Intellectus Fidei

Luther, commenting on Jonah 2:3

2012-01-23T11:57:00.000+11:00

Our desires, our powers are nothing, just as Jonah here called out in pressing need. No merit was present, for he had sinned very seriously against the Lord. And so the only thing to do was to cry out, to cry out “to the Lord.” For the Lord is the only one to whom we must flee as to a sacred anchor and the only safety on those occasions when we think that we are done for. But this is the gist of the matter, that even though we feel that God is against us and that we have an angry God and that we are sinners who have deserved wrath and damnation, still it is possible for us to pray to God as to our kind and placable Father, for that is the kind of God He always is, and He ought never to be understood in any other way. And so God ought to be thought of not according to what we see but according to His promises, in which He has promised that He will be our Father and our God. When He treats us well, when He does not test or smite us, we ought not to put our trust in Him on that account, since He is doing something different from that which appears, but we should fear Him. On the other hand, when He strikes us down, again we ought not to distrust Him on that account, and there is no need to despair because He is doing something different from what we think.

Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 19: Luther's works, vol. 19 : Minor Prophets II: Jonah and Habakkuk (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Jon 2:2). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Lent 2 Sermon Notes

2011-03-24T09:27:00.002+11:00

As we are on the road to Easter, we notice shops getting filled with chocolate bunnies and eggs. Not to be outdone, you can also get a chocolate Jesus... like an immaculate confection.

Many people struggle with the real Jesus and so we have made him plastic, we have made him chocolate, we have made him personal – so we can keep Jesus all to ourselves, keep him safe, and for our own benefit.

We also struggle with Jesus because he comes to us with grace.

Our bible readings today, as we travel with Jesus to the cross, focus us on God’s grace. Our faith in Jesus doesn’t force God to be gracious to us but rather God’s grace forces us to respond. Jesus Christ, ultimately, is God’s grace to us and Jesus Christ is also the very power of our faith to the Father.

Genesis 12: 1-4a recalls God’s gracious call and covenant promises to Abram to be the Father of a great nation. It is God alone who promises to establish this great nation as a blessing to all nations. Abram’s response was to faithfully participate in God’s faithfulness as God fulfilled the promises. Abram is sent out from his home at the age of 75.

The God who made these gracious promises to Abram (later Abraham) is sung about in the Psalm reading. Psalm 121, which is called a psalm of “ascent” meaning that is was sung either on the ascent as you go up to the higher ground of Jerusalem (for pilgrim festivals) or sung by the priests as they ascended the steps to minister at the temple. This Psalm 121 sings of God’s gracious nature and assurance of God’s help, care, protection, and security. This is the God who has freely chosen the Hebrew people to be a light to the world and this is the God in whom they trust, live and sing.

Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17 uses Abraham as an example of belief and trust showing that a right relationship with God (justified) and a right (righteous) life comes only through God’s grace – not the law. The law brings wrath and no assurance because it is based upon our own effort. The guarantee or assurance is in God’s free grace and it is given to all “Abraham’s offspring” who is “the Father of us all.” The only response to God’s grace, as in the example of Abraham, is to have faith in God’s faithfulness to do the things that God promised.

In John 3: 1-17, Jesus is talking with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Being a Pharisee, Nicodemus is very religious and knows his OT.

Jesus is actually confronting Nicodemus with God’s grace and he is pressing hard upon a heart of stone that has tried to please God and a right life through perfect obedience to the law. The law was written on stone and this seems to have hardened the heart of Nicodemus. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “...no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again [or born ‘from above’],” and later, “unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” Nicodemus knew his stuff and would have recognised the “water and spirit” as referring to Ezekiel 36: 25-27:

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

However, “water and spirit” is also a word pairing which is common throughout John’s gospel that connects into the relationship between water and the spirit as “living water” which builds and builds until we read of the water flowing from Jesus’ side at his death (John 4:10; 7:38; 19:34).

As we heard last week, there is a wonderful relationship between the journey of Jesus and the journey of God’s people in the wilderness. This time, there is a connection made with the story of the Bronze Serpent in Numbers 21: 1-9.

8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Jesus introduces this wilderness story to explain how “born again” or “born from above” is accomplished. What might strike you as obvious is the symbolic connection to the cross but the word for “lifted up” also means “exalted” (a play on words). Exaltation does not only refer to the cross but also to the resurrection and ascension and as Jesus is talking of heavenly things the cross is only a part of being “born from above”. Snakes in the ancient world were a symbol of death and danger but also fertility, life and healing.

[Even today, a snake on a pole is used as a medical symbol].

Jesus is saying to Nicodemus that I will be lifted up and you will look to me and live. This is how you are born from above. You are dying, you have a heart of stone, you have been bitten by sin (we all have been bitten by sin) but look to me. No longer look to yourself for your right life, no longer look to yourself for right relationship with God, no longer look to yourself in trying to please God, look to me because I am giving you new life.

We are not told of how Nicodemus responded to God’s grace, in this story. For many, grace was too outrageous and takes away ‘earn and reward’ system and wrath too easily. We like our stone heart and the bite of sin.

However, grace began to work in the heart of Nicodemus that day because later Nicodemus comes to the defence of Jesus (7:49-51) and we see Nicodemus again (19:38-40) assisting at the burial of Jesus.

Jesus pressed upon the heart of Nicodemus God’s outrageous and saving grace: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Jesus gives the response that was cracking, chipping away and bringing life to the heart of Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus was already being the “pioneer of faith” in the heart of Nicodemus; pioneering or opening up that sense of letting go and letting Jesus be Lord – letting Jesus bring that new life and new heart.

Jesus is being that pioneer of faith within our hearts too!

Leading us to let go of looking to ourselves for assurance of the Father’s love.

Leading us to let go of the illusion of trying to manage of our sin through our own strength and strategy.

Leading us to find peace and to let go of the things that harden our hearts and rob us of joy.

On the road to the cross, Jesus is always pioneering, always leading us to look to him... and live.

Lent 1 Sermon Notes

2011-03-24T09:25:00.001+11:00

Do you know what the word “sin” means? Dictionary definitions don’t fully capture what we already know through our own struggles, failures and mess. Scripture doesn’t offer a concise definition either but sin works as a backdrop throughout bible story. If we took sin out of the bible we would be left with 4 chapters; the first two chapters of Genesis and the last two chapters of Revelation. From scripture and from our own experience we know sin can break us and bring us to our knees and at the same time we can enjoy it. [Like an addiction... we know it is wrong and bad but in the moment it feels so right even though guilt, fear, pain and shame will follow.]

For 1^st Sunday of Lent (on the road to the cross) our bible readings focus us on the very beginning of this thing “sin” but also its end in Jesus Christ.

Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7 highlights the serpent’s temptation and the beginning of “death” or the fall of humanity and it takes place as the eyes of Adam and Eve are opened to look upon themselves without God. When they looked upon themselves they felt shame, they began to fear, and they hid and they covered themselves. Before, when they only looked to God for their identity they felt no shame or fear and were covered by God’s embrace of them.

From this moment, humanity becomes soaked in fear and shame. Humanity has lost its identity and its peace within God’s embrace.

The story continues in Psalm 32, a psalm of David that describes and acknowledges the ongoing effects of what happened in Genesis, in David’s life. David sings to God testifying from his own deep experience of sinfulness and also his experience of confession and forgiveness. Much of David’s shame and sin is recorded in history (murder - Uriah, adultery - Bathsheba). Despite this, David doesn’t dwell on his evil acts, shame and guilt but rather sings about the grace of God’s embrace.

V1 Blessed is the one... whose sins are covered. (He then sings about God’s covering him...)

V7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. (also v10)

Romans 5: 12-21 makes clear the nature of God’s grace in contrast to sin. Paul makes the connection (with what happened in Genesis 3) between the trespass of the one man (Adam) and the grace of the one man (Jesus Christ). They are not equal “men” because he emphasises that through Jesus there is always more grace and life in God than sin and death in people. Jesus totally and abundantly reversed what took place in the fall of humanity. What was lost was been restored and then some. Grace now reigns to bring life!

There is now no fear and shame and our identity has been restored but it is far greater than our original identity as creations. Jesus shares with us his own identity, in his own relationship, embraced and delighted in by the Father. The Father looks upon us in love and delight and embraces us as he would Jesus. Jesus shares this with us because he has never known fear or shame in the Father’s presence.

Matthew 4: 1-11 begins to show just how Jesus accomplished true atonement for the sins of the world. It follows the baptism of Jesus; a “baptism of repentance” that led John to cry “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. From this baptism, the Holy Spirit begins to lead the life and ministry of Jesus first by leading Jesus into the wilderness for forty days and nights to be tempted by Satan.

Not only does this event recall the temptation of the serpent to Adam and Eve and allude to the wilderness experience of God’s people but it connects us in to a theme that we usually miss.

At Easter, we usually make the connection between the sacrifice of Jesus with the sacrifice of the lamb on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). But on that day there were two lambs or goats that God used to illustrate atonement. There was the lamb that was slain and then there was the scapegoat – behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

[The scapegoat would be kept alive. The high priest would lay his hands and confess over it all the sin and rebellion of the people. Then it was led into the wilderness carrying upon it all the sin of God’s people. Both rituals were needed to help people understand what God was about in making atonement for sin.]

This is what is happening in Jesus who takes on the sin of the world at his baptism and begins to work out a true repentance for the world. From this point on, on the road to the cross Jesus is the scapegoat. Carrying the sin of the world and is cast out, despised and rejected by his own people. He enters into the temptation of humanity from Satan and resists, not only by relying on the word of God but through his identity and embrace announced by his Father at his baptism – this is my Son in whom my soul delights.

As Jesus takes on our sin, all our fear and shame he is restoring what was lost at the fall of Adam and Eve when their eyes were opened to themselves without God. Jesus is restoring what was lost by giving what he has in the eyes of the Father. We no longer look to ourselves and run and hide in fear and shame when we hear God’s voice. We now look to Jesus and believe and live in the grace and love of God’s embrace. Colossians says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God (3:3).”

If you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see... then you need to repent. Repent means to change your mind. Don’t see yourself through your own eyes or through the eyes of Hollywood and magazines. These are the eyes of Adam and Eve who ran in fear and shame and that’s not who you are. Repent and see yourself through the Father’s eyes of delight and full acceptance. Repent and believe it, throw away your fear, shame and hiding and pick up your true you in Jesus.

As we have begun the forty days of Lent that leads us to the cross we see in Jesus the scapegoat who enters into our suffering and takes away the sin of the world.

The season of Lent emphasises or intensifies an aspect of the Christian life. As Jesus did, many Christians choose to enter into self-denial and suffering leading up to Easter.

As you do, go with Christ who goes with you and has gone before you. As Jesus did, go into suffering and self-denial knowing who you are in the Father’s eyes. No amount of temptation can take that away from you.

Christmas and Trinity

2010-12-22T15:16:00.002+11:00

"He [Jesus] came to take our place, in all our human, earthly life and activity, in order that we may have his place as God's beloved children, in all our human and earthly life and activity, sharing with Jesus in the communion of God's own life and love as Father, Son and Spirit."

- Thomas F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith, p. 8

Einstein: anti-mythology

2010-11-12T10:41:00.004+11:00

“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own—a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.”

- Albert Einstein, column for The New York Times, Nov. 9, 1930 (reprinted in The New York Times obituary, April 19, 1955)

I think this is a great quote from Einstein. I think it points out how, theologically, we shoudn't create God in our own image. This is simply mythology or biography rather than theology. However, this is quoted in the new humanist campaign over and against the Bible. I think the ultimate irony and in turn the ultimate straw-man is that the humanist campaign seems to be attacking a god they have made up and then follow up their creation by hating and attacking it.

They even have the cut 'n' paste Bible (and Koran) verses...

Hillary on knowing God

2010-10-07T10:41:00.004+11:00

"The Lord did not come to enable you to recognize the omnipotence of God as creator but to enable you to know him as the Father of that Son who addresses you."

- Hillary of Poitiers from "On the Trinity" 3.22

KBBC Session 1 Complete | Der Evangelische Theologe

2010-10-07T10:41:00.000+11:00

KBBC Session 1 Complete | Der Evangelische Theologe

2010 KBBC: Week 1, Day 1 | Der Evangelische Theologe

2010-09-28T08:50:00.000+10:00

2010 KBBC: Week 1, Day 1 | Der Evangelische Theologe

The Barth Blog Con is up and running for 2010.

Always a great thing!

A helpful hermeneutical tip from Michael Polanyi

2010-09-13T20:16:00.007+10:00

"... we must recognize belief as the source of all knowledge. Tacit assent and intellectual passions, the shaping of an idiom and of a cultural heritage, affiliation to a likeminded community: such are the impulses which shape our vision of the nature of things on which we rely for our mastery of things. No intelligence, however critical or original, can operate outside such a fiduciary framework. . . . The process of examining any topic is both an exploration of the topic, and an exegesis of our fundamental beliefs in the light of which we approach it; a dialectical combination of exploration and exegesis. Our fundamental beliefs are continually reconsidered in the course of such a process, but only within the scope of their own basic premises."

- Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1958, pp. 266-267.

Created Theories of Evolution

2010-09-13T20:09:00.001+10:00

"Theories of evolution must provide for the creative acts which brought such theories into existence."

-Michael Polanyi

What does it mean to be a Christian?

2010-07-24T21:35:00.001+10:00

George Hunsinger:

"A Christian, according to Athanasius, was someone who, by faith in Christ, was given a share in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity. Faith in Christ meant believing in him as the eternal Son, who became flesh to deliver us from the corruptions of sin and death, in which we were hopelessly entangled, and from which we had no power to extricate ourselves. What the Word enjoys in himself by nature, namely, eternal life, we receive in the power of the Holy Spirit, through our union with Christ by faith. For Athanasius, what it meant to be a Christian could not be stated apart from an interlocking nexus of trinitarian, incarnational, and soteriological affirmations."

The Eucharist and Ecumenism: Let Us Keep the Feast, 285-86.

via my good friend John Alchin

"God" = Trinity

2010-04-16T12:34:00.003+10:00

“unless we think — of God as Trinitarian we have no knowledge of God at all, only the Word “God” flutters through our brain naked, and void of meaning.”

-John Calvin

quoted in an article by Berten Waggoner

Palm Sunday reflection. Luke 19: 28-40; 22:14-23:56

2010-03-29T15:26:00.001+11:00

Our readings take us on a rollercoaster ride beginning from the heights of Palm Sunday where Jesus is welcomed as a victorious but peaceful King by the crowds saying,

‘Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!’

But then these readings begin to tip downward where the crowds are no longer shouting praise but are shouting out for crucifixion.

We remember that these crowds, these pilgrims for Passover, as they praised and thanked God for Jesus riding into the heights of Jerusalem but then their praise falls silent and the next we hear of praise is when the centurion praises God and says, ‘Certainly this man was innocent [“Surely this was a righteous man’].

And if the crowds didn’t offer their shouts of praise then creation itself would be awoken to act in their stead, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out’, Jesus says.

But then there is a point at the end where the stones would have fallen silent, where the Sun hid its light behind the moon and the temple curtain rips itself apart. The curtain symbolically representing the reality of access to God through Jesus, which of course is the main mission of Jesus, providing access to the Father; to reveal the Father to people who had false perceptions (Luke 10:22).

All throughout this rollercoaster ride the Father is present and close to Jesus; never abandoning or forsaking as some suggest but we see that Jesus communed most with the Father as he is abandoned and forsaken by his disciples and the once alluring crowd. He prays to the Father in Gethsemane, as Jesus is crucified he says, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And when he took his last breathe he shouted, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

The Father was there, always there, suffering alongside his Son as Jesus shares our human nature and suffers our rejection to redeem it, to share with us his righteousness, his obedience so that humanity could be free to share in what Jesus held most dear, throughout this rollercoaster, his own relationship to the Father.
From Palm Sunday to Passion we are reminded...

Life too can be likened to a rollercoaster with its rapid pace and its many ups and downs and sometimes you aren’t sure whether you’ve been properly strapped in and so sometimes all you can do is hang-on for dear life and trust.

Life can be like Palm Sunday and then quickly turn to the Passion where people sing our praises but then soon turn and call for our crucifixion. But in it all, through the suffering and injustice we have a Heavenly Father. A heavenly Father who does not leave us but chooses to be with us despite what it would cost; despite what he would experience with us.

My own window into the Father heart of God though it is framed in my own humanity... is when my child suffers, is sick or in pain, I choose to be closer, to embrace tighter, and to assure her of my presence.

As our readings are forcing us to remember is that this rollercoaster ride doesn’t finish in the depths of a valley but at Easter we are reminded that it finishes at the peak. Through Christ’s resurrection and ascension we are taken up into the Father’s arms; into new life, new identity and new relationship.

May we live, believing it to be so... despite what the crowds say, despite the ups and downs, despite when we feel like getting off.

May we believe it to be true as we commune at the table where Jesus welcomes us to share in all that he has done and all that he is in relationship to the Father... in the power of the Spirit, AMEN.

Sermon: Luke 4:21-30

2010-02-01T13:40:00.003+11:00

Luke 4:21-30
Epiphany 4th 2010
It’s too good to be true!

One year I received a tax return that was way more than I expected and the strangest thing happened. I began to disbelieve it. It felt too good to be true! I worried that it was a mistake and that if I spent it I may have to pay it back or should I phone the ATO to make sure or am I asking for more problems if I do that.

In the end, it was fine; I had been paying the highest amount of tax on my income when I obviously didn’t need to.

I certainly needed the money at the time with car rego and insurance was coming up. It’s amazing that the unbelief or cynicism within me totally ruined an unforseen blessing and provision from my Heavenly Father.

For many, my unbelief and cynicism may not have been an over-reaction but more of a rational precaution. I mean, aren’t we sick and tired of being ripped-off, tricked, double-crossed, and scammed where even something like “email” is used to take advantage of unsuspecting users. So much so, that the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) published a leaflet in 2006, containing tips on what to watch out for and how to protect yourself from internet scams, and they called it, “If it sounds too good to be true... it probably is.”

In the back of our minds and deep within our hearts we are cautious of things that sound too good to be true – we are cautious of grace.

The worshippers at the synagogue had no knowledge of internet spam but they knew when something sounded too good to be true.

That day when Jesus got up to read Isaiah and then sit down to preach you can tell there was this moment, in v22, where things changed from “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips” to “Isn't this Joseph's son?”

Those same feelings of being taken for a ride, of being scammed, of something too good to be true, began to rise up because the synagogue worshippers that day went from appreciating the message of grace to doubt, from doubt to unbelief, and from unbelief to hate.

[How’s that for a church service? Tough crowd! You are a much better audience!]

But Jesus doesn’t back down, he presses hard into the unbelief of Israel and confronts their unbelief in order to heal it. He confronts Israel with their own history.

Elijah was the first great prophet God used to call his people back to him. Elijah prophesied a drought to King Ahab. When the three-year drought began God used a raven, an unclean bird, and a foreigner (a Gentile) to save Elijah. The widow from, what is now, Lebanon took Elijah at his word and through God saved the prophet (1 Kings 17: 8-16).

It sounded too good to be true that God could work so mightily through one of their own.

Elisha, Elijah’s successor as a prophet, healed Naaman, a Syrian army general, from a dreaded skin disease. Naaman did what Elisha asked him to do even though he thought it was foolish. He was completely healed and believed (2 Kings 5: 1-14).

It sounded too good to be true that God could heal so mightily through one their own.

And, it sounded absolutely ridiculous that God would care and bless outsiders, (known as Gentiles).

Due to the unbelief of Israel God began miraculous relationships with outsiders (known as Gentiles) through the prophets Elijah and Elisha. This point was not lost on the synagogue worshippers that day; Nazareth being heavily influenced by Jewish nationalism that is strongly opposed to “outsiders” having anything to do with God’s land. As Jesus quoted Isaiah, this sense of patriotism was not on the priority list. Jesus provides no comfort to the nationalist as he reveals to them the Father who knows no borders to his love; the Father whom Israel where meant to be the light to the nations.

You can tell this didn’t sit well with their worldview.

As v28-29 reads, “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.”

It was too good to be true.

They saw the local boy not the Messiah, the carpenter’s son not the Saviour of humanity.

Since it is the season of Epiphany, where we learn through our readings that Jesus is like God and the greater truth that God is like Jesus, it is important for me to ask “Who do you see?”

Because there’s some options here.

As you listen to the gracious words of Jesus as he quotes Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour" (V18-19).

Could God really be this nice, this caring, this loving?

Is our idea of God that we have in our minds different to Jesus?

As you hear words like good news, freedom, recovery, release, favour... does it sound too good to be true?

The options before us are simple. It is either belief or unbelief. We saw in v22 how unbelief can set in and take away what is needed and what is given to us from our Heavenly Father. Unbelief made all the difference that day in the synagogue and still does today.

I think sometimes we struggle to believe in a gracious God, in a God like Jesus. Why is it that when there’s a tragedy someone in the media explains the tragedy as God’s punishment and hate? Someone said that Haiti is suffering because it is under a curse from God because some of its founders made a pact with the devil. Not only is this not true but it is theologically flawed for God does not relate to nations in this way.

Why is it so hard to hear those wonderful, gracious words of Jesus given to him by his Father in the anointing of the Spirit?

Why can’t someone stand up in a time of tragedy and say with St Francis, "This is perfect joy - to share in the sufferings of the world as Christ did."

Does this God revealed through Jesus simply sound too good to be true?

What would happen if we believed it? Truly believed that people were loved by God just as God the Father loves and delights in his very own son?

In fact, after all, isn’t “too good to be true” a great definition of “grace”?

Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates this grace as true to people over a meal, which is one of themes or trademarks of Luke.

Soon, at the table, over a meal, we are offered this grace.

May we not keep what can be found at this table to ourselves.

Review: Preaching Re-Imagined by Pagitt

2010-01-21T20:00:00.006+11:00

When I came across Preaching Re-Imagined – The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith by Doug Pagitt I was looking for something.

I had already begun to “re-imagine” how I do the sermon for the Bathurst Anglican Youth Ministry church service called church@630. This is where I regularly preach mostly to youth, young adults but also parents and grandparents. Being new to the ministry (since April 2009) I had become newly aware of the diverse range of age group, varying levels of education and biblical literacy. I found trying to pitch the sermon to the target audience in my sermon preparation a real challenge. I seemed to be walking a fine line between losing the interest of some and leaving others wanting more. By my choice of words, how in depth I delve into the scripture passage and how I chose to demonstrate its relevance I knew that I would hit the mark for some but exclude others. We were looking at the Gospel of John chapters 13 to 17 and it was entitled the Upper Room/Farewell Series. Not exactly the easiest bunch of passages being filled with heavenly themes and imagery, changing genres and at the heart of it the missionary relationships of God the Father who sends the Son who sends the Holy Spirit. What a time to do something different! Yeah, that’s what I did. I began to experiment by inviting input and observations from the congregation upon the passage. I wasn’t sure what I was doing and I had many concerns about the meaning of the passage being lost in our own fanciful renderings and whether or not I was moving away from my calling to preach by allowing participation and dialogue instead of monologue.

Enter Doug Pagitt and the concept of interactive preaching.

Doug Pagitt is an influential voice in the Emerging Church movement and head pastor of Solomon's Porch in South Minneapolis. Solomon's Porch is described as a holistic, missional Christian community which began in January 2000. I discovered that Pagitt is a Senior Fellow with Emergent Village and considered a leader of the emerging church discussion. It is even disputed that it was Pagitt who coined the term “Emerging Church”. As well as all this, Pagitt finds time for his political aspirations and is currently running for a seat in the Minnesota State Legislature.

Pagitt’s aim, in his book Preaching Re-Imagined, is to question the integrity of the popular mode of preaching today, which is essentially a monologue or speech-like in its nature and to open up an alternative. Pagitt puts forward the idea of participatory or interactive preaching as opposed to a monologue which, Pagitt argues, can be “a subtle form of manipulation.” He speaks from his seminary training and preaching experience in realising that his homiletic, at its core, largely revolved around presenting the material (whether it be scripture or topical) in a way that pre-determinately moves the listener to a specific conclusion. This, as a pastor, seemed like something he shouldn’t do. Pagitt moved to a sermon “structure” that was without agenda or at least without a predetermined outcome. The characteristics of the participatory or interactive method are below:
Interactive Preaching is characterised by four features:
1. It is learner-focused, concerned more about what is learned than what is taught, more about the outcome than the methodology.

2. It is multi-voiced, not dominated by one voice but open to participation by many people.

3. It is open-ended, prepared to leave loose ends and to live with uncertainty, to run the risk of allowing people space to think, to explore...

4. It is dialogue-based, making room for questions, comments, challenges, ideas and exploration.

Now, one of the weaknesses of Pagitt’s book is that it is not a “how-to” book for those who want to begin their own experiments. Pagitt does not offer much by way of method or structure, which is not necessarily adverse to Pagitt’s aims in writing. And so I can only offer insights from my own experiments which I confess is more of a hybrid to what I imagine Pagitt’s idea of an interactive sermon should look like.

I offer three observations to the strengths of participatory or interactive preaching.

First, as mentioned, in my own context I preach to high-schoolers, young adults/uni-students, and parents and the occasional grandparent. The participatory method works well to a diverse audience as it provides room for people to interact with the scriptures and to find, in their own way the message of the scriptures according to their own levels of understanding.

Secondly, this method does increase a greater reliance upon the Holy Spirit and not on a homiletical method to achieve a desired outcome. I found that I prayed with “fear and trembling” as I approached the congregation without a full manuscript of what I was going to say. I had to trust in the Holy Spirit to protect and guide people’s discoveries and what was said into their lives.

Thirdly, the scriptures themselves provided the boundaries of thought and ideas to be found. They provided the agenda or what could be thought about and discussed. Though, I must admit, that after exegesis and having a pastors heart I had an idea of what the scriptures were about and what I wanted to emphasise. I felt as though I had to bring it together somehow and not leave it open-ended. This could have been due to my lack of trust or simply my pastoral concern that people were new to this method and I would transition them with an element of monological guidance.

I would recommend this book to preachers who are looking to develop their craft or to further critique their method and motivations. It is a great thought provoking discussion from a seasoned preacher and thinker who is well worth engaging.

Luke 3. 1-6; Malachi 3. 1-4; 2nd Sunday in Advent, 2009

2009-12-06T08:00:00.001+11:00

As a child, I would often be amazed at my father’s work bench and surrounding machinery, tool cabinets and jars of nails and screws under the house. I was born and raised in a large Queenslander house the ones propped up on stilts to allow airflow underneath. And so under the house, for me, was the laundry, garage, storage space and my dad’s workbench and associated materials. There were no doors to lock us kids away from hammers, vices, screw-drivers and so, very often, they would become apart of our play equipment. As I watched my father build I learnt what each tool was for and as I got older he would show me how to use a hammer, a vice and so on as my skill increased. What I loved the most was when my dad would ask me to help him build something. For it would mean I… I could help HIM!, Even though I’d only bang a few nails in or hold something whilst his hands were full there was the honour and pride of being able to say ‘I helped dad with that.’

There is something about seeing a child love and learn alongside their parent. It is a special moment that sometimes gets lost and damaged under the busyness of life and misplaced values and priorities. But I have seen this great sense of excitement and determination as a child joins in, works together and participates with their parents.

It is this idea of participation that leads us into Luke’s gospel this morning.

As Luke often does, he triangulates characters.

Here, in these verses at the end of chapter 3, he triangulates between the authorities and John the Baptist. First, the Gentile or Roman authority, then the Jewish authority and then John, Son of Zechariah. His point is made as he moves through the three characters because first you have Caesar, the governor and tetrarchs and then you have your High Priest in Annas and Caiaphas BUT the word of God came to John not to these authorities. Just like the prophets of old, the word of God came to John who was in the desert or wilderness.

Luke places Isaiah 40: 3-5 at end of these verses but there is also today’s OT reading from Malachi 3: 1-4 that helps us to understand John as being a prophet of preparation for the Messiah. This is certainly how John the Baptist saw himself; he certainly knew that he himself was not the Messiah, despite people thinking along those lines. John saw himself unfit to un-strap the Messiah’s sandals and he saw that the Messiah was going to be even more powerful by baptising with the Holy Spirit instead of water. John’s ministry was a witness or a pointer to Christ and symbolic of what Christ would achieve. In the overall scheme of things he was a participant in God’s plan to reconcile the world and he seemed quite happy with that.

John came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. To dig a little deeper here, the original word for repentance is more strictly understood as ‘changing your mind.’ So what is this baptism of a changed mind about, it is about the forgiveness or the ‘cancellation’ of sin. We see in Jesus the fulfilment of John’s ministry because we see, throughout Luke’s Gospel (usually over a meal), Jesus confidently releasing sinful people from who they once were and cancelling their sins which led people to change their minds or opinions of themselves which brought freedom and transformation. This cancellation of sin is something Jesus has accomplished for all people, as Luke quotes Isaiah 40, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

We mentioned earlier that, in the overall scheme of things, that John was a participant in God’s plan to reconcile the world. I would like to encourage us this morning that John’s way of seeing himself is the best way or rather the only. We see in John the Baptist both humility and a willingness to serve. I mean, roaming around the wilderness like in Israel’s history and like the prophet Elijah where his entire wardrobe consisted of a leather belt and something made from camel hair and a diet that consisted of locusts and honey… if they’re not signs of humility and willingness to serve I don’t know what is.

We see in John the Baptist a great depth of humility and willingness to serve for he knew he was apart of something greater then what money could buy; he was a participant in God’s reconciliation of the world.

What other options were there for John the Baptist? What other ways could John have seen himself?

Well, (1) he could have mistakenly thought he was the Messiah and tried to save the world on his own, or (2) done nothing and ignored the calling of God.

As we are in advent, which is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ, much like the ministry of John, I think these options are open to us all!

As we prepare for Christmas Day and as God calls each and every one of us into ministry and mission we are faced with three options. (1) We could ignore God altogether, which seems pretty simple. Or (2) we could not believe or trust God and so go off trying to do ministry and mission without him, which is a lot harder. Or (3), we can be like John the Baptist and see ourselves as participants in God’s reconciliation of the world through Christ.

A participant is an accomplice, a partaker, a contributor, a co-worker and strangely enough this is how God prefers to work with human beings and we observe this throughout the grand story of the Bible. God refuses to act alone but demands participation. St Augustine once said, “Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not.”

Paul said to the Corinthians, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5: 18-20).

On my ordination retreat, we reflected upon our liturgy (what we do in our worship time), and Bishop John made the point that it wasn’t only the bread and wine being consecrated for a special purpose. As we partake, as we participate we are being consecrated as the body of Christ in the world. And at the end of our time together we are sent out from here to be, just that, the body of Christ in the world; we are literally told to “Go!”

And as you go, May you, like those before you, take up this great call to participate with God in the world. May you too, like John the Baptist, be preparers of the way. May you prepare the way for the Lord into people’s lives and make straight paths for him in the world around us.

The true meaning of the Gospel of Grace

2009-11-26T21:57:00.001+11:00

"The true meaning of the Gospel of Grace is this: that God unconditionally calls each of us to seek release from our selfish ways so that we can join the self-giving fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and his love is so at work in us to transform us that one day we will enjoy fellowship with God and one another as much as God enjoys fellowship within Himself."

The Rev. Canon Dr. Ashley Null in an interview with David W. Virtue from virtueonline.org

Buber on false images of God

2009-10-19T10:30:00.001+11:00

An atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than a believer caught up in his own false image of God.

~ Martin Buber

Who can say it like T. F. Torrance?

2009-10-01T12:17:00.000+10:00

"Like Christ the Holy Spirit is one in being and of the same being as the Father, but unlike Christ the Holy Spirit is not one in being and of the same being as we are, for he incarnated the Son but does not incarnate himself, he utters the Word but does not utter himself. He directs us through himself to the one Word and Face of God in Jesus Christ in accordance with whom all our knowledge of God is formed in our minds, knowledge of the Spirit as well as of the Father and of the Son. This is the diaphanous self-effacing nature of the Holy Spirit who hides himself, as it were, behind the Father in the Son and behind the Son in the Father, but also the enlightening transparence of the Spirit who by throwing his eternal Light upon the Father through the Son and upon the Son in the Father, brings the radiance of God’s Glory to bear upon us. We do not know the Holy Spirit directly in his own personal Reality or Glory. We know him only in his unique spiritual mode of activity and transparent presence in virtue of which God’s self-revelation shines through to us in Christ, and we are made through the Spirit to see the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father. While the Holy Spirit thereby guards the transcendence of God who infinitely exceeds what finite minds can grasp, nevertheless through his personal presence to us he brings the ineffable Being and Reality of God out of his unapproachable Light to bear upon us, and brings us out of our distance and darkness to have communion with himself and through himself with the Father and the Son. Because through him the Word of God continues to sound forth and is heard and believed, because in his light we see light and by his creative operation we come to know the unknowable and eternal God, we know the Holy Spirit, although personally distinct from the Father and the Son, to be no less Lord God than the Father and the Son, both as he is toward us and as he is antecedently in the undivided oneness of God’s eternal being."

(Thomas F. Torrance, “The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons,” 66-7)

Rationalistic Fundamentalists

2009-10-01T12:14:00.001+10:00

". . . Rationalistic fundamentalists are those who think they can treat biblical statements as independent from the ultimate Being to whom they refer. Once this move is made they can then apply preconceived rational structures to fit biblical statements (such as “God is love”) into a dogmatic system. But this would be to commit the error that is referred to elsewhere in this article, namely to impose our own systems of logic on the subject matter of enquiry rather than letting it teach us its own inherent logic. Such systems of doctrine tend to be legalistic constructs of our own minds where we may seem to put grace at the center of a theological system but instead end up with a new legalistic system that does not really set people free in Christ."

(taken from: Participatio: Journal of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship, 22-23);

Bits of Calvin on Atonement

2009-07-27T14:54:00.001+10:00

Now someone asks, How has Christ abolished sin, banished the separation between us and God, and acquired the righteousness to render God favorable and kindly toward us? To this we can in general reply that he has achieved this for us by the whole course of his obedience …. In short, from the time when he took on the form of a servant, he began to pay the price of liberation in order to redeem us…

This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that, becoming Son of man with us, he has made us sons of God with him; that, by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that by taking our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us ….that, taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself [which oppressed us], he has clothed us with his righteousness.

Institutes of the Christian Religion (2.16.5 /

4.17.2

Blessed Trinity - St John of the Cross

2009-07-10T13:34:00.006+10:00

1.
In the beginning the Word

was; he lived in God

and possessed in him

his infinite happiness.

That same Word was God,

who is the Beginning;

he was in the beginning

and had no beginning.

He was himself the Beginning

and therefore had no beginning.

The Word is called Son;

he was born of the Beginning

who had always conceived him,

giving of his substance always,

yet always possessing it.

And thus the glory of the Son

was the Father's glory,

and the Father possessed

all his glory in the Son.

As the lover in the beloved

each lived in the other,

and the Love that unites them

is one with them,

their equal, excellent as

the One and the Other:

Three Persons, and one Beloved

among all three.

One love in them all

makes of them one Lover,

and the Lover is the Beloved

in whom each one lives.

For the being that the three possess

each of them possesses,

and each of them loves

him who bears this being.

Each one is this being,

which alone unites them,

binding them deeply,

one beyond words.

Thus it is a boundless Love that unites them,

for the three have one love

which is their essence;

and the more love is one

the more it is love.

2. On the communication among the Three Persons.
In that immense love
proceeding from the two

the Father spoke words

of great affection to the Son,

words of such profound delight

that no one understood them;

they were meant for the Son,

and he alone rejoiced in them.

What he heard

was this:

"My Son, only your

company contents me,

and when something pleases me

I love that thing in you;

whoever resembles you most

satisfies me most,

and whoever is like you in nothing

will find nothing in me.

I am pleased with you alone,

O life of my life!

You are the light of my light,

you are my wisdom,

the image of my substance

in whom I am well pleased.

My Son, I will give myself

to him who loves you

and I will love him

with the same love I have for you,

because he has loved

you whom I love so".

3. On creation

"My Son, I wish to give you

a bride who will love you.

Because of you she will deserve

to share our company,

and eat at our table,

the same bread I eat,

that she may know the good

I have in such a Son;

and rejoice with me

in your grace and fullness."

"I am very grateful,"

the Son answered;

"I will show my brightness

to the bride you give me,

so that by it she may see

how great my Father is,

and how I have received

my being from your being.

I will hold her in my arms

and she will burn with your love,

and with eternal delight

she will exalt your goodness".

4. Continues

"Let it be done, then," said the Father,

for your love has deserved it.

And by these words

the world was created,

a palace for the bride

made with great wisdom

and divided into rooms,

one above, the other below.

The lower was furnished

with infinite variety,

while the higher was made

beautiful

with marvelous jewels,

that the bride might know

the Bridegroom she had.

The orders of angels

were placed in the higher,

but humanity was given

the lower place,

for it was, in its being,

a lesser thing.

And though beings and places

were divided in this way,

yet all form one,

who is called the bride;

for love of the same Bridegroom

made one bride of them.

Those higher ones possessed

the Bridegroom in gladness;

the lower in hope, founded

on the faith that he infused in them,

telling them that one day

he would exalt them,

and that he would lift them

up from their lowness

so that no one

could mock it any more;

for he would make himself

wholly like them,

and he would come to them

and dwell with them;

and God would be man

and man would be God,

and he would walk with them

and eat and drink with them;

and he himself would be

with them continually

until the consummation

of this world,

when, joined, they would rejoice

in eternal song;

for he was the Head

of this bride of his

to whom all the members

of the just would be joined,

who form the body of the bride.

He would take her

tenderly in his arms

and there give her his love;

and when they were thus one,

he would lift her to the Father

where God's very joy

would be her joy.

For as the Father and the Son

and he who proceeds from them

live in one another,

so it would be with the bride;

for, taken wholly into God,

she will live the life of God.

5. Continues

By this bright hope

which came to them from above,

their wearying labors

were lightened;

but the drawn-out waiting

and their growing desire

to rejoice with their Bridegroom

wore on them continually.

So, with prayers

and sighs and suffering,

with tears and moanings

they asked night and day

that now he would determine

to grant them his company.

Some said: "If only

this joy would come in my time!"

Others: "Come, Lord,

send him whom you will send!"

And others: "Oh, if only these heavens

would break, and with my own eyes

I could see him descending;

then I would stop my crying out".

"Oh, clouds, rain down from your height,

earth needs you,

and let the earth open,

which has borne us thorns;

let it bring forth that flower

that would be its flowering."

Others said: "What gladness

for him who is living then,

who will be able to see God

with his own eyes,

and touch him with his hand

and walk with him

and enjoy the mysteries

which he will then ordain".

6. Continues

In these and other prayers

a long time had passed;

but in the later years

their fervor swelled and grew

when the aged Simeon

burned with longing,

and begged God that he

might see this day.

And so the Holy Spirit

answering the good old man

gave him his word

that he would not see death

until he saw Life

descending from the heights,

until he took God himself

into his own hands

and holding him in his arms,

pressed him to himself.

7. The Incarnation

Now that the time had come

when it would be good

to ransom the bride

serving under the hard yoke

of that law

which Moses had given her,

the Father, with tender love,

spoke in this way:

"Now you see, Son, that your bride

was made in your image,

and so far as she is like you

she will suit you well;

yet she is different, in her flesh,

which your simple being does not have.

In perfect love

this law holds:

that the lover become

like the one he loves;

for the greater their likeness

the greater their delight.

Surely your bride's delight

would greatly increase

were she to see you like her,

in her own flesh".

"My will is yours,"

the Son replied,

"and my glory is

that your will be mine.

This is fitting, Father,

what you, the Most High, say;

for in this way

your goodness will be more

evident,

your great power will be seen

and your justice and wisdom.

I will go and tell the world,

spreading the word

of your beauty and sweetness

and of your sovereignty.

I will go seek my bride

and take upon myself

her weariness and labors

in which she suffers so;

and that she may have life,

I will die for her,

and lifting her out of that deep,

I will restore her to you".

8. Continues

Then he called

the archangel Gabriel

and sent him to

the virgin Mary,

at whose consent

the mystery was wrought,

in whom the Trinity

clothed the Word with flesh.

and though Three work this,

it is wrought in the One;

and the Word lived incarnate

in the womb of Mary.

And he who had only a Father

now had a Mother too,

but she was not like others

who conceive by man.

From her own flesh

he received his flesh,

so he is called

Son of God and of man.

9. The Birth

When the time had come

for him to be born,

he went forth like the

bridegroom

from his bridal chamber,

embracing his bride,

holding her in his arms,

whom the gracious Mother

laid in a manger

among some animals

that were there at that time.

Men sang songs

and angels melodies

celebrating the marriage

of Two such as these.

But God there in the manger

cried and moaned;

and these tears were jewels

the bride brought to the

wedding.

The Mother gazed in sheer wonder

on such an exchange:

in God, man's weeping,

and in man, gladness,

to the one and the other

things usually so strange.

St John of the Cross, Romance on the Gospel text In principio erat Verbum, regarding the Blessed Trinity

Defining faith with Calvin

2009-06-16T22:00:00.001+10:00

Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

(Institutes, III.2.7).

Sermon Notes: John 15: 1-17

2009-06-08T13:09:00.002+10:00

Think for a moment about a hypothetical, let’s say for the sake of the human race you were chosen to travel to another planet but you weren’t going to return. Since you would be leaving your family and friends forever what would you leave for them to remember you by?

A photo, a piece of jewellery, a book or journal… facebook account…

I guess it would depend on what you want them to remember about you … would it simply be your smiling face in a photo, an event or experience caught on film…?

Jesus is thinking in a similar way…

Here they were, enjoying the Passover celebration together, Judas Iscariot had disappeared, Peter is sitting around rather embarrassed, and other disciples are firing off questions because they’ve been rattled by the thought of Jesus leaving them.

Jesus has said a lot of things – about home, about sharing his relationship with the Father, about dwelling in God and God dwelling in them, about the Holy Spirit reminding them of the things he’s said…

And he begins using a familiar image, both from the Old Testament (Ps. 80:8-16; Isa 5:1-7; Jer 2:21; Ezek 15:1-8, 17:5-10, 19:10-14; Hos 10:1) and from their local surroundings, of a vine and its branches.

And by using this visual image Jesus speaks to them from his very own experience of obedience and out of his very own relationship to the Father.

V9-10 "I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.”(MSG)

As the eternal Son his mission from the Father in redeeming the world brought with it an experience of taking on all that we are as humans – sharing our place. Including not being able to physically see or feel his Father’s continual presence and embrace. Despite this, Jesus never stopped to live and work out of his Father’s love, in fact, the ministry of Jesus can be summarised in a basic way as revealing his Father, and simply doing what his Father tells him to do. Jesus says to his disciples in v15 “You are my friends… because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father” (MSG). The love of Jesus for his disciples flowed from the love he received. Jesus continued to live, to work, and to redeem humanity out of his Father’s embrace. Jesus knew that the relationship was real despite not being able to see or touch.

Out of his Father’s love, he commands his disciples to love. In v17, He commands his disciples to love each other. I always thought it strange that Jesus had to command love! How do you command a feeling or emotion? Anyone who has been in a relationship knows you cannot command or force love from another person. But, I guess, that is the point as well. He commands his disciples to love each other because it is more natural for humans to love themselves before someone else. [As I was growing up the phrase “always lookout for No. 1” was a common expression – No. 1 always meant yourself. And it implied that if you don’t look after yourself no one else will! With it comes a sort of security and safety from being hurt or let down by other people.] Here, Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples to love themselves nor even to look after themselves but instead he says make yourselves at home in my love in other words meaning let me look after No. 1 - let me love you, let me look out for you, let me be your security and out of my love for you – which is the same as the Father’s love – love each other. Put each other first and let me worry about No. 1 because you’re No. 1 to me. Love each other because there is no greater love than what I am about to show you; there is no greater love than for someone to lay down their life for their friends.

We need to remember here that the disciples fear Jesus leaving them and Jesus has been explaining that this is not a goodbye but more of a transition to a new and greater relationship. A relationship that is just like the relationship that he has experienced with his Father whilst on earth. I loved you the way my Father has loved me.

He leaves for them an image; an illustration of the relationship they have – something to believe in – something to hold on to – something to remember him by.

The disciples are anxious and confused and so Jesus describes for them how close he is despite not being able to see or touch. Because the disciples want to know how do we stay with you in relationship – how do we know you are there? The main thing Jesus reminds them is that this relationship is something he began with them, he shares with them, he started it and will finish it.

Jesus describes the relationship in verses 1-6,

I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. He carries away every branch from me that doesn’t have fruit, and prunes the ones that do have fruit so that they will grow even more fruit. You are already pruned because of the Word I have spoken to you. Stay with me, and I will stay with you. Just as the branch can’t grow fruit unless it stays on the vine, neither will you, unless you stay with me.

I definitely am the vine, and you are the branches. The person who stays with me, and I with that person, produces a lot of fruit, because you can’t do anything without me. If anyone doesn’t stay with me, that person will be thrown out like a branch and will wither. Those branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (TSNT)

Then finally Jesus says in v16,

You didn’t choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and produce fruit, and at that, fruit that would last… (TSNT)

Jesus is giving his anxious disciples an image to remember that he isn’t leaving them but he is as stuck to them like a vine to its branches. From the vine comes life; from the vine comes growth and fruit. For a branch, to be without the vine means death. Jesus hasn’t chosen them for death but for life.

For the disciples and for us, it means that all that we do; all that we are comes from Jesus. The danger for the disciples and for us is trying to do life without the vine; trying to do mission, church, worship, faith, even obedience without the vine. By cutting ourselves off, we wither, shrivel and die. Whilst Jesus was on earth he saw his relationship to the Father in a similar way – the Father was always there and Jesus redeemed the world out of the relationship they shared. There is a mentality that thinks that once Jesus ascended into heaven he went into retirement and that he does not continue to have any involvement in the world today – that he is not continuing his mission of reconciliation in the world. Jesus never said to his disciples that they were going to do it alone. He is as stuck to them as a vine to its branches –they continued to be disciples (notice they never became Rabbis themselves), they continued to be followers, they continued to be participants in his ministry and mission in the world. Jesus is as stuck to us like a vine to its branches – this is the relationship we have and he has chosen us for life, for fruit, for mission… to make ourselves at home in his love and let life and obedience grow from there…

May this be the truth that shapes you…

May you find home in this love relationship…

And when things get dark and you feel alone may you always remember that Jesus is the vine and you are his branches…

Sermon Notes: John 14: 22-31

2009-06-06T14:42:00.002+10:00

The question from Judas is very important to understand. His question is, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"

What Judas is getting at is that he learnt through the Old Testament that the coming of the Messiah and arrival of God’s kingdom was to be an undeniable, unmistakable and irresistible event (Is. 11, Dan. 7, Hab. 3:3-15; Zc. 9). It was meant to be huge!

So, in a sense, he is asking Jesus what are doing sitting around with the 12 of us?

Shouldn’t you have an army by now? Why aren’t you more obvious? In fact, why isn’t God’s kingdom more obvious? Or more to the point why isn’t God more obvious?

The Israelite nation knew what kingdoms were about! They had their own fair share and also had the experience of being slaves or taken over by the kingdoms of other nations. Currently, it was the Roman Empire who was in control and so, logically for Judas, the Messiah would have to conquer the Roman Empire to establish God’s kingdom. Judas would have known the stories about God working with Moses, Joshua, King David or even individuals like Samson or even Shamgar who killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad (Judges 3:31). But Judas is thinking none of us are Samson; none of us are Shamgar and certainly none of us have any oxgoads!!!

Judas is thinking big but as Jesus responds we find that he is thinking even bigger. I mean, what Jesus is about to say is even bigger than Moses coming out of Egypt, bigger than King David or Solomon, bigger than Samson or Shamgar… bigger than anything that Judas may have heard about the patriarchs, prophets or kings.

The big event for Jesus is in v23. “If anyone loves me, they will hold on firmly to my Word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them (TSNT).”

At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus tells his disciples that he is leaving to prepare rooms or homes in his Father’s household. And they were going to be where he was in relationship to the Father. Jesus emphasised that they weren’t being abandoned but being included into the very life, love and relationship of the triune God.

Now Jesus goes even further to say that the relationship of heaven is now going to live – to dwell – to make a home in them. Before, the challenge was to be heavenly-minded – to see ourselves included in the heavenly relationship between the Father, Son and Spirit. But now, the challenge is to be earthly-minded where we need to think that right now, our lives are the home of God.

[Use your imaginations for a moment. Imagine that someone (a boss, teacher, a friend) has just asked where do you want to be in 10 years? How do you picture yourself in 10 years? Ok, now hold that answer or picture. Where was God in your answer/picture of yourself in 10 years? God wasn’t there was he?! ]

As we thought about our life, why did we automatically see ourselves as alone or separated from God?

This is the challenge we face because our problem is that we are used to thinking independently from God, instead of approaching life and our future together with God we automatically think that God is not involved and we are alone or separated from his presence.

Remember those false images of God that we get from science, philosophy, culture, etc… the gods that are distant, hard to please and easily angered… they still plague our minds and terrorise our souls. Because deep, deep, deep within us we can still think we are alone - separated.

Jesus is telling his disciples the very opposite, that they now lived with God and God now lived in them. There was no such thing as alone.

Jesus knew that there would need to be healing, a continual process of changing (repenting) or renewing our minds and believing in the relationship they now have.

That’s why in v26 Jesus says, “But the One who is called to your side to help and encourage, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything I’ve said to you.”

The Holy Spirit’s mission within the disciples was to remind them of their place in God and God’s place in them. I think here we need to realise that the Holy Spirit is not simply about teaching and knowledge but also about “unlearning” – unlearning bad habits, especially unlearning our independence.

[Children get the relationship Jesus is talking about naturally… they see themselves in their parents face… they are at home in their parents embrace… have you ever noticed that when they take a fall… they don’t look at where they’ve tripped or bumped themselves they look too their parent’s face to see if they’re OK. Chloe and I learnt this… When we grow up we become more independent and lose this reaction but in the first year or so a child is totally dependant on their parents. Parents are helping them understand the world around them, they feed off their care and strength and even when they hurt themselves, if the parent says they’re OK they believe they’re OK.]

Is this not exactly like the relationship he is talking about? Not to look at themselves in their own anxiety, fear and confusion but to look to the Father - look into the Father’s face to see if they’re OK – to look into the Father of Jesus and know that they are home. This is the relationship that Jesus is sharing with his disciples and is sharing with us today.

Jesus says that they should be happy that he is returning to his Father – happy because Jesus is returning home. Home for Jesus is to be in the Father’s embrace where there is safety, peace, blessing and Jesus says that he gives his own peace. Peace in Hebrew (Shalom) means blessing and right relationship with God… not the Roman idea of peace (Pax Romana) which simply means the absence of war. Jesus shares his very own shalom peace that flows out of his very own relationship with the Father. And as the disciples faced their own fears and anxieties Jesus says “don’t be cowardly” it is translated usually as “don’t be afraid” but it is more than that it is “don’t be cowardly”. “Don’t be cowardly” was some of the dying words of Moses (Deut. 31:8), and what God told Joshua (Josh. 1:9; 8:1) and what Joshua told his warriors (Josh. 10:25). In all of these OT settings the reason for not being cowardly was because God was with them and leading the way. So, Jesus says “don’t be cowardly” even though Satan, the prince/ruler of this world (see also 12:31, 16:11) is coming he’s got nothing on me and he’s got nothing to do with what I’m sharing with you.

The kingdom that Judas was thinking about would eventually come to that undeniable, unmistakable and irresistible reality. As John later says from his vision in Revelation:

“The tabernacle [dwelling] of God is with humans, and he will live with them and they will be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, misery, crying aloud or pain, because the former things have passed away.”

And I didn’t see a temple, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city doesn’t need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s splendour gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

(Rev 21: 3-4, 22-23 TSNT; cf 1 Ki. 8.27; Ezk. 37:26-27; Zc. 2:10)

This future undeniable reality, Jesus is saying to Judas, begins now. The Father and I have made ourselves at home with you Judas, we dwell and share your life – we don’t leave when things are boring or when things get ugly. We don’t let you go through anything that we aren’t prepared to go through with you – we want to be that close – we are home. Learn to see yourself with us and learn to see us in your life – let’s do life together. Holy Spirit help him.

If you’re wondering who you are, where you fit in, your identity, what’s life all about, what’s my place in this world, the meaning to life… there will be no greater realisation on earth that will measure up to having those questions answered not by philosophy or religion but by the relationship of doing life together with the Father and his Son.

Dare we believe in a relationship with God like this?

Dare we believe that God wants to be this involved in our lives – that God is this close?

Dare we believe that we share in the Son’s relationship to the Father and that the Father, through the Son and the Spirit is living, working out his purposes for us in our lives?

Dare we celebrate and share this good news – this relationship with others?

Sermon Notes: John 14: 8-21

2009-05-24T18:30:00.000+10:00

Jesus has just finished answering Thomas and concludes by saying, “From now on, you will come to know him [the Father]; you have seen him [the Father].” (v6-7, TSNT)

Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father, and that’ll be enough for us!”

What Philip says might seem a bit silly but, like Thomas, he is being blunt honest and to the point. Ambiguity or confusion do not help when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed which is how the disciples were feeling.

But no one has ever seen God (1:18). Moses begged, “show me [your glory] yourself” (Ex 33:18 LXX) but even Moses was only allowed to see part of his back. So, Philip knows that Jesus is doing something that has never been done before throughout the history of Israel. Even to call God Father, to describe the relationship in that way would have been blasphemy.

And so, Philip says, “show us the Father… that’ll be enough!”

As Jesus responds to Philip I get the feeling that Jesus is saying NO, that will not be enough! It’s not enough for my Father. The Father wants more than for you to just see him, in fact, you don’t realise just how close he is to you right now.

In the midst of fear and anxiety Jesus is making sure the disciples know who he is and who they are. Jesus is focusing on the “who” question, which is funny because when you face a problem usually you want someone to explain “how”… how do I fix it, how do I get through it, how can I make it better, how, how? But do you notice, as the disciples come to grips with him leaving, Jesus doesn’t provide a “how to” plan, a mission strategy, a resource manual, or even a mud map? Jesus is explaining “who” not how Even when Thomas asked, “how do we know the way?” Jesus answers the how question with who, “I am the way!” (V5-7)

So, who is Jesus? Already, Peter believes that Jesus is the Son of God (Matt. 16:13-20) though he doesn’t seem to truly understand what he believes. Yes, Jesus is the Son of God, but most importantly, the Son of God in the flesh – a person.

Sometimes I think we miss the importance of the Son of God being a person – God in the flesh. Sometimes I think we think God is like a sport coach… giving commands, barking orders, shouting from the sidelines... but where is the coach during the game? On the sideline or in a box overseeing the match. Sometimes we can take authority figures like that and read it back into our relationship with God… we may dare to think that God is with us during church, during the good times but when life get intense, when life goes sour, when you take the field somehow we think God has stepped away to the sidelines or is high up in the bleachers watching it all unfold.

But Jesus is the Son of God in the flesh, which means that God didn’t pretend to be human and he doesn’t shout from the sidelines but he is right there in the muck. Living with Jesus for three years would have taught the disciples, at least, one thing, God will live and suffer with them but it’s the next thing they struggled even more to understand that God will suffer for them on the cross.

And so, in these verses we hear this outrageous, intimate, relational language describing who God is in the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus emphasises that the Father has been here all along through him and the Holy Spirit is just as close.

In verses 9-11, Jesus emphasises just how close the Father is by saying, if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. My words are the Fathers words. My miracles are the Father’s miracles.

In verses 12-14, Jesus then shares his relationship with the Father with his disciples precisely because he has become a person he has united himself to them. If they can believe Jesus then they can also believe that the Father will live, work and do miracles with them and even greater things because they are united and believe in his Son.

Then in verses 15-17, Jesus and the Father send the Holy Spirit, the “One who is called to your side to help and encourage and who will be with you forever… he is staying beside you [like, at your home] and will be in you.” (TSNT)

From these verses, as Jesus leaves for the cross there is one thing for certain the disciples are not being left alone or abandoned. Jesus has not come to abandoned them but is right there with them and so is the Father and so is the Holy Spirit.

Then Jesus speaks about their relationship to God. He’s told them about the relationship that God has with them but now he speaks about who they are to God.

V18-20, in speaking about the resurrection… Jesus says,

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (NIV)

This is how far our relationship goes. God is certainly not on the sidelines but went as far as you were to embrace you and bring you home. Not just restoring creation with its creator but by bringing us into the very life, love and relationship of God. Jesus shared life with his disciples – he shared their place as a person in this world but he also shared his Father with them and… now… they… share his place as the Son and the relationship he has with his Father and the Spirit.

You could imagine Jesus saying, so Philip, seeing the Father is not enough… this is who God is. He doesn’t want you to just see him nor is he watching you from the sidelines but he loves you so much he will go through life and will even suffer with you… I will even suffer for you.

There is nothing you can go through Philip where the Father and I and the Spirit will shy away from… even death… I am never going away… neither is the Father and neither is the Holy Spirit… Come and meet my Father and now your Father (20:17)… come and talk, walk, live and enjoy him as I do. My Father once said about me, “this is my Son, in whom my soul delights” (Matt. 3:16-17; Is. 42:1). Now, he says that about you.

How do we respond to all that Jesus has done for us? Or, to the relationship that he shares with us?

Throughout John’s gospel and his letters (v 15, 21, 23; 15: 14; 1 John 5:3) there is this relationship between love and obedience… where obedience flows from love… At first, I thought this was a negative thing but I realised that all relationships that are based on love are obedient relationships. You think about when you’re in love you do whatever to please the other person – you’ll do whatever they say. Obedience always flows out of this sort of love… whether you’re just mates, close friends, dating, marriage… it is pretty hard to stay friends or have a relationship with someone who is selfish, self-centred and focused only on themselves.

And so, Jesus says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (v15, NIV)

The relationship you have with Jesus is the very basis of your obedience. Because if you love Jesus you will love others.

And so, the disciples needed to make a shift in their hearts and minds to believe in the new relationship Jesus was wanting for them; to believe in the love from the Father and in the continual presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Out of this love, out of this relationship would flow their own identity, their own obedience, their own participation in the mission of God, their own suffering and sharing the place of others out of love.

May you come to know the Father as Jesus does.

May you know that you're loved as Jesus is loved.

And may out this love flow your relationship, mission and obedience.

Sermon Notes: John 14: 5-7

2009-05-17T18:30:00.000+10:00

This week, I asked schools students of various ages what they thought God was like and to try to describe him. I tried drawing the various images and the most common was an old guy with a big beard with robes (sort of like Gandalf) or another was a huge shining light. But as to his personality or nature he was a bit distant or aloof.

Another question I asked was to describe Jesus using adjectives. What I found was that in general, as the students reflected on the stories they may have heard at chapel, church, or Christian studies, there was a friendlier, warmer appreciation of Jesus. Although, they could probably picture Jesus as a Jewish guy also with a beard and wearing sandals they had greater insight into his personality.

Now, the interesting thing about this is that Jesus came to reveal God – to tell and show us what God is like or more specifically his Father.

In John 1:18, No one has ever seen God at any time. The Only Son, the One who is closest to the Father’s heart - he is the one who led the way to the place of honour at the Father’s side! (TSNT)

Or, Luke 10:22 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (NIV)

As Jesus came to reveal his Father what he came up against were people who had such a different picture of God in their hearts and minds that they didn’t recognise the Father that Jesus was on about. Even Israel, the nation that had so much history as God’s chosen people, even they did not recognise or accept him.

In John 1: 10-11, it says, although the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to his own people, but they did not accept him. (TSNT)

To be clear, without Jesus, I can guarantee you that you have a picture of God that comes from somewhere else. There are many things that influence our ideas of God – society, culture, family, religion…

From philosophy we have this notion that has stayed with us throughout history about an aloof, non-relational, unmoved mover or an angry God in the clouds whose only interest in you is to deal out reward and punishment but he takes more pleasure in punishment. He has a lightening bolt in one hand and sometimes his aim is a bit random but hey the last thing you want to do is tick this guy off.

The ironic thing is that the militant atheism of our day like Richard Dawkins et al hates this view of God and attacks it with a passion. I don’t mind that they attack this idea of God because this isn’t the Father that I know through Jesus.

Non-atheistic sciences, however, scientists who aren’t like Richard Dawkins, aren’t much better in their picture of god. The most that science can come up with is the idea of a blind watch-maker who made the universe, wound it up like a clock and let it run by itself and couldn’t care less what happens to the universe, let alone what happens to you.

Now, I’m not sure what picture of God loomed in the minds and hearts of the disciples but they were still struggling to grasp what Jesus was saying and doing.

Jesus has just told them that he was returning to God, returning to his Father, his Father’s house to prepare rooms for them through his life, death, resurrection and ascension– to take them to be with him in relationship to the Father.

This should have been good news for the disciples but they didn’t know where he was going… they didn’t recognise the Father.

Thomas, in v5, is thinking practically and doesn’t any ambiguity and says quite honestly, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

And Jesus is as clear as possible, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life… “No one goes to the Father except through me. If you had come to know me, then you would come to know the Father as well.” (TSNT)

Our relationship and knowledge of the Father comes totally and exclusively through Jesus – the Son of God in the flesh.

Because of the incarnation, his life, death, resurrection and ascension Jesus is the way to the Father, the truth about the Father and the shared life in relationship to the Father.

He hits his disciples with a realisation that they knew him as their Rabbi but they were getting to know him as more than a Rabbi – as the Son of God in the flesh. His point is, if you know him as the Son of God then – like Father like Son – then you know the Father as well. So, Jesus says, “From now on, you will come to know [him… the Father]; you have seen [him… the Father through the Son].”

Jesus is saying, the Father is like me. Forget about the image that you got through the Pharisees and religious leaders or from society – the Father is just like me.

Now, Jesus isn’t referring to physical similarities like having the same eyes as his Dad or the same nose. Nor is he saying know stuff about me like info, data, trivia, or bible verses. Knowing Jesus is about having a relationship. You get to know your friends not by reading books about them but by spending time with them.

If we have a relationship with Jesus we are also getting to know the Father. The Son and the Father are so tight in their relationship that because the disciples had a relationship with the Son Jesus; the Father has been there all along. As they’ve lived, walked, talked, learnt, prayed, healed, done mission with Jesus they’ve done so with the Father as well. You have a relationship with me, Jesus is saying, well, the Father is just like me.

Now, the importance of this for the disciples is that their world was about to turn upside down and he wants to leave them with the true picture of God for their hearts and minds so they could have a true relationship… to function with, to live with, to do mission with, they needed to embrace the true picture of the Father. And so Jesus shares his relationship to the Father with them.

Believing the gospel or good news is more than a private transaction between God and us… it is a relationship with the Father through the Son in the unity of the Spirit. If Jesus is sharing with you his relationship to the Father then it should impact everything. Jesus raved about his Dad – all he wanted to do was to tell people about the Father – his Father is that good!

What picture of God or the Father are you functioning with?

What picture do you pray with?

What picture do you worship with?

What image do evangelise with?

What picture do you live with?

Sermon Notes: John 15: 9-17

2009-05-17T10:00:00.001+10:00

To think about the universe, and our world within it… to think about life and about living it…

Or even, to think about the church, its mission, ministry is to think like a branch…

To think about our relationship to Jesus is to think like a branch…

We need to think like a branch when we think about all these things…

The strong cultural but also Old Testament image of the vine continues on in these verses from v9-17 in two ways: in the idea of abiding or remaining in Jesus and in bearing fruit.

Jesus is comforting and encouraging his disciples because they know that he is leaving them – and he has told them in 14: 1-3 that he is going to prepare rooms in his Father’s house – to take them to be where he will be. Although, in one sense he is certainly leaving them, leaving them for the cross, and resurrection/ascension but in the greater sense he is not leaving them at all but is taking them with him into the very presence, life and relationships of the triune God.

Here, Jesus is emphasising to his anxious disciples that he isn’t leaving them but he is as stuck to them like a vine to its branches.

In the intimate setting of the Passover meal, Jesus is intuitively picking up on their anxiety and is responding to their despair, at this moment their question would go something like, since we cannot physically see or touch you, how do we know that we are with you and you are with us (v4f)?

Jesus speaks to them from his very own experience of obedience and out of his very own relationship to the Father.

V9-10 "I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.”(MSG)

As the eternal Son in the relationships of the triune God his mission from the Father in redeeming the world brought with it an experience of taking on all that we are as humans. Including not being able to physically see and know by touch his Father’s continual presence and embrace. Despite this, Jesus never stopped to live and work out of his Father’s love, in fact, the ministry of Jesus can be summarised in a basic way as revealing his Father, and simply doing what his Father tells him to do. Jesus will say to his disciples in v15 “You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father” (MSG).

Jesus continued to live, to work, and to redeem humanity out of his Father’s embrace. Jesus knew where he was in relationship to the Father despite not being able to see or touch the divine reality.

The commands themselves “Love each other as I have loved you” flow out of the love relationships within the triune God. Totally, 100%, other-person centred love, which finds its greatest human expression in, as Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (NIV).

It was this love that was to flow out of their hearts and into action for one another.

And as the disciples loved each other as Christ did this would be the sign or experience that assures them that Jesus is with them and they are with him. The more they saw themselves in union to Christ and embraced by the Father the more this command flowed out of their hearts for each other. The very same joy and happiness that Jesus has in the affection of the Father would be theirs as well. This is why John in the first chapter proclaims the glorious truth of Jesus, The Only Son, the One who is closest to the Father’s heart - he is the one who led the way to the place of honour at the Father’s side! (1:28, TSNT)

Now, in all of this what has thinking like a branch have to do with any of this?

Well, essentially, Jesus is saying in the midst feelings of abandonment or not having tangible evidence of our union to Christ we need to be just like a branch and live out of the vine, live out of the very core of who Jesus is in relation to the Father – the beloved Son of God in the flesh – whose mission is to lay down his life for his friends (v13). Think, believe, be like a branch and produce the fruit that would come from a vine like this. Produce fruit that comes from the very heart of Jesus.

A branch knows full well that all that it is, all that it can be, all that it will be is dependant upon its vine that gives it life. We need to think like a branch.

