2/3rds of God’s commandments? 

No, just as we need to pay in full our dept to the Dubbo City Council, (Gil shire) we certainly also need to pay in full our dept to God for our failure to keep even one of the commandments.  St Paul tells us in Romans ‘There is no one righteous, not even one…Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.’

 We own God a dept to live in heaven, that’s the bottom line.  And if we don’t pay we are excluded from citizenship, no matter how good we may feel or act, or how unfair we may think it is.

How thrilled you would be, and how grateful would you be, if some stranger paid your council rates for the rest of your life!  How exciting would it be, if you opened the windowed envelope every year, and instead of reading what we owe, we read ‘DEPT CANCELLED PAID IN FULL.  Well this undeserved payment of our debts has happened.  Not for our citizenship in Dubbo (Gilgandra), but Jesus has paid the dept we owe to live in heaven, and he paid it in full.  Not with silver or gold, but with his Holy and precious blood. 

St Paul declares this very good news, the gospel, that Jesus gave his life for us to be citizens in heaven with him, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” 

Hold out the dept written on the paper before you.  Every command has been fulfilled by Jesus, every transgression against the commandments of God have been paid in full by Jesus’ atoning death on the cross.  They no longer have power over us or demand anything from us, they are finished.  The message of Jesus is an announcement of good news, a stamping of ‘PAID’ on our dept and a declaration that we are citizens in heaven free of charge because of what Christ has done for us.  Here is a stamp that says ‘paid’, (go around to each account and stamp ‘paid and also stamp with an impression of the cross). 

Luther teaches us to understand what this means for us, writing in his commentary on John’s gospel ‘It is extremely important that we know where our sins have been disposed of.  The Law deposits them on our conscience and shoves them into our bosom.  But God takes them from us and places them on the shoulders of the Lamb of God…there are two abodes for sin: it either resides with you, weighing you down; or it lies on Christ, the Lamb of God.  If it is loaded on your back, you are lost; but if it rests on Christ, you are free and saved.’ (pg 170 vol 22)

In baptism Jesus stamped our bill with ‘paid in full.’  The guilt of sin no longer rests on us, we are free to live in heaven.  Faith takes hold of this, trusting in God’s true word, so that we are citizens of heaven, as Paul writes “in him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”  The circumcision done by Christ is the cutting off of our debt, the paying in full. 

Jesus death on the cross crushed the serpents head, as promised in Genesis 3:15.  The devil can no longer exclude us from heaven, he has no power, his head is crushed.  However his body remains and it is thrashing and raging against our new spirit as it dies.  While still citizens here in Dubbo (Gilgandra), we still sin and so we must make use of our baptism.  It remains necessary, because of sinful nature, for us to constantly repent and fight against our sinful desires.  It remains important that we constantly remember the commands of Gos so that we can confess our sins against it to God and each other and receive the forgiveness Jesus so freely gives. 

You are a baptised child of God, a citizen of heaven, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, you are now empowered to live under the forgiveness of sins and strive for the holy life that St Paul calls for. Therefore, a citizen of Dubbo (gilgandra), who also lives freely in heaven because of Christ, acts differently than someone who is only a citizen of this world, still under the dept for sin.  We want to gladly hear this gospel message again and again, eat the heavenly meal of Holy Communion, be willing to learn and are excited to love and share the news of free citizenship with others 

Paid in Full! You couldn’t get greater news.  Let us rejoice and be glad.  For this is God’s doing, so that no one may boast except in the cross of Christ.  Amen

25 July 2010 

Citizen of the

NEW JERUSALM

HEAVEN

Dear child of God

The debt you owe

Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words:

 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

 13 “You shall not murder.

 14 “You shall not commit adultery.

 15 “You shall not steal.

 16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Galatians 6_7-16 Godly tension

I have a rubber band here.  They are purpose made.  When not stretched, they are of little value, in fact of no use at all.  But when stretched, they become useful.  The tension of the rubber is used to hold things together.  The rubber stretches and flexes around any shape to hold and bundle things together.  The rubber band’s tension allows it to become the shape of a square when stretched around a box, rectangular when stretched over envelopes, or round when slipped over a roll of papers.  The rubber band, in and of itself is useless, but when stretched, the tension it develops has 1,000’s of good uses. 

(stretching out the rubber band).  However, we can also use the rubber band’s tension for bad.  We can stretch it beyond its capabilities and what?  Yes!  It snaps.  We can also use the rubber band to inflict pain and injury, when we stretch it on our finger and flick it:  who hasn’t done that!  Worse, we can make a sling shot and really cause damage.  Tension is good, but when we use it in the wrong way, or stretch it too far, we turn good into bad.

Our lives are very similar to the rubber band.  God created us with tension; to be useful; to be good and do good things toward others.  To be of service to God through serving each other, to love and cherish each other and to nurture and care for creation, as written in Genesis ‘God blessed Adam and Eve and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’  We live with this good tension every day, and we even express how our day is going in terms of tension: ‘I’m a bit stretched at the moment, I feel tense, I’ll spring back!’ 

Depending on what is happening to us, what decisions we’ve made, who we are around and what we are currently doing, our tension changes.  Like the rubber band that changes shape and intensity of tension, depending on what it’s stretched around, our tension changes depending on our situation, our thoughts and our actions, this is good godly tension. 

(DEMONSTRATE) Like I said earlier, we were created to do good works, as St Paul emphasizes, ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, (that is, let’s not lose our tension) for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people.’  Doing good for others, living the command ‘Love God first, love your neighbour as yourself,’ or living by the Spirit, keeps you at the right healthy tension and within your created stretch.  The encouragement and promise is there “the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Sin, however, is to use our tension, our lives, for bad, like when we overstretch or fling a rubber band; to either over stretch ourselves or use our tension to inflict suffering upon another person.  We overstretch ourselves when we over step the mark, go beyond God’s commands; when we transgress our conscience, or go against what the Holy Spirit prompts us to do or, as the scriptures say ‘smother the spirit.’  We become over stretched slowly over time.  It is not an instant thing.  The thoughts and desires of our sinful nature lead us to words, which lead us to deed, the snapping point, where there is no turning back; once we have put our sinful thoughts into action, we have gone beyond our created tension, thus causing a breakage, where there is no tension to recoil us back to the way we were before.  Sin breaks our relationship with God and with others.

We can also use our over tension to inflict pain upon others.  Rather than snapping, we stretch ourselves to the point where we ‘go off’, fly off the handle, hitting out at someone, especially someone close to us; we become a slingshot.  Built up bitterness, rage and frustration stretch and stretch our lives, until finally we load our tension with a plan to withhold our love or even fire words and actions of hate.  The impact of such a quick release of our tension is just as devastating for our relationship with God and others, as overstretching ourselves until we snap.  St Paul warns “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.”

So, if I were to stretch this rubber band, at what point would you say the tension is at in your life: (STRETCHING RUBBER BAND) here, here, here?  (RELEASE) Are you the one, as St Paul says “ who sows to please the Spirit, reaping eternal life?” living within a good tension, or are you overstretched…are you about to snap…or go off, “reaping destruction?”  For most of us, our life will constantly cycle of good and bad tension; from tense to intense to snapping, only to start again over and over.

It doesn’t matter where on this scale you may currently find yourself; It doesn’t matter that you may be about to snap or you are over stretched, how long you have been cycling between good and bad, there is a pressure release for you.  There is one man, one redeemer, one name above all names, who has already deliberately and permanently took upon himself our over stretched lives; our sinful nature, our judgment and death and conquered it, putting an end to our destruction .  Jesus, on the cross, with each nail and blow, each wound and thorn, defused the power of sin over our lives.  There on the cross, the full power of evil tension was unleashed upon Jesus in our place. 

(DEMONSTRATE) Slowly, over the six hours Jesus endured the agony of the cross, the power of sin, that over stretched our lives, was released; the tension went into Jesus body, and there it remained until his death and there it was buried with him forever.  Then Jesus was raised by the Father to give us new life, without controlling evil.

Jesus’ death brings us back into a normal, God purposed life.  A life that is no longer over stretched, but now has flexibility, elasticity and able to recoil God’s love for us into serving and loving our neighbour. We are able to be flexed and stretched in godly ways by the Spirit, given to us in our baptism, to serve and mission to those around us, as St Paul encourages us to do ‘the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.’  The cross Jesus endured, and the victory he won over sin and death, and the ongoing power of the Spirit, gives us a new way of seeing and experiencing our life.  The cycle of overstretching and snapping is replaced with a cycle of confession and forgiveness, love and service.  That is why Paul rejoices saying “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Today, we rejoice as seven girls, Rahel, Rachael, Anna, Georgina, Ellie, Miriam, and Tabitha, will publically boast in the cross of their Lord Jesus Christ.  Today girls, you are confessing that Jesus is the only name through whom you find release and freedom from the destruction that comes through sin.  We want to join with you in sharing in Christ’s victory over sin, by hearing your confession of your faith in the Triune God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.  We want to encourage you to continually trust in the cross of Jesus and the power of the Spirit, to release you when you are hit by the inevitable stretching times in your life.  We pray that, having faith, your life can and does have purpose and meaning, because of what Jesus has done for you; That you continue to be flexed and stretched by the Spirit in a godly way, through the word and sacraments, so that you boast only in the cross of Christ and recoil his love for you, by loving your neighbour.

Amen