PROPER 14 (19) Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Year C Aug 7, 2022
“Do not be
afraid”! Whenever I see these words in
scripture, I wonder what was going on. At
the start of our Gospel reading we are assured that God’s pleasure is to give
us the Kingdom. God’s heart is to see us
happy and in relationship with him.
God’s heart’s desire is to give us every good thing. It is important that we know this fact
because there are going to be hard times and times when we will, naturally, be
afraid. We need to understand that God truly loves us and never wants to see us
harmed or hurt, but wants only good for us.
Our Gospel
goes on to talk about being faithful to God and ready to serve him in all
circumstances. Ultimately, the reading
finishes with an encouragement for being ever ready for the coming of Christ.
The early
Christians thought that Jesus would be back for them really soon. From what I understand about those times, it
is no wonder. The times were pretty
horrific with Christians being persecuted, used for sport and being thrown to
the lions. Very real reasons to be
afraid! These early Christians didn’t compromise,
because they knew that the way of God… the gift of God… The love of God… was worth more than any
torture or horror. How would we go with
this? Is our faith strong enough?
We now live
in a time where, if someone were to say, “Jesus is coming soon”… we’d probably
smile a little, thinking, “Yep.. I’ve heard that before.”. There have been so many who tried to predict
a time, an era… and so far, all have been wrong. Or have they?
We need to
remember that prophecy is fulfilled in many ways and so Jesus’ coming to us
happens in many ways. Yes, there will be a time when the prophecy
will be completed and Jesus will come again. But in the meantime, each of us will have a
time when Jesus comes for us personally.
We have a
whole lot in common with those people of the Old Testament. They were waiting for the coming of the
Messiah. We are also waiting, but for
the second coming of Christ. I have no
doubt that many of them gave up hope and became somewhat cynical about the
promises of God, possibly going their own way and, as we know some in Jesus’
time did, re-interpreted the laws of God to suit themselves and fit with their
own version of reality.
And so, we
have the warning in our Gospel, “be like those who are waiting for their master
to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as
soon as he comes and knocks.” These
servants have faith that the master will return, and they show
faithfulness in their attitude of constant servitude to their master.
The actions
of those who wait faithfully, show the extent of their faith. Our actions, our words, our behaviour… all
show what we believe. Our actions speak
a message louder than words. Do our
actions tell a message of faith?
The letter
to the Hebrews tells us all about what faith is and how it all works. Our reading starts with an explanation of how
faith is the assurance of things hoped for and conviction of things not seen. In other translations; Faith is being sure
of what we hope for and certain of what we can not see.
Faith and
belief are synonyms, yet from this explanation I’d argue that faith is
something stronger than belief - I’d
argue that it is possible that Faith could be a spiritual knowledge. My understanding is that, because God now
lives in us by his Holy Spirit, there are some things that we can feel certain
about… things that we are so very, very sure about, even though we have no
physical proof. Another beautiful thing
about this, is that God reveals different aspects of himself to each of us, and
we need to listen to each other to learn more about what God wants to say to
all of us.
We also
learn from those who’ve gone before us and as the letter to the Hebrews tells
us, we learn from those like Abraham.
We know that
Abraham was declared righteous by faith.
He trusted and believed God… he had a relationship of trust and belief
and faith in God and because of that, God declared him righteous. It was the grace of God bestowed on Abraham
due to the relationship that was between God and Abraham.
We learn
that Abraham left his home and went to another place because God called
him. Abraham, never saw that land become
his, in his lifetime, but he believed God would do it for his offspring. But wait there is more. Abraham and his wife had no children at this
time. It appeared that Sarah was barren
at the time they were called to that land, and for many years in that
land. Regardless of the physical
reality, Abraham and Sarah acted on the spiritual promise.
Remember the
first part of today’s Gospel; God’s good pleasure is to give us the Kingdom.
Abraham must have known this by
heart… by faith! Because he continued to
be faithful and follow God’s calling. If
there is one scripture to write out and place somewhere in your home to
remember, as homework for this week, it is Luke 12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock,
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Those words
may have been the words of Jesus, but I get the sense that Abraham knew them by
heart. Throughout the years those
promises made to Abraham were fulfilled in the lives of his offspring, but we
know that these people were not always faithful to God. Even though they knew the story of Abraham, the
Israelites were more inclined to trust in giving sacrifices rather than
trusting in having a relationship with God.
More inclined to trust in rites, rituals and traditions – trusting in
their own works.
That is the
difference…. When the emphasis changes from what God promises to what we do, we
get it wrong.
God gave the
laws to help the people understand him.
There were sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin, so that the people
would know what things they were doing were wrong and needed forgiveness…. But
also, so that they could know God’s forgiveness. Those outward things served a purpose, but
the people grew to trust in their actions as the means of forgiveness rather
than trusting in God.
Logically
speaking, if they were not able to make the recommended sacrifice due to ill
health or poverty, would that mean God didn’t forgive? No.
That isn’t the way that God works.
The same argument has been made about Baptism, as there are some who say
it must be full immersion and others who say that a sprinkle is fine. The argument puts faith in the outward,
physical elements instead of understanding that the new life in the kingdom of
God is what God does for us. Our rituals
and traditions are an outward sign of an inner, spiritual reality.
We
ritualistically take communion. We do
this in remembrance, but there is a deeper spiritual reality. It is an acceptance of the sacrifice of
Jesus. We accept the sacrifice of his
broken body and shed blood. Why? Because through that sacrifice we are brought
back into an unhindered, unconditional loving relationship with God. Through that sacrifice every sin, past,
present and future is forgiven. This
is good news and I want to partake in this spiritual reality. So I
want to partake in Communion.
The prophecy
for this is in our first reading today.
It says, “Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though
your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like
crimson, they shall become like wool. “
A bit of play on words, as the people were saved by the blood of the
lamb. The sacrifice was a prophetic sign
of what Jesus was to do… he became the lamb of God and we are all forgiven and
brought back into a relationship with God by the body and blood of Jesus
Christ.
It helps us
to have a signs and symbols in our faith.
Abraham showed the reality of his faith by his action, when he was
called to up and leave his home, he did so.
We have tangible rituals, such as communion to help us respond to the call
of God, but if our lives don’t show the truth of our relationship with God,
people will hear our doubt loud and clear, instead of our faith. Our lives need to be the message of the
Gospel.
The
fundamental element of our message is that this is Good News. Good News is what the word “Gospel”
means. It is good news that the God of
the universe desires to give us the kingdom.
It is good news that Jesus came, died and rose again to bring us to new
birth into the kingdom of God.
At Street
Chaplaincy we have come to have a saying, “We preach the word of God always….
And if we have to, we use words”…. We
don’t actually preach on the streets with words. We don’t have to. Our actions, speak much louder.
I personally
believe, from what I’ve read, that things will be much harder for Christians
before Jesus returns. Scripture also
says that for the sake of the elect that time will be cut short, so we really
need to be ever diligent in our relationship with God. And I do most certainly encourage you to somewhere
write our homework verse from Luke, because when times are tough, we all need
the assurance that God does unconditionally accept and love us, and desires to
give us the kingdom. In fact, Ephesians
tells us that our being sealed with the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our
inheritance.
With the
faith to understand that God has already secured His kingdom for us, we can be
like Abraham, pressing on with sure faith in the promise of God, even though we
live hard times. I leave you with a
challenge in the words of a song by Australian composer, Brian Boniwell (Same
composer who wrote The Lord is my Shepherd and I want to follow). This song poses the challenge to us, as if
God is singing the song… It starts; Will
you give me your life forever? Will you carry my cross every day? Will you walk in the light of my presence? Will you follow the truth of my ways?
In summary… Can
we answer His call?
No comments:
Post a Comment