Glory Reflected, Glory Obscured

Texts:    2 Corinthians 3:7 - 4:6;  Mark 9:1-13

    SOMETHING I'VE NOTICED THESE past few years, and I'm sure you've noticed it, too, is how people like to leave their Christmas lights up all year round.  Now, they don't call them Christmas lights.  But you know what I mean.  The little white lights that stay lit in the trees outside buildings all summer.  Even more, the artificial evergreen trees in offices and homes that change decorations depending on the season.  Now it's a Christmas tree, now it's for Valentine's, now it's decorated for Easter, now for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. 

    But always with lights.  Always with ornaments that glitter and shine.  Always echoing the glory that is Christmas.  We like glory.  We don't want it to fade away.   So we decide to keep the pretty lights burning all year round, and maybe the hope and optimism and sense of wonder and possibility will keep going, too.

    It's right to associate Christ and His birth with light and glory.  All of Jesus' life was glorious, in Who He was and what He did and in Who and where He is today, risen and glorified at the right hand of the Father.  Since that's true, it's hard to understand the gospel of Mark has so much about the glory of Jesus being hidden or concealed.

    From the first verse, we, the Christian reader, know that this Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  We read how John the Baptist came in the Spirit and power of Elijah, proclaiming that soon One would come who would baptise with the Holy Spirit.  And how when Jesus was baptised by John, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and the voice from heaven declared, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." 

    Isn't that glorious?  But immediately we see that same Spirit driving Jesus into the obscurity of the wilderness, to be tempted.  We hear Jesus forbidding the demons He cast out to talk about who He is.  Even though people in the villages are thrilled with His miraculous healing power, He won't remain there and soak up the fame.  Jesus heals a leper, and charges the man not to tell anyone what He, Jesus, has done.  Jesus teaches in parables, and tells His disciples that He does so in order that those outside of His followers would not be able to understand.

    Yet He keeps on performing miracles that could only be done by the finger of God alone.  Jesus, why all this obscurity?  Why not just come out and proclaim who You are, that you're the Messiah, the Holy One, the glorious promised King and Ruler of Israel?

    Then one day, near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do people say I am?"  And Peter answers, "You are the Christ."  (St. Matthew gives us more; in his gospel, we read that Peter went on to say that Jesus is the Son of the living God).  Well, at last!  Now would be the time for Jesus to declare His Messiahship all over Galilee and Judea, to march into Jerusalem and take up His crown and reign.

    But no.  After Peter confessed the truth about who Jesus was, our Lord strictly charged the disciples not to tell anyone about Him.  More than that, He began to teach them that He would suffer many things and be killed by the chief priests and scribes!  And He told His followers, not just the Twelve but also those in the crowd, that if they wanted to be His true disciples, they had to be willing to follow Him to crucifixion, too!  Where's the glory now, Jesus?  Why must it be so hidden, so obscured?

    But as Jesus was teaching His followers that they must be willing to suffer the most demeaning of martyrdoms for His sake, He added this amazing statement, which we find in verse 1 of chapter 9 of Mark's gospel:

    "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power."

Which is to say, "Yes, many standing here certainly will drink the cup of martyrdom for My sake, but some of you before that will see that the kingdom of God has come with power."

    That is, something will open their eyes and they will see and understand the power and glory of God's kingship, where it had been obscured before.

    Six days later, Mark tells us Jesus took Peter and the brothers James and John up to a high mountain by themselves.  And there He is transfigured before them, appearing in garments blindingly white, beyond any earthly power to bleach them.  Moses and Elijah appear and confer with Jesus, Moses being the one to whom God gave the Law on Mount Sinai, and Elijah being the mightiest of the miracle-working prophets.  This, indeed, was a vision of the kingdom of God having come with power.  Why shouldn't Peter respond in awe and worship?  Why shouldn't he want to build all three of them tabernacles, where they could shelter, where God Most High could be adored in their holy presence?

    But this was not God's plan.  This was not the final demonstration of His power and glory that He meant to reveal.  A cloud overshadowed them all; the glorious scene was obscured, and a Voice said, "This is my beloved Son: listen to him."

    Listen to Jesus, you disciples of His, for He has something even more hidden and even more glorious to reveal to you.  When the cloud lifted, Jesus only was there.  And as they came down the mountain, He charged the three disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen.  He had wanted them to get this glimpse of His unveiled glory, but they were not to go about proclaiming it.  They weren't to give the other disciples and the crowds the idea that this revelation was the kingdom of God having come with power.  So they were to keep it hidden, obscured-- until the Son of Man, that is, Jesus, had risen from the dead.

    Risen from the dead.  What could that mean?  If nothing else, it meant that Jesus had to die.  How could this be, if Jesus indeed was the Christ and the long-expected King?  And what about the prophecy that Elijah must come first, to be the King's forerunner and prophet?

    Jesus assures them that Elijah-- in the person of John the Baptist-- has come.  And they-- the authorities-- beheaded him.  And the Son of Man, Christ the King, must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?  Coming down that mountain road, Jesus left Peter, James, and John with more questions than they started out with.

    Only in Jesus' death and resurrection is the obscurity cleared away and the mystery revealed.  The glory of Christ is His cross, and His power is the victory He won there over sin, Satan, and death.  It's something we never could have imagined, but now that God has done it, we can see that Christ's work of salvation for us and in us is indeed the kingdom of God come in glorious power.

    St. Paul spells it out for us in our reading from 2 Corinthians.  He speaks in verse 7 of the ministry of death coming with glory.  By this he refers to the Law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai.  The Law of God itself is great and glorious.  It reflects His truth, His purity, His righteousness and love.  It gave the pattern for the kind of people the Israelites were to be, to reflect His image in the world.  But in the end, the Law brought death, because it went to prove how weak, sinful, and inglorious we sinful humans are.  We break God's law, and we are broken on it.

    Yet it was glorious!  So glorious, that whenever Moses came out from God's presence, his face reflected God's glory, and he had to put a veil over his face and obscure it, so the people could bear to be around him.

    But, Paul says, that glory, the glory of the old covenant under the Law, was passing away.  By its very nature it was doomed to blind human eyes to God's plan for our salvation.  For the Law is all about our doing good, our being righteous, our trying to live up to God's standards-- or lowering them to our standards, when we fail.  Isn't that the normal human way of getting in good with God?  We feel we have to earn it.  We're convinced we have to strive to achieve our place in heaven.  "No guts, no glory!" is the motto.

    But in Christ, all that is taken away.  In Christ, we see the glory of His cross and what He did for us there.  In His resurrection and ascension we see that God the Father has put His stamp of approval on the deeds of His beloved Son, and in His gracious will we share the glory of Christ.  Like the kingdom of God, we have not fully arrived.  As we are made more like Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are brought from one degree of glory to another.  And this is not our doing, it is always thanks to the work of Christ on what seemed to be a very inglorious cross.

    So, with Paul and his companions, we do not lose heart.  There is much in our culture that criticises Christians, that says we are fools, that claims that we're in the dark and it's the unbelievers and skeptics who have the light of wisdom.  Even in the Church there are many who say that the gospel message of the cross is outdated, that it's veiled to the world and therefore we should discard it and give the world something they can understand.  Some so-called pastors (I've heard them called "goat-herders") would rather spend an hour telling funny stories about themselves instead of five minutes preaching Christ, because it draws a crowd.

    Sadly, the gospel is obscured to those who are perishing in this world, for Satan, the god of this world blinds their minds and keeps them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.  But there was a time when that was true of us, too.  And the obscured glory of God is brighter and stronger than the blatant so-called glory of Satan and this world, and His Spirit was strong to enlighten our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

    Peter, James, and John had the privilege of seeing Jesus gloriously transfigured on the mountain with Moses and Elijah.  We by the Holy Spirit have seen the kingdom of God having come with power in our own lives, though Jesus' death and resurrection.  Like the first disciples, all of us still have times of darkness and obscurity to go through, before we shall see our Lord face to face.  But let us not lose heart.  No, we won't lose heart, we won't be discouraged, because the glory of Christ shines within us and His Spirit keeps us.

    One thing more, and I'll close.  To share in Christ's glory is to share in His obedience.  Often we're told to do and dare great things for Christ, and we feel down and disheartened because we're not out in the field as missionaries or evangelizing so as to convert hundreds every day.  How glorious that would be!  Maybe I exaggerate, but you know the pressure.  We can't do that! we think, so we just go back to the obscurity of our everyday lives.  But maybe our everyday lives are exactly where Jesus wants us to glorify Him.  It's in our daily work, our relationships, our ordinary struggles and joys that we take up our crosses and follow Him, and it's there that we in ourselves truly see the kingdom of God having come in power.

