MATTHEW 28: 8-15a 

Matthew in the Margins…Easter 3… Revised 2017

(for LK 24:13-35 see laterallyluke.blogspot.com.au)

Differing accounts of when & where & to whom Jesus appears reflect a variety of earliest Christian traditions passed down within their circles by a number of spiritual leaders. Here, the two Marys flee in a mixture of fear & great joy. Then Jesus Himself greets them with, “G’day!” Or, He would have if this had happened here in Oz! Does it matter whether we meet Jesus in the garden, in Jerusalem, in Galilee, so long as we meet Him meaningfully, somewhere, somehow? Jesus, in Person in Spirit? Depending upon the kind of meeting we ‘experience’, we, too, may feel conflicted responses as our Marys do here. Uniformity isn’t a requirement of discipleship!

Charles Elliot¹ says ‘God offers us a companion whose joy is infectious, whose laughter is never long silent, & who knows better how to dance than to hobble’. That’s the kind of God, the kind of Jesus I’d choose to meet up with any day. Sydney Carter’s ‘Lord of the dance’² enlarges on that same theme of God’s joy in a Jesus who lives for us & is prepared to die for us. Think on his words, or, better still, sing them! Dance them! ‘… they buried my body & they thought I’d gone, but I am the dance & I still go on…I am the life that’ll never never die…I’ll live in you if you live in me, I am the Lord of the dance said he’. The Jesus in these examples is a more appealing One than many of the other ways He’s presented to us. Or, we present Him to others. The above portrayals appeal to me because they invite us to join in a continuing victory dance. In the present. In ‘now’ time! It appeals, too, because they say to us, ‘You can’t keep a good God down! You can’t keep a good God from dancing the dance of life’. And, ‘the good God needs partners to dance Him. As we dance Him with others. As the first Christians learn to do in their own various ways.

The story about the guards, like the differing descriptions of Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances, reflects how stories can ‘change shape’ in re-tellings. Anyone involved in researching family history will have come upon this & made allowances for ‘in house stuff’ told from different angles. Often with good motives, not really as ‘alternative facts’! If the disciples had, as alleged, engaged in body-snatching, wouldn’t the authorities have ‘sniffed that out’ in no time? On the other hand, if the Jewish leaders, or the Romans had removed Jesus’ dead body, all they had to do was produce it to kill the Jesus movement stone dead in its tracks! They never did. But none of this proves anything. Only meeting up with Christ raised from death can do that for us & to us.

The strongest evidence for the Resurrection remains the Jesus who appears to His followers back then meeting us, in Spirit, now. Somewhere, somehow, sometime. Saying “G’day” in some way, & inviting us to join the dance of Resurrection life with Him.

  

¹ Comfortable Compassion, H & S, 1987 ²  242 in Together in Song

MATTHEW 28: 1-10 

Matthew in the Margins…EASTER DAY…Revised 2017 

If the answer to Pilate’s “What’s truth?” on ‘Good’ Friday will out, it’ll do so in the way we preach Jesus' resurrection. Is the way we understand Him to be raised worth a sermon? Reinterpret Jesus to the point where He’s not truly & meaningfully raised, & He isn't worth worshipping either. What are we celebrating? An old story has a new curate, who after preaching his first sermon asks his supervisor, "Will it do?”. The reply comes, "Will it do what?”  What we expect Easter to do will be reflected in how we preach it!

The two Mary’s come to do what many a mourner does today; visit the grave of a loved one. They aren't looking for any miracle, or Sign as John would have it. But they get more than they bargain for! As they approach JS’ tomb, enter a figure from God’s greater world beyond this one - or could it be an earthly messenger? The angel's dramatic arrival coincides with an earthquake. Like the one that’s happened when JS dies on the cross; that rips the great veil in th TMP from top to bottom. Shatters earth itself. Splits great rocks to pieces. Opens tombs & reportedly brings many holy people sleeping in death back to life.[MT 27: 51] If we 21st C people are sceptical about this kind of language in today’s world, describing something beyond our imagining, personally, I’ll run with the imaginative! Especially when I stop to consider how much more imaginative God is in anything & everything He does  

than any possibility I might consider!

Take heart! Which is what God in raising Jesus wants to give us. Heart! At a crucified Saviour raised & able to raise a world that’s busily crucifying itself all over again. (MT may also be pointing us to HOS 6:2, where the nation's resurrection is at issue.)  Why not confess that what’s happening here is beyond our understanding, rather than pontificating about it? Jesus is powerfully (operative word!) & mysteriously (another operative word) raised (another - Jesus doesn’t just sit up, rub His eyes & say “It’s time for me to get up”!) All this by the mighty (another) energising (another) cosmic (another) power of love (another) making Jesus over as God can still, & wants to, make people over today. 

This isn't an invitation to descend into biblical literalism, or fundamentalism. Just a plea to let God lead us into the mystery of the empty tomb & out again. Raised as Jesus is. To this end, can we go so far as 'handing ourselves over' to God, as Jesus hands himself over to his enemies three days earlier? 

PS: I like John Chrysostom’s: 'Hell took a body, & discovered God. It took earth, & encountered heaven. It took what it saw, & was overcome by what it did not see!'

(Thanks to 'Anglicans on Line' somewhere along the line for refreshing my memory of the wording of the above.)

 A Joyous Easter to you. And Joyous Easter Preaching!

MT 21: 1-13 

Matthew in the Margins…Palm Sunday Liturgy…Revised 2017 

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. The point the procession makes is the kind of rule Jesus comes to bring, & the kind of ‘religion’! 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. (Judas isn’t all that important in this process.) I’m attracted to this view. I wonder, though, if Jesus isn’t setting in motion this ‘letting Himself be handed over’ process earlier still; on Palm Sunday. (Some might say 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. That stage at which He gives up control as totally as He's been in the driver's seat up to that point.

The introduction of a colt into the story as well as the donkey simply reflects the parallelism of the poetry of ZECH [9:9]. There is no second donkey! But it’s an example of how things creep into all our stories. What incidents, real or imagined, do we embroider, allow to take on new life in re-telling, face to face, or, say, on twitter, or Facebook? What are facts if fiction's better! (Or, ‘alternative facts’, like those coming thick & fast from a certain administration! 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? 

Jesus comes to bring not peace but a sword. To be a sword to pierce us through & through. As the religious crooks who run the Temple & those who work for them, trading on little people are soon to feel. That's when vv.12-13 become the punch line of the story! 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 6:22-34

Matthew in the Margins…8th S. after Epiphany…2017 

Six times in this passage MT quotes Jesus using a word translated variously as worried, anxious, don’t fret, or even, more modernly, ‘don’t get het up’. ‘Worry’, & the way we commonly use that word may not bite deeply enough to do justice to the basics of discipleship Jesus is on about here. As ‘servant’ is inadequate when ‘slave’ would be more appropriate in a particular context.

Life was hard for many in the Palestine & world of Jesus’ day. It still is for many cold, or hot, & hungry, & homeless, & hopeless, at the bottom of life’s pile. Including in wealthy & ‘successful’ countries based on economies rather than on human beings & their needs. Not to mention refugee camps & detention centres! Jesus makes it clear (vv.33-34) that far from simply taking the status quo ‘on the chin’ & getting on with it, we’re to do something about, bring God’s way of looking at things, to bear, on the states many people are living in & under.

‘Set your hearts on God’s kingdom first, & His justice…’ (v.33) is the locus round which Jesus’ teaching in this passage & its application to discipleship & life itself revolves around. Then we’re enabled to see things differently. Through ‘God’s eyes’. God gets a lot of blame for the inequities & iniquities of the world. I’d only been a priest a short time when I had to call on a family recently arrived as post W.W.2 ’refugees’ from England. I was flabbergasted, but far from wise enough to make an adequate response, when told, “We stopped believing in God when Hitler started bombing London!!!” Start from the wrong end, & we probably end up still at that wrong end! 

When we seek the mind of God, & act in ways that further God’s compassion & justice, God’s kingdom rules. Even where & while human injustice still rules in its own ways. Often in countries that would object colourfully if told the cap fits, so they have to wear it! Being blind in the biblical sense means not seeing as God sees (v. 22-23). It leads to us behaving as slaves to evil in any form (v.24). Deal with injustice & God will deal with the rest. But it is through us acting rightly, justly, that God rules on earth as in Heaven, here a little, there a little!  

Jesus calls for a completely different set of values that he reveals to us in His life, death, & resurrection, & their continuation in & by His Spirit. If we choose & hold a different set of priorities from those God reveals in Jesus, we are placing ourselves outside the community of faith. Any faith worth its salt. Then we become the ‘Gentiles’ Jesus speaks of here. But no-one has to remain outside!

Matthew 4:1-11

Matthew in the Margins…Lent 1…2017  

Matthew’s ‘led by the Spirit’ approach sounds almost ‘liturgical’, whereas MK’s vigorous ‘the Spirit drives Jesus out…’ is unceremonious! Both angles may be helpful as we prepare for preaching. Life’s deserts or wildernesses can still be seen through different eyes, mean different things to different people. Have different outcomes. An old Tuareg saying has it: ‘God created countries full of water so that people can live there, and deserts so that they can find their souls’. Interesting take on two recurring biblical imageries! 

I discern Jesus’ ‘temptations’ in terms of being ‘tried’, or ‘tested’ , both more positive than ‘tempted’. Living needs to be positive. Preaching needs to be positive. Different shades of meaning cry out for positive exploring.

This formative ‘moment’ in Jesus’ life lends itself to imaginative handling. Creative imagination doesn’t get on the usual lists of ‘spiritual gifts’, but it’s on mine. It was among Jesus’ gifts too, as many of the insights He shares with us during His ministry illustrate.          

Our son, Andrew, once preached¹ ‘the desert is not a place of peace, but a place of truth’. I commend that insight to you. Today many of us set out into our physical wildernesses to enjoy the peace & quiet, & there’s not a thing wrong with that. But wilderness here in MT symbolises grasping an opportunity to discover & appreciate more deeply the Truth. About God, ourselves, others, the world. It represents stages in our spiritual journey where we make space in which to discern God’s Truth; the Truth Jesus is, more deeply. As Jesus Himself finds that Truth though it be through turmoil of His soul in this episode.

Three times the devil, however we understand that term, uses the word ‘if’. The little word that sows doubt in human hearts, from the days of Eden. But there are no ‘if’s about God! Testing times are times to hold fast to God’s unfailing presence & trustworthiness as Energy: light & life & love. Jesus proves this, & Himself, as He wrestles with a humanity trying to take devilish shape in Him.

The angels may have appeared ‘suddenly’ but they are always there, if unseen till that moment! Angels are great companions through thick & thin! That’s certainly my experience.  

¹ S.James, Porter Square, Cambridge, MA, 2002

MT 17: 1-9 

Matthew in the Margins…Transfiguration / Last S. after Epiphany / Lent 2… Revised 2017

Can we go beyond celebrating Jesus’ Transfiguration as simply an historical event & find a new God-Energy flowing from it still in our own day? We’ll come back to that ‘energy’ word in a moment.

There’s more than meets the eye going on up there. Can we behold, see deeply enough into, this unique mountain-top experience to keep it active in our own present rather than some-one else’s past?  With or without a holy mountain in the offing? In exploring a 15th C. Russian icon of the Transfiguration, +Rowan Williams¹ ponders a ‘sheer energy’ he sees written into it by its creator. I’d not picked up on that ‘energy’ potential till I’d personally  gazed more deeply into what + Rowan is offering us. He focuses on Peter, James, & John, & their physical reactions in the icon, but we can see there’s God-Energy here too, for Jesus, Moses, & Elijah, & for ourselves. What God-Energy, life, is there in here for us, too? 

God is the world’s Creative Energy, an understanding perhaps more to the fore in Celtic spirituality. Why wouldn’t all experiences of God be energising, life-giving as God is? As this mystical one on the Holy Mount is? May we be enlivened by the Divine Energy as we prepare to preach.

We traditionally preach Moses as representing the Law, & Elijah the Prophets. That’s fine, but we need to move on from looking at them & their role in this as past & done with. It is  another Celtic trait not to draw too firm a line between past, present, & future, including between heaven & earth! In sharing His Transfiguration with the others Jesus invites Law to move beyond gagging us, & the Prophetic beyond nagging us!

Neither Jesus, Moses, Elijah, nor the Apostles can stay up there on the mountain, because the real world down below God is crying out for Divine Energy, even if it doesn’t know it; even if we haven’t seen that yet with our inner eyes (n.b. vv.14+). 

As we encourage others to experience new outpourings of Holy Spirit in appropriate ways, today’s celebration of Transfiguration offers us anew the opportunity to experience being energised by God’s Spirit in our journeying on. Towards Passion-tide, Easter, & Pentecost & the energisations they too represent & convey for us. More than just liturgically!

Glory is the reflection of God from inside us, not outside. Glory transfigures us when we show who we truly are & Whose we are. Glory energises us to live out God’s own compassion & love, come what may. In whatever circumstances.

¹ The Dwelling of the Light, Canterbury, Norwich, 2003, p. 4

MT 5:38-48

Matthew in the Margins…7th S. after Epiphany…Revised 2017  

To start where our passage ends, the key to understanding this passage more fully may lie in Jesus’ last words here: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. The word ‘perfect’ here is from the very same word JN uses in his Gospel to tell us Jesus’ last words from the cross. My preferred translation of this latter is, “I’ve done it!” Despite the setting, Jesus is triumphant. “I’ve done what I set out to do!”¹ He has carried the will of God through to its completion!

What Jesus asks of us in these verses isn’t likely to lead directly to our crucifixion, but will certainly place us at a disadvantage in the world’s eyes. His quoting the O.T. at its best ² shows how connected He remains in His humanity to what God has always wanted of His people. The image of God we’re made in doesn’t become restored till we are as obedient to God’s plan, as committed to seeing it through, come what may, as Jesus is Himself, even when  the chips are totally down.

Human nature un-restored can’t cope with what God asks of Jesus & now asks of us here. It will sound, frankly, ridiculous to human ears, hearts, & minds so not-tuned-in to God they’ve become laws unto themselves / ourselves. Only when we let Jesus restore us to that state of grace in which God has always meant us to live, can we fulfil what Jesus asks of us here. Only then can we be whom He needs us & calls us to be in His image now. 

We can debate theologies & theories of behaviour till we’re blue (or red!) in the face. But we’re not talking theory here, any more than Jesus is. He brings it all home, down to the personal level, yours & mine here. Take not resisting the person who is evil. That’s among the hardest things Jesus ever tells us, isn’t it? What might it mean for us in our situation? How far dare we go for God? 

¹ JN 19:30   ² LEV 19:18