Sermons

What’s Jesus saying? Romans 11: 1 – 2, 28 -32; Matthew 15: (10-20) 21 – 28 If ever we needed perspective we need it today when we read this story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. Both Matthew and Mark in their accounts of the Gospel record it. It is a troubling story. Taken literally it is appalling, especially to our sensitivities regarding racism. The 19th and 20th Centuries brought home to the Western world the shocking nature of racism. The anti-slavery movement, the Ku Klux Clan, the Nazi Holocaust, Apartheid and the Pol Pot killing fields stand out as prime examples of the awfulness of racism. And here we have Jesus implying that this woman who comes for help is a dog! I tell you many people read this text and put it down. Ministers too pass it by. It is a story that demands we look at both the historical and literary context to get any perspective on it. Firstly, the reason Jesus gives provides us with an important clue to his attitude. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Secondly, what Jesus says to the woman needs to be unpacked in the light of the culture and the very words he uses. We always lose something in translation and here we lose something important. We need to catch his tone of voice. But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” [Mt 15:24-26] What if it read like this; He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the puppies.” What difference does the word ‘puppies’ instead of ‘dogs’ make to the meaning? Let’s recall what is happening. Matthew and Mark tell us that there is conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders about what is clean and unclean. Jesus said early in his ministry that you couldn’t put new wine into old wineskins because the new wine might burst the old skins. But that is exactly what the religious leaders and conservative people wanted. The Jewish leaders wanted to contain Jesus’ message within the structures of Judaism. People have always wanted to contain the teachings of God within their culture. We like to be in control. The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus and his disciples to conform to the Jewish laws of cleanliness, but they didn’t. Hence Jesus is saying that what really makes us unclean is not the food or drink that enter our mouths, but the words and the thoughts that come out of our mouths. From this situation of conflict Jesus moves off into a Gentile region. The move into a Gentile region is strange for two reasons. Firstly the Jews regarded the Gentiles as unclean and generally referred to the Gentiles as dogs. (Remember when ‘aussies’ called certain people ‘wogs’!) By moving into a Gentile region Jesus is risking becoming unclean. (That may seem strange to us but that is what they understood.) So what is he doing there? The other thing that is striking is that Jesus makes it clear to the woman that he has come first to Israel. Israel is the people who are the chosen instruments of God’s plan of salvation. Israel is the recipient and holder of the promises of God. Paul makes the same point in Romans. Friends what would we think if Jesus came to earth again and he chose to go to those outside the Church first. Surely we would be miffed? Surely our Lord would come to us first? By Jesus coming first to the Jews God honours those promises. So it seems Jesus is not going to minister to the Gentiles when he goes north into the Gentile region. He is not looking for a new field of ministry. The text bears this out. In Mark’s account of this story the point is made more sharply. Jesus goes to a house and wants to hide. Jesus wants a low profile in the Gentile region. We can only conclude that Jesus went to a Gentile region to get away from this conflict and reduce the looming tension between himself and the Jewish leaders. This wasn’t the time for a major confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities. There was more to do. After Easter the ministry to the Gentiles will really begin. Now let us turn to this Syrophoenician woman. She is a person in need, but she is informed. She hears of Jesus and recognises him. In her need and understanding she comes to Jesus for help. She addresses Jesus as the ‘Son of David’ – a messianic title. So this woman is informed. She knows something of the Jewish faith. This woman has faith too. She believes in Jesus. Like the Roman centurion she comes to Jesus and leaves her child at home. She believes that Jesus can heal her child by a command. His word and command is sufficient. This is faith. Notice too her response to Jesus’ use of the Jewish colloquialism that Gentiles are dogs. Notice too that Jesus does not call her a dog but speaks generally. The woman doesn’t take offence. She rather cleverly reminds Jesus that dogs do lick up the crumbs or anything that falls off the table. (We all know that!) Now if we could read Greek we would notice that the reference to dogs is in the diminutive. That is, it should read ‘puppies’. The way Jesus had used this Jewish colloquial saying is softened by the use of diminutive. Both Matthew and Mark use the term ‘little dog’ or puppies. The woman uses the same term. The image then is the domestic scene of our children around the table and our pets near. That is, both children and pets are loved, but differently loved. And Jesus says; “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take

Sight, Perspective & Focus Romans 8:12 – 25; Matthew 13: 24 – 30, 36 – 43 Last Monday night at the Taizé service I entered the time of silent meditation. I closed my eyes as usual, but my concentration wavered. I opened my eyes and focussed on the wooden cross on the floor, which has tea-light candles at its four corners. It helped me meditate. Then I focussed on the candlelight. The rays of light changed as I changed from wide-open eyes to nearly closed eyes. It was fascinating. Squinting through my eyelids the candle flames diffused into shafts of light. I lost some clarity of vision but the shafts of light were pretty. They altered in length. Then I returned to wide-open eyes focussing on the flame. It was clear and well defined. It danced. I wondered, is this a little lesson God is giving me? With eyes half closed or almost closed we see the candlelight differently. It looks pretty, but our perspective is limited. We don’t see clearly. I realised that with semi-shut eyelids the light is diffused and scattered, but with wide-open eyes the light is concentrated and CLEAR I reflected on that and on one’s life. Are the semi-closed eyes something akin to when we’re tired, troubled, anxious, overwhelmed, sad and distracted? We don’t see life too well when there’s a lot going on and we’re stressed. Our perspective on what’s happening is unclear and diffused. When we are rested, confident, less pressured by cares and concerns we both see and hear more clearly. I realised how the physical diffusion of light is symbolic of perspective on life when we’re stressed and vice