Old Testament Reading Genesis 2:18-25
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." Now out of the ground the
LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the
heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens
and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a
helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its
place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the
man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the
man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to
his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife
were both naked and were not ashamed.

Epistle Lesson Hebrews 2:1-13
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have
heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by
angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience
received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a
great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was
attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by
signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit
distributed according to his will. Now it was not to angels that God
subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been
testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the
son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while
lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting
everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At
present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see
him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely
Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of
death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in
bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their
salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those
who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed
to call them brothers, saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in
the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." And again, "I will
put my trust in him." And again, "Behold, I and the children God has
given me."

Gospel Lesson Mark 10:2-16
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful
for a man to divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses
command you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a
certificate of divorce and to send her away." And Jesus said to them,
"Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'
'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two
but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man
separate." And in the house the disciples asked him again about this
matter. And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries
another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband
and marries another, she commits adultery." And they were bringing
children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked
them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let
the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the
kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the
kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his
arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.



Message

Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and from our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Let us pray. Dear Lord God, may the words of my mouth and the
meditations of our hearts, be acceptable to you. I pray this in the
strength and name of our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen.

In today's society of Christian bodies, Lutherans have a reputation
and that reputation is associated with guilt. Not quite as much as the
Roman Catholics but close. Think about it; how did we begin our
worship service – with public confession and absolution. This
morning's service and every Sunday service begins with a prayer of
confession. Remember what we prayed, “we confess that we are in
bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves”.

As Lutherans, we believe that Gospel is not Gospel without the Law.
The Good News is not Good News unless we know the Bad News.
And the Law brings us the Bad News. The Law shows us our sin and
our guilt.

And for some of you, you may ask the question, “Why? Why is
there such a strong emphasis on guilt?” The answer is very simple.
Because the road to the Grace of God, takes us through the land of
recognition, guilt admission and repentance. And we cannot get to the
Grace of God unless we travel through all those lands. And of those four
lands, Guilt is the most long lasting and the most painful.


We start off in the Land of Recognition, we begin with needing to
recognize who God is; He is the creator of the Universe, we then need
to recognize who Jesus is, His Son with whom the Universe was
created. Next we need to recognize the fact God created the rules or
laws that hold our universe together, laws of interaction that keep
peace and order in the universe. Laws keeping the interaction
between the heavenly bodies at peace and in order and laws keeping
the interaction between us and God and laws keeping the interaction
between all of us in peace and order. We also have to recognize that
when that peace and order is broken, there are consequences.
Whether the peace and order between two heavenly bodies is broken,
or between you and I or between us and God. We have to recognize
there are consequences.

That recognition leads us to the Land of Admission, we admit we are
not in control, we admit there is a higher plane of peace and order; we
admit we have messed up. We admit that God exists and we admit
we are not gods. We admit our faults and wrong doings.
That admission leads us to the entrance to the Land of Guilt. We
begin to understand the effects of breaking the peace and order God
has laid out for us. As we travel through this land we feel a heaviness
on our spiritual hearts, for the pain and suffering we have caused.
And we come to God, the Creator of All, seeking help. We ask God to
take away this heaviness, because we cannot live with it. We need
help, His help. We admit to our wrong doing and we admit there is a
price to pay for those wrong doings. And we recognize we are
accountable for the breaking of God's peace and order and we are lost
in the Land of Guilt.

And that is where Jesus meets us on our journey to the Land of
Grace. He comes to us, introduces Himself to us and offers to pay the
price for our wrong doings, to lift the burden of heaviness from our
shoulders and our hearts. He calls out, “Come follow Me!” He
promises never to leave us as we continue on this journey to the
Grace of God. He leads us to Land of Repentance. And He continues
to be with us as we change our life and our understanding of how we
need to interact with each other and with Him and His Father, our
Father the creator of all. And that leads us to the Land of Grace.
Where God our Father forgives us and welcomes into His arms,
saying to us , “Welcome home lost little one.”

That path, that journey sounds nice and orderly but in reality the path is
fraught with bumps and potholes and fallen trees. The lands are well
defined but the path through each is anything but that. Each one of us
has our own path to take through each one of the Lands that lead to
the Grace of God, but we each need to travel through each land.
There is no short cut through to the Grace of God.

And we Lutherans we like our peace and order, it must be that
German heritage. We like peace and order so much we have become
ingrained with peace and order, we have taken that peace and order
into our relationships with and our faith in Jesus Christ and God our
Father. We end up structuring our relationship in peace and order,
almost as if, you do this part then I will do that part.

As Lutherans we truly take to heart Paul's instructions to the both
the people of Ephesus and Corinth of when we meet to praise and
worship our Creator and Saviour, we do so in an orderly manner and
then we put that same orderly conduct into our relationship with God.
And in doing we have lost sight that peace and order is not what is
of primary importance. What is of primary importance is our
relationship, our faith and that is what Jesus is talking about in our
Gospel Lesson this morning when He tells his disciples, “Let the
children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the
kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the
kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Jesus is telling us to loosen up our relationship with Him and with
God our Father. Because faith in reality is about relationships not
about peace and order. It's not about, “You do this then I will do that.”
Jesus gives us the example of little children, we are to have a
relationship with Him and with God like little children.

Many of us here are grandparents and those of us who are, know
the relationship we have with our grandchildren, especially if they are
young. It is a unique bond that I wish each and everyone of us could
experience and in some ways each one of us can. The relationship
between a grandchild and a grandparent is unique, especially when
they are young. It is almost as if they idolize you, they will do anything
to please you, they will do anything to get your attention, they will do
anything you ask. Just raise your voice to a young grandchild and
then watch them as they will almost melt. It breaks your heart. Under
the burden of guilt they feel, they run and hide – sound familiar?
I remember this past summer our 7 year old grandson, Brandon
came and stayed with Melody and I for two weeks. One day, we were
in the back yard and Melody was in the house. And Brandon without
any hesitation walks, almost runs over to our slightly overgrown flower
garden and starts pulling out daffodils, roots and all. And once he had
a fistful he headed into the house,. As he is traipsing up the stairs
I ask him, “What he is doing?”
He replied with a determined voice, “I'm going to give Nana some
flowers.” Brandon wanted to do something to gain Nana's attention
and not only receive but show his love for her. To him it didn't matter
whether he was going about it in an peaceful and orderly matter or
not; or that the roots and dirt were still hanging from the stems of
the flowers.

That type of relationship between grandparent and grandchild is
what Jesus is talking about. A free flowing, I trust them implicitly and I
will do anything for them relationship. That is what Jesus is trying to
get across to his disciples and to you and me in terms of our
relationship with Him and His Father.

But somewhere along the way, our relationship has changed. Much
the same way little children change when they become older, when
they hit the teenage years. They seem to change, they no longer
have that same relationship with us. They seem to know better, the
world tells them to know better. They do not seem to have the same
desire to please as when they were little. The desire to be around us
disappears, even though we our desire to be around them has not
changed. Their priorities change, ask them to do something the
common response, “OK, in a few minutes, I am busy.” The
distractions of this world contaminate and dilute that child like love.
The same is true in our relationship with Jesus. Talk to someone
who is just entered the Land of Grace and has had the burden of guilt
lifted and they are like the little children Jesus wants us to be like,
always. But somewhere along the way we “mature” in our faith, we
become more orderly but unfortunately not always more peaceful.
Our relationship changes, we become like many of the adolescents of
this age, sometimes rebellious, sometimes, the “we know better”
attitude creeps in and we lose that desire to gain God's attention and
love like a little child. The priority in our lives changes from spiritual to
secular.

And I think we are to blame for this change. How many times do we
see a teenager acting like a little child? And how many times have we
heard these words, and probably out of our own mouths, “Grow up!
Act your age!” There is an expectation of responsibility. We do the
same things in our faith, in our relationship with Jesus. We may not
come out and say it to someone who has that child like faith, but our
body language and our actions say the same thing, “Grow up! Act
your age!” But deep down we admire those who have that kind of
faith, but we are afraid to admit it or even seek it.

So this week I encourage to, “Grow down!, Act like a little child in
your relationship with Jesus Christ!”

Because, quoting a very wise man, “whoever does not receive the
kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Now, may the peace of God and the Love of Christ, which passes all
human understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen


St Andrews Lutheran Church - 04/10/09 - Pastor Steven Herbert

Sovereign God, you have created us to live in loving community with one
another. Form us for life that is faithful and steadfast, and teach us to trust
like little children, that we may reflect the image of your Son, Jesus Christ.
In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lectionary Readings for October 11 2009

Amos 5:6-7,10-15; Hebrews 3:12-19 ; Mark 10:17-22