October 25, 2020 Sermon
August 16, 2020 Sermon - “Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
Proper 15-A, 2020
“Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
I admit, there have been a few times in my life when I have felt as if I am walking around in a fog, and this is one of those times. It’s a feeling I image to be some mild form of trauma to my brain, and my ability to process it all if there is such a thing. Maybe it’s just my way of trying to survive. Because everything I read in the media or watch on the evening news seems to be bad. Just bad news. The pandemic and the devastation from it overwhelm me. The economy is beyond my comprehension. Certain reactions and reactions to social justice break my heart. Where is the Good News? That’s what I want to know.
And yet, even with these feelings, there’s still that part of me that believes there is good news. Jesus taught us that it is our job, our responsibility to spread the Good News. And Jesus was always very clear that no matter how bad things seem, no matter what the situation, we are called to bearers of Good News. Being called to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel is not always easy. Oh, it’s easy to say, or to preach the Good News but when we’re out there in the real world it becomes more difficult. We’d rather stow it away than give it away. And yet, even today I feel drawn to look under my mattress or in our pantry to see if it might be hiding.
In our story today we meet a Gentile woman who comes begging Jesus to heal her daughter. I personally find this story about Jesus and the Canaanite woman painful and disturbing. But I also find it very timely this morning.
It’s painful because when I first read the story, it felt like I turned on the evening news and saw Jesus’ treatment toward the Canaanite woman exactly what we have been observing in our own society over the past weeks and months and it just isn’t becoming of our Jesus. His treatment of her upset me.
She shows up with three strikes against her before she asks anything of Jesus. Not only is she not a Jew but the Canaanite people AND she’s a woman. But she throws all of that aside and is willing to risk everything, including her life, to come to Jesus on behalf of her daughter who is tormented by a demon. She has no doubt heard of Jesus’ teachings and healings or she wouldn’t be there. She has, more than likely, tried everything she knows to help her daughter. So, for her, coming to Jesus on behalf of her daughter was, in her mind, her last hope for healing. Certainly we can all appreciate her situation.
So, she calls out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.” And what does Jesus do? He ignores her. Jesus treats this woman as the outsider she is. She may as well have been invisible. It’s no secret the Canaanite people were no friends of the Jews but here we have Jesus doing exactly what he told us not to do - refusing to speak to her because she was different; because she didn’t look like him, because she was an outcast, and because she was not a Jew.
Is this not the same Jesus that told us to love our neighbor no matter whom they are? Is it not this same Jesus that told us to love our enemy? Is this not the same Jesus who sat at the table and ate with sinners, tax collectors, prostitute, all people just like her, all the ner-do-wells of his society? The same Jesus whose disciples were chastised for easting without first washing their hands. This is the table where Jesus shows the world who God is.
Even the disciples seem to pressure him to send her away. Did they not also hear Jesus’ command to love? This woman is a heroin. She is going to speak to power no matter what it takes. She refuses to be ignored and continues to plead her case. And Jesus’ response? He turns to her and insults her by calling her a dog! At this point in the story I am very confused. I feel that what I am reading is utterly opposed to what I expect from Jesus. What is going on?
According to David Lose’s blog, In the Meantime, the traditional interpretation of this story says that Jesus isn’t really being mean to her, he’s just testing her – putting barriers in her way to see if she’ll overcome them. And then when she passes the test, he gives her an “A” by healing her daughter. We all know better. The whole idea of Jesus testing us just falls flat for me. I don’t buy it. The Jesus I know doesn’t test. It’s the worl tests, but not Jesus. And besides, this runs contrary to almost every other story of Jesus in the Gospels. In fact this is the only place in Scripture where Jesus loses a verbal contest.
What is going on here is that this woman, whether she realizes it or not, is being used by God as a vessel for God’s plan to expand Jesus’ horizons, his understanding of just who is a child of God, who is welcomed at the table. This is a pivotal moment in Jesus mission. Until now Jesus believed his mission was specifically focused on Israel. But because of the audacity, persistence, and faith of this woman, Jesus’ focus is broken wide open. “Yes, Lord,” she rebukes him, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
With her painful, persistent, and faithful pleas the Canaanite woman demands to be seen, to be heard, and to be recognized as a child of God who is welcomed at the table. It is through her plea she teaches Jesus something about himself and his mission that is crucial for him to learn; that God welcomes all of God’s children to the table.
Jesus’ perspective is changed. His new perspective moves him from narrow-mindedness to one of total inclusion. Barbara Brown-Taylor says: “You can almost hear the huge wheel of history turning as Jesus comes to a new understanding of who he is and what he has been called to do.” God’s purpose “Is bigger than he had imagined, that there is enough of him to go around.” It is good news to recognize that God works through this marginalized woman to bring insight to Jesus. And it’s great news to realize that Jesus listened; listened to an outsider, to one of the most vulnerable in society – JESUS LISTENED!
What might it look like if we were to humble ourselves to listen to what the “other” whether other are Black. White, Latinx, Hindu, Buddhist, or anyone we consider different from us? What might we learn? What good news might we bring to them? If the Good News of the Gospel is only good for me and people just like me, then it’s not good.
This story captures Jesus’ expanded sense of mission in Matthew’s Gospel, the same Gospel that ends with Jesus’ Great Commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” - take the Good News to the ends of the earth. All are welcome at the table.
It’s way too easy for us to assume that God is on our side, looks like us, favors our positions and endorses our views. It’s really easy for us to imagine God is just like us. Imagining God looking like us is, in a sense, the whole point of the Incarnation – that God became one of us, allowing us to imagine being in relationship with God. The problem is when we imagine God is ONLY like us – as in, not like anyone else, says Lose. The Good News is that God looks like every one of us no matter our race, color, ethnicity or religion.
Just as the Canaanite woman taught Jesus that God’s mission and vision and compassion and mercy are bigger than what he may have initially imagined, so might the Canaanite woman teach us the same thing in our time when people are dying of COVID, or standing on line at food banks, or suddenly find themselves homeless or without jobs as our cities and towns deal with peaceful protests turned riots. I know I’ve said this before but I believe it bears repeating: Every time we draw a line between who’s in and who’s out, we will find the God made manifest in Jesus is on the other side. n God’s house everyone is welcome at the table of love. And this is Good News. Amen
Sermon Series: Race & Reconciliation
Service for Reconciliation, Justice and Peace
Proper 7A – June 14, 2020 - The Rev. Jeunée Godsey
Lord
Take our Eyes and See through them
Take our ears and hear through them
Take our lips and speak through them
Take our hearts and fill them with your fire.
In the past few weeks, our eyes have seen a lot, our ears have heard a lot.
Maybe your lips may have spoken a lot… or maybe you’ve been holding your lips tight.
And our hearts…. Many are on fire right now… Where is God’s fire?
Perhaps now more than ever, it is important for each of us to pray that we see, hear, and speak through the lens of God’s truth.
We are experiencing unrest and confusion in our country right now. Demonstrations and protests against racial injustice and police brutality are indeed circling the globe following the murder of George Floyd on May 25th in Minneapolis. Of course, it’s not just him. The cover of Time magazine this week was outlined with the names of 35 people, starting with Treyvon Martin, ending with the most recent: Michael Dean, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd.
My friend, The Rev. Dr. Nyasha Gumbeze, priest in New Zealand posted about the Black Lives Matter protest she and other clergy were marching in in Auckland, while my Scottish Episcopal Priest friend, and fellow Ukulele player, posted about how in Bristol, England, a statue of the Edward Colston, a civic leader and notorious slave trader was pulled down and thrown into the dock. Here in Richmond, of course, there have been ongoing demonstrations in the city and around the area. Mostly Peaceful. Some decidedly not.
Our Governor has ordered that the General Robert E. Lee statue be removed, but meanwhile, other protesters have pulled Jefferson Davis off his pedestal on Monument Avenue, and Christopher Columbus was thrown into Byrd Lake by those who see him as a symbol of colonization and white supremacy due to his major role promoting the enslavement of the Natives People of Hispaniola.
I’ve mostly been staying away from TV news, but the images from around the country and around the world are both disturbing and heart-breaking, and sometimes exhilarating and hopeful.
Let me just pause here to say that there is a clear distinction between Violent riotors and looters who seek to destroy,
and peaceful protesters, engaged in positive social action and demonstration. Peaceful protests may still indeed disturb the status quo and the traffic flow….but protest is an effective element to work for constructive change to end racism and racial inequality.
There’s also a difference between the many good police officers and members of law enforcement who seek to serve and protect their communities, and the bullies who use a badge to dehumanize and intimidate, and the systemic issues that allow such brutality, discrimination and injustice to be perpetuated in our institutions and communities.
As Christians we do not condone violence. Not by riotors, and not by corrupt police officers. But as Christians, we are also called to stand with the oppressed, to stand with those seeking the welfare of the people, and to work to carry out God’s will of justice and mercy. Sometimes that’s gritty work.
When Jesus sees the crowd coming to him, looking for truth and solace, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
He gathered his disciples around him, and said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and sent them out, as apostles. (Disciples learn and walk in the masters path. Apostles go, being sent to do the masters work.)
Jesus gave them authority over Jesus told them, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
That’s the work Jesus gives us as well- all of us, white, black, or brown, or any other color.
We are called to be agents of healing, to rid the world of the demons of racism, hate, discrimination, and inequality.
When someone is baptized, they are asked to renounce evil and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Our renunciation is three-fold:
Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual force of wickedness that rebel against God?
Do you renounce the Evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?
The response to each of them is “I renounce them.”
These three renunciations move from the cosmic, to the global, to the personal.
We may not get it, but we can see there is cosmic evil / Satan, that works against God, but God has won already.
I definitely get Personal evil. My own sinful desires are usually the easiest to recognize. We all know we have sinful habits. We all know we screw up and need reform. While we know many of our faults, we also have blindspots to places that still need to be redeemed in our lives.
But The Evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God? That’s systemic evil. That’s the evil that is beyond one person, or one entity. That’s what makes it so hard to deal with. This is exactly where racism comes in. It lives alongside other evil powers like corporate greed, prejudice of all kinds, war, environmental degradation, political corruption, economic injustice, and so on. It’s so big and so complicated that we oftentimes don’t even try to renounce it or resist it. We go along to get along. Or when we do renounce or resist, our efforts feel like a drop in the bucket.
As a white middle-class woman, I have the privilege to decide I don’t want to think about racism, to turn off the news and go about my weekend in suburbia without even having to worry things my black and brown brothers and sisters always have in the back of their minds…. That they will likely be watched suspiciously in a store, or pulled over by police simply because of the color of their skin. Or that their college age son might not even make it home. These are things I don’t have to think about or talk about Just because I’m white.
Scripture tells us that we cannot remain silent. We are called to speak out. More than speak out, do something.
PROVERBS 24:11-12 says,
If you do nothing in a difficult time, how small is your strength!)
Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter.
If you say, “But we didn’t know about this,”
won’t He who weighs hearts consider it?
Won’t He who protects your life know?
Won’t He repay a person according to his work?
The Message puts it even more clearly.
11-12 Rescue the perishing; don’t hesitate to step in and help.If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,” will that get you off the hook?Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses.
Edmund Burke nailed it when he said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
I know many of you have actively been working for justice, peace, and racial reconciliation. You have mentored children in interracial children’s camps, and proactively joined discussion groups to help break down racial barriers. You’ve sought to educate yourself about the systemic issues that have led us where we are today. This is good. But we are not done yet.
In Our Gospel today Jesus says the apostles are sent out. Where they find people of peace, worthy folk, who will allow the message of God’s Good News to be preached, they are to spend time there. Those people of worth, or people of peace will provide for the messengers, feed them, help them share their message with the wider community.
Sometimes the message isn’t received. So then, Jesus says, shake the dust off your feet and move on. We cannot force people to change. Judgement is God’s. (But Jesus doesn’t make that judgement sound too good, does he?)
What if we turned Jesus’ words around 180 degrees? What if God has called others to be apostles to us? To cast out the demons in our lives? To heal our souls from the sin-sickness we have experienced? What if we are called to be the worthy households, people who can receive the words of peace – words that describe a future peace, and not reject them. What if we supposed to be those who serve the apostles, who offer harbor, who hear and accept the good news of God’s kingdom and in turn share it with our neighbors. Who protect the messengers from those who would persecute them, and who are willing to be persecuted ourselves for the sake of God’s message of justice and reconciliation?
