19 Pentecost Yr C Proper 24 Oct 16 2022

19 Pentecost Yr C Proper 24 Oct 16 2022

Genesis 32:22-31, Psalm 121, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8

 

What an odd sort of story from Luke. Keeping in mind that when Jesus tells a parable, he is trying to shake us up, make us see and hear things differently, what might this parable have to say to us today? I wonder if it has to do with taking a long view. I wonder if it has to do with staying in and participating in our relationship with God.

 

Let’s take a look at a couple of scenarios that may shed some light on this very odd little story. First of all, we know that at this point in Luke’s gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. This story is one of a series of stories of Jesus imparting as much wisdom to the disciples as possible before arriving in Jerusalem. We are overhearing Jesus instructing the disciples, and it seems like Luke really means for us to overhear these instructions. 

 

And yet we have this very puzzling judge, and an equally puzzling woman. It seems to me that a character in a story Luke is telling should be an upstanding character. In a culture that values honor and assigns shame in its absence, like this one, it seems that the judge in this story should have been honorable, but instead this judge is associated with shame, we learn that because the judge neither feared God nor had respect for people. Eventually the judge granted this woman’s need out of convenience for himself, nothing more noble than that, he just didn’t want to be bothered anymore. The widow should have been respected, but she was powerless, so this was life and death for her. And her coming to this court and this judge was constant and repetitive.

 

There are all sorts of ways this could go; you’ve probably heard many of them. But despite what the world would say to us, despite those whom we encounter that would have us believe God is inconsequential, or God is irrelevant, like this judge in our story, I want to offer something different. First, I think God is calling us to stay in this relationship, God is calling us to participate in this relationship, God is calling us to partner with Jesus in loving one another. And in our world today, that is a hard thing to do. And secondly, having a relationship with God needs a long view. 

 

So staying in relationship with God, participating with God in loving all creation, co-conspiring with Jesus in healing, is about taking the long view. I saw a meme on Facebook this week, a picture of an apple with these words, “the day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.”

 

Staying in this relationship with God. Staying in when the going gets tough. Staying in when all evidence suggests it’s a lost cause. Staying in when God doesn’t seem to answer your prayers as you wish. Staying in when death looks you in the eyes. Staying in when everything and everyone in our culture says you are foolish. Staying in is what God calls us to and staying in any relationship is hard. But you can do hard things.

 

The going gets tough, doesn’t it? We have learned to expect results instantly. Our internet speed must be instantaneous. Our email must be answered immediately. Our texts read and responded to right away. Everything we experience today regarding the gathering of information is about having it in the palm of our hand right now. We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom, while starving for relationship. We have lost sight of the value of waiting, of patience, of obedience in the same direction.

 

God calls us to stay in, even when the evidence suggests it’s a lost cause. But that evidence is interpreted through a lens that may not have God in focus. The story of Jesus’ life and death look like a lost cause. People looked to Jesus as leader, as king, and maybe even as magician. And yet, Jesus was put to death on a cross and laid in a tomb and left for dead. Stay in, hold on, wait for it…. Mary and the other women return to the tomb to anoint the body and God does a new thing. 

 

Remember that seed? The day you plant it, it looks nothing like the fruit you will eventually pick and eat. When the seed goes into the ground, it sure doesn’t look like the apple that one day hangs on the tree. Burying the seed in the ground looks a lot like death, and yet what emerges is new life. Letting go of our old selves, our addictions, our need to control, our need for power, our belief in our unworthiness, is a lot like being buried with Jesus, to rise again as new creations. Stay in for the long haul, the arc bends toward joy.

 

Stay in when God doesn’t answer your prayers the way you want God to answer your prayers. How hard is that? You and I both know God is God, and we are not. How many times have you heard from God no, not now, maybe even no, not ever. What we think is best for us is often not what is best for us. And yet, God loves us so very much God lets us choose, God even lets us fail. These are not the times to turn our back on God because God didn’t do it our way. Stay in, participate in this relationship God gives us. Stay in and don’t let the world beat you down.

 

Stay in even when following Jesus may look foolish. Some would say, look out only for yourself, make money at the expense of others, guard your walls so that no one who challenges your carefully constructed contours may show you something new and different. Because looking out for the least and the lost, feeding those who are hungry, caring for those on the margins, won’t get you anywhere, won’t make you money, and surely won’t buy you happiness. Stay in when following Jesus may look foolish, the arc bends toward hope.

 

Stay in because death is not the worst thing that happens to us. The worst thing is not living while we are alive. God gives us this great gift of love, and mercy, and compassion. God gives us this great gift of new life today. Let go of the stuff that gets in the way of relationship, let go of the stuff that pulls us apart, let go of the addictions, let go of the anger, let go, so that you can stay in and your heart may love.

 

Stay in for the long haul, the arc bends toward joy, hope, and love. And as you stay in this relationship that God offers you through Jesus Christ, and through all those you encounter, you are empowered and equipped to love with your whole heart, and what happens then? Love wins. Amen.

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Yr A Proper 11 July 19 2020

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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Yr A Proper 11 July 19 2020

Genesis 28:10-19a, Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

Scholar’s think that the second part of the parable we heard today, the interpretation, was a later addition. So this morning, this preacher is making a choice to preach on the first part, the parable excluding the interpretation.

Let’s take a look at this morning’s parable. The farm hands of the householder have discovered that someone has come out in the dark of night, and sowed weeds in the wheat, and they are beginning to grow alongside the wheat. The farm hands want to pull the weeds, but the householder tells them not to because pulling the weeds would destroy the wheat as well. The householder tells them to let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time collect the weeds first and burn them, and then gather the wheat.

Last week I told you briefly about my weed garden. Rick is the green thumb in our family, I can’t get anything to grow, except weeds. I have some beautiful huge dandelions, and clover, I really like the clover. If I had it my way, we’d all have native grass yards, that’s really code for “whatever weeds grow in our area.” You see, I’m really not very dedicated to weeding, I pull the ones I don’t think are pretty, that would make me quite judgmental I suppose.

At St. Andrew’s in Rapid City, my friend Harold Oberlander is a wheat farmer. I asked him about growing wheat, it seems to me to be an incredibly hard crop to grow, too much rain, not enough rain, late snow, early snow, and hail will kill it all. Everyone calls him Obie, and I asked him about the weeds and the wheat. He told me you can’t pull the weeds, because pulling the weeds pulls up the wheat as well. Who knew?

In the end, I think this parable from Matthew is about two things. It is about our patience, and it reminds us that God is God, and we are not.

You see, the wheat and the weeds grow up together. If we were wheat farmers, we would know that to remove the weeds is to kill the wheat. These are a particular kind of weed. The weed, or tare, in our gospel parable is a specific plant—darnel—a grass that grows in the same zones where wheat is produced. Darnel looks very much like wheat when it is immature; its roots intertwine with those of the wheat and its toxic grains are loosely attached to the stem. The problem of what to do with an infested field does not have a simple solution—pull up the shoots and you pull up the wheat; wait until the harvest and you poison the grain and contaminate next year’s crop with failing seeds.

You just can’t pull the weeds too early, you must be patient and find the right time for pulling.

In the parable it is reported that the one who is responsible for the weeds is an enemy. But instead of attacking the enemy who put the weeds there, the householder let the weeds and the wheat live together until harvest. If the householder is like God, the field hands are disciples like you and me, the weeds are those who we may consider bad, or evildoers, or even merely those with whom we disagree, and the wheat is those who we may consider good, right thinking, or merely those with whom we agree. At this time in Jewish practice, two different things were never to touch each other, that resulted in impurity, and purity along with holiness were the two most important concepts in Jewish life. But Jesus brings this new thing into the world, new life, new love. I think the point is that Jesus’ disciples, you and me are to let the wheat and the weeds grow side by side and leave judgment to God.

Now, that is shocking. Judgment? is up to God? Not up to you or me. God’s judgment, God’s righteousness, God’s perfection is perfect love and mercy. Blessings of sun and rain fall upon the righteous and unrighteous alike. This is truly a story that reminds us that God is God and we are not.

What has happened here is that Jesus has removed the burden of judgment from our shoulders. Jesus went to the cross and absorbed and contained the evil of the world, the evil of his tormenters. Jesus has freed us to give into love. Don’t be afraid of those weeds, don’t give in to fear. We are not called to serve as judge, judging will only make us more anxious as we try to maintain constant vigilance, always eyeing our neighbor to try to pick out the enemy.

Our vocation is to love, as God first loved us. Jesus is the merciful judge; we don’t have to worry about how to do his job. Jesus is the merciful judge, and so we have access to an unshakable hope, the blessed assurance that we will be judged with the same infinite mercy, as will our enemies.

The wheat and the tare are intertwined; to pull the weeds to early is to kill the plant. It’s a desperate situation. But we know from this side of the story that Jesus is in a desperate situation. We know that his life leads him to suffering and death on the cross, and we also know that ultimately God inaugurates the new creation in Jesus’ resurrection, but not without the suffering that precedes it. Another way to experience this parable of the wheat and the tare is to let it teach us about death and resurrection, about heartache and hope. Maybe the householder is wise in letting the wheat and the tare grow up together because the householder knows something about suffering and death. Because that is the truth, isn’t it? The householder, who is God in this parable, knows something about heartache and hope. Jesus walks in the midst of the weeds and the wheat and embraces us all.

Friends, in the midst of the chaos in which we are living, this parable speaks so much truth. This chaos, all this disruption, is beyond what our normal practices can fix. We want to weed the garden and the gardener is saying, “Wait. Watch. Be patient.” We can hardly tell which is the weeds and which is the wheat, for all the mudslinging name calling and one upsmanship of offense, I’m offended, no I’m offended more! We must listen closely to what the spirit is saying to us, normal is no longer. God is calling us to do it differently. God is calling us to patiently love one another. God is calling us to live together as the beloved community, wheat or weeds, if we try to destroy one, we destroy the whole thing. God is calling us to build one another up, so

It is so hard to be patient isn’t it. We want so desperately to be normal again, when we’ll never be normal. Going back to the way it always was is like pulling the weeds before the wheat is ready. It only does damage. We have to be patient and wait for the newness God has in store for us. The newness that can only come to fruition through patience, and tending, listening, letting go. We are being called to a new thing, and love is the way. And thank God the weeds and the wheat get to grow up together, because really and truly, I’m thankful for the weeds. Amen.