Tuesday, July 26, 2011

August 7, 2011 8th of Pentecost


Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
   25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
   27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
   28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
   29 “Come,” he said.
   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
   31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
   32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

“A Sound Of Sheer Silence”
Jesus finally is alone.  Finally he has a moment to catch his breath, gather his wits about him, and just be with God in silence, to pray.

This is no game he is playing.  He needs this time away in prayer.
It takes silence to ‘see who we are’, for it is in silence we touch the deepest part of our humanity as well as God’s divinity.

Thomas Szasz, an American psychiatrist has said; 
“(Humans) cannot long survive without air, water, and sleep.  Next in importance comes food.  And close on its heels, solitude.”

Faith cannot exist without solitude either.

“Only in silence, in the space between noise, speech,  and activity, is there room for a person to become focused, to achieve gravity and centeredness.  Only in waiting before the mystery of existence itself, in brooding upon the world and eternity, does one become endowed with true worldliness and true everlastingness.”   John Killinger

“Compassion is the fruit of solitude (silence) and the basis of all ministry.” Henri Nouwen

To be about God’s business we need to seek a sound of sheer silence, so we can be compassionate as our God is compassionate.

“Let ‘s Walk On Water”
Miracles just don’t happen.  They are caused by mortals such as Peter, you, and I, who dare risk in the face of overwhelming odds.  Who dare act in faith.

God most often acts in concert with a mortal rather then going it alone.  In fact we could say, God  limiteds Himself to working with mortals - and waiting for one of us to be there before He does what He always wanted to do.

God wants us to walk on water; be a miracle of happiness and peace in our world.

Faith is to risk being caught up in a miracle; it is being open to the new creation God seeks to create through us for all.

Monday, July 25, 2011

July 31, 2011 7th of Pentecost


Matthew 14:13-21
13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
   15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
   16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
   17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
   18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
“With God, A Little Is A Lot”
Where are the miracles of today which match the miracles of Jesus day?

Right where they have always been; hidden in, under, and with the presence of God in the natural, there to be discovered and embraced with the eye of faith.

“A miracle is any event, natural or supernatural, in which one sees a revelation of God.”

The miracle here could have been that once the people saw what Jesus was going to do with a small boys small lunch, they opened their hearts and their lunches for all to share.

Either way, it is still a miracle!  In fact, it is possible this would be the more difficult - for it meant many hearts being changed, opened to sharing.  This is not an easy task.

“When God seeks to turn the world around, one person is usually enough.”
“Jesus risked his entire ministry on the sufficiency of the infinitesimal.”
“Every social change can be traced to a few determined individuals.”
Walter Wink, “The Power Of The Small”

“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”  Mother Teresa

“To Be A Miracle” 
We would believe the miracles if we could reproduce them.  We find it hard to believe them when we can’t.  But a miracle is not a reproduction of something which has happened; it is a happening of something new.

Dare we believe that this miracle would not have happened had the boy not been there with his lunch, and willing to share it?  

We are not just to believe in miracles; we are to be miracles as we dare to believe that with God the impossible can happen even through and with us.

Monday, July 18, 2011

July 24, 2011 6th of Pentecost

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
   33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

    44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
   45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
    47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
   51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.
   “Yes,” they replied.
   52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
“The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like”  
Where is the Kingdom to be found?  In the kingly rule of God in the hearts of humans!
What is it like?  Its power lies not in its size but in its King and its message.
How does it come?  Not by our power but by the power of God at work in us.

The Kingdom of God seems terribly insignificant and insufficient in the affairs of the world,
yet it has the dynamic that can make the difference even in our world.

That dynamic is the love of God as known in Jesus Christ.  A love which is individual and universal.  “If Christianity doesn’t begin with the individual it doesn’t begin; but if it ends with the individual, it ends.”

A little bit of the Kingdom goes a long way once it gets into a person and through that person into the lives of others.

The parable of the Mustard Seed reminds us that God often works God’s purposes out through the insignificant.  In the Kingdom of God, it is not bigness which counts, but making a difference in someone’s life. 

Surprises have a way of sneaking up on a person and changing the mood of life - and with the mood so goes life.  The Kingdom of heaven sneaks up on us and changes the mood -eternally!


Monday, July 11, 2011

July 17, 2011 5th Sunday of Pentecost


Matthew 13:24-43, 36-43


24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
   27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
   28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
   “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
   29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
    36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
   37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
   40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.


Judgment is not in our hands.  We are not to separate the wheat from the weeds, the sacred from the secular, the holy from the unholy.  This is God’s doing - God who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.  

Our task is to live faithfully, as those who are both wheat and weeds - we are not as pure as we would like to be.  As Wm. Saloan Coffin has said, “Remember what history teaches, never do people so cheerfully do evil as when they do it from religious conviction.”  

I tried to laugh off being a Pastor/Chaplain.  I couldn’t do it.  So I said yes, no matter how inadequate I felt and how inappropriate it seemed.  God uses all of us in ways we don’t understand to spread his word of Love.  We are to tell of God’s love not try judge our neighbors.  Then it will be good - for them and for us.

“God has invited us to gather rather than to judge, to get together and learn to live with one another, weeds and wheat alike.  There is wheat within each of us as well as those all-too-visible weeds.  From this patchy crop God can fashion a miraculous bread, transforming each of us by the pure wheat of this holy offering, making us into beings shaped by hope.”   Richard I Pervo, New Proclamation Year A2011 p.99

Monday, July 4, 2011

July 10, 2011 4th Sunday of Pentecost

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
   18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

 “God’s Word In Us”
A parable is a story you can’t get unless it first gets you.  It is a story designed to “pull another story out of the listener”.  The end result is that “more happens in the mind of the listener then in the mouth of the teller.”

The seed is good; it is the soil which has the problem.  We are the soil - all 4 kinds of soil!
We are not always receptive to what God’s Word has to say.  We run hot and cold when we listen to God’s Word.    We have goodness choked out by our indifference.  And we do hear and respond - doing that which pleases God.  And God takes what comes from the good soil of our hearts and makes more of it then we ever could have dreamed possible.

The Word of God will not fail.  It will do what it is meant to do - create faith in our hearts, stir us up in hope and challenge us to live in love.  Our words fail.  God’s Word will not fail!
Some times it sounds harsh; sometimes it sounds gentle; but it always seeks to make a promise and keep it - no matter what!

A good discipline for reading or listening to God's Word is to listen carefully for what you don’t want to hear and then listen carefully to what you don’t want to hear; then risk acting on it.  It just may be where God is trying to plant a seed and change - soften up - your life.

It is God’s intent that His Word live in us , with us, through us;  so we can be a part of God’s Word living in our day and age.


Judgment Is God’s Not Ours
Judgment is not in our hands.  We are not to separate the wheat from the weeds, the sacred from the secular, the holy from the unholy.  This is God’s doing - God who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.  

Our task is to live faithfully, as those who are both wheat and weeds - we are not as pure as we would like to be.  As Wm. Saloan Coffin has said, “Remember what history teaches, never do people so cheerfully do evil as when they do it from religious conviction.”  

I tried to laugh off being a Pastor.  I couldn’t do it.  So I said yes, no matter how inadequate I felt and how inappropriate it seemed.  God uses all of us in ways we don’t understand to spread his word of Love.  We are to tell of God’s love not try judge our neighbors.  Then it will be good - for them and for us.