RonBlog

Sunday 17th July, 2011 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
You O Lord are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast live and faithfulness
Psalm86:15

Collect
O God, You alone can order our unruly wills and affections; teach us to love what You command and to desire what You promise, so that, among the changes and chances of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Genesis 28: 10 – 19a

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.
And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the LORD stood beside him and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place--and I did not know it!" And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel.

Psalm 139: 1- 11 & 23 -24

O Lord, You have searched me out and known me: You know when I sit or when I stand, You comprehend my thoughts long before.
You discern my path and the places where I rest: You are acquainted with all my ways
For there is not a word on my tongue: but You, Lord, know it altogether
You have encompassed me behind and before: and have laid Your hand upon me
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: so high that I cannot endure it.
Where shall I go from Your spirit: or where shall I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven You are there: if I make my bed in the grave, You are there also
If I spread my wings towards the morning: or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me: and Your right hand shall hold me
If I say,’ Surely darkness will cover me; and the night will enclose me”
The darkness is no darkness with You, but the night is as clear as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike

Search me, O God and know my heart: put me to the proof and know my thoughts
Look well lest there be any way of wickedness in me: and lead me in the way that is everlasting

Epistle Romans 8: 12 – 25

Brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

GOSPEL Matthew 13: 24 – 30 & 36 – 43

Jesus put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Let anyone with ears listen!

© 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
Mention has been made before of the slow evolution of the perception of God, as the Abrahamic sagas rolled on. This particular experience of Jacob was one of steep learning curve, leaving behind old superstitions about the gods, and the realization of God being omnipresent.
The old (pagan?) view of the gods was that, whilst within the range of their territory, one was under their protection; however outside of that jurisdiction, a person was very much on their own. Here was such an eye-opener that Jacob could no longer live under such a misapprehension. Not only was that old furphy demolished; Jacob was promised the land where he was. Once again, this covenant included the responsibility for people other than his tribal connections.

Psalm
Taking up the theme in the first lesson, this psalm brings the universal God internally to a person. Not only is God to be found wherever you go, but also He is aware of the innermost thoughts of each person. This may sound a little threatening to begin with, but on the other hand it is comforting to know that God knows us so intimately ….. beaut things and not-so-beaut …… and still loves us.

Epistle
If you have been following the readings from Romans, you will not find it hard to lock into this progression from previously. Once again, here is a fairly logical progression from Jacob’s discovery, to the explanation of the quite intimate relationship between a believer and the Spirit. Underlined is the beneficial nature of this relationship, and please note that being able to call God Abba – Daddy! – is stunning really. Mind you, lots of people may express the view that they do not feel such intimacy. I may be a starchy old bloke, but I would reiterate that the Faith is not based on feelings. This is the way God operates: bank on it.
And that is important to notice, for another of the ancient superstitions about the gods is that when things go wrong, either the god is impotent, or you have been naughty and you are cast into outer darkness. Just remember that neither of those perceptions are for real, and act on the basis of the reality. If you stop and think about it, if everything went swimmingly for all believers, and all was sweetness and light, we would become very pathetic and weak individuals, falling over at the slightest difficulty in front of us. God looks for maturity in people, not blandness. And you cannot get the former without struggle.
GOSPEL
And here it is in a parable of Jesus. This always bemused me when I was quite young. If God is God then all should go well in the world, should it not? And here is the denial of that process, from the very lips of our Lord Himself. If you think this is all rather too hard, then stop and see that at least part of the reason for this refusal to destroy the evil ones is that there is no other way to allow them the room to repent, and grow and mature.
I have often asked people to see how, in (Anglican) Eucharistic rites, there is often the line that talks about Jesus having overcome – or even destroyed! – evil. It used to worry me, because pray and try as I might, evil never seemed to be beaten in me or my experience. Then it was shown to me, by NT lecturers in fact, that when evil is shown up for what it is, then it is overcome, beaten. destroyed. In other words, when the reality of whatever evil is clear to me, then I can avoid involvement in it. In other words, I am still left with the responsibility of turning my back on it. I still must mature and grow. All a bit stunning really.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

I have told you the story before, of a man whom I have known and valued from teenage years. We met again several years ago after he and a mate had done a trip in the Flinders Ranges of SA where the geologist there had shown all the evidence of folding mountains and remarkable stonework. Striations of rock and soil have long fascinated me, and not far away lie the Ediacara fields where ancient remains had been discovered.

We talked of his recent trip, but he refused to go along with the age of the planet, convinced as a good Christian he thought he ought, that the world was completed on 23rd October, 4004BC, as Archbishop Ussher of Ireland had calculated from the Biblical ‘evidence.’ When I asked him about the evidence of evolution and so on, he looked at me rather sadly and stated that he was convinced that God simply made it look like that stuff had happened! He could not, would not see that in fact He was making God look more than a little stupid. Evolution is not on for rather too many Christians.

If find that strange. There was a time when I was two little bits of nothing that met in the right place at the right time. As a result I was born – on 23rd October would you believe, which is why I remember Ussher’s dateline. But I am not those two little bits of nothing these days. I have evolved, both physically and intellectually, and have not stayed static at all. Had I done so, I would possibly be found in one of those establishments that tries to cope with people who have not been able to develop.

In other words, evolution has always been a part of human experience, as it has been of natural life in the universe. Had that not been the case, we would still be walking on four feet, living in caves, without language, culture or thought. Whilst our evolution has also had its downside, for humans can be absolute rotters, we are far, far better off than people of even a century or so ago. I am using a computer doing this, although I imagine pen and paper would have worked OK. Mind you, I can send this around the world in moments – which is not the case with stationery!

Evolution.
Lots of people have complained about the Biblical Faith and its recommendation of destroying non-believers because of their lack of faith, and the harshly judgemental approach to non-conformists in the early parts of the Old Testament. Abraham was required, at one stage, to offer up his son Isaac, and seemed prepared to do so, until a substitute was provided. In his life at Ur, it may well have been that child sacrifice was if not normal then at least was part of the possibilities in worship of the gods. But just as in today’s Old Testament Lesson Jacob made a life-changing discovery about El, so in both cases, those people were able to move past their preconceptions to a clearer understanding of the nature of God.

As you can see from the notes above, each of these readings, in their own particular way, point to moves forward and widening perceptions of the nature of God: in Psalm and Epistle, and particularly the Gospel. It behoves us all to ponder that growth and development, for without it we remain static for ourselves and rather useless for others.

What I find helpful in both of the last two readings is the way in which the matter of strife and difficulty are woven into the matrix of this development. None of us are particularly happy if and when strife, discord or other harsh issues make life complicated and hard. Many Christians are particularly beholder to the view that God blesses His people and ensures that all goes smoothly for them. This view must make things hard when suddenly life takes harsh turns for them. Rather than question their assumptions, they make another which goes something like ‘I must have done something wrong to deserve this!’ and become buried in guilt and despair. Mock not! I have had to help people past such appalling misunderstandings of life and of God. And it is not easy for them!

As I have tried to underline, and Jesus does it best in this parable, you are called to be a disciple in the real world, and like our Lord, know, experience and understand what it is like to be human and alive on planet earth. That means facing up to the sharp bits of life, ponder why, and realize the greater wisdom behind why the Father requires us to operate genuinely.

It may well sound hard that evil and evil-doers are not wiped off the face of the earth. A moment’s thought, surely, would make you realize that if God did act that way, then you and I would have been demolished years ago. I kid you not. But having to live in the real world, encounter all manner of steep climbs and learning curves, and find the way forward, means not only that you and I mature quite somewhat, but also that we may now be of some use to those among whom we live and move and have our being.

Many years ago, I had the occasion to consult my then Assistant Bishop with an issue that was being of huge angst to me. My Bishop was no help at all, for he had no idea of what I was talking. The Assistant Bishop was, because he had been there, done that! In fact he talked about people needing a wounded healer - someone who had similar experiences, because no one else would be of any great help.

Most of all was the realization that came when pondering why Jesus refused that legion of angels to destroy His persecutors before the Cross. What a damned good idea to blast them off the face of the earth! So why did He refuse? There are two solid and sound good reasons: the first was that to have acted that way would have multiplied the evil that was going on right there and then. Evil is not overcome not beaten by more evil, nor ever is it. Possibly more important, the second reason, was that by operating the way He did, Jesus left the way open for those people to look back over what they had done in ‘crucifying the Lord of Glory,’ repenting of their evil, and changing sides in the great debate of life. Who of us have never made any mistake of enormous proportion, and yet have had the room to move and change, and progress and grow ……. And evolve? Why ever are we afraid of the word?