Christ the King... Do you submit to His authority? 23rd November 2025

2025  11  23  Christ the King 

• Jeremiah 23:1-6  Luke 1:68-79    Colossians 1:11-20     Luke 23:33-43

 

Living in Australia, we are a little distanced from the King and the royal family, and certainly, modern royalty plays a different role to what it has in the past.  Today we are celebrating Christ the King.  What does it mean to have Christ as King?   What does it mean to have God as King?  More importantly, is Jesus our King?

 

To give you an overview of Kingship in the context of the Bible, I’d like you to cast you mind back to the stories about when Israel was in slavery in Egypt. God saved them by mighty works and by parting the sea they escaped and crossed over into the desert.  At this time those people recognised that God was their saviour, but he wasn’t their King.  Many of them didn’t really know God, and they had been brought up with the influence of their Egyptian culture, who had many gods and most of them were tyrants who needed appeasing and then a tit for tat, kind of relationship existed whereby the people would do something for the god and the god would in turn reward them.  This is still how people sometimes view our God – but it isn’t the way that God works.  Our God gives, and rescues and is gracious to us even when we don’t deserve it.

 

Through the time in the desert God showed himself to be holy and powerful.  He gave them water from a rock and fed them with bread from heaven.  Eventually they entered the promised land, and after some time they cried out that they wanted to have a King.

 

In the time of the prophet Samuel, it was God leading the people, through his faithful prophets and judges, but Samuel was getting on in years and the people demanded to have a King.  Samuel saw it as a rejection of himself and was upset, but God told Samuel, that it was actually God who the people were rejecting.  So, God, who always respects our free will, gave the people what they wanted; Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin was anointed King.  Saul led the people into victory over their enemies, but he didn’t always follow God’s ways – in all honesty, he is actually a lot like all of us.  Saul reacted to public opinion, worried about what people thought of him and because of this, he didn’t put God first in his life.  God then had Samuel anoint David, son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah.

 

David, the youngest in his family, had been a shepherd.  He understood looking after a kingdom to be like looking after his sheep.  And he was a good shepherd.  More than anything, he knew that all things were possible for the person who trusted in God.  It was him who wrote most of our psalms, including, “The Lord is my shepherd.”   King, David was both a spiritual leader who governed the land, and a mighty warrior King.  This blend of priestly qualities and Kingship would be a prophet sign of the Kingship of Jesus.  The kingly succession went from David to David’s son, then to his son… and so on.  However, many of these descendants were nothing like David.   Finally at the time of Exile the descendant of David who was king, was Zedekiah.  His name means, ‘Righteousness is the Lord.’  In the prophecy from Jeremiah that we read today we have a play on the name of King Zedekiah.  Jeremiah declares that God will raise up a righteous branch, and he declares, “And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness." (LORD being in capital letters, indicating that LORD is God Almighty)

 

While using the current King’s name to make this play on words, the statement shifts the kingship to God and indicates the deity (the divinity) of the Messiah.  Indicating that Jesus is God -and King.  I wonder if you have ever considered the phrase at the end of the Christmas Carol, Silent Night.  It says, “Jesus, Lord at thy birth”.  This phrase refers to the fact of Jesus’ divinity at his birth, and his kingship.  Also in the song, We Three Kings are the word, “Born a King on Bethlehem's plain, Gold I bring to crown Him again.  King for ever, ceasing never.  Over us all to reign.” The Israelites while wandering in the desert, had to learn to accept the Kingship of God – and many did, and many did not.  It was a 40 year long journey for them.  How long, do you think, will it take us? 

 

This Kingship is different from what we expect, therefore, there are some who, like the thief on the cross, reject Christ as King.  After all- here is our mighty King, nailed to the cross!  How can this be “Yahweh Tsidkenu” – which is the original Hebrew phrase in Jeremiah’s prophecy, meaning - The LORD our righteousness”?

 

The letter to the Colossians tells us that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus.  He is our King, but he is also our saviour.  He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us.  Colossians also tells us; “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  We certainly need a saviour!  Just look around at the world.  Ask the person down the street and they will tell you that they are a good person…. But they will point the finger at someone else and tell you that person is not! – yet that person will think that they are actually really good.  What is the truth of the matter?  TRULY we need a saviour!  It seems to go against human nature to admit our need for a saviour, and certainly, it goes against our nature to accept Christ to be our King.  This goes right back to the garden of Eden – the original sin – It was to reject the authority of God and take action to be our own God…. Be our own authority.

