Funeral of Gwen Day (29-Nov-2010)

This sermon was preached at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Ivanhoe (12pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text (1 Corinthians 13:12)

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In preparing for today’s funeral, and talking over preparations, it seemed as though today’s funeral is almost a kind of a sequel. It’s the same family, the same church, the same pastor, same funeral company, same organist, and the same grave.

But there’s also a sense in which every death on this earth is another sequel from the last one. But each death is also so incredibly unique. Because each person is incredibly unique to each person.

And today I’ve decided to focus on a small verse, which is part of a reading that is usually read at weddings, but today is so suitable for a funeral. These are words which are incredibly mysterious, in the sense, that they bring us down to earth at a time of great joy and exuberance, but also give so much strength at a time of sorrow.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

One of the biggest differences between today’s funeral of Gwen, and Bill’s funeral in January, is that today there is no one here mourning their own marriage partner of more than half a century. Today’s a different occasion – it’s an occasion where now a chapter has closed in a family history. A new group of people are the oldest generation, and a new group of people are preparing to be the matriarchs and patriarchs of their own families.

And as we come here today to lay Gwen to rest, we remember that today is a day of thanksgiving. We thank our heavenly Father for the woman that Gwen was and what she was to all of us. We thank our heavenly Father for the mother she was, we thank God for the grandmother she was, we thank our heavenly Father for the friend she was.

We also come here to remember her as a woman whom Jesus Christ died for, a woman who was baptised into the Christian faith, by water and the Spirit, washed with the water and the word. We remember Jesus Christ who spoke his saving word to her, the same Jesus Christ who never lies.

Now Tania was a little bit naughty before – if you don’t mind me saying so – when she said that Gwen was “perfect”!! I was in America recently, and visited a town where there were Amish people, and apparently when they make quilts they always make sure there’s a mistake in it, because “only God is perfect.” Now I know that Tania was quoting her Dad, in a way – and I think there’s definitely some similarity to this and what Adam said when he first saw Eve: “This is at last flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone!” (At last, a brick who’s cut from the same stone!)

There’s also a sense in which when Christ speaks his words of salvation to us, all our flaws are covered up. And forgiveness and love are so closely connected, because when a person loves another, there almost seems no need for forgiveness. There’s an old expression that the greatest thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

That’s the way a man loves a woman. That’s the way Christ loves the church. Just in the way Jesus speaks about you, it was almost as if there were no need for forgiveness. Even at his last breath, stretching his arms upon the cross, all he can think of saying is: “Father forgive them.”

But also we come here today to remember the many blessings we received from Gwen, and to remember her good attributes and to take them on board. To those of you who are parents and particularly mothers, she taught you something. And God sent her to you so that you would learn from her.

But here we come back to our text:

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

In a sense, we often judge ourselves as people upon what we know. But that’s not the way God sees it. We only know in part. We only know other people in part. And we only know ourselves in part.

But God knows us fully. He knows who we are better than we can ever know ourselves.

There’s a verse in the book of Psalms, in Psalm 139, which says:

O Lord, you search me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar… Search me and know my heart, and see if there is any grievous way in me and lead me the way everlasting.

On this side of the grave, everything is only known dimly. We only know in part. As it says: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

What God speaks to you, what God says about you, is what makes you holy.

If we had to work this out ourselves, we would probably tell ourselves that we are the worst thing ever to walk on the planet. We know ourselves better than we know anyone else. And all the stuff we hear about self-esteem and believing in ourselves, is sometimes really only a way of covering up the shame we don’t want to admit.

We only know in part. We only see in a mirror dimly. And this darkened knowledge and this impaired vision is our lot – and for our whole life, we will only know God dimly, and we will only know him in part, in the same way that we only know ourselves in part.

Even marriage and family we only know here in part, and dimly. When people get married, they don’t take vows for eternity, but until death. This doesn’t mean that in the next life we won’t see our loved ones, but in some sense, it will be a more insignificant aspect of the whole thing. It will be more important that we are together in the presence of another, Jesus Christ, who has died and risen from the dead, and looks at us face to face.

