Lent 5C

Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:4b-14

From experience I know that when I am reading scripture and I come across the words Thus says the LORD that what comes next is something worth remembering. As Evangelicals we like to think of the entire Bible as the Word of God, but how often do we consider it to be the sayings of God or even an accurate record of what God literally said to the people of the day? God speaks here in Isaiah 43:16ff in black and white (rather than in red, why is that  wonder?) and what God says is…what? Do you remember? C’mon people we’ve just heard it, what does God say, the gist at least? “Forget about the past, I’m about to do something new.”

A few weeks ago I spoke to you about our need to listen for God and to not rely on our own skills and abilities too much. We must never get to the stage of practice where we think that we have all that we need in skills and experience and ability such that we don’t need to listen any more.

Even so, who needs the Holy Spirit when we have the lectionary? And, come to think of it, there is a Bible-verse index to go with SongSelect. And I do have twelve years of experience in preaching the lectionary, and four complete sets of the sermons in Years A, B, and C: today is Lent 5C, so there was no need for me to read the actual Bible and I could and am just preaching the same thing as I did in April 2019, 2016, 2013. I’m getting quite good at just using a previous sermon, replacing “Yankalilla” with “Serviceton”, talking about “the Cougars” and not “the Seagulls”, wondering if there’s a Wimmera version of the word “Gippslandian”, changing “Trump” to “Putin” and “Julia” to “Scott”. This week I was done-and-done in ten minutes, I didn’t even need to get The New International Study Bible (Thirtieth Anniversary Edition, Fully Revised) off the shelf. Indeed even if I had been down to worship-lead this week I would have been done-and-done there too because last year’s songs are fine (our musicians know the tunes), and since Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever then our prayers of intercession can be recycled as well.

Except that Isaiah says that God says “yeah-nah that’s a rubbish idea”; and Isaiah said that in 2019, 2013, and seven-hundred and eleventy-nine BCE so, “yeah-nah that’s a rubbish idea”.  Just because God is dependable does not mean that the sermons need to be predictable, and we certainly should be singing a lot wider than our favourite fifteen songs, six at a time on any given Sunday in Serviceton and four at a time in Kaniva. Oh, and I would never use the verb “worship-lead”: eww, cringe!!

So let’s not do that, let’s not rely on experience and “what we know works for Kaniva” and let’s actually look at what the LORD thus said. The God of the Exodus, of Abraham, Isacc and Jacob, who revealed Godself to Moses by name as “I Am” in a not-so-burning-bush, and then under the cloud of smoke and fire, says to the exiled people of Israel “yeah nah, gonna do summink else wit youse mob”. It sounds more majestic in Hebrew, but that’s what God says. I, the one who drowned the Egyptians and watered the Hebrews, am not as predictable as your history teachers tell you I Am (tee-hee). Yes I did all of that, but it’s not all that I can do and for you and I will do a different and inventive thing. I Am (tee-hee) still going to save and deliver my people in exile, but I Am (tee-hee) going to have more fun with it and so will you. This new exodus, this ex hodos, this “road out” for you will be easier than the one out of Egypt, just ‘cos.  That’s what Isaiah 43:16-21 says in the Damien Standard Version (2022 Edition), check it out the Good News Bible for yourselves, (or the NRSV if you are enrolled in the presbytery’s worship course).

When we look at our reading from the Christian Traditions today we find a similar story, where Paul engages in some dead-set humble-brag about what he does not boast in.  “Let me tell you how modest I am in not boasting about how awesome I really am” he says. Actually that’s kind of arrogant, but does he have a point? I think he does have a point, and it is a good point: God is always better than our heritage of skill and understanding. No matter who you are or what your experience and/or qualifications say about your abilities, you cannot and should not do discipleship without listening to Holy Spirit. And if not discipleship without God’s ongoing guidance then you certainly cannot and should not presume to lead church, teach seminars, nor preach sermons without asking God before you begin planning to present publicly.

