Christ the King and we, His witnesses Year B 24th November 2024

 2024  11  24      Reign of Christ - Proper 29 (34)

2 Samuel 23:1-7 and Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18)    Revelation 1:4b-8    John 18:33-37

How to be his witnesses:

We’ve called this season the Sunday’s after Pentecost, and Pentecost is the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which turned very ordinary people in the extraordinary witnesses of Christ.  Therefore, we have been in a season of learning to be the witnesses of Christ.  Today we reach the final week of the church year and we proclaim and celebrate that Christ is King.  In all we learn about God and the ministry of Christ, we are led to this conclusion; Christ is king.  However, this is a question that each of us must answer for our own lives, not just once, but daily.  Our Christian journey starts and ends with this question; Will you accept Jesus Christ as the King and Lord of your life?  Today we are reminded to make the declaration that Christ is king, as we ponder the question through the story of Jesus’ interaction with Pontius Pilate.  “Are you the King of the Jews?” He asks Jesus, and so we are caused to ponder the identity and kingship of Jesus also.

 

It was nearly 2000 years ago that this story took place, in 33AD.  I personally find it frustrating, that as far as education is concerned, Jesus is put in the category of religion lessons only.  Therefore, people being poorly educated, reject Jesus as a fictitious character who is believed in by Christians.  However, Jesus is a person of our history.  He is a fact, and one day every single person will need to deal with that fact.  Through our readings, we are also caused to ponder the identity of Jesus, and reflect on the way we live as witness to his Kingship.

 

Jesus was Jewish.  He was born into the clan of Judah, a descendant of King David.  In reply to the question from Pilate, Jesus does not deny that he is a King, but explains that his kingdom does not belong to this world.  This is where we need to make some decisions; Do we believe Jesus or not?  It isn’t a matter of believing the reality of Jesus – He was really there in front of Pilate, but was he telling the truth?  Was he really a king of another world?  Surely these were the question on the mind of Pilate.  What would you have been thinking in his situation?

 

Jesus tells us that he came into this world to testify to the truth.  This is key!  We know, from other scripture that Pilate’s wife had dreamt about Jesus and we know that Pilate washed his hands of the guilt… This implies that Pilate was conflicted, and unsure.  Certainly, he believed Jesus to be innocent of the charges brought before him, yet he handed him over to the Jews to be crucified.  Pilate, like all of us, was faced with having to make a decision about the identity of Jesus.

 

C.S. Lewis, who wrote the chronicles of Narnia, has explained that when it comes to the identity of Jesus, there are only three possibilities.  Jesus claimed that he was a King, but that his kingdom was of another world.  Through the scriptures we know that Jesus declared that he existed before the world began, and that he and the father are one.  Therefore, there are three logical possibilities; Jesus was either lying about all this and deliberately misleading people, or he was a lunatic and he himself was believing in a delusion, or he was telling the truth.   So, we look at the life of Jesus and see the good and compassionate works and the miracles and we can easily conclude that Jesus was not deliberately lying.  Next, we need to ask, was he a lunatic?  If so, this would have been evidenced and reported by others.  In fact, there were times that his family thought he was losing the plot, but this only serves to prove that if he was truly a lunatic, something would have been done about it before he got to the point of crucifixion.  His followers would later on be martyred, in their own testimony to the truth of which Jesus came to testify.  The whole world became so impacted and convinced that Jesus was/ IS the truth, that we now mark our years since the birth of Jesus, (the dating being according to the best of knowledge at that time) - So… he was not a lunatic.

 

Jesus tells us that he came to testify to the truth, and everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice.  In this life, 2024 years after his birth, who is listening to the voice of Jesus?  We, in the Church, need to deal with any ambiguity.  Jesus IS the truth…. No ifs, buts or maybes.

 

We are all witnesses to the immense confusion and chaos in the world over many things.  Where is the truth?  Our confusion, in the world, comes because the world is generally not listening to the voice of Jesus and the voice of truth.  Our country leaders and world leaders are not listening to the voice of Jesus.   In fact, our mayor reported to us, at the Mackay Churches Together Christmas dinner, that there are people wanting to stop prayer before council.  They object, saying that religion has no place and they ignorantly claim that we are not a Christian country.  This is a denial again, of our history.  It is fact that Australian laws and values are based on Christianity.   This was a fact taught to us in university in the studies of society guidelines.  We also still have a holiday for Good Friday, Easter and Christmas.   We may be becoming less Christian than we were…. But then who would be to blame for that?   Is it us?   There has always been this tension between church and state, but the reality is, we need the voice of Jesus, which comes to our society through the church, for goodness to reign in our world.  In what ways do we speak the voice of Jesus to our society?

