Sermon for June 17

The readings (I was at another church this morning so I used the 4 readings)

Ezekiel

Thus says the Lord God: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out.

I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.

Psalm 92:1-4,12-15   

It is a good thing to give thank to the Lord, to sing praise to your name, O Most High

to herald your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night;

on the psaltery, and on the lyre, and to the melody of the harp

For you have made me glad by your acts, O Lord; and I shout for joy because of the works of your hands.

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, and shall spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon.  Those who are planted in the house  of the Lord  shall flourish in the courts of our God; they shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be green and succulent;

that they may show how upright the Lord is, my rock, in whom there is no injustice.

 A reading from 2nd Corinthians.5:6-10 [11-13] 14-17

So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please the Lord. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 

 Mark 4:26  - 34

Jesus said, “The dominion of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, the sower does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once the sower goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”Jesus also said, “With what can we compare the dominion of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear  it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

The message  (I rearranged this as best I could to fit what I said at church)

There is the obvious meaning of today's Gospel, that a little faith can go a long way, that with God all things are possible.  I wanted to speak about something else though, concerning how we describe or share our faith, how we express God’s love, how we tell sin is real, forgiveness is real and live the Christian life.  First, there is what we say or talk about and second, is what words, experiences or stories we use. This is not easy work, people can struggle when it comes down to telling others Christ died and rose again for the forgiveness of their sins.  We often do not find the right words, figure it’s hopeless, we’re going to be rejected, don’t want to be offensive or get very shy.  I think our readings today speak to that work of sharing our joy.  

Lets start with what we say. In the scriptures, Jesus talks more about money than almost anything else. There are obviously economic parables like the story of the talents (a very large unit of money in ancient times). A harsh boss goes on a long trip and entrusts his money to 3 servants, the first 2 invest and make a profit with the talents.  Their innovation and work is celebrated. The 3^rd person is afraid of losing or making a mistake, so buries his talents and returns them unchanged. For this act of uncertainty, he is punished. The story shows we must use the gifts of God we are entrusted with. Then there is the  parable of the unfair boss. A vineyard owner goes out and hires workers early in the morning, at 9 am, noon, 3 pm, 6 pm and at the very end of the day. When the work is done, he pays each worker the same amount regardless of how many hours they worked. The ones who work all day are indignant and feel ripped off.  Those hired at the end of the day celebrate the boss’s generosity while the peope who worked hard all day in the heat complain. The boss simply tells his critics “you received what was promised, its my money and I can do what I want with it”.  This teaches us God is not fair, God does not give us what we deserve, God gives us more, is merciful, generous and forgiving.  Then we have Jesus chasing the money lenders out of the temple and teaching that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. We also have Jesus response to a trapping. trick question about paying taxes to Rome (Jesus asks the lawyer whose face is on the coin, Ceaser, well give to ceasar what is ceasars and to God what is Gods)

There is actually only one thing Jesus talks more about than money.  It’s the center of today’s reading from Mark, the kingdom or dominion of God.  It is so common, it is one of a handful of biblical greek words or phrases I remember from seminary. (baselia ton theon). There is a lot of debate and confusion over what exactly this refers to and if it’s the same thing as the kingdom of heaven.  A kingdom is a territory subject to a king. Today’s bible translation uses the word dominion because the kingdom of God is not a place.  The kingdom or dominion of God is something done to us, for us.   It is about God breaking into the world, God’s rule of our hearts, minds and world. It is here and not here. something we live in and something we wait for. We get glimpses of this kingdom when we share communion, life in faith, pray, hear your sins are forgiven, declare, Christ is Risen, he is risen indeed, Alleluia, offer help to someone because they are a child of God.  the kingdom is something started when the word was made flesh and dwelled with us, when mary said “the tomb is empty”, when the Holy Spirit entered the locked room on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to Lydia in Phillipi, when the Holy Spirit assured Peter that the kingdom of God was for all people, even Macedonians.   

The kingdom of God simply means our loving God is in the world and cares for us.  The kingdom or dominion of God is what we talk about. Now we move on to what words do we use.  My call sermon at St Jacobus almost 9 years ago was on Christ the King.  I looked at the idea that king does not mean much to us. The last king we had was the king of England and we chased him out of here almost 250 years ago. I recently spoke to a Guyanese man, who said, just like here, Guyana used to be a British colony, which surprised me, despite all those US history classes.  Today, we have the burger king, the lemon ice king, the king of cheap cars, king of tires or king of appliance sales. We need bigger, better and bolder words to talk about God, words that people connect to and that message is what I want to share here     
   
We see how the prophets, the writer of the psalm, Jesus and Paul speak about God.  They talk about what is in front of them.  The prophet Ezekiel looks to nature to show what the people of God are like, the planting and care of trees, making of fruit and a home for every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind.  For the Psalms, the ancient songs of praise, lament and worship, the people of God are like a tree, the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree and spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon.  Jesus talks of seeds, planting and growth, tremendous life, an entire ecosystem in a small seed. (many of Jesus parables are about fishing or agriculture / farming).   Paul does not say a word about seeds, Cedars or Palm trees, there weren’t many in the metropolitan city of Corinth,  Paul talks the language of Corinth, Body and mind, dualism,  a common philosophy of the time. Ezekiel, the writer of the psalm, Jesus and Paul each try to share that the kingdom of God is real and here in the clearest way possible.   

The people Jesus tells the dominion (or kingdom) of God was like a mustard seed, they knew those little guys well.  We do not.  When my wife and I first met, she had a little charm that she would wear on a necklace. It was a mustard seed in a clear plastic.  It was the first time I had ever actually seen one. I had read / studied this parable many times, but I had never seen the actual seed. I remember being taught (wrongly) that it was the smallest seed (it’s not anymore)  and grew to be the biggest tree (it doesn’t).  Jesus parable of the mustard seed remains an invitation to see God in the world, to let faith live and work, grow, shape and create.  

Jesus talks about planting to farmers and fishing to fishermen, Paul talked about body and spirit to philosophers, Ezekiel and the psalmist talked great trees to people who saw them high in the sky everyday.  Today, we might talk about instagram posts, concrete, microchips, computer parts.  What this looks like, I think of the 9 year old son of one of the pastors who share our church in Woodside with us,  The very young man did a sermon on Church being like a router, it wasn’t necessary to be there, God’s grace works no matter how far away you are, but the closer to the source, the better the signal. Older people stared at him, missing the profound idea that the kingdom of God was like this little mysterious box that allows the internet, phones, email, tvs to work, at the heart of most communication today.  His friends and more tech savvy people understood it immediately and it stayed with them.  We are invited to do the same, to speak our faith, to experience the kingdom of God and remember God is in the world.