• Signs from Murrieta
  • “Return to sender”
  • “Taco Tuesday is cancelled”
  • “Stop rewarding, start deporting”
  • “Send them back with birth control”
  • These are just some of the signs that greeted busloads of mostly unaccompanied undocumented minors in the small town of Murrieta, California just a few weeks ago. The vast majority of these children were traveling alone, and some of them were as young as 6 years old. They had traveled thousands of difficult, dangerous miles. They were fleeing violence fueled by drugs and gangs. They were fleeing poverty like you and I cannot even imagine. They had already survived the natural perils of the desert and the human perils of the coyotes – those opportunistic, ruthless, and often abusive people who traffic desperate men, women, and children across the border. Some came with a plan to meet up with family in America. Some came with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Some came only with a hope and a prayer.
    • July 4 – bussed from southern Texas where they crossed the border to Murrieta where they were supposed to be processed → met by …
      • Angry crowd blocking the road
      • Shouting slogans
      • Holding signs
        • Both expressing vicious, ugly sentiments (read opening signs again)
      • Now, I realize that there are all sorts of opinions about immigration – what we should or shouldn’t do, policies that should or shouldn’t be in place, etc. I know it’s political. I know it’s a touchy subject right now. I know that there are some people who are angry and frustrated and maybe even afraid about what is happening and what’s been happening along the border.
        • Not here to tell you what you should believe about immigration
        • Not here to sway you politically one way or another
        • This morning, what I’m asking you to do, as human beings, is to think about what it must have felt like for those hundreds of frightened, exhausted, depleted children.
          • Angry faces surrounding buses
          • Angry voices filling your ears
          • Angry eyes glaring in the windows
          • These children had already fled the only homes they’ve ever known. They’d already been torn from their families and everything familiar to them. And one of their first encounters here was one of being despised – being told they weren’t wanted, weren’t good enough to stay.
            • Imagine feeling so undesirable, so unwelcome, so worthless
  • Can you think of a time in your life when no one – maybe even yourself included – could recognize your worth? I’d guess that most (if not all) of us have felt that way at some point. But in our Scripture readings this morning, we see and hear God’s truth spoken into the midst of that pain and isolation – the truth that, no matter what the world thinks of us, God will always see our true worth and welcome us into arms of purest love.
• Few in Scripture whose worth is more underestimated than Leah
  • Jacob’s first wife … You know, the one he never intended to marry in the first place. – text: Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. … Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” … So Jacob served seven years for Rachel … [And] Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. … When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”[1] → I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but wonder about Leah throughout this whole exchange.
    • Did she even want to marry Jacob?
    • What did she think when her father sent her in to Jacob instead of her sister? Spur of the moment? Planned all along? Did she know?
    • Imagine Jacob’s reaction in the morning – disappointment, anger, disgust? → What about Leah’s reaction to this? – pain, disappointment, maybe even fear of retaliation
      • At this point, no one wants Leah. Her father obviously doesn’t want her. He’s callously and thoughtlessly passed her off to another man, Jacob. And Jacob makes it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want her either. – anyone would find it hard to find worth in the midst of all that
  • But you know what? God sees Leah’s worth. – just after today’s text: When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. Leah conceived and bore a son, and she named him Reuben; for she said, “Because the Lord has looked on my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.”[2] → goes on through conceiving and bearing two more sons, Leah always hoping that giving birth to these male heirs (so coveted, such a source of pride) would earn her husband’s love while continuing to recognize God’s presence and love in the face of it all
• NT text this morning touches on other e.g.s of times when we feel our value diminished: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.[3] → You see, our society has placed such a huge emphasis on being self-made and self-reliation – on being able to provide for yourself and your family with no help, on pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and living the most perfect life possible.
  • But what if you have trouble providing that crucial nutrition or the clothes your family needs?
  • What if you end up in a strange place where no one knows your name let alone whether or not you can be trusted?
  • What if you find yourself ill and in need of care or in trouble and in need of love and support?
    • Dominant thought in society: needing help affects your worth
    • Dominant thought in God’s heart: needing help makes you my own → scholar: [Theologian and Princeton professor] Elaine Pagels says Jesus’ words are the basis for a radical new social structure based on the God-given dignity and value of every human being.[4]
      • Hear this in Jesus’ words this morning: Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.[5] → “When you looked into the eyes and heart of those whose worth was in question,” Jesus says, “I was there.”
        • Scholar: Jesus said, God is here, in the messiness and ambiguity of human life. God is here, particularly in your neighbor, the one who needs you. You want to see the face of God? Look into the face of one of the least of these, the vulnerable, the weak, the children.[6]
  • World is full, FULL of people who need to hear this message right now
    • Those immigrant children in the busses chased out of Murrieta and the 52,000 other unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border in the last 9 mos.
    • Elderly men and women who have been forgotten by their families, left to languish in nursing homes
    • Thousands of LGBT teens who have been thrown out of their homes by families after coming out
      • 10% of general population (teens) is LGBT but 20% of homeless teens are LGBT
      • Higher risk for assault than straight homeless teens
      • Twice as likely to commit suicide
• Last week, we talked about how it’s not our job to judge who is the good wheat and the evil weeds. That’s a job for God alone. Today’s question runs alongside that theme: Who are we to tell someone (with our words or our actions) that they are unworthy – unworthy of happiness, unworthy of love, unworthy of faith, unworthy of life itself? Who do we deem unworthy simply by overlooking them as we go about our days? Who do we actively try not to see?
  • Homeless person holding a sign at the intersection?
  • Parent at the grocery store holding up the line because there’s something wrong with his/her SNAP card (food assistance – updated version of food stamps)?
  • Man in the hospital bed? Woman behind bars?
  • Teenager struggling with addiction or behavior issues or the law?
  • Friends, it doesn’t matter who crosses our path or whether or not we want them there because we are called to try to see the world through God’s eyes – to see the worth in people that society has already written off, to see the value in those who have long since lost faith in themselves.
    • Syracuse, NY = given us great e.g. of this → In the wake of all the cities like Murrieta that have provided a less-than-warm welcome for these busloads of unaccompanied, undocumented minors, the city of Syracuse has offered to welcome them with open arms.
      • Bishop Robert Cunningham (Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese): They’re somebody’s children. They’re loved. Parents made a great sacrifice, let them go, sent them here. I think that the parent that sends a child into such a situation like that is hoping that their child will be received warmly and welcomed. Treated hospitably, and shown compassion.[7]
  • Ways that we can embrace this type of attitude
    • Find an organization that speaks to your heart and give of yourself
      • Animals? Children? Substance abuse/other addiction recovery? Elderly? Hospice? Cleaning up green space? The possibilities are endless!
      • E.g. – Service Learning opportunities at UWEC
        • Could give finances
        • Could give time
        • Could give attention/awareness (spreading the word)
    • Speak up when you notice someone’s worth being taken away – workplace, home, [school] → As much as I hate to say it, bullies don’t just exist in the school cafeteria and on the playground. When you see someone being belittled, being marginalized, being shamed, speak up. Stand up for them to let them know that their worth isn’t determined by the mistreatment or ugly remarks of one person.
    • Wider context of society – speak out! → Those causes that tug at your heartstrings … is there legislation surrounding some aspect of that issue? Can you get your local government involved? Can you do something on the [conference/presbytery] level to get involved on the denominational level? Can you make your voice heard with state or national congress people?
      • Write a letter, send an email, make a phone call, join (or even start!) a committee that is working for a change
        • Scholar: Loving those for whom Jesus gave his life, particularly those who are undervalued, is a primary expression of our love for God and of our experience of God’s love for us.[8] → When we have experienced the love and joy and comfort that we find in God – when we have felt our own worth affirmed and reaffirmed in God’s loving embrace – how can we do anything but try to reflect that love and affirmation of worth for the world around us? Amen.

[1] Gen 29: 16, 18, 20, 22-23, 25.

[2] Gen 29:31-33.

[3] Mt 25:35-36.

[4] John M. Buchanan. “Proper 29 (Reign of Christ) – Matthew 25:31-46 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 4. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 334.

[5] Mt 25:40.

[6] Buchanan, 334.

[7] Jazz Shaw. “Syracuse, NY Mayor to Obama: Send Those Immigrant Kids Up Here.” http:///www.hotair.com/archives/2014/07/19/syracuse-ny-mayor-to-obama-send-those-immigrant-kids-up-here/. Written July 19, 2014, accessed July 21, 2014.

[8] Lindsay P. Armstrong. “Proper 29 (Reign of Christ) – Matthew 25:31-46 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 4. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 337.

