Pentecost XVII (Lord's Supper) (16-Sep-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.

Take and eat; this is My Body, which is given for you. Drink of it, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

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 we have the joy of welcoming some young people in our parish to receive the Lord’s Supper for the first time. So I thought it would be a good idea to give a sermon today about the Lord’s Supper.

So for our sermon today, I’m going to base it on the four main questions in Luther’s Small Catechism, where he writes: What is the Sacrament of the Altar? What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Who receives this sacrament worthily? I’m going to take this from Luther, not because I want to preach on the words of a man, but because this is not just Luther’s words, but it is our confession of faith as Lutherans. We believe that what Luther says here is a true summary of what the bible says on the matter.

But first, how do we know anything at all about the Lord’s Supper? We read in the Gospels, and in 1 Corinthians 11 that our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them and said, “Drink of it all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”

Do these words sounds familiar? They should—because I recite them every Sunday during the communion service. On one hand, we call them the words of institution—they are the words which teach us and tell us what happened, and how Jesus set the Lord’s Supper up, and what it was all about. On the other hand, we call them the words of consecration—we recite the words over the bread and wine, in order that Christ’s body and blood should now enter into this place in this particular bread and this particular wine, so that they become his body and blood, so that we can eat and drink them.

But almost everything we know about the Lord’s Supper, comes back to these words. It is the foundational passage. And so, everything that we believe about the Lord’s Supper comes back to this passage.

So let’s look at Luther’s first question and his first answer.

What is the Sacrament of the Altar? Answer: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.

Luther writes a really great summary of things here. And it’s a very helpful thing to go through each of these words, and ask the question: what difference does it make if I change them? So it says: It is the true body and blood. What if I change the word “is” and instead make it “represents” or “symbolises”? Well, it means that it’s not really the body and blood anymore, it’s just a picture, or a representation. The Australian flag might represent Australia, but the flag isn’t the same thing as the country. When we see a picture of a kangaroo, we might think that it symbolises Australia, but it’s not actually the same thing as Australia. So, why is it that we believe that the Lord’s Supper “is” the body and blood of Christ? Because Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed…said, “Take and eat, this is my body.”

Now Luther writes: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. So why does he say “true”? What if I change the word “true” and instead make it “fake”? You might remember in the Nicene Creed in church on Sundays, where we say about Jesus: God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God. This also comes up in the Christmas carol, “O Come, All Ye Faithful”: God of God, Light of Light, Lo, he abhors not the Virgin’s womb: Very God, begotten not created. So why do we say that Jesus is true God, or very God? The reason is that there are people around, both in the early times and also today, who don’t believe that Jesus really God at all. They believe that he might be the next best thing, or almost God, or close enough, but not actually God—so it’s important to say it. So also, Luther makes an extra special point to say that the Lord’s Supper is the true body and blood of Christ. It’s so say: At the Last Supper, Jesus says: This is my body, and he meant exactly what he said, not represents, not symbolises, but “is”.

Luther says: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. What if we change the words “body and blood” and instead say that it is the fingernail, or the arm, or the leg, of Jesus Christ? Jesus doesn’t say this is my arm, or my fingernail, or my leg, but he says, “This is my body”, “This is my blood”. Now, I’m not trying to be disrespectful or sacrilegious by putting it like this. But some people think that when we Lutherans says that the Lord’s Supper is the body and blood of Christ, that we’re a bit like cannibals, as if we’re eating a piece or a chunk of Jesus body. And this is a pretty disgusting thing to think about.

Jesus gives us his body and blood in a completely supernatural way that is completely beyond our understanding and comprehension. When we speak these words of consecration, Jesus enters into this place in a completely amazing way. Remember that when Jesus rose from the dead, his body had to pass through rock. They didn’t empty the tomb to let him out, he was already out. They rolled away the stone so that they could see that he wasn’t there. Also, Jesus walked on water. He entered through closed doors to visit his disciples. Something like this happens in the Lord’s Supper too.

But also, this is not the dead flesh and dead blood of a dead Jesus. This is the living body and blood of our living Lord, who is risen from the dead, which brings life. There’s not a single speck of death and decay in Jesus—only life.

