Psalm 86.11-17 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Who are we?
Well … take a look around … sure, go ahead … look at one another … chuckle, if you want … or cry, if you must … or simply scratch your head in bewilderment … maybe all three …
This is who we are …
A little of this and a little of that … and each of us with a tale to tell … a timeline of faith, hope and love … sorrow and tears, as well … a beginning and an end, and a muddle in the middle.
Who are we?
We’re beautiful … and sometimes not.
We’re faithful to the LORD … and sometimes not.
We’re open-hearted and open-minded, gracious and wise … and sometimes not.
We love one another, and there isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for one another … and sometimes not.
We’re on top of the world … at the head of the class … and sometimes not.
Who are we?
We are the people of God … but on this piece of the story, we can never ever say, “sometimes not” …
For we are what we are by the decision of God, God’s will and God’s purpose, from before the foundation of time, to the end of the age and beyond … and God doesn’t change God’s mind when it comes to the world God loves, and the people who share God’s image.
Did not Paul the Apostle say:
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?
….
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
….
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We may not always behave accordingly, we may even try to forget it, deny it, run away from it …
But however we respond, however we behave, we cannot, and never will, change the identity given to us by God: We are God’s People, and to God we belong.
So … here we are …
In this place, to say our prayers and sing our hymns … to learn of God, to think deeply about love and mercy … to confess our sins and hear anew the words of forgiveness … to ponder our world … honor one another … and find ways to serve Christ.
Some of us have been here a long time, at least in human years … and some of us are of a more recent vintage … but here we are … the People of God, young and old, man and woman, child and adult, gay and straight, of many colors and many stories … called, claimed, cleansed, commissioned, challenged and cherished …
To be the salt of the earth and the light of the world …
To be people of good cheer …
Mindful of the needy …
To care for the earth …
Look after one another …
As for me, I think a nation as large as we are, as rich as we are, blessed by God as we are … we owe something to one another …
We owe respect and love and kindness and dignity to one another … no matter who or what people are or what they’ve become … we owe one another the basic things of life … food, water, shelter … health care, retirement security, good jobs, fair wages, decent schools, public transit, good housing, sound nutrition, civil rights and voting rights.
This isn’t the stuff of politics - food, shelter, safety, respect, dignity, kindness, mercy!
This is the stuff of the Bible …
The Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes … the words of the prophets and the words of Jesus Christ … from creation to covenant, from covenant to the cross, from the cross to the new creation … from beginning to end, from the Alpha to the Omega … from Genesis to the Book of Revelation, it’s called love … love of neighbor and love of God … love for one another, and love for God’s creation … doing unto others what we would hope they might do for us …
We’ve a story to tell to the nations.
A job a to do.
People to love.
Christ at the center.
In the midst of a sometimes crazy world … dangerous and deadly … lots of lies and half-truths … war and rumors of war …
So Jesus tells a parable … you will work hard, and so will the enemy … you may well tell the truth, but others will tell lies … you may give it your best shot, and others will betray you and betray the very cause for which you work.
A farmer sows good seed, says Jesus … and along comes the enemy and fills the field with bad seed … and it all starts to grow together …
Shall we uproot the bad stuff? they ask?
No, says the farmer, you can’t. Uproot the bad, and you’ll uproot the good, too.
There’s no sorting it our right now …
Just stay with it, says Jesus …
Keep sowing the good seed … put your hand to the plow and don’t look back … take up your cross and stay with me … and even now, says Jesus, I send you the Holy Spirit …
The Comforter, the Teacher, the Fire, the Fire that consumes the dross and purifies the heart … the Fire of Pentecost … a tongue of flame over the head of every disciple, the gift of language …
To speak intelligibly, to speak kindly to the world … to invite the world to know what it already is and has always been - a creation of God Almighty … good and glorious …
The language of faith: to help every human being know and receive and live and enjoy what every human being already is and has always been - beloved of God … the creature of God’s own image, given life, and called by God into God’s service.
This morning’s parable is a parable of the kingdom of heaven … the kingdom of heaven is like this, and it’s like that, and then sometimes, it’s like that, or like this …
The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field …
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed …
Or like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with the flour …
Or like a treasure hidden in a field …
Or a merchant searching for fine pearls …
Or like a net thrown into the sea to catch every kind of fish ..
Or like a king who who wished to settle accounts …
Or like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for the vineyard …
Or a king who gave a great banquet …
Or ten bridesmaids waiting for the groom and some had oil enough, and some were lacking …
And what do we learn?
The work isn’t easy … and it’s not all about us … it’s about the world, and everyone and everything in it … and maybe we’re not big enough right now for all of that … so we let God expand the boundaries of heart and mind … to take us from Egypt to the Promised Land … to see us through the Red Sea and across the wilderness of sin and sorrow … manna in the morning and water from a rock, a pillar of fire by night and a bright shining cloud by day … God provides, to see us through and on our way …
The work is hard …
And sometimes we get it wrong … sometimes we’re the bad seed … our foolishness, our selfishness … we don’t want to grow; we don’t want to learn … sometimes we’re the bad seed …
Church history makes that clear:
There was a time when good Christian folk thought the world was flat and the sun revolved around the earth … which wouldn’t be so bad if that’s all they thought … but when scientists said the earth was round, and the earth revolved around the sun, good Christians said, “No you don’t. Recant or die.”
There was time when good Christian folk - at least the white kind, thought that slavery was a good idea, and would quote chapter and verse from “god’s word” to make their point … and that it was okay to kill Native Americans and take their land, because America was just like Israel in the Promised Land, and didn’t god command Israel to kill everyone there, and take their land?
Good Christians thought segregation and separate schools were good … along with poll taxes and other devices to suppress voting rights …
Good Christians can be in it for themselves, sneaky and snide, nasty and nippy …
Sometimes we’re the bad seed …
So, we keep on learning … learning how to be the good seed … how to be wise and caring and loving and kind … how to discipline ourselves, and say yes to the best … to live our faith … our integrity. … the grace of God … the salvation of Christ, the glory of redemption and peace.
We learn how to be the good seed.
Dear people, who are we?
The people of God, that’s who we are.
Where do we live?
The kingdom of heaven.
Now let’s get to it, dear friends.
Our purpose, our task, our calling, our commission, our glory and our joy:
Love this world as God loves it.
Speak truth to power.
Shed the lies of pomp and pride.
Be kind to the poor and the broken.
Change the social order.
Seek a government of the people, by the people, for the people, because such a government reflects the kingdom of heaven.
Say yes to the good, and no to evil.
Be of good cheer.
Be faithful to the church.
Show up and be here.
Accountable to one another.
Sing with gusto.
Read our Bible, especially the Beatitudes, again and again.
Trust God, trust God, trust God.
Unto the glory of God, and for the healing of the nations.
Amen and Amen!
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