Reuben's Sermon for the Last Sunday after Trinity:
Reuben's Theme: "Looking back - Looking Forward"

(Last Sunday after Trinity) - EVENSONG 1800hrs. at Holy Saviour - Tynemouth.
Sunday, 23rd. October 2005 Anno Domini.

Morning Mass: Deuteronomy: 34.1-12 Ps: 90.1-6 [13-17] 1 Thessalonians: 2.1-8 Matthew: 22.34-46
Evensong: Psalm: 119.89-104 Ecclesiastes: 11 & 12 2 Timothy: 2.1-7

October 23, 2005 Cycle A Trinity Last.

COLLECT OF THE DAY

Blessèd Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

TODAY'S READINGS:

Morning Mass:

FIRST READING
Deuteronomy 34.1­12

A reading from the book of Deuteronomy.
Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the LORD showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,
the Negeb, and the Plain ­ that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees ­ as far as Zoar.
The LORD said to him, 'This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, "I will give it to your descendants"; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.'
Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord's command.
He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day.
Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigour had not abated.
The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.
Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.
He was unequalled for all the signs and wonders that the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

PSALM
Psalm 90.1­6, 13­17

R Satisfy us by your loving-kindness: so shall we rejoice and be glad.

1 Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to another.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or the land and the earth were born, from age to age you are God.
3 You turn us back to the dust and say, 'Go back, O child of earth.' R
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past and like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep us away like a dream; we fade away suddenly like the grass.
6 In the morning it is green and flourishes; in the evening it is dried up and withered. R
13 Return, O Lord; how long will you tarry? be gracious to your servants.
14 Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
15 Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us and the years in which we suffered adversity. R
16 Show your servants your works and your splendour to their children.
17 May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us; prosper the work of our hands; prosper our handiwork. R

SECOND READING
1 Thessalonians 2.1­8

A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians.
You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.
For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.
As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.
So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

GOSPEL
Matthew 22.34­46

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
'Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?'
He said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:
'What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?' They said to him, 'The son of David.'
He said to them, 'How is it then that David by 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 David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?'
No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

POST COMMUNION

God of all grace, your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Evensong:

Psalm 119. 89-104

89. O Lord thy word : endureth for ever in heaven.
90. Thy truth also remaineth from one generation to another : thou hast laid the foundation of the earth and it abideth.
91. They continue this day according to thine ordinance : for all things serve thee.
92. If my delight had not been in thy law : I should have perished in my trouble.
93. I will never forget thy commandments : for with them thou hast quickened me.
94. I am thine O save me : for I have sought thy commandments.
95. The ungodly laid wait for me to destroy me : but I will consider thy testimonies.
96. I see that all things come to an end : but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
________________
97. Lord what love have I unto thy law : all the day long is my study in it.
98. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies : for they are ever with me.
99. I have more understanding than my teachers : for thy testimonies are my study.
100. I am wiser than the agéd : because I keep thy commandments.
101. I have refained my feet from every evil way : that I may keep thy word.
102. I have not shrunk from thy judgements : for thou teachest me.
103. O how sweet are thy words unto my throat : yea sweeter than honey unto my mouth.
104. Through thy commandments I get understanding : therefore I hate all evil ways.

Ecclesiastes: 11 & 12 (RSV)

1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what evil may happen on earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
4 He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun.
8 For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgement.
10 Remove vexation from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them";
2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain;
3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look through the windows are dimmed,
4 and the doors on the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;
5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets;
6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging proverbs with great care.
10 The Preacher sought to find pleasing words, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.
11 The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings which are given by one Shepherd.
12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

2 Timothy: 2.1-7 (RSV)

1* You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
2* and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
3* Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
4* No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him.
5* An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
6* It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
7* Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything.

Reuben's Theme: "Looking back - looking forward"

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Often, when talking with priests and readers, the subject of sermons at evensong crops up.
It seems that the vast majority of preachers look with dread at the thought of preaching at evensong and cheat by preaching on a subject that has little, or nothing, to do with the readings.
But that's the point of the sermon at any service.
To preach on what we have heard from the Bible during the service!

At evensong, however, just preaching on the two evening readings can be like reading the last chapter of a book.
It can be quite good, but often makes no real sense because we have no points of reference or foundation on which to base what we are reading.

So, tonight, let's look at our points of reference...
Let's look at our foundation for tonight's readings...
Let's look at what we heard this morning.

The collect for today - which, was prayed directly before the readings this morning and was the first of the three collects sung this evening - is the collect for the last Sunday after Trinity.

Blessèd Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:
Well that's easy - be it God of the old testament or God of the new, God moved men and women to write, and in the Gospel we have the closest possible link to God's message.
help us so to hear them,
yes, I hope we were all paying attention during the readings (which, to be honest, isn't always easy)
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
well, we have no excuse there - it's written down for us and we are obliged to take it home with us, read it again and think seriously about what God is telling us.
that, through patience,
yes well, patience is important - that's how you can sit there and listen to me.
and the comfort of your holy word,
God's message is good and if you read it you will be comforted - there's some very reassuring stuff there.
we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life,
yes, we shall gain eternal life - everything we are will continue through all eternity.
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
Yes, God became a human being, just for you (and me), so that by His example and through His teaching it would all make sense.

Why, then, is it that most of us don't all read a little bit of the Bible every day?
Why, then, is it that we often have difficulty understanding what we are reading, when we do read the Bible?

Well, it was all written a long time ago, some of it a very very long time ago.
It has been translated, and in translation has it lost some of it's meaning, and inadvertently gained some inaccuracies?
That used to be true but we now have better translations, taken directly from the ancient texts.

We do, however, have to understand the situation at both the time of writing and the time of translation.
We do have to know something about the civilisation and politics of the time of writing and the time of translation.

This is why people like me spend years studying and writing essays, and continue to study, attend occasional lectures every so often, and read the Bible - every day!

Every day I find I learn a little bit more!
That's why I'm standing up here.

So, what did we hear today?
What are we going to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest?

Deuteronomy is the book of Moses' farewell addresses to Israel, given about 3,265 years ago, on the plains of Moab, just before the entry to the promised land.
What we heard this morning was the complete last chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. There are only twelve verses in chapter 34.
At last Moses sees the land he has (for 40 years) longed to enter.
The action now passes to Joshua, but our reading this morning closes the book of Deuteronomy with a simple and moving tribute to the greatest of all Israel's leaders.
There would be no prophet to match him until Elijah, no one to surpass him but Christ himself.

In Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, in the bit we heard this morning, Paul looks back on the time he was with them.
It's clear that Paul's enemies have been trying to destroy his reputation, indulging in a smear campaign against him.
Paul clears his name by reminding the Christians of what actually happened when he was with them.
He did not come to them as an itinerant quack teacher peddling dubious wares, and out to deceive. Nor was he 'on-the-make' in any sense.
He came to give, not get, willing to face more trouble while still recovering from the wounds of Philippi (that was when Paul and Silas were attacked by the crowds and the magistrates had them beaten with rods and thrown, in chains, into the securest prison possible).
In both of these readings we heard this morning, I sense a feeling of both looking back and looking forward. Accounting for what has happened, while looking to the future.
After his long service, Moses is rewarded by God by being allowed to see the promised land. God repeats the promise that, although Moses will never reach the land, the people of Israel will.

Paul looks back at his time spent with the people of Thessalonica, serving God and expecting nothing in return but continue his mission to the very end - come what may.

Two men, doing the will of God, serving God, dedicating their lives to God.

So, what did today's Gospel say to us this morning?
After the Sadducees fail in their attempts to discredit Jesus, the Pharisees have a go.
You see, even Jesus can be brought to account.
When God became human, God accepted everything that came with that.
God became totally human in Jesus.

Now the most effective way that anyone can be brought to account...
the most positive way anyone can justify themselves...
is when someone tries to vilify them...
When someone tries to put them down...
When someone tries to discredit them and their way of life.
One of the Pharisees tries to discredit Jesus.
Thinking that Jesus stood for a change to the law, he soon found that Jesus stands for the same law. Jesus is a good Jew.
"Which commandment in the law is the greatest?" asks one of them.
Jesus answers, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'

But this is not why we are looking at this part of Matthew's Gospel today.

We're not looking at the commandments - the law.
We're looking at Jesus.
Jesus, without them realising it, justifies Himself.
Jesus puts a question to them:
"What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?"
They answer, as it is written by the prophets, "The son of David."
So He asks them, "How is it then that David by 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 David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?'"

Let me explain what's going on here. Jesus is quoting from Psalm 110 where King David clearly refers to the Messiah as 'Lord'. The Pharisees were stumped. No one was able to give him an answer, and as it says nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Jesus had, without anyone realising at the time, accounted for himself as well as showing that the laws, handed down from Moses, are good laws. It's the interpretation that matters.

Looking back Jesus points to the Laws of Moses as good laws.
Looking forward Jesus starts everyone thinking about who the Messiah is.
Peter has already worked it out, the disciples know but have been told not to say it to anyone.

So, Moses, held to account just before he dies is rewarded by God.

Paul, held to account by those who were trying to rubbish him, shows that he is honest and true.

And Jesus, when challenged, not only proves he holds true to the Commandments - the laws from the past, but begins to open up questions as to who the Messiah is.

Looking forward...

In our first reading tonight, we hear from a piece of wisdom literature.
In the conclusion from Ecclesiastes, we hear practical advice leading to the author's conclusions.

If life is long - rejoice in it.

Rejoice in the light before the dark night of death begins.

Let the young rejoice in their youth, always mindful of of God who calls everyone to account.

Don't wait till old age.

Don't wait until life has become futile and empty and there is nothing ahead but death.

Fear God - hold him in awe - and obey him.

Verse two in chapter twelve depicts life drawing to an end and the darkness of death closing in.
Verses three, four and five are a series of pictures of old age,
when strength fails,
when teeth are few,
when sight grows dim.
And in chapters nine to fourteen we have the author or editor's post-script.
He has spoken the truth about life, shown it up for what it is without God.
His constructive advice is scattered throughout the book.
Now he pinpoints the one thing on which our lives turn:
our attitude to God.

There is a judgement, when good and evil will be sorted out.

Mankind must live in the light of it.

The 'fear of the LORD' (as Proverbs makes so plain) is where true wisdom - and real life - begins.

Looking back over our lives...
...looking forward to how we will live the rest of our life.

In our second reading in the second letter to Timothy, Paul explains that it costs something to be a Christian - no one knew this better than Paul. Timothy will need single-minded determination not to get sucked in by the demands of life.
As Paul says, "No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him."

It's important for Timothy to plan and live his life according to the commandments and the example of Jesus, "An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules."

Looking back at what has gone before...

...looking forward to how things must be.

So, this is the last Sunday after Trinity.

Next Sunday some churches will celebrate as All Saints' Sunday...
...it is also, however, the 4th. Sunday before Advent.

Advent, a time when traditionally we prepare for Christmas.

Advent, a time when traditionally we look back over our lives and prepare for the future.

Advent, a time when we account for ourselves.

How will we account for ourselves this year?

What are we going to do that's different?

Let's start afresh.

We have only four weeks to make our personal plan - what we are going to do in Advent to be even better Christians?

A time to look back and a time to look forward.

A time to remember and a time to learn.

A time to reflect and a time to plan.

A time to hear the scriptures, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of God's holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life.

Let's not waste it!

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.