Pentecost 19 – 3 October 2021 – Year B

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 10^thChapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 2–12:

 

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” ⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Probably over the past ten years, this reading and those passages in the Bible linked to it, have caused extensive disharmony in our Christian and ‘free thinking’ democratic societies of the world. Here we have God’s Word fundamentally challenging the perceived freedom of individuals to make choices about their personal short or long term relationships. I guess the most obvious point is that the nature of marriage debate is not something new, today’s Gospel demonstrates that there was controversy about marriage back as far as the first century.  In this case, the Pharisees came to Jesus with a question about divorce.  Jesus responded with an answer that not only speaks to divorce, but also gives a definition of marriage that speaks to the debates concerning marriage in ‘free world’ countries today.

 

Now by this time in His ministry, the elite members of society have kept an eye on Jesus for a while, and they have decided that they really don’t like Him.  They have made it their business to embarrass Him in every way possible.  In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees come forward with a test that they hope will challenge Jesus and make Him look bad.  This is one of many tests that they present to Jesus and all of them fail to harm Jesus’ standing in the community.  As we just heard, Jesus turned the tables on the Pharisees and it is they who come away in embarrassment.

 

So the Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, ^{(Mark 10:2–3} “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”  [Jesus] answered them, “What did Moses command you?” Jesus basically told them to check God’s word.  This is good advice.  We should always check God’s Word in order to see what God says on any topic.  If God put the information in His Word, it would be wise to listen to what He said.

 

The Pharisees then referenced a section of Deuteronomy.  They said, ^{(Mark 10:4)} “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” While the Pharisees have quoted Moses correctly in so far as they went, they left out a lot of the context that Moses included in the text.  The actual guideline for divorce begins with the words, ^{(Deuteronomy 24:1)} “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house.” Even this limited context shows that the man must find some indecency in the woman.  By quoting the passage out of context, the Pharisees give the impression that they can throw their wife out onto the street by simply publishing a certificate of divorce.  The context of the passage shows that the husband must show that his wife is guilty of some indecency before he can throw her out.  In other words, she must be guilty of a crime against the marriage.

 

Jesus elaborated further on the cause for this guideline about divorce.  Then He referred to the creation of marriage that we ourselves heard from today’s Old Testament reading.  Jesus said to them, ^{(Mark 10:5–9)} “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, ⁸and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

 

Jesus was saying that because of the sinful nature that we have from birth, husbands and wives will sin against each other.  It is because of this sin that divorce happens.  So divorce is already evil.  The guidelines for divorce that Moses gave did not excuse people from the sin of divorce.  They were guidelines so that the evil of a divorce did not become something even worse.

 

Then Jesus turned to the beginning where God created marriage even before the fall into sin. Notice that Jesus quoted and affirmed the account of the creation of marriage as Moses recorded it in Genesis. In Genesis 1, we read: ^{(Genesis 1:27) “}So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”. Then in the more detailed review of creation in ^{(Genesis 2:24)} we read: ^“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”. Note that this account in Genesis says male and female.  The reference is to man in the singular, and wife, also in the singular.  There is one male, one female, one man, one wife. According to the Genesis account, marriage is the one flesh union of this one, male man and this one, female wife. It is this Genesis account of the creation of marriage that Jesus affirmed and upheld in the reading from today’s Gospel.

 

From this Genesis account, Jesus then taught the conclusion:^{(Mark 10:8–9)} “So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Note that Jesus says that it is two who become one flesh, not three or more, but two. Note also that Jesus says that it is God who has made this union and therefore only God can separate it.  That means that if Adam and Eve had not sinned and died, they would still be married today.

From this reading and the parallel readings in the other Gospel accounts, it is very clear that Jesus teaches that marriage is the one flesh union of one and only one male and one and only one female.  Regardless of our personal opinions or beliefs, God’s Word is clear and concise in its demands. In God’s Word to us, His children, there can be no other God sanctioned co-habitation arrangement involving two or more people.  In addition we are left in no doubt that this is a union that only God can terminate and therefore remains in effect until death breaks the union.  In reality, the many claims that Jesus has nothing to say in the marriage debate demonstrates our culture’s breath-taking Biblical ignorance.

