Memorial Service for Roy Hoffmann [1 Corinthians 15:51-58] (28-Nov-2017)

This sermon was preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 11am.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Or when Jesus gathers his disciples together on top of a mountain, sits down like a king on his throne with the majesty that belongs to him, opens his mouth and teaches his disciples and says: Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. That’s a mystery! – Blessed are those who mourn.... for they will be comforted. What a promise! But what will they be comforted with? They will be comforted with the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Therefore, as St Paul says, we do not grieve as others do who have no hope.

And it’s this mystery that Paul wants to tell to the church of all times and all places when he says these words: Behold! I tell you a mystery. He wants to draw you in. He wants to invite you into the hidden chambers of God’s heart and show you what lies in store for each Christian who dies in the faith.

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

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

So, what St Paul says in our text today, echoes those words of Jesus: Blessed are you ears for they hear and your eyes for they see. For many of the prophets longed to hear what you hear and did not hear it, and to see what you see but did not see it. And so St Paul says: Behold! I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Ask yourselves: Do you believe those words? Listen to how simple they are, and feel their power. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. As we come together today for Roy’s funeral, we come to give thanks for the life of a man that all of us so much enjoyed. We come to thank God for the great gift that he gave many people through the person of Roy.

And in some sense, Roy’s death marks somewhat the end of an era. It brings to end a chapter of family history. All of us here will miss Roy together, but in different ways and for different reasons. But it’s not the end, full stop. People outside the Christian faith will sit and ponder and consider whether or not there is an afterlife, or as people often say, a “here-after”.

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

Right back in Genesis 3, after the fall into sin, God said to Adam: For you are dust and to dust you shall return. There’s also a famous passage in Ezekiel where the prophet is brought into the middle of a valley of dry bones, and God says to him, Son of Man, can these bones live? What a wonderful confession of faith it is to come to the church today and say Amen to these words: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

In our Gospel reading which we read today we heard about Lazarus, and his sister Martha. Before he arrives at Martha’s house, Jesus says to his disciples: Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I go to wake him up.

There was also an occasion when Jesus saw all the people outside Jairus’ house, weeping and carrying on because of the death of his daughter, and he said: Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And for many of us, it’s been a difficult thing to see these words come to fulfilment in Roy’s body in the last few months. We’ve learnt from experience now, that this body is in actual fact perishable. We learn this from our observances, our experience.

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

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

Today we are not here to just commemorate the end of something. Christian funerals and memorials are occasions where we commemorate the preparation for something new, for the future work of God that we still wait for – we look forward to the resurrection of the dead.

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

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

Death is swallowed up in victory!

Dreams are swallowed up with realities!

Hopes and wishes are swallowed up with real things!

Faith is swallowed up by sight!

Tears are swallowed up with joy!

Suffering is swallowed up with peace!

Mourning is swallowed up with comfort!

Death is swallowed up with resurrection, with victory.

That’s what we come here today to confess as a Christian church: that each Christian will be healed by Jesus from their perishability, each Christian will be healed from their mortality, each Christian will be healed from their corruption.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harvest Thanksgiving [Matthew 6:25-33] (26-Nov-2017)

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

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

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

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

Today in our church, we are celebrating Harvest Thanksgiving. And thanksgiving, giving thanks to God, is right at the heart of our faith. For example, there are so many times in the bible where it says: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever.

There’s a particularly favourite passage of mine about this topic, about thanksgiving, that comes from Romans 1. The book of Romans is a wonderful book, written by St Paul, where he gives a very detailed explanation of so many of the central parts of the Christian faith. It’s a book that is well-loved by many Christians. In Romans chapter 1, St Paul describes the world of unbelief, and of unbelievers. He says: Although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

He says that although people may have known that there was a good, even though people may be able to look at the world and all the wonderful plants and animals and the way so many things in the world and in nature are structured and ordered in a wonderful way, what was the problem? It says: they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him. Can you see how giving thanks is so important here, and how St Paul makes such a big deal out of it?

But then what’s the alternative to thanksgiving? It says: They did not honour him or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Instead of thanksgiving, they end up with futile thinking, foolish hearts which are darknened. Futility, foolishness, darkness. It’s almost like there’s this cancer that sets in, or a mold, or a rust that enters into our hearts. But with thanksgiving, the cancer, the mold and the rust is washed away. Giving thanks to God is like an antidote, like a medicine that drives the darkness away. I remember meeting someone once who said that when she couldn’t sleep, she would just go through her mind of all the things she could give thanks to God for.

