Baptism of our Lord (Year A) [Matthew 3:13-17] (12-Jan-2019)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Ferryden Park, 10.30am.

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

Behold, the heavens were opened, and [Jesus] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

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, on this particular Sunday, we remember the Baptism of Jesus Christ. Now this part of the church year is called Epiphany, and this word Epiphany means, “showing”—it’s a time when we particularly think about the fact that God shows himself to the world in Jesus Christ. Now, sometimes when we have a difficult time in our life, we might think to ourselves, “Where is God in all of this?” “Why has he hidden his face from me?” “Why doesn’t he open the heavens and show himself?” People think like this particularly when some tragedy happens in their life, or some terrible, traumatic, sad event. I could only imagine that many people who have been caught up in the bushfires in our country at the moment must feel something like this.

I think we all know what it’s like to wish that God would just come out from behind the clouds and make everything right. We know very well what it’s like to ask questions like this. God’s answer is what this time of Epiphany is all about: God actually sends his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, who shows himself to us. So, last week, we focussed on the Three Wise Men coming to visit the baby Jesus. God shows himself to these foreigners, these strange people with their strange gifts—he reaches out to them, and leads them to Jesus, through an amazing star and through the words of the Bible which send them from Jerusalem to the small town of Bethlehem. At this time of the year, we sometimes also remember that occasion where Mary and Joseph couldn’t find Jesus, when he was twelve years old, and they end up finding him in the temple. He says: “Did you know that I would be in my Father’s house?” Jesus shows to Mary and Joseph, that Joseph is not his true father, but that God the Father is. And also, at this time of year, we often think about when Jesus turned the water into wine, and performed his first miracle at a wedding in the town called Cana. Jesus shows his glory to his disciples and they believed in him. Today, we read about the Baptism of Jesus, where we read, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Now, this event is just such an amazing, wonderful thing. This event is no fairy-tale—the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, make a special point to let you know that what happened on that day is true, that it is a fact of history, that is really happened, just as truly as you walked in here into this church this morning. And in all those times, when we long for God to tear open the heavens and come down, we can remember this event, and say to ourselves, “Yes, God has come down—he is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—he has baptised me, I am his beloved child together with my Lord, Jesus Christ, and he will never let me down.”

At the beginning of our reading today, it says: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him. Now, let’s just think for a minute about this person John. It’s amazing when we think about John the Baptist, and what kind of a person he was. There was a miracle at the time of his birth—his parents were old, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the Angel Gabriel came and told Zechariah that his wife would be pregnant at the time when he was serving as a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. Because Zechariah didn’t believe the angel, he became dumb, and wasn’t able to speak until the time when John was born. John then when he was older, went out into the desert, into the wilderness—maybe his parents died when he was young, and he had to go out fend for himself. He had to feed himself on what we call bush-tucker—he only ate locusts, and wild honey. He wore a shirt of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. He was a pretty wild-looking fellow! A real bush-whacker!

We also read in the Gospels that he preached fiery, wild sermons, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near! You brood of vipers! Flee from the wrath to come! Today, if we met a preacher like this, we might think he were a bit of a crazy-man! But this aspect to John’s life has a very powerful message for us. When we hear the word of God, we never know who God will send to speak it—and we should always be careful not to reject the Word, because we reject the person. Perhaps, we are posh—and we think that all the good preachers in the world need to be posh too. Or perhaps, we’re rough as guts—and we want a down-to-earth preacher. Never mind—many times God sends us his Word, through someone who is nothing like us—a complete foreigner, someone who has had a completely different life from our life. If this happens, and they speak the word of God, and a particular word of God that we don’t necessarily like, we need to be careful, that we don’t reject the word, because we don’t like the preacher. God chose to send a rough-as-bags, scruffy, bug-eating man to carry out this duty in our reading today—the most holy duty ever to be performed: the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in our reading today, it says that Jesus came to the Jordan. Let’s just have a think for a moment what’s significant about this place, the Jordan. We all know that Aboriginal people here in Australia like to think about the significance of a particular place. This place, the Jordan, was also a significant place. It had a history. The Jordan is a river. And all throughout the world, rivers often form a boundary between two countries or something like that. For example, in Australia, if you cross from Victoria into New South Wales, you have to cross the River Murray. The Murray River forms the boundary between those two states. Now, also, the River Jordan forms the boundary between the promises land of Israel, God’s chosen people, and the land of the Gentile people. Many years before John the Baptist and Jesus were there, the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan into the promised land with Joshua. In fact, the priests stood with the Ark of the Covenant in the middle of the river, and the water stopped on either side, so that God’s people walked through on the dry ground. So, we can see, that the River Jordan was a very special, significant place. In fact, it’s almost like, when people were coming to John to be baptised, they were entering the promised land all over again—not the land of Israel, but a new, heavenly country—Paradise, Heaven, the New Jerusalem. And when Jesus is baptised, we get a picture of this, because it’s not the water that splits apart here, it’s the heavens, the sky, the clouds, that split apart, showing us that when we are baptised, we don’t enter the promised land, but we enter into the promise of heaven and eternal life.

So we read in the Gospels that all these people were coming out to John to be baptised. And what do we read that they were doing? It says, that they were confessing their sins. Now, along comes Jesus… what sins do you think Jesus had to confess? None. He hadn’t sinned at all, he had no sin, he was sinless, he was completely and totally without any sin, any guilt, any fault, any stain or blot whatsoever. So why does Jesus come to be baptised?

Actually, even John is a bit confused about it all. He says to Jesus: I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me? He is thinking: Hang on a minute! Jesus, you are the sinless one, you are the holy Lamb of God! I am a sinner. Shouldn’t I come in all my sin and be baptised by you, who are totally pure and holy and sinless? Why is it, that you, the perfect one, come to me, an imperfect one? Why is it, that you, the sinless one, come to me, a sinner? Why is it, that you, the holy one, come to me? A wretch like me?

And Jesus says to John: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness. And we read: Then John consented. So how does Jesus and John fulfil all righteousness by doing this? Well, the only people who were allowed to be baptised here were sinners. If you didn’t think you were a sinner, John sent them away. But Jesus, who is not a sinner, wants to come and be with sinners. He wants to show that in baptism, he takes their sin, he takes their impurity, he takes their guilt, and also in baptism, he gives sinners his righteousness, he gives us his forgiveness, his holiness, his purity. We might look at ourselves, even though we are baptised, and think, but I’m not holy or pure! Yes, you’re not, but you’re with Jesus, and he covers over all of that, so that when God looks at you, he doesn’t see your sin, he sees only the holiness and the perfection of Jesus himself, because you are with him.

And so, Jesus takes our sin, and he gives us his righteousness. He fulfils all righteousness. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians: For our sake, [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. When we realise our sin, and when God allows us to see it for what it is, we might just want to pluck some piece of our body out and leave it on the ground somewhere. If only we could get rid of it! If only we could undo the past, and fix it, so that we hadn’t done that thing or that thing. But Jesus stands there in the River Jordan and he says to us: Listen, I know your sin even better than you know it yourself. And when you look at your sin, don’t see your sin anymore there, see me. Because I have died for your sin, and I have risen again from the dead, and now I clothe you with my forgiveness and my righteousness. I have fulfilled all righteousness. That’s what’s happening here in Jesus’ baptism.

Now, we come to the last part of our reading which says: When Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

This is such an amazing event, which shows to us the three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We see the Father speaking his clear voice from heaven, the Son being baptised in the water, the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove.

Now, in the Christian church, we believe that there is God, but that he has revealed himself as three persons. We believe that there are not three gods, but one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now, when we say “person”, we don’t mean a flesh and blood human being like you and me. Only Jesus, the Son of God, took a human body. The Father and the Holy Spirit are spiritual, divine beings. They are without bodies. But Jesus too is true God, so that he lives and dwells with the Father and the Holy Spirit as one God. Remember how we say at the end of our prayers: We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. That’s a wonderful confession of faith that we make each week, and we shouldn’t take it for granted.

Sometimes, this stuff about the Trinity can sound very complicated, and it can do our head in a bit. And maybe to explain all of this further is a job for another day. But anyway, let’s remember that when God does something, it is always the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who do it together. For example, when God created the world, it is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who created it. When God baptised you in this church or another church somewhere, it was the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who did it.

But at the same time, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have different personalities, and they are not all the same. So, at the baptism of Jesus, we see God the Father speak from heaven, we see Jesus there in the water, and the Holy Spirit come down on Jesus in the form of a dove.

So, what is special about the way in which Jesus, the Son of God is revealed here? He is a man, a human being just like us, who takes on the weight of all the sin of every single human being who has ever lived in the whole history of the world right up until the present time, until this very minute and second, and right up until the end of time. And he fulfils all righteousness by taking human sin on himself and giving us the perfect righteousness and holiness of God as a complete and total free gift. He does this by forgiving our sins, and this forgiveness belongs to us simply because we believe it. We believe it and it is ours. And Jesus delivers this forgiveness right into your lap, and right on top of your head, when he baptised you.

What is special about the way the Holy Spirit is revealed? He is revealed as a dove—a peaceful, gentle, white bird. It was a dove that showed to Noah that the flood was over, and that everything was now safe and at peace. In the same way, when God sends us the Holy Spirit, we are at peace with God. There is no more flood, no more anger of God, because all is forgiven. And Jesus is the one who sends out the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit comes and lands and stays on him. Jesus breathes out the Holy Spirit, he speaks to us his Spirit-filled words, and sends us the perfect peace of God. And so, at the baptism of Jesus, we see the Holy Spirit revealed in the form of a dove.

And what is special about the way the Father is revealed? He is revealed as a voice from heaven. We don’t see his mouth, we don’t see his face, we don’t see his body. We only hear his voice. And this is a very important lesson for us: we should always remember when we hear God’s voice, we never see his face. The Bible, for example, is God’s Word, God’s living voice, but we don’t see God’s face. When a pastor preaches God’s Word, we hear the living Word of God, but we don’t see God’s face. When we’re baptised, we hear God’s voice, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit”,  but we don’t see his face. When we receive the Lord’s Supper, we hear God’s voice, “This is the body of Christ”, but we don’t see God’s voice.

The reality is that God’s face, God’s form, his shape, his figure, what he looks like, is just too much for us. We wouldn’t be able to endure it. Deuteronomy says: Our God is a consuming fire. So if we can’t see God the Father, if we can’t see his eyes, his mouth, his face, his form, how do we know what he thinks about us? How do we know if we are acceptable to him? If he loves us, or hates us? If he wants to destroy us, or if he wants to bless us? How do we know?

He tells us. He tells us. That’s why we have God’s Word! And at the baptism of Jesus, God the Father doesn’t stay silent, he speaks. And he says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. He says what he thinks about Jesus twice. He is not just his Son, but he is beloved, and well-pleased. He says the same thing in two different ways—he loved his Son, and he is pleased with this Son—because he wants us to be doubly sure. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are not three people who live together and bicker all day long. They live together in perfect love and unity.

And so, when we are baptised too, and made part of God’s family, God also shares his love with us. It is because of his love, that he sent his Son into the world as a human being, to die for our sins and to rise again. It is out of love, that he forgives us. And so, when we are baptised, God sends us his Holy Spirit. When we are baptised, we are made children of God together with Jesus Christ his Son. When we are baptised, God says to us: You are my beloved son and daughter, with you I am well pleased. 

People who don’t acknowledge their sin and their sinful life and their sinful condition have no interest in going to Jordan and listening to the preaching of John. They have no interest in meeting the real Jesus there, and seeing his Father and the Holy Spirit. This whole event is of no value to them whatsoever, but is just a joke.

However, if you know your sin, and realise you are completely helpless before God, then run to baptism, be baptised, or comfort yourself with the fact in history that you were baptised at some point in your life. This baptism is God’s gift to you, so that you look to it, and trust that the forgiveness of sins has been poured out on you. Remember that you are baptised together with Jesus, and a swap has occurred. Your sin is on him, and his righteousness and holiness are on you. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been shown to you, revealed to you personally, and Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness. Amen.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful gift of baptism. Send us the power of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly dove, so that we may live as your beloved children on this earth, and finally enter the promised land of Paradise, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Holy Trinity [Isaiah 6:1-8] (27-May-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.

Text (Isaiah 6:1-13):

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Prayer: Heavenly Father, send to us all your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well and to all of us that we may hear well; in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today we’re celebrating the festival of the Holy Trinity, where we remember the particular teaching about God, that he is one true God, in perfect unity, but also reveals himself to us as three persons, or three individuals, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Today, for our sermon we’re going to meditate on the words from the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 6. And there’s a number of things that happen in this chapter:

I.                   Isaiah sees a wonderful vision of God.

II.                 He recognises his sin, and he receives forgiveness.

III.              Isaiah is called to be a prophet, and is given a word from God to speak.

So first, what did Isaiah actually see? First, Isaiah gives the time: he says that all this happened in the year that King Uzziah died. We learn here that kings comes and go; rulers die, leaders perish – but God does not. He is the living God.

And Isaiah says he saw him. And actually, Isaiah says very little about what he saw—he could have said much more, but he says just enough for us. He says: I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Can you imagine? The Lord is so far above our comprehension that the edge, the hem of his robe filled the temple. Imagine – Isaiah saw the Lord, and yet he says nothing about what he looked like, only that he was sitting on a throne and the hem of his robe filled the temple. What you think Isaiah is trying to tell us about God?

But then, Isaiah tells us about the living creatures, the holy angels, the seraphim who were there. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew.

Throughout the bible, we read about all kinds of angels and heavenly creatures that God has created. Right in the beginning of the book of Genesis, we read about when Adam and Eve fell into sin, that God appointed angels called cherubim to guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword flashing back and forth. –We read later about Jacob and his dream where he saw angels going up and down a ladder to heaven. – Ezekiel saw some wonderful living creatures of God.

Here Isaiah calls the angels he saw: seraphim. And we Christians sometimes talk about cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels. There is not just one kind of angel, but all different kinds. “Seraphim” means a spirit of fire, an angel of burning fire. In Psalm 104, it says that God’s ministers are a flaming fire. This is what we’re talking about here, who are standing in the presence of someone so wonderful, so magnificent, so glorious, so holy that with two wings they cover their faces and feet in reverence to him.

And we read that there is no silence in this vision. Not only does Isaiah see something wonderful, he also hears what this wonderful thing is. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

You probably recognise these words from when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, when we sing these words: Holy, holy, holy, together with these wonderful living creatures. Notice also there that there are three holies: holy, holy, holy, just as we say in the blessing: the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lordmake his face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favour and give you peace. The LORD, the LORD, the LORD – holy, holy, holy – just as in baptism we say in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And so then we read: And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Can you imagine if the words of the angel causes the foundations to shake, how much more the voice of God himself? These things are so holy that a cloud of smoke protects Isaiah from seeing anything further.

So what’s going on here? In the Gospel of John, chapter 12, we read a little explanation of what Isaiah saw. John says that it was Jesus whom Isaiah saw. And yet this same Jesus who had existed together with the Father and the Holy Spirit right from the beginning of the world is so holy that the angels can’t even look at him, and Isaiah says that the hem of his robe filled the temple.

And yet, this wonderful Jesus has descended from heaven and become a true human being just like us, a real man with real flesh and blood. Angels knew how wonderful this was that at his birth, they came tearing out of heaven to sing with the shepherds in the fields: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased.

And now, this same Jesus has died. His blood has been shed, and his hands, feet and side have been pierced. As we read later in Isaiah: This Jesus has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. By his stripes we are healed. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And this Jesus that Isaiah saw has now risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven. This same Jesus that Isaiah saw has descended and has sat back down on his throne, but now with a difference: sitting there with real human flesh and real human blood.

And yet, can you imagine—this same Jesus whose robe just barely scraped the temple, had people come up to him during his life and touch the hem of his robe. We read about a woman with a bleeding problem who said to herself: If I only touch his garment, I will be made well. Here today Jesus lets us touch the hem of his garment as he descends in all his majesty to baptise a child. What about when we hear the absolution? Jesus lets us touch his garment, by giving us his word and speaking his gospel – his free forgiveness of all our sins. And we touch this garment, his word, and like the lady, we are made well. What about the Lord’s Supper? He clothes himself in bread and wine—we touch these things and eat and drink them, and power goes out from them through the living and active words: This is my body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

But then here in the church, we are gathered with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven. Jesus is the LORD of hosts, the king of the heavenly armies. Remember “O come, all ye faithful” at Christmas time when we sing, “Come and behold him, born the king of angels.”

And these wonderful angels are singing the praises still of this same Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain to take away the sin of the world. They sing the words: Holy is the Father of this Jesus, Holy is this Jesus himself, and Holy is the Spirit that is breathed out of the mouth of Jesus.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.

But then remember that Isaiah said that when the voice called out, the thresholds shook. Do you realise that we would know nothing about Jesus at all if it weren’t for the word? It is the voice, the speaking, the word that makes the threshold, the foundations shake.

A church without the word of God is no church.

A sermon without the word of God is no sermon.

Baptism without the word of God is no baptism.

The Lord’s Supper without the word of God is a supper, a very light supper, but it not the Lord’s.

God had willed that his word be spoken here on the earth and it is this word that makes the threshold shake.

But then if we are going to hear God’s word here and enter into the presence of Jesus, how are we going to do it? What should we say? How would we be prepared?

Isaiah tells us: I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!

Woe is me! This is the word of a man who knows his sin, and that he is totally unworthy to be in the presence of God. What about you? Can you say, “Woe is me” – or would you rather say, “Yay for me!” Be careful what you say—when you stand before God, you must know which one of you is the holy God and which one of you is the sinner. Isaiah knows who he is. And he says: I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. Has God lost his way, or have you? Is God unclean, or are you? – Know who you are. If you are not lost, your Good Shepehrd cannot find you. If you are not unclean, then the blood of the Lamb cannot cleanse you. As St John says: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But there is something else, something new that God also wants to speak to us. We read: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

What a wonderful gift the angel gives to Isaiah! Isaiah says: Woe is me! and yet the angel gives God’s blessing, his forgives, his atonement. His guilt is taken away, and his sin atoned for. Isaiah says: I am lost, and yet the angel finds him. Isaiah says: I am a man of unclean lips, and yet those same lips are prepared and purified by the burning coal.

Jesus is very much like this burning coal. Here is a coal but it is also red hot with fire. Jesus is a true man, and yet he glows red hot with his divine nature. He is true man and true God in one person, just like this burning coal is both coal and fire together. And it is this Jesus who finds you, whose angels present him to you, who touches your lips. And he sets this water of baptism on fire with his word so that this baptism saves you. And the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper he sets on fire with his true body and blood. Why? Purely so that when these things touch your lips, that your guilt will be taken away and your sin atoned for. This is also the whole reason why we have preaching, and sermons, and readings, and pastors, and a church at all – so that the wonderful forgiveness of sins in all of its simplicity and in all of its richness can come to you. What a wonderful loving Saviour we have who still comes to forgive us even today, even now through his words and his own promises!

There’s something I’d like to mention just before we finish. God actually calls Isaiah after this to be a prophet. He says: Here I am, send me! And then God sends him, but with a frightening message, and this is a message very much for our church today. God says: Go and say to this people: Keep hearing but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive; make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their hears and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

There are so many wonderful things that Isaiah has seen and heard, and yet many people will not hear, and yet he must preach, he must speak what God has told him to speak.

Many people are looking for a quick fix in the church today to all kinds of problems, especially in mission! What’s the one thing that could let the floodgates open up so that people could come flowing into the church again?

If only we realise what a wonderful Saviour we meet every Sunday when we sing his praises! If only we knew what a precious gift we have in the word of God and the sacraments! If only we knew that when we have the forgiveness of sins, we have everything and when we don’t have forgiveness we have nothing. And yet Jesus promises forgiveness to you and his word never lies.

But there will be many people who will simply be uninterested in this living Jesus, in the holy Triune God, in the holy Trinity. And yet, whether they believe or not, it is not us who converts them, but the Holy Spirit. We must stick to the word, and speak it in truth and hold to it with all our strength.

It is a great sorrow to many pastors of our church when people are just too lazy to read the bible, too uninterested in God’s word, bored with forgiveness—and yet God’s word is still powerful and his Spirit is living and active.

Many people have given up on God’s word and many pastors don’t preach it, because nobody expects God to call. God calls Isaiah here – and he calls him to speak a specific word. God has called me to be a pastor – and if it is him who calls, then his word is the only thing I can preach. God has baptised you, and if it is him who has called you as his own, then it is his word and nothing less and nothing more than his word that you are called to hear, to believe, and to help bring to the nations however and wherever God uses you.

Of course, when we have given up on God’s call, then the only thing we have left is dodgy church politics, we just intimidate others with the devil’s own power and use people to build up our own personal kingdom.

No—it is God who calls. And if it is He who calls, then it is His word which must be spoken, and no matter how many of how few people will hear it, Christ crucified must be preached, because it is this living Jesus and this living Jesus alone who finds our sinful lips and who speaks the living voice of His Holy Spirit into your ears to forgive each and every single one of your sins! Jesus says: Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.

Holy, holy, holy, LORD God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! Amen.

Dear Jesus, open our ears so that they hear, and our eyes so that they see. Give understanding to our hearts so that we may turn and be healed by your holy and powerful word, Lamb of God, Good Shepherd, thank you for taking away our guilt, and atoning for our sin. Take us, and use us, and send us as you will. Amen.

Mid-week Lent Service III [Matthew 27:26-31] (7-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 5.30pm.

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

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

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

In Isaiah 50, we read the following words: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I did not hide my face from disgrace and spitting. In our sermon tonight, we think about particularly where Jesus’ physical suffering turns particularly nasty in a way that we haven’t seen yet in our readings so far. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus anticipated this great suffering, and was so shaken by the thought of what was to come, he sweated blood and an angel came to minister to him.

In our reading tonight, we read about the scourging of Jesus, how the soldiers gathered around him and clothed him with a purple robe, crowned him with thorns, put a reed in his hand, mocked him by kneeling before him, spitting at him, and striking and slapping him. And then after all this, Pilate brings him out before the crowd, and present him to the them.

So let’s look at the first part of our reading tonight:

I.                   The scourging of Jesus.

In ancient times, it was a common punishment to flog a criminal. Some countries in the world today still use this as a punishment. Even in the Old Testament, there was a law about it in the book of Deuteronomy: If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. We even read in St Paul’s letter that he had received this punishment. He writes in 2 Corinthians: Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. It was common for the Jewish people to give 39 lashes, 40 minus one, just to make sure that the people were not given more than forty.

But in Jesus’ case, it was something quite different. Notice in the book of Deuteronomy, God set a limit to the number of lashes—the number 40. And there is a reason given: Lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

Jesus was not flogged by the Jews, but by the Romans—in fact, he received a scourging, as it called. A Roman scourging called for the prisoner to be naked. There was no consideration of shame—there was no regard for whether the person would be degraded. Also, the Romans would use a whip with pieces of metal or bone embedded in the whip. The purpose was to make a mess of the person. Also, there was no limit to the number as with the Jews.

This is what Jesus underwent in our reading. Also, in John, it says that Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Pilate would have had someone employed to carry out this scourging. Think about if we had had such a thing like this in our society today—who would do it? Who in our country would agree to do this? Only the most deranged low-life imaginable would be willing to do this. We could imagine Pilate had got one of his most bloodthirsty soldiers, an “ex-prison guy”, in other way, a madman to do this job.

This is the kind of person that Jesus was in the hands of. And strangely enough, not much is said about it in the Scripture. In John we read that Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Matthew and Mark simply say: And having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. And yet this one word: scourged, or flogged, indicates the fulfilment of a wonderful prophecy from Isaiah. We read: Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds [or with his stripes] we are healed.

This event teaches us about who we are. It brings us face to face with our sinful nature. Here we see a man laid bare, like Adam and Eve in the garden. Before the fall, there was no shame. But now, Jesus is stripped of his clothes—the purpose of this is to shame him. And in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were clothed with skins. Because of the sin, payment was required, and an animal, maybe a sheep or a leopard or something, lost its life in order to cover them. But here, Jesus’ bare skin is not covered up, but it is removed from him, one stripe at a time. And Jesus reveals to us his true humanity. When Jesus was on the mountain of the Transfiguration, he showed a glimpse of his divinity: the light of his divine nature shines through his face and his clothes and lightens up the night. We learn here that God the Father is his true Father, and that Jesus is his true Son. As John says: We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father. However, that same skin which glowed with all of God’s power and energy, is now stripped to reveal that he had a human mother, Mary. And he shows to us, by submitting to this tremendous cruelty, that he underneath his skin, like all members of the human race, we have blood and flesh and bones.

The shame of this whole event of Jesus’ scourging is our shame. The innocent Son of God is stripped and tied in place, and subjected to a beefy pagan madman, and in his hand with one of the nastiest known weapons know to the human race. Can we even come to think that this is our human nature? This is our sin being punished.

But also, Jesus does not want us simply to think about this because he wants to shame us: no—he does this because he wants to cover over our sin, and forgive it. We should think about this not about what other people did to Jesus, but what Jesus himself accomplished and achieved. Psalm 32 says: Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Jesus’ nakedness and flesh is uncovered, you are covered by him. St John writes in his first letter: The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. And in Isaiah, we read: Upon him was the chastisement—not for nothing—but that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

So often as a pastor I have heard people say: If you knew what I had done, you wouldn’t be so quick to speak about forgiveness. What I’ve done can’t be forgiven. Yes—you’re right, I might not know what you’ve done. But I know what Jesus has done. And if only these words about Jesus’ suffering and death for you would hook into your mind and skin, your heart your flesh, just as that whip did to Jesus! Hebrews says: The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow. Let it pierce! Let it sink in. You are a beloved, forgiven, child of God. By his wounds, with his stripes, you have been healed.

We come to the next part of our reading:

II.                 Jesus receives a mock-coronation.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we read: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put scarlet robe on him. Mark calls it a purple cloak.

When we hear in our times about someone wearing a certain colour, we don’t often think very much about it, though we do have some associations. We clothe baby boys in blue and baby girls in blue. We are used to the police and the navy wearing blue, the army wearing brown. Pastors often wear black and white. Brides wear white at their weddings. We might look twice if someone wore a gold or silver suit or a dress.

However, in ancient times, purple was a very expensive colour to wear. Purple dye was made from a particular type of sea-snail, and was hard to come by. Generally, it was royalty then that wore purple. Even today, if you see an official photograph of the Queen with her crown, she would often wear a purple robe. In the New Testament, we read about the businesswoman Lydia who became a Christian. We read: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. When Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we read that the rich man wore purple. This is to say that the man was dressing like a king, when he wasn’t one. Being rich doesn’t make a person royalty. (This would be like if wealthy people like Clive Palmer or Rupert Murdoch started to wear gold crowns!)

Here in our reading, Jesus is clothed in purple. This is a mock coronation. He is given a royal, purple robe, not because they recognise him as a king, but because they are mocking him.

Once again, if we go back to Genesis, we read that God said: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God says to his human creatures: have dominion. In order words: live like kings and queens and royalty, ruling the world together with me. But Adam and Eve exchange this royal dignity of having dominion for being the devil’s slaves. They weren’t satisfied with the dignity they had already received from God, and the devil tempted them by saying: You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat it you will be like God! And yet the promise is false.

Now, Jesus, the true King of glory, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, is treated like a pretend king, and is clothed with a purple robe.

The next part of the coronation ceremony is where we read: and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.

This is a mock version of a real crown, and a real sceptre, usually made out of gold, which were symbols of a king’s authority.

In Genesis we read: When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Can you imagine this picture of a perfect serene created world, with a gentle mist watering everything? But then after the fall into sin, we read where God says to Adam: Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. Here in our reading tonight we see these thorns and thistles return. The thorns are twisted into a terrible crown, and a thistle, or a reed, is put into Jesus hand as a sceptre. The very things which were God’s judgment upon Adam, Jesus now takes upon himself as he takes that same judgement upon himself.

In Psalm 110, we read the wonderful words: The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty sceptre. Rule in the midst of your enemies!

Here in the city of Jerusalem, from Zion, the LORD sends forth his mighty sceptre. Jesus receives a sceptre in his hand—but not a gold one, but an old stick. And yet the words are true: Rule in the midst of your enemies! Jesus is here surrounded by his enemies, and yet he is not being ruled, but he is ruling. We read in Matthew that the soldiers took the reed and struck him on the head. Jesus knows what he is doing—he is suffering all of this to make atonement for the sin of the world.

The next part of the mock coronation happened like this. We read: And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Mark says, they saluted him. Remember here that when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, we read: Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he”. [In Greek, the word are simply I AM, just as when he said to Moses, I AM, when he spoke from the burning bush.] It says: When Jesus said to them, “I AM”, they drew back and fell to the ground.

Do you see here that the immense power of Jesus’ words, and the use of the words, “I AM”, forces the people to the ground—the power is so great, so intense, and so immense. And the same here: when these soldiers are in the presence of Jesus, they can do nothing but kneel and hail and salute him. They do it out of mockery, but we know their actions speak true. This is the very thing that we should also desire when are face to face with Jesus: to kneel before him, to hail him, and to salute him as our king. But not in mockery, and God cannot be mocked. When King David was anointed as a king, God said to Samuel: The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

We also read in Philippians: At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here we see in this mock coronation ceremony, that the soldiers also kneel before God and confess Jesus as king of the Jews. We can see their outward appearance, but God sees the heart.

What also is part of a coronation ceremony? Well—normally if a king or queen is crowned, there would be a great cheer from the crowd. But what do we read? And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. We see here a fulfilment of the prophecy from Isaiah: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

God would know what these men ate, what they had for breakfast. God would know when they had last brushed their teeth, and he would have seen the gingivitis and the phlegm. In his suffering, Jesus received the filth and the dirt of human spit upon his face. By contrast, after Jesus had risen from the dead, and had destroyed death and conquered death, and had no sign or scrap of death anywhere around him, we read that he breathed on his disciples and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. This breath would have been even fresher than that cool gentle mist over the Garden of Eden. That mist was created by God, but Jesus was God himself.

Just to finish our sermon tonight, we should also remember that at Jesus’ ascension, we see the other side of what happened in our reading tonight. Tonight we read about his mock coronation, but at the ascension we read about his entrance into heaven, where he sits down at the right hand of the throne of God. Instead of the sound of mockery, we read in Psalm 47: God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. In stead of the laughing, the jeering, the fake saluting, we read in the same Psalm: Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne!

Let’s bow the knee before our Saviour and Redeemer and our Sacrificial Lamb, who, as Isaiah said, was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our inquities. Let’s receive him as our Saviour and our king and our Lord, and worship him in spirit and in truth. Let our hearts and our lips speak together, and not in conflict with each other, as Jesus says to the Pharisees: The people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

The famous hymn says:

O sacred head, now wounded / With pain and scorn weighed down / In mockery surrounded / With thorns Thine only crown. / O sacred head, what glory / What bliss, till now, was Thine! / Yet, though despised and gory, / I joy to call Thee mine.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us! Amen.

Advent IV B [Luke 1:26-38] (24-Dec-2017)

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

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

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

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 our reading today, we read about the events which are spoken about in the Apostle’s Creed, where it says: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The reading today begins by talking about an angel, and not just any particular angel, but the angel Gabriel. In the bible, there are only two angels who are named: Gabriel and Michael. And strangely enough, both of these angels are mentioned in the book of Daniel. Michael’s name means “one who is like God” and is called the great prince who has charge of your people. Gabriel’s name means “strength of God”, and brings to Daniel an answer to his prayer in the temple. Gabriel also was the angel who brought a message to Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, when he was in the temple, while he was performing his duties as a priest. Here in our reading, Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary.

In our reading today, we read that the angel Gabriel goes to a virgin betrothed to a man. On one hand, the text calls Mary a virgin. And on the other hand, she is betrothed to a man. “Betrothed” is basically what we would call “engaged”. It’s important first of all that when a man and a woman want to live together and share a home and raise a family that they get married. And it’s important when people want to get married, that they enter into a period of engagement. This is a time for preparation, and also for testing. Sometimes an engagement doesn’t lead to a marriage, and it’s much better to call of an engagement than to get married and divorce later. This was the situation that Mary and Joseph were in: they were engaged, or betrothed, and preparing to get married—it was a time of preparation, and testing. It was not the time for sexual relations yet. In those days, particularly, one of the things for testing was to make sure that the woman wasn’t getting married as a show to cover up for the fact that she had become pregnant with someone else’s baby. It would be as if she said, “Oh no! What am I going to do? I know—I’ll marry the first man I can find.”

Now, to stop this from happening—which would have been pretty rough for the men involved—engagements usually lasted around nine months. Nine months was the length of a pregnancy, so if there was any funny business going on, it would give enough time to demonstrate whether she was an honest woman.

So this was the situation that Mary and Joseph were in. She was a virgin betrothed to a man, whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. Now all these details are extremely important. If Mary had become pregnant outside of marriage, she would have been in very serious trouble. But the fact that she is betrothed means that Joseph would be able to care for her as her future husband, but also he would be able to testify that the child was not his.

Now in the wider church today, there are many people who simply deny what we call “the virgin birth”. However, as you will see in our text today, the fact that Jesus’ mother was a virgin is a central teaching of Christianity. In the Creeds we say every Sunday that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. It is not a side issue, or something that we can laugh off as if it’s not important. The “virgin birth” is not some conspiracy of men in the church to put down real women and mothers. This teaching is not really about Mary at all—it is about who Jesus is. It is about who Jesus’ mother is, and who his Father is. The Virgin Mary is his true human mother, and God the Father is his true Father. This is what we read about in our reading today.

So the angel says to Mary: Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! We read: But [Mary] was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. Just imagine—Mary has just seen an angel appear to her, and yet she is not troubled by what she sees, but by what he says. She is greatly troubled at the saying. You see, it is important that Mary discerns. Who is this angel? Why is he coming to me? Is he telling me a lie? Is this the devil in disguise? And so, it says that she tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. If this is a greeting from God, then all well and good. But if not, then she wouldn’t want some angel flattering her, or deceiving her, or leading her down the garden path, away from God.

So what did the angel actually say to her? He said: Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! The word there “greetings” is a standard greeting, like “hello”, or “Good morning”. But literally, the word is Rejoice. The angel is wanting to give her encouragement, joy. He is giving her a blessing. And he calls her: O favoured one. This could also mean: a woman who has been shown grace, or a woman who has received God’s favour. These words are also where the Catholic prayer comes from: Hail, Mary, full of grace. The expression “favoured one” is translated “full of grace”. However, in John 1, it is said that Jesus is full of grace and truth. Here in this passage, it is more correct to say that Mary has been shown grace or shown favour, rather than being full of grace. It is a wonderful gift of God that He chose Mary to be the mother of his Son. It is not as if she earnt it by being full of grace. The angel also says to her: The Lord is with you! This is very similar to the greeting we say in church every Sunday before we say a prayer, where the pastor says: The Lord be with you, and the people respond: And also with you, or in older times, the response was: And with your spirit. The Lord is already with Mary, and the Lord now sends Mary an angel to tell her. The angel then reveals to Mary the presence of the Lord. In Mary’s situation, the Lord is with her in a special way—she is about to be the mother of the Son of God. Nobody has been greeted like this before, and nobody will ever be greeted like this again. And so, it’s no wonder that Mary was troubled, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

And so the angel says to Mary: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Listen to those wonderful words from the angel: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. We human beings are all sinners. We are all members of one sinful human race, and we have received and inherited sin from our parents. Just as we get all kinds of blessings from our parents, so also we have inherited the family debt. We know that even right from childhood, we don’t need to teach children to be naughty; they do it all by themselves! And God has every right to completely wipe out every single one of us with one wave of his hand. He is a righteous judge, and loves what is right, and good, and pure, and holy. And we know that we are not righteous, right, good, pure and holy in and of ourselves. And yet, because of Jesus, and his sacrifice for our sin on the cross, because of his atonement, and payment for our sin, justice was paid for us, and our debt was cancelled. And so, because of this, if we ever find ourselves standing before God, knowing our sin and fearing his presence, then we can be comforted in the fact that we have a Saviour, who has paid for our sin, and has earnt on our behalf the favour of God. It is a wonderful thing to believe that when God looks at us, he doesn’t look at our sin, but he looks at Jesus. And because of Jesus, he shows us his favour. He doesn’t blaze his anger at us, but he shines the light of his face, and forgives us every single one of our sins. And when we have this forgiveness, we have God’s favour, his good pleasure, and there is nothing of which to be afraid. This is the same wonderful gift here that was given to Mary, when the angel said: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. She found favour not because of anything that she was, and not because she was sinless, or because of anything that she had done or not done, but purely as a gracious, loving gift of God.

The angel says: And behold—in other words, listen to me, I’m going to tell you something very important—you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Mary is going to be this child’s mother—the Son of God will take his human nature from her womb, from her flesh. She is going to be his mother. She will conceive in her womb, she will bear a son, and she will call his name Jesus. In this sense, Mary is going to have a normal child, in the normal way, and like every other mother, she will give this child a name.

But there is some things that about this conception and birth and this child that are not normal, but are special, supernatural, wonderful. The angel says: He will be great. We can talk all day about all the wonderful ways in which Jesus is great! The angel says: And [he] will be called the Son of the Most High. This is very important: this child will be Son of Mary, but he is also going to be the Son of the Most High. The “Most High” is another way of speaking about God. This child is not going to be a child of God, in the sense that all people are created by God, and are God’s children. But this child will be the only begotten Son of God. He is the Son of the Most High, in the sense that has always existed as true God together with the Father before the beginning of time. This Son of the Most High is one with the Father, and equal to his Father. The angel says: And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This means that Jesus is going to be a king in the line of King David. He is going to rule over the house of Jacob, or the house of Israel. He will be a king, and he will rule over all of God’s people. And unlike the kings of the Old Testament, and the kings and politicians of our time, who only reign for a set number of years, Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob forever. Even today, Jesus is alive, he is seated on the throne as a king descended from David at the right hand of the Father, ruling over the whole of creation, and ruling his church, his kingdom here on earth through his powerful word, and there will never be a time when he will not be ruling. The text says that he will reign…forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This is no ordinary boy who is to be born—this is not just Mary’s son, but the Son of the Most High. This is just as when Jesus says to Peter: Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And Peter says: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Son of Man is the Son of the living God. The Son of Mary is the Son of the Most High.

Mary asks the angel: How will this be, since I am a virgin? Literally, in the Greek, the question Mary asks is: How will this be, since I do not know a man? In the bible, “know” often refers to sexual relations, just as at the beginning of the bible where it says: Adam knew his wife and she conceived. Mary realises that there is something being promised to her that is not normal, and not the ordinary way things are done. And so the angel says: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. It says: The Holy Spirit will come upon you. These words are the basis of what we say in the Creed that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel says that this will take place by a special act of God, by an overshadowing of the power of God. We can also see here a wonderful picture of all three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Who will come upon Mary? The Holy Spirit. Whose power will overshadow her? The power of the Most High, the power of God the Father. And who is this holy child who is to be born? The Son of God.

The angel also wants to strengthen and encourage Mary and increase her faith so that she doesn’t worry and doubt what is going to happen. The angel says: And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. Elizabeth is John the Baptist’s mother. And the angel shows to Mary that another miracle has taken place: Elizabeth is old and she was also barren, and yet she also has a child. In a similar way, the angel says: you are young, and a virgin, and you will also have a child. And Elizabeth’s baby was conceived six months ago, so that you will be able to see her round tummy with your own eyes. And the angel says: For nothing will be impossible with God. The angel says that this is a miraculous event. It will happen in a way that no human being, no inventor, no scientist, can come up with. It is purely a miracle and an act of God. This is an important word to all those who ridicule the virgin birth. If we don’t believe that there is a God who can work outside what we think are the normal laws of nature, then of course we won’t believe in a virgin birth. But there is a God, and nothing will be impossible with God. This is a wonderful word for us to encourage us in our prayers too. When we think things are impossible, we should remember that we have a God with whom nothing is impossible.

And so right at the end of our reading, we read where Mary says: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. This is a very encouraging word, and shows the wonderful power of God at work in Mary, and the great faith that he had worked in her. On one hand, she agrees with the word of the angel. God does not force her to comply, but she agrees with the whole plan. She says: I am the servant of the Lord. And also she says: Let it be to me according to your word. This word that the angel has said from a human point of view seems impossible, and yet she says: Let it be to me. The angel has spoken a word, and she has become impregnated through her hearing. In a similar way, when we hear the word of God, and read it, and think about it, it takes root in us, and grows in our hearts and begins to shape us from within. Let’s also pray that the Holy Spirit may work that humble attitude in us that we seek to submit to God’s gracious will for us in our lives in every day of our lives, every day and every minute.

Sometimes we have some bad news or something bitter in our life we need to contend with. There is an old Russian prayer that says: Whatever news I may receive during the day, teach me to accept it tranquilly, in the firm conviction that all eventualities fulfil your holy will. I know from my own experience that sometimes I don’t have the strength of faith to think like that. And yet, the alternative is always to be putting our will above God’s will. God is a very gracious Father to us, and sometimes we don’t understand why he gives our deepest sorrows to us. But he also promises to show you his loving face again. Jesus says: A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me. This life is not the only existence that God has made for us—this is a valley of the shadow of death. There is a better country to come yet, a kingdom that will have no end, as our reading says. The king is Jesus, and the future is bright with him. And so, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and not in our own strength, we can look to him and say with Mary: I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Amen.

Lord God, our heavenly Father, we thank you for the conception of your Son, and we pray that you would lead us to trust in your word, knowing that nothing is impossible with you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

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