Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

Last Monday morning, my friend, Bill Uetricht, and I were discussing today’s readings. He suggested that Richard Rohr’s daily meditations over the past few days connect to these readings.  Lately, Rohr has been discussing the fact that we grow in thinking, maturity, understanding, and in our faith by “passing beyond some perceived perfect Order, through an often painful and seemingly unnecessary Disorder, to an enlightened Reorder or resurrection. This is the universal pattern that connects and solidifies our relationships with everything around us…. To grow toward love, union, salvation, or enlightenment, we must be moved from Order to Disorder and then ultimately to Reorder.”

As I continued to study these lessons, I believe Bill hit the nail on the head. So often, religious communities attempt to create and place themselves in these containers or boxes, placing perimeters around themselves. Such efforts help to create a highly defined sense of order but, they also establish communities intently focused on tradition and exclusivity with troubling exclusionary practices. In today’s reading from Isaiah, the people have returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile, and they are attempting to reorganize, both as a religion and as a society.  So, they create a narrowly defined sense of order by excluding foreigners and outsiders and establishing strict boundaries. The prophet disrupts this by proclaiming God’s vision of community which includes outsiders! He says those previously excluded from the covenant may now belong because all may fit under God’s umbrella!  Isaiah’s words lead the people to reorder their understanding of divine mercy and God’s welcome for all people.

Then, in today’s gospel reading, Jesus is speaking to the religious community about the rigid order created by an intent focus on tradition and conventional religious practices. He is speaking to all who hold tradition and ritual in high esteem and consider themselves to be the “in crowd” – the socially accepted crowd. The community was preoccupied with dietary laws about what would defile and hurt the body, laws that dictated what could and could not be touched or eaten. Jesus confronted the people about their exclusionary practices, their clean and unclean requirements and, he turned conventional thinking on its head. He challenges the people regarding the importance of their strict dietary laws that place a high premium on the purity of the individual. You see, Jesus is much more concerned about the heart and the stuff that comes out of us as we live in relationship to others. He is concerned about the stuff that can defile, the stuff that comes out that hurts others and hurts the world.  Theologian, Dock Hollingsworth, describes what Jesus is saying in this way:

Yesterday’s lunch is gone forever. Jesus asks, “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes into the sewer?” It is a crude image. The sewer has carried away any mistakes we may have made by putting into our body things that the dietary laws call unclean. However, the careless words, the evil, the lies, and the fornication continue to be harmful. Our words and actions have the power to defile and hurt and the pain of those choices is not washed down the sewer like yesterday’s lunch (p. 357, Feasting on the Word).

Jesus confronts the people about their exclusionary practices, disrupts their highly defined sense of order, and creates a kind of disorder by turning conventional religious thought on its head. And, I think he turns much of our conventional religious thought on its head as well. 

Throughout history there have been many times when the church has used tradition in perverse, even exclusionary ways. Considering Jesus’ words to us today, we should ask ourselves, what practices do we hold dear? What really does not matter? What traditions do we deem so vitally important they end up excluding others? How might we need to grow and live into a reordering of the way we do things?  Jesus’ words remind us that religious faithfulness is ultimately shown by the way we speak and live out the radical hospitality and love of Christ as we live in relationship to others. 

What is so captivating about today’s reading is that Jesus challenges and disturbs the religious community about the order of their “clean” and “unclean” status, and then finds himself in a position where the tables are turned and he is confronted by a clean/unclean issue that draws him into a new order, a reordering of his mission and ministry.

Jesus travels into Gentile territory and is approached by a very bold, in your face Canaanite woman. She is a foreigner, and religious tradition labels her unclean. She confronts Jesus, asking him to heal her demon possessed daughter. And, Jesus’ actions and words to her seem arrogant, downright racist, and just plain mean. First, he ignores her and then he insults her by using an ethnic slur, calling her a dog. I do not like this side of Jesus!  His words are degrading. Yet, I think we need to wrestle with this story. There is nothing we can or should do to water it down except honestly face Jesus’ response. Is it just possible that we see a greater glimpse of Jesus’ humanity in this story? I think that for most of us, we say we believe Jesus was “truly human” but, we do not want him to be too human. The fact of the matter is the gospel writer does not clean up this story. Instead, he shows us a very human side of Jesus.  Pastor Gary Charles, when describing this scene writes:

Jesus enters into “unwashed” territory of untouchable foreigners, a despised “toxic waste area.” Jewish religious tradition had “proven to be a ‘holy’ fence” for these foreigners, keeping them on the outside. And, not only is this woman an unclean foreigner, she is doubly despised because she is a woman.

Jesus’ initial actions and disturbing words to this bold woman are descriptive of the defined order of conventional religious thinking within the Jewish community of that time. So, does Jesus respond out of his humanity and the ordered socialization he has experienced throughout his thirty some years of life? Can we see him as fully human in his response? Is he so fully human that this very bold woman who approaches him and is not willing to back down creates a sense of disorder for Jesus, and changes him? Is the Jesus in whom we believe so fully human that this woman changes Jesus’ own thinking and understanding of his ministry in this world, enabling him to expand his understanding of God’s call and then reorder his mission? Many scholars think this to be the case. Furthermore, the writer of Matthew’s gospel is telling the Jesus story to a Jewish community that wanted to exclude foreigners and Gentiles, all those they considered “other.”  It is quite likely the audience Matthew’s Jesus is addressing had some growing up to do and the story of this bold, in your face, unclean, foreign woman enabled that.

This courageous woman, an enemy of Israel, who is not willing to give up and go away, has faith - great faith. She ministers to Jesus and, in doing so, becomes a voice from beyond the boundaries. Jesus recognizes her faith, and her bold action is instrumental in bringing about divine healing and the release of God’s grace for the “others” in this world.  And, from this time forth in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ mission expands to the point that, at the end of the gospel, it includes the whole world.

We who make up the body of Christ need to always be struggling with the questions we discover in today’s readings.  We must ask:

• What does it mean for us to follow Jesus into the “toxic waste areas” of the world, let go of our sense of defined order and be changed?
• What does it mean for us as we address the evil of racism we find in systems and structures of every form within our country and within ourselves?
• What does it mean for us to fret less about traditions and the way “we have always done things,” and listen more to the cries of those tradition considers “unclean” or “unwanted”?
• How have we let our “traditions,” our rules and sense of highly defined order become barriers, blocking access to the overwhelming grace of God?

Jesus was changed that day!  From that point on, his mission increasingly challenged and disrupted the present order as he created a new order.  And, through him, God’s grace is ever becoming more fully realized in this world as we live into that new order, God’s new creation.

The promises of God are true, and God’s mercy is for all people. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, we discover God deeply loves this entire world. And, God is all about the business of drawing us into the reordering of God’s new creation, God’s dream for the world.

I am sure many of you remember the Elvis Presley song, I Feel the Temperature Rising. That was a song about a guy’s reaction to a girl with whom he had a relationship. Well, the phrase I feel the temperature rising has been going through my head this past week and the reason has nothing to do with a love relationship! It has everything to do with the anxiety level I am sensing and feeling in our culture. As I have been talking with people, I have observed a growing sense of anxiety and fear as we near the beginning of an uncertain school year during this COVID-19 pandemic. I have also been noticing and feeling a real sense of anxiety as we move through the chaos of this election season. I do not think anyone can deny we are living during a time of augmented chaos and uncertainty.  And, it is only natural that we are experiencing amplified anxiety and fear! 

Anxiety and fear are vital responses to physical and emotional danger.  And, if we could not experience a sense of fear, we could not protect ourselves from legitimate threats.  However, sometimes, fear can be paralyzing, and it can keep us from living into the fullness of life, living a centered life, living into life that truly matters.   So, being honest about our fear and exposing ourselves to our personal demons by facing our fears is the best way to move through them and beyond them.  

In today’s readings from scripture, we discover our ancestors in faith also faced fear and anxiety.  In our reading from 1 Kings, Elijah was living in fear.  He had faithfully preached truth to power when he spoke to the evil King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.  Then, the Queen had sent a messenger to Elijah telling him that she intended to kill him that very day. Shackled by fear, Elijah goes and hides on Mount Horeb, the mountain also known as Mount Sinai.  On that mountain, he waits for God to reveal God’s self to him. The temperature of Elijah’s anxiety continues to rise as he experiences a great wind, an earthquake, and fire.  But, in these displays of natural forces, God did not seem present. Rather, Elijah’s encounter with “sheer silence” calls him back to his prophetic tasks.  By centering himself in silence toward God, he again discovered God’s presence to him.  He experienced what St. Paul references in today’s reading from Romans when he writes, “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.”   

In today’s gospel, we hear a story that not only addresses the fear that can literally overpower us, but also the even greater power of God’s loving presence to us, a presence that will never let us go. As we meet up with Jesus, he has finally been able to send the crowds away.  He has convinced his disciples to get in a boat and cross the lake ahead of him. Finally, he has found time to retreat and spend some time in prayer.  As we look at today’s gospel reading, Jesus is not a superhero who has retreated to his bat cave. He is not a ghost out to haunt the already terrified. He is a man. Fully God, fully human. He is the Son of God, though those around him don't yet recognize him. His ministry is being battered by the rejection of his hometown folks and the beheading by Herod of his cousin John the Baptist. Jesus knows his time is coming. Crowds of needy people have been constantly pressing in on him.  And, he needs some time alone.

Jesus is praying, perhaps lifting up each of his fears and struggles to God and exchanging them for faith, allowing the comfort and healing and power of God to fill his inner life, his heart, mind, emotions, and will. After all, this is what the Jewish scriptures tell us to do, to surrender all our lesser fears to our fear of the Lord, which means our reverence for God, for who God is and what God can do.  Then, as Jesus looks up and squints at the horizon, he sees the disciples' little boat bobbing side to side, back and forth, and up and down on the chaotic water. 

Well, the disciples have spent nearly the whole night struggling to get across that blasted lake before Jesus shows up near daybreak.  The Sea of Galilee is not a massive body of water, never more than seven miles across when traveling east-west.  Yet, they’ve not been able to traverse it, for the storm has “battered” or “thrashed” their boat.  And, as for the churning sea?  In their worldview, it represents chaos and danger.  The temperature of their anxiety is rising!  Then, they think they see a ghost!  Fear erupts because they anticipate how the story will probably end.  All night they have been threatened by the prospect that this chaos might devour them. They saw themselves as disciples left to die at the mercy of more powerful forces. Talk about a situation that causes the temperature of one’s fear and anxiety to rise!

Finally, the disciples realize this seeming “ghost” is Jesus, striding over and above the sea, transcending the watery chaos.  And, astoundingly, Peter wants to step out there on that chaotic water.  Peter steps out of the boat and enters the tumult.  And, Peter flounders.  He flounders because he grows afraid.  Quite frankly, that fear is justified.  The storm is still powerfully raging and it is so intense it could sink the boat, let alone drown a single person.  He has perfectly good reason to be afraid.

And, so do we.  There are multiple reasons each one of us might face fear.  Maybe you fear what will happen as school begins and this virus is likely to again spike.  Maybe you fear someone in your family will get this virus.  Maybe you fear loneliness after loss.  Or, fear aging and all the issues that come with growing old.  Or, maybe you fear for your kids and what they are experiencing or will experience.  Or, you fear facing a new chapter in life, or making a major life-changing decision.  Or, you fear for the future of our congregation, or the direction of our country, or global security….  You name it!  There are multiple situations and reasons in our individual, congregational and communal lives that make us afraid.  And that fear can be paralyzing, debilitating, and make it difficult for us to move forward or even have any sense of confidence.  In fact, as theologian David Lose says, “Fear is one of the primary things that robs the children of God of the abundant life God intends for us.” 

Well, in response to Peter’s fear, Jesus doesn’t simply urge Peter to buck up, be a man, be courageous, let go of his fear and focus on him.  Instead, when Peter begins to sink, Jesus literally catches him!  He grabs hold of Peter!  Jesus grabs him and saves him from drowning.  He grabs him and restores him to his vocation as a disciple.  And, guess what?  He does the same with us.  Jesus will not, he absolutely will never, let us go.  Jesus is never going to give up on us, no matter what we do!  The God we know in Christ is truly THE LOVE THAT WILL NEVER LET US GO!  In the depth of our fear, Jesus grabs us, holds on to us when we falter and restores us to where we can again be of service to him. 

Today’s gospel, life-giving word to us is a message that is not only about our fear.  It is a message that is the heart of the gospel message.  It is the gospel good news of grace which proclaims that God will never give up on us, that God is with us and for us, that God – in the end – will do what we cannot do for ourselves and save us.  This is a message that enables us to cope with life and with our fear because it is a message that enables us to transcend that fear.  We may not be able to defeat it, but we can face it, stand in the swirling disorder and chaos, and do what needs to be done even when we are afraid.  And, quite frankly, this is the nature of what it means to live out an active life of faith, to be willing to throw oneself into a disorderly world and expect to encounter Jesus there.  I love what William Willimon says about this passage.  He writes:

If Peter had not ventured forth, had not obeyed the call to walk on the water, then Peter would never have had this great opportunity for recognition of Jesus and rescue by Jesus.  I wonder if too many of us are merely splashing about in the safe shallows and therefore have too few opportunities to test and deepen our faith.  The story today implies if you want to be close to Jesus, you have to venture forth out on the sea and [discover] his promises through trusting his promises, through risk and venture.

Yes, we do feel the temperature of our anxiety and fear rising.  However, as we face our fear, getting out of the boat with Jesus and going to the places where Jesus goes as we truly love and care for all others is the riskiest, most exciting, and most fulfilling way to live life to the fullest, life that truly matters, life that is abundant.  And, this God we see in Jesus, will always be holding on to us and never let us go!

This is a Special Music performance of Softly & Tenderly by Tammy Heilman at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

As we live these present days, the challenges we face are affecting us in multiple ways.  I have been thinking about this and have realized one way our lives have changed during this pandemic time is that we are experiencing a certain kind of disorientation and a sense of dislocation. This is not a geographical dislocation, but dislocation as it relates to our daily patterns, structures, and activities.  All we need do is look at the way we are presently worshipping – either online, or in-person but outdoors.  As I think about our present context, the following descriptive words or phrases come to mind – dislocation, exile from what we once had, sorrow, loss, a hunger for community resulting in a sense of emptiness, and a sense of nothingness compared to what we once had.  And, as so frequently happens, today’s life-giving readings provide the nourishment we deeply need.

In our first reading today, the prophet Isaiah speaks to the people of Israel as they experience chasmic dislocation, sorrow, desolation, emptiness, a sense of nothingness and loss.  They are in exile, in Babylon.  In 587 BCE, Jerusalem had been burned and the temple destroyed.  The king was exiled, the leading citizens were deported, and the public life they had known, all had come to an end.  And, into this context, the prophet Isaiah speaks words of consolation and hope saying, “Hey there, all who are thirsty, come to the waters!  Are you penniless? Come anyway – buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money – everything’s free!”  Imagine hearing these words, “come, buy and eat, even though you have no money.”  The prophet addresses the void, the emptiness, the nothingness compared to what once was.  He addresses the dislocation and the sorrow in the lives of the people.  And, he uses the metaphor of food to remind them of the covenant that God had established and renewed.  Isaiah likens God’s faithful, everlasting covenant to food freely given, as he says, “Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good…. come to me, listen, so that you may live.”

As I hear these words, I must say they touch the deepest places of my being when I realize this very God is so faithfully present to us, holding us in love, even as we experience a sense of dislocation and emptiness.

 In today’s gospel reading, Jesus and his disciples have just received news of the brutal murder of John the Baptist.  They are grief stricken, exhausted, and feeling great sorrow.  Mourning John’s death, Jesus tries to slip away in a boat, attempting to go to a deserted, empty place, a place where there is nothing, no one present.  However, the crowd follows him, and the disciples tell the people to go away.  And, what does Jesus do?  He has compassion and begins healing the sick.  As dinner time approaches, much to the disciples’ dismay, Jesus asks the disciples to feed the thousands, and they are shocked.  They are only able to find two fish and five loaves of bread.  So, they operate out of the perspective of scarcity, nothingness, and emptiness.

“We have nothing…” they say, dismissive of what they see as an insufficient offering in comparison to the enormous need.  Then, something happens!  It does not really matter so much how we understand the miracle that follows.  It does not matter how Jesus creates more.  What does matter is that he saw a possibility where the disciples saw nothing.  As Nadia Bolz-Weber says, ”‘nothing’ is God’s favorite material to work with.”  The disciples looked at 5 loaves and 2 fish and saw nothing, but God looked at it and saw a feast!

Before the disciples even identified the loaves and fish, they looked out at the crowd of hungry people and saw a problem.  They saw nothing good coming from a hungry mob.  But, Jesus’ invitation to feed the thousands rather than send them away indicates that he looked at the same crowd and saw the possibility of a celebration.  Thousands of hungry people were not a problem but an opportunity for God to work.  Yes, “nothing” is God’s favorite material to work with.

Far too often we function out of a perspective of nothingness.  We see a world and even our country embroiled in conflict and we see no hope for peace.  Many days it seems like we are staring down a hungry crowd with nothing but 5 loaves and 2 fish.  But somehow, in the depth of this present turmoil, we trust God’s promises that God sees fighting people, helpless bystanders, hungry people, sick people, and activists who go unheard, and God still sees the possibility of peace and justice.  We see nothing, but God is already planning that great feast where people from all backgrounds and countries will be sitting next to one another and feasting in peace. Yes, “nothing” is God’s favorite material to work with.

Friends, far too often we function out of a perspective of nothingness.  How often do we look at people and see nothing, see people we judge as not enough?  It happens most often with people at the margins, those we consider the least of these.  People we see as too young or too old, people we label as disabled.  We forget that infants have something to teach us about God; people in nursing home beds who can’t even recognize their own family members have something to teach us about God;  people in ICU beds who can’t speak because of ventilators in their mouths have something to teach us about God; people whose abilities are different from our own have something to teach us about God; people whose gender identity is different from ours have something to teach us about God; and people whose skin color, ethnicity and life experience is different from ours have something to teach us about God.  God invites us to see not another problem, but another person who is loved by God and who is invited to join the feast! 

This nothingness perspective and thinking is also an aspect of every congregation in which I have served, either as music director or pastor.  People in churches at one time or another, including pastors, look around and see the equivalent of the disciples’ “nothing.”  Too small, too big, too many programs or not enough.  The people are too old, or too young, or not friendly enough.  Too much this and not enough that.  Have you said this our thought this about our congregation?  If only we had more people... Or more of a certain kind of people…Or more energy…Or more money...Or more people willing to help…You get the idea?  The problem is that every church is imperfect.  And, in every church, there is a way to look at the crowd of people and see not enough.  But, when God looks at it, God says, “Look at these people!  Let’s have a feast!”  Yes, “nothing” is God’s favorite material to work with.

In today’s reading, at the end of the story there are leftovers!  In fact, leftovers abound, 12 baskets full!  Leftovers are the opposite of nothing!  Also, twelve is the sign and symbol of abundance and completeness.  You see, God’s bounty is more than a single feast can ever contain.  Yes, “nothing” is God’s favorite material to work with.

So, as I look at our present context, and think about the feeling of dislocation, the sense of exile, the sorrow, the hunger for community, and the sense of emptiness or nothingness we are experiencing, I remember that NOTHING is God’s favorite material to work with!  In fact, this God in whom we place our trust took the immense void, pain, sorrow, and grief filled emptiness created by a cross and turned it into a message of love beyond measure.  When we see nothing, God gives us new eyes, a new heart, and a new mind to see “nothing” as something new! When we feel emptiness and we cannot see, God still sees something.  Yes, God is so very present to us and, I do believe something new is being born!  In fact, I am presently seeing a much deeper sense of community growing within our Faith community, growing among us as people.  That is a sign that God is actively working in our lives at this very moment in time. 

In just a few minutes, we will join the hungry crowd as God invites us to partake of this little bit of bread and wine, nothing really. And, in that feast, God will transform our nothingness into the broken body of Christ for service in this world.  So, come, to the hungry feast!

This is a special music presentation from the Faith Bells of Fairest Lord Jesus at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

As Lutheran Christians, our theology is rooted in an understanding of the cross.  As such, our understanding of God’s presence to us in Jesus Christ focuses on what it means to walk the way of the cross and carry the cross.  This also means that we name a thing or situation for what it is, and we do not preach a theology of glory and false optimism.  Therefore, I am going to name and be honest about the cross we are presently carrying.  We are experiencing some very challenging, painful, fearful days.  And, this cross we presently bear is heavy as we grieve the lives of over 147,000 Americans who have died from the Coronavirus, a number that is greater than two and a half Viet Nam wars.  It is a very heavy cross we bear when we understand it did not have to be this way!  So, for me, this grief is substantial and, as I said last week, there is a deep, deep longing within me for the Kingdom of God to be fully realized, NOW!  Quite honestly, if we have any sense of empathy as we look at what is happening in our country, the pain and grief seem intense. 

At times when we experience intense pain and grief, God seems to be hidden and we often ask the question, “Where is God in the midst of this?”  So, it is fitting that we receive today’s life-giving word from Romans because, in this passage, St. Paul essentially is asking the same rhetorical question.  And, in his answer to this question, we receive some of the most assuring words of comfort that we can ever find in scripture as Paul writes:

….in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now, while these words provide immense comfort, I think we still seek visible signs of God’s presence to us, visible signs of God’s reign and God’s justice breaking into this world.  We long for the dream of God, for God’s kingdom and presence to become realized in this world and in our lives.  However, we tend to look for God in all the wrong places.  We tend to look for God somewhere out there, up in the heavens or someplace far away.  So, today, Jesus’ words help us better understand the way in which the Kingdom of God is already breaking into our lives but not yet fully here.  

Today, Jesus continues to describe the Kingdom of Heaven, the way we talk about God and the way God is at work in this world.  And, his words are rather surprising.  He does not describe a kingdom that is far off in the distance, in some exalted place up there or somewhere out there.  No, he describes the reign of God by using analogies that are literally very down to earth – a mustard seed, some yeast, a thief, and a merchant.  In his stories, he uses examples of an annoying seed and a corrupt agent.  He describes qualities that seem hidden, and he uses some rather corrupt characters in the process.   

The parable of the mustard seed is one of the best known of Jesus’ stories.  Mustard seeds are so small they are almost weightless.  They can easily go unnoticed.  They can lie hidden and undetected in a large sack of other seeds.  I can imagine an unsuspecting farmer unwittingly sowing a mustard seed in his field as he is sowing wheat.

Mustard is in fact a wild weed.  It is something farmers would try to get out of the field because, once it is sown, it is hard to get rid of.  Jesus uses the example of a bothersome weed that grows from a small, hidden seed but, when germinated, becomes a huge bush that tends to take over the field.  Jesus is describing the way God is at work in this world.  And, he compares it to a miniscule, annoying seed that can hardly be seen, but grows and is transformed into a life-giving tree as it becomes a leafy haven where the birds can make their nests.  In this little parable, unnoticed beginnings of the work in the kingdom of God are contrasted with great, even surprising results.  Have we been looking for God in all the wrong places?

Then, Jesus goes on and uses another example - yeast or leaven. Yeast was an unwanted agent.  It is something that bloats and rots corpses.  It is also something women would attempt to get rid of when cleaning their homes in preparation for Passover.  In Jewish tradition, yeast was a symbol of corruption and impurity.  It was considered evil and unclean.  However, in Jesus’ parable, we find out that yeast becomes the agent of miraculous growth of God’s kingdom and it permeates every part of the dough.  Like a woman who spoils the flour with yeast, God is fermenting the Kingdom of Heaven within this world, within our communities, and within each one of us.  That kingdom permeates all of creation and it has transforming power in this world.  Now, considering these stories, do we have eyes to see God’s reign hidden in everyday life?  Are we able to trust God’s transforming presence and love in our everyday life?  Or, are we too often looking for God in all the wrong places? 

In the next little story, Jesus uses the analogy of a deceitful thief.  He tells the story of a man who discovers treasure buried in someone else’s field.  The man then quickly sells all that he has so he can buy that field from this other guy without telling the owner about the treasure.  Now, I really must wonder what this crooked man was doing digging around in someone else’s field in the first place.  Yet, in light of Jesus’ story, I ask, is God like that thief who gives up all God has to buy the whole field, simply to possess that treasure and claim it and the entire purchase as God’s own?  Can we picture a God with so much grace? 

Jesus just continues telling one yarn after another.  His next one is about a pearl merchant.  Now, merchants were not held in highest esteem in ancient culture.  In this little story, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a merchant searching for that one pearl of great value.  When he joyfully finds it, he sells everything he has in order that he may buy that one pearl.  Essentially, this merchant puts himself out of business by radically selling all he has so that he can make the ultimate purchase.  So, as we think about his story, I ask you, “What is the most radical act through which we see God’s immeasurable love for this broken world?”

As we move through Jesus’ stories, we come to the Parable of the Dragnet.  When the net is cast into the sea it catches all kinds of fish, good and bad.  The fishermen indiscriminately pull in all the fish and wait to sort them out later.  In our world, the good, the shady and the bad do exist together, even within our own selves.  And, in our world, we often spend too much time trying to figure out who is in and who is not.  I have to say, if those fishermen are willing to pull in all sorts of fish and have them sorted later, I think we can let God take care of the sorting in God’s own good time because God is the one who loves us the most.

Jesus uses examples of unscrupulous people and questionable items to describe God at work in this world in surprising ways.  Today, Jesus shares some staggeringly good news.  The reign of God is not far away, but very close at hand.  It is present to us, between us as people of God, and even within us.  And, in the person of Jesus, we find the God of creation, not far off, but incarnate and present to us in human form.  We need not go searching or looking somewhere out there for God, the author of love, because the truth is that God’s kingdom is closer to us than the air we breathe.  God is at work in each one of us, even in those parts of ourselves we want to hide.  God is even embracing our very own brokenness and transforming us in the process. 

So, as I name the painful cross we are presently experiencing and bearing, I also name and rejoice in the surprises of God’s Kingdom, present even in the pain: the work of our Parish House project as we now have six guys living there, and the new ministries that are forming within our community. God’s Kingdom is being born in new ways.  And, I rejoice that together we know this truth: nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that holds us, the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This morning, I am going to be very honest with you about something.  Over the past week, I have found myself feeling overwhelmed by the pain and grief over what is happening in the world.  I have been overwhelmed by the agony, grief, and pain in our country as I think about:

• the threat of this virus
• the painful fact that our country makes up only 4% of the world’s population, yet 25% of COVID deaths worldwide have been in the United States as we have seen over 140,000 lives extinguished
• the cruel fact that 5 million laid off workers just lost their health insurance during a pandemic
• the fact that we see so many stories of people who put individual rights before love of neighbor and care for the common good
• and the fact that this emphasis on personal rights and independence has become a form of malignant, grotesque selfishness which exacerbates this pandemic

As I felt that sense of overwhelming pain, I also experienced a deep, profound yearning for the Kingdom of God to be fully realized, NOW!  The desire for God’s justice to break into our lives right now was burning in my very bones.  At the same time, I was feeling a very real sense of fear. Then, in the depth of that experience, I began studying today’s scripture readings, and God’s word truly came to life for me. It was a life-giving word!

First, in our reading from Isaiah, the Lord says, “Do not fear, or be afraid.”  The words “Do not fear!” are some of the most repeated words in scripture.  Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says we do not need to fear because we are God’s witnesses and there is no other rock but the God in whom we place our trust.  God is the first and the last and God is in control.  Yes, even in these present disheartening, disconcerting circumstances, God is the rock!  God is ultimately the one in control and we don’t need to fret because God ultimately has this!

Then, as I read the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, his words leaped off the page!  Paul uses the pain of labor as a divine image to explain how God is at work in the world.  Friends, I yearn for God’s justice to break into our lives in these challenging times and I yearn for God’s Kingdom to be fully born.  Now, for any of you who have given birth, you know the pain one experiences as new life comes into this world.  When I read Paul’s words, I again became aware of how, in this present world, the good and the bad are all tangled up together. And, Paul compares this pain we often feel in these circumstances to labor contractions. He says even creation itself labors as the promise of the Kingdom of God comes closer with every contraction.  In fact, Christ's promises come closer to fulfillment with every surge of pain. While we may at times expect the worst and even think that our whole society is going to hell in a hand basket, we need to remember that we are children and heirs of the one God who made even the grave a womb of rebirth.  And, because of this, we have hope!  We place our trust in this God, and therefore the suffering and pain we experience as we long and yearn for God’s Kingdom to come to fruition are like birth pains in which all groans lead the way to new life.  We are resurrection people, and as we look at this present world and the way the good and the bad are all tangled up together, we do so with hope, placing our trust in the one God whose promises and plans will not be thwarted.

This is something Jesus clearly acknowledges in today’s gospel reading – the good and the bad are all tangled up together.  Today, when it comes to Jesus’ storytelling, he is on a roll!  Jesus is telling yet one more story as he tries to describe that Kingdom of Heaven we so yearn for.  He compares the Kingdom to someone who went out and sowed good seed in his field.  Then, that night, when the hired hands were all asleep, an enemy – a word that would be better translated as “hostile human being” – came and sowed weeds among the wheat.  This hostile human being sowed weeds, which are often called tares or bearded darnel.  Truthfully, it is a “devil of a weed” and it has a deceptive appearance.  Its roots surround the roots of the good plants, and it sucks up not only the precious nutrients in the soil but also the scarce amount of water.  It becomes virtually impossible to get it out without ruining the good plant.  This bearded darnel is not even discernible from wheat until the grain begins to form.  In its early stages, it looks like wheat, but when it starts to produce its seed, it creates an ugly grain that hosts a toxic fungus.  And, it is only after the plants grow up and begin to bear fruit that the weeds seem to appear. 

As Jesus’ story continues, he tells us that when the crop finally starts to mature, it becomes obvious the toxic weed had been sown among the wheat.  The servants in Jesus’ story wanted to pull up these weeds.  However, the wise farmer emphatically said, "No, if you gather up the weeds you will uproot the wheat along with them.  Let them both grow together until harvest time. Then we will separate the tares from the wheat." 

Jesus acknowledges the presence of evil and its malicious nature.  Yet, he calls for restraint because one cannot always be sure about these plants.  What I find so interesting about the statement “let them both grow together,” is the Greek word that has been translated as “let.”  This Greek word is “aphete” and, in the Bible it is most frequently translated as “forgive.”  So, one could say the sentence is “forgive and let the tares grow with the wheat until the harvest.”  Wow!  Again, we have a parable that is all about the grace we find within the reign of God. 

As human beings, we all have weed aspects within us.  As a church, we exist as weed infested communities.  We are tangles of wheat and weeds together, good and bad wrapped up together.  The fact of the matter is that both grow within each one of us.  I like the way theologian, John Petty, describes our weed side and the coming harvest.  He writes:

We all have our “weed side” – that part of us which may look good, but doesn’t produce fruit.  This part will be burned away, leaving only that which is built on Christ.  Don’t worry.  In God’s time of harvest, this will be seen and experienced as a good thing.  After all, the one who judges us – the one who sends the purifying fire – is really the one who loves us the most.  Our propensity to judge others will be burned away.  Our sucking up to hierarchical authority will be burned away.  Our trying to see ourselves as better than others will be burned away.  Our moralistic fervor will be burned away.  Our self-righteous attempt at self-inflation will be burned away.  Praise God!

The blatant truth for each one of us is that we are imperfect people and we live in an imperfect world where evil is inevitably part of life.  And, it is not always easy to distinguish the good from the bad.  There are problems within us and around us that lie beyond our ability and power to prevent, correct, or heal. However, the God who is seen in this parable is one of infinite patience and restraint.  In this parable about a God of patience and grace, we find an intentional ambiguity that is holy as God allows the good to grow up with the bad.  Theologian, Theodore Wardlaw, describes this place of holy ambiguity by saying:

God creates space that frees us to get on with the crucial business of loving, or at least living with each other.  Often, in the space created by such patience, it is not just the others, but we ourselves, who are welcomed into a larger reality.  This is the sense in which we are ‘reborn’ not just once, but over and over and over again. 

Every one of us, every little child and every adult, lives life tangled and ensnared within a plethora of self-justifying impulses.  We face self-love that has run amuck. We seem to trust in things that are not worthy of our trust. This is part of our humanity, part of life. This is what we who are Christians call “sin.”  And, in God’s economy of grace, God’s constant surprise for us is that this God even uses our deep, deep brokenness to bring forth beauty in God’s kingdom.  God even comes to us through the weeds of our lives, our own brokenness.  God mysteriously and graciously comes to us disguised as our life, even in the depth of our present struggles, and patiently transforms us into new beings.  God’s gracious, patient love for each one of us is so great that God even takes the horror and evil of a cross and transforms that experience to show God’s deep love for our broken world.

So, as I think about the overwhelming pain and grief I have been feeling, Jesus’ words today remind me and unequivocally affirm that God is still in charge. God ultimately has this, and God is ultimately in control.  And, as I so yearn for God’s Kingdom to be fully realized, I know it is toward this very God that we are forever moving – individually, collectively, and as a cosmos.  As a dearly loved old hymn proclaims, “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”

Have you ever had the experience of reading a book or seeing a movie in which the story was so powerful that it stuck with you for a while and kept you thinking about it for the next several days?  This frequently happens to me.  For example, when I saw the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the movie about Mr. Rogers, its themes of forgiveness and redemption were on my mind for several days afterwards. Jesus’ parables, those rich stories he shares, are designed to work that way in our minds and hearts.  In fact, theologian, John Dominic Crossan, suggests they are designed to be like time bombs that tick away in our heads as we continue to think about them, and then eventually they explode and their meaning takes us to new places in understanding God’s relationship with us. 

It is also important to remember that, by nature, Jesus’ parables can be interpreted in multiple ways.  In fact, as you hear each of his stories, you can insert yourself into any one of the various characters and then, by doing so, discern different and deeper understandings of what Jesus is saying. 

Today, we hear Jesus telling the crowd a parable about a farmer who has gone out to sow seed.  And, I have to say, this farmer seems quite irresponsible in the way he goes about planting his field.  He has a very unusual process for planting, something that makes no sense to our 21st century way of thinking.  Truthfully, he seems reckless and careless as he arbitrarily, indiscriminately, even wastefully throws seed everywhere.  In fact, he throws seed in the most unlikely of places and it appears that he does not know what he is doing.  When we think about planting, we know that farmers and gardeners ordinarily put an emphasis on planning before they plant.  First, they plow the field and prepare the soil, because they want the ground to have just the right pH balance.  Then, they inject the seed, irrigate the soil, and fertilize.  They do not just wastefully throw seed around and let it fall wherever!

Well, in Jesus’ time, randomly throwing seeds on the ground was not unusual.  In fact, Jesus’ account of the farmer’s process is quite realistic.  Unlike modern farmers, first-century farmers would throw seed around all over the place and then plow.  With this approach, something that seems crazy to us, it is not surprising that some seed would fall on hard soil, other seed on rocky ground, and yet others in the thorns and weeds.  This was just the reality of the situation.  Everyone knew this and understood the process.  So, as Jesus begins to tell the story, I can imagine people in the crowd standing there nodding their heads in agreement as Jesus talks about the way the farmer plants seed. 

Jesus was taking an example from everyday life, an example everyone understood, and he turned it into a teaching moment about his very own ministry.  You see, in the analogy he uses, he is not only describing a familiar process, he is describing the situation he has already been facing in his ministry.  Jesus has been teaching and proclaiming the good news that the Kingdom of God has broken into this world and is in fact growing.  In all of Jesus’ parables, he is describing God’s kingdom which is already breaking in upon us, but not yet fully here.  However, most of the time the people just do not get it.  If you remember last week’s gospel, we heard that Jesus had been misunderstood.  In the gospel narrative preceding today’s reading, Jesus had faced opposition.  His message seemed to be falling on rocky ground.  Furthermore, the Pharisees are always wanting to choke out his message.  And, we will find that in the passages following today’s reading, his message falls on the hard soil of his hometown folks and they will reject him.  Jesus’ metaphor is very much about his message and what is happening in his present life.

I think for those of us who have heard the Parable of the Sower so many times, it is very familiar and we tend to think it is about us – about the kind of soil within our hearts as we receive the message of good news.  In fact, in the second part of today’s reading we hear Jesus explain the parable’s meaning, indicating the story is about our response to the word of God which has been sown among us.  This certainly is one valid interpretation and it can be helpful.  But, this explanation, as printed in Matthew, was not part of the original parable.  Those verses were added at a later point in time by the gospel writer or the early church.  And, while those verses do offer a compelling and helpful interpretation of the story, the truth is this is not necessarily a story about us.  While it can be interpreted as a story about what kind of soil we have within our hearts, I think it is really a story that is all about God.  It is all about an amazing God who is extravagant and even wasteful in the way God’s love and grace is poured upon this broken world.

You see, God is this crazy farmer who sows seeds of forgiveness and love in all kinds of places, even the most unlikely of places.  God is this strange farmer who nurtures those seeds wherever they fall by showering them and drenching them in abundant grace.  God is this whacky farmer who blesses those seeds with the vibrant sunshine of unconditional love and mercy, and continually nurtures their growth.  Friends, our God is one who always randomly throws seed around, not only on good soil where hearts are ready to be open to the Word.  This God extravagantly throws seed out on to rocky ground where hearts are hard and the seed cannot easily take root, on weed infested ground where hearts are filled with hate and anger, and on sandy ground where the soil of people’s hearts just keeps shifting around.  And, the most amazing thing happens – some of this seed takes root and produces a great harvest.  Yes, some of this seed produces bushels of abundance.  Jesus ends the parable with these words, “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  Let anyone with ears listen!” 

Theologian, Talitha Arnold, says, “Maybe [this parable] should be called the Hundredfold Harvest.”  I like that idea and it makes great sense because, if you understand the harvest measurements Jesus gives at the end of the parable, you begin to understand the astonishing aspect of this story.  In the first century, if a harvest brought forth only thirtyfold, an entire village would have been fed for a year.  If a harvest brought forth sixtyfold it would have been an extraordinary year for a farmer.  And, if a harvest brought forth a hundredfold, the “the farmer could retire to a villa by the Sea of Galilee.” (Feasting on the Word)

This parable of Jesus ends with a miracle when Jesus talks about a hundredfold harvest.  It is a parable filled with promise.  It is a parable about abundance, the abundance we find as children of God, the abundance that is all about a God of love who wastefully sows seeds in the most unlikely places, even in the messiness of our own hearts. It is all about God’s abundant grace for all people.  And, in the person of Jesus Christ, this God of abundance gets down and dirty, working the ground, the soil of our being in the messiness of our lives.  This parable tells us of a God who is so extravagant he gets down and dirty to the point of dying on a cross because of God’s abundant love for this world.  And, it is that abundant love and life we are called to share as we deeply connect with others and allow God to use us to wildly and wastefully sow seeds of forgiveness, grace, and love into the lives of others.  As theologian, Thomas Long, says: “The church is called to ‘waste itself,’ to throw grace around like there is no tomorrow, precisely because there is a tomorrow, and it belongs to God.”

I am a big fan of Dr. Anthony Fauci.  I have been for years.  If you look at the work he has done and accomplished in his lifetime, you will find it impressive and stellar.  And, he is deeply respected in the scientific community. However, it is deeply concerning that so many leaders and people in our country simply are not listening to him as he has been speaking and continues to speak to us about COVID-19.  In many ways, he is a prophet in our time as he tells us what we should be doing and warns us about what is to come if we do not do the things necessary to mitigate this virus. His message is rooted in science and it is very clear.  In fact, just this past week he said too many people, especially young adults, are unconcerned by coronavirus and, consequently, they are carelessly shedding this virus and ultimately killing other people. Far too many people just do not seem to listen. I find it deeply troubling because it is as though they simply do not understand.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus is also talking about people who do not understand.  He shares this little parable about children playing in the marketplace, and their songs are never quite understood.  The children play a glad, happy song for their friends, but no one dances.  Then, they play a sad, mournful dirge, but no one mourns or weeps.  Jesus goes on to say, the children were no better understood than John the Baptist or he, himself. 

Jesus is addressing the failure of society to understand the reasons for dancing and the reasons for weeping. He is addressing the failure of society to understand and respond to the messages he and John the Baptist had proclaimed.  Their messages had been extremely clear.  However, society – the entire generation – was unfaithful and fickle.  The people had been given every opportunity to hear, but they refused.  They had heard from both John and Jesus, but they could not decide what they wanted.

Now, John and Jesus could not have been more opposite in style.  John appeared on the scene as this eccentric, sober, teetotaler who ate bugs and honey for lunch, wore scratchy clothing made from animal hair, and often fasted.  He came addressing his listeners as a “brood of vipers,” proclaiming a message that was all about austere repentance.  But, the people complained.  Some even labeled him as demon possessed.  Jesus, on the other hand, invaded the scene as this welcoming character who feasted, ate, drank, and partied with all sorts of people.  He came proclaiming the good news of a God of love, a God of disturbing, startling, astonishing, even unsettling inclusiveness.  He came healing the sick and performing all sorts of miracles.  But, the people dismissed him.  Some even called him a glutton and a drunkard.  Listening to other voices in their culture, the whole generation, a whole people, did not understand the song of these two very different men.  Listening to other voices around them, they did not know when to dance and when to mourn.  In fact, they found reason to take offense at both John and Jesus and thus evade the call of both.  

Yes, John and Jesus were misunderstood, and their call to living a life that truly mattered was evaded.  I really wonder about the ways we fail to understand Jesus, the ways we fail to understand the reasons for dancing and the reasons for mourning.  How deeply are we lulled by the songs of our culture: songs of toxic, malignant individualism; songs of success; songs of money, power and control; songs of pull yourself up by your bootstraps; and songs proclaiming a belief that strength, might and determination will solve all problems?  How often are we lulled by power hungry voices in our culture telling us to believe that we need not care for the most vulnerable in our midst because it costs money, so we cast the least of these aside even though that might mean they go without health care in the midst of a pandemic, go homeless, or go hungry while trying to find a way.  How often are we lulled by narcissistic, self-focused voices in our culture, telling us it is ok to exclude and not welcome others who are different from us, cutting others out of the picture, whether it be globally, nationally, within our communities, even within our very own families?  How often do we miss the moments in life that really matter?  And, how often do we dance when we ought to mourn for a world whose burden is so very, very heavy?  How often do we dance when we should weep for so many people who are suffering and need rest?

Well, Jesus turns away from the gathered crowd and offers a prayer that is rather jarring to our success oriented, power and control seeking, self-focused, wisdom and intellect pursuing psyche.  And, we discover that in God’s realm, all those things that attract our attention, those things that drive our behavior and become the attributes we consider important, are barely noticed.  In fact, they are dismissed.  What is even more interesting is that Jesus’ words indicate the blessings of God are hidden from the wise, hidden from the powerful, hidden from the intelligent and sophisticated.  Instead, the infants of this world, those who are innocent and naïve, those who are the most vulnerable, are the ones who best understand the ways of God. 

You see, only the vulnerable can really identify their deep need.  And, when we are vulnerable enough to identify the need within our very selves, the need for God’s presence in life, it also means something must die and we will be changed.  Oh, how we tend to fear that because it means facing our own messed-up-ness, letting go of our issues, and facing loss.  Yet, the truth of the matter is that, in doing so, we will be made new!  As he addresses this aspect of today’s gospel reading, theologian David Lose writes:

Here’s the difficult truth about life in Christ. You cannot enter into it and expect to be unchanged. Which means a precondition of receiving Jesus – perhaps the only one! – is to recognize your need for Jesus. Forgiveness, when you think about it, is meaningful only to those who have sinned, grace avails only those who are broken, and the promise of life abundant and eternal is only attractive to those who know they are dying……Jesus knows that this kind of message – a message that is good news only to those who can identify their own deep need – will be of little appeal to the self-made man or woman of the first or twenty-first centuries. But it is good news – unbelievably good news – to those who know their own brokenness, can admit their own need, and who turn to God in Jesus to be known, understood, and accepted. (Blog: David Lose In the Meantime)

So, on a weekend when we as a nation are celebrating things like our supposed strength, our might and power – can we not only give thanks for things we may consider good in our lives and in our country?  Can we also face our deep brokenness and messed-up-ness as individuals, as families, as communities, as a nation, as a world, and lay that before God?  In the person of Jesus, God is calling us to come unto him.  In the person of Jesus, we discover God in Christ who not only enters into a messed-up world that is preoccupied with power and control, but is willing to be misunderstood and become vulnerable, even to the point of death on a cross, all because of God’s deep love for this hurting world.

          In Christ, we are called to turn again to the God who walks with us in our struggles, knows our pain and is present to us in our deepest despair, even in this present COVID-19 experience.  We are called to turn again to the One who calls out to us through Jesus saying, “Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  (from Eugene Petersen’s The Message)

These are words that can touch the deepest part of our being.  And, when that happens, we truly begin to understand.  We discover that we are truly known, and we are accepted by a God of love. And, most of all, we will find that this God of love understands us!  And, this God of love will lead us into wholeness and life that truly matters.

There has been a great deal of talk in our country lately about personal rights and individual freedom.  And, I do believe this intent focus on personal rights, personal independence, and personal freedom over and against what is important for the greater common good is causing considerable harm in our culture. We are seeing this played out in multiple ways.  Just one example is the mask wearing controversy as some people choose not to wear a mask, citing their personal understanding of freedom and liberty, thereby making individual freedom more important than the common good and care and love of neighbor. Rooted in hard-core, toxic, malignant individualism, this concept and perspective of personal independence and perceived personal freedom has become an idol.  In fact, one could say the great idol of our present age is personal independence.  However, the truth of the matter is that any time we worship an idol, any idol, we are enslaved to that idol and we are not free.  We are anything but free!  So, I find it fascinating that on this day we hear the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, words that are both offensive and necessary. 

It is true that, when Paul uses the word “slavery,” his understanding of this word was considerably different than ours.  He lived in an age when the relationship between slave and master needed no explanation.  The Greco-Roman world assumed a slave economy in which most people served those placed above them.  While that does not make it right, slavery at that time was understood and accepted by all.  In our day, the word “slavery” recalls hundreds of years of a despicable social evil, and the continued inequality and oppression the African American people still face because of this sin.  We hear the word “slavery” and we are reminded of a sinful practice that has not only adversely shaped our nation but created a rupture so great it continues to shape us as we face the many aspects of the sins of systemic racism, bigotry and white supremacy, all of which we find present in contemporary culture.  So, as we look at Paul’s message on this day, we first need to get beyond our understanding of the word “slavery” to understand Paul is talking about the idea of ultimate allegiance, loyalty, obedience, and service.   

When Paul uses the metaphor of slavery, it is important to understand he is talking about what it means to surrender your life to the control of another.  And, understanding slavery in this way, we find that we are all slaves of one sort or another.  While we are a people who are heavily invested in the illusion that we think for ourselves, choose for ourselves, and do for ourselves, the reality is there are so many things that control our lives.  Money, personal wealth, Wall Street, success, fashion, sports, physical fitness, family, keeping up with the Jones’ (whomever they may be), politics, the way we spend our leisure time, addictions of all kinds, even our sense of freedom and patriotism – the list goes on and on and on.  All we need do is pay attention to what occupies our thoughts and how we spend our time and money and we will discover that which truly enslaves us.  Not only are we enslaved to many of these things and aspects of life, we have built large cathedrals and shrines where we can worship these idols – note our big sports facilities and the shopping malls one can find in virtually any community.  We are all serving something or someone, and today’s words from St. Paul invite us to ask the question, “Whom or what do you serve? Whom or what do I serve?”

The apostle Paul sees only two possible answers, two possible masters:  righteousness or everything else.  Paul says the only two possible masters are God or sin.  Quite honestly, Paul sees nothing wrong in having a master because he knows everyone has one, but who or what is that master?  It is whom you serve that makes all the difference.  And, that difference comes when we place our ultimate allegiance, loyalty, obedience, and service in and to God.  Quite frankly, our loyalties to anything other than God enslave us in sin.  And, it is only by turning around, repenting, letting go of the many idols in life, and placing our loyalty in God alone that we begin to understand what true freedom really is all about.  Only then are we liberated to truly live. 

We are all under sin's domination.  But for those baptized into Christ's life, death and resurrection, the power of sin has been destroyed. We have been freed from sin's power.  And the greater power that has broken sin's shackles from our lives is God's grace.  Through God's unmitigated, unmerited, and unrelenting grace, we have been set free from the power of sin. This is not a grace that simply enables us to feel better about ourselves.  This is not a grace that simply enables us to live a life after death.  No!  This is a grace that follows us like a hound dog and pursues us with God's love. This is a grace that invades our lives and showers us with God's mercy. This is a grace that changes us and transforms us and declares us righteous before God. This is a grace that opens for us the way that leads to a new way of being – the way of God's life, the way of eternal life, the way of life that truly matters right here and right now.

It is grace alone that breaks the chains of sin and then safely holds us in the shackles of God's righteousness. Freed from the bonds of sin, we are now bound irrevocably to God. Paul exclaims, "Thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart...having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness."  And, bound to God, we are called to be engaged in the mission of God in the world.  Having been freed from sin we are freed for living into God's mission which begins now!  God's mission is here!  And, God's mission is all about the healing of the world, bringing wholeness to humanity, living in ways that show care and love of neighbor, and living into the renewal of creation. Having been set free, we all get to join that mission, because we have been drafted and enrolled by God's grace.

Friends and followers of Jesus, we have been captured by grace and bound or shackled to God's righteousness!  Paul tells us we are now living under grace and not under the law.  This grace is what makes us truly free.  And, when we live into God’s grace, we find our deepest freedom rests not in our own personal freedom to do what we want to do, but rather in our freedom to become who God wills us to be.  We can make choices and decisions to intentionally live God’s grace because we have been freed from the entanglements of the world, the entanglements of our very selves, the entanglements of culture, the entanglements of anything that would hold us captive.  However, the freedom from all these idols, from the prison of our own illusions, from all the that would hold us captive only leads to flourishing life if it is linked with freedom for a higher, heartfelt commitment – one that is always about love of God and love of neighbor.  Living into the freedom we have been given means living a cross-shaped life.  It means living our lives knowing we are bathed in the love of God that holds us, but also always, always, always living our lives in such a way that we embody that love by caring for and loving our neighbor!  And, as today’s gospel reading tells us, when we do this, we welcome God’s very self, the Risen Christ’s presence among us.  Friends, we have been freed to serve, to love and care for our neighbor, not because we must, but because we can, because love flows into love and grace begets grace. 

Having been baptized into Christ our ultimate allegiance, loyalty, obedience, and service are all now found in God who has made us truly free!  That is the freedom we are joyfully called to celebrate every day.   That is the freedom we are called to live into as we engage in God’s mission in this world.