But there’s one more thing that’s really wonderful about this first chapter of Romans. In verse 21, we read the verse I just read: For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. But if we back track a few verses, right back to verse 8, which is just after Paul has written his greetings and introduced himself at the beginning of the letter, this is what we read: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Did you notice what he says? First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. St Paul is about to write this wonderful letter to the Romans, and he has so much to teach them, and the Romans have so much to learn. But he doesn’t begin by saying: You lousy Romans, you’re all so stupid, and none of you know anything about anything. He says: First, I thank my God. So even though later in the chapter, he makes that wonderful statement about thanksgiving as being a kind of antidote to the diseases of foolishness, darkness, and futility, here at the beginning of the chapter, he actually models thanksgiving to us. This is so incredibly helpful for us, in our fast-paced lives—what do you have to give to God for?

Actually, Martin Luther, has some wonderful things to say about this in his Small Catechism, about the Lord’s Prayer. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: Give us today our daily bread. And Martin Luther explains it like this: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What makes Christians different from other people? Do Christian farmers get healthier and more fruitful crops than other farmers? No. Do Christians have nicer homes than other people, more money than other people, better clothes than other people? No. Are Christians healthier and less sick and less injured than other people? Once again, the answer is no. In Matthew chapter 5, it says: God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Everyone, whether you are a Christian or not, enjoys the gifts of sunshine and rain, and the many gifts that come from it. So if there’s going to be a difference—if Christians are going to make a difference—what’s it going to be? Let’s listen to Luther’s words again: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

Our whole lives as Christians is one big offering of thanks. There are so many things that God has given to us—we are called to thank him, and to offer our lives back to him in thanksgiving. We are given so many things for our bodies and for our lives—food, drink, clothing, shoes, a house, a home, a family, peace, good government, protection from war, from violence, from major disease. We are so blessed in this country. Just a word about government—we have heard a lot of talk in recent years about corruption, but there are some countries that have had years of corruption that has completely crippled their country, and would take years to turn around. Also, I remember when Kevin Rudd returned to be prime-minister again after Julia Gillard, an African man said to me at the church door, that if that had happened in Africa, there would be a civil war. Don’t we have so much to be thankful for in this country? And not to mention, all the spiritual things that God gives to us, for the benefit of our souls—God’s word, the ability to read it, to ability to hear it, a wonderful church building such as this one, our church musicians, the gift of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the opportunity and the privilege of prayer, Christian friends, and people who speak to us God’s word. And we have I remember hearing a story about an old pastor, who used to say a prayer like this: Heavenly Father, you have give me so many things in life to enjoy. Give me one thing more—a thankful heart.

And so now, I’d like to come back to Jesus’ words from Matthew 6. And this is a well-known passage, where Jesus teaches us about the relationship between our spiritual life to the needs of our body. He says: Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Just before this, Jesus says: No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

After this, then our reading begins where Jesus says: Therefore, do not be anxious about your life. On one hand, the worship that we offer to God is thanksgiving. On the other hand, the worship we offer to an idol, to a false good, is anxiety. Jesus says: You cannot serve God and money. If we serve God, we do with thankfulness. If we serve money, we do it with anxiety.

In the broad scheme of history, and in comparison to the rest of the world, we are very wealthy people. And yet, there’s many people who are constantly anxious about all kinds of things—about their finances, about the future, and all kinds of things like that. Many parents today are especially anxious about their children. But our Christian life should not be directed in such a way to simply alleviate their anxiety. Some people are anxious and they don’t even know why they are anxious. And then they jump from one thing to the next, from one novelty to the next, looking for a fix. But people don’t become closer to God by offering little sacrifices to their false gods through anxiety. There’s no use saying: My prayers to God don’t seem to be working, I think I’ll pray to the devil instead. Of course not!

Let’s listen to what Jesus has to say. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Think about it, Jesus says: what has anxiety ever really done for you, except make your life a misery?

Jesus says: And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

Let’s just stop for a minute—do we really worry about what we’re going to eat or drink or wear? In Australia, we really don’t have to worry at all about famine, or going without clothes. But then, we like to have variety in our food and diet—I’m not talking about the fact that a varied diet is a good thing, but we get bored with the same old thing. So we worry: what are we going to eat? We can’t eat fish and chips tonight! Why? Because we had it last night. All this is anxiety about food and drink.

Or what about clothing? Many of us are not overly anxious about not having anything to wear. But then, there’s the whole question of variety again. Many people can’t bear to be seen wearing the same clothes to two different occasions. People say: I can’t wear that outfit, or that tie, or that jacket, or that dress, to that wedding, because people will remember it from some other occasion. All of this is anxiety over clothing. We might think that we have to live in this kind of luxury in order to make a good appearance, but if that’s the case—fine, then you have to know that we’ll be anxious. And this anxiety is simply the offering we make to a false god.

Don’t you know how valuable God thinks we are? Don’t you know that he values us so much more highly than anyone in our life who we think might value us and appreciate us the most? Jesus says: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Jesus says: For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and you heavenly Father knows that you need them all. You see—here Jesus points out the fact that our anxiety about our life doesn’t make us different from anyone else. Gentiles can be anxious too. Unbelievers will be anxious too—they don’t honour God or give thanks to him, and so as St Paul says, they become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts are darkened.

So what then? Jesus says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own evil.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Build your life and your faith with a thankful heart. And seek his righteousness. God’s righteousness comes from the forgiveness of sins, which Jesus has won for us on the cross through his suffering and death and through his resurrection. Seek this. Trust in it. Put your anxieties into the hands of this man who shed his blood for you. St Peter says in his first letter: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. St Paul also says in Philippians: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (notice that: with thanksgiving!) let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

A pastor once said to me, that God provides everything we need for any given day. If we find that we are not coping with what needs to be done, if we think that God hasn’t provided the strength and the capacity for us to cope, maybe we are doing something and dedicating our hearts to something that we don’t need to. God is constantly our teacher, and he knows in his wisdom how to alleviate our hearts from all of our burdens.

So, to conclude our sermon today, I’d like to read a couple of verses from the book of Acts, by way of encouragement, about the first Christians after the day of Pentecost. It says: And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. May the Holy Spirit give us the same gladness and generosity of heart, and above everything, a thankful heart!

Amen.

Dear Jesus, you have given us so many things to enjoy, both for our bodies and for our souls. Give us one thing more, a thankful heart. Amen.

Pentecost XXIII (Proper 28 A) [Matthew 25:14-30] (19-Nov-2017)

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

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

He who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’

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

In the Gospel of Luke, there is a wonderful passage where we read about where Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee, one of the religious leaders at that time. And while Jesus was there, we read: A woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining in the Pharisees’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. Can you picture this event? Here Jesus is having dinner with these “respectable” people, and in comes this woman, and she is crying, she washes Jesus feet with the tears that are streaming from her eyes, and pours ointment, perfume, over his feet. And it’s strange—we are not told much about this lady. We are not told her name, we don’t know where she was born. The only thing we are told about her is that she was a sinner. And we might have all kinds of different ideas about what kind of a sinner she was. And yet, even though she carries so much shame and self-loathing, all of this sadness is poured out over the one person that can actually save her and help her. Here she comes and pours out her tears on Jesus’ feet. And not just her tears, but she mixes her tears with perfume—she pours out everything that comes from her heart, but then she also pours out this expensive ointment, a wonderful gift for her Saviour.

Of course, all the people who are there think this is all a bit strange, not just because of what the woman did, but because they knew that she was a sinner, as the passage says. Jesus says to them: Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.

Do you see how this works? These Pharisees, these religious leaders, didn’t understand that were sinners, and then, of course, they didn’t appreciate what a wonderful privilege it is to be in the presence of Jesus and to eat a meal with him and talk with him. And at the same time, this woman, whom we know nothing about except that she was a sinner—she knew what a privilege it was, she knew just what a joy it is was to be with Jesus.

And it’s strange: Jesus almost talks as if there is a scale: the more we are forgiven, the more we love. Jesus says: Her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. And so all of this woman’s sins are completely washed away. And yet, Jesus converts all of her sins into love. It’s as if the more a person is a sinner, the greater capacity they have for love.

It’s as if Jesus is running a recycling depot (in South Australia or Northern Territory, though!). People bring their bottles and cans to the recycling depot, and then they are given some money in return. The more bottles, the more money. It’s as if the more sins we bring to Jesus, the greater capacity we have for love. Now it’s no use turning up to the recycling depot with jewellery and expensive things. You can’t go up to the recycling depot and say: “I’d like to cash in my Rolls Royce. How much do you think it can be recycled for?” No—they will only accept cans and bottles.

So—it’s not as if we go and cash in wish Jesus all the things we think are good about us and valuable, but we go to Jesus and cash in all the things we hate about ourselves, which have made us worthless.

There’s a wonderful passage in Matthew where Jesus says to the Pharisees, the same religious leaders: Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. Now Jesus is not talking about all tax-collectors and prostitutes here. And Jesus mentions tax collectors here not because it’s a sin to work for the tax office, but because in those days these tax collectors were Jewish people who were working for the Romans, and collecting tax for the Romans. The Jewish people saw them as traitors. And much of the time they were traitors, because they lined their own pockets with the people’s money. And we know that in our times, prostitutes are always trying to tell people to avoid even calling them “prostitutes”, but to call them other, more dignified names, to cover up the shame. This isn’t what Jesus is talking about either. What he is saying is that there are going to be people that we despise—tax collectors and prostitutes—all throughout history who are going to go to Jesus and to cash in their sins for God’s free forgiveness. And there are going to be many people who are respectable, who are never going to bother, because they think they’re so good.

Martin Luther once wrote a letter to someone about this, where he said: learn Christ and him crucified.  Learn to praise him and, despairing of yourself, say, "Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin.  You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours.  You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not."  Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one.  For Christ dwells only in sinners.

So what does this have to do with our gospel reading today? Today in our reading we read: [The kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To the one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.

When it says the man gave his servants “talents”, he’s not talking about “talents” like being able to catch a fish, or play the piano, or being able to balance a spoon on the end of your nose. It’s not talking about when we say a person is “talented”. A talent was an amount of money, 20 year’s wages for a labourer. It’s a lot of money. When Jesus says to the people “a talent”, I would think that today we might think “a million dollars.”

And here we see that Jesus is like a man going on a journey. He has died and risen from the dead, and now he has ascended into heaven. He is hidden from our eyes and we can’t see him anymore, but he still promises to be with us. He’s absent from us, as if he’s left the church on its own. But he says: Surely, I am with you always to the end of the age. And he says: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.

So the parable says that to us it seems as though Jesus has gone on a journey. But he will also come back from the journey. At the end of the world, Jesus will appear again and judge the world. We say in the Apostles’ Creed: He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

But in the meantime, it says that the man called his servants and entrusted to them his property. And when Jesus gives us his property, the most precious gift is the gift of himself. And each is given according to his ability. The ability here is the knowledge of sin. Remember the woman in Luke—she pours out so much love, her ability to love is so much, not because she was perfect, but because she was a sinner. She had sinned much, Jesus says, and then she loved much. Because she knew her sin so deeply, she had so much ability to be entrusted with Jesus’ property, to be entrusted with the forgiveness of each and every single one of her sins.

And so he we read: Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.

Now later we read how the first two were rewarded, but the last one was punished. We read: He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master said to him, “You wicket and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Now if we want to understand this parable, we want to know what does it mean to bury the money in the ground, and what does it mean to double our money? The first two servants doubled their money, but the third servant buried his money.

Well, you see, the forgiveness of sins is such a wonderful thing. The greater we understand this, the more we will understand the Christian faith in all its joy. This of course, seems a bit strange to us: how can we receive so much joy from acknowledging all our failures? Well, it’s just like a plant or a tree—you heap manure on it and it grows. So also, our faith always grows out of manure, because it is always a faith in the forgiveness of sins.

Now, when we were baptised, Jesus gave this forgiveness of sins to us completely freely, and in the Lord’s Supper, he continually strengthens us in it.

And from this forgiveness of sins comes everything. From the forgiveness of sins comes life in all its forms, and salvation in all its richness. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

And so, if we want to trade with our talents, what is Jesus asking us to do? He’s asking us to keep reading and meditating on and hearing the word of God. Because the word of God will continually reveal to us more sin, but then God’s word will continually apply to us more and more forgiveness. And this richness of the forgiveness of sins will eventually burst forth, like water being poured into jars, and it will overflow into other jars. When people realise just how rich this forgiveness of sins is, it will be impossible for them to keep it to themselves—other people will be encouraged by it and grow in their faith too. Think of this woman who was a sinner—think how much encouragement we receive from her, how when she trades with Jesus, and cashes in her sins, she rewards her: He says: Well done, good and faithful servant! Your faith has saved you. She loved much because she is forgiven much.

If we want to bury our talent in the ground, then we should stop listening to the word of God. Many people bury the word of God in the ground and don’t want to listen to it. But we might think, hang on, isn’t the talent the gift that Jesus gave to this servant? Yes, the word of God is Jesus’ property which he gives to the servant. The word of God speaks the forgiveness of sins to each and every single fault and failure that this man has. And yet, he buries it—even though he has received so much from it, he thinks it has no power. He thinks the Holy Spirit is found somewhere else that isn’t so boring and uninteresting.