Because God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life.

We could say in another way, Because “God knew the world fully, he sent his only Son, so that whoever is known by him will not forever look in a glass dimly and know in part but will know fully even as they were fully known.”

When a person loses their earthly life, someone always gains an earthly cross. And if we didn’t mourn her loss, then we wouldn’t be here. To say that we celebrate a person’s life is another way of saying, “I loved this person, and I miss them.”

And so Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” And trust me, says Jesus, “I know fully”, I know fully what it means to be human being, and I know fully what it means to be God who says what he means and means what he says. You, on the other hand, don’t know either of these things!

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Amen.

Lord God, our heavenly Father, we thank you for Gwen and all the many blessings we have received from her. Uphold us and strengthen us today as we take her to her final place of rest. Send us the Holy Spirit, your Spirit of comfort and of peace. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Advent 1 [Matthew 21:1-9] (28-Nov-2010)

This sermon was preached at St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text (Mt 21:1-9)

This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

Cu mɛmɛ tuɔɔk, kɛ ɣöö bi mëë ca lar ɛ gök a thuɔ̱k, mëë ɛ jɛn i̱, "La̱rɛ jɛ nya Dha-yɔn i̱, 'Nɛnɛ kuääru min di̱i̱t a bëë kä ji̱ ni, kɔ̱c lɔcdɛ, kä ko̱tdɛ jɔk muɔ̱l, kɛnɛ ruathdɛ.'"

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

 In Genesis 41, we read about how Joseph was in prison, and the Pharoah, the king of Egypt sent for him because he was having bad dreams: nightmares, if you like. Joseph was well known as someone who was able to interpret dreams, so Pharoah sent for him and told him his dreams. He says:

“In my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. Seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”

 Then Joseph said, “The dreams of Pharoah are one; God has revealed to Pharoah what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. It is as I told Pharoah; God has shown to Pharoah what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.

Did you miss that last sentence? Let me read it to you again.

The doubling of Pharoah’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.

God does things in twos. He gives two dreams. And he does this so that Pharoah will be doubly sure, so that he will have no reason to doubt that the thing is fixed, it is sure, it is certain, it stands. Two dreams – one message – doubly sure.

And it’s a mysterious thing how all throughout the bible, God does things in twos. He has an Old and a New Testament. We have prophets and evangelists. And we have two messages in Christianity, one word which kills you, one word which uncovers your sin and lays you bare, and another word which makes you alive, and forgives your sin. We call this the “law” and the “gospel.”

And today in our reading we have two animals: a donkey and a colt.

We read in the gospel for today:

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and he will send them at once.”

Two animals: a donkey and its colt. A mother donkey and a baby donkey.

Jesus does things in twos!

Now you may be thinking at this point in the sermon, what far-fetched connection am I trying to make with this donkey and its baby? Are these two animals really so important?

Of course they are! They’re almost the most important part of this passage! (Apart from Jesus himself, of course!...) Because Matthew writes in his gospel: “All this took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet.”

Yes, folks! All of it! All of these little details took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet. And what did the prophet say?

Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt!”

(By the way, this is where the word “Advent” comes from. Advent means “coming”. Behold, your king is coming to you…)

Now Jesus could have said to the disciples that in a certain village there’s a donkey – but maybe there were all sorts of donkeys around the place. Donkeys would have been reasonably common in those times. But we read that the disciples were to go and find a donkey with a colt: a mother donkey and a baby donkey.

Because Jesus wanted the disciples to be doubly sure!

First of all, look how Jesus knew ahead of time that there was in fact a donkey there. And he told them ahead of time that if they said to anyone, “The Lord needs them”, then they would give the donkeys to them.

And not only was there a single donkey, but two donkeys: a mother and a baby, because Jesus wanted them to be absolutely positive, crystal clear, doubly sure that Yes! He is fulfilling the words of the prophet right now! He is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords who is making his entrance into Jerusalem right now! He is the true king of Israel! He is the true King of the Jews!

