Opening Verse of Scripture Psalm 80 V 19

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. Ps 80 v 19

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

Almighty God, who sent your Holy Spirit to be the life and light of your Church: open our hearts to the riches of your grace, that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in love and joy and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. CW

Gracious Father, revive your Church in our day, and make her holy, strong and faithful, for your glory’s sake in Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

First Bible Reading Isaiah 5:1-7

Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watch-tower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me  and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

Second Reading Hebrews 11:29-12:2

By faith the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.

And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets – who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Gospel Reading Luke 12: 49 –56

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: 

father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’ He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Post Communion Prayer

Holy Father, who gathered us here around the table of your Son to share this meal with the whole household of God: in that new world where you reveal the fullness of your peace, gather people of every race and language to share in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

Commentary 

In each of today’s readings there appears to be a sting in the tail. If you were trying to promote the Christian faith, you’d probably want to start with other passages of scripture rather than these. In fact, in some ways we might think it would be easier if these passages had not made it through the editing process and had been cut out before the final version of the text was agreed. The reading from Isaiah starts off by announcing that it’s going to be a love song, a song about a vineyard. In the OT we are familiar with the concept of a vineyard and the fact that it was often used as a metaphor for a bride. So we are expecting a wedding song. What we get is a love song of sorts, but it’s a love song of lament about lost opportunity, of wastelands and destruction, not what was expected at all. 

In Hebrews we read about the heroes of the faith, Gideon, Samuel, David and the prophets, people to inspire us on our spiritual journey, people who did great things empowered by their faith, only for the story to descend into tales of people being tortured, flogged, being cut in two or if they survived, having to live in holes in the ground because of their faith. 

In the Gospel reading in Luke Jesus is speaking about bringing peace and baptism, but it’s not a peace and baptism of tranquillity, He speaks about the peace of fire, of dividing families and the baptism of crucifixion and ultimately resurrection that He will undergo when he reaches Jerusalem. The passage in Luke is all the more strange because Luke has ‘Peace’ as one of the leading themes in His gospel. It is Luke who has Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) declaring that our feet will be guided in the way of peace (Lk 1 v 79). It’s in Luke that the angels sing of the peace Christ will bring to all people (Lk 2 v 14) and later in his gospel, Luke has Simeon, who when holding the baby Jesus, declare that he can now depart in peace (Lk 2 v 29).  Jesus does come to bring peace, but it’s a prophet’s peace in which there are decisions to be made and consequences to be faced. Just as the prophets did, just as Jesus did, just as the suffering people of the book of Hebrews did, just as some of the hearers of Jesus’ message did, we need to look by faith not just at the immediate and obvious, but at the future and live in faith and hope at the things that are yet to be revealed. All needed to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus, follow the path that had been laid out before them by Christ and His crucifixion, draw strength from those who had gone before them, the great cloud of witnesses, and throw off anything that would hinder them from following Christ.

The book of Hebrews was almost certainly written to a group of readers thoroughly familiar with the Old Covenant, probably mainly Jewish Christians, perhaps even a group of Jewish priests, as there is a big focus on ceremony of Jewish worship throughout the book. Whether priests or not, having become Christians they have now left Jerusalem to find a place to live and worship, possibly Antioch or Caesarea but still have hankerings for the splendour of Temple worship and the place they played in it. They are beginning to get persecuted for their faith and things are beginning to be a bit tough for them. So, given that the book in part at least is dealing with the threat of apostasy back to Judaism it’s not surprising that it addresses the question of how it is possible to approach God. It does so by presenting the Christian life in the context of a story which is fundamental to Judaism, the Exodus and the importance of faith from the Red Sea encounter forwards. And for the writer of the book of Hebrews, the destination is again the Promised Land, only this time it the Promised Land of Heaven and the Passover of the Jews has become the Passover of Christ. 

Importantly the letter shows how the early Christians understood the harmony between the Old and New Testaments and how they understood the redemptive work of Jesus in terms of God’s whole plan of salvation. The writer highlights that Jesus brings a new and living way of entering into a true and spiritual relationship with God. It is for this reason that he states the importance of ‘Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus’, rather than reverting back to their old ways of engaging with God with its material trappings and ceremonies. 

The law, with which the Jews were so familiar, was only a means to an end, not an end in itself. Over the years they lost sight of that reality. We can do the same, when the structures of our religion become the end in themselves not the means to an end, a deeper and more spiritual walk with God. Hebrews, perhaps more than any other book in the bible reminds us of the importance of our spiritual heritage. It also reminds us too that our faith needs to be firmly fixed on Jesus, on our spiritual relationship with God through His ultimate sacrifice. He is the beginning and the end of our faith, the leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection, the author and finisher, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. 

