OLD TESTAMENT READING: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 For six days you shall labour and do all your work.
Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.
When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 21:33-46
‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’
Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
SERMON
Let us Pray: Lord, as we consider these scriptures, may You open Your word to our hearts and open our hearts to Your word.
Last Sunday in our Old Testament reading we met the Israelites in the desert complaining about their plight and being miraculously supplied with food and water.
Since then they have been given victory in battle against the Amalekites who thought that they could take advantage of this band of refugees. Do you remember the story? Moses lifted up his arms and the Israelites beat the enemy, but when he grew tired and dropped his arms the enemy prevailed. So they had two men to hold up Moses’ arms and the Israelites defeated their enemies.
We need to try and put ourselves into the situation and society of the Israelites. They were so dependent upon God but knew so little about Him. They were, you could say, playing a game without knowing the rules. They had been slaves for generations; but at least they knew their place, knew what was expected, not demanded of them; and the consequences of non-compliance.
Being free brought with it authority and responsibility but they really weren’t sure of the limits of the authority and responsibility. They turned to Moses expecting him to have the answers. Moses doesn’t know either, but he does have a personal relationship with God so he knows who to ask. And they just happen to be near Mount Sinai, the Holy Mountain, so Moses goes up to talk with God.
God meets with Moses ‘in a dense cloud so that the people could hear God speaking’ albeit they may not see Him. The encounter sounds almost like an erupting volcano in Exodus 19. From all this Moses appears with the message from God that we know as The Ten Commandments.
This community had no religious or legal code and The Commandments gave them both.
The first section is very positive ‘you shall’ honour God.
The second is restrictive, things not to do in order to treat everyone fairly.
It reminds me a bit of when I was training as a Reader, all those years ago, and the question was raised as what should be our responsibility to the Bishop? We were told that rule number 1 was don’t do anything to embarrass the Bishop. I can’t recall if there was a rule number 2. I have since made it a habit to ask each Bishop I meet where his embarrassment threshold is.
The Israelites needed to know how to avoid ‘embarrassing’ God and they were given The Commandments as a guide. Honour God and treat everyone fairly.
You may have noticed that in our Sunday services we usually use Jesus’ summation: The first commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ This has a more positive slant, no list of ‘you shall nots’. Why do you think this is?
Well I think it may have something to do with access to God. Your common or garden Hebrew lacked direct access to God. He, or she, had to go through Moses or some other priestly intermediary; often involving some form of ritual sacrifice.
Only a very few, special, people had a personal relationship with God. The likes of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Zechariah, I have missed a few but not many because there weren’t many. Only a select few ‘knew’ God.
We, you and I, have our ‘Great High Priest’ – Jesus. By His sacrifice we each have access to God; can have an intimate and personal relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Love God and love your neighbour.
Apparently there was a legend that was well known in New Testament times that in the building of the temple of Solomon most of the stones were of the same size and shape.
One stone arrived, however, that was different from the others. The builders took one look at it and said, “This will not do,” and sent it rolling down into the valley of Kedron below. The years passed and the great temple was nearing completion, and the builders sent a message to the stonecutters to send the chief cornerstone that the structure might be complete.
The cutters replied that they had sent the stone years before. Then someone remembered the stone that was different than all the rest that somehow did not seem to belong. They realized that they had thrown away the cornerstone. They hurried into the valley to retrieve it. Finally under vines and debris they recovered it and with great effort rolled it up the hill and put it in place so that the great temple would be complete. The stone that had been rejected had become the chief cornerstone.
This is probably the background to Jesus’ comment in the Gospel reading.
It is significant that the walls and the cornerstone are inter-dependent, both are needed, neither is complete without the other. There is no question of the cornerstone superseding the walls; no it completed the temple building. Just as Jesus didn’t replace the Law and the Commandments, rather He stabilised and fulfilled them.
Moses gave us guidelines – Honour God and treat everyone fairly.
Jesus gives us a personal relationship – Love God and love your neighbour.
And both together give us a Temple – a place to encounter God. AMEN
Chris Manning Licensed Lay Reader to St.Thomas and St.Wilfrid’s
PRAYERS
Let us pray….
Father, help us remember that Jesus is the one who has set us free from the law of sin and death, that in his love he forgives us completely for all that we have done wrong and calls us to live by the law of the spirit of life, a law which when written upon hearts of faith makes all of human life a joy and a blessing….
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer…
Gracious God, we thank you for drawing us together once again as one family today, a family that reaches around the world. We thank you Father for your gracious love, for your wonderful mercy, and for your living word Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Help us this day, O Lord, to live by faith in him and to love one another in the way that he love us…. help us keep jealousy and envy out of our hearts, help us keep pride and selfishness out of our conversations, and desire and greed out of our relationships.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer…
Watch this day over your church around the world O Lord, help us to witness to your love and your grace, to share with those who are less fortunate than we, to support those who work for justice and equity, to assist those who bring hope and health and healing to those in despair…
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We hold before you O God, the particular joys and concerns that you have placed upon our hearts today, for those of our family and our church and those beyond…
We remember before you: (Please take this time to offer someone who you may know who is struggling at this time)
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer…
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
And so we seal our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples… the Lords prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, For ever and ever.
Amen
