RonBlog

Sunday 18th September, 2011 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God
Ephesians 28

Collect
Loving and righteous God, Your boundless generosity exceeds all that we can desire or deserve; liberate us from all jealousy and greed, that we may be free to love and serve others and in Your service, may find our true reward, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Exodus 16: 2 – 15

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."
One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, "Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?" He answered, "Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "Surely the thing is known." When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.

Psalm 105: 1 – 6 & 37 – 45

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

He brought Israel out with silver and gold: and not one among their tribes was seen to stumble
Egypt was glad at their going: for dread of Israel had fallen upon them
He spread out cloud for a covering: and fire to lighten the night
The people asked, and he brought them quails: and satisfied them with the bread from heaven
He opened a rock so that the waters gushed: and ran in the parched land like a river
For He had remembered His holy word: that He gave to His servant Abraham
So he led His people out with rejoicing: His chosen ones with shouts of joy
He gave them the land of the nations: and they took possession of the fruit for which other peoples had toiled
So that they might keep His statutes: and faithfully obey His laws. O Praise the Lord

Epistle Philippians 1: 21 – 30

For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.
Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God's doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well-- since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

GOSPEL Matthew 20: 1 – 16

Jesus said “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same. And about five o'clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why are you standing here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard.' When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, 'Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.'
When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.
Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

© 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
As last Sunday’s reading, this too may be relatively unknown to Generation X & Y, who mostly missed out on Sunday School. It is an interesting snippet of Hebrew history, showing that the preparation of Moses meant he experienced two or three cultures in his development as a human being. That is never a problem to people. Both his Hebrew and Egyptian backgrounds meant his was a wide range of perceptions, added to, obviously in his formation in the desert as a shepherd.
I may be a little twee, but I do have to comment that, as I look back on my formative years, the experience was not accidental, for each aspect of my life up to theological college was a form of preparation for ministry. Young people around me were interested in mechanical things; I began work in an accountant’s office, and then spent some years in the building game. Having both sets of grandparents on the land was part of the deal. Never be surprised, nor down-play apparently useless experience in early or even later life.

Psalm
Once again the choice of Psalm for today echoes the Exodus experience of Israel. Have you ever stopped to consider how carefully that nation was nurtured and directed by God -- for it was hardly the sort of group or people that one might choose as significant. It may well have been because Israel tended to be a minor player on the then world scene that evoked God’s interest in them. Bigger players would have had their own, essentially selfish agendas to follow.

Epistle
I find it rather fascinating to listen to St. Paul, who was obviously operating under considerable difficulty, with so many people of our present time, for whom life seems to be far more of a threat than a promise. Not only is suicide a sad issue for some, but violence is also becoming just as serious an issue. (If I consider myself to be of little value, I am most likely to see you as being far less important even than me!)
See in this passage Paul’s dilemma – life is valuable and yet, for him so is death. And out of that equation comes the Apostle’s encouragement – in a world rather more violent even than our own! – to get on with living as one of Christ’s people while still in a world that disregarded the Christ entirely. In this day and age, we need to get used to being disciples who need to ‘push wind uphill.’ That may remain so for several generations, but Christians have been there before, remember.

GOSPEL
Here is a parable of Jesus, with which my Mum had great difficulty. Unionist she never was, and would be appalled to be counted as such, but she could not come to terms with the apparent injustice of the work situation presented here.
One of the other things we need to get used to is the overwhelming generosity of the Father, for that is what is in view here. The whole picture needs to be put in its place of the first century AD. There the day-labourer was paid at the end of each day, and the life of his family was dependent on him totally to bring home that day’s pay. For without it, his family’s future was threatened! No food meant .... well, you can guess. (Just as an aside, for the familiar phrase from the Lord’s Prayer about ‘give us today our daily bread’ is not a correct translation from the Greek. There the reading is ‘give us today our bread for tomorrow.’ When that truer translation was used first in the draft Liturgy of 1966 in Australia, the uproar was enormous. But that is what the Greek original of the NT says. And why? That is all a person expected in that day and age. God would provide for tomorrow, but you have to trust Him for any time after that. (Contrast that with today’s emphasis on mortgaging today so that we are affluent tomorrow!)
Now all that may take some absorbing, so take some time. But see what this all says about the generosity of the Father, of the trust we need to have in Him, and the awareness of the needs of everyone in that whole process of staying alive and thriving.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

So the Christian Faith (and all others, apparently) is superstition, is it? It seems to me that all those who lay such claims have not examined whatever Faith that they castigate. There was nothing superstitious about the emphases of the prophets, as they plugged away for a just and true society and nation. And any good unionist of our day and age would have a fit over the parable you have just heard once again. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work has been turned upside down - into what a family needs should be the go. And there lies the rub, doesn’t it! That is a statement not a question. Life is about community, and community is about caring and sharing; and without such a direction and emphasis, we all become little more than competing individuals trying to get the better of all the rest.

And that is what the Faith is about; always has been and always will be. Love God; love your neighbour. If that is too much for the atheist, then simply substitute love what is true and just and honest and compassionate. And who could possibly complain about that? Not a hint of superstition is visible here.

There is not a lot to add, actually. Paul, writing to the Philippians, has the same thing to say, in spite of his awareness of the fact that Christians then were pushing the proverbial wind uphill. Antagonism to the Faith was enormous, even though that same Faith was there to provide substantial benefit to everyone around. To quote Paul again, ‘love is the fulfilling of the law;’ and ‘against such there is no law.’

Perhaps all one needs to do at this stage is to spend a short time pondering any changes needed in our attitudes and outlooks ... and then our actions.