Weeds

Isaiah 34: 13-14

Hebrews 6: 7-8

Matthew 13: 24-30

Weeds

When I was a kid growing up on a farm in Northwest Ohio, I learned a little about weeds. We had livestock, but all my uncles had crops of various kinds. Sometimes tomatoes, sometimes pickles, sometimes sugar beets in addition to corn, wheat, oats. My uncles all had farms adjacent to each other, and I was cheap labor for them. I was often sent out during early summer to hoe the tomato fields or the sugar cane fields. Chemicals have taken care of some of that for many crips now. One of my uncles once taught me that all weeds were not the same and could not be destroyed in the same way.

Some had shallow but widespread roots and had to be pulled out to get all the roots—not a fun job. If you hacked them off at the ground level with a hoe it would be back in a week. A milkweed has a very long tap root that could not be pulled out. If you did try to pull it up, three separate sprouts would be back in a week. Milkweeds had to be hacked off with a hoe and would "bleed" and die as the sap ran out. If you didn't handle the weeds right, hours of backbreaking work in the sun would be completely wasted. Also, if you weren’t careful, you could hack out good plants with the weeds. So it wasn’t all just hoeing, it involved a lot of hand weeding close around the plants too. Tedious and hard work for a kid in the field alone on warm summer days.

I kind of liked the approach to gardening Emment one of the maintenance crew in our parks in New Jersey had. He planted a big garden.  He worked the soil well, planted his stuff very carefully, and then let it all go. He didn’t bother with weeding. His attitude was that what survived was the best, and he simply harvested it amongst the weeds.

Jesus knew his weeds well. The meaning of Jesus' parable about the wheat and the weeds becomes clearer when we look at the specific kind of weed he talks about. The weeds Jesus spoke of are called tares in that part of the world, and that is the word used in the King James version. Tares are bearded darnel, and they are mentioned only in Matt. 13:25-30. It is the Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds of which are a strong soporific poison. It bears the closest resemblance to wheat till the grain heads appear, and only then the difference is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine.

The problem with taking our hoe to the evil weeds of the world is that good and evil sometimes look so much alike. It only becomes clear later.  You know, you and I could spend the rest of our lives protecting that boundary, standing shoulder to shoulder with pitchforks and clubs, making sure that we kept drugs and alcohol and pornography and gambling safely on the other side. I think it would take all of our energy and most of our time.

But what if we did it? What if we succeeded? What would we have? We would have a town characterized by the absence of evil, which is not the same as a town characterized by the presence of good. And maybe this is what Jesus was talking about all along, that it's better to have a wheat field with weeds in it than a field with nothing in it at all.

When a church in Wingate, North Carolina, began a ministry to the children of a nearby trailer park, they had to decide what kind of ministry it would be. They could have chosen to root out all the sources of evil in that place-to chase down the drug dealers and the deadbeat dads, to confiscate handguns and arrest child abusers. Instead, they chose to put up a basketball goal, create a place to tell stories from the Bible, to feed and put their arms around little children, and sing songs about Jesus. And listen to the older ones when they wanted to talk and ask questions.

 And two years after they started that ministry, two years of going out there Saturday after Saturday to do those things, the pastor got a note in his box at church with five words on it: "Adrian wants to be baptized." Adrian. The terror of the trailer park. That little girl who had made their work most difficult during the previous two years. Who would have guessed? Instead of pulling weeds in the field where she lived, they just tried hard to be wheat, and somehow Adrian saw that and fell in love with it and wanted it for herself. After she was baptized, there was a little more wheat in the field. And because she was there, soon, there was even more. Other youth came to be baptized as well  And they began to change the community far more than the church people could have if they had simply started out to get rid of the adult weeds.

It is not up to us to judge. It is our task to serve.

There are pastors and even whole church groups who continually want to cull the field, making decisions on the basis of belief ... behavior. Over the centuries whole wars were fought over rather petty differences in beliefs. And some people were burned at the stake for being different. The church leaders wanted them weeded out. Then they burned them up.

As for me, I don't always know whether I am weed or wheat. Wasn't it Alexander Solzhenitsyn who said: "The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being." Which, I suppose, includes my heart. For all I know, I may even be the weed in somebody else's garden. Perhaps in your garden.

If you read just a little further on, you see then that Jesus left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

Jesus answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."

On its surface, there is not much more to be said about this parable except make sure we are not the weeds.

Amen

Radical Hospitality #1

Judges 19: 15-21

Hebrews 13: 1-2

Luke 14: 7-14

Radical Hospitality

If we keep our eyes open, we can sometimes see people who are radically hospitable around us. Rob, the owner of a restaurant named Saul Good, is someone who is radically hospitable. By his example, by the way he lives and works, he teaches without realizing it that radical hospitality is seeing everyone as Jesus’ guest. One example should suffice.

Not too long ago, Rob made a mistake. Now, this is a rare occurrence, he doesn’t make many mistakes.  He received a phone call of a party of 17 that was hoping to eat dinner at Saul Good for that evening. They told him 6:45. In the rush of what all was going on at the time, he wrote down 7:45. You can see the problem coming, can’t you? They show up at 6:45 to a crowded restaurant with no room for 17 anytime soon. Rob, who cannot interact with them personally because of the other needs of the restaurant informs others to take care of this group and buy them drinks and appetizers.

To make a long story short, there was some confusion, and this group of 17 walks out and goes to another restaurant down the street. So, an hour later, once things have settled down, Rob gets the whole story and thinking from a radical hospitality perspective does something nuts. He goes down to the other restaurant, finds the group, talks to the leader of the group, and he does not give out free appetizer or discount coupons to Saul Good, so that they will come back later. He does not offer for them to come back to Saul Good, and he doesn’t just offer to buy them desert. He doesn’t blame somebody else. He does the radical hospitality thing, and he buys 20 dinners for them at the other place. He finds them and takes cares of them where they are.

Now, where are these people more likely to eat at next? The place where they were served and probably served well, or the place where the owner found them and took care of them at a great cost. This is radical hospitality.

Radical Hospitality- Going above and beyond to love others into the family of Christ. Doing something at great cost because it benefits someone else. Doing something without assurance of getting something back in return. Just as Jesus loved and served others with no strings attached.

Radical hospitality is not coffee and donuts. It is not a greeter at the door. It is not a warm hello to someone visiting at church. It’s not a pot luck attended by church members, friends and family. It is not saying to someone, “Come to church sometime.” It is an orientation of our very being that sees everyone, inside and outside of church--especially outside the church--as a valued person of God.

Jesus often showed some pretty radical hospitality. Every healing Jesus did was an act of radical hospitality. Read the scriptures carefully. Jesus did not have to do those healings. He took risks doing them.  In Luke 14, he commands us that when we are to have a dinner, do not invite your friends or the rich folk, but to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

This is both a practical command, so that if we are the church, we are to love and invite those people who are outcasts of our societies and minister to them, but it is also a statement of humility. Showing hospitality means that you see those people who others see as outcasts, you see as family. Not the second cousin twice removed that you have only seen at a few funerals kind of family, but the spouse or child type of family. Radical hospitality has that sort of views toward persons. Radical hospitality means we do not see strangers, but family that we have not had the privilege to meet yet.

People who operate out of a perspective of radical hospitality, do not have a tight hold on “their” church. This is God’s church to which they are called to be a part, but they understand they are merely stewards of this church that exists for both the people who are inside the walls and outside the walls of the church. Thus, people who are radically hospitable are willing to embrace change for the sake of others outside the church.

Being radically hospitable simply requires sacrifice. If you want to talk about radical hospitable, think Jesus, who showed the most radical of all hospitality by the incarnation, the coming of Christ on Earth. Philippians 2 communicates it beautifully, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross. That is radical love, radical hospitality.

Creativity and prayer are needed for us to make daily expressions of Christ’s love.  Rethinking church is needed for this. Rethinking church means seeing church not as a building but as a verb, an action, something we do beyond Sunday morning. Rethinking church means practicing radical hospitality after we leave on Sunday morning, and go about our daily lives, extending ourselves to those un-served by church. Rather than seeking out people like ourselves for mutual support, they seek people who consider themselves beyond the reach of organized religion.

To do that we need to develop relationships of trust and caring. People do not care what you believe, until they believe you care. Care about them as they are, not as we wish they would be. Seven months ago you all put names of at least four people in our prayer box, and committed to praying for them daily, and taking opportunity to develop a caring relationship with them. If we do this, then a time will come when they will be willing to accept an invitation to come with you to a church activity.

It is essential to remember that an invitation means “Come with me”.  Unless you ask the person to come with you, unless you are willing and offer to pick them up and bring them, you are just informing them, not inviting them, and it will increase the likelihood they will NOT come, or be inclined to accept your invitation at another time.

We need to take a good hard look at our congregations and our churches. What has been done in the past has not been working. We cannot survive with the status quo. Jesus only takes a paragraph to define "church" to his followers. He defines church as a place of radical hospitality and goes on to define the role of each member of the church. In his definition, there are no commentators or spectators. He commands us to be on the streets offering radical hospitality.

History

Psalm 78: 1-4

 Romans 8: 18-24

 John 8: 53-58

History

.Recently a national Radio Talk Show Host and a call-in listener were talking about Christianity in America.

As the conversation continued, the host, who is an avowed agnostic, said, "Why do Christians think they had anything special to do with the founding of this country... Anybody who reads history books knows that Christianity was no more involved in America’s founding than any other religion."

Unfortunately and inaccurately that seems to be the prevalent thought of many Americans today. But the truth of the matter is we are a nation that has been shaped by the Judeo-Christian ethic found throughout the Bible. We are a Biblical nation from our very roots.

But are we a Christian nation? To answer that question we must define the meaning of the question itself. If being a "Christian nation" means that everyone, or even a majority, is a Christian, then we are not a Christian nation. We are certainly not a theocracy, and our Constitution prevents us from becoming one.

But if it means that Christianity was the religion of the overwhelming majority of our nation’s Founding Fathers and if its influence is undeniably seen in our nation’s Founding Documents, and that Christian ethics and moral codes were accepted as the rule for our social order, then yes, we are a Christian nation.

In 1992, when Govenor, Kirk Fordice of Mississppi stated unreservedly “America is a Christian nation” the response bordered on hysteria.

But before that -- Congress, declared 1983 to be the “Year of the Bible” — stating that the Bible has made a unique contribution in shaping the US as a distinctive and blessed nation....Biblical teaching inspired concepts of civil government that are contained in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the US (Public Law 97-280, Stat. 1211, approved 10/4/1982).

But before that -- Former Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1954, said, the history of our country and the documents/charter that founded us exhibit the same objective: “A Christian land governed by Christian principles...”

But before that -- Abraham Lincoln, April 30, 1863, appointed a National Fast Day and declared, “It is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”.

But before that -- George Washington Oct 3, 1789, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly implore his protection and favor.”

But before that -- Mayflower Compact 1620 was a covenant “in the presence of God,” “In the name of God, Amen...by the Grace of God...have undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith.” The Pilgrims wanted to establish a political commonwealth governed by biblical standards.

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, William and Mary and Columbia were founded by Christian preachers and church affiliations with the expressed intent to educated youth for Christ.

A Preacher named Frances Bellemy wrote our "Pledge of Allegiance."Another Preacher, Samuel Smith wrote the Hymn "My Country ’Tis of Thee." John Leland another Preacher wrote the introduction of the first Amendment to the Constitution. Prior to the Civil War, 90% of all of America’s College Presidents were Preachers of the Gospel.

So, there is no question that our nation has had a Christian foundation, and heritage. However, one also must remember that the reason the Pilgrims came to this country was to escape from religious intolerance. Freedom of religion is a foundation block upon which our nation was founded. Today religious intolerance threatens our nation. Intolerance between religious groups, and intolerance between those who do not believe in God and those who do.

It is also essential we remember that this whole world is God’s creation, and all within it, individuals and nations alike. He does not see the borders between countries as we do. He sees the barriers between people. He sees the barriers that keep people regardless of where they live from drawing closer to him. Paul speaks of that in Romans, when he speaks of the freedom of the glory of God for his children of all creation.

Psalm 78 speaks of the importance of knowing our history—not just the history of our nation, but the history of all human relationship with God. Nations have come and gone from the time of the psalms and before. Nations are finite, and fragile. God is Lord of all, creator of all, and his desire to be in relationship with us does not change though empires and kings and presidents and nations fade away.

In the Gospel of John Jesus reminds us that he was there when God set human history in motion, and is part of history, working now through those who are true followers to transform this world so his kingdom will be found on earth as it is in heaven. God’s sovereignty plays out through a divine authority over all of human history, not just for one nation in time, but for all people of all time.

We have been granted free will, the capacity to either choose to be redeemed by God to become part of God’s ongoing creativity, or to turn away from God. As we see in the biblical stories, the latter choice brings trouble and crisis, not just for the individual making that choice but for all around. The evil in history is perpetuated by those who choose not to follow God’s will.

           

As we read in Paul's letter, the promise we have is that because of God’s sovereignty history will lead into his eternity as his kingdom does become perfect. To be part of that eternity with God, we must choose to surrender and allow him to guide our own personal history

Rewards

Matthew 10: 40-42

Judges 15: 1-5

2 Timothy 2: 11-13

Rewards

We’ve all seen the big, hairy Viking oaf who is the spokesman for the CapitalOne Visa card: ”What’s in your wallet?”

He demands to know, because if it’s not the credit card he is hawking, you are missing out on all the rewards you could be getting. Every credit card company out there is trying to convince us that running up even more debt is a “rewarding” thing to do. We will be the recipients of all these wonderful “rewards” if we just use their card for all our purchases. Discounted merchandise, frequent flyer miles, room upgrades, even cash back formulas, are all promised by various cards as our “reward” for jacking up our monthly bill.

But for the most part, all those perks and presents are trotted out in order to draw our attention away from our ever escalating balances and the bank’s stratospheric interest rates. This “final reward” was described best in the old folk tune “Sixteen Tons” — where the miner admits he is just “another year older and deeper in debt . . . I owe my soul to the company store.” A “reward” shouldn’t suck your soul away. A “reward” should set your soul soaring.

Remember how good it made you feel to be “rewarded” for memorizing Bible verses in Sunday school? Remember how you coveted your friend’s perfect attendance Sunday school pins that made his coat look like a 4-star general’s uniform? Whether you got “Awana Bucks” or plastic jewels to put in your plastic crown pin, or stripes on your sleeve as you rose in rank in “the Lord’s army,” the real reward was feeling the joy of a “mission accomplished.”

As Jesus prepared his disciples to go out on their first missionary journey he didn’t sugar coat the situation they would be facing. He warned them that pain and persecution, criticism and complaints, disgrace and even death, would accompany their efforts to serve as messengers of Jesus. But in his final words to them Jesus promises rewards, rewards that would transform his disciples and rewards that would extend out to others…

There is an old legend about Satan one day having a yard sale. He thought he'd get rid of some of his old tools that were cluttering up the place. So there was gossip, slander, adultery, lying, greed, power-hunger, and more laid out on the tables. Interested buyers were crowding the tables, curious, handling the goods. One customer, however, strolled way back in the garage and found on a shelf a well-oiled and cared-for tool. He brought it out to Satan and inquired if it was for sale. "Oh, no!" Satan answered. "That's my tool. Without it I couldn't wreck the church! It's my secret weapon!" "But what is it?" the customer inquired.

"It's the tool of discouragement," the devil said.

In the text Jesus is talking to the church about their attitude and deportment toward the prophets God sends among us as shepherds. He speaks frankly about acceptance and rejection, about kindness and trust.

One of the greatest deterrents to our spiritual progress is our inability to shake off the things done to us by others. We can't get on with our lives because we are still angry and hurt by another's sin against us. We must find ways of redirecting our antagonism into something higher. We must channel our hurt, our anger, our despair, and our disappointment into something positive. Let go. Unpack the baggage.

Jesus exhorts his disciples in Matthew 10,  saying in effect, if the people do not receive you, don't get stuck. In other words, he is saying, stop wallowing in the quagmires of the past. Get your passport stamped and move on to higher ground, to your next destination.

One way to do that is to find more ways to serve others with God’s love. Individuals and congregations who are caught up in service to their community, reaching out beyond the church, are congregations who become vital and more and more immune to discouragement and conflict within.

For several weeks, Mrs. Sherman's first-grade class had waited for the field trip to the observatory. Notices had been sent home with instructions about the bus, lunch, and times of departure and return. To the students, waiting for the field trip was like waiting for Christmas.

Finally, the day arrived. The kids all grabbed their lunches and coats and lined up for the bus. In the back of the room, one boy began to cry because he had forgotten to bring a lunch and would have to stay behind with another teacher. In a few minutes, the other children had contributed extra sandwiches, fruit, desserts, and drinks until the boy had a feast for his lunch. With new tears, this time tears of gratitude, he grabbed his coat, lined up, and climbed onto the bus.

Those students had given him a "cup of cold water." Acts of service are not always dramatic or earth-shattering. Simple caring is all that is needed. Discipleship means being alert for opportunities to care, to demonstrate God's loving-kindness, and to teach others to do the same.

This past week, a bunch of Phil Campbells descended on the small town of Phil Campbell, Alabama to revive an annual gathering that has been ongoing for some time. This year, though, the Phils have a bit of a mission. They are gathered to help out the town of Phil Campbell, Alabama after the devastating tornado of April 28th, 2011. The Phils are extending themselves to their namesake town in a spirit of camaraderie and good will.

“It’s an odd privilege,” said Alaska Phil, a pastor from Juneau. “Just because of the happenstance of my name, I have a chance to do some good.”

If a bunch of guys can gather to do good works because of the coincidence of their name, how many places can we find good works to do because of our choice to be called Christians? How many ways can we pull ourselves together, put ourselves out there, and gang up for good? The rewards of doing so are great.

Baptism.. a personal one

Psalm 51:1-2

1 Peter 3: 21-22

Matthew 3: 13-17

Baptism

That’s exactly how God loves us. New Testament scholars call this type of love, "first love." It’s based upon I John 4:10 - "In this was love, not that we first loved God, but that he first loved us." I never completely understood this verse until our daughter Tammy was born. She didn’t have to earn my love or even ask for it. It was there instantly. God’s love is just like that. It’s a first love--instinctual, uncontrollable. God can’t help but love us, even more powerfully than parents can love their children.

 Infant baptism recognizes the unconditional, first love of God. Even before we can ask for it, before we can do anything to try and earn it, God loves us. God simply loves us, unconditionally and wholeheartedly. This is why we call baptism a sacrament of grace, for it celebrates the gift of God’s unconditional love, the gift of grace.

 This is also what we’re talking about when we say that baptism washes away our sins. We use water to cleanse us, to wash ourselves clean. In the same way, baptism is a cleansing, even before we know that we need it, before we can even ask for it.  God doesn’t hold our sins against us. They don’t cancel out God’s love for us.

 Parents of newborns often ask me if I believe that their infants are sinners who need to be cleansed. I tell them, "Well, not yet, but their human nature will catch up with them soon enough." (It’s funny, parents of two year olds never ask me that question.)

There are numerous scriptures, especially in the New Testament, the new covenant that Jesus established for us. Jesus laid his hands on children, which signified his blessing upon them, and he told all around him that the kingdom of God belongs to little children just as much as to any of us.  On at least two occasions Paul baptized entire households, men, women, and children.

 Baptism symbolizes the unconditional acceptance of God, a cleansing even before we can even ask for it or need it. That’s grace.  Baptism also marks entrance into the church of Jesus Christ. Baptism is the initiation rite of Christians. You don’t really belong to a church unless you are baptized, because the heart of the gospel is being acted out through the gracious act of baptism. The church is the "community of the baptized," those who have received and celebrate the grace of God.

 I long for Liam to love the Church, Samuel. I want him to love it -- its people, its music, its hymns, its feel, its taste, its smell, its scripture, its prayers, its sacraments, its faith. I want him, and all children, to love it all.

 But this will not always be easy for Liam, or for any child these days. For several reasons. One is that after a child is baptized, one often never sees the parents again. One chief one is that it’s only human nature to resist what we are. I only hope and pray that God will captivate Liam’s heart and he’ll see what this strange church world is all about . . . it’s about God and Jesus, and trying to be close to Christ and follow him.

Infant baptism is the product of covenant theology.  If you believe in covenant theology interpretation of scripture, as those of a Wesleyan tradition do, then infant baptism is an easy fit if not a requirement. John Wesley, who founded Methodism, felt that it is essential to recognize God’s prevenient grace at work in a child—that grace that calls every human from the moment of birth to draw closer to God.

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Promises, vows are being made not to ourselves but to God here now.. We are not committing the child to any specific vocation in life, as some infant dedications attempt to do, but we are promising, saying: I surrender. I surrender my will to your will, Lord; my life is not my life but your life, Lord; my child is not my child but your child, Lord.

Of course, most parents or adults find the reality of that promise to surrender far too demanding and risky. As soon as we go out the door of the church our mind set goes right back to the fact that this is my child to raise as I see fit; this is my life to live the way I want to live it- God or no god ,Bible or no Bible. We may have only gotten baptized in the first place because it seemed like a good thing to do, didn’t cost anything, and maybe it will serve like an insurance policy to get into heave. Please, understand, baptism is not a ticket to heaven.

Unfortunately, we do not have to look long or hard to see that the vows taken by parents and congregations on behalf of children often are not a surrender, but a simple mouthing of words that quickly have no meaning.

We need to teach our children the faith in our homes, and not just in churches. We need to reinforce what the church teaches. The Puritans used to say that our homes were to be "Little Churches," where the faith is taught.

So Liam, I hope your parents, and all of us who love you, will try to teach you to hear God speak to you through the scriptures. Jesus words, "Come, follow me," are to you and me, and to all of us, today. I hope you are taught to hear God’s voice through silent prayer, through praying and meditating, through the traditional hymns as well as contemporary praise songs, through the words within the Bible as well as the words  spoken from pulpits and parents. I hope you will experience God’s voice though nature, and, as you grow, through the sacraments.

I also hope you will hear God’s voice calling out to us in the cries of the poor, as did John Wesley. And together with the help of our church we will respond.  And Liam, I hope and pray as you grow older you will feel the pull of God upon your life, so that you will step forward and with your profession of faith, confirm this day, and accept the gifts or God’s grace for yourself.

Amen