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Reuben's Sermon for the 20th. Sunday after
Trinity:
Proper 22:
Reuben's Theme: "Set you minds on things that are above...
"
(Trinity 20) - MORNING MASS
0800hrs. and 0930hrs at Saint George's Parish Church - Cullercoats.
Sunday, 5th. October 2008 Anno Domini.
Morning Mass: Isaiah 5.17 Psalm
80.714 Philippians 3.4b14 Matthew 21.3346
October 05, 2008 Cycle A Trinity 20 (Pentecost 21).
COLLECT
God, the giver of life, whose Holy Spirit wells up
within your Church:
by the Spirit's gifts, equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will, that we may share, with the
whole creation, the joys of eternal life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns
with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for
ever.
FIRST READING Isaiah 5.17
A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
Let me sing for my belovèd my love-song concerning
his vineyard:
My belovèd had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug
it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watch-tower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine
vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild
grapes.
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge
between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my
vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield
grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will
remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down
its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with
briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that
they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting: he expected
justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
PSALM Psalm 80.714
R For the vineyard
of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance
and we shall be saved.
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
you cast out the nations and planted it.
9 You prepared the ground for it; it took
root and filled the land. R
10 The mountains were covered
by its shadow and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.
11 You stretched out its tendrils to the
Sea and its branches to the River. R
12 Why have you broken
down its wall, so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?
13 The wild boar of the forest has ravaged
it, and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.
14 Turn now, O God of hosts, look down
from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right
hand has planted. R
SECOND READING Philippians 3.4b14
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians.
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.
Belovèd, 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 towards the goal
for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
GOSPEL Matthew 21.3346
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according
to Matthew.
[Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:]
'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 watch-tower. 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: "The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes"?
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.'
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables,
they realised that he was speaking about them. They wanted to
arrest Him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded
Him as a prophet.
POST COMMUNION
God our Father, whose Son (the light unfailing) has
come from heaven to deliver the world from the darkness of ignorance:
let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding,
that we may know the way of life, and walk in it without stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reuben's Theme: "Set your minds
on things that are above..."
+ In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
I find it rather interesting that I have been asked to preach
on a Sunday when the main theme is that of a vineyard.
I can see it now:
"Vineyard? Let's get Reuben to preach!"
Well, I'm not a wine drinker.
And, although Jesus walked on water, I run on Gin and Tonic.
Anyway... The vineyard....
In our psalm, this morning...
...we hear a prayer for the restoration of Israel.
Israel is pictured as a great vine, planted by God in a vineyard...
...stretching out to the mountains and cedars of Lebanon in the
North,
west to the Mediterranean
and east to the River Euphrates.
Our psalmist, like many Geordies, makes no reference to things
due south.
Our first reading, taken from the prophecies of Isaiah,
is the song of the vineyard.
The Jewish nation is the vineyard of God.
God has done everything necessary to ensure a good yield.
But the vintage is bitter; so God abandons the vineyard.
So, putting all that to one side, what do we have in our Gospel
reading this morning?
In our reading from Gospel according to Matthew...
...the priests and elders continue to question Jesus' authority.
We heard the parable of the two sons last week...
...the father asks them to do a task...
...the first son, who said that he would but didn't...
...and the second son, who said he wouldn't but changed
heart...
...and did.
Now, Jesus is going on to bash the religious establishment a
little harder...
...and tells the parable of the vineyard.
Using the metaphors used in Isaiah...
...as Jesus tells His story of the vineyard.
The people of Israel are the vineyard.
The owner is God.
The tenants are the priests and elders...
...the spiritual leaders in who's care God has entrusted Israel...
...the latest of whom, are the very people Jesus is talking to!
The slaves, who are sent to collect the harvest from the tenants...
...are the prophets...
...who have been ignored and abused throughout the history of
Israel...
...by the very priests, elders and spiritual leaders to whom
God entrusted his chosen people.
Jesus then goes on to prophecy what is to come.
The owner finally sends his son... ...as God has sent Jesus.
The tenants kill the son... ...as Jesus Himself will also die.
And Jesus cleaverly makes the priests and elders predict God's
punishment...
...casting out the old tenants and bringing in new tenants.