 

Christ showed us a different kind of Kingship to what anyone expects.  He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life.  We are told in Colossians that he was before all things and in him all things hold together.  We know from the Gospel of John that the world was created through him.  In case you aren’t sure where Christ was back in the beginning of the book of Genesis when God created, it was when God spoke.  Jesus is the word of God.  Throughout the Old Testament the WORD of God is mentioned often, then John’s Gospel tells us that the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.

 

From Heaven you came helpless babe… is our song, The Servant King.  Jesus, though King, came to serve and give his life.  While on the cross, he was mocked.  It is written in the scriptures, Deuteronomy 21:23, that cursed is he that hangs on a tree.  Jesus, nailed to the tree (cross) the letter to the Galatians explains, became a curse for us, thereby redeeming us from the curse of the law – the perfect law of God that none of us can keep.

 

Christ lived as a perfect human.  He was LORD and King from his birth.  The gifts the wise men brought also were prophetic declarations – Gold for the King, Frankincense declaring his deity and Myrrh to signify that he would die sacrificially.  This KING would be the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep.  All that this King would do, would be for the benefit of his people.  All that Jesus accomplished for us was because God so loved the world that he sent his only son, so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.  This is our King, our servant King – he calls us now… – presented with these facts the only response should be to bring our lives as a daily offering of worship … to the servant King.  Come let us worship!

 

We aren’t perfect and will continue in our fallibility all the years we are in this frail human flesh, yet we acknowledge this and strive to serve our King.  His ways are perfect.  His laws are perfect and what’s more he loved us and gave his life for us.  We can trust our lives to him and accept his authority because he loves us so completely.  Our lives are more precious to him than they are even to ourselves – this is why he willingly came and died to make restitution for sin.  There truly is nothing left but to bow before his majesty -  Come, let us worship.

Things are sure to get bumpy! 16th November 2025 Proper 28 year C

2025  11  16   Proper 28 (33)

Isaiah 65:17-25 and Isaiah 12    2 Thessalonians 3:6-13    Luke 21:5-19

Things are surely going to get bumpy!

Last week, through our reading from the prophet, Haggai, we were encouraged to make the house of the Lord a priority, and to build the house of the Lord.  This might seem like a strange priority when we hear Jesus talk about the temple being torn down this week.  However, we are called to build a house of God, whose walls are not made of brick and wood, but made from the precious gems who are you, me and people who are “out there….”, who are not yet part of our church, but who God is calling to be part of his Kingdom. 

 

This week we again, hear about things to come – the promise of new Heavens and a new Earth.   Isaiah prophecies; “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”  A promise of a glorious future, and although this was written approximately five centuries before Christ, it was a prophecy that has been reiterated and still is yet to be fulfilled.

 

At each service we declare the mystery of faith; Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.  I suspect that we sometimes forget this last part; Christ will come again.  In fact, I think that many people brought up in the faith who stop coming to church forget the first two statements as well.  “Christ has died”, is a statement that declares an undeniable fact.  Jesus is recorded in history, by non-Christian historians, as a person who performed great deeds and was crucified.  I guarantee that if we went down the street and asked people, most would not realize the authenticity and reliability of this information. 

 

“Christ is risen”, is a statement that declares a whole other incredible factor, upon which our faith stands.  We can be assured that we are forgiven our sins by God the father, because Jesus is the lamb of God who willingly gave himself for that purpose.  We wouldn’t be sure we could believe this, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, proving that he has power and authority over death, and proving his divinity…. He is God!  This fact, while not recorded by non-Christian historians, was written about in the New Testament and it says that after Jesus rose, he appeared to over 500 people and these people were still alive at the time it was written, and able to testify to the fact.

 

“Christ will come again,” is a somewhat mysterious statement that will probably leave most of us bewildered, but it just might be the crucial part of our faith.  Actually, it is all crucial, but when people are wanting to know what life is all about, and feeling perhaps a little hopeless or depressed about the state of the world, it could just be, that this is because they, and sometimes we, are ignorant of, or forgotten our origins in God, and who we are in God, and our future reality in God.

 

The ancient Israelites who had been in exile, were exactly the same, in their lost identity.  These people were chosen by God, but while being in exile, a new generation had grown up who heard the stories, but they heard them as someone else’s story.  They, and we, need to experience our own story, that confirms who we are in God. 

 

What we believe impacts our actions and our outlook on life.  If we believe there is no God and at the end we simply cease to be, we have no real reason to push through the hard times.  We have no real value in life beyond its usefulness to how it makes us feel. 

