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In these parables Jesus shows that we are not saved by what we do, or by who we are. We are heirs of eternal life because God has chosen to make us so through the cross and resurrection. To us is left simply the opportunity to say, “yes.”
The Rev. Art Halbardier
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 17 A
texts: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52; Romans 8:26-39
This is the third week we’ve heard parables about seeds, weeds, planting and the like – the stories Jesus told to describe the kingdom. As a result, over the past two weeks we have essentially exhausted the ELW corpus of hymns that sing of planting, harvest, seeds, soil, gardens, and even weed control.
We’re out of hymns, but we’re not done with the parables. Today we have the climax of Jesus’ teaching about “the kingdom.”
Jesus was a master of clear speaking. He frequently astounded the religious leaders with his ability to explain fine points of scripture. Even as a 12 year-old, the temple priests were amazed at his understanding. People said of Jesus, time and again, that he taught with “authority;” he was direct, plain-spoken - not like the scribes and Pharisees.
But, when Jesus taught about the kingdom – the new relationship between God and the creation Jesus was sent to establish – for this, he turned to parables.
The core of that kingdom/relationship we call “grace.” How do you explain the unrestricted, undeserved love of God for rebellious and hateful sinners, whom God still so loves in spite of our arrogance that he sent his own Son to pay the debt of our sins? Such love, such “grace” defies explanation – even for a master of explaining. So Jesus described it in parables . . . in stories. Each parable holds up to us a facet of that grace, to ponder, to wonder. One after another, each brings us a bit closer to understanding, and if not understanding, at least to believing it is true.
Let us retrace our steps. Two weeks ago came the story of the sower. It depicts someone who doesn’t give a fig about agronomy, but it’s a great image of grace. This sower throws seed everywhere. Throws seed on rocks, under thorn bushes, on the hard path – not just the plowed field. Seed covers every square inch, whether it has a prayer of growing there or not. Rain falls on all the seed; there is hope it will sprout and grow. That’s the way of God’s grace.
Then last week, Jesus told of another farmer. This fellow had paid closer attention during classes at “Ag School”; he plants carefully for a great crop. But, some scoundrel, determined to settle an old score with him, comes along at night and plants weeds in his field. Both weeds and wheat come up healthy as can be. The workers don’t know what to do. Ripping out the weeds would certainly damage the wheat in the process – this was before the advent of selective herbicides.
The farmer decrees, we must let them both grow. At harvest, I, the farmer – of course this is Jesus – I will deal with the problem myself. Which, we can expect, since it is Jesus, will tell us something about divine grace. We’ll find out more about that later.
The disciples of Jesus are embarrassed . . . they don’t get the point of either story. But they save face by waiting until they are in private to ask for an explanation. Jesus explains, but his explanations, as we heard are truly a belaboring of the obvious. As a result, it’s easy to assume that the disciples must have been particularly dense to not have gotten the point.
But, hold it. Flag on the floor! No one, including us, could have gotten the point of Jesus’ parables until after he was crucified and rose from the dead. Only after God’s plan for saving sinners was clear, did the amazing grace in these parables begin to make sense to anyone.
But, I get ahead of myself. Today, we’ve added almost a full “six-pack” of parables to the first two. All seven must be considered together, for the stories are like beads on a string, like facets of a stone, individual pieces of a puzzle.
Today’s stories are brief, one or two sentences each, delivered rapid fire, without a word of explaining. The kingdom is like a “mustard seed,” Jesus says; like “a woman baking bread,” a “found treasure,” a “especially valuable pearl,” “a net.”
After #5, Jesus turns to the disciples, asking, “Do you understand?” These guys who have just asked to have the sower and the weeds explained, now pipe up as one, “Oh, yes, Master! Absolutely!”
RIGHT!
But, eventually they do understand. And, we can, also. When the light of cross and resurrection lights the way. Behind the stories is the knowledge that Jesus gave his precious life for every seed, weed, speck of flour, every saint and scoundrel, the greatest and the worst of us.
But, again, I get ahead of myself.
The kingdom, Jesus tells us first, is like a “mustard seed” – one lone, tiny little seed, lost in a field of tomatoes, bush beans, broccoli, whatever. But this mustard seed has a trait no seed of comparable size possesses – the capacity to grow into a large bush with many branches.
Describing it as a “tree” may be a bit of hyperbole, but certainly the mustard becomes the most prominent plant in the field – its branches large enough to provide a home for birds if they choose – that’s something no brussel sprout or pepper plant can claim. The mustard bush towers over the other plants. The grace of God dwarfs other promises of hope, security, and salvation. This any eye should clearly see.
Hardly taking a breath, Jesus says the kingdom is like yeast which a woman uses to make bread. A WOMAN, mind you! For any of you who wish there were more female images for God in scripture, take note. The woman baking bread is Jesus. He is, after all, the one assembling the elements of the kingdom.
And this is a REAL WOMAN. Forget that little slip of a maiden on our bulletin cover, or a delicate French lady assembling her daily pair of baguettes. THIS WOMAN dumps 3 measures of flour onto the board . . . that’s somewhere between 10 and 16 five-pound bags. It takes a couple of gallons of water to make it come together into dough. Any woman who can knead this mountain of dough into bread is a force to be reckoned with. But, without yeast, all you’ve got is 100 pounds of wallpaper paste.
The kingdom is like the yeast.
The King James Bible says she “hid” the yeast in the dough. Any baker knows, yeast must first be dissolved in water. Water and yeast go in together. Then the kneading begins. Until not a grain of flour is left untouched by the power of the yeast.
If it’s wet, it’s leavened. If that suggests baptism to you, that’s points for you. But, that’s another sermon. We have more than enough to deal with today.
Onward we go, for Jesus did. Now he takes a slightly different tack. The kingdom is like treasure hidden in a field. Too great and heavy a treasure to dig up and carry away. But, knowing it’s there, who would not immediately convert all liquid and non-liquid assets to cash and buy that field?
Hardly pausing for a breath, Jesus continues: The kingdom is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. One day, sorting through piles of fake gems and costume jewelry, he finds an exquisite, perfect pearl – the finest he’s ever seen. Immediately, he liquidates his entire inventory of cubic zirconia, rhinestones and resin beads to buy this one incredibly valuable pearl.
Those listening may have wondered: Well, of course he would! What fool would pass up such an opportunity? What fool would not bet the whole farm in order to buy the field with the hidden treasure?
And we, too, are led to wonder: What fool would settle for less than the free gift of God’s grace, or pass it up for a cheap imitation? What fool indeed? But there is unfortunate truth to the saying, “There is one born every minute!”
Finally, just in case anything was left unclear after the story of the sower, or the story of the yeast, Jesus doubles back to this theme, saying the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea. Here, we need to pause for a breath. And a brief lesson in Greek. The Greek word for “net” here is a word used only this single time in the New Testament.
Think not of the nets used by Peter, James, and John on the Sea of Galilee, or any other nets mentioned in scripture. Those are two different Greek words entirely. This word used only this once in this parable is a sagéne (sah-gay-nay). A “seine” – a “dragnet” pulled along the bottom of a river, lake, or shoreline collecting everything in its path. Lots of fish, of course . . . but also lots of flotsam, jetsam, rocks, old tires, boots, bottles, and beer cans. All are gather up in the sagéne. Nothing is left behind.
When the net is full, then the sorting begins. The fisherman separates “good” from “bad”. Now what is GOOD? Of the fish, perhaps Chilean Sea Bass? Walleye? Trout? Salmon? BAD may be “trash” species, or fish too small to be worth anything, or are sickly looking. In other words, GOOD is purely in the eye of the beholder, what is judged valuable, pleasing, and useful to the one doing the sorting.
But, maybe there’s more to the image. The sagéne is full of fish, but also whatever other garbage and debris it may have scooped up.
It’s curious that the word “fish” which appears in our English language Bibles, though it may be implied, “fish” doesn’t actually appear in the Greek text. The Greek only says “of every kind” was caught in the net. So who’s to say it’s only fish that the fisherman may deem as GOOD?
A still useful left boot to replace the one that washed overboard last week? That may be good, also. Maybe he thinks that rusty old anchor would look really fine on his mantel if he just cleaned it up?
The point is, be it only fish or more than fish, nothing in the net is inherently bad, just because of who it is, or because it’s not something else. It’s all left to the judgment of the one doing the sorting.
“So it will be at the end of the age,” Jesus says. When we stand before the divine judgment, the one judging us surrounded by angels is our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who gave his own life for the the world and rose in triumph to live and rule.
Before him there will be not one person standing who has not been redeemed by his blood, reconciled by his suffering and dying and rising. All this Judge sees before him is GOOD . . . for he suffered and died to make them so. In the end, the truth is that both heaven and hell will be populated entirely of forgiven sinners. But, the sorting will occur.
Yes, we cannot forget the two middle parables in today’s gospel - the pearl, and the treasure in the field. Despite the fact that no one is left out of being redeemed, that God’s forgiveness is a free gift, there are still those who think faith is foolishness, or who think they are essentially good people and that’s enough.
There are indeed fools for whom selling everything to get the precious pearl or the field with the hidden treasure is just too much. Or, perhaps see the world to be full of pearls just about that precious, and a lot cheaper to boot. Or, who simply don’t like pearls. Who just don’t get what’s so amazing about God’s grace for them.
No wonder, after that final separating of good and evil, there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
This is not pain inflicted by the “furnace of fire,” whatever that is. “Weeping and gnashing of teeth” is misery that springs from within, for there is no greater pain than anguish over the opportunity they spurned, the free gift they trampled underfoot, the Christ they rejected.
We are not saved by what we do, or by who we are. We are heirs of eternal life because God has chosen to make us so through the cross and resurrection. To us is left simply the opportunity to say, “yes.”
Jesus chose parables to describe the new relationship with God created and sealed in his own suffering and death. Because explanations, even for the master of explaining, were simply inadequate.
Now St. Paul was NEVER at a loss for words, and he was certainly a most gifted explainer as well. And, he lived as do we, in full knowledge of the cross and resurrection; its light shines through his many, many words about God’s grace.
Paul’s point in today’s second reading sums up the message of the parables: “We are MORE than conquerors through Christ who loved us.” The threats to that faith in the world are many. Death, life, the ruthless violence of the present, anxiety about what may come, all these threaten and challenge our confidence in that promise.
But, yet, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing is greater than the grace of God.
Philip Yancey once summed up the meaning of grace in many fewer words than St. Paul, but no less memorable ones: He wrote, “There is nothing I can do to make God love me more. There is nothing I can do to make God love me less.” Nothing I do can make God love me more...or less.
There’s really nothing more to say beyond that, than, “Thanks be to God!” And, “Amen.”
Accent on Worship
Nothing Can Separate
Just about when we begin to learn the difference between right and wrong, we also begin to learn that there are consequences to doing each. As a young child, I used to test these consequences by thinking of all the possible things that I could do wrong and then asking my parents what would happen if I followed through with them. “What if I don’t clean my room? What if I don’t eat my peas?” The questions became a little more serious as I got older: “What if I fail the test? What if I disappoint you?” In their wisdom, my parents saw through my questions to the childhood fear that lay underneath; instead of warning me of the consequences, they always said, “I will love you.”
As a result, they gave me an unforgettable glimpse of God’s love. Such questions arise when we believe the lie that love is fragile, conditional. Jesus Christ has revealed the opposite. God’s love is enduring, unwavering, and relentless.
We can sometimes play the same, “what if” game with God when we begin to understand the depth of our own waywardness and of the world’s predicament. Even though we have known God’s love and mercy for many years, we may still find ourselves asking, “What about this time? What if we don’t have enough faith? What if we fail to show your love? What if we deny you, Lord? What if we can’t recognize how you are working and so we mess it up?” These fears can rise to the surface especially when we hear charged words like “predestination,” as we will in Sunday’s second lesson, or when we hear in Sunday’s gospel that at the end of the age,
angels will separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. By pairing these two readings, however, the lectionary reminds us that we can never separate our hearing of Jesus’ parable in this Sunday’s gospel from Romans 8.
God always brings us back to this promise: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38). Every “what if” question that we could ever come up with about ourselves, our loved ones, those who struggle to have faith—even those whom we think have done the most despicable evil—has already been answered. We know the depth of God’s passion for us and for all of creation because of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is for the entire world, God is for you, and nothing and no one can change that.
Thanks be to God!
- Vicar Emily Beckering
Sunday Readings
July 27, 2014: 7th Sunday after Pentecost (Lect. 17A)
I Kings 3:5-12
Psalm 119:129-136
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
___________________
August 3, 2014: 8th Sunday after Pentecost (Lect. 18A)
Isaiah 55:1-5
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
The Bargain Box: It’s Almost Time!
Saturday, August 2 will be a busy day at Mount Olive! We will be helping to get neighborhood children ready for school year with Bargain Box fitting children with new school clothes and distributing school supplies during the Community Meal. We are looking for donations of cash, new and gently used children’s clothes (no adult clothes, please), school supplies, and backpacks.
If you have time to help with the meal, or assist with clothing or school supplies, please plan to come to the August Community Meals!
Please note: Neighborhood Ministries is also looking for backpacks, new and gently-used, to distribute at the August Community Meal. We want children to be ready for school!
- Neighborhood Ministries Committee
Invitation to Evangelism Workshop
Are you passionate about helping those new to Mount Olive feel comfortable and invited into
the life of the congregation? Have you ever noticed a visitor and wanted to welcome them, but found yourself tongue-tied, wondering what to say?
Andrew Andersen and Vicar Beckering will lead an Evangelism Workshop after liturgy on Sunday, August 3, for anyone who is passionate about hospitality, but would like to
practice some specific conversational skills to aid them in living out that passion.
Join us at 11:15 a.m. in the undercroft if you are interested. All are welcome!
Help Us Keep in Contact!
Please remember to contact the church office with your updated address, phone number, or email address!
Help us stay in touch and keep you in touch with each other.
Left Behind
Lots and lots of things have been left at church in recent months: pans and dishes, sweaters, coats, gloves, children’s items, books, and more!
Check the table next to the coatroom to see if any items which have been left behind belong to you!
Transitions Support Group Continues
Any who would like an opportunity to discuss concerns and receive support are welcome to attend the Transitions Support group.
The next meeting is on Wednesday, August 27, at 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Room at church. Amy Cotter and Cathy Bosworth are the facilitators for this group.
If you have questions or need more information, please call Cathy at 612-708-1144 or email her at marcat8447@yahoo.com.
School Supplies Drive
Neighborhood Ministries is collecting school supplies for about 100 neighborhood children. These supplies will be distributed at the August 2 Community Meal. While this is an item in our budget, generous contributions from the Mount Olive community will help to provide as many supplies as possible.
A Neighborhood Ministries Committee member will be on hand during coffee hour for one more Sunday – this coming Sunday, July 27, to receive your donations.
Thanks for offering your support to this vital neighborhood ministry!
Food and Personal Items Needed!
Please remember your contributions to the food shelf during these summer months. You may use your blue envelopes and designate "food shelf" as the recipient. Non-perishable food items may be placed in the shopping cart in the coat room.
Also, please remember that we collect small toiletries (like the complimentary items provided by hotels and motels) for distribution to homeless people, who have little space for such items. Please bring your unused/unopened toiletries to the designated basket in the coat room.
Know that your donations help provide basic needs for others, as Christ would have us do.
Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads
For their meeting on August 9, the Book Discussion group will read, All the King's Men (restored edition), by Robert Penn Warren. For the September 13 meeting, they will discuss, The Woman Behind the New Deal, by Kirstin Downey.
Diaper Depot in Need of Year-Round Funding
Several years ago, as the Neighborhood Ministries Committee considered ideas for a program which would directly help families in our neighborhood, they decided that a service to provide low-cost diapers to area families would be a practical and much-needed service. They held a fundraiser with a “name that program” contest, and so the Diaper Depot was born. This has been a very popular program with neighborhood families for a number of years. Two elderly grandparents who are raising their three young grandchildren recently said, with tears in their eyes, “You don’t know how much this helps!”
The funds to provide this much-needed service are part of our church budget, but until now, the Diaper Depot has never been open in the summer. Additional funds are needed to provide this service to our neighborhood families year-round.
The blue Missions envelope from the offering envelope mailing has a blank line under “local missions.” Please consider making a gift to the Diaper Depot (by writing “Diaper Depot” on that line), or by using an envelope designated for this. You may also want to consider becoming a sustaining member by providing regular weekly, monthly, or yearly gifts to this important ministry (thanks to those who are already doing this!). We would also welcome volunteers to work in the Diaper Depot. It is open on Tuesdays from 4:30-6:30, and on Thursdays from 1:30-3:30. Please contact Connie Toavs at church if you would like to volunteer!
This neighborhood need does not take a break for the summer – and neither should we! Please be generous, as the need continues throughout the year. Thanks in advance for your generosity.
TRUST Annual Fund Appeal
By now, you should have received TRUST’s annual fund appeal in the mail. We sent this mailing from the church office because it is our policy that we don’t share our mailing list with others.
Mount Olive has been a member of TRUST for several years and we are involved in some of their many activities. These activities would not be possible without the support of members of TRUST congregations. Please support their efforts generously!
Our Going Out and Our Coming In: Staff Summer Schedules
• Pastor Crippen will be on vacation July 21-August 4.
• Cantor Cherwien will be on vacation August 1-6, and August 21-27.
• Administrative Assistant Cha Posz will be on vacation August 11-15.
• Sexton William Pratley will be on vacation July 23-29.
• Interim Neighborhood Ministries Coordinator Connie Toavs will be on vacation July 21-25.
Summer Ensembles Forming Now!
Cantor Cherwien is assembling two ensembles to sing for summer worship.
A men’s ensemble will meet, rehearse, and sing for the liturgy on August 10; and a women’s ensemble will meet, rehearse, and sing for the liturgy on August 17.
In each case, the plan is to meet at 8:00 that morning and rehearse until 9:15, singing for the morning liturgies at 9:30.
Come and lend your voice to the choir(s)!
Red Cross CPR-AED Training Events
Thanks to a Mount Olive Foundation grant, there is now a defibrillator (AED) available to the congregation for use in case of an emergency. The AED is wall-mounted outside the elevator on the main level of the parish hall.
In order to prepare for such an emergency, Red Cross CPR-AED training will be made available to members and friends at no cost (a $90 value!) Each session will be limited to 12 people. At the end of the session, participants will have a 2-year certification.
The same 3-hour training session will be offered three different times:
• Saturday morning, August 9, starting 8:30 am
• Wednesday morning, August 13, starting 8:30 am
• Tuesday evening, August 19, starting 6:00 pm
If you want to take advantage of this offer, please sign up on or before Monday, July 28. Sign-up sheets are in the church office or call the office at (612) 827-5919, Monday through Friday, to have your name added to one of the signups.
Olive Branch Summer Publication Schedule
During the summer months, The Olive Branch is published every other week.
The next Olive Branch will be published on Wednesday, August 6. Information for that issue is due in to the church office by Tuesday, August 5.
“Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through God who loves us.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, An African Prayer Book. [1]
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 16 A
texts: Matthew 13:24-30, 34-43; Romans 8:12-25
Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.
So writes Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He would know, having lived through the darkness and evil of apartheid and seen transformation. But is this truth he speaks still truth? A passenger plane carrying 300 people is shot down over the Ukraine, and no one knows who did it, and does it matter who? Nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria who were stolen from their families are still missing; some have escaped, others are rumored to have been sold in marriage, some have been found brutally killed, some may have been moved out of the country. Children are sent away all by themselves across our southern border by desperate parents, hoping to remove them from violence and death, and are met by adults who wish to drive them back to violence and death and call it defense of our country. Rockets continue to fly from Gaza into Israel, and Israel retaliates by attacking back. And children on both sides suffer and die. On Tuesday a suicide bomber blew up a car in Afghanistan, killing nearly 90, the worst bombing there since 2001. A new militant religious state is rising in the midst of Iraq and Syria. And our city’s mayor and police chief continue to urge and plead with us to put away our guns and stop shooting each other.
Perhaps our prayer would better be “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.”
Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.
Jesus told a story of good and evil growing in the same field. “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” Humans have asked this for millennia. “Did you not make a good world, God? Where, then, did this evil come from?”
The story looks less than satisfying as an answer. The Master of the farm urges patience on the workers. Yes, it was and is a good field, sown with good seed. Yes, an enemy is sowing weeds in it. But we’re not going to tear out those weeds just yet. You can’t easily tell the difference, for one thing; only I, the Master, can really tell. So I’ll take care of it in the end. For now, be patient, as I am patient.
The apostle Paul says much the same today. Yes, there is suffering and decay in this present time. Even the whole creation groans and longs for fulfillment and healing. Be patient, it will come.
So we pray: “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.”
Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.
Does “patience” mean “do nothing”? Archbishop Tutu has also said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Is that a faithful way to live as disciples of Christ Jesus?
It’s easy to respond to evil, saying, “what can we do?” That absolves us from responsibility. “There are just bad seeds out there, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” we say, using this story as support.
But if we do nothing, say nothing, we are complicit, we are culpable. We may not know what we can do, and in weeks like this it can seem impossible to think of anything. But if we don’t engage in our city, our state, our country, and our world; if we aren’t a voice for peace and justice; if we don’t seek by our lives and words and work to make this world a safe and just place for all children and adults alike; then we are part of the evil, and hate, and darkness, and death.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.
Goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death.
Is Jesus’ interpretation of this parable helpful? It seems to undergird and support our human desire for vengeance, part of the evil of this world. Read one way, we could think we are urged to be patient because, in the end, the bad guys will get what’s coming to them. There will be fire, and the bad plants will be gathered and burned.
It’s true that this story urges us not to judge, to leave it to our Master. But we do, anyway. Is the patience we seek as followers of this Christ no different than the bloodthirsty vengeance actively sought by millions around the world every day? We let God do the dirty work, but our hope is that the dirty work, the judgment and burning and destruction, be done.
So what ever are we to make of this wonder, that in the end, Jesus, who tells this story and this interpretation, doesn’t collect the evil for burning? He goes into the heart of the fire himself, where the evil is supposed to be sent, and is burned up himself.
Lord, have mercy, indeed.
Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.
The word “patient” comes to us via the Latin, and is related to the word for “suffering”. So, people in hospitals are called “patients.” We’ve lost this sense when we speak of patience as a characteristic of our lives, maybe because English has lots of words that sound and look alike but come from different meanings. Not here.
To be patient is to suffer. So the Triune God’s word in this story doesn’t mean what we thought. The Incarnate Son of God, who told this story, was literally patient with evil, with us, with the world. He suffered in, with, and among us.
He brought the goodness and love and light and life of the almighty and Triune God into the heart of a world sown with the seeds of evil and hate and darkness and death. And he suffered. Was patient. Same thing.
And that is the mercy of our Lord and Christ for which we pray.
Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.
This is what it is for us to be patient as our Patient God is patient. To see ourselves, followers of this crucified and risen Christ Jesus, as people placed in the middle of the field as the goodness and love and light and life of the Triune God. Not to judge it; we cannot. Not to secretly hope that God will judge and burn; that is not the way of Christ we have seen. But simply to stand in the field of the world as good in the midst of evil. Love in the midst of hate. Light in the midst of darkness. Life in the midst of death.
Because God chose to give us, the children of God, free will to choose to love or not, to choose to follow God or not, the good field with good seed is sown with evil seeds. We have sown them, and we, as much as any, are “the enemy” Jesus speaks of in this story. Each of us has good and bad seeds striving within us, each of us is a field.
But beyond this story, what our Lord has shown us is that when the children of God stand as the good, the field can be redeemed. Healing can happen, in us, and in the world. We know this to be true, because we have seen the cross and we have seen the empty tomb.
And Christ our Lord, who has more mercy than we can ever imagine, is risen. And the field is being made new.
Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.
The truth about the patient Savior, the suffering God, is that the harvest will not be gathered until the end, and that this true patience has the possibility of changing the harvest, of transforming all evil and making it good. The wisdom of the Son of God is that when goodness, love, light, and life all face their opposites, and are seemingly taken over, each time they thrive in that loss, and grow, and eventually overcome and transform. They are stronger, yes, but not to defeat; rather to transform and make new. We have seen this in Christ Jesus in his death and resurrection. We have seen it again and again throughout history, if we look. This is how God is working, suffering, being patient in the field. And one day there will be no need for fire, because the field will be filled with good seed and the world will be whole again.
But it costs, this way, this wisdom. Look at Jesus. Look at everyone who’s ever followed him into the fire, including those many who didn’t even know him but did the same. If we follow Christ Jesus, we follow him to the cross, into the fire of destruction. We also are burned when we stand as goodness, love, light, and life in a world filled with the opposites.
Because following will mean patience on our part that is like the patience of the Triune God. Patience in both senses of the word, which are the same. Patient trust in God. Patience that is suffering.
But in the crucified and risen Savior we know this as absolute truth about us and about the world:
Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours through God who loves us.
Victory is the world’s through God who loves all.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
[1] Copyright © 1995 Desmond Tutu, admin. Random House, Inc. and Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd. Used in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, no. 721.
Jesus tells parables to open up the secrets, the mystery, of God’s way, a way so different from our way that sometimes only pictures can open the possibility; today is the image of a seed and growing, and God’s promise that this seed will bear fruit in all circumstances.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 15 A
texts: Matthew 13:1-23 (adding back the omitted verses 10-17); Isaiah 55:10-13
Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
We might have the wrong idea about mystery because of the literary genre that has given birth to books and films and all sorts of stories. In those, the whole point is to follow the clues and solve the answer – the guilty party, the secret staircase, the hidden history of the family – whatever it is.
The mysteries of faith are quite different. Understanding, or comprehending the mystery of God’s will and ways is not a puzzle we can sort out for ourselves, even if we follow the clues that God has revealed. So our goal is not finding a simply packaged answer that boxes God up neatly – for no such answers exist – rather it is finding a deep appreciation of the mystery of God and a willingness to enter into whatever the Triune God has revealed to us.
This is how we can begin to hear Jesus’ parables. Because without exception, when Jesus told a parable it was because he was trying to convey something of the mystery of the way of God, and the only way to do that was to paint a picture or tell a story or give a simple, earthly example. There were plenty of occasions when Jesus spoke directly, taught clearly and said exactly what we needed to know. We have much that is clear truth given to us directly by the Son of God. We should, therefore, take it seriously that sometimes he didn’t feel direct speech could convey God’s truth, and used the form of a parable instead.
What that means for the next three weeks of Gospel readings, but also for all of our encounters with Jesus’ parables, is that we seek to set aside the idea that there is one “meaning” we can write up that fully explains the parable. If there were, Jesus wouldn’t have told a parable, he’d have said a declarative statement. Realizing that, we can begin to see that with these parables Jesus is giving us images and stories that we can live in, ponder, look at from different angles, and see many different riches and truths of God that he is trying to convey. The parables are extravagant gifts indeed, for they are views into the very heart and mind of God, and through these images we are able to catch glimpses of the beauty and grace of the Triune God Jesus came to reveal to the world.
Today we begin with considering the question of mystery before we look at today’s parable, because that’s what Matthew does.
With this familiar parable Matthew, like Mark and Luke, introduces Jesus as parable teller. As it is the first story, they all also include Jesus’ answer of why he tells parables in between the parable itself and Jesus’ explanation of it. The lectionary left out those middle verses, likely because they are a little confusing, but we heard them today for the simple reason that today’s Gospel makes more sense with the verses left in. We need to understand, before any parables, what Jesus is doing.
And it’s all about mystery, the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God. The difficulty is the question of whether Jesus tells parables to deliberately confuse hearers who are outside his group of disciples, or in the hopes that the outsiders will perhaps understand and follow.
Jesus here says he hopes to help understanding. He says, “The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’” (13:13) In other words, Jesus is saying here that it is because of the lack of understanding of the crowds that he tells them parables.
To underscore this, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6, about the people’s hearts being dull, their ears hard of hearing, their eyes closed, so that they aren’t able to be reached by God. But Jesus turns Isaiah around. In Isaiah, the prophet is told to speak in a way that makes the people dull and deaf and blind. Jesus flips it over, and says that the people’s blocking of God’s ways is the reality, and that he is telling parables to try and crack through that veneer, to reach people who have made themselves unable to see or hear or know God’s Word.
And that is the way of the world, isn’t it? We want things to be as we see them, as we make them. God’s ways are radically different, so we close ourselves off to them. Rather than be changed to see or hear or know differently, we pretend we cannot even understand God.
So Jesus gives us God’s mysteries in stories and pictures, hoping to sneak past our defenses, climb over our walls, unlock our back doors, and show us God’s true intention for us and for the world.
And as Jesus says, once we’re open to the reality of the mystery of God’s ways, more and more we’ll be able to see how this is truth and life. “To those who have, more will be given,” he says.
But the more we close ourselves off to our own way, and try to force God into that, the less we’ll be able to understand God. “From those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away,” he says.
That’s reality. And he’s giving parables to us, to the world, in an attempt to change that reality, and invite everyone into the mystery of God in the world.
With that in mind, let’s look at this story of a farmer throwing seeds all over the place.
There is much we could say about this story. However, since we’re not looking for “the one answer,” let’s just turn this jewel in the light and look at one of the glimpses of God it provides.
This is one of only two parables where an explanation by Jesus of the parable’s meaning is provided by the Evangelists. Even so, the explanation Jesus gives only serves to help us find entry into his original parable. It doesn’t give a final, declarative conclusion.
So the seed is “the word of the kingdom,” Jesus says. But that could mean Jesus – the Word of God incarnate – is the seed; it could mean that Jesus is the sower and the seed – the Word – is his teaching. It could mean that we are the sowers and the seed – the Gospel – is what we are spreading. Do you see?
But keeping in mind Jesus’ explanation of the four soils, what happens if we look at this story with open minds and new eyes to the mystery?
What I notice this time is that we’ve sometimes assumed that Jesus is describing a permanent, final situation for all the seeds. But what if he’s only describing the reality of the world? That is, what if he’s not saying that at the end of this parable we have the final answer for all of these seeds, all of these plants?
That yes, there are some people whose faith is hindered by not understanding, and any good news from God falls away without impact. And yes, there are some people whose faith is deeply challenged by persecution and trouble that following Jesus might bring. And yes, there are some people whose faith is deeply challenged by worries about life, or anxiety that leads to grasping for false security such as wealth. And yes, there are some people whose faith seems to root deeply and grow and produce fruit.
But nothing here says that’s the final situation for any of these people.
And what if he’s not saying that people are classified in only one type of soil?
That, yes, there are lots of ways faith is challenged, and he’s described them well, but that perhaps any of us at any time might find ourselves in one place or the other. That is, at some times in our life the thorns might threaten us, at some times we seem to struggle to deepen our roots, at some times we simply don’t understand at all, and at some times it all makes sense to us.
Nothing here says that we cannot find ourselves in various kinds of soil in our lives.
If this is so, then what if Jesus is tying this parable to all the rest of his teaching and ministry (a good biblical interpretive principle), and is inviting us to participate in the growing of God’s Word in the world?
Jesus knew his Isaiah well, and certainly knew and believed our words from Isaiah 55 today, that the seed of God’s Word will always grow and accomplish what God intends for it.
The sower practices horrible agricultural techniques, throwing the seed into all sorts of inappropriate places, wasting a precious resource of seeds for planting. Even in Jesus’ day a farmer would prepare soil and only put seeds into the prepared place, which had weeds already removed, and rocks taken away, and never on a hard path.
The only way this planting method makes sense is Isaiah 55: the mystery of God is that God desires the Word to go everywhere, even in places we’d usually assume were a waste of time and space, simply because God will make sure the Word will take root and grow.
It will do what I want it to do, God says.
Which leads us to consider the possibility that the status of the seeds and the soils and the growth is not a final status but an in-between one. That just as we often find ourselves as different kinds of soil, we also are able to change our soil, or have it changed for us. Nothing in this parable says that the farmer can’t or doesn’t break apart a path or pull up weeds or remove rocks.
So what if that’s something Jesus would like us to consider? What if he’d like us to think not about our final status but about our gardening and farming skills?
The fruits of life in Christ he calls out in us are always love of God and love of neighbor. Perhaps part of the mystery of the kingdom of God is that within the kingdom those who are growing well and bearing the fruit of love of God and neighbor can be helping those who are in a time of thorns or rocks, or feel as if their minds are as thick as concrete sidewalks.
Bearing thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold fruits of such love would be shown to the world in our willingness to help our neighbors with their patch of ground.
To lovingly help those struggling to understand by listening to their confusion and sharing what we’ve seen. To lovingly help those struggling with the anxieties of the world, the misplaced priorities of a wealthy society, by walking alongside them in a different way, showing how it is a way of life to live in trust of God for all things. And to lovingly help those who keep hitting rocks in their attempt to deepen in faith by gently helping them remove the barriers and obstacles that are hindering their faith, by digging out rocks with them.
Suddenly this jewel of a parable reveals the beauty of a community of believers who help each other grow and deepen in the Word, in faith.
Of course, the scary part is when we find ourselves struggling, because it will take a great risk to admit to others the weeds and thorns and rocks and hard paths in our hearts and lives, and more, to let our sister or brother help us with them.
We tend to prefer being the helper, and resist admitting we need help from others. But compassion runs in two directions, and we need to be able to receive as much as to give.
Perhaps Jesus tells this parable, which so easily makes sense to our own experience of thorns and rocks and concrete in our lives, to encourage us to see that we’re in the same field as our sisters and brothers and we need not be too proud to let them help us with our patch of grain once in awhile.
It’s a beautiful thing to consider. And it all comes from this simple story of planting seeds.
Next time we pick it up, and turn it around, perhaps the jewel of this story will shine something else for us. It’s how Jesus’ parables tend to work.
For now, we have this mystery, that even when we seem to see no life, dead seeds stuck in bad soil, God promises it will grow and bear fruit. And in this story, God’s given us the task of being a part of that promise, being a part of that growing that God most certainly will accomplish.
And what a privilege that is, to work the garden alongside the God who is with us always. We remain in mystery about how God will do all this. But what we know for certain is that this seed God has planted in us, in the world, will grow and bear fruit. That is a promise.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Accent on Worship
What’s with these pictures?
For the next three weeks in our Gospel readings for Eucharist we’ll have the parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew, parables related to the kingdom of heaven, or kingdom of God. What’s obvious even to us 2,000 years later is that these images didn’t necessarily make things clearer for Jesus’ hearers, then or now. Often the disciples seemed confused by them, and often so are we. We tend to want to boil them down to a simple moral, a simple answer, which, if that’s what Jesus wanted to give, he could have given. Instead, he painted these pictures.
So it would be wise for us to set aside any preconceived ideas about what Jesus is doing with these parables in the next few weeks. They’re all familiar to us, parables about seeds growing or not growing, weeds cropping up, tiny seeds becoming large, great hidden treasures found or sought, a net being cast into a lake. But we should take Jesus’ words in the middle of Sunday’s reading as our starting point. He seems to suggest that there is mystery about the rule and reign of God that cannot be conveyed easily, and not always with direct teaching. (Which makes sense since God’s ways are so different from our ways and the way of the world.) So he lifts up pictures, images, and says, “It’s like that.” The more we are open to the reality that there is great mystery here, the more likely it is that we’ll begin to see what Jesus is getting at. The more we try to find “the answer” to each parable, the key that explains it all, the less we will understand.
So this time, let’s just listen to these parables as if they were new to us, and leave ourselves open to where the Spirit of God might lead us, open to where these pictures take us. When we did this in our Bible study on parables last winter it was amazing to see where people were drawn by these words of Jesus. Let’s be open to the mysterious way these pictures reveal the truth Jesus needs us to hear about how God is ruling and working in this world. Because these parables are life-giving and eye-opening, that we know for certain. “Let anyone with ears listen.”
Joseph
Sunday Readings
July 13, 2014: 5th Sunday after Pentecost (Lect. 15A)
Isaiah 55:1-13
Psalm 65:9-13
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
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July 20, 2014: 6th Sunday after Pentecost (Lect. 16A)
Isaiah 44:6-8
Psalm 86:11-17
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Olive Branch Summer Publication Schedule
During the summer months, The Olive Branch is published every other week.
The next Olive Branch will be published on Wednesday, July 23. Information for that issue is due in to the church office by Tuesday, July 22.
Transitions Support Group Continues
Participants in the recent 4 -week life transitions support group have decided to continue meeting but on a less regular basis. They invite others who would like an opportunity to discuss concerns and receive support to join them.
The next meeting is on Wednesday, July 16, at 6:30 in the Youth Room. Amy Cotter and Cathy Bosworth will act as facilitators. If you have questions, please call Cathy at 612-708-1144 or email her at marcat8447@yahoo.com.
School Supplies Drive
Though summer has just begun, for the Neighborhood Ministries Committee it means that it’s time to look forward to the beginning of school!
Neighborhood Ministries is collecting school supplies for about 100 neighborhood children. These supplies will be distributed at the August 2 Community Meal. While this is an item in our budget, generous contributions from the Mount Olive community will help to provide as many supplies as possible.
A Neighborhood Ministries Committee member will be on hand during coffee hour on Sundays, July 13, 20, and 27 to receive your donations.
Thanks for offering your support to this vital neighborhood ministry!
The Bargain Box
Saturday, August 2 will be a busy day at Mount Olive! We will be helping to get neighborhood children ready for school year with Bargain Box fitting children with new school clothes and distributing school supplies during the Community Meal. We are looking for donations of cash, new and gently used children’s clothes (no adult clothes, please), school supplies, and backpacks.
If you have time to help with the meal, or assist with clothing or school supplies, please plan to come to the August Community Meals!
Please note: Neighborhood Ministries is also looking for backpacks, new and gently-used, to distribute at the August Community Meal. We want children to be ready for school! Stay tuned for more information.
- Neighborhood Ministries Committee
Red Cross CPR-AED Training Events
Thanks to a Mount Olive Foundation grant, there is now a defibrillator (AED) available to the congregation for use in case of an emergency. The AED is wall-mounted outside the elevator on the main level of the parish hall.
In order to prepare for such an emergency, Red Cross CPR-AED training will be made available to members and friends at no cost (a $90 value!) Each session will be limited to 12 people. At the end of the session, participants will have a 2-year certification.
The same 3-hour training session will be offered three different times:
• Saturday morning, August 9, starting 8:30 am
• Wednesday morning, August 13, starting 8:30 am
• Tuesday evening, August 19, starting 6:00 pm
If you want to take advantage of this offer, please sign up on or before Monday, July 28. Sign-up sheets are in the church office or call the office at (612) 827-5919, Monday through Friday, to have your name added to one of the signups.
Food and Personal Items Needed!
Now that school is out for the summer, many children who receive free or reduced-price lunches at school will often go hungry. Please keep up or increase your monetary and food contributions during the summer months. You may use your blue envelopes and designate "food shelf" as the recipient. Non-perishable food items may be placed in the shopping cart in the coat room.
In our summer travels, remember that the complimentary toiletries provided by hotels and motels are ideal for homeless people who have little space for such items. Most of the time, we are charged for these items as a part of the payment for accommodations. Please bring your unused toiletries to the designated basket in the coat room.
Know that your donations help provide basic needs, as Christ would have us do.
Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads
For their meeting on July 12 the group will discuss, All Over But the Shoutin', by Rick Bragg, and for the August 9 meeting they will read, All the King's Men (restored edition), by Robert Penn Warren.
Neighborhood Ministries Coordinator Position Description Now Available
The position description for the Coordinator of Neighborhood Ministries and Outreach has been completed and is available by contacting the church office or on the Mount Olive website.
Congregational members who are interested and meet the qualifications are encouraged to apply for the position. Thanks to the search committee for working hard on this step. The next step will be to screen applicants and host interviews. We hope to have a new Coordinator in place by the end of September.
Committee members are Kathy Thurston and Sue Ellen Zagrabelny (Neighborhood Ministries Committee), Cynthia Prosek and Neil Hering (Visioning Lead Committee), George Ferguson and Gretchen Campbell-Johnson (at-large), Pastor Crippen, Vicar Beckering, and Lora Dundek (ex-officio).
Every Church a Peace Church July Meeting
The ECAPC July potluck supper meeting will be held on Monday, July 21, 6:30 p.m., at St. Albert the Great Catholic Church, 29th St. & 32nd Ave. S., Minneapolis. (612-724-3643, www.saintalbertthegreat.org.)
The program for the July meeting will be a presentation and discussion led by John Keller, Executive Director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM). His presentation will be "Immigration Reform: A Christian Response.”
John Keller has been the Executive Director ILCM since 2005; prior to that he had been a staff attorney at ILCM for six years. In 2007, Keller was named Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyers, and he received the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits 2007 Advocacy Award on behalf of ILCM for work he led in response to immigration raids in 2006.
All interested are cordially invited to attend - and to bring friends!
Our Going Out and Our Coming In: Staff Summer Schedules
• Pastor Crippen will be on vacation July 28-August 4.
• Cantor Cherwien is leading a workshop and presenting at a national worship conference for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada July 17-23.
• Vicar Emily Beckering will be on vacation July 15-18.
• Administrative Assistant Cha Posz will be on vacation August 11-15.
• Sexton William Pratley will be on vacation July 23-29.
A Note of Thanks
To our Brothers and Sisters at Mount Olive,
Thank you for your kind words, cards, prayers, and support shown to us and to our families at the death of our father Oren Larson.
Oren enjoyed coming to Mount Olive to celebrate weddings and baptisms of his children and grandchildren and Mount Olive always held a dear place in his heart.
Sincerely,
Joyce Brown and Linda Pipkorn
Holden On the Road: August 1-3
Holden Village in Washington State is under construction this summer and they are taking their summer teaching program on the road. This summer, Holden is partnering with a number of venues across the country to provide experiences similar to those at Holden Village. August 1-3 they will be at Koinonia Retreat Center in South Haven, Minnesota.
Mount Olive members John and Connie Marty will be on teaching staff during the weekend of August 1-3, and they invite everyone to join in the fun and fellowship. It will be a multi-generational event which includes typical Holden fare. The program at Koinonia will include options for outdoor recreation, arts and crafts, teaching sessions, Bible study, and communal daily worship.
Brochures about Holden on the Road, including information about the weekend at Koinonia, are available on the ledge just outside the church office. Pick one up for more information.
Honoring Graduates
On Sunday, July 20, we will remember in prayer those who graduated from high school, college, and graduate school this past spring.
If you are a graduate, or if someone in your family is, please call the church office and let us know, so that we may remember them by name in prayer at the morning Eucharist.
Meals on Wheels Thanks
The following persons from Mount Olive served as drivers and deliverers of Meals on Wheels for TRUST during the second quarter of 2014: Gary Flatgard, Elaine & Art Halbardier, Bob Lee, and Connie & Rod Olson.
We thank them for their participation in this vital neighborhood ministry.
Left Behind
Lots and lots of things have been left at church in recent months: pans and dishes, sweaters, coats, gloves, children’s items, books, and more!
In an attempt to reunite people with their lost things, there will be a lost and found display in coming weeks near the coatroom at church.
Stop and take a look to see if some of the items which have been left behind belong to you!
Merci Mille Fois
“Thank you a thousand times” to John and Patsy Holtmeier for hosting the all-church picnic at their home on June 22. It was a beautiful day in beautiful surroundings. There was something for everyone: games, a zip line, a hymn sing (thanks Lora Dundek on keyboard and Andrea Brazelton on violin), and great food (thanks to all for the delicious potluck dishes).
A great time was had by all!
The call to come to Jesus and take up his yoke is not easy, but it is good and will bring joy because he is with us and is what we and the world most deeply need.
Vicar Emily Beckering; Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 14 A; text: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me;
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” [1]
These are the last words of Emma Lazarus’ poem engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. On this holiday weekend, we celebrate Lady Liberty’s words as though this is what America is all about: offering a world-wide welcome to the exiles, the poor, the hungry, the down-trodden and then melting them all together for success and freedom. In actuality, that is the exact opposite of our nation’s history. Each wave of immigrants in every part of the country and anyone who looks or thinks differently is often met with suspicion and resistance, sometimes even to the point of violence. This poem sings a golden depiction of our nation that is as shiny as it is fabricated. Despite best intentions, Americans have proven these words false time and time again and offered empty promises for hundreds of years.
Jesus’ words today are not unlike those of Lady Liberty’s when he says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,” but unlike our engraved image, Jesus exposes our true reality. We are like the crowds who heard Jesus and John the Baptist, but refused to listen.
Today, Jesus promises that he will provide rest for our souls and that the yoke—the way of life into which he invites us—is life-giving.
Sometimes, we may look at the condition of the world around us and at our own lives and reject Jesus’ words because all that we can see is death. When all that you can see is death, then only a funeral seems to carry the weight of the loss that we experience in this life. Only a funeral allows us to name pain, hurt, and disappointment:
Those whom we love still get sick. Our children, our spouses, our friends and those most dear to us still die.
We continue to struggle with our relationships and with ourselves; we still carry the burden of what we have done and what we have left undone, or as Paul says, we continue to be unable to do the good that we want, but do the very things we hate.
When we are weighed down by all of this, we may find ourselves protesting Jesus: we do not want to be comforted with words that deny the depth of our pain or the brokenness of this world.
When we feel like calling Jesus’ promise into question and dismissing his words as cheerful, pie-in-the-sky optimistic fluff that doesn’t hold enough weight for the real cares and worries of this world, then we are like the children in Jesus’ parable who want to play funeral, accusing Jesus, “we wailed and you did not mourn,” as if he doesn’t understand what life is really like, what it really feels like to suffer.
And yet, there are also times when we yearn for Jesus’ words to mean that if we just surrender to him enough, believe in him enough, then he will protect us from anything unpleasant or painful, that we will no longer hurt people or be hurt by them, that once we are his, everything really will be rose-colored.
Sometimes, it really would just be nice to escape everything, to not have to deal with it all.
Wouldn’t it be relaxing to live without a yoke, to be free of any responsibilities, any work?
We may even resent Jesus’ call to discipleship as too demanding. Instead, we long for safety, rescue, and relief: to cherish in our hearts the good news that Jesus loves us and forgives us, and let that be the end of it.
I will confess to you that this is where I was this past week and this is what I wanted to preach today, so much so that I even asked Cha before she printed the service folder for today, if on the cover art she could white-out the cross in Jesus’ hand. Then we could just have an open-armed Jesus without any call to the cross. Cha was a little uneasy with that and offered some objections. And indeed she was right.
When we find ourselves feeling this way, then we are like the children in Jesus’ parable who only want to play wedding, complaining, “Play the flute. We just want to dance!” In other words, “Lighten up, Jesus! We hear enough gloom and doom on the six o’clock news. Give us some good news to celebrate!”
The truth is that we can’t separate one from the other because Jesus’ call to him is always a call to the cross.
We have been hearing this summer of what our Lord requires of us. It is the cross, and it is anything but easy:
Two weeks ago we heard, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth, I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother.” (Matt. 10:34-35)
And earlier this spring we heard, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)
And we will soon hear again: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:24-25)
If we hear these words and feel overwhelmed, then it is because even God’s good gifts and call for our lives can be distorted into a burden from which we also long for relief.
Jesus himself raised the question: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” (Matt. 26:39) Yet, that cup—the call to love the world to such an extent that he would lay down his life for all—that cup could not pass from him because that kind of love is God’s way.
The cross is always at the center and always held out in Jesus’ hand because the world is what it is: broken, and Jesus is who he is for that world. The self-giving love shown on the cross is the very nature of God, for the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Grace, compassion, forgiveness, and persistent, unwavering love: that is what the Triune God bestows on us.
This is the yoke that Jesus invites us to place on our shoulders: grace, compassion, forgiveness, and relentless love.
A more helpful translation of the word, “easy” is, in fact, “good, loving, kind, pleasing.” With the promise of this life, Jesus neither brushes our cares aside nor offers us empty words to pacify us.
He does not say to us, “Pretend that everything is right in this world,” and we don’t hear, “Take everything on and try to fix it yourselves,” but instead, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”
This is the invitation that we are given because this is what we and the world most deeply need.
As Jesus laments over Jerusalem, so he also yearns to gather us and the entire world under his wings: he invites us into relationship once again, to know his love and care, and then to go out refreshed in order to offer that same love and comfort to all people by living in such a way that people know what it’s like to rest and be comforted when we are with them.
Jesus not only invites us, however, he actually makes this life possible by promising to be with us always, to help us do what he asks of us, and to bind us together in love as two oxen are bound in one yoke so that we can share the load together. What we cannot do by our own understanding or effort, the Holy Spirit can work through us.
We know this from our life together here at Mount Olive. When we pray for each other, call each other, take the time to listen intently to one another’s joys, struggles, and fears, wrap one another in prayer shawls, fill each other’s weekends with laughter, feed the hungry, and forgive when it hurts the most, then we bear one another’s burdens and the load really does feel lighter. We really do experience joy and fulfillment even in the most unexpected places.
God’s love is no longer something that we just talk about; it becomes a love that we hear from one another’s lips, feel when we are together, miss when we are apart, and see in the eyes of everyone who walks in those doors or is waiting on the other side of them.
When Christ makes this yoke—this way of life—evident in us, then he brings the Kingdom of God among us. Living in this way is not easy, but it is good, kind, loving, pleasing, and it will lead to joy because it is this for which we have been created. There is a cost to following Jesus, but it is far less than the cost of not following him. We are, as we prayed in the prayer of the day, restless until we rest in our God.
Whereas centuries of our ancestors and we ourselves have failed to protect the weak, to welcome the poor and the hungry, and to live as God intended, Jesus has never and will never fail those who need him. In him, there are no empty promises, no false notions of what this life is all about, and no offers to escape reality. Instead he offers an invitation to face ourselves, one another, and this creation for what we really are: broken, then to enter into that brokenness with him and with our sisters and brothers tied to us on every side, and watch how the greatest love ever known will flow from him through us to heal it. So come here to the table all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens where we find the One—the only one—who can give rest and joy.
Amen.
[1] Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus," 1883. http://www.statueofliberty.org/Statue_of_Liberty.html
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