Pentecost XII: Audio Sermon (27-Aug-2017)

Click title for link

Pentecost XII (Proper 16 A) [Matthew 16:13-20] (27-Aug-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Click here for PDF version for printing.

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

[Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

I.

Our Gospel reading today begins where we read: Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

This is a very interesting question. First Jesus wants to ask the disciples what people are saying. Jesus calls himself here the Son of Man. This is a title that particular emphasises the fact that Jesus was a true human being. He is a member of the human race, just like us. He was born of the Virgin Mary, and had a true human mother, just like us.

And so what do the disciples say? They say: Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. What do you think of this answer? These things are just opinions, they’re not a confession of faith. Now what do we know from these opinions about Jesus? Well, first of all, they are all wrong. Jesus is not John the Baptist, he is not Elijah, and he is not Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

But also, all these people that the disciples mention had all died. John the Baptist died, Elijah died, Jeremiah died, and all of the prophets died. John the Baptist had his head cut off by King Herod, Elijah went to heaven in a chariot with horses of fire, and Jeremiah and all the prophets died too. But also, it’s not like these people who died don’t exist anymore. We believe that their souls are with God.

So Jesus is not John the Baptist or one of the prophets who have come back from the dead. Some people might have thought this because the prophets and Jesus were doing similar kinds of things. For example, Elijah raised a boy from the dead, Jesus raised a boy from the dead. John the Baptist went around saying, “Repent and believe the Gospel”, and Jesus went around saying exactly the same thing. King Herod certainly thought that Jesus and John were the same person. But Jesus is not John the Baptist come back from the dead.

Now you may know some people who believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation is where people believe that when a person dies, their ghost or their spirit comes and lives in another person, so that it is the same person who throughout history lives in different bodies. But this is not what the bible teaches. We believe that each person who has ever lived is a unique person, with a unique soul. Maybe the people thought that Jesus was a reincarnation of Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But Jesus is not simply an empty shell of a body with the ghost of a prophet who has died living in him. A dead Jesus with a spirit of the dead is a false Christ, or an antichrist.

This is what makes Jesus different from the Dalai Lama, for example. The Dalai Lama is a Buddhist leader from Tibet. People believe that all the Dalai Lamas throughout history are the reincarnation of Buddha. It means that the ghost of the dead Buddha, or the dead spirit of Buddha, now lives in the next Dalai Lama, and then in the next one, until today’s Dalai Lama. God creates each of us with our own soul and our own spirit. We are not created as husks and shells who are possessed by ghosts. We read in Job 10: You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. My spirit… not someone else’s spirit who came before me. God preserved their spirits too, but he preserves your individual spirit. Your body and your soul together is you! Jesus also is a true human being, he has a body and a soul like us. We know he has a body, because when he was crucified, nails went through his hands, his feet, a spear went into his side, a crown of thorns was put on his head, and we could keep going on. But also, we read about when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, before he died, Jesus says: My soul is greatly troubled, even to death. Jesus didn’t just suffer in his body, but he suffered inwardly. He had a body and a soul, and he suffered in body and soul.

So after we hear about Jesus asking the disciples about what everyone else thinks, he then turns the question back on them, and he says: But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Can you see what is amazing about this confession of faith? First, Peter says that Jesus is the Son of the living God. He is not the Son of the god of the dead. That’s what the Ancient Egyptians, and the Tibetans, and all pagans believe. They only have a god of the dead. When you don’t have the living God, all you are able to do really is worship your ancestors, dead people. Now how many funerals have you gone to, where people get up and speak to the dead person in the coffin as if they are still alive? Now, of course, this is not ancestor worship in the complicated, convoluted way that it goes on in some cultures, but the beginnings of it are still there. Many people can’t say that Jesus is with me, but they are happy to say that grandma or grandpa is with me.

So Peter says that Jesus is the son of the living God. The living God came to Moses out of the burning bush, and said, I AM WHO I AM. Jesus even said to the Sadducees: Have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. So also, Peter says that Jesus is the Son of the living God.

Also, Peter says that Jesus is not the expression of God, or a kind of outflowing from God, or a part of God, or a kind of ambassador of God. He says he is the Son of God. The Son of Man is the Son of God. He is God and man in one person. The Son of the Virgin Mary has God the Father as his Father. This is what we say every week in the creed.

But also, Peter says: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. “Christ” in English comes from the Greek word, χριστος (Christos). The Hebrew word for Christ is “Messiah”. Christ and Messiah both mean “anointed one”. Jesus is anointed at his baptism by the Holy Spirit from heaven, not possessed by a dead spirit from hell. And being anointed by the Holy Spirit means that he is our heavenly king, our heavenly high priest, and our heavenly prophet. God the Father says at Jesus’ baptism: This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.

II.

Now what does Jesus think about this confession of faith that Peter makes? He says: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus says: It’s not your father or your family or your flesh and blood who taught you this, but my Father who is in heaven. We see here that when we confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, when we are able to confess exactly who Jesus is, then we know that it is not us who came up with the idea. It is not from flesh and blood, it is not from our natural life or from our family, even if we were born into a Christian family. It is not from our human thoughts, or theories, or speculations, or feelings, or mystical experiences. It is not from our hearts and our wills and our minds, because they are all corrupted by sin. This knowledge and this confession of faith, only comes through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit only comes to us through the Word of God. Remember this the next time we confess the creed—it’s one thing to recite it and speak the words: that’s easy. But to believe these words and confess them as your own confession of faith, that can only come through the Holy Spirit. St Paul says: No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. It really is a wonderful thing to gather together and to hear the word of God, and the fact that you believe it, and put your trust in it, and stake your life on it, this is a wonderful miracle of your heavenly Father. This is not your achievement, but the achievement of the Holy Spirit.

III.

Now, Jesus doesn’t stop there. He says to Peter: And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This is the passage where all of those jokes come about Peter having the keys to heaven at the pearly gates. But this is not what Jesus says here: the keys that are given to Peter here are not to be used at the pearly gates, but on earth. Jesus says: Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This is also the passage which the Roman Catholic Church uses to say that the pope is the actually the head of the church here on earth. Now, I don’t say this because I want to bad-mouth Catholics, or be unkind to them. There were times in history where Lutherans and Catholics could be quite nasty to each other. I have many wonderful, dear Catholic friends, and I’m sure you do too, and there are many wonderful Christian people in the Catholic church. In fact, there are many Catholics that are better Christians than many Lutherans! Let’s not be arrogant here, and think we’re better than everyone else. But the Catholic church teaches (and this is almost what makes Catholics “Catholic”) that here in this passage, Jesus founds his church on Peter, and all the popes are carrying on Peter’s position in the church. Even today, where there are so many Christian denominations, and yet where Christians of different denominations are much more friendly with each other that they used to be, the Catholic Church stills sees the solution to church unity as everyone coming together under the pope.

We Lutherans don’t believe this, and we don’t believe that this is what Jesus set up here with Peter. We don’t have a pope, because we believe that Jesus is truly present in the middle of his church on earth, and rules it as its head, and keeps the unity of his church through his word. Where his word is taught in its truth and purity, there the Holy Spirit creates the unity of the church. And the bible is not unclear in such a way that we pastors, or bishops, or even a pope, needs to clarify it for us. The bible is a clear brilliant light from God himself, and every pastor, bishop, or whoever, is accountable to that word. As Psalm 119 says: Your word is…a light to my path. The answer to church unity isn’t about church structures and church politics—it comes about through the pure teaching of the Word of God.

And so what happens here? Jesus says to Peter: You are Peter. The name Peter actually means, “rock”. His old name was Simon—Jesus gives him a new name: Peter, rock. And then Jesus says: And on this rock I will build my church. The church is not built on Peter; Peter is only named after this rock. The rock is the confession of faith revealed from God the Father that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is the basis of everything. The church, Christ’s own bride, Christ’s own living body on earth, is founded on this rock, on this foundation stone. And even after Jesus died on the cross, we believe he rose again from the dead on the third day. So Jesus is the living God, and he is also alive again, he is risen from the dead. There is not a single smell of death about him. Even on Easter Sunday, Jesus breathes on his disciples. Now if I breathed over you, it would smell like my decaying breakfast, and gingivitis, and phlegm, and whatever else my breath smells like. But Jesus is alive, he is the Son of the living God, and his breath is sweet, his breath breathes out the Holy Spirit.

This confession of faith is the basis of everything: it’s the basis of our forgiveness, it’s the basis of the promise for eternal life, and it’s the basis for the resurrection from the dead. This confession of faith is the rock. And Jesus says here: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That’s how sure and certain the solid foundation of your faith is. You have a living Jesus who forgives you all your sin, and the gates of hell shall never prevail against that solid foundation. The gates of hell have long prevailed against the shaking sand of church politics, and church leaders, but never, never will it prevail against the confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, because this would mean that the gates of hell would prevail against that very thing that the Holy Spirit inspires and works and creates himself. The Holy Spirit is not a loser, the Holy Spirit is always the winner, because Jesus is always the winner!

Then Jesus says to Peter: And I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Jesus singles out Peter here, but he also in other places gives these same keys to all the apostles. And Peter, in one sense, is the one apostle who preaches the first Christian sermon on the day of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit comes down with tongues of fire, it is Peter who first flings the doors of heaven open, so that 3000 people are converted and are baptised. And Jesus gave him these keys. But then all the other apostles do the same thing.

So what do we learn from this? The keys of the kingdom of heaven are Jesus’ gift. He says: I give you the keys. It’s important that anyone who claims to use these keys has had them given to them by Jesus himself. They are a very special thing, and they are not simply to be used as we feel like it. Jesus says: Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Loosing and binding means forgiving sins or not forgiving sins. When people confess and repent of their sins, then we loose these sins from them, and speak the forgiveness of sins. When people are hardened to Jesus and deny that they are sinners and don’t want forgiveness, then we bind these sins back on them. They are not forgiven. This is why in church every week the pastor speaks the forgiveness of sins, not as himself, but on behalf of Jesus Christ and by his command.

But this shows us one more thing about these keys. They are to be used on earth, and what is used on earth is valid in heaven. And they have been given by Jesus, and can only be used in the way Jesus commanded them to be used. There has sometimes been great damage done in the church, when the keys have been used to exclude someone who was not in the wrong. In this situation, we can say that the words of Jesus were not fulfilled, where he says: I give you the keys. Sometimes people have used their own personal keys, which just don’t fit the lock. But in the Small Catechism, Luther writes: I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deals with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us himself.

You can see, this church, which Jesus builds on this rock, has the forgiveness of sins in it. This is the only chance you will get, and the final judgment will be only according to how our life has been in this life—have we believed in Jesus and his forgiveness, or not? Jesus wants these keys to be used so that you hear the judgment of forgiveness that God will speak to you on the last day right here, now, in the church, during this lifetime. When we speak the absolution, or the words of the forgiveness of sins, this is God’s words from the day of judgment spoken here in advance. And you can trust in that word and take it home, just like putting in your pocket, and you can be absolutely sure that the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Amen.

Dear Jesus, we confess that you are the Christ, the son of the living God, and we thank you that your Father has revealed this from heaven by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Open the kingdom of heaven for us, that the word of forgiveness we hear in the church even today may be a wonderful rock on which we can build our faith. Amen..

Pentecost XI: Audio Sermon (20-Aug-2017)

Click title for link

Pentecost XI (Proper 15 A) [Matthew 15:21-28] (20-Aug-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am.

Click here for PDF version for printing.

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

Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

In our reading today, we get to see the wonderful way in which the Gospel goes out to all people. It is a natural thing for Christians to want to share their faith in Jesus. And in the history of the church, Christians have always sought to spread the Gospel not just among people in their own neighbourhoods and down their own streets, but to all nations. I am not simply talking about helping people of all nations in material ways. We know that there are many people all throughout the world who live in poverty, and need water, food, and all kinds of physical help. But I am talking about bringing the message of Jesus Christ, crucified on Good Friday and risen from the dead on the third day—this message still needs to go out to the ends of the earth.

In our reading today, we have Jesus travelling. He has just been in Jerusalem, talking to the Pharisees and the scribes. Now, he goes north to the district of Tyre and Sidon, which is in modern day Lebanon. This was a long way to travel in those days, and would have taken a few days on foot. For us today, it wouldn’t take very long, since Jerusalem in Israel to Tyre in Lebanon is about the same distance as Maryborough to Brisbane.

And so, Jesus goes a long way on foot, to another country, a foreign land, to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and a Canaanite woman comes out to him. Now what is significant about this?

Canaanites were descended from a man in the bible called Canaan. Often, when we hear the name “Canaan”, we often think of a place, like when Abraham was sent to the land of Canaan. But this was the land where the descendants of Canaan lived. Right back in the book of Genesis, we read about Noah and the flood, and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japeth. In Genesis 9, we read: The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japeth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) [The author here makes a special point of telling you about Canaan here.] Then it says: These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

Now after this, we read about a very unusual event, where the old man Noah decides to go out and plant a vineyard. We read: Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

Now what’s going on here? Why was Noah so harsh in dealing with Ham and his son Canaan because of this? This little event reveals something about Noah’s son Ham, that for a long time he has secretly despised and hated his father. Then one day, when he catches his father having done something stupid, instead of covering up his father’s shame, he goes and tells his brothers about it. This passage teaches us a wonderful lesson about the way in which we might think about our own father. Our earthly fathers were all sinners—I am a father too, and I know that I mess up being a father constantly. But do we then expose the shame of our fathers and make fools of them?

So, what happens as a result of this event, is that Noah pronounced a curse on Ham’s son Canaan, meaning that he and his descendants would be a servant of servants to his brothers. God’s chosen people, the Jewish people, including Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and even Jesus himself—were descended not from Ham and Canaan, but from Noah’s son, Shem.

So what does this have to do with our reading? The woman in our reading was a Canaanite, meaning that she was a person who came under the curse that was a upon this family, or tribe. And we should also take notice of the fact that this is a woman who comes to Jesus, not a man. Abraham was told to live in the land of Canaan, and yet, he did not want his son Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman. When Isaac was older, he said to his son Jacob: You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Isaac and Jacob had to go back to their own people to choose a wife.

And yet, here comes a Canaanite woman to Jesus. She comes from a tribe that has been under a curse almost from the time of Noah’s flood, and she is a woman—the kind of woman that even Abraham and Isaac would never have wanted as a wife for their own sons.

And so this woman comes to Jesus and she says: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.

This woman is a desperate woman. She is helpless, and she comes to Jesus on behalf of her own daughter. He daughter will grow up to be another Canaanite woman, just like her. And she says that her daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.

It’s a strange thing that in the bible, there is very little mention of demons before Jesus comes along. There are maybe 4 or 5 passages that mention them in the whole of the Old Testament. But as soon as Jesus begins to preach, all of a sudden there are people who are demon possessed, or oppressed by demons everywhere. In fact, when Jesus first preaches in the synagogues, it is the demons that cry out first and recognise him as the Son of God.

Now, in our culture, people generally don’t believe that demons exist, and this is important, because it means that very few Australians would probable ever come to Jesus themselves and ask him the same thing that this woman in our reading asks him. People sometimes think that if Jesus were alive today, we would be simply talking about these people as being mentally ill. But it’s not as simply as that—illness is illness, disease is disease, and mental illness is mental illness. Demons are demons, and sometimes they have something to do with things and sometimes not. Sometimes people need medical treatment, and sometimes some problems can only be healed with prayer. In the Gospel of Mark, it says at one point: Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. Jesus did both things: they were not always one and the same thing.

Now, we believe as Christians that God created visible creatures, like human beings, men and women, and animals and birds and insects and reptiles and fish, and all kinds of things. But he also created invisible creatures, which we call angels. Angels are creatures made by God, which don’t have physical bodies. God the Father and God the Holy Sprit also doesn’t have a physical body, and neither did Jesus, the Son of God, until he took on a human body when he was conceived in the Virgin Mary’s womb. But the difference between God and angels is that God is the creator, and angels were created by God like us.

Now, a demon is an angel that has fallen into sin. But demons weren’t created in the image of God, only human beings are created in the image of God. And so, Jesus only died on the cross to save his fellow human beings, like us. He did not die to save Satan, or to save demons. Jesus sends his fellow human beings the forgiveness of sins, and he cast out Satan and his demons and sends them back to hell where they belong.

What has happened in our reading is that a demon has entered into this woman’s daughter, an unclean spirit, or an evil spirit, a rebel angel who has nothing better to do than to make a pest of himself. And this has resulted in something strange happening to the woman’s daughter, which we’re not told about. But whatever was happening made this woman so anxious and worried that the only thing she thought she could do was to come to Jesus.

But this also takes us back to the difference between God’s chosen people, the Jewish people, and the Canaanites. When the people were to enter into the promised land, God gave them a particular warning not to do the things that these people did, especially with respect to worship. In Deuteronomy 12, we read: When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

This is what God says about the Canaanites. And yet this woman has broken the trend—she is not going to solve the problem of her demon-possessed daughter by burning her, like many of her people, in order to appease some false god. Instead, she comes to Jesus, the true God, the maker of heaven and earth, and she wants to listen to him. In Deuteronomy 18, Moses says: These nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. But the LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me [like Moses] from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.

This prophet that Moses prophesies about here is Jesus. Moses says: It is to him you shall listen. When Jesus was being transfigured on the mountain, and the cloud came down, God the Father even says: This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. Jesus fulfils this prophecy of Moses. The people should listen to this prophet, and not listen to the fortune tellers and the diviners of the nations, of the Canaanites.

Isn’t it amazing? Jesus had been just talking to the Pharisees and the scribes, who were Jews—they were God’s chosen people. And yet, they didn’t want to listen to Jesus. And yet, here’s a Canaanite woman, who comes from a people who have a terrible history, and terrible practices, and she turns her back on all of that, and she comes to Jesus. She wants to listen to him.

Now let’s look at the conversation that happens between this woman and Jesus. This woman has quite some struggle—and Jesus seems behaves in a way that is not the way we are used to seeing him behave.

After she came to Jesus and presented her need to him, we read: But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” Maybe she thought that the disciples could put in a good word for her. But Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In some sense, we see this is true. Even though Jesus later sent out his disciples all throughout the world, he himself stayed close to home. It’s as if Jesus were gathering his disciples close together, and training them before he sent them out. All of the disciples were Jews, and every book of the New Testament was written by lost sheep of the house of Israel, like his disciples. But here Jesus is in another country. He helped people at home, why not here? Why did Jesus go to Tyre and Sidon, if he was only send to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?

But then the woman doesn’t give up. She comes to him desperate and helpless and anxious. We read: She knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” But Jesus did not change, but answered her with harsh words. He said: It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. But the woman also does not give up, but she takes Jesus words about dogs, and she is happy to take the insult. If the hat fits, wear it, she thinks! I know that my people are dogs—I know that my ancestor Ham was a dog, laughing at his father while he was naked, and drunk as a skunk. I know that my people sacrificed their own children to their false gods. I know that I am a woman of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Jesus—you are my only hope—if you call me a dog—even if I must grit my teeth between my tears—a dog I shall be. And so she says: Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.

And then Jesus says: O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire. And we read: Her daughter was healed from that hour.

Now, we can too often misunderstand this passage as if when we pray to God we actually have to overcome him and beat him at his own game and force him to answer our prayer. We might also think about Jacob who wrestled all night with God. We can often think that in prayer we have to wrestle with God and defeat him.

But if this is what we think, it’s not going to take us long to realise that this conflicts with everything else that the bible teaches us about prayer and about God himself. An old Christian writer says: “We must try to find an interpretation which is in harmony, both with what God is, and what prayer is, and this is proclaimed to us throughout the whole bible.” (Ole Hallesby, Prayer, p 105).

So why didn’t Jesus answer the woman when she asked for help, and even asked in such a humble way? Is this because he didn’t care about her? No—of of course he cared for her. And why did Jesus say that he was only sent to God’s chosen people? Jesus had healed the servant of a Roman centurion before—he wasn’t a Jew.

When Jesus has a strange way of doing something, we always know that he has a special reason for doing it in that particular way.

Think about the words from our reading: Jesus did not answer her a word.

Maybe you have cried out to Jesus about something, and yet from Jesus, it seems as though all he has to say to you is cold silence. And then after some time again, it seems that all he has to say is some harsh word, some stern word from the Scripture, that crushes you. Think about the woman here who heard Jesus say that he was only sent for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and what he says about the dogs.

But don’t we know that God is generous, and loving, and friendly? In James chapter 1, it says that God gives generously to all without reproach. We know that Jesus has the capacity to give us everything we could ever dream of, and more!

You might know the passage about when Mary and Martha asked Jesus to come and heal their brother who was sick. But Jesus didn’t come. But when he did come, he was dead. The sisters said to him: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But did Jesus not care for them? He comes later, not simply to make him well, but to raise him from the dead.

And so, here is this woman in our reading, a desperate woman who cares about her daughter. And Jesus cares about her daughter too. But Jesus cares about the mother too, and he wants to show to everyone what a great faith this woman has. Jesus wants to bless her, and gives her the cold shoulder only so that he can show her the light of his face even more brightly than she could have ever expected. She realises that the whole conversation was not a fight, but a gentle game of her loving Saviour drawing her closer and closer to him. And this woman is then for us one of the most amazing examples in the bible of what it means to persist in prayer and to throw ourselves at the mercy of God.

And what a wonderful thing it is for us too, to have the same Saviour, who has allowed the gospel to preached even in our country too, so that the words of the psalms are fulfilled even here among us: Praise the LORD, all you nations! And then what a wonderful thing it is to come to Jesus just like his disciples and to say to him: Lord, teach us to pray!

Amen.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for rescuing us and bringing us into your sheepfold. Encourage us, and lead us, and guide us, and even when we feel discouraged help us to trust in you. Amen.

Pentecost X: Audio Sermon (13-Aug-2017)

Click title for link

Pentecost X (Proper 14 A) [Matthew 14:22-33] (13-Aug-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.

Click here for PDF version for printing.

This sermon is dedicated to two very dear young friends of mine, who know who they are.

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

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

Our Gospel reading today tells us about one of the most well-known events in the life of Jesus, when he walked on water.  Now, even though this passage is so well-known, it is an event which many people doubt to have actually happened. Even though this event is seen as the most amazing demonstration of Jesus’ power, many people even in the church don’t believe it. Today in our sermon, we’re going to assume that it happened, exactly as the evangelist Matthew tells us. We’re not going to assume that miracles don’t really happen, or that Jesus was just any ordinary human being who obviously couldn’t do things like that! In our sermon today, we’re not going to take this passage in a sceptical way, but take it as it is, in all of its majesty and glory. This is the way we always take the bible, and we leave it to the Holy Spirit to create faith in us to believe in it, despite any protests of our human reason.

So let’s come to the beginning of our passage for today. We read: Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. Our reading today continues straight after Jesus fed the 5000, which we read about last week. In all the Gospels, the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on the water go together. They happened right after each other, and they are connected.

Many years earlier, Moses—like Jesus—had fed the Israelites in a miraculous way, when God had rained down manna for them to eat. Moses also prophesied that, sometime in the future, the LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. When Jesus fed the 5000, we see Jesus behaving very much like Moses, feeding the people with bread from heaven. Jesus feeds the people with five loaves and two fish in a miraculous way.

But then in our reading today, we also see Jesus performing a greater miracle than Moses. Moses had split the waters of the Red Sea, so that the people of Israel could walk through it, and be rescued from Pharaoh. In our reading today, Jesus does not split the sea and walk through it on dry land, but he walks right on top of the sea.

There’s a wonderful hymn, that says: God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform; / He plants His footsteps in the sea, / And rides upon the storm.

Let’s come back to our text. We read: After [Jesus] had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. It’s a wonderful mystery that Jesus prays. If Jesus is true God, why does he pray, we think? What does Jesus need to pray for? We are infinitely in much more need than him, and yet Jesus prays infinitely more than we pray, or can pray, or will ever pray!

But, remember the first words of the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father. In the Catholic Church, they even call the Lord’s Prayer, “The Our-Father”. Now why does Jesus teach us to pray “Our Father” and not “my Father”? The reason is that whenever we pray, whether we are praying with other Christians or in a quiet place by ourselves, we are always only praying together with Jesus. We never pray by ourselves – we only pray together with Him. He is always praying for us, and when we pray, we’re just joining in with his prayers which are going on all the time. Hebrews 9 says that Jesus always lives to make intercession for us. We get a wonderful picture of this in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus depicts himself like a wonderful friend who picks us up off the side of the road, bleeding and wounded, who then takes us to an inn, and gives the innkeeper some money and says: Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. In the same way, Jesus brings us to our heavenly Father, bruised and beaten by sin and the devil, and he pays for all our sin with his blood which he shed on the cross. But then what does he do? He continually prays to his Father for us, just like the Samaritan says to the innkeeper: Take care of him. And so it happens—Jesus prays for you, and our heavenly Father continually takes care of you.

But now, let’s look at the next part of our reading. We read: When evening came, [Jesus] was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

This is the amazing miracle of our reading. Jesus, by the way, is not some kind of new-age mystic here, who went to Asia before he was baptised to learn how to meditate, and is sitting like some guru on the top of the mountain, but is having an out-of-body experience floating around on the sea. That kind of behaviour is occult, and is forbidden in Scripture. I mention this, because I have met people in our society today who try to do things like this. I can’t warn you against this stuff strongly enough! Anyway, that’s not what the text says. The text does not say that Jesus floated around on the sea, but it says: He came to them. He actually came to them, body and soul, true God and true man. And how did he come to them? It says: walking on the sea. It was his human feet that were planted on the top of the waves.

                                                                                  

Now, here we learn something about Jesus. In the Creed, we confess that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. We believe that Jesus had God the Father as his true Father, and the Virgin Mary as his true mother. He is both true God and a true man. He is not 50% man, and 50% God, but 100% man and 100% God, 100% of the time. Since his conception, nobody in history ever then meets a Jesus who was only a man, and nobody ever then meets a Jesus who was only God. Jesus never switches off his divinity for a minute, and he never switches off his humanity for a second. After his conception, He is always God and man in one person, at every moment in his life, and even still today. So, who was in the Virgin Mary’s womb? Not just a human embryo—but the God who made heaven and earth. Who shed his blood on the cross? Not just a weak man—but the God “who flung stars into space”, as our well-known song says. Whose clothes lit up the night sky at the Transfiguration? Not simply Jesus as God, but his human flesh and his human face shone with all of that brightness. Who is sitting at the right hand of God? Not simply Jesus as God, but his human flesh, with all his flesh and skin and blood, glorified and transfigured with divine majesty.

Jesus is a bit like a burning coal. His humanity is a bit like a coal, but the divinity is like fire or heat. When a coal is burning, it glows red, so that the fire (or heat) and the black coal are always together, and work together. We also might think of branding cattle. If you use a piece of cold iron, you would just poke the cow. If you use a blow-torch, you would end up with roast beef! But to make a brand on the cow, you use a red-hot piece of iron, so that it pokes and burns at the same time.

In the same way, Jesus is like that poker. He always acts as true God and true man at the same time, just as the poker burns and pokes to brand and stamp the cattle. So when Jesus walks on the water, it is his real, flesh-and-blood, human foot that is walking there. And at the same time, if he were not also true God, he would not be able to use his human foot to walk on the water.

This is such a useful teaching, and has all kinds of applications. For example, St John says that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If Jesus were not a real human being, he would have no blood! If he were not truly God, his blood would not be able to cleanse us. Think also of the Lord’s Supper. If Jesus were not a real human being, he would have no body and no blood to give us to eat and drink. But if Jesus were not true God, it wouldn’t be possible for his body and blood to be given in the Lord’s Supper to Christians all throughout the world at the same time. And, his body and blood would not be given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins.

Now back to our text. It says: When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.

Jesus had walked out to them in the fourth watch of the night. This means sometime between 3am and 6am. The disciples had had a long night of hard slog, trying to keep strong as they endured this terrible wind, and saw the waves tossing back and forth. They must have been at the end of their strength. Maybe they even started to think they were seeing things. They say: It is a ghost!

The word “ghost” here refers to the way in which we normally use the word: to refer to an apparition of someone who has come back from the dead. We live in a time where many people believe that such things are just a lot of silly nonsense, and many times this is true. But also, as Christianity has declined in our culture, and people have stopped coming to church, you may be surprised just how many people live in fear of things like this. It is not uncommon for pastors to be invited to pray for a house that people think is haunted. It is not uncommon for people to say that their dead relative came to them and spoke to them.

Now, we might think this is all a load of nonsense, and sometimes it is. But there is something true in what people say—there really is another spiritual world. We confess this in the Creed—God is the maker of all things, visible and invisible. He made human beings, and he also created angels, some of whom have fallen into sin, like us, which we call “demons”. There really is a life after this life, and once people have died, they have not ceased to exist or are obliterated.

But there are some people who think that it is quite a natural thing to have paranormal activity in their homes. It’s not a natural thing—it often means that there has been some trouble there, or some rebellion against God. And in these cases, the house should be blessed. In our books of rites, our church has a special ceremony for the blessing of a house for this purpose.

Now, the disciples in our reading respond in the most natural way: They cried out in fear. Now, isn’t it a strange thing that Jesus himself is mistaken for a ghost! On Easter Day, Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognise him either, and mistakes him for a gardener. When we don’t recognise Jesus, or know him, it is easy to mistake him for something that he is not. But also, in our reading, there’s a sense in which Jesus allows his disciples to make this mistake because he wants to sympathise with them. They are already scared, and it is a scary thing to be on a boat in the middle of a storm, and Jesus knows this! But Jesus comes to them on a scary night in a scary way so that he can then comfort them with his own voice.

Jesus says: Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.

This is not a ghost. This is Jesus. Luther writes in his Small Catechism: I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord. And what a comfort this is!

First of all, Jesus says: Take heart. It’s as if he says: Take courage, cheer up. But he doesn’t mean “cheer up”, like someone who wants to make light of our situation. He says, “cheer up” knowing full well what the disciples have been through, and wants to encourage them in all their exhaustion.

He then says: It is I. Actually, in Greek, the words are “I am”, but this doesn’t translate into English very well here. But where have we heard the words “I am” before? These are the words with which God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. God said to Moses: I AM WHO I AM… Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ And so with these words, Jesus comforts them that it is not a ghost, but Him. At the same time, He reveals that he is also true God, the same God who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush.

Jesus said: Do not be afraid. If Jesus were a ghost, they would have every reason to be afraid—but since it is Him, all the fear in the whole wide world melts away at the sound of his voice and at the sight of his face.

Actually, there are some people who call themselves Christians today who deny that Jesus rose from the dead. They think that the disciples couldn’t cope with the fact that Jesus died, and so in order to be able to deal with their grief, they said that he rose again, as if they were in denial. These people believe that the Holy Spirit is basically the ghost of Jesus. But a ghost is a dead spirit. And we do not worship the dead, like the ancient Egyptians, or the Tibetans, or any other ancestor worshippers all throughout the world or throughout history. We worship a real, living Jesus, whose feet walked on the sea, and whose same feet were planted on the ground on Easter Day before he walked out of the tomb. And the Holy Spirit is not the dead spirit of the dead Jesus, but the living Spirit of the living Jesus, the Lord and Giver of life. After rising from the dead, Jesus made a special point of eating fish in the presence of his disciples and said: See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

Let’s look for a little bit at the part of our reading that talks about Peter, who walks out to Jesus on the sea. He says: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Isn’t it strange that Jesus should say: O you of little faith! Peter sure had more faith than any of us to think to walk on the water to Jesus!

This passage is often used to say that if only we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we won’t sink beneath the troubles of our life. It’s only when Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the waves, that he sinks. But we always sink! Peter sinks because that’s what we sinful humans do: we don’t always have our eyes on Jesus. Peter doesn’t raise himself back up again by looking back at Jesus. It’s Jesus who raises Peter up with his outstretched hand. We are always people of little faith, not great faith; we are the weak ones, and Jesus is the strong one. You might think that your faith is weak—good for you! Jesus is not weak, he is strong, and so trust in him in all your weakness, because he is strong for you. Jesus said to Paul: My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul says: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

And in the last part of our reading, we read: When they got in the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” They worship him, not because they are idol-worshippers, who are worshipping just another man, or who are worshipping a ghost or evil spirit, but they are worshipping him because he is true man and true God in one person. He is not just Mary’s Son, but he is God the Father’s Son. This is what the wise men from the east did when they saw the baby Jesus: they presented their gifts and worshipped him. 

And so today, we do the same thing—we come into the presence of the risen Lord Jesus, who casts away all of our fear, and we worship him, true God and true man in one person, together with his Father and the Holy Spirit, as true worshippers who worship him in spirit and in truth. Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, speak your word to us today so that we may take heart, and recognise you for who you are, and not be afraid. Amen.

Pentecost IX: Audio Sermon (6-Aug-2017)

Click title for link

Pentecost IX (Proper 13 A) [Matthew 14:31-32] (6-Aug-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Click here for PDF version for printing.

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

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

Over the last few weeks, we have been reading the parables of Jesus. Today, we read about where Jesus feeds the 5000. But between where our reading left off last week, and where our reading today begins, some important things happen.

Over the last three weeks, we read about the parable of the sower, the parable of the wheat and the weeds, and then six smaller parables: the parable of the mustard seed, the leaven (or the yeast), the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price, the drag-net, and then the parable about a scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven who is like a master of the house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. These parables of Jesus are some of the favourite stories of Christians everywhere.

Now, after we read the parables in Matthew 13, we read about two events that happen, before we get to our reading for today. And both of these events show us what happens when people hear God’s Word and don’t believe it.

The first thing we read about is that Jesus goes to his own hometown, Nazareth, and preaches there. And instead of believing his Word, they reject him, and they kick him out. And we read: Jesus did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

We get a little word of warning here: Sometimes we think we know Jesus well. We think that we have known him right from when we were little. Our parents knew him well, our grandparents knew him well. But then, we are sitting in church or reading the bible at home one day, and we come across something that Jesus says that doesn’t sit well with us. We might even be offended by it. We might even have had some kind of tragedy or trauma or crisis in our life, and it seems as though Jesus just doesn’t care about our situation. And we think, “That’s not the Jesus I know.” Be careful when this happens—it’s important that we stick with Jesus even when we don’t understand him. At one point, all the people who were listening to Jesus fled from him, and Jesus said to his disciples: Do you want to go away as well? And Peter answered: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Let those words also be your motto—Jesus, you have the words of eternal life. I trust in you to make your way clear at the right time.

And the second thing that happens after this, is that we read that King Herod kills John the Baptist. Here is one of the finest men of God in the bible. Jesus even says about him: Among those born of women none is greater than John. John was not afraid to use his mouth and to use his finger. With his mouth, he preached the Word, and with his finger he pointed to Jesus and said: Behold, the lamb of God. But then King Herod cut off his head, and silenced his mouth. But even with his head cut off, John’s finger still points to Jesus, and his death which is coming, his crucifixion, which will take away and pay for and atone for the sin of the world.

In France, over two hundred years ago, they were cutting off people’s heads there too. This was called the French Revolution. There were also a group of nuns that were taken to the guillotine, and on the way they sang: Come, Holy Spirit! They were about to die, but they knew the Holy Spirit would not die, and would continue to work in this sinful world. John the Baptist may have been silenced, but the Holy Spirit continues to work. Christians can sometimes be silenced and intimated and even killed, but the Holy Spirit continues to work. The Holy Spirit changes people’s hearts, and he follows it through right to the end.

And so we come to our reading for today, which shows us about what happens to group of people who listen to Jesus’ words and do believe it. Our reading today begins with these words: Now when Jesus heard [the news about John the Baptist’s death], he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.

Jesus is moved by this sad news. When his friend Lazarus died, we read that he wept. But Jesus is also not running away. But when something like this happens, Jesus wants to spend some time alone, just between him and his Father. This is such a wonderful example for us, because sometimes we receive some bad news that really has an impact on us. And when this happens, we know that is a good thing to be alone, just to be with Jesus by ourselves. Jesus knows that it’s only his Father that really understands how he was moved by this. For us too, many times we may have friends, and even Christian friends, and even wise Christians who have experienced many hard times, and even they can’t comfort us. Then, we need to be alone with Jesus and listen to his Word in the Scripture, and let him be the one who comforts us alone.

In the Gospel of Mark, we read that Jesus took his disciples with him, and said to them: Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while. In our lives there are times of hard work and high energy, and especially in the kingdom of God and in the church. But then there are also times of rest, where Jesus needs to refresh our souls, and press our recharge button, as it were. Actually, coming to church regularly on Sunday, is kind of a bit like that in a small way. People who don’t value coming to church would say: Why would I want to come to church on Sunday and sit around on my backside and do nothing? I could do all kinds of productive things instead. Yes, we’re doing not much, but Jesus is doing a lot. He is speaking to us the forgiveness of our sins, he is creating and strengthening faith in us, he is giving us his body and blood to eat and drink, and the list goes on.

And so, Jesus goes away by himself and we read: When the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. Isn’t it strange? We’ve just heard about the people in Nazareth who rejected Jesus, and King Herod who kills Jesus’ prophet and messenger. And when Jesus then goes away by himself, then we see all these people who come out of the woodwork and want to listen to him.

This is also a great encouragement to us as Christians. Sometimes all we hear about in the world today is bad stuff. And there are also many people in our neighbourhoods who will not come anywhere near a church.

Now at one point in his life, Elijah the prophet completely despairs and says to God: Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But God says to him: I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

And so, the same goes for us. Don’t despair, don’t give up on your faith, just because you see so much anti-Christian stuff in the news and the media. Jesus knows what’s going on. In our reading today, he goes away by himself. But then at the same time, he brings together so many people who simply want to be with him. They all come out of the towns. And they are all together, with him.

Now, maybe these people who come out to Jesus have not understood everything that he has said. Maybe they haven’t understood all the parables that he taught them. But they want to learn more. They want to be with him. And Jesus doesn’t turn them away. Instead, we read: When [Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

In the Gospel of Mark, we read another detail about this event, where it says: He began to teach them many things. So not only was Jesus healing them, but he was also teaching them.

Now you might remember the parables about the treasure hidden in the field, and about the pearl of great price. What does the man do who finds the treasure? What does the merchant do who finds his pearl? We read that they sold everything that they had just so that they could have that treasure and so that they could have that pearl.

Sometimes Christians can get carried away with reading the bible and going to church and praying, that people might think we neglect our day to day tasks a little bit. This happens in our reading: the people have been spending all day with Jesus, and enjoying him so much that they sacrifice everything they have, they forget that they should get home and make dinner. It starts to get dark, the shops are going to shut soon, there are women and children there. And the disciples go to Jesus, and they want to call it a day. They say: This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.

But Jesus says: They need not go away; you give them something to eat. They said to him, We have only five loaves here and two fish.

Now here Jesus gives them a test. On one hand, there is a practical issue, that means that the people must eat. But on the other hand, if they have to go and eat, it means that they have to leave the presence of Jesus. And Jesus doesn’t want this to happen.

Now the disciples have already stopped listening to Jesus and are thinking about their empty stomachs, and they think it’s about time for Jesus to send the crowds away to go home and eat, and the disciples can eat too.

The people are thinking about Jesus, but the disciples are thinking about their stomachs. So Jesus says: If you’re really that worried about their stomachs, then you feed them. If you really want to eat, let’s eat. And they say: But what? What are we going to eat? Five loaves and two fish?

Jesus wants to teach them a wonderful lesson. He wants to say, “When you eat, you don’t have to leave me. I am the one who gave you food in the first place.”

We read in Genesis, chapter 1, where God said: Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. So where did the five loaves in our passage today come from? They we were made from grain, from the plants which God gave them for food. Now, it wasn’t simply God the Father who gave them the food. Our God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—one God in three persons. And so Jesus was right there giving to the first people plants for them to eat.

Later on, after the flood, God says to Noah and his sons: Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. And this is Jesus speaking to Noah here, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And in our reading, we have not just loaves of bread, made from plants, but also two fish. God also gave people fish and meat to eat. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.

And so here in our reading, Jesus shows us that he is the Creator of all things. The people don’t need to go away from him to eat, they come to him to eat. He provides for them exactly the right amount that they need.

And so in our reading we read: Jesus ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied.

We might think here that Jesus breaks the rules of nature. But remember he also created the laws of nature. He designed nature to work in a particular way. But there is also another law of nature: this is the law that says that anything can be stretched and bended by God himself in service of his kingdom. And so, Jesus uses these loaves and fish, and he multiplies them in a miraculous way to feed a large crowd.

We also read: They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Now we often call this the feeding of the 5000. But this didn’t include the women and the children. Why do you think this is? Well, when God told his people to kill a lamb for the Passover when they left Egypt, we read: Tell all the congregation of Israel that…every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. Every man had to go out, and there was a lamb for every household.

In some sense, counting the men was a shorthand way of counting the families, the households. So we could call this passage not simply the feeding of the 5000 people, but the 5000 families. And we learn something really wonderful about this: Jesus doesn’t simply provide everything that you need personally, but he provides for your whole families too. We mums and dads often worry about how we’re going to provide this or that for our children. But this is also Jesus’ job to worry not just about you, but also about your loved ones.

Now, one more thing about families, and homes—when you have your food together, do you thank God for it? Do you ask a blessing upon your food, just as Jesus did in our reading? We live in a such an abundant, rich country, where very few people ever go without food. In fact, many of us have far too much. Do we thank him for it, or do we forget to thank him for it?

Just one last thing. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, or our trespasses, or debts. Here’s a test: After the words, Give us today our daily bread? what is the next word in the Lord’s Prayer? It’s not “forgive”, it’s “and”. Jesus connects daily bread and forgiveness together. He says: Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. Jesus wants to teach us that he doesn’t hold back our daily bread because of our sins. Two little kids might have a fight about sharing a toy. And then an adult brings them together, they say sorry, and they forgive each other. But then one says: “I’m still not sharing!” Jesus isn’t like that. Every time we receive our daily bread from Jesus, this is a reminder that he forgives us. Even unbelievers, who ignore him and ridicule him and mock him and rebel against him constantly, he still feeds. Jesus says: God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Jesus provides our daily bread, and he forgives us our sins. He strengthens and protect you in body and in soul to life eternal. He continually provides our daily bread, despite our sins, completely out of his love, and mercy.

Amen.

Dear Jesus, you have given us so much more in this life than we can ever imagine, and so much more than we deserve. Give us one thing more: a thankful heart. Amen.

Pentecost VIII: Audio Sermon (30-Jun-2017)

Click title for link