 

As Christians, we believe that we were purposely formed from the time of our conception.  God had a part in our formation in the womb.  Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  God has good works prepared for us to do here and now, and in the future.  Jesus will come again, and there will be new heavens and a new earth, when God restores all things in harmony and peace.  We believe that there is a purpose in our lives here and now, but there is even more in eternity.  The Bible gives us hints, but most of it is a mystery, as 1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us; ““What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him. “

 

Isaiah had a word from God that was an encouragement to the exiled Jewish people.  The prophecy has elements that are for the distant future and there are elements that were for the people of that current time.  Those people needed to know that God had everything in his plan.  They needed to know that they were purposefully created and chosen by God and that God had prepared a future for them…. A good and wonderful future.  They needed to know this, and so do we.  We need to know that we are God’s precious and chosen creation, purposely put together in our mother’s womb.  Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God predestined us. It says, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us for adoption as sons…”

 

God created.  We turned away.  God sent Jesus to redeem us.  We are redeemed, but that isn’t the end of the story.  There will be a time that God will bring everything under his control and His Kingdom will come. The new heaven and new earth is the ultimate, restored creation where God will dwell fully with His people forever, free from sin, suffering, and death. This new reality will involve a renewed, glorified physical existence for believers, not a purely spiritual one, where heaven and earth are united. This includes experiencing God's presence intimately, seeing Him face-to-face, and living in harmony with Him, each other, and all of creation.  Does knowing this give us the resilience needed for facing the problems of today?  Surely it does!  We believe that there is ultimate good in our future and these trials we experience are momentary in comparison to eternity.

 

We need to know that God has secured a future for us, not just so that we can live with hope when we are faced with everyday trials.  We need to know that we have a future which is sure and secure, and we need to know that we know that we know….. and we need to be so sure and assured of it and of the glorious future that it is, that we can truly rejoice in that future here and now and through every trial that might come, because Jesus has warned us, between now and his coming again the times are going to get “Bumpy”. 

 

Our Gospel reading spells this out.  Jesus tells us that there will be wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines and wonderous signs in the sky.  Also, we are warned that there will be many who will come in Jesus’ name, saying that the time is near.  Jesus warns us to not be led astray.

 

Possibly the most upsetting thing in our readings today is this part in the Gospel about being betrayed by parents, siblings and relatives and being hated because of the name of Jesus.  The early Christians faced these trials.

 

I thought I would do a google search to see what Christians are currently being persecuted and where.  Firstly, AI affirmed that many Christians are being persecuted.  What surprised me, was that some countries whose main religion is Christianity are listed as places of extreme persecution for being Christian.  One of these is Mexico and a few places nearby such as Columbia.  This is a quote from a man in Columbia: “I'm not close to my brother, nor to my sister, and I'm estranged from my brother-in-law. Because you preach the gospel, you are no longer considered part of the family. And because you preach, you also lose the right to work in the community. I no longer have the right to work because, as a Christian, I have lost their trust.” David, an indigenous believer in Colombia.

 

If these countries with a strong history of Christianity can reach a point where there is persecution for being a Christian, we need to realize that we could well find ourselves in the same position in our country in the future, and we need to pray and thank God for the freedom we still have.  

 

Today, we take stock and consider our faith in the reality of the world situation, where our Christian brothers and sisters are being persecuted.  If push comes to shove, and we are placed in this situation, will we be able to stand and not be led astray?  Jesus says that he will give us wisdom that none of our opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.  Jesus says some will be put to death, yet not a hair on our head will perish.  The assurance that not a hair on our head will perish seems a strange thing to say considering that some will be put to death, but Jesus is talking about our eternal life…. A reality that is deeper and even more precious than this life.

 

In the light of all this, how should we be living while things are good and safe?  Our letter to the Thessalonians deals with this.  What happens when things are good, is that we forget all that God has done for us and we grumble about things that really don’t matter in the light of eternity – and this includes me!

 

Our challenge today is to live in the reality of the incredible future that God has planned for us.  Our Christian brothers and sisters who stand firm in the faith regardless of persecution, do so, because they have experienced the love of God and know that he has an eternal future secured for us, and nothing else compares.  The key to standing firm is in knowing Jesus and knowing God’s love.  Truly, nothing compares to this.

Build the church Proper 27 Year C 9th November 2025

2025  11  09   Year C  Proper 27 (32)

Haggai 1:15b-  2:9     Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21    2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17     Luke 20:27-40

 

Who here remembers the days of the former glory?  When I was a young adult I remember a time of incredible life in the church.  The different Christian churches got together and had an event called IT – Interdenominational Thing!  We had a parade through town of groups from the churches who competed against each other in fun games, followed by a concert where we, the local, inexperienced and very amateur talents, sang and danced and thoroughly enjoyed the adventure.   

 

In each of our denominations, our own churches hosted regular camps, coffee nights, and events like spirituality in the pub.  Many people got behind the events and many more came and enjoyed them.  There were also many travelling evangelists who came to speak either in church or at a tent ministry, where the call for prayer at the end saw line ups of people a mile long – almost.  I was a member of the local Catholic church back then, and a girl from the Anglican Church came to me and asked me and the band from our church to provide the music for a Youth Service at Holy Trinity.  She had a desire for the church in the center of town to be a host for youth to come to know Christ and the saving message of God.  My music group provided the music for the one event, and I don’t know if anything happened after that.  Wow!  I do remember the days of the former glory of the church.  But what happened after that?  I left town, so did others and I came back to a different scene.

 

We can very easily parallel our church story with the Israelites to whom the prophet Haggai wrote.  We have had good times of life and full churches and times when all of society was blessed because most people either were Christian or held to Christian values and Christian values produce a healthy and wholesome community.  The times... they are a changing!  All churches have felt the pain of decline and experienced the consequences of the sins of some in the church.  I wonder, do you remember the former glory days of the church?

 

Haggai ministered in 520 BC.  He identifies the date by the 2^nd year of the reign of Darius.  Darius was the Persian King who ruled over the empire after Israel had been sent into exile.  Some exiled Jews had returned to their homeland.  During this time, the Temple in Jerusalem was in ruins, but King Darius allowed for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, issuing a decree that supported the project after it had been halted by opposition.  Darius discovered that his predecessor, Cyrus the Great, had issued a decree authorizing the work.  Darius not only ordered the construction to continue but also mandated that the expenses be paid from the royal treasury and that no one interfere with the process.  This is actually an amazing miracle.  An outsider, with immense authority and power, recognises the value in the Temple being rebuilt and even pays for this to happen.  I often think that Street Chaplaincy is like this; we struggled for 3 ½ years and then the government saw the value in what we were doing and now we have a contract to provide that service and they pay us to do so.

 

Haggai was the prophet whose word from God provided the catalyst for the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by delivering God's message to the Jewish community.  This encouraged the Jewish governor and priest to seek the permission to continue the work on the temple.

 

What is going on with Haggai and the people, is deeper than simply rebuilding a building.  We are often challenged to understand that the church is actually the people, and the building is there as a sacred space for our gathering, however, it is the people meeting with God that makes it church.  The Jewish people had always known that God was too big to be contained to any earthly dwelling, but these people had been in exile, and they were now being ruled by a foreigner, and they were somewhat lost, not sure where “home” was and who they were and where they belonged.  A whole new generation or two had grown up in exile and knew nothing of their homeland.  They were losing their identity and sense of uniqueness.  They needed to know that they belonged to God.  They were God’s chosen nation, regardless of where they were and what was happening, temple or not, however, they needed to be reminded of this, and reminded, to give honour to God first and foremost is what we are all called to do.  The project of rebuilding the Temple, and their working together made the house of God their priority.  It confirmed to themselves, and showed the world, that they were the people of God.  This was the point of the message from Haggai.

 

The house of the Lord needs to be built.  It needs to be first priority.  In our modern life, the house of God needs to be OUR first priority, but it’s walls are not made of brick or wood.  The house of God is made from precious gems.  Those Gems are Anthony, Sandra, Louise, Caleb, etc…. These are you and me, and the people who need to be built into our church, but as yet, they aren’t here - They are “out there”.

 

Do you remember the former Glory?  This story from Haggai is not just for the people back from exile in 520 BC, but it is also for us.  take courage, all you people, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, and His Holy Spirit is with us.  Notice that word, “WORK” ?  God won’t just built the church without us doing our part….  We need to work at it.  “Take courage”, he says – be encouraged because God is calling us now to work with him to build His house.  I truly believe this, and it will be an amazing move of God’s Spirit to accomplish it, and it will be a wonder to all who witness it.  God’s Spirit will accomplish it, but we need to do our part – our WORK.

