Acted parables and forgiveness

stjohnstmarkchurchburyThursday, August 16, 2018

Bible Text: Ezekiel 12:1-12 | Preacher: Keith Trivasse | Series: After Trinity

I don’t know if you know how our readings get selected. The preacher does not choose their own. Usually they come from the central Church which organises the Bible into the readings that make up what is called The Lectionary. In green seasons, the Old Testament and New Testament readings are unrelated. We have cycles of readings that go through, in our case Ezekiel and Matthew. The poor preacher has to find any kind of link between the readings. Sometimes, there is no link, no connection. This has happened today. And just to make it worse, I want to make points drawn from each reading. Therefore, I shall start with Ezekiel and then do a U-turn towards Matthew.
Acted parables
Our reading from Ezekiel was rooted in what are called acted parables. A parable is a story that reveals a meaning different to its surface meaning. The parable of the sower is about beans growing, and, more importantly, the grace of God. Acted parables are where a particular action takes place, like carrying a bundle like an exile, to show a hidden meaning for those with ears to hear, namely that Jerusalem will go into exile. Even the prince of Jerusalem will go into exile. Ezekiel is to put together a bundle, as of an exile, then go into exile, that they might see. In the evening he is to break through the wall of his house as if going into exile. Perhaps they will see and understand.

We are gathered here. Today we are taking bread and wine which I shall take, bless, break and share. We shall eat and drink. But we are an acted parable. For those who have eyes to see, we are doing what Christ did at the Last Supper in remembrance of the promise of the feast of the Kingdom. For, as Isaiah said, we shall feast on this mountain, eating and drinking and feasting in the sight of the Divine. The token of bread that we eat and the sip of wine that we drink are tokens of that great feast of the Messiah, where all peoples will be gathered together and we are we shall feast gloriously. We are the community that gathers around the altar with that hope and promise. We should be seen as a community of fellowship and love, rooted in the love Christ showed for us in his death and resurrection and one in hope of God. An acted parable.
Lived experience
And now for Matthew 18:21-19:1. Perhaps the connection is that of the ideal of the acted parable against our lived experience of church. The times when people get cross, or claim things as theirs and not yours and so on, all the nicky, annoying things. Matthew’s gospel was written at about 70CE. That is forty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Nearly two generations of Christians had come and gone and they had had to face up to the issues of building church communities.

The gospel has three main sources. Mark’s gospel, material shared between Matthew and Luke alone, and material entirely derived from Matthew. Today’s readings comes from Matthew alone. What we have is the record of an early church trying to work out what to do when a believer wrongs another believer. Are they to forgive seven times? The writer then puts an answer into the mouth of Jesus. ‘I do not say seven times; I say seventy times seven’. In other words, forgiveness without end. The writer then has Jesus tell the parable of the man who did not forgive when he was forgiven. ‘Forgive your brother from your heart’.
A school for holiness
Church is an acted parable. But it is also a school, a school for holiness. We learn to forgive as people tread on our toes. We learn to forgive when people do something we think is stupid; or rather we learn to be forgiven in that instance.  As we come to the altar today, let us remember the times when we have shown something of the generous grace of God in a parable. Let us remember that it is here that we find we are forgiven and that we forgive. Amen.