Category: Pentecost

Mark 9_30-37 Freed for service not idolatry

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When you or I leave for a journey, the first few days are always the best, aren’t they.  The excitement of seeing and experiencing new things, meeting new people and the anticipation of reaching our destination, keeps us focused on the road; the journey.  All of us travel on a journey at some point in our lives.Â

In today’s gospel, Mark records how Jesus and his disciples were on a journey.  They had been travelling around Caesarea Phillippi and had just arrived in Capernaum.  Jesus and the disciples often journeyed together.  Walking the dusty roads from one town to the next, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those they met about repentance and faith in the Messiah.  In fact, God’s ministry and the mission of God’s kingdom, is by nature travel, is by definition a journey; a journey to go and announce the good news.

  To ‘announce good news’ in the original Greek is the word ‘angello’,  from which we get angel…the angels were sent on a journey from heaven to earth to announce the good news concerning the birth of Jesus ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’  In keeping with this word, ‘angel’, to go and spread the good news of Jesus, we get  ‘evangelise’ and those on the journey with the good news of Jesus are ‘evangelists’. The disciples were evangelists on a journey with Jesus…who was and is still today, the content and embodiment of the good news.

Yet, have you noticed that while journeying, before reaching our destination, about in the middle, the excitement diminishes with the stresses and tiredness that comes with travel, and arguments start?  The kids in the back of the car ‘are we there yet!’, or to give a good example, a caravan park manager once told me that he could always tell when a newly retired couple were halfway through their first trip together.  When arriving at the park, both the husband and wife would jump out of the car, red faced and not talking.  The husband would have white knuckles from tightly hanging onto the steering wheel, and the wife would refuse to even book the van in; both knowing they still had many for miles to journey together.Â

All of us have stories to tell about arguments that occurred while journeying, all of which took our focus off of the joy of travel, our focus off the purpose for the journey and off the anticipation of reaching our destination.  It was just one of these occasions when Jesus arrived at in destination.  ‘They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?”

Somewhere along the journey between Caesarea and Capernaum, somewhere between the call to follow Jesus and the desire to fulfill the call, the disciples argued.

Perhaps it was the heat of the journey, the difficult walk, exhaustion or perhaps the length of the journey, whatever the cause, the result was arguing among them selves.  Mark writes, ‘They kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.’  The evangelicals no longer journeyed as ‘evangelists’ of good news, announcing the kingdom of God everywhere they went.  Rather, they proclaimed the importance of themselves.  They were no longer ‘evangelists’, in the true sense of the word, but had become announcers of ‘idolatry’, believing themselves to be more important than the message they proclaimed.Â

Somewhere on their journey between Caesarea Phillippi and Capernaum, the disciples lost sight of Jesus and got caught up in an argument, boasting about being the greatest.  Sound familiar?  Sounds like something we do?  Good Christian ‘evangelists’ on Sunday, but as our week goes on, as our daily journey continues, we, like the disciples, change from evangelists into idolaters.Â

Perhaps in your weekly journey you are confronted by a situation that requires a choice between your best interests or the interests of another person, even someone we don’t like; what would you do, demand to be the greatest?  Or there is an opportunity to show yourself to hold the high moral ground, showing up someone who has failed; would you be an evangelist or idolater?Â

Would you be one to confess yourself to be a sinner before God on Sunday, then, during the week claim to be sinless and demand everyone else live a faultless life; would you act as a servant in compassion or as a ruler who is the greatest?Â

It is clear by Jesus question ‘What were you arguing about on the road?” that Jesus didn’t hang around to listen to and debate who was the greatest.  Even though he indeed is the greatest, as scripture declares ‘God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name’.  Jesus refused to engage in such an argument and promote himself as the greatest.   Rather his evangelistic mission journey was to be a servant, as the prophet Isaiah foretold ‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.’

And I am sure Jesus still refuses to listen to our arguments about our right to be the greatest in his kingdom.  Self-righteousness, or idolatry is the enemy of Jesus mission to save.  Jesus often argued against the self-righteous who claimed they were the greatest saying ‘For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’  Luther used to say ‘since Jesus came to save sinners, we had better be found among the sinners, rather than the righteous’

While the disciples argued, Jesus continued with vigor, his journeying as an evangelical, a preacher announcing the good news, as he said in Luke’s gospel ‘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.”Â

Jesus knew his journey would be one that leads to the cross; He needed to be a servant who must serve the world so that all people would be freed from the tyranny of the devil.  This is the journey that love takes, as Paul writes ‘love is not rude, it is not self-seeking’, and this is the message Jesus installs on his disciples “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”  Why?  Because God in Christ Jesus first served and loved us…and what is love?  John writes ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.’

Jesus continues his evangelical mission journey from heaven to earth for us still today.  He is present with us in worship as a servant in service to us, announcing his good news of forgiveness and pardon through his word and in and through his body and blood;  giving us the benefits of his earthly mission, the good news that ‘he was pierced for our transgressions, and was crushed for our iniquities.’Â

This is why we come to church.  Not because we want to show that we are greatest Christians, but precisely because we are not the greatest.  We come because Jesus is here to serve us and bring us the evangelical message ‘it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.’  This is why we should still call our worship ‘the divine service’, because this is in keeping with Jesus’ mission to serve us.

Our journey in life began at the cross of Jesus.  In baptism, we are born again into a life of servant hood, not glory, just as Christ served us.   We are served by God each Sunday and in turn we go out as evangelists in our weekly journey, not to argue over who is the greatest, but to serve each other.Â

Listen to the words of St Paul, and may his words be yours this week. ‘as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;… 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;…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.’

James 3_1-12 Taming the tongue

(spray some deodorant or perfume into the air.  Then ask people to put their hand up when they smell the perfume)

You think about the great area of space and volume of air in this room, yet one small spray of this perfume and in a very short space of time, everyone here can now smell the aroma.  There must be one part of perfume to a million parts of air, but very quickly the aroma is smelt by everyone; it has spread throughout the room.  Such is the power of Perfume.

Have you considered that even one word spoken by you, spreads throughout a group of people in the very same way as this perfume?  One small word or demand, a put down, a derogative comment, a boast, an accusation, or a lie, spoken to just one person, soon spreads to everyone, like an aroma into the ears of many.  Such is the power of our tongue.  St James recognised the power of our words and said ‘the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.’

Unless we do an experiment like we just have, we don’t quite realize how powerfully our words spread and change the air like an aroma.  They come from our mouth and once in the air, our words spread throughout a group of people like an aroma in the air.  Our comment goes from one ear to the next.  Soon, everyone in our home, place of work or school knows what we said, and even some we didn’t want to hear have heard.Â

 I had no control over the perfume once I sprayed it.  The aroma spreads with its own power.  In the same way, we have no control over our words once said.  We have no control over how far they spread, who will hear them, and how strongly people will react to the words.  Words, once said, change the atmosphere, the feeling, the air within a group.  With power like this at our finger tips, or should I say, on the tip our tongue, we have learnt to use our tongue to control and manipulate other people to get what we want. Â

Right from a very young age, we have used our tongues to make noises and bring attention to ourselves; an aroma of screaming and crying fills the air and before long, mum or dad come and satisfy our needs.  As you and I grow into adults we still use the power of our tongues to get what we want.  We learn to become crafty and manipulative in the way we use our words, deliberately knowing they will spread the aroma of what we want for ourselves to those around us.Â

We become expert word perfume-chemists, developing ways to say things that will have maximum effect with the littlest amount of words spoken…a bit like developing a powerful perfume.  We mix different ways of saying things so that people are forced by what we say do what we want.  All the while we appear to say very little.  The old saying rings true, ‘its not what is said, its how it is said.’  Jesus, the Word of God in human flesh, knew how we use our tongues to gain control, all while we look innocent on the outside.  He said ‘the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, false testimony, slander.’

Now days, we have become even craftier with our tongues, we speak through our fingers.  What was once said is now emailed or texted, which has even more power to spread because there is no stopping a word once said on the internet, or a word on a text that is forwarded on from phone to phone.  We must as parents warn our children about using the internet chat rooms and texting as a legitimate forum for personal conversation.  Electronic words are never personal!

By voice or by electronics, we are constantly adapting our words, finding new ways to say things to get what we want.  James warns ‘[our tongue] is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.’  One smell of the deadly aroma of poison and you will die, in the same way, when people hear a word laced with poison, they die emotionally.Â

One manipulative word, which demands a response from someone against their will, takes away a person’s right of choice and freedom to express their thoughts.  If we manipulate someone with our words, to try get them to do something for us against their will, we take their life from them.  We poison the life out of them with our words.

In a similar way as we do, St Peter often used his tongue to voice his opinions.  From what we know of him from the gospels, Peter often spoke up as the disciple who wanted to be the one with all the knowledge, power and the authority over the others.  Like us, he would have learnt from a young age, how to use words to manipulate others in order to get ahead, to control people against their will.  Peter’s skilled use of his tongue is dramatically displayed in today’s gospel.  He rebuked Jesus for saying ‘the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.’Â

We are not told what Peter said in his rebuke, but by Jesus response, Get behind me, Satan!” “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men’, we can surmise that he wanted Jesus to rule the world in the way we think is best; with power, manipulation and control; getting people to do things against their will.  However, this is not the way of God, he never poisons with his words as we do.  His word brings life and sustains life. Jesus is the word of God, with all power, majesty and authority, and as John says ‘Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.’Â

We think we have powerful words which spread widely!  Well, the aroma of God’s word has reached to the everlasting, beyond the known universe.  Yet, the word of God did something for us so powerful that we are compelled by love to respond ‘[Jesus] being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!’

God used the power of his word to put to death sin…our sins of the tongue.  On the cross, which Peter rebuked Jesus for, he crucified in Jesus, our poisonous words; he put an end to us having to manipulate people to feel worthy and valued.  On the cross Jesus died to redeem us from the deadly aroma of our self-righteous words that put down and control.  This is why Jesus rebuked Peter, he knew he had to put to death our sinful way of life.  Where there is death there is no more, it is an end; an end to poisonous words…but it is also the beginning of something new!

Jesus rose from death to live forever, and now he reigns to speak a word of forgiveness and new life to all for all eternity.  He reigns forever to renew our life each day, through the power of his tongue; the fire of his Spirit…His Spirit filled word is the aroma of God that saves all who hear it and believe.   The word of Jesus you hear today, is the word of God in action, spoken from the cross to you personally.  He died on the cross for all, but he redeems you personally, when he comes to you by the power of his Spirit filled word and announces ‘whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.’

These life-power words of Jesus have already acted upon you and me.  We lost our life, died to sin in our baptism.  But just as Christ rose from the dead, we too now live forever through our baptism, as Paul says in Romans 6 ‘we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.’   And today you are redeemed anew from the poison that brings death that still flows from our tongue and from the tongues of others, when you eat and drink of Jesus body and blood in Holy Communion; for he is truly present for YOU, to bring you back to life again, as Luther constantly emphasized.

Let us with our tongues, as James encourages, praise our Lord and Father.   Allow the aroma of Christ to fill your hearts, your homes, your relationships and the words that flow from your tongue.  Then, as we read and speak, live and breathe his word, by the power of his Spirit we will be renewed day by day into the likeness of Christ.  For this Word brings the aroma life, and Christ himself.

Deuteronomy 4_1-9 Tragic confusion

 

This is the tree on the banks of the Cooper Creek that Burke and Wills saw when they arrived, near death, after a journey of discovery to the top of Cape York.

 

This is the ‘life saving’ inscription carved into the tree, telling Burke and Wills where to dig to fine food and provisions.

 

What happened?  Why didn’t the life saving message not save the life of Burke and Wills?  Yes.  They misunderstood the meaning of the writing, dug in the wrong spot, never found the provisions and so died.  By digging in the wrong spot, they never received the gift of life that was left for them. 

Can there be such confusion about God’s word to us?  Could we get God’s life saving word so wrong that we fail to find the real treasure of God’s gift to us and die?  I would argue yes!  And what is our confusion? Its the mixing of Law and Gospel; a confusing of God’s commands with God’s blessing.  We are digging for life in the law, in our obedience to Jesus’ commands, when the actual treasure is only found in the gospel, in receiving rather than in doing. 

The Law, the 10 commandments and other statutes, were revealed by God on Mount Sinai to Moses and the people of Israel.  These commands were written on stone tablets as a testimony and covenant pointing to how our life with God needs to be.  Like the writing on the dig tree, that said what needed to happen in order to find the hidden treasure.  The law pointed out what needed to happen to find the treasure of being God’s people.  It laid out how to live in the presence of God himself and receive from him the blessings of the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey.

Just before the people entered the Promised Land, Moses gathered them together and re-read the Law to the people, reminding them that the Law of God intended to bring life and blessing.  ‘Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.’… ‘what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?’

The Law, the 10 Commandments brought life with God because they showed the Israelites and now show us how God intends us to live.  Its like God is saying ‘I created you to be in my image, and these commandments are righteous because they reflect that image.  Live up to them, obey them with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and you will live.  Don’t and you will die.’ 

Silently now for a moment, in your heart, are you thinking ‘yes, I must try harder and live up to God’s Commandments, or else I will also die?’

This is our first fatal confusion about God’s word.  We miss-read, confuse or fail to understand the intended function God has for his law.  In the same way as the Pharisees did, we think that if we try hard enough and have enough successes in keeping the law as God intended, we will live and be blessed by him.  Surely this is what the Pharisees were thinking when the questioned Jesus ‘So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?” 

They, like us confuse the intention of God’s law; ‘we dig’ for life in the wrong place, like Burke and Wills.  No, there is no life with God or blessing from him by trying to keep his law.  We can’t, as St Paul warns in chapter three of Romans ‘Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ 

The proper understanding of the Law, the purpose of the law, for the Jews, and for us Christians, is to reveal our sin.  God set his Law in place to show us who we really are on the inside…sinners who break the law and that we are not the people God intended us to be.

If we think we are pleasing God by obeying the law, following every command, even those Jesus calls us to do.  And if we think that if we point out and correct others who don’t keep every command, like the Pharisees, and are certain God is pleased with us for doing this…let us hear what Jesus has to say ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’  All we are doing by outwardly keeping the law in order to please God, is masking our sin in good works; papier-mâchéing over the sin inside that God intends to reveal.  We are confusing the law into gospel.  Luther says in his commentary on Galatians ‘The principle purpose of the law in theology is to make a [person] not better but worse.’

Why is the Law life if we are made worse?  Why is it righteous?  Because it reveals our sin so God can deal with it.  Most importantly, the law points us to Jesus, the hidden treasure, who fulfilled the law for us.  The function of the 10 Commandments is to point us away from our righteousness and point us to the righteousness of Jesus.   It says ‘dig here’ and receive the righteousness of God.  If we don’t clearly understand this, we will be like Burke and Wills and perish looking for our righteousness in the wrong place.

Life with God or our righteousness is found only in our treasure Jesus, who ‘was pierced for our transgressions, was crushed for our iniquities… and by his wounds we are healed.’  We are given the gift and blessing of forgiveness and eternal life only by trusting Jesus at his word.  Trusting that if by faith we ‘dig here’ in Jesus, we will receive the hidden treasure of life, because Jesus promised clearly in John 11 “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.”  

As loud as the law condemns us, even louder the gospel saves us.  It illuminates our hearts and makes us alive.  It discloses what grace and the mercy of God are; what the forgiveness of sins, blessing, righteousness, life, and eternal salvation are; and how we are to attain to these. (Luther; Galatians -1535, pg 313)

The gospel of Jesus that we hear and receive from the bible and in the sacrament of baptism and Holy Communion, is like finding the hidden provisions under the sand near the dig tree.  Its like reading and understanding what was written on the Coolabah tree and receiving life out of the hidden parcel of food; we eat and drink salvation!

Sadly…this is where our second fatal confusion over God’s word happens.  This good news, the gospel, seems too good to be true and so we place the gospel of Jesus, the free gift of forgiveness and life for his sake, back under the law.  We add conditions upon grace as if some sorts of requirements are needed.  Once our heart takes hold of Jesus and we receive life, instead of trusting and leaving it at that, we feel we need some works to help our doubting conscience.  ‘I must improve my ways’; ‘I must commit myself to mission; ‘I must do this or that in order to be certain I am saved’.

Put a condition on grace and you have a law.  There are no conditions, which means we cannot judge who is a Christian or not, or who is saved or not by what they do, how they dress or how committed they may seem.  Yes, that grinds in our ears and doesn’t seem right, but as Jesus said to the man who worked the longest in the parable of the vineyard ‘Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

When we do not confuse the law with the gospel, then we have found the hidden treasure of life. Had Burke and wills found the hidden provisions, they would have lived and been forever grateful.  When we receive the free gift of forgiveness from God, we are also forever grateful.  The gospel empowers us to love God and love others freely.   Only the gospel can do this, because the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:’   Amen

The armour of God  Ephesians 6

Did you realize that every time you get into a modern motor car, you are putting on an armoury of protection?  Many of us take this for granted, and don’t understand and even despise all the lights, beeps and warning tones that go off in our car, every time we turn the key.  We take little notice of what is happening around us as we click on our seat belt and drive out onto the road.  But did you realize the car has now provided an armour, a safety cell for us, that protects us against impacts from outside.

The instant there is an impact, often, before we even respond ourselves, the armour around us defends our bodies, our life from being killed in an accident. A plethora of safety systems deploy: front and side airbags, curtain airbags, seatbelt retractors, crumple zones collapse absorbing energy and the strengthened cage around the cabin transfers the impact load through to the crumples zones.  All this armour remains hidden yet always active, ready for when there is an impact that could kill us.  Without it, we would certainly die.  Its our modern day armour.

St Paul uses the imagery of armour, that of the Roman soldier, the helmet, the belt, the breast plate, the shield and sword, that protects them from the enemy’s weapons, to describe what Jesus victory over sin, death and the devil really means for us in our lives.  The gospel of Jesus, as Paul describes it in Romans 1:17 ‘a righteousness from God…a righteousness that is by faith from first to last’, is the full armour of God; the armament given to us for protection against the day of evil.  Today, it is equally valid to state this armour of God, this righteousness from God, as being like the safety cell in our car that surrounds us and protects us every moment we drive.

After watching  video advertising, who here would not put on their seatbelt?  Would any of you dare to disconnect the airbags?  After seeing the protection a safety cell provides, would you want to go back to the old cars, like my Valiant, which I am sad to say, has no safety features at all?  We would never do that.  It would be too dangerous…we might be killed.  Have you thought the same way about using the armour God that he has given us to protect us from the fiery arrows, the impacts of the devil?  It’s a sad reality for many of us, and I am often just as much at fault, that we take more care of our physical safety than we do for our spiritual safety.

When we begin each day, because there is no automatic alarms, sirens and flashing lights reminding us of the protection we have around us, we often go though our day without a thought of using God’s full armour.  We face the day, so to speak, with all its impacts from the devil, in an old car, without a seatbelt, without a safety cell, and still expect to be alive and well at the end of the day.  In spiritual terms, we go to work or school, face constant attacks from the devil, all without relying on any protection from God’s armour.   We have no thought about the truth of Jesus; the righteousness we have because of him; the power of the Spirit that can transform our lives, nor understand  the influence that being saved by grace can have on our decisions and on our daily struggles with other people or  in our temptations to sin.    

Have you ever experience a day when you got home in the evening and thought…’what went so wrong?’  How could have I allowed myself to speak like I did, or lose my temper the way I did?’  Or have you lay in bed at night worrying about what the next day was going to bring? Or how you are going to handle your anxiety over a conflict or a desire to act on something you know isn’t right?  Sadly, it is so easy for us to feel confident to face our crisis alone and by our own armament and capabilities; as if our faith is nothing more than an ideology and Jesus word has no power to protect us from such a deadly foe.

You are a Lutheran, I am a Lutheran and Justification, being made right with God through faith in Christ alone, a righteousness of God from faith to faith, as St Paul says, is the central teaching of our church and is what we believe.   This central belief is the armour of God and is the power to enable us to stand in our most difficult days.  How, you may ask?  We have two options when facing a difficult time or an attack from the devil; either we stand and face evil with our own righteousness and works or we put on the armour of God and rely on the righteousness of Christ:  which of these will you choose?

Stand against the devil by your own power and you will spiritually die.  In the same way as you would physically die if you were in a car without a safety system.  Stand in the armour of God and Jesus fights for you and you will live, as Jesus says ‘The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.’ In other words, you can’t fight on your own.

St Paul encourages us then, to put on Christ as our armour or safety cell, ‘be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.’  We have no mamby pamby God on our side.  Jesus has defeated the devil and sin on the cross and by rising again he has defeated death.  Evil can’t harm us anymore.  Luther writes ‘if sin makes you anxious, and if death terrifies you, just think that this is an empty phantom and an illusion of the devil – which is what it surely is.  For in fact there is no sin any longer, no curse, no death, and no devil, because Christ has conquered and abolished all these.  Accordingly, the victory of Christ is utterly certain.’ 

St Paul says the same ‘we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’  By faith we believe this to be so; trusting in Jesus as our shield, breastplate, helmet and belt.  When the devil impacts us, accuses us of fault and guilt, justification instantly springs into action on our behalf. 

When there is a severe impact to our car, the strengthened cage around the cabin transfers the impact load through to the crumples zones, so that we remain safe and unhurt.  In a similar way, when the devil or sin impacts on our life, Jesus becomes our crumple zone; he is our armour around us who absorbs the impact to keep us spiritually safe.  Suddenly, as an attack happens…the devil accuses us, or someone hurts us with a lie or there is some sort of abuse against us, Jesus takes upon himself all the attacks.  By faith in him we allow the impact to be transferred onto him. 

To put the armour of God at a time like this is to remember and recite passages of scripture like ‘Isaiah 53 ‘Surely he took upon himself our infirmities and carried our sorrows.’ Or 2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’  Better to be safe than sorry.  Begin everyday by being strong in the Lord, remembering to put on the armour of God, saying ‘I am a child of God, I am baptized and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.’  Let’s put on the armour of God now and say after me ‘I am a child of God, I am baptized and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.’  Amen.

Only fools observe. Ephesians 5-15-20

 

(hold up the Valiant service manual) How do you think I became a motor mechanic?  Did I just pick up this book, put on a pair of overalls, tuck the book under my arm, and walk into a garage? No, of course not!  What makes a mechanic a mechanic?   For someone to be a motor mechanic, they have to be totally involved in the job; working on cars, studying how they work, pulling engines and gearboxes apart and …hopefully, putting them back together again.  By actually doing the job you grow in knowledge, confidence and ability and before long, you become what you do…a mechanic.  

This is the same with every thing we do isn’t it?  Both for our good..or…for our bad.  The fact is, whatever we involve ourselves in, we become.  We become a cyclist when we ride a bike or we become a criminal when we steal.  While we might intentionally want to become a mechanic or become any other profession, by immersing ourselves in the work and allowing the very job we do transform us, very few of us intend to become what we don’t want to be. 

No one wants to become an alcoholic; none of us intentionally become addicts to sex or gambling; none of us intentionally become adulterers or murderers.  It literally just happens.  It really does.  What we involve ourselves in, we will finally become.

Listen to a testimony from a reformed gambler.

 Many years ago, on odd occasions, I would, as they used to say, go into a club and have a “pull on the machines.”
What that meant was, having a bit of a flutter on a “one-armed bandit” or poker machine.
I was always able to go into a club with no more than $5 or a few coins, have a bit of fun and then when all that amount that I had allocated for that time had run out, then I would leave and was content in that. This would happen only about three or four times in a year. So this was for about thirty years.

 But one day, I won $100 on a 1c machine and that is when I really started getting “hooked.” Can you see how subtle Satan works? All addictions start out so small scale, so innocent. And you may say, that as a Christian, I should not have been in there anyway. Yes that is true, but every now and then, we do veer off “the path” (exert from www.Life Connection Ministries)

Did you hear what this person found out the hard way?  Slowly, over time, as we involve ourselves in something, we become what we do.  Simply knowing about gambling doesn’t make you a gambler. Gambling is what makes you into a gambler; knowing about unjust anger won’t make you an angry person.  Harbouring anger will make you an angry person.  Participating in such things, bad or good, will turn us into what we are doing. 

St Paul warns ‘Be very careful, then, how you live– not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.’   Be careful, Paul says, there are real consequences in the way we live; both for now and in eternity.  He gives a very relevant example of actions that change us.  ‘Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.’  No one sets out drinking a few beers to intentionally become wicked, depraved and be involved in acts of indecency.  It just happens.  The alcohol becomes a part of us, and changes us to do what we would not normally do.

Paul here chose wine as an example, but I am sure we could all think of one bad influence in our life that, if we continue in it unabated, we would become what we do; It just happens, as St Paul says in Romans 7 ‘I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 

Even though we are baptised, born again by the Spirit and have all the gifts of Jesus; forgiveness, life and salvation, our inclination is not now to always do good, but to still always err on the side of sin.  An unwise believer, as Paul puts it, is one who thinks they can, once baptised, live their Christian walk by their own strength of will and determination. 

An unwise or foolish believer is one who thinks they can participate in worldly acts and not be changed by it.  Have you thought that yourself?  Sorry, but this won’t cut it, Paul says ‘the days are evil.’  And since this is the case, we who are by nature sinful and unspiritual, if we continue to feed on the evil the world provides, we will, slowly become as evil as the age.   

So what is the point here?  To make us feel horrible and stop us trying to do the right thing, since we will end up being evil anyway? No.  St Paul writes this to shine forth the glorious gospel of Jesus.  He says ‘do not be foolish, but rather, know what the will of the Lord is’.   The writer of Proverbs also encourages us to do the same ‘leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.’   As a Christian be clear on the gospel!  Know the will of the Lord, then you will be truly wise and will walk in the way of understanding; in freedom and in joy.  Do you know what the will of God is?…

Jesus clearly states it, just a few sentences before today’s gospel ‘For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.’    The will of God is for us to hear the word of Jesus, look to him for salvation and believe. 

And again, at Jesus’ transfiguration the Lord states his will ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!  And the word of Jesus that our Heavenly Father, the Lord, wills us to hear and believe is this “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him and I will raise him up on the last day.’ 

Many Christians think the will of God for us is all about just living a good and moral life.  But, thanks to St Paul’s promptings, we discover here the true will of God; to believe in Jesus that he is our savior and to listen to his word and to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus.  The good news is that as we continue to do this, he remains in us, and we in him.  Or put another way, we become what we participate in.  By faith in Jesus, as we indulge in his body and blood truly present here in the bread and wine, we become what Jesus is, righteous, holy, and the honor of being adopted as sons of God.

By reading, listening to and studying God’s word and taking the sacrament of Holy Communion, or ‘doing’ God’s word, we become what we do, or better still we become what is given to us.  Luther called this the great exchange he writes ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin.  You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours.  You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not’.  He made your sins his own and has made his righteousness yours’

The good news is found in will the of God; that we are made into Christians by God himself as we eat the body of Jesus and drink his blood, hear and believe in him.  As we ‘do’ God’s word.  And as we ‘do’ God’s word, Paul encourages us that we will be filled with the Spirit; speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; singing  and making music in our heart to the Lord, and always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That’s joy in the gospel and the gospel is what you have with you and in you.  Praise God.
Amen

God can give until we are full John 6-1-15

 

Have an actor play a person that appears to be dying of thirst screaming out ‘water! I need water.’  Finally, after he has gone to most people, another actor gets up and brings a glass of water to the person.  The one dying of thirst says thanks and instead of drinking the water, he pulls out a comb and dips it in the water and combs his hair.

Wow! What happened there?  The young man was dying of thirst; he needed water.  But what did he do…he chose to use the water for what he wanted, a nice hair do, and not for what he needed… to save his life.  Can you imagine what happened soon after he fulfilled his want to have nice hair?  Yes, he would have only been satisfied for a short time.  Very soon he would have become thirsty again.  He chose to use the water for what he wanted, but not for what he needed.

This little play made me realize something; we can always get what we want, but we can never get what we need.  (actor’s name) thought he had satisfied his want.  He got the water he wanted; his hair was straightened…but it wouldn’t have lasted; his want never filled his need.  How often do you find the thrill of the catch, the getting of what we want, very quickly leaves us empty inside?  It isn’t long and we begin to feel a need for something more.  Whatever it is for you, and I perhaps I can put it crudely…money, sex, authority, respect, love, even friendship, no matter how much we get of what we want, it never truly fills our need.

Funny isn’t it!  You would think if we were to satisfy our wants, our needs would be met.  But it is never the case.  We only want all the more to try and fill our need.  It wouldn’t matter how many times (name of actor) dipped his comb in the water to satisfy his want, his actual need…that of thirst, would never be met.  While simplistically put, your life is the same as that man’s pursuit for water; we constantly get what we what, but never get what we need.  Have you ever heard of someone’s life being totally transformed and made complete by something they bought or acquired?

The trick that convinces us we can find a purposeful and fulfilling life by chasing our wants, is as old as the trickster himself; the Devil.  Jesus’ first temptation was exactly this. After spending forty days in the wilderness without food, ‘The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”  Jesus could have very quickly satisfied his want.  He could have very easily changed the rock into bread, ate and be filled.  But in doing so, his wants may have been met, but the need…not his, but the need of the whole of humanity, the need for a saviour to redeem us from sin and death, would never be met.

Jesus replies ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’  He knows needs are not met by fulfilling wants; Jesus ain’t going to wet his hair with precious water!  Only God can fill needs.

In the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 Jesus asks Phillip ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’  5000 men, plus women and children…perhaps 12-13,000 people, all gathered before Jesus, and he asks Phillip to solve the need!  Impossibility infers Phillip saying ‘Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!’  Phillip could fill his own want with a bit of money, but not the needs of all the people. No human could possibly fulfil the needs of such a large crowd.  Andrew finds a boy with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, but quickly adds ‘but how far will they go among so many?’  He could have met his want, and perhaps the wants of one of two others, but the need of the crowd would have still been unresolved. 

Again, Jesus question to the disciples makes us realize ‘we can always get what we want, but we can never get what we need.’

No earthly means, not human effort, no bakery could fill such a need on the spot.  Only God could fill a need like that.   Only Jesus could satisfy so many people, and he does.  He takes the five loaves and two fish, give thanks to his Father for them, and by a miracle, distributes enough bread and fish that 12 baskets of bread are left. Jesus demonstrates that he has the power, the will, and the ability to fulfil the needs of people.

In a way, Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 points to and uncovers another need.  Our dire need; the dire need of all people…to break the chains of sin, of death and of the devil that keep us locked up in constant fear and uncertainty; the fear that cause us to be angry with God. Why did my life turn out so bad?  Why did my marriage not work?  Why do I feel so low some days?  Why is it that I do everything morally right, yet I don’t feel worthy to go to heaven? These questions stem from the chains that bind us.  They flow out of our deepest need to be free, to be the person God created us to be and to live the life we know God wanted for us.

Sure, we can get all we want, just look at all the brochures, but we can never get what we need.  A rich young ruler, who had acquired all he wanted, came to Jesus and asked ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus response?…’Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.  Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were amazed, and said “Who then can be saved?”

Here is our need, the reality ‘not one of us can be saved, no mater how much we want to.’  This is a need where our wants don’t count.  As he did in asking Phillip to feed the 5000, in this story, Jesus asks the man something that is impossible for him.  We can never do enough to get to heaven, because God always expects perfection.  Go home today and read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus really gives us the rub!  Its impossible for us to get our need!

Jesus’ answer to our need for salvation is the same as when he fed the 5000 and the same answer he gave to the disciple’s question, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.“  Our need for salvation; the breaking of the chain that binds us in bondage is broken in Jesus death and resurrection.  He paid our dept.  Fulfilled the law that demanded ‘we die for our sin’, by dying in our place.  He rose from the grave to live forever.  In Jesus, death as been overcome and our need met.  The good news is that we are given this victory over sin and death by trusting that Jesus has done this for us. 

Your need for salvation is met and your questions about life are answered in Jesus.  He is the bread given to us to meet our need.  Jesus clearly says this right after feeding the 5000, and I believe what Jesus says here interprets the miracle. ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

We can always get what we want, but we can never get what we need.  But it can be given to us!  And it has.  All our needs are met in Jesus, who now feeds far more than 5000 and is now feeding you; his body…the bread of eternal life .  Amen

 

ALZHEIMERS’ EYE TEST   

Count every ‘ F ‘ in the following text: 

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC  STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS… 

(SEE BELOW) 

 

HOW MANY ? 
WRONG, THERE ARE 6 — no joke. 
READ IT AGAIN ! 

Just from these few examples, it is clear that first impressions cannot always be trusted.  Jesus was, and still is, the most misunderstood man in history.  Even in his day, the Jews judged him by their first impressions.  Those who had met Jesus in the synagogue said ‘He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”   At first impression, Jesus’ own disciples thought they knew him, until they were shocked by Jesus’ calming of the storm saying ‘Who is this even the wind and the waves obey him?’  

Mark records how Jesus and the disciples travelled in a boat across the lake in search of a peaceful place.  While on their journey, many people recognized it was Jesus and raced ahead of him.  On their way they called out many more from the towns around the shore line to come and see him.  Did those who recognized Jesus, really know who he was?  Did they hold the correct doctrinal view of Jesus?  Did those running so desperately, carrying the sick, leading the blind and lame, hold to a clear understanding of who he was? Did they know he was the messiah, the ‘Christ’? (ask confirmees what that means)

If they did, if they understood Jesus to be more than just a healer or prophet, but the messiah, true man, true God and held all the right doctrinal confessions, Jesus would have no need to ‘have compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.’  Their first impressions about Jesus, their emotions and gut feelings about him were not enough to reveal the truth. Many in the crowds gathered around him, came only urged on by first impressions; they ran because they recognised Jesus, they ran because they wanted to be healed and they gathered because they saw that Jesus had the power to do it.    

Perhaps their first impressions were mostly wrong; however, Jesus used their weakness as the impetus to teach them about the kingdom of God, as Mark records ‘he then began to teach them many things.’

Jesus never turned anyone away because they had the wrong impression of him or gathered around him for the wrong reasons.   Remember those pictures I showed you, where you only get a fuller understanding of them after spending time looking at them.  Jesus drew people into a deeper relationship with him by spending time with them ‘teaching them about the kingdom of God’.  Jesus rewarded all who came to him seeking his compassion and healing by opening to them ‘the kingdom of God’ by the power of his Spirit filled, life giving word.  He changed them from a wrong belief into strong belief.

Are you someone who wants a deeper knowledge of Jesus?  Want to move on from your first impressions of Jesus or feel you need a stronger belief in him?  Jesus will never turn you away.  He is always present with compassion to bring you into a deeper relationship and knowledge of him through the power of his word.  Yet its so easy to think, ‘I have already heard all Jesus has to say.  I heard him in Sunday school.  I heard his word in confirmation and at youth camps and in church every Sunday.’  It is sometimes even tempting to think ‘I know all there is to hear, of the cross, how he died and rose again for my sin.  The message will never change’.  This is a wrong belief about Jesus.  

This leads undoubtedly to thinking there must be more needed, than Jesus’ word, to improve my Christian faith?  Like when we first read the sentence, we were sure there were no more ‘F’s’, we are sure that there is no more to Jesus’ word.  It is now up to us to make the relationship deeper; up to us to ignite the passion in our heart.  The missing piece of the jigsaw of spiritual growth is found in our personal spirituality. 

Spirituality is the new buzz word in the church for gaining a deeper understanding of Jesus.  Its about exploring the big changes God wants in our life.  Its about finding our passionate heart; one that is on fire for Jesus; its about a heart that pumps love for God and for others.  Its about changing ourselves through fervent prayer and strict obedience to Jesus commands.  A meaningful faith is grown and nurtured through inner personal development.  How?  Well there is a plethora of books on this.  From eating what Jesus did, to doing what Jesus would do.  But are these personal inner spiritual improvement methods in line with Jesus’ earthly ministry?  How did Jesus change people from a wrong belief about him to a strong belief about him? And how does he today continue to grow you and me into a closer relationship with him? 

Everywhere Jesus went, there were large crowds gathered around him, like sheep without a shepherd following Jesus everywhere he went and listening intently to what he had to say.  St Matthew alone lists 15 separate incidents of crowds gathering around Jesus to hear what he had to say.  Even the Pharisees saw the crowds and became jealous saying “Look how the whole world has gone after him!”   The Pharisees where jealous because the people no longer listening to them about spiritual technics to be closer to God, but were turning to Jesus.  No longer where the ‘sheep’ of Israel listening to the ‘blind guides’, as Jesus once called them, on the ‘how too guide’ of becoming more religious through personal spiritual development.  

Instead, crowds of people went to the source of the Spirit, the source of truth…Jesus and his word on the kingdom of God, as he said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’  His word remains true for you and me today.  Leave the books about the kingdom and go the source of the kingdom; Jesus and his good news of salvation.  He is still the only true source of spirituality.  The word of God is the only power we have available to change us from wrong belief into strong belief.  And that word of good news is written in John 5:24  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.’  By the power of this good news, that Jesus is the Christ, who died and rose again for our salvation we are brought to faith in Jesus.

Deeper knowledge of him and a closer relationship with him come from the outside in, not the other way around, as many believe.  The good news is that our spirituality, our relationship, our faith in Jesus, and our growth in our faith come from the very words and gospel of Jesus, as we hear it proclaimed and as we read it and study it. 

Listen to what Jesus says in John 6:63 ‘The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.’ And as Paul writes, ‘faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.’  The crowds gathered around Jesus to be transformed by his proclaiming of the kingdom of God.  As we gather at church, we are now the crowds gathered around Jesus who is really present proclaiming the kingdom of God in word and in the sacrament of Holy Communion, to create faith in you and transform you from the outside in.

The word and the sacraments (hold and show) are like the pictures I showed earlier.  On first impressions, they just look like normal worldly things, but Jesus never turned anyone away because they had the wrong impression of him or gathered around him for the wrong reasons.   Jesus welcomes you into a deeper relationship with him by spending time with him in the word.  By partaking of his word, both spoken and in the sacrament, Jesus changes you to see, by the eyes of faith, that he is truly present to give you life and salvation; to change you from wrong belief into strong belief.  Amen

The message that brings life Ephesians 1:3-14

 

There was a Scottish painter named  Paddy MacGregor who was very interested in making a penny where he could, so he often thinned down his paint to make it go a wee bit further.

As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually the Lutheran’s decided to do a big restoration job on the outside of one of their biggest buildings..
Paddy put in a bid, and, because his price was so low, and Lutherans are always looking for a bargain, he got the job.
So he set about erecting the scaffolding and setting up the planks, and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down with water.

 Well, Paddy was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly completed, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, the sky opened, and the rain poured down washing the thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Paddy clear off the scaffold to land on the lawn among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint..

Paddy was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he got down on his knees and cried:
“Oh, God, Oh God, forgive me; what should I do?”
And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke..
“Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!”

 As funny as this is, there is still a serious side to Paddy’s tragic tale.  The punch line paraphrases the words of John the Baptist to the Pharisees prior to his beheading ‘repent, for the kingdom of God is near…produce fruit in keeping with repentance.’  We can clearly see why God thundered down wrath upon poor Paddy.  But John called for the repentance of the holiest men in Israel. 

 You couldn’t get a more righteous, more rigorous, more devout followers of the Torah, the books of the law, than the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  Even Jesus knew their devotion to God, saying ‘For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.’  Even so, he still condemned them saying ‘you white washed tombstones!  On the outside you present yourself to be holy and righteous, yet on the inside you are rotten.’

 What can Jesus and John see was wrong, that others couldn’t? How can God call good people to repentance?  Which is closely connected with this next question ‘how can a loving God, condemn good people to hell?

 In our way of thinking, we need to be acting like Paddy, actually sinning in some way, before God can call us to repentance.  And only axe murderers and child killers should go to hell, good people shouldn’t.  Have you thought this sort of thing yourself?  But John’s call for repentance to all people, especially to the most religious and good people of all, blows away any idea that God is happy with good people!

 If God is not happy with the efforts of the Pharisees, how happy is he with you and me?  Is being a good, moral Christian, following the example of Jesus to the letter good enough for God?  Rolly Stahl last week spoke about Christian integrity.  Christian integrity is how we concern ourselves, in thought, word and deed when we are alone.  Do we act and think differently when alone compared to when we are with other Christians? 

 Do we act differently from when we are at church? Could you or I invite God into every part of our lives?  Not one of us would want to say yes, to that!  And if you think you could, well you would claim to be without sin.  St John says ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.’    So we would have to repent anyway!

 If God is not happy with the Pharisees and he is not happy with me…who is he happy with!   Right after John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus, God spoke these words “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’  Only Jesus, God’s Son is pleasing to God.  Only to Jesus can God say ‘yes, I am happy.’  And he said it again at Jesus’ transfiguration ‘This is my Son with whom I love; with him I am well pleased, listen to him.’ That has to mean something to us as followers of Jesus, that God is only happy with his Son.  It must have a direct connection with John the Baptist’s call to good people ‘repent, repent and sin no more?’ 

 John’s call to repentance, this apparent contradiction of calling what we see as ‘saints’, ‘sinners’, is to show that our goodness is not good enough for God.  John clearly distinguishes our goodness from the goodness God requires, by calling good people bad and Jesus, the bad person in the sight the Jews, good, saying ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’  Jesus is the only one who is good enough to take our sins away; not us.

 Luther put it this way ‘there are two forms of being good.  One that avails only before people and is helpful and pleasing only to people; such as giving money to the poor, serving the sick, giving offerings to God and the like.  Then there is the goodness that avails before God and this goodness that is pleasing in his sight takes a far higher price than what we can offer.  Here we must have Christ to bless us and save us.  Here we must have faith in Jesus who gives us his goodness and makes us pleasing to God’…in fact by faith, we are, together with Jesus, sons of God and thus…pleasing to him!

 Paul’s gospel, his message of the cross is all about revealing God’s plan of making us good and pleasing in his sight through faith in his Son’s death on the cross.  He writes ‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins’  God is the one who makes us good, by looking at his Son, and not us. 

 By faith in Jesus we die to being good ourselves and let Christ be good for us. As St Pauls says in Galatians ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’

 We are pleasing to God when we believe we are not.  And we are pleasing to God when we believe that Jesus is the only one who is good and we are not!  Sounds crazy!  I’ll say it again ‘We are pleasing to God when we believe we are not.  And we are pleasing to God when we believe that Jesus is the only one who is good and we are not!’

  This is the good news. We do not become good people by doing good things.  It is the other way around.  God makes us good for the sake of his Son’s suffering and death; ‘In him we are blameless and holy’.  John the Baptist’s call for repentance of good people is very useful for us to know; for it comforts our conscience in times of doubt or when the devil says ‘you are not good enough to go to heaven.’  We learn to separate the goodness of faith in Jesus, very far from the goodness of our works.

 Where do we turn in time of crisis, when we feel like a ‘sinner’ unworthy of God’s grace?  The only place to find relief is in the wounds of Christ and the promise that his blood cleanses us from all sin.  A story from Bo Giertz novel ‘Hammer of God’ illustrates this well.  In this story, Frans, a man known for his good deeds and for being a committed Christian, lies dying. 

 As often happens with a person on the edge of death, Frans’ mind wonders back to the days before his conversion.  Drifting in deliriousness, the dying man utters words of an oath and froths on about drinking and a fellow who had cheated him.  Disturbed by the rude ramblings of her father, Lena exclaims ‘You are thinking about Jesus are you not, father?’  Frans replies ‘I am not able to Lena, I can’t think any longer.  But I know that Jesus is thinking of me.’

 That man died a Christian death.  The gospel is not about our ability to think of Christ but about what Christ thinks of us… Christ a friend of sinners is a friend indeed and a brother worth believing in.   Amen.

IWVLC Worship Series: A Person after God’s Heart (David)                                                Pr Rolly Stahl 28.6.2009

#3.Trusting God’s Timing

                                                                                             1 Sam 18:6-16,       1 Sam 24:1-12,       1 Sam 26:1-12

We’re in week 3 of our current series: A Person after God’s Heart, where we’re following how David went from shepherd boy to king. In week one, we marveled at God’s surprising choice to make David king.  The Lord told Samuel to anoint a son of Jesse as a successor to the blatantly disobedient King Saul.  God chose the youngest of 8 sons, a shepherd boy named David.  Although the “runt” of his family, when God looked into David’s soul, he found a person after His own heart. Last week, we recalled the story of David and Goliath – how God gives us HIS courage to face the giants and his authority to overcome them.  Today we explore David’s long wait to become king. 

 You’re probably aware of the practical joke played on office juniors. A senior sends them up the street to a certain place for “a long wait”. On arriving, they’re asked to take a seat.  Once they’ve had a long wait, they’re sent back to the office.

 Discuss:  What happens inside us when we have to wait for a long time?

I think there are basically 2 dysfunctional ways of handling those long waits.

   Frustration/Anger/Explosion 
                     OR  
   Resignation/Depression/Implosion. 

One of the Proverbs picks up on the inner turmoil of waiting:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. (Prov 13:12 NRSV) 

David’s Long Wait

After his anointing by Samuel, David didn’t become king next day, next week, next month, or next year. Soon after, an opportunity came for David to play his harp to soothe Saul’s troubled soul.  As we mentioned a couple weeks ago:

David initially comes into Saul’s service as a musical therapist, but also became one of his armor-bearers.  In this capacity, David can learn how the king’s court functions, who the main players are, about statesmanship and diplomacy, about battle strategies and war.  It’s like an apprenticeship where David is learning wisdom and skills for when he will one day come to the throne.  

For several years, David worked for king Saul.  Initially Saul was fond of David.  But following David’s victory over Goliath, Saul’s attitude changed dramatically: 

When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes.  As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”  Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?”  And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David. (1 Sam 18:6-9 NIV)

Saul’s jealousy led to repeated attempts to murder David:  The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand  and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul.  (1 Sam 18:10-12 NIV)

When that failed, Saul sent David on military campaigns hoping that David would be smitten in battle – but to no avail.  Instead, David’s success and popularity only increased:  In everything he did he had great success, because the LORD was with him.  When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him.   But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns. (1 Sam 18:14-16 NIV) 

With Saul’s paranoia going through the roof, he intensified his efforts to assassinate David.  As a result, David becomes a fugitive on the run.  Saul has his army and spies out everywhere looking for David, chasing him from town to town, and throughout the wilderness where David and his supporters would hide out in caves. 

Imagine David’s dilemma: “What’s the LORD got me into?  What have I done wrong to deserve this?  Why on earth did God choose me to be his king, when trouble follows me like a bad smell?  How long O LORD will I have to put up with this?  How much longer will Saul keep trying to kill me?  How much longer before I can have peace?  How much longer before God enables me to become king?” 

Wrestling with questions like these in the midst of a long wait, two equally damaging temptations can confront us:

1. One temptation is to forsake the dream that God has put on your heart – and settle for something that is bland and unsatisfying.  Like settling in a job you loathe because you don’t have the confidence or courage or discipline to pursue your passion.  Or like marrying a person you don’t even like or love just to avoid being alone. 

2. Another temptation is to take the law into your own hands, and manipulate people and events in ungodly ways to get your own way.  We see this when people impose their will on others; and then get angry when others say: “No!”  Bullying, control, lying, deceit, blame, anger, murder – these are examples of bad fruit when someone tries to be “god” over others.  There’s no grace in that.  No love in that.  No kindness, no mercy, no freedom. Only using and abusing others to get one’s own way.  

David’s shows us a better way: tell God all about it (for many examples read the psalms of David), trust God with it, and let God bring about the outcome.

While we’re uncertain of the exact time frame, scholars estimate that it was 15 years between David’s anointing by Samuel and his coming to the throne as king![1]  David had to wait 15 years for God to finally remove Saul. And that meant putting up with maybe 10 years of persecution at the hands of his predecessor!

David’s Opportunities to Kill Saul

While waiting and running for his life from Saul, there were two occasions in the wilderness years when David could have killed Saul (1 Sam 24 & 26), and taken the throne by force.  The first time, Saul goes into a cave to relieve himself.  He doesn’t know that David and his men are hiding deep down in the back of the cave.  David’s men urge him to kill Saul, but David refuses.  Instead he cuts off a piece of Saul’s coat.  But then David is conscience stricken: He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.”  With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. (1 Sam 24:6-7 NIV)   

In the dialogue that follows, David tells Saul, May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. (1 Sam 24:12 NIV) 

The second time, David and a mate take Saul’s spear and jug while the army are sleeping out in the field!  David’s offsider, Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice.”  But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? As surely as the LORD lives,” he said, “the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.  But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.” (1 Sam 26:8-11 NIV)

And again David assures Saul that he will do him no harm: “The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. The LORD delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. As surely as I valued your life today, so may the LORD value my life and deliver me from all trouble.”   (1 Sam 26:23-24 NIV) 

Trusting God’s Timing

David renounces the desire to get even – or to take the throne by force… even when he had opportunities to do so.  David knew that those who grasp for power are least qualified to use it. Instead David left his times and seasons in God’s hands, trusting God for the outcomes.[2]  David trusted that God knew the “big picture” for his life, and would work out the right time when Saul would go … and David would become king!  15 years is a long apprenticeship, but when David became king of Israel, he was READY!  Once David became king, he ruled for 40 years! 

Friends, rather than manipulating people or events – and/or stressing out when things don’t go our way – like David, we too can trust God’s timing.  The point is not to be in too big a rush to get where God wants to take us.   That’s not easy for us Westerners who are so used to instant gratification that we carry on like pork chops when it doesn’t happen!!! 

Friends, God’s seasons are for good reasons.  Some of you have a calling from God that you are well aware of – but it hasn’t yet come to pass.  As a result, you might be confused or frustrated; or wondering when it’s going to happen.  In God’s good time.  Don’t despise the season you are in.  It’s part of the Lord’s training for fulfilling your destiny.  God is growing your character, stretching your skills, and most importantly deepening your dependence on HIM. 

Friends, what are you waiting for??  I urge and encourage you in the LORD: Don’t waste the season you’re in by moping and whining while waiting for the next season to come round. You can grow; or you can stagnate.  Your choice!  What can you learn?  Why not do a course, join a small group, try something new?  Seek after God and ask him to grow you into a person after his own heart.  Get into the discipline of feeding on God’s Word.  Do a David, tell God all that’s on your heart and mind. If you’re carrying afflictions or addictions, seek wise Christian counseling.

Some of you know from experience that it’s not good to be alone, but you haven’t yet met the right person.  You wonder what’s happening.  You tell God about it, but seem to get no reply.  What’s going on with all that?  Is it just possible that God is getting you ready?  Or that God is getting the other person ready?  If both of you are NOT ready, it’s like trying to eat a cake before it’s cooked in the oven – it will all be ruined!  If marriage is part of God’s will for your life, when BOTH of you ARE ready, God will bring it to pass.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…   (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV)  In the Bible, there are 2 ways of talking about time. Chronos time is where we get the word “chronology”.  It’s the days, months, years, decades, centuries between events.  Kairos time is the right time or season for something to happen.  Like for grain to ripen, it needs the heat of summer at just the right time.  Like when Paul writes of the coming of Jesus for us: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:4-6 NRSV)  Kairos time is the right time for God’s purposes to happen!

Part of the art of living well is to embrace and enjoy each season as it unfolds – and not adopting the “When and Then” mantle of misery: “When I graduate then I’ll be happy! When I get that car then I’ll be happy.  When I marry and have children, then I’ll be happy.  When the children leave home, then I’ll be happy.  When I get that promotion, then I’ll be happy.  When I’ve been overseas, then I’ll be happy.  When I retire then I’ll be happy.” Contentment is relaxing into each season as God’s gift, sucking the marrow out of it, living relationally well through it, and then being ready for when God says it’s time for the next season to unfold.  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jer 29:11 NIV)  God knows what’s ahead for you – so enjoy the season you’re in on the way to where he’s taking you. And whenever you’re faced with a long wait, or a tough season, remember:

God is always on time, he is never late.

Sometimes it takes God a long time to move quickly.

 

[1] Cf the chronology of my 1985 NIV Study Bible, p.373. The following suggested years are BC:  1080? Saul born.  1050 Saul anointed to be king (1 Sa 10:1).  1040 David born.  1025 David anointed to be Saul’s successor (1 Sa 16).  1010 Death of Saul, & start of David’s reign in Hebron (2 Sa 1:1, 2:1-11).  970 Death of David (2 Sa 5:4-5)

[2]  As in the Psalms: No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man.  But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.  (Ps 75:6-7 NIV)