+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 14:2
Theme: Prepared By The Saviour
Dear family, friends and loved ones of Pam, and especially you, Leanne, Ken, Grant, Craig, and Tony, her children:
God doesn’t have contingency plans. He doesn’t need them. He knows what will come to pass. So, when the Lord Jesus, the conqueror of death, says today, “In My Father’s house are many rooms… I am going there to prepare a place for you,”1 He was not speaking of possibilities, probabilities, or contingencies. God’s preparations are only made in anticipation of a future event that will be fulfilled with certainty. Today we celebrate that no more preparations need to be made for Pam Fielke’s reception into heaven. It has come to pass. Pam has been released from the burden of this mortal existence. She is at peace. Thanks be to God!
So, how is it possible? Really? This radical transition. In the record of Jesus’ life, we come across various descriptions of His interactions with people such as this one, “They were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”2 The words of Christ were gripping and incisive. The utterances of Jesus had clout. You see, the people of Jesus’ day, like us, understandably expected claims of extraordinary magnitude to be verified by independent authorities. But who would Christ turn to to sanction or validate His assertions? Even the greatest human authorities are fallible. Experts in every field have their failings and limitations. Exceptional claims must be substantiated again and again and again before they gain widespread credibility. What did Jesus do to validate His claims? Well, there was this little matter of rising from the dead. Of course, countless other miracles had already demonstrated His divinity.
Dear friends, ours is an age of skepticism about the need for God’s assistance. Do you think that any person who dies today is in any less need of divine clemency than the great figures of ancient times, the princes or the paupers of the Middle Ages, the popes or the peasants, the victims of wars past or benefactors of peaceful eras? Are we any closer to God’s mercy? Are we any further from His grace? No. The condemnation of sin is no less real than if God had rebuked Adam and Eve two days ago. The call to repentance is never obsolete. It is never inapplicable.
I first met Pam and Ray in 2006 when Pam was a still a member of the Bookpurnong Ladies’ Guild. At some point they welcomed me into their home for a guild meeting and this green horn from across the ocean learned a little bit more about farming in the Mallee and the resilience of those who do it. Pam had a spirited sense of humor. Her wit served her well both in the daily routine of life and through the more difficult challenges. She was a devoted wife and mother and competent in everything required of her. She endured the loss of a child.
Still, all humans have significant limitations. Some require resolution. How can the gates of heaven be unbolted? Could Pam do it with her wit, her generosity, or her resilience? Can I do it with seminary training or biblical knowledge? Can you succeed with your sincerity, your philanthropy, or your kindheartedness? No, dear friends the threshold of heaven cannot be crossed, it cannot be breached, it cannot be accessed by the strivings, heroic or otherwise, of any individual. The combined ingenuity, piety, and tenacity of all humanity is not able push open the gates of heaven or overcome the finality of death.
But what does the Scripture say? “Jesus, who went before us, has entered [heaven] on our behalf.”3 “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”4 Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”5 And, “Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”6
Pam Fielke was a forgiven sinner. Immersed in Christ’s forgiveness from the time of her baptism she was made a child of God and promised an everlasting inheritance. The wedding text her and Ray shared proved to be a steadfast support for her, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”7 At her confirmation Pam was assigned this verse from Matthew 24, “The one who endures to the end will be saved.”8 And that’s exactly what Pam did. Through Christ’s grace, and His strength she endured until He called her home. “In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”9
It can be reasonably argued that Pam had suffered from her vascular dementia long enough. It was time for her to be relieved. Only God can really say. He chose to summon her and for that we’re thankful even while we grieve. We might say that from a purely human perspective there is never a good time for death. After all, death is final. There are no second chances. There’s no going back. But, dear friends, if we could truly comprehend what those who are in the presence of the triune God, saints and angels now enjoy, there’s little question anyone would want to come back!
Leanne, Ken, Grant, Craig, Tony, grief doesn’t schedule appointments. It doesn’t ask permission to intrude upon your life. It is not polite. It doesn’t negotiate. You might try to postpone its beginning, suspend its progress, or hasten its conclusion but you won’t find any of these efforts to be very helpful. Instead, the Scriptures empower you to face grief head on. Every person that is lost from our lives is unique and that makes them irreplaceable. But don’t think for even a moment that God is too feeble or apathetic to sustain you even in times of darkest doubt?
Does God care about our personal worries? Of course He does. God cares about everything, but He is indebted to no one. Christ is the exalted One, but He’s also the Suffering Servant. The victim of Calvary was not an unwilling pawn. He was not naïve or clueless. He was not ill-informed about the task. He knew He was facing death. He knew He was going to be sacrificed. He went to the cross anyway.
Jesus Christ is immortal, and He has overturned the power of death. And He can, and He will, reassemble our disintegrated bodies and resurrect them in like manner to His glorious body. It will not be slight-of-hand or a magician’s deception. The resurrected will not be in a mystifying trance or feel like they are in some kind of suspended out-of-body experience. Our perception will be as natural and familiar as what we enjoy right now. Therefore, Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes.”10 Pam has been crowned with life. Thanks be to God! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Christian Burial of Pamela Helen Fielke
8 February 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 14:2 2 Mark 1:22
3 Hebrews 6:20 4 Ephesians 2:8
5 John 11:25 6 Acts 10:43
7 Matthew 28:20 8 Matthew 24:13
9 John 14:2 10 Job 19:26-27
Monday, February 11, 2019
Harvest Thanksgiving (3rd & 10th February 2019)
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Deuteronomy 26:11
Theme: Rejoice In His Goodness
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The godly farmer who prepares the soil, sows the seed, and tends the growing crop hopes for a good harvest believing that God is able to provide it. If that hope is only the prospect of benefitting from the changes and chances of the season than it is nothing more than a worldly wish. The unbelieving farmer farms to take advantage of God’s benevolence and thus elevate himself in the world’s eyes. The godly farmer gratefully receives God’s blessings and uses the benefits to the advantage of his neighbour. Faith, and the motivations it produces are the determining factors as to whether one is seeking to exploit God’s generosity or allocate it. Harvest Thanksgiving can only be meaningful to those who recognize the source. Everyone benefits from God’s generosity. For the believer God’s generosity in this life is a small foretaste of grander blessings to come; for the ungodly it is a small consolation in view of a future destitute of His favour.
The Israelites were instructed to celebrate God’s blessing on their agricultural season during the Feast of Booths1, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. This festival marked the end of the harvest. It lasted a week and was also the conclusion to the half of their liturgical year that began with Passover. The eighth and final day was designated as a high and holy day. One of the unique features of the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles is that the Israelites we to set up temporary shelters around the sanctuary to reside in during the week-long feast. These tents, or booths, would provide temporary protection and surely would have reminded the Israelites of their transitory time in the desert. During the Feast of Booths, the Israelites spent the week in temporary dwellings around the sanctuary, but the permanence of God’s presence was what was really being celebrated.
God’s people were commanded to give of their firstfruits to indicate their thankfulness and show their lives were orientated towards Him. But outward actions still meant nothing without the integrity of the heart. Just going through the motions amounts to empty ritual. Nothing has changed today. The hollowness of much of organized Christianity is now echoing all around us. What is the answer, for example, to apathy about the mission of the church? Surely this involves serious soul-searching! If we lack interest in the spiritual welfare of others, either as individuals or as communities of believers, the deeper issue is our own relationship with Christ. It’s a confronting truth.
Why did the crowds come searching for Jesus today? Well, they were part of the 5000 that had had their bellies filled. What a great way to celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving! These people didn’t want to lose touch with the source of their welfare. Jesus immediately addresses their misguided intentions. “I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”2 They witnessed the miracle, they benefitted from, it but they didn’t make the much more important connection. They filled their stomachs, but their souls were still starving. So, Jesus says to them, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”3
You see, the most serious consequence of original sin is unbelief. At every turn we are prone to mistrust or misrepresent God’s promises. The Scriptures call it a curse. It’s the curse of looking inward, the curse of desperately searching for security and meaning in the wrong places. Christ came to lift that curse. After the judgment on man’s wickedness, rendered at the time of Noah’s flood, God made a covenant that previewed the end of the curse. The Bible says, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”4 So, God guarantees His providence. His judgment will be restrained.
But how? And why? Just because the flood appeased His wrath? No, there’s more. The fulfillment is summarized in these words, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”5 The curse was broken when Jesus offered His own body as a sacrifice of atonement and rose as the firstborn from the dead. The curse of sin is broken. We are freed from death’s power. We feast on the banquet of the ‘firstfruits’ of Christ’s grace when we dine on His body and blood in the heavenly meal. It is manna from above. Because you are what you eat, we are never the same. The Lord’s Supper is the food of immortality.
The Israelites were instructed to bring the firstfruits of their harvest. The language of firstfruits is retained in the New Testament, as when Paul says, “We have the firstfruits of the Spirit”6. He also says, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.”7 God looks at us as if we were each a firstborn son. But not just any firstborn, one that has been redeemed and consecrated to God. Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven, the true spiritual manna. He alone gives life to the soul. Yes, we must still toil to grow food from the soil. That was part of the curse on Adam. But no labor is needed to provide for the soul. Jesus is the grain of wheat that fell in the soil and died so that He could bear much fruit8.