 

Jesus’ teaching concerning marriage presents us with some real challenges in our day and age. Most of us know people who have endured the pain of divorce.  Most of us know people who have had multiple sexual partners.  Most of know people who are dealing with same-sex attraction.  And when we remember that Jesus taught and said, ^{(Matthew 5:28)} “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” we must realise that no one can live up to this marriage standard that Jesus established in today’s Gospel.  Once again, we must agree that ^{(Romans 3:23)}“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

 

So where can we go or what can we do for relief from the condemnation of this impossible standard? The fact of the matter is that there is nothing that we can do.  There is nowhere that we can go.  Once again, we see that we stand condemned before God.

 

However, although there is nothing we can do, there is something that God has already done.  The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write ^{(Ephesians 1:4)} that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him”. We see the symbolism of this in the very way that God created Eve. ^{(Genesis 2:21–22)} “The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²²And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man”. God created a bride for Adam from a wound in his side.  Here, although Adam and Eve had not yet sinned, God was already providing an image that pointed forward to the manner in which He would provide a bride for His only begotten Son.  ^{(John 19:30 & 34)} After Jesus “bowed his head and gave up his spirit, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water”. The Son of God took on human flesh and ^{(Philippians 2:8)} “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”. In this way, he earned forgiveness for all our sins including the sins we have committed against the estate of marriage.

 

Among the many errors that have slipped into the marriage debate is that the Bible somehow has a greater condemnation for sins against marriage.  So often, the people who struggle with sins related to marriage have come to believe that the Bible, or at least the church, considers these sins to have a greater damning power than all the other sins condemned by the Bible … that the sin against marriage might be the unforgiveable sin.  The response to that is good news!! The forgiveness that Jesus earned with His suffering and death on the cross is there for all sins.  The church is for people who struggle with their sins and repent of them and look to Jesus on the cross for forgiveness.  The church is not for people who are without sin for the Bible is clear^{.  (1 John 1:8–9)} “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

 

Christ has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven in order to prepare a place for His bride, the church.  On the Last Day, He will return and raise all the dead in both body and soul.  Those who believe in Him will join Him in the place He has prepared.  Among the people who will be there will be people who sinned against marriage and received the forgiveness that Jesus earned for them on the cross … people like King David who had an affair with the wife of the most loyal soldier in his army … people like Samson who had an affair with Delilah … people like King Solomon and the patriarchs, Abraham and Jacob, who had multiple wives … people like St. Augustine who lived on the wild side until the Holy Spirit brought him into the family of God.  The history of the church is full of people who sinned against marriage and received the forgiveness that Jesus earned for them.  Jesus said, ^{(Mark 2:17)} “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. “He calls on us to faithfully believe that His abundant grace will lead us to eternal salvation.  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 18 – 26 September 2021 – Year B

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 9^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 38 – 50:  

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰ For the one who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

⁴² “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. ⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire.  ⁵⁰ Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

 

Indeed, our Gospel reading for today has a challenging message, and as humans who are prone to sin by nature, we contemplate with some trepidation the thought of physically dismembering ourselves to save ourselves from the unquenchable fire. Does Mark mean all this literally? ……..Quite often in reading this passage, verses 49 – 50 are overlooked, after all they are a little confusing. I would like to address them today.

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another”     

 

Jesus has something important to tell us here, but in order to understand what he means, we need to rethink the way we look at salt. If you go to well stocked supermarket, as you find in the cities, you will probably find the salt in or near the spice aisle. Have you seen the price of some of those spices? Some are between $15 to $140 an ounce. Then a little further on is the Table Salt at $1.00 per KG. In Bible days, it wasn’t like that; salt was valuable.

 

Salt is good. It’s good for cash—so much so that soldiers in the Roman army were paid part of their wages in salt. The Latin word for salt is sal. That’s why we call our wages today a salary.

 

Salt isn’t just good for making food taste better; it’s good for preserving it. In pre-refrigeration days, it was critical for keeping food. Without salt to preserve food for the future, day-to-day survival was much more difficult.

 

Salt is good. It’s necessary for health. If you have too little salt, you can die of heart failure. As many of the old explorers who trekked through this hot, dry, harsh country discovered, to run out of salt was life threatening. It wasn’t just that they’d need to eat bland food. Without salt, their health was at risk. 

 

Salt is good. It’s good for sacrifice. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were first salted before being offered. This included not just the sacrifices of meat, but also of grain and even of incense. This was to purify the sacrifice and make it acceptable.

 

When Jesus says, “Salt is good,” he’s appealing to all of these benefits of salt, but perhaps most of all he was appealing to the purifying qualities of salt. After Elijah left this earth in a Chariot of fire with horses that separated him from Elisha - Elisha took up the mantle of Elijah and returned across the Jordan from where he and Elijah had come. His first miracle took place at the city of Jericho.

 

^{(2 Ki 2:19–22)} Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

 

(v 49) Salt is purifying, as Jesus said: “Everyone will be salted with fire”. You see, salt is like a little crystal with fire in the middle. If you put it on your tongue, you can taste it burning. If you put it on a cut, you can feel it burning. Fire is purifying. It’s used to burn away impurities and to remove dross from metal. Fire sanitises and sterilises. The Israelites used fire to dedicate pagan polluted places to the Lord. When Jesus says that everyone will be salted with fire, he’s referring to trials, difficulties, and temptations which purify and refine us. Being salted is not pleasant, but Jesus desires to preserve us from the corruption of this age.

 

Salt is like that, and we are like salt; for in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, ^{(Mt 5:13)} “You are the salt of the earth”. This is what’s behind the next curious statement that Jesus speaks: (v 50) “If the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?”.

 

This is difficult for us to understand because of what we have for salt today. Salt is sodium chloride—a very stable molecule. It’s not quick to divide in a chemical reaction. It doesn’t degrade over time. If you buy a container of salt and leave it in your cupboard for fifty years, when you finally take it out, it will still be salt. It may be one solid chunk, but it will not have become anything else. That’s because we have pure salt. In biblical times, they didn’t.

 

In those days, salt was harvested from the surface of salt marshes or pits where salt water had flowed from the Mediterranean or the Dead Sea. Mediterranean Sea salt had mineral impurities, plus other impurities from the rocks it was scraped off, and from the algae, sand, and sea life that flowed in with the seawater. Dead Sea salt is even worse. Most of the salts in the Dead Sea are not sodium chloride.

 

In his book ‘The Land and the Book, vol. 2’.  William M. Thompson, tells a story of how salt can indeed lose its savour: 

A merchant of Sidon, having farmed of the government the revenue from the importation of salt, brought over a great quantity from the marshes of Cyprus—enough, in fact, to supply the whole province for many years. This he had transferred to the mountains, to cheat the government out of some small percentage of duty. Sixty-five houses . . . were rented and filled with salt. Such houses have merely earthen floors, and the salt next to the ground was in a few years entirely spoiled. I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the road to be trodden under foot of men and beasts. It was “good for nothing.” 

That is how salt can lose its saltiness. Humidity, sun, heat, and constant contact with the earth leach away the easily dissolved sodium chloride, leaving behind the impurities. Bits of rock and sand, mineral crystals, dirt and debris remain to make it look like it might be salt, but it’s tasteless. It has lost the fire of the salt within.

Is this not exactly what St. Paul warns us of in 2 Timothy 3: 1 - 5?

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power”.

 

The Holy Spirit is the fire of the salt for the Triune God’s people. What Paul describes is what happens when the fire of the Holy Spirit is driven out of us by our love of self and the rest of the nasty things Paul mentions. We become empty crystals, having the form of the godly salt of the earth, but denying the work, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit. The salt can be leached out by the humidity of a life not fed in the Word of God. We can become flavourless, void of saltiness, going through the motions, still salt in appearance, yet without faith. We can be hypocrites: actors who look like believers by outward action, but having no faith. 

 

Even whole church bodies can become saltless by refusing to salt the world. St. Paul bids us, ^{(Col 4:5–6)}“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person”. We lose our saltiness if we refuse to stand against evil. A church that says “all roads lead to God” is a church that has lost its savour. Salt must purify; it must preserve. Salt substitute is not salt.

 

(v 50) “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another”. That’s still Jesus’ word to us—even though we, or even though a whole church body, can lose its saltiness. Because, you see, Jesus wouldn’t talk about losing saltiness unless we have salt, unless he’d in fact given us salt. We are still the salt of the earth, Jesus says. And it’s true. We have been purified, salted with salt, just like those Old Testament sacrifices. Jesus was our salted sacrifice. He was the one who purified us. By his death on the cross, he accomplished what all those salted sacrifices of the Old Testament promised: forgiveness of all sins. Now by God’s Word and Sacraments, that forgiveness, that purity, is given to us. We are filled with the Holy Spirit. We have salt in ourselves.

 

When we then forgive one another, we bring a purification and peace that is from God. When, earlier in our text, the disciples asked Jesus about a nameless exorcist, a man casting out demons in Jesus’ name but who wouldn’t follow them, Jesus said, ^{(vv 39–40)} “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us”. 

 

That nameless exorcist had salt in himself. He had faith in Christ, and he was acting as a believer in Christ, empowered by the fire of His salt.  He was making peace and driving back the kingdom of darkness. In fact, he was doing better than Jesus’ own disciples. Earlier in this same chapter of Mark, a man brought his son to Jesus’ disciples to have them drive out a demon who was doing great harm. The disciples could not. Jesus chastised them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”  The disciples hadn’t recognised this man who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name as having the salt of Christ in himself, and so they thought they were in conflict with him when no conflict existed; they didn’t realise that by their shared faith in Christ, their shared saltiness, they were actually at peace with one another.

 

In our Epistle, James tells Christians how they can have peace with one another. He says, ^{(James 5:16)}“Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working”, in other words James encourages us to rekindle the fire of salt in each other using the power of prayer that in the words of Jesus as written in ^{(John 16:33)} “in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

 

Dear friends, because we live by sacred grace, it is an eternal fact that that salt has no power in itself. Our holiness, our forgiveness, our power come from Christ. The salt in us only has power because it is from Christ. The salt of his sweat in Gethsemane, the salty blood he shed for us, these are what has won our forgiveness, filled us with salt, and given us power to do battle against the powers of evil, to purify and cleanse, to flavour and preserve, and to forgive one another. The world leaches the salt from us, but Christ salts us with His Word and Spirit that we may have peace with one another. May Christ so live in you in peace. Amen

 

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

Pentecost 17 - 19 September 2021 - Year B

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

The text for our meditation is written in the of the Book of James: Chapter 3:13 to 4:10:

 

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. ¹⁶ For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace

4 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? ² You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covetsomething and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. ⁴ Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, “God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

 

 

When I was 18, life was not a problem, you see I knew everything! My dad didn’t seem to think so though. He kept telling me that you are never too old to learn. Through the journey of my life, humiliation, experience and the words of truly loving wise mentors and teachers have instilled in me a real appreciation of the guidance my dad was trying to implant in me. It seems we all need to figuratively “touch the hot stove” a few times before we appreciate the wisdom that our elders attempt to pass along to us.

 

A quotation I heard years ago remind me that it takes some rough lessons in life before we start to understand the world around us well enough to function effectively: “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted.”  (*Prof Randy Pausch – ‘The Last Lecture’). I repeat that one frequently to myself and sometimes to those who are struggling. It’s a good reminder that our plans and goals in life will often fail, yet even so, we may take away valuable practical lessons from having striven for them.

 

More importantly, though, this quotation also can remind us that what we want and what we need are often two very different things, and only our loving heavenly Father truly has the wisdom to discern between them. ^{(Matthew 6:)} “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on ….. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”

 

Realising this, we not only develop greater wisdom and understanding, but a greater humility toward God as well.

In fact, true wisdom, understanding, and humility don’t come from mankind’s enlightened human words, but from grasping the truth the Lord has supplied us from His own wisdom, from the message of His inerrant Word.

 

Looking at that Word today, we are immediately confronted by a question asked by St. James at the start of our epistle lesson: “Who is wise and understanding among you?” It’s a challenging question, a godly question. It’s the sort of question the Lord frequently asks of us throughout Scripture; sometimes quite plainly, and other times simply by confronting us with our limitations and our ignorance. It’s a question that provokes a variety of responses.

 

To those who are dedicated to chasing after the things of this world, their minds and energy focused on the next thing that they want to obtain or achieve or buy, that question is often set aside. They think they know what they want and how to get it. Where they currently lack the resources to obtain those goals, they seek to address those shortcomings with great gusto, seeking the wisdom, understanding, and skills necessary to get where they want to be. If they answer that question, “Who is wise and understanding among you?”, their response might be, “I’m still working on it. If I think carefully and speak smoothly, I can capitalise on opportunity” In essence, they’re  saying: “my wisdom lies in my ability to ‘work the system’ and exploit the vulnerability of others.”

 

In such a case, wisdom and understanding have selfish purposes: To place the individual in a better position to satisfy his or her ambitions. To obtain a bigger and better slice of life’s finite pie at the expense of others. Of course, such people strongly deny that this is their purpose. They claim we live in a dog-eat-dog world and if we don’t look out for ourselves, who will? We’re only trying to get ahead.

Yet!! The Holy Spirit warns us about this as he inspires James to write, “if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.” The seeking of knowledge for the purpose of getting ourselves ahead isn’t something to be proud of. Nor is pretending that this isn’t our motive, our real objective. In doing so we consciously sin in thought, word and deed. 

 

Has there ever been a more fitting and accurate description of our contemporary world, than James 3:16?: “where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

 

Indeed, this passage extends to us as individuals! How often, intentional, or otherwise, we use our wisdom to serve ourselves, our understanding to seek the satisfaction of our own needs.

You see, this is the very root of human decline: It is our own wisdom we’re depending upon. It’s our own understanding that we’re attempting to apply. Even when we achieve our wants and desires, and pride ourselves as wise; we are foolishly building earthly treasures, but are heavenly bankrupt. As written ^{(Matt 6: 19 - 21)} “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, …... But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, ….. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

 

God’s message through the prophet Isaiah is that He will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent. Human knowledge that puffs us up, and human wisdom that drives us forward with arrogance and ambition, is—as James writes— “earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.” What a fearsome caution; such behaviour threatens our faith, and ultimately our immortal souls.

 

We are called in Matthew 6 to first seek Christ and His kingdom, and all other things needful will be given to us. That’s quite a challenge for us, because even though the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Christ at the Baptismal Font, our sinful human nature actively resists Christ in our daily lives. We have no human ability to resist our sin, love God, and be saved. Even though He has reached out to us and through the Holy Spirit has purified us of our sins and drawn us to faith in Christ through Word and Sacrament, we remain in the dual state of ‘sinner and saint’. In the words of St Paul ^{(Rom 7)} “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it”. 

We continue to constantly struggle with the envies and ambitions to which we are led by our human wisdom and understanding. These things will not let us go, for Satan refuses to accept the new reality of our lives in Christ, whose peace not only surpasses all our human understanding, but the understanding of even the angels, fallen or otherwise.

 

The opening verses of James, chapter four, is scathing as he lists point after point of all our failings: Fights and quarrels. Desires that battle within us. Our selfishness, and all the horrible things we do in our feeble and impossible desires to satisfy it. Our frequent neglect of asking God to address our needs, and our unfaithful intentions and improper motives when we finally do get around to asking. 

 

Then James lays it on the line: You can be a friend of the world, or a friend of God. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t accept things the world accepts when those things differ from what God deems acceptable. You can’t try to force a compromise between human wisdom and understanding and God’s given wisdom, foolish as it might appear sometimes. To do so is to become God’s enemy, for you have chosen to be a friend to the world.

 

Friends in Christ, If that is all there is to it, if we are indeed lost and completely void of any chance of eternal salvation, we may as well pack our things and go home and shut the door of the church for good…… Well, to quote the much-heard line of those annoying Tele Advertisers say “But wait!! There’s more!!”

 

As a practicing Christian my first and foremost belief lies in the words of the Apostles Creed. When we confess the Apostles Creed we are stating 

1.            Our true belief that God the Father created us and all things; he gives us all things and daily provides us with all we need to support our body and life.

2.            Our true belief that Jesus, at one with the Father, was born of the Virgin Mary and is our Lord who redeemed us, a lost and condemned people, and won us from all sins, from death and the power of the devil by His innocent suffering and death on the cross, that we may live with Him in His Kingdom into eternity.

3.            Our true belief that we cannot by our own strength or reason believe in Jesus Christ our Lord and that only through the power of the Holy Spirit gifted to us at our Baptism, we have been called by the Gospel, enlightened and sanctified along with the whole Christian Church on earth. In this Christian Church he daily and richly forgives all our sins and the sins of all believers.

 

With this in mind, I again put the question of St James, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” and I also put to you the quote from 1 John 1: 8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”.

