Pay Attention - the sermon


This sermon can be listened to here
Pay Attention
Gate Pa – 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year C - 2019

Readings:
Psalm -                      Isaiah 12:2-6  (God Is My Salvation) 
First Reading-         Isa 65:17-25 
Second Reading-    2 Thess 3:6-13 
Gospel-                     Luke 21:1-19 

What I want to say:
Applying “The questions we ask, what we look for and how we look determines what we see” to the gospel reading in terms of the widow, the end of time, and what Jesus said.
What I want to happen:
What stood out, what did you hear and see, and so what?

The Sermon

       1.     Introduction:

What stood out, what did you hear and see, and so what?
     è Discuss
     è Plenary

       2.     Post-modernity

Talked a lot about how the maps we use to understand how to be church no longer work
Moved from modern world to postmodern world
Philosophical underpinnings have radically changed
Still operating out modern world framework
Long time ago Bonnie and I led workshops around country help people understand some fo these changes
One those changes is in how we understand truth
Modernity truth became fact
Fact was something an objective observers could see
-         So for reading bible
-         For bible to be true it had to have happened that way
-         Creation had to have happened as described by Genesis
-         Resurrection exactly as described in gospels etc..
Postmodernity influenced by newer branches science like quantum physics
Questions idea objective observer
“The questions we ask, what we look for and how we look determines what we see”
e.g light
is it wave or particle?
What then is truth?
Apply to our gospel reading

       3.     Widow

Are at least two ways to understand the widow
Ask how does this fit in with themes occur throughout Luke
Jesus making invisible visible
-         Tax collectors
-         Sinners
-         Poor
-         Accursed Samaritan
-         Here in this story – widow
è Story about making her visible
è Invited my to look for in the invisible and make them visible
Ask what this say about social justice (another theme of Luke?)
-         story placed just before people being overawed by temple grandeur
-         see this as Jesus highlighting temple being build of poverty of people like widow
-         who gave all for this grandeur
-         taxed by people like Herod who used that tax pay for this grand refurbishment
this story then invited me to ask where see this happening today
easy example Trump and rich republican friends giving tax cuts to rich and powerful in America
now trying pay for it by cutting social security and Medicaid
-         poor again paying
asked where do I see that happening here in Aotearoa?

       4.     End Times

Passage often read to be about end times – Christ returns
Big issue Luke’s community
Saw destruction temple surely ushering in end of time and return Christ
-         Only it didn’t
Through to today and left behind movement and wider communities’ fascination with zombie apocalypse
Style of this passage is apocalyptic
Book Daniel one earliest examples
Revelation one last in bible
Lately read as either describing what happened in past of predicting what will happen in future
-         Because for it to be true it had to be verifiable fact
-         People will use this to determine when Christ will return
-         Why it is now
So if I look to this passage as predictor of future
I can read it as a predictor of future
May well be some here who read it this way
Not only way I can read it
Apocalyptic literature wasn’t to about predicting future
Unsettling language help people challenge understanding of now
Let go status quo
Have hope in midst of dark times
Keep trust in God even when facing most challenging circumstances
Assure hearers and readers that God is at work

       5.     What is Jesus making visible – reign of God

Lots questions we can bring to this text
Lots things that we might pay attention to
-         Grandeur of temple
-         Looming/past calamity of temples destruction
-         Untrustworthy leadership
-         Widow
Overarching theme in Luke’s Gospel
-         All gospels
-         Is Kingdom of God
-         reign of God
when Jesus makes invisible visible
making visible reign of God
treats those deemed beyond God’s compassion with compassion
when offers or accepts hospitality to or from those condemned as no longer belonging
lives justice those seen outside of God’s justice
then makes reign of God visible
How then reign of God made visible in this story
-         begins with widow made visible
-         invited pay attention to widow
disciples then marvel at grandeur of temple
Jesus responds with
-         don’t be distracted by this grandeur
-         it is temporary
-         but also don’t be distracted by looming calamity - temples destruction
-         don’t be distracted by wars
o   famines
o   natural disasters
o   or your own fate
pay attention to reign of God
pay attention to outbreaks of compassion,  hospitality, generosity, justice
pay attention to outbreaks of way of God
pay attention to life not brokeness
when all seems lost
pay attention to God always present in our world

we live in world with much to terrify and distract
with much brokenness
not same as ignoring it
don’t be weighed down by it
live another way
invited instead to pay attention to signs of wholeness of life
join that work

       6.     Conclusion

What stood out, what did you hear and see, and so what?
     è Discuss

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