The First Commandment: You shall have no other godsDuring the main parts of the year we have a catechism lesson as part of the service at St Luke's. This is so that we can get to know our faith better together as a congregation. We are starting again from the beginning and I hope to put many of the lessons on here.  What does it mean to have a god?
Luther says in the Large Catechism: “A god is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need.” So, the First Commandment is not simply about believing in the existence God. It is asking a much deeper question: What or who do we actually trust? We can say that we believe in God. We can come to church. We can say the Creed. But what do we look to when things go wrong? Where do we turn when we are afraid? What do we think will finally make us secure? That is our god. Luther says that whatever we make our highest good, whatever we trust above all else, becomes our god. And this means that idols are not simply statues. An idol can be money. It can be our reputation. It can be our career. It can be another person. It can even be ourselves. Anything can become an idol when we begin to say, consciously or unconsciously: “If I have this, then I will be alright.” So Luther connects all the commandments, but the First Commandment in particular, with fear, love and trust. We are to fear God above everything else. That does not mean being terrified of God. It means recognising that God is God, and that there is nothing and nobody greater than him. That he has power over all things and can rule guide and govern us. That we are totally dependent on him and his mercy towards us. We are to love God above everything else. Not because he needs our love, but because he has given everything to and for us. What are we clinging to? What do we hold onto that is not God? What is more important – that thing or person or God? If there is something you are not willing to let go of for God – that thing becomes your God – that is the thing you fear love and trust above all things – and this is idolatry. And we are to trust God above everything else. This is perhaps the hardest part. When everything else is uncertain, can we still say: God is enough? Questions for us to think about:
And notice what the commandment does not say. It does not say, “You must make yourself trust God enough.” Rather, it exposes the things we have trusted instead of God. And this is where we see the Gospel (good news) because we are to look to Jesus. The God whom Luther teaches us to fear, love, and trust is not distant from us. He has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. The God who commands us to trust him is the God who gives himself for us. So the First Commandment is not simply a demand. It is also an invitation: stop looking for your life somewhere else. Look to God. Trust him. He is your God. And in Christ, he has forgiven you and gives himself to you in Word and Sacrament.
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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
In one of Martin Luther’s Christmas sermons on this passage of the annunciation; Luther speaks of three miracles that happen in this gospel passage. Firstly, the miracle of the incarnation where God becomes flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, but as Luther says this is not the greatest. Secondly, the miracle of the virgin birth as foretold of old, yet again a great sign from God but not the greatest. And lastly the third and this surely is the greatest - that Mary - a young woman should believe and trust in the words of an Angel. It is by faith that Mary receives God’s favour. It is by faith that Mary is made righteous and it is by faith that Mary can receive the Word of God not just into her mind but into her very body in Jesus the Word made flesh. Mary is in many ways the greatest model of a Christian. She says yes to God… She acknowledges him as her saviour and Lord, She attributes all to him and nothing to herself, She seeks justice and righteousness, She cares for the poor and the weak, She recognises that God will fulfil his promises… As she says: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”. When the angel declares that Mary is to give birth to a son… How does she respond? Unlike the disbelief of Zechariah, Mary responds in faith… she says yes… “You see before you the Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said” She accepts the call of the Lord and trusts in him. She recognises God for who he is - her saviour. Not counting her own righteousness but rather trusting upon him who will liberate her. It is God who is Mary’s saviour… And she is his servant. She says later in Luke 1: “For he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed”. Mary recognises that what she has, her salvation, her justification, her liberation, her child… are from God. She is blessed because God has called her… she is blessed because God has justified her… she is blessed because God has glorified her… The grace that Mary is filled with is not of her own but of God. It is pure gift. I am a Lutheran pastor, and I know full well how uppity Protestants can be when people, both Roman Catholic and Orthodox, talk about the sinlessness of Mary. And they come up with all sorts of ways of explaining this like the Immaculate Conception of Mary… And yet they do have a point to some degree even if it is at times taken too far… What I would, to some quarters controversially argue, is that Mary stands before God in this moment not in a righteousness of her own, but clothed entirely in the righteousness that comes by faith. Not because there is anything special about her but because at the moment that she says yes to the call of God in Christ by the message of an angel… she is justified by her faith in the coming Messiah… Just as Abraham was justified by his faith. Mary believed in God and trusted in him… and because of her faith God saves her and makes her new. It is her faith that prepares her to be the ark of the new covenant and to bring Christ into the world – the fulfilment of the law. And therefore, rightly do we call Mary blessed and most holy virgin: the Mother of God. She is the greatest model of the Christian life… the greatest prophet, for she proclaims the coming kingdom of God… the greatest martyr, for the sword that pierces Christ’s heart pierces her soul too (Luke 2:35)… the greatest mother… the proto-priest, for she knew most intimately what it means to say, “This is my body, given for you”… the greatest apostle… and the greatest teacher, for she teaches us how to respond to the Word of God and how to treasure all these things in our hearts (Luke 2:19). It is a great sorrow to me that so many Christians do not honour Mary. It is a great tragedy that the abuses of some have led others to de-emphasise the role of the Mother of God. I believe Martin Luther felt the same. When writing this sermon, I remembered this passage from his sermon on the Magnificat: “Thus they make us timid and afraid and hide the Virgin’s comforting picture. For they deprive us of her example, from which we might take comfort; they make an exception of her and set her above all examples. But she should be, and herself gladly would be, the foremost example of the grace of God, to incite all the world to trust in this grace and to love and praise it, so that through her the hearts of all men should be filled with such knowledge of God that they might confidently say: “O Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, what great comfort God has shown us in you, by so graciously regarding your unworthiness and low estate. This encourages us to believe that henceforth He will not despise us poor and lowly ones, but graciously regard us also, according to your example.” Mary is blessed… but she is blessed above all because she heard the Word of God and believed it… And you too can be blessed… you too can be saved… you too can be justified… Just as Mary was… by placing your trust in her son… By believing in Jesus Christ, by listening to him in the Word… and by receiving him, in the flesh into your flesh in the Eucharist… Let us pray O Lord, as we have known the incarnation of Your Son, Jesus Christ, by the message of the angel to the virgin Mary, so by the message of His cross and passion bring us to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  This year I have decided to read the Bible in a Year with the help of the Bible in One Year App with commentaries in each bit. Please do consider doing something like this too!
Today we the feast of the Naming of Jesus. In my Bible in a year reading today I was given Matthew Chapter 1. During this reading we hear about the genealogy of Jesus- about who he is and where he comes from. What struck me when I was reading was the people on that list. The people in this list include both a prostitute and a murderer. As we consider todays feast of the naming of Jesus it is important to remember what his name means. The name Jesus means ‘The Lord is Salvation’. No one is excluded from this offer of salvation. Not even people who have done the awful things that Jesus’ own ancestors did. Today’s festival gives us hope that no matter how hard things get- no matter what we have done- Jesus is our hope and he will be our salvation. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks that we can call upon the name of Jesus and by his precious blood be saved. We pray that this day we might learn more and more what it means to live in true faith and in accordance with the salvation that Jesus has won for us on the cross. We make this prayer in Jesus name. Amen Hope!We are not used to waiting these days! The incessant pace and demand of life, especially through electronic media makes us increasingly impatient and intolerant of having to wait. I know that I am not happy if my computer screen does not instantly spring into life on demand!
Advent is about watching and waiting for the coming of God to complete his work but doing so in activity and hope. During the next few weeks, the Church invites us to look towards the hope and expectation of Christmas while we too remember the darkness and struggles of winter. The bible is full of stories of hope and expectation and all of these stories point somewhere- they all point to someone. They point to a little baby in a manger…in a trough for animal food. We are invited to be excited for Christmas… to wait expectantly for Christmas. Yet most at all, as we wait for Christmas, we are invited to hope. Hope is something that we sorely need at this time of year… especially this year. With war once again on the European continent, with rising bills, and high prices… for many this will be an advent without much hope… When we speak about hope we are not speaking about ignoring all of this. Quite the opposite. Someone with hope is someone who seeks change. Someone with hope helps to build a better world. Someone with hope takes care of the people around them. And we see this in the care people have had for strangers and refugees from Ukraine and in those helping at the foodbanks. Even when things seem impossibly dark- Hope is the fire that stirs within human hearts and lights the flame of the future. It is hope that we see in revolutionaries and freedom fighters… it is hope that we see in people seeking justice… it is hope that we see in people wanting change… it is hope that we see in martyrs and in pilgrims… But hope rings most clearly from the heart of a child. Children are impatient… excited… joyful… They want Christmas now! There was once a story of a Lutheran pastor in Germany by the name of Johann Hinrich Wichern who looked after an orphanage. Many in this room will sympathise with this man because every day during advent the children would ask him time and time again… Is it Christmas yet??!! And every day he would say no not yet… So he came up with a plan! He got an old wheel and placed 4 big candles around it and 7 small candles in between each big one… every day he would get a child to light a candle and when they were all lit all the children knew that it was Christmas. This is where we get our modern advent wreath which we still use in Church during advent and with which we lit our first candle tonight. Children are impatient for Christmas and this time of waiting is hard for them. Yet advent is supposed to remind us that in the darkness of this world we are invited to be like children… impatiently waiting with hope… not for presents but for something greater. Not to wait for the Child Jesus but the one who is risen from the dead and coming again. Advent invites us to recognise that even though the world seems bleak and broken at times, God is going to complete the job he started in Bethlehem on that first Christmas and continued in Jesus’ loving death and mighty resurrection at Easter… Advent invites us to the hope that Jesus can be born again in you and in me and that we are called to impatiently wait for him to come again while we make the world a better place with out hope. Let us pray Heavenly Father, we thank you that you that Jesus came to bring us hope. We pray that we might have the hope and the joy of a child as we come to you this advent. Help us to seek hope… to seek Jesus… and in this hopeful expectation to in some small way make the world a better place this winter. We make this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen. When considering this feast day I came across this wonderful reflection and thought it would be good to share it with you all: "When we are bereft of dear ones, it is a tremendous shock. For a time we are stunned. Not everyone, can feel at once their continuing companionship. We should not for that reason despair. An adjustment must take place in our lives, reaching deep into our habits, emotions and thoughts. Some souls may make this adjustment quickly. For most of us it comes slowly and hard; many an hour is filled with loneliness and agonizing doubt. By ourselves we can never make this adjustment. We must come to a sense of the continuing presence of our loved ones, and we can do this if we realize the presence of our living Lord. As we seek and find our Risen Lord, we shall find our dear departed. They are with Him, and we find the reality of their continued life through Him. The saints are a part of the Church. We worship with them. They worship the Risen Christ face to face, while we worship the same Risen Christ under the veil of bread and wine at the Altar. At the Communion we are linked with heaven, with the Communion of Saints, with our loved ones. Here at the Altar, focused to a point, we find our communion with the dead; for the Altar is the closest meeting place between us and our Lord. That place must be the place of closest meeting with our dead who are in His keeping; The Altar is the trysting place where we meet our beloved Lord. It must, therefore, also be the trysting place where we meet our loved ones, for they are with the Lord... When we, then, view death in the light of the Communion of Saints and Holy Communion, there is no helpless bereavement. My loved one has just left me and has gone on a long journey. But I am in touch with her. I know that there is a place where we can meet. It is at the Altar. How it thrills me when I hear the words of the liturgy, “Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven,” for I know that she is there with that company of heaven, the Communion of Saints, with the Lord. The nearer I come to my Lord in Holy Communion, the nearer I come to the saints. to my own loved ones. I am a member of the Body of Christ, I am a living cell in that spiritual organism, partaking of the life of the other cells, and sharing in the Body of Christ Himself. There is nothing fanciful or unreal about this: Indeed, it is the most real thing in my life. Of course, I miss my loved one. I should miss her if she took a long holiday trip. But now...she is closer to me than ever. Of course, I miss her physical presence bitterly. I miss her voice and the sound of approaching footsteps. But I have not lost her. And when my sense of loss becomes too great, I can always go to our meeting place at the Altar where I receive the Body and Blood of my Lord that preserves my body and soul just as it has preserved her unto everlasting life. " The Rev. Berthold Von Schenk (1895 – 1974) [As quoted in For All the Saints, vol IV (American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 1996)]  It is with great sadness that we learnt today of the passing of our friend Heidi Zeck. Heidi was a valued and well loved member of St Luke's for many years. She will be missed by us all. Announcements regarding her funeral: The service will be at St Luke's and date will be announced when we have more information. Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant, Heidi. Acknoledge, we humbly beseech you a sheep of your own flock, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Recieve her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Eternal Rest Grant unto her O Lord. And may light perpetual shine upon her. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen. In Retrospect |
| By Joseph We had a wonderful Easter here at St Luke's! We had both online and in person services and explored the story of Easter. We had flowers and candles and colour in the Church, and it was lovely to get a sense of some form of normality! We have to the right a picture of some of our younger members learning about Easter. We so look forward to welcoming everyone back for the services next year! What did you do to celebrate Easter this year? |  |
Authors
Pastor Mark- Pastor of the LCiGB
Pastor Joseph- Minister of St Luke's
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