Pentecost VII (Proper 9 B) [Mark 6:1-13] (8-Jul-2018)

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

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

A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.

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

Today in our Gospel reading, Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth, where he grew up as a boy, and he is goes to the synagogue and he preaches there. And instead of being welcomed with open arms as their local boy, he is rejected and kicked out. We read: They took offense at him.

And Jesus says: A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.

And we read also: [Jesus] could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.

I’d like to focus first of all on what Jesus says: A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. What’s Jesus talking about? Well, obviously, he’s talking about himself, in that here he is, as a prophet, coming to his own hometown, but he is not honoured at all. Jesus is also hinting that when a prophet comes from a faraway place, people receive the prophet well. Maybe they think, “Here’s someone from a faraway country, and they’ve got something new and exotic to say.”

It’s strange how someone from a faraway place often has more authority than a local person. If someone came and said something wise to us, and they happened to be from an exotic, ancient culture with all kinds of strange customs, we might listen. But for a lot of us, if it were our mums that said the same thing, we might not take any notice.

And so, what Jesus says is true: often someone from another place holds more weight or more authority. But this is not exactly what he is talking about. He says: A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown. Here Jesus is speaking about prophets, and he refers to himself as a prophet.

So what exactly is a prophet? Well, Jesus is often referred to as a prophet. But of course, he is much more than simply a prophet, like Isaiah or Jeremiah or Daniel. He is also the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Even so, Jesus is called a prophet. When John the Baptist was preaching and baptising, there were some Jews that went up to him and asked him, “Are you the prophet?” And John says: No.They didn’t ask John if he was a prophet, any old prophet, but the prophet. They were looking forward to a particular prophet.

Now, to work out what they were talking about here, we have to go back to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Here we find Moses giving a sermon to the people and he says: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen… I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. And so from this passage, we see that the Jewish people were looking for a particular prophet, who could come from their people. God says that they must listen to him. And God is going to put his own words in the mouth of this particular prophet, and if people don’t listen to him, they will be cut off from God’s people. You can see that whoever this particular prophet is going to be, it is going to be very important that people recognise him when he comes and listen to him.

In the New Testament, in the book of Acts, in two different places, we read that this prophet was actually Jesus. This is preached by Peter in a sermon, and also by Stephen in a sermon. We know then that this prophet is Jesus himself, it is to him we should listen. The words that Jesus speaks are God’s words, and whoever does not listen to him will be answerable to God. Moses says: It is to him you shall listen. We read in the Gospels about that event in Jesus’ life, called the Transfiguration, where he is standing on the top of a mountain together with Moses and Elijah, and the face of Jesus shines with bright radiant light. We read that on that occasion a voice came from heaven in a cloud. And what did he say? This is beloved Son. Listen to him. Do you hear that? Listen to him. Here God the Father himself is telling us that this Jesus, His only Son, is the prophet that Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy where he said: It is to him you shall listen. Even God Himself confirms this and says: Listen to him.

And so, back to our reading, here is Jesus, and he is in his own hometown. He is with his friends and family and relatives. Moses said this would happen: The Lord God will raise up a prophet from among you, from your brothers. And yet the people are so blind, that they can’t recognise Jesus as the person who fulfils the prophecy of Moses. And they take offense at him. Now this is a frightening thing, because Moses also says that if they don’t listen to this prophet, it will be required of them of the Lord. And so Jesus gives a testimony about what is going on. He says: A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown. What a sad day this must have been for Jesus, that he should be rejected in his own town. And yet, the people are too busy remembering his childhood. They say: Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? You can almost hear an old lady in the crowd saying: “I changed his nappies.”

On the other hand, Jesus’ words are so full of grace and power. One word from Jesus has the power to forgive each one of our sins and promise us eternal life and an open door of heaven. And he actually does promise each of us this. He baptises us and writes his name on us, and puts his cross on each of us. We belong to him and we are his. And he writes our names in his book of life. And week after week, and day after day as Christians, we learn more about this wonderful Saviour that we have—and the more we learn about him, the more we learn about how much he forgives us and loves us. Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and he is so much greater than any prophet who has ever lived, that every word that he speaks is full of grace, full of love, full of joy, full of hope. Listen to the prophecy he speaks to you: Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Or what about the prophecy he speaks to the thief on the cross: Today, you shall be with me in Paradise. Who would want to reject such a wonderful prophet like that?

Today, people often misunderstand what a prophet is, though. People often think that it is the same thing as a fortune-teller. People think, “a prophet tells things about the future”, and so does a fortune-teller, so they must be the same thing. Jesus speaks life-giving words—he doesn’t read palms. And then, many people don’t really believe in fortune-tellers, so they don’t really believe in prophets either. But there’s a great difference between a prophet and a fortune-teller, and we have to know the difference. In the chapter from Deuteronomy which we read from before, where Moses prophesies that there will be another prophet, Moses talks about a whole lot of forbidden practices: interpreting omens, sorcery, mediums, and this also includes fortune-telling. Moses says: These nations which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. You can see here that fortune-telling is completely forbidden. But instead, what does Moses call us to listen to? He says: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. We should listen to Christ, not a fortune-teller. And Moses here plays off these fortune-tellers directly with Christ. They are in direct opposition to each other.

Now this is important for us too, because sometimes in the church we might encounter someone who claims to be a prophet, and they claim to bring a word from God. Or sometimes, even Christians get involved in some New Age stuff, and go and visit someone who they think can tell them the future. We need be discerning and to ask the question: Is this from the Holy Spirit?

Well, in the book of Acts, we read an example about this. In Acts 16:16, we read: As we [that is, Paul and Silas and Luke] were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” Do you see, here is a girl who is a fortune-teller, possibly like some kind of New Age person in our time. And we read here that she actually tells the truth about who Paul is. It’s true: These men really are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. But then we read: Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

So you can see here that even though this fortune-teller was telling the truth about Paul and Silas, Paul told the spirit to come out of her, and rejected her. You can see here that this is not prophecy of the Holy Spirit, and this kind of occult stuff cannot be used in the service of Christ and of his kingdom. It is forbidden, and God rejects it.

This is so important for us—because often when we look at a situation like this, like fortune-telling, two different opinions will come about. Some will say: That’s a load of rubbish! Fortune-telling doesn’t really work. And on the other hand, some will say: Maybe it does it work. But the important thing for us as Christians, is not whether it works or not, but where the power is from. This also applies to all kinds of spiritual stuff, and pseudo-spiritual stuff. The question is not whether it works, but where the power is from. Even if it works, it may still be from the devil. A fortune-teller is not sent by God—a prophet is sent by God and speaks with all the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is not to fortune-tellers we should listen. But it is to the true prophet, to Christ, to Jesus, that we should listen. He is even better than all the prophets put together, because he promises to you the forgiveness of sins. He has paid for all of your sin with his own suffering, with his own death, with his own blood. And now he is risen from the dead, he is seated at God’s right hand and he now brings all of his power and all of his promises right here to you. And he even breathes out upon you the Holy Spirit so that you can hide yourself in his wounds, so that you can place your body and soul into his arms, and so that you can rest him until that time when he draws you to himself in eternity.

We receive all the wonderful gifts of our prophet Jesus, simply by trusting in him, and believing in his word. We know that his words never lie. They are completely reliable and trustworthy. We read in our reading that when the people were offended by Jesus, that Jesus could do not no mighty work there… and he marvelled because of their unbelief. He only performed a few healings for some individuals, but not for the benefit of the whole town. On the other hand, when we hear God’s word, we should pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit so that He will create a living faith in us, so that we trust in Jesus’ words. Who knows what wonderful work Jesus can perform among us when we simply trust in his living, prophetic word? Jesus is the one who gives the gifts, faith is simply the hand which he puts them in.

Now, even today here in the church, we join Jesus in bringing his prophetic ministry to the world by testifying about him, and speaking his words. We read in the book of Revelation: The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. When we speak about Jesus, either I as a pastor in sermons and in pastoral work, or you wherever you happen to be among your friends and family, you speak with the spirit of prophecy when you speak the truth and testify to Jesus. And isn’t it so often the case that prophets are not welcome in their own hometown? There are so many parents that worry about their children falling away from the faith, and if we parents spoke to our children about Jesus, their hearts only get harder—of course, they know too much about us! Often I’ve seen this at funerals, where an old Christian person has died, and then all the children are organising the funeral, and they’re not Christian, except for one. And the burden of trying to arrange a church funeral for their Christian mother or father seems to lie on this one person, and the rest of the family just comes up with one silly idea after another. There’s the old expression: You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family! Well, Jesus wants to encourage us by his words and by his example here in our reading. He says: I know what it’s like. I had an earthly family too. I grew up on a certain street, in a certain town, in a certain place—and then when I spoke the truth to them, they rejected me. And Jesus says: Do you think it was my fault they didn’t listen? Of course not! So be encouraged. We are living in a time where so many people don’t want to hear the truth, and don’t want to change their mind about anything. And then we think, if we speak too loudly, or speak out of place, we’re just going to get our heads chopped off, and have some angry person come at us and ram it down our throats. Be encouraged! Jesus came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him. They threw him out of town, he suffered, he died. And Jesus says: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted… (who?) the prophets – (the prophets!) – who were before you.

Being a faithful Christian can be a lonely walk sometimes, a lonely way. But Jesus always walks it with you, and he wants to encourage you. He will open your mouth at the right time, and when it is the time to close it, he will keep it closed. But in the meantime, he will send you the Holy Spirit, and he will teach you his word, and he will build up your faith.

Even now, Jesus has placed us under his authority, and has spoken to us the forgiveness of all our sins—our sins of speaking when we shouldn’t have and giving the faith a bad name, our sins of not speaking when we should have spoken. Jesus walks with us, he takes us with him. We read in our reading: Jesus went about among the villages teaching.

Let’s thank Jesus for also coming to our church today and teaching us his word! Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, we have so often not given you the honour you deserve, and we have taken offense at you, and hardened our hearts. We ask that you would send us your Holy Spirit, forgive us, and we ask that you would take charge of our spirits and place them under your authority. We commit ourselves into your hands for your service and as you would use us for your kingdom. Amen.

Pentecost VI (Proper 8 B) [Mark 5:21-43] (1-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.

Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.

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 about how Jesus is called to the home of a man called Jairus, whose daughter is dying, and when they get there, they find her dead, and Jesus raises her from the dead. But also, along the way, a woman in the crowd with a bleeding problem touches Jesus’ garments, and she is healed.

So our reading starts, where we read: Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him. This man simply brings his needs to Jesus, and Jesus is happy to go with him. The man is particularly desperate because he has a daughter who is dying. He doesn’t want to see his child die, and he believes that Jesus is his only hope—or even his last hope—in preventing that from happening.

Then we read about something that happens as Jesus is walking along to his house. We read: And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years. Here we see another person who is very desperate. What a devastating thing it must have been for her to have this problem for so long! She must have despaired of life itself sometimes. And yet, like Jairus, she comes to Jesus as her last hope.

It also says about her that she had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.

This little verse gives us a tremendous insight into this woman’s life and her struggles. There are many people in our society like this, and maybe you feel like this. Maybe you’ve suffered much under many physicians, and spent all that you had, and you haven’t got any better but you’ve just become worse. Anyway, in our country, where we have so many good things, and where we are able to benefit from all kinds of advances in technology, many people often wonder why they find it so difficult to stay healthy and fit. After all, those who hold to the theory of evolution have said that the human race is getting better and better, and it’s all about the survival of the fittest. But then, people ask, “why I am sick all the time?” There are many Christians who often only pray for themselves or for other people when they are sick, as if it’s the most important in their life.

Physical health is a good thing, and it’s a good gift from God, but it’s not the most important thing. Health can so easily turn into an idol, and we fear losing our health more than we fear God himself. Even many Christians can start to direct all their spiritual attention to their physical health, and become obsessed with it.

But before we go on, I’d like to say something about doctors, and the vocation of being a doctor or a medical professional. There are some Christians who don’t like doctors, and think that instead they should pray to God for healing. Now sometimes, we have no choice—some people who live way out bush in the middle of “Woop-Woop” can’t get to a doctor, and so they have to make do with their home remedies. But even if we go to a doctor, we should always also pray for our healing too. A good doctor is a wonderful gift from God.

In 2 Chronicles, we read: In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. Now this passage is not saying that doctors are bad, but is accusing King Asa of never praying to God, even when he was very sick. On the other hand, we read in the bible, that Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts was a doctor. At the end of Colossians, Paul writes: Luke the beloved physician greets you. We can see from the examples of these writings how God used this doctor Luke for a wonderful purpose in his kingdom.

Now it’s a wonderful thing to have a good doctor. And we might go to the doctor, and get a prescription for some medicine. Now, doctors only ever do their best, from what they know from their studies and research. The actual task of healing belongs to God. Whether the medicine works, whether the particular medicine works in our particular situation, and exactly how long it takes for us to become well again—all those things are not controlled by the doctor, but by God. So we shouldn’t neglect praying for our health when we go to the doctor, but be ready and willing to become well or to stay unwell according to God’s will and according to his timing. It’s in him that we live and move and have our being. A doctor provides a treatment, but then we look to God to make that treatment effective in his time and according to his will.

Now the fifth commandment states: You shall not murder. The bible teaches very clearly that human life right from its very beginning in conception to the very last breath is exactly that—human life. And it is sinful to take away human life, whether it is at the very beginning, by aborting a child, or at the very end, by euthanasia. It is God who is the giver and the taker of life, not us. Job says: The Lord gives, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We need to pray for more Christian doctors in this country, because the medical profession has changed tremendously in recent years, because doctors are being asked more and more to take life, rather than to help preserve it. One of the greatest evils that has been unleashed on this country and throughout the world has been the murder of millions of unborn children, and one of the greatest evils that is underway in this country at the moment and throughout the world is the push to bring in euthanasia. A mother’s womb and a hospital bed are supposed to be safe places—and they need to stay that way.

Sometimes there are certain things for which modern medicine simply doesn’t have the answer. We also have naturopaths in our country too, and often they have a particular knowledge of herbs, or massage, or other things, that might be helpful. If we make use of people like this, we should also look to God for our healing through them.

But let’s come back to the woman in our reading for a moment. We read about her: She had heard reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well”. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

It’s quite an amazing thing that happens here. The woman is hidden in the crowd, and she simply touches Jesus’ clothes, and she is healed.

But then we read: And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Now we might ask, “Why did Jesus single this woman out, and even maybe embarrass her a bit in front of everyone?” After all, we might think that her problem was quite personal and she might have liked to keep it to herself. But if Jesus hadn’t singled her out from the crowd, no-one would ever have known what had happened to this woman, including us.

The same goes for us as Christians: we often come on Sundays to meet Jesus as part of a crowd, sometimes a small crowd or a large crowd. And yet, he blesses us individually—he singles us all out from the crowd. He doesn’t simply say: I forgive you all your sins, to the crowd, but he addresses these words to you personally, with his stamp and his seal on the envelope. Your personal salvation is Jesus’ personal interest. None of us were baptised as a crowd with the pastor holding a great big fire hose! No—all of us were baptised individually, and Jesus gently and lovingly singles us out from the crowd to apply his message of salvation and forgiveness and eternal life to you personally, just like this woman here.

But also, we learn from this, that it wasn’t simply the mere touching of Jesus’ clothes that healed her. Jesus says: Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. He says: Your faith has made you well. We read not only that the women touched Jesus’ clothes, but she also said in her heart: If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. She knew, and believed, what wonderful divine power belonged to this man, Jesus, and so when she touched his clothes in faith, the power of Jesus to heal her went out from him.

The same goes for us in a spiritual way—when we trust God’s word and believe the Gospel, and trust in the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life, Jesus’ power goes out to us, and he fills us with the Holy Spirit. Now, when it comes to physical health, Jesus will heal us according to his will and according to how it benefits his kingdom. Don’t forget also, that eventually we will also all die, and it is a wonderful thing to be with Jesus in Paradise. Many times in our lives, we will recover from illnesses and all kinds of things. But in the next life, our bodies will be transformed and purified and cleansed of every single scrap of disease and illness and disability, because all of these things are present in the world because of sin. And so when we receive the forgiveness of sins in this life in the church, it points us forward to that time when we will also be given complete and physical healing of every single problem we endure in this life. Sometimes, even the things we have endured in this life will be transformed in such a way that they will be signs of our victory in faith. For example, after his resurrection, Jesus still had his wounds, but they were no longer a sign of his shame and humiliation, but a badge of honour and victory over death. St Paul says: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Now, just one more thing I’d like to say about the verse, where it says that Jesus perceived in him that power had gone out from him. Here we see how our physical healing, whether in this life or the next, comes as a result of Jesus’ power going out from him. Sometimes, Jesus lets us stay a little longer than we might like in our sickness and trouble, and we start to wonder why he doesn’t fix us up.

In 1 Samuel, we read about how Saul went to inquire of the Lord, but he didn’t answer him. So instead, he went and consulted a medium (or a witch) instead. When he didn’t receive an answer from God, he then went and made use of the wrong spiritual powers, and made use of the occult. You see, in our country, we have doctors and naturopaths, but then there is also a third category, which we might call “supernatural” healers. And these people are not always easy to spot. But as our society becomes less Christian, there has been a rise of strange healing practices which rely on spiritual forces, and sometimes stray into the occult. But we need to be aware of this, because there are many, many practitioners of occult medicine that are around.

But listen to what it says about Jesus: He perceived that power had gone out from him. It’s one thing to go a doctor or health practitioner and get a prescription, or some herbal remedies, or whatever, but we have to also be careful that we use the means that God allows to us and not make use of the wrong power. So in giving a little warning, I’ll mention a few things that you should watch out for and avoid.

Firstly, be careful of when people say that the “mind” can heal the “body”. Let God heal your body, but don’t elevate your mind in the place of God. There is a whole church dedicated to mind healing which is called “Christian Science”, which are neither Christian nor scientific. Medicine should work whether you believe in it or not. If a practitioner says the reason the treatment didn’t work is because you didn’t believe in it, then it probably means that they are relying on your mind-power more than the treatment. Also, beware of things that claim to be “holistic healing”, if it claims to deal with your soul or spirit in some strange way, or involves some strange prayer which has nothing to do with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Second, be careful of healing practices that talks about manipulating energy or forces or magnetism, and things like that. There are many alternative medical practices that speak in scientific terms which are completely unscientific and are really talking about some mystical, psychic, occult power. An example of something like this is a practice known as Reiki.

And especially, avoid like the plague anything that claims to be obviously occult, like a medium. I once heard of a woman who went to a psychic medium and was healed of some condition, only then to be diagnosed with another serious disease.  And she was angry with God, and began to blaspheme.  Fortunately, a Christian person heard her blaspheming and spoke to her and she renounced her use of the medium. I’m saying these things because I don’t want you to suffer much under many physicians, and spend all that you have, and instead of getting better you just get worse.

Now, when we were baptised, we took a vow: I renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. And sometimes, during our lives, God then shows us something that we have done—maybe in trying to make ourselves well—which was not from him, and made use of some other spiritual power or an occult power, and sometimes when we didn’t realise it. Don’t despair! The door of forgiveness stands wide open for us. If only we would touch the hem of Jesus’ garments we would be made well. For us, when we hear Jesus’ words of forgiveness and receive the Lord’s Supper, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”, we touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. And Jesus says: Your faith has saved you; go in peace.

At the end of our reading today, we read about where Jesus raises up Jairus’ daughter from the dead. When they arrive at the house, someone comes out and says: Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?

But what they don’t realise is that Jesus doesn’t just have power over disease, but also over death. There will come a time when this little girl will die again in the future, but in the next life, when her body is raised from the grave and she is transformed and transfigured just like Jesus himself, Jesus will make her even more beautiful than she has ever been in this life.

And so Jesus says: The child is not dead but sleeping. And it says: And they laughed at him. Our world likes to mock the Christian faith, and say that when a person dies, they die, and that’s it. But Jesus knows better than we do. When we die, it is only a sleep. Our soul goes to be with Jesus, just as he said to the thief on the cross: Today you will be with me in Paradise. But at the end of the world, he will also raise our bodies, just like Paul says: Behold! I tell you a mystery! We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. We also read that Jesus will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.

And so, he says to the girl: Little girl, I say to you, arise. Here Jesus gives a wonderful example of just how easy it is for him to raise someone from the dead, and gives a little foretaste of what will happen at the end of the world. As Luther writes in the Small Catechism: On the last day, he will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.

We also learn here that even our faith is a gift. The woman with the bleeding had heard about Jesus’ reputation, and a living faith was created in her. The same with the girl’s father. But when Jesus spoke the word to the girl and raised her up, she made absolutely no contribution to this resurrection whatsoever. She was dead, but when Jesus’ spoke his word to her, she arose. In the same way, when Jesus speaks his words of salvation, of eternal life, of the forgiveness of sins, of the resurrection of the body, it is his powerful word that does the thing, it is his power that goes out from him. We simply receive in faith the gift that he gives, and Jesus’ words create that faith.

And so, let’s place our weak bodies into Jesus’ forgiving and transforming hands, and ask him to use us however and wherever he sends us, and finally, to give us the gift of eternal life, where our bodies will be transformed and purified from all disease and death to be like his.

Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for healing this woman in our reading, and for raising this girl. Forgive us, heal us and use us as you will. 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 IV (Proper 6 B) [Mark 4:26-34] (17-Jun-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.

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

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 the Book of Judges, we read about Gideon. Gideon was one of the judges whom God raised up, and he defeated the Midianites in battle. When Gideon was gathering together an army, God kept telling him that he had too many soldiers. We read: The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Eventually God kept on reducing the number of the army from 32,000 men down to 300 men. If 32,000 men won a victory, they would congratulate themselves. But if they could win the victory with only 300 men, then they would give glory to God for helping despite such bad odds!

In the Book of Judges, we also read before the battle, how God sends Gideon down into the Midianite camp to listen to what they are saying, and he overhears a man telling his fellow soldier a dream. He says: Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. Here we head about this man having a dream where a bread roll rolls into the camp and knocks over a tent. The other soldier says: This is no other that the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp. And so we read that Gideon with his measly 300 men, wins the victory over the Midianites. From a human point of view, it seems so unlikely and so impossible, but God is on their side. It is as unlikely as a bread roll knocking over a tent!

And so, also in our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells us about seed scattered on the ground, or a mustard seed being planted. From a human point of view, these seeds look so small, so insignificant, so useless, but actually, they grow up and become useful plants, and large bushes and trees. The seed here in the reading is God’s word, and the Gospel, and the Kingdom of God. It looks so small and insignificant, just like a bread roll, or Gideon’s army of 300 men. But when the seed grows, it flourishes and blossoms and flowers and produces fruit. God’s word, the Gospel, and the Kingdom of God have all the power in heaven and earth to destroy all the strongholds of the devil and to crush him. When God is the one at work, then a little bread roll can knock over a whole tent, and Gideon’s army of 300 men can defeat the Midianites.

So in our reading we read about two parables: the first is about the seed scattered on the ground, and the second is about the mustard seed.

Jesus says: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle.

This is an amazing parable. Here the seed is the word of God which is scattered, and grows into the wonderful kingdom of God. And in the Gospel of Matthew, we read where it says: All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world”. Here Matthew quotes this prophecy from Psalm 78: I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

In the parable of the scattered seed, it brings us back to the foundation of the world, back to Genesis chapter 1, where we read about creation. Here we see God creating the world, but he doesn’t just sit down and set about doing it, he does it in a particular way and with particular means. God creates the world through his word. He speaks and it happens. He says: Let there be light, and there was light. And so we see how God’s word has this wonderful creative power in it. It does things, and it brings things about, and brings new things into existence. It’s really quite an amazing reality for us to think about!

But we also read about the creation of plants and seeds. It says: Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

So we see here how God’s word produces plants, but then that these plants yield seed. And these seeds fall to the ground and produce more plants and more seed. God creates nature to be continually fruitful, and productive.

And so we also read in our reading today, how God created seeds and plants to reflect the way in which the word of God, and the kingdom of God works, and how they grow, and produce, and are fruitful. God created seeds to work in a similar way to his spoken word. Just as his word brings things into existence, so also seeds bring forth rich harvests, bountiful crops, fruitful vines, bushes, and abundant trees. Jesus says: The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

What is so important in this parable is that the most important thing is the seed. And this tells us something about mission. We are living in a time when we are seeing a great decline in churches all throughout the western world, and it is something that can sometimes make us depressed and worried. We can worry about our congregation and parish finances. People start to think, “how can we bring more people in”?

Now, we are living in times that are dominated by buying and selling. Everything is for sale, and it seems like everyone is trying to sell us something. Sometimes we can easily fall into the trap of thinking like this as Christians too, and we start to think, “How can we grow the church, so that we can pay the church’s bills?” No wonder people are suspicious sometimes of Christians, if they think we’re just after their money! So there’s a real danger of treating the church like a business, and people like consumers.

The problem is that we focus on the harvest, instead of the seed. We often want to see the church full of people, we want to see the church as successful, and productive, and flourishing! But every farmer knows that if you want a harvest, you have to plant your seed. Unbelievers are not customers—they are empty ground in need of the seed of God’s word. We could share the word with them as we are able, we could pray for them, we could invite them to church, or make friends with them and help them, and treat them as we think a Christian should treat them. God has placed us in particular homes, in particular areas, workplaces, or families, and we all have our different gifts—some in speaking, some in serving, some in helping, or however. What Jesus calls us to think about here is not the harvest – let God sort that out. He calls us to focus on the seed. And the seed here is the word of God—it doesn’t look like much, but it has incredible power to produce a very rich harvest indeed.

Now, in the parable, we read something quite amazing. It says: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.

Here we see that the power to grow this seed belongs to God and not to us. The seed grows and sprouts even while the farmer is asleep. Now there is a very famous quote of Martin Luther about this passage. He says: I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. (LW 51:77).

You can see here how confident Martin Luther was knowing that he has simply preached the word and sowed the seed. He could go to sleep now, and have a beer, because he knew that the Gospel was now doing its work. Now, Luther was not saying that once he had preached the Gospel, he could now have the other six days of the week off! But he was saying that while he slept, while he drank his Wittenberg beer, the word of God was working, it was changing people, it was growing a harvest. And so the glory did not belong to him, but to God who was doing the work.

In 1 Corinthians, St Paul talks about how people were playing him and Apollos off against one another. We suspect Paul was not a particularly good public speaker, but Apollos was known to be eloquent. And even though Paul was the apostle, and Apollos was not, people started to prefer Apollos because he was a better speaker. But in the church, we are not simply sowing the seed of public speaking and rousing speeches; public speaking and rousing speeches can whip people up for a while. Even Hitler knew how to put on a good speech! We are sowing the seed of God’s word, and the glory belongs to him. So St Paul says: What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. The glory belongs to God, not to Paul and Apollos.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes: Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. Paul and me and you are nothing but insignificant bread rolls – the power to knock over a whole tent belongs to God.

Sometimes, we might look at ourselves and our weaknesses and our insecurities and our failings and all of the things that we wish we had or we wish we could do or we wish we were, but in reality we don’t have, we can’t do, and ain’t – then it’s time for us to look to Jesus’ words in 2 Corinthians 12, where he says: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul writes: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

And so Jesus says, while you sleep, while you are weak, while you are useless, while you are completely out of the way, the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

Now we come to the second part of the reading, about the parable of the mustard seed. Jesus says: With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is grown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

Now, there is a wonderful passage in the book of 1 Kings, where Elijah is feeling very miserable for himself. There is a terrible king on the throne, King Ahab, and Elijah thought he was the only faithful follower of God left. But God says to him: I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal. Elijah feels like he is the only one left, like he is just a little mustard seed, a little black speck on white sandy beach. But God knows how to grow a large tree from a mustard seed.

We might even look at the life of Jesus. He lived in a time when he was the only one who preached the message that he did. His own people didn’t receive it, and every single nation on earth did not know the God of Israel. He was just a small mustard seed – but here we are, over 2000 years later, on the other side of the world, part of that mustard tree, part of his branches.

But then, sometimes in the church, we can often find ourselves as small insignificant people in a big world, where nobody cares about us or what we’ve got to say. But we speak the same word of God, we plant that same Gospel, even if no one in the whole world cared for it or not, even if no one in the whole universe listened to us. Because when it is God’s word that we speak, then we know that his power is able to make that mustard seed turn into a large bush, a large garden plant, and put out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

At the end of the reading today, we read two little verses, that look very insignificant, like two grains of mustard! It says: With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

The amazing thing about the way Jesus teaches here, is that as we think about these parables, and churn them over, we find new insights and new discoveries that we never thought about before. The pictures that Jesus plants in our minds of the seed and the mustard seed produce fruitful and rich thoughts in our minds. Sometimes we don’t understand the parables, and we think about them, and think about them, and push and push, but we don’t seem to get it.

Now, just imagine if we were reading some Shakespeare, or something, and we didn’t know what he meant. And all the Shakespeare scholars don’t really know either. If Shakespeare were still alive, we could ring him up, or write him a letter, and ask him just what he meant.

But the Scripture is different, because for every book of the bible, there are two authors. We have the person who wrote the Gospel, whether it is Matthew, Mark, or Luke, or whoever – and then we have the Holy Spirit. Now we can’t ring up Mark or John or Ezekiel what they meant, but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are still alive. The problem is not that the word is not clear, it’s that our minds are not clear. Sometimes there are people who think that the bible is just a dead word, and not the voice of the Holy Spirit. So no wonder when they talk about the bible, it sounds like a coroner’s report. However, Jesus is alive, the speaker of the parable has risen from the dead, and if we ask him, he will teach us and send us the Holy Spirit, and explain to us what the parable means.

So we read: With may such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. By nature, because of our sin, we are simply unable to hear the word, until the Holy Spirit comes and opens our ears. It says: He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. To the outsider, nothing that Jesus is saying makes sense. But when Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding, then it makes sense. It’s similar to when the apostles found themselves very busy in the book of Acts, and they appointed some helpers to share their work. And they said: But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. These two things go together: prayer and the ministry of the word. They go together because they can’t do the ministry of the word without Jesus’ help, and so they continually ask him for help.

So let’s commend ourselves to him, to Jesus, who died for us and rose again from the dead, to win the forgiveness of sins for us and the promise of eternal life. This word of God doesn’t look like much, maybe like a little seed, but it grows and produces, and puts out branches, and brings about a wonderful harvest. Amen.

Dear Jesus, plant your saving and powerful word in us, and let your kingdom grow. Send us the Holy Spirit, that we may hear and understand your word more and more. Amen.

Pentecost II (Proper 4 B) [Mark 2:23-3:6] (3-Jun-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.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.

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

Today in our reading, we have a very important passage, which speaks of two events where the Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. The first part of the reading is where Jesus and the disciples were plucking grain and the second is where Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath.

Now this reading actually has many very important things in it, and many things that are very relevant for today.

The first thing that we’re going to talk about is what we call law and gospel. In our reading today, Jesus and his disciples are accused of breaking the law. The Pharisees say: Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? The whole of the Scripture can be divided up into two basic doctrines or teaching: the law, and the Gospel. Both the Law of God and the Gospel are God’s eternal perfect word. The law teaches us what we should do, and what we shouldn’t do. The law threatens punishment for those who break the law, and the law promises rewards for those who keep the law. But we human beings are sinners, and we are unable to keep the law perfectly. And so the law also shows us God’s wrath and judgment against sin. Jesus says: You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. He says: Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever relaxes one the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. James writes: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. The law doesn’t make sinners, but it finds sinners and exposes them, and shows us who we really are.

Now, on the other hand, there is also in the bible another teaching or doctrine, which is called the Gospel. The Gospel teaches us not what we should do or what we shouldn’t do, but points us to Jesus and what he has done for us. Jesus entered into the world, he suffered, and died, and he took the weight of every single one of our sins and failures and weaknesses upon himself, upon his own shoulders, and he made a complete and perfect payment, and sacrifice, and atonement for every single one of our sins, and for our entire sinful condition. And he defeated the power of death by rising from the dead on Easter Sunday. And this word of the Gospel is spoken on earth in the church to us right in the midst of this life, in holy baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, in the words of absolution or the forgiveness of sins spoken by the pastor, in the pulpit when pastors preach the gospel, and in all of our Christian conversations where we encourage each other and speak the message of Christ to one another wherever God places us. This Gospel is received by us completely without any works, without any contributions on our part whatsoever, and is given to us completely and totally freely. The Gospel doesn’t find saints, but it makes people saints through the word of the forgiveness of sins. When God looks at us, he sees all of our sins covered over by the righteousness of his Son.

Now, when we talk about Law and Gospel, we’re not talking about the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament has both Law and Gospel in it, and the New Testament has both Law and Gospel in it. But also, Law and Gospel is not “nasty talk” versus “nice talk”. When we say that we should love another, that’s nice, but it’s law—it’s not Gospel. The fact that Jesus has shown his love to us by dying and rising for us to give us eternal life—that’s Gospel, not law. But the death of Jesus is nasty stuff, it’s not very nice, but it saves us.

Now, I’d like to come back to the law. There are three things that the law does. Firstly, God gives his law for the well-being of human society. The law stops the world from being completely crazy and falling apart. People know that they shouldn’t steal, shouldn’t lie. They sip their hot drinks, or they will burn their tongues. They drive on the appointed side of the road or they will have a car crash. This is just the rules, it’s the way the world works.

But also, God’s law shows us our sin and it accuses us. The law is like a mirror, and we look into it and we see where we have failed. The law shows us our need for forgiveness.

And also, God’s law is a guide for our Christian lives. It shows us how we should live as Christians, and what the Holy Spirit’s will is for our lives.

So we have these three ways in which the law works. Sometimes we call them the three uses of the law: for the well-being of society, to show us our sin, and to guide us in our Christian life.

Now, in the Old Testament, we read about Moses going up to meet God on the top of Mt Sinai and God gives him the Ten Commandments. Now, if you’ve read the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, you’ll find there a lot of laws that we no longer keep today, for example, laws about sacrifices, about what to eat, and all kinds of laws about worship, and so on. And we might think: “I thought, Jesus said that not one dot will pass from the law. Why don’t we do those things anymore?” The reason is this: when Jesus came, and when he died, and rose, and sent the Holy Spirit, there were many things that were no longer applicable or needed. For example, we don’t sacrifice lambs and bulls and goats anymore in a temple, because Jesus sacrificed himself as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It’s a bit like someone who keeps all their food in a small esky. If they are keeping food in an esky, there are certain laws they have to keep in order for the food to be fresh. For example, they will have to go and buy some more ice regularly and replace it every day, otherwise everything will get warm and wet. But then the person buys a fridge, and so they just don’t need to buy some ice every day to keep their food cold. He has something better than an esky now, he has a fridge! In a similar way, when we say that those old Jewish laws are no longer needed, it’s not that we don’t care about the law, it’s just that Jesus has fulfilled the law, and he has given us something better.

And so in the Old Testament, there are two types of laws: there are laws about ceremonies, or ceremonial law, and there are laws about how we should live, or moral law. So all the things about eating, and worship, and sacrificing, are called “ceremonial laws”, and we Christians don’t follow these laws anymore, because they are not needed. But then there are also moral laws, like honouring parents, not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not lying – these things are about what right and what’s wrong. And as Christians, we should seek to do things that are right.

An example of this for today is homosexuality. People often say that Christians are hypocrites because on one hand the Old Testament says that a man may not lie with a man as with a woman, but it also says that people shouldn’t wear clothes with both wool and linen in them. The first law is moral—it has to do with right and wrong—and the second law is ceremonial—it has to do with the distinctiveness of the Jewish people. And so the New Testament also forbids homosexual acts, but the apostles don’t forbid clothes with mixed cloth!

So, we’ve talked about law and Gospel—how God shows us our sin through the law, and also shows us our Saviour Jesus in the Gospel. We’ve talked about the three ways in which the law works: the law gives order to society, it shows us our sin, and gives us a guide for our Christian life. And also, we’ve talked about the difference in the Old Testament between “moral” and “ceremonial” laws, between the laws which have to do with right and wrong, and the laws which have to do with Jewish worship.

All this is very important when we’re looking at our reading today, because Jesus is accused of breaking the laws of worship, the laws concerning the Sabbath.

Now, in the 10 Commandments, we have a commandment there about the Sabbath. This is the third commandment, which says: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. In Exodus it says: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Now in the Old Testament, the Sabbath day is Saturday. Saturday is the seventh day of the week. And today, most Christians don’t worship on Saturdays, but they worship on Sundays instead. And we might look at this commandment, and ask, “Why don’t we keep it anymore?” Well, the answer is, that the commandment does apply still, in that it is part of God’s law that we should come together and worship God and hear the word of God. But the command that we are still required to hold to the particular day is part of the Jewish ceremonial law. We don’t worship on Sundays because God said we have to worship on Sundays—we do it out of freedom, as a commemoration of the day when Jesus rose from the dead. So we see in Act 20, that the disciples gathered on the first day of the week to break bread. The first day of the week in Sunday. And also when there was a dispute about these things in the early times, Paul wrote to the Colossians: Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

So Luther writes in the Small Catechism and explanation of this commandment about the Sabbath, where it says: We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. The reason why the Jewish people had to keep the Sabbath and not work, was so that they could worship and hear God’s word and the preaching of God’s word. And so, now that there is no need to keep the Saturday, it is still required of us as Christians to come together, hear the preaching and the word, and learn it. So in Hebrews it says: Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Today, the Seventh Day Adventists insist that Christians still have to worship on Saturdays. But then also they feel a need to keep other old ceremonial laws, like not eating pork, and shellfish, just like the Jews, and then there is no end to keeping all these various laws. We believe that the Jewish food regulations, the observance of Saturday, the sacrifices, circumcision, all belong to the ceremonies of the Jewish people before the Holy Spirit came. But now that Jesus had risen from the dead and poured out the Holy Spirit on the church, there is no need for the old ceremonial laws.

In our reading, the Pharisees accuse the disciples and Jesus of doing work on the Sabbath, because it says that on the Sabbath they should do no work, like they do on the other six days of the week. But then the Pharisees—and many Jews even today—get very fussy about what is defined as “work”. So, for example, in Israel, the regular elevators don’t work in building on Saturdays, because it involves the use of electricity. Some Jews won’t turn on a light switch on Saturday. And in our reading, the disciples were hungry and decided to pick some grain, and rub it between their hands, because they were hungry. But the Pharisees all of sudden see red, as if they have a little alarm goes off, that says: Work! Work! Work! Even in the reading, Jesus was about to heal a person. And the Pharisees’ alarm goes off, which says: Work! Work! Work!

But Jesus points out to them that when it comes to needing to eat and drink, there is still a certain amount of work that we need to do. Every day, we still need to cook food, and wash the dishes. Jesus says: Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how they entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him? The Sabbath laws don’t mean that we should starve, and not eat. Also, when it comes to helping people, like when Jesus healed the man in the synagogue, you don’t need to wait until the Sabbath is over. In old times, many Christians often went visiting on Sundays, which is a good thing. It requires some work to go down the street or get in your car, but they are doing something nice for people. Jesus says that if they had a animal in a well on the Sabbath, they would have to fetch it out and rescue it. That requires work, but the job needs to be done, otherwise the animal would die. We pastors do our biggest work on Sundays, as did the Rabbis and priests on Saturdays in the Jewish times. Some people think we pastors only work on Sundays, and have six days off!

In one of my previous parishes, there was a dairy farmer who lived near a highway. A couple of times, his cows ended up on the road on Sunday, and he had to go and get them all. But he was very apologetic about not being at church. But as we see in this passage, sometimes even on Sunday, when it’s time for church, there are some emergency things that just need to be done.

The other thing we need to realise about the Pharisees is that they were trying to be very diligent in keeping the law. And that is a good thing. But then they started to be so particular, that they then thought that helping someone or even eating some grain was breaking the Sabbath. The reason for not working on the Sabbath, was so that they could hear the word of God. It wasn’t so that people would turn to statues on one day of the week. Sometimes Christians have fallen into this kind of legalistic thinking too. At one time, there was a dancing craze that started up, and back in those days, dancing was just about the only occasion when a man or woman would physically touch someone else’s husband or wife. And sometimes, there were some affairs, and scandals, that came about because of it. But then some Christians began to forbid all dancing, including some Lutherans. They went over the top. In some times and places, there have big problems with alcoholism and drinking. But then some Christians have forbidden all drinking of alcohol, as if drinking alcohol is a sin. But it’s not. Jesus himself even turned water into wine at a wedding.

Now in our reading, Jesus says: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath. Here we see that there is a wonderful gift in keeping the Sabbath day. Going to the synagogue or the church to hear the word of God is not a burden, but it’s a wonderful blessing. It’s a joy—it’s a privilege. The word of God saves us, and feeds us, and strengthens us. This is what it means when Jesus says: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

But then Jesus also says: The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath. All throughout Jesus’ life, Jesus kept the normal laws of the Jewish people, like everyone else, even though he didn’t need to. He did this not to cause offense, and to fulfil the law. But Jesus is actually the Lord of heaven and earth. He created the world together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and he was the one who rested on the seventh day at the end of the creation of the world. So Jesus is Lord also of the Sabbath. He is in charge of the Sabbath, in fact, when we come to church, we come to hear him speaking his word to us. And it makes no difference to our faith, whether we hear that word on a Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or whenever.

In fact, there is a tendency among people who want to keep Saturday as the Sabbath and all the Jewish laws to also deny that Jesus is truly God. That’s because you can’t be justified by grace through faith on the one hand, and also be justified by Saturdays on the other hand. It’s easy to forget that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the make the Sabbath more important than even him. These people end up trying to copy Jesus’ life as a Jew, rather than living in the wonderful freedom of the Gospel that Jesus won for us when he died to fulfil that law. Yes, Christians should do good works, and out of gratitude to Jesus, seek to live a Christian life, and try to live according to the Ten Commandments. But even our good works need the forgiveness of sins.

And so, let’s remember the wonderful fact that Jesus is lord even of the Sabbath. Let’s praise him for coming to meet with us here in this place, on this day, to speak his word to us, and to feed us with his body and blood. In worship, we don’t do the work, we just sit there, but he works constantly. He is working to heal and bless and forgive and encourage, just as he did for the man in our reading with the withered hand. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you that you are the Lord of the Sabbath. Fill us with the Holy Spirit, and teach us to fear and love God, so that we may not despise preaching and his word, but gladly hear and learn it. Amen.