Our Wise and Foolish Selves

A sermon preached at the closing of the Diocese of West Texas Silent Retreat, Mustang Island, TX.
The lectionary readings for the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Have you been to a wedding lately? In our modern western world, bridesmaids don’t have a lot of responsibility except to party with the bride before hand and stand and look good at the ceremony. I don’t mean any disrespect, it’s tradition to have bridesmaids and it is the bride’s friends celebrating her marriage in a special way.

Weddings in 1st century Palestine were another matter. The bridesmaids actually had something important to do. After the ceremony, the bride and groom would make their way to the groom’s family home. The bride’s attendants would be waiting and watching for their arrival and announce that the feast could commence. It’s not like the bride and groom could call ahead to say “we’re leaving now”, there were no family tracking apps to see how far away they were, no gps apps to give an exact arrival time.

And so the bridesmaids waited. And waited. And waited. The wise were prepared, the others were not. But before we start thinking about people we know and attempting to do the sorting that isn’t ours to do, let’s just say that instead of two groups of people these 5 and 5 represent two sides of ourselves. Sometimes we are wiser than we are at other times. It’s a story to help us know who we are: humans who sometimes have it all together and sometimes not.

The people who heard Jesus tell this story in person would have heard the echo of the end of what we now call the sermon on the mount when Jesus says there will be those who say Lord, Lord, and I will say I never knew you. Following Jesus is about talking the talk AND walking the walk.

And then there’s the part where the wise women refuse to share their oil. What’s that all about? Aren’t they just being mean and stingy? No, they are being wise. And, just a side note about the word wise here – in his teachings, Jesus uses two words for wisdom, sophia which is divine wisdom and the word he uses here, phronimos which is a more practical type of wisdom, the ability to discern a situation and know what to do, the kind of wisdom that says a tomato may be a fruit but you don’t put it in a fruit salad.

These wise women understand that it’s just not possible to get to God through someone else’s good works. I can’t ride your coattails of goodness into the Kingdom. I have to receive the gift of God’s grace and forgiveness for myself. And if I try to let your relationship with God be mine, I miss out on the joy and celebration of knowing God and knowing I am a beloved child of God. As my very wise husband often says, “God has no grandchildren.”

When Jesus tells parables he’s tapping into the tradition of wisdom teaching. Parables aren’t to be taken as a literal narrative. They are intentionally quirky stories that are supposed to make us take note of the odd details and say, ‘wait, what?’ These stories help us ask the challenging questions – who would I be in this story, what would I do and why, and the most challenging of all – how is this intended to help shape us into who God created and calls us to be in our day and our time?

God is a god of relationship and transformation. God knows us and wants nothing more than for us to know God, for us to know who and Whose we are, and for us to be open to the transforming Kingdom life. We’re never too old to gain wisdom in this life, although sometimes we may be to stubborn or rigid, kind of like the foolish women in this story – they knew the wedding party would arrive at a certain time and they only prepared for a situation in which they would be ‘right’.

This wedding story is also an Advent story – don’t panic, we still have three weeks until the beginning of the Advent season – I’m talking about a different Advent. Bernard of Clairvaux spoke of three advents: the coming of God in Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas, the Second coming of Jesus when God will set all things right in the new heaven and new earth, and the Advent of everyday: our own watching for Jesus to come to us in the ordinary moments of our everyday lives.

Waiting and watching for Jesus isn’t just ‘not sleeping’. It isn’t a simple ‘be prepared’ as if we were a holy scout troop. It’s intentionally preparing ourselves to encounter Jesus at any moment. It’s walking the walk and not just talking the talk. It’s tending to the needs of the ‘least of these’ and understanding that sometimes we are the one who needs others to tend to us. It’s seeking the greater good for everyone and not just ourselves. It’s looking for the image of God in every other human being we encounter. It’s letting the image of God in us shape and form all that we think, say, and do.

I grew up in a denomination that was obsessed with the second coming to the point that we didn’t spend much time talking about how we should live in the here and now.

In the Episcopal church, we don’t talk much at all about the second coming, the fulfillment of God’s purposes in Creation. But I don’t want you to be uninformed, my brothers and sisters. We live today as if that day has already come about AND in the sure and certain hope of God’s promise of a world where there is no hunger or pain or sorrow. And until that day arrives, we do all that we can with God’s help to alleviate the hunger and pain and sorrow caused by all of the ways we distort the image of God in ourselves and in others.

This parable is Jesus teaching us a distinctive way of being in this world – expectant and prepared, mindful, intentional, ready, and awake. We don’t always know when we will have the opportunity to shine God’s light into someone else’s darkness so we must keep our lamps trimmed and filled with oil.

We are to seek continuously to deepen our relationship with God and to be aware of the blessings of grace and forgiveness that we have received so that we can offer God’s love to everyone. We do the hard work of knowing who and Whose we are so that we can clearly reflect God’s life-giving, world changing love. We talk the language of love and walk the way of love as a living invitation to the abundant banquet of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. Amen.

Imagine

(I’m not preaching this Sunday but if you want to see the lectionary readings for the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost they are here. I reference the reading from Matthew.)

I was watching something in the Marvel Universe this past week and one of the characters said, “Imagine a world where information can’t be trusted.” I quit paying attention to the plot of the show for a good while as I pondered this statement.

I don’t have to imagine because we live in such a world. A world where people are willing to both give and receive false information in order to stay stagnant because they think maintaining the status quo is better than living this amazing journey of life.

We have an excess of information at our fingertips, and we must be wary of the source. Anyone can make up anything about any event or any person and post it as if it were true and claim that it is News. The word “news” has lost its credibility. If a news outlet (or any other source of information) tells us who we are to fear, what we are to be angry about, if their facts are interspersed with the mockery of any group, if they say things like “no one else is telling this story” they are not presenting the news. They are attempting to manipulate our emotions for the sole purpose of increasing their ratings and making more money.

And their sole purpose is so very damaging to our souls. Pay attention to what you are feeling and experiencing when you watch your chosen news outlet. Pay attention to your reaction if you don’t get to watch it for an extended period of time. Our emotional and physical reactions to our world are there to tell us something and we need to listen so that we can respond outwardly better.