 

Most importantly we are not building the church so that we have a bigger organization.   We are building the church of God because building the Temple of God is something we are called to make a priority.  It is a call from God.  The reason that God calls us to do this is because he loves…. Anthony, Sandra, Louise and Caleb… etc…  AND when these people are built into his house, they (and we) learn about God’s love and goodness, and we learn that His ways are the ways of true life and true blessing.  Just as when we make rules for our own children to prosper them and keep them safe, God’s ways are for our good also.

 

There are often many conflicting ideas about God, spirituality and life.  We even have spiritual expos where every idea except the truth is presented to a group of people who have a sense that there IS a spiritual realm, and they seem keen to know how the spiritual world works.  In the times of Jesus there were also many conflicting ideas about the spiritual realm, but he addresses some of these and makes some things very clear; Firstly, there IS a resurrection.  We do not die and become Angels.  I just had to make that clear, as I have heard people talking about deceased loved ones as being and Angel.  We are CHILDREN of God and remain children of God.  But, as Jesus said, we are LIKE Angels in that we cannot die anymore. 

 

Jesus was confronted by a group who wanted to know whose husband the woman would be, who had married each brother.  Jesus clarifies that “Those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage”.  He reminds them and us that when God spoke to Moses, he revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  We understand from the text that these people are alive, meaning that they are truly alive and in heaven with God.   Heaven is God’s spiritual realm.  We are living in this physical realm, and our vision is limited to the physical…. We are all near sighted.  There is more that is real, and we can’t yet see it.

 

Saint Paul explains some more of God’s plan when he talks about the coming of the Lord and us being gathered together to him.  Jesus himself told us that he will come again, as did the Angels who spoke to those who were there when Jesus ascended to Heaven.  At each service we declare that Christ has died, is risen and will come again.  The early Christians thought that this would be in their lifetime.  Obviously, that is not God’s plan, but it is God’s plan and advice that we live as though he will come in our lifetime, because for someone, it will be in their lifetime and that may well be us.  Regardless of all the theories and ideas, we need to know God well enough to not be shaken or alarmed.  Saint Paul tells us that the rebellion comes first and the lawless one will be revealed, who decares himself to be God.  This to me, indicates that we are in for a bumpy ride and we are told to stand firm and hold fast to what has been taught through the scriptures.

 

We are certainly living in a time of unrest.  Some might even describe this time as one of rebellion. Whether it is or it isn’t should change who we are or what we do.  We are to stand firm in our faith.  Stand firm on the word of God.  Stand firm on our priority to build the house of God.  We have a job to do, and we need to take courage and work. Now is the time for restoration. 

 

We have a word from God today.  A word of hope and encouragement in the year of hope 25.  That word is this; “Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the LORD of hosts.  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts.  The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts, and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts."

 

You and I are the silver and gold, refined by God and built into the church, but there are others…. Anthony, Sandra, Louise and Caleb.  They are precious gems that God requires for his temple.  Let us make an agreement with God, to work with him in building this house of God.  Let us ask him for his guidance and then let us listen to hear his direction….  Lord God, we want to bring the good news of your love to all.  Help us to do this.  Show us the way and give us the courage to follow through, so that those who are precious may be built into the house of God.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen.

What is it worth? Proper 25 Pentecost 20 26th October 2025

2025  10  26  Proper 25 Pentecost 20

• Joel 2:23-32 and Psalm 65    2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:15-30

 

You may be thinking, “Here we go again… another scripture reading about riches and a warning against being rich”.  On a superficial level we could get the impression that to be a child of God means we need to be poor.  Jesus says it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. There are several layers of meaning to the phrase, “Kingdom of God”.  It does mean Heaven, where God is King, but it also refers to the reign of Christ when he comes again to rule the earth, and it also refers to an attitude in our hearts where we personally submit to the kingship of God in our lives.   In the context of our Gospel reading, it is this attitude in the heart of the rich man, with which Jesus was concerned.

 

The rich man was a good and excellent man.  He wanted to be in a right relationship with God.  He was also a man of authority.  He is introduced to us as a ruler, and he addresses Jesus as “good teacher”.  This begins an important discourse, revealing something of the rich man’s understanding.  Scripture tells us, all of mankind fall short of God’s goodness.  Therefore, to call someone good, was to either equate them with God or to erroneously believe that one could attain a state of goodness such that eternal life could be earned.   Before Jesus answers the question, he tries to show the man his error.  But the rich man had a sense of his own “Goodness”, and he possibly expected Jesus to tell him so, and affirm him.

 

The man had been a law-keeper since he was a boy.  He would have been a great person to know.  He most probably, is like many today, who believe they keep God’s commands – those upstanding citizens who we know and who are good people.  They are often our wonderful friends who don’t attend church and wonder why we do.  They believe that they are good people and will go to heaven when they die because they are good law-abiding citizens.  The message from Jesus is important for us to understand as it has eternal consequences.  These wonderful friends can’t quote the first and greatest commandment, but they will know things like don’t steal or murder.  These are the commandments that Jesus quoted to the rich man, who enthusiastically said he’d kept them since he was a boy.  He missed that Jesus was giving him an opportunity to realize the commandments that Jesus didn’t quote – in particular, the command that is stated in Deuteronomy 6:4-5  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  The rich man missed what Jesus was trying to teach, and so Jesus gets to the heart of the matter; “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  Does Jesus ask this of everyone? 

 

From the prophet Joel we have the famous reading that we hear each Pentecost about God pouring out His Spirit on all people.  A wonderful aspect of this reading from Joel, is the promise that God is bringing good things.  God states that He will repay for the years that the swarming locust have eaten.  It speaks of a time of lavish blessings.  God is our father who loves to bless and give good gifts to his children. 

 

A time that I learnt this was when my girls were little.  I was struggling financially as a single mum, and my two girls had a half sister who was turning one.  I couldn’t afford to buy anything, but I thought that the girls ought to send a present.  I prayed about it.  There out the front of Best and Less, on a ridiculously low-priced special, was a polished cotton, blue, baby girl dress, complete with matching rompers and headband.  Still praying about it, I purchased and mailed it off, also praying that it would arrive at just the right time.

 

Fast forward to the story on the other side- The girls’ father was looking after his baby girl and was taking her for formal photos for her first birthday.  He went to get something to dress her in but couldn’t find anything suitable.  He only had practical clothes and nothing “Pretty”.  While he was still busy looking and agonizing over what to do, there was a knock at the door – the parcel arrived – and in it the most beautiful little polished cotton, blue outfit.  Perfect for her photos.  

 

This event taught me loads!   First of all, God provides.  Secondly, God loves to give us abundantly more than we imagine.  A pretty outfit is not a necessity.  It is something special.  This was God’s lavish love at work.

 

God is lavish in His love for us and lavish in all that he gives us. The prophecy of Joel is about the way the God will lavish His gifts on us.  Not only does He provide for us in the hard times, but he delights to bring us into times of blessing.  What would this reading say for our church today….?  But wait… there is more… in those days, He will pour out His Spirit.  THIS is His most lavish gift for the Church.

 

We read this at Pentecost, and there is a connection to the Holy Spirit being poured out on our Church and God’s law.  Jesus left room in his conversation, for the rich man to speak about the first commandment, but it was overlooked.  The feast of Pentecost, before the Christian church began, was a Jewish festival and it still is, and Pentecost is known as the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot.  It is a festival celebrated 50 days after Passover.  It was originally an agricultural celebration of the first fruits harvest it became strongly associated with the commemoration of the giving of the ten commandments at Mount Sinai, which also occurred approximately 50 days after the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. 

 

So, here we are talking about the commandments again – but also first fruits which was a command that the people give the first of their fruits to God.  What was missing in our Gospel reading is to give to God first – to love God first.  The Holy Spirit comes to write God’s law in our hearts.  We might not steal or commit murder, but we are all imperfect in our ability to love.  If the rich man really did love God perfectly, he would have been willing to sell all his possessions and go and follow Jesus.

 

What about us?  Many people who have nothing find hope in God.  They put their trust in him and know his provision, his goodness and love, but those who are attached to possessions, generally put their trust in these things….. We put our trust in these things…  Jesus asked the man to sell everything and give to the poor, not because he wanted the man to be poor, but that he wanted the man to understand the surpassing richness of God.  It isn’t the wealth that is the problem, but our hearts and our tendency to trust in wealth and not value the glorious riches we have in God. 

 

Saint Paul described his life as being poured out like a libation.  Saint Paul understood life in eternity, as being a reward far greater than riches.  For this reason, he was willing to suffer and endure many hardships.  In this world, many are willing to suffer and endure hardships to earn money.  Consider mining work; it isn’t easy and means living away from your family for some time, but many families make these sacrifices because the reward of the pay is worth it.  But do we have an understanding of eternity such that we can see that eternity is so worth it?   Saint Paul and so many others who were martyred for their faith lived the way they did because they knew it was worth it…. Eternal life is worth it… God’s love… is worth it. 

