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 IX (Proper 11 B) [Mark 6:30-34, 53-36] (22-Jul-2018)

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

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

And Jesus said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”

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.

Our reading today comes from Mark chapter 6, which we’ve been reading over the last few weeks. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus is rejected in his hometown of Nazareth; then he sends the twelve apostles out on a mission trip; and then we read about the imprisonment and beheading of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist is six months older the Jesus, and he is often called the “Forerunner”. John the Baptist’s death also points forward to Jesus’ death. John throughout his whole ministry was pointing to Jesus and saying, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And when he is beheaded, his death also points forward to Jesus’ coming crucifixion.

But in Mark chapter 6, in between the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth and the recount of the history of John the Baptist’s execution, we read about the mission trip of the twelve apostles. We read about how the apostles went out and preached repentance, they cast out demons and they healed the sick. All their provisions were to come from the generosity of the people who welcomed them. And Jesus gave them specific instructions if people rejected them, to wipe the dust off their feet at the door. So this was a very intensive time for them, and the disciples’ activities became very well-known and famous. We read: King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. King Herod even thought that maybe John the Baptist had come back from the dead—he recognised that Jesus and his apostles were all preaching the same message as John. King Herod had a bad conscience about killing John. We read: Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. And so when Herod’s step-daughter asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter, we read: The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. So we read about this event with Herod and John the Baptist because we read that King Herod had heard about the twelve apostles, and what they were doing.

So now, we come to our Gospel reading for today. It must have been a tremendously fruitful mission trip for the apostles. They would have been received with great joy, and at the same time, they also would have been received with tension and opposition.

So we read: The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. This is a really wonderful verse. Just think what the apostles must have wanted to tell Jesus! I often think of them here all piling over each other to talk to Jesus, all excitedly, and all at once, and Jesus tells them to settle down, and talk one at a time, just like a bunch of children! And this gives a tremendous example for us too: that at the end of a time of busyness, or at the end of a day, or at the end of a week, what should we do? We should return to Jesus and tell him all about it. Sometimes, we need to tell Jesus some things where we sinned, and he can then speak his forgiveness. Sometimes, we need to tell Jesus which things were difficult and hard, and that we didn’t feel as though we did them properly. And we commend ourselves to him to learn from him how to do something next time. Sometimes, we are happy and encouraged about something, and we go to Jesus and thank him for it.

Now, this mission trip of the apostles and the beheading of John the Baptist must have happened at a similar time. In Matthew’s Gospel, we read about how John the Baptist’s disciples also came to Jesus at this time and told him about the John’s beheading. And so there must have been a real coming together of both the twelve apostles, and John’s disciples to tell Jesus about the events. There must have been incredibly exciting news from the twelve apostles, but then incredibly sad news from John the Baptist’s disciples. And John’s execution would have been very worrying for the disciples as they realised that King Herod didn’t have their back, and wasn’t batting for their team.

So what does Jesus do here? He doesn’t send them out again yet. He doesn’t just send them back into the lion’s den, or to retaliate. He says to them: Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. Jesus has had a debrief with his disciples, and listened to everything that has happened, and now it is time for them to rest. He takes them on a retreat. The apostles need to be refreshed and recuperate, they need to recharge their batteries. It’s a bit like surfing—the disciples realise that the times are hard and their necks are on the line. It’s like being caught in a rip, but instead of fighting against it, and trying to swim in against the rip, Jesus lets them float far out to sea, so that they can then carefully swim back in for the next stage of their ministry.

And this also gives us a wonderful example, and there is incredible wisdom in it. When we work hard, we also need to take time to rest and to prepare for the next part of our work, especially when it comes to spiritual work.

A few weeks ago, we read about the event where Jesus calmed the storm, and where he simply woke up and with a short, sharp word, he stilled the wind and the sea. And also, he put at rest the disciples’ hearts, since they feared desperately for their lives. So here in the reading he takes the disciples, and he says to them, “You’ve been doing some hard work, and now it’s time for you to refresh and to rest.”

