Waiapu Academy

In recent weeks I have been struggling to get my podcast up on site in anything like enough time to make it useful to other preachers as an aid to preparation. Some visitors have obviously found it useful to download after the Sunday to which it refers, maybe to compare with what you have already preached or heard: although it is hard to know what benefits you gain from my efforts, given the paucity of explicit feedback!
Anyway, it has been worth my while, as I have been doing it for my own benefit first and foremost, like writing a book maybe.

Now I have to pay attention to a nagging health problem that has been draining my energies for some time, so I will be taking time out, probably into next year. So it is goodbye to Matthew, and a prospect of engaging with Mark and his great liturgical competitor, John, when I am able. Some one-off productions may appear to keep this site alive between now and then. We are all in God’s good hands.

Howard Pilgrim

This year, Matthew’s famous opening to the Sermon on the Mount, known as The Beatitudes, got omitted from the cycle of Sunday gospel readings, because it was displaced by Candlemass. What a pity, given that this passage takes prime place in Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as teacher and disciple-maker. It is his most important statement of what it means to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven, and hence the whole point of his gospel. Not to worry! We get to hear it again, on All Saints Sunday this year, and next year again for good measure. The only downside might be that we get the impression that its teachings are ideals for “the saints” (that is, someone else) rather than a call to discipleship for us all. To hear my detailed take on this, you might just go back to my video for Ordinary Sunday 4.

Given that I have already produced that treatment of the Beatitudes in general, I thought that rather than retracing that ground for All Saints Sunday, I might do something more creative, name to consider it in the light of another text from Matthew’s gospel, the one for Ordinary Sunday 31 … that’s right, the one displaced by All Saints Sunday. Is that turning the tables, or what? Listen to it here if you would like to consider whether Matthew leaves any room for us to think that at least some of the Pharisees might be potential Saints…

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading Matthew has a tricky situation to deal with: in Mark’s gospel, which he is copying and adapting, Jesus has some things to say about how the Pharisees interpret the scriptures, both those dealing with commandments and those dealing with theology. Matthew’s problem is that in relation to the former, Mark reports some very approving comments from Jesus, who seems to agree with the Pharisees about the two most essential commandments of all, and even to say they are “not far from the kingdom of God”. This simply won’t do for Matthew’s depiction of his Pharisaic rivals as implacable enemies, so he cuts all of that out, leaving only Jesus’ critical comment about their Messianic theology. Smart move? Not really, for even then he has to retain an even more important principle they all agree on, that commandments are not all equal, so that some must be identified as keys for interpreting the others. Hmmm! You might not get that consensus nowadays! Still, Matthew does show how impressively you can argue when your opponent is no longer listening ….

The separation of church and state has its good aspects, but is not an idea we can take out Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees’ question about taxes in Matthew 22. Rather, the question Jesus throws back to them is a challenge for us too … Whose money have we got in our pockets, and what ungodly obligations come with it? Have we so compromised our allegiance to God and his reign in our world that we might as well pay our dues to the powers that own us already? You get the drift … to hear the whole exciting episode, click on this!

One retired colleague who gets to hear me preach regularly, said to me recently, “I listen to your online comments, but your preaching is better.” I should hope so! For one thing, I enjoy communicating face to face with a live audience more than the one-way communication inherent in my weekly podcasts.

On the other hand, those of you who download and listen to my thoughts on the coming Sunday’s gospel reading could be more encouraging, specifically, by giving me some feedback in the comments boxes and perhaps even sparking a discussion. Hope springs eternal …
Howard Pilgrim

My comments on This Sunday’s Gospel

I have posted my podcast/comments on this Sunday’s gospel reading very late in the week … on Saturday evening, in fact. Things just got in the way, as they say, and moreover, I struggled with the text. This could make it more useful for those interested in what I have to say to check that out after they have done their own preaching, or heard their own preacher, rather than before.

All of which could make for some interesting discussion in the comments section below the video, if only my visitors were more forthcoming…

Here it is then, this Sundays’s Gospel

In an attempt to stimulate open discussion of the weekly video I have been offering on this site under the general title, Preparing to Preach, I have decided to switch this front page to a more conventional blog format. So this is my first post of a new era!

And this will take you to my comments on the Gospel reading for next Sunday, September 25th.

The blog format will make it easy for me to introduce new features on the site, launch forth on issues of the day, canvas topics for discussion, and link with discussion other related sites, all within the general framework of theological education and other issues facing the Anglican Church in New Zealand and abroad.

Please feel free to contribute your thoughts in response. Anonymous writers may converse with themselves in the privacy of their own cyberspace.

Howard Pilgrim
Waiapu Diocesan Theologian