Sermon Notes for Sunday 17th September 2023
Pentecost 16
Our readings were Exodus 14:19 – 31, Romans 14:1-14, and
Matthew 18:21-35
‘Heads and shoulders, knees, and toes,
Introduction
Many of us suffer from knee problems and the aches, pains, difficulty
in movement and in carrying our tasks as well as sleeping with a pillow between
our painful knees. Like everything else in life, we do not fully appreciate
something until we have lost it or it is compromised in some way.
Reflection
Nicholas damaged his knees while praying. He knelt beside a patient in hospital or be
closer to them and as an act of service and in getting up twisted his knees.
They still ache.
Think about your knees and the amazing and complex work they
do. What thought, memory or response comes into your mind?
Gospel
We heard about a servant or slave with knee problems. With
huge debts he falls in humility and entreaty and pleads for mercy and his debts
are forgiven by his employer. Yet when another owing a small sum comes to that
very same person asking for time to pay the first servant sizes him by the
throat. The second falls seeking mercy
but there is no mercy to be found. The first disciple finds himself imprisoned.
Remember Jesus says in effect, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is a
bit like this…’ Parables are not
morality stories they are often caricatures highlighting human behaviour and
how inconsistent we are.
In addition, Jesus acts as a servant in John’s Gospel making
himself small on his knees washing the disciples’ feet and unforgiven dies a
humiliating death. Yet in his death and resurrection his disciples find a new
Exodus, the inner liberation from all the attitudes and behaviours that enslave
us.
Paul writes in Romans that ‘every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue will give praise to God’ We kneel in reverence, penitence,
adoration and prayer to the one who kneels before us in Jesus Christ
Hebrew Scriptures
We heard about a group of enslaved people who go down into
the sea seeking refuge. They take the path of entrusting themselves to God.
Their pursuers come seeking revenge and with the goal of returning these
enslaved people to their captivity. Instead, the hard-hearted Pharoah and his
swift moving chariots become bogged in the sand and drown in the Reed Sea.
Reflection
Read these passages slowly in the light of the picture of
Jesus taking the form of a servant washing the feet of his friends. Visualise
Jesus washing your feet and notice your feelings. Have there been times of deep need when you
have fallen on your knees seeking forgiveness or another chance? What comes to
mind as you bring that into prayer?
Kneeling
We kneel if we are able to:
·
Be closer to young children
·
Be closer to those who are unwell
·
For gardening
·
For prayer
·
As a form of witness – remember the political
significance of ‘taking the knee’ in the Black Lives Matter. It was seen as a powerful and subversive sign.
·
In worship.
Anglicans are among those who value kneeling during corporate worship.
Google John Keble who designed pews to encourage kneeling not lounging in
worship.
Invitation
An invitation to kneel more often. If you cant kneel then
have kneeling as an inner attitude. Kneeling invites us to a true and
liberating humility in a human culture that is arrogantly and thoughtlessly despoiling
the earth. Kneel as a sign of solidarity with those who like the second servant
in the Gospel are forced to their knees in humiliation and punishment. Fall to
your knees much more in prayer. In kneeling prayer.
·
Offer wonder, adoration and amazement.
·
Offer thanks
·
Bring others into a compassionate awareness.
·
Pray for our own change of heart and the grace
of personal insight.
·
Pray that we may be truthful.
Keep in mind the subversive and disturbing image of Jesus on
his knees taking the form of a servant.
He became small to raise us and restore us and to liberate us from our
enslavement to the inner attitudes, habits and behaviours that distort our true
selves.
Reflection
How will you ‘kneel’ today, tomorrow and the day after.
If you are able bend
your knee as well as your heart. Record in your journal your ongoing
reflections and discuss with a close friend your thoughts.
‘Heads and shoulders, knees, and toes,
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