Whatever was it? We had missed the local news references to it. Was it some fancy modern junk sculpture? Or just junk? How did it get there? If it was just junk, who would go to all that trouble to put it on the beach?
We finished our drinks and went onto the beach for a closer look. No, it was the wreck of a boat - the Endeavour Star. In places there was a strong smell of diesel fuel in the air. That's clearly the boom from a fishing vessel, a trawler. Talking with other sight-seers who were a little less ignorant than we were, we pieced some of the story together. It seemed the boat was on automatic pilot and the crew sound asleep. It had run aground in the night and efforts to shift it were unsuccessful. It had started to break up in heavy seas. The crew were all safe.
We looked at the keel and some of the other timbers and wondered if it had needed a major rebuilding anyway. But now it was past rebuilding. Now everything worth salvaging had been removed and its only use was for the scrap heap.
Monday morning we decided on a picnic breakfast at the beach, but there was almost nothing left. Only the last bit of tidying up needed to be done.
It had come to the end of its life, its death now serving no useful purpose. What a shame!
What is the difference between a loss and a sacrifice? We use terms so loosely these days! Some big business advertises that they are sacrificing their prices. What do they mean? Are they really running at a loss on those items? Sometimes they are - to get you in so that they will make a good profit on the other items you buy! It's a steal at this price, they say. No, it isn't! And you have to weigh up whether the price is good. Even the major adjustments to clear old stock usually fall short of real sacrifice!
Suppose a nice pumpkin has been hidden in the cupboard longer than you intended. When you get it out it feels rather soft. A slice through with the carving knife convinces you - I'm afraid we'll have to sacrifice this pumpkin! But strictly that's a loss rather than a sacrifice.
Of course, if you are saving up as much as you can… we'll spend half the usual time under the shower; we'll walk to the shop for the paper and the milk instead of driving; we won't dine out; we'll put off getting new clothes for six months; we'll cut down the length and number of our long-distance phone calls; we'll trade in our dog on a budgerigar… Does some of that sound a bit steep to you? How much personal inconvenience would you and/or your family be prepared to go through if it meant you could go on a skiing holiday in the middle of the year? Now, that's sacrifice! You have accepted personal inconvenience, discomfit or pain for the purpose of achieving a greater goal.
That's been a sacrifice to benefit ourselves. We find it more difficult to imagine accepting a sacrifice to benefit someone else. Our mothers sacrificed to bring each of us into the world and our parents sacrificed a great deal to feed and clothe us, to educate us, to fit us for life…
But, someone says, that's not sacrifice. It's responsibility! It was their choice that brought us into the world, not ours. They ought to do all those things for us!
For our image of sacrifice we tend to go to Anzac Day. We think of Australian soldiers who risked their own lives to protect and preserve this country and its way of life. We deplore war, but what would our country have been today without the sacrifices of those who fought to keep the aggressor out? Some paid with their life. Others have made a long and lingering payment for the rest of their life.
Or we think of peace-keepers and aid-workers who have gone to East Timor or Afghanistan, not even national self-interest to motivate them…
Sacrifice! To give and give and give of yourself, not counting the cost or seeking personal reward… to give for benefit and well-being of others!
John was calling on people to repent of their sins and, as a sign of repentance, to be baptised in the River Jordan.
John had baptised Jesus with a measure of reluctance, believing that Jesus, the sinless one, should baptise him (Mt. 3.13-17). Afterwards, we hear him describing Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1.29,36).
The Jews knew about sin - no matter how reluctant they might be in practice to acknowledge their own particular sins. They also understood about sacrifices - it was written large in their religious worship that something needed to be done about the guilt of sin. And they knew about the lamb…
Morning and evening the lamb of the daily sacrifice was offered in the Temple. Every year since childhood they had joined in the celebration of the Passover in which a lamb was killed and eaten. The Law said it could be a young goat, but mostly it was a lamb. And on the great Day of Atonement the priest took an animal and confessed his own sins and the sins of the people over its head. It was driven out in the desert to "carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place" (Lev. 16.22). The animal was a goat - most of us have heard of a scapegoat. Isaiah had spoken about the Servant of the Lord being led "like a lamb to the slaughter…" (Is. 53.7b). On one occasion, when Jeremiah heard of a plot against him, he spoke of himself as "a gentle lamb led to the slaughter" (11.19). And we remember the story of Abraham who had set off to sacrifice his only son Isaac. He had reassured his son that "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering" (Gen. 22.8). He had said this believing that his own son was to be the sacrifice - he hadn't told Isaac!
All these themes are gathered together in Jesus "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Jesus would give his life for us, dying on the cross for our sins! The Lamb of God!
Sometimes we see a broken column memorial to someone - probably died in their thirties, in full flight, their qualities and contribution to society already appreciated. What a waste! we say. A life of usefulness cut short!
I don't know the age of the Endeavour Star when its working life was ended. What a shame!
But when Jesus died at the age of thirty-three, he made a complete and effective sacrifice to "take away the sin of the world." We don't think of life cut short or usefulness ended. This is why he came to give his life for our sins - what a sacrifice! Then on the third day he rose again to life!
The work of salvation is complete, yet we are called upon to receive it - to "repent and believe the good news" (Mk 1.15). Have you done that? Have you said, "Jesus, you died on the cross for my sins! I trust you and welcome you as my Saviour and Lord!"? Then that complete sacrifice isn't in vain!
Back to Sermons