Saturday 10 March 2012

Lent 3 [Luke 11:14-28] (11-March-2012)

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 11:14-28)
Jesus said: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.


In Psalm 1, we read: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Ask yourself, is the law of the Lord your delight? Do you love God’s word? Do you meditate on it day and night?

In the book of Psalms, we read that there are 150 different songs, poems, prayers, meditations – call them what you like – which Christians throughout the centuries have used every day. In fact, at the first Council of Nicaea in the year 325, when the Nicene Creed was first put together, it was agreed that all pastors had to have the entire book of Psalms memorised as a prerequisite for ordination. Could you imagine what a strength our pastors would be to the church if they were still required to do that?

But I want to focus on one word in this passage: meditate – But on his law he meditates day and night.

Often when people talk about meditation, one starts to think about Hindu gurus sitting in a circle with a group of people in dark rooms clinking little finger cymbals together and pondering the universe. In the last 50 years or so, western people have looked to Eastern religions for guidance on things like meditation. And this has made a huge impact on our culture. In pretty much all the large towns in Gippsland there are people who run courses on meditation, yoga or Tai-Chi which people can attend.

Many people do this for all sorts of reasons: health, mental well-being, religious reasons, and so forth.

Now the bible talks about meditation, but in quite a different way to Buddhism or Hinduism. Many people who go to yoga or meditation classes are taught to empty their minds of all their worries, their problems and their cares. But the bible talks in the opposite way: meditation is not about emptying your mind, but about filling it. Many people when they go to meditation classes are seeking techniques of meditation, but the bible is not concerned about how you meditate, how you are sitting or standing or lying down or what, but it is concerned about what you are meditating upon.

There is a real danger when people are taught to empty their minds, because then the question is: what are you going to fill it with?

This is precisely the issue that Jesus is talking about in our reading today.
He says:
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

You see, it’s one thing for a demon to be cast out, but what also needs to happen is the person is filled with the Holy Spirit.
It’s one thing to empty your mind, but your mind needs to be emptied into the hands of God.
It’s one thing to empty your mind, but your mind needs to be filled with the word of God.

Otherwise, what will happen? Jesus says: “Then [the evil spirit] goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

Now the word “meditate” in Hebrew, literally means to “chew”. In English, we talking about “chewing something over”, thinking it over, thinking it through – this is what is meant here when the bible says “meditate”. But also, it means to speak the thing over quietly to yourself. Often people are talking something over to themselves, imagining a situation as if you were having a conversation with someone and practising it in advance. This is meditation. Sometimes we sit in church, and we think something over – and sometimes in a sermon, people are drawn off into all sorts of topics. Sometimes people feel quite guilty about this for not paying attention. But this is meditation on the word of God.

And you see how in Psalm 1, meditation on the word of God is pitted against everything that evil. It’s a remedy against evil things.
It says: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, not sits in the way of scoffers, [notice here: wicked, sinners, scoffers] but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

So in our reading today Jesus is accused about casting out demons through the power of Satan. They say: “He casts our demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.”

But Jesus points out their false thinking: because demons don’t go around casting out demons. Only the finger of God casts out demons. But in today’s sermon we’re not so much going to focus on that point.

But the question I want to focus on today is this: When the demons are cast out, what is going to replace them?

All of us are by nature born under the power of the devil. Ever since Satan tricked Adam and Eve into eating the fruit, the whole human race has been under his power. Every day we need to come into the presence of God and confess our sins to him. Every day we need to put all our thoughts, words and actions in his hands and ask for forgiveness from him.

But when God forgives us, he doesn’t just forgive our sin, but he gives us the Holy Spirit through that forgiveness, so that the evil one doesn’t come in and make a wreck of us sometime later.

Also, this is why the third commandment is so important. Many people, and many people who call themselves Christians, don’t understand why it is so important to come to church. It is necessary to be constantly filled with the powerful, living words of God as often as you can. This is what the church is here for: to preach to you the word of God, so that you can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that evil won’t come back to make a mess of you.

We all know that the devil is making a mess of us all the time, and that we are always disappointing ourselves. And it is a good thing to despair of ourselves, and to realise that we are completely weak and helpless. But that doesn’t mean that we should despair of God. We are baptised, God himself has done his work on us, He himself has washed away our sins, His word created the world, and it is a powerful word.

But at the end of our reading we have a very strange event, that at first glance, we might think doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus’ teaching on demons in the first half of our reading.

We read: As Jesus said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

There is a woman here who is overjoyed by this teaching of Jesus. Maybe she has been trying to shake off some sin, or some devilish influence, or some bad habit of hers for year and years. And then just when she feels like she’s got somewhere, and made some improvement, she falls back into it, just like a dog returning to its vomit. And she’s beaten herself up about it time and time again. She thought she was faithful and serious believer, but she always disappoints herself.

And then here, she listens to this wisdom from Jesus’ lips, and says: “His mother must be proud!” “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”

Now sometimes, this text is used by Protestants to poo-poo the Virgin Mary. Now many people who live in Gippsland will know many Roman Catholics who pray to Mary, and use the Rosary, and all that sort of thing. And in other countries throughout the world, devotion to Mary is much stronger than in Australia. There are some Catholics that even think that she is what they call “Co-Redemptrix”, which means that she shared in the Redemption of the world from sin together with Jesus.  This isn’t official Catholic teaching, but there are still many Catholics who believe this.

Now many of these things are serious blasphemies, and we should make sure that we don’t pray to Mary, and if we know people who do, we should give them an honest confession and witness to the truth, and tell them to pray to our Father in heaven, through Jesus Christ. If they listen, good. 1 Timothy 2 says: “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Lutherans, and other Protestants, should be careful on the other hand not to poo-poo the Virgin Mary instead. The Virgin Mary is a great example to our faith, and she was blessed above all other women because she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus Christ. Elizabeth said to her: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

And so in our reading today, Jesus doesn’t snub off his mother. He just doesn’t let this woman put her confidence in Mary’s womb and breasts. She says: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!”

Jesus says: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Mary is a great example to us, not because of her womb and he breasts, but be cause she heard the word of God and kept it. We read about many places where she listened to God’s word from the angels, and then it says: “she tried to discern what sort of a greeting this might be.” Also it says: “She treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

You should do the same thing. Listen to the words of God, and treasure them in your heart. Hear the Word of God, and keep it. Keep it on your mouth, meditate on it, let it saturate you, let it marinade you over. And just as Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb in this way, also he will grow up inside of you. And your heart, your mind and your body will be filled with Jesus, in whom the God dwells in his fullness, and you will be filled with the Holy Spirit – all through God’s word. And when the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in you through God’s word, then you will be protected from the evil spirit bringing back seven more of his friends and bringing you down to despair.

It’s the word of God that gives everything its power: baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the church. The Church without the word of God is an empty church, but not only that, it is a dangerous church, because when something is empty, is has the potential to be filled with the wrong stuff.

So listen to the words of Jesus and keep them with you. Treasure up all these things and ponder them in your heart. Meditate on the law of the Lord day and night.

Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we trust in your word, and your power to save. Through Holy Baptism, you have forgiven us from all sin, rescued us from death and defeated the devil for us. Protect us by word from all further harm, and fill us with your words, come and make your home in us, and send us the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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