Sermon for Epiphany 2, 18.01.2026
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Isaiah 49:1-6
Listen to me, you islands;
hear this, you distant nations:
before I was born the Lord called me;
from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.’
4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due to me is in the Lord’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.’
5 And now the Lord says –
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord
and my God has been my strength –
6 he says:
‘It is too small a thing [i.e. ‘It is only a small thing’] for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the Truth; Your Word is Truth. Amen.
Like countrymen and women who are cultured and molded from birth to train for Olympic gold, you have been selected to represent your people. You are amongst the elite of the elite in your discipline. You are as sharp as a razor and as polished as the King’s silverware. You are in the best shape of your fledgling career. You are at the starting line ready to succeed. The starter fires, and before the smoke has had time to dissipate you have crossed the finishing line in first place. The screen flashes brightly with “O.R.” You have set the new Olympic Record and with that it’s also a P.B. (a personal best.) Hitting this new height, you ascend the dais and raise your arms in the joy of victory, sporting gold around your neck, and strutting the winner’s laurel of success. Mission complete…or so it seems.
For your coach remains uniquely calm throughout, almost melancholic, and after the ceremony, he strolls over to you, and with barely a hint of approval says, “It is too small a thing for you to set an Olympic Record. I’ll see you at 6 a.m. sharp, so we can start back training, so that in four-year’s time, you will be able to set, not just the Olympic Record, but the World Record.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ: if you were really standing in those sprinter’s shoes, how would you feel? What would be your first thought and reaction? Would it be, “So Coach, what I put in will never be enough, eh?” Or would it be, “Sure thing Coach, I delight to do your will.” For in this crude analogy, you are the sprinter, God is your Coach, the Olympic Record is the gaining of salvation and liberation for the one nation of Israel, and the World Record is the attainment of salvation and liberation of the whole world.
This is the calling that was laid at the feet of Isaiah. A man of a certain people, of a certain place and time, was called to the horizon, to look globally. This is his purpose and pain. For on one hand, being as human as any other, he feels his call to be the prophet of God has been all in vain (v. 4). While on the other hand, he accepts and acknowledges the hidden reality of every prophetic mouthpiece for God, and, in faith, he holds dear the fact of a future vindication, that ‘what is due to [him]’ is really ‘in the Lord’s hand…and [his] reward is with [his] God’ (v. 4).
Listen again to the tension of being chosen by God to proclaim a message that will be belittled and rejected by most, even by your own people, but by the grace and mercy of God, in order that so many more may be saved:
3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.’
4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due to me is in the Lord’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.’
Verse 4 captures the tension for all who participate in the mission of God. And at the head of God’s mission to the world was to be His servant Israel. Israel was to be the glory of God and the light to the Gentiles. Isaiah’s prophecy and all those that speak truth like it, was the delight of those waiting for the consolation of Israel, as testified by Simeon and still today in his song that we sing.
29 ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel’ (Lk 2:29-32).
Simeon sung his song because in the baby he held, he saw realised the fulfillment of Isaiah and the promises of God spoken by all the rest – that to Israel and through Israel would the true Israel appear and give light to the world. For into the darkness of the age appeared One saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ (John 8:12). Jesus alone fulfilled the mission that Israel would not, and commissions the New Israel, the Church, to ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you’ (Mtt 28:19-20). Endowed with that sharpened sword of the Spirit, which is the very Word of God, and entrusted with the polished arrows that project towards every horizon, stretching from, ‘Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8), would the church reach all peoples preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins won because the Lamb who was slain died and rose victoriously. And because of His glorious resurrection, like the promise Isaiah held on to, in faith, Jesus, too, held dear the fact of a future vindication, that ‘what is due to [Him]’ is really ‘in the Lord’s hand…and [His] reward is with [His] God’ (v. 4). The church armed with those sharpened and polished weapons of spiritual warfare, now takes the message of the cross and resurrection to all people – to release them from the bonds of sin, death and the power of the devil – as they, ‘cut us to the heart’ (Acts 2:37), and ‘penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow’ judging ‘the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’ (Heb 4:12).
At this point we need to pause and back-track to verse 3 and hover there a moment to explore why on earth the Lord is calling Isaiah, the name Israel, when He said,
3 … ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.’
4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain…’
For there has been much exploration over what is going on here and how to receive this word of God aright. If we examine the name Israel, we find out that it can be used variously across the Scriptures to name more than just one person or just one people.
Israel can mean the individual Jacob renamed.
Israel can mean the nation, as in the Israelites as the descendants of Abraham.
Israel can refer to the remnant of the children of Abraham who are not just Israelites on the family tree, but rather live by faith in the promise of the coming Messiah and all the promises of God.
Israel can refer to a kernel of the remnant, as in the faithful and godly prophets, priests and kings who were to lead the people forth in the joy of the gospel and to draw all people into the promised kingdom of God.
And Israel can even refer to a kernel of the kernel of the remnant, as in the true Israel, that being Jesus, the Messiah.
It’s in those last three uses of the name “Israel” that we are to receive the Lord saying to Isaiah, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendour,’ for they were each called in their own ways to epitomize Israel as called by the Lord to bring God all glory and shed light further afield to, ‘all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues’ (Rev 7:9).
For what we could say of Isaiah’s privilege and pain experienced as the suffering servant of God; the reality of the depths of his humanity and the heights of his divine Call, we can repeat for Jesus, the Suffering Servant of God, ‘rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain’ as Isaiah prophesied elsewhere (Isa 53:3). For example, Luke tells us that Jesus received His name that is above every other name by the angels before He was born, ‘On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived’ (Lk 2:21). And regarding the all-embracing mission shared by Isaiah/Israel and fulfilled ultimately and completely in Jesus, He who in conversation with His disciples confessed, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel’ (Mtt 15:24), would also display the patience and mercy of God and come to the aid of the foreigner to the covenants and heal her daughter at that very hour (Mtt 15:28).
And as St Paul, who was another who shared Isaiah’s/Israel’s pleasure and pain, and ‘by the grace of God’ was ‘set apart’ from his ‘mother’s womb’ as the Apostle to the Gentiles (Gal 1:15), tells us that the disobedience of Israel resulted in God pruning them from the olive tree and brought about the grafting-in of the nations, wild as they were (Romans 11:17), yet covered in the same blood of the Lamb who died for all, thus making the Gentile believers ‘an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit’ (Rm 15:16b). And as Paul would further elaborate, saying, ‘For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy’ (Rom 15:8-9a).
It was to be, and still is an amazing thing, an amazing grace, that,
‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’
For us and them who were, ‘separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world,’ in Jesus, have a light that shines brightly in our darkness.
And how much darkness there is to dispel in our own day! How might you shine a light into a dark place in continuing the mission of God amongst us, amongst your family and community? Into what encounter and occasion can you show compassion, kindness, humility, and forgiveness? How might you make your baptismal commission, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine to the glory of God the Father,” shine this week? It might be “only a small thing” that you do, but Jesus can multiply it and make it no small a thing for someone who needs to hear and experience the love and mercy of God.
And the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sermon for Epiphany 5, 09.02.2025
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
'Jesus sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the net for a catch"' (Luke 5:3b-4).
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the truth; your Word is Truth. Amen.
With Jesus: Expect the unexpected!
Today’s Gospel text is full of imagery and Luther saw it. The sea is the world, the fish are people, the net is the preaching of the Gospel, and the boat is the church.
The world is a dark and dangerous place as is the sea. In the Old Testament the sea was the place of chaos, evil and death. Peter is told by Jesus to go fish there in those depths. By the power of Jesus' Word, he would later become, not a catcher of Soles as he once was, but rather a catcher of Souls. The Word of God, which is Christ's Gospel, is the net he was charged to use to haul in the catch of souls. It is no coincidence, that in our Gospel text, Jesus teaches from a boat, Peter's boat in fact, and it was no coincidence that the fish were hauled up into the boat in the net. The boat symbolizes the church where teaching occurs about the kingdom of God, and where Christ still performs his miracles of the forgiveness of sins by the power of his Word of absolution - in word and meal. You are in the boat of Jesus, the Ark of the Church, because Jesus has brought you into it - you are literally sitting in the boat - the nave of the church building – ‘nave’ being the Latin word for boat.
Rather than being just about a miraculous catch of fish, today's Gospel text is revealing to us the fact that the very large catch of fish was unexpected, more so than miraculous. The fact that the great catch was unexpected is revealed by Peter's first and natural reaction, when he said to Jesus, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything" (Lk 5:5a). If Peter was motivated by his reason and experience alone, then the conversation would have stopped right there. But on this occasion, Peter didn't curtail the workings of God with the limitations of his own mind or experience. A year later he would though! When Jesus said, '...that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again,' Peter rebuked him, saying, “‘Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!’ But at that time Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan!’ ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’ (Mark 8:31 & 33). However, on this occasion Peter acted in faith, or you might say, trumped his intellect with the obedience produced by faith and added, "But because you say so, I will let down the nets" (Lk 5:5b).
Notice, though, that this event immediately follows a time of Jesus teaching the word of God. I have experienced at ecumenical Minister's Fraternals and seen popularized across denominations the idea, or premise, of "praying people into the kingdom of God" as the foremost mission strategy. While prayer is indispensible in all Mission and Ministry endeavours, I contend, and based on texts such as today's Gospel text (Luke 5), that the primary Mission & Ministry strategy is education with prayer, rather than prayer alone or even when supplemented with education. It would be silly to completely compartmentalize 'prayer' over there, and 'teaching' over here, as if the two were divorced from each other, but I ask, did Jesus pray people into the kingdom of God or did he teach them into it – teaching what they had lost and stand to lose and how in him they can find it? Have a listen to part of Jesus High Priestly prayer in John 17:6-9a:
‘I have revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them.
Did you hear that Jesus first gave the disciples the words of the Father and that they accepted them in faith and obedience? Then Jesus added, 'I pray for them.'
So, any growth and maturity a Christian might experience comes primarily through Christian Education, that is, when Bible's are open and read and grappled with, and of course, believed upon. For when faith is the missing ingredient, it won't matter a bit if the congregation has a Christian Education Committee, great attendance at Bible Study, a charismatic teacher, dynamic teaching, modern methods, and an amazing curriculum. They will all be ineffectual if faith is not added. The order of events in today’s Gospel has that sequence to it: 1. Teach & 2. Put down the nets to see what you will catch. And with the example of a tremendous catch in the Gospel, should we not also today still teach the Word of truth and also expect the unexpected catch? That’s enough motivation to keep on teaching God’s truth today.
Was Peter's reaction, to the unexpected catch of fish, one of faith? No. For he said, 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' (Lk 5:8). His self-diagnosis may have been correct: that he was a sinner. But his diagnosis of Jesus and his mission in the world was wrong. Peter had the opportunity, in faith, to see his heavenly Father's heart in the face of Jesus. Peter had perfect opportunity, as any repentant sinner must, to instead reply, 'Stay with me Lord; I am a sinful man!' For it is most certainly true, that 'this man welcomes sinners and eats with them' (Lk 15:2) and that 'it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill' (Lk 5:31).
Jesus' reaction to Peter's self-diagnosis was not: "That's right 'Sonny Jim:' I'm holy and you’re not. You better watch your step Simon!" Not at all! Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but rather to release it. Luther eloquently says, 'Sin is forgiven, not so that we may continue in it, but that we might break loose from it; otherwise it would be called a permission and not a remission of sin.'
Instead of justly condemning Peter and the others as sinners, Jesus says, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” This is a double-barreled shotgun of a response. Firstly, Jesus absolves Peter in the words, "Do not be afraid," and then commissions him with the words, “from now on you will fish for people.” Not only does Jesus forgive Peter all his sins, but even dares to use this sinful man’s confession of faith to build his church, when he said, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven' (Matthew 10:17-19).
Do you remember Rex Hunt, Victorian footballer turned fisherman? On his TV show Rex loved to catch, kiss and release fish. Jesus says to Peter something similar, "As a fisher of men, you are to catch and release." It will be the Word of God that does the catching, and it is that same Word that does the releasing. Just like when Rex caught a fish and kissed and released it, so does Jesus through his church, draw you in with his Word, give you the kiss of peace through the forgiveness of sins, and returns you absolved, back into the world to be a bearer of forgiveness to others. Some fishermen tag and release their catch. Jesus tags us with the mark of his cross so that we may be identifiable, in word and deed, in the world. That tag is Christ's cross, and is marked on our foreheads and chests in baptism when the net of the Gospel has caught us and dragged us, at least in the first place, against our wills, into the boat, that is, the Church (see 'Parable of the Dragnet' Mtt 13:47-50). For we are saved by grace, not of our own merit or striving or pledge of allegiance or act of discipleship.
As a forgiven person, Peter was charged, not in the negative sense with his sin, but rather forgiven of it, and charged in the positive sense to take this forgiveness and preach and teach it in Christ's name for the salvation of souls, like yours and mine.
I would like to start planning the upcoming parish Bible Study series, “The Bible – An Overview in 4-sessions 2.0.” What questions do you have? By some of the reactions to “The State of the LCA presentations,” I know you have questions and need teaching. So I urge you to put something in writing and get it to me ASAP.
'Jesus sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the net for a catch"' (Luke 5:3b-4).
The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sermon for Epiphany 2, 19.01.2025
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now’ (John 2:10).
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the truth; Your Word is Truth. Amen.
What are some modern day miracles? Mankind walking on the moon, perhaps? Man splitting the atom, maybe? Organ transplantation, perhaps? The cochlear ear transplant? These things are often called modern day miracles, but do they deserve the term, miracle? They are modern day marvels, that's for sure, but miracles, not really. They are actually the fruit of decades of painstaking research and countless failures and then finally success. Rather than being miracles, these are good examples of the gifts of reason and intelligence that God has given to us and given to us to use for the well-being, and hopeful improvement, of humanity and society.
In our Gospel text, from John chapter 2, we hear St John report to us about Jesus' first miracle, but again, not really a miracle, but correctly understood as a sign that pointed to something else. We could call this event a miracle; the transformation of water into wine; in fact a really good wine, like a Penfolds Grange Hermitage, but John himself calls it a sign. As you know, signs don't point to themselves, but away from themselves to inform us of something important and to make it known ahead of time. So we should always think of this event as a sign pointing to the Lordship of the man, Jesus from Nazareth, in which he manifested or 'revealed' his glory as the New International Version of the Bible translates the Greek word epiphany. In this event, Jesus revealed his glory, not "holus-bolus," as he will to all who ever lived on the Last Day, but here to those who believed in him, as John would write that the 'disciples put their faith in him.' That's why this gospel reading occurs on one of the Sunday's after the Epiphany. The word 'epiphany' means 'manifestation' or 'showing plainly'. Many of Jesus' would-be-followers asked him to speak plainly to them, but at the wedding in Cana, Jesus shows himself plainly as the One who has all glory, power and dominion, even as the Suffering Servant of God.
St John is the only Gospel writer to record this event. This fact may reveal something about the importance he personally considered this event. It has been said that he tells this story with a degree of detail that could only come from personal experience. Was it John's own wedding that they were all attending? It's possible. This was the view, at least of the early church, and one in-line with the church traditions that were to follow. At least one of the non-canonical gospels, the Coptic gospel, lists the bridegroom as a nephew of Mary. John was one of Mary's nephews because Salome was Mary's sister. Another ancient, but non-Biblical source document, the Monarchian Prefaces, specifically cites John as the bridegroom. Even if it was John's wedding, it remains as of secondary importance. John doesn't say it was his wedding, so best policy is to leave it at that. Of primary importance is the following:
1. the descriptor 'on the third day,'
2. that the setting was a wedding,
3. that the wedding celebration wasn't set in Jerusalem, or even with the Temple as a backdrop,
4. but rather that the Lord of the Church was present with his people, celebrating on earth, what would be, the foretaste of the wedding feast to come, &
5. that water becoming wine wasn't a miracle, but a transformation.
The village of Cana wasn't far from Nazareth. If the celebration really was in her sister's house, then Mary probably knew the layout and may have been given responsibility for the festive arrangements. Was she the head bar-maid? Perhaps? But what we do know is that the lack of wine concerned her enough to act upon it. As one rabbinical proverb said, "Without wine there is no joy." And as we will see, the "wine" of the New Covenant provides an incomparable and enduring joy.
At Mary's cry, "They have no more wine," Jesus is compelled to act even though he must say to her, "Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come." It's been said that Mary is basically saying to Jesus, "Please come to my aid." But is something much more profound happening? Is it that Mary is "jumping-the-gun," as it were? Why did she break formalities in alerting her son, who was a guest at the wedding, rather than alerting those responsible, like the Bridegroom, or at least the Master-of-ceremonies? That phrase, 'My hour has not yet come' should cause us to stop and ponder that this event was not the main event, but pointed to a wedding of grander significance, yet to come!
What hour is he speaking about? What wedding celebration still lies on the horizon? Jesus is speaking about his hour, which is, his wedding, the time when he takes a bride for himself, the church. This hour will come when he is hung upon on the cross to die, and 'on the third day,' will rise to eternal life - a life lived in the New Covenant, where new wine is poured into new wineskins, so that the wine doesn't run out (Mtt 9:17)!
Some couples these days write up and sign pre-nuptial agreements. But Jesus doesn't demand such from his bride-to-be. Instead he commits himself, body, spirit and soul, fully to her, even unto death, with the hope that his love will not despised or rejected.
In producing a copious amount of wine for the wedding, Jesus is not endorsing drunkenness. St Paul is blunt when he says that amongst others, that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:10). In their correspondence with the early churches, pastors Paul, Peter and Titus remind everyone to be sober in joyful expectation of the Second Coming of Christ, for that is the culmination of what the events at the wedding at Cana are ultimately pointing. More directly, St Paul writes to Christians, 'Do not get drunk on wine. Instead, be filled with the Spirit' (Ephesians 5:18). And this is the primary key to understanding, most profoundly, the sign of water into wine.
While it's true that the very best wine was now being poured into the guest's glasses at the wedding, it, too, pointed away from itself, as St Paul later eluded, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We have prophecy and prophecy fulfilled in the Scriptures to reveal this to us. In Isaiah 25:6-8a we have a prophecy of a feast that God would host to celebrate the death of death for his people. This banquet would be supplied with rich food and vintage wine in the new age, the time of salvation.
'On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine –
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death for ever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth' (Isa 25:6-8a).
And then in Acts 2 we hear how the 12O members of the congregation in Jerusalem seemed to be drunk with wine because they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. So the "wine" that Jesus gives to his disciples, after his death and resurrection, is the Holy Spirit, that to which the sign at Cana points.
When the "regular earthly wine," that is, when everything the world could possibly offer to supply you with happiness has been drunk to its dregs, what are you really left with - nothing but headaches and regrets! But by producing so much wine, apparently equalling 750-800 bottles worth at the wedding in Cana, Jesus is revealing what his coming heavenly wedding will have to offer - so much more, and so much more of the very best, at that! - that being the Holy Spirit!
This sign of Jesus is for those who have "turned to the bottle" in life, literally and spiritually! It is for anyone who is trying to fill themselves with joy, but not knowing where a true and lasting joy is to be found! It is for you who feel dispirited and dejected, distressed and depressed. It is for you who feel that you are missing out on life and so feel cheated of happiness and joy. It is for you who are disappointed because you have not found the enjoyment which you expected in your life and career, or in your marriage and family. It is for you who have a life that is "stuck-in-rut" or have "hit a wall," or has even spiraled out of control. For that's what the Fall of man now presents all of us with. We all long for the glory we lost when Adam and Eve fell into temptation! We all hope for something better to be over the horizon. But we all fall into temptation so easily and live our lives as if the best things are behind us, and the worst is yet to come. But that's not the Spirit-filled life. Therefore, that's not to be the Christian's life. Like water in the jars, we need Jesus to transform us. And the only way we are transformed is by the reception of the Holy Spirit - this "new wine" of the New Covenant.
So Jesus, in this sign of water to wine, is pointing to true life, a full life, an abundant life that does not peter out, but gets better and better as you go on living. Imagine a life in which we went from joy to joy and glory to glory with the prospect of ever-increasing enjoyment! That's what's on offer when you trust Jesus! Wine might boost your spirits for a while, and it has its place in moderation, for 'Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise' (Proverbs 20:1). But the Holy Spirit boosts your Spirit in ways that matter here on earth - 'love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control' (Gal 5:22-23), and on into all eternity; one with no regrets or headache filled hangovers. To steal Dr John Kleinig's phrase - "a hangover of gladness rather than sadness." No wonder St Paul would write to the Christians in Philippi, and therefore also to our congregation, saying, 'Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind' (Philippians 2:1-2)
Interestingly, this sign of turning the water into wine was not dramatic in its staging. There was no striking of a rock in the desert, as Moses had done. There was no "Peace, be still!" out in the middle of the lake with waves crashing over the boat. No! At the command of Christ, the servants simply filled the jars, dipped in the ladle, poured it into a cup, and took it to the unnamed Master of Ceremonies. And when the M.C. tasted it, he found it to be wine of a far better quality then he had been drinking earlier, like the much coveted Grange Hermitage.
In itself this event was a quiet sign manifesting the glory of the Son of God. Except for the servants and the M.C., the guests were most likely oblivious about what had just taken place. This was akin to how Jesus performed many of his other signs - oblivious to so many, but key to those he chose to reveal his hidden identity, as he does so in the following Signs -
'The man took Jesus at his word and departed.' Healing the Nobleman's Son (John 4:46-54)
'The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.' Healing the Man at the Pool (John 5:1-11)
'So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.' Feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1-15)
'When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, ‘It is I; don’t be afraid.’ Walking on Water (John 6:16-21)
'The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.' Healing a Man Born Blind (John 9:1-12)
' Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face.' Resurrecting Lazarus (John 11)
Jesus never pulled a rabbit out of a hat to impress people as a magician does. As the Son of God he has come to help those who needed him - quietly, lowly, meekly - without the headlines. This is the way he ordinarily comes to us - in a quiet, but deliberate Word, and in an unassuming, but eternally significant meal at the Altar Rail.
As Jesus revealed his glory to those who came to believe in him, he continues today to reveal his presence and glory in his church, where those who believe get to participate as joyful guests in the wedding feast of the Lamb. May he fill you with joy as you dine with him today, in Word and Deed, as a foretaste of the feast to come.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sermon for The Baptism of our Lord, 12.01.2025
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Luke 3:21-22 - 'When all the people were being baptised, Jesus was baptised too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for publically revealing your Sonship to those repentant sinners going to John the Baptist at the Jordan River. Fill us, your baptized children, with your Spirit and keep revealing your identity and purpose to the world that all may repent and believe. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in Christ: This is the second time in little over a month that we hear the Evangelist’s description of John the Baptist's preaching in the desert and his pointing away from himself to the Messiah. We heard it in Advent; now again in the Epiphany season. John the Baptist said to those who were wondering if he was the one to come, that he was not, and used an unfamiliar to us, but familiar to them phrase about his unworthiness to untie the thongs of the sandals of what would be revealed to be Jesus of Nazareth. That’s the Kinsmen Redeemer language of redemption that we read about in the Book of Ruth where it says, in parentheses for non-Jewish readers, ‘(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel) (Ruth 4:7). Not being the Messiah, John declared that he didn't have the legal credentials, and you might say “purchasing-power” to take the place of humanity's Kinsmen Redeemer as did the true, perfect and obedient Son of God.
