Trinity 5: 22^nd June

Preacher: Nikki Devitt

Readings:

Jeremiah 20, 7-13

Romans 6, 1b-11

Matthew 10, 24-39

‘I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father , a daughter against her mother, and daughter in law against her mother in law’

The other day while I was researching something on the internet, I came across a number of Christian organisations purporting to stand up for ‘traditional values’

Now, I couldn’t help wondering if the members of these groups had ever read Matthew’s gospel, and in particular, these ‘hard sayings’ of Jesus that we have just read in today’s gospel. Jesus is hardly espousing traditional values!

So what could Jesus have meant by these inflammatory statements? (bringing not peace but a sword, and setting family members one against the other)

(Which seem at first sight to deny the commandment to love our closest neighbours, as ourselves).

Well I think there’s something earlier in Matthew’s gospel which might give us a clue what Jesus might have been driving at.

He tells us of the choice we have between

The broad way and the narrow way

to live our lives: he tells us

The broad road leads to destruction, and the narrow way leads to life.

But then if we look at what it is

that Jesus criticises and censures throughout his ministry, ( as ‘that broad way of destruction’)

it isn’t actually the things we would usually regard as inherently sinful…

Those ‘hot sins’ targeted by the TV evangelists, like drunkenness and gluttony and sexual immorality

…hardly get a mention in Jesus’ teaching.

But what Jesus repeatedly criticises and condemns instead

is the conventional wisdom of his day: so…

· He criticised religion (altho’ it was sanctioned by scripture)

· He criticised wealth (altho’ by convention that would be seen as a sign of God’s favour)

· and he criticised allegiance to family, as we see in today’s readings, even though family was sacrosanct, according to both scripture and society.

And the reason Jesus condemned all these things

was, that he saw

that being preoccupied with these things first,

prevented people from being centred on God.

Then, as now

people were anxious about social approval,

anxious about holding on to their material possessions,

about getting what they thought they deserved.

And they tried to alleviate these anxieties

By finding security and identity in these generally accepted ways: through religious observance, gaining material possessions and seeking social status via the family.

Now, it’s perhaps hard for us to imagine the importance of The Family in first century Judaism.

To begin with, Families kept genealogies, which traced their ancestry back to Abraham, and so proved that they were heirs to God’s promises.

And, People were identified in terms of their family,

as son (or daughter) of so-and-so,

and their social status depended on the standing of their family.

And not forgetting, in a subsistence agricultural economy like first century Palestine

people would have been dependent on their extended family for food and income and shelter, they worked together as an economic unit, with the father at the head. You needed to be part of a family for survival.

And of course all this support and status conferred by your family

brought with it huge obligations

to defend the family’s honour, to obey the father, to marry ‘in’, to bury one’s dead with due ceremony ….

And If you didn’t honour your parents & your family,

you would lose face, and all social respect, and become ostracised. There was no place for you in society

So Jesus calling for a break with these family ties is deeply shocking.

He is

challenging social and religious practice at its very core.

He is saying that knowing God is ultimately much more important.

And he is actually going back to the OT and quoting the prophet Micah here. (Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah.

He was a prophet of hope in an era

when the Kings of Israel were turning away from God and putting their trust in alliances with kings of other nations.)

Micah says

For a son dishonours his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-- a man's enemies are the members of his own household.

And then Micah goes on, and this is surely what Mt is pointing to as well

But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,

I wait for God my Saviour;

So Jesus is teaching his hearers to rest their security solely upon God.

He sees that anxiety about pursuing their own well-being, whether that’s through family or possessions or observing religion,

makes people turn inwards and develop a very limited vision.

He invites his hearers NOT to be anxious about these things

In the earlier passage in Mt about the lilies of the field

He repeats no less than 5 times,

‘don’t be anxious’ about what you’ll eat or drink, or wear,

Or about the future or how long you’ll live.

And he repeats it again in this reading

‘Do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows’

So First, Jesus invites us to see God as gracious and compassionate…God knows us & feels for us

‘even the hairs of your head are all counted…you are worth more than many sparrows’

And Second, in response to God’s gracious generosity

He invites us to take that Narrow Path he was talking about , and not to unthinkingly adopt the conventional values of our day.

The narrow path is The Way of transformation .

This is the process of

· dying to self

· and dying to the world,

…So that means no longer centring our concerns on ourselves,

and no longer centring on the world as the source of our security and identity.

‘Dying’ is a rather striking description of the process. It’s used by Jesus here, and also by Paul in our reading from Romans. Perhaps we’re a bit over-familiar with the language and are no longer shocked by it.

But it suggests a handing over, a surrendering of self…

It points to such a radical change,

that it can be described as

dying to an old life and being born into a new one.

So this is a challenging message not only for Jesus’ immediate hearers then,

But for ourselves today.

We may be a bit more semi-detached from our families than they were in Jesus’ times,

But we are still exposed to the dominant values in our own culture, So we’re tempted to measure our self-worth in terms of

wealth, and achievement and outward appearances.

But the path of which Jesus spoke,

liberates us from a life of requirements and measuring up, whether that’s measuring up to secular or religious standards.

Jesus’ path is nothing less than life in the spirit,

And it leads us from the bondage of pre-occupation with self

to the freedom of self-forgetfulness.

Thanks be to God.