Psalm 51 The Law

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you my Lord and my salvation. Amen.

Who of you are sinners? Any one? Come on a show of hands??? Is anyone here willing to admit that they are a sinner? That they are unclean? That they are deserving of death, damnation and hell???

 I don’t really care if you put your hand up. Whether you did or didn’t doesn’t really concern me. God knows where your heart is, he knows where you are, He knows what you have done wrong, he knows that you were born in sin and can not free yourselves. But the question I am posing to you this morning is: Do you know your sin? Do you admit your sin? Are you afraid of the punishment of this sin? And what on earth you are going to do about it?

Read Psalm 51, a prayer for forgiveness.
 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (ESV)

 Do you know your sin? 
 Through out this psalm, we hear that the psalmist knew His sin. He understood that he had done wrong. His words were “For I know my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”. But how did he know he had sinned. Was it just a feeling of wrong?

The person who is thought to have written this psalm is King David after his affair with Bathsheba and after Nathan the prophet had spoken to him concerning his rebellion against God. But what was it that convicted David of his sin. Was it only that someone had come up to him and showed him where he was wrong?

 One of the duties of the king of Israel was to know the will of God: As it is written in Deuteronomy chapter 17: And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,  that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment”. King David knew the laws of God. He had memorized them, written them down, and read them every day of his life. The law of God showed him his sin.

 And we might say: “Thats all well and good, the king had plenty of time to read the law of God so he could know God’s will. He was paid to do that as his job”. But God didn’t let the general population of his people get off that easy in fact he said about His commandments: “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”. This is not just a sometimes, when we have time to do it thing. We are to know God’s commandments like the back of our hand. But do we???

Do you spend time every day meditating of God’s law? Do you spend time reading your bible everyday, letting God speak to you through His words? Do you know your sin? And if you do know your sin, Are you willing to admit it and repent of the wrong you have done? It would have been easy enough for David to hide from his sin (at least from the human perspective). He got rid of Bathsheba’s husband by having him killed in battle. No one would have known any better. But God knew. And so did David. David knew he had done wrong because he knew God’s law to not commit adultery. And in response to God’s law he repented. He says to God, “My sin is ever before me”, “Against you have I sinned”, “I was born in sin”. This is a man who has been absolutely crushed by God’s law. Every bone in his body felt like it was broken by this weight of sin. Does your sin make you feel this way? Do you feel that burdened by your sin? Does the punishment of death and eternal damnation fill you with fear? Did you know that is what God says the punishment of sin is; Death? And so now that we know what the punishment of breaking the commandments is (whether you know them or not), What on earth are you going to do about it???

 There is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent this punishment. No matter how good a life you live, no matter how often you pray, no matter how much you come to church, not even how much you put in that offering bowl will save you. Nothing you do, can repay God for the wrong which you have done!!!

But this is not the end of my sermon. If you have lost attention, please listen to me now again. There is nothing that you have done that can possibly separate you from the love of God. He has washed you clean from sin. He has washed you in his blood with hyssop. He has passed over you. He has blotted out all your sin. He has washed away all your iniquity. According to His steadfast love and His abundant mercy he has redeemed you. There was a cost to your redemption. It was only by blood that your sins could be forgiven. The blood of His only Son, Jesus Christ was shed so that salvation could be yours. Not by anything that you have done. But as a free gift. Won for you, before you first knowingly sinned. Before you were even born. Before you were even conceived. That is how much God loves you.

And so, dear friends in Christ: Let us draw near to God our Father with a true heart to confess our sins and ask him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us. Almighty God, we come before your throne, knowing our sin, it is always before us, we know that although we have sinned against those around us, ultimately it is you, only you that we have rebelled against. Lord we confess that we have sinned against you in thought word and deed, all of which we now confess to you in our hearts (time of silence for confession) Lord we have sinned against you, only you, both by what we have done, and by what we have failed to do. We have not loved you with our whole heart and we have not loved our neighbor as our selves. We know that the punishment for our rebellion against you is death in time and eternity. Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy blot out our transgressions. We are sorry for our sins Lord. And so we ask you, for the sake of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to forgive us, to wash us so our consciences can be whiter than snow. Amen 

And so I ask each of you in the presence of God who searches the heart: Do you confess that you have sinned and do you repent of your sins? Do you believe that Jesus Christ has redeemed you from your sins, and do you desire forgiveness in his name? Do you intend with the help of the Holy Spirit to live as in God’s presence, and to strive to lead a holy life, even as Christ has made you holy? Christ gave to his church the authority to forgive the sins of those who repent.

Therefore upon your confession I announce the grace of God to all of you and declare that your sins have been forgiven, In the name of the Father, Son and and Holy Spirit. Peace be with you. Amen 

Freedom to do God’s will!!! 
And so then is that all there is? Is this where the sermon finishes? I guess that depends of whether we meant the third partition of that confession: “Do you intend with the help of the Holy Spirit to live as in God’s presence, and to strive daily to lead a holy life, even as Christ has made you holy?”. You see repentance and forgiveness is not just a ticket to go on with our old lifestyle. That is what the New Testament book of James calls “Dead faith”. If we are to have a living faith, forgiveness can not have a full stop. It will have fruit.

But how can we know what it is that God would have us do? How are we to know how to live a holy life, even as Christ has made us holy. Amazingly, it is the same things that I mentioned before. It is the ten commandments that showed us where we are sinful and unclean. This time however; it is not the fear of punishment and the knowledge of our sin that drives us to keep them. Now, having received God’s abundant mercy because of his steadfast love, we strive to keep the commandments because of the joy of salvation. It is no longer, “THOU SHALT NOT”; rather it is out of overflowing joy that we have a merciful God who has saved us, that we listen to God’s will made known to us by the gift of His commands.

And so my brothers and sisters in Christ. May the love of God which has forgiven you all your sins, fill you with joy and gladness. May his mercy strengthen you as you strive to love Him and love one another, so that in all you do, all you say and all you think, may be pleasing to the God of our Salvation. Father, Son and Holy Sprit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

From fear to Fear (Sermon Mark 4:35-41)

³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. ³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!”And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (ESV)

What is the first Commandment???

You shall have no other gods besides me!

What does this mean???

We should fear, love and trust in God above all things!

I don't know how you did confirmation and sunday school. Did you repeat sections of the small catechism like this one? Did you learn them off by heart... By rote??? 

I know that when I did both sunday school and confirmation we did a little bit of rote memory stuff, but I saw it all as unimportant, and a waste of my time... I wonder if you ever felt this way?

My problem wasn't that I didn't enjoy these times learning from my pastor and sunday school teachers... The problem was, it really didn't make a lot of sense to me. I knew that it is not good to have other god’s... But why should I fear God? God is love! God isn't scary! He's a good bloke... Surely I shouldn't fear him.

So today lets look at the word “fear”. What is the fear of the Lord? How do we fear the Lord? And how is the Fear of the Lord so important to learning and keeping all the commandments of God?

In the scripture above we are presented with the picture of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He has come to the end of a busy day, doing his Father's work. He had spent the morning and afternoon teaching the multitude about the kingdom of heaven.

By the end of the day, Jesus would have been exhausted, he had been on a boat so the he would have some space between himself and the crowd, so he had not stretched out his tired bones for the duration of the day. Jesus and the disciples now decide to leave the crowd, so they set off, just as He was, (without having a stretch or anytime to refresh himself), towards the other side of the sea. 

I wonder if you have ever traveled at night after a very long day at work? How hard is it to stay awake? Have you ever had to pull over and catch some zzz's before continuing the journey? Jesus did exactly that. He was tired, so he slept, laying his head on a cushion in the stern. 

It was at this time that the wind picked up, and the waves began to burst over the sides of their boat. This wasn't just rough seas this was liquid death. The boat was beginning to fill up, the boat was beginning to sink. All the while, Jesus, exhausted from his days work, lays asleep. 

I wonder what you would do if you were in the same position as the disciples? Would you sit down and rationally ponder the probability of your survival vs your death??? Would you have pulled up a table and chairs and wrote out a extensive list of the pro's and con's of your situation??? I wonder if you may have done what I see my self doing and run around yelling, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, hoping that against all odds the wind will cease and the boat begin to empty its self with out my own intervention???

I wonder if you would have the faith that Jesus expects of us, to trust Him above all things???

You see the disciples had lost their focus of who Jesus was, and that which He was teaching. He was teaching all those around him about the kingdom of God, He was telling them what it meant to fear, love and trust God above all things. But they had not yet understood what it was that he was saying. They were seeing but not perceiving, hearing but not understanding. Instead of focusing on Christ as one who was sent by God and who was God, they looked at what was happening around them. They saw the waves, they saw the wind. They no longer saw God. They feared the storm and stopped fearing the Lord. 

And again we come to the point of fear. What is fear? What does it mean to fear the Lord? Why doesn't it come naturally to us?

Fear as it is defined in the collins dictionary is: an unpleasant emotion caused by coming danger, to be afraid, to regard with fear, to revere. But the greek word used in this text is Pho be ow which means to be in awe of, to be frightened and to revere. The fear of the Lord is not just emotional but also a rational reaction to a situation. The amazing thing about the fear of the Lord is that you can not be taught it by mere words but by being shown the awesomeness, majesty and the gloriousness of God. And this is what happened to the disciples. They were taught all day with words about the kingdom of God, but it is while they are on the boat that they witnessed the awesome authority of Christ. They were given the fear of the Lord.  

I wonder if you’ve ever had a similar experience? Where the storms in your life became so strong that you felt like you were sinking? Like you were about to drown? If you became afraid of all that was going on around you? 

At this moment what did you do? 

Did you write a list? Did you run around yelling? Or did you just go into your shell becoming more and more depressed about your situation? I wonder if you finally went to Christ, and asked him if he cared that you were up to your neck? That you were drowning? I wonder if you accused him of being asleep to your situation???

And I wonder if you remember what happened next?

Did you continue to sink? or; did you, all of a sudden, look back and notice that everything around you was calm and peaceful? That Jesus did care, that he had told all around you to stop, to be still, and it was.

Maybe you are in this place at the moment. Maybe you will be in this place in the coming weeks or months. Maybe you feel like you are in the middle of a storm, that you are sinking further and further into despair, and that you are going to drown. 

Go to Christ. Tell Him your problems. Tell Him how you are feeling. He cares. Jesus the Christ is not sleeping. He knows exactly where you are, and what you are going through. He wants you to trust him. He wants you to go to him for help. And because He cares, because He loves you, he will protect you, and he will not let you perish. Rather, he will show you that he is trustworthy. And through this you will experience his majesty, power and authority. So that you can truly fear Him in every true meaning of the word.

And then, when you look back on what Christ has done for you. Don't stop and think for even one moment that it was by your own doing that it all got better. Or, that there is a logical explanation for your survival. The disciples a few days, months and years later didn't stop and say that the storm ran it self out, nor did they say that they managed to steer themselves clear of the waves. They stood firm in the knowledge that Christ cared for them that he loved them, and so they gave God the glory that he deserved. They were awed by God and so they came to truly Fear God, in the way that He is to be feared. 

Allow yourself to be awed by God, and give him the glory He deserves. Get back into the teachings of the faith, back into the 10 Commandments, the creed and the Lord's prayer. Allow God to show you what it means to Fear, Love and Trust Him, so that you can see, hear and taste that the Lord is good, and that His mercy endures forever. AMEN.

And the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.

Mission: Keeping our eyes on Jesus. (Sermon Matt 14:22-33)

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 
Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage! I AM; do not be afraid.” And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.  Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” 
The Hows of mission: Keeping your focus on Jesus?
Today we are here to celebrate the mission of the church, the mission that Christ himself has given us. And today I want to take the opportunity to ask you, how?
How do we do the things that Jesus has told us to do?
How do we come before Jesus? 
And How do we keep our eyes upon Jesus ensuring that the storms and waves in our lives don't sneak up on us and take our focus away from Him?
How do we do as Jesus has told us when all we see are the storms?
The disciples in todays Gospel reading had just finished seeing Jesus preform the miracle of feeding 5000 people, yet the disciples did not understand what they saw, they did not believe that this man Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God. They saw that God was with him but they had not yet put their faith in him as the Son of God.
The disciples after having been fed to the full on the fish and bread that Jesus had provided them were told by Jesus to leave in the boat across the lake of Galilee while Jesus sent the crowds away. No one can challenge that this was a simple command. It was what some of the disciples had been doing all their life before Jesus chose them to follow him. But as they were crossing the lake a strong wind arose on the sea and scared the Jesus out of them.
The sea was a place that the people of that day feared. It was a place of the dead, the place of monsters and evil. The sea was not a place you would want to be crossing at night because it was at night that evil was thought to have had the most say, especially on the sea. The sea was scary enough by itself, not to mention the way the wind and the waves began to rise. The disciples were tired, wet and afraid and the message of Jesus was no longer the focus of their hearts. Jesus seemed to be truly scared out of them. 
Is it any different with us today? We have all been sent on a mission by Christ. We have been each placed in a unique vocation. In these places of work we are called to be as

Christ to those around us. But it doesn't always go as we have planned. We become scared by the storms raging in our hearts. We become disheartened as we are challenged to bear witness to what Christ has done for us. We become so absorbed in the things around us, that the Jesus seems to be scared out of us. 
Thank God this is not true. Jesus has not left us, He has not been scared out of us. We just need to have our focus pointed back towards the one who is, Our Lord, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
How do we come before Jesus when all we see is the waves?

When Jesus came toward the disciples, walking on the sea they thought they were seeing a ghost. This wouldn't have been hard for them to believe as they were on the sea, the place of the dead. But as soon as they cried out in fear Jesus told them to take courage, that He was God, and for them not to be afraid. 
Peter was not on to be backward in coming forward. The same man that said that he would not deny Jesus yet did before he realised what he was doing. Spoke out to Jesus and said for him to prove who he was, by telling him to come and walk on the water to Him. What an inspiration is this man! Surely he is high on adrenaline. To be bold enough to even ask to walk on water. Remember, he is wet, tired, scared and has just been seeing ghosts and yet still has the courage to step out of the protection of the boat into that place of fear, the sea. Surely this man, Peter, is a man of great faith...

So Peter steps out, he is on his way, he walks on the water towards Christ. But he is distracted by the wind and the waves that take his focus. He begins to sink.

Isn't this the same as we find ourselves doing all the time too. We step out in faith, we begin to do those things that we have asked God to do. We step out of our comfort zone, our protective homes or offices. We see those people God has placed in our lives. Only for Satan to sneak up before us and put other things on our minds. We quickly forget the task we had set out to do, and see the other things that all of a sudden seem to be more important than loving our neighbour. The problem is, when we start to watch the waves and the winds around us, we begin to sink in our despair. We start to sink into the water of our lives, forgetting the reason for us stepping out. That we were stepping out for Jesus.

Like Peter we begin to sink into the water, and all we can do is cry out like him, Lord, Save Me. And immediately our focus is back on Christ. He is there to reach out His hand to save us. But as with Peter, he looks at us and tells us. O you of little faith. Why did you doubt?

This man Jesus Christ the Son of God, has shown us that he is worthy of our trust. He comes to us, in our times of need, when the storms come up and frighten us. When the seas of our lives threaten to crush us beneath their waters. And he comes to us and tells us that He is God, That he is the great I AM. He tells us not to fear because He is God. And yet when the storms rise up, we lose our focus on Him and act as if the Jesus has been scared out of us.

How lucky we are to have a God that forgives us for doubting Him and losing our courage to do His work!
How do we keep our eyes on Jesus through the wind and the waves?

So how do we keep our eyes focused on Jesus through the wind and waves of our lives. The Gospel message shows us this as well. 

After sending the disciples across the lake and sending the crowds away, Jesus went up on the mountain by himself and He prayed.
The answer for keeping our focus on God is through prayer. 
But the amazing thing about this prayer is that it doesn't begin with you. It begins with Jesus. Jesus never looses His focus on you. He reaches out His hand and holds you in His prayer.

And so we pray in Jesus' prayer when we pray to our Father that our fears and our doubts will not overcome us. We pray in Jesus' prayer when we ask our Father to give us the opportunities to love our neighbour, and that we can be Christ's light in the World. We pray in Jesus' prayer when we realise that our focus is no longer on Christ but on the things that surround us. And we pray in Jesus' prayer when we ask our Father in Heaven to forgive us for taking our eyes off of his Son, Jesus Christ. We prayer in Jesus prayer because this is the gift that He gives us. To never stop focusing on you and helping you pray in you time of need.
So let us pray:

Dear Lord Our Heavenly Father, We come before you in the prayer of your Son, Jesus Christ to give you thanks for the opportunities you give us to step out of our boats, onto the waters of our lives (our families, our work places and every aspect of our lives) to walk towards Jesus in the different ways that you have called us. Help us to be like Peter, to have the courage to step out of the boat, but help us to keep our eyes forward so that we will not begin to sink in our fears. Help us to always keep our eyes on the one who called us, and keeps his eyes on us, Jesus Christ your Son. When we do take our eyes off you, forgive us Lord. Help us not to stay feeling guilty, which makes us feel as in we are sinking again. But help us to remember that you are a merciful God, who does forgive us, so that we can once again walk on the waters of our lives toward you. In Jesus Name we pray, AMEN!

And the peace of God which passes all understanding, Keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

Lives Transfigured (Sermon Mark9:2-8)

Lives Transfigured.

Grace and Peace to you from God the Father from Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This sermon is based on the Gospel Reading for the Transfiguration of our Lord Mark 9:2-8, 

² And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³ and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴ And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. ⁵ And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁶ For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷ And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” ⁸ And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. 

Lord, sanctify us by the truth, your words are truth. Amen.

One man said to his friend one day, “My wife talks to her self a lot”. His friend answered, “Mine does too, but she doesn’t know it. She thinks I’m listening”. 

Ok so for those who didn’t pick up on it, that was my lame attempt of publicly repenting to my wife for my listening skills.

But thats not where I need to leave the repentance, in fact it barely scratches the surface. God our Father in the reading today says quite specifically that the man on that hill, Jesus Christ, is His son, the son of God, and that we are to hear and listen to him. Do we always listen to his word, do we always concentrate on what He is telling us? Or do we ignore him, or tell ourselves that its too hard to hear, or even that He can’t be meaning that because it doesn’t make sense... 

Today I want to show you that nothing much has changed in the last 2000 years and like the disciples we fail to hear and listen to Jesus Christ, even though we know who He truly is.

Just before this reading Jesus foretold the disciples of His upcoming death and resurrection. Mark 8:31-33 reads: Jesus then began to teach them 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. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke Jesus. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying “Get behind me Satan, You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns”.

Six days after this happened, Jesus went for a walk up a mountain, he took with him his close friends Peter, James and John. And when they got up the hill, these three men saw an amazing sight. Jesus was revealed to them in His truest form. He shone brightly, his righteousness was physically revealed. Or as I mentioned in the Children’s address it was like superman showing his undies on the outside for all present to see.... 

After this happened God descended in the form of a cloud, and said to Peter, James and John, “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him”...

So in brief, they have seen who Jesus is, they have heard who Jesus is, Peter even said, “You are the messiah, the Son of God”, so it all seems pretty self explanatory doesn’t it. Now they must surely have faith in Jesus... Shouldn’t they??? 

Only days after the transfiguration Jesus again tells the disciples that he must suffer and die... And not one of them understood.

Nope not much has changed in 2000 years. We have all been told who Jesus is, every time we come to church, when we went to Sunday school, when we went to confirmation classes and every time we open our bible. We see who Jesus is during these times, but we see him most clearly through those in whom he is working, as well as through the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. And every week we acknowledge who Jesus is either using the words of the Apostles or Nicene Creeds. And yet... We still follow the example of the disciples and don’t understand Jesus, listen to Jesus or see him in the right way.

The question is; even though we don’t understand, or listen, or see Jesus; exactly the same as the disciples 2000 years ago were guilty of; are we willing to be as bold, as courageous and as transformed as they were?

The disciples didn’t understand, yet, they followed Christ up the hill and back down the hill.  

What does the hill represent in our life? The top of the hill was where God revealed his son to the disciples present. It was the place where God talked to them, the place where the saints of old (represented by Moses and Elijah) and the present day saints (represented by the disciples) were gathered together... Can you think of any place similar to this??? Isn’t this exactly what we are doing right now? Gathering together with the Apostles, the prophets and the judges, as well as with our fellow saints here on earth, the members of this congregation. Aren’t we spoken to by God every week as we gather in this place. Aren’t we shown Christ in His glory every time we are gathered up the front here to partake of His body and blood. Do we really understand what happens when we come to church and are spoken to by God? And do our uncertainties stop us from speaking out about what we believe to those around us in our daily lives???       

Yes we come up the hill with Jesus like the disciples. But are we willing to come back down from the hill with Jesus as well. 

The disciples didn’t always listen, and they were sinners like you and me, yet they strove to do what was right.

Peter as I mentioned earlier had only six days earlier been shut down by Jesus. He didn’t want to hear that Jesus would die, that he would be hated and that he would be rejected... It didn’t make sense so he tried to tell Jesus the way he thought it should be ... Jesus in the most powerful way he could says “Behind me Satan”.

Now on top of the hill, Peter sees his moment of reconciliation. He recognizes God’s glory on that hill. He sees Moses and Elijah, He knows that Jesus is the Son of God and He wants to do as He see’s scripture telling him to do. So he asks to erect three tents on the mountain to house the three sent from God. Peter didn’t know what to say, He was frightened by everything going on, and yet He still attempted to do that which he thought was the godly thing to do. We don’t always listen to what Jesus tells us to do, we get distracted by life, and we become frightened by the things happening around us. But do we have the courage of Peter to speak up in these circumstances and say what we feel is biblically correct. Do we have the courage to move on from our past sins and attempt to please God every day in every way?

Yes we forget to listen and we sin, but do we let the guilt of our sin stop us from trying to do right in God’s sight?

Although the disciples heard who Jesus was; were told who Jesus was; and were shown who Jesus was, they found it hard to see what this meant until they too were transformed.

Jesus on the mountain was transfigured, or transformed. Only it wasn’t so much a transformation as it was a revealing. Jesus was already pure, he was already righteous before God. This was just the first time the disciples had seen it physically. He shone brightly. But what did the disciples really see? Did they know right then that He was God? Did they know right then that The Father loved Him? Possibly, but it was only when God spoke to them that they had any idea of what this meant, and probably more to the point; it was not until Christ rose from the grave that what God said about Jesus being his loved son who needed to be listened too, made any sense to the disciples at all.

They had eyes but they did not see, ears but they did not hear. Brains but they could not understand. How much do these guys sound like us here today?

But as with the disciples, the story does not end here for us either. God continued to teach them about who His son was. Jesus himself continued to teach them the ways of His kingdom. He taught them what forgiveness and grace, hope and joy, truly were. But ultimately it was not until Christ’s death and resurrection that they began to understand all that God had taught them. That the scriptures had spoken about all that must happen, and that all scripture had been preparing them for Christ to come to be a sacrifice for the sins of all people. 

We like the disciples are being continuously taught, corrected and disciplined by our Father. And being the great Father that he is, he continuously forgives us, and shows us His grace which gives us hope and true joy...

But how was this made possible?

Christ died on the cross to be the sacrifice for all sin. He took it all upon himself. He was the only one who could be this sacrifice, as he was the only one who had come into this world who was truly righteous, without sin, without guilt. This is what the disciples saw on that mountain, The righteousness of Christ shone through, his blamelessness, his guiltlessness... his holiness was revealed.

When Jesus died. He took on the curse of death. But because of his righteousness, he could not stay dead. Death could not hold him. And anyone who believes in Him and is baptised is saved from death, because of His holy sacrifice.

The most amazing thing however, is that the righteousness that was revealed to Peter, James and John, was given to all of us who believe in him at our baptisms. We are washed clean in Christ’s blood and are given His righteousness as our robe to wear. This shining robe that is purer than any Napisan product can make it or any dry cleaner can possibly come close to, is ours. Not by anything we do, but by what Christ has already done for us. And so we too become transformed or transfigured, into Christ’s holiness.

So what does this mean for us right now?

We should be willing to let Christ lead us back down from this hill, the church and to follow him, through out our week even though we don’t totally understand it. We should be willing to listen to what God has to say, both here at church and at home as we read the bible and pray, despite our previous sins and guilt that have already been forgiven.

And we should be willing to allow God to daily forgive us all our sins, daily transform us in His bright shining righteousness so that in all we do we can be bright shining beacons of Gods forgiveness, grace, hope and true joy.

And the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Amen.

The Joy of Salvation (Sermon Psalm 51)

Grace and peace from God our Father, through Jesus Christ. Amen

This sermon is based on the psalm for today, psalm 51:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,    

so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgement.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you delight in truth in the guts,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sin and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, my God  and my salvation. AMEN!

The Joy of Salvation. (What is it?)

Many, years ago there was a football team, a great football team, the greatest football team. A team that defeated Brisbane in the grand final. The team of course was Port Adelaide... Now many, many, many years ago, there was another team who won a grand final, two in a row in fact... But that was so long ago that no one can really remember, nor really care about them... But I’m sure any Adelaide crow supporter would remember the feeling of victory, the elation that their team won the grand final... Just as much the good ole Port supporters do...

The years have gone by since those victories. But the feelings remain the same. A sense of pride maybe? A memory of the power felt as the siren sounded and victory was assured. 

I know for me, after Port won the premiership I walked the streets wearing all my colors for a least a couple weeks after the game. And boy oh boy did I boast about it to everyone who would hear me.

I’m sure by now many are wondering where I am going with this. Sure, we can understand this joy, this elation, and this great feeling... But we are at church, suppose to be learning about God, and His Son, who came down from heaven to die on the cross for our sins. Who won for us salvation. Who has erased all the sin that we have committed. Who defeated sin, death and the devil... 

What on earth have celebrations about victory got to do with God and Church??? 

Why should we care about boasting about a great contest that has been won???

Have we got anything here to celebrate? 

Have we got anything here to boast to our friends about?

Is there a reason for joy?

The psalmist as we heard just before thinks so... In fact the whole psalm that I read out is leading up to the words “Restore to me the JOY of your Salvation”

Have we got anything to celebrate? Yes we do. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

But how do we receive this understanding of Victory? The way the psalmist puts it is that through Repentance we can receive Forgiveness; which shows us the certainty of our Salvation, which is something to be truly Joyful about.

Repentance

The psalmist in this psalm understands his sin. He knows of his guilt and he knows what the punishment should be. He knows that he is deserving of death. 

He says that He has sinned against God. He knows that no matter who was hurt, no matter what he did, the one he sinned ultimately against was God. 

You see, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your might, means that you will not hurt your neighbor in any way... Not even in your thoughts. To do anything against anyone is showing that you do not Fear, Love and Trust in God above all things. 

The psalmist knew this. He also knew that ever since God created him, within his mothers womb, he was corrupt and unclean. He was born, as we all are, with a sinful nature. Thats part of being descendants of Adam and Eve. Yes, this is hard to accept, that even a new born baby, fresh from the womb, is under the curse of sin. But this is what God teaches us throughout scripture, From Genesis through to Revelation. We are all born in bondage to sin and we can not free our selves. We deserve God’s eternal punishment for sin, which is of course eternal death. This is not negotiable, this is the punishment of sin. Death.

This is the exact reason why the psalmist pleads to God to hide his face from his sin; to blot out all his iniquity, to “Have mercy on me”.

He knows his transgressions, and the guilt of his sin is always in front of him, he can not escape from the crushing feeling of guilt.

The issue I feel today is that we don’t really know our sin. And society has desensitized us to such a degree that we don’t always know when we have done wrong. But God has given us all we need to know about how to live. We had them read to us in church just a couple weeks ago. The Ten Commandment. 

Again a problem arises where everyone is sooooo busy that something has to give... And unfortunately that thing is quite often our time with God, our time of learning his commandments, so that we can live in accordance with his will. And unfortunately without the knowledge of God’s law, how can we possibly know the joy of salvation, the joy of forgiveness?

What do we have to repent if we don’t do anything that we know is wrong?

We, like the psalmist are filthy, rotten, sinners who have nothing left but to plead to God to have mercy, and to forgive us.

Forgiveness

But how could God possibly find it in himself to forgive us? We know that we are really bad. We know what our punishment should be.... DEATH! But like the psalmist we can be sure that if God cleans us, we will not be just “dirt free”, but totally pure, free from blemish, without any sin. Clean from the inside out...

Right in the middle of the psalm there is a rather unusual sentence. “Behold you delight in truth in the guts, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart”. Ummm, what to make of this... Ok so I said that God will clean us from the inside out, but having truth in the guts... That sounds almost painful... 

And painful is probably the exact word for it... When you feel guilty where do you feel it??? What about when you’re afraid, where do you feel that??? Is it some where about... HERE??? 

So if we feel guilty and unclean in our guts... Don’t you think God would want to clean us, to make our consciences free??? 

Yes, God loves your Guts that much... 

And the interesting thing is that when we receive this cleansing, we can see much clearer, we can see where we did wrong, and we are taught this as wisdom in our secret heart. We are taught the difference between truth and untruth, good and evil. And most importantly we are taught that God does forgive our sins and removes the guilt of our sin.

God creates in us a clean heart, and He renews our spirit, not with our old evil corrupt spirit, but with His Holy Spirit. God becomes part of us, when we repent of our sin and receive His forgiveness.

And whats more, he promises us, not to send us away, but that he will be with us till the very end of the age. And that he will send a helper to us, The Holy Spirit to teach us, guide us and point us always to Jesus Christ the source of our Salvation...

True Joy 

And for this reason we can be truly joyful. We have the promise of our sins forgiven. We have the promise of salvation through Christ our Lord. Jesus won the victory over sin, death and the devil. He won the great match. He died on the cross, so that by His blood splashed over us, we would be cleaned, whiter than snow. 

Now if thats not something to boast about and tell our friends, family and all the people that we meet... I don’t know what is... Isn’t that something really worth celebrating?!?!

And the peace of God which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

God's peace be with you. (Sermon John 20:19-23)

Grace and Peace from God our Father through Jesus Christ our Risen Saviour. Amen.

“The Lord be with you”, “And also with you”; 

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, Our Heavenly Father, As you spoke your peace to your disciples in the midst of their fear, speak your words of peace to us today in the midst of and despite of our fears. In Jesus name we pray. Amen

When a beauty contestant gets up to answer the stereotypical question... “What do you think would make the world a better place?” The answer inevitably is “World Peace” But what is it that they really want? Is it the end to all wars? Or the end of poverty? Or even the end of homelessness? Sure these are good and worthy causes... But is this the summery of Peace? What is peace? What does it mean? For different people at different times peace can mean many different things.

But ultimately there is one overshadowing definition of peace. To have freedom from sin. 

John 20:19-23 says: ¹⁹ On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”  

What on earth had them so worried that they bolted themselves behind closed doors?

Well you see, they were followers of Jesus, and only 3 days earlier they had witnessed the crucifixion of their friend and teacher. And what made matters worse, they knew that He was innocent and that Jesus was killed for no wrong doing of his own... 

If you were in their position, how scared do you think you would have been? Can you even imagine their immense fear? Of knowing you are only moments, days or if you are lucky weeks away from your own death.

The disciples were fearful, in every sense of the word. They were shaking, they were sweating, they were feeling sick with fear. Not to mention the feelings of great sadness because of the death of their friend.  And their feelings of guilt for abandoning Jesus the night of his arrest and torture. 

And then, in the midst of their fear, suffering and guilt. While the door is still locked and bolted. Someone comes into the room. Who could this be? How could this be? They watched him die only 3 days earlier, watched him be buried and watched the huge stone cover the tomb. But it’s true, Mary was right. JESUS IS ALIVE.

And immediately after entering the room Jesus says to them “Shalom”. This common, everyday Hebrew greeting, made into a divine blessing and action. “Peace be with you”. 

What is Jesus doing by saying these words, “Peace be with you”...

He is giving them His peace. The peace of God.

The disciples were afraid; Jesus removed their fear.

The disciples were mourning; Jesus removed their sorrow.

The disciples were feeling guilty; Jesus forgave their sin.

“Peace be with you” this was not some mere greeting but a promise and an action. And the most amazing thing about these words is that they were not just spoken to the disciples for that one moment in time. In fact they were not spoken for the disciples alone. They were spoken just as much for you and for me. 

God knows that at times life feels like it is all going wrong. That at times we are fearful of certain things beyond our control. He knows that there are times that we are sad or in mourning. He knows that when we do wrong we feel guilty. He knows that because of sin, we live in chaos. In an un-perfect world with un-perfect people. And this is the exact reason that Christ died. He died to remove the consequence of sin. He died to give you peace. 

How do we know this is true for us?

This morning we witnessed God claim Bohdi as His own son. We watched God clean Bohdi from all sin, and give him the opportunity to live in His peace. In the same way that we were cleaned, and given His peace at our baptism’s.

We know that Christ is present with us, because He has promised to be with us always, till the very end of time. And he constantly proclaims to us the words “Peace be with you”.

We remind each other of this great gift every week. When Pastor, in the place of Christ, says the words “The Lord be with you”, and “Peace be with you”, and “Grace and Peace to you from God our Father” and “The blessing of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you always, now and forever”. Yet we are not only reminded of God’s presence among us, but we are brought into God’s presence. These are not just empty common words; they have in them and they are the power of God. They are Christ speaking his peace onto you. 

And you in response to these words, declare Christ’s presence to Pastor as well, by saying the words, “And also with you”, and “Amen”. 

Every week we begin our services “In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit”, and the service concludes with the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you always. 

We through out all of our divine services are told and shown that God is with us. That Christ is always present with us and are told and shown and given His peace.

When Jesus is present, and the peace of God is announced on us and declared to us, it does not leave us unchanged.

So what is the point of this peace? Is it just given to us for a nice, warm fuzzy feeling? Or is it more than this?

In the gospel reading today, we don’t hear Christ mention this divine peace only once. But twice. Firstly He brings His peace to the fearful disciples. And then, secondly, He gives them the strength and ability to carry out the task He was sending them to do on His behalf, to bring God’s peace to all those around them. 

And Christ does the same to us through the declarations of peace in this building every week. Firstly to give us peace from fear, sorrow and guilt. But secondly to give us the strength and ability to bring peace to all those around us. The Christians job is not only to come to church and receive peace. But to go back out of this place recharged and energized with peace to give God’s peace to all around us. 

Jesus said to the disciples and tells us today as well:

Whoever’s sins you forgive they are forgiven; whoever’s sins you pronounce unforgiven they remain unforgiven.

The definition of peace, as I mentioned earlier, is freedom from sin. This of course meaning both actual sin (the sins we commit) and the consequence of sin which is death, sorrow, pain, and fear.

So to give this peace to others we need to show them forgiveness and lead them to the cross of Christ, where their sin too can be forgiven. Does this mean we go should join up with the street preachers down Rundle Mall telling everyone that they are going to hell because of they are sinners??? Or does this mean that we need to show people forgiveness by forgiving those who have sinned against us. 

Forgiveness is the key to peace. You received this peace when God forgave you at your baptism’s. Lets go out and give all those around us God’s peace through us forgiving them. One way of practically doing this is the next time someone hurts you in anyway, tell them personally that you were hurt, but don’t leave it at that. Conclude with the words, I forgive you for hurting me, because Christ forgave me for much more than that. I wonder what reaction you will get. I wonder if you will be too scared or fearful, or if you will ask Jesus to give you His peace to that you can pass on the peace that He has first given you.

“The Lord be with you, And also with you.”

Thank-you Jesus for your presence and your peace.

Amen.

Lost and Can't find our own way out. (Genesis 3:8-15)

Lost in Sin

Where are you? Where are you?

What have you done?

Oh no, why did you do that?

I wonder if you ever heard your parents ask these questions when you were younger?

Maybe you did something you knew you should not do, and then for shame and guilt you hid from your parents or avoided them? 

I wonder if you still follow these same patterns today, do you avoid those who you have wronged? Do you hide when you see them coming up the driveway, or into your work place? 

I wonder also if you have ever avoided God, His Word, and His forgiveness because of some sin you knowingly did although you knew it was wrong even before you started doing it???

We all hide. We hide not only from those we have wronged, but we hide from God and the forgiveness he can give. We hide from admitting our sin and in so doing, we become lost. Lost in sin, and we cannot free our selves. 

The bible text that this sermon is based on is Genesis 3:8-15.

"And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (ESV)

So, God was walking in the Garden, taking his regular stroll amongst all that he created. But something was missing, a special part of creation was not there with him. His son and his daughter were not with him. I wonder about the feelings that would have been felt by God. How would you feel if your son and daughter did not want you to see you? Would you have fell sad, maybe abandoned or even feel despised by them? I wonder if you would be scared for them and maybe even hope that they would return to you, no matter what they had done???

But what were Adam and Eve felling? Do you think they heard God's sadness and His pity. Or do you think they heard their maker condemning them for what they had done? When we do wrong in the eyes of God how do we feel God's sound? Is it a sound of pity and sadness or is it anger and judgement?

God knew what Adam and Eve had done, he even knew where they were... He Is God. He knows. But what is it that God did? Did he go up to them and yell at them for being naughty little man and wife? Or did he call them to himself, trying to bring them to repentance, to bring them His forgiveness, to help them find the way back to Him.

Where are you?

God's first call to repentance is right at the start of this reading. God knew where Adam was, both physically and spiritually. God wanted Adam to acknowledge his sin and to turn back from this sin. But Adam did not do this, He instead tried to excuse himself by saying that He was naked so He hid himself? He did not admit his sin; but he sure did become trapped in His sin. By saying that he was naked, he inadvertently told God what he had done wrong. 

Is this any different from us, when we have done wrong? Think of when someone lies, or tells a half truth. No matter what they try to do, they get caught eventually in that sin. We all become trapped in our wrongs and the truth does eventually come out.

But unlike us at times, God doesn't gossip about our wrongs to others, that doesn’t even cross his mind. What he does do is call us again and again to repent of our sin. To admit and turn back from what we have done wrong. The same way that He called Adam to himself again: "Have you done what I told you not to?

This time Adam admits to a bit more of the wrong he has done, but instead of saying sorry for what he knew was wrong and turn back on this sin, he blames Eve for his wrong doing. And again I ask you, are we any different? 

When we are trapped in our sin, do we readily admit to the wrong we have done? Or do we try and highlight the errors and misjudgments of all those around us. Plenty of news articles in resent weeks show us how this is true especially today in our society.

And so, moving on from Adam, God calls Eve also into repentance. What is this you have done? God already knows what Eve has done, but again He is calling her too account; or in other words, giving Eve the opportunity to repent of her sin. But again, like Adam, she chooses not to apologize but to blame another for her sin. And, funnily enough, the hebrew word we translate as deceived in, "the serpent deceived me" can also be translated "the serpent caused me to forget"... 

Do we also try to hide behind our short term memory loss to excuse our wrong doings? do we try to say that we were tricked into sinning? Did the "devil make me do it?". Or do we even hear our selves saying "I was so busy or stressed that I forgot I was not suppose to do that".

CONCLUSION

We all have many excuses, most of which sound great and well thought out... But no matter how much we try to hide and how lost we get in our sin, God knows where we are. We can not hide from our creator. 

But the thing is, we shouldn't be hiding at all, it is because we are hiding that we become lost. 

God isn't walking around wanting to dish out His divine punishment; wanting to zap all His beautiful creation into oblivion. He is walking, searching, calling you constantly back to Him so that your sin can be removed, so you can be forgiven, so that you can once again walk with Him, IN HIS PRESENCE. 

The sound that you hear as death, punishment and judgement, is Not God's voice calling you to you. It is sin calling, trying to get you to hide from God, it is the knowledge of good and evil trying to keep you away from God. 

Hear the sound of God. Hear His tears calling you to come, to come to him for His forgiveness that was won and given for you at the cross of Christ. Where Christ once and for all trampled on the head of the serpent, the deceiver, and gave us the chance of once again being in God's presence, the way that God had intended it to be from the very beginning. Not lost in sin, but found in the peace of God which passes all human understanding, that will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The redeemer of your life.

Amen.