30th Sunday of Year A

John, Paul, George, and Ringo, are not exactly what one might call theologians, but the title of their 1967 hit, ‘All You Need is Love’ does seem (at one level) to encapsulate the message of this morning’s readings. Our first reading from Exodus goes into detail regarding how we should treat others. Questions such as how we should we live and how we treat the weak and the marginalised are important as they demonstrate how we put our faith into practice in our lives. 

Sojourners are temporary residents, refugees, and as such they live in a precarious situation: they lack rights that citizens have and thus are weak and powerless. They can be easily mistreated. A society can, and will, be judged by how it treats those who are weak. Likewise widows and orphans are in a vulnerable position. Clear instructions are given by Moses to safeguard the poor, the economically vulnerable, who are not to be exposed to interest or lose the cloak off their back. 

All human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and are thus imbued with a fundamental dignity, and with rights. This is the foundation of human society, and it is the will of God. Any society must be judged on how it treats the weak, the vulnerable, the marginalised, and the poor. These words remain as true for us today as when they were spoken three thousand years ago. They should cause us to reflect on how the society in which we live functions. Are we loving and generous towards the weak and vulnerable? 

Love and generosity are at the heart of St Paul’s advice to the Thessalonian Christians. As he says to them:

‘But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.’ (1Thess 2:7)

Paul’s treatment of people mirrors God’s treatment of us. Loving care and generosity are at the heart of the proclamation of the Christian Faith. Paul lives his faith out in practice, nourishing his offspring, and helping them to grow in faith and love. 

In today’s Gospel the questioning of Jesus in the Temple continues. The Pharisees send a legal expert to put Jesus to the test, to see whether His understanding of the Law of Moses is correct. And so the lawyer asks:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Mt 22:36)

There are 613 commandments contained within Genesis to Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible. Clearly the question of which is the most important should be answered. And so Jesus replies:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 22:37-40)

The first commandment Jesus mentions can be found in Deuteronomy 6:5. It forms part of the Shema, which begins, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one…’. This is recited every morning and evening by Jews when they pray. It defines who God is, and how we should relate to Him. We are to love God because God loves us and cares for us. God’s love makes demands of us, and requires all that we are, or think, or do to be motivated by love of God. 

Jesus then adds a second commandment, taken from Leviticus 19:18, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ This means loving our neighbours and ourselves as God loves us, with the same costly and generous love that our Creator has for us. Jesus cuts right to the heart of the Old Covenant to show that what he is teaching is the fulfilment rather than the abolition of the Law and the Prophets. We know from elsewhere in the Gospels that when someone asks the follow-up question, Our Lord tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, to show what costly love in action looks like. 

It is a big ask: in Leviticus God says ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’ (Lev 19:2) As people created in the image of God, we are called to be holy, to be like God, to live out this love and holiness in our lives, in what we say and do, and in how we treat people. It is something we do together, as the body of Christ in the world. It is the work of a community and the work of a lifetime to put this love into practice in our lives. It sounds deceptively simple, but is very hard when we try to do it. We will fail, but the point is that God does not stop loving us, so we should not stop trying to love our God, our neighbour, or ourselves. 

Soon in the Gospel narrative Jesus will be tried and sentenced to die upon a Cross. This will, in fact, be the greatest demonstration possible of God’s love for humanity. Jesus shows us how much God loves His people by dying for them. Love is at the heart of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God, and it is central to His understanding of Scripture, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 22:40). Our relationship with God and each other informs both who we are and how we act. We love God when we worship Him, when we listen to what He says and obey Him. We love our neighbour through living out the love and forgiveness which we have received through Christ, by showing the same love and care which Christ shows to us, in giving Himself to die for us, and to be raised to give us the hope of eternal life with Him.

Then it is Jesus’ turn to ask questions of the Pharisees, and so He asks about the Messiah, whom the Pharisees identify as the Son of David. This leads Him to ask: 

“How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit at my right hand,

    until I put your enemies under your feet’?

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” (Mt 22:43-45)

Jesus uses the Pharisees’ way of interpreting Scripture against them. As Christians we understand that Jesus is Lord, He is God, Son of God, and Son of David. Jesus puts an end to the questions and tests his inquisitors by showing who and what He is, something He will further demonstrate in His Passion, Death and Resurrection. 

God demonstrates His love for us, so that we be transformed by that love, filled with it, so that it can affect who we are and how we live. We live it out together, as a community, strengthening each other, building each other up in love, praying for our needs and those of the whole world. To do this we rely upon the God who loves us, and who gives Himself for us, transforming us by His Grace. 

So let us come to Him, so that we can be transformed more and more into His likeness, and invite others to so that they too may believe and give Glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now and forever. Amen. 

30th Sunday of Year A

John, Paul, George, and Ringo, are not exactly what one might call theologians, but the title of their 1967 hit, ‘All You Need is Love’ does seem (at one level) to encapsulate the message of this morning’s readings. Our first reading from Exodus goes into detail regarding how we should treat others. Questions such as how we should we live and how we treat the weak and the marginalised are important as they demonstrate how we put our faith into practice in our lives. 

Sojourners are temporary residents, refugees, and as such they live in a precarious situation: they lack rights that citizens have and thus are weak and powerless. They can be easily mistreated. A society can, and will, be judged by how it treats those who are weak. Likewise widows and orphans are in a vulnerable position. Clear instructions are given by Moses to safeguard the poor, the economically vulnerable, who are not to be exposed to interest or lose the cloak off their back. 

All human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and are thus imbued with a fundamental dignity, and with rights. This is the foundation of human society, and it is the will of God. Any society must be judged on how it treats the weak, the vulnerable, the marginalised, and the poor. These words remain as true for us today as when they were spoken three thousand years ago. They should cause us to reflect on how the society in which we live functions. Are we loving and generous towards the weak and vulnerable? 

Love and generosity are at the heart of St Paul’s advice to the Thessalonian Christians. As he says to them:

‘But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.’ (1Thess 2:7)

Paul’s treatment of people mirrors God’s treatment of us. Loving care and generosity are at the heart of the proclamation of the Christian Faith. Paul lives his faith out in practice, nourishing his offspring, and helping them to grow in faith and love. 

In today’s Gospel the questioning of Jesus in the Temple continues. The Pharisees send a legal expert to put Jesus to the test, to see whether His understanding of the Law of Moses is correct. And so the lawyer asks:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Mt 22:36)

There are 613 commandments contained within Genesis to Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible. Clearly the question of which is the most important should be answered. And so Jesus replies:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 22:37-40)

The first commandment Jesus mentions can be found in Deuteronomy 6:5. It forms part of the Shema, which begins, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one…’. This is recited every morning and evening by Jews when they pray. It defines who God is, and how we should relate to Him. We are to love God because God loves us and cares for us. God’s love makes demands of us, and requires all that we are, or think, or do to be motivated by love of God. 

Jesus then adds a second commandment, taken from Leviticus 19:18, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ This means loving our neighbours and ourselves as God loves us, with the same costly and generous love that our Creator has for us. Jesus cuts right to the heart of the Old Covenant to show that what he is teaching is the fulfilment rather than the abolition of the Law and the Prophets. We know from elsewhere in the Gospels that when someone asks the follow-up question, Our Lord tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, to show what costly love in action looks like. 

It is a big ask: in Leviticus God says ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’ (Lev 19:2) As people created in the image of God, we are called to be holy, to be like God, to live out this love and holiness in our lives, in what we say and do, and in how we treat people. It is something we do together, as the body of Christ in the world. It is the work of a community and the work of a lifetime to put this love into practice in our lives. It sounds deceptively simple, but is very hard when we try to do it. We will fail, but the point is that God does not stop loving us, so we should not stop trying to love our God, our neighbour, or ourselves. 

Soon in the Gospel narrative Jesus will be tried and sentenced to die upon a Cross. This will, in fact, be the greatest demonstration possible of God’s love for humanity. Jesus shows us how much God loves His people by dying for them. Love is at the heart of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God, and it is central to His understanding of Scripture, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 22:40). Our relationship with God and each other informs both who we are and how we act. We love God when we worship Him, when we listen to what He says and obey Him. We love our neighbour through living out the love and forgiveness which we have received through Christ, by showing the same love and care which Christ shows to us, in giving Himself to die for us, and to be raised to give us the hope of eternal life with Him.

Then it is Jesus’ turn to ask questions of the Pharisees, and so He asks about the Messiah, whom the Pharisees identify as the Son of David. This leads Him to ask: 

“How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit at my right hand,

    until I put your enemies under your feet’?

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” (Mt 22:43-45)

Jesus uses the Pharisees’ way of interpreting Scripture against them. As Christians we understand that Jesus is Lord, He is God, Son of God, and Son of David. Jesus puts an end to the questions and tests his inquisitors by showing who and what He is, something He will further demonstrate in His Passion, Death and Resurrection. 

God demonstrates His love for us, so that we be transformed by that love, filled with it, so that it can affect who we are and how we live. We live it out together, as a community, strengthening each other, building each other up in love, praying for our needs and those of the whole world. To do this we rely upon the God who loves us, and who gives Himself for us, transforming us by His Grace. 

So let us come to Him, so that we can be transformed more and more into His likeness, and invite others to so that they too may believe and give Glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now and forever. Amen. 

29th Sunday of Yr A

Our first reading this morning from the prophet Isaiah is positive and hopeful. The people of Israel have been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, but now there is the possibility of freedom . The Persian King, Cyrus will let the exiles return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the Temple. The passage is a testament to the sovereignty of God:

‘I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God’ (Isa 45:5)

God can use a secular ruler, such as Cyrus, to bring about the flourishing and freedom of His people. However, as much as we can respect authority, it is clear that our first duty is towards God, to love Him, and serve Him.

This is exactly what the original recipients of Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians have been doing. They have ‘turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come’ (1Thess 1:9-10). 

Our gospel this morning is all about a denarius, it is a small silver coin, about ¾ of an inch in diameter, the size of a modern 5p, or a penny. It was a day’s wage, the pay given to the labourers in the vineyard. A denarius was worth about £75 in today’s money and was the cost of the Roman Poll Tax. It’s amazing that such a small coin could have such a great value.

The conflict with religious authorities which has characterised our recent readings from the Gospel continues today with a wrangle over words. The Pharisees come to see Jesus with their students along with Herodians, supporters of Herod the Great, who were very much in favour of Roman rule. 

The Pharisees begin the conversation with flattery, trying to butter Jesus up:

“Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.” (Mt 22:16) 

And at one level they are completely right, Jesus is not interested in opinions or appearances. What matters is reality: how you really are, in all truth and honesty. This is what matters to God, not how we appear, but how we really are. 

So the Pharisees ask their question:

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Mt 22:17)

If Jesus says, ‘no’ then He will be allying himself with the zealots, religious extremists, and making a provocative political statement for which Jesus can be denounced to the authorities. On the other hand, if Jesus says, ‘yes’ then the Pharisees can write Him off as a collaborator with the Romans, and show that He is not one of us, not a real prophet, or a true son of Israel. All the Pharisees are interested in is understanding what Jesus says in political terms. Their opening pleasantries ring hollow, they don’t mean what they say. The point of their question is not to discover the truth, but to discover a way to denounce Jesus as either a zealot or a collaborator.

Thankfully, Our Lord is aware of their scheme, and so asks them,

“Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. (Mt 22:18-19)

Silver denarius of Tiberius

Jesus can see through their scheme, and subverts it, to serve His purpose, to  announce the Kingdom of God. Jesus asks the Pharisees to show Him a coin. He does not have one Himself, either because of poverty or because of the image on the coins. On one side of the coin is the head , and an inscription which reads ‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the god Augustus,’ On the other side the is an image of Jupiter seated on a throne and the end of the inscription, ‘High Priest.’ So the Pharisees bring Jesus the coin, and He asks,

“Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (Mt 22:20)

The Pharisees answer ‘Caesar’s’ leads to this reply from Jesus:

“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mt 22:21)

Whereas the Pharisees come filled with malice, and with a desire to catch Him out, Jesus instead uses this as an opportunity to show them the proper order of things. You should pay your taxes but also give to God what is owed to Him. That is a heart filled with love, love of God and love of each other. Living a life of offering which proclaims this love in the service of others and through the worship of Almighty God. This is where real power lies, and this is the truly subversive aspect of Jesus’ teaching. He proclaims in the Temple in Jerusalem, in the very heart of the religious establishment, in order to show people how to live, and live life to the full. Paying a Roman tax with a Roman coin is perfectly fine, but what matters much more is rendering to God the things that are God’s.

Jesus takes a trap and turns it into a teaching opportunity. The Pharisees wanted to dismiss Him as either a militant or a Roman stooge, but Jesus uses the situation to demonstrate the Kingdom of God in action. In His gentleness, His mockery of their pride and arrogance, Jesus shows the Pharisees how foolish they are. They claim to follow the Law, but have forgotten what its Spirit is. We may owe secular powers our taxes, but we owe God everything. He created us, and all that exists. 

Jesus is asking us all a difficult question. What do you and I, all of us, render to God in our personal lives? If we claim to be disciples, then what does that actually mean in the way that we speak and act?

We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Mt 22:37-40). We are to be generous, forgiving and kind, to the point of extravagance, because that is how God has been to us. It is a radically different way of living which demonstrates that while we are in this world, we are not of it. Instead, we render to God the worship which is His by right, not just in church, but in all of our lives.

Thus as Christians we follow a different set of rules, which give us lives of freedom. In the power of the Holy Spirit the Truth can be proclaimed, the truth which sets us free from the ways of the world, free to love and serve God. This liberty can be seen in the lives of the Thessalonian Christians to whom St Paul writes. Rather than worshipping idols, they labour for the living and true God, they are an example to Christians of how to live. Their lives proclaim the truth which they serve. 

Jesus is opposed to either the collaboration of the Herodians or the rigourist harshness of the Pharisees, and instead proclaims the freedom and love of the Kingdom of God. It is a place of welcome: the image is that of the wedding feast to which all people are invited. People are too busy or preoccupied to come; others just don’t want to be invited: they mistreat the people who invite them. But this does not stop the invitation being offered to all, it still is. It is why we are here today. We join the Wedding Feast and are nourished by Word and Sacrament, so that we can be strengthened in love and in faith, to proclaim the reality of the Kingdom of God. We are called to be an example to others and to draw them in to the loving embrace of God: to be healed and restored by Him. Because of what God has done for us, we are able to render to God the things that are God’s: lives characterised by the love and generosity which are at the heart of the Gospel. This is what really matters: living the life of the Kingdom here and now. 