Maybe we are the ones being evangelized. We, the average white person with a good heart but still not fully understanding our part in dismantling racism. Maybe we are the harvest Jesus is so concerned about.
Many of you know that until last November, I had live my seven years in Richmond on Monument Avenue, in an apartment in a grand old house that was just half a block from General Lee. I loved that apartment. I loved sitting out on the front porch. I loved walking up and down the Street. I enjoyed the majesty of the monuments. I knew they were all about the confederacy, which of course I knew was wrong headed, but I didn’t really give it much thought. Old history I figured. I often took pictures of the sunrise or the sunset with General Lee featured prominently in the middle. I posted him often on my Facebook page.
But one black death after another crossed the news. One black lives matter protest after another. Then, in 2017 Charlottesville happened. The protests and counter protests about the cities decision to take down a statue of Robert E Lee ended in the death of a woman, as a white supremacist drove into a crowd of protesters. Wow. Protests over statues.
It wasn’t until one of my black friends said to me as I gave her my address and she dropped me off, “I could never live on this street. It just hurts too much.” Something like scales dropped from my eyes. I saw things differently than I had before. She wasn’t judging me, or even trying to convince me. She was simply speaking her truth. It sounds stupid, but I hadn’t really considered how such a symbol could cause such pain.
I stopped taking pictures of General Lee.
One small evil was cast out of my soul by her words.
I’d say that we each have a role to be both apostles who are sent out, and people of peace who are willing to receive the words of the apostles sent to us.
We sometimes we are agents of another’s conversion.
Sometimes we are the ones being converted.
We are sent by God into the public square and into voting booth to make change.
We are also asked to feed and support those on the front lines of change.
Rev. Becki included an article in our weekly e-news of 75 things white people can do to fight racism. You may find something in that list that encourages you to take action.
At our baptism service, After the three-fold renunciation of Evil, we affirm our faith by accepting Jesus as our Savior, Trusting in his grace and love, and following him as our Lord.
We then make 5 promises about how we plan to live out our faith.
These are the action items I leave you with today.
Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers? PRAY
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? RESIST & REPENT
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? PROCLAIM
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? LOVE
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every humanbeing?
STRIVE FOR JUSTICE. PEACE, RESPECT & DIGNITY FOR EVERY HUMAN BEING.
This should be nothing new for most of us. But let this be a new day for all of us.
Lord, take our eyes and see through them.
Take our ears and hear through them.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take our hearts and fill them with your fire.
Proper 8, 2020
Mt: 10-40-42
June 28, 2020
Reverend Becki Dean
“Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward,” Jesus tells his disciples in our reading from Matthew. “Whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Jesus makes being a disciple sound so easy in today’s Gospel; at least when compared to last few weeks when he told them, in verses 9 & 10, “…take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. And in verses 16-20 how they would face persecution; in verse 21 the rejection they would encounter within their own families and then last week, “…Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have come not to bring peace but a sword…”
In today’s verses Jesus tells the disciples three things are necessary to receive our reward: welcoming the prophet, welcoming the righteous, and giving a drink to the thirsty. It seems pretty straight forward. Jesus wants us to be welcoming? We do that! Jesus wants us to pass out food? He wants us to live a righteous life? We do that too! When it comes right down to it, St. Michael’s is welcoming, hospitable and caring. On the surface, today’s verses make discipleship seem like a cakewalk
But, as I read this Gospel again, I realized, Jesus isn’t talking about giving. He is talking about receiving!
Don’t misunderstand. Giving is important. But receiving, the other side of the coin, that’s not as easy. Like, how many of us are willing to receive as generously as we are willing to give? We know as Christians we are to minister to those on the margins. We remind ourselves every time we renew our Baptismal Vows, answering the questions. “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” And “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” Our response, “I will with God’s help.” And I believe we all answer sincerely from our hearts.
But here’s the thing: the majority of us don’t live on the margins; Says Debbie Thomas in her blog, Journey with Jesus, we’re used to occupying the center. We’re used to being the ones who wield institutional and cultural power over the very people we set out to help. We’re accustomed to being the privileged ones who compassionately extend welcome, generosity, charity, and hospitality to others less privileged than ourselves. And we’re really good at knowing what the marginalized need without asking. Having never walked in their shoes we think we have the answers to their needs.
When Jesus told his disciples not to carry anything with them, the understanding was that they would assume a posture of humility and depend completely on the hospitality of the people they were sent to serve. Can’t we see? Even as we give, we are also to receive.
Ancient Jewish people had a custom. They called it shaliah. People were expected to treat the king’s emissary as if he were the king himself. If the king sent you a message by a messenger even with bad news, you better not shoot him! You had better treat the king’s messenger as if he were a VIP; roll out the red carpet, offer the messenger coffee and a donut, and be prepared to put him up for the night! It was simply expected.
Shaliah! The messenger bears the image of the one who sent him.
The messenger bears the image of the one who sent him. The apostles bore the image of Jesus – and Jesus bore the image of God – so the apostles also bore the image of God. They were to speak with God’s authority. They were to act by God’s power.
Those who welcomed the disciples took the final step of Shaliah, by providing support. The image of the apostles bore the image of Jesus who is the image of God.
“Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me,
And whoever welcomes me welcomes
the one who sent me.” (v40)
Shaliah! The messenger bears the image of the one who sent him.
Jesus points us to three categories of people God expects us to help.
The first are the prophets. In the Bible prophets were the people who spoke for God, who said, for better or worse, what God told them to say. Mostly God sent prophets to straighten people out, to tell them to repent or else! Frequently he sent prophets to reprimand the rich and powerful for mistreating the poor and powerless; the widows and orphans.
Prophets were not popular.
Whether or not we are aware, Jesus continues to send us prophets. And no matter what message the prophet brings we are to pay attention.
Next, Jesus wants us to help righteous people, people who obey God, people who try their best to do what God calls them to do, people who love God and neighbor, those who lives honor God. Jesus said if we welcome people like that, not only will they be rewarded, but so will we.