But today we also get to hear St Luke's account of the baptism of Jesus, because this is the day on the Church Calendar that we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. St Luke narrates the account of Jesus' baptism quite briefly; just two verses making up one sentence in the original Greek. But Luke's briefness doesn't in any way reduce the overall significance of the event. For the baptism of Jesus is crucial for the understanding of the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ. In his baptism, Jesus continues to take humanity's place in substituting himself for sinners. Out there at the Jordan River, Jesus takes some of his first steps towards Jerusalem where he would three years later be crucified in a bloody "baptism" on the cross. Along with his circumcision, Jesus’ baptism, and all the other significant events in which he substitutes himself for sinners, they could be rightly called “Stations of the Cross.” For in his baptism, we are to see a part of Christ’s substitutionary atonement for sinners. He comes to the waters sinless, in no need for a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Yet coming ‘to fulfill all righteousness’ (Mtt 3:15), not for his sake, but for ours, Jesus presents himself for a sinner’s baptism. In doing so, he is identifying with sinners in every way, and in doing so, he stands in the place of sinners to begin to receive God’s judgment on sin – that which would lead to a substitutionary death on the cross – this baptism of the fire of God’s wrath at sin.
Luke tells us that after John had baptized Jesus and while Jesus was praying, the heavens were breached, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove – and most mysteriously – in bodily form. And a voice came from heaven saying, 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.' At his baptism, Jesus publically receives an anointing by the Holy Spirit and there it is revealed to all those present at the Jordan River, that he is the Christ, which means, the Anointed One. And so linking him back with John the Baptist's earlier words, it is at his baptism where Jesus’ legal credentials (or his purchasing power, if you like), he being humanity’s Kinsmen Redeemer, is publicly announced, for the eye and ear to see and hear.
In our Old Testament passage from Isaiah 43, the Lord says, 'When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.' God’s method of saving his people over all history has involved a lot of water and many water-crossings. Not that the amount of water is critical, but Noah, the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land and then full-circle back out to the Jordan, salvation comes to those who pass through the water. Each of you have been through those waters. And God was with you. Jesus commands the church to bring everybody to the New Covenant waters of baptism; those waters signified by the Great Flood, and the Red Sea and the Jordan, and to pass through them. Each of you have your own unique story and point in time when you can say that you have passed through the waters and that God was with you as you were lead through them. For Jamie, it was Easter Sunday 2013. For me it was the 11th June 1978. You can name your own Baptism date. Through the insistence of faithful parents or grandparents, or both, God himself lead you to the waters edge, and with a gracious push, he plunged you head first, as it were, into new life. There, the Father marked his Son's cross on your chest and forehead, and drowned your sins with its otherwise eternal consequences.
And as our Gospel text reminds us, it’s for our sake that Jesus goes ahead of us into those waters. There Jesus continues his substitutionary atonement by condescending to take his place among us sinners. Even though he had no need at all to repent, he submitted to John's baptism, so that he could fully identify with you and I, as a lost and condemned people. And take note that Jesus was baptised with many others that day who were coming to John. Jesus didn't have a private baptism, but chose to have a baptism, in the midst of, and witnessed by a community of repentant people.
You have heard this analogy often, but I repeat it because of its brilliance. Years ago, in the wide open spaces of the American Wild West, a little girl was baptised. The next day at school her friends asked her why. She said, "I was a little maverick out on the prairie. When I was baptised, the "Jesus mark" was put on me, and now everyone knows that I belong to him." You see, the word maverick was originally a man's name. Samuel Maverick was a Texas cattleman who for some reason did not brand his cattle. Because of that, any unbranded animal, especially a lost calf, came to be known as a maverick. These mavericks could then become the legal property of anybody who would catch and put their name of them, that is, brand them as their own.
That little girl demonstrated to her classmates, that before baptism, all people could be given the title as a "spiritual maverick." We were once lost, but now we are found. In his love and through his mighty Word, the Holy Spirit calls us to Christ and creates and implants a new life within us. And that new life we live by faith. When the Spirit has branded us with the cross of Jesus, on our foreheads and over our hearts, we can no longer call ourselves or identify as mavericks, but rather children in the family and household of God.
In baptism, and every time forgiveness is spoken to you, it is God himself saying to you through his servant, "I have named you and claimed you; you are mine. I purchased you with the holy and innocent body and blood of my One and Only Son. I have branded you with my mark, the mark I am to be distinguished with, a simple, yet profound cross. It will be a stumbling block and foolishness to those who despise and reject it, but to you who trust the promise of forgiveness, it is your washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit and your reception into friendship and fellowship with me,” says the Lord, “which means that you are my child having the hope of eternal life."
Your Heavenly Father says to you, "Our broken relationship has been restored for all time. My receipt is no promissory note to be executed sometime in the future. It has already been signed, sealed and delivered. As St Paul reminds us, 'And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory' (Eph 1:13, 14). This deposit guaranteeing our inheritance is not a part payment. Our Heavenly Father doesn't have us on 'Lay-By' until he can save up for the final payment. Our deposit guaranteeing our inheritance is the same as a full payment. It is a down-payment that binds both the buyer and seller to complete the transaction. And that transaction, your uncleanness and sin for Christ's righteousness, innocence and blessedness, continued at Jesus' baptism and was completed on the cross, on through his resurrection, as Paul says, ‘He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification’ (Rom 4:25).
As the Small Catechism teaches us, 'By baptism we have been made to share in Christ's death and resurrection. As he has buried our sin, so we too can and must daily overcome and bury it. And as he is risen from the dead and lives, so we too can and must daily live a new life in him.' It is a daily struggle, as Luther said, old Adam is a good swimmer and he likes to rear his ugly head, but God said that he will never leave you nor forsake you in all your battles with your old life. I think it was Bonhoeffer who made the point that when we try to resist falling into temptation that we are sure to fail. But when we put Jesus in the way of our temptation, that we are surely to overcome it.
When Luther once visited his friend Jerome Weller, he found him in a very depressed state. Luther asked him why he was so sad, but his friend was unable to form the words he needed. So knowing the promises of God, Luther said, "Don't you know that you have been baptised?" It was reported that Jerome later confessed that those consoling words of Luther where more comforting and powerful than any sermon. And Louis the Pious of France once said, "The three handfuls of water that were poured over my head in Holy Baptism are worth to me more than the crown that I am wearing."
As God the Father said to Jesus, 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased,' so does he say to you today. To you poor miserable sinner, who can’t seem to get anything right, he says, 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.' As you look to Jesus, so too, does your Father in heaven. If he looked at your life, you’d be in the biggest of trouble. But he doesn’t. He chooses to look at Jesus, your Substitute in life and in death. Jesus’ baptism is part and parcel of that Good News story. Your baptism and Holy Communion are those tangible things that you can rely on and grab on too or even sink your teeth into when your faith is wavering and you ask yourself, "Is God really pleased with me?"
Your heavenly Father has named you and claimed you, and adopted you out of the land of slavery to sin, and given you new life in Christ; a life that is doesn't seek itself anymore, one that is not turned inward upon itself anymore, but is daily turning to God for inner and outer strength and peace.
Rub out the sleep from your eyes of faith and look around at the people sitting with you. Now look afresh for those Jesus brand marks on their chest and forehead. They are there! It just takes faith to see them. When you see those brand marks on them and remember that you've got the same marks, will that change the way you see them, the way you treat them, the way you talk about them, the way you live with them? What about those who do not have the branding as yet? How might you speak with them and get it across that the life of a maverick is a lost and lonely one? How might you broach the subject that you know of a Father and family that will take them in as their own?
For there's a brand mark on your chest and forehead! It's just as the little girl said, "it's the Jesus mark," it's a cross; the cross of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Not only did Jesus die for you and rise from the grave so that you can live with him forever; but he was also baptized for you to begin to take your sin into himself and consequently into his grave: forgiven and paid for, therefore something not to be brought out of the depths ever again.
So may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, 15.01.2023
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
John 1:35-39:
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’
They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means ‘Teacher’), ‘where are you staying?’
39 ‘Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the truth: your Word is Truth. Amen.
‘What do you want?’
We certainly have our questions for God! We ask for the reason why such and such happened. We ask for the meaning of this and the necessity of that. Some people I know have their questions saved up so that when they die and go to heaven, that they can ask Jesus for an answer to what puzzled them or even tormented them so much here in this life. And our questions are not a bad thing. Our limited understanding and our finite minds necessitate that there will be things in life that, by ourselves, or even in community, that we just can’t fully fathom or explain. So directing our questions to God in lament or in wonder and awe is a proper thing to do, just like a child will pound their parents with question after question. The Bible is replete with such examples of asking God questions in lament and in awe and wonder. Questioning God in order to try to prove him wrong however is bad. As it says in Isaiah 55:8, ‘‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.’ Or as the Lord said to Job, ‘Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!’ (Job 40:2). And as Job confessed to God at the end of his ordeal, saying, ‘Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know’ (Job 42:3).
We will most certainly have our questions, but today Jesus poses a question to you. It’s a most simple yet profound question, and it just so happens to be the very first words that come out of Jesus’ mouth in the Gospel according to St John. Jesus’ first words in this gospel account are, ‘What do you want?’ It’s such a simple yet profound question that one commentator has said about it, “It’s the first question which must be addressed to anyone who comes to Jesus, the first thing about which he must be clear.”
So, I must ask you as individuals and as a community, “what do you want?” For what have you come to Jesus this morning? The NIV translation chose the word ‘want.’ The original Greek word there has other possible translations as, ‘to seek,’ as in ‘seeking peace and pursuing it’ (1 Pet 3:11), and ‘seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness’ (Matt 6:33), and ‘seek and you will find’ (Mtt 7:7). Other connotations of the original are ‘to look for’, or ‘to search after,’ as in ‘searching after lost sheep’ (Mtt 18:12) or ‘searching anxiously for a “lost” child’ (Lk 2:48-49), or ‘They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet’ (Mtt 21:46). So there are some stronger and weaker ways to translate that word depending on its context, and the NIV translators chose to go with the moderate force English word ‘want’. Another example in Matthew’s Gospel of that kind of use and force of the word ‘want’ is when Jesus’ family are outside the crowded house where ‘Someone told him, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you’ (Matt 12:47).
So with that in mind, I ask you, “What do you seek? What are you looking for? What are you searching after? Ultimately, what do you want?” Do you have an answer? Have you given it much thought? Remember that Jesus is the one posing the question! I can ask that same question a number of ways depending on my mood and my relationship to the person I am asking it to. For example:
‘What do you want?’ I say in unrighteous anger when being “pestered” by a child while trying to write this sermon.
‘What do you want?’ I say when I presume that the other person is a “sponge” and wants me to give them something that I might be reluctant to give.
‘What do you want?’ I say when I’m frustrated that it’s taking forever for the other person to make up their mind what it is they actually do want.
‘What do you want?’ I ask sarcastically when I am disinterested in the other person.
