MATTHEW 28: 8-15 

Matthew in the Margins…Easter 3…Revised 2020

Mary & Mary can't get away from the tomb fast enough! Maybe some of us still can't get away from the Easter Event fast enough because it's too hard? M & M, though, have a foretaste of great joy, based, at this point, only on what they've been told. But they ain't seen nothin yet! Not even Jesus Himself raised from death. In our reading they're just racing off to tell the other disciples something they've been told. Hearsay. Not admissible in court. The sort of thing at the root of a lot of poor religion. Then Jesus Himself greets them. “G’day”, He says. As if nothing much has happened since they were together last. M & M can't hide their emotion. Then He tells them not to be afraid.

Fear, of various kinds, blocks progress in our faith journeys more than just about any-thing else! Reassured, the women go off to tell the other disciples this glimmer of even better news to come. That the Raised Christ first entrusts His message to the womenfolk who've already proved themselves more reliable than His male disciples during His lifetime is a rebuke to patriarchalism! In any form. Under any guise! 

Has the Raised Christ appeared to us in some meaningful way? Have we stopped being afraid? Do we believe? Are we freed enough from any fear of being scoffed at to pass on the Good News? The Greatest News of All Time?

'What is truth?' a certain person once asked when Truth was staring him in the face (JN 18:38). That there was a plot along the lines MT claims stands up better than most alternatives. It sounds very human. It makes sense. If we are honest, might any talk of susceptibilities in v. 15 be more likely to be of own susceptibilities than those of Jewish people today? 

Differing accounts of where Jesus appeared look very much like plays in the game of getting the edge over an opposing faction within the emerging early church. Gaining control. Playing Religious Monopoly! 

If we can't preach Jesus raised & alive among us more meaningfully than often passes for an ‘Easter Message’ today, are we simply joining forces with those priests of old whom MT says hatched a lie?

Brian

Afterthought:  If you could ask Jesus one question, what would it be?" If I were game, I think I'd like to ask, “Was it all worth it”? Yet God persists with us. In dogged love. Hoping against hope. Loving, as against lack of loving! Still appearing where we need God to be rather than where we might like God to be.

MT 21: 1-13 

Matthew in the Margins…Palm Sunday Liturgy…Revised 2020 

The point the procession makes is the kind of rule Jesus comes to bring, & the kind of religion! The procession may end at v. 11, but we need Jesus to reach the Temple in v.12, & throw down the gauntlet in v.13 for it all to come together. 

Clive Sansom (‘The Witnesses’) contrasts Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey with Pilate ‘bouncing the same road on that horse of his…armour shining…half Rome trotting behind him’. Jesus is acting out Zechariah’s prophecy, deliberately & provocatively! He’s driving what’s going on! Not simply letting Himself be carried away by an event set in motion by others. Not yet!

W.H. Vanstone¹ argues a case for Jesus being the 'subject' of the situation until he becomes the 'object' by allowing himself to be handed over to His enemies in the garden. I wonder, though, if Jesus isn’t setting in motion this ‘letting Himself be handed over’ process earlier still; on Palm Sunday. Or, has it started even sooner, with His raising Lazarus? His secrecy in borrowing a donkey today strongly suggests He’s not going to prejudice His calling the shots without interference until it’s time to let go & let God. Who’s calling the shots in our Palm Sunday celebrations with Corona Virus in our midst? 

The introduction of a colt into the story as well as the donkey simply reflects the parallelism of the Hebrew poetry of ZECH [9:9]. There is no second donkey! But it’s an example of how things creep into our stories. What incidents, do we embroider, allow to take on new life in re-telling, face to face, or, say, on Twitter, or Facebook? Would we lend Jesus our donkey - or anything else - on the strength of what sounds an embroidered story of His being Messiah?  

MT wants us to see people who follow Jesus as able to recognise a true king, of a new & different kind, when they see one. Liturgy puts those words of recognition on our own lips with its: ‘Blessed is he……' But are we prepared to go further than just cheering Jesus’ procession on? Will we go on to enter the city with Him, & do what needs to be done there? Till we reach that ‘green hill far away outside a city wall’? Are we up for what that may entail these days, inside or outside our own city walls? 

Brian

Afterthought: Words from a hymn by John Bell & Graham Maule² sum up the Jesus who declares his hand on Palm Sunday: ‘Praise the Son who feeds the hungry, frees the captive, finds the lost, heals the sick, upsets religion, fearless both of fate and cost’. Well may we say, or, preferably, sing: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” And mean it with every fibre of our being! 

¹ The  Stature of Waiting’, DLT, ’82  ² Wild Goose Songs 1, Wild Goose Publications

MATTHEW 4: 1-11 

Matthew in the Margins…Lent 1…Revised 2020

The ‘Temptations’ are both preview & overview of what Jesus will face in real-life as He carries out His ministry. I'll use the word ‘testing’ from here on as I see ‘tempted’ as too theologically biased. Can a fixation on ‘tempting’ lead us to negative preach-ing, even escapist attitudes? How often do we hear the excuse, ‘The devil made me do it’? ‘Tested’ seems to me to open up more creative approaches to preaching Jesus' formative experiences in His wilderness, & our own wilderness experiences. 

If MT's ‘led by the Spirit’ lacks the vigour of MK's ‘the Spirit threw Him out’, are we sometimes ‘thrown’, in that we dismiss some genuine testing because it doesn’t seem tough enough? Before we expound on the evils of the ‘devil’, shouldn’t we be mind-ful of being 21st C people, not 1st C ones? Might preaching a 1st C Middle Eastern world view to a largely Western (?) 21st C church encourage escapist views regarding questions of evil today? Isn’t Evil too important an issue to be controlled by the flat earth society?

Jesus’ testing connects us back to Moses’ & Elijah’s testing for their ministries. Let’s keep our spiritual eyes open to all the biblical connections. Here, isn’t Jesus’ testing to prepare Him to be the True Messiah, rather than some phoney one? And ours, to prepare us to be faithful, genuine disciples? 

Might turning stones into bread symbolise a legitimate passion for social justice?  Might jumping from the Temple represent getting high on religion rather than God? Might the world view from high up represent getting to the top as an end in itself?

Jesus' refutation of His testings by quoting Scripture isn't an invitation to proof text-ing. Scripture is in every fibre of Jesus’ being. He draws on it deeply; not to be relig-iously correct, but because He Himself is God's Word.

The devil(s) defeated, they depart, & Angels, whether heavenly, or earthly ones, come & care for Jesus. Have they not been in the offing the whole time, yet keeping their distance till God's time comes for them to intervene? Angels, visible & invisible, can be a great strength in our own times of trial. More, why not ask if there are times when we are designated by God to be a ministering angel to someone in their testing?

Brian 

Afterthought: Jesus’ testings are cleverly portrayed in the film ‘Jesus of Montreal’ if you can get hold of a copy.

MT 17: 1-9 

Matthew in the Margins…The Transfiguration of Our Lord…Revised 2020

Paradoxically, is the key to preaching Our Lord’s Transfiguration bringing it down to earth for today’s hearers? What does it mean for us today that Jesus is transfigured ‘up there’, ‘back then’? 

 Jesus’ glowing goes one better than Moses when he comes down from the mountain after receiving the Commandments. Nor does Jesus have to strain to hear a ‘still small voice’ as Elijah does. Moses & Elijah both go through running away from God  phases. Jesus, on the other hand, comes up the mountain to face what God requires of Him. Anything Moses & Elijah can do, Jesus can do better. Because of Who He is! 

On the Holy Mount, Moses represents the Law, & Elijah the Prophets. Here, now, they 'pass the baton' to One who will carry it further than they ever could; far beyond both Law, & Prophets. True religion's always a matter of moving on. Spend too much time looking back, or looking up, may we find ourselves colliding with our present?

Does Jesus’ taking with Him Peter, James & John suggest He sees them as ‘leader-ship material? Who would we take with us on such an expedition, & why? Let’s not rubbish today's Peters who want to prolong great religious experiences. Isn’t it more important to come to terms with ourselves as God's ‘tent’? That today we house God's glory?

To go back to that mountain top, the apostles are scared stiff. The ‘fear of God’ isn't ‘in’ these days, but if we lose that sense of awe we all need, can we survive as a truly complete human being? 

The Transfiguration confirms Jesus' self-understanding of Who He is, & points the apostles in the same direction. While we're ‘up there’ with Jesus & co. it's timely to remind ourselves that genuine religious experiences point to God at ground level too. Religious highs that are no more than that, can't prepare us for the journey either up or down the mount; nor for whatever we must face at the bottom. For Jesus, the Apostles, & for us, the Transfiguration is a rallying call to, & an equipping for, the on-going, earthed, hard slog of true Messiahship & Servanthood. 

Brian 

Afterthought: Long years ago I climb a small mountain in central Victoria. I look out upon a forest of trees & a river - a splendid sight - & I could have stayed up there for ever. Reality, though, meant I had to come down. Reality also means I have kept that experience within me ever since. In a sense, Transfiguring me still! 

MT 5:21-37

Matthew in the Margins…Epiphany +6…Revised 2020 

Jesus is giving a kind of revision lesson on His ‘Sermon on the Mount’. It’s also a bringing-together of the heart of Jesus’ teaching throughout His life as the New & Greater than Moses. He assumes His hearers know what it is from the past He’s building on. They hear it often enough in their synagogues. These days, should we  probably not assume too much knowledge of either Testament, by our hearers? 

Jesus moves on from the ‘Letter of the Law’ as it’s been passed down from Moses & interprets it anew. One of our jobs as preachers is interpreting how all this applies (or, in some cases, may not apply, today. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says somewhere¹ ‘Jesus was crucified so we don’t have to crucify each other’. The Nazis eventually ‘crucify’ him as ‘pay-back’ for his constant refusal to have anything to do with their evil ways. Are we ever conscious of ‘pay-back’ of any kind, hopefully not so drastic, in response to our preaching Gospel? If we’re not experiencing at least the odd push-back, may we have a few questions to ponder regarding our effectiveness? 

At the heart of today’s passage is Jesus’ awareness of the damage done to everyone involved when relationships - family / neighbourly / community / world - are broken. In His new community, what we know as ‘Church’, we’re all family, & suffer when relations are broken. It’s then that violence is freed to break out & feed on itself, damaging or destroying people whether church members or not. None of this can be solved by enacting tougher & tougher laws. Does Law do much except fill our gaols? Jesus is offering us a different kind of law here; a Law of love as strong as His. Is Jesus implying, too, that YHWH’s honour is at stake, as Head of the world family, not simply the Church, when people dishonour Him in any way?

In an age where ‘data-bases’ have become so vital (= life-giving!) is Jesus giving us here an alternative, very person-to-person, ‘data-base’ living on, living out, Godly relations?

What issues can we find that we need to interpret anew in today’s Church & where that Church is in our world? Does today’s world often turn its back on us because it recognises our failure to re-interpret Ist C teaching in 21st C. terms? Until we do this, & do it effectively, how many are missing out on the powerful reality to be found in the Rule of God on earth!?

Brian

Afterthought: To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer once more, ‘In Christ crucified & in His people, the extra-ordinary becomes reality’.

¹ Quotes from Bonhoeffer are from ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, SCM, London, 1964 

MT 5:13-20

Matthew in the Margins…Epiphany5…Revised 2020

Does Jesus ask Mary one day why her stews always taste so good? Does she answer  “It’s because I always add a little salt - dear as it is - to make it zing.” May this kind of domestic discussion lead to Jesus calling us in our turn to become Zing? In a world that’s lost its taste for God, & needs to rediscover, savour, what God ‘tastes’ like?

