4th Sunday of Easter Service

Recording in progress.

Please bear with us this morning.

Joshua and I are going to work through whatever problems we have as

best we can, but either way we pray that you'll be blessed by God's word

as you hear it this morning.

Our opening hymn this morning

is

809809.

Please

rise.

As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Our intro this morning is various verses of Psalm 66 and I invite you to join with

me in the indented parts.

Shout for joy to God all the earth.

Hallelujah.

Say to God, how awesome are your deeds?

Come and see what God has done.

Bless our God, O peoples,

who has kept our soul among the living.

Shout for joy to God all the earth.

Hallelujah.

To mitigate technical difficulties as best we can, this will be a spoken liturgy.

Please rise.

Sorry, please be seated.

I haven't preached in an actual church for a few years.

In peace, let us pray to the Lord for the

peace from above and for our salvation.

Let us pray to the Lord for the peace

of the whole world, for the well -being of the Church of God and for the unity of all.

Let us pray to the Lord for this holy

house and for all who offer here their worship and praise.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Help, save, comfort and defend us.

Gracious Lord,

the Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, since you have brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep to call us into his flock

through his word, grant us your Holy Spirit so that we may hear the voice of the Good Shepherd

and faithfully follow him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,

now and forever.

Amen.

Can I share the readings?

Let me bring them up.

Hear the word of the Lord recorded for us in Isaiah chapter 40, verses 25 to 31.

To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One?

Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.

He brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might,

and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel?

My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

This is the word of the Lord.

Hear the word of the Lord recorded for us in 1 Peter 2 verses 11 -20.

Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the

flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers,

they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Be subject, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor

as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise

those who do good.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish

people.

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover -up for evil, but

living as servants of God.

Honor everyone.

Love the brotherhood.

Fear God.

Honor the emperor.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle,

but also to the unjust.

For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while

suffering unjustly.

For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?

But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the

sight of God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 16th chapter.

Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus said, A little while and you will see me no longer, and again a little while and you will see

me.

So some of his disciples said to one another, What is this that he says to us?

A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me, and because

I am going to the Father.

So they were saying, What does he mean by a little while?

We do not know what he is talking about.

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, Is this what you are asking

yourselves, what I meant by saying, A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while

and you will see me?

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament,.

But the world will rejoice.

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has

delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being

has been born into the world.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,

and no one will take your joy from you.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

We

sing our sermon hymn.

483, 483.

Just reconfiguring quickly before the sermon.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

From the gospel according to St. John, chapter 16, verse 16.

Jesus said a little while and you will see me no longer, and again a little while and you will see me.

Let's pray.

God our Father, we long to see our Lord face to face, even as Job of the Old Testament

longed and hoped to see him and knew that that truth would yet come.

Yet in this life, so often our eyes are clouded by the things of this world, and so we pray to the end that we might

endure to see our Lord face to face.

You would sanctify us as we hear your word.

Your word is truth.

Amen.

I remember the night very well.

It was a transition in my life.

My mother and father were going out for the evening and we were left with my aunt and uncle.

This was not an uncomfortable place for me.

In fact, I was raised in a way with my cousins on that side of the family that we used to come and go from my

auntie's house as if it was my own.

We in fact lived over the road for over a year and our phone number was shared between two households.

I then had both of my cousins from that side as my groomsmen and count them still to this day as my best

friends.

It was not unusual to be in that home and it wasn't a place of fear.

And yet something very strange took place that night.

You see, I was blessed to have a very safe and very secure childhood.

When my mum would say to me as a child, I'll be gone for a little while, I could bank on the fact that she was going to be back

very, very soon.

And there was great security in that.

And if I'd mucked up and my dad said, I'm going to come back.

And if you haven't fixed that, I was very much certain that he was going to come back and things ought to be in

line.

And there was also a certain security in that discipline also.

But that night, that wasn't the reality.

I remember it so very starkly.

I remember where I was sleeping in Uncle Terry's office in their house.

I remember fiddling with the bottom drawer of his roll -top desk and looking between the lace

curtains of the window waiting for mum and dad to come back.

And I was filled with a certain dread.

For the first time in my life, I realised that that security wasn't a given.

That when mum said she was coming back in a little while, there was a distinct possibility that they would not.

I became aware that night that there was a reality that one day I would be

without my parents.

To this day, I'm blessed to still be near them.

And for the first time, only three weeks ago, my mother had all her grandchildren in her own kitchen now that we've

all moved nearby.

What joy that night was.

And this week we'll celebrate her 70th birthday.

So that day has not yet come to pass.

But as little children, it is very easy to trust.

In fact, we are so helpless that we must trust and we must be dependent.

But as we grow older, the reality of this life tends to set in.

And those things that we believed were absolutely sure, well, they start to teeter a

little bit in our minds.

And so very often like that night, we can be filled with dread.

And that's no different to what we see in our gospel reading tonight.

Well, this morning, pardon me.

Jesus calls us to be like little children.

And yet the disciples elevate their own understanding above Jesus' words.

And rather than resting in the promise that he will be seen again, they

question wonder and already teeter on the edge of hopelessness

instead of helplessness.

Whereas Jesus, by his words, calls us to find in ourselves a certain helplessness

that finds us in complete dependence upon him.

To set the scene for this reading, this is the very night that Jesus was betrayed.

This, in fact, takes place probably before they go to the Garden of Gethsemane.

John's gospel doesn't delineate as clearly as the others do.

But it is in that same.

Environment.

In which he had given to them the promise that as they ate bread and drank blood,

as he instituted the supper of his own body given for them, and his own blood shed for

them for the forgiveness of sins, so he speaks these words.

And these are no less confounding, and for those disciples no less bewildering.

Consider it.

Of course, these men had walked with our Lord.

We might poo -poo them and think, well, how could they have any doubt?

How could they have any wonder that Jesus' words would come to pass?

They had seen the miracles.

They had seen 5 ,000 men, not counting women and children, fed with humble

loaves and humble fish with 12 baskets left over.

They had seen the blind see, the lepers healed.

They had seen the invalid made to walk again.

How could these men possibly doubt?

Yet these men also witnessed Peter sinking beneath the waves as his faith failed him.

They had been given to doubt constantly throughout, and this very night, the night that our Lord was

betrayed, they would turn to their own reason and find themselves helpless, and not

only helpless, but utterly hopeless.

It would be.

This very night that Peter would swear he'd never forsake Jesus, despite Jesus' words that, well,

he would.

Jesus proves himself faithful, and Peter proves himself weak, as we are weak,

faithless of himself, as we are faithless in ourselves.

Peter even goes so far as to think that he would protect Jesus somehow, that he would be the

arbiter of power, and, by cutting off the high servant's ear, prove himself to be

the protector of God.

Quite the opposite of who God is for us.

God, who is the fullness of all goodness towards us, represent, or given, pardon, not only

represented, but physically given in the person of his Son.

Yet our lives are entirely bound up in the same motions, in the same

attitudes, in the same emotions that the disciples went through that night.

We ought not be too quick to poo -poo these disciples, because we too live in this very

same cycle.

We hear the word of Jesus, we say, absolutely, we'll stick to it, absolutely, I trust it completely,

and then it's not two steps out the door of the church, or two steps past our baptism, as we grow a little older,

not two steps past our confirmation, and we begin to wonder, perhaps the world is valid.

Perhaps these points of doctrine that the liberals raise, or the

Pentecostals raise, or other groups raise, have some validity leading us away from God's Word.

We look towards the shiny baubles of this world, that well, like so many Christmas baubles in the

bottom of the bucket that you always find a few broken ones, they never last all that very long.

Our whole lives are like this.

We begin in absolute helplessness, as God comes to us, entirely of His own volition,

to make us His own.

In fact, He comes to us, to bury us with Jesus, into His death, and

raise us anew, to newness of life.

That is how it starts for the most of us.

Completely helpless babes, where God is for us, and God comes to us,

through His Word, and through His water.

Bound to that Word.

And so we see Him with our ears, and we receive Him as helpless babes, dependent that

we will indeed see Him as He has promised.

That His Word then proves itself sufficient throughout our childhoods.

So very often, though for some, of course it goes awry early on.

Though it is inevitable that we find ourselves changing.

We find ourselves growing older.

As we hit our teenage years, the natural rebellion tends to take over, and the lights of this world

become a blaring thing.

Of so many moths attracted to it, do teenagers run?

That not one of us could say that we had not been at least a little attracted to them, and others more so

than those fortunate to have walked the straight path, the narrow path.

There's no doubt, as we grow older, our bodies change, and we grapple with a sense of authority, and the

changing of our hormones, as we reach a certain maturity, where God intends us to

transform into those who would then be heads of homes, or mothers that teach children, and so on

and so forth, servants of the church, both men and women together.

As we grow into these new roles, so often that change is bound.

Up with the world's.

Gaudy spectacles that would draw us away from God's Word, even as we come into conflict with our

own parents as a symbol of God's authority within the family.

Our lives are indeed bound up with this cycle of doubt, as we grow.

Older.

And yet this full cycle comes around.

Again.

And I've just moved a thousand kilometers with my whole family, we've packed up an entire household, five people,

all into trailers, we've driven, I've now done 15 ,000 kilometers,

what would that be in miles?

11 ,000 miles, 10 ,000 miles, something like that.

We've driven from Victoria to South Australia and back again with trailer loads of things and lifting heavy loads.

Now even as a young man of 42, I kind of wished that I had my 30 -year -old back and

my 30 -year -old legs, because they would have done it quite easily.

As we age past, as we take on the responsibilities of family, as we raise our own children, and

if we are not blessed to have children, as we take our roles in society, as we become, as we heard in our Gospel

reading today, servants, whether it be of a boss, or whether it be of the church, or whether it be

literally indentured servants in other nations, fortunately in the West we don't have this kind of

servitude anymore.

But even as these roles come upon us, we become very aware of our weakness.

We become very aware of our helplessness.

As our bodies grow tired quicker.

As we find ourselves being slower to sleep and earlier to rise.

As our bladders will not let us sleep until 11 o 'clock on Saturday morning like so many 16 -year -old

boys.

This reality is not ours as we grow older.

So our helplessness becomes more and more clear.

And there is a danger in that.

That our helplessness turns to hopelessness.

That we place our hope in the things of this flesh.

That we think that our bodies ought to endure perfectly as if we were 18 -year -olds with the scraps that would heal

by morning.

We hope, we believe and we desire that we ought to live eternally on this mortal sphere.

That is indeed what the promise of creation was in the first instance.

Now since the fall like the disciples we lose sight.

We lose sight and we fall into hopelessness as we look to the things of this earth as they fade from us.

Whether it be our own bones, our own muscles, our own backs.

Whether it be in the defiance.

Of our own children.

Difficult bosses as we heard in our epistle reading this morning.

Whether it be difficult relationships.

More starkly as we then age even further our hopelessness is born out as we bury our loved

ones.

Our friends and our family.

With mum turning 70.

It won't be that long.

Until we say goodbye to my own mother and you've all been through this.

We become increasingly aware about helplessness as the day comes when we will

ourselves pass from this mortal coil into.

Glory.

The danger is hopelessness.

The hopelessness that we face often binds us to the efforts of our own bodies as Peter's

hopelessness in the face of the crowd gathered to take Jesus away led him to strike out with the sword.

So often we are led into the sin of anger and violence as we fight against the

fall that we have before us.

Our helplessness too often leads to a hopelessness that leads to all manner of sin.

Whether it be greed.

Whether it be hatred of a neighbour.

Whether it be hatred of our brother.

Whether it be hatred of God in so many cases when a beloved is taken too early

from this world.

But this is not what we are given to be as Christians.

Our helplessness is not to be one of hopelessness.

Our helplessness is to be one of dependence as a little child.

This is what Jesus is calling us to in our text tonight.

It's what he called his disciples to in addressing them in this way.

A little while and you'll see me no longer.

And again a little while and you will see me.

Bewildering words bound up in mystery.

As Job pronounced I will see my Messiah with my own eyes.

So we know this to be true by faith.

And so we are called to depend on the means by which that faith is conferred to us.

Romans 10 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

And so we should embrace the helplessness that is before us.

And use it to be dependent on God's word.

To be dependent on the word of Christ.

And find in him the richness and the fullness of the hope that is before us.

This is so very.

Thoroughly important for the words that Jesus says.

How this is to take place.

He says you will be sorrowful.

You will weep and you will lament.

But your joy will be complete when you see him again.

Your sorrow will turn to joy he says.

Joy and happiness are not the same thing.

This life is constantly a life where we are surrounded by sorrow.

We are constantly surrounded by weeping and lament.

Lament is not ever a bad thing.

It's not always a bad thing either.

We have a whole section of psalms in the Bible that are psalms of lament.

Where we are guided to cry out to God.

Where are you?

Come and save me.

Lord be my guide.

Lord be my saviour.

Lord be my help.

These psalms are so very prevalent.

And here we find joy in Jesus words.

Not separate to find ourselves in some kind of euphoric happiness.

But right in the very midst of weeping and lamenting.

And in sorrow.

We find ourselves in joy.

Where we find ourselves dependent on the word of Christ and his promise.

Well that's easy you might say.

It's easy for you pastor.

You've been trained in this word.

You've memorized the good whack of it.

That's all very well and good for you.

But how might the average Christian hold on to this hope?

How might the average Christian be led away from despair in helplessness and towards

joy and hope in this helplessness as we wait to see Jesus with our own eyes?

Well this is again bound up in Jesus actions for us.

This is why the Easter season is so long and so joyous.

Even though we might sorrow in the midst of it.

We know that we will see him again.

We know that his word will come to pass because it has never failed before.

And even while the disciples were bewildered that very night and acted according to their own

desires and their own reason Peter even going so far as to reject his lord with

reasoned fear for the crowd that would crucify him coming for his own skin.

Well our reason will fail and our faith must endure and it will endure

because it is not only grounded in God's word but it is carried in it and his word has

never returned empty and it has never failed.

Jesus promises have come surely true and they will forever

and they have come true for us already as his words came true for the disciples from

Maundy Thursday to his resurrection again that very Sunday.

Just three days later what joy they must have felt how great that would have been

we might say and yet that word that came true that they would in a little while

see Jesus again is our very hope even now.

That little while might have been three days for his disciples it may well be well

60, 70, 80 years for us in this mortal coil.

Or maybe.

2000 till the coming again of our Lord but the little while

is not the problem the promise is the.

Problem.

If we.

Get caught up on the little while we run into trouble.

But if we get caught up in Jesus saying you will see me we find

ourselves at rest in this life we find ourselves with hope in this

life.

Because the disciples indeed did see him Job indeed did indeed see his

Lord we will indeed.

See him.

And for a while we see him as through a mirror dimly.

We will yet see him in coming weeks.

We will see him in word through our ears.

We will see him literally in bread and wine.

We will not only see it as it comes to us this gracious gift but we will

touch it and taste it.

And we will see that the Lord is good and his promises endure to eternity.

And so we are stayed in this faith when in helplessness we cleave ourselves to the promises

of God.

And there is no greater promise than this that your Lord did die for you and he did

rise again and he was seen by the brothers and he was seen by 500 witnesses and he

is seen by my grandmother and he is seen by your loved ones who have gone on before you.

And he will be seen by you with your very own eyes and there is no greater.

Hope than that so don't.

Give yourself over to reason when you face this conundrum of a little while or give yourself

over to reason even when Jesus says this is my body and this is my blood.

But give yourself over to helplessness and find in your weakness in your

helplessness the full help that comes from the word of God that endures for you

and in you until you see Christ with your own eyes.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

We confess our faith together in the words of the Nicene Creed.

Ah yes.

The Apostles Creed pardon.

Pardon me.

I believe in God the Father.

Please be seated.

Let us pray for the whole church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.

Shepherd of Israel in your Son Jesus Christ you have sought out your sheep and gathered us into your

flock keep us always in your fold and guard us from every wolf and snare Lord in

your mercy.

Hear our prayer.

Heavenly Father you alone gather us as your sheep and send faithful shepherds to us.

Call all who have wandered from your flock and bless the faithful shepherds who gather them through the voice of your word.

Lord in your mercy.

Heavenly Father your Son has called us to love our brothers.

Turn us in love toward the neighbours closest to us especially within our own homes that we may

daily show our confidence in God by deed and truth laying down our lives as Christ first did

for us.

Lord in your mercy.

Eternal Lord.

Through the Paschal Lamb you have wrought peace between man and God by your gift of good government

grant peace and good days also to our citizens and between the nations of the world that we and

all our neighbours may lead quiet lives in godly contentment.

Lord in your mercy.

Heavenly Father by the first fruits of Christ's life from the dead you secured forgiveness for our troubled

consciences.

Bless also with temporal health and well being those who suffer among us especially Linda,

Megan, Kevin Nina, Jordan Donna, Louisa

Sylvain, Joanne and Nathan.

Grant them aid in this moment and even more so true immortal health in the world to come.

Lord in your mercy.

Lord our.

Shepherd you calm all fears in this valley of the shadow of death and you prepare the holy table of your

son's testament for us in the presence of our enemies.

Grant us repentant and faithful hearts in every tribulation or besetting sin.

Lead us to find comfort and strength in your overflowing mercy given to us here in your

word and in your sacraments in coming weeks.

Lord in your mercy.

Lord God out of.

Your fatherly goodness you have remembered us poor miserable sinners and given your beloved son to be

our shepherd not only to nourish us by his word but also to defend us from

sin death and the devil.

Grant us your holy spirit.

And even as this shepherd knows us and helps us in every affliction we also may know him trust

him seek help and comfort in him heartily obey his voice and obtain

eternal salvation through the same Jesus Christ your son our Lord who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever.

Amen.

We continue with the offertory.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.

Our closing hymn 818 818.