Lamentations 3:22-33.                        Hope in hopeless times.          1/7/12

 (Lam 3:22-33)  Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. {23} They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. {24} I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." {25} The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; {26} it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. {27} It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. {28} Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him. {29} Let him bury his face in the dust-- there may yet be hope. {30} Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. {31} For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. {32} Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. {33} For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.

 Hope for hopeless times could well be the title to this passage that we have before us this morning, as well as the Gospel reading. With that in mind we might well say to ourselves that this doesn’t apply to us here now, so let us switch off and change the subject. Yet, I want to say to each one of you, this topic is important for you now. There are some here this morning, who even now, are going through very difficult times: some worse than others. We also need to remember that all of us at some time or other will go through our difficult times, and we will have to face death itself. The question is, what is or is going to be our source of hope in those times of difficulty and even hopelessness?

 Now this reading from Lamentations was written at a time when God’s people had lost everything; their city and nation; their temple and their very freedom. Things could hardly be worse than that. Except for the family in our Gospel reading; who had lost the life of their young darling daughter: what a tragedy! Yet we are reminded by our Lord that in both situations that all is not lost. We still have every reason to live in hope. For the Lord is still God; and he is our portion. We can still live in hope even in the very worst of times – even in the face of death itself.

 There however, is the very reason why so many today find life and the future hopeless, both inside the church and outside. The have discarded God as one who has control over all things: Yes even life and death. Instead they have placed their hope in society, technology, the almighty dollar and themselves. When these things collapse, as they inevitably do and will, then they find their hope gone and the future empty.

 It would seem that the answer to this dilemma is then to bury our heads in the sand: get busy in our life and our pleasures so that we don’t have time to think about these things. We fool ourselves into thinking that it won’t happen to me, or those who are near and dear to us. But surely that fact that we have one of the highest suicide rates in the world amongst our young people, and that for middle-aged men it is the most common reason for death, must tell us something. On top of that the drink and drug abuse that is so prevalent certainly adds to the picture.

 But the message here this morning is that there is hope. No matter what our situation may be in life – there is hope – there is a future, if only we would accept it. If only we would open our eyes and believe. We can face loneliness, difficulty and whatever else this world can throw at us. We can even face death itself because there is now One who gives hope no matter what we face. There is One who is beyond the realms of this world who has what it takes to give us every reason to live in hope. Yes he even has power over death itself, so he can give us what we need in order to get through.

 The one who does this is the none other than the Lord God Almighty himself. But he is also the God who has come right down into our world itself, and lived among us. He even raised this little girl from the dead so that we can know that he has that concern for us and the power to do something about it.

 Here in Lamentations it is made quite clear to us that the Lord is our hope even in the most hopeless of situations. We read again: “ For people are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.  For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.”

 The point is made that no matter how bad the situation, his love for us is such that he will never allow us to be completely overcome by it. We can trust that he will never fail us, even if he may take us to the brink. All the way through he has our good and the good of others in mind. Yes he may  bring grief, but he will show compassion.

 We are like that with our children and our love is not perfect. We discipline them and we might even spank them, or we might allow them suffer a little while for their wrongdoing, so that they might learn from their misdeeds. We do it because we have their welfare at heart. We want them to remember and live by the things that are important in life. We want those values that are good and right to be a part of their lives, and to not forget them. So we may allow them to suffer when they depart from that way, so that they might learn to remain in that which is good and right.

 So also does our God allow problems, difficulty and even death itself to come our way. Yes, he allows us to suffer as a result of the sin of this world so that good may come of it for us and for others. He loves us to the extent that he allows us to learn and grow from our wrongdoing, and so that we might become more attune to what is right and good. No matter how difficult things might be he is seeking what is truly good for us or for other people through us. All the while he is faithful to what is for good, and has compassion on us.

 Like the writer, we too can say, ‘The Lord is all that I have, therefore I will wait for his goodness.’ ‘His mercies are new every morning.’ As much as we are involved in and see the importance of our work, knowledge, money, freedom and all the rest, we know they are nothing when it comes down to tin tacks. They are nothing when we are confronted with the fact that these things have no answers to those difficult issues of life. They are nothing when we know and see the power of God and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ at work in a very real way in our world, and especially in the face of death.

So we wait patiently on him, knowing that he alone is the one who can truly bring us through those hard times. The Lord himself will save us from the mess that we have gotten ourselves into. That is our sure hope. That is the certainty that comes our way because of our Lord’s unfailing love toward us. Especially in Jesus’ coming into our world and his life, death and resurrection for us, we now know that he has won forgiveness of sins, life and salvation for us. And through our baptism and our coming forward regularly to the Lord’s Table, we have that constant assurance that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. With the Lord Jesus’ unfailing love toward us, nothing can now defeat us. Not even death itself. His love will not allow any of those things to win over us.

So the encouragement we have here again is for us to look away from ourselves and the things of this world, to the Lord Jesus Christ and his unfailing love toward us. Sure we still have to live and work in this world, and we have to be real; and have to be involved and active our society, but our hope now is not centred on ourselves, and the things that our world trusts. Instead we remember that the Lord God Almighty is in control, and that he has our best interests at heart. Even if at times it may not look that way.

 Our assurance that this is the case for us, we only look to Jesus Christ our Lord and saviour. He not only raised that little girl from the dead, but he himself rose again after dying on the cross for us. So now there is hope for us in hopeless times. There is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory and honour now and always. AMEN.

 Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1.  Coping with life!!  10/6/12

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Discouraged, decaying, lonely and troubled, pretty much describes the life of many people today, doesn't it? If we think back to our OT reading today, the people [and we ourselves] are often hiding away from God when we know that we have done wrong. We blame everyone else but ourselves for the troubles that we are in, when we get caught out. And I could go on: the neighbour is doing better than I am; the grass is greener over the fence; we are all mixed up in our thinking, not quite sure what is right or wrong; the politicians are not doing a good job; the church is going to pieces; etc etc.

This all seems to be pretty accurate reflection of life in our world today; and it seems that we all are caught up in it; struggling to cope with what is happening around us. I mean - how many of you here feel that way? I know from moving around amongst people that there are many who are having real difficulties in coping with life at the moment.

But here let me tell you that the situations of life will not greatly change; and in fact, may even get much worse. Because of the sinfulness of humanity and our growing disregard for God and his Word, the difficulties and hassles of life will not go away. As clever as we might like to think that we are, there is no way that any us will be able to avoid death; we will always have our enemies and our hurts; others will let us down and we will let others down; we will have our doubts and our struggles. They are a fact of life in a sinful world - even for us as Christians. Nothing is surer than the fact that there will always be these kinds of things in life to a greater or lesser degree.

Paul himself knew this all too well. In fact he even goes as far as to suggest that this is all good for us as Christians; because then Jesus Christ can be seen all the clearer. Here God wants us to see that for us as Christians these troubles and difficulties do not mean doom and gloom, but in fact the opposite. Paul reminds us that through faith we know with absolute certainty that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead  is at work in our lives and will raise us up also. We know what Jesus has done for us; and that we have a great God on our side; and that there is great glory ahead for us.

Now we can know and be sure of all of this. So even though we are hard-pressed on every side, we will not be crushed. We may be in doubt, but never in despair. We may have our enemies, but will never be without a friend. Though we may be badly hurt, we will never be destroyed. This is amazing stuff; and it is all there for you and me. We have all of this, assured for us here and now.

So what is the problem? Why are we struggling so much then?  Well take note of the second to last verse in our reading: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Now there we have something for us to ponder over. For where is our attention so often focussed when we are thinking of the hassles and difficulties of our life? Where are we looking? Too often we are doing what the rest of the world id doing, looking where they are looking and placing great importance on what they are. Then we wonder why our Christianity is empty for us; and why we are not coping; and why our children and others see nothing in this religious stuff for them.

While we are looking here, at the world around us, even within Christianity we will see decay; we will be discouraged; or we will be trying to hide from God and blame others for our troubles. When we look at ourselves and the issues that surround we cannot help but be disturbed. On the one hand it is natural for us to do this; and it is important that we do look realistically at what is happening all around us. However, we must remember that this is not the whole story and it is not what is most important for us as Christians.

God’s Word tells us over and over again that the things of this world will not give us the happiness and contentment that we long for. The riches of this life do not ensure freedom from sickness and heartache. Friendship with the world around about us is not equated with God’s love. So the things of this life that are held up as of great value are really nothing at all in God’s scheme of things.

