FRIAR PUK'S POSTINGS

B, Pentecost 24 Proper 28 - Hebrews 10:19-25 "Christ in Church"

2009-11-13T17:45:00.004+08:00

We are experiencing birth pains! Since Christ ascended into heaven the earth has continued to crumble into chaos. The devil, having lost his universal authority because of the cross, now discharges his limited powers of destruction on sinful humanity and creation, and because of this, we experience birth pains.

We're not sure how advanced these birth pains have come, that is only for God to know. But Jesus tells us that end times will be quite tough — murder, hatred, political turmoil, and the upheaval of the natural world, will test all people. Christians will be captured and called to account. Many will be severely punished because the politically incorrect proclamation of the gospel will not be tolerated in any way, shape, or form.

Things are becoming tougher for us already! As our society and the advertisers tell us we're moving towards a utopia, evolving into perfection, the reality is our technological know-how and consumerism are moving us further away from perfection. These products of human knowledge reveal, more and more, humanity's failings in caring for creation and each other out of reverence for God. How much worse things will be allowed to fall, only God truly knows! But as times get tougher, Jesus also promised that whoever stands firm to the end will be saved! (Mark 13:13)

So we are encouraged by God's word in the letter to the Hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 to 25.

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:19-25)

In these words from God we are encouraged to endure in the things of God. We are encouraged to continue gathering together as church, and to not stop doing so, as many have decided to do in these troubled times.

But what is church; into what are we called to gather? And what does coming to church do; what is the function or purpose of church?

Firstly on the question: What is church? Jesus' conversation with his disciples tells us very quickly what church is "not".

We hear in Mark chapter 13 verses 1 to 5, 'As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" 2 "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?" 5 Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you."' (Mark 13:1-5)

So all our massive church buildings—of which this one is one of the most insignificant in the scheme of church architecture and size—are not the church. And even if this building was the biggest in size or housed the most important ministers or bishops it still is not necessarily the church. However, what happens inside it might be church!

Even the temple structure in Jerusalem, which the disciple marvelled over before Jesus, was not to be church. Years earlier those who put their faith in the temple building were sorely warned by God through Jeremiah when he stood at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" (Jeremiah 7:3-4) But the people didn't listen and didn't trust God but rather trusted in themselves and the building, making it a den of robbers (v.11) Therefore, God thrust them from his presence into exile. And then in Roman times not long after Jesus' ascension Jesus prophesy came true that, Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down. So the Jerusalem temple was flattened by the Romans in 70ad and to this day has never stood again. So buildings are not the church?

Surprisingly also traditionalism and institutionalism are not church either. Great gatherings of people into denominations such as Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Baptists, Unitings, or the other traditions in the church, are, in themselves, not church either.

However, the hint we need to discover just what church is, is once again with Jesus and his word as the Jews interrogate him in the temple! Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." (John 2:19)

The church is this: God's faithful believers gathered around Jesus — past, present, and future — according to the means laid out in his word. And where "this" happens in buildings and in denominations amongst groups of people, there is the church. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord, destroyed and raised again in three days.

So we have dealt with what the church is; now secondly, the question of function and purpose.

Many today practise not meeting together, thinking they can be Christian individuals in isolation. They say, "Jesus lives in me, why should I go to church?" But if we take the logic of this statement to its conclusion we see it's as silly as saying, "the love of my marriage partner lives in my heart so why should I live with him or her!" Or it's as unrealistic or foolish as a man setting up farm in the desert, thinking he can grow fruit without water!

Although people do live apart in marriages, and farmers struggle to farm without water, and Christians do survive in isolation, we know it's not the ideal situation. And given the opportunity we welcome what we know to be right. God encourages us in what is right in the book of Hebrews to not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.(Hebrews 10:25)

Woe to those who lead people to believe that they can be Christians without being connected to the very things that make us Christian. We all know how easy it is to explain away the wise habits of meeting together and fall into the foolish habits of thinking we're Christians, just because we think we know who Jesus is. The fruits of these misguided habits quickly reveal a lack of trust in God and his word, so although they might know him they don't trust him and fail to participate in his fellowship, life, and timeless community, and are missing out on getting his gifts of faith, assurance, and eternal life.

As our chaotic world experiences more and more birth pains before the Day arrives when Christ returns to gather those participating in him, let us not give up encouraging each other to enter through the curtain into God's presence. The curtain being Jesus' body and blood sprinkled into us at baptism. Let us confidently gather in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit trusting we are washed with pure water, so that we might draw near God and be cleansed of our guilty consciences. Let us unswervingly give our ears every opportunity to be filled with Christ's faithful promises in his word, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit who also comes to us through the Word. And let us encourage each other in these habits of Jesus; these routines of righteousness, promised in the Word of God.

Like a mother who has endured the birth pains and received her reward at the end, you who remain in the wisdom of Christ, in his word and ways, will celebrate with much joy as you shine with all the brightness of heaven, and you who wisely lead many into Christ's routines of righteousness, will glow like the stars for ever and ever. In fact even greater, we will shine just as Jesus shines. Amen.

B, All Saints - Revelation 21:1-6a "Temporary Tears"

2009-10-31T12:34:00.003+08:00

One cannot help but notice in the readings today the mentioning of tears. In Isaiah 25 we're told, "The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth." (Isaiah 25:8)

Then in Revelation 21 the same is said, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes." And in the Gospel of John we hear of many mourning over the death of Jesus' friend Lazarus. "When Jesus saw her (Mary) weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 'Where have you laid him?' he asked. 'Come and see, Lord,' they replied. Jesus wept." (John 11:33-35)

Our tears, other people's tears, and Jesus' tears! Tears are caused by hardship. Tears of deep sadness, tears from pain, tears of torment, tears of relief — tears come as a result of the turmoil we face on this earth.

Jesus was not immune from the tears we shed. He too cried. Jesus cried here at Lazarus' death, he cried over Jerusalem as he marched into the city on Palm Sunday, and he shed bitter tears as he prayed and placed himself under the submission of God's will just prior to his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Also contrary to Christmas Carol tradition, Jesus as an infant would have cried as he experienced the ebbs and flows of human behaviour.

The human ability to shed tears is so common in our lives. Even the most hardened individual knows what it is to shed tears. And even more, we all experience the emotions which undergird and cause tears to well in our eyes.

Tears come as release allowing restoration to occur. When one holds back tears they usually do so to the detriment of their own health. It is healthy to cry even if the situation which causes us to break down is far from healthy. A big cry, as painful as it might be, is good for the soul.

Tears reveal our weakness. Perhaps this is why men try to suck up their tears. A person's tears also reveal weakness in others too. Children learn very quickly how to "turn on the tears" to get what they want from mum and dad; especially when in public.

Jesus' tears were human tears too. He was weak, his human flesh suffered, but not as a result of what he did. Jesus bore the frailty of human weakness, yet he did not succumb to the weakness he bore. Jesus' tears came as a result of our weak will against sin. He suffered seeing what sin does to us in our weakness.

Our weakness moved Jesus to take the toughest stand one could take against our weakness. And surprisingly this was to become our weakness on the cross. Our tears became Jesus' tears. Where one would expect our Saviour to stand tough and tall over the turmoil and tears of sin, Jesus came down to take our toil and tears on himself. A weak and wretched man, a body beaten and broken, tears shed till no more could be shed.

But tears are temporary for those whose trust is in the Lord. Our tears take us to the foot of the cross. Our tears and weakness teach us to trust Jesus. Where do your tears take you?

When we fail and the weakness of our will wreaks havoc in our lives and the lives of those we love, let your tears take you to Jesus. Let your tears testify to the glory of God. Let God recall you and refuel you with faith and hope to carry on in these days of weakness and tears. Let our tears be tears of relief and joy as we rest in Jesus' forgiveness.

Don't be like Judas and those whose tears lead them into greater terrors of weeping and gnashing of teeth! But rather, let your tears lead you to offer up prayers to God as sweet and fragrant offerings before him, seeking his mercy and therefore giving him glory.

Like a car which leaks oil and needs to be taken back to the manufacturer for modification, we too will be recalled to our maker. But we will be made better than new!

Like a car our leaking weakness will lead us to break down in death, which is the primary cause of all our tears. But our trust in Christ's death and resurrection will also allow God to lead us through our tears and sin and death into something new, something better, and something more everlasting than the temporary tears we toil with now.

Temporary tears will be replaced with permanent perfection. We and God will be together forever! Nothing will separate us from him ever again. In this place of perfection we hear…

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their 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." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 21:3b-6a)

The good news for you and for me is that when we abide with him and uphold what he has written in his word, holding it as trustworthy and true, our temporary tears are but a watery veil of what is already our reality.

And that reality is this: God is making us his new creation. He has done it, he is doing it, and he will do it! It was finished at the cross and our baptism! It is finished, right now in this moment! And it will be finished in our death and resurrection recall where we finally see the reality of what we have already been made — saints made holy and right before our Holy Father, Son and Spirit!

Jesus Christ's work is done at the cross and in believing we already have the victory in he who is our beginning and end, our Alpha and Omega. Amen.

B, Commemoration of the Reformation - Romans 3:20-24, 27-28 "Reformation Lamination"

2009-10-24T11:55:00.004+08:00

Shaken not Shattered

Driving the roads of Australia can sometimes be hazardous! Narrow, broken edges, long distances, kangaroos, emus, tiredness, and big trucks coming from the other direction, can make it quite risky at times.

As it happens, there was not much to look at when I found myself daydreaming and tired driving on a narrow windy bitumen road through lifeless scrub. Out of the blue on a bend of the road hidden by the bush suddenly appeared a dirty great big cattle-carrying road train.

The truck was bearing down on me at what seemed like two-hundred kilometres per hour. Our rendezvous must have taken him by surprise too as he swerved the heavy transport to the left with a sudden jolt. I did the same and headed for the hard shoulder in a bid to avoid the mass of metal and moo-ving meat.

I got past the prime mover ok, but when a road train is suddenly lurched one way the movement is exacerbated as the effect ripples back through the trailers. I was a bit worried I wasn't going to make it there for a while, as the last trailer swayed like an overweight snake on and off the road in front of me. But through the dust and debris a path appeared for me to pass safely.

I thought I was through, when suddenly, CRACK, a large stone left its lasting impression on my windscreen. Understandably, the whole event left me a bit rattled as I drove on.

Old Crystal Highways

As I drove on it led me to ponder earlier times on roads such as the one on which I had just had my near miss; times when roads were referred to as crystal highways because of the shattered glass scattered from windscreens broken along these old rough roads.

The name crystal highway sounds as if they were something beautiful, but the reality of a crystal highway was anything but beautiful. If one was a contributor to the crystals of glass scattered alongside the highway it usually meant driving to the next town with no windscreen, being wind blasted while the remnants of the old windscreen sat on one's lap and under the feet.

Then there was the wait as the local service station mechanic replaced the glass so the journey could continue. And there was no guarantee that five minutes the other side of town another stray stone wouldn't be flicked up into the path of your new windscreen, shattering it and causing the woes of travelling on rough roads with a broken windscreen to begin all over again; not only breaking the glass but shattering the spirits of those in middle of their journeys.

The Pre-Reformation Church

Martin Luther lived in the Church of the Middle Ages. Some refer to the Middles Ages as the dark ages and it surely was spiritually dark for Martin Luther and many others trying to live lives as faithful Christians. Before the 31^st of October 1517 the church had sunk into the blackest of darkness.

Fifteen hundred years after our Lord ushered in the new covenant—the radiant brilliance of a new life in eternity without sin, through the spilling of his blood, his death on a cross, his entombment in the earth, and his victorious resurrection—the church had turned its back on the centrality of its existence, it had severed itself from its head, its Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The church's hierarchy had pushed aside the pure Gospel, laying God's Word in the dust, forgetting about it and in its place inventing its own doctrines of anti-gospel. The servants of the church had elevated themselves to be the masters of the church, who, instead of tending Christ's sheep, only gorged themselves with their goods and sucked the blood from the church's veins.

Before the 31st of October travelling on the crystal highway towards eternal life was oppressive for the most hardened traveller. A thousand years of silence on justification by God's grace, and the righteousness of God, given as gift, had culminated in Christians languishing in a fearful despair and anxiety.

Thousands had, in their previous predicament of sin, cried out in vain, "What must we do to be saved?" Their answer as they lay shattered beside the crystal highways of Mediaeval theology was rerouted to paying indulgences for departed saints, to human works, to their own penance, repentance, works of satisfaction and service. Christ and his fully sufficient service was silenced and the Word about faith gagged. Instead even more shattering stones were hurled at them knowing full well the impossibility of travelling along the road to glory by themselves.

Even learned men like Luther tormented themselves seeking, by themselves, to perform the righteousness that God expects of anyone who wishes to come into his holy presence.

Lamination and Reformation

Thank God for laminated windscreens. Even though my windscreen bears the scars of travelling along an old crystal highway, my journey was not halted nor was it shattered. Even though the road train rattled me, its debris didn't destroy my vision; I could still travel on.

The windscreens of the past, which once would have shattered from the impact of stones are long gone. We certainly still have windscreens but now they are laminated keeping the glass from shattering into a thousand pieces, or worse, from sending great spikes of glass back into the people in the vehicle.

These windscreens stand the test of time, the fragile glass protected from shattering by the thinnest invisible layer of laminate plastic. Sure we still see the results of what the old crystal highway might throw at us—large stars might appear on our windscreens—but they don't stop us from travelling towards the goal, toward the end of the journey.

Thank God too for the Reformation, for the reformers return to the law being laminated to Christ's vicarious action alone, for Martin Luther, and those, who, like him, were recaptured by the grace of the gospel, Philip Melanchthon, Martin Chemnitz and Jacob Andreae.

These men and thousands upon thousands have been reconnected with the love of God, through the righteousness of Christ, justification at the hand of God, day after day as they live the faith given to them in baptism, taught to them by Christ as their hearts are opened to his Word—preached from pulpits and taught by teachers—and to the faithful reception of Jesus body and blood in the elements of bread and wine, which Jesus himself instituted for us in his Word.

The rediscovery of the gospel in the Reformation is the lamination of our lives in Christ Jesus and the lamination of the church, protecting it from the evil attacks of the devil!

The Heavenly Crystal Highway

So now we no longer have a struggle with the law that ends in eternal death. There is no need to be fearful of having our vision of the heavenly goal shattered by the unattainable demands of God's holy law.

The law like the glass still exists but it is bound to Christ as is the glass to the laminate in today's windscreens. Hear God's word again for your assurance as you travel laminated and stuck to Christ and his promises in this life. First from St Paul in:

Romans 3:20 …no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and [all] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus… 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

This faith is ground in Christ's fully sufficient service, alone, made know to us through his word, alone, by the power of the Holy Spirit, alone, and gives us the freedom to travel with unshatterable confidence towards eternal freedom with Christ. Now hear and believe what God the Son himself says and teaches us:

John 8:31b "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." 34 [Then Jesus continues], "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

You have held to his teaching! Yes you have sinned, but faith not of yourselves has given you the ability to hold on to Christ and to faithfully endure. Faith has brought you to church, faith has enabled you to confess your sin, faith has drowned you in the gracious, righteous, justifying, death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ for you and faith has set you free! So you too will be free indeed. Amen.

B. Pentecost 20 Proper 24 - Mark 10:43-45 "In Order To Serve Us"

2009-10-17T19:57:00.002+08:00

One for you; one and a bit for me! One for you; two for me! One for you; two for me, and while you're not looking another two for me!

Have you ever let children serve desert? It's an interesting exercise to undertake; especially if they don't know you're watching.

Then when the child, who's been diddled out of his or her portion, wakes up with protest, precision is called for. And then you'll find kids cutting up cake with absurd accuracy, even with the tape measure out, lest the one being served gets one less crumb or calorie.

To serve or to be served! When cake or sweets are to be divided it's amazing how many of us line up to serve! Or, if we allow ourselves to be served, we might act cool, calm, and collected, but heaven help the person serving if the knife slips a little in favour of them.

Servants lording it over those who should be served! It's been happening since Adam walked the earth. It doesn't matter if it's kids cutting cake to share, politicians propping up their position, public servants doing the public a disservice, or any other self-promoting tall-poppy eliminating works, every human being seeks to self-serve a better helping for themselves than the next person.

No one is excused from thinking and working this way. Some of us hide it better than others appearing to be better servants. You might be the quiet retiring type hanging back; perhaps waiting to have the last word. Or, you might be the extraverted one, loud, always seeking to have the first word. Either covertly or overtly, all of us move ourselves into what we think might be the most beneficial positions for ourselves.

The sons of Thunder, James and John, also moved to secure the best places for themselves just prior to Jesus marching into Jerusalem to be betrayed into the hands of those who would nail him to the cross.

And like any of us the other disciples, full of pride, quickly get their noses out of joint. Perhaps, they became annoyed that these two would do such a thing? Or, maybe they were irritated because they didn't think of it first!

But Jesus calls the disciples together and speaks to them saying… "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:43-45)

This word of Jesus is the key and central theme of Marks gospel account. Mark's gospel was a written account of Peter's apostolic witness to the persecuted church gathering in Roman homes. And so too for us it's hard to go about life with a servant attitude when we're victimised and persecuted. It's so easy to fall into the "woe is me" mentality where we then seek to get a greater slice of life's cake, no matter what it takes or who it might hurt.

God's mindset led him to create an order where the first was made to serve what came after it. God's order of service came to be, in order to serve us! We see how he does this in his creation account at the beginning of Genesis.

On the first day of the week God spoke and creation's light came to be. On the very first day, Sunday, God created time.

Then on Monday, the second day of the week he separated water from sky. And so to this day what was created on the first day is there to serve what was made on the second day. And so the sky and the heavens are served by time and distance. Even today space and land are measured by light-years, days, degrees, minutes, and seconds.

Time serves water and sky so they both might serve the next thing created by God's word, on Tuesday — land, water, and vegetation. With out dirt, water, air, and time, vegetation would be nonexistent.

In the middle of the creation week stands Wednesday, and a second series of events begin which parallel the first three days. Here God creates light. Not light in the sense of time as he did on the first day, but light in the sense of warmth and exposure, creating days and nights, sun moon and stars, which govern the seasons and tides. Light-time created on the first day serves seasonal light created on the fourth day.

Then on the fifth day, Thursday, God created birds and fish, which are served by what he created on the second day — the waters above, the blue sky, and the waters below, the ocean. Birds and fish are also served by the seasons and the vegetation on the land, as well as the water from the ocean. Then God spoke again and bless them so that they might multiply and fill the earth.

Everything to this point had been created to serve the things created on Friday, the sixth day. God spoke and animals were created, wild animals, and creatures that move along the ground. He even made domestic animals too, surprisingly before anyone was there to domesticate them. We see God's pattern here; he created livestock to serve what was to be created next. And everything God had done was good and pleasing in his eyes!

The last thing God created was to make people in his image. Man and woman were made. All things created, from time, to sunshine and rain, to water, to fish, birds, and plants were created to serve those created on Friday, animals and people. And God gave his authority to people to rule over his creation to subdue it and be fruitful within it. Now God's creation was very good.

We can see God's order of service came to be in order to serve us. God was there at the beginning of his creation, he is here throughout the order of his creation, and there at the end he was and will be resting in his creation. All things were created to serve us and we were sought to serve God by resting with and in him on the Sabbath, the seventh day of creation, Saturday. God's order created to serve us ends one cycle with a day of being with him for re-creation.

In fact this period of seven days stands apart from time which God created on the first day and the nights and days or seasons God created on the fourth day. This period of a week is imposed on us as a cycle of good order, served by creation itself, so that we might have holy days of recreation or holidays re-created in and with God.

But all our apples went rotten on that day where humanity wanted a bigger slice of the action, and from that day God's creation has been riddled with chaos and carnage. We turn our holy days into self-serving holidays where being with God in his holiness is often put a distant second after the more important things on our busy schedules.

And so the opposite occurs! The days we use for ourselves for holidays get lost by the stress of organising our chaotic lives to get them. Our time of re-creation is exhausted by the constant demands of our recreation feats watching or playing sport and so forth.

The creation God gives us to serve us, enslaves us. Weeds worry us and labour pains us. We become slaves to each following generation, as weeds evolve and our kids get more and more wisdom, sooner and sooner, from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The more we seek to be served the more we must serve to just even survive. The order and peace created in the old seven day week, slides further and further into disorder, dis-ease, chaos and confusion.

God's order of service was corrupted by humanity; disorder occurred through our desire to be served. Therefore, in order to service us once again God sent his Son not to be served, but to serve. And his service was the ultimate act of service in that Jesus gave his life on the cross as a ransom for us whose lives are enslaved and constantly disrupted by sin and death.

In order to serve us God sent his Son in order to save us. So in Christ we see the eternal order of things to come — forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Amen.

B, Pentecost 19 Proper 23 - Mark 10:17-31 "The Good Bloke Joke"

2009-10-10T07:31:00.005+08:00

A funeral director and a pastor were standing back watching people come to the graveside to view their loved one's last resting place. The funeral director jokingly said to the minister, "I've only ever buried good blokes you know!" The minister laughed as the funeral director continued, "Yeah! I've never buried anyone who's been bad. They've all been good!" The funeral director smirked with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek and added, "Surprising isn't it?" The pastor responded, "Yeah that's why we all end up in a box in a hole!"

The stark reality of a funeral often exposes a most foolish and cruel contradiction and absurdity. The person who's died is eulogised a good bloke or a wonderful woman. Sometimes to the point of everyone's embarrassment. It might even appear you've arrived at the wrong funeral.

We've all heard these things said! "Yes, he was such a good bloke! He did this, he did that, he was such a model for our community!" And all the while negative thoughts are spreading through the congregation. There's a pious perplexity welling up in those who knew him best. So as they keep up appearances they turn up their noses thinking, "If you really knew this bloke you wouldn't be saying he's all that good!"

But then there are some in the congregation hearing these words and wishing they too could be as good as the bloke who seems to be owed his eternal life through what he'd done during his days on earth. It seems a privilege for God and his entourage that this bloke would choose to enter heaven.

Some seek to place themselves with or above he whose past life is worshipped in a game of "one-up-men-ship". Or those who hear are troubled by this deceased mortal who's received immortality by being such a good bloke. They're crushed by their inability to be anywhere as good as the righteous good bloke now made immortal.

The reaction of the congregation is confused, as either of these things occur within the hearts of each hearer. Perhaps even a conglomerate of both confounds the congregants!

Self-righteous pride and then crushing bitter disappointment also stir a certain man who approaches Jesus to ask what would have to be the most foolish question one could ever ask, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17b)

First Jesus addresses the title the man uses of him, "Good teacher", to which Jesus replies, "Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone." (Mark 10:18)

Did this fellow realise this good teacher was God? No, certainly not! We know this because the young man goes on to show this good teacher how good he had been. Rather he calls him a good teacher in a deliberate attempt to woe Jesus into giving him the answer to his question of inheriting eternal life. An answer that had obviously escaped him even though he had done so much apparent "good"!

Jesus then rolls straight into the commandments, pointing the man to the law and what it requires of him. To which the man declares he had kept all these laws since he was a boy. And it's at this point we hear that Jesus looked at him and loved him. However, you and I would find it difficult to believe we were being loved if Jesus went on to say the same thing to us, as he says to the man…

"One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Mark 10:21)

I wonder how "good" the man thought Jesus was after he heard what Jesus told him to do. This fellow had great wealth; he had done much good to get it; he was good at keeping the law. (Well, so he thought!) Here was a good bloke expecting good things to happen to him because he had done so much good.

But no! Jesus shows just how good he was by showing him his goodness misled him to believe in himself rather than the only person who is good — and that is God alone!

This fellow had born the load of doing so much good. He had carried much to benefit himself and he was a good bloke! Yet God revealed his goodness was not good enough, his labour had not been good enough to show him how to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, the benefits of his labour had become the load which was weighing him down. His self-sufficiency was his insufficiency. And so he went away crushed by his need to rid himself of his riches! His goodness was far short of the goodness expected by God.

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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 even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." (Mark 10:24-27)

Jesus very deliberately turns his disciples to the image of a camel and the eye of a needle. A needle needs complete precision from the person inserting a thread. Anyone who has ever threaded a needle will know how difficult it can be. Now imagine passing a camel through the needle. Impossible! No wonder the disciples were amazed when Jesus said this.

We see camels as beasts of burden, dirty, smelly, ill-tempered, and noisy. In fact, they are the largest unclean animal living in the Middle East. Yes! They are unclean in themselves, but they are also unclean animals according to the ceremonial laws of the Jews, because they do not have a cloven hoof.

The word camel originates from a Hebrew word which literally means to benefit from one's labours. And the camel is a self-sufficient being in its environment, being able to drink large quantities of water to last it days and its hump allows it to store energy as fat to tide it through lean times. No wonder they were used by traders as caravans in the desert. Camels in their desert setting are a benefit to themselves and those who used them.

But even after all the benefits of a camel's being and carrying ability are put aside, it still would not fit through the eye of a needle. And so it's even more impossible for those who are rich to enter the kingdom of heaven through what they do. Rich being, those who are self-sufficient, those who have abilities and strengths to sustain one's self, those who can work for what they want, and those who can do all that's needed to be seen as good blokes or wonderful women.

We can return to the funeral director who's only ever buried good blokes. We can ask ourselves, "If the blokes were so good, why then did they die?" And, if the self-righteous man who approached Jesus was so good in what he had done, why was he still puzzled as to how to earn eternal life?

In these questions we see the impossibility of us being able to save ourselves from death and destruction. If it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle, and we know it's impossible, then how much greater is the impossibility for you and I who are rich in so many areas of our lives? Even the poorest person in our society carries the richness of life that hinders them from entering the kingdom of heaven by their own efforts.

But the impossibility we face is one that Jesus has overcome. Jesus is continually seeking entry in to each and every one of us. So as we hear the word of God, the Holy Spirit continually seeks to reunite and strengthen us in Christ. He reveals the weaknesses of our hearts and works to prune from us all the stuff that continually weighs us down and hinders us.

Perhaps one day at your funerals someone might not eulogise you but in the obituary say, "this bloke, this woman, wasn't a good person. In fact, she struggled with sin her whole life. Despite the good he did he never did enough to keep death at bay. But those who joke about the bloke in whom we trust — the joke is on them! For this Jesus bloke, he's a good bloke. So good he's God! So good he took the fall for those who've died trusting him.

This makes Good Friday and the day of our departure from this life, a very good day for us as we look forward in faith to the moment when we confidently approach the eternal throne of grace once and for all. At that time we know we will receive all the benefits of Jesus Christ who, like the camel, carried our load through the seemingly impossible eye of death and was raised to life for your eternal benefit and my eternal benefit too. Amen.

B, Pentecost 18 Proper 22 - Mark 10:13-16 "Jesus Reaches"

2009-10-03T15:12:00.001+08:00

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16)

Everyone is within Jesus' reach. However, it takes a lifetime for us to really get it!

When we were brought to the waters of baptism Jesus reached out and took us in his arms and blessed us. He gave us the kingdom of heaven, he gave us himself completely, and we were perfectly recreated in his death and resurrection. Just like the earth after God had washed it, saving Noah and his family, we were washed, sanctified, and living in harmony with God.

Yet, just as it didn't take long for Noah and his sons to move away from this perfection and cleansing, we too were saved in the waters of baptism and then looked away from God, tainting our innocence blessedness, and maturing the old nature put to death in our new God-given existence.

We had Jesus, the kingdom of God was ours from the moment we heard and received the word of truth and rested in its reality. Jesus was within our reach and he took us in his arms and blessed us. In fact today and every day he was and is within our reach!

We are free to come to Jesus. But as we grow in our human ways, like a child we increasingly become headstrong. We want to do it our way and have Jesus take us in his arms according to our agendas. Like the people of Noah's day we move out from under his arm and seek to build ourselves up in importance and stature seeking to be noticed by God and others for what we have done. And just as God came down to see the sin of humanity at Babel; our seemingly incredible feats are flawed and flaccid in the face of God.

Just when we think we are finally getting somewhere, we've actually got nowhere. In fact, if anything we've slid backwards, further and further away from reaching God. Yet, God is still within our reach; his desire is to take us in his arms and bless us!

But no! We are not babies we can stand for ourselves! So we repel our Heavenly Father and continue to build our rickety towers of triumph, climbing higher and higher, closer and closer to God. Or so we think!

Yet, in reality, we're further and further from contentment, from satisfaction, from peace, and from the loving embrace of God's blessing. Like a child pulling free from dad, we protest, "No, no, no! I'm grown up now; I want to do it myself."

But, even so, you're still within God's reach; his desire is to take you in his arms and bless you!

When we are little children our parents can correct us quite easily. We are content to live within the confines of their protection. But as we advance in years, it seems we regress from the spiritual maturity that God sees as necessary for our inclusion into the kingdom of heaven.

As baptised children we can knowingly say, "Jesus loves me. The bible tells us so!" We live happily in this reality. It's the status quo! Why would anything be different?

But as we grow in the maturity of our human existence, then comes all the conditions, the questions, and the struggle to be autonomous. The bible tells me so! So what! I know so much better! And as we grow we turn away from the truth of God's word to the half-truths of our hearts.

It might seem peculiar that positioned next to each other are two texts on divorce and children coming to Jesus. But they demonstrate how we humans turn the things of God on their head so we might do as we please and only accept what we want.

In the second text, Jesus is indignant or greatly distress that the disciples were rebuking the children and those who were bringing them to Jesus. When the disciples "rebuke" the Greek equivalent infers the disciples lay a tax upon those coming to Jesus. The disciples were imposing a law which sinfully separated little ones from Jesus' reach. Supposedly these little one had to first prove their worth before being taken and blessed by Jesus.

However, we know Jesus reaches out to all people; his desire is to take you in his arms and bless you. Yet like the disciples we often think it's too good to be true, and impose taxes upon ourselves to build ourselves up before God.

Alternatively, we justify ourselves by accepting only the parts of God's word that don't offend us. We seek to rationalise the word through our reason so we can conform God into the very things that deceive us and lead us away from God. And we fool ourselves by believing this allows us a closer walk with God.

But Jesus says to you and me, "If you oppose me and my kingdom by imposing conditions and taxing yourselves with laws that condemn to death, the kingdom of God is not yours.

The bigger the ego, the harder the fall! The stubborn will of an obstinate child, the arrogance of our human pride, always precede the fall. Like a child that demands its own way, choice is always free, but consequences are never free.

Society's views on marriage, divorce, and sex demonstrate how quickly we move away from the truth of God's word into the half-truths of our emotions, ideals, and the standards we impose for ourselves.

Jesus tells us adultery and divorce are wrong because they're against God's will. It's as simple as that! As a young child we accept this. In fact, we know it's the truth, the bible tells us so.

But adults, those who have grown in their human hardness, and have shrivelled in their softness towards God's will, place all sorts of conditions and justifications on his word. We tax the truth, and water down the word of God making it more and more difficult to hear actually what the truth is and believe it. But despite the divorce and adultery, you're still within his reach; Jesus' desire is to take you in his arms and bless you.

And just in case any of us are pointing the finger here, Jesus' word on adultery extends even more. He says, "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:28) And the same goes for women who lustfully look at men. And further more, all of us lust after many material things and possessions. And God calls this coveting.

When we pull away from God and the means he gives his children in his church in favour of deciding for ourselves, we unknowingly, and sometimes knowingly, build up ourselves and our world with half-truths. But unless we hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth how can we expect God's help?

The truth is this: Sin is not something to overlook. When we overlook something God's word says to allow us to continue on our path of sin, this overlooking is yet another sin. And so the heart hardens, the old nature grows in its defiance, and our ears close over to the absolute truth of God's word.

However, when God's word shows us our sin, and we see plainly our sinful nature, as we hear his word. Like the children whom Jesus took in his arms we too, the children of God, can lay down our hardened hearts, and accept we are sinners. We can return to Jesus who has died for our sin and willingly seeks to forgive us as he takes us into his arms and blesses us with the promise of eternal life.

You are within Jesus' reach. The lesson you and I need to learn in our lives is this: he has already got me. We are his; won at the cross and at our baptism into his death.

We no longer need to prove ourselves or hid the things we do wrong. Instead of hiding our sin, pretending it doesn't exist, and giving it power by trying to beat it ourselves, God moves us toward spiritual maturity where we confess our sin, and trust the Lord's loving and powerful arms will protect us having reached out and taken us in forgiveness and love.

Why? Because Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so. Amen.

B, Pentecost 17 Proper 21 - Mark 9:42-50 "A Salted Christian"

2009-09-26T13:23:00.004+08:00

Hell, hell, hell! When the Word of God mentions something in triplicate you and I are called to take notice. Jesus speaks to the seriousness of sin.

First he addresses the consequences of our causing someone else to sin, saying, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." (Mark 9:42)

Picture this millstone or something just as large or heavy, like a flywheel from an old motor, or a wheel hub from a large tractor. Now picture it plunging into the ocean, the rattle of chain whipping off the deck following the weighty object, see the other end of the chain attached to you. You're going to be pulled in too, sinking down, down, down into the salty depths of a cold dark deep ocean to die.

What an ugly thought! It's enough to send a shiver up your spine — leave you with a bad taste in the mouth. No wonder the Hebrews understood the depths of the sea as Sheol — a hellish place to be avoided. And Jesus begins his three part warning on sin and hell with this picture.

He then moves from causing someone else to sin, to causing ourselves to sin. Cut off your hand, cut off your foot, or gouge out your eye if they're going to cause you to sin. Imagine doing that?

There was once a fellow clearing scrub, miles from anywhere, and as he bent down a highly venomous snake bit him on the thumb. So in an act of courage he took an axe and chopped off his thumb. He chose a painful life with the hope of recovery without a thumb, rather than a horrible death all alone out in the scrub.

In the same way Jesus says …if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' (Mark 9:43-48)

The need to do such terrible things points out hell is real, and it's a place where pain, suffering, and terror go on, and on, and on.

So we hear these words to our discomfort. They make us squirm in our thoughts, in our imaginations, and in knowledge of hell's true reality. Jesus makes plain the fiery eternal death that never stops burning as opposed to eternal life and entry into the kingdom of God.

