On Study Leave

Again, because of the timing of my tenure with the church, I have a week of Study Leave before August 1.

What does Study Leave mean apart from not leading worship on Sunday? Generally it is used for conferences and continuing education opportunities. These days I'll be getting caught up on some reading and preparing for the fall and Advent because that time will be fast upon us.

For this week, Office Hours will be staffed by the Administrative Assistant and I can be reached by my cellphone number.

Sunday worship in Appin will be at the Presbyterian church at 9:30. In Glencoe, Trinity United will continue to host worship, led by Presbyterian personnel for the first couple Sundays of August because of construction delays at the Glencoe Presbyterian.

sermon excerpts: "The Secret World"

(1 Kings 3: 5-12; Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52)
The LORD appears to Solomon in a dream and offers to grant his next wish, we wonder what the punchline will be. It takes a wise person to know exactly how much they don’t know. And to his credit, the young king seeks a gift that prevents him from becoming a cosmic joke.
He wants wisdom to help him rule. Wouldn’t that be something if our political leaders had such self-awareness?

Solomon wants the knowledge of Good and Evil, which you might recall is the exact same thing that Eve and Adam desired in the Garden in those first days after creation. It should be noted that, here, Solomon wants this knowledge to better serve his kingdom in his ministry as king. Adam and Eve were tempted to gain knowledge for personal gain.

It is a common desire that fuels our faster-paced society that some describe as The Information Age. Knowledge is power, yes, but it is also difficult to understand. Throughout the history of the Bible, people want to know and understand more about God, about the kingdom that is to come.

Jesus’ arrival on the scene didn’t make things easier. Now the rampant questions were about the Messiah, interpreting the ancient prophecies, what will happen next. For the moment, Jesus focuses not on who he is, but on what is at stake. He is directing us all to a way of living and being that would redefine our world.

In thinking of the parables, a comment by musician Peter Gabriel came to my mind. During his Secret World Live tour of 1994, he introduced the title track with the teaser: “Sometimes when you look around, everything seems still and calm on the surface and then you detect a little disturbance. You know for sure that underneath the surface lies some other secret world.”

This is the intent of Christ’s stories – to direct our attention to some secret world that is just beneath the surface of our existence. This is the kingdom of heaven, the Promised Land, just beyond our comprehension.

In all of this, we see that the ordinary and mundane give rise to potential and promise. That hidden within these everyday items is the simple lesson that God’s kingdom is not some distant, heavenly place. It is here, among us and within us. The trouble is we’re not exactly sure what to do, or what it means.

In the parables, we find that these items are tossed aside, buried in the ground, thrown into water. We do not hoard them or keep them to ourselves, they are used, planted, hidden away. This is the life of faith: used and useful, fulfilling a need, active in the present while planning for the future.

That which we are seeking is in front of our faces. It is there closer than we are to ourselves. The kingdom of heaven, of God’s justice, of equality and blessing is hidden before us. As in the revelation of some secret world, the stories of a pearl, of a net, of yeast, of a seed point to another way of being.

Our faith is not some initiation to some secret society with arcane and mystical rites and rituals. We do not enter this secret world to keep it a secret, rather we seek to bring its truth into everyday awareness and consciousness. As in the example of Christ, we bring together the spiritual and the ordinary, the holy and the profane. When our politics and economics and recreation can reflect a full measure of justice, compassion and love, the work of the Messiah is finished and the Kingdom of God has arrived.

In Peter Gabriel’s 2002 concert tour, he introduced the same song with a slightly different understanding: “Sometimes you can see a couple so close together it gets hard to distinguish which one is which. Bits of them disappear into a space that forms between them. This I would identify as the secret world.”

And so too would our understanding of God’s kingdom evolve, mature and change. The heart of our faith is finding closeness and communion with another. This is what Christ modeled for us. Jesus opens a gateway to a secret world that we might glimpse and know, so that we would be inspired to work and change our world to a better one.

As we seek the knowledge and truth, not only of good and evil, but of God’s kingdom, our baptism reminds us of one unchanging, immutable truth: we are not alone, we live in God’s world, secret or not. Amen.

for July 27 - Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

The Parable of the Yeast

He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

Three Parables

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Treasures New and Old

‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’

* * *

What feelings, questions, thoughts and prompts to personal action arise from this scripture?
What about hymn suggestions or ideas for Children's Time? Share them as Comments below or in an email, and help shape Sunday's worship service.

sermon excerpts: "Knowing What We Know"

In the scripture from Matthew we hear the rumblings against John the Baptist, that because he didn’t eat or drink much of anything – apart from honey and locusts in the desert – he was possessed, unbalanced, and a lunatic. So when Jesus appears on the scene and actually does eat and drink, maybe goes up for second helpings, he comes under fire for being a glutton and pig.

So if we’re waiting for Sunday worship and church involvement to become mainstream and popular again with society, these verses suggest even that would not make a difference. People will always find something to find fault with anything of value, although not without consequence....

It is said that true wisdom is knowing how little we know. Jesus goes so far as to offer a unique prayer that seems to give thanks for the confusion and dull-mindedness of his followers. He praises that the learned and wise do not have the answers, that truth lies with children.

Children live with wonder, with open minds and vivid imaginations. These are the qualities that Christ wanted his followers to embrace and adopt. Children are ready to learn because everything is a new and valuable experience. Even though we know that answers are fleeting, human knowledge is flawed and that there will always be more questions.

... We all know how unpredictable life can be. We all know that we don’t know how our day will turn out. Sure, we can make pretty accurate guesses based on our past patterns and our established plans. We don’t know for sure exactly where we’ll be or what we’ll be doing this afternoon.

As the disciples of Jesus kept learning, a life in Christ is no assurance of answers or benefit or blessing in the way that we can understand. We can ask God for signs, for some hint of a plan or attempt to make sense of things, but we likely won’t understand or appreciate the bigger picture. Because often we’re asking our questions centered on a very small part of creation, a single person maybe or small community. Even the wisest and most learned of scholars cannot untangle all the connections that we have through time and space through families, friends and chance acquaintances.

The lesson concludes with the promise of Jesus that there is rest, that burdens will be eased and that loads will be lightened. In him, we do not face life alone but are teamed with a spirit of care and compassion, a source of strength and guidance that walks with us as a partner in life. This is what we know, this is what our faith tells us.

Still there is much that is kept from us. As Jesus mentioned, it is the infants and children that have knowledge of God and spiritual matters. Children know a lot. They sleep when they’re tired, they eat when they’re hungry and they know if they are in a good place or not. By being so connected to the simple needs of their lives, they are connected to God’s spirit. These are things that we do not do as well when we get older. We have other priorities to tend to, we push and extend our limits. (This says the guy who stayed up too late last night and woke up too early this morning).

So what is the church doing? How will it be able to share what it knows? How can we offer a lighter yoke, a place of genuine rest and restoration? How might we truly to be an expression of Sabbath in our topsy-turvy world? These might be some of those that things that are known unknowns.

Maybe we don’t have the words to explain this vision of our faith community. Yes, we have mission statements that are corporate expressions of who we are, but they’re often wordy and hard to remember or share with others. Maybe it is turning to our children and seeking their knowledge to shape our time together.

Former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, followed up his now-famous comments about what is known and unknown to the government, the very next day: “I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think... and I assume it's what I said.” Here’s hoping that we know more than that.

for July 6 - Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

"But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.'

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
...
At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

* * *

What feelings, questions, thoughts and prompts to personal action arise from this scripture? What about hymn suggestions or ideas for Children's Time? Share them as Comments below or in an email, and help shape Sunday's worship service.