RonBlog

Sunday 28th August, 2011 Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
If you want to become a disciple of Jesus, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.
Matthew 16: 24-5

Collect
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of Your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Your great mercy, keep us in the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Exodus 3: 1 – 15

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up."
When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."
But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain." But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

Psalm 105: 1 – 6 & 23 -26

Praise the Lord; O give thanks to the Lord for He is good: and His mercy endures for ever
Who can express the mighty acts of the Lord: or fully voice His praise?
Blessed are those who act according to justice: who at all times do the right
Remember me O Lord, when You visit Your people with Your favour: and come to me also with Your salvation
That I may see the prosperity of Your chosen: that I may rejoice with the rejoicing of Your people, and exult with those who are Your own.
We have sinned like our ancestors: we have acted perversely and done wrong

At Horeb they made themselves a calf: and bowed down in worship to an image
And so they exchanged the glory of God: for the likeness of an ox that eats hay
They forgot God Who was their saviour: that had done such great things in Egypt
Who had worked His wonders in the Land of Ham: and His terrible deeds at the Red Sea
Therefore He thought to destroy them: had not Moses His servant stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath from destroying them.

Epistle Romans 12: 8 – 21
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

GOSPEL Matthew 16: 21 – 28

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

© New Revised Standard Version of the Bible Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament
If this passage is not read in today’s service, then it is a matter of very great pity. Of all the passages in the Old Testament, this one is most formative. Not only does it tell of the call of Moses, but it also provides the closest you will ever get to the name of God.
I guess you are aware of the fact that wherever in (most) Bibles, you find the word LORD in capital letters, it translates the Divine Name often translated these days as Yahweh –JHWH using the Hebrew consonants without vowelling. No Jewish person will ever utter that Hebrew – all manner of periphrases will be used instead, for the Divine Name is so holy. It is totally beyond useage.

I am Who I am; I will be Who I will be; I was Who I was. You will be more familiar with the old ending to the psalms: Glory to God, Father Son and Holy Spirit (as in the beginning, so now and ever after shall be ….)
Who was and Who is and Who will be. John in Revelation has a subtle variant on that formula – look it up and see for yourself. Notice then, in the Gospels, Jesus’ use of the ‘I am’ statements, referring to Himself, and actually claiming divinity for Himself.

Psalm
‘The mighty works of the Lord’ are often mentioned in psalms and other parts of Scripture. And well they may be. The interesting history of Israel is often invoked by the prophets in particular, as source of grounds for learning quite something of the nature of God. Speaking of ‘nature,’ that tends to be a rather secondary source of information about God for Israel, in spite of the Creation story being at the forefront of the Biblical narrative.
What is also basic to Israel’s understanding of God – and itself - is that awareness of sin, stupidity and damage in failing to follow its own vision.

Epistle
I have referred, recently and often, to the sorts of contrary comment by atheists and others against religion and superstition. Please just read through this passage again, and see if you can find the slightest thing to disagree with, unless of course you are a self-obsessed, self-driven egoist. As Paul put it, against love there is no law. If people even began to live along the lines Paul enumerated, life and relationships would be so much better and stress-reduced.

Gospel
And because people will take no notice of the Gospel way of life, and never have, what Jesus anticipated in today’s passage was and remains necessary. Here is the lead-up to the remedy for human evil, and even that is disregarded by the majority of humans who inhabit this planet. What fools we mortals be!

Peter’s determination to stop Jesus in His tracks stemmed from the long-held perception that the Messiah would not / could not die. What sort of a victorious person could he be if death lay in front of him? So triumphalist was the old Jewish perception of Messiah (and far too often, the more populist view of the Christian Faith) that it took a long time to bury – and is still above ground in some Jewish and Christian circles.

Notice too how Jesus underlines in red that His followers needed to same commitment as He showed. This was no single-handed rescue bid. This is a way-of-life business, make no mistake.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

I have been reading a very large tome illustrating the history of Australia over the 20th Century, and a fascinating book it is. Based on newspaper reports of the period, it underlines so much of what had happened over that century. Quite a lot of the material was known to me, in spite of my life spreading only over 2/3 of that period. But there is one thing that recurs constantly, whether it has to do with matters political, social or normal. The extent to which various people and nations strove for the right things in ways and means totally immoral is utterly astounding. For instance the moral rage after World War 1 that led to the terribly punitive reaction on Germany was advised against by a few moderates of the time, one of them a cousin to my grandfather. Moral indignation (or immoral egoism) overruled them. The result was Hitler’s regime – and the world could have done without that!!!

That, of course, was just one example from the enormous list of folly perpetrated on people all over. The Russian Revolution did not bring about the just outcome it promised, but rather a far more severe and dishonest regime that cost the lives of millions. On and on the list goes ….. It is not as if there had been no precedent to go by. All of human history has been marred by wars, revolutions, control freaks and such like. And each time a crisis has arisen there has been someone who was prepared to take up arms or other power means to suppress and destroy whoever dared to raise their head in disagreement.

Even as I write this, recent days (June, 2010) have seen the removal of one Prime Minister and replacement with another in this country of ours. Political execution is as damaging as physical execution, and it was preceded by and based on similar dishonesty that is passed over as expediency. It is expedient that one man dies rather than all the people perish. That was one of the justifications for the crucifixion of Jesus, you may recall. And as a sort of exercise for us this morning, I offer a simple comparison between today’s Epistle and today’s Gospel. I think you will find it to be remarkably powerful ……..

Let’s start with the Epistle. Paul to the Romans. Having offered his magnum opus on the Faith and the reasons for his acceptance of it, the author goes on to list the points, purposes and values of Gospel living.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
You are free to read on this rather interesting if exhaustive list of ways to operate as a disciple of Jesus. I challenge anyone to come up with anything that is disagreeable in this passage, anything that is likely to hurt or damage another person. It is a rather moving, sometimes challenging path to travel, even to the extent of its pacific approach to gainsayers. (I would find it difficult to bless persecutors, but partly because I have not had a lot to cop from them.
Perhaps the hardest part, and apparently so for those of Christian Faith who seem to regard themselves as activators of vengeance, is to leave the outcome to God. ‘Vengeance is mine, says the Lord’ tends to be somewhat invisible, partly because we do not agree with God’s idea of vengeance. He tends to be too soft on people, does He not?

Now it does not take a lot of imagination to see how, if and when people operate in this sort of way, that life would become, suddenly and remarkably, peaceful. Stress levels would drop dramatically, and so would that eternal gap between rich and poor. Old ills would disappear because all would be well-fed, loved, and looked after. And self esteem would rise geometrically.

So who ever could have a fight with such a way of living?
And the answer is there before I get the question written down.

And there is a precedent for that sort of response. It is there in the Gospel for today. Jesus knew, right from the outset that He was fighting an uphill battle, because He was a realist, and was painfully aware of the basis of the human condition and the human dilemma. Plain ordinary sin and selfishness would not deign to listen to what He had to offer. He was as aware of the cost to Himself of offering such an option, as He was aware of the cost to whoever dared to follow in His footsteps.

The best way to destroy a dangerous idea is to murder the messenger. How often has that happened in human history? Even the Church attempted that path time and again! Remember Galileo?

Whilst contemporary Jewish theology said that the Messiah could not, would not be killed, our Lord was painfully aware otherwise. And He also knew that any attempt to avoid such a harsh response from leaders would mean the end of the dream, the end of the Gospel.

Ponder that a moment or two.

Give thanks that you have a Lord Who was made of sterner stuff.
And then see the path that lies in front of you, here and now.