Then Jesus says something strange, "For everyone will be salted with fire". (Mark 9:49) Is Jesus just talking about "all" those going to hell, or is he talking about "us" too? We know hell is a place of fire and suffering, but "salted with fire", what is Jesus talking about?

So what is salt? In its nature it's salty. Salty soil leaves plant life dead. Salt leaves a place desolate. Salt hardens the arteries and causes problems for us too. Those who go to hell will surely be assaulted with fire. To be salted with fire, sounds like Lot's wife and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah to whom she turned and observed as they all were consumed by burning sulphur and turned into salt.

But Jesus then says, "Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." (Mark 9:50)

Perhaps it is you and I who are salted with fire. After all we have heard in the last couple of minutes about hell, and had our ears honed and our attention focused so that we ask in ourselves, "How can I avoid going to hell?"

So salt here is a good thing! Salt if it stays salty is beneficial for us and with this salt in us Jesus commands us to be at peace with each other.

Salt is an interesting element. Unlike any other condiment it never loses its quality. Leave salt out in the weather and it's always salty. Salt's longevity not only sustains itself but it preserves other things too. Every cook knows that salt preserves. But not only that, it adds flavour as well. Adding salt makes things taste, but too much can make something taste ghastly.

We know too much salt in our diet can be harmful, but the medical fraternity use salt for good. In fact, every person needs about seven tablespoons of salt per every fifty kilos of body weight within to survive. If there is not enough salt in your system your health will suffer.

Our bodies need water but our bodily cells have no way of capturing or attracting water to them. Therefore, the body turns salt into ions or electrolytes allowing the cells to move ions around and water then follows the ions. So the cells direct where the ions go, the water follows and this determines where the fluids go. We need salt in us to carry the water our bodies need. Therefore, doctors use saline or salt solutions to rehydrate the human body when one is critically ill.

Saline solutions are also used to clean wounds in just the same way as swimming in the ocean is good for cleansing the body of bacteria and healing any minor skin irritations we might have. And we've all heard a good dose of the salts will clean us out, referring to a laxative cleansing with magnesium sulphate such as Epsom salts.

There is also the expression, "He is the salt of the earth, she is the salt of the earth, or you are the salt of the earth." When we hear this we know someone's saying it's a good thing. This saying is common and it comes directly from Matthew chapter five.

So if we're the salt of the world and we have been salted with fire. Perhaps we have been cleansed with salt, and preserved with salt and fire. We might feel the sting of this salt on us as it cleanses us, we might feel we have been assaulted with fire, especially as we hear Jesus say we may as well tie a rock around our necks and be thrown into the brine if we cause a child to sin, or we should sacrifice body parts to avoid the taste of bitter suffering and death. At times we all feel as though we are assaulted believers?

But this preservation and cleansing with salt is not an assault on us. We are salted believers. We are shown hell, death, and our sin. Salt is rubbed into our wounds for healing even though it causes pain.

We here in Mark that salt is good. Salt is a valuable commodity in the ancient world and in the bible too. In Numbers 18 and 2 Chronicles 13 the Israelites make covenants of salt and in the temple offerings were salted (Lev 2:13). In the making of incense God commanded the ingredients to be rubbed with salt saying, "make incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy". (Exodus 30:35) And it might surprise us to hear that God allowed Elisha to heal Jericho's water supply with salt years after the place had been cursed when Israel first enter Canaan. (2 Kings 2:19-22)

In these days salt was to seal or to preserve, to make pure and holy. Salt was used to enhance or lift other things in the same way it flavours and seasons our food.

The salt we use today is pure, but in Jesus' day it was not refined and still had other elements in it too. If salt had a bad taste or was not salty Jesus asks how could one make it salty again? If salt wasn't salty, chances were its salt content was low and other contaminates like gypsum existed!

So how could salt be lifted or seasoned again? How could one restore salt to its taste enhancing quality once more? How do we get salt in ourselves, as Jesus commands? Salt which preserves and cleanses me and makes me pure and holy?

Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed are those who take refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8) Jesus Christ is our salt; he is the salt of the earth. He gives full flavour to us through his Word and Sacraments. Having been lifted up and salted with fire Jesus lifts us up in baptism and continues to preserve us in the full flavour of our humanity which is continually contaminated by sin.

At the beginning of Mark chapter nine just after Jesus had forewarned the apostles of his assaulted death on the cross, he says to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power." (Mark 9:1)

In fact, all of us who have been baptised and believe our baptism, have been salted by and in Christ. We're given the kingdom of God to taste in power over eternal death. Through the cross Christ Jesus has made his assault on hell, the devil, death, and our sin, and we celebrate in his flavoursome victory.

Sin leaves us very bland people, but sin, death, and the devil are cleansed from us and we're being lifted up in Christ. Like salt we're seasoned with all the flavour of Christ.

Therefore, Paul says to the Colossians and us, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." (Colossians 4:6)

So let's be the salt which seasons the world! Let's be at peace with each other sharing the full flavour of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

B, Pentecost 16 Proper 20 - Psalm 1 "The Desert Oak"

2009-09-20T06:01:00.004+08:00

Travelling into the central Australian desert one might be surprised to discover just how many trees grow in the red arid sand. The environment is inhospitable during the summer months; a choking dusty dry and searing heat would fry an egg in an instant. The winter, too, is just as harsh as the night time temperatures plummet to near freezing.

In this type of climate it's a wonder that anything lives. One might describe it as a "Godforsaken" or "good for nothing" kind of country. But one will find clumps of trees which seem to be defying the odds.

These trees are the Australian desert oak. They are common in deserts of the Northern Territory, South and Western Australia. For the first twenty years of their lives they grow like a poorly shaped pencil pine. After that the evergreen canopy majestically spreads over their thin dark trunks. They produce a woody fruit loaded with seed and the needle-like foliage is tolerant to fire. Although they live in such a harsh environment the tree's ability to produce nitrogen, like a legume, allows this she-oak to thrive.

On its appearance there's nothing that suggests the desert can support this tree. But establishing the desert oak outside this environment can also be a futile exercise. And vice versa, planting other trees in the desert habitat will see them struggle to survive in comparison to the desert oak.

To find such abundant life and longevity in the midst of desert desolation is a picture of hope for us who also wait in our worldly wilderness, helping us to see that we can live, indeed grow and flourish, despite the drudgery and despair we always seem to face.

The Psalmist uses this picture in Psalm 1: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1 ESV)

The desert oak is blessed where it grows, it does not wither, and it yields its fruit, producing, woody cones of seeds on its branches, and, nitrogen below in the sand. It does not live like other trees and, therefore, in the Australian desert, it not only grows but prospers.

The secret of the desert oak is its long tap root which grows down some thirty metres to find desert streams of water. But this tree also supports life around it as parasite plants tap into its horizontally spreading roots to draw their nutrients. Not only is it a blessing in itself but others also are blessed in its presence.

In your life there are times which appear to be desolate and as a result you're faced with the reality of despair and depression. Your environment is harsh — geographically, physically, mentally, and even spiritually! The daily grind of living seems desolate, and at times you feel stifled and choked by the pressures of life. Or, on the other hand, your body is frozen with suffering, pain, loneliness, or grief.

In this everyday reality you're planted, like a tree. You don't have much of a choice to pick up and move — geographically or physically. And even if you do, on planting yourself in a new location, the reality of your past, and your mental and spiritual being, still remains the same.

Yet like the desert oak, in you is given another nature or being, which enables you to survive the most inhospitable of environments. The desert oak in the western desert lives and breathes in forty-five degrees. It has no choice, that's its position in life. But from its being a root extends and grows down into life-giving water.

So too with you! You're planted in your reality. You have your intellect, your body, your mental capabilities — you are who you are, good and bad! But that's only half of it. You have also received a new nature which places you in Christ — you are made who he is, holy! With Christ transplanted in you you're called to trust him to sink his roots into the stream of life giving water and you are blessed in God's counsel, judgement, and righteousness.

Isaiah foresaw Christ who is planted in you and he says of him: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. (Isaiah 11:1-5 ESV)

Elsewhere, Isaiah speaks of God's control over our environment: He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. (Isaiah 40:22-24 NIV)

So for us living in our situation we are called to know two things: That God has placed us where he has placed us. That is in Christ through baptism. He also places us where he wants us in the world and there we're called to trust him as we're tested so we might nourish those who live around us with the same nourishment which continues to give us life.

It often appears that we're not blessed because of this testing. However, you're called to trust and believe Christ is living in you, rooting you into life despite what your situation might seem. Rooted in Christ we can delight in God's word. We can consume it, trust it, and let its nutrients fertilise and daily revitalise us, just as the nitrogen does for the desert oak living in its testing environment. And from that tap root of trust, we send out horizontal roots of love and service to those around us.

How does this all happen? How do I know God will sustain me? Jesus tells us: Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38) And again he says: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." (John 4:10) And he also promises for the future: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:16-17)

Therefore, let us not be like the weeping willow languishing beside a dry river bed, but like the desert oak trusting in the hidden waters of God that flow into us through the Word of God, en-fleshed and made alive by the Holy Spirit who always flows from Christ in the living streams of God's Word.

Without being rooted in the nourishment of Christ you will fail to receive God's blessing. On turning away from God's Word in favour of sitting with scoffers and mockers, standing with those whose sin is not trusting God, and choosing the counsel of those who lead you away from God, there is only a fearful expectation of fatal eternal judgement. Your testing environment will surely make you weep like a willow without water, and like chaff those not rooted in Christ will be blown away.

But it doesn't have to be that way! Christ allows us to stand in the assembly of the righteous, through his righteousness won on the desolate tree of Calvary, at the Godforsaken Place of the skull, called Golgotha. Like the desert oak that survives the bushfire, the fires of hell did not overcome Christ, nor did he become frozen in time. But Jesus lives at the right hand of the Father and in you who believe and trust in him for life.

God knows you better than you know yourself. He saw you at creation, he knew you at the crucifixion, he knows you in your baptism, and he watches over you planted in the desert today. Let him sustain you in Christ, in his Word, and the stream of living water from the Holy Spirit will continually cleanse you as he washes you in the Word, so that you prosper in hope, faith, and love, in peace with God and one another, now and forever, Amen.

B, Pentecost 15 Proper 19 - Mark 8:27-38 "Expectations"

2009-09-12T11:18:00.006+08:00

The early Christians counted suffering for Christ not as a burden or misfortune but as a great honour, a blessing, for in their suffering they could bear witness to the faith which God had given to them.

Tactius, a Roman historian, wrote of the early Christians martyrs: "Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths." Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished or were nailed to crosses or were doomed to flames and burned to serve as nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle.

We are told that the martyrs went rejoicing to their deaths as if they were going to a marriage feast. They bathed their hands in the blaze kindled for them and shouted with gladness. They marched into the arena as if marching into heaven. When Ignatius (Ig-nay-shush), an elderly martyr, was about to die for his faith in A.D. 110, he cried out, "Nearer the sword, then nearer to God. In company with God." Now we are not trying to be macabre, nor are we saying anyone should seek an adventurous death. Rather, we are saying that the Christian life often involves suffering.[1]

This scenario is a far cry from us today. In fact in the church today we suffer the burden of sitting for one hour just to hear God's word. The testing we face by cutting our time short for leisure activities to receive from God the essential things of salvation seem almost unbearable. Church almost seems like a life sentence, we fidget and squirm or fall asleep, waiting for the inevitable "amen", so that we might go off and attend to what we like.

Perhaps your mindset is this: My expectations are just not being met in church these days! God is not serving me the way "I" feel "I" should be served. Perhaps to avoid such perilous persecution we should go hunting for a better church product; one that fulfils all our desires and criteria. In my heart "I" just feel that my needs are not being met. God is a God of love; he wants to bless me. So "I" have to find a church where "I" get inspiration and encouragement; a place where "I" get knowledge and instruction; a place where "I" might get a pep-up to boost me through the week; a place where "I" get new friends; and a place where "I" feel "I" get loved.

27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" 28 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ." 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

31 He then began to teach them that 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. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." (Mark 8:27-38 NIV)

Peter's expectations are much like many of our expectations today. On hearing that Jesus was going to die the alarm bells went off for Peter and he acted in a way he believed to be right. That is until Jesus tells Satan to get behind. We too need to realise that error comes in many forms, and it often looks good at first glance and we think we are doing the right thing—but that's why it's called deception. I'm sure the apple looked good in the Garden of Eden too; the one who ate it lacked wisdom and discernment.

All of us have asked the question, "Are my expectations being met?" For Peter hearing that Jesus must suffer definitely didn't fulfil his desires and expectations of Jesus. If Jesus the messiah must suffer, then surely Peter's life would be far from rosy. So he sought to correct Jesus, so he might hear a happier message. But perhaps his question, like ours should be, "Are God's expectations being met?" Or to use Jesus' words to test and ask ourselves, "do I have in mind the things of God, or the things of men?"

Are God's expectations being met in us today? Are God's expectations being met in me? Is the service I'm seeking in worship one that brings glory to God, calling me to put off the old self and carry my cross? Is church more about covering up my true reality? Or is it about exposing it, though painful, and having it nailed to the cross, so we might live in peace with God, even if the world might want to martyr us for doing so.

Many today think that Jesus words "Get behind me, Satan" are for someone else. But these words are for you and for me. We are called to ask ourselves, "Do I have in mind the things of God, or the things of men? We find the essential expectations of God only in God's word, and in hearing his word we receive wisdom to study his word in order that we might discern right from wrong!

In these days of materialism where life is all about personal experience, feelings, and satisfactions, God puts all of his word in front of us and we do well to hear his word of correction, and return to Jesus' way, the only way! So that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, might rightly take the throne of our hearts over and over again.

God is worthy of honour and respect, he is God, and he deserves it. We need God's true service in his Son Jesus Christ through his word, so the Holy Spirit can bring us holiness and peace right now, even in the midst of great trials and suffering. Jesus is worthy of honour, glory, and respect; and he deserves it too.

God makes demands on your life and my life; to stop, repent, and return to his word! He knows the gravity of my situation and your situation; the life and death struggle that we Christians so quickly turn into a whim about what might please us. Honour and glory awaits all who trust only in Jesus, humility and holiness call us to put our selves, our time, and our possessions a distant second to the narrow road of the cross and the true glory it will bring us in eternity. Amen.

[1] #20 from Encyclopaedia of Sermon Illustrations, Concordia, St Louis, 1988, page 16

B, Pentcost 13 Proper 17 - James 1:17-18, 21-25 "Which Crucifix?"

2009-08-29T09:24:00.006+08:00

The king enters! He's the groom at the wedding. Women's hearts flutter to see his beauty and strength as he parades in his flowing attire. After the wedding his bride sits at his right hand glistening in gold, yet still she doesn't outshine the brilliance of her husband king. This is the picture painted in Psalm 45, a wedding psalm.

We can also hear Solomon's Song of Songs where he interacts with his beloved. Solomon was given wisdom by God, but also received the greatest splendour and majesty of any king ever to walk the earth. Even greater than his much loved father, King David! We can easily warm to this picture of a woman, wonderfully wooed by her lover, the much loved king Solomon.

But these images of groom and bride, husband and wife, king and queen point to a relationship much greater and better than these. Christ is the King in all his majesty, and his radiant wife, the one he loves, is us his church.

It's a wonderful relationship which fills the heart with affection and enjoyable emotion, as we worship Jesus Christ our King knowing he has chosen us to be his church, the one he loves. Why wouldn't we want to honour he who honours us? Or be faithful to he from whom all faithfulness comes?

Jesus stands as the church's husband in victory, and in glory. Such images of a glorious Christ the King can be seen enthroned on the cross, robed in his righteousness, wearing the royal crown, and holding up nail-marked hands to bless those he loves.

On the other hand, the Christ the King crucifix is not as common as the crucifix which bears the broken body of Jesus from Good Friday. This image is far from royal beauty. We find it difficult to picture Jesus this way. Wedding faithfulness and love are not inspired by the thorns, the lash marks on his flesh, the sunken stomach and exposed ribs, and the wretched bloodiness of a man completely cut off from all blessing and honour, and life.

Isaiah 53 paints the brokenness of Christ on the cross for us… He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:2-4 TNIV)

You would have to agree that these two pictures are worlds apart. Tender conversation between a lover and a beloved, between a glorious king and his bride, between a glorified Son of God and his holy church; Christ the King standing in victory over his cross! These have nothing in common with the bloodied cross which appeared to have triumphed over the son of Mary, the Son of Man, mocked and hanging by flesh ripping nails. However, they are both relevant to us. In this life we can never discard one or the other. Both must be held in tension together as the twofold reality in which we live.

We Christians live in two worlds. We are sinners condemned and stricken, broken and rejected under the Holy Law of God. But also, we're saints honoured in majesty, by the bridegroom who was raised and glorified, and in whom the one church lives in the hope of being eternally raised as the holy bride God has promised through his Holy Gospel of love.

We view these two crucifixes and we're called to see ourselves guilty of sin. Sin that condemns and separates us from God! Sin that casts our flesh aside as completely useless in saving ourselves from the holy Law and God's righteousness! There's nothing that we can do to save ourselves from our guilt. Your wages for your sin is death! Even death on a cross!

But on this very cross, we're called to believe and stand in glory with Christ. The cross of death has not been taken away, but the blood our King once shed now robes us with his righteousness. We have been crowned with his victorious crown of life; our scars of perseverant suffering will be glorified in eternity. Today we're called to hang our pain on the nails of Christ. In hope, we're called to hang on every word from the Word made flesh so the Holy Spirit might continue to give life to our broken bodies of flesh.

As we keep both of these perspectives in view, something else comes into view. Two themes emerge in God's Word which are necessary to expose our sin and give the needed balm of forgiveness and hope that comes through the resurrection and glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. These two themes are the Law and the Gospel, both holy in nature because they are born of God, but exist and cause two very different effects in the lives of people.

We hear from James… Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Those who listen to the word but do not do what it says are like people who look at their faces in a mirror and, after looking at themselves, go away and immediately forget what they look like. But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continue in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:17-18, 21-25)

God chooses to give us birth. He works through human means. For most of us that means the Spirit has worked though our parents who have brought us to baptism, compelled by God to do so. But there in baptism we the church are the firstfruits of his creation, new Adams in his garden of grace. But the reality is we also live in the old Adam too, bound to the cross of death, which we walk towards in this earthly life.

James goes on to say we must get rid of all moral filth and evil and humbly accept the word planted in us. Perhaps the greatest moral filth and evil is not filthy language or immoral lives, but rather a piety that leads one to believe if we don't do these things we will be right with God. If you want other to believe you're a good Christian by having others focus on your external act rather than the deeds of perseverance in Jesus, then your piety is more perverse than the acts of a rapist, a paedophile, or a prostitute. Why? Because you glorify yourself greater than he who deserves all glory alone!

Don't get me wrong. Bad language and immoral lives, rapists, paedophiles, and prostitutes are immersed in evil! But so too are those who think Christianity is something we do to earn God's favour, and thereby treat God as a liar and the Christ's broken body as useless and nothing.

So we're called to look into the mirror! This is the mirror of God's Law and Gospel! True Christian piety looks from ourselves to God for salvation and gives glory to God alone! It leads us to see the two crucifixes are relevant in our lives; to not let go of one or the other. We are called to hear the Word, the Word that condemns our flesh as useless, and the Word that fills our flesh with Spirit and life (John 6:63).

Persevere in these good gifts from God! The Law causes pain, that's for sure! But let that suffering send you to the cross of suffering, so Christ can lift you up in hope of a glorious resurrection and life thereafter!

So what does the Word tell us to do? It tells us to remain in it, to keep looking into the mirror of our twofold reality! See your sin, send it to the cross, hang it on the suffering broken body of Jesus! See in the suffering of Christ your sin has been dealt with! But know that every day you need to allow God to persistently deal with your sin the same way. Persevere, look into the mirror, and see salvation is real and is forthcoming.

Live like you're in love; engaged to be married. After all we are engaged to God, we have been won, but we are being won! So live like a faithful fiancée who looks in the mirror of love. Come to Christ robed in his holiness on his cross of glory. Persevere until the last day – the first day when we enter eternity and join in the wedding feast, glorified with our glorious King, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

B, Pentecost 12 Proper 16 - John 6:63 "Paper, Scissors, Rock"

2009-08-22T20:27:00.002+08:00

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63 NIV)

Paper, rock, scissors – which one is the strongest? One might think paper is not that strong but in the "Paper, rock, scissors" hand-game it smothers the rock. But then the paper is beaten by the scissors, which can hack paper to bits in seconds. Yeah but scissors are rendered useless when smashed by the rock!

Time, wealth, popularity – which one of these gives you advantage? Time is one element we most likely think about the least. But in this day and age there's a good chance it's what many crave the most. To have more time, to burn the candle at both ends, to find more hours in one day, to do all the things one believes they need to do to be fulfilled. This type of thinking makes fools rush in where angels fear to tread! It's no wonder one of the greatest health problems in our society today is a lack of sleep!

But then again how many times have we heard the phrase, "I'm bored!" Perhaps too much time on one's hands is also a problem. Too much time can leave us at a loose end. Some might become anxious – you just can't sit still! Maybe one finds themselves getting up to mischief with too much time, or left alone with yourself time might drive you insane. Too much or too little time, exposes just how open time is to be abused.

Perhaps it's not time but wealth you see as the thing which will put you out front. If I just had a million dollars, I wouldn't have anything to worry about. If I just had a thousand dollars! If I just had a hundred dollars, ten, five, even one dollar! If I just had another five cents I wouldn't have to break that fifty dollar note and have all that wretched change in my wallet!

I want to be rich! What is it to be rich? To have a drink of water on a hot day! To have a coat on a cold day! To have a breath of air when you're starved of oxygen! To have food so stomachs are fed! To be able to go on holidays once, twice a year, rather than every two or five years. How can I get more money you ask yourself? To buy a new car, another car, to have a bigger retirement nest egg; how rich is really rich?

Perhaps wealthy people are movie stars or business entrepreneurs at the blackjack tables blowing cash like it's going out of fashion. Or maybe it's the little old lady who lives like a pauper but has ferreted away every penny she's ever come across and is secretly sitting on a fortune.

Maybe to be rich is to have family, parents, children, peace, contentment, or to be loved. Is a rich person one who is free in every way or one who has a boundary on every side? Why is it when one has wealth of any kind, it never seems to be enough, or life is consumed by worrying how to keep what one has acquired?

If it's not time, or wealth you're looking for then perhaps its popularity. You may have wealth, you may have all the time in the world, but you want to be liked or noticed. Maybe you're not accepted by others, you crave clothing, you want to look good, lose the wrinkles, fill in the bald spot, get rid of the pimples, look good to others.

But then again perhaps you're too popular, good looks are a curse, you've become arrogant or a neurotic nitwit. How often have the popular people been the ones who have become criminals, or the person with the looks and figure is taken advantage of for someone else's gain?

Is the popular person, one who is young and can move with speed, is it a woman gifted with caring for and nurturing others, or is it the experience of the wirily old character whose been around the block many times before. Perhaps it's the short, the tall, the muscular, the petite, the feminine, or the rugged. O Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way!

However, all of us are far from humble, and there's not a chance we're perfect in any way, even in the slightest! With all human strengths, there are even greater weaknesses kept out of sight. Just like paper, rock, and scissors one merit can always outclass another. Time, wealth, and popularity might be sought after qualities for strength, but where we have one of these qualities there will always be desire for another. Each of these three can be abused in themselves so that those who covert time seem to never have enough; those who are wealthy suffer from immeasurable poverty despite being able to buy anything they want; and those who have popularity still find themselves miserable and lonely.

There is one quality or merit that outdoes all the rest, but it's different to the things we value and seek in ourselves.

As for wealth: One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. A man's riches may ransom his life, but a poor man hears no threat. (Proverbs 13:7-8) So we hear in Proverbs where we're also told… Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. (Proverbs 15:16) Also… Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honour and life. (Proverbs 22:4)

The writer of Proverbs goes on to make this wise statement: Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Although we may always have a desire for more riches and wealth, Jesus tells us as he tells the people of Smyrna in Revelation… I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution… Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Those who have an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. (Rev 3:9&10)

So what is it to be rich, what is real wealth? And what about time or popularity? Before whom is our popularity important? And how do we get this popularity? You may feel downtrodden but such is your popularity that you're inheriting a crown of life.

And as for time, we have no control over it but there will come an eternity of timeless joy, which we can't even begin to comprehend in time.

Jesus tells us in John 6:63… The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. (NIV) Other English translations are no less blunt… Human strength can do nothing. (CEV) The flesh is no help at all. (ESV) The flesh profits nothing. (NKJV) Human power is of no use at all. (GNB) And, the flesh is useless. (NRSV)

Get the picture! It's not us who hold any sort of power, especially the strength needed for life, the power to persist in perfection.

Paper, scissors, rock? No, none of these win this game! Jesus Christ crucified! He's got the whole world in his hands. Time, wealth, popularity? None of these either, they're all perishable! The Spirit gives life, to you. Your nothingness, your uselessness — is taken in God's hands because he loves you.

Jesus came into time, to lose his life and have his time cut short, only to be raised to life and eternally glorified. He gave up his eternal crown as the Son of God and bore the crown of thorns — a poor wretched man on the cross. He didn't seek popularity or status but remained faithful to the Father, even though it meant total abandonment on the cross.

We might play "paper, scissors, rock" as a hand game to see whose best. But it's no game when it comes to trusting in he whose hands bear the scars of nails which have saved you from what human wealth, time, and popularity cannot do.

Jesus says to you… The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63) So be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. (Ephesians 6:10) Because Christ lives in you that IS what you are, when you remain in him! Amen.

Let us pray the response of Saint Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6: 68-69) Amen.

B, Pentecost 11 Proper 15 - Ephesians 5:15-20 "The Spirit of Wisdom"

2009-08-15T10:14:00.003+08:00

If there's a time to feel sorry for the Jews, it's here. Jesus tells them the truth but it's just too much for them to hear. He says, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you." (John 6:53)

Even before we agree this would be hard to hear, we must also consider the Law, especially the commands on what is and isn't right to eat. Blood of animals was not to be consumed; how much more would the blood of a human desecrate their purity before the Lord?

And they were not to eat the flesh of any animal that did not have both a split hoof and chew its cud. To eat a human would put them far outside the realm of the Law to which they sought to observe.

Not to mention that to be associated with the corpse of a person would make the person unclean for seven days. And for those who didn't seek cleansing would be cut off from the community. (Numbers 19) How much more detestable would the eating of a person's flesh and the drinking of their blood be to a Jew who honestly sought to live by the Law?

What must have gone through the heads of the Jews when they heard Jesus say that he came from heaven? To hear him say he was the "I AM"; that he must be eaten; that his blood must be drunk; that unless you do this you don't have life in you; that in doing this you will live forever; that in eating and drinking him he would then somehow raise them up to eternal life; and that all of this is the truth?

Does this sound like wisdom and truth, or the ramblings of a mad man? Jesus basically tells them, he is God, God is a man, when you eat the man you eat God, and after God is eaten he still exists to raise up the person whose eaten him in the first place. Sound ludicrous to you? How much more ridiculous must it have sounded to the Jews, let alone anyone else who heard what Jesus was saying that day.

But for us it's perfectly explainable! We're not cannibals dining on corpse to glorify ourselves. We're receiving life from he who is eternal, glorifying him and his Father next to whom he stands in heaven.

We know what we eat is given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Jesus Christ, the High Priest, who enters God's most holy presence is also the sacrifice that allows us to enter the most holy of holies, having had our bodies washed in his blood spilt on the cross to atone for our sin.

Next week in the Gospel reading we hear that many of the disciples desert Jesus because of what he says here. Today there are still those who depart from this truth as well. Some outside Christendom, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, call our sacramental practice straight out cannibalism if we hold Jesus at his word. Then again there are many inside the church who move to make what Jesus says more accommodating by rationalising his words into a symbolic or spiritual eating without recognising the physical reality of Jesus' words of truth.

Nevertheless, one can still feel a little sorry for the Jews and the disciples who opposed or left Jesus after he said these things. By our own intellectual wisdom, and powers of deduction, we can fully understand how Jesus' words would have made them rare up at his method of raising them up.

But we live after the fact and have a much greater picture since we now know of Jesus' death on the cross, the Last Supper the night before, and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; all of which have benefited us since the moment of our baptism and our observation and hearing of these things in God's Word.

However there are many today who still reject the basic truths of Jesus' words in John six, and choose to rationalise it. So it comes as a great surprise after Jesus said these things there were still twelve disciples that remained with him. I suspect they too must have surely wondered what on earth Jesus was going on about.

What we do know, it takes more than human wisdom to comprehend any of what Jesus says. If we were to judge the situation with human limitations none of us would believe anything about God, or why we need him to come to us in the way he does. It would be too big for us to begin to grasp. And so we continually ask God to give us a discerning heart, a heart of wisdom.

So how do we get this wisdom? Is it through age? It should be but it's not! The greatest folly on earth is seeing someone who has experience of time under their belt and still they reject God's grace in the twilight of their earthly lives.

Is it through education and understanding? Neither doctorates nor degrees determine a person fit for eternal life, this wisdom can drown them in the details!

Or, do we get wisdom through what we do? Perhaps history has to repeat itself because in our wisdom we just don't learn the first time, or the second, or countless times after!

In Saint Paul's letter to the Ephesians he says this: 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. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:15-20)

Here we are told to understand what the Lord's will is. But how does one understand? It has to be greater than just an exercise in using one's memory, lest every child and every senior with dementia has no place in the kingdom of heaven. And that's just not true! Perhaps this is why Paul then says not to get drunk. Maybe, if we're left to our own devices to understand God's will then in our frustrations and hopeless searching we might end up turning to the bottle.

Instead, we're told to be filled with the Spirit to be wise, to bear the true wisdom which enables us to trust Christ. But the question still remains, "How?" If it is left up to you or me to attain this wisdom, how do I know I've done enough? Can I ever do enough to know God's will? From where can I get the Spirit, and if I know where to find him, how do I get him into me, into my mind, into my heart, into my whole being? How do I know I've done the right thing to get the Spirit?

Isaiah prophesied about one who is the personification of wisdom… A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. (Isaiah 11:1-5)

Isaiah speaks of Jesus receiving the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of the Lord. So we ask ourselves and search the Word to hear just where he received this Spirit. And our search takes us to Jesus' baptism where the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and rested on him. So too with us, in God's wisdom he sends the Spirit down on us so we bear the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of Christ, in our baptism.

It's from this point in time that we're placed on an eternal journey. This is the Lord's will. He desires us to remain on that journey and not to take leave from it.

In Psalm 111 we hear the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In fact, Isaiah tells us Jesus delights in the fear of the Lord. And we know he did because he endured the cross and death and now reigns at the right hand of the Father, and since our baptism he reigns in our hearts bearing his wisdom in us.

Our hearts bear the heart of Christ. Therefore, in us the Spirit of the wisdom invokes a desire to hear Christ and his Word. Through the Spirit of wisdom the will of God is received which allows us to remain in and hear the Word of God. The Spirit of wisdom unites us with Christ, the personification of wisdom, so we might judge and discern with our Christ-given hearts and not the regular things the world uses to judge like sight, rationalities, and limited human understanding.

If you feel as though you are not very wise in the Lord, Saint James gives us some good advice, saying… If any of you lacks wisdom, they should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to them. But when one asks, they must believe and not doubt, because the person who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (James 1:5-6)

And we can also pray for each other's wisdom too, just as Paul did for the Ephesians. He says… I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:17)

The wisdom of God in us does not bring us glory as does the wisdom of the world. But the wisdom of God enables us to trust Christ at his Word, to remain in his Word, and to know that the Holy Spirit works through his Word to bring us continually to Jesus to receive his forgiveness, life, and salvation, in the Spirit filled means he has given us.

We remain in Christ, we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we place ourselves continually in the hearing of his Word, and we judge and discern with his Word, since we and all humanity are and will be eternally judged by the Word, to the glory of God. Amen.

And the peace of God with passes all human wisdom and understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, our wisdom, Amen.

B, Pentecost 10 Proper 14 - Ephesians 4:25-5:2 "Shaken not Stirred"

2009-08-07T19:42:00.004+08:00

Imagine you're an archer. You're in trouble. The enemy is attacking; either a fierce animal is bearing down on you, or the opposing army is racing across no man's land in an attempt to breach your line and kill you and your battle group.

You must hold your position and not lose your nerve. You must keep your focus so the arrow meets its mark and brings the opposition down. If you miss you will be dead. Your life hangs in the balance. How are you holding your bow, steadying yourself in the midst of turmoil and strife?

The temptation to drop the bow and flee might be a reality. Or the distraction of pending death possibly takes the edge off your concentration. A towering grizzly bear, ten foot tall, paws as big as footballs, and claws like sharpened knives; or a thousand men descending on you with only one arrow to fire at a time.

The situation surely makes you tremble, but finding peace is necessary to sustain life. One must be completely still and silent if there is any chance of winning the conflict.

Most of us are not archers. This picture though is our reality. As Christians we dwell in times of turmoil where distractions tempt many to flee the battle line to which we've been called to guard in Christ. Many have taken their eyes off Christ and are missing the mark as the faith they received in baptism is thrown out in favour of a faith in human ideals or created objects.

When we're threatened with hardships, like drought, financial ruin, and the like, there's a tendency to become frustrated and wonder why God is doing such a thing to us. Or as soon as we're thrown into turmoil through sickness or disease – the body begins to break down – we think God is letting us down.

But then there's also the ever lessening numbers in our churches. People have departed and are wandering away from God. Others then leave because it's not the socially acceptable thing to do, or the call to endurance in Christ is lost on those worried about numbers and finances as they too become a part of today's exodus from God's church.

Then there's us. Left holding our bows as the battle lines are breaking down. We're lured to do the same as the deserters, their mindset is hard to refute with the visual evidence of collapse all around us. But even if we don't fall into the temptation of fleeing, it's still hard to keep our eyes on the target without missing the mark.

However, unlike the archer in battle or taking a stand against an aggressive animal we're not called to focus on the enemy but on our Saviour. Those who take their eyes off Christ in the midst of trouble are like archers who take their eyes off their antagonist; both will end up falling at the fate of their foe.

This desertion can and does make us angry. There are folks who become angry at those throwing away their God-given faith and trust. But then again there are some who get angry with God and his representatives for not changing tactics to try and keep former followers from fleeing.

As King David fled from Absalom he cried out to God, 'O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him."' (Psalm 3:1-2) Then when many were deserting God and chasing after lies, in David's distress God said to those being deluded, In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. (Psalm 4:4-5)

By all means be angry but trust in the Lord. Be angry but don't sin. This may come as a surprise since many believe being angry is a sin. But there are many in the bible who cried out to God in anger, or who cried out on behalf of God in anger, yet God was still faithful to them. However, there were some who cried out to God in anger and their anger became sin when they fled from God not trusting his weapon – his Word, grieving the Holy Spirit who always works through the Word of God.

To be angry literally means to be shaken and to not sin in this instance means to not miss the mark. In other words be shaken by what's going on but not stirred to the point where you lose hope in your weapons or in the target of our trust, Christ crucified.

In Ephesians Paul calls the church in Ephesus to take their stand against sin and evil. This enemy was not just out there, but was the enemy within. The enemy within was the old sinful nature playing up when the Ephesus Christians were shaken by the trauma of the day. They were tempted to sin by losing trust in he who lead them in battle, namely our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so for us it's the same. We're called to sentry duty. To take our stand and not waver! To keep hearts of peace despite turmoil spiralling out of control all around us! God calls us to believe in the one he has sent, the one who suffered and died, the one whom he raised from the dead and is now seated at his right hand, the one who is hidden in his church, and the one who is hidden in you!

The amazing thing is that as we're called to sentry duty, to take our place wearing the full armour of God, our leader and commander has already won the battle on the cross and in our baptismal resurrection. We take our stand in today's turmoil knowing the battle has already been won. It may not appear that way, but it has been won. We only see this in faith by trusting God the Son who has faithfully followed his Father's will.

So by all means be shaken, be angry with unbelief. Be so angry that it causes you to pray against the unbelief of our society, the unbelief that tempts your own heart. Be so angry against sin that it causes you to confess it, overturning the tables of greed and lust in the holy temple God has made you to be, so you're filled with faith and peace.

Be so angry that it drives you deeper and deeper into God's word. Be so angry that you wake up and let the light of Christ shine in you, so that you desire to be taught in God's word. Be so angry that you allow God to change your attitude, so you yearn to be more and more like him in all truth and righteousness.

Be so angry it causes you to be taught to put off falsehood and speak truthfully to each other, causing the body to be unified as one in Christ causing God to be glorified.

But… "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. …And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph 4:26-27, 4:30 – 5:2)

In your anger, give glory to God, and bear each other in love and forgiveness. Hold your bow and arrow steady. Be shaken not stirred! Shaken by the strife of sin in us and our world, but not stirred so that we unite ourselves with sin, and hid it when it should be exposed for healing.

Stand fast in Christ, focus on him, and don't miss the mark. Let the marks of God cross you and seal you with the Holy Spirit. Let your sin be named for what it is, after all your sin sent our Saviour to the cross, so let the carnage of the cross work to your advantage to the glory of God. And most of all trust God's forgiveness has, is, and will continue so your sin no longer has eternal power over you.

By all means be angry but do not sin in your anger. Be shaken not stirred, for Jesus sake and for your own sake too, Amen.

B, Pentecost 9 Proper 13 - John 6:29 "Eat your Cake and have it too!"

2009-08-01T09:32:00.004+08:00

The desire to have something can be so strong. So much so it can cause all sorts of emotions to occur, even physical reactions or mental torment.

Have you ever been shopping for groceries when you're hungry? Have you ever seen a fast food ad on television when you're starving? You can almost taste the herbs and spices in your mouth.

The eyes sharpen the mind, the desire intensifies, you want it and you want it now. Food glorious hot food — chips, burgers, chicken, awwwwwh! Your stomach churns with delight.

Perhaps every time you drive past the car yard, the motorcycle centre, the Ag machinery business, the clothes shop, or the shoe store, your mind is filled with visions of sitting high in the seat of a shiny new machine, the best in the district. Or you picture yourself stepping out in style with those new shoes or the latest outfit similar to what the movie stars are wearing these days.

As you salivate over these things from afar, your mind plots and your heart beats quicker, as you scheme how to make the imagination a reality.

Or you see that person. The blood rushes! You become sweaty, desperately seeking their attention! The angst of separation causes unbelievable pain. You want them, but for whatever reason you can't have them! You lie on your bed at night and romance fills your heart, you toss to and fro without satisfaction.

You fanaticise over them; perhaps even let your mind become x-rated; you can get no satisfaction. The fantasy only increases the desire, you burn with passion, and the pain is almost too much to bear.

What we want, but for one reason or another cannot get, plays on our mind. Have you ever noticed sometimes that the less chance we have of getting it, the more we want it. The intense yearning debilitates our whole being — mind, body, and spirit.

These strong feelings and desires make us do all kinds of things with our minds, our mouths and our movements. From children throwing tantrums before their parents, to teenagers manipulating things to suit themselves, to God's adult children growing more and more materialistic and self-centred, it's all the same thing in God's eyes.

King David burned with desire over someone he shouldn't have been obsessing over. In fact, he should never have let himself be in this position to do what he did.

As the saying goes, "Idle hands are the devil's playground." And so while David should have been leading his armies in battle out in the field, he hangs about Jerusalem not doing much.

He gets off his bed, probably aroused, but if not soon finds himself that way as he leers over Bathsheba, fanaticising over her beauty and her nakedness.

Instead of using his power to lead his fighting men, he misuses his authority and takes Bathsheba, another man's wife into his bed. The sin cannot be concealed when Bathsheba falls pregnant. And so David summons the husband, Uriah, and tries to cover his sin, but it doesn't work. So finally he resorts to ordering Uriah's murder to cover his guilt.

Nathan, the prophet of God, goes to see David, and feeds him a story which surely takes David in. This is a story about a poor man who loves a lamb but when the rich neighbour has visitors, butchers the poor man's solitary lamb instead of preparing one of the many lambs he owns. David burns with anger against the rich man. But God had set David up, and Nathan says…

"You are the man! You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. …Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.' …"Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight." …Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." (2 Samuel 12:7, 9, 10, 11, 13)

David had free choice, but like us all who have free choice, the consequences are never free and so beginning with the death of the child he and Bathsheba conceived, his whole family begins to unravel. And the ripple effect takes its toll on his family's kingship and on every member of the kingdom of Israel.

Have you ever heard of the saying, "You can't eat your cake and have it too."? David's desire led him to eat his cake of desire, when he should never have had it in the first place. He ate his cake in secret, but it soon soured in the belly.

The unravelling of David's kingdom continued with a repetition of similar sorts when David's son, Amnon, fell in love with his half sister, David's daughter, Tamar. His desire led him to deviously set up a situation where they would be alone in his bedroom. She is sent to him with bread as Amnon is apparently not well. But once alone with Amnon he seeks to seduce her, but on her refusal he rapes her.

After Amnon had his fill, he treated Tamar as trash. After such great desire and yearning for her, he ate his cake of desire and he no longer had it. His desire turned to contempt and hatred.

These are the results of David's desire. They all came out of David's delusion on that evening when he mused about Bathsheba; and also resulted from the consequences of Amnon pining over his sister. This is all followed up with retribution as Absalom, Tamar's full brother, kills Amnon, and then pits himself against his father, King David, for the kingdom of Israel. In the sight of all Israel he takes the concubines of his father into his bed.

Who would have known a twitch in David's sexual desire would have led to this tangled mess of death and destruction? We are always free to choose! But the other half is choice always has consequences that are never free. It's why deception is a deception; because our desires delude and deceive us into overlooking the other half of the free choice reality.

Have you ever noticed that after coveting the new car, the new clothes, or whatever it is you just have to have? That on receiving it, it looses its sheen extremely quick! The new tractor breaks down, the shoes and clothes date and end up living in the back of the closet. The consequences never really seem a reality when we're in the midst of desire.

What about those food ads on television, or going to the supermarket after you've had a big meal? The smells don't have the same effect as when you're hungry. The burgers might be better, but you can't even bear to look at them! You can't eat your cake and have it too!

Or more to the point, "you can't satisfy your desires and have the desires too!" The feelings of wanting disappear the moment you devour what you've desired. But then the mirage of desire soon pops up somewhere else, ready to deceive us all over again.

In the gospel of John chapter six, Jesus tells us, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." (John 6:27)

Food that endures to eternal life! This food is unusual! We eat it, yet we still have it. It's the food which satisfies, really satisfies with lasting effect. This food is unlike the food we craving one moment then reject once we've had our fill. This is the food that gives us the sense of joy, but once eaten the sense of joy goes on and on and on. This is the food once eaten we still have it. You can eat this cake, and have it too!

So what must we do to eat and have this cake that endures to eternal life? The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. (John 6:29) God calls you to taste and see that the Lord is good. Open your hearts and let God fill you with satisfaction that lasts into eternity. Jesus really satisfies!

So, what must we do to get the food that endures to eternal life: Believe that Jesus is the Bread of Life! He is the food of life; he is the bread of eternal satisfaction.

Jesus is the cake. Come and eat, you can eat this cake and have it too. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the person who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. (Ps 34:8-9) Amen.

B, Pentecost 8 Proper 12 - John 6:5b, 10a, 12b, 20b "Seated and Fed"

2009-07-25T07:42:00.006+08:00

When Christians from other denominations enter most Lutheran church gatherings, confusion abounds at the point when the hymns or songs are sung. Lutherans sit whereas others usually stand. It often makes regulars and visitors alike ask, "What's going on?"

To sit or to stand! Is it just tradition that determines why we do one or the other, or are there other reasons? Have you ever asked yourself, "why we sit to sing and why some stand"?

For most it's a tradition that's been handed down from generation to generation amongst different denominations. In fact, the tradition often varies amongst congregations in the one denomination. For example in Lutheran churches some stand for the last hymn and some sit as they do for all the other hymns or songs.

However, generally speaking, the LCA (Lutheran Church of Australia) sit to sing hymns. And for us in its congregations most have carried on this tradition as our parents did.

The reason for asking this question leads us into the gospel reading today and invites us to examine one of the postures we take in worship. Namely sitting!

Jesus wanted to feed the crowd which had gathered with him and the disciples on the shore of Lake Galilee. So he said to the disciples have the people sit down on the grass. We know from the text it was near the Passover feast, so it was springtime in Galilee, about March or April, so there was plenty of grass for the five thousand on which to sit.

Two pictures always come flooding to mind when we hear of people sitting on the grass to receive the bread and fish Jesus miraculously distributes amongst the crowd.

The first in John's Gospel account is the picture of manna from heaven in the wilderness. Here Jesus can be seen feeding the followers in the same way the Father did when Moses lead Israel in the Sinai wilderness for forty years.

The second is a parallel to Psalm 23. In Mark's account Jesus sees the people like sheep without a shepherd and mercifully feeds them, but this is not mentioned here in John's account. Nevertheless, Jesus sitting the people down in the green grass conjures up a warm picture drawing us to remember the great "Shepherd Psalm" where we hear, He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. (Psalm 23:2-3a)

Here Jesus sits the crowd of five thousand down and feeds them from the seemingly impossible five loaves and two measly fish. They are seated on a grassy position by the quiet waters of Lake Galilee.

Even more so, after the people are fed there are twelve baskets of leftovers. Just like Psalm 23 God the Son had prepared a table for the crowd, fed them, and their cup overflows with what is left over. Jesus asked these leftovers be gathered which also reminds us of the Israelites in the wilderness where Moses tells the Israelites to gather enough manna to eat. (Exodus 16:16)

But before this miraculous event happened Jesus sits on a mountain with the disciples. This is another picture of seated resting just as the crowded rested and were restored by Jesus' miracle and also the serenity painted in Psalm 23. Here in John, Jesus and the disciples retreat after being overwhelmed by those who witnessed his healings.

Jesus has led his twelve learners to rest, but rest soon turns to test. The crowds find Jesus and converge. Knowing what he was going to do, Jesus puts a question before one of the disciples, Philip, asking, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" (John 6:5)

"BREAD! Who said anything about bread?" Jesus' words seem to have come from out of left field. The disciples weren't thinking about food up until this point! And the emerging five thousand were chasing Jesus because of his healing not for a free feed. It seems the only person who had any forethought was a lad with five barley loaves and two fish. Have you ever wondered how that boy must have felt when Andrew first suggested that his five loaves and two fish might be used as food for all?

So having sat with Jesus, resting with Jesus, and seeing the crowd gather around Jesus, the disciples failed dismally in the test Jesus had set before them. We all now know from where the bread came for the crowd to eat; it came from Jesus — the Bread of Life! The five thousand were also seated and once they're sitting they're fed.

After the feeding of the five thousand yet again we find people seated. This time it's in a boat on the lake. The disciples have set sail, without Jesus, bound for Capernaum. A storm blows up, and Jesus approaches the seated sailors, who respond in fear. This is not the reverent fear of a faithful worshipper, but rather the fear of those who hand over their faith and themselves to futility, fruitlessness, and self-centred failure.

They quickly reverted to being believers of death and destruction; which was exactly the opposite of what Jesus came to teach and do. And so Jesus says just a few words, revealing himself to them and the disciples willingly took him into the vessel which immediately got to its destination.

What also stands out in the Gospel reading today is how little John reports Jesus speaking throughout the course of the events! Jesus says four short things (they are underlined in your bulletins). (a) Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? (John 6:5) (b) Have the people sit down. (John 6:10) (c) Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted. (John 6:12) And, (d) It is I; don't be afraid. (John 6:20)

It appears that we are sitting in the vessel having invited the Father of Peace, the Son of Righteousness, and the Spirit of Holiness into our presence. We sit here and are served by God himself who distributes his holy and powerful word through the meagre human words of this fish and bread servant.

After we have been seated here by God and had our souls restored, we will go out into our crowded daily lives where Jesus will allow us to be tested, "Where shall we buy food for these people to eat?"

But we can learn from the disciples' mistakes and also from our own previous failures knowing it's not about what we do or buy which feeds the lost. Rather, it's he in whom we rest; who feeds us, will also feed them. Are we not carrying the leftovers of Christ with us? In fact they are not left over; they are given to feed whoever we're led to by the Holy Spirit. Christ is with you, he is your Bread of Life in abundance, so others too might be seated and share in the Bread of Life.

This might all seem distant from where we started but it's not. In fact, our tradition determines that we usually sit for our songs, some of the readings from Scripture, and the sermon. But regardless of our standing or sitting, we need to allow ourselves to be willing recipients and carriers of Christ's holy food of faith, and also the physical food we need from day to day.

So, since we sit for songs and hymns, we might as well see we are seated by Christ in pastures of green, forgiven and feed on his word, so our cup overflows. Why? Because this is what our loving Heavenly Shepherd is doing!

We have nothing to fear while we dwell in the house of the Lord — each day as we allow our old sinful nature to be drowned, and forever as we're eternally resurrected to new life seated in eternal fellowship with God. Surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives!

And because goodness and mercy overflows in us and in our lives there are also plenty out there who don't need to pay for this graciousness of God either. So let's not waste the overabundance with short-sighted negativity, and become fearful of destruction as Jesus faithfully and continually draws near us.

Let's take the opportunities we have to stand, sit, and kneel before the Father from whom this whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, prayerfully seeking salvation for others through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, daily deliver us into your holiness from all evil. Continually lead us from fear and temptation that you and your kingdom are not for us, into the assurance of your salvation. Make us willing to forgive those who sin against us in the way your Son Jesus Christ was willing to wear the cross for us. Reveal to us that you are giving the Bread of Heaven to us today. Nourish our bodies with physical food and the food of faith, so we may abundantly share with others what you have give to us — forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Work these things in us with your Holy Spirit, to the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ, and your holy name, in your holy presence forever, Amen.

B, Pentecost 7 Proper 11 - 2 Samuel 7:10a, 11b-13, 16; Mark 6:31 "Peace in the Shed"

2009-07-17T18:00:00.005+08:00

Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." (Mark 6:31)

Come with me to a quiet place and get some rest!

When you've had enough and you need some time out, you just need to step out, lest you do your block and completely lose it. So let's go to a quiet place and get some rest! It's time to go to the shed.

This is the place where boys can be boys, men can be men, and the Aussie bloke can be the Aussie bloke. Where primeval man can do and be what he likes with no recompense from the boss who runs the show inside. These mostly dirty or dusty dwellings are the man caves where a basic bloke with his most basic of instincts can at least pretend to be the master of his domain. A place to be; a place to rest; a place of peace.

Then again the shed is not everyone's cup of tea either! I'd imagine there are plenty of people who don't find this environment very inviting. Some women love the shed as much as the man, but then again there are many who don't.

And I know it's hard to believe, but there are blokes out there who don't like the solidarity of shed life either. I guess it's where one's interests lie! However, regardless of whether you like the shed or not, everyone has a place of rest and a place of peace.

