St Matthews, Meerbrook, Leek ‘Harvest Service’
20th September 2018
Deuteronomy 28: 1-14
&Luke 16: 19-end
God is working his
purpose out,
as year succeeds to year,
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
as year succeeds to year,
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
This well-known hymn then
has a concluding line from Isaiah 11.9
So, what do you think are God’s plans and purposes?
There are those who have taken the story we heard from Luke 16:19 – end and
have concluded that this is a real story, with real people, that happened in a
real place, or rather two real places, heaven and hell. They have deduced from
this that God’s plan and purpose is to rescue people from a wicked corrupt
earth and bring them to heaven as the final resting place for all those, and
only those, who have put their trust and proclaimed Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
That strikes me as a whole lot of assumptions.
It also strikes me that someone has taken a text out of context and made a
pretext.
Although I know that such people would come back with other ‘proof text’ to
justify their viewing this story in this way.
Personally I find such a view too narrow, a view that restricts God and a
view that can lead to a total neglect of this earth because heaven is our
ultimate destiny – if we are ‘saved.’
If we take care to read this story in its context, here referring to
chapters 14 – 16, we see that this is another parable that Jesus told, and as
ever it is a parable in typical Jewish style (because let’s not forget that
Jesus was a good Jew) and it is full of hyperbole to make a point.
We begin in chapter 14 with Jesus as a guest of a Pharisee…
‘One
Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was
being carefully watched’.
There follows a discourse
that includes Jesus’ questioning about doing good on the Sabbath.
He goes on to tell a story
of a rich man inviting his friends to a banquet, but they offer various
excuses. So, he invites anyone and everyone, from the highways and the byways
to come and enjoy his banquet.
Another story is about
counting the cost of building or going to war, and then makes this incredibly
challenging demand…
‘In the same way, those of you who do
not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.’
Then we have three well
known stories about a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son – all found and
restored.
He (Jesus) said to them, “You are the ones who
justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What
people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.
There is a short piece
about divorce before our story – of Lazarus and a rich man.
If we have been paying
attention we should by now have picked up a thread and a theme developing – a theme
that runs like a river throughout all of Jesus’ teaching and his life and if we
have eyes but to see and ears to hear, we will see that it also runs throughout
the whole of Scripture.
God cares for the least,
the lost, the last and the lonely. It is not sign that God’s love and favour
does not rest upon people who find themselves in these situations.
That is wrong headed
thinking that Jesus challenges and reminds the Pharisee’s that orthodoxy must
be matched by orthopraxis.
The Pharisee’s had taken passages such as we heard from Deuteronomy out of context and made a pretext, made an assumption.
Drawing a particular understanding that material blessings are a sign of God’s favour and then following that to a natural, logical conclusion, that those who are not so blessed must be out of favour with God and in disobedience.
What today is referred to
as prosperity theology that was as prevalent among 1st century
Jews as it is among some North American Evangelicals.
Remember the story about
another rich man who came and asked Jesus how he might gain eternal life…
That story concludes with
this response from Jesus…
Then
Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is
rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is
rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they
were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
What then are God’s plan
and purposes?
Is it that if we follow
the injunction of Deuteronomy we can expect blessings to follow…
If
you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give
you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All
these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your
God:
In and of itself being
obedient to God is a thing to pursued with all due diligence – but isn’t there
a danger that we can turn our Faith into a kind of magic?
That if we say certain
things and do certain acts then we will get certain results – that is largely
how magic is supposed to work.
So, how does this work out
for those who obediently follow God’s will and ways and yet find themselves
anything but blessed in a material sense.
And on that has you have
begun to call to mind the Beatitudes…
There Jesus offers a whole
different kind of recipients of God’s blessings.
As this is a Harvest
Service and as I have been invited to say something about the work of The
Farming Community Network let me now draw that into our consideration.
In our brief reflection of
the passage from Deuteronomy and the story from Luke’s Gospel I hope we have
captured something of God’s plans and purposes.
And as God’s People we
seek to act in obedience to those plans and purposes, but never for our own material
gain. We are blessed so that we might be a blessing to others.
And in particular I would
argue that taken in context the story of Lazarus and the rich man is not about
eternal punishment or everlasting bliss – but is a strong polemic against
neglect and care of the vulnerable, the poor and the marginalized.
We might have fine words but
have empty deeds.
For what do we pray
regularly…?
Your
Kingdom come,
Your
will be done
On
earth as it is in heaven...
The Farming Community Network is a
Christian faith based national charity that was established over twenty years
ago.
Through a network of over 400 volunteers
the FCN offers a listening ear, a compassionate heart and wiling feet to walk
alongside farmers and farming families at times of difficulty or stress.
That might be concerns over finance,
stress, mental health, succession issues or animal welfare.
Currently Brexit and the ongoing effects of
the drought are causing anxiety and for others HS2.
What are God’s plans and purposes?
When we take an overview of Scripture we can
discern four epochs.
Epoch one begins in Genesis with God and
humanity and the whole of creation in harmony.
Epoch two is the fall and the rise of
disharmony and disease.
Epoch three is the incarnation – God coming
and dwelling among as in Jesus. This ushers in the time of salvation, which is
now…
2 Corinthians 6.2
In
the Scriptures God says, "When the time came, I listened to you, and when
you needed help, I came to save you." That time has come. This is the day
for you to be saved.
Epoch four is the restoration of all
things…
For God was pleased to have all his
fullness dwell in him, (Jesus) and through him to reconcile to himself all
things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through
his blood, shed on the cross." (Colossians 1:15–20)
Epoch four is both now and not yet – like
soldiers landing on the Normandy beaches, the war was drawing to a close but
there were still battles to be fought before peace could be declared.
As we celebrate and enjoy the fruits of the
harvest, albeit we will be paying more because of the drought, as we enjoy this
bounty let us be ever mindful of those like Lazarus lying outside our gates.
Let us resolve to open our hearts and hands
to those in need and thus demonstrate the importance of orthopraxis (right
practise) as well as orthodoxy.
Heeding the Letter of James’…
‘If a
brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and
one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, without giving
them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So
also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.’
What are God’s plans and purposes?
God is
working his purpose out,
as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near:
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near:
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God,
as the waters cover the sea.
with the glory of God,
as the waters cover the sea.
And for the glory of God to fill the earth God
invites you and he invites me to participate in His ever unfolding plan of
reconciliation. To bring about the redemption of the whole cosmos – to herald
the glorious time when we will not head skywards to mystical heaven but will
live with resurrected bodies in a new heaven and a new earth.
I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now
among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God
himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every
tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or
pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Meanwhile – we have a job
of work to do…
When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his
disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask
the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest
field.”
In Greek the meaning of the name Lazarus
is: God is my help.
God wants to help the least, the lost,
the last and the lonely. God wants to help farmers and their families
struggling with debt, or with mental health issues, or succession disputes, or
forage issues as they may well be facing next February time. And you and I are the boots on the ground.
God’s hands reaching out and His feet walking alongside someone in need,
practically demonstrating God’s heart of compassion and love.
Because this is a sign of the Kingdom
of God come upon earth, a realized Lord’s Prayer.
We are God ambassadors, his agents of
peace and reconciliation, purveyors of hope as we sing out across the land in
confidence…
God
is working his purpose out, as year succeeds to year:
God
is working his purpose out, and the time is drawing
near: nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be,
when
the earth shall be filled with the glory of God,
as the waters cover the sea. 
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