3 Pentecost, A p 7, June 25, 2017
Genesis 21:8-21 Ps. 86:1-10, 16-17
Rom. 6:1b-11 Matt. 10:24-39
One of my preaching goals has been to show how the spiritual practice and theology of St. Paul became presented in story form in the Gospel presentations of the life and words of Jesus Christ.
Today's reading are examples the different forms of teaching found in the New Testament. St. Paul wrote about spiritual practice and teaching in his churches: "We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." Dying with Christ and living with him was the metaphor of spiritual practice in the churches of St. Paul.
In the Gospels, which were written after St. Paul, we can see that how this spiritual practice was presented in the oracle words of Jesus to the early church: "Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Taking up one's cross and losing one's life, that is one's "soul" life, were catch phrases for the spiritual practice of the early church. It was also called repentance. Repentance in Greek meant the continual receiving of a new mind. Repentance meant dying to the old ignorant mind and awakening to a renewal of one's thinking.
Time means that life can be seen as a binary, a before and an after. In spiritual transformation, the after is supposed to be better than what has come before. One dies to what has come before; and one is born into what is better. The binary of before and after in the spiritual practice of St. Paul is a practice of identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Life is dying to the old and giving birth to the new, with the new being a transformation of one's life.
The early church used this binary of dying with Christ and rising with him as a method of adjusting their lives to the social reality of their lives?
What was happening in the lives of the early Christians? There was great excitement about the Spirit and effervescence of the Gospel. The message of Christ was so attractive that it found a great following among the Gentiles. This was both a blessing and a problem. A blessing because many people were finding a spiritual practice of transformation for their lives. It was a problem because to accept the success of the Gospel among the Gentiles was not regarded to be valid by people of the synagogue because Paul and other Christian leaders did not enforce the ritual purity customs of Judaism.
On the social level the process of dying and being reborn is very painful. Today's Gospel is proof of the conflict which was occurring when the Christian Movement was separating from the synagogue. When it came to including the Gentiles within the religious fellowship there was no peace. There was great division. Families and communities were divided. One can see how the words of Jesus served as an oracle in the early churches among people who were trying to make sense of the separation of the Jesus Movement from the synagogue. There were irreconcilable differences.
We, who are far removed from the disagreement between synagogue and the early Christians, can appreciate that Judaism and Christianity have come to have different missions to different people in the salvation history of the world. Clearly, the Christian message was meant to have relevance to a much wider group of people in the Roman Empire than what was the practice of the lifestyle of Judaism in the time of the early church.
The separation between church and synagogue has long been complete; when we read the Gospel we have to return to the original pain of separation. We can find a language of anguish of people who knew they had to be true to a new message about God's plan for the world. The new Gospel paradigm involved inviting to fellowship Gentiles who followed Christ, but who had no intention of following the ritual purity customs of the synagogue. In embracing the message of the Gospel, the Jews who conformed to Gentile Christianity had to leave with great pain, their former participation in the synagogue.
Living and dying express the continuing binary of spiritual practice and because it is both a negative and a positive, it is true to the freedom that is in life.
Change can cause family and social unrest. Abraham's family became divided. Abraham had to send the mother of his child Ishmael out of the family because Sarah, the mother of Isaac did not want any competition from Hagar or Ishmael. Ishmael went on to be the father of the Arab people. Isaac and Ishmael had different destinies.
Judaism and Christianity have come to have different missions and different destinies. The Gospels record the painful times when separation was occurring. Many separations have happened within Christianity in its history; new movements have arisen and there have been times of painful separation.
What we continue to embrace today is the process of spiritual transformation. We identify with the death and resurrection of Christ as a way of getting ourselves realistically in tune with the process of the freedom of time, the binary of before and after.
We ask for God's grace to embrace this identity with Christ in his death and resurrection, as we lose ourselves to find ourselves in better ways. As we experience loss, we look with hope to ever future gains in wisdom, love and kindness.
May God help us to find the rhythm of dying with Christ and rising with him as a way to adjust realistically to what is happening in our lives today, even within the serious paradigm changes that occur in our lives. Amen.
Genesis 21:8-21 Ps. 86:1-10, 16-17
Rom. 6:1b-11 Matt. 10:24-39
One of my preaching goals has been to show how the spiritual practice and theology of St. Paul became presented in story form in the Gospel presentations of the life and words of Jesus Christ.
Today's reading are examples the different forms of teaching found in the New Testament. St. Paul wrote about spiritual practice and teaching in his churches: "We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." Dying with Christ and living with him was the metaphor of spiritual practice in the churches of St. Paul.
In the Gospels, which were written after St. Paul, we can see that how this spiritual practice was presented in the oracle words of Jesus to the early church: "Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Taking up one's cross and losing one's life, that is one's "soul" life, were catch phrases for the spiritual practice of the early church. It was also called repentance. Repentance in Greek meant the continual receiving of a new mind. Repentance meant dying to the old ignorant mind and awakening to a renewal of one's thinking.
Time means that life can be seen as a binary, a before and an after. In spiritual transformation, the after is supposed to be better than what has come before. One dies to what has come before; and one is born into what is better. The binary of before and after in the spiritual practice of St. Paul is a practice of identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Life is dying to the old and giving birth to the new, with the new being a transformation of one's life.
The early church used this binary of dying with Christ and rising with him as a method of adjusting their lives to the social reality of their lives?
What was happening in the lives of the early Christians? There was great excitement about the Spirit and effervescence of the Gospel. The message of Christ was so attractive that it found a great following among the Gentiles. This was both a blessing and a problem. A blessing because many people were finding a spiritual practice of transformation for their lives. It was a problem because to accept the success of the Gospel among the Gentiles was not regarded to be valid by people of the synagogue because Paul and other Christian leaders did not enforce the ritual purity customs of Judaism.
On the social level the process of dying and being reborn is very painful. Today's Gospel is proof of the conflict which was occurring when the Christian Movement was separating from the synagogue. When it came to including the Gentiles within the religious fellowship there was no peace. There was great division. Families and communities were divided. One can see how the words of Jesus served as an oracle in the early churches among people who were trying to make sense of the separation of the Jesus Movement from the synagogue. There were irreconcilable differences.
We, who are far removed from the disagreement between synagogue and the early Christians, can appreciate that Judaism and Christianity have come to have different missions to different people in the salvation history of the world. Clearly, the Christian message was meant to have relevance to a much wider group of people in the Roman Empire than what was the practice of the lifestyle of Judaism in the time of the early church.
The separation between church and synagogue has long been complete; when we read the Gospel we have to return to the original pain of separation. We can find a language of anguish of people who knew they had to be true to a new message about God's plan for the world. The new Gospel paradigm involved inviting to fellowship Gentiles who followed Christ, but who had no intention of following the ritual purity customs of the synagogue. In embracing the message of the Gospel, the Jews who conformed to Gentile Christianity had to leave with great pain, their former participation in the synagogue.
Living and dying express the continuing binary of spiritual practice and because it is both a negative and a positive, it is true to the freedom that is in life.
Change can cause family and social unrest. Abraham's family became divided. Abraham had to send the mother of his child Ishmael out of the family because Sarah, the mother of Isaac did not want any competition from Hagar or Ishmael. Ishmael went on to be the father of the Arab people. Isaac and Ishmael had different destinies.
Judaism and Christianity have come to have different missions and different destinies. The Gospels record the painful times when separation was occurring. Many separations have happened within Christianity in its history; new movements have arisen and there have been times of painful separation.
What we continue to embrace today is the process of spiritual transformation. We identify with the death and resurrection of Christ as a way of getting ourselves realistically in tune with the process of the freedom of time, the binary of before and after.
We ask for God's grace to embrace this identity with Christ in his death and resurrection, as we lose ourselves to find ourselves in better ways. As we experience loss, we look with hope to ever future gains in wisdom, love and kindness.
May God help us to find the rhythm of dying with Christ and rising with him as a way to adjust realistically to what is happening in our lives today, even within the serious paradigm changes that occur in our lives. Amen.