Last, and maybe most important to God, is the assistance we provide for the little ones. Little ones could be nearly anyone, children, the poor, the homeless, those who are deserving of justice and mercy, anyone who is vulnerable. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that he will reward those who feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, or help the sick, or visit the prisoner. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (25:40)
All of this is to say to us today in the 21st Century: look at where we are in this present moment and ask ourselves the hard questions. Are we the prophets God has called us to be? Do we speak the truth even when it’s easier to be silent? Can we say with confidence that we have always been the people God calls us to be? Do we look the other way when our system of justice is unjust for our brothers and sisters who are not our color, race, ethnicity or religion?
Are we the righteous people God calls us to be? Do we truly love our neighbor, near or far off, as much as we love the neighbor most like ourselves? Does the life we lead honor the God we love?
This is a very painful time for so many who have never known freedom the way you and I know freedom. But it is also a time of pain and grief for many of privilege, authority and power who look just like me. For me personally to know that I have not recognized my participation in racism in this life of privilege that I was born into leaves me broken. I have not received the voices of my brothers and sisters who live on the margins have been trying to tell me for so many years in the way God wants me to receive their voices. I have not fought for justice and mercy for the vulnerable and, until this present moment, I have not heard their cries. It is my state of privilege and arrogance that has prevented me from hearing those cries of the prophets in my midst, on my news channel, on my social media, even my ministry to them that God called me to. There’s no excuse. I can do better. I will do better. I will not turn away or be silent. Through these 21st Century prophets my eyes have been opened and my ears unstopped. I will, with God’s help, keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities to help the prophets, to spread God’s inclusive love, to educate myself to what the prophets are telling us. I will strive, with God’s help, to live the life God has called us to live. I will, with God’s help, Won’t you prayerfully join me? Maya Angelou once said “You do the best you can. When you know better, you do better.” Every opportunity to help is an opportunity to receive; to receive someone’s story, to receive someone’s desires, to receive a new friendship. It is in this receiving that we are abundantly blessed by our all-inclusive God. Shaliah!
Sermon Series - Kingdom Parables: Planting, Weeding, Growing
Proper 10A 2020 – Parable of Sower
July 12, 2020
The Rev. Jeunée Godsey
A sower went out to Sow… that’s how Jesus begins his parable. In fact, As we begin chapter 13 in the Gospel of Matthew the parable we heard today is the first of 7 parables which try to describe the Kingdom of Heaven.
A parable is a story meant to explain something bigger. Literally it means, to throw along side .. putting an example along side of what you are trying to explain.. it makes a sort of comparison. Jesus uses stories and parables that take common everyday images from 1st century life in order to offer some images that begin to explain what life in God was like. He talks about farmers and housekeepers, shepherds, landlords and such.
Today we have the 1st of 3 parables in a row about gardening and planting. We’ll hear them all these last three weeks of July. Today we have the Parable of the Sower and the different soils. Next week we hear the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, and the following week we hear the parable of the Mustard Seed. Seeds planted in the ground with different results… all to give us images to illustrate what the kingdom of God is like.
So, while we often think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, maybe these next few weeks we need to think of Jesus as the Good Gardener. Except is he really that good a gardener? Think about the willy-nilly way the sower is planting his seed… just throwing it hinder and yon with no regard for where it lands.
Compare that with the great work going on in St. Michael’s Garden.
Here I am standing in St. Michael’s yard, and just behind me is our community Garden.
Jesus tells us the story of the sower who goes out and sows… The sower scatters the seed everywhere. Some lands on the path, the rocky ground, the briar patch, and some on good soil.
And while Jesus doesn’t normally explain his parable, this parable has a “magic decoder ring…”
Jesus just explains what it means.
The seed is the word of God. The soils represent different environments in people’s lives in which that seed is scattered: Hardened, rocky, thorny, or good soil. The sower is not named. Perhaps it is Jesus himself.
But even Jesus’ own explanation doesn’t exhaust the meaning of the story. Parables are not really meant to have just one interpretation. We can’t just ask, “what does it mean?” and walk away satisfied with one pat answer, all wrapped up and stored on the mental shelf of “lessons learned.”
Jesus tells parables not to have us ask questions of them.
Jesus tells parables so that they can ask questions of us.
So what questions does the story of the sower ask you and me?
At least two, I think.
What kind of soil are you?
What kind of sower are you?
What kind of soil are you?
I think very few of us are just one kind of soil. When I look at my own life, I can see how on any given day, on any given hour there are parts of my life that are like the hard path, or rocky ground. There are thorns that choke out other concerns and there are places that are growing and being fruitful.
What kind of soil are you?
There are places in my life that are hardened by convention and routine. The hard packed earth of “this is just the way I am,” or “we’ve always done it that way” won’t let new seeds germinate, even when they are seeds of God’s will.
Perhaps the hard path represents areas of your life where you are most resistant to change, or areas that you just aren’t really to till up because what’s packed underneath is too painful to unbury.
Perhaps the hard path represents areas of our lives that we feel the most control over, or the most secure of, and therefore are the most hesitant to stir anything up, especially when you don’t know what a new crop might yield.
But what promises of abundance do you and I miss by having hard places where the seed of God’s word doesn’t even get a chance to take root?
What kind of soil are you?
Ever get excited by something new, but fail to carry through? For me, beginning new things is always more fun than sustaining them through the long haul. Jesus speaks about this in the Rocky ground.
There are people who joyfully embrace the teachings of Jesus and accept God’s forgiveness and promise of new life, until they realize that it might mean they have to dig up some of the rocks that are blocking their growth. The initial feel-good stage of faith or spiritual practice gives way to some dry spells and challenging weather, and if the roots of faith haven’t gone very deep, our faith can languish. Sometimes this can happen when someone has a mountain top experience of God, but doesn’t know how to live in the valley. Or when someone turns to Jesus in desperation, and finds true acceptance and forgiveness, but doesn’t go on to build the relationship.
When hard times come - lost job, illness, divorce - they don’t have the depth of faith to carry them through. When difficult decisions have to be made they find it easier to go along with the world or the crowd than to stand the heat of making an unpopular decision based on Christian principles. It’s easy to get scortched and wither. A feel good experience one day a week, or revelations that come while away on a spiritual retreat or mission trip are great, but won’t really make a difference in the spiritual harvest of your life unless it’s rooted in daily discipleship of prayer, study, service, and godly relationship with which make the soil of your life richer and richer year.
What kind of soil are you?
Life during the COVID crisis has had a different rhythm. In some ways, we are not in the same rat race as we were. But for many of us, what prevents our growth in God is simply letting other things choke out our faith.
Sometimes administrivia fills my days, to do lists are ongoing, I want to start decorating my house like all the pictures I see my neighbors posting in Facebook. And what am I cooking for dinner tonight? These are really even the thorny issues so many other people have to deal with.
I lie in bed some nights and wonder, “Where was God in all that?” Did I grow today at all? Did I help anyone else grow? Did I choke out God’s Spirit? I know there are weeds in my garden. What weeds are in yours?
What kind of soil are you?
Thank goodness that you and I are not always hard, or shallow, or crowded with preoccupations. Sometimes God’s seed falls on soil that’s rich and fertile. The right word at the right time can make a world of difference. The yield from those seeds is phenomenal… life-changing even.
I think that these are sometimes the nuggets of wisdom and truth we receive, from scripture or Godly advice. These seeds in the good soils are those times when we see God’s path for us clearly and we follow it, or we begin to use our gifts in ways that honor God and we are finding joy in fulfilment and meaning.
When God’s seed is growing in your life, the job there is to be patient. Tend to the fragile signs of new life. Feed and water it well. Pull the weeds while they’re still small. Expect the fruit of God’s planting to yield great things.
I wonder if we can really choose what kind of soil we have in our lives, or merely learn how to observe ourselves and do what we can to enrich the soil of our lives at any given time.
In the passage we heard earlier from Romans, Paul wrote, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… We are set free from the law of sin and death.” Jesus does not condemn us because we have had hard places in our lives, or shallow soil, or thorny weeds. Jesus sets us free so that we can turn over a new leaf, or - a new spade of soil.
Even when the soils of our life are hard, or shallow, or crowed, Jesus continues to broadcast seeds of blessing and opportunity hour after hour, day after day, even though much seems to be wasted on us. God is abundant in his generosity.
God is a generous sower.
What kind of sower are you?
Jesus method of sowing is meant to be a model for us. How do you spread the seeds of God’s love as you walk through life? The seeds we have to share shouldn’t wait of perfect planting conditions. Jesus gives us a model of reckless abandon when it comes to spreading God’s love in word and deed. Jesus doesn’t just hedge his bets and plant where the soil seems the most fertile, he scatters it here and there and everywhere.
Any actions we do, big and small, done in God’s name, scatter God’s seed and have the potential for Divine Harvest. Sometime the seed has to be scattered over and over again until the soil is ready to receive it… and in good time, it just might. Are you a generous and reckless sower of seeds of God’s love? The seeds you scatter might be kind words to a neighbor, Praying with your children or grandchildren, volunteering to help those in need, or reaching out to those who are alone. Seeds of God’s love might look like starting a study group around issues of racial justice, Sharing an answer to prayer with a friend, finding ways to introduce spiritual topics into a conversation.
What kind of soil are you?
What kind of sower are you?
To conclude I want to share a cute this piece I collected quite a time ago.. It’s called Gardening God’s way. While it talks about planting not just scattering, I think it the seeds I think are the kind of seeds we need to be planni
Plant three rows of peas:
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul
Plant four rows of squash:
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness
Plant four rows of lettuce:
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be obedient
Lettuce really love one another
No garden without turnips:
Turnip for worship
Turnip for service
Turnip to help one another
Finally, in our garden
We must have thyme:
Thyme for God
Thyme for study
Thyme for prayer
Water freely with patience and
Cultivate with love.
The bible says you reap what you sow,
and so may you reap 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold of God’s blessings.
The Rev. Jeunée Godsey
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
Proper 11A Romans 8:12-25
July 19, 2020 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
I’ve got a problem with this Gospel reading today.
Let me rephrase that.
I’ve got several problems with this Gospel reading today.
First of all, the weather this last week has been way too hot to hear about the weeds of evil being thrown into the furnace of fire to be burned up, accompanied to the tune of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Oh LORD! Please don’t let ME be a weed in the wheat field of life!
But my major problem with this passage comes from the impracticability and irresponsibility of it all. You just can’t go letting weeds grow all over your garden!
Believe me... I’ve done it…It’s not pretty. You have to get those weeds early before they do much damage, or sure enough, when you do try to pick them, you uproot your garden plants as well.
I’m pretty lucky right now. I live in a new home with new mulch, and the weeds are pretty easy to pluck up as they poke through. But I don’t have a great history with weeds. One of my old homes had this insidious sort of crabgrass that was all gnarly and sent its tentacle roots into my flower beds and bushes, encircling all my plants, then, when I tried to pull it up, I’d end up uprooting my daffodil bulbs or other flowers as well. I never managed to get it under control.
Obviously those weeds are sown by the Devil.
I guess it’s my frustrating experiences of the past that color the way I see Jesus’ parable today.
“For in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” True enough, but it goes on. “Let both of them grow together until the harvest.” Now, that’s where I have trouble. Maybe wheat and daffodils aren’t quite the same, and maybe Jesus’ weeds and crabgrass aren’t quite the same, but if you let the weeds and crabgrass continue to grow, it adversely affects the harvest or the garden doesn’t it? It does make a difference, doesn’t it, whether you have a beautiful garden or a weedy garden? I think it does. I don’t want to see weeds instead of flowers.
So if this parable Jesus teaches about the weeds and the wheat is an analogy of the Kingdom of God, how are we to understand it? God doesn’t want this to be a “weedy world” does he? Don’t we have some responsibility as Christians to work against evil in the world? Don’t we in our baptismal covenant “renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” Don’t the we promise to “persevere in resisting evil?” Shouldn’t we be out there, weeding the world from evil?
Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe life is as simple as “live and let live, and let God sort it all out in the end.” That would certainly make life a heck of a lot easier, wouldn’t it? I wouldn’t need to worry about anyone or anything. I could just enjoy the sun and look forward to that Holy Harvest Day. Just so long as I am sure I’m not a weed.
Well let’s look at this parable more closely, to see what we can glean from it. First of all, you’ll want to remember that this is just one of Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom of God in Matthew.
This parable of the weeds comes just after the parable of the sower and the four soils we heard last week. In the same chapter, Jesus speaks of the kingdom as a mustard seed and as yeast, as a fine pearl and as a treasure.
But for now, let’s see how this parable of weed and wheat helps us understand the Kingdom of God, as it pertains to the World and Ourselves.
So what about Wheat and Weeds in the World?
Like Jesus’ parable of the sower and the soils, Jesus offers a rare direct interpretation of this parable. “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.”
While Jesus’ allegorical interpretation of the parable seems to focus on the end of the age, this parable doesn’t get all it’s meaning from the Final Harvest, even though we do get some dramatic language about that time.
This parable focuses more on the questions of the servants, “Lord, didn’t you sow good seed?” And, “Do you want us to gather up the weeds?” This parable focuses on how do deal with kingdom life in the present, not just about the final end times.
“Lord, didn’t you sow good seed?” The answer is Yes.
“Do you want us to gather up the weeds?” The answer is No, at least not outside your own little plot.
The parable of the weeds illustrates a spiritual truth that has been true ever since the very first Garden: Whenever God creates something wonderful, the Devil tries to spoil it.
God sows good seed and Satan sows bad. This is an important thing to remember. Too often, people start blaming God for the bad things in the world. But God doesn’t create evil. Evil is a perversion or counterfeit of the good.
One reason Jesus told this parable is to highlight what was happening in his own time. Jesus was sowing seeds of the kingdom of God, and he began to see the fruit of faithful disciples. Meanwhile, however, controversy grew around him. Enemies tried to trip him up, and eventually had him killed. I don’t believe the evil of suspicion and hate leading up to Jesus’ death were part of God’ plan. But God knew the enemy’s tactics and the frailty of the human heart and took them into consideration in his plan for our salvation.
So the evil in this world is not of God. When things go bad, we don’t necessarily need to be wondering why God is testing us. We can look for God to guide us through the weed patches of life.
Also, when God sows good, we can expect some spiritual backlash. It happened in Jesus Day. It happens now. As your eyes become more open to spiritual things, you will begin to see it as well.
I can’t tell you how often a new ministry gets ready to start and lo and behold, a significant number of the participants are struck ill or have car trouble.
There are times when God works to bring about exciting positive change in the church or community or the world, and soon the grumbling begins, or things go sideways. We just need to be aware that when God does something new, the devil often tries to spoil it, and we need not be surprised. One positive thing we can do is to pray for God’s protection. Prayer is a form of spiritual “Round Up” that helps eliminate evil and its effects.
Now, bad things happening isn’t always the Devil’s fault. Life is messy, and sometimes the bad stuff just happens. Besides that, it’s not always clear what’s good and what’s evil. One person’s weed is another person’s flower. Baby’s breath is considered a weed in California, but it appears in almost every flower arrangement. You might not like having Dandelions in your yard, but the greens are edible, it can be made into wine, and the seed pods are magical in the hand of a child.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the weed and the wheat at first, and we need to be careful not to judge other people or other situations too quickly. Sometimes whether something is a “noxious weed” or “helpful herb” is a matter of perspective.
The weed Jesus mentions is thought by many scholars to be bearded darnel, a weed that in its early stages closely resembles wheat, making it almost impossible to identify. As the plants mature, the roots of the weeds and wheat intertwine, making them almost impossible to separate. It’s not until the grain matures that you can tell the difference.
If the darnel is not separated out, however, it will ruin the flour because it is both bitter and mildly toxic. The usual solution was to separate the grains after threshing by spreading them on a flat surface and having people remove the darnel by hand, which is a different color at that stage.
This parable points out that even when the good and bad grow together, God takes the time to gather the good and rid the harvest of evil. God won’t let evil ruin the bread at the heavenly banquet.
I think this parable points to why time in this world is so confusing right now.
For example, I personally believe that a renewed movement to eradicate racial injustice is good seed, sown by God. I believe good seeds have been sown to help reform our criminal justice system to provide greater justice and accountability. Yet, it also seems that some bad seeds are being sown by the Enemy, who wishes to destroy the Good God may be up to. Violence, hostility, blaming, suspicion, hatred. It’s sometimes hard to tell the wheat from the weeds.
When is a hard conversation offering different points of view, simply that… a hard conversation?… It may be a necessary tilling up of the soil of hardened opinions so you can plant good seed for future harvest.
Or, when is the confrontation of a fight truly good verses evil? Just because someone thinks differently than you do, doesn’t mean they are a weed, or worse, “a son of the Devil.” At the same time, evil abounds, and not everyone trying to effect change has good motives.
Unfortunately, many in our society have gotten to the point of demonizing people who have different political views or different solutions to hard issues. Even more so in an election year.
It’s gotten to the point that even dealing with COVID seems to a mixture of Wheat and Weeds. Good information or bad? Best of intentions or conspiracy theories? It’s hard to know what’s what.
Sometimes good and bad are so intertwined that our efforts to rid the world of bad end up hurting the good.
The truth of the matter is that there are not some people who are “Wheat” - all good, and some people who are “Weeds” - all evil. Each of us produces weed and wheat in our lives. Each community or church or organization is a mixture of wheat and weeds. We’re all a garden that contains both.
We are indeed called to work against evil and injustice in this world, but we know that we will never reach perfection this side of heaven. Weed and wheat will always be together in the same field. That is where this parable is good news. God takes care of the final harvest. We don’t have to. It’s not our place to be the final judge.
Hopefully you are tending the good seed God has grown in your life. Hopefully, through regular self-examination and confession, you are pulling the weeds of sin in your life before they have much chance to grow deep roots and send runners into other parts of your life. Hopefully your friends and family are tending to their own fields as well… because you know, if your neighbors yard is full of weeds, its hard to keep those weeds out of your yard. If you spend time with those who are evil, prejudice, or hateful, those noxious seeds can get in your garden too.
I’d dare say most of us have at least one corner of our interior property that we haven’t tended very carefully. Sometimes we have been the ones sowing the bad seed in our own gardens, through poor choices, or selfish desires. Sometimes the bad seed has come from an enemy. When our lives are so entangled with the growth from the bad seed, that we can’t see how to pull up the weeds without destroying everything.
It can seem pretty hopeless. But our God is a Master Gardner.
The key here is to not judge yourself out of the kingdom. And don’t let others judge yourself out of the kingdom, either. God can see the good wheat in your life, even if at times it seems strangled by the weeds. And don’t be afraid of the fire. The fire of God’s love burns away any weed of evil that stands between you and him. That’s what I believe Jesus means when he says he will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin to throw in the fire.
God’s forgiveness burns away the weeds of guilt.
God’s healing burns away the weeds of brokenness.
God’s holiness burns away any weeds of unrighteousness.
God’s love and peace can burn away the weeds of hate and division.
The weeping and gnashing of teeth comes from the Devil, who has been denied his harvest of weeds.
The good news is there’s not just one final harvest at the end of time. Season after season God wants to gather up the fruit in our lives, and burn off the weeds. And parcel by parcel God will sort out the wheat field of the world in his own time. In the end, we can trust in the Lord of the Harvest.
Amen.
Proper 12-A, 2020
July 26, 2020
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Reverend Becki Dean
Jesus said to the disciples, “Have you understood all this?” They answered with a resounding, “Yes.” Now, right off the bat, I’m suspect. Really? The disciples understood this. They haven’t understood anything else Jesus tried to teach them. And now they get it? I don’t think so!
In her book, Seeds of Heaven, Barbara Brown-Taylor says Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom were “a way of weaving things holy with the ordinary stuff of life; a way of breaking open our everyday understanding of things and inviting us to explore them all over again.”
So, let’s explore today’s parables.
There was a story that went around a number of years ago when Bill Clinton was president. As the story goes, Bill and Hillary were taking a walk one afternoon when Hillary spotted a man at a gas station along the way, stopped and had a conversation with the gentleman who turned out to be the gas station attendant. It seemed to the President to be a pretty lively conversation. As Hillary and the gas station attendant said their goodbyes the attendant said, "It was great talking with you." Following the exchange Bill and Hillary continued their walk. Curious, the President looked at Hillary and asked if she knew the man. Hillary admitted she did. She told the President that they had gone to high school together and had even dated for a while.
"Boy, were you lucky that I came along," bragged the President. "If you had married him, you'd be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of the President of the United States."
"My dear," Hillary replied, "if I had married him, he would be the President of the United States and you would be the gas station attendant."
The problem is we humans have a difficult time seeing the big picture; we think we have the proper perspective on an issue when in fact we’re out there in left field. Jesus understood this inclination for us to get it wrong; especially when it comes to things spiritual. So, he told a few parables intertwining the Holy with the ordinary. He said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed.”
Some of us probably remember when girls use to wear mustard seed necklaces. When I was a young girl, they were all the rage. The seed was centered in a small glass ball and worn on a chain around your neck. The seed was so tiny in that glass ball. So why would Jesus choose something so small to represent something as large as the kingdom of heaven?
He did it because even though the Kingdom of Heaven is exponential in size, we are so often blind to its presence. It’s hidden in plain sight and yet we miss it. Think of the seeds planted in our garden that Jeunee mentioned a couple of weeks ago; some of them so very tiny, and yet look at their size now and the amazing amount of fruit they have produced, “some thirty, some sixty, and some 100 fold. That’s the irony in Jesus words. The KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is like a mustard seed. If you have ever seen a mustard seed or a mustard seed necklace then you know how ridiculous this statement sounds. Mustard seeds are as small as a grain of sand. Yet one seed grows into a huge large bush large enough for birds to build their nest among its branches. The ordinary mustard seed knit within the Holy.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Jesus’ followers would have known that three measurers of flour with the yeast required for leavening would produce about 100 loaves of bread. All from a tiny amount of yeast. That’s a lot of bread; so much bread that the woman had enough bread to share with her entire community.
A few months ago, when we were first quarantined due to COVID 19, I decided to bake some cookies; only I didn’t have any yeast. Katherine Townsend came to the rescue and gave me some yeast. Now you all know that it’s only Kerry and I living in our home so imagine my surprise when I baked those cookies with the smallest amount of yeast. As I added the yeast, I thought, “this can’t possibly be enough!” Once baked, I had more cookies than I knew what to do with! If you haven’t figured it out, I don’t bake or cook very often! But what was really cool for me was the folks with whom I was able to share all those cookies.
Like the mustard seed, small things produce beyond what seems reasonable; the ordinary woven into the Kingdom. Again, Jesus used this one sentence parable to show us how blind we are to the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven. Douglas Hare’s Commentary on Matthew suggests Jesus is trying to get the point across that, "God is at work, even though our human eyes often fail to perceive what is happening." Which is comforting in these days of pandemic and social justice.
I love the parable of the pearl. There’s an ancient legend about a monk who found a precious stone. A short time later, the monk met a traveler, who said he was hungry and asked the monk if he would share some of his food. When the monk opened his bag, the traveler saw the precious stone and asked the monk if he could have it. Amazingly, the monk gave the traveler the stone.
The traveler departed overjoyed with his new possession. However, a few days later, he was back, searching for the monk. He found the monk, returned the stone, and made a request: "Please give me something more valuable, more precious than this stone. Please give me that which enabled you to give me this precious stone!"
I love this parable because Jesus does not say the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great value. He says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant; a merchant who finds a great deal on a perfect stone and does everything in his power to purchase it. But it’s the merchant’s response that is significant because his response gives us the meaning of Jesus’ parable – commitment! Commitment to a greater cause; commitment of the whole heart; commitment to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
As Christians we understand that imperceptible things have real influence. Unfortunately, we get tied up in the minutia of our day to day existence. We get caught up in issues of social justice; we become overwhelmed with the unknown in this pandemic and with huge social problems like world hunger and innocent children flowing into our country in order to avoid the violence in their own. We can’t even pick up the newspaper or watch the evening news for fear of the next act of violence perpetrated upon children of God and the deceitfulness that comes with it as everyone plays the blame game. We are so overwhelmed it’s no wonder we overlook the tiny ordinary seeds of God at work among us.
Because you see, the Kingdom of heaven is not sometime in the future; it is not some day in the distant future. The Kingdom of heaven is present now. It always has been. It always will be. We pray, “…thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as in heaven…” The Kingdom is within each one of us. It’s in the little ordinary things we do; that, woven together with the Holy, grow the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. It’s those little things that have tremendous power.
Remember, when God moved in history for the salvation of mankind, God did not call in a legion of angels; God did not call a meeting of all the principalities of the earth. God did so with a seed planted in the womb of a peasant girl. That microscopic seed would one day be the leaven, weaving together the old ways of living with a new alternative way of living that would change the world.
Paying attention to the ordinary stuff of life being knitted into the Holy; right here, right now. That’s what heaven is like. Amen.
Trinity Sunday Sermon
The Acts of the Apostles
Easter 4-A, 2020
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
Acts 2:42-47; John 10:1-10
Reverend Becki Dean
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers”
The Acts of the Apostles’ is our most comprehensive history of the spiritual and political movement that gave birth to the early Christian church. Today’s passage has become the symbol of the early Christian community. It is a peek into how the faith of the early church was built. Today’s reading from Acts gives us a set of guidelines on what we need to do to live our lives as Jesus lived his. These few verses are like a little book of directions. They help us answer the question; as Easter people, how do live?
In Chapter 6, Stephen, along with six other disciples, were selected by the 12 apostles to be responsible for the early church’s feeding ministry. The apostles were spending all their time preaching, teaching, and praying. The church was growing so rapidly that the Greek widows and orphans were being neglected in the daily food distribution. So, we are told, the apostles laid hands on seven men of good standing and “ordained” them as the church’s first “deacons.” From the Greek, diakonia deacon means literally one who serves and their job was to serv e the widows and orphans.
Stephen is described as a man “full of grace and power.” Eventually the religious authorities became so threatened by Stephen that they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. In Stephen we see that to believe in Jesus requires not just believing certain things about Jesus, but living as Jesus lived. It was living this life that cost Stephen his life.
In the first verse from today’s reading, we learn that the first Christians had a set of four practices that nurtured their lives and helped them not only to believe certain things about Jesus, but to live as Jesus lived. This is the earliest listing of what came to be known as the “marks” of the church; characteristics that identified the church as the church beyond confessing Jesus as Lord. It is God’s grace that causes growth, but these were ways of nourishing the early Christians’ spiritual life in Christ. These marks have not changed in over 2000 years.
First, they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings.” Maybe something like Bible study. A mark of authenticity and health in a church is what it does with the writings of those early Christian leaders. We are all called to explore the texts, to dwell in scripture, a practice that has been passed down to us from our ancient brothers and sisters.
We Episcopalians’ take this very seriously. In worship we read an Old Testament lesson, a Psalm, a lesson from the New Testament and the Gospel every week. We spend more time dwelling in the Word than most traditions on Sunday morning.
But we are also to spend time exploring scripture throughout the week. That idea can be intimidating for some of us. Maybe we don’t grasp the many different styles of literature and poetic language much less comprehend the numerous depths of its meaning; we can’t remember what we read much less memorize and quote scripture chapter and verse. What’s important to understand is that it’s not about total scripture recall or even complete comprehension. It’s about putting forth an active effort. We might be surprised how much we do remember once we decide to devote ourselves the apostles’ teaching on a regular basis.
The second thing the early Christians did was to “devote themselves to fellowship.” A mark of authenticity and vitality in a congregation is the quality of our relationships and our efforts to include others in those relationships. Devotion to fellowship translates to radical hospitality. This kind of hospitality takes work. It’s part of St. Michael’s mission statement: “Celebrating God’s beauty; Loving God’s people; Serving God’s world.” We serve God’s world every time we introduce ourselves to someone, every time we invite someone to coffer hour and adult forum, when we invite our wider community to join us for our annual Fall Fest, when we participate in our outreach feeding programs, when we pray for others, or join together for the spaghetti dinner or the pie auction, and in so many other ways.
Radical hospitality means paying attention to the newcomers in our midst helping them find their way. On more than one occasion I have introduced myself to someone thinking they were new only to be told they’ve been a member for 15 years! However, I console the egg on my face by telling myself it is always better to ask and be wrong than to leave someone feeling unknown and unloved. When we are devoted to fellowship people are made to feel they are part of our community. They leave feeling encouraged and supported. Listen to some of the words of inclusivity in the Bible: Love one another, encourage one another, be kind to one another, comfort one another, inform one another, fellowship with one another, confess your faults to one another, forgive one another, pray for one another, minister to one another, bear one another’s burdens, and the list goes on. This is the radical hospitality that Jesus taught the disciples and was carried forward and held on to by the early Christians. Male or female, Christian or Jew, Black or white, physically limited or athlete. Everyone is welcome. Radical hospitality is inclusive.
Third, they devoted themselves to “the breaking of bread.” Is this a reference to a pot-luck dinner or to the Eucharist? I think the answer is yes. Certainly “breaking of bread” alludes to the Lord’s Supper; as community of faith we are spiritually fed by the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. The promise of Jesus through the breaking of the bread transcends words. The Eucharist avails itself to all of our senses. But we will miss it if we are not devoted to it. As we heard from Jeunee last week, Jesus made himself known to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus when he broke bread with them. In Acts this action recalls the significance of centering these meals on Jesus in some meaningful way, whether it is a formal Eucharistic meal or an informal spaghetti dinner.
Fourth, the early church “devoted themselves to prayers.” More than a part of worship, prayer is for each one of us. It gives us the opportunity for personal communion with God. Notice that it is prayers plural and not prayer singular that the early community is devoted to. It seems that the earliest Christians may have been learning some form of set prayers – The Lord’s Prayer, The Psalms, and probably others. We know that there are so many ways to pray and not any wrong way. To be devoted to prayers, individually and as a community we must pursue prayer intentionally.
The early Christians worshiped daily and ate their food together with glad and generous hearts. Their numbers grew, almost exponentially, because people saw in how they lived a way of living that made them say, “This is the way God wants life to be.”
The manifestation of the early church is found in these four marks of the church; the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers. These marks were the early church’s response to the voice of the Good Shepherd. They knew his voice and they followed.
My 12-year-old granddaughter has a sheep. She named Mimi. Mimi is what is known as a bummer lamb. Her mother rejected her and so she came to live at the farm. She immediately attached herself to Darby and Darby to her. To this day Mimi will come only to Darby’s voice. I can stand and call her all day long and she won’t even look at me. But Darby calls Mimi and Mimi knows her voice.
The early church knew the voice of the Good Shepherd. And they knew what God was calling them to do. As a church community 2000 years later it is humbling to know that we are still called by the Good Shepherd to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Amen!