So why should we look so despairingly in that direction. We know that our bodies are slowly dying and that no of us will last here on earth for ever. In fact we know that any one of us might not see another tomorrow. We also know that money and materialism will let us down when we need it most of all. So why look at those things so longingly and then despairing when they let us down. Why fix our eyes on what is seen and which here today and gone tomorrow. Sure we need many of these things and many of them are a necessary part of life in this world, but they are not the be all and end all.

If we lift our eyes a little, we will find that there is a richness that is way beyond the best that we can ever expect from this world of ours – from the things that are seen. If we get out noses up off the ground we will be amazed to see what God has done for us and what is now ours as a result. It is all there in our great and gracious God through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. He is the one who sheds a great deal of light on life and all of its perplexities; even when it comes to the practicalities of life.

In him we find that all of our efforts in life, as important as they might be, are really nothing without God and his activity in those situations. I could stand here and talk till I am blue in the face, or you could get the greatest speaker or leader that you could get, but without God’s Word and the help of the Holy Spirit, it is all in vain. There is no way the Church will grow or be able to reach out into the community and be of influence for the Good News of Jesus Christ.

However, God promises that where his Word is used, focussing on the centrality of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, there is life, and it will bring results. God assures us that he is at work even if we can’t see any results. As we look to and focus on him, doing what he wants, we know that it will all work out as God wants.

Even when our bodies start wasting away and we even face death, we and the doctors can only do so much. But again because of and with the Lord Jesus Christ even a great disability cannot take what is vitally important away from us; and even death is not the end any more. There is a great life still ahead: one that is way better than what we have here, now, with no more pain, tears or sorrow. It is all given to us freely by God as an absolute certainty; and no one and nothing can take it away from us because of Jesus Christ. So with him we have it all, guaranteed.

So no matter what we face now in life, all we need to do is lift our eyes and look to our great and gracious God and what he has said and done and it is always there. He is always there: his love reaches out to us wherever we are and he seeks to draw us into his presence. Then with him with us, all the rest will take care of itself.

With him them with us and at work for us, we can set out to do what he wants us to do: we can reach out to others as he wants: we can stand up and be different as Christians, not going along with the rest of our society: and we can hold firmly to the Bible as God’s Word to us, even when others are trying to change what it says. We can now do this despite the doubts that we might have; the enemies that might be at work against us; and the pressures we might have to conform to the tolerant and politically correct views that are espoused today. Because all these are nothing compared to the glory that is there for us in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.For again to our great God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, belongs all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN

Pastor Roger Atze
Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish

John 3:1-17.                God alone!!                                         3/7/12

 (1)  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. {2} He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." {3} In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." {4} "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" {5} Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. {6} Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. {7} You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' {8} The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." {9} "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. {10} "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? {11} I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. {12} I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? {13} No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. {14} Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, {15} that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. {16} "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. {17} For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 What a seemingly unusual reading for Trinity Sunday; talking about Nicodemus and being born again. Yet that is not the central focus of the text. Here God and what he does is the central point in the discussion. Jesus is seeking to lift Nicodemus’ eyes, and ours, beyond ourselves and this world to himself and the importance of who he is and what he does. I believe this is then, very much, an important issue for the Christian church today.

 My father-in-law used to have a saying, which he reminded me of from time to time, when we are discussing issues within the church. He would say in German, ‘der nasa ist zu dichte zu der erde.’ Which he translated as, ‘the nose is too close to the ground.’ What he meant with this saying was that, we are so strongly tied up with this world and its thinking, that we fail to look to God and what he says and does. Even in our Christian thinking, ‘the nose is too close to the ground below.’ We continually want to look at things in terms of our worldly point of view, and too often fail to think of God and his actions in it all. Sadly this is a problem for most, if not all of us, particularly in our day and age. We are the centre of the universe, and everything must revolve around us. ‘The nose is too close to the ground.’

 Here Jesus tells Nicodemus the same thing. ‘Your nose is too close to the ground.’ ‘You are looking for God’s kingdom in the signs and wonders; in earthly terms; in what you can do and see.’ Even when Jesus says that he must be born again from above, he tries to think of how he can possibly do it himself. He just doesn’t get it.

 So often we see and hear the same kind of thing in the church scene today. We must make our decision for Christ if we are to be saved. We must do this, and this and that, if we are going to bring people into and keep them, in the church. We must do all kinds of things if we are to be truly Christian; and the like. Now there are many good things said in this regard, but unfortunately, first and foremost, ‘the nose is too close to the ground.’ The emphasis is on us and what need to do for ourselves and the people around us, and not on our great and gracious God and who he is and what he says and does. In so doing, we short-change ourselves and the church’s work: We let so many people down in the process.

 Here however Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again,” which is to also be understood as being ‘born from above.’ “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” God is the giver and doer of all that is good, and all that is of God. He alone is the source of all that is truly Christian. God’s Kingdom – his rule – is and operates where he is; he is the centre – he is the all-important one. And he does what he wants, where he wants and when he wants. He determines it all by his criteria, the way he chooses.

 Yes, and it is God who brings us into his kingdom – his family, and he does it through baptism: even the baptism of infants. Through the water and the Spirit we all are washed clean from our sin and made acceptable to God, and there he gives us a new spirit; a new life; and a new way of thinking. There he gives us an alternative to thinking with our ‘noses too close to the ground.’ Our eyes are lifted to him: focussed on him. Now we are enabled to live for him rather than ourselves. Then despite what we see, we know that all is good and well. Because it is the Almighty God himself, who has determined that we are born again and that we are a part of his kingdom.

 Even when things look far from good, we know that despite what we see, God is in control: that it is for good. Just look at the snake in the desert: Look at Jesus on the cross. There God is in total control. There he has brought the ultimate good into the very worst of situations. There he has bought us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. And we did not even lift a finger to bring that about. Except in fact that we did the opposite; we put him there on the cross. We did the evil, but he was punished in our place, so now we do not perish, but have eternal life. Now we are not condemned, but through Jesus are saved.

 This is our wondrous and awesome God at work. This great God who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit: The Creator and preserver of all that is good; the Redeemer of a sinful and lost world: and the Sanctifier who leads us to faith and to this new life that is won for us. This God who loves and cares about us deeply, and comes to us in the midst of this world that is messed up by sin, is the One that we can now look to with confidence and a sure hope. We can trust that he is for us, even when everything is against us.

 Here I would like to relate to you, as best I can, a true story that I heard of some years ago, because I believe it brings this point out well for us here. This story was of a young couple who went to Africa as missionaries. Their names were mentioned and where they went to, but I cannot remember that. They, together with another couple, decided that God wanted them to go out to a village and work amongst the people, rather than stay in the mission compound. But the chief of the village would not allow them to stay in the village or have any contact with the people. So they went up the hill a little way out from the village and stayed there.

 The only contact they had with the village was a little boy that the chief allowed to come to them, to sell to them eggs and other foodstuffs. The other couple got discouraged and went back to the missionary compound, but this couple stayed on. Through the visits of this little boy, the wife shared something of the Christian message: Probably only simple stories about Jesus. But they had no other contact. In time the wife gave birth to a child, but the mother died through complications. The father could not cope with the situation, blamed God, turned to drink, and his life fell to pieces. He gave the little baby girl to the other missionary couple to take care of and went back to Norway, a shattered man. To him the whole missionary exercise was a disaster. The other couple too, gave up and went back to America.

 Years later that little girl, having grown up, happened to have come across an article in a magazine about how a whole village had become Christian through a little boy sharing the message about Jesus. And years later again this woman met that little boy, who had become a pastor of a very large church the God had established through his message and his ongoing study.

 Despite what was an absolute disaster from our human perspective, turned out to be a great blessing, because God was at work. He used that simple message and a little boy, to bring many people to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

 That is Jesus message here to Nicodemus and to us, God alone is the almighty One. He can do great things. He is the One who brings and makes things happen in our lives. He gives us new birth into his kingdom through water and the Spirit. He gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. He is Lord and saviour: the one and only who can be looked to with confidence and certainty.

 That being the case let us not be people whose ‘noses are too close to the ground,’ but people who look up to our great and gracious God and give him all the glory and honour. For he alone is our help and our salvation. To this God be the glory, great things he has done; and still does. AMEN.

 Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish