July 23, 2017 7th Sunday of Pentecost

Matthew 13:24-30
24 He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. 26 When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too. 27 "The farmhands came to the farmer and said, 'Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?' 28 "He answered, 'Some enemy did this.' "The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?' 29 "He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. 30 Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"

Judgment is not in our hands.  We are not to separate the wheat from the weeds, the sacred from the secular, the holy from the unholy.  This is God’s doing - God who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.

Our task is to live faithfully, as those who are both wheat and weeds - we are not as pure as we would like to be.  As Wm. Saloan Coffin has said, “Remember what history teaches, never do people so cheerfully do evil as when they do it from religious conviction.”

“God has invited us to gather rather than to judge, to get together and learn to live with one another, weeds and wheat alike.  There is wheat within each of us as well as those all-too-visible weeds.  From this patchy crop God can fashion a miraculous bread, transforming each of us by the pure wheat of this holy offering, making us into beings shaped by hope.”   Richard I Pervo,

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to remember that it is not my job to judge.
You will take care of that.  Help me to be merciful, as You are to me and to all.”

July 16, 2017 6th Sunday of Pentecost

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23  (The Message)

1 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. 2 In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. 3 Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories. (about a man planting seeds.)  4 As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. 5 Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, 6 so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. 7 Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. 8 Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. 9 "Are you listening to this? Really listening?" 18 "Study this story of the farmer planting seed. 19 When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road. 20 "The seed cast in the gravel - this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. 21 But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it. 22 "The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it. 23 "The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams."

The seed is good; it is the soil which has the problem.  We are the soil - all 4 kinds of soil!  We are not always receptive to what God’s Word has to say.  We run hot and cold when we listen to God’s Word.    We have goodness choked out by our indifference.  And we do hear and respond - doing that which pleases God.  And God takes what comes from the good soil of our hearts and makes more of it than we ever could have dreamed possible.

A good discipline for reading or listening to God's Word is to listen carefully FOR what you don’t want to hear and then listen carefully TO what you don’t want to hear; then risk acting on it.  It just may be where God is trying to plant a seed and who knows what will happen then.





The seed is good; it is the soil
which is the problem.  And we are the soil -
 all 4 kinds of soil!








Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me be good soil - open to what You have to say to me and willing to listen - so your seed can grow beyond my wildest dreams.”

July 9, 2017 5th Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 11:28-30   (The Message)

28 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 (The New RSV)

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

 “My Yoke Is Easy”

Catchy slogans are not necessarily true - just catchy.
These words of Jesus sound like a catchy slogan - but their not.

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

The yoke of Jesus is the commitment to love; it is the call to be kind, loving, good, merciful, just as we have received mercy.  It is discovering the “unforced rhythms of grace”.

Bearing one another's burdens in love is light!  No matter how heavy it gets!  To do this we first have to know we are loved.  For only the loved can so love.  God first loves us; then God demands much from us.  And the much is easy, for it is given in love.  This is the yoke which is easy and the burden which is light.





Bearing one another’s
burdens in love is light!
No matter how heavy it gets!













Prayer thought for the week:  “ Help me to be a bearer of burdens in love, no matter how heavy it gets.”

July 2 2017 Pentecost 4

Matthew 10:40-42  (The Message)

 40 "We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. 41 Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help.

This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. 42 Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won't lose out on a thing."

Most of the time it is the small things which make a big difference.
Unnoticed by most, unheralded by the media, not even posted on Facebook.
Just an anonymous act of kindness which brighteners someone's life and lifts their spirit.
When this happens God smiles and says "way to go!  Keep it up.  You too will be blessed by your kindness.”

“We do not know the limits
of the redeeming power
of the small.
Perhaps there are none.”
Walter Wink











Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to remember that little things
are big to you…and make a difference in your Kingdom on earth.”

June 18, 2017 2nd Sunday After Pentecost

  Matthew 10:34-39   (The Message)

34 "Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut - 35 make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law - cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. 36 Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. 37 If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me. 38 "If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. 39 If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.

Jesus didn’t come just to bless us into complacency, compliance, contentment;
He came to bless us into change.  Change which can be disruptive, disturbing, difficult, even destructive on the outside, as it seeks to make more real what is on the inside.
Destructive that is of those systems which are not life giving, just, fair, sensitive, compassionate.  Which are not doing good for the least as well as for the most.  Even if they are a part of our family.

In the novel " The Invention of Wings" a father, who had been very set in his ways, causing his daughter much anguish as she was not able to live her life free of the shackles placed on her as a white woman In the Deep South in the early 1800’s; a white woman who detested slavery and wanted to set her personal slave free, are having their last conversation before he dies.  She is caring for him alone, apart from the rest of the family.  He awakens from a nap..

‘I held the water glass to his lips and helped him to drink. He said, “We’ve had our quarrels, haven’t we?” I knew what was coming and I wanted to spare him. To spare me. “It doesn’t matter now.” “You’ve always had a strong, separate mind, perhaps even a radical mind, and I was harsh with you at times. You must forgive me.” I couldn’t imagine what it cost him to say these words. “I do,” I said. “And you must forgive me.” “Forgive you for what, Sarah? For following your conscience? Do you think I don’t abhor slavery as you do? Do you think I don’t know it was greed that kept me from following my conscience as you have? The plantation, the house, our entire way of life depended on the slaves.” His face contorted and he clutched at his side a moment before going on. “Or should I forgive you for wanting to give natural expression to your intellect? You were smarter than even Thomas or John, but you’re female, another cruelty I was helpless to change.”

He didn't dare risk change.  He died regretting it.  Indeed, it is an awesome, challenging, life transforming thing to be open to change!  It is at the center of a living faith!






"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy,
I'm telling you it's going to be worth it."










Prayer thoughts for the week’
Lord, help me:  remember that I am not the only one who is right.
   to be open to what I don’t want to hear.
   to not be so sure I can’t change my mind or heart.
   to remember that love is greater than principles.

June 11, 2017 The Holy Trinity

 “I didn't need to understand the                        

Matthew 28:16-20  (The Message)

16 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. 17 The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally. 18 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: 19 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 20 Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

The Holy Trinity is a mystery.  After all is said and done to help us try understand it,
the mystery still remains.  Which is the way it should be.

Without mystery God becomes something less then God.
Without mystery life looses something deep and beautiful.

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


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

“I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”
― Anne Lamott,

r 

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, the mystery is great;  the mystery is beautiful;  keep me in awe and alive to mystery.”

June 4, 2017  Day of Pentecost

John 20:19-23  (The Message)

19 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, "Peace to you." 20 Then he showed them his hands and side. 21 Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you." 22 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. 23 "If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”


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

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

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






“Love implies forgiveness.”
Morton Kelsey








Prayer thoughts for the week.
"Lord help me to:  forgive when I don’t want to but need to:                            
 accept forgiveness as vital to a happy life.  (I do blow it a lot.)
        love, but not forgive when it becomes more enabling.
          work at being forgiven and forgiving until it works.
      never give up on forgiveness."