I’m not being Pollyanna here – I know this world is scary and dangerous. It is also beautiful and wondrous. We live in the tension of this. We live in the tension of human beings who are created in the loving and beautiful image of our Loving God, who also choose to cause harm to their fellow image bearers. I have absolutely no idea how to solve this tension. I do know, however, that it isn’t my job, or your job, or anyone else’s job to fix it. I’m not saying don’t be angry, just to let the anger teach you something and make the choice to focus the energy from it on being and doing good things. I’m saying let God be God and let’s focus on following Jesus.

Jesus gives us the command to love: to love God, our neighbor, and ourselves with our whole being. Love, as Jesus shows us in flesh and blood how to love, is the antidote for the dangers and harm in this world. God has given us the promise that God will set things right in God’s time and in God’s way. We are created and called to parter with God, to live and love on this earth as if God has already restored earth and heaven to be as God intends.

Why are we unable to learn that violence does not end violence. Ever. Not in thousands of years of human history. Why are we not willing to hear Jesus say that love is the greatest power in all of creation.

When I hear of another incident of gun violence, when I see the reports of the wars in this world I feel pain and grief, and yes, even anger. To only react with these emotions will cause harm to my soul and to others. To respond to these emotions by expressing my fear and sadness in prayers of lament and then asking how I can be a part of the antidote and seeking ways to reveal the light of God’s love in the darkness is living into God’s image and that is good for all of our souls.

On November 1, we are having a service of remembrance at St. Francis by the Lake (if you are in the neighborhood come at join us at 6pm, if not, it will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel). Part of the service is a time for folks to light a candle and speak the names of loved ones who have died. I’m preparing special candles for the people who have died in the Palestine-Isreal war, the Ukraine-Russia war, and for the people who have died by gun violence in the US. I wanted some way to be able to speak their names, all of them, but I don’t know how to locate such lists and I realized quickly that the list would be miles long and at the moment I printed it, it would be out of date. My heart and soul ache for the senseless deaths of all of these image-bearing human beings. We must do better. We can be better.

So, lets imagine a world where Love is the guiding power. It’s easy if we try. Jesus shows and tells us what this kind of world is like. God created us to live this way. What if we let the energy spurred in us by anger empower us to live the antidote to harm and violence rather than perpetuate it? More war, more violence, more hatred isn’t solving anything yet we keep trying that. Let’s try something else. Let’s try a revolution of love in our corners of the world, in our circles of influence however small or big. Ponder something this week that you can do to help you focus on loving better as an image bearer of our Loving God. Imagine.

Chosen and called

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Once more, Jesus spoke in parables saying …. Jesus tells the parable we read today in succession with the parables we’ve read the past two weeks. For us it’s taken three Sundays to read them but imagine standing and listening to them all at once in the course of just a few moments. Do you remember the first one? A man asks his two sons to work in a vineyard, one said yes and didn’t go and the other said no and then did go and Jesus asks “which did the will of the father?” And last week’s reading has the people given the responsibility of tending the vineyard brutally treating the vineyard owner’s slaves and killing his son and Jesus wraps it up by saying the rejected one is the key to everything in life.

Jesus’ parables aren’t random stories told to entertain the crowds but intentionally crafted tales designed to intentionally disrupt our thinking and worldview. Jesus wants us to ask questions of ourselves and the world. Parables are one of the ways Jesus tries to open our minds to wonder about possibilities and opportunities to become who we are created to be.

Where Jesus tells the stories and to whom are important for our understanding. And, we must never forget that we are always in the crowd of folks listening in. For this string of parables, Jesus and the disciples are in Jerusalem. He’s been speaking in and around the Temple for a couple of days, upsetting the temple leaders and elders with his “the Kingdom of Heaven is like” tales.

The leaders are stuck between a rock and hard place – they want to silence Jesus because he is threatening their power and control of the people but they also fear the reaction of the people if they do anything to harm Jesus. Their own reaction should clue them in that their perceived power is just a house of cards, but I don’t think that metaphor had been invented yet. In any case, the leaders are in a pickle and Jesus continues with yet another “The Kingdom of Heaven” story, even more outlandish than the others.

A king is hosting a wedding banquet for his son and not a single person whose been invited to celebrate with them shows up. Not one. So the king sends out his slaves to remind the invited guests and they are met with excuses by some and shear violence by others. They are “too busy with their everyday affairs to celebrate with their King but not too busy to abuse and kill the king’s messengers.”*

It is left to our imagination to discern why these folks choose to ignore the King’s invitation with their excuses and why some react so violently: do they have contempt for the king, do they not take the king’s invitation seriously, do they think their work is so important that they can’t take time to participate in the celebration? I wonder, what would be my reason for doing so? What would be yours?

Whatever their reasoning, the King is outraged and sends his soldiers to annihilate them, a bit of an extreme reaction, but no more extreme than beating or killing the one who is delivering the invitation. At first glance, a violent response to violence may seem appropriate, but when in the history of ever has it been proven that violence ends violence? A lesson we need to seriously ponder today … but I digress.

Back to the parable – after his outrageous response, the king doesn’t cancel the wedding banquet. I mean, why should we let a good party go to waste just because of a bit of violent outrage? So the king sends his servants to bring in everyone they can find “both good and bad” to celebrate. And while circulating among his new guests, the king encounters one who isn’t dressed properly.

Let’s step out of the story for a bit to explain the custom of wedding robes: There were specific robes that guests would wear to a wedding banquet, they were simple garments so as not to show off the particular social station of the guests; the focus after all is the bride and groom. A bit like our custom to never out-dress the wedding party. But, since the servants just invited folks off the street, the new invitees wouldn’t have had time to properly dress for a royal wedding so the attendants must have given them the customary clothing as they entered.

So, the king is circulating among his new set of guests and encounters one with no robe. He would have been given a robe as he entered but for some reason he refused to put it on. Did he not take the celebration seriously? Did he harbor contempt for the host? Did he consider himself too important, much like the original invitees? We don’t know because when confronted, he’s speechless. I wonder, what would have been my reason for not putting on the robe? What would be yours?

The king, true to form, has an extreme reaction to this non-compliant guest. And Jesus ends this parable with the statement “many are called, few are chosen.” We must be careful how we hear these words some 2000 years later. The words translated as ‘invited’ and ‘called’ have the same root. And chosen can mean ‘selected’ but it can also mean ‘the best’ which seems to make more sense along with Jesus’ ultimate equalizing proclamation that the first shall be last and the last first. Remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard who showed up at different times and all received the same? How does that disrupt our thinking?

Whatever the specific definition of these words, we can be certain that Jesus is in no way giving us permission to pat ourselves on the back because we made it into the banquet with the right clothes on. Jesus may have started this parable directed at the temple leaders who think more highly of themselves than they should, but he ends it looking at all of us – the “good and the bad” invited into the banquet from the Main Street of our typical, ordinary lives. We’ve done nothing to earn the invitation, yet God chooses us. And that is good news worth celebrating!

Everyone is invited, and in answering the invitation, we are also given the responsibility of being a gracious guest. We don’t get to run the vineyard our own way and we don’t get to rewrite the rules of ‘love God and your neighbor’ to suit ourselves. We are called and chosen and we are given the full abundance of the Kingdom – we are given our true identity as God’s beloved children. But we can never let that go to our heads, we are no better or worse than anyone else at the table. Amen.

The Abundant Kingdom

A Kingdom reflection (aka – what I would have preached if I preached today)
The lectionary readings for the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Today’s parable follows immediately on the heels of the one last week in which the two sons were asked to work in the vineyard – one said yes and didn’t go and one said no and did go. The parable is directed toward the Temple leaders and elders and Jesus ends that parable with the question “who did the will of the father” making the point that they are the ones who say yes to God’s Kingdom and then don’t go. In other words, they are not doing the will of the Father. And to fine tune his point, to help them have eyes to see and ears to hear, Jesus launches into the parable we read today.

A man has a vineyard and entrusted it to others to take care of it – grow the grapes and make the wine. These folks decided that since they did the work the vineyard was theirs, not the owner who hired them to work the vineyard and so they brutally defended what they had stolen, even killing his son.

Jesus turns to the leaders and asks what will the owner do to the tenants? And they answer as they would handle the situation: “he will put those miserable wretches to death” and find others to do the work, as if the first set of workers were as expendable as the servants they beat and killed. Jesus takes their answer and reframes it in scripture, quoting Psalm 118, making the point that these leaders are the ones rejecting the very foundation of God’s Kingdom on earth. They have chosen to build their own kingdom and label it God’s.

From the beginning, God chose to work through the very people God created to establish the Kingdom of heaven on earth. And over and over again, through the course of history we humans have decided we can know better than God what is right and what is wrong, how kingdoms should be run, how this earth should be managed. We forgot our created purpose – participating with God to produce the fruit of the kingdom.

We forgot the image of God within us and decided to create a God in our own image – a god who thinks like we do, who is vengeful and oppressive, stingy and manipulative. And so Jesus offers us, real life, flesh and blood stories of who God really is and who and Whose we are created to be. Jesus tells us these parables of a landowner to remind us that we are created to be in a kingdom of abundance by a loving, compassionate, forgiving, and generous God.

The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who is wants everyone to thrive and gives generously of the Kingdom abundance accordingly. The Kingdom of heaven is a place where all are equal and no cry of suffering is silenced. The Kingdom of heaven is a place where God walks among us desiring only a loving relationship with us, where no one manipulates others for their own personal gain, where all who choose this new life are welcomed in forgiveness and reconciliation regardless of their past. The Kingdom of heaven on earth is where we choose to live life producing the fruit of the Kingdom knowing that the abundance of God’s Kingdom is sufficient for all to thrive.

Our baptism is our entry into this Kingdom, our adoption by God. This is the work God does in us. We make vows to be a good citizen of this Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. This is the work we do to participate with God. If we are baptized as children, our parents and godparents take the vows on our behalf and we take responsibility for the vows when we are mature enough. Our vows aren’t only about what we believe but also who we want to become and how we want to structure our lives because we believe that God created us and loves us and chooses to work out the purpose of all of creation through us.

When we renew these vows as others are baptized or confirmed we remember our own vows, that we are on this Kingdom journey with each other and with God’s help. We remember that God invites us to work in God’s vineyard not to defend it and hoard the abundance for ourselves but to make it welcoming and hospitable because we are shaped by God’s love and compassion so that we can share the abundance of the kingdom with everyone.

The Baptismal Covenant
(From the Book of Common Prayer, page 304-5)
Celebrant: Do you believe in God the Father?
People: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Celebrant: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
People: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Celebrant: Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
People: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Celebrant: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People: I will, with God’s help.

Hearts and Minds

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The Lectionary readings for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost are here.

The stories we have of Jesus ministry aren’t just a random collection, but an intentionally crafted narrative designed to show us what it looks like to live on earth as in heaven. So, let me fill the gap between what we read last Sunday and today, Jesus has returned to Jerusalem in what we label as the Triumphal Entry: riding on a donkey with the crowds shouting Hosanna, which means “save us, we pray”. It’s a scene that is completely contrary to what the people of 1st century Roman occupied Jerusalem would call triumphant. I doubt we’d call anyone we hope to become our political leader ‘triumphant’ if they entered the scene this way. But, remember, Jesus is here to show us what life in God’s Kingdom on earth is all about and the Kingdom way and this good news that is intended to upset our proverbial apple carts.

Jesus goes straight to the Temple where he clears out those who were exchanging money and selling animals for sacrifice. It isn’t that Jesus is against making sacrifices or even that he’s against people making money, he’s against people cheating others, selling faith and religious acts to manipulate and control. The money exchangers and animal sellers were taking advantage of those coming to make their faithful sacrifices and Jesus was having none of it. He didn’t just proverbially upset the carts.

Jesus then leaves the Temple, has a dispute with a fig tree (we can talk about this offline if you want), and then returns to the Temple, where we enter the scene of today’s reading. The chief priests and elders ask him, “who do you think you are coming in here and disrupting our way of doing things?” They aren’t looking to get to know Jesus better, they are looking for a way to charge him with any crime they can to distract the crowds from seeing the things Jesus is calling them out for. Sounds a bit like our political atmosphere these days, doesn’t it? If I can make you look worse than me, maybe folks won’t realize how bad I am.

But we can’t prove how ‘good’ we are by making others look ‘bad’ and so Jesus turns the table on them and asks them a question he knows they won’t want to answer because they are too concerned with being right than living in God’s righteousness.

Jesus asks them a question that reveals their worldview: their relationship with God and their relationship with people are completely separate. This division is what enables the temple leaders to treat people so badly; they choose to not see the image of God in all people. It’s a heart question along the lines of Solomon wanting to cut the baby in two to settle the dispute between the two women knowing the one with the right heart would object.

The leaders get stuck in their own divisiveness – caught between what they claim to believe about God and the people they manipulate for their own power and control.

Jesus knows they will be just as dishonest and manipulative with him as they were with John and although they may demand unquestioning loyalty from the people, Jesus is making the point that our behavior with other people reveals what we believe about God. How we treat others, for our own personal gain or for the building up of God’s Kingdom, reveals our heart, how we see the world. And he tells them a story about changing our hearts and minds.

Two sons are asked to work in the vineyard – remember the workers and wages story of last week and all being given the same regardless of the time they started working in the vineyard? It’s all connected. One son says no and one says yes. The one who says yes was only telling his father what he thinks he wants to hear, trying to gain favor without actually having to do anything. The one who says no changes his mind and goes to work in the Kingdom, I mean vineyard despite his original objection.

So, who did do the will of the father? The chief priests answer ‘the first’ and instead of congratulating them Jesus makes yet another ‘the first shall be last and the last shall be first’ point. He tells them that the very people they disdain are already entering God’s Kingdom because they understand the difference between being right and living in God’s righteousness.

And let’s be clear here – Jesus is not telling the chief priests and elders they will never be able to enter God’s Kingdom, he says that others, those who already see the Way of Love as God’s way are ahead of them and yet, if they enter, they will receive the same – unconditional love and forgiveness.

A change of mind is always possible, the road into the Kingdom of God is always open. This is what is so radical about the Good News. And what is so difficult about it. It’s what Paul means when he says we must work out our salvation with fear-and-trembling – and idiom Paul uses ‘to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts their own ability completely to meet all requirements, but religiously does their best to do what is right’ (adapted from Strongs). Fear-and-Trembling is the acknowledgement that we are most fully human with God’s help, accepting the image of God in us and all people. Fear-and-trembling is about figuring out what it looks like in our day and time to be image bearers of God, revealing to the world the Kingdom on earth. This is how we have the mind of Christ, the worldview of Jesus because we let God’s love shape our hearts.

When we change our hearts and minds, when we let our worldview be shaped by God’s love, we are living into who and Whose we really are. We learn to see the image of God in other people and realize that the Kingdom of God and this world are not separate. How we move through this world is how we move through God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. When we see the world as an extension of God’s Kingdom rather than the battle ground on which we must struggle and fight for our own kingdom, our hearts and minds are shaped by God’s love.

And, in light of what we’ve been talking about these past few weeks, I’m want to clear up what Paul says about humility here. The original meaning of Paul’s statement translated as “regard others as better than yourselves” is lost with our limited English pronouns. The word we translate as ‘others’ is a Greek ‘reciprocal plural pronoun’. What Paul is saying is to keep the greater good of all above our individual needs or wants. Paul isn’t telling us to intentionally place ourselves lower than others but to live in the equity of God’s Kingdom, as Jesus shows us over and over again. We are all loved equally by God; there is no ‘first and last” and no way to earn or deserve God’s love or God’s divine blessing. We are not lower than anyone anymore than we are above anyone.

This is what challenged the chief priests and elders the most – they had built their personal kingdoms by dominating and oppressing others, even as they were dominated and oppressed by the Roman authorities. They expected a messiah to come in physical and political power who would maintain their idea of power. Jesus upset their worldview cart. Jesus often upsets our worldview cart. Jesus shows us his heart and mind so that we can choose to let ours be shaped by his as we live into the answer to the prayer we pray: God’s kingdom come on earth as in heaven. Amen.

Eyes

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The Lectionary readings for the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

If you were here last week, you may remember that we talked about learning to see forgiveness from God’s point of view, that “earning” and “deserving” are human constructs that we’ve attached to God’s unconditional love and gift of forgiveness.

The same holds true for the parable we are talking about today. Earning and deserving, and perhaps we need to throw in entitled, are not part of the economy of God’s Kingdom.

This parable about working in God’s Kingdom is bookended with Jesus saying that the first shall be last and the last shall be first, although we don’t read the first one because this is one of those moments when the after-market-add-on chapter and verse divisions can cause us to miss important connections in the original narrative. So, if you have a bible app on your phones, take a look at the end of Mathew chapter 19. I also encourage you to read all of chapter 19 of Matthew this coming week and get a full picture of what the lectionary skips over.

But, for, now I’ll just give you a quick synopsis. It’s been a while since I referenced my imaginary flannelgraph, but it share would be helpful today, so just imagine me moving the cutout Jesus, disciples, and other characters on a green flannel board.

Just prior to Jesus telling this parable of the workers, Jesus has spoken with a man who is looking for loopholes in God’s commandments. The man comes to Jesus and asks what good deed must he do to earn eternal life? Jesus paraphrases a bit but gives him the commandments that have to do with how we live with others in community: “Don’t murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

The man replies, “I’ve kept these. What do I still lack?” We tend to blow this man off as being petty and shallow but this question is deep. He sees the world through a work-and-reward lens and yet he feels a longing deep within that he doesn’t understand because his worldview isn’t filling up – can’t fill up – the God shaped space within him.

Jesus replies, “if you want to be complete, give up your worldview, your work/reward way of seeing everything and everyone, and follow me to learn how to love.” And as you may know, this story ends with the man walking away sad and Jesus saying that it is impossible to enter God’s Kingdom when we insist on hanging onto our human ideas of earning and deserving but when we let God show us how to see the world through God’s eyes, we discover we are in the Kingdom already.

In response to Jesus’ words, Peter, in a bit of panic I think, says to Jesus, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you. What will we have?” And Jesus assures him hat there will be immeasurable benefits in choosing to follow Jesus into the Kingdom because in God’s Kingdom, everyone is equal. Our human labels of ‘first’ and ‘last’ aren’t reversed, they are done away with.

Which leads us into our story today – Jesus telling this story of workers and wages to help Peter and the others – and us – learn to see the world through the lens of God’s Kingdom. The life God intends for everyone is that we all receive the abundance of God’s grace, forgiveness, and love because the Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who gives to everyone what they need to flourish in this life, regardless of what time they started work. We can’t earn nor do we deserve any ‘better’ position in the Kingdom on earth than anyone else, regardless of when we make the choice to follow Jesus.

The key point of the work and wages story is the question “are you envious because I am generous?” The original Greek is an idiom for being envious: “is your eye evil” because I am generous? The landowner is asking if we see the world through a lens of scarcity or abundance. Is there only enough for me or is there enough for everyone to flourish?

In God’s Kingdom, everyone gets paid the same – with unconditional love. And we are left asking ourselves if it enough for us, to be the same as others? Are we envious because God loves all the same? Do we feel entitled to be loved more or have more than others? Do we behave as Jonah, getting angry that God is gracious and merciful and generous with love?

OR are we grateful that God loves us? Are we grateful that God forgives us? Are we willing to let God’s equalizing Way of Love be enough?

Perhaps our Jonah style irritation or anger about what others have or what we don’t have is really because we misinterpret our feeling of lacking to be about material things when really it is about our willingness to see the world through God’s eyes.

In the economy of God’s kingdom, there is no waiting in line to “get what is ours”. As you’ve heard me say before – when Jesus says the first will be last and the last will be first, he isn’t reversing the order of things, he’s reordering, reorienting our way of thinking and seeing all together. Jesus is proclaiming the equity of God’s Kingdom. And this is very good news indeed.

The abundance of God’s love is already given us. Divine blessings are not rewards, blessings are freely given gifts. The kingdom economy is based on generosity and gratitude, not a human designed work/reward system. Having the eyes to see the abundance of the kingdom is how we live life worthy of the Good News of Jesus, accepting that we and everyone are worthy of God’s love solely because God loves us.

The point and purpose of all that we do in God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven is to point to God, to reveal God’s love and generosity to those around us, to shine the image of God in each of us into the dark corners of this world so that others are reminded of the image of God in them. This is the life that Jesus shows us in flesh and blood.

What would the world be like if we took the energy we expend trying to earn our way into God’s good graces or being irritated with others who either get what we want or have what we don’t and used our energy to express our gratitude for who God is and who and whose we are? Gratitude is the balm that comforts and heals our wounds – not some artificial or toxic positivity but a deep understanding and trust that God does provide all that we need to be who God created and calls us to be.

What we set our eyes on determines what we see. Look for glimpses of heaven-on-earth this week; the more you look, the more you’ll see the abundance of God’s Kingdom all around us. Amen.

Mercy

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.

The lectionary readings for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

One Sunday, not so long ago and in a church probably not much different from the one we are in, after a time of prayer, praise, hearing a well crafted sermon on the power of God’s Love, and receiving the gracious gift of pardon and renewal, a parishioner told the priest, “you should preach more on sin” The priest replied, “OK, tell me your sin and I’ll try to preach on it.” The parishioner, a bit flustered, said, “no, I mean, I want you to preach on …” the parishioner leaned in and whispered the rest of the sentence. The priest, thinking an impromptu confession had just occurred, asked softly “is that your sin?” The parishioner stepped back and hastily blurted, “no!” looking and sounding quite indignant. Confused, the priest looked the parishioner in the eye and asked, “why would you want to hear a sermon on someone else’s sin?”*

Why, indeed? Most of us would much rather focus on other people’s need for forgiveness than our own. If we focus on what everyone else gets wrong, we don’t have to do the hard work of changing ourselves. It seems we’d rather attempt the impossible task of changing others rather than the difficult – but possible – task of improving our own character.

In our gospel story today, Jesus speaks of forgiveness in a parable about mercy – a real life illustration of the psalm we read today and the words of the prayer Jesus taught us. Peter’s question that begins our reading comes in response to Jesus’ words about how to strengthen our relationships through conflict resolution that is life-giving; about living in a way that fulfills God’s law rather than using it as a weapon against others.

When Jesus tells Peter to forgive seventy-seven times, he isn’t instructing him to keep a tally but offering a non-transactional understanding of forgiveness. Jesus’ use of the number 77 is, most obviously, a reference to the Old Testament character named Lamech, Cain’s great-great-great grandson. Early in the book of Genesis we have the story of Lamech boasting about killing a man for wounding Lamech and justifying it by saying if Cain is avenged sevenfold than I am avenged seventy-seven fold. Lamech has confused avenge with revenge. God’s promise to Cain is that God will impart vengeance on anyone who may kill Cain. Lamech took revenge for himself. In using the same number, Jesus is redeeming the mindset of vengeance to forgiveness.

In Hebrew numerology, if you take the letters assigned to the numbers seventy and seven you get the word ‘oz’ (oze) which means ‘strength’. Forgiveness isn’t about giving in or being weak or even letting someone out of the consequences of their behavior but having the strength to love beyond the wrongs committed.

You’ve probably heard the definitions of grace and mercy: Grace is getting what we don’t deserve and mercy is not getting what we do deserve. But even these definitions put it in human perspective, not divine perspective. God doesn’t see us through a lens of what we may or may not deserve. Life in God’s Kingdom isn’t about earning. It is about the generous abundance of life lived in the way of love. We are God’s beloved children. If we humans don’t consider whether or not our children deserve our love, and give it freely, imagine the power and strength of God’s freely given love. This parable is meant to turn our transactional way of thinking into a relational way of living.

Peter asks his question the wrong way around. Forgiveness isn’t about quantity but about the quality of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Forgiveness is holding both justice and mercy as the standard, with mercy always having the final word, loving as God loves, living as Jesus shows us in flesh and blood.

Forgiveness is about healing first ourselves and then stepping into the possibility of reconciling with the other person. Forgiveness is letting go of the hurt and choosing to see the other through the lens of God’s Kingdom.

Forgiveness, as Jesus shows us in flesh and blood how to forgive, is not about judging or condemning the other or forcing the other to change, it isn’t about getting even or getting revenge or about requiring the repentance of the other. Jesus doesn’t teach us to forgive in order to “fix” another person but to let ourselves be shaped and formed by God’s merciful love in the power of the Holy Spirit.

God’s forgiveness isn’t about how good or bad we are but about the Goodness of God. God’s forgiveness is a given. It is the gift of being FOR us not against us, staying with us regardless. We don’t earn it or deserve it. God offers it to us freely and generously and we choose to receive it or not. When we don’t feel forgiven, I assure you that it is because we haven’t forgiven ourselves or that we have chosen not to be forgiving toward others, not because God hasn’t forgiven us. When we say that we or anyone else isn’t worthy of forgiveness, we’ve misunderstood what forgiveness truly is, what love is.

Love looks for and sees the good in others. Love is about being for and with, not against. “[L]ike a loving parent, God continually calls us to be our best selves, and at the same time generously forgives us when we fall short. And this generosity itself is also a call for us to do the same with one another … When we withhold forgiveness**” from ourselves or others we go against who and whose we are.

In settling issues with each other, forgiveness is our most valuable commodity. Our purpose, as Followers of Jesus, is to reveal God to others, not so that they can become just like us but so that they, too, can be shaped and formed by God’s love to be whose and who they are. This is the freedom Jesus speaks about. Mercy and forgiveness are the keys to setting ourselves free from the bindings of anger and guilt and hate and shame in this world.

So, you won’t hear me preach much on sin, mine, yours, or anyone else’s. I know this may disappoint some of you. I prefer to focus on how we should live, not how we shouldn’t. In the few golf lessons I took years ago, my instructor told me to keep my eyes on the pin, not the sand traps and hazards, because what I look at is where my ball will go. (He had much greater faith in my golf ability than was realistic.) But his words rang true. What we aim for, what the eyes of our heart are set on is what determines our trajectory.

Accepting God’s unconditional love for ourselves and all others is the antidote to all that is harmful in this world. When we keep our eyes on Jesus we will walk in love so that forgiving isn’t something we do, it is part of who we are as God’s children, receivers and givers of mercy, living on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

*parable crafted from a social media post by Brian Zahnd
** https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/9/7/beyond-measure-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-fifteenth-week-after-pentecost

Who’s Lost?

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost are here (track 2).

I remember the first time I ever had to preach on the first part of this particular passage – it was a children’s sermon. Imagine my trepidation as I figured out how to get from the bit about the biological functions of the body to the idea that the words we speak can either build up or tear down another person. I had to choose my words very carefully so as not to let loose a bunch of 4 to 10 year olds with what goes into the sewer before moving them along to the main point. Our words matter. How we speak about others shows the intent of our hearts. It is our words and actions toward others that either build up God’s Kingdom on earth or our own.

When Jesus calls the crowds to him, he is responding to an accusation by the Pharisees that he doesn’t wash properly before he eats and Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are the ones who have disobeyed God’s laws by creating legal loopholes which give the appearance of keeping God’s law while harming others.

Jesus then turns to the crowds to ensure they are aware that just because a rule or law comes from a religious leader doesn’t mean it’s from God. Jesus call the crowd and says, “listen and understand.” Learn for yourselves what God says. And before Jesus can continue, the disciples interrupt him, wondering if he realizes he’s offended the Pharisees. True to form, Jesus doesn’t offer a simplified answer to their query but parables that require them to think it through.

“Every plant that God hasn’t planted will be uprooted” & “If the blind lead the blind, all will be in danger.” The human constructed regulations designed to control and coerce for the benefit of human power will be disrupted by the law of God’s Love. We aren’t commanded to follow blindly but to work out what it is to follow God, to follow Jesus, in light of all that God commands and Jesus teaches. We aren’t to check our brains at the Kingdom Gates but to employ our whole selves – heart, soul, mind, and strength – in building up God’s Kingdom. And the proof of this ‘working out’ is the way we live God’s law – how we love in all that we think, say, and do.

We cannot hide the intent of our hearts with outward appearances. It doesn’t matter how good we look on the outside if we treat others with disdain, if we think ourselves better than others, if we do not seek justice for all people, even those we disagree with or don’t like. We can have the cleanest of clean hands but if we malign others with our words, if we ignore the needs of this world because we are too busy doing ‘church’ things, we are not clean at all.

With this lesson ringing in their ears, Jesus heads out for the cities of Tyre and Sidon – prosperous port cities, outside the center of Jewish activity, places full of ‘those people’ – Romans and Canaanites and all sorts of non-Jews and Jesus has an incredible encounter with a woman there. To put this in modern terminology, imagine a leader of one political party speaking in a city dominated by the other political party and one of the people in the audience speaks up: “have mercy on me.” What would happen in our day and time?

How we read the remainder of this story, depends on the lens we use. Do we see this passage through the lens of “sinners in the hands of an angry god” or “sinners in the hands of the loving God”? Do we believe that God loves us more than others or do we understand that God’s love is the same for all people? Are we looking to intensify division so we can be the group at the top of the proverbial food chain or do we want to be part of the greatest love story of all time? Are we more concerned with defending our ideologies and proving we are right than we are with showing others dignity, respect, and even just basic kindness?

When you read this passage how do you hear the tone of Jesus’ voice? How does the shape of your heart shape the words “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Isreal” and “it isn’t fair to give the children’s food to the dogs”? Is Jesus mocking the woman or encouraging her to stand for what is just and right?

And just who are these lost sheep and dogs anyway?

From the earliest of our identity stories in scriptures, from the very beginning of Genesis, people have been separated from the core group of characters. And even in these separations God protected them and worked through them.

Adam and Eve chose to decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong and God expelled them from the Garden. But God didn’t abandon them. When Cain was banished because he murdered his brother, God protected him. When Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away, God provided for them and had big plans for Ishmael. Even when the entire people group of the Israelites was exiled into Babylon, God was with them.

When we see the world through the identity stories we have in scriptures, we see the big picture that all people are God’s. It is our own human choices that take us away from God. God doesn’t exile or excommunicate, we do.

God’s plan to reveal Kingdom life through particular individuals was never meant to exclude but to provide role models for all people. And no matter how badly we humans have messed up, God has continued with the plan to work with us in building up the Kingdom.

God’s plan for all of us isn’t about some day in the undefined future but to give us purpose for every moment of every day. Our purpose is to bring glory to God, to share the good news of God’s love, to maintain the justice of God’s Kingdom and do what is right. Our life’s purpose is to love well.

The lost sheep of Isreal are all the people we’ve decided don’t belong in God’s Kingdom or those who’ve decided for themselves they don’t want to belong. The labels we put on people to determine who’s in and who’s out are our words, not God’s Word. God’s word for all people is Love, unconditional, always faithful, live-giving, liberating love.

The Canaanite woman understood the equity of God’s Kingdom – all are welcome to be nourished by God’s word of love. She understood that at God’s table, all are equal. And there is absolutely nothing any one of us can do to make God love us or anyone else any more or any less.

I see and hear this exchange between Jesus and – I’d like to give her the dignity of a name: Donatiya is an ancient Canaanite name, I’ll call her Dona – I see and hear this exchange between Jesus and Dona not through lens of a God wanting to exclude but through the eyes of the God of Love. I imagine Jesus looking her in the eyes, urging her to boldly receive what she came asking for. He doesn’t dismiss her as the disciples try to do, he engages her in a conversation that reveals her unconditional, fierce love for her own child. She had more faith in God’s love than many Israelites. She is one of the lost sheep of Isreal and understands that God’s love is for all. She didn’t come with an entitled attitude but one of grace and gratitude. She came to receive, not to demand the invitation that had been offered by God to all the nations from the very beginning.

Dona knows the equity of God’s Kingdom, that we are all beloved children. This is the heart of God toward each of us; this is the Good News: “at our worst … at our furthest remove from God …, God’s [view] of us is always one of unwavering love.”* Amen.

*Taken from quotes by Brian Zahnd from “Sinners in the hands of a Loving God.”

The Big Reveal

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the Feast of the Transfiguration are here.

Most of you know that Jim and I met going on a medical mission trip to Guatemala and that our first impressions of each other weren’t exactly favorable – he thought I was bossy and I thought he was curmudgeonly. My view of him began to change as I watched the tenderness with which he approached the patients. He was so gentle and compassionate with them. He’d often be gruff with the members of the team – his expectations of the care we gave the people who came to the clinic was very high, and rightfully so – but in the evenings when the team would be debriefing our day, Jim was always ready with compassionate and encouraging words. Who Jim was didn’t change but the way I saw him changed. His smile was brighter to me, his eyes more sparkly.

Today is officially known in the church calendar as the Feast of the Transfiguration and we read the story of the time Jesus and three of his disciples went up a mountain to pray and while they were praying, we are told, the appearance of Jesus’ face changed. By definition, the word transfiguration means “a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state” and would indicate that Jesus changed into something he wasn’t before. But we also believe that God is changeless and that Jesus is fully God and fully human. So, at the risk of speaking against hundreds of years of biblical tradition, perhaps a better description of this event is “the big reveal” since using ‘revelation’ might confuse some with the Revelation of John. He may look different, face all glowing and clothes beyond bright, but Jesus isn’t changed.

Jesus is the same since before creation, included in the plural pronoun when God says ‘let us make humans in our own image.” Who Jesus is is a constant, even as he was born and grew into an adult. Even after his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into the Kingdom, he IS. He was and is and always will be. What is changed in this miraculous moment is the way Peter, James, and John are able to see him. What is revealed in the sight of the disciples is the clarity and truth of who Jesus is! He doesn’t become someone new but for the first time they can see the radiance and glory of God in the person of Jesus.

In this revelation story we are given a glimpse into the Kingdom that Jesus teaches us to pray for and to live in as if it were already here. We are created to be God’s people of God’s Kingdom. And when we see with clarity and truth who Jesus is, the radiance and glory of God shines through us as a beacon to everyone that God’s way of love is The Way we are created for.

This revelation is how we are delivered, as we prayed for earlier, from the disquietude of this world. We live in disquietude when we try to live any way other than as God’s beloved children. The revelation of who Jesus is and who and Whose we are makes us free to be who we truly are at the core of our being: beloved children created in love, for love, to love, living from the image of the loving God shining in each of us.

As we come to see ourselves and each other as we truly are – for most of us this is a lifelong journey as we follow Jesus – we are freed from the unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others, freed from having to fix the world, freed from having to fix ourselves or anyone else. We are free to see the image of God in everyone because we aren’t blinded or distracted by the world’s labels of beauty or power. But even with being direct witnesses of this miraculous moment, Peter, James, and John still had moments of doubt and confusion about who they were and what it is Jesus came to do. None of us are going to get it right all the time and so we must remember that God doesn’t judge us as harshly as we judge ourselves and each other. We must be compassionate with ourselves and each other as we walk this journey with God’s help, trusting that God loves us unconditionally.

When Moses went up the mountain to speak with God, God revealed his presence in a great cloud shrouding the mountain. The people thought that to be in God’s presence meant death. But, that was not at all God’s intention – God walked freely with Adam and Eve in the Garden. But once they chose to decide for themselves what was good and what was evil, God’s presence became difficult – the conflict between God and their will caused them too much shame. To be in God’s presence means we must let go of the masks we create in order to please or impress this world. Being in God’s presence means we are free to claim who and Whose we are – beloved children of God. Being in God’s presence means the death of our ideas of who God should be as well as the idea that we can be anyone but who God created us to be. God knows us without the masks, the veils, the world insists we wear.

Life without our self-created masks can make us nervous, anxious, and vulnerable; we’ve spent a life-time creating them to protect us from harm in this world. And we often project these fears onto God instead of giving them to God to take from us. Deepening our awareness of God in and around us and others doesn’t put us in danger, it frees us.

The more time we spend being intentionally aware of God’s presence with us in our every day, not-on-a-spiritual-mountain-top, typical, regular, even mundane and boring days, the more we are transfigured – the fashion of our countenance changes as our soul, the beautiful reflection of God in each of us, is revealed to those around us.

Following Jesus isn’t about preserving a moment in time, as Peter wanted to do, but a life long journey of continuously being formed as beloved children through our prayers, our worship, our study, and our fellowship. Following Jesus is about doing life together on earth as in heaven and even when we think we know someone looking for the light of God’s image in others. When we see Jesus for who he is and our view of ourselves and all of those around us will change.

Together we do the work of growing in relationship with God, each other, and ourselves. Together we listen as God says “you are my beloved.” Together in love we reveal the light of God to those who don’t yet know who and Whose they are. When you see God’s light shining in others, tell them. Be willing to let God’s light shine from your true self. Amen.

Choosing Wisdom

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Do y’all remember the parable from last week’s reading that Fr. David preached on? For those who weren’t here, Jesus tells the story of someone scattering seeds willy-nilly and the type of soil the seeds land on determines what happens to the seed – whether it can germinate and grow into a fruit bearing plant or not. Fr. David started with the reason Jesus teaches using parables is to make us think. So often, though, Jesus’ parables seem so far removed from our 21st century western world culture that figuring out what to think about them can be a challenge.

Jesus speaks in parables crafted in the culture of first century, Roman Occupied, Jewish culture of Palestine. These mini stories aren’t supposed to teach us to literally do as the parable describes, their purpose is to offer a piece of timeless wisdom for living life in our day and time. Parables train our eyes and ears to see and hear God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven.

Jesus’ parables, when told to an agriculturally oriented culture, make much more literal sense than they do for us today. In the bit that we skipped over in today’s reading, before Jesus explains the parable to the disciples, he tells two more related stories: one about a mustard seed and one about putting yeast in dough. The tiny mustard seed grows, in the proper soil, into a large beneficial plant. And just the right amount of yeast grows in dough and produces a delicious, nourishing bread. The point of all of these parables, taken together isn’t to make sure we can can grow a bush or win a cooking contest but that we hear the wisdom: we shouldn’t let our own biases or way of thinking limit the possibilities of what God can and does do with what we may think is insignificant. We need to be aware of what we are letting nourish the soil or dough, if you will, of our souls because the condition of our souls affects how we see others.

For most of us, the yummy slices of bread we spread peanut butter and strawberry jam on are so far removed from an actual wheat field, how the wheat grew doesn’t even cross our minds. Even modern-day wheat farmers, although they understand the process of a grain of wheat becoming a stalk ready for harvest, doesn’t have to worry about weeds getting mixed in with the grain they plant and harvest.

The particular weed in the parable is thought to be something called darnel. It looks just like wheat until the heads of grain start to mature. Wheat grains are golden and darnel grains are black. Knowing how difficult it was to distinguish the two was just a part of growing wheat back then – wheat and darnel grew together and were separated at harvest. Some folks would intentionally mix a small amount of darnel into their wheat before grinding it into flour bread or using it to make beer. You see, darnel is known to have mind altering properties. But, in large doses it can kill so the separation at harvest was important.

But, again, the point isn’t to make us master gardeners. The lesson of the parable is that trying to rid this world of who we judge as weeds damages our roots as well. Jesus’ phrase of eyes to see and ears to hear, is our clue to think beyond the literal to find the wisdom in the story.

What is wisdom? Albert Einstein said, “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” True wisdom means knowing that you truly never know everything and there’s always more to learn about living life well.

My new favorite, still alive theologian, Nijay Gupta, in his book 15 New Testament Words of Life, says “As Christians, we come to experience new life by knowing our place in this world and recognizing the gifts God has given us, then using them to work and serve as a part of society to better the lives of others.”

Another of my favorite, still alive theologians, Richard Foster, in his book Learning Humility, quotes a friend who says, “to become holy and full of wisdom … requires years of slow, painful unselfing. Desires must be dealt with. Passions must be tamed. The mind must be trained.”

The life that Jesus shows us, the life we are created for, is knowing that we are created for each other and for God. To live life working against this wisdom is the burden Jesus wants to free us from. Anything I do to elevate or lower myself is going against the grain (see what I did there).

Wisdom is hearing this parable of the wheat and weeds and seeing ourselves not at the sower or the harvesters but as the ones who are growing in the field of God’s Kingdom, our wellbeing integrally connected with the wellbeing of all people. This is where the metaphor breaks down – we get to choose if we want to be wheat or weeds. We get to choose what we let condition the soil of our soul. Do we choose hate or love, fear or compassion, scarcity or abundance, anger or empathy?

Wisdom is understanding that living life judging others damages our own souls as well as those we judge, and the souls of those who witness us judging. It’s like when we post a piece of scripture or prayer one minute and then a mocking caricature of those we disagree with politically the next. We cannot claim to love God with one breath and dehumanize others with the next breath and expect our proclamation of love to have any legitimacy.

Wisdom knows, like our Psalmist, that seeing our enemies shamed isn’t a sign of God’s favor and it isn’t what brings us comfort. We are created to be most ‘at home,’ most comfortable when we trust that God will set all things right in God’s time and God’s way. That doesn’t mean we don’t seek justice in this world; it means we know that true justice is everyone having the same opportunities and obstacles. Wisdom knows that privilege isn’t what we have but the absence of obstacles to getting life’s necessities. Real love, love as Jesus shows us how to love, means wanting the same abundant life for the person we might label as our enemy as we do for ourselves.

Wisdom doesn’t deny the presence of evil in this world, wisdom understands that most anything intended to be good can also harm. Our intentions may not always be as pure as we try to convince ourselves they are. Wisdom continuously asks the question ‘do my actions elevate or lower either myself or the other person?’

The final judgement of who is in and out of God’s kingdom isn’t ours to make. Jesus tells us to keep inviting others to the feast, to make more room at the table, to believe that there will always be enough love and compassion for everyone. The wisdom of Jesus’ parables teaches us that we are to treat everyone as the beloved children of God they are, even if they haven’t discovered their true identity yet.

What we let be the yeast of our soul impacts our ability to grow spiritual seeds and the fruit we bear – how’s that for mixing all of Jesus parables together!? We are responsible for tending the soil of our soul. We choose to be wheat or weeds. Whatever we allow to grow in us bears fruit, either good or dangerous fruit. What we see and what we hear grow in us like yeast. Jesus shows us how to use our eyes to look for God’s Image in everyone and use our ears to hear the injustices of this world so that we can spread the fruit of God’s love and compassion. Amen.