Last Sunday after Pentecost: The 'Reign' of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace!

Last Sunday after Pentecost: The 'Reign' of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace!

Gospel Matthew 25:31-46

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Well the meeting of the world leaders in Brisbane has ended. The pressing international issues seem to be somewhat unaddressed. We want these issues addressed, but it doesn't look like much is going to change it seems a case of “Same ole, same ole.” Some people claim the most efficient government is a benign dictatorship. Such a ruler, with people’s best interests at heart, can cut through indifference, selfishness and powerful interests to get things done. A benevolent dictator can act quickly to the benefit of needy people. We know such dictatorships do not exist. Even if such a leader did exit with the best of intentions, eventually power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Self-interest soon takes over and the people’s best interests are pushed aside. In this light we can say that only God is the “benign ruler” who really has our best interests at heart and will DO something about them.

This is the last Sunday of the church's liturgical year and it sounds a triumphant but not a triumphalist note. So we celebrate and remember that there is no power that can match the loving power of God. Our reading from Ezekiel (34: 11-17) is about God not as King, but as Shepherd. For Israel, God was envisioned as a Shepherd who would protect, lead and defend the people with gentle strength and compassion. Ezekiel was sent by God to condemn the kings of Israel who were the opposite of 'good shepherds'. They were more like 'selfish dictators' who would do anything to stay in power. As a result of their evil thirst for power the flock of Israel had been scattered and taken into Babylonian exile. God had Israel’s best interests at heart and promises to rescue the people from their exile. Not only will God bring them back, but will continue to help them. God rebukes Israel’s leaders and promises to take charge and tend to Israel’s future, promising to bring the flock back from exile. God’s help will not end there, but will continue to care for them by raising up a 'just shepherd'. God is guaranteeing to DO something to help them.

Matthew’s Gospel (25: 31-46) gives us the last of Jesus' parables, which describes the 'last judgement'. God has fulfilled the promise God made to Israel in Jesus - the long-anticipated Shepherd King. He (the Son of Man) takes his place on the throne of judgment surrounded by his court - a lot like the ancient Near Eastern courts. He now shares his glory with his loyal followers. This is not the typical distribution of treasures and bounty to people of rank. The loyal servants of this King are those whose deeds matched the deeds of the King; who acted with compassion towards the poor, sick, homeless, prisoners, and strangers - all those whom Jesus calls 'the least'. This scene should not come as a surprise to Jesus’ hearers who knew the prophetic tradition. The Shepherd of Israel, as described by Ezekiel, will be concerned about “the lost... the strayed… the injured… the sick.” It is striking that Jesus in the parable does not note how many times one has celebrated the liturgy. His primary concern are the deprived of the kingdom. If our liturgical celebration is authentic it should help us to see with compassion the needy and be strengthen to DO something for them. All the baptised, are called to this mission. If we fail to be these signs we cannot claim any special privilege or membership in the kingdom. It is clear from the parable that there are many who will have never heard of Christ who discover they have been part of God’s kingdom, because they acted mercifully towards God’s favourites - the poor.

Matthew has provided a vision of what Christ’s true Church looks like. This parable is stark and should rouse our attention. Are we living a gospel of convenience? Have we just defined our religious observance by what we do each Sunday in church? The parable makes it clear that worshiping Jesus in church and saying prayers at home must be accompanied by devotion to him in the world. This parables shows us the priorities of Jesus. We can tell how we are doing as individual Christians and as a Church by whom we love. God loves all people and we, who were created in God’s image, must be willing to share that love with all, especially those who are not able to return that love. In the parable, those who are welcomed into the kingdom did not recognise they were DOING anything for Christ or acting in his name. They shared what they had with those who had nothing. We all know people like that. They may not be in the pews with us on Sunday, but they are with us making sandwiches for street people on Monday. Still, it helps to be

What soever you do to the least of these my little ones

Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles and Martyrs, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost -Br Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br Andrew, at Winmalee on Sunday 29th June: 

Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles and Martyrs, Third Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel John 21:15-22

Men of Faith,

Abraham, Peter and Paul

Our forefathers and mothers in the faith bear witness to the grace of a Faith filled life, faith  trusts and goes where God leads, unquestioningly despite the idiocy and insanity of the request:- because 11 Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1 NIVR)

In today’s readings we have three men separated by some 3,000 + years who in exercising phenomenal faith made it possible for the world to be blessed through salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.

You noticed that I said faith is trusting despite the idiocy and insanity of the request. It surely must have appeared insane to Abraham to be told by God to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering when he was to be the only ancestor of the Congregation of Judaism; nevertheless he took his son to the foothills of Mount Moriah, piled the wood on the altar and laid his much beloved son upon it. In his faith Abraham reasoned that God could raise Isaac from the dead and with the sacrifice of the substituted Ram, so he did. Unspoken echoes of that perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

At the other end of the line there are Sts. Peter and Paul who are considered to be the Fathers of the Church, men of great faith, truly human, both sacrificed for their Faith in Christ. 

Peter was born in Bethsaida in Galilee into a family of fishermen, about the same age as Jesus, called by Jesus to the cryptic vocation of fishing for men, Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law at Capernaum  and later Ordained him in the rock of the church dialogue in Matt.16:18, he was one of the witnesses to the Transfiguration, denied Christ three times, was forgiven three times, his most famous sermon given at Pentecost, Peter was sacrificed for Christ in the year 67 AD in Rome during the  reign of Nero, he was crucified upside down considering himself not worthy of being crucified in the same manner as Jesus.

As we read in our Gospel today Jesus tells Peter cryptically of the manner of his death saying “when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you, and carry you where you don’t want to go.”[Matt 10:42]

Prior to our Gospel Peter has denied knowing Christ three times and after the third time “when the Lord turned, and looked at him. He remembered his Lord’s word, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times.” 62 Peter went out, and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:61, 62).

That was the turning point in his life; much earlier Peter had asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus had replied, “you cannot follow now, but you will follow later." (John 13:36). Peter had not been in a fit state to follow Christ, because he had not reached the bottom of his barrel. He did not know his own depths, and therefore could not follow Christ. But when he went out and wept bitterly, then came the great change. Christ had already said to him: "When you are converted, strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:32). 
Here is the point Where Peter was converted from self to Christ – finally he knew himself for what he was, one whose Ego made grandiose claims his unsupported spirit could not achieve. He yet belonged to himself.

Now Christ reigned supreme and he no longer relied upon himself to achieve anything save in Christ alone.

Throughout his ministry Peter stressed the importance of dying to self and living for Christ, he had learned that many of us share the bottom of his barrel and for the same reasons, inordinate love of self.

He always referred to himself as Elder or servant and kept his promise to tend the Lambs and to feed and tend the sheep; he fed them with the Word of God and urged them to seek it out. In the last paragraph of his second Epistle he mentions the letters Paul had written to them saying 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him;[2 Peter 3:15]

St Paul was a Roman Turk by nationality and a Hellenistic Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, anywhere between 6BC and 10CE, and first known to us as Saul.  He referred to himself as “a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees” [Acts 23:6], he was brought up in Jerusalem and studied under Gamaliel, [Acts 22:3] – we first come across him at the stoning of Stephen the proto-martyr [Acts 8:1]. 

Saul was a zealot for Judaism and the Torah and confesses to the Galatians“13 you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how forcefully I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was progressing in Judaism ahead of many of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my forefathers. [Gal. 1:13-14 paraphrased] (NIV) 

Paul's conversion can be dated to 31–36 by his reference to it in his letter to the Galatians. Luke provides three versions of this in the Acts of the Apostles: Acts 9:1-31, 22:1-22, and 26:9-24. 

This took place on the road to Damascus, while on his way to arrest more followers of the way and take them captive to Jerusalem. He reported having experienced a vision of the resurrected Jesus which occurred as he neared Damascus when, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”5“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”[Acts 9:4-6 paraphrased] In the kJV the end of verse 5 reads “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

Paul spent three days with Ananias during which he spent time in mystical union with Christ himself. As he later told the Galatians “15[…] God, set me apart from my mother’s womb has called me by his grace, (and) was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, [Galatians 1:15,16 paraphrased]

According to the wording in the kJV it rather seems that Paul’s zeal may partially have stemmed from self-doubt, and notice- to persecute a Christian is to persecute Christ, for whatever  you do to the least of these, my little ones you do unto me [matt.25:40]

When St. Paul became a little one he preferred to be known as the Apostle to the Gentiles and preached to them that Faith is a free gift given by the Grace of God, salvation came through Faith in Christ and his death and resurrection which dispensed with the Torah – (which Christ had fulfilled through his life death and resurrection Matt.5:17) Thinking, perhaps of the manner of his coming to Christ he taught that Faith had primacy over works.

Christian tradition holds that Paul was beheaded in Rome during the reign of Nero around the mid-60s at Tre Fontane Abbey (English: Three Fountains Abbey) In 2009 pope Benedict XVI announced excavation results of the probing of a sarcophagus at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls – the remains were carbon dated to the mid first to second century and declared to be those of St Paul.

When we through the Grace of God accept the free gift of Faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus for the remission of our sins we then can die to ourselves and live in Christ. Until we do this we are like Peter full of ourselves and a danger to ourselves in spiritual matters. Like Paul we may knowingly or unknowingly feel the jabs and the pricks of the calling of the risen Christ until the pain brings us to our knees and we are emptied of ourselves and free to believe in him who first loved us.

And never forget that Faith in Christ is illogical and if we expect it to be we are in the wrong religion.