RonBlog

Sunday 25th September, 2011 Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
Come, let us return to the Lord, that we may live before Him Hosea 6:1a & 2b

Collect
Grant, O merciful God, that Your people may have the mind that was in Christ Jesus, who emptied Himself and took the form of a servant and in humility became obedient even to death; for You have highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, Jesus Christ the Lord; Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God in everlasting glory. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Exodus 17: 1 – 7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?"
So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me."
The LORD said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

Psalm 78: 1 – 4 & 11 – 16

Give heed to my teaching, O my people: incline your ears to the words of my mouth
For I will open my mouth in a parable: and expound the mysteries of former times.
What we have heard and known: what our forebears have told us
We will not hide from their children, but declare to a generation yet to come: the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, His mighty and wonderful works.

For He did marvellous things in the sight of their ancestors: in the land of Egypt, in the country of Zoan.
He divided the sea and let them pass through: He made the waters stand up in a heap.
In the daytime He led them with a cloud: and all night long, with the light of fire.
He cleft rocks in the wilderness: and gave them drink in abundance as from springs of water.
He brought streams out of the rock: and caused the waters to flow down like rivers.
But for all this they sinned yet more against Him: and rebelled against the Most High in the desert.

Epistle Philippians 2: 1 – 13

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

GOSPEL Matthew 21: 23 - 32

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

© 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
I am rude enough to wonder why Psalm 95 was not set for today – the Psalm that was always set for Morning Prayer in the old BCP. It depicted the folly of Israel in the desert and made a great thing about ‘Massah and Meribah.’

Old Testament Lesson
Always be ready to draw more than the obvious conclusion from this incident: whilst water would have been a desperate need, it was parallel to the other huge need of Israel, that which was represented by Horeb – Sinai – the Law including the Decalogue. It was not just need of water that Israel had, but also need of direction, need of discipline, need of hope.
I have long suspected that the apparently increasing disaster of our own day and age lies in the same lacks amongst rather too great a proportion of our population. My wife finds watching the news each evening an increasing strain on her concern. The steep increased in violent crime, even in quiet old Adelaide, is the same issue that was facing Israel back then. That is not to stand in judgement at all; it is a tragedy of enormous proportion and requires clear and significant attention immediately. ‘Law and order’ is not the issue! Purpose, value and point to life is!

Psalm
Although I understand it easily enough, the discarding of the very idea of God is that which produces the problems mentioned above. No God does not mean no god. It means I usurp the position of God, and relegate you to virtual non-existence, or at least no importance, so I stand on your shoulders to demand attention before anyone or anything else. When a society reaches such a stage, its collapse under its own weight is not all that far away.

Epistle
And here lies the remedy to it all. This is no pious, other-worldly poetry; here is the Gospel at its most potent and significant. ‘Law and order’ mentioned above is all about power; and a moment’s thought indicates the harsh and destructive outcome from that. I have recently pondered to what extent today’s political situation is a sort of precursor to the Nazi regime of the 1930s. What started off as the answer to Germany’s problem became a nightmare of extraordinary proportion. And it all had to do with power. On the other hand, here we are confronted with a Lord Who offers such a diametrically different approach to those savage issues. Here is no imposition of power and force, but compulsion, if you like to call it that, of love. If we had no other part of the New Testament than this, we would still have a clear picture of the goal, point and purpose of the Faith. That is to meet that awful human dilemma, and offer a valid, active and relevant alternative. Mind you, neither Jesus nor we are likely to win popularity stakes from most people. But that does not make it irrelevant.

Gospel

‘By what authority?’ Well, do these passages for today ring some bells, and all similar ones at that! Take time to ponder this reading if you will, and see what is being expressed. Chief priests and elders were there to challenge Jesus, for they saw in Him a direct challenge to their power and prestige. And in a way, Jesus was nothing of the sort. Stop and notice that Jesus’ real answer to the challenge before Him was to point to ....... truth.
Stop and ponder that a moment eh? Even the tiny cameo of the two sons actually revolves around that issue: what should a person do? There might well be the internal struggle to prove one’s strength – but the real response to any situation is to respond truly.

NOTES FOR A SERMON
We have travelled this way before, and every time this Philippians passage is there for the reading, I get the urge to underline the majestic power (because it is true) of this Gospel in a nutshell. Here is no pious crap! Here is where the rubber really hits the road.

Ask anyone where real power truly lies, and you will get all sorts of answers. Barak Obama, President of the USA, is supposed to be the most powerful person in the world right now, and that assumption stems from the fact that the US military is said and supposed to be the most potent. The American dollar is said to be likewise. Actually this was written quite a while ago, and it is interesting to underline that those assumptions of power and strength have shown up to be somewhat otherwise. Talk about ‘feet of clay!’ Or do you not know that Biblical story either?

Oddly enough, it was from the U S of A that the World Financial Crisis emerged, and went rather close to bringing the almighty Yank, dollar and nation, - indeed, the planet! - down. But don’t focus there only – wherever we humans decide that the answer to any problem is force, of arms, of finance or even of personality, the outcome remains the same. No resolution emerges, and the issue becomes more grave.

So why do we humans not ever learn? I suspect the answer lies in the fact that humans never seem to learn, or that those who do remain in the minority. All of this is not a religious question but an immensely practical one. It is not limited to one culture or country; it is totally widespread. And yet an answer has been posited in Scripture at the very least since the time of the major prophets, or however long or short a time it was before that when the Creation Stories of Genesis were completed in their present form.

The picture presented by Paul in this magnificent passage from Philippians, may well have been a Christian hymn at the time of Paul’s writing. It is a vivid parallel or contrast between ‘adam’ – humanity, you will understand, and Jesus. As outlined above, humanity for ever grapples with the demand to be kingpin and boss, subjugating whoever happens to be around the place, demanding obedience and threatening extinction. Contrast that with Jesus Who came as Servant of all, not in order to be nice and naive, but in order to underline the fact that the only way life can be enhanced and real progress made is by each serving the other, by reconciling by the truth, by caring about the health and wealth of each and every one of us. It may seem to be an impossible dream, but it is presented as the ‘only way to go.’

As far as I know, no one has ever attempted to apply this process on a wide scale, except Jesus. Sadly, though, whilst much of the Faith has been taken on board by millions they tell me, one does not hear a great deal about this aspect of the Faith, this aspect of life. Small wonder that opponents of faith and of the Faith tend to regard both as useless. Not a lot of us are all that capable of expressing the Faith in any conflict or disagreement with others.

Ever since first being exposed to the Servant Songs of Isaiah (and that would be over 50 years ago!) the real point and purpose of the Biblical Faith came to light. And it does not have to do with the dear bye and bye, but the right here and now. That fact may well be why so many Christians avoid the immediate issues of justice and truth and reconciliation. Oddly, that is what the Cross is all about – so there can be no excuse really.

With a little bit of luck, this may encourage people to look with fresh eyes at this Gospel which majors, not on heaven, but on offering this hurting and hurt humanity to find the path to peace. There is no peace without justice and truth, so quite some of the responsibility falls on each and every one of us.