• A few weeks ago, we read the story of Moses banishing Hagar and Ishmael to the wilderness, and I talked a little bit then about some of the passages from Scripture that are really difficult to deal with – stories that require some serious wrestling. Today’s reading from the gospel of Matthew is another passage like that.
  • Passage that might make us feel uncomfortable
  • Certainly a passage to struggle with
    • May ask why choose such passages to preach from → Passages like this are the reason I preach from the lectionary so often. Preaching from the lectionary forces me as a pastor and us as a congregation to encounter some of those passages that we wouldn’t normally choose to tackle.
      • Grow as individuals
      • Grow as community of faith
  • So this is our text for this morning … let’s wrestle with it together.
    • [read text]
• Okay, what are the parts of this text that are a struggle for us?
  • Whole idea of evil – “children of the evil one” = seeds sowed by the devil[1] → certainly don’t like to think about evil, yet can’t deny it exists
    • Basic definition = anything harmful or injurious that causes suffering
    • Philosophical distinctions[2]
      • Moral evil (willful acts of human beings) vs. natural evil (natural disasters)
      • Physical evil (bodily pain/mental anguish) vs. metaphysical evil (imperfection and chance)
      • Basically, whether we call it evil or not, bad things happen in the world, and sometimes these bad things – intentionally or unintentionally – are committed by people.
  • Also, strictly black-and-white nature of Jesus’ interpretation doesn’t sit well with us → wheat = good, weeds = evil, nothing in between
    • This makes us uncomfortable because we know that the world seldom works this way. Things often fall somewhere along a spectrum instead of into one definite box or another, and what we have inside of each of us is no different.
      • Lives of disciples themselves = great e.g. → The people that Jesus explains this parable to are the same ones who fought over which of them was the greatest, who thought their teacher was too important to waste time on children, who wanted to punish those who were doing things in Jesus’ name (healing, casting out demons, etc.) because the disciples didn’t think they “belonged.” And these are also the same devoted friends who dropped everything to follow Jesus, who ate with Jesus in that upper room, who wept at the foot of his cross and rejoiced over his empty tomb.
      • Muddy distinctions abound in the world around us, in ourselves, even in our Scriptures → So how can this parable distill it all down into such a drastically simplistic dichotomy?
  • Related to this = our discomfort with whole idea of judgment – text:“[the angels] will collect out of [God’s] kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”[3]
    • When you go pull weeds in a garden, it’s usually a pretty straight forward endeavor. Hopefully, you quickly spot the plants that don’t belong and yank ‘em out. Done and done! It’s exactly this abruptness and finality that (hopefully) makes weeding so easy and also that makes this parable so difficult. We don’t want to think of the world this way. We don’t want to think of people this way. And we certainly don’t feel comfortable being the ones doing the pulling.
      • Don’t want to be the ones differentiating between weeds and wheat, good and bad, “in” and “out”
        • Not the kind of people we want to be
        • Not the kind of church we want to be
      • Absolutely right to feel uncomfortable about this → pulling weeds = more difficult task that we can even see on surface of the text – Jesus is not just talking about any generic weed here
        • Gr. “weed” = darnel (specific type of weed)
        • Scholar: The bearded darnel is a devil of a weed. … Its roots surround the roots of good plants, sucking up precious nutrients and scarce water, making it impossible to root it out without damaging the good crop. Above ground, the darnel looks identical to wheat, until it bears seed. Those seeds can cause everything from hallucinations to death.[4] → These aren’t obvious weeds. And they aren’t harmless weeds. These are weeds that are both camouflaged and deadly. And they’re insidious.
          • Don’t want to even think about trying to figure this out → who are the “good seeds” and who are the weeds
            • Daunting task
            • Intimidating task
            • To us, feel like a disparaging task
• I have to say, though, I feel like I have some understanding about where the servants in Jesus’ parable are coming from. → walking beans as a kid
  • Dad and Alan’s fields – known for being “clean” → How do you think they got that way?
  • Describe process – spent days targeting the weeds and taking them out one whack of the hoe at a time
  • Even though the servants of the landowner already know that they’re dealing with this horrible, insidious weed, they are still prepared to go in and root these evil things out. They worked hard to plant that field, and they don’t want to see it go to heck because of these bearded darnel.
• Ahh, but you see, here’s the interesting this about this parable. According to our Scripture reading this morning, that daunting task of pulling weeds isn’t actually our job. Through this parable, Jesus isn’t telling us to sharpen our vision and our pruning shears so we can go out and do battle with those insidious and evil weeds. We are not called to determine who’s a weed and who’s a stalk of wheat.
  • Text: The [servants] of the householder came and said to him, “Master … where, then, did these weeds come from?” He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The [servants] said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he replied, “No.”[5] → The servants said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he replied, “No.” No. It’s not your task … it’s not your responsibility … it’s not your burden to go and pull the weeds.
    • Whose job is it then? – text again: The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers[6] → “The Son of Man will send his angels” … that’s not us. So as we continue to wrestle with this text this morning, let us first lay that aside. Yes, this Scripture talks about judgment, but friends, it is not a judgment that is ours to parcel out as we see fit. It is a judgment for a God far greater, far stronger, and far more compassionate than we could ever hope to be.
      • Perspective from Lindsey: When God’s judgment comes into the world to mend what is broken and reconcile us to a way we cannot begin to conceive, there will be plenty of weedy chaff in all of us that needs burning away.
• So then what is our job? What task is Jesus laying out for us in this parable? → scholar: On such a journey as this, it is … our job to imagine everyone as belonging to this God, and therefore, with all that we can muster, to endeavor to embrace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, God’s holy and purposeful ambiguity.[7]
  • We are called to continue to grow as a plant of the field and to let God be God.
    • Remember the response of the landowner in the text: The [servants] said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather [the weeds]?” But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest.”[8] → Let. Them. Both. Grow. Focus on the strength. Focus on nurturing and supporting and growth. It’s not for us to make the decision who’s in or out. It’s not for us to try to root out the bad weeds. It’s our job to continue to grow in the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ.
      • Find hope among the weeds here → Scholar: At this level, the text points us to a God who does not merely tolerate endlessly a world that is a mixture of good and evil, faith and faithlessness, triumph and tragedy, but who finally, in God’s own good time, acts both to judge and to redeem the world. … [God’s] realm is thriving in us, around us, and even, miraculously, sometimes through us; and God is pleased to let all of it “grow together until the harvest.”[9]
        • Sort of reminds me of Jesus’ mandate to Peter in John’s gospel: Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”[10]
          • Doesn’t say evaluate my lambs
          • Doesn’t say separate my flock
          • Feed my lambs – care for them, nurture them, help them grow
  • Also reminded that we are not alone
    • Parable – wheat grows together in the field, servants tend to it
    • Walking beans – always more bearable (even fun!) when it was me and my cousins
      • Worst day of walking beans – having to tackle thick, stubborn patches of weeds all alone
• And make no mistake, my friends, just because we are not called to detect and pull the weeds ourselves doesn’t mean that this is a passive call. As the wheat in the parable grew among the menace of the weeds, we live among injustices every single day – evils that are being played out in the lives of our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our fellow human beings.
  • Scholar captures it: What are the weeds that threaten a harvest of abundant life in our world? Systematic evils such as racism, sexism, and prejudices of all kinds are weeds that entangle the roots of every human institution.[11] → We are still called to grow and to flourish in the face of the evil but also to act – do what we can to make sure that in the end, the wheat is stronger than the weeds, that there is more good in this world than evil. It may not be our job to pull the weeds, but we also cannot let the weeds overwhelm the field.
    • Beautiful e.g. from “On the Road” with Steve Hartman (CBS Evening News segment)[12]
      • Elderly woman in Oklahoma grieving her husband (recently deceased) → mugged as she was leaving the cemetery after visiting grave → man caught, mug shot broadcast on TV → man’s semi-estranged son recognized mug shot → contacted widow to …
        • Apologize for his dad’s actions: “It needed to be done. She needed an apology from somebody. If I didn’t apologize, who would?”
        • Give her some money his father had given him in attempt to make restitution … money she promptly gave back to help pay for his band trip
• Through this difficult parable, Jesus is reminding us that it is our job, not to be the judge and jury, not to ferret out who we think God has deemed worthy or unworthy, but instead to grow in love and grace. Amen.

[1] Mt 13:38b-39a.

[2] Philip A. Pecorino. “The Nature of Evil” in Philosophy of Religion: Online Textbook. http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialSciences/ppecorino/PHIL_of_RELIGION_TEXT/CHAPTER_6_PROBLEM_of_EVIL/Nature_of_Evil.htm. © 2001, accessed 19 July 2014.

[3] Mt 13:41-21.

[4] Talitha J. Arnold. “Proper 11 (Sunday between July 17 and July 23 inclusive) – Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43: Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 3. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 260.

[5] Mt 13:27-29.

[6] Mt 13:41.

[7] Theodore J. Wardlaw. “Proper 11 (Sunday between July 17 and July 23 inclusive) – Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43: Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 3. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 265.

[8] Mt 13:28-30.

[9] Wardlaw, 263, 265.

[10] Jn 21:15.

[11] Joni S. Sancken. “Proper 11 – Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43” in Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary – Year A. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), 330.

[12] Steve Hartman. “Okla. Teen acts to right his father’s wrong.” CBS Evening News, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/okla-teen-acts-to-right-his-fathers-wrong/. Aired 4 Oct. 2013, accessed 19 July 2014.

