September 6th
23 Jul 2020 • zzz_Archive
Reflection for Sunday, September 6th
Collect for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity:
Almighty God,
you search us and know us;
may we rely on you in strength
and rest on you in weakness,
now and in all our days;
through Jesus Christ our LOrd
Amen.
Readings: OT: Ezekiel 33.7-11
NT Romans 13.8-14
Gospel Matt. 18.15-20
Reflection
When we first listen to this passage from Matthew, it all sounds quite logical and good sense—firm instructions from Jesus for how to deal with an awkward situation when we fall out with someone else. Point out to them where they have gone wrong, If they won’t listen, get some pals to come and back you up, and act as go-between. If that doesn’t work, then—what? Treat them as a tax-collector or Gentiles, hopeless outsiders, and have nothing more to do with them? Hang on a mo—this is Jesus talking? Jesus, who invited himself to tea with the tax-collector Zacchaeus, as we are told in Luke’s gospel? Jesus, who invited Matthew the tax collector to be one of his own disciples— earlier on in this same gospel? That can’t be right. And Gentiles—how about the Syro-Phoenician woman, the Gentile whose daughter Jesus healed, or the Roman centurion, again with a little girl who Jesus brought back from near death? There are lots of stories of Jesus going out of his way to help non-Jews.
So is this really Jesus talking, as Matthew claims? Or is this Matthew talking to his late 1st century little group of early Christians, and trying to sort out squabbles in that group, putting words into Jesus’ mouth? It does sound as if the instruction is being given to the members of a developed organisation—not the little group of fishermen and farmers who followed Jesus around
The whole tone of the passage implies that there is a limit to how hard one should try to resolve a dispute—a limit to how many times one should forgive. And yet it is followed immediately in the gospel by the story of Peter asking Jesus whether he should try to forgive someone as many as seven times—and Jesus replying—‘not seven times, but seventy-seven times’. God’s forgiveness is without limits, and that is what we should aspire to.
Whatever was written originally in this portion of Matthew’s gospel has been changed, adapted, its meaning corrupted—which just goes to show that we should not just accept everything written in the bible as infallible or inerrant : we need to use our God-given intelligence and reasoning and logic to interpret it and make sense of it.
But our other reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans gives another piece of advice—and a very simple one, which cuts through many of the rules and regulations of organised religion. The only thing we have to do, he says, is to love our neighbours as much as we love ourselves. If we always do that, we don’t have to worry about anything else, because there is no way we can steal from someone, lie to them, kill, commit adultery and all the rest, if we love. And that sort of loving means respecting, caring for, supporting, affirming, encouraging, and serving. It means we cannot do other people a wrong.
One of the sorts of love for our neighbour which is being required of us at the moment is to try to protect other people from the Covid virus. Sadly, too many people have got tired of all the inconvenience of the restrictions and guidelines, and are taking the attitude—‘Oh, I’ll take the risk, I’ll be alright’. Which of course they may well be—but at the same time they may pass on a potentially deadly illness to someone who is less able to withstand it.
‘Love your neighbour as yourself’’ develops a new and practical meaning.
Amen.