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.

MATTHEW 4: 12-25 

Matthew in the Margins…Epiphany 3…Revised 2020

Light, introduced in vv.15-16, is the heart of our passage. Is this MT’s equivalent of JE’s, ‘I am the Light of the world’? To get to the heart of the matter we need to go further back than the IS passage MT is quoting. Right back to GN 1:1-2, where Light is the first thing YHWH creates. Making all else possible. Jesus, as God’s Light come into the world, makes the New Creation possible today! In the Light that Jesus is for the New Creation, &, God is calling us to be for the world!

Jesus’ testing out in the wilderness is immediately put to the test in the new situation He finds Himself in when JB is imprisoned. Jesus isn’t interested in mere theorising! How can we preach in down-to-earth terms, how can we live in down-to-earth terms rather than ‘in theory’? Live in a Way that lets Jesus’ Light shine out through us? If people stir over what they see as something that needs to be put right, do we jump in with both feet, either for, or against? Or, do we examine it in the Light Jesus shines on it & us, & act accordingly?

Change your ways / repent says Jesus. God’s Rule, the Light YHWH throws on every -thing through His Son, Jesus, has come near & remains near. As integral to the New Creation as God’s Light is to the original, ‘In the beginning…’.  What keeps it so? Or, better,‘Who keeps it integral? You & I do, as we absorb the Christ Light deeply.

God's Rule of Light certainly envelops the four first followers! Some of them have been ‘casing’ JB. Now they’re casing Jesus, too. Jesus, though, has been sizing them up, & turns the tables on them. Calling them so they have big decisions to make about their future direction. Does God's Light, God’s rule, ‘grab’ them & us enough to want in?

It's a big ask, still, to leave today's equivalents of boats & nets, & family. Proclaim-ing, teaching, & healing, though, all need to happen out there in the margins as well as in our churches. Outside the protective walls of our religious establishments. If people can't see the Light of Christ in us out there in life’s margins, not only are they living in darkness, but so are we!

Brian

Afterthought: There're at least two key differences between the way Jesus operates & the way JB did: You have to go out to JB, whereas Jesus makes home visits. And, where JB talks about sin, & repentance, or punishment, Jesus majors in compassion, acceptance, & healing.

MATTHEW 3: 13-17 

Matthew in the Margins…Baptism of Our Lord / Epiphany 1…Revised for 2020 

John is right to refuse Jesus baptism, & Jesus knows it. By insisting He demonstrates there's more going on here than meets the human eye. In the end, JB defers to Jesus. He knows, or is at least pretty sure, Who this really is, & has met his match! There is a pastoral question here: When do we dig in about something, & when let go for the sake of God's longer term plan for us?

At the outset of Jesus' ministry MT foreshadows what an enigma He’s going to be, & not only for JB. Is Jesus as Messiah still an enigma to some of us? What of those we are called to minister to who can’t get their head, let alone their heart, round Jesus any more than JB can at this point? Can we open people up to all the Jesus possibilities by being more open to them, & to Him? 

MT tells us Jesus sees the Spirit coming upon Himself after the heavens open. MK uses the term ‘torn open’, as MT does later of the Temple veil. How can we help our people grasp Christian Faith is no spectator sport. It’s a Spirited participation in the things of God, even the uncomfortable bits! Have we yet found our own personal point of entry to become a participant rather than a spectator?

In GN, the Divine Wind hovers over the waters as the Word calls Creation into being. Now, the same Word, but in flesh this time, calls into being a new chapter of God's eternal, ongoing plan for the restoration of a ‘fallen’ people. How can we ‘dust off’ the ‘old, old story’ & tell it on a stage further through our responses. When we stop telling it out in our own lives, the story stops with us. Stops short!

The voice of God acknowledges Jesus as ‘Beloved Son’ [PS 2:7], & ‘Servant’ [IS 42:1, etc.] as He accepts the role of the Anointed One. As beloved daughters & sons of God, we, too, are also to be servants, even suffering ones if necessary. Anointed in our own Baptism. God’s approval today is still “I'm delighted!” How well are we responding to God's loving delight in us?’ A relationship with Jesus that lacks enthusiasm is to damn Him with faint praise - or praise him with faint damns. Is there a hymn in there somewhere?

