Pentecost XV (Proper 17 B) [Mark 7:1-23] (2-Sep-2018)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ash Wednesday [Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18] (14-Feb-2018)

This sermon was preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, Tuesday 13 Feb, 7pm, and St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, Wednesday 14 Feb, 7.30pm.

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

Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

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

Tonight for our Ash Wednesday service, we read a very helpful reading from Matthew 6. This chapter is from what we call the Sermon on the Mount, which takes up all of chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew. The Sermon on the Mount has many well-known passages and verses, which many of us will know well. And tonight we’re going to focus on the three topics which Jesus talks about:

I.                   Giving to the poor.

II.                 Prayer, and

III.              Fasting.

However, before we get there, let’s just go back and see what Jesus is talking about before our text tonight so that we understand the context. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus particularly preaches very strongly the law of God. Much of what Jesus says is what we should do, and what we shouldn’t do, and how God threatens to judge people who don’t think, speak and act according to his will. A few weeks ago, we were talking about how Jesus went out and said: Repent, and believe the Gospel. We have two things here: the preaching of the law, when Jesus says, “repent”, and the Gospel, where Jesus calls us to believe in it. Much of what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount is a call to repent.

Jesus says many things in the Sermon on the Mount, where he cuts his knife right into people’s hearts, and shows them the very depths of their sinfulness. He says: I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And then Jesus goes on to preach the law of God right in the hearts of people, to jab in that sharp knife and twist it. He preaches about anger, lust, divorce, speaking the truth and taking oaths, about vengeance and retribution, and about loving even our enemies and those who hate us. He shows us the very depth of our sinful condition and wants to lay us complete bare before God’s judgement. Now this is what the season of Lent is about and Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It is a call to repentance, as we remember Christ’s suffering and death, and look forward to the celebration of Easter.

Now, before we look at what Jesus teaches about giving to the poor, and prayer and fasting, let’s remember the words that Jesus says: I have not come to abolish [the law and the prophets] but to fulfil them. Now, how did Jesus fulfil the law? What did he do? He made a complete, perfect, sufficient sacrifice on the cross for us, and he has made atonement for every single sin that anyone has ever even conceived and thought of in the whole world. So because of Jesus, and what he has done for us, there is absolutely nothing that we can do to earn God’s forgiveness. Everything has already been paid for, and there is absolutely no reason for it to be paid again by you. Everything is given to you completely and totally freely, without any of your works. Jesus preaches the law and he shows you your sin because he wants you to know how much you need him. If you don’t know that you are a sinner, why would you need a Saviour? And so, Jesus has taken every single sinful thought, word and deed on his shoulders, and he has died for all of it, in total, in full. And so when you look to him and put your salvation and your trust in him, then it’s all yours. You have done nothing, he has done everything, just as he raised Lazarus by the dead and spoke to him. Lazarus did nothing because he was dead—Jesus did everything because he is the giver of life.

And so—as Christians, there are certain things that Jesus teaches us about, and what we should do. Now that we believe in him, and he has given us the Holy Spirit, we are made free, and we have a wonderful opportunity to do all kinds of good things for people. But we do all these things, not because we are trying to earn God’s grace, or because we’re trying to get God to notice us, or because we’re trying to twist God’s arm to do what we want. The sacrifice for sins has already been made and now we do all kinds of good works freely, without condemnation, without needing to be afraid of messing them up.

And so in our reading tonight, Jesus says: Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Here, Jesus is addressing the whole group of people, altogether. And what he’s doing here is setting before them the final judgment. In the creed, we say that we believe that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. Our life and how we have conducted ourselves on this earth will be judged by God, and for everything we have done well, he will reward. For everything that we have done badly, Jesus has died for. And so, what Jesus is telling us is that just because he has died, doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter what we do anymore. If a prisoner has been let out of jail, it matters what he does when gets out, because otherwise he’ll go back in. And so in the same way, when we are set free from sin, from the devil, from punishment, from hell, what are we going do? Are we going to enjoy our freedom and use it for sin, or are we going to fight sin and use our freedom for good?

