Year A
1 Kings 3:5-12
Psalm 119:129-136
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33,44-52<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 so that anyone with ears\u2026 may hear\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our readings today may seem a bit disconnected\u2026 you may wonder what Solomon asking God for Wisdom\u2026 has to do with mustard seeds\u2026 and yeast\u2026 you may wonder what God granting Solomon discernment\u2026 has to do with digging up a field\u2026 and oysters\u2026 you may wonder\u2026 what sighs too deep for words\u2026 have to do with a net full of fish\u2026 but I\u2019ll come back to this in a bit\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New technologies\u2026 like augmented reality\u2026 can let you use a smartphone or tablet\u2026 to see just exactly how that new couch from Ikea would look in your living room\u2026 even before you set foot in the store\u2026 computer generated images and seamless digital effects\u2026 unimaginable not too many few years ago\u2026 have increased our expectations\u2026 so that now\u2026 when we watch old movies\u2026 like the forty-year-old version of Aldous Huxley\u2019s Brave New World\u2026 they\u2019re laughable\u2026 compared to the new version on Peacock TV\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fast-paced\u2026 twists and turns\u2026 of disaster\u2026 fantasy\u2026 and science fiction movies\u2026 don\u2019t often share what the characters were thinking or feeling when they did what they did\u2026 or said what they said\u2026 they rarely reveal what inner conflicts they felt\u2026 whether they would have made another choice had they only known\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the fast pace\u2026 gives us few precious moments to wonder what motivated them\u2026 gives us insufficient time to wonder what we would have done if we\u2019d been in their shoes\u2026 for us to appreciate unvarnished reality\u2026 for us to value simple stories\u2026 for us to take the time we need to reflect on our humanity\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this gorgeous special effects eye-candy\u2026 can make it more difficult for us to be satisfied with less\u2026 to go slower\u2026 to take our time\u2026 I mean\u2026 do you remember dial-up internet\u2026 when your modem would sing robotic songs to invisible servers\u2026 attempting to make a connection\u2026 and by the time your email had been downloaded\u2026 you could have cooked and eaten a meal\u2026 I mean\u2026 who wants to go back to that\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Solomon did\u2026 because while there may be some value in faster download speeds\u2026 there is no lasting value in augmented reality\u2026 there may be some value in spending less time waiting to get the information we need\u2026 but there is no value in rushing to judgment\u2026 in jumping to conclusions\u2026 in making rash decisions\u2026 without first spending enough time reflecting on the big picture\u2026 on what\u2019s motivating us\u2026 on what we think\u2026 and how we feel\u2026 and how what we decide\u2026 may affect not only ourselves\u2026 but sometimes our families\u2026 sometimes our communities\u2026 and sometimes\u2026 the entire globe\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The request that Solomon made\u2026 the two Hebrew words which were translated as an\u2026 understanding mind\u2026 more literally mean\u2026 to hear with the heart\u2026 to hear justice\u2026 and listening for justice takes longer\u2026 it must be sought out\u2026 like treasure\u2026 and fine pearls\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Holly Hearon\u2026 Professor [Emerita] of New Testament\u2026 at Christian Theological Seminary [in Indianapolis]\u2026 the mustard seeds and yeast\u2026 both draw attention to remarkable growth arising from insignificant beginnings\u2026 the treasure hidden in a field\u2026 and fine pearls\u2026 both point to discovering something of such great value\u2026 that we are willing to sell all we have to possess it\u2026 the two pairs of parables are linked through the Greek word krupto<\/em>\u2026 which means to hide\u2026 in the parable of the yeast\u2026 the woman hides yeast in the flour\u2026 while in the parable that follows\u2026 the treasure is hidden in a field\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the parable of the net which caught fish of every kind\u2026 echoes the parable we heard just last week\u2026 about the weeds growing up with the wheat\u2026 in that one\u2026 the instruction was to wait until the harvest\u2026 and then separate them from each other\u2026 today\u2026 we have separating the good fish into baskets\u2026 and throwing out the bad\u2026 discerning\u2026 separating\u2026 keeping and discarding\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In all of the Gospels\u2026 Jesus made all of the disciples\u2026 makes all of us\u2026 mustard seeds\u2026 we\u2019re like small little seeds scattered everywhere\u2026 we are planted not only in different kinds of soils\u2026 but we are planted into the hearts of different kinds of people\u2026 and God\u2019s Word will take root in some\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus made all of the disciples\u2026 makes all of us\u2026 into yeast\u2026 that is kneaded and worked and hidden into different kinds of lives\u2026 only to be discovered later\u2026 as treasure\u2026 and the field in which these treasures are found\u2026 is God\u2019s creation\u2026 the field is our life\u2026 and modest beginnings turn into never imagined blessings\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There may be some people\u2026 who wonder whether they\u2019re weeds\u2026 or bad fish\u2026 that are going to be thrown out\u2026 and the text says\u2026 thrown into the furnace of fire\u2026 where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth<\/em>\u2026 and I\u2019ve gotta tell you\u2026 that in my life\u2026 there have been many mistaken thoughts\u2026 or distorted values\u2026 or selfish acts\u2026 things I have not only taken on\u2026 but have bought in to\u2026 that I have taken into my heart\u2026 things which all together\u2026 have kept me from seeing or finding treasures in fields\u2026 things that have held me back\u2026 and they have been burned out of me\u2026 and I have wept\u2026 and gnashed my teeth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But today\u2019s text from Romans assures us\u2026 that nothing in all creation\u2026 will be able to separate us from the love of God\u2026 and Pastor Martin Billmeier reminds us\u2026 that during this pandemic\u2026 some cycles of human activity that have been killed off by a virus\u2026 from sports to religion\u2026 we have all experienced the death of routine\u2026 the death of a way of life\u2026 the death of assuming things would just go on as they always did\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the way of the world\u2026 the way of Empire\u2026 is about right \/ wrong\u2026 good \/ bad\u2026 yes \/ no\u2026 the way of God’s Kingdom\u2026 is right \/ right\u2026 good \/ good\u2026 yes \/ yes\u2026 and that’s because evil can’t exist in God’s Kingdom\u2026 as we move along the continuum from Empire to Kingdom\u2026 from division to unity\u2026 as we move from Paul’s already \/ not yet\u2026 to the Kingdom of Heaven here and now\u2026 by the time the rejected weeds\u2026 and the rejected fish\u2026 make their way into God’s Kingdom\u2026 the refiner’s fire has burned all the divisiveness away\u2026 and replaced it with the unity of love\u2026 the Way of Love\u2026 and so there is nothing we could possibly imagine thinking\u2026 or believing\u2026 or doing\u2026 that would make God love us any more\u2026 and there is nothing we could possibly imagine thinking\u2026 or believing\u2026 or doing\u2026 that would make God love us any less\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bp. Satterlee said that his favorite line from the Gospel\u2026 is v. 51\u2026 Jesus asked\u2026 have you understood all this<\/em>\u2026 and they answered\u2026 Yes!\u2026 <\/em>really\u2026 they understood all of it\u2026 good for them\u2026 because I don\u2019t\u2026 and I don\u2019t think that as a nation we do\u2026 because if we did\u2026 there wouldn\u2019t be hunger\u2026 thirst\u2026 exclusion\u2026 nakedness\u2026 disease\u2026 loneliness\u2026 because we\u2019d share our resources so everyone would have enough\u2026 as scripture instructs us to do in Matthew 25:34-40\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And so I wonder\u2026 when we remember that God was willing to give Solomon whatever he wanted\u2026 and what Solomon wanted\u2026 was to hear with the heart\u2026 I wonder how we hear things\u2026 when we hear about a degrading insult lobbed against a newly elected congresswoman from the Bronx and Queens\u2026 when we hear about a policy decision that links funding to a full return to the classroom\u2026 when we hear about the way our country\u2019s leaders are responding to this global pandemic\u2026 do we hear these things in a divisive partisan politics kind of way\u2026 or do we hear these things in a uniting Reign of God kind of way\u2026 do we ask those deeper questions about whether and how the decisions of our common lives reflect the Gospel as much as they possibly can\u2026 or not\u2026 and if not\u2026 do we ask questions and hold our leaders accountable\u2026 as God holds us accountable in Matthew 25:41-45\u2026 the nature of the Kingdom of God\u2026 is justice\u2026 let us too\u2026 seek to avoid the distractions that keep us on the surface of the field\u2026 and seek to dig down to the treasure\u2026 and to hear the justice\u2026 the way Solomon did\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A 1 Kings 3:5-12 Psalm 119:129-136 Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 so that anyone with ears\u2026 may hear\u2026 Our readings today may seem a bit disconnected\u2026 you may wonder what Solomon asking God for Wisdom\u2026 has to do with mustard seeds\u2026 and yeast\u2026 you may wonder what God granting Solomon discernment\u2026 has to do with digging up a field\u2026 and oysters\u2026 you may wonder\u2026 what sighs too deep for words\u2026 have to do with a net full of fish\u2026 but I\u2019ll come back to this in a bit\u2026 New technologies\u2026 like augmented reality\u2026 can let you use a smartphone or tablet\u2026 to see just exactly how that new couch from Ikea would look in your living room\u2026 even before you set foot in the store\u2026 computer generated images and seamless digital effects\u2026 unimaginable not too many few years ago\u2026 have increased our expectations\u2026 so that now\u2026 when we watch old movies\u2026 like the forty-year-old version of Aldous Huxley\u2019s Brave New World\u2026 they\u2019re laughable\u2026 compared to the new version on Peacock TV\u2026 The fast-paced\u2026 twists and turns\u2026 of disaster\u2026 fantasy\u2026 and science fiction movies\u2026 don\u2019t often share what the characters were thinking or feeling when they did what they did\u2026 or said what they said\u2026 they rarely reveal what inner conflicts they felt\u2026 whether they would have made another choice had they only known\u2026 And the fast pace\u2026 gives us few precious moments to wonder what motivated them\u2026 gives us insufficient time to wonder what we would have done if we\u2019d been in their shoes\u2026 for us to appreciate unvarnished reality\u2026 for us to value simple stories\u2026 for us to take the time we need to reflect on our humanity\u2026 And this gorgeous special effects eye-candy\u2026 can make it more difficult for us to be satisfied with less\u2026 to go slower\u2026 to take our time\u2026 I mean\u2026 do you remember dial-up internet\u2026 when your modem would sing robotic songs to invisible servers\u2026 attempting to make a connection\u2026 and by the time your email had been downloaded\u2026 you could have cooked and eaten a meal\u2026 I mean\u2026 who wants to go back to that\u2026 Solomon did\u2026 because while there may be some value in faster download speeds\u2026 there is no lasting value in augmented reality\u2026 there may be some value in spending less time waiting to get the information we need\u2026 but there is no value in rushing to judgment\u2026 in jumping to conclusions\u2026 in making rash decisions\u2026 without first spending enough time reflecting on the big picture\u2026 on what\u2019s motivating us\u2026 on what we think\u2026 and how we feel\u2026 and how what we decide\u2026 may affect not only ourselves\u2026 but sometimes our families\u2026 sometimes our communities\u2026 and sometimes\u2026 the entire globe\u2026 The request that Solomon made\u2026 the two Hebrew words which were translated as an\u2026 understanding mind\u2026 more literally mean\u2026 to hear with the heart\u2026 to hear justice\u2026 and listening for justice takes longer\u2026 it must be sought out\u2026 like treasure\u2026 and fine pearls\u2026 According to Holly Hearon\u2026 Professor [Emerita] of New Testament\u2026 at Christian Theological Seminary [in Indianapolis]\u2026 the mustard seeds and yeast\u2026 both draw attention to remarkable growth arising from insignificant beginnings\u2026 the treasure hidden in a field\u2026 and fine pearls\u2026 both point to discovering something of such great value\u2026 that we are willing to sell all we have to possess it\u2026 the two pairs of parables are linked through the Greek word krupto\u2026 which means to hide\u2026 in the parable of the yeast\u2026 the woman hides yeast in the flour\u2026 while in the parable that follows\u2026 the treasure is hidden in a field\u2026 And the parable of the net which caught fish of every kind\u2026 echoes the parable we heard just last week\u2026 about the weeds growing up with the wheat\u2026 in that one\u2026 the instruction was to wait until the harvest\u2026 and then separate them from each other\u2026 today\u2026 we have separating the good fish into baskets\u2026 and throwing out the bad\u2026 discerning\u2026 separating\u2026 keeping and discarding\u2026 In all of the Gospels\u2026 Jesus made all of the disciples\u2026 makes all of us\u2026 mustard seeds\u2026 we\u2019re like small little seeds scattered everywhere\u2026 we are planted not only in different kinds of soils\u2026 but we are planted into the hearts of different kinds of people\u2026 and God\u2019s Word will take root in some\u2026 Jesus made all of the disciples\u2026 makes all of us\u2026 into yeast\u2026 that is kneaded and worked and hidden into different kinds of lives\u2026 only to be discovered later\u2026 as treasure\u2026 and the field in which these treasures are found\u2026 is God\u2019s creation\u2026 the field is our life\u2026 and modest beginnings turn into never imagined blessings\u2026 There may be some people\u2026 who wonder whether they\u2019re weeds\u2026 or bad fish\u2026 that are going to be thrown out\u2026 and the text says\u2026 thrown into the furnace of fire\u2026 where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth\u2026 and I\u2019ve gotta tell you\u2026 that in my life\u2026 there have been many mistaken thoughts\u2026 or distorted values\u2026 or selfish acts\u2026 things I have not only taken on\u2026 but have bought in to\u2026 that I have taken into my heart\u2026 things which all together\u2026 have kept me from seeing or finding treasures in fields\u2026 things that have held me back\u2026 and they have been burned out of me\u2026 and I have wept\u2026 and gnashed my teeth\u2026 But today\u2019s text from Romans assures us\u2026 that nothing in all creation\u2026 will be able to separate us from the love of God\u2026 and Pastor Martin Billmeier reminds us\u2026 that during this pandemic\u2026 some cycles of human activity that have been killed off by a virus\u2026 from sports to religion\u2026 we have all experienced the death of routine\u2026 the death of a way of life\u2026 the death of assuming things would just go on as they always did\u2026 And the way of the world\u2026 the way of Empire\u2026 is about right \/ wrong\u2026 good \/ bad\u2026 yes \/ no\u2026 the way of God’s Kingdom\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}