 

Jesus lamented how hard it is for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God, but also added that what is impossible for man, is possible for God.  There was an element that the rich man was missing, and it is an element that most of us miss as well.  When we think that we are… hmmm… well… pretty good, and when our lives are comfortable, we miss that we need a saviour.  

 

What must I do to inherit eternal life?  What must any of us do?  Firstly, we can’t “Inherit” eternal life unless we are related to him who owns eternal life.  God gave people the law to show us what is best and what is good and to show us his glory and goodness – but scripture tells us that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

 

The rich man needed to realize his need for a saviour.  His righteousness was self-righteousness and self-righteousness is a myth, as it bases our goodness on our own set of rules.  Pretty much, this is where most of the world is at now.  People will tell you that they are good.  Even those who are charged with crimes will tell you that they are actually good, according to their own version of the rules.  Eventually we need to wake up and see that if we want eternal life, God’s rules are the only ones that count and according to him, we all need a saviour!

 

Does God ask us all to sell our possessions and follow him?  He does ask us to have NO other gods before him and if that means selling all our possessions we must do it, because our eternal life is in peril.  If there are things, or people or hobbies, or activities in our life that keep us from whole heartedly following Jesus, we need to let those things go.   Even still, to inherit eternal life is impossible in, and of ourselves. We need a saviour because it is not something we can earn by our good deeds. 

 

The Good news is, that we DO have a saviour.  Jesus Christ.  We cannot live lives that are good enough, but God loves us and HE made a way.  Through baptism we are united to Christ, who perfectly kept the law, and what is impossible for us mere mortals, is possible for God.  Through our union with Jesus we become children of our God who lavishes us with every good gift.

 

Regardless of how hard we have things here, God declares He will repay for the years that the locust destroyed. The future is brighter than bright, rest assured.  But like Paul, keep fighting the good fight, living for God - giving all to him. Don’t fall off the track before the finish line.  Keep the faith!  Give to God our first and best – our allegiance, our heart!

Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing! Proper 23C Pentecost 18 12th Oct 2025

 2025  10  12   Proper 23C  Pentecost

Jeremiah 29.1, 4-7 Psalm 66.1-11, 2 Timothy 2.8-15, Luke 17.11-19

 

Saint Paul wrote to Timothy and told him; “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David--that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, …..”  Timothy was in charge of the Christian community in Ephesus.  After being placed in charge, Paul tells him to remember Jesus Christ…. How odd!  How could the leader of a church forget? 

 

The central message of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ, descendant of David, rose from the dead.  We all need to be reminded, not to get side-tracked in issues, ideas, or superstitions, but we need to remember the Gospel message – which means that we need to keep the main thing, the main thing, …and the main thing is Jesus!  Jesus had a tracible genealogy.  We know that he was a descendant of the famous Israelite King, David, and he was born in the town of David, Bethlehem.  His parents had travelled there to be counted in the census as descendants of David. 

 

In our modern world of fake news and A I generations, it is important to know the truth.   And most important is the truth about Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ raised from the dead, a descendant of David – is our Gospel.  Unfortunately, the historical facts about Jesus have been put into the “religion” category, therefore, largely ignored, not taught and assumed by many to be nothing more than a myth.

 

I had not realized the extent to which people were unaware of the history about Jesus until recently when someone on facebook told me that the nearest DNA relatives to the Israelites are the Samaritans.   I found this kind of funny, because anyone who knows a little about the Bible, knows that the Samaritans were a mixed breed of the Jews, from when they went into exile.  This very thing is what Jeremiah is talking about when he tells the people to live in the cities in exile, mixing with the people and working side by side with them for the good of the city.  The facebook commentator’s point was that there is no validity to the nation of Israel.  I find this incredulous when the bible is full of genealogies and the race of Israel can be so perfectly traced.  In fact, the term “Semitic” comes from the son of Noah – remember Noah was the one who built the ark – he had a son called Shem and it is from this line that the Israelites came.

 

Jesus’ earthly existence has been verified.  He was written about by historians  - not just Christian ones.  Why is it the year 2025?  It is assumed to be 2025 years since the birth of Christ… the birth of Jesus.

