RonBlog

Sunday 11th September, 2010 Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost


Sentence
If You, Lord, should note what we do wrong, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, so that You may be revered. Psalm 130: 3-4

Collect
O God, You call Your Church to witness that in Christ we are reconciled to You; help us so to proclaim the good news of Your love, that all who hear it may turn to You; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever Amen

Old Testament Lesson Exodus 14: 19 - 31

The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers.
At the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the LORD tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained.
But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the LORD did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Psalm 114

When Israel came out of Egypt: and the house of Jacob from among a people of an alien tongue
Judah became his sanctuary: and Israel his dominion
The sea saw that and fled: Jordan was driven back
The mountains skipped like rams: and the little hills like young sheep.
What ailed you, O sea that you fled: O Jordan, that you were driven back?
You mountains that you skipped like rams: and you little hills like young sheep?
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord: at the presence of the God of Jacob.
Who turned the rock into a pool of water: and the flint-stone into a welling spring.

Epistle Romans 14: 1 – 14

Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.

GOSPEL Matthew 18: 21 - 35

Then Peter came and said to Jesus, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy- seven times. For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, 'Pay what you owe.' Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

© 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

Lack of Sunday Schools tends to mean that many younger members of congregations may be unaware of this story of escape and rescue, even being offended perhaps at the apparent ferocity of the tale. A few comments may be helpful in this day and age of (often ridiculous) political correctness.
This day and age is odd, I have to confess, as we try to avoid issues of real life, even though we live in a time of almost unprecedented violence. Humans often tend to be most violent, and to close eyes and minds to that fact is simply being ridiculous. So face the tale and get over it.

It has been interesting only recently (October, 2010) to find newspaper reports that even scientists acknowledge the clear possibility that the Exodus could have occurred as written. While this is no earth-shattering support, it is a fascinating indication. Mind you, even this septuagenarian knew of the ‘strong east wind’ thing since childhood.
The point of this all has nothing to do with miracle, but with rescue. Israel – such as it then was- had been in virtual prison for some time, and this is the result of sound leadership by Moses from almost certain extinction. (Genocide is nothing new in human history!) Rescue. Exodus. That old Greek word means ‘way out,’ – and that it certainly was.

Psalm
Here is a lovely little exercise of joy at the Lord Who rescued His people from slavery to bring them into the Promised Land. That, incidentally, is what Israel would long describe as salvation. Notice the reference to sea, river and water. The latter, for Jews, was vital; the two former were icons for that which is evil.

Epistle

Paul may well have been capable of confusing modern readers about the Faith, but when it came to practicalities, he was really very good. One of the things that drives me somewhat bonkers is the capacities of some modern Christians to so emphasize part of Scripture to the exclusion of the whole that the imbalance becomes really quite pathetic. As Paul indicates, there is nothing new in that, but all of us need to take note. Care of each other needs to overcome differences of dogmatics, and even practice. Mind you, none of this emphasis of the Apostle should hold us back from attempting to widen people’s horizons: there is far more to the Faith than haggling over vegetarians or their opposites.

Gospel
If there is anything that seems to offer a great divide between modern Christians, it is this matter of forgiveness. On the one hand, there are those who see it their duty to forgive anyone anything. On the other, there are those who refuse forgiveness to anyone. So note carefully what Jesus is saying here.

God is a God of forgiveness, thank heaven, for He recognizes the fact that without forgiveness, there is no solid way forward for anyone. On the other hand, the Biblical picture makes it quite clear that blanket forgiveness is a blind alley. What shows up in this short but powerful tale is the capacity of humans to take forgiveness very lightly and learn nothing from the options it poses. On the other hand, even the other characters in the story see very clearly the total injustice in the actions of the first debtor.

For forgiveness to work there needs to be clear and valid repentance on the part of the perpetrator. Repentance is no mere being sorry for the action, but as the Greek word metanoia- indicates, change of heart, mind and direction is called for.

All of this goes to show that a long hard look at parables and stories is called for, so that all the implications of the detail are grasped and acted upon.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

Perhaps I have told you this story before, for it goes back a number of years, and I forget how many. It revolves around the ghastly event where the daughter of a pastor was attacked on the front verandah of someone’s place, and left there to die. In the days that followed, that poor pastor made it clear that he forgave the murderer, whoever he was. I suspect that such a statement was made, because the pastor thought that Christians forgave, in this case, anything. I felt somewhat impelled to write to the bereaved man, concerned at the foreshortened ‘theology’ he operated from and to relieve him of some of the stress under which he was operating. To my eternal regret, I did not write.

Some time later, one of our own clergy was in a parish where an old lady was attacked and murdered, and that priest was noted, in the press and on TV, to encourage all concerned to forgive the murderer. (As far as I recall, no one yet has been charged with that slaying.) In that case, after my failure in the first instance, I did write to my colleague, asking him to consider more deeply what he was doing and why. In that letter, I underlined the fact that both in Scripture and in Anglican liturgy, there can be no expectation of forgiveness before there is repentance on the part of the perpetrator. My letter was rather more gentle and rather fuller than this report, so that the person could consider and take on board what I was trying to convey. The reply I received was not pretty; I was changed with being totally unchristian amongst other things.

As time went by in that first instance of the pastor’s daughter, the horrific nature of the killing obviously preyed on the mind of the pastor. From press reports some years later, I gather that the pastor resigned from ministry and his marriage and family broke up under the strain. I understand also that the pastor rejected the Faith – or at least as he understood it.

And there lies the point of both situations. There is an awful lot of pious nonsense about this business of forgiveness: forgiving and forgetting is part of the nonsense. It may well be easy to do in situations that are very minor and unimportant; but the more damaging they are, the more seriously they need to be addressed. In fact, because the Faith has so much to do with forgiveness, and atonement, the whole matter requires far more thought than tends to be given. For instance, rather too many people have remarkably wrong perceptions about God’s forgiveness of them, resulting in some fearful outcomes that indicate clearly how false are those perceptions. The appalling thing about ‘easy’ forgiveness is that it leaves the forgiving one (such as that pastor ) destroyed and the perpetrator having learnt nothing from the situation – remaining unchanged and unaffected.

Real forgiveness – which includes repentance! – has enormous and beneficial effect on everyone involved, and can even reverberate in anyone’s mind and life who is aware of the situation.