Pentecost V (Proper 7 B) [Mark 4:35-41] (24-June-2018)

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.

And Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

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

In Genesis chapter 1 and 2, we read about the creation of the world. And at the end of Genesis 1, we read where it says: And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Later on in Genesis 2, we read: The LORD God has not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.

One of the things about which we get a very strong sense from reading about the beginning of the world is that there was a tremendous calm in the world. There were no wars, no fights, no misunderstandings, no knee-jerk reactions, no scowls, no frowns, no anxiety, no panicking – there was just a tremendous calm upon the earth.

In the last chapter book of the bible, we read where it says: [God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Someone once said to me that they are looking forward to heaven as the place where there will be no more money! Isn’t that an interesting thought? For me, I look forward to heaven as the place where there will no more worries, or anxiety, or panicking. There was nothing to be anxious about at the beginning of the world before the fall, and as Christians, there will be nothing to be anxious about when Jesus receives us into his own presence in the next life. What a joy it will be to be still and know that [he] is God!

Our Gospel reading is a very special text, which particularly deals with this topic. We see the disciples in a boat, a great storm arises, Jesus is asleep in the stern, and when they wake Jesus up, he rebukes the wind and commands the sea, and we read: And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

This word “calm” does not appear too many times in the bible. It does turn up in Psalm 131, one of the smallest psalms, which reads: O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. That’s the whole psalm. And it gives this picture of being calm, like a weaned child. A child which is not weaned, which still drinks milk from its mother, is always anxious when its mum is not around. A baby’s always looking for the milk lady! But when the baby is weaned, and doesn’t need milk anymore, then the child can just come and sit with mum on her lap, completely relaxed and go to sleep without any worries or anxieties. It’s a wonderful picture in this psalm.

In our reading, we see the apostles tremendously anxious and panicky. In fact, they fear for their lives. And when Jesus brings about this great calm, he doesn’t just bring about the calm between a weaned child and its mother, but a calm which extends over the whole of nature. It extends over the wind, the sea, but also over the apostles’ minds and hearts. They are set at peace, and through this action of Jesus, he shows to them the beautiful, serene calm that they will enjoy in his presence, and in the presence of God the Father, with all the company of heaven.

Some of our greatest sins in this life, and some of our most painful regrets, have to do with those times when we have lost our calm, when we have lost our tempers, when we have lost our self-control for even a few minutes, but the damage then lasts for a long time. We see in our world today a great desire for calmness – people take up meditation techniques, yoga, and all kinds of things, so that they can be calm. But these things are just the cheap imitations of something that this world can’t give them. And that thing is Jesus himself—I would rather have all the anxieties of the world, all the worries and the headaches, all the panic attacks and the night-frights, than not have Jesus. St Paul writes in Philippians: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication 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.

I have a good friend who was very strongly convicted by this text, where it says: Do not be anxious about anything. He said: I’m always anxious, and I’m anxious about lots of things. I don’t know how not to be anxious! But then I realised that he hadn’t read the rest of the text, where it says: Do not be anxious about anything, but by prayer and supplication 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. If only he had read the rest of the verse! There’s no need to be anxious when we have a God who peacefully listens to our prayers.

I remember in my first parish, a lady rang me and said that their father was very unwell, and they were worried that he was about to die. So I got in the car and went straight away. When I got there, the man was being put into an ambulance: he was scared and worried, and I was flustered. And of the strange things that happen in life, the ambulance driver took one look at us both and said: Do not be anxious about anything, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

There is a wonderful little book by an old Lutheran theologian, Johann Gerhard, published in English under the title “Meditations on Divine Mercy”. In it there is a wonderful little prayer for the gift and increase of gentleness. In it he speaks about the ways in which we can so easily get angry about this, or that person, or lose our temper here or over there, but that God is so patient and gentle towards us. Jesus has won the forgiveness of sins for us through his death on the cross, and he is so gentle in waiting for us, so patient in dealing with us, who are so hateful and erratic and moody and impatient. Jesus says: Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls. Listen to those words, if you have a mouth that froths over sometimes and says a few things you wish you’d never said, or if you worry and fret about things. Jesus says: You will find rest for your souls. In this life, we still drag our old sinful condition, our old self, our old Adam, our sinful flesh around with us, and so we only experience this rest every now and then. And when it comes for a while, it seems as though more and more worries and anxieties are piled and piled on top of us. So we only have little tastes of that rest in this life, but the full abundance of God’s holy rest in the next life, where we will sing with all the company of heaven: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. See how this psalm describes the wonderful blessing of being in the presence of our Good Shepherd, Jesus.

There is a favourite quote of mine, from Pope Shenouda III, the previous pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which is a very large Christian Church in Egypt, and is the largest group of Christians in the middle-east who speak Arabic. You can imagine what terrible persecutions the Christians in Egypt have gone through. Pope Shenouda III wrote a book called “Calmness”, where he says that if a rock hits a pane of glass it shatters, but if it hits a mountain it doesn’t even affect it. And he says: I want you to be like the mountain, not like the glass.

Now, for those of us who are very sensitive, this quote can prick people’s conscience very deeply. Some people love this quote, and some people hate it. But it also points us back to a very well known quote of St Paul where he writes: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Sometimes when we talk to people, we find that they get upset or lose their temper for no reason, and we can’t understand it. We think: “What did I say?” It’s almost like each of us in a rider on a horse, and even though the riders are friendly with each other, our horses react, and they get scared, and throw their hooves in the air, and bolt into the forest. When this is what the horses do, the riders can’t talk. And so, sometimes, when we’re dealing with other people, people lose their calm, and they don’t trust each other, because there is another dimension to what is going on. For example, sometimes if people have the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to the door, they get the shakes. It’s not simply a person’s reason or intellect or logic that we meet when we talk to another person, but also their souls, their spirits, their emotions, their affections. Sometimes people have a long history of issues and struggles and some innocent little remark can set off a time bomb. And so, in this life, we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but we are dealing with spiritual realities.

At the heart of all this is the forgiveness of sins. If we look honestly into the 10 Commandment and God’s law, and use them like a mirror and look at our own life according to them, what do we see? We will experience a terrified conscience. We should panic, we should despair, we should be completely broken in half at the frightful, terrible reality that God is a righteous, just judge who punishes sin. But Jesus, who is gentle and lowly of heart gives rest for our souls, because he gives us the forgiveness of sins. He has taken and suffered for all the sin in the whole world, and the righteous anger of God against sin has come down on him in his death on the cross. And his resurrection from the dead means that he has won a wonderful victory over sin, death and the devil, and the forgiveness of sins is ours. And we receive this forgiveness and the promise of eternal life without anything that we do, simply through faith. And so, St Paul says in Romans: Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, let’s have a look at our text, where we read: A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

In the middle of this storm, we see the disciples on the boat, desperately trying to get the water off their deck with buckets, and they realise that Jesus is asleep.

We have here an example of Jesus’ true humanity, where we see that just like everyone else, Jesus got tired and needed rest and sleep. He’s tired, but he’s also not worried. He’s at peace.

Sometimes our prayers to Jesus can often turn angry like the disciples, and we say to him: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Why don’t you get off your backside, and do something? Many people often think that Jesus doesn’t care. Sometimes when someone is worried about something, and are upset about something, they might say to someone: The problem is, you just don’t care. It’s not true—it’s just that the person is not worried. At the birth of a child, many husbands can start to freak out a bit. But often the nurses and midwives are not worried. It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that they’ve seen it all before, and they’re not worried.

Jesus knows what it’s like to worry and be anxious, to the point of sweating blood. When he knew that he was going to be tortured and die the very next day, he sweated blood on the ground, and was troubled, and worried, and was jittery, and paced back and forth, and laid down flat on the ground, and cried out in anguish: My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Even on the cross, he felt the most terrible feelings of abandonment by God, and said: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus felt the very depths of human emotion, human pain, and all anxiety and terror. To think that his Father, whom he had so often talked to on the mountains in prayer, and who had so often answered Jesus and spoken to him, now watched on and was happy to do nothing about it. Isaiah says: It was the will of God to crush him.

So let’s be straight on this one: Jesus knows our anxieties, he cares, he knows our worries, and he has truly suffered the great pain of anxiety and worry and inward terror.

Sometimes people look at this passage about Jesus asleep on the boat, and they think that the whole purpose of prayer is to wake Jesus up from sleep. But this is a pagan understanding of prayer. In the Old Testament, we read about the prophet Elijah having a competition with the prophets of Baal, and they set up two altars to see which god answers from heaven by setting the sacrifice alight. When Elijah calls upon God, he completely drenches the altar with water, and the fire comes down and consumes the sacrifice and licks up all the water. But when the worshippers of Baal call to their god, they whip themselves into a frenzy and start cutting themselves with knives. Elijah begins to tease them and says: Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.

Jesus is not teaching us here that he is a God who does not care, and that when we pray to him we have to wake him up like Elijah says here. No—Jesus can sleep, because he is not worried. He knows he won’t die by drowning—he knows he has a sacrifice to make for the sins of the world.

And so, he just gets up, and we read: He rebuked the wind and said to sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Often when we don’t know how things are going to work out in the future, we can start to worry, and panic, and fret, and get anxious. But then when everything has happened, the time has passed – then we realise that Jesus was in the boat with us all along. The holy Christian Church has floated through the centuries tossed around by winds and storm, and yet Jesus has always been in the boat, and brought it through the storm, and has calmed the wind and the waters. Even when we think about our own death, Simeon said: Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace. And Paul says: My desire is to depart and be with Christ. This word “depart” is a shipping word. It describes us leaving this world like a little boat going out from the harbour, sailing out on the peaceful gentle waters, and putting our anchor down in the arms of our Saviour Jesus, who says: Today, you will be with me in Paradise.

And so we read: They were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”

Amen.

Dear Jesus, if even the wind and sea obey you, what do we have to be worried about? Why do we find ourselves so anxious, when you are sailing in the boat with us? Strengthen and calm us through this troubled life, and send us the peace which passes all understanding, until that time when we see you face to face. Amen.

Pentecost IV (Proper 6 B) [Mark 4:26-34] (17-Jun-2018)

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.

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

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

In the Book of Judges, we read about Gideon. Gideon was one of the judges whom God raised up, and he defeated the Midianites in battle. When Gideon was gathering together an army, God kept telling him that he had too many soldiers. We read: The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Eventually God kept on reducing the number of the army from 32,000 men down to 300 men. If 32,000 men won a victory, they would congratulate themselves. But if they could win the victory with only 300 men, then they would give glory to God for helping despite such bad odds!

In the Book of Judges, we also read before the battle, how God sends Gideon down into the Midianite camp to listen to what they are saying, and he overhears a man telling his fellow soldier a dream. He says: Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. Here we head about this man having a dream where a bread roll rolls into the camp and knocks over a tent. The other soldier says: This is no other that the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp. And so we read that Gideon with his measly 300 men, wins the victory over the Midianites. From a human point of view, it seems so unlikely and so impossible, but God is on their side. It is as unlikely as a bread roll knocking over a tent!

And so, also in our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells us about seed scattered on the ground, or a mustard seed being planted. From a human point of view, these seeds look so small, so insignificant, so useless, but actually, they grow up and become useful plants, and large bushes and trees. The seed here in the reading is God’s word, and the Gospel, and the Kingdom of God. It looks so small and insignificant, just like a bread roll, or Gideon’s army of 300 men. But when the seed grows, it flourishes and blossoms and flowers and produces fruit. God’s word, the Gospel, and the Kingdom of God have all the power in heaven and earth to destroy all the strongholds of the devil and to crush him. When God is the one at work, then a little bread roll can knock over a whole tent, and Gideon’s army of 300 men can defeat the Midianites.

So in our reading we read about two parables: the first is about the seed scattered on the ground, and the second is about the mustard seed.

Jesus says: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle.

This is an amazing parable. Here the seed is the word of God which is scattered, and grows into the wonderful kingdom of God. And in the Gospel of Matthew, we read where it says: All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world”. Here Matthew quotes this prophecy from Psalm 78: I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

In the parable of the scattered seed, it brings us back to the foundation of the world, back to Genesis chapter 1, where we read about creation. Here we see God creating the world, but he doesn’t just sit down and set about doing it, he does it in a particular way and with particular means. God creates the world through his word. He speaks and it happens. He says: Let there be light, and there was light. And so we see how God’s word has this wonderful creative power in it. It does things, and it brings things about, and brings new things into existence. It’s really quite an amazing reality for us to think about!

But we also read about the creation of plants and seeds. It says: Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

So we see here how God’s word produces plants, but then that these plants yield seed. And these seeds fall to the ground and produce more plants and more seed. God creates nature to be continually fruitful, and productive.

And so we also read in our reading today, how God created seeds and plants to reflect the way in which the word of God, and the kingdom of God works, and how they grow, and produce, and are fruitful. God created seeds to work in a similar way to his spoken word. Just as his word brings things into existence, so also seeds bring forth rich harvests, bountiful crops, fruitful vines, bushes, and abundant trees. Jesus says: The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

What is so important in this parable is that the most important thing is the seed. And this tells us something about mission. We are living in a time when we are seeing a great decline in churches all throughout the western world, and it is something that can sometimes make us depressed and worried. We can worry about our congregation and parish finances. People start to think, “how can we bring more people in”?

Now, we are living in times that are dominated by buying and selling. Everything is for sale, and it seems like everyone is trying to sell us something. Sometimes we can easily fall into the trap of thinking like this as Christians too, and we start to think, “How can we grow the church, so that we can pay the church’s bills?” No wonder people are suspicious sometimes of Christians, if they think we’re just after their money! So there’s a real danger of treating the church like a business, and people like consumers.

The problem is that we focus on the harvest, instead of the seed. We often want to see the church full of people, we want to see the church as successful, and productive, and flourishing! But every farmer knows that if you want a harvest, you have to plant your seed. Unbelievers are not customers—they are empty ground in need of the seed of God’s word. We could share the word with them as we are able, we could pray for them, we could invite them to church, or make friends with them and help them, and treat them as we think a Christian should treat them. God has placed us in particular homes, in particular areas, workplaces, or families, and we all have our different gifts—some in speaking, some in serving, some in helping, or however. What Jesus calls us to think about here is not the harvest – let God sort that out. He calls us to focus on the seed. And the seed here is the word of God—it doesn’t look like much, but it has incredible power to produce a very rich harvest indeed.

Now, in the parable, we read something quite amazing. It says: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.

Here we see that the power to grow this seed belongs to God and not to us. The seed grows and sprouts even while the farmer is asleep. Now there is a very famous quote of Martin Luther about this passage. He says: I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. (LW 51:77).

You can see here how confident Martin Luther was knowing that he has simply preached the word and sowed the seed. He could go to sleep now, and have a beer, because he knew that the Gospel was now doing its work. Now, Luther was not saying that once he had preached the Gospel, he could now have the other six days of the week off! But he was saying that while he slept, while he drank his Wittenberg beer, the word of God was working, it was changing people, it was growing a harvest. And so the glory did not belong to him, but to God who was doing the work.

In 1 Corinthians, St Paul talks about how people were playing him and Apollos off against one another. We suspect Paul was not a particularly good public speaker, but Apollos was known to be eloquent. And even though Paul was the apostle, and Apollos was not, people started to prefer Apollos because he was a better speaker. But in the church, we are not simply sowing the seed of public speaking and rousing speeches; public speaking and rousing speeches can whip people up for a while. Even Hitler knew how to put on a good speech! We are sowing the seed of God’s word, and the glory belongs to him. So St Paul says: What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. The glory belongs to God, not to Paul and Apollos.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes: Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. Paul and me and you are nothing but insignificant bread rolls – the power to knock over a whole tent belongs to God.

Sometimes, we might look at ourselves and our weaknesses and our insecurities and our failings and all of the things that we wish we had or we wish we could do or we wish we were, but in reality we don’t have, we can’t do, and ain’t – then it’s time for us to look to Jesus’ words in 2 Corinthians 12, where he says: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul writes: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

And so Jesus says, while you sleep, while you are weak, while you are useless, while you are completely out of the way, the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

Now we come to the second part of the reading, about the parable of the mustard seed. Jesus says: With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is grown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

Now, there is a wonderful passage in the book of 1 Kings, where Elijah is feeling very miserable for himself. There is a terrible king on the throne, King Ahab, and Elijah thought he was the only faithful follower of God left. But God says to him: I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal. Elijah feels like he is the only one left, like he is just a little mustard seed, a little black speck on white sandy beach. But God knows how to grow a large tree from a mustard seed.

We might even look at the life of Jesus. He lived in a time when he was the only one who preached the message that he did. His own people didn’t receive it, and every single nation on earth did not know the God of Israel. He was just a small mustard seed – but here we are, over 2000 years later, on the other side of the world, part of that mustard tree, part of his branches.

But then, sometimes in the church, we can often find ourselves as small insignificant people in a big world, where nobody cares about us or what we’ve got to say. But we speak the same word of God, we plant that same Gospel, even if no one in the whole world cared for it or not, even if no one in the whole universe listened to us. Because when it is God’s word that we speak, then we know that his power is able to make that mustard seed turn into a large bush, a large garden plant, and put out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

At the end of the reading today, we read two little verses, that look very insignificant, like two grains of mustard! It says: With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

The amazing thing about the way Jesus teaches here, is that as we think about these parables, and churn them over, we find new insights and new discoveries that we never thought about before. The pictures that Jesus plants in our minds of the seed and the mustard seed produce fruitful and rich thoughts in our minds. Sometimes we don’t understand the parables, and we think about them, and think about them, and push and push, but we don’t seem to get it.

Now, just imagine if we were reading some Shakespeare, or something, and we didn’t know what he meant. And all the Shakespeare scholars don’t really know either. If Shakespeare were still alive, we could ring him up, or write him a letter, and ask him just what he meant.

But the Scripture is different, because for every book of the bible, there are two authors. We have the person who wrote the Gospel, whether it is Matthew, Mark, or Luke, or whoever – and then we have the Holy Spirit. Now we can’t ring up Mark or John or Ezekiel what they meant, but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are still alive. The problem is not that the word is not clear, it’s that our minds are not clear. Sometimes there are people who think that the bible is just a dead word, and not the voice of the Holy Spirit. So no wonder when they talk about the bible, it sounds like a coroner’s report. However, Jesus is alive, the speaker of the parable has risen from the dead, and if we ask him, he will teach us and send us the Holy Spirit, and explain to us what the parable means.

So we read: With may such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. By nature, because of our sin, we are simply unable to hear the word, until the Holy Spirit comes and opens our ears. It says: He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. To the outsider, nothing that Jesus is saying makes sense. But when Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding, then it makes sense. It’s similar to when the apostles found themselves very busy in the book of Acts, and they appointed some helpers to share their work. And they said: But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. These two things go together: prayer and the ministry of the word. They go together because they can’t do the ministry of the word without Jesus’ help, and so they continually ask him for help.

So let’s commend ourselves to him, to Jesus, who died for us and rose again from the dead, to win the forgiveness of sins for us and the promise of eternal life. This word of God doesn’t look like much, maybe like a little seed, but it grows and produces, and puts out branches, and brings about a wonderful harvest. Amen.

Dear Jesus, plant your saving and powerful word in us, and let your kingdom grow. Send us the Holy Spirit, that we may hear and understand your word more and more. Amen.

Pentecost II (Proper 4 B) [Mark 2:23-3:6] (3-Jun-2018)

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.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.

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

Today in our reading, we have a very important passage, which speaks of two events where the Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. The first part of the reading is where Jesus and the disciples were plucking grain and the second is where Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath.

Now this reading actually has many very important things in it, and many things that are very relevant for today.

The first thing that we’re going to talk about is what we call law and gospel. In our reading today, Jesus and his disciples are accused of breaking the law. The Pharisees say: Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? The whole of the Scripture can be divided up into two basic doctrines or teaching: the law, and the Gospel. Both the Law of God and the Gospel are God’s eternal perfect word. The law teaches us what we should do, and what we shouldn’t do. The law threatens punishment for those who break the law, and the law promises rewards for those who keep the law. But we human beings are sinners, and we are unable to keep the law perfectly. And so the law also shows us God’s wrath and judgment against sin. Jesus says: You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. He says: Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever relaxes one the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. James writes: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. The law doesn’t make sinners, but it finds sinners and exposes them, and shows us who we really are.

Now, on the other hand, there is also in the bible another teaching or doctrine, which is called the Gospel. The Gospel teaches us not what we should do or what we shouldn’t do, but points us to Jesus and what he has done for us. Jesus entered into the world, he suffered, and died, and he took the weight of every single one of our sins and failures and weaknesses upon himself, upon his own shoulders, and he made a complete and perfect payment, and sacrifice, and atonement for every single one of our sins, and for our entire sinful condition. And he defeated the power of death by rising from the dead on Easter Sunday. And this word of the Gospel is spoken on earth in the church to us right in the midst of this life, in holy baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, in the words of absolution or the forgiveness of sins spoken by the pastor, in the pulpit when pastors preach the gospel, and in all of our Christian conversations where we encourage each other and speak the message of Christ to one another wherever God places us. This Gospel is received by us completely without any works, without any contributions on our part whatsoever, and is given to us completely and totally freely. The Gospel doesn’t find saints, but it makes people saints through the word of the forgiveness of sins. When God looks at us, he sees all of our sins covered over by the righteousness of his Son.

Now, when we talk about Law and Gospel, we’re not talking about the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament has both Law and Gospel in it, and the New Testament has both Law and Gospel in it. But also, Law and Gospel is not “nasty talk” versus “nice talk”. When we say that we should love another, that’s nice, but it’s law—it’s not Gospel. The fact that Jesus has shown his love to us by dying and rising for us to give us eternal life—that’s Gospel, not law. But the death of Jesus is nasty stuff, it’s not very nice, but it saves us.

Now, I’d like to come back to the law. There are three things that the law does. Firstly, God gives his law for the well-being of human society. The law stops the world from being completely crazy and falling apart. People know that they shouldn’t steal, shouldn’t lie. They sip their hot drinks, or they will burn their tongues. They drive on the appointed side of the road or they will have a car crash. This is just the rules, it’s the way the world works.

But also, God’s law shows us our sin and it accuses us. The law is like a mirror, and we look into it and we see where we have failed. The law shows us our need for forgiveness.

And also, God’s law is a guide for our Christian lives. It shows us how we should live as Christians, and what the Holy Spirit’s will is for our lives.

So we have these three ways in which the law works. Sometimes we call them the three uses of the law: for the well-being of society, to show us our sin, and to guide us in our Christian life.

Now, in the Old Testament, we read about Moses going up to meet God on the top of Mt Sinai and God gives him the Ten Commandments. Now, if you’ve read the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, you’ll find there a lot of laws that we no longer keep today, for example, laws about sacrifices, about what to eat, and all kinds of laws about worship, and so on. And we might think: “I thought, Jesus said that not one dot will pass from the law. Why don’t we do those things anymore?” The reason is this: when Jesus came, and when he died, and rose, and sent the Holy Spirit, there were many things that were no longer applicable or needed. For example, we don’t sacrifice lambs and bulls and goats anymore in a temple, because Jesus sacrificed himself as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It’s a bit like someone who keeps all their food in a small esky. If they are keeping food in an esky, there are certain laws they have to keep in order for the food to be fresh. For example, they will have to go and buy some more ice regularly and replace it every day, otherwise everything will get warm and wet. But then the person buys a fridge, and so they just don’t need to buy some ice every day to keep their food cold. He has something better than an esky now, he has a fridge! In a similar way, when we say that those old Jewish laws are no longer needed, it’s not that we don’t care about the law, it’s just that Jesus has fulfilled the law, and he has given us something better.

And so in the Old Testament, there are two types of laws: there are laws about ceremonies, or ceremonial law, and there are laws about how we should live, or moral law. So all the things about eating, and worship, and sacrificing, are called “ceremonial laws”, and we Christians don’t follow these laws anymore, because they are not needed. But then there are also moral laws, like honouring parents, not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not lying – these things are about what right and what’s wrong. And as Christians, we should seek to do things that are right.

An example of this for today is homosexuality. People often say that Christians are hypocrites because on one hand the Old Testament says that a man may not lie with a man as with a woman, but it also says that people shouldn’t wear clothes with both wool and linen in them. The first law is moral—it has to do with right and wrong—and the second law is ceremonial—it has to do with the distinctiveness of the Jewish people. And so the New Testament also forbids homosexual acts, but the apostles don’t forbid clothes with mixed cloth!

So, we’ve talked about law and Gospel—how God shows us our sin through the law, and also shows us our Saviour Jesus in the Gospel. We’ve talked about the three ways in which the law works: the law gives order to society, it shows us our sin, and gives us a guide for our Christian life. And also, we’ve talked about the difference in the Old Testament between “moral” and “ceremonial” laws, between the laws which have to do with right and wrong, and the laws which have to do with Jewish worship.

All this is very important when we’re looking at our reading today, because Jesus is accused of breaking the laws of worship, the laws concerning the Sabbath.

Now, in the 10 Commandments, we have a commandment there about the Sabbath. This is the third commandment, which says: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. In Exodus it says: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Now in the Old Testament, the Sabbath day is Saturday. Saturday is the seventh day of the week. And today, most Christians don’t worship on Saturdays, but they worship on Sundays instead. And we might look at this commandment, and ask, “Why don’t we keep it anymore?” Well, the answer is, that the commandment does apply still, in that it is part of God’s law that we should come together and worship God and hear the word of God. But the command that we are still required to hold to the particular day is part of the Jewish ceremonial law. We don’t worship on Sundays because God said we have to worship on Sundays—we do it out of freedom, as a commemoration of the day when Jesus rose from the dead. So we see in Act 20, that the disciples gathered on the first day of the week to break bread. The first day of the week in Sunday. And also when there was a dispute about these things in the early times, Paul wrote to the Colossians: Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

So Luther writes in the Small Catechism and explanation of this commandment about the Sabbath, where it says: We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. The reason why the Jewish people had to keep the Sabbath and not work, was so that they could worship and hear God’s word and the preaching of God’s word. And so, now that there is no need to keep the Saturday, it is still required of us as Christians to come together, hear the preaching and the word, and learn it. So in Hebrews it says: Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Today, the Seventh Day Adventists insist that Christians still have to worship on Saturdays. But then also they feel a need to keep other old ceremonial laws, like not eating pork, and shellfish, just like the Jews, and then there is no end to keeping all these various laws. We believe that the Jewish food regulations, the observance of Saturday, the sacrifices, circumcision, all belong to the ceremonies of the Jewish people before the Holy Spirit came. But now that Jesus had risen from the dead and poured out the Holy Spirit on the church, there is no need for the old ceremonial laws.

In our reading, the Pharisees accuse the disciples and Jesus of doing work on the Sabbath, because it says that on the Sabbath they should do no work, like they do on the other six days of the week. But then the Pharisees—and many Jews even today—get very fussy about what is defined as “work”. So, for example, in Israel, the regular elevators don’t work in building on Saturdays, because it involves the use of electricity. Some Jews won’t turn on a light switch on Saturday. And in our reading, the disciples were hungry and decided to pick some grain, and rub it between their hands, because they were hungry. But the Pharisees all of sudden see red, as if they have a little alarm goes off, that says: Work! Work! Work! Even in the reading, Jesus was about to heal a person. And the Pharisees’ alarm goes off, which says: Work! Work! Work!

But Jesus points out to them that when it comes to needing to eat and drink, there is still a certain amount of work that we need to do. Every day, we still need to cook food, and wash the dishes. Jesus says: Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how they entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him? The Sabbath laws don’t mean that we should starve, and not eat. Also, when it comes to helping people, like when Jesus healed the man in the synagogue, you don’t need to wait until the Sabbath is over. In old times, many Christians often went visiting on Sundays, which is a good thing. It requires some work to go down the street or get in your car, but they are doing something nice for people. Jesus says that if they had a animal in a well on the Sabbath, they would have to fetch it out and rescue it. That requires work, but the job needs to be done, otherwise the animal would die. We pastors do our biggest work on Sundays, as did the Rabbis and priests on Saturdays in the Jewish times. Some people think we pastors only work on Sundays, and have six days off!

In one of my previous parishes, there was a dairy farmer who lived near a highway. A couple of times, his cows ended up on the road on Sunday, and he had to go and get them all. But he was very apologetic about not being at church. But as we see in this passage, sometimes even on Sunday, when it’s time for church, there are some emergency things that just need to be done.

The other thing we need to realise about the Pharisees is that they were trying to be very diligent in keeping the law. And that is a good thing. But then they started to be so particular, that they then thought that helping someone or even eating some grain was breaking the Sabbath. The reason for not working on the Sabbath, was so that they could hear the word of God. It wasn’t so that people would turn to statues on one day of the week. Sometimes Christians have fallen into this kind of legalistic thinking too. At one time, there was a dancing craze that started up, and back in those days, dancing was just about the only occasion when a man or woman would physically touch someone else’s husband or wife. And sometimes, there were some affairs, and scandals, that came about because of it. But then some Christians began to forbid all dancing, including some Lutherans. They went over the top. In some times and places, there have big problems with alcoholism and drinking. But then some Christians have forbidden all drinking of alcohol, as if drinking alcohol is a sin. But it’s not. Jesus himself even turned water into wine at a wedding.

Now in our reading, Jesus says: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath. Here we see that there is a wonderful gift in keeping the Sabbath day. Going to the synagogue or the church to hear the word of God is not a burden, but it’s a wonderful blessing. It’s a joy—it’s a privilege. The word of God saves us, and feeds us, and strengthens us. This is what it means when Jesus says: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

But then Jesus also says: The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath. All throughout Jesus’ life, Jesus kept the normal laws of the Jewish people, like everyone else, even though he didn’t need to. He did this not to cause offense, and to fulfil the law. But Jesus is actually the Lord of heaven and earth. He created the world together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and he was the one who rested on the seventh day at the end of the creation of the world. So Jesus is Lord also of the Sabbath. He is in charge of the Sabbath, in fact, when we come to church, we come to hear him speaking his word to us. And it makes no difference to our faith, whether we hear that word on a Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or whenever.

In fact, there is a tendency among people who want to keep Saturday as the Sabbath and all the Jewish laws to also deny that Jesus is truly God. That’s because you can’t be justified by grace through faith on the one hand, and also be justified by Saturdays on the other hand. It’s easy to forget that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the make the Sabbath more important than even him. These people end up trying to copy Jesus’ life as a Jew, rather than living in the wonderful freedom of the Gospel that Jesus won for us when he died to fulfil that law. Yes, Christians should do good works, and out of gratitude to Jesus, seek to live a Christian life, and try to live according to the Ten Commandments. But even our good works need the forgiveness of sins.

And so, let’s remember the wonderful fact that Jesus is lord even of the Sabbath. Let’s praise him for coming to meet with us here in this place, on this day, to speak his word to us, and to feed us with his body and blood. In worship, we don’t do the work, we just sit there, but he works constantly. He is working to heal and bless and forgive and encourage, just as he did for the man in our reading with the withered hand. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you that you are the Lord of the Sabbath. Fill us with the Holy Spirit, and teach us to fear and love God, so that we may not despise preaching and his word, but gladly hear and learn it. Amen.

Funeral of Ray Jorgensen [John 11:17-27] (1-Jun-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 10am.

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

I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe this? She said to him, “Yes Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.

Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We pastors are often in the situation at funerals of having known people a lot less than most other people. I have only known Ray for a year, since I arrived in Maryborough. But he was one the first people from Maryborough that I spoke to on the phone, he was the first person from Maryborough that I met, his was the first house I went to on my first day here, and he drove me around and gave me the “cook’s tour”. And for most of that time during the last year, I knew him as a very willing and helpful worker. And despite his shakiness, that willingness to help and to contribute went on almost until the very last minute when he went to hospital and was then unable to help anymore.

There’s a bible verse that I often think of about Ray from Psalm 84, where it says: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. There’s was always a kind connection between Ray and our church doors because he was usually the only person who could reach the bolt at the top!

But somewhere in the mix, I remember having a very significant conversation with Ray, when he told me that he hadn’t always been part of the church, and there was a reasonably significant period of time when he stayed away. He told me that the reason he came back to church was that he attended a funeral here, and it got him thinking. And so it’s a very significant thing that we should be gathered here today for Ray’s funeral, because in some sense, things have now come full circle. I’ve preached at many funerals before, and much of the time, we pastors are never quite sure what kind of an impact the things we say have on people. But maybe even today, there’s another Ray here, who is wondering about this world, about society, about things, and is thinking about what will happen to them when they die, and what will happen to them, and where they will go. You never know. What we do know is that in the face of death, at a Christian funeral it is always our desire to receive our comfort not from people, from human feelings and sentiments, but from the living and active word of God from heaven, the voice of the Holy Spirit himself. And when the word of God is spoken, then we know that the Holy Spirit is active and powerful to bring strength and a living comfort to us.

In the Gospel reading, which I read just before, we read about a small discussion between Jesus and Martha, whose brother Lazarus has died. Later on, we read that Jesus goes to her brother and raises him from the dead.

Martha doesn’t really know what to expect. Jesus asks her various questions, and she answers well, even though she might not really know what she’s saying.

Martha says to Jesus: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

There’s a kind of sense in which Martha treats Jesus as the ultimate fix-it man. If he were here, her brother wouldn’t have died. There’s a sense too with Ray, that sometimes we might be sitting around before church, trying to organise something, and we think: we’ll wait for Ray to arrive. He’ll know where that thing is, or he’ll know what to do, or he’ll know how to fix that.

So we read that Martha says: If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

There’s a sense in which maybe she blames Jesus for her brother’s death. And maybe she wants him to fix the situation, but she doesn’t know really what she’s asking. She says, “Whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” “Do whatever you like.”

So Jesus says to her: Your brother will rise again.

And the same words apply to us today. Our brother will rise again.

History isn’t finished as soon as someone dies; because all history belongs to God, and he is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.

“Your brother will rise again”, says Jesus.

And Martha says to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

Listen to how Martha makes a good confession of faith – even though she doesn’t fully know what she’s talking about.

She’s talking to Jesus like he might not get the job done. Or when he gets the job done, it will be so far off in the future!

Martha says to Jesus, I know that he will rise again on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, Yes Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.

Jesus says to her: “I am the resurrection and the life.” “Whenever I’m around there is resurrection.”

Now today, we have come to farewell a father, a grandfather, our friend Ray. We know for one thing that God sent him to us for our benefit. And also, God had put you there for him. God looks after the world by appointing people to help look after it and its people. God looked after you and took care of you by sending you Ray. God looked after Ray and took care of him by sending you to him.

But now there has come a time where we say, The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. And this is not an easy thing for us to accept sometimes.

But there’s something that we really need to think about and this is this. Before Jesus went to suffer, and die and rise again, he actually told his disciples about it in advance. He prophesied about these things if you like. But the disciples had no idea what he was talking about. But when he was risen from the dead, then they went “Aha” – I get it now. I understand what he was talking about. Beforehand, we had no idea, but now we get it.

Also in the gospel reading today about Martha and Jesus, Jesus says some things to Martha which she doesn’t really understand until afterwards. She doesn’t understand what Jesus means when he says, “Your brother will rise again”. “I am the resurrection and the life.” But when he goes and raises her brother from the dead, then she gets it. The light switches on for her!

In the Christian faith, we also say that those who have died will rise again.

We don’t just say that they will be alive. We say that they will rise again.

On Easter Sunday, Christians throughout the world don’t just say, “Christ is alive”, but “Christ is risen”. He is risen from the dead! He’s gone there and he’s come back! And on Easter he goes to his disciples and show them the wounds in his hands and his feet and his side and says, “Have a look! It’s me! I was nailed to the cross, and now I am risen from the dead.”

Because when we say sometimes that someone is alive, we can often mean that to say that they are “alive” in our hearts, or they are generally “alive”. But that often doesn’t give us much comfort or strength in the long run, especially when we know that the person isn’t there for us any more.

But Jesus doesn’t just say to Martha, “I am the life”, he says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” “Your brother will rise again.”

He will rise, not because he was perfect, or because he wasn’t a sinner. If being without were the criteria for eternal life, then there would be no hope for any of us, we would all be stuffed! But he will rise, because of Jesus words which he speaks. Jesus speaks his words in baptism on us, he forgives our sins, because he suffered, died and rose again. The whole point of holy baptism, is that we are taken by Jesus to himself, so that he can give us as a gift to others, not just now, but also at the time of the resurrection.

In this life we also suffer, we also mourn. In this life we also die. But we will also rise. So Jesus says, Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

And now we can say of Ray that he is resting with his Lord. As St Paul says, he has departed to be with Christ. But the story doesn’t end there.

And we might sit there and say, “How can this happen?” How can there be a resurrection of the dead? Let God sort that problem out. That’s the same question that Mary asked, “How can this be, [how can I become a mother] since I am a virgin?” Let God sort that problem out.

The most important thing is this: Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. In a sense, Martha listens to these words and doesn’t really know what he’s talking about. And the same goes for us. We sometimes don’t know what Jesus is talking about. But don’t let that stop us. All faith begins with blindness: it doesn’t begin with sight, it begins with hearing the words of the living Lord Jesus Christ, who holds life and death in his own hands. Now we see in a mirror dimly, says St Paul, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

And so in the face of death, we confess that Jesus also had died. Jesus is the only sinless, perfect one. We, on the other hand, are all totally and completely sinful and corrupt people without any exceptions. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, and even our good thoughts are tainted with bad motives. In and of ourselves, we are completely unable and unworthy to stand before God and meet him in all of his holiness. But Jesus entered into the world, he suffered, and died, and he took the weight of every single one of our sins and failures and weaknesses upon himself, upon his own shoulders, and he made a complete and perfect payment for every single one of our sins. And he defeated the power of death by rising from the dead on Easter Sunday. But then after this, Jesus sent out his apostles and disciples to tell people what they had seen and to preach it, and we still carry this on today. And when this Word of God goes out, the Holy Spirit goes out and changes people and creates a living faith in them. And what is begun here on this earth, in this life, is finished and completed in the next life. It begins here with the simple word of the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus on the cross. It begins here with the simple water of baptism, and the eating and drinking of the Lord’s Supper. All these things are given to us for the forgiveness of sins. God gives all this forgiveness completely and totally freely, without any contribution on our part whatsoever. It is a totally free gift. But these things also point us forward to heaven itself, to eternal life, to the resurrection of the dead. Because it is the same God who empowers both the beginning and the end – he empowers his word here on earth and empowers faith, even if our faith seems to us to be so weak, and it his power, his truth, his love that promises the wonderful gift of eternal life with him. It is the same Jesus that we meet by faith in this life that we will finally see face to face.

And so Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And Martha said to him, Yes Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.

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

Lord God, heavenly Father, send us your Holy Spirit at this time, as we mourn the death of Ray. We thank you for his life and all the many blessings that you gave to us through him. Comfort us and strengthen us with your holy comfort, and give us everything that we need, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.