Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Matthew 21:33-46 Happy Harvest! Our reading today is a story that Jesus tells about tenants who do not give their harvest offering to the landlord. ‘When the harvest time had come he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce’ (v34) ‘He will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time’ (v41) ‘The Kingdom of God will be .. given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom’ (v43) The audio of this talk can be found here The focus when people usually look at this passage is – rightly – on the rejected Son who is the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God. But today – our harvest – I’d like to focus elsewhere, at the reasons that the tenants reject the landlord and do not give him the fruit of the kingdom. 1. The tenants have forgotten the goodness of the landlord. The vineyard, in this story, is the people of Israel. Jesus is echoing Isaiah 5. God in love ‘plants a vineyard’. He gives it a hedge and a heart.  And he gi...

Matthew 21:23-32 Two stories, two sons and a choice. The audio of this talk can be found here It is quite hard to see a connection between the two stories The first is about a question of authority. Jesus has just turned out the money changers from the temple. The elders and chief priests ask Jesus about his authority, and he turns it into a question about the authority of John the Baptist. The second is about two sons. The first says No to his father, but then does what his father asks. The second says Yes, but doesn’t do it. Jesus disputing in the temple with the Pharisees who ask him to prove his authority. Cristoforo De Predis (1440-1486) in 'The History of the New Testament' .  And the thing that these two stories have in common – is that in both Jesus refers to John the Baptist. I was utterly hopeless at chemistry at school. But I did seem to be able to manage the litmus test. You put a piece of litmus paper into a test-tube with some liquid and if it came out red it said...

Matthew 18:15-20 Today we are looking at the Church’s grievance policy! And that might sound very contemporary, risk averse and dry. But the astonishing thing is that Jesus gave his followers a grievance policy 2000 years ago – and modern organisations could do far worse than making Matthew 18 the basis of their policy. The audio of this talk can be found here There are a number of challenging elements to what Jesus says. 1. We are part of a recognisable community of believers , with real bonds, responsibilities and boundaries. Our reading speaks of being a ‘member’ of the people of God. The Greek speaks of being a ‘brother’ or a ‘sister’ within the Christian community. It is a family term We are not simply isolated individuals who happen to believe similar things. we are brothers and sisters who belong to one another. Jesus Christ is for everyone. The Church is open to everyone. To become part of the family of God is not to do anything – it is not to pay a subscriptio...

Matthew 16:21-end Matthew 16 is a great pivot moment in Matthew’s gospel. Up to now Jesus has been teaching his disciples about who he is. And they have got it. Last Sunday Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Click here for an audio of this talk But now Jesus teaches them about what he has come to do, and the way of God. He teaches them what it means to call him the Son of God, to live as his followers ‘From that time on, Jesus began to show …’ And we see here a clash between human things and divine things, the ‘ must ’ of human necessity versus the ‘ must ’ of divine necessity. Jesus tells his followers that ‘he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering, and be killed, and on the third day to be raised again’ And Peter says to him, ‘this must never happen to you’ Jesus challenges Peter and says, ‘No Peter. You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things’. Annibale Carracci, Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way, ...

Matthew 15:21-28 This is a shocking story Jesus has gone to Gentile territory. And a Gentile woman – she was not a Jew – comes to him in great need. The audio of this talk can be found here And she meets with silence, rejection and theological dogmatism. I love C15th image from the Duc of Richy’s Book of Hours (his prayer book) and put in the email and notice sheet. Jesus stands with his back to her. The Canaanite woman . Miniature from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry . Folio 164r. Conde museum, Chantilly, France So what is going on here? 1. This woman is desperate Her daughter is gripped by a demon In our culture we have lost the language of demons. We have replaced it with the language of psychology or medicine. It makes us feel that even if we cannot heal a mind now, we will be able to heal it as our knowledge increases. But the language of demons brings us up against the reality of evil and that there are some things that cannot be healed or restored by any medication o...

Matthew 14:13-21 Twice we are told that this is a deserted place. A link to the audio of this talk Jesus has gone by boat to a ‘deserted place’, a place where there were few people, out of the way, where everything else could be left behind, in order to get away and grieve. He has just heard that his cousin John the Baptist has been beheaded, and he knew that what had happened to John would happen to him. And Jesus longed for time to be on his own with his heavenly Father.  But the crowds follow him on land and they get to the place ahead of him. The only time Jesus was going to have on his own was his time in the boat. And Jesus, when he saw the crowd, ‘had compassion for them’.    This can feel like a deserted place, especially in November or February.  And this is a place where people come to get away from normal life, for holiday. In the past, it was the holy days that were the holidays – the days to get away from it all, to step out of our everyday story: of wor...