Post Communion Sentence

God our Father, whose Son, the light unfailing has come from heaven to deliver the world from the darkness of ignorance: let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding that we may know the way of life, and walk in it without stumbling; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 

Commentary

The Old Testament reading is the Exodus version of the Ten Commandments.  I am always struck how it was when the Israelites were lost and wandering in the dessert, at a time of immense need, that God met them and spoke with them in such a profound manner.  They have been fed with the manna and the quail, they have drunk water that has come from a rock and now they are given the precepts on which so much of our modern society depends upon.  Shortly after God gives these commandments to the people of Israel Moses approaches the thunder and lightening and the ‘thick darkness where God was’.   It’s a salutary reminder that even in the darkness God is there, ready to meet with us however dire our apparent circumstances.  Sometimes it can be easy to think about God and to pray when all is right with the world and ourselves.  It’s another thing when times are difficult and we seem to have all the cares and worries of the world on our backs.  Exodus reminds us that God is with us in our darkness and that He will lead us through into the lightness of His freedom and salvation.  We have a hope and a confidence in Christ.  And as strong as this hope and confidence is, Paul reminds us that our challenge can sometime be to put our trust in Christ alone.  By Jewish and Roman standards Paul had every reason to be confident.  He lists His Jewish credentials in the today’s Epistle.  The Jews would see Him as a ‘good boy, from a ‘good family’, from a ‘good tribe’ with a ‘good education’.   He’d make a ‘good catch’ for someone you can imagine the mothers all saying.  He also has good Roman credentials which gives him a status in the society in which he lives.  But he lays aside all these Jewish and worldly credentials to take hold of ‘that which Christ took hold of for Him’, a restored relationship with the Father.  He wants to press on to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and even sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings so that He too can come through the darkness of the world into the light of Christ. 

The gospel reading brings to a head the debate which has been occurring throughout Matthew’s gospel, the exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes where the Pharisees and scribes question the authority of Jesus and Jesus is questions their understanding of the Law, and by extension, of God.  Landowner and vineyard would be understood by the listeners, and certainly by the chief priests and Pharisees as God and Israel.  The wall symbolises the Torah, the law given to Moses so that the Jews could be God’s special people and a light to the world.  The present tenants, the current Jewish religious leaders, know that the Messiah will take away their primacy.  They must kill Him in order to retain the inheritance for themselves.  Jesus makes it clear that He, as the stone the builders rejected, is the Messiah and that the Kingdom of God is now being taken out of their hands and given to those who will know what to do with such a privilege and responsibility and produce fruit and share in the harvest.  In Hebrew the word for son is ‘ben’ and the word for stone is ‘eben’.  The stone of Isaiah is linked to the Messianic stone in Daniel (Dan 2 v 31 – 45), the Kingdom that will never be destroyed, and both are linked to the son and stone and the coming of His Kingdom in this gospel story.  For the Jewish listeners it’s a chilling tale.  Paul sees himself as being one of the vineyard tenants and understands the importance of trusting in the Messiah alone.  He realised that along with others he was not the perfect tenant of the vineyard and needed the salvation that the Messiah could bring.  We too may not be the perfect tenants of the vineyard, God’s Kingdom on earth, but we too have a responsibility to hear God’s calling on our lives and respond to Him as Paul did, caring for His Kingdom and trusting in Christ as our saviour alone.  That is the responsibility we have today as Christ’s church.  And whatever state we or the church may be in, our Old Testament and New Testament readings reminds us that our confidence is in the God who meets with His people, sometimes in the darkness, and offers us all eternal life through the resurrection of His Son.  It’s a reminder too that we are to take our responsibilities seriously, whatever they may be.  In the recent news we have heard and read about what may be seen by some as a lack of responsibility in the financial markets which has certainly led to many people being in tough and difficult places at the current time.  As the Jews found in the wilderness, God meets with His people in the dark places of the world.  Indeed, sometimes it seems like we need to be in those dark and desperate place before we are desperate enough to meet with Him.  As Paul’s life would testify, our security in not in the financial markets but in God alone and He meets with us whenever we turn to Him, in the dark places and the light, in good times and in bad, as we put our trust in Him alone as our Lord and Messiah. Sam Cappleman 



 

Meditation

The Gospel of Matthew shows one of the components of Jesus’ ministry was specifically to the people of Israel, the Jews, to call them back to their original experiences of God’s saving love and their genesis as God’s chosen people. Through Matthew both the people of Israel and the people of Christianity are reminded of just who they are in God’s eyes and how they are to respond.  History has shown how, at one time or another, all of us can be resistant to the call of God and the mission of Jesus.  The Gospel reading, which echoes and quotes a similar story in Isaiah 5, is a stark reminder that we need to be always open to the call of the Lord, open to hear His voice and obedient to His commands.  Neither should we undervalue or waste the gift of the vineyard, which He has given us.  We are holy stewards of His good news and His Kingdom and we are to share generously with all who share His creation with us.  Sam Cappleman

For the Jews feasts were held in celebration of good harvests several times a year. Jesus refers to the grape harvest in today's reading from Matthew.

Jesus uses it to illustrate that the Pharisees had really lost the plot. They were so afraid that the Jews might be exiled to Babylon again, that they thought if they kept every law, both the written laws of Moses and the oral traditional law of their ancestors, that God would keep them safe in Jerusalem. Because it was so difficult to keep all these laws, rather than drawing people to God they had the opposite effect, they began to put barriers in their way. The Pharisees were misusing the gifts and responsibilities which had been entrusted to them and Jesus spoke out against this abuse. 

Rather than preparing the ground and making it fertile and ready for the harvest it was becoming more bleak and barren by the day. Not only had the Pharisees misused the gifts of God, most importantly they did not recognise the greatest gift which God had given the world, His Son. They liked to listen to Jesus, but they thought His ideas were too radical. Jesus told them repeatedly that they kept the letter of the law, but lost the spirit; they made a show of loving God with their public prayers, but they didn't have compassion for people and the harvest was being lost.

God has given us many gifts, some of which we celebrate through the harvest festival. We remember His goodness and provision for us and are challenged to use His gifts wisely. Many people are less fortunate than ourselves and we need to remember God loves them too, and often could use us, and the gifts He has given us (to look after) to demonstrate that love for them, not just at harvest time, but all the year through. Using the gifts He has given us in the service of others is one of the most appropriate ways of demonstrating our gratitude to God for what He has done for us.  Sam Cappleman

Hymns

1. All people that on earth do dwell 20

2. We really want to thank you, Lord, 734

3. For the beauty of the earth 152

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

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