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Sunday 4th September, 2011 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them.” Matthew 18: 20

Collect
O God, You know us to be set in the midst of so many and so great dangers that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; grant to us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Exodus 12: 1 – 14

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

Psalm 149

O praise the Lord, and sing to the Lord a new song: O praise Him in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Let them praise Him in the dance: let them sing His praise with timbrel and with harp.
For the Lord takes delight in His people: He adorns the meek with His salvation.
Let His faithful ones exult in His glory: let them sing with joy upon their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouths: and a two-edged sword in their hands
To execute vengeance on the nations: and chastisement upon the peoples.
To bind their kings in chains: and their nobles with fetters of iron
To visit upon them the judgement that is decreed: such honour belongs to all His faithful servants.
Praise the Lord

Epistle Romans 13: 1 – 10

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God's servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience.
For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due them--taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due. Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbour as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

GOSPEL Matthew 18: 10 – 20

Jesus said "Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.
If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."

© 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
There cannot be too many of us unaware of the import of this passage of the Old Testament. The Passover remains an important annual celebration for Jewish people, recalling their escape from Egypt on their move to the Promised Land. In typical Jewish fashion, the mode of celebration – both on that first time and for ever after – was precise clear and sensible. And it underlined, for ever, the nature of JHWH Who rescued His People in a pattern that was to follow in other events over the millennia.

There are links, too, of course, to that form of worship which prevailed for many hundreds of years, in what Christians know as the Sacrificial System of worship. Since the destruction of the Temple, those rites have not been able to be used, yet the Passover remains the annual link for Hebrew worshippers. Of course there is the link between Passover and Eucharist.

Psalm
There is no doubt that old Israel knew how to celebrate. They must have made a lot of noise and kicked up a lot of dust, but that would have added to the delight, surely. Always such celebrations had to do with the very active God Who was for ever doing things for His people. Mind you, that line on vengeance may well have rung a wrong tune, but that was all part of the growth and development of the Faith. Who of you has never put a foot – or understanding – wrong?

Epistle
‘Part of the development’ indeed. I have reported elsewhere, from time to time, that one needs to receive the Biblical entreaties with some balance. This epistle of Paul was written before his execution under Nero, along with Peter, and one would suspect that his ‘theology’ of governing powers – the powers that be – would have modified somewhat too.
There is an interesting ambivalence in the Biblical view of kings and kingdoms, Empires and such. And that has always been so. The book of Daniel was written to warn the Israelites against the overweening power of Hellenistic culture. And others …. It has always surprised me that Australians are content to similar absorption of American culture, without the slightest struggle in most cases!!!!!!!
It behoves most people to be very wary about political power. Notice that what we call democracy was never an issue for Biblical times, nor is it always the sort of ‘better way’ that some people like to present it. History shows that there are some very short steps between democracy and totalitarian government. On the other hand, Jews were also painfully aware of the threat from (usually) north east of marauding hordes who would invoke all manner of ugly chaos if they were given half a chance. Any form of government, therefore, was seen as a bulwark against such chaos, which is the point from which Paul would have been writing this passage.


GOSPEL
There seems to me to be two rather different sources of contribution to the issues raised here. On the one hand you have the entirely typical caring response of Jesus to the ‘little people.’ Linking that to the flock of sheep and in particular a single one has us on totally familiar ground. And that caring is the real issue. Caring for the one while risking the rest of the crowd.

On the other hand, there is the unfamiliar reference to the church, the congregation, kuriake, belonging to the Lord. That seems to stem from a later period than Jesus’ ministry, and perhaps indicative of issues arising from several decades later.

‘Tis a risky path this passage opens up. Over the centuries this process towards reconciliation has been tried, at great risk to all involved. If I share a deep part of me with you, then the trust between us has to be total and secure. But when it is a matter of discord or disobedience, then the ration of risk heightens enormously. In spite of its inclusion here, I doubt I would ever counsel such an attempt at resolution of any major issue.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

Have you ever wondered what makes events in your life something so formative that it continues to resonate with you over years, decades, a lifetime? I guess all of us have memories that give direction and purpose, and whilst we may celebrate birthdays annually, those other items may only resonate within.

Not so with Israel. This Passover Festival has been maintained by the faithful for an extraordinarily long period of time. Assuming that the Exodus was about 1350 BC, that means a lot of annual celebrations. In fact, Jews mark their years from this date. So ask a Jewish person what year this is for them, and you will have a fairly accurate date for the Exodus.

Their celebrations are with good and lasting reason. While the focus is on the escape from slavery oh! so long ago, that celebration is also added to by the number of other times that the Almighty has done similar things in rescuing the nation from almost certain extinction. The Exile in Babylon is another in the series, but there have been smaller escapes both before and after that! The nett result of course is the repeated assurance that God is for real and that He is the rescuer of His people even when the chips seem to be entirely down.

It may be helpful to stop a moment or two to underline all this. If you read (second) Isaiah you will be struck by the means whereby that ancient Prophet offered enormous reassurance to captive Israel by reminding them of the Exodus and the God Who brought it about. In fact, one of the most fascinating things about that prophet, was his capacity to understand what God was doing in that most drastic of time precisely because he looked back at Israel’s history to catch sight of where God was heading. It is also a help to realize that one of the great values of that old prophet was that the principle that he drew from his musings remains true for the People of God up to the present day and way into the future.

We Christians have our own annual celebrations: Christmas and Easter, Pentecost and other special days. But sometimes the sheer routine of the celebration leaves us missing the mark because we tend (do we not) simply to mark the occasion, remember the facts of them, and fail to search deeper into why we bother. Such celebrations are meant to lead us further into the purpose of the events. It is part of the need for us all to continue to grow in understanding of the Faith, and in faithfulness to the Lord. And that does not mean some sort of going off into some cloud-cuckoo land, but maturing in our calling to reflect the characteristics of our Father.

I do not know the Faith when I know all the stories of what happened along the way. I only know the Faith as I progress in responding significantly both to the Lord Whom I follow and to people around me whom I serve.

That seems enough to ponder for a while, eh?