It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Worst of Times

The New Year provides a time to reflect and project. We reflect on the past and project what we hope for the future. Last week, Lee led us in looking at who we will be in the coming year by reflecting on the “wise men from the East”. We are engaged in a lifelong calling to become who God wants us to be. We are engaged in a lifelong quest to worship God fully. We are engaged in a lifelong effort to find faith – faith in God, a faith that we find most fully in the pain and suffering of life. [Lee posed these three questions: Who are you going to be? How is God present in your life? Where do you find faith as you travel in paths unknown?]

We read two passages this morning, one from Isaiah and one from Matthew. These were taken from the lectionary, and I have included the lectionary reading from Acts 10 as well, as we also look towards the future and ask who God wants us to be. We begin by considering the biblical texts, and then we ask what they have to say to us as we also reflect on our lives and project what we wish for the coming year.

Isaiah 42

These verses comprise one of Isaiah’s “servant songs”, referring both to Israel, who was to be God’s Servant in their world and to the coming Messiah, who would also be God’s Servant.

In this Servant Song, Isaiah tells us that:

·         God’s Servant brings justice with gentleness and peace.

·         The Creator will not rest until the Creation is filled with righteousness (another word for justice), freedom, and Shalom. [Isaiah does not use the word, but he clearly has this concept in mind.]

·         God resists all human efforts to take God’s place.

We see, then, that hope for the future comes through God’s Servant – both through Israel as God’s People and through the Messiah. In today’s context, our hope for the future rests in Jesus the Messiah and in the Body of Christ, the Church.

Acts 10

We did not read this passage earlier. Verses 34 to 43 come in the context of Peter’s vision, showing him that he can eat freely of any food – “Don’t call unclean what God has made clean.” Cornelius was a Roman centurion, who prayed regularly to God. He also had a vision, in which God told him to send for Peter. He did so, and Peter came and spoke to the people in his house.

Peter said, reflecting on his dream of clean and unclean animals:

·         Clearly God wants all people as God’s own – there are no favourites in God’s Realm.

·         God’s call rests on the death and resurrection of Jesus [you/we killed him; God raised him from the dead].

·         Jesus has sent us out to preach “forgiveness of sins”.

This term “forgiveness of sins” reminds us that God’s desire is for all people to live in the peace and harmony and justice that Isaiah had described, but humankind has rebelled against her Creator. God wants peace and justice, therefore God sent God’s Son into the world, but we rejected him. As John’s Gospel puts it: “He came to his own, but his own did not accept him.”

We are in the season of Epiphany, the light shining on our celebration of Christmas. We sing the Christmas Hymns, rejoicing at the birth of the Baby Jesus – it is indeed the best of times. In this time of joy, we listen to the news. There is conflict building in the Middle East. In the country of my youth, Zimbabwe, the shelves are bare and the electric and water power off. Australia is burning, without hope of relief. The problems all around us tell us that today may be the worst of times. The problems we face all come from humankind’s rebellion against God. We want to be in control of everything around us, and our efforts to take God’s place separate us from God.

When Jesus was born, the wise men brought myrrh (among other gifts), reminding us that Jesus was born in order to die for us. We [all humanity] killed him, and God raised him from Death. God heals the rebellion of our world, and God sends us out to preach this healing, “the forgiveness of sins”.

Matthew 3

We come to the gospel reading from Matthew 3, which describes the baptism of Jesus. Some weeks ago, Lee preached on this passage, pointing out that the baptism points us to God’s sovereignty, God’s rule in this world.

These verses answer the question that John himself asks:

·         Why? “To fulfill all righteousness.” This note of righteousness connects to the passage from Isaiah, in which the Servant brings justice/righteousness and peace.

What happened when John listened to Jesus? God appeared and approved. This event celebrates and seals the appearance of God in the world in the person of Jesus. Jesus is Lord!

Synthesis

At the beginning of a new year (and, according to some, the beginning of a new decade), we face a time full of trouble and reasons for despair. What about hope? Where does hope come from? What can make our future full of peace and justice?

·      In Isaiah, hope comes through God’s Servant – through God’s People and through the Messiah.

·      In Acts, hope and salvation really are for everyone, through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

·      In Matthew, hope begins with listening to Jesus.

We face a choice. Will we seize the New Year and force everyone to do what we want? Or will we submit to the presence and person of Jesus and receive the justice and peace that come through embracing his death and resurrection?

Synthesis Expanded

As I reflected on this basic idea, bringing the texts together, my thoughts took a direction I didn’t expect, stimulated by current events in the Middle East. I don’t quite know how to develop what I am going to say now, but I hope we can work at that together in the Going Deeper time. Here’s the thought. The USA government killed an Iranian military leader on January 3. The Iranian government responded with grief and outrage, culminating in a series of rocket attacks last Tuesday. On Wednesday, a rocket fired by Iran may have been the cause of the crash of the Ukrainian flight 752, killing 176 people, including 63 Canadians.

I have no interest in discussing the rights or wrongs of American or Iranian or Iraqi actions this morning. I mention this series of events because of how clearly they illustrate the normal way that human beings act. We want control of our lives, and we are willing to use any level of force to exercise control. Although both the American and the Iranian governments say they do not want war, no one related to this conflict considers the act of becoming a servant as part of the path to peace and justice in the Middle East.

Governments use lethal force, but we are not so different in our own ways when it comes to life in Steinbach, politically or individually. We normally use power to get what we want. This use of power is not bad; in fact, without it, nothing good can happen. For example, when I take my car to the garage, my willingness to pay for the repair is a form of power. Without my payment, the garage would go out of business, so I have leverage to get the service I need. Similarly, the mechanic identifies the repair that is needed. The mechanic’s expertise gives the garage leverage to compel me to pay to get my car back.

This is an ordinary use of power, the sort of thing that we do all the time. It is good and it is necessary. The problems begin when one of the parties involved in the exchange feels cheated. If I begin to mistrust my mechanic, I may think that I am being overcharged. I may use words like “cheated”. As I spread the word that my mechanic cheated me, I exercise the power of the consumer to hurt the business.

We could go through similar scenarios in the political realm and in the educational realm; in fact, in every area of life, we use power to get what we want. In this context, we hear Isaiah’s language of the “Suffering Servant”. A servant is defined by the lack of power. We hear also Peter’s language in Acts 10, in which he tells us that the opportunity to become one of these powerless servants is available to everyone. Finally, the gospel reading portrays Jesus taking the step of baptism, signifying his complete submission to the will of God.

We are servants. We cannot avoid the exercise of power, but we use power as servants, as people who are not in control of what will happen. As illustrated in the killing of the Iranian general, the human desire is to be in full control. We want to take control of the process and impose our will on others. We find it really hard to give up control and wait for orders from someone else. I know I am this way. I have taken personality tests that remind me of my deep resistance to authority – if someone tells me I must do something, I respond almost automatically with “No!”

What Do We Do?

You may wonder if I am making too much of the fact that Isaiah refers to the “servant of the Lord”. Is this just a title, rather than a description of who we are to be? In the passage from Acts 10, Peter clearly goes against his own understanding of who belongs in God’s kingdom. He obeys the voice in his dream, because he obeys God as king. In the baptismal passage, Jesus also demonstrates obedience for the sake of all his followers.

Two other passages from Paul’s letters state this way of living clearly and directly. In Ephesians 5: 21, Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He illustrates this mutual submission by considering the way that wives submit to their husbands, the way that husbands love their wives, the way that parents discipline their children, the way that children obey their parents, the way that bosses rule their workers, and the way that workers serve their bosses. In all these situations, filled with power dynamics, Paul counsels mutual submission.

In Philippians 2, Paul says, “Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” The last line suggests a simple and practical way forward; it is also difficult. “Don’t look out for your own interests, but look out for the interests of others.”