[W]hatever gains I had; these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. “Yes,” says Paul in Philippians 3:7-8, “actually I am all of that and a packet of chips, but it means nothing without him who saves me”. Like me, Paul probably could have been effective in ministry without having to check in with Jesus every hour, he was an experienced scholar and teacher, and a Jew of the Judahite tribes. I’m not a Judahite, but I do have four university degrees; one in language, one in teaching, one in ministry and one in theology. I also have lived experience of prison, illness, suicidality, living overseas, and a whole bunch of random other stuff. Pretty much all of you are the same, in that you have been Christians for ages and you know stuff without having to check: so, let me ask you what you don’t need God for any more. Can you write an order of service without asking God about the coming Sunday? Can you pick songs without checking in? The correct answer is “no”; indeed we do need God for everything, Paul says that, and I say that, and I hope that you would say that and that you would expect it of me and of our rostered lead worshippers.

But why is it important? Two answers, one brief and one more extensive.

Because we are God’s own people and God is our saviour and Lord. If we are not listening to The Lord then how is this lord actually a lord? The Lord can only be our lord when we listen because a lord we ignore is not a lord at all. Alternatively, if the Lord is lord and we are not listening then we are rebels and traitors. “If God is not lord of all, then God is not lord at all” as the old saying says. The lordship of God even involves us seeking direction and listening for the answers in preparation for leading worship and word, even for paid clergy and well-practiced laity.

Maybe God wants to do something different; something new, something we don’t actually have experience of. Here we go back to our readings from Isaiah and the idea that God will bring the people out of Babylon and Persia in a fresh exodus, but it won’t be done in the same way that the people were brought out of Egypt. Moses my servant is dead, says God in Joshua 1:2, (and now so too dead is Joshua), so even if you are familiar with the Hexateuch you can’t just say “same old same old” and assume that Deuteronomy’s teaching still applies where Nehemiah how walks.

In Philippians 3:10a we read where Paul wrote I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Well, who wouldn’t. And Paul goes on to write and speak of his desire to press on toward maturity and completion of the task, aware that he can only do so as much as he relies on God and not on his Judahite heritage or his rabbinical doctorate. An easy sermon for me then, one I have written before, the LORD’s hand on my shoulder as I did so. Just because a sermon is old and I am repeating it does not mean I’m not listening to God, if it was inspired then it can be inspired now, a fresh inspiration where the LORD says in my mind open for preparation today “that bears repeating, tell them again”. This week that did not happen, this week it seemed good to me and the Holy Spirit to take a new take. This week we’re going to think not about athleticism and the desire to press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call (Philippians 3:14),  but the idea of the power of his resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus the Christ was a new thing. Wasn’t it? Yes, it was. God had never worked through a resurrection before, and Jesus himself had never been resurrected. Yes there had been “raising from the dead”, we can think of various sons of the widows in the Jesus Traditions and the Hebrew Traditions, we remember the daughter of Jairus, the valley of the dry bones, and we know about Lazarus too. But none of these was a resurrection, and through all of Hebrew history God had never vindicated a prophet by returning the man to life. The prophets of Israel’s God, from Abraham to Malachi, to John the Baptist, were always vindicated by the truth of that man’s words; that what he predicted eventuated, and that what he proclaimed was acknowledged as the truth consistent with scripture. The predictions and the proclamations of Jesus were vindicated in this way too, but his whole witness was elevated by his being raised from death, returned to his friends after his murder at the hands of the empire and the temple. The power of the resurrection is the vindication of Jesus’ life’s witness. It was not solely the conquering of the penalty for sin at the cross (in that Jesus died for sin but rose to defeat sin), but that God said, “all of it is true, not just forgiveness; but grace, and shalom, and the stuff about the Sabbath is made for you and not you for ritual, and that Centurions and Syrophoenicians have a place in the Kingdom of the Trusting”.

The message of the empty tomb is Revelation 21:5 and behold, I am making all things new. And the message of the empty tomb is 2 Corinthians 5:17 and in Christ there is a new creation. And the message of the empty tomb is Isaiah 43:19 and behold, I am doing a new thing. The tomb cannot constrain God, the empty tomb is a new way and a fresh example of how God might choose to work.

