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15th
September 2013 - Morning - Revd. Preb Maureen Hobbs |
Sermon
for Proper 19 Trinity 16 - Morning
Exodus 32. 7-14
Luke 15. 1-10
Last week I said how hard it was to know what the right thing
to do or say can be at times - particularly with respect to the
crisis and fighting in Syria - and also regarding the different
views about housing in this village and community. And this week
it seems as though we have moved back from the brink.... the
Americans are holding back from their stated intention to deter
and degrade the military capability of the Assad regime, on the
promise that the chemical weapons will be given up and rendered
unusable. If it works, that has to be good news ... but time
alone will tell whether or not it is the right thing to have
happened.
Going after the one sheep that was lost and leaving the 99 to
look after themselves in the sheepfold seems like the right and
noble thing for the shepherd to do. Especially when he comes
home rejoicing with the missing lamb across his shoulders. But
that is with the benefit of hindsight. What if he had never found
the missing sheep? What if someone else had come along and helped
themselves to the unguarded sheep while the shepherd was busy
and preoccupied elsewhere? Still it seems God thinks it is a
risk worth taking.
Daily life demands that we take risks. Just getting up in the
morning can be a risky business for some! The daily commute to
work or school may be fraught with dangers - but it is something
we undertake without too much thought - albeit with the cries
of our loved ones to "Take care!" in our ears. We owe
it to our children and young people to teach them how to judge
risk for themselves - whether crossing the road or surfing the
internet (actually they are probably better able to advise us
how to stay safe in the latter example!) But risk is still something
we cannot avoid - it is intrinsic in being alive.... and most
of us accept that being alive is much better than the alternative!
And what about the risks that God has taken in creating us -
and goes on taking in sustaining us? He places us in the 'garden
of his delight' as one of our Eucharistic prayers puts it. But
it isn't long before we want to see what is over the metaphorical
garden wall. The sin that Adam and Eve commit is to prefer their
own development as beings over the existence that God has mapped
out for them. And as a result they become truly mortal - but
they also exercise free-will - that precious divine gift that
means we are not simply puppets performing while God holds the
strings.
God takes the risk of rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt.
He leads them across wilderness and desert and entrusts to Moses
the task of delivering his laws and commandments to them. Yesterday
was Yom Kippur in the Jewish calendar - the day of atonement
- a day of reckoning when all adult Jews think hard about all
the wrongdoing they may have done during the year, and ask for
forgiveness - not so they can go ahead and do it all over again,
but so that they might - in the year to come, grow more into
the people God intends them to be. The people who take those
laws and commandments seriously; the people who are charged with
demonstrating the kind of lives that God wants us to lead. Being
kind and generous to each other and walking humbly with God in
the cool of the evening and in the dew of dawn...
Finally of course, God takes the enormous risk of sending his
Son for the salvation of all - whether they - we - deserve it
or not.
And Jesus divided the people he was born to deliver. As Luke
reminds near the beginning of the story when the old man greets
Mary and Joseph with their new-born son - "This child is
destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and
to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts
of many will be revealed."
And we see both groups at the start of today's Gospel passage.
On the one side are the tax-collectors and sinners, coming to
'listen' - which in biblical language implies that they will
obey what he tells them. And against them we have the Pharisees
and the Scribes, the custodians and interpreters of the precious
law entrusted to Moses. The contrast is made between the mighty
who in God's good time and by God's good Son will be brought
down (to paraphrase the Song of Mary) while the humble and lowly
will be lifted up.
Prophets cause people to take sides. The parables of the lost
sheep and the lost coin are Jesus' prophetic challenge to you
and to me to decide which side we are on. Wise teachers, like
St. Ignatius of Loyola who founded the Jesuits, advise us to
ask a question about the sacred stories... "Where do you
find yourself in the story?" So I ask myself this, "Am
I among those who are quietly proud of their status and probity?
Or am I among those who, with eyes cast down, can only echo the
words of the publican and tax-collector, - Lord have mercy on
me, a sinner?"
We can be too detached and complacent when we read these familiar
stories. We know they tell us of Jesus' priorities - the poor
come first. But it can be useful to recall - as probably many
of us can - some moment when we thought ourselves 'lost', to
remind ourselves how devastating and desolating it was. The sad
truth is that even when we are baptized and confirmed members
of God's church - in good standing and nice to our neighbours
- we never cease to be at the same time the lost sheep in desperate
need of the good shepherd. That is both our tragedy and our hope.
Let's hope too that saving us is not too big a risk for the shepherd
to take! |
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15th
September 2013 - Evening - Revd. Preb Maureen Hobbs |
Sermon
for Proper 19 - Trinity 16 - Evening
Isaiah 60
Luke 6 51-69
The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be
your glory....
The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning
shall be ended...
Hebrew poetry is not like that written in English. There is no
such thing as a rhyming scheme, but from the imagery used and
the fact that repetition is frequently used as a poetic device,
there is seldom any doubt about what is poetry and what is prose,
mere history. But there is little doubt that the description
of Jerusalem's future that Isaiah gives us is poetry of high
quality.
I have never really seen the night sky in the desert, but those
who have tell me that the number and brilliance of the stars
is astonishing. Away from the light pollution of our cities and
towns and villages, the true wonder of the heavens begins to
be revealed. No wonder that human beings have understood the
nature of God and the nature of light to be connected.
Light and life - both were and are sacred to God. In writing
about the passage from John that we heard this evening, Tom Wright
calls to mind a story from the Old Testament and from the time
of King David, that we don't often hear. David was fighting the
Philistines, who had occupied his home town of Bethlehem. When
he and his men were pinned down one day, David was thirsty and
said out loud that he would love to be able to drink from the
well at Bethlehem - which was inaccessible to him at that point.
But three of his bravest and most trusted troops decided to take
this as a challenge. They broke through enemy lines, got water
from the well at Bethlehem and brought it back to David.
But David did not drink it, strangely enough. God forbid, he
said, that I should drink the blood of these men who went at
risk of their lives. He did not want to be seen to profit from
their readiness to put their lives on the line for him and instead
he poured out the water on the ground, which seems a strange
gesture to our eyes, but which was actually a high honour both
to the men and to God.
But this story helps to understand the absolute anathema on a
Jew to speak about drinking blood. The complex system of kosher
butchering is designed to ensure that as little blood as possible
should remain in the animal when it is cooked and eaten - for
the blood, the life force, belongs only to God - no human being
should profit from consuming it.
So what was Jesus playing at, when he says that those who wish
to follow him must "eat my flesh" and "drink my
blood"? And that those who do, will live for ever?
Well in the light of the David story, we can confidently assume
that Jesus was not recommending anything approaching cannibalism
and still less that his followers should break the Jewish Torah
against consuming blood. What he means is similar to David's
meaning. David refused to 'drink the blood' of his comrades -
in other words to profit from the risk of their lives. Jesus
as the true Messiah, is going one better again. He does not ask
that anyone dies for him (unlike perhaps what we expect of most
kings / queens) - instead he will put his own life at risk -
indeed will actually lose it; and his comrades will profit from
that death. They will have their thirst quenched by his death
and all that it means.
We, when we hear this passage, naturally think of the Eucharist
and all that symbolizes for us as Christians. And those who follow
Jesus' words and share in his body and blood through the symbolism
of the Eucharist, will be people of the true Exodus, inheritors
of the heavenly Jerusalem.
It remains true that God wants to make his home with us - that
he 'so loved the world that he gave his only son' - and that
the world, having once contained the Word made Flesh, is now
waiting, like a beautiful crystal wine goblet, waiting to be
filled with rich wine - for the day when God will flood it completely
with his own presence and will be our light and our life.
John, like many other Christians, was prepared to see the bread
and wine of the Eucharist as the foretaste of God's banquet to
come. And yes, this teaching was 'difficult' for many and some
would fall away. It is still hard for some who hold back from
that step of faith involved in receiving the bread and wine of
communion.
But the inner core of disciples do not fall away - those who
were closest to Jesus and maybe understood a little more about
just how far he was prepared to go in order to bring salvation
to his people. They have thrown in their lot with him - for good
or for ill and have no other place to go. As Isaiah put it, "They
are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands, so that I
might be glorified. ... I am the Lord; in its time I will accomplish
it quickly."
So are we shoots growing that we might glorify God? Are we waiting
to see and occupy the new Jerusalem? Are we looking for God himself
to be our light and our life?
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