Behold! Your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey – (and to make you doubly sure!) – and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

And now, as we prepare for a new church year, on this First Sunday of Advent (the first Sunday of the Church Year) we are going to notice that Jesus is going to do things in twos.

He is going to show you that he is true God and true man.

He is going to send a star to the wise men and angels to the shepherds.

He is going to die on a cross for you because he loves his Father and because he loves the whole world.

He is going to convict you of your sin and he is going to forgive you for it.

He is going to wound and he is going to heal the brokenhearted.

He is going to speak to his people on the earth and they will say “Amen.”

It’s serious business as we start a new church year: a church year where God wants you to be doubly sure of his promises to you.

But also he comes into Jerusalem on a donkey and colt to make you doubly sure of what sort of a king he is. The prophet also tells us this:

Behold, your king is coming to you, humble…

Humble! He doesn’t come with force. He doesn’t come with a great army. He comes on a donkey with a baby donkey following close behind.

Think about Jesus humility. Think for a moment about how Jesus is humble.

He could have just come into the world and fixed everything straight away, but if he did that he would have to force everyone to follow him.

Instead he invites people. “Follow me”, he says to people.

There’s no force, there’s no coercion. It’s all invitation, it’s all humble, it’s all gentle.

He truly and earnestly desires that all people be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, as it says in 1 Timothy.

And if he’s going to do that, he has to be humble, to be gentle, so that he can win us over.

Think about it: we have about 30 years of Jesus’ life, where we don’t even know what he was doing all that much. He was growing up into a man, learning a trade, and waiting. There was no rush, no force. Only humility.

And for us sinners, we always want everything right here and now. But that’s not what Jesus commands us.

We want our works to be perfect now. But Jesus says, “No—in the mean time I will forgive you, but you have to wait until you will be free from sin.”

We want the church to be bigger and better. And Jesus says, “My church is already bigger than you can even imagine, and I want to you be faithful in me.”

We want suffering to end. We want wars to end. We want disease to end.

And Jesus says, “I want you to pray. I don’t want prayer to end.”

There was a great Lutheran pastor in the 20^th century by the name of Hermann Sasse who once wrote: “The sect cannot wait; it must have everything at once, for it has no future. The church can wait, for it does have a future. We Lutherans should think of that.”

Everything in you which is impatient, mean, envious, boastful, arrogant and rude, everything in you which wants to have its own way, everything in you that is irritable and resentful, your king comes to you, and he condemns.

And if we are honest, we all stand under the judgment of our king who comes to us.

And he does come to us, and this is a frightening thing – a scary thing, when we know who it is who has come to us, who it is in whose presence we are standing, who it is who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, and who it is who at the first Christmas was born as the tiniest of babies in a stable in Bethlehem.

And so we read those beautiful words: Behold, your king comes to you, humble! Gentle! Riding on a donkey and a colt.

Take notice how Jesus is working in twos.

He rides on a donkey and a colt.

The Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Zechariah to speak this prophecy, and Jesus comes now and fulfils it.

He speaks his holy word to you into your ears and he lets you see his sacraments (these modern day miracles) before your eyes.

When he baptises you, he speaks his words and he washes you in water.

He uses bread and wine. He gives you his body and his blood.

And in these things there is no force, no judgment, only grace, only a humble king, only pure love which is patient and kind, and which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

And as he comes into the midst of his church we sing just as the crowd did, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

And Jesus, the Lamb of God, who endures all things, and bears all things, including the sin of the whole world, and your sin, did go to Jerusalem those many years ago. He did fulfill the words of the prophet, and he did die on the cross for you and rise from the dead for you.

And at Christmas time, he did come as a humble king, born in Bethelehem, the king’s city, King David’s own city, as a tiny baby.

And he does send you the Holy Spirit through his own words in the Holy Scriptures (the Bible) spoken and preached in this church today. He does in fact breathe upon you the forgiveness of your sins, and gives you every good and perfect gift which you need in your everyday lives. And at the end of the world he will raise you from the dead and he will bless you with eternal life, which he has already begun to give to you now. He will open the book of life and find your name written in it.

