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Gate Pa – Year A 27th
Sunday of Ordinary Time, Season of Creation 5
Readings:
Psalm
Psalm
19
First
Reading: Exodus 20:1-4,7-9,12-20
Second
Reading: Phil
3:4-14
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-46
What I want to say:
We finish
the Season of Creation by celebrating St. Francis of Assisi’s love of creation
and all creatures who share this home with us. He lived a life of penance,
making room for God and letting go of all that prevented him experiencing
divine live within creation. He lived a life of penance so that he might make
room to live God’s love for all
What I want to
happen:
As we finish this season and given thanks for our pets and all creation,
what might we need to let go of, and what might we need to pay attention to as
we continue to make room for God?
The Sermon
1.
Introduction:
This Sunday marks the end of the Season of
Creation,
ð joined
the worldwide Christian family
-
a celebration of prayer and action to
protect our common home
Theme this year was Jubilee for the Earth
-
just as year jubilee in Leviticus 25
pushed restart button
-
so too we need to push restart button
ð Just
as ancient Israel needed
ð We
need to be reminded that we are created in the image of God who is the Creator
and Sustainer of all
-
in light of that to reconsider our
relationship with God’s creation and all who share our common home
-
in particular our response to climate
change and destruction of web of life through biodiversity loss.
Also joined this celebration using gospel
readings from Matthew – for Ordinary time in year A
-
Always keeping in mind central place
of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount in this gospel
ð how
Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s reign of justice and peace
-
where following the tradition of
Jubilee, Jesus offers a vision of a world where
o
all flourish;
o
where the common good, including the
good of all created beings is held as paramount;
o
a world where the needs of the poor
are placed first;
o
and where ALL, including all plants
and animals - all creation, are treated with honour and respect and given they
need to thrive.
Done so reflecting on what it means for Jesus
to be our liberator
-
And what attitudes, assumptions and
behaviours we need to be liberated from
2. Brokenness
This year our celebration is overshadowed by
the consequences of our forgetfulness of who God is, who we are,
Forgetfulnes of the invitation to live in this
world offered by Jesus.
As we suffer this global COVID-19 pandemic,
As we watch others live though effects of
Climate change
-
ravaging wild/bush fires USA and
Australia
-
increasingly frequent and destructive
storms
-
droughts here and around world
-
increasingly extreme weather patterns
ð all
a symptom of our forgetfulness and broken relationships with each other, with
creation, with God
One of themes of any Season of Creation is
repentance
Offers time repent
-
of all ways we have not lived in
Jesus’ vision for reign of God
-
of our forgetfulness – that we are
made in image of creating and sustaining God who is making heavens and earth
-
what it means to be the image of God
As I have said
before
To repent
literally means to have a bigger mind
See world through
different eyes
-
to see differently
-
On a bigger canvas
-
With reign of God, Kingdom of heaven
at the centre
That is what the
season of creation is all about
Providing
opportunity to see world we live in and all who live in it in some different
ways
Seeing this world
as gift
Seeing all who
live here as gift
Learning to live
in ways that reverence this gift.
3.
Making room
This week we
celebrate St. Francis of Assisi.
One gifts of
Francis is that as he prayed in the hills around Assisi and further afield in
Umbria
-
Overwhelmed by an experience of God
and God’s love for him and all creation
-
Led to him treating all people,
creatures and creation with reverence and respect
-
Become known as patron saint of
creation and of animals.
-
Can be a little cheesy.
Francis was more
than that
Francis saw his
life as one of penance.
In “The Art of
Letting Go” Franciscan priest and writer Richard Rohr suggests
-
Francis understood penance as “making
room for God”.
o
Through Jesus the liberator
o
Let go attitudes and behaviours
blinded him to God
-
the more he practiced making room for
God
o
the more he saw God
In the end Francis saw God at work in all
people,
-
even thieves, lepers and Muslims;
ð
saw God in all creatures,
-
even a ferocious wolf;
ð
and all creation,
-
including the birds
-
who he commanded to “beware of the sin
of ingratitude and be always eager to praise God”.
The Season of Creation is about making room
for God by letting go of all that distracts us from seeing God in creation and
all who share this world.
Jesus the liberator continues to invite us to
be liberated from the old ways of seeing creation as resource
-
and to live in ways that cares for our
common home
-
and for the sisters and brothers who
share it with us.
4. Matthew and authority
In light of all that want to look at our
Gospel reading for today
-
Matthew 21: 33-46
Third part of his answer to question heard
last week
Question posed by chief priests and elders
-
Wealthy Jerusalem
elite
o
All absent
landowners
o
Expected
percentage harvest as payment
o
Would use hired
enforcers on those who could not pay or were too slow to pay
After Jesus had healed and forgiven sins (only
temple priests can do) around Galilee
Entered Jerusalem on donkey
-
Allusions to
messianic king
Entered temple and turned over money changers
tables
Returned next day to teach
Where they confront him and demand to know
-
by what authority he does ALL these things?
He replies with a question about John’s
authority
-
Links his
authority to John’s
-
They can’t answer
honestly because they fear the crowd
Then story about two sons
Then this story about landowner and some
wicked tenants
-
Fall for the trap
-
Uses to condemn
them (not Jewish people but this leadership group)
-
Some other
stories we will hear over next week or so
-
All of which answer
their question
-
Establishing his
authority
-
Showing up their
lack of authority
-
(sure they had
the power, but no real authority)
-
Jesus condemns
them for their lack of fruit.
5. What about us?
Which generally Christians have felt pretty
smug about
Authority has passed to us we think
Authority removed from them
-
And over much
last 2000 years
-
by them, we have
meant all Jews
-
persecuted them
mercilessly
not what this story was about at all.
What does Jesus mean by fruit here?
Takes us back to restart button of Jubilee
Vision held in Exodus 20 – and the 10
commandments
-
show how to live
in the freedom of God
-
rather than
slavery of Egypt
Take us back ancient promise
-
creation being
renewed and humanity restored through God’s faithfulness to the covenant with
Israel
In Matthews gospel that takes us back to
Beatitudes and Sermon on Mount
Coming reign of God’s justice and peace
o
all flourish;
o
where the common good, including the
good of all created beings is held as paramount;
o
a world where the needs of the poor
are placed first;
o
and where ALL, including all plants
and animals - all creation, are treated with honour and respect and given they
need to thrive.
If we are honest we are too often like chief
priests and elders
Too easily forget these ancient promised
We forget this vision
We have supplanted authority of God with other
authorities which more beneficial in short term at least
Blinding us to God’s presence in creation, all
creatures, and in the peoples of our world
We need Francis more than even
We too need to learn to make room for God
As we finish this season and given thanks for
our pets and all creation,
-
what might we need to let go of,
-
and what might we need to pay
attention to as we continue to make room for God?
This week we
celebrate St. Francis of Assisi. 
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