Sometimes it’s easy for us to get distracted by our doubts, distracted by the minutiae of our faith, the things that are not really that important, the things from our heritage, and not on Jesus Himself. Through their perseverance and radical faith the Hebrew Christians laid the basis and foundation of a church that was to last an eternal lifetime. This theme of true, non-hypocritical faith is underlined in Luke’s gospel. Through hypocrisy and their slavish adherence to their own ways and the unwillingness to hear a new message of salvation, the Pharisees have rejected Jesus. Similarly, in today’s gospel reading, the crowds, because of their hypocrisy, refuse, or are unable to see the key moment of salvation history unfolding before their very eyes. Jesus’ ministry reveals God’s plan and purpose to the world, but the crowds do not see this. They seem able to interpret the material world but not the spiritual one, the present time. Sometimes we too find it hard to see God at work in our own world when, if we see things from God’s perspective, perhaps miracles are happening all the time. We just don’t recognise them because we are so used to seeing life from our own world view, rather than that of the creator. Sam Cappleman

Meditation

In both the Old and New Testament passages the thrust is on God’s people acting in a way which is real and true to their faith, not something which looks close on the outside but in reality is a long way from the real thing. The peace which Jesus speaks about in Luke is real peace, not something that just papers over the cracks in the name of unity. This quest for real peace stems from our walking with God and wanting to do His will. It is built on a passion and compassion for change, justice, and renewal, themes which Isaiah implicitly challenges the Israelites with in the Song of the Vineyard, the title of today’s Old Testament passage. It’s not a ‘peace at any price’, a peace which fails to place Gods will at the very centre of its existence. For the Israelites and for us the message is clear. Put the Kingdom of God first, and everything else falls into place. Putting the Kingdom first does not guarantee peace and harmony; it will involve personal and societal change and will almost certainly encounter resistance (all change does) and possibly rejection. Seen in its proper context this passage is subversive stuff! But it’s what we are called to do and be as Christians. To take our place and fulfil our role in bringing about God’s peace and Kingdom on earth. 

Sam Cappleman

Hymns

• Fill thou my life, O Lord my God (Richmond)
• Safe in the shadow of the Lord (Creator God)
• Dear Lord and Father of mankind (Repton)
• It is a thing most wonderful (Herongate)
• What a friend we have in Jesus (What a friend)
• Ye servants of God
• Majesty
• Come let us sing of a wonderful love
• The kingdom of God is justice and joy
• I watch the sunrise
• O day of peace
• Guide me O thou great Jehovah
• Give thanks
• Let all the world
• Give thanks
• Judge eternal
• O perfect love
• Blessed assurance
• Forth in thy name
• Praise my soul 

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

You are the great God — he who is in heaven. You are the creator of life, you make the regions above. You are the hunter who hunts for souls. You are the leader who goes before us. You are he whose hands are with wounds. You are ho whose feet are with wounds. You are he whose blood is a trickling stream, You are he whose blood was spilled for us. Prayer of a Xhosa Christian from Africa 

O thou, from whom to be turned is to fall, to whom to be turned is to rise, and in whom to stand is to abide for ever; Grant us in all our duties thy help, in all our perplexities thy guidance, In all our dangers thy protection, And in all our sorrows thy peace; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. St. Augustine (340—430) 

Father, I am seeking: I am hesitant and uncertain, but will you, O God, watch over each step of mine and guide me. St. Augustine (354-430) 

Blessed are you, creator of all, to you be praise and glory for ever. As your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation, may we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep, open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will, that the world may rejoice and give you praise. Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Blessed be God forever. (After Lancelot Andrewes, 1626. Common Worship) 

Let me know you, my knower; let me know you as I am known. You are the energy in my soul: enter it and shape it to yourself, so that you may hold it as your possession, without fault or blemish. This is my hope; this is why I speak as I do. This is the hope that brings me delight; for I delight in the source of my salvation. (St Augustine 354-430)

Additional Material

Commentary

The movies of the Wild West were part of my growing up we dressed as cowboys and had guns in holsters. The gun favoured by characters Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp was the Colt Single Action Army Revolver, you might have tried to swirl one around your index finger before shooting your best friend as tried to beet you to the draw. This gun which was such as fundamental part of the scenes like the OK Corral was known as The Peacemaker. Now that seems an odd name for a weapon which killed so many people and earned the reputation as being the ‘Gun that won the West’. It is incongruous that a weapon of such mass destruction could possibly be called a thing of peace? The same contradiction comes to us from the Bible reading today from the Gospel of Luke. Jesus has been announced as the Prince of Peace a bringer of peace to humanity and yet Jesus now tells us that he is not a bringer of peace but of fire. There seems to be a mismatch between all we had expected and what is now proclaimed from the mouth of Jesus himself. So which is it, is he about bringing peace on earth or division?

We need to understand that we are in a critical time in the Gospel story, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. As he gets ever closer to that moment of truth which will end ultimately in the cross, opposition to him and his mission is growing and becoming increasingly aggressive. There are now serious death threats and plots against his life by the Jewish leaders who perceive him to be a threat to their very way of life. Jesus is advocating a complete change in the way that people understand and worship God and how society itself is ordered. Jesus is calling for peace but that peace does not entail the perpetuation of the status quo. The peace of Jesus is nothing short of a revolution in which the rights of ordinary people are not disregarded by the rich and powerful. The needs of those in poverty, the weak and the ones without voices in the current establishment had to be listened to and raised up. Proclamation of peace meant that it was no longer possible to stand by and watch, it required action against those who took advantage of an unjust social hierarchy. This was something in which Jesus would lead by example. Since Jesus was bringing this new radical peace he would himself receive a baptism of fire, one of pain and death. 

Jesus would lead where his followers would be expected to follow, they would not be allowed to stand idly by. Peace does not happen by itself, if they desired to see peace then they too must become Peacemakers, they would have to make it happen. 

This stance of refusing to accept injustice, challenging corrupt power and being prepared to suffer in the process was one which Jesus modelled for his followers and inevitably it therefore would require difficult decisions. There was a choice to be made between following the example set out by Jesus, or looking after one’s own interests. Those who disturbed the usual way of doing things would not be seen as Peacemakers, but rather Troublemakers. Those who benefit from the usual way of doing things benefit from silence and self preservation sometimes demands that we look the other way. Division already exists, but Jesus goes to the root causes of that division and demands that the veneer which covers the subjugation of the poor to allow ‘business as usual’ must be destroyed. 

When Jesus speaks of division in families, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters he includes a quotation from Micah Chapter 7 Verse 6 a passage which warns of imminent crisis and tells that the only way forward is complete trust in God. Jesus makes the observation that whilst people can read the signs in nature and forecast the weather, they are incapable of seeing what is going on around them in society. Jesus was doing a new and radical thing, evidenced by miraculous signs of healing and feeding and teaching. He was challenging the shocking abuses in the religious system, the corruption in the religious leaders, could those who knew when rain was due not see that in Jesus God was doing a new thing among his people? This was a wake up call to anybody who would listen, change is coming so take action now in the same way that you would if you knew there was a tornado approaching land! 

Today we are challenged to read these verses afresh, to question our complacency with injustice, to consider our own quietness and reluctance to disturb systems from which we receive benefit. We are challenged to read afresh God’s word and hear uncomfortable truths which unsettle us. Jesus calls his followers to carry a cross, that is something which we each have to pick up and allow its message to bring fresh challenges to our daily lives. Charles Royden 

Commentary

The book of Hebrews was almost certainly written to a group of readers thoroughly familiar with the Old Covenant, probably mainly Jewish Christians, perhaps even a group of Jewish priests, as there is a big focus on ceremony of Jewish worship throughout the book. Whether priests or not, having become Christians they have now left Jerusalem to find a place to live and worship, possibly Antioch or Caesarea but still have hankerings for the splendour of Temple worship and the place they played in it. They are beginning to get persecuted for their faith and things are beginning to be a bit tough for them. So, given that the book in part at least is dealing with the threat of apostasy back to Judaism it’s not surprising that it addresses the question of how it is possible to approach God. It does so by presenting the Christian life in the context of a story which is fundamental to Judaism, the Exodus and the importance of faith from the Red Sea encounter forwards. And for the writer of the book of Hebrews, the destination is again the Promised Land, only this time it the Promised Land of Heaven and the Passover of the Jews has become the Passover of Christ. 

Importantly the letter shows how the early Christians understood the harmony between the Old and New Testaments and how they understood the redemptive work of Jesus in terms of God’s whole plan of salvation. The writer highlights that Jesus brings a new and living way of entering into a true and spiritual relationship with God. It is for this reason that he states the importance of ‘Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus’, rather than reverting back to their old ways of engaging with God with its material trappings and ceremonies. 

We too can sometimes get carried away with the material things that surround our faith, our churches, our organisations our structures, rather than on having a spiritual relationship with God. How much time do we, for example, spend alone with God, reading His word and praying as opposed to coming to church or doing church activities. Clearly there is an overlap but we need to make sure the focus and centre of our faith is in the right place and we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Similarly, the law, with which the Jews were so familiar, was only a means to an end, not an end in itself. Over the years they lost sight of that reality. We can do the same, when the structures of our religion become the end in themselves not the means to an end, a deeper and more spiritual walk with God. 

Hebrews, perhaps more than any other book in the bible reminds us of the importance of our spiritual heritage. It also reminds us too that our faith needs to be firmly fixed on Jesus, on our spiritual relationship with God through His ultimate sacrifice. He is the beginning and the end of our faith, the leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection, the author and finisher, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Sometimes it’s easy for us to get distracted by our doubts, distracted by the minutiae of our faith, the things that are not really that important, the things from our heritage, and not on Jesus Himself. 

Through their perseverance and radical faith the Hebrew Christians laid the basis and foundation of a church that was to last an eternal lifetime. The theme of true, non-hypocritical faith is also seen in Luke’s gospel. Through hypocrisy and their slavish adherence to their own ways and the unwillingness to hear a new message of salvation, the Pharisees have rejected Jesus. Similarly, in today’s gospel reading, the crowds, because of their hypocrisy, refuse, or are unable to see the key moment of salvation history unfolding before their very eyes. Jesus’ ministry reveals God’s plan and purpose to the world but the crowds do not see this. They seem able to interpret the material world but not the spiritual one, the present time. Sometimes we too find it hard to see God at work in our own world when if we see things from God’s perspective, perhaps miracles are happening all the time. We just don’t recognise them because we are so used to seeing life from our own world view, rather than that of the creator. Sam Cappleman