It’s not very likely, is it? Paying the same amount to one who has worked for one hour as to those who work ten, it seems unfair. Is it also unfair that people doing different jobs get paid startlingly different wages to others? Why do we value the head of a Water Company such a lot more than a teacher or a Doctor? But no normal employer would pay the same wages to those who worked twelve hours and to those who worked one in the same job. If trades unions functioned in his society, there would be a walkout, braziers lit and banners unfurled. Today’s Gospel, as so often, makes us re-examine how normal life works. The Sower who scatters on unproductive land is not a role-model for any farmer. But may today’s householder be a role-model for employers in the new world order that the Gospel calls us to, as well as a symbol of Jesus?A denarius a day was the minimum wage. If a labourer earned it, he and his family would eat; otherwise they would go to bed hungry. By paying all his workers a denarius, the householder provides them with basic necessities. Maybe those hired at the third hour were unlucky and got missed earlier. Maybe those hired at the sixth hour had slept in. Maybe those hired at the ninth hour were ill and couldn’t work a full day. Those hired at the eleventh-hour sound like grifters, chancers. None of them is allowed to starve through misfortune or indeed fecklessness – all are given their evening meal, regardless of their life situation, work ethic or age. If members of our own family are physically ill, we do not let them starve. If they are mentally ill, we not only feed them, but involve them in as much normal activity as possible. Even those who are lazy and feckless, we care for. We might chivvy them, we might despair of them, but at the end of the day we feed them. Despite occasional grumbling, those with physical, mental and moral health see it as their vocation, hence their fulfilment, to care for family members without.Today’s Gospel asks us why that should be different in a larger scale if we are still one family, God’s family, in which we share through Baptism, because through birth from Mary God became our Father, to whom we pray ‘give us this day our Daily Bread and forgive us as we forgive each other’. Can we then say ‘but not them, not him, and not her, because they are not our family when in fact, we are members of His family. Further, in today’s parable, and in the provisions for the poor he included in the law of Moses, the Divine Householder, the eternal Father, asks us not to humiliate the needy, but to accord them as much self-respect as possible, as we find at the raising of the son of the widow at Nain, when her life is restored to her as much as his. What then does God do with the work we offer Him? And does He care if we come to it late or early – whose fault is it if people come to it late? Maybe other family members who judge others, tut at them, act as though they occupy a greater place at the table of the Most High? What we seek is to share in the Supper of the Lamb, our baseline of hope is to see God and we see God through Jesus who offers to share with us His own knowledge of his Father. No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. It is this knowledge that we labour in the vineyard for, and we share it with others because it is inexhaustible and eternal and not diluted by being shared but intensified. God must give himself to us and enlarge our hearts and strengthen our minds so that we can receive – indeed survive – such a gift, and that survival will make us change, and for the better. The work of the Church is therefore to labour in a vineyard which we do not own. The Church is not the householder, it is the community of servants of the householder, therefore we are equal and ask not to be judged as we do not judge others, to be forgiven as we forgive others, indeed, to be worthy of the things we ask for in the Lord’s Prayer, and not to be harmed by our saying it glibly. The good we do has a divine value and when the Householder comes ‘to repay everyone for what he has done’, we hope to find our works of loyalty and mercy have contributed to our eternal life; we will have done something to ‘earn our supper’ and to take our seat in Heaven. Let us be wary of saying to ourselves, ‘I have worked hard for six hours’ (or nine, or twelve). We do not know all that God is doing, or plans to do, in others. Perhaps he is currently doing less through us than we think – or, perhaps, a lot more. We need to have faith in Him, and therefore in each other, because we are all members of His family, even those who do not yet know they are, and they will only know if we treat them as members of our own family, as our hope is that He does with us. If in doubt, say the Our Father and mean it.
It is by happy chance that this Sunda we have a serving Police Detective (who is also a priest) preaching at the 10.30am Mass, because today’s Gospel can sound very much as though it is concerned with policing the Church! It is really though about forgiveness in cased of breaking rules of behaviour? Fundamentally we ask can wrong-doers remain members of the Church?Matthew wrote his Gospel, inspired by God, for the local Churches in Syria, Palestine and neighbouring regions. Some of the congregations were Jews who had become Christians, others were Gentiles. All were now Christians, but what were the boundaries of the community? How did it govern itself?In the local synagogues — just across the road or down the street, in the very same towns and villages — a strikingly similar debate was taking place. Who were Jews? Could Jews do this or that and how were they to live? Christianity and Judaism were establishing their boundaries as separate communities.Many diverse groups within Judaism were disappearing. Paul’s letters to Greek speaking churches in Greece and what is now Turkey, give another glimpse of the intense debate in early Christianity about our Jewish inheritance, and what aspects of the Jewish law were obligatory for Christians. Kosher meals? Marriage rules? How now are we to live when hitherto we have lived in a certain way for so long? How do we pass this new thing down?But today’s passage is about forgiveness. A Christian community is a community of people whose sins have been forgiven by God and who bear witness to this – everything else comes out of that mercy. A Christian believer has a responsibility for his fellow Christian’s salvation. He or she must try to bring someone back to the way of salvation. If the personal touch or the discrete approaches do not bear fruit, then Matthew here envisages a system of casting someone out of the Christian fellowship.Some Christian denominations have tried systems where the whole community are responsible for public discipline and who publicly cast people out of the community. The result is usually a rather narrow group of like-minded individuals where forgiveness is much talked about but little exercised, especially towards those people who are different and who do not fit the usual patterns. The outsider perceives this as hypocritical — often correctly and we need to be mindful of that ourselves. Within the church today how might this work? What do we pass down and how? We expect our pastors to be charitable and our priests to be ministers of forgiveness. Yet I hear tales of babies refused baptism. I hear of some people being unwelcome. I hear tales — often thankfully from the past — about priests being reluctant to bury people who had committed suicide, or who treated badly a couple who wished to marry because one of them was not a Christian.The truth of such tales is sometimes complex, sometimes straightforward, but often difficult to ascertain years later. Sometimes the priest was racist, uncharitable or simply badly informed. Other times, a priest may have hesitated to baptise a child when admission to a church school seems to be the be-all and end-all in requesting the baptism. Any experienced pastor will have faced many such issues and will have been misunderstood — sometimes deliberately. But this passage is not about clergy alone, it is about the whole people of God, how we live, and build, and develop, and it has to be based on mercy and forgiveness but also the sure knowledge that we have to keep ourselves focused on what we are doing, which is seeking the Kingdom of God. It is an uncomfortable truth that if someone complains every time something changes and then leaves and goes to no other church, that they should not have been listened to in the first place. The final verse in our passage shows us that the intention of any church discipline is not punishment, but rather to bring the person so excluded to ask for forgiveness and their place back in the fold, which we must immediately grant and not refer to the issue again. We must pray gently and persistently for sinners that they may repent - put another way, we are all sinners so we must pray persistently for each other and ourselves that we may repent of those things we have not been found out for and that we may keep on the path of salvation. The details have been worked out, now the practice of the faith is our present work. May we persevere not for our good alone, but for the good of the whole world.
Get behind thee me Satan!The start of the gospel today effectively heralds a turning point. – the Galilean ministries are now completed and Jesus is setting His face towards Jerusalem, and His eventual suffering, death and resurrection. Peter has just confessed Jesus as the Son of the Living God. Now he’s admonishing Jesus and ends up being referred to as Satan! Woah!! Some turn around! But to Peter, the thought of the Messiah, the conqueror, succumbing to torture, humiliation and death is simply unthinkable. Peter who discerned Jesus as the Son of the Living God through divine means is now seeing Jesus’s words with a human mind and heart. Human aversion to suffering. Satan, the devil, pure evil really does not like the fact of Jesus’s existence. He continues to look for a way to thwart the plan of salvation which has been in play ever since Genesis 3. The whole Bible is like a rainbow, a sign of God’s covenantal promise, a soteriological arch, with Genesis 3 at one end (the Fall) and the promised beauty of Revelation at the other. One overarching story with sub-plots running throughout. The devil hates God’s plan and looks for ways to scupper it. Peter, as human, is flawed…..very flawed. Just confessed the true identity of Jesus, has been handed the leys to the Kingdom of Heaven and now has the temerity to rebuke Jesus, his teacher, his master, to look to correct Him. The devil sees a possible way in, through Peter, to try yet again to stop the salvational journey that Jesus is making. In the wilderness Jesus heard from Satan, the devil, that He can achieve greatness without having to suffer and die. Here, in our gospel today, He is hearing a very similar message from Peter. Jesus rebukes Satan via Peter – you didn’t get Me in the wilderness; you’re not going to get Me now! Jesus had to suffer and die – He did so for Peter, for His disciples, His followers. He did so for us. If He hadn’t, Peter would have died in his sins and we would have no Christian hope, no eschatological horizon to look towards. Jesus has just called Peter the rock upon which His church will be built. A sturdy foundation stone keeping the forces of darkness away. Now rather than being a firm foundation Peter becomes like sinking sand; unstable, shifting, no longer reliable. But I believe that this is not fully Peter. I believe that Satan has spotted that little flaw in Peter; his impulsiveness, outspokenness and yes, his passion. Admirable traits, but seen as a way in by Satan. A chance to put an end to the salvation of man.Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah was the work of God; Peter’s attempt to save Jesus from death is the work of the devil. An attempt to make Jesus king without the cross goes fully against God’s plan of salvation. The devil tried this in the wilderness when he offered Jesus rule over all the kingdoms of the world if He would only bow down and worship him – the devil. Jesus said then, ‘Be gone Satan!’ Much like in our reading today. Get behind me Satan! Peter had inadvertently aligned himself with Satan’s plan. Thankfully this plan is again thwarted by Jesus’s admonishment. Evil is real. Belief in God has an equivalent belief in the devil; that he does exist. You can’t believe in the light but not believe in the dark. The devil is the absolute opposite of Jesus, he is what Jesus isn’t – scheming, sly, jealous, power hungry just as examples. And oh how easy is it to fall under his clutches – unwittingly or even intentionally. But with eyes fixed on Jesus and maintaining Christlike qualities we can thwart his attempts to woo us. That devil on our shoulders – persistent, annoying, oh so real and so often. Get thee behind me Satan!The devil may seek ways in, via our personality traits, like Peter. He may seek to over-inflate my ego, to give me an over-exaggerated opinion of myself, or alternatively to make me feel inferior, to doubt my faith, to feel unworthy of the friendships I have. Overly concerned about how others see me. Those weaknesses are like little niches, fissures and may be just enough to allow the devil in, and to allow him to wreck lives. I have certainly experienced the devil on my shoulder oh so many times and very possibly so have many of you. That sense of doubt which niggles away; seemingly innocuous occasions which prey on the mind and will not go away no matter how hard one tries to banish them. In my case my mind starts to spiral, I catastrophise, overthink, get too much inside my head, looping thoughts. For a short time, in my head and only in my head, my relationships with people are tainted and I question myself. Get thee behind me Satan!Prayer, praying for those horrible feelings to pass. But it is so difficult – the devil can be so clever. But I know that Jesus Christ is supremely cleverer, will always overcome the devil. And I can’t change the past. I can’t change what has been done. Yesterday is another country, borders are now closed. Get thee behind me Satan!!We are all unique. We are worthy of the love of Christ and Satan cannot pull us away from that unless we let him in. And we must not do that. The Christian life is a battle against the things that pull us away from God. It’s a daily choice to remember who we are; who we belong to. This matter most. It’s so easy to go off track, prayer life to stutter, anxiety to creep in, obsessing over material things, eyes away from Jesus. Big flashing warning signs – the devil is waiting to pounce. We’ve put something other than God at the centre of our lives. We must come back to God. We must prevent the devil from taking a hold. So – get thee behind me, Satan! Amen.
There are rules that we need, and ones that we do not need, and ones that we do not always need, so can be ignored or waived from time to time. If you give me a grouse, I will cook it for 14 minutes in a hot oven and eat it with game chips, bread sauce and port gravy. If I were to use it for sushi or a lasagna, you would be at liberty to phone the emergency services. There are rules of engagement as well – we don’t go up to people we do not know and invite them to go on holiday with us, and there are speed limits, which can be useful guidelines for some people. Rules can and do matter only because people matter. Rules may make us uncomfortable, but should we change them simply to put people at ease? Things that make us uncomfortable lead to a choice: between listening to others or to ourselves.In John’s Gospel many are uncomfortable with Jesus’s teaching. They cannot accept that Jesus is the Bread from heaven, and many who had previously followed him cease doing so. Jesus interrogates his disciples, whether they also want to leave. Peter answers,Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God. (John 6.68-69)Jesus responds by calling one of his apostles (Judas) ‘a devil’.This is similar to the Gospel we hear today. Jesus interrogates his disciples, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ and Peter responds with a confession of faith, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus then calls one of his apostles (Peter) ‘Satan’.In John’s Gospel the reason for Peter’s faith is that Jesus has ‘the words of eternal life,’ and in Matthew’s account because Jesus’s Father has revealed this to Peter. In both Peter has faith in God’s saving revelation of himself. By contrast Judas is called ‘a devil’ (slanderer) because he rejects faith and life offered in Jesus, and Peter is called ‘Satan’ (adversary) because he is ‘not on the side of God, but of men’.The context of these choices, between faith and one’s own will, is an uncomfortable disquiet. The disciples do not understand Jesus’s words or who he is, but they must choose. Peter puts his trust in Jesus. Following Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus makes his own choice. ‘Upon this Rock I will build my Church,’ Christ says. But what is this Rock?The Bible gives three identities for the Rock, and all three are true.First, the Rock is Jesus himself (1 Corinthians 10.4). The Church is built on apostles, with Christ as chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2.20), such that there is no other foundation but Christ (1 Corinthians 3.10-11).Secondly, the Church in her liturgy, unhesitatingly affirms that the ‘Rock’ is Peter’s confession of faith. Thirdly, the ‘Rock’ is Peter himself. Jesus says to Simon Peter, ‘You are Rock and on this Rock I will build my Church’. This is the plain literal sense of the text. Peter, shifting and fickle as sand, is made to be a Rock by Jesus. By grace Peter receives that stability and role that is Christ’s by nature, and we share that as well if we accept Jesus as the Lord and share that confession of faith. Furthermore, Jesus uses a plural here – ‘on rocks I will build my church’, living stones, like you. By the Father’s gift the Church remains faithful, confessing through the Spirit that ‘Jesus is Lord’. Some people want, and get, a church that changes its rules to suit people. But if any church should prefer human ways over God’s or unbelief over faith, changing doctrine to suit people, then she is ‘Satan’ and ‘a devil’, the adversary and slanderer of Christ. Our rules are not guidelines, they show how we follow Christ because that is the only journey that really matters. The church then is a gift to the world, because we exist simply to point the way to eternal life and hope, and to the source of all love and no trend or fashion has ever loved and cared for his people more than God himself. We find Him in the Bible and we find Him in our community, together, because we are, completely, in this together and it is Him we listen to, Him we worship, Him we model our lives on, and Him we want to be with forever, and the choice is to be with the slanderer, the adversary, who speaks so well in the voice of our times, but whose every word is a lie.