Earlier, I used the example of taking my car to the garage. This principle means that the garage owners and mechanics place my interests as the car owner above their own interests in the garage. Similarly, as the customer, I place the interests of the business above my own. I suspect that many of us say “Yes!” the first and grimace at the second. How do we do that? Come to the Going Deeper time to find out! I’m counting on the combined wisdom of the group, because I don’t think I can answer the question fully.

Conclusion

This is a new year. It may be “the best of times”; it may be “the worst of times”. Our future is not in our own hands. The choice we have is whether or not to live intentionally as servants of God and servants of each other. We may find that the same events are both the worst and the best, and God gives us joy and strength to live well when our circumstances are hardest.

The peace and righteousness/justice that our passages describe are a further theme, and I believe that the kind of commitment I am describing leads to greater Shalom in our world. I might suggest that the best path to such a world, filled with justice and peace, is the path of the servant. That would take another sermon, and for this morning I invite you to join me in living a life of service to God and service to each other, submitting to each other and looking out for each other, as together we serve God, in whose hands all our days rest. Amen.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

12 January 2020 

Texts

Isaiah 42: 1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. ² He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; ³ a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. ⁴ He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

⁵ Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: ⁶ I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, ⁷  to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

⁸ I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. ⁹ See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Acts 10: 34-43

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷ That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Matthew 3: 13-17

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Going Deeper Questions:

1. How does a real servant act?

2. How can we act as real servants in our church community?

3. How can we act as real servants in our community and world?

4. Mennonites don’t like to exercise power (at least, we don’t like to admit that we are using power), but the use of power is simply a reality in daily life. How can we use power appropriately as followers of Jesus?

Living humbly in a proud, proud world

When our first son was two or three years old, we had a small basketball hoop, about three feet high, and a ball to match. He would walk up to the hoop and try to put the ball through it. When he succeeded, we exulted, “Well done!” When he missed, we made sure that he wouldn’t feel upset by saying excitedly, “Almost!” Pretty soon, he was trying to miss to get the “almost”, and we had to start over, praising only success.

That little vignette sticks in my memory as an example of our society’s pre-occupation with self-image. We praise our children so that they will know they are unique and special. We want them to feel good about themselves. A good self-image is worthwhile (although, as psychologist Jean Twenge observes, the best self-image is based on self-discipline, not on praise for not succeeding at a task), but it can lead to a basic problem in our society. Canada and the United States have many people who think that they are each one special, almost beyond belief.

[I have overstated the case. Praise is good – what counsellors call “unconditional positive regard”. I’m talking about the obsession we have with making everyone the best at everything.]

I could have started with a different memory, of going to college and discovering that most people were not interested in my Climenhaga family pedigree. They took me down a notch when I would start to talk about my Dad, or my Uncle, or my grandparents or great-grandparents. The flip side of our cultural pride is the sense that the boaster needs to be taken down a notch. Like a friend of mine whose mother would tell other people when she was proud of the sermon he preached, but would never tell him, lest it lead to his own pride.

You would think, then, that our aversion to people boasting about themselves (“don’t toot your own horn!”) means that we are a humble people, but the truth is that we are proud – a proud, proud world. That’s one reason we don’t like other people’s boasting; it detracts from our own sense of self-importance.

What do the Scriptures that we heard this morning say to us, in the context of a world in which each of us elevates himself-herself? What does God call us to be in a proud, proud world?

1 Samuel 2:1-10

You remember Hannah’s story. She was barren and pleaded with God for a child. Hannah sings her song of celebration and praise when God answers her prayer and gives her a son. She names him Samuel – God heard me, and she sings about how God exalts the humble and brings down the proud. This song serves as the model for Mary’s song of celebration in Luke 1, when she sings of her joy as the birth of the Messiah, God’s Chosen One, draws near. This theme – that God exalts the humble and brings down the proud – is basic to the gospel that the Messiah brings to the people of Israel.

Go through the passage with me.

