Sermon & Children s Address

Sermon & Children s Address Oulu International Evangelical Fellowship 25 November 2012, Hanna & Bastian Fähnrich Sermon: They will come trembling... Dearly Beloved in Christ. Today is the last Sunday of this church year - or kirkkovuosi as it is called in Finnish. Every church year begins with the first Advent, with beginning to wait for the birth of Jesus Christ - and every church year ends with Judgement Sunday. So during the church year we live through God s saving acts in history from the birth of Jesus Christ to the Last Judgement. So today is Judgement Sunday, because today is the last Sunday of this church year. During the last weeks, as we have been thinking about this service, one Bible text has come to mind again and again: the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Maybe we can rise to listen to the gospel text. It is found in Luke 18: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and one a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood up at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18:9-14) We want to talk today of judging in general - of judging others, of us judging ourselves and of God judging us. 1

There is such a temptation for us Christians to act as the Pharisee did, to go around seeing the faults and the sins of others - but being blind to that which is not as it should be in ourselves. It is comfortable to point at others - and I think that we sometimes do this, because we are too scared to look honestly at our own sinfulness. It takes real courage to be honest before God and before ourselves of our own sin, our own doubts, our own fear, our own pride, our own envy. Jesus tells us that we need to be honest about our own sin and deal with it first before turning to our brother or sister. We read in Luke 6: Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into our lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother s eye and pay no attention to the plank on your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother s eye. (Luke 6:37-38, 41-42) Why is it so difficult for us to be honest about our own sin - so difficult that we are often blind to it. I think we are fearful of our own darkness. We are probably also afraid of God. We feel that he is an impersonal judge, interested in sin for sin s sake, finding all sorts of faults in us. It would help us, I think, if we looked into the heart of God - as described in his Word. This God, who is so holy, that heaven and earth will flee from his presence at the end of time (as described in Revelation 20:11), loves each of us intimately in our innermost being. He loves us far more deeply than we will ever understand. God is holy. Yes. He cannot therefore accept sin. But when he judges us, it is always an invitation back to life with him - excepting the Last Judgement. God s heart is described very beautifully in the book of Hosea. We could now turn to Hosea 11:1-4: When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2

But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. God is spoken of in such moving terms here. He is the most loving Father, who hovers over the first steps of his children, taking them by the arms, healing them, leading them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. Freeing them from the yoke around their neck, bending down from his holiness to put food in their mouths. And what do his children do. They sacrifice to the Baals, burn incense to images, to gods that do not exist. Instead of seeing what God in his love is doing for them and putting their trust in God (which is the best way of giving him thanks) - Israel turns away from the living God. It seems that God just cannot understand this. That he is very, very sad. Israel will suffer for its disobedience. We read the next four verses of Hosea 11. Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them. 3

But God is moved in his innermost being with his love for his children. He just cannot give them up. We read Hosea 11:8-11: How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God and not man - the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt. like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord. Yes - this God, this roaring lion, just cannot hand over Israel. For he is God and not man and his love is therefore more wide and more long, more high and more deep than we can ever imagine or understand. With this loving Father, we can safely take a look at our darkness and take the plank out of our own eye, before we turn to the speck of sawdust in our brother s eye. For we have sinned as Israel did. We have put our trust in other gods such as wealth and health, success and the favour of men. We have at different points in our life turned away from him, who has loved us from all eternity - finding our safety in other things than the living, loving God. 4

It is when we take an honest look at ourselves and where we sin - I think we all have different points at which we are tempted and sin - that God can really begin to work in us. This is why the tax collector went home justified before God and not the Pharisee. For if we are forever looking at the speck of sawdust in our brother s eye - how can God get rid of the plank in our eye? It is true that Jesus wants to redeem our brother from his speck of sawdust, but he also longs to free us of our plank. He would like so much to set us free to live the abundant life he wants to give to us. God wants to be at work in my life, in your life - setting us free of our particular fears and envies and prides and lies and lusts - so that we can give ourselves more totally, more freely - in absolute simplicity - to God and to this hurting world. Let us take an example. Markus, my first husband died of brain cancer. It was not easy to see him suffer and die. I would not give a day of those two years of illness and dying away or of the years of sorrow afterwards, but it did all leave a certain fear of cancer, which has been crippling at times. And it is exactly at this point, where I have been putting my trust more in being healthy, than in God, that Jesus in his mercy wants to set me free. But I need to look at that fear honestly and humbly - and not at the sawdust in my brother s eye - ask Jesus for his forgiveness and trust that he wants to redeem me from my fear and woundedness - just as he would like to touch all of us with his healing hand. It is where our greatest weakness is, our deepest insecurities, that God wants to be at work in our lives. Yes, when we come to God honestly with our sin, he can and will work wonders. He will take away my fear, he will set the drug addict free, he will transform someone s hate into love - he will create something new where there has only been wastelands in our lives. In all the circumstances in our lives we are actually more than conquerors in him who loved us. We would like to end this sermon with Romans 8:31-39: What, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare us his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of 5

Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Amen. Children s Address Hanskassako? Tänään vietämme Suomen kirkoissa tuomiosunnuntaita. Saarnaamme Jumalan tuomiosta ja myös hänen armostaan meitä ihmisiä kohtaan. Oletteko koskaan tuominneet toisia? Uskon kyllä näin. Helposti lankeamme siihen, että tuomitsemme toisia heidän synneistään ja virheistään. Kuulemme kohtapuolin kertomuksen siitä, miten esimerkiksi meidän perheessämme on joskus syytetty ja tuomittu toisia. Mutta toisia ei pitäisi syyttää tai tuomita, niin Raamattu opettaa. Jeesus sanoi, ettei toisia pidä tuomita heidän synneistään ja virheistään. Vaikka me syntiä ja virheitä kyllä näemme toisissa. Sen sijaan meidän pitäisi katsoa itseämme. Jokaisen meistä pitäisi katsoa missä omassa elämässämme teemme itse syntiä ja virheitä, ja pyytää niitä anteeksi Jumalalta ja toisiltamme. Luemme Luukkaan evankeliumissa 6:37-38, 41-42 tunnette tämän Raamattukohdan ehkä entuudestaan: Jeesus sanoo: "Älkää tuomitko, niin ei teitäkään tuomita. Älkää julistako ketään syylliseksi, niin ei teitäkään julisteta syyllisiksi. Antakaa anteeksi, niin teillekin anteeksi annetaan. 38 (...) Niin kuin te mittaatte, niin teille mitataan." (...) 41 "Kuinka näet roskan veljesi silmässä, mutta et huomaa, että omassa silmässäsi on hirsi? 42 Kuinka voit sanoa veljellesi: 'Annapa, veli, kun otan roskan silmästäsi'? Ethän sinä näe edes hirttä omassa silmässäsi. Sinä tekopyhä! Ota ensin hirsi omasta silmästäsi, vasta sitten näet ottaa roskan veljesi silmästä. 6

Nyt tahdon teille kertoa lyhyen tarinan perheestämme. Kerron siitä, miten lankeamme siihen, että joskus syytämme ja tuomitsemme toisia, vaikka meidän ei pitäisi tehdä näin. Meillä on mukana hanskat. Yksi pari kuuluu Samuelille, toinen Hannalle ja kolmas minulle. Tänä aamuna pidimme tuokion perheessämme. Istahdimme sängyssämme ja pohdimme, miten joskus väärin syytämme tai tuomitsemme toisia. Koetimme muistaa esimerkkejä omasta perheestämme, ja omasta elämästämme. Hanna kertoi että minä unohdin hanskani viime vuonna Helsingin reissulla bussiin. Syytin siitä itseäni, ja sitten bussissa olevia ihmisiä, jotka eivät viitsineet palauttaa hanskani löytötavaratoimistoon. Tuomitsin heitä siitä, että eivät välitä muista ja heidän tavaroistaan. Muistin sitten itse, että Hanna puolestaan unohti hanskansa viime viikolla työpaikalleni. Mutta onneksi joku oli löytänyt ne ja laittanut ne naulakkoon, josta löysimme ne uudestaan. Hanna ehti jo syyttää minua siitä, että hanskat menivät hukkaan muka siksi, että tuona päivänä oli ollut niin hirveä kiire menojemme takia. No, sen pituinen se. Voisi ajatella että tarinamme jo loppuu tähän. Mutta muisteltuamme näitä meidän vääriä syytöksiä ja tuomiomme toisia kohtaan, Samuel yhtäkkiä havahtui ja kertoi, että hänen hanskansa menivät hukkaan eilen, eikä hän rohjennut kertoa siitä meille kuin vasta tänä aamuna. Ilmeisesti Samuelia pelotti vähän, että syytämme ja tuomitsemme häntä siitä, että taas meni jotain hukkaan. Ei ole ensimmäinen kerta, että näin kävi, Samuel nimittäin joskus unohtaa tavaransa johonkin paikkaan. Päätimme aamutuokiomme sitten toteamalla, ettei meidän tule syyttää tai tuomita häntä tai muita siitä, että tavarat unohtuvat. Se ei ole oikein. Saamme toki auttaa toisiamme, ettei hanskojen unohtaminen toistu. Mutta se on jo toinen tarina, jota jokainen voi miettiä miten se onnistuu parhaiten. 7

Voitte nyt siirtyä lastenkirkkoon, ja me aikuiset jatkamme nyt jumalanpalveluksella saman aiheen parissa. Outline: Welcome 1. We have come into His House, 729 Prayer (Bastian) 2. How Great Thou Art, 506 Children s Address (Bastian) 3. What a Friend We Have in Jesus, 746 Sermon (Luke 18, Hanna and Bastian Bible verses) 4. We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender, 735 Prayer (Bastian) 5. Kiitos sulle, Jumalani (Virsikirja, 341b) 6. Blessing Song Announcements Fairwell & Coffee/Tea Time 8