And there’s a real temptation for us in this—we start to think that the word of God has no power. We stop valuing the word of God. We think we’ve heard the Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins so many times before. We might think that most important thing about a church is how many people go to it, or how entertained people are there, rather than whether you can hear the word of God there. All this is burying the talent in the ground.

Jesus has given us so much. If all he had given us was the forgiveness of sins, then we should be happy. Because if we have the forgiveness of sins, we have everything we need—we can pray, we can go to heaven, we can be saved. But not only that, but through the word of God, and through the gospel, through the forgiveness of sins, Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, a good conscience, a clean slate, and all kinds of gifts. St Paul says: To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. And the gifts just keep increasing.

Sometimes we see the forgiveness of sins and such a little thing. But it is everything. And Jesus says: You have been faithful over little. You have been coming regularly and diligently to my recycling plant and cashing each little sin, failure, and sadness. You have brought these things to me, and I have paid you back with my suffering, death and my blood. You have been faithful over little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

Do you see? Our sin cost Jesus his life, but then he gives us eternal life completely and totally for free. Enter into the joy of your master.

Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, strengthen us with your holy and precious word. Send us your Holy Spirit to reveal to us our sin, but also strengthen us in your word that may not despair of your love but be constantly filled with your forgiveness, your grace, and your mercy. Teach us to be faithful to you, Jesus, and keep us safe in your hands. Amen.

Pentecost XXII (Proper 27 A) [Matthew 25:1-13] (12-Nov-2017)

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

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

But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

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

In our Gospel reading today, we read a very rich parable of Jesus, the Parable of the Ten Virgins. We read: Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. The scene that Jesus paints here is one of ten virgins who are bridesmaids waiting for the groom to arrive so that they can go into a wedding reception, or a wedding banquet. At weddings, it is always important that things run on time, and there are a lot of jokes about brides running late. If a bride arrives early, the car might drive around the block a few times so that they arrive at the church at the right time. But in our parable, it is a groom—a bridegroom—that everyone is waiting for, and he is so late that everyone falls asleep.

In our reading, we read that the ten virgins went to meet the bridegroom. And later we read: At midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ So who is the bridegroom in this reading? The bridegroom is Jesus himself. One of the first things we read about in the book of Genesis is the marriage of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God himself as the match-maker and the celebrant. And then, right at the end of the bible, we read in the book of Revelation: I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A couple of chapters earlier, we read where an angel says: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Right back in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah, we read about a faithful servant of God speaking of God like their husband: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. In Ephesians, Paul has a lot to say about this: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

And so you can see this wonderful reality described in the bible here of Christ as the bridegroom, and the church as his bride. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2: I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. He is not speaking only to the Corinthians who were outwardly celibate and virgins, but to the whole church here. And in the church at Corinth, there were virgins and widows, married people, and also people who had converted to Christ from prostitution, who were adulterers and who had slept around, and also Paul even mentions people who had converted to Jesus after having committed incest. But when these people repented and turned to Christ, they became virgins again, not because of themselves and their own righteousness and purity, but because of Christ’s righteousness which covered them. As it says in Isaiah: He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

In our reading, we read about the ten virgins: Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

On one hand, in the bible, the church is always depicted as Christ’s bride. But in this reading the bride isn’t mentioned, only these virgins, these bridesmaids. And so, we learn from this that in this life, in the church on earth, the bride of Christ is hidden, veiled. The church is often not a glorious place at all. It often seems quite ordinary, even a bit uninteresting and boring and commonplace. Sometimes in the church, there are fights and disagreements. From the outside, the church seems to have a lot of hypocrites. Many people don’t want anything to do with the church, because they see a community of ordinary sinners, and if God were really in charge of the world, why would he bother wasting his time with that lot?

But in this life, we don’t see the bride in all her glory. We only see ten virgins, five of them are wise and five of them are foolish. On one hand, the church is found wherever Christ’s word and the Gospel is preached in its truth and purity and where his sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are carried out according to Christ’s command and institution. The Word and the Sacraments are the Holy Spirit’s means that he uses to create faith in people. But on the other hand, not everyone who hears the gospel believes it. But faith is not something that you produce in yourself, but it is something that the Holy Spirit works in your heart. You might even think: “I want to believe, but I can’t”. St Paul writes that God wills and works in us to his good pleasure. If you want to believe, it means that God is already working in you, and you didn’t even know it. Thank him for working in you—he will continue to work in you, and he has already produced faith in your heart.

Now, the Holy Spirit is not a toy. He is the living God himself, and the Spirit of the Living God, and the Spirit of the living Jesus, who has risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit will not be manipulated. And so he works whenever and wherever he pleases in those who hear the Gospel. In John we read: The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. What this means is that just as we might be sitting inside one day and can hear the wind outside, so also when we hear the Word of God, we are listening to God’s own wind, the Holy Spirit. But just as you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going, so also we can’t see the Holy Spirit coming, and we can’t see the Holy Spirit working in this person and that person. As Paul says: I preached, [someone else] watered, but God gave the growth.

And so, we see this happen on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes down upon the disciples, but not everyone who sees this happening believes it or recognises it. We read: All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Some were interested, but some mocked. When Paul preached in Athens, we read: Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So what we learn here is that we never know how the Holy Spirit is going to work. We should never second-guess him and say: That person’s never going to listen. We simply speak the word and go home, but the Holy Spirit then continues to work and create faith in people.

So on one hand, the word of God and the Holy Spirit comes to us from outside of us. And all of us hear the word of God altogether. But God doesn’t speak his word in such a way that it hits you on the head like a rock and bounces off. He calls you to believe it. And so, even though all kinds of people might come to church and hear the word, God calls each individual to be saved personally. Later in our reading we read: As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterwards, the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

We learn a few things here. Firstly, we learn that Christ calls us to receive the gift of salvation personally. When the time comes, it will be too late for the individual virgins to share their oil with each other. We can’t rely on others. We can’t say: I’m saved, because I go to church with bla-bla-bla, and he’s a good guy. Or: I’m saved because my grandma is a Christian. Or: I’m saved, because my grandfather, or my son, is a pastor. Or: I’m saved because I go to the church Martin Luther started, and he knew what it was all about. Or: I’m saved because come from such-and-such a country. No: we can’t get our righteousness from each other. We can only receive our salvation from Jesus and him alone. Now, sometimes, when a person dies, we don’t about their salvation, and so we might commend them to God in prayer and to his mercy. But this does not mean that our good works or our prayers can earn salvation for someone else. Some of you might have a relative or a friend who is not saved and is an unbeliever. Of course, we should pray for them every day and not give up. But we don’t pray that we would be their saviour, but that Jesus would be their Saviour. So salvation is through Jesus and Jesus alone. Peter says in Acts: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So the oil cannot be shared between fellow virgins. It can only be received from Christ and the Holy Spirit, through the living and active word of God.

But secondly, there is a very important teaching here that not everyone will be saved. This is a very unpopular thing to say, but we must learn from the Scripture and not from our own ideas that there will be a judgment, and that each person will be judged by God. There are a number of parables where Jesus teaches this: one of them is the wheat and the weeds, where at the end, the wheat and weeds are separated into different piles. Another parable like this is about the drag net which pulls in all kinds of fish, and then they are sorted into the good and the bad. And here in the parable of the ten virgins, there are two types of virgins: the wise and the foolish. The wise virgins are ready and prepared and they go into the wedding feast, but then there are the foolish virgins who are not ready and it is too late for them, and then the door is shut. So you can see that there is a judgment.

Now today there are many people who don’t believe this. First of all, many people say that there is no distinction between God and his creation. They say that God is everything, God is the universe, or that God is in everything. The first verse of the bible contradicts this and says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God is the creator, and the heaven and the earth are his creation. Second, many people say that the Holy Spirit is in everyone. This is not true. Everyone is born with a conscience, everyone is born with a soul, but to be saved, Jesus says you must be born again, a second time, in Holy Baptism, and God gives the Holy Spirit as a gift. Instead of being united around Jesus and his word, many people today just want to be united in their feelings and experiences, and so there would be no difference between the Christian faith and any other faith. But Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If this isn’t true, then Jesus is a liar, and he’s not the true God. If the words of Jesus are not absolute truth, then nothing in this world is right or wrong, there is no good or bad, no heaven or hell, and of course, the church has no mission, and the missionary zeal of the church completely dries up.

Instead, the bible teaches us that God is the Creator, and he has made heaven and earth as his creation, which is distinct from him. Jesus is true God who entered into this creation and took on human flesh, and then died on the cross and made a payment and an atonement for sin. Through faith in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit. In the end, we will be judged; but through Jesus, forgiveness and eternal life has been won for us, and is ours through faith. Jesus is our Mediator, our Advocate, our Defender. The Holy Spirit brings us the Gospel, and through the Gospel the Holy Spirit creates faith in us. The Holy Spirit is the oil in the lamps, and the light of the Gospel in our hearts is the light. And so while we have the light of the Gospel shining among us on this earth, we need to make good use of the time we have to fill up our flasks with God’s oil. If we leave it, and refuse to believe the Gospel, there may be a time, then, when it is too late for us.

And so, at the very end of our reading, Jesus says: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Jesus here is calling us to repent and to reconcile ourselves with God now, in this life, while we have the Gospel. Psalm 95 says: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Isaiah says: Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. St Paul says in Romans: The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. And in Galatians we read: As we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone. The time for acquiring faith, and believing in Jesus, and receiving the Holy Spirit is now. It is not next year, not next month, not tomorrow. When we hear the Gospel, we can’t guarantee that it will be there for us when we need it. We might say: I’ll read the bible at home another day, but who knows if later you’ll go blind in your old age? People might say: I won’t listen in church all that carefully, but then later on they go deaf and it’s too late? They might say: I’d like to come to church, but then later they find themselves unable to come when they want to.

Or someone might say: I’m going to church at Easter. I haven’t gone to church for a long time. And then they go along, and the preacher tells everyone that Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead after all. It’s too late – the Gospel isn’t preached in that church any more, and the glory of God has departed from that place. They rejected God earlier, and when they sought him later, they couldn’t find him anymore. They might call for a pastor to come and see them on their deathbed, but then they can’t find anyone to come, because by that time, either no Christians live there anymore, or the Christians who do are too lazy and apathetic to come.

The time of grace is now. And while we have the Gospel, our Lord Jesus doesn’t call us to be apathetic, but to fill up, to stock up our vessels, and to keep our lamps burning. And when our lamps burn brightly, and when they burn with the wonderful light of God’s word and his Gospel, then the words will be fulfilled: Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Others may see the light in the lamps, and will say: I want to go and fill up on the same oil as they. I want to fill my lamp with the same word of God, and the same Gospel, and the same Holy Spirit.

And so, let’s be ready and prepared. Let’s continually learn God’s word, receive the free forgiveness of sins, and to fill up our vessels continually, so that when the time comes we can wake from our sleep and hear the words: Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him’. And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. Amen.

Dear Jesus, our loving bridegroom, keep us watchful and ready, and continually fill our lamps with your precious Word and your Holy Spirit. Wake us up from our sleep, forgive us all our sins, and lead us into the wedding banquet of eternal life. Amen.

Funeral of Elaine Hansen [Luke 23:39-43] (8-Nov-2017)

This sermon was preached at the Maryborough Crematorium, Maryborough, 1.30pm.

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

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

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

Today as we come here for Elaine’s funeral, we have the wonderful privilege of entering into God’s presence, and receiving our comfort from him. Every time we gather together to hear God’s word, there is always something new to learn from him. God’s own comfort is not something that is natural to us, because we are human and he is God, and so it always must be taught. Especially today when we gather for a funeral in the face of death, it is a wonderful privilege and joy to receive our strength and comfort from God himself.

And so today we come together to thank God for Elaine’s life, to remember the good things that God has given to us through her, and to commend her to God and his mercy and grace.

Today for our funeral text, I’ve chosen a passage from the Gospel of Luke, from the part where he tells about the events of when Jesus was on the cross. Often when we see the cross depicted in a painting, or something, there are three crosses. The reason for this is because Jesus was crucified between two criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And our reading tells of a discussion that occurs between the two criminals and Jesus while they are there.

But let’s just leave this passage for a moment, and come back to Elaine. On the 18 March 1928, at the Nitschinsk family home, Elaine was baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The reason why this was because we Christians believe that Jesus died for the sin of the world on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday he rose from the dead. After he rose from the dead, he sent his twelve apostles out on a special mission and to them: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

And so when the pastor, all those years ago baptised Elaine at her family’s home, he didn’t baptise her in his own name, and by his own authority. Instead he baptised her in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus promised the apostles: I am with you always to the end of the age. So it’s not simply a pastor, or a human being, who baptises people, it is Jesus who does it. He is the one who works invisibly alongside and behind the pastor doing it.

So who is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Well, let’s go back to the very beginning of the bible, where it says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. It also says that he made people in his own image, male and female he created them, and God blessed them. We also read where it says: And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Later in the psalms, the poetry written by King David, it says: You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

We learn here from these passages that God is our creator and maker. God has made each person on this earth in his own image, but also makes each person unique. And it’s not as if God simply wound the world up like a clock, and then went on holiday ever since. He still provides for people and for the world. And so, when Elaine was a child, God provided her with a mother and father and a home. When she was older, God provided her with a husband, and children, and a home of her own. God provided her to you, however you came about to know her. And so all of this is part of God’s way of ordering the world, and providing for us and looking after us.

We also learn from the Scripture, that the world fell into sin. Adam and Eve, the first people, disobeyed God’s commandment to them, and they came under God’s judgment. They once could enjoy God’s presence in a perfect and wonderful way, but then after they had brought sin into their lives by their own doing, they could no longer live in the same way together with God anymore. With sin, came also suffering and death into the world. What this means for us today is that on one hand, all of us have been created in a wonderful way by God. And from our parents, we have inherited all kinds of good things. But also, because of sin, we also inherit the family debt. With all the good things that are passed down from generation to generation, sin is also passed down. We know that you don’t have to teach a child to do wrong—they do it all by themselves, because it’s already there, and it doesn’t need to be taught! St Paul says: There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And later he says: The wages of sin is death.

But this brings us back to words that were spoken to Elaine on the day of her baptism: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We have spoken about God the Father, our wonderful Creator, but also about the terrible way in which sin has come into the world. God the Father also sent his Son into the world, Jesus Christ. Jesus is both a true man, a real human being in every way, but also was true God at the same time. This is because Jesus had a human mother—the Virgin Mary—but had God the Father as his Father. And so, Jesus also lead a life that was completely and totally sinless.

Now, at Christmas time, we remember the event where Jesus was born. We remember the wonderful event where the Son of God who had existed from all eternity, who had been there with his Father at the creation of the world, now took on human flesh, and was born as a baby, just like you and I were. Christmas is the event where we remember who Jesus is—both true God and true man in one person. And then at Easter time, we remember the event what Jesus did, how he died on the cross, and rose again from the dead.

And this passage that I read before about the two criminals shows to us why Jesus died. And these two criminals in some sense give a picture of the whole human race. Everyone is a sinner without exception. And so the first criminal, we read, railed at Jesus—we might say, he mocked him, heckled him. And said: Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us! What he meant to say was: If you really are the Son of God, why don’t you just get down off the cross? You don’t have to go through this!

And in some sense, he’s right. Jesus didn’t have to go through it, but he chose to. Jesus had once said: No-one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. So why doesn’t Jesus just get off the cross, if he has the power and the authority being the Son of God to do so? He doesn’t get off the cross, because he is doing something very important, in fact, he is doing the most important thing that has ever been done in the whole history of the world. He is making an atonement for sin, he is paying the price for our wrongs with his own life and with his own blood. And without him doing this, not one single one of us would have any hope at all.

And so this is where the other criminal comes in. We read: The other [criminal] rebuked him, meaning, he told him off, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”

He says: What’s wrong with you? We’re being crucified because we committed a crime. The Romans used to crucify people who were rebels. And so these rebels knew that they were rebels, and they knew what the punishment was if they were caught. And now they had been caught. And the criminal says: we deserve what we are getting. But Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong. He doesn’t deserve crucifixion, but he is doing it for you. He has done nothing wrong, and he makes a payment for you, who have done plenty wrong. And so, Jesus takes all of your sin and dies for it, and he gives you all of his innocence and perfection and he gives it to you, completely freely. St Paul says: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For Jesus eternal life costs him his life, but because of this, he offers and gives it to you for free.

And so the criminal then says to Jesus: Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom. And [Jesus] said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Jesus does not require anything from this criminal. The criminal commends himself to Jesus and his mercy. And Jesus promises him the gift of eternal life.

There’s a wonderful text in the book of Romans, where St Paul says: God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. What this means is that the only person God has mercy on is a sinner. The only people that Jesus died for are sinners. This is what the thief on the cross came to recognise. He knew he was guilty, and that Jesus was innocent, and Jesus takes him with him, just as if the thief were innocent. The reason Jesus did this is because Jesus had taken the thief’s guilt on himself, and died for it himself.

And so, in the same way, we thank God for giving Elaine to us, and for blessing us with her. Let’s thank God for creating her, and thank Jesus for the wonderful way in which he died on the cross, and made an atonement for the sin of the whole world. And so, as we remember all the many blessings we have received from God through Elaine, let’s commend her to God’s mercy and grace.

Jesus says: Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Amen.

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