• The Lord delivers me and gives me joy.
• God is unique and strong and holy.
• Our pride turns to nothing in God’s presence.
• The warriors’ weapons are broken, and the fallen are exalted. (Note that the passive tense indicates God’s action, not our own.)
• Everything is reversed – the poor are rich and the rich poor; the barren (like Hannah) have children and those with many children now have none.
• The Lord gives life and death.
• The Lord makes the poor rule the world.
• The world belongs to God.
• We prevail by God’s strength; our own strength is worth nothing.

 You see through the whole passage the theme that God establishes everyone and everything, and that we have no right to compliment ourselves on our good fortune. Praise and honour and glory belong to God alone.

This point is so obvious that we wonder why I would even bother repeating it, but I say it because we do actually take the credit for our good fortune all the time. When someone thanks me for a good sermon, I don’t say, “Actually I didn’t do anything.” I say, “Thank you”, and I remember the time and effort I put into it. But in fact, any good thing that happens here this morning comes from God.

So, we turn to Hebrews 10:11-25

Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish-background believers, who were beginning to doubt their embrace of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. The writer quotes the prophet Jeremiah, from Jeremiah 31: God has written his law on human hearts, so that we can live according to the hope God has placed in us.

This quotation is given within the description of how the OT Law worked, with priests making sacrifices in the Temple. A basic theme throughout the letter is that Jesus, and his new covenant, are superior to the old covenant represented by the sacrifices described in the Law. Whether the priests knew it or not, they were pointing the way to God’s Law written on the human heart so that each one of us can know the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. This active Spirit in our lives helps us to live well, and to encourage each other to live well. This new covenant is at the centre of our worship this morning.

We put these two passages together: Just as Hannah celebrates God’s great work of exalting the person at the bottom – namely, herself, so the writer to the Hebrews lets us know that God has lifted all of us up and made us God’s children. We can rejoice and celebrate with Hannah as we acknowledge God’s work in our lives.

Mark 13:1-8

In the gospel reading, the disciples are admiring the majesty of the Temple that Herod had built. Jesus responds by prophesying the destruction of the Temple and the end of all things. When they had a chance, Peter, James, John, and Andrew (who seem to have been a sort of inner circle) ask when the End would come. Jesus replies that we are called to live God’s way in the present, knowing that the End is not far away. The climax of the passage comes in verse 11 – that Christians are to be ready to respond to any accusation against them with the words that the Holy Spirit will give them.

Synthesis

The basic idea that comes through these passages is clear enough: The message that the Holy Spirit gives us is the message of God’s love demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus, which results in God’s Law written on our hearts. God’s law is now written within us – God’s command to love and to live according to God’s love, which lifts up those who are hurting and gives to them joy.

Why do I call this “living humbly”? Is not this the way most Canadians want to live, whether they believe in God or not? Don’t most people want to be caring and considerate of other people. We see ourselves as polite and considerate to a fault. Consider the movie, “Canadian Bacon”, which portrays three Americans on a mission, running through a crowd of Canadians gathered around the CN tower in Toronto. They bump into many people in their rush, knocking them flying in different directions. As they do so, you hear the repeated word, “Sorry!” Not of course from those brash Americans, but from all the polite Canadians who just got pushed over.

So, am I simply reminding us to be good Canadians? I don’t think so. I was at the Human Rights Museum this past Wednesday evening to see the Mandela exhibit. We also walked through the levels above the ground floor – all six of them. Near the top, there is a video playing of PierreTrudeau responding to the separatists in Quebec. You remember the events in October 1970. Two members of the FLQ kidnapped the deputy premier of Quebec (Pierre Laporte) and a British diplomat (James Cross). They ended up killing Laporte and negotiating Cross’s release.

Pierre Trudeau responded by implementing the War Power Act, suspending some civil liberties in the process of rooting out the violent revolutionaries within the FLQ. According to Wikipedia (quoting a 1970 Gallup Poll) 89% of English-speaking Canada and 86% of French-speaking Canada supported Trudeau’s action at the time.

