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PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE
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CURRENT CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE
(updated August 31, 2008)
--Pentecost 19 – (September 21, 2008)
--Pentecost 18 – (September 14, 2008)
--Pentecost 17 – (September 7, 2008)
--Links
Pentecost 19 – September 21, 2008
Exodus 16:2-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 or Psalm 78
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16
Blessed Memory
The starving Israelites were not happy campers, but the blessed memory of their experience dances like a joyous child in Psalm 105. For Paul blessed memory has become the living presence of God in Christ Jesus, all that he has suffered, all that he suffers, all that he will suffer is Christ to him. Jonah was angry enough to die because of God's grace toward Jonah's enemies. The laborers hired early were angry at the generosity of the vineyard owner. Would these experiences turn into blessed memory? Would they turn into blessed memory on their own, or would someone have to turn them that way?
Life is not fair, but neither is God's grace. Because life is not fair, I can find myself dragging my history behind me as if it were a cotton-picker's sack, full of rock. But, because of God's grace for me, that sack can become rather like the bouquet of helium-filled balloons lifting the vendor's arm at the circus. Jonah's memory of Nineveh's not getting the punishment it richly deserved could become a rock in his tow sack. The laborers hired early could add their bitterness to their tow-sacks and drag them into the future, or they could look back and praise God for his grace: allowing the irregular Jews to join the righteous and allowing the Johnny-come-lately gentiles into the kingdom. Why? Why not? What is the turn of mind that compels some to find the damnation of others as precious as their own salvation and somehow tied to it? "If the atheist won't burn in hell, I won't be happy in heaven." Or, "If my ex doesn't burn in hell, I won't be happy ever." "But God said to Jonah, 'Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?' And he said, 'Yes, angry enough to die.'" (Jonah 4:9)
Was it right for Paul to be angry at his persecutors? Yes, probably right enough for him to die, but he was as pleased to live as to die because the one reality of his life was Christ, and that reality would remain the same whether he lived or died, whether his enemies were punished or pardoned, indeed whether he himself were punished or pardoned. "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh." (Romans 9:3)
Can you imagine a spirit so powerful that it could slip into your tow sack and infuse the rocks until they began to rise, first relieving you of their weight and then relieving you even of the weight of daily life, so that all memory becomes blessed memory? This is the high calling of Christ. This is the Christ that is all in all to Paul, not just an ethic but also an ethic that arises from the presence and action of Christ. Quite the opposite of our salvation being tied to someone else's damnation, our salvation is tied to God's forgiving them and us. For us to join the Psalmist in song and dance about our memories, God will have to help us turn and bless the past, all of it and everyone in it, the Egyptians, the idealist who led us into the miserable wilderness, the evil who prospered, the lazy who ate and we ourselves who share the sins of the world. In the name of Jesus Christ may all your memories be blessed memories.
Pentecost 18 – September 14, 2008
Exodus 14:19-31
Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35
To Be Social
Robert Frost observed, "To be social is to be forgiving."* Jesus was serious about forgiveness. So much so that it sounds as if he says, "Not forgiving is unforgivable." Not quite. Not to respond to a repentant heart with heartfelt forgiveness is the action Jesus condemns in the church and beyond. If Joseph had not forgiven his brothers after the death of Jacob, if he had used his high position in Egypt to get even with them instead, that would have been the end of the story of the children of Israel. There would be no Jewish community if there had not been this pivotal act of forgiveness. There would be no Christian Community if there had not been the central act of God's forgiveness through Christ. Forgiveness is at the very heart of who we are and why we are here as a community of faith.
One could ask if Moses forgave the Egyptian army for pursuing him across the sea, but the parable Jesus told would not apply to Moses because the Egyptians weren't pursuing him to ask for forgiveness. Jesus did take forgiveness to a new level, however, when he told his disciples to pray for their enemies and when he asked God to forgive the very people who were putting him to death. Then, should Moses have forgiven Pharaoh's army? As they washed up on the shore? What is the role of forgiveness in dealing with a murderous hoard? God was obviously prepared to use lethal force to protect the children of Israel. Perhaps forgiveness doesn't preclude a lethal defense, although Jesus refused it in his own defense and so did the early church. Only forgiveness makes a rational, dispassionate lethal defense possible if at all. What forgiveness will not permit is blood lust. A lethal defense is not necessarily anti-social. Blood lust is. We have witnessed blood lust tearing the social fabric of Iraq and elsewhere.
Even though his words apply to the whole human community, in this context, Jesus is talking about forgiveness within the believing community, and Paul is talking about maintaining the harmony of the community. Paul asks the believer to make the well being of the community more important than his/her own prerogatives. One aspect of forgiveness is valuing the community more than one's own injury. It is an aspect of walking humbly with God not to dwell on how one's been done wrong. Rising above one's injuries is the first step toward forgiveness, but it is also the first step away from being determined by our injuries. If we forgive others, we may be able to forgive ourselves and thereby bless all of our memories.
So, when Jesus says we should forgive seven times seventy, he is saying we should value the community more than we value our injury, and he is saying we should, for our own sakes, choose a future free from the injuries of the past.
*"The Star-Splitter" by Robert Frost -- lines 44-47:
If one by one we counted people out
For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long
To get so we had no one left to live with.
For to be social is to be forgiving.
Pentecost 17 – September 7, 2008
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149 or Psalm 148
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
A Brotherhood And Protective Order
The Pharaoh discovered he was dealing with yet another animal, a "new breed of cat", a people who were protected from the Death Angel by God. The Passover meal was the chartering ceremony of this new order -- brotherhood around a common meal in small groups and protective not in the sense that they were banded together to protect themselves but because they were banded together to received the protection of God. God is at the center of this new order and is the center of their protection. When the charter was expanded to include Gentiles, it remained that of a brotherhood and protective order, still constituted around a fellowship meal; this time with more openness to sisterhood, but still with God protecting the community from the Death Angel, now referred to as the hell at hand or the hell to come.
Jesus gives the brotherhood/sisterhood some simple rules for protecting itself with God at the center of its protection. Jesus assures the church of God's presence and protection with these words: "Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Matthew 18:19-20) The word "anything" in this context refers to the church's actions in ordering its internal life. This is Jesus' promise that God will support the church in this vital function. If the church doesn't order its life, who will? If the church doesn't deal with people in its midst that threaten its existence and mission, who will? I have erred on the side of inclusiveness when it included people that broke down fellowship and confused the mission. I have confused the priorities of our order thinking we were first a service organization rather than being first a protective organization. First we embrace the protection of Christ and the body of Christ. Then we imitate Christ in sacrificial service. This is the order of our historical development, and it is the order of priority for our perseverance into the future.
Who is it that is accountable to God not just for his or her own behavior but for the behavior that weakens the church? "So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, "O wicked ones, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand." (Ezekiel 33:7-8) Is it only Ezekiel who is accountable? Is it only the pastor? Or, is it anyone who sees and understands the behavior that is breaking down the protection of fellowship in Christ? What Jesus describes is a church that confronts sin among its members, but with an eye to reconciliation not division. "As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked..." (Ezekiel 33:11)
God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but if the death of the wicked is the price of the life of the covenant community, then what? "Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands..." (Psalm 149:5-6) The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross changes our concept of the role of violence in God's protection of us. That is, violence is not a tool of our protection but rather our protection absorbs and transcends violence. Paul found all the protection he needed in Christ and him crucified. In Christ risen, he found himself in communion with the brother- and sister-hood.
Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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