RonBlog

Sunday 13th November, 2011 Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ; therefore encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thess. 5: 9 – 11

Collect
Almighty God, Whose sovereign purpose none can make void; give us faith to be steadfast amid the tumults of the world, knowing that Your kingdom shall come, and Your will be done to Your eternal glory; 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 Judges 4: 1 – 10

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, after Ehud died. So the LORD sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years.
At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.
She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you, 'Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.'"
Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go." And she said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and ten thousand warriors went up behind him; and Deborah went up with him.

Psalm 123

To You I lift up my eyes: You Who are enthroned in the heavens
As the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their master: or as the eyes of the maid toward the hand of her mistress
So our eyes look to the Lord our God: until He shows us His mercy
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we have had our fill of derision
Our souls overflow with the mockery of those at ease: and with the contempt of the proud.

Epistle 1 Thessalonians 5: 1 – 11

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

GOSPEL Matthew 25: 14 – 30

The Kingdom of Heaven is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master replied, 'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament

It really is a great pity when people do not read or do not know the old Biblical tales, such as this one, violent though it is. May I suggest that you read on from where this passage ends, even if you are a little squeamish. Life was rude and ugly then – so what is new?
The real point at issue in this passage lies in the wimp that was Barak. Now I suspect you have been sold on the idea that there was little room for female leadership in Israel, but the reality was that, every now and then, the patriarchal setup was undermined by remarkable women. Deborah was one of them, and good on her. She held her nerve even if the wimp did not. Boom boom!

Psalm

And there is always a limit for those who feel downtrodden and oppressed. The worm will always turn, thank heaven, and that is as it should be.

Epistle

You may like to refer again to the comments on last Sunday’s Epistle, for this stands on its shoulders, so to speak. Whilst it must be said that Paul moved somewhat from this particular position as time passed, it must also be affirmed that life tends to be somewhat as he describes, with people and leaders often all too ready to jump on and control the unaware and the naive.
As last Sunday’s emphasis was on responsibility, so this is on awareness. One needs to learn the lessons of life and relationships if one is to grow to maturity. And your Creator designed you to have that capacity to learn, understand and respond significantly. There are never any prizes for stupidity, even if is it (falsely) titled as faith.

GOSPEL
And here is the precise story or parable that is needed to underline the point and to do it strongly. (Only recently I heard comment from theologians that there is some question that this parable actually comes from Jesus! It is all too harsh and judgemental, they say. I would have to offer a serious and significant disagreement with such a view. That view sounds all too much like political correctness, and there is a good, well-used Australian epithet for that! Is there not?}
Talents, skills, personalities, even other matters can be lined up as ‘talents,’ even though money was the focus here. And the focus is also on how those gifts were put to use, or not as the case may have been. And it is a measure of the serious approach to this matter that we have the well-known epithet of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
All of the Biblical record is involved in that matter of being taken seriously. It is a foolish person who discounts either the point or power of what is being conveyed. Life is serious, and so are relationships and responsibilities, and as was mentioned in last week’s notes, to refuse such an emphasis is to be party to ultimate collapse of society and culture.

NOTES FOR A SERMON
Don’t you just love it? Have you noticed how often in Scripture, Old Testament in particular, those who delighted in retaining patriarchy often had their pretensions smothered? It is a delightful constant if you keep your eyes open. Here is one of the Judges, another situation occurs as well; then there is Ruth and Naomi (Gentile as well as female) and Esther some time later. And as I have often commented, that picture in Genesis 2 is describing such a view of humanity as removes any possibility of assuming the lower nature of woman. Yes, ‘bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh’ is comment enough, but if you are not aware of Hebrew, here is something else to ponder.
‘Adam’ is a generic, not a personal name. And Adam consists, not of the male, but of ‘ish’ and ‘ishshah’ – male and female. And there is no ‘adam’ until there is ish and ishshah together. That ancient author knew exactly what he was saying and exactly how impactful it all is. And it has taken Christians most of 2,000 years to catch up with the vision of one of the authors of the Creation stories. (And there is a great deal more in them than most people are aware.}
One of the tragedies of human existence is our sad capacity of hanging on to our bigotry, our unwillingness to see past our comfort zone or our narrow-mindedness. Perhaps the saddest part is that whatever we are afraid of, we tend to demonize. Back-door immigrants, people of other nations or cultures, different colour or different views. Even amongst ourselves, I have encountered sad chasms between those who understand the Bible literally, and those who do not. High Church or Evangelical. The list goes on and on.
I often wonder if that passage from Judges creates a lot of squirming as the story of Deborah is read in synagogues and Churches. Barak comes across as a great wimp; Deborah as a rather strong lady. And the former will not do as commanded unless he has some skirt behind which to hide. It is almost a caricature, is it not? But whatever the truth or strength of the tale, it really does underline the fact that there was no reason why Deborah should be disqualified from the role of Judge. She had the skills, the gifts, the vision, and was prepared to respond to the crisis, and who can complain about that?
There is room here for a long and impassioned sermon about the equality of women, but do not expect that from me. Such an approach tends to move off into some sort of tirade – which tends then to reduce the value of the argument. May I simply posit the Biblical reality as seen as far back as Genesis.
That remarkable Chapter 2 of Genesis spells it all out rather simply and beautifully. Reduced to its simplest, it could be said that that person saw us humans as equal and different. The differences can be attractive yet are sometimes grounds for conflict. The similarities are clearer. However, because someone, male or female, is a little different provides no real grounds for conflict, but does offer the challenge of learning from each other. Now that does provide some difficulty, because most of us reckon that we know best which way is up, and remain determined to impose our views regardless. That is often very short-sighted – and destructive.
Anyhow, the main point to take hold of and ponder is that quite early in Hebrew history, somewhere after King David perhaps, wise heads saw that patriarchal power was neither the best way to go, nor did it fit the Divine pattern. One looks back in wonder that such brave people took it upon themselves to posit what must have been a radical and different approach to life and relationships. Surely there must have been sufficient evidence to shoe the need for change. It has only taken around 3,000 years to adjust a little to the wisdom of that.