 

An essential element in our Gospel message is to know that Jesus was a real person in history.  He was a man who walked this earth.  Another essential element of our Gospel message, is to know that Jesus rose from the dead.  Jesus was both man and God, and the implications of him dying on the cross and rising from the dead, means that the message of Jesus is reliable.  We are loved by God, and our life has an eternal purpose.  The resurrection seems incredible; however, the Bible tells us that Jesus appeared to over 500 people after he rose from the dead, and those were still alive when this fact was written about – those people could, and did, testify to that fact.  Many of them were put to death, in an effort to stamp out that fact or to make the witnesses deny that fact, but they didn’t deny him. 

 

Saint Paul quotes a faithful saying;  “For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him.  If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.  If we deny Him,

He also will deny us.  If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” 

The early church knew the saying and they knew what it meant and they refused to deny Christ and the truth.  Many were faithful unto death.

 

How strong is our faith?  Can we remain faithful to God even if great persecution were to come against us?  The early Christians were put to death for their faith.  It is in this environment that Saint Paul exhorts Timothy to keep the main thing the main thing.  Jesus Christ who is both God and man, died to take away the sin of the world and he rose from the dead, declaring victory over death and eternal life for those who are the children of God – you and me.

 

Through our baptism we become children of God.  It is an actions that declares our response to the Gospel and through it we are united to Christ.  Therefore, we have died with him, and we will also live with him.  But it doesn’t stop there.  If we endure, we will also reign with him.  Baptism begins our spiritual, eternal life, and it doesn’t end with death.  There is a future that we yet don’t know, but if we endure, we will also reign with Christ.

 

In our baptism it is a little like the story of the ten lepers.  In our baptism we are declared the healed children of God – we are healed from the spiritual consequence of sin.  All the world is offered this healing.  Some respond and come to be baptised….  And all those who are baptised become the children of God.  So very loved and cherished by God. 

 

One leper, out of the ten, came back to give thanks to Christ.  The other nine were also healed but I guess we could say that they forgot to keep the Main thing, the main thing.   They were faithless, but God was still faithful – they were healed.  Being faithless is different to denying.   But it can be a slippery slope if we forget to keep the Gospel message central.

 

The people of God are to continue being faithful to God.  The people of Jeremiah’s time, had just gotten on with living their lives, distracted from the remembrance of the great things that God had done for them.  They didn’t become faithless overnight… but gradually as they let the word of God slide more and more, until they reached the point where they had been faithless, and were involved in practises that a faithful child of God should not be involved in.  The consequence was that many in the nation were taken into exile.  They were sent into exile and at that time Jeremiah reminded them to keep the Main thing, the Main thing.  God is still God and is still in control.  Whether they were in their own land or taken into a strange land to live, they were to be faithful to God… but what’s more, they were called to be blessed and be a blessing to that strange land.  The word of the Lord through Jeremiah to those people was; “multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”   Multiply, seek the welfare of the city and intercede to God on it’s behalf. 

 

Every child of God is called to be an intercessor for their town – and country.  Every child of God is called to seek the welfare of their town, and every child of God is called to be fruitful and multiply.  For us as church, that means that we should continue to grow, continue to work with our community for the good of the town and PRAY for our town.  We must also keep the Gospel message central.  Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.  This is no small thing, and I suspect that many people in the generation growing up now don’t even know this Main Thing.  How can we help them to know?

 

Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  He was so well and truly dead, that when they pierced his side with a sword, blood and water came out.  That was the Friday.  By Sunday he had risen from the dead.  Christ has died.  Christ IS risen.  Christ WILL come again.  This is what we declare at every eucharistic service, and we mustn’t lose sight of how mind blowing this is.  More than mind blowing in itself, is the implications of this reality for us.  We are all offered forgiveness, the spiritual consequence of sin is taken away and we become children of this God who healed the sick and raised the dead…. And we are told that we will reign with him.  I feel like we all just need a moment to contemplate this…. We are children of God and heirs with Christ…

 

Christ has died and Christ is risen…. This is where we live – in this reality.  This is the Main thing, and he also sends His Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us.  Children of God we are now, through our baptism. Heirs with Christ we will be, if we endure. 

One day Christ will come again.  No one knows the day or time, but Jesus, who rose from the dead, declared it, and so we believe.  So, what are we doing today?  Are we the returning healed leper, giving God thanks?   Are we being faithful stewards of the spiritual gifts that he has given us? 

 

Tough times may be upon us, but God has great things planned for our future with him.  In the meantime, work and pray for the prosperity of our town.  Be blessed in this, and keep the MAIN thing, the main thing…Jesus Christ rose from the dead – This is our Gospel.