RonBlog

Sunday 27th February 2011 Eighth Sunday after Epiphany

Sentence
Do not worry saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or What shall we wear?’ Strive first for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6: 31, 33

Collect
Grant O Lord that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Your governance that Your Church may joyfully serve You in all godly quietness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Isaiah 49: 8 – 16a

Thus says the LORD: In a time of favour I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, "Come out," to those who are in darkness, "Show yourselves." They shall feed along the ways, on all the bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. And I will turn all my mountains into a road, and my highways shall be raised up.
Lo, these shall come from far away, and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones. But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me." Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not proud: nor are my eyes haughty
I do not busy myself in great matters: or in things too wonderful for me
But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child upon its mother’s breast: like a child on its mother’s breast is my soul within me
O Israel, trust in the Lord: from this time forward and for ever

Epistle 1 Corinthians 3: 18 – 4:5

Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

GOSPEL Matthew 6: 22 – 34

Jesus said "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.”

© 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
The preaching of Isaiah must have come as enormous relief to those exiles in Babylon, though there must have been lots of people who disbelieved the prophet. In the event, there must have been little room for optimism, for that fortress of Babylon was itself under threat from Cyrus, the Median king.
But the prophet remained constant, certain of their deliverance. And where did that certainty come from? It is interesting for us to note that the source of Isaiah’s confidence stemmed from the nature of God. God is ever a God Who rescues His people – even at a point where they see only death.
Small wonder that the prophet expressed such enthusiasm. Glowing terms are used in this description of their rescue, though the reality would have meant a lot of hard work and stress, walking the vast distance between the Euphrates and Israel.
Underlying the promise is that rather beautiful cameo of God as mother. ‘Can a woman forget her nursing child? Yet I will not forget you.’ With a foundation like that, is not almost anything possible?

Psalm
Motherhood comes into the picture again in this very short psalm. Certain of the constancy of God, this psalmist is content to be humble – in the real sense of the word. Humility is a strange thing really: if one does one’s best to be humble, it can so easily turn into its reverse. Perhaps the best definition I can find for humility is in that great Aussie phrase, fair dinkum. Humility is being honest, real, knowing where the truth is and responding to it.

Epistle
Today’s series of readings seem, to me, to focus on basics, actually. Here the Apostle deals with responding not to fatuous or popular views of things, but to life’s realities. I have just been reading today’s paper, and commenting to my wife about the strange and silly - but popular – choices people make, and how artificial those choices are. And people then go on to wonder why life and relationships disintegrate and community crumbles.
Trustworthy. It says it all, does it not, and is there anything so basic to life that is almost completely absent in our political, social and commercial world these days? When you do find it, value it very highly indeed. It is something on which a person can depend.

GOSPEL
The Sermon on the Mount presents enormous challenges to people of the present day, who - in our culture at least – seem to be wedded to the idea that one has to sell oneself if one intends to get ahead. Much of the time that means standing on the shoulders of other to get the advantage, whether that is in wealth, status or power. Sadly, I find that even some clergy are influenced by such attitudes, which renders their value to the Gospel as less that it should be.
No one can serve two masters; schizophrenia is not an option for a balanced life nor a Christian one. (I am not referring to the disease that used to be called by that name, but the split of loyalties that divides a person into two – or more.)
One wonders why this pursuit of wealth continues to have its attraction. Recent ‘schizophrenia’ world markets should underline the uncertainties of that factor. Yesterday (7.06.10) saw reports of $57 billion off the value of Australian investments, which only goes to show how volatile things are really.
If there is one thing that is being stated absolutely in this rather remarkable passage, it is that there is not a lot that is solid and substantial in life. And that IS reality. It is not a case of God being unfair; it is a matter of observable reality. Even the enormous advances that have brought us to this 21st Century have not provided any guarantee over that. So we had better get used to it, eh?


NOTES FOR A SERMON
If ever there was a series of readings for the day that was designed to prick one’s bubble, then these are it. After a while pondering the readings, and the life-experiences of those who wrote them and – in the Gospel’s case, - preached them, one is left with a startling but reliable reality. It was Elizabeth Taylor who once stated that ‘no one has a mortgage on tomorrow’ – and she is quite right about that; and our Lord Who stated quite starkly that ‘no one can serve two masters.’ Any and every person has choices to be made in life, and those choices need to be made on underlying realities, not on castles in the air.

It is a salutary message, especially in this day and age of ours when anything and everything seems possible. In fact, I suspect that, instead of some impassioned sermon, we might simply take a moment or two to ponder where our own realities lie, and what our response needs to be, to life, to God and to each other.

Cannot have a shorter sermon than that, eh!