tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39720596766589705412024-03-18T02:17:20.116-07:00Resourcing Preaching and Worship Down UnderPeter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.comBlogger565125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-7924709244172627912024-03-18T02:16:00.000-07:002024-03-18T02:16:34.298-07:00Sunday 24 March 2024 - Palm SundayTheme: Jesus enters Jerusalem / Hosanna! / Jesus the peaceful king<br /><br />Sentence: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! (Matthew 21:9)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Jesus, when you rode into Jerusalem<br />the people waved palms<br />with shouts of acclamation.<br />Grant that when the shouting dies<br />we may still walk beside you even to a cross. Amen.<br /><br />Readings: I find the Lectionary confusing for this day. That is because - in my understanding - some church traditions provide for celebrating 'Palm Sunday' as well as 'Passion Sunday' and thus our lectionary, following the RCL, provides readings for a 'Liturgy of the Palms' (without OT, Epistle) and for a 'Liturgy of the Passion' (with readings, including a very long gospel reading, focused on telling the whole story of Christ's suffering in the last days of his life). <div><br /></div><div>The reality, in my experience, is that many Anglican parishes celebrate Palm Sunday on Palm Sunday and thus look forward to working with readings focused on Palm Sunday.<br /><br />Below I retain the psalm and gospel reading from the Liturgy of the Palms readings and add in the OT and Epistle from the Liturgy of the Passion readings while providing also an appropriate OT reading for Palm Sunday, Zechariah 9:9-10.<br /><br />Isaiah 50:4-9a (or Zechariah 9:9-10)<br />Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29<br />Philippians 2:5-11<br />Mark 11:1-11<br /><br />Comments:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Isaiah 50:4-9a</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>This reading's emphasis, relative to "Palms" v "Passion", is on the suffering of Jesus as he steadfastly moves through the days of Holy Week towards betrayal, trial, humiliation and crucifixion.<br /><br /><b>Zechariah 9:9-10</b><br /><br />Zechariah amazingly looks ahead to a day when Zion's king will come to Jerusalem 'humble and riding on a donkey.' This king will be one who 'command(s) peace to the nations'. But if he has foreseen with great detail the events of the first Palm Sunday it also is true that the way those events are recounted in the gospels are shaped by the gospel writers' knowledge of this text.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29</b><br /><br />These verses capture a number of aspects of our celebration on Palm Sunday: giving thanks (1), Jesus entering Jerusalem through one of the gates in its walls (19-20), the shouts of acclamation the crowd made on that day (26) and the use of 'branches' in the 'festal procession' on that day (27b).<br /><br />But note also that this psalm mentions a keynote image for all early Christian understanding of Jesus Christ: the rejected stone who becomes the chief cornerstone (22).<br /><br />Then there is the greeting which forms part of our NZPB liturgy: 'This is the day that the Lord has made ...' (24).<br /><br /><b>Philippians 2:5-11</b><br /><br />These verses have catalysed a stream of academic articles and monographs because in these verses we find some of the most profound and also subtle christology (study of who Christ is) in the whole of the New Testament. In this comment I move past those christological issues and simply focus on the reason why we choose this reading in relation to Palm Sunday.<br /><br />Our general understanding of the event in which Jesus rides into Jerusalem with acclamation as king is that he is a kind of 'anti-king': his ride is on a colt or young horse, a sign of peace and humility, rather than on a magnificent mature steed of the kind a victorious-in-battle king would ride in a triumphal procession on return to his royal city.<br /><br />So this reading - in which Jesus is described as the one who empties himself of divine privilege and power in order to become one of us, before being exalted to the highest place - fits well as a theological background to the specific display of humility (with exaltation) we see on Palm Sunday.<br /><br />In both epistle (see 2:1-4) and in the gospel reading the question of the example of Jesus and what that means for us as we live our lives is our question as we apply these readings to our lives.<br /><br /><b>Mark 11:1-11</b><br /><br />Comments above have a bearing on this reading and our understanding of it!<br /><br />The sequence of events told in this story are familiar to us, perhaps from a lifetime of celebrating Palm Sunday.<br />- Jesus draws near to Jerusalem (1),<br />- disciples are sent ahead to fetch a colt (not a donkey, interestingly, according to Mark, verses 1b-7a),<br />- Jesus mounts the colt and rides it towards Jerusalem (7b, 11a),<br />- the crowd - their interest piqued by the exchange with the disciples when they picked up the colt - offer homage to Jesus as he rides,<br />- that homage includes:<br />-- spreading their cloaks on the ground or 'leafy branches that they had cut in the fields' (8),<br />-- shouting in acclamation words drawn from Psalm 118 (9-10).<br /><br />Note, however, a detail which we may have gotten wrong as we celebrate according to our customs rather than according to the strict detail of Scripture: none of the gospel writers tell us that the palm branches were waved as part of the shouts of acclamation.<br /><br />Luke does not mention the branches at all. Matthew following Mark describes the branches as being laid on the road on which Jesus travelled. John is the only one to explicitly mention 'palm trees' and he does not describe what happens to the branches except that they were taken out to meet Jesus. (Nevertheless I think it fine to have a procession and to wave branches!)<br /><br />If Jesus comes as an 'anti-king' (see comments on Philippians 2:5-11) then he nevertheless comes as a kind of king and thus this event is a political event. 'Political' because the event effects the order and organisation of the polis or city of Jerusalem. It begins a sequence of events in this week of Jesus' life which draw attention to him from authorities already inclined to concern about his impact on the people of Israel. Mark ends his story with Jesus going into the temple and looking around it. The next political event will be the protest in the temple the next day.<br /><br />In other words, Jesus who has been teaching through word and deed that the kingdom of God is near now arrives in Jerusalem in a manner which draws attention to himself as the king of the kingdom. A different kind of king (to, say, Herod or Caesar) but then the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus is a different kind of kingdom to Herod's 'kingdom' (which is a limited rule, permitted by the mightier authority of Rome).<br /><br />For us as preachers this week we have the familiar challenge of preaching on the familiar and the novel challenge of preaching the gospel on Sunday 24 March 2024, which is a completely new day in the ongoing story of Jesus and our world. What is going on today to which this story speaks?<br /><br />There is no shortage of political events in our world to which this biblical political event speaks. That is, no shortage of attempts of human kingdoms to assert power and authority to which the different kingdom of God speaks:<br />- Russian aggression in countries near to itself and faraway, underwritten by suppression of freedom at home and abroad;<br />- Chinese expansion through trade, underwritten by suppression of freedom at home, including suppression of freedom of religion;<br />- the prospect of another bizarre presidency of Trump in the USA, seemingly more committed to the kingdom of Trump's ego than to the kingdom of Americans;</div><div>- the terrible conflicts in Gaza/Israel/West Bank, Sudan, and elsewhere as might seeks to establish rule: innocent citizens (especially women and children) being pawns in the machinations of evildoers;<br />- and our lovely home country does so many things so well, but we are somewhat coy about criticising foreign powers which abuse their power!<br /><br /></div><p><i>Try to keep within the allotted time limit for the day :)</i> </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-43785287499803438632024-03-10T21:03:00.000-07:002024-03-10T21:03:38.903-07:00Sunday 17 March 2024 - Lent 5<p>Theme: Suffering (Passion) of Jesus / New Covenant / Death and Glory</p>Sentence: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)<br /><br />Collect: P25:2<br /><br />Almighty and eternal God,<br />you have made of one blood all the nations of the earth<br />and will that they live together<br />in peace and harmony;<br />so order the course of this world<br />that all peoples may be brought together<br />under Christ's most gentle rule;<br />through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Jeremiah 31:31-34<br />Psalm 51:1-12<br />Hebrews 5:5-10<br />John 12:20-33<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br />The 'passion' in Passion Sunday is not the 'passion' of a phrase such as 'I have a passion for growing the church'. That passion equals enthusiastic commitment. 'Passion' in Passion Sunday refers to the suffering of Jesus. In Johannine language from our gospel reading, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified [through suffering]"(v. 23).<br /><br /><b>Jeremiah 31:31-34</b><br /><br />In one way the Bible is the Story of Several Covenants. Jeremiah, prophesying around 600 years before Christ, relays the words of the Lord. The covenant made with Moses has been broken through the disobedience of Israel (marked by her division into two kingdoms, by the exile of the northern kingdom in 721 BC and of the southern kingdom in 597 BC). In fact there is now no nation to whom that covenant of the past now applies. A new covenant is coming.<br /><br />With this new covenant comes a new power to obey the covenant: 'I will write it on their hearts' (33).<br /><br />This new covenant has but one blessing promised: a relationship between God and God's people. There is no reference to a promised land or to material blessings in terms of prosperity. The way is being paved for the kingdom of God which Jesus will proclaim, a kingdom not confined to Palestine, a kingdom in which God rules people and a kingdom in which the presence of God is in the lives of people and not in buildings such as a temple.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 51:1-12</b><br /><br />Initially this psalm is a confession of sin (ascribed in the superscription to David, confessing after his adultery with Bathsheba). But when we ask why we are reciting it on this day, that is, which other reading does this psalm connect to, we make our way to verse 9 where David asks God to <div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.'</div></blockquote><div><br />With this verse we are right in the heart of Jeremiah's prophecy (see above)!<br /><br /><b>Hebrews 5:5-10</b><br /><b><br /></b>On Passion Sunday, as we reflect on Jesus embracing the fact that he will suffer and die, this reading partly connects with the gospel reading through talk of the glory of Christ (5) and partly through commenting on Jesus' "reverent submission" to the path that led to suffering and death (7-10).<br /><br />The writer to the Hebrews makes the case that Jesus as "Son" became perfect - "having been made perfect" (9) - in all ways (despite moral perfection, there was one thing yet to also become perfect). </div><div><br /></div><div>Only by sharing in our humanity could the Son "learn obedience through what he suffered" (8).<br /><br />As the perfect (or, we might say, perfectly perfect and completely perfected) Son, Jesus could become </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (9).</div></blockquote><div><b><br /></b><b>John 12:20-33</b><br /><br />As the "hour" (23) of Jesus' death draws closer, John recounts to us an episode which chronologically occurs after the "Palm Sunday" entry to Jerusalem (see 12:12-15). We read this passage a week before Palm Sunday because it captures the mind of Jesus as it reflects on the suffering which shortly he will experience.<br /><br />The first few verses, however, tell us of a moving encounter between Philip and "some Greeks" (20). </div><div><br /></div><div>We can only speculate at possible prior connections, noting that "Philip" is a Greek name, but it would be reasonable to surmise that "Greeks" here means "Greek-speaking Jews". These Greeks seek what all disciple love to seek, an encounter with Jesus: </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"Sir, we wish to see Jesus." (21)</div></blockquote><div><br />Frustratingly for us as readers, we do not get to read about them actually seeing Jesus. Philip tells Andrew and together they go to tell Jesus (22) but we are not told that the Greek-speaking enquirers saw Jesus in person. Instead, Jesus takes the occasion to speak about what is about to happen to him (23-33).<br /><br />What Jesus says here is a mixture of Johannine themes (hour, glory, servant/Jesus/Father, judgment, ruler of this world, lifted up) and Synoptic Gospels' paradox (verse 25).<br /><br />Three matters stand out:<br /><br />1. Jesus may be saying to the Greeks who wish to "see him",<br />- "What you see should not be me the person with some fame which you have heard of, but me the one whom God is drawing forward to embrace death for the sake of eternal life (25, 32)."<br />- "When I have been crucified I will 'draw all people to myself', not only Jews and Greeks gathered here for this festival (32)."<br /><br />2. Jesus understands his death to be the key to glory (i.e. honouring and blessing the enhanced reputation of God, 23, 28), the necessary pathway to "much fruit" (24, 32) and the decisive step in judging the "ruler of this world" (31).<br /><br />3. Jesus teaches that his followers are called to the same destiny as himself: his death (e.g. 23-24) will be imitated by his followers who must be willing to lose their life and to follow him as servants wherever he goes (25-26).<br /></div><div><br /></div><p>Could we say that Jesus raises this question for those who would like to meet him, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Do you really understand who I am, and if you understand the pathway to suffering and death on which I am on, do you still want to meet me? To truly meet me is to meet one who is going to call you to a similar pathway of suffering and death, is that what you actually want?" </p></blockquote>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-62115365348332276692024-03-03T14:38:00.000-08:002024-03-03T14:38:33.411-08:00Sunday 10 March 2024 - Lent 4<p>Theme: Belief in the Son / Eternal life / Wholeness / Two Ways to Live</p>Sentence: So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (John 3: 14-15).<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />God love,<br />May we through the Spirit's power and wisdom,<br />grasp the extent of your love for the world,<br />open our eyes to the richness of your mercy,<br />and offer from our hearts, thanksgiving for the death and resurrection of your Son,<br />which makes new life possible. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Numbers 21:4-9<br />Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22<br />Ephesians 2:1-10<br />John 3:14-21<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br />The Old Testament and Gospel readings this week are very tightly bound together because the Numbers reading provides the direct biblical background to the concept of the Son of Man being 'lifted up'.<br /><br /><b>Numbers 21:4-9</b><br /><br />From a scientific perspective this story is, well, nuts: if you have snakebite problems, looking at a bronze serpent held in the air will not (ordinarily) solve your problem. But the story is not about the science of snakebites but about the actions of God and of God's people. The people grumble (4-5) and the Lord responds with a mini-plague of 'poisonous serpents' (6). People die (as we might expect, scientifically speaking) and this provokes the people to repent of their grumbling (7). Moses prays and the Lord answers in an (unscientific) way (7-8).<br /><br />What the passage invites us to consider is why God answers Moses' prayer in the way he does. Why does God who sent the snakes not send them away? Why does God command Moses to make a bronze image of a serpent, attach it to a pole and ask those subsequently bitten by snakes to look at the bronze image in order to live? (We can even make the question harder by asking why God requires of his people a remedy for snakebite which Egyptians also used).<br /><br />One possibility is that God is demonstrating sovereign power over the situation, including the use of irony. God sends the snakes and God remedies their threat. The remedy involves God taking up an Egyptian custom (a custom from the land Israel wishes to return to) and transforming it into God's own remedy. It is as though God says to Israel, "You want to go back to Egypt? Let's go back metaphorically to Egypt for a remedy for your punishment. But that is as far as it goes. Geographically, there is no going back. I will get you to the Promised Land."<br /><br /><b>Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22</b><br /><br />This psalm recalls the story in Numbers, set in the larger story of God's calling Israel out of Egypt and guiding them to the promised land.<br /><br /><b>Ephesians 2:1-10</b><br /><br />We could take this passage as a commentary on the gospel passage!<br /><br />What kind and scope of love for the world does God have (cf. John 3:16 in our gospel reading)? Well, it is spelled out in extraordinary life giving detail here, especially from verse 4 onwards.<br /><br />We can, of course, also read the passage on its own merits. In the context of Lent we do this looking for understanding for why Jesus died on the cross for our sakes.<br /><br />Paul lays it out:<br />1-2: 'You were dead through the trespasses and sins ...'<br />3: '... we were by nature children of wrath ...'<br />4-5: 'But (which could be '<b><u>BUT</u></b>') God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ ...'<br />(Although the cross is not mentioned in this passage, we understand the death of Christ on the cross to be crucial to our being made alive by working backwards to 1:7; we also understand his death to be implied by the talk in Ephesians 1, and here, on the resurrection of Jesus and the power which raised him to be the power at work in us).<br />In other words God reaches out to humanity which is destined for death and enables us instead to be 'made alive'. All this is God's doing: 'by grace you have been saved' (5, 8).<br />6-7: it is not just that God 'saves us' (in the sense of making us new, making us at one with God), Paul says here that we are 'raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' Much could be said here about (a) hope (b) heaven (c) the future becoming present reality but I would like to emphasise (d) that the great transformation through salvation is that we are identified with Christ and become 'in Christ', a union between ourselves and Christ and because of that, receive every blessing from God (see also 1:3).<br />8-9: Understanding everything so far we easily comprehend that nothing (repeat, nothing) we do can secure this transformation, can gain us favour from God, so it is 'by grace you have been saved through faith.'<br />And, Paul goes further, lest any misunderstanding should arise, even the faith by which we open ourselves to God's gracious action, this faith 'is not your own doing; it is the gift of God'.<br />10: What now? Do we sit around waiting to physically die to enjoy the fullness of life in Christ in the heavenly places? Not at all. There is work to be done, but it is God's work which is to be done.<br /><br /><b>John 3:14-21</b><br /><br />Our gospel readings through these Lenten weeks are an interesting mix of <i>forecast</i> and <i>interpretation</i> of Jesus' death and resurrection, centred on Jesus' own words. The epistles are clearly centred on interpretation of Jesus' death and resurrection through <i>hindsight</i> rather than <i>foresight</i>. <div><br /></div><div>What we read in the gospels, in passages such as this one, are less clearly <i>foresight</i> rather than <i>hindsight </i>because the way they come to us involves a writing down which takes place as late as, if not later than the epistles. </div><div><br /></div><div>Inevitably the Christian interpretation of Jesus' death and resurrection influences the way Jesus' own words are written down for the gospel writers' present and future audiences. In the particular case of John 3:14-21 there is a challenge - avoided here(!) - of working out where Jesus stops speaking and the Fourth Evangelist begins his interpretation of what Jesus has been saying: at the end of verse 15? 16? 21? </div><div><br /></div><div>Here we take the passage as words which, whether spoken by Jesus or the gospel writer or both, contribute to our understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection.<br /><br /><u>Main Comment</u>: Verse 14-15 really needs (at least) verse 13 to make sense of why Moses and the serpent (from our Old Testament reading) appear after Jesus has been talking to Nicodemus about other matters. The conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-13) has been about where Jesus comes from and how Jesus can do and teach what he has been doing. Verse 13 is then a kind of summary: the one who does these things is the one who has experience of heaven, the Son of Man (i.e. Jesus himself) and that Man has descended from heaven. So the language of descent (also ascent, first part of 13) opens the way for Jesus to talk about the destiny of the descended Son of Man: he will be 'lifted up' (14).<br /><br />Thus in verse 14 Jesus uses the switch from language of 'ascent' to language of being 'lifted up' to talk about the event of the cross which will differentiate his talk of ascent to heaven from that of other mystics. The usual mystical talk (e.g. within Jewish apocalyptic literature of the time) was of a significant heavenly figure being a guide to the seeker of divine mysteries who leads the seeker towards the highest heaven. But Jesus is not that guide in that sense. What will lead people to God, that is, what will 'save' them (see verses 16- 17) is the lifting up of Jesus (i.e. his death "lifted up" on a cross).<br /><br />By invoking the story of Moses and the lifted up serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9) - the story of Israelites becoming ill through snakebite and being healed by gazing at the lifted up serpent - Jesus is actually looking ahead to when he, like Moses' serpent, will be 'lifted up' in such a manner that people will be healed (saved) as a result. He is talking about his death on the cross.<br /><br />(<i>Additionally, we might also note the subtle implication of taking up this story from Numbers: the serpent or snake that people most need healing from is the one who tempted humanity into sin in the first place, Genesis 3. When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, and then lifted up from the grave through resurrection, he will heal the great wound shared by all humanity</i>).<br /><br />In v 15 then (and v. 16, 18), 'eternal life' is possible for those who believe because Jesus becomes the Mosaic serpent to whom people may look in order to be healed. (From this perspective, 'eternal life' is 'wholeness of life' or 'life healed of brokenness.')<br /><br />Verses 16-21 is therefore a speech (by Jesus) or a sermon (by John the Evangelist) on the significance of the choice facing the world because of the event of the cross (and resurrection). </div><div><br /></div><div>[It is not clear to scholars whether these verses represent the voice of Jesus (he continues speaking from v. 15 onwards) or the voice of the gospel author (he seamlessly moves from the voice of Jesus to his own voice as commentator).]</div><div><br /></div><div>Choosing to 'believe in him' leads to eternal life and choosing not to believe leads to the opposite ('perish', 16; 'condemn', 17, 18; 'judgment', 19).<br /><br />Verse 16 nails down the place of God as, well, God in relation to the world: God loves the world which by implication means 'loves the world enough to do something about the problems of the world - people preferring darkness to light, doing evil deeds (19-20).' In that love God 'gave his only Son', language that is redolent of Genesis 22 where Abraham is willing to give up his only son for sacrifice, but with the difference that there is no talk of sacrifice here, and 'the Son' in the context of this gospel is the One who is one with the Father. In effect God so loves the world that God (Father-and-Son) gave up himself so that the world might be saved.<br /><br />Thus all talk about the decisive and eternally significant choice facing the world, light versus darkness, belief in the Son versus evil deeds, is framed by the phrase 'For God so loved the world.' As we reckon with the strong language of 'perish' and 'condemn' in succeeding verses, the starting point is God's love which reaches out through the gift of God's Son to draw all people to himself.<br /><br />The reality is that the situation of the world is bleak: 'people loved darkness' (19); 'all who do evil hate the light' (20). The coming of Jesus, paradoxically, as a gift of love which brings light, makes no difference to most in the world who 'do not come to the light' (20).<br /><br />A couple of tricky questions lurk in the passage!<br /><br />One is that verses 18-21 raise but do not answer the question 'why' believers manage to escape from the usual preference of people to choose darkness over light.<br /></div><p>Two is that there is a shift from 'belief in the Son' (15) being key to the door to eternal life to 'deeds' being seen in the light of God (21). </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-10527078501586579162024-02-25T10:08:00.000-08:002024-02-25T10:08:58.478-08:00Sunday 3 March 2024 - Lent 3<p>Theme(s): Zeal / Devotion to God</p>Sentence:<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />God of Moses,<br />you guide us with your law,<br />you welcome our worship on the mountain and in the temple;<br />we worship you.<br />Draw us deeper into you<br />that we will reflect your love and faithfulness<br />and serve your kingdom with holiness.<br />Through Jesus Christ Our Redeemer,<br />who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,<br />one God, now and forever.<br />Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Exodus 20:1-17<br />Psalm 19<br />1 Corinthians 1:18-25<br />John 2:13-22<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Exodus 20:1-17</b><br /><br />It is always helpful for our walk with God to be reminded of the Ten Commandments. These commandments help clarify our obligations to God and to fellow human beings. With a slight interpretative nip and tuck (e.g. change 'donkey' in verse 17 for 'luxury car'), the commandments are timeless. In a world of growing financial inequality, for example, it is worth asking whether disobedience of the tenth commandment is one reason for disparity (i.e. greed fuels expansion of wealth).<br /><br />We read the commandments today, noting the gospel reading, with the first four commandments especially in focus. These commandments challenge us to worship God, only God and to admit devotion and veneration to nothing that is not God. The implied zeal of the person living according to these commandments is the zeal of Jesus which takes him to the Jerusalem temple and leads him to drive out that which did not conform to these commandments.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 19</b><br /><br />One of my favourite psalms!<br /><br />But why is it a favourite? A trivial reason is that in the 1970s we used to sing the words to a catchy tune! A more substantial reason is that this psalm inspires praise and worship of two great gifts of God: creation and Scripture.<br /><br /><b>1 Corinthians 1:18-25</b><br /><br />Paul is crystal clear in this passage that the cross - the manner of Jesus' execution and the place of Jesus' death - matters. The humiliation and shame of Jesus' manner of death - a naked man publicly executed, an apparently religious man killed as a common criminal - potentially diminish the Christian message. Opponents could laugh at Christian preachers, dismissing them and their message with guffaws about how "this Jesus bloke" died. It was a "stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (v. 23).<br /><br />But for Paul this obvious weakness in the message of the gospel was a strength. The fact that Jesus died so ignominiously meant that his abject death was Jesus in fact becoming sin for our sakes so that we may be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; see also Romans 3:21-26). Here, in this passage, Paul presumes an understanding of what "the cross" (i.e. Jesus dying on the cross) achieves, so he talks of the cross being "the power of God" for those "who are being saved" (v. 18) as well as being the "wisdom of God" (vss. 22-25; also vss. 27-31).<br /><br />We assume that for his Corinthians readership, at this point in time, he needed to tackle Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian readers in the Corinthian congregation who were raising some kinds of questions about the Christian message. Perhaps questions being sharply posed by Jews and Gentiles close to these readers. "The gospel wasn't that wise, was it?" - we sense some were saying. Others, we sense, from what Paul says (e.g. v. 22), were saying, "So where are the signs of God's powerful work." To them Paul says, precisely in the foolishness of the one claimed to be Saviour was wisdom and precisely in the powerlessness of the one claimed to be Saviour was power, and it all took place in the crucifixion. "... but we proclaim Christ crucified" (v. 23).<br /><br /><b>John 2:13-22</b><br /><br />At the heart of this reading, in the context of Lent, is the form of prediction Jesus makes about his death and resurrection, a form which can be placed alongside the form we read in last week's gospel according to Mark.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">'Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in <b>three days</b> I will <b>raise</b> it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will <b>raise </b>it up in <b>three days</b>? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was <b>raised from the dead</b>, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and <b>the word that Jesus had spoken</b>.' (John 2:19-22)</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">'Then <b>he began to teach them</b> that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and <b>be killed</b>, and <b>after three days rise again</b>.' (Mark 8:31)</blockquote>In other words, in two different contexts (if they be two different cleansings of the Temple - a question about this incident to take to the commentators for further comment; also see further below), with two different kinds of audience, Jesus is remembered as having spoken about the event of his death and resurrection differently, but a common memory is the prediction that the time between dying and rising again would be three days. (It is another story how we count those three days across the three days, mid-Friday, Saturday, dawn on Sunday!)<br /><br />So, as with last Sunday, we note that Jesus has a steadfast determination to reach his destiny which he knows will be execution in Jerusalem.<br /><br />Something else is common to the two gospel readings. Each gospel writer faces the challenge not simply of telling the history of Jesus (this happened, then that happened, then he was crucified, then ...) but also explaining the history. With respect to Jesus' death, the gospel writers need to explain how a supremely good, indeed perfectly innocent man ends up being executed with criminals. A running thread through Lenten readings is the unfolding set of circumstances that led to a good man doing good being treated by civic, religious and political authorities as a bad man doing bad things. Here we set aside how Mark explains why Jesus died and focus on how today's reading from John's Gospel contributes to John's overall explanation.<br /><br />In this reading, John takes an episode which the three other gospellers are united in placing in the last days of Jesus' life, and places it at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.<br /><br />We may struggle with John's apparently cavalier attitude to chronology so it may be helpful to think of John as a mix of poet and artist. Like them, John takes familiar matters of life and places them in new contexts to make us think more deeply about their significance. Here (I would argue) John takes a decisive event in the last week of Jesus' life (which in the other gospels explains how opposition to Jesus hardened to the point of resolve to kill him) and places it early in his version of Jesus' life in order to open our eyes to the opposition which Jesus provoked from the beginning of his ministry.<br /><br />First, John tells us - verses 13-17 - that Jesus comes as one whose zeal for the Father exposes unfaithfulness to the Father on the part of those who should know (their Scripture) better.<br /><br />Secondly, John tells us that Jesus is much more than a <i>reforming</i> Jew, intent on purifying the temple. Jesus comes to <i>replace</i> the temple (19-21).<br /><br />Since the replacement will be his own body, John opens up for all his readers the prospect that through the remainder of the gospel we will find out more about the new way of relating to God, through the body of Jesus and not through the temple in Jerusalem. (For which, chapters such as 3, 4, 6, 10, 15 are very important about the spiritual relationship believers have with the risen Lord Jesus present through the Comforter sent by God the Father and God the Son. Alongside these chapters we might also put what Paul says about "the body of Christ" in his epistles, and what Peter says hin 1 Peter 2 about living stones being built into a spiritual house).<br /><br />How might this reading apply to our lives?<br /><br />First, all such episodes in the gospels challenge us about whether what we call church (building, activities and events in the building) has itself fallen prey to the errors Jesus attacked re temple worship and associated activities. Some churches (in my experience), keen to raise needed funds, allow their premises to be hired out for purposes which some would question in respect of whether they compromise the church building as a 'house of prayer'.<br /><br />Secondly, the contrast Jesus makes between the physical temple of Jerusalem and his 'body' as the new temple of God could make us think about what we do about being church. Most churches (as gatherings of believers) meet in churches (buildings purpose-built to gather people in), so generally there is nothing wrong with church buildings. But (or BUT) many of us experience attachments to church buildings which become unhealthy for the ongoing life of the gatherings of believers, constricting the growth and development of the 'body' of Christ.<br /><br />Thirdly, and thinking specifically of Lent, Jesus models for us a life devoted to God. The zealousness of his actions flow from a heart centred on God. A season of 'self-examination and penitence' such as Lent is an appropriate time to ask ourselves whether we are devoted to God.<br /><p>A question which we might profitably ask ourselves (picking out a word from verse 17 NRSV) is, 'What <b>consumes</b> us?' </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-2672055901053384642024-02-18T12:13:00.000-08:002024-02-18T12:13:24.917-08:00Sunday 25 February 2024 - Lent 2<p>Theme(s): Self-denial / Taking up the cross / Following Jesus / Faith</p>Sentence: No distrust made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God (Romans 4:20).<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Servant God, grant us opportunity<br />give us willingness<br />to serve you day by day;<br />that what we do<br />and how we bear each other's burdens,<br />may be our sacrifice to you. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16<br /><br />Psalm 22:23-31<br /><br />Romans 4:13-25<br /><br />Mark 8:31-38<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16</b><br /><br />As best I can tell this reading is connected to the gospel reading via the epistle reading! <div><br /></div><div>The epistle reading talks of what Jesus has done for us by dying and rising again (see the first verses of the gospel reading where Jesus predicts his death and resurrection). It also talks about 'inheriting the world' (Romans 4:13) which connects with Jesus' own talk about gaining or losing the world (Mark 8:33-37).<br /><br />But the epistle reading also talks about Abraham and his faith, that against the odds his aged wife would bear a son who would begin the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, and that through him and Sarah they would beget a great and flourishing nation. </div><div><br /></div><div>In these verses God restates his promise to Abraham re a great inheritance (verses 1-7) and Abraham is shown in verses 16-17 to not believe God!<br /><br /><b>Psalm 22:23-31</b><br /><br />Jesus himself cited Psalm 22 while dying on the cross (verse 1) and he may in fact have recited the whole psalm. In these verses praise is given to the Lord on the other side (so to speak) of the affliction suffered in the first part of the psalm. In that way the psalm connects to Jesus' prediction in Mark 8:31 that he will suffer, die and rise again.<br /><br /><b>Romans 4:13-25</b><br /><br />In context this passage is part of Paul's unfolding argument to the Romans concerning the righteousness of God, who receives it and how. In verse 13 Paul characterises the situation in terms of inheritance: </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>'For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.' </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>The phrase 'inherit the world' connects this epistle to the gospel and reference there to 'gain the whole world' (Mark 8:36). But connections can also be made in respect of the purpose of Jesus dying and rising from the dead.<br /><br />In the context of today's set of Lent 2 readings we might read this passage as a commentary on Jesus' teaching on discipleship in Mark 8:31-38. From that perspective this passage makes the point that 'faith' is the key to inheriting both the present and the future blessing God has for us.<br /><br />Abraham exemplifies the faithful disciple who trusts God for what is promised but which is not yet seen. When Jesus teaches that denying self and taking up one's cross in order to follow him means a willingness to lose life in order to gain life, implicitly disciples of Jesus must be people of unwavering (Romans 4:20) faith.<br /><br /><b>Mark 8:31-38</b><br /><br />Jesus is still in Galilee but he is seeing the cross ahead of him in Jerusalem. After the triumphs of healings, deliverances and feeding miracles, it must have been a shock to the disciples when Jesus began teaching them 'that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected ... and be killed'. We can readily imagine that after that triad they did not really comprehend </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>'and after three days rise again' (31).</div></blockquote><div><br />Having confessed that Jesus was the Messiah (29), Peter could not more clearly demonstrate that he had no idea what kind of Messiah Jesus was than his blurted rebuke (32). Jesus calls him out by highlighting his false understanding through addressing him as 'Satan' (33). Ouch! Jesus then goes on to carefully clarify what is wrong: Peter is thinking 'human things' rather than 'divine things' (33).<br /><br />What Jesus then goes on to say, notably to 'the crowd with his disciples' (34) explains what 'divine things' versus 'human things' mean for every day living: a different kind of Messiah has different kind of followers from the Messiah Peter has in mind.<br /><br />In summary, Jesus says that the suffering he will undergo will be the suffering his followers undergo. Through history this has proven to be the case as Christians have been martyred for their faith. Martyrdom continues to be a feature of Christian life in the twenty-first century especially in countries loathe to tolerate a faith different to the presumptive religion or ideology of the state.<br /><br />Our question, reading what Jesus says, is a question not only about how we might conduct ourselves through the demanding season of Lent but also how we will conduct ourselves through the demanding years of life itself!<br /><br />When Jesus says "If any want to become my followers" (34), he is laying it on the line. He might have said, "Do you really understand what it means to be my followers? Let me lay it on the line for you, unvarnished, raw and robust!"<br /><br />What is laid on the line is this:<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (34).</div></blockquote><div><br />A first reflection is to connect this back to the 'divine things' of verse 33: if we are serious about God then we cannot live life as we please but must live to please God and in that living be open to the whole life of God filling out lives. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thus the cost of that fullness of divine life is that we deny self, that is, open the whole of our lives to God. Yet here on earth, living the divine life, as Jesus is doing, is not to enjoy the applause of the world but its fear and antagonism which may lead literally to a cross and metaphorically leads to living as ones willing at any time to die for Christ.<br /><br />A second reflection is provided by Jesus himself in verses 35-37. Very few people are willing to die for no return. Human nature looks for value in exchange for value: life is valuable so why deny self and be prepared to be crucified?<br /><br />This is Jesus' answer:<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.</div></blockquote><div><br />For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?"<br /><br />Note that Jesus' characterises the possibilities of loss and gain in following him in a way which actually makes the non-follower liable to lose more than the follower!<br /><br />But what do we make of these words? Our world is weighted towards the importance of this earthly life, exemplified by the desire of most people to live as long as possible, eagerly embracing every advance in medical treatment to prolong life. In living that longer life we then find ourselves attempting to live the fullest life possible, exemplified by the desire of many people to travel far and wide to experience as much of the variety of life on earth as we can absorb. Is it now harder than in Jesus' own day to contemplate that the best life is yet to be, is to be found by travelling to the other side of death and not to the other side of the planet?<br /><br />Questions such as these take on an edge when we read the last verse of the passage. Jesus envisages what most of us try not to think about: a day of reckoning </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>'when he comes in the glory of the Father and with the holy angels' (38b). </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>On that day what will be revealed about ourselves? Will we be among those who are </div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">'ashamed of [Jesus] and [his] words'? </p></blockquote>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-954481516169091582024-02-10T23:48:00.000-08:002024-02-10T23:48:22.100-08:00Sunday 18 February 2024 - Lent 1<p>Theme(s): Covenant / Suffering / Lent / Salvation / Baptism / Temptation and Testing / Wilderness</p>Sentence: Lord be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning; our salvation in time of distress. (Isaiah 33:2)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Almighty God,<br />your Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness;<br />give us grace to direct our lives in obedience to your Spirit;<br />and as you know our weakness<br />so may we know your power to save;<br />through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Genesis 9:8-17<br />Psalm 25:1-10<br />1 Peter 3:18-22<br />Mark 1:9-15<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br />Introductory Comment:<br /><br />We read these readings from the perspective of Lent. The Genesis and 1 Peter readings raise many questions which will not be dealt with here. Rather we focus on what they contribute to our journey with Jesus through Lent to the cross.<br /><br /><b>Genesis 9:8-17</b><br /><br />This reading is connected to our epistle reading (see below). At the heart of the story of Noah is the question of relationship between God and humanity, a relationship which has gone very seriously wrong. <div><br /></div><div>With the flood, God destroys the unrighteous and saves, via the ark, the righteous (i.e. Noah and his family). In these verses God says that this mammoth act of judgment will not occur again. The rainbow will function as a sign of God's covenant not to act in this way again.<br /><br />Thus a central theme in the story is God's willingness to engage verbally with humanity, via covenants which spell out what God's plan for humanity is. Soon there will be a covenant with Abraham, then with Moses, followed by a Davidic covenant and then the promise of a new covenant.<br /><br />Although Mark's account of the baptism of Jesus does not mention a rainbow, it does mention the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove (which also features in the story of Noah). In other words, the covenant-making God is at work in the story of the baptism of Jesus.<br /><br />Every covenant God makes, including this one here, is part of the assurance through words, that God cares for the world and is committed to the salvation of God's people.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 25:1-10</b><br /><br />What is Lent? In part it is a time of learning, of discipline, of care and attention to the obedient life of a disciples of Christ. Verses 4-5 point us in the direction we need to go; with a reinforcement in verses 8-10.<br /><br /><b>1 Peter 3:18-22</b><br /><br />This reading and Genesis 9:8-17 (from the story of Noah) are obviously linked together, but what is the link to the gospel reading on this first Sunday in Lent?<br /><br />I suggest the link is provided by the first and last verses of the passage: Jesus 'suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God' (with v. 22 observing that this suffering was vindicated).<br /><br />In Lent we journey with the suffering Jesus, the Jesus who suffers by resisting Satan's temptations, suffers by bending his will to God's will as he travels to Jerusalem knowing the destiny which awaits him, suffers false accusations, a manipulated set of trials, mocking, scourging and finally suffers crucifixion itself.<br /><br />Verses 19-21 are food for commentarial thought. Peter segues off 'alive in the spirit' in v. 18 to talk about what Jesus then did. The narrative of preaching to imprisoned spirits is connected to the creedal phrase 'descended to the dead' and to 1 Peter 4:6. Beyond that we have no other testimony in Holy Scripture to this action by Jesus. What is Peter saying? Can the spirits of dead disobedient people be released to new life in God? (Cue discussion of praying for the dead, talk of Purgatory and so forth.)<br /><br />If so, note that Peter does not say anything about whether we should pray about such release. Was this action of Jesus a 'one off' proclamatory event? That is, was it an event we should not rely on as precedent for what happens (say) to ourselves re a future 'second chance' should we choose to live disobediently to God? <i>I'll stop my brief discussion here, for reasons of insufficient time. But clearly a long and lively discussion could ensue. Either way, I do not think these verses are the reason why this reading is chosen for this day.</i><br /><i><br /></i>Verses 20-21 take us to Noah, as an exemplary figure from a time when the inhabitants of the earth 'did not obey'. He then says that when Noah's family were saved in the ark in the midst of the flooding of the earth it was a 'prefiguring' (or, we can say, 'type') of baptism (another link with the gospel reading).<br /><br />Verse 21 is then a theology of baptism: this needs careful thought lest we misunderstand what is being said. I will make just one point here: when Peter writes 'And baptism ... now saves you' he is not saying that we just need to be baptised and we are saved. His point is more subtle than that, because he integrates baptism into the state of our consciences and understands a 'good conscience' as coming 'through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' Salvation comes through Jesus Christ and we receive salvation as we receive Christ and that, reading the rest of the epistle, involves our inner faith as much as the outer baptism of water. Baptised people do not trust in their baptism as a kind of ticket to eternal life - baptised people live into their baptism, live into the Christ into whom they have been baptised.<br /><br /><b>Mark 1:9-15</b><br /><br />Although this passage begins with the baptism of Jesus, we have already tackled this event/theme in this year's Year A readings. Our focus today is on <u>verses 12 and 13</u>, the immediate aftermath of the baptism, in which the Spirit drives Jesus 'out into the wilderness.'<br /><br />Mark tells us that Jesus 'was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.'<br /><br />We can read a lot into these words. The wilderness was the place where Israel was tested between leaving Egypt and entering the promised land, with 40 days here matching 40 years of Israel's sojourn through the wilderness. Israel is God's Son and now Jesus Christ, the Son of God is tested like the whole people he represents. But Elijah, a prophet with many resemblances to Jesus' prophetic ministry, also went into the wilderness for 40 days (1 Kings 19:4-8).<br /><br />The specific reference to Satan tempting Jesus recalls (at least) the temptation of Adam and Eve and the testing of Job. If Jesus is to be the 'one perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world' then he needs to pass the test which Adam and Eve failed. If Jesus is to truly suffer or experience true suffering, then he, like Job, must be tested through suffering.<br /><br />The wild beasts are more difficult to interpret. Is this reference to the extent of the wilderness experience: wild beasts threatened to devour him? Or, does this mention imply that when Jesus was with the wild beasts, they were tamed by him who has come to reverse the effects of the fall? The latter is more likely because Mark makes nothing of the threat to Jesus, but in a story about the Saviour who restores the world it makes sense to include references to the ways in which God's new creation is taking effect.<br /><br />The ministry of the angels recalls both the ministering angels to Israel during its forty years in the wilderness as well as the angel ministering to Elijah during his wilderness experience.<br /><br />Coming out of the wilderness, Jesus begins to preach the gospel and to inaugurate the kingdom.<br /><br />The specific sequence of 'baptism' then 'temptation' may not be the typical experience of every Christian disciples, but most disciples experience sharp testing at times in our walk with the Lord. Many of us as disciples recall moments of "high" spiritual experience followed by "low" experiences.<br /><br />If we think of the wilderness experience as 'preparation for ministry' then we are reminded here that our efforts to minister in Jesus' name are best served by appropriate preparation.<br /><br /></div><div>If we match the opportunities in Lent for special prayer and fasting with this reading then we may be helped to think of how such prayer and fasting is an identification with Christ in his battle with the devil. </div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-88795693383182582902024-02-06T09:39:00.000-08:002024-02-06T09:39:31.316-08:00Sunday 11 February 2024 - Epiphany 6 (Ordinary 6?)<p>Sunday 11 February is the last Sunday in the Epiphany season and the last Sunday before Lent begins this coming Wednesday 14 February 2024.</p>Theme(s): healing / Cleansing / Faithfulness<br /><br />Sentence: You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. (Psalm 30:11-12)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Mighty God,<br />strong, loving and wise,<br />help us to depend upon your goodness<br />and to place our trust in your Son.<br />Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />2 Kings 5:1-14<br />Psalm 30<br />1 Corinthians 9:24-27<br />Mark 1:40-45<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>2 Kings 5:1-14</b><br /><br />Sometimes matching the Old Testament reading with the Gospel has the feel of matching the right wine with the main dish for the day. Here the meat of Jesus healing a leper is matched with the wine of God healing Naaman from leprosy.<br /><br />A common experience between the two stories is suffering from leprosy but from there most points of possible comparison do not match. Naaman is a named and high ranking Aramean: the gospel leper is unnamed and no particular importance is attached to him as a member of Israel's citizenry. Naaman is healed 'at a distance' whereas Jesus heals the leper with a touch.<br /><br />But the end result is the same: both lepers are 'clean' as a result of their healing. We cannot underestimate the importance of that word: lepers had a poor social status, people avoiding them in the hope of avoiding catching leprosy. Healing meant not only the end of the disease but also the restoration of social status as a 'clean' person.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 30</b><br /><br />This psalm speaks of a psalmist in pitiable circumstances who has been brought out of them, from death to life so to speak. So the Lord is extolled and praised (as we might imagine the leper in today's gospel story might praise the Lord after being healed).<br /><br /><b>1 Corinthians 9:24-27</b><br /><br />Paul is not afraid to mix metaphors. He moves from a kind of drama metaphor (verses 19-23), becoming all things to all people, to a sporting metaphor (strictly, a set of sporting metaphors). In the process he switches topics a little, from winning the world for Christ to making sure he does not lose his share in the blessings of the gospel (23). But by the end of 27 he is back to the matter of proclaiming the gospel.<br /><br />His point is simple. Those who will be ultimately and permanently blessed by the gospel are those who remain faithful in the ministry of the gospel to the end.<br /><br />Just as Paul does all he can to win others for Christ, so he will do all he can to remain faithful in the service of the gospel. He is not here talking about qualifying for the blessings (that has been done for him by Christ) but of avoiding disqualification. The emphasis on 'self-control' in the passage implies that we could disqualify ourselves by failing to be faithful in our obedience to God through the long course of our lives.<br /><br /><b>Mark 1:40-45</b><br /><br />Mark is a seriously good story teller! On the face of it, this is the story of the healing of a leper. Rightly we marvel at the miracle and, as readers, become more and more impressed through a succession of such stories by Mark's overall aim to persuade his readers (or reinforce their belief) that Jesus is the Son of God.<br /><br />But digging deeper into the story (or, alternatively, reading the story slowly so we take in each nuanced detail), we see Mark telling us a number of things about Jesus and his life situation.<br /><br />The leper has implicit faith in Jesus: if Jesus chooses he can heal him; if not, he will not be healed (40).<br /><br />Is it a mixture of need (the man's leprosy), the humble begging on his knees and the simple trusting faith which means Jesus is 'Moved with pity'? (41).*<br /><br />Jesus responds to the direct question about choosing to heal by saying 'I do choose. Be made clean!' (41) But this conversational logic raises the question of the role of God's will in healing: does God sometimes will healing to take place, and by implication, sometimes will for healing not to take place?<br /><br />Then, the attitude and approach of the leper begs the question whether the way we pray makes a difference to God's will to heal. Food for thought! Mark is not telling the story in this way to establish a comprehensive 'theology of prayer for healing' but he must have been alert to questions of his fellow disciples when he wrote. That is, questions such as, Does the risen Jesus still heal today? Is it God's will to heal my sickness? When he reports Jesus saying 'I do choose', at the very least, Mark is expressing the view that healing is not guaranteed every time we ask for it.<br /><br />The report in v. 42 that 'Immediately' the man was healed is part and parcel of Mark's overall strategy of presenting Jesus as the powerful Son of God.<br /><br />The next few verses <i>begin/continue</i> a theme in the gospel called (by modern scholars through the past 150 or so years) 'the Messianic Secret.' This term is applied to situations in which Jesus asks the recipient of a miracle not to say anything about it and thus to not talk about Jesus as the Messiah.<br /><br />('<i>Begin</i>' if we think about humans being commanded to say nothing - to keep the secret; '<i>continue</i>' if we think about demons already commanded to be silent, back in 1:34).<br /><br />Why would Jesus not want the world to know about such a powerful demonstration of his divinity?<br /><br />Cutting through a whole lot of scholarly discussion the best answer remains (in my view) that Jesus sought to control the reception of his ministry, lest it generate the wrong kind of following and the wrong kind of false expectations of the character of his Messiahship.<br /><br />A man making the unclean clean is a man with potential to change society (because able to shift people from the margins to the centre), that is, to be a political messiah, a new king threatening the colluding rule of Herod and Caesar. Jesus has come to establish a different kind of kingdom, not least because it is not going to be confined to the geographical territory of Israel. His kingdom will be God-centred and God-empowered rather than human-centred and military-empowered. The moment for revealing that kingdom plan has not yet arrived.<br /><br />But the effort Jesus puts into secrecy is to no avail. The man goes out and about proclaiming the miracle freely and so 'to spread the word' (45). Ironically, Mark portrays one who disobeys Jesus while acting as a model disciple-witness! The gospel which Mark is writing is a message to be proclaimed and spread around the world ... at the right time.<br /><br />A final subtlety to note is Jesus' insistence that the cleansed leper does the right thing by the Law of Moses (44). In this respect, 'as a testimony to them (= the laws of Moses)' means that Jesus is not intending to be anything other than a Law-abiding Jew. That, later, he will get into trouble with his contemporary guardians of the Law will be due to their false understanding of the Law and not his disobedience of it. Mark makes this point along the way of this story. It is not his main point but he makes sure it is made as a minor note within it.<br /><br />*Important note: actually quite a lot is going on in the Greek underlying "moved with pity" and also, seemingly relatedly, in the Greek in v. 45 underlying "sternly charged him ... sent him away." There is a strong argument for an alternative Greek word to the one versions translate with "moved with pity/compassion": this alternative, according to the argument, would be the original, and the Greek for "moved with pity/compassion" would be a later adjustment to soften the raw emotion of the original which means "moved with anger." In verse 45 there is also a rawness and a roughness in Jesus sternly telling the man not to say anything and to being sent away: there is a note in the Greek of yelling at the man and brusquely pushing him away!<br /><p>Why would Jesus be angry, according to v. 41 and rude, according to v. 45? One possibility (according to scholars) is that Jesus is cross that illness stalks the earth, and leprosy in particular could have aroused his anger because it led in his time to people being excluded from normal life. Then the rude treatment of the healed man is Jesus' strength of concern, even of anxiety, that this man's miraculous healing does not become the cause of misunderstanding (see further above about "secrecy.") </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-45739118779429679282024-01-28T09:42:00.000-08:002024-01-28T09:42:15.506-08:00Sunday 4 February 2024 - Epiphany 5<p>Theme(s): Healing / Restoration / Obligation to preach / All things to all people</p>Sentence: Jesus came and took her by the hand and lifted her up (Mark 1:31)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Healing God,<br />in the touch of Jesus the sick were healed,<br />the chains unbound.<br />Freedom is before us.<br />Set us on a new path of wholeness,<br />deliver us from all that binds us,<br />turn us to embrace that life giving love<br />offered through Jesus Christ,<br />who is alive and lives with you,<br />in the unity of the Holy Spirit,<br />one God, now and forever. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Isaiah 40:21-31<br />Psalm 147:1-11, 20c<br />1 Corinthians 9:16-23<br />Mark 1:29-39<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Isaiah 40:21-31</b><br /><br />Isaiah 40 is the beginning of the second part of Isaiah which is (so to speak) a charter for the future restoration of creation (i.e. the kingdom of God), including the restoration of Israel from its Babylonian exile (the immediate issue facing God's people at the time of writing).<br /><br />In this part of the beginning of the charter, the prophet paints a verbal picture of the transcendent might and power of God, yet a power and awesomeness which is personal: the weary in Israel will receive new strength and power from the Almighty God (27-31).<br /><br />These last verses are the particular connection with the gospel reading today as we see new strength come to Peter's mother-in-law.<br /><br />But the first part of the Isaianic reading reminds us that from Isaiah onwards 'God' in Israel's theology was re-envisioned as God of the whole world, not just of Israel. In a context where nations had their gods, and even tribes had tribal gods, the 'theological achievement' of Isaiah is not to be under valued.<br /><br />When Jesus comes, the kingdom of God which he proclaims is not only the new rule of God over Israel but also the rule of God over the whole world.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 147:1-11, 20c</b><br /><br />This psalm sets a context for the compassionate miracles of Jesus recounted in Mark's Gospel. What Jesus does is God in action, as anticipated here: 'He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds' (3).<br /><br />One phrase particularly links with Mark's story of the healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law: 'The Lord lifts up the downtrodden' (6b, see Mark 1:29-31 where Jesus takes the woman by the hand and 'lifts her up').<br /><br /><b>1 Corinthians 9:16-23</b><br /><br />Paul's letter is a series of responses to situations in the church in Corinth, and one situation appears to be Corinthian Christians questioning Paul's status as an 'apostle' (see verses 1-15).<br /><br />Possibly there were multiple questions such as, <div><br /></div><div>Is Paul really an apostle like Cephas? Does he have the status of the (real) apostles and the brothers of the Lord? He's paid too much, isn't he? </div><div><br /></div><div>The last question (it seems reasonable to presume such a question was being asked, see verses 6-14) invokes intriguing talk of "rights", otherwise a concept which we might think to be recent and modern!<br /><br />Out of a defensive rejoinder to the grizzling about him (1-15) Paul hits a purple patch about the special character of his apostleship in our passage.<br /><br />(1) Whatever anyone says about him, 'an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel' (16). Paul can only do what he is doing because there is no alternative: the will of God constrains him to one and only one direction of life.<br /><br />(2) Preaching the gospel is its own reward (17-18, also 23).