A whale of a good time

You know about Jonah, right?

Nice man, got eaten by a big fish.  All that.  But the story of Jonah is a bigger story than the story of fish, it really is. I know why we all know about the fish, and that's because the story of the fish is the story that we tell the kiddies, so that they can have a fun visual that is interesting and immediately involving.  They like stories involving animals, you know.  So people know about Jonah as a story with a whale, because they heard that story as a child.

And they stopped reading the Bible after that.

But the story of Jonah, if all you know about it is that he was eaten by a big fish, begs the question as to what he was doing to get fish-eaten in the first place. It's not an accident that he was eaten by a fish, it's not a story of a guy minding his own business and getting swallowed by a big old fish.  Or maybe it is.

Maybe it's exactly that, a story of a man who was minding his own business.  The story of a man who was minding his own business to the exclusion of God's business.  The story of a man who was focused with a tight laser focus on his business, what he wanted vs what he didn't want.  A man who knew what he wanted, and when what God wanted was different from what he wanted, he did what any sensible, red-blooded person would do, which is to immediately run away from his responsibilities.  God wants him to go to Nineveh, he hops on a boat to Tarshish.   If you know your ancient middle eastern geography (which I know you do), you'll know that Tarshish and Nineveh are not in the same area code.  They're not even in the same vicinity. Jonah is running away from God's decrees.  Why does he do that? You know why.  If God was to preach to you that you should go and evangelize ISIS, you wouldn't do it for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, that you would be afraid of being violently killed by ISIS, and secondly, that you would actually probably prefer it if God smote them.  If you know for sure that God was planning to wipe ISIS off the map, if you knew for sure he was going to microwave the thanksgiving leftovers, would you stop him? Or would you just let it happen?



If you want to go ahead and ask that question but under different circumstances, go and check out any one of a number of ISIS execution videos that are out there, and boy are they out there.  Lots of shots of ISIS militants murdering people, straight up beheadings, burnings, running people over with tanks, gunshots, all that.  Look at those people, and ask if you want them to inherit paradise.  Odds are, after watching a few of those videos, you'd be happy for them to roast eternally.  It's hard to look at those videos and think anything else.  When Jonah had received the order from God to go to Nineveh, he was clearly not into it.  He'd rather the Ninevites were not saved, he'd rather they were killed , swept from the earth and discarded.  And when the people of Nineveh repented, when they turned back from their sin, when his message was heard, Jonah wasn't happy; he was furious.  Once you get this, once you understand this, then you can understand the reaction of Jonah, as well as the injunction that we get in the epistle reading, which tells us to live as though we weren't attached to this world.

Now I'm going to ask you to think about something that you're not used to thinking about.  I'm going to ask you why you think the way you think about God's word.  If you're like the rest of us, you think about God's word in the frame and reference of the world you live in.  That is, the people you like are righteous, and the people you dislike are sinners.  And this kicks in really hard when you consider and contemplate how you make decisions regarding the faith.  Think about your judgment when it comes to what you think is right and wrong.  Ask yourself why you think certain things are right or at least ethically neutral.  Is it because God's word says so, or is it because it's what you see in real life?

This is where we hit maximum overdrive, you know.  This is when the scales hopefully fall away from your eyes, and you realize why it is that you  think the way you do.  For you and I, we like ourselves, we like our friends, we like our families, we like all them folks close to us, and we want them to be righteous.  We want them to be godly people, but the route that Jesus gave us to get to that point, by being redeemed by the blood of Christ, that's what they avoid.  They stay far far away from it, and avoid it like the plague.  And because we want our friends and family to be saved, instead of leading them to Christ, we try to make it as though the commands of scripture already fall in line with what they're doing.  And that's wrong.  Straight up.  It's the reverse of Jonah's story you know.  And you know this.  You can tell that Jonah's reaction to the Ninevites is wrong and bad, that he was wrong to wish destruction on all the Ninevites, to be sure, but that's just the other face of the mistake that we're making today.  Jonah felt as though God should hate the people he hated, while we feel that God should love the people we love, and that his love for them should be conditional on them just being who they are.

Did you get to that by reading the scriptures? Or did you just want the people you love to be spared? Did you do a lot of exegesis, or did you just look at the conclusion you wanted, and ask yourself what the fastest route to that would be? For this is why evangelism is in such a state right now, because we, like God, want all men to be saved, and to get to that point, we sort of had the idea that we could want all men to be saved, by changing the definition of what it means to be saved.  However, there is a second half to that Bible verse, which says that God wants all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  These days, we want everyone to be saved by believing in a lie, by believing that they have nothing to change, and they're fine the way they are.  In reality, we all have a lot to change, we all have a lot to be different in, we've all  made decisions that are bad and wrong, and the worst thing we can do is to just assert that we're all perfect, nobody has anything to change, and we all just need to keep it up.  And then nothing gets any better.

