Reformation: Audio Sermon (30-Oct-11)

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Reformation [John 8:31-36] (30-Oct-11)

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 8:31-36)

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Mi wä yɛn kɛ wä nhiam kɛ nhök ruacdä, lapɛ ji̱ kɔaarä pa̱ny. Kä bia thuɔ̱k ŋa̱c, kä bi thuɔ̱k yɛ jakä cieŋ alɔr.

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.

On the 31 October 1517, 494 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg. Four years later in 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated – he was kicked out! -- from the Roman Catholic Church. This was the beginning of the reformation.

And here we are, almost 500 years later, on the other side of the world, as Australian Lutherans gathered together in Gippsland. What do we make of all this?

It’s funny: there are supposed so be something like 75 million Lutherans throughout the world, making it one of the largest Christian denominations. And still, many people in Australia, and especially in Gippsland, have no idea that we exist. It seems as though in Australia, Christians get categorised into one of three categories: Catholic, Anglican or “other”. Sometimes, as Lutherans it can be easy for us to feel as though those three categories are: Catholic, Anglican, and “nobody cares”.

On the other hand, there are many people through Australia that are fed up with Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. And there are plenty of criticisms we would happily agree with.

But it’s amazing, as a pastor, that I have often I hear from people who have converted to the Lutheran church say that it’s exactly what they were looking for. As Lutherans today, we really need to make sure we know what we’re on about. We need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into the vineyard, because we have a simplicity and a clarity of confession that Australia and the world needs. In the mission fields in places like Africa, many people are studying Lutheran theology and all of a sudden they go “click”: “this makes sense”, “I understand now.” As a church, as a church body, as a parish, as a congregation, as individuals, we need to study very deeply what it means to be Lutheran in a pretty confused world, and also within a pretty confused ecumenical church scene. The world needs us. The world needs us so desperately to find our convictions again. Gippsland needs the Gippsland Lutheran Parish, Warragul and Darnum needs St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Darnum, LaTrobe Valley needs Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon, Sale needs St John’s Lutheran Church Sale, Yarram needs Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram, and Bairnsdale needs Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale, and we should look for ways to let our light shine with the blessing and the strength of God.

But what is the backbone of all of this? What’s the foundation of our church? What’s the foundation of the Lutheran reformation?

In our Gospel reading today we read: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Listen to those words again: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

First of all, we hear the word “truth” there, twice, and also the word “truly”.

Many people laugh when they hear the word truth, now. They get together with Pontius Pilate over coffee and they say, “What is truth?”

Now the Lutheran Church has never said that there is no truth in other churches. There are other denominations who say things that are true. In fact, a lot of what other churches say is true. But it’s often the 10% or 20% that is not true that doesn’t make the good stuff useful to people. It’s sometimes that 10% or 20% that still causes people not to be at peace with God, and to stand with confidence in God’s presence, and even to die in peace.

But here’s the thing: Any church that does not believe that what it says is true, the truth, and the fullness of truth, then they have no right to exist and they simply of no use in spreading the Gospel throughout the world.

Because the good news of the Gospel is a truth! It’s a certainty! It’s something that we build out life on. So I’ll say it again: Any church that does not believe that what it says is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth has absolutely no right to exist.

And where is this truth to be found? Jesus says: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

If you abide in my word. Listen to these words and really stick your feet in them for awhile and enjoy them. This will be what makes or breaks the future of our church: it will be our respect and our enjoyment of the word of God. In other words: Read the bible, and enjoy it. Learn it, study it. There are whole countries throughout the world who don’t have bibles. There have been eras of civilisation where a bible cost a year’s wage. And now we have them everywhere. Some people have a small handful at home. You can find them in the drawers of any motel room throughout the country, and at the same time, it is amazing, in fact it is an abomination how ignorant many Australians are of the bible. Don’t fall into the same category! If you don’t read the bible every day, turn over a new leaf and do it.

But if there’s something that is very special about the Lutheran church, especially from its early times, and unfortunately is something that we’re missing now in our current time, is making sure that the words of the bible are understood in their most simple way. We should go to the bible and have the confidence that what it says it means and what it means it says. That doesn’t mean that we will necessarily understand everything in it all at once. That will take sometimes years. But we don’t want to twist the bible to say what we want it to say.

Jesus says: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

If you abide in my word, if you rest in my word, if you dwell in it, sink your feet into it.

The Lutheran Church has always believed that the Scripture is clear. And so, we can also be certain that what it says is clearer than anything we can say. If we don’t understand, the problem is not with the bible, the problem is with us. And so, the Lutheran Church has always said that it is always a church that believes, teaches and confesses what the bible says.

So Lutherans shouldn’t ask, what does our church teach about such and such. Instead, we should say, what does the Scripture teach? If the church teaches something that the bible doesn’t teach, then we need ourselves: Are we abiding in Jesus’ word? If not, how then can we say that we are truly his disciples?

But there’s one more thing that we need to make sure we do when we read the bible. We need to make sure that we bring our reason into submission to the clear words of Scripture. There are many churches that claim to be biblical churches, but on many points, they explain many passages away with clever arguments.

But our reason, our understanding, needs to be brought into submission to the clear words of Scripture. Even our life experience, and our experience together as a church, not just now but throughout history, needs to be brought in childlike trust to the words of the Scripture.

For example, the Lutheran teaching on sin comes from Genesis 6, where it says: “Every intention of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.”

Now, if we were to examine our own hearts, we wouldn’t necessarily come to this conclusion, that “every intention of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” We might think that we only sin sometimes, or only when we’re awake, or that our intentions are good, or that something’s only bad when we act on it. But we come to the Scripture and say: Holy Spirit, if this is what you teach then we will believe it.

And also, the Lutheran teaching about the Lord’s Supper comes from the simple words: “This is my body”. I often talk to people from other denominations who don’t believe that the Lord’s Supper is actually the body and blood of Christ for us to eat and drink, and believe that it is symbolic or spiritual. But Jesus said it. In fact, it’s one of the few things that is written absolutely clearly four times in the New Testament. We might think in our reason, “of course it can’t be his body”: But we come to the Scripture and say: Holy Spirit, if this is what you teach then we will believe it. Jesus, if you say it’s your body and blood, then I will believe that it’s your body and blood that I come to eat and drink, and nothing less than your body and blood.

Do you see what it means practically and experientially to “abide in Jesus words” and not to abide in our own opinions, our own presuppositions, our own individual ideas?

But I think one of the most important teachings that we have in the Lutheran Church is the teaching of justification by faith alone. This teaching has often been called the “teaching on which the church stands or falls.”

Actually, it’s not so much a teaching, but it’s an action, it’s actually an event, which God performs, which He Himself carries out and does in heaven and applies to us in the church on earth.

Justification works like this:

We are sinners. We have sinned in our thoughts, our words and our actions. We are on trial before God. The law of God accuses us. The Holy Spirit accuses us from the Scriptures. Satan accuses us. Our own conscience accuses us. And in God’s courtroom, before God’s judgment seat, we deserve everything that we should: the anger of God, the punishment of God, death and hell.

But Jesus comes and says: I have died for this person. I have paid for their life with my own blood.

And then God makes his judgment, and says, Because of my own Son, you are forgiven. You are free. You have been paid for. The debt is cancelled. The sentence has been torn up. You are free to go.

Now, on what basis do you believe this, on what basis do you believe that you are actually forgiven?

Do you feel it? Maybe, maybe not. Can you convince yourself that you are forgiven? Maybe, maybe not.

The only basis for you to believe that you are actually forgiven before God’s throne is that the word of God says so, and for no other reason. This is what is means to “abide in Jesus’ words”. That’s what Luther meant when he said: “Here I stand, I can do no other.” He could not bring himself to budge from the simple, clear words of Jesus.

Of course, you won’t like it! You want to be responsible! But you can’t! Your flesh will rebel! This is called temptation, and the greatest temptation is for you to save yourself on some other basis apart from Jesus’ own words.

How do you know that you are saved? You can’t find this out from searching your own heart. The only way you will know it is because God himself will tell you, not in your own mind, but through his word. And it is this simple, clear word of God, a simple clear word that the ministry of the church is called to preach Sunday after Sunday. That’s why we have the absolution: Pastors are called and ordained servants of the word. And they speak the forgiveness of sins, on behalf of our Lord Jesus, and by his command. The bible speak to you about a reality that is so certain, and which you can never know by yourself, and this reality is then proclaimed and spoken to you, over you, from outside of you straight through to the centre of you in the middle of the Holy Christian Church.

Where Jesus’ words are spoken in their clarity, in their simplicity, that’s where disciples are made, that’s where the church is. That’s why we’re here. We’re here because we’re gathered to hear the words of Jesus, which we can’t work out for ourselves and that we can’t hear anywhere else.

And so Jesus says to us today: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. How is it that you say, “You will become free”?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

At the end of the Book of Concord, the book of the Lutheran confessions of faith, it says: “By God’s grace, with intrepid hearts, we are willing to appear before the judgment seat of Christ with this Confession and give an account for it.”

So let’s approach that judgment seat this morning in the Lord’s Supper, with joy and confidence, with this confession in our hearts and on our lips. Let Jesus make you free, let Jesus reveal to you the truth through the Scriptures, through his holy word, and let nothing else make you free, because nothing else will and nothing else can.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, send us your Spirit so that we may trust in your word. If we are tempted, we know that you were tempted first. If we are terrified by death, we know that you died first. But we know that you are alive, and that your words are living and active, and so we can stand in your presence with joy and confidence. Keep us strong and firm in this faith until we die. Amen.

Funeral of Doug Mirtschin [1 Corinthians 15:51-57] (25-Oct-11)

This sermon was preached at Zion Lutheran Church, Vectis, 11am.

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

Text: (1 Corinthians 15:51-57)

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on immortality, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Lord, sanctify us in the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.

You know: death really isn’t all that mysterious.

At least, it isn’t mysterious in the same sense that St Paul says in these words for us today: Behold! I tell you a mystery!

Death happens, we see it, we know it. We could say it’s kind of mysterious how death has such a profound effect on us. We could say it’s mysterious how death arouses in us a desire for eternity. We could say that it’s kind of mysterious how we grieve when someone dies, like Doug. We could say it’s mysterious.

But that’s not what St Paul’s talking about when he says: “Behold! I tell you a mystery!”

When St Paul says these things: it’s a bit like when the Prophet Isaiah says: A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass... the grass withers, the flowers fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

That’s a mystery!

Or when Jesus gathers his disciples together on top of a mountain, sits down like a king on his throne with the majesty that belongs to him, opens his mouth and teaches his disciples and says: “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”

That’s a mystery! – Blessed are those who mourn.... for they will be comforted. What a promise! But what will they be comforted with?

They will be comforted with the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Therefore, as St Paul says, we do not grieve as others do who have no hope.

And it’s this mystery that Paul wants to tell to the church of all times and all places when he says these words: Behold! I tell you a mystery.

He wants to draw you in. He wants to invite you into the hidden chambers of God’s heart and show you what lies in store for each Christian who dies in the faith.

In Ephesians, St Paul says:  “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.”

This mystery – he says – was hidden in the dark recesses of God’s heart. It wasn’t for us to know about it yet. But Paul says, I am called to preach this mystery to you. I am called to tell you that the unknown God has a name, and he has risen Jesus Christ from the dead.

So, what St Paul says in our text today, echoes those words of Jesus: Blessed are you ears for they hear and your eyes for they see. For many of the prophets longed to hear what you hear and did not hear it, and to see what you see but did not see it.”

And so St Paul says:

Behold! I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Ask yourselves: Do you believe those words? Listen to how simple they are, and feel their power. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

As we come together today for Doug’s funeral, we come to give thanks for the life of a man that all of us so much enjoyed. We come to thank God for the great gift that he gave many people through the person of Doug.

And in some sense, Doug’s death marks somewhat the end of an era. It brings to end a chapter of family history. All of us here will miss Doug together, but in different ways and for different reasons.

But it’s not the end, full stop. People outside the Christian faith will sit and ponder and consider whether or not there is an afterlife, or as people often say, a “here-after”.

But Christians not only believe that there is a “here-after”, but that it is takes a certain shape and has a certain form, and structure and order to it. It’s not something that’s non-descript, but in all its indescribability, St Paul, with such confidence, with such boldness, almost arrogance, and with such simplicity, sets out to describe what it looks like.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

What a confession of faith it is to come to the church today and say Amen to these words: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

What courage it requires of you all today to stare into the grave of Doug Mirtschin and confess with simplicity and certainty: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Do remember the words of Jesus?: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I go to wake him up.”

Or what about when Jesus sees all the people outside Jairus’ house, weeping and carrying on because of the death of his daughter, and he says: “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.”

So our confession of faith today is not simply that Doug Mirtschin has died, but something even more profound, he has fallen asleep with Jesus, in Jesus, he rests in Jesus.

Behold, I tell you a mystery! We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall awake again to see another day, a more glorious, and a brighter day that we have ever seen before.

We shall all be changed. How? In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. When? At the last trumpet.

For the trumpet shall sound, says St Paul, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

It’s true when the prophet Isaiah says: All flesh is grass. The grass withers and the flowers fade.

And for many of us, it’s been a difficult thing to see these words come to fulfilment in Doug’s body and in some sense his mind. It’s not an easy thing when a man with such strength looking almost like he was wasting away. We’ve learnt from experience now, that this body is in actual fact perishable. We learn this from our observances, our experience.

Now, we learn something new by faith, and only by faith. We learn something new now not through our eyes, but through our hears. St Paul says: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

For the trumpet will sound and dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Funerals are not occasions where we commemorate endings. Christian funerals are occasions where we commemorate the preparation for something new, for the future work of God that we still wait for – A Christian funeral is an occasion where we look forward to the resurrection of the dead.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Do you hear those words: Death is swallowed up. Devoured! Chewed up and crunched to bits.

There’s a beautiful Christmas lullaby, which says:

Sing, lullaby! Lullaby baby now awaking, sing lullaby!

Hush, now he stirs the infant King,

Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning,

Conquering death, its bondage breaking.

Sing, lullaby!

Death is swallowed up in victory!

Dreams are swallowed up with realities!

Hopes and wishes are swallowed up with real things!

Faith is swallowed up by sight!

Tears are swallowed up with joy!

Suffering is swallowed up with peace!

Desire is swallowed up with fulfilment!

Mourning is swallowed up with comfort!

Death is swallowed up with resurrection, with victory.

That’s what we come here today to confess as a Christian church: that each Christian will be healed by Jesus from their perish-ability, each will be healed from their mortality, each will be healed from their corruption, and each will find these words fulfilled in themselves, which are said about a man that Jesus had healed: “And he sat at Jesus feet, clothed, and in his right mind.”

In the Apostles’ Creed we say: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Can you see the order, the structure here? The Holy Spirit calls us by the gospel into the church, in the church we become a fellowship, a communion of holy people, of saints through Holy Baptism, in this Christian church our sins are daily and richly forgiven, and then this forgiveness of sins blossoms into the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Everything in our text today from St Paul is completely beyond our experience. These are things that are only grasped by faith. In a sense, the Scripture speaks to us from the other side of the grave from one who has seen what is there and now tells us who are still here. And what is seen there on the other side of the grave is so great and so magnificent, that it can only be told to us, by saying: “Behold! I tell you a mystery!”

In the last two verses of this text today, we read:

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The death of a person is a testimony that they like everyone was conceived and born in sin. The only exception to this is Jesus Christ himself, who became sin for us, and took on sin for us.

That’s the sting we feel and experience today. The sting of death is sin. As St Paul says: The wages of sin is death.

But then we also read: But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We already heard before that death will be swallowed up by victory. But here’s the thing: Here, the text says: But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We don’t earn the victory! We don’t work for the victory. God simply gives us the victory, as a free gift, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And it doesn’t say, he will give us, but he gives us the victory, now, in the church, through Holy Baptism. He gives us the victory every time we eat and drink the body and blood with all those who have been given the victory before us, with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God bless you this day as we go to bury this man, Doug, whom we knew and loved. Jesus himself knows the sting: he wept himself at the death of Lazarus. But he has died for your sins on the cross, and risen again for them, as a physical and historical proof that you will also rise with him, and also, as St Paul says, “so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope”.

Jesus himself says: Blessed, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed.

Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Trinity 18: Audio Sermon (23-Oct-11)

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Trinity 18 [Matthew 22:34-46] (23-Oct-11)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am, lay-reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am), 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 22:34-46)

And one of the Pharisees, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”… Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ?”

Cu ram kɛl kä kɛ mi la gua̱n ŋuɔ̱tni jɛ thiec, ɣɔ̱nɛ jɛ i̱, "Ŋi̱i̱c, ɛ ŋut in mi̱th di̱tɔ rɛy ŋuɔ̱tni?"... Kä täämɛ min te ji̱ Pa-ri-thii guäth kɛl, cu Yecu kɛ thiec, wee i̱, "Carɛ ni ŋu kɛ kui̱ Mɛ-thia?"

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.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m not religious, but I lead a good life”? Or, “I don’t believe in God, but I think everyone needs to do good.”

What do you think about that sort of thing?

Everyone wants to be saved by works. You do x, y and z, you tick all the boxes, and St Peter will let you in the pearly gates. Is that how it works?

Jesus commands us to do good things. He wants us to do good deeds and show love and kindness to people. And everyone throughout the world of all different religions basically agree that that’s a good thing to do.

But here’s the question: Do those things save you?

Jesus says: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Now in our gospel reading today, we have a situation where some people come to ask Jesus a question.

We read: When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees didn’t like each other very much. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection and in angels and all sorts of things like that, but the Sadducees didn’t. They were a bit like the Labor and Liberal parties of Jesus’ time. They had major disagreements. And just before our gospel reading, the Sadducees put a question to Jesus about the resurrection to stump Jesus. But Jesus puts them in their place, and they are silenced. They are speechless.

So you could imagine that the Pharisees were a bit pleased with Jesus about this! Maybe they thought, “Good for you, Jesus! You tell those Pharisees what’s what!”

 And so they gather together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question to test him.

You can see here that the Pharisees want to put something to Jesus to see whether or not he’s on their side. So what’s the question that they ask him?

He says: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

The Pharisees were very much experts in the Law. But they also didn’t distinguish between what was a law of God, and what was a tradition instituted by human beings. For example, in the Jewish Law, if a priest entered the temple, he had to wash himself in the basin in the temple. But the Pharisees made up a law to wash hands before every meal, and they made a law out of it. The Pharisees weren’t wrong in that they were fussy about the law. God wants us to be fussy, and he wants us to be faithful. But the problem for the Pharisees was that they didn’t distinguish between God’s law and human traditions.

And so, a Pharisee, a lawyer, asks Jesus: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And Jesus said to them, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

This is a great answer! And do you notice that Jesus catches the lawyer out. The lawyer wants to know what the great commandment is. He wants to know what is the one and only most important commandment. But Jesus doesn’t tell him one. He tells him two!

The first commandment has to do with loving God. The second commandment has to do with loving your neighbour as yourself. And Jesus doesn’t want to break these two things up. If you are a person who loves God, then you also need to love your neighbour. If you a person who loves people, you should also love God. These two things go together.

St John says in his first letter: “If anyone says, “I love God”, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

The same problem happens today. There are people who want to love God, but don’t want to love their neighbour. There are people who want to love their neighbour, but don’t want to love God.

For example, there are many people who come to church who say, “I come to church, I pray”, and all that sort of thing, but then take no notice of the needs of others. There are all sorts of people who have all sorts of bodily and spiritual needs, and when they are put in your path, don’t walk by on the other side of the road. Do for them what they need. Sometimes in the church, people are very faithful to the teachings of Jesus, and to the doctrines of Christianity, which is a very good thing. But Jesus doesn’t just teach doctrines, he also teaches us how to live and what God expects of us. We need to take both of these things just as seriously. What Jesus teaches about faith and about living a holy life are just as much the Word of God as each other. St John also says in his first letter: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

But then, there also the problem where people want to love their neighbour but don’t want to love God. There are many people who make it their principle in life, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” And this is a great principle in life. Jesus said it! But it’s funny that so many people would make the words of Jesus their motto, but the fact that he rose from the dead means nothing to them!

But as I said before, everyone wants to be saved by works, and by doing good deeds. But the problem is, everyone knows that they don’t do it properly either. And anyone who thinks that they are perfect is an absolute fool! They know nothing about life, they have learnt nothing from their life experience, and they must think that they are some sort of God.

And Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

And Jesus says to our lawyer in the gospel reading today: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

And these things shows us what is good for the world and how people should live. But it also is a mirror to us, which we look into and see that we haven’t kept the commandments. We don’t keep the law perfectly. We don’t do what we should, we don’t say what we should, we don’t think what we should. And when we do do what is right, even that is tainted, and we do it for the wrong motives, or we do it to get something for ourselves, or something like this.

