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!

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

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.

July 3, 2011 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 11:28-30

  16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

   17 “‘We played the pipe for you, 

   and you did not dance; 

we sang a dirge, 

   and you did not mourn.’

   18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

   27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

   28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

“Playing or Celebrating?”  

Is this what Jesus is saying?

We are like children playing at religion.  As is said of those in our text they were  “playing at religion...with all their seeming earnestness in reality they are triflers.  They are also fickle, fastidious, given to peevish fault finding, easily offended.  They are hard to please...equally dissatisfied with John and with Jesus; satisfied with nothing but their own artificial formalism.  They are always so sure and so ready to judge.”

They were all hung up on nonessentials.  Jesus wants us to feel with those who hurt, have fun with those who are joyful, experience and share forgiveness as the essence of life - not judgment and condemnation. 

 I hear Jesus saying, “I want you to celebrate life in all its dimensions and possibilities.  Don’t get all hung up on nonessentials - don’t play at it - celebrate it!”

 “My Yoke Is Easy”

Catchy slogans are not necessarily true - just catchy.

These words of Jesus sound like a catchy slogan - but their not.

Like the slogan - “He ain’t heavy Father, he’s my brother.”  they remind us that the yoke which is easy and the burden which is light is so NOT because little is demanded, but because much is first given.

The yoke of Jesus is the commitment to love; it is the call to be kind, loving, good, merciful,

just as we have received mercy.  Bearing one another's burdens in love is light!  No matter how heavy it gets!  To do this we first have to know we are loved.  For only the loved can so love.  

God first loves us; then God demands much from us.  And the much is easy, for it is given in love.  This is the yoke which is easy and the burden which is light.

“A Time To Dance”

“In the world to come, each of us will be called to account for all the good things God put on earth which we refused to enjoy.”  Talmud

Dancing, joy and celebration go together - in ancient religion as well as in our lives.  It is a way to express joy - something we have difficulty doing.

The purpose of religion is not to take fun out of life but to put fun into life - celebration!

Work for justice and dance for joy!

June 26, 2011 2nd Sunday After Pentecost

Matthew 10:(34-39) 40-42

 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn

   “‘a man against his father, 

   a daughter against her mother, 

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 

   36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

   37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

   40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

 (When this sermon was preached the text began with verse 34.  These words of Jesus are important for this message so I add them here.)

“Blessed Into Change”

Jesus didn’t come just to bless us into complacency, compliance, contentment; 

He came to bless us into change.  Change which can be disruptive, disturbing, difficult, even destructive on the outside, as it seeks to make more real what is on the inside.

Destructive that is of those systems which are not life giving, just, fair, sensitive, compassionate.  Which are not doing good for the least as well as for the most.

The bottom line with Jesus is always - what is this doing to the helpless.  

“A true prophet is rarely so cocksure of himself and his interpretation of God’s will that he is spared those wrenching moments before God in which he questions his own calling. doubts the veracity of his message and even hopes that he is wrong. “

God does novel and wonderful things and loves to pull surprises on his people, so we can laugh together at our making mountains out of mole hills and cry together at how often we miss the point of it all and become who God wants us to be - not who we want to be.  Then something of God’s Kingdom does come on earth as it is in heaven.

Then hospitality is truly experienced and shared.

Then a cup of cold water has eternal meaning.

June 19, 2011 The Holy Trinity

June 19, 2011  The Holy Trinity

Matthew 28:16-20

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

 “Commissioned As Servants”

With these words we are called to accept a way of life which runs contrary to our way of thinking.  We are called to believe something we can’t help doubting.  We are called to live as if someone has died for us so we can no longer do it our way no matter how much we would like to live as if we were the only ones who counted.  We are called to dare believe that servant hood is the essence of discipleship..

We simply cannot go through life acting as if nothing has happened for us which changes dramatically how we live and move and have our being.  The Cross and Open Tomb stand as constant reminders of the sacrifice paid and the call made which forever changes the way we live.  We are servants not masters!  

“:You were brought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”  I Cor 6:20

“A Great Mystery”  

Without mystery life looses something deep and beautiful.

Without mystery God becomes something less then God.

The Trinity is a mystery.  After all is said and done to help us know God, 

the mystery still remains.

On Holy Trinity Sunday we celebrate that mystery even as we worship God the Father, creator of all things; God the Son, Redeemer of all humankind, and God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of all who believe.  (And maybe even those who don’t.)

“Great indeed”, we confess, “is the mystery of our religion.”  I Tim 3:16

June 12, 2011 Day of Pentecost

John 20:19-23

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

   21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

“Empowered to Forgive”

“Love implies forgiveness.  It is hard for us to realize, but actually the only requirement the loving Father places on us, once we come to know Him...is that we forgive as we have been forgiven.”  “The Other Side of Silence”, Morton Kelsey, p. 68

Forgiveness is a gift of God’s spirit.  It is central to ALL that Jesus said and did.

It is central to what the Church is ALL about.  It is a powerful, renewing, uplifting, hope filling, smile producing, releasing gift which in no way is meant to control or dominate the lives of others.  It is meant to set one free to really live, with new choices and chances,  and renewed vigor.  We are to work at being forgiving until forgiveness works!

It can also be a powerful, loving thing to not forgive - to retain someone in their sins - when the grace of forgiveness will only be used to continue irresponsible and even evil action.

There are times to be tough, unforgiving, to practice tough love, which is love which wants to forgive but can’t - yet!

The goal of not forgiving is not to not be forgiving.  The goal of not forgiving is to help the process get to the placed where we can forgive.  For that is what love always wants to do, and must be ready to do.  For we have been forgiven much!

These words are not permission to give up on forgiveness.  They are a stern reminder

that without forgiveness there is no tomorrow!  Our call is to work at giving away the gift of forgiveness as much and as often as we can, so that no one in our reach needs remain “fastened in their sins”, needs live without the life giving gift of forgiveness