1 Kings 3.5-12; Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52
What time is it?
Not the clock kind of time, but the calendar kind of time … history, drama, dates and events, wars and rumors of war.
What time is it?
When we’re young, we’re rich with time …as the years pass, time becomes precious …
We play with time …in our imagination, what we remember, or think we remember, or choose to remember … or choose to forget.
when we’re young, it’s all about the future; as we age, it’s tempting to think of what we had … nostalgia is fun, but its also dangerous.
As for me, if I want to wax nostalgic, it’s always summertime: shouts of delight and skinned knees, a fistfight with Billy Gunther … my trusty Schwinn bike in the morning, heading out for the day, lunch at a friend’s house, baseball in the park, a tree house in the woods, a clubhouse behind the garage … a raft in the nearby swamp behind the old factory, on a meandering river running through town.
And so it was … there was more to my life, of course, but it’s easier to remember the happy moments.
As for religion, there was a church on every corner … Sunday mornings, people put on their Sunday best and went to church …
kids grew up with hymns, Bible stories: Samson and Delilah, Moses and Miriam, David and Goliath, Mary Magdalen and Mary, the Mother of Jesus … the parables, the wee little man, Zacchaeus … Jesus walking on the water, and turning water into wine … many a youth heard the call of God and became women and men of force and faith; who changed the world for the better.
These days:
The presence of the church has been greatly diminished … not that the church was always right and good … the church wasn’t always right and good, and sometimes the church was wrong, terribly wrong, tragically wrong, dead wrong … at many points, on many issues and questions. Not the first time the church has been wrong; nor the last.
Be that as it may:
The diminishment of the church is a serious loss ...
The diminishment of the church has left a vacuum, a blackhole, and into that blackhole, self-interest has rushed in at full speed, and dragged along the whole dysfunctional family - fear, anxiety, paranoia, frustration, doubt and darkness, terrible ideas and behaviors: Neo-Nazism, Christian Nationalism, anti-Semitism, hate crimes, white supremacy, and from top to bottom, from sea to shining sea, a hideous materialism.
The church, in spite of its problems, was a force for good, much good - hospitals built, colleges and universities founded, missionaries sent out into the world - often with the sword of empire, but they also went out with love - with wisdom, mercy and compassion; tools for agriculture and health ... education and literacy.
The church was a force for good - beauty, art, cathedrals, music, poetry - the great ideas of creation and justice, sin and forgiveness; the promotion of science and reason, humanism and enlightenment, freedom and opportunity.
And always the message of Christ: a world to be loved, people to be helped … the maintenance of a conscience … to remind us of what’s important, what counts, and how we need to live:
to give of ourselves more than to take of others ...
to be generous rather than greedy,
self-sacrificing rather than self-centered …
charitable to the needy rather than judgmental of their suffering ...
to seek peace,
practice forgiveness,
be merciful and patient,
trust God in all things, and not give way to fear and frustration.
Pay attention, read well, learn much, laugh often, reach high, and love God.
The diminishment of the church is a serious loss to the intellectual, spiritual, cultural, wellbeing of the nation.
But God's purpose of love and salvation remain ...
The present time is a gift, an opportunity … as the hymn puts it, “This is my Father’s world” …
now is not the time to wring our hands, clutch our pearls, to lament what is lost, grump and groan.
now is the time to be pioneers of a new day, explorers on the unknown road … now is the time to use the maps of old, sure, and then draw our own maps for the new day … now is the time for patience, but not too much … now is the time to wait upon the LORD, but not to fall asleep.
It’s a time to be "thoroughly Christian" ...
Jesus speaks of mustard seeds, yeast … and the pearl of great price …
Metaphors - not of domination, but cooperation … not of power, but peace - the mustard seed grows, like a bush, a tree, slowly, gently, to take its place among the other bushes and trees, and the birds are happy …
And yeast, just a small amount of yeast is needed, just a dab will do ya’ … and the bread is delicious.
The pearl - hidden in a field - a pearl, not a bank vault, not Wall Street, but a pearl, small and precious … small, easily overlooked, yet of great value ... the pearl dealer sells everything to purchase the pearl.
And then this, the fisherman's net - the net gathers up all kinds of fish - people, ideas, behaviors, moments and time - some of great value, some of little value, some to be discarded ... but in the end, it's up to God and the angels - to do the sorting, only God and the angels know for sure ...
Our task: to welcome all, to trust God, the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ - they and the angels will sort it all out,
to make right what has been wronged,
to welcome those whom others have turned away …
to be the lunch counter where all are served, none are sent away, none are refused …
can we be the church? Can we be thoroughly Christian?
to know Christ in Scripture,
by the work of the Holy Spirit ...
Christ in our prayers and Christ in our thoughts,
Christ in the morning, so that we can hear the news of the day, and see the world in its sorrow, through the eyes of Christ ...
the love of Christ gives shape to our conscience,
the cross in the center of our soul, our being, our purpose, our work and our homes ... and in our church.
The Christ who is and is to come … the Christ of every hope and all our dreams …
To be thoroughly Christian is a life-time work, and then some …
to be thoroughly Christian demands a lot from us, and gives us the pearl of great price ...
to be thoroughly Christian requires everything we are, and gives us everything we hope to be.
Solomon's prayer is instructive ... rather than asking for a long life or riches, or the death of his enemies, Solomon asks for an understanding mind, the ability to discern between good and evil, what counts, and what doesn’t; what’s real, and what’s illusion and fantasy ... he ask for wisdom, so he can govern well.
His prayer has to be our prayer ... that we might govern well, govern ourselves, and make good choices for home and work, and for our nation.
to be thoroughly Christian … to give thanks for what was, to be patient in the present time, and hopeful for the future … God is still, and always, at work - seeds, yeast, pearls, and nets.
It’s all we have … it’s all we’ve ever had … it’s all we need.
For such a time as this.
To God be the glory.
And God’s Peace to all.
Hallelujah and Amen.
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