The reality is that the word of God wants us to change, all of us.  And like Jonah, there are people we like, and people we don't.  The people we like, we want them to be saved, and the people we don't, we'd be happy for them to disappear.  But the injunction that God gives us is that he wants all people to be saved, whether we're too close to them or not.  It's not about changing the definitions to fit those whom you like, or to smash those whom you don't.  It's about the law of God, and the gospel of God applying to absolutely everybody.  The standards are there, the law doesn't change whether or not you like the people who are hearing it.  That's the hard news.  The good news is that the Gospel applies to everyone as well.  We don't like that the law applies to everyone.  Jonah didn't like that the gospel applies to everyone.   These are functions of being human, of being too close to the situation, which is why Paul impels us to live as though we were not attached to these things, to live as though we were not too close to these situations, and instead to live like people who can look at the law and the Gospel as right and good, and as things that are for absolutely everybody.  Whether or not you want the people around you to be saved, you need to remember that there are no exceptions to the law except the Gospel.  That's the big exception, the one way out, and the one way out that provides no other.

If you want all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, God wants that too.  And he wants you to take part in doing it, in accomplishing it.  Instead of dwelling as someone who is obsessed with the reduction of God's law, be someone obsessed with the amplification of his Gospel.  The only solution to the law's weight.

More sex.

Got your attention, didn't I? 

Well, this wasn't just a cheap stunt, it's actually part of the epistle reading that we had this last Sunday. Well, it wasn't, but it should have been.

The reading that we had from Sunday was all about fleeing sexual immorality, which is, of course, a good and proper thing to do.  Flee sexual immorality, get away from it, run from it as quickly as possible.  Don't put yourself in those situations, don't act like 'it just happened,' instead do as much as you can to stay away from where things go bad.  And you know where those things are. 

But there's a bit of a change-up coming, which is that fleeing sexual immorality doesn't really do much for you unless you're fleeing towards something.  It isn't worth a whole bunch if all you're doing is to run directionless in circles.  You see, you get the two edged approach, where Paul tells you to flee from sexual immorality, which is great, and then you have Jesus your Lord telling you what to do instead.  And he says to follow him.

Now, following Jesus means not leading Jesus around.  Stop me if I'm getting too technical.  If you're going to follow Jesus, that means that you're going to have to follow him wherever he leads.  And there's a good chance that you're not going to like where he leads you.  There's a good chance that where he leads you isn't where you want to go.  You want to go to the normal human places, right? You want to go to the spots where you get to do whatever you want.  You want to eat ice cream for dinner and stay up as late as you want, like a toddler.  That's what you want.  And we all want to move roughly in the same direction, which is why the road to destruction is broad, and so many people are on it.

But the narrow way, the way to salvation, is the one that Jesus leads you on.  That's the one that Jesus, our Lord wants you to follow him on.  And the advice from the scriptures isn't just a matter of telling you what not to do, as though the law of God consisted only in avoiding certain behaviors.  Rather, the law of God tells you not just what to avoid, but what to draw close to.  The law of God doesn't just consist of a matter of saying 'gosh, I should flee sexual immorality,' but rather 'I should run towards sexual morality.'  Righte-o.

So what does sexual morality look like? Well, the New Testament helpfully tells you, you know.  I know we had the reading from 1 Corinthians that tells you to flee sexual immorality, but the book of first Corinthians goes on after that point too, you know.  Here, I'll write it down for you so you can read it for yourselves.

The husband should fulfill his wife's sexual needs, and the wife should 

fulfill her husband's sexual needs.  The wife give authority over her 

body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.

Do not deprive one another of sexual relations, unless you both agree

to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more

completely to prayer.  Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won't be able to

tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

That's the sexual landscape that Paul puts forward for a Christian marriage.  You're not just fleeing away from sexual immorality, you're fleeing towards a fulfilling sexual relationship in the bonds of sacred and holy matrimony, which ought to make everything better.  But there's a snag that comes up, especially now, in which the marital satisfaction that Paul is talking about isn't something that is always prioritized in a marriage.  

Especially in the church.

In the church, we got so far into the notion of flight from sexual immorality that we completely forgot to flee towards something.  All we did was run away from something, and then forgot to think about what way we should be going.  Paul even tells you specifically why he recommends this course of action, you know, that you may not burn with lust, that you may not be tempted.  Flee sexual immorality, and flee towards the kind of healthy sexual morality that God had in mind when he made them male and female and told them to be fruitful and multiply.  So what's the problem? What's the hangup?

Well, you tell me.  You tell me why this is one issue that you feel the need to lead Jesus on.  For a fairly generous chunk of his earthly ministry, Jesus told his disciples to follow him, and they did, up to a point.  They followed him until they disagreed with him, then they wanted to lead him.  They followed him only so far, then they got out in front of him, and decided where he could go.  The obvious example of this is the moment when Jesus tells his disciples that he has to go to Jerusalem, to fall into the hands of sinful men, to suffer and die, and Peter rebukes him.  Peter tells Jesus 'I know you told me to follow you, but I'm not going to follow you to a cross!'

Jesus says to Peter at that point, 'get behind me, Satan. You have not in mind the things of God, but the things of men.'  And Peter isn't alone.  You and I frequently do that.  When we hear God's teachings, we are happy for him to lead us, to follow him, until we're not.  Then, we want to be in charge. We are happy to let God lead until things get difficult, until we end up far enough off of the broad way, and then we want to lead him.  We want to put him in his place.

I do sincerely wonder in the marriages that are in the churches, if we are taking our responsibilities seriously enough.  I wonder if the directives for marriage that Paul gives are taken to heart, or if they are just more things that we look at and say that God doesn't know what he's talking about anymore, that our situation is different, and that we can now lead God where we want him to go.  And that's a fatal error.  

Jesus didn't come that you may be miserable, he didn't come to suck all the fun and enjoyment out of your life, he straight up says that he came that your joy may be full.  He wants strong families, fulfilled husbands and wives, he wants you to actually, shock of all shock, enjoy your relationships, and to live in a safe, strong and well space.  This is what the scriptures tend to be all about, and the issue that we're going to come up against is that we see his directives in the scriptures, and we don't want to follow.  And then we're surprised when things don't work out.  We're shocked when things don't go the way they're supposed to go.

Do we follow Jesus, or do we want to lead him? Do we follow in the world that Jesus wants us to go, or do we tend to want to have him follow us, to follow us where we lead, and to drag him around? That's a really really important question to be answered, and one that we need to consider all the way through.  When Jesus tells people to follow him, he tells them to do so wherever he might go.  He doesn't go the way they want him to, he doesn't say what they want him to.  He leads them to some of the worst places, to lepers, to crowded streets, to responsibilities, to crowds of the sick, the suffering and the dying.  He leads them to reeking tombs, to desolate mountaintops and to visions.  And finally, he leads them to the cross.  If you're someone who has been told by Jesus to follow him (which you have), then you need to know that you're not just being told to follow in his footsteps morally, you're called to follow him wherever he goes. And he walks from the manger through all those scenes above, all the way to the cross, where he sheds his blood for you.  And then if you keep following him, you'll follow him to the tomb, and to the resurrection.  The problem for most of us is that we only follow him so far, then quit when it gets tough.

But keep following him.  Keep following him through your failures, keep following through your difficulties, keep following him even when things get bad and hard.  Follow him through all that to the cross, and to salvation.

And yes, if you're married, you should be having plenty of sex.  You should be fulfilling each others' needs.  You should be serving your partner in the way they need to be served.  Tell 'em Paul sent you.

Water and the Word

We Lutherans have a good idea about what baptism is, and what it does.  Other churches don't really get it as well as we do.  There are a great many other churches that will look at baptism as a work you do for God in some capacity.  They'll look at baptism as a decision you make for God, that you are deciding something, choosing God, and marking that with a public ceremony in water.

But in the Lutheran conception, baptism is something done to you.  Baptism is a miracle accomplished to you, on you, and with you, but it's not as though you're the one effecting the massive miracle.  That is, Jesus is choosing you at that point, and washing you clean of all of your sins.  He is doing the amazing miracle that brings you to God's family, cleans you of your sins, and makes you right with the Lord your God, and you have a firm and known moment when that happened.  And the water itself isn't all of what accomplishes that miracle either.  It's necessary, sure, but it's not the only thing that gets the job done.

For that, we have to answer an ancient question that every single person has to answer when confronted by Jesus Christ. Jesus asks this question of his disciples, but he always seems to ask it off the page, and directly to the person who is encountering him, saying 'who do you say that I am?'  Now that's a good question, it's a fair question and an important question, and one that everyone has to answer in their lifetimes.  When you find Jesus, you have to answer that question about him, because that answer will make everything that he says and does brim with meaning, or be worthless to you.  When Jesus says to you 'who do you say that I am,' there are a couple of different answers that come up, especially at this time of year.  For there are four different Gospels.  One of them, Mark, doesn't address the birth of Jesus at all, so we'll leave it for now, don't worry we'll get back to it.  Matthew and Luke detail the birth of the baby Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem, and the census, Mary and Joseph and the Donkey, all that.  But the Gospel of John, well, that's a different matter.

Who do you say Jesus is?  Who does John say that he is?

John's gospel begins with the word made flesh, the word of God that was made flesh, and dwelt among us.  The immortal, invisible word that made all of creation, that was present way back in the first page of Genesis, that word of God became flesh, and dwelt among us. If your understanding of the man, Jesus Christ, is that he is a guy, a nice guy, and a good teacher, then you're missing a massive part of what's happening.  Jesus Christ isn't just a nice man, a good guy, or a powerful role model, he is the eternal word of God made flesh.  He is the word of God incarnate.  The powerful word of God that makes things happen, that creates, that makes, that forms and that sustains, that's a far far bigger deal than you might expect.  And the presence of Jesus of Nazareth in the water is a pretty big key to understanding how baptism works, and why he's there to begin with.

Who do you say that Jesus is? He's the word of God.

More questions and answers, this time coming from Luther's small catechism, that talks about the benefits of baptism.  Luther's catechism talks about the benefits of baptism being something that cannot nor could not come from water alone, but from the combination of water working with the word of God.  It is water combined with God's word that does amazing things, and what it manages to work out is the forgiveness of sins where God washes the baptized person clean of their sins through water and the word.  And if Jesus is not just the son of God, but also the Word of God, then this takes on a whole new meaning.  It takes on new meaning because the idea of the word of God combined with the water isn't figurative.  It's literal.

The word of God is literally in the water, at the baptism of Jesus Christ, that's exactly what's happening.  And that makes all the difference in the world.  In Holy Baptism, the word of God isn't just spoken over the water, the word of God is literally in the water itself.  And this word of God is the active ingredient in the baptism. 

The book of Malachi tells us that the messiah is going to be like a refiner's fire, or a fuller's soap, and that's awfully helpful for understanding the baptism of Jesus Christ.  For as good Lutherans, when we think about baptism, we understand it as being for the forgiveness of sins, which is right and true, but gives us pause to consider the baptism of Jesus.  He was born without sin, lived without sin, and spend his entire life without sin, so why the baptism?  The baptism was to mark the beginning of his public ministry, to serve as an example for us to be baptized as well, and also to activate the water, to be the active ingredient in the baptism.  When Jesus enters the waters of baptism, he does so as the Word of God, and the fuller's soap, and you know how soap works by now, I would hope.  When you plunge your hands into the water, and scrub up with the soap, it isn't you making the soap clean.  It's the soap making you clean.  And those are different things. 

If you tell a child to wash their hands, they'll likely respond by saying that their hands are already clean, and then they'll do that thing where they show you clean palms, and that's a nice thing, and would be amazing except for one simple thing, which is that those hands aren't clean.  They look clean to a child, sure, but they're covered with the things that make you sick, and that's not dirt.  Their hands are covered with germs.  And it's the germs, the viruses, the bacteria, the pathogens, that's what makes you sick.  That's what gets you infected, and that's what makes you sick. It's what's contagious, too, which is why you insist that your children wash their hands before they touch or handle food.  Wash your hands, and use soap, otherwise you're just moistening the germs. 

Well, when it comes time for baptism, you need to know a few things.
1 - You are spiritually sick.  This is true whether you acknowledge it or not.  You aren't the sort of person you think other people should be.  You make bad choices that you hide from everyone else.  And that means...
2- your germs are invisible.  Just like the pathogens, your germs are invisible, cannot be seen.  The average person, looking at you, won't know how sick and how contagious you are. They can't see your sickness nor your sinfulness, because if you're like anyone else, you do a fine job of hiding it.  That means that...
3 - You need to be cleaned.  You need holy Baptism.  And you need not just water, but water and the Word. You need to wash not just with water, but with the combination of water and the fuller's soap, that which cleans, that which makes good and right. That which restores and renews.  You need to be scrubbed, which is what the water in combination with the word actually does.

Eventually, as it turns out, you can't really talk about the baptism of Jesus without talking about your baptism too.  And if you're going to talk about your baptism, you're going to talk about why it's there for you, to forgive sins, to restore, and to make holy.  If that's the case, then the purifying aspect of the Word of God takes on new meaning, for when Jesus emerges from the water, and the heavens open, and the dove descends on him, the voice from Heaven says something intense.  A voice can be heard saying 'You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased.'  Thanks to what Jesus of Nazareth is able to do, those words that are spoken at the baptism of Jesus by God himself are spoken to each one of us at our baptisms as well.  At that moment, when our sins are washed away, when we are adopted into the family of our Father, that is when we become part of the family of God, and when God looks at us, he sees Christ.  He sees a clean people, a restored people, a renewed people.  When he looks at you now, he says of you the same as he says at the baptism of Jesus, which is

"This is my beloved child, in you I am well pleased."

That's the good news of the scriptures, really.  Remember your baptism always, as it is the sure sign of your salvation, and remain confident in it always.  The presence of the Word in those waters is the pledge of your salvation indeed.