We read: For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognised them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

Now, what must the disciples have thought when this happened? Here Jesus has taken them across the lake so that they can all have some time of refreshment and relaxation. We read that the disciples didn’t even have enough time to eat. Maybe Peter or some of the other disciples were thinking of going on a nice sea-side trip, just like going to Tin Can Bay or Woodgate, or somewhere. Maybe they imagined themselves having a nice siesta on the beach in the sunshine with a cool drink in hand! And then they get across the other side of the lake, what’s there? The crowd! They followed them there. So much for their rest, so much for their refreshment, so much for their sea-side holiday!

In fact, we read that there were five thousand men there, and that’s not including the women and the children! There were five thousand families there! And then Jesus made the disciples to go around with the loaves and fishes and feed them all. So much for the rest! Is Jesus really a harsh-taskmaster? Is he a slave-driver to his disciples? Is there really no rest for them?

This is where the real heart and centre of the reading comes in. We read: When [Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

Here is the compassion that the crowd needs, and here is the rest and the refreshment that the disciples need: And [Jesus] began to teach them many things. There it is. A rest for the disciples did not mean putting their feet up and doing nothing. The rest and refreshment that Jesus had prepared for his disciples came through his living and life-giving words, and only through his word.

Now, this brings us back to the Third Commandment, which says: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. The word, “Sabbath”, or in Hebrew, “Shabbat”, means “rest”. And it connects back to the creation of the world, where we read: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Now, when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, this day of rest became a special day of worship for the Jewish people, that on the seventh day of the week, on Saturday, they were not allowed to work.  Christians don’t observe Saturday as a matter of law anymore, because after Jesus died and rose, the ceremonies of Jewish worship no longer apply. But out of freedom, we come together on Sundays to commemorate the day that Jesus rose from the dead, just as we read about in the book of Acts, where the disciples gathered together on the first day of the week.

Now, sometimes people have misunderstood this law, as if it is simply prohibiting work on one day of the week. Amongst Jewish people even today, for example, in Israel, elevators in high-rise buildings don’t operate on Saturdays because it is considered to be work. In the old days, some Christians were very strict about Sundays too, as if people were required to sit around in a straight jacket all afternoon.

However, the reason why this commandment is here is not simply to stop people from working, but to stop work in order to come and listen to God’s word. Luther says in his hymn on the 10 commandments: Cease from all the work you do, so that God may work on you. That’s what happens when Jesus teaches the crowd and his apostles many things: he is working on them, and that is the real rest and refreshment.

Now we Australians love our relaxation time. People like to go for walks, go fishing, have a beer, go on holidays, put up our feet at the end of the day… From the face of it, it looks like Australians are the most faithful nation in the world when it comes to not doing anything on Sundays. But this isn’t what Jesus is talking about. In our country, leisure and relaxation is one of the greatest idols – it’s OK to have rest and go on a holiday and chill out, but it becomes a problem when it’s what we live for. Ultimately, it makes us a selfish people, who only care about ourselves. St Paul says: [Christ] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. So if leisure and relaxing is what you live for, you should repent, and live for Jesus, and for other people. Jesus also gives us a rest, but he gives us a rest by teaching us his word, and forgiving us our sins. He says: Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Also, there is another kind of rest that people often look for, that has the appearance of being spiritual, which comes from the “contemplative prayer” movement. Now many people today—including Christians—are finding that life is so fast-paced, and there is a great desire to seek rest and stillness in the middle of it all. The Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, often practised meditation techniques, where they would recite “mantras”, repeated phrases like the word “om”, and would actively slow down their breathing. At different times in history, there were also various Christian mystics who did similar things and would practice meditation techniques. In recent times, some Christians have found a similarity between Hindu and Buddhist techniques, and the kinds of things that some Christian mystics practised. So people would train themselves to slow down their breathing, and recite a Christian version of a “mantra”, like the word “Jesus”, or some other word from the bible. People call this kind of thing, “Christian meditation” or “contemplative prayer”.

However, there is a problem with this kind of thing. The reality is that Jesus never taught these kinds of techniques to his disciples. When the Beatles were at the height of their career, they employed a Hindu guru, by the name of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to be their spiritual adviser, to teach them meditation, yoga, and other things like that. The Beatles recognised that they needed rest and refreshment and peace amid all the hype in their lives.

However, when Jesus took his disciples away for a rest to a quiet place in our reading today, he didn’t then start teaching them yoga and meditation. In fact, when it comes to mantras, and reciting things over and over again, Jesus teaches his disciples about prayer: When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. This expression “empty phrases” can also be translated as “vain repetitions”, or just speaking things over and over. Hinduism is the most advanced form of paganism and Gentile religion that we know about because they have so many written texts. Even though India was a long way away from where Jesus lived, it seems as though this kind of repetitive prayer was prevalent in Gentile, or pagan, religions from a long time ago. Jesus actually teaches his disciples to pray by giving them the Lord’s Prayer, for example, and doesn’t teach techniques. And if he warns against heaping up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, why do many Christians then try to imitate other religions and heap up empty phrases?

In our reading today, we read: Jesus began to teach them many things. The peace that passes all understanding doesn’t come from our achievements or our meditations or whatever, it comes from Jesus and his word. There is such a wonderful picture in our reading of our whole lives, like a see-saw, between the apostles going to Jesus and telling him everything they did and taught, and Jesus teaching them many things.

In St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he calls the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. This is a very interesting picture of the word of God as a sword. When Jesus teaches his disciples and the crowd many things, he is speaking to them with his own sword, cutting to their hearts and revealing their sin, and also protecting them from the devil and the world and their own flesh. Once when I was a teenager, I went on a school trip to Japan. When we were leaving the airport, a few boys got held up in customs and we almost missed our flight, because they had bought samurai swords. They had no intention of using them, they just wanted them as a souvenir. But when the Scripture calls the word, the sword of the Spirit, it means you take the thing out of its sheath and use it. It’s not a sword for the mantlepiece.

I wonder if sometimes we Christians just like to have the word of God like a souvenir for the mantlepiece. We just want to sit back and look at how nice it is, but we don’t want to learn how to use it. And so we scrimp and scrape and try to achieve an inner peace which we can’t earn and we can’t achieve by our own efforts.

At the heart of our reading, we do not have a spiritual master like a guru teaching us meditation, or techniques on how to relax and calm our mind or empty our mind. No, we have the living Son of God himself, who is both true man and true God in one person. We see him in the last part of our reading today healing all kinds of sick people, people who were made well simply by touching his clothes. This fact makes all the difference. He is a true man, and we worship Jesus as our God, who died on the cross to a make the one true, perfect sacrifice for every single sin of the whole entire world, and he rose again from the dead and defeated death. Whoever believes in him will also have eternal life. This is the message that Jesus sent his apostles out to preach after he rose. He said: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [Every single last scrap of authority and power belongs to Jesus]. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Even today, we’re going to baptise a child [here] at Childers, and as we hear God’s word today, Jesus teaches us many things. And he says: I am with you always to the end of the age. He is here with us as our living God, risen from the dead, who will baptise this child himself, and also, will feed us himself in the Lord’s Supper with his body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins, and also, in his word, he is here to be with us, working on us, teaching us many things, just as he did to his disciples so many years ago, and strengthening us in the peace of God which passes all understanding.

And so, rest for a while. Peace be with you! May the living peace of our living Jesus be with you. Amen.

Dear Jesus, you give us work to you, and you also give us rest. Strengthen us in your word and Holy Spirit, and lead us finally into that rest that will never end. Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have a good friend who was very strongly convicted by this text, where it says: Do not be anxious about anything. He said: I’m always anxious, and I’m anxious about lots of things. I don’t know how not to be anxious! But then I realised that he hadn’t read the rest of the text, where it says: Do not be anxious about anything, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. If only he had read the rest of the verse! There’s no need to be anxious when we have a God who peacefully listens to our prayers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

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

Pentecost [Acts 2] (20-May-2018)

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.

Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

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

Today we’re celebrating the Day of Pentecost. So what happened on this day? We read about these wonderful miracles that happened: first of all, we read about something that everyone could hear—the sound of a mighty rushing wind that filled the place where they were sitting. And we read that this sound came from heaven. Secondly, we read about something that that everyone could see—divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And then we read about something that everyone could both see and hear—They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now on this particular occasion, we also have described for us exactly what this speaking in other tongues means. It says: There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

Can you imagine this? Here are a group of people who happen to be there in Jerusalem, and they all come from different countries, and they all speak different languages, but when they listen to Jesus’ disciples, they can hear them speaking in their own languages. And we might think: What an amazing thing! Is this really what happened?

Just to make sure that you fully understand that, yes, this is exactly what happened, we are also given some of the conversations that people were having on that day. We read: And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia,(these people were from the area that is now Iraq and Iran), Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia (except for Judea which is in modern-day Israel, all these places are in modern-day Turkey), Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, (we still have the countries of Egypt and Libya today in North Africa), and visitors from Rome, (all the way from Italy), Jews and proselytes (this means not just people who were born as Jews, but also people who were converting and preparing to become Jews), Cretans and Arabians (Cretans were from the Greek Island of Crete, and the Arabians were from the area anywhere on the Arabian peninsula, where today we find countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen)—you can see there are so many different people from all kinds of areas who in those days had travelled very long distances to be in Jerusalem. We read that they said: We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

So what’s actually going on? What’s the point of all of this? Well, before Jesus had ascended into heaven, he already promised that this would happen. In the beginning of the book of Acts, we read that Jesus while staying with them ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” And at the end of the Gospel of Luke we read: Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Can you see? Jesus promises to baptise them with the Holy Spirit, and to clothe them with power from on high. But why?

Because Jesus wants them to be witnesses, and to tell the nations that Jesus had died and risen from the dead, and they had seen these things with their own eyes. Jesus says: You are witnesses of these things. In Acts we read where Jesus says: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

And so, between this time, we read about only one thing happening, that the eleven apostles elected one more person to replace Judas, who had betrayed Jesus. And we read that they put forward two men, one called Joseph or Barsabbas, who also called Justus, and another man called Matthias. And read that the disciples cast lots, and prayed that God would choose one of them, and the lot fell on Matthias.

So now, on the day of Pentecost, we read that there is a full number twelve again. And then we read about these wonderful miracles that happen: the wind, the fire and the speaking in the different languages.

But why does all this happen? Firstly, God simply wanted to send the Holy Spirit to the new Christians, and to demonstrate this publicly. But also, because God wants to demonstrate that these apostles are the ones that are sent by Jesus, and now there is a new era of history, where all people everywhere are commanded to listen to these twelve apostles. And what do they have to say? They saw the risen Lord Jesus with their own eyes, and they have come to preach forgiveness of sins in the name of the risen Lord Jesus.

Now, so what does this mean for us today?

It means that these words that the apostles have to speak to us are powerful words, and that these words come with all the power of the Holy Spirit. We see on the day of Pentecost, that as soon as all of these wonderful miracles happen, the people ask questions about what is going on. And so Peter gets up and he preaches the first Christian sermon. And from there, Peter, James and John and all the other apostles were gradually sent out to preach in all kinds of different places. The part of the bible which we call the New Testament is actually the collected writings of the apostles that were also there on that day. Later in the history of the church, Christians understood very clearly that if they want to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit they have to learn and study and listen and preach what the apostles themselves said about Jesus, because Jesus had sent them out with the living power of the Holy Spirit.

So what this means for us today is that whenever we preach and learn and study the words of these apostles we are hearing the living voice of the Holy Spirit, with all the power of God. Here we come together week after week here in our little church, in our little corner of the world. And we listen to the word of God, read out loud, and preached. And when we hear these words that the apostles testify about Jesus, then we know that these words are the living voice of the Holy Spirit and have all the power and might of the Holy Spirit.

You can see what happens today on the day of Pentecost all happens because of the word of God. And we might think, is it really about God’s word? Is that really it? Isn’t it about something more than that?

Well, let’s have a look what actually happens on the Day of Pentecost. First of all, Peter gets up and he preaches the gospel. He preaches the facts about Jesus life, who he was and what he did. And he shows to the people that this was already prophesied by the same Holy Spirit long ago in the prophets. So Peter quotes three passages, one from Joel. In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. And then he preaches from Psalm 16, teaching them that it was impossible for Jesus to remain still dead in the grave. And then he preaches from Psalm 110 that Jesus has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, and now he is pouring out the Holy Spirit, just as they can all see.

Can you see? Peter is preaching God’s word. It’s the first Christian sermon. Now today, we are not called to listen to any old sermon. We are called to listen to the preaching of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The twelve apostles were called in a special way, by God directly. But they weren’t called to do nothing—they were called to preach. They had a particular calling to speak God’s word and witness to Jesus. Also in the New Testament, we read about people who were called to preach, who weren’t called directly, but were called indirectly. They were trained to preach, and tested, and then hands were laid on them, and they were sent to preach somewhere. These people are called pastors. And so, even today, in the church, pastors are trained and tested, and then they are ordained and sent out. And this also is the work of the Holy Spirit. But we have to stick absolutely to the message that the apostles also taught. If we don’t stick to these words, we won’t be teaching the words of the Holy Spirit.

We pastors are only called to preach God’s word, because this is the only thing that pastors are called to preach. Do you see? God’s word and God’s call go together. And this is also what happens with the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Peter and the other apostles are called by God and this call is demonstrated by the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit, and they are called to preach and to speak what they have been given to speak. And they are called to preach the death and resurrection of Jesus from God’s word, and to call people to repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

And so, what happens then after Peter finishes his sermon? It says: Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Here we can see another work of the Holy Spirit, where he cuts to the heart. The Holy Spirit comes to these people and shows them their sin and awakens them to their need for Jesus.

And then Peter says: Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

Isn’t this amazing? Here we have these miracles about the Day of Pentecost at the beginning of the chapter, but then, how does Peter say that they should receive the Holy Spirit? He says they should repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins.

And this shows us something that is highly offensive to our culture today. We can’t believe that the Holy Spirit would make such a fuss just so that a whole group of people should be baptised. Yes, yes, people say, we know we’re baptised. We know Jesus died for us. We know he rose from the dead. But we want something more… His word is not enough, people say.

And yet, it was enough for Peter. He simply got up and preached the word of God, showed the people their sin, and told them to come and be baptised. Even today in the church, we still preach God’s word, we still preach Christ crucified, we still preach the resurrection of Jesus, we still preach about sin and our need for Jesus, we still preach the forgiveness of sins, we still baptise people. And all this happens in the church today because it was done just like this on the Day of Pentecost, and when we continue these things today, we know that this comes with all the power of the Holy Spirit just like it did on the first Day of Pentecost, when the room was filled with wind and tongues of fire.

Later, we read: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Here we see the beginning of Christian worship—listening to the teaching of the apostles, and dedicating themselves to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. We still dedicate ourselves to these things in the church, because this is what happened on and after the Day of Pentecost. I would like us to think how we can dedicate ourselves to true Christian fellowship though – and I don’t mean just holding social events and such like, but how can we build each other up in Christian love and unity, in the true fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Notice there that there is also the prayers. The disciple dedicated themselves to prayers. And also the breaking of the bread. This is the Lord’s Supper. And the Lord’s Supper is that wonderful place where we come to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ. And as we come to the Lord’s Supper, it’s almost like a bicycle wheel—as the spokes come to the middle, they all come closer to each other. Also, as we come to learn more about the Lord’s Supper, and we draw near to receive these wonderful gifts, we draw closer to each other. This is true Christian fellowship at work, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the world still needs these things. We still need to hear God’s word, and forgiveness of sins that comes from Jesus and his death and resurrection. We still need baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This is what we read took place on the Day on Pentecost. And when we still hear God’s word, and we still hear the preaching of the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus, and we still come and receive Holy Baptism and we still come and receive the Lord’s Supper, we know that all these things come to us with all the power and might of the Holy Spirit.

But do you need them? If not, why not? Jesus says that you do. And if you reject these things you reject the only way in which Jesus is going to speak to you. Our problem so often is that we look for the Holy Spirit in the wrong places. We look for him in our emotional highs, we look for him in a crowd of sweaty human bodies as if the church is nothing more than attending a Christian football match, we look for him in our plans and visions for the future rather than words of Jesus, we look for him in personalities and cult figures, we look for him in glitz and glamour and novelty, when all the way along the Holy Spirit was always to be found in the word and in the sacraments, in baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

God is doing something in our world—we must simply recognise this. Just see what has been happening within Islam during the previous few years. On one hand, many Muslims are becoming militant and engaging in terrorist acts. On the other hand, many others are becoming increasingly embarrassed at the religion they held for generations and are beginning to question it. Now, it’s not just Muslims, but all kinds of people—even here in our local area—of rethinking things, and asking what they should do with their lives. And yet, we Christians in Australia will be no use to them or to anyone as long as we think that God’s word and the preaching of God’s word is boring. We will be no use to anyone if we teach our children that God’s word is boring and increase in them a hatred for listening, a hatred for forgiveness, and increase in them a love for whatever the latest fad happens to be. As long as we think baptism and the Lord’s Supper are useless, we are no use. As long as we think prayer is a waste of time, we are of no use. We so often want to fly off and chase whatever new fad comes along, chasing false miracles and false prophets, quick fixes and emotional rushes.

And yet, all the way along, the Holy Spirit has been quietly working through the preaching of God’s word, and in the wonderful miracle of Holy Baptism, and in the wonderful miracle of the Lord’s Supper. Don’t you know how wonderful these things are? Learn these things. Learn God’s word. Learn what it means to be a baptised child of God. Learn what it means to enter into the presence of Jesus and to eat his body and his blood. Come and drink deeply from the wells of the Holy Spirit.

And this word of God does two things: Peter preaches to the people: repent. He says: Save yourselves from this crooked generation. He cuts the people to the heart. But once he has cut them to the heart, then there is a word of healing, of peace, of forgiveness for them. Peter also preaches that Jesus has died and risen again, and has won the completely and totally free forgiveness of every single one of their sins. And that message doesn’t just apply to those people all the way back then, but that same forgiveness is for you even today. And with that forgiveness comes the joy of entering into God’s presence, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life.

Let’s rejoice in the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit so generously pours out on us today—the gifts of his word, the gift of Jesus here in our midst today, the gift of the free forgiveness of all our sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit himself poured out on us and our children in Holy Baptism, and the gift of the body and blood of Christ given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Come Holy Spirit! Amen.

Lord Jesus, we ask that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon us today as you have promised, and that you would equip us with everything that we need to be useful in service to you. Forgive us for our many failings, and encourage us. Teach us to hear your word, and strengthen us in the calling of our baptism. Lead us and guide us, dear Jesus, wherever and however you will. Amen.

Easter VI B [John 15:9-17] (6-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.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

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.

Today our Gospel reading comes from John chapter 15, and this particular chapter is part of a sermon that Jesus gives to his disciples on Maundy Thursday evening, on the night when Jesus was betrayed. Maundy Thursday is a very special day in the church calendar, and it is the day before Jesus died, which is Good Friday. So Jesus had had the Lord’s Supper with his disciples, he had washed his disciples feet, and then in chapters 14, 15 and 16 of John, we read where Jesus gives a powerful sermon, a farewell speech, before he goes out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Also he gives this sermon to his disciples after Judas had left the room to go to the high priests to organise Jesus’ arrest later that night. This message was not for Judas, but for the other eleven disciples.

So at the beginning of chapter 13 of John we read about where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, and he prophesies and predicts that Judas is going to betray him, and Judas leaves. We also read where Jesus says: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. This is a very well-known verse. Jesus also foretells that Peter will deny him three times. And then in chapters 14, 15 and 16 we read this sermon of Jesus, where he says: In my Father’s house are many rooms… I am the way, the truth and the life…Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you… There are so many memorable verses in this sermon. Also in chapter 17, Jesus prays a wonderful prayer, often called the “High Priestly Prayer.”

Our reading from today comes from chapter 15, in the middle of this Maundy Thursday sermon. Jesus says: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. We see God the Father here cutting off and removing the dead wood on the vine, but also he prunes the good branches so that they bear more fruit. But also we see that Jesus is the vine. All the members of Christ’s church, his family, his bride, are so intimately connected to him that the same juices that flow through him flow through his disciples. And sometimes as Christians we suffer tremendously, and we ask God why this is happening. But God is not cutting us off, but pruning us.

Jesus says: Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Here Jesus is speaking to his disciples about the way that he will be with them, and dwell with them and in them, and will be so intimately connected with them in everything that they do. It is not just Jesus’ teaching or his doctrine or his power that is with them, but himself! He says: Apart from me you can do nothing. Jesus will be with them all the way.

Then Jesus says: If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Everything that turns away from this vine is thrown away. Everything comes from remaining in Christ and his word. Jesus says: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. Jesus and his words go together. When we have Christ and his word, then our prayers are wonderfully answered. Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. But none of this is for our glory, but for the Father’s glory. Jesus says: By this my Father is glorified.

Now we come to our reading for today, which says: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. Jesus speaks here about Christian love. This wonderful love reaches from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to us. And Jesus says: Abide in my love. Jesus has been talking about how we are connected to him like branches on a vine. Love is a fruit of faith. St Paul even calls love a fruit of the Spirit, in fact, he lists it as the first of many fruits. So when we saved by faith, and this faith then looks to Christ and our neighbours, faith produces the fruit of love, friendship, and fellowship.

Now if love is produced from faith, it’s also very important that faith is right. When we speak about faith, we don’t put our trust in ourselves or in the things in our sinful human hearts; we put our trust in the pure, clear word of God. Faith clings to the word, just as Jesus says: If you abide in me and my words abide in you… So when we turn our backs on the truth of God’s word, love also dries up, and we end up with tremendous fighting in the church. St Paul wrote a wonderful chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13, where it says: Love is patient and kind, and all that kind of thing. We often read this passage at weddings. But in the middle of that chapter it says: Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Also, there’s another wonderful passage about love in 1 John 4, where it says: God is love. Perfect love casts our fear. But at the beginning of the chapter it says: Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Do you see how John here talks about truth and then he goes on to talk about love? Also St Paul says in Ephesians, not simply to speak with love, but to speak the truth in love. I mention these things because today often when we talk about love, people often say that speaking the truth even when people don’t want to hear it is loveless. No—it’s not loveless at all! As Christians we should strive to believe the same thing, live the same way, and help each other in doing this—all on the basis of God’s word. We see all throughout the New Testament about how the apostles stood very firmly together, in unity and peace, being of one mind and one heart, speaking the truth with the very voice of the Holy Spirit. It is the same oneness and unity of mind and heart around the word of Christ that we should also strive together for, which draws us together in love.

And so we read in our reading how Jesus says: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. By faith we are grafted on and united to Christ, like branches on a vine. And branches bear fruit. Each day we learn what it means to love. Jesus tells us to keep his commandments, and to do good works, not because the good works save us, but because this is simply what branches on a vine do. A wheel doesn’t spin so that it can become round. The fact that it is round is the reason why it spins. So we don’t love in order to be grafted into the vine, but because we are grafted in, we then start to bear the fruit of love.

Jesus then says: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Jesus is the bringer of joy. Now many people in the world seem happy enough, and don’t look to Jesus at all for joy. Sometimes these people are even happier than most Christians. But it is short-lived. Something happens in their life that they don’t expect, and everything is wrecked, and they don’t understand why. Jesus was sometimes very sorrowful and sad, especially when he went to the cross. But he had sadness first and joy later. So like Jesus, we have sadness and suffering first, and then eternal joy which Jesus promises us comes afterwards. Jesus shares with his people not just any joy, but his own joy: that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

So Jesus says: This is my commandment, that you love another as I have loved you. Jesus has loved us, by dying on the cross, and saving us completely freely, without any contribution from us. And we see here that Jesus commandment to love one another comes from the wonderful way in which he has loved us. He loves us even though we don’t deserve it and we have really treated him terribly, and so also even when we hurt each other and treat each other badly, Jesus calls us to love one another, to model and picture that love which he has shown us. Sometimes this love is very difficult for us, but it is this kind of love that Jesus shows to us all the time, and which is continually pumped into us because we are his branches connected to him, the vine.

Now, Jesus goes on to show exactly what this kind of love looks like. He says: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Jesus’ love is not just a sentimental, emotional, soppy love, like from a love story on some kind of soap opera. Jesus is not a man of feelings and sentiments and warm fuzzies, but he is a man of action. He speaks the truth, and then he acts upon it. And what is this wonderful act of love that he has done for us? He laid down his life for us. Jesus says: The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Here he says: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Jesus sees what needs to be done for us, and he does it.

But Jesus doesn’t die for his friends, for people who already love him. St Paul says: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When Jesus dies, then he makes us his friends, even though we were his enemies. So he says: You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. In ancient times, a friend of a king was like a member of his cabinet, or inner circle. A servant is just told to do something without thinking. But Jesus tells his apostles everything, and the apostles then preached and wrote it out for our benefit.

Jesus’ friends are the people to whom he has told everything. All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. When the apostle Paul was preaching once, he said: I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Jesus didn’t shrink from telling everything to the apostles, and Paul and the other apostles didn’t shrink from passing everything on from Jesus. Even in the church, we continually pass everything on. Jesus says: teach them to observe everything I have commanded you. In the church, we pass on everything—the law and the gospel—the things we should do and not do, and the things we should believe. We are Jesus’ friends, and we learn his teaching and his doctrine, we grow in love, and we tell it to others. And this is how Christian friendship grows: we talk about everything there is to know in the Scriptures, just as Jesus told his disciples everything from God the Father’s own heart and mouth.

Jesus says: You are my friends if you do what I command you. We often hear this as meaning that we are only Jesus’ friends when we do good works. If our good works are not perfect as Jesus commands us, then we are not his friends. But Jesus has also commanded us to pray: Forgive us our sins. We also do his commandments not when we simply follow his laws, but also when in all of our failures we continually bring our sins to him and receive his forgiveness. Jesus also commands us to believe the good news, and we are his friends when in all our sinfulness, we believe these pure words of forgiveness which he speaks to us.

And so Jesus says: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you. When we think about making friends, we often think about choosing friends. Some Christians often think that they became a Christian by choosing to follow Jesus. There’s even an old song: “I have decided to follow Jesus”! But it is not us who have chosen to follow Jesus, it is Jesus who chose us to follow him. Even with the apostles, we read about how Jesus went to them and said: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men! He chose them, and so also through his word and holy baptism, Jesus also chose you to be his disciple and to follow him.

As Jesus’ friends, we learn and talk about all his words in the Scripture—he has hidden no secrets from us. Jesus chose and appointed these disciples, and he has chosen and appointed you, not to accomplish nothing, but to bear fruit, and fruit that will last, that will remain, that will abide. As soon as you and I are taken out of the picture, the living words of Jesus and the Holy Spirit will continue. The Holy Spirit will continue to work long after we have died. We human beings won’t last, but the fruit that has been produced from Jesus the vine will continue to abide until the very last days of this world.

Jesus says: So that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you. As we learn Christ’s word and grow in Christian love, we also grow in prayer. Prayer is also a fruit of faith—when we in faith see our own need and look to God, then our faith produces the fruit of prayer. Jesus says: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you. We might look at many prayers we have asked, and they seem to be unanswered, even some of those prayers that we have asked from such a state of desperation and helplessness and despair. God was our only help, and even then he didn’t seem to help.

But Jesus and the Father know what we need so much better than we do. Little children ask their parents for such ridiculous things like trains and aeroplanes and pet ponies. We are such little children when it comes to prayer. We stumble and stammer, and God knows what we need. And he will give us whatever we need to serve him in his kingdom. His ways are often above our ways, and we don’t understand why he gives someone something and doesn’t give someone something else. But we simply ask in Jesus’ name, and if it glorifies that holy name of Jesus, God will give it to us. He gives us so much that we so often don’t notice or even thank him for. The most wonderful thing he gives us is the precious gift of making us friends of his own son, and grafting us onto this vine, so that we may produce wonderful rich fruit.

And so let’s thank Jesus for this wonderful message that he gives us today. Let’s thank him for the wonderful words of forgiveness that he continually speaks to us, because of his death on the cross. We thank you for the way in which he comes and dwells with us and in us, and connects us so intimately to himself like branches on a vine. And we pray in his name that we may continually learn his word, learn his perfect sacrificial love, and ask him to use us in his kingdom in whatever way he sees fit. Jesus says: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Amen.

Dear Jesus, our true vine, use us, your branches, to bear fruit, and fruit that will abide. Let your Father be glorified in us, so that we may bear much fruit not to our glory, but to his glory. Into your hands, dear Jesus, we commend our bodies, our souls, our minds and our spirits. Amen.