Pastoral Letter 104
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Thanks to God we have reopened our doors for face-to-face worship. Naturally, we are still observing the COVID safety restrictions, and we will keep doing so until further notice. I hope and pray that we will keep on worshiping together for the rest of the year. You will receive my brief Pastoral Letter with the Order of Service, Message and hymns every week. Those who will not be able to join us on Sundays, they can worship with us at home.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let us know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
Bruce West has been hospitalised due to a fall to receive treatment. He is fine, but he will be needing care and physiotherapy for some time.
Here are some more prayer points for this week:
- Pray for those who are suffering with COVID.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for all those who are suffering under hardship and poverty.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray and give thanks with all you have and remember that everything is given by God with His grace.
- Pray for each other and the church, the body of Christ, to do what it is supposed to do and a light in this dark world.
- Pray for Bruce West, who has been hospitalised
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
Love and Mercy
The two readings today, Joseph’s story in Genesis and part of Jesus’ sermon as we read in Luke, are linked together by one theme: forgiveness and our role in the act of forgiving. These are the words of Jesus in the closing section of the Beatitudes this time presented as the “Sermon on the Plain” and as recorded by Luke. It is this theme of forgiveness.
In Genesis we read Joseph told his brothers about dream after dream in which he is the most important. He was also the best loved son of Jacob, being the ‘son of his old age’. Jacob honoured him with the wonderful ‘tunic of many colours’, an honour usually saved for the eldest son. And so, his brothers hated him. This theme of family unrest is something just as common today as it was then. One day, far from home, they had the chance to rid themselves of Joseph and, stopping just short of murder, they sell him into slavery and bring home the beautiful coat torn and soaked in goat’s blood, telling Jacob a wild beast had consumed Joseph.
After many years, his brothers are frightened when they met Joseph in Egypt. The tables have turned and Joseph commands great authority in Egypt and literally has the power of life and death over them – they are completely at his mercy. And what does Joseph do? Is this not the time to punish his brothers, to gain retribution for the wrong they dealt him?
Instead, Joseph says to them, “do not be distressed or do not be angry with yourselves…for God has sent me ahead of you…” and so totally forgives them of their guilt and wrongdoing. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God…” acting through you. Even more astounding to us, he tells them to go back and bring their entire extended family back to dwell in Egypt under his protection and care.
This is a fine example of God’s grace – God uses even the evil that we poor sinners do to progress His work. This divine plan often takes many lifetimes to understand – as we see in Joseph’s actions. Joseph also became the reason for Israel to be in bondage in Egypt, which would again serve God’s will through the person of Moses.
But what was it that allowed Joseph to forgive such a great wrong? We could be shocked that Joseph washed the slate clean so quickly. It astonishes the mind to think that he was so aware of God’s grace in all around him that he would grant so big a blessing to those who had hurt him.
When we look to the sacrifice of the last Adam, Jesus Christ, maybe this isn’t so hard to understand. But the question remains…how did he do it?
The Old Testament Joseph is very much a type of Christ.
Favoured by his father (cf. Genesis 37:3), Joseph was sold by his brethren for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28).
Favoured by His Father (Luke 3:22), Jesus ‘came unto His own, and His own (people) received Him not’ (John 1:11), and He was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).
This is a limitless forgiveness which gives us as Christians our boundless hope: as Christ said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This is the forgiveness as modelled by Joseph, but again, how are we to become able to do this impossible task?
Well, when we have questions about which way to go in life, prayer is always a good option. The psalmist tells us to “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret – it leads only to evil” (Psalm 37:8). So, it is with an agitated spirit that blinds us to the log in our own eye. The most powerful tool against this focus on the sins of others is prayer.
One of the best ways to deal with those who hurt us is to pray for them, and to pray that we will better understand them. Praying for someone does not mean we agree with what they have done.
The question that keeps coming up is how then do we live as Joseph forgave? We are told in the Gospel today to love our enemies and to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who abuse us. Also, to be merciful, just as our Father is merciful. Focus on that phrase – to be merciful just as our Father is merciful, to forgive just like God forgives. If we thought the standard that Joseph set was hard, how can we ever dream to forgive as God Himself forgives us?
Why do we forgive? Jesus also tells us in the Gospel today that we will be forgiven as we forgive others, words echoed in the Lord’s Prayer: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In the Gospel according to John, Christ gives us the new commandment – to love one another. “Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another” and there again is that charge to love others as God loves us. And the reason why: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
It is impossible for us to forgive all. When the persecution reaches a certain point, we cannot find the forgiveness that God charges us to give. At least, we cannot find it alone. We cannot achieve this level of love and forgiveness ourselves, but only when the love and grace flows to us from God. Our job and our Christian duty is to ask God for His help.
The way to love our enemies is not through reliance on ourselves, but on the power of God working through us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Only through this we can strive to be the spiritual beings that God calls us to be.
The Sermon on the Plain is directed towards those who ‘came to hear’ Jesus (Luke 6:17). It was ‘toward His disciples’ that Jesus first lifted up His eyes (Luke 6:20). That emphasis is repeated at the beginning of the present passage (Luke 6:27). These are words for those already committed to building upon the rock (Luke 6:47-48).
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” says Jesus (Luke 6:27). The word is “Agape”.
It is the kind of Love which God demonstrated when He gave His only-begotten Son. (John 3:16)
It is the kind of Love which Jesus modelled when He went about doing good. (Acts 10:38)
When He forgave Paul the blasphemer. (1 Timothy 1:13)
When He prayed for his tormentors: ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ (Luke 23:34)
When the soldiers ‘divided His clothes among them and cast lots for His clothes’ (John 19:23).
When He gave His all for us, even without our asking: For it was ‘while we were yet sinners’ that Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Jesus has already indicated that He is fully aware that His followers will face persecution (Luke 6:22). “Do good to those who hate you,” He says. “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). Throughout these two verses the word “you” is in the plural: in other words “‘you all’ who hear” (Luke 6:27), collectively.
Then He turns to the singular, personalising the situation. If someone strikes “you” on one cheek; takes away “your” cloak; to everyone who asks “you”, give; takes away what is “yours”. (Luke 6:29-30)
Reverting to the plural of “you”, Jesus presents His version of the ‘Golden Rule’. “Do to others as you would have them do to you”. (Luke 6:31)
Jesus explains this attitude by looking at the alternative. There is literally no “grace” in loving those who love us: even sinners do this. There is literally no “grace” in doing good to those who do good to us: even sinners do this. There is literally no “grace” in lending to those from whom we hope to receive: even sinners do this. (Luke 6:32-34)
Jesus repeats the call to the God kind of love: “But ‘you all’ love those who hate you, and do good, and lend, nothing hoping for again” (Luke 6:35). “Great reward” is mentioned here, not as a motive, but as an expected fruit in the lives of those who are “sons of the Most High.” Be who you are!
“‘You all’ therefore be merciful, as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36; cf. Romans 9:15). We are being called to be compassionate, to exercise grace, love and mercy towards those who are hostile to us. It was ‘when we were enemies’ that ‘we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son’ (Romans 5:10). It was while we were yet unlovely, and unlovable, that His Love was thus poured out for us!
Having said that reward is not the motive, we do find that, incidentally, love does bring its own reward (Luke 6:37). Sometimes in this life (Luke 6:38), always in the hereafter. Measure out what you would hope to get, for God desires mercy, not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13).
We may think this teaching is impossible, and with good reason: but it is modelled on Jesus’ own example. Furthermore, God has given us His grace to aspire towards this high standard of Agape Love. Born of the Spirit, to be His sons and daughters, we are commanded to show love and mercy to those who are around us and even our enemies. If need be, even we have to turn the other check. That’s what Joseph did, when his brothers hated him and even plotted to kill him. That’s what Jesus did and still does to us. With our sins, we have become enemies of God, but Jesus with His great costly and unexpected love gave His life and died on the cross to give us hope by delivering us from condemnation. He did what He was supposed to do, so that we could reconcile with God and being saved by His blood, we have become children of God with the possibility of having eternal life and to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, as David says in Psalm 23.
To deserve this great love and mercy as well has to have God’s forgiveness, we need to love our neighbours as well as the enemies and forgive them showing love and mercy.
Amen!