RonBlog

Sunday 21st August, 2011 Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
Martha said to Jesus, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the One Who is coming into the world.’ John 11: 27

Collect
Creator God, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You: teach us to offer ourselves to Your service, that here we may have Your peace, and in the world to come, may see You face to face, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Exodus 1: 8 - 2:10

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labour. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth-stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live." But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?" The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live. Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, "This must be one of the Hebrews' children," she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?"
Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes." So the girl went and called the child's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

Psalm 124

If the Lord has not been on our side, now may Israel say: if the Lord had not been on our side, when our enemies rose against us
Then they would have swallowed us alive: when their anger was kindled against us.
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us and the torrents gone over us: the raging waters would have gone clean over us
But praised be the Lord: Who has not given us as a prey to their teeth
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler: the snare is broken and we have gone free
Our help is in the Name of the Lord: Who has made heaven and earth

Epistle Romans 12: 1 – 8

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

GOSPEL Matthew 16: 13 – 20

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

© 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
This must be one of the best-known passages in the entire Old Testament, unless younger people had no access to Sunday School lessons. The lousy outcome for Israel, so many decades after Joseph must have felt like the end of bliss. The increasingly bitter pressure exerted by Egyptians over the Hebrew people must have been met with a sombre response, and yet there were those who faith – and refusal to kow-tow remained steadfast. (That is a real test of faith: all hope seemed to be ebbing away, but there remained those who would not bow the knee. That takes some doing let me tell you.)
The resistance offered resulted in a rather unexpected outcome, as the subsequent story of Moses and his life unfolded. That Moses was brought up as a prince meant that he had access to all manner of education and experience, which would have been most useful in his later life and leadership. Thank God for quiet, simple faithful people … of all sorts.

Psalm
And does this psalm fit the bill today or does it fit the bill? Would you please note the parallel seen between water and danger to life. This is a pattern that continues right through Biblical history. And so does the conviction, borne out of long experience, that God is a God Who rescues His people from all manner of tight corners.

Epistle
Romans 12 had long been a very favourite passage for me, and one that speaks of a clear and determined direction to travel in life. The word translated ‘worship’ is also just as easily translated ‘service’ – yet not a lot of people connect what happens on Sundays with service although we may well call it that. Worship is something that I will widen out a little in sermon notes probably, in the hope it is more helpful. Neither worship nor service were ever meant to be ‘entertainment.’

GOSPEL
Lots of people tend to see this passage as Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah, but really it was the start of a very long learning curve that was to continue long past the Resurrection. Whilst it has to be said that pennies were beginning to drop in Peter’s head, much more had to happen for him – and the Twelve.
Long ago it struck me that this passage – as in the other Evangelists, - marked the beginning of Jesus’ pressure being applied to the disciples, for they seemed to be drifting along with the tumbling tumble-weed, with not goal or not much purpose. Jesus knew that if they were going to be of any real use in His mission, then they had to get their minds and gumption on the move. The next week for them was quite a startler.


NOTES FOR A SERMON

I find it surprising the extent to which we use all sorts of words and even practices without giving them a lot of thought. Patterns are nice and easy to follow, but unless one’s mind and will in engaged also, progress is far from automatic, and production is a very rare event. Whatever do we really mean when we talk worship? The answer might be a bit of a shocker. Are you game?

Quite a few years ago now, I was asked to give the Christmas address at a Combined Churches Christmas Service in the town where I was then priest. It was an outdoor affair, run each year in early December, and it included the fact that some of the shops would be open or opening soon, which meant that quite a few people would be in ear-shot if not heart-shot. In other words, whatever that service conveyed to anyone listening needed to stand up to examination, ring bells for even the ‘unwashed,’ and echo and re-echo for some time to come.
Fortunately for me, this event occurred not long after the pop singer Madonna had held a gig in Adelaide, and lots of the local young folk had spent their money and travelled for the occasion. Madonna, obviously, had a rather greater appeal for the young than a slowly ageing clergyman – even if he was involved with a combined Churches Youth Group in those days.
So as we were approaching Christmas, I asked the assembled group of people what they meant when they used the word worship. Did they mean singing hymns, or praying, or reading Scripture, or listening to me? Locals who knew me seemed aware that I was setting a trap, and hesitated offering an answer. So I pointed to the Madonna phenomenon.

How did people respond to Madonna, I asked. First – to my small mind – there was the cost. Tickets alone cost $70 or so. (It was early 90s.) And the trip to Adelaide – not cheap from three or four hours away. Then accommodation. And how much did you spend on T shirts and all the other stuff for sale? And how much did you bend your thoughts and actions to Madonna-like life styles? The repercussions were starting to build up.

There was some sort of gentle protest arising. How could I begin to compare a Madonna concert with the Faith? But I was not – I was pointing out what constitutes worship. Worship costs, when it is real worship. Worship is a life-style, a modus operandi. It is living like Someone; responding to other people like Someone. And it does not have a lot to do with feeling warm and fuzzy, or singing hymns and praying, All that is designed to give food for thought, food for expressing what you discover in the ordinary business of life and living.

So the terrifying thought is that we can learn from young people’s worship of Madonna ….. or any other idol. It is no mistake that this is the nomen that is given to such people.

As you might have imagined, the response of that congregation to that sermon was very mixed. The holy ones were appalled that the service was dragged down to such depths. And those less holy and elevated saw clearly, some for the first time in their lives, what worship is designed to provide. Rumblings continued for really quite some time. And that is not too bad for a sermon, eh!

We get so terribly thingy when our senses have been disturbed. Now perhaps we can imagine how people felt when Jesus got under their skin. But as time passed, it became clear that Jesus was right and the holy ones were way off course.

So when we gather Sunday by Sunday, it is not to go through some boring routine, nor is it to get all warm and fuzzy. Worship is not designed to entertain nor to comfort necessarily. And it is not directed inwardly. This is all for other people. The whole faith is for other people.

Now perhaps the rest of that passage from Romans begins to take real shape, and provide reasons why it looks outward to ‘my effect on other people.’ Put simply and clearly, as the People of God begin to realize (that means ‘to make real, does it not?’) what the faith is all about, then benefits begin to accrue to people around about. With a bit of luck, they begin to see small cameos of Jesus in the lives and actions of His followers. Love begins to flow and concern for others become visible.

Just the same as when people worship Madonna (not the real one, although the outcome may well be similar.)