18th
Sunday after Pentecost; Yr. A, October 12, 2014
Exodus 32:1-14; Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23; Philippians
4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14
Sermon
preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Both our reading from the Hebrew scripture and the Gospel
include celebrations. The Exodus passage
is the story of the golden calf. Moses
is up on the mountain receiving the ten commandments, and the people get tired
of waiting for him to return. Which
really means, they got tired of waiting on God.
So to satisfy their own impatience, Aaron, the priest in their midst
tells them all to hand over their gold.
He takes it and he fashions it into a golden calf. Then after the people proclaimed the calf
their god, Aaron built an altar before it, and led their worship of it. Theses were newly liberated people. Freed from harsh servitude in Egypt. Shouldn’t the priest, of all people, have a
clue? Shouldn’t Aaron have encouraged
the people to keep faith, to be patient, to pray? But he doesn’t. Instead, he leads them astray.
