RonBlog

Sunday 4th July, 2010 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few; ask therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest. Luke 10:2
Collect
O God, You have prepared for those who love You such good things as pass our understanding; pour into our hearts such love towards You that, loving You above all things, we may obtain Your promises that exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen

Old Testament Lesson 2 Kings 5: 1 – 14

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel."
He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments.
He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me." But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel."
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage.
But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

PSALM 117

O praise the Lord, all you nations: O praise Him all you peoples
For great is His loving-kindness towards us: and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
Praise the Lord

Epistle Galatians 6: 7 – 18

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.
So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised--only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule--peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

GOSPEL Luke 10: 1 – 12 & 17 – 24

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, nor sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid.
Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.' I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
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The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament
I have often commented on this rather lovely Sunday School type story, for as a young child it appealed to me. “How are the mighty fallen!” seemed to be the message as a kid, but sadly neither then nor today is the sequel, just as powerful and telling, brought to people’s attention. (That has to do with the mendacity of Elisha’s servant who thought it a great way to make a quid.)

Naaman should have been disqualified from attention for he was both Gentile and outcast – either leprosy or any other skin complaint was regarded very serious by all people of that age. It may well have been only Naaman’s skill as a general that kept him in position in his own country, but that was no barrier to the prophet. Mind you, one suspects that Elisha saw this as a means of lowering the man’s ego, and that certainly had its place.
Anyhow, once said ego was reduced, he bathed in the Jordan (see notes before that suggest that the soldier’s view of the creek was justified!) and was grateful to be healed. If only things were so easy!!!

Psalm
Not a great deal to comment on really, is there. It is simple and straightforward – and true.

Epistle
The closing stanza of this letter of Paul shows that he used an amanuensis or secretary to write his epistles. It may be an indication that he had trouble with his eyes, like many people even these days. But the important matters precede that.
What you sow you will reap is not unlike the karma thing that seems to be the popular expression these days. “What goes round comes round” is perhaps a little more Australian. But on the serious side, this is another way of expressing Paul’s theology of how God responds to human evil and sin. We may prefer God to knock off the naughty ones, until we realize that we would not be exempt from such a process. ‘God gives them up’ is Paul’s way of expressing this, in his Roman epistle. This is one of the reasons that people complain about God’s absence or even non-existence. Fortunately for all of us, the Lord is rather more patient with everyone, or we would all be history.
When Paul talks about God’s wrath he is not referring to the punitive reaction that even many Christians are expecting. God’s wrath works like this: whenever you see ‘judgement’ in any of New Testament books, stop to realize that, almost invariably, the Greek word behind it is what you know as crisis. for the purist. And ‘crisis’ is a crossroads in the path ahead of you, a decision to be made, a choice. Choose foolishly and God will not get in your way, but wait to see what you will do when the choice shows up to be less than wise. Choose that way constantly and wilfully, and God may well give you up in order for you to learn the folly of such choices. ‘He wills all people to repent’ you understand, and that is why He operates that way – thank heaven. Keep heading that silly way, and again in New Testament terms, you judge yourself. In a way you do the same if you learn from your mistakes, and go on to choose wisely. You will thus have chosen life, rather than death.
As we have been considering in earlier Sundays, whilst the works / faith controversy needs to be restated and re-understood, if I choose to follow truth, and live that out, I am then bearing true witness to the faith, and may well cop considerable flak, even from Christians. I kid you not!

GOSPEL
‘Like lambs into the midst of wolves.’ In this country we have not really encountered any of the deep hatred that other people in other countries have done. Mind you, it could still happen, and then I suspect the sheep will be clearly visible as apart from the goats!!!!

This Gospel of Christ has never been popular, and never will, because it runs to contrary to the general human approach to issues of conflict and disagreement. (I find it utterly appalling, making me ashamed of our leaders, whenever Parliament, State of Federal, is broadcast. I have yet to find any MP who has learnt that degrading the opposition is a most unfruitful path to travel.) Nor yet have I encountered anyone prepared to say that they turn their backs on such practitioners.

Many a wise word was spoken by that Lord of ours when He was under great pressure. Quite clearly there was a positive response to that ministry of the disciples. No better way to learn than to be dropped in the deep end to teach. And that reference to Satan falling is a very Jewish way of explaining that the truth was getting through in spite of all human attempts to stop it.

NOTES FOR A SERMON
I have never been all that averse to sticking my neck out when it comes to attempting to advance people’s understanding of the way that the elements of the faith are expressed in Biblical language. It has long been understood that when catching sight of what people in other cultures express, then one needs to understand the others’ idiom and even local humour.
One particular issue that had long bugged me was this business of the Devil. Satan, Lucifer, the Great Deceiver. As I grew up, all manner of explanations and Biblical texts were offered to prove the ‘personal’ Satan, but none of them actually made a lot of sense to me. When it came to the extraordinary situation where some people began to use the excuse that ‘the devil made me do it,’ to explain that their actions were forced from outside of them, and so to refuse responsibility, then I fear that my patience came to a sudden and rapid end.

I have long asked people to re-read the passages in Scripture that refer to the subject, including in particular the records of Jesus ‘temptation’ before the start of His public ministry. Then I ask them to explain what was going on with those temptations, and where it would be possible for Jesus to have succumbed to the blandishments. Then I ask them to answer the rather more personal question of who tempts them! Whereas another person may well put all manner of temptations in their way, the final answer, as it is in the Genesis 3 story, is ‘I tempt myself.’

Once we begin to understand the rather vivid Jewish way of getting a message across, it becomes clearer and clearer that whenever the subject of evil hits airspace, the Biblical picture is the same. Evil always has human roots, and that makes humans responsible. The old and surely discreditted ‘Original Sin’ dogma, that had us all tied up as sinners because Adam did it in Genesis 3, may have scared the living daylights out of far too many generations, but had they thought it through, the duplicity of that dogma would destroy itself. If that were the case, then I can blame that Adam and Eve, not myself or anyone else for the stuff up to life that the story appears to portray. And if I am not responsible, then I am only some sort of puppet on a string. Less than human, not even humanoid.

So what was going on in Jesus’ mind in that six weeks in the wilderness. If you have been following this set up on readings, comments and sermons, the easier thing would be to go back to the First Sunday in Lent. A shorthand version here is that Jesus, at the very start of His public ministry had to consider what would be His approach to that ministry, how would He appeal to people, how would He gain a following. He would not want one that would be fair-weather followers, but ones that would perceive and understand the implications of a Gospel for change. His first challenge to turn stones into bread was not for His own satisfaction, but to consider ‘bread and circuses,’ that cynical Roman approach to control and leadership, which He rejected out of hand. ‘Man does not live by bread alone’ is the clear understanding that there is more to being a person than one’s stomach, one’s search for satisfaction in whatever direction. The falling down and worshipping Satan was the usual temptation for leaders of all sorts: substitute the truth for the lie, and vice versa. Bling, spin, baloney, or the straightforward Aussie expression – bull****. If there is one thing that annoys the living daylights out of me these days it is the capacity of political leaders, and the media to lay on the wider public anything but the truth unvarnished. Maybe there are people who do not want to know, but without the truth there is no way forward. There is only the downward slide into the abyss. And miracle. Jumping from the pinnacle of the Temple. Jesus refusal to use miracle as a means of gaining a following, convincing people to follow Him, is so rarely recognized as to be tragic. Sure, Jesus used miracle – as John puts it in his Gospel – as sign, pointer, semeion. Something to think through, not something at which to be amazed and astounded. Any thinking person’s response to miracle is either to disbelieve or refuse it, or more likely to ask where the trick lies. In other words, read John 6 and see why Jesus expanded the Feeding of the Five Thousand to underline the massive difference between Moses and Himself, and the relative worth of the Mosaic approach and His own.

No one outside Jesus ‘tempted’ Jesus. It was that Lord of ours facing the necessity of direction and strategy of His mission, and refusing to be diverted into something less that effective, true and of value. Temptation is always the search for the short-cut, the easy path, the half-way along the real road.

Satan. Lucifer. 666. Christ’s number, so the story goes, is 777. The symbol of completeness. But Satan is that which poses as the Real Answer, the Anti-Christ, but forever falls short, being unable to produce the goods. I do not need anyone to tempt me, boyo, and nor do you.