Sermon on Matthew 21.23-32

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews

St. Joseph-St. John, Lakewood

1 October 2017

Proper 21, Pentecost+17

Matthew 21.23-32

In today’s gospel text

            we have two blurbs

about Jesus interacting with

            Matthew’s favorite foil: the Pharisees.

Whenever Jesus

talks to and about the Pharisees

                        it’s important to take it

with a little grain of salt.

Matthew was pretty angry.

It shows in his writing,

            particularly when Jesus

condemns the pharisees. 

The first half of our text

            is a challenge

to Jesus’ authority:

“By what authority are you doing these things,

and who gave you this authority?”

The way the lectionary is set up

            we’ve missed some pretty crucial information.

What are the things that Jesus is doing? 

Why are the Pharisees upset?

This excerpt from Matthew’s gospel

            happens at the peak of the narrative drama.

Jesus has returned to Jerusalem

            and is on his way to the cross.

Just before today’s text,

            Jesus has

entered Jerusalem with a parade

            mocking the empire with whom the Pharisees are colluding;

turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple;

healed the blind and lame in the temple;

and said that the Pharisees are the blind leading the blind.

Now he’s rolled up in to the temple

            and started teaching.

I can understand

            why the Pharisees would say

                        “Who said you can do this!?” or

                        “Just who do you think you are?!”

And Jesus?

            Doesn’t indulge them.

Jesus asks a question himself,

            “When all those people

were following John the Baptizer

to the desert

                        was that from God or humanity made?

            When a voice came from heaven

                        saying I was the voice’s son

                                    with whom the voice was well pleased,

                                    to listen to me

                        was that from God or humanity made?”

The Pharisees are stuck.

In their positions of power and authority,

            like most leadership positions,

                        they have to have a pulse

on they vision

and those they lead’s expectations and hopes.

The voice said to listen to Jesus.

If they say it’s from God,

            why aren’t they listening to Jesus?

If they say it’s a deluded cult

            the crowd that makes up that deluded cult

            will completely ignore the Pharisees

                        for guru Jesus.

They take the calculated way out,

            the way that too many leaders forget is an option

                        and a better option than faking it all the time.

They say,

            “We don’t know.”

Jesus helps them out,

            and not very politely.

He says,

            “Clearly this is from God

                        and if you make it

into the kingdom of heaven

                                    expect the people

you consider the worst sinners

            ahead of you in line.

            They heard John,

                        repented,

                        and returned to being faithful.

            You heard John

                        and didn’t believe.

            Even when you saw

                        people coming back to the faith

                        you still didn’t believe.”

That’s a lot packed into nine verses!

From a challenge

            to a secret conference

            to a story about children

who do and don’t work

as their father asks

            to Jesus saying that the Pharisees

                        aren’t helping anyone.

As followers of Jesus,

            what are we supposed

to do with this text?

What’s the Good News?

How does it apply to us?

How are our lives changed?

Right now

            I think our lives are changed

            by answering the Pharisees’ question,

                        “By what authority

are you doing these things,

and who gave you this authority?”

To answer those questions

            we have to figure out “these things.”

Last week I talked about

            discerning and sharing

            how we’re tending the vineyard.

In my notes to many of you

            I mentioned

looking forward to learning

the way’s we’re serving Jesus together.

The things, the works, we’re called to be doing

            are rooted in our baptismal promises:

                        continuing in the apostle’s teachings,

in the prayers,

and in the breaking of the bread;

                        persevering in resisting evil, and,

                                    whenever we fall into sin,

                                    repenting and returning to the Lord;

                        proclaiming by word and example

                                    the Good News of God in Christ;

                        seeking and serving Christ in all persons,

                                    loving our neighbors as ourselves;

                        striving for justice and peace,

                                    and respecting the dignity of every human being.

The actions that these promises lead to

            change the world.

They bring people to Jesus

            and his love for all people.

The break down systems of racism

            and other ongoing powers of oppression.

They are a hope

            for seeing Jesus’ return.

By what authority do we do these things?

By what authority do we change the world,

            starting with St. Joseph-St. John

            then on in to Lakewood?

That’s rooted in our baptisms too:

            We have the authority

of Jesus the Resurrected Christ

to whom we were joined in our baptisms.

            We have the authority of the Church,

                        who when we were baptized said,

                                    “We receive you into the household of God.

Confess the faith of Christ crucified,

proclaim his resurrection,

and share with us

in his eternal priesthood.”

We have a busy time in the coming months,

            with lots of ways to share in Christ’s eternal priesthood.

All Saints Sunday is a month away,

            at which we’ll recommit to those baptismal vows —

                        I invite you to meditate on them in the coming days.

They’re on page 305 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Our pledge ingathering is in December,

            and I trust you’re already considering

                        how your financial gift to St. Joseph-St. John

                                    does help to change the world.

Our annual meeting and elections will be in January,

            and invite you to continue in the prayers

                        for this church,

for the people who will be elected,

and of discernment about whether you should run.

Confess the faith of Christ crucified,

proclaim his resurrection,

and share in his eternal priesthood.

Change the world

            with the authority of Christ. 

Sermon on Matthew 18.21-35

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews

September 17, 2017

St. Joseph-St. John, Tacoma

Pentecost+15; Proper 19, A

Matthew 18.21-35

When I was 21 or so,

            I had a disagreement with my youngest brother

                        over some chores Mom had asked us to do.

We went to our mother for adjudication,

            as children are wont to do.

My brother is six years my junior,

            and in the course of presenting our cases —

                        the 21-year-old and the fifteen-year-old —

                                    Andrew said,

                                                “Well, he’ll just go to the mall

and make me cut the grass.”

Andrew has never been known

for his segues in conversation

            but he was referencing something specific.

Some time when I was 17 and had needed to run errands

            I directed him to cut the grass

                        a task that usually fell to me.

Four years later he

was bringing it up in another disagreement.

This was not the first time.

I looked at him and said what my mother had said to him before

            and what she’d said to me countless times

                        and what she’d said to her teachers when she was a principal:

                                    Take a deep breath….and let it go.

For the second week in a row,

            we have a passage from Matthew’s Gospel

                        where Jesus is telling his followers

                                    how to act in community,

                                                how to act as church.

I hope that as we begin our new time together as community

            we remember Jesus’ teachings

                        both last week and this.

Last week, if you remember,

            Jesus told us to confront those who wrong us.

If they don’t repent and seek reconciliation,

            Jesus tells us to take members of the church with us

                        and explain our hurt again.

If they still don’t repent and seek reconciliation,

            Jesus tells us to take not just members of the whole church with us

                        but to bring the issue to the entire church.

If they still don’t repent and seek reconciliation,

            Jesus told us that parting ways,

                        breaking relationship,

                                    would sometimes be necessary.

This week Jesus forces us to deal with

            the fact that sometimes

                        hurts last a long time.

Peter asks how many times

            he has to forgive someone.

Peter doesn’t ask about how many times

hurtful people should apologize

but rather how many times he should

let the feelings of hurt go

            after the apology.

Peter thinks he’s being generous by suggesting seven.

Jesus says that’s not even close.

Jesus expects Peter — and us —

to forgive those who hurt us 77 times.

            You may remember it as “70 times seven.”

Peter is looking for a rule,

            something to check off as a box

                        and be finished.

Jesus expects there to be no limits to our forgiveness,

            no boundaries on how many times

                        we’re willing to let go of the hurt.

Jesus expects us to always be open to reconciliation,

            and tells us there will be set number of times

                        before we’re finished forgiving.

He knows that we may feel those stabs of pain

from past wrongs

over and over again.

Jesus know that pains from wrongs linger.

He expects us to acknowledge the pain,

to notice it,

to take a deep breath….

            and let it go.

He expects this teaching

to stick around for a while, too.

Specifically, forever, and to be a core part

of living the Christian life:

            abundant, limitless forgiveness.

That’s what the story about

            the forgiving master — God

                        and the unforgiving servant — us

                                    is about.

Our actions of forgiveness

            or refusing to let go of hurt

                        have impacts on us forever.

Some of you have been making church here

            for decades.

Some of you have been making church here

            for just a few weeks.

Brandon and I are new here.

There’s been a lot of time

            to celebrate growth

or new calls

or new births

or new marriages.

There’s been a lot of time

            for hurts to build and fester

                        even after people have apologized.

There’s been a lot of time

            for hurts to build and fester

                        when people haven’t apologized,

perhaps because they don’t know

how they’ve wronged someone else.

There’s a lot of time

            for hurts to build and fester

                        because I’m new here.

I don’t know everything there is to know.

I will make mistakes.

You will make mistakes.

We’ll all make mistakes,

            and hopefully we’ll all

keep coming back to this Table.

We’ll all make mistakes,

            and I hope we can learn together

                        how to be St. Joseph-St. John

                                    in new incarnations.

We’ll all make mistakes,

            and I promise that I will seek your forgiveness,

                        offer you mine,

                                    and assure you of God’s forgives

                                    and God’s love.

As we begin our time together as church and community,

            I bid you to evaluate your hurts,

                        think on giving and receiving forgiveness,

                                    and look forward to what’s new.

I’ll be using the words of the Exhortation

            found on Page 316

of the Book of Common Prayer.

Re-read it in the silence before the General Confession.   

Beloved in the Lord:

Our Savior Christ, on the night before he suffered,

instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood

as a sign and pledge of his love,

for the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of his death,

and for a spiritual sharing in his risen life.

For in these holy Mysteries

we are made one with Christ,

and Christ with us;

we are made one body in him,

and members one of another.

Having in mind, therefore, his great love for us,

and in obedience to his command,

his Church renders to Almighty God our heavenly Father

never-ending thanks for the creation of the world,

for his continual providence over us,

for his love for all [humanity],

and for the redemption of the world by our Savior Christ,

who took upon himself our flesh,

and humbled himself even to death on the cross,

that he might make us the children of God

by the power of the Holy Spirit,

and exalt us to everlasting life.

But if we are to share rightly in the celebration

of those holy Mysteries, and be nourished by that spiritual Food,

we must remember the dignity of that holy Sacrament.

I therefore call upon you to consider how Saint Paul

exhorts all persons to prepare themselves carefully

before eating of that Bread and drinking of that Cup.

For, as the benefit is great,

if with penitent hearts and living faith

we receive the holy Sacrament,

so is the danger great, if we receive it improperly,

not recognizing the Lord’s Body.

Judge yourselves, therefore, lest you be judged by the Lord.

Examine your lives and conduct

by the rule of God’s commandments,

that you may perceive wherein you have offended

in what you have done or left undone,

whether in thought, word, or deed.

And acknowledge your sins before Almighty God,

with full purpose of amendment of life,

being ready to make restitution

for all injuries and wrongs done by you to others;

and also being ready to forgive those who have offended you,

in order that you yourselves may be forgiven.

And then, being reconciled with one another,

come to the banquet of that most heavenly Food.

And if, in your preparation, you need help and counsel,

then go and open your grief

to a discreet and understanding priest,

and confess your sins,

that you may receive the benefit of absolution,

and spiritual counsel and advice;

to the removal of scruple and doubt,

the assurance of pardon,

and the strengthening of your faith.

To Christ our Lord who loves us,

and washed us in his own blood,

and made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father,

to him be glory in the Church evermore.

Through him let us offer continually the sacrifice of praise,

which is our bounden duty and service,

and, with faith in him, come boldly before the throne of grace.

I am here to make Church with you,

            and I look forward to all the ways we will live in community together.