And so, Jesus puts this question to us: who do we want our lives to be judged by? By people, or by God? How we answer this question will completely change the way we act. God watches everything we do, but people don’t watch everything we do. Even the people with whom we live don’t watch everything we do. And so, Jesus says: if we practice our righteousness only when other people are watching us, then we are basically saying that God doesn’t exist. If God exists and if he judges our works and if he will reward us, then we should live our lives to be pleasing to him, not simply to please people at the expense of our faith and in such a way that we ignore God.

And so, Jesus talks about three things: giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting. By themselves, these things don’t accomplish anything before God. Because there can be bad giving, bad prayer and bad fasting. Jesus wants to show us how not to give, how not to pray, and how not to fast, so that he can show us how to do in a way that is pleasing to God.

The bad way to give, the bad way to pray, the bad way to fast is when we do it to earn our salvation, and to earn favour and grace with God. Jesus has already accomplished this, so if we do these things to earn salvation with God, then we kick Jesus out of the picture. We don’t need him as our Saviour, and we make people our Saviour instead, and we make them our judge.

And so let’s first of all look at:

I.                   Giving to the poor.

Jesus says: When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Many Christians don’t help the needy at all, or don’t think they need to. Here Jesus tells you that you should, and that it’s a good thing. But in Australia especially, people think that the government should help people in need, and that if they’re poor, it’s their own fault. But your sins are your own fault too. What if God took that attitude with you? Jesus says: You always the poor with you. There is always someone who falls between the cracks. There a lot of people in our community who are in desperate need of help, and I’m not talking about money. Sometimes money doesn’t help people at all—like drunks, or drug addicts. Money can sometimes fuel their addictions.

But here’s something for you to think about. As Christians, we often give the impression to the community that we are poor and we need their money. But we have been given heaven and earth by Jesus himself who is the Lord of heaven and earth, and the resources of the whole world belong to him. He knows how to solve every single problem of every single person in our community. The government doesn’t know these things, but Jesus does. We often write people off and think they’re beyond help—especially drug-addicts or ice-addicts, and people like that. But what if we placed these people into Jesus’ hands, and asked him how we can help them, and what we can do for them? I don’t know the answer, but we have a Saviour who can do everything.

Many people make a big deal out of the all the good things they do for the poor and for the needy. It’s common for people to say what a good person they are, because they fund an orphanage in Asia, or they give to World Vision, or they work at a charity, or whatever. But any pagan unbeliever can do these things. Doing things like this doesn’t make you a good person. A good Saviour makes you a good person. He’s the one who cancels your sins—you can’t do that yourself.

And so, Jesus shows us another way. He says: When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus shows us just how easy it is for us to think we’re so good because we do something good. Our hand goes into our pocket to pull out the wallet, and then afterwards we give ourselves a big tick and a pat on the back with the other hand. Don’t even let that other hand even know about it, says Jesus!

Some people think also that what makes a good work good is their good intentions. That’s not true—people do all kinds of stupid things with the best of intentions. The thing that makes a good work good is that it’s done by a person whose sins have been taken away. Then every good thing they do has been scrubbed clean. And Jesus has taken your sins away, because he has died for the sins of the whole world, and that includes you.

Let’s have a look at the next thing, Jesus teaches us about, which is:

II.                 Prayer.

This is a very sensitive issue. People often don’t pray because they think they can do everything by themselves. And people don’t pray because they don’t think they do it right or don’t do it well. However, Jesus tells us we should pray. But first he tells us how not to pray. He says: When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues at the street corners, that they may seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

These people don’t need anything from God—they just need praise and accolades from other people to say, “Isn’t he a holy person?” “Isn’t she a real woman of prayer?” But prayer is asking our heavenly Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit for help. We need God’s help, and often God puts us in a corner and at a dead-end so that we can see no way out. Then we can go to God and tell him about it, and ask for him to solve the problem. If God wants us to ask for his help, why are we so surprised that we so often feel so helpless?

And so Jesus says: When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Don’t make a show and tell about it—let God in on the problem, and he will solve it in his time and in his way.

Also, Jesus tells us something more about prayer. He says: When you pray, do not heap us empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. When Gentiles pray, they have techniques. They think: if I do this, I will get this. If I say this over and over again, I’ll get what I want. They pray because they think they will earn something by it, they think they can twist God’s arm to get what they want, if only they pray long enough, if only they pray enough times, if only they pray hard enough. Jesus says: Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. If God already knows what we need, why should we ask for anything? Because he wants us to pray, and he wants to demonstrate his help to you when you ask him. He wants to show you what you need, so that when you see that you need it and you can’t fix the problem by yourself, you can go to him. And if this is the case, it means that a good prayer is a short prayer. Ecclesiastes says: God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few. And because we are weak, often we need to tell him our short prayers again. But we know that when we leave things in his hands, they are powerful hands and loving hands. Jesus here even teaches us the Lord’s Prayer to give us the words and the model for prayer, and even specific topics for prayer.

Lastly, Jesus teaches us about:

III.              Fasting.

Many Christians today don’t practice fasting, which means going without something, whether it be food or drink or some kind of luxury. Plenty of people can fast, or diet, or practice self-control, but it doesn’t make them Christians. Also, fasting doesn’t make us worthy of God’s grace. Jesus has already paid the price.

And so, Jesus says: When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

But here is a very interesting thing: sometimes there are Christians who think that it is a holy thing to be gloomy. Now, sure: Christianity is a serious thing. The world will end, there will be a judgment, we need to repent, and Peter says on Pentecost for us to save ourselves from this crooked generation. There is a lot to be sad about in this world, there is a lot to cry about and lament. But there is nothing holy about putting on a gloomy face. Sometimes we can think: I must be a real Christian, because I look really serious and gloomy and disapproving, and my brow is really furrowed. Now remember the Pharisee who went into the temple and said: I thank you that I’m not like that tax collector. I fast twice a week.

Now, Jesus says: When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

We can fast and practice self-denial with joy and gladness, because we do not have to worry about if we’ve fasted enough. Because Jesus had paid for our account, and he has died for us, and has risen for us. And so because of this, he has given us the victory in advance, and this brings us great joy. We sometimes may really be sad and need a lot of encouragement in our Christian life. That’s fine. Sadness is a good thing and Jesus cares for us in our sadness, but having joy and happiness and gladness in the Gospel is also a good thing, and Jesus shares in our joy.

So as we begin this Lent, let’s hear the call to repentance, and let the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts and show us where we are amiss. But whatever we do, whether we have the opportunity to give to someone in need, when we pray, or when we fast and practise self-denial, we are not paying for our sins, because they are already paid for. Our fellow humans are not our judge, God is our judge. He has sent his Son as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We have no need to fear condemnation for our sins because they have been paid for, and God who sees what you do in secret will reward you. Let’s thank God for this wonderful promise. Amen.

Dear Jesus, thank you for teaching us about our sin and your righteousness. Cover us with your blood, and set us free for a life a good works which a purified and made holy by you. Amen.

Epiphany I: Baptism of our Lord [Matthew 3:13-17] (7-Jan-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.

John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

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 Gospel reading today, we read about Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan. And this is a very significant event: The gospels of Matthew and Luke begin by teaching us about the birth of Jesus. But the gospels of Mark and John begin with the baptism of Jesus. This is because Jesus’ baptism is the beginning of his ministry. Before Jesus was baptised, he didn’t go around preaching and healing people yet—but he led a simple life of a humble carpenter in Nazareth.

We sometimes forget about the city of Nazareth. We talk about Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and Jerusalem, where he went to the temple and was later sentenced to death. But Nazareth—which was in the area called Galilee, north of Jerusalem—was the place where Jesus spent his childhood, his teenage years and his life as a young adult.

And at the beginning of our gospel reading today we read: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him.

Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee all the way to the place at the River Jordan where John was. This was a long journey of about 125kms.

But this is not the first time Jesus had made a long journey to visit John. This had happened once before, when his mother Mary was still pregnant with him, and went to visit Elizabeth, when she was still pregnant with John! We know that Mary and Elizabeth were distantly related in some way. And when pregnant Mary came to visit pregnant Elizabeth, the baby John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb.

Here in our Gospel reading today, we read about where Jesus and John meet each other again, but 30 years later as grown men.

Many people in the early church also believed that John was in the wilderness right from when he was a boy. In Luke it says about John: And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the days of his public appearance in Israel.

We often assume that he grew up into a man first and then went out into the wilderness, but it is also quite likely that John went there very early in his life. Remember that his parents were both old when he was born, and could have died early in his life. Also, remember that John ended up being dressed in clothes in which any mother would have been embarrassed to send their child outside, and eating certain food that seems as though he wasn’t been looked after properly. We read: John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. John seems like a pretty wild character! His mother and father are probably quite long dead and are not making sure his hair is combed and teeth are cleaned!

So what exactly was John doing?

We read that he was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We also read many people were going out to him, and they were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

John’s baptism had a particular character to it. John was a voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. And in order to prepare, the people were coming to John to be baptised, and to confess their sins.

John’s baptism is slightly different from Christian baptism: Christian baptism is not preparing for Christ’s coming, but happens after Christ has already come in the flesh, and has already suffered, died and rose. As baptised Christians, we are not waiting for Christ to come the first time, but we are waiting for him at the end of the world.

When John baptises people, people come confessing their sins. Everyone who comes to be washed by John is a sinner. Someone who is clean doesn’t need to be washed. Only people who are dirty—not physically dirty, but spiritually dirty—need to be washed.

Now before Jesus arrived, we read that some of the Sadducees and Pharisees came to be baptised too. These people were the Jewish religious teachers at the time, and they fiercely disagreed about many points of theology. But they were self-righteous, and trusted in their own works and their family trees in order to be saved. They wanted to be righteous, but they just wanted to be baptised just so that they could add another feather to their spiritual caps, and sew another spiritual badge onto their hat.

But John won’t allow this sort of hypocrisy. So he preaches a very strong sermon against them: You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

John’s sermon is a very harsh one, a very strong one! He preaches against their hypocrisy, and their trust in their family tree. What’s the point of being part of God’s family, if you act like you’re part of the devil’s family? God doesn’t want pretend sinners coming for baptism, he wants real sinners coming for baptism, sinners that know they have nothing to give God, nothing to show for their lives, no brownie points. And so this is what John preaches about.

So we can see the sort of work that John has been doing: baptizing, preaching, calling people to repentance, hearing the confessions of sin that people were making before God.

And now Jesus comes. And John recognises that Jesus is the only person he has met so far that has absolutely no need for this baptism whatsoever.

We read: John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

John recognises that his ministry has its limits. He recognises that if Jesus himself baptised people, it would be a different kind of baptism altogether—not simply a pouring out of water, but a pouring out of the Holy Spirit! John is simply preparing the way for the Lord, but Jesus is the Lord himself! And John recognises that this is the kind of baptism that he needs!

He knows that Jesus doesn’t need his baptism, because Jesus isn’t a sinner. He has no sin to confess, and he has no need to repent. Also, why would Jesus want John’s baptism? Think of all the people who have come to John to be baptised: all those sinners – isn’t Jesus giving the impression that he’s a sinner too?

But this is precisely what Jesus does. Jesus is happy to be counted as a sinner, and to be mistaken for a sinner! He comes to be baptised just like all the other sinners, and joins in with them.

