A Sower went out to Sow

Biblical Text: Matthew 13:1-23

The text is the Parable of the Sower and the Soils. You probably know it. To me the two poles of any sermon are proclamation and catechesis. Proclamation is proclaiming something true for you like: Jesus died and rose for you. The rhetoric of proclamation calls forth faith because it is primarily asserted to be true instead of proven. Catechesis is teaching. That is where the faith itself is explained, defended and given examples. Typically proclamation is received as more dynamic while catechesis can be the boring exposition in a movie. You need to know it for the action to make sense, but at least in movies good directors show it; they don’t tell it. Although in preaching there has to be a balance, at least for the every Sunday preacher. This sermon tips a little further to the catechetical than I typically do. And I think that is justified by the purpose of the parables themselves according to Jesus. They are invitations to deeper knowledge and understanding of the kingdom for those who have ears to hear. The sermon ends on the note of proclamation – that you, in your hearing, are those who have been given the secrets of the Kingdom.

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Like the Rain

Our Old Testament Lesson this week comes from Isaiah 55 which happens to be one of the most fascinating chapters in the bible. Not because it is part of the grand-narrative (what we are studying on Wednesday). But because of what it reveals about God and the metaphors it uses.

The first metaphor is one of commerce, but it is unlike any commerce we are familiar with. I sometimes joke that God operates in the Star Trek economy. If you are a Trekkie you know what I am talking about. The replicators, magical devices that turn energy into any matter that you want, have eliminated cash, physical exchange and in general any physical lack. God declares in Isaiah 55:1, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” The Kingdom in its fullness runs like the Star Trek economy.

But it then moves from such physical goods as wine and milk to a deeper question. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? (Isa. 55:2)” Now there is always the reply “ain’t no rest for the wicked…I’ve got bills to pay and I’ve got mouths to feed.” But even the man struggling with the necessities in the fallen world doesn’t do these things simply because they are bread. He does these out of love, duty, pity and number of much deeper things. What God is offering in the Kingdom is the solid reason. “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live (Isa. 55:2-3)” The real bread is the bread of life. With this bread your soul – your self – lives. And this bread comes first through the ear.

And what is this bread? Like the cynical Samaritan woman at the well when Jesus starts to talk of the living water, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t have to return to this stinking well (John 4:15),” we might not have caught the change in the metaphor. This body is fed with water and bread. The soul has it’s water and bread, but that is something much different. The soul’s bread are the promises of God. “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isa. 55:3).” And Isaiah traces that promise as not just to the people of Israel, but that covenant with David is a covenant with all the peoples (Isaiah 55:4-5). “A nation that did not know you shall run to you.”

Yet this promise, this day of Grace, is not something that lasts forever. “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near (Isa. 55:6 ESV).” Today, as you read this, is a day of grace. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isa. 55:7).” Why is it this way? We wouldn’t pardon enemies that had rebelled against us, why does God? And if we were to do it, we’d be indiscriminate, universal. If God works in the Start Trek economy, why is there a time limit? “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD (Isa. 55:8).” Not a completely satisfying answer, but consistent and true. “What is the pot to speak back to the potter? (Romans 9:20). Who is this who darkens my council without understanding (Job 38:2). The secret things of God remain his forever (Deuteronomy 29:29).” But this he has revealed to us. Today is the day of His Grace.

How does this bread come to our souls? Here the prophet switches metaphors from commerce to weather. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:10-11).” The word of God is like the rain shower.

Living in New York, it rained quite a bit. It was a wet climate. The next shower was never more than a day or two away. We took it for granted. Living in the desert, it’s been a month, maybe two. We don’t know when. We don’t know how. We don’t control it. We only know it when it happens. The entire place longs for that monsoon that drenches everything. And it is that rain that brings forth the ending promise. “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off (Isa. 55:12-13).”

Peace and joy and fruitfulness depend upon that rain. And you know it when you hear it. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Today is the day of grace.

Hidden in Plain Sight

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:25-30

The lectionary had us spend three weeks on the Missionary Discourse, Jesus sending out the apostles. But the gospel according to Matthew never really gets around, unlike Luke, to telling us the response of the Disciples. What we do have is Matthew Chapter 11 which really is the varied response of people to the preaching and teaching of Jesus in the Galilean ministry. The easy gospel is at the end of the lesson, but the real question is what is the context of that statement. And the context is everything that happens is in the will of the Father. Everything that happens is through the Work of the Son. Everything that happens is due to the inspiration of the Spirit. The yoke is easy and the burden light, because God has revealed himself and his love for us. The hard part of that revelation is that it is hidden in plain sight. It is wrapped not in power and glory, but the cross. The demonstration is the resurrection, but that is proclaimed for belief. We have the testimony of the Apostles in the Scripture. We can see it all, but only by faith. Which means the reception or response is variable.

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Kingdom Priorities and Hard Realities

The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” – 1 Samuel. 16:1

In our Wednesday morning Bible Study (The 52 Necessary Bible Stories) we are up to David, just anointed King, but far from being the reigning King. A major theme emerging is one I wish to pick up here for a different purpose. In living the Christian life there are two types of problems encountered. There are the problems that I categorize as Kingdom Priorities. In that Bible study this type of problem was displayed in the verse quoted above. God has decided or ordained certain things and it is the disciple’s role to get with the program. This type of problem is often addressed by the most pungent sayings of Jesus, like “let the dead bury their dead, but you go proclaim the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:60, also Matthew 8:22).” Or like the gospel lesson last week, “do not think I have come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34).” The Christian Life always has its challenges over our priorities. And what Yahweh in the Old Testament or Jesus (same God) in the New Testament always says is get your priorities straight. The Kingdom of Heaven is of first priority. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).”

Your mileage might vary. I certainly know people who have agonized over decisions and over the will of God. But my experience in general is that we know more about the will of God than we often let on. Like the old hymn, “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.” We often continue with forfeit peace and needless pain because we have that answer and we do not like it. The Rich Young Man in Mark 10/Matthew 19 goes away troubled because he did not like Jesus’ answer. Which answer was simply seek first the Kingdom. There are things that must be done for the Kingdom. And the choice is faithfulness, or not.

The second problem that comes up in the Christian life is what I’ll call “hard realities”. David may have been anointed King, but Saul still lived. Now we usually take these types of problems as much bigger problems. We see lack of resources or skills or knowledge or any of the list of things that constitute our excuses. We even have a favorite bible verse from Jesus we might quote, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? (Luke 14:28ff).” But Jesus’ point with that story doesn’t end with a summary like, “don’t be stupid, count first, and if you don’t have enough don’t start.” That would be our human wisdom. And don’t take this as downplaying that wisdom completely. But Jesus’ summary of that is “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Things that are hard realities to us are laughably easy to God. And if we have our Kingdom priorities correct, God provides. Maybe not how we’d envision, but God provides. I’m sure David would have preferred an Army after being anointed, instead God arranged for him to play the lyre for Saul. When we depend upon ourselves, we always see lack. When we depend upon God, we have a surprising abundance. If we have our Kingdom priorities straight.

We have a congregational meeting scheduled for next week. In one sense, there is no emergency. Things are good. This should not be an anxiety producing note. (Sure Pastor, but just saying that raises my anxiety. Yeah, I hear you. But I’m being honest.) But the leadership of Mt. Zion is going to be putting forward something that prayerfully starts to align us with Kingdom priorities and seeks some help with those “hard realities.” We are seeking the Kingdom, and depending upon God and his people.

Be Jubilant My Feet

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Biblical Text: Matt 10:34-42

The text is the end of Jesus’ missionary discourse which includes the line “Do not think I have come to bring peace, but the sword.” The time period is the July 4th weekend. So the general subject is going to be Christian Warfare. And by that I don’t mean such questions as can a Christian be a soldier or the au currant idea of Christian Nationalism. The sword that Jesus has come to bring is against the devil, the world and our own sinful nature. Those are the things that the Christian is called to fight against in that full armor of God. This sermon has an argument from the lessor to the greater. As Americans there are some historical things around July 4th that we would all agree with. But these are the lessor. If we agree and are willing to live in certain ways out of patriotism, how much a greater claim does the Kingdom of Heaven have on us?

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An American Reflection

By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, –
Revelation 5:9 (Similar line in 7:9)

A social media game I have seen is to ask what your most controversial post ever was. In terms of being the recipient of a two-minute hate, I’ve had three posts that might qualify. One regarding parenting, one regarding a basketball player and the third regarding AI. Honestly, all of those were predictable and easily relatable. But I had a fourth one that doesn’t qualify as a two-minute hate because not enough people dog-piled. I don’t think it was relatable enough. It was based on the above passage of scripture. But those who did react, did so with vehemence.

The division was this. There are those who I imagine have the U2 Song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” playing in their head. One of the verses contains: “I believe in the Kingdom Come/Then all the colors will bleed into one.” Which is 100% true. And that one is the robe of Christ’s righteousness that the Apostle John sees the great multitude that no one could count wearing. But it is also true that the tribe, language, people and nation markers were still recognizable. It is when I made that comment, that some markers of who we are now continue and are recognizable even in the eschaton, that many people went nuts. But both things, unity and difference, are somehow true in the resurrection.

And I don’t think this should exactly surprise us if we know the Biblical Story. Genesis 10 is the Table of the Nations. It contains the 70 nations that derive from Noah after the flood. Which with a little translation you can still roughly trace those nations or peoples into the modern world. That table of the nations – another word for it would be the gentiles – segues into God choosing one specific new people, the Jews. The nations are handed over to the world, while God reserves for himself one nation, the least of them. Now, out of that one nation, we are given Jesus – Israel reduced to one. Jesus sends out 70 disciples in Luke 10. And God reclaims from the gentiles, from every tribe and language and people and nation, a ransomed people. Which John sees gathered in heaven. God never gave up on all His people.

It also shouldn’t surprise us because God consistently claims what Paul says in Acts 17:26, “having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places, that they should seek God.” The nations of the world have always been of interest to God. Enough that when they live, and when they die and where they sojourn on this earth are determined by Him.

On weekends like July 4 th I sometimes ponder what a perfected or maybe a better word completed citizen of the United States looks like. What does it mean to be part of the American subsection of the heavenly host? To get to that you have to go to the last of those four qualifiers: nation. In that way the United States is a little bit like heaven before it is time. E pluribus unum, out of many, one. Maybe why so many people didn’t like my observation. They want the one and can’t image the mosaic God is making. Some of us share a language with the English, but there are Americans who don’t speak English. There are many peoples that reside in the United States. And there are many tribes. It doesn’t escape me that as long as the nation sought God – as Acts 17:26 talks about – the unity could be found. And the United States has long sought God in many ways. It was founded and populated by people seeking God from the Mayflower on. It has only been as that quest has subsided that our unity has become strained. It is almost as if the unity can only be sustained by divine means. Echoes of Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity.

I’ve used up my allotted space. So I’ll close with this. The primary trait of those saints is their unity in Christ. That is what covers all. But we have been placed where we are for the purpose of God’s formation. And somehow, that fulfilled American, is to the glory of God. May the American section of heaven be loud and large.

The Missionary Way of Jesus

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Biblical Text: Matthew 10:5, 21-33

The text for this sermon is often called Jesus’ missionary discourse. The lectionary divides it into three parts, of which this is the 2nd. Although this sermon backs up a bit (as I was on vacation last week and missed part one.) It is the sermon Jesus gives to the 12 as he sends them out. There are a bunch of ways that have been dreamed up to duck this sermon. I’ve heard people say “it was only for the apostles at that time.” And there are some textual things you can point at, but given the great commission that seems odd. I’ve heard people restrict it to just clergy. And again, I there are some textual things that might support it that. Also again, laying all of missions on a special class seems wrong, especially given the general “confess me before me” that closes this section. Basically, the church in most ages just doesn’t want to here this. And that is because this is the summary of the message to me.

The Word of God causes division
You are called to speak it anyway and deal with the resulting division and hatred
The reason you do this are because the Christian must live, walk the way, with eternity in mind.
- There is a necessary element of fear in this. “These men fear God (more than anything in this world”.”
- But the more important part is the love of God for all his creation.

Missions are walking the way through this world. As we walk, we show others the way. And that way is faith. We fear, love and trust in the promise of Jesus, told to us by others who did the same. That is the Missionary Way of Jesus.

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The Fellowship of this Altar is Sinners

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Biblical Text: Matthew 9:9-13

This date in the lectionary is probably the best one out there. I hate the phrase, but it is Jesus’ mission statement. I have come to call sinners. It isn’t the outright theme of this sermon, but in hindsight it does surface. And it is completely appropriate for our time, a time when we “cancel” people and refuse to talk with those who might disagree and guilt by association is the name of the game. You can’t do any of those things unless you have judged yourself righteous. And Christ did not come for the righteous. He came for sinners. He came as the Physician for the sin sick souls. That is the fellowship of the altar, sinners. Sinners coming for the only thing that works.

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Everybody Worships

I suppose graduation season has passed. In NY my kids would still have two weeks of school left in the year, so I’m still adjusting a bit. But graduation season brings up maybe my one brush with greatness. David Foster Wallace, the essayist and author, was in residence as a teacher at Illinois State University in 1993. Supposedly that was when he wrote Infinite Jest, his most famous work that vies for a place in the canon. That also happened to overlap with some of the time I spent there on full scholarship, while also in “He went to Paris, searching for answers” mode. I happened to bump into him at a church service at our little student mission. I’m not sure anyone else knew who he was.

You have probably not read Infinite Jest and that is not me being a pompous ass. I’m the weird one here. I once attempted to get my mother to read some of his essays which are my favorites. Because he was an Illinois boy who through his parents’ connections and his own precociousness had gained access to a rarified world. There was a bit of biographical overlap, and from my reading his love and fundamental goodness was clear. She of course was offended. Read where I saw love as scorn. (It was the Illinois State Fair essay if anyone has read him.) But, you might have heard his graduation address at Kenyon College. He gave it in 2005. And to this day it takes me right back to that church service, because I swear he must have been reading Luther. It usually goes by “This is Water,” and it does have the strong advice to know what you are swimming in. But for me the stronger portion is when he says, “Everybody Worships.” That is actually the meat of his advice to the graduates. You are going to worship something. And all the default deities are terrible. “They will eat you alive.”

That is almost directly from Luther’s Large Catechism on the first commandment. “Now, I say that whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your God.” And Luther runs down roughly the same default Gods: money, power, skill, favor, family, friendship. Even good things will eat your alive if placed as the ultimate source.

Luther’s words in that catechism explanation amount to the same thing as what DFW says. “The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.” Make sure you know what you are worshipping. Understand the water you swim in.

DFW got the law right. The great difference was in the gospel. For DFW it was your work alone to daily keep the truth before you. It was your work alone to continue to choose who to worship. Toward the end of his address he’d say, “That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think…the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness…your education really IS the job of a lifetime.” If you live under the law, you better choose the right god and have no other God’s before him. And if that is all on you, it will crush you. DFW took his own life in 2008. Luther would put it differently. “We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to him.” We will never understand the water we swim in without the pure gift of the Holy Spirit.

The law is still good and wise. We need to recognize the water we worship. And we are all too dismissive of that. Too easily swept along by the strong currents of default. But it is the Spirit who ultimately “keeps us in the true faith.” Today his mercy calls us, again.

What Can We Do?

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Biblical Texts: Genesis 1, Acts 2:22-36

The Sunday was Trinity Sunday. The day we recite the Athanasian Creed (which happens to be my favorite. I find myself looking at it almost weekly.) It is a day where doctrine really takes the lead. So this sermon is a little different. It focuses on the first two doctrines of the church: the Doctrine of God within which is creation and the doctrine of original sin. It is the position that these two doctrines place us in that brings forth the good news of Christ. This particular sermon illustrates this position with a current cultural argument and a personal reflection. It is a sermon that ends with proclamation, but early on it makes an argument. It is an attempt at persuasion. So it is something a little different and maybe not perfect.

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