All this takes place Sunday after Sunday to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank you for the coming of your Son into the world, and we thank you for the blessing of this new church year, and this Advent season. Send us your Holy Spirit, so that we may be strengthened as citizens of Jesus Christ’s own heavenly kingdom, and may prepare to celebrate his birth on earth as a baby at Christmas this year. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. 

Last Sunday Year C [Luke 19:11-27] (21-Nov-2010)

This sermon was preached at St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text (Lk 19:11-27)

The first came before him, saying, “Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.” And he said to him, “Well done, good servant!”

Cu ram in nhiam ben nhiamdɛ, wëë i̱, 'Kuäär, yiëëth dääpädu cɛ yio̱w da̱ŋ wäl nööŋ.' Kä cuɛ jɛ jiök i̱, 'Gɔaaɛ ɛlɔ̱ŋ. Ɛ ji̱n läät mi gɔaa.'

Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well. Amen.

There was an American pastor in the 20^th century who described the message of the modern church as talking about “God without wrath bringing men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

What do you think?

Here we are on the Last Sunday of the church year, which is normally a day on the church calendar where we commemorate the end of time and the final judgment. And to be honest with you, it’s a topic that we trendy forward-thinking Christians of modern times tend not to get too excited about. Why? Probably because we don’t really believe that it will happen.

But in our reading today, we notice the words of the nobleman to the third servant: “I will judge you…” In fact, the words are “I will judge you with your own words”, or more literally, “I will judge you out of your own mouth.”

But at the beginning of the bible we read the words, which we all know well, and which we say in the creed every Sunday: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The heavens and the earth were not always there, but God was. And the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

There was a time when there was no heaven and earth. And when God is done with the earth, the universe, and everything in it, He will bring it to an end, just as in the same way he gave it a beginning. In the beginning he separated light from darkness, night from day – at the end he will separate sheep from goats, good from evil, faithful from unfaithful.

And in our gospel reading today, we see that Jesus pictures himself as a nobleman. And we read that this nobleman calls 10 servants together, and gives them each 10 minas. A “mina” (or in the older translations of the bible “a pound”) was about 3 months wages for a labourer. Quite a lot of money! In today’s money, it would amount to maybe about 7 or $8000. And when he returns we read:

The first [servant] came before him, saying, “Lord your mina has made ten minas more.” And [the nobleman] said, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.” And the second came, saying, “Lord your mina has made five minas”. And he said to him, “And you are to be over five cities.” Then another came, saying, “Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.” He said to him, “I will [judge] you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?” And he said to those who stood by, “Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten minas.”

These are sobering words. And I want you to focus on these words which the man speaks, “For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man.”

It can also be easy for many of us to treat Jesus like this, and to pray the prayer in our heart, “Jesus, I am afraid of you, because you are a severe man.” You’re tough! You’re stingy!

Have you ever thought, I won’t ask Jesus for what I need, because he probably won’t give it to me anyway? He never listened to me before, so why should he listen to me now? He’s never helped me before, so why now? Why bother? Why try?

Have you ever thought like this? It’s very easy to get cynical like this if sometimes we don’t see the answer to our prayers immediately. It’s easy to turn the God who reveals himself to us in the bible as “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” into a selfish, aloof tyrant, who enjoys to see people suffer.

Well this isn’t true. He’s not that sort of God. But it’s in the devil’s best interest to make us think that he’s that sort of God. Because when we think God’s a tyrant, we won’t touch him with a barge pole. We won’t go near him. We’ll go as far away from him as possible and hide our mina in a handkerchief, in a dirty old rag, in some old burial cloths.

The way we think about God impacts how we relate to him. It’s common for people to talk about “your relationship with God” or “your relationship with Jesus”. And I usually avoid using language like this, because it gives the impression that it’s all up to “you”. All the emphasis is put on the quality of “your” devotion, “your” prayers, “your” dedication to God.

And then there are some people who, no matter how hard they try, can’t seem to achieve this relationship with God that everyone else seems to be speaking of. And most often they are not “bad Christians”. They are often people who come to church regularly, and pray and read the bible, and still they feel such an isolation. And they get cross with God because he doesn’t seem to be doing anything. He doesn’t seem to be doing his job! He’s not filling in his paper work for us!

These people are often very honest – and take God very seriously. But they say, “Lord Jesus, I am afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.”

And then, amid all their frustration, all they hear in return is God in his anger, saying to them, “I will judge you with your own words, you wicked servant!”

Perhaps you too feel like this. If you do, it is a good sign, because it means that God has allowed you to know that you are a sinner. And the only person who lets you know this is the Holy Spirit – the devil doesn’t want you to know, or else he wants you to perceive it to such an extent that you think that there can’t possibly be any forgiveness for you.

But listen to these verses from Psalm 18:

“With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.  For your save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.”

Listen to those words again. “With the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.” Notice how in our parable today, the “wicked servant” makes his master out to be a harsh man. And so the master says to him, “You want a harsh man, you’ve got one! I’ll be harsh if you want me to be.”

It’s funny, to my ears, the wicked servant doesn’t seem to me to be so evil, but rather he’s full of self-pity. He makes his excuse by saying, “I was afraid of you”. He says, “It’s not my fault I didn’t do anything with your money. It’s your fault – you’re the one who’s a harsh man.”

But notice the first man who comes to his master and says, “Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.”

Notice he doesn’t say, “My mina” but “your mina has made ten minas”.

The mina belongs to the Lord. And as it says in Psalm 18, “it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.” It is the Lord who gives, and the Lord who takes away. The mina belongs to him. Psalm 115 says: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.”

“Your mina has made ten minas.”

It is easy for us to think of these different servants as ones who worked harder than each other. And there’s an aspect to this in the command which the master gave his servants, “Do business until come”. “Work!” “Here’s some money! Do something with it!”

But the focus for us should be on how the different servants viewed their master. The one who was judged simply thought that he was a harsh man, a severe man, a hard task-master, a tyrant, a cruel despot!

The servant who thought like this, couldn’t do anything, because he was paralysed. He’d given up before he started. And by doing this, he flatly refused to do what his master asked of him. He simply refused! No, I’m not going to do business! I’m going to sulk instead!

But look around you this morning in this church and see what’s happening! The Lord who made heaven and earth has sent his Son into the world to forgive your sins. And your sins are forgiven again today through the ministry of the church here in this church service! You have been baptised into Christ, so that it is no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you. And the fact that Christ lives in you means that he constantly takes all your sin, and covers it with his blood, and forgives you for it. And then he gives you the gift of his gospel – the words of grace which are poured out on you in the church! And not only that, he gives you the body and blood of his Son Jesus Christ for you to eat and drink!

It isn’t your gifts to God that are the main focus of our worship. But it is God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who gives his gifts to you! They are his minas. The important thing for us is not to reject the gifts and hinder their power. But simply to put out our hands and receive them.

God has sent his Son to die for you, because (as it says in John 3:16) he “so loved the world”. He’s not a severe man. He doesn’t take what he didn’t deposit and reap where he did not sow.

He’s the God who made you, and formed you while you were in your mother’s womb. He’s the God who sent his Son, our Lord and God, Jesus to suffer and die on the cross, and to rise from the dead for you. And he’s the God who has washed us with the water and the Word in Holy Baptism, who richly and daily forgives all our sins, and who lays out and prepares for us the Holy Supper of the body and blood of Christ.

On this Sunday, where we commemorate the final judgment, and we come to remember and think about this parable about the judgment of God, don’t forget that in the church and in this house of prayer today, the final judgment is given to us ahead of time: Forgiven, forgiven, forgiven. The pastor doesn’t say, “Upon your confession, I will condemn you according your own words, wicked servant”, but “upon your confession, I as a called and ordained servant of the word announce the grace of God to all of you.”

Because if we didn’t have these words spoken and breathed upon us, we would have no right to sing the songs of angels and to join in with them: Glory to God in the highest, and Holy, Holy, Holy.

But in fact, God does forgive you for the sake of Jesus Christ his only Son, and he wants you to know again and again that he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

So you have nothing to fear.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that we have not lived as we should, or as we would have liked, and as you would have liked. But we thank you that you have suffered, died and risen again from the dead for us, and won for us the forgiveness of all our sin. Send us the Holy Spirit today and bless us in everything we do. Amen.

Pentecost 20 Year C [Luke 17:11-19] (10-Oct-2010)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Traralgon (10am, layreading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Yarram (2pm) and St John's Lutheran Church Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text (Lk 17:11-19)

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Our gospel reading today seems to be simple enough to understand. There are ten lepers, who cry out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. And when they were healed, only one of them turned back and gave glory to God. And not only that, but the man was a Samaritan.

And we can easily look at this passage as one about thankfulness. And I think this is right. We so often receive so many gifts from God, and most of the time most people don’t think to thank him for them.

But I’d like to focus on two words in the reading today: the first one is mercy. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

And the second word is glory. Jesus says, “Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?”

Mercy and glory. In a sense, our whole existence as Christians focuses around these two things. We ask God for mercy, and give glory to God. But also we show mercy to others. And Jesus says, “They will see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

In the first place, we might expect people to give glory to us. But the works didn’t belong to us in the first place. St Paul says that our good works “were prepared by God for us to do”, and that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

But back to these two little prayers: “Lord, have mercy”. And “Glory to God.”

And you’ll notice that regularly in our church service we have two prayers just like this next to each other. First we sing, “Lord have mercy” and then we sing “Glory to God in the highest”. And in our reading they are also both together. First the lepers say “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”, and then the one leper returns to “give glory” to God.

We read in our reading today: “On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance, and lifted up their voices saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

The expression “Lord, have mercy” or “Master, have mercy on us” was not first of all a religious phrase. Instead, it was what beggars would have said if they wanted something from a person who passed by. Even today, apparently, in many countries where there are a lot of beggars, there are many of them who still use this turn of phrase, “Lord, have mercy.”

I remember there was a man at my home congregation at Magill in Adelaide, whom I had a discussion once with about the words “Lord have mercy” in the words of the liturgy, in the church service. And he said, “Why is it that we confess our sins to God, and receive the forgiveness of sins, and then we ask God for mercy again?” And I’ve often thought about this.

Sometimes the words “Lord have mercy” mean “Lord forgive me”. But actually, much more than that, they mean “Lord help me”. And everything we have in life, and everything we receive in church comes from God’s mercy. God’s the one who gives things to us. And we are beggars, sticking out our hands, waiting for God to walk past and fill them.

So when we come to church, and we say, “Lord, have mercy” we take our place on the side of the road, and say, “Lord we are beggars, help us.” In fact, Martin Luther’s last words were “We are beggars, that’s for sure.”

Who knows actually whether the ten lepers knew that Jesus was able to heal them from their leprosy? Maybe they thought that he could help them in some way, but did they really expect to be healed?

Who knows. Anyway, they were healed and their prayers were answered.

When we come and say, “Lord have mercy” we put ourselves into God’s hands. And when we open our hands to God, and say, “Lord have mercy”, who knows what he might do? We might say to God, I want this part of my life fixed, and this part, but he wants to heal you totally and thoroughly. We might want one little sin forgiven, but he will forgive the whole lot. We might want one little temptation taken away, but instead of taking it away, he wants to lead us through it and give us a victory over it. Did the Virgin Mary expect Jesus to turn the water into wine when she said to the servants, “Do whatever he says”? Probably not. Did the lepers expect a complete healing from their disease? Maybe not. Who knows what our risen Lord Jesus can do when we put ourselves in his hands and say, “Lord have mercy”?

But there’s this other word in our reading which if you blink, you miss it. This word is “glory”.

First of all, we read: “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Now in my translation of the bible, it reads that the man “praised God” and “gave praise to God”, but in Greek it actually says, “he was glorifying God” and he “gave glory to God”.

So what does this mean?

In the Bible there are a number of expressions like this which have a very strange meaning in English. For example, what does it mean “Bless the Lord, o my soul”? Hang on a minute, you might say – I thought God blessed us! Why are we saying, “Bless the Lord”?

When we say, “Bless the Lord” we are saying that all blessing, and every blessing comes from the Lord. That’s what it means “Bless the Lord”.

When we say, “Glory to God” we are saying that all glory belongs to God. When the leper glorifies God, it means that he acknowledged that God was where this great glory came from.

But what does it mean, glory? Does it simply mean, praise, and honour?

In the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, we read about how Moses asked to see the glory of God. And when Moses asks this, he is asking to see the fullness of God’s majesty.

We read: “Moses said, “Please show me your glory”. And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name “The LORD”. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Moses asks to see the glory of God, but he is not allowed to see God’s face.

Also, at the end of the book of Exodus, when all the Israelites had built the temple for God, we read, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

Now one thing, which is really strange. In the Old Testament, there are no psalms or prayers which say, “Glory to God”. There are plenty of “Praise the Lord”s and “Bless the Lord, o my soul”s but no “Glory to God”s.

It seems as though the first time this was said, was when the angels came down from heaven to the shepherds in the fields, and said, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased.”

And another thing, it seems as though in early Christian worship, this was one thing that was quite distinctive. Christians sang lots of songs, saying “Glory to God”. But the Jews did not.

And still today, we have a lot of expressions like this in our service. And we almost don’t notice it. But first of all, we say, “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now, and will be forever more. Amen.” Then we have “Glory to God in the highest,” and later on in the same song we say, “we give thanks to you for your great glory” and then we say, “You alone, O Christ, with the Holy Spirit are most high in the glory of God the Father”. Then when we read the gospel, we say, “Glory to you, O Lord.” And then we sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth and full of your glory.” And at the end of the Lord’s prayer we say, “The Kingdom and the Power and Glory are yours.”

What’s so Christian about all this? What’s so distinctive about Christians saying “Glory” all the time?

Well, those 10 lepers, when Jesus turned and looked at them, and healed them from the leprosy, when they saw the face of Jesus, they saw the glory of God, which even Moses wasn’t allowed to see. And there was only one of them that recognised it. And he didn’t just go back to Jesus to thank him. He went back to him to say, “I know that you are God.” It’s just as when Thomas knelt before Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God”.

We read that the leper glorified God with a loud voice. And how do you think that he gave glory to God? Did he look up at the sky, and say thanks to God? No. Let’s read what it says. “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.”

And instead of sending him back to the temple, to show the priests, he sends him on his way, and says, “Your faith has made you well.”

You don’t need the glory of the Lord at the temple. You’ve got the glory of the Lord in my human body, says Jesus. And there was only one man who noticed it. There was only one man who saw it.

St Paul says, “The fullness of God dwelt in Christ bodily.” Jesus is the temple of the living God. We read in John: Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

So as you sit in church, notice all the times where it says “glory.” Because when we glorify God, and sing Glory to God, we are saying to Jesus, “We know that you are risen from the dead. And we know that you are standing among us. We know that you have washed our sins away in holy baptism. We know that you, Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, were crucified on the cross for us, and that now you are here standing among us, to breath out the Holy Spirit on us through the forgiveness of sins, and to feed us with your holy and precious blood.”

All of these things, we recognise only through the Word of God. The sheep hear Jesus voice. And if the lepers were healed when they said those powerful and dangerous words, “Lord have mercy”, anyone would think that we are standing in heaven itself when we say, “Glory to God in the highest”.

But then St Paul does say that our “citizenship is in heaven”. And he also says that “we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places”.

So come on, you bunch of beggars, lepers, and schleppers, it’s time to take our stand in the presence of God like we do every week, and say, “Lord, have mercy” and “Glory to God in the highest.” We are beggars, and we are sing with the angels. We are sinners and we are saints. We are dead in our sins, but we are forgiven. We are wasting away every day, but putting on immortality every day. We are fighting with the devil, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s why St John says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, king of glory, you were crucified for us and you have risen from the dead for us. Bless us with your Holy Spirit this day, as we recognise you standing in our midst, healing our wounds and forgiving our sins. Lord, have mercy! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Amen.