“Tensions From Living In Two Worlds”
Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – July 19, 2020
Centenary United Methodist Church
Psalm
139:1-12; Matthew 13:24-30 Last week we considered how Jesus used an everyday
experience to teach his listeners why his words are not understood the
same way by everyone in his audiences.
He used the story of a farmer who sowed seed that landed on
various qualities of soil. We considered the symbols found in his
story-telling and what happens to the seeds that found their way into
fertile soil. This morning we are going to talk about another
farming experience. A
farmer once again sowed his wheat seeds in his field.
Someone who wanted to sabotage the farmer's successes came to his
field under the cover of darkness. That person sowed seeds that would
sprout weeds that looked identical to wheat when the weeds sprouted.
Farmhands noticed this immediately and reported it to the owner of the
farm. Their instructions were to allow the weeds and the wheat to grow
together and separate them at the harvest. During our journey in life we will
encounter being among wheat and
weeds.
Both will exert influences on us.
They may look identical and the opportunities that they present
to us may appear quite attractive.
How can we tell what advice to accept and which is not a good
fit for us? Obviously,
we will make mistakes and the consequences that result will give us
another set of choices to make. During my earlier days in ministry, I enjoyed eight
remarkable years in a rural church in West Virginia. One of the
orchardists asked me if I would like to put in a garden that our two
families could share. We did that for years.
The first year we had just planted a number of rows of strawberry
plants. I was asked to visit another farmer in the church
and secure a bale of straw that I could place around the new plants to
control weeds. I picked up the
bale and put it carefully around the plants. Weeks passed and an
enormous number of weeds were sprouting all around the strawberries.
It was then that I was told that instead of a bale of straw I had
spread a bale of hay. The bales
looked the same to me, but they did not have the same effect.
Hay is filled with seeds and is used as feed for the cows.
Straw is clean and can be used
for weed control. The weeds could have compromised the strawberries.
I had a choice to make between letting the strawberries be
consumed or work hard to keep the plants weeded.
I chose to save the strawberry
plants. It was a hard lesson I will never forget. This was my beginner's
class of Gardening 101. What lesson was Jesus teaching with his
story-telling? The farmer
told his farmhands to wait until the harvest and then separate them.
The wheat was to be gathered in the barn while the weeds were to
be bundled and thrown into the fire. Through the years, many pastors
have understood Jesus' parable as a Heaven and Hell story
dealing with eternal judgment.
Is this really what Jesus was teaching? We have to remember that Jesus started his story
with these words: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like this."
He was describing the tension that we face while living in our
world. When willingness to help takes the lead, it works one hundred
percent of the time. When
advice comes from others that will lead us in a direction that is not a
good fit, we know by how we feel.
Not all opportunities coming our way bring the satisfaction that
they promise. While I was in high school, I tried out for the
varsity football team. I
enjoyed the sport and wanted to be part of the mighty Mustangs of
my high school. After several weeks of rigorous, physical training, my
name appeared on the list of those who had been cut from the team.
Was my eternal life compromised by my failure to measure up to
the standards set by my football coach? Of course not.
I learned that playing football was not going to happen.
My failure sent me in another direction. My
enjoyment for the sport continued.
The football coach encouraged me to enter a program that guided
me into becoming a team trainer. I learned how to put pressure on
knotted muscle groups to cause them to dilate, how to use miles of
adhesive tape to deal with an ankle that had been partially sprained
during play, and what to do when players did not get up after a
challenging tackle by a linebacker from the opposing team.
That role was a good fit for me.
I knew it. That
specialized training opened my desire to become an Emergency Medical
Technician. That training
opened the door to being chosen to be the attending physician for
the entire crew while Lois and I were on an archaeological dig in Jordan
for nearly two months. While living we must learn what works for us and
what does not. Life becomes
a spiritual adventure when we learn to read the signs of what is
happening to us all the time. For those who have never awakened to this
reality, they often find themselves among the weeds eventually believing
that they are victims of circumstances.
Being among the weeds is sometimes the greatest guidance
counselor that teaches us that where we are is not a good fit. Remember, Jesus was teaching what living in the
Kingdom of God is like.
While all of us have had to learn how to deal with COVID-19, various
authorities initially separated our tasks into the categories of
essential and non-essential. Who can accurately define what tasks are
non-essential?
Apparently, during the lock down, pastors were found to be
non-essential while liquor store clerks were critical to our
survival. This
recognition was rather humorous for a number of us.
Jesus was not addressing the joy and pain
frequently associated with Heaven and Hell.
He was describing how attitudes of Heaven can be
experienced while we are still here.
A lot of non-essential
people found what was to becoming essential only to themselves.
They volunteered and received government approval to take meals
to seniors in various parishes. The meals were made possible by
Butterfield bank and the chefs at the Loren hotel. Some got clearance
during the lock-down period to take seniors to the grocery stores
who had no transportation. Just like in Jesus' parable, there are people who
enjoy living the Golden Rule growing alongside those who never
heard of it. There were
plenty of doors that opened for people who wanted to help others with
their personal needs. Such people will never make the headlines or even
be recognized or rewarded by the public.
We only sense this reality when we realize
that we are living in a world where nothing is working for many people
while everything is working for others.
Many followers of Jesus are
living in the same world as others who have not yet awakened to their
potential. They are
identical only in looks as were the wheat and the weeds
that were growing together. There was never any social or legal justice
for Jesus. During his ministry, the learned authorities
were always watching and testing Jesus, hoping for a moment when he
would use poor judgment or engage in some form of heresy.
(Mathew 22:21) If the road in front of us becomes blocked,
we were equipped at birth with the potential to create a detour around
it. (Luke
9:52f) There are no victims here unless we personalize that label
as part of our identity. There are always alternatives for those living
in the Kingdom of God. Instead of dwelling on what satisfies
me we can think of what produces favorable results for others. Staying with our farm motif, just around
harvest time in a farming community in the United States, one of the
local farmers was recuperating from heart surgery.
His crop was still in the field.
Like in many communities, word of Jake Hunter's health issue had
widely circulated on the social grapevine. With a week of
bad weather coming, Hunter's crop would be lost.
Early one morning, a great motorcade of combines
was making their way to Jake's fields.
In no time, the crop was harvested and put into Jake's numerous
silos. This is the kind of
things that farmers do for each other. This was also experienced by many in Bermuda time
and again while COVID-19 was spreading fear among many seniors who were
declared the most vulnerable age group to succumb to the virus.
Neighbors were helping neighbors.
Churches did their best to continue the work that they do while
being shut down. Clusters of
seamstresses were making face masks for people.
Companies were making lines and
foot prints on their floors to keep others mindful of social-distancing.
All of these people were bringing a bit of Heaven to others by
keeping the health of everyone a top priority. What is totally fascinating is that the
headlines were grabbed by people who were making another kind of
statement with their lives. This was the point of Jesus' parable. This
week, let us remember to allow our energy to flow away from us to
benefit someone else. When we are quietly helping others, our
criticisms and judgments give way to attitudes of angels who are
quietly making their lights shine. CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Eternal God, we thank
you for the refining and defining aspects of life.
We have learned that habits are nothing more than our making the
same choices over and over again.
We have discovered that attitudes and values have developed by
repetition as well. We are
thankful that Jesus taught us how to change the way we think.
He invited us to live in Heaven now.
Help us to seek peace amid all that frustrates and disappoints
us. The world is filled
with people whose beliefs, values, and loyalties often lie in a
different universe from our own.
In spite of our differences, grant that we may live in peace as
we remain faithful to the guidance offered by Jesus.
Amen.
PASTORAL
PRAYER Loving God, as our faith continues to be refined
within each day's events, we thank you for constantly being in
relationship with us. We
are not completely sure what it means to be created in your image, but
we trust that you have given us the potential to walk with you through
the fog generated by our responses to so many distractions within
our world. Right now, the
world is over-stimulated by what is happening by people who have
forgotten to count their blessings. We do experience peace when we authentically
allow our cares and concerns to dissolve in the sands of your
unconditional love.
Equally, we experience instant judgment the moment we choose to swim
against the currents of life, when we replace our faith with worrying,
as though fretting will deliver for us an outcome that we would prefer,
or when we use the threat of withholding our love as leverage for
motivating others to conform to our wishes.
There are moments when we forget who you created us to be and
what living in your Kingdom looks like.
Guide and teach us, O God, to look beyond the
headlines. We often forget
that you created us with free will to be whomever we wish.
Clearly there are differences.
Perhaps as we become more like you in never being offended by
human frailties, we will learn better what it means to be created in
your image. Jesus invited us to live among people who are not like us so
that they might experience attitudes that come from being disciples of
Jesus Christ, who taught us to say when we pray. . . |