Bernard Gabbott - Sunday, 4 September 2022
Have you wept in that grace?
Scripture References: Genesis 33:1-20, Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 2:1-10
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CloseWhat an unexpected moment! The murderous big brother appears. His private army is with him. Jacob is exhausted, bent low, tired from a night of wrestling with God. He looks up – and there is Esau! Jacob scrambles. He divides his camp. He approaches his brother, bowing and scraping and looking for mercy undeserved. And his brother ‘ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then they wept’ (Gen.33:4). What an unexpected moment! It is grace in human actions. We don’t know what has happened to Esau in these intervening years, but he appears here and doles out grace to the man who had struggled with the LORD. And Jacob knows that his life is bathed in grace – the brood around him, the looking upon Esau’s face. Have you met such grace? Have you wept in that grace?
Scripture References: Genesis 33:1-20, Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 2:1-10
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What is greatness? In particular, what is greatness in the kingdom of God? That is the question addressed in the passage from Matthew today. Jesus is approached by two different groups. First, the family of Zebedee: James and John and their mother. Second, two blind men. Jesus asks both groups the same question “What do you want me to do for you?” What they request is quite revealing. And so is Jesus’ response to their requests. The Zebedees request position, status, reward for effort. The blind men request mercy, for their eyes to be open. Which request lines up with Jesus’ teaching previously? Which request do we tend to go to ourselves?
The Department of Home Affairs has an Australian Values Statement on its website. Visa applicants for residency/citizenship must sign this. And one of its key principles is that we are a ‘fair-go’ country. We would all agree with that. I suspect, too, that we would summarise our ‘fair go’ culture by stating that ‘you get what you deserve/what you work for’. In fact, many of us have established our relational, social and work ethics on this very principle. But is that what the ‘kingdom of heaven is like’? What is its value statement? What is the hallmark of such a kingdom, and its ruler, even its citizenship? Today, after Jesus has assured his disciples that the dependent will be provided for by their king, he now uses the same ideas to issue with them a warning not to abuse, misuse, ignore or become entitled in the face of the kingdom of heaven hallmark—which is grace.
Jesus deals with the question of ‘Who belongs in the kingdom?’ Is it children? Is it the good? Is it the godly? And, how and what does this look like? This question of ‘belonging’ is one that is constant in our lives – where do I belong, do I belong, what does belonging look like? And Jesus is very clear: the kingdom of heaven is made up of the dependent, the reliant, the weak – just like children.
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