Sermon 22nd June 2025 – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost Text Luke 8:26-39 – Tormented

 Sermon 22^nd June 2025 – 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost

Text Luke 8:26-39 – Tormented

 

What a sad story we have in our Gospel reading. The account of the demon possessed man known as “Legion”. This was a man whose community could no longer care for him. Their solution: He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles. He lived in the cemetery until he was able to break the chains and shackles when he would then flee into the wilderness rather than return home only to be tormented again. The same wilderness that Jesus was very experienced with when he was tempted by Satan. He wore no clothes – whether that was because he ripped them off or perhaps that was how they sent him – we don’t know. Jesus arrives at the Gerasenes where this man lived and when he sees Jesus he naturally feels that Jesus will treat him just as everyone else did. What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.

 

Sadly there are many people in society today who probably feel like this. Those that society forgets. Those who don’t fit in.

Those that live on the outer. And I’m not just talking about the ones we usually put into that pigeonhole. The addicts – why bother helping them – they’ve made their choice. The criminals – leave them in jail where they belong. The homeless – they could get a job if they tried like all of us. But there are many who look okay – who look like they are coping – who look as if everything is under control – but inside are tormented. Maybe you’ve felt like that tormented man. Like you don’t fit in.

Like everyone else is fine but you’re not. Yes we can all put on a well presented front like everything is okay – but beneath the façade of our neat and tidy appearance dwells a person locked in chains and shackles wanting to escape where no one can see you, And maybe your experience of God is like this man whenever you come to God in prayer – please do not torment me. I know I am a sinner – I don’t need to be tormented again and again. Maybe you feel that God is more like the local sheriff who has come to arrest you than the local doctor who has come to heal you.

 

And this is what St Paul is pointing out in out Galatians passage – the difference between a God who Is a disciplinarian and one who has come to love and care for us: Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  What a wonderful and comforting message from St Paul. And unlike the people in the Gerasenes, God does not distinguish or discriminate: As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

 

Jesus Christ is the great equalizer who brings us freedom. In Jesus we are all one and we are all on the same level playing field. There is no distinction as was made very evident in his 3 year ministry on earth. He ate with sinners. He fellowshipped with lepers. And here he goes to the land of the unclean Gentiles. I know that sometimes it might feel like God is not really there for you when you need him. That’s how Elijah felt. With all that he was going through – with people trying to kill him – it seemed that his enemies were doing much better than he was as a follower of God. He asked that he might die: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors. And then God shows his care: Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. And then God revealed something extraordinary about himself: God said to Elijah –  "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went. Even though it was the sound of sheer silence – Elijah heard God’s presence.

 

And that’s God’s message to us. Maybe we don’t always feel or hear God’s presence but he is always there for us. Sometimes God’s presence appears as sheer silence. Just as he was there for Elijah even though everyone was chasing after him to kill him. God was there for the demon possessed man even though the whole town was against him. And God is also there for you even when it seems like the whole world is against you. And just look at the transformation Jesus makes in the life of the demon possessed man.  They found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. What a beautiful image. Jesus not only restored his physical body but gave him back his dignity by finding clothes for him to wear. Much like God replaced the pitiful attempt by Adam and Eve to clothes themselves with fig leaves by providing them with clothes from animal skin.

 

And God also clothes you with a very special garment. As Paul says - As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. How beautiful to know that God has clothed you by the special clothing of his Son Jesus Christ. That was the image that John saw in his Revelation.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

 

There’s another important lesson in our Gospel reading today. And it’s about mission. After having been healed the once demon possessed man wants to show his appreciation to Jesus and begged that he might be with him; What a great testimony that would have been. But nobody would really have known the extent of this man’s healing except those who had discriminated against him and thrown him out of their community. So, Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." And he did.

 

This is our greatest mission field. To go to our communities and to help those who have perhaps been against us. To show love and forgiveness as Jesus says – love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And that’s why Jesus said that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed – beginning in Jerusalem. Beginning where you came from.

Beginning in your homes. This is going to be a huge challenge for him – to declare the love of God to people who showed him no love. But that’s the story of the Good Samaritan who showed love to someone who showed him no love. But that’s exactly what God has done for us: As Paul says in Romans - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

.

And sometimes those are the chains that bind us. The inability to forgive those that hurt us – and that unforgiveness keeps us bound in hate and resentment and we won’t know true freedom until we can break those shackles. And if we can’t do that then instead of the freedom of Christ and the Gospel we places ourselves back under the law as our disciplinarian. But thanks be to God for Jesus’ freeing words from the cross – forgive them Father for they know not what they are doing.

May you experience this freedom as you claim your Baptism garment that has washed away all your sins.

Sermon 15th June 2025 – Trinity Sunday Text: John 16:12-15 – What is truth

 Sermon 15^th June 2025 – Trinity Sunday

Text: John 16:12-15 – What is truth

What is truth?  This basic question was asked by Pontius Pilate of Jesus as he stood there before the Roman governor.  These days a variety of answers may be given to this query.  There is the scientific answer that would define the truth as whatever can be proved through evidence and supported by repeated experimentation producing the same results. Others might say that truth is defined by an individual in regard to their own experiences.  Others understand truth as something defined by what they read and hear on the news.

Today we need to verify truth and so everything is “fact checked” and we presume the fact checkers are correct. Today we face many challenges with regard to truth with: Misinformation, disinformation, fake news, deep fake. Have you heard of deep fake? That’s the newest one with the help of AI – artificial intelligence being able to produce videos and pictures that seem real but are not. In recent times we’ve seen people scammed out of life savings because they saw and heard Eddie Maguire or some other celebrity telling them where to invest their money – but it wasn’t them. It was AI using deep fake video.

Truth is such a hard item to grasp and really hard to trust these days. And in this age what is true for me might not be true for you BUT we MUST accept each other’s position on “what is truth”. And so, when it comes to the truth of God’s existence, it can be very challenging because MY experience of God might be different to YOUR experience of God. We have seen that over the years with debates of Creation versus Evolution and other theological doctrines including the one we are going through at present on Ordination.

This is not new. The early church also had disputes on what the truth is about God. And it is for this reason that the Church declared the Doctrine of The Trinity – a fundament and essential understanding of God – even though, as many sceptics will point out – the word “Trinity” does not appear in the bible. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most profound mysteries of the Christian faith.

Differing understandings of the Trinity has been responsible for many heresies in the Church in the early centuries as well-meaning theologians tried to explain or make sense of it and were led down the path of false teaching and were subsequently condemned by the church and excommunicated. It’s the reason we have both the Nicene Creed and the very little used Athanasian Creed which were both written in response to Christians getting the Trinity wrong. The creeds are not a message to unbelievers or to use against other religions. They are a teaching for Christians to keep reminding us about the fundamentals of our belief. It is like a reset button.

That’s why Paul urges a young Pastor Timothy to “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. So it is important both for the teacher/pastor and the people he is teaching. In fact James warns about that too - Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.  And the reason he said that was, in Paul’s own words,  For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Both creeds were in response to Christian leaders like Arius – a forerunner for Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny Jesus being the eternal God.  Or another scholar and leader called Sabellius who believed basically in 3 gods but they did not exist at the same time – they continue today in what is called the Oneness Pentecostal movement.

The Christian faith declares that God is One God – Three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—distinct, yet perfectly unified. Though our human minds may struggle to fully comprehend this mystery, the Trinity reveals God's love, His grace, and His presence in ways that transform our lives. Jesus himself teaches about the essential nature of God being trinity when he says before he ascends to Heaven:

 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Let’s look deeper into the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity.

We confess in our creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.  This is the foundation of our belief with God our Father the Creator. Genesis 1:1 tells us, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."  So, before time began, the Father existed in perfect majesty.

He is the source of all life, the sustainer of the universe, and the loving Father who cares for His children.  Jesus taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name." (Matthew 6:9).  This reminds us that God is not distant but intimately involved in our lives. When Jesus rose from the dead one of the first things he declared to Mary was – I am ascending to MY Father and YOUR Father. In fact we hear St Paul tell us last week that he calls God – Abba, Father. The word Abba, while meaning father is a more intimate address for Father. Paul was urging us from a less formal address of God to an intimate calling of God as our Father. Likewise Luther when explaining the Lord’s Prayer encourages us to pray to him with complete confidence just as children speak to their loving earthly father.

God the Son: Our Savior and Redeemer: In John’s Gospel he sees Jesus as the one bringing in the New Creation. Hence he begins his Gospel in the same way that the Book of Genesis does: In the Beginning was the word. Let there be light. And then John 1:14 declares, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us."

In Jesus Christ, God entered human history, taking on our human flesh to redeem us.

So, again, showing this intimacy that is found in the Trinity. And through His death and resurrection, we are guaranteed salvation with the sure hope of eternal life.  Jesus, fully God and fully human, demonstrated perfect obedience to the Father and revealed His unfailing love to the world. As Jesus ascended he also maintained the presence of our intimate God by sending the Holy Spirit. In the same way that God intimately breathed life into Adam by breathing his own life into Adam’s nostrils – so too Jesus, intimately gives life to the Church by breathing the Holy Spirit onto the first Church that had gather behind locked doors.

Again, from John’s Gospel: Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Again this intimacy of God’s own life living in us.

And so we confess – I believe in the Holy Spirit the Lord and giver of life. So before ascending to heaven, Jesus promised His disciples, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things." (John 14:26). The Spirit is God's presence within us, empowering us, convicting us, and guiding us in truth.  He strengthens our faith and enables us to live lives that glorify God. Without the Holy Spirit we don’t have the life of God in us as Luther explained:

I believe that I cannot by  my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. Bu the Holy Spirit has called me – enlightened me – kept me in the true faith.

Though the Trinity is beyond human comprehension, it is essential to our faith. The Father loves us, the Son saves us, and the Spirit leads us. As we walk with God, may we embrace the intimacy of His love and presence—knowing that we are held by the unshakable love of our Triune God. Let us live in this truth, worshiping the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit.

 

Sermon 8th June 2025 – Pentecost Sunday Text Acts 2:1-21 – By the power of the Holy Spirit

 Sermon 8^th June 2025 – Pentecost Sunday

Text Acts 2:1-21 – By the power of the Holy Spirit

 

Today we celebrate what is considered to be the birth-day of the Christian Church – the Day of Pentecost.  Fifty days after Easter – the moment when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in a powerful presence, igniting the early church and empowering believers to spread the Gospel. This is the promise of Jesus when he said – wait in the city until you have been clothed with ‘power from on high’. This is the POWER of the Christian. This is the POWER of the Christian Church.

I dare say that without the Holy Spirit both would cease to exist. It is a day of transformation, bringing with it the fullness of God’s presence through the Holy Spirit.

 

The Holy Spirit doesn’t get talked about much in mainstream churches. But this remarkable event invites you to consider what it means for you to live in the power of the Holy Spirit today. In Acts chapter 2 we read about the Holy Spirit arriving with the sound of a mighty wind and tongues of fire resting upon the apostles.  This was an intentional action by God - the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in John 14:26, where He said, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds to understand God’s word. That is what Jesus promised to the Disciples: The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

 

Imagine the awe and wonder in that moment!  The disciples, filled with fear and uncertainty after Jesus’ ascension, suddenly find themselves empowered by the very Spirit of God. The birth of the Church is marked by the Spirit’s powerful wind and transforming fire.  It’s a reminder that God is always faithful to His promises. Pentecost reveals that the Holy Spirit is not just for a select few; it is for all who believe. As Peter says in his very first sermon, quoting the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

 

As we read further in Acts, we see the immediate result of this outpouring of the Spirit — boldness!  Peter, once a man who denied Christ out of fear,  A man who sank when he saw the wind and the waves, Now boldly preaching to the crowd, bringing thousands to faith in one sermon. What transformed him?  It was the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s the same Holy Spirit that has been given to you. The same Holy Spirit that has made his home in you as Paul says: Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God.

 

How often do we find ourselves timid or hesitant to share our faith? The Holy Spirit gives us the courage to speak out, to love deeply, and to serve others – even those with whom we disagree. The same Spirit that emboldened Peter lives within us!  It’s not a different Holy Spirit today – it’s the one and the same.

 

On this Pentecost Sunday, let us ask ourselves: Where is God calling me to be bold in my faith?  Where is God calling our church to be bold in our faith?  How can we let the Holy Spirit guide and empower our actions wherever we are?

 

Another powerful aspect of the Pentecost narrative is the diversity of languages heard by the onlookers. People from different nations understood the apostles speaking in their native tongues.  This reminds us that the message of Christ transcends all barriers — cultural, linguistic, and social. We saw that recently with Peter when he went to the home of a gentile, Cornelius. In our world today, where division and strife seem to cause so much hurt and violence, the Holy Spirit calls us into unity.  

 

Romans 8:26-27 reminds us that the Spirit intercedes for us and prays for us — even when we do not know what to pray.

What an amazing gift the Holy Spirit brings as I constantly hear people speak about the difficulties they have in praying.

The Spirit connects believers across the globe, urging us to embrace our differences while reminding us of our united identity in Christ.

On this Pentecost Sunday, we are reminded that the Gospel is for everyone.  It is our mission to be living examples of that message of love and acceptance and to listen to others, and to invite them into the family of God. Pentecost is about empowerment for ministry. As we go forth, we do so not in our own strength but in the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus was so insistent – WAIT – Wait until you have received power from on high because if you go out without the Holy Spirit you enter into dangerous territory. And that’s because, as Paul says elsewhere – For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

 

It was like in the Old Testament when Israel thought they could defeat the enemy by themselves: Moses said: “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies who will face you there. Because you have turned away from the Lord, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the enemy who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way down the mountain.

 

The gifts of the Spirit are given to each one of us for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7).  This isn't just about personal empowerment; it's about empowering the mission of the church.As you reflect on your life, what gifts has the Spirit bestowed upon you?  How can you use those gifts to serve your neighbour, your community, our church and the world? In a time when the needs around us are great, the Spirit equips us to meet those needs. As we celebrate this Pentecost, let's remember that the Holy Spirit is alive and active within each of us. He empowers, emboldens, unites, and equips us for the work of the Kingdom.

 

May your Pentecost be filled with the Spirit's power!