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Presentation/Sermon: The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (A) - 30th October 2011
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am and St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 10 am
Readings: Joshua 3: 7-17, Psalm 107:1-7; 33-37; 1 Thessalonians 3:5-13; Matthew 23:1-12
Hello, my name is Lisa Thomas. Thank you for your gift from the Geoffrey Feltham Pastoral Education Fund. The ministry that I will be applying my skills in is with the Military Christian Fellowship as the National Staff Worker from the 30 th of January next year. MCF is a non-denominational, registered charity that operates within the Australian Defence Force. Its mission is to promote Christian faith in the ADF. MCF would value your prayers.
They have a website if you would like to be informed of their prayer points.
http://www.mcf-a.org.au/index.php/pray-for-mcf
I benefit from your gift by benefitting others. That is the nature of pastoral care. I help another only to find that I feel better for having done so. Now my own well being is not the motivation for doing pastoral care, but it is a side benefit. I gain confidence, I get thanked, I feel encouraged, I feel like I am more like Christ. Then I need Christ more than ever as others depend upon me for their encouragement. I feel like a conduit to point others to Christ as I notice my own inability to be all for all as Paul was. I rest in the hope of our Triune God who has enough compassion to give generously to all. I remember my inadequacy, but thank God that I am useful regardless.
Now lets redirect our focus to the Gospel reading for today, but first let's pray.
Lord, thank you for the privilege of pastoral care. May we hear what you want us to hear from your word so that we may glorify You through our daily lives. Amen.
________
The author wrote this section to warn his flock, many of whom were still attending the local Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath Saturday, as well as attending the Christian service on the Sunday. Perhaps the Jews had a more complete set of scripture than Matthew's congregation? Remember it would be a long time before printing presses would be invented. It would also be a long time before people had their own copy of the Old Testament, let alone the New. Matthew did not seem to mind the members of his congregation attending both services, as long as they were made aware of three things.
First, beware of misinterpretation of Scripture.
Though the scribes and Pharisees were the authorised interpreters of the Jewish church, its literature and its traditions, in Matthew's view, they misinterpreted scripture. Matthew pastorally cares for his congregation by giving them the gospel of Jesus. Here, Jesus warns his listeners not to follow the scribes and the Pharisees or their methods and practices. Instead, Jesus tells them to listen to the scriptures being read, then interpret them as Jesus would. Correct scripture interpretation is very important to Jesus and to Matthew.
The second warning is beware of external religious practices.
Since the destruction of the Temple in the year 70, the functions of the priests, the scribes and the Pharisees had ceased. Where they once applied Priestly purity laws to themselves on behalf of Israel, they now applied them to the people as a whole. This was a burden for ordinary people. Jesus, on the other hand had a yoke that was easy, and was oriented on the internal, not the external. Jesus does not focus on the purity laws, but on whether we are in a right relationship with our Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Spirit.
The scribes and Pharisees emphasised external signs of piety not because they were hypocrites interested in externals, but as distinctive markers of the holy people of God in a pluralistic society. As circumcision had differentiated the Israelites from the Gentiles in earlier times, so the purity laws would differentiate the Jews from others after the destruction of the temple. It sounds reasonable, even biblical, but Jesus shows us the relational nature of faith.
Matthew's third warning is about titles.
Matthew did not want to be called "Father" as he reserved that title for God. Neither did he want to be called "instructor" or "teacher" as Jesus is both of these.
In contrast, the scribes and Pharisees desired power. They oppressed the people of God. They were a poor example of leadership. The scribes and Pharisees were being shown honour as God's representatives. They were appropriating that honour for themselves, rather than for God's glory. Their position had gone to their heads. Jesus corrected this idea for the crowd and for his disciples. Jesus wanted to create leaders in his image, not in the Pharisees' image. He differentiated the practices of the disciples from the illegitimate practices of the synagogue leaders.
Jesus corrected their understanding of power and leadership. God is their Father in heaven. Jesus is their instructor, their Messiah. Leaders among them will be their servant. Others, not self, will exalt the humble servant. Matthew wanted his community to reject hierarchical dominating social structures and live as an alternative more egalitarian community. Stories in chapters 19 and 20 highlight this idea. Matthew, like Jesus, is offering an alternative to the dominating, destructive rule of the Roman Empire of Matthew's time. A kingdom worth dying for, so Jesus thought. The reign of God, where God is with us as he was with Moses and with Joshua.
To summarize Matthew's warnings:
Where do we find guidance for life? Scripture, tradition, reason, experience? All of life is contextual. It all needs to be explained, even scripture. It needs to be interpreted as Jesus would interpret it. We seek to understand the plain reading of the text, the morals and the ethics it evokes. There may be a twist in the meaning or in the application. For example, in Matthew chapter 15 Jesus reinterpreted the things that defile: from externals, such as the food types from the Jewish purity laws, to the heart's internal intentions of evil that lead to murder and adultery. Back in chapter five, Jesus had explained that he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfil it. Then he gives some principles and examples of the Jewish law reinterpreted. He moves the bar from murder, the external, to anger, the internal heart intention. Adultery is prohibited, the external, but even the internal motive of lust will be judged. From chapter 6 in the Lord's prayer, we learn that internal temptation is not a sin, but only what we do with it, that is, the external outworking of it.
Interpretation is no easy thing. It requires reading scripture, digesting it, and understanding it in light of Jesus and in light of the relationship we have with our Triune God. It helps to read what the scholars say, if only to have our eyes opened to a bigger picture. Our understanding of Scripture transforms us as we express our faith filled relationship.
Ritual has its place when it glorifies God. Power and leadership in the Kingdom of God take the form of servanthood. Father Ross and Father John as our pastoral leaders, endeavour to show us this servanthood. God is not finished with any of us yet. God is much more generous, much more inclusive than we are. Consider taking some time during the week to think about how we as a nation could be more compassionate. How might we as a worshipping community and as individuals, be as compassionate as Jesus?
The pastoral care of Matthew has reached the generations of the first century through to the twenty first through his Gospel of Jesus. The pastoral care we offer today to those we share our lives with may have much bigger effects than we can imagine. May Matthew's example be an example for us. Let pastoral care be a way of life for all who follow Jesus. Amen.
Reference List
M. Eugene Boring, 1994, 'The Gospel of Matthew, introduction, commentary, and reflections', in The New Interpreter's Bible: a
Commentary in twelve volumes, vol. VIII, New Testament Articles, Matthew, Mark , Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.