Let us therefore come to Him, to be healed and renewed, strengthened, and built up in love, so that we may give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now, and forever. Amen. 

29th Sunday of Yr A

Our first reading this morning from the prophet Isaiah is positive and hopeful. The people of Israel have been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, but now there is the possibility of freedom . The Persian King, Cyrus will let the exiles return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the Temple. The passage is a testament to the sovereignty of God:

‘I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God’ (Isa 45:5)

God can use a secular ruler, such as Cyrus, to bring about the flourishing and freedom of His people. However, as much as we can respect authority, it is clear that our first duty is towards God, to love Him, and serve Him.

This is exactly what the original recipients of Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians have been doing. They have ‘turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come’ (1Thess 1:9-10). 

Our gospel this morning is all about a denarius, it is a small silver coin, about ¾ of an inch in diameter, the size of a modern 5p, or a penny. It was a day’s wage, the pay given to the labourers in the vineyard. A denarius was worth about £75 in today’s money and was the cost of the Roman Poll Tax. It’s amazing that such a small coin could have such a great value.

The conflict with religious authorities which has characterised our recent readings from the Gospel continues today with a wrangle over words. The Pharisees come to see Jesus with their students along with Herodians, supporters of Herod the Great, who were very much in favour of Roman rule. 

The Pharisees begin the conversation with flattery, trying to butter Jesus up:

“Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.” (Mt 22:16) 

And at one level they are completely right, Jesus is not interested in opinions or appearances. What matters is reality: how you really are, in all truth and honesty. This is what matters to God, not how we appear, but how we really are. 

So the Pharisees ask their question:

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Mt 22:17)

If Jesus says, ‘no’ then He will be allying himself with the zealots, religious extremists, and making a provocative political statement for which Jesus can be denounced to the authorities. On the other hand, if Jesus says, ‘yes’ then the Pharisees can write Him off as a collaborator with the Romans, and show that He is not one of us, not a real prophet, or a true son of Israel. All the Pharisees are interested in is understanding what Jesus says in political terms. Their opening pleasantries ring hollow, they don’t mean what they say. The point of their question is not to discover the truth, but to discover a way to denounce Jesus as either a zealot or a collaborator.

Thankfully, Our Lord is aware of their scheme, and so asks them,

“Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. (Mt 22:18-19)

Silver denarius of Tiberius

Jesus can see through their scheme, and subverts it, to serve His purpose, to  announce the Kingdom of God. Jesus asks the Pharisees to show Him a coin. He does not have one Himself, either because of poverty or because of the image on the coins. On one side of the coin is the head , and an inscription which reads ‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the god Augustus,’ On the other side the is an image of Jupiter seated on a throne and the end of the inscription, ‘High Priest.’ So the Pharisees bring Jesus the coin, and He asks,

“Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (Mt 22:20)

The Pharisees answer ‘Caesar’s’ leads to this reply from Jesus:

“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mt 22:21)

Whereas the Pharisees come filled with malice, and with a desire to catch Him out, Jesus instead uses this as an opportunity to show them the proper order of things. You should pay your taxes but also give to God what is owed to Him. That is a heart filled with love, love of God and love of each other. Living a life of offering which proclaims this love in the service of others and through the worship of Almighty God. This is where real power lies, and this is the truly subversive aspect of Jesus’ teaching. He proclaims in the Temple in Jerusalem, in the very heart of the religious establishment, in order to show people how to live, and live life to the full. Paying a Roman tax with a Roman coin is perfectly fine, but what matters much more is rendering to God the things that are God’s.

Jesus takes a trap and turns it into a teaching opportunity. The Pharisees wanted to dismiss Him as either a militant or a Roman stooge, but Jesus uses the situation to demonstrate the Kingdom of God in action. In His gentleness, His mockery of their pride and arrogance, Jesus shows the Pharisees how foolish they are. They claim to follow the Law, but have forgotten what its Spirit is. We may owe secular powers our taxes, but we owe God everything. He created us, and all that exists. 

Jesus is asking us all a difficult question. What do you and I, all of us, render to God in our personal lives? If we claim to be disciples, then what does that actually mean in the way that we speak and act?

We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Mt 22:37-40). We are to be generous, forgiving and kind, to the point of extravagance, because that is how God has been to us. It is a radically different way of living which demonstrates that while we are in this world, we are not of it. Instead, we render to God the worship which is His by right, not just in church, but in all of our lives.

Thus as Christians we follow a different set of rules, which give us lives of freedom. In the power of the Holy Spirit the Truth can be proclaimed, the truth which sets us free from the ways of the world, free to love and serve God. This liberty can be seen in the lives of the Thessalonian Christians to whom St Paul writes. Rather than worshipping idols, they labour for the living and true God, they are an example to Christians of how to live. Their lives proclaim the truth which they serve. 

Jesus is opposed to either the collaboration of the Herodians or the rigourist harshness of the Pharisees, and instead proclaims the freedom and love of the Kingdom of God. It is a place of welcome: the image is that of the wedding feast to which all people are invited. People are too busy or preoccupied to come; others just don’t want to be invited: they mistreat the people who invite them. But this does not stop the invitation being offered to all, it still is. It is why we are here today. We join the Wedding Feast and are nourished by Word and Sacrament, so that we can be strengthened in love and in faith, to proclaim the reality of the Kingdom of God. We are called to be an example to others and to draw them in to the loving embrace of God: to be healed and restored by Him. Because of what God has done for us, we are able to render to God the things that are God’s: lives characterised by the love and generosity which are at the heart of the Gospel. This is what really matters: living the life of the Kingdom here and now. 

Let us therefore come to Him, to be healed and renewed, strengthened, and built up in love, so that we may give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now, and forever. Amen. 

27th Sunday of year A

There have been a lot of vineyards in our readings recently. Jesus has just told a parable about labourers in a vineyard, which we heard two weeks ago, and now, this morning, two of our readings are all about vineyards. They are important things: they grow grapes which make juice and wine, which people drink. But more than that, at a symbolic level, the vineyard stands for Israel, the land of God’s chosen people. The metaphor of the vineyard allows both Isaiah and Jesus to talk about Israel and their relationship with God. They do not have much to say that is good. Our readings are sad, difficult, hard readings, which tell us the truth about falling short of what God expects of us, His people, who have been made in His image and likeness.

In our first reading today, the prophet Isaiah sings a love-song for his beloved, that is, God, who plants a vineyard on a hill, having prepared the soil and cleared away the stones. These actions are all signs of love and care. God defends the vineyard with a watchtower to give advanced notice of attack. There is also a vat in which to make wine out of the grapes. However, the grapes are wild, but wild grapes are weeds, which grow more vigorously, and their fruit is sour, not sweet. You cannot make good wine from sour grapes. This prophecy speaks of Israel being abandoned and destroyed. This is because God expects justice, but instead, is faced with bloodshed. God looks for righteousness, but instead, finds an outcry. The Hebrew for each pair of words is similar, so the prophet is using wordplay to make the point more strongly. Israel needs to repent, to turn back to God and follow His ways. 

The situation with the Phillipian Christians in our second reading is the complete opposite, and comes as a welcome relief. Here people are living how God wants them to and they are flourishing. They do not need to be anxious, or to worry about anything, as they can ask God in prayer for their needs. Their lives are characterised by peace which passeth all understanding. This is the same peace which I pray for all of us in the blessing at the end of this morning’s service. This peace is meant to characterise our life together as Christians: it how we are supposed to live together.

The apostle then finishes this section of his letter with some encouragement:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practise these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

These are good words to live by. They show us how we can flourish, following the example set by St Paul. Indeed, that is how Christianity helps us to lead our lives: we are shown a good example, and we follow it. That is how the faith has been transmitted for two thousand years, and will continue in the future, through the sharing of good examples. We can do this, together, as a Christian community, and in so doing, bear much fruit.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus continues to teach in the Temple, after His Triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. He has told the parable about labourers in a vineyard, and the parable of the two sons, and now He recited a parable about a vineyard and a son. Jesus sets the scene in a way which clearly refers to the prophecy of Isaiah which we have just heard. The chief priests and elders would have known the prophecy which Jesus was referring to. This parable has a number of servants being sent to collect the fruit:

And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them. (Mt 21:35-36)

This is a description of how Israel acts towards prophets, such as Isaiah. Despite telling the truth and telling the people God’s word, they are mistreated and killed. Again and again the prophets call God’s people to repentance, to turn back to the Lord, and they are ignored and mistreated. As a result, God sends His Son. As the parable continues:

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. (Mt 21 37-39)

Here Jesus is prophesying His own death. Soon, despite having just been welcomed into Jerusalem as the Messiah, Jesus will see the crowds turn against Him.Encouraged by the chief priests and elders (who are listening to this parable) the people will call for Jesus’ Death. 

At the conclusion of the parable, Jesus asks the religious authorities what God will do, and they answer Him:

When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” (Mt 21:40-41)

Their answer is telling. The chief priests understand what is going on,  and that their actions will have consequences. Finally Jesus quotes from the Psalms (Ps 118:22) to explain the situation:

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Mt 21:42-3)

Just like the prophet Isaiah earlier, Jesus uses clever word-play to reinforce His theme. Isaiah makes the point that the words for justice and bloodshed, and righteousness and an outcry are similar. Likewise, the Hebrew words for stone (eben, as in Ebenezer) and son (ben, as in Benjamin) are very similar, there is only one letter difference.

Jesus uses the Psalms to reinforce His interpretation of Isaiah. He is letting His listeners know that He must be rejected, suffer, and die. Jesus also makes clear  that salvation is now not solely for Israel, but also for the Gentiles, and in fact for anyone who produces the fruit that God desires them to produce. This is the Christian proclamation in a nutshell.

Despite being aware of what is going on, the religious authorities do nothing to avert the possible calamity. They are unwilling, or unable to stop it. That is a definition of tragedy. And yet, something wonderful is about to happen:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (Jn 3:16-17)

Despite Jesus’ rejection and death, it is God’s love and forgiveness that are being proclaimed to the world. The Kingdom of God is a place of reconciliation, where wounds are healed, and lives are restored. Love is the core of our faith: God’s love for us, and our love for each other and for God. This is how God transforms the world: through LOVE. God so loved the world, a world which He created, and restored, and redeemed. We, here, are living proof of that love, and we are given the task of tending the Lord’s vineyard. How can we live out that same generous love in our own lives? We need to work together, nourished by Word and Sacrament, and live lives of love and forgiveness. We are called to proclaim God’s love to the world, and to invite others to enter the joy of the Lord so that we all may sing the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.

Diego Velazquez, The Crucifixion, 19632, Museo del Prado, Madrid

27th Sunday of year A

There have been a lot of vineyards in our readings recently. Jesus has just told a parable about labourers in a vineyard, which we heard two weeks ago, and now, this morning, two of our readings are all about vineyards. They are important things: they grow grapes which make juice and wine, which people drink. But more than that, at a symbolic level, the vineyard stands for Israel, the land of God’s chosen people. The metaphor of the vineyard allows both Isaiah and Jesus to talk about Israel and their relationship with God. They do not have much to say that is good. Our readings are sad, difficult, hard readings, which tell us the truth about falling short of what God expects of us, His people, who have been made in His image and likeness.

In our first reading today, the prophet Isaiah sings a love-song for his beloved, that is, God, who plants a vineyard on a hill, having prepared the soil and cleared away the stones. These actions are all signs of love and care. God defends the vineyard with a watchtower to give advanced notice of attack. There is also a vat in which to make wine out of the grapes. However, the grapes are wild, but wild grapes are weeds, which grow more vigorously, and their fruit is sour, not sweet. You cannot make good wine from sour grapes. This prophecy speaks of Israel being abandoned and destroyed. This is because God expects justice, but instead, is faced with bloodshed. God looks for righteousness, but instead, finds an outcry. The Hebrew for each pair of words is similar, so the prophet is using wordplay to make the point more strongly. Israel needs to repent, to turn back to God and follow His ways. 

The situation with the Phillipian Christians in our second reading is the complete opposite, and comes as a welcome relief. Here people are living how God wants them to and they are flourishing. They do not need to be anxious, or to worry about anything, as they can ask God in prayer for their needs. Their lives are characterised by peace which passeth all understanding. This is the same peace which I pray for all of us in the blessing at the end of this morning’s service. This peace is meant to characterise our life together as Christians: it how we are supposed to live together.

The apostle then finishes this section of his letter with some encouragement:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practise these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

These are good words to live by. They show us how we can flourish, following the example set by St Paul. Indeed, that is how Christianity helps us to lead our lives: we are shown a good example, and we follow it. That is how the faith has been transmitted for two thousand years, and will continue in the future, through the sharing of good examples. We can do this, together, as a Christian community, and in so doing, bear much fruit.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus continues to teach in the Temple, after His Triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. He has told the parable about labourers in a vineyard, and the parable of the two sons, and now He recited a parable about a vineyard and a son. Jesus sets the scene in a way which clearly refers to the prophecy of Isaiah which we have just heard. The chief priests and elders would have known the prophecy which Jesus was referring to. This parable has a number of servants being sent to collect the fruit:

And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them. (Mt 21:35-36)

This is a description of how Israel acts towards prophets, such as Isaiah. Despite telling the truth and telling the people God’s word, they are mistreated and killed. Again and again the prophets call God’s people to repentance, to turn back to the Lord, and they are ignored and mistreated. As a result, God sends His Son. As the parable continues:

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. (Mt 21 37-39)

Here Jesus is prophesying His own death. Soon, despite having just been welcomed into Jerusalem as the Messiah, Jesus will see the crowds turn against Him.Encouraged by the chief priests and elders (who are listening to this parable) the people will call for Jesus’ Death. 

At the conclusion of the parable, Jesus asks the religious authorities what God will do, and they answer Him:

When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” (Mt 21:40-41)

Their answer is telling. The chief priests understand what is going on,  and that their actions will have consequences. Finally Jesus quotes from the Psalms (Ps 118:22) to explain the situation:

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Mt 21:42-3)

Just like the prophet Isaiah earlier, Jesus uses clever word-play to reinforce His theme. Isaiah makes the point that the words for justice and bloodshed, and righteousness and an outcry are similar. Likewise, the Hebrew words for stone (eben, as in Ebenezer) and son (ben, as in Benjamin) are very similar, there is only one letter difference.

Jesus uses the Psalms to reinforce His interpretation of Isaiah. He is letting His listeners know that He must be rejected, suffer, and die. Jesus also makes clear  that salvation is now not solely for Israel, but also for the Gentiles, and in fact for anyone who produces the fruit that God desires them to produce. This is the Christian proclamation in a nutshell.

Despite being aware of what is going on, the religious authorities do nothing to avert the possible calamity. They are unwilling, or unable to stop it. That is a definition of tragedy. And yet, something wonderful is about to happen:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (Jn 3:16-17)

Despite Jesus’ rejection and death, it is God’s love and forgiveness that are being proclaimed to the world. The Kingdom of God is a place of reconciliation, where wounds are healed, and lives are restored. Love is the core of our faith: God’s love for us, and our love for each other and for God. This is how God transforms the world: through LOVE. God so loved the world, a world which He created, and restored, and redeemed. We, here, are living proof of that love, and we are given the task of tending the Lord’s vineyard. How can we live out that same generous love in our own lives? We need to work together, nourished by Word and Sacrament, and live lives of love and forgiveness. We are called to proclaim God’s love to the world, and to invite others to enter the joy of the Lord so that we all may sing the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.

Diego Velazquez, The Crucifixion, 19632, Museo del Prado, Madrid

26th Sunday of Year A : Who do we want to be?

I would like to begin this morning by asking a simple question, ‘Have you ever said that you would do something, and then have not done it?’ I imagine that the answer is yes, because we all have broken promises. I know that I have. I also know that I’m very sorry for having done so, and I have asked God for forgiveness, and I am trying not to do it again. 

In our first reading this morning, the prophet Ezekiel lays out two possibilities before us: 

When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life (Ezek 18: 26-7)

In other words it is better to be a repentant sinner than a self-righteous one. Repentance is the key: turning away from evil to do good. Indeed the proclamation of both John the Baptist and Jesus was the same: ‘Repent and believe the Good News’. The message is a consistent one. We need to stop going the wrong way, and change direction. We need to go the way God wants us to, so that we can flourish as human beings, loved by God. This means that we will need to ask for, give, and receive forgiveness. We cannot keep score or remember past wrongs. To live lives of repentance and forgiveness is difficult, and we need God’s help, because we cannot do it on our own. 

Our second reading continues Paul’s advice to Christians in Philippi on how to live a Christian life. The key to it all is Love, God’s love for us, and our love of God and each other. As Christians we receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation making us part of the Body of Christ. Paul encourages the Philippians to be unified in faith. This is the same unity which Christ prays for in John 17, just before His arrest. As Christians we should be free from competition or self-importance, which are manifestations of pride. Instead, we should be united and loving, putting others first. This is the key to humility, something which Christ exemplifies, and it is demonstrated in the words of the hymn which forms part of the second reading from the Letter to the Philippians. Christ became man and was born of the Virgin Mary. In coming to share our human life, Christ shows God’s humility by living amongst us as one of us. Christ’s life leads to His Death on the Cross. The Crucifixion was the ultimate humiliation, the punishment of a slave and a criminal. Yet, because it is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for us, it is paradoxically something in which we, as Christians, rejoice. The Cross is central to our faith. It is the moment of God’s triumph over sin, over the world, and over death.

Paul quotes from the prophet Isaiah to reinforce the fact that Jesus is God:

‘To me every knee shall bow,

    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ (Isa 45:23)

To say that ‘Jesus is Lord’ may not seem strange to us, nowadays. Two thousand years ago things were different. The phrase implies His Divinity, that Jesus is God. To say this is to make quite a political statement, as it was a title which Roman emperors were keen to adopt: they wanted to be seen and worshipped as gods. While Christ has no need of earthly power, human rulers tend to view such titles as important. If we are saying, ‘Jesus is Lord’ then, at one level, we are saying that Caesar isn’t. Whilst this may not seem important now, such a declaration has led to the martyrdom of many Christians over the centuries . 

In this morning’s gospel, Jesus is talking to the chief priests and elders. These are the religious leaders of His day, the people tasked with guiding the people of Israel in their relationship with God. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph, and cast out the money-changers from the Temple, and cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit. What we are witnessing in the Gospel is a religious reform. Those who are supposed to have brought people closer to God are to be understood as resistant and rebellious; they are the problem rather than the solution. 

Jesus begins by asking the chief priests and elders a question: ‘What do you think?’ These simple words speak profoundly of the freedom given to humanity by God. We are not forced, but rather invited, to engage in a conversation, God does not compel us. In the parable of the two sons, clearly the one who overcame his initial reluctance and actually did the will of his father, and worked in the vineyard, is the example for us to follow. This son experiences repentance, and changes his behaviour to do what is best for him. He is not a hypocrite; he is just stubborn, rebellious, and disobedient — but the important thing is that he repents.

The other son begins with an outward show of respect: he appears to be a dutiful son, addressing his father as Sir, but he is basically a hypocrite, as his actions do not match his words. True obedience is not in outward displays of respect, but in doing the will of God. The chief priests and elders have rejected Jesus and soon will be calling out for His death. They will take the Messiah, the one who could save them from their sins, and kill him. What greater turning away from God could there be?

Tax-collectors and prostitutes were seen as the lowest of the low in society: the first were viewed as swindlers, the second as sexually immoral. Both were on good terms with the Romans, they were certainly not the kind of company a religiously observant Jew would keep. And yet, despite their sins, they are willing to repent. They are aware of their need for God, and they understand that God loves them, and will heal their wounds, and welcome them into His kingdom. The religious authorities are condemned by their own lips. By recognising that it is more important to do the will of God rather than simply to say that you will, they highlight their own hypocrisy. They have been told by John the Baptist what God wants, but they have ignored him, and now when Jesus tells them the same message they will also ignore Him. 

Are we then, here today, going to follow the example of the self-righteous and make an outward show of our closeness to God, while refusing to repent of our sins? Or are we going to be like the tax collectors and prostitutes, who know their need of God, who know their own shortcomings? They believe and trust in God, want to be healed by Him, and turn away from all that separates them from God. I hope and pray that we will be like the latter rather the former. 

To show His love, God gave himself for us, upon the Cross. On the hill of Calvary, Jesus Christ is both Priest and Victim. This same sacrifice will become as present here this morning as it did outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago. God will give Himself to us in His Body and His Blood, under the outward forms of bread and wine, to heal us, to draw us  closer to Him, to show us how much He loves us. So then let us taste and see how gracious the Lord is, and most of all, let us do the will of our Father in Heaven. Let us turn away from what we have been and conform ourselves to the will of God. Let us fed by Him, strengthened by Him, forgiven by Him, to be built up as a living temple to His glory. So that we, and all creation, may be free to sing the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.

Diego Velázquez, The Crucifixion, 1632, Museo del Prado, Madrid

26th Sunday of Year A : Who do we want to be?

I would like to begin this morning by asking a simple question, ‘Have you ever said that you would do something, and then have not done it?’ I imagine that the answer is yes, because we all have broken promises. I know that I have. I also know that I’m very sorry for having done so, and I have asked God for forgiveness, and I am trying not to do it again. 

In our first reading this morning, the prophet Ezekiel lays out two possibilities before us: 

When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life (Ezek 18: 26-7)

In other words it is better to be a repentant sinner than a self-righteous one. Repentance is the key: turning away from evil to do good. Indeed the proclamation of both John the Baptist and Jesus was the same: ‘Repent and believe the Good News’. The message is a consistent one. We need to stop going the wrong way, and change direction. We need to go the way God wants us to, so that we can flourish as human beings, loved by God. This means that we will need to ask for, give, and receive forgiveness. We cannot keep score or remember past wrongs. To live lives of repentance and forgiveness is difficult, and we need God’s help, because we cannot do it on our own. 

Our second reading continues Paul’s advice to Christians in Philippi on how to live a Christian life. The key to it all is Love, God’s love for us, and our love of God and each other. As Christians we receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation making us part of the Body of Christ. Paul encourages the Philippians to be unified in faith. This is the same unity which Christ prays for in John 17, just before His arrest. As Christians we should be free from competition or self-importance, which are manifestations of pride. Instead, we should be united and loving, putting others first. This is the key to humility, something which Christ exemplifies, and it is demonstrated in the words of the hymn which forms part of the second reading from the Letter to the Philippians. Christ became man and was born of the Virgin Mary. In coming to share our human life, Christ shows God’s humility by living amongst us as one of us. Christ’s life leads to His Death on the Cross. The Crucifixion was the ultimate humiliation, the punishment of a slave and a criminal. Yet, because it is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for us, it is paradoxically something in which we, as Christians, rejoice. The Cross is central to our faith. It is the moment of God’s triumph over sin, over the world, and over death.

Paul quotes from the prophet Isaiah to reinforce the fact that Jesus is God:

‘To me every knee shall bow,

    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ (Isa 45:23)

To say that ‘Jesus is Lord’ may not seem strange to us, nowadays. Two thousand years ago things were different. The phrase implies His Divinity, that Jesus is God. To say this is to make quite a political statement, as it was a title which Roman emperors were keen to adopt: they wanted to be seen and worshipped as gods. While Christ has no need of earthly power, human rulers tend to view such titles as important. If we are saying, ‘Jesus is Lord’ then, at one level, we are saying that Caesar isn’t. Whilst this may not seem important now, such a declaration has led to the martyrdom of many Christians over the centuries . 

In this morning’s gospel, Jesus is talking to the chief priests and elders. These are the religious leaders of His day, the people tasked with guiding the people of Israel in their relationship with God. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph, and cast out the money-changers from the Temple, and cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit. What we are witnessing in the Gospel is a religious reform. Those who are supposed to have brought people closer to God are to be understood as resistant and rebellious; they are the problem rather than the solution. 

Jesus begins by asking the chief priests and elders a question: ‘What do you think?’ These simple words speak profoundly of the freedom given to humanity by God. We are not forced, but rather invited, to engage in a conversation, God does not compel us. In the parable of the two sons, clearly the one who overcame his initial reluctance and actually did the will of his father, and worked in the vineyard, is the example for us to follow. This son experiences repentance, and changes his behaviour to do what is best for him. He is not a hypocrite; he is just stubborn, rebellious, and disobedient — but the important thing is that he repents.

The other son begins with an outward show of respect: he appears to be a dutiful son, addressing his father as Sir, but he is basically a hypocrite, as his actions do not match his words. True obedience is not in outward displays of respect, but in doing the will of God. The chief priests and elders have rejected Jesus and soon will be calling out for His death. They will take the Messiah, the one who could save them from their sins, and kill him. What greater turning away from God could there be?

Tax-collectors and prostitutes were seen as the lowest of the low in society: the first were viewed as swindlers, the second as sexually immoral. Both were on good terms with the Romans, they were certainly not the kind of company a religiously observant Jew would keep. And yet, despite their sins, they are willing to repent. They are aware of their need for God, and they understand that God loves them, and will heal their wounds, and welcome them into His kingdom. The religious authorities are condemned by their own lips. By recognising that it is more important to do the will of God rather than simply to say that you will, they highlight their own hypocrisy. They have been told by John the Baptist what God wants, but they have ignored him, and now when Jesus tells them the same message they will also ignore Him. 

Are we then, here today, going to follow the example of the self-righteous and make an outward show of our closeness to God, while refusing to repent of our sins? Or are we going to be like the tax collectors and prostitutes, who know their need of God, who know their own shortcomings? They believe and trust in God, want to be healed by Him, and turn away from all that separates them from God. I hope and pray that we will be like the latter rather the former. 

To show His love, God gave himself for us, upon the Cross. On the hill of Calvary, Jesus Christ is both Priest and Victim. This same sacrifice will become as present here this morning as it did outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago. God will give Himself to us in His Body and His Blood, under the outward forms of bread and wine, to heal us, to draw us  closer to Him, to show us how much He loves us. So then let us taste and see how gracious the Lord is, and most of all, let us do the will of our Father in Heaven. Let us turn away from what we have been and conform ourselves to the will of God. Let us fed by Him, strengthened by Him, forgiven by Him, to be built up as a living temple to His glory. So that we, and all creation, may be free to sing the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.

Diego Velázquez, The Crucifixion, 1632, Museo del Prado, Madrid

25th Sunday of Yr A – The Labourers in the Vineyard

Our readings this morning all have something of a paradoxical quality to them. Both the Scriptures, and the Christian concept of God, are rooted in paradox. The ability to hold two contradictory views should be impossible and yet it is not. There is a good reason for this: God is a mystery, knowable, yet hidden; understandable, yet beyond our grasp. It can be a struggle to understand these paradoxes. Whilst this struggle is part of the process of coming to know God, we also have accept the fact that our mental efforts can never be enough, we simply have to experience the mystery.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims the Divine message to bring Israel back to God: 

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;

    call upon him while he is near;

let the wicked forsake his way,

    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;” (Isa 55:6-7)

The message is clear and simple. There is a right way to live and a wrong way. The prophets exist to proclaim God’s message, to call people back:

let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,

    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isa 55:7)

God longs to treat humanity with compassion, and to forgive our human failings. God is a God of love and mercy, both in the Old Testament and in the New. There is a consistent message of how God creates everything, sees that it is good, and loves what He has made. God is generous and loving because that is who God is. God cannot be otherwise. 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord (Isa 55:8)

If God were to think in a human way then all we could expect would be punishment for having sinned and fallen short of what is expected of us. However, God is a God of justice and mercy, and so we can put our hope in His love to heal and restore us. God is generous and loving, to an extent that we, as humans, cannot even imagine:

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:9)

We are able to experience the mystery of God’s love through the Church and her Sacraments, which are effective signs of grace that manifest God’s generous love in the world. This is just a part of the mystery of God’s love for us which we can never fully comprehend, this side of heaven. 

In our second reading this morning, St Paul is writing to the first Christian community he founded in Europe. He is under house arrest in Rome, facing a trial and execution. It is a joyful letter, arguably his most joyful letter, despite being written as Paul faces martyrdom. This year many people around the world have had to face imminent death because of the virus which currently grips our planet. As a society we have become more afraid of death and dying and the subject of our own end is something many of us would prefer not to think about. For Paul,

to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1:21)

Paul is saying that if he lives, he will live in Christ, and he will proclaim the truth of the Gospel with his words and with his deeds. Paul believes that if he dies it is gain, because his death will bear witness to Christ, having shared in Christ’s suffering and death. Paul has hope in the resurrection to eternal life in Christ. In writing to the Church in Philippi Paul is able to be with them despite being 800 miles away. He wants to be encouraged by the fact that the Philippian Christians are living out their faith, and putting it into practice in their lives. At the same time, Paul is keen to share his hope, and, at the climax of his letter, states:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Phil 3:20-21)

As Christians, we can be encouraged by the knowledge that Heaven is our true home. We can have this hope through the mercy and love of God. This is not something that we can deserve or earn, rather it is a manifestation of God’s generous love.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus continues His teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven with the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. God’s Kingdom is a place where human values are turned on their head: 

So the last will be first, and the first last. (Mt 20:16)

This is why the first labourers to be paid are those who have only worked for just one hour. By the time the labourers who have worked the full twelve hours come to be paid they expect to be given more, although they agreed on the standard wage for their day’s labour. The parable is fundamentally about salvation. Salvation is a gift from God and not a reward for work done by humanity. We cannot earn it, we have to receive it from a loving and generous God. Likewise there are no grades of salvation and there are no classes of Christian, we are all one. Jesus’ Jewish audience believed that the Jews were God’s chosen people, and this could lead to the perception of Gentiles and converts as something lesser. But such a view is opposed to the values of the Kingdom of God where all are equal. 

This equality is a radical statement by Jesus. It is a clear declaration that God’s grace is abundant and inexhaustible, and freely offered to all who accept it. There is no such thing as a better class of Christian. God treats us all in the same way and fundamentally loves each and every one of us. Though I serve God and His people as a priest, I was not chosen for this role by having been a better Christian in the first place. Clergy are not superior Christians, all the baptized are equal in the sight of God. This morning’s gospel reminds us of the important truth that salvation is the free gift of God, which we receive in our Baptism and is strengthened through the Sacraments of the Church. We cannot earn our way to heaven!

We often forget that heaven is full of sinners, who are loved by God and who love God, and trust in His mercy and His forgiveness. The more we experience and understand the overwhelming love and generosity of God, the more marvellous it becomes. To repeat the prophet Isaiah, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways. 

As Christians we need to respond to God’s generous love and if we are to be truly thankful then our thankfulness should affect who we are and how we live our daily lives. We need to live as people who are loved and forgiven, and who, in turn, show love and forgiveness to those around us. This is difficult for us to do on our own, but thankfully we live in a community called the Church where we give and receive forgiveness. Here we are fed by Word and Sacrament, so that we can strengthen and encourage one another, through prayer and acts of charity, to live the truth of the gospel in our lives. So that we, and all creation, may be free to sing the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: Workers on the field, Codex aureus Epternacensis, fol. 76f, detail 

25th Sunday of Yr A – The Labourers in the Vineyard

Our readings this morning all have something of a paradoxical quality to them. Both the Scriptures, and the Christian concept of God, are rooted in paradox. The ability to hold two contradictory views should be impossible and yet it is not. There is a good reason for this: God is a mystery, knowable, yet hidden; understandable, yet beyond our grasp. It can be a struggle to understand these paradoxes. Whilst this struggle is part of the process of coming to know God, we also have accept the fact that our mental efforts can never be enough, we simply have to experience the mystery.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims the Divine message to bring Israel back to God: 

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;

    call upon him while he is near;

let the wicked forsake his way,

    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;” (Isa 55:6-7)

The message is clear and simple. There is a right way to live and a wrong way. The prophets exist to proclaim God’s message, to call people back:

let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,

    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isa 55:7)

God longs to treat humanity with compassion, and to forgive our human failings. God is a God of love and mercy, both in the Old Testament and in the New. There is a consistent message of how God creates everything, sees that it is good, and loves what He has made. God is generous and loving because that is who God is. God cannot be otherwise. 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord (Isa 55:8)

If God were to think in a human way then all we could expect would be punishment for having sinned and fallen short of what is expected of us. However, God is a God of justice and mercy, and so we can put our hope in His love to heal and restore us. God is generous and loving, to an extent that we, as humans, cannot even imagine:

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:9)

We are able to experience the mystery of God’s love through the Church and her Sacraments, which are effective signs of grace that manifest God’s generous love in the world. This is just a part of the mystery of God’s love for us which we can never fully comprehend, this side of heaven. 

In our second reading this morning, St Paul is writing to the first Christian community he founded in Europe. He is under house arrest in Rome, facing a trial and execution. It is a joyful letter, arguably his most joyful letter, despite being written as Paul faces martyrdom. This year many people around the world have had to face imminent death because of the virus which currently grips our planet. As a society we have become more afraid of death and dying and the subject of our own end is something many of us would prefer not to think about. For Paul,

to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1:21)

Paul is saying that if he lives, he will live in Christ, and he will proclaim the truth of the Gospel with his words and with his deeds. Paul believes that if he dies it is gain, because his death will bear witness to Christ, having shared in Christ’s suffering and death. Paul has hope in the resurrection to eternal life in Christ. In writing to the Church in Philippi Paul is able to be with them despite being 800 miles away. He wants to be encouraged by the fact that the Philippian Christians are living out their faith, and putting it into practice in their lives. At the same time, Paul is keen to share his hope, and, at the climax of his letter, states:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Phil 3:20-21)

As Christians, we can be encouraged by the knowledge that Heaven is our true home. We can have this hope through the mercy and love of God. This is not something that we can deserve or earn, rather it is a manifestation of God’s generous love.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus continues His teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven with the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. God’s Kingdom is a place where human values are turned on their head: 

So the last will be first, and the first last. (Mt 20:16)

This is why the first labourers to be paid are those who have only worked for just one hour. By the time the labourers who have worked the full twelve hours come to be paid they expect to be given more, although they agreed on the standard wage for their day’s labour. The parable is fundamentally about salvation. Salvation is a gift from God and not a reward for work done by humanity. We cannot earn it, we have to receive it from a loving and generous God. Likewise there are no grades of salvation and there are no classes of Christian, we are all one. Jesus’ Jewish audience believed that the Jews were God’s chosen people, and this could lead to the perception of Gentiles and converts as something lesser. But such a view is opposed to the values of the Kingdom of God where all are equal. 

This equality is a radical statement by Jesus. It is a clear declaration that God’s grace is abundant and inexhaustible, and freely offered to all who accept it. There is no such thing as a better class of Christian. God treats us all in the same way and fundamentally loves each and every one of us. Though I serve God and His people as a priest, I was not chosen for this role by having been a better Christian in the first place. Clergy are not superior Christians, all the baptized are equal in the sight of God. This morning’s gospel reminds us of the important truth that salvation is the free gift of God, which we receive in our Baptism and is strengthened through the Sacraments of the Church. We cannot earn our way to heaven!

We often forget that heaven is full of sinners, who are loved by God and who love God, and trust in His mercy and His forgiveness. The more we experience and understand the overwhelming love and generosity of God, the more marvellous it becomes. To repeat the prophet Isaiah, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways. 

As Christians we need to respond to God’s generous love and if we are to be truly thankful then our thankfulness should affect who we are and how we live our daily lives. We need to live as people who are loved and forgiven, and who, in turn, show love and forgiveness to those around us. This is difficult for us to do on our own, but thankfully we live in a community called the Church where we give and receive forgiveness. Here we are fed by Word and Sacrament, so that we can strengthen and encourage one another, through prayer and acts of charity, to live the truth of the gospel in our lives. So that we, and all creation, may be free to sing the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: Workers on the field, Codex aureus Epternacensis, fol. 76f, detail 

Twenty fourth Sunday of Year A

I would like to begin this morning by reading some words of Metropolitan Anthony Bloom (1914-2003) the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan of Great Britain and Ireland, a great, wise, and holy writer. His words on forgiveness speak beautifully to the themes of our readings this morning:

Judgement would hold nothing but terror for us if we had no sure hope of forgiveness. And the gift of forgiveness itself is implicit in God’s and people’s love. Yet it is not enough to be granted forgiveness, we must be prepared to accept it. We must consent to be forgiven by an act of daring faith and generous hope, welcome the gift humbly, as a miracle which love alone, love human and divine, can work, and forever be grateful for its gratuity, its restoring, healing, reintegrating power. We must never confuse forgiving with forgetting, or imagine that these two things go together. Not only do they not belong together, they are mutually exclusive. To wipe out the past has little to do with constructive, imaginative, fruitful forgiveness; the only thing that must go, be erased from the past, is its venom; the bitterness, the resentment, the estrangement; but not the memory.

Anthony of Sourozh, Creative Prayer, 2004: 72. 

Our life on earth is finite, it will come to an end. In the meantime, we need to ask ourselves how we want to live our lives. Do we want to do so in anger, bitterness, resentment, and jealousy? I’d hope not. Such things are not good for the soul. 

Our first reading this morning addresses these questions. Ben Sirach, the writer of Ecclesiasticus, knew a great deal about the human condition and the book forms part of the Wisdom tradition of Scripture: wise advice for humanity. Nowadays, many people seem to think that sexual sin is all that matters to God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sin gnaws away at us, in many ways. It can dim, and even extinguish, the spark of divine life which we receive in our baptism. Sin is a serious business and it affects us, both as individuals and in our life together. It is a subject which should concern us all, because it affects us all.

Anger, wrath, and the desire for vengeance are, by their very nature, corrosive things . They eat us up, growing like a bitter cancer inside us. We often try to repress these strong emotions, but they can erupt in outbursts, or as calculated passive aggression. Is there a way to stop this happening? Yes, there is, and we are told how in our first reading: 

Forgive your neighbour the wrong he has done,

    and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray (Sir 28:2)

If we want to be forgiven then we have to forgive. It is as simple as that! But there is no room for any half-measures, we cannot hang on to a bit, we need to forgive fully. Can we do this on our own? No, we need to do it as a community, a community which relies upon God to assist us. Only with God’s help, and in His strength can we live lives of forgiveness. 

There is very similar advice in this morning’s second reading from the Letter to the Romans. Paul writes that we should not pass judgement — whether someone does something or not. The point is not what we do, but why we do what we do. Are we trying to honour God in our actions? That is what really matters. Are we learning to live as people of love, freed from all that hinders our common life together? 

If we consider, for a second, the fact that Christians have often been persecuted for their faith. They have even been sentenced to death for preferring Christ to the ways of the world, and yet these martyrs were not angry with their persecutors or even God. Instead they chose to live out the love and the forgiveness that they had received, and it was this powerful witness which has brought many others to believe and follow Christ. We are called to copy their example and to try live authentic lives together, by forgiving each other, and living in love. To do this we need to put aside any petty rivalries, squabbles, slights, and all the little everyday things which annoy us.

Forgiveness is at the heart of all three readings today, including Matthew’s Gospel where Peter asks Our Lord how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him. He wonders if it might be seven times, but Jesus replies, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times’. This answer looks back to the establishment of the jubilee year in Leviticus 25:8 – ‘You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years.’ The jubilee of the Old Covenant was all about the forgiveness of debts. This is made real in Jesus. In Him is the forgiveness and the renewal which Israel has longed for. It is radical and powerful forgiveness which can transform us, and the whole world. 

Jesus explains his message of forgiveness with the use of a parable. A dishonest servant who owes a debt which he cannot pay, begs for more time. His master, instead, cancels the whole debt. However, when faced with a debtor of his own, this same man fails to exhibit the mercy, the kindness which has been shown to him. For this he is rightly and justly punished, to show us who hear the parable that, as we beg God to forgive our sins, we need at the same time to forgive the sins of others. Just like the man in the parable, we too are all dishonest servants, we all owe God a debt which we cannot pay, but God releases us from our debt. But, despite having been forgiven so much by God we still fail to be loving and forgiving to each other. The point is not to make us feel bad about ourselves, but to remind us of how much God loves us, and to encourage us to be loving in return. This is how we should live as human beings, loving and forgiving each other. This is how we can flourish as individuals and as a Christian community. 

The world around us often tells us be angry and to feel aggrieved. When we pick up a newspaper, or turn on a radio or television, or look at the Internet, we usually find news reported in such a way as to provoke a variety of negative emotions. We are encouraged to feel angry, sad, or even afraid. There are many things out there right now to make us feel this way. Such judgement is clearly condemned by this morning’s readings. Being surrounded by a judgemental news culture makes it harder for us to live as Christian people. Often, without thinking, we pick up a negative mindset as if by osmosis, it just seeps in, and before we know it we are thinking and speaking in a harsh judgemental way. It is hard to resist, and that is why Jesus tells us to forgive seventy times seven times, i.e., an uncountable number of times. But, to do so is very difficult indeed. We have to be vigilant not to we fall into patterns of behaviour which may decrease the fullness and happiness of our lives. We have to try together, as a Christian community, to live out the faith which we profess. We will, naturally, often fail in this, but we can always seek forgiveness from each other, and from God, and we can keep trying. 

The world may tell us that our endeavour is impossible, yet we know that, ‘with God all things are possible’ (Mt 19:26). These are not idle words, but a promise of Jesus that we can trust, and live out together, as a community of love and reconciliation — real, costly, and wonderful. That is why we celebrate the Cross of Christ: the fact that, for love of us, Jesus bore the weight of our sins upon Himself. He suffered and died for us, to show that there was no length to which God would not go to demonstrate, once and for all, what love and forgiveness truly mean. The Cross is our only hope, the one thing that can save us from ourselves, from all that divides and wounds and which separates us from each other and from God. It is our healing, our salvation, and our sanctification. Through the Cross we are saved and made free, to sing the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen