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Sermon Archive |
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For previous two months |
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Matt. 20.1-16 I have been thinking about the crisis in the economy. I have been thinking about the finance companies. Older, thrifty, prudent people have saved for their old age -and finance companies have not been careful with their savings. Young people, full of hope, have borrowed to buy a home -and finance companies have loaned the young ones more than they could service. It’s not fair! I remember saying to my father about something that had happened, ‘It’s not fair!’ He said, ‘Get used to it laddie.’ He went on, ‘As you go through life you’ll find there’s a lot of it about.’ What do you think about these men who worked all day, for a day’s pay -and then the man who worked just an hour or two got paid the same! Is that fair? I think a panel would be helpful as we explore these things. ……………….. would you like to join a panel? When those who worked all day grumbled, the employer said, ‘I paid you what we agreed.’ Isn’t that fair enough? What does the panel think? ……………. The employer went on, ‘I want to pay this man I hired last the same. Don’t I have the right to do as I wish with my own money?’ Isn’t that fair enough? Margaret has given this some thought. Elements
of the story: I
think when the man who worked just a few hours was paid first and given a
day’s pay –it raised the expectations of those who had worked all day. They
had hoped they might get a bit more than what had been agreed. It
is often not helpful to compare ourselves against someone else. Comparing
can make us discontent. It
can make us feel ill-used. What does the panel think? …………………….. Let’s have a look at this man hired last. He had been standing there all day, hoping to get some work. He didn’t go off home. He waited and waited, hoping. Maybe be had a family to provide for. Maybe he had a loan to pay back. Was it his fault he didn’t get hired until late in the day? Maybe the employer was aware of these things. What does the panel think? ……………. I am thinking about the election. Is the parable saying, -people should be paid, not according to their work but according to their need? What have you been thinking? Is the employer fair? I invite you to have a word with your neighbour. ………………. Margaret has another view. Elements
of the story: My
father-in-law used to say ………….. ‘Your work is your health.’ Our
work gives us a sense of purpose. Our
work is something engrossing, stimulating. Our
work brings us satisfaction when something goes well. Our
work gives us the company of our colleagues. Our
work is more than earning the money. We
can think of the men working in the vineyard, harvesting grapes, making
their way along the rows, talking, laughing. And
we can think of the man standing all day in the square, waiting. Work
is more than earning the money. I’m thinking about these men who worked all day complaining about the man who worked a few hours being paid the same as them. Do you think they were mean-spirited? Or were they only human? Could they have said to the employer, ‘Good on you! That’s a nice thing to do!’ Could they have said to the man, ‘We’re very happy for you! You waited all day. You’ll be able to pay those bills now!’ Or is that too big hearted to ask of anyone? What does the panel think? ………………. Let’s have a look at the employer. He pays a man more than he earned. The employer is generous and gracious. Do you think the employer might be God? We celebrate the spring time. We see a wonderful abundance of spring flowers. Everywhere we look, we see blossoms and daffodils and sometimes magnolia. We don’t get what we have earned. We get more than we could possibly ever earn! We don’t get what’s fair. We get far more than what’s fair! I remember sitting with a woman terminally ill in hospital. I asked her, ‘what are you feeling?’ She said, ‘I’ve been thinking, I’m so lucky.’ She went on, ‘I’m getting the best of care here. I’ve had my friends visit me. I’m loved by my family. I’m just so lucky, John. So lucky.’ |
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Matthew 18.21-35 Do you sometimes find it tricky living or working with other people? People say and do things that irritate us. We say and do things that upset other people. Even when we try hard, we can get it wrong. I remember admiring someone’s little grandchild. I said, ‘What a handsome little boy!’ The grandmother said, ‘She’s a girl.’ If we are going to be able to live and work with other people, we need to be able to forgive one another. Peter asks Jesus the question –How many times must I forgive someone? Peter suggests seven times. The Rabbis taught we must forgive three times. Someone might keep a list: 1. You contradicted me. 2. You criticized my relatives. 3. You left the bench in a mess. I forgave you three times. Then -you ate all the chocolate biscuits. That’s it! You’ve had your three. I don’t have to forgive you four times. Our relationship is now over: good-bye. Peter suggests forgiving seven times. He’s generous; he doubles the number and adds one more! How does Jesus respond? Jesus says, ‘Not seven times but seventy times seven!’ That’s four hundred and ninety times! Does Jesus imagine anyone is going to keep a list? Forgot my birthday 488. Made a rude comment about my hair cut 489. Gave me the burnt chop 490. I don’t think so. What is Jesus saying? Is Jesus saying we must keep on forgiving? It’s a big ask. It’s not easy. Can we do it? Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness. A king decided to check on his servants’ accounts. He found one servant owed him 10,000 talents. A talent is 6,000 denarii. A denarius is a day’s pay. If a day’s pay is $100, the servant owed him $600,000,000! Haven’t we been hearing this sort of story recently? How
much does ‘ The king ordered him to sell up and be sold as a slave with his family to pay the debt. The servant begs for time. How does the king respond? ‘The king had compassion for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.’ This king is a very generous! So then what happened? The servant met one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, $10, 000. The fellow servant begged for time. He threw him into jail. When the king heard about it, he was angry and sent the first servant to jail until he should pay back the whole amount. When Margaret and I looked at this parable, we thought it had the feeling of a morality play. Let’s have a look at it. I will be the king. Margaret will be the first servant, …….. the second servant. King You owe me millions! You must pay it back! I will sell you up! First servant I can’t! I haven’t got the money! Please give me time! King I feel sorry for you. I forgive you your debt.
First servant You owe me thousands! You must pay it back!
Second servant I can’t! I haven’t got the money! Please give me time! First servant I’m throwing you into jail until you can pay me! King I am very angry! You are going to jail until you can pay me! What is God saying to you in this parable? I invite you to have a word with your neighbour about it. ………………….. What does God have for us? In Semetic culture, numbers are exaggerated to make a point. The thrust of the story is the king forgives the first servant an unbelievable sum. Can we forgive someone over and over? I think the king in the parable is God. The parable tells us God is compassionate. God forgives us again and again and again, forever. We have said and done hurtful things. We are sorry. We have tried to make amends. We can still lie awake feeling badly about ourselves. I can think about something I said when I was a boy and groan aloud. The parable is saying: God loves us. God forgives us. We can move on. Can we forgive someone over and over? When we know we are forgiven, we have the spirit we need to forgive someone else. When we know we are loved, we have the spirit we need to love someone else. We can live and work alongside one-another because we can forgive one-another. Margaret has been thinking about forgiveness. Elements
of the story: 1.
It is clearly healthy for us to forgive. It
is not healthy for us to hold on to resentments. When
we don’t forgive we can become bitter and twisted. Forgiving
benefits the forgiver as much as the person forgiven. 2.
Forgiveness is concerned with restoring the relationship. When
we don’t forgive someone, there is a barrier between us. When
we forgive someone, our relationship can have a new beginning. What about if someone continues to treat us badly? Does this mean we must continue to let someone hurt us? I remember a woman speaking of her friend saying, ‘She’s an absolute saint, what she puts up with from that husband of hers!’ Is it God’s purpose for us to forgive someone who hurts us again and again? I don’t think so. At the heart of the parable is a sense of justice and injustice. The first servant treated the second servant badly. The other servants were upset and told the king. The king was angry. He finished up punishing the first servant. Jesus concludes, ‘That is how my father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.’ Jesus invites us into a life of forgiving and being forgiven, loving and being loved. If in our loving and forgiving we are not being loved and forgiven, it is unjust and unfair. If the love is not passed on and returned , God is angry. In a moment we will eat and drink together, sharing that generous compassion of God, enjoying God’s warm love for us all. I had a very loving grandmother. At Christmas the family would gather. On Christmas Day we would all sit around the table. There were some tensions between different members of the family. My grandmother would stand and say, Be present at our table Lord, Be here and everywhere adored. These mercies bless and grant that we May feast in paradise with thee. She gathered the family into her warm heart, into the warm heart of God. And around the table there were smiles. So around this table, there are smiles. |
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Matthew 18.15-17 I remember after my grandfather died, my father and one of his sisters had a falling-out concerning his will. My father and that sister never spoke again. I don’t think my father’s family is the only one in which such a thing has happened. I liked my auntie Jean. I was at a conference in Wellington and took my new friend Lesley to visit her. She had bought chocolate éclairs. My young cousins ate the éclairs. My aunt said, ‘Now children, you take Lesley along the beach while cousin John tells me all about the family.’ Maybe someone has said or done something, which hurt you deeply, and you no longer speak. I learned a few years ago, when Robbie started school he didn’t settle down. He spent a lot of time sent out of the room, sitting on the step. While he came home with paintings with ‘Rodert’ on the bottom, no-one recognised he had a dyslexia problem. There must be a better way to handle an unhappy little boy than putting him out of the room. What does God have for us? Jesus said, ‘If your brother sins against you, go to him and show him his fault. But do it privately, just between yourselves. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back.’ What is Jesus saying? Jesus’ concern is for our relationships. When someone hurts us, our instinct is to keep a distance. If we don’t speak, we won’t get hurt again! When I got back from Wellington, I said to my father, ‘Why don’t you phone Auntie Jean?’ He said, ‘I’m not sticking my neck for her to get hurt again!’ Jesus is saying: Don’t not speak. -Go and talk! It is not easy. It can take courage. If we go and talk, we might clear up a misunderstanding. If we go and talk, the other person will know we value our relationship. Notice Jesus says, ‘Do it privately, just between yourselves.’ It’s personal. It’s best handled quietly and gently. And Jesus says, ‘If he listens to you, you have won your brother back.’ That’s what it’s all about. I remember someone coming to me saying, ‘John, I am concerned about our relationship.’ It was a lovely moment. As people of faith, we are not preoccupied with who is right and who is wrong. As people of faith, we are concerned about accepting, caring relationships. When we visited Tim and his family in Melbourne, I learned they have a mat beside the glass doors. When one of the girls is naughty, she is sent to stand on the mat. Terri explained: We don’t want to send her to her bedroom. Her bedroom must be a happy place –not a place of punishment. We don’t want to send her away from everyone. Whatever she has said or done, she is still one of the family. Margaret told me how a girl misbehaving at St Margaret’s is handled. Elements of the story: I think of a girl who
brought alcohol to a school event. It was quite out of
character for her. Sometimes a girl will
be ‘Stood down’ for a couple of days: she will not be
allowed to come to school. On this occasion our
good principal decided, -the girl could do
some study at the principal’s house (which is at the school). The girl was cared
for, dealt with, remaining one of the school community. Our culture is preoccupied with judgement and punishment. People who don’t measure up are excluded. Did you hear on The News, a principal talking about schools having a ‘Zero tolerance’ toward drugs. Anyone caught with drugs is immediately expelled. What do you think about that? This principal said –When we expel these young people, we create a sub-culture of lost, addicted, angry young men. I asked Maureen Alabaster, a school counsellor, what she thought. She said, ‘Zero tolerance’ might mean doing everything we can to help pupils caught up in the drug scene.’ Now Jesus goes on, ‘If he will not listen to you, take one or two other persons with you, so that ‘every accusation may be upheld by the testimony of two or more witnesses’ as the scripture says.’ He quotes Deuteronomy 19.15. What picture is coming into your mind? Do you see two or three stern men confronting this man with his offence? Do you see the offender shaking -or defiant? We have it in the Privileges Committee confronting Winston Peters. Is that what Jesus had in mind?
Maybe Jesus had in mind two or three concerned men caring for this man, helping him return to the community. Maybe we can have a picture in our mind of this man, smiling, deeply touched that these people care about him so much. Jesus goes on, ‘And if he will not listen to them, then tell the whole thing to the church.’ There are stories from the bad old days when a young woman who had fallen pregnant would be seated on a Penitents’ Stool in the church and be admonished by the minister and elders. Is that what Jesus had in mind? I don’t think so. Don’t you think Jesus wanted this person to have the care of everybody? Jesus concludes, ‘Finally, if he will not listen to the church, treat him as though he were a pagan or a tax collector.’ When Margaret and I looked at this, our first thought was, this man would be thrown out of the community! Then we thought again. How did Jesus treat pagans or tax collectors? Jesus loved them! Jesus chose and enjoyed their company! If this man in the story doesn’t respond to care one-to-one, or to the care of a small group, or to the care of the whole church -what do we do? We love him to bits!
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Matthew 16.21-28 I have been with Lodewijk Dykstra’s family: Everdien, Liesbeth, Maarten and Neville. They are sad, grieving the loss of their father. And they are sad, grieving again the loss of their mother. Some of you will remember their beautiful mother Kitty who died when she was thirty-seven: her eldest child Everdien was fifteen, her youngest, Neville was six. The family remember their father cooked rice risotto every night. Maarten recalls that period as ‘the time of darkness.’ All through that time, they were here at worship. Does this seem wrong to you? Does it seem wrong to you that this should happen to a loving husband and wife and innocent children? Does it seem wrong to you that this should happen to a Christian family? Maybe you know other terrible injustices like theirs. Maybe you have suffered something like that yourself. Does your heart cry out -unfair? What does our Faith have for us? Matthew tells us, ‘From
that time on Jesus began to say plainly to his disciples, “I must go to Peter’s saying –you’re a good man! This can’t happen to you! Peter’s saying –that’s wrong! He’s saying –that’s unfair! We can understand what Peter’s saying. How does Jesus respond? Jesus says, astonishingly, ‘Get away from me Satan! You are an obstacle in my way, because these thoughts of yours don’t come from God but from man.’ What is Jesus saying? Margaret has been thinking about this. Elements of the story: I think Jesus would be
wishing he could keep living –anyone would! Jesus doesn’t want
to be crucified! Jesus doesn’t want
to die! Peter touched Jesus’
fear. Peter’s thoughts are
the way people think. Peter expects goodness
to be rewarded. Peter sees the
unfairness. Peter sees the
injustice. Jesus can see: The reality is, bad things happen to good people. The reality is, good people sometimes die young. The reality is, children sometimes lose their mother. The reality is, a good man will sometimes lose his wife. Jesus can see: We are human. Our bodies have their weaknesses. We can become ill and we can die. People have their weaknesses. People can hurt one-another. It is the human condition. We can not expect goodness to be rewarded by good health and safety. Jesus says to the disciples, ‘If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget self, carry his cross and follow me.’ What is Jesus saying? Do you think he might be saying: We need to carry the cross of bad things happening to good people. Our little Ella has a hole in her heart. It has nothing to do with her being a good girl or a naughty girl. Wee Ella will have surgery which will mean pain and bewilderment for her. That is the cross she and her parents must carry. But Peter and you and I have missed something. What have we missed? Jesus said, ‘I will be put to death, but three days later I will be raised to life!’ Peter heard the bad news, but he missed the good news! Isn’t it curious the way we hear the bad but miss the good news. Margaret has a question. How
good are you at being unhappy and complaining? I heard about a teenager who complained about having to wash dishes. The family got a dishwasher. Now she complains about having to unload the dishwasher! Maybe she thinks she does it more often than her brother -and it’s not fair! | |||