 

The primary purpose of the Book of James is to help us to recognise our dilemma as sinful humans and to lead us to the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you were out on the ocean in a boat and you had the radio in your hand and you were calling the Coast Guard with a ‘mayday’ call. The Coast Guard operator would ask you the nature of your problem and you in a now panicky voice shout “I’m up to my waist in water and sinking fast”; then you would clearly know the nature of your problem and the Coast Guard would know how to respond.

 

This is the purpose of God’s law. Without the “law” of God, the first and foremost being the Ten Commandments; without such writings such as the Book of James, we are not able to clearly identify the extent of our human sin, and therefore do not call on God to forgive us, to save us, to guide us. So many times people tell me that they are ashamed to come before God and confess their sins. As written in ^{(Hebrews 4:15)} “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin.” 

 

There is no dilemma here for the Christian; we know that through the actions of our first parents on earth, we are born sinful and unclean and are daily tempted in every way; and when we fail, we turn to our loving Saviour in the same manner as the great King David did when he committed a grave sin in the sight of God as written in Psalm 51: All his pride diminished and he fell before His God freely confessing his sins and admitting his weaknesses and his inability to be acceptable in God’s sight without His loving guidance.

 

“Who is wise and understanding among you?”  Those of us like King David who recognise our sins and our inability to make ourselves acceptable in God’s sight through our own worldly efforts. Those of us who lay our burdens at the foot of the Cross of Christ.

 

The Book of James paints an accurate picture of our sinful human nature, not to destroy us, but to lead us to the Baptismal font of new life where we receive the Holy Spirit; to genuine repentance; to heartfelt prayer; to the inerrant Word of God and to the Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour. In all these we will find true wisdom, true guidance, true joy and true salvation! We will continue to fail, but take heart in the words of St Paul as written in ^{(Romans 5: 20 – 21)} “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

 

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

  

Pentecost 16 – 12 September 2021 – Year B

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 8^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 27–38:

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸ And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” ³⁰ And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

³⁴ And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

There came a time in Jesus’ ministry when He took the disciples off by themselves to instruct them.  To get away from the crowds Jesus left Jewish territory completely and ^{(Mark 8:27)} “went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi”. Jesus drew a smaller crowd in Gentile territory, and it was easier to get the disciples alone.  Jesus was ready to tell the disciples about His upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection, and He wanted to tell them in a more private setting.

Jesus took advantage of the walk to the villages of Caesarea Philippi and began teaching them as they walked.  On the way he asked his disciples, ^{(Mark 8:27)} “Who do people say that I am?” This was a very typical teaching method in that day.  Many teachers still use this method today.  Ask a question.  Then guide the discussion as the students struggle with their answer.  You can teach many things as you guide students to the right answer.

The disciples responded with the answers they had heard as they travelled with Jesus.  They told him, ^{(Mark 8:28)} “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” While these answers are all wrong, they do show a high respect for Jesus.  All the names that the disciples gave were men that the people respected.  The names were wrong, but at least they were honourable names.

This first question had been a warmup question.  It is the next question that is really important for the disciples … the disciples then … and the disciples today.  He asked them, ^{(Mark 8:29)} “But you, who do you say that I am?”…..  It is very important that the disciples have the right answer to this question.  Not only the disciples back then, but the disciples today.  It is important that we have the right answer to this question.  You, who do we say that Jesus is?

Peter answered him, ^{(Mark 8:29)} “You are the Christ.” ….. Peter’s words are exactly right.  But did he understand them?  These are simple words to say, but understanding these words can take a lifetime.  Peter said the exact right words, but he will soon demonstrate the he didn’t have a clue what they meant.

^{(Mark 8:31–32)} “[Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²And he said this plainly”. Now that we have Peter’s answer, ^{(Mark 8:29)} “You are the Christ,” Jesus began to teach them exactly what it means to be the Christ.  Jesus began teaching them how He would pay for the sins of the world.  He would suffer many things, the Jewish leaders would reject Him, He would die, and He would rise.  This is Christ’s work of salvation, not only for the disciples, but also for us.  This is His work.  This is the work that defines what it means to be the Christ.

How did Peter respond to the very heart of what it means to be the Christ^{?  (Mark 8:32)} “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him”. The word rebuke is not a word that we use a lot.  It means to scold.  It means that Peter took Jesus aside and began to criticise Him.  Peter, the fisherman, was scolding the Son of God.

Peter didn’t know it, but He was acting as the devil’s agent to tempt Jesus.  The heart of the devil’s temptation was all about getting Jesus to avoid the cross.  Peter was actually scolding Jesus for talking about suffering and dying.  Since the suffering and dying are how Jesus earns our forgiveness, Peter was trying to convince Jesus not to do the work that forgives our sins.  Peter was doing exactly what the devil wanted.

Jesus recognised the temptation immediately.  He would have nothing to do with it.  ^{(Mark 8:33)} “Turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Jesus recognised the words of Satan coming out of Peter’s mouth.  He stopped him in no uncertain terms.

Here we see Jesus demonstrate the proper way to be judicious and stern.  Jesus loves Peter.  He does not want Peter to be an agent of Satan.  He wants Peter to be His apostle.  He loves Peter enough to warn him of the danger that he is in.  He loves Peter enough to pull him back from his sin.  Jesus loves Peter enough to use stern, strong language to bring him back into His fold.

Jesus had a warning for the rest of disciples and the crowds as well.  ^{(Mark 8:34–37)} “Calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷For what can a man give in return for his soul?”. 

These words teach the exact opposite of the words you hear from those sensational preachers of our day.  They will tell you that God wants you to be rich … God wants your children to get good grades … God wants you to advance at work … God wants you to have a life of victory in this world.  You can find a lot of people who will tell you that if you truly believe, then you will get all these things.  You will become healthy, wealthy, and wise … your children will rise up and bless you … You and your spouse will have a relationship that is just marinated in love. It’s called ‘Prosperity Theology’. The senior Pastor of probably the most popular church in Australia has written two books “You Need More Money” and “There is More”.  It is as if they have never heard Jesus when He says, ^{(Mark 8:34)} “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Jesus promises eternal life in the presence of God and His mercy and grace.  This does not mean that we will live lives of luxury in this sin-filled world.  Instead, Jesus compares the life of this world to carrying a cross … an instrument of torture and death.

How often are we like Peter?  How often do we make decisions based on what appears successful in this world instead of checking the Word of God?  How often do we assume things about God without checking the words that He Himself gave us?  How often do we, like Peter, proceed in the way that we think is best and forget that God may have something totally different for us?  How often do we follow in Peter’s footsteps by following our own thoughts instead of the Word of God?

How glad we can be that Jesus didn’t listen to Peter.  Jesus followed up on His promise.  He went to Jerusalem and there the elders and the chief priests and the scribes did exactly what He said they would do.  They arrested Jesus and held a mock trial.  Then they took Jesus to Pontius Pilate and used political pressure to have Him crucified.   Jesus died just as He said He would and then He also rose … just as He said He would.  Jesus did all this to take away our sin and give us His righteousness instead.  Because Jesus did not listen to Peter, but followed through on His plan, we now have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

It is interesting to recall that the Mark who wrote today’s text was a disciple of Peter … the same Peter in today’s Gospel.  It is interesting that Mark’s account of these events left out a few things.  According to Mark: [Jesus] asked them^{, (Mark 8:29)} “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ. “According to Matthew:  ^{(Matthew 16:15–17)}  [Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven

According to Matthew, Jesus praised God the Father for revealing the right answer to Peter, but Mark’s account does not include Jesus’ praise to the Father for giving Peter the right answer.  I wonder, and here I am speculating, did Peter leave this out when he told it to Mark because of what happened next?  I wonder.  Did Peter tell Mark to focus on Peter the sinner and agent of Satan.  That way, those who heard this Gospel account would better understand the generosity of Christ’s salvation.  That despite Peter’s great sin, Jesus suffered, died, and rose for him anyway.  That if Jesus can redeem Peter, the agent of Satan, He can certainly redeem us.

Mark’s account is very clear. ^{(Mark 8:31–32)} “[Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²And he said this plainly”. This is what it means to be the Christ.  This is what it means to be our saviour.  Jesus suffered all these things for us.  

When we talk about Jesus, it is very important that we talk about the right Jesus … the Jesus who suffered many things, was rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and died and after three days rose again.  The only Christ who can save us for eternity is the true Christ … the Christ crucified and risen from the dead.  It is in this Christ and this Christ alone that we have eternal life.  This is the Christ we confess to each other and to the world.  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