"The Kingdom of God is a weed”

Sermon- Proper 6B/ Pentecost 3/ June 17, 2012

The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

First things, Jesus loved a good story.  He loved to teach using stories.  Stories teach without seeming to teach, and they help us to remember the point.  Katherine Huey writes that: “Parables, however, are more than just a good story, or a simple and useful illustration to make things clearer. If anything, they may have made things more obscure to the hard-hearted and the close-minded. Parables make us think, and think hard.”

So in today’s gospel Jesus tells us two short stories, two brief parables to help us understand his teaching.  “In the first three chapters, Jesus brought God’s healing and wholeness through his miracles. Now it was time to explain what was going on. These are Mark’s first parables, and he grouped together several about things that grow.”Rosalind  Brown

“Let me tell you a story”,  Jesus is saying in chapter 4, “let me tell you what the kingdom of God is like.”

And so Jesus begins telling us how strange and unexpected the kingdom is.  It’s like  a seed, a tiny, unbelievably small seed that is planted deep in the earth-where it grows slowly, gradually, relentlessly –but we, as a rule, don’t like tiny, and slow.  Alyce Mackenzie tells this story: “A friend told me about her young son who was doing a science project in his elementary school class. He planted several seeds and was supposed to monitor how quickly they grew. A problem arose, however. Seeds don't grow when chubby, little hands dig them up every day to see how they're doing.”   What if we dug up the Kingdom of God every day to see how it was growing?  What if you charted your faith every day and ask, “ok, am I more faithful today?  Am I more spiritual?”  Look at a child growing inside of a person, it is so slow, so unpersonlike.  Recently a young woman told me, “the fetus is at 3 months, we can hear a heartbeat-I can tell people now.”  For 3 months the kingdom had been growing before it even had a heartbeat. 

Look at your life.  How is the kingdom growing in you?  Is it taking forever?  Do you wish God would hurry up and get you “there”?  Jesus’ first story is that God is developing his kingdom in us and through us-whether we hear the heartbeat or not.  God is moving, the kingdom is growing .  The heartbeat will come.

The second story is the one we like-the mustard seed.  One writer I read said that Americans love this story because we love underdogs.  This tiny seed becoming a huge shrub would appeal especially to us.  But 1^st century Hebrews listening to Jesus’ parable about the mustard seed would have laughed at the first story.  Why, you ask?  Because they knew their Bible.  The great prophet Ezekiel had a prophecy that when the people of Israel returned from exile Israel would be like a huge majestic Cedar tree, beautiful and noble, where the birds of the earth would nest.  Instead, Jesus tells them, that the kingdom of God would be like a giant wild plant.  They would have been amused that God’s kingdom would be like a weed-the mustard bush.  People stand at the edge of the ocean, or look up at the Redwoods, or stare at the mountains and we talk about how it makes us think of the power and grandeur of God as the creator. “How Great Thou Art!” How many times have you looked at that shrub in front of your house, that ugly, growing, impossible-to- kill-bush and thought about the kingdom of God?

The story of the mustard seed was supposed to make people think-and think hard-about how the kingdom looks-and grows. 

The kingdom of God is that seed that surprises, that seed that seems impossible ever  to become something alive, that tiny unbelievably small germ that takes forever to have a heartbeat-and ne day grows into a living breathing force that cannot be quenched. 

There's a scene in the recent blockbuster film The Hunger Games …President Snow, the totalitarian ruler of futuristic Panem, asks his chief Games-maker -- the one charged with creating a spectacle as entertaining as it is barbaric -- why they must have a winner. The answer? Hope. He wants to give the oppressed people of Panem hope that maybe, just maybe, the odds will be in their favor and they may win the Hunger Games and escape their life of slavery. "Hope," he explains, "is the only thing more powerful than fear." But for that very reason is as perilous for a dictator as it is useful: "A little hope," he explains, "is effective- a lot of hope is dangerous."  A spark is fine-as long as it’s contained.”

The mustard bush, the seed planted deep, a spark that cannot be contained, the kingdom of God growing, is this force, this power developing , budding, emerging and one day you wake up and you hear a heartbeat.  Jesus tells stories to shake our world, to shape our vision, to make us think, and think hard about what we’re expecting, what we’re waiting for, where we believe God is.  The kingdom is small, insignificant, hidden, but it is emerging, it is breaking forth into the world and when we finally see it, hear it, feel it we wonder at it. Martin Luther once said: "If you truly understood a single grain of wheat, you would die of wonder."

Jesus tells stories.  He tells stories to help us understand and to make us think hard.  Today’s stories are about growth and hiddenness and underdogs and breaking expectations. 

One last story about the kingdom of God:

“That's what happened with Mr. Ballantine. The day the elderly man was shoved out of a car and deposited on the doorstep of a homeless shelter, another homeless man named Denver offered to help. In response, the drunken Ballantine spat out curses and racial slurs. Denver helped him anyway.
Even more than he hated people of color, Mr. Ballantine hated Christians...so much so that he would rather have starved than endure chapel sermons to obtain a free meal at the shelter. When Denver went through the serving line, he'd always get a second plate and take it upstairs to Mr. Ballantine.
Denver continued taking meals to Ballantine even after the older man had been moved to a government-run nursing home two miles away. When Ballantine's room was messy and unclean, as it often was, Denver cleaned the room and its occupant. Each time he came to visit, Mr. Ballantine cursed Denver and called him names.
One day a friend went with Denver to visit Mr. Ballantine. He asked the old man if he could get him anything. "Ensure and cigarettes," the man said. Denver and the friend went to a nearby drugstore to purchase the items. The friend sent Denver back to the nursing home alone.
Here's how Denver relates his conversation with Mr. Ballantine in the book titled Same Kind of Different As Me:

When I went back to Mr. Ballantine's room, he asked me who paid for the cigarettes and I told him Mr. Scott. "How am I going to pay him back?" he asked. I said, "You don't." "Why would that man buy me cigarettes when he doesn't even know me?" "Cause he's a Christian." "Well, I still don't understand. And anyway, you know I hate Christians."

I didn't say [anything] for a minute, just sat there in a ole orange plastic chair and watched Mr. Ballantine lyin there in his bed. Then I said to him, "I'm a Christian."
I wish you coulda seen the look on his face. It didn't take but a minute for him to start apologizing for cussin Christians all the time I'd knowed him. Then I guess it hit him that while I'd been takin care of him--it was about three years by then--he'd still been callin' me names. "Denver, I'm sorry for all those times I called you [names]," he said. "That's okay."
Then I took a chance and told Mr. Ballantine that I'd been takin care of him all that time, 'cause I [knew] God loved him. "God's got a special place prepared for you if you just confess your sins and accept the love of Jesus."
I ain't gon' kid you, he was skeptical. Same time, though, he said he didn't think I'd lie to him. "But even if you aren't lying," he said, "I've lived too long and sinned too much for God to forgive me."
He laid there in that bed and lit up one a Mr. Scott's cigarettes, starin' up at the ceiling, smoking and thinking. I just kept quiet. Then all of a sudden he piped up again. "On the other hand, I'm too...old for much more sinning. Maybe that'll count for something!"
Well, Mr. Ballantine stopped callin me [names] that day. And wadn't too long after that I wheeled him through the doors at McKinney Bible Church...We sat together on the back row, and it was the first time Mr. Ballantine had ever set foot in a church. He was 85 years old. After the service, he looked at me and smiled. "Real nice," he said. (Ron Hall and Denver Moore, Same Kind of Different As Me. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006, 162-3.)”

The kingdom of God is like a young woman who finally hears a heartbeat. or an 85 year old man who finally hears the voice.  The kingdom of God is like a weed that crawls into our lives and grows, develops,  and changes until it is our lives   It may take  3 months or 85 years but that heartbeat, that call will one day be a living breathing spark, that will not be contained.  And that is the story of the kingdom of God.

v           The Kingdom of God is a weed”

“Another New Kind of Family"

Sermon-Proper 5-June 10, 2012 “Another New Kind of Family”
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

“When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." Kate Huey writes: “The Marcan Jesus is on the move constantly, like a man on a mission with little time to spare and even less patience with people who like to criticize everything he does. We're only in the third chapter of Mark now, but a quick read of those first chapters is exhausting: Jesus has gone from his hometown to the wilderness to Galilee to the sea to Capernaum to a house to a deserted place and back out to the towns of Galilee (we're still in the first chapter) and then back to Capernaum and home, and then to the sea, and to Levi's house, through the grain fields and to the synagogue, and then back to the sea, into a boat, before heading up the mountain where he gathered those twelve apostles around him, and then, finally, he went home. Imagine all this travel with desperate crowds around him (people "from every quarter," 1:45), clinging to him, begging for healing, begging to be released from the demons that had hold of them, and then picture a group of carping critics picking at everything he did – breaking the rules about healing on the Sabbath, eating with tax collectors and sinners, and not fasting as they should.”

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."

Jesus’ family thinks he is not taking his medication. The scribes, the religious people, think he is possessed. Is he crazy? Is he filled with the devil? What’s wrong with Jesus?

And the “crowd”, the people who represent us, “was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." What are you going to do, Jesus? You are acting strangely, being overwhelmed by people-are you losing it? Are you coming unhinged? Your family is worried about you-they want to take you home for a “rest”. And then Jesus says “Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

In the 1st century, people choosing to follow Jesus were sometimes turned in to the Roman authorities as traitors, or to the religious authorities as breaking the law. Christians were a danger and a threat. Frequently Christians weren’t trusted and were portrayed as undermining society. They felt oppressed and alone. And when they heard these words read to them by Jesus-they were comforted and strengthened. "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

ABC has an ad that says their channel depicts “A New Kind of family”. Before there was ABC, there was Jesus. Christians in the first century, abandoned by their blood relatives, would look around at the people who were worshipping with them, sitting with them at the table, suffering with them, dying with them, and say-these are “my brother and sister and mother." There is a commercial on tv a lot right now for the new Dallas tv show. Evil JR looks at the screen and says, “Blood is thicker than water-and oil is thicker than blood”. And Jesus would say,” those who eat and pray and struggle and suffer and rejoice and live and die with you-those who do the will of God-is thicker than oil.”

Today we take a very brief moment to thank those who have assisted us in our worship over the last year. They have led us, lifted us, guided us, and served us. They have shown us what it is to be brothers and sisters. We are grateful for their ministry, and today we let them know that they are our sisters and brothers. We appreciate them and today we let them know that what they have done has helped our worship, and in a 1000 small way, strengthened our faith. As we call your name, could you please come forward.

Mark 3:20-35

And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" — for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

"160 Times"

Sermon-Trinity Sunday June 3, 2012 160 times


The Cloud of Unknowing,

"O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

Today is Trinity Sunday. Trinity Sunday is the Sunday after Pentecost every year. As church time goes this is a relatively new celebration-it’s only been around since the 14th century. Has anyone, anyone here ever had occasion to talk about the Trinity (not the church but the theological concept of the Trinity) to someone/anyone in your lifetime? Anyone? Ever? So this is not exactly a critical issue in the life of your faith, right?

Do you know how many times you say one of our names for God in today’s service? Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, Lord, Jesus, Christ, Savior, How many times do you think we will say one of our names for God (Not counting the sermon or the hymns) in today’s service? 160. At the 8am service that’s almost every 15 seconds/at the 10:30am service that more than twice every minute (not including hymns and sermon). When we’re in church we are using the name of God almost nonstop the whole time we are here, a wide variety of different names-all describing who we believe God is.

Rev. Dr. Tom Long tells the story of-The Reverend John Buchanan ...just retired after 48 years as a Presbyterian pastor; [Rev. Buchanan] remembered one Sunday service in which he was baptizing a two-year-old boy. After the child had been baptized with water, John Buchanan, following the directions of the Presbyterian prayer book, put his hand on the little boy's head and addressed him in Trinitarian language. He said, "You are a child of God, sealed by the Spirit in your baptism, and you belong to Jesus Christ forever." ... the little boy looked up and responded, "Uh-oh."

When St. Patrick went to Ireland to convert the heathen Celts, he kept trying to explain the Trinity to the people there, and finally in frustration at his inability to make them understand reached down and picked up a three leafed clover and told them God was like that leaf-1 in 3, three in one.

Today is the most theological Sunday of the year, a day devoted to an explanation of who God is. We try to find ways to define what we believe about God. There is a very clear definition of what we believe in our Book of Common Prayer. On this one day of the year the church is encouraged NOT to say the Nicene Creed, but rather another one. Turn in your red prayers books to p. 864. This is the Athanasian Creed, and this is the one we’re supposed to say on Trinity Sunday. Look at it.

We could say it today instead of the Nicene Creed if you would like? The problem is, the harder we work at defining God-the more distant God feels, and the less we seem to understand. The problem is that in the west we have to solve, to define everything- Listen to Dan Clendenin: “When Eastern Orthodox believers celebrate the Trinity, they start in a different place than their western cousins. And it's a good place to start when worshipping God. Western theology tends toward intellectual abstraction. Eastern theology emphasizes adoration of the mystery. It has always been wary of the inadequacies of human language, the limitations of the human mind, and the infinity of God. The desert father and intellectual Evagrios of Pontus (345–399), who spent the last sixteen years of his life among unlettered Coptic peasants in the harsh Egyptian desert, one observed: "God cannot be grasped by the mind. If he could be grasped he would not be God." “

This is Trinity Sunday, the day we try to describe God, and eventually we say that God is too much for us to explain. But still we name God, and we call on God, even if we cannot define him. 160 times in this short worship service. We may not be able to define the Trinity. We may not be able to explain God. But like the 2 year old, we know what it is to be “child of God, sealed by the Spirit in baptism, and belong to Jesus Christ forever.” Even if we never come up with a good definition, even if we never commit the Athanasian Creed to memory, we can still proclaim that we are God’s, and God knows who we are. Amen.