by Sal Huckel
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Read Matthew 3:1–12
Today’s passage invites us to the banks of the Jordan, where John the Baptist was preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry. His humble lifestyle and calls to repentance were already bringing the people to respond to their sins and be baptised by John in the river. Not surprisingly, also came the conflict with the Pharisees and Sadducees.
John’s reprimand and call to repentance is stark. We might feel that it was well deserved. After all, we do know much about the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their apparent hypocrisy. Paul himself was a Pharisee. While the Pharisees and Sadducees had doctrinal disagreements, they were united in their efforts against Jesus. Here, John’s warning is for them all.
What can we learn here today? We can study the baptism John was bringing, how Jesus’ baptism is the one we need and the meaning it has for us now to be baptised into Jesus’ baptism. We can also ponder what it means to ‘produce fruit in keeping with repentance’. How does that look? What do we need to repent of? We sometimes hear that Jesus simplified the Ten Commandments and that we don’t need to worry about all of those anymore; we are not ‘under the law’. However, Jesus said he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17).
Unless we understand God’s law, we cannot properly repent. We may feel the law is less prescriptive and onerous ‘since Jesus’, but if we begin to unpack the Ten Commandments and look at Martin Luther’s explanations – the Small Catechism is very helpful on this – we will see that they go further than we might expect. It’s a misleading idea that ‘Jesus replaced them’. Helpfully, rather like the ways in which it is best to teach children, Luther offers positive instruction to further expand on the negatives.
Start today with commandment number one: ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’ We don’t have to look very far to see the things that compete for our attention, love and trust. How can you fear, love and trust God above all things today? To produce fruit in keeping with repentance, we need to follow through with this.
Father God, help me to more fully understand the law written in our hearts (Romans 2:15) and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
You can’t ask for what you already have
by Shane Altmann
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God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11b,12).
Read 1 John 5:4–12
Let’s take a moment for a bit of ‘me time’.
Think of that thing, that object, that highly desirable and unattainable thing that you wish you had. No, not a healthy family or world peace – they are a given. I mean actual stuff.
A huge TV, one of those massive tool chests with drawers full of cool tools, a whole mechanics workshop, a fancy KitchenAid mixer with all the attachments, a new kitchen, a new house, a house on the beach, a bigger boat, a huge boat, one of those boats that you have to leave in the water it’s so big. Your fantasy, you choose.
Now, imagine you turn up at home this afternoon, and there it is. Wrapped up with a fancy bow.
‘What is that?’ you ask. ‘Can I have it?’
‘It’s already yours,’ says the giver.
You can’t ask for what you already have.
When you receive a gift, you have two choices: you can say ‘thank you’, or you can say, ‘Get that mega yacht off my driveway.’
Our focus verse today reminds us, yet again, that God is the author of our faith, the giver of eternal life. It’s always God-work.
God has given us eternal life. God is the architect and builder of our everlasting joy. God is the one who, even now, is preparing a place for us with him in paradise, that heavenly home, with him and together with the saints before us, that blessed reunion. Hallelujah and thank you, Jesus.
And it is that precious treasure, that certain hope of something better, with which we overcome the world. Yep, we can suffer and struggle, times can be difficult, and everything can feel like it is slipping away, but we are more than conquerors through Christ. Our reading today reminds us that our faith, given by God, is that instrument, that victory.
And here’s the heart of it: that’s enough. We don’t need a mega yacht or a fancy toolbox. The Christian life, that simple existence with Jesus, comforted by his word, in fellowship with other believers and the people we love, active in service in the world, called to have a crack and serve as best we can. Well, that’s enough.
Jesus, thank you for coming into the world because of your great love for us. Thank you for living a fully human life. You understand us and know exactly how life feels. We praise you, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit and because of your great redeeming work and precious blood, you call us to yourself. Thank you for giving us eternal life. Bless us as we do our best in this life. In your name, we pray. Amen.
Sledgehammer obvious
by Shane Altmann
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He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (2 Timothy 1:9).
Read 2 Timothy 1:5–10
It’s hard to be a Lutheran and not get excited by this passage from 2 Timothy. I mean, not ‘new footy season’ excited, but you know, kind of ‘cool day at church’ excited.
Following a meeting with some colleagues a few years ago, in which I felt the need to be rather direct, I reflected afterwards on how it went with another person who was also present.
‘Well, Shane,’ they said, ‘some people use the side of a plate to crack an egg, and others use the edge of a knife. You used a sledgehammer.’ I don’t know if he was being critical or amusing, but I thought it was great!
I can be subtle when needed. However, if you have been paying any attention to my reflections over the past days, you will have seen that my position is rather obvious. Sledgehammer obvious.
It’s always God’s work.
Here, in this verse from 2 Timothy, we get it again: ‘… not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.’ Sledgehammer obvious.
This beautiful extended reading for today speaks to intergenerational faith, passed down from grandparents and parents. It reminds us that God works through people, through relationships, through love, and it exhorts us to authentic Christian living. It calls us to understand and join in the suffering that comes with the Christian life, to understand the theology of the cross, that our God is hidden in ordinary stuff and is with us when we suffer, indeed that he suffers with us, fully human and fully divine. Still.
It cries out, ‘faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone’, and points us to our heavenly home, that great camping spot and feast in the sky, with Jesus in that blessed reunion.
What a passage!
And if it’s always God’s work, then maybe it’s not us cracking the egg.
God of Love, Lord of Life, thank you that you are active in the world, working with us and through us in our vocations as parents and friends, workers and leaders, servants and citizens. We thank you, Jesus, for the revelation in your word that, by your eternal grace, you reach down to us, you both build the bridge and walk over it, to us, and for us. Bless us as we go this day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Shane Altmann is the principal of Faith Lutheran College Redlands in Queensland and has served in education for more than 35 years. Married to Monica and father of two children, Harry and Zoe, Shane has learnt that he is largely helpless without the love and support of the people with whom he lives and works. A pilgrim of multiple Caminos de Santiago, a Penrith Panthers tragic and a restorer of old stuff, Shane loves a project and, when he is able, fills his days tinkering with something.
The last refuge of a scoundrel
by Shane Altmann
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From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God (Jonah 2:1).
Read Jonah 2:1–10
There is nothing quite so fervent as the prayers of a desperate person.
In an episode of the TV show The Simpsons, circa 1990, titled ‘Bart Gets an F’, Lisa catches her brother Bart kneeling by the side of his bed, praying for intervention as he needs an extension to get some schoolwork done that he has neglected.
I don’t remember the full story, but I recall Lisa’s quote very well: ‘Ah! Prayer. The last refuge of a scoundrel.’
You may or may not remember the episode. Bart wakes up the next morning, and it has snowed. Deep, thick snow lies on the ground. School is cancelled, and all the neighbourhood kids are outside sledding, making snowmen and having snowball fights. He grabs his gear, rugs up and begins to head out to join the fun.
Only to be stopped by the stern form of Lisa, hands on her hips.
I don’t remember the details, but she basically says, ‘You prayed for this. It’s a bold man who goes against God.’ She reminds him of his obligations, to miss out on the fun and focus on his responsibilities. From memory, he does.
So, here we have Jonah, inside the fish. I mean, at that point, you have had it, right? No way out, all that is left is you and God. So, he prays. And God answers his prayers and, in what can only be one of the most gross verses in the Bible, the fish vomits him on dry land.
James 5:16b reminds us that ‘the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective’. Note, he doesn’t say a pious person. I don’t think Jonah was particularly pious – more disobedient and avoidant, I would suggest. But God had a plan, and Jonah, I am sure, was fervent in his belief and cry to the Lord. And God is good.
So, what’s in this for us? God can do amazing things, miraculous things. God answers prayers, and the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective. But Jonah wasn’t that righteous! Correct, it is the work of the Lord that credits him with righteousness because of his desperate faith.
It’s always God’s work. Ephesians 2:8,9 reminds us that even our own desperate faith is a gift from God: ‘For you have been saved by grace, through faith, and even this is not from yourself, but is a gift from God, not as a result of your own effort, so that no one can boast.’
God, thank you that we can come to you in prayer. Thank you for hearing our prayers. Thank you for being faithful, even in our desperate need and darkest hours, whether we are on the right track or the wrong one. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and lead us to pray, to bring all things to you and to seek your will in our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Shane Altmann is the principal of Faith Lutheran College Redlands in Queensland and has served in education for more than 35 years. Married to Monica and father of two children, Harry and Zoe, Shane has learnt that he is largely helpless without the love and support of the people with whom he lives and works. A pilgrim of multiple Caminos de Santiago, a Penrith Panthers tragic and a restorer of old stuff, Shane loves a project and, when he is able, fills his days tinkering with something.