versa. I thought on Monday night at Taizé, that God was giving me something for a sermon. I didn’t know then what the set text was for the week. I just knew I had two funeral services to conduct and it would be a full week. There were other important items on the agenda too. I wondered what the text was, but my third funeral the next day had occupied my thoughts and sermons and texts were far from me. Well on Tuesday evening I came to the lectionary text and there it was. The text was about sight, perspective and focus. I felt God had prepared me. Jesus’ walking on the water is a story that encompasses the experiences of sight, perspective and focus, each seem like the same thing but they are not. Sight is the physical action of seeing Perspective is seeing something in its right proportion, in relation to other things, and from a particular point of view. Focus involves concentration and establishing a clear definition. The disciples saw Jesus walking on water. We are told that they were terrified. Let’s recognise they were already ‘battered’ by waves. They were close to survival sailing. It would be something they had encountered on the water before. They would have been fearful but not paralysed by fear. Fear generates a rush of adrenaline, the heart rate quickens and the sense of flight or fight increases. Scripture tells us they cried out in fear at the sight of Jesus. They thought they were seeing a ghost. They were in danger and seeing a ghost! Did they think it was an omen of their own misfortune? Such thoughts may have rushed through their minds. Their state of mind was not easily disposed to a healthy perspective. What gave them perspective was the voice of Jesus. We read that immediately following their cry of fear Jesus spoke and said, Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” [Mt 14:27] They only regained perspective when they heard the voice of Jesus. His familiar voice gave them perspective. We can talk about perspective in a number of ways. For example when reading a text one needs literary perspective to understand it. Literary perspective is about seeing the text in the context of the characters, the larger life situation and maybe the historical setting. Perspective is like looking through a camera lens. One can zoom in and see the small detail or zoom out to see the bigger picture. Theoretical perspective is about establishing one’s assumptions about life. Theological perspective is like that too. One can read the Bible with the firm conviction – assumption – that God is an angry God or the Bible is a book of rules, or the Bible is literally true, or the Bible is a love story. Each of these assumptions will skew what we read. The important thing is to evaluate our assumptions and broaden our outlook. When it comes to personal perspective the state of our emotions, our health and our environment all play a vital part in determining our perspective. It falls to us to manage our emotions and health. It is very hard when things about us are not quite right, when we don’t feel well, and we feel threatened. Then our perspective shifts. We imagine the worst. In the latter part of this week a personal matter struck us and I was very stressed. I stopped to pray and to practise deep breathing to try and get balance and perspective, and to a large extent it worked. Once the disciples this image of Jesus into perspective, impetuous Peter asks Jesus to call him. That was an act of utter faith in Jesus on Peter’s part. Jesus calls Peter, “Come”. Peter steps out of the boat and he too walks on water “towards Jesus” [Mt 14: 29]. Peter is focussed. His is looking at Jesus. He is walking on water. Then his focus shifts. Peter noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” [Mt 14: 30]. Jesus reaches out to Peter saying to him, “Why did you doubt?” While Peter focused on Jesus he did amazing things. When his focus wavered he sank beneath the water. This story tells us that when we control our

He had compassion for them. Romans 8:12 – 25; Matthew 13: 24 – 30, 36 – 43   The minister described the deceased as a ‘Christian Gentleman’! I sat up and I listened. The deceased, no doubt an honourable person of faith, continued to be described in these terms of social status. I was amazed. This was poor theology. The concept of ‘gentleman’ in the UK has a particular history. Over the centuries a ‘gentleman’ was the lowest ranked aristocrat. It was clear that he was not saying this is a gentleman who is a Christian. Even so it’s not a proper way to describe a Christian. The minister taking the funeral service had recently retired from the church after 30 years service. I was the new minister at the church and had happily agreed to him presiding as he knew the man. My disappointment with my retired colleagues theology was unfortunately affirmed many months later. A couple times people implied I visited everyone. One day a person said directly to me: “You visit everyone.” I shrugged my shoulders. I mean that’s what a minister does. The minister is there for everyone. S/he makes no distinction. I said, “What do you mean, I visit everyone?” The reply came that the retired minister only visited the well to do – the gentlefolk. What saddened me more is that the minister had been raised in the humblest of homes and becoming a minister enjoyed some upliftment in his social status. He became enmeshed in it. He was trapped in a system that gave status to a clergyperson. I tell this story for two reasons. Firstly, it illustrates the teaching I have been offering from this pulpit that we get caught in systems and they control us. It is the demonic power of evil. But I also tell this story because it illustrates how the church from time to time has described the Christian in very human and cultural terms. You see this minister’s theology was in that camp that saw a good Christian as a ‘good citizen’. Sometimes we have reduced the description of Christianity to our cultural norms. Good citizenship, a morality of hard work, upholding society’s values have all been ways of describing what a Christian is or should be. I sense in our denomination an implied definition of a good Christian as a person involved in justice. All I know that such definitions are not Biblical. And I also know that this kind of definition of a‘ Christian gentleman’, ‘good citizen’ and upholder of society’s values would have failed to define many of the white and black South African Christians whom I deemed to be faithful followers of Christ. Many stood against the government, were imprisoned, banned, even tortured, regarded as Communists, and if white, seen as traitors. I suppose they were revolutionaries. They followed a hallowed tradition. It goes right back to Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ was executed as a revolutionary. In a particular sense he was guilty of that. I don’t think one would have described Jesus of Nazareth as a ‘Christian gentleman’ or ‘good citizen’. Christ Jesus challenged societies values structures. Today I want to offer you an important defining characteristic of a Christian. I not saying it’s the only one, but it seems to be a very important defining characteristic. The significant 20th Century German theologian and activist, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said; “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer”. What precisely Bonhoeffer is saying I am not sure, but I do get it that the Christian life is awareness of others’ suffering. When we speak of ‘others’ I think of everything other than ourselves – every living thing. Bonhoeffer seems to be saying that the Christian life responds to the suffering in the world. That is, the Christian feels with and for those who suffer. That is, the Christian is compassionate. Compassion is synonymous with Christianity. Compassion is that feeling that arises when you are confronted by another’s suffering and desires to help them. Compassion has its roots in Greek and Latin. The Greek word ‘pathos’, to suffer, combined with the Latin preposition ‘cum’ meaning ‘with’ gives us the word compassion. Compassion means to suffer with. So in reality compassion is part and parcel of loving one’s neighbour. Compassion is what we see in Jesus. Jesus suffered with and for us. The Cross essentially symbolised the altruistic love and compassion of God for all of life. The 18th Century German writer and statesman, Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, know to us as Goethe, made many insightful statements among which he said; “Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together”. Substitute compassion for kindness and ask is that the ‘golden chain by which society is bound together’? It does make sense, doesn’t it? Take Charles Darwin who is seen as the author of the evolutionary theory. In the 19th Century Charles Darwin wrote on evolution in creation and humanity. The statement, ‘the survival of the fittest’ is attributed to him. It is meant to describe how evolution works. That is, it is the fittest and strongest forms of a species that survive and develop. That sounds reasonable. However Darwin did not coin that phrase but Spencer. Darwin merely was quoting Spencer. In Darwin’s book, ‘The Descent of Man’ Darwin argues that the survival of the species is due to the presence of compassion. He sees compassion and altruism evident in the animal world. Indeed there is a group today of psychologists whose research is showing that the compassionate instinct in human nature is one of the most important instincts in our survival. Maybe we need to stop and reflect on how animals will defend their owners even against stronger animals. And we might reflect how we humans care for our young. Humans are most vulnerable in their first 4 years. Compassion for the

Why doesn’t God do something? Romans 8:12 – 25; Matthew 13: 24 – 30, 36 – 43 Why doesn’t God do something? Possibly the most frequent question asked of religious leaders and teachers. The tragedies and sufferings of life generate such a question. Our sense of helplessness in the face of forces larger than life triggers the cry. Why doesn’t God do something? There are answers to this question, but we are blind to God’s answers by our anxiety and pain and the overwhelming nature of evil forces. The only answer we want to hear is that God has ‘stopped’ whatever it is that is troubling us. When we can’t rescue ourselves we expect God to step in. But God doesn’t respond in the way we want. Why? Our readings give us some clues as to why? And they give us some clues as to what God is actually doing. But first let us recognise that if God was going to rescue us from every suffering, tragedy and destructive force, God would also have to direct the rest of our lives. Then we would be puppets and lose our humanity. Humanity is defined by its freedom and choice. Humanity is characterised by responsibility and responsiveness. Let us see how our texts can help us. Jesus’ parable of the wheat and weeds is simple to understand. Good things and bad things are mixed. Be wary of separating them before the time is right in case you destroy the good with the bad. I see something else here. The parables are all about waiting. We wait for the mustard seed to grow; the leaven to raise the dough; and, the farmers wait for the harvest. Waiting is not wasted time, but time in which we prepare ourselves. Waiting helps us grow strong and wise. Waiting is an active and positive character building exercise. But we are impatient. We are far too quick to act. This parable is about letting the weeds grow with the wheat. We would wrench them out. We are like that. We have been far too ready to exercise judgement and condemnation on things. We’ve done well with doing that. We’ve decided the fate of women for centuries, have sent homosexuals to the gallows, we too quickly resort to arms and treat unwanted desperate refugees as enemies. Oh! You say I am exaggerating. Maybe so, but history speaks for itself. Jesus importantly tells us to wait. Let the judgement be God’s. Let the condemnation be God’s. Indeed why not? How can we compare our impaired judgment with God’s gracious judgment? ‘Let them mingle,’ says Jesus as the harvest is at the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire. [Mt 13: 39,41,42] It’s not the fiery furnace that is important here. It is that God will weed out sin, because God alone can identify sin. The phrase, all causes of sin and all evildoers, suggests that along with evildoers there are causes of sin. Jesus sees Sin as more than selfish and immoral people. Sin is a power. Sin causes us to sin. Sin is a power that God alone can deal with. Here is another piece of evidence that Christ died to break the power of sin and not to take our punishment. On the cross Christ destroyed sin’s power by confronting and combatting Sin with love and forgiveness. In the face of ultimate love and absolute forgiveness evil has no lasting power. Christ, for our sakes, confronted evil on the Cross and died to save us. This is the first thing God has already done for us. Sin’s power is broken. Surrender to Christ Jesus and you will experience freedom If the parable reminds us that God’s kingdom is breaking out in the world, it also reminds us that sin is still present. However Sin’s power has been dealt a mortal blow by the Cross of Christ Jesus. So how shall we live now? Paul tells us how to live responsibly in this time before God completes all things. Paul shows us how to live in this time of waiting for the harvest. Paul also recognises that the ‘weeds’ are growing amongst the ‘wheat’. He uses different images such as living in the Spirit and living according to Sin. Paul writes; So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh; for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [Rom 8:12,13] In this passage from Romans chapter 8 we understand that we have an obligation to God; we are led by the Spirit; we are not slaves to Sin; we have assurance that we are God’s children; united with Creation; and, we will inherit God’s kingdom. The Obligation we have is captured in that single image of being debtors. It is a powerful image. We all understand what debt is and what it means. Debt obligates us to honour the repayments. Our debts have a high priority in our lives. Paul is saying that we owe God. We’re in debt to God, doubly so. God created us giving us life and God has rescued us. Like the alcoholic and drug addict in recovery we need to be radically honest about our situation and radically dependent on the solution. We need to acknowledge who and whose we are. We need to lean on God to rise above the things that drag us down and away from the good things of life. The gravitational power of Sin is countered by the gracious love of God. God has given us a duty to fulfill and with it responsibility. Spirit Led. We are faced with the choice of

Gravity versus Grace Romans 8:1- 11; Matthew 13:1 – 9, 18 – 23 Is gravity pulling you or is grace lifting you? The French philosopher, Albert Camus, described Simone Weil as “the only great spirit of our times”. Simone Weil was a significant French Jewish Christian thinker, mystic and political activist. She was born into an agnostic Jewish home. From an early age she identified with the disadvantaged and suffering. At the age of 6 she refused to eat sugar in solidarity with the troops entrenched along the Western Front in WW II. She graduated from university in France having majored in philosophy. She was seen as a French intellectual who, in her identification with the poor and workers, chose to take leave of absence from teaching to work on farms, in factories and join the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side. Although she identified with Communism, she was critical of both capitalism and socialism. And she wrote many articles on work, peace and mysticism. She became a Christian being attracted to the principle of ‘love your neighbour,’ and she was moved by the suffering of Christ. She noted that she was first touched by God when she heard a choir sing hymns in a village square and later had a moving spiritual experience in the Basilica of Saint Maria of the Angels in Assisi, where St Francis also had prayed. “When Hitler’s armies rolled into France in June 1940, she escaped to join the Free French in London, and there she died. She developed tuberculosis, which was complicated by malnourishment. In solidarity with her French nationals in occupied France she chose to eat the diet she presumed they were reduced to by the Nazis. Her literary legacy of her pilgrimage toward God and thinking was contained in scattered notes and journals. Weil concluded that two great forces ruled the universe: Gravity and Grace. Gravity causes one body to attract other bodies so that it continually enlarges by absorbing more and more of the universe into itself. Something like this same force operates in human beings, she said. We too want to expand, to acquire and to swell in significance. The desire to ‘be as gods’ after all led Adam and Eve to rebel. Emotionally, Weil, concluded, we humans operate by laws as fixed as Newton’s. Most of us remain trapped in the gravitational field of self-love and thus we ‘fill up all the fissures through which grace might pass.” [Philip Yancey, What’s so amazing about Grace? (1997) pp. 271f] Weil wrote, ‘All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception.’ Grace causes one body to love others and thereby enlarges others’ lives. Grace calls us to the field of service. About the same time Weil was writing another refugee from Nazi Germany, Karl Barth, made the comment that Jesus’ gift of forgiveness and grace, was to him more astonishing than Jesus’ miracles. Miracles broke the physical laws of the universe; forgiveness broke the moral rules. It is interesting to reflect, all so briefly, on two great influential persons, Barth and Weil: Weil the mystical Christian activist and French intellectual, and Barth the great German theologian of the 20th Century. For both, God’s Grace – the unconditional gift of love, forgiveness and acceptance of us – is revolutionary. Weil in her book, Gravity and Grace, compiled from her notes she had given to Gustavo Thibon, a French Catholic, articulates this struggle between Gravity’s pull of self-interest and Grace setting free the human spirit through the love and forgiveness of God. I was immediately reminded of Paul’s writing in Romans when I read about Simone Weil in Philip Yancey’s book, What’s so amazing about Grace? Paul in Romans chapters 7 and 8, speaks about the struggle between the life under the Law and life in the Spirit in chapter 8. Last week the sermon focussed on the revolutionary nature of God’s grace. Paul shows that it is through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross that the power of sin is broken, and it is through the power of the Resurrection that we can enter the life in the Spirit. This is God’s gift to the world. It is a gracious gift that sets us free as forgiven people being restored in God’s image. I think it might be helpful to see our lives as being like a mirror. A mirror reflects light. Likewise our lives reflect what we value most and what or whom we worship. The light of our worship leaks through the cracks in the way we live life. By the cracks in our life I mean the habitual way of social intercourse. The way we communicate with each other has patterns that we have learnt from our families and they from the culture. Our macro and micro cultures help us relate to each other. Customs and habits underpin our behaviour and relationships. But what leaks through the cracks of our way of relating are the very values and things we worship. That leakage reflects what is our treasure. If ‘the self’ is our treasure we will reflect that. If God is our treasure we will reflect that too. Just in the little things we say or do our values and beliefs emerge. So the thought that our lives could be pulled by the gravitational forces of acquisition, self-interest and the importance of who we are is very real. In fact we identify with Paul’s words of being pulled by forces by which we don’t want to be pulled. Grace helps us counter the gravitational pull of the self. But the occasional experience of Grace is not sufficient. We need to nurture Grace in our lives. We need to let it grow. Jesus’ image of God’s gracious word being like the seed sown and how it grows well in some conditions and is stifled in others conditions is relevant. The parable of

God Punishes Sin not the Sinner! Romans 7:15-8:4; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Whose place did Jesus take on the Cross: Gods or ours? I came back from my study week quite stimulated. Amongst other reading I read N T Wright’s, 400pp The Day the Revolution Began. The subtitle of Wright’s book is ‘Reconsidering the meaning of Jesus’ Crucifixion’. By reading I mean studying. I took notes, reflected and cross-referenced the book. Much of what Wright was saying I had picked up over the years, but Wright put the jigsaw pieces together and presented a powerful picture which was so helpful. The Easter event, I mean the Crucifixion and Resurrection, is not easily understood, but the Easter event revolutionised the followers of Jesus. That’s why it is so important. Those first followers didn’t feel that Jesus was just another way to understand life and God. It wasn’t the friendship and fellowship of the church that mattered. Neither was it the ethical standard of loving your neighbour with selfless love. It was a revolution. They realised that this Jesus of Nazareth had dealt the Roman Empire a mortal blow. The Cross of Jesus had destroyed the power of sin. If these seem absurd statements then remember the powerful political and military forces of Rome finally dissipated, but Christ’s influence and self-giving love grew and spread in the hearts and minds of an ever-growing number of influential people. Yes, we Christians behave badly at times when we forget our Lord and look elsewhere, but the Holy Spirit brings the transforming love of Christ to the surface from time to time. When that happens the revolutionary love of God in Christ transforms and empowers. I believe we need to put ourselves in the place where God can begin to work afresh with us. We might do that by understanding afresh the Cross of Jesus. I turned to the Lectionary readings for this Sunday. The Matthew reading described people in the shopping centre who heard the music but couldn’t dance to it, and who were unable to see the needs of others. Jesus says, “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ I wondered what has changed. We are still busy feeding our enslavement to capitalism and other isms. We use the panacea of ‘retail therapy’ to dull the pains of life. In the background then and now is the invitation of Jesus to share our burdens and give us a real purpose for living. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; says Jesus. But we ignore the offer. If our first reading reminds us of our superficiality and inability to understand like those in Jesus’ day, the second reading from Romans tells us how God dealt with Sin. We would say that we know how God deals with sin. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus paid the price and took our place. We deserved the punishment, but Jesus took our place. We call that the substitutionary theory of atonement. And the result is that we, if we accept Jesus, will go to heaven? Right? … No! Wrong! Those who have followed my preaching know that salvation is not about going to heaven, but being set free to live out the Kingdom of God in this world? And this notion that Jesus died in our place is not what the Bible is saying. Jesus was not our substitute. It’s not what Paul is saying in Romans 7 and 8 where we read; Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is … no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. … For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin … . [Rom 7:25; 8:1, 3] There are texts like Mark 10:45 that speak of Jesus being a ransom and Romans 3: 25 that speak of Jesus as a sacrificial atonement. But we are never told to whom the ransom is paid; and the Biblical writers don’t spell out how Jesus is an atonement for our sins. They just make statements like that. It is true that Jesus died ‘for us’, but ‘dying for us’ does not mean that Jesus died ‘in our place’. Neither does the notion that Jesus died ‘for us’ mean that Jesus took our punishment to satisfy an angry God. If you are saying that God needed to punish the sinner then you are talking about ‘a god’ who is angry and desires to punish the wrong doer. There are big problems with such a view. We end up with an angry God who believes in punitive justice and who is willing to place a substitute for us just to satisfy some concept of justice. Such logic flies in the face of the Bible. The Bible presents God as patient, merciful and loving. So what does it say? Let us go back to Romans and let me add a few words that I left out. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is … no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. … For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. [Rom 8:3] God does not condemn Jesus but condemns Sin. Paul uses a phrase ‘sinful flesh’. The Greek word for flesh is best translated as humanity. But Paul talks about ‘sinful flesh’ a number of times in his writings. In these instances ‘sinful flesh’ means that sin has mingled with our humanity to form a

Salvation by Faith. Romans 3: 21-26; Ephesians 2: 1-10; Matthew 9: 20-22 There is no ticket to heaven and no heaven bound train. I guess most of us are going to a medical practitioner on a regular basis, even if it is only to get an annual check up.  Our health is important. We know it is. Certainly we hear about it a lot. The good thing today is that our health is looked at from many perspectives  – diet, attitude and exercise matter.  I see that the MindBodySpirit Festival is claimed to be Australia’s largest health and wellbeing event. Our health is important and we do take a holistic approach to it. Though today the term ‘spirit’ tends to exclude the notion of religion. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’s outer garment was healed of the issue of blood. She had said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” [Mt 9:21] Jesus turned to her and said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And she was saved. Oops, I mean made well.  Well, no, she was saved. If we were reading this passage in Greek we would have come across the Greek word sōzō, which means to save, to keep safe and sound and to rescue. Throughout this passage about this woman the verb, ‘to save’ sōzō, is used. The word, ‘save’ has at its root meaning safety and healthiness.  This may help our understanding of the noun salvation. You may recall decades back salvation was spoken about more often than today. We were even asked question like, “Are you saved?”  Or, “When were you saved?” This question wanted to know whether one was a Christian and when one accepted Jesus as their saviour? I think I would have been more comfortable with these questions if they had said, “Are you in good health with God, and living a godly life?” The Bible talks a lot about God saving us. In Ephesians 2:8 we are told that by grace we (you) have been saved through faith, and this is not (y)our own doing; it is the gift of God. Another word used to describe our good health with God is justification. God has justified us and made us right with him. In Romans 3: 22 we read that the righteousness of God through faith of Jesus Christ is for all who believe. Salvation is important because it concerns your total wellbeing – our health. Salvation is not a passport to heaven, but a passcode to enter life.   We need a lot of passcodes today. We use them to unlock, enter and benefit from our bank accounts, credit cards, buildings, and our devices. Passcodes keep us safe and protected.  Passcodes are for everyday and anytime.  Passports are for occasional use. We treat our salvation like a passport.  It is not surprising because preachers of the Gospel told us we wouldn’t go to heaven unless we accepted Jesus as our Saviour. Salvation was presented as made ready to go to heaven one day. The concept of going on a train to heaven produced a number of Negro spiritual songs about the heaven bound train. Larry Norman’s arrangement of an old Negro spiritual goes like this. Lord, if I got my ticket, can I ride? Lord, if I got my ticket, can I ride? Lord, if I got my ticket, can I ride? Up to Heaven on that morning. I hear a lot of talk about a Gospel train Better be ready ’cause He’s on His way Be down at the station, right on time If you not ready, you’ll be left behind. The bad news is that you don’t need a ticket because there isn’t a heaven bound train. This thinking coincided with a widespread notion that we need to escape this sinful world.  I guess the advent of the train seemed miraculous, and that would have fed the notion. This notion that we go to heaven when we die to escape this world is so un-Biblical.  From the Old Testament to the New Testament the prevailing view is that God will restore this earth. So we are called by Christ Jesus to live out the heavenly life on earth in the power of his name and the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us this understanding in that wonderful prayer he gave to his disciples.  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven … . Amen. Heaven directs our heavenly life on earth.  The Lord’s Prayer, as we call it, has nothing to do with us escaping this world and heading for heaven, but rather we do God’s will on earth so that the Kingdom may come. The book of Revelation is not the only Biblical writing that speaks of heaven coming to earth. Salvation is about our wellbeing and our living well with each other through Jesus Christ and because of Jesus Christ and for God and God’s world. Salvation is about our wellbeing. When we turn to Christ Jesus and accept him as our Lord and Saviour we commence a journey of wellness. The woman who touched the hem of his garment became well and so will we.  The woman went away with her faith affirmed and joyful.  The first Christians were known for their joy. Joy is something deep inside.  Joy is that sense of deep wellness within us. The healing begins in our inner being. Wellness is expressed and stimulated by a thankful spirit. We are saved to a life of thankfulness and joy, because we are connected to our Maker through Christ Jesus. I would encourage you to say thank you to God as often as you can. The first thing I say when I wake up each day, regardless of how I feel, is ‘thank you God’.  There is so much to be thankful for. Salvation is

Winning with Love: The. Rev 5 Revelation 12: 7-11; (5: 1 – 10);  Ephesians 6: 10 – 18 How does love defeat evil?  I was 27 at the time. I had just completed six years of probation and it was my first year after ordination. I walked across the lawn with a devout Christian. He was speaking about how the devil had got into him.  I was struggling with what to say to him. I knew what he said, was wrong, but I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. I didn’t believe the devil made us do things. Not sure that I do now. It was an interesting statement. At the time I heard it as a cop out. I was thinking don’t blame the devil for what you do. Take responsibility. I might have even tentatively said something to that effect. However it was one of those moments that has stuck in my memory. Then I believed very much in the strength of the individual. Today I recognise that sin has the power to grab hold of us and mould us to the point we’re controlled by it. In Biblical times they labeled that as demon possession. The demon has possessed you.  We may scoff at such thinking. However on reflection we often speak of the demon of alcohol or drug addiction. What the ‘demon’ does is control and direct our actions. That is what the demonic means. – something is controlling us. In the light of this truth it is interesting how humans create things that in time come to control them.  A benign example is the motorcar. Yes, the motorcar. We developed the horseless carriage – the motorcar. It was wonderful. Henry Ford made it possible for the average person to have a motorcar. The motorcar increased our freedom. Before long this wonderful instrument of transport became the designer and director of our houses. Housing and suburbs were now designed around the motorcar. The motorcar in countries like Australia became a very important liberating influence in our lives. It changed the landscape of the city and town. Note how in our time we have moved from the single car property design to the double car property design. The garage has moved to the front of the home.  It has so determined our life style that we play catch up with our public transport.  The motorcar is a benign example of how what we develop begins to control our lives. Ironically what we possess can end up possessing us. Let’s move to some more devilish things. Let’s consider how apparently harmless ideas, but inherently flawed, have destroyed lives physically, psychologically and socially. Think of Australia’s white assimilation policy that tore apart the lives of the Aboriginal community. Think of the reasonableness of white South Africa’s separate development policy for the races that led to torture, unjust imprisonment and high infant mortality rates. Think of Germany’s national socialism that reached fever pitch in the final months of the war to exterminate as many Jews as possible before Allied forces took over. Now reflect on the good people of those nations and how they were sucked into that way of thinking. How they seemed powerless to stop the madness. In fact by their action or inaction they made it happen. Yes, the lack of witness to the truth – their silence – helped make these demonic systems work.  There are forces that press upon us today. I have identified only a few examples from the benign and helpful motorcar to the fear and prejudice driven policies that have caused untold harm.  I say to you don’t scoff at the Biblical writers’ thoughts on the demonic powers.  That is exactly what evil wants you to think. Listen to what Paul and John of Patmos say. Paul, in Ephesians, says that we’re up against spiritual powers and great forces. He writes in Page ! of ! 1 3 Ephesians 6:12 that our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.   The book of Revelation paints these surrealistic pictures of dragons, beasts and forces of nature that conspire against us. Yet if we look and listen to our world today we are faced with beastly, dragonish evil forces, which seem beyond our powers to stop. There is the mad mindlessness of ISIS; the rampant fear of millions of displaced peoples taking over our space; and, the oppressive market forces that exclude good hardworking people from the housing markets in Melbourne and Sydney.  Albert Einstein made a relevant and insightful observation when he said; It is easier to denature plutonium than denature the evil spirit of humanity. His statement tells us that he recognised the forces of the human spirit. Walk into some institutions and you sense a good spirit, and in others you sense a dark spirit. The point I am making is that we humans are not the free agents we think we are. We are caught up in systems and ideologies that rob us of the freedom that God wants us to have. How can we become free from such forces? Even the force of capitalism, which is not as bad as other forces, tends to control us John of Patmos’ surrealistic pictures of the struggle between good and evil provide the answer.  To break the force of the demonic powers and spirits we must hold firm to what is true, proclaim it and be prepared to pay the price of standing against the tide. The Wilberforces, the Nightingales, the Mother Theresas, Bonhoeffers, Mahatma Ghandies and lesser known characters have paid the price of making this a better world.  John of Patmos reminds God’s people of the strength they have.  He says that the demonic power of evil has been destroyed.  This is what he says.  But they have conquered him (Satan) by the

Divinity Defining Death. Rev 4 Revelation 6: 9 – 11, 7: 13 – 17; 1 Corinthians 15: 1 – 4, 20 -26 We can never give all to God unless God is all and absolute.   In the West humanity defines death as loss. However, Divinity defines death as gain. Humanity sees death as the destroyer. Divinity sees death as the enemy. These are two distinctly different views about death.   A few evenings ago I caught the latter part of the ABC TV programme, “You Can’t Ask That”. The focus was on centenarians. Most questioned the meaning of life and none seemed to see the possibility of life beyond the grave. Not that the show was about life after death. However it was clear that many questioned what the purpose of life was. Their answers strongly suggested that life was meaningless apart from family and personal stuff. Christianity’s answer to the meaning of life is so profound in its simplicity: to praise our Maker. There lies a sermon in itself, but today I want to focus on what happens to us when we die.   The secularist and atheist argue that death marks the end of everything for us. I am a little bemused when I attend a secularist funeral. Naturally no mention of the resurrection, but the Celebrant must offer some comfort. So we get eternity brought in via the back door. They will talk about your loved one living on in your memory. It’s intended to be comforting. Whether it is I don’t know. The issue remains that the belief is that death ends life for us – full stop.   On the other hand Christians are not so clear. Listen to our conversations and we seem to be all over the place. A notion exists that there is life after death. Unfortunately it is more akin to the ancient Greek worldview of a spiritual realm above the earth, and the Greek view of the soul. Christians have modified this view to include a realm of punishment below the earth. Of course they believed in a flat earth so the language is caught up in that view of heaven above and hell below.   The people of the Bible believed that God began life, sustained life and brought life to its conclusion. Their hope was in God the Creator who will eternally keep us [Ps 121]. By the time we get to Jesus’ life and ministry there is a general view amongst the Jews that God would raise the dead when the Kingdom of God comes. They believed God would establish his Kingdom on this earth. Heaven was not their destiny. As I have said before, heaven is God’s control tower. God’s future kingdom on earth was their ultimate future. The Jewish faith held that God would raise them in a general resurrection and give them new bodies. Paul expresses this quite clearly in 1 Corinthians 15. If we keep this understanding in mind we will find it easier to understand NT thinking.   Jesus’ disciples, who were all Jews and they sensed that Jesus was the Messiah who would bring in God’s Kingdom. (Remember Messiah is the Hebrew for Christ.) They were a little uncertain about Jesus as the Christ when he was arrested, beaten and crucified. But then that amazing event, which was first witnessed by women, changed everything. Jesus’ resurrection confirmed who Jesus is and it told them that God’s Kingdom had come in Jesus. Jesus is seen as the first to be raised from the dead. A new era had begun for them. They didn’t know how it would unfold, but it had begun.   Jesus had turned everything upside down. Everything about Jesus is strange. He was powerful yet humble, self-sacrificing, included women in his group, and he died a death at the hands of the Romans with the collaboration of some Jewish leaders. This should not have happened to God’s Messiah. But the Resurrection of Jesus completely changed their understanding. The resurrection showed that Jesus had conquered death. The ultimate enemy of humanity, death. Amazingly it was sacrificial love that destroyed the power of death not might and force. What the first Christians quickly came to understand was that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ meant that through him they would share in the Resurrection. They didn’t see heaven as a destiny. They saw the Resurrection heralding the Kingdom of God, and that they would share in it.   We have some marvellous lessons from our readings today and the Bible as a whole. I hope the Spirit opens your heart and mind to them.   Firstly, Revelation confirms the truth, as 1 Corinthians does, that when we die as faithful followers of Christ we will be incorporated into the presence of God. The promise of Scripture is that the believer goes to God. Remember that Jesus spoke about being the bread of eternal life and that those who believed in him would have eternal life [Jn 6: 27; 3:16]. No matter what we experience on this earth, if we trust Jesus and walk in his footsteps we will reign with him as priests and kings. [Rev 1:6; 5:10; Cf Isaiah 61:6; 1 Peter 2:9]. This language of ‘priests and kings’ only illustrates our intimate relationship and fine status with God the Creator.   John of Patmos sees that trials and tribulations are coming to the church. However it will not be a total disaster for the Church. Rather the opposite is true. John paints a picture of those Christians, who have died through persecution, sitting under the altar before God in the heavenly throne room [Rev 6:9]. They are told to wait ther in God’s presence until the Resurrection. In other words when we die we go to God and wait until the day of the Resurrection and the conclusion of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Their acceptance and protection is displayed in this marvellous picture of intimacy.

Worship: The Heartbeat of Creation. Rev 3 Revelation 4: 6-11; 5: 6 – 14 To worship God ironically is to bless ourselves! Heartbeat is defined as the pulse of your heart, or a single short moment, or something that acts as a unifying force. I want to speak of worship as a heartbeat – the pulse of creation and the unifying force of life. My fundamental reason for using this image is that worship gives life to the believer and I suspect gives life to the non-believer as well. Worship is life giving. It keeps us going and going well. Revelation chapters 4 and 5 provide a grand vision of the heavenly throne room and worship.  God, Christ Jesus, the 4 living creatures, 24 elders in white with golden crowns, the multitude of angels, and all of creation both human and creature, worship the almighty Creator God. This God reveals ‘his’ being in Christ Jesus the Slain Lamb [5: 6]. One cannot see this grand vision of worship and not realise that nothing is outside of God’s sphere of influence.  The worship of the Lamb, Christ Jesus, includes the whole of creation – those above, on the earth and below [5:13].  We read: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!” This amazing scene tells us that no one is beyond God’s reach and no one is absolutely lost or condemned, for even those in Hell worship God. Both the worship of God in 4: 11 and the praise of the Lamb in 5:13 indicate that God’s ultimate love ultimately includes all. No one is beyond God’s reach.  That’s the majesty of John of Patmos’ theology. It is not the bizarre pictures of beasts and the outlandish images of disaster that are significant. It is the imaginative pictures that uncover the depth and breadth of God’s purposes and love.  The insight of this faithful 1st Century Christian sees God’s love embracing the faithful and the faith-less. In the face of disaster and persecution God is victorious. Nothing is beyond the reach and inclusion of God’s ring of love for the world [Jn 3: 16].  This is how our Sunday worship service works.  We sing praises to God, we acknowledge our sin and seek God’s forgiveness, we hear the Gospel, are encouraged and inspired to live the Christian life, we pray for others and this world and we go out to serve God by living out the truths of love, peace and justice for all.  We may do it rather badly, but we do it.  Every worship service, however messy or extravagant, is a reflection of the heavenly truth that worship is our response to the Creator who created us, and to the Saviour who gives us life. We worship our Creator and we honour our Saviour. Then we go to serve God by serving others. But there is more to worship. Worship does not merely honour the One who deserves it, but ironically, by it the worshipper is blessed. Worship helps us recognise both whose we are and who we are. Worship is all-embracing.  We’ve already seen that all creatures worship God and ultimately all humanity. Nature, as we call it, itself honours God by its beauty and value.  Worship looks not only to God but the whole world. Worship is awe-inspiring.  As we uncover the wonder of God, God’s omniscience and God’s sacrificial love, we can only worship.   Revelation’s imagery of the numerous ‘eyes’ in the heavenly throne room reminds us of God’s all-knowing. The ‘lamb slain’ declares God’s love and the very nature of God’s power – redemptive self-giving love. The 4 beasts around the throne reveal the majesty of God [vv 7,8].  The sea of glass signifies that God has controlled the sea. In ancient times the sea was understood to be the place of chaos. God’s controlling of the sea is a sign of God bringing order out of chaos. The sea of glass represents God’s creative power. These images that are strange to us were understandable to the hearers of Revelation. In turn they might have great difficulty in watching a Grand Final match or seeing our flag! Worship is age-less. Worship transcends the moment and includes past and future in the present. God is the beginning and end of everything. It follows that worship embraces everything God is – the alpha and omega [1: 8, 17].  So when we come to worship we find ourselves remembering the past and preparing for the future in the present moment of worship. Every time we worship the past and the future collapse into the present. This grand vision of worship reflects this truth. Now that the Lamb has been slain for our redemption, those past events along with the creation itself give us reason to praise God, but they also take us forward as the Lamb is the only one worthy to open the seals and take us into God’s future. Take for example, the Holy Communion service. In that service we remember the work of Jesus and the faithful witness of the saints from Abraham and Sarah through to today. We look back to the events of Easter time and we look forward to God’s completion of this world.  We sense our time here is temporary and death is not final. In our worship we continually look back to the past in our lives celebrating the great moments and praying for forgiveness for the weak moments. But then we look forward to God’s future for us.  We go out to live out God’s sacrificial love in sacrificial love for