This is the text of the message I prepared for proclamation at Stawell Uniting Church on Sunday 10th September 2023, the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost in Year-A.
Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 149; Matthew 18:15-20
Hi! So, today’s new piece of information about Damien, our new pastor, is that he is a sociolinguist. In fact my first undergraduate degree was primarily conducted in the fields of Sociolinguistics and Narrative Theory. So, even if I don’t keep reminding you of that, (and you can be pretty sure that I will, not because I am arrogant in my academia, but because I am just very interested in and constantly amazed by the connection between how people speak and read and how they think and act), you will soon work out that I love language. Of the many languages that I speak, all of them are Englishes, and even in that sentence you may have heard a new word, “Englishes”, plural. For a sociolinguist English is a family of languages.
Why did I tell you that? Well, for two reasons. One, it tells you something about me, I’m a language person. Two, I want to tell you one of my favourite words, a neologism (and no, neologism is not my favourite word), and the fact that I am a sociolinguist explains why I’d lead with that. So, my favourite word is intrepidation. “We look towards the future with some intrepidation,” so said Paul Hester, sometime drummer of Crowded House, and I am very much in agreement with him today. There is a sense of the intrepid about us this morning, of setting out on new adventures with fearlessness and some self-effacing humour, “our intrepid pastor in his new church”; but there is also a sense of trepidation, of anxiety and fear of what is unknown and ahead. Today I feel more terrific than terrified, but honestly it’s both/and rather than either/or.
Today we are underway. I am now three weeks in at Stawell and four in the placement. I have been to Pomonal and I’ll be there again next week. I have been to Landsborough. This afternoon I will go to Eventide and lead those people in worship, word and sacrament. I’ve met some of the church’s councils, and most of the church’s councillors, and I’m getting a better idea of what I have gotten myself into in agreeing to be your next pastor. You’re also getting a better idea of what you have gotten yourselves into by inviting me. And, by the way, “gotten” is a real word, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I’m a sociolinguist, so I should know, and I do know.
There’s also a bit of intrepidation about our reading from the Jewish Traditions today: the first Passover was a fresh start for Israel, and that start had many implications. In Exodus 12:2 God institutes a new calendar, saying, “this month for you…is the first for you of the months of the year.” So that’s new, there is a new New Year’s Day, and at a different time in the seasons than when we are used to marking it. Also, in Exodus 12:11, God institutes a new way of eating: those who eat are meant to be at the table with a readiness to depart at any moment, (the instruction is you shall eat it hurriedly), with notice in Exodus 12:10 that those who eat should let none of it remain until morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. According to the commentator and interpreter Robert Alter the Hebrew phrase here implies burn until utterly consumed, i.e. incinerate it, raze it to the ground, deploy Napalm and “boof!”. And, put on your sturdiest shoes and your cargo pants, and don’t worry about the leftovers as you won’t have time to eat later, you’ll be travelling. This really is a fresh start for Israel, a demarcation between old and new times. The new calendar is to begin with the remembrance of the great event of liberation, of an independence day. Liberation is the foundational event of the nation; as it is for those nations of the world today which do celebrate their national day in commemoration of such an event. Also for Israel the event itself (and in centuries ever after in its commemorative meal) is eaten differently to every other meal; because it is different to every other meal. This isn’t just an Australia Day barbeque instituted by Lamb-bassador Sam Kekovich; no, as Exodus 12:11 (Tanakh: JPS) says it is a “pesah”, a protective offering to the LORD. But if God is calling us out of bondage and into liberation, why is there a need for protection? Clearly, we look towards the future with some intrepidation.
In Psalm 149:1 it says Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. What can that mean for us? More than just that Damien is new here from Kaniva and keeps picking hymns we don’t know, and using words like neologism, sociolinguist, and intrepidation, but thinking of what The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, (Exodus 12:1), that things are different now. There’s a new song because there is new stuff to celebrate, and there’s a new song because there’s a new posture for singing. Those who worship God are instructed in Psalm 149:5 to let the faithful exult in glory, let them sing for joy on their couches. Who thinks couches in church would be a good idea? I’m not seeing enough hands raised here, because God has clearly instructed us to get rid of our pews and then “lay back and think of Jerusalem”. Also they are told in Psalm 149:6 to let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands. Okay, so you weren’t keen on having couches brought in here, but you’d all be cool with armaments, eh? As you enter the building next week make sure you pick up a newsletter and a weapon to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples as it says in Psalm 149:7. Now, of course, I’m not really suggesting we actually do those things, but is this what it means to sing to the LORD a new song? I think so, so let’s begin to change up how we worship God, and proclaim God’s works, because what God is beginning to do is different to what God has done in the past. There’s a new thing happening, a thing of liberation, and as God’s work has changed so should our responses change in celebration and obedience.
So, Stawell, what’s new; what fresh thing is God saying to us?
- What is God showing us?
- To what is God calling us?
In our reading from the Jesus Traditions today we heard two of the great soundbites of Christianity. From Matthew 18:20 we heard where two or three are gathered in my name I am there among them. Who has heard that phrase before? Yep, pretty much everyone. And perhaps a little less well known, in Matthew 18:18 we heard whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven. Who has heard that phrase before? Still some hands, but fewer than the first time. Perhaps the more leading question is where you have heard those phrases, or perhaps I could ask to what these verses usually refer in conversation between Christians. Any takers? My experience has been that we usually use these ideas in reference to prayer, and particularly to prayer meetings. If three of us mumble in a holy huddle then God does miraculous stuff that a solitary mumbler doesn’t get to see: not only but also, the stuff that the prayer triplet sees is mighty stuff, satan-shaming and demon-destroying power unleashed from Heaven to leash the satan and any demons down in their opposition to what Jesus and the angels want. Is that what you’ve heard, or where you’ve heard it? It’s not wrong, but it’s not what these verses are actually saying, is it? No, the correct answer is no. No, what are these verses are actually talking about is made clear in the paragraph above, these verses are about conflict resolution. If another member of the church sins against you, Jesus begins in Matthew 18:15, then seek to bring about reconciliation between yourselves. Go in private and speak 1:1; and if that doesn’t work then try again but take a witness. If that doesn’t work then try again with an elder or the pastor as mediator, and if that doesn’t work then seek the assistance of the whole congregation. In Matthew 18:17 where Jesus says tell it to the church he is speaking about the local gathering, it’s not about summoning Presbytery to make a ruling or asking perish council to gang up on somebody; but it is about the entire community gathering to support the healing around a fracture in the community. When Jesus says where two or three are gathered in my name I am there among them; you certainly can take that as a motivation for friendship-circle prayer, but don’t forget that he was actually speaking about community coming together to bring about peace, and inviting the Prince of Peace to lead and minister his grace in that space. The church, the local church, is the best place for disputes to be resolved, because the people in the local church are likeminded in their pursuit of shalom for the whole world, especially for their brothers- and sisters-in-pews. (Or on couches, especially if they’ve brought two-edged swords into the worship space.)
I hope that this idea is not entirely new to you, but I hope that it is entirely relevant. I’ve not been here long enough to know where all of the tensions are, but I have been in ministry and even just in church long enough to know that there are some somewhere. And, full-disclosure, I have in fact seen two sandpaper-ish places in the last month that I am keeping my pastor’s eye on. I’m preaching this message today because it is the lectionary, but, full-disclosure, I do like this part of Matthew and experience says that there is work that we can do as a local congregation to keep ourselves on good terms with each other. Also, to skill ourselves up to be a place and a people of resource for mediation and conflict resolution in Stawell.
So, is God showing us that now is the time that God has chosen to do this work in us? Is God speaking through scripture and proclamation to direct us to look at our relationships within this congregation; how those of you sitting in front of me here get along with others of you sitting in front of me here, (and with those not sitting in front of me here, but once sat here in front of Rev. Susan)? Is God directing us to consider the relationship the congregations at Stawell have with the congregations at Landsborough and Pomonal? I’m not looking to pick any fights, I’ve only been here a month and I’m just thinking out loud, but I do wonder whether God is calling us, (yes “us”, not just “youse” but me as well), us to a ministry of reconciliation. Now, calling the local church to a ministry of reconciliation is a bit like calling the local church to proclamation of the gospel, it’s sort of what the local church is always doing anyway; but as with evangelism-pushes and prayer-campaigns and the like, it can be helpful once in a while to have a season of increased effort, or at least improved attention. I’m not declaring such a season today, but I am inviting you to think about it; is this what God is calling Stawell Uniting Church to, to remind ourselves of peace-making skills and to offer ourselves first as people of grace and second as people of justice for mediation? We ask God and others to forgive us our trespasses, and we seek to forgive and to liberate those who have done and continue to trespass upon us.
Around fifteen years ago, at a worship and leadership conference I attended, I heard one of the keynote speakers say, “sometimes God doesn’t give us a ‘new’ word, sometimes God gives a ‘now’ word”. Sometimes God reminds us of something we have heard before to set us back on track or to extend our understanding. We hear an old thing, but it has a fresh meaning, or a deeper meaning, or we discover a new way or place of applying it. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. What is the “new song”, Stawell? What is the older song that is a “now song”, Stawell?
Perhaps it is that we face the future with some intrepidation; because the future is calling us to bring shalom to our city. Perhaps we are being called again to step-up again into the local church’s ongoing work of the ministry of reconciliation, a work that begins inside the congregation as we first bring shalom to each other.
I am a sociolinguist, but I am also new in town. May my words be effective and my proclamation be effective; but tell me what you have heard this morning. If you have heard a call from God, let me know how I can support you, and us, in meeting that call in this city.
Amen.
damienwrites 