Cyril on John 14: 1-2

2009-05-05T14:36:00.011+10:00

Therefore if the mansions in God the Father's home had not been many in number, He would have said that He was going on before them, namely to prepare beforehand the habitations of the saints: but knowing that there are many such, already fully prepared and awaiting the arrival of those who love God, He says that He will depart not for this purpose, but for the sake of securing the way to the mansions above, to prepare a passage of safety for you, and to smooth the path that was impassable in old time. For heaven was then utterly inaccessible to mortal man, and no flesh as yet had ever trodden that pure and all-holy realm of the angels; but Christ was the first Who consecrated for us the means of access to Himself, and granted to flesh a way of entrance into heaven; presenting Himself as an offering to God the Father, as it were the firstfruits of them that are asleep and are lying in the tomb, and the first of mankind that ever appeared in heaven...

For it is not that He may present Himself before the presence of God the Father that Christ has ascended up on high: for He ever was and is and will be continually in the Father, in the sight of Him Who begat Him, for He it is in Whom the Father ever takes delight: but now He Who of old was the Word with no part or lot in human nature, has ascended in human form that He may appear in heaven in a strange and unwonted manner. And this He has done on our account and for our sakes, in order that He, though found as a man, may still in His absolute power as Son, while yet in human form, obey the command: Sit Thou on My right hand, and so may transfer the glory of adoption through Himself to all the race. For in that He has appeared in human form He is still one of us as He sits at the right hand of God the Father, even though He is far above all creation; and He is also Consubstantial with His Father, in that He has come forth from Him as truly God of God and Light of Light. He has presented Himself therefore as Man to the Father on our behalf, that so He may restore us, who had been removed from the Father's presence by the ancient transgression, again as it were to behold the Father's face. He sits there in His position as Son, that so also we through Him may be called sons and children of God...

"I shall not then," He says, "depart to prepare mansions for you, for many there are already, and to make new habitations for creation is needless; but I go to make ready a place for you on account of the sin that has mastery over you, that so those who are on the earth may be able to be mingled with the holy angels; for else the saintly multitude of those above would never have mingled with those who had been so denied. But now, when I shall have accomplished this work, and united the world below to the world above, and given you a path of access to the city on high, I will return again at the time of the regeneration, and receive you with Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

Cyril of Alexandria, Comment on the Gospel according to John, Book 9, 236-238
or you read it in Google Books.

I am preparing a sermon series on the farewell/upper-room discourses of Jesus in John 13-17. I am reading Carson and Morris but have incorporated the ACCS into my study. Above is a pearl from Cyril!

A personal reflection on the nature of ordained ministry

2009-05-05T12:33:00.002+10:00

Where this theological paradigm works for me is firstly in my confession of a fallen nature and my broken relationship with God. Though, I am united to all in a fallen humanity I trust that Christ has united himself to me (and to all) in his incarnation and that I was united to him in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. I see ‘salvation’ as well as ministry in a Trinitarian and Incarnational paradigm and grammar and so, in very relational terms, salvation is a sharing in the sonship (relationship) of Jesus Christ to the Father in the relational unity of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is (but not exclusively) about being adopted as a child of the Father through union to the Son and by the power and life of the Spirit. At the heart of my life and my ministry is the belief that I get to participate in the Son’s own relationships and also his continuing ministry in the world through the ministry of the Spirit.

This means for me that whilst I seek to participate in the ministry I don’t have to look inward for signs of power or ability nor to experiences of success nor to authority structures as foundations for ministry. The power of my ministry is something that is not actually mine and does not rest on me or come from me, which ensures me that in my sphere of influence that I am apart of something bigger; something beyond me. This excites me and gives me confidence as someone who is aware of my own weaknesses and capabilities that I am reliant on Christ’s presence, strength and ability. Where I am weak; he is strong.

I can see that in the many aspects of ordained ministry that I discern and rely on Christ, for example, the absolution or forgiveness of sins, especially in a liturgical context, my confidence in pronouncing forgiveness is not found in me or my righteousness but in the incarnation and atonement of Jesus Christ. As I preach, I don’t have to trust in my eloquence or craft but in the power of the Holy Spirit to use scripture to witness to Christ who reveals the Father. As I pastorally care, I do so knowing that I work alongside or within the process and journey given by the Spirit who transforms and conforms us to Christ in relationship to the Father.

To conclude, the nature of ordained ministry is a witness to the privilege and calling of all believers and is a wonderful and exciting relationship with Christ who continues to Head the church and work in his world.

A theological and practical reflection on the nature of ordained ministry

2009-05-05T12:27:00.006+10:00

My reflection begins theologically with T. F. Torrance’s three “cardinal facts or principles” found in the teaching of the New Testament via John Calvin. These three principles will act as boundaries for my reflection.

a) Jesus Christ alone is the Head of the Church, and presides over it in all things (Col. 1: 18; 2:10; Eph. 1:22; 4:15; 5:23).

b) The ministry is a gift of the ascended Head to the Body, and as such is placed within the Body. It is essentially a sub-ministration which by its very place and nature must not seek to dominate or lord it over the Body, i.e. to usurp the place of the Head. As placed within the Body the ministry is essentially corporate, and must manifest a unity in the Body corresponding to its One Head.

c) All members of the Body are joined together by the One Spirit in such a way that they are ordered by the Head according to a diversity of function and in a mutual subordination of love.[1]

In essence, my theological reflection gravitates solely around the relationship between three things: a Presbyter, the one true Priest Jesus Christ and the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:4-10).

Out of the corporate priesthood or the priesthood of all believers comes the appointment or ordination of those who function in a special capacity.

The nature of this ordained ministry would be to serve the priesthood of the whole Body. The gifts and ordering of the Spirit are always for the Body and its edification, therefore, the call (though not exclusively) to ordination exists to serve and edify the Body.

Since there is the priesthood of all believers the nature of ordained ministry would function as a pattern or a witness that is put forward in the Church for observation, signifying the higher reality of our unio mystica or the mirifica commutatio, which in this respect is the participation of all believers in the sole Priesthood or continuing ministry of Jesus Christ.

This higher reality sets the nature of ordained ministry as (1) sacramental as it points beyond itself to Christ’s Real Presence and continuing ministry and (2) eschatological as it has a temporary nature and points to the future glory or undeniable reality of our union to Christ and adoption into the life of the triune God.

To summarise my theological reflection and move on to a more practical line of thought, ordained ministry serves the church as a witness to the privilege of all believers which is the participation in Christ’s continuing ministry in the Body and in the world.

In a practical sense, then, ministry is simply going with Jesus – doing what he is doing, going where he is going; sharing obediently in his continuing ministry of reconciliation.

Though, it is always his ministry, a paradigm for participation can be seen when Jesus feeds the 5000 or at the wedding in Cana when he turns water into wine. Jesus includes the disciples and the wedding servants in the miracles he performs; they participated in his ministry. The central idea in this ministry paradigm is as Karl Barth emphasised that God refuses to be God without us or as Augustine stated, "Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not."

The practical nature of ordained ministry is to stand as a witness to the ministry of Jesus and to our saving union to him. Thus, ordained ministry is a witness to all to believe in their inclusion and to obediently participate. This influences the nature and responsibilities of ordained ministry in relation to the sacraments, preaching, and pastoral care because in this paradigm a priest is participating and witnessing to the union with the one mediator, the one word to the church, and the one ministry of reconciliation taking place in the lives of all.

The challenge in being a witness is being a faithful witness. Ordained ministry, then, requires all that we are as people to be a testimony to the reconciling work of Christ. In our union to Christ – all that I am - is redeemed and sanctified and celebrates the shared life of the triune God. The nature of ordained life, then, serves as a model to be “set apart” which requires discipline and sacrifice but, this too, is, of course, a witness to the calling of all in the Body of Christ.

[1] T. F. Torrance, Royal Priesthood, in Scottish Journal of Theology Occasional Papers No. 3, (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd LTD, 1955), 88. Also see Eph. 4: 4-16; 1 Cor. 12; 1 Pet. 2: 4-10; Book 4 of John Calvin’s Institutes. I am also indebted to Graham Buxton, Ray S. Anderson, Donald Macleod, Scot McKnight and Gary Deddo for their various writings in regard to Trinitarian theology and praxis.

John 16:15 Mirifica Commutatio

2009-04-12T15:27:00.004+10:00

All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (NIV)

Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I've said, 'He [the Spirit] takes from me and delivers to you. (MSG)

Whatever the Father possesses is also mine; that is why I tell you that he [the Spirit] will draw on my truth and will show it to you. (JBP)

What a beautiful and concise Trinitarian statement!

I have been doing morning and evening prayers from APBA and couldn’t stop reading on from John 14. It reminded me of Robert Letham’s intro to The Holy Trinity (2004, P&R, page 1) when he quotes from personal correspondence with Sinclair B. Ferguson who said to him, “I’ve often reflected on the rather obvious thought that when his disciples were about to have the world collapse in on them, our Lord spent so much time in the Upper Room speaking to them about the mystery of the Trinity. If anything could underline the necessity of Trinitarianism for practical Christian, that must surely be it.”

John Calvin writes in commentary on John 16:15, that Jesus, acknowledges that he has received from the Father all that he communicates to us by the Spirit… he speaks of his riches, that he may invite us to enjoy them…

This is such a wonderful scripture. Being the more reflective type, it has distracted me from my work but it has given me fresh air for my soul to breath.

Thank you Holy Spirit, continue to share. This is truly the wonderful exchange.

Wedding Sermon Notes

2009-03-24T11:18:00.007+11:00

My advice for marriage is always lookout for No. 1.

Just to clarify, No. 1 is your spouse.

I think this is the simplest and hardest piece of advice that anyone could give you. But it is advice that is not mere human wisdom but comes from the Bible and from the very nature of God.

Let’s have a look… We find the first marriage relationship or the beginning of the very idea of the marriage relationship in Gen 2: 18, 21-24.

18 God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion."
21-22 God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.
23-24 The Man said,
"Finally! Bone of my bone,
flesh of my flesh!
Name her Woman
for she was made from Man."
Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. (MSG)

“One flesh” is very strong imagery that implies complete union or unity, togetherness, oneness.

But the million dollar question for any relationship is how do we have oneness, unity, togetherness?

How do two people become one?

The answer is a beautiful one and to see the answer we need to hear and see the beautiful relationship in God who is triune: three in one.

Jump back to the first chapter of Genesis where you get to hear the Father, Son and Spirit speak in one voice:

Gen 1: 26-27
"Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature…
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female. (MSG)

Here, the basic point is that humanity as a whole, in our relationships, has been created to reflect the nature of God. The love and relationship between the Father, Son and Spirit is part of the very nature of God and God created us with relationships as apart of our DNA – our nature.

The nature of God is seen in the relationships between the Father, Son and Spirit. Each person within the Trinity is totally other-person-centred, which is the opposite of being self-centred. There is no self-centredness in God; there is only unconditional love toward each other, so much so, that there is complete oneness, so much so, that the Bible says God is love; not God is like love or in love or lovable, or loving but God is love.

And so, this is the challenge of marriage
This is the secret of two becoming one
This is the blessing that I want to leave you with.

In your marriage, reflect the nature of God in being other-person-centred in mutual submission.

From Ephesians 5: 21, 22, 25, 33 it says to the marriage couple:

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord…
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… 33 each one of you [husbands] must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (NIV)

Wives, this means that you say no to yourself and yes to your husband.
Husbands, this means you say no to yourself to the point where you give her everything you are; your life is hers.

Now, this isn’t easy and so what I’m leaving you with is something that takes time, it takes practise, it takes communication, it takes sacrifice, it takes being able to admit when you’re wrong, especially when you are, it takes apologising and it takes forgiveness but that’s what relationships are all about. In all of life’s circumstances, seasons, highs and lows the one constant will be your love and commitment to one another.

My prayer for you as you share life together in this most intimate and beautiful journey that you reflect the nature of God in unconditional love, in other-person-centeredness and mutual submission to one another.

May you always look out for No. 1.

May your No. 1 always be your spouse.

Perichoretic Gospel

2009-03-23T17:58:00.004+11:00

“The atonement begins in the perichoresis of God, that eternal communion of interpersonal love, and that perichoresis becomes incarnate in the Son of God, the Logos, Christ Jesus, who assumes- hence the cross- what we are in order to draw us into that perichoresis. And it is the entire life of Jesus, not just the cross, that creates atonement. A genuinely biblical atonement is incarnational as it sets the stage now for what happens in the cross.”
Scot McKnight - A Community Called Atonement, 60

Sermon Notes: Matthew 13: 47-50

2009-03-02T10:55:00.003+11:00

The setting has changed from public to private parables. From the natural amphitheatre of a boat and the crowded shores of Galilee to a private conversation in a home between Jesus and his disciples (v36).

The parable of the net is a nice climax to what has gone on before and ties in to the picture of Jesus speaking about the mysterious kingdom from what probably was a common fishing boat. From this boat Jesus speaks to the captured audience on the shore. For the final time in chapter 13, he says those immortal words the kingdom of heaven is like…

What sort of fishing image comes to mind when you hear this parable?

Fishing is no longer a simple hobby or sport. There are ways and means to catch the fish you’re wanting. There are various lures, specific baits and rods, reels, boats, skills and seasons… that all influence your ability to catch what you’re after.

Well, Jesus is very specific about the style of fishing that represents the mysterious kingdom.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake. Here Jesus mentions a very specific kind of fishing net. Best described as a dragnet or a ‘seine’ net. This word for dragnet is used only once in the NT and the emphasis or purpose of this type of net is quite clear as it is used to capture everything in its path.

This dragnet, like a ‘seine’ fishing net, is like a fence with a rope (with floats) along the top and weights at the bottom to keep it vertical. One end can be secured to the shore while a boat drags the other end through the waters in a semi-circle to surround the fish. You could also do this with two boats and go into deeper waters. This sort of net is used most commonly today to catch mass amounts of fish that swim close to the surface like sardines, mackerel, anchovies, herring, sometimes tuna and salmon.

As the dragnet is designed to gather everything in its path you hope to capture fish (actually the word for ‘fish’ isn’t mentioned) but all sorts of seaweed, flotsam, jetsam all sorts of marine debris would have been caught. Jesus says that this net caught all kinds of fish or literally he says the net gathers of very kind.

The next part of the process is that once you’ve surrounded the fish with the net, Jesus says, the fishermen pulled [the net] up on the shore. This is the dragging or literally the hauling in of what got caught in the net. The sorting of all that is captured takes place on the beach as the fishermen sit down and put the good in baskets and throw the other stuff away.

How do the fishermen tell which are the good fish and the bad fish? Well, just like the slogan, “It’s the fish that John West rejects that makes John West the best” basically, fisherman are looking for something they can either eat or sell. The actual words for good and bad are describing the reaction to what is found in the net by the keen eye of the fishermen. They are beautiful or ugly, fresh or rotten, useful or rubbish. It is the fishermen who decide what is good or bad; the fishermen not the fish set the standard. The sorting all depends on the fishermen; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The fishermen either find the fish to be good and put them in the bucket or they are bad and are thrown away on the beach.

Jesus takes this common fishing practise to point us toward the kingdom. If one thing is certain from this parable it is that everyone will be resurrected for judgement.

Jesus explains this parable in a similar way that he explained the parable of weeds a few moments earlier, that this is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (also John 5: 28-29, Rev 20: 11-15)

As soon as I say the word ‘judgement’ a popular image that we get is the scene of a court room with a magistrate and a hammer of justice. Well, the biblical idea of judgement and the kingdom are not like our legal system. Nor is biblical judgment a threat to be good through the fear of getting caught. Imagine that, being good (faithful husband, father, friend, citizen) only because you know you’ll get caught one day.

Judgement is not a comfortable word and actually arrives from the word ‘crisis’ but it is such an important theme in the Bible and so we need to understand and see it as it is presented in scripture without adding to it our own ideas.

Most see judgment reserved for the crisis on the last day but this is not the full picture. As soon as Jesus came into the world judgement was taking place. The theme of judgement runs throughout John’s gospel and a key verse to understanding the biblical idea of judgement is found right at the beginning of John 3:19, “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” (NASB)

The world was being judged not only as Jesus lived but also, especially, in his death. The cross is the ultimate act of judgement on the world. Ironically, it is the cross where humanity judged Christ. In reference to the cross, Jesus said, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." (John 12:31-32 NIV)

Jesus continues with one of the most important and clear explanations of biblical judgment:

"He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me." (John 12: 44-50 NASB)

It is quite clear that we will be judged by the word/commandment that Jesus received from his Father and the word/commandment Jesus received from this Father was eternal life.

Eternal Life is a very relational concept as it is an eternal relationship/shared life with God and judgement takes place in our response to that life (see John 17:3, John 5:24).

Being about relationship our response to eternal life is not a merely verbal response it is a response that requires every fibre of our being – it is who you are.

Thankfully, for those who doubt in their ability, it is not an individual response given in our own strength it is a response wrapped up and united to the righteousness of Christ as our mediator. In fact, this will be the true crisis for those who are trying to respond – on their own and refuse grace as unfair and unnecessary.

This is what we see happening on the beach as the fishermen sort through the dragnet. The net of the kingdom is the all encompassing death and resurrection of Christ who draws or hauls in all people to himself (1 Corinthians 15:21-22, Romans 5:18-19). But on the beach we are confronted with a crisis – a crisis of “I love you” and you cannot say those words sincerely if you haven’t recognised God’s grace and the strength of Christ as your mediator.

The imagery of this parable is very strong, in one glorious event humanity will be hauled up on the beach – resurrected – and the Father will sort through the net for those who are comfortable with grace; for those who believe and want the life relationship. This is where the saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” rings true for me. Just like the fishermen it will be the keen sorting eye of the Father looking for the response to the relationship on offer.

For those who believe in Christ on their behalf; for those who participate in their union to Christ by the Spirit you will be found in the net and the Father will look at you and his reaction will be to say, “good… beautiful…. my child… “

For those who are his children, why would we hope for anything else?

Triune Embrace

2009-02-25T09:38:00.002+11:00

“When God sets out to embrace the enemy, the result is the cross. On the cross the dancing circle of self-giving and mutually indwelling divine persons opens up for the enemy; in the agony of the passion the movement stops for a brief moment and a fissure appears so that sinful humanity can join in (see John 17:21). We, the others—we, the enemies—are embraced by the divine persons who love us with the same love with which they love each other and therefore make space within their own eternal embrace.”

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

Sermon: Yes we can! (Mark 2: 1-12, 1 Cor. 1: 16-22)

2009-02-25T08:50:00.007+11:00

A guest post by Bart Vanden Hengel

Barack Obama’s election campaign was masterfully established around one catchy slogan: “Yes, we can!”

· Can we bring in changes to government incompetence that America so desperately needs? “Yes, we can!”

· Can we establish a health care system that is fair and just? “Yes, we can!”

· Can we build a strong economy that elevates the poor and creates jobs for the jobless? “Yes, we can!”

· Can we reverse the problems of climate change and global warming? “Yes, we can!”

· Can we achieve a lasting peace in Iraq and bring our troops home? “Yes, we can!”

· On every national issue, it seems, Obama offered this catch-cry of hope: “Yes, we can!”

But, let me tell you something—this catch-cry of hope is nothing new!

Turn with me to Mark 2.

The story before us is quite amazing: People were flocking to Jesus from all over Galilee. Why? Because they had caught a vision…the vision of a new world (also known as ‘the Kingdom of God’) where God was tangibly, actively, intimately present on earth! It was a vision of radical change, where the old ways of priestly hierarchy and meaningless rituals were overtaken by a new and personal encounter with the Living God.

How did they get this vision? According to Mark, chapter 1, Jesus alone was the source of this new vision! As He moved amongst the cities and towns of Galilee, the people could see something different about Him. Not only were numerous miraculous events occurring through this man, but, by His very presence, a new sense of hope was being stirred as people began to view life differently. In Him, a new and radical faith was beginning to bubble forth!

In fact, Jesus’ presence in Israel was causing such a radical change in the people’s faith that if (for example) you were to ask them…

· ‘Can we be healed?’, what do you think they would say? Before Jesus came, they would have emphatically said, ‘No’! But now, with Jesus present, their answer would have dramatically shifted—‘Yes, we can be healed!’

· ‘Can we be freed from the power of the devil?’, most people would have said, ‘No’, for demons controlled the lives of so many. But now, with Jesus present, demons were being cast out. With him present, the answer was now shifting from ‘No’ to ‘Yes. ‘Yes, we can be delivered from the power of Satan.’

· ‘Can we be taught the ways of God from someone with a deep, personal relationship?, the answer would have been ‘No’. The old teachers of the Law spoke of ritual, duty and obligation. But, when Jesus came along, He taught in a new way, offering a new hope of a true relationship with God. “Yes, we can be taught by someone who knows God intimately!”

In the presence of Jesus, the people were able to gain a new hope… a new faith…a new confidence in the goodness and mercy of God! In Jesus Christ, they saw, first-hand, that all of God’s promises would, forevermore, be answered in the affirmative!

“Can we find a God who loves us?” “Yes, we can!”

Now, let’s look at chapter 2 of Mark’s Gospel.

There’s perhaps one final question that many people would have still been asking themselves, hoping that, in Jesus Christ, there would be a positive answer. Their silent question was, “Can we truly be forgiven? Can we be set free from all our sins?” It was a critical question for the Jews of Jesus’ day. After all, they had often been taught by their teachers that God was more interested in punishing sin than he was in forgiving it! (Sadly, people today are still being taught the same thing!)

But look at what happens in Mark, chapter 2, verses 1-12.

A paralytic man is taken by his four friends to see Jesus. These 4 men (like so many others in Israel) are obviously growing in boldness. They are starting to gain a new kind of faith, based in a new vision of God given to them by this man, Jesus Christ. And so, they arrive at the place where Jesus is reported to be, convinced that He will heal their friend… but they can’t get in! So, what do they do? In an act of ever-increasing faith in Jesus, they carry the man up to the roof, dig a hole through the mud and tiles, and lower the sick man down to Jesus on ropes.

As I said, by faith they’re expecting that their friend will be healed. But look what happens? Verse 5: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now, think carefully about this—From the opening verses of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has been doing three things: teaching, casting out demons and healing people. In this case, He could have simply continued in this pattern by saying to the paralytic, “OK, get up—You’re healed!” But Jesus doesn’t follow the pattern! Instead, out of the blue (v 5), Jesus declares, “Son, your sins are forgiven!” Why does He do this?

As I said earlier, for hundreds of years, the people of Israel had been incorrectly taught about the nature of God. They had been taught that, due to Israel’s sinfulness, God remained remote and distant…more interested in punishment than in forgiveness. Furthermore, the Teachers of the Law insisted that the only way God would forgive you is if you fulfilled certain conditions:

· First, you had to feel really sorry for your sin.

· Then, you had to prove you were sorry by making correct sacrifices. You had to pay some kind of price for your sins.

· Finally, before you could be forgiven, you had to change your evil ways and prove that you really were worthy of God’s grace.

But, tell me, are these ideas about forgiveness from God or from man? What, for example, does Psalm 103 say about God’s forgiveness? “The Lord is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities… As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” It’s clear, isn’t it? There are no conditions listed…not even one!

The only thing we read here is the unquenchable desire of God to embrace the human race…to draw us to Himself in forgiving love that we might be washed…redeemed...renewed…transformed… and restored! No strings attached!

Sadly, however, this simple understanding of God’s unconditional forgiveness was lost in Jesus’ day! (And it continues to be lost today! I mean, how often have you heard it said that God cannot forgive you unless you repent, or unless you get serious and change your ways?)

I believe that one of the chief reasons why Jesus came to earth was to challenge all this nonsense! Jesus Himself said that He came to show us the Father. He came to teach us the truth about His Father’s love. Jesus said, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father!” “I and the Father are One.” And so, everything that we see Jesus doing in the Gospels is exactly what His Father would do! (As Jesus made friends with sinners and prostitutes, this is what the Father would do! As Jesus turned the other cheek to the hatred of His enemies, this is exactly what His Father would do!

In Matthew 11, Jesus made this incredible claim: “No one knows the Father but the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” So, (Jesus continued …) Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened (by man-made religion and false views of God) and I will give you rest.” I’ll let you see what My Father is really like! I will take you to His loving arms…I will lead you into His loving embrace.

Think again about the paralytic man! This man never said he was sorry for his sins. This man hadn’t made any sacrifices. In fact, this man may have never even changed his ways! And yet, Jesus could still say to him, without any hesitation, “Son, your sins are forgiven!” It was not a ‘perhaps’ or a ‘maybe’. It was not a “you can be forgiven if you do x,y, or z.” It was (and still is) an unconditional forgiveness without any strings attached!

And that’s exactly what we should have expected from Jesus! Not only was He showing us the Father, but He was also showing us the true definition of the word ‘forgiveness’. Do you realize that all three Greek words in the New Testament translated as ‘forgiveness’ can literally be defined as either ‘letting go’ or sending away’. In other words, when God forgives us our sins, He literally ‘lets go’ of them—He doesn’t require our punishment, nor does He set up some sort of legal exchange. He simply ‘sends our sins away’, no longer holding them against us…just like it says in Psalm 103! “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities… As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

Now, some of you may be asking—“But where does the cross fit into all this?” You see, we’ve been taught that the cross is primarily about God’s need to punish sin. We’ve been told that Jesus had to die because He was punished in our place. But is this really what the cross is about? Listen to what Miroslav Volf has to say in his book, Exclusion and Embrace: “When God sets out to embrace the enemy, the result is the cross. On the cross the dancing circle of self-giving and mutually indwelling divine persons opens up for the enemy; in the agony of the passion the movement stops for a brief moment and a fissure appears so that sinful humanity can join in (see John 17:21). We, the others—we, the enemies—are embraced by the divine persons who love us with the same love with which they love each other and therefore make space within their own eternal embrace.”Isn’t this exactly what the Apostle Paul was trying to say in Romans 5, when he wrote, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” ???

Indeed, isn’t this basically what our 2^nd Bible reading from 2 Corinthians is also saying? Listen again to what the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians: “But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.”

“Can we be forgiven? Yes, we can!”…freely and fully. I don’t care what you’ve done or how awful you feel…the fact is, you are already forgiven! In fact, if the paralytic is anything to go by, God forgives our sins even before we ask Him to do so! He does this because His forgiveness is not a one-off event but an on-going state of being. His forgiveness is part and parcel of His unstoppable determination to include all of humanity in His loving embrace.

Let’s pause for a moment and allow this amazing truth to sink in—Do you really know God’s forgiveness? Are you really able to rest in it? Give thanks!

Of course, with all this talk of God’s unconditional forgiveness and love, I do need to explain one thing to you. You see, it seems as if Jesus did put one condition on God’s forgiveness. In Matthew 6:14-15, immediately after He taught His disciples ‘the Lord’s Prayer’, Jesus continues to say: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Is Jesus putting conditions on God’s forgiveness? Not really. What Jesus is trying to get across is that, now, as we enter the state of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness, something should be happening to us—we should be changing, as the forgiveness of God washed over us. Not only should we be enabled to love and forgive others, but forgiveness should become a way of life for us all. As Jesus holds out His hands of grace to us…calling us to dwell within the unconditional love and forgiveness of the Father, we, in turn, are meant to be channels of that same love and forgiveness to others… to both friends and enemies alike! As the Apostle Peter put it, it’s about ‘participating in the divine nature’.

Let’s pause again for a moment of prayerful reflection: Is there someone you need to forgive? Are you harbouring any resentment or bitterness in your heart? Do you hold a grudge against someone? Will you let it go?

Let me conclude with two questions:

1) ‘Can we be forgiven?’ The answer is (and always shall be)—‘Yes, we can!’

2) “Can we forgive others?” Once again, in Jesus Christ the answer is, and always shall be, “Yes, we can!”

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all evermore! Amen!

The Rev Bart Vanden Hengel
Penshurst Anglican Church

Sermon Notes: Matthew 13: 31-33

2009-02-16T09:36:00.004+11:00

Jesus speaks from the natural amphitheatre of a boat to the great crowds on the shore of Galilee (v2). Despite the quantity of people Jesus is speaking to, all they are, are a crowd; an insignificant mob. To the eyes of the honourable Jewish leaders these are common uneducated fishermen and farmers, carpenters and women, tax-collectors and people of bad reputation. Also, to the mighty number of the worshippers of heathen gods this crowd is insignificant.

To look at the disciples, the crowd and even Jesus himself (being seen as only a man) you probably wouldn’t think they would ever amount too much… but it is here were Jesus comes to talk about the nature of the kingdom as starting off as small and insignificant.

As usual, Jesus takes an everyday picture and turns it into an illustration of the mysterious nature of the kingdom of God.

The first is the growth of a mustard seed. The native Black mustard of Galilee was more of a weed (considered a nuisance) but it could be controlled and cultivated for its seeds to be used as a spice. The seeds themselves were only 2mm in diameter but the plants could grow up to 8-12 foot. They usually grew alongside other edible plants in a garden but they could get out of control if unattended. It would eventually become a tree with branches strong enough for the birds to come and perch/roost which is an image that connects to the Old Testament imagery of the kingdom in Ezekiel and Daniel.

On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.

(Ezekiel 17:23 also 31:3-9; Daniel 4:10-12; 20-22)

From something so tiny; small enough for birds to snack on, comes something that is large enough and strong enough for the birds to live in.

Jesus continues with another example to explain the kingdom in another way. As there were no bakeries, Jesus takes a common household picture of preparing the dough that was to be baked into bread. Jesus pictures a woman who takes some yeast or what was known as leaven (fermented dough from the previous batch) and she kneads (massages/works) it into about 22litres of flour which would end up being quite a large amount of bread and would feed quite a lot of people.

Without yeast/leaven the dough could not rise; a tiny piece of leaven has its effect upon the entire mass of dough.

As Jesus spoke from the boat about growing trees and making bread he had a message you could only hear if you were truly listening.

As we listen in, we recognise that Jesus speaks of his Father’s kingdom in a very different way to what the Jewish leaders were hoping for. He speaks of his Father’s kingdom against their prevailing views of physical wealth and political authority and order.

His message speaks directly to the heart of his disciples and the crowd who weren’t royalty, rich, powerful or famous. They weren’t an army or political movers-an-shakers.

But in the kingdom all these things do not matter. God’s kingdom grows out of the smallest and insignificant of things.

Through Jesus, the kingdom has already begun to rise and grow in this world. Sometimes it may not look like much but the great certainty of these two parables is its growth is inevitable – unavoidable – inescapable.

This is where it is different for us and the kingdom and it is here were the people who belong to the kingdom receive the most encouragement. To belong to the kingdom is to hope for its future. In the future it will no longer be mysterious and hidden and Christ as its King will be an undeniable reality.

We also hope for the undeniable reality of the fellowship of the kingdom. Jesus says later on in Matthew, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34; 26:29).

Our inheritance is a wonderful inheritance. Being united to Jesus in his death and resurrection, through the Spirit, we are the adopted children of the Father and co-heirs with his Son. We receive the same inheritance as Christ does and are loved with the same love and share the same relationship to Abba Father (Romans 8:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:42-50; John 17:26). The fellowship of the kingdom is a sharing in the very life and relationship of our triune God where the blessing and love of the Father toward his Son is shared with us.

The great blessing of the Christian life is beautiful for our souls to believe, to live by and hope for but in our day-to-day life it to, just like the kingdom, can seem a hidden and a distant reality.

But our assurance of the kingdom as well as our fellowship with God comes as we look to Christ and not ourselves and the world around us.

If we look in on ourselves to see signs of growth and maturing faith we might be disappointed or unpersuaded and consider our faith as small and insignificant.

This is exactly the wrong place to look if we want proof of kingdom growth and our relationship with God. John Calvin once said about his assurance that "Christ is more than a thousand testimonies to me." Meaning that we are persuaded by believing in what Christ has done on our behalf; that God’s promises are made certain in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We must always see the Christian life in union to Christ and repent when we live as if our union is not a reality and that Christ has not accomplished it.

The kingdom and our fellowship with God can seem like a hidden and distant reality but in Jesus, the kingdom is certain and its growth is underway; in Jesus, our union is complete and fellowship is as certain as the Father’s love for his Son.

Some of my favourite quotes

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What is not assumed is unhealed - Gregory of Nazianzus

"Your thoughts are far beyond my understanding, much more than I could ever imagine." - Psalm 139: 17 (CEV)

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do."- R. W. Emerson

"Theology without action (praxis) is the theology of demons." - St. Maximos the Confessor

"Credo Ut Intelligam" - I believe so that I may understand

"Fides Quaerens Intellectum" - Faith seeking understanding

"Veni Spiritus Interpres!" - Come interpreter Spirit

"Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: 'My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.' This stranger is a theologian." - Denis Diderot

"A theologian is one whose prayer is true." - Evagrius of Pontus

"The Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go." - Galileo

"I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE," is the center-truth of the universe. And the encircling truth is, "That they also may be one in us." - George MacDonald

"God is relationship, God is Trinity." - D. Broughton Knox

“a man cannot apply himself seriously to repentance without knowing himself to belong to God. But no one is truly persuaded that he belongs to God unless he has first recognised God’s grace” - John Calvin

"If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself." - C S Lewis, The Weight of Glory

"The word serves the content, not the content the word" Karl Barth, CD I/I,354

“our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself” -Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V, preface

"Trinitarian theology is not a theory; it is an account of God's being which is tied to his action, and that action centres on a gospel rooted in the life, suffering and resurrection of Jesus" - Colin Gunton

"Grace not only means God giving himself in love to man through Jesus Christ, it also means the coming of God as man in order to do for us, what we are not capable of doing for ourselves. In particular, he presents us, inside of himself, to the Father."-T. F. Torrance

“Since God has communicated himself to us in this three-fold way as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity belongs to the inner heart of the Christian message of salvation: perfect communion with God means perfect salvation. In other words, unless our salvation derives from the one ultimate being of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit eternally in himself, it is finally empty of divine validity and saving power.” - T. F. Torrance, Mediation, 124

"God doesn’t love us because he has reconciled us to himself; it is because he loved us that he has reconciled us to himself." - John Calvin

"When I say God, I mean Father, Son and Holy Spirit." - Gregory of Nazianzus

"Of what use is it to discourse learnedly on the Trinity, if you lack humility and therefore displease the Trinity? Lofty words do not make a man just or holy; but a good life makes him dear to God" - Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ

A Confession

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Most merciful Father,

We thank you for your Son, Jesus.

For who he is and what he does;

His obedience, his righteousness, his faithfulness

In our place and on our behalf.

Thank you Holy Spirit for sharing with us the relationship of eternity.

Without Jesus, Father,

our relationship with you is blind, broken, and lost.

Being blind, we do not love you with our whole heart;

Being broken, we do not love others as ourselves;

Being lost, our souls have looked for healing and our thoughts, words, and actions need your forgiveness.

Father, in your mercy and grace

You have met us in your Son and have adopted us as your children.

Your Son, dwells in us and us in him.

May we know you as you truly are;

May we know ourselves as you know us.

Holy Spirit, help us to see, to believe, to live the

life we share with you, our God:

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Amen.

Sermon Notes: Luke 15: 1-3, 8-10

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Though this parable emphasises a lost coin there is greater emphasis on the woman who searches after it.

Jesus is telling the parable of the Lost Coin in response to the criticism of his association with people of doubtful reputation…

1-3 By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story. (MSG)

The basic, cut and dry, answer to that criticism is contained in this parable (& Lost Sheep) - that God seeks after sinners…. Sort of like why would he be anywhere else but taking in sinners, eating meals with them and treating them old friends?

The parable of the Lost Coin is like a twin to the parable of the Lost Sheep.

The similarities are (obvious) something is lost, it is found, it is celebrated, and Jesus concludes with similar assertions about the joy of heaven and the angels.

Jesus is revealing his Father to people who did not have the relationship to know him by and were getting a distorted religious image from the Pharisees and scholars.

But to understand these parables further, we need to ask, where exactly is God in the seeking, finding and celebration of the lost that is illustrated in these stories?

Because sometimes we emphasise the lostness of humanity over the seeking, finding and celebration of God!

These parables aren’t really even about loss. Hear me correctly, something lost is a recurring theme and its metaphor speaks loudly into the story of humanity but the astounding thing of these parables – the thing that challenges our perception of God is the search and celebration. Jesus is talking about God seeking after people in their lost condition and finding them.

To take a look at this parable, we can identify with the woman because all searches begin with the belief that “it must be there somewhere.” She has lost a coin, probably known as a drachma and is worth about, what was then, a days pay. It’s not clear whether she searches at night or in the day because houses did not have many windows back then, if any, to let light in and so she uses a lamp. What is clear is her determination and she sweeps the ground and we can almost hear her say “there it is!” The search ends successfully and as with the sheep owner, she gets her friends, neighbours and celebrates.

Is it possible that the Father is like this woman who lost her coin and goes on a meticulous search, finds it and celebrates?

Could he care enough, could he be gracious enough toward you and me? are we this valuable?

The parable and the setting really hit home an important truth that God loves us even before our faith and repentance. God’s love is what motivates the seeking of people. John Calvin once said that, God doesn’t love us because he has reconciled us to himself; it is because he loved us that he has reconciled us to himself.

This is the emphasis of scripture:

Romans 5:8, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… (Also, v18-19 and 1Timothy 1:15, 4:9-10).

So, where is God in the seeking, finding, and celebration? The great irony of this metaphor – as Jesus tells this parable - is that the seeking and finding of what was lost, is taking place, right there as the crowds, disciples, the disreputable, and Pharisees/scholars were gathering around Jesus. There is a powerful realisation that in the life and ministry of Jesus that God was drawing near to us and drawing us near to him. The setting for this parable is wonderful. Jesus meets people in the midst of their pain, fear, rejection, anger and even ambivalence, and shares the Father’s heart with them.

Jesus didn’t come to simply tell us about his Father and then leave us to try and get into the relationship on our own or leave us a system of steps or clues to go after but he shares with us everything he has with the Father…

We need to look to Jesus and see the relationship he has with his Father and begin to enjoy it, live in it because this is what he has come restore and give us…

When it comes to the mission of God through his church, through Jesus, there is great sense of participation; participation with God in the seeking of what is lost. I say the word ‘participation’ to avoid two things.

One, to avoid thinking that we just get out there and “just do it”; do programs, run events as if we were on our own and simply use our own wisdom and strategies and ignore the relationship and missional seeking of God.

Two, to avoid not doing anything and shrug off any responsibility to share the relationship.

Because this is the thing about the triune God is that nothing is done as a solo mission – there is always this strong relational basis in everything. When it comes to the missional church - God refuses to be God without us and wants our participation and relationship.

You shouldn’t even say God without thinking of relationship and participation. God is revealed as an unbreakable united relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit move together in the gospel in drawing near to us, in drawing us near to God, in our faith, and in our union. And in the scriptures, we can notice the missional seeking of the Father who sends the Son, and the Son sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit sends… us.

Remember that The Great Commission (Matthew 28: 16-20) comes with the promise of never being alone.

There comes a point, where you need to learn what you have learned and by that I mean don’t let these parables become trivia – merely head knowledge - and they will unless you experience and walk their truths in your life and sharing of the gospel.

The wonderful truth of the gospel is that He came for you.

May this be the message on our lips that we share as we participate with the Father, Son and Spirit in the mission of seeking, finding and celebration.

When you say God...

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"When I say God, I mean Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For Godhead is neither diffused beyond these, so as to bring in a mob of gods; nor yet is it bounded by a smaller compass than these, so as to condemn us for a poverty-stricken conception of deity, either Judaizing to save the monarchia, or falling into paganism by the multitude of our gods. For the evil on either side is the same, though found in contrary directions."

Oration 38 of Gregory Nazianzus on the Manifestation of God in the Birth of the Anointed.

Trinitarian ground and grammar of the gospel

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The Mediation of Christ has become one of those books (like, Life Together) that I try and read at least once a year to refresh myself with all its wisdom. Here is a small quote from the final chapter:

“Since God has communicated himself to us in this three-fold way as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity belongs to the inner heart of the Christian message of salvation: perfect communion with God means perfect salvation. In other words, unless our salvation derives from the one ultimate being of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit eternally in himself, it is finally empty of divine validity and saving power.”

T. F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, 124.