22nd October 2023
Reflection (readings follow after)
Two kingdoms, two alternative ways of living. For Jesus’s contemporaries it was the choice between the rule of Caesar and the rule of God. Whose system are you going to subscribe to, whose rules are you going to follow?
Was that the situation being faced by Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness? Were they going to be the followers of God, God’s new people? Or were they going to return to what they had been, a people tied to slavery and the rule of the Egyptian pharaoh? And Moses asks the question, if they follow God, will their lives be different? Will they look like a people who have chosen to follow a different path?
God reassures Moses that he and the people have found favour with God, that they will know God’s mercy and God’s presence with them. By following Moses, the people will be following the one who has seen and knows God. In Hebrew the words for presence and face are interchangeable. To know God’s presence is to see God’s face.
The people – the church – of Thessalonica are constant and committed, in a life of faith and labour, to the kingdom of God. They know Jesus Christ as the face of this Kingdom, and have chosen this way over and above that of false idols. Their joy and satisfaction from this choice, spurs them on to advertise this new way and to encourage others to join them, so expanding the kingdom of God on earth.
So what then of us today? What are the choices on offer? What faces do the alternatives present to us?
Last week London was host to the Energy Intelligence Forum which was a meeting of key figures from the global oil and financial industries. (It was previously known as the Oil and Money Conference). The world they represent, is one based on the continuing extraction and use of fossil fuels. A world in which oil rich countries such Saudi Arabia, and oil based companies such as Shell, will continue to make profits. A world in which the cost of energy will continue to rise. A world in which pollution from oil and carbon emissions will continue to increase. A world in which less powerful countries will continue to be poor. A world in which less powerful people will continue to be oppressed. A world in which social injustice will continue to thrive. A world in which care for the environment comes second place.
There is an alternative world. A world in which decisions are not made by a powerful elite. A world where money doesn’t determine every decision. A world which uses non polluting sources of energy. A world which listens to the cry of the poor – and responds. A world in which individuals matter, in which justice overrides power. A world in which everyone takes care of the environment and uses its resources with care and respect.
Two alternatives ways of living, two alternatives kingdoms. We do have a choice as to which we support.
The people inside the conference were those paying service to oil and money. The people outside, the protestors, were those paying service to climate and social justice.
Exodus 33:12-23
Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have said to me, ‘Bring up this people’; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favour in my sight.’ Now if I have found favour in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favour in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favour in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.”
The Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favour in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”
Psalm 99
1 The Lord is King;
let the people tremble; *
he is enthroned upon the cherubim;
let the earth shake.
2 The Lord is great in Zion; *
he is high above all peoples.
3 Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; *
he is the Holy One.
4 “O mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established equity; *
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.”
5 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God
and fall down before his footstool; *
he is the Holy One.
6 Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, *
they called upon the Lord, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; *
they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them indeed; *
you were a God who forgave them,
yet punished them for their evil deeds.
9 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God
and worship him upon his holy hill; *
for the Lord our God is the Holy One.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead– Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
Matthew 22:15-22
The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
The Green Tau 