Septuagesima: Audio Sermon (27-Jan-2013)

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Septuagesima [Matthew 20:1-16] (27-Jan-2013)

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

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

Text: (Matthew 20:1-16)

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?

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

The things that Jesus outlines in our parable today are a fairly unusual way to run a workplace. Can you imagine if the CEO of Loy Yang or Yallourn power station or some major industrial company went out to hire workers at different stages during the day. One man does a full day’s work, another does half a day’s work and another does one hour’s work. All the different men have done different hours, and some have done much more work than others. But when they get their paid, they find out that everyone has been paid the same amount as if they had all done a full shift.

Could you imagine what would happen? It wouldn’t be fair! There would be strikes and riots and all sorts going on! The people who had worked longed hours would think that their work wasn’t valued.

But Jesus tells us a parable where almost this exact thing happens. A man has a vineyard, and in those days the working day went from 6am to 6pm. At the 6am, he hires some men, at 9am he hires some more men, at midday and at 3pm he goes out and hires some more men. Then at 5pm, he goes out and finds some people lazing around in the market place, and he hires them too. And at the end of day, at 6pm, when it’s time to clock off work, he pays the men who worked for one hour a full day’s wage, and then everyone gets the same pay. What would you think if you were one of the workers?

We read: Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?

Jesus wants to teach us something very significant here. Our reading starts with the words: The kingdom of heaven is like a master of house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. Jesus wants to teach us that the kingdom of heaven is not a business, and is not run in the same way that people run a business.

When Jesus says, “the kingdom of heaven”, what exactly is he talking about? He is talking not so much about the next life, but he is talking about our life here on this earth, where the kingdom of heaven becomes a reality amongst us.

But how do we know where the kingdom of God is? Martin Luther once said: “Thank God, today even a child seven years old knows what the Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd.” We also say in the Catechism: God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father sends us the Holy Spirit so that by his grace we believe his holy word and live godly lives here in time and there in eternity.

God speaks his own word to us in the church. He allows his own word to be read out loud and preached upon in the church. Where God’s word is actually being preached, God’s kingdom grows. Where God’s word is not preached, but human ideas and opinions are preached, God’s kingdom does not grow. We need to speak and keep the word of God in its truth and purity, and not mess it up in such a way that we mix human ideas in with it.

So through his word, God meets us here in the world and calls us to work in his vineyard. And he goes out continually and at different times, and wants to keep on inviting more and more people to come and hear his word, and to build up his kingdom among us, by uniting us to his Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ united us to himself in baptism where we are buried with him into his death and raised to new life, and continually as often as we receive the Lord’s Supper where he gives us his body and blood to eat and drink.

We confess our sins to God. We thank him for the many gifts that he has given to us. We ask him to help us in all needs, and we pray for the needs of others. All this is work: work in God’s own vineyard.

Often throughout the bible, God speaks about his people as his vineyard, that place where holy work goes on. Christians go to work in God’s vineyard in their homes, as fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters. Each person serves the other in the home and we work in God’s vineyard. Christians go to work in God’s vineyard wherever they are called to work, whether it be in a company, as an employee, as an employer, as a politician, a judge, a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse, a civil servant, a teacher, a factory worker, a nurse, a secretary, an office worker, a soldier, a policeman or policewoman, a labourer, a mechanic, all sorts. Christians go to work in God’s vineyard in the church, whether they be a pastor or a hearer, or however they might serve in the church. We all come together as sheep around Christ our shepherd to listen to his voice. Each of these things is holy work. All of this work is blessed by God and can be done by Christians in answer to God’s call.

But here’s the interesting thing: at the end of the day, the owner of the vineyard pays each person the same pay. Each receives a denarius.

Jesus wants us to know that the kingdom of heaven works in a completely different way to the business principles of the world.

Just before our reading today, we read about a rich young man who came to Jesus and said that he had kept all the commandments of God. But when Jesus asked him to sell his possessions, he went away sorrowful. This man is wealthy, this man is influential, he is a good man, a respectable man—but he is attached to his wealth and his possessions.

The corporate business world never thinks like this. The best people in business are the people like this man: they are able to make a name for themselves, they made good investments, they dress with nice clothes, they make good deals, they work hard, they work well. These are the signs of successful people in business. Now, business is good. There’s nothing wrong with business. But the kingdom of heaven is not a business and it works in a different way. And for this reason, we always need to be careful when people want to run the church as if it were a business.

In the kingdom of heaven, the most wealthy, successful, influential person is on the same level as the failed business person. King and queens are on the same level as those who collect the royal garbage. Parents are on the same level as their children. Because insofar as their lives are lived in the service of God, they are all equally slaves of Christ Jesus. And all of them receive the same pay.

Now in this life, we always have authorities. Citizens will always need to respect the people in government and their leaders, children will always need to respect their parents, and those who collect the garbage at Buckingham Palace need to show proper respect to the Queen, and so forth.

But as Christians, when God our heavenly Father, calls us to work in his vineyard, and calls us to faith, he will give us all the same pay at the end of the day.

So why does he do this? Because God saves us not according to our works, not according to what we deserve or don’t deserve, but according to his grace. God opens the doors to the kingdom of heaven for us, simply because he loves us, and because of any merit or worthiness in you. It is complete and totally free, just as if you had done hardly any work at all, and yet God still wanted to pay you a full day’s wage.

When we all come to church, we all receive the same Jesus. We all receive the same forgiveness for our sins. We all receive the same body and blood of Jesus given for us and shed for us. We all receive one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

But there’s a warning here for all of us. The longer we have enjoyed the pleasures of God’s vineyard, there is always a sense that we want to be compensated extra for our labours. And many people in the church have to endure long arduous days, weeks, years under the cross, whereas as some people are admitted into the kingdom of heaven on their deathbed, just like the thief on the cross.

Many Christians have had to endure wars, deaths, sicknesses, heartaches, disappointments, and in the heat of the day, they say to Jesus: “How long, O Lord, how long? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” Has this all been for nothing?

Listen: no cross that you have ever had to carry has been in vain! Be faithful unto death and you will receive the crown of life! Don’t give up—Jesus is with you in times of joy and in times of sadness.

But don’t let your eye become evil because God is good. God collects up all your tears and put them in his bottle, as it says in Psalm 56. Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

But the longer we have to endure, the more there is a temptation for us to grumble against those who are new on the scene. So in the church, the Catholic or Orthodox or even Anglican or Lutheran churches cannot claim to be faultless, or immune to Satan’s attacks, simply because they are old. In a church body, the oldest congregations are not necessarily the strongest. In congregations and families, the people who have been members of a church the longest, are not necessarily those who are the most faithful Christians. Also, those who have the money are not necessarily those who give the most valuable offerings. Those who are more intellectual are not necessarily those who are most sensitive to spiritual realities. As Jesus says at the end of the reading: So the last will be first, and the first last.

But there’s always the temptation to grumble at those who are new on the scene, as if hard work is all that matters. In our reading it says: Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? God values hard work, but he doesn’t build his kingdom through human hard work. He builds his kingdom simply through his grace. Remember the story of Mary and Martha: Mary chose the better part by listening to Jesus, while Martha worked hard in the kitchen grumbling about her sister.

God goes out into the market place and sends out his call and his word. He is the one who brings people into his vineyard. And the end of the day, he is the one who gives the pay. And because is so gracious, and so good, and so forgiving, and so merciful, he gives an equal pay, he throws open the doors of heaven equally to each person who has stepped their feet in his vineyard for just a second. In fact, Jesus says to us all, “You received without paying! Give without pay.” This is because we are not saved by works, but by grace. How often God gives us a new insight into his grace day by day, at the eleventh hour, almost as if we had met Jesus for the very first time! As St John says, And this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, that is, a full atonement, a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

And so we say with David and everyone who as ever prayed the psalms: Give thanks to the Lord for he is God, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank you for calling us into your vineyard. Give us your Holy Spirit to carry out the work you given us to do wherever you have placed us, and increase our longing and desire for that time when we will see Jesus with our own eyes. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Transfiguration: Audio Sermon (20-Jan-2013)

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Transfiguration [Matthew 17:1-9] (20-Jan-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: (Matthew 17:1-9)

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

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

It is common for people to think that everything can be explained scientifically. There’s nothing wrong with science, by the way, or with scientists. Science is a wonderful field of discovery, where people test things and try things out, and make theories about things from their experiments and research.

But science and theology work in completely different ways. Scientists examine small details: bacteria, a fossil, a constellation of stars, a rock, the movement of an object, and then they make a theory out of it based on their experiments and research. Sometimes someone will come along later and disprove a certain theory through new research and a new experiment.

But theology works differently. Theology doesn’t start with examining a small detail: it starts with the big picture. It starts with the Scriptures as a whole, God’s revealed word altogether. And then pastors of the church dissect the Scripture down into small pieces for the church in each generation and each time.

In our times, people are incredibly suspicious of Christianity. People think that they know everything, and the bible has nothing new to teach them.

It is also common today for people to say that people all throughout the world need religion, and that religion is just simply made up by different people and is a figment of people’s imaginations.

Many Christians will listen to that criticism and say that it’s not true. They know very well deep down that Christianity is much more than a crutch or a bunch of fantasies or a completely made-up. Nevertheless, often people will look at different parts of the gospels or throughout the bible and will have doubts about whether these things happened or not. The passages where the transfiguration of Jesus is described is one of those passages. It was such an amazing thing that happened, and yet we can stand up to hear the gospel when this passage is read and be completely unimpressed, completely switched off, distracted by a bug crawling across the floor, or a noisy bird outside.

But why? Sometimes we think we know everything, we explain everything in our heads in such a way as to separate ourselves from the dangers of reality and the wonders of reality. And so everything is boring and uninteresting: the bible is boring, life is boring, marriage is boring, children are boring, work is boring, church is boring—and yet, if only we could awake and see that the most amazing things that are happening under our noses every day.

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There are two things I would like to point out before we think about this text in more detail. Firstly, the last verse of our text: As [Jesus, Peter, James and John] were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

Jesus calls what the disciples saw a “vision”. In Greek, the word is ὄρομα [óroma], which means “a sight”. Today, if say someone “saw a vision”, we might think this is a bit like someone “hearing voices”. We either think a person is mad—we think it means that they were hallucinating, they were having funny dreams while they were under anaesthetic.

But this isn’t what the text means. A “vision” here means something that Peter, James and John saw. It is outside of them, not a figment of their imagination. It is front of them, not in their head. It is a reality, not a fantasy.

Many people today think that the world is a closed book. They think that heaven is closed and the earth is closed. But Martin Luther once said that heaven is full of doors and windows. He means, heaven and earth are always overlapping, and the transfiguration is an event just like that.

But the second thing I also want to point out is the verse: When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

This is the sort of verse that can completely pass us by. We read the passage about the transfiguration, and yet, our reaction to it is so far below what it should be. We are so far removed from the world of the disciples, and we don’t share their fear. But this should reveal to us our sin—our apathy, our boredom, our lack of wonder and awe. And yet, in complete contrast to us, the three apostles fall on their faces and are terrified.

This sort of thing doesn’t happen when the heavens are closed and the world is closed. The things that are happening before their eyes are realities, real things. As St John says at the beginning of his first letter: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you. This is the same St John who was there at the transfiguration. Or as St Peter—who was also there—also says in his second letter: We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

And so, in our text, Jesus says: Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. And so, since the Peter, James and John believed with all their heart, mind, soul and strength that the Son of Man was in fact risen from the dead, they told the vision to many people, in such a way that even we—2000 years later—can also learn it and be amazed by it, just as they did.

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So our text begins:

After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all mention that this event happened a certain a number of days after what Jesus was saying just before. Luke says it happened eight days later, and Matthew and Mark say six. But there were different ways of counting. Matthew and Mark only count the days in between, whereas Luke counts the day when Jesus was talking before and the day itself when Jesus was transfigured. Luke tells us that Jesus was going up the mountain to pray.

So six days earlier, Jesus was talking about his death and his resurrection, and also instructs his disciples that they also should deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.

Jesus tells them about his own suffering, and then about their suffering. Jesus will deny himself, humble himself, become obedient unto death. His disciples will also find themselves pilgrims and strangers on this earth, looking for the city that is to come, being transformed in the renewing of their minds, and putting of their old self, their flesh, their corrupt mind and thinking inherited from Adam, and putting on a new way of thinking.

And then six days later, Peter, James and John are led by Jesus up a high mountain by themselves. Later on, these same three men will also be taken by themselves into the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus shakes, and shivers, and paces to and fro, praying for his Father to remove his great suffering from him. “Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from me. But not my will, but your will be done.” And so Peter, James and John will be later present at the time of Jesus’ profound suffering. Jesus will say on that occasion: “My soul is greatly troubled, even unto death.”

But here, they witness this brilliant sight, this glorious vision, this wonderful revelation!

We read: And Jesus was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

This great light doesn’t shine onto him from somewhere else. But it comes from Jesus himself. This is foretaste of the end of time, as the book of Revelation says: “The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

Here, Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, shines bright light from his face. But not just his face, but his whole body in such a way that it shines through his clothes too, so that they become white. Can you picture this wonderful sight?

Jesus shows the disciples the brilliance of his flesh, the wonder of his human body. He shows them how he is truly man and truly God in one person, with Christ’s divinity catching his body alight so that he becomes the source of all light and all wisdom and all truth and all joy! The disciples don’t see Christ’s raw divinity, but they see it in unity with his humanity in one person. It is not simply light that that they see, but his face shining like the sun, and his clothes like white light. Jesus Christ shines as the perfect image of God, dispelling his purity and light in all directions, not as a ghost or a spirit, but as a human being, as a real man. And as a real man, he will then have his body beaten and bruised and nailed, and his blood will spill. But here, Jesus encourages us. He shows us just how wonderful his body is when it is perfectly united with divinity, and just how powerful his blood will be when it perfectly united with God and all the power of God. And so it is the same face of Jesus, that now shines like the sun, that will we crowned with a crown of thorns.

We read: And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Were they present there in spirit or in the body? We know that Elijah was taken into heaven by a chariot. And in the book of Jude, we read that there was some strange dispute about the body of Moses, and at the end of Deuteronomy, it says that no-one knew the place where Moses was buried. Very strange.

What were they talking about? Luke says they were talking out Jesus departure. They were talking about death on the cross, his journey to the cross.

There is a great and profound mystery here. We see here three disciples completely flabbergasted. But we also see here Jesus glorious, transfigured body and these two great men: Moses, the receiver of the law, and Elijah, the great prophet. Two groups of three: two men from heaven, three men on the earth, and Jesus in the middle with both his feet on the earth and in heaven at the same time.

And this shows us something very special: When we are in the presence of Jesus, when we come and listen to him talk about his cross, his departure, his great accomplishment and achievement on the cross, when we take refuge in his wounds and cling to the power of his blood, then Jesus gives us such encouragement and also the encouragement for all those who have died in the faith. In fact, we are made into one group together with those who have died with Christ, and we look forward to meet them on the other side of the grave. In the liturgy, as we come to share in Christ’s holy body and blood, we also sing: “Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.” They are also standing there with Christ.

In some church buildings, they often had an altar rail with made a circle around the altar, with the altar on the wall. This was because they believed that the circle continued not on the other side of the wall, but in heaven, with all the saints and angels joining in kneeling around the same altar.

Peter says: Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

What a glorious thing it is to be here! How wonderful it would have been for Peter! Words almost cannot describe it! But it is not for him to make three tents for Jesus and Moses and Elijah. It is Jesus’ job to make three tents for Peter, James and John—In my Father’s house are many rooms, and I am going to prepare a place for you. It is Jesus’ job to baptise a holy people and allow them to have a dwelling at his altars to receive his body and blood. As it says in Psalm 84: How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! What a great thing it is—not that we make a dwelling place for Jesus—that Jesus makes a dwelling place for us!

We read: He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

God the Father says almost the same thing as at Jesus’ baptism. But with a difference. At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in the form of a dove. But here, a cloud comes upon them in such a way that the disciples are left in darkness. Here God says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, just as at the baptism, but with no Holy Spirit coming down. And then he says, “Listen to him.” At the baptism, the Holy Spirit comes down in broad daylight. But now, the daylight is passed, all sight is taken away: it is night, and pitch dark. So where is the Holy Spirit? Answer: God the Father says: Listen to him. The Holy Spirit is breathed out through every word that comes from the mouth of Jesus.

And what does Jesus say? We read: Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

What a wonderful friendly face is the face of Jesus! What a gentle, loving face it is! He replaces all their fear and all their terror with himself. He is the Lord their God, and they shall have no other gods. There is no other name given among men by which we can be saved. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

So, rise and have no fear.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, how good it is to be here! The Lord my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? You, O Lord, are a shield about be, my glory and lifter of my head. Amen.

Baptism of our Lord: Audio Sermon (13-Jan-2013)

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Baptism of our Lord [Matthew 3:13-17] (13-Jan-2013)

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: (Matthew 3:13-17)

And when Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Prayer: May 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 Acts 13, we read about where Paul and Barnabas were travelling in Cyprus, and were invited by the Roman governor of the area (called the “proconsul”) to speak the word of God to him. However, there was a man called Elymas who tried to undo their work, and sought to turn the proconsul away from the faith. We read: But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”

Notice here that St Paul calls Elymas “a son of the devil” and an “enemy of all righteousness”. The devil and his followers are enemies of all righteousness, but Christ always fulfils all righteousness. Everything Jesus does is right, it is righteous, and he is always fulfilling all righteousness.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus convinces John to baptise him by saying, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting to fulfil all righteousness.”

Our Gospel reading today has two parts to it: The second part is where Jesus is actually baptised, and the first part tells us about what comes before it.

In the first part of the Gospel reading, we read: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him.

Sometimes, when there are certain things in the bible that are familiar to us, we can forget to notice what is strange and unusual about them. Earlier in Matthew chapter 3, we read about John the Baptist in the wilderness. The evangelist Matthew writes that he is: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” We read about his strange clothes of camel’s hair and his strange diet of locusts and wild honey. We read about the people going out to him to be baptised, confessing their sins. We read about John’s preaching about Jesus: “I baptise you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

And now our text says that Jesus came to John to be baptised by him. Don’t you think that this is strange? There are all these people coming to John, confessing their sins and being baptised. They are fleeing from the wrath to come, as John says. And now, here comes Jesus. We read in Hebrews that he is without sin. He is not fleeing God’s wrath since he is completely pure and sinless and perfect and holy. And our text says that Jesus came to be baptised by John.

John the Baptist also thinks that this is strange. We read: John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

Can you imagine what would have happened if things had been the other way around? It would have been a great honour for John to be baptised by Jesus. It would have been a humbling experience him, a profound moment in his life.

But Jesus answered [John], “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented.

In Cyprus, the man Elymas, who opposed Paul and Barnabas, was an “enemy of all righteousness”, but here in our reading Jesus wants to “fulfil all righteousness.”

If John had been baptised by Jesus, nothing would have happened. There would have been no dove descending from heaven, no voice of God from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son”. But John was not the Saviour of the world. John himself could not fulfil all righteousness. John only baptised with water – Jesus was the one who would baptise with the Holy Spirit.

But what was John preparing the way for? He was preparing the way by baptising people, and preaching repentance to them. He says: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance… Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Those words should also sink deeply into our own ears. We should also listen to John’s preaching of repentance. John says: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

But all of John’s preparing point to Jesus himself coming into the water himself, just like all the sinners who came before him. All the people who are baptised become one in their baptism, one in the confession of their sin. They are united in baptism and united as sinners. But Jesus has no sin, and yet Jesus wants to come and be like a sinner and be baptised too. His heart is completely clean, and yet he comes as if he is going to be washed. He has no need to repent, and yet he comes just as if he were repenting like everyone else in the queue. No wonder that John was confused!

But this is the same for us! Most of the time, we can’t imagine that Jesus would actually join himself to us in all our sin! We can’t comprehend that Jesus would descend into the water just like the rest of us, just as if he were a sinner too! But this is precisely what Jesus does all the time—he is always taking away the sin of the world. He is always soaking up our sin like a sponge, and letting us soak up his forgiveness.

People sometimes say: God can’t forgive my sins. If you knew what I’d done, then you’d say the same.

But this isn’t true at all. In fact, Jesus wants you to look at him as if he is sinner too. We know that Jesus is without sin, and he knows that too. But he wants you to look at him in such a way that you see there in Jesus the worst sinner that you can imagine, and a much worse sinner than you. There is not one day in the whole of Jesus’ life where he performs one sinful action, utters a single sinful word or thinks a single sinful thought. But as St Paul says: “For our sake [God the Father] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

And so when Jesus is baptised, he comes to be exactly where you are: he comes to be with the heavy-hearted, the weak, the weary, the miserable, the helpless. All your sin is absorbed into his body—and when this happens, Jesus fulfils all righteousness. All your sin is taken upon him, and all his gifts—his Holy Spirit, his salvation, his forgiveness, his life—are poured out upon you.

So Jesus is baptised. And we become his disciples, his followers, by first of all following him into the water, having the water poured over our heads by a simple pastor, just like John the Baptist, but also at the same time, Jesus himself baptises you with the Holy Spirit and with the purifying fire of his holy presence. And so St Peter says: Baptism now saves you. St Paul says to Titus: God saved us…according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says: Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved.

You do nothing in baptism. Jesus does everything. He is the one who sends the Holy Spirit—he is the one who promises it. Jesus gives you everything in baptism. And when you trust him, that his words are true, that his words do not lie, and that Jesus is not a liar—then all the gifts of baptism are yours, overflowing into your lap. Even trusting in baptism is not your work, but is worked in you by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God so that can receive to your blessing all of the gifts which God himself pours out in baptism.

And so Jesus says to John: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting to fulfil all righteousness.

And in the second part of the reading we read:

And when Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Can you imagine if you were there to see this for yourself? Remember how after the resurrection, Thomas wanted to see Jesus for himself. And Jesus says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Every Christian who has lived after the apostles are people who have not seen and yet have believed. That includes us.

And many people today think that heaven has nothing to do with earth, and that God is not involved in the world. Many Christians—maybe even some of you—don’t believe in anything supernatural, or that heaven and earth can overlap in any way. Would you have thought the apostles were all drunk on the day of Pentecost? Would you have walked away grumbling when Paul preached Christ’s resurrection in Athens?

And nevertheless, the things that we read about in the Gospels are so beyond our experience, that we can’t being to imagine what it would have been like to be present there in those times. And yet, it is these same events that the church has been called throughout the centuries to preach to you.

The heavens were opened. They were not closed or distant. They were opened.

And the Spirit was descending on Jesus like a dove and resting on him. Jesus is given the Holy Spirit, not because he was without the Holy Spirit before, but because he is given the Holy Spirit to give out and to pour out on people. Jesus is the fountain of the Holy Spirit.

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” And just so that you don’t mistake Jesus for a sinner, our heavenly Father preaches himself to you that this Jesus is his Son. This is the Son whom God the Father loves. And God the Father is well pleased with him.

This is the great manifestation of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father’s voice from heaven, the Son in the water, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.

And as Christians, we are also baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We go to be with the Son in the water, and he comes into the water to be with us. And when we are united with the Son in baptism, when our heavenly Father grafts us onto Jesus like a branch on a vine, the Holy Spirit is also poured out upon us with all his gifts. And not only that, instead of being “sons of the devil”, and “enemies of all righteousness” like Elymas in Cyprus, we are adopted as joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. We are made children of God, sons of God—just as Jesus is God’s beloved Son. St Paul says: For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” And so, God the Father also says to us: “You are my beloved Son, you are my beloved daughter, with whom I am well pleased.”

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for your baptism, and for joining us to yourself in our baptism. Share our sin with us, even though you are not a sinner. And share your forgiveness and holiness and purity with us, even though we are not holy and pure. Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and strengthen us with every gift from your throne. Amen.

Epiphany: Audio Sermon (6-Jan-2013)

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

Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?
For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.

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

Epiphany is the church festival that marks the end of the twelve days of Christmas. Particularly, it commemorates the visit of the wise men—sometimes they are called the three kings, or the Magi.

These wise men also signify something very significant to us: that the Christian faith is for all nations and all peoples. Often we celebrate this aspect of the church at Pentecost, when the apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit and spoke in many different languages. But all the people present at Pentecost were Jewish. At that time, the Holy Spirit and the gift of holy baptism hadn’t yet reached the Gentiles.

In our reading today, the wise men come from the east. They were not Jewish—they come from other places. Just before our reading today, we read about an angel appearing to Joseph in a dream. And St Matthew writes: All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us.)

Jesus is not simply “with” the Jews as their God only. But he is with all people as their God, just as it says at the end of Matthew’s gospel, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He has power over all nations and peoples on earth, and also over the heavens. And he says, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Don’t just go and baptise Jews, but all nations. And Jesus says, “I am with you always to the end of the age.” Just as at the beginning of Matthew, Jesus is called “Immanuel” (God with us), so also at the end of Matthew, Jesus says that he will be with us always.

So also with the wise men, we read about how, as soon as Jesus was born, people of all nations now come to worship Jesus, their God—who is not simply with his parents, or with the Jewish people, but he is with them as their brother in the flesh, and a member of the human race together with them. Jesus is truly our Immanuel, our God who is with both Jews and Gentiles, our God who is with us.

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Every country, and nation and culture has certain gifts that it brings. And often when different cultures meet, there are often certain differences that come to light. For example, Australian aboriginal people often take particular notice of their dreams, and many of the Lutheran pastors in Northern Territory went to train for the ministry because of something in a dream. But in western culture, children are often told from a young age that dreams are not real, or not significant, so we take very little notice of them.

But what this means is that Aboriginal people would find the first chapters of Matthew much more significant than other people, because they are full of dreams: the angel speaks to Matthew in a dream, the wise men are warned not to return to Herod in a dream, Joseph is told in a dream to flee from Herod and go to Egypt, and then to return to Israel, and then another dream to settle in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem.

What do we make of all of this? The baby Jesus calls all people to worship at his manger, and he draws us through all kinds of different ways of thinking and of looking at the world. No one nation is more superior than another. Every nation has its strengths and its weaknesses. In our society today, children are often brainwashed from a young age so as to be very weak and dismissive in perceiving spiritual realities.

But every group of people has its own proverbs and sayings, its own handicrafts, its own music, its own knowledge of herbs, plants, gardening and agriculture. Jesus created all these people with his own hands, and draws us all to his manger to offer these gifts back to him.

Look at the wise men here, how they examine the stars so carefully, and how they would have relied on the wisdom of the past and of their culture. I don’t know anyone today who has such knowledge of astronomy, who would suddenly embark on a long journey because they saw something in the sky that was so significant.

We read: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Today we look at this sort of thing as a fairy tale. But it’s not a fairy tale. Our culture is simply just so far removed from the culture that is being described here that it makes very little sense to us. Have we ever given thought to the fact that if these wise men were transported 2000 years forward and were given a glimpse of our culture, how odd they would find us? We’re simply not interested in the stars in the way that these people were. In fact, many people today are not interested in birds, animals, plants, and many things as people were long ago. And much of our knowledge from those past generations has been lost. Much of our inquisitiveness is lost, and so much of people’s desire for truth and goodness is lost, and also their desire for God has also been lost.

The star led the wise men to Jerusalem. They thought that this star meant something, like a king was to be born, and since they were in the land of the Jews, they probably thought that a special Jewish king had been born. They may have known more than this and had some Hebrew scriptures in their libraries in their own country, and known that the Jewish people were waiting for a Messiah. Whatever was going on here, these wise men from the east thought that what they saw in the sky was so significant that they followed the star all the way to Jerusalem.

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But Jesus is not to be found in Jerusalem. But the Holy Scriptures are. And so, without the Scriptures, the wise men come a dead end, and simply have to ask King Herod, “Where?” “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?”

Of course, at this time, King Herod had no knowledge at all of this birth. It says, He was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. The wise men were probably asking lots of people the same question, and eventually after they had searched and searched and searched, they came to King Herod in all their helplessness. They don’t know where else to go.

We read: And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, [King Herod] inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

The priests and scribes give the wise men the answer they are looking for from the Scripture. The same goes for us: if we are looking for God, or even looking for Jesus, without the Scripture, it will always be a futile search. Our star-gazing, our day-dreaming, our traditions, our history, our culture, our whole society is nothing without being firmly grounded in the Scripture. Even our desire for God, our desire to be religious, to be holy, without a firm grounding in the Scripture, is just silly superstition.

The Scripture teaches the wise men where their God, their Immanuel, their Jesus, is to be found. And the Scripture puts all their wisdom to shame, by pointing them to a manger in Bethlehem. Today, the church is house where the baby Jesus lives. And the church always needs to be firmly grounded in the Scripture, or it will always run the risk of wanting to take Jesus out of preaching, out of baptism, out of the Lord’s Supper, and trying to put him somewhere else, where he doesn’t belong. Most of time, people want to find Jesus in their own works, their own feelings, and their own wisdom. But he’s not there. Instead, he’s in his word and his sacraments, just as at the time of his birth, the Scripture showed the wise men that he was in Bethlehem.

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And now, even while Jesus is a baby, a great separation begins between those who confess him to be their King, and those who want to kill him. The wise men seek to go and worship Jesus, but Herod seeks to kill him. Herod is jealous: he doesn’t want a rival king. He even pretends to the wise men that he is interested in worshipping Jesus.

And so, we have the situation that has always been there throughout the history of the church. Wherever the gospel is preached, there is always some dodgy politicians trying to silence the gospel. Sometimes it is governments who try and silence the gospel, sometimes it is organisations and institutions, sometimes it is church organisations, and sometimes Jesus’ closest friends even try to silence the gospel, and therefore try to silence Jesus’ own voice.

It is not just King Herod and his family who tried to silence Jesus, but also the high priests Caiaphas and Annas in the church, and also Judas in his close company of friends. This needs to be a warning to all of us, that we make sure that we follow the star-gazing wise men with their knowledge of the Scripture, than the comfortable, scheming, politically-savvy King Herod.

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Meanwhile, the star moves and the wise men follow it. The Scripture gives new life to their searching: the Scripture has given them the answer to their question, and the stars themselves confirm it. It’s not the other way around: the Scripture does not confirm the star, the star confirms the Scripture.

So also for us, if we think something is significant—a dream, a coincidence, or some event—we don’t twist the Scriptures in such a way to support our thinking and our reason and our interests. But our thinking, our interests and our reason bow down and conform to the Scripture. As St Paul says: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

And we read: When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Still here at the end, we see things from faraway countries and ancient cultures: we see following stars, exotic treasures, and significant dreams. But there is also great joy, bended knees, and worship of the baby Jesus. Are these things also foreign to us today?

But one thing that often strikes me in this text year after year is the words: they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. This is the great treasure that Jesus offers to the wise men. Jesus brings heaven and earth together. On one hand, on the earth, people are being moved from place to place because of the Roman census. And on the other hand, in the heavens, the stars are being moved to show these wise men where they are to find the baby Jesus.

Let’s also come to him today and bring our gifts to him, and all the things that we value most highly! Let’s also come and find him in those places where he promises to be found, especially in the water of baptism which has been washed over us, and through his body and blood given to us in the Lord’s Supper! Let’s also rejoice exceedingly with great joy, as Jesus draws us to himself through his Scriptures and perfectly fulfils all of our desires!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, God of God and Light of Light, draw us to yourself, day after day and hour by hour. Inspire us constantly by your Holy Spirit to kneel down and offer the most precious treasures of our hearts to you. Send us that heavenly joy, that together with the wise men, we also may rejoice exceedingly with great joy! Amen.