Does this mean that the resurrection was not actually about the cancelled debt of sin? No, only that the resurrection was not solely about the cancelled debt of sin. The resurrection is a bigger thing than one idea or function. Does this mean that the power of resurrection is not actually about our capacity as Christians to live free from sin for the most part, and the invitation to approach the throne of grace when we do fall? No, only that the power of resurrection is not solely about our capacity as Christians to live free from sin for the most part, and the invitation to approach the throne of grace when we do fall. The power of the resurrection is a bigger thing than one idea or function.

I wonder, is that a new thing for you? Do you believe it possible; is it conceivable for you that what the resurrection did as an event, and the power of the resurrection does as a source of strength for you as a disciple, is bigger than the sin story?  I am going to leave you to ponder on that, that maybe there is more going on in that story and that idea that what you already know, or think you know, and know you think.

God is about to do a new thing, a thing never done before, a different and innovative solution to an old problem. Kaniva, may God do this here? Does God have your permission to act differently? Or must The LORD do God-stuff only according to the expectations of your Christian experience so far, and the way we have always done things here? Give an honest answer.

Amen.

The Baptism of Jesus

This is the text of the message I prepared for Kaniva and Serviceton Shared Ministry for preaching on Sunday 9th January 2022.

Isaiah 43:1-7; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Do you remember the events of the day of your baptism with water? I asked you this question three years ago, and at the same point in the sermon. This is the only repeated sentence from 2019 but I’d like to know; do you remember the day of your baptism with water? Tell. I don’t, I was three months old at the time.

Following John the Baptiser in Luke 3:16 (another of those great 3:16 verses) I’m going to ask a similar question, new for 2022. Do you remember the events of the day of your baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire? Tell. I do remember this one, at least in the Evangelical Charismatic sense of the Third Wave, when I was blessed with an anointing one evening at Adelaide’s Wayville Showgrounds in January 1986. The German-South African evangelist Reinhard Bonnke was preaching to a rally at the United Charismatic Convention “Jubilee ‘86”, and I remember standing on my dad’s chair while he held me to himself so that I could see over the crowd. I wasn’t “slain in the Spirit”, but I did feel a bit wobbly, even as I leaned into my dad’s embrace. I was thirteen years old at the time, and whilst there were no visible fires, visible doves nor audible voices declaring blessing  (except for Bonnke’s) there was tangible Spirit there that night, for me and for many others.

What then is baptism? This is one of the major questions of the Church and has been since the earliest days. How many baptisms are there? Can you be baptised more than once? Do you need a water baptism and a separate fire/Spirit baptism? Who can be baptised? Who cannot? What happens if you die without undergoing baptism? What makes a baptism a baptism, and what makes it just a wet prayer service? How wet do you need to get?

In our reading from Acts 8:14-17 today we find some of the earliest answers to some of those questions; but we need to say even today that Christianity as a whole has not agreed to one answer per question, or even what that answer might be. Pretty much “how many baptisms are there” is answered with “one”, since all Christians are baptised into Christ, and he is one LORD. The question of what constitutes this one baptism is trickier: for instance is someone who was poured upon as a baby really “baptised” at all, in which case they as an adult who later decides to be immersed fully underwater is really only baptised on that occasion because their baby thing didn’t really count in the first place? Even in this room there are people who will disagree with that as an idea, while others will say it is the only correct response. Nonetheless, what we read in Acts gives us pause to consider what God does when water and blessing come together in the sacrament of the Church for an individual Christian. Read Acts 8:14-17. Hmm. Really? I mean look again at Acts 8:16 where it says for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. No doubt these Christians had got wet with prayer, no doubt they were all adults who had undergone full immersion under the hand of Philip, and yet they had none of them received Holy Spirit until a separate visit from Peter and John who did not use water but laid hands on them each. What does this mean? Have the Charismatics been right all along and you need a separate event of prayer to be filled with the Spirit? What does it mean to have been baptised only with water whether it be a cupful over a baby’s head or a full-on dunk in the tank, but never blessed by an Elder with hands-on benediction? Hey, I know I’m okay because I went to the Tabor convention, but how many of you are only half baptised?

Okay, so the answer is none of you. No-one is half-baptised, that’s not how baptism works. But have we each made use of the fulness of the gifts God has given us? Ask yourself, pause and reflect; is your discipleship typified by the Holy Spirit and fire?

In Isaiah 43:1 we read the words do not fear for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Thinking about what we are thinking about today I want to encourage you buy this, that you have nothing to fear in the area of how deeply redeemed you are. Baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, whatever that means for you, Speaking in Tongues included or not included, does not guarantee your redemption. You are saved by grace alone, not by your ability or your lack of ability to pray “could’ve bought a Honda, should’ve bought a Kia.” In the same way that you were not redeemed by water baptism, but by grace alone evident in your trust in the completed work of Christ’s victory over death at the Cross, God names you and calls you God’s own simply because you are Gods own and God knows you. When you pass through the waters I will be with you says the LORD; which has more to do with not being overwhelmed by rivers and being saving from drowning in a  flood, than it says about God’s approval of water baptism, but it’s nice to know. Baptism is not supposed to be a scary experience; it is life changing but it should not be life threatening. And yet I wonder, I wonder whether as we read further into Isaiah 43:2 that when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you, we read with an element of fear. Of course the God who guarantees us safety against the rising tide can also save us from cremation in the approaching bushfire; nothing to fear there really, even if Serviceton and Kaniva are statistically more likely to incinerate than sink in any given La Nina year. But if baptism in water makes you a member of the Church, and you understand it as a rite of passage into belonging to the Body of Christ; and baptism in fire and the Holy Spirit makes you an emissary of the Kingdom, and you understand it as a rite of ordination into ministering in the power of Christ, maybe we do need reminding that you will never be destroyed by God when you are consumed by the Spirit and burning with the light of the world.

I ask you quite plainly: are you afraid of God, The Holy Spirit? Are you afraid that if God does set you alight and calls others to watch you burn, that you will feel embarrassment? Are you content to have been plunged into God’s renewing depths beneath the waters of baptism, and to have received the cleansing of your sins and the washing away of your guilty stain; but are reticent to allow God to breath upon you as Christ breathed upon his followers (John 20:22) or to allow the Spirit to blow mightily upon you as the Spirit did upon those gathered in the upper room (Acts 2:2-4)?

When we submit to the water we are allowing God to have all of us, we die to self and we hold nothing back from the LORD to rule in our hearts as saviour and king. If you have been underwater, whether in a pool, a river, or underneath a pouring then God has all of you.

But do you have all of God? Is the presence of God manifest in you in visible and audible ways, as it was at Mount Sinai before the Hebrews, at the River Jordan upon Christ himself, in the Upper Room upon the disciples and the streets of Jerusalem amongst the Jews of many lands, in Samaria amongst the Samaritans, in Joppa amongst the household of Cornelius the Gentile? If God felt the need to burn and declare in public for those situations why don’t we believe or want God to burn and declare amongst us?

This year 2022 will be the final year of the pandemic. I do not say this as some great prediction, or as revelation from God, but I say it as a leader in God’s workplace who understands that the time for the Church in Australia to remain housebound for the good of the community is ending. We have a mission as the People of God, the People of hope, the People of confidence in God the saviour, to proclaim the story of God and of the love and victory shouted from the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb. This is not a task that we can complete in our own strength or our own wisdom, it is not enough to rely on your personal skill with a musical instrument or the tight prose of your well-rehearsed conversion story or a well-composed Early Word. We need the Spirit; I need you to need and have the Spirit if we are to be a priesthood of all believers on mission for the Kingdom and the salvation of the world.

Step forward, fear not, God is with us, Emmanuel. Are you ready for God to be with you? Now is the time, ask and be filled. You have been wet; now it’s time to get hot.

Amen.