SERMON—“Hold on to the hurricane lamp”
Ivan Southall’s book Over the top is a story about Perry Benson, an 11 year old boy who lives with his family on an isolated property without electricity or a telephone. Their life is turned upside down one night—a wild, stormy night. Perry’s father wakes him at 2am to tell him that his mum is about to have a baby, and they have to get to the hospital. Perry waits with his mum while his dad goes to get the car out of the shed. It seems to take forever. After a while they go outside to investigate…and find Mr Benson sprawled on the path. He had tripped in the dark and knocked himself unconscious.
With a great struggle, Perry manages to drag his father down to the shed and push him into the back of the car. Perry’s mum, who hasn’t driven for years, tries to reverse the car out of the shed, but loses control and the car runs down a slope and gets bogged. The only thing left is for Perry to walk to their nearest neighbour, Mr Morgan, who has a phone. That’s a scary scenario for Perry, because its dark and stormy, and because he is frightened of Mr Morgan. But there’s no other way to get help. Perry’s mother tells him that he’ll be alright if he takes the hurricane lamp with him.
As Perry sets off on the journey he is petrified as shadows from the huge trees look like giants, and the raindrops falling on him seem as big as stones. Perry thinks to himself: “I’m hurrying mum, like you said. Not because I’m scared. Lamp jigging up and down. Don’t you go out, lamp. If you go out I think I’ll die.” Perry knew that if he lost the light of the lamp he would be in big trouble—and also his mother, father, and unborn baby too. But with the light of the lamp, Perry makes it to Mr Morgan’s, and everything works out in the end.[1]
God has given us a lamp better than the one Perry had to guide him to safety. God has given us his word, the bible. Psalm 119:105 says: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” On this day of great joy—celebrating a baptism and four people confirming their faith—the theme of God’s word as a lamp to light our path through a dark and dangerous world is most appropriate—even more so given that on this Sunday we commemorate the Reformation of the church.
The Reformation took place in Germany in the 1500s, when Luther and the other reformers protested against all kinds of abuses that had become part of the church’s teaching and practice. How did this happen? Jesus says: “No one lighting a lamp…hides it under a basket, but puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.” (Luke 11:33). But the church had covered over the light of God’s word and concealed its illuminating truth with human commands. The Pope had become the highest authority to submit oneself under, instead of holy scripture. In times of high illiteracy, the Papal statements that the church issued were in Latin, and could not be read or understood by people anywhere else. So too the services in worship. The people went to church, sat through it like a performance, and left again, completely oblivious to what was being said, without any sure direction or message of hope.
This was especially devastating at a time when the black plague swept across Europe, and the death rate shot through the roof. People were frightened and vulnerable, thinking they were being punished by an angry God. Their sense of guilt was like a crushing burden. The church sent preachers throughout Europe, proclaiming that the souls of those who had died were trapped in a place between this life and heaven called purgatory, and that the people could free the souls of their loved ones by buying an indulgence—a certificate from the church. They used frightening images to manipulate people into giving their money to the scheme. For those who couldn’t afford it, the fear of being unable to free the souls of their loved ones—their parents, their own children—was crippling, and life was miserable and despairing. But for those who could, it was the ultimate afterpay scheme. Priests would visit brothels and afterwards conveniently write out a cheque to the church—sin paid for with an easy transaction!
The indulgence scheme was just one aspect of a religious outlook that asserted that God’s favour could be earned through human effort, like praying a certain number of times on the steps of the church, or staring at religious artefacts to get closer to the divine. But none of this brought peace to people’s consciences. The problem with trying to earn God’s approval by keeping the law is that one is obligated to keep the whole law, the whole time. Our strivings for righteousness and holiness will be never ending. Works always require more works.
This was the same issue for the Jews whom Jesus speaks with in today’s Gospel reading. They thought they were right with God and had a gold ticket to heaven simply because they were descendants of Abraham: “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” They were thinking in human political terms, but not the spiritual reality that all humanity is born in bondage to sin and we cannot free ourselves. They thought that God was pleased with them because of their outward religious appearance, and they trusted in their efforts at keeping the law for their righteousness before God and others. They established 610 man-made rules which they thought helped them keep God’s commandments in every specific situation, and these rules became the measuring stick for their judgments of who was in and who was out of the religious community.
Throughout John’s Gospel there is ongoing dispute about the identity of Jesus between the religious leaders, and those who hear Jesus and see the works he is doing, bringing grace and compassion from heaven to those who are unable to help themselves. To the religious leaders this Jesus is too disruptive and interfering, too undermining of the moral benchmarks that they have established for the community. But as Jesus had told them earlier, if they really knew the Father, they would know Jesus whom the Father sent. Their blindness to who Jesus is shows that they really don’t know the Father and his will for the world at all. For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
But others recognised the powerlessness of human rules and traditions to help or save them. They heard Jesus’ teaching and preaching, they saw the miracles he did that brought life and freedom to people trapped in sin and the power of darkness. And they believed him. They put their trust in him. So today’s Gospel reading begins: To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Faith in Jesus is not just a belief that he existed, so that we can go to heaven after we die. Throughout John’s Gospel John presents Jesus as the ultimate necessity for humankind. Jesus is the light of the world, he has come that we might have life and have it abundantly, he is the way, the truth and the life, he is the living bread from heaven, he offers living water. Faith is to trust our lives to Jesus now. Faith is holding on to the lamp; holding Jesus’ teaching close to our heart for today.
We need bread and water to keep our bodies alive, but once we eat and drink we will be hungry and thirsty again. Jesus says whoever comes to him will never be hungry and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty—he will satisfy our deepest longings and needs for love, approval, dignity, purpose, worth, peace, righteousness, holiness and access to God’s mercy and favour…and for life itself. When we turn to other people, money, work, possessions and experiences to satisfy our need for these things we will only be hungry and thirsty again. Only Christ can meet our deepest needs.
For in Christ you are loved without the conditions and limits the world imposes to judge who is worthy of love. In Christ you have a worth that is far beyond any value this world could put upon you. The saying goes that something is only worth what a person is willing to pay for it. The price that the Father was willing to pay for you to be his very own and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in eternal innocence, righteousness and blessedness was the blood of his one and only Son. Your worth, your purpose, your dignity, your approval is found in Jesus—not earned or deserved, simply given by God, because he wants us to share in the fulness of life he gives. And just so you can be sure and certain of this, the risen, crucified Christ, the unseen host, invites you to his table. By his powerful word he speaks to make ordinary, common wafers and wine his holy and precious body and blood that he places in your hands, to bring all the benefits of his saving death on the Cross to you, personally.
This meal is Jesus’ own sermon by which he proclaims that God is for you—the same truth that the young monk, Martin Luther, longed to know. His conscience was tormented. He worked so hard, desperately scrubbing the monastery floors as penance for sin, but no matter how hard he scrubbed, he couldn’t scrub away the condemnation of the law, or wash away the accusations of the devil, or cleanse his conscience from the guilt of his sin. The harder he tried, the worse it became.
Then Luther discovered the gospel: that there is a righteousness apart from the law. Nearly every organisation today has a rewards program for our loyalty. The more we spend and the better we perform, the greater our reward. But our human strivings will never earn rewards points with God. Righteousness comes through faith in Christ—faith in trusting in Christ’s saving work for us, his perfect righteousness which is credited to us as ours, through faith alone, and not by works, so no one may boast. There is no work of your own that could possibly make you any more loved, forgiven, pleasing or favoured by God than you are already, because of the work Jesus has already done for you, in his obedience to his Father, even to death on a Cross.
In Ivan Southall’s novel Over the top young Perry had said: “Don’t you go out, lamp. If you go out, I think I’ll die.” Without the lamp of God’s word, we would also die. The Bible is not some irrelevant book from a bygone era. It’s not even merely a collection of teachings or information. But it is God’s living word in which Jesus wraps himself and speaks to us from cover to cover, through the prophets and apostles, and the Holy Spirit brings us to faith by giving us ears to hear Jesus speaking and reminding us of all that Jesus has taught us.
Like the people of God of old, and the church at the time of the Reformation, the devil, the world and our sinful flesh constantly tempt us to cover over the light of God’s word. They tempt us to drop the lamp. The Apostle Peter wrote: “We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts (2 Peter 1:19). So Jonah, Tarus and Jesse, hang on to this lamp [bible] and don’t ever let it go. Families, you need to hang on to this lamp so you can help your children hang on to this lamp. Bethanie and Noah: hang on to this lamp. Members and friends of St Paul’s: hang on to this lamp and don’t let it go.
It is a dark, scary and dangerous world. Hang on to the lamp so you can see clearly to walk with Jesus, who says: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” By his suffering and death on the Cross, Jesus has set us free. By trusting in Jesus’ word we live by faith in this freedom indeed. To all who believe in Jesus’ name, he gave the right to be called the children of God. And so we are not servants who come and go at different times. But through faith in Christ, we are children of God who have a permanent place in our Heavenly Father’s family home, through Jesus his Son. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Confirmation service and celebration of the Reformation, 2025
[1] This story and its sermon connection was sourced from Pfitzner, John: ‘The hurricane lamp in the storm’ Australian Parables (Adelaide: Lutheran Publishing House), 1988, pp121-123
