30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Total and dynamic

“’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 the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”

Matthew 22. 37b-40

There is nothing unique in Jesus’ responses to the Pharisees’ question, ‘Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ They form part of the prayer that every devout Jew prays to this day. What is unique is how Jesus asks us to respond in the way we live our lives.

There is no vague sentimentality in the way we should love God and love those around us. The love which Jesus demonstrated and expects of us is total and dynamic. But how ever much the religious leaders of Jesus time spoke and prayed these two great commandments, it was only superficially that they honoured them. Jesus requires a complete renewal of our innermost being that demonstrate total love of God and all who are created in God’s image.

First comes love of God second comes love of neighbour. One cannot exist without the other. Without love of God we cannot truly love those around us. Without love of neighbour we have failed in our love of God.

I don’t believe, even with this knowledge, that we fully comprehend how hard this is. We may live our whole lives seeking to live in the grace and love of God and yet, so often, we are aware that there are dark corners of our lives where the light of love has not yet reached. We are not so different from the Pharisees if we fail to acknowledge this.

We really need to see is the bigger picture that is revealed in the mission, death and resurrection of Jesus. In his mission, we have the flawless example of a life lived for the love of others. In his death, we see his love of God revealed in perfect obedience as he died for the sin of the world. In his resurrection, we see the message of new life in total commitment to God and dynamic service to all.

In Jesus, these are not commands but an invitation and a promise to a new way of life. If we persist, he will bring light to the dark corners of lives and total and dynamic love will rule.

Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesu, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart.

Come, almighty to deliver,
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee, without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.

Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation,
perfectly restored in thee:
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise!

John Wesley (1707-88)

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The things that are God’s

"Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Matthew 22.21

It is with wisdom that Jesus answers the trick question put to him by this unholy alliance of Pharisee and Herodian. To pay or not to pay taxes to Rome; to answer one way would be to promote insurrection a capital offence; to answer the other way would be to face the ridicule and resentment of those who were looking for a Kingdom of God revolution. The answer Jesus gives, at one and the same time, answers the question put and provides no answer at all. What are we to make of this?

Taxation throughout history was more about subjugating a people and the coinage used to pay that tax, a means by which to show who was in charge. The Romans would march into a country, tell the locals that they were now subjects of Rome and tax them for the privilege. It is no wonder that they were hated. What is more, the coin in which they were required to pay the tax bore the emperor’s head and an inscription that announced his deity. No Jew could stomach that. It was idolatry of the worst kind.

Jesus acknowledges that he knows what the unholy alliance is up to by calling them out as hypocrites. He knows they are seeking to trap him. But his answer to their question is ambiguous, probably deliberately so.

Does he place duty to the governing authority on the same footing as duty to God or is he dismissing the hated coin and placing duty to God on a higher level. So, does Jesus mean ‘do your duty to Caesar by paying the tax and do your duty to God by living obediently to his word’ or does he mean ‘you has better give Caesar back in his own coin and God back in his own coin’, which sounds more revolutionary.

Because we are citizens of the world in which we live, we have a duty to those we live with to share the responsibility of organising our society and meeting the cost according to our ability. To do otherwise would be a selfish failure in our Christian duty.

But we are also citizens of God’s kingdom on earth and this means giving our whole lives to the one true living God: the currency of the kingdom of God is the way we live our lives. We face hundreds of decisions about the way we live every single day; good family relationships, ethical business dealing, concern for the environment,  challenging prejudice and racism, global awareness of poverty, conflict and corruption and more. Are we always as generous with our kingdom currency as we should be? Do we invite God’s guidance in making the choices that shape the little and the big things in our lives?

But we can go further than this, if we are to be truly revolutionary in a world where Caesar is no longer the ruler who would be a deity. The idols of the worldly gods of money, possessions, fame, influence and power are worshipped to the exclusion of the one true God. This currency is as bankrupt as the tribute paid to Caesar. So, we had better give this new Caesar back in his own coin and reject him.

We can be truly revolutionary by actively living and working among those who are searching for something greater, but have not yet discovered Christ; those who face a religious and moral vacuum following the collapse of the certainties of current and previous generations. To share the things that are God’s with the people who do not know them. To share the Christian currency.

What idols are worshipped, what lives wasted, and kingdom opportunities missed when we keep our kingdom currency to ourselves.    

Our task is to give back to God the Christian currency of obedience, right living and sharing the things that are God’s with the people who do not know them. That surely is tax that we would be willing to pay.

Lord, in the strength of grace, with a glad heart and true, myself, my residue of days, I consecrate to you.

Your ransomed servant, I restore to you your own; and, from this moment, live or die to serve my God alone.

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - But the few

 

"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Matthew 22:2-14

You’ve had the invitation. You’ve arrived but are you among the few who have turned up in the right clothes?

This parable, at first hearing, is harsh and uncompromising, but parables are meant to challenge and change us as we consider the truths that are revealed in the story.

Jesus is referring to God who makes the invitation and it is himself who is the reason that the feast takes place. God invites us to a heavenly feast that is every bit as joyous as a wedding. The invitation is to joy. Christianity is never a gloomy giving up of everything that brings happiness. Don’t misunderstand the nature of the invitation. It is to joy that we are invited; it is joy that we miss if we refuse the invitation.

The invitation that we receive is given through God’s grace. In the parable, those who were gathered from the streets didn’t deserve and never expected the invitation. It came from the king’s generosity who wanted them to share his joy. It was grace that gathered them in. Jesus points out that these are like the outcast and Gentiles who never expected to receive an invitation to God’s kingdom.

Are we prepared to drop everything that is wrong in our lives and join him at his invitation?

The people that king invites first to his feast are like the religious authorities. They were God’s chosen people, through whom he wanted to bring about the reconciliation of humankind, but they let him down. Yet not all the people who refuse the invitation, in the parable, did so on unreasonable grounds. They were ordering their business life. It is so easy for any of us to be so busy with the time pressures of this life that we forget that we have an eternal perspective to consider; to be so preoccupied that we cannot hear the soft invitation of the voice of Christ.

Are we prepared to give up the pleasures and duties of this life to find life eternal?

These days we are a little more relaxed about what we wear to church. What is more important is that we approach worship in the right spirit. God offers an open door for us to come into his presence but, when we come in, we must bring a life which matches the love that has been shown us because we cannot continue to live our old sinful life. If we enter a sinner, we must prepare ourselves to become a saint. Our new clothes must be integrity, right living, decency and kindness.

Too often we arrive in church unprepared to worship; too occupied with the troubles of the week, the latest gossip, our own grumbles and groans. If we prepare with a little prayer, a little thought and a little self-examination, then worship would be worship indeed. 

Are we prepared to put on these new clothes that honour and respect our heavenly Father?

All are invited, but few choose to come. All may come in, but few are prepared to change. All are called, but few are chosen. God does not withhold his grace; the choice – whether to change or not – rests with the us. Make sure you find yourselves among the few who came and were prepared to change.

1.   Come, sinners, to the gospel feast, let every soul be Jesu’s guest; you need not one be left behind, for God has called all humankind.    2.   Sent by my Lord, on you I call,          he invitation is to all;          come, all the world and witness how          all things in Christ are ready now.

3.  Come, all you souls by sin oppressed,        you restless wanderers after rest,        you poor, and maimed, and sick and blind,        in Christ a hearty welcome find.   4. This is the time; no more delay!        This is the Lord's accepted day;        come in, this moment, at his call,        and live for him who died for all. Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - No Condemnation

 "Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 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. 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.” 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.’  Matthew 21.33-43

Parables are stories that always have a twist in the tale, and I love a twist.

Here the twist comes when Jesus turns the tale over to the people with a question that is designed to rebuke them with their own words. They are the tenants who will meet the fate that is due to them and the God, the landlord, will find other tenants who can fulfil the task that was set them.

Parables should also raise questions for us. They should raise the challenge of God’s judgement and the need for repentance. These passages question the very basis of our existence as God’s people.

From the very beginning Jesus’ call was for everyone to start living differently, to repent. This was not just a challenge to people to give up their sinful ways and start living justly and faithfully. He never nagged the people he met; that wasn’t his tactic. Instead, whenever he stopped to meet people, he would inspire them with stories of what life could really be like; he showed them God’s way.

So it should be with us. The church has been particularly good at pointing out where people have gone wrong and putting them off. We have not delivered to God the harvest that is due to Him. Jesus way of showing people how to repent and lead the lives that God has planned for them was encouragement not condemnation.

Where do you see yourself? Are you actively disobeying God’s wishes while maintaining the veneer of respectability? Are you one of those who maintain a faithful life within the church but ignore what is going on around you? Or do you see yourself active within the church and world, encouraging others into God’s kingdom?

Many of us who think we live morally upright and faithful lives are deluding ourselves. It is not respectability that God wants of us; it is right and just living, inspire others with our words and by our example.

We will all need help and guidance and in that we have in Christ, the capstone, who is both the way by which we should live our lives and the strength and support in all we do.

God bless us as his will becomes our own.

And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Saviour's blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain?
For me, who him to death pursued?
Amazing love!  How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach the eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ,            my own.

Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Buttering Parsnips

 

What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the 1st and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard’. ‘I will not’, he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, Sir’, but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?

Matthew 21.28 – 31

What do you think? Which child are you most like? You might think that the one who obeyed his father in the end is preferable but, to be frank, neither wins ‘favourite child’ status in their father’s eye. We probably feel that we are a little of both at times but that is no recommendation either. There must be another way.

I imagine that we all know to whom Jesus was referring when he told this parable. The first are those who live self-indulgent, disobedient lifestyles ignoring God but then repenting and following Jesus; the prostitutes, gluttons, and tax-gatherers are representative sinners. The second are those who are self-righteous, smug and who profess piety but cynically fail in their obedience to God; the Jewish religious and secular leaders of Jesus’ time, still representative sinners.

The point of this parable is that neither is perfect, even if the first is obedient in the end. It teaches us that a promise is never a replacement for obedient service; we are not buttering parsnips here. On the other hand, service is marred by lack of grace and enthusiasm.

The ideal, the Christian way, is to serve our heavenly Father obediently with respect, good grace, and enthusiasm.

So, do we butter our faith with fine words or are we ‘push comes to shove’ Christians or are we ready to please our Father by saying ‘yes’ and meaning ‘yes’ in perfect obedience.

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast,
let every soul be Jesu’s guest;
you need not one be left behind,
or God has called all humankind.

Sent by my Lord, on you I call,
the invitation is to all;
come, all the world and witness how
all things in Christ are ready now.

His love is mighty to compel;
his conquering love consent to feel;
yield to his love's resistless power,
and fight against your God no more.

This is the time; no more delay!
This is the Lord's accepted day;
come in, this moment, at his call,
and live for him who died for all.

Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mustn’t Grumble

 

‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning the went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay whatever is right.” So they went. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long?” “Because no one here has hired us,” they answered. He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.” When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going to the first.” The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last only worked one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work in the heat of the day.” But he answered one of them. “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agreed to work for a denarius?” Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Our are you envious of because I am generous.”

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Matthew 20.1-16

Jesus does not tell this parable to encourage social justice or equality. Here, instead, is a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven and the generosity of God’s grace. It is a story of hope but also of warning.

It is unlikely that this story has an origin in a real situation. Surely a successful landowner would only pay his workers for their productivity. But here we have a landowner who is identified with God and his approach is different. A denarius was the sum needed for a worker to support his family for one day; any less and the family starved. The landowner is paying what the worker needs and that is how we receive God’s loving grace, all that we need.

Of course, all that we need, as we serve God and his kingdom, is neither wage nor reward. Our relationship with God is not contractual, one in which we are rewarded for the service that we render. Ours is God’s promise that we are saved from sin’s oppression to joyfully become part of his kingdom of life and love. We do not deserve it and there is nothing we can do to earn it. God’s grace is not quantifiable; there is not a time when we need much of it and another when we need less. God’s gift of grace is freely given out of his abundant generosity. We respond to God’s bounty in offering him all that we have.

It is of great comfort to know that we may come to know God in Christ early in our lives or at the eleventh hour and, whenever our faith journey starts, we are equally welcomed into his presence. We may not all have worked for long in his service or have contributed in the same way but all that we do is of equal value to our generous God. What really matters is not the service we give but the love and joy in which it is given.

This leads to the warning; it is easy for us to become envious because of God’s generosity, especially among established members of the church. There is no preferred status in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus warned his disciples that those who consider themselves favoured because they arrived first will be last if reward is their primary concern. God is out there seeking those that everyone else rejected and offering an equal place in his kingdom. It seems unfair, but that is the mystery of God’s grace; it is a gift made equally to all irrespective of service.

The disciples needed to learn that lesson and it is something of which we need to be regularly reminded. We mustn’t grumble when God is generous.

Take my life, and let it be
              consecrated, Lord, to thee;
              take my moments and my days,
              let them flow in ceaseless praise.

              Take my love; my Lord, I pour
              at thy feet its treasure-store;
              take myself, and I will be
              ever, only, all for thee.

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879)

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Stop Counting

 

'Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times”.’

Matthew 18.21

Let us get our wrongdoings into perspective. The distance between what we perceive as our minor misdemeanours and the wickedness perpetrated by the vilest tyrant is the distance from your front door to the bottom of the road, when seen from a GPS Satellite; we might say a drop in the ocean. But this doesn’t mean that we should ignore the rifts caused by sinfulness and brush matters under the carpet. They need to be resolved and forgiveness is the key.

The point Jesus is making in this pronouncement, and the ‘Parable of the Unmerciful Servant’ that follows, is that we should never give up seeking forgiveness and reconciliation even in the most harrowing of circumstances. We must forgive and forgive and keep on forgiving.

Love and forgiveness are central to the Gospel message. At the centre of the Lord’s Prayer we ask a merciful God to forgive us just as we are forgiving those who have wronged us. The first is dependent upon the second. We will not be granted God’s forgiveness unless we are prepared to forgive and forgive and keep on forgiving. At first that seems at odds with the God who is love but that is to misunderstand the nature of that love. God does not stop loving us nor does he stop forgiving. Rather, it concerns our being receptive to very nature of forgiveness; if we cannot forgive others the tiniest of injustices, it will never be possible for us to accept God’s unmerited forgiveness for the immeasurable wrong we have done to him.

If you are keeping a tally of the times you have forgiven someone who has sinned against you, you are not really forgiving them, you are just postponing your retribution. If God’s absolution is granted for the greatest of humankind’s atrocities, we can offer nothing less. We must forgive and forgive and keep on forgiving.

The Lord’s Prayer (modern form)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever.
Amen.

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk