The Kingdom of Heaven - Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church

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!

September 6, 2015, "It Will Work"

Mark 4.3-9

Disappointment!

Who hasn't been disappointed?

Family, friends … school, career, health, love … you name it …

Things go south.

Life grows dark.

Hopes drift away.

Disappointment?

The crowds on the Galilee Beach know all about disappointment … 

They live under an oppressive Roman Empire … family farms lost to large agri-corporations under contract to Rome … 

Fishermen in the crowd wonder if the next catch of fish will pay the bills … farmers wonder if the rains might come in time. 

Merchants and artisans … tax collectors and soldiers … widows and orphans … life ain’t easy for any of them.

And religion? 

It’s a big business in Jerusalem …

Temple taxes, expensive lambs, bulls, goats and birds …currency traders, money changers, souvenir merchants …

Temple officials in long robes with fancy phylacteries …

The well-to-do make a show of their offerings …

And the widow is ignored.

Disappointment? You bet!

The crowds on the Galilee Beach know all about it.

And to that crowd, Jesus says: “A sower went out to sow.”

A sack of seed slung around the neck … the sower grabs a fistful, flings that seed far and wide …

Hungry birds … rocky ground, shallow soil … thorns and thistles … hot sun and dry winds, they all have their way … the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.

Says Jesus to his disciples: I’m asking a lot of you … take the message of peace into a troubled and troubling world … what you do will be challenged at every turn of the road … some will welcome you with open arms; others will seek your death … there will be hardship and rejection and frustration and tears … a lot of what you do will seemingly go to waste.

In the Kindergarten Classroom across the hall from my office, a sign on the wall: “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy.”

Pope Francis said: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

Bonhoeffer is hanged in a Nazi Prison just months before the end of the war … who knows what he might have accomplished had he lived, but in his death, the seeds of an amazing witness were sown … every seminary student since those terrible, fateful, days has cut her teeth on Bonhoeffer.

Even deeper goes the story … the whole of the Bible is a response to trauma … from Genesis to Malachi … from Matthew to Revelation … from Assyrian defeat of the Northern Kingdom to the Babylonian conquest of the Southern Kingdom … from the crucifixion of Jesus to the the stoning of Stephen … from Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road to the Fall of Jerusalem … how to make sense of it all … how to find hope in the midst of so much blood and war … and what’s one to do, Give up? grow dour and dark? embrace hedonism: eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die?

The tone is set in the opening verses of Genesis - written during the dark days of the Babylonian Exile, when hope was as rare as rain in Los Angeles … and a Hebrew Poet took up a pen and wrote: the earth a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep … and the wind of God swept over the face of the waters … and God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.

Keep on sowing, says Jesus!

Sun and soil, wind and rain, conspire together, to work their magic … the seed softens, a sprout pushes upward toward the sky, a root reaches downward into the earth.

And then, the harvest … yielding thirty-fold, says Jesus … and that would be a very good harvest … 

And even sixty-fold … farmers in the audience smile and nod at one another … “don’t we wish” … 

And, then, like a good story teller, Jesus offers an exaggeration, “a hundred-fold,” says he … and by then, the audience is clear:

Don’t give up the work of sowing … it will work! 

Don’t count the cost, count the blessing!

Don’t fret about the loss, celebrate the gain.

Don’t grumble about rocky soil, sing a song of joy.

Don’t worry about the birds; they’re hungry, too.

And so the work of God goes on - always a harvest, a harvest of some kind … and sometimes, an incredible harvest, far and beyond what anyone expected …

For all the darkness, there’s light.

For all the loss, there’s gain.

For all the hardship, there’s hope.

For all the sweat, blood and tears, there’s progress.

Joshua fits the battle of Jericho … and down falls the wall.

David slings a well-aimed stone … and down goes Goliath.

Elijah prays to the LORD … and down rains heavenly fire.

Ezekiel prophesies to dry bones … and down comes the breath of God.

Keep on sowing …

Remember 1989? … the Berlin Wall comes down …

More recently, the Supreme Court opens wide the doors of Marriage Equality …

On another note, I’m pulling for the deal with Iran …

Because all of this leads to a perfect world?

A world of peace and joy?

Harmony and flowers?

Shine on harvest moon?

Are you kidding?

No …

More like singing in the rain!

We don’t expect perfection … there is always resistance to the good … always those who choose exclusion rather than welcome, who twist religion into a reason for hatred … and for all of us here, no matter the purity of our commitment, our own foolishness and ineptitude trip us up all the time … but neither do we give up!

The hallmark of all great stories … Harry Potter and Voldemort … Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader … Frodo and Sauron … 

Oh, the price to be paid … the hurt, the tears … the loss of hope when the darkness grows thick …

Yet Harry Potter remains loyal to his friends … Luke Skywalker stays the course … Frodo carries the One Ring to Mount Doom … 

And Jesus says, A sower went out to sow …

Though the land is full of war and rumors of war … sow the seed of peace … 

Though rough weeds choke the harvest … sow the seed of justice …

Though hot blow the winds of hatred … sow the seed of love …

Don’t look for perfection … 

Take some chances …

Be ready for disappointment …

Trust the harvest; it will come …

And so ends our summer sermon series: the parables and stories of Jesus … it’s been a good series, and we’ve learned a lot … and now we move on.

A new season of ministry … First Kids First begins anew next week Sunday … the Cathedral Choir returns well rested and in good voice, our staff is ready go, Steven Colbert is on the Late Show, and Scott is preaching about the hole in the ground and how to put it to good spiritual use … a new season of ministry is upon us.

Keep up your good work First Church, and work all the harder - to make everything all the better … 

Keep on sowing … the harvest is good!

Amen and Amen!

August 30, 2015 - "The Lost Are Found"

Luke 15

Optimism … 

The very sound of it feels good to me.

Optimism … it’ll be okay … we’ve got hard work ahead of us, but we’ll make … just wait and see … we’ll make it … things will work out.

Who are the most optimistic people in the world?

Mystery Writers …

The crime is always solved … 

The miscreant is punished … 

Things get put back together …

New love is found … 

Life goes on … 

All is right, once again!

Until the next book, of course, and the next crime, and then we’ll start all over again … 

Mystery Writers are optimistic to the core.

So are Duct Tape users … think of it … get that role of tape, and there’s nothin’ that can’t be fixed with Duct Tape - falling plaster, cracked fenders, broken cupboards, and leaking pipes.

Another class of optimistic people - rodeo clowns … they can take it, no matter the bull …

And before this gets any worse, let’s press on …

When it comes to optimism, the Gospel Writers are on top of my list … Matthew, Mark, Luke and John … so are Paul and Peter and James and even the odd-ball writer of the Book of Revelation … 

The lost are found … God wins … love prevails … thick and thin, sick and sin … the world is never easy, but God’s grace is greater … stones are rolled away … life begins anew.

The three parables this morning define the work of Jesus, and define the God whom Jesus serves … God in search of the lost … a shepherd, a widow, and the waiting father.

I love these stories … they give me hope …

The first two parables are wonderfully Presbyterian … if I may  say so … a God who doesn’t wait around for the lost sheep to find its way back to the flock, or the lost coin to suddenly appear.

And please note the sliding scale of value in these three parables … Luke arranges the materially carefully … one sheep out of a hundred - a loss that could be written off … one silver coin out of ten - a wee bit more serious … and a son who abandons his family for bad living - and suddenly the audience grows quiet; a level of pain and loss that breaks the heart.

The point is clear: nothing is written off by God … nothing … and no one! 

And note the strategy … how does God work? For the sheep, for the coin, God is the seeker … with the boy, God wait, to let time run its course.

As for the shepherd, pushing through the brambles, climbing into dark canyons, skinning knees, bruising knuckles, until the lost sheep is found, and even then, the sheep is too tired to walk beside the shepherd, so the shepherd shoulders the sheep … tired the shepherd was by this time - bone tired, tired to the core … but with the last ounce of strength, shoulders the sheep and carries it back to the flock … 

Psalm 23 …

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

      He makes me lie down in green pastures;

      he leads me beside still waters; 

      he restores my soul. 

      He leads me in right paths 

      for his name’s sake.

      

A few weeks back, Scott reminded us that it doesn’t depend upon us entirely … this business of life and salvation and hope … 

Psalm 23 makes it clear: the shepherd does the heavy lifting … in the great mystery of life … when darkness comes upon us … when hope takes flight … when all seems lost, the hand of God, the voice of the Good Shepherd … “be not afraid” … “I am with you” … “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

One of the great spiritual teachers of the 16th Century, St. John of the Cross, wrote his famous work, The Dark Night of the Soul, for young monks who entered the monastery in the flush of spiritual joy, only to find their joy disappearing after a year or two … sort of like the new car, or new job, we got last year.

St. John of the Cross speaks not of defeat or loss, but getting ready for something better …

He reminds the young monk that the early phases of spirituality are mostly immature and sensual … all about experience … the quiver of the heart, the overwhelming sense of God’s presence, spiritual gifts, easy prayer, simple platitudes … but all of this is just the beginning … and needs to replaced with deeper realities, higher truths … stuff a bit tougher, more durable.

In the transition, the young monk wonders what has gone wrong.

St. John suggests that the Dark Night of the Soul is when God is doing God’s best work … God has to obscure the work from us, like a sculptor might shroud a statue … until it’s finished.

St. John reminds the young monk that if God were to make plain to us what God was doing, we’d rush in and muck it all up with our many suggestions, guidelines, needs and wants … God could never finish the great work, because we’d be meddling and fussing and fixing everything all the time.

So when God goes to work in the deep places of life, it’s out of sight for a while … maybe a long time … even years … until the time is right, and the work is done … the shroud is pulled back … we exclaim with surprise:

Oh my God … that’s what you were up to!

I had no idea.

I thought I was alone.

That you had left me.

That I was lost and gone, forever.

But you found me before I knew it.

You loved me before I loved you.

You have always cared for me.

No matter what.

And have always been my companion.

Even when I knew not.

“The good work that God began God will finish” says Paul the Apostle … and if ever there were anyone well-qualified to speak of God finishing the work, it was Paul.

A self-righteous man, full of himself, bent on weeding out the Christian heresy … willing to put others to death in order to protect his personal vision of what faith and god and religion were all about.

And then on that fateful Damascus Road, boom!

Light.

Paul is blinded by the light … a metaphor of his spiritual life … blind as bat, blinded by his own pride and power … blind to the truth of love … blind to what God is really doing … 

This man, who was willing and eager to lead others off in chains, now has to be led away by the hands of others … 

And when Paul finally grew up a little bit, he understood the power and the glory of God finishing the great work of grace

“Yes,” says Paul, “ask me about grace.”

“Ask me how God finishes the great work.”

God is no quitter … God is relentless … when things get lost, God goes to work … 

The second parable:

A lady of means … ten silver coins … no small amount … one is missing … somewhere in the house … she pulls back the carpet, moves the furniture … lights a lamp, sweeps the floor, searching, searching … where is it? … I’ll not give up, I’ll not write it off … I’ll keep on looking until I find it …

And find it she does … and calls her friends and neighbors, throws a party … spends the lost coin on food and drink, and probably spends a few more coins, to boot … 

And, then, one of the greatest of all stories …

The father of two sons … the younger says, “Dad, I gotta get out of here, and I want my inheritance now.” Some commentators have suggested that the boy was saying, “Dad, I wish you were dead, so I can get my share of the estate now.”

I don’t think so … I think the boy just didn’t want to be a farmer, and he probably didn’t like his older brother, and the older brother probably didn’t like him either.

The father consents - maybe he’s tired of all the squabbling and bickering … we might call him foolish for that, I don’t know … perhaps he should have put his foot down, or simply turned the boy out … but the father consents, and gives the boy what he whats … so the boy goes off to a far country, something he’s dreamed about, I’m sure … adventure, strange food, wild nights (maybe I’ll be discovered in Hollywood and given a starring role), and there in that far country, the boy spends everything he has, until he’s flat out broke and hungry, his “friends” gone … so he does the only thing he knows, he goes back to farming, raising pigs … so hungry, he eats their slop.

Does the boy repent?

No, he’s just hungry, and his clothes are falling apart …

So, he says to himself, What am I doing here?

He heads back home, rehearsing his apology, and still a long way off, the father sees him, because the father went out most every day, to scan the road for travelers … hoping, waiting, wondering, Will I see my boy again?

And one day, there’s the boy - the father can recognize the cast of the body, the way the boy walks, a mile away - ragged and smelling of pigs … and before the boy can finish his apology, the father is shouting for fresh clothes, “Bring me a ring and some sandals … and get him some food … get us all some food … butcher the fatted calf … no sense saving it for another day; now’s the day, now’s the time … m’boy is home; I thought he was gone, gone forever, but he came home, and I don’t care how or why … we’re gonna throw a party.”

Well, there ya’ have it … three stories … a trinity of hope … the lost sheep, a missing coin, and a foolish young man.

Love wins … God wins … and so do we.

God behind it, God within it … at work in all things for good … 

The lost are found.

Amen and Amen!