<br /><br />(3) Short of changing the essence of the gospel, Paul will do anything in order to win people to Christ. If he needs to be Jewish 'in order to win Jews' he will be Jewish (20); if he needs to be a non-Jew 'so that I might win those outside of the law' he will become 'as one outside the law' (21). In fact, cutting to his own summary, 'I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some' (22).<br /><br /><i>The great question for declining churches in the world today is what must we become to be 'all things to all people'?</i><br /><br /><b>Mark 1:29-39</b><br /><br />One of the theories about the authorship of Mark's Gospel is that it was written by John Mark but what he wrote down was largely the teaching of Simon Peter, perhaps as he taught in the churches in Rome in the 60s AD.<br /><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">(We have the theory because ancient church history attests to this explanation, but we cannot prove that it is fact - the theory is not as ancient as the likely time of writing of the gospel itself. There may be an element of wishful thinking on the part of ancient church historians because they had to justify why we might think a gospel according to one who was not one of the Twelve can be considered a reliable gospel. A challenging question if Mark's Gospel is more or less Peter's memoirs of Jesus is why so little of the teaching of Jesus is not included, compared with Matthew and Luke).</blockquote><br />If Simon Peter is the author(ity) behind the author then it is understandable that this passage includes an intimate family story: Simon's mother in law is ill, Jesus comes as a guest to her house, heals her and she repays the favour by serving Jesus and the disciples (29-31). But Mark tells the story in a manner which is theological as well as biographical.<br /><br />First, a healing with names highlights the general point Mark will go on to make: Jesus healed many people (32-34) and these healings were integrated into the mission of preaching the kingdom of God is near (1:15, 38-39). Always in this gospel, deeds back up words and words are accompanied by deeds. If the kingdom of God is near we would expect illness to be overcome, since illness is a denigration of the original kingdom of God, creation itself; and we would expect demons, antagonists against the rule of God, to be expelled (34, 39).<br /><br />Secondly, Mark makes a theological point when he tells us that Jesus physically led her out of illness to new life: 'he took her by the hand and lifted her up' (31). Illness has cast her down but Jesus lifts her up. There is a hint here of resurrection. There is more than a hint of a work of restoration. Healing is not simply the removal of illness from a person's life but a work of renewal of life.<br /><br />Thirdly, by telling us that when she was lifted up, Peter's mother in law 'served them', Mark also makes a point that the work of the kingdom, the restoring of health, is purposeful for the ongoing life of the kingdom in which the hallmark of relationships with one another is that we serve each other (see importantly 10:45). <i>Yes, we can also observe that the story viewed in the 20th and 21st centuries reinforces a stereotype about women: their role is to focus on household tasks, in particular serving the men in their lives ... even immediately after recovering from illness!</i><br /><p>Finally, note that Mark picks up another 'marker' in the life of Jesus when he interrupts his telling of the progress of the preaching of the kingdom by recounting an intimate detail of Jesus' life with God: Jesus took time out to go out to the wilderness to pray. Here, Mark is saying, is both the secret of Jesus' power (his relationship with God) and a model for disciples reading the gospel (we too, like Jesus, should go to quite places for quiet times of prayer). </p></div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-39571246985155738502024-01-20T14:41:00.000-08:002024-01-20T14:41:31.256-08:00Sunday 28 January 2024 - Epiphany 4<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">(</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">NZL provides for the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, or Candlemas, otherwise set down for 2 February, to be celebrated today. I see no particular reason to do that, other than sentiment over the fact that 2 February is 40 days from Christmas. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">Why go back to the childhood of Jesus in a series of sermons when we can move forward through the Sundays of Epiphany and the unfolding story of the revelation of God in the ministry of Jesus from his baptism onwards? It also happens that the Gospel reading for Presentation, Luke 2:22-40, was the gospel on Christmas 1 (31 December 2023). But, if you insist, and press forward with Presentation, you may find the comments on the gospel reading </span><a href="http://preachingdownunder.blogspot.co.nz/2017/12/sunday-30-december-2017-christmas-1.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">here </a><span style="color: #222222;">helpful.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">)</span></span></p><span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Epiphany 4</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Theme(s): Authority / Power / Authoritative teaching / Preaching with power / Exorcism / Spiritual warfare.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Sentence: They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Collect:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Teach us, Jesus</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">how to live and worship</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">without being worldly or greedy.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Drive from our lives what spoils them</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and make us temples of the Spirit. Amen.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Readings:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Deuteronomy 18:15-20</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Psalm 111</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">1 Corinthians 8:1-13</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Mark 1:21-28</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Comments:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Deuteronomy 18:15-20</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The words of this passage are background to the gospel reading today. While we may properly explore the ways in which Jesus was 'more than' a prophet, he was never less than a prophet of God, one, that is, distinctively called of God to proclaim the message of God often in contrast or even opposition to prevailing understanding of God and God's will according to the religious establishment of Israel.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Thus here, where there is both prediction that God 'will raise up for you a prophet like me' (15) and prospectus (so to speak) of what the prophet will be like and how Israel will know that this prediction has been fulfilled, we are invited to read the passage and measure Jesus against it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Psalm 111</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The words of this psalm are background to the gospel reading today. When Jesus acts in power and teaches with authority he does so as the representative, indeed as the embodiment of the God of Israel, the God who, according to this psalm, performs great works which are 'studied by all who delight in him' (2), who (like Jesus in the gospel reading) 'has gained renown by his wonderful deeds' (4).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">A recurring theme here is God's covenant with Israel (5, 9): when Jesus comes to Israel, he comes in fulfilment of the great covenant of God, revealed in different ways and on different occasions, through Abraham, Moses and David, yet essentially the one covenant, that God will be ISrael's God and Israel will be God's people.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">When Jesus performs miraculous deeds, he demonstrates that God remains Israel's loving God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">1 Corinthians 8:1-13</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In just 13 verses Paul traverses significant ground - ecclesiology, theology, christology - while talking about what Christians eat!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">1 Corinthians is a series of responses to a series of issues in or questions raised by the Corinthian church. In chapter 8 we switch away from sexuality and marriage (chapters 5-7) to the question of 'food sacrificed to idols' (1). This question must have been deeply troubling to the early churches. Not only does it feature here but Paul comes back to it in 1 Corinthians 10. Across in Rome it was an issue because the matter is tackled in Romans 14-15. It is also a feature of the letters to the seven churches in Asia (Revelation 2-3).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The gist of what Paul is saying is that in a community of Christians,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">- some of whom come from Gentile backgrounds and thus used to worship idols,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">- some of whom come from Jewish backgrounds and thus are used to thinking idols are nothing (the gods they represent do not exist),</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">- some of whom are rich (and thus may afford meat not offered to idols and/or regularly receive invites to dinner with their Gentile-idol worshipping business and social colleagues) and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">- some of whom are poor (and thus may rarely eat meat, and then it may be meat distributed after public festivals dedicated to idols),</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">care needs to be taken not to destroy faith in other believers</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In verses 1- 3 Paul is challenging Christians who use their 'knowledge' or assurance that idols do not really exist (4), and thus cheerfully eat meat dedicated previously to idols, to work out their life choices on the basis of love and not knowledge: 'Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up' (1), a theme which is touched on again in chapter 13.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In verse 7 Paul makes the observation that 'It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge.' These are the folk whom love needs to build up! In the remainder of verse 7 he spells out who these members of the Corinthian church are: Gentiles whose minds are so imbued with their previous worship of idols that they cannot freely partake of meat offered to those idols. They are the 'weak' whom the 'strong'- those who have 'liberty' (9) on the matter - may yet destroy (11).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Paul has a particular concern in verse 10 that those who are strong, in this case strong enough to actually go into a temple of an idol and partake in a meal there, may lead astray the weak because the weak (on this matter) might not just have a </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">sensitive</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> conscience re eating meat offered to idols, but be led to actually eat such meat with a </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">damaging</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> effect on their consciences.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Paul goes on to underline the severity of the sin of the strong on this matter: 'you sin against Christ' (12). Then he spells out the radical action he recommends, that is the action he himself would do if he were in Corinth: 'I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall' (13).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">This is strong stuff! It works from the demands of life in the church (ecclesiology) to establish a general principle of church life (love builds up) to a specific recommendation: when meat is the cause of stumbling, stick to vegetables.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Observant readers here will have noted that I have passed over verses 4-6. Here Paul takes a kind of sidetrack. Having reminded his readers in verse 4 that when we know that 'there is no God but one' then (consequently) 'no idol in the world really exists', he goes on to make several statements about gods, God and Jesus Christ. In doing this he sets out what has proved over time to be a significant Pauline statement about theology and christology, providing grist for the mill of many doctoral theses and erudite scholarly monographs and articles!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Here, understandably, we have neither time nor space to reproduce these works. But we can make these observations:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">- Verse 5 reads (e.g.) in the NRSV as a contradiction because Paul seems to admit that (despite his contrary statement in 4) that there 'may be so-called gods'. We should read this as a statement bookended by v. 4 and v. 6. That is, Paul is not saying there are many gods but that many gods are worshipped by many people, as though they do exist. And thus the reality of this worship of false gods is a strong factor in human experience.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">- Verse 6 is likely an early Christian confession already in existence when Paul cited it here. (See Romans 11:36 and Colossians 1:15-16 for (relatively) comparable creedal statements).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">- the two parts of verse 6 are parallel statements re 'oneness' which are significant as we search the New Testament for signs of early belief that Jesus Christ was believed to be identified with God as included in the one God of Israel; yet there are subtle differences which distinguish 'God, the Father' from 'one Lord, Jesus Christ.' In the former case creation is 'from whom are all things and for whom we exist' and in the latter case creation is 'through whom are all things and through whom we exist.'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Mark 1:21-28</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The disciples are following Jesus (see last week's gospel reading). Within a few days they are in the thick of Jesus' ministry: thick with teaching, miraculous action and publicity.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Jesus the teacher presumably has some kind of relationship with the synagogue of Capernaum before his appearance on this occasion (21). Perhaps beforehand his teaching had caused no particular excitement. Now, baptised, tested in the wilderness and with a company of disciples, Jesus teaches and his congregation is 'astounded' (22) because 'he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes' (22).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We rightly ask, as readers, what does 'taught as one having authority' mean. One insight comes from realising the Greek word translated as 'authority' can also mean 'power.' In part the astonishment may concern the fact that Jesus was an ordinary Galilean, not one of the scribes (i.e. members of the Jewish establishment). Nevertheless something seems out of the ordinary because of the note re astonishment.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Whatever the power of Jesus' teaching means in respect of his words, we are soon told by Mark that his powerful/authoritative teaching was backed up by powerful deeds. On this occasion the power is the ability to rebuke an evil or 'unclean' spirit inhabiting a man present in the synagogue and to command that spirit to leave the man (23-26). Here Jesus performs the role of exorcist.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Note that Mark also tells us that the unclean spirit recognises who Jesus is and makes a confession about his status, 'I know who you are, the Holy One of God' (24). Thus Mark the narrator and theologian is cleverly communicating a lot of stuff to his readers. This is what Jesus said and did, this is how people responded to Jesus (27), this is who Jesus is. Mark is convincing his readers that Jesus is no ordinary man or teacher. Jesus is a powerful, dynamic person: actually, by the end of the gospel, readers are invited to agree that Jesus is the Son of God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Conversely, note what Mark does not tell us about this sabbath incident: at this stage there is no controversy over acting on the sabbath (that will come later, 2:23-3:6). Mark in this first chapter is intent on introducing Jesus to his audience, setting out the basic claim about who he is. Beginning with chapter 2 we see Jesus meeting human opposition and thus Mark begins to explain how the wonderful, astounding, authoritative, popular Son of God ends up dying on a cross.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">A final note is that while Jesus does not yet meet human opposition, this encounter is an instance of spiritual opposition. In the encounter with the unclean spirit Jesus engages in 'spiritual warfare': Satan has already tempted him (1:12), now one of Satan' minions challenges him. The challenge is met, the opposition is silenced, the disturbed man is released from captivity to the spirit.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Do we receive the teaching of Jesus as authoritative?</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Do we trust in Jesus as the victor in all aspects of spiritual warfare?</i></span>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-60297585785950479222024-01-13T11:03:00.000-08:002024-01-13T11:03:46.689-08:00Sunday 21 January 2024 - Epiphany 3<p>Theme(s): God's king / the kingdom of God / repentance / Repent and Believe / A new world</p><br />Sentence: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />God of Good News,<div>Bearer of the Gospel,</div><div>call us to repentance,</div><div>call us to belief,</div><div>so that we may fish for people in our generation</div><div>and draw them to your love.</div><div>For you are alive and reign with the Father</div><div>in the unity of the Holy Spirit,</div>one God, now and for ever. Amen.<div><br />Readings:<br /><br />Jonah 3:1-5, 10<br />Psalm 62:5-12<br />1 Corinthians 7:29-31<br />Mark 1:14-20<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Jonah 3:1-5, 10</b><br /><br />Jesus and Jonah both preach messages of repentance (and both are "buried" for three days)!<br /><br />Jonah is one of the rare biblical prophets for whom people take notice and act on the prophetic message being proclaimed.<br /><br />The last verse of the reading tells us of God's response to their repentance: he 'changed his mind' (10). In the context of the story of Jonah this is simply a statement about God adapting his will to the choice made by those to whom he speaks through his prophet: save debates about whether God is fickle and changeable to another day!<br /><br /><b>Psalm 62:5-12</b><br /><br />This is not an easy reading to connect to the themes in today's gospel reading! The key link appears to be the reliance the psalmist puts on "God alone" (5, 6). Such a reliable, trustworthy God - by implication - is One who through his Son Jesus Christ calls us to "Follow him."<br /><br /><b>1 Corinthians 7:29-31</b><br /><br />1 Corinthians 5-7 is a sustained theology of marriage and sex. It only really works as a scriptural passage on marriage and sex if we read all of it (and then do so with our Bibles open in places such as Genesis 1-2 as well). Nevertheless, constrained by the lectionary, today we read three verses, and important verses they are!<br /><br />Why does Paul at various points in his exposition on marriage and sex urge radical action, including commending celibacy? These verses give the answer: "the appointed time has grown short" (29). The Greek word used can refer to curtains being gathered together or sails being furled: now that Christ has come, time is being wrapped up, the end is nigh!<br /><br />Mostly we conclude from such phrases that Paul genuinely believed that chronological time was being wrapped up, that the Lord would return in a few years or even a few days time, and thus whether one married or did not marry (see verses 25-28) was immaterial. Yet Paul is not only thinking chronologically. When he writes </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"For the present form of this world is passing away" (31), </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>he is talking about the in-breaking of the kingdom into the present age. Whether this age ends in a few years or days, or a thousand years from now, it is not the same as it was before Christ came, died and rose again. Life is different now, and we should live differently if we belong to the kingdom of Christ as it breaks into the present form of this world.<br /><br />All this, nevertheless, connects to the beginning of our gospel reading in which Jesus proclaims that</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"The time if fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near" (Mark 1:14).</div></blockquote><div><br /><b>Mark 1:14-20</b><br /><br />Verses 14-15<br /><br />The opening of Mark's gospel is over: John has prepared the way for Jesus and baptised him. Jesus has been tested in the wilderness. Now the work of mission to the world begins. Poignantly it begins at a point in time, according to Mark, when John has been arrested. Literally, John is moved aside for Jesus to take centre stage.<br /><br />What does Jesus do? He preaches the gospel. Mark, in other words, introduces us to the mission of Jesus as primarily a mission of 'Word' or 'Message' ahead of 'Action' or 'Power'. The action/power (soon to come in v. 21) will illustrate and endorse the message, but the message is primary.<br /><br />Thus the response to the preaching involves where the message is received, in the mind: "Repent, and believe in the good news" (15) where "Repent" is about changing the direction the mind is heading in and "believe" is about making a choice to entrust one's life to that which is being believed.<br /><br />What is the message? It looks like it is this: </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near" (15).</div></blockquote><div><br />If so, we rejoice in a short, brief and to the point sermon ... and despair over understanding what it means!<br /><br />The words in verse 15 are clearly very important in respect of the message of Jesus: they are the only particular words of his message which Mark reproduces for us.<br /><br />But what do the words in the first part of verse 15 mean. Given the heavy influence of prophetic material in the preceding verses (e.g. citation of prophecy, John's role and demeanour as a prophet) we must assume that '<b>the time is fulfilled</b>' relates to what the prophets previously had foretold would happen, that is, what the prophets foresaw as God's great restorative and re-creating intervention through his Messiah/Christ.<br /><br />In turn, this means that '<b>the kingdom of God has come near</b>' is about the lordship or sovereignty of God over the and within the world is no longer distant but close at hand. Indeed, the remainder of the gospel, as Jesus teaches with authority and acts in deliverance, healing and control over nature with power, demonstrates the personal character of the 'kingdom of God': the kingdom has come near because God's king is now present in the world.<br /><br />Verses 16-20<br /><br />Mark's is a gospel of immediacy - he is always telling us that Jesus immediately went from one thing to another. So in Mark's terms, unsurprisingly he tells the story of the calling of the first disciples simply (they fish, Jesus calls, nets are dropped, they follow) and bluntly (there are no introductions, no tentative first moves in getting to know one another).<br /><br />Matthew copies Mark, Luke offers a different version (in which fishing remains central) and John mentions nothing about fishing and tells a quite different story about how Jesus met his first disciples. In all likelihood (not least because it is not human nature to act so abruptly) the disciples did not meet Jesus for the first time when he called them to follow him.<br /><br />If so, then Mark is not so much telling us about the first time Jesus meets the disciples and they meet him, rather he is telling us about the decisiveness of the call of Jesus to discipleship. Whatever the "backstory" was to this encounter, on this day Jesus calls for total commitment and the fishermen give it. They leave their nets. They will no longer fish for fish. They will fish for people.<br /><br />Of course later we read of other encounters in the gospel in which people encounter Jesus but he sends them back to their homes and does not ask them to follow him on the road. Many disciples today follow Jesus without a dramatic career change. Yet Mark does not tell us today's story with a "on the one hand there are those who ... and on the other hand there are those who ..." ending. So we can ask ourselves, What is Mark communicating to all disciple-readers of his gospel in 1:14-20?<br /><br />What he is communicating is the importance of disciples responding to Jesus completely and fully, with a decisive break from former ways of living (i.e. "repentance") and total commitment to the new way of Jesus. Whether one serves in one's home village or on the road with Jesus himself is up to Jesus, but what he asks of every disciple is that they commit wholly to Jesus.<br /><br /></div><p>When the king of the kingdom of God is present we should take notice and when that king calls us to do something, we should obey! </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-3265296203494492912024-01-07T14:11:00.000-08:002024-01-07T14:11:42.568-08:00Sunday 14 January 2024 - Epiphany 2<p>Theme(s): Disclosure of God's knowledge // Hearing God's Word // God's truth or our opinion?</p>Sentence: You will see greater things than these (John 1:50)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Merciful God,<br />in Christ you make all things new;<br />transform the poverty of our nature<br />by the riches of your grace,<br />and in the renewal of our lives<br />make known your heavenly glory;<br />through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />1 Samuel 3:1-10<br />Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18<br />1 Corinthians 6:12-20<br />John 1:43-51<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>1 Samuel 3:1-10</b><br /><br />Appropriately in this season of Epiphany or revelation, we read of the calling of Samuel to be prophet. In one way the story is 'cute': a small boy, dedicated to the Lord by a devout mother, lives in the Temple and at a very young age is distinctively and memorably called by God to future service. Those of us who first heard the story in Sunday School will have never forgotten it.<br /><br />In another way the story is part of a larger tragic story. Verse 1 sets the sad scene, <div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">'The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.'</div></blockquote><div><br />Eli, under whom Samuel is serving, is part of the problem (2:12-17; 22-25; 27-36), as his family is greedily misusing their position of priestly privilege. In turn that family represents troubled Israel who in the next few chapters will press God to do their will (they want a king like other nations) rather than the other way around.<br /><br />So it is wonderful that God calls Samuel to serve him but sad that he has to call him rather than permit the ministry of Eli to continue through his own sons.<br /><br />Remembering that we are in the season of Epiphany, we read this story not only as a 'call' story (with all the inspiration and challenge which such biblical stories have for us) but also as a story of God's revelation to God's people. <div><br /></div><div>We have already noted that the narrator of 1 Samuel tells us that the context of this calling is a period in Israel's history when </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">'the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread' (1). </div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>This means that we are reading about a period in Israel's history when the spoken word of God (whether voiced through prophets or communicated through visionaries) brings guidance to Israel rather than the written word of God.<br /><br />In the midst of the telling of the exchange between Samuel, the (unrecognised) Lord, and Eli, we read this description of Samuel: </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">'Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him' (7). </div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>Samuel serves the Lord in the Lord's temple but the narrator tells both ancient and present readers that such outward service is not the same as personal knowledge of God. Yet the subtlety of the description is such that the responsibility for this situation is not Samuel's alone: 'the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.' </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the great mysteries of Scripture, whether we read it here, or later reflect on Jesus' own words about those who do and who do not understand his teaching, or ponder Paul's teaching on predestination, is the manner in which people come to 'know' God and the role God plays in that knowledge.<br /><br />At another level, this verse is also about Samuel who will be a seer or prophet of Israel. In that role he will hear from God what he is to say to God's people. He has not yet begun to hear from God. But now he will do so.<br /><br />We might ponder for ourselves what we know of God.<br /><br />We might also marvel at the sheer beauty of this story. Note, for instance, the subtlety of verse 3, </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">'the lamp of God had not yet gone out.' </div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>On one level of narration this is simply saying that the lights were still on as sleepiness overtook the occupants of the temple. On another level of narration we are being told that despite the ineptitude and decreptitude of Eli and his sons, the light of God was not extinguished. A faint flicker remained. God is about to fan it back into life.<br /><br />If things are tough for you and your church today (as indeed they are very tough for, say, the church in Nigeria and in Israel/Gaza/West Bank), take courage and be hopeful: the lamp of God has not yet gone out.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18</b><br /><br />God knows everything! Revelation concerns receiving some of that knowledge. The psalmist acknowledges that the all-knowing God knows everything about the psalmist (that is, about every individual human).<br /><br />In a world of exponentially expanding knowledge about life, the universe and everything in between (thanks Google!), this psalm reminds us to be humble. We know heaps more in 2021 than the psalmist knew, but it amounts to nothing much compared to what God knows!<br /><br /><b>1 Corinthians 6:12-20</b><br /><br />The major theme running through 1 Corinthians 5-7 is human sexuality and this passage nails down some very, very important matters for Christians to understand both carefully and full of care. </div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, </div><div><br /></div><div>(1) our freedom in Christ is not freedom to indulge in sexual licence; </div><div><br /></div><div>(2) there is to be no casual sex for Christians (e.g. with a prostitute) for sex unites the bodies of two people into 'one body'/'one flesh' and such uniting is to be within marriage (chapter 7), not only for the reasons of the Law of Moses but also for theological reasons about the new dimension to understanding each Christian's body: it belongs to the Lord, it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. To indulge in casual sex is to indulge the Lord himself in casual sex. No!<br /><br />But, very, very important though such matters are for our consideration as Christians living in a world of sexual indulgence and casual sex, that scarcely seems to be the reason why this passage is chosen for the second Sunday of Epiphany!<br /><br />My best guess is that the passage is chosen because it carries another theme within it, a theme which concerns <i>revelation of true knowledge in the face of competing claims</i>, in this case the true knowledge of what our bodies are 'for' now that we belong to Jesus Christ. Thus the key question in the reading in the context of this particular Sunday in Epiphany is 'Do you not know?' (15, 16, 19).<br /><br />In a world which glorifies our bodies as temples of nature (see dieting, gym membership, exercise regimes and, dare I say it as a late middle aged man, "Lycra"), as temples of sex (see the way we "sell" products through sexually attractive people, pills which make for more sexual pleasure, magazines that offer improvements in our love life), and as temples of self (see the way we seek to prolong life through medicine), it is not at all obvious - without Paul's help - what the answers to the three 'Do you not know?' questions are.<br /><br />No one would ever guess from a day watching TV, reading the newspaper, flicking through glossy magazines, let alone visiting various websites in the pursuit of a better life, that:<br /><br />(1) 'your bodies are members of Christ' (15)<br />(2) 'But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him' (17)<br />(3) 'your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own' (19).<br /><br />Once this is revealed to us, how then shall we live?<br /><br /><b>John 1:43-51</b><br /><br />Epiphany is the season of, well, epiphany, or appearance and disclosure of what has previously been unseen, especially in respect of the truth about Jesus Christ.<br /><br />In this reading we start innocently enough with Jesus deciding to go to Galilee. But not for an outing. He goes to find Philip and he calls Philip to follow him (43). Philip is from the same city as Andrew and Peter, whom we have previously been introduced to in this chapter (40-42). The band of disciples is growing because just as Jesus 'found' Philip, Philip, we are told, 'found' Nathanael. He does not quite persuade Nathanael that Jesus is the one 'about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote' (45) but he does persuade him to 'Come and see' Jesus for himself.<br /><br />So far, so like any growing human enterprise which draws people on board. There is, incidentally, a special Johannine way of telling this story because the phrase 'Come and see' (or variations) recurs in John's Gospel as people encounter or are encouraged to encounter Jesus and the truth about him (see John 1:39; 4:29; 21:12).<br /><br />But the story takes an 'epiphanic' turn as Jesus offers special insight into the character of Nathanael. As Nathanael 'comes' to Jesus, Jesus 'sees' what is within him and reveals this insight, </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">"Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit" (47).</div></div></blockquote><div><div><br />Naturally Nathanael wonders how Jesus can say this (48) since they have not previously met. Jesus answers, verse 48b, both enigmatically (we wonder what he means), symbolically (the fig tree is a symbol of Israel) and mysteriously (he has seen Nathanael with special sight before Philip even mentions coming to Jesus).<br /><br />In a few sentences we, as readers, have been taken from a natural situation to a supernatural situation (almost literally because it is as though Jesus is 'super' or 'over' nature with a helicopter view of life). But, more importantly for the theology of the gospel, we have been taken from the gospel as an account of history (what people have done and have said) to the gospel as an apocalyptic document (what God sees and now reveals to us through an especially appointed agent of revelation).<br /><br />First, however, we note Nathanael's reply to Jesus' revelation about him (49). Nathanael 'gets it'. Jesus is more than a rabbi or teaching theologian of Israel. </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">"Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel." </div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>John the gospel writer uses Nathanael both to stake (further) a major claim of the whole Gospel, Jesus is the (eternal, one with the Father) Son of God (so, already in this chapter, verses 14, 18, 34; later see 20:31), to identify Jesus as (at least) the Son of God in the sense of 'the King of Israel' (sometimes referred to in Old Testament writings as 'the Son of God'), and thus to identify Jesus as the Christ or Messiah.<br /><br />Back to the apocalyptic character of the gospel: John is telling us the (hi)story of Jesus of Nazareth while simultaneously telling us what Jesus the agent of divine revelation reveals to us who live (so to speak) inside human history about the eternal plan and purpose of God, otherwise hidden from ordinary human insight and sight. In this passage we are carefully taken through a story of encounter between a couple of people and a human teacher to a story of encounter between God and humanity. In that encounter Nathanael (and other disciples) will "see greater things than these" (50).<br /><br />For Jesus to 'see' Nathanael under the fig tree is remarkable but the revelation of God is much greater than this and Jesus goes on to offer Nathanael a glimpse of what this will be.<br /><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">"Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (51).</div></div></blockquote><div><div><br />Naturally this is puzzling, strange talk and we need to pause to make sense of it (if we can!)<br /><br />To 'see heaven opened' is classic apocalyptic language: the truth of what is really going on from God's perspective is hidden from the earth, locked away in the dwelling place of God. When heaven is opened and humans are enabled to 'see' into it, revelation and disclosure take place (as, for instance, in the Book of Revelation).<br /><br />Jacob's remarkable vision of a ladder to heaven, Genesis 28:12, is invoked by talk of 'the angels of God ascending and descending.' In that vision Jacob encounters the very presence of God: so, in this gospel, already noted in 1:18, to see Jesus is to see God.<br /><br />But here there is no talk of a ladder. The ascending and descending angels move 'upon the Son of Man.' The Son of Man is the ladder, the connection between heaven and earth.<br /><br />But why mention 'the Son of Man' when previously in this chapter Jesus has been identified as 'the Son of God'? In the context of revelation, of angels, of the opened heaven, reference to the Son of Man takes us more deeply into apocalyptic literature, bringing to our minds the Book of Daniel, chapter 7 in particular, in which the enigmatic 'one like a son of man' figure appears (7:13) in conjunction with the 'Ancient of Days' (7:9), in the midst of angelic figures. In that context, though debated, 'one like a son of man' appears to be a representative of Israel (or, perhaps better, 'the representation' of Israel). In the Danielic vision, the son of man figure brings Israel before God. In this Johannine verse, Jesus is saying that he (the Son of Man) will connect God to Israel and Israel to God in a new, definitive and everlasting manner. (Incidentally, no reflection on the Son of Man in this gospel is complete without reflecting on John 3, especially verses 13-15).<br /><br /></div><p>We the readers of this gospel are now ready to read on through chapters 2-21. We will be constantly reading in two dimensions: the (hi)story of Jesus Christ and the revelation (epiphany) Jesus Christ brings from heaven to earth. </p></div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-91850205747503942592023-12-18T11:49:00.000-08:002023-12-18T11:49:00.586-08:00Sunday 31 December 2023 - Christmas 1; Saturday 6 January 2024 - Epiphany; Sunday 7 January - Epiphany 1<p> (Without updating the material of three years ago, I provide links to that material to assist with sermon preparation through the next two Sundays and Epiphany itself (which may be transferred to Sunday 7 January 2024):</p><p><a href="https://preachingdownunder.blogspot.com/2020/12/sunday-27-december-2020-christmas-1.html">Sunday 31 December - Christmas 1</a></p><p><a href="https://preachingdownunder.blogspot.com/2020/12/wenesday-6-january-2021-epiphany.html">Saturday 6 January - Epiphany</a></p><p><a href="https://preachingdownunder.blogspot.com/2020/12/sunday-10-january-2021-epiphany-1.html">Sunday 7 January - Epiphany 1</a> - Baptism of the Lord</p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-55464457293091520922023-12-18T11:29:00.000-08:002023-12-18T11:29:26.784-08:00Sunday 24 December 2023 - Advent 4 // Monday 25 December - Christmas Eve/Christmas Day 2023<p>SUNDAY 24 DECEMBER - ADVENT 4</p><p>Theme(s): Promise and fulfilment / Mary's faithful obedience / Mary as model disciple / God's power and persistence</p>Sentence: Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word (Luke 1:38)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />God of all hope and joy,<br />open our hearts in welcome,<br />that your Son Jesus Christ at his coming<br />may find in us a dwelling prepared for himself;<br />who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,<br />one God now and for ever. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16<br />Psalm = Luke 1:47-55<br />Romans 16:25-27<br />Luke 1:26-38<br /><br />Comments:<br /><div><br /><b>2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16</b><br /><br />It is all but impossible to imagine what it would have been like to be an Israelite on the original Christmas eve, pondering this reading from the Israelite scriptures, trying to make sense of this promise in a land ruled by the Roman emperor via dodgy governors with some power also delegated to a locally derived king, Herod, of whom many things could be said, but not the declaration "Herod is in the Davidic royal line."<br /><br />Had God made a false promise to Israel in 2 Samuel 7:16? In what sense could anything about contemporary Israel be said to fulfil this promise? Of such questions without obvious answers was fervent expectation about the coming Messiah born - the expectation which would dog Jesus' ministry as people sensed he was the Messiah and pressed him to conform to their expectations!<br /><br />We, today, can ask another kind of question of 2 Samuel 7: what kind of God says one thing in one passage and does another thing according to another passage? That is, what kind of God says - according to a plain reading of 2 Samuel - "there will always be a physical succession of kings descended from David" and then presides over a history of Israel which loses that succession and works through that unfolding history to bring a king into being who will forever be king, but not as a physical person seated on a human throne in a palace in Jerusalem?<br /><br />First, the God of Israel is the God who takes human sin - rebellion against the will of God - seriously and treats it consequentially. Israel temporarily loses its Davidic line of kings because of its rebellion, partially expressed through David's kingly descendants who sinned as much if not more than their citizens and partially expressed through the Israelites themselves who continued after David to compromise their worship of the one true God with worship of false gods. (<i>Yet this observation is itself complicated in respect of the Old Testament. The consequences of sin on the Davidic line is a major theme through the history told from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, but an alternative history, told in 1 and 2 Chronicles consistently underplays the consequences of sin for the Davidic line</i>).<br /><br />Secondly, the God of Israel reserves the right to fulfil the promises he makes to Israel on his own terms. God remains God over his promises and is not bound by how we have heard the promises. Thus God, in the long term of history, does fulfil his promise in 2 Samuel 7:16, but converts the succession of Davidic kings into a single but successful Davidic king, i.e. Jesus Christ, who will live forever.<br /><br />Thirdly, we then see that the God of Israel is a God who never gives up on his people. The constant straying of God's people from the will of God aligned with the promises of God does not make God give up on his people, but it does mean God works in a new way to make his promises come true.<br /><br /><b>Psalm = Luke 1:47-55</b><br /><br />Quite rightly today our psalm is not drawn from the Book of Psalms but from the lips of Mary the mother of our Lord as she bursts into joyful song as a response to what God is doing in her.<br /><br />Note the way in which the opening line, "My soul magnifies the Lord" (46) sets the tone and the theme for the rest of the song. It is a magnificent magnifying of the greatness and goodness of the Lord.<br /><br />Note also, in terms of the discussion above about God's promise to David (2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16), that Mary here reaches even further back in the promises of God concerning God's people to the "promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever" (55).<br /><br />All the promises of God find their fulfilment in Jesus Christ!<br /><br />Also note the deep, provocative political themes in the song: the world is not right and it is going to be put right. At the end of 2017, in a world of wars, climate change, refugees, homelessness and growing inequality, we could sing the Magnificat as a political anthem to spur us on to a better 2018.<br /><br /><b>Romans 16:25-27</b><br /><br />What is God up to? Generally? Eternally? Through Christmas? On the cross? In the garden with the empty tomb? In the past of Israel in its history, from Abraham to the present time when Paul wrote these words?<br /><br />Here Paul nails the answer to all these questions!<br /><br />God has been working out a purpose for the whole of humanity (Jews and Gentiles) which for a period has been "kept secret". That purpose "is now disclosed." The disclosure is described by Paul in two ways. First it is the content of "my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ."<br /><br />Secondly it is revealed "through the prophetic writings [...] made known to all the Gentiles."<br /><br />This second description must mean that the exposition of the prophetic writings of Israel in the light of Jesus Christ is the unveiling of the secret hidden there until the coming of Jesus Christ brought out the true meaning of these writings.<br /><br />What is God's purpose for Jews and for Gentiles? Paul says it is "to bring about the obedience of faith." The phrase "the obedience of faith" has already occurred in Romans 1:5. When we find things said at the beginning and at the end of a biblical writing, they are very important! What God wants is a people in a relationship to God which goes beyond lip service and outward signs of compliance to an inward trust and heartfelt following of God's will.<br /><br />In other terms, and bearing the whole 16 chapters of Romans in mind, the answer to the question of what God is up to is this: God wants a people characterised by "obedience of faith." He has sought this via covenantal relationship with Israel. He now seeks this for the whole world, for Israel and non-Israel. The key even in this being worked out is the coming of Jesus Christ as the crucified one, for through Jesus God is reconciled to the people, both Jew and Gentile, who have broken relationship with him.<br /><br /><b>Luke 1:26-38</b><br /><br />There is at least a sermon, an apologetics essay and an exercise in prophetic correlation to be developed from this passage.<br /><br /><u>The sermon</u> is about God's work in our lives and how we should respond to God. In this sermon we would draw out the example of Mary responding to the doubly shocking message that she, a virgin, would become pregnant, and the child she would bear would be the Son of God. In this example, Mary is very human (being perplexed and asking questions (29, 34). But she rises above her confusion to declare, as a model disciple, "Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." (38) Are we available to God? Are we willing to work with God according to his will? Even if it turns our lives upside down?<br /><br /><u>The apologetics essay</u> ... which I earnestly commend is <b>not</b> confused with the sermon. The Christmas season is not the time to indulge in speculative reasoning about how a virgin birth can (or cannot) take place. We gather in church at Christmas time to celebrate the <i>birth</i> of Jesus not to argue about the circumstances of his <i>conception</i>! Our progress through the season of Advent looks forward to the <i>coming</i> of Jesus and anticipates the celebration of his birth. Speculative thoughts on human biology can be dealt with on another occasion (and, in my view, that should not be through a Sunday sermon but through (e.g.) a midweek parish Bible study).<br /><br />With those thoughts as constraints as to where our arguments and speculations might be expressed, note what this passage attests to in respect of the conception of Jesus: the conception of Jesus is the work and will of God. God chooses Mary to be the mother of God's Child. The wisdom of God is displayed in choosing a woman who is about to be married and thus about to form a household in which the Child will be humanly brought up in security, stability and love.<br /><br />That Mary is a virgin means there is no confusion about the father of the baby she will bear: God is the father (biologically) and God is the Father (spiritually, the source of all life in creation). Mary's virginity also enables no confusion about the status of Jesus as both a holy person and as 'Son of God' (35). From conception itself, this baby will be divine and human.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the matter of conception, as Luke tells the story, Jesus is conceived in his mother Mary's womb through God the Holy Spirit working in Mary to 'come upon you' and (the same thought expressed differently, in parallel) because 'the power of the Most High will overshadow you' (35).</div><div><br />It seems terribly modern and up to date to display our scientific knowledge of how babies are conceived and thus to wonder just how such a conception could take place. From such a questioning stance it is then easy to entertain theories about an all too human conception which is, conveniently-for-theology-about-Jesus, repainted in terms of divine conception. But the passage tells us that Mary, Luke and (no doubt) Joseph knew as much as us about the basics of conception: both a man and a woman are needed for conception to take place. It is biology not theology which informs Mary's question in verse 34, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?"<br /><br />Thus the angel moves to assure Mary that the impossible is possible. First Mary is reminded of a nearby miracle of conception: Elizabeth, her relative, who was known to be barren, in old age has conceived a son. But this miracle is not quite what is being talked about with Mary. From earlier in Luke's Gospel we know that the miracle was that Zechariah and Elizabeth together conceived this child - a miracle in keeping with a succession of such conceptions in the Old Testament. So, secondly, the angel assures her that the power of God is even greater, "For nothing is impossible with God" (37).<br /><br />An exercise in prophetic correlation: again, my suggestion is that this exercise as a matter of background reading and reflection is not confused with the sermon from this passage. It is important that we find in the gospels signs that Jesus Christ, in each and every important part of his life, from conception to resurrection, fulfils God's will foretold long ago. The importance concerns both the power of God's Word (what God says about the future comes into being because God's will is greater than the ordinary course of events in human history) and the meaning of God's Word (when God makes a promise, it is fulfilled - ultimately the promise of God being fulfilled in Jesus Christ is the promise that Israel is and will be God's people - redeemed and saved from sin which repeatedly leads them away from God). </div><div><br /></div><div>But it is a moot point whether a congregation comes to hear God's Word at a Sunday sermon in terms of "Look over here, this Old Testament verse says X will happen, then look over there, this Gospel verse says X has happened." The danger with such an exercise is that we unwittingly convey the impression that God is a divine magician or manipulator whose most impressive achievements consist of making history fit previous prediction.<br /><br />Our challenge as preachers is to point our congregations to the God revealed in Jesus Christ, that is, to the God who may be trusted to keep his Word, including to fulfil all his promises to us. Further, our challenge is to present Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of those promises rather than to present a series of predictions of which we can say, "Look, these predictions have come true."<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>(For clarity, if needed: I am not diminishing the importance of predictions coming true but asserting the greater importance of promises being fulfilled.)</div><p>With that in mind, our Old Testament reading today lies in the background to this passage from Luke. God's promise to David that "Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:16) is specifically invoked in the angelic message to Mary (Luke 1:32-33). Even his family heritage through Joseph is Davidic (27).</p><p>MONDAY 25 DECEMBER - CHRISTMAS EVE/CHRISTMAS DAY</p><p>Amongst an array of possibilities for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day sermons, I offer comments on four readings,<b> Isaiah 9:2-7, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-14 and John 1:1-14</b>.</p><b>Isaiah 9:2-7</b><br /><br />In this prophecy, as originally given, the hope and expectation concerns restoration of the greatness and supremacy of the Davidic throne.<br /><br />At the point of writing, Israel's situation is oppressive: note the implicit violence of the language of "yoke," "bar," "rod," and "boots" in verses 4-5.<br /><br />Verse 4's reference to "Midian" is a recollection of story of Gideon's defeat of Midian (Judges 7:15-25).<br /><br />Verses 6 onwards celebrate the birth of a new David (perhaps, at the time of writing, the birth of Hezekiah). Christian readers of these verses have read these verses as perfectly correlated with the birth of Jesus and his subsequent growth to be the adult preacher and leader of the Kingdom of God<br /><br /><b>Titus 2:11-14</b><br /><br />11: In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the grace of God has appeared (been manifested) to the world. "Bringing salvation to all" is enigmatic: does it imply that all will be saved? At the very least it is stating that the salvation the Saviour brings is available to all humanity.<br /><br />12: The coming of the Saviour (the birth and life of Jesus Christ) and the expectation of his return to earth (v. 13) creates a "present age" in which we (followers of Jesus Christ) need to know how to live. Paul thus speak of the same "grace of God" which has saved us also working within us to train us to "renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly."<br /><br />13: This training scheme (so to speak) endures <div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"while we wait for the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ." </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Christ is unseen in our midst during this time but we will know when he comes in glory because it will be manifest among us. Note the rare occasion here when Jesus Christ is identified within the New Testament as God.<br /><br />14: Who is Jesus Christ? Three notable characteristics are mentioned in this verse.<br /><br />First, "who gave himself for us" (see also Galatians 1:4; 2:20; Ephesians 5:2; 1 Timothy 2:6). Christ came for our sakes and in his coming gave himself over to death that we might live.<br /><br />Secondly, "redeem us" or, in the context of Paul's day, buy us out of slavery (to Satan, to sin): see also Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:20; 7:23; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Mark 10:45). Christ gave himself in costly sacrifice that we might be redeemed.<br /><br />Thirdly, "purify for himself a people of his own": see also Deuteronomy 7:6-8; exodus 9:5-16; 1 Peter 2:9. Christ came to restore and enlarge the people of God, according to the promises made long ago to Israel (see above, Isaiah and Psalm readings).<br /><br /><b>Luke 2:1-14</b><br /><br />There is a wonderful but quite technical debate within the first few verses of this passage concerning the reference to Quirinius and thus to the time of this registration (census). In short, the debate concerns whether we can match what we know of Quirinius as a Roman official and the time when we think Jesus was born (according to Matthew's chronology which places Jesus' birth before the death of Herod the Great). See <a href="http://anglicandownunder.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/timing-is-everything-lukes-advent-and.html">here</a> for a discussion of the issues.<br /><br />Whether or not Luke is precisely accurate or is conveying with sincerity what he had received (but turns out to be misinformation) about the history of Roman officialdom in the Middle East, we can be sure about what Luke is attempting to achieve in these first few verses. <div><br /></div><div>First, he is locating the birth of King Jesus in the world ruled by another king, the Roman emperor Augustus (1). The whole story of Luke-Acts tells us how the king born in Bethlehem, via the preaching of his apostles, became a rival king to the Emperor in Rome itself. </div><div><br /></div><div>Secondly, he is explaining how Jesus of Nazareth (i.e. Jesus who grew up in Nazareth) nevertheless was born in Bethlehem, some distance away (2-4). Thirdly, he is connecting the birth of Jesus as king with the house of David, the greatest King of Israel (4, 11).<br /><br />Of course for there to be a baby there needs to be a birth, and with the preliminaries of time and place out of the way, we finally read that Jesus is born (6-7). </div><div><br /></div><div>Note how the specific location of his first days/weeks of life "in a manger" is a tiny detail within these verses. Do we make too much of this when we talk much of Jesus being born in a stable, seemly unwanted in the inn? </div><div><br /></div><div>Nevertheless, in a passage mentioning Augustus and David, the reference to Jesus being placed after birth in a feeding trough underlines the obscurity of Jesus' beginning to his life: he is born in Palestine (at the edge of the Roman Empire), in Bethlehem (an insignificant village relative to the great city of Jerusalem) and placed in a manger (outside of ordinary human residency).<br /><br />Why do we then meet shepherds (8-14) as the first people, in Luke's telling, to greet the newborn king? Obviously we must speculate as Luke gives no hints. But shepherds in the context of associating Jesus with King David (the shepherd king) suggests that shepherds are very appropriate as a group to recognise the new Shepherd King Jesus.<br /><br />They are good shepherds, incidentally, because in the middle of the night they are "keeping watch over their flock" (8). Understandably they are afraid when unexpectedly an angel appears, the glory of the Lord shines around them and they hear a voice (9-10). Everything here, including the fear, is redolent of many instances in the Old Testament when the angel of the Lord appears to a person or a couple or a group. As then so now the first words of the angel are "Do not be afraid" (10). The angel has not come to judge the shepherds but to announce good news to them and to ask them to be part of the celebration of that announcement, which is "good news of great joy for all the people" (10-11).<br /><br />Verse 11 piles on the titles for Jesus! He is "A Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord." With these three titles the angel is saying that the newborn baby is the full fulfilment of all Old Testament prophecies about the one who would come to restore Israel (see, again, our passage from Isaiah above, as one such prophecy). And "Lord" is particularly significant as it equates Jesus with God himself (since the exclusive name of the God of Israel, YHWH, is translated by the same Greek word, <i>kyrios</i>, in the Greek Old Testament).<br /><br />Verse 12 adds a little to the meaning of the manger. How will the shepherds know where to find this baby? (Remember, no street maps, no GPS, no cellphones in those days!) Presumably more than one baby was born at that time. But only one had been placed in a manger. The others would have been in their cots and cribs in their homes. A few questions in the nosy, gossipy community of Bethlehem and the shepherds would have easily found the baby-in-a-manger.<br /><br />With a final burst of song, verses 13-14, the angels were gone and the shepherds were on their way to Bethlehem (15). But what a burst of song it was. What would we give in the world today - especially at the end of 2023, in Gaza and the West Bank - for the simple matter of "peace"?<br /><br /><b>John 1:1-14</b><br /><b><br /></b>From the heart of God (verses 1, 18) comes the Son of God to be one of us (verse 14). </div><div><br /></div><div>As one of us, this Son, who is also the Word of God (verse 1 - that is, the disclosure or revelation of the otherwise unknowable God), entered and lived in a hostile world, in which the choice to accept or reject the Son is made (verses 10-13). </div><div><br /></div><div>Since the Son who is the Word has been with God from the beginning (i.e. before creation, verses 1-2), the Son has always been a lifegiver, a bringer into being of all things (verse 3) and this lifegiver has come into the world to bring life, the kind of divine liveliness that is also light in the darkness of the world which is naturally hostile to God (verses 3-5, 9).<br /><br />All this inspiring, awesome talk of God (theology) and of the Son of God (Christology) is a very big picture approach to God at work in the world (providence) - a form of theological-cosmological narrative - but this reading connects to the other gospel narratives which are forms of theological-historical narratives by virtue of reference to John (the Baptist) in verses 6-8. John is the "witness" who is not the light but testifies to the light.<br /><br />But to see Jesus is to see much much more than an historical person. Through Jesus we see the glory of God (verse 14), in fact through Jesus we see as much of God as we can ever see as humans confined to the dimensions of ordinary life (verse 18).<br /><b><br /></b><b>ALTERNATIVELY</b>: one comment on Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14<br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What kind of news drives the shepherds to leave their flocks in the middle of the night to race to a stable to worship a baby? To call the news 'good news' is accurate - that is the meaning of the word 'gospel' - but not very helpful. A better sense would be to call this news the 'best news ever.' All the good news in the world - the birth of a new baby, a promotion with massive pay rise, the All Blacks winning the World Cup three times in a row - falls well short of the news which sets the shepherds racing to the stable. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They hear the best news ever. We hear it too in our four readings. Isaiah, centuries ahead of the actual birth date of Jesus, celebrates the best king ever. The psalmist celebrates God as the best God ever and sneaks in a preview of God coming to earth. Paul writing to his friend and colleague Titus reminds him that what happened in the birth of Jesus was nothing less than the appearance of the generous, unconstrained love of God which brought salvation for all (v.11).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Luke's gospel the angel announcing this best news ever says it is of 'great joy for all the people' (v. 10). There is that word 'all' again. What on earth could the best news ever be when it is best news for everyone?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Going back to Titus, Paul lays out this best news ever in terms of our relationship with God. What state is that relationship in for humanity? What state is that relationship in for you and for me? If all were well there would be no need for talk of salvation, for peace and goodwill. But all is not well. The relationship has been broken. Instead of peace there are wars between countries and bitter conflicts between individuals. Instead of prosperity for all there is a growing gap between rich and poor. Instead of sober, pure living we inhabit a world drenched with pornography and awash with liquor and drugs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is a wonder God has not washed his hands of us and left us to our own selfish devices. Or even wiped us from the face of the earth. That would be bad news. Instead we have the best news ever,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.'</div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">God is not deterred that we have rejected him and spurned his will for our lives. Instead God has entered our world, hiding his glory, taking on the ordinary life of a baby who will grow to be a man. That man will die on a cross a death which absorbs all the bad stuff so the rift between us and God can be healed. Only with that healing can the world itself be healed.</div></div><p>Each Christmas we pause to celebrate this gift from God full of possibility for a new world. The challenging edge to this message is what we are going to do about it for the next 365 days! Something or nothing? </p></div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-60067950145690388542023-12-11T09:09:00.000-08:002023-12-11T09:09:55.239-08:00Sunday 17 December 2023 - Advent 3<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Theme(s): God's glorious future for God's people / John the Baptist as Witness to the Light / Being ready for Christ's return</span></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sentence: The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24)</span></div><span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Collect:</span></div><span><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Almighty God,</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you sent your servant John the Baptist</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to prepare your people for the coming of your Son;</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">grant that our feet may be guided in the way of peace by those who proclaim your word</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">so that we may stand in confidence before him</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">when he comes in his glorious kingdom;</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">through Jesus Christ our Judge and Redeemer. Amen.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Readings:</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Psalm 126 (but Luke 1:47-55 is an alternate).</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1 Thessalonians 5:16-24</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">John 1:6-8, 19-28</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Comments:</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><b style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11</b></div></b><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Centuries before the coming of Jesus, Israel had been treated to extraordinary verbal pictures of God's future blessing. Some of these verbal pictures feature in the Old Testament readings in Advent. Here is one of the richest of these visions.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Effectively it says that through the Lord's Anointed (i.e the Messiah) all wrongs will be righted and all shortcomings of the world turned into splendid advantages.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In particular the picture is of Israel transformed from plight and blight endured through historical ravaging by conquering nations into a glorious nation, as beautiful and as blessed as garlanded bridegroom or bejewelled bride (10).</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What then is always worth contemplating is the manner in which both gospels and epistles take up these once future visions and identify them with their now present experience of Jesus who lived among them and now lives as the Risen One in their midst. It is extraordinary that these visions for the future of Israel become focused in the early church on the One Person, Jesus Christ, and those who now believe that they are identified with him in a new life equivalent to being the new temple and new people of God.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><b style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Psalm 126</b></div></b><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the words of this psalm we could refer to the words above about Isaiah 61! The sense of hope for a better and more glorious future are effectively one and the same.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><b style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">1 Thessalonians 5:16-24</b></div></b><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In chapter five Paul is concerned about the Thessalonians' concern to know when the day of the Lord will be (1). In our passage today, Paul is setting out 'how then shall we live?' when the time of our remaining on earth is uncertain. This setting out has begun in verse 12. In verses 16-22 we are treated to a rapid fire series of directions: rejoice ... pray ... give thanks ... do not quench ... etc.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Each such direction is worth a sermon in its own right. What kind of church would we be if we rejoiced always? (No grumblers!) What happens to our life in Christ as the church when we do quench the Spirit? How do we, in fact, 'not quench' the Spirit?</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In verses 23-24 Paul changes tune, a little. We cannot be whom God intends us to be without God's help. So verse 23 is a blessing-cum-intercession. May God enable you to be ready for his coming. Verse 24 is an encouragement-cum-promise. The God to whom Paul prays in verse 23 'is faithful' and in respect of the prayer Paul has just made, 'he will do this.'</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How can we grumble when we have such a God?</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><b style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">John 1:6-8, 19-28</b></div></b><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Given that last Sunday we had a focus on John the Baptist, our challenge with this reading is to think about the things that are said here which do not repeat last week's thoughts from Mark 1:1-8.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite the many differences between John's Gospel and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, it is a hard challenge this week because we read one (combination) passage in which a lot of common ground exists between the four gospels!</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, we might note the way in which the references to John the Baptist here also become the means to develop the full status of Jesus in its broadest terms.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus to be told in verses 6-8 that John is not himself the 'light' is a reinforcement of the claim that Jesus is 'the light' (not merely the Messiah, Son of God but also). Note how this is introduced in verses 4-5 and developed in verse 9. In verses 19-28 John's denial that he is Messiah or Elijah or prophet is simultaneously a way of saying that the One to whom he testifies is the one who fulfils expectations about those three figures in the theology, history and prophecy of Israel.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Secondly, we might pause on the words in verse 7, </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'so that all might believe through him.' </span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="post-body entry-content" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Are these words referring to 'He came as witness', that is, to John, in the first part of the verse, or to 'the light' at the end of the first clause of the verse? We should go with the usual Greek understanding that such a phrase refers to the subject of the verb in the first clause, so John has this extraordinary role in proclaiming who Jesus is, a role in bearing witness to Israel that has the ambition that all Israel might believe in Jesus.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The point then would not be to marvel at what John did as a preacher and baptiser nor to reflect on how well he achieved that ambition but to note an implication of what the gospel author is doing here: charting out a role for his readers, those who now have the role of bearing witness to the light. It is through us (and only us) that all will come to believe.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thirdly, verses 19-28 underline the declaration in verse 11, '[Jesus] came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.' Although Jesus is </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'The true light, which enlightens everyone' (9), </span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="post-body entry-content" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">from before the beginning of his ministry there is opposition. John the Baptist makes a (bad pun coming up) splash and the reaction of religious authorities in Jerusalem is to send an inquisitorial delegation not a congratulatory committee.</span></div></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally here, it may or may not be useful in a sermon to summarise John the Baptist's role as "the Advertiser." An advertisement is not the product, performance or person being advertised but the one who advertises is announcing the product, performance or person which is available or coming. All advertisements suppose that what they advertise will make life better for the one who responds to the advertisement!</span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">The Gospel of John and "the Jews"</b></div><span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the great questions through John's Gospel which (uncomfortably for those of us who live in post-Holocaust times) constantly presents a clash between Jesus and the Jews is: Why 1:11 was truthful? Why didn't those who believed in the God of Israel find that God was now dwelling among them in Jesus Christ? </span></div></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In turn, that is a great (and difficult) question for all Christians through all subsequent centuries, both in the particular reference to Israel, Why haven't the Jews turned together to Jesus as their Messiah? and in general reference to the world, Why has the world resisted the enlightenment of the Light?</span></div><span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While such questions could be catalytical for your sermon this Sunday, here I will only pause briefly to reflect on the actual opposition depicted in our reading. The questioning stance of the authorities in Jerusalem suggests an anxiety shared in common with past authorities about the ministry of prophetic figures, the anxiety of the establishment facing the possibility of the people turning away from the establishment to a new religious leadership. </span></div></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In turn this suggests that the established leadership of Israel were more concerned about their relationship with the people they led than with the God they served. The latter, surely, lends itself to openness to God doing a new thing among his people.</span></div><span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The obvious point - or perhaps it is not so obvious - is that we worry less about how the leaders of Israel could have gotten themselves into this spiritually precarious position and more about whether we in the church today are open to God being at work among us in new ways. </span></div></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4129115304571491552" itemprop="description articleBody" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 570px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Or, have we become used to a position which is now 'established' and thus threatened when change presents itself?</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-34231941340716170552023-12-03T10:16:00.000-08:002023-12-03T10:16:58.480-08:00Sunday 10 December 2023 - Advent 2Theme(s): Repentance // John the Baptist // Restoration // Patience<br /><br />Sentence: With the Lord one day is a like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. (2 Peter 3:8)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />God for whom we wait and watch,<br />you sent John the Baptist<br />to prepare for the coming of your Son;<br />give us courage to speak the truth<br />even to the point of suffering. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Isaiah 40:1-11<br />Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13<br />2 Peter 3:8-15a<br />Mark 1:1-8<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br />As we move through the days of Advent, the season of coming towards Christmas/Christ's Return, we focus this week on John the Baptist, the forerunner to Christ, the prophetic trumpet to Israel announcing Christ's coming. Paradoxically, we note that John the Baptist was not the prophet of Christ's birth but of his mission.<br /><br /><b>Isaiah 40:1-11</b><br /><br />The Book of Isaiah 'changes course' at the beginning of chapter 40. Nearly all scholars divide Isaiah into at least two parts, the second beginning with this passage. Many actually see Isaiah as tripartite, 1-39, 40-55, 56-66. Chapter 39 ends with King Hezekiah (i.e. a king before the exile of Judah to Babylon) but Chapter 40 begins with God speaking tenderly to Jerusalem in a manner which presumes that it has served its term in exile.<br /><br />But who is doing the speaking, for example, in verse 3 (see also 6) when the author records 'A voice cries out'?<br /><br />The setting, scholars propose, is the heavenly council (look back to Isaiah 6). The voices which speak up are those of the high heavenly beings who comprise the council. In the dialogue we listen into as we read the passage we find themes and motifs which come together under the general theme of the restoration of Israel.<br /><br />One of these motifs is that of the Exodus, when enslaved and (voluntarily) exiled Israel was set free and restored to its promised land. Key words here are 'wilderness' and 'desert' (3) and 'the glory of the Lord' (5) which reminds us of the pillar of cloud by day and light by night which guided Israel in its journey through the Sinai desert. Note also 'highway' in verse 3 - the (so called) King's Highway in the area known as the Transjordan was part of the route followed by Israel in the last part of its wilderness journey.<br /><br />Verses 6-8 takes us in a different direction. What is fleeting and what is permanent? Only the 'word of God will stand forever' (8). This alerts us to the word of God spoken through Isaiah in part 1: in 2:1-4; 31:4-5 and 33:20, the prophet says that God will restore Jerusalem. Now that word is coming to fruition in Isaiah 40.<br /><br />Somewhat paradoxically the next verses honour Jerusalem (Zion) itself with the role of announcing to the rest of the cities of Israel the 'good tidings' (we could say, 'gospel') that God is present, comes with might, and 'will feed his flock like a shepherd' (9-11).<br /><br />This last invocation, of the shepherd-king, is full of the promise of restoration. We might think of Psalm 23 and the vision there of the Lord as shepherd who restores the troubled flock to a place of safety, rest and plenty.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13</b><br /><br />In these verses we have a lovely complement to Isaiah 40:1-11 and to our gospel reading: God will restore the fortunes of his people, not least beginning with forgiveness for their iniquity.<br /><br /><b>2 Peter 3:8-15a</b><br /><br />There is no doubt that this passage comes from a time in the life of the early church when Christians were beginning to get impatient about Christ's return. (This tends, incidentally, to favour the thought that a verse such as Mark 13:30 - part of last Sunday's gospel reading - was understood to literally be about 'one (40 or so years) generation').<br /><br />What is the apostolic response to this impatience?<br /><br />8: understand God's chronology is different to ours. Our 1000 years is akin to a day on God's calendar. This comparison is not meant to be understood in mathematical terms. Rather, God's view of time is different to ours.<br />9: we may be impatient and ask why God does not hurry up but the question is whether God is impatient or patient. In fact God is the patient one, permitting a long period to elapse so that 'all come to repentance.' The implied hint here to the reader is: if you love others and long to see them saved, you will be patient too.<br />10: in keeping with Jesus' own teaching, the response here emphasises that when Jesus returns, whenever it is, it will be sudden, dramatic and unexpected.<br />11-12: a question is asked which answers itself as it is asked! If the world is going to end ('dissolved') then how might we best prepare for that? By being people 'leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming day of the Lord.' A question is left hanging here, What is it that we do which 'hastens' the day of the Lord? One possible answer, working from verse 9, is that we continue to preach the gospel - to call people to repentance which is what the Lord seeks to happen while he holds back from ending the world.<br />13: nevertheless, 'we wait'. By implication the holy and godly lives we are encouraged to lead is for the reason that the 'new heavens and ... new earth' are characterised as a place where 'righteousness is at home.' Better get used now to the way life will be.<br />14: What are we to do while we wait? 'Strive to be found by him at peace, without spot of blemish.'<br />15a: Finally, 'regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.' This takes us back to verse 9. There is a great purpose to God delaying the return of Christ.<br /><br /><b>Mark 1:1-8</b><br /><br />Notably among the four Gospels, Mark has no sense of the 'beginning' of Jesus Christ being either at or before his birth. Neither birth narrative nor genealogy (Matthew, Luke) nor theological reflection on origin in God and before time (John) feature in Mark's opening verses. Yet this gospel has a strong sense of 'beginning' as it boldly begins, 'The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1).<br /><br />Mark is going to tell us the good news <i>announced and enacted by</i> Jesus Christ - so we read his teaching and his actions subsequently.<br /><br />Mark is going to tell us the good news <i>about</i> Jesus Christ - there was a man called Jesus Christ, his story is a great story, in fact, more than a great story, it is <i>euangelion</i>, good news, wonderful news for the world.<br /><br />When we talk among ourselves about sharing the gospel, we do well to think about sharing the gospel as sharing the announcement of what God is up to in the world, as brought by Jesus <i>and</i> as sharing the story of Jesus.<br /><br />Combining the two modes of the good news which begins in Mark 1:1, we can say that Jesus Christ is the good news of God!<br /><br />To every story there is a back story. Mark tells us the back story to the good news story in verses 2 and 3. The prophet Isaiah looked ahead to the coming of the Lord when he predicted the coming of one who would prepare the way for the Lord to come. The coming of Jesus is not a random event but one planned from long ago by God.<br /><br />If we attempt to track back from verses 2 and 3 to find where Isaiah said these words we find a curious thing: he did not quite say these words! These verses are a conflation of Exodus 23:20, Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. Mark may simply be reproducing a popular saying which was routinely ascribed to just Isaiah or he himself may have written this summary of prophetic foretelling and somewhat lazily acknowledged only one authority behind it, in which case he goes for the most popular prophet in the eyes of early Christians.<br /><br />If we pick out of the prophecy certain words and phrases, 'prepare the way of the Lord' and 'wilderness', as well as reflect on the context and aims of Isaiah 40, then we are drawn to consider that Mark understands Jesus to be at the vanguard of a new 'exodus' for Israel. That is, Israel is in captivity and Jesus will lead her from the place of slavery to the place of freedom. As we follow through the miracle stories Mark tells us in his gospel, we consistently find Jesus releasing people from various forms of bondage.<br /><br />When Mark tells us in verse 4 that 'John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness' he is both identifying the subject of the prophecy (John is the messenger of verse 2), and underlining the authenticity of John as a prophet (by locating him in the place where prophets should come from, the 'wilderness.')<br /><br />John proclaims a specific message, 'a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins' (4b). How to prepare for God's new future? Return to God through repentance and forgiveness of sins. Israel knew of various rites for forgiveness, centred on the Temple in Jerusalem. This is a little bit different: leave Jerusalem for the wild places - note verse 5 'all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him' - and be washed in the waters of the (holy, historic) River Jordan.<br /><br />Again, thinking backwards for significance to emerge, what happened in the first Exodus? Israel escaped via the Red Sea waters being parted and then, many years later, crossed the Jordan River to enter the promised land. Reference to 'wilderness' in verse 4 and 'the river Jordan' in verse 5 take the discerning reader on a journey through the memories of Israel.<br /><br />What else do we see as we read this story full of symbolic clues and hints? John is described in detail in verse 6. The way he is clothed draws us to think of Elijah (2 Kings 1:8). Elijah was not the first of the prophets but he was one of the greatest of them, standing out from the prophets of Israel's history in at least a couple of ways relevant to the story of John the Baptist and of Jesus.<br /><br />First, Elijah was a prophet who stood apart from the established rulership and state religion. He was raised up by God to challenge kings and priests. Both John the Baptist and Jesus will do this. Jesus, in fact, will often be taken to be Elijah (6:15; 8:28;15:35-36).<br /><br />Secondly, Elijah was a prophet who performed mighty miracles, some of which resemble the miracles Jesus will perform.<br /><br />Thirdly, we note that Elijah was part of a kind of double act: he was succeeded by a prophet cut from similar cloth, Elisha. John the Baptist will be succeeded by Jesus. (Nevertheless, links and connections here are not neat analogies. Elisha is never directly invoked in the gospel. Elijah (arguably) was the greater prophet compared to Elisha.)<br /><br />What we might reasonably conclude from this telling of the story of John the Baptist is that his coming - his message, his actions, his clothing - evokes memories of both the Exodus and of Elijah. But John will not himself lead the new Exodus, nor is he the new Elijah: those roles are taken up by Jesus.<br /><br />Verses 7 and 8 seal this analysis. John is not the one who is important. A more powerful and more worthy one is coming. The baptism of that one is greater than his baptism. John's water baptism is an anticipation and sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit - the Spirit which will descend on the Coming One when he is baptised shortly afterwards (verses 9-11).<br /><br />Advent is a season to consider what the Christian message is all about. In the run up to Christmas, if we can find a few moments of peace, What is it that Jesus came to do? <div><br /></div><div>Without an answer to that question there is no spiritual or eternal significance to Christmas - just the material point of food, festivity, family and presents.<br /><br />To reflect on these verses is to reflect on the significance of John the Baptist but that takes us to Jesus and the purpose of his coming: to baptise us with the Holy Spirit, that is, to lead us to a new life and a new future in God, indeed a new future in which God is with us and in us. The good news of Christmas is the good news of God's new life available to all - not just to the Judeans and citizens of Jerusalem who flocked to John the Baptist!<br /><p>If we head back to the Isaiah reading and the comments there: Jesus comes to restore life to Israel and to the whole world. </p></div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-62129329560986653472023-11-26T12:26:00.000-08:002023-11-26T12:26:25.174-08:00Sunday 3 December 2023 - Advent 1 - Happy New Year<p>Theme(s): The Coming of Christ / The Second Coming of Jesus Christ / Return of Jesus / Facing crises</p><p>Sentence: Jesus will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:8).<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Almighty God,<br />give us grace to cast off the works of darkness<br />and put on the armour of light,<br />now in the time of this mortal life,<br />in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;<br />so that when he shall come again in his glorious majesty<br />we may rise to the life immortal;<br />through him who lives and reigns with you<br />and the Holy Spirit,<br />one God now and for ever. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Isaiah 64:1-9<br />Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19<br />1 Corinthians 1:3-9<br />Mark 13:24-37<br /><br />Comment:<br /><br />Just like that we have switched from the Year of Matthew (or Year A) to the Year of Mark (or Year B in the Three Year Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) cycle)!<br /><br />Advent is the season of 'coming' or 'coming to(wards)'. </p><p>Who is coming? When is Jesus coming? And, naturally, gulp, Christmas is coming and carols for services need choosing/cards/presents/food/drink needs purchasing. </p><p>The domination of the "coming" of Christmas makes it difficult in Advent to focus on Jesus coming to us, on time coming towards its end and on the new heaven and new earth coming soon to us.<br /><br /><b>Isaiah 64:1-9</b><br /><br />Isaiah yearns for God to act, to intervene in the world, as in former days. Yet he acknowledges that God has been angry with Israel (5b) and with good cause (6-7). </p><p>His plea is that God might treat them like potter's clay (8): that clay, when not conforming to what the potter wants, is able to be reshaped. It gets a second chance at becoming a pot!<br /><br />Please God, Isaiah says, 'Do not be exceedingly angry' (9). I am not quite sure why the reading ends with this verse - the next few verses fit well with one of the themes in today's gospel reading.<br /><br />Note verse 6: the prophet notes that relative to the utterly, absolutely pure holiness of God 'all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth' (6b). Do we too easily think we live in ways God approves because, well, we think we are okay by our lights?<br /><br /><b>Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19</b><br /><br />If Mark 13:24-37 looks ahead to terrifying crises afflicting Christians, then this psalm may be read as a prayer to God to save us from the crisis and the terror.<br /><br /><b>1 Corinthians 1:3-9</b><br /><br />This reading is an 'advent' reading because after Paul's opening greeting (1-3) and complimentary prayer of thanks with a bit of teaching about spiritual gifts (4-7) he looks ahead to 'the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ' (7).<br /><br />Currently Jesus Christ is obscured - seated at the right hand of God in heaven but invisible here on earth (save in the lives of his followers). Thus Paul looks ahead - as he often does in his letters - to the future revealing or making visible of Jesus Christ to the world. Ahead of us lies 'the day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (9).<br /><br />To be ready for that great day we need to be going about the business of our Lord: it is a time of waiting but also a time in which we need every 'spiritual gift' which enables us to do God's will (7).<br /><br />In this time of waiting yet exercising the spiritual gifts God has given us we should not be anxious. God is at work: 'He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (9).<br /><br />The use of 'blameless' is an implicit reminder that the coming of Jesus Christ on that day will be for the purpose of judging the world.<br /><br /><br /><b>Mark 13:24-37</b><br /><br />This is a really tough passage of Scripture to comment on so let's start with the easy comments.<br /><br />When Jesus says, "Keep awake" (37), he concludes a part of the passage with a consistent, understandable message. That message is that a day is coming when he will return but the hour of the return, indeed the day itself is known only to God the Father. Thus being ready for that hour, at all times, is important. That is the message of verses 32-37. In the season of Advent, when we recall the first coming of Jesus Christ and look ahead to his second coming, we do well to hear and heed this message.<br /><br />What is much harder to comment on are verses 24-31. In these verses, almost but not quite contradicting verse 32 'about that day or hour no one knows', Jesus encourages his followers to look around them and see signs which point to the imminence of the day and hour.<br /><br />In verses 24-27 Jesus draws on Old Testament texts to make a prophecy about the future coming of the Son of Man. In doing so he interprets Daniel 7:13 which concerns "one like a son of man" who represents the elect of God and comes towards God: here "the Son of Man" (i.e. Jesus) will come towards earth to gather in the elect. But when will this happen?<br /><br />In verse 28 Jesus says to learn a lesson from the fig tree: the way it puts forth its leaves is a sign that summer is near. Thus, he goes on to say, "So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates" (29).<br /><br />'These things' are the matters Jesus has been forecasting in verses 5-23: there will be false teachers (5-6), wars and rumours of wars (7-8), earthquakes and famines (8), persecution (9-13), the setting up of the 'desolating sacrilege' in the Temple (14), terrible suffering (19) and false messiahs and prophets (21-22).<br /><br />But here lie several difficulties for us as readers and hearers of this gospel reading.<br /><br />1. Only one of these matters is specific (the setting up of the 'desolating sacrilege'). The rest are recurring features of humans' or nature's behaviour through the ages. The setting up of the desolating sacrifice recalls the time when Antiochus Epiphanes, 167 BC, set up an image in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem (see, e.g. 1 Maccabees 1 ). The unthinkable had happened before and it is going to happen again, Jesus says.<br /><br />2. The specific matter will relate to the coming of the Romans to destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD. Is this what Jesus has in mind? Is it only what Jesus has in mind? Note that most if not all of Mark 13 could relate to this event because the beginning of the chapter concerns a prophecy of Jesus about the destruction of the Temple (verses 1-2) which did occur in 70 AD. It does make sense of 'he is near, at the very gates' (29) - if we think of 'he' as the Roman general leading the forces against Jerusalem and if we equate 'the gates' with the gates of Jerusalem.<br /><br />3. But if Mark 13 only relates to one future historical event then talk of the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory is difficult to interpret in relation to this event because in 70 AD the elect of God were not gathered in 'from the end of the earth to the ends of heaven' (27).<br /><br />4. Then there is the matter of the enigmatic claim in v. 30 that 'this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.' If Mark 13 refers to events in 70 AD then there are no problems: some people alive hearing Jesus say these things in the year 30 AD (+/- one or two years) would have been alive in 70 AD.