Dear friends, some harvests are better than others. Farming is still an occupation of faith, though with food security, insurance and contingencies, probably not as much as it once was. Yet, believers should not obsess about whether the next harvest will be good or not. Just as Christians don’t speculate on whether God will presently relieve them of a certain struggle or grant a fervent wish. We commend these things to God and proceed daily to bear the cross. Each day the Holy Spirit must teach us the meaning of “Your will be done.”9 Then we learn to live in hope.
If the resolution of the matter is within your grasp or if your heart has judged the matter closed, then you are no longer living in hope. Your heart and mind have moved on and your prayers will express only anger, or joy, frustration or gratitude. Hope endures only through faith and all else is darkness and confusion. You may even be preparing yourself that your hopes may be dashed. But where the believer’s hope is pressed to its limits is precisely where Christ intervenes for His saints. He does this no sooner than necessary because we “live by faith, not by sight.”10 Why did Thomas believe: Because Thomas saw the dead Jesus alive, or because Jesus made the dead (spiritually) Thomas live? God blesses us abundantly in our physical and spiritual needs, our vocations and our harvests of grain and those of His kingdom. Today we give thanks. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Harvest Thanksgiving
Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
3 February 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 See Leviticus 23:33-43
2 John 6:26
3 John 6:27
4 Genesis 8:22
5 Galatians 2:13
6 Romans 8:23
7 Romans 12:12
8 John12:24
9 Matthew 6:10
10 2 Corinthians 5:7
Text: Deuteronomy 26:11
Theme: Rejoice In His Goodness
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The godly farmer who prepares the soil, sows the seed, and tends the growing crop hopes for a good harvest believing that God is able to provide it. If that hope is only the prospect of benefitting from the changes and chances of the season than it is nothing more than a worldly wish. The unbelieving farmer farms to take advantage of God’s benevolence and thus elevate himself in the world’s eyes. The godly farmer gratefully receives God’s blessings and uses the benefits to the advantage of his neighbour. Faith, and the motivations it produces are the determining factors as to whether one is seeking to exploit God’s generosity or allocate it. Harvest Thanksgiving can only be meaningful to those who recognize the source. Everyone benefits from God’s generosity. For the believer God’s generosity in this life is a small foretaste of grander blessings to come; for the ungodly it is a small consolation in view of a future destitute of His favour.
The Israelites were instructed to celebrate God’s blessing on their agricultural season during the Feast of Booths1, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. This festival marked the end of the harvest. It lasted a week and was also the conclusion to the half of their liturgical year that began with Passover. The eighth and final day was designated as a high and holy day. One of the unique features of the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles is that the Israelites we to set up temporary shelters around the sanctuary to reside in during the week-long feast. These tents, or booths, would provide temporary protection and surely would have reminded the Israelites of their transitory time in the desert. During the Feast of Booths, the Israelites spent the week in temporary dwellings around the sanctuary, but the permanence of God’s presence was what was really being celebrated.
God’s people were commanded to give of their firstfruits to indicate their thankfulness and show their lives were orientated towards Him. But outward actions still meant nothing without the integrity of the heart. Just going through the motions amounts to empty ritual. Nothing has changed today. The hollowness of much of organized Christianity is now echoing all around us. What is the answer, for example, to apathy about the mission of the church? Surely this involves serious soul-searching! If we lack interest in the spiritual welfare of others, either as individuals or as communities of believers, the deeper issue is our own relationship with Christ. It’s a confronting truth.
Why did the crowds come searching for Jesus today? Well, they were part of the 5000 that had had their bellies filled. What a great way to celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving! These people didn’t want to lose touch with the source of their welfare. Jesus immediately addresses their misguided intentions. “I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”2 They witnessed the miracle, they benefitted from, it but they didn’t make the much more important connection. They filled their stomachs, but their souls were still starving. So, Jesus says to them, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”3
You see, the most serious consequence of original sin is unbelief. At every turn we are prone to mistrust or misrepresent God’s promises. The Scriptures call it a curse. It’s the curse of looking inward, the curse of desperately searching for security and meaning in the wrong places. Christ came to lift that curse. After the judgment on man’s wickedness, rendered at the time of Noah’s flood, God made a covenant that previewed the end of the curse. The Bible says, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”4 So, God guarantees His providence. His judgment will be restrained.
But how? And why? Just because the flood appeased His wrath? No, there’s more. The fulfillment is summarized in these words, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”5 The curse was broken when Jesus offered His own body as a sacrifice of atonement and rose as the firstborn from the dead. The curse of sin is broken. We are freed from death’s power. We feast on the banquet of the ‘firstfruits’ of Christ’s grace when we dine on His body and blood in the heavenly meal. It is manna from above. Because you are what you eat, we are never the same. The Lord’s Supper is the food of immortality.
The Israelites were instructed to bring the firstfruits of their harvest. The language of firstfruits is retained in the New Testament, as when Paul says, “We have the firstfruits of the Spirit”6. He also says, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.”7 God looks at us as if we were each a firstborn son. But not just any firstborn, one that has been redeemed and consecrated to God. Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven, the true spiritual manna. He alone gives life to the soul. Yes, we must still toil to grow food from the soil. That was part of the curse on Adam. But no labor is needed to provide for the soul. Jesus is the grain of wheat that fell in the soil and died so that He could bear much fruit8.
Dear friends, some harvests are better than others. Farming is still an occupation of faith, though with food security, insurance and contingencies, probably not as much as it once was. Yet, believers should not obsess about whether the next harvest will be good or not. Just as Christians don’t speculate on whether God will presently relieve them of a certain struggle or grant a fervent wish. We commend these things to God and proceed daily to bear the cross. Each day the Holy Spirit must teach us the meaning of “Your will be done.”9 Then we learn to live in hope.
If the resolution of the matter is within your grasp or if your heart has judged the matter closed, then you are no longer living in hope. Your heart and mind have moved on and your prayers will express only anger, or joy, frustration or gratitude. Hope endures only through faith and all else is darkness and confusion. You may even be preparing yourself that your hopes may be dashed. But where the believer’s hope is pressed to its limits is precisely where Christ intervenes for His saints. He does this no sooner than necessary because we “live by faith, not by sight.”10 Why did Thomas believe: Because Thomas saw the dead Jesus alive, or because Jesus made the dead (spiritually) Thomas live? God blesses us abundantly in our physical and spiritual needs, our vocations and our harvests of grain and those of His kingdom. Today we give thanks. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Harvest Thanksgiving
Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
3 February 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 See Leviticus 23:33-43
2 John 6:26
3 John 6:27
4 Genesis 8:22
5 Galatians 2:13
6 Romans 8:23
7 Romans 12:12
8 John12:24
9 Matthew 6:10
10 2 Corinthians 5:7
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Third Sunday After Epiphany (C) 2019
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Luke 4:14-21
Theme: Word, Rest, Freedom
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Jesus went to church. That fact may seem unsurprising, but it is also profound. Today’s summary of Jesus’ preaching in His hometown of Nazareth is an inexhaustible well of soul-refreshing water. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”1 Mindful of this, we’ll take three sips of this water in the next few minutes hoping to imbibe the following truths: 1) the authority of Scripture in relation to the gospel, 2), the meaning of the Sabbath and importance of public worship, and, 3) the relationship between the One who frees and those of us who are freed. Scripture, sabbath, freedom- these are our foci.
We begin with the words of Jesus that conclude our reading for today. “[Jesus] began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."2 He is referring to the prophecy of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good new to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed…”3 Jesus is more than the bearer of good tidings. He is the incarnation of God’s promises. What the Spirit promises comes true in Jesus.
Jesus recognises the words of Isaiah as the words of Holy Scripture. This gives clear credibility to the prophetic proclamation. The Son of God treats Scripture as the word of God. Throughout His ministry Jesus validates the reliability of the Old or ‘First’ Testament. Modern attempts to dismiss the authority of the OT should deal honestly with the witness of Jesus. Christianity is fully reliant on a complete interdependence between Jesus, the God-in-the-flesh Messiah, and the Scriptures, the written word of God. The one cannot be marginalized at the expense of the other. Salvation comes only through trusting in the sin-atoning death, and life-sustaining resurrection of Jesus Christ for sinners. The Holy Spirit creates faith through this proclamation of the gospel. The gospel, however, is only part of the wider witness of Scripture. The credibility of the gospel is reliant on the authority of Scripture. The Jesus of the Bible is the only Jesus we can know with certainty. And Jesus is never at odds with the teachings of the Bible.
Secondly, Jesus went to church. He went to the synagogue. His example alone should be enough to settle any questions about the necessity of attending public worship. Christ was only doing what the faithful have always done. The Third Commandment says,"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”4 Luther offers a succinct explanation. “What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.”5 The Sabbath day for Christians is about reverence for God’s word. It is a time of spiritual rest and worship. The Sabbath, rightly understood, is a welcomed relief from the rigors of daily life. God’s house is a sanctuary and His people migrants who have found a permanent home. No matter what day public worship is held- Sunday through to Saturday- it is a participation in the Sabbath.
The fact that God even welcomes us into His house is an astonishing miracle. Your sins are such a serious affront to God’s holiness that it merits exclusion from His presence for eternity. It’s no small gesture on God’s part that He forgives your debt of sins and throws open the gates of heaven. It’s not a matter of courtesy. Christ was nailed to a cross to make it possible. Every time we walk through the doors into God’s house it’s a foreshadowing of entering into His presence in heaven.
So, attendance in God’s house should be routine, habitual, but the struggle to prevent it is very, very real. Satan delights in dictating our schedules. He does this overtly, as when he convinces us to do something out of selfishness because we are arrogant, or angry or lazy. He does it with finesse, as when he convinces us that some alternative activity is more noble or important. If you think the suggestion of demonic intrusion is too brazen or too preachy, think only of your own sinful nature and how easily you can be led astray through weakness, peer-pressure, or selfishness.
At some juncture we reached the tipping point- and this reality is in a state of flux- where it has become inconvenient, and even counter-cultural to preference attending the public liturgy above other things. That is, it’s no longer fashionable or considered desirable to go to church regularly. The statistics are undeniable. Of all people, Christ understood that faith is not a private matter. Though our faith is personal- no one can believe for us, and we can’t believe for anyone else- it is never completely private. The fellowship of the faithful is a communal gathering. Your convictions are established, tested, and confirmed, through interaction with others. This interaction is facilitated by the Holy Spirit working through the word. Reciprocity in sharing the divine things characterizes our common life together. The baptized gather together, eating the holy meal together, receiving God’s admonition, forgiveness, and instruction together.
Thirdly, Jesus says today He has been sent to proclaim freedom. Public worship is the place where those who are bound in sin become free. The nature of this truth strikes right at the heart of the gospel. The core of the Bible’s message is the one-way direction of God’s activity from Him to us. He humbles Himself by being conceived of the Virgin. He endures suffering. He absorbs the divine wrath. He succumbs to death. God initiates. He perseveres. He completes. We can do none of these things. In so doing, He justifies sinners by grace through faith. Resurrected on the third day, ascended to the Father’s throne of power, Christ lives, never to suffer death again. He has subdued Satan, He has conquered death.
So, God doesn’t forgive you (thus freeing you) if you love Him first. His promise is not dependent on the strength or sincerity of your devotion. You have His forgiveness when you believe Him…no strings attached, no conditions appended. Now, you might be thinking, isn’t it conditional on our repentance? Well, your reception of forgiveness can be understood in that way, but the validity of God’s promise is not dependent on your repentance. Our repentance does not trigger God’s forgiveness. Making God’s forgiveness, or the certainty of His pardon, or, put conversely, the certainty that He accepts us, conditional on our repentance is like saying that our traveling north is conditional on us not heading south. If you’re heading south and you’ve been turned around- and this is what repentance is: God turning us around from self-destruction to divine restitution-now you’re heading north.
This isn’t all much to do about nothing, an exercise in tedious repetitiveness because we already knew that God loves us, or an advanced course for the super-spiritual who are seeking a higher degree of piety. Making the forgiveness of God dependent in any way on human action is like saying to the clearly guilty criminal “You can be released from jail free of charge if you can prove your innocence.” The Bible says, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”6
You are free. The guilt of sin no longer binds you to the punishment of God. But what are you freed for? To what purpose are you freed? You are not given license to sin, but to serve. You are not freed from the will of God. You are not freed to be a self-subsisting, self-managed being. You are not spiritually self-reliant or self-supporting. Your freedom entails subordination. You are subordinate to the design of God’s kingdom, Christ’s church, according to His patterns and purposes. In being subject to God’s created order you have freedom. You are freed to show love that is extraordinary. St. Paul says today, “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it,”7 and as such you are a recipient of the extraordinary love of God.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Third Sunday After Epiphany
27 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 4:14
2 Luke 4:21
3 Luke 4:18
4 Exodus 20:8
5 Luther’s Small Catechism
6 John 8:36
7 1 Corinthians 12:27
Text: Luke 4:14-21
Theme: Word, Rest, Freedom
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Jesus went to church. That fact may seem unsurprising, but it is also profound. Today’s summary of Jesus’ preaching in His hometown of Nazareth is an inexhaustible well of soul-refreshing water. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”1 Mindful of this, we’ll take three sips of this water in the next few minutes hoping to imbibe the following truths: 1) the authority of Scripture in relation to the gospel, 2), the meaning of the Sabbath and importance of public worship, and, 3) the relationship between the One who frees and those of us who are freed. Scripture, sabbath, freedom- these are our foci.
We begin with the words of Jesus that conclude our reading for today. “[Jesus] began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."2 He is referring to the prophecy of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good new to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed…”3 Jesus is more than the bearer of good tidings. He is the incarnation of God’s promises. What the Spirit promises comes true in Jesus.
Jesus recognises the words of Isaiah as the words of Holy Scripture. This gives clear credibility to the prophetic proclamation. The Son of God treats Scripture as the word of God. Throughout His ministry Jesus validates the reliability of the Old or ‘First’ Testament. Modern attempts to dismiss the authority of the OT should deal honestly with the witness of Jesus. Christianity is fully reliant on a complete interdependence between Jesus, the God-in-the-flesh Messiah, and the Scriptures, the written word of God. The one cannot be marginalized at the expense of the other. Salvation comes only through trusting in the sin-atoning death, and life-sustaining resurrection of Jesus Christ for sinners. The Holy Spirit creates faith through this proclamation of the gospel. The gospel, however, is only part of the wider witness of Scripture. The credibility of the gospel is reliant on the authority of Scripture. The Jesus of the Bible is the only Jesus we can know with certainty. And Jesus is never at odds with the teachings of the Bible.
Secondly, Jesus went to church. He went to the synagogue. His example alone should be enough to settle any questions about the necessity of attending public worship. Christ was only doing what the faithful have always done. The Third Commandment says,"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”4 Luther offers a succinct explanation. “What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.”5 The Sabbath day for Christians is about reverence for God’s word. It is a time of spiritual rest and worship. The Sabbath, rightly understood, is a welcomed relief from the rigors of daily life. God’s house is a sanctuary and His people migrants who have found a permanent home. No matter what day public worship is held- Sunday through to Saturday- it is a participation in the Sabbath.
The fact that God even welcomes us into His house is an astonishing miracle. Your sins are such a serious affront to God’s holiness that it merits exclusion from His presence for eternity. It’s no small gesture on God’s part that He forgives your debt of sins and throws open the gates of heaven. It’s not a matter of courtesy. Christ was nailed to a cross to make it possible. Every time we walk through the doors into God’s house it’s a foreshadowing of entering into His presence in heaven.
So, attendance in God’s house should be routine, habitual, but the struggle to prevent it is very, very real. Satan delights in dictating our schedules. He does this overtly, as when he convinces us to do something out of selfishness because we are arrogant, or angry or lazy. He does it with finesse, as when he convinces us that some alternative activity is more noble or important. If you think the suggestion of demonic intrusion is too brazen or too preachy, think only of your own sinful nature and how easily you can be led astray through weakness, peer-pressure, or selfishness.
At some juncture we reached the tipping point- and this reality is in a state of flux- where it has become inconvenient, and even counter-cultural to preference attending the public liturgy above other things. That is, it’s no longer fashionable or considered desirable to go to church regularly. The statistics are undeniable. Of all people, Christ understood that faith is not a private matter. Though our faith is personal- no one can believe for us, and we can’t believe for anyone else- it is never completely private. The fellowship of the faithful is a communal gathering. Your convictions are established, tested, and confirmed, through interaction with others. This interaction is facilitated by the Holy Spirit working through the word. Reciprocity in sharing the divine things characterizes our common life together. The baptized gather together, eating the holy meal together, receiving God’s admonition, forgiveness, and instruction together.
Thirdly, Jesus says today He has been sent to proclaim freedom. Public worship is the place where those who are bound in sin become free. The nature of this truth strikes right at the heart of the gospel. The core of the Bible’s message is the one-way direction of God’s activity from Him to us. He humbles Himself by being conceived of the Virgin. He endures suffering. He absorbs the divine wrath. He succumbs to death. God initiates. He perseveres. He completes. We can do none of these things. In so doing, He justifies sinners by grace through faith. Resurrected on the third day, ascended to the Father’s throne of power, Christ lives, never to suffer death again. He has subdued Satan, He has conquered death.
So, God doesn’t forgive you (thus freeing you) if you love Him first. His promise is not dependent on the strength or sincerity of your devotion. You have His forgiveness when you believe Him…no strings attached, no conditions appended. Now, you might be thinking, isn’t it conditional on our repentance? Well, your reception of forgiveness can be understood in that way, but the validity of God’s promise is not dependent on your repentance. Our repentance does not trigger God’s forgiveness. Making God’s forgiveness, or the certainty of His pardon, or, put conversely, the certainty that He accepts us, conditional on our repentance is like saying that our traveling north is conditional on us not heading south. If you’re heading south and you’ve been turned around- and this is what repentance is: God turning us around from self-destruction to divine restitution-now you’re heading north.
