Can't make it to Church? October 5

The Psalm set for today sort of sums up the Old Testament reading (the ten commandments) to a tee when it says:

"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes."

So often I am forced to meet with people who have no life, no twinkle in their eyes because of sin; their sin and the sin of others that has affected them. Keeping the ten basic rules from the Old Testament (and adding Loving your neighbour as yourself because of your love for God is the cherry on the cake here) goes a long way towards finding peace with God and those around us.

Just for a moment I'd like you to take a look at the passage below and think about when you might have crossed the line regarding them. Then I'd like you to think about when others have crossed the line and hurt you or others. Not a great experience, is it?

Exodus 20.1-4,7-9,12-20
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. (1)

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (2)

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. (3)

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. (4)

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (5)

You shall not murder. (6)

You shall not commit adultery. (7)

You shall not steal. (8)

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. (9)

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. (10)

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.’

Psalm 19
The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. One day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another. They have neither speech nor language and their voices are not heard, Yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world.In them has he set a tabernacle for the sun, that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course. It goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever; the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, dripping from the honeycomb. By them also is your servant taught and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can tell how often they offend?

O cleanse me from my secret faults! Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me; so shall I be undefiled, and innocent of great offence. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight,  O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Charlton Heston will always be the image in my head!

So the Law pif the LORD, the ten commandments (10C) - not suggestions mind - have an important part to play in pretty much every society across the land (with some notable exceptions as seen through the murder of innocents and the genocide that has occurred when God's rules are not present - and yet still people trot out the old tosh about religion causing war, perhaps they've missed the importance of 10C).

Paul was a bloke who knew about keeping the law, in fact in our Philippians readings he talks about the fact that he was pretty much up there as a faithful Jewish believer. But all of that counts as nothing in the light of the love of Jesus, the Christ, and the reconciliation that the Cross brings between us and God the Father. Not only that but he realises that he is on a journey and even though the modern Church think Paul rocks, Paul himself recognises that he falls short and needs the Grace of God and the inspiration of His Holy Spirit to get on track and be the man he seeks, nay needs, to be!

Paul sums it all up in this one phrase:

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

Now this is my prayer for me and for all those who are not me too! This is the key, not to be satisfied with where we are at but (keeping God's laws) to strive to know Christ full and to take up our cross and follow Him - denying ourselves and loving Him with all we are and have. This is the key to full Christian living.

Philippians 3.4b-14
even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

So we come to our Gospel and this speaks of God sending Prophets and messengers to us, each of them abused, stoned and even killed. So He decides to send the Son, Jesus, and they rejected Him, threw Him out of the place that was by rights His (the Temple) and then put Him to death.

The people hearing, but not understanding who the Son or the vineyard owner were, recognise that the vineyard owner will respond by putting the perpetrators to death - for they have broken the law (written, moral and accepted social law). They recognise what the acts demand in terms of retribution - those wicked people.

But then Jesus points them to Psalm 118 and the words concerning the 'stone that was rejected becoming the cornerstone'. This stone is Jesus - He is the cornerstone - the datum that keeps our walk in the world staring and our worship up to God sound:

And the beset bit of all it the fact that this stone not only assists us (by the reconciliation to God and the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit) in our daily walk but also breaks the power of sin in our hearts so that we might be saved - so that ALL who fall on Him (Jesus) will be broken and restored, but those who fail to recognise their sins will find that self same rock falls upon them and they will be crushed by the weight of their wrongdoings and the conviction that Jesus (as Messiah, redeemer, coming King at the second Advent) brings.

So it's a simp Sunday really - keeping the Law puts a twinkle in the eyes and a spring in the step. It builds relationships and, through the power of the Cross, forties others so that they might recognise their failings and having been broken, come to a place of fulness.

That's what I want for me and so that means I want it for others too - that's what being Christian is all about: Sharing the Good News of jesus and reconciliation (and forgiveness) through the Cross.

Matthew 21.33-46
‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realised that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

The Collect
O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Father God, We pray today for all who are caught up in breaking your laws,
May they know the forgiveness of jesus, the Christ, and come to that place where
Broken, they find restoration and wholeness in you.
Help us to live as we should,
to be Christian every hour and every day of our lives - not Just that hour on Sunday!
Help us in our sins and heals us we pray. Amen.

Post Communion Prayer
Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love is the fulfilling of the law:
grant that we may love you with our whole heart
and our neighbours as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.