Does this make us proud? No. My point is simpler than that. When people run into us, we fight back – whatever the movie “Canadian Bacon” suggests. In this respect we are actually like the Americans, and the British, and the French, and the Chinese, and Japanese, and the various countries of Africa, and Arabs, and any other group of people you wish to name. Human beings are proud in precisely this sense: What we think is good always starts with what benefits or hurts us. We are self-centred, as individuals and as a nation.

This is not an entirely bad thing. A proper sense of pride is necessary for healthy individuals, for healthy groups, and for healthy nations. My father used to quote the lines from Sir Walter Scott, “Breathes there the man with soul so dead,/ who never to himself hath said,/ This is my home, my native land!” Having lived in four different countries, I take pride in each of my homes, and I value the good that is in my home here in Canada.

Although such pride is not necessarily bad, it is in tension with the humility God calls us to. In 1 Samuel, Hannah reminds us that God gives us all that we have, and that we rely on God for all that we are and do. The reading from Hebrews reminds us that we depend on God for our knowledge of how to live, and that we depend on each other for the encouragement to live that way. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that the Holy Spirit within us speaks and acts through us.

What does Humility look like?

So, what does this kind of humility look like in practice? I referred earlier to my friend whose mother didn’t want to compliment him directly lest he become too “full of himself”. He found out what she really thought when another friend of his told him that his mother really liked the sermon he preached in our church. Isn’t this what humility looks like? Well … no.

Remember, pride is not thinking you’re good at something. I like to play chess. I am a reasonably good player, what they call a “good club player”. I could go down to the chess club and enjoy playing in their weekly gatherings. (I see from the Web that the Rudolf Rocker Chess Club meets in the Winnipeg Millennium Library on the first Saturday of the month from noon to 4 pm, with casual meetings at the same time and place on other Saturdays of the month.) Chess discourages people from overstating their ability. You win or lose pretty much by what you do over the board. Paul’s words apply: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.”

If you are good at something, proper self-awareness acknowledges that. If you are bad at something, proper self-awareness says that too. So, pride is not saying that you’re good at something. Pride isn’t even saying you’re good at something when you’re really not. That’s just lack of self-awareness, and most of us have blind spots about our own abilities. Pride is something else again.

Pride is a focus on oneself to the exclusion of others. Another word for pride is “egocentrism”, or more simply “egotism”. In a baby, this self-centeredness is natural and good. In an adult, self-centeredness can become destructive and bad. At its worst, we say that the proud person is a narcissist, unable to see what is good for the larger group and aware only of what he/she experiences at the centre of their consciousness.

Humility, in turn, is a focus on others. We focus on ourselves appropriately – as Jesus put it, we love each other the way that we love ourselves, but we do not focus on ourselves to the exclusion of others. We see, as Nelson Mandela (and many others) put it, that my freedom and the other person’s freedom are bound up together. What is good for you is also, in the long run, good for me. Our world says, “Look out for number one.” God says, “Look out for each other.”

Concluding Thoughts

This is a lot harder than it sounds. We can agree without difficulty to look out for each other, but when it comes to daily life, we find that self-interest and others-interest run up against each other. The solution is not to give up, but to refocus on the people around us. It takes practice. You notice the needs of a neighbour and try to help. You realise that our personal habits in Canada may hurt people in another part of the world, and we try to find alternatives.

Embracing humility turns out to be a kind of spiritual self-discipline. Our automatic reaction in every situation is to think of how it affects us – and may hurt us. In place of this automatic reaction, we learn step by baby step to think of how the situation affects the people around us. As the learned response becomes habitual, we become what I have been describing as “humble” – focussed on each other, on other people’s needs in general.

We can see this point through two illustrations: one is a preacher’s story, and the other is a quote from C.S. Lewis. The preacher’s story. A man had a dream in which he found himself in a hallway with two doors, one labelled Hell and the other labelled Heaven. An angel standing there asked, “Would you like to see what’s behind the doors?” “Sure”, he replied. The angel opened the door to Hell, and he saw a group of people sitting around a table piled high with wonderful food and drink, a rich banquet of delight for anyone who would eat. Each person was confined to his/her chair, with a long spoon chained to their wrist – too long to eat with. They were trapped in an eternity of delight that they could never savour. The angel took him to the second door and opened it. A similar scene met his sight – the wonderful banquet, the restriction of the spoon too long to feed themselves with, but here each person was feeding someone else. An eternity of joy and delight in serving each other.

C.S. Lewis describes it this way in Mere Christianity:

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

The “really humble man” is not thinking about himself, because he is really interested in you. The truly humble woman is not thinking about herself, because she is thinking about and listening to God. How do we live humbly in a proud, proud world? We give ourselves to God, and we take fare of each other. Simple really, and harder than it sounds.

Grace Bible Church

18 November 2018

Texts

1 Samuel 2:1-10

Hebrews 10:11-25

Mark 13:1-8

Will You Let Me Be Your Servant?

Introduction

Our son and his wife chose this song for their wedding:

Will you let me be your servant,/ Let me be as Christ to you

Pray that I might have the grace,/ To let you be my servant too.

As it happens, we didn’t sing the song at their wedding; the copyright holders wanted several hundred dollars for us to sing the hymn. Instead we sang “Be Thou My Vision”. But I remember that they felt these words said something that they wanted as they exchanged their wedding vows.

Some people feel that these words are too clichéd and they prefer to avoid the hymn. We’ll come back to the hymn at the end of the sermon, seeking to express something of the words of Jesus in the gospel reading this morning.

Joshua 3

We will scan the first two passages that we read and focus more closely on the gospel reading. Joshua is the account of the way that the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land and took possession of it. In some ways it is a hard book to read, because we realise (if we are paying attention) that for someone to possess the land, someone else is dispossessed. Living in a country with a colonial history, where we can identify with the possessors and the First Nations have ben dispossessed, it is good for us to feel uncomfortable about this process. At the same time, we should not project our own conflicts back on to the biblical text. We read it, recognizing that it is descriptive, not prescriptive, and as we read, we listen for what God tells us.

The first six verses of Joshua 3 locate the action of entering the land within God’s plans for the Children of Israel. We note that God is taking care of them, and we can appropriate that lesson for ourselves as well. Whatever the situations of our lives, whether in good or bad situations, we can be sure that God is caring for us.

This does not mean that God wills (in the strong sense of that word) everything that happens to us. It does mean that God cares for us in everything that happens to us. Given the many different experiences of this congregation, that is good news.

In verses 7 to 17, the Children of Israel enter the Land of Promise. These verses highlight two things: 1) This entry was indeed at the expense of the existing inhabitants; and 2) God performed a miracle of creating dry land for them to cross.

For the first: We must understand the way that the Hebrew language worked. In verse 10 we read: “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you [the inhabitants of the land].” But we know from the rest of the book of Joshua that these inhabitants remained, and that the Children of Israel lived among them. The point is that they would have a place to live, and that they would know that God was with them. Reading the book of Judges makes it clear that they did not simply take the land with a kind of ethnic cleansing. The point again is that God was with them – just as God is with us as we move into new territory in our lives.

For the second: The point is not that the Jordan was not so big a river that they could not have forded it – although the author reminds us that the river was in flood stage. Rather, the dry land was a way of reminding them that God set them free from Egypt and that God is taking them into their new home. The point again is that God is with them.

So we turn to 1 Thessalonians 2.

1 Thessalonians 2

Paul planted the church in Thessalonica (see Acts 17), with a number of both Jews and Gentiles responding to his preaching. Agitators from other places where Paul had preached stirred up the city officials against him, and Paul had to move on quickly to his next stop, Berea.

So the church there was born in persecution, a memory Paul alludes to in the verses we read. He observes that he spent his time preaching, as well as working to support himself. He cared for the Thessalonians the way that a parent would, comforting and encouraging them.

As we read these verses combined with the passage from Joshua 3, we can conclude that God wants us also to care for each other, to comfort each other, to encourage each other. We also “cross the Jordan River”, not just at the point of death, but in the various transitions of our lives. God is with us, not just directly through God’s Spirit, but also indirectly through each other.