When you listen to these words of Jesus, and when you read the Ten Commandments, listen to them with joy and gladness, and strive to do what Jesus requires of you. But at the end of each day, each week, look back on them, and honestly look where you have failed. That’s the way we should use the law of God, the commandments of God – we should use them as mirror, to show us our sin so that we can approach God with honesty, not hiding from him, behind some fig-leaves.

St John says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he his faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

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Our gospel reading today doesn’t end with Jesus answer to the lawyer’s question. Jesus says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

But the story doesn’t finish there. He goes on. He’s not finished with the Pharisees yet.

We read: Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Christianity doesn’t finish with the words, do this, or do that. But it goes on to say, “What do you think about Jesus? Who is he? Is he just a man, or is he also true God?” Was he just a good teacher, or did he die for your sins?

This is so important – because the Law of God, our good works, don’t save us. Only Jesus, true man, born of the Virgin Mary, and true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, saves us. We know Jesus is a true man: He is the Son of David. At the beginning of the New Testament in Matthew chapter 1, you can read about Jesus’ genealogy and see that he was a member of King David’s family. He was a human being, who was born of a mother in history, and lived a life like all of us. But he wasn’t just a descendant of King David. He also created King David. Together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, created the world. And Jesus, who is also perfect true God, then died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the dead as a proof that all those who die believing in Christ will also rise from the dead with him.

So what do you think about Jesus? If he isn’t your God, your Lord, then he won’t forgive you, because you believe that he can’t forgive you. So you see in our reading, how Jesus treats the Pharisees in the same way. He preaches to them law and gospel. He tells them the law, but all it will do is show them their sin. It won’t save them. Then he teaches them about himself: because he is the only one who can save them. He is the only one who can die for them and rise again for them and forgive them with the authority of God the Father.

So trust in Jesus. He is the true son of David, but he is also David’s maker, he is also true God. He sets you free and opens up the doors of heaven for you. He baptises you, he gives you his body and blood, not because you have done everything that you should have done, but because he is your Saviour, and your Lord, and all his enemies are under his feet.

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, we have not loved you with our whole heart, and we have not loved our neighbour as ourselves. We have not done what your holy law requires of us. But Jesus Christ, your Son, had made the one, true, perfect sacrifice on the cross for us, he has fulfilled the law for us, and we come into your presence with him, and covered in his blood. Send us the Holy Spirit and strengthen us with everything we need in the coming week ahead, so that we always do what is right. Amen.

Trinity 16: Audio Sermon (9-Oct-11)

Coming...

Trinity 16 [Luke 7:11-17] (9-Oct-11)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am, lay reading), 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: (Luke 7:11-17)

Then Jesus came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Kä cuɛ ben, cuɛ gal thiap, kä cu nɛy tin kapkɛ gal cuɔ̱ŋ. Kä cuɛ wee i̱, "Ŋuɛ̈t, ɣän jiökä ji̱, jiɛc nyuur, kä cuɛ jɛ tok kɛ mi ruacɛ, kä cu Yecu jɛ ka̱m man.

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.

Today’s reading is a very powerful text! That’s because it tells us about a very powerful event that happened. We have two crowds of people who clash in the middle of the street, one crowd with a coffin, and one crowd with Jesus. The two crowds come together, and Jesus wins. He does away with the need for the coffin, raises the young man back to life, and gives him to his mother.

But there are a few situations where Jesus raises people from the dead in the Gospels: we have the raising of this young man, the son of the widow from Nain, we have the raising of Lazarus, and also of Jairus’s daughter. And each of these stories has a little sadness built into them – these were such great miracles. But each of these people – including this young man and his mother in our text today – dies again sometime. Lazarus had to die again, Jairus’s daughter died again and also this young man, the son of the widow, died again.

We assume that when this young man died the second time, he probably outlived his mother and was able to take care of her until she died. But in our gospel reading today, there is a little phrase which is so incredibly significant: “Jesus gave him to his mother.”

That is amazing! Jesus not only raised the man from the dead, but he raised him from the dead for his mother. He did it for her. He gave him back to his mother.

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Right from the beginning of church history, Christians talked about the way of life and the way of death. The way of life means following Jesus, life, and walking in his way. The way of death means following sin, corruption, the devil, and walking in this way. In our gospel reading, we see two crowds, the followers of Jesus and the followers of death, and they meet each other.

Recently, I spoke to a funeral director in Moe, who told me what percentage of funerals they conduct in the Latrobe Valley that are church funerals. Can you guess what percentage he said it was? 1%! Only 1% of funerals in the Latrobe Valley are church funerals. What does that mean for us? What does it mean for our culture? What does that mean for our society and the way we talk about death? What message are people hearing at 99% of funerals?

I’m sure that in the last couple of years at least, some of you have been to civil funerals. Many people often say to me after civil funerals that “it left me cold” or “it was empty” or “there was no Jesus.”

And it’s strange – many funerals which are not supposed to be “religious”, still often have the Lord’s Prayer or “the Lord is my shepherd” read at them. It’s very difficult for many people to talk about death without being religious in some way.

As a pastor, the practice of civil funerals makes my job quite difficult sometimes – because at church funerals, I am often requested to do things which don’t belong at a church funeral, which people have seen at civil funerals. For example, people have asked me if they can sing a football song or some kind of funny music while they lower the coffin into the grave. At a church funeral, that’s just simply not appropriate. At a church funeral, we need to sing something about the resurrection, and something that strengthens us in faith in the face of death, not “Good old Collingwood forever”! (Anyway, Geelong proved the other week that Collingwood isn’t always forever…!)

But there are many things that are said now by people in our society at the time of death which simply aren’t true, or are only half true and weak, and we need to have a fresh look at these things in the light of Christianity.

So let’s bring our funerals now into the presence of Jesus and his followers and see what we make of these things: --

The first thing which I often hear people say is this: “He [or she] will live on in our hearts”. Or sometimes, “The person who has died will live on in our memories.”

Now, there are all sorts of nice feelings, and genuine feelings that are meant when people say this sort of thing, but ultimately it’s not true and doesn’t give us any comfort.

Each person who dies is special to us. There is no-one on earth who is like us – we are all unique. It is really a miracle of God that there has never been a person who has lived nor will there ever be another person who is or will be even close to being like me. (Some people might say: Thank God!)

But as we live our lives, nobody else lives our lives for us. Nobody can live our life for us. But we are baptised, and this means we are baptised into Christ – St Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

So when a person dies, we don’t say that a person lives on in us. They can’t live on in us. Sure, we will remember them, we miss them, we’d love to see them again, but they won’t live on in us. If we say this, we either make them a kind of god, or we make ourselves a kind of god.

The only person who can make a person live, or live on, is Christ. And he is the God not of the dead but of the living. A person doesn’t live because we remember them, they live because Christ has saved them through baptism, and He is the resurrection and the life. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

There are all kinds of religions which are basically built on worshipping ancestors. And there are many Australians who are very close to this, even though they might not be Buddhists or Hindus. If we say a person lives on in us, there can be an enormous amount of guilt on people when we forget about them for a while. Also, people sometimes don’t actually acknowledge that the person who has died has actually died and been separated from them. But we don’t need to worry about a person who has died in the faith, because they’re with Jesus. Jesus keeps them safe with him until the resurrection on the last day. If we do worry about their salvation, Luther said that we should simply ask God that if the person is accessible to his mercy, that he would be merciful to them, and then leave it at that. If you desire something that you don’t know is possible, just tell God about it – he wants to hear it! Commend the person into God’s hands, and then leave it. As Lutherans, we don’t believe in a purgatory, which people can get out of if we pray for them enough, or once they’ve earned their way out of it. Many people don’t talk too much about their faith, but that doesn’t mean that God didn’t give it to them just because you personally didn’t see it or hear it.

Salvation comes through Jesus. He stops the coffin in the middle of the road, and he brings the boy to life again. Jesus brings life, and he is the only one who brings life. We can’t make the person live on in our hearts or in our memories – only Jesus can.

So instead of saying that the person lives on in our hearts or in our memories, we should say that the person is “safe with Jesus”.

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The second thing that is often said is that the person’s body is a “just their shell.” Look what happens in our gospel reading today. Jesus raises a boy from the dead, and gives him back to his mother. Jesus doesn’t give his mother a ghost, he gives her back her child, body and soul.

When a person dies, there is a kind of separation of body and soul, in such a way that we say that the person is “safe with Jesus” even though they are buried in the ground. But that doesn’t mean that the body is of no use, or continues to be of no use. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead as a spirit, he rose from the dead in his body. And in the creeds, we confess that we believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, or in the Apostles’ creed, “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

As modern Christians, we often forget that at the Last Day, Jesus will come and raise our bodies from the dead, just as he is risen from the dead. Sure, our bodies do decay and rot in the ground, but they are not shells. This is the reason why Christians traditionally didn’t cremate, because of the resurrection of the body.

On this earth, the only way we can know a person is through their body. The only way in which the widow at Nain knew her son was through the body that was lying in the coffin. The only way children can know their parents is through their bodies. They can’t sit spiritually on their knees, they can only sit on the knees that belong to their bodies. The only way husbands and wives can know each other, enjoy each other’s company and even make love is through their bodies. So when a person dies, their body shouldn’t be treated as if it’s nothing. A person’s body is not a shell, but it’s more like a seed from which a glorious resurrected body grows like a tree. Think about the transfiguration of Jesus, how his body shines with holy and divine light… our bodies will be the same.

St Paul says: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”

Or Job says: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

So the resurrection of the dead, and of our bodies, is something we need to think about again, and confess not as something we can know by experience, but as something we hope for by faith, leaving all the messy details up to God in his wisdom and in his power. If you want to read more about this, read Ezekiel 37 and 1 Corinthians 15.

So instead of saying, “it’s just the person’s shell”, we should say, “This body will rise again on the Last Day.”

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But the third thing that is often said at funerals is that the person has “gone to be with grandma” or is “reunited in death with” someone.

Death doesn’t reunite anyone. Death is not a organiser who holds family reunions. The only thing death does is take people away from us. St Paul says: “The wages of sin is death.” Death is not a nice thing. Death’s not a nice person. Death is not even a person at all.

If two people die, like Romeo and Juliet, who’s to say that something as impersonal and cold as death will reunite them? Marriage is only for this life. Husbands and wives only promise to love each other “until death us do part”, not forever. But in heaven, it doesn’t mean that we won’t know our husbands and wives, and loved ones, but it will be more important for us that we will all see Jesus together. The fact that we see Jesus will outshine everything – that’s what we desire.

That’s what’s very special about our reading today. Death doesn’t reunite anyone. Look at the crowd following the widow and her son: that is a crowd that knows that the widow and the son have been separated by a tragic death.

But Jesus raises the dead son from the dead and gives him back to his mother. Jesus is actually a person. Death is not a person. Death can’t do anything but take. Jesus does nothing but give. False religions take: Christianity gives. Demons say, I will take your body from you. Christ says: This is my body given for you.

Even though we know that in this gospel reading today, that the widow’s son will die again, there’s a sense in which we know that when they have both died, that Jesus will reunite them in a new way, and give them back to each other in the company of all the saints in heaven. He won’t just let them wander around so that they find each other eventually, but he gives them to each other, in a new way, not as mother and son to each other, but as fellow heirs of eternal life.

So instead of saying, “He gone to be with grandma” we should say, “Grandma and grandpa have both gone to be with Jesus.”

And Jesus doesn’t just wait to give our loved ones back to us at the very end of time. Every Sunday in the Divine Service we say, “With angels and archangels and withall the company of heaven”. The book of Hebrews says that in church we come to the “spirits of the righteous made perfect.” Every Sunday we join in with all the people in heaven as we hear the word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper. When we receive the forgiveness of sins, we receive the judgment that God will speak to us at the end of time, now. We are here with Jesus, and those who have died in the faith are with Jesus too. We receive the body and blood of Christ by faith, they feast in heaven and worship the Lamb of God by sight, redeemed by his blood. We don’t eat and drink the body and blood of a dead Jesus, but of our living and resurrected Lord Jesus, who keeps us in body and soul until life eternal. Coming to church is the same thing as going to heaven, because we are coming into contact with our Lord Jesus who is risen from the dead, and he is not the God of the dead but of the living. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted!

So let your living Lord come to you this morning, see him come and touch the coffin you float through life in, and let him say to you, “Arise.” Hear those words: he spoke them to you when you were baptised, and they ring in your ears every day of your life. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no-one comes to the Father except through you. Call us from the dead and let us follow you on your way, open our ears to your truth and breathe into our bodies your life, and your Holy Spirit. Amen.