 

King David tells us; "One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land."  Remember, the fear of God is that sense of the greatness of God and respect, knowing that God’s ways are beyond our understanding.  We have a healthy fear for the fact that we will all be answerable to God for our actions.  A leader that has this understanding will certainly be one who will bring life to the nation.

 

We are the church and we are the body of Christ.  We have a call to be influential in our nation also.  Especially, when the leaders of our country are not being led by the spirit of God.  It might be cliché, but we should ask ourselves, “what would Jesus do?”, and then we need to remember that Jesus said to his followers, “these things and greater, you will do”…. Meaning that we are now his body on earth and so we now need to ask Jesus what he would have us do.  We are the body of Christ, therefore the body needs to go where the head directs it.  There are many issues of contention that need the wisdom of God.  Where is that goodness and wisdom going to come from, if not from us, the church?

 

The church has a responsibility.  We have a responsibility.  We know this from Jesus’ stories about sheep and the goats, and so many other stories about how we need to show our faith by our actions.  Of course, we always respect that other people don’t share our faith, but need to remember that our faith is not just a healthy set of beliefs that will bring us goodness in life.  Our faith is the truth.  It may seem like a presumptuous thing to say, but Jesus said it!  And we have just worked out logically and rationally that Jesus was neither liar, nor lunatic. 

 

Jesus came to testify to the truth.  In our reading from Revelations, we are told that Christ is the faithful witness.  We are also told that he is the ruler of the kings of the earth.  The rulers of the earth might not acknowledge this at this time, but one day Jesus will come again, and we are told that every eye will see him. 

 

The message that we are called to proclaim, is called the Gospel – meaning Good News.  The way of God, is the way of goodness.  I think that sometimes we forget this fundamental fact.  And I think that we forget this because we don’t fully grasp that God truly loves us.  Our reading from Revelation confirms the love of Christ when talks about Jesus as the one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood.  Last week we learnt that by the one sacrifice, Christ has made perfect those who are sanctified.  Jesus died for love of us, and if you were the only person on earth, he would have done that just for you. 

 

Each of us needs to personally come to a point where we acknowledge the Kingship of Jesus in our own lives, and we need to be regularly reminded that Christ is King - of our lives.., but also, he is over and above all creation and all powers.  This is Jesus who loves us.  He is the truth.  May the Holy Spirit teach us to know the power and the love of this King.  Understanding these things, we will walk this land in the confidence that we are his, and quite naturally, we will be his witnesses who bring his light, love and goodness to our nation and world.

Don't be led astray :-) Proper 28, Pentecost 26 Year B 17th November 2024

2024  11  17  Proper 28 Pentecost 26

 

1 Samuel 1.4-20 - Song of Hannah -  Hebrews 10.11-14, 19-25 - Mark 13.1-11

 

So many times, through history, people have thought, “This is it – The beginning of the end”.  Are they wrong?  We often laugh at them because we are still here.  But the truth of the matter is that when these things happen and there is great unrest, it is the beginning of the birth pangs.  Those times of unrest eventually give birth to change and new life, and the cycle begins again.  Perhaps like the waves of labour pains.

 

In our first reading, Hannah was experiencing great unrest.  For a woman in those times, to give birth to a son was everything.  This was how a woman would be secure in her older years.  She would be looked after by her son.  Hannah was loved, but she was barren.  This meant that her rival, Elkanah’s other wife, lorded it over Hannah and caused her grief.  All this grief brought Hannah to her knees, quite literally and she cried out to God. The answer to that prayer would bring about change, not just for Hannah, but for the whole nation of Israel.

 

Jesus, talking about the Temple, was very specific in alerting his companions to the fact that it would be destroyed.  The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans.  This would have been about 40 years after this conversation with Jesus took place.  The words of Jesus are reliable and to be trusted, and when the disciples questioned him further, his first words are a warning, “beware…., Many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray.”

 

When Jesus began this conversation, it was because of the praise of the Temple and the value that people had in the structure.  It was important that Jesus let them know NOT to trust in the structure, the buildings etc.. including the traditions.  He knew that change was coming, but also, he knew that people were trusting in the form of religion and not the object… ie. God.  We need to beware, also, of putting trust in structures and form.  In fact, we need to beware of putting trust in anything that is not God himself.

 

We are warned that many will come in the name of Jesus, and will lead many astray.  Will we be one of the many led astray?  And how can we safe guard our faith in God?

 

People who are trained to spot counterfeit money, are highly trained in all the qualities of the real money.  They know the real money so very well that any tiny little anomaly is quickly noticed and the counterfeit is identified.

 

We can’t ever know all those who claim to be Jesus but aren’t, so as to safe guard ourselves against being led astray, but what we need to do, is to become so totally familiar with Jesus, that we can quickly notice if anything is not, “Jesus”. 

 

Now to do this, getting to know Jesus, we don’t do it by listening to our friend’s idea of who Jesus is.  We don’t do it by listening to social media’s idea of who Jesus is.  We don’t even do it by listening to Australia’s greatest theologian.  Let me explain and qualify all of these; Because often our friends do help us to know Jesus, and sometimes social media does help us to know Jesus, and even Australia, or America’s, or the world’s greatest theologian, can help us to understand and know who Jesus is, but nothing is better than, us spending time in prayer and scripture reading.  Spending time with God himself, relying on the Holy Spirit, is the best way to ensure we will not be led astray.

 

A number of years ago, my friends from Brisbane, who were also doing theological training invited me to attended a weekend intensive lecture with them.  The lecturer was a priest from Sydney (I think), who was supposedly a leader in his theological field.  I won’t repeat the things that he was saying, but he had my friends convinced.  I was pretty horrified, because it sounded a lot like heresy to me.  He was a very learned man and he knew the Bible, and spoke about things very convincingly.  I took notes and discussed with my local priest, and we both were totally convinced that the man was teaching heresy.  But my friends just thought he was revolutionary.  

 

Counterfeits aim to be indistinguishable from the real thing.  After a fair bit of talking, debating and pointing back to scripture, my friends decided, maybe I was right but, them believing me, doesn’t matter.  Them believing God does!  None of us ever gets everything correct about God all the time.  God is beyond our understanding, yet He has made himself known to us and wants to be known, which is why he sends us His Holy Spirit.  We also do need to continue meeting together because we help each other know the truth.

 

You will find counterfeit Jesus’ in other religions, in society, in cults, and new age ideologies and unfortunately, you will also and more often, find the counterfeit Jesus in the Christian church.

 

A counterfeit Christ will always appear to be Christ.  Like counterfeit money, it is hard to discern unless you really know the real thing.  A counterfeit Christ will always promote a counterfeit Gospel.  Our Gospel is such Good News, that it is hard to comprehend – and therefore, somewhat easy for a false Christ to infiltrate and twist.  In our reading from the Hebrews, we have the message of Good News spelt out clearly; “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

Back in the medieval times, this was something that became twisted by many false Christs.  Jesus’ dying on the cross was a single sacrifice that makes us perfect in the eyes of God.  Those who are sanctified are those who are “set apart”, as the children of God - those who have been born again through accepting the word of God. In other words, all of us here, and all who choose to belong to Christ.  That single sacrifice of Jesus perfected us for ALL time!

 

The Good News is that this means that we have unconditional access to God through Jesus.  False Christs in the medieval times would say, you first need to pay some money, or you need to work at something, or you need to pray through a Saint, or you needed to attend nine services in a row, say five hail Mary’s… etc…   The medieval church denied the cross of its power but used its message to give credibility to the belief that it formed in its own twisted image.

 

Traces of these medieval church beliefs still linger.  There are also superstitions where people might carry – say a crystal for protection and healing.  When we do these things, we show that we don’t understand the Gospel.  This is what it means to fall from Grace… When we trust in something other than the completed one sacrifice of Jesus.  Do we not realize that we have access to an omnipotent God who loves us?  God sees us as perfect because of the one, once and for all sacrifice of Jesus.  He cares about our cares.  We have this all in black and white in our Bibles.

 

When Jesus spoke to his companions about the destruction of the Temple, he did so to encourage them to have faith in God rather than the building.  Hebrews also tells us, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds," and he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 

 

This is about the work of the Holy Spirit and the finished work of Jesus.  This is the Gospel – the Good News.  There is no longer a Temple to trust in, or a priest to mediate, we are told that we enter the inner sanctuary, God’s presence, by the blood of Jesus.  Jesus himself is the only mediator and high priest.  

 

This change, from a physical Temple, to complete faith in God, was part of the new birth that Jesus ministry accomplished.  It relies on the work of the Holy Spirit in believers.  It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us and ensures that we are not led astray, and we as the body of Christ, all have different gifts of the spirit, and we need to be working together.  The world is currently incredibly restless and full of ideology foreign to the Goodness of God.  But we won’t be led astray, if we continue meeting together and considering how we can encourage each other in love and good deeds.

 

Our world is in crisis.  It is divided and in chaos.  In the midst of this, we need to proclaim the Good News by offering that world love and good deeds because actions speak louder than words. God has said through the letter from James, that “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

 

Our challenge for this week is to encourage another person in love and good deeds, and perhaps to consider what love and good deeds we can take part in also.

Just be brave and Jump! Proper27 Pentecost 25 Year B 10th November 2024

2024  11  10  Proper 27, Pentecost 25 B

 

The readings today bring our attention to three widows – Naomi and her daughter in law, Ruth, and in our Gospel reading Jesus points out the widow who puts money into the treasury.  Jesus points out that this widow has put in more than all the others because others put in money from their abundance… their extra “funny money” if you like.  Where as the widow has no abundance… no extra funds and she puts in all she has to live on.

 

To fill you in on the operations of the temple, according to the Mishnah, (the Jewish writings about the law,) the temple treasury contained what was called the 13 trumpets.  These trumpets were the collection vessels for the people’s offerings.  There were 11 out of those 13 that were for supposedly “voluntary” offerings of money and two that were for the temple tax. Of those 11, nine were for receiving what was legally due from worshippers and 4 were strictly voluntary.

 

This was a society with different ways of operating from how we are today.  The centre of modern life is certainly not church for most, but probably our media… social or television, whereas the life of people in Jesus’ time, completely centred around the temple.  What they believed about God was the most important aspect of life, as they lived acutely aware of the reality of death and therefore, spiritual belief was of utmost importance.  Modern humanity, in contrast, seems to live in denial of death and mortality, and in denial of anything concretely spiritual.

 

Church life ruled every other part of their life also.  If one was sick, they needed to present themselves to the priests before they could be declared clean and once again take part in life.  And there was always an offering that needed to be given as part of that “being declared clean”.  One could not simply go freely to church, but it was a culture where church was everything.

 

The widow putting in all she had to live on, in our culture, would seem strange and foolish, but to live in that time meant to go to the temple and to go to the temple was to live!  And to go to the temple meant that something needed to be placed in those trumpets. Also, it was not really a good news story, because it operated on a system of sacrifice in order to gain God’s acceptance. 

 

 

The Good News is explained in our letter to the Hebrews, “he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

The widow put in all she had to live on, but Jesus gave, not just all he had to live on, but his whole life… and his spiritual life too.  Jesus was born Spiritually alive as he is the son of God, born by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus did not need to experience separation from God the father, because he was without sin, yet he cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me”…. Why?  Because he was at that time baptized into the sins of the world and he took the punishment for sin upon himself.   – That is, by the way, the one baptism for the forgiveness for sins that we declare belief in, as we recite the creed.

 

Some of these things are hard to understand physically… because we are talking about a spiritual realm and how things work in the spirit.  Sin, which began, back at the beginning of time, with doubting God, brought death.  And then the death of Jesus, who was without sin, brings life to those who choose to accept and follow him.  Notice too that there is no other way, and no second chance as we are told; “just as it is appointed for mortals to die once and after that the judgment,…”  Just in case you didn’t catch it, let me clarify; this means there is no re-incarnation and no past life.  Mortals die once… NO second chance to get it right…. But the Good News, is that we don’t need to… we only need to reach out to God through the sacrifice of Jesus.  It is done!  No other sacrifice is needed.  We are also told that Jesus will come again.  We are told that he has dealt with sin in his first coming.  In his second coming it will be to save those who are waiting for him.

 

God doesn’t expect us to not think about the future financially or otherwise.  Quite the opposite, in fact, as we read that  Naomi said to Ruth, “I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you”.  However, we need to understand and have a proper vision of the future.  How can a widow give away all she has to live on?  Only because she has understood the future and is totally believing in God and trusting in his provision.  Only if she has an understanding of life and life eternal and completely trusts in God.  We are challenged today, to have this understanding and also completely trust in God.

 

There is a children’s story that I think, illustrates this; Be Brave Little Penguin, by Giles Andreae.  A little penguin is afraid of water, and imagines all the scenarios of monsters and things in the water to harm and eat him.  In the end he discovers that sometimes you have to just be brave and jump.   And, OH the Joys that you discover when you do!

 

All of our widows were people who trusted in God, but this doesn’t mean their life was without grief.  Our younger Old Testament widow is Ruth.  She was not even an Israelite, but a Moabite woman, who married a man from the line of Judah.  In fact, her husband’s family were from Bethlehem.  The husband and his family had been living in the country of Moab due to a famine in Bethlehem.  Unfortunately, the father-in-law had died and then the brother-in-law and Ruth’s husband also died.  Three widows were living together.  Naomi, the mother-in-law, told the two younger women to return to their father’s house, as both were young and could remarry.  You see, the law was that, if there was a brother alive, then that brother would take the woman as his wife, to care for her and also have children, but the children would be reckoned as the dead brother’s offspring, so that the family line could be preserved.

 

There were no other brothers.  One of the younger ladies returned to her father’s house, but Ruth had declared that she would stay with Naomi, her Mother-in-law, and serve the God of the Israelites.  The famous line from Ruth is; Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.

 

Ruth cared for Naomi and the two returned to the land of Judah where Ruth went to work gleaning grain in the field of a man named Boaz.  This was a law of provision for the poor in Jewish law.  The owner was not to harvest to the very edges and was not to go over the field a second time to pick up what was missed the first time, but instead the poor and the widows could do this for providing a living for themselves.

 

My guess is that this could have been dangerous work for a young beautiful woman.  But Boaz was a good man and instructed his men not to touch Ruth, and he also instructed them to allow extra wheat to fall to the ground for her to collect.

 

After a while Naomi decided on a plan to secure Ruth’s future – looking after her superannuation, you could say.  Boaz was what they called a Kinsman Redeemer.  This meant, in the absence of a brother to take on the widow, a kinsman redeemer could take her, with the understanding that her child and property would be considered belonging to her dead husband.

 

Not every Kinsman Redeemer would want to do this, but we see that Boaz did.  There is a little more to the story.  In order to evoke this response from Boaz, Ruth went and lay down next to Boaz at night.  This was also a dangerous act and it meant being completely vulnerable and at the mercy of Boaz.  He could have taken advantage of her and ruined her reputation as an honourable woman, but she asked him to “cover” her. 

 

Ruth is another woman who gave all she had to live on.  She had to trust in Naomi, her mother-in-law, and trust in God and trust in Boaz.  It is a frightening thing sometimes to trust in others…. And to trust in God.  Trusting is hard when trust has been betrayed.  But when we step out in faith and trust God, amazing things happen.  How amazing?  Check out what happened to Ruth!

 

Ruth is significant in our story of faith because she is the start of an important lineage of faith.  She maintained the lineage of her first husband, a man whose family home was in Bethlehem – THIS IS IMPORTANT -  and gave birth to Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.  David became the King of Israel, and described as a man after God’s own heart.  David is the ancestor of Christ.  This is why Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem and why Jesus was born there.

 

Today’s message is about those who are at risk of harm, but who have such an understanding of our future in God, and such a sure trust in God, that they bravely step out in faith.  This might be us.  We make this time to worship God our priority.  We are trusting in God’s provision for our own future and for the future of the church.  We might be reading at church or welcoming or doing other jobs, because we know the importance of eternal life and that eternal life is of the utmost importance.

 

God will not let us down.  God loves us and has made us to be His precious and royal family.  Scripture tells us in 1 Peter2:9;  “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  WE are called by God to declare the praises of God.  Are we doing this?  It involves stepping out in faith… being brave.  The widow at the temple gave all she had to live on for the work of God who was her life.  Jesus gave all for love of us.  Let us take a moment in prayer to consider the love of God for us.  Two things that I believe God is saying to us today; One is to know that He loves us and assures us that he will provide for us. The second is to encourage us to step out in faith, even when it seems risky, like the widow putting in all she had to live on and Ruth lying at Boaz’s side in the night.  Just be brave and JUMP… Today, can we say, “Yes God, I will go where you call me.”