Choose life

Moses and the people of Israel, well a motley band of ex-slaves, have been wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. This is towards the end of this particular part of the journey. Moses knows that he is not going to cross the river Jordan into the promised land, and here there is this long speech that Moses is making to the people. Moses is reminding the people to keep the law, reminding them of where they have come from and who it is who has guided them on the journey. This passage is the end of one of the speeches Moses gives at this time. Here he is challenging the people of Israel, the people who have travelled 40 years in the wilderness, to decide if they will follow the living God will choose the way of despair and curse.

Some of the language of blessing and cursing is not language that we would regularly used today. But the challenge that Moses gives is one that we also have. The challenge to choose life.

What does it mean to choose life. For the people who were travelling with Moses choosing life was about leaving Egypt, no longer being slaves, and moving into a new land, being a new people, trusting in God.

What does it mean to choose life. We are not people who have left Egypt, who have left slavery, who have wandered in the desert for 40 years:, we are not in the process of moving into a new land, and becoming a new nation. What does it mean to choose life.

This we will come back to this in a moment.

The passage we heard this morning from the gospel of Matthew, is part of the beatitudes. The beatitudes that started so beautifully two weeks ago with the blesseds and then last week we heard about being salt and light. In the part of the beatitudes we heard today, Jesus is explaining the meaning of some of the teaching of the law. Again he is using typical rabbinical technique in his teaching. The repetition of ‘you have heard it said… but I say to you’  is traditional rabbinic technique.

In this, the most Jewish of the gospel is, Jesus is a very Jewish teacher. He covers four areas or topics in this passage: anger, adultery, divorce, and oaths. Each of these areas is to do with relationship with other people.

Starting with the first section,  Jesus says you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times you shall not murder but I say to you if you are angry you will be liable to judgement if you insult a brother or sister will be liable to the council. Jesus isn't making light of murder, but is saying there's other ways of dishonouring life. The Greek translation for anger isn't about getting angry, but about staying angry, holding on to anger. The teaching not to murder is one of the 10 Commandments. The prohibition about murder is because of the sanctity of life. God is the giver of life, and if we are working with God we too will be bearers of life, this means more than not murdering, it means living in ways that promote life. We dishonour ourselves, and others when we harbour resentment and anger. In the Lord's prayer we say: forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. This does not mean that we forget, but it does mean that we don't carry resentment, that we don't let the anger infest our lives or the life of those around us.

You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. These days that would not have been written only as a man looking lustfully a woman. Scholars discuss this in terms of harbouring lustful thoughts, fantasising about being with another woman who is married to another man. I think it also has some things to tell us about some modern areas of life.

It is not that many years ago that the way to sell a car was to have a beautiful woman draped across the bonnet, and a recent TV ad for some kind of cooking cream had men with well-defined muscles doing the cooking. When we turn people into sexual objects, we no longer treat them as people, people who are deserving of respect and dignity.

I'm told that for some people Face book and the internet are ways to meet people with whom to have basically a nonphysical affair. Sounds like lust to me.

Then we come to the section on divorce. Divorce is not in the 10 Commandments, but it is implied in Deuteronomy 24, where a man who is displeased with his wife is able to write her a certificate for divorce, if she marries another man who also divorces her, her first husband cannot take her back again. There are times in the history of Israel when polygyny, where you could have more than one wife, meant divorce was less common. If you found something distasteful or unpleasant about your first wife, and you could afford it, you could take another wife. Once monogamy became the norm, you couldn't take another wife so divorce became the more common option, and could be for relatively minor reasons. Only the man could institute a divorce, the woman could not.

Jesus sounds to be tightening up the divorce law, by prohibiting divorce in most circumstances. But this gave women much more economic and social security than the existing system.

You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times you shall not swear falsely but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord but I say do not swear at all either by heaven or by earth. The seriousness of an oath depended on what you swore by.  If you swore by your little finger that is not as significant as swearing by your hand. Jesus is saying a truthful, be honest, don’t swear an oath, say what you mean and mean what you say.

In all this, Jesus is expanding the teaching of the law, not doing away with the law. Often the law had been interpreted in ways that were restrictive. For example, when Jesus and his disciples were hungry and plucked corn on the Sabbath, or when Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Many were shocked because he broke the law of the Sabbath, but the law of the Sabbath was not to stop people working, but to give people the time off we all need, time to remember and reflect on God's love for each one of us, time to build family and community.

This week this congregation has been involved in helping people choose life. A young man whose marriage is over and the house has been sold has stored some of his property in our building while he lives at a mates place until he works out what to do next. On Tuesday morning a group from this congregation were at Garrawarra, as you are twice each month, offering life to people living with dementia.

In what other ways are we  life-bearers as a congregation?

Moses challenged the people of Israel to choose life or choose despair.  This week I've been quite conscious of the situation in Egypt. In Egypt this week 300 people have died choosing life.

What does it mean for us today to choose life?

heat wave

Here we are in the midst of a heat wave, it was 42 C [107 F]  in the city of Sydney today. The maximum has been over 30 C [86 F] for 6 consecutive days - some kind of record. Unfortunately the nights have not dropped below 22 C  70 F, so the house doesn't cool down. Tomorrow afternoon there is a cool change expected. The forecast for tonight is a minimum of 26 C 79 F, with a maximum tomorrow of 32 C 90 F.
then the forecast is for a few days of 20 C 68 F overnight and 25 C 77 F  maximums.
and in Melbourne today flash floods, two days ago a level 5 cyclone in Queensland, Queensland and Victoria still cleaning up form major floods, and parts of New South Wales and Victoria still in flood.

Who are you?

Children's talk:

We all have a name, and sometimes we called other names. What names do you get called?  

[I have 5 variations on my Christian name that I have been called at some point in my life, there is another variation I refuse to answer to]

The cricketer Michael Clarke is called pup – why?

 Ian Thorpe is called thorpedo or Thorpey.

Have you ever named a pet? how did you choose that name?

In today’s reading we heard some names that God calls us , can you tell me what they are?

Salt, light

What do you think it means when God calls us salt and light?

[I will have a light and something to cover the light]

Proclamation:

You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. I did think of making name tags for each of you today with salt and light written on them. In this reading you is plural, some commentators say this reflects that Jesus was speaking to many people, others that it is because Jesus is speaking to the church as a community as in,  You, ....... Church are the salt of the earth. You, ........ Church are the light of the world.

This first part of today’s reading, which I will focus on, is about our identity.   It serves a number of purposes. Firstly it reinforced for the people in Matthew’s community, that being a disciple of Jesus was in fact grounded in Jewish faith and Jewish history. God is often referred to in terms of being the light of the world.

Identity is a big issue for people in many places. If you want to travel overseas, you need a passport, and for that you have to be able to prove your identity. To apply for a licence, to open a bank account, to volunteer at a service with children or elderly people, you need to be able to prove who you are. And we are told identity theft is a growing problem, as people bank and shop on-line and use social networking sites. More and more information is available for people who want to use our name and information for their own purposes.

This morning I want us to think about a different kind of identity theft. Matthew records Jesus speaking to the crowd on the mountain, telling them, and us: You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

Do you think of yourself as salt and light? Do you recognise that you are crucial for life?, because we can’t live without salt or light.

When I was talking with the children earlier we talked about what names we are called – here are some that you may have heard: old, slow, fat, thick, boring, do-gooder, old-fashioned; none of them meant to be flattering. At school many of us would have been called unhelpful names by other students and sometimes by teachers. When I was at school I was put out of the school choir because I was not only singing out off pitch, I was singing enthusiastically and loudly enough to put other people off. For many years, I have worn a label which says ‘can’t sing’. I am guessing many of you have labels that say ‘ can’t sing’, or ‘ not creative’ or  ‘ bad parent’ , or something similar.

We are constantly being told what other people think of us, by their words and their actions. And it is easy when people treat us poorly or put us down to feel insignificant and worthless. Here we are told who and what God calls us, names us, to be: salt and light.

While there has been an effort over the past 20 years to encourage people to reduce the amount of salt they consume, because of the link with high blood pressure, salt is a necessary part of life. Matthew’s community knew that salt was used not only to strengthen flavour and preserve food but in ancient times was rubbed on newborn children, used to seal covenants, sprinkled on sacrifices, and understood as a metaphor for wisdom. Salt is used for lots of things today, I found one website that says it has 60 uses for salt.  From soaking stains to polishing silver. You can even put it in your cooking and on your food, not too much if your blood pressure is a bit iffy.

None of these uses for salt are for the salt. Salt helps with house cleaning and gives food a different flavour or preserves food. In all these cases salt is there for the benefit of the item being cleaned or flavoured or preserved.

In the same way light is important, if our eyes will let us we can read, write, and distinguish what is in front of us when it is light, but not in the dark. Light is a useful tool, it allows us to do things. At the end of each baptism service the child, or parent, is given a candle as I say to them:

N, you belong to Christ,

the light of the world.

Let your light so shine before the world

that all may see your good works

and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.

This last line is Matthew 5: 16, from the passage read this morning.

We are salt and light, we are salt of the earth and light of the world. Just as salt and light are useful beyond themselves, in naming us salt of the earth and light of the world, God is  saying we are useful in the world.

I read somewhere while I was at college that we grow into our names. It can seem strange sometimes for a small baby t have an old sounding name, but he or she will grow into the name. We grow into our names, we grow into the names God gives us: beloved, child, forgiven, salt of the earth, light of the world.

A short story:

 A rabbi was wandering through the forest one evening.  As he was praying and walking along, he lost his way and found himself in front of a military base, where a guard brought him out of his reverie by shouting, "Who are you?  What are you doing here?"  The rabbi replied, "How much do they pay you?"  "Why do you ask?" the guard wondered.  "Because," said the rabbi, "I need someone to ask me those questions every day. Diane

Light a candle and hold out to the congregation

....Church, you belong to Christ,

the light of the world.

Let your light so shine before the world

that all may see your good works

and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.

Put candle in  holder

Who are you?

Where is your salt and light being used for the glory of God?

Let us take some time to listen for what God is saying to us today.

Friday Five: perks of ministry

Kathrynz wrote at RevGalsBlogPals:
Thanks to #snOMG this week has had a different rhythm to it for me. Fortunately, one of the perks of ministry is a fairly flexible schedule and quite often the ability to work from home. Another perk of ministry is that I will be part of a worship service that celebrates my friend's gifts in ministry and the ministry she will do with the church she has been Called to lead.

These two things have me reflecting on the gifts and perks of ministry and what else I would put on that list.

What about you? What are 5 perks/gifts of ministry for you?

Please let us know if you played in the comments and if you can check on the person before and after you. I will do my best to check in, but will be traveling to the above mentioned worship service.

 Not sure I would call these perks on Ministry, maybe blessings of Ministry.

1. being invited into peoples lives, especially at significant times on their lives.
2. in my mid-forties finally being in a place I feel like I fit. I had not imagined how comfortable I would be as a Minister, in fact I feared the worst. [though Ministry is not always comfortable or easy]
3. getting hugs for doing my job, even when a certain person is telling me they didn't like what happened on Sunday, when they tell me that with their arm around me, I know I am still loved. and I know that this elderly lady is comfortable enough with me to tell me hat she does and doesn't like.
4. the reaction of children, their honesty, their joy. The waves and smiles if we bump into each other  shopping, the hard drawn letters and cards, for my birthday or for no particular reason.
5. being accepted in various places in the community, because I am ordained.
6. I actually get paid to tell people that God loves them.