RonBlog

Sunday 10th June, 2012 Second Sunday of Pentecost Sentence Whoever does the will of God is My brother, and My sister and My mother Mark 3:34 Collect Almighty God, give us such a vision of Your purpose, and such an assurance of Your love and power, that we may ever hold fast the hope which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen Old Testament Lesson 1 Samuel 8: 4 – 12 All the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." Samuel prayed to the LORD, and the LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only--you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." So Samuel reported all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. Psalm 138 I will give thanks O Lord, with my whole heart: even before the gods will I sing Your praises I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name: because of Your faithfulness and Your loving-kindness, for You have made Your name and Your Word supreme over all things. At a time when I called to You, You gave me answer: and put new strength within my soul All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord: for they have heard the words of Your mouth And they shall sing of the ways of the Lord: that the glory of the Lord is great. For though the Lord is exalted, He looks upon the lowly: and He comprehends the proud from afar. Though I walk in the midst of danger yet will You preserve my life: You will stretch out Your hand against the fury of my enemies, and Your right hand shall save me. The Lord will complete His purpose for me: Your loving-kindness, O Lord endures for ever – do not forsake the work of Your own hands. Epistle 2 Corinthians 4: 13 – 5:1 Just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture--"I believed, and so I spoke"--we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. GOSPEL Mark 3: 20 – 35 The crowd came together again, so that they (Jesus and His disciples) could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." And Jesus called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"-- for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit." Then Jesus’ mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." © 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 It was only a few weeks ago that I drew attention to the fact that the life of an OT prophet was no sinecure. This passage precedes that other one, as here Samuel had the unwelcome task of replacing the Hebrew theocracy with a monarchy. Samuel would have had quite enough evidence from other countries and states to know the down-side of having kings – over-inflated egos being one of them One does not need much in the way of local observation to be aware that decisions (even within democracies!) do not often stand the test of wisdom. People have a remarkable capacity to be very foolish, ultra-short-sighted and selfish in their decisions. And that prophet of course needed no Divine inspiration to be aware that it was really God Who was being discarded. It is well worth noting that JHWH deal with the demand for a king, not by ruling the move invalid, but by leaving the door open for people to see the backward step they were taking. God’s wrath, even then, was not to punish, but to leave room for people to learn from experience. The passage of centuries, even millennia, though, has not improved the human position now has it for few seem to take the opportunity of learning from mistakes.! Psalm In spite of the late number in the Psalter, this must have been early in terms of composition. The reference to ‘other gods’ would seem to indicate its place in Hebrew history. But the author was well aware of the clear support he felt he had from a God of truth and justice. Epistle And it is obvious that even dear old St. Paul was well aware, as Samuel and the psalmist that life was not meant to be easy. This was not so much a matter of ‘hoping against hope,’ as it was a matter of being aware of realities. Has it ever occurred to you that if life was so designed by God that the faithful ones were protected and the sinners were not, that there would be an awful lot of hangers-on just for the ride? If I am Christian because of fear of Hell or promise of heaven, then my discipleship is very suspect indeed. GOSPEL So even our Lord was right in the middle of the usual crap, pardon me! No progress is apparent in Judaism in the time before King Saul nor nearly a thousand years later. It is a very tragic picture presented here: crowds of people surrounded Jesus, so some people listened and responded. On the other hand, those most threatened by Jesus and His ministry turned, as people often do, to ridicule or even charges of insanity, to refuse to respond affirmatively. Ba’alzebul (Lord of the Flies, for those who can remember the book/film of the same name) was the then equivalent to Satan. The deceiver, the leader astray of people. No supernatural fiend is intended; people knew enough about themselves to realize that I tempt me to choose foolishly, even evilly. Jesus’ response to the utterly foolish charge was to destroy it quietly with gentle and mocking logic. One of the issues that arise sometimes in people’s minds is that matter of the unpardonable sin. Even my dear old mother was someone in that category, sure that she may have offended God without even knowing it. That, may I say, is impossibility. But what is unforgiveable? Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is nothing other than the refusal to follow the truth. To turn truth into lie. To do what those people did in their attempt to denigrate Jesus by refusing to respond to the truth that he offered. That can only be reversed when the refusal of truth is reversed – and anyone is quite capable of doing just that, are they not? NOTES FOR A SERMON One of the things that really annoy me about lots of Christians is their focus on themselves and their ‘salvation.’ I still recall with something of a cringe, being confronted in Martin Place Sydney, in 1950, by some over-eager older person, asking if I was saved. Actually I was wearing a Scripture Union badge at the time, and that was the clear indication to anyone then, that I was on Jesus’ side. That experience had me determined never to follow such a stupid and rude pattern to others. It is hard enough being Christian in the real world, let alone be interfered with by narrow-minded idiots. Having said all that, are you aware of the extent to which today’s readings make it utterly clear that even our Lord, let alone His Old Testament prophets and psalmists, had to endure the same stupidity and resistance. In other words, if it was good enough for Jesus to have to put up with it, then ...... you know where that takes you. Also I recall with some vividness how –as kids in Sunday School and even after, - we were taught to assume that all the ancient worthies in Scripture somehow knew exactly which way was up, exactly what God wanted, and were completely true to their vision of the Faith. On top of that, all went well with them and that there was no gainsaying or refusal from those they led. Obviously it was not long in my own reading of Scripture to see the utter falsity of that view of things, which was great relief to me. I rarely have had any such certainty. The reality is that even those Biblical characters had to search inside themselves to recover where the truth lay in all the situations they confronted. And there is no doubt that each human being has that capacity to discern where truth lies, even if that may be with some need to correct previous perceptions. The older one gets, hopefully, the wiser one becomes. But it has to be said that even youngsters are remarkably aware of where fairness lies, when the crunch is on. Sadly, there is also that capacity in each of us to bend, twist and distort the truth for our own benefit. It is not only politicians who use spin and deceit and half-truths to get their own way. As I write this, the debate is going on about the necessity or otherwise of the carbon tax (5/11) and the various arguments offered, pro and con, are not noted for their veracity. Sadly for most of us, the final proof with emerge with the passage of time. And what about the Murray-Darling debate, and many others!!! That experience of Jesus as recorded in today’s Gospel is one of the more bloody examples of people finding ways to avoid the very powerful realities of Jesus’ ministry. Notice how, in this and so many other examples, mockery is the attempted means to avoid facing the issues that Jesus presented. It seems to be far easier to regard someone as insane than to explore the truth of what they present.