Epiphany 4 (30-Jan-2011)

The following sermon was read by lay-readers at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), and at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am), by Pastor William Cwirla.


www.htlcms.org/sermons/print/wake_up_jesus_were_drowing/

Epiphany 3 [Matthew 8:1-13] (23-Jan-2011)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am, lay-reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am), 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 (Matthew 8:1-13):

Go, let it be done for you as you have believed.

Wër, ba jɛ lät kä ji̱ ce̱tkɛ min ci ŋäth.

Prayer: O Lord, open my lips, that our mouths may tell of your praise. Amen.

Do you believe in miracles?

Do you believe that a miracle has ever happened to you?

Many people don’t believe in miracles, until they really want one. They don’t believe that there’s anything else that can be done, so they pray for a miracle. It’s their last resort, if you like!

It’s a bit like people who are atheists, who when a situation becomes really bad, and they become really desperate, then they pray to God!

But believing in miracles is not the same thing as believing the Christian faith. There are many people who are saved, and have the saving faith which God requires, who don’t necessarily believe in miracles, or all miracles.

Sometimes you hear people say, “I suppose all we can do now is pray for a miracle.” When someone says this, often this means that they don’t believe that a miracle will happen. This is what people say when they mean, “I’ve given up. There’s no more hope.”

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In our reading today, we hear about two miracles. One where a leper comes to Jesus to be made clean. And the other is a centurion who asks Jesus to heal his servant, who is paralysed.

One man says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

The centurion says, “Lord, I am not worthy to have come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.

Let’s have a look at the first man.

He says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

What do you notice when you hear this little prayer? What strikes you as the most important thing?

Perhaps the words “if you will” stand out.

Maybe you have said at one point in your life, or someone has said to you, that something is “the Lord’s will.”

What do people mean when they say this?

What does it mean if someone who is very sick says, “It’s God’s will whether I live or die”? What does this mean?

Saying that something is God’s will does not mean we are leaving something to chance! We’re not leaving something to fate!

Often if something bad happens to a you, you might say, “It’s God’s will.” But always ask yourself then, what sort of a god do you have? A god that is angry with you and wants to punish you? A god that enjoys making people suffer? A god that thinks its fun to leave people in pain?

If this is the god you worship, then saying something is “God’s will” always means that he wants to make you suffer.

But of course, God the Father, or God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit have no desire to make people suffer. If God enjoyed seeing people suffer, he would be a tyrant, a monster. He would be evil.

But in Hebrews we read: “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”

Just like parents have to tell off their children sometimes so that they don’t hurt themselves or do the wrong thing, in the same way, our heavenly Father sends us some suffering to make us more like himself.

Hebrews also says: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Now have a look at our two sick people in our reading today: one is a leper, he is suffering from a terrible skin disease, he is cut off from his friends and family and from the whole community. And also we have a servant who can’t walk.

Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

What a prayer! The man doesn’t treat Jesus as a stingy old man. He doesn’t say, “If you want to, but you probably won’t.”

Jesus isn’t stingy – and he’s happy to give his gifts. He says, “I will. Be clean.”

If you will, you can make me clean. You can make! You can make all things new, in the same way that you made the whole world!

And Jesus also invites you to ask the same thing. If you are sick, he wants you to ask for healing.  If you are unclean, he wants you to ask to be cleaned up. If you have been abused, he wants you to ask him for peace. If you are caught in sin, he wants you to ask him to remove it. If you find yourself sinning continuously, and doing the same thing over and over again, and making you hate yourself, he wants you to ask him to bring it to an end.

And if he did heal you of your sickness, or if he did give to you what you needed and what you asked for, it would be a great miracle!

Jesus has the power to make you clean. And he will. And he wants you to ask him.

And listen to the second prayer:

“Lord, I am not worthy to have come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.

Listen to what this centurion says: “Only say the word.” Give the command! Just speak! – and my servant will be healed.

You are the boss, Jesus! Says the centurion. I know what it’s like to be bossed around, and I know what it’s like to boss people around. So if you tell the paralysis to tick off, if you boss around the paralysis, it will do what you say.

The centurion knows that Jesus is in charge of all sickness and disability. He knows that if Jesus tells the sickness and the disability what to do, it will do it.

Now sometimes we know that Jesus doesn’t always give us what we want. That doesn’t mean that he hasn’t heard you. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love you. It just might mean that it’s not what you need, and what he believes you need.

But it’s not your business for you to decide what you need. If you are sick, ask for healing. If you are suffering, ask for relief. If you are unclean, ask for a clean up. Because a miracle might be given to you.

It’s not your business for you to decide what you need. It’s your business to ask for it. And if you need it, it will be given. And God is a “God of encouragement” as St Paul says. He wants to encourage you, and he doesn’t give you so much temptation that you can’t bear it, but he always provides a way of escape, so that you can keep on going.

Your heart is full of sin. In fact, your heart is so full of sin, that everything you ask for in prayer will be tainted. Everything you ask for will be asked for with the wrong motive. Don’t let that put you off! Let God test your motives, and let him decide what is right for you.

But you should ask, “Lord Jesus, if you will, you can make me clean.”

“Lord, I am not worthy that you come into my house, but only say the word and my servant will be healed.”

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It’s one thing to believe in miracles, but there is something even greater than that.

We read in later in the same chapter in Matthew that Jesus did all these things to fulfil the words of the prophet, “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

The greatest miracle that can happen to you is that you realise that you are sinner. The greatest miracle that can happen to you is that you realise what the root is which grows into the tree of suffering. The greatest miracle that can happen to you is that you find the place where the river begins that flows downstream into sickness, sadness and hurt. We can only grasp the tiniest bit of what it means that Christ actually had to die for us – we can only comprehend a tiny bit of what it means to be a sinner.

And when we realise this, we are called to ask for a miracle. We are called to say, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” We are called to say, “I am not worthy. Only say the word and your servant will be healed.”

And he says, “I will, be clean!”

He says, “Let it be done for you as you have believed.”

But this is not a miracle that he performs in your own flesh in such a way that you will see yourself being cleaned up, and in such a way that you will be proud of how far you have come.

Jesus does this when he takes our illnesses and bears our diseases on the cross. All of our diseases and illnesses are weighing upon his shoulders, and are being held in his hands, nailed to the wood. And then when he rose from the dead, he did this so that you all things would be made new, so that forgiveness of sins could be preached to all nations.

Then Jesus brings these gifts to you into the church – in baptism, in the absolution (the forgiveness of sins publically spoken upon you in the church), and in the Lord’s Supper.

And he wants you to trust in his death and resurrection as the medicine for your sickness. He wants you to trust that baptism actually saves you, and that when you hear the words of forgiveness spoken by the pastor that this is just as valid and certain as if our dear Lord Jesus Christ dealt with us himself. And he wants you to trust that when you receive the body and blood of Christ, that same body and blood of Christ that carries your sicknesses and diseases, that it is given for you and for the forgiveness of your sins.

And Jesus says, just like he did to the centurion, “Let it be done for you as you have believed.”

You have done nothing! Jesus has done everything!

You have worked nothing! Jesus has worked everything!

You have given to Jesus nothing! Jesus has given to you himself!

Let it be done for you as you have believed.

Because there is one thing for you that is greater than the belief in miracles, and that is the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, including you. There is one thing that is more important than being healed in this life, and that is making sure you will be healed in the next!

Because you know, that you cannot by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ your Lord, or even come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel.

And it is this Gospel which says to you: Yes! Be clean! Be forgiven! Go! Let it be done for you as you have believed!

And we read that the servant was healed at that very moment.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we place before you this day all our sicknesses, all our problems, our temptations, our faults, our sins, our frustrations, our failures. Lord, if you will, you can make us clean. We are not worthy that you should come under our roof, but only speak your word and your servant will be healed. We trust in your cross and your resurrection, and we know that your gospel is powerful. We trust in your power to forgive us, and we ask that you would send us the Holy Spirit that we may remain strong in this faith. Amen. 

Funeral of Toni Kipniak [Psalm 23:4] (21-Jan-2011)

This sermon was preached at Geoff Rossetti Memorial Chapel, Maffra Road, Sale (11am).

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

Text (Psalm 23): Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me: your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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.

A shepherd uses his rod to hit things. He uses his rod to chase off wild animals – wolves, lions.

A shepherd uses his staff to draw the sheep closer in when they are running off.

And Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep.” I put my life on the line for the sheep. I beat back the wolf – I beat back the lion. I destroy the wolves and the lions.

Even though you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you can say, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me: your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

And as we come together today, to lay Toni to rest, we give thanks for the way in which God, our heavenly Father, has worked through her life. We know there were many times of her life that weren’t easy, -- whether it were the war, or early days in Australia, or at other times – but God looked after her and brought her through those times.

God put her in a particular place, at a particular time. And sometimes we might ask the question: why didn’t he put her in an easy place? But then she wouldn’t have been the gift that she was to you. God gave her as a gift to  you – in different ways to different people: a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd was with her, his rod and staff comforted her. She was protected and strengthened for your sake.

But also, God has placed you in a certain place for other people too, and especially for her. Toni wouldn’t have been who she was without you – God put you in her life for her benefit.

But even though Toni has been taken away from us now for a time, it doesn’t mean that we are not without God. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for you are with us.

We should be strengthened by the way in which God has worked through her life, even amid so many hardships and sufferings, and also we should imitate her where we can, to be like her in her good points. If you are mother, remember what was good about her in that and be like her. Be a friend, like she was a friend.

It’s funny though how suffering and death catches us off guard, though. It’s funny how the death of a person can throw us off balance, and catch us out.

One moment, we are walking along quite nicely, and all of a sudden we find at ourselves at funeral, walking in the valley of the shadow of death. And so, what do we make of all this?

There is no person’s life on this earth without some sort of suffering in it. There is always someone dying, and there are always people mourning. But suffering for Christians is great power, because it draws us closer to the cross of Christ, who suffered for us.

Suffering bears great fruit of patience and endurance. St Paul says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.”

But suffering doesn’t just do these things by itself. The blessing of suffering comes through the fact that Jesus Christ suffered on the cross for us.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Often when people look back at life, they look at a dark time, or a difficult time, and they realise that this was really a time when God helped them through. Often in hindsight people look back and think, “now I am a stronger person because of that.”

But what is amazing about the words of Psalm 23, which we often hear read at funerals, is not that the words are talking about the past, but about the present and the future.

It doesn’t say, “Even though I walked through the shadow of death, you were with me.” It says instead, “Even though I am walking (now) in the shadow of death, I will fear no evil (now), for you are with me (now).” And it is the voice of faith that looks into the future and says, “And even though I may still continue to walk in the valley of the shadow of faith, I’m still not going to fear any evil, because I know that you will still be with me.”

And Jesus Christ, is not with you just because he wants you to show that he cares. He’s not just with you because he wants to sympathise with you. He does, but that’s not the only reason why. The book of Hebrews says: “We have a high-priest who sympathises with us in our weakness.”

But the main reason why Christ wants to be with us, is because he wants to make an exchange. He knows that we are sinners, and he is not one. He knows that we do all sorts of things for bad motives, but he doesn’t. Even in a time of mourning, at the time of a death, we realise that there are all sorts of bad motives, and selfish things that go on.

Christ died for all of that. He suffered in such a way as to pay for it all. And he rose again from the dead to defeat it all: sin, death, the devil, the lot.

In the gospel reading, today, Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he die, shall live.”

He dies, in order to give life to us.

He suffers, in order to bless us with hope in the resurrection when we suffer.

He makes an exchange with us. He is the one who baptises us, and sends the Holy Spirit. He speaks his words to us. He feeds his church in the Lord’s Supper with his body and blood.

He suffers and dies, so that we would have the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

And so then we can say, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

You are with me – forgiving me. You are with me – washing me clean. You are with me – raising me from the dead.

Your rod and your staff they comfort me – With your rod, you fight off the wolves, you fight off the lions, you fight off our own sin by forgiving it, you fight off the devil by defeating him, and you fight off death by rising from the dead and promising the resurrection to us. And with your staff, you draw us all in closer to yourself.

Jesus says: “When I am lifted up on the cross, when I am lifted up to heaven, I will draw all people to myself.”

Even through we are still walking in the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, because you, Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, are “with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

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

Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank you for Toni’s life, and we thank you for the many blessings that we have received from you through her life. We commend her into your hands with love and gratitude, and we ask that you would strengthen us through this time, and keep us close together to support each other. Send us the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

Epiphany 2 [John 2:1-11] (16-Jan-2011)

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 (John 2:1-11):

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Cu Yecu nyuuthdɛ min jio̱l ɛmɛ la̱t kä Keena ro̱o̱l Gɛ̈-lɛ-li, kä cuɛ puɔ̱nydɛ nyuɔ̱th naath. Kä cu ji kɔaarɛ jɛ ŋäth.

Prayer: O Lord, open my lips, that our mouths may tell of your praise. Amen.

I have heard it once said, “Religion is all fine, but as long as it stays out of my bedroom!”

I have also heard it once said, “Religion and politics don’t mix!”

But here’s the problem – marriage has an awful lot to do with bedrooms, and an awful lot to do with politics!

And in our gospel reading today, Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding. He adds to the celebrations. He gives a wonderful gift, a wonderful wedding present to a bride and groom.

And it’s not just any miracle that we’re talking about today. This is Jesus’ first miracle!

And there’s something very significant about the fact that Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding.

And when he blesses a wedding with this wonderful miracle, he encourages people to celebrate marriage. And he commands that 6 stone water jars full of water be brought, each holding 2 or 3 measures. This is the equivalent of about 840 bottles of wine. There is no way that that volume of wine could have been consumed on one night! He’s even prepared to allow people to celebrate weddings a little bit too much, and to go a little bit overboard! And there’s nowhere where it says that Jesus didn’t hop in and have a bit too! (Do we think he sat by himself with a diet lemonade?) Remember Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard! When he fasted he fasted, but why do we think that he couldn’t also enjoy himself? Why do we think that the God of heaven and earth who has become a human being can’t immerse himself in human joy and human celebration?

Isn’t it strange that Jesus’ first miracle should have to do with celebration? With wine? With laughing? With happiness? And with marriage and weddings?

But when he does this, he blesses the most foundational of human relationships, he blesses something that taps at the core of what it means to be a human being, he blesses something that hits at the centre of each and every culture throughout the world, and each and every human being.

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But we know that not every person in the world will get married. But that doesn’t mean that people are not independent. Your belly-button is proof that you are not as much an individual as you once thought!

But Jesus celebrates at a wedding, because he celebrates life! He is the living God, the God of life, and he promotes the way of life. In fact, he says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. If he is the Life, it makes sense that he loves life, and wants to celebrate it.

Jesus is a strange chap in that respect! There’s another passage in the gospels where he walks up to a coffin in the street and raises the boy from the dead.

That’s because he’s the God of Life. He celebrates weddings, and he wrecks funerals!

And weddings and funerals are so fundamental to the fabric of a culture. Every culture does its funerals differently. And every culture does its weddings differently.

In another part of the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and when he came to the tomb, he wept. It deeply concerns Jesus that the man is dead. Death was not a part of God’s original plan. It only came into the world through sin. “The wages of sin is death”, says St Paul.

But marriage, on the other hand, was part of this original plan. In Genesis we read: “Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they will become one flesh.”

Marriage is fundamental to how we understand culture. But one thing we all have to be clear about – especially in our parish with different cultures – is that no one culture has ever naturally embodied the Christian teaching on marriage. What the bible has to say about marriage, and the fact that Jesus comes to a wedding and blesses it, goes against every single culture. There is something about the bible’s teaching on marriage that goes against the grain in every single generation of people in every single country.

The problem with western culture is that we are resting on the laurels of the past. Marriage is becoming something of yesterday’s culture for us in Australia and in America and in Europe. And to say that marriage is the life-long union between one woman and one man is not part of our culture naturally, but has come from years and years of saturation by the bible and the church.

Western culture is a big fat overweight gluttonous pig that has been basking out in the mud for too many years, and now the blessings that have come to it through the Christian faith are rotting beneath its feet. Jonah said that “In 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed” and Christ says, “The gates of hell will not prevail against the church.” Many ancient cultures have died out since the time of the apostles, but the church has continued despite the collapse of empires and cultures.

And then other people from different cultures, like Sudanese people, come to Australian shores and see what? Not a Christian culture, in fact, far from it. In fact, one where boys get girls pregnant and then leave them with the kids, or else make them get abortions. It’s not uncommon for young people by the age of 20 to have had 5 sexual partners. And we wonder, we wonder, why there is so much youth suicide.

The bible tolerates no sexual relationships outside of the bonds of marriage. And people think that this is a restriction. It’s only a restriction if people love unhappiness, and are happy to leave the next generations without any encouragement and hope. What we forget is that in order for sexual relationships outside of marriage to work, we need a society that provides abortion. And then people say, then why don’t we promote contraception? But then half of those who turn up to abortion clinics are there because contraception has failed. People have wanted the short-term fun, without the blessing of children, and our society has tried to push sex and children as far from each other as possible. In order for our culture to work like this it has to import death into marriage where it doesn’t belong, in fact having to import death right into the wombs of women. Death doesn’t belong in marriage – only life does.

What then do we think about certain policies and agendas of people who are shocked and horrified at the number of teenage pregnancies who then say that children need graphic detailed sex education in schools? And then after a few years, people wonder why nothing has changed, and that there are now more teenage pregnancies… So people think that the children need to be educated younger. And so children throughout the country are being taught in schools everything they could ever want to know about how not to get pregnant, while never being taught a word about what it means to love a person, marry them, live with them for life, and build a family.

We wonder why there are so few young people in church.

It doesn’t have anything to do with music, it has nothing to do with tradition, it has nothing to do with the bible and its own message. It has to do with this fact: Young people are raised and educated in a culture of death, and the church worships the God of Life. And the culture of death, and the God of Life are two mutually exclusive things.

St Paul says in Romans 1, writing to people who grew up in Ancient Roman culture: I am under obligation both to Greeks and barbarians. (It doesn’t matter what culture you are from, the gospel is for everyone.)

I am under obligation both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

The gospel is the power of God: it changes cultures. In fact, it builds a new culture, a new culture which is not divided by colour or race or background, but one in which people are united into one body, into one Christian church, as the bride of Christ Jesus our Lord. Notice that St Paul says that the culture is not changed through the “influence of Christianity” but through faith in Christ. “The righteous shall live by faith.” It is not our job to create a Christian state, but to invite people to become citizens of the church.

The Ancient Romans by the way also tolerated widespread homosexuality and paedophilia and public sex parties and orgies. It was Christianity in a sense that made sex a private thing.

Now people form their partnerships without public weddings, and without public celebration. And it only takes you to go down to a petrol station, newsagent, video shop or on the internet and find sex and naked human bodies publically and suggestively displayed when it should be private. But sex should be private and wedding should be public. That’s why Jesus blessed the wedding at Cana with so much wine – he wanted them to celebrate weddings.

But remember that the Gospels, the letters of the apostles, St Paul, and St Peter, were written to cultures that were dying. In the midst of life, we are in death. We are citizens of God’s church, and all around us the fabric of society is dying. And we have all been part of a dying culture, and we are all contributors to it too. Now if you think I’ve spoken too bluntly about this topic, then I say the words of St Paul: “I do not [say] these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” The church is not here to be moral police, but to forgive the people in a broken and suffering world their sins. Just as God made a mother out of a virgin through his word, he continually makes virgins out of us through his word of forgiveness.

Now every culture has to have funerals. That’s because everyone dies. But why is it that so many people say to me that they go to so many funerals? Sure, there are a lot of old people in the parish with a lot of old friends. But wouldn’t it be great if our society were full of half as many weddings! When our society pulls the plug on weddings, it pulls the plug on an enormous amount of happiness and celebrations! (And they don’t have to be expensive to be fun!)

Even if a person is not married, it’s pretty difficult to understand Christianity, without an understanding of marriage. And if you’re a young person, don’t join yourself in any way to the culture of the death around you, but foster and build yourself up with prayer in purity, friendship, respect for the other sex, and love. Holding the Christian view of marriage is part of what it means for us to be part of the kingdom which is not of this world, because being a Christian means being married to Christ.

Christ is the one who prevents the wine running out at the wedding. He wants to celebrate too! He wants to show to us what a generous groom he is to you, his beloved bride.

And his is the only marriage which doesn’t end at death. In fact, our marriage begins when he dies and sheds his blood for us on the cross to forgive our sins, and also when he washes us with water and the word in Holy Baptism and presents us pure and blameless, as a pure virgin, free from sin because we are forgiven. And so its no wonder that in the book of Revelation, heaven is compared to a wedding feast, a wedding banquet, where we join and celebrate in our own wedding around Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And it’s no wonder that when we gather together we are also celebrating our own wedding every Sunday in the Lord’s Supper, as our Lord Jesus gives us his own body, just as married couples do to each other, and gives us his own precious blood – because he is the Lord of life, and there is no death in him.

This, -- when Jesus changed the water into wine -- the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee – at a wedding – and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are our bridegroom and we are your bride. We thank you for performing your first miracle of turning water into wine at Cana. We thank you for blessing marriage with your own blessing, and for blessing both single people and married couples. Keep us pure and holy, and create in us a desire to promote marriage as undefiled. Send us your Holy Spirit to forgive us all our sins, and to increase in us holy love. Amen.

Baptism of our Lord [Matthew 3:13-17] (9-Jan-2011)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (lay-reading, 10am), 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 (Matthew 3:13-17):

John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

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.

After Christmas, so far the readings have all had to do with events that have to do with the baby Jesus. All of the readings have had to do with Jesus as a baby! And today, is the first time since Christmas that we meet Jesus as an adult – at his baptism.

And in the bible the same thing happens. In Matthew and Luke we read about the birth of Jesus and the childhood of Jesus. Then we skip almost 20 years or so and we don’t hear anything else about Jesus life until he was baptised, probably at the time when he was about 30 years old.

We don’t know much about Jesus when he was a small child growing up, except for when he went to the temple when he was 12, we don’t know much about his teenage years or his early adult years. Nothing! We go straight from the birth and the childhood of Jesus right to his baptism.

In fact, in Mark’s gospel and in John, we don’t even read about the birth of Jesus. It starts straight away with the baptism of Jesus. Mark and John don’t bother telling us about Mary and Joseph and the angels and the shepherds and Herod and the wise men, and all that sort of thing. They say, you want to know who Jesus is, have a look at his baptism!

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Let me read to you a little passage from the Old Testament. This passage is about the anointing of King David. This is about when the prophet Samuel took the oil and poured it over David’s head and he became king:

Samuel had checked over all of Jesse’s sons to see if God had chosen them to be king.

Samuel said to Jesse [David’s father], “Are all you sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.

When David is made king, he is anointed with oil. Oil is poured over him.

But when Jesus is baptised, he is anointed with the Holy Spirit.

We say that Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ. Messiah and Christ are the same word. Messiah is Hebrew, and Christ is Greek. Both of these words means, “anointed”. So when we say that the Jews were waiting for the Messiah, or when we as Christians say that Jesus is the Messiah (or the Christ), we are saying he is the anointed one.

And in Greek, the word for oil and the word for anointed are very similar. The word for oil is chrisma (χρισμα) and the word for anointed is Christos (χριστος). So we could say that Jesus is the one who is oiled up, he is greased up for his work.

But John the Baptist doesn’t anoint Jesus with oil, but instead he baptises him with water, and we read that the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest upon him.

Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is oiled up with the Holy Spirit, so that now he is prepared for his work, his work of healing, his work of preaching, and most importantly, his work of dying and his work of rising from the dead.

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It works really well that the baptism of Jesus comes in the church year right after Christmas time, where we read about the birth of Jesus. Because also for us, we learn about the birth of Jesus and we also are reborn, born again, born from above, through Holy Baptism.

And it’s funny – Jesus is the one without sin. Why does he need to be baptised?

We read that Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to baptised by him. John would have prevented him saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.”

Jesus fulfils all righteousness. When it says this, it means that he is fulfilling the law for us.

In the Small Catechism we read:

What benefits does baptism give?

It words forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.

So why on earth do you think Jesus needs the forgiveness of sins? Why do think Jesus needs to be rescued from death and the devil?  Why does Jesus need eternal salvation? Doesn’t he have those things anyway? Isn’t he the Son of God?

Well, you’d be right!

There’s a sense in which baptism also doesn’t give these things by itself. But we receive forgiveness of sins and all these gifts through baptism, because Jesus Christ is there too.

Jesus wants us to be baptised, because he wants us to be with him in baptism. When we are baptised, we know that we are in the same place as Jesus. And when we are with him, we know we’ve got nothing to worry about.

St Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

I don’t know if you’ve ever been asked if you’re a “born again” Christian? “Are you born again?” What people often mean by this has got nothing to do with baptism. When Lutherans are asked “are you born again” they often reply, “Yes. I was born again when I was baptised.” But when people talk about being born again, it often has nothing to with baptism, but people mean to say, “Have you decided to follow Jesus? Have you turned your life around? Have you accepted Jesus into your heart?”

All of those things have to do with what we do. But baptism, which is really what it means to be born again, being born of the water and the Spirit, is not something you do, but it is something that you receive. Baptism is something that happens to you. You receive it. God does it. It’s his work!

You don’t do it! You are baptised by him! You don’t baptise yourself. And when you are baptised, God gives you his gifts. And when you trust that you have received these things in baptism, because God says that received them, then those things are yours.

Now when Jesus is baptised, he receives the opposite of what we receive.

We receive forgiveness of sins, because we are sinners, and we need forgiveness.

When Jesus is baptised, he received your sin, even though he is sinless.

In baptism, we are rescued from death, even though we deserve to die. But Jesus is the living God, and instead of being saved from death, he receives death. He dies in our place, even though he should never die.

In baptism, we are rescued from the devil, even though we are always collaborating with him. But Jesus who has nothing to do with the devil, receives the attacks of the devil. In the bible, the next thing we read about after Jesus was baptised was that he went out into the wilderness to be tested by the devil.

In baptism we receive eternal salvation, but Jesus is condemned as a criminal to die on the cross, and to experience the anger of God against him.

When Jesus is baptised, he receives sin, so that he can die for it, and forgive us in baptism.

When Jesus is baptised, he receives death, so that he can defeat death for us. He receives the devil so that he chain the devil up for us. In baptism, Jesus receives condemnation, so that we can receive eternal salvation.

So in baptism, we do a swap. Jesus takes what is ours – he becomes a sinner, even though he’s not one. And we take what is his – you become a saint, not because you’re perfect, but because you’re forgiven. And when you are forgiven, God only sees a person who is perfect.

I’d like to read a little something from a letter from Martin Luther, called “Christ dwells only with sinners”. And I’d like to read it to you as my letter to you about what baptism means:

My dear brother(s and sisters), learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to pray to him and, despairing of yourself, say, “You, Lord Jesus are my righteousness, but I am your sin. You have take upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours. You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not.” Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners. On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwell among the righteous, to dwell among sinners. Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation. For why was it necessary for him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our works and afflictions? So you will find peace only in him and only when you despair of yourself and your own works. Besides, you will learn from him that just as he has received you, so he has made your sins his own and has made his righteousness yours.

If you firmly believe this as you ought (and he is damned who does not believe it), receive your untaught and erring brothers, patiently help them, make their sins yours, and if you have any goodness, let it be theirs. Thus the apostle teaches: “Receive one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.” And again, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” Even so, if you seem to yourself to be better than they are, do not count it as something to be proud of, as if it were yours alone, but humble yourself, forget what you are, and be as one of them in order that you may help them.

Cursed is the righteousness of the man who is unwilling to assist others on the ground that they are worse than he is and who things of fleeing from and forsaking those whom he ought now to helping with patience, prayer and example. This would be burying his Lord’s talent and not paying his due. If you are lily and a rose of Christ, therefore, know that you will also live among thorns. Only see to it that you will not become a thorn as a result of impatience, rash judgment, or secret pride. The rule of Christ is in the midst of his enemies, as the psalm puts it. Why then do you imagine that you are among friends? Pray therefore for whatever you lack, kneeling before the face of Jesus Christ. He will teach you all things. Only keep your eyes fixed on that which he has done for you and for all people in order that you may learn what you should do for others. If he had desired to live only among good people and to die only for his friends, he would never have died or lived for anyone! Live like this, my dear brother(s and sisters), and pray for me. The Lord be with you.(*)

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that you were baptised for us. You have taken everything that we are, and you have given us everything that you are, and everything that it yours: the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your unfailing love to us, and for the life you lived of such great sacrifice. Help us to love one another as you love us. Amen.

* Doberstein, Minister’s Prayer Book, Fortress, Philadelphia, 1986, pp230-231.

Epiphany [Matthew 2:1-12] (6-Jan-2011)

This sermon was preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (7pm).

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

Text (Matthew 2:1-12):

Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

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.

Tonight’s sermon will be in three parts:

Part 1, Gold. Part 2, Frankincense. Part 3, Myrrh.

So, Part 1: Gold!

Gold is for kings.

And there are two kings in this reading tonight, King Herod and the King of the Jews, Jesus.

Now, you might know about the kings of the Old Testament, like David, Solomon, Josiah, Hezekiah, and others.

And God promises to David that his throne will last forever.

But now, the line of King David has died out. King Herod is not descended from King David. He’s not a king according to the promise which God gave to David. He’s a foreigner. Herod is not descended from King David – he’s descended from the Idumean dynasty, as they call it. King Herod’s father was appointed by the Romans. And the Jews probably hated that!

And so the wise men from the east ask King Herod, where is he who is born “King of the Jews”?

King Herod thinks, “Well, I’m the King of the Jews.” But he’s not the king descended from King David which God promised. So in that sense, he’s not a king of the Jews. Jesus, on the other hand, was king of the Jews.

And so the wise men from the east travel a long distance to come and meet the baby Jesus, who is the king of the Jews!

But it isn’t Jews who give gold to Jesus, instead it’s Gentiles! The wise men are not Jews, and that’s the reason why Epiphany is important, is that we’re not Jews either. And nevertheless, we’re included in all of this. And so the wise men come and they bring gold to the baby Jesus, to acknowledge them as their own king. And Jesus is a king who is not of this world. He is not a king who is charge of this country and that country. He’s not the king of Judea, and he’s not the king of Persia. He’s the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

It’s also important for us that we bring our treasures, the things that we consider most valuable to us to the baby Jesus, and let him as our king take charge of them. And if we think that we are rich before the baby Jesus, we’re simply deluded! We will either love our king, or we will love our gold. The love of money is the root of all evil. But the love of our king will be the root of all good! So we need to bring our gold into his possession. He allows us to have money, treasures, gold, but he demands that they be used for his service.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, says Jesus, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who are not afraid to have a baby as their king. Blessed are those who have nothing and come and receive everything from the baby Jesus. Blessed are those who don’t still think they’ve got a few gold coins to win back their king later on, but give all their treasure to their king.

And St Paul says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

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Part 2: Frankincense.

Gold is for kings. Frankincense is for gods.

Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel – which means God with us.

And Jesus is true God. He is God with us. He is our Immanuel.

And so the wise men, say, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we say his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

They have come to worship their God.

And we read:

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

They acknowledged this little child as their God.

They had done away with idol worship from their old country, and had come to worship the invisible God -- now made visible to them -- in the person of the baby Jesus.

And they offer him frankincense. Incense is what people offer to gods. That’s why in some churches, and in the more ancient church, it was common practice to use incense in church, to acknowledge that we were in the presence of our God, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 141 says, “Let my prayer rise before you as incense.”

And in Revelation it says, we read that the angels stand before the throne holding bowls of incense, which, the text says, “are the prayers of the saints.”

And so it’s appropriate that the wise men offer them incense, as they bow down and worship this baby, who is their God, God with us, Immanuel.

When we commend something into the hands of Jesus, we acknowledge that he is in fact God after all. When we want to do everything ourselves, we treat ourselves as god.

So instead, we come to Jesus to offer our prayers to him, because he is in fact our God, and he promises to hear our prayers.

Let my prayer rise before you as incense.

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Part 3: Myrrh.

Gold is for kings. Incense is for gods. Myrrh is for corpses.

Myrrh is for dead bodies. Myrrh is a good thing for a proper burial.

Myrrh actually stops worms breeding, and also makes the body smell nice. And so the wise men come to give the baby Jesus myrrh, because they know that their king and their God is going to die.

Now you might think, how would they know that God is going to die?

There are many religions in the world. And there were many religions also at the time of Jesus. And most religions believe that the world is in charge of gods, rather than the gods in charge of the world.

I don’t know if you know anything about the gods of Ancient Rome, or Ancient Greece, or Ancient Egypt, or some other ancient culture. The gods are usually sinful – they have affairs, they make mistakes, and then this mountain comes about, or this thing happens. They believe that the world is eternal, and that gods fit into all that. Most people who don’t believe in God, think like this. The world has basically always been there, and it it’s never going to end, unless of course we mess it up ourselves.

Maybe the wise men thought something like that. But then when they met Jewish people like Mary and Joseph, maybe they put them straight and told the wise men that God is in fact eternal, and the world has a beginning and an end. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God is in fact older than the earth, and he will also outlive the earth.

And it is this God, who has become a man in Jesus Christ.

The Father and the Holy Spirit did not become a man, only the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God became a man.

But now that this has happened, Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is destined to die. He is destined to taste the bitter myrrh.

On the cross Jesus is given wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he doesn’t drink it.

Instead he thirsts for you. He thirsts for your life, as he lays down his own. He wants you to come and take his body and give it a proper burial. He wants you to anoint his body with myrrh and fragrant spices, and to bury his sufferings and his death deep within your heart. To put him to death with in you, to put to death your sin, so that he will also rise from the dead there and strengthen you in the forgiveness of sin.

And so it is appropriate that the wise men bring to Jesus Christ, the man of sorrows, the bitter tasting, sweet smelling perfume, myrrh.

There’s another aspect to myrrh, though. It’s funny how the most occurrences of the word myrrh in the bible is in the book of Song of Songs, which is a love song. Myrrh is a fragrant perfume – almost a kind of sweet-smelling love potion. And there is a sense in which the suffering and the burial of Christ are bitter for him, they are bitter tasting like myrrh, but as he dies, and smells the bitterness of death, when the myrrh rises to his nostrils, Christ remembers that he loves us, and that he dies for his precious bride, his one and only love. 

And so as we come to the Lord’s Supper this evening, we also come to bury Jesus deep within us, to place his body and blood into our mouths. And when he sees us there acknowledging him as our Lord and God, he treasures us as pure gold, he receives the incense of our prayer and he smells the bitter perfume as our sin is put to death, and our bodies and souls are made alive through the forgiveness of sin.

And so we have gold for our king, incense for our God, and myrrh for our suffering Saviour.

And when experience suffering, when we taste the myrrh in our life, we are called to offer the incense. We are called to pray to our God. And when we call upon our God, we take our stand in the kingdom which is not of the world, and place ourselves under the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And when our Lord Jesus Christ looks at us, he sees gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold, because we are precious to him. Frankincense, because he hears our prayers. And myrrh, because amid all the bitterness, he smells the perfume, the sweet perfume, and he calls to mind again and again that constant, unfailing love with which he loves us.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are our king, our God and our bridegroom. We thank you for the witness of the wise men, offering you Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh – knowing that you rule heaven and earth, that you have come as God in the flesh, and that you will die for the sins of the world. Send us the Holy Spirit, as we take our stand in your kingdom, with all the faithful Jews and faithful Gentiles. You alone are holy, you alone are Lord, you alone, O Christ, with the Holy Spirit, are most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.