Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity – evening
Sunday 23rd September 2018
Proper 20 – 17th Sunday after Trinity – evening
Exodus 19. 10-25
Matthew 8. 23-34
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Gosh! God can be dangerous to be around can’t he?! If he’s not coming down upon a mountain and threatening anyone who sets foot or even hand on it, then he’s sleeping through a storm that threatens to destroy his followers, or destroying herds of passing pigs!
Tonight it seems we are treated to a glimpse of the wrath of God – and not too much of his gentler side… Whatever happened to gentle Jesus, meek & mild?
Well the truth of course is that is a creation largely of Victorian artists who seemed to love to portray our Lord as some sort of fey, languorous individual, not long for this life…
The reality was I am sure much more real, and physical – maybe even shocking, than we like to think.
One thing that God is definitely not, is tame. Or tameable. That I believe is part of what lies behind our Old Testament Lesson tonight – which is the preparation for God delivering to Moses the tablets on which the Law was inscribed. Those commandments that were to forge the very nature of a nation. That would distinguish them, mark them out from the many pagan tribes around them. And it worked. They grew and multiplied and continued to remember how God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and brought them – eventually – into their own land. Most of the time they remembered that he was a jealous god – not willing to share their devotion with other, lesser deities – though sometimes they slipped – sometimes for several generations, until another fierce prophet rose up to call them back from the brink. As a people, a nation, they went through decided ups and downs. They were not large in number or particularly warlike. And the land that God had chosen to settle them in was sort of in the middle of a highway system between much larger, more aggressive neighbours. So they were destined to be invaded, and defeated, and taken into captivity and exile. But still there was something persistent and tough about the God of Israel that kept bringing them back and kept them telling the old stories about Moses and the Law.
By the time Jesus came along they had again been overwhelmed by foreign military forces. Now I am sure that the story we have tonight of Jesus stilling the storm has its origins in an actual occurrence. But equally, I think it was remembered and retold because the story has a symbolic significance too. One that perhaps we do not always understand or think of at first hearing.
I am sure you have heard it said before, but for the Hebrews of Jesus’ time, the sea was something alien and threatening. The sea stood for chaos. Chaos in people’s personal, political, even economic lives. Jesus sleeps through all the turmoil. It doesn’t seem to touch him – but it touches and threatens the lives of the disciples. They are in danger of being overwhelmed – of sinking. Maybe literally in their boat on the treacherous Sea of Galillee, maybe in other ways too? In these troubled times when the turmoil and chaos around our relationship with our European neighbours, or lack of it, threatens to overwhelm all of us, maybe we can see some similarities between us and those disciples?
They are following their master, their teacher but getting very scared of what lay ahead – not that he seemed to care – sleeping peacefully on. Until they wake him up – notice it is they who have to take the initiative. God does not intervene to save us unless we ask first for his help. And the storm is stilled – the immediate danger is over – but are they comforted? Well perhaps, for a few minutes. Until the enormity of what has happened occurs to them. And then they get scared all over again! They get a glimpse of the power and potential that surround Jesus and they are terrified.
Interestingly, just before this point in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus has said the line about the Son of Man having nowhere to lay his head…. and now as soon as he takes a bit of shut-eye, his disciples are shaking him awake to rescue them from the impending doom!
So having conquered the natural elements, Jesus goes on to a demonstrate his control and mastery of situations where the danger appears not natural, but supernatural.
Do you ever feel sorry for the pigs in this story? I do! Why should they be plagued with the demonic spirits that come out from these two strangers and sent to their doom? Pigs are – so they tell me – highly intelligent creatures. Not naturally dirty, although they do enjoy rooting around in the soil for their food.
Of course to a Jewish audience – and Matthew’s community for whom the Gospel was first written was almost certainly a Jewish one at heart – to a Jewish audience the pig was unclean. Not fit to be used for holy sacrifice – partly for reasons of food hygiene in a hot climate, but also because the pig seemed to transgress God’s laws of nature. The Jews thought God had set strict rules. Animals should either have solid hooves – like a horse or donkey. Or they should have cloven hooves, like cows, sheep and pigs and chew their food twice. Only Pigs don’t. They have cloven hooves, but they eat whatever is going and chew it only once. They break the rules – so consequently they are judged ‘unclean’. Pigs were sacrificed in ancient times to pagan gods by non-Israelites, but that only meant another reason why they should not be offered to their God.
And when a Roman Legion turned up in Palestine with a hog as its emblem – well the symbolism wasn’t lost on many people. So maybe there really was a stampede of animals down the Judean hillside soon after Jesus had restored these two demoniacs to their right minds and to their community. Or maybe it was a shorthand way of referring to the local troops. Either way the locals were not too sure of the outcome – and they had after all just suffered the economic loss of their village herd of pigs. It is very interesting to have God on your doorstep, but maybe a bit too scary to have him too close?
Is that really how we react to God? Do we really want to keep him at arms’ length, afraid that some of that power might get too close? Too close for comfort?
Well maybe tonight’s lessons encourage us to reflect on our position, relative to God. Are we feeling in danger of sinking? Of being overwhelmed by the circumstances of our lives? Whether personal or political? Do we cry out to God for help? If we do, then it is my belief that he will truly answer us – but be prepared to be blown away by the results. Being close to God is not always a comfortable place to be. God’s justice is too strong, too searing – it illuminates every corner of our dark little lives – including the places we would much rather keep safely in the dark. There is no hiding from him, and when he acts, our lives are often transformed, turned upside down, reshaped and reformed – but they will never be boring again!
Being consecrated – being set apart by God for his purposes – being made holy if you like, is not straightforward or easy. Perhaps we should think of our church services as those times when we are consecrated for God’s service in the world. To make it a more loving, kinder place? That’s what we should aim to do and why we come here. To help build the kingdom of God in love – until we ourselves become truly sainted because we are such loving people. Amen.