Blessing in Hopelessness

Sermon:

Pentecost 8A, Sunday August 7, 2011.

Ocean Forest

Joseph in the pits

Genesis 37:1-38

STARTERS:

• If you could name a few of the greatest blessings God has ever given you - what would they be?
• What has God promised you, both in the Bible and in your personal experiences?
• What do you think happens to God's blessing when you are in the pits?
• Have you ever been the favourite in class, or in the team or in the family? How as that?
• Has there been favouritism in your family. If so, what has it done to your family?

THINGS I NOTICE ABOUT THE TEXT

• There is grief, sorrow, jealousy, favouritism, pain, injustice, abuse, lies and just about every bad human behavior on show here from various people and yet God's blessing endures. it is a very, very human account of people and God's promises intersecting
• It is a long way from the Hebron Valley up to Dothan in the north of the country. They are out on the edge of their territory - a great place to "lose" their troublesome young brother.
• Joseph was definitely not worldly wise in the world of family politics. He was only 17 and he showed it by sharing his dreams of dominance with his 11 other brothers.
• Jacob even sees that it will not go for his favourite son, Joseph, if the lad keeps sharing these "dominating" dreams with his brothers 9v10). But Jacob does nothing except notice this dynamic. Why didn't he act to teach his young son something about life?!

WORD

From last Sunday, we now take up Jacob’s story some years after that wrestling for God’s blessing in Jabbok River when he has had his twelve sons, one of whom is Joseph. In anyone’s book, Jacob has been blessed! Twelve children is a good number! God’s promised blessing to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham, way back in Genesis 12, of a whole nation of descendants, a great name among the nations and land in which to live a blessed life – so that this nation could be the bringers of God’s blessing to all nations, is taking shape.

But, as is always the case, imperfect human beings seem unable to live in God’s promised blessing. We forget God’s promises, doubt his faithfulness and play god ourselves – trying to determine their own dreams for the future. Our text today is about the seeming end of a dream; the end of God’s promises and blessing.

 

I don’t know what it would be like to be one of 12 brothers, but I know what it is to be the youngest. I might know what it is like to be regarded by my siblings as the favourite. That’s what my sisters always said about me when it came to escaping the wrath of my dad. I was, after all the youngest and the only son he had. But unlike Joseph, I was not hated by my siblings. My sisters never ganged up on me and threw me into a pit!

 

In our text we see that awful string of things that destroys a family; favouritism, jealousy, hatred and physical and emotional harm. The seed of the trouble is favouritism by a father to one child. For old man Jacob, Joseph was a special sign of God’s blessing in his life (and maybe a source of pride in his virility!).

For 17 years in this large family, Joseph was treated with more focus and favour than all the rest. Joseph even got a specially made coloured coat for his 17th birthday. The others never got that. Favouritism bred the seeds of discontent and family feuding.

Fuel was added to the fire when this young kid started unwisely sharing his dreams of world domination with his 11 older brothers! – saying in several ways that they all would bow down to him sometime in the future! The text just says…”and they (the brothers) hated Joseph all the more”.

Of course, they were not only hating Joseph, but actually, God’s blessing. These dreams of Joseph being dominant among the 12 brothers were signs of God’s continued presence and promise. But no one in this family could hear it or believe it. They were locked into established patterns of dislike. Human brokenness again begins to destroy God’s blessing for a family and the world.

 

It goes to show that once we give up on God’s faithfulness to his promises in our own lives and settle for only what is in front of us we can find ourselves anywhere. Here, we are in the territory of all out hatred. Anything is possible.

 

One day the 11 brothers see an opportunity to get rid of this young favourite, coloured coated dreamer. There is disagreement about how brutal and final to be. Some want to just murder him. Most want to just get rid of him by less excessive means.

The only reason they decide not to murder their brother is so that they don’t have to be cursed for the rest of their lives by the guilt – not out of even one ounce of compassion or kindness to a family member. How complete is this hatred?! If this word today is anything, it is a stern warning from the Lord about the horrible consequences of playing favourites in family or in life.

 

The passing traders purchase Joseph from the 11 brothers for their spice trade journey to Egypt. The brothers cover up their hatred and its consequences. Sin is always like that. We have to cover it up if we don’t repent of it before God.

 

They spin a yarn to the old man, Jacob, about beloved Joseph being taken by a bear and they produce the much hated coloured coat with some goat blood on it for “proof”. The old man is distraught for weeks. No one can console him in his loss and grief.

 

What looked so good is now diminished. God’s blessing is diminished and damaged. That is what it looks like to Jacob and to those of us hearing this Word.

We have darkness here. We have a young man in a pit of darkness. It is a pit of hatred, mistreatment, betrayal and all of this from those who are closest – family.

 

We have hatred on show. We have thuggery, gang-land behaviour, underbelly stuff. We have cover up, deception, trickery. We have unfettered grief and loss; a Dad distraught at the loss of a loved child. Where is God in all of this? Where is this dream of a future of blessing? What was looking good now seems to be falling apart.

I had a recent experience of feeling this kind of deflation while on R&R leave. I went bush for a week. I drove our van right out into the heart of the Gascoyne region. I had been looking forward to getting isolated, sleeping in a swag, not seeing people for a while, seeing the bush in full bloom after the rains, seeing that big blue sky and that red, red dirt – and finally viewing the largest rock ion the world – My Augustus – 1200km NE of Perth.

 

My spirits were up as I hit the first dirt road and beautiful river crossing….. However, I made the mistake of having reasonably well-worn tires and only one spare. I had two punctures along the way. The first was in a safe place and was sorted out easily. The second was “the end of the dream”. I left Mt Augustus station with one spare tyre, a puncture repair kit and 340km’s of gnarly dirt road with hundreds of washouts, creek crossings, corrugated parts, cattle grids and dust before me. It was not a good drive. The enjoyment I was seeking in just being out there in the beautiful inland was out of reach. I was on tender hooks.

I made it to 170kms (half way), stopped, checked the tyres; all good. Within 5 minutes of that stop I went over a cattle grid and heard the sound of metal on metal. My heart sunk even further. I stopped. Sure enough; a blowout. A 40cm gash in the side wall of the tire. There was no way of fixing it. So I had 170km’s to go with no spare.

 

I had only seen one car so far this day and only three cars on the road for the last 2 days. If I got a flat, I would be waiting a long time. Even though I had plenty of water and food and sleeping gear, it was still scary. My mind was engulfed in doubt and fear.

I pulled into a homestead to try and fix the spare. There was no one around. I still had 80km’s to go. Sitting in the car trying to decide what to do – stay at the homestead and wait until someone turns up (which could a whole day, or keep going, I heard something in the soul. A strong direction and even a voice…”Trust me”.

I wonder whether that is what the God of promise and blessing says to his people in the pit. Is that what Joseph heard in the pit? Is that what the grieving Dad heard in his loss? Is that what we hear?

I hear this simple direction not only about a 3 hour moment on a dirt road. The moment I heard it I knew it was for me here and you here. I don’t know if we are in the pit with Joseph, but the promise that was right before our eyes only 4 years ago is hard to identify now in some ways. We have been through some hard times these last 4 years.

We begun about this size and shape, and God blessed us with kids, parents, baptisms, confirmations, 1st Communions, activity, numerical growth, financial blessing and we were “living the dream’ as a congregation and college of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

For anyone of us here who has worried about this place, given our heart to this place, served shoulder-to-shoulder with each other in this place and seen these interesting times curtail in some way those earlier signs of God’s blessing in Jesus seem like they have diminished, this word is word for you.

Being in the pit was not the end of God’s blessing for Joseph. A family lost in jealousy and hatred was not the end of God’s presence and promise for that family.

• The mistake of playing favourites was not the end for a mistaken parent.

• Painful loss and grief was not the end of life and hope for an old Father and grand-father.

• The despising of God’s word and the signs he sends was not the end for a fledgling community who would

   still become a nation of struggling winners under God.

 

Same for us.....

Going through hard times and seeing things be trimmed back a bit, and experiencing the concern and worry about what seems lost is not the end of our present in God’s promise. God is in the pit and many steps ahead – as he was for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

 

Any jealousy, dislike, unresolved conflict or friction between others is not the end of God’s community and his plans for his people to be a blessing to each other.

  

Any mistakes we make as parents or educators of children or colleagues and partners – any moment when we have fallen into playing favourites is not the end of God’s favour toward us through his loved Son, Jesus, our brother and friend “to the end of the age”. His mercies are new every morning and anyone who calls on his mercy and his promised will receive.

 

Loss and grief and the heavy sorrow they bring does not snuff out God’s enduring promise to conquer death in our lives and bring joy after the sorrow, rain after the drought, peace after the turmoil, as he did for those followers in the boat in the storm.

 

We are always fledglings in life and in community and God’s blessing promises to sustain us and make us prosper in God’s way and timing. He is calling us to simple trust him with our life – all of it.

 

We will hear of the magnificent way in which Joseph and his brothers and his father and a whole community are brought to hope in God’s promises again as we carry on with Joseph next week. Trust the Lord. His blessing is upon us and working through us as we put our faith in Jesus. Amen

 

WEEK THOUGHTS

• What is God calling you to do in remembering how he has blessed you?
• Is there a way to undo favouritism in your life?
• What would be the blessing you need from God at the moment.
• What do you think about Ocean Forest at the moment and God's blessing among us?
• Things have diminished in various ways and we have shared some tough times. Is God calling us to trust him a new ways? How?

 

 

Get Ready for a journey in Exodus

Time to get ready for something a little different in our community at Ocean Forest. We are going to be embedding ourselves in part of God's big story of saving grace and love focussed in on the Book of Exodus on the Old Testament.

There will be three ways of investing your head and heart in this spiritual journey. This blog page will be a main place for personal reflection and even shared comment on-line. Wednesday evenings will be an opportunity to catch up woth people and reflect together in a smaller group setting on what we are hearing about our own Exodus journey and Sunday mornings will be the usual gathering of the community at Ocean Forest where the focus will be on this journey through Exodus.

See below for how it works.....

Freed to Follow

A Community Focus in the story of Exodus

August to October 2011 @ Ocean Forest

Sunday Gathering

Week 1 August 21 Exodus 1:8-2:10

Week 2 August 28, Exodus 3:1-15

Week 3 September 4 Exodus 12:1-14

Week 4 September 11 Exodus 14:19-31

Week 5 September 18 Exodus 16:2-15

Week 6 September 25 Exodus 17:1-7

Week 7 October 2 Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Week 8 October 9 Exodus 32:1-14

Week 9 October 16 Exodus 33:12-23

Private Reflection

You can go tothis blog page from Sunday lunch time and reflect on the sermon for that Sunday with additional thoughts/questions/information also available.

You can subscribe to the blog and receive an email every time Pr A posts something and you can even add your own comment for others to read.

Reflection/Learning with others – “Wednesday Night Word”

You can bring your bible and a pen and an open pair of ears and reflect on the previous week’s sermon and blog comments with others in a smaller group setting on Wednesday Nights at 7.30pm in the Chat Room with Pr A. study/reflection following up on previous Sunday

Good to be back

Today was the first worship service I have led and shared with my home community in three months. It was good to back "home".

I have spent the last 12 weeks on rest and recreation leave and have enjoyed that. I was able to do some travelling with my wife, some everyday projects at home, some catching up woth friends and metors, some travel out bush by myself and some worshipping the Lord in other communities of faith.

But, it is good to back in the community God has begun and placed me in to shepherd.

The task is before me and all of us to rebuild our community in all kinds of ways as we emerge from a pretty tough 3 years. We really do need to seek God's blessing and wrestle with God for it, as Jacob knew he had to do in the River Jabbok. How and when and where we do this is both a private and public thing. We will see how the Spirit leads us to seek and receove God's blessing for our presrnt and future as we seek to build each other up in love and bless each other with affirmation and encouragement.

Jacob in the Jabbok

Pentecost 7A

Genesis 32:22-31 Bible text

Sunday July 31st, 2011.

Ocean Forest

Jacob in the Jabbok

Blessing in struggle

Well, if you were ever looking to rate biblical stories for their “intrigue” factor, then this strange account we hear today would be right up there! Here is Jacob, one of the three patriarchs of the biblical community, wrestling in the Jabbok river all night with some strange unnamed super-human man, and winning the wrestling contest! The all night long struggle is over that much needed thing called “blessing” – God’s blessing in my life.

We might learn again 4 things about God’s blessing in our lives;

1. God’s blessing is at the foundation of life

2. God’s blessing creates and requires some struggle

3. God’s blessing triumphs over all struggle

4. God’s blessing changes us forever

Prayer:

Father in heaven, by the power of your Holy Spirit now present and active in your Word, send us your blessing for our life as your children in this place, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

I think we all know personally the significance of blessing in our lives – blessing from significant people, like parents, and blessing from God as followers of Jesus Christ. A parents’ blessing of his/her sons and daughters is a precious and crucial thing if the sons and daughters are to grow up healthy people. Without blessing of others, people are often consigned to a struggle to gain strong self-identity and confidence.

There are many stories of people we may know who have feel they have never really received the unreserved blessing of their mum or dad or other very central person in their lives and of the deep longing this has left and trouble it has caused.

1. God’s blessing is foundational for human life.

Our text is a part of a big account of blessing that started long before this wrestling match in the Jabbok. Abraham was the first to receive the undeserved and unearned blessing promise of God three generations before Jacob’s wrestle in the Jabbok.

God blessed Abraham and gave him the promise of being the father of a nation specially chosen by God. In Genesis 12 we hear that Abraham was blessed by God and give the promise of a great name, a huge family nation and a land to live in. But even more important - this blessed nation and land would have one overarching goal in its life – to be a blessing to all nations and people. God blessed the old man and his nation to be a blessing to all of creation.

How foundational is that! Without God’s blessing there would be no Abraham, no Isaac, and no Jacob, no Israel, no us. Without God’s blessing there would actually be no earth and no humanity because right from the start “God blessed the earth and Adam and Eve” (Genesis 1-3). You could say that God’s blessing IS life itself. God’s blessing is as foundational as air and water to planet earth and human beings. Without God’s blessing, there is no life, no promise, no hope.

2. God’s blessing creates and requires some struggle.

Jacob, of all the OT people, seemed to know the crucial importance of God’s blessing for our life. He and his mother, Rebekah, acted in less than open and honest ways when the time came for Jacob’s Father, Isaac, to give his precious and once-off blessing to his first born son.

But, of course, Jacob was not Isaac’s oldest son. He was in fact the second out of the womb just after his twin brother, Esau. So, Jacob had no family/legal right to his Father’s blessing. But that did not stop him (and his mother) from scheming to get it! They discovered that this whole thing called God’s blessing would create and require struggle.

The famous moment we hear of in this whole saga is when Jacob and his mother conspire against Isaac, and Esau. Isaac is old and blind, and ready to give his last and once-off blessing of God to his oldest son, Esau. When the moment comes mum and younger son fool the old man into thinking that Jacob is Esau by very tricky means and ensure that Jacob will be the carrier of God’s blessing in his life.

This moment of blessing would create 20 years of struggle and pain for this family. Jacob and Esau would not see each other for 2 decades. I don’t blame Esau! Jacob and Rebekah did a rotten thing to him. This whole issue of birthright and blessing would be for Esau a thing of dread. “He despised it all” we hear. He also despised his brother.

Blessing created struggle. God’s blessing is perfect and holy and life, and yet, when it is placed in the domain of fallen human beings, human beings cannot handle it. We mistreat it, try and buy it, try and own it, manipulate it (and God). We try and control it – thereby placing life itself and hope for the present and future in jeopardy.

But thanks to God’s faithfulness to his promises and his will to bless his people, God does not let human beings kill his blessing promises. We get to this strange night in the Jabbok. But we see now that God’s blessing not only creates struggle in us human beings but is requires struggle at times.

This night-time wrestling match happens the night before Jacob and Esau are going to meet for the first time 20 years. It could go either way as far as Jacob is concerned. Either Esau will still be angry and be ready to finally exact his revenge on his twin brother for destroying his life as the first born blessing bearer, or he may have had enough time to “move on” , as we would say. There will either be a restoration or more than likely, a war and a death!

Jacob is a very crafty fellow. He does two things. Just in case Esau and his 400 men want to get nasty, Jacob splits his huge caravan of people, concubines, and animals in two. At least half of his accumulated “blessing” will escape to live another day. He also organises a massive gift to appease his brother’s anger – to “sweeten him up”, you might say, before they get to meet.


As all the organisation is happening, Jacob is all alone overnight. This strange figure begins the blessing struggle. Jacob seems to know this is a “God-moment”. He is always the one to strike while the iron is hot. He will “not die wondering”, as we say. He wrestles for the blessing he senses this man can give. See verse 26.


26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Jacob knows that God’s blessing needs to be fought for at times.

• God’s blessing is always there and it is a gift but it requires something of us too. God gives his blessing to us freely in the Son he sends to secure our life with him, (Jesus), but he calls us to ask for it, struggle for it, seek it, knock on his door for it – with the promise that we will find it, receive it and enjoy it. God’s blessing requires struggle at times.

Jacob would not give up God’s blessing. He would not give up this “God moment”. Will give up God’s blessing as Esau was willing to? Will we give up receiving God’s blessing for food, for more wealth, for another way, a shortcut to short-term gain?

Truth be told, we will and we do. Each of us needs to ask the Spirit to show us how we are giving up God’s blessing and life so we may repent and seek it again in our work, our relationships, our hopes and dreams for the future and for now.

We need our Heavenly Father’s blessing ore then anything else. His blessing is his Son, Jesus and all he is and does. He is the blessing bearer we may need to wrestle with and not let go until we have his Word – his blessing for our life now.

3. God’s blessing triumphs over all struggle

Jacob cannot be shaken by the divine man in the river. In the end this God-man gives Jacob the blessing he so seeks. The blessing comes in the form of two things;

1. a permanent limp from the struggle to get the blessing

2. and a new name that will redefine him and his descendents.

One thing is clear in this mysterious event; Despite struggle, treachery, deception, ego, family breakdown, fighting, lying, cheating, family fueding and all the pain these cause, God’s blessing triumphs. The blessing God gave to Abraham stays in tact – even in the struggle. No struggle will stop God’s blessing from achieving its intended goal – the blessing of the whole world. Even though we human beings will play god with God, take the glory for ourselves, try to get there by shortcuts, and all of the above, God’s promised blessing to gather all of creation into his blessing through his new Israel – us, the Christian Church, will succeed.

Jesus said as much. “The gates of hell will not prevail against this confession of faith you have just uttered, Peter” “Jesus, you are the Messiah of the Living God”. This will prevail and be there in any struggle we face. Again, even as Jesus was ascending to his place at the right hand of the Father he was giving his church the blessing. As he was taken up he blessed them”, the gospel writers say. The blessing has not stopped and the promise of one church, one faith, one baptism is continuing – even if we have to get wet and fight for it in some deep water of pain.

4. God’s blessing changes us forever

And the last thing to say? God’s blessing changes us forever. Jacob received a new name that would not be just his personal name, but a name for the relationship that would continue to exists between God and his people. The name is a ripper! “Israel (v28). One struggles with God and people and prevails – “Struggling winner” – that’s us!

Friends, your place with God and relationship with him will continue despite your never ending strong will to fight God! We are now, ”joined at the hip”, even when we fight or misunderstand each other and God. God the parent might look at us, his child, putting on a temper tantrum or going the wrong way and shake his head but never leaves – he promises to never withdraw his promises and see them through and see us through.

People of blessing, at the very foundation of our life is God’s blessing. 1. It creates some struggle between us an other people at times. 2. It requires some fight to cling to and receive at times. 3. God’s blessing will triumph despite our dodgy ways because we have been changed.

We have been named in the water by the Word of life, “child”. “Blessed child”. My Child”, by the father of us all and our heavenly brother, Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Son of blessing.

Grab hold of God’s blessing and don’t let go. Seek it, on your knees if you need to. Receive God’s blessing here in worship. Fight for it in your life. Hold up your work, your marriage, your friendships, your goals, your directions to God and say – “bless these, Lord, and help me detach from those things that are not of youyou’re your blessing and give me the wisdom to know the difference”, because, Friends, Jesus’ blessing is life and power and peace and promise. it is our very breath and all of our hope.

Jacob’s Prayer (Genesis 32: 9-12) adapted

O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, you who said to me, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, and I will be with you to the very end of the age” 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown to me. I began with nothing but now I have so much. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of trouble, hatred, unresolved conflict because I am afraid they will come and rob me of your blessing and mess up my life. 12 But you have said, ‘Nothing can ever separate me from your love given in jesus, my Saviour, and I will trust that blessing. Amen

The Jesus Way

Palm Sunday Yr A

April 17, 2011.
Ocean Forest

The Jesus Way

Matthew 21:1-11, Philippians 5:1-11

after viewing a media file called, “Palm Sunday”

Which way do we want? We are all supposed to say, “God’s way”; the way of Jesus, serving, loving, self-sacrificing. That’s is St Paul’s vision of us as God’s community, as he quotes what seems to be a song lyric – famously now called, “The Christ Hymn” in Philippians 2 that we heard.

The vision of Palm Sunday Christianity is being as Jesus is – the humble servant. The encouragement is to direct us to each take the very form of being a servant to all, humbling ourselves before God and each other all the time; giving up our own dreams and visions and needs for our life for the sake of each other and anyone in need.

Of course, we know this and we want to be this and we are this in many ways. We Christians generally, and we who belong to this community specifically, value serving and giving of ourselves for the sake of God’s kingdom. I trust that God has been teaching us his servant way all the way through our lives. As we remember this Palm Sunday and events of Holy week; the supper, the trial, the via dolorosa, the cross, we are encouraged again to stay the course on the way of Jesus – the way of humility, serving, selfless living and giving.

Palm Sunday is an encouragement to live the Jesus Way in this place. Palm Sunday is a call to stay in way of the Servant as we serve our children selflessly, serve each other when we gather and when we meet each other during the week, give of our time and effort to do things that hopefully further the gospel in other people’s lives – whether people are friends, strangers or even enemies. This is the Jesus way and this is Palm Sunday faith and life.


Of course this is our way but it is not everyone else’s way. Because the Jesus way of self-giving and humble serving of others is not everyone else’s way, it can be hard to walk in.

I wrote this in the school newsletter this week…

I have been feeling so uneasy about all the terrible stuff that has been reported as happening throughout our Australian military community these last weeks. From experience with individuals who have been dealt the unjust and destructive blow of having someone else abuse them verbally, sexually or with just plain violence, I can only feel so sad about what the victims of such evil behaviour now have to live with every day of their lives.

The seeking and maintaining of power over others, especially through unjust and godless means is not the Jesus way. It upsets me. I know it upsets you and many Christians.

I went on to say…


To me, our over sexed culture is one more sign that human beings are fundamentally flawed in character. As St Paul says in his letter the community in Rome, what we do with the amazing gift of human sexuality and sex is what we do with any good gift from the Giver of all good gifts – we exchange it for something less and so destroy it in some way. Instead of being thankful and receiving sex as an absolutely pure and beautiful gift to be shared in the boundaries of a life-long relationship of loyalty, commitment and care (marriage), we just use it however, whenever and in whatever way we choose, thereby diminishing it in some way and causing ourselves huge pain (as the reports from Air Force and Navy are showing). We pretend that we are god and that God is not, and that the Creator has nothing to give or say about the very life and love he has already given us!


The “we” there is me. We Christians are not beyond giving into our natural flawed desires experience power and control and generally trample on God’s good gifts by taking them and using them in harmful and destructive ways for our own glory. This desire comes from within our hearts and the only way to be healed and find freedom enough to be self-control is to repent of it all and humble ourselves before God.

That can seem like a daunting thing to do – especially when we hear of this fierce Jesus throwing down tables of produce and money in the public square with all the fury of a judging and jealous God, or when we hear of him cursing a non-productive olive tree to destruction!

Jesus means business with human power, pride and prejudice, that’s for sure. You could never accuse Jesus of taking injustice, usery, corruption, the tyranny of oppressing people with tonnes and tonnes of guilt and endless do’s and don’ts, and the abuse of privilege and power lightly. On Palm Sunday we hear of him beginning to name names and call spades spades. He is entering into human corruption and power politics. He is entering into the dark world of human selfishness and need for greed.

It will cost him. He will pay the price any of us do when we choose the way of Jesus in the face of the way of Caiaphus, Pilate, Judas, Scribes, Pharisees, Dictators, Despots, soldier bullies and those who cover up the mess with corrupt designs.

But he will pay the cost fully and freely – not us. He will stand his ground. He will stay the course on his Jesus’ way to last drop of blood.

He will take all our pain of abuse – be it sexual, verbal, violent or the corrupt rule of a few over the many and triumph.

He will transform the inner spirit of each of us so that there is the ability to say “no” to those dark desires within and he will cover the mistakes and the guilt and troubled conscience with peace and gracious love and new power of the Spirit to walk his Jesus way.


He will ask us to want his way and not our own this week and this next weekend. He will ask us to stay with him and not look away when he gets furious or ugly to our view. He will ask us to be there at the end and see humility and self-sacrifice triumph over all the dimensions of the other way.

Walk Jesus’ way this week.
Let him take you into his humility and then his victory and be freed of needing to serve yourself.
Let him bring you more fully into the experience of being free in his grace –
free enough to serve and love and give without counting the cost;
free enough to praise his name with all your heart and be renewed in joy as Easter Day draws near, for he is near.

Bread of Life

Sermon

Lent 5A
Sunday April 10th, 2011

John 11:1-42

Bread of Life
Friends, I feel as though God has done some resurrecting around our community this week. Those 5 young adults from the US who have been living with some of us and ministering to kids in our congregation and in our college sort of breathed a breath of God’s fresh air into me and some others too.

There are still young “20 Somethings” in the world who trust in the Word of Jesus enough to give up money, status, home and family to go on the road and put themselves in all kinds of challenging places for the sake of the gospel.

There are Christians in the world and in our Lutheran global community who live in close community, intentionally practicing Christian fellowship at close quarters for the sake of seeking the Lord and speaking of the Lord to a generation needing a living relationship with the God who created them and gave himself for their forgiveness and new life in Jesus’ cross.

God arranged for this last week and he again delivered on his promise of breathing life into his people in various ways.

Can you believe again today that God is in the business of restoring hope and life into tired or doubting or distracted “old bones”?

That vision of that valley of dead, dry lifeless human beings rattling to life at the sound of God’s sweeping breath of life says that God is into renewing and resurrecting battered and tested faith. “Can I put life in these old dry dead people? asks God of the Prophet. “Only you know, Lord”, responds the Prophet. Then the Prophet sees God answer his own question as the bones rise, the flesh gathers and the bones rattle with God’s breath of life. What a vision to see! Yes, God can and does put life into lifeless people.

And what about this detailed and heavily laden account of Jesus resurrecting his close friend Lazarus we hear of today. This is Jesus’ last and sign of his new life coming into the world. It is just before his final and greatest sign – his own resurrection from the dead.

This smelly resurrection is a sign; a sign of what Jesus’ cross and his own resurrection do for people he loves. Jesus has the power, the authority, the love, the commitment to raise us up to new life in dead sinners. Jesus raises us up. Jesus gives us a hope that no one or no thing can give us – a hope of resurrection; now and at the last. This hope and this power and authority which comes to us in the Word of Jesus is life – life that only God can give and does give.

Paul knows God’s breath of life – he knows the power of the Spirit working faith and love into his own soul when he says…..

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,

he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies

also through his Spirit that dwells in you.   

Romans 8:11

The Spirit lives in you and me. He is at work always. Sometimes he presents a particular way of renewing and bringing hope back to a place.

I think God has been sending a message of hope and challenge to us who have experienced things this last week. This is not only through the encouraging ministry of those 5 young adults from the US (and Denmark), but also in the work of John, our Principal, as he carefully navigated his way through two very positive meetings with parents across the school this week. Hope is in the air, I reckon. Why shouldn’t it be? Hope is the Easter Lord coming to us again.

The hope is that God is here and God knows me and wants the very best for me – in all circumstances.

The Challenge is that I need to seek that hope – not just in my mind but by real risk. Here’s an example from our own community this week.

Leanne, Mike, Ben/Cecilia and Carrie and Phil were all probably unsure as to what having a young American in their home for week would be like. This stranger would get to see us up close and personal because we were going to let this person into our home for a whole week. What if this stranger did not like us?


What if we did not like them? What if they misunderstood us and judged us harshly? It was a risk to let these young Americans into our homes and our community.


Same for me as a Pastor. What if they say things I don’t agree with? What if they tell our college kids things about the faith in ways our church would disagree with? What of they got it wrong when dealing with staff. What if they let staff down and so made it that little bot harder for staff who are way out on the edge of faith and the church to draw nearer? Should I let them lead the whole service last Sunday and preach the sermon?

God asked us to let them in, and I believe, Him, into our lives this week in a way that we all found challenging. We had many questions and we felt there were risks associated with letting God into our homes and our community in this different way than normally happens.

With faith in his goodness and trust in what we have learnt so far about Jesus’ way of doing things, we did it. We took the risks, left the many questions unanswered, left things a little loose, let things be a little uncontrolled and messy. By God’s Spirit, we put faith in God’s ability to draw it all together for the good of those who love him.

You can hear how God responds to our little actions of putting our hand up and letting him into out lives or letting him take us into a zone than is a little uncomfortable. He blesses that risk-taking faith!

Mary, Martha, Lazarus, a whole community of mourners, a community of scoffers and a whole world of sinners saw the risk that God took in taking on the darkness, evil and sin of humanity on that cross. We have seen the risk he took in becoming human and enduring all that he let happen for the sake of love – for yours and my sake.

In our baptism we are living, breathing bones made flesh and breathed on by the breath of God – the Word of God seeping deep into our souls.

Easter is coming. Palm Sunday songs will turn to dark silence and sleep on Maundy Thursday. We will gather with fellow Christians from the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions on Good Friday to reflect on our own death and resurrection and we look into face of Jesus in his suffering. Easter Sunday we will know the light and the hope of God in Jesus empty tomb.

But will we “go with it”, friends? Will we let God speak to us this time around? Will we put our hand up, put away our fears, get rid of our distractions and let the Spirit of God take us into uncomfortable places or comforting places – usually both?

Breathing bones we are. We are God’s framework of real life in Him. By our baptism we have been revived to life and by our baptism we are called to follow his lead.


We thank the Spirit of Christ for the renewing work he has done through the New Vision Team and our college leadership and for the work he promises to do as we open ourselves up to his word and his call this holy week coming soon.

Breathe on me, breath of God,

fiII me with life anew;

that I may love all that you love

and do what you would do.

Public Domain, Original form of melody

from Aaron Williams ‘Psalmody in Miniature’, London, 1778.

TiS 407, LHS 129



back to basics

Sermon:

Lent 1A
Sunday February 13th, 2005
Ocean Forest

Back to basics

Matthew 4:1-11

As I look around the house that we live in; the house we built but the bank mostly owns, I wonder if it is too much – too excessive? I think about 2/3 of the world’s people living in tents, refugee camps, slums, simple earth floor huts, very simple houses – one basic bathroom, one basic toilet, maybe running water….. I wonder whether the more you have the more you have to worry about, maintain and focus on.

I remembered hearting a sermon by Pastor Geoff Burger, who was the Pastor at St Johns in Northbridge and also WA District President for some years. He quoted a thought provoking book called, “The Progress Paradox – How life gets better while people feel worse”, by Gregg Easterbrook.

The author suggests from his considerable research that we do have so much more than our parents and grandparents but we are still generally unhappy, maybe even more unhappy more of the time than they ever were!

The author suggests that our society is changing.

“The wealthy and the typical people do not live fundamentally differently to each other. The well-to-do have the most of everything, have it in higher quality, and their worries are fewer- although this does not necessarily make them happy. But there is no longer a great dividing wall between the basic structure of daily life for the wealthy person and the typical person". (p31)

"The wealthy and the average person live about the same way, have about the same education, drive on the same roads, visit the same hospitals and for good or ill, share the same basic cultural experiences, namely TV and movies. It is increasingly difficult for the wealthy to find anything exclusive”.

Now, he suggests that all this change is contributing to some new apprehensions…


• Choice anxiety: The overwhelming choice on offer makes us feel trapped and creates an anguish. Try buying some “soap” or “toothpaste”!


• Abundance denial: We seem to construct elaborate mental rationales that keep us believing that we are deprived – that we haven’t got it good enough yet, that we are somehow poor and this makes us always dissatisfied and unhappy.


• Collapsed anxiety: We seem to have a widespread feeling that the prosperity we are enjoying will come crashing down because of environmental damage or mysterious market forces or freak catastrophes, or terrorism, and so we can never enjoy what we have or even life itself. We just feel unhappy.


• Revolution of satisfied expectations: We feel uneasy when the much longed for thing has been purchased, when the goal has been reached, when we have actually gained the things we dreamt of.


• From material want to meaning want: There is s fundamental shift going on from wanting material satisfaction to finding the meaning of it all. Trends show that more of us are gaining a higher level of material lifestyle and yet, we sense a lack of meaning to it all.

If we are experiencing all these worries, as Easterbrook suggests, then something I often hear now makes complete sense. I so often here people say, “we need to get back to basics” or, “we need to keep it simple”, or, “it’s still the simple things in life that are the best”.

I reckon we all want to find the heart of life and the soul of us. We want meaning for the jobs we do, the dreams we have, the children and grand-children we love, but we are scared of giving up the stuff that we have been striving to gain all along. We want to find God and stay close to his son, Jesus Christ because we know his word and his love – but…..there is all of this clutter and maybe this general unhappiness?


Enter Lent. Enter Jesus – cut down to the barest bones. Alone. Alone in a hostile place. Alone in a desert and surrounded not only by dingoes and bears and snakes, but demonic forces. Matthew used a word that means demonic forces to describe what surrounds Jesus up on the mount of temptation.

In his hunger, loneliness and need, Jesus is offered it all – wealth, power, world-wide recognition, fame, supernatural power to avoid death. He is offered the world’s happiness – the very thing that we are chasing harder than ever, but finding more and more illusive!

In this moment where Jesus is cut right back to very basics of human life he finds something that can only be found when the clutter of normal life has gone and he stands completely dependent on the help and strength of his Father in heaven.

He stands against the very attractive but deceptive offer of quick money, quick fame, the fast track to the easy life by proclaiming what the very basic thing of our life is. Not only do we all need food, shelter and water, but we need every word that comes from the mouth of God.

That is getting right back to very basic stuff of what it is to be truly human and being human beings in harmony and at peace with our creator. Getting back to basics as we face all the anxieties of our current situation is depending on every word that comes to us from God.

So, resisting temptation to follow our own whims and so reject God’s will and purpose for our life is done by relying on, seeking, finishing, hearing every word that comes from God.


And what is that Word essentially? The word from God is THE WORD – Jesus Christ, the living word sent from above for the salvation of the whole world. He is the living word who speaks to us through his chosen ways – through his Word as we read it in the scriptures, hear the scriptures preached, encourage each other with words from the Scriptures, see the scriptures acted out in liturgy, music, prayer and above all, in baptism and the Lord’s supper.

Friends, Lent is a time to voluntarily strip away a trapping or two of our compressed and often crowded lifestyles. Lent is a time to get back to the basics of who we are and what the Lord is giving to us, telling us, calling us to do….. Lent is a time to hear EVERY word that comes from God – not just the nice words that affirm us and speak so well of his grace and love for us – but also those words of Scripture that are a little tough to understand, a little difficult to take, that require a bit of effort to seek.

Lent can be a time of finding out is we have lost the basics; if we have lost our bearing a bit; if we have replaced the basics of the faith- namely – a daily seeking of the Word. Lent is a time to see if someone or something has far to stronger hold on us.

Voluntarily putting ourselves in a similar position to Jesus on the hungry, thirsty and even lonely mountain can reveal much about the state of our faith. Fasting, doing extra acts of serving others, giving more of our time, money and talents are all Lenten things to do. I know of families who turn off the TV for all or part of every week of Lent. The time is spent in reading things of a spiritual nature instead. After the first few days, the great cries of anguish come to an end and they get to the Easter and TV is not really that important anymore.

I am praying that each of us might take on extra acts of service or give up something this Lent. The reward is knowing more about yourself and where you are at with the Lord. The benefit is renewed faith, renewed love for the Lord’s church and its mission. The reward is a very special Easter. Easter become a truly joyous occasion when you take that first bight of chocolate for 6 weeks!

May this “40 days” be time to rediscover your purpose and get back to those basic things that make life truly meaningful and satisfying and of great benefit to those around us.