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Today is the feast of St Michael and All Angels. Angels are God’s messengers and in both of our readings this morning they move between heaven and earth.
Jacob dreams of them going up and down a ladder in Genesis 28:10-17 and, although God promises to be with him wherever he goes, Jacob believes that the gate of heaven is in this particular place.
However, when Jesus meets Nathaniel in John 1:47-51, he describes himself as the ladder joining heaven and earth. The place where heaven and earth meet is not a holy place as envisaged by Jacob but is a living, breathing human being.
“The story of workers in the vineyard, in Matthew 20:1-16, is my all-time favourite parable because I need to be reminded that it’s not about me!
Of course, the workers who have “borne the burden of the day and endured the scorching heat” are furious when those “who worked only one hour” get paid the same amount.
Just as the prophet, in Jonah 3:10-4:11, is furious that God is prepared to show “abounding and steadfast love” to his enemies as well as to him.
We know that everything we are and everything we have is a gift from God. Yet we still act as if we must earn God’s grace and we still get annoyed when God is equally gracious to those who have clearly done nothing to earn it.
“How many times must I forgive my brother, as many as seven times?” Both readings this morning take issue with our need to count the cost of forgiveness.
In Genesis 50:15-21, Joseph’s brothers are afraid that Joseph will seek to “pay us back in full for all the wrong we did.” Whereas in Matthew 18:21-35, Peter wants to know the exact number of times he must forgive. When Jesus replies 77 times (or 7 times 70) he is not stipulating a higher number, he is ridiculing the very idea of keeping count.
In the parable he tells the slave owes the king 10,000 talents, an impossible number, a way of saying that, if we were counting, we would not reach the end of the numbers: it could be billions, trillions, gazillions. The point is that if God is keeping score, then we’re all doomed.
But God doesn’t count.
Jesus says, “if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven”. Which would be great if we ever agreed on anything.
Today’s gospel, Matthew 18:15-20, does not seem like a great advertisement for the church community: a bunch of people pointing out each other’s faults and snitching on one another. But it is at least honest about one thing, being in community is hard work. The church is full of troublesome people and sometimes the troublesome people are us. Yet community is also where we thrive, where we find support and guidance, where we learn and grow.