As a teenager, we lived close to a Salt Refinery for some years. Water was pumped from the bay into big holding ponds, dried, harvested, taken into the factory, refined,   with packaged, & sold to us in the grocers. Salt was pretty ho-hum!

Years later, my wife & I are introduced to salt with real zing in it. Pink, & mined from ancient OZ deposits. We’ve bought nothing else since, for our grinder on our table. Jesus, though, isn’t interested in what kind or colour of salt we eat, but that we become the best-possible salt for the world! People zinging with the flavour of God! 

Originating in LEV 2:13, the idea of salt being an essential part of sacrifice flavours not only our passage, but our working & worshipping lives. William Barclay¹ refers to a practice in some synagogues that apostates wanting to be received back into the fold had to lie across the doorway of the meeting place, & that some early churches copied that idea. The point being that salt that's lost its ‘saltness’ is fit only for trampling.

 Could we sneak, ‘A Form for Stomping on Penitents’ into our next P.B? Seriously, let’s avoid such a fate by zinging with God as we keep covenant with Him!

In Jesus’ day dark is dark & light is light & never the twain shall meet. This contrast lies behind all the dark / light imagery in the Gospels. Similarly, there’s no mistaking ‘salty’ Christians lit with God from within. Christians who zing with God!

Brian

Afterthought: Smith’s Crisps apparently didn’t take off in England until a paper twist of salt was included with each packet of crisps. Maybe we could imagine the Church as a giant packet of crisps including us as the salt that makes it - us - zing?

 ¹ Daily Bible Readings ad loc., Church of Scotland, undated, p.117

Matthew 5: 1-12

Matthew in the Margins…Epiphany 4…Revised 2020  

(It may be helpful to re-read LK’s ‘Beatitudes’ before launching into MT’s.) 

William Barclay’s comment ad loc., ‘the beatitudes are not pious hopes of what shall be, but congratulations on what is’, goes to the heart of the matter. It reflects Jesus’ consistent teaching that the Kingdom of God (‘Heaven’ in MT), is now on earth, ‘as it is in Heaven’! Not unlike the Celtic approach of the line between heaven & earth being a very thin one indeed. ‘It’s now or never’! God rules right now among those named ‘blessed’ by Jesus.

Do we need to unveil both our hearts & eyes to the world’s increasingly growing numbers of those who are poor in this world’s goods, rather than simply (?) poor in Spirit. Can we join the ranks of those Jesus calls ‘Blessed’ - in either sense - except by showing compassion to them? Compassion remains meaningless until it’s put into practice for someone.

Maybe we need to become mourners, not just at physical deaths, but the death of values that God in Jesus represents? Is talk of ‘closure’ (increasingly common today) really a form of escapism from death’s realities? What does this passage have to offer those who are spiritually dead although physically living?

Let’s not ever preach a Jesus who is ‘meek’ let alone mild! What a travesty! Can we make the earth more worth ‘inheriting’ by living out Jesus’ gentleness?

Are we hungry enough to do what’s right in God’s eyes & not simply mourn the lack of righteousness among us? (N.B. LK’s alternative form, also Thomas 54 & 69:2.) Could the old, discredited term, ‘God of the Gaps’ take on a new lease of life when we fill gaps, including stomachs? What do we need to do to go beyond mere pity to mercy & compassion?

How do we recognise a heart that’s ‘cleansed’ today? Is ‘cleansed’ a term that comes to mind about anyone round us, churched or not? Are we ourselves cleansed in heart, & able to see God clearly enough, to preach Him?

Can we break the cycle of talking, talking, always talking about peace by actually making it happen through living it? Let’s make ourselves worth persecuting & reviling by standing for God as revealed in Jesus!
Brian

Afterthought: Barclay gives another insight for our preaching when he sums up these Beatitudes as, ‘Jesus’ teaching distilled’. However we approach this passage, reflecting that the Beatitudes are ‘now’ as well as ‘then’ things, will serve us & our hearers well.