A new order and a new covenant.
The vineyard is no longer just the Jewish Nation...
...it is also the Gentiles.
The new tenants are caring for the vineyard...
The new tenants Church of God in Christ Jesus.
So, after the prophecy of the death and the resurrection
(of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour) is actually fulfilled...
...where did that leave the Christian Church?
Paul, in his usual strict, concise and intellectual way...
...gives a powerful warning!
In our second reading this morning...
...taken from his letter to the Philippians...
...Paul gives his warning to all those who are confident that
their physical, or earthly, way of life is righteous...
..."righteousness in the flesh" as opposed to
"righteousness in the spirit".
He then goes on to list his own credentials as an example.
Of good upbringing:
His parents, good law abiding Jews...
...had taken him to the temple...
...and had him circumcised...
...when he was eight days old (according to strict Jewish law).
Being of good lineage:
A member of the tribe of Benjamin.
A Hebrew born of Hebrews.
A member of a strict religious sect:
A Pharisee.
Pharisees often extended the way Jewish laws were applied...
...so that they became very hard to keep.
Their strict rulings often led to people being
so concerned to keep the laws...
...in every detail...
...that they lost sight of the 'spirit' behind the laws' original
intent.
Paul readily admits to his zeal in being a good Jew:
...having been a major persecutor of the Christian Church.
So, in Paul's words...
....as to righteousness?
Under Jewish law...
...blameless!
But now...
...any earthly gains he had...
...he regards them as a loss.
He regards them as a a negative attribute...
...because of Christ!
More than that...
...he regards everything as a negative influence...
...because of the knowledge he has gained through Jesus Christ.
He goes on...
saying that (for the sake of Jesus)...
...he has suffered the loss of all things...
...and regards them as rubbish...
...in order to become more like Jesus Christ...
...that's what "to gain Christ and be found in Him"
means...
...to become like Jesus...
...and in striving to become like Jesus...
....Paul has suffered the loss of everything!
The loss of his own earthly righteousness...
...the righteousness he gained through strict interpretations
of Jewish law.
And gaining a true righteousness...
...that comes through faith in Christ.
The righteousness from God, based on faith.
So, where does leave the Christian Church today?
Or, more important...
Where does this leave us...
...here at Saint George's Church in Cullercoats?
We are a vineyard.
We are God's people.
Yesterday, at the re-licensing of all the Readers at Newcastle
Cathedral...
...in the morning seminar led by Dr. Alan Wakely...
...the many topics that were discussed included...
...the problems with the literal translation of the Bible...
...the folly of creationists
who believe the world is only six thousand years old...
...and the the problems that are involved...
...when preaching on truth...
...rather than on, what is often referred to as, tradition.
So, I put it to you:
When worrying and debating...
...on the rules and laws of the established church...
...don't get bogged down, like the Pharisees...
...with the 'whys' and 'wherefores'...
...of church traditions... ...and church laws.
Or, as I like to refer to them...
the Catholick Rites...
...and wrongs...
...and mays...
...and mights...
They are not important... ...and, if
taken too strictly...
..."should be", as Paul says, "counted as loss".
Be like Saint Paul:
His ultimate desire to be as like Jesus as possible...
...constantly striving for that very goal.
Knowing that (with the help of Jesus Himself)...
...he could press on to the goal...
...the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
There is a responsory from the Common Worship Prayer Book.
A responsory that I say, during morning prayer, every morning.
Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.
And Christ shall give you light.
You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are
on the earth.
And Christ shall give you light.
When Christ our life appears you will appear with him in glory.
Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
you light.
So, in the light of all that has happened
recently...
at the Lambeth Conference...
...and at the General Synod
and at any other meeting that has (or will) involve...
how (or with whom)...
...we worship.
I can tell you, with the confidence of Saint Paul...
...Don't be troubled!
...Don't be worried!
It is of no importance!!
We must all worship as we are guided by our hearts.
And
We must acknowledge, and support,
the way others worship as they are guided by their hearts.
And, above all...
...we must all...
...of all traditions and customs...
...stay united in our righteousness.
But as Paul says,
"Not having a righteousness of our own...
...that comes from the law...
...but one that comes through faith in Christ...
...the righteousness from God...
...based on faith."
+ In
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
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