Entwined Roots
Can be listened to here
Gate Pa – Year A 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time,
Readings:
Psalm Psalm: 139:1-12,
23-24
First Reading Gen 28:10-19a
Second Reading Rom
8:12-25
Gospel Matt
13:24-30,
36-43
What I want to say:
Use Matthew and Paul to explore
how our roots are buried in the faithfulness of God to the covenant - the promise to restore humanity and renew
creation through God’s people.
When we are faithful to this
(righteous) we find life
What I want to happen:
How might is our vision for what the life of Christ is about.
How might we be invited to grow it?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
had a week off from Paul – should be excited
and ready for more
For those who were not here for my
introduction there are a few copies of my sermon available at the door.
some
edited highlights:
-
Paul
is Jew –
-
radical
– a lot discontent about his understanding of gospel – seen to have gone too
far
-
those
letters comprise @25% of NT - important
-
not
write all letters that have his name on were written by him
-
letters
were written to particular people at particular times to address particular
issues
o not written to be read as anything more than
that
§ need to pay attention to who written to, why
it was written, and social context written in and for.
-
Letter
to churches in Rome is unique
o not been there and so not know people as well,
and they do not know him.
§ not off the cuff but carefully thought out and
reasoned
-
writing
to little house churches, some Jewish and some Gentile about place of Torah in
their lives as followers of the Way of Christ
- Paul's
letter to Romans is written to help them move beyond this conflict so that they
can support his mission to Spain
2. Matthew
clear that early church was not harmonious and
peaceful
outbreaks conflict all over place
like churches in Rome
-
clear
that church Matthew wrote for had significant conflict
stories like today's, and other stories all
about conflict within and between those struggling little churches.
to this conflict Matthew offers this wonderful
little story
too
often ignore or misread
how often when we are in a disagreement or
conflict do we revert into
“I’m right and you are wrong”
or to put it another way
“I am wheat and all good
and you are a weed and all bad
we should separate and I can be rid of you!”
It happens so often
history of the church and our church is full
of exactly that
east and west mutual excommunications in 1200s
protestant reformation in 1500’s –
birth of Methodism and Salvation Army
today in world-wide Anglican church we have
groups doing exactly that over place homosexuals and women in our church
one
things we are going to talk about at Regional Conference is how we might avoid
exactly that
“I am wheat and all good
and you are a weed and all bad
we should separate and I can be rid of you!”
to which Matthew says
-
you
are not the one to judge between wheat and weeds – that is God’s job
o pretty disappointing
o what is the fun in that
-
dangerous
to pull apart because our roots are entwined
o hurt each other
o need to wait until the end of the age (which
he thought was quiet soon)
o then God will sort it out
-
involves
level of patience and humility
3. Roman soil
Paul's answer to conflict in Rome
(more in your face in other letters)
slightly
different to Matthews
rather than just roots being entwined
I think Paul is saying that our roots are in
same soil
that soil is theme of his whole letter
-
Gospel
of God
-
what
sermon of two weeks ago was all about
o apologise so long
o trying in those sermons lay out groundwork
-
God’s
righteousness
-
here
was need to be careful
4. God’s righteousness
At service down south last week with some
friends
in sermon priest said that “If we are faithful
God is faithful”
hear a lot
how many would agree with this
“If we are faithful God is faithful”
Paul would say just
God is faithful no matter what
-
story
of Hebrew scriptures is all about faithfulness of God no matter what Israel
does
-
story
Gospels is faithfulness of God revealed and fulfilled in Jesus
-
faithfulness
based on who God is and not and what we do
soil in which we are all planted and in which
our roots entwine is God’s faithfulness.
But who or what is God faithful to?
5. God’s faithfulness
that takes us back to really long sermon from
2 weeks ago
takes us to this week’s reading just heard
God is faithful to covenant – through people
of God, God would restore humanity and renew creation
that is what he is talking about in this morning’s
reading
humanity and creation is groaning waiting for
covenant to be fulfilled
really important to understanding Paul
He is not saying that God is faithful to us alone
to
our hopes, dreams and desires
too often Gospel reduced to God is faithful to
church
or people of church
Paul’s vision is much bigger
Soil in which we are all planted is God’s
faithfulness to all humanity and all creation
Story of God in scripture is story of God’s
faithfulness
and in baptism we are baptised into this grand
story
which should shape our understanding of who we
are and what we are to do
when we forget this
when
who we are and what we do is shaped by own hopes and dreams for ourselves and
those we love
then
we are in sin
This is such a big vision
Pauls response to conflict then was to offer a
huge vision of what the gospel of God is all about
and I think also saying that we are all a
little bit wheat and a little bit weed
so
get over yourselves
he offers us the same huge vision
big
important
wonder if we have courage see our roots planted
deep in this soil
this soil is not about keeping the church
going
it is about restoration of humanity and
renewal of creation
and small and important roles we play in that
invitation to reflect on and discuss this statement:
"Our roots are buried in the faithfulness
of God:
God’s faithfulness is to the
covenant - the promise to restore
humanity and renew creation through God’s people.
When we are faithful to this (righteous)
we find life".
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