Advent 3, 13.12.20
Text: Isaiah 61.1 - 4, 8 - 11.
Rev Paul Cannon
Advent, the promise of something, something is coming. Hope and expectation have been the catch cry of the body of Christ. And yet the true meaning of Advent is appearance, arrival, dawning.
What is interesting is that modern Christianity has focussed on the nativity, that the hope is a baby, surrounded by cute animals, a chorus of angels and star struck shepherds. But the message of the prophets was about the chosen one of God who would call for justice.
The Jesus in the manger is a delight, like any child born. The problem is, we sometimes stay at that level, we worship a child in child-like faith. But the prophets called for something far deeper and far more rigorous.
In chapter 61 Isaiah lays out what will happen.
This chapter was clearly written around the fourth decade of the 6th century BCE, which marked the end of the Babylonian exile and then later on, the return of some to the remains of Jerusalem.
The prophet Haggai describes how people are disheartened because of the state of the former city and Temple. Haggai even asks them, “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?”
It is possible yet unlikely that any of those carried into exile would have been among those who returned. So those who returned would have had no memory of the city or of Solomon’s grand temple. But the difficulty would have been their expectations based on what their parents and grandparents had told them. And we all know the story gets better with every telling, so the reality would not have matched their imagination.
The people rebuilt the walls of the city, but it was not as they’d imagined, and the began to rebuild the temple but it seemed so ordinary and poor.
But the walls and the temple are of little interest to God. This is instructive because it tells us that what God is interested in is the people and their living, but the people imagine that God needed somewhere to be. So, there is a dilemma, the people think they know what God wants, but in actual fact God doesn’t want that at all.
And Isaiah brings the words of God, words of hope, but not as the people expected.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me ….” The prophet speaks of the coming of God’s justice.
Isaiah claims a higher authority, an anointing of the Spirit of YHWH of God to call the people to attend to justice first. The prophets always made it very clear that there was always a higher authority than the king and that authority was concerned with justice. This did not always endear them to the king or the people.
And this is nothing new, from Elijah onwards, the prophets had been giving this same message. But in particular the prophet Nathan who simply turns up and calls king David to account for his lust for Bathsheba to the point that he had her husband Uriah murdered so he could possess her. Nathan’s authority was vested in God, and his message was a call for justice. The implication is clear, no one, king or slave is above the call to justice.
This is the principle concern of God, it is the cornerstone of the gospel.
Despite the Babylonian captivity, despite the misery of coming back to a destroyed temple and city walls, God’s concern is that at all times that we live and breathe justice. Not the justice of laws and courts, not the justice of ignorant opinions, certainly not about revenge or punishment. How else could the prophet declare good news to the poor, the oppressed the sick, the captive? Justice as God declares it is about loving God and neighbour, it has nothing to do with judging your neighbour.
And so it should be no surprise that God in Jesus takes this very prophecy of Isaiah and presents it again to his people. These very words become Jesus’ manifesto, his mission statement, his job description. The evangelism of Jesus is purely about justice.
Of course the elite turn on Isaiah, they don’t want to hear such blasphemy. How could this be so? Because the people believed they knew God, that their behaviour was approved by God, how dare the prophet speak otherwise. How dare the prophet speak of release, freedom, healing and forgiveness. They failed to hear that God had anointed the speaker and the message.
Jesus was threatened with death for speaking this same message (Luke 4), the religious elites were incensed that this upstart rabbi had the audacity to preach to them about justice.
They missed that God was in fact one of them, among them, and concerned for them - all! And Jesus, like all before him, those who spoke of God’s call to justice, were threatened with death. Jesus even laments for Jerusalem as the one who “…. Who kills the prophets and stones the ones who are sent to it.” Jerusalem, or the religious in other words, will kill those who speak God’s word.
How ironic it is that even God turns up in Jesus and they reject him, murder him, because they cannot stomach his call and message. The question here is, who is their God if Jesus is rejected?
In this passage of Isaiah we see clearly what and whom we are waiting for this Advent. We are not waiting for a child, we are not waiting for an unknown, we are waiting for the one we know to return to us afresh, the one who comes with justice.
God isn’t wanting more worship, God isn’t wanting grand buildings, God is wanting justice. This was the problem Isaiah encountered and later so did Jesus the people wanted more religion, but God wanted love in action.
We know this messenger this anointed one of God. His call is to us, to live God’s loving justice in and for the world that it might be transformed into God’s likeness, that is, into loving action.