So we come to the passage in Matthew 23.

Matthew 23

At one level these verses are straightforward. In verses 1 to 12 Jesus states that the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law enjoy the honour they receive from the people. They do much that is good, but in order to receive honour. God will give honour not to those who seek it, but to those who serve.

The trouble is, we think of Pharisees as hypocrites, as bad people. So deeply ingrained in our language is this usage of the term that to call someone a Pharisee is to call them clearly and precisely a hypocrite. So let’s ask first, who were the Pharisees?

A quick survey of Jewish history before the time of Christ. You remember that Israel was established as a kingdom first with Saul and then with David as King. David began his rule around 1000 before the birth of Christ (1010 BC). His grandson, Rehoboam lost control of the kingdom, which was divided into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms around 930 BC. The northern kingdom was taken into captivity by Assyria about 200 years later (722 BC), and the southern kingdom was taken into captivity by Babylon about 120 years after that (597 BC).

For the next several centuries the Jews who remained in Palestine lived as part of the Empire (first Babylonian, then Persian, then Macedonian). In 539 BC, Cyrus, the Persian ruler allowed Jews who wished to do so to return to Jerusalem, but they remained as part of the Persian Empire. Then came Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, who conquered Persia and ruled briefly until his death in 323 BC (only 33 years old). So we see 200 years of life under various empires, leading up to the period after Alexander.

Alexander died quite suddenly, leaving no strong ruler, which led to 40 years of war between rival generals in his army. Eventually the empire was divided into four major blocks – with the Seleucid kingdom, which ruled from Persia, controlling Palestine. The Seleucid Empire lasted until 63 BC, when it was conquered by the Roman Empire. Because it came from the Macedonian Empire, it was a major force for spreading Greek ideas and the Greek language throughout the ancient world.

Now we come to the events that formed the Pharisees. The Seleucids ruled Palestine quite strictly, taking steps to eliminate Judaism and force everyone to “Hellenize” – to become culturally and religiously Greek. In 175 BC Antiochus Epiphanes (then the Seleucid ruler) forbade Jewish religious exercises, leading to the Maccabean Revolt in 167 BC. Under Judah Maccabee the Jews threw the Seleucids out of Palestine and for the next 100 years they ruled Palestine as an independent Jewish State. This state came to an end when Rome asserted its authority over Palestine in 63 BC.

The Pharisees, then, grew out of this situation in which Jewish identity had been seriously under threat. The descendants of the Maccabees were the Priests and Sadducees. They stressed political involvement and sought to live at peace with the ruling powers around them. In one way the Pharisees were like the Maccabees – they were “separated ones”, who were set apart to work for and defend and apply the Law of Moses. In another way they were their opposite – they rejected the political struggles of the day in favour of understanding how to live as God’s people.

They were good people living in difficult times. They cared deeply about God’s Will and worked hard to understand how to live in a confused and dangerous world. When Jesus speaks about them in Matthew 23, everyone listening knows that he is describing good people! Add one more piece to this positive picture. Jesus spoke in the manner of the Pharisees – using teaching methods that made sense to people who saw him as a rabbi. Paul describes himself as a Pharisee often throughout his life – a description that does not change after his conversion outside the city of Damascus. The problem that Jesus identifies is not that being a Pharisee is bad; the problem that Jesus identifies is that being a good person can make us forget who we really are. Who would be most like the Pharisees today? (In this passage, the Pharisees were the preachers, occupying the pulpit. Oh dear!)

What Was Wrong?

With this background we return to our passage.

·         Verses 2 and 3 state the positive: The Pharisees (and “the teachers of the law”) sit in Moses’ seat. They are the defenders and explainers of God’s Law, so they are worth listening to. Listen to them and obey them.

