Pentecost 16 – 29 September 2019 – Year C

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 16^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses19–31:

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.^[a] The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

This parable of the “Rich Man and Poor Lazarus” is popular among Christians as there is a tendency to assimilate to it; to make it their own story.  Like many of the popular parables, people often misinterpret it.  For example: Just because Jesus described Lazarus as a poor and suffering man who died and went to heaven, that does not mean that all poor and suffering people go to heaven.  Conversely, just because the healthy, wealthy man went to hell, that does not mean that all wealthy, healthy people will go to hell.  The culture of that time believed that God blessed righteous people by making them prosperous.  They also believed that God condemned the unrighteous by causing them to suffer, or by making them poor.  They expected people of honest wealth to go to heaven and they expected the poor and sickly to go to hell.  Therefore, Jesus often taught that it is possible for the wealthy to go to hell and the poor and suffering to enter heaven.  Jesus wants us to understand that the prosperity and troubles we encounter in this life have no bearing on our eternal destination.

We also need to understand that sooner or later, every parable is indeed and ‘earthly story with a heavenly meaning’.  Although Jesus used parables as a ‘real life’ teaching medium, there is no earthly experience that exactly corresponds to every last detail of eternal truth.  That means that even when Jesus is telling the story, we need to focus on His main points and not get bogged down in the minute details of the parable.  So, while the general portrayal of heaven and hell in this parable is consistent with the teachings of Jesus elsewhere, we should not get bogged down in the detailed descriptions of heaven and hell in this parable.  Jesus did not tell this parable in order to teach about the details of eternity in heaven or hell, nor did He tell it in order to teach about the details of the process of death.

So, the angels carry Lazarus from a life of torment to an eternity of comfort.  The rich man, on the other hand, descends from a life of comfort to an eternity of torment.  It is with this background that Jesus teaches the main point of the parable in a conversation that the rich man had with Abraham.

Initially, the rich man is still arrogant and self-centred.  ^{(Luke 16:24}) He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ The rich man still thought of Lazarus as some sort of servant or slave that Abraham could just order around.  He also did not understand that his current state of suffering was permanent … that there was no relief.

Jesus then had Abraham inform the man of his hopelessness.  Abraham said, ^{(Luke 16:25–26)} ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ There is no relief for those who have died and gone to hell.  There is only eternal suffering.

Finally, after all hope is gone, the rich man thinks of someone else.  ^{(Luke 16:27–28)} He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ The rich man believes that the miraculous appearance of someone coming back from the dead will shock his brothers into belief.

It is now that Jesus began to develop the main point of the parable as Abraham replied, ^{(Luke 16:29)} ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ Within the context of the story, Jesus was teaching that it is the Word of God that proclaims salvation from eternal torture.  Jesus calls all who hear this parable to listen to the proclamation of God’s Word.  He calls for people everywhere to listen as He interprets God’s promises and fulfils them in His own life and in His own death on the cross.

It is at this point in the parable that the rich man expresses a false understanding that still plagues us today.  The rich man thought that God’s Word was not enough.  He thought that the miracle of resurrection from the dead would be more powerful than the Word of God.  ^{(Luke 16:30)} He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ You know; sadly, even today there are many Christians who agree (perhaps subconsciously) with the rich man’s logic.

We still have many in the church on earth who do not believe that God’s Word is enough.  Many don’t come right out and say that God’s Word is not enough, but their opinions and practices show that they see God’s Word as simple information and nothing more.  There are those who, in frustration, exclaim that the ‘the preaching of Christ’s life, crucifixion and resurrection isn’t working for me’. What they are really saying is that God’s Word is not enough to fulfil their needs and appease their feelings.  Those that say that reading the Word of God is boring, are really saying that God’s Word is not enough, it’s not the message that stimulates their wants.  When God’s Word is manipulated to stimulate personal emotions instead leading listeners to the truth of the real need of forgiveness in Christ Jesus that the Bible proclaims, they are really saying, in a very practical way, that God’s Word is not enough. 

Father Abraham disagreed.  ^{(Luke 16:31)} He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ Did you hear what Jesus said through the mouth of Abraham in the parable?  He said that the sign of a person coming back from the dead is not as powerful as the simple proclamation of the Word of God.  If a resurrection from the dead is not as powerful as the Word of God, then no marketing plan … no innovation … no gimmick of any kind is as powerful as the simple proclamation of the Word of God.  Here is the main point of the parable.

