Pentecost XXII (Proper 24 B) [Mark 10:35-45] (21-Oct-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.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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 read that James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to [Jesus] and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Imagine someone comes to you and says, “Could you do me a really big favour?” You would probably be a bit suspicious, and say, “Well, it depends what it is!” You might remember how King Herod really put himself in a corner when he promised his wife’s daughter whatever she wanted—she ended up asking for John the Baptist’s head to be cut off!

This is what happens in our reading, with James and John coming to Jesus. They ask him: Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. Was it wrong of them to come to Jesus and say this? I think they are also embarrassed about what they are asking too. They ask him: Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. They want a promotion, they want honour, they want esteem, they want something special, something glorious. And maybe they know that what they are asking for is a bit rude or presumptuous.

But also, isn’t this often how we want to pray to Jesus? We go to him, and we say: Jesus, I want you to do for me whatever I ask of you. And after all, Jesus says: Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Don’t you wish that you had such a strong and firm faith that just goes to Jesus whenever you need something and tells him exactly what you need or want? 

Let’s read what happens. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised?” And they said to him, “We are able.”

When we read about Jesus and his disciples, we notice that the 12 apostles were given a particularly privileged position. Also, on a number of occasions, Jesus singles out Peter, James and John: for example, when he went up on the mountain and was transfigured and started shining with heavenly light. Also, sometimes Peter was singled out, and often stepped forward and spoke on behalf of the other apostles. Peter also preached the first Christian sermon on the day of Pentecost. And so, here are these two others, James and John, two brothers, and know that Jesus has given them special privileges. They are two of the twelve apostles. They have often been invited by Jesus to be part of his inner circle together with Peter. But perhaps they are also a little bit jealous of Peter, and don’t want to be outdone by him.

And so they ask Jesus for a special privilege of their own choosing. They ask him: Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. There are a few things that they don’t really understand. They haven’t gone up to Jerusalem yet. Palm Sunday hasn’t happened yet. Jesus hasn’t sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane yet. He hasn’t been betrayed by Judas yet. He hasn’t been crucified yet. And so perhaps James and John think that Jesus is going to take his throne in Jerusalem as a political figure, as the rightful king of the Jews, and overthrow Herod and the Roman—just like we have seen our Australian prime-ministers continually overthrown. And when it all happens in this glorious way, as they imagine it, they would like a special part in it. They want to be part of Jesus’ cabinet—they want to walk down the red carpet with him, and to flank him on either side at all his press conferences. But that’s not the way it’s going to be.

This passage also teaches us something very special about prayer. We see in the Gospels that Jesus often teaches his disciples to ask for whatever they want. And here, we see an exact example of two disciples going to Jesus and asking him for whatever they want. But what we have to realise is that when we do this, we should also be prepared for Jesus to teach us something that we never expected and that we didn’t know before. You see, Jesus is not a genie in a magic lamp, who just pops out and gives us three wishes. We are not his masters, and he is not our slave. The kingdom of God is a wonderful, glorious thing, and Jesus is the king, but this kingdom and this king work in ways that are often completely beyond our expectations or comprehension.

And so, later on when the other ten disciples hear about what James and John asked of Jesus, we read: When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. They were angry, and thought: Who do they think they are, asking such a thing? But Jesus doesn’t go about things like that. He doesn’t get angry with them, but he gently explains things to them, and shows them their mistake. He says to them: You do not know what you are asking. So often when we pray to Jesus and ask him for things, we don’t really know what we’re asking. We make all kinds of mistakes in prayer, and we blubber and stammer around. But when we pray, remember that we always pray in the name of Jesus. This means that when we speak to our heavenly Father, everything goes through Jesus, like a master newspaper editor. He’s like a school-teacher who takes out his red pen, a red pen that is filled with his blood, and he edits everything, so that all our prayers are cleaned up and tidied up like rough drafts, and washed completely clean by Jesus. Jesus always knows what he is asking, he always knows what we need, even if we don’t know what we’re asking. When Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, he says: Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

And so Jesus says to James and John: You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised? And they said, “We are able”. What is Jesus talking about here? In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus prays in bitter agony just before he is arrested, he prays a prayer: Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. Jesus prays: Remove this cup from me. Here in our reading today, Jesus asks James and John: Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? What do you think Jesus is talking about when he talks about this cup? He’s talking about his cross, his bitter suffering, his death, his floggings, his whippings, his outward suffering, his internal suffering, everything that Jesus undergoes on Good Friday. That’s the glory of Jesus—that’s the wonderful glory that Jesus undergoes and makes atonement for every single sin that ever even been imagined for even a split second in the entire history of the world. James and John want to sit at his right hand and at his left. But when Jesus goes to the cross, who is at his right and at his left? Two criminals who are also being crucified. Is this what the two disciples are prepared for? Jesus says: Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?