• Let me ask you something this morning. When was the last time you paused to think about dirt? Really think about it?
  • Complex make up[1]
    • Decomposing leaves
    • Particles of rock
    • Other various organic matter
  • And while soil may not be technically alive, anyone who works with it – professionally or as a hobby – can tell you what a changing and changeable substance soil truly is. → change it by …
    • Adjust the pH (the acidity level) to grow different kinds of plants
    • Our gardens – work in compost to enrich soil to help our vegetables grow healthier
    • Soil = booming business!
      • Farmers spend thousands and thousands of dollars every year preparing their soil for spring planting
      • Lawn care industry in the U.S. is a multi-BILLION (yup … that’s with a “B,” billion) dollar industry
  • Soil is definitely a changeable substance. It can be cultivated. It can be enriched. It can be fortified for the sake of whatever’s growing in it. And like soil, we ourselves are changeable as well. We can be cultivated. We can we enriched. We can be fortified by our faith and by God’s Word.
• In today’s NT Scripture, the way the seeds grow = affected by the soil on which they fall – text: Some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered quickly. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.[2]
  • Some of those seeds got lucky – landed in the good soil, got to grow up like the happy little plants they’re supposed to be 
  • But most of the seeds in this story weren’t so lucky. They fell on less-than-perfect soil.
    • May say, “What kind of a helter skelter, crazy way is that to plant?” → historical explanation – scholar: Unlike a modern American farmer, who carefully prepares the soil with just the right pH balance and then injects the seed into the ground, farmers in Jesus’ time cast the seed and then plow the land.[3]
    • Results of this type of planting:
      • Path = no soil/no growth at all!
      • Rocky ground = too shallow to establish roots/burned up!
      • Thorns and weeds = too crowded to grow/choked out!
  • That’s all pretty clear. And while the first half of the parable describes the seeds’ fates, in the second half of the parable, Jesus makes it clear that indeed, we are the soil that he’s talking about. – seed = Word of God
    • Seeds that fell on the path = those who hear God’s Word but don’t absorb because they don’t understand
    • Seeds that fell on rocky ground = those who hear God’s Word with joy but let that joy be quickly stolen by the trials of life
    • Seeds that fell among the thorns = those who hear God’s Word but let the naysayers and enticements of the world choke it out
• Now, I realize that you may have heard any number of different sermons dealing with Jesus’ words here. [A couple of you may have even preached any number of different sermons on Jesus’ words here.] But this morning, instead of once again hearing Jesus’ familiar words and phrases here, I’m going to ask you to listen to what Jesus isn’t saying in this parable.
  • Do you hear Jesus saying that the soil must remain as it is? Do you hear him saying that soil must remain unchanged? That it in fact cannot be changed? I don’t. And that’s my point this morning. In America, we spend all this time, all this money, all this energy changing the soil in our lawns, our gardens, and our fields. And in this parable, Jesus is saying that we are the soil. So it stands to reason that we, in fact, can also be changed as well.
    • Some days may feel like “rocky ground” days – days when you feel your faith growing and taking root but growth is stunted by worries, conflict, many distractions of life → before we know it, we’re burned out
    • Some days may feel like “weedy” days – feel the joy of God at first but joy is quickly choked off by struggles at work or in our personal relationships, all those little and not-so-little things that get us down → before we know it, we can’t even see the sun
    • Some days feel like “path” days – just sort of blah, nothing grabbing you, nothing inspiring you, not much going on at all → before we know it, apathy has whitewashed our whole days/spirits
    • But there are also some days when we feel like good soil. There are some days when our faith flourishes in us, nurturing ourselves and the people around us, enriching our lives and fortifying our spirits.
      • Recent e.g. – Peace Camp, watching youth of our two congregations working together to teach and learn and play and have faith together → good soil!
• OT passage this morning gives great e.g. for someone changing soil of life → Jacob
  • You see, Jacob is an interesting biblical character.
    • There’s a lot that rides on Jacob’s shoulders.
      • 12 tribes of Israel stem from Jacob’s sons
      • That promise God made Abraham – “great nation shall come from you” – descends through Jacob (Isaac’s son)
    • Feel kinda bad for Jacob later on in narrative
      • Falls madly in love with Laban’s daughter, Rachel after seeing her from afar → works 7 years for right to marry Rachel → Laban tricks Jacob on his wedding night and gives him other daughter, Leah, instead → poor Jacob has to work another 7 years to marry Rachel
  • That being said, let’s face it – in today’s Scripture reading, Jacob’s kind of a jerk.
    • Not entirely Jacob’s fault/own doing – Isaac and Rebekah set stage for serious sibling rivalry: When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.[4] → Dad loved one twin more, and Mom loved the other twin more. Yikes. Okay, Peter and I may be far from experts, but even we’ve already figured out that this is not the way to raise twins … or any kids, for that matter!
      • Certainly paves the way for antagonism between Jacob and Esau
    • Jacob’s not-so-shining moment today: Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” … Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me first.”[5]
      • Scholar puts it pretty succinctly: Jacob takes egregious advantage of another person in need.[6] → Like I said, Jacob’s kind of a jerk!
      • Not Jacob’s only less-than-stellar moment[7]
        • (With his mother’s help), out-and-out steals firstborn blessing from Esau when Isaac’s on his deathbed – dressed up in lambs’ wool to impersonate Esau’s hairiness and took advantage of Isaac’s blindness → Esau was so enraged that Jacob fled
        • Doesn’t treat Leah well after finds out he’s married to her instead of Rachel
        • Strained relationship with his father-in-law that basically ends up bankrupting him (again, not entirely Jacob’s fault but also not wholly innocent in the matter) → leads to Jacob having to flee Syria with his wives, his children, and all he owns
  • Suffice to say Jacob was less-than-perfect. But that didn’t mean that God gave up on him.
    • As he’s fleeing Laban and returning to his homeland – Jacob has an encounter in which he finds himself literally wrestling with God[8]
      • Result – Jacob is a changed man
        • Name changed from Jacob (“deceiver”) to Israel (connotations of striving with God)
        • Changed in demeanor – returns to Esau penitent and humble → brothers are reconciled (at least for a little while)
      • This is another reason why Jacob is such a great example for us this morning as we talk about changing the soil of our lives. First, Jacob made the change. But it’s also important to note that that change wasn’t instantaneous. It wasn’t casual. And it certainly wasn’t easy. It was a hard-fought contest in which he literally wrestled with God. This change was hard! Jacob had to get down and dirty with himself and with God in order to work through this change.
        • Not so different when we’re working with real soil
          • E.g. – kids working with Countryside Lawn and Landscaping the other day
          • Working with soil is a dirty business. It’s labor-intensive. It’s exhausting. And the results aren’t instantaneous. And sometimes, the process has to be repeated again and again.
            • E.g. – farmers apply fertilizer year after year because some plants leech nitrogen out of the soil → constant cycle of enriching and needing to be enriched, of nourishing and needing to be nourished
  • So how do we go about working through our own change?
    • Spending time in Scripture – wrestling with God, wrestling with the difficult and confusing and muddy passages
    • Spending time in prayer – again, wrestling with God, wrestling with the ups and downs of life, the questions and the doubt and the fears
    • Spending time talking and learning about our faith with other people (Christians and non-Christians alike) – wrestling with the uncomfortable questions, wrestling with the brokenness and the blessing that we find all around us
• Along our journeys of faith, some hours, some weeks, some days are better than others … and that’s okay! Sometimes we end up wrestling with God … and that’s okay! Sometimes faith is a messy thing … and that’s okay! But as we go about this cultivation process, we do so with the knowledge and the reassurance that like Jacob and like the farmer in Jesus’ parable, God will not give up on us. The seeds of faith and hope and love continue to be sown throughout our lives – by God, by our interaction with Scripture, by other people that we encounter – and every day, we have a fresh opportunity to turn over the soil, to start a new row, to cultivate a faith that is strong and vibrant and sustaining. Amen.

[1] “What is soil made of?” The Open Door Web Site. http://www.saburchill.com/chapters/chap0058.html. Accessed 10 July 2014.

[2] Mt 13:4-8.

[3] Talitha J. Arnold. “Proper 10 (Sunday between July 10 and July 16 inclusive): Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 3. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 236.

[4] Gen 25:27-28.

[5] Gen 25:29-33a.

[6] Terence E. Fretheim. “The Book of Genesis: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 1. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994), 523.

[7] Gen 29-31.

[8] Gen 32:22-32.

• In 1995, beloved comedian Bill Cosby hosted a TV special that simultaneously tickled the funny bones and touched the hearts of so many Americans that it became a full-season show 3 years later and ran from 1998-2000.
  • “Kids Say the Darndest Things”
    • Ask question → sometimes innocuous, sometimes a little more leading
      • Harmless: What’s the best way to eat a hotdog?
      • More leading: Should a man be with an older or a younger woman?
    • One thing you could count on with this show – the answers were always a little absurd → what made it so funny
      • But on the flipside, what made these answers so heartwarming is that often buried in all those absurdly unexpected answers were nuggets of truth.
        • Questions may be absurd
        • Answers may be absurd
        • But that absurdity doesn’t negate the truth being spoken. The Bible, history, and certainly our own lives are filled with God’s messengers who could only be described as absurd. But the absurdity of God’s many messengers also emphasizes the unifying nature of God’s message – the universal truth of God’s love and grace.
• See absurdity of God’s messengers in today’s texts
  • I have to admit that what initially caught my attention and sparked this sermon idea was Isaiah’s description of the seraphim. – text: Seraphim were in attendance above [the Lord]; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of [God’s] glory.” [1]
    • Absurd creatures that capture the imagination
    • And yet from the midst of this absurdity, we hear words of adoration and glory: Holy, holy, holy … the whole earth is full of God’s glory!
      • Words that we continue to use in worship
        • Often part of the communion liturgy
        • Familiar hymn: “Holy, holy, holy, God the Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee” [2]
      • Unifying message that has brought worshipers together down through the ages – declaring God’s sacred otherness and lifting our voices together in devotion and praise
  • But the seraphim aren’t the only absurd messengers in our Old Testament reading this morning. Isaiah declares himself to be an imperfect mouthpiece for God – an absurd choice for the role of “prophet.” – text: And I said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips!” [3]
    • Scripture = full of people like this
      • Jonah – the reluctant, runaway prophet
      • Hosea – prophet from a thoroughly broken home
      • Matthew – hated and probably corrupt tax collector turned disciple
      • Paul – malicious persecutor and religious hard-nose turned evangelist
      • All absurd choices for messengers from God … and yet God worked and spoke through them.
  • Absurdity of messengers throughout church’s history
    • John Calvin – extreme introvert who would’ve just as happily spent his entire life in a scholastic ivory tower but was forced to lead a new religious community in Geneva
      • Battled interior demons – far from what we’d call a “people person”
      • Battled physical demons – serious, extremely uncomfortable digestive issues his whole life
      • And yet God continues to speak through John Calvin – through his theological works and through the many churches that stemmed from the Reformed faith which he fathered.
    • Hildegard of Bingen – 11th cent. mystic, began seeing visions at age 3 [4] → had everything stacked against her
      • Female
      • Low in the birth order in large family
      • Sickly her whole childhood
      • Given to the church by her parents
      • And yet despite all of these things that counted against her during her lifetime, God continues to speak through Hildegard’s theological treatises and through the hymns she wrote that we continue to use today.
        • E.g. – “O, Holy Spirit, Root of Life,” #57 (NCH)
  • Absurdity of contemporary prophets – Nadia Bolz-Weber and Jay Bakker
    • Heavily tattooed
    • Lots of piercings
    • Overcame parental legacies
      • Bolz-Weber grew up in fundamentalist faith tradition that doesn’t ordain women
      • Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker – televangelists whose very public fall from grace included fraud and jail time (in Rochester!)
    • And yet God is speaking loudly and boldly through these pastors on the front lines of the church today.
      • Making message of the gospel accessible to those who feel left out or left behind by the mainline church
      • Being super real about grace – what they’ve experienced
• That’s a lot of absurdity – a lot of people who the world might say are too imperfect to relay God’s message. But then we encounter Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians this morning: God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. [5]
  • Let this speak to you this morning! You see, we tend to think that because we aren’t perfect … because we have flaws … because we don’t think our hearts or our spirits or our faith is strong enough. We think we’re absurd choices for messengers.
  • Found a great contemporary example as I was prepping this week → You know I like to listen to music as I’m working on my sermons during the week. Well, one of the songs that I was listening to this week was so appropriate that I decided to play it for you this morning. So you can follow along, I’ve included the lyrics in your bulletin this morning.
    • “Me Without You” by tobyMac
  • Popular saying: God doesn’t call those who are equipped, God equips those who are called.
    • Reiterated by Scripture: Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. [6] → This sounds to me like the tobyMac song. The scenarios he presents are absurd, foolish – packing bags when he should stay, chasing whims like the breezes that blow by. Toby knows that without God, it’s just absurdity, but with God, anything is possible.
      • God can make foolishness wisdom
      • God can make weakness strength
      • God can make those whom are called perfect for the job
      • Doesn’t mean that everything we say as Christians is golden → Like the kids on “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” some of the things we say are crazy. Some are inaccurate. Some are absurd. Our perceptions, our understandings, our take on things can be skewed. But God works through our words, often in ways we don’t even hear or understand.
  • But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. – scholar: Our prophetic response to contemporary issues should come out of our deep experiences of holy mystery. And our encounter with the Triune God leads us to our responsibility in the world: To enact the love and justice of [God] and to spread God’s peace to the world [7] → To enact the love and justice of God and to spread God’s peace to the world. A nugget of truth in the midst of the world’s absurdity. What more can we be called to do? Amen.

[1]  Is 6:2-3.

[2]  “Holy, Holy, Holy,” New Century Hymnal, #277.

[3] Is 6:5.

[4]  “Hildegard of Bingen.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen. Accessed 3 July 2014.

[5]  1 Cor 1:21.

[6] 1 Cor 1:26-29.

[7]  Kee Boem So. “First Sunday after Pentecost (Trinity Sunday): Isaiah 6:1-8” in Preaching God’s Transformative Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year B. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 263.

So this Sunday, I decided to do something a little bit different. Every once in a while, I encounter a story in the Bible that seems so interesting that, instead of writing a sermon about that story, I invite the congregations to inhabit the story with me. Using the Scriptural text, I exercise some artistic license and expand on the story. What were the people hearing? Seeing? Thinking? Feeling? This is one of those stories. The text comes from John 12:20-36. We paired it with Psalm 51.

Incidentally, when I approach a sermon from this angle, this is the only time I end up preaching from a manuscript. So come … inhabit the story with us!

———————————————–

Do you know what the best part about festivals is? Some people will tell you it’s the theater – all those performers up on stage acting out the stories of the gods and the tragedies and reciting epic poems. These performances certainly can be entertaining … but they’re not the best part. Now, my husband would probably tell you that the best part is the feast – all that food! He’s a laborer, a simple builder, so we don’t get a whole lot of fancy food around our house. The food certainly is good … but it’s not the best part.

The best part – my absolute favorite part – is the music and the dancing. They play song after song after song all night long and you can dance as long as your feet will hold you up. It’s inspiring and exhilarating and … oh, man. Trust me, it really is the best part!

At least, it was the best part … until this past festival. You see, I was taking a short break from dancing and listening to the music, and my husband was off buying a hunk of spiced roast lamb. Then all of a sudden, the crowd started whispering and pointing at something across the square. Everyone seemed really excited, so I started to move in that direction. And when the crowd parted, do you know who was standing there? It was that Jesus guy. You know, for the past few years I’d been hearing all sorts of stories about him. My husband heard from some of the other builders that this Jesus guy has performed miracles – turned water into wine at some wedding party[1] and healed a paralyzed man[2] and a blind man[3]. And my sister told me that he fed a crowd of 5000 people with only 5 loaves and 2 fish, and that he actually walked on water.[4] And that’s only a few of the amazing things I’ve heard. There are things … well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. (They say that Jesus even raised some guy named Lazarus from the dead![5] I know!)

For a while now, I’d been wanting to check out whether or not the rumors were true. You know, see the man behind the myth. So you can understand why I was excited to see him in person at that festival. I didn’t remember anybody saying that Jesus was going to be there, but there he was! He’s a little bit of a celebrity, you know – kind of like the gladiators, though of course, not nearly on that grand scale. He’s actually a bit of an oddity because even those of us who are Greek citizens have heard about the kind of trouble he’s been stirring up with his own authorities – with the Jewish leaders. At first, everyone else at the festival was really excited to see Jesus, too, but after that first glimpse, most of them wandered off – back to their theater and dancing and spiced roast lamb.

But not me. I stayed.

You see, there was something special about Jesus, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but whatever it was it made me want to know more. And I must not have been the only one that felt that way because there was a group of us that stuck around after everyone else left. One of the men in the group went up to a couple of Jesus’ disciples to see if we could maybe speak to Jesus ourselves. “Sir,” he said, “we wish to see Jesus.” And we watched as that disciple – I think his name was Philip – went and told another disciple, and then that disciple went right up and spoke to Jesus. Before we knew it, we were right there in front of the man himself. We were right there with Jesus!

We all gathered around him, some sitting, some standing, some leaning against pillars, and then Jesus began to speak. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Admittedly, this had us all a little confused, but Jesus continued. “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”[6]

Okay, truth be told, he lost me there. Actually, most of us looked a little confused, but there were a few people around me that were nodding their heads. I could tell that they were Jews, so I decided to ask one of them what he thought Jesus was talking about.

He told me about something he called … what was it again? … a psalm – a poem that the Jews use in worship sometimes or in their own private prayers to their god. This made me smile a bit because I like poetry, but when he started reciting it for me, this psalm[7] didn’t sound like any poetry I’d ever heard before. I’m used to poetry full of heroes and monsters, ill-fated love and epic battles. But the psalm was all about confession and atonement. It was full of words like “sin” and “guilt” and “transgression.” It mentioned a purification ritual involving the hyssop plant, and it asked this god for cleansing and restoration and a healing presence. It sounded so … so … humble. I couldn’t help but cringe as he spoke these words. I mean, come on. I am a Greek citizen. I’m part of the greatest culture in the world – a culture that fosters incredible beauty in its art and sculpting, a culture that fosters staggering intelligence in its thinkers and logicians, a culture that fosters crushing strength in its military and its politicians. We don’t really do humility very well. To be honest, we don’t really do humility at all. What use could we possibly have for such poems of humility?

That Jewish man must’ve seen something of my thoughts on my face because he stopped for a moment and just looked at me. “You know that’s what he’s talking about, don’t you?” he said. “Jesus. When he’s talking about grains of wheat and losing your life, when he’s talking about following and serving Almighty God. If that grain was too proud to let itself be changed and shaped by something other than itself, it wouldn’t do much good, would it? It would just sit there and rot. That single seed has the potential to become something special – something beautiful and wholly different than what it is, but only if it lets itself die. Only when it lets go can it enhance the lives of many. Only then can it nourish. Only then can it shelter. Only then can it provide others with enjoyment or livelihood or healing. Only then can it live a new life. If it stays a simple seed, it can do nothing, but if it has the courage to admit that it isn’t perfect exactly as it is, if it has the humility to recognize the power and necessity of change, it can do anything.

“Likewise, it is only when we humble ourselves before Adonai, when we acknowledge our sins and imperfections and request that the Most High God transform us with the Holy Spirit – only when we have done these things are we truly open to becoming the beautiful creations that Adonai intended for us to be. When we are growing and working for God, when we are following the Word of God and serving God, our faith can nourish and enhance, shelter and encourage us as well as those around us. But in order to do that, we must die to the demands and desires imposed on us by our culture. Like a seed shedding its hull, we must slough off the strains and stresses and pressures of our own sinfulness and allow God to help us grow.”

He started to say more, but just then, Jesus began speaking again. He said, “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”[8] That caught me off guard. The way he said it was so serious, so final. Like I said, I knew that things between Jesus and the Jewish authorities were tense, but this sounded more than tense. Jesus sounded resigned, almost like a man condemned. There was something about the way Jesus said these words that made me anxious and sad and scared all at the same time. What was this “hour” that he was talking about? Why did he need to be saved from it? And what could it possibly have to do with glorifying the name of his god?

Everyone else seemed to be stirred up, too. I mean, the crowd was just buzzing. It was as if a spark had shot through us all. There were whispered questions and conversations flying back and forth like insects. It was intense and exciting and inspiring and mystifying all at the same time! And just when I was starting to think I couldn’t get any more rattled, this… voice … came out of nowhere. It was loud and powerful, and it resonated deep inside me – not just in my ears but deep, deep down. The voice said, “I have glorified [my name], and I will glorify it again.”[9] There was a split second of utter silence, then the whole crowd started talking again. Some people immediately dismissed it, saying that what we heard must’ve been thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”[10] But there were other theories being tossed around, too. Some of the Jews in the crowd were claiming that one of their prophets had spoken while others actually attributed the voice to their god!

The crowd just kept getting louder and louder, everyone trying to talk over each other. Then Jesus spoke again. “This voice,” he said, and we all immediately fell silent again. “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of the world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”[11]

After he said this, Jesus continued speaking, but at that point, I had to take a step back. I had so many things swirling around in my mind. I kept thinking about the things that the Jewish man had said to me. Could humility and service really be more fulfilling than the life I was already living? I thought my life was fine. My husband’s a good man. He works a good job, and we do alright. We aren’t the wealthiest people around, but we have food and a house that’s stable and comfortable. And when the weather is acting funny or the crops aren’t growing right or the earth is shaking or someone’s health takes a bad turn, we offer the appropriate sacrifices to a handful of major and minor gods and goddesses. Like I said, my life was fine. Or was it?

I’d never thought about more … until that day. There just seemed to be something in Jesus’ face that made me suddenly feel like there could be more. Like there should be more. Like I wanted there to be more! You know, there’s a line from that poem – that psalm – that I just couldn’t let go of. Or maybe it couldn’t let go of me. The Jewish man said, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” I’ve seen hyssop, of course. The Jews aren’t the only one who use it for purification rituals, and it grows all over the place. All you have to do is open your eyes, and there it is. Could it really be so easy to find God – as easy as it is to find a branch of hyssop? And is it really possible that this god is willing to be the one participating in the sacrifice – the one using the hyssop for purification? You know, I’ve spent my whole life performing the “right” sacrifices in the “right” way to the “right” god or goddess for the situation – gods and goddesses who, according to the stories, really only concern themselves with each other and couldn’t seem to care less about human beings, anyway. Could this god that Jesus was talking about really be so interested in our well-being that God is willing to cleanse us?

And what about the snow? I’ve only seen snow once in my whole life. It was clean and cool, pure and refreshing and beautiful! There’s nothing else like it … nothing. “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Can God really do this for us? Can God make us that special, that rare and that precious? If I were to follow and serve this God – what had the Jewish man said his name was? Adonai? – if I were to follow and serve this Adonai, could God truly forgive all the mistakes I’ve made in the past and make me even more pure and clean in God’s own eyes than snow is in mine?

With all these questions running circles in my head, I was starting to feel overwhelmed and a bit dizzy. Then Jesus’ voice broke through all that inner turmoil and confusion. “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”[12]

With all these new questions and uncertainties that I was suddenly struggling with, I definitely felt like I didn’t know what was going on – what I was doing, where I was going, or how I was getting there. But then Jesus looked at me. Just for a second, he looked straight into my eyes, and I felt something in my soul brighten. I was filled with warmth and light like nothing I had never known before. And I made a decision – a crazy, impulsive, completely unexpected decision. I would follow this Jesus. I wanted to sit at his feet, to listen to him and learn from him for as long as I could. And as soon as I made this decision, I could almost swear that I saw Jesus nod his head and smile.

[1] Jn 2:1-12.

[2] Jn 5:1-15.

[3] Jn 9:1-12.

[4] Jn 6:1-21.

[5] Jn 11:38-44.

[6] Jn 12:23-26.

[7] Ps 51.

[8] Jn 12:27-28.

[9] Jn 12:28.

[10] Jn 12:29.

[11] Jn 12:30-32.

[12] Jn 12:35-36.

• Sometimes, we encounter tough stories in the Bible – stories that make us uncomfortable, stories that make us question, stories that don’t quite fit with the faith we think we know. Today’s story of Hagar and Ishmael is one of those stories.
  • Story involves pain and exclusion
  • Story involves desperation and despair
  • Story that, on the surface, seems to be an “us” and “them” story
  • Main characters: Hagar and Ishmael deal with …
    • Rejection
    • Isolation
    • Death
    • At the heart of this story, we find ourselves following a single mother who’s been thrown out of her home wandering in the desert with a baby. Not the kinds of things we’re looking to find when we turn to Scripture, but these are the realities of the story. These are the details with which we must wrestle because this is the story that we have been given.
• There’s so much about this story that makes us feel uncomfortable. For starters, we don’t like the callous and vindictive way Sarah treats Hagar and Ishmael.
  • Text: Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”[1] → There’s no provocation that we’re aware of. Ishmael and Isaac were simply playing together. If Abraham’s house looked anything like our house does, there was some lively babbling and animated gesticulating going on between the two boys. Nothing evil. Nothing threatening. At yet this innocent scene stirs something so powerful in Sarah that she orders Abraham to toss Hagar and Ishmael out as though they were trash.
  • But let’s backtrack for a minute. How did Sarah and Abraham and Hagar get into this thorny situation in the first place?
    • Text: Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. … He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.[2] → Hagar gives birth to Abraham’s firstborn son, Ishmael
    • But the other part of that covenant: Your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.[4]
    • And yet despite this assurance that her son would inherit the covenant – an assurance that literally came from the mouth of God! – Sarah decided to turn out her maidservant and the child when it seemed as though this illegitimate child was getting a little too friendly with her “rightful” heir.
      • Total disregard for either Hagar or Ishmael as a human beings – orders Abraham to exile Hagar and Ishmael from the only house the child has ever known à makes it very clear that they are and always have been “the other”
      • Scholar: This is an unjust situation that is painful to imagine. … The magnitude of the injustice done to [Hagar and Ishmael] bears down on the reader.[5]
• We also don’t like Abraham’s feeble and ineffectual response to Sarah’s tyrannical demands.
  • See Abraham’s discomfort with the whole situation – text: The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.[6]
    • Even more distressing = God’s response: Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for its through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.[7]
      • This is not what we want to hear from God! We want God to be up in arms over Sarah’s unjust treatment of Hagar. We want righteous anger and judgment and maybe even just a little bit of smiting (nothing serious … just a slight singeing). Even if God is promising Abraham that Hagar and Ishmael will have a future, we want to feel like God doesn’t sanction such treatment.
    • And yet we read Abraham’s ultimate response: So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.[8] → “Here’s your bread. Here’s your water. Here’s you kid. See ya.” Abraham’s attitude is so passive, so compliant. Again, it doesn’t sit well with us.
• Finally, we don’t like the life-threatening situation that Hagar and Ishmael encounter out in the wilderness, and we certainly don’t like the anguish that we see in Hagar when she leaves her beloved son under that bush, certain of his imminent death.
  • Text: When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.[9]
    • Confession: this is difficult to read → And cliché though it may be, it’s a hundred times more difficult now that I have two boys of my own. You know, Ishmael wouldn’t have been much older than Luke and Ian during our story today. Children that age are so fragile, so defenseless, so dependent.
    • Our response: Where is God?!
      • Probably Hagar’s response, too → You see, Hagar had a little secret of her own.
        • Hagar found out she was pregnant → ran away →God found her and spoke to her: The angel of the Lord found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness … And he said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.”[10] → With these words ringing in her ears, Hagar must have wept bitterly, wondering what had happened to that promise that God had made to her. How could her offspring be multiplied so if her only son died here with her in the desert of starvation and thirst? Where was God?
• But here is where our story turns.
  • Scholar: In the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation, the text makes a transformational statement. “God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven.” At the point of despair, God steps in.[11] → Here, in the midst of the darkness and desolation of the desert, God’s light shines on this single mother and her son who have been abused and abandoned.
  • God did not forget the promise previously made to Hagar – text: [The angel of God said to Hagar], … “Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” … And God was with the boy, and he grew up.[12] → Finally!! We rejoice in God’s attentiveness to Hagar and Ishmael’s dilemma. As Hagar surely did, we can feel our hearts lift when we hear that God heard the voice of the crying child. As Hagar surely did, we can feel a powerful protectiveness swell within us when we hear the angel’s command to “lift up the boy and hold him fast.”
    • Heb. here is uplifting as well – “hold him fast” = having courage, becoming strong → This is a command not just for the good of the child but for Hagar’s good as well. Hold him fast. Have courage. Be strong.
• And yet, even in the midst of this rejoicing, we hit another snag – another element of this story that stirs discomfort within us.
  • That “great nation” that God promised would come from Ishmael = Islam → Islam is known as one of the “Abrahamic faiths” (along with Judaism and Christianity) because it can trace its sacred roots back to Abraham, but unlike Judaism and Christianity (who trace roots through Isaac), Islam traces those roots through Abraham’s other son, Ishmael
  • Muslims. We are talking about a people and a faith tradition that within the past decade or so have been increasingly vilified.
    • Important note: There are extremists in every religion, and all of them – Jewish extremists, Hindu extremists, and Christian extremists alike – can be dangerous.
    • We can’t turn on the news without hearing the words “terrorist” and “Muslim” inextricably linked. We see someone of Middle Eastern descent in cultural dress in line at the airport, and we worry. We readily draw a thick, red, impenetrable line between “us” and “them,” excluding the other for what we are convinced is our own good.
      • Scholar: This text reminds us that the world is filled with both physical and spiritual descendants of Ishmael. … How is the other half of Abraham’s family going to relate to these brothers and sisters in ways that acknowledge this ongoing work of God?[13]
        • Difficult question
        • Uncomfortable question
        • You see, it’s easy for us to see the injustices in our own lives, in the lives of those we love, and even in the lives of strangers who appear to us to be vulnerable – a single mother and her child who have been turned out into the wilderness. And it’s easy for us to pinpoint those times in our lives when we’ve been “the other” – the one excluded, the one singled out, the one ostracized and made fun of and shamed. But what about when we find ourselves naming “the other”? What about when we are the ones drawing that thick, red line, essentially (and sometimes literally) stating, “You don’t belong”? Where is our faith then?
          • Challenged to remember Jesus’ encounter in Luke: Just then a lawyer stood up to text Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” [Jesus] said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And [Jesus] said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”[14] → How can we even begin to recognize our neighbor when our eyes are so focused on the lines that divide us?
• Every day, there are injustices happening to every person and every group in every part of this world. – cannot turn a blind eye to these injustices
  • Denominational responses
    • [Z] resolutions from Annual Mtg.
      • Eradicating racism and embracing diversity within the conference
      • Standing up for undocumented persons who cannot stand up for themselves
    • [O] overtures from GA
      • Marriage equality
      • Peacemaking within the Middle East
      • Working to end gun violence
  • Scholar: In this story the people of God should recognize and rejoice that God’s saving acts are not confined to their own community. God’s acts of deliverance occur out and about in the seemingly godforsaken corners of the world, even among those who may be explicitly excluded from the “people of God.” Here we see God at work among the outcasts, the refugees of the world. … Persons of faith are to participate in their lives, to lift them up and hold them fast until the wells become available.[15] Amen.

[1] Gen 21:9-11.

[2] Gen 16:1-2, 4.

[4] Gen 17:19.

[5] Edward L. Wheeler. “Proper 7 – Genesis 21:8-21” in Preaching God’s Transformative Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year A. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), 293.

[6] Gen 21:11.

[7] Gen 21:12-13.

[8] Gen 21:14.

[9] Gen 21:15-16.

[10] Gen 16:7-10.

[11] Wheeler, 293.

[12] Gen 21:17-18, 20a.

[13] Terence E. Fretheim. “The Book of Genesis: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 1. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994), 490 (emphasis added at the end).

[14] Lk 10:25-28.

[15] Fretheim, 489-490.

Okay … full disclosure. This is the sermon from Pentecost Sunday a few weeks ago. I’m a little bit behind, and between conferences and a very sick kiddo (who is now feeling mostly better), I missed a few Sundays in there as well. Hopefully, though, we’re now back on track. Okay, Pentecost ………..

• Story of mission trip to Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota
  • Split between 2 missions – children’s day school and work on homes (painting, etc.)
    • Playing with kids = inspiring … but exhausting!
    • Painting and fixing up homes in sunshine and heat = fulfilling … but exhausting!
  • On mission trips, exhaustion is a daily thing but grows stronger as the week progresses → You work really hard all day long and return at the end of the day to rest and relax in your nice comfy sleeping bag … on a nice comfy tile floors. Ahhhhhh! So refreshing. By the last day or two, it’s a miracle everyone is able to get out of bed at all in the morning.
  • Mission work certainly not the only place we encounter exhaustion
    • A million small ways in our day to day lives
    • Situations of high emotion/high stress (spring/fall – farmers)
    • Events that require a lot of planning ahead of time and activity
    • I don’t know … raising twins!
  • But in any of these times of great exhaustion, there’s often something else at work – something more, something deeper – something that not only overrides our exhaustion but leaves us renewed: the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us.
    • Mission e.g. – While they may be the walking definition of bone-weary, those on a mission trip are always more than ready to dive back into whatever needs to be done and get their hands dirty.
    • And our Scriptural stories this morning speak to this depletion and restoration. They’re stories that remind us that God is our renewal, even – and especially – when we least expect it.

• Look at OT passage first
  • The vision that the prophet Ezekiel experiences is certainly one in which we naturally expect anything but renewal.
    • Txt: The hand of the Lord … set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.[1] → pretty clear, pretty cut and dry (no put intended) … these bones have had it
      • A couple elements point this out for us
        • 1^st: God leads Ezekiel “all around” the bones → God doesn’t just let Ezekiel stand impassively at the valley’s edge. God walks Ezekiel all through the valley. God makes Ezekiel hike among the piles, step around the bones, making sure that Ezekiel takes in every femur and collar bone, every finger joint and knee cap and skull, ensuring that Ezekiel not only sees a vague mass of white but a truly vast multitude of individual bones.
        • 2^nd: Heb. places heavy emphasis on the fact that these bones are lifeless and dry → pesky little word that keeps popping up: hinneh (TAKE NOTICE! PAY ATTENTION! LOOK!) appears before the phrase “lying in the valley” and before the phrase “they were very dry”
          • LOOK! Those bones are just lying in the valley – obviously aren’t going anywhere
          • LOOK! Those bones are very dry – obviously beyond any and all hope
        • Finally, in his own reaction to God, even Ezekiel adds emphasis to the unlikelihood of this whole situation: God said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”[2] → Can you hear a little bewilderment, a little exasperation, a little question in Ezekiel’s voice? – “Can these bones live?” “God only knows!”
    • And yet in the face of this improbability – this absurdity! – God comes back with a truly unexpected renewal → commands Ezekiel to tell the bones that God will reassemble and restore the fullness of their bodies, and poof!:I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin covered them.[3]
      • Holy Moses! Suddenly, Ezekiel find himself smack in the middle of a Biblical ghost story! Just a moment ago, he was looking down on a valley full of disconnected bones. Now, spread out before him is this host of bodies that God has just re-formed … but there’s still a problem → There was no breath in them.[4]
        • You see, even with new flesh, new sinew, and new skin, these bodies assembled before Ezekiel are not alive. I think we can probably take a stab at what Ezekiel’s thinking: These bodies may look like they’re alive, but they’re not. And they’re never going to be because what was dead can’t be given new breath – a new life, a new soul – … can it?
          • Ahh … be careful what you wish for! Then [God] said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.[5]
      • Scholar highlights the power of this: In recounting his vision, Ezekiel challenges his fellow exiles and generations of his readers to view their circumstances not through their own, limited vision, but through God’s eyes. Can these bones live? Of course not. But look at them through God’s eyes, and watch bones rushing to their appropriate partners. Watch as ligaments bind them together, flesh blankets them, and skin seals them tightly. Watch as God’s spirit, which heals hopelessness, infuses them, so that they rise up … Look through God’s eyes, and watch them come up, receive God’s spirit, and return home.[6]
      • Wow. Renewal at a time in which anything but renewal was expected. These were desiccated bones that had been relegated to the grave, and yet, God resurrected them, freed them, and gave them powerful reassurance: I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.[7]
• Kinda sounds like the story of Pentecost, doesn’t it? I don’t think the disciples – or any of those who had gathered with them – had any idea what to expect. Think about it:
  • Jesus had been brutally killed … but days later, he’d come back to life again … and then after just a short while, he left again – not died, left – just shhhmp right up into heaven
    • Luke: Then [Jesus] led [the disciples] out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.[8]
  • I’m sorry … what?! After all that, I don’t know if I’d even be expecting anything, but whatever the disciples might have been expecting after their final encounter with Christ, I’d be willing to bet that what happened to them that Pentecost morning wasn’t it.
    • Text: And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.[9] – Come on … nobody would expect that! It sounds like the kind of crazy scenario that only Hollywood screenwriters could dream up.
  • Like dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley, early church must surely have been in need of renewal
    • Text: At this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered[10]
      • Gr. “bewildered” has both positive connotations (amazed, excited) and negative connotations (stirred up, troubled) → see how emotionally taxing this is
    • That sounds like heck of an emotional rollercoaster, and emotional rollercoasters are always exhausting. Think of …
      • Time of immense stress or grief
      • Time when you’ve thrown your whole self into something for an extended period of time
        • Project or activity, organization or event
      • E.g.s
        • Teachers – end of the school week/year → students, too!
        • Planning something big like Peace Camp [or Country Store]
        • The way I feel after worship on Sunday morning
  • But in the midst of all those questions and emotions and confusion, on that Pentecost morning, God provided renewal in a powerful, unmistakable way. → remember end of our NT passage: Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.[11]
• Everything about this story from Acts speaks to one thing: the amazing work of the Holy Spirit, work that is done not only to those early Christians but through them.
  • I know we don’t often think or talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, but we also see the subtle footprint of the Holy Spirit’s work in Ezekiel: The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord … Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.[12]
    • In Hebrew, the word for “breath” and the word for “wind” and the word for “spirit” are all one and the same. In the story of creation, God breathed new life and Spirit into Adam. In this story from Ezekiel, God breathed new life and Spirit into the valley of dry bones. And in the story of Pentecost from Acts, God breathed new life and Spirit into the very heart of the early church. It is this same Spirit – the Holy Spirit – who has been working for millennia, and it is this same Holy Spirit – noisy and flashy and wholly (and holy!) refreshing – who continues to work in our lives today.
      • Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has observed that Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones bears no date because every generation needs to hear in its own time that these bones can live again.[13]
        • Scholar: Like the exiles of old, we too can at times feel as good (rather, as bad) as dead. We are null and void inside. But if we look through God’s eyes, we can see broader realities, bases for hope. God can sustain us and fill our barren experiences with lively hope. Is it possible? Absolutely not, disbelievers [declare]. But look with God’s vision and watch it happen![14]
        • Look with God’s vision and watch even the most unlikely and unexpected renewal wash over you like a mighty, Spirit-filled wind. Amen.

[1] Ezek 37:1-2.

[2] Ezek 37:3.

[3] Ezek 37:7-8a.

[4] Ezek 37:8b.

[5] Ezek 37:9-10.

[6] Katheryn Pfisterer Darr. “The Book of Ezekiel: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 6. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2001), 1503-1504.

[7] Ezek 37:14.

[8] Lk 24:50-52.

[9] Acts 2:2-4.

[10] Acts 2:6.

[11] Acts 2:46-47.

[12] Ezek 37:1, 9.

[13] Elie Wiesel. “Ezekiel” in Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible, ed. David Rosenberg. (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987), 186.

[14] Darr, 1504.

• Words are a powerful thing – form and inform our lives → Think about it. How would you express who you are without using words?
  • Articulate your particular likes and dislikes
  • Communicate your needs
  • Convey the beliefs that are a fundamental part of your soul
  • Now, there are plenty of people in the world who don’t have the ability to vocalize words for one reason or another, but even when we can’t speak aloud, we find ways to express ourselves – to get those words across.
    • Sign language
    • Pointing to letters/pictures on a board
    • Through other medium (art, music, etc.)
  • Part of the power of words = lasting nature → Long after we’re gone, our words live on.
    • Hearts and minds of the people we love
    • Writings we leave behind→ Even if we don’t write profusely, or even much at all, we all write something. We write lists. We write recipes. We write down appointments. We write in birthday cards for family and friends.
    • Social media
      • Extreme e.g. – Eterni Me: “Eterni.me collects almost everything that you create during your lifetime and processes this huge amount of information using complex Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Then it generates a virtual YOU, an avatar that emulates your personality and can interact with, and offer information and advice to your family and friends, even after you pass away.”[1]
        • Brings up interesting point: last words → Very few things leave the enduring impression that last words do for those who hear them. And our Scripture readings this morning leave some pretty powerful last words ringing in our ears.
          • Words of faith
          • Words of love
          • Words of peace/reconciliation/forgiveness
          • And as we think about these words today, we’re going to interact with them in the context of the stories of other people’s last words.
            • How can these words form and inform our faith?
• First story: April 20, 1999. It’s not a day that many will forget, especially those who live in a relatively small suburb of Denver, a suburb called Columbine.
  • 2 seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, lay siege to their high school with guns and bombs → first highly-publicized mass school shooting
    • Wounded 24 students
    • Killed 12 classmates and 1 teacher
    • Eventually took their own lives
  • Among students who lost their lives: Rachel Scott[2]
    • 1^st victim – sitting out on the lawn eating lunch with friend
    • According to her brother: “[Rachel] was mocked for her [Christian] faith, they knew her, they had a class with her.”
    • Last moments, Harris asked Rachel, “You still believe in God?” → Rachel’s response, “You know I do” → Harris: “Well, go be with him.”
  • Think of all the different things Rachel could have said. Think of all the words that might have resulted in a different outcome for her. Yet even in the face of fear, even in the face of certain death, Rachel chose to give voice to her faith. “You still believe in God?” “You know I do.”
    • Words that continue to leave a lasting impression → Rachel’s Challenge – non-profit organization created by Rachel’s father/stepmother
      • Mission: to inspire, equip and empower every person to create a permanent positive culture in their school, business and community by starting a chain reaction of kindness and compassion[3] → words left behind that continue to inspire faith and action
  • Scriptural connection – psalm
    • Context: don’t know whether words were initially written as someone’s final testimony
      • However, it’s certainly clear from the rest of the text that the person who uttered the words of this psalm was in distress.
        • Called a “prayer for deliverance” in most bibles
        • Speaks of enemies and failing strength
          • v. 12: I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
        • Numerous mentions of seeking God as a refuge
    • Yet even in the face of fear, in the face of whatever evil the psalmist was facing, we hear words of faith: You are indeed my rock and my fortress … My times are in your hand[4] → final and resounding words of faith in God
      • “You still believe in God?” … “You know I do.”
• Second story: There are some events that are so seared into our brains that we can tell you exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard about them. November 22, 1963 – the assassination of President Kennedy … April 4, 1968 – the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. … September 11, 2001 – the day thousands of people were killed at the World Trade Centers in New York; the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.; and in Stonycreek Township in rural Pennsylvania.
  • Where I was and what I was doing
  • As with any news story that we witness as it unfolds, we all started out with just the most basic of facts: four planes, collapsed buildings, thousands of lives. But as time went on, more and more of the story surrounding the events began to come out.
    • More facts
    • More theories (some credible, some not)
    • More stories of the people involved → And one of the story threads that emerged after 9/11 was all the phone calls made and the voicemails left by those who died that day.
      • E.g. – phone call from Brian Sweeney[5]
        • Former U.S. air force fighter pilot
        • Passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 175 (hit 2^nd tower)
        • Tried to call his wife, Julie, at 8:59 a.m. – left a voicemail: “If things don’t go well, and it’s not looking good, I want you to know I absolutely love you.”
        • Impact: 9:03 a.m.
        • And Brian’s is one story of many – stories of people whose last words were words of love.
  • Scriptural connection
    • Psalm: Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.[6] → Call me crazy, but I hear love in an utterance like this. In a time of fear and uncertainty, the psalmist gives his or her most precious self – his or her very soul – to God.
      • Later psalmist calls on God’s love for us: Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.[7]
        • Reciprocation of God’s love for us: Into your hands I commit my spirit, O God, as you have committed your steadfast love to mine.
      • Tied to other, very familiar last words – Jesus’ last words on the cross (according to Luke): Father, into your hand I commend my spirit.[8] → last words in the greatest act of love: self-sacrifice
      • Also passage echoed in Stephen’s words in Acts – Stephen: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.[9] → Lord Jesus, receive my spirit as I have received your saving love from the cross.
  • The words of the psalmist, Jesus’ last words, and Stephen’s last words are all words that convey a powerful love just like Brian’s last words for his wife: I absolutely love you.
• Final story: But of course, not all last words are spoken in times of tragedy. Sometimes people’s last words grace moments of tenderness, peace, and calm release.
  • E.g. – life and legacy of Mattie J. T. Stepanek
    • Suffered from rare form of muscular dystrophy
    • Died just shy of turning 14 in 2004
    • During his short but extraordinary life …
      • Motivational speaker
      • Lobbyist for peace, people with disabilities, and children with life-threatening conditions
      • Wrote 7 books
        • 6 “Heartsong” books(poetry)
        • 1 book of peace essays
    • Now, Mattie’s is a case in which we don’t know what his actual last words were, but the words that he left for us convey a peace and an open–mindedness that cannot help but inspire.
      • E.g.: “Eternal Echoes”[10]
  • Scriptural connection – peace for which Mattie advocated so enthusiastically is similar to call for reconciliation/peace that we hear from Stephen in Acts
    • Stephen’s backstory: after thousands began being converted in Acts and Christian community was growing, the “original apostles” chose seven people to serve the growing community so they themselves could continue to “devote [themselves] to prayer and serving the word”[11] → Stephen = one of those seven (first deacons) → text: Stephen “did great signs and wonders” among the people in Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia[12] → those who heard didn’t understand and became angry àarrested Stephen → long speech to the council – not exactly endearing: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.”[13]
      • So then we come to today’s passage – the part of the story in which the enraged council sentences Stephen to death, takes him outside the city, and stones him.
        • Stephen calls out to Jesus before his death – words we already talked about (“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”)
        • Actual last words (as recorded in Scripture): Lord, do not hold this sin against them.[14] → words that extend peace and reconciliation
          • Peace to God on behalf of those who were participating in his death – asking God to forgive them
          • Also extending peace to those whom he had recently insulted → Think about it. These are at least some of the same people that he just called “stiff-necked” and “uncircumcised in heart and ears.” And yet with his last words, he asks for forgiveness for them. Maybe one of them heard him. Maybe those last words – those words of peace and reconciliation – wormed their way into the hearts and minds of some of the people in the crowd. Maybe they took them home, mulled them over, and shared them with someone else … Who knows where those final words of peace and forgiveness ended up?
• You see, words are powerful things. They surround us. They fill us up, and they empty us out. They enfold us, and they expose us. Each word we choose to use leaves an impression, but as followers of Jesus Christ, there is one Word that we always carry with us – the Eternal Word, the Living Word, God’s Word made flesh which dwells among us full of grace and truth.[15]
  • Word that encourages us to share faith
  • Word that encourages us to share love
  • Word that encourages us to share peace
  • And inspired by this Living Word that goes with us always, we don’t have to wait for that faith, that love, that peace to be our last words. They can be our every word. Amen.

[1] http://eterni.me

[2] Matt Ferner. “Craig Scott, Columbine Massacre Survivor, Revisits The High School And Remembers His Murdered Sister Rachel Scott.” From The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/craig-scott-columbine-mas_n_3054909.html. Posted: 04/10/2013, accessed: 05/16/2014.

[3] “FAQ: What is the mission of Rachel’s Challenge?” from Rachel’s Challenge: Start a Chain Reaction. http://www.rachelschallenge.org/big-picture/faqs//, accessed: 05/16/2014.

[4] Ps 31:3a, 15a.

[5] Philip Sherwell. “9/11: Voices from the doomed planes” in The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/september-11-attacks/8754395/911-Voices-from-the-doomed-placnes.html. Written: 09/10/2011, accessed: 05/16/2014.

[6] Ps 31:5.

[7] Ps 31:16.

[8] Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46.

[9] Acts 7:59.

[10] Mattie T. J. Stepanek. “Eternal Echoes” in Journey Through Heartsongs. (New York, NY: Hyperion Books, 2001), 7.

[11] Acts 6:4.

[12] Acts 6:8-9.

[13] Acts 7:51.

[14] Acts 7:60.

[15] Jn 1:14.

• Story: The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies[1]
  • Seems to be an issue every parent and often grandparents also have to tackle when raising children: teaching them the difference between “want” and “need” → And this is also one of the issues tackled by our Scripture readings this morning: As Christians and simply as human beings, what do we need?
    • Sometimes an easy question to answer
    • Sometimes far from easy
    • Reassurance that we find in Scripture this morning: Even when we don’t know what we need, God is there for us.
• See need for differentiation between “need” and “want” in Psalm – ever-familiar first line: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.[2] → pay particular attention to last half, “I shall not want.”
  • Other translations:
    • NIV: I shall not be in want.
    • Common English Bible: I lack nothing.
    • The Message: I don’t need a thing.
    • Difference gets to the root of the Heb. – literal translation of “I shall not want” = “nothing I lack” → When you think about it, that’s a pretty big difference. According to Time Magazine, Bill Gates is the richest man in the world[3], and I’d be willing to bet that Bill Gates doesn’t need anything. He has food and water. He has a roof over his head. He lives in relative safety. But I’d also be willing to bet that even the richest man in the world wants things.
      • New suit
      • Cheeseburger and a chocolate shake
      • Tickets to the latest play on Broadway
      • New car
      • Boat
      • Better furniture
      • And the list goes on and on. None of these things are necessities. Life can go on without them. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want them.
  • Scripture = focused on “needs” – things we require to keep going → seems to tackle 2 different facets
    • Physical needs
    • Spiritual needs
• First question: What are our physical needs? → one of the easier questions to answer … sort of
  • Pretty well addressed in psalm: [God] 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. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies[4]
    • Physical need: food = “green pastures”
    • Physical need: water = “still waters”
    • Physical need: protection
      • “I fear no evil, for you are with me”
      • “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”
      • Both these phrases speak to God’s protection and reassurance.
    • See how greatly and passionately God desires these things for all God’s children – all the sheep – in Heb.
      • clarify “God’s children” = all-inclusive term
      • “lie down” includes word “dwell” → God wants this to be a sustaining experience for us, a safe place in which we can settle down and feel secure.
      • “green pastures” = new fresh grass (as after rain) → best of the best
        • Freshest grass
        • Lushest grass
• Second question: What are our spiritual needs? → often much more difficult to answer
  • Also addressed in psalm: [God] restores my soul. … You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.[5] → again touched by God’s desire to provide in abundance
    • Heb. “follow” (“goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”) = “pursue” → This is not God simply tying goodness and mercy to our beltloops so they can follow limply behind us like a drooping kite tail without any wind. This is God deliberately coming after us holding out that goodness and that mercy and just waiting for us to accept. When we zig, God zigs. When we zag, God zags. When we stop in our tracks, God comes ever closer in hopes that we will feel that goodness and mercy all the more.
      • John passage demonstrates care and attention this requires: The sheep hear [the shepherd’s] voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.[6] → As the shepherd in the psalm, this shepherd of which Jesus speaks cares for the sheep. This shepherd desires that they should follow so they can be lead to those green pastures, those still waters, that life-restoring rest.
        • Speaks to physical need          AND
        • Speaks to spiritual needs
      • God loves us, and so God wants us to have not just the bare bones but the fullest life possible – our own little patch of grass where our needs are satisfied.
        • Jesus’ words – end of John passage: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.[7]
• But sometimes sheep wander off. Sometimes sheep fall prey to a predator or fall sick or become injured. Nothing – no life, no situation, no person – is perfect all the time.
  • On the one hand, there are all sorts of things that pull our attention away from the shepherd. → John addresses this: Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. … [The sheep] will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. … The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.[8]
    • Scholar put it simply: It is perilous to follow the wrong shepherd.[9] → wrong shepherds: greed, pride, blind ambition, power
      • Think about it. We have an uncanny ability to be distracted … which is exactly what the vast majority of the advertising industry counts on!
        • Evident in number of ads we see everywhere – TV, magazines/newspapers, sides of vehicles, billboards, pop-ups online, Facebook feed → There’s always a flashier car, a bigger home, a more extravagant vacation that we could take. One thing’s for sure: they’re certainly not playing to our needs. They’re playing to our wants.
      • Ps acknowledges our constant turning and returning – Heb. “I shall dwell” (in the house of the Lord my whole life long) = “I shall return” (same word as “repent”)
• But there’s an even bigger issue than that, isn’t there? We live in a world where not all who are hungry have food. Not all who are thirsty have access to clean, safe drinking water. Not all who fear and are in danger find the shelter they so desperately seek. What then?
  • Difficult question → let me ask this: Do sheep live as lone, solitary figures? – No, they live in a flock. They live together in community. And so do we.
    • Again, clarify “we” = all people, not just Christians
  • In times of need – our own need or others’ need – we find ourselves with the unique and sacred privilege of being God’s hands and heart for one another. → fulfilling our needs through other people and/or helping others fulfill their needs
    • Find this call in both Scriptures this morning
      • Jn: The sheep follow [the shepherd] because they know his voice.[10] – Gr. “follow” = same word used for “disciples” → implies following, yes, but also learning and reciprocating the actions
      • Ps: [God] leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.[11] – Heb. “right” = grace-filled, just → The psalmist isn’t talking about a correct path and an incorrect path here. The psalmist is talking about God leading us down paths of justice for the sake of God’s name. This is our chance to act out the love, the grace, the open-mindedness we find in our faith, making sure that those who need food don’t go hungry, that those who need water don’t die of thirst, that those in need of protection are not left alone to fend for themselves.
        • Scholar: When Psalm 23 is heard in the context of … Jesus Christ, its profoundly radical implications are even clearer: God is with us, but God is not ours to own; the God who shepherds us to life also gives life to the world; the table at which we are hosted is one to which the whole world is invited.[12]
    • So many ways to do this
      • Concrete ways: Habitat for Humanity, food shelf, Dorothy Day house, Backpacking for the Weekend
      • Ways that feel less concrete – lifting our voice
        • Prayer
        • Crying out for justice
        • E.g. – #BringBackOurGirls: Apr. 15, 300+ teenage girls were abducted from a school in Nigeria, some escaped but 234 are still being held by a terrorist group → How can we walk that road to justice with and for these girls? What can we do? We can pray. And we can spread the word to our family, to our friends, to our local and state and federal leaders. For these 234 girls and for all our brothers and sisters around the world who find themselves in need, we can raise our voices in support of those who are still seeking out those paths of justice because we each deserve to dwell in that little patch of grass that God has for us. Amen.

[1] Stan and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies. (New York, NY: Random House), 1988.

[2] Ps 23:1 (NRSV).

[3] Alexandra Sifferlin. “Bill Gates Is The Richest Man in the World (Again),” Time Magazine, http://time.com/11389/bill-gates-worlds-richest-man/. Publish date: March 3, 2014. Access date: May 8, 2014.

[4] Ps 23:2-5a.

[5] Ps 23:3a, 5b-6.

[6] Jn 10:3-4.

[7] Jn 10:10b.

[8] Jn 10:1, 5, 10a.

[9] Molly T. Marshall. “Fourth Sunday of Easter – John 10:1-10 – Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 2. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 444.

[10] Jn 10:4.

[11] Ps 23:3b.

[12] J. Clinton McCann, Jr. “The Book of Psalms: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 4. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1996), 771.

• Everyone likes a good “journey” story.
  • All sorts of great books about people’s journeys
    • Classic fiction: Journey to the Center of the Earth[1]
    • Epic quest stories: The Lord of the Rings[2]
    • Real-life stories: Wild[3] → true story of woman who hiked Pacific Crest Trail in an attempt to find herself after her life sort of fell apart
      • Pacific Crest Trail = similar to Appalachian Trail but tougher according to most hikers
        • Rougher terrain
        • More extreme temperatures
        • Almost 500 miles longer
      • No experience or training
      • 1000+ miles from Mojave Desert in southern California to Cascade Mountains in Washington State
    • We love to hear about where people have come from. We love to hear about the twists and turns their paths have taken, about how they’ve ended up where they are today. And our Scripture reading for today is certainly one of the best.
      • Catch up with 2 disciples as they embark from Jerusalem
      • Journey with them on the road to Emmaus à journey with twists and turns if ever there was one
• Doesn’t exactly start out as a happy journey
  • Placement in Luke’s narrative – directly follow’s resurrection account
    • Women find tomb empty → “men in dazzling clothes” (presumed angels): “He is not here, but has risen.” → women run to tell other 11 disciples → Peter returns to see discarded grave clothes and empty tomb[4]
      • In what leads up to today’s text, we hear the good news of the resurrection from the angels, and with the women and Peter, we see the empty tomb. But we do not see the risen Christ himself … yet.
  • Today’s text: Now on that same day two of [the disciples] were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. → Can you imagine the conversation that these two were having?
    • Witnessed Christ’s crucifixion
    • Saw him laid to rest in the tomb
    • Heard this crazy story of an empty tomb and 2 guys in sparkly clothes from the women
    • Heard Peter’s account of the tomb being empty and Jesus’ grave clothes being tossed aside
    • But … they have yet to see anything miraculous for themselves. Right now, all they know for sure is that Jesus died and his body was gone. We may not know why they were headed to Emmaus, but they were leaving Jerusalem behind because all it contained for them now was a whole lot of sadness and disappointment and hopelessness. They had lost their reason for staying in the city, and so they walked on …
• Along the way – encounter “stranger” who seems to have been living under a rock!
  • Text: While they were talking and discussion, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place here in these days?” He asked them, “What things?”[5]
    • Jesus’ question evokes physical reaction – stops disciples in their tracks
    • Can’t you just hear Cleopas’ voice as he questions this stranger? “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place here in these days? Where have you been? How could you possibly have missed this? It’s all everyone’s been talking about for days.”
      • Jesus reaction = actually pretty humorous
        • Text: “What things?”
        • Even better in Gr. – one word: “What?”
  • Surely, though, the disciples did not see the humor in this. They launched into a long explanation of what had happened in Jerusalem over the past few days.
    • Described Jesus as a prophet
    • Described his arrest, condemnation, and death
    • Described the account of the empty tomb
    • And while we certainly could read these verses in any number of different ways, it doesn’t seem to me like the disciples’ story ended on a hopeful note. → get the impression they were unsure about the resurrection at best – end of their recitation: Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.[6]
      • Hear apprehension in this
      • Hear uncertainty in this
      • Hear skepticism in this
      • And who can blame them? People don’t just come back from the dead. They don’t toss aside their grave clothes and walk out of their own tombs. These disciples hadn’t even seen the empty tomb for themselves, let alone the once-again-alive Jesus (at least, not that they know of).
        • Feeling that resonates with us, isn’t it? → We wonder. We question. We doubt. Like these two disciples, we haven’t seen the risen Christ … at least, not that we know of.
          • Remember Scripture: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.[7] → And so we hope. And so we have faith. And so we walk on …
• Jesus’ reaction to their story: “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”[8] → At first, this may seem like a harsh reaction to us. But I don’t think this was meant that way. I don’t think Jesus was berating them or belittling them for any perceived lack of belief. I don’t hear a harsh, reprimanding voice coming from Jesus here. This isn’t the voice that he used to drive the merchants and money changers out of the temple. No. Instead, I hear a tender voice. I hear the voice that invited children into his lap and gave Peter the confidence to step out of his boat onto the surface of the Sea of Galilee. He isn’t trying to make the disciples feel bad about their misunderstanding. He’s inviting them to understand.
  • Text: Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.[9]
    • Gr. “interpreted” = opened → opened their eyes, minds, hearts
      • Think of our own lives. Lots of things close our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to God’s message and God’s guidance.
        • Anxiety, fear, misunderstanding, pride, anger → These are all things that get in the way of our relationships with other people, and sometimes, they get in the way of our relationship with God. The important question we have to ask ourselves is what we do when we encounter them.
          • Let them overpower us and damage our relationships?
          • Let God help us find a way through them to the hope and grace waiting for us on the other side?
  • The disciples eyes and hearts and minds were opened. With the risen Christ, they walked on …
• But this was just the beginning of the disciples’ eye-opening evening. – text: As they came near the village to which they were going, [Jesus] walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.[10]
  • Interest cultural context woven into this simple-sounding scene → scholar: [This “walking ahead as if he were going on”] implies that Jesus was not really going further but that he would not impose on the disciples to offer him hospitality. In Near Eastern customs, the guest was obligated to turn down such an invitation until it was vigorously repeated.[11] → Jesus was just following cultural protocol
    • See this back-and-forth in Gr. – “walked on ahead as if he were going on” = pretended to be going far
    • Not a phenomenon exclusive to Near Eastern customs à Howard Mohr (former Prairie Home Companion writer), “How to Talk Minnesotan” – A Minnesotan never accepts food until the third offer, and then reluctantly. And if it’s not offered three times, it’s not serious.[12]
  • But eventually, Jesus accepts the disciples’ offer. And once again, the disciples find their eyes opened. – text: When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.[13]
    • Scholar captures wonder in this: [The disciples] discovered at the table that their traveling companion was the Lord himself. They had not planned it as a sacred moment, but in the act of sharing their bread with a stranger they recognized the risen Lord in the fellow traveler.[14] → “They had not planned it as a sacred moment.” The disciples weren’t looking for something miraculous to happen that evening. All they were doing was sitting down for a simple meal. But Jesus knew they needed something special, something exceptional, something sacred. And so he opened their eyes. They may not have seen the risen Christ in Jerusalem, but here they were, sitting and eating and drinking with him again.
  • Account becomes a bit jarring because of what happens right after they recognize Jesus – text: Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.[15] → Jesus was there one minute and gone the next. But this is true to life, isn’t it? Along our own walks of life, our God-moments are most often just glimpses – flashes of the divine in the midst of our most common, ordinary moments.
    • Our experience is not so different from the disciples – response: They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scripture to us?”[16] → We may not see God, but we feel God’s presence. We may not hear God, but we feel God’s presence. We feel God’s love, patience, peace, comfort, challenge, strength. We understand in looking back at our experiences that God was with us, guiding us, protecting us, teaching us, sustaining us. And so, like the disciples, we walk on …
• Final part of the story is crucial – disciples take the message out: That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.[17]
  • That same hour → Let’s think about this for a minute. This story starts by telling us the disciples didn’t leave Jerusalem until midday. And they were walking 7 miles to Emmaus. The average walking speed of a human being is roughly 3 miles per hour, but we know they walked slower than that because the story also tells us that when Jesus and the disciples finally reached Emmaus, it was almost evening. That’s at least 6 hrs. for a 7 mile walk. So Jesus and the disciples sat down together, and Jesus revealed himself to them. By this time, it was getting late, and most roads in and around ancient Jerusalem weren’t exactly safe for nighttime travel. And yet these disciples were so inspired that they jumped up from the table and immediately traveled the 7 miles back to Jerusalem to share the news of their encounter with the risen Christ.
    • Scholar: The weary travelers feel alive; their hearts are renewed. … Their burning hearts illumine their blind eyes and quicken their weary souls for a seven-mile nighttime run. Their sacred city is made holy again, and their pilgrimage of faith has just begun.[18]
      • How often do we let the burning of our hearts spur our actions like this?
        • Refuse to let the “maybes” and the “buts” and the “what ifs” of life squash that spark that God has lit within us
      • Like those disciples, the pilgrimage of our faith has just begun. Each and every day, God is walking with us, a fellow traveler along this path of life, waiting to reveal to us that presence that will inspire us to holy action. And so we walk on … Amen.

[1] Jules Verne. Journey to the Center of the Earth. (London, England: Ward, Lock, & Co), 1877.

[2] J.R.R. Tolkien. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. (© 1954, 1954, and 1955, respectively).

[3] Cheryl Strayed. Wild. (New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group), 2013.

[4] Lk 24:1-12 (direct quote: v. 5).

[5] Lk 24:15-19a.

[6] Lk 24:24 (emphasis added).

[7] Heb 11:1.

[8] Lk 24:25-26.

[9] Lk 24:27.

[10] Lk 24:28-30.

[11] Culpepper, 479.

[12] Howard Mohr. “How to Talk Minnesotan – Lesson Six: Accepting on the Third Offer,” http://www.mnvideovault.org/index.php?id=15512&select_index=0&popup=yes.

[13] Lk 24:30-31a.

[14] Culpepper, 482.

[15] Lk 24:31 (emphasis added.)

[16] Lk 32.

[17] Lk 24:33-35.

[18] Shannon Michael Pater. “Third Sunday of Easter – Luke 24:13-35 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 2. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 422.