Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 6 September 2020, is the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII).
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are in two sets, the Continuous readings and the Paired readings.
The Continuous Readings: Exodus 12: 1-14; Psalm 149; Romans 13: 8-14; Matthew 18: 15-20.
There is a link to the Continuous Readings HERE.
The Paired Readings: Exodus 33: 7-11; Psalm 119: 33-40; Romans 13: 8-14; Matthew 18: 15-20.
There is a link to the Paired Readings HERE.
Introducing the Readings:
The Cross of Nails in Coventry Cathedral is a symbol of the cathedral’s ministry of reconciliation. Two charred wooden beams from the roof of the cathedral, damaged during an air raid in World War II, now stand in the ruins of the chancel. Behind the Cross, in large letters, are the words, ‘Father Forgive.’ In the 75 years since the end of World War II, the cross in Coventry has come to symbolise the ministry of reconciliation and forgiveness throughout the Anglican Communion.
Reconciliation is very difficult, and very costly, for everyone involved. Pharaoh refuses to be reconciled with God or to accept the consequences that this refusal is going to mean for the people of Egypt. In his oppression of the children of Israel, the poor and exploited descendants of one immigrant family, he eventually calls down disaster on his own people.
He fails to accept that the demands for freedom for people is connected to their right to freedom of worship and religion, and freedom for one must mean freedom for all. The consequences of his refusal are devastating, and he only realises this when it is too late.
The consequences of refusing the opportunities for reconciliation can be devastating. It is only when he has had enough – and when his people have had enough – that he agrees: ‘Rise up, go away from my people … Go, worship the Lord … And bring a blessing on me too!’
Saint Paul reminds us in the second reading that love is not only an essential expression of our faith, but that love fulfils all the commandments.
But love does not come cheaply, and forgiveness and reconciliation are difficult and costly, as the Gospel reminds us. How we cope with those who refuse the offer and opportunity of reconciliation and forgiveness is a difficult task not only for an individual Christian but for the whole Church.
Exodus 12: 1-14:
This reading tells of the origin of Passover, the commemoration of how God rescues his people from slavery and oppression.
In the immediate, preceding chapters (Exodus 7 to 11), nine plagues have afflicted Egypt: the Nile waters turning to blood; frogs; gnats; flies; animals dying in the fields; boils; thunder and hail; locusts; and three days of darkness. All are attempts to convince Pharaoh to ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship’ the Lord God (Exodus 9: 1). But his heart is hardened, and a warning of the final plague – the death of the firstborn – follows.
As with the other plagues, the preparation for the tenth and last plague is described at length, but the plague itself takes is described in only a few verses (Exodus 12: 29-32).
In this reading, we are between the first nine plagues and the tenth and final plague. Moses and Aaron tell each family to take and keep a young, unblemished, lamb or goat until close to the full moon, the fourteenth day. Then ‘the whole assembled congregation’ will slaughter the animals that evening. The animals are to be roasted, not boiled, and to be eaten, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
As they eat this meal hurriedly, the people are to be ready to travel, with loins girded, sandals on their feet, and staffs in their hands, and they are to mark their doorposts with blood so that they shall not be struck by the terrible, tenth plague.
This is a day and a night that is different from all others, and that is to be remembered and observed by the people throughout all generations, for ever.
After this reading (verses 29-32), God brings the tenth plague falls on the Egyptians, all their first-born children are killed, just as Pharaoh once plotted to kill all the new-born, male Hebrew children. Then Pharaoh has had enough: ‘Rise up, go away from my people … Go, worship the Lord … And bring a blessing on me too!’ (Exodus 12: 31).
The Exodus is about to begin. When we return to this book the following week (Exodus 14: 19-31, 13 September 2020), the people are crossing the Red Sea
Psalm 149:
Psalm 149 is a psalm of thanksgiving for God’s role in Israel’s history, granting them victory in war and ensuring the ultimate victory of justice over cruelty and aggression.
The people are called to sing ‘a new song’ to Lord, new perhaps because God continually reveals more of himself to the faithful. These hymns are accompanied by ‘dancing … tambourine and ‘lyre’ (verse 3).
The ‘two-edged’ sword (verse 6) may be a reference to the dual nature of history: on the one hand, the house of Israel must fight its own battles; on the other, it must always be conscious of the providential pattern of history and the role of God in its survival and success.
But for New Testament uses of imagery see:
‘The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Hebrews 4: 12).
And:
‘… and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force’ (Revelation 1: 16) … ‘These are the words of him who has the two-edged sword’ (Revelation 2: 12).
Romans 13: 8-14:
The Apostle Paul continues his instructions on ethics for Christians, saying the only thing we Christians should owe others – Christians and non-Christians alike – is love. This sums up the obligations of the Christian in life: ‘for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.’
Saint Paul then goes on to teach how love among Christians is something special: it is mutual. He quotes those commandments in the Ten Commandments that deal with loving one another, and says they are summed up simply, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (verse 10), for ‘love is the fulfilling of the law.’
He compares other ways of life and the Christian way of life, between walking in darkness and walking in light. In our Baptism, we have ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’ (verse 14), and so we must put aside all selfish desires and temptations.
The command to love, to love God and to love our neighbour, is at the heart of the Gospel. It is summarised in the two great commandments in Matthew 22: 36-40 and Luke 10: 27. In Matthew alone, Christ says, ‘On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
But Saint Paul, on more than one occasion – including this reading – reduces it all down to one great commandment:
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments … are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13: 8-10).
And again:
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Galatians 5: 14).
In other places, he writes:
The only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 5: 6).
Or:
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in harmony (Colossians 3: 14).
And:
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, and compassion and sympathy. Make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind (Philippians 2: 1-2).
To love our neighbour as ourselves means to love them as we are ourselves, as being of the same substance – created in the image and likeness of God. The Church Fathers teach that we find our true self in loving our neighbour, and that love is not a feeling but an action.
Matthew 18: 15-20:
Christ has just told the parable of the lost sheep, and how the shepherd goes in search of the one that goes astray, and rejoices over finding it (Matthew 18: 10-14).
So now, how should the Church respond to a member who has gone astray or sins against other members of the Church?
The first response is to try taking person aside to point out the fault. But that person should not be humiliated in front of others, and this should be done alone.
However, if you are not listened to, one or two others should be asked to be present as witnesses.
If the person still refuses to listen, the matter should be brought before the whole assembly (ekklesia) of the Church.
If the offender refuses to listen even to the Church, that person should be treated as an unworthy outsider, ‘as a Gentile and a tax collector’ was responded to in those days.
Christ then says that ‘you’ – the whole assembly or ekklesia – have the authority to bind or condemn or to loose or acquit in a decision that has divine authority.
Finally, Christ tells us that he is present in common prayer, study, and in decision-making, even when only two or three members of the Church are present. Christ is to be found in community.
Reflecting on the Gospel reading:
There are only two places in all the four Gospels where Christ uses the word for the Church that is found in this Gospel reading, the word εκκλησία (ekklesia): the first use of this word is in Matthew 16: 18, when Christ relates the Church to a confession of faith by the Apostle Peter, the rock-solid foundational faith of Saint Peter, which we read about two weeks earlier [23 August 2020].
His second use of this word is not once but twice in one verse in this reading, in Matthew 18: 17.
It is a peculiar word for Christ to use, and yet he only speaks of the Church in these terms on these two occasions.
In total, the word εκκλησία appears 114 times in the New Testament (four verses in the Acts of the Apostles, 58 times by Saint Pauline in his epistles, twice in the Letter to the Hebrews, once in the Epistle of James, three times in III John, and in 19 verses in the Book of Revelation). But Christ only uses the word twice, in these incidents in Saint Matthew’s Gospel.
How does God define the Church?
What makes up and defines the Church?
How does Christ define the Church?
And why, throughout the Gospels, does he use this word to describe the Church only twice?
During the pandemic shutdown, while many of our church buildings remained closed, many of us comforted ourselves with phrases such as ‘the church is not a building’ and ‘people make the church.’
The Irish language expresses this in a different way. The Irish word eaglais, which comes from this same word εκκλησία, is usually used for a church building, although the word teampaill is used too, and eaglais is also used for the Church as institution, so that the Church of Ireland is called Eaglais na hÉireann in Irish.
But when referring to the Church as the people, the Irish language uses the phrase Pobal Dé, the ‘People of God.’ (As an aside, the word séipéal and the term séipéal an pharóiste, used for a parish church, is unlikely to parallel the use of the word ‘chapel’ for non-Anglican Protestant or ‘non-conformist’ church buildings from the late 17th century on, or the side chapels in cathedrals or large parish churches. In its original use in French, a chapel was a small, covered place used for worship or to keep relics, and the French words also give us the word chaplain. The words séipéal (from cappella), came into usage in Irish after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans.)
The English word ‘church’ we use in everyday English can be traced through Old English (cirice) and Old High German (kirihha) to a Greek word κυριακόν (kuriakón), that simply means ‘of the Lord.’
But the word εκκλησία (ekklesia) does not mean ‘belonging to the Lord.’ Even if that is implied, the word is different.
The word Christ uses in this reading, εκκλησία, means ‘called out,’ an assembly of people that is involved in social life, religion and government.
This word εκκλησία goes all the way back to classical Athens, when the city assembly or εκκλησία consisted of all the citizens who had kept their civil rights. From ca 300 BC, the ekklesia met in the Theatre of Dionysus, beneath the slopes of the rock of the Acropolis.
The powers of the εκκλησία were almost unlimited. It met three or four times a month, and it elected and dismissed judges, directed the policy of the city, declared war and made peace, negotiated and ratified treaties and alliances, chose generals and raised taxes.
It was a city assembly in which all members had equal rights and duties, and all citizens of Athens could take part, regardless of class. It had the final say.
When Christ is talking about the church as εκκλησία then, he is talking about all the members of the church community, who have equal rights, equal power, equal duties and an equal and respected say in what is going on.
Baptism makes us all equal, without discrimination, in the Church.
And the Holy Communion, the Eucharist, is the lived continuation of our Baptism.
There is only one Body of Christ, and so there is only one Baptism and only one Eucharist.
For the Apostle Paul, the Church is one body, the Body of Christ, where there is no discrimination among those who are baptised and who share in the sacramental mysteries (see I Corinthians 12: 12-13 and Ephesians 1: 22-23).
And what Christ does in this Gospel reading is not to give power to the Church but to warn us as the Church about the power we already have as εκκλησία and the consequences of how we use that power.
A few verses earlier, in verses we do not read this time (see verses 10-13), Christ reminds us not to despise the little ones, to go after the one sheep from among the 99 that might go astray, to make sure that not even one of the little ones is left to be lost.
Now he tells us that in the Church there is no room for us to refuse to talk to one another, to bear grudges, to refuse to listen to one another.
And he warns us against the real dangers of trying to use the powers that the Church has in the wrong way.
In the culture and context of the Greek-speaking world of the East Mediterranean, people would know that the εκκλησία, this very particular type of assembly, had the last and final say.
For Christ to say that what the Church approves of or disapproves of has implications of the highest order is not Christ endowing the Church with supernatural powers. Rather, it is warning us of making decisions, going in directions, exercising discrimination, in the Church that will have not merely temporal and worldly but eternal and spiritual consequences.
Saint Paul says something similar to the Church in Corinth. For example, he tells the Church there that in the Church there is only one Baptism (see I Corinthians 3: 4-7), that there is no room for factions when we come together to share the Eucharist (see I Corinthians 11: 17-22), and that all arguments and division should be kept at home.
Earlier in this Gospel, Christ tells his disciples: ‘So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift’ (Matthew 5: 23-24).
There can be no petty divisions in the Church, if we are to be true to the meaning of Baptism and the Eucharist which form and sustain us in one body, the Body of Christ. And the Church has to be a haven for those who are the victims of division, discrimination and disaster. Our haven can be their heaven.
When we discriminate against others, the consequences are not just for them, or even for us, but for the whole Church.
In recent months, there have been protests throughout the United States against police use of brutality and proclaiming ‘Black Lives Matter.’ But the silence of many megachurch and evangelical leaders who have supported President Trump has been hauntingly deafening in these recent months when it comes to racism, and the use of troops on city streets, and other pressing issues such as climate change. In many places, that part of the Church that claims the moral high ground has been found to be morally impoverished.
The Old Testament reading, difficult though it may be to read in our culture today, is a story that people used to recall that in the midst of death and destruction, God could still look down on a people who were oppressed and enslaved, hear their cry, and want them to be free.
Who are the people who are enslaved and oppressed among our neighbours today? The new arrival in direct provision, the immigrant, the homeless family, the people living on their own, those who cannot find meaningful employment after the pandemic lockdown, those who struggle to keep a shop open or to keep a farm going, those who truly have no friends or no-one to listen to?
Would they see that we have taken to heart Saint Paul’s advice in the Epistle reading, ‘Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law … Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.’
Matthew 18: 15-20 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 15 ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green (Year A)
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
Help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Collect of the Word:
O loving God,
enliven and preserve your Church
with your perpetual mercy.
Without your help we mortals will fail;
remove far from us everything that is harmful,
and lead us toward all that gives life and salvation,
through Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
you feed your children with the true manna,
the living bread from heaven.
Let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage
until we come to that place
where hunger and thirst are no more;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
Exodus 12: 1-14:
254, At the Lamb’s high feast we sing
258, Christ the Lord is risen again
328, Come on and celebrate
268, Hail, thou once–despisèd Jesus
431, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour
703, Now lives the Lamb of God
Psalm 149:
346, Angel voices ever singing
705, New songs of celebration render
368, Sing of the Lord’s goodness
710, Sing to God new songs of worship
492, Ye servants of God, your master proclaim
Exodus 33: 7-11:
206, Come, let us to the Lord our God
479, Go, tell it on the mountain
589, Lord, speak to me that I may speak
Psalm 119: 33-40:
594, O Lord of creation, to you be all praise
Romans 13: 8-14:
515, ‘A new commandment I give unto you’
549, Dear Lord and Father of mankind
74, First of the week and finest day
39, For the fruits of his creation
312, Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost
126, Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding
495, Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love
525, Let there be love shared among us
487, Soldiers of Christ, arise
488, Stand up, stand up for Jesus
142, Wake, O wake! With tidings trilling
143, Waken, O sleeper, wake and rise
498, What does the Lord require for praise and offering?
145, You servants of the Lord
Matthew 18: 15-20:
517, Brother, sister, let me serve you
550, ‘Forgive our sins, as we forgive’
338, Jesus, stand among us
336, Jesus, where’er thy people meet
623, Our heavenly Father, through your Son
342, Sweet is the solemn voice that calls
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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