A Word in Time

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Would it not be helpful to pull these scattered fragments together or to identify some underlying principles? The notion of ‘love’ comes to the rescue. Love is expressed through each and every rule and regulation. Love is the sum of them all ( verse 9). Love is their common purpose and goal – "the fulfilling of the law" ( verses 8 and 10). Looking at climate change and increasing alienation between the nations we see around us, do we see some similarities with what was happening at this time? Do you agree that this story is written from someone who looked at the world many years on and sought to find the beginnings of the darker place which that world has become?

Why do you think the author of the second letter of Peter is so vehement in his criticism of the false teachers?

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It should be remembered that it was fairly common at the time for religious debate to include fiery rhetoric and quite extreme imagery. This was often done for effect and some of the most vehement language was used among people from the same faith group – the language of a family squabble as it were, and not to be taken too seriously or literally. And it has to be said that viewed in the wider context of the New Testament, some of the language and imagery found in the second letter of Peter is somewhat marginal. Today’s reading is an example of both Matthew’s emphases. The beatitudes are the opening of Jesus’s teaching ministry. But the theme is introduced in 4:17 where he proclaimed: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Here he goes on to point the way to the kingdom. There are images in the story of wedding, water and wine. The prophet Isaiah mentions the coming salvation with symbols of wine (I saiah 25:6) and wedding feast ( 62:4-5). The water held in jars for ritual washing in this story foreshadows the 'living water' Jesus speaks of by the well in Samaria ( John 4) and connects the person of Jesus to ideas of purity and life. The steward also exclaims how the best wine is kept for last and perhaps we can find a similar thought in the last words of John Wesley, "The best of all is, God is with us". When I listen to Jewish and Muslim prisoners discuss their faith and to my imam and rabbi prison chaplaincy colleagues, I hear angels mentioned quite often. My Hindu colleague tells me that Hinduism also has a special focus on d evas (celestial beings) with the belief that every living thing is assigned a devas to guard them, although these are not strictly angels as in the Abrahamic traditions. And into that silence comes the sound of people – broken, bewildered and bereaved. For not all who have participated in conflict have died – many more continue to live with their injured bodies, their troubled minds, their disturbed spirits – and we will remember them. Not all who suffer the effects of conflict have engaged in battle; those who are left behind are also profoundly affected. And we will remember them.

Chapter five follows the calling of the disciples and the journey of healing Jesus had taken through Galilee. This had drawn crowds from all of the surrounding regions to hear him and is the beginning of his teaching ministry. Think of a time in your life when someone took an interest and showed they cared by encouraging you to be better or to go further. How did that motivate you? Tradition tells us that Matthew's Gospel was authored by Matthew the tax collector, the disciple of Jesus. There is also an understanding that Matthew took Mark’s Gospel as his primary source. As is clear, Matthew's Gospel is considerably longer than Mark's, and some suggest the use of an outside source which we do not have. Although written in Greek, it is believed that the original may have been in Aramaic as the style is much in that tradition. Matthew uses many Old Testament references and the opening section, containing the birth of Jesus, is from that genre.

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Today's passage sits in the middle of a long farewell discourse by Jesus with his disciples set within the context of the Last Supper. It follows a series of positive messages making clear that "if you love me you will keep my commandments" ( John 14:15); " they who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father" ( John 14:21) and "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love." ( John 15:10) God speaks to Noah spelling out what is to happen not only to the people but to the whole of the natural world at that time. God warns Noah of the flood which is to come, and gives instruction and clear plans for the ark he is to build to protect his wife and sons, as well as two of each type of animal so that they can survive the flood and make a new start. When in your prayer life you feel that God is asking something of you, do you obey without question?

Being the obedient servant that God had recognised, Noah got on with the job in hand. No doubt his neighbours thought he was crazy. He built the ark according to the instructions he had been given and prepared for the deluge to come. He is totally obedient to God’s instructions the text tells us ( v. 22) and so the preparations are made. We are not told how Noah’s neighbours reacted to the preparations he is making. Did they question him? Did they ridicule him for looking to something he believes is coming through his faith in God? This second letter of Peter is thought to relate quite closely to the letter of Jude (the penultimate book of the New Testament) and it may be that one is dependent on the other, or that they have used a common source. They were both written to counteract the influence of false teaching in early Christian communities. Although attributed to Peter, it is now thought unlikely he was the author and that it was probably written after his death. The language and ideas are certainly very different from those used in the first letter of Peter, suggesting different authorship. It was not uncommon at the time for speeches or letters to be linked with important or heroic figures in this way. When Jesus refers to the 'yeast' of the Pharisees and Herod in verse 15, this is because in many places in the Old Testament yeast was used as a symbol of influence, often negatively. (Interestingly, Jesus unusually uses yeast in a positive way, as a sign of the kingdom, in Luke 13:21 – the difficulty of metaphor!). Jesus is warning his disciples that they are in danger of seeing the world through corrupted eyes, even while in the company of himself. There may be another of Jesus’ sighs of exasperation that they are concerned about having enough to eat, when he is with them and is the ‘bread of life'. Besides, haven’t they seen him produce a miraculous bounty of food for thousands of people? One can almost hear Jesus’ thoughts about what more is needed to convince people that he is the Messiah. When we consider these words we can appreciate what the writer of the book of Genesis was seeking to do. He was trying to make sense of so many of the problems he saw around him as he wrote, stemming from the different races, the different languages and the very different ways of life. Perhaps as we reflect on the world we live in today, as from time to time we mark One World Week, we can understand his emotions, his confusion over why something that began as an ideal (unity of all God's people) fell apart so much. Over the centuries there has been so much conflict and disharmony in a people whom we read are all children of the one God, the creator God, whom we still honour in our worship today. When God speaks to us he may ask for a sacrifice. Have you ever found God asking more of you than you feel able to offer?What God is doing in our lives and in the world may seem, to all appearances such a small thing: we read of a baby in a stable, an itinerant lone teacher on a hill, 11 ill-equipped disciples, an anonymous cross. And yet today: orphanages, schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly, hospices for the dying, shelters for the homeless, community projects and places of worship are all scattered across the world in the name of the baby born in a stable who died on the Cross. Whether it was the disciples at the Last Supper who worried what the next few days and weeks would hold for them, or the later persecuted followers of Christ, they could take comfort in the knowledge that what they were to experience was because they had been specifically “chosen out of the world” ( v. 19) by Christ. Also, they wouldn’t be left alone, for “the Advocate comes who I will send you from the Father” ( v. 26). Moreover, Jesus had experienced this hatred first ( v. 18), so those who followed had the example of someone who had travelled the road ahead of them. Does the God the writer of Genesis envisages in the words we have read, relate to the God we know through his son Jesus, or was the writer mistaken and confused? Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. (v. 11)

It is clear that, despite having met with Noah and approved of him as one who fulfilled what God was asking of the people, God still intends to carry out vengeance on the world. Jesus gradually opens the eyes of his followers to a greater understanding of truth about his mission and purpose. Those of us who know how the story unfolds will realise that even the Crucifixion is not a final statement, but leads into a new chapter that emerges from the Resurrection and the unleashing of the Spirit of God in the world. Maybe, as a faithful and observant Jew, Mary knew the song of another woman whose world became utterly changed: this was Hannah who desperately wanted a baby. She promised that, when her long-awaited son arrived, she would give him to God and she did. She too burst into song – a very similar song. You can read it at 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Each woman has been made special and those who are special in their own eyes will be humbled. Heaven has come to earth! Why do you think the groups that challenged Jesus didn’t recognise his feeding of the crowd as that sign they were looking for?Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, 'God is great!' (Psalm 70:4) So where is the authority for speaking of ‘love’ in this way? It is in the Jewish law itself, at Leviticus 19.18, "Love your neighbour as yourself" (cited in verse 9). And in much of this chapter in Romans there are further practical outworkings of this grand theme.