On the Way to Wonder

First Reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24

22Thus 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.

 23On 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.

 24All 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: Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15

The righteous shall spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon. (Ps. 92:12)

 1It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord,

  to sing praise to your name, O Most High;

 2to herald your love in the morning

  and your faithfulness at night;

 3on the psaltery, and on the lyre,

  and to the melody of the harp.

 4For you have made me glad by your acts, O Lord;

  and I shout for joy because of the works of your hands. 

 12The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,

  and shall spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon.

 13Those who are planted in the house of the Lord

  shall flourish in the courts of our God;

 14they shall still bear fruit in old age;

  they shall be green and succulent;

 15that they may show how upright the Lord is,

  my rock, in whom there is no injustice. 

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 [11-13] 14-17

6So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—7for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10For 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.

  [11Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. 12We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. 13For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. ] 14For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. 15And 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.

 16From 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. 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Gospel: Mark 4:26-34

26[Jesus] said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

 30He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?31It  is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet 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.”

 33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Children’s Sermon. Today I want to pull up an old nursery story that actually was made into a film “Jack and the Beanstalk” in 2009 and showed again in 2013 as “Jack the Giant Slayer.” Versions of the tale go back to 1734!  But for this sermon, let me simplify the story line.  A poor boy is sent to town with the family cow to sell for food and he trades it for some magic beans.  The mother throws them out the window and a giant beanstalk grows.  Jack climbs the beanstalk three times.  He discovers treasures at the top in the house of a giant who says, “Fee, Fi, Foo, Fum, I smell the blood of an English man.  Be he alive or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.”  That’s a bit scary, huh.  The first trip the boy brings back gold coins.  The second time he brings home a goose that lays a golden egg.  The third time he brings home a talking harp.  He then grabs his ax and chops down the beanstalk, killing the giant.

It seems to me that the magic beans are like the seeds sown in our Gospel.  The seeds are planted in our hearts.  As we climb the beanstalk of faith in our journey of Pentecost we gain treasures that bless our lives, each one better than the last.  But there is always a giant, the Evil One who is trying to defeat us.  At the harvest, a sickle will be put to the beanstalk and the Evil One will be destroyed.  Those who sell their cow for not magic-beans but faith-beans will live in eternity with the creator.  Let’s see if we can make this modern day tale share eternal truth!

Let us pray.  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

During Pentecost we look at how our faith impacts our lives as we live in relationship to the God we learned about in the first half of the church year.  That God is creator, creating around and within us.  That God incarnates and comes to our world to live with us and save us.  And that God is Spirit, hovering in our souls today. We understand God to be the Three-in-One. Faith is not just a significant moment when we believe and trade a cow for magic beans.  Faith begins a journey of transformation as we are “sanctified”, to use the big theological word, to describe how we will grow from that moment when the God of the universe like wind blew into our lives and called us into relationship, called us to turn to him with our problems.  Trading cows for magic beans is a dicey decision that many will laugh at.  Many voices call to us today about our lives.  Christianity believes that when we trade our worldly  assets for the unseen treasures in the heavenlies, when we trust the words of Jesus, we start a journey of transformation.  We call it salvation and today we talk about that journey.

      At the beginning of chapter four of Mark, Jesus