<br /><br />But if 'all these things' refers further ahead, to the return of the Son of Man to gather in the elect, an event which still has not taken place, then 'this generation will not pass away' requires some fancy interpretational footwork. Could <i>genea, </i>normally translated, "generation," mean 'race' so that Jesus is saying that the Jews will not pass away before he returns? Despite serious attempts to exterminate the Jews such as occurred in the Nazi Holocaust, the Jews remain with us. Could 'this generation' have a timeless reference, e.g. the phrase refers to the church as the continuing followers of Jesus who hear and re-hear these words? These questions are not easy to answer and most commentaries on this verse struggle to make sense of it!<br /><br />5. Is Mark 13 a prophecy on two levels? On one level some words look ahead to the events of 70 AD and on another level other words look ahead to the end of history. But if this is so, then the words are woven in with one another. Rather than being enigmatic, from this perspective the prophecy seems to involve obscurity: at various points it is obscure which level the words are working on.<br /><br />If we then acknowledge the difficulties in the passage, what are we to make of it?<br /><br />We should not allow the difficulties to block our reception of the <b>clarities</b> within the passage. Acknowledging that Jesus is speaking in a manner which recalls to us other modes of apocalyptic communication, (i.e. disclosures of God's plan for the present and the future in colourful, dramatic, metaphorical and thus often obscure language (think Daniel, Revelation),) then we can hold the difficulties in tension with points of clarity rather than worry ourselves to death over their resolution.<br /><br />The clarities are:<br /><br />1. Jesus' followers face at least one, if not many crises prior to his return. In these crises extraordinary pressures, including devastating suffering are likely to be experienced. <i>We see such crises for believers unfolding in the world today, especially in the Middle East and in Africa.</i><br /><i><br /></i>2. We are asked to 'endure to the end' whatever we face for the sake of Christ (13).<br /><br />3. We should 'be alert' (23, 33) and 'keep awake' (35, 37) at all times, that is, be ready for the return of Christ. In application that means, </p><p>Today, am I faithful to Jesus? </p><p>Today, have I confessed and repented of all sin? </p><p>Today, am I going about my master's business? (34-36).</p><p>We do not know the day or the hour of Jesus' return, and we do have an agreed understanding across the Christian world of what signs could tell us that return is very imminent BUT we do know that we should be:</p><p>- faithful;</p><p>- repentant;</p><p>- dutiful in Christ's service.</p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-5634067521589425332023-11-18T23:32:00.000-08:002023-11-18T23:32:26.518-08:00Sunday 26 November 2023 - Ordinary 34 and options ...<p><b>THIS SUNDAY CAN BE CELEBRATED</b> <b>AS</b></p><p>Christ the King (Reign of Christ) Sunday; </p><p>34th Sunday Ordinary Time; </p><p>Sunday before Advent (often known as Stir Up Sunday because of the BCP collect for this Sunday, see below);</p><p>Feast of Christ in All Creation;</p><p>Aotearoa Sunday.</p><p>Theme(s): Christ the King / Preparation for the coming of Christ</p>Sentence: And I, the Lord will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them' (Ezekiel 34:24).<br /><br />Collect: a traditional collect for this Sunday as the Sunday Before Advent, in modern form, but retaining the words leading to this Sunday being nicknamed 'Stir Up' Sunday follows, from NZPB p. 641:<br /><br />Stir up, O Lord<br />The wills of your faithful people<br />That, richly bearing the fruit of good works,<br />They may by you be richly rewarded;<br />Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24<br />Psalm 100<br />Ephesians 1:15-23<br />Matthew 25:31-46<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b><i>I am particularly reading the readings through the lens of "Christ the King."</i><br /></b><i><br /></i><b>Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24</b><br /><br />The combination in David of shepherd and king becomes an enduring theme in the Old Testament and spills over into the New Testament (where Christ is both king and good shepherd).<br /><br />Here God speaking through Ezekiel promises Israel that he will be a shepherd to them, with special care for the lost and threatened sheep, But God the great shepherd of Israel will also appoint a shepherd in the Davidic mold (23-24). He will 'feed them and be their shepherd' (23). For Christians reading Ezekiel there is only one candidate for identification as this shepherd king: Jesus Christ.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 100</b><br /><br />What does a true king, a ruler who loves and care for his subjects (like a shepherd caring for his sheep, 3) deserve more than anything? Payment of taxes is the wrong answer! The correct answer is our praise and adoration. Today's psalm (or its alternative, Psalm 95) is the perfect set of words to express our delight in Christ the King.<br /><br /><b>Ephesians 1:15-23</b><br /><br />There would not be much point to Christ the King if he were not in charge of a kingdom. To be in charge of Israel, as a descendant of King David was a reasonable ambition, or so it seemed to those in the gospels who thought that Jesus was that kind of king.<br /><br />Here, in the concluding part of Paul's great christological essay on the blessings of God poured out on the world through Christ, with specific reference to those elected by God to be 'in Christ,' we find the crescendo of praise and adoration building to a royal climax.<br /><br />Christ, raised from the dead, has been seated by God 'at his right hand in the heavenly places' (20). This position of might and power is the ultimate kingship since Christ is now 'far above all rule and authority and power and dominion' (21a).<br /><br />There is more: Christ is above every name, not only those known in this age, but also in the age to come (21b). In case of doubt Paul offers this flourish: God has 'put all things under his feet and has made him head over all things' (22). A true summary would be 'Christ is King of kings and King over everything.'<br /><br />But Paul is ever mindful that God's power is purposive. The majesty of Christ the King is not majesty for majesty's sake. The purpose of Christ's rule over all rule is expressed in three words deliberately omitted by me in the citation from v. 22 above: 'for the church.' What God is in and through Christ is for the sake of God's people. <div><br /></div><div>The church is the object of God's power and authority displayed in Christ. God wants nothing more that the church to be protected and provided for by the one who is in charge of everything.<br /><br />And why not, because the church is not some group outside the being of God in Christ, mercifully and unexpectedly included in the Godhead. No! The church <b>is</b> Christ the King's 'body, the fullness of him who fills all in all' (23). Christ takes care of his body.<br /><br />As the church our question could be whether we have a big and bold vision of who we are in Christ?<br /><br /><b>Matthew 25:31-46</b><br /><br />The starting point for this passage is the coming in glory of the Son of Man (31) with the nations gathered before him (32). By v. 34 the Son of Man has become 'the king' and thus we have a great passage for Christ the King Sunday -Christ reigns over the nations and brings judgment to them.<br /><br />This passage is sometimes called the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. This is partially true because Jesus makes a comparison (or 'similitude') in vss. 32-33 between the separated people before him as king and a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats. But the greater truth is to describe the passage as a vision of the future judgment.<br /><br />It is hard (in my view) to read this passage properly because it has (in my experience) been used in sermons to forward various agendas which do not receive direct support from the passage <i>though they are worthy agendas in their own righ</i>t.<br /><br />The problem is that the passage looks like a passage supporting Christians getting involved in general social services and in contemporary issues in and challenges of social justice when it does no such thing. The provision of social services and the work of social justice in the world at large does receive support from other passages in Scripture, but not here.<br /><br />The reason for saying this is that Jesus specifically makes the criterion for judgment between the sheep and the goats the criterion of action or inaction towards 'the least of these who are members of my family' (40, 45). Unless we wrench the meaning of other Scriptures to define 'members of my family' as 'everyone', this passage is about the world's treatment of Christians and not how Christians treat non-Christians or non-Christians treat non-Christians.<br /><br />Understanding this matter is vital for the standing of the whole gospel as a Christian gospel in the context of the New Testament's message that salvation comes through the grace of God and not through good works.<br /><br />On the face of it, overlooking verses 40 and 45, Matthew 25:31-46 looks like a straightforward endorsement of good works as a means to salvation: feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, welcomes strangers into your home and God will be pleased with you. And the converse applies: you have been warned. </div><div><br /></div><div>But this is not so.<br /><br />Effectively Jesus is expanding on something he has already said about the treatment of his disciples being the treatment of Jesus and thus of God himself:<br /><br />"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."<br /><br />This is Matthew 10:40 (read the larger section, 10:40-42) and can be read alongside Matthew 18:1-7. In these passages Jesus begins to develop a theme which comes to a climax in our present passage: how disciples of Christ are treated is extraordinarily powerful in respect of consequences. God is in Christ, Christ is in Christians, bless (or curse) a Christian and you are blessing (or cursing) God.<br /><br />So in Matthew 25:31-46 we have the extraordinary spectacle of the nations being gathered before Christ the kingly judge and the judgment turning on how they have treated Christians. As we look around the world today we rightly think that some nations should be terrified of that future judgment because their treatment of Christians has been utterly appalling.<br /><br />Of course some Christians have treated other Christians very kindly and some have treated them very badly. That also is pause for considerable thought about what Christ the kingly judge will make of our treatment of our brothers and sisters in Christ.<br /><br />How then does the passage read in terms of 'faith versus works'?<br /><br />The previous two passages (Bridesmaids, 25:1-13; Talents, 25:14-30) have worked on recognition or knowledge between God/Jesus and people. The rejected bridesmaids are not known to the bridegroom and the worthless slave who buries his talent does not recognise who the master really is and what his character is like.<br /><br />It is the faith which recognises God as God which counts. But Jesus offers a twist of considerable mercy in this third passage: at least recognising a Christian as a bearer of the life of God counts as saving faith in God himself.<br /><br /><i>For clarity and underlining of what is said above: there are plenty of reasons for Christians to treat all people well, and especially those on the margins of life, whether or not you agree with the explanation given above! </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><p><i>Further, within this parable, what is said about treating those on the margins of life offers a model for how Christians should approach and care for those on the margins of life. My argument here is that this is not the main point of this particular parable.</i> </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-31808816087259621142023-11-11T10:51:00.000-08:002023-11-11T10:51:25.297-08:00Sunday 19 November 2023 - Ordinary 33<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Theme(s): Growing in the faith / Sharing our faith with others / Alert and awake for Christ's coming</span><br /><span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Sentence: So let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6)</span><br /><span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Collect: </span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">God our end,</span></span></span><span><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">as the sun<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>of righteousness rises with<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>healing in<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>its wings,</span></span><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">save<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>us in<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>our time of<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>trial,</span></span><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">so that we<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>do not succumb,</span></span><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">but endure in your eternal embrace;</span></span><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">through Jesus Christ,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>our Redeemer,</span></span><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">who<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is alive with you<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and the Holy Spirit,</span></span><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">one God,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>now and for ever.</span></span><br /><span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.48px;"></span></span><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">Amen.</span></span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Readings:</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Related: [comments below]</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Psalm 90:1-8, 12</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">1 Thessalonians 5:1-11</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Matthew 25:14-30</span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Comments:</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><b>Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18</b></span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Ouch! Zephaniah leaves nothing out as he forth-tells the terrifying prospects of the 'day of the Lord' (7).</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">But the terrifying prospects are not to the genuinely righteous (i.e. in a healthy, right relationship with God) but to those who are complacent (12) and rely on their accumulated wealth to save them.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Whether the complacency of the wealthy is because they think their money can save them from the wrath of God or because they think it a sign that God has blessed them and thus they are safe, we cannot tell.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">The connection with our gospel reading as a 'related' reading is tangential. The third slave in the parable is complacent. But he does not rely on his meagre talent saving him per se.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><b>Psalm 90:1-8, 12</b></span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">This psalm speaks to the delay in time as we wait for the coming of Christ. Versus 4 makes the relevant statement that time is different for God compared to our experience of it.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Verse 12 concludes the reading with a careful warning to use the time of our lives well: learning from God so that we gain a 'wise heart.'</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><b>1 Thessalonians 5:1-11</b></span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">When will the Lord return? Paul says that his readers do not need any information because they already know that the 'day of the Lord' will 'come like a thief in the night' (2). That is, we do not know except that it could be at any time.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">What we do need a bit of reminding, as Paul goes on to do, is that we must not become complacent (3a) and certainly should not think that the end will never come (3b - there is no escape from labour pains for the pregnant woman who is tempted late in pregnancy to think her baby is never going to arrive).</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Consequently, awake and alert believers should not be surprised (4). </span></span><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Picking up the idea of the suddenness of the coming of the Lord being like a thief in the night, Paul then urges his readers to behave as people behave in the daytime rather than in the night, a period associated with wicked behaviour (5-7).</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">The key to warding off complacency and sinful behaviour is not greater effort to do good but the Christian basics of 'putting on the breastplate of faith and love' and 'the helmet of the hope of salvation' (8). The latter is decisive: for what lies ahead of us, we live our lives in the here and now in such a way as to be ready for the coming of the Lord. </span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">God destines us for salvation (9) so let us not miss out. Great help lies within the Christian community: we should encourage one another and build up each other in faith, love and hope (11).</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><b>Matthew 25:14-30 The Parable of the Talents</b></span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">As with the previous parable, this parable is memorable partly because of the maths. </span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Then it was 10 bridesmaids who are divided into two binary groups of 5, the wise and the foolish. Here elements of wisdom versus foolishness are implicit but not named (e.g. the foolish slave is described as 'wicked and lazy' (26).) </span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">The maths here moves from 10/2/5 to 3/5/2/1. There are 3 men, given 5, 2 and 1 talents respectively with the first two men making a matching 5 and 2 talents.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">There is a binary element, however, similar to the division of the ten bridesmaids into two groups, in that the first two slaves are deemed 'trustworthy' (21, 23) and the third, as noted above is 'wicked and lazy.'</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Whether Jesus took and adapted some existing story doing the rounds within Middle Eastern storytelling or created a story fit for his teaching purposes, a few phrases alert us, well before the concluding verses, to the inherent Jesus-oriented (or christological) purpose of the story. </span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">The master goes off 'on a journey' (14) and returns 'after a long time' (19) means the story is about the return of Jesus. </span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">The invitation to the first two slaves to 'enter into the joy of your master' (21, 23) points forward to the great messianic feast or banquet (e.g. the wedding feast of previous parables, Matthew 25:1-13, and 22:1-14).</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">The parable is interesting in respect of the question of how we might use the resources God gives us, and from this perspective, we might focus on:</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">(1) talent = money and discuss the merits of trading versus storing banknotes under a mattress versus faith in the capitalist system via investing funds in an interest bearing account, or </span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">(2) talent = the gifts and abilities God grants us.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">But our focus on the most important point of the parable must engage with verse 29.</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">We have already encountered 25:29 at 13:12. There the increase/decrease of what we have or do not have is associated with the reception of the parabolic teaching of Jesus. </span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">That suggests that we do not think long about the economic or social capital aspects of the parable - nor even about the ecclesiastical aspects of it. (With respect to the last, tempting though it is to use this parable as an occasion to rally the parishioners to give more of time and talents to the life of the parish, that is not why Jesus told the parable!)</span></span><br /><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">Rather, Jesus, continuing a theme developed in 25:1-13, challenges his hearers to be ready for his return by growing in the faith he is teaching them. Through his teaching, the disciples (then and now) have been 'entrusted his property' (14). </span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;">The delay between his ascension and his return is our opportunity to use the property well and gain an investment return on it. Fast forwarding to the Great Commission, 28:16-20, we properly understand the parable when we grow in our knowledge of Jesus, bear witness to him in the world, and make disciples so that the body of followers of Jesus grows.</span></span><br /></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">To keep our faith to ourselves, to make no progress in growing into Christian maturity, and generally to ignore Jesus' commands about how we are to live in the world is the equivalent of the third slave who 'hid your talent in the ground' (25).</span> </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-16648666607662729392023-11-05T09:40:00.002-08:002023-11-05T09:40:36.259-08:00Sunday 12 November 2023 - Ordinary 32<p>Theme(s): Justice / True worship / Christ's return / Readiness for Christ</p><p>Sentence: Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour (Matthew 25:13)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />God<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>of new beginnings,<br />you<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>hold<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>life and death in your hands;<br />may<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>our hope in your power and love<br />strengthen us to live creatively,<br />not fearing the<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>future,<br />but knowing that in<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the end all shall be well;<br />through the Risen Christ,<br />who<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is alive with you,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />in the unity of the Holy Spirit,<br />one God,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>now<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and for ever.<br />Amen<br /><br />Readings: [related]<br /><br /><b>Amos 5:18-24</b><br /><b>Psalm 70</b><br /><b>1 Thessalonians 4:13-18</b><br /><b>Matthew 25:1-13</b><br /><br />Comment:<br /><br /><b>Amos 5:18-24</b><br /><br />There is a way of talking about meeting God which heightens excitement and anticipation. This passage sobers up any intoxication!<br /><br />Amos points out that the specific meeting with God, the 'day of the Lord' (18), is a terrifying day. (Presumably some of the hearers Amos addressed looked forward to this day in ignorance of what it would involve).<br /><br />Verses 21-23 (if we read no other part of Amos) tells us why and thus, by implication, for whom the day is terrifying and to be feared rather than looked forward to.<br /><br />God hates what he sees and hears in Israel's worship (21-23). No specific reason is stated in these verses as the ordinary practice of Israel's worship is summarised: festivals, grain and meat offerings, songs of praise. </p><p>But when verse 24 begins 'But let' we look for what Amos says should be happening as a clue to what causes God's great unhappiness. What we read is that God is looking for justice and righteousness. Let them roll rather than chords on stringed instruments. Work for justice not for an even better festival than last year's amazing celebration. Be in right relationship with God and with neighbour before you gather fine grain and fatted calves for offering. That is the implication of verse 24.<br /><br />Thus Israel, thinking they are in God's favour look forward to a day which will be terrifying because they are not in God's favour.<br /><br />For ourselves, is it difficult to translate this passage to our day, when we have calendrical church festivals, make sacrificial efforts to ensure the finest of linen and richest of communion vessels, and love festal music? Let justice roll down like waters!</p><p><i>In 2023 this passage might "sober" us up - Jews and Christians and Arabs - to discern what justice is ... for Palestinians ... for Israelis ... for Jews throughout the world ... for Ukrainians ... for Afghanis (noting a news item about Pakistani bulldozers displacing Afghani refugee housing) ... for Yemenis (noting a war going in on the Arabian peninsula which receives very little notice these days).</i><br /><br /><b>Psalm 70</b><br /><br />David to a degree shares the concerns of Amos in this psalm. But the victim of injustice and bad treatment is David himself.<br /><br />The note on which the psalm ends is important: David's trusting plea is to God as 'my help and my deliverer' (5).<br /><br /><b>1 Thessalonians 4:13-18</b><br /><br />If we simply read this passage as an anticipation of our future life in Christ, joined with all the saints who have died before us, then Paul sets out a hopeful, triumphant and exciting picture of future reality.<br /><br />If we ask questions of the passage, as many Christians have done through the centuries, then our excitement is liable to be diverted to debate and discussion!<br /><br />The great question here concerns the state of 'the dead in Christ' (16) between their death and the return of Christ to earth ('For the Lord himself ... will descend from heaven', 16).<br /><br />On the face of it, this passage implies that dead Christians are <i>not currently with the Lord in heaven, but in some state of waiting for the return of Christ</i>.<br /><br />We should not miss the important footnote to the NRSV translation of verses 13 and 15, which notes that the Greek translated as 'those who have died' is literally 'those who have fallen asleep.' (The NIV hedges its exegetical bets in v. 13 with 'those who sleep in death' but offers 'those who have fallen asleep' in v. 15) Paul is saying that the state of the physical body of these Christians is death but the state of their life in Christ is as though asleep relative to waking up to new resurrection life.<br /><br />To further sharpen our question or questions here, Paul says that what he is claiming here is declared 'by the word of the Lord' (15). (Whether this means Paul is claiming that Jesus himself taught this while on earth or has been received from Jesus by the church subsequently (e.g. through prophetic utterance) is not possible to determine).<br /><br />Nevertheless, interesting though a discussion about whether Christians who die are immediately taken up into heaven or enter a state of 'sleeping' or waiting until the Lord returns, we should not lose sight of the central theme of Paul's writing here which is the certainty of resurrection for those who are 'in Christ', whether we are 'dead in Christ' or alive at the temporal moment when Christ returns.<br /><br />'so we will be with the Lord forever' (17) is the most exciting truth in the Bible!<br /><br />Verse 18 is indeed correct in its urging in the light of verse 17: 'encourage one another with these words'.<br /><br /><b>Matthew 25:1-13</b><br /><br /><i>This reading is accidentally (or divine coincidentally) related to the epistle reading, since the epistle cycle is not intended to relate to the gospel cycle of readings. Both readings speak of the return of Christ and how we respond to living in a time of 'waiting' for that return.</i><br /><i><br /></i>One of the reasons, perhaps the main reason why I remember this story from my childhood when (in memory) it featured regularly in Sunday School lessons, is its simplicity as a narrative: neat symmetry (five wise bridesmaids, five foolish), simple plot (waiting into the night, lamps burning, running out of fuel, going out to find new fuel) and memorable, challenging conclusion (the wise go in, the foolish are shut out, therefore be like the wise ones and do not be foolish). In an age when we are told to not be binary in our approach to issues in life, this is a very binary story!<br /><br />What I do not think I would have thought of in my childhood is the parable's twisty ending, verses 11-13, which segues from:<br />(a) shut out bridesmaids at a wedding because they did not have the forethought to bring spare oil to<br />(b) refusal to open the door on them because 'I do not know you' to the application<br />(c) 'Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.'<br /><br />The connection between (a) and (c) is partial. The story is about waiting and being prepared for the waiting extending longer than anticipated, which ties in with the teaching of Jesus through chapter 24 and ties into these verses about his second coming being at an unexpected hour. But the foolish bridesmaids are not foolish because they have not stayed awake. Indeed, all the bridesmaids, wise and foolish, 'slept' according to verse 5.<br /><br />There is no direct connection between (a) and (b). We are entitled to think that all the bridesmaids are 'known' to the bridegroom and thus refusal for them to enter on the basis that 'I do not know you' seems strange on the basis of the bare narrative of the story as a contrast between wisdom and foolishness. The reader has to supply the connection along the lines of<br />- 'the foolish bridesmaids are like foolish people, though for different reasons because the foolish bridesmaids have forgotten to bring spare oil and foolish people have ignored Jesus and been found out not to know him' or<br />- 'knowing Jesus is like having oil to keep a light going, a light which shows we know Jesus when we keep it going for as long as it takes for him to return' (cue, thinking of some decades ago, a much sungs song: the singing of 'Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning').<br /><br />A possible integration of (a), (b) and (c) together is this: Jesus asks his followers to be ready at all times for his return, those who know him and maintain their relationship with him are ready at all times for that return, but those who are not ready for his return are those who have either never known him or, having once known him, have ceased to be in relationship with Jesus.<br /><br />The practical effect of this passage, all the way through to verse 13, is this: be faithful to Jesus, to the very end, whether we die or remain alive until his return.</p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-32167320932398084332023-10-30T08:47:00.002-07:002023-10-30T08:47:32.717-07:00Sunday 5 November 2023 - Ordinary 31 [Also, All Saints]<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In this post I offer a brief excursus on All Saints Day and a fuller set of comments re the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">ALL SAINTS DAY 2023 - 1 November 2023</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Theme:</b> All Saints (For All the Saints) Who are the Saints?</span><br style="line-height: 18.48px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"></span><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Sentence:</b> Know what is the hope to which God has called you, what are the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of God's power in us who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19)</span><br style="line-height: 18.48px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"></span><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Collect:</b></span><br style="line-height: 18.48px;" /><br style="line-height: 18px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;">Eternal God,</span><br style="line-height: 18px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;">you have always taken men and women</span><br style="line-height: 18px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;">of every nation, age and colour</span><br style="line-height: 18px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;">and made them saints;</span><br style="line-height: 18px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;">like them, transformed,</span><br style="line-height: 18px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;">like them, baptised in Jesus' name,</span><br style="line-height: 18px;" /><span style="line-height: 18px;">take us to share your glory.</span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Readings:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Revelation 7:9-17</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Psalm 34:1-10</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">1 John 3:1-3</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Matthew 5:1-12</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Comments:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">All Saints Day is an occasion to think forward (to all the saints, on heaven and on earth, being joined as one body of Christ undivided by time or space), to think backwards (in thanksgiving for the saints who have gone before us, leaving us an example and (perhaps, but there are arguments here) praying for us (see Revelation 8:1-3) and to think imaginatively (in order to envisage that we on earth living holy lives are part of a great company of unseen saints on the other side of the gate of glory).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">For some, celebrating All Saints is an acknowledgement of the saintliness of all holy people (whether known as 'St. X or not); for others the emphasis falls on acknowledging the saints who have recently departed from our midst (though that is something we might do in conjunction with All Souls Day, 2 November): thus some churches use this Sunday to gather families together who have mourned the loss of a loved one in the past twelve months.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Our readings touch on elements of the two paragraphs above. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><b>Revelation 7:9-17</b> is part of John's vision of the victory of the saints in heaven, where there is no more pain or tears, but their is plenty or praise and adoration of God. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><b>Psalm 34:1-10</b> encourages God's "holy ones" (= saints) to trust God to save, protect and provide for them. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><b>1 John 3:1-3</b> urges readers to be open to God's wonderful future for the saints - a future unknown to those of us on earth, but known to those in heaven, in which 'what we will be has not been revealed' (2), except that, in a general sense, we 'do know ... when he is revealed, we will be like him' (2). With this hope, holy ones do what? They 'purify themselves, just as he is pure' (3).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Finally, <b>Matthew 5:1-12</b>, sets out the blessings at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. They are addressed to the disciples. They are promises of consequences for faithfulness to Jesus. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">The consequences are not rewards of prosperity and power but if fulfilment of divine longings. Those who are pure, for instance, will see God (8).</span></p><p><b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><u>Ordinary 31</u></b></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Theme(s): Hypocrisy // True versus false teaching // Walking the talk not talking the talk // Saying one thing and doing another thing (or, Saying one thing and doing the same thing)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Sentence: All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12).</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Collect: </span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">Banqueting God,</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">unworthy<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>though we are</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">you call us to your table;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">may<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>we rejoice in your presence,</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">and share your bounty abundantly<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>with<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>others;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">through Jesus,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the Bread<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>of Life,</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">who<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is alive with you and the Holy Spirit,</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">one<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>now<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and for ever.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">Amen.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Readings:</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><span>OT (Related): Micah 3:5-12 </span></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Psalm (Related): Psalm 43</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>1 Thessalonians 2:9-13</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Matthew 23:1-12</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Comments:</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><b>Micah 3:5-12</b></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>This passage denounces religious leaders of Micah's day who spoke falsely and taught wrongly. An obvious parallel with today's gospel passage may be made.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Of particular concern for Micah is the false assurance of 'peace' which comes from these false messengers purporting to tell out what God himself is thinking. The worst form of false teaching in our day is that which lulls people into thinking everything is OK when it is not.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><b>Psalm 43</b></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>The psalmist walks in the midst of 'an ungodly people' (1) and cries to God for deliverance from 'those who are deceitful and unjust' (1b). This could be Jesus amidst the scribes and Pharisees (see today's gospel reading).</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Importantly, also relative to the gospel reading, the psalmist yearns for 'your light and your truth' - the direct communication of God's Word which will lead him to God's 'holy hill' (3b).</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><b>1 Thessalonians 2:9-13</b></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>This passage forms a nice counterpoint to the gospel reading in respect of the concept of spiritual fatherhood! </span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Paul writes about the days when he and his companions 'worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God' (9). As they did so their conduct was blameless (10) and they acted as spiritual fathers to the newly formed Thessalonian Christians (11) whom they urged to live a life worthy of God (12).</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Paul thanks God that what the Thessalonians received was not a 'human word' but 'God's word' (13). Only such a word is able to enter into the soul and mind to work powerfully.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>What about spiritual fatherhood in the light of the gospel passage today?</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>An important word is that Paul says their dealings were 'like' a father with his children. Paul makes no claim to the role of God the Father himself, nor to a title 'Father.' His claim is that in the process of spiritual rebirth and initial stages of growing as an infant in Christ, Paul's role has been similar to that of a father bringing up a child.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><b>Matthew 23:1-12</b></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>These verses are the opening salvo in a sustained, systematic and searing attack on the scribes and the Pharisees through chapter 24. Jesus 'has it in for' his opponents and it is worth asking, "Why?"</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>What he does not seem to object to is the Law of Moses itself. Already in the Sermon on the Mount (5:17-20 in particular) Jesus has upheld the law, on some matters even intensifying its demands. Now he says, "Do whatever they teach you [from Moses' seat, 2] and follow it." What he then says is the clue we need to understand how Jesus can be so aggressively antagonistic towards them:</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"but do not do as they do ... they do not practise what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others ... They do all their deeds to be seen by others' (4-5a).</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Thus Jesus first is concerned - angry, we should say - at hypocrisy (not doing what one teaches) and "Woe to you ... hypocrites" is a recurring refrain through the chapter;=.</span></span></span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span> </span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Jesus concern, secondly, is over teaching application of the law in a way which oppresses people rather than gives life (the primary purpose of Moses' Law) and made worse by then not doing a thing to help people (4b).</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Then, thirdly, his concern is at the lack of recognition of God: that deeds are done in order to receive praise from others rather than praise from God.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>A question for the church is whether we are acting in scribal and Pharisaical ways: Christians are not automatically immune from hypocrisy, from translating the 'law of Christ' into a new set of burdens, or from seeking the praise of others ahead of the praise of God.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>Jesus goes on in verses 8-11 to say of his disciples that they are not to be called by titles such as 'rabbi/teacher' or 'father' or 'instructor'. Before we discuss application of this today, let's note the reasoning of Jesus in giving this edict: there is one and only one teacher of the faith, Jesus the Messiah himself. In the light of that simple observation about life in the kingdom of God, we should underline verse 11 - which is repeated, more or less, many times in the gospels: "The greatest among you will be your servant." And then repeat to ourselves verse 12, also a recurring gospel theme.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>What is the application of these verses today, especially in churches which are hierarchical to the point where people are addressed as 'Bishop,' 'Reverend Father or Mother,' 'Archdeacon,' or 'Canon'? (Yes, fellow Anglicans, I am asking you!)<i> Recently I was able to visit a Tanzanian diocese where the bishop was almost always addressed as "Father Bishop" and where, when also present, his wife was addressed as "Mother Bishop"!</i></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Given the history of these titles and the length of their usage, the next few words are not going to resolve a potentially distracting debate when other things are more important. </span></span></div></blockquote><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But I suggest, first, that all those who receive and are addressed by such titles do a conscience check and ask whether it matters if an addresser forgets to use the title. If it matters, has the title become important in a way which is at variance with Jesus' teaching?</span></span></div></blockquote><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Secondly, for those of us who address people by title, do we do so in a way which means we are placing a trust in them and forming a dependency on them and their office which is at variance with the point Jesus makes here in this passage, that he is our supreme teacher and leader?</span></span></div></blockquote><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We might usefully juxtapose for our reflection the specific direction against 'titles' such as "Father" with Paul's endorsement of the role of spiritual fathers in the epistle reading for today.</span></span></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span>A final, general observation: for those of us who do teach other Christians, we are more prone to charges of hypocrisy etc. Is it not a relief to think that the great, unique teacher of the kingdom is the One who is beyond hypocrisy?</span></span></span></div></div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-34632506369171651322023-10-22T10:47:00.000-07:002023-10-22T10:47:31.700-07:00Sunday 29 October 2023 - Ordinary 30<p>Theme(s): Loving God, loving neighbour // The Great Commandment //</p>Sentence: Love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19:18)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Forgiving<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God,<br />your<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>covenant<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is firm;<br />be merciful to us,<br />and<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>grant us to live in your presence, ever singing your praise;<br />with<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus, the<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Way,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />who<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is alive with you,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />in the unity of the Holy Spirit,<br />one God,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>now<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and for ever.<br />Amen.<br /><br />Readings:<br /><br />OT (related): <b>Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18</b><br />Psalm (related): <b>Psalm 1</b><br /><b>1 Thessalonians 2:1-8</b><br /><b>Matthew 22:34-46</b><br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18</b><br /><br />This reading gives the context for the 'second commandment' (see gospel reading below): love your neighbour as yourself. Israel is to be holy (1-2) yet also kind to the poor (9-10), respectful of neighbours (including, by not stealing from them or lying about them, 11-14). Holy Israel is to treat people justly, especially 'neighbours' (15-16) and lovingly (with a love that forbids hatred yet may reprove, 17-18).<br /><br />Thinking along these lines, 'love your neighbour as yourself' (18) is a neat summing up of what has gone before and a handy guide to general conduct: since we treat ourselves justly, even generously, do not defraud ourselves, occasionally reprove ourselves and often speak well of ourselves (see verses 9-18) we can safely say that for other aspects of life, what we would do to ourselves is a benchmark for the way we should love our neighbours.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 1</b><br /><br />Given the use of Psalm 110 in the gospel reading below, it may be surprising that Psalm 1 is the 'related' psalm for today. This psalm speaks of two approaches to the law, one affirming and obedient, the other denying and disobedient. From that perspective common ground with the reading lies in Jesus affirmation of the two greatest commandments as a summary of the law and the prophets.<br /><br /><b>1 Thessalonians 2:1-8</b><br /><br />Paul reminisces about his gospel ministry among the Thessalonian Christians but this is scarcely an exercise in nostalgia as he laces his memories with theological affirmations.<br /><br />Three matters stand out:<br /><br />Paul and his companions preached the gospel to obey and honour God. Convinced that this was their calling (as the sent ones or apostles of Christ, see 'apostles of Christ', v. 7), they preached in the face of opposition (2, 4, 8).<br /><br />Their preaching was from pure motives (including pleasing God) and their content and style avoided pleasing men and women ahead of honouring God (4, 6).<br /><br />Their preaching ministry was pastoral (7b) and personal (8b). While the content of their message - entrusted to them by God (4) - was important, their role was not simply to impart a set of words. They cared for their hearers (7b) and they engaged with them in such a way that they shared their lives with them (8b).<br /><br /><b>Matthew 22:34-46</b><br /><br />Jesus turns the tables on his interlocutors!<br /><br />Matthew 23 will be the damning conclusion (against the scribes and Pharisees) of this part of the gospel which has seen an ongoing series of traps set for Jesus, each of which he springs free from. In this last part of chapter 22 there is a final question from the Pharisees (22:34-39, after a failed attempt from the Sadducees, not part of this sequence in the lectionary, 22:23-33). Then Jesus himself poses a question to the Pharisees (22:40-46).<br /><br />The question put to Jesus scarcely holds any traps (36) and Jesus answers it not only with ease but with an irrefutable simplicity: the greatest commandment is this ... a second great commandment is that ... (37-39). To this day this 'summary of the Law' is imprinted on the minds of most Christians. It reflects a simple but important division of perspectives, upwards (to God) and outwards (to others).<br /><br />What might be useful in our reflections via a sermon is less pondering on these two commandments as a summary of 'the law' (40) and more thought on these two commandments as something on which 'hang' both 'the law and the prophets' (40).<br /><br />One thought is this: 'the law and the prophets' is effectively a summary of what we now call 'the Old Testament' (including Psalms and wisdom literature). Jesus - the biblical interpreter par excellence - is saying that the summary of the whole of the OT consists of these two commandments.<br /><br />Given that some biblical scholars argue that there is no 'centre' to the OT nor overarching thematic structure (which is true to a considerable extent), nevertheless the greatest OT scholar of them all is saying, the diversity of the OT is unified around these two points.<br /><br />The first part of our gospel reading is remarkably clear, memorable and straightforward to explain. The second part (41-46), much less so because it involves some riddle wordplay around the words 'Lord/lord'.<br /><br />In this part of the dialogue Jesus has gone on the offensive: he asks the questions of his questioners.<br /><br />What he is trying to draw out from them is recognition that the Messiah is God's Son as well as David's son (i.e. descendant of David). When they are answer his question with 'The son of David', they answer correctly, competently and incompletely.<br /><br />Jesus draws their attention to Psalm 110:1. Jesus knows that they know this text, but it seems to have slipped from their memories. This text makes the unexpected point - when sons normally defer to their fathers and not the other way around - that David says that the Lord (God) addressed his son as 'my Lord'.<br /><br />When Jesus asks the pointed question which challenges the incompleteness of their first answer (45), the Pharisees do what many a politician does in an interview: 'duck for cover'!<br /><br />For Christian readers of Matthew's Gospel there was no need for Matthew to explain the citation from Psalm 110 any further. This psalm was a favourite 'Messianic Psalm' of the early church which often drew on it to expound the relationship between Jesus and God (see also Acts 2:34,35; Hebrews 1:13; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 10:13).Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-34286659007159107902023-10-15T16:37:00.000-07:002023-10-15T16:37:15.881-07:00Sunday 22 October 2023 - Ordinary 29<p>Theme(s): Pay your taxes! / Give to God what is God's / The power of God's Word</p>Sentence: The gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction (1 Thessalonians 1:5)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Holy One,<br />nameless, you<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>stay<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>with<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>us;<br />even<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>when we<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>wrestle in the darkness<br />may<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>we never lose heart<br />until<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>your<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>justice is fulfilled;<br />through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer,<br />who<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is alive with you and the<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Holy Spirit,<br />one<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> now<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> and for ever.<br />Amen.<br /><br />Readings (Related):<br /><br />Isaiah 45:1-7<br />Psalm 96:1-9<br />1 Thessalonians 1:1-10<br />Matthew 22:15-22<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Isaiah 45:1-7</b><br /><br />When Jesus says in the gospel reading today that it is ok to pay to Caesar taxes required by Caesar, he stands in a theological tradition in which this Isaianic passages plays a role: ungodly rulers serve God's purposes, they may even be described by the Lord God as 'his anointed' (1).<br /><br />The whole passage makes clear that the Cyruses of this world are (in a sense) mere pawns in the great chessboard of God's plans. Would that megalomaniacal rulers understood how puny they are compared to the one God ruling over the universe.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 96:1-9</b><br /><br />If we start by contemplating the might of mighty rulers, and then (in accord with ancient world views) consider the 'gods' who allegedly empower those rules (4-5), we - who understand that such gods are 'idols' - may praise God with greater joy for there is only one God, the Lord who 'made the heavens' (5).<br /><br />With a nod to our gospel reading and Jesus' affirmation that what belongs to God should be given to God, note that our praise to God should not only be words but also come with an 'offering' presented in his 'courts' (8).<br /><br /><b>1 Thessalonians 1:1-10</b><br /><br />This letter is widely accepted as the first of Paul's letters to be written. It is a team effort, coming from 'Paul, Silvanus and Timothy' (1).<br /><br />As with other Pauline letters, the beginning here is marked by thankfulness. The writers use the opportunity to tell their recipients that they thank God for them to also tell why they thank God.<br /><br />If this Pauline team were writing to our church - perhaps after a parish review - would they be able to say of us what they say here?<br /><br />Note the way in which the 'history' of the Thessalonian church, including the progress of the gospel among the members of the congregation (5, 9b), their 'imitative' discipleship (6a), their experience of persecution (6b), and their spreading reputation (7-9a), is woven together with 'theology' of Christian living and church life.<br /><br />That is, note the important theological triad of faith, love and hope (3), the role of God in 'choosing' them to become his 'beloved' (4), the correlation in true preaching of the gospel between 'word', 'power', 'Holy Spirit', and 'conviction' (5), along with characteristics of reception of the gospel, 'joy inspired by the Holy Spirit' (6b), changed lives (7-9), as well as a new horizon for the future (9) and, finally, the Christology which affirms Jesus as 'Son' whom God 'raised from the dead' and the saviour 'who rescues us from the wrath that is coming' (9).<br /><br />Perhaps all is well in our church and we can receive this passage as an endorsement of the work of God in our midst.<br /><br />Perhaps all is not well in our church. How might we receive this passage?<br /><br />On the one hand, could it be that we need a renewal of the basics of Christian life? A renewal of vital faith, energetic love and patient hope? Could a key to that renewal be a renewal of the importance of preaching as preaching of God's powerful, convicting, Holy Spirit inspired and illuminated word?<br /><br />On the other hand, could it be that, unconsciously, we have reversed the course of conversion. We have turned back from God to 'idols' (9b)? We may need to identify what have become idols in our particular congregational life, but once identified we can turn again to the living and true God.<br /><br /><b>Matthew 22:15-22</b><br /><br />I wonder how many preachers this Sunday will be bold enough to firmly and loudly urge their congregations to pay all their taxes and with the same earnestness and enthusiasm that they obey all the other commands of our Lord!<br /><br />Yet, seriously, one of the applications of today's passage is: pay your taxes!<br /><br />How do we get to that application?<br /><br />Jesus is continuing a series of exchanges with religious leaders. If he is not provoking them, they are provoking him. Keen to get rid of him, they have tried to trap him. Today's trap is particularly vicious as a wrong answer on tax to be paid to Rome could see Jesus going straight to a Roman court with no need for the extraordinary persuasion exercise Israel's leaders would (a few days later) engage in so that Rome could do their dirty work for them.<br /><br />Remember that the Israel of Jesus was a theocracy wrapped inside an autocracy, with an extra layer of local hegemony via Herodian rulers (of different parts of Israel) wrapping round the theocracy with the Herodians helping the Roman emperor to exercise his power. Thus we note the trap is set by a group of Pharisees as well as some Herodians (15-16).<br /><br />Pharisees, let's recall, were keen to live out the law of God, determined to be faithful to God while under the thumb of Roman and Herodian rule. Yet they resisted temptation to isolate themselves monastically (as the Essenes did, in the desert) as well as to ingratiate themselves with the rulers (as the Sadducees did, via Israel's leadership through priesthood and Sanhedrin [council]). The very fact that the disciples of the Pharisees combined with the Herodians in this entrapment tells us that significant issues were at stake politically and religiously.<br /><br />The wrong answer from Jesus, re tax to Caesar and the Herodians will be off to Pilate quick as a flash.<br /><br />The wrong answer from Jesus, re giving to God and the Pharisees will be off somewhere (making mischief with the crowds, perhaps?).<br /><br />The question itself is a Pharisaical question because it is framed in terms of what is 'lawful' (17). It is a good question, almost a clever question, because it asks Jesus as a 'rabbi' or 'teacher' (16) to give a legal ruling which, in turn, invites Rabbi Jesus to engage with the Law of Moses, a set of rules with lots to say about giving to God, making offerings to God, including, of course, the giving of tithes to God. In the theocracy presupposed by the Law, nothing is said about paying taxes to foreign rulers of Israel.<br /><br />Thus the trap in the question is twofold. <div><br /></div><div>A simple 'Yes' it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor would mean a denial of the Law of Moses in favour of obedience to imperial law. </div><div><br /></div><div>A simple 'No' it is not lawful to pay such taxes could have been an assertion of the Mosaic Law's authority over Roman law but the Pharisees would not have wasted time complimenting Jesus on his rabbinical faithfulness. A quick nod of their heads to the Herodians and off to court Jesus would have gone.<br /><br />Jesus knows he is being put to the test and declares that in a voiced complaint (18): 'you hypocrites' is a valid charge here because the questioners are play acting. Theirs is not a genuine intellectual question but an enticement to support breaking the law.<br /><br />In what is now 'typical' fashion for Jesus, he answers a question with a question. He asks for the coin in which the tax is to be paid (19) and puts the question, </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"Whose head is this, and whose title?" (20).</div></blockquote><div><br />There can only be one answer to the question (21a) but what Jesus then says likely surprised his hearers and likely continues to challenge us, </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's" (21b).</div></blockquote><div><br />Our first interest in the reply is the manner in which it answers the entrapment question. Effectively Jesus says, "Yes, it is lawful to pay tax to the emperor." But he does so in a way, with a 'both ... and,' that makes no diminution of the Law of Moses regarding tithes and offerings. He is, to coin a phrase, politically correct <i>and theologically correct.</i> Ironically, he gives the same answer that the Pharisees and Herodians would have given if the question had been put to them.<br /><br />Our second interest in the reply is the content of the answer in respect of life for each Christian in every country where (with the exception, perhaps, of the Vatican State - but I claim no familiarity about how taxes work there) taxes are claimed by governments that make no claim to do the will of the God of Jesus Christ (indeed, may even make the claim to be opposed to that will).<br /><br />The balance in the statement between emperor and God, along with the significance of paying taxes to an enemy ruler over Israel, means that what Jesus says is a timeless principle applicable to Christians living in all kinds of political systems.<br /><br />Governments have the right to claim taxes from us since they are authorities instituted by God (see Romans 13) and the costs of their work in guarding, guiding, and caring for us need to be met. God has the right to ask us to give, both because everything we have, has come from God as Creator and Sustainer of all things, and because the mission of God has costs.<br /><br />(I leave for another day the difficult questions of when we might stop paying taxes because the benign government envisaged in Romans 13 becomes malign.)<br /><br />Our third interest - potentially - in what Jesus says in verse 21 lies in the presumption the statement makes: that the 'world' or 'worldly' system of money - expressed through coins minted by due authority - is what it is, when we engage in it we must honour the obligations of it, but no thought is given here to (say) opting out of the system.<br /><br />There might be some challenging morning tea conversations if we pursue this thought!<br /><br />A fourth interest, possibly, lies in the distinction Jesus makes between (so to speak) the worlds of Caesar and of God. How far do we press that distinction? </div><div><br /></div><div>Occasionally we hear stories of Christian businessmen who are grace-filled on Sundays and 'hard', 'mean', 'sharp', 'worshipping the almighty dollar' in the practice of their business life Mondays to Saturdays. Is that a distinction which may be justified from this saying of Jesus? </div><div><br /></div><div>Or, to head in a different direction re engagement with business life, as consumers, are Christians doing what Jesus wants if they shop like everyone else for the latest clothes and gadgets, just so long as on Sundays there is a decent offering in the plate?</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, for now, we also observe that sometimes Christians have taken the distinction between "God" and "Caesar" to mean that Christians should keep "religion" and "state" or "religion" and "politics" separate. Two questions: (1) is that what Jesus means? (2) Is there a difference between Christians paying taxes (e.g. so we all enjoy a sewerage system that works for everyone in our community) and Christian critiquing the government (which may or may not be following God's will)?<br /></div><p>Food for thought! </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-3413379717017538222023-10-11T11:19:00.001-07:002023-10-11T11:19:55.058-07:00Sunday 15 October 2023 - Ordinary 28<p>Theme(s): Righteousness. An inclusive kingdom? God's surpassing peace. The great feast of God.</p>Sentence: Rejoice in the Lord always! (Philippians 4:4)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Life-giving God,<br />as we experience your healing,<br />may we proclaim your deeds,<br />and turn to you to offer thanks and<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>praise;<br />through Jesus our Messiah,<br />who<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is alive with you,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />in the unity of<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the Holy Spirit,<br />one God,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>now<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and for ever.<br />Amen.<br /><br />Readings (related):<br /><br />Isaiah 25:1-9<br />Psalm 23<br />Philippians 4:1-9<br />Matthew 22:1-14<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Isaiah 25:1-9</b><br /><br />How does this passage 'relate' to the gospel reading today, a reading featuring a wedding banquet (in an unknown location) and a city - Jerusalem - destroyed by fire, set alight by enemies?<br /><br />In one sense the passage does not relate at all! It looks forward to the destruction of an enemy city (i.e. not Jerusalem) and it envisages a great banquet on Mt. Zion (see 'this mountain', 6, compare with 24:23).<br /><br />In another sense the passage relates to the gospel reading because the gospel passage's wedding banquet is the great eschatological banquet of the kingdom of heaven, the feast to end all feasts and the feast for those judged to be right with God and fit to enjoy eternal fellowship with God. From this passage we see this great feast or banquet as the celebration of the end of death (8), the end of tears (8, cf. Revelation 7:1; 21:4) and the final salvation (9).<br /><br /><b>Psalm 23</b><br /><br />By-passing the many things which we can and should say about this amazing psalm (because it says so much in so few words), we see in the psalm the expression of one of the great themes of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, that the consummation of all things in the fullness of God's time is symbolized by a great feast. That feast makes an appearance in the gospel parable as a 'wedding banquet.'<br /><br /><b>Philippians 4:1-9</b><br /><br />There is at least one sermon to be preached from each verse in this passage! Briefly, these are the possibilities:<br /><br />1: with all that Paul has written to this point in mind, the Philippians and ourselves are urged to 'stand firm in the Lord in this way.'<br /><br />2: picking up a great theme in this letter, of Christian unity via a common mind, Paul focuses on two individuals at odds with each other, Euodia and Syntyche. It might not be a good idea for the preacher to single out two out of sorts parishioners and name them from the pulpit :) But it would be a good idea for the preacher to reinforce the great theme of Christian unity through the concord of agreement in the truth.<br /><br />3: Avoiding the sidetrack of whether Paul means by 'my loyal companion' exactly those words or is actually invoking a name, 'loyal Syzygus', to say nothing of the sidetrack of who the loyal companion might be, there is a sermon here on the importance of women in the ministry of Paul, because Euodia and Syntyche are 'co-workers' with Paul and other male gospel workers in the 'work of the gospel'. They have worked collegially, 'beside me', rather hierarchically. <div><br /></div><div>A further point could be made that back in verse 2 Paul urges rather than commands Euodia and Syntyche to be of the 'same mind in the Lord.'<br /><br />4: In a sea of negativity, harping and carping, demoralization over this and that shortcoming of the church, what better sermon to preach than 'Rejoice!'<br /><br />5: In a world of violence, hatred, bigotry, and general thrusting forward of self ahead of others, 'Let your gentleness be known to everyone.' It is not just that this would make the world a better place. It is urgent for Christians to live out what it means to be Christian because 'the Lord is near.'<br /><br />6: Do not worry! How not to worry? Pray! This way: 'in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.' </div><div><br /></div><div>That is, the antidote to worry is to turn what we are worried about into prayer requests to God with the key step that as we make our requests for help in our hour of need we are also thankful ('with thanksgiving'). Start counting your blessings when you worry, then turn those blessings into the thanksgivings which accompany your prayers and before you know it, you will experience verse 7.<br /><br />7: This prayer is one of the more popular blessings prayed at the end of services. It speaks of the opposite of worry (see verse 6): the experience of God's peace, that is a real experience of genuine peace from God should be </div><div><br /></div><div>(a) overwhelming ('surpasses human understanding') and </div><div><br /></div><div>(b) protective ('will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus').<br /><br />8: What should Christians think about? Try the list here!<br /><br />9. What should Christians do? 'Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in [Paul].' For just about any other Christian this claim would be at least ludicrous if not the height of arrogance. But Paul is no ordinary Christian - the first chapters of Philippians (to say nothing of his other writings) make this clear. He has pushed devotion to Christ to the limits. His zeal is second to none. His bravery is unparalleled. His desire to know Christ and to make him known has no competitor. His example, his teaching, his words of advice: they should be noticed, imitated and followed.<br /><br /><b>Matthew 22:1-14</b><br /><br />There has been many a sermon on this parable, and no doubt a few more this coming Sunday which go something like this,<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"God calls people to enter his kingdom. You might expect the religious people to be first in line, but they can be the most resistant to the call. So God goes out looking for the least likely people to enter his kingdom. But, note carefully, even so God expects people to be 'properly dressed', that is, to have saving faith. Without that, you will be no better off than the religious people who reject God out of hand."</div></blockquote><div><br />How does this stack up when we read the parable in the light of Jesus' intention (telling it) and Matthew's intention (reporting it)?<br /><br />Over the past few weeks our readings from Matthew have been parts of an exchange between Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel in which, summarising, Jesus says to the leaders that they have led wrongly and God's will for Israel is being revealed through him and not through their interpretation of the law and the prophets.<br /><br />Last week's parable was a very strong statement inasmuch as Jesus declared himself to be the Son of God compared with the prophets sent from God as God's servants.<br /><br />In this week's parable Jesus once again speaks of God's son (God is the king and throws a wedding party for his son). The first set of invitations go to an unspecified group of people 'but they would not come' (3). The invitation is repeated (4) but some went their own way to avoid coming and others 'seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them' (6). At this point the mistreatment and killing of the slaves takes us back to the parable of the tenants (21:33-41) and we recognise that the invitees are Israel.<br /><br />In this parable Israel is destroyed (7, see further below) and a new set of invitations is issued (8-9) and the respondents gather for the wedding feast 'both good and bad' (10).<br /><br />To this point we can understand Jesus as telling a parable which highlights the foolishness of Israel's leadership in not recognising the kingdom of heaven made manifest in himself. The rejection by the leadership paves the way for a broader kingdom, to be understood as including the Gentiles.<br /><br />The next verses are challenging. If the 'good and bad' are welcomed into the banquet hall what is the exchange between the king and the badly dressed guest about (11-12)?<br /><br />On the one hand, a point is being made that while it does not matter whether we are 'good' or 'bad' when called, it does matter whether we are found to be properly attired which must be about being deemed by the king to be 'righteous': good or bad, we need to be in a right relationship with the king. 'For many are called, but few are chosen' (14).<br /><br />On the other hand, the point is not wonderfully clear! We, the readers, have to supply what the wedding garment stands for. Further, if the start of the passage is told with the intention of critiquing the rejection of Jesus by those within Israel who should know better, by the end the intention seems to be a critique of those outside of Israel who accept Jesus but do not ensure that they are found righteous by God.<br /><br />What was Matthew's intention in narrating this parable for his readers? We can ask the question because Matthew has already reported to us sufficient speech from Jesus making the point that he was rejected by Israel's leadership. For Matthew, developing his narrative of Jesus' life and death, the parable offers two new points.<br /><br />(1) Verse 7, especially 'burned their city' is highly suggestive of Rome's sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jesus, telling the parable, likely has in his mind the history of Israel, including the history of Judah and Jerusalem, in which the latter was sacked by Babylon, 597/587 BC. He sees history repeating itself. Matthew, likely composing the gospel after 70 AD, reports a parable which has the virtue of accurate prediction being fulfilled. God's judgment has come to rejectionist Israel. By implication the mission to the Gentiles (in Matthew terms, note particularly the Great Commission, 28:16-20) is vindicated.<br /><br />(2) Verses 11-14 then can be understood, not as a strange ending given the way the parable begins, rather as an unfolding of the theological history/prediction of future: Israel rejects God's invitation to come into the kingdom, but as the invitation is extended beyond Israel, the new invitees must not think that God's standards for citizenship of the kingdom have changed: all are to be righteous.<br /><br />So the generalized account above of how many sermons on the passage have gone is in tune with thinking about the passage from the perspective of Jesus' and Matthew's intentions in communicating it.<br /><br />But a twist lies with thinking about the wedding garment requirement for the guests. </div><p>Let's agree that this is about being righteous. The sharp question then is the degree to which Matthew himself understands being righteous in terms of saving faith. That is a distinctive Pauline perspective. In Matthew's Gospel (i.e. read on its own, apart from the remainder of the New Testament) there is a huge emphasis on righteousness being proved by good deeds. Yet it would be too simple to conclude that Matthew does not mean righteousness with God found through saving faith in Jesus. If the garment = good works, how come the banquet hall is full of people both 'good and bad'? </p>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-68759210266333243922023-09-24T13:07:00.000-07:002023-09-24T13:07:42.291-07:00Sunday 1 October 2023 - Sunday 8 October 2023 - Ordinary 26 and Ordinary 27<p> <b>The next posting here may not be until Thursday 12 October 2023.</b></p><p><b>Sunday 1 October 2023 - Ordinary 26</b></p><p>Theme(s): Obedience / Authority / True to Jesus / Example of Jesus / Christian unity</p><p>Sentence: 'Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regards others as better than yourselves' (Philippians 2:3)<br /><br />Collect: P17:2<br /><br />We pray you, Jesus, take the cold water,<br />our busy, conscientious lives,<br />and turn them into gospel wine,<br />that everyone may see your life and thirst for you. Amen.<br /><br />Readings (related):<br /><br />Ezekiel 18:1-14, 25-32<br />Psalm 25:1-9<br />Philippians 2:1-13<br />Matthew 21:23-32<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Ezekiel 18:1-14, 25-32</b><br /><br />This stirring prophecy nails down the importance of personal responsibility. Fathers will not be punished for the sins of their sons, nor vice versa.<br /><br />From a 'history of theology' perspective this passage marks a development away from Exodus 20:5 where God indicates that he will punish 'children for the iniquity of the parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me.'<br /><br /><b>Psalm 25:1-9</b><br /><br />In the context of our Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading, the psalmist offers a prayer which both implores God to help him to know the will of God and seeks God's help to be led in the right way.<br /><br /><b>Philippians 2:1-13</b><br /><br />With a strong line in theological reasoning, Paul is hugely emotional in this letter: he pours out his heart to his readers. In chapter one he has written about his devotion to Christ. Out of that devotion he now pleads with the Philippians that they, also devoted to Christ, allow the mind of Christ to be their mind (1-5). From that one mindedness he wants to see them united. But the hopes he has for the Philippian church are not that they will agree with Paul but that they will understand who Christ is.<br /><br />So verses 6-11 become the 'christological clincher' - Paul's reasoning cites the example of Christ himself. To be one minded the Philippians need to treat each other as better than themselves and to set personal agendas aside (3-4). They should do this because of the example of Christ himself (5).<br /><br />Verses 6-11 may be a hymn to Jesus already in existence when Paul wrote. In that case he is claiming some common Christian theology to support his argument. Whether cited or composing from scratch, Paul offers powerful support because he discloses the example of Christ himself as one who </p><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>'though he was in the form of God ... emptied himself ... humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross' (6-8). </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>No greater humiliation can be invoked than that one in the form of God - Jesus Christ - ends up dying on a cross (a shameful, shocking end to life). The point would have been obvious to the Philippians: if Jesus Christ humbled himself so abjectly, each Philippian Christian could humble herself or himself to treat a fellow Christian better than themselves.<br /><br />The hymn goes on to conclude with the exaltation of Jesus (9-11). One implication of this part of the hymn is that when we humble ourselves in order to treat others as better than ourselves we may rely on God to eventually exalt us.<br /><br />(Necessarily, for reasons of space and time, I pass over interesting but tricky christological issues in the hymn, focused on the meaning of words and phrases such as 'form', 'equality with God', 'exploited' (6), 'emptied himself' 'form' in 'form of a slave ... human form' (7), 'the name' (9). Good commentaries will assist with exploration of these matters).<br /><br />The final verses in the reading, 12-13, open up a new question: how is salvation worked out in each believer? Do we sit around and watch on as God works within us? Do we engage in frantic effort to please God and show that we remain worthy of his saving us? Neither, says, Paul. 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling' (12).<br /><br /><b>Matthew 21:23-32</b><br /><br />We have skipped a bit of Matthew (because the church year accommodates it on other Sundays) and are now in the last week of Jesus' life, but this particular week, as the next Sunday or two unfolds, is a week in which Jesus continues to engage us through parables.<br /><br />Today's passage sets the scene for three parables (21:28-32; 21:33-41 [part of reading for Sunday 8 October]; 22:1-14 [Sunday 15 October]). Each of the three parables is told 'against' the religious leadership of Israel.<br /><br />Today's passage begins with Jesus entering the temple. To teach there was sure to excite interest and sure enough 'the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him' (23). But theirs was no idle curiosity. They had a question to ask, indeed a trap to set him. Their question concerned the authority by which Jesus was 'doing these things' (presumably meaning, doing deeds (including Jesus overturning the traders' tables (21:12-16) and doing teaching).<br /><br />If Jesus said he did it with God's authority they could pounce on him as a blasphemer. If he said he did it on his own authority they could dismiss him as an eccentric, if not lunatic false prophet.<br /><br />But Jesus is clever. He says he will answer the question if they answer a question he sets them. Essentially he asks the same question of them. 'Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?' equals 'Where did John's authority come from?'<br /><br />The leaders are caught. John's ministry was both popular with the people and the people believed the ministry was godly. But they had not accepted that this was so.<br /><br />When Jesus asked the question they could neither affirm one origin or another for the baptism of John. 'We do not know' (27) gave Jesus a let out from answering their question. He would live for another few days.<br /><br />But Jesus was not about to let go of the opportunity to make some points against his opponents. He continues with his questions (28).<br /><br />He wants them to answer which of two sons did the will of their father, the one who said he would work in the vineyard but did not or the one who said he would not but in fact went to work (28-31).<br /><br />To this question they give an answer ... and fall into the trap which Jesus has set. Collectively they constitute the son who has said he will do the will of his father but has not. The point is rammed home with further reference to John the Baptist and the kind of people who responded to his preaching.<br /><br />OK, this is well and good in the context of the narrative of the gospel: Jesus is in opposition to the religious leaders of Israel. It is deeply theological (where is God in relation to their lives?) and brutally political (do they or Jesus connect with the people of their generation in Israel and the beliefs which motivate them?). The differences between them are not the differences of theoreticians. Within a few days these leaders will have arranged for his execution.<br /><br />But what does the passage say to us, the followers of Jesus and readers of Matthew's Gospel today?<br /><br />It is possible to work from the passage to a lesson about actually doing God's will rather than just talking about it, to being what we say we are by virtue of action rather than being a hypocrite by saying one thing and doing another.<br /><br />We could also work from the passage to say something about the importance of being on God's side as history unfolds rather than deceiving ourselves that we are on God's side when the effective outcome of the way we live is that we are against God's plan for the world.<br /><br />But the strongest point from the passage, and one in keeping with the most pervasive concern through the whole passage is the question of 'authority.' Who or what authorises the claims of Christ (and therefore our testimony to Christ)? 'God' is obviously the answer! But is this obvious from the way we presently live and talk?<br /><br />Sometimes Christians take a 'pick 'n' choose' approach to what parts of the gospel we take as coming directly 'from God' and what parts we treat as 'optional, up to each of us to do as we see fit in our own eyes.'<br /><br />The religious leaders with whom Jesus was in conversation had developed a response to God which suited them. When challenged by a prophetic figure such as John the Baptist they were momentarily unsettled (until Herod solved the situation in their favour). Now Jesus continues the challenge.<br /><br />Is Jesus challenging us today about the way in which we respond to God?<br /><br />The church to which we belong: is it being shaped by us to suit ourselves more than allowing God to shape it for God's glory?</div><p><b>Sunday 8 October 2023 - Ordinary 27</b></p><p>Theme(s): The Lord's vineyard; Jesus God's own son; the benefits of Christ.</p><p>Sentence: I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Philippians 3:8)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />Merciful God,<br />you make all things new;<br />transform the poverty of our nature<br />by the riches of your grace,<br />and in the renewal of our lives<br />make known your heavenly glory;<br />through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.<br /><br />Readings - related:<br /><br />Isaiah 5:1-7<br />Psalm 80:9-17<br />Philippians 3:4b-14<br />Matthew 21:33-46<br /><br />Comments:<br /><b><br /></b><b>Isaiah 5:1-7</b><br /><br />Here is the direct OT background to today's gospel parable of the tenants. God speaking through Isaiah says that Israel is his vineyard. However the focus of concern is not on tenants running the vineyard but on the quality of the grapes:<br /><br />'When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?' (4)<br /><br /><b>Psalm 80:9-17</b><br /><br />More vineyard-ism! Here the psalmist sees Israel not as a vineyard but as 'a vine out of Egypt' (8a). The vine has been planted in the land now called Israel but which needed 'the nations' driven out of it in order for the vine to be 'planted' there (8b).</p><div><br /></div><div>But the vine is in a sorry state. Walls that should have protected it have broken down so 'the boar from the forest ravages it' (13). The psalm then becomes a prayer (14-19) that the Lord might have 'regard for this vine' (14) and restore it.<br /><br /><b>Philippians 3:4b-14</b><br /><br />Paul has spent two chapters urging the Philippians onwards and upwards in pursuit of proclaiming the gospel from a common fellowship together in Christ. Now he turns to some practical matters of dispute and division. In this passage - which only makes sense with the missing verses at the beginning of the chapter - Paul waxes autobiographical in response to a 'circumcision' group preying upon the Philippians.<br /><br />Look, he says, if you want confidence in the 'flesh' (i.e. literally, via the mark of circumcised flesh) then I have it all (circumcised, Israelite, Benjaminite, Hebrew of Hebrews, Pharisee, zealous, 5-6). BUT! All that, Paul goes on to say, is nothing. It is loss (x3, verses 7-8). Indeed it is 'rubbish' (8). Actually, to be faithful to Paul we need a much earthier word than 'rubbish'. A study Bible before me has the well mannered 'excrement'. Might we say 'shit' to convey with a jolt the reality of Paul's disparagement of all the benefits of circumcision in the light of the blessings of Christ?<br /><br />Paul's great point, brought out with joy through verses 7-14, is that in Christ true righteousness comes with the bonus of the power of the resurrection and the 'prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus' (14).<br /><br />It is not said in the reading itself but the Philippians are invited to recognise that to give in to the demands of the circumcision party is to settle for a very distant second best.<br /><br /><b>Matthew 21:33-46</b><br /><br />This is a devastating parable which even the critics of Jesus get, at least to some degree (45). In the space of a few verses, via a narrative constructed around familiar social and economic facts of contemporary life (absentee ownership, tenants, collecting the owner's dues), Jesus sets out the theological history of Israel with a predictive presumption that he is the son and is about to be killed by the 'tenants.'<br /><br />In that theological history, God (the owner) has a vineyard (Israel, commonly associated with this image in the prophets) and attempts to communicate with the Israelites (tenants) via his prophets (servants, a familiar term for divine prophets in Israel). </div><div><br /></div><div>The servants attempting to receive the harvest rightfully due the owner are the prophets calling Israel back to her Lord and master. His harvest is to receive the trusting love of his people. They resist prophet after prophet, mistreating them. Finally, one last attempt at communication is made: 'he sent his son to them' (37). To no avail.<br /><br />Of great christological interest here is the obvious equation Jesus draws between himself and the son in the parable. Some critics of the gospels suggest that the theme of Jesus' divine sonship is largely a Johannine interest, even an invention after the facts of Jesus' peasant-and-prophet routine according to the other gospels. But here Matthew (also Mark, Luke) brings testimony of Jesus himself teaching that he was God's son.<br /><br />The picture painted in the story of Israel rejecting the prophets and then, finally, Jesus, needs some care and attention* lest we fall into the error of supersessionism (that God rejects Israel completely and has replaced her with the church in his affections, 'the other tenants' of v. 41). <br /><br />Remembering that Jesus himself was a Jew, that his first disciples were Jewish and many of the converts they won to Jesus were Jewish, we should read the parable as a theological history of establishment Israel - the Israel dominated by Israel's religious leaders who (when we read the prophetic literature of the Old Testament) got many things wrong in their understanding of God and God's will for Israel. </div><div><br /></div><div>This "establishment Israel" within the people of God rejected the prophets and will reject Jesus. Through all the history of Israel, including through to the days of Jesus himself, faithful people of God believed in God and obeyed his laws: these people neither rejected the prophets nor Jesus. Their place in the vineyard will not be usurped.</div><div><br /></div><div>*<i>By "care and attention" I mean that this is a complex and nuanced matter as we read the whole of Holy Scripture, pay particular attention to certain texts (e.g. the Gospel of John and Paul's Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians) and reflect carefully on the actualities of history in which all too often Christians have both casually and ruthlessly persecuted Jewish communities, especially in Christian Europe.</i></div>Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972059676658970541.post-17681174644129949242023-09-16T21:44:00.002-07:002023-09-16T21:44:54.704-07:00Sunday 24 September 2023 - Ordinary 25<p> Theme(s): God's generosity / God's mercy / the first will be last / living worthily of the gospel</p>Sentence: Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.(Philippians 1:27)<br /><br />Collect:<br /><br />God our ruler and guide,<br />when we come to the place where the road divides,<br />keep us true to the way of Christ,<br />alive to present opportunities,<br />confident of eternal life,<br />and ever alert to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<br /><br />Readings (related):<br /><br />Jonah 3:10-4:11<br />Psalm 145:1-8<br />Philippians 1:21-30<br />Matthew 20:1-16<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br /><b>Jonah 3:10-4:11</b><br /><br />Paul (in Philippians below) is delighted that Philippians have heard the gospel and become Christians. There could not be a greater contrast re preaching and its outcomes than between Paul's delight and Jonah's sulkiness.<br /><br />Jesus tells a parable (in Matthew below) in which early recipients of an employment contract are bitter about only receiving the same pay as late recipients of a contract. This bitterness has some common ground with Jonah's bitter response to people responding to his preaching and repenting because of it. In both cases there is a lack of joy that people not in 'my group' receive a blessing I thought only belonged to that group.<br /><br /><b>Psalm 145:1-8</b><br /><br />In this psalm we read/sing beautiful, comprehensive, inspiring words of praise to the God whose greatness is 'unsearchable' and whose character is 'gracious and merciful.'<br /><br /><b>Philippians 1:21-30</b><br /><br />I have no idea why we have switched out of the last chapters of Romans to Philippians!<br /><br />But what a great passage to switch to. Nowhere in his writings does Paul better declare his passionate devotion to Christ than in this chapter. Writing from a dank prison cell, in verses 21-24 he expresses his torn desires between living in this world (fruitful labour as he encourages the churches and preaches the gospel) and departing this world to live in eternal, full-and-intimate fellowship with Christ.<br /><br />He will remain in this world (25) for the sake of the Philippian church (25-26).<br /><br />Paul lives and dies for Christ but the church is very close in his passionate commitment: he will stay physically alive for the sake of the life of the church. How devoted are we to Christ and to his church?<br /><br />But the Philippian church are not babes to be nannied by Paul. His role is to assist their development as Christians, not to do everything for them. He expects them to be mature in their faith. Hence verses 27-30.<br /><br />They, and we, are asked to 'live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ' (27).<br /><br />Presumably that includes matters such as forgiving others (since the gospel tells us of God forgiving us) but here Paul emphasises three matters (27b-28) after 'so that' (27a):<br /><br />1. 'standing firm in one spirit'<br />2. 'striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel'<br />3. 'in no way intimidated by your opponents.'<br /><br />In other words, living lives worthy of the gospel is living lives in solidarity with other disciples, sharing the intention to both proclaim the gospel (evangelism, see 1:1-18) and defend its truth (chapter 3), all without fear of what opponents may do.<br /><br />That opponents of the gospel cause suffering, such as Paul himself is experiencing, is a real possibility. The Philippians are experiencing that but Paul reminds them that this is actually, under God, a 'privilege' (29-30).<br /><br /><b>Matthew 20:1-16</b><br /><br />We could call this passage 'the parable of the gracious employer' or we could call it 'the parable of the ungrateful employees'.<br /><br />Following on from last Sunday's passage about generous forgiveness (18:21-35), we read here that the kingdom of heaven is as equal a blessing to those who turn up to it early as to those who enter at the last minute.<br /><br />God's generous welcome into the kingdom is not proportioned to give more to those who commit to the kingdom from the first, with crumbs of blessing given to those who come last.<br /><br />The parable (20:1-15) is framed by the comments in 19:30 and 20:16 about the last being first and the first being last.<br /><br />In part this refers to the inclusive and expanding nature of the gospel (cf. Matthew 28:16-20): as the Gentiles are included in the scope of the gospel, Jews may be resentful that the Gentiles are the 'Johnny comes latelies' as recipients of God's blessing. Jews in Matthew's community of gospel readers/hearers must understand: the last are equal to the first.<br /><br />In part this refers (noting what precedes 19:30) to a general lesson to all disciples: God loves all equally and welcomes all into eternal life which is without distinctions between those who respond early and those who respond late.<br /><br />Such parables drive certain values deep into Christian consciousness: (1) God is gracious, (2) no Christian is more meritorious than another, whether we are lifelong Christians or deathbed converts we are all one in Christ.<br /><br />Very importantly, all people are equally worthy of hearing the gospel, of receiving our charitable actions and of being the objects of our prayers.<br /><br />In practical and political terms, a recently arrived refugee is as valuable a citizen as a sixth generation descendent of early settlers from Europe or as Maori descended from the arrivals in the tenth century.<br /><br />In the life of our churches, it can be a challenge to treat the newest newcomer with the same Christian affection as the longest standing members. All too often a natural reserve inhibits our deepest inclusion of newcomers. Today's gospel challenges us to overcome such hesitation.Peter Carrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09535218286799156659noreply@blogger.com0