Jesus also says: Or are you able to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised? Jesus, we know, was baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. And when he went to John, John wanted to be baptised by Jesus instead. But Jesus said to him: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness. John was baptising sinners, and the only people who are sinners can be baptised. So why was Jesus being baptised? He was baptised not because he was a sinner, but because in all of his sinlessness, he took upon himself all of our sin so that he could die for it. And at that very moment, where Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove and God the Father spoke from heaven: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And so what Jesus begins at his baptism, is finished on the cross. Before Jesus died, he said: It is finished. It’s as if he said, “my baptism is finished”. My anointing by the Holy Spirit in the Jordan was all for this purpose. In Luke 12, we read: I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how great is my distressed until it is accomplished! Jesus once again is speaking of his cross, and his suffering. And so Jesus says to James and John: Are you able to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised?

Yes, it’s true. James and John didn’t really know what they were asking. We often don’t know what we’re asking, and so we don’t often understand the answers to our prayers when Jesus actually does answer them. When Jesus washes his disciples’ feet he says to them: What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. This is such a wonderful word of comfort when we don’t understand why Jesus doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want. But also, we read in Romans: 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. Just as Jesus edits our prayers with the red pen of his blood, so also the Holy Spirit takes over in our prayers, and asks the prayers through our groans and sighs of which God alone understands the meaning, even if we don’t. All this shows us what a great mystery prayer is—St Paul says: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Our heavenly Father knows what is best for us so much better than we could ever imagine. It’s the same as when Jesus says in John 16: You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. There’s a wonderful hymn on prayer which says: More is lavished by Thy bounteous hand That I can ask or seek or understand.

And so, back to our reading: Jesus asks the disciples this profound question. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Are you able to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised? And they say: We are able. Wow! What a thing to say? Do they even understand what they are committing themselves to?

But Jesus then says: The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. Jesus says to James and John that they will drink the cup and they will receive his baptism. We also receive the wonderful gift of Holy Baptism as Christians, and in the Lord’s Supper, we drink the wonderful cup of blessing, the blood of Christ. The baptism of Jesus and the cup of Jesus are wonderful blessings that are given to us from heaven. All our sins have been poured out on Jesus in baptism, and when he drank that cup of the cross right down to the dregs. But all of his righteousness and purity and forgiveness is given back to us in baptism, and in the cup of the Lord’s Supper. He takes what didn’t belong to him, and he gives to us what didn’t belong to us. And so we have this wonderful exchange—he takes our sin, and he gives us his forgiveness and righteousness. All Christians receive this baptism and this cup. But these gifts also point us to a reality that we Christians are citizens of heaven in such a way that the world doesn’t recognise us anymore. And so just as Jesus was spat out by the world, we Christians are also spat out. Each of us have a special measure of suffering that Jesus puts upon us, not to curse us, but for our blessing, to take us away from the things of this world, and to point us to the kingdom of heaven. James was beheaded in Jerusalem, and John was tortured in Rome and then exiled to one of the Greek islands, called Patmos. This was the cross they were called to bear for the sake of Jesus’ kingdom. We should also not be afraid to bear whatever Jesus would have us bear. Sometimes, we pray that Jesus would take some suffering away from us. St Paul writes: To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So be encouraged, be strengthened by Jesus, our Lord, and let him make his power perfect in you, even if you are struggling, and feel so weak. Remember Jesus’ words: What I am doing now you do not understand, but afterwards you will understand.

Jesus says: The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. What does Jesus mean here, when he says, “it is not mine to grant”? Can’t Jesus do anything he wants? Well, yes and no. We say: Nothing is impossible with God. But is it possible for God to sin? No, because it would be completely against his nature and his character. Can God make 1 + 1 = 3? No, because 1 + 1 = 2. That’s the way it is. Jesus is not saying that he can’t do something—it’s just that what they ask for is not for them.

And so, we read: When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

In some sense, James and John wanted to establish a kind of hierarchy. They weren’t content with being apostles, they wanted to be super-apostles. And this then begs the question? Should we have any order or hierarchy in the church? Should we have pastors, for example? Well, of course, we should have pastors, because the bible actually speaks about them. In 1 Peter, Peter speaks about all Christians as being members of a royal priesthood. But also, in the same letter, he tells pastors to shepherd the flock of God that is among you. But pastors are not to rule like a king. They are to serve people, and not simply to serve people’s whims, but to serve them with the word of God. But there is no place in the church for the kind of leadership that says: I’m in charge, therefore you need to shut up and do what I say. Peter says: Exercise oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

Sometimes, in the church, some people think that all the problems would be solved if we had more people to exercise authority, more bishops, or even a pope. But this isn’t the way Jesus rules. He says: But it shall not be so among you. He rules through his word alone, not through human authority. He rules, not by setting himself up on an earthly throne, but by sacrificing his life. He says: Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And this wonderful way in which Jesus gave his life as a priceless ransom, and continually serves his people as our Good Shepherd with his word and sacraments is the heart and centre of Christianity. So let’s thank him for this! Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for coming to serve your people as our wonderful host today, and for giving your life as a ransom for many. Send us the Holy Spirit, and teach us to be bold in prayer, and not to be afraid to learn from you whatever you would teach us. Amen.

Pentecost XXI (Proper 23 B) [Mark 10:17-31] (14-Oct-2018)

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

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

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

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 young man, a ruler, who comes up to Jesus to ask him a question. We read: And as Jesus was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

This is a very interesting question. In the bible, we know that everything can be divided up into two main teachings—the Law and the Gospel. We often talk about this in the Lutheran Church, and the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is a very important distinction. The Law teaches us what we should and shouldn’t do, and it also shows us that we don’t do what we should and we do do what we shouldn’t. The Law teaches us that God punishes wrong and rewards right, but we are all doing wrong all the time. However, the Gospel teaches people who realise their sin that they are saved, not because they have earned it, but because of what Jesus has done for them. The Gospel teaches us what Jesus has done for us, and gives to us his wonderful promises.

When the thief on the cross was about to die, and was receiving the normal punishment that the Romans would give to people who had committed crimes like he had committed, he asked Jesus to remember him. And Jesus spoke to him a wonderful promise of the Gospel: Today, you will be with me in Paradise. There is nothing that this man can do anymore to inherit eternal life. There is nothing that he could ever have done. Even if he weren’t a criminal, all of his righteous deeds would still have been filthy rags. Even if he weren’t on a cross, he would still be worthy of death. Even if he had never hurt a fly, it still would have been true what it says in Genesis: Every intention of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually.

And yet, it is precisely for a man like him that Jesus speaks a wonderful word of the Gospel. Today, you will be with me in Paradise. Jesus receives him completely and totally freely, without any merit or worthiness in this man whatsoever. The thief did nothing, but Jesus did everything. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the way, the truth and the life.

And so, what a strange question it is that this rich young man asks of Jesus: Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

In the Book of Acts, we read about another event, where someone asks a very similar question. Paul and Silas are in prison, and they are singing hymns, and at midnight there is an earthquake, and the prison doors are opened, and the chains of the prisoners become undone. Now in those days, in ancient Roman times, if a prison guard was on duty and the prisoners escaped, he would have been killed. And so, when he sees the prison doors opened, he thinks to kill himself, but Paul and Silas stop him. Then the jailer says to Paul and Silas: Sirs, what must I do to be saved? This is almost the same question that the young ruler asks Jesus in our reading today: Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? But what do Paul and Silas say to the jailer? They say: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your whole household. And then the man and his family were baptised. So in this situation, the man is told: You don’t have to do anything—just believe in Jesus. Jesus has done everything for you—there is nothing that you need to do. And so the man believes and is baptised—all the blessings of Jesus are given to him in baptism and he believes in him. The man and his family are saved completely freely, by grace, without any works, without needing to do anything, except to receive Jesus and his gifts.

Now, in our reading today, the man asks almost the same question, but Jesus responds to him in a completely different way. The man says: Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and your mother. So here’s a question: why is it that when the jailer asks this question, the apostles offer him salvation for free, but when this man asks Jesus this question, Jesus starts reciting the Ten Commandments and telling him a list of rules?

This has to do with the distinction between the Law and the Gospel. And one of the ways in which Law and Gospel are distinct is which people either the Law or the Gospel should be spoken to. You see, not everyone should hear the preaching of the Gospel, and not everyone should hear the preaching of the Law. If a person is troubled and worried about their sins and is anxious about their salvation or about going to hell or being bothered by the devil, then we shouldn’t speak the law to them at all. These people already feel God’s judgment upon them, they are already bitten by the knowledge of their sin, they are already crushed by the law. And so they need to hear the Gospel—that Jesus has died for them, that he has risen from the dead, that he forgives them, that he promises them eternal life, that he is their Good Shepherd that will never let them be snatched out of his hand.

But on the other hand, if a person is not worried or troubled by anything, and they think that everything’s fine, that they haven’t done anything wrong, that they’re quite happy living as they are, that they don’t care much for changing their life for the better, that they don’t give a brass razoo what the bible says, then the Gospel shouldn’t be spoken to them. Instead, they need to hear the Law. They need to be told to wake up from their sleep, to be called to repent, to change their life, to abandon their evil ways. You can’t preach forgiveness of sins to someone who doesn’t acknowledge their sin. If they don’t recognise their sin, they can’t hear the Gospel – it’s no use to them. So instead, they need to be shown their sin, and have it exposed to them.

It’s a bit like going to the doctor. Two people can have the same symptoms—but if one person recognises their symptoms, they’ll go to the doctor to receive a treatment. But if someone lives in denial, and pretends like they haven’t got any symptoms, they won’t go to the doctor, and so they can’t get the help they need. It’s the same thing with the Law and the Gospel. People who know their sin will gladly receiver the message of forgiveness through Jesus. But people who don’t know their sin won’t care at all. And so, as Christians, it takes a lot of experience when we talk with people to work out what we should say to people. Is this person someone who needs comfort, or do they need a wake-up call?

And so, in the Book of Acts, we see a jailer, who realises that he has just had his life saved. And he was stopped just short of killing himself, and he realised just what a fool he was. And so, for him, all Paul and Silas needed to say to him was the Gospel: Believe in the Lord Jesus.

But in our reading from Mark, Jesus deals with this rich man differently. This man has the appearance of being someone important, someone respectable. He comes to Jesus and says: Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Jesus wants to say to him: Listen, do you think that I’m just one of many good teachers? There are plenty of people who think that Jesus is a good teacher. They line him up with Buddha and the Dalai Lama and Confucius, or they line him up next to Mystic Meg, or Mystic Energy this or that, or the Angel Gabriel or the Angel Michael, or they line him up next to Pope John Paul or Mother Teresa, or even Martin Luther himself. No—Jesus is not just one of many good teachers. He says: No one is good except God alone. Jesus is not denying that he is a good teacher, by the way. He knows that he is a good teacher, but he is also humble and refuses to give the glory to himself. So he points back to God the Father. But we also know from other passages that Jesus is true God, just as Thomas said after the resurrection: My Lord and my God! Jesus and his Father are in perfect unity. Jesus said to Philip: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And so also, whoever learns from Jesus as their teacher, learns from God the Father as their teacher. Jesus points the man to a higher reality: if you want a good teacher, then learn from God himself, not from people. And since I and the Father are one, since I am equal with God the Father, since I have equality with God, then you know that when I teach you, I am not teaching you some earthly teaching that you can just sample from anywhere, but I am teaching you directly out of heaven itself, from the other side of the grave, from eternity—I am shining pure light from heaven which makes everything on this earth, and every earthly teacher, complete and total darkness by comparison. So he says: Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Then Jesus says to him: You know the commandments: Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and mother. Jesus preaches to this man the law. He recognises in this man a person who is not ready to hear the Gospel, who doesn’t really need Jesus. So he points him to the Law. And the man, like many a person who is self-righteous and doesn’t need Jesus, says: Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. There is no-one so far away from Jesus and his grace and his forgiveness who thinks that he has done everything that needs to be done. There is no-one so close to hell than a person who thinks he is perfect and sinless. As St John says in his first letter: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Jesus has tremendous compassion on this man, though. We read: And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When Jesus cuts this man’s heart with the law, he doesn’t do it because he hates him, but because he loves him. It says: Jesus, looking at him, loved him. But it’s as if Jesus says: OK. Let’s be serious now. Let me tell you what your problem is. Let me show you your false god. He says: You lack one thing: Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. And we read: Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Jesus doesn’t tell everyone to sell everything and give to the poor—just to this man. Jesus exposes that this man has a false god. He only wants Jesus as long as he can keep all his shiny things. And Jesus says: No—I won’t compete. I want you, and I want you completely. I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. I will not share you with some silly money, with your knick-knacks, with your great possessions.

And so, then we read: Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Money is not the problem here. It’s our human heart that is the problem. People often misquote the bible and say that money is the root of all evil. That’s not what the bible says. It says: The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Money is a gift of God. If you have money, thank God for it. People often make the mistake of saying that poor people go to heaven and rich people go to hell. After all, in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man goes to hell and the Lazarus, the poor man, goes to heaven. But Lazarus goes to meet Abraham. If all rich people go to hell, what was the rich man Abraham doing in heaven?

So we have to be careful what we say. It’s OK to have money, it’s a blessing of God to have money, but so long as you are the master of your money and your money is not master over you. Many poor people are much more money hungry than many rich people. How many people in this town buy scratchy tickets, for example? When you are ruled by your money, then your money becomes your master and your god. If you are ruled by your money, then you need to start giving some of it away, like Jesus says to this rich man.

When Jesus says how difficult it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of God, this is bad news for Australia. We are “the lucky country”, and we have everything we need. Once I met a Sudanese lady who was pregnant with her sixth child, and was told by her doctor to have an abortion because otherwise the child would starve. She said, “Starve? In Australia? I know what it’s like to live in a country where my children would starve. And I’d much rather live in a country where my children would starve, than in a country where nobody prays.” Yes, Australia is a lucky country, but a godless country. We are a rich country, we have everything, we are comfortable, and so we don’t need God, and we don’t pray like we should.

We read: And [the disciples] were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Here we are pointed back to the Gospel. The man walks away sorrowful—he doesn’t want to part with his possessions. But when Jesus starts to talk about camels and needles and the dangers of wealth, then the disciples start to despair. It’s almost like they want to fling their wallets straight to the ground before their weight drag them into hell. They think: We need to live on something, don’t we? They say: Then who can be saved? Now Jesus recognises: now I am talking to repentant hearts, now I am dealing with people who are face to face with the reality of their sin. Jesus says: With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. There is not one person who is able to save themselves, no matter how rich or how poor, no matter how much they keep the law. An honest person will realise just how easily their sinful hearts clings to the earth’s filth. We realise that it is impossible for us to save ourselves. God must do everything. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.

Here at the end, Peter says: See, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, house and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

The teachings of Jesus are incredible. They are so simple on paper, but then when we think it through, we might think: but if I went about saying that, my mum would completely freak out! I’d lose her—she’d never speak to me again. Or maybe, you think your husband or wife, or children would think you were mad. “Oh dear, old Grandpa’s become senile in his old age! He’s become a Christian!” Sometimes in the church, we can easily compromise the sharpness of the truth, because we worry what other people might think of us. And so, we end up with half-truths, or falsehoods.

But where Jesus calls us to sacrifice something, he always promises to repay. Our old friends and family who now reject us for our faith or our convictions, are repaid with new friends, new mothers, and fathers, or whatever. But when it comes to the truth of God’s word and the purity of the Gospel, we must sacrifice everything for it, because there is nothing in the world so precious. No sacrifice can be made in vain—because God’s church, the Gospel, Jesus Christ himself, are priceless. If we give him everything, Jesus will repay everything. If we give too little, we are then in danger of losing everything, and being lost.

With us it is impossible. For us to save ourselves is like a camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle. Jesus is the one who saves us completely. He has done it, he has accomplished it, he has paid the price and won the victory. And everything that we have ever needed, that we need today, and that we will ever need in the future belongs to him. As St Paul says in 2 Corinthians: He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for saving us. Search us, and continue to show us the idols of our hearts, so that we may abandon them, and follow only and wholeheartedly after you. Amen.

Pentecost XX (Proper 22 B) [Mark 10:2-9] (7-Oct-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.

From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

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

It’s a very interesting thing that the reading for this Sunday in the lectionary has to do with marriage. We also have a very significant Old Testament reading which has to do with the creation of Eve.

Now, as a pastor, it’s an easy thing to go along week after week, and preach and teach on topics that are really not all that controversial. However, Jesus didn’t just call us to go into all the world and to teach a few things of what he had commanded us, but he said, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. In the Book of Acts, when St Paul was speaking to the elders from Ephesus, he said: I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. If only we had more pastors in our church like Paul who would not shrink from saying everything that needs to be said. I confess that I have many times “shrinked”, and have not said what needs to be said. It would be an easy thing to avoid controversial topics, and then you don’t upset anyone, right?

Well, today’s readings give us controversial topics. Particularly, Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce, and the relationship between men and women in marriage. I think it’s fair to say that marriage is an absolutely terrible state in our world today. It’s almost been forgotten what marriage is. We play down marriage, and we play up sex. Sometimes I have heard people say that in the past, the church singled out sexual sin too much. I don’t know—I wasn’t there in those days. But what we have to realise is that what God calls the sixth commandment—You shall not commit adultery—has for a long time been promoted at the highest levels of our culture and society as a human right.

A long time ago, there was an old Christian man called Saint Anthony, who lived in the Egyptian desert, who said: A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, “You are mad, you are not like us.”  This prophecy from over 1500 years ago has most certainly come true, and it has been true for many years.

Now, in the Lutheran Church, we always want to make a very careful distinction between the law of God and the Gospel. The Law is those things which God commands us to do and not to do. Even though the law upholds the beautiful way in which God created and made the world and the universe, because we do not keep the law, the law then condemns us. It finds us out, and shoots us dead. But then God has another word for dead sinners—this is the Gospel. This is a word which points to our dead Saviour, who died in our place, who is no longer dead, but rose from the dead, and walked out of the grave, and won the victory over sin, death, hell, the devil, and who greets us with peace and with joy and says: I forgive you all your sins. In my father’s house are many rooms, and I go to prepare a place for you.

When we are talking about marriage and the sixth commandment, You shall not commit adultery, we are talking about the law. This is about what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. There’s something particular about this commandment which hits us very deeply. St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, where he says: Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Notice here that Paul says that the answer to sexual immorality is not to fight it, not to combat it, but to flee it. Run to the hills! But we feel the condemnation against sexual sin very deeply because it is very personal, it is sin which we commit against our own bodies.

Now Jesus talks particularly in our Gospel reading about divorce. We read: And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” [Jesus] answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”  And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.”

Now, as a pastor, I’ve often been asked if divorce is a sin. Of course, it’s a sin. Everyone knows that it’s a sin—tremendous damage is done. People are hurt very deeply. Everyone knows that. If we’re divorced and it’s still possible to reconcile, then we should try our best to bring the marriage back together. But many times, it’s not possible. One of the worst things that happens far too often is that many people who have been abandoned in marriage, who didn’t break up the marriage, who didn’t cause the divorce, are often left with a guilty conscience, with a stigma hanging over them, and with a kind of public shame of now being a divorced person. That’s very sad. Jesus met a woman like this once, the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus said: You have had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband. What shame that she must have had, with people thinking that she can’t be any good, because no man could live with her. Jesus knows this kind of shame—people thought he was no good, because even his own people rejected him. Jesus knows the deep pain that so many people suffer all throughout our country—people who have been abandoned, people who have had their families torn apart, and he calls us to repent and receive his pure forgiveness from him.

Jesus is often spoken of as a groom for his bride. He is a faithful husband, just as he is a faithful shepherd, and he will never abandon his sheep. We read in Ephesians that the mystery of marriage points to Christ and his bride the church. He loves us more than any husband has ever loved any wife –  St Paul says: He gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Listen to those words that Christ presents the church to himself in splendour. He covers his bride, his church, with a wonderful robe of righteousness, a robe which is not made or bought by us, but which is bought and made by him with the price of his holy and precious blood. What a wonderful gift it is to have the forgiveness of our sins, and to be clothed in the robe of Christ’s righteousness.

Now, in our reading, Jesus teaches us about marriage. He says: From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

Here we see a very important part of the Christian teaching of marriage. First of all, Jesus says: God made them male and female. Now, when we’re talking about marriage, it’s very simple—a marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s not between a man and a man, and it’s not between a woman and a woman, and—I never thought I’d say this in a sermon!—but it’s not between an x and an x. I say this, because now that Australia has changed it’s marriage laws last year, the marriage registers ask us to tick one of three boxes: M, F, or X.

Now in Australia—and in a minority of countries around the world—we don’t know what marriage is anymore. The reality is that marriage is instituted by God amongst other things to be the place where children are nurtured and raised—and this is the only reason why the government should have an interest in protecting marriage, because it should protect children. The people who will suffer now are going to be children, most of all. The marriage of a man and a woman was created to be fertile and to receive children—some people can’t have children, but that’s a different issue. Gay couples are not fertile, and can never be, and that’s the fundamental difference. To make the two things the same and call both situations “marriage” is not honest and it’s not true.

We might also think the “horse and bolted”. Yes, the horse has bolted, but it bolted off a plank and into the sea. As Christians, we have to remain firm on this, not because we should hate gay people, but because when people in our society wake up to themselves and the madness, they need to be able to find the truth taught somewhere. We shouldn’t hate gay people either—they are created by God and Jesus died for them too. They need to hear the message of repentance and forgiveness just like everyone else. We’re no better than them, and we’re all sinners. The real lonely ones are the ones who come out as gay and then decide later on that they don’t want that lifestyle anymore. But if we’re ever going to have any hope as Christians of helping anyone with anything, we can’t shift what’s right and wrong, but we need to be very clear about things. An archer who uses a bow and an arrow needs to have a strong grip on his bow, a sharp eye, and a strong hand on the bow, otherwise the arrow won’t go in the right direction. So also, the church needs to have a strong hand, a sharp eye, a firm grip on reality, on truth and error, on right and wrong, otherwise we’ll shoot arrows in the wrong direction. But as Christians, we don’t have a true understanding of sin if all we can do is respond to people with judgment and condemnation. We have a true understanding of sin when we respond to people with sympathy and compassion. This is the way that Jesus responds to us, who are so wayward, and must be so unbelievably painful to him. He leaves the ninety-nine sheep in the field, and he goes after the lost one, and when he has found us, he carried us home on his shoulders.

Now, at this point, I could go on and explain and preach about all kinds of things to do with marriage. I’d like to, but there’s so much that the bible says about it, that it would take too long to do that. But what I will say is this—the Christian teaching about marriage is a beautiful, beautiful thing. God created marriage and he is the only one who knows completely how a man and a woman can live together in harmony. But what is more important than this is the fact that everything we teach about marriage in the church is just a reflection of the wonderful relationship that Jesus has with his church. He is the bridegroom, and we are his bride. Our human, earthly marriages are only a pitiful taste of the wonderful marriage that we have with our Lord Jesus, who has baptised us in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and has joined us to himself. This wonderful marriage feast in heaven is what we receive a little foretaste of when we come to the Lord’s Supper week after week to eat and drink his body and blood. Jesus says: This is my body for you, in a similar way as a married couple promise to give their bodies for each other, their lives, their whole selves. In the book of Revelation, we read: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Now, I’m going to mention something that has happened in the last week. Our church body, the Lutheran Church of Australia, met together as a synod this week in Sydney. One of the issues that was discussed was whether women should be ordained—this is the fourth time it has been put to a vote. A few weeks ago, I preached a sermon where I explained that I believe that having women serve as pastors is against the clear teaching of the bible. Now this doesn’t make sense to our culture—there are lots of things in the bible that don’t make sense to all kinds of cultures. This one doesn’t make sense to us, because it sounds to us like its misogynistic, as if the church hates women, and doesn’t value women. It’s got nothing to do with this—we know very well that Jesus treated women with great dignity and respect. But this issue is connected to the way in which Jesus relates to his church as a groom relates to his bride. The wonderful way in which Christ speaks to us as our husband, as our bridegroom, who loves us far beyond what we could possibly expect or deserve or imagine, is reflected in the relationship between a pastor and a congregation.

Fortunately, the LCA synod did not achieve the required number of votes to pass this change. I believe that God has graciously allowed us to dodge a bullet. In the meantime, our church, which was once known as the church of the word, with the conviction and the boldness of Martin Luther, is no longer what it used to be. Repentance is the only way the church can be renewed—when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg in 1517, the first sentence said: When our Lord Jesus told his disciples to “repent”, he meant that the whole of our lives should be one of repentance. In the meantime, let’s continue to pray to our Saviour to preserve the unity of our church, and steer us clearly through these troubled waters. It’s not easy when people in the church don’t agree. As St Paul says: I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

In the meantime, we have a faithful Saviour, a faithful shepherd, a faithful bridegroom, who loves us and cares for us much more than we deserve. He has died for us, he has risen again, he has baptised us into his kingdom, and he has forgiven us all our sins. God has joined his Son and the church together in a holy, perfect marriage, and what God has joined together, no-one can separate. He will never let us down, and he says to his church: Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Amen.

Dear Jesus, our heavenly bridegroom, bless us. Bless our homes, bless our marriages, bless our church. Amen.

St Michael and All Angels [Matthew 18:1-10] (30-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.

See that you not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

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

In 2 Kings chapter 6, there is an event where the prophet Elisha and his servant go out early in the morning and see their city surrounded by an army of horses and chariots. The servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Let’s never forget these words: Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. What a great encouragement this passage is to our faith! Today, we celebrate the old church festival of St Michael and All Angels—it is so easy for us to get discouraged by all the things that are happening in our neighbourhoods, towns, in our country and throughout the world. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them! Remember that in the “Holy holy holy” we call God the Lord of hosts. That means, the Lord who has great armies, great armies of angels—angels who fight and defend what is good and right and true and honourable and lovely. 

Our Gospel reading today is from Matthew 18, and in actual fact doesn’t say an enormous amount about angels. Mostly it talks about children and the “little people” of this world. In the previous chapter, in Matthew 17, Jesus had gone up a mountain for his transfiguration. The face of Jesus shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. Jesus took Peter, James and John with him by themselves. Later in the chapter, Jesus and the disciples came to Capernaum and the tax-collectors required Jesus to pay a tax. Jesus sends Peter off on a little fishing trip and says: Go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and yourself.

So we see that Jesus lets only three disciples see the transfiguration. Also, he sent Peter on a special trip by himself to fish for a shekel. You can imagine that the other disciples would start to grumble a bit and wonder if Jesus was playing favourites!

So we read: At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” In some sense, they’re too embarrassed to just come out and ask Jesus, “What’s so good about Peter?” So instead they ask him, “Who’s the greatest?” If Peter’s the greatest, they want Jesus to stop beating around the bush and just come out and say it.

At the same time, there’s something good here: Christians today should imitate the disciples, so that if some question of doubt arises among us and we don’t know how to settle it, we should all go together to Jesus and ask him the question. Jesus is the light which shines in the darkness. He is the true light that enlightens everyone. However, we shouldn’t expect Jesus to answer us deep within our hearts. Each Christian is given a new heart—we sing each Sunday in the offertory song from Psalm 51: Create in me a clean heart, O God. Put a new and right spirit within me. The new heart that God gives to us by his Holy Spirit is not a heart that trusts in itself. That’s what old hearts do. Only old, sinful hearts think that good things come out of them. A new heart trusts in the word of God. All the good things we need come from God’s word revealed to us in the Scripture. So when we want to go and ask Jesus a question, we should expect the answer to be found in the Scripture. And if we receive an answer to our question in our own heart which is against the Scripture, then we know that the answer didn’t come from Jesus at all, but rather was a fiery dart of the evil one. So it’s a good thing to ask Jesus a question—but only the living words of Jesus, the words of the Scripture, can strengthen our sinful hearts.

Also, the disciples realise something here which is very significant, something which many Christians don’t understand anymore today. In the kingdom of heaven, not everyone is equal. Now in some sense, yes, everyone is equal in that we were all equally created by God, and Jesus died equally for each person in the world. But sometimes there are certain people who are chosen for special work in the kingdom of God—we can look back at Christian history and realise that sometimes there have been some people who have seemed to be completely alone in their confession of the truth. Think of all the times St Paul, for example, was completely alone. Also, later in history, St Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria in Egypt in the 4^th century, was one of the few people to defend the true teaching about the divinity of Jesus Christ at a time when many people thought he was God’s first creation. He was known as “Athanasius contra mundum” (“Athanasius against the world”). And then, we think of Martin Luther, for example, who was very lonely in the confession that Christians are justified by faith not by works, in a time when the exact opposite was being promoted at the highest levels of the church. All of us today benefit from the faithful witness of these people in Christian history—we don’t resent them for having been given a special task in the history of the church, but we thank God for these people. The disciples here also knew that there is a kind of inequality among Christians, not in their value or worth in the sight of God, but in their calling.

So we read: And calling to him a child, [Jesus] put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is not telling the disciples to become “young”, but “innocent”. Children have not learnt all the heartache of adulthood yet—they are quick to cry, quick to forgive and quick to laugh. They trust what adults tell them. But Jesus also says: Unless you turn. Unless you convert. This ambition and jealousy that the disciples have is not from the Holy Spirit—they need to repent of it and turn around and convert. If God wants to use them in a special way, he will exalt them at the proper time, not when they choose. In the meantime, the disciples need to convert, turn and become like children—they need humility. Jesus even warns them in such a way that if they stay prideful and arrogant and ambitious and jealous, they could even be thrown out of the kingdom of heaven. He says: Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Our whole society today is one where people think they have outgrown Christianity. Maybe you too think that you have outgrown the simplicity of Jesus’ words and you’re looking for something more spiritual, more intellectual, more practical. This attitude is not a mature attitude: it’s a childish attitude. It’s a sulky, rebellious attitude. Many people mistake growing up and becoming an adult with hating children, and hating simplicity. Many people think being an adult means to look down on children, but when they do this, they never actually grow up. No—a Christian adult values the small people, the little people, the humble, the children, the innocent. Christianity is simple. It is simple in the way it condemns all your sin, and it is simple in the way it forgives all your sin.

So Jesus says: Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

When we learn the bible and study it, half the battle for us is to break down all the barriers to the Holy Spirit that we have learnt later in life. If we’re going to be saved, we need to trust our Father that his word is true. And we only call God Father, because of Jesus—we learn to call God our Father, because Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father”, and we are children of God together with Jesus. And so when we call God, “Father”, God the Father says to us, “My child: what do you want? What can I do for you?” This childlike faith is so simple! As Luther says in the Small Catechism: With these words [Our Father in heaven] God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true father and that we are his true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him as dear children ask their dear Father.

When the Holy Spirit creates in us this childlike faith, we become children and we are humbled to become like all the little children in the church. And Jesus says: Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Jesus promises to meet us in each physical child, each little person in our midst that we receive in his name, and also through each spiritual child, each simple Christian. Jesus says: he receives me. I promise to meet you and come to you when you trust my word like a little child, says Jesus, and receive another child just like you in my name. What a wonderful gift this is! What an amazing place the kingdom of God is!

On the other hand, Jesus gives a warning to us if we do the opposite: But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

So right at the end of our reading, Jesus teaches us what all this has to do with the angels. He says: See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Do not despise one of these little ones. Don’t resent them. Don’t think that you have grown up so much that you are better than them.

Childlike simplicity, childlike faith, is the very thing that our Lord Jesus calls to us to embrace. We should gladly hear and learn God’s word, and teach it and live by the word of God in its truth and purity, in its simplicity.

Jesus says: For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Simple childlike faith is the very thing that our Lord Jesus calls us to embrace—it is the very cross and life that he calls us to embrace. We shouldn’t be afraid of childlike faith and simplicity, because this faith comes with angelic protection. Increase our faith, Lord Jesus! Just as the angels look upon the face of God, so we shall also see him face to face, just as St John says: We shall see him as he is.

We know that as we go through life hearing voices all around us saying, “Grow up into rebellious teenagers like us! Curse God and die!”, we know that it is a struggle and a battle to remain as children. There is a temptation to outgrow our love for God, our faith in God, our trust in his word. But remember Elisha with his servant. Remember Elisha’s encouragement: Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

Jesus says: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

May God the Holy Spirit kindle and awaken in us this childlike faith! Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we know that your word does not lie. Send us the Holy Spirit to turn our hearts from idolatry and become like little children, humble and obedient in your service. Send your angels to protect us, to watch over us, and to pray for us. Amen.