·         Then comes the negative in verses 3 to 7: The Pharisees say what is right, but they have become proud. They do good things for show, and their pride undermines the good that they do. [We can assume “some of the Pharisees” – this is a condemnation of pride, not of being set apart for the Law.] This failure reminds me of a line from the play “A Man for All Seasons”: “The last temptation is the greatest treason; to do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

·         Verses 8 to 12 make the application to the disciples: You should heed the Pharisees’ teaching, but reject their pride. Instead of the hierarchy and honour that they seek, you live with a stance of radical equality. The principle comes at the end of the passage: “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

·         This principle is not so much a matter of structures as it is a matter of heart attitudes. We see the kind of attitude to others that led the first church to hold their goods in common and to help each other, so that “there were no poor people among them.”

What was wrong? The Pharisees, good though they were, had become proud – focussing on their own honour and status. Jesus calls his followers to exercise humility – focussing on each other’s needs.

Being a Servant

Exercising humility and being a servant is harder than it sounds. A servant cares most for what the master wants, not for his/her own needs. Have you ever observed the way that a good server in a restaurant acts? He/she is constantly aware of what the people sitting at the table are doing. When you want a glass of water someone materializes at your elbow with a pitcher. When you are ready for your empty plate to be taken away, a good server removes it almost without your realizing it. You hardly notice the best servers, because they take care of you unobtrusively and thoroughly.

Will you let me be your servant? Will you let me meet your needs with that kind of concern and constant care? This question could actually define a really unhealthy relationship if it were not followed up with, “Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant too.” The first question goes with this second question, “Will you be my servant?” I remember my counselling courses in seminary. We talked about the danger of a fused identity, in which (for example) parents live out their dreams through their children. Being someone else’s servants actually requires a healthy sense of self, so that we love and care for others out of an awareness of our own identity as God’s children.

Living It Out

We have many ways in which we can practice this kind of mutual serving. Does someone you know have a deep concern about life in the church? Be their servant by making sure that there concerns are heard and dealt with. Does someone you know face problems in their life? Be their servant by helping them work out how to meet their needs. Does someone you know have a passion to help people in the larger community? Be their servant by sharing their passion and helping them meet those needs. You could restate any example I give reversed: Do you have a concern in the church? Someone else in the church can be your servant to help meet that concern. But I would prefer to state it the way I did, seeking the ways that we should serve the other.

I must admit that I do not preach this sermon lightly. I find the implications a bit overwhelming. Lois and I are presently experiencing the implications of living as servants on behalf of another person. We know a young immigrant woman who has asked if we will help her in adjusting to life in Canada. We are helping her to find a place to live. Does that mean that we should open our home up if she cannot find one? If we are servants, perhaps it does – whether or not it is convenient. We are helping her find a car. Does that mean that we help to buy it? I don’t think so, but it does at least mean that we help her negotiate market relationships in a new country.

I think of an essay by Jon Bonk on mission strategies that he wrote 18 years ago on the benefits of thinking small in our ministry outreach. I heard him describe the way that the ministry of hospitality [one such ministry, within everyone’s reach] has worked in his life, as he and his wife extended hospitality to various people, including a Chinese family who lived with them in New Haven, Connecticut for several years. On the one hand, they experienced a remarkable movement of God’s presence through “being servants”. On the other, they lost control of part of their lives, as is true for servants.

Conclusion

Bring the passages together.

·         Joshua: God was with the Israelites as they entered into the new experience of the Promised Land.

·         1 Thessalonians: God wants us to take care of each other, comforting and encouraging each other.

·         Matthew: God has made us into a community of radical equality, in which we show leadership and honour by serving – giving each other honour as we meet each other’s needs.

God takes care of us by making us each other’s servants.

Will you let me be your servant? Will you be my servant too?

We are pilgrims on the journey,

We are brothers on the road;

We are here to help each other

Walk the mile and bear the load

I will hold the Christ light for you

In the night time of your fear.

I will hold my hand out to you

Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping

When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.

I will share your joy and sorrow

Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven

We shall find such harmony,

Born of all we’ve known together

Of Christ’s love and agony.

5 November 2017

Remembrance Sunday; Communion Sunday

Texts

Joshua 3: 7 to 17

1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13

Matthew 23: 1-12