When it comes to salvation, there is nothing lacking from God’s Word.  The Holy Spirit spoke through the Apostle Paul and said, ^{(Romans 1:16}) “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” The Apostle Paul also said, ^{(Romans 10:17)} “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The Holy Spirit also spoke through the prophet Isaiah and said, ^{(Isaiah 55:10–11)} “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it”. As far as our salvation is concerned, we need nothing more than the Word of God.  We don’t need emotional manipulation, advertising gimmicks, or any other ideas of our own.  The Word of God is enough.

Not long after Jesus told this parable, there was a real-world example of the exact point that Jesus was making.  By an interesting coincidence, Jesus had a real-world friend whose name actually was Lazarus.  Lazarus died and was in the grave for four days.  Jesus called him forth and raised him from the dead.  What was the response? ^{(John 12:9–11)}  “When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, ¹¹because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus”. Jesus was not engaging in one bit of overstatement when He spoke through Abraham in the parable and said^{, (Luke 16:31)} ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’

How is it that the Word of God is more powerful than the sign of the resurrection?  Jesus said, ^{(John 5:39)}“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” With these words, Jesus taught that the Word of God is important because it is only through the Word of God that we can know who Jesus is and what Jesus did to save us.

It is the teaching of the Holy Scriptures that tell us that Jesus is both God and man.  God’s Word teaches us that Jesus, the Son of God, reigns over all things in equality with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and in this equality, there are not three Gods, but only one God in three persons.  God’s Word teaches us that Jesus took on our flesh in order to take our place under the law.  God’s Word teaches us that Jesus took our sin and its consequences into Himself.  God’s Word teaches us that Jesus suffered and died on a cross and that this sacrifice redeemed all creation from the ravages of sin.  God’s Word teaches us that because Jesus did all this, we do not have to be like the rich man and spend eternity in torment.  Instead, Jesus earned a place for us like the place of Lazarus at Abraham’s side in paradise.  God’s word teaches us that Jesus rose from the dead so that we can have confidence in all these things.

God’s Word not only teaches us about these things, but the Holy Spirit has promised to use the Word of God to deliver these things to us.  It is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit creates the faith that receives the benefits of Christ’s work.  It is by the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God that we will take our place in comfort at Abraham’s side.

Jesus made several points with His story about Lazarus and the Rich man.  The first point is that there are only two possible destinations for us when we leave this world; one is a place of eternal comfort; the other is a place of eternal torment.  The second point Jesus made is that there is no way to leave your eternal destination once you have arrived.  The third and main point that Jesus made is that the Word of God proclaims and delivers the very Grace of God that carries us to that place of eternal comfort.

Those who reject God’s Word will be like the rich man who ended up in the place of eternal torment.  Those who have the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith will live forever in the comfort of paradise.  They have God’s Word that they will live with Him forever.  Amen.  

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pentecost 15 – 22 September 2019 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 16^thChapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses
1-8:

 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ² And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵ So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ He said, ‘A hundred measures^[a] of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measuresof wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

The words that we heard from Jesus today are really confusing.  Churches all over the world use the same lectionary that we use and that means that countless Clergy have looked at those words of Jesus and then decided to preach on one of the other readings for the day. The teaching of Jesus that we heard in today’s Gospel is extremely challenging.  I am sure that so many people read this text and accept it as one of those Bible mysteries.

The problem is that we who live in a twenty-first century western culture don’t really understand the community dynamics in first century Israel.  Jesus told of a manager who worked for a wealthy landowner.  Jesus didn’t tell the exact crime, but this manager committed some kind of a dismissible offence … fraud … embezzlement … whatever.  Now, in order to ingratiate himself with his boss’s business associates, he brought them in one-at-a time and had them reduce their terms significantly. Now he did this after he was fired. Every transaction that he did was illegal.  It’s just that his boss’s business associates didn’t know it yet.  When he found out about this, the landowner commended this manager for his shrewdness?!  WHAT?!

In our culture, the landowner would quickly call the Fraud Squad and press charges. The manager would soon be before the courts and probably end up in jail.  All the transactions would be declared null and void.  Nothing that this manager did would work out.  The landowner would most certainly not commend him for anything.

To grasp the meaning of Jesus’ message we must have an understanding of the difference in cultures.  You see, First century Israel was an honour / shame culture.  Honour was more valuable than wealth.  A person would rather suffer bankruptcy than endure any shame. The community even viewed the shameof dying on a cross as worse than the suffering and death of the cross.  Death before dishonour was a literal way of life.  So how does this apply to the parable that Jesus told?

[Jesus] said to the disciples, ^{(Luke 16:1–2)}“There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’”The rich man knew that the community had accurately reported the mismanagement of this manager. The nature of the mismanagement is not important.  We simply need to know that it was serious enough to have the manager dismissed from his position.  The rich man sacked the manager and told him to bring in his accounts so that he could assign them to a manager who would be honest with them.

^{(Luke 16:3–4)}“And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’”Here Jesus simply informed His hearers that this manager was no longer able to make a living in any other way, so he had to come up with a desperate scheme simply in order to survive.

^{(Luke 16:5–7})“So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’”In each case, the value of the reduction was about five hundred days’ wages.

Now there are a few things we should note about these transactions. First of all, they are entirely illegal, but the debtors don’t know it yet.  That is the reason the manger called on them one-by-one.  If he called them all in together, they might think that something was up.

Secondly, the debtors were not suspicious.  This indicates that this sort of bill reduction was something that the wealthy landowner might do from time-to-time.  

Third of all, although Jesus told about two of the debtors, the implication is that there were others.  These two were merely examples of what the manager did.

In the meantime, the community began to believe that these reductions came straight from the wealthy landowner himself.  They began to praise his generosity.  In modern terms, his popularity poll numbers went up and therefore his honour increased.  Soon the whole village was singing his praise.

The manager had the landowner in a bind.  If the landowner rolled back the deals that the manager had made, his popularity and honour would crash and burn.  The landowner would rather take the financial hit than lose all that honour. Furthermore, if the landowner told anyone about how this manager had outsmarted him, he would also look foolish and lose honour.  When the manager went looking for work elsewhere in the area, no one would learn about his mismanagement from the landowner.

“The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. ^{(Luke 16:8)}For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”In the end, this manager was still a crook, but he was a smart crook.  The landowner did not praise him for his integrity.  The landowner still knew that he was a crook.  Instead, the landowner acknowledged his skill as a cheat.  He had no choice but to admit that the dishonest manager knew him well.  He knew that that landowner valued his reputation as a generous and merciful lord above all his wealth.  

The point that Jesus made is not about the shrewd illegal scheme of the manager. Instead, it is about the character of the landowner.  The landowner is very honourable, generous, and merciful.  So much so that the manager could stake his life on it.

Now, if this unrighteous manager can rely on the generosity and mercy of the wealthy landowner, how much more can we rely on the generosity and mercy of God? The unrighteous manager knew that he did not have the ability to save himself.  Instead, he had to rely on the character of the wealthy landowner.  The unrighteous manager gambled his entire future well-being on the character of the landowner.  So, we can also rely on the honour, generosity, and mercy of God.

We can readily see the mercy and generosity of God in that the Son of God came to this world to take our place under the law.  Jesus lived a perfect life of utmost honour.  He did absolutely nothing to bring shame on himself or on His Father in heaven.  But for our sake, out of sheer grace, He surrendered His honour for the shame of death on a cross.  In the most unfair transaction of all time, the Son of God took all our shame to Himself and gave His honour to us.  

But He did not remain in the shame of death by crucifixion, but He ^{(Romans 1:4)}“was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead”.^{(Philippians 2:9–11)}“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.The powerful message of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ has risen from the shame of His death and ascended into heaven where He now rules all things in infinite honour.  He has promised all those who believe in Him that they shall be where He is.

In the parable that Jesus told, the crooked manager said, ^{(Luke 16:6–7)}“Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty,”and “Take your bill, and write eighty.”Jesus Christ does not look at our debt of sin and say, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’  He does not even say, ‘Take your bill, and write fifty.’   The moment before He died on the cross, He said, “It is finished!”  In the original Greek the phrase, “It is finished!” is just one word, “tetelestai”(τετέλεσται).  This word also has another meaning.  When a merchant wrote “tetelestai” on a bill, it meant “paid in full.”  When we sit down with our merciful Lord and He looks at our debt of sin, and, He says, “I have died for that.  Take your bill, and write paid in full!”  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pentecost 14 – 15 September 2019 – Year C

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation is written in the 15^thChapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 10:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”³ So he told them this parable: ⁴“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

⁸ “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This morning we heard just a part of the great “Lost and Found” parable. Jesus combined three parables together to make one grand parable in order to drive home the main point.  We heard the first two of those parables today. The third parable is commonly called the parable of the Prodigal Son.

All three of these parables illustrate the fact that Jesus calls all people to Himself.  He came to save all people in all places and in all times.  As the Apostle John wrote,^{(1 John 2:2)}“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Jesus had been serving the tax collectors and sinners with his teaching from the Holy Scriptures.  The scribes and Pharisees thought that this was a blasphemous use of those Holy Scriptures. After all, were not the Holy Scriptures primarily for people who at least tried to be holy?  ^{(Luke 15:1–2)}Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”Jesus was actually drawing the most dishonourable members of society to Himself.  The Scribes and Pharisees were outraged that Jesus would do such a thing.  So, Jesus told this great three-parable parable to illustrate that receiving sinners and eating with them was the main reason that He took on human flesh and lived among us.  Jesus wanted the scribes and Pharisees to see that they were also sinners who needed a saviour.

Jesus began with a parable about a shepherd with one hundred sheep.  ^{(Luke 15:4)}“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?”There is incredible comfort in these words.  Once you understand that we are the lost sheep and Jesus is the shepherd, we begin to understand that even if anyone of us were the only sinner on the planet, Jesus would still search for us.  He would still become human so that He could die on the cross for us.  He would still endure the wrath of God for us.  He would still suffer all even if anyone of us were the only sinner on earth.

Jesus continued,^{(Luke 15:5–6)}“And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” At this point in the parable, let us consider the question,“What has the sheep done?”  The shepherdsearched for the sheep.  The shepherdfound the sheep.  The shepherdcarried the sheep.  The shepherdrejoiced as he carried the sheep home.  The shepherdinvited his friends and neighbours to celebrate with him because he had found the sheep.  In this entire parable, the only thing the sheep did was get lost.

Then Jesus gave the meaning to the parable:^{(Luke 15:7)}“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”.With these words, Jesus revealed that the sheep in the parable represented a sinner, and the associates of the shepherd represent the community of heaven.  This means that the shepherd represented the sinner’s saviour.

But what about that repentance?  Well, the sheep did nothing in the parable.  If the sheep represents the sinner, then the sinner does nothing. That means that the repentance that causes joy in heaven is not a work that the sinner does, but a work that God does in the sinner.  Just as the shepherd does everything for the sheep, God does everything for us.  He even produces repentance in us.

But what about the ninety-nine sheep?  Did those sheep return to the fold or are they still out in the open country? What happened to them?

These ninety-nine refer to the scribes and Pharisees.  The scribes and Pharisees insisted that they were already virtuous in themselves and had no need to repent.  Therefore, Jesus ironically referred to them as ^{(Luke 15:7})“ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”.The scribes and the Pharisees would hear the irony in Jesus description of the ninety-nine and know that He was talking about them.  Jesus was calling them to repent.  Jesus wanted to rescue them.  He wanted to carry them into the eternal celebration of His kingdom.  He wanted them to rejoice with all the company of heaven including the tax collectors and sinners who also received the gift of repentance.  On the other hand, if the scribes and Pharisees insisted that they had no need to repent, then their own stubbornness condemned them to an eternity outside the Kingdom of God.

Jesus re-enforced the teaching of the parable of the lost sheep in the second parable that He told.  In the second parable, Jesus compared God to a woman searching for a coin.  In those days, most people lived in one-room houses with packed dirt and pebble floors.  The only light would be the light of an open door and perhaps one small window.  So, the image is the image of a woman on her elbows and knees holding a lamp near the floor with one hand while gently sweeping and searching through the cracks between the pebbles in the floor with the other.

The themes are the same.  Something is lost.  The owner searches for it and finds it.  The owner invites the community to celebrate the restoration of the lost possession. The meaning of both parables is this: When God rescues sinners by bringing them to repentance, there is a celebration in heaven.  On the other hand, sinners who reject the rescue remain condemned in their sin.

Jesus talked about repentance a lot.  Repentance is so important that after Jesus rose from the dead, He said that the mission of the church was ^{(Luke 24:47)}“that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations”. 

Philipp Melanchthon, Professor of Theology in the 16^thcentury tells us that“Repentance consists of two parts.  One part is contrition, that is, terrors striking the conscience through the knowledge of sin.  The other part is faith, which is born of the Gospel or the Absolution and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven”. … Our problem is that we don’t like that first part of repentance … the part that includes the knowledge of sin.  It means that we must admit that we are by nature bad people. We don’t like that.  We would prefer to think that we are good people. That was the problem that the Pharisees and scribes had.  This is still our problem today.  Jesus told this grand ‘Lost and Found’ parable in order to teach the Pharisees, scribes and uswhat John wrote in his first epistle: ^{(1 John 1:8, 10)}“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us … If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us”.

God’s search for lost sinners is much more profound than could be told in any one parable.  Jesus began His search for sinners long ago.  The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write,^{(Ephesians 1:4)}“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” With these words, Paul tells us that Jesus, the Son of God, began His search for us before He even created the world.  The Old Testament reading ^{(Ezekiel 34:11–12)}contains the same promise:“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. ¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.”In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that He fulfilled this promise that He made in the days of the Prophet Ezekiel.

When the time was right the Son of God continued His search by taking on our human flesh.  As He searched for us, He humbled Himself under the Law even though He is the master of the Law.  As He searched for us in His perfect life, He encountered the great predator, death itself. As Jesus died on the cross, it seemed as though death had ended the search, but that was not the case.  What death did not know was that Jesus intended to conquer death with His death.  Jesus suffered on the cross for us, but in His suffering, He did not suffer defeat. Instead, He conquered sin, death, and the power of the devil.

The victory Jesus won on the cross became evident when He burst forth from the tomb on the third day.  His resurrection assures us that His victory on the cross earned our salvation for us. We are forgiven.  Jesus Christ has adopted us into His family.

The whole point of the ninety-nine sheep and the nine coins is that people who insist that they are not sinners also insist that they do not need Jesus.  Those who insist that they are not bad also insist that they do not need Jesus.  Those who insist that they are not lost are the most lost of all.  The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep.  The woman leaves the nine coins.  The search is for the one that is lost. 

 ^{(1 Timothy 1:15)}“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.

What joy there is before the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents! What joy there is on earth among those sinners who are forgiven!  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jess. Amen

Pentecost 13 – 8 September 2019 – Year C

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 14^thChapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 25 – 35:

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

³⁴ “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

From time-to-time we hear about the price that people from other cultures pay when the Holy Spirit converts them to Christianity.  A father will declare, “My son is dead to me and his mother.”  In other words, as far as this man is concerned, his son no longer exists because he has become a Christian.  In more zealous cases, there have been reports about the honour killings among those who hold more extreme religious views.  Fathers have actually executed their own daughter merely because she has abandoned the imposed lifestyle.

In this morning’s Gospel we heard Jesus say, ^{(Luke 14:26)  “}If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”)Is Jesus also teaching this sort of radically strict sort of approach to His teachings.  What about the second great commandment being^{(Matthew 22:39)}“you shall love your neighbour as yourself”.How are we to make the transition from loving neighbour to hating family?  How do we reconcile what we heard Jesus say today with the message of love for neighbour that Jesus proclaimed at other times?

Before we get ready to accuse Jesus of radical contradictions, let’s remember one of the most important tools for understanding communication.  Whenever we communicate in any way, context is important. In order to understand the truth of Jesus’ words, we must hear them in their context.

The context of the preceding chapters of Luke have informed us that Jesus is en routeto Jerusalem in order to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.  First, Jesus said to his disciples, ^{(Luke 9:43–44)}“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”Then, a short time later Jesus ^{(Luke 9:51)}“set his face to go to Jerusalem”.Luke has told us that Jesus did not hurry toward Jerusalem.  Instead, ^{(Luke 13:22)}“He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem”.Finally, as we began the Gospel this morning, we heard,^{(Luke 14:25)}“Now great crowds accompanied him.” Jesus was drawing people to travel to Jerusalem with Him.  He was drawing them not just to celebrate Passover, but also to witness as Jesus offered Himself up as the Passover Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

It is in this context that Jesus not only said, ^{(Luke 14:26)}“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple,” but he also said, ^{(Luke 14:27)}“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”As we review the context of Jesus’ words, we begin to understand that Jesus is warning about the earthly consequences of becoming one of His disciples.  He is warning about the hatred that the devil, the world, and even our own sinful nature has against Jesus.

Jesus warns that Christians will face incredible pressure to abandon their faith in Him.  The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh will muster all their forces to drive us away from faith in Jesus Christ.  Society as a whole, members of our own households, even our own thoughts will betray us. Society may threaten physical, legal, and financial violence.  Our families may threaten emotional violence.  Our own thoughts may deceive us.  Therefore, we must be ready to leave them behind.

Jesus taught, ^{(Luke 14:27)}“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”With these words, Jesus taught that the Christian has enemies.  Those enemies will attack.  They will cause many hardships for the Christian.

The faithful disciple will suffer in this world for the sake of Christ.  Our culture has gotten used to the idea that any hardship in life may be called a cross … a sickness … an accident … an unfortunate financial setback … we sometimes refer to all of these and more as crosses to bear.  But when Jesus speaks of the cross, He speaks only of the cross that the Christian bears becausehe is a Christian.  He speaks specifically of the hardships that a person bears becausehe confesses Christ to the world … because the world hates Christ.

There has been a steady stream of blood from Christians down through the centuries.  The writer to the Hebrews states that many suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, … wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:36–38) You may lose all your earthly belongings and even your life for the sake of Christ.

The world has produced many false teachers who insist that the wealth of this world will pour out on those whose faith is strong enough … on those who think positive thoughts.  These false teachers claim to be Christians, but they teach you to have faith in your own faith … to believe in your own positive thoughts … to take control of your own salvation by your own outlook on life.  They cleverly claim to teach faith in Christ, but they actually teach faith in yourself.  In many cases they have conned themselves into believing their own false teaching.  After all, aren’t they awash in the wealth of this world.  It is to these false prophets that the Lord will one day say,^{(Luke 12:20–21)}“Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” ²¹So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

So what is Jesus telling us in today’s Gospel? He is saying that the world hates the Children of God.  He is saying that the world will use all its resources against us – even our own families – even our own desire to survive.  Jesus is telling us that His disciples must be ready to cut off ties to father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, rather than be unfaithful to Him.  He is telling us that we must be ready to lose our lives rather than be unfaithful to Him.

Can you do that? – No? - Neither can I … I simply don’t have the resources to conform to Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel.  In fact, the parables that Jesus tells after these statements tell us that we don’t have the resources to carry them out. Our attempt to surrender all in order to be faithful is like a man who starts a tower he can’t finish or like a king with ten thousand men who is facing a king with twenty thousand.  The world will overwhelm us if we try to carry our cross in our own power.  We do not have the power in ourselves to deny our family and follow Christ.  We can’t do it alone.

Fortunately, we are not alone.  The Holy Spirit inspired the writer of the book of Hebrews to say,^{(Hebrews 4:15)} “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”Jesus is our high priest who experienced the same attacks that we do and triumphed over them.

Did the world use Jesus’ family to attack Him? Listen to the words that the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to write: ^{(Mark 3:20–21)}Then [Jesus] went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”Later on Jesussaid, ^{(Mark 3:34–35)}“Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”Jesus Himself had to deny His own family in order to remain faithful.

Jesus Christ was also faithful to His cross. His cross was not just a metaphor, but the real thing.  His death was not just persecution for being faithful.  His death was the sacrifice that made us part of God’s family.  You see, when Jesus endured His cross, He was making sure that there was one cross we would never have to endure – the cross we earned with our own sin.  Jesus Christ endured the cross of our sin so that we don’t have to.  He took all our sins onto Himself and paid the debt for those sins.  By His faithful suffering and death on the cross, He triumphed over sin, death, and the power of the devil.  In His triumph, He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.

Jesus offers His triumph to all people through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith.  By faith, we receive adoption into God’s family.  He promises us that we shall always be together.  Before Jesus ascended to heaven He said,^{(Matthew 28:20)}“Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”He also said, ^{(Hebrews 13:5)}“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”His triumph means that He is always by our side.  He will be always be with us while we live here on this earth, and, when our time here is over, we shall live with Him forever.

Evil has no conscience.  It will attack us with all its resources.  It will attack us through family and friends – even through our own body.  In spite of this, we need not fear, for the Holy Spirit works and sustains faith in us and works through us to give us the strength to remain faithful in spite of the world’s persecution – even if it means we lose family and friends – even if it means death because of our faith.

Have you ever reviewed the promises you made at your confirmation?  The church asked you to make promises that you cannot keep.  Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully?  Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death?   Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it? A simple “I do” will not be enough of a response because no ordinary human being can live up to that answer.  Instead we answer, “I do, by the grace of God.”  For it is only by the grace of God that we can be faithful to God even if the world threatens death or our family and friends ridicule us.  By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit will keep our faith strong.  It is by the grace of God and His promise that God will be with us here in time and we will be with Him forever in eternity.  Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen