“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. . .