The problem is letting go of our expectations, what have we imagined God wants, what do we expect of God?
The question is, are we ready for him, are we listening to him and more importantly, are we willing to step out and live his justice?
Advent 2, 6.12.20
Text: Isaiah 40.1 - 11.
Rev Paul Cannon
Isaiah is, like all the prophets, a fascinating character. His name Yesha’yahu means “God is salvation.”
His call to be a prophet came around 742 BCE coincided with the south westward expansion of the Assyrian Empire. Isaiah saw a vision of the despair of God for his people who had forsaken the agreement or covenant of Abraham, and of Moses.
There was so much abuse of the poor, the instructions of God to be hospitable to the widows, orphans, and foreigners, and to be generous, to be compassionate to all, to love God and neighbour were dishonoured. Society had become rotten with corruption, greed and power.
Isaiah is the only prophet to offer himself to God despite his sense of inadequacy, and like Mary later, Isaiah says “Here I am send me.” And God accepted his offer.
But his role was never easy, he was to condemn his own people, he would watch the nation collapse, and he would experience abuse, opposition, ridicule, and would be dismissed by many. It was a lonely ministry.
Isaiah’s sympathy was for the poor, those who were brutalised by the wealthy and the ruling class as well as by the religious professionals.
Isaiah is one of the prophets who gives a thoroughly stinging rebuke to the religious when he tells how God despises their sacrifices:
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
Isaiah’s many comments on the hypocrisy of the religious is testimony to God’s antipathy for cold religion. Isaiah makes it abundantly clear that God cares nothing for burnt offerings, incense, hollow words or songs when his people are treated so badly by those who hold power.
Isaiah gives us clear evidence that God is very clear on how saying all the right things and doing all the so-called moral things means nothing if you have no love for God or the people.
His message to the people of Israel was sobering, shape up or be prepared to be shipped out in the defeat of the nation.
He also clearly believed that God shapes history and is vested in the plight of his people because when we come to chapter 40 we learn that Isaiah gives hope to the people, he tells them that if they turn again to God, their misery will end and they will again prosper, God will bless them.
Sadly, Israel will mis-hear this message. From here they will harbour visions of revenge and glory. They hear in Isaiah that they will return and have God’s favour and will have a king, but they interpret this as they will have strength, they will be like in Solomon’s time, they will have a king like David, a great military strategist. They believe that are waiting for a powerful king who will restore their fortunes and reverse their embarrassing circumstances.
By the time John the Baptist repeats this prophecy, Israel is still waiting for such a king. But what they get is a surprise - they get Jesus who is nothing like David or Solomon, is not a king in the temporal sense, and certainly not looking to restore Israel to its former glory.
The main problem for Isaiah was that the people not only mis-heard his prophetic words, they did not understand their part in them.
Isaiah’s prophecy is one of great hope, it promises that the Lord of glory will appear, that is, a new king will appear. The people hear or want to hear that among them a great king will rise up, and they hear the hope. But they believe that God will deliver and offer this hope for them.
But Isaiah’s words make it clear that God is calling the people to repent, that is, to turn around and honour the covenant. In other words, to live at peace with one another, to honour the widow and orphan, to welcome the foreigner, to career for the poor, to live justly and compassionately.
Isaiah calls the people to return to the original covenant or agreement with God that relied on the people doing their part of it.
There is an echo in Isaiah with the teaching and life of Jesus.
The hope is not done to the people, they have to participate in working with God to enact and enable hope together. Isaiah makes it crystal clear that it is when the people are living right, then, and only then, will this king be known, be evident.
So, our behaviour makes God evident. This is what Jesus meant in John 13.34:
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
It is by our love that we are known as belonging to Christ. By our love we participate in the work of God. We make God present to the world by how we behave. The world sees Christ in our loving action.
When Isaiah, and then later John the Baptist, utter these words, the invitation is to make way for this new king by making his way straight. That is, by not putting barriers in his way.
The roads, mountains and valleys that must be levelled are the lives of the people. Our lives. Isaiah is not talking about the sort of petty moralisms that seem to occupy religious people, but rather the things that bother God - justice, mercy, peace, love, compassion, generosity, forgiveness - these are the behaviours that make ways straight that level foreboding mountains and deep riven valleys.
This is a call to the people to make God present to the world, and Jesus invites us to make him present to all we encounter, by our love.
These words of Isaiah beg the question of us, how are we making Christ’s way straight or how do we enable Christ to speak through us, what acts of love show us to be his followers?
Advent 1, 29.11.20
Text: 1 Corinthians 1.1 - 9.
Rev Paul Cannon
These opening nine verses of Paul’s letter to the church, or the ecclesia, in Corinth contain a lot of detail.
This is a standard letter, it contains an opening salutation and then a brief introduction. The main body of the letter which we won’t get to is a series of issues around conflict and negative behaviour in the Corinthian congregation.
Paul sets out to remind the Corinthian congregation who he is and therefore reminding them of his authority as one called by God to be an Apostle. An Apostle is one who is sent, and for Paul, being sent on missionary journeys to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, being sent in person and by letter to Corinth.
He demonstrates that he has authority, but that it is founded in the grace and peace of God.
Paul then thanks the congregation acknowledging that they too have shared in and been enriched through the grace of God. Paul says they have been enriched in speech and knowledge of every kind.
This is an important detail, it tells us something about the people in this congregation. They have been intentional in listening and seeking after knowledge of God, but such a knowledge that alters their lives, there has been a change in their speech and their knowledge. They have also been able to show how christ has enriched their daily living, they can testify that they are strengthened in Christ.
Paul acknowledges that they have been strengthened in particular by receiving spiritual gifts, they are not lacking gifts in any way. A clue that this congregation is self-aware, they are open with one another about the gifts God has graced them with. And Paul encourages them, and every reader of this letter, that God will continue to strengthen those who seek the Way of Jesus.
There is one word that Paul uses in these few verses that is important for us to note. The Greek word is κλητος which we translate as called.
In verse one Paul notes his own calling by God. And in verses 2 and 9 he refers to the church, the ecclesia, as the ones called by God.
In verse 2 Paul refers to those who are called by God, sanctified meaning, to the one’s set aside to live the Way of Christ. Sanctified carries the meaning here of those set aside for the sacred work of God, meaning the people of the congregation of Corinth.
In verse 9 Paul refers to the congregation as being called into fellowship with Christ. Paul means this in the broadest sense. Not into an exclusive relationship with christ alone, but in its gospel meaning, into fellowship with the community of the Way, the community of Christ.
So here we are. Church in the Park, set aside to live the Way of Christ, called to the sacred work of God in our community. We are the ecclesia, the church, called to serve where we are. And we are dually called into fellowship with Christ through the forming of community together.
This is one of the most primary responsibilities for all who claim to follow Christ. In fact, you can’t be a follower of Christ unless community of some form is part of your life. This community has had a long history, it has been given every gift to effect the work of God. And, God who is faithful, has called us to a future to be community here using our gifts for the work of God in the wider community.
I wonder what that future might look like? What gifts are shared here among us for the building up of community? What will we do?
Christ the King, 22.11.20
Text: Matthew 25. 31 - 46
Rev Paul Cannon
The idea of Christ the King as a feast day began in 1925 as a way of reestablishing the priority of Christ as servant in a post war world of hedonism.
I personally think it is a difficult feast day in one sense because the whole idea of kings and queens is now redundant, only two monarchs have any real say, the English queen has a minor role, and the Thai king has some power, but the rest are merely figureheads a reminder of an era long past.
In medieval times kings and queens held power over the life of their subjects, and as far back as Jesus’ time, they were an authority over every aspect of life. So Jesus uses the term king in some of his stories, because kings had real power.
In that sense Jesus is being contextual, he takes a contemporary idea or issue and uses it to make the story, to enable people to identify with it. It makes less sense now because we are less connected to kings and queens and they are less powerful. We would need to find a better word to connect to people today.
Even so, the question for us in this passage is - what sort of a king is Christ?
The answer is quite simple. Christ is only ever a servant king, this is clear in the gospels. And the penultimate example is John 13, when on what was to be his last night, Jesus takes time to teach his disciples the way to live as people of the Way. This is the moment where he takes time to model the way of community.
The foundation of a servant of God is humbly serve others, Jesus uses the example of washing his disciples feet, a culturally relevant action back then, they would have understood it clearly, taking a servants role and doing what the rituals required - that guests enter a home by having their feet washed. It was a purity law requirement as well as a hospitality. But Jesus takes a lowly task and elevates it to mean something else. This is the very mark of the community of Christ - to serve one another as if we were the servants of each other, the law we obey is the law of love.
We have to ask ourselves, what is the equivalent of washing people’s feet today? What would we understand as serving others humbly today?
In the same teaching conversation, in John 15, Jesus takes another radical step. Rabbis were socially elevated, they were important in the community and respected. But Jesus doesn’t hang onto his status. “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from the Father.”
Jesus treats his disciples as equals, that is, God treats them as equals. So gone is the master servant relationship, gone is the power relationship, Jesus and his disciples are friends.
That includes all followers down the ages. We have the very same knowledge given to us in the scriptures, Jesus makes known to us everything he heard from the Father. We too are his friends.
The most radical step Jesus takes is when he reinvents the commands. Jesus issues a new command in John 13.34 “… That you love one another … by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.”
In other words, the love we have for Jesus must also be real for other people, we cannot play at this, we are asked to be a community that loves each other as if we were loving Jesus, as those who wash feet and who call Jesus friend, we are to treat others with same love. This goes to the heart of what it is to be a follower of Jesus, the act of real love for each other.
This is a difficult command, because it is not asking for easy love, love in fair season. It is asking for love in difficult moments, when there is distrust, hatred, tension, anger. It is asking for love between enemies and those we don’t like. It is asking for love of strangers and refugees, political opponents, those deemed odd and rejected.
Jesus is no king in the sense of his time or ours, his is not a palace. Remember that he said in Matthew 8.20 “… the son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus has no servants, he has friends. Jesus’ command is unusual, it is no edict to serve the king, it is rather, an invitation to serve through loving actions.
Jesus makes it very clear that he is king of love, humble service, friendship, and above all, king of social justice. He is an advocate for those on the margins, those rejected by society, sadly even by the church. Jesus is the king who says “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Not that’s a king, and one we all want, but the catch is, in order to be in that king’s community you have be like that king.
So, how are we loving, serving, washing others?
What is stopping us from being more like Jesus the Christ?
Pentecost 24, 15.11.2020
Matthew 25: 14-30
Rev Paul Cannon
What have you been given?
What have you hidden, what have you squandered? What have you done?
I'm struck by the many studies relating to winners of lotto.
Studies have reached the general conclusion that only a small percentage actually manage to effectively use their winnings.
Apparently most winners do not get or even heed advice on how to invest. Many simply squander their winnings. Many of the winners end up worse off than before they's won the money - usually in debt.
And though we are possibly jealous of their undeserved winnings and angry that we would have done so much more with the money, perhaps we also sympathise that so much was given and the chances were so easily lost. Perhaps we to sense that we might not have really fared any better.
In the gospel reading today we read of three men who were given much according to their ability.
A wealthy man was going on a journey, and in his absence he required that his servants handle his money. So according to their ability he gave money to each one. To the first he gave five talents, to the second two talents and to the third one talent.
The first two invested the money and made a sizeable return, which greatly pleased the master when he returned.
But the third servant acted differently.
He was fearful of his master, he was fearful of the responsibility he had been given in regard to the one talent.
As a result he buried his one talent in the ground. As a consequence there was no investment and therefore no return. He took no risk and nothing resulted.
It seems that the master wasn't particularly worried if the servants lost on the money, because how else would you explain his going away and leaving them to it? He had simply invited them to be free to try.
The story also shows that had the servant really been concerned for the money he wouldn't have buried it, he should have put it in the bank.
The servant's fear drives him. It colours his view of his master. "I knew you were a hard man" he said. The servant also judges his master. "I knew that you reaped where you hadn't sown."
The servant is really saying, "master, you don't deserve to get any interest on this." And also he buries it. It is a purely selfish and jealous action.
So badly has the servant behaved that the master is severe in his judgement - "you wicked and lazy servant ... cast him out."
Jesus tells this parable so that his disciples might understand that through him they have undeservedly been given much. That God has chosen them.
Jesus is hinting that he is like the master, he has entrusted his disciples with a great task, and they must invest them selves in this task with their talents and abilities.
The implication is clear. With those who have been given much, much will be expected.
And much has certainly been given. The starting point for Jesus is love, his own love, and his command that we all must live love. Love is a lavish and luxurious gift, and the life of Jesus is the ultimate gift of love to us.
It is a gift which requires that we take it and invest in it with our own lives.
And there is so much fruit that love can bear. Peace, joy, faith, compassion, gentleness, all of which perpetually gives rise to even more love. We have all been given the talent of love. But God has also given us other talents to, each unique to us.
Jesus speaks to the wrong we might be tempted to, just like the wicked servant. We grieve God deeply when we hide from the very things that will deepen our faith and relationship with God. When we refuse to love God with all our heart, mind and body.
Instead we are called to put aside worry and anxiety about being perfect, and to take God's gracious gift of love and invest all that we are in returning that love in ever greater percentages as we build the kingdom together.
God has given you life, your very blood, your mind and intellectual ability, your body and physical ability. G od has given all of these things and his love.
But to each of us he has given other abilities as well, and all of these need to be given back 100 fold. Then the kingdom will grow. And then God can say - "well done good and faithful servant."
To get there we might ask ourselves the following: How am I receptive to the work of God? Do I allow the word to direct me to serving God in every moment and opportunity? Am I a risk-taking disciple willing to bear the fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world?
God has given much, what are you doing with it?
God has given you much and will continue to give, even when you risk and fail, all he asks is that you try, try to live the love of Christ and the fruit it brings through the talents we offer for building the kingdom.
Taste the fruit of his love and discover it for yourself, share his love.
Payer For World Peace By Sister Joan Chittiste
read by Sandie during Intercessions:
Great God, who has told us
“Vengeance is mine,”save us from ourselves, save us from the vengeance in our heart sand the acid in our souls.
Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt, to punish as we have been punished, to terrorise as we have been terrorised.
Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge, to trust rather than to fear, to try again and again to make peace even when peace eludes us.
We ask, O God, for the grace to be our best selves.We ask for the vision to be builders of the human community rather than its destroyers.
We ask for the humility as a people to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.
We ask for the love it takes to bequeath to the children of the world to come more than the failures of our own making.
We ask for the heart it takes to care for all the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Palestine and Israelis well as for ourselves.
Give us the depth of soul, O God, to constrain our might, to resist the temptations of power to refuse to attack the attackable, to understand that vengeance begets violence, and to bring peace—not war—wherever we go.
For You, O God, have been merciful to us.
For You, O God, have been patient with us.For You, O God, have been gracious to us.
And so may we be merciful and patient and gracious and trusting with these others whom you also love.
This we ask through Jesus, the one without vengeance in his heart. This we ask forever and ever.
Amen
read by Sandie during Intercessions:
Great God, who has told us
“Vengeance is mine,”save us from ourselves, save us from the vengeance in our heart sand the acid in our souls.
Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt, to punish as we have been punished, to terrorise as we have been terrorised.
Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge, to trust rather than to fear, to try again and again to make peace even when peace eludes us.
We ask, O God, for the grace to be our best selves.We ask for the vision to be builders of the human community rather than its destroyers.
We ask for the humility as a people to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.
We ask for the love it takes to bequeath to the children of the world to come more than the failures of our own making.
We ask for the heart it takes to care for all the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Palestine and Israelis well as for ourselves.
Give us the depth of soul, O God, to constrain our might, to resist the temptations of power to refuse to attack the attackable, to understand that vengeance begets violence, and to bring peace—not war—wherever we go.
For You, O God, have been merciful to us.
For You, O God, have been patient with us.For You, O God, have been gracious to us.
And so may we be merciful and patient and gracious and trusting with these others whom you also love.
This we ask through Jesus, the one without vengeance in his heart. This we ask forever and ever.
Amen
Pentecost 23, 8.11.20
Matthew 25: 1-14
Rev Paul Cannon
In the ministry life of Jesus there are these perpetual questions: Where is the Kingdom? Where will we see it? When will we see it?
This parable is tricky, we often make assumptions about its meaning because it seems fairly straight forward. But it's not!
The theme of this parable is certainly about being ready, but not how you might think.
At face value it's a story about a bridegroom and bridesmaids and being prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom and celebrating the wedding.
In Jesus' time the wedding was announced and a day was chosen. At sunset on the chosen day, the bridegroom would make his way to the bride's home where she was waiting with her bride maids. The bridegroom would then take his bride to their home, bride maids in tow, and the feasting would begin. A little different to a western 21st century wedding.
The bride maids were supposed to be vigilant and to announce the arrival of the bridegroom as he arrived at the bride's home, and then they would escort the bride to the banquet.
But this was not a typical story. There is division between the ten young women who are bridesmaids. Five have been deemed to be wise because they brought extra oil, they were prepared for the bridegroom being late. The other five were deemed foolish because they didn't prepare.
Now some biblical scholars cast Jesus as the bridegroom and the five wise bridesmaids as faithful disciples. These scholars believe that this parable is told through Matthew to the community he was leading in order to encourage their faithfulness. It is thought that the community under Matthew was under deep internal pressure and it was likely that people would fall away from their faith commitment.
These scholars believe that Matthew is trying to encourage them by saying that Jesus is coming soon, and so Matthew recounts this story.
In fact Matthew's gospel account is full of such examples if you look closely. The community of believers is to be ever ready, giving up status and changing behaviour - "the first shall be last shall be first", learning to deal with wealth and poverty, dealing with family, enduring suffering, and showing humility.
But this parable is troubling, if we stay with this story as one of the day of judgement we might be in danger of missing its true meaning. To use the bridegroom is an unsatisfactory portrait of Jesus. The bridegroom is unaccountably and outrageously late for his own wedding, and who is rude, and even violent in shutting out the five who weren't prepared. They are left unredeemed.
Hardly consistent with the Jesus who advocates forgiveness, healing and love as primary behaviours.
And the five wise women come across as arrogant, selfish and cold, unwilling to help other in need. Again, hardly a portrait of faithful disciples.
Was the oil shop open so late? Why didn't they share?
But why single out the five without oil, because all ten women had fallen asleep? And, it was hardly urgent that all had a lamp, especially as five would have perhaps been sufficient for all the group.
But you see, we could read this parable another way.
If we take it at face value, that it is indeed a story about a typical wedding scene we see the characters for what they are. The bridegroom is rude and arrogant, the wise bridesmaids are cold and selfish, there is no love.
Which leads to a different interpretation of the five foolish bridesmaids. They are the ones who should have been cared for, they are the ones who Jesus will go on to say in this chapter should have been helped. Matthew 25 asks those awkward questions towards the end of the passage when were you hungry, when were you thirsty, when were you naked in prison, sick, suffering and more.
These five bridesmaids should have been helped but they weren't.
Their so-called friends shunned them, sent them away, and the door was shut in their face.
We are left with the image of the groom as a tyrant, a bridegroom who is nothing like Jesus at all. And the five so called wise bridesmaids as complicit in the violence of rejection, ignoring the plight of the others, and so un-Christ like.
So the story underneath he story is one to pay attention too. It's really a story of how disciples should live - we must never be like this bridegroom, we must never be like those bridesmaids who wouldn't share.
This parable speaks to how we are called to live in the tension of waiting and not knowing.
Jesus is coming but is not yet here presents an awful tension of not knowing when Jesus will come.
So what is this story really about? It is a story that teaches us to be ready for the coming of the bridegroom. But more importantly, it is a story that teaches us to live in the now while we wait.
This is the place of tension for the Christian community, a liminal space, a place of anticipation. nothing is resolved but something is always about to happen.
It is a story about how we live between the promise and its fulfilment. Between the knowing and the not knowing.
Ultimately, it is a story that encourages us to live differently as we live in that place of tension.
Living differently is witness of the gospel. To live in such a way that our neighbour is loved as we are loved, that our neighbour is clothed, fed, watered, visited when imprisoned, isolated, rejected. That our neighbour is forgiven, included, shared with, and loved.
The point Jesus makes in this parable is that he will return, but we must ever be ready. The twist in the story is that it's not about the oil! The way Jesus wants us to be ready is by sharing with and helping those around us, by welcoming others among us, and by joining with others so that they are never shut out or rejected.
The point of this story is that we are to live now as Christ to the world. In so doing there is the kingdom. Wherever we live as Christ to the world the kingdom come alive. that's where the kingdom is, that's how we can see it.
It matters not when Christ returns, because when we become Christ like, Christ is already here among us.
The real warning in this parable is we might fail to be Christ like, that we might become arrogant tyrants, that we might become cold and selfish, indifferent people. Or that we might be swallowed in the sleep of apathy and just not care.
The hope is this parable is that we prepare for the coming of the kingdom, by living its values now. By helping those who aren't as prepared, by supporting those who haven't the wherewithal, by standing with those who are seen as foolish, by never shutting people out. Living in the tension between the promise and it's fulfilment in such a Christ like way that the world will see the kingdom through the way we like.
How is God calling you to live kingdom values?
All Saints Day, 1.11.20
Text: Matthew 5.1 - 12.
Rev Paul Cannon
This has been a strange year!
Have you caught yourself saying “I can’t wait for everything to get back to normal again?”
There’s nothing wrong with thinking that way, it will be good for some to be able to travel again and for church to be able to offer communion in both kinds again. We’re almost back to normal here, but just a few things to overcome.
We want to put aside the sanitiser and distancing, the isolation, we want to shake hands and hug again, we want to move on from anxiety and fear, we want to move on back to certainty and life as we knew it.
But what is normal? What does it mean to be normal? Who decides what is normal?
I wonder what normal means for God? Or more particularly, for Jesus?
Well Matthew 5.1 - 12 is God’s normal!
Some of you will carry with you an old teaching that the Beatitudes are Be-attitudes, or attitudes that we must intentionally adopt. This is a poor teaching.
If you read the passage carefully you will discover that there is no must, should, or ought. There is no transactional language going on here. There are no commands offered to us, there are no moral injunctions.
Instead, Jesus describes the world as it is. It’s like he’s saying, here is a description of life as it is, here is the normal as I see it, God’s normal.
Jesus doesn’t invite the question have I worked hard enough to get God’s blessing? What we are invited to ask is - Do I trust God’s vision of reality as Jesus tells it?
In the Beatitudes Jesus teaches that the poor, the grieving, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peaceful and the persecuted are in fact blessed! These are the fortunate ones, the lucky ones. These are the ones whose lives are given to God, they will receive mercy and be comforted, they will enter heaven and be called the children of God.
Do you believe this?
But God’s normal is not the normal we experience in the world around us. We live in a world where the most privileged, the loudest, strongest, wealthiest people take little account of those who are less fortunate. We live in a world where selfishness and greed bring rewards. We live in a world where grieving, meekness, mercy are looked upon with contempt and where my rights are of ultimate importance, and where creation is to be possessed as a means to an end.
But Jesus addresses this in these Beatitudes. “Blessed are they….”, he says. His language is particular, it is both prophetic and eschatological, that is, it speaks of the present and the future, the now-not yet, the community now, the community yet to come. This blessing, God’s blessing, which Jesus talks of is here now but it’s completion is in the future.
Isn’t that how all those who’ve gone before us lived their lives, living the now-not yet? Taking God seriously and living into the grace of now and trusting for the future?
The saints of the past understood this only too well, they provide a window for us to see the truth of the kingdom community now but not yet fulfilled. They were simply willing to trust God and live their part of it knowing they were helping top build the kingdom community.
So, are those who are poor, who mourn, who grieve, who thirst, are hungry, who suffer, who speak for justice, are they truly blessed? Can you see blessing in the most reviled, wretched, starving, grieving, shamed and broken human beings? Or do you fail to see them? Are you embarrassed or irritated by them?
Jesus describes people who are already living these things, not because it is a command or because they have been told it is the way. They are already poor, grieving, suffering and ill, rejected and persecuted, speaking for justice. Jesus is encouraging them to see that they’re on the right track.
In these Beatitudes Jesus offers a reordering of power and privilege, and of economy.
The Beatitudes are not a command that we must live like this in order to be blessed, it is simply an acknowledgement by Jesus that people live like this, and this is the way of the kingdom community, the raw real way of humility, selfless service, compassion, earthiness, being real and connected.
The Beatitudes don’t romanticise poverty or suffering, or promote these things as virtues, there is nothing good about them, it would be better if they weren’t part of life at all, but because of the way the world is we have these experiences and Jesus makes it clear that they don’t diminish us. Because we might suffer or be poor, because we have less doesn’t make us less as people, especially in the eyes of God.
But the problem today is that so few have needs, who is so poor and suffering that they are desperate for God’s healing and forgiveness? Are we so full that we can’t see those who lack, are we so protected we can’t see the need to address matters of justice, are we so possessed of progress and wealth that we cannot hear nature screaming?
What Jesus is saying is that we have something to learn form those who are poor, grieving, suffering, persecuted, who speak up for justice, they can teach us about how raw life is in fact a blessing. Our privilege limits our understanding but it also doesn’t allow us to fall on God, we are independent. We need to pay attention to those who can show us the way.
The writer and preacher Frederick Buechner wrote: “the world says mind your own business, but Jesus says there is no such thing as your own business; the world says, follow the wisest course and be a success and Jesus says follow me and be crucified; The world says, law and order, and Jesus says, love. The world says get, and Jesus says, give. In terms of the world’s sanity, anybody who thinks they can follow Jesus without being a little crazy is labouring less under a cross than under a delusion.”
This is not blessing as health, wealth and happiness. This is a costly teaching that most of us would rather avoid. We who have are supposed to be blessing to those who have less.
The Beatitudes God’s normal. Are we prepared to say that the things we lack are in fact a blessing, the things we cannot do, the things we are burdened or affronted by, the things that we feel are wrong, that these are in fact blessings that bring us back to God, a need of God and each other?
The world has never been normal. Covid will of course eventually diminish and we will move forward but the challenges of the Beatitudes will remain. Will God’s normal become ours? Will we align ourselves with the way God sees the world? Will we live God’s blessing to the world.
Pentecost 20, 18.10.20
Text: Matthew 22.15 – 33.
Rev Paul Cannon
One of my favourite Star Wars lines is “It’s a trap”
And that is exactly what Jesus faces, and he knows it.
The Pharisees, a powerful religious clique in the community join forces with a political group the Herodians, who are supporters of King Herod and pro-Roman. Strange bedfellows, because normally they wouldn’t work together. But they join forces to entrap Jesus, the upstart rabbi, the one who is undoing their power and authority.
At that time the Roman occupiers had introduced a Poll tax, which is a tax on each person. The Jewish community didn’t appreciate the tax.
So this alliance approaches Jesus to ask a clever question designed to trap him.
They butter him up first with patronising praise “Teacher we know you are sincere …” then they ask; “Tell us then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
Jesus nails them: “Why are you putting me to the test …?”
If Jesus says no it is not lawful to pay tax to the emperor, they will dob him in to the Roman authorities, he will be arrested as a subversive. If he says yes, he will lose his support in the community. So how to get out of the trap?
Jesus asks for the coin used to pay the tax, and they bring him a denarius. And then he asks his brilliant question. “Whose head is on the coin?” And they give the obvious answer: “The emperor’s.”
And then comes the answer that amazes the crowd: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
So, on the surface of meaning, Jesus cleverly steers through their trap by agreeing to Roman tax, and also agreeing to obedience to God.
But! Jesus makes a twist in his statement through one word.
You may not know, but Jesus is being extremely clever here, his question goes back to the beginning of the bible. “Whose Head?” is really asking whose image? In the Greek language used at the time, the word used in this question is image. And in Genesis One the story tells us that God created humans in God’s own image.
What Jesus does is connect the idea of image. So that it doesn’t matter whose head is on the coin, in Jesus’ mind, it all belongs to God, including the emperor and his coin.
There are limits to what we owe the state, but we owe everything to God.
That doesn’t mean we hand over everything to God, because everything is already God’s. And God knows we need to live and take our leisure.
The principle here is that once you have given a portion of your income to the specific work of God in the world, don’t feel that you have paid off an obligation because also God wants to share in some of your time and energy, so the giving out of everything to God includes your body and your calendar, as much as your wallet.
But more than that, God desires more than anything to have a place in your heart. The point is, you have been made in the image of God, so that is a clear statement that God loves you. God has a picture of you in God’s own heart, you are valued as an image, as a child of God.
Jesus wasn’t concerned one bit about the tax, his real concern was that you live into the image and likeness of the God who loves you. And Jesus was the living image of God.
The way you become more like the image of God you were created to be is by living into the life that Jesus demonstrated by his life and teaching. By conforming to the positive behaviours he modelled for us we become closer to the image of God.
The other point that Jesus is making is that we cannot compartmentalise our lives into this bit is God’s, and this bit is mine, and this bit is the government’s. That is a false view of life. If everything belongs to God, then everything belongs to God, you can’t separate it out into compartments.
Jesus offers us a challenge about identity. In an age when anxiety is at an all time high, and people struggle with self worth, I have a gut feeling its to do with how we have lost our sense of otherness, our sense of community, our sense of the wholeness of life. And we have lost our sense of God and being made in God’s image.
Some voices in our lives call us to remain broken, doubtful, worthless, hemmed in. Other voices fragment us and divide our loyalties.
But this call by Jesus to look at who we really are is a way of getting back to a greater sense of wholeness in ourselves. It is also a way of renewing our sense of God and purpose. And then it is a way for us think about our place in the world and how we impact our world, and the way we live, spend, educate, take our leisure can take on a different sense and meaning for us.
The very image of God that we are made in is the image of love.
If we give ourselves to love 100%, imagine how that can change our lives, and the lives of those around us. That is real power.
The question remains, what does it mean to live in this world and give ourselves to living in the image of God?