‘What do you want?’ I calmly ask when I am showing a servant’s heart towards the other person.
So what is Jesus’ mood and the context into which he asks two of John the Baptist’s disciples, one being Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, ‘What do you want?’ It is certainly not asked in unrighteous anger, nor from a Scrooge McDuck kind of tight-fisted man, nor from a frustrated parent or Teacher, nor from someone basically disinterested in the needs of others. Rather, Jesus’ demeanour was always, from beginning to end, one of a servant. For we know that ‘the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Matt 20:28). The evidence supporting this is throughout the Scriptures, and one crucial piece is here in the text of John 1:38. It is written, that:
38 Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’
Do you see Jesus attitude towards John’s disciples? Do you see Jesus as the one doing the looking? The text tells us that Jesus does the turning. His attitude and direction is focused on those two people who had begun their very first steps in following him. Jesus sees everything (as evidenced by what happens next in the chapter when Jesus sees Nathanael under the Fig Tree) and he divinely knows that he is being followed. So he turns and looks upon those two men. Jesus turns and Jesus looks and he who is the ‘Suffering Servant of God’ and the ‘Lord of all’ asks them, ‘What do you want?’
Those two disciples of John the Baptist had heard their master declare, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’ (Jn 1:35). And this sparked their curiosity and interest. No declaration had been made like that in world history. What did it mean? Who was this person that their master testified about saying, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’ (Jn 1:35). Did God’s history of the salvation of his people and his Covenants come to their minds? Did they recall Genesis 22:8, where ‘Abraham answered (his son Isaac), ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ Or the Institution of the Passover meal in which a lamb was sacrificed and its blood painted on the doorframes saving God’s people from the plague of death that killed every firstborn son and firstborn animal in Egypt as the tenth and final sign of their deliverance from Pharaoh’s oppression (Ex 12). Or did they think of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘he was led like a lamb to the slaughter’ (Is 53:7). Something in that phrase “Lamb of God” sparked enough interest for them to follow Jesus and respond to his question ‘What do you want?’ with another simple, yet profound answer, ‘Rabbi…where are you staying?’
They could have answered with any response. For example, “Who are you?” or “Why did our master call you the Lamb of God?” But they respond wanting to know where Jesus is staying. The word “staying” in the NIV is the word also translated as “abide” and “remain.” Abide or remain are the much better words. For me they immediately conjure up Jesus’ teaching in John chapter 15, and I use the NKJV for emphasis on the word abide. Jesus said, ‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples’ (John 15:4-8 NKJV).
This text reminds me of the abiding with Jesus illustration I have heard a number of times. I’ve got the full and accurate account it in my library somewhere but I couldn’t track it down. I tell it from memory so please excuse the omissions and errors in detail.
A French peasant-man went to his parish church every single morning and sat down in the front pew directly in front of a statue of Jesus. He did this every morning. After a while the newly arrived and installed priest of the parish noticed this peasant-man’s behaviour: that he sat down on the first pew in front of the statue of Jesus. This behaviour struck the parish priest as, not odd, but unusual as this peasant was the only one he had ever seen doing so. So one morning, as the man was exiting church, the well-intentioned priest politely stopped him and said, “Your devotion to Jesus by sitting at his feet each morning and, I guess, praying all the while, is remarkable. I wish all my other parishioners were as devoted to God as you are young man!”
The peasant man was taken aback by this and was moved to politely correct the priest by saying, “Father, my devotion to Jesus is questionable, to say the least. I do not think that I have led the pure life that you think I have. And if you knew me Father, you would agree with my assessment. Yes, I do come here each morning to be with Jesus. I pray some, yes, but it’s mostly for forgiveness. Yes, I do look to Jesus up there in the Sanctuary. But when I sit there in the front row I see Jesus looking at me. I dare raise my eyes to him, yes, but I see Jesus looking lovingly upon me and I hear him say things like, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’ (Mtt 11:28). I may look at him, but he looks back at me. Then I look up at the cross and know his love for me. In coming here first, and spending time with Jesus, I can then leave joyfully knowing my Lord’s attitude towards me; that he has turned in favour towards me and shines his face upon me, the wretched sinner that I am.
At his parishioner’s answer, the priest went away thinking that that was the best sermon he had ever heard!
Those two disciples wanted to know where Jesus was staying. In any given situation, usually the disciples responded badly and didn’t understand what was going on. But for some reason, at this point in time, those two disciples respond very well to Jesus question, ‘What do you want?’ For their response allows them to see and to stay, ‘to remain’ ‘to abide’ with Jesus.
39 ‘Come,’ [Jesus] replied, ‘and you will see.’
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
Those two disciples of John spent the day with Jesus. What better result could have eventuated! This encounter and exchange was to change their lives forever! Spending the day with Jesus convinced Andrew that Jesus was the Messiah, that is, the Christ promised by God in the Old Testament (John 1:41). Jesus’ invitation to Andrew and his unnamed off-sider to ‘Come and see’ resulted in Andrew going to his brother Simon Peter and likewise inviting him to ‘Come and see.’ In this instance, an inquirer, come disciple quickly became a missionary to the lost sheep of Israel.
So, ‘What do you want?’ Do you want to spend the day with Jesus? Andrew and the other disciple of John the Baptist did. And it changed their lives for good. There is no better time spent than time spent with Jesus. So come and see and abide with him for good.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sermon for Epiphany 5, 09.02.2023
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In 1 Corinthians 2:1b-2, St Paul writes, 'When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.'
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the truth: your Word is Truth. Amen.
We are now into the 5th of the 6 Sundays in the 2023 Epiphany Season. The word epiphany means "revelation" or "manifestation." But our fallen hearts and our worldly attitudes and interests always want to steer us away from God's revelation, or at least replace it with something more attractive to human hearts, ears and minds. The world is not interested in the revelation of God. It is not interested in the revelation of the shocking truths of the need for judgment and grace.
A former Lutheran, now Jehovah's Witness, once knocked on the manse door. I said that I was the local Lutheran pastor and she divulged that she grew up Lutheran. I asked her what made her change religions. She said that when she was growing up that all Ministers preached was fire and brimstone, and that she disagreed with Lutheran teaching. It turned out that she had been attracted to the Jehovah's Witnesses because they rejected the existence of hell. The Word of God's revelation, that there is a place called hell, was very unattractive to this lady, so she found a religion according to her own terms; one that agreed with her own revelation of God. Like this lady, if the world wants God at all, it wants him, her or it, on its own terms.
If we analyze our own distortions of God, according to the first three Commandments, we will quickly diagnose ourselves to also desire God on our own terms. We want him to fit our mould, rather than let him shape, reform, inform and conform us to Jesus. But only by grace alone, through faith alone, and as they both comes as pure gift through revelation alone do we get God on his terms!
God's chosen people, the Hebrews demanded signs from Jesus. But, yet they still had their own ideas as to how he should reveal himself to them. The miracles they demanded never materialized, but the one they did not want to see, "the sign of Jonah," that being the resurrection of Jesus, was given to them. Yet so many still did not believe it.
The Greeks on the other hand demanded wisdom. They took the intellectual approach. They wanted to shape God in their mind. God needed to fit into their grey matter, and if he didn't, then they would rather mock the apostles and evangelists and call St Paul's revelation of Christ as plain foolishness. Other more polite Greeks wanted top learn more. But the question remained for them, "Could they take this Jesus and this God the Father they desired to learn more about, and put them also in their heart. In other words, could they personally believe what they had learnt?
St Augustine knew that trying to put an infinite God into the finite human mind, and being able there to grasp God, was like the child that he saw trying to pour the vastness of the ocean into the little hole he had dug in the sand.
In our lifetime, the world doesn't as much demand for miracles or wisdom. The God that is demanded these days is the God of success. Success, however defined, is the new benchmark and supposed revelation of God. How do you know God is with you? "Look at the successes I grant you," says this false god; says Satan, that father of lies. But a god synthesized on man's terms cannot be true God! But God sees our struggles to comprehend him. He knows that he cannot be comprehended unless he chooses to reveal himself to us in a very real and tangible way.
So God circumvents wisdom and signs and success with foolishness, confusion and failure! God invites the world see the Christ crucified! The world hates the idea; but there is no other place God provides a look-in, as it were! Christ crucified became a stumbling block to the Jews. Jesus spoke in parables, that seeing they should not see, and hearing they should not understand (Mtt 13:13-17). In his miracles people failed to see his love, mercy and grace. They only saw a threat to the established power and rule. They could sing, "I lift my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from?" and see on that mountain, not the cross of their Saviour, but only of a powerless and now beaten and dead man. They could not believe the sign they received, that sign being, ‘ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him’ (John 3:14-15).
And for the Greeks, a crucified God was utter stupidity. God's foolishness was too wise for them, so many missed the point. They speculated about God. For them, God wasn't a person; he was better grounded in dialogue, debate, and round-table discussions. They knew all about God, so they thought, but they didn't know God any more than a scientist who merely dissects a bird can know about flight and the beauty of it. The end result of all their discussions and debates was a stone statue having the inscription "To an unknown God."
Having circumvented wisdom and signs and success with foolishness, confusion and failure, God invites us all to grasp him by faith, and by faith alone, as he gifts it through the Bible and the Sacraments. That is why St Paul can say to the Christians at Corinth, 'When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.' For earlier in the same Letter he had said, 'For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength' (1 Cor 1:21-25).
Apart from a child-like faith that takes the Bible as the very voice of God, there is no other way to ask, seek and find: to listen to him: to hear who he is, what he has done, and what he is still doing in the world. Fallen man cannot discover God! Rather, it is God who reveals himself to fallen men, in his epiphany of himself. He operates this way so that no one might boast - "I found God!" Remember Jesus said, ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you’ (John 15:16). Remember also St Paul's words, those words that fly like a banner over the Lutheran Church of Australia - 'For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not because of works lest any man should boast' (Eph 2:8-9).
So the very fact that God has revealed himself to you, that you are his disciple, speaks both judgment and grace. The judgment lies in God's revelation of himself to you who count as nothing. That's right! You and I count for nothing! You and I have no cause to be proud that God has elected us from all eternity. On the contrary, his very election of you is the divine proclamation of your unworthiness. As St Paul writes, 'Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no-one may boast before him.' The fact that you know God does not give any credence to your own capabilities to know him!
But there is also grace in God's choosing. The grace lies in the fact that he has called you and given you his Son, Christ crucified. Don't concern yourselves that you count for nothing in the sight of God. Look how Paul describes Jesus. He is the source of our life, he is our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness and our redemption. Jesus is everything we need. He has shown us the way to eternal life. His righteousness has atoned for our unrighteousness. He is our wisdom.
Faith in Jesus saves eternally: miracles save only for a time, wisdom has its boundaries, and there is no god or angel or saint waiting in heaven to applaud you for your worldly success. This is what the world around us fails to believe and refuses to see. God saves sinners through the preaching of the cross. It is the very power of God. This is a truth so astounding that only faith can receive it.
Our limited minds, the need for proofs, our hunger for success, all fail at some point or another when we try to get God within our grasp. In place of these strivings, God comes down to our level of capacity, into our humanity, as he takes it up into himself, and becomes one of us in Jesus Christ. And when he comes to us, he comes to die our death, and to conquer all our strivings after him, by and through the foolishness of the cross.
So brothers and sisters in Christ: may your prayer be this: "Number us, O Lord, among the foolish and lowly of this world that we may believe what you have done in sending Jesus in humility to redeem us upon the cross. Amen."
And the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.