Today's Readings
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 (NRSV)
Psalm 19 (BCP., p. 606)
Philippians 3:4b-14 (NRSV)
Matthew 21:33-46 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
This weeks Scripture Readings make me very nervous. They make me nervous because a careless literary reading of them can lead to a heinous attitude of entitlement. Christians have been making this error for centuries. The reading from Exodus about God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Psalm, Epistle from Paul and the Gospel of Matthew about what the tenants did, and who "replaces them" have given rise the worst kind of antisemitism. The readings could not be on a worse weekend than when the Jewish people are celebrating Yom Kipper.
On the flip side, Christians have some important reminders contained in the message of these readings. As Christians, we are reminded that our Faith sits upon the shoulders of the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures. Such a statement is made in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in stained glass windows that depict the writers of the Christian Testament perched upon the shoulders of the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures. If Christians are able to live into a deeper devotion to Jesus Christ because of what is written in the Bible, it is because Christianity without Judaism has no feet with which to walk. This is why any attitude or action of antisemitism on the part of Christians is an insult to our Savior who is a Jewish Carpenter of Middle Eastern origin. Oh and by the way, when Joseph and Mary carried Jesus to Egypt to flee Herod's slaughter of all male children up to two years old in Bethlehem; the Holy Family was also an immigrant family. Today, they would be called illegals.
The Gospel Reading from Matthew is also of serious concern. If we read it and take it at face value, it sounds as if Jesus was saying that because the Jewish people failed to follow God as they were told, Jesus came and entrusted the salvation that was promised to them to the Church. Other meanings that could be attached to this parable is that anyone who lives in a way that is contrary to how a particular group of Christians interpret it such as women who have and/or support their right to reproductive health choices, LGBT, of who do not support bashing President Obama or the social and political campaign against the Muslim people; that they too would be forfeiting their place in God's promise of salvation.
All of these Scripture passages are telling us something very different. They tell us that those who hold God's Name in the highest esteem are best known for their love of God, neighbor and themselves. That love breaks down the barriers that divide people because of prejudice, makes all forms of violence in the name of any religion a contradiction to who God is; and, brings healing and reconciliation through generous hospitality and personal sacrifice. Love is the reason for obedience; not fear. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone for the Church, because in Him is the fullness of God. A fullness that is served by answering the call of God to serve others because love is our reason and goal. Our prayers are heard by God, "not because of our many words, but because of our purity of heart, and tears of compunction" (The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 20, vs. 3). Tears for those who are marginalized by the Church and society, because in both systems money, power, prestige and scapegoating are more important than living the meaning of the Gospel of Christ; while Christians sit idly by and do nothing.
The salvation brought to us in Jesus Christ is because of the love of God and the justice we do unto others who are different from ourselves. It is not because we are entitled to do what we want, with whomever we want. It means that even those who are outside of our expectations, ideals, and even those who are very difficult to love, are to be loved. In The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 27, the Abbot is instructed to care for those who have been dismissed from the Monastery. The Abbot is told to send a wise Senior who can help the individual turn his life around to be rejoined to the Community. St. Benedict uses the words of 2 Corinthians 2:8 to say: "Let love be strengthened toward him, and let all pray for him" (vs.4). Every reasonable effort is to be made to help such a person to better understand their place in the life of the Community. In such a process, the Abbot and most likely the whole Community learns something together.
We should not get bogged down by the history of the Church, however unchristian it may be. Neither should we be discouraged because of how we individually find it so difficult to live authentically the love of God, neighbor and ourselves. We are all encouraged by the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church at Philippi when he writes: "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
Amen.
Prayers
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 (NRSV)
Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."
Psalm 19 (BCP., p. 606)
Philippians 3:4b-14 (NRSV)
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 21:33-46 (NRSV)
Jesus said, "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 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 get his inheritance.' So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when 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 lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time."
Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures:
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."
- `The stone that the builders rejected
- has become the cornerstone;
- this was the Lord's doing,
- and it is amazing in our eyes'?
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Blog Reflection
This weeks Scripture Readings make me very nervous. They make me nervous because a careless literary reading of them can lead to a heinous attitude of entitlement. Christians have been making this error for centuries. The reading from Exodus about God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Psalm, Epistle from Paul and the Gospel of Matthew about what the tenants did, and who "replaces them" have given rise the worst kind of antisemitism. The readings could not be on a worse weekend than when the Jewish people are celebrating Yom Kipper.
On the flip side, Christians have some important reminders contained in the message of these readings. As Christians, we are reminded that our Faith sits upon the shoulders of the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures. Such a statement is made in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in stained glass windows that depict the writers of the Christian Testament perched upon the shoulders of the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures. If Christians are able to live into a deeper devotion to Jesus Christ because of what is written in the Bible, it is because Christianity without Judaism has no feet with which to walk. This is why any attitude or action of antisemitism on the part of Christians is an insult to our Savior who is a Jewish Carpenter of Middle Eastern origin. Oh and by the way, when Joseph and Mary carried Jesus to Egypt to flee Herod's slaughter of all male children up to two years old in Bethlehem; the Holy Family was also an immigrant family. Today, they would be called illegals.
The Gospel Reading from Matthew is also of serious concern. If we read it and take it at face value, it sounds as if Jesus was saying that because the Jewish people failed to follow God as they were told, Jesus came and entrusted the salvation that was promised to them to the Church. Other meanings that could be attached to this parable is that anyone who lives in a way that is contrary to how a particular group of Christians interpret it such as women who have and/or support their right to reproductive health choices, LGBT, of who do not support bashing President Obama or the social and political campaign against the Muslim people; that they too would be forfeiting their place in God's promise of salvation.
All of these Scripture passages are telling us something very different. They tell us that those who hold God's Name in the highest esteem are best known for their love of God, neighbor and themselves. That love breaks down the barriers that divide people because of prejudice, makes all forms of violence in the name of any religion a contradiction to who God is; and, brings healing and reconciliation through generous hospitality and personal sacrifice. Love is the reason for obedience; not fear. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone for the Church, because in Him is the fullness of God. A fullness that is served by answering the call of God to serve others because love is our reason and goal. Our prayers are heard by God, "not because of our many words, but because of our purity of heart, and tears of compunction" (The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 20, vs. 3). Tears for those who are marginalized by the Church and society, because in both systems money, power, prestige and scapegoating are more important than living the meaning of the Gospel of Christ; while Christians sit idly by and do nothing.
The salvation brought to us in Jesus Christ is because of the love of God and the justice we do unto others who are different from ourselves. It is not because we are entitled to do what we want, with whomever we want. It means that even those who are outside of our expectations, ideals, and even those who are very difficult to love, are to be loved. In The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 27, the Abbot is instructed to care for those who have been dismissed from the Monastery. The Abbot is told to send a wise Senior who can help the individual turn his life around to be rejoined to the Community. St. Benedict uses the words of 2 Corinthians 2:8 to say: "Let love be strengthened toward him, and let all pray for him" (vs.4). Every reasonable effort is to be made to help such a person to better understand their place in the life of the Community. In such a process, the Abbot and most likely the whole Community learns something together.
We should not get bogged down by the history of the Church, however unchristian it may be. Neither should we be discouraged because of how we individually find it so difficult to live authentically the love of God, neighbor and ourselves. We are all encouraged by the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church at Philippi when he writes: "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
Amen.
Prayers
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to
hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire
or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid,
and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy
to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus
Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 22, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 234).
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 816).
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 833).
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