St Michael and All Angels: Audio Sermon (29-Sep-2013)

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St Michael and All Angels [Matthew 18:1-10] (29-Sep-2013)

This sermon was preached at a parish service held by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram at the Devon North Hall at Devon North, 11am.

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

Text: (Matthew 18:1-10)

See that you not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

 
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In 2 Kings chapter 6, there is an event where the prophet Elisha and his servant go out early in the morning and see their city surrounded by an army of horses and chariots. The servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Let’s never forget these words: Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. What a great encouragement this passage is to our faith! Today, we celebrate the old church festival of St Michael and All Angels—it is so easy for us to get discouraged by all the things that are happening in our neighbourhoods, towns, in our country and throughout the world. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them! Remember that in the “Holy holy holy” we call God the Lord of hosts. That means, the Lord who has great armies, great armies of angels—angels who fight and defend what is good and right and true and honourable and lovely.  

Our Gospel reading today is from Matthew 18, and in actual fact doesn’t say an enormous amount about angels. Mostly it talks about children and the “little people” of this world. In the previous chapter, in Matthew 17, Jesus had gone up a mountain for his transfiguration. The face of Jesus shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. Jesus took Peter, James and John with him by themselves. Later in the chapter, Jesus and the disciples came to Capernaum and the tax-collectors required Jesus to pay a tax. Jesus sends Peter off on a little fishing trip and says: Go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and yourself.

So we see that Jesus lets only three disciples see the transfiguration. Also, he sent Peter on a special trip by himself to fish for a shekel. You can imagine that the other disciples would start to grumble a bit and wonder if Jesus was playing favourites!

So we read: At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” In some sense, they’re too embarrassed to just come out and ask Jesus, “What’s so good about Peter?” So instead they ask him, “Who’s the greatest?” If Peter’s the greatest, they want Jesus to stop beating around the bush and just come out and say it.

At the same time, there’s something good here: Christians today should imitate the disciples, so that if some question of doubt arises among us and we don’t know how to settle it, we should all go together to Jesus and ask him the question. Jesus is the light which shines in the darkness. He is the true light that enlightens everyone. However, we shouldn’t expect Jesus to answer us deep within our hearts. Each Christian is given a new heart—we sing each Sunday in the offertory song from Psalm 51: Create in me a clean heart, O God. Put a new and right spirit within me. The new heart that God gives to us by his Holy Spirit is not a heart that trusts in itself. That’s what old hearts do. Only old, sinful hearts think that good things come out of them. A new heart trusts in the word of God. All the good things we need come from God’s word revealed to us in the Scripture. So when we want to go and ask Jesus a question, we should expect the answer to be found in the Scripture. And if we receive an answer to our question in our own heart which is against the Scripture, then we know that the answer didn’t come from Jesus at all, but rather was a fiery dart of the evil one. So it’s a good thing to ask Jesus a question—but only the living words of Jesus, the words of the Scripture, can strengthen our sinful hearts.

Also, the disciples realise something here which is very significant, something which many Christians don’t understand anymore today. In the kingdom of heaven, not everyone is equal. Now in some sense, yes, everyone is equal in that we were all equally created by God, and Jesus died equally for each person in the world. But sometimes there are certain people who are chosen for special work in the kingdom of God—we can look back at Christian history and realise that sometimes there have been some people who have seemed to be completely alone in their confession of the truth. Think of all the times St Paul, for example, was completely alone. Also, later in history, St Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria in Egypt in the 4^th century, was one of the few people to defend the true teaching about the divinity of Jesus Christ at a time when many people thought he was God’s first creation. He was known as “Athanasius contra mundum” (“Athanasius against the world”). And then, we think of Martin Luther, for example, who was very lonely in the confession that Christians are justified by faith not by works, in a time when the exact opposite was being promoted at the highest levels of the church. All of us today benefit from the faithful witness of these people in Christian history—we don’t resent them for having been given a special task in the history of the church, but we thank God for these people. The disciples here also knew that there is a kind of inequality among Christians, not in their value or worth in the sight of God, but in their calling.

So we read: And calling to him a child, [Jesus] put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is not telling the disciples to become “young”, but “innocent”. Children have not learnt all the heartache of adulthood yet—they are quick to cry, quick to forgive and quick to laugh. They trust what adults tell them. But Jesus also says: Unless you turn. Unless you convert. This ambition and jealousy that the disciples have is not from the Holy Spirit—they need to repent of it and turn around and convert. If God wants to use them in a special way, he will exalt them at the proper time, not when they choose. In the meantime, the disciples need to convert, turn and become like children—they need humility. Jesus even warns them in such a way that if they stay prideful and arrogant and ambitious and jealous, they could even be thrown out of the kingdom of heaven. He says: Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Our whole society today is one where people think they have outgrown Christianity. Maybe you too think that you have outgrown the simplicity of Jesus’ words and you’re looking for something more spiritual, more intellectual, more practical. This attitude is not a mature attitude: it’s a childish attitude. It’s the attitude of a sulky, rebellious teenager who needs a Christian education. There’s a reason why so many people lose the faith when they become teenagers: it’s because they mistake growing up and becoming an adult with hating children, and hating simplicity. They try to make themselves grown up by looking down on children. Our world today is full of spiritual teenagers—people who are teenagers for their whole lives: they hate children and childhood, and yet they never grow up. There’s nothing worse than a 30, 40, 50, 60, 85 year old teenager! No—a Christian adult values the small people, the little people, the humble, the children, the innocent. Christianity is simple. It is simple in the way it condemns all your sin, and it is simple in the way it forgives all your sin.

So Jesus says: Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

When we learn the bible and study it, half the battle for us is to break down all the barriers to the Holy Spirit that we have learnt later in life. If we’re going to be saved, we need to trust our Father that his word is true. And we only call God Father, because of Jesus—we learn to call God our Father, because Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father”, and we are children of God together with Jesus. And so when we call God, “Father”, God the Father says to us, “My child: what do you want? What can I do for you?” This childlike faith is so simple! As Luther says in the Small Catechism: With these words [Our Father in heaven] God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true father and that we are his true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him as dear children ask their dear Father.

When the Holy Spirit creates in us this childlike faith, we become children and we are humbled to become like all the little children in the church. And Jesus says: Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Jesus promises to meet us in each physical child, each little person in our midst that we receive in his name, and also through each spiritual child, each simple Christian. Jesus says: he receives me. I promise to meet you and come to you when you trust my word like a little child, says Jesus, and receive another child just like you in my name. What a wonderful gift this is! What an amazing place the kingdom of God is!

On the other hand, Jesus gives a warning to us if we do the opposite: But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

So right at the end of our reading, Jesus teaches us what all this has to do with the angels. He says: See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Do not despise one of these little ones. Don’t resent them. Don’t think that you have grown up so much that you are better than them.

Childlike simplicity, childlike faith, is the very thing that our Lord Jesus calls to us to embrace. We should gladly hear and learn God’s word, and teach it and live by the word of God in its truth and purity, in its simplicity.

Jesus says: For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Simple childlike faith is the very thing that our Lord Jesus calls us to embrace—it is the very cross and life that he calls us to embrace. We shouldn’t be afraid of childlike faith and simplicity, because this faith comes with angelic protection. Increase our faith, Lord Jesus! Just as the angels look upon the face of God, so we shall also see him face to face, just as St John says: We shall see him as he is.

We know that as we go through life hearing voices all around us saying, “Grow up into rebellious teenagers like us! Curse God and die!”, we know that it is a struggle and a battle to remain as children. There is a temptation to outgrow our love for God, our faith in God, our trust in his word. But remember Elisha with his servant. Remember Elisha’s encouragement: Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

Jesus says: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

May God the Holy Spirit kindle and awaken in us this childlike faith! Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we know that your word does not lie. Send us the Holy Spirit to turn our hearts from idolatry and become like little children, humble and obedient in your service. Send your angels to protect us, to watch over us, and to pray for us. Amen.

Trinity 17: Audio Sermon (22-Sep-2013)

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Trinity 17 [Luke 14:1-11] (22-Sep-2013)

This sermon was 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: (Luke 14:1-11)

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Our Gospel reading today has two parts: the first part is where Jesus goes to a dinner party hosted by a ruler of the Pharisees, and heals a man from dropsy. And then in the second part, Jesus tells a parable about a wedding banquet.

So let’s first of all look at the first part of our reading where Jesus is invited to dinner. We read: One Sabbath, when [Jesus] went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. Notice that the reading says: they were watching him carefully. Here we can see that the Pharisees were watching Jesus’ every move, trying to catch him out and trap him. And yet, Jesus still comes to be their guest. He comes and eats with these hypocritical Pharisees, because he wants to pour out his blessings on everyone who was there through his words and through his miracles.

Many people often say, “I’m not going to church: it’s full of hypocrites!” In our Gospel reading today, Jesus visits some Pharisees. They are hypocrites, they don’t deserve to be visited by Jesus, but he wants to visit them anyway. Jesus is always visiting hypocrites because there’s no one else in the world to visit! He always visits hypocrites like us, because he wants to show us our hypocrisy and forgive it and heal it.

And so we read that there was a man before [Jesus] who had dropsy. Dropsy is a disease where a person ends up with a lot of fluid and swelling. When this sick, puffy man comes and stands in front of Jesus in the middle of the dinner, Jesus puts the Pharisees to shame by asking them a question.

We read: Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” It’s strange that it says here Jesus responded, because no one asked him any questions! What was Jesus responding to? He was responding to the fact that these Pharisees were watching him carefully. Jesus knew the thoughts of these men. In 1 Samuel 16 it says: Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So Jesus shows himself to us as our true God, by not simply answering the Pharisees questions, but answering their thoughts.

He says: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” Jesus shows everyone there just how silly the Pharisees really are. God had blessed the Sabbath, but they said that nobody was allowed do any good on the Sabbath. But a day of the week where people can’t do any good is not a day which is blessed, but a day which is cursed!

The Pharisees knew from their own consciences that their traditions were silly—they had nothing to say. As people say: “They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t!” Jesus often works with his word on our consciences like this. He puts to us a question—sometimes through the most unlikely person—and we realise that the only thing we can do is remain silent. We are convicted of our sin and our hypocrisy. If it is permitted to heal on the Sabbath day, why did the Pharisees watch Jesus to see if he would heal? If it were not permitted, why do they look after their sheep and cows and goats on the Sabbath and give them water to drink? So we read: But they remained silent.

So Jesus takes no notice of the trap that has been set for him, and He cures the man with dropsy. This man didn’t ask him to be healed because it was the Sabbath, but only stood up in front of Jesus. He placed himself in front of Jesus, so that He would have compassion on him and heal him. How many times does Jesus help us and strengthen us and heal us in all sorts of ways even when we didn’t even ask him! He simply looked at us because we were standing there in front of him, and that was all it needed for a silent prayer to enter his heart! Jesus didn’t even ask whether this man with dropsy wanted to be healed. He could read this man’s thoughts too, he knew the great desire and longing and suffering and turmoil that was going on in this man behind closed doors. Such is the great love that Jesus has for everyone! Jesus doesn’t just have compassion on us because of what we say with our mouths, but because of what we think and desire with our minds. In fact, he even has compassion on us simply because we need it, even when we don’t ask!

So we read: Jesus took him and healed him and sent him away. Jesus didn’t care about offending the Pharisees, but simply did what needed to be done to help the sick man. Love doesn’t care about what fools think about it! We should also keep it in mind that when something good needs to be done, we shouldn’t worry about offending people. May Jesus send us his own courage to do what is right and true and good and loving in his sight, no matter what other people think!

Jesus can’t be put to shame. We can’t pull the wool over Jesus’ eyes. If we want to shame Jesus, the shame will be on us, like a mirror. So he says: “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. In other words, Jesus is saying that if you can’t do good on the Sabbath, then don’t look after your animals. Don’t even feed or care for your family and children if love and goodness and mercy is forbidden! – So with these words, Jesus turns away the eyes of those who were watching him carefully, so that they would have to turn away in shame. This man with dropsy is worth so much more than the animals! And if this man is worth more than an animal, don’t you think Christ would want to heal him and rescue him?

It’s strange though: this man is healed of his puffiness from all the fluid that has built up from the dropsy. And Jesus also un-puffs the Pharisees so that they have nothing to say: they have a kind of brain disease, where they add a whole lot of fluid around God’s law, so that they can’t think straight, and end up as total hypocrites. We also have such a tendency to overcomplicate God’s word, and we want to add to it or take away from it. We don’t want to be accused by God’s law, but we add our own laws which we think are much more manageable and easier. We add a puffy padding to God’s word to make it softer to land on. No—Jesus comes and deflates the Pharisees bubble-wrap. He wants us to come face to face with the real law of God, he wants to put our hypocrisy to silence, because only a real sinner can receive the real forgiveness of God. May the Holy Spirit also reveal to us our real sin—not our pretend sins—so that we can also receive real healing for it from our real Saviour.

Jesus goes on now to tell a parable. Now he wants to teach about true humility. He wants to teach us that Christians shouldn’t be puffed up and conceited and arrogant, but should be drained of all of our extra fluid! He says: When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honour. If you sit down in a place of honour, it means you think you’re the most distinguished person there! As Jesus says: there may be someone more distinguished than you who has been invited.

Who is the most distinguished person in your minds who has come to church today, to celebrate the wedding feast with our Lord Jesus? Is it you? Do you sit yourself in the place of honour? Be careful, or Jesus might ask you to sit somewhere else, and let someone more distinguished that you sit there.

Do you think that you’re a good faithful Christian? Do you believe that you deserve to be singled out above others? Don’t fatten up your ego too much, or that extra fluid will have to be drained! I challenge you to think about each person who comes to church and to thank God for them and particularly for something that you can see in them that God has given to them that he hasn’t given to you! Then you will really learn how we are all members of one body, and that the church is not the place for God to play favourites.

Jesus teaches us the opposite. He says: when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ In these words Jesus doesn’t deal with us harshly, but speaks to us gently and kindly. Those who are humble will take the advice.

The church is not the place for keeping up appearances. Whole churches fall into this trap, and whole churches can be humbled together in one fell swoop and told to go and sit in the back corner. But this true humility begins in the heart, and it is one of the hardest lessons for a Christian to learn. Jesus is a master surgeon: he heals the dropsy, but now he takes his scalpel and does open heart surgery and cleans out all the pride that clogs up our arteries, all the arrogance which spreads like cancer. Take a low place in the kingdom of God, consider yourself insignificant, and let God use you as his precious child and chosen vessel in his own time, not in your time. Let him say to you, “Friend, move up higher”, when he chooses.

St Peter says: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Listen to those words: at the proper time. In our reading it says: Then – and only then – you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at table with you.

The kingdom of God is not the place for putting yourself forward. It is the place to dedicate yourself every day as Christ’s insignificant piece of broken pottery, as Christ’s slave, as the dog begging under his table. But at the same time, Jesus is the one who exalts you as his brother and sister, God the Father is the one who exalts you to be his precious child, the Holy Spirit is the one who exalts you in such a way as to be comforted by him. Christ gives us such a wonderful dignity and worth and value—but it is his gift, not our work. He exalts us—he promises to exalt us, and he actually does exalt us. In the proper time—it says—God will exalt you, not in your time. And we know that in the next life—which will come about not when we want—we will be raised up to be with Christ forever.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus comes to his wedding feast despising the proud, and exalting the humble. That’s what Christ does and he doesn’t do it in any other way. May Jesus teach us his humility each and every day, and put to death the pride and arrogance and self-esteem that is at work in us, so that he will exalt us, as he has promised.

May our Saviour and friend reach out and take us by the hand and say to each one of us: Friend, move up higher! Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we place ourselves in presence, not knowing how we should pray. You know all our thoughts and our longings and our desires. Heal us by your mercy of all our problems, which you know so much better than we do. Teach us true humility—that same humility which submitted to your father’s will and even took you to the cross. We pray also that as you have promised you would also, by your infinite kindness and love, exalt us and raise us up in your time, at the proper time. Amen.

Response to Kevin Rudd on Q&A about Gay Marriage

On the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday 2 September 2013, our prime-minister (at the time) Kevin Rudd was asked by a Baptist pastor, Matt Prater, about his views on marriage as between a man and a woman. The question was posed that if Jesus defines marriage as between a man and a woman, why doesn’t Kevin Rudd believe what Jesus says?

In his response, Kevin Rudd made three assertions: (1) that gay people are born gay, therefore it’s a natural condition, and therefore the state should allow them to be married, (2) that the bible teaches that slavery is a natural condition and therefore what the bible says on marriage can also be rejected, and (3) that he reached these conclusions by his informed Christian conscience.

On 13 May 2013, Kevin Rudd made a public announcement informing a change in his view concerning gay marriage. The full document can be found here: http://www.kevinrudd.org.au/marriage_equality. (Last accessed 10 Sept 2013).

Homosexuality as a natural condition

In the gay marriage debate in Australia, there hasn’t been a proper distinction between the issue of homosexuality in general, and homosexual marriage. The issue concerning homosexuality in general, whether it is right or wrong, is a different issue to whether or not people who identify themselves as gay should be married, and whether or not gay relationships should be called and identified as a marriage. This lack of distinction has resulted in people wrongly treating the issue of gay marriage as a religious question, as if this definition does not impact a secular state. Some people have called upon the “separation of church and state” in such a way as to say that people with religious views have no right to participate in public affairs and public debate.
 
In respect to Christian teaching about these matters, Jesus himself defines marriage as being between a man and a woman:
 

Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (Matthew 19:4-6, ESV)

 
Jesus also teaches here that it is God himself who joins men and women together in marriage.
 

Also, the bible in other places calls homosexuality sin:

 

For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women who were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27).

 

Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 1:9-11)

                 

We know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. (1 Timothy 1:8-11).

 
In Romans, the apostle mentions both homosexuality in women and in men. In 1 Corinthians 6, there are two words which are translated “men who practice homosexuality” which refer to the “passive and active partners in consensual homosexual acts” (ESV footnote). (This also stands as a warning to heterosexual couples who practice anal sex.)
 

When these passages talk about homosexuality, they are not talking about a “sexual identity” or even “sexual orientation”, but simply about the acts. This, however, does not mean that the inclination towards homosexuality is not also sin, but this is a different issue. Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount:

                               

You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 6:27-28)

 
Sexual orientation can also be wrong in the way in which men behave towards women and vice-versa. Can you imagine though if everyone who lusted after someone else in their hearts thought that they should act on it? Maybe someone will scientifically prove one day that there are some people who are born to have affairs. This doesn’t mean that they should act on their impulses and wreck their marriages.
 
In the same way, if a person feels a certain inclination or attraction to people of the same sex, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they should act upon their impulses and get into bed. This is why Christians have always maintained that people who feel like this, and who don’t want to get married to someone of the opposite sex, should remain celibate.
 
Marriage between a man and a woman obviously needs to have priority because of the potential of these relationships to produce children. Of course, there are also people who get married later in life, and those who are infertile, but this is another issue. It does not impact on the state’s obligation (religion aside) to protect and defend the natural family unit as it is. The changing of the definition of marriage in the Australian marriage act to include homosexual couples would remove any unique recognition of the potential fertility of marriages between men and women.
 
It is not the duty of the state to tell its people what is a sin and what is not: that is the church’s job. But the state still needs to evaluate what is in the best interests of the nation and its people, apart from religious views that people might hold.
 

Scientific data which seeks to prove that people are born with a homosexual inclination is one thing. Other people can argue out whether the science is correct or not. Whether or not this science is correct does not therefore imply that people with a homosexual inclination should get married, or even that they should have sex. I would challenge those who think otherwise what value or benefit it would be to a society to promote complete sexual unrestraint. A celibate life is too often ridiculed too, and St Paul even praises the benefits of it:

               

The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. (1 Corinthians 7:32-33)

 

Slavery as a natural condition

Kevin Rudd also claimed that slavery is a natural condition in the bible. This isn’t true: slavery is mentioned and sometimes structured in a certain way, but it is does not promote it. Also, there is a lot of difference between slavery in the ancient world and the sort of slavery that came about in American history. In the times of the New Testament, under Roman rule, it was also the case that “slaves” were not slaves for life, but for a fixed time, after which they could go free.
 
St Paul writes:
 

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by way of eye-service, as people pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. (Ephesians 6:5-8).

 
However, this passage needs to be seen in light of 1 Corinthians 7:21-23:
 

Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.

 
Here, it can be seen that St Paul encourages slaves to avail themselves of the opportunity to gain their freedom, and also, if they are not a slave, not to sell themselves into slavery. Also in 1 Timothy 1:10 (cited above), St Paul condemns “enslavers”, that is, “those who take someone captive in order to sell him into slavery” (ESV footnote).
 
The intent of Ephesians 6 is to give people who are already caught in slavery the proper advice as to how to deal the bad situation they find themselves in: they should be faithful to their contract and do it without rebelling and such like. This doesn’t mean that the New Testament promotes slavery or calls it a “natural condition”, or as Kevin Rudd put it, that on the basis of the bible, Christians would have been bound the fight in favour of slavery in American history.
 
An informed Christian conscience
Many places in the New Testament, Christians are encouraged to pray for their leaders (eg 1 Timothy 2:1-2). The leaders that we have in Australia are much less tyrannic than many of those Roman Caesars early Christians had to live under. We have a lot to give thanks to God for in this peaceful country of ours. Christians are called to pray and thank God for our politicians and gladly do good to them, showing them proper respect. We should also give thanks to God for the prime-ministerships of both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and now Tony Abbott, whether we agree with their views or not.
 
Christians are also not called to be homophobic: we are called to show love to all people including gay people. The bible is not a “homophobic book”, but still calls homosexuality sin. However, all Christians are sinners, and we don’t have a right to consider ourselves more righteous than anyone else. St Paul writes: “no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12). The church preaches the forgiveness of sins to all nations (Mark 16:15). This sort of talk will offend people, and faithful Christians will be accused of being judgmental, patronising, hate-mongering, self-righteousness, and such like. Often the accusations won’t be true, even though many Christians are still guilty of behaving badly and hatefully. Christians need to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
 
Because of our cloudiness of judgment and the way in which sin even pervades our opinions and motives, if we are going to form a Christian conscience, we need to pay attention to the word of Scripture, which St Peter calls, “the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19).
 
God himself is not “homophobic”, and the Westboro Baptist Church in the USA speak out-and-out lies when they hold their placards saying, “God hates fags”. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, he is like a waiting father—for many people, the Father they never had—who when he saw his son returning home, “felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
 
It should also be the prayer of every Christian that a conscience, formed by the word of God, may be continually worked in each person, including our leaders in government.

  
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Stephen van der Hoek
10 September 2013

Trinity 16: Audio Sermon (15-Sep-2013)

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Trinity 16 [Luke 7:11-17] (15-Sep-2013)

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: (Luke 7:11-17)

The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

 
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. 

Each Sunday, we say a very unusual thing in our divine service: Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we adore and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying: Holy, holy, holy. Through the holy and life-giving flesh of Jesus we are united in the Divine Service, as we hear the Word of God and come to receive Christ’s body and blood, to everyone who has died in the faith before us. I will preach about this in more detail on another Sunday, but the book of Hebrews tells us that in the church we have come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

Many of our songs and hymns proclaim a certain reality that we are standing in the faith of our fathers. Each Sunday we confess the Nicene Creed which has been recited in Christian churches for 1600 years or so. Each Sunday we sing the song which is called the Gloria in Excelsis Deo: Glory to God in the highest. This Christian song goes all the way back to the maybe the second century. Each Sunday we sing psalms, many of which could be even 3000 year old texts. This is not to mention the fact that the Holy, Holy, Holy and the Glory to God in the highest were given to the church to sing by angels directly out of heaven. The Holy, holy, holy was recorded by Isaiah from his vision, and the words Glory to God in the highest were reported by the shepherds keeping watch in the fields at the time of Jesus’ birth. We stand in a long tradition, and we stand in unity with all those prophets, and martyrs and saints and apostles that have come before us.

But if there is one thing that separates us in our modern times, where everyone thinks they know everything, is that people think that the resurrection from the dead is not possible. God will judge the Christians of our time on this point. In our reading today we have a man risen from the dead by Jesus: and many Christians today think that this is just a “story”, just a “myth”, and instead of teaching us an historical fact, it is simply “making a point”. Yes, the events make a point: the point that this event makes is that Jesus raises the dead, and proves it by actually doing it, so that we can also be comforted by the fact that one day Jesus will also raise our bodies from the dead, and draw us in body and soul to himself to live with him. When we die, our souls are separated from the body and are united with Jesus so that they are kept safe by him. But on the last day there will also be a reunification of our bodies with our souls and a complete transformation of our bodies so that they will be like his. We say in the Apostles’ Creed: We believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Today, many pastors and churches want to make the faith entertaining to people. There is even a church in Gippsland which has changed its name to “Enjoy Church”. What’s going on? The church doesn’t give you entertainment, it gives you salvation! If we want to replace the resurrection of the dead with entertainment, then don’t be surprised if the angels, the archangels and all the company of heaven would turn our backs on us and refuse to sing the holiness and the majesty of our risen Lord Jesus together with us who have lost the faith that they confess: the faith that they can see it with their own eyes.

I say this not to cause you to despair, but to call your minds to consider the great seriousness and wonder and joy of our holy Christian faith! Without faith we are nothing, and our faith doesn’t come from us but is created in us by the Holy Spirit! God’s word doesn’t lie: he speaks it to us with power, in love and in truth. May God our heavenly Father send us the Holy Spirit and create this living faith in us!

In our reading today, we read: Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain. This miracle happened soon after another one and Jesus wants join lots of miracles together like one big long sentence. We should also remember that each word of the bible is kind of a miracle which fits together one after the other, just like Jesus’ miracles fit after each other. This verse is the only place where the town Nain is mentioned: it’s a town in Galilee, which by road today is about 144kms north of Jerusalem. That’s about the distance between Moe and Bairnsdale, which is a long way to go on foot. Even today, it’s just a small place of about 1500 people, smaller than Yarram. This should remind us that small places can be incredibly significant in God’s plans—today there is a church in Nain which commemorates the event in our reading.

We read in our reading that when Jesus went to this town, his disciples and a great crowd went with him. Just before this, Jesus had healed a Roman centurion’s sick servant. You might remember how this centurion said: I am not worthy to have you come under my roof…but say the word and let my servant be healed. Now Jesus is not just going to heal a sick man, but he is going to raise a dead man! So Jesus takes a crowd with him who witnessed the first miracle so that they can come and witness an even better one! He wants to teach the people here that one day there will be a day when you will be completely healed of all your sicknesses: your cancers, your blindness, your pain, your surgical wounds, your arthritis, your carpel-tunnel, your flus and colds. Jesus himself will bring an end to all these things and he will wipe away every tear from your eyes. But not only that, but he will also raise your bodies from the dead! And it will all happen through the power of the word of God which you even have the opportunity to hear on this earth. We read and preach the word of God in this church because this is the word that will heal you of disease and sickness and it is the word that will rise you from the dead.

We read: As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother. Maybe after the people had seen the centurion’s servant healed, they thought that maybe he would have been healed anyway. Here’s a man who’s dead. What do you think Jesus is going to do now?

The dead man’s mother was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. You can see the great pain and sadness of this mother. She had no other children, and she looked to her son to look after her. The pain is all the more great because this is her only child. It’s a great tragedy for her, and the people of the town feel for her too. They felt compassion for her, and wanted to walk with her and support her and comfort her.

We read: And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Here we see our Lord in his human flesh looking upon this woman with his human eyes, having compassion on her from the depth of his human heart, and speaking comfort to her with his human mouth. But don’t you know also that these eyes are full of the resurrection and full of Christ’s divine nature so much so that these are God’s eyes that are looking at her! Don’t you know that these are the compassionate sighs that flow from God’s heart which desires to comfort all people! And don’t you know that this Jesus who speaks is speaking the words of God with the mouth of God! Believe this great mystery.

Jesus our Lord is not just a human being, but he is true man and true God in one person. There is nothing that he does or says that is not the action or word of God and the action or word of a man at the same time. Jesus is equal to the Father in his divine nature, and obedient to him in his human nature.

Jesus says: Do not weep. We might have a friend who would say the same thing to us if we were crying. They might say to us: “Get it out of your system”, “it’s good to cry”, “let it all out”. Jesus doesn’t say this to this woman. He says: “Do not weep.” Why? Because there’s no point crying over something she can’t fix? Is he saying to her: “Stop your crying. Get over it”? No. He says: “do not weep”, because of what he’s going to do. This is not human comfort, this is the comfort of God, this is the living voice of the man who calls himself and who truly is the Resurrection and the Life.

Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. Jesus comes and touches the coffin, so that you can know that the sacred body of Jesus, his holy touch is powerful, and will bring about your salvation. This body of Christ—the flesh of Jesus—contains all the power of God. When a blacksmith takes a piece of iron and puts it in the fire, the uses the iron to burn something, he uses the iron to do fiery work, to do the work of fire. Since the human body of Jesus is united in one person to the eternal Word of God, the body of Jesus does “fiery” work, it does godly work, it raises dead things. And so when Jesus comes and touches the coffin, the people stand still. The time for resurrection is the time for all mortal flesh to keep silence. Jesus says: Be still, and know that I am God.

Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Jesus doesn’t do his work simply through his body or his touch by itself, but he does it through his word. When Jesus speaks, then we can believe in him. Because Jesus speaks and calls this man to sit up, we can have no doubt at all that it is Him who is responsible for this man’s resurrection and no one else. In the same way, baptism saves us and gives us salvation and eternal life: but we wouldn’t know it unless Jesus had said something for us to believe in. Otherwise, we would be saved by works, by the work of baptism, and not by faith. Faith believes in the word of Jesus. Jesus actually says: Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved. We are baptised and we know that his word does not lie. The Lord’s Supper is also a wonderful gift of the body and blood of Christ given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. But we wouldn’t know this if it weren’t for the words of Jesus: This is my body, this is my blood, given for you, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. We eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, but we know that his word does not lie. In the same way, Jesus doesn’t just touch the coffin in our reading, but he also speaks a word to the dead man.

We read: And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Just so that we can know that the man is truly living, he speaks, and then Jesus fulfils his compassion and love for this woman. He gave this woman an “election promise” when he said to her: “Do not weep”, and now he follows through with it! He is not like a politician who has to make promises that he can’t keep, but he always follows through and delivers his promise. We read: Jesus gave him to his mother.

Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

May we also be seized by this kind of fear that was in these people, and glorify God! What happened before these people then happens to us too, in a spiritual way. A great prophet, Jesus Christ, arises and stands among us each and every day, and walks with us, and kills of all our doom and gloom and brings new life to our hearts and minds and souls. Jesus himself visits his people in the flesh, and he himself is true God. He raises us up from our spiritual death of sin each day through his powerful word. Each time this happens it is a great miracle, even greater than the last time it happened. But also let us never forget that each time Jesus speaks to us his powerful word of the forgiveness of sins bought with his blood which he shed on the cross, that his will is done on earth as it is heaven. And just as this man was raised from the dead in that small town in Israel, Jesus also promises to raise you from the dead on the last day. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

Come, Holy Spirit, and create and work in us a living faith through the powerful word of Jesus Christ. Raise up our mortal bodies, our sinful flesh, and breathe new life into them here in this life and also there in the next life, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.