But Jesus is not a sinner – so what’s going on? The book of Hebrews says: that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin. On the other hand, Jesus takes upon himself our sin—he takes the weight of it all upon his shoulders. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And this is the precise reason why Jesus came—to die for sinners, and to carry and bear their sin.

And so Jesus is happy to dive into the Jordan, without hestitation. And he says to John: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.

Here Jesus fulfils all righteousness. He wants to take our sin upon himself, and share his righteousness with us. He wants to go into the water and take every piece of sinful human filth into his own hands and die for it, so that we can share in every drop of divine eternal joy and live forever.

St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: For our sake [God the Father] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And so we read that John consented.

But just imagine if you were an onlooker and bystander on this occasion: you would have thought that Jesus was simply another sinner just like you! And if that were the case, he would never be able to die for your sin, because it would be an imperfect sacrifice, one that was tainted, and not holy and pure. Jesus needs to be a lamb without blemish.

And so, just at the time when Jesus is baptised—just when Jesus could give the wrong impression that he is actually a sinner—God himself intervenes, and makes sure that all the bystanders and eyewitnesses and all people throughout history won’t make that mistake. So we read: 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.”

God the Father sits on his judgment throne, and he reveals himself to the whole world before the eyes of all. God reveals himself as the Father, speaking from heaven, as God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with whom his Father is well pleased in the water, and he reveals himself as the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove.

And so, when Jesus ascends into heaven and sends out his disciples to baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, promising to be with them always, we know that when we are baptised too that we are adopted as God’s beloved children, his sons and his daughters, together with Jesus, praying to his Father together with him. We know that we are made the brothers and sisters of Jesus and are with him always. We know that the Holy Spirit is poured out on us, and the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given to us. The door of heaven is opened to us and we can walk in together with Jesus.

And this wonderful manifestation of the Holy Trinity—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is given at the very same time when Jesus identifies himself and joins himself with sinners. This happened again later in his life, when Jesus was happy to be mistaken for a criminal, in fact, dying the worst kind of criminal’s death on a cross. He even was happy to be mistaken for a dead, buried failure. But God does not desire that Jesus’ death should be thought of in this way—and he does not keep silent, but raises him from the dead, to show us that what Jesus did on Good Friday was not a failure, but a perfect, holy, acceptable sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.

So also, at Jesus’ baptism, God does not keep silent, but opens up the heavens, and speaks his own voice, so that we would not mistake Jesus for any old sinner like us, but that we would trust in him as our Saviour, God’s beloved Son, filled with the Holy Spirit, to save us and rescue us and bring us to eternal life with him.

And just as Jesus is happy to let himself be mistaken for a sinner, so also he is happy to let us sinners be mistaken for a child of God. But Jesus does not make mistakes—he knows who he baptises, he knows to whom he preaches, and he knows each person to whom he gives his body and blood. And it’s no mistake that we are beloved children of God—because Jesus forgives us. He cancels our debt, wipes our slate clean, and presents us pure and holy and perfect before God, taking all our sin and guilt and punishment that we deserve upon himself. This is no mistake! It is a true and living fact: it is the way that Jesus fulfils all righteousness.

And so, what John says is true: I need to be baptised by you. What a wonderful gift it is to be baptised, not simply by a pastor in the church, but at the same time by the living hands and voice of Jesus Christ himself! Yes, Jesus, I need to be baptised by you, and yes, I have been baptised by you, washed with water and your holy and precious word.

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, thank you for the precious gift of baptism, and for making us your beloved children together with your Son Jesus Christ. We thank you for adopting us as children completely freely through baptism. Send us your Holy Spirit continually, that we may always trust in the precious gifts that you have poured out on us through the water and the Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Harvest Thanksgiving [Matthew 6:25-33] (26-Nov-2017)

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.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

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

Today in our church, we are celebrating Harvest Thanksgiving. And thanksgiving, giving thanks to God, is right at the heart of our faith. For example, there are so many times in the bible where it says: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever.

There’s a particularly favourite passage of mine about this topic, about thanksgiving, that comes from Romans 1. The book of Romans is a wonderful book, written by St Paul, where he gives a very detailed explanation of so many of the central parts of the Christian faith. It’s a book that is well-loved by many Christians. In Romans chapter 1, St Paul describes the world of unbelief, and of unbelievers. He says: Although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

He says that although people may have known that there was a good, even though people may be able to look at the world and all the wonderful plants and animals and the way so many things in the world and in nature are structured and ordered in a wonderful way, what was the problem? It says: they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him. Can you see how giving thanks is so important here, and how St Paul makes such a big deal out of it?

But then what’s the alternative to thanksgiving? It says: They did not honour him or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Instead of thanksgiving, they end up with futile thinking, foolish hearts which are darknened. Futility, foolishness, darkness. It’s almost like there’s this cancer that sets in, or a mold, or a rust that enters into our hearts. But with thanksgiving, the cancer, the mold and the rust is washed away. Giving thanks to God is like an antidote, like a medicine that drives the darkness away. I remember meeting someone once who said that when she couldn’t sleep, she would just go through her mind of all the things she could give thanks to God for.

But there’s one more thing that’s really wonderful about this first chapter of Romans. In verse 21, we read the verse I just read: For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. But if we back track a few verses, right back to verse 8, which is just after Paul has written his greetings and introduced himself at the beginning of the letter, this is what we read: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Did you notice what he says? First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. St Paul is about to write this wonderful letter to the Romans, and he has so much to teach them, and the Romans have so much to learn. But he doesn’t begin by saying: You lousy Romans, you’re all so stupid, and none of you know anything about anything. He says: First, I thank my God. So even though later in the chapter, he makes that wonderful statement about thanksgiving as being a kind of antidote to the diseases of foolishness, darkness, and futility, here at the beginning of the chapter, he actually models thanksgiving to us. This is so incredibly helpful for us, in our fast-paced lives—what do you have to give to God for?

Actually, Martin Luther, has some wonderful things to say about this in his Small Catechism, about the Lord’s Prayer. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: Give us today our daily bread. And Martin Luther explains it like this: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What makes Christians different from other people? Do Christian farmers get healthier and more fruitful crops than other farmers? No. Do Christians have nicer homes than other people, more money than other people, better clothes than other people? No. Are Christians healthier and less sick and less injured than other people? Once again, the answer is no. In Matthew chapter 5, it says: God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Everyone, whether you are a Christian or not, enjoys the gifts of sunshine and rain, and the many gifts that come from it. So if there’s going to be a difference—if Christians are going to make a difference—what’s it going to be? Let’s listen to Luther’s words again: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

Our whole lives as Christians is one big offering of thanks. There are so many things that God has given to us—we are called to thank him, and to offer our lives back to him in thanksgiving. We are given so many things for our bodies and for our lives—food, drink, clothing, shoes, a house, a home, a family, peace, good government, protection from war, from violence, from major disease. We are so blessed in this country. Just a word about government—we have heard a lot of talk in recent years about corruption, but there are some countries that have had years of corruption that has completely crippled their country, and would take years to turn around. Also, I remember when Kevin Rudd returned to be prime-minister again after Julia Gillard, an African man said to me at the church door, that if that had happened in Africa, there would be a civil war. Don’t we have so much to be thankful for in this country? And not to mention, all the spiritual things that God gives to us, for the benefit of our souls—God’s word, the ability to read it, to ability to hear it, a wonderful church building such as this one, our church musicians, the gift of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the opportunity and the privilege of prayer, Christian friends, and people who speak to us God’s word. And we have I remember hearing a story about an old pastor, who used to say a prayer like this: Heavenly Father, you have give me so many things in life to enjoy. Give me one thing more—a thankful heart.

And so now, I’d like to come back to Jesus’ words from Matthew 6. And this is a well-known passage, where Jesus teaches us about the relationship between our spiritual life to the needs of our body. He says: Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Just before this, Jesus says: No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

After this, then our reading begins where Jesus says: Therefore, do not be anxious about your life. On one hand, the worship that we offer to God is thanksgiving. On the other hand, the worship we offer to an idol, to a false good, is anxiety. Jesus says: You cannot serve God and money. If we serve God, we do with thankfulness. If we serve money, we do it with anxiety.

In the broad scheme of history, and in comparison to the rest of the world, we are very wealthy people. And yet, there’s many people who are constantly anxious about all kinds of things—about their finances, about the future, and all kinds of things like that. Many parents today are especially anxious about their children. But our Christian life should not be directed in such a way to simply alleviate their anxiety. Some people are anxious and they don’t even know why they are anxious. And then they jump from one thing to the next, from one novelty to the next, looking for a fix. But people don’t become closer to God by offering little sacrifices to their false gods through anxiety. There’s no use saying: My prayers to God don’t seem to be working, I think I’ll pray to the devil instead. Of course not!

Let’s listen to what Jesus has to say. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Think about it, Jesus says: what has anxiety ever really done for you, except make your life a misery?

Jesus says: And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

Let’s just stop for a minute—do we really worry about what we’re going to eat or drink or wear? In Australia, we really don’t have to worry at all about famine, or going without clothes. But then, we like to have variety in our food and diet—I’m not talking about the fact that a varied diet is a good thing, but we get bored with the same old thing. So we worry: what are we going to eat? We can’t eat fish and chips tonight! Why? Because we had it last night. All this is anxiety about food and drink.

Or what about clothing? Many of us are not overly anxious about not having anything to wear. But then, there’s the whole question of variety again. Many people can’t bear to be seen wearing the same clothes to two different occasions. People say: I can’t wear that outfit, or that tie, or that jacket, or that dress, to that wedding, because people will remember it from some other occasion. All of this is anxiety over clothing. We might think that we have to live in this kind of luxury in order to make a good appearance, but if that’s the case—fine, then you have to know that we’ll be anxious. And this anxiety is simply the offering we make to a false god.

Don’t you know how valuable God thinks we are? Don’t you know that he values us so much more highly than anyone in our life who we think might value us and appreciate us the most? Jesus says: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Jesus says: For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and you heavenly Father knows that you need them all. You see—here Jesus points out the fact that our anxiety about our life doesn’t make us different from anyone else. Gentiles can be anxious too. Unbelievers will be anxious too—they don’t honour God or give thanks to him, and so as St Paul says, they become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts are darkened.

So what then? Jesus says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own evil.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Build your life and your faith with a thankful heart. And seek his righteousness. God’s righteousness comes from the forgiveness of sins, which Jesus has won for us on the cross through his suffering and death and through his resurrection. Seek this. Trust in it. Put your anxieties into the hands of this man who shed his blood for you. St Peter says in his first letter: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. St Paul also says in Philippians: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (notice that: 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.

A pastor once said to me, that God provides everything we need for any given day. If we find that we are not coping with what needs to be done, if we think that God hasn’t provided the strength and the capacity for us to cope, maybe we are doing something and dedicating our hearts to something that we don’t need to. God is constantly our teacher, and he knows in his wisdom how to alleviate our hearts from all of our burdens.

So, to conclude our sermon today, I’d like to read a couple of verses from the book of Acts, by way of encouragement, about the first Christians after the day of Pentecost. It says: And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. May the Holy Spirit give us the same gladness and generosity of heart, and above everything, a thankful heart!

Amen.

Dear Jesus, you have given us so many things to enjoy, both for our bodies and for our souls. Give us one thing more, a thankful heart. Amen.