Now, back to our quote from Luther, where he writes: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine. Now what if we change the words “bread and wine” to something else, like “coke and chips”? Does it make any difference? It makes a difference because on the night he was betrayed, Jesus didn’t take coke and chips, he took bread and wine, and so if we want to receive his body and blood, we should use the things that he chose to use.

So, this first question of Luther in the Small Catechism talks about what the Lord’s Supper is. And this is such an important question, because “is” means “is”. These are the words that our Lord Jesus spoke on the night when he was betrayed. He gathered his twelve disciples together to farewell them before he was going to the cross—it’s like him giving his disciples his last will and testament. If you were writing your will, you’d want things to be carried out exactly as you wanted it, wouldn’t it? The same with Jesus.

Now, we come Luther’s second question and answer. What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? Answer: These words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

This is a real comfort for us. It’s not enough for us to simply say that the Lord’s Supper is Christ’s body and blood. That doesn’t give us any comfort yet. Because Christ’s body and blood are completely and totally holy and sinless and perfect. And our bodies and hearts and minds are completely and totally unholy and sinful and imperfect. So we’ve got a problem. How is it going to be solved? Is the body and blood of Christ going to destroy us? Well, Christ does have that power, but he doesn’t say that. He says: This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus wants to connect his body and blood to his forgiveness, and he wants us to trust in that word of forgiveness.

Now it’s so important for us to teach this, because this is the reason why we should come. If we didn’t know that this body and blood were for the forgiveness of sins we wouldn’t want to come. We would say: why would I want that? What use is it to me?

For example, I once a met a Catholic priest who told me that when he trains young people for first communion, he teaches them the difference between ordinary bread which is not consecrated, and consecrated bread which is the body of Christ. Now, he’s not wrong in teaching this. Bread that we eat at home is just bread, but when we come to eat the bread in the Lord’s Supper, this is the body of Christ. But this isn’t enough. We need also to tell people why Jesus wanted to give people his body and blood. It’s for you, and it’s for the forgiveness of sins.

If all we do is say, “This is the body and blood of Christ”, but without telling them about the forgiveness which is connected to it, then nobody will want to come. Instead, we’ll just have to force them, and make up rules to make them come. And in church history, this is exactly what happened in the year 1215 in the mediaeval church. The church said that if you don’t come to the Lord’s Supper at least twice a year, we won’t give you a Christian funeral! And so, what did this achieve? A whole lot of Christians who only came to church at Christmas and Easter, but then when they came, they came like a bunch of cows to the trough not knowing what they were doing. So this is why it’s so important for us to say: This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

So Luther writes: These words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”, show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. Now where does Luther get this idea: “Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation”?

In 1 Corinthians 11, St Paul says: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Paul here mentions that there is unworthy way in which we can eat the body and blood of the Lord. Now: let’s get something right here. Nobody is worthy to receive the Lord’s Supper, because we’re all sinners. But Jesus allows us to receive the Lord’s Supper in a worthy way. Jesus lets unworthy people receive these gifts in a worthy manner. And there is also an unworthy manner, which we need to be careful of.

So St Paul goes on: Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. He says: Let a person examine himself. In other words, don’t just come and eat like a bunch of animals at feeding time at the zoo. Come, examining yourself. If Jesus gives you this for the forgiveness of sins, then you should realise that you are a sinner who sins every day, and needs help, and who needs this Supper. Also, Paul says if you eat and drink without discerning the body [you] eat and drink judgment on [yourself]. So, we learn from this passage, that if we don’t recognise that this bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ, then we eat and drink a judgment on ourselves. And Paul teaches us to examine ourselves: to recognise our sin. This is why we have the confession of sins in every service, to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.

So, how does a person receive the sacrament in a worthy manner? By discerning the body, by recognising the presence of Christ’s body and blood in the supper, and examining ourselves, recognising our sin, and that this supper is for the forgiveness of sins. We’ll talk about this a little bit later.

But remember Luther said: Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

Back to 1 Corinthians. Paul says about people who received the sacrament unworthily: That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. Paul is saying to these Corinthian Christians that they even became weak, and ill and died, because they ate and drank unworthily.

So if Paul says that eating and drinking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner brings judgment, weakness, illness, and death, what do you think that receiving the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner brings? Instead of judgment, salvation and forgiveness, instead of weakness strength, instead of illness health and healing, and instead of death, life. In other words, as Luther says, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. So when we come to the Lord’s Supper, we bring Jesus our sins, we bring him our weaknesses, our illnesses, our dying bodies, and let him give us his forgiveness, and whatever other gift he wants as it benefits his kingdom. This is why when a Christian is burdened by the sins and fears judgment and condemnation, where do we send them? To the Lord’s Supper. When Christians are suffering and weak, where do we send them? To the Lord’s Supper. And when Christians are ill or dying, we have a long tradition in the church of bringing people the Lord’s Supper in their homes or in hospital.

When God forgives you, he doesn’t just forgive you, but he opens the door to his house, he opens the door to heaven. Just imagine if you have a friend, but then you have a fight. When you forgive them, then you let them in your house again and enjoy your company and your friendship and your things. So also, where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. God opens up the doors to his house, and lets you come in and enjoy his presence and his company and his gifts.

Let’s come to Luther’s third question, where he says: How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Answer: Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: “forgiveness of sins.”

Here, Luther wants to reiterate just how important the promise of the forgives of sins is. We don’t come to the Lord’s Supper, like we’re eating dinner at home without thinking about it. We come to the Lord’s Supper, trusting that this is Christ’s body and blood and that it is given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We don’t get forgiveness just by eating and drinking, but we receive it by faith, trusting in the living words of Jesus. If we trust the words of Jesus, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, then the forgiveness is ours.

Luther’s last question is: Who receives this sacrament worthily? Answer: Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.

Now, we’ve already talked about this a little bit. But this is a big issue in some parts of the world. For example, in churches where people think they are saved by works, they can often think that they only become worthy to come to the Lord’s Supper by doing some work. No: we’re saved by faith, and so it’s Christ’s words that make us worthy to come to the Lord’s Supper, not our works.

Luther writes: Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. Now there’s an old tradition where many people skipped breakfast and fasted on Sunday morning, so that the first thing that they would eat for the day and for the week was the body and blood of Christ. And this is a nice tradition, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Also, Luther talks about bodily preparation. People might put on their Sunday clothes, and comb their hair, and make themselves look nice. That’s all good. Luther says that this is all fine outward training. But none of this makes us worthy of the Lord’s Supper. We can do these things, it’s all good—but it’s up to you. Luther writes: But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Now there are many more things we could say about the Lord’s Supper, but we’ll save them for another day.

As we come to the Lord’s Supper today, let’s confess with our mouths and hearts that this supper is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s examine ourselves and recognise our sin, and trust that in this supper, Christ promises to us the forgiveness of sins. Let’s bring to him our sins, our worries, our anxieties, our weakness, our illnesses, and even prepare for our deaths, and receive from Jesus this wonderful food for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. We have nothing in ourselves that makes us worthy to eat and drink this supper. We are completely unworthy of it. But through faith, we trust that this body and blood of Christ is for us and for the forgiveness of sins. Amen.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful gift of the Lord’s Supper, the wonderful gift of your body and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Send us the Holy Spirit so that we may learn to be in awe of this wonderful miracle that you constantly perform in our church. Amen.

Pentecost XVI (Proper 18 B) [Mark 7:24-37] (9-Sep-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.

He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

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 our Gospel reading today, we have two events that occur: first of all, we have the passage where a woman begs Jesus to cast out a demon from her daughter. Secondly, we read about where Jesus heals a man who is both deaf and dumb—he can’t hear and he can’t speak. Today, we’re going to focus on this second event.

In the first passage though, we read about Jesus going into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus had travelled way up north on the coast, all the way up to what is modern-day Lebanon, which is the next country north of modern-day Israel. Tyre and Sidon are still reasonably major cities in Lebanon. This was the region where the lady came from and asked Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter.

Then in the second passage, it says: Then [Jesus] returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. Jesus travelled a fair way south down the coast, from what we would call the Lebanese coast, down into Israel, where the Sea of Galilee was. This was a journey well over 100 kilometres. But then it says he went to the other side of the lake, to what was called the region of the Decapolis. The Decapolis was the name which the Romans gave to this area, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which incorporated 10 cities. Today, this area is basically the bottom corner of Syria and part of modern-day Jordan. But enough geography for now!

Many years previous to this event in our reading today was an event which we read in the book of Numbers, where we read that there was a prophet called Balaam who was travelling along with his donkey, and his donkey began to speak. We read that Balaam was travelling along at there was an angel standing in the road, but only the donkey could see it, so the donkey veered off the road. Balaam then started to beat the donkey. We read: Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you struck me these three times?” Now, this is quite an amazing thing that we read about, that God opens the mouth of a donkey and allows it to speak!

But in our Gospel reading today, something similar happens to a man, who couldn’t hear and couldn’t speak. Now, I’m not saying at all that this man was no better than an animal – in fact, far from it! He was a human being like you and me! But I bet people treated him like an animal—they couldn’t talk to him and he wouldn’t understand, they would make jokes at him, and he wouldn’t be able to lip-read, because he didn’t know what things were supposed to sound like to even learn what people were saying.

So, in the book of Numbers, an animal speaks with a human voice, and only for a brief time. But in today’s reading, there is a man who is given the gift of hearing, and he is given the gift of speech. Even though he had never been able to hear before, he had been given the gift of speech. He also spoke to people in a language that he had never been able to learn from his mother and from the people around him. The donkey only spoke once; but this man speaks for the rest of his life.

So this is what we are reading about in our Gospel reading today. We read: Then Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

Most of the things Jesus does in the Gospels have to do with Jewish people. But every now and then, something happens which has to do with Gentile people, like us. And this gives a little taste of what happens at the end of the Gospels, when Jesus sends his disciples not just to the Jewish people, but also to the whole world. When we read the book of Acts too, we see how the apostles and evangelists start off with the Jewish people, but then as the book goes on, they go more and more to the Gentile people. The reason for this is that Jesus died not just for the sins of his own people, the Jewish people, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And so, Jesus gives a little taste of this in the reading today, by going into a Gentile region, and healing this man. We read that he was deaf and also it says, he had a speech impediment. Now if you meet a deaf person, they often don’t speak as clearly as other people. The reason for this is that they way in which we learn how to speak is by listening to other people. And so, when you are unable to hear, you are unable to learn how to speak. This man doesn’t seem to have been able to hear or speak at all very much.

He also wouldn’t have been able to hear the rumours about Jesus. He wouldn’t have been like the blind man, who heard about Jesus, and then called out to him when he passed by. We read that there were people around the place who were his friends, or relatives, who cared about him so that they brought him to Jesus and they begged him to lay his hand on him. This gives us a little reminder, that when we know someone who is in need, or has a particular problem, we should just ask Jesus to come and intervene.

But then, there’s also a very unusual way in which Jesus went about performing this miracle. Normally, when Jesus heals a person or casts out a demon, all he does is simply speaks. And this is just like when God created the world—he simply said: Let there be light, and there was light. In a similar way, Jesus shows to people constantly that he is true God, simply by speaking things into existence just like at the creation of the world.

But in the reading today, Jesus goes about healing this man in a very unusual way. We read: And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

First of all, we read that Jesus took him aside from the crowd privately. Here Jesus takes the man aside—we might imagine him gently leading him with his hand on his shoulder, and takes him somewhere so that they are by themselves. Jesus wants this man to see with his eyes that he is dealing with this man by himself—Jesus wants the man to be absolutely sure that he is dealing with him, and nothing that happens to the man happened by accident while he was standing around in the crowd.

Then we read: He placed his finger into [the man’s] ears and after spitting touched his tongue. If you’ve ever had anything to do with deaf people, you will know that all the communication has to be incredibly visual—they use sign language, like Auslan, with always very vivid expressions on their face. Jesus does something a bit similar here—he invents his own sign language, and makes it abundantly clear to the man that he is about to do something for this man’s ears and for his mouth.

After that we read: And looking up to heaven, he sighed. Once again, Jesus speaks in sign language for the man. In a wonderful way, he completely summarises for us what it means to pray without words—he just looks up and sighs. There’s a beautiful Psalm which begins: I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Many times, when Jesus prays, it says that he looked up to heaven. He sets us a wonderful example that we should always look up to God for our help. We look up to wide blue sky and we realise just how helpless we are, and yet we have a God who hears us. In Romans 8, we read: The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Here we see how many times the Holy Spirit prays through us, using groans and sighs. Sometimes, when we pray, we just don’t know what to pray, and we just don’t seem to have the words to pray. Here we have a wonderful example from Jesus—just to look up and sigh. The Holy Spirit will know what that means, even if we ourselves don’t.

In some sense, Jesus doesn’t need to look up and sigh—God the Father would hear Jesus’ prayers without these gestures. Jesus, in some sense, does it for the benefit of the man. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, we read: Jesus, lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” You can see in this prayer, that he prays out loud not because he needs to, but for the benefit of the people standing around. So also in the same way, Jesus wants to show this man, through sign language, that he will do something effecting his ears and his mouth, by putting his finger in his ears, and touching his tongue with spit. And now Jesus shows to the man, also through sign language, that he is calling upon all the power of his heavenly Father, so that something can be done for this man.

Then we read: And looking up to heaven, [Jesus] sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Here we see something quite interesting. Every now and then, especially in the Gospel of Mark, we have a few instances of where we are reminded of the actual language that Jesus spoke, which was Aramaic. There are a few places in the Gospels where we are told of specific instances where Jesus says something in Aramaic, the most well-known instance being when Jesus was on the cross, and said, Eli, eli, lema sabachthani? which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Aramaic was a kind of dialect of Hebrew that people spoke at the time of Jesus. Some parts of the book of Daniel and Ezra were written in Aramaic, but most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. All of the New Testament was written in Greek. So here’s a question: Why didn’t the writers of the New Testament actually write in the language that Jesus spoke? Why did they use Greek instead?

Let me give you a little scenario: let’s just pretend that Jesus was an Aborigine who lived in central Australia and he spoke the Pitjinjatjara language. And he had twelve disciples, who were all Aborigines too, and they all spoke Pitjinjatjara. And then Jesus says to his disciples: I want you to preach to the Gospel to all the people in Alice Springs, and to all of Australia and to the ends of the earth. What language do you think they might have to use? What would happen if they all used Pitjinjatjara? Nobody around Australia would be able to understand a thing! They would have to use English, because it is the most widely spoken language.

So also, the apostles and evangelists wrote the New Testament in Greek because it was the most commonly spoken language in the Roman Empire in that part of the world at that time. Remember that when Jesus was on the cross, Greek was one of the languages in which Pontius Pilate wrote the message: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. So the fact that the New Testament was written in Greek is all part of the mission of the church in bringing the Gospel to all nations.

Today, we have this little word, “Ephphatha”, meaning, “Be opened”, written in Aramaic, the language that Jesus as a little boy would have learnt from his mother. This man that Jesus was about to heal would never have heard his mother, he had not learnt any language from his mother because he wasn’t able to hear, and so he wasn’t able to speak. And so Jesus not only speaks in his own mother tongue, but he gives this man the mother tongue which he wasn’t able to get from his own mother.

And we read: And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

So we have a few things in these couple of verses. First, we have the actual miracle itself described: His ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then we have Jesus give the crowd the command not to speak about it, which they didn’t listen to. We read: And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And then we read about the crowd’s reaction: And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

Let’s talk about the miracle itself for a minute. We read that the man was now able to hear and he was able to speak, and he spoke normally. And Jesus accomplishes this not simply through a word as normal, but also through all kinds of gestures and signs—and all of physical things. And this shows us that Jesus is the Word who has become flesh. We read in John 1: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus doesn’t just speak God’s powerful word, but he is the Word of God. And so, he shows to us the wonderful power that comes from his body, because he is both true man and true God in one person. When he touches this man, this is not just a man who touches him, but this is God who touches him. It’s like blacksmith’s iron rod which is heated up and glowing red with fire. It’s not like Jesus is a cold piece of metal touching this man, but he touches this man with all the power and fire and energy of the living God himself, because he is God.

This reminds us of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, because when we come to church we don’t just hear the word with out ears, but Jesus actually comes and touches us when he baptises us, and gives us his own life-giving, powerful body and blood for us to eat and to drink.

But also, we need also to remember that we are all spiritually deaf and dumb, unless Jesus himself sends us the Holy Spirit to open our ears and mouths to speak. Surely you know from your own experience how many people there are in our own towns that just seem to be incredibly deaf to God’s word? After all, St Paul does say in Ephesians: You were dead in your trespasses and sins. If we were dead, we would expect that we would be deaf and dumb like most dead bodies! We should pray that the Holy Spirit would come and open people’s ears and their mouths, that they may hear and speak the word of God.

But then Jesus commands the people not to speak about the miracle. Why does he do this? Jesus doesn’t do this for the publicity. He’s not in it for the fame and the glory. He shows to us here a humble attitude. He genuinely wants to help this man, and he does. He doesn’t do this for himself. The news spreads anyway, however, even though Jesus himself doesn’t seek it.

Then we read at the end where the crowd says: He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. These words, He has done all things well, point us right back to the beginning of the bible, where it says: God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Now the crowd says: He has done all things well. Jesus, together with his Father, had created the world well. Now, after the fall into sin, where the devil had tempted the first people into sin, Jesus gives a little foretaste of how he re-creates the world, and makes all things new. He destroys all the works of the devil, and puts everything right. He heals all the disabilities and all the diseases. We read at the end of the book of Revelation, how in the new heaven and the new earth, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. This is what Jesus shows us in small way by healing this man who was both deaf and dumb.

So, let’s thank Jesus for opening our ears and mouths. He has enabled us by the Holy Spirit to be able to hear his living and eternal word, he has spoken to us the forgiveness of sins, and he has promised us eternal life. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for healing this man from his deafness and his inability to talk. Open up our ears so that we may be open and receptive to hearing and learning your word, and that our mouths may be open to speak in prayer and praise. Amen.

Pentecost XV (Proper 17 B) [Mark 7:1-23] (2-Sep-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.

This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

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 our Gospel reading today, we read particularly about a discussion that Jesus has with the Pharisees. In fact, he accuses the Pharisees right at the centre of the reading with the words, and says: Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.

So why does Jesus say this to them? We read in our reading: Now when the Pharisees gathered to [Jesus], with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. Now, it’s not an unusual thing for people to wash their hands before they eat – we might even think that this is a sensible thing. We might say that it is hygienic. Some countries around the world are particularly fussy about this, especially if they are people who don’t normally eat with cutlery, like knives and forks or chopsticks, and have to eat with their hands. But you see, the Pharisees did not say that the disciples simply had unwashed hands, but that their hands were “defiled”. They were saying that washing your hands made your hands holy for the meal, and not washing your hands made your hands “unholy”. Do you see? This was not simply a matter of hygiene, but it was a matter of holiness. This hand-washing was a special ritual that they would perform before the meal.

In the Old Testament, there was no law that people had to do this. But when the priests entered the temple, there were various instructions to them about washing. For example, in the book of Leviticus, we read about how before Moses consecrated Aaron and his sons to be priests, they had to be washed. They also had to wash their clothes and bathe their bodies in water before performing sacrifices and various things. So the Pharisees wanted to apply these kinds of things to everyday life. So it became their tradition that they should perform a special ceremony or ritual of washing their hands before they would eat. It’s not a bad thing necessarily, but they saw it as a matter of holiness. They thought that washing your hands made you holy, and that not washing your hands made you unholy. This is not taught in God’s law, and so they were inventing laws about holiness that were not from God.

We read: The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.

So when they ask Jesus why his disciples did not hold to these traditions, Jesus says: Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

This is a very important passage, and there are many things here for us to learn from that apply to us today. First of all, Jesus calls them hypocrites. We often think of a hypocrite as someone who doesn’t practice what they preach. They say one thing, but do something else. But it’s probably best to see this word as being like an “actor”. A hypocrite is someone who wears a mask—they put on a good front, but behind the mask there’s nothing there. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus describes this a bit further. He says: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

When we watch the TV or movie, and see an actor playing a part, we can almost start to imagine that the actor is actually the person they are playing. But they are not. So also, people might act holy and righteous, but that doesn’t make them holy and righteous. What makes a person holy and righteous is not how they act in public and what kind of a front they put on, but God’s word.

One thing that can be a real cancer in the church is when people are always worried about what the church looks like, whether we’re talking about the church building, or the people themselves. Sometimes we think of the church like a business, and we think of things in terms of marketing, and say: “We have to do things like this, or like that, otherwise what will people think?” Sometimes if we don’t know some hymn or some song, we might need to practice it before church. But some people might say, “We can’t do that. What will visitors think if we’re all messing around, looking like we don’t know our stuff?” It’s OK – sometimes we need to do things like this. We don’t know everything, and sometimes we need to learn things, and that’s OK. It doesn’t matter what they think.

Now, at the same time, it’s a good thing that things in the church are well-ordered, well-structured, that the church building is clean and well cared for. This is all good. But the most important thing about the church and its people, is not how things look like, but how things really are. Do you understand that? The most important thing is not how thing look, but how they really are.

And so Jesus in calling the Pharisees hypocrites is saying to them that they think they look holy and righteous, but in actual fact, they are not. How they appear is not the same as how they really are. So Jesus says: This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They look like their honouring good, from the outside, but inside, they are not honouring God at all.

What Jesus says here we should also direct to ourselves. Do we simply care about what people think of us from looking at the outside, or do we care about what God thinks about us?  Are we just trying to put on a show, or do we really desire to hear God’s word and to receive his forgiveness? When we come to church, do we just go through the motions, and then think we’ve done our bit for the week? Or do we really take notice of what we’re saying, and take everything very seriously? Do we just honour God with our lips, but meanwhile our hearts are a million miles away?

We are all hypocrites, but Jesus is no hypocrite. With Jesus, things are exactly as they are in reality. He is a real Saviour, who died on a real cross, and really rose from the grave. And so he doesn’t offer pretend forgiveness to pretend sinners, he gives real forgiveness to real sinners. And so we might look at the church, and find it full of sinners. But we have a pure word from God, that speaks the wonderful forgiveness of sins over us, so that things are not simply how they look, but they are how God sees them and how he himself says that they are. He looks at his church, and he doesn’t simply see a bunch of sinners, but he sees the blood of his own Son covering over all that sin, and he speaks to us from heaven that that blood applies to us and that he has forgiven us personally. This is the real thing in the church—we learn this from God’s word, not from simply how things look.

Now, this also brings us to another thing, which is tradition. The Pharisees had many traditions. Now tradition is an important thing, and many times it is a good thing. We have many traditions not just in the church, but in our everyday life and in our homes. For example, when it is someone’s birthday, we often have very strict traditions about how things are done. We make or buy a cake, and put candles on it, and then we all sing “happy birthday”. Even the song from a musical point of view isn’t the best song ever, but it’s tradition, and nobody can change it without messing a whole lot things up. But then there are local traditions: different families have their own versions of things. Some people clap their hands for the number of years, or they have an extra song, like “Why was she born so beautiful”, or “For he’s a jolly good fellow”, or something like that. Now, when we have a birthday, we all know what’s going on, and we can all join in.

In the church, we also have various traditions too, and many of these things are good things, and give good order to things so that everyone knows what to do and how things are going to happen, and we can all join in.

There are some traditions that God actually commanded us to do, for example. Take preaching or the Lord’s Supper. Jesus actually commanded pastors to preach. Also, with the Lord’s Supper, he said: Do this in remembrance of me. It’s something that we do every week, and it’s a tradition, we might say. Our forefathers did it, and we now pass it on to our children. But it comes from Jesus himself.

There are all kinds of things that we do in the church, which are not specifically commanded by Jesus too, that we do simply because they are good things. For example, the Creeds are not specifically written in the bible, but they are good, because they summarise the bible. There is no specific example of a baby being baptised in the bible, but we baptise babies because Jesus told us to baptise all nations, and the promise is for our children, so we baptise them. I could go on and on.

The problem is when we put human traditions, things that were not specifically commanded by God, and we turn them into laws, that if we do them it makes us holy or righteous or saved, and if we don’t do them we are not holy or righteous or even saved. This then becomes idolatry, because we can take God’s law and replace it with human rules. We are in danger of replacing even God with ourselves.

And so Jesus gives an example in our reading of how the Pharisees were taking God’s law, and replacing it with their own laws. He says: In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

Now this is one of the reasons why it is so important for us Christians to hear God’s law in the church. Now, there are two things in the bible—two doctrines or teachings which summarise everything. We have God’s law, which shows us our sin, and finds sinners and exposes them. And we have the Gospel, which shows to sinners their Saviour, and makes them new. The Gospel is the wonderful message of the free forgiveness of our sin, because of what Jesus has done for us in his death and resurrection, and we receive this gift without any contribution from ourselves, or because of anything that we have done.

But it’s also important for us to learn God’s law, for a number of reasons, even though the law doesn’t actually save us. First of all, the law of God provides good order to the world. It is good and it is holy. But secondly, we need to hear God’s law, because it shows us our need for Jesus. The law condemns us, and accuses us, and so we need to hear it, so that we despair of ourselves completely and look to Jesus alone to save us. But then, as Christians, we are also called to do good works, not in order to be saved by them, but out of thankfulness to what God has done for us. In Ephesians, St Paul writes: For you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Now, we know, for example, that Jesus often teaches his disciples that they should love other people, that they should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. However, what sometimes happens is that when people want us to do something that is wrong or bad or evil, they actually dress it up and make it look like something good when in actual fact it’s not. The devil is a wolf, but he is always putting on sheep’s clothing. So he often makes something evil look like it’s a good thing by making it a beautiful tradition, or something like that. He knows that something is bad, but he calls it love. Now I’ll give a very concrete example of this: take the issue of euthanasia, which is being promoted in our country at the moment. The whole push to bring in euthanasia is basically the politics of making something evil into something good. 20 years ago, there was an Australian doctor who was suggesting all kinds of terrible ways in which euthanasia could take place, and people called him “Dr Death”. But now, people call it “dying with dignity”, or showing love to someone by putting them out of their misery. The issue is much more complex than that, but what you end up with is vulnerable people who have no family simply being killed off, because they have no one to protect them. Instead of having doctors as people who try to bring healing and treatment to people illnesses, we turn them into agents of death. God actually does say in his law: You shall not murder. Now there are all kinds of issues where something is really not right, but people put nice clothes on it and try to make it into something good when it’s not. Anyway, I could make all kinds of other examples like this. What I’m trying to say here is that it’s important for us to learn what God’s law actually is, not because it saves us, but because Jesus has commanded us to do works of love, and it’s important to know what love really is in God’s eyes. We have to learn not just to love, but what love really is. There are many people in our towns and have so little love shown to them—and yet, sometimes when you try to love them, they don’t want it. They think you are showing them hate, or judging them. It can be very confusing for us to really know what we should do for people, and what we shouldn’t do for them. God is the one who teaches these things, not people. Now when we preach the law like this, we’re exposing something and bringing it into the light. Often this means that people will accuse us of being hateful, or bigots, or unloving, when it isn’t true. If we only learn what love is from the people around us, then we end up replacing God’s law with human commandments, as Jesus says: In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

In the last part of our reading, Jesus says: Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. Then he says: For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

We come back now to the Pharisees, and their rules about washing their hands. But Jesus also teaches them that it is not external things, like eating food, that make a person unclean or unholy. Food simply passes through out stomachs and out the other end. Now, we might choose to eat certain food, we might like to eat healthy food, or we might have a particular diet. Some Christians even choose to be vegetarians. And this is not a bad thing, but it can become a bad thing when they look down on other Christians or other people, because they are not doing the same thing that they are doing. Sometimes all kinds of people can be incredibly legalistic when it comes to eating food. What we eat or drink doesn’t make us unholy, but our uncleanness is already inside of us. It is already contained in our sinful hearts. Jesus gives a long list of various sins there. He says: For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things comes from within, and they defile a person.

And so what makes us clean? Nothing that comes from inside of us. Nothing that comes from any our actions, or any of our own works. In fact, nothing that we even can possibly think of, not a single one of our bright ideas, can save us. Only the ideas and thoughts and words that come from the mouth of God can do that. Only the pure forgiveness of sins can do that. Our ideas about washing hands can’t do a thing—but God’s wonderful idea of connecting his pure word to water and washing us in holy baptism is powerful to save us. Our ideas about eating and drinking can’t do a thing—but God’s wonderful idea of giving us the body and blood of his own Son for us to eat and drink for the forgiveness of our sins is a powerful thing to encourage us in our Christian life, and to give us the strength for the road ahead. Genesis 6:5 teaches that every intention of the thoughts of [our] heart [is] only evil continually. But in Proverbs 30, we read: Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

All of our thoughts condemn us, and all our ideas and plans are useless. But God’s word endures forever, and his word has all the power to save us. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and for making things clear for us. Our minds are often so unclear, and we start to make things up, and we try to save ourselves. But even though you know our hearts, you have still sent your Son to die for us, and you still forgiveness, and so we thank you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.