RonBlog

Sunday 24th July, 2011 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38

Collect
O God, the protector al all who trust in You, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; increase and multiply upon us Your mercy, that, with You as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

Old Testament Lesson Genesis 29: 15 – 28

Then Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?" Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel." Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me." So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed." So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.) When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?" Laban said, "This is not done in our country--giving the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years." Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.

Psalm 105: 1 – 11

O give thanks to the Lord and call upon His name: tell among the peoples what things He has done
Sing to Him, O sing praises: and be telling of His marvellous works
Exult in His holy name: and let those that seek the Lord be joyful in heart.
Seek the Lord and His strength: O seek His face continually.
Call to mind what wonders He has done: His marvellous acts and the judgements of His mouth
O seed of Abraham His servant: O children of Jacob, His chosen one
For He is the Lord our God: and His judgements are in all the earth
He has remembered His covenant for ever: the word that He ordained for a thousand generations
The covenant He made with Abraham: the oath that He swore to Isaac
And confirmed it to Jacob as a statute: to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
Saying, I will give you the land of Canaan: to be the portion of your inheritance.

Epistle Romans 8: 26 – 29

The Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

GOSPEL Matthew 13: 44 – 58

Jesus said "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."
And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.
He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?" And they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honour except in their own country and in their own house." And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.
© 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
Before you get all thingy about Jacob having been badly treated with getting the wrong girl to be his wife, stop and realize that one of the best ways to teach someone how sneakiness damages and hurts people is for them to get a dose of it themselves. It was a lousy thing to do in our thoughts and cultural view, but it is not all that long in our own history and culture that younger women in a family were not married off before the older one(s). So this is a tale about a certain amount of come-uppance. Jacob had some more lessons in front of him to modify his pretensions.

Psalm
Before writing this psalm off as being so banal and traditional, stop and ponder what is being said here. If there was one thing that actually enabled Israel to move and grow and develop in their understanding of God, life and faith, it was the fact that He could be relied on the act consistently with Himself. (If that sounds flat, then with all due respect, ponder Islam where the only possible response to Allah is ‘Submission,’ which is what ‘Islam’ means. When one is never quite sure how Allah will operate, one needs to be ready to adapt.)

Epistle
I confess to having a time when Paul’s letter to the Romans was a constant delight to me, but the further I have gone on, the less that is so. Mind you, this passage remains one of constant encouragement, as this picture of God, Father and Spirit, supporting those who follow Christ. The Apostle’s view of predestination leaves me cold these days, as I am not at all sure what he is on about. The traditional view of this is hardly glorifying to God or encouraging to people, and there have been sects and groups who decided that if predestination is so, then there is nothing they can do to change that. Then it all becomes a little Islamic, feeling all one can do is to submit to the Invincible Will of God.
The final verse – certainly – offers something to hang on to even in the worst of times.

GOSPEL
I often wonder how Jesus’ teaching and ministry really did come across to people of His day and age. Surely it would have made a lot of sense to some, but presented a lot of threats to others who did not engage in much thought about the Faith. Quite some of people’s difficulties emerge when they are told to shut up and believe, as if that was the ultimate goal of all believers. Traditional people – such as these – seem to me only to dig great holes for them to sink into.
I find it fascinating that in this little cameo of short parables, Jesus was underlining what we looked at last week, with ‘good and bad’ having to live and grow up alongside each other, each coping with the other’s influence. I would imagine that for a ‘normal’ believer of Jesus’ day (or any other day come to that) would have had difficulty coping with the idea that God would not make sure that ‘His People’ never got the wrong end of the stick. Isn’t faith supposed to protect one from all the nasties? No, it is not.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

One of the delights, for me, was the discovery many many years ago that the Hebrew Faith emerged not from some sort of dogmatic, bombastic statement or creed, but by the careful diligent, honest observation of life and its interactions. It is a realistic ‘scientific ’ approach to life and even religion, even though it meant, as time passed and experiences widened, that variations, permutations and combinations had to be included. Those ancient Jews were not averse, either, to taking something from contemporary wisdom and adapting it to their vision. Both the Creation Stories and even the Decalogue show something of that sort of activity and adaptation.

On the other hand, one of the great sadnesses of faith and religion (or at least of its adherents) is that strange capacity of refusing to go on in the search for truth, satisfied with whatever met them at their respective comfort zones at the time. For most of us, truth rings its own bells inside if us, does it not? Even if that ring is soft, it still evokes a desire to check it out and see how far the rune is able to run.

For that reason, I find the reactionary response of people to Jesus – as shown up at the end of today’s Gospel – really does bother me. Surely – here – is little more than an attempt to avoid serious response to the sort of things that Jesus was saying and offering. A further comment or two may add to that dilemma.

In Jewish culture of the time, if or when someone came with some sort of message out of the ordinary and new, there was a process to go through to provide assurance either that one needed to take notice of such a person, or that they were justified in leaving it all on one side. The first question to be asked when in ‘check-out mode’ was to see if anyone knew where that person came from. If they were unknown to anyone, strangers and aliens, then one was quite entitled to suggest that they go and get lost. We do not know where you come from or who you are – go and bother someone else.
However, if you were aware of them, their family or their predecessors then you were required to give them a hearing and then ponder your response.

In the light of that, do you see how the locals of Nazareth split the difference so to speak, and while recognizing that they knew Jesus’ family, still had the temerity to turn their backs on Him. ‘We know all your family …’ but we will not listen. It may well have been partly on the notion that nothing of any great import could ever come from Nazareth, as Jesus’ own bon mot would seem to indicate. However, the real issue is the quite ugly refusal of those people of Jesus’ home town even to offer any response to Jesus except a bland and total refusal to listen.

And He did not many deeds of power there because of their unbelief.
I dare to make a further comment. It is interesting to note that Matthew did not call them miracles, but deeds of power. I find it interesting also that Matthew wrote about their unbelief, when I suspect it had more to do with their lack of honesty. Now belief is never based on thin air; it is always based on evidence. (If you have difficulty with that, then please go back a few paragraphs in these very sermon notes. What I am asking you to see is that Jesus had, in fact, provided the evidence for a more honest response, and the people themselves drew attention to ‘this man’s wisdom and deeds of power.’ Refusal to face and follow the evidence is hardly unbelief- it is little else than sheer and utter dishonesty. And no one can make such people get past their biases and bigotry. Now can they!