    For we follow Jesus Christ and reflect His glory, the glory that can never fade, tarnish, or pass away.  Amen.

Christ's Resurrection and You: A Building Not Made with Hands

Texts:  2 Corinthians 4:13 - 5:10; Luke 24:36-49

    ON THE WHOLE, I'M GLAD the rapture of the saints didn't happen last night at 6:00 PM.  There's  so much more on this earth I want to see and do and accomplish.  But if Harold Camping had been right, and even now we were standing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, I would possess something I so grievously lack right now.  And that's a full sense and knowledge of the splendour, the goodness, the graciousness, the beauty, the holiness, the indescribable greatness of what my great God and Saviour did for me when He died on the cross and rose again for my sake.

    To know Jesus Christ and the life-giving power of His resurrection is the most marvellous, desirable thing you and I can ever experience.  There is no end to the benefits we derive from Him!  We've seen these past weeks how Jesus' resurrection enabled us to be adopted as children of God.  How by it we are brought into His new covenant and brought into the nurture of our mother, the Church.  How Jesus rose again to strip off our old filthy sinful natures and clothe us instead in our new selves, which is the shining glorious garment of His righteousness and love.   How amazing is Jesus Christ our Lord, who was crucified for our sins and rose that we might live His life forever!  How glorious and splendid are all His gifts to us!  Just thinking about them, we should be in a continual state of rapture all day long!

    But you know how it is, and so do I.  The good things of this world, and its troubles as well, hang like a curtain between us and the jaw-dropping vision of Christ and His resurrection benefits.  It's not that we don't believe that Jesus rose again, it's just that other stuff is so present and so pressing, His resurrection and what it means to us isn't something that we consciously dwell on day after day.  It's for Easter Sunday, and maybe a week or two thereafter.  Good to know about, but not exactly relevant to what we're dealing with now.

    At least, that's how it seems.  It seems that way too with our own resurrection, the one St. Paul so eloquently writes about in 1 Corinthians 15.  That's for the future, sure, for the day when Jesus really comes back.  But that doesn't seem to be happening real soon. And in the meantime, I'll wager that none of us goes around with a secret smile and a little skip in our step because we, too, someday will have a glorious immortal body like the one Jesus Himself rose in.  I don't say this is the way we should be; it's just a fact of our human nature that it's woefully easy for us to get distracted from heavenly things and forget what we have and Whose we are.  It's especially easy when the distractions have to do with poor health, or poverty, or advancing old age, or the approach of death, for ourselves or those we love.  Who can think of their bodily resurrection when we have so much on our minds?

    But in the fourth and fifth chapters of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul-- speaking by the Holy Spirit-- reveals that those very everyday difficulties and distractions should be signposts and reminders that point us ever and again back to our blessed hope of personal resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Not only that,  but our very weakness serves to show the great power of God in Christ.  As Paul says earlier in chapter 4, we carry the magnificent good news of Christ died and risen around in clay jars, "to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."  And so, as our Epistle reading today begins, "‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.'" This is a quotation from Psalm 116:10, where the psalmist has been lamenting his neediness, his trouble, his nearness to death, and what he speaks of in this quoted verse is of his great affliction.   He brings his distress to God in faith that God is One who hears and heals and restores.  And so Paul evokes that same spirit of faith in us, but we have an even greater reason to hope in God than the psalmist did.  For we know that He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and He'll present all of us together to Himself, in His very presence.

    This is our resurrection hope!  This is the gospel grace that even today is reaching more and more people, that thanksgiving may overflow to the glory of God!

    We hold this hope in light of-- perhaps I should say, in contrast to-- the very unhopeful situations we find ourselves in day after day.  Because we trust in the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, because we trust that He will also raise us with Him, we do not lose heart.

    And it can be so easy in this world to lose heart.  We don't have to be suffering persecution for our faith; ordinary ageing and illness will do it.  We look in the mirror and see the wrinkles and we think, "Wait a minute, when did that happen?  I don't feel that old!"  Or worse, we gaze upon the pale form of a sick loved one languishing full of tubes in a hospital bed, and we know how true it is that our outer nature, our present physical bodies, are indeed wasting away.  But the resurrection life of Christ is even now working its revival in you and me, if indeed we are trusting in the One who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and who will also raise us.  Even now, He is renewing our inner nature, the new self in Christ, day by day.

    We might want to say to Paul, "Hey, you call what I'm going through a ‘light momentary affliction.'  What do you know about the cancer I'm suffering?  Paul, how can you minimize my parent's congestive heart failure?  Paul, people are calling me a hatemongering bigot for standing up for traditional gospel truth.  How can you call that kind of affliction ‘slight'?"

    Oops, scratch that one.  Paul knew a lot about being afflicted for the sake of Christ.  In fact, go back to verses 8-12 of chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians, or skip over to chapters 11 and 12, and you'll see that if any one had sufferings and afflictions, if anyone in Church history knew what it was like to have his outer nature wasted away, it was the Apostle Paul.  But he kept his eyes on the resurrection we're all promised in Christ Jesus.  And therefore he could say that if our present bodily troubles were put in a scale with the glory that will come to us in the resurrection, the glory that's coming to us will far outweigh them all.

    In fact, our present troubles go to contribute to the glory that is to be.  How can this happen?  Disease and trial and suffering aren't virtuous in themselves.  But as we set them in contrast to the resurrection that is to come; especially, as others see our resurrection hope in contrast to what we're going through here on this earth, we glorify our risen Lord, who has promised to share His glory with us.  So, as Paul says, our focus is no longer on how we see things to be in this troubled world; rather, we fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal. 

    That is, what is unseen for now.  The unbelieving world may say, "Yes, you're looking at what's unseen, all right, because there's nothing there."  We reply, "No, there is something there, beyond the curtain of this failing earthly life.  There is Someone there, who walked this earth and lived and died and rose again for me, and one day I will see Him face to face and know that He is realer and solider and more weighty than anything that can be looked upon in this temporary world."

    Now, I need you to bear with me for a moment, because I'm going to inject something personal, and I don't want it to take away from the glory that belongs to the Scripture or to Jesus Christ, the Lord of Scripture.  It's just that I find it ironic-- or maybe appropriate-- that this passage speaks of looking and seeing.  You know about my eyesight, how I often have to wear two pairs of cheaters to read.  That's annoying, but I manage.  But in the past couple of days I've noticed some symptoms that may have serious implications for my eyesight, that may even require surgery.  I tell you this by way of confession, to admit that when I found this out I didn't feel too full of thanksgiving.  It can be really hard to keep your focus on things eternal when your imagination is telling you you might not be able to see things earthly for much longer.

    It's been said that the preacher can't preach to him or herself.  Maybe not, but the Apostle can preach to the preacher, and Paul has preached to me that whatever happens when I go in to see the eye doctor, the renewal of Jesus Christ is still taking place in me day by day, whether I feel like it or not.  And age-related things like this only go to remind us that this body we live in is like a tent.  Paul was thinking of the dwelling tents of the wandering Bedouins of the desert; we might think of a tent on a camping trip.  Either way, there comes a time when those things get wet and waterlogged and worn and full of holes.  There is no way they can be compared with our own solid house at home.  In the same way, our present bodies are wearing out.  But by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, God Himself has prepared for us an eternal house in heaven, a building not made by human hands.  Of course it's not made by human hands!  For our eternal home, our resurrection bodies, are established on the foundation of Christ's resurrection itself, and no mortal had anything to do with that.

    The Scripture says that now we groan, longing to be clothed with our permanent heavenly dwelling.  We have to understand that that is truly our longing.  Some people, even Christians, think the goal is to get rid of this earthly tent, our physical bodies, and just fly away as a spirit, naked and free.  That may be great Greek philosophy, but it is not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  No, we do not want to be found naked before God.  We must not stand before Him as bare unclothed spirits.  In fact, we can not.  We must be clothed with the heavenly dwelling that God has prepared for us for us, in order for us to know the eternal life that swallows up our mortality.

    Because, brothers and sisters, that is why God made you-- so you might be clothed, surrounded, protected, and made at home in the resurrection body He has prepared for you.  No matter what happens to you in this life, that new and heavenly body will be yours; you can believe that because God has given you the Holy Spirit as a guarantee on the purchase.  He witnesses to our hearts through the Word that Jesus Christ truly did die for us, that His resurrection was for us, and that we can take Him at His word when He promises that where He is, we will be also.

    And so, Paul says, things are actually switched around for us.  Our earthly natures say, "Give me as much time here on earth in this body as possible.  I'm in no hurry to go!"  But the Spirit keeps us looking towards what we don't yet see, and He makes us eager to see it.  He makes us long to move out of the temporary home of this tent and move permanently into our forever home with the Lord.  The Spirit of God makes us confident that we shall indeed some day be forever at home with the Lord, clothed in the glorious bodies He has prepared for us.

    Does this confidence give us the right to be so heavenly-minded we're no earthly good?  Not at all.  Here on this present earth or later on in eternity, our aim and pleasure should be to please Him who did not please Himself, but gave Himself up to save us all.

    Does our future hope lead us to conclude that this present life is meaningless, just a waiting room for heaven, as it were?  No, because we do have our future hope, we strive so that when we appear before the judgement seat of Christ, the things we have done in this present body will please Him and earn us His favor and reward.

    Jesus Christ is risen; He is risen indeed.  Not as a ghost, not as a disembodied spirit, but as a gloried Man of touchable flesh and bone.  And we will be like Him, on that day when He truly returns and gathers His saints to rejoice with Him around His throne. 

    That day is coming.  Someday we will be there, and we will at last feel the glorious weight of the splendor and majesty of our Lord Jesus and His finished work for us.  Whether the time is long or short, do not lose heart.  Make it your goal to please Him. And whatever you may be going through now, whatever now causes you to groan with longing or grief, keep your eyes focussed on Jesus Christ, the one who was dead, and see, He lives again.   He is your resurrection, He is your life, and in Him you will live and find shelter forever more.

The Stench of Death, the Fragrance of Life

Texts: 2 Corinthians 2:12 - 3:6; John 11:55 - 12:11

Have you ever heard of dramatic irony? It occurs in a novel or movie or TV drama when the reader or the audience knows more about what's happening to the characters than they do themselves. It's especially ironic when you see the characters reacting to a situation or another character exactly the opposite to the way they should. "Meanwhile, back at the ranch," says the narrator, or, "Little did she know, but . . . "

It's fun and exciting to be in the know like that. Though it can be frustrating watching your favorite characters get themselves into trouble they could've kept out of if only they'd had the information you do. But have you ever thought that you and I and all of us human beings are characters in a drama, too? And that our eternal destiny depends on what side of the dramatic irony we fall? God is the author of this story, and it's the drama of how He brings salvation to sinful humanity and achieves for Himself the glory that's His due.

That's what the whole Bible is about. What's more, in this salvation story, God the author has put Himself into it as the main character. As writer Dorothy L. Sayers put it, "The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man . . . (The) terrifying drama in which God is the victim and the hero . . (T)he terrifying assertion that the same God who made the world lived in the world and passed through the grave and gate of death."1 And the greatest challenge for us is, What do we make of the irony of the Cross? What do we think of Christ and Him crucified? Does His cross bring to us the stench of death, or does it cover us with the fragrance of life?

We may be attracted most to the stories of Jesus' ministry, how He fed the hungry and healed the sick and welcomed children and outcasts. But in all four gospels the direction of the divine drama is always towards the cross. That's where Jesus was headed ever since the angel Gabriel told His mother Mary that He would save His people from their sins. Dying for us was the Son of God's purpose in life ever since eternity, when Christ was declared by God to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

In our reading today from the gospel according to St. John, the momentum towards Calvary is stepping up. This chapter in the divine drama begins with ordinary Jews coming up from the countryside to Jerusalem for the Passover, wondering if Jesus would appear for the Feast. What did they hope for from Him? A military savior, someone to overthrow the Romans, most likely. The cross was not in their plans! For them, Jesus being crucified like any other insurrectionist would have ruined everything. They don't understand that their true liberation could come only from the death of their Messiah.

The chief priests and Pharisees, on the other hand. They wanted Jesus crucified. They thought that would get Him out of their way forever. Little did they know that Jesus' death would lead to His rising to new and everlasting life.

And then John moves us to the village of Bethany, a short way out of Jerusalem. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus are giving a dinner in Jesus' honor, to thank Him for raising Lazarus from the dead. What do Martha in her serving and even Lazarus, reclining at the table, know about the cross? Did they have any idea that the Lord of life would have to die?

Probably not. Why shouldn't He remain and usher in the kingdom of God, just as He was?
But then Mary-- Mary, who always seemed to do the thing that was so unexpected and so right, rose and took a whole pint of pure nard, an extraordinarily precious and expensive perfume, and poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. It was an offering of devotion and service to Jesus. For raising her beloved brother from the dead. For teaching her and supporting her and respecting her. Just for being Jesus, her beloved Rabbi. Jesus deserved all this and more. But did Mary herself understand what her deed had to do with the atonement Jesus would win for her on the cross? We'll see.

But Judas, now. Judas ought to have understood. There should have been no dramatic ironies with him. He was an apostle, one of the Twelve. For the past few months Jesus had been teaching him and the others that the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and be killed and then rise again on the third day. He'd heard Jesus say that to please God and have eternal life you must eat the broken flesh of the Son of Man and drink of His shed blood. And Judas, unlike so many others, hadn't abandon Jesus when He said that. Judas should have accepted that Jesus was heading for the cross and to some extent, understood why. Judas Iscariot should have been in tune with the divine plan that Jesus had revealed.

But instead, he fails to recognize or acknowledge or honor who Jesus truly is. He (and other onlookers) are shocked and astonished! "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?" he exclaims. I'm pretty sure that this line wasn't original. It sounded like a slogan then and it sounds like a slogan, now. For isn't it ironic, how so many people even today who insist on that behavior aren't talking about their own money and possessions at all, but those of somebody else. And as John reveals, Judas wasn't really concerned about the poor at all. He wanted more coins in the money bag so he, as the group treasurer, could embezzle them.

So what was Jesus to Judas? A leader to be proud of and feel good about following? A chance at power and fame? A handy source of spare income? Maybe. At this point, the idea of Jesus going to the cross would be anathema to Judas. Why, that would ruin everything!

And then Jesus speaks. "‘Leave her alone,' Jesus replied," as it says in the New International Version. Literally, the Greek reads something like, "Jesus said, ‘Allow her.'" Whichever way you put it, His word is a rebuke to Judas and all the others who do not understand who Jesus is and why He came to earth. I wonder, is this when Judas turned against Jesus and decided that delivering Him over to death might be a good idea?

"Allow her," says Jesus, "in order that--" (and this is the literal translation)-- "for the day of my preparation for burial she may have kept it." Jesus is the only one who is not caught in the dramatic irony. He's the only person in this pericope who knows exactly what is going on and is Master of the situation. Jesus alone is fully aware that He is going to the Cross to show His infinite love for Mary of Bethany and all God's elect. And so Jesus took her act of human love and sanctified it to Himself. In 1st century Jewish culture the bodies of the newly-dead were anointed with precious oils and wrapped in spices. At Jesus' word, Mary's anointing of His feet is a prophecy in action of what she and the other women would soon do for His whole dead body, and the preciousness of the nard perfume pointed to the how precious His death would be for us who believe.

It's hard for us to grasp how ironic, how against all convention it would have been for the people of Jesus' day to consider that anyone's crucifixion would be a source of life. Crucifixion is probably the most painful and hideous form of public execution known to humankind, and the Romans had raised-- or should we say, lowered-- it to a science and an art. The stench of death from the bodies of criminals and rebels hung on crosses would pervade the air outside city walls all through the Roman empire, as a warning to all who would defy Caesar's law and power. How could a crucifixion-- one Man's crucifixion, cause the cross ever after to exhale the fragrance of life? Isn't this the supreme cosmic irony? Little did we know what God was doing when Jesus Christ hung there on Calvary, but now we can know and trust that He did it for you and me.
But what of Judas' objection, that Mary should have sold the perfume and given the money for distribution to the poor? Jesus continues, "You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."

Never interpret this as Jesus saying we can neglect the impoverished among us, especially the needy who are in this very church. Nor can we take this to mean that it's God's will that poverty should exist and we should do nothing about its causes. Just the opposite. For Mary of Bethany, there was a time to aid the poor. But that time was not now. Now it was time for her to perfume the feet of Jesus against the hour of His death.

Perhaps it seems ironic to you that Jesus would put things this way. It might be thought that Jesus, the humble lover of the poor, would always put them first! Isn't it self-aggrandizing of him to say He was worth all that He takes priority here?

It would be, if He were only a man. And that is what many people in His day thought. It's what most people in our day believe as well. But once we know that He is God in human flesh, we gladly acknowledge that first honor belongs to Him. Mary with her poured-out perfume was worshipping Him in His incarnation. Jesus by His life, death, and resurrection makes everyone rich; everyone, that is, who comes to Him in faith. Jesus by His cross turns the stench of death into the fragrance of life.

But now, in this divine drama, it seems that the camera zooms out again and gives us a look at the "large crowd of Jews" who'd come to Bethany to get a look at Jesus and at Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. Just as with the Jews in Jerusalem at the beginning of our reading, they admire our Lord's supernatural power. They might even come to believe in Him as Saviour and God given the influence of the Holy Spirit. But as of now, their thoughts and desires are all of this world. They would be appalled by the idea of Jesus and a crucifixion.

And finally, we come again to the high priests. They want the stench of death for Jesus of Nazareth, for He and His teachings and miracles are a stench to them. There is a massive irony here, for they had been appointed to be the very custodians of the righteousness and grace of God. And here they were conspired to destroy God's ultimate messenger of grace, His only-begotten Son.

Where would you have stood in this portion of God's drama? Would you have understood that Jesus was born to die and that His cross brings everlasting life?

No, you wouldn't have, and neither would I. For it is only by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit that our minds can be opened to grasp and accept and kneel before the mystery of redemption that Jesus achieved on Calvary's hill. Until then, the death of Christ is an absurdity. A tragedy. A sad mistake. The Holy Spirit must give us the mind of Christ, so we can step outside our story and see the Cross from God's point of view.

When you see the Cross from God's point of view, you understand that it was for you that Jesus died. It was your sins, and my sins, that put Him on that tree. Yet in spite of all that-- no, because of all that, He allowed Himself to be arrested, tortured, and finally, crucified. And somehow, out of that terrible death, comes our glorious life! Somehow, by the wonderful plan of God, Jesus' suffering made Him the minister of a new covenant, sealed not with the blood of bulls and goats, but by the sinless blood of the very Son of God.

Isn't that ironic? That creatures like you and I will someday be translated into the very throne room of almighty God! But that's what Jesus did for us on His cross.

The essence of dramatic irony is that the characters don't realize what's happening to them, or they consistently misperceive and misinterpret what's going on. They do that because they're stuck in the story and can only think of their own human motivations.

But you, Christian friends, are not stuck in the old human tragedy of sin and death. You no longer regard the cross of Christ as something negative to be shunned or laughed at or abhorred. It's not that you or I have grown so wise that we can of ourselves make the right decision about Jesus and His atoning death; rather, Jesus Himself has made His decision for you. As St. Paul writes, He chose you to be like the perfume that Mary of Bethany lavished on Jesus' feet.

Everywhere we go, "We are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." To those who persist in their sins, we are the stench of death, but to those whose hearts are open (by the power of the Holy Spirt), we are the fragrance of eternal life. This comes from the irony of the cross, that somehow, by God's sovereign plan, the worst thing in the world could produce the best thing in all eternity for us, even the salvation of our souls. In the end, we may never fully understand how it can be. And so, like Mary, let us simply pour our adoration at the feet of Jesus, and worship and adore.

What God Does with Small and Broken Things

Texts: Haggai 2:1-9; 2 Corinthians 6:3 - 7:1

LET’S IMAGINE a scene from long ago. It’s 519 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, within the ruins of the city of Jerusalem, in the days after some of the exiles have returned from Babylon to rebuild the city . . . .


The old couple struggled up the way from city below. Painfully, they reached the summit of Mount Moriah and stood silently, watching.

"Look, Tzipora," said the old man, pointing with his stick. "There they are, at it."

"Yes, Eliezar," his wife answered. "They’ve been working for almost a month."

"Yes, and where has it gotten us?" Eliezar replied bitterly. "Beginning of last month, that prophet Haggai comes telling Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest that it’s past time for us to be rebuilding the Lord’s temple. He says the reason the harvest has been so bad is because we’ve been building ourselves nice houses and neglecting the house of the Lord. But how can we build the Lord the kind of temple He deserves?"

"But Eliezar," Tzipora replied, "the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord Almighty! We have to listen to him. The governor and the high priest listened to him. We all did. Remember how our spirits rose when Haggai said, ‘"I am with you," declares the Lord’? Remember how we feared the Lord our God and came and began to work to rebuild His house?"

"Yes, yes, I remember all that!" said her husband, wearily. "It was only a few weeks ago; I haven’t lost my memory yet! . . . Though it might be better for me if I had." He stopped, and regarded the ragtag gang of amateur builders laboring on the temple’s framework. "Look at that," he resumed. "Timber, not stone! Tzipora, you remember our temple before the Babylonians burned it! We were both children then, but you remember those massive stones King Solomon brought from Lebanon! You remember how glorious our Temple was!"

"Yes, Eliezar, I remember."

"Well, look at that," he said again. "Look at it! Do we have any hope of matching Solomon’s temple now? Even if we had the strength to build it, even if we were numerous enough, where could we poor Jews find the money? Where is the silver and gold it would take to erect such a temple in our day? And the nations around us! They’d never let us build what we should! We’ve been trying to rebuild this temple the past nineteen years, and every time we begin, those Gentiles write off to the king in Persia and get him to make us stop! Now King Darius says we can go ahead, but what’s the use?"

"But the Lord’s command, Eliezar!"

"Yes, Tzipora, the Lord commanded us to return to the work. But how can He be pleased with what we can give? Don’t you remember that day when the prophet Ezekiel spoke to us when we were still in Babylon? Such a new temple he described! How glorious with its walls and courts and gates and altar! That’s what the Lord expects us to build! And we can’t do it! We can’t do it! This new temple is nothing. Nothing."

"Nothing," his wife echoed, and sighed.

Eliezar and Tzipora watched the workmen struggle on. And almost as if the laborers had overheard the old man’s bitter words, the shouts over the work seemed subdued, flattened, discouraged.

Around the corner of the shell of the building appeared two men in fine robes and turbans, obviously high officials. "Look, Eliezar! There’s Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest!"

"Inspecting the work, I suppose," he replied. "I wonder what they think of it."

The old couple saw the governor say something to the high priest, who shook his head. Both men seemed weary, their shoulders drooping, their heads low.

Suddenly, a firm step sounded on the pavement behind Tzipora and Eliezar. Startled, they turned, the woman’s hand to her heart. "Oh! My lord Haggai!" she gasped. The prophet’s eyes seemed to burn into her soul.

"My lord, the governor and the high priest are there, just above," faltered Eliezar. "You have business with them?"

"Yes," said the prophet, "and with you, Eliezar son of Berekiah. And with you, Tzipora wife of Eliezar." He smiled. "Come. Hear what the Lord has to say to you and to all the remnant of His people. Come."


. . . People of the Presbyterian Church of N---, I don't think you have to reach far to identify with Eliezar and Tzipora. Going by what I heard when I preached here in August, there are many of you who remember how it used to be, back in the glory days of this congregation. I’m guessing that someplace you have an anniversary photo showing so many members you could never get them inside the doors at once. There was a time when the Sunday School swarmed with children; when church societies and organizations flourished; when acts of charity and service flowed out of this place with many willing hands to help them along. You remember when this congregation and its pastor and officers were leaders in this community, and the light of Jesus Christ shone out from this place like a beacon of peace and hope.

And now? Let the prophet Haggai speaking in the name of the Lord tell us how things are now. Just as he asked the Jews of Jerusalem in 519 BC, he asks you, "Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem like nothing?"

But hear now what the Lord has to say to you. Be encouraged, people of the Presbyterian Church of N---. The words of Haggai to the remnant of Israel are God’s words to you and to all God’s struggling people around this fallen world. The Scripture says to you, "'But now be strong, you elders. Be strong, you deacons and musicians and teachers. Be strong, all you people of the church. Be strong, and work. For I am with you,' declares the Lord Almighty.

"‘Be strong, and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty." Our downfall in our brokenness is that so often we think it’s all up to us to fix it. And either we try really, really hard and maybe we come up with something and are pumped up with pride in ourselves, or we get discouraged and give up because we can’t make things happen the way they used to or the way we think they should. We act as if God were busy up in heaven doing whatever and leaving it all to us, or maybe He’s on the sidelines, cheering us on, but in the end it’s our work to rebuild the church, not His.

But no! "‘I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty." Whatever He asks us to do in His name, He is the prime mover. He is the one who takes the lead and makes sure the job gets done. For us to think and act otherwise isn’t merely counterproductive, it’s sin.

In 519 BC God promised to help His people because of the covenant He made with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt. But you can claim His power on the basis of a better covenant, the one our Sovereign Lord made with you on Calvary through the blood of His only Son Jesus Christ.

For hear what the Lord says to all His chosen people, from Israel of old to us His new Israel today. He says,

"‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty."

Our Lord shook the heavens and the earth when He brought His people out of Egypt. But much more did He shake all creation when He Himself became incarnate in Jesus Christ, eternal God in human flesh! He shook all creation when God the Son of Man hung on a cross to take His own righteous wrath against our sin. He shook all creation when Jesus our Saviour rose triumphant from the dead to give new and unending life to all who are called in His name. Jesus Christ is the desired of all nations, and it is in Him and Him alone that God’s church is filled with glory.

The peoples of this earth don’t realize that Jesus crucified and risen is their desire. All of us-- all of us-- manufacture messiahs of our own imagining to fulfill our hopes and dreams, and we keep on doing it until God by His Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see His glory in Jesus Christ. It is the glory of Christ’s church, the glory of this congregation, to display to the world the true Messiah, to show the lost where their true longing lies. In this very town you are surrounded by unbelievers and people who claim to be Christian but know nothing whatever of the free grace of Jesus Christ who died to save them from their sins. This house is needed here. You are needed here. The Lord says to you, "Build!" No, not the physical building of the church, necessarily, but build your ministry in this place! Serve Him where He has put you; be a witness to the nations right where you are and right as you are!

But how can you do that? Does this church not seem small and broken? Just keeping the doors open is a struggle. And as for having the power and resources to rebuild the ministry of this church, who here feels the power in him or herself to do that? Ministry takes money, doesn’t it? Where is it to come from, especially in this rotten economy?

Remember what the Lord said through Haggai:

"‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty."

If money is needed, the Lord can provide it. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills! All creation is His! If money is the answer here, our Lord will shower it down.

But maybe God has something greater in mind, something money can’t buy. For,

"‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty."

Was Haggai the prophet referring to the literal temple the Jews were trying to rebuild? No! Compared to Solomon’s temple, that building truly was nothing. No, the glory prophesied was that of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. Though they didn’t know it, the temple of God being built there was the people of God themselves. As they trusted and worked and worshipped, they were being made into a fit vessel from which the Messiah would come. As they trusted God and obeyed Him even in their smallness and brokenness, they became a channel through which the Lord would demonstrate His creation-shaking glory. And as He did it through them, so He can do it through you.

I know of a church over in Oxford, England. It was down to so few members, the diocese was about to close it. But six elderly women covenanted together to pray for the ministry of St. Matthew’s church and the Lord in His power answered their prayer. A couple of years later that church was filled to the windows with people of all ages and had a thriving ministry.

There may not be that many people in this area for that to happen here. But even in its smallness and brokenness, this house can be filled with the glory of God. This congregation can be made strong to do His will.

Isn’t that always the way of our Lord? Time and again He takes the littlest, the least, the youngest, the broken, the despised in the eyes of this world and uses it to show His almighty power. St. Paul in our New Testament reading declares that his own ministry is commended in his hardships, afflictions, dishonor, insignificance, poverty, and poor reputation. All the things that the world would look down upon, God turns into badges of honor. Not that these things are virtues in themselves, but because in Paul’s weakness, the gifts of God’s Spirit and His divine power more clearly shine forth. God uses Paul’s very smallness and brokenness to demonstrate the glory of Jesus Christ to the world.

For what could be more small and broken and despised than our Lord Himself, on that dark Friday on Calvary? The religious authorities mocked Him, the civil authorities considered Him a problem to be swept out of the way, the devil of Hell probably roared in premature triumph. Hung as a criminal on a cross! Rejected, scorned, bruised, and broken, Jesus was not the glorious Messiah the people expected to see. How could this Nazarene be the desired of all nations? Did He not look to all the world like nothing?

But in the very nothingness of the crucified Jesus, our God brought everything to this blind and broken world. He exalted this Lord Jesus to His right hand in glory and appointed that in Him and Him alone all men must meet with God. Jesus Christ is our Temple. He is the one place where the Almighty grants His peace. And as He dwells in you His church and as you His church dwell in Him, you are His temple here on earth.

And so, as St. Paul says, we must stop being unequally yoked with unbelievers. There are all sorts of ideas about what that means, but at the very least it must mean, Do not use the ways of this world to promote the goals of God. The world demands strength and power, but we preach Christ crucified in weakness. The world says church growth comes from high-tech glamor and the latest sure-fire marketing methods and appeals to sinners’ felt needs, but we preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name. The world says success is judged by size and numbers and the bigger the better, but we preach faithfulness to our God and trust in Him to fill this house with His glory, however large or small the membership may be.

People of God, trust in His power, not in your own. Rejoice in your smallness and brokenness, for God is with you and will do great things in you. There is ministry here for you to do and He has given you gifts by the Holy Spirit for you to do it. So be strong, and work. Build the church in this place, not in your own strength, but in the strength of Jesus Christ, your Temple and your glory. Consecrate yourselves to Him in holiness, for in Him, you are all the temple of the living God.

To close, let us pray a prayer that John Calvin wrote in response to this passage in Haggai:

Grant, Almighty God, that as we are not only alienated in mind from thee, but also often relapse after having been once stirred up by thee, either into perverseness, or into our own vanity, or are led astray by various things, so that nothing is more difficult than to pursue our course until we reach the end of our race- - O grant that we may not confide in our own strength, nor claim for ourselves more than what is right, but, with our hearts raised above, depend on thee alone, and constantly call on thee to supply us with new strength, and so to confirm us that we may persevere to the end in the discharge of our duty, until we shall at length attain the true and perfect form of that temple which thou commandest us to build, in which thy perfect glory shines forth, and into which we are to be transformed by Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lord, the God of Salvation

Texts: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; 1 Samuel 17:1-54; Mark 4:35-41

"AS GOD’S FELLOW WORKERS WE URGE you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,
‘In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.’
"I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation."
______________________

"I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation."

These are the words of the Apostle Paul that begin our epistle reading for today. He wrote initially to the church in Corinth, in Greece, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, these words are for us as well. God’s grace and salvation is an urgent matter. We must not receive this gift of God in vain; that is, merely outwardly or to go along with what our friends and family are doing; no, the salvation of God must be received sincerely, humbly, with awe and holy love, that the grace of our Lord may have its effect in us.

All of our Scripture passages this morning have to do with the salvation of God, including the Psalm we recited for the Responsive Reading. It stands to reason: From start to finish the Bible is the story of God’s salvation. The saga of His work for humanity from the days of Adam to the days of the New Testament church is often called "salvation history." There is nothing in this life more essential for you to know. There is nothing in this world more disastrous if you ignore it or take it for granted.

We don’t use this word "salvation" much outside the Church. But we all know what it means to be rescued or saved from some terrible situation. Maybe you’re caught in a flash flood like the ones that hit the area last Wednesday, and the water picks up your car and rushes you into the nearest creek. But a brave policemen comes in a boat and fishes you out. Maybe your house catches fire and you’re trapped inside. Then a strong fireman comes and saves you. Or maybe you don’t have quite enough to pay your mortgage. But a generous relative or friend comes along in the nick of time and gives you the cash you need. In all these cases, you were in a desperate fix and somebody came along and rescued you from it. You received salvation.

But the word "salvation" these days seems reserved for use by the Christian Church, and really, that’s appropriate. Because as bad as it would be to be swept away by a flash flood or to be burnt up in a fire or to have your house sold out from under you, far, far worse is the situation all human beings are in that makes us all need the salvation of God. Financial loss, even utter destitution, could never be as devastating as the loss of fellowship with God forever. Physical danger, even physical death, is nothing compared with the agonies of eternal death and hell that await those who insist on continuing in their sin. The God of salvation rescues us from dangers that we cannot even imagine this side of eternity. His saving power is better and stronger and more effective than the most heroic earthly rescue could ever be.

And as wonderful as policemen and firemen and generous friends can be, far more glorious and worthy of praise is God Almighty, who rescues us from eternal death and everlasting loss. Jesus our Saviour knew it would cost Him everything to come to our rescue: Position, dignity, reputation, His very life-- even in that terrible moment of abandonment on the Cross, He suffered the loss of His relationship with His Father. Christ our God was not compelled to save us. We didn’t earn it; we didn’t put Him in our debt; when He saved us it was not because we were so cute and winsome, like kittens up a tree. Rather, out of His own free grace the Lord our God chose in love to grant us salvation through our His Son Jesus Christ. Such grace must never be taken for granted or received in vain!

I wonder, when we read the responsive Psalm, did you see yourself as one of those who knows the name of the Lord and trust in Him? Or did you recognise yourself as one of "the enemies," the wicked nations who dig pits to trap the righteous? When you heard the word of the Lord as written in the seventeenth chapter of 1 Samuel, whom did you identify with? Were you cheering for David and Israel, or for Goliath and the Philistines?

If I believed in betting, I’d lay money you were all identifying with Israel, with those who seek God. But why? On what basis? The Scripture teaches us in the Psalms and in Paul’s letter to the Romans that no one seeks God. We read in the Letter to the Ephesians that naturally-speaking, we non-Jews were separated from Christ and excluded from citizenship in Israel. We have no right to claim the salvation of God! And even if we can claim some Jewish blood, the Old Testament Scriptures teach us that Israel was not chosen by God because it as a nation was stronger or more numerous or more deserving than any other people. As human beings, the Jews of old were just as rebellious and disobedient as the pagans were. All of us start life as enemies of God; we deserve nothing from Him but defeat and destruction! So how can any of say that like David we’re soldiers in the army of the living God? How can we rank ourselves with the righteous and not only wait for God’s salvation, but also confidently expect it?

But we do, and we can, for by His grace God makes us part of His covenant people, with all the rights and privileges pertaining to our position with Him. The Lord long ago called our spiritual father Abraham and made a covenant with him, a covenant that was all about what God would do for Abraham and his seed; all Abraham had to do was humbly receive God’s favour through faith. That covenant was not set aside by the secondary covenant that God made with Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai; in truth, the covenant of Sinai was tributary to the earlier covenant, showing us more clearly His divine righteousness and our sin and driving us to depend on Him alone for salvation.

It was this covenant of grace that David the shepherd boy appealed to when he walked into that valley to answer the challenge of Goliath of Gath. More than once in this passage David refers to his opponent as "this uncircumcised Philistine." Is David just calling names? Absolutely not. Circumcision was the sign the Lord gave Abraham to signify that he and his descendants were the people of God. It identified Israel with Him and His salvation. But there stood Goliath, insulting the armies of Israel and thereby mocking and defying God Himself. Goliath cursed David by his false gods, who could not save. David relied on his covenant Lord, the God of Israel’s salvation, and through God he defeated the giant and won the victory.

We can claim God’s salvation in our day, for the covenant of grace that God made with our father Abraham is made perfect in His Messiah, Jesus our Saviour and Lord. We inherit His salvation through the new covenant made in His blood. David the son of Jesse took his stand in the Valley of Elah, but Jesus the Son of David took His stand on the hill of Calvary, and there He defeated the ultimate enemy, Death. Now through God’s favour we are included with His covenant people and rejoice in how He has saved us.

We can even rejoice in situations that might make the unsaved world think hadn’t received salvation at all; at least not the kind the world would understand. Paul writes in our reading from 2 Corinthians of troubles, hardships, distresses, beatings, imprisonments, and so on and on. There’s some good things listed in here, but mostly it’s one long tale of suffering and woe. They’re the kind of thing we’d beg to be rescued from, but for Paul they became credentials that proved that he and his fellow apostles were truly the servants of God. For if Paul and his fellow-workers were suffering, it was for the sake of Christ who first suffered for them and for us all, that we might receive the salvation of God.

Our passage follows on from Paul’s teaching in chapter 5. There Paul reminded the Corinthians that Jesus Christ died for us, that He has reconciled us to God through His blood. That is the salvation our God offers us! Everyone who proclaims this gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, like Paul is an ambassador of God the King, and like every duly-appointed ambassador, each one must show his or her credentials.

All who bear the name of Christ, especially those who are ministers of the salvation of God, must be ready to commend themselves by their willingness to suffer for Jesus’ sake; they must show themselves genuine by their holiness and graciousness of life and by their kindness and love to all people, especially to the people of God; they must demonstrate their total dependence on the Holy Spirit and the power of God. They must be willing to suffer rejection, even rejection by the very churches whom they love.

How could any human being bear such a cross? Only through the power of the Lord, the God of our salvation, working in him.

Paul could bear all his hardships and even display them as proofs of God working in him, for Jesus Christ was and is the God of his salvation. Through Christ Paul was assured of life and joy and fellowship with Almighty God, in this life and in the world to come. And so we can be assured as well.

As we go through life, often we’re like the disciples on the boat with Jesus that night on the Sea of Galilee, tossed by the storm and thinking He doesn’t care if we drown. But we’re forgetting who this Man is. He is Jesus Christ, the Lord, the God of our salvation. His very name reminds us of that-- for it means "Jehovah saves." At His word giants fall, wind and waves are calmed, and our very sufferings for His sake become badges of honor, credentials that show we are ambassadors of our Lord the crucified and risen King.

Our God is the God who saves. Jesus the Son of David came down into the valley of this world and won for us the salvation we need, the rescue we could never manage for ourselves. Hear Him as He speaks to you in love through the words of His servant Paul. Do not receive God’s grace in vain. Don’t ignore the Good News for some pleasure or interest in this world you think is more important. Don’t allow the troubles of this life lead you to despise the salvation won for you by Christ on Calvary, to make you think He’s helpless in this fallen world. Rather, know that it is in the midst of battle and storm and difficulty that the Lord shows His saving power most clearly. It is when we face our helplessness, when we have given up any hope of saving ourselves, that He moves us to turn to Him and accept the salvation He brings.

This good news is for you if you’ve been a Christian for ninety years, or if you’ve just been going through the motions and aren’t yet a Christian at all. The Lord, the God of your salvation offers His grace to you through His Son, your Saviour Jesus Christ. In humility and trust, accept what He has done for you. For with Paul, I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What Price Glory?

Texts: 2 Corinthians 4:1-18; Luke 9:28-36

WHEN I WAS HERE LAST, I mentioned I was involved with the design of the Welsh Nationality Room to be built over at the University of Pittsburgh.

Before I moved to this area, I’d never heard of Pitt’s Nationality Room program. But now I know what a big deal that is and what an honor it is to be able to help design one. When it’s done, it’ll be a glorious thing to be able to say, "Yes, I designed that."

But this glory comes at a price. The sponsoring organization, the St. David’s Society, is a non-profit group. So there’s very little money in the budget for architects’ and engineers’ fees. But there’s lots of architectural and engineering work to be done. I mean, if you want the finished project to look like an 18th century barn-chapel, you can’t just put a couple lines on the paper and tell 21st century Joe Contractor to have at it.

So we did what had to be done. But as my boss put it, if this one little project hadn’t required so much unreimbursed work, everyone in the office-- we’re talking forty people-- could have received $3,000 a year raise in pay.

You don’t take on jobs like the Welsh Nationality Room because you think you’re going to make a profit. You take them on because it’s an honor. Because it’ll bring your firm glory. But oh, does that glory ever come at a price!

That’s the way it is. You have to put out and pay up to receive your glory. The athlete or the musician has to practice long and hard. The soldier in the war zone has to be ready to give his life. Even celebrities like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, who seem to be famous for being famous-- they pay for their glory by giving up their privacy and doing the latest shocking and outrageous thing to keep them in the camera’s eye.

But that's the way it is in this world--you pay the price and you get the glory. You’d take the glory without paying the price, if you could, and for some lucky and talented people, it seems that’s the way it works.

But what would you say if someone told you that paying the price was the glorious thing? That there would be glory in it even if most people neither knew nor cared what we’d done, even if people criticized and berated us and covered us with shame because of it? What if the cost of glory isn’t just money or hard work, but submission and humility?

That sounds really strange, doesn’t it? What do humility and glory have to do with one another?

In this world, usually, not a lot. But in the kingdom of God, there is no glory without humility. In fact, in the kingdom of God, the humility is the glorious act itself.

In 2 Corinthians, St. Paul is talking about the ministry he and his companions have, of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you read back into Chapter 3, you’ll see that this is a glorious ministry. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God, that makes evil men righteous and makes dead men live! It is the good news of freedom, of unity with the Lord, high and exalted! The ministry of the gospel of Christ causes believers to reflect the glory of the Lord Himself! It transforms them into His likeness, from glory into glory!

This would be something to boast about, to glory in! It’s so wonderful, everybody should accept this gospel the minute they’re told it, right? And if you or I or any Christian tells someone about Jesus Christ, that person should think we’re pretty glorious, too, correct?

But Paul says that’s not how it works. He says, "Since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart." Lose heart, Paul? Why talk about losing heart? We thought you were talking about glory!

He was. But he was talking about the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, which we servants of His always have to offer to the world in forthrightness, lowliness, and humility.

Paul says, "we do not use deception [when we preach Christ], nor do we distort the word of God." That is, we do not pretend that the gospel is something it is not. We do not pretend that believing in Jesus is going to solve all your earthly problems. We do not claim that becoming a Christian will give you perfect children or make you rich.

"On the contrary," Paul says, "by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God." He knew what it was like to have unbelievers tell him they didn’t need Christ because they did good works in the name of their own gods. But his duty as Christ’s minister was to show people their sin in the sight of the only God of the universe. He had to show them their need for God, not to improve their lives, but in order to save them.

But that isn’t good news to a lot of people. It isn’t good news to most people. People don’t like hearing that they fall short of the glory of God, and nothing they can do will make them pleasing to Him. And it’s the Devil’s business-- the business of the god of this age-- to blind unbelievers into thinking they’re good enough as they are. He wants them to think they can climb up to glory by themselves. He wants them to reject and disdain the crucified Son of Man and worship some made-up version of Jesus instead.

The gospel of Christ crucified for our sins and risen for our life is glorious, more glorious than anything we can imagine. But ministering this gospel to the world takes a lot of humility. It tells us to keep up our courage even in the face of opposition. It forces us to keep the focus off ourselves and on God. It makes us admit our weakness and frailty. It requires us to pay the price.

Why is that? Because Jesus paid the price for glory before us, and His glory was in the price He paid and the shame He bore. The cross wasn’t just something for Jesus to get through in order to get the prize. Rather, the prize-- for Jesus and for us-- lay in the cross itself.

Our gospel reading tells of a time when Jesus’ glory was open and apparent. But what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration didn’t happen for its own sake. It happened because of the greater glory He would achieve on the Mount of Calvary.

We have to see this in context. Eight days before this, Jesus had asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"

Was He just a great Teacher or moral leader? Was He one of the prophets come back to life? Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Peter declared, "You are the Christ of God!"

Peter was giving Jesus the title of ultimate glory. We take the word "Christ" for granted, almost as if it were Jesus’ last name. But "Christ" or "Messiah" means "the Anointed One," and to say that Jesus is the Anointed One of God was to say that He is the Ultimate Prophet, anointed to speak for God. He is the Ultimate Priest, anointed to offer up perfect sacrifices for our sin to God. And He is the Ultimate King, anointed to exercise authority in the full power of God. Talk about a revelation of glory! This Jesus was not merely a good man or a great man, He was and is the Son of God, some to earth in human flesh!

But you know what it’s like when a bolt of lightning lights up the landscape, and then it’s gone and everything’s in darkness again? It seemed that just as soon as Jesus had revealed His glory to His disciples like this, He hid it again. He ordered them not to tell anyone who He was.
Not only that, He told them that He would have to be rejected and crucified, and then be raised to life. And if anyone wanted to be His follower and share His glory, that person would have to be willing to be crucified, too.

Could any glory, even divine glory, be worth the price of the cross? How would anyone ever believe Jesus was the Christ if He went to the cross? How could He expect anyone to follow Him if they had to bear the cross, too? This was too shameful for any reasonable person to accept. It was too high a price for any human being to be willing to pay. But Jesus tells his disciples, "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory." The high price of the Cross would open the way for glory! The suffering of the Cross was the key to the Kingdom of God!

Eight days later, Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up onto a mountain in that region to pray. And while He was there, He was transfigured before them. His face and clothing became incandescent. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. I used to think that the Transfiguration was kind of a special treat for Jesus and the three disciples. You know, an encouraging interlude before Jesus set His face towards Jerusalem and the Cross. But it wasn’t that at all. Moses speaks for the Law, Elijah stands for the Prophets. Both are ambassadors of the written Word of God.

And what do they speak with Jesus about? About His departure, or as the Greek puts it, His exodus that He was about to bring to fulfilment in Jerusalem. Jesus’ glory was revealed as never before as He is speaking about the Cross.

Was the Cross an unfortunate accident? Was it an unpleasant episode to be gotten over? No, the whole testimony of Scripture was that "the Son of Man must suffer many things and be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Moses and Elijah were there to demonstrate that this was so. Against all human reasoning, God predestined the Cross to be the means by which His Son’s glory would ultimately be revealed. It was the price of glory and the very means by which Christ’s glory would be achieved. And in case the three disciples didn’t believe Moses and Elijah, a cloud enveloped them and a Voice from it said, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen: listen to Him!"

Listen to Him, as He tells you and the whole world that you can be reconciled to God only at the cost of His blood. Listen to Him, as He tells you that your sins are so great, it took the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God to pay what you owed God for them. Listen to Him, as Jesus declares that only by faith in Him can you be saved.

This is a glorious ministry, but as Paul says, we pay the price for being its ministers. In troubles, in opposition, in ridicule, in inconvenience, in so many ways we carry around in our bodies and souls the death of Jesus. We are indeed like clay pots holding precious ointment. We are like plastic store bags holding precious gold and jewels. We go through hell to proclaim the mysteries of heaven, and we preach a crucified Savior to give to others the glory of eternal life. We do not lose heart, because the God who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us. The God who revealed Jesus’ glory on the Mount of Transfiguration will someday reveal His glory in us. And it will be worth the price.

You may say, "I can’t pay that price. I’m not merely a clay jar, I’m a cracked pot!" But the witness of St. Paul in 2 Corinthians, the witness of the Transfiguration is that we can pay the price for divine glory. We can take up our crosses and follow Him! We can be the clay jars that pour out the glorious treasure of the saving death of Jesus Christ!

And how? Because Christ the Son of God Himself has paid the price of glory. He laid aside His equality with the Father and became a clay jar human being like us and walked among us. Jesus our Lord paid the price of being broken on the Cross, hanging in shame before the world, to bring many brothers and sisters to glory in Him.

Our Redeemer now entrusts this ministry to us, the Church, as frail as we are. By the ministry of the Holy Spirit the light of Christ shines in our hearts as He works in us and through us what we could never do of ourselves.

What price glory? The greatest price of all, the life of the Son of God.

Someday pain and suffering will be no more. Someday all mankind will see and acknowledge the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Someday we will lay our crosses down and know the joy of Christ’s glorious resurrection; we shall be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. Until that day, hope in His promise, trust in what He has done, and rest in His love. And never, ever lose heart.

How Not to Be a Hired Hand

Texts: 2 Corinthians 5:14 - 6:2; John 10:1-18

IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME, BUT you may remember watching Westerns at the movies. One common theme was the situation where a hired hand falls in love with the rich rancher’s beautiful daughter, and the rich rancher father doesn’t approve, and the hired man has to prove he’s worthy of her by saving the day in some heroic fashion or other.

I used to think that was very narrowminded of the father. Why shouldn’t he let his daughter marry the handsome, mysterious hired hand? That’s how the script writers want us to feel.

But when I look at it objectively, I have to admit the rich rancher father has a point. I mean, here’s your only daughter and the heiress to your fortune. Do you really want her to marry a drifter who showed up yesterday and may saddle up and go tomorrow? Do you really want her hitched to some guy who doesn’t really have any commitment to you or the business, he’s only there for the money? Do you like the prospect of your land someday controlled by a stranger from who-knows-where, who’s maybe just itching to sell off the livestock to raise money for whiskey and gambling and floozy women on the side? Come to think about it, the only way the hired man in these Westerns can prove he’s worthy to marry the heiress is by proving that at heart he’s not really just a hired hand after all!

In our reading from the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus talks about the ranching business. Sheep ranching, to be specific. He says He is the Owner of the sheep. He declares that He is the gate to the sheepfold for the sheep. And He proclaims that He is the good shepherd of the sheep.
What He is not is a thief, a stranger, or a hired hand. What’s more, Jesus wants us to have nothing to do with thieves, strangers, or hired hands. And certainly, when it comes to His sheep, He doesn’t want any of us to be a thief, a stranger, or a hired hand.

Of course when Jesus talks about sheep this we know He’s not talking about the woolly critters that walk around on four legs and go "baaa!" and keep the grass on Scottish golf courses so nice and short. He’s talking about the faithful people of God.

The Jews Jesus was teaching that day in Jerusalem should have understood that, too. God had been calling Israel His sheep for a long, long time. The Lord was Israel’s shepherd even before He brought them out of slavery in Egypt, ever since He called Abraham and his household out of the city of Ur. Didn’t King David sing, "The Lord is my Shepherd"? And didn’t prophets like Ezekiel declare that some day the Lord Himself would come and be Israel’s Shepherd in person?

But John tells us that as Jesus began this teaching, His Jewish audience didn’t get what He was telling them. It’s like they’re standing around thinking, "Right, Rabbi, everybody knows you don’t let just anyone into the sheep pen. Everybody knows that sheep recognise their shepherd’s voice and follow him. Everybody knows that the man who climbs over the fence is a robber and the sheep will scatter if he comes after them! Rabbi, you’re boring us. Tell us something deep and divine and theological. Tell us something new."

So Jesus does tell them something marvellously new. He says quite plainly, "I am the gate of the sheepfold." What does the sheepfold gate do? It shuts out the wild animals by night. It lets the sheep go out to good pasture by day. It completes the ring of protection around them and deters the thieves and the robbers.

What? How can a man be a gate? And how can this Man say that "all who ever came before me were thieves and robbers"? I think that’s when it dawned on the people that the Rabbi from Nazareth wasn’t talking about sheep farming. He was drawing on the old metaphor of Israel as God’s sheep. Jesus was actually declaring Himself to be the true Messiah and King that God’s prophets had promised from centuries of old.

"I am the Gate for the sheep," says Jesus. That is, "I, Jesus, am the way a man or a woman becomes part of the flock of God. I am the only way through which anyone can receive God’s care and nourishment. I am the door of protection between God’s people and the evils of this wicked world. I am the door to the kingdom of God."

All the false messiahs, all the lying prophets, all the bad kings Israel and Judah had ever known: they were all thieves and robbers. They didn’t care for the sheep. They didn’t love them. They only wanted to prey on them, to steal and kill and destroy. Anyone who trusted false shepherds like them would come to grief and destruction. Whereas if you come in through Jesus of Nazareth, you would be saved. You would have life. And you would have it to the full.

I wonder how Jesus’ hearers took that. I’d say they piously approved of what He said about the false messiahs, the lying prophets, and the bad kings. Maybe they even felt a thrill of excitement--Could this Jesus actually be the long-awaited messiah? He performed enough miracles to back up His claim!

But the messiah they envisioned would only be God’s representative and the bringer of God’s justice. They didn’t expect God literally to come shepherd them Himself! But now Jesus proclaims something entirely shocking: He says to them, "I am the Good Shepherd. I am the shepherd who owns the sheep."

Do you realize what that means? His Jewish hearers did! Jesus was claiming to be Israel’s Owner and Shepherd! He was claiming to be God!

And when He talked about the hired hand who does not own the sheep, who runs away and leaves them when he sees danger coming . . . It was clear whom Jesus meant. He was talking about the scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. All those men who should have been guarding God’s people Israel but who were really in it for themselves. All that sort of man who would give in and give up and give over whenever Rome said Boo! to them, because they feared Caesar more than they feared God. Shiftless, unreliable, mercenary hired hands, that’s all they were.

Not like Jesus, the good shepherd of His sheep. Not like Jesus, who would give up His life for the sake of His sheep. Not like Jesus, who would never be content and will never be content until He has added in every last one of the sheep His Father has given Him and brought them together in one precious flock. No, people of God, you want to avoid the hired hands. Most certainly, you want to avoid being one!

Now, when I think of myself as one of Jesus’ sheep, this passage gives me great comfort and peace. But when I consider my own role in shepherding God’s flock, I have to wonder, where does it leave me? Where does this teaching leave any of us who serve the Church of Jesus Christ?

Because in the church we have pastors and elders. We have deacons and trustees, missionaries and evangelists. We have lay people who work hard teaching Sunday School or organizing fellowship dinners. We have ordinary church-going Christians who show they’re in the sheep-tending business every time they tell someone in the unbelieving world about Jesus Christ or do a kind act in His name. We even have itinerant pulpit supply preachers like me, who go from church to church preaching the Word of God, and we’re not committed to any one congregation.

What about us? Are we all hired hands? Because that’s the contrast Jesus sets up in these verses. There’s Jesus, the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. And then there’s the hired hand, who throws down his staff and runs for cover at the first sight of a fang or a claw. We can’t be Jesus, right? Only Jesus is Jesus. And we don’t want to be hired hands. What are we supposed to do?

Actually, we are supposed to be Jesus. If you’re a church officer, every time you carry out your required service, you’re supposed to be Jesus. If you’re a Sunday School teacher, or a member of a women’s fellowship and service group, or the person who vacuums the church floor during the week, or the clerk who types up the bulletins-- if you’re working to benefit the people of God or carrying the good news to people who aren’t the people of God yet, you are supposed to be Jesus. If you’re out on your job or doing the shopping or at home with your family, anywhere there are Christians to be encouraged or lost sheep to be brought home, you’re supposed to be Jesus.

But how can we be Jesus? Isn’t Jesus the one and only unique Son of God? Isn’t He the only Good Shepherd and Saviour of the world? Well, yes. But our reading from 2 Corinthians shows us the way out of our dilemma.

First of all, verse 14 of chapter 5 says, "For Christ’s love compels us."

Compels us to do what? His love compels us to spread the good news of new life in Him to everyone around us. Christ’s love compels us to spend our lives in His service. But not as hired hands. No.

The next verse says, "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." Who is it who died and rose again? Jesus Christ our Lord, our good shepherd, the righteous Son of God. Who is it who live? It is we ourselves, who trust in what He has done. We were dead in selfishness and sin, but now Jesus has given us new life in Him. So we no longer are to live for ourselves! We aren’t in the Christian life just for what we can get out of it. We shouldn’t do Christian service for the sake of material or social or psychological gain. We mustn’t be hired hands!

The world says that’s why you do good things-- for what you can get out of it. That’s why people in the world-- unsaved people-- are kind to others: So others will be kind back to them. That’s why unsaved people get involved in religion-- for what it will do for them. Never mind if it’s true or not. Never mind that there really is a sovereign Creator God who deserves all praise and eternal devotion. The hired hand mentality says, "I’ll do this for you if you pay me so much in return. If not, I quit." Have you ever heard someone say, "I believe in my religion because it works for me"? Maybe you’ve even heard people say that about Christ and Christianity! And if Christianity stops "working for them," if life stops being peaceful or their disease isn’t healed or if they no longer feel they have life under control, they’ll go find another religion that does work for them! That is regarding Christ from a worldly point of view. That’s thinking like a hired hand.

And before we come to faith in Jesus, we all think of Him in that mercenary way. But we do so no longer, because now we are in Christ! That’s how we can be Jesus Christ as we serve His church and the world. He has made us to be a new type of human being. We have God Almighty living in us in the person of the Holy Spirit. So when we serve and act and speak and love according to His will, it’s just the same as if the one acting and speaking and loving were Jesus Christ Himself.

Sounds a lot like "WWJD--What Would Jesus Do?" doesn’t it? But it’s better than that. The trouble with "What Would Jesus Do?" is, that slogan gets us thinking about what Jesus did in the past and then trying to run with it now on our own. That’s not what the Spirit had in mind when He had Paul write that now we are in Christ. The question really is, "WDJD-- What Did Jesus Do?"

He served God perfectly as a loving Son, that’s what Jesus did. He willingly laid down His life for us, His sheep--that’s what Jesus did. He took it up again in resurrection, that we might have new life in Him. That’s what Jesus did. He reconciled us to God and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that’s what Jesus did!

And because of what Jesus did, what we now ask is, "What is Jesus doing in me, right now?" For you are in Him and He is in you, and He is in all of you as His body, the Church. As His new creatures, all you do should be done in identity with Him.

Say you’re an elder, and you’re sitting in a Session meeting and things are getting contentious: Remember, you’re not a hired hand. No, you are the presence of Christ the Good Shepherd to your fellow elders and they are His presence to you. He lives in you, and your words must be His words and His grace your grace.

Or suppose you’re on the board of deacons, and you’re all trying to decide the best ways to minister to the congregation and the community. Ask, "What is Christ in us directing us to do?" Remember, He does only what pleases and glorifies His Father in heaven. And He never operates out of self-interest or fear. How does Jesus want you to be His shepherding presence to His flock in this place? What is Jesus in you giving you the power to do?

It’s the same even if you’re not ordained. It’s amazing what God can do in a congregation that’s living in the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s wonderful how souls can be saved and the needy helped and evil and tragedy faced down when the Spirit of Christ the Good Shepherd motivates His people and leads them and sustains them in all they do!

All this assumes you’re hearing His voice as He speaks to you in the Holy Scriptures. Don’t bother asking what Jesus wants to do through you if the voice you hear is your own and not His! Jesus feeds you with His Word to make you strong and capable, and to incorporate you more perfectly into Him. He gives you the words to speak, and they are the words He spoke by His apostles and prophets. Everywhere you go, in every situation in life, you are Christ’s ambassador. You are called and commissioned to speak and act for Him. When people see you, they should see Jesus. When you speak in God’s service, it should be with the loving voice of Jesus. When people experience your patience and your care, it should be the care of the good shepherd Jesus.

Stop trying to do this on your own. You can’t. Don’t serve God so people will think well of you or to try to earn your way into heaven. That’s worse than useless, it’s an insult to the Lord who is the only Gate into heaven there is. But why attempt it anyway? You’re not a hired hand! You have been made one with Jesus Christ your Lord! In Him you have become the righteousness of God! You are a fellow worker with Him! You are one of God’s precious flock-- but to some person who needs you, to some lost and lonely sheep, you are also the voice and care of the Good Shepherd who is calling that soul back to Himself.

In the time of His favor God has heard you. In the day of salvation He helped you. He has brought you safe within His sheepfold and you are secure in Him forever. Relying on the love and power of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd of the sheep, serve and minister and love in His name, for He ministers and lives and loves in you.