Homily for Pentecost 6
June 22, 2008
The Very Revd Michael J. Pitts
Genesis 21:8-21
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39
You may remember that Easter this year was as early as it ever can be and there is a knock-on effect to that. This season of Sundays between Pentecost and Advent is the longest it can be. As this is year A of our lectionary cycle, it means that for the greater part of this period, our Eucharistic readings will continue to come from Genesis, from Paul's letter to the church at Rome and from Matthew's Gospel. This combination will keep bringing us face to face with the Jewish roots of our faith, roots which the church, from Marcion onwards has often tried to deny in word or in action.
I say this because the Genesis story is the foundational narrative of the Jewish tradition. Then St Paul, who, despite his insistence that the faith and the Church must be available to the Gentiles is and remains solidly within the Jewish tradition, both in heart and in mind. Again, Matthew is the most Jewish of all the gospels, clearly written for a congregation of followers of Jesus who were of the Jewish tradition. You may remember in last weeks liturgical gospel Jesus said to the twelve disciples:
Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel 1
But it is not just sayings like this which show Matthew's intention. The whole gospel is structured around five collections of Jesus' teaching which reflect the five book of the Pentateuch. Jesus is, for Matthew's community, a new Moses for their own time.
The Jewish nature of these writings is not confined to them. In fact, just about the whole of the New Testament must be understood within the thoroughly Jewish context of its origin. Even St Johns Gospel which is often thought of as anti-Semitic, and indeed has often led to anti-Semitism in our history, actually is more likely to be best seen in the context of two different Jewish communities in dispute with each other, one which identified Jesus as Messiah, and perhaps admitted Gentiles, and one which did neither if these things.
One of the aspects of the Jewishness of our scriptures, which we must always bear in mind in our interpretation, is that narrative or story is central to them. Creedal statements, beyond the Shema Israel, play very little part in Jewish faith either then or today. In the Christian church, the earliest creed, the Baptismal, or Apostles creed does not do much more than recapitulate the basic elements of the story. It is only later in the fourth century, when Christianity is rapidly losing contact with it Jewish roots, that the statements of the Creed of Nicea-Constantinople read more like an exposition of Greek philosophy than a Jewish-Christian story.
I was particularly struck early last week in morning prayer in reading again the opening words of the letter to the church at Rome.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name 2
Paul here is telling his own story, and linking it with the story of Jesus. But notice especially how he describes Jesus:
...his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead. 3
There is nothing here about a virgin birth, or about the preexistence of the Son, kingpins of the later philosophical, creedal understanding of Jesus.
In today's reading from the letter to the church at Rome, Paul is again dealing with stories, linking, this time, not his own story but the story of the Christian followers with the story of Jesus.
Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his 4
Now I happen to think that interpreting our scriptures through the lens of the creedal and philosophical tradition of the church may just be at the heart of the many woes of the church today. That is first because that system of creed and philosophy is almost totally incomprehensible to the average person today who has not had an education in the classics. (By the way, because that was my educational experience, it makes me more or less incomprehensible to the average person today.) But a greater problem arises when there is an insistence that the words of our scriptures are immutable statements of ontological or moral realities. By that I mean such statements as the world was created in six days, which is then used to repudiate all geological knowledge. Or women are essentially subservient to men, which leads to the enthronement of patriarchy, and the refusal to grant respect to either women or gay and lesbian persons.
So I believe that part of the revolution which needs to happen in the church is a letting go of our creedal past, and a return to understanding our foundational documents as stories, and sometimes as stories within stories or stories interpreting stories. It is because of this that I like to insist that liturgy, this activity in which we are engaged this morning, as every Sunday morning, is really drama, drama in which we tell and act out the foundational narratives of our faith. The purpose of this drama is to help us understand our own stories, whether our personal stories or our community or national or panhuman stories in the light of the stories of our scriptures.
What I have said so far this morning is meant to be general comment on the whole of this season's readings from Genesis, Paul and Matthew. But let me end with some particular comments about today's readings.
On the face of it, the story of the expulsion of Hagar and her son seems to be a story of jealousy, cruelty and human division. Paul used the story as an allegory of the relationship between law and faith in the new dispensation of the resurrection. But if we use a narrative interpretation method, we can interpret the story differently. Without denying the value of Paul's interpretation for his own time, I see it as a story of the contrast between a human reaction to difference and a divine reaction. Sarah wanted Hagar and Ishmael out of her way, and in response Abraham sends the two to almost certain death in the desert. But, as we see from the rest of the story, God has other plans. We need to understand that most of the stories of the early books of the Bible are probably not stories about individual people, but really stories about tribes and nations. We can use the story to think about individuals, about how we react or could react to people who are different from ourselves. But we need also to use it to think about communities, cultures and nations. How do we or could we react to nations and cultures different from our own.
Finally a comment on the Gospel reading on a rather different note: from time to time Canon Sanchez and I Google our names to find out who is calling us the antichrist or an enemy of the church because of our stance on certain of the issues facing the church today. Believe me, it does happen. So we maybe can find some help in Matthew's story in today's liturgical Gospel.
A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 5
1. Matthew 10:5b-6
2. Romans 1:1-5
3. Romans 6:4-5
4. See Galatians ch 4
5. Matthew 10:24-26