This isn’t all much to do about nothing, an exercise in tedious repetitiveness because we already knew that God loves us, or an advanced course for the super-spiritual who are seeking a higher degree of piety. Making the forgiveness of God dependent in any way on human action is like saying to the clearly guilty criminal “You can be released from jail free of charge if you can prove your innocence.” The Bible says, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”6
You are free. The guilt of sin no longer binds you to the punishment of God. But what are you freed for? To what purpose are you freed? You are not given license to sin, but to serve. You are not freed from the will of God. You are not freed to be a self-subsisting, self-managed being. You are not spiritually self-reliant or self-supporting. Your freedom entails subordination. You are subordinate to the design of God’s kingdom, Christ’s church, according to His patterns and purposes. In being subject to God’s created order you have freedom. You are freed to show love that is extraordinary. St. Paul says today, “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it,”7 and as such you are a recipient of the extraordinary love of God.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Third Sunday After Epiphany
27 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 4:14
2 Luke 4:21
3 Luke 4:18
4 Exodus 20:8
5 Luther’s Small Catechism
6 John 8:36
7 1 Corinthians 12:27
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Second Sunday After Epiphany (C) 2019
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 2:9
Theme: The Smallest of Miracles?
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Jesus wined the water. Surely, it’s one of His most subtle and interesting miracles. Miracles are an aid to faith. Some of Jesus’ miracles were much more impressive than others. Raising the dead and calming the stormy sea have a different impact than turning water into wine. Jesus didn’t perform miracles willy-nilly. He healed people out of compassion and benevolence. The goal was always to illicit faith or confirm it in the beneficiary and among the witnesses. Faith itself is a miracle; a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Everything Christ did was purposeful. Humans are the undeserving objects of His love. He attended to the physical and spiritual needs of people constantly. But He didn’t come just to ease the suffering of this temporal life. Of course, knowledge that He reconciles us to the Father, that our sins are forgiven, is the ultimate balm for our woes even now. Death is frightening enough even when we know Christ has it in hand. How can it be faced without such assurance? Well, only in defiance or ignorance or foolishness. All human constructions of a blessed afterlife are mere wishful thinking at best or cruel attempts to deceive people at worst.
Any suffering God allows or ordains in your life has the purpose of deepening your faith and whetting your appetite for the life to come. But because it is our tendency to view all painful experiences as evil, we are prone to not only shun them, but interpret them as being contrary to God’s will. And, if we’re honest, defending God against accusations that He is the author of evil is probably not our primary concern. We’re more worried about our own comfort and we are loathe to think that God works in our lives through things that are not only uncomfortable, but even painful and traumatic.
Job is one of the most vivid biblical examples, but there are many others. So, this baptismal life under the cross is always one of becoming instead of one of perfection; one of joy mixed with sorrow. We can’t see the resolution of all evil and suffering, but we press on believing God will bring it to pass. The Scripture says, “we walk by faith, not by sight.”1 And, we hold Romans 8 to be true even when it seems counterintuitive, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”2
The skeptics of our day have no place in their intellectual capacities for miracles. Scientism is quickly gaining ascendancy as a dominant ideology of our times. Trust in the ability of science to solve and explain nearly every problem and question facing humanity is increasingly unchallenged. Technological advances- and some are mind-blowing to be sure- are mistaken for answers to questions of meaning and purpose. The implications are far-reaching.
The focused goal of many who adhere to this philosophy is to systematically deconstruct the biblical worldview. With God out of the picture humanity is freed to define reality within its own parameters. Jettisoned is the ancient conviction that a supreme being will ultimately judge and that there are absolute standards we will be measured against. Of course, under this worldview sin becomes a very fluid concept determined by those who wield power at a particular time in a particular place. We’re already seeing the challenges to societal cohesion. Who will determine who makes the rules and on what basis?
We can think of the entire enterprise of human autonomy as a reversal of the divine order. Constructing God in our own image is a crass inversion of the order of creation. It is the characteristic hallmark of the fallen creation. It is the activity of unbelief. You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think you’re vulnerable to the temptation to make the definition of sin something pliable and flexible. The quickest way to excuse our transgressions is to redefine them as virtues or at least neutral realities. But the thunder of the law cannot be mitigated. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”3 If you don’t feel the weight of your sins or have any real desire for forgiveness, pray that God would deliver you from such a false sense of security.
Dear friends, one of the lessons of today’s gospel account is the discriminating timing and activity of God. Jesus had a timeframe that couldn’t be altered. Mary, His mother, offered His services, perhaps with thoughts of more publicity for Him. But it wasn’t yet time, so Jesus performs a subtle but convincing miracle. His attentiveness was not in doubt, but the details could not be dictated to Him. Everything in your life has a timetable too. If you’re like me, you’re probably hasty when God wants you to be patient, or apathetic when God wants you to be passionate. Human cynicism and general short-sightedness compromise our trust that God knows what’s good for us and when. But Christ is never disinterested. He in never apathetic or indifferent to our needs. Miracles are His specialty. Death itself is no barrier. But for God nothing He does is a miracle, or everything is a miracle depending on what perspective you take.
But that doesn’t mean some things don’t stand out. We have a God who raises the dead. “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.”4 God will raise your lifeless corpse from the sleep of death, just as He has already done for your soul. His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave- securing your forgiveness- empower you with new life here and now.
It’s a life gifted to you by Him, but a life whose purpose is not one of self-indulgence, but of self-sacrifice. You have a vocation. In fact, you have multiple vocations. You are spouses, and parents, and children. You are mentors, apprentices, and managers, and workers. You have the privilege of serving others and being served by them. You are called to do this with integrity and according to God’s will. You are God’s ambassadors of peace and light in a world mired in chaos and spiritual darkness.
By rubbing shoulders with you, others become acquainted with the miraculous love of God in Christ. Is the fact that your body continues to metabolise nutrients enabling your brain to facilitate countless electrical synapsis translating into the power to make decisions any less miraculous than the turning of water into wine? Is not the marvel of God’s creation a litany of miracles? The ratio of strength to density of a spiderweb exceeds that of steel. The tiny ant can lift a hundred times its own body weight. Every day is filled with miracles. May the Spirit open our eyes to see them!
St. John records the turning of water into wine as Jesus’ first miracle. The theological parallel with holy communion is an instructive one. Just as we may think of Jesus turning the water into wine with the water still being present, so also, we can picture the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper while the bread and wine also remain present. The presence of the one does not exclude the presence of the other. It doesn’t make either reality any less of a miracle. And we’re certainly not suggesting that Christ’s body and blood isn’t truly there in the sacrament, that it’s only a mental image or something. Just as we’re not saying that the wedding guests at Cana were actually only drinking water but were too intoxicated to know the difference.
Jesus wined the water. And because there are no coincidences with God it was not happenstance that He was at a wedding. Christ is our eternal Bridegroom. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Second Sunday After Epiphany
20 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 2 Corinthians 5:7
2 Romans 8:28
3 Romans 3:23
4 John 5:21
Text: John 2:9
Theme: The Smallest of Miracles?
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Jesus wined the water. Surely, it’s one of His most subtle and interesting miracles. Miracles are an aid to faith. Some of Jesus’ miracles were much more impressive than others. Raising the dead and calming the stormy sea have a different impact than turning water into wine. Jesus didn’t perform miracles willy-nilly. He healed people out of compassion and benevolence. The goal was always to illicit faith or confirm it in the beneficiary and among the witnesses. Faith itself is a miracle; a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Everything Christ did was purposeful. Humans are the undeserving objects of His love. He attended to the physical and spiritual needs of people constantly. But He didn’t come just to ease the suffering of this temporal life. Of course, knowledge that He reconciles us to the Father, that our sins are forgiven, is the ultimate balm for our woes even now. Death is frightening enough even when we know Christ has it in hand. How can it be faced without such assurance? Well, only in defiance or ignorance or foolishness. All human constructions of a blessed afterlife are mere wishful thinking at best or cruel attempts to deceive people at worst.
Any suffering God allows or ordains in your life has the purpose of deepening your faith and whetting your appetite for the life to come. But because it is our tendency to view all painful experiences as evil, we are prone to not only shun them, but interpret them as being contrary to God’s will. And, if we’re honest, defending God against accusations that He is the author of evil is probably not our primary concern. We’re more worried about our own comfort and we are loathe to think that God works in our lives through things that are not only uncomfortable, but even painful and traumatic.
Job is one of the most vivid biblical examples, but there are many others. So, this baptismal life under the cross is always one of becoming instead of one of perfection; one of joy mixed with sorrow. We can’t see the resolution of all evil and suffering, but we press on believing God will bring it to pass. The Scripture says, “we walk by faith, not by sight.”1 And, we hold Romans 8 to be true even when it seems counterintuitive, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”2
The skeptics of our day have no place in their intellectual capacities for miracles. Scientism is quickly gaining ascendancy as a dominant ideology of our times. Trust in the ability of science to solve and explain nearly every problem and question facing humanity is increasingly unchallenged. Technological advances- and some are mind-blowing to be sure- are mistaken for answers to questions of meaning and purpose. The implications are far-reaching.
The focused goal of many who adhere to this philosophy is to systematically deconstruct the biblical worldview. With God out of the picture humanity is freed to define reality within its own parameters. Jettisoned is the ancient conviction that a supreme being will ultimately judge and that there are absolute standards we will be measured against. Of course, under this worldview sin becomes a very fluid concept determined by those who wield power at a particular time in a particular place. We’re already seeing the challenges to societal cohesion. Who will determine who makes the rules and on what basis?
We can think of the entire enterprise of human autonomy as a reversal of the divine order. Constructing God in our own image is a crass inversion of the order of creation. It is the characteristic hallmark of the fallen creation. It is the activity of unbelief. You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think you’re vulnerable to the temptation to make the definition of sin something pliable and flexible. The quickest way to excuse our transgressions is to redefine them as virtues or at least neutral realities. But the thunder of the law cannot be mitigated. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”3 If you don’t feel the weight of your sins or have any real desire for forgiveness, pray that God would deliver you from such a false sense of security.
Dear friends, one of the lessons of today’s gospel account is the discriminating timing and activity of God. Jesus had a timeframe that couldn’t be altered. Mary, His mother, offered His services, perhaps with thoughts of more publicity for Him. But it wasn’t yet time, so Jesus performs a subtle but convincing miracle. His attentiveness was not in doubt, but the details could not be dictated to Him. Everything in your life has a timetable too. If you’re like me, you’re probably hasty when God wants you to be patient, or apathetic when God wants you to be passionate. Human cynicism and general short-sightedness compromise our trust that God knows what’s good for us and when. But Christ is never disinterested. He in never apathetic or indifferent to our needs. Miracles are His specialty. Death itself is no barrier. But for God nothing He does is a miracle, or everything is a miracle depending on what perspective you take.
But that doesn’t mean some things don’t stand out. We have a God who raises the dead. “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.”4 God will raise your lifeless corpse from the sleep of death, just as He has already done for your soul. His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave- securing your forgiveness- empower you with new life here and now.
It’s a life gifted to you by Him, but a life whose purpose is not one of self-indulgence, but of self-sacrifice. You have a vocation. In fact, you have multiple vocations. You are spouses, and parents, and children. You are mentors, apprentices, and managers, and workers. You have the privilege of serving others and being served by them. You are called to do this with integrity and according to God’s will. You are God’s ambassadors of peace and light in a world mired in chaos and spiritual darkness.
By rubbing shoulders with you, others become acquainted with the miraculous love of God in Christ. Is the fact that your body continues to metabolise nutrients enabling your brain to facilitate countless electrical synapsis translating into the power to make decisions any less miraculous than the turning of water into wine? Is not the marvel of God’s creation a litany of miracles? The ratio of strength to density of a spiderweb exceeds that of steel. The tiny ant can lift a hundred times its own body weight. Every day is filled with miracles. May the Spirit open our eyes to see them!
St. John records the turning of water into wine as Jesus’ first miracle. The theological parallel with holy communion is an instructive one. Just as we may think of Jesus turning the water into wine with the water still being present, so also, we can picture the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper while the bread and wine also remain present. The presence of the one does not exclude the presence of the other. It doesn’t make either reality any less of a miracle. And we’re certainly not suggesting that Christ’s body and blood isn’t truly there in the sacrament, that it’s only a mental image or something. Just as we’re not saying that the wedding guests at Cana were actually only drinking water but were too intoxicated to know the difference.
Jesus wined the water. And because there are no coincidences with God it was not happenstance that He was at a wedding. Christ is our eternal Bridegroom. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Second Sunday After Epiphany
20 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 2 Corinthians 5:7
2 Romans 8:28
3 Romans 3:23
4 John 5:21
Monday, January 14, 2019
The Baptism of our Lord (C) 2019
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Luke 3:22
Theme: Baptized For Us
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Your wellbeing isn’t incidental to God’s plans. The coming of Christ to the manger, to Calvary, and through the opened tomb was not a scheme of salvation only anecdotally important to your personal relationship with God. In short, reconciliation with God happens only through Jesus and the events of His life which accomplished redemption. Baptism, His and yours, is part and parcel with that plan. Jesus didn’t need to be baptised for His own sake. He also didn’t need to leave the heights of heaven and lower Himself by becoming a man. But for us it was absolutely essential. It is the reason we can have confidence in Isaiah’s words today, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”1
Our service today began with the invocation, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” More than just clarifying that this is a Christian gathering, it is a reminder this is the community of the baptized. That means a number of important things. Firstly, the church is a fellowship of faith. Believers see the world differently. Life has a purpose and meaning beyond the struggles and joys of the here and now. Can infants believe? (Can Racer believe?) They can, and we baptize on that premise. The Holy Spirit enables the individual to trust in God’s promise and take Him at His word. It doesn’t require intellectual comprehension, just as a baby can trust in its parents to look after it without a cognitive understanding of what that all entails.
Secondly, in baptism you come into possession of the justifying power of Christ. This is no small matter. It doesn’t mean excuses are made for your sins. It doesn’t mean God waves a magic wand and makes all your sins disappear. In fact, it means we face our sins for what they are. We recognize (not by our own free will, but by the Spirit’s conviction) that sin severs our relationship with the heavenly Father and greatly compromises our relationships with people. So, implicit in baptism is the reality of repentance. Letting sin have free-reign is incompatible with life as a baptized child of God. “Jesus [once]said to His disciples: ‘Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.”2
So, possessing the justifying power of Christ means that your sinful nature, with all the associated guilt is put to death, crucified, freeing you to live a new life. Listen to the Scripture, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”3 Note how remarkable that is: We were buried with Him through baptism into death. That is, our sinful natures were put in the grave with the corpse of Jesus.
Thirdly, through baptism we come into possession of an inheritance. The final enjoyment of that inheritance involves being in the eternal presence of God. Yet, it’s an inheritance that we enjoy, and that impacts us each and every day. Our daily bread and every other blessing we receive from God’s hand are down payments on our inheritance. We don’t seek to hoard it because we know the Almighty will continue to provide what we need when we need it. The world, of course, looks at the matter of inheritance very differently. Consider the following true examples:
A woman named Nina Wang, who died of cancer in 2007 at age 69, signed over her vast fortune to previously unknown feng shui master Tony Chan as a promise for eternal life. (Feng shui is a Chinese practice that seeks to use energy forces to harmonize people with their environment). Wang changed her will in 2006 in order to leave everything to the feng shui master, voiding a previous will written four years earlier that left the fortune to her family and to charity. With no children of her own, Wang wrote a new will in 2006, two years after her ovarian cancer was diagnosed, making the 48-year-old Chan her sole beneficiary. The question is, why would Chan ask Wang to put him in her will if he had ensured her she would live forever, or at least for a very long time?
A homeless man supposed to be living on the streets of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia fled police who were bringing him news of a $6-million inheritance. Tomas Martinez, 67, apparently thought the police were about to arrest him for his alcohol and drug habits. The man disappeared without a trace, causing Bolivian newspapers to speak of him in 2000 as a "new millionaire paradoxically not knowing his fortune". The inheritance came to Mr Martinez from his ex-wife, who inherited the money herself from family members. She evidently did not blame him for leaving her several years ago. The man has never been found.
Dear friends, the baptismal inheritance of the Saviour is unexcelled and nobody can become so lost that God cannot track him or her down. Jesus Christ was crucified in your place and in mine. Everyone deserves capital punishment for their transgressions. Divine justice demands it. Yet, the miracle of the gospel, the fabulously good news, news so magnificent, extraordinary, and remarkable that enough superlatives could never be found to adequately praise it, is that the infant of Bethlehem who grew up to be sacrificed on Calvary took the full measure of the punishment due us. We are freed from Satan’s accusations and from sin’s power. God looks at repentant believers through the cross.
Jesus’s own baptism wasn’t one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It was one of solidarity to fulfill all righteousness. It was part of His substitutionary work and identification with sinners. The benevolence of Christ is not that of a distant Deity who makes divine decrees to disconnected dependents. Jesus is the Emmanuel, God-with-us, God-in-the-flesh Saviour who unites Himself with His creation in order that He may redeem it. The power of Christ is revealed in the ‘weakness’ of the cross. We won’t find God by peering piously into heaven and striving to reach beyond all the parameters of the physical universe understood by the human intellect. We find Him in the meekness of the manger, the horror of Golgotha, and the radiant light of the empty tomb. Jesus is in heaven, indeed. But the threshold of heaven is wherever the sinner is reconciled to God. He is present with His people here and now (in these baptismal waters), in the world of forgiveness and pardon, in the body and blood of Holy Communion.
Remember we said at the beginning that the fellowship of believers is a fellowship of faith. If you feel your faith is too frail to really appreciate what the unconditional love of God in Christ means, don’t worry about that. Salvation isn’t dependent on the strength of your faith, but on the object. Faith is trust that God is as good as His word, that His promises are unbreakable, that His capacities are unlimited, that His grace is immeasurable. Pray to have your faith strengthened. The desire to have your faith strengthened is, itself, evidence of faith’s activity.
External parallels in everyday life are analogous: If I have the desire to do something, the battle is half done. Or, from the perspective of the heart instead of the will, if I am passionate about something, I am well on my way towards the goal. But if my heart’s not in it, it will be an uphill battle. If you fear that you’re not passionate enough about God’s will, His word, His grace, then pray that God will invigorate your soul. But remember, that could involve some painful pruning in those areas where your will is in contradiction to His. The Holy Spirit is always seeking to dethrone idols from our hearts. There is only One who has been exalted to the Father’s right hand and He cannot be dethroned. He has our wellbeing in hand. Thanks be to God! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Baptism of Our Lord
The First Sunday After Epiphany
13 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Isaiah 43:1
2 Luke 17:1
3 Romans 6:3-4
Text: Luke 3:22
Theme: Baptized For Us
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Your wellbeing isn’t incidental to God’s plans. The coming of Christ to the manger, to Calvary, and through the opened tomb was not a scheme of salvation only anecdotally important to your personal relationship with God. In short, reconciliation with God happens only through Jesus and the events of His life which accomplished redemption. Baptism, His and yours, is part and parcel with that plan. Jesus didn’t need to be baptised for His own sake. He also didn’t need to leave the heights of heaven and lower Himself by becoming a man. But for us it was absolutely essential. It is the reason we can have confidence in Isaiah’s words today, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”1
Our service today began with the invocation, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” More than just clarifying that this is a Christian gathering, it is a reminder this is the community of the baptized. That means a number of important things. Firstly, the church is a fellowship of faith. Believers see the world differently. Life has a purpose and meaning beyond the struggles and joys of the here and now. Can infants believe? (Can Racer believe?) They can, and we baptize on that premise. The Holy Spirit enables the individual to trust in God’s promise and take Him at His word. It doesn’t require intellectual comprehension, just as a baby can trust in its parents to look after it without a cognitive understanding of what that all entails.
Secondly, in baptism you come into possession of the justifying power of Christ. This is no small matter. It doesn’t mean excuses are made for your sins. It doesn’t mean God waves a magic wand and makes all your sins disappear. In fact, it means we face our sins for what they are. We recognize (not by our own free will, but by the Spirit’s conviction) that sin severs our relationship with the heavenly Father and greatly compromises our relationships with people. So, implicit in baptism is the reality of repentance. Letting sin have free-reign is incompatible with life as a baptized child of God. “Jesus [once]said to His disciples: ‘Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.”2
So, possessing the justifying power of Christ means that your sinful nature, with all the associated guilt is put to death, crucified, freeing you to live a new life. Listen to the Scripture, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”3 Note how remarkable that is: We were buried with Him through baptism into death. That is, our sinful natures were put in the grave with the corpse of Jesus.
Thirdly, through baptism we come into possession of an inheritance. The final enjoyment of that inheritance involves being in the eternal presence of God. Yet, it’s an inheritance that we enjoy, and that impacts us each and every day. Our daily bread and every other blessing we receive from God’s hand are down payments on our inheritance. We don’t seek to hoard it because we know the Almighty will continue to provide what we need when we need it. The world, of course, looks at the matter of inheritance very differently. Consider the following true examples:
A woman named Nina Wang, who died of cancer in 2007 at age 69, signed over her vast fortune to previously unknown feng shui master Tony Chan as a promise for eternal life. (Feng shui is a Chinese practice that seeks to use energy forces to harmonize people with their environment). Wang changed her will in 2006 in order to leave everything to the feng shui master, voiding a previous will written four years earlier that left the fortune to her family and to charity. With no children of her own, Wang wrote a new will in 2006, two years after her ovarian cancer was diagnosed, making the 48-year-old Chan her sole beneficiary. The question is, why would Chan ask Wang to put him in her will if he had ensured her she would live forever, or at least for a very long time?
A homeless man supposed to be living on the streets of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia fled police who were bringing him news of a $6-million inheritance. Tomas Martinez, 67, apparently thought the police were about to arrest him for his alcohol and drug habits. The man disappeared without a trace, causing Bolivian newspapers to speak of him in 2000 as a "new millionaire paradoxically not knowing his fortune". The inheritance came to Mr Martinez from his ex-wife, who inherited the money herself from family members. She evidently did not blame him for leaving her several years ago. The man has never been found.
Dear friends, the baptismal inheritance of the Saviour is unexcelled and nobody can become so lost that God cannot track him or her down. Jesus Christ was crucified in your place and in mine. Everyone deserves capital punishment for their transgressions. Divine justice demands it. Yet, the miracle of the gospel, the fabulously good news, news so magnificent, extraordinary, and remarkable that enough superlatives could never be found to adequately praise it, is that the infant of Bethlehem who grew up to be sacrificed on Calvary took the full measure of the punishment due us. We are freed from Satan’s accusations and from sin’s power. God looks at repentant believers through the cross.
Jesus’s own baptism wasn’t one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It was one of solidarity to fulfill all righteousness. It was part of His substitutionary work and identification with sinners. The benevolence of Christ is not that of a distant Deity who makes divine decrees to disconnected dependents. Jesus is the Emmanuel, God-with-us, God-in-the-flesh Saviour who unites Himself with His creation in order that He may redeem it. The power of Christ is revealed in the ‘weakness’ of the cross. We won’t find God by peering piously into heaven and striving to reach beyond all the parameters of the physical universe understood by the human intellect. We find Him in the meekness of the manger, the horror of Golgotha, and the radiant light of the empty tomb. Jesus is in heaven, indeed. But the threshold of heaven is wherever the sinner is reconciled to God. He is present with His people here and now (in these baptismal waters), in the world of forgiveness and pardon, in the body and blood of Holy Communion.
Remember we said at the beginning that the fellowship of believers is a fellowship of faith. If you feel your faith is too frail to really appreciate what the unconditional love of God in Christ means, don’t worry about that. Salvation isn’t dependent on the strength of your faith, but on the object. Faith is trust that God is as good as His word, that His promises are unbreakable, that His capacities are unlimited, that His grace is immeasurable. Pray to have your faith strengthened. The desire to have your faith strengthened is, itself, evidence of faith’s activity.
External parallels in everyday life are analogous: If I have the desire to do something, the battle is half done. Or, from the perspective of the heart instead of the will, if I am passionate about something, I am well on my way towards the goal. But if my heart’s not in it, it will be an uphill battle. If you fear that you’re not passionate enough about God’s will, His word, His grace, then pray that God will invigorate your soul. But remember, that could involve some painful pruning in those areas where your will is in contradiction to His. The Holy Spirit is always seeking to dethrone idols from our hearts. There is only One who has been exalted to the Father’s right hand and He cannot be dethroned. He has our wellbeing in hand. Thanks be to God! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Baptism of Our Lord
The First Sunday After Epiphany
13 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Isaiah 43:1
2 Luke 17:1
3 Romans 6:3-4
The Epiphany of our Lord (C) 2019
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Matthew 2:6
Theme: Out of Bethlehem
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God will always be shrouded in mystery, but His intentions are not hidden. In the person of His Son, Jesus-the Immanuel- He made crystal clear His plan to redeem the fallen world. Epiphany means showing forth or revelation. It involves making known a reality that had formerly been hidden- a disclosing of a mystery. Today the King of the Jews is revealed as the Lord of the gentiles. The visit of the Magi is more than just a journey of curiosity. The Magi are gentiles. The global significance of the gospel is indicated. Their visit is intertwined with the intrigue and scheming brutality of King Herod, also a gentile. Yet, the Magi come not to destroy, but to worship. They come in faith and they leave a shining example for the faithful to follow.
Dear friends, we too are ‘outsiders’ who have been embraced by the miracle that took place in Bethlehem. We do well to remember that we have no birthright, no claim on God’s grace. All sinners are alienated from the mercy of God. We are like the Magi not in regard to our eminence or regal-ness, but in-so-far-as we are foreigners to the covenant of Abraham. This Jew/Gentile distinction would seem to hold nothing more than historical interest for most 21st Century believers. But the relevant part is the continuing universal intent of the gospel. Christianity is not parochial. It is not a ghetto religion. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of every tribe, nation, and race. None are outside of His purview, and none come to the Father except through Him.
The season of Epiphany will shine light on the divinity of Jesus. In Christ the heart of God is revealed. As always, the Holy Spirit has no small task in keeping our faith focused. The world screams out with alternative paths to illumination and self-fulfillment. Some are overtly secular. Others draw from different elements in the religions of the world and occultic practices. Constructing your own image of spirituality from a diverse range of sources is now in fashion.
But, God won’t be revealed to you through navel-gazing, through quiet moments with nature, through a composition of eclectic convictions, or through the pursuit of altruism. You won’t find God in any of the ideologies or philosophies of the world. You will find elements of truth, of course because the Almighty created everything that exists. His imprint is on everything. You see His reflection in nature. You see His faint image in humanity, as terribly marred and broken as it is. But elements of truth will not save you from the condemnation of sin. Half-truths will not rescue you from the perils of hell. Reflections, images, and indications give you no true knowledge about whether God is truly merciful or a tyrant. In fact, apart from the saving gospel of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, God ends up only being a harsh judge because He permits no sinner entry into the holiness of His presence.
Sometimes a very basic reality check is what we need. Christ is God. We are not God. Yet He keeps gifting us unconditionally. For instance, you woke up today to discover you are still alive. Perhaps you verified it by checking the obituaries in the newspaper. Your name was not there. Your end hasn’t yet come. God continues to bless you with life. Maybe that life isn’t optimal according to your standards. Maybe you’d like better health, better relationships, a better career, or a better income? Maybe you simply wish tomorrow wasn’t Monday? Maybe you’re at the peak of your abilities? Maybe your faculties are quickly slipping away? Maybe (for a few of you in God’s house today) life is just cranking up? Maybe you’ve recently been in a dark place? Maybe you’re walking on cloud nine? You’re still alive so God isn’t through with you!
Each day should be a new epiphany of God’s patience and compassion. The Psalmist says, “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”1The Lord has a purpose for you. Noah was made the captain of a ship. David was made the commander of an army. Mary was made the mother of God. Moses was made a prophet under protest. Paul was turned from persecutor to proclaimer. Matthew was turned from a tax collector to a seeker of souls. God is the potter, we are the clay. Moses was 80 when he was sent to free God’s people from Egypt. Noah was 600 years-old when he got on the ark, so don’t think there is nothing left for you to do.
We’re nearly a week into The Year of our Lord 2019. Make your plans. Pursue your goals. Don’t be afraid of failure. Try and try again. Don’t worry about defeat. Maintain honesty. Remain selfless. Cultivate gratefulness. Model integrity. Witness to the truth. Practice peace. And, as the apostle says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”2And if you’ve already suffered more distress in 2019 than you’d have liked to, remember this promise, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. “3 And let this blessing ring in your ears. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”4
Much interesting speculation has been made about the gifts the Magi brought. Suffice it to say the gifts were both regal and purposeful and were not spare or superfluous possessions. That truth, in and of itself, is a good lesson in regard to our own approach to giving. He asks for the firstfruits of our time, treasures, and talents. More than that, He calls us to pay tribute to Him by serving our neighbour. Today Christ is honoured by the Magi with these small tokens, but He is the giver par excellence. He is the Suffering Servant. He came not be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Faith, at its core is a posture of reception. It involves trust that that which the Saviour desires to give is exactly what we need to receive. He bore our sins all the way to the cross. He rose triumphantly on the third day. You are baptized into His kingdom. You eat at His royal table. His word grants you divine pardon.
Many things this side of heaven will remain a mystery. And maybe you’re struggling to comprehend what God is doing in your life. But it’s the epiphany of our Lord and He won’t leave you in the dark in regard to anything that is finally essential for your well-being. A Redeemer has come out of Bethlehem. He journeyed to Calvary. In doing so He established for us the heavenly Jerusalem. We look forward to astonishing revelations of His glory there. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Epiphany of Our Lord
6 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Psalm 118:24
2 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
3 Romans 8:18
4 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Text: Matthew 2:6
Theme: Out of Bethlehem
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God will always be shrouded in mystery, but His intentions are not hidden. In the person of His Son, Jesus-the Immanuel- He made crystal clear His plan to redeem the fallen world. Epiphany means showing forth or revelation. It involves making known a reality that had formerly been hidden- a disclosing of a mystery. Today the King of the Jews is revealed as the Lord of the gentiles. The visit of the Magi is more than just a journey of curiosity. The Magi are gentiles. The global significance of the gospel is indicated. Their visit is intertwined with the intrigue and scheming brutality of King Herod, also a gentile. Yet, the Magi come not to destroy, but to worship. They come in faith and they leave a shining example for the faithful to follow.
Dear friends, we too are ‘outsiders’ who have been embraced by the miracle that took place in Bethlehem. We do well to remember that we have no birthright, no claim on God’s grace. All sinners are alienated from the mercy of God. We are like the Magi not in regard to our eminence or regal-ness, but in-so-far-as we are foreigners to the covenant of Abraham. This Jew/Gentile distinction would seem to hold nothing more than historical interest for most 21st Century believers. But the relevant part is the continuing universal intent of the gospel. Christianity is not parochial. It is not a ghetto religion. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of every tribe, nation, and race. None are outside of His purview, and none come to the Father except through Him.
The season of Epiphany will shine light on the divinity of Jesus. In Christ the heart of God is revealed. As always, the Holy Spirit has no small task in keeping our faith focused. The world screams out with alternative paths to illumination and self-fulfillment. Some are overtly secular. Others draw from different elements in the religions of the world and occultic practices. Constructing your own image of spirituality from a diverse range of sources is now in fashion.
But, God won’t be revealed to you through navel-gazing, through quiet moments with nature, through a composition of eclectic convictions, or through the pursuit of altruism. You won’t find God in any of the ideologies or philosophies of the world. You will find elements of truth, of course because the Almighty created everything that exists. His imprint is on everything. You see His reflection in nature. You see His faint image in humanity, as terribly marred and broken as it is. But elements of truth will not save you from the condemnation of sin. Half-truths will not rescue you from the perils of hell. Reflections, images, and indications give you no true knowledge about whether God is truly merciful or a tyrant. In fact, apart from the saving gospel of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, God ends up only being a harsh judge because He permits no sinner entry into the holiness of His presence.
Sometimes a very basic reality check is what we need. Christ is God. We are not God. Yet He keeps gifting us unconditionally. For instance, you woke up today to discover you are still alive. Perhaps you verified it by checking the obituaries in the newspaper. Your name was not there. Your end hasn’t yet come. God continues to bless you with life. Maybe that life isn’t optimal according to your standards. Maybe you’d like better health, better relationships, a better career, or a better income? Maybe you simply wish tomorrow wasn’t Monday? Maybe you’re at the peak of your abilities? Maybe your faculties are quickly slipping away? Maybe (for a few of you in God’s house today) life is just cranking up? Maybe you’ve recently been in a dark place? Maybe you’re walking on cloud nine? You’re still alive so God isn’t through with you!
Each day should be a new epiphany of God’s patience and compassion. The Psalmist says, “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”1The Lord has a purpose for you. Noah was made the captain of a ship. David was made the commander of an army. Mary was made the mother of God. Moses was made a prophet under protest. Paul was turned from persecutor to proclaimer. Matthew was turned from a tax collector to a seeker of souls. God is the potter, we are the clay. Moses was 80 when he was sent to free God’s people from Egypt. Noah was 600 years-old when he got on the ark, so don’t think there is nothing left for you to do.
We’re nearly a week into The Year of our Lord 2019. Make your plans. Pursue your goals. Don’t be afraid of failure. Try and try again. Don’t worry about defeat. Maintain honesty. Remain selfless. Cultivate gratefulness. Model integrity. Witness to the truth. Practice peace. And, as the apostle says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”2And if you’ve already suffered more distress in 2019 than you’d have liked to, remember this promise, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. “3 And let this blessing ring in your ears. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”4
Much interesting speculation has been made about the gifts the Magi brought. Suffice it to say the gifts were both regal and purposeful and were not spare or superfluous possessions. That truth, in and of itself, is a good lesson in regard to our own approach to giving. He asks for the firstfruits of our time, treasures, and talents. More than that, He calls us to pay tribute to Him by serving our neighbour. Today Christ is honoured by the Magi with these small tokens, but He is the giver par excellence. He is the Suffering Servant. He came not be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Faith, at its core is a posture of reception. It involves trust that that which the Saviour desires to give is exactly what we need to receive. He bore our sins all the way to the cross. He rose triumphantly on the third day. You are baptized into His kingdom. You eat at His royal table. His word grants you divine pardon.
Many things this side of heaven will remain a mystery. And maybe you’re struggling to comprehend what God is doing in your life. But it’s the epiphany of our Lord and He won’t leave you in the dark in regard to anything that is finally essential for your well-being. A Redeemer has come out of Bethlehem. He journeyed to Calvary. In doing so He established for us the heavenly Jerusalem. We look forward to astonishing revelations of His glory there. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Epiphany of Our Lord
6 January 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Psalm 118:24
2 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
3 Romans 8:18
4 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
New Year's Eve 2018
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Theme: Imperishable
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The blessings of God do not diminish with the passing of time. Mortals must find their renewal in Him or they won’t find it at all. Citing the prophet Isaiah St. Peter addresses believers with these words, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.”1 This proclamation stands as a timeless call to repentance and publication of the gospel of eternal salvation. Times change. People change. The old year has come to a close. The new year is beginning. The events of our lives span the full range of experiences. We enjoy prosperity, endure tragedy, we experience joy and sorrow. Our capacities decline; sometimes gradually, other times suddenly. And in the past year a number of saints among us have reached their mortality. But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”2 Thanks be to God! His mercies are new every morning.”3
Maybe you have some New Year’s resolutions? Maybe there are bad habits you’d like to eliminate or good ones you’d like to cultivate? Or perhaps there are people in your life who’d be happy to make some resolutions for you? Consider the pastor who made this announcement the Sunday before daylight savings was to change again, “For those of you in the habit of showing up 15 minutes late for church remember to turn your clocks back 45 minutes.”
Or, what about this one? The phone rings at the church office. "Hello, is this Pastor Smith?" The caller asked. "It is." "This is the Australian Tax Office. We were wondering if you can help us." "I'll try." "Do you know a man named William Beecham?" "I do." "Is this man a member of your congregation." "He is." "Did he donate $5,000?" "He will." Oh, dear friends, imagine the strife if we were allowed to make New Year’s resolutions for others! Times change and people do change but if we think we have the power to change others we’d better pause to reflect on both our motivations and our limitations.
Well, the beginning of a new year is a good time to re-evaluate our priorities. It doesn’t matter how many years pass, the central reality for humanity is still the same: Nobody goes from here to the presence of God in the next life- called heaven- under their own authority. It’s one of the most basic truths of Christianity and you’ve heard it time and time again. Still, it can never be assumed and can never be taken for granted for this one powerful reason: Humans do not easily or readily believe that sin is such a serious catastrophe. And therefore, they do not easily believe the truth of the gospel. In fact, on both accounts the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit is required. Remember, when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God’s kingdom would come, we are praying that God would give us a rich measure of His Holy Spirit so that His kingdom would be extended and strengthened through the creation and nurture of faith. Christianity in the West is facing strong head winds. The trend is likely to continue in 2019.
It is said there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, or a fox (apparently), but there is no other way to tackle the problem of sin, defeat the schemes of Satan, or overthrow the authority of death. Remember the narrative of Christmas, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts…”4 And the Scripture says, “God has given us eternal life, and the life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”5 Fortunately, the gospel doesn’t fade with time. The truth of God’s word doesn’t age or become obsolete. Each generation of people that are born are just as stubborn and self-centred as the last. But God is up to the task. The Holy Spirit is ageless, like the Son. The fury of hell and the devil’s machinations are no match for His purity and His power.
So, what will the new calendar year hold for you? Do you have great expectations or niggling doubts? Do you consider yourself to be an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist? And by whose standards? In Christ, we start the year with transparency. He wants no pretend sinners with imaginary sins. Don’t try to fool yourself. You certainly can’t fool Him. But He also wants you to know that you are a genuine saint, His baptized. He feeds you with His own flesh and blood- real food. He gives you His Spirit and attends to you with His holy word.
And what might be the special focus of your prayers as we move into the new year? Will you be praying for better health, stronger relationships, a godlier marriage? Will you pray candidly about yourself, that the Holy Spirit would truly reveal to you those areas in which you’re myopic? Will you be praying that someone who has wandered from the faith will be brought back into the fold? The Good Shepherd never stops seeking His lost sheep. And then are you prepared to be a patient resources to that end?
Perhaps in the new year you’ll gain a more sober and honest perspective on your own mortality? The advent Christ hasn’t left us either. He promises to come again.
A priest and a pastor were standing by the side of a road holding up a sign that read “The end is near! Turn around now before it’s too late!”
A passing driver yelled, “You guys are crazy!” and sped past them. From around the curve, they hear screeching tires—then a big splash.
The priest turned to the pastor and says, “Do you think we should just put up a sign that says ‘Bridge Out’ instead?
Dear friends, Jesus Christ, the One who was and who is and who is to come, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End is our Redeemer. He may come again at any time, but with Him the bridge is never out. He spans the distance between heaven and earth. He allows us to traverse the abyss of hell. He is the way and the truth and the life. He is the ladder to heaven upon which the angels ascend and descend. He is our portal to eternity. This Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the grave for you and for your salvation.
As the peace of Christmas continues to fill your hearts, may the joy of Easter loom large on your horizons. “The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that we preached to you.”6 This good news tells you the New Year begins with Christ’s forgiveness. He has wiped the slate clean. Regardless or your age, your condition, or your circumstance, He gives you new life. We face the future knowing Him who holds the future. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
New Year’s Eve
31 December 2018
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 Peter 1:24
2 Hebrews 13:8
3 See Lamentations 3:22-23
4 Galatians 4:4-6
5 1 John 5:11-12
6 1 Peter 1:24-25
Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Theme: Imperishable
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The blessings of God do not diminish with the passing of time. Mortals must find their renewal in Him or they won’t find it at all. Citing the prophet Isaiah St. Peter addresses believers with these words, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.”1 This proclamation stands as a timeless call to repentance and publication of the gospel of eternal salvation. Times change. People change. The old year has come to a close. The new year is beginning. The events of our lives span the full range of experiences. We enjoy prosperity, endure tragedy, we experience joy and sorrow. Our capacities decline; sometimes gradually, other times suddenly. And in the past year a number of saints among us have reached their mortality. But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”2 Thanks be to God! His mercies are new every morning.”3
Maybe you have some New Year’s resolutions? Maybe there are bad habits you’d like to eliminate or good ones you’d like to cultivate? Or perhaps there are people in your life who’d be happy to make some resolutions for you? Consider the pastor who made this announcement the Sunday before daylight savings was to change again, “For those of you in the habit of showing up 15 minutes late for church remember to turn your clocks back 45 minutes.”
Or, what about this one? The phone rings at the church office. "Hello, is this Pastor Smith?" The caller asked. "It is." "This is the Australian Tax Office. We were wondering if you can help us." "I'll try." "Do you know a man named William Beecham?" "I do." "Is this man a member of your congregation." "He is." "Did he donate $5,000?" "He will." Oh, dear friends, imagine the strife if we were allowed to make New Year’s resolutions for others! Times change and people do change but if we think we have the power to change others we’d better pause to reflect on both our motivations and our limitations.
Well, the beginning of a new year is a good time to re-evaluate our priorities. It doesn’t matter how many years pass, the central reality for humanity is still the same: Nobody goes from here to the presence of God in the next life- called heaven- under their own authority. It’s one of the most basic truths of Christianity and you’ve heard it time and time again. Still, it can never be assumed and can never be taken for granted for this one powerful reason: Humans do not easily or readily believe that sin is such a serious catastrophe. And therefore, they do not easily believe the truth of the gospel. In fact, on both accounts the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit is required. Remember, when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God’s kingdom would come, we are praying that God would give us a rich measure of His Holy Spirit so that His kingdom would be extended and strengthened through the creation and nurture of faith. Christianity in the West is facing strong head winds. The trend is likely to continue in 2019.
It is said there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, or a fox (apparently), but there is no other way to tackle the problem of sin, defeat the schemes of Satan, or overthrow the authority of death. Remember the narrative of Christmas, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts…”4 And the Scripture says, “God has given us eternal life, and the life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”5 Fortunately, the gospel doesn’t fade with time. The truth of God’s word doesn’t age or become obsolete. Each generation of people that are born are just as stubborn and self-centred as the last. But God is up to the task. The Holy Spirit is ageless, like the Son. The fury of hell and the devil’s machinations are no match for His purity and His power.
So, what will the new calendar year hold for you? Do you have great expectations or niggling doubts? Do you consider yourself to be an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist? And by whose standards? In Christ, we start the year with transparency. He wants no pretend sinners with imaginary sins. Don’t try to fool yourself. You certainly can’t fool Him. But He also wants you to know that you are a genuine saint, His baptized. He feeds you with His own flesh and blood- real food. He gives you His Spirit and attends to you with His holy word.
And what might be the special focus of your prayers as we move into the new year? Will you be praying for better health, stronger relationships, a godlier marriage? Will you pray candidly about yourself, that the Holy Spirit would truly reveal to you those areas in which you’re myopic? Will you be praying that someone who has wandered from the faith will be brought back into the fold? The Good Shepherd never stops seeking His lost sheep. And then are you prepared to be a patient resources to that end?
Perhaps in the new year you’ll gain a more sober and honest perspective on your own mortality? The advent Christ hasn’t left us either. He promises to come again.
A priest and a pastor were standing by the side of a road holding up a sign that read “The end is near! Turn around now before it’s too late!”
A passing driver yelled, “You guys are crazy!” and sped past them. From around the curve, they hear screeching tires—then a big splash.
The priest turned to the pastor and says, “Do you think we should just put up a sign that says ‘Bridge Out’ instead?
Dear friends, Jesus Christ, the One who was and who is and who is to come, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End is our Redeemer. He may come again at any time, but with Him the bridge is never out. He spans the distance between heaven and earth. He allows us to traverse the abyss of hell. He is the way and the truth and the life. He is the ladder to heaven upon which the angels ascend and descend. He is our portal to eternity. This Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the grave for you and for your salvation.
As the peace of Christmas continues to fill your hearts, may the joy of Easter loom large on your horizons. “The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that we preached to you.”6 This good news tells you the New Year begins with Christ’s forgiveness. He has wiped the slate clean. Regardless or your age, your condition, or your circumstance, He gives you new life. We face the future knowing Him who holds the future. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
New Year’s Eve
31 December 2018
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 Peter 1:24
2 Hebrews 13:8
3 See Lamentations 3:22-23
4 Galatians 4:4-6
5 1 John 5:11-12
6 1 Peter 1:24-25
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