RonBlog

Sunday 7th November, 2010 Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
‘I am the resurrection and the life’ says the Lord. ‘Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live, and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.’ John 11: 25 – 26

Collect (a)
Blessed Lord, Who has caused all holy scripture to be written for our learning; grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Your holy word we may embrace and ever hold fact the blessed hope of everlasting life which You have given us in our Saviour, Jesus Christ Amen
Collect (b)
God of all the living, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, You have given us the promise of life which death itself cannot destroy; in the strength of this unshakeable promise, give us a new heart to live, even now, as Your new creation. We ask this through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Haggai 1: 15b – 2:9

On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.”
For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.

Psalm 98

O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvellous things;
His right hand and his holy arm: they have got Him the victory
The Lord has made known His salvation: He has revealed His just deliverance in the sight of the nations
He has remembered His mercy and faithfulness towards the house of Israel: and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth: break into singing and make melody.
Make melody to the Lord upon the harp: upon the harp and with sounds of praise
With trumpets and with horns: cry out in triumph before the Lord the King
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it: the good earth and those who live upon it
Let the rivers clap their hands: and let the mountains ring out together before the Lord
For He comes to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

Epistle 2 Thessalonians 2: 1 – 5 & 13 – 17

As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?
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But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

GOSPEL Luke 20: 27 – 40

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."
Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive." Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." They no longer dared to ask him another question.

NOTES ON THE READINGS ................

Old Testament
Put yourself in the shoes of this relatively unknown prophet: returned from exile in Babylon, with the enormous task of rebuilding Jerusalem, the Temple and in fact the entire country and community. It would have been one thing to have received the promise of return from Babylon; it must have been exhausting merely to think about all that lay ahead of them in the rebuilding. As a previous Bishop of mine once said to me, “Ron, any fool can start something; it takes rather more to bring the idea to fruition.”

I would be rude enough to ask you to see that there may well have been something in the way of what we would call spin or propaganda in the expectation of great wealth and treasure. The real point of Haggai’s words were to encourage people to take the long view, and persist faithfully until the job was done. That is the sort of challenge that shows of what stuff people are really made!

Psalm
This Psalm is one which has been familiar to me since my youth as a choir boy – 60 and more years ago. Behind this psalm lies the author’s certainty that God is ever there and reliable, encouraging His people to move forward and get on with the job. In fact, it has always been Israel’s great contribution to the understanding of God that their perception and understanding of Him stemmed not from some theory, but from harsh and fiery experience in life’s harsh realities.

Epistle
I mentioned earlier that this couple of letters to Thessalonian Christians came early in the Apostle’s life, and much of his thoughts about the Second Coming and Judgement underwent quite something in the way of modification. (Read the verses omitted in this passage, to get that message.) In fact, it is strange to report that these Thessalonians reacted somewhat oddly in response to the news of the Parousia. Some decided to sit back and wait for it, doing no work and requiring to be supported by others. Paul’s reaction to that was short and simple. No work = no eating! I guess Paul needed only to refer to the OT situation to get his readers to realize that they had quite a role in front of them still.

GOSPEL
It may be a little obscure for some, but even this passage about Sadducees and resurrection has to do with the same subject. It seems to me that what Jesus was really saying to His antagonists was ‘join the real world and get on with it!’ To argue as did they from an hypothetical position to undermine a situation which was incredible to them was a foolish attempt for them to make. I could never understand how so many people still argue from a ridiculous angle to disprove something about which they understand rather little. Still, it goes on does it not!


NOTES FOR A SERMON

If ever you were asked to choose a phrase that comes to you in a familiar way from the Scriptures, I wonder what it might be. One that I find is a constant, and an encouraging one at that is variously translated, but most commonly known as ‘Fear not!’ It comes from the pens of the prophets, and from the lips of our Lord. It is reiterated in Epistles, and even turns up in Revelation. Fear not.

Fear not. And here it is in one of the most difficult and even fearful situations in which Israel found itself, on the return from the Exile. (I read, quite recently, a book by a British war correspondent who was in Iraq in 1991, and he told of the long dry flat highway between Amman, Jordan and Baghdad. He travelled it several times by motor vehicle.) The Jews would have had to walk it – both ways! Mind you, there would not have been too many who did both ways, for there was a gap of 70 years between one and the other.)

‘Fear not’ says the prophet, although if you read from Ezra and Nehemiah, a rather ghastly picture is painted, of those resisting the efforts of the newly arrived. Anyhow, how hard is it to rebuild from ruins that have been open to the elements for decades? Fear not? How could you not be otherwise?

The answer is not all that tangible. The answer is that God is with you, and while that may urge along a few, surely there were sceptics enough to put off the rest. On the other hand, there was that remarkable fact that several of the prophets, Isaiah amongst them, who expressed his certainty not only the a Return was on the way, but even more surprising, the Cyrus, threat to everyone around, would be the Lord’s messiah (and that is the word Isaiah used, pardon me,) and instrument, “even though he knows Me not!” It must have been stirring times, as well as providing a stunning platform for the faithful, regardless of the opposition facing them.

That strikes me as hugely significant, even in our own day and age. Our God is not one to be defeated by anything, if it comes to that, and His remarkable precedent has been set time and time again in the ordinary normal course of Israel’s history. Actual history, pardon me, not some sort of ephemeral myth.

Ponder this, if you will. If ever you look closely at the history of the Christian Church, surely you are left wondering how the hell the Church survived. There is so much rubbish and discord, and total disregard for Gospel and people in so many times and places and events. By all the canons of life and history, the Church should have died on the vine centuries, even millennia ago. But here it is still, in spite of all the garbage and disloyalty and apostasy. And the only reason for that, surely, is the God is behind it all somewhere. Even after the collapse of Soviet Russia, the Church emerged, mainly because the underground Christians remained faithful in spite of enormous contrary pressure.

So wherever you are living, under whatever circumstance or threat, this word comes to you from the King of the Kingdom: Fear not. And get on with the job.