Like the shed though, these places are not always peaceful and a place of rest. Sometimes the peacefulness is pierced with pain and the rest is lost in testing. Where a bloke can celebrate and practise his most basic of instincts can be where he can also inflict injury on himself. In the shed lurk all types of danger which threatens to destroy or harm one's humanity.

But there's a place that's better than the shed, or any other location we might seek for earthly enlightenment. It's the one true place of peace and rest; it's in God's rest, where we receive the peace that passes all human understanding. And in this peace we are refreshed so we can go back into the busyness of our lives bearing the peace of God before others.

In Old Testament times, David wrestled with the fact that having moved into Jerusalem making it the City of David, and building for himself a palace in which to live, God still resided in a tent, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. And so he enquires of God through the prophet Nathan, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying…

I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. "The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever." (2 Samuel 7:10a,11b-13, 16)

So God gave Israel a home, a place of rest and peace. And David's house was established and sustained by God himself. But God promises to David that it is not David himself who was to build a temple for God, rather God would raise up a son to build a holy resting place for the King of Heaven and Earth, in Jerusalem.

In doing this God was reinforcing that he would sustain the house of David; not his palace, but rather a family line of kingship over God's people. This son was Solomon. But after Solomon's reign and death, the kingdom of Israel split into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Then after continual defiance by most of the kings of the Israelites and the Judeans, the kingdoms were sacked by their enemies.

So what became of God's promise to sustain the house of David? After all the Babylonians marched into Jerusalem and set fire to every important building – including the temple of the Lord, the king's palace, and the homes of the people! (2 Kings 25:9) Had God failed in his promise in which he stated, "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever"?

Two things need to be noted. Firstly, God promises that David's house and kingdom will endure before me. Yet the Israelites and the Judeans and their kings had long turned their backs on God and so they like King Saul dissected themselves from the presence of the Lord.

But more importantly, the line of David became hidden from humanity and is revealed in Jesus Christ, the Son of David. In him, his house, kingdom, and throne was established forever when Jesus was enthroned on the cross, and lifted up from the grave to life eternal in victory over sin and death.

We hear from Ephesians chapter two: But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace. (Eph 2:13-14a)

So the place of peace and rest was restored by God's own Son, Jesus Christ. The promise made to David and continued in Solomon's reign as king, once again because of Christ allowed people a place of peace in which to rest. But the place is now different. It's not necessarily a building like the temple in Jerusalem where one might go to Sabbath in God to receive the blessings of his grace. Christ now functions as the temple. He is the gate, the filter, the curtain, through whom we pass into the peaceful presence of God, saved from God's wrath we're due because of our sinful natures.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

But now there's a strange irony since Christ has abolished the necessity of the Old Testament temple in Jerusalem. The temple is now wherever people are gathered together by the Holy Spirit around the Word of God to receive the benefits God promises in it.

Then the temple is also the gathering of people who believe and look to Jesus Christ, the Son of David. These are those hidden within the denominations on earth, and those already hidden in the timeless realm of eternity. But although they and we are hidden, we all stand in the face of God enduring before him – that is, we stand before him revealed in his Written Word here on earth, and they stand before him face to face with the Word made flesh in heaven.

The third strand of reality to this irony is we're temples of Christ. We find peace and rest because Christ temples in us. We are filled with grace and truth, since we've been baptised into the kingdom of heaven, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (John 1:14)

God has chosen you as his shed, despite your person being like a man cave, a cavity of the dirt, dust, and danger of sin. God sends the Holy Spirit to bring us together in fellowship so Jesus Christ might continue to build us into his Father's kingdom. So we might demonstrate our love towards him, giving glory to him and proclaiming Christ and the cross to the ends of the earth.

When you need to "be", when you need "rest", and when you need "peace", Jesus says to you, "Come with me to a quiet place and get some rest." But amazingly as we rest in him, he rests in us and gives us eternal peace. Amen.

B, Pentecost 6 Proper 10 - Ephesians 1:4-8, 13-14 "God's Glorious Grace"

2009-07-11T09:19:00.012+08:00

God's glorious grace is gold. It's a gift that's received at no cost! But at great cost it was given!

At great cost Jesus saved and redeemed you, when you were lost and condemned. He has freed you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. As we grow in him we're led into a deeper understanding just what a wonderful gift this is! Jesus gives this gift, not with earthly silver or gold, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. This is God's grace! This is God's gospel love! This is God's generosity! This is the true gold of grace! And it's given to you! A free gift!

Have you ever given a gift, after struggling to decide what to get, or after toiling at great lengths to find the perfect present, to see the receiver treat it as nothing? It makes you feel sad, or perhaps even a little disgusted that they've treated the perfect present as paltry. It makes you feel as if you've had the core of your being ripped out – completely gutted!

Now you know how God feels when you treat his gift of grace as a second-rate gift of garbage! And we've all done that. Every time we elevate something or someone as more worthy than Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection from the grave!

Then there's the child that on opening the gift is genuinely in raptures over the present. Yes! The child's probably not putting God first as the eyes glisten over just the thing they've always wanted. But this is how God glorious grace should glisten in the eyes of his children.

Have you ever wondered why atheists are often angry with God and the church? They act like kids who get the wrong gift! But a true atheist shouldn't expect to get a gift, because an atheist supposedly believes there's no one there to give the gift anyway! Are they mad because there's no one to give them something, or are they beside themselves because there is someone there trying to give them the glorious gift of grace?

Surely atheists shouldn't be angry since they believe there is nothing to be angry at! But perhaps they're angry because there is! Perhaps they're angry because God pursues them with grace. Having been included in Christ when they heard the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation. And having received the mark of the promised Holy Spirit which Paul speaks of to the Ephesians in chapter one verse thirteen onwards! Maybe they're angry because they want to be god's of their own domain, but in their hearts can't escape the truth of an almighty God who loves them.

You know God is real. You know about his gift. Hopefully like an atheist you don't deny its reality! That your familiarity does not breed contempt like that of the atheist!

More likely though, your struggle and my struggle is apathy. With so many other things to occupy our interests today, we loose sight of the hidden glow of the One gift that should outshine all other gifts – God's glorious grace.

Does God's personal gift grace to you seem tarnished because of ignorance and lack of understanding? Maybe it's time to return to the place where in baptism we're told by Christ to be taught in his Word and to uphold why it is we need this gift of grace so much!

Does God's personal gift of grace to you seem cheap or nothing? Then now is the time to see how cheap your reality is. Will the stuff you value be enough to pay the price for your sin? This sin is the stuff God detests and won't allow in his holy presence! You know in your heart a cheap human reality just won't cut it!

Does your entry into church stir you conscience? Make you feel a little uneasy? Then perhaps there's something hidden in this building that seems as hot as hell in summer and as cold as ice in winter! That something golden and glorious dwells amongst these people whom so often seem to radiate these same temperatures as the church building!

It's right to think before God, we're not worth much. Because left to ourselves, our own will, our own understanding, our own efforts, and our own feelings, we are dust and to dust we shall return. Why? Because like the atheist we are sinful! Even before we did our first act of disobedience we were doomed to destruction and death.

It's not what we do as sinners. The fact of the matter is that we are sinners! Our being is sinful, and so we're bound to do sinful things sooner or later. If you think you haven't yet really sinned, good luck to you, mate, you will! In fact thinking this way is a sin, if we took the time to examine the reality of why we would think we haven't sinned!

One might think it's not all that good to come to church to hear this doom and gloom, since we live with so much of it in our day to day reality. But unless we see the reality of all the rubbish we gather around us that hinder and hides God's glorious gift of grace. We will never allow God to toss it out so we can experience the brilliance of his glorious gift of grace.

It's not so much about forgetting about our sinful nature and the sin that evolves from it. Nor is it about pushing sin aside as if it doesn't really matter. And it's definitely not about justifying sin copping out that God is a God of love, he won't hurt me. To a certain degree you're right. God won't hurt you! But what it's about is all of us need our sin dealt with!

However, if you forget, push aside, or justify your sinful nature, you will hurt yourself. Like the angry atheist who wishes for nothing, God's glorious grace will be gone, there will be nothing for you in death. You will suffer in yourself in the wrathful vacuum of hell. This is the realm where those exist tormented in eternity because God and his grace will be eternally absent forever.

So in knowing we are nothing, dust we are to dust we shall return, we are also called to know this: We are recipients of faith when we hear the truth – the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been predestined, chosen before the creation of the world according to God's pleasure and will, despite our not being worthy or worth anything in ourselves.

It's at about this time the gift of God's glorious grace begins to show off its hidden lustre. When you begin to realise how low you should be in God's sight but instead are seen as the most prized of God's possessions that God's glorious grace stands out a pack ahead of the rest — without a doubt it's the gift that's second to none!

Wow! You and I are the angry child. So often unappreciative of this wonderful gift! Ready to be rejected because of your attitude! Yet God picks you up as his child and forgives you, because he loves you, as if you were his one and only child. He holds you; you are his gift, because of God's glorious grace, having sacrificed Christ on the cross, his one and only Son, for you!

You and I are the baptismal praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. This One he loves is God the Son, Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the grave in all power over sin and death. This is God's glorious grace, this is gold!

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:4-8)

These riches lavished on you are gold. These riches are God's glorious grace! Remain in them, return to revere his redemption; flourish in his forgiveness! Because…

You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

You are God's golden possession, through the gift of God's glorious grace, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

B, Pentecost 5 Proper 9 - Mark 6:1-6 "Jesus at Home: The same and different"

2009-07-03T16:36:00.002+08:00

Text: Mark 6:1-6

1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3 Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offence at him. 4 Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honour." 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

Sermon

Do you want to be different or do you want to be the same?

When someone the same as you, claims to be different, do you feel offended? Or, on the other hand, what about when someone is different and they claim to be the same as you, aren't you tempted to treat them with contempt? To be different, or to be the same?

We all seek to be different and we all seek to be the same, such is the complexity of the human being. These opposites hit head-on in a crash of confusion mostly during the teenage years of our lives. We struggle for independence—we struggle to be different—cutting off our parents, authority, and our brothers and sisters. But the minute we are left out as different—treated differently—we grieve that we're not the same. How much time did we waste as teenagers trying to play keep-up with our peers, so that we looked the same? Those of you who are teenagers and young adults need know that your parents did the same thing too! We need to be the same as our friends, and if we're honest we need to be the same as our parents, even if it is a bit tacky and uncool! While we are different we strive to be the same; while we are the same we struggle to be different.

With the confusion of being different, but also the same, comes contempt and condemnation. After being so familiar with our surroundings on a day-to-day basis we get sick of normality and hate it, and are tempted to lust after what is different. Isn't it true that the closest people to us are those whom we hurt the most? We bite the hands that feed us, we scorn those who love us, and we reject the very things that are good for us. And when, or if, we wake up to ourselves after we've got what we've wished for, then we desire to be fed, to be loved, and to have the healthy things we fought so hard to rid from ourselves earlier. Such is the confusing quest to be different and to be the same!

Jesus certainly brought contempt and condemnation on himself when he came home during the course of his ministry. As he stood in the synagogue and spoke with authority, the locals were blown away by his wisdom. But hang on! He's only a carpenter, he's the same as us, yet he speaks as though he is different. So they rejected him and Jesus left the place amazed at their lack of faith.

But it wasn't just his fellow hometown citizens who took offence at him. Humanity was insulted at his coming. The authority of the Romans, the priesthood of the Sanhedrin, and the piety of the Pharisees, was thrown into confusion by the coming of God's own Son. Not only is he the same, he is a man and he is a Jew; but he is also different. He is different to us because he is God the Son, whom God the Father has sent to us to be the same. God the Son came to humanity, and made his home in the same flesh as us, amongst fellow human beings. Jesus Christ, the same but different.

So Jesus was different and he was the same. Sent to be the same as us, to know what it is like to suffer, to share the struggles of life with us, but ultimately to bear our life sentence of sin on the cross. He was the same as us, but different enough too! Different enough that he could "be" the same as us, but not "do" the same as us and sin. So in the sameness of the flesh he came to differentiate the sin from our sameness. And in doing so, he paid the price for being the same, he paid the price for being different, so we might be different, so we might be the same as him.

Jesus' rejection is similar to that of Dr Charles Richard Drew, a black doctor and scientist, who was killed in a car accident on April 1, 1950. Tragically his life might have been saved if the door hadn't been closed to him at the all-white hospital that had a blood bank. But he was denied help and died—at the age of 46.

The irony was that his research on "banked blood" had earlier contributed much to the plasma research and saved countless lives in that very hospital among others. But he was denied the benefits of his own discoveries—because he was "different" even though he was the "same".

Our Lord Jesus Christ was also engaged in "blood research". His life's blood has given new life to millions. Because of his donation, people will live forever. But he was rejected because he was "different" and because he was the "same".

Now that Jesus has perfected his "blood research" on the cross. He makes his home in you and me. The same Jesus that made you different in baptism and has been with you every day ever since, calls us to trust in him, and to allow ourselves to be transformed more and more to be like him, to be the same as him, and different from the world. Be careful not to treat Jesus' continual presence in you with contempt and condemnation, as he comes to the hometown of your heart! Don't lock him out and deny the benefits of his blood. It will eternally kill you if you do!

Jesus gives us himself in his word, and he gives us himself in familiar things so we might be continually made holy in him. These familiar things Jesus has put in place so we might be made the same as him. Rest in these familiar things; in the assurance of baptismal salvation, in the forgiving life-giving power of God's word — in the law and the gospel. Rest in peace as Christ enters you through ordinary bread and wine; his body and blood banked in you for forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

Rest in the sameness of Jesus; don't let your familiarity breed contempt and condemnation. Rest in Jesus; don't reject him in a bid to be the same as the world. Hold onto the things he has given you from the beginning, the things that make you the same, the things that call you to be different. Hold onto the same gospel of Jesus Christ, and the same means of receiving his gospel of grace. Pray that our pastors do the same too; that they preach the same gospel, and not one that is different. Receive only the gospel that makes us different through the sameness of Jesus; the gospel that makes us the same through the difference of our kinsman redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Jesus' family rejected him, and the people of his hometown took offence at his authority and presence. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit, don't allow Jesus to walk away from you amazed at your lack of faith. Don't deny the benefits of his blood; that's a hellish path to death! Rather believe Jesus is present in the familiar things that make us "truly" different, his Word and his forgiving presence in the mysteries of Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, and Holy Absolution.

Believe in the forgiveness of sins; the same forgiveness Jesus' own family found in Jesus' death. Let us also return to Jesus and honour him, as did Jesus' mother and family when they were turned from the faithless sameness of the world of flesh, back to the forgiving sameness of the Word made flesh, crucified on the cross, for them, for us, and for all people.

We are the same, we all struggle with faithlessness, with sinfulness, and this makes us different to Jesus. But we are the same, when we trust Jesus' forgiveness, despite our faithlessness and sinfulness, and this makes us very different to the world.

So now we might get treated as different; we might be treated with contempt and condemnation by the world. But we live in peace as we live in the familiarity of Jesus' forgiveness won on the cross, day in day out, unto eternity. Amen.

B, Pentecost 4 Proper 8 - Psalm 130:1-4 "A Deadly Serious Business"

2009-06-27T22:33:00.002+08:00

There were two men who became ill. The first man, Bob, took himself to the doctor after a couple of days of not getting better. When the doctor discovered Bob had pneumonia, he put him in hospital, administered antibiotics, and kept Bob under close medical supervision to make sure the drugs were working on the particular strain of pneumonia. Bob eventually made a full recovery at home faithfully taking the medicine prescribed by the doctor.

A second fellow was wheeled into the hospital too. Fred also had pneumonia, the same strain, yet he was on the verge of losing his life. Fred had spent a couple of weeks at home resisting the opportunity to go and see the doctor. Instead he got the latest advice from the internet and television news. He was sure he had the human swine flu — H1N1 Influenza 09.

Although he was as crook as he was, Fred had gone to the trouble of stealing some vials of vaccine and administering it to himself. Yet this only made his condition worse. Between the stress of stealing and misadministration of the wrong vaccine, Fred died a horrible helpless death. Fred's pneumonia became so critical that his whole respiratory system collapsed and his body was starved of the air. There was nothing much the doctors could do except what his life slip away!

Our health is serious business. Our bodies are susceptible to all types of illnesses these days. So many different things can go wrong with the human body. It seems new stains of viruses appear all the time. And no matter how vigilant one is, it's only a matter of time until one get's sick.

So let's say you get an illness; are you a Bob or a Fred? Are you a self-administrator, one who diagnoses and prescribes your own remedy? Or, are you one who goes to a doctor to get advice?

Now a self-administrator might get their diagnoses right some of the time, but they don't know everything there is to know about medicine. How do they really know they're helping themselves or making things worse?

But then again doctors don't know everything either! Yet they have been trained a certain way, to work through processes to narrow down and finally fix the problem, or at least help relieve the symptoms. If they don't know the answer they turn to the worldwide fraternal of medical minds to seek a solution.

People sought Jesus' help while he lived amongst humanity in the days leading up to his crucifixion. A synagogue ruler, an administrator of worship and responsibilities at the local Jewish gathering place, came to Jesus pleading for him to attend to his daughter who was dying. His name was Jairus.

So Jesus went to Jairus' house to heal his daughter who had since died. On hearing the she had died Jesus said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe!" (Mark 5:36)

What Jesus was saying was… don't fear death, instead fear me! Don't turn and give homage to death as are those mourning the death of your daughter, rather face me. Don't believe the power of death, believe be, commit yourself to the power of God! And in all power Jesus healed the little child with just two little Aramaic words, "Talitha koum!"

On his way to Jarius' house, a woman also came to Jesus seeking relief from a serious menstrual bleed which had gone on for twelve years. After seeing physician after physician all powerless to fix her body, remarkably she knew if she touched the corner of Jesus robe she would be healed.

Twelve torturous years of trouble treated with the touch of one's garment! Who'd believe that would work? But it did!

Jesus knew it did too! He felt the power of freedom leave him and give her instant relief from her bleeding. This woman knew his power of healing and fell at his feet in fear. She believed, and was healed; and her fear led her to come trembling before the one in whom she trusted. Therefore, Jesus sent her on her way commending the faith which gave her healing, fear, and trust. "Daughter", Jesus said, "your faith has headed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." (Mark 5:34)

If one's health is serious stuff, Jesus' power is even more serious.

This fear the woman felt was not the same as the fear Jesus told Jarius not to have, in that her fear led her to fall before Jesus in submission, knowing his power over her. After all, he was the one who healed her after twelve years, without prescribing an ointment or doing anything.

Whereas, Jarius seeing his dead daughter, like any parent seeing their lifeless child, would have caused him to fear death and come face to face with its known power!

Although Jesus healed these people of their sicknesses, he was sent to heal a greater sickness. You see, our human illnesses, like those Jesus healed the woman and Jairus' daughter, mask the true illness which led Christ to the cross! This is a sickness he seeks to take from you too.

This is the sickness of sin. Jesus' power has to be serious because your sin and my sin is an eternally serious business. In fact it is a deadly business! Your life hung in the balance.

So to where do we turn in this seriously life threatening state of being? Take note to whom the Psalmist turns!

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? (Psalm 130:1-3)

Out of the depths of sin the Psalmist seeks mercy from the Lord. He knows his sin and he knows its serious stuff. In fact, he knows its life threatening saying, "O Lord, if you kept a record of sins who could stand!

Your sinful being can't help but be a committer of sin. This is why Jarius' daughter died, why the woman suffered, and why you too suffer at times and someday will die. If you think sin is not serious, you're fooling yourself, it's deadly!

Sin is so serious no one would be able to stand in God's holy presence! Left to our own vices our sinful being is so shameful and septic not only would we fail to take a physical breath of air, and remain living ourselves, we would fail to exist before God.

Your sin, my sin, all sin, is completely contemptible before God! If Jesus needed nails to stand up under the weight of sin, what makes you think you can stand up under your own sin before God?

But the Psalmist continues, "But with you (Lord) there is forgiveness therefore you are feared." (Psalm 130:4)

When you and I are made to know our sin and it's eternally devastating deadly power, but also made to know the power of God and his forgiveness, that hung on the cross and comes through his word by the power of the Holy Spirit, then we fear God, knowing there is nothing else in all creation that we should fear.

So we return to Bob and Fred. But rather than comparing ourselves to their actions for the benefit of our physical health. Perhaps it's best if we ask the question of ourselves regarding our eternal health.

Do you diagnose yourself, your sinful actions, and your sinful nature? If you do, there's every chance you fear yourself, you believe in you, and you probably work very hard to fix yourself. If your being is eternally sick, surely your diagnosis and prescription will be sick too!

In fact, it will work out the same way as it did for Fred – fatally! Fred is dead because he killed himself by trusting himself with poor judgement. Judge before God, "Do you know what's good for you better than God does?"

On the other hand, there is Bob, convalescing at home, but he is alive. His airways are getting better, helped by the right diagnosis and prescription from the doctor.

Like Bob, know that your situation is serious, deadly serious. Let yourself be diagnosed by God, 'a sinner!' And know how bad it is! So bad sin causes death! But also know it caused Christ's death, he paid your price for sin. Sin is serious stuff!

But God's forgiveness is also serious stuff! Those who know how serious there sin is and therefore turn to God in fear, love and trust, also know God comes with holy healthy air in his Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So come seek his mercy! Know his ears are attentive to your cries for mercy! And he will continue to have mercy on you, eternally! Stand and continue to stand before the Lord, knowing that the record of your sin has been hung on the cross. God chooses to remember your sin no more!

Put your hope in the Lord because he is faithful to you in his unfailing love. His healing is eternal and complete, giving full redemption. For Jesus Christ, himself, is exchanging your sickness with faith, hope, love, and peace. So convalescing today you know someday soon you will be eternally freed from all suffering. Amen.

B, Pentecost 3 Proper 7 - 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 "Goliath Storms"

2009-06-19T16:46:00.002+08:00

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Remember this taunt from the schoolyard playground? The school yard bully or the little miss, with hands on hips and face screwed up hurling insults at you to win the war of words. Or perhaps it's the defence you used against your foe, at those times when life seemed to be a bit stormy.

We all have, and will, endure bad times, rough weather, stormy days or situations where we wish we'd stayed at home tucked up under a pile of blankets. However, once confronted with the onset of a storm — be it emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual — it's too late to retreat to the safety of a warm cosy place. One must decide what to do and respond quickly for any hope of a good outcome.

At the beginning of second Corinthians chapter six we hear, "As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

When confronted by storminess of life Paul tells the Corinthians, who are in the midst of grave troubles, that now is the time. Not tomorrow or later on, but NOW!

That's quite interesting considering most of the time when we're faced with the onset of a life storm we'd rather panic and cry out to God, "Woe is me! What have I done to deserve this?" Surely at times like this we might think, God has abandoned us, departed from us, and left us to be torn to pieces with words or worse. Perhaps there's even a chance our bones will be dashed to pieces with sticks and stones! But God tells us otherwise, saying, "Now! Today, in the midst of the storm, is the day of salvation!"

As the disciples set forth across the Sea of Galilee. They were plunged into a storm. The Sea of Galilee was renowned for ferocious weather blowing up out of nothing. And because the lake was relatively shallow the waves became quite treacherous to small craft like the disciples' fishing boats.

Now if we were in the position the disciples were in, I'm quite sure we'd have wished we didn't get out of bed that morning! The boat was being flogged! Water was spilling in at an alarming rate! The boat was sitting lower and lower. The waves were getting higher and higher. Yes! We'd all have to agree they were in a spot of bother!

Yet where is Jesus to be found? We're told… 'Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"' (Mark 4:38-41)

Jesus must have been a heavy sleeper! Anyone who has ever tried to sleep while being tossed around on rough seas, knows it's near impossible. Yet, Jesus is peacefully sleeping when the disciples wake him, not to be saved, but rather to prepare him for imminent destruction.

But destruction is not forthcoming. Jesus commands the wind and waves, "Be still! Be silent!" And they listened! Picture that! The sea became a tranquil pond, in an instant!

However, the storm continued to churn inside the disciples as they fearingly asked each other, "Who is this?" They didn't realise God was with them, sleeping in the boat. Although the storm threatened, salvation and peace were imminent, at the hand of the Prince of Peace.

Notice they didn't ask Jesus to save them! Rather they thought he was going down with them. After Jesus calmed the situation, he addressed there lack of faith by asking why they were so afraid. A better translation would be; why they were so cowardly or timid.

In Mark's account of Jesus stilling the storm he makes the point that the disciples were in greater fear of Jesus than the storm, after he calmed things down. The original Greek spells this out by saying they feared with a mega-fear leading them to ask, "Who is this?"

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Perhaps we might say in stormy situations like that of the disciples, "Wind and waves may break my boat but the peace of God will never hurt me!"

David the young shepherd boy had occasion for mega-fear as he took his solitary position on the battle line against the mega-man Goliath.

However, unlike the disciples in the eye of the storm, he displayed childlike faith in he who could save him. In fact, David out shone the entire Israelite army and King Saul, whom all shook with fear at the prospect of facing Goliath.

But Goliath underestimated his opponent. What he saw was a boy with a sling and stones, and he cursed his nerve for thinking he could match him. Yet Goliath failed to see God and the faith of his boyish servant David, who boldly promised to not only take out Goliath but the whole Philistine army.

David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands." (1 Samuel 17:45-47)

Here David stood against the archetypal bully, Goliath. And it's as if he taunts the Philistine, "Sticks and stoned may break my bones but the name of the Lord will forever hurt you!"

So it's with this confidence and trust in God… As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. (1 Samuel 17:48-50)

Knowing God's faithfulness David surged forward proclaiming by his actions, "I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation." Right there in the here and now of the threatening Philistine storm the hand of the hidden Lord revealed itself striking down Goliath and saving the Israelites.

In this story, David faces death on behalf of Saul and the Israelite army. This picture is a forerunner to Christ surging forward to fight death on behalf of us at the cross. And in the Lake Galilee storm, we can see ourselves and the church today tossed about like the disciples in the boat.

In both stormy situations Christ is present.

Because Christ is with us, and has already won the battle over sin and death at the cross, Jesus Christ promises us that every stormy day this side of eternal paradise is the time of God's favour; now, the present moment, is the day of salvation.

In this world we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. (Psalm 44:22) It might seem as though the church is sinking and Christ no longer cares! But the Good Shepherd has already entered the storm and won the battle for us.

It's time to wake up, open our eyes and see with faith he who is hidden in his church, rather than worry about the storms of life that come and go to test us.

Storms and strife may threaten my life, but trust in the Lord will never hurt me! Amen.

B, Pentecost 2 Proper 6 - 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 "Swallowed up by Life"

2009-06-12T14:09:00.005+08:00

Samuel, the last of the great Judges of Israel; also a prophet and priest of the Lord is sent by God to the house of Jesse to anoint a new king for Israel. Because of Saul's disobedience the favour of God had departed from him and so too did God's envoy and mouth piece, Samuel. Rather God had in mind to anoint a young harp playing shepherd boy, David, the son of Jesse.

But before God revealed David to Samuel, Jesse's other seven sons appeared before Samuel. When the first son appeared, Samuel, who was sent to hear God and carry out his will, thought this was the son God would choose.

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

And so after the seven sons appeared before Samuel, Jesse fetches David and God calls Samuel to anoint this meek youth with handsome soft features and a tender fresh face. Who would have thought this unassuming young boy would be the new king of Israel?

When we think of King David, we picture a man with great power, who had many military conquests and made Israel strong. However, David's origins were not as we would expect, the youngest son, relegated to living with the sheep in his father's fields. Yet from the moment Samuel poured the horn of oil on David's head, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. David was devoured with life from the Lord.

To be "swallowed up by life" is a phrase rarely heard today. One would expect to be swallowed up by death rather than life. To be swallowed up or devoured for us takes on negative connotations. But for this young boy David, he was swallowed up into a life of service under God. The life he was swallowed up into was a life of kingship.

As Christians we too have been devoured up by life. Salvation swallows us; we have been gulped up by God. Death once threatened to eternally destroy us but has now been destroyed itself. The death that would have devoured us has been devoured; it has been stripped of power and so too we have been devoured and stripped bare, only to be clothed in Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 5 we hear… Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Cor 5:1-8)

We Christians have had our mortality swallowed up by life. However, often we find ourselves seeking the clothes of mortality once again. We find ourselves in the midst of a tug-a-war between the desire to dress ourselves with possessions, success, wealth, acceptance, eternal youth and good looks, plus all the other things we see as advantageous, against the consummation of Christ and his robes of righteousness.

Our aspirations turn us to look at appearances, rather than seek what God seeks. Superficial things often lead us to seek regurgitation from the life that has swallowed us. Then we find ourselves clothed in all the things that are passing away leaving us standing naked before a God who is far from pleased with the nakedness of human sin.

When you see yourself craving worldly desires know that you are seeking to become naked before God once again. This is the way you once were! Surely it is better to remain swallowed by life, and covered with Christ. Therefore, confess your sin and hear God's word of forgiveness. His forgiveness is our assurance we have been clothed by Jesus' death and resurrection, and just as Jesus pleased the Father in heaven, we now stand confident in the God pleasing clothes of Christ.

We hear again from Paul… So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Cor 5:9-10)

Just like David the shepherd boy who was ordained as the Lord's king over Israel, you too have been ordained as kings. Swallowed up by God you now bear Christ to the world. You are servant kings under Christ the Servant King. You don't do the serving yourselves though however, but Jesus does it in you while you allow the Spirit to consume you into Christ.

But there is a warning for us too. David was not the first king of Israel. Saul too was chosen by God. Yet he grieved God by not doing what God had commanded him to do and God turned his back on him. We too can grieve God by not allowing his Holy Spirit to continue his work of consuming our mortality with the life won for us at the cross.

If you reject faith — that is, you refuse God's faithfulness and work to swallow your sinful nature, and seek to live by sight once again — you put yourself in a precarious place. If you refuse to have your mortality swallowed by life, you shall have your mortality and it will swallow you. If you seek to live by sight and not faith, God too will sight your naked sinfulness, and spew you out of his mouth forever.

This is not the case though for you who dwell in the Kingdom of God! You have been consumed by God. So let your mortality be continually swallowed up; hear and believe the forgiveness with which God clothes you in Christ.

You might feel irrelevant in this world just like the mustard seed that starts off so small and seemingly insignificant. But by the grace of God it grows into the largest of trees. Because of Christ you are already a king in his kingdom, he seemed small and insignificant in this world too, but when Christ returns as the supreme King of Creation, you too will see him as he is and you will be revealed as the king he has redeemed you to be. Amen.

B, Holy Trinity - The Athanasian Creed "We Believe"

2009-06-06T12:59:00.006+08:00

Moses stood on Mount Sinai three and a half thousand years ago and saw the burning bush. There he received God's command to go to Pharaoh and seek release of the Israelites. Understandably after Israel hadn't heard from God for four hundred years, Moses asks…

"Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. (Exodus 3:13-15)

In this generation God has given us his name, I AM. Our almighty God takes the simplest of names; he takes the name of a verb, the most basic of verbs in any language. The verb "AM" is from the verb "to be", and from it we get a family of verbs we use every day: be, am, are, is, was, were, been, and being.

Through the generations after God gave his name to Moses, people have been confessing their faith in the great "I AM". We as believers can use his name as a confession by saying, "HE WAS, HE IS, AND HE WILL BE!" In fact when we say what we believe, it is our creed. A creed is merely — what we believe. The word creed is from the Latin word credo which simply means to believe!

A "was, is, and will be" creed is very short and concise. Even more succinctly one can have a creed that states, "I believe". But one might ask, "What do you believe?" Therefore simple short creeds can confess one's faith in anything and can be open to misinterpretation.

Since the time of Moses, God has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So we confess God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who was, is and will be. In the church right from earliest of days people struggled with articulating what we believe about this three in one God. In the church we name this three the Trinity.

Gaining an understanding of the Trinity and how the three members co-exist is no easy feat. If we keep it at its most basic we might confess the Trinity "IS, WAS, and WILL BE". We might also confess the complexities of the Trinity as being, "One plus One plus One equals One". But because we humans are what we are, the church has had reason to defend what God was, is, and will be. And so today the one holy church has three ecumenical creeds!

The first of these creeds is the Apostles' Creed. Although named such it was not written by the Apostles although it is apostolic (therefore biblical and Christ centred) in its content. It emerged at the beginning of the third century, used in Rome as a baptismal creed. It still functions today as our baptismal creed, containing all the essential articles of the Christian faith necessary for salvation.

Then there is the Nicene Creed which more extensively explains what Jesus Christ, IS, WAS, and WILL BE; that he was, and is "eternally begotten from the Father". In it we also confess the Holy Spirit's being as "proceeding from the Father and the Son". The Nicene Creed in it's earliest form originated from the first ecumenical council at Nicaea in 325, and the form we still use today was approved by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople in 391. Traditionally we, the church, use this ecumenical statement of faith in services of Holy Communion.

Then the third and less known creed is the Athanasian Creed. It was not written by Athanasius but ascribes to where he and others stood against the heresy of Arianism. This is the heresy that Jesus Christ had an origin and therefore is not God as the Father is God. It is believed the Athanasian Creed was written in the second half of the fifth century by an Augustinian theologian.

Today the Athanasian Creed is usually only read on Trinity Sundays in the worship service. It is hard for one to get their head around it in one reading, it is deliberately repetitive to make its point, and statements at the beginning and the end prove to be a stumbling block without proper explanation.

However, in its length we thoroughly confess the Trinity's being and the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Let's hear the Athanasian Creed, keeping in mind that catholic means "the whole church seen and unseen gathered around the throne of God" and not Catholic with a capital "C" as in Roman Catholic.

(Whoever wants to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and inviolate will doubtless perish eternally.)

This (, however,) is the catholic faith: that we worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

For the person of the Father is one, that of the Son another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another, but the deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one - equal in glory, coequal in majesty.

What the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated; the Son is uncreated; the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is unlimited; the Son is unlimited; the Holy Spirit is unlimited. The Father is eternal; the Son is eternal; the Holy Spirit is eternal - and yet there are not three eternal beings but one who is eternal, just as there are not three uncreated or unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited. In the same way, the Father is almighty; the Son is almighty; the Holy Spirit is almighty - and yet there are not three almighty beings but one who is almighty.

Thus, the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God - and yet there are not three gods but one God. Thus, the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord - and yet there are not three lords, but one Lord. For just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct person is God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the catholic religion to say there are three gods or three lords.

The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten by anyone. The Son is from the Father alone, not made or created but begotten. The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, not made or created or begotten but proceeding. Therefore there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits. And in this Trinity none is before or after, greater or less than another, but all three persons are in themselves coeternal and coequal, so that (as has been stated above) in all things the Trinity in unity and the Unity in trinity must be worshipped. (Therefore, who wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.)

But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore it is the true faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at once God and a human being. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages, and a human being, born from the substance of his mother in this age. He is perfect God and a perfect human being, composed of a rational soul and human flesh. He is equal to the Father with respect to his divinity, less than the Father with respect to his humanity.

Although he is God and a human being, nevertheless he is not two but one Christ. However, he is one not by the changing of the divinity in the flesh but by the taking up of the humanity in God. Indeed, he is one not by a confusion of substance but by a unity of person. For, as the rational soul and the flesh are one human being, so God and the human being are one Christ.

He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose from the dead, ascended into the heavens, is seated at the right hand of the Father, from where he will come to judge the living and the dead. At his coming all human beings will rise with their bodies and will give an account of their own deeds. Those who have done good things will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil things into eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith (; a person cannot be saved without believing this firmly, and faithfully).

From this creed we begin to see how profound the Triune God was, is, and will continue to be. It is difficult for us to really understand the Trinity. But thankfully we do not have to understand but just believe. It will only be when we open our eyes to the unseen realm in eternity that we will fully understand. In fact then we will see God as he is, as he was, and as he will be.

But for now, we believe, and confess our belief, only by the grace of God. These three Creeds of the Church are not an institution's creeds, they are the people's creeds, they are your Creeds, they are your confessions of faith. They are the faith into which you have been baptised, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. His Triune name and the church's confessions of it are a gift to you from God and his church. Therefore, we worship in his holy name and receive Divine service in what we confess as the one true faith.

By remaining in Christ and confessing our sin we uphold our Creeds as true and do the things that are good. Therefore, hold onto the Creeds, struggle with them, confess them with your lips, and examine them against God's written word and see they are your confession of the Triune I AM who comes to us in his Word. Amen.

B, Pentecost Sunday - Romans 8:22-27 "Eager Expectation"

2009-05-30T12:17:00.004+08:00

Text – Romans 8:22-27

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8:22-27)

Sermon

Decay, degradation, decomposition, dilapidation, deprivation, deficiency, dispossession, disrepair and disorder – these are some of the things that cause suffering, pain, despair, despondency, depression and dejection.

There is something in everyone and everything which causes a continual breaking down. It might be the chilling cold of the winter onset affecting your bones, and your bodies; the lack of rain falling from the skies as you watch the bellies of your stock becoming more hollow with each passing day; the financial crisis taking a toll on your security for the future; or, the ever spreading threat of diseases and sicknesses, like bird flu, swine flu, or some other disaster that seems to pursue you. Everything in creation has something working against it, causing it to lament, to sigh, to cry out — causing it to groan.

But why do these things cause us to respond in such a way? Scripture tells us that it's not just us but the whole creation groans as it waits to be delivered from bondage, decay, and frustration just as one who struggles with the pains of childbirth. (Romans 8:19-22) If we take a look at our creation we see its pain too — more and more weeds, saltier soils, erosion, and deforestation to name a few of the many ecological disasters troubling our creation today.

In Romans we're told creation is waiting in eager expectation. Sometimes it's hard for us to wait with the same eager expectation when we experience the same old thing over and over again. The same weaknesses causing creation to suffer and us to suffer too! Be that as it may, what are you waiting for? What's your eager expectation?

Creation's eager expectation is for the sons of God to be revealed! Are you waiting for that too? Perhaps in your weakness there's the temptation to turn and be burdened by the seen reality of a world going crazy, a creation in chaos?

Then again, you might think life's good, it all going well. All this groaning and moaning is just negative nonsense. You might be eagerly expecting many good things in life, not concerned by anything too much. But in your daily happiness are you eagerly expecting Christ's return? Or are there a few things you'd like to do and see before God returns to reveal his children?

It is okay to have expectations and concerns in this life. However, when they become desperate or demand top billing and push our hopes of heaven aside, to second place, these earthly expectations and concerns are sin. And regardless of these earthly expectations being pleasant or bitter once they're revealed in us as sin, sin makes us groan!

Creation groans too, but it waits for our redemption. Why does it do so? Creation has been God's witness as humanity has plucked it in eager expectation from the tree of knowledge of good and evil time and time again. Creation was again God's witness when it opened its mouth to receive the blood of Abel. And today creation is God's witness every time we breathe contempt of others or eagerly spray spirited gossip into the air.

But that's not all! Creation knows it's Creator who made it from nothing except his word spoken in love. Creation also knows its Creator whose blood trickled down the wood of the cross and soaked the soil with redemption, and now creation waits for the Creator's return to finalise the faith of those who believe. And creation also bears the Spirit of God who hovers over the water and comes through the word of God revealing the hidden God of creation – God the Father, God the Son, and himself, God the Holy Spirit.

We celebrate Pentecost today! At the first Pentecost after Jesus' ascension, God sent the Spirit to walk beside us and counsel us in faith and hope. Although we so often eagerly expect everything in creation other than the Creator, God has eager expectations of you and me! He is faithful to all his baptised children willing us to come into Jesus' presence to receive and believe the redemption we have been given, as we continually have our sin forgiven.

The Holy Spirit's job is to bring us to Jesus. His work is to make the invisible visible through faith given when we hear the word (Romans 10:17). It is the Holy Spirit's task to put flesh on the Word of God, so the Son of God — the Word made flesh, is revealed in us. He also gives us hope in the day when Jesus will return and we see him as he is. Not only this! But he gives us eager expectation of what we will be, as we groan in the frustrations, bondage, decay, and weakness of our human suffering and sin.

When our weakness gets the better of us and we begin to eagerly expect creation more than the Creator himself, it's the Holy Spirit's mission to bring us back to Jesus. We like to have a picture of the Holy Spirit as one who always makes us happy but he who counsels us in God's will sometimes needs to give us a short swift kick refocusing us back on Christ.

Jesus says… When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11)

But the Holy Spirit will also comfort us in Christ too. If he didn't do this his conviction would surely drive us away from Jesus in remorse or lead us away by becoming pharisaic in justifying our sin. King David knew he needed the Holy Spirit's help when his sin was exposed.

He prayed… Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:10-12)

The Holy Spirit gives us a willing spirit, and this spirit bears the Spirit of Christ. With Jesus Christ en-fleshed in us we also bear the eager expectation of redemption and resurrection. Redemption, because Christ saved you at the cross by taking your place in death; and resurrection, because he was raised in all power over your sin and your death, so you too might eagerly await your resurrection into heaven.

Because the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son he speaks only what he hears from the Father and the Son. Therefore, he bears the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the truth of God that names what needs to be named in us.

Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-36)

So the Holy Spirit, names you a sinner, but a sinner whose sin has had its power removed by the Son who sets you free. Right now, you are being released from bondage, weakness, and frustration, even in the midst of decay and death. God has freed you so you can allow the light of Christ to dispel the darkness of sin within. God has freed you and now continually and faithfully sends the Holy Spirit to guide you and keep you in Christ. And you can wait in hope when on the last day the Holy Spirit will raise you and give you an eternal life of peace and joy.

And as we wait for Christ's return God's promise to you is this: "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' (Acts 2:17a & 21)

Amen.

B, Easter 7/Ascension - Luke 24:50-51, Acts 1:10-11 "Where and What is Heaven?"

2009-05-23T13:51:00.002+08:00

Texts

Luke 24:50-51 When Jesus had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.

Acts 1:10-11 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Sermon

Where is heaven? One would assume heaven is up there! But is it up there? We might picture heaven as a place where angels strum harps lying in white puffy clouds. But every time I've been in a jet flying through the clouds, I've never seen an angel! In fact to my recollection I've never heard of any tragedy where an angel, with its fairy wings, has been sucked through the jet engines of a jumbo doing seven-hundred kilometres per hour.

But the language of the bible speaks of heaven as a place to which a person has to travel upward to enter. Jesus was taken up; so was Elijah. In the creed we say, Jesus ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. Where did Jesus go? Where did the chariot drop off Elijah? When they ascended at what place did they stop?

In the New Testament the word used for heaven is the root Greek word meaning mountain. To go to the top of a mountain you have to go up; and entry into heaven is seen in the same sense – up is the way to heaven.

Mountains are important places in the ancient and biblical worlds. Think of the times when heavenly experiences happened on mountains. Moses on Mt Sinai in the cloud with God; pagan shrines built to gods on mountains, and the Israelites copying them when they worshipped Baal against the will of God. People even tried to build a mountain at Babel. Jesus, too, utilised mountains. He prayed up mountains, taught from mountains; he spent a significant period of his time on mountains during his earthly ministry. In ancient times mountains were where earth met heaven. Mountains were seen as the pillars which held up the sky and stopped it from crashing to the ground.

We can climb to the top of a mountain and have a mountain top experience—a heavenly experience—but is heaven there? We can fly in aircraft in the clouds but is heaven seen their either? In our technological age we send astronauts higher than the clouds and still no heavenly realm is to be seen there either; even further out into space unmanned ships are sent in search of signs of life, have they found the Son of God at the right hand of the Father? Maybe they haven't travelled out far enough! But even at the ends of infinite space would they find heaven? The answer is no!

It's easy to come to the conclusion that heaven doesn't exist because we can't find or see it. And so if it doesn't exist because we can't see it, then some conclude Jesus Christ the Son of God never really rose from the dead nor did he ascend into heaven.

In our age this hopeless notion is common. So if God or heaven doesn't seem to exist, in hopelessness we seek heaven as a concept of perception; heaven becomes a state of mind. The 'where is heaven?' question now is replaced by, 'what is heaven?'

One only has to turn on the radio or television to see how heaven is portrayed in music and the media. What is heaven? Heaven is a divine type of ice-cream, maybe a McCain Pizza, or maybe 'heaven is in your eyes, or in your heart' as music artists sing. In fact modern music hopes in a heaven, but sadly this heaven has more to do with the gratification of one's sexual desires. Heaven for many is an individualistic concept understood and bound in the realm of sensory experiences.

So what is heaven and where is it? In the church we struggle with these questions too. The way heaven is understood and perceived goes along way in explaining the differences between denominations within Christendom.

Many other churches go to great lengths to make their teachings logical and rational, defining heaven as a spatial location. So they claim Jesus is in that spatial heavenly place, and therefore, he cannot be in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, making the sacrament only a remembrance feast. That sounds logical. For them heaven is a precise location where Jesus is with the Father. Jesus and the Father are there and not here with us.

However, their logic is thrown into confusion with texts such as Matthew 1: 23 and 28:20 where Jesus is named Immanuel meaning "God with us", and where he says "I will be with you to the very end of the age". At this point one has to make a decision between 'logic and rationality' or 'the Word of God'. If Jesus is at the right hand of God in heaven then what does Jesus mean when he says, 'this is my body and this is my blood, given and shed for you'. As you can see there is a problem. Is Jesus with us or is he up there with the Father in heaven?

Jesus is with us, we know this is true because he said so. If he is with us and he is in heaven, then heaven must be with us. Perhaps the Kingdom of Heaven is nearer than most realise? So what is heaven? Is it just a concept; are we already living in heaven? After all God is everywhere!

The problems with these questions are the questions themselves. The 'what is' and 'where is' questions are questions of rational and logical minds. Heaven as a place or a location lasting for an eternity is a concept that opens up a Pandora's Box of questions. In fact heaven as a location in space is something that will never be proved by science or any other rational logical faculty.

However, when the questions are asked from the point of view of faith, then they take on a whole different perspective. You and I believe in heaven, not a heavenly meal or a heavenly interlude with the opposite member of sex. No! The heaven in which we believe is not born of the fruits of the flesh. Our belief in heaven is given to us in faith by the one who rules there. Heaven is where God is, it's a realm outside logic; it can't be found with the naked eye or reason. For the time being heaven and the King of Heaven are seen only through faith.

In the Nicene Creed we confess heaven and earth as places made by God; we also confess that he made all things visible and invisible. Heaven is invisible to our eye. It is not a place in the spatial sense. Nor is it revealed to us through our own efforts, understanding or senses. Jesus has ascended into heaven and he is hidden from our sight. Heaven too is hidden from our sight but only for now.

Jesus has ascended from our sight into the glorious reality around us, which our sinful eyes will not ever see. But right now we are called to see — through the eyes given by the Holy Spirit, the eyes of faith — ourselves made holy by the blood of Jesus, dressed in glorious royal white robes in the eternal presence of God.

Amen.

B, Easter 6 - John 15:9-11, 16: 16:22-24 "Joy-filled"

2009-05-16T10:15:00.004+08:00

Gilbert Keith Chesterton an English author, journalist and defender of the Christian faith, born 1874, and died 1936, in his work Orthodoxy said this: I was once an avowed atheist, who fought Christianity with all my might. There was a mystique about Jesus that no one understood and that was hidden from all people. It was something that was too great for God to show us when he walked this earth. Then as I studied and restudied the life of Jesus, I discovered the greatest secret he kept hidden from everyone was his great joy. Christianity without joy is a betrayal of the One we follow. We are a forgiven, redeemed people, who belong to the faithful flock on the way to heaven. We are people with great joy.

Chesterton's comments on Christ, the Christian community, and joy give us a springboard from which to ponder joy. What is joy? When one rejoices, what is one doing? To be joyful is to be in a certain state of being. What is being joyful?

Jesus tells us in John 15: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." (Jn 15:9-11)

We are a people of great joy, as Chesterton rightly believes, because we bear the joy of Christ. And his joy completes us, it fills us, his joy does something to us. In fact, Jesus is joy, Jesus is our joy!

To find out what our joy is and what it does in us, we first need to hear what Jesus' joy did and does in him. And so we hear from Hebrews 12…

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:2-4, 7-8, 10-11)

It can come as a bit of a surprise that we hear joy and endure the cross in the one verse. When we ponder the cross with all its horror, humiliation, and harrowing suffering it's difficult for us to hear of joy. But Jesus endured the cross for the sake of holiness, community, and the making and gathering of us as his holy community. And Jesus' joy produces a community where righteousness and peace is plentiful and complete.

At this point we must clarify that joy is very different to being happy. One can be happy in his or her self, but to be joyful or to rejoice one requires something from outside them to influence them. Therefore, joy always demands a community whereas being happy is an individualistic thing.

Our joy comes as a result of God and his actions, giving us the ability to stand or remain or be in community with him. Happiness vanishes into thin air when suffering arrives, but joy can and does endure suffering because joy comes from God and God remains connected to us despite our pain.

So we return to the word of God in John 15. Jesus' joy comes from his community with the Father. The Father loves Jesus, and although Jesus was born alienated from his heavenly community into the suffering of humanity he remained under his Heavenly Father's care. We know this because he constantly spoke about his Father and spent a great deal of his ministry seeking isolation to pray to him. Even when he was being alienated from his creation and the Father at the cross he still humbled himself before the Father as he was dying. We know this because he cried out: My God, my God, why are you forsaking me!

Not only was Jesus' ministry one in which he was in community with the Father, it was one in which he was in fellowship with the Holy Spirit too. When Jesus was baptised into his ministry where God the Father proclaimed, "This is my Son with whom I am well pleased", we know the Holy Spirit descended and settled on him. While Jesus was on earth he was constantly in a community of joy, and this community was the Holy Trinity.

Jesus' joy was mostly hidden here during his ministry. It was hidden as he dealt with us, individual sinful people. As he addressed our sin, calling it to account, and bore its ferocity, joy seemed as though it was fleeting. But Jesus was winning it back through his righteousness. This is why he endured the cross to make his joy complete and to make our joy complete too.

What Jesus did at the cross was the greatest act of love ever completed. When he said, "It is finished", he was saying love is fulfilled, this was his communal sacrifice both for his Father and for us, and because of this we now are joined in fellowship with the Father. Jesus' Father is now our Father. We are in community with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And also with Jesus Christ, risen from the death, who completes our joy having sentenced our eternal death to death through his death.

We are called to remain in this love: To uphold and preserve God and his word, just as Jesus did while he was on earth. We don't do this by ourselves as Jesus did, but we have his joy in us, because he lives in us, giving us peace with God the Father. And further more the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father and the Son to continually gather us into this community of joy and love.

So even while we're going though the deepest and darkest of days — we can do it with joy. Our joy is complete in Christ who has overpowered death by his death. We can look forward with hope and joy. We can face every day rejoicing in the peace of God as we remain in his word, despite the turmoil of sin in our lives.

We are called to remain rooted in Jesus our life-giving vine who says to us…

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (Jn 15:16)

And again he says in John 16, Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. (Jn 16:22-24)

Amen.