October 16, 2011
Pentecost 18
Exodus 33:12-23
Matthew 22:15-22
(prayer)
Some of you may know that when I came to Leduc to be your minister eleven years ago, it was kind-of my move home. I’m from around here (Edmonton-born and raised). I studied theology and earned my Masters of Divinity degree at the Vancouver School of Theology. While I took to coastal life quite well, it never really became ‘home’ for me.
After I was ordained, I went Swan Hills as a rookie minister. They put up with me for six years. I completed my first decade in this vocation at a large church in Red Deer. I was glad to spend those ten years in Alberta, but I did imagine that (ultimately) I would end up back in Edmonton. And then I heard through the grapevine that St. David’s in Leduc might be looking for a new minister. Then I did a very wise thing – I asked my spouse if Leduc qualified as ‘Edmonton’. As a location, I needed to know if Leduc was a place our family might seek to put down some roots. Patti said ‘yes’. So, the location worked. Fortunately, through the interview process it seemed to be a good match pastorally as well.
One of the things I missed when I was living in Vancouver was the dramatic change of seasons we can experience in this part of the world. I actually like our capital region weather, year round. I want a white, cold winter and a warm, green summer. And I especially like the crisp days of fall! I was married in October – our wedding colours were fall colours (dark red and yellow and orange).
I spend three nights a week on a football practice field at this time of year. While I do hear some people lament to cool air and the darker evenings – I feel a rush of contentment. This is my favourite time of the year.
Autumn is a time of beauty and...it is a time of necessary transition. Winter will force us to slow down and winter IS coming – so we have to adjust.
It is a time when we watch our world transform around us. And so it is a fitting time to be reading the two scripture passages we heard a few moments ago – because they are enveloped in the theme of transformation!
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Today’s reading from Exodus gives us a fascinating glimpse into Moses’ relationship with God: Moses had no problem raising issues with God, even arguing with God if he thought God needed to adjust God’s divine thinking.
Within the biblical narrative that leads up to Moses’ time, there are a few exceptional descriptions of people who have a very familial relationship with God. This personal relationship sits in obvious contrast to the more commonly-spoken-of broad national relationship which God had with all of the Israelites.
From the first day they met at a fiery, non-burning bush, Moses was on a first name basis with God.
“Moses, I Am Who I Am; I Am Who I Am, Moses”
God invited Moses over to God’s home in the mountains. As I mentioned earlier Moses had a comfortable-enough relationship with God, that Moses felt he could ask God for even more from the relationship. Last week (if you were in church) we heard the story of how the people got impatient while Moses was up on the mountain with that distant God, that they convinced Moses’ brother, Aaron, to authorize the creation of a God they could see and touch (the Golden Calf). Meanwhile up on the mountain, God was angry and ready to give up on this impatient, unfaithful nation. It was Moses who convinced God to remember the original covenant where God declared to Abraham: “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.”
“I will be their God and they will be my people.”
Today, we heard how Moses desired the relationship with God to become even more familial, more personal: “show me your ways, so that I may know you.” “Show me your glory!”.
God listened intently to Moses’ request and met him halfway: ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you...[but] you cannot see my face.’ While my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.’ Not quite ‘seeing and touching’, but familial and personal nonetheless.
God declared to Moses: I know you by name...[and I] will proclaim before you the name, “Yahweh” (God’s name).
Moses sought a transformation with his relationship with God and he wanted God to be transformative in the lives of all the people!
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It is undeniable that, in our communities and in our world, there is hatred, prejudice, bullying etc. And so much is based on generalities: broad stroke rhetoric and systemic conflict. But when we take the time to get to know someone – to understand who they are and they, us – compassion has a chance to enter the situation.
I believe that tolerance is gaining more acceptance in our society and this broadens our relationships and allows us to understand each other better. We, as United Church people, know the truth of this (given our history of ecclesial-leading living out of the belief that ‘God’s love is for all’).
Taking the time to understand - allows for transition and transformation nto happen.
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One of the things that Jesus tried to get the crowd to understand is that our relationship with God is worth paying attention to – we may proclaim God as lord and sovereign in our lives and yet this relationship is unlike another we can imagine. It’s more that we might first imagine.
Look at how Jesus responded to those who sought to embarrass him in front of his followers. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?”
What a loaded question.
Now I know that, in our time, “taxes” can be a dirty word, but the first century middle eastern experience was quite different from our modern one. We pay taxes to serve our common good – we pool our resources to build roads and hospitals; to provide education and social services; to enhance our culture and to maintain a safe society. In the context of the Roman Empire, the taxes did not improve the lives of those who paid the taxes. It was thrust away to serve the emperor – used for the emperor’s enjoyment of ‘a life of excess’ and to tighten the emperor’s grip on power. In fact, one of the main reasons that a key goal of empires is to constantly be expanding is to broaden the tax base and to add to the emperor’s wealth and power. It’s never about a better life for the occupied people.
[“What have the Romans ever done for us?” The aqueducts...]
Monty Python fans might get that reference.
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So, the Pharisees and supporters of King Herod were pretty sure that an ethical, man of the people like Jesus would never support such an unfair system of taxation. If he did support the system, he would seem a hypocrite to his followers, but if he openly spoke against the law of Caesar, he could be branded as a traitor of the Empire. Either way, they were pretty sure that there was no way out of this for Jesus. His movement would be discredited for sure!
So, what does Jesus do – he flips the hypocrisy coin on his accusers – ‘why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Who’s image is on the coin you pay taxes with? Give to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor.’
If Jesus would have stopped there, the Herodians and the Pharisees’ plan would have worked perfectly, but Jesus added in a second instruction ‘and...give to God what belongs to God.’ Aye, there’s the rub. Give to God what is due to God.
That makes this a personal question of faith for everyone in the crowd: including the Pharisees and Herodians. And yet this was still a deeply political statement – it was to say that true allegiance was to be given to God, not to Caesar. God was sovereign and lord in our lives, not the Emperor in Rome. Jesus’ point to his accusers (fellow Jews) was that they should feel the same way, too, if their faith really meant anything to them.
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Throughout his ministry, Jesus was concerned (primarily) with the people’s relationship with their God. His first sermon was to say (as John the Baptist had): “Repent (turn back to God) for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus wanted people to be aware of this spiritual kinship – and to honour that relationship with our devotion and with our words and actions – especially how they affect our relationships with each other. Jesus was always concerned about this three-way spiritual connection – God, Self, Neighbour.
• “Repent, for the Realm of God is at hand.”
• “Love God with all your heart, soul and strength and love your neighbour as yourself.”
• “Give to God what belongs to God.”
Jesus’ basic message...was about the transformation of our lives.
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Moses sought to transform his relationship with God. Yes, God was ‘lord and sovereign’, but Moses desired something more basic, more personal. God and Moses were on a first name basis; they willingly spent time together; Moses even asked to see God in a way that had never been done before: Moses desired less of a king-subject relationship; less of a master-servant relationship; less of a teacher-student relationship (although it was all those things): Moses desired more. Moses desired friendship.
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In the Gospel of John, just before his betrayal and arrest, Jesus tells his disciples (his ‘students’): ‘I do not call you servants any longer...but I have called you friends.’
Jesus says this is because they have shared so much together – there is a distance in the more formal hierarchical relationship descriptions that do not do full justice to the way Jesus and his ‘friends’ had gotten to know each other.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
who will all our sorrows bare?
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Our relationship with God (through Jesus) is complex. Some much of our language about it is hierarchical – because, in some ways, that makes sense. But in our lessons today, we see that (from some of the earliest parts of our faith history, through the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth, right up to today) there is a more personal, familial aspect to this covenant relationship. We are invited to transform our way of thinking and being so that we see ourselves as friends of our God.
I’m sure we know what kind of characteristics mark a healthy friendship. What do you say – shout out a characteristic of a healthy friendship.
1. loyal
2. honest
3. unconditional love
4.
If we can include these aspects into the depths of our spirit – we can transform our relationship with God.
The apostle Paul spoke of enduring love saying that it is patient and kind; it is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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Faithfulness, trust, understanding, an openness to change/growth, a humility that allows for mystery – these all will foster better relations with each other – and they will deepen our friendship with God.
As you live in this time of falling leaves and crisper air; as the world transforms around you – let yourself be open to the unique friendship each of us can have with our maker and friend.
Let us pray:
God, my friend;
It is good to know you. Journey with me. I’m glad you see me as your friend!
Amen.
#250 VU “O God of Matchless Glory”
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