For all his greatness, JB is an enigma. He points to Jesus but doesn’t follow Him. So far as we know, JB never goes any further, comes any closer, than his enquiry, “Are You the One who is to come?” Are some of us, & some of those to whom we minister enigmas, too? 

Brian

Afterthought: Maybe JB is too individual a character to function within a group he himself doesn’t lead? Think of any group we belong to, church or otherwise: how is our ‘participation rate’?

MATTHEW 2: 13-23 

Matthew in the Margins… Christmas 1…Revised 2019

If we were to take a survey, many would tell us two of the most important issues facing our world are Climate Change, & the Refugee Crisis. Our passage speaks to the latter. To preach the flight into Egypt with relevance to today, we need to draw people’s minds beyond the challenges of Israel’s past to the challenges posed by today’s international Refugee Crisis.

Joseph represents those of us tuned into God enough to see the relevance of the Holy Family’s experiences in their day to today’s trials & tribulations. Are we representing today’s myriad refugees fleeing wars & persecutions, personal & larger scale. Last night’s news told of 80,000 fleeing one area of Syria alone!

How might YHWH see, & expect us to see, the myriads of ‘Boat People’ as so many contemptuously dismiss them? Having His own earthly family go through the trials & tribulations they do, equips God to understand from inside the experiences today’s refugees face. Will God then not expect us, His people to be accepting & pro-active in our dealings with them?

We could also explore our own various personal captivities & escapes & how these follow in the Holy Family’s footsteps. Are we prepared for life around us to become a kind of ‘enemy’ territory when we differ from the popular anti-refugee stance?

Are we ready to don 'wings' (or, shed them?) should God call us on Dial an Angel when someone needs our guidance & protection?

Joseph is the protector of his little family. He is a positive & wholesome role-model for today's males, many of them confused, &, maybe, angered by changing societal expectations. As Moses flees from Egypt (to Midian) to escape an avenging Pharaoh, the Greater than Moses flees with His family to Egypt to escape Herod. 

The flight into Egypt & back - reversing Hebrew history from long before - gives us opportunity to revisit our own personal history & find new God-given possibilities for our future. To be stuck in some ‘Egypt’ of our past is to hamper God’s plan for our future, wherever that may be, ‘kicking in’ with all the new life in Christ it brings.

Brian

Afterthought: As a class, angels are too valuable for us to pass them up so readily as we often do today. Bad spirits are very much 'in' in a lot of circles. Allowed to take over, rule the roost. Help the good guys & gals make a comeback. For starters, why not become one?

MATTHEW 1: 18-25 

Matthew in the Margins… Advent 4…Revised 2019 )

So we think we know what it is to face a dilemma? May we need to re-think that when we read about the one Joseph & Mary, each in their own way, face here? 

They are having a tough time. But they are tough customers. Not the almost un-believably pious ones we tend to turn them into come Christmas season. To connect with them at the deepest level, do we need to identify with the tough time they are going through? And what about some possible ‘Marys & Josephs’ in our church? 

Does today’s reading of their dilemma speak to someone in our congregation’s personal dilemma? To someone’s sexual dilemma? Perhaps to an inconvenient & unwanted pregnancy, or fear of it, in their personal life today? Or in someone in their extended family’s life? The outcome YHWH God wants, & needs from us, is that we ‘hang in there’ with Him, knowing He is hanging in there with us, too?

Isn't it the right of every child to be ‘conceived by the Holy Spirit’ if not ‘born of the Virgin Mary’? What prayerful, emotional, practical support, ‘all meanly wrapped’ in love, if not in swaddling bands, do today's soon to be parents & children need. Can we see through the figures of our traditional Christmas Crib to those facing dilemmas of one kind or another this Christmas? 

It takes a person of great Spirit to be open enough to move away from their original intention to ‘dismiss’ any other person quietly’ as Joseph has considered in Mary’s case. But he can do better than that, understanding the part he has to play in bringing Jesus to birth for God. 

A lot of today’s would-be ‘Marys & Josephs’ are stuck in the muckiness of the world's many & varied stables. Not in some pretend nativity scene, but in real life. How can we help bring somebody to birth for God from such circumstances?

 We can’t just dismiss them, can we?  

Brian

Afterthought: If you can find a copy of John Irving’s ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ - it’s worth searching out - a highlight is an unbelievably amazing crib scene - one worth pondering deeply!

MATTHEW 11 : 2-11 

Matthew in the Margins… Advent 3… Revised 2019

Is JB’s musing about Jesus: “If you're who I think you are...what am I doing in prison ...get me out of here!” at all unreasonable? What if that One who came then doesn't appear to be taking up our cause today, either? Are we ourselves imprisoned in any sense? Don’t we deserve to be set free from whatever kind of ‘prison’ it is? If ‘God mysteries’ still puzzle us, why not explore them as openly & honestly as JB is doing here?

What kinds of things are we hearing & seeing that give us the responsibility to tell of them? Are we telling of the blind seeing again, though in different ways now? Telling of the lame walking, skin diseases being healed, deaf people hearing again, & at least the seemingly dead being raised to life through modern medicine if not the physically dead? As well as telling of these things, are we also playing our part in making them happen today when we can, where we can? 

When it comes to caring for the poor by ‘proclaiming the good news’ to them, are they still in the too-hard basket? If we’re setting up caring agencies to serve others, without down-playing these, can we go further than this? Agencies can't love people. Only people can love people. Being loved is the way the poor, or anyone else, can discover the ‘Good News’. Can we truly proclaim Jesus as Good News to the poor - or anyone else - except by becoming that good news in person? 

A reed, a fancy dress show, or a Prophet? There's a lot of bending this way & that in today's church, sometimes in a good cause, sometimes not. Not to mention dressing up. How does one recognize a genuine Prophet among the reeds & fancy-dressers? Whatever nurturing we may be giving others, is anyone nurturing us in becoming a recognizably authentic, prophetic, compassionate, hands-on word-of-God for each other? That we all need what the Celts call an ‘anamchara’, or soul friend, comes to mind. Why not explore that with a view to implementing it?

Jesus says JB ‘is the greatest human being’ up to that stage of history. At this point in the Gospel, though, even JB fails to recognize God's Rule present among us in Jesus. Rather than be discouraged by his failure, why not learn from it & grow stronger in faith as a result.

Brian

Afterthought: The Gospel of Thomas Ch.46 [Complete Gospels, Harper Collins '94] may help us see where we come into all this with its: ‘whoever among you becomes a child will recognize God's Rule & will become greater than John.’

MATTHEW 3: 1-12 

Matthew in the Margins…Advent 2…Revised 2019

Can John, fascinating character that he is, also be a distraction? Long after his death, there were those who persisted in following him rather than the Jesus to whom JB pointed. Not helpful! 

Is true wilderness a matter of interior, spiritual geography? If that’s true, & I believe it is, is there any point in desperately seeking physical ‘Jordans’ of one kind or another to cross in the hope of deepening our spirituality? 

JB speaks to the people in heart language, not head language. Heart language is directed to the heart of our human problem: sin (separation from God) through disobedience, rebellion. Are we ourselves speaking ‘heart language’ or just the old head stuff? 

Without pre-empting next Sunday’s Gospel, is Jesus a ‘puzzlement’ to JB, as the King of Siam might have said to Mrs. Anna? And, maybe, vice-versa? How much is either Jesus, or JB, a puzzlement to the other? Or, to us & those round us today?

I think it was Dom Crossan who said somewhere that JB preaches God as coming where Jesus models God as already present. What JB is on about out there in his wilderness is telling people about God, & preparing us for God, whereas Jesus is showing us what God is like by being God! As we go about our daily lives, are we doing more telling, or more showing through being the Body of Christ? 

When I started primary school I was in ‘Beginners’ in one half of a divided room. Miss. C, the teacher on the other side of the partition was always shouting at the kids & belting them with the leather strap Victorian - in both senses - schools used back then. We littlies all lived in terror of being promoted. But, God is good! I developed a severe dose of Whooping Cough, & by the time I’d recovered, our family had moved & I went to a different school where no-one shouted at you! If I’m unfair hinting JB shouted at people, I guess he did, compared with Jesus showing people how to live? 

When Jesus asks for baptism, the heavens open, & God acknowledges His beloved Son, JB recognises Jesus as the Lamb of God. The One who is going to pick up all our pain & division & separation & broken-ness & put us together again. How well are we living out our put-togetherness as distinct from simply re-telling it?

Brian

Afterthought: Turning from something or somebody without as a consequence turning to something, or, better still, Someone, is an invitation to a vacuum to possess us. If that sounds a contradiction in terms, don’t let’s put it to the test.

MATTHEW 24 : 36 - 44 

Matthew in the Margins… Advent 1…Revised 2019

It makes sense to begin with some lead up rather than jump in cold as the lectionary does. Choose what makes sense to you & your congregation.

Astro-physicists & the like theorise about a universe expanding forever, not one that collapses into itself when some point is reached. Can we explore such ideas in the light of Faith rather than be scared off by fundamentalism or insecurity? What things are happening today making heaven & earth teeter on the brink? How can we help our congregation identify them, & respond positively?

Early disciples under persecution understandably opt for an Intervening God over a ‘Son of Humanity’, a fellow Suffering Servant. We can take just so much of this suffering business, can't we? Ever walked the beam of a see-saw? Go too far towards either end & we come down to earth with a jar! How are we to balance both Divine & Human ‘sides’ of God so we become complete humans with a complete God? Are we letting the Spirit keep our theological see-saw well balanced?

In the flood story from pre-history Noah represents those who have the discernment, to read the truth in what's happening round them, on earth & in the skies. When we feel sodden to the eyeballs & the flood is still rising, is trying to wring ourself out any real help? Why not, instead, build a new Ark, the Church, to God’s plan revealed in Jesus? Not out of timbers this time, but out of people. Is there any mileage for God or for us in our waiting for a Cosmic Christ to drop from heaven & snatch us from a watery grave? Might it be better to use whatever sails, or oars - or motors - God provides to keep our heads & the rest of us above water? Let’s not diminish God or ourselves in looking for an ark that never existed except as an important parable.

The Noah tale is a great & valuable religious parable, but, as Ian Plimer, then Professor of Geology, University of Melbourne, puts it in ‘Telling Lies For God’ ¹ ‘Despite efforts by creationists to salvage a credible ark & flood story, the story just doesn't hold water.’

Do we tend to read into the next bit that it's bad news for the one from the field, & one of the grain grinders to be chosen or taken? But if God's doing the taking, & these folk are ready, isn't this maybe the experience of Good News for them? OK, as long as it's them and not us, are we still thinking?

Brian

Afterthought: Would you believe the Ark, from our cosmic memory bank, still sails the seas of life today? Amid our rebellions against God? A reminder that though we flood ourselves with all kinds of destructive things, God is the Ground of our being. 

¹ Random House, Australia, '94, p.73

MATTHEW 2: 1-12 

Matthew in the Margins…The Epiphany…Revised 2019

Might we best preach the visit of the Magi as illustrating the way to find a meaning-ful God is by finding the One who still reveals Him-Self at ground level today? In unlikely places & among unlikely people? Through Jesus, & en-Spirited Jesus People? Isn’t this a basic meaning of ‘on earth as it is in Heaven’? Can we preach this in today terms & through today experiences? 

For instance, let’s try thinking of ourself as a today’s Gaspar setting out to follow the God-Star. At the first frontier we come to, the Border Protection Force wants proof of our identity, complete with photo-ID. They don’t like the colour of our passport; nor some of the stamps already in it! When we tell them we’re following a Star to find God, they can’t let us through fast enough!

What if at the next border, we meet up with a today Balthazar - but, instead, let’s call her Bathsheba - also searching for The One the Star is pointing to. She’s had a hip-replacement, the metal of which sets all the alarm bells ringing! She’s taken aside & strip-searched, but when they find nothing dangerous, & she tells them she’s also following a Star, will they be able to resist letting us both through as quickly as possible to get us off their hands!? At the next frontier, what if the two of us meet up with a Melchior, also following the Star! All three of us are told to put the gifts we’re carrying through X-Ray machines which react to the gold-wrapped chocolate bars Melchior has on him. Then the sniffer dogs go mad scenting Bathsheba’s Chanel No. 5 & my, Gaspar’s Hugo Boss for Men! We all have to do a lot of fast talking about carrying gifts for some King they’re never heard of! In the end, though, they let us through with sighs of disbelief! (After sampling a few of Melchior’s chocolates - just in case! 

We hear them muttering about building a great wall to stop people like us. Someone yells out, ‘Turn back the camels!’‘Chase their horses away!’ ‘Drive their donkeys into the bush!’ All this  kind of talk is about keeping God in God’s place as much as keep-ing any of us earthlings in ours! And we’ve not yet come face to face with Mr. Evil himself! Not Herod, this time; but do we need to face the fact that many of us are being ruled by someone as dangerous as him? A President, Prime Minister, Monarch, Tsar, or the like? How must we journey on to keep our rendezvous with God? 

Brian 

Afterthought: 

How many kinds of barriers / borders / frontiers do we personally face? Some of them human ones. Like the Magi do, & the Holy Family will soon need to. Once we see that God-Star, though, we’re called to journey on in different ways & in different company as that Star leads us. Step by risky step! Despite any barriers others set up!

MT 25:31-46 

 Matthew in the margins…Reign of Christ / Christ the King…Revised 2017

No matter how we expect the Cosmic Son of Humanity to come in His glory as King we have to hold our expectation in tension with the Earthed Son of Humanity glorified by being named & crowned King on the cross. (JN makes this point strongly.)

But there’s more! There’s yet another tension. This self-same Incarnate, yet Cosmic, King has never left us (as He promised!) Physically, maybe, yes; but in the Person & Power of His Spirit, the Spirit of God, He’s always present tense among us. As He is, too, in the Person of those who say, Eucharist by Eucharist, “We are the Body of Christ” & get on with the job of being that Body in the world at large. Apocalyptic aspects of Christ’s reign may appeal. But lose sight of the crucified, glorified, Christ earthed in & among us by His Spirit & His people, & we lose the plot of God's agenda for Planet Earth - for humanity plus. 

Praying, as we do, “Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” means embracing the Crucified King, serving the Raised Everyday King, & expecting the Apocalyptic King. It’s a package deal, or no deal at all! Many international folk tales, not necessarily from a Christian background pick up on the thrust of Jesus’ allegory Jesus; the Unknown who comes among the simplest of folk unrecognised & is either provided for or rejected.

The great attractiveness of the Kingship of Christ for me is the inclusiveness of His Rule. By God’s grace there is room in Christ’s Kingdom for a lot of people who might be thought unlikely candidates for finding a place at Christ’s right hand. Me for starters! The way we treat others especially those at the bottom of life’s pile, not least the persecuted, the poor, refugees & asylum seekers, & how we serve them, is a litmus test of the kind of Christ the King we believe in & serve. If we’re choosing the wrong kinds of leaders, & serving those same wrong leaders in wrong ways, we’re simply fulfilling Jesus’ teaching by proving ourselves to be more goats than sheep! Choose, at all costs, Christ as King above any other would-be contender. 

Though He speaks of judgment, Jesus makes clear we choose our own present & future state & fate. Christ reigns through us being little Jesuses to others or He doesn’t rule at all! More, when we feed the hungry Jesuses, give drink to the thirsty ones, welcome those who present as strangers, clothe the naked ones, minister to those who are sick, visit the ones imprisoned then we’re speaking Jesus’ language by doing it; for all who are marginalised. God's Rule always includes looking out for & looking after God's 'little ones'. Again, not to do that is to place ourselves at Jesus’ left hand rather than His right! Goat stuff! 

Is ‘everlasting punishment' anything other than choosing to live without the King of the Cosmos by choosing to live without the Crucified, Raised, Earthed One here & now? Who needs hell-fire & damnation (if that's your line) when such a fate looms? Speaking of looming, Christ the King’s Passion looms in the very next verses!

MT 25: 14-30 

Matthew in the Margins …24th S. After Pentecost…Revised 2017 

The sums involved in today’s story are huge. Beyond the dreams of Jesus’ hearers & most of us, too. Like all good teachers, & Jesus is the best, He wants us to work out for ourselves what this story’s all about - just like the rest of His tales. A useful way to think of & explore parables is to discern them as being about the Kingdom, the Rule, of God. About how God’s Authority is respected & His Rule applied ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. Let’s not go down the path of a ‘stewardship’ sermon; not in a monetary sense, anyhow! What we might call ‘Kingdom Stewardship’ takes us back to the fundamental nature of our human relationship with God. Every day of our lives needs to be a Stewardship Day in which we audit how well we’re using YHWH’s provision of life & love for us & make any modifications that show up as necessary.

It’s easy to lose our way in this process. We once had a neighbour selling up & moving lamenting he’d once buried a stash of money in his backyard, but now can’t find it! (He never did!) Is that what we sometimes do with the life God’s entrusted to us? Trust lies at the heart of this story; but for that kind of trust to work, it has to be a two-way love affair. What does God have to show for His trust in us? (Why not ask, also, What do we have to show for our trust in God?) Let’s not bury our hearts in our backyard sand & not be able to find them when we really need to dig them up!

The greatest gift God gives us is God-self; made inescapably & confrontingly human in the person of Jesus. Who spends His life, & indeed his death, loving & serving. As he still does by His Spirit. Does our spiritual audit reveal us walking in Jesus’ steps that far?

Many of us are good enough at managing physical assets of one kind or another. But how good are we at managing our spiritual assets? Whatever earthly interest we may have earned during our lifetime, the only interest that will count on ‘That Day’ is the spiritual interest on the love God’s invested in us & we in others. 

MT 25:1-13

Matthew in the Margins…23rd S. After Pentecost…Revised 2017    

Jesus is a great storyteller. The greatest. Life is a collection of stories. God’s & ours. After reading / hearing any story, in this case His story of the wise & unwise brides-maids, the question is, ‘But what happens next’? For the participants in the story, the answer lies within the story; all’s well that ends well for some, & poorly is as poorly does for others. The acid test of a Jesus story is always, ‘Where & how do we take it on from where He leaves off?’ 

Not long before, Jesus has been warning of the coming destruction of the Jerusalem temple & the inauguration of God's Rule consequent upon this. Eschatology, though, if not interpreted well enough can all too easily lead to faith becoming ‘pie in the sky in the sweet bye & bye’! Jesus Himself, though has already given us the necessary perspective when He tells us to pray for God’s Rule, God’s Authority with a Capital A, to be implemented ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. The bridegroom is always present. Always inviting us to celebrate with Him now, not one day. We don’t have to wait for Him or anyone else to arrive in ‘the middle of the night’.

Jesus is careful to point out that all the bridesmaids trim their wicks. The foolish ones, however,  fail to see trimming a bit here & bit there can’t make up for the fact they’re out of oil. There’s a lesson for our spiritual life today here!

Think of our lives today being our ‘lamps’. Are we living them full of God’s Spirit, ’oil’, ready for anyone & everyone we need to be there for? Looking out for, looking after? There’s no such thing as being ‘half-full’ of Holy Spirit! When God fills, God fills! There are no half measures with God, nor does God settle for any half-measures on our part. If I’m right in exploring ‘oil’ as representing Holy Spirit, Jesus reminds us being half-full of Holy Spirit is a no-go! No use to anyone. Not just five unwise bridesmaids. If the five wise bridesmaids were to share their oil with the unwise ones, we’d end up with the whole ten bridesmaids with half-full lamps running out of oil. Their lamps would all be useless, leaving the bridal party, the community in total darkness. What kind of darknesses are our community living through today as a result of us or anyone else running low on, or running out of, the ‘good oil’, the God oil? 

Holy Spirit isn’t a commodity we can top up at our local church, or ‘revival centre’. The ‘good oil’, HolySpirit, is God’s own life He’s always sharing with those of us who know we need Him; with those ready & prepared to receive Him totally into the lamps of our lives to keep them filled.

Celebrating God’s being married to us all the hours of every day & every night is God’s wedding present to us; God’s own way of keeping our lamps alight & burning brightly for Him & each other.