The BIG Question! What Is Your Turning Point!

"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

Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B:

The BIG Question! What Is Your Turning Point!
Politicians in most countries seem to always be getting into trouble for what they say. The media people are quick to give everything a particular spin depending on the lens through which they hear the politician speak. Jesus could have used a spin-person or speechwriter or marketing manager to help him draw and keep followers. A good spin person would have advised Jesus not to say what he did say to his disciples. Mark in his gospel (8:27-35) records Jesus' speech at Caesarea Philippi; "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and to be put to death ..." If you want to be popular with people you don't tell them that you are going to be rejected by their religious leaders and then put to death. Jesus goes on to say that, "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let them renounce themselves and take up their cross and follow me." You will also not attract people by telling them they too must be willing to deny themselves and lose their lives. Jesus was talking about sacrificial caring for people outside of our immediate circle, even our enemies. The chances are that with this type of message Jesus would not make him popular and even misunderstood.

There are some people like St. Peter, seem to think we don't have to face the reality of "bad news." People today prefer a soft popular gospel of just have faith in Jesus and life will be wonderful and you will prosper - but only if you have faith. But when we try to understand the good news Jesus offers we must also face the bad news that exists in our lives and in our world, which he calls our attention to. The disciples has seen a lot of good news in Jesus' cures. At first it looked and sounded like the answer to 'every need' which was just what they wanted. Peter must have said with enthusiasm, "You are the Christ" in answer to Jesus' question to him "Who do YOU say I am?" Peter most likely was thinking that Jesus would be the liberator of Israel. Wouldn't that be good news? St. Peter went from right answer to wrong response. First St. Peter speaks from a God-centred angle and then changes to a human outlook. He is yet to be able to see past his own ego centred and limited vision of the mission of Jesus - which will ultimately be his own.


Jesus rejects that notion of political Messiah. He speaks about suffering, about gaining life by losing life. There's something to ponder over: how can you gain life by losing? I suspect parents who have sacrificed so much for their children would have an answer to that question. Peter can't accept the idea of Jesus, a Messiah, who was going to suffer. He calls him "the Christ." The term 'Messiah' isn't a name but a title. The word Christ meant Messiah (the anointed one) which could in some contexts mean, a king or high priest. But for the ancient Jewish people it always meant 'the victorious one' the liberator. People at the time did not make a prediction of suffering for a Messiah. When St. Peter says "You are the Christ" what his answer leaves out is, You are God's 'compassion' the word which means "to suffer with." What the Scriptures consistently revealed is that God is like the grieving parent feeling compassion for us even becoming one of us and sharing our suffering.
God was moved to extremes for us, the way a parent will do anything even suffer for a child in trouble. In another place it says, "For God so loved the world that God gave God's only begotten son" (John 3:16). Peter professes, "You are the Christ (Messiah)." It's not enough. It doesn't describe the reality that Jesus is; God's compassion in the flesh. God on our side. Emmanuel, God-with-us. God willing to suffer for us.


At times like St. Peter, I want a saviour who is triumphant, all powerful and ruling from a throne. This type of saviour will be able like superman save me from all suffering. However, I have a 'saviour' who through his choices for justice and healing for the poor and disadvantages was crucified by selfish power driven people. The Holy Spirit is leading me to want and accept a saviour who is capable of being with me in my suffering and with the suffering of the world. I need a saviour who is capable of supporting me when I'm trying to do the right thing and it hurts and costs dearly. Choosing to live a good life of generous selfless service will require of me sacrifice. So, Jesus is with me when I chose the cross of selfless service that asks for my life in his name. "For whoever wishes to come after me must deny self, take up their cross and follow me. Whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life my sake and that of the gospel, will save it."

St. Peter could not get his head around the idea of a leader/liberator who would suffer. He could not without the help of the Holy Spirit understand that there is no crown without the cross. There is no 'good news' without facing the 'bad news' in the world and trying to do something about it. Our Eucharist is our praise and thanksgiving for the Christ who faced the bad news of the world for us. Our Eucharist is his sacred meal of liberation and love which gives us strength to turn bad news into good news. Our place at the altar-table (sacrifice and nourishment) is about celebrating justice and receiving his promised life for us and in us. We "gain life, by losing life" Jesus said. In the face of 'bad news' that should be 'good news'. I suppose understanding this depends on how we answer the question Jesus us all; "Who do YOU say I am?"

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost-Year B - Br Simeon & Br luke

 Homily preached by Br. Luke at Springwood Sunday 13th September 2015

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. YR B.

Gospel:  Mark 8: 27-35

Along the way Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?”  Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ . . .”

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.

This week's reading is quite interesting and even a bit odd. It shows how Our Lord teaches those who believe in Him and is quick to correct those who follow when their human thinking gets in the way.

Caesar Philippi was a bazaar of worship places and temples, with altars erected to every concept of the divinity from the gods of Greece to the godhead of Caesar. Amid this marketplace of gods, Jesus asks Peter and the Twelve, “Who do people say that I am? . . . Who do you say that I am?”  This is a turning point in Mark's Gospel:  Until now, Mark's Jesus has been reluctant to have people believe in him only because of his miracles.  Jesus talks, for the first time in Mark’s Gospel, about dark things ahead: rejection, suffering, death and resurrection (concepts that the disciples are unable to grasp).

In this incident (recorded by all three synoptics), Peter immediately confesses his faith in Jesus as the Messiah -- the Messiah of victory and salvation. But when Jesus begins to speak of a Messiah who will suffer rejection and death, Peter objects. Peter’s reaction is ours, as well:  We prefer to follow the popular, happy Jesus, the healing and comforting Jesus – but we back away from the suffering, humble, unsettling Jesus of the cross.

Every moment we live, every decision and choice we make, every good thing we do is our most revealing and telling response to the question, Who do you say I am? Our love for family and friends, our commitment to the highest moral and ethical standards, our willingness to take the first step toward reconciliation and forgiveness are, ultimately, our true confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Love and Word of God incarnate.

Only in “denying ourselves” in order to imitate the servanthood of Christ do we experience the true depth of our faith; only in embracing his compassion and humility

in our lives do we enable the Spirit of God to renew and transform our world in God’s life and love.

We cannot belong to the company of Jesus unless we embrace the Crucified One’s spirit of selfless servanthood; we cannot stand with the Crucified Jesus unless we unconditionally and completely love and forgive others as he did; we cannot hope to share in the victory of the Risen Christ unless we "crucify" our fears, self-consciousness and prejudices that blind us from seeing him in the faces of every human being.

So my friends, I stand here before you at this pulpit and my question is to you and of course for me today...Who do you say that Jesus is? Of course, he is the Christ. But what does that mean to you? Do you want a Jesus for anything other than what he is? Are you looking for Jesus the healer? Who will always cure your diseases? Are you looking for Jesus the therapist? Who will help you work out all your “issues”? Are you seeking Jesus the job-provider, Jesus the child-rearing-advice-giver, Jesus the marriage counsellor, a Jesus who comes to simply solve your problems and answer your questions? Then you will not find him.

But in his word, and in his sacraments, you will find Jesus who is the Christ. And a Christ of the cross. A Jesus who suffered and died, for your forgiveness, a Jesus who rose from death to guarantee you life, a Jesus who ascended to heaven to rule for you there, and a Jesus who will come again to bring final victory and peace. A Jesus on his terms, not ours. A Jesus who deals with sin, the root of all our other problems. A Christ that we need, not that we think we want.

Nor do we come to this answer on our own. It is God who shows us, leads us, and brings us to faith by his Spirit. He gives the answer that we confess. We confess, like Peter, in our words, who Jesus is and what he has done. “Jesus Christ, God’s only Son our Lord… who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died, was buried, descended into Hell, rose on the third day, ascended into heaven, sits at God’s right hand, and one day will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Asking the right question is important. So is getting the right answer.
“Who is Jesus?” “He is the Christ.” “What kind of Christ?” “A Christ of the Cross – a Saviour from sin – your saviour and mine.” Good questions, and good answers – all given by God.

Amen.

Written by Br Simeon

Preached by Br Luke

Third Sunday in Advent Year B - Br. Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Holy Redeemer

An ECCA Parish

In the care of the Ecumenical Franciscan Order

Homily preached at Warrimoo on  Sunday 14th December 2014:

THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. Year B.

Readings: Old Testament Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11; 

Psalm 126,

Epistle 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28; 

Gospel John 1:6-8,19-28

 http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=285346748

Why are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor the Prophet nor Elijah?

Although year B is the year in which we read through the Gospel of Mark, today our Gospel reading comes from John because we need to hear something about the other John, the Baptizer, that only this John wrote because he was one of two of Jesus’ disciples who were also disciples of John the Baptizer and had to be there at the time.

Writing here about 40 years after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, John the Evangelist introduces John son of Zachariah as a witness who came to testify to the Light to all who would believe in the Light. Most importantly this John tells us that the other John, the Baptizer, is not the Light. And this is the very first thing John the Baptizer himself tells those sent by the Pharisees when they came to ask him whether he was the Messiah.

The Gospel says “He confessed and did not deny that he was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Light”, there were those ready to proclaim him Messiah, St Luke tells us that people were full of expectation and nurtured the hope in their hearts than John was the Messiah – Luke 3:15, that is why John the Baptizer was so emphatic in his denial that he was the Messiah, the Light just mentioned by the Evangelist.

So who are the other two?

The Priests and Levites then ask John whether he is Elijah or the Prophet. “Neither” he says.

At their request he explains who he is and what he is doing, ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I, is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matthew 3:11)

 The Prophet Malachi (4:5,6) foretold that before, the time of the final destruction of the Jewish city, temple, and commonwealth, he would send Elijah back to preach repentance and reformation before the Lord sent His consuming fire. The fact that John’s preaching had been so much like Elijah’s is what had drawn them all out into the desert to confess their sins and to be baptized.

Was John the Baptizer really Elijah? St Luke tells us that John came in the Spirit and Power of Elijah, John was like Elijah, but not Elijah, in Luke I: 17 he says 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he (John) will go before him (Jesus), to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ This echoes the verses from Malachi chapter 4 that I paraphrased above concerning the end of the Jewish Commonwealth in 70 AD.

As for “the Prophet” he was the One “Like Moses”-(Deuteronomy18:15-18) Jesus combined the offices of prophet, priest, leader, and deliverer. Which none of those subsequent to Moses did; we can easily see that Jesus is like Moses, Moses who was the Archetypal prophet, the mould none others save Jesus could fill. The lives of Jesus and Moses shared many similarities. They were both delivered from death as infants, both were prophets. Both performed miracles. Both were leaders. And both were willing to die for the sins of others. Moses offered to die, if it became necessary, so that God would forgive the sins of the people that Moses was leading (see Exodus 32:30-33), although God did not accept his offer – Jesus did die for our sins so that people might enter the kingdom of heaven.

As though looking through a time tunnel, we now view the coming Saviour from the steps of Mount Horeb and the Lord said

“18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.”

Then move onward through the prophet Isaiah as he predicts the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon… Take a few seconds to re-read the first verse of the Old Testament Reading.

These very words are read by Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth as recorded in Luke 4:21 and afterwards as he rolled the Scroll up again he began to say to them, Today that very Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ I am He who will bring to you Good News, Healing, Freedom and Enlightenment, as is the summary of Isaiah 61:1

 If you listened carefully to the reading as Isaiah foretells the release of the Jews by Cyrus in order that they return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple and restore the city to its former grandeur, it is exactly the opposite to what is to happen after both the likeness of Elijah and Moses have been among the Jews.

As we can’t help knowing, verse 9 of Isaiah 61 did not come to pass if the Jewish people had clung to the Lord in obedience once returning to Judah and then had accepted Jesus as saviour when he arrived they likely would not have had to flee from the destruction of their Commonwealth.

It is believed that Psalm 126 was written by Ezra after the return to Judah

It was so amazing that Cyrus should dismiss such a number of captives without money and without ransom, that he should issue a decree for them to return to their own country, and to rebuild their city and temple, and especially that he should send them home loaded with presents, Ezra 1:1-4; this was nothing other than the work of Yahweh, who could only in this way “turn the captivity of Zion”

Those who were returned at this time where the faithful few we could say somewhat akin to the Thessalonians now awaiting the second coming of our Saviour, notice the similarity in the final verses of the Old Testament Reading and the Psalm – they are in accord, gardens can be references to Paradise.

Paul speaks quietly and reassuringly to the Thessalonians, speaking to them of the various types of ministry and labour appropriate to Christian Mission, of the expected demeanour of subordinate to superior and or brother to brother. Not stifling the Spirit nor being heedless of the Prophets, to remain as Jesus had left the believers sanctified, sound in body, mind and spirit and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To make this Epistle known to others…

And so we are through the time tunnel and let us end our race with the promises with which we began. John 1:26b,27  "John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’"

 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

20th Sunday after Pentecost- Br. Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached at Winmalee

by Br Andrew on 26th October 2014

20th Sunday after Pentecost

Whose Son Is the Christ?

Readings

Gospel Matthew 22:34-46

Psalm 110 Jewish Orthodox Bible

Gideon was very young to have become a Lawyer but had done very well at his studies and he had recently graduated at the top of his class from the College in the Portico of Solomon, even though only seventeen years of age; Gideon was most eager to make his name.

Well, he thought, making Jesus look a fool might work in his favour, though to date no one else had succeeded. He had hardly had the chance to think of a curly question when a dig propelled him forward and one of the Pharisees hissed “ask him which is the great commandment in the Law?’  That is not fair, thought Gideon, there is no way that Jesus will manage to answer correctly by quoting just a single commandment because all the commandments have equal weight, we are to walk in obedience to all the Lord our God has commanded us..

Gideon had witnessed the Pharisees, and their ilk question Jesus relentlessly regarding the Law, the Jews thought him to be a mere man, and the carpenter's son. The Pharisees thought that he rejected the fixed moral Laws of their time, a libertine, a loose, and licentious person, that had no regard to the law, and good works: hence those words of his, "think not that I am come to destroy the law", Yea, they thought him to be a Samaritan, and be possessed, and to cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.

Nevertheless, I went ahead, most respectfully, addressing Jesus as “Teacher” and asked the question.

Jesus replied by summarising the first 4 commandments those concerning the relationship between ourselves and God, all in one sentence! Then he said that the second was like it and summarised the remaining 6 commandments relating to the way we treat each other in another sentence. As an Attorney of the Torah I just have to admit that Jesus knows his Scripture because the sum of the Law and the prophets do depend upon the keeping of those two great commandments.

We were still gathered there, wondering what would happen next when Jesus asked the Pharisees a question: he asked them what they thought about the Christ, the anointed one and whose son he was.

Everyone, well almost everyone knows that the Christ will be the son of David and so Samuel, he that had shoved me forward said just that, the Christ will be the son of David. Then when Jesus quotes the scripture further I realise he quotes from the fifth book of the Psalms, Psalm 110 to be exact a Messianic Psalm, where King David wrote in the Spirit:

44“‘The Lord said to my Lord,

(NB Galatinus (q) says the true Targum of Jonathan has it, "the Lord said to his Word;'')

“Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

There was no Lord greater than David then, so where is the son that David would call his Lord? There was Solomon he had called his Song of Songs, only the Christ is worthy to be named David’s Lord and to sit on the right hand on high.

Now I am ashamed because I begin to fear that I have asked the author of the Law to explain it as though he were a nothing, a sinner– which is just what both Sadducees and Pharisees believe – someone to get rid of before the current corrupt system comes undone.

Here are the first three verses of this psalm, the way I learnt it and perhaps you might understand it more easily – it goes

1 A Psalm of David. HaShem saith unto my lord(Adoni) 'Sit thou at My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.'

2 The rod of Thy strength HaShem will send out of Zion: 'Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

'As you can hear there is no mistake what so ever that God Hashem, the Name, is speaking to Adoni; David’s Lord (the Messiah) who is the son of David, the Christ.

Should Jesus imply that this Psalm applies to himself then perhaps I have seen the face of God and live!

Gideon leaves stunned

The debate was over. Jesus had won decisively (cf. 22:46). But, of course, this only hardened the opposition and brought the crisis to a head. The crucifixion was, in the minds of the religious leaders, to be their final response.

After that they durst not ask him anymore: - But the answer is given to us later in the New Testament by the apostle Paul. For Paul writes to the Romans that he has been called by God into the service of the Gospel to announce, the good news concerning God's Son, "who was descended from David according to the flesh and was acknowledged to be the Son of God in power . . . by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:3-4). Jesus himself is the son of David who was at the same time David's lord.

Many attested to this throughout Jesus’ Ministry, the Canaanite woman, the two blind men blind Bartimaeus, and the crowds in the temple, when he overthrew the tables, who sang Hosanna to the Son of David.

I have counted Psalm 110:1, no less than 17 times in 12 different books of the New Testament, it is a Psalm that refers 1000 years into the future from David’s time and continues until the return of the Messiah, unknown years from now. In one sense it encapsulates the scriptures themselves, for there are so many references to it, it is used as a proof and an explanation or as part of a sermon in so many places, such as when Peter quoted Psalm 110:1 in his sermon on Pentecost:  “now that the Christ sits at the right hand of Power all other things will come to pass in God’s time.”

Some are overcome already by him, as sin, Satan, and the world; and the Jews, his enemies, who refused his Kingship, they have been destroyed: as yet all things are not beneath his feet, these will be; the antichrist, and the kings of the earth that are with him, they will be overcome by him; the beast and false prophet will be taken and cast into the lake of fire; where also the old serpent, the devil, after he has been bound and loosed, will be  also be hurled; and when the final enemy, death, shall be destroyed; until that time comes, Christ reigns and will reign, and afterwards too, even to all eternity…

I have passed around the Orthodox Jewish Bible’s version of Psalm 110 for us to think on, and to consider that in our hands is the ability to reduce the numbers of those who will suffer the wrath of the Messiah – merely by the witness of our living.

Amen

God's Vineyard

 

GOD’S VINEYARD

Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, 2014

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the

Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

The text for our sermon today is the First Reading 

- Isaiah5:1-7

Dear friends in Christ,

God had called Judah and Jerusalem to be His in a special way by promising that the Messiah would come into the world through them. Already in Genesis, God promised that the Saviour was to come from Judah (Genesis 49:10). Later, the temple in Jerusalem was a symbol of God’s presence with His people and a reminder of His promises.

Without His promise of the Saviour, God would not have called Israel from Egypt, given them a land of their own, and established a worship centre for His people in Jerusalem’s temple. The rich promise of God brings a response. When Isaiah considered the promises of God, he encouraged the people of his day to walk in the light of the Lord. To walk in the light is to know the light, to recognise it, and then to follow the path that it illuminates.

 The psalmist wrote,

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105).

Sadly, in Isaiah’s time, God’s people rejected His promises. Instead, they adopted “superstitions from the East” rather than walking in the light of God’s Word. They had become like the Philistines and their pagan neighbours in consulting omens and soothsayers.

 Where God offered light, the house of Jacob had adopted darkness. Isaiah had called them “the house of Jacob,” reminding his Old Testament audience of all the promises of God to them. However, many of the people rejected all those promises, and so God grew weary and threatened them with punishment.

Nevertheless, after the threats of punishment, God also spoke words of comfort to the faithful. Yes, the judgments would come, but those faithful who remained among the unfaithful nation would find comfort in the beautiful promises of cleansing and protection. The alternating pattern of threat and comfort was nothing more than God’s proclamation of law and gospel. The law threatens the ungodly as well as the sinful flesh of every believer.

 The ungodly dismiss the threat and continue without heeding it. No matter how much God threatens the ungodly, they will not fear Him, while the godly hears the same threats and recognises the voice of God condemning the sinful flesh. The believer trembles at his sin and its consequences. He stands completely at the mercy of God, knowing that he deserves nothing but death and eternal damnation. He is sorrowful to the point of death. But God does not leave any believer in that condition. No, God is good, and He speaks words of forgiveness, love, and hope to those drowning in sin. God has been good to us - not only to us but also to Christians who have gone before us. Throughout history God has revealed Himself to be good and gracious. The question therefore comes to mind: if God has been and is so good to us, why do we have such a hard time being good to God? This is how the people in Isaiah’s time were. So Isaiah reveals a skilfully developed parable to make clear Israel’s failure to carry out the purposes for which God had chosen her. Isaiah can’t help but break forth in song.

1 Let me sing to the One whom I love a song of the One whom I love about His vineyard! The One whom I love had a vineyard on a fertile hilltop. 

2 He dug it over, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watch-tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine-vat in it.

If we look ahead into the New Testament, it is as if Jesus were using this parable as a text for His parable of the vineyard in Matthew 21:33-46, our Gospel reading for today.

Isaiah sings of the Lord’s effort in creating a vineyard. The Lord did everything. He chose the ideal location, prepared the soil, planted the best vines, and built a watch-tower and a wine-vat. If any question remained about the effort of God, one only needs to think of the stones of Palestine. In that part of the world, clearing the land of stones required a great deal of toil and sweat for any gardener. Cutting out a wine-vat and building a watch-tower were also arduous tasks for any one preparing a vineyard. 

The song is a parable that emphasises the grace of God. God initiates; God acts; God works - no one else. When God acts, results follow. The vineyard sits atop a fertile hillside where it will get rain and sunshine.

 All is ready for an abundant harvest. Yet, in spite of the tender care given to the vines, which represent the children of Israel, it only produced bad grapes. God was good to them, but they were not good to God. They did not fulfil the purpose for which God called them. 

This lead God to ask: “Now, you people living in Jerusalem and you men of Judah, decide, please, between Me and My vineyard!  What more should have been done for My vineyard than I have already done in it? When I waited for it to produce grapes, why did it produce only bad grapes? God, the owner of the vineyard, tells what kind of fruit He had a right to expect from the people of Jerusalem. “What more should have been done?” God asks. His second question is, “Why?” 

Both questions were addressed to Jerusalem and Judah. But the people gave no answer because they knew that God was accusing them. They failed to produce the good fruits. In spite of all that God’s grace had done for them, they turned away from Him and pursued pleasure and evil. When God expected fruits of faith like love, gentleness, humility, faith, and reverence, the people yielded a crop of perversion, gluttony, arrogance, greed, and mockery.

Although God expended great effort in creating this vineyard, He would destroy it. This vineyard could not be helped by being pruned or cultivated. It is past saving. God will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down. The time for God’s judgment has arrived. The vineyard will become a wasteland where briars and thorn-bushes will grow up. The judgment will be so thorough that the Lord will command the clouds not to let any rain fall on it. One should not forget the implications of that comment. 

God controls all things, even the forces of nature, and He will use all things to accomplish His purposes.

This parable presents a short, poignant history lesson. God had created the people of Israel and Judah. God had chosen Abraham, had made Abraham’s descendants into a mighty nation when He led them out of Egypt under Moses, and had protected them as they conquered the land and established a monarchy under David and Solomon. But things had changed. God’s people had deserted their gracious Lord, and God would deal with those who had scorned His grace, patience, and goodness, and the people would be led away into captivity.

 Not much has changed between then and now. It is so tragic to see, even within our own church, more and more of God’s people deserting Him. Many whom God has called through Holy Baptism no longer heed the Word of God. They too are like vines producing bad grapes, and they will only have themselves to blame when the kingdom of God is taken away from (them) (Matt. 21:43).

 By the way, their producing of bad grapes is not the result of bad soil. In the vineyard Isaiah was speaking of, there was nothing wrong with the soil. In fact, the Hebrew for ‘fertile hilltop’ literally means “on a horn, a son of oil.” This phrase, used only here in the Old Testament, describes a geological  formation that is wonderfully fertile. It is into this good, fertile soil, Isaiah says, that Jesus places and plants choice vines. Not only did the vines represent the children of Israel, but they also represent you and me. We are the crown of His creation! We are somebody because God made us and because Jesus died and rose for us. Peter says that “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light,” (1 Peter 2:9).

The Lord expects us to produce good fruit. He expects us to be productive. That’s why Isaiah says He “also cut out a wine-vat in it.” A wine-vat was the place where the good grapes were pressed together to make wine. The wine-vat was the gathering place for the harvest. When the good fruit was produced, the harvest was gathered. The Lord wants us to be good to Him. He wants us to trust in Him in everything. He wants us to show forth the fruit of the Spirit in our everyday lives, that is, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, (Gal. 5:22). But we cannot produce this good fruit if we, like those Israelites, stop feeding on God’s Word, and turn to the world. If we do that, then we can expect judgement. God says, “5 Now therefore, please let Me inform you what I shall do to My vineyard! I shall tear away its hedge and it will be destroyed. I shall break down its wall, and it will be trampled down. 6 I shall make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or cultivated. Briars and thorn-bushes will grow up. I shall also command the clouds not to let any rain fall on it.” 

In other words, God says: “All you are yielding is bad fruit, and if bad fruit is all you have to give, then bad fruit is what you will get in return! I’m taking away my blessings and My protection!” What a horrible situation to find oneself in! What are we to do? If we have let the love of God grow cold in our hearts, if we have been producing bad grapes, then what now? 

The simple answer is to repent. Seek the Lord while He may be found (Is 55:6), and if you know of others who have wandered from the faith, remind them of the coming judgment, when everyone will stand before the Lord. Remind them that it is still not too late to repent. Use God’s Law to prune, and His Gospel to raise new shoots that go on to produce good fruit. Remind them of the promise God makes in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land!”

May we all in the words of the Apostle Paul, “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, (Phil.3:14), and pray that we continue to produce good fruit in His name. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Sermon Extra-2-At the Well

Jesus and Samaritan at Jacob's well

Third Sunday in Lent Year A

23rd March 2014

Reading 1 Exodus 17:1-7

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 95

reading 2 Romans 5:1-11

Gospel John 4:5-42

Readings here

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,

near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob’s well was there.

Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.

It was about noon.

A woman
of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,

“Give me a drink.”

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him,

“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”

—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—

Jesus answered and said to her,

“If you knew the gift of God

and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘

you would have asked him

and he would have given you living water.”

The woman said to him,

“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;

where then can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob,

who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself

with his children and his flocks?”

Jesus answered and said to her,

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;

but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;

the water I shall give will become in him

a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him,

“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty

or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus
said to her,

“Go call your husband and come back.”

The woman answered and said to him,

“I do not have a husband.”

Jesus answered her,

Jesus answered her,

“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’

For you have had five husbands,

and the one you have now is not your husband.

What you have said is true.”

The woman said to him,

“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;

but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus said to her,

“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming

when you will worship the Father

neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You people worship what you do not understand;

we worship what we understand,

because salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and is now here,

when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and
truth;

and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

God is Spirit, and those who worship him

must worship in Spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him,

“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;

when he comes, he will tell us everything.”

Jesus said to her,

“I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that
moment his disciples returned,

and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,

but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”

or “Why are you talking with her?”

The woman left her water jar

and went into the town and said to the people,

“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.

Could he possibly be the Christ?”

They went out of the town and came to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”

But he said to them,

“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

So the disciples said to one another,

“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

Jesus said to them,

“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me

and to finish his work.

Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?

I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.

The reaper is already receiving payment

and gathering crops for eternal life,

so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another
reaps.’

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;

others have done the work,

and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

Many of
the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him

because of the word of the woman who testified,

“He told me everything I have done.”

When the Samaritans came to him,

they invited him to stay with them;

and he stayed there two days.

Many more began to believe in him because of his word,

and they said to the woman,

“We no longer believe because of your word;

for we have heard for ourselves,

and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

A woman
of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,"Give me a
drink". 

Thus
begins the dialogue between Jesus and a Samaritan woman, in
which Jesus promises her “living water” which will last
eternally. This idea of “living water” is often taken as being
the main theme of this passage, or at least one of them, and
rightly so.

But for me, the fact that this encounter takes place at a well
puts the whole story in a different light. I am reminded of
other stories, Old Testament stories where the well was a place
for romance and courtship! Specifically, it was at a well that
two of the great love stories of the Book of Genesis began:
Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Rachel. (Jacob, of course, is
mentioned three times in this Gospel text) .

In the case of Isaac, it was actually a servant sent by his father
Abraham who did the courting. [Genesis ch.24]. Abraham, as you
probably know, had been called by God to leave his homeland and
settle in the land of Canaan, but he dearly wished that his son
should marry a woman from among his own people – from among his
own kin, in fact. When the servant reaches his destination, he
stations himself by the well outside the city, in the evening
when the women will come to draw water. He prays urgently to God
that the young woman from whom he asks for a drink of water
(note the parallel with today’s Gospel!) will be the one whom
God has chosen for Isaac. This, of course, means she has to
fulfil Abraham’s requirement that she should be a close
kinswoman. The story continues:

There was
Rebekah …with her water jar on her shoulder. The girl was very
fair to look upon, a virgin, whom no man had known. She went
down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. Then the
servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me sip a little
water from your jar. “ “Drink, my lord,” she said. (vv
16-18a).Of course, it turns out that God has answered the
servant’s prayer: the girl is the daughter of Abraham’s brother.
After the negotiations are over, she leaves her home – with her
consent, mind – and goes with the servant to Canaan. When Isaac
meets her, we are told simply that “he took Rebekah, and she
became his wife, and he loved her.” (v. 67).

In the
case of Jacob, once again his father wants him to marry a girl
from among his own kinsfolk, and in this case, Jacob himself
goes a-courting. [Gen. ch. 29]. He arrives at his destination,
and again waits at a well. He enquires of some men there about
his uncle, Laban – this time, it is a relative on his mother’s
side – and, the story continues:

While he
was still speaking to them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep,
for she kept them. Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of
his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s
brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the
well’s mouth, and watered the flock… then Jacob kissed Rachel,
and wept aloud. (vv. 9-11)This time, Jacob doesn’t return home,
but – as we all know – he agrees to work for Laban for seven
years in return for Rachel’s hand in marriage. At the end of the
seven years, Laban tricks Jacob into marrying his elder
daughter, Leah, instead – so Jacob works yet another seven years
to win Rachel. How’s that for true love?

Back to
the Samaritan woman at the well: one curious section of the
dialogue is the discussion about the woman’s “husband”, when
Jesus informs her that she has had five husbands and her present
one is not her real one (4:16-18). I always found this to be a
rather jarring note, until I did a Bible Study course some years
ago. The teacher was Michael Trainor, a priest (of the best
kind!) as well as a respected New Testament scholar. He pointed
out that in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), the word
“husband” was associated with God. God was often depicted by
means of the metaphor of the “husband”, married to his beloved
Israel.

I have
always loved that image. It can be found in some of the
loveliest poetry in the Old Testament, such as in the following
passage from Isaiah. The context is God’s promise of the
restitution of Israel after the Babylonian exile:

You shall
no more be termed Forsaken/ And your land shall no more be
termed Desolate/ but you shall be called My Delight is in Her/
and your land, Married/ for the Lord delights in you,/ and your
land shall be married./ For as a young man marries a young
woman,/ so shall your builder marry you,/ and as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride,/ so shall your God rejoice over you.
(Is.62:4-5) This certainly makes sense of Jesus’ mention of
“husbands” in his conversation with the Samaritan woman. Jesus
is proposing a new “marriage” to her, a marriage with the God
whom he himself knows so intimately.

In the book of Genesis, when the Israelite nation was just
coming into being, it was important for the patriarchs Isaac and
Jacob to marry within their own kinship group. But now, anyone
and everyone can be drawn into union with God, even across lines
that separate people, such as Jews and Samaritans.

What’s more, humans will no longer be one step removed from God,
as it were – as a result of formal worship, be it in the Temple
or on the Samaritan mountain or wherever else. God now wants us
to worship “in Spirit and truth”. Each person can be intimately
and personally embraced by God.

It’s a love story that continues to this day.

Somehow I
felt this reflection needed a beautiful art work to illustrate
it. I came across a photo of a lovely and rather unusual
sculpture by Stephen Broadbent entitled “The
Water of Life”.

by CathyT ,
Adelaide, South Australia, Friday, March 21, 2014, 17:59

Sermon Extra 1 - Messiah Means

Ludovico Carracci [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

What does Messiah mean?

Addition to Sermon on Transfiguration

(Y-not question the Sunday Readings)
by Beehive  , Brigadoon West Australia, Tuesday, March 18, 2014, 20:26
Ynot:-

www.catholica.com.au

No, the scriptures are the apostles' way of telling what they saw and heard, and their way of saying how their conviction developed and grew and became clear and definite. How they progressed from Yes and No, to certainty. And they do not apologise for saying that conviction came from the Most High.

"This is my beloved son listen to him."

This phrase is the critical element of the transfiguration episode. 

It also surfaces In one of the Gospels at the baptism of Yeshua at the Jordan. A voice from heaven saying the same thing.

Even though Peter gets a bad press for his three tents, this vision or whatever it was, had revealed something unexpected about Yeshua . They expressed it as seeing his "glory".

What does glory mean? If Yeshua had just kicked the winning goal in the grand final that clinched the premiership, we would understand. There was something great about him not realised until this moment.

The hidden talent of champions is inside them. A champion is the sum of his parts.
We don't actually know the fullness of this talent until we have watched him reach his peak and is on his way out. We can only judge, compare and rank a champion among others in the hindsight of history.
This mountain top encounter had a profound effect on Peter. Towards the end of his life he wrote about it in glowing terms in one of his epistles.

These words of YHWH whom Yeshua called "father" clinched Peter's hunch that Yeshua was the Messiah.

These words for Peter were the final missing piece of the prophetic jigsaw that connected Yeshua and Yahweh in the promised father and son relationship. This was the missing messiah ingredient.

Yahweh's prophecy to David that he would raise up a descendant to whom he would give an everlasting kingdom contained the ingredient "I will be his father, and he will be my son". 

In itself, this could not have possibly been interpreted, or understood in those days to mean that the messiah would be Yahewh!

Nor does it have any connection with Atonement theology , or Trinity,..... It is a simile. But a very unique and essential one, when considered again in hindsight of what Yeshua was called to endure.

In later life Peter recognised this as the final bit of understanding that convinced him that Yeshua was the Anointed. This encounter allowed Sophia to get through to Peter with the gift of "knowledge", and from then on he saw Yeshua's "glory", that is his full identity as the Anointed one.

We must never get ahead of ourselves with a revelation like this. "Messiah" has to be understood within the context of the times, and within the confines of the information about it before 27AD.

We do have the advantage of hindsight in examining this concept.
But we also have to keep the rules:- Investigate all and only its elements that were available to that Jewish community before that moment in history. It then has to be evaluated only within those confines. An entity is only the sum of its parts.

"Messiah" is the sum of all its predictions given to Israel before 6BC. Nothing else can be added, or taken away from it. Any messianic teaching that exceeds those parts is patently erroneous.

To find out the ingredients, graces and limitations of the promised messiah, one has to return and surf the Old Testament. It is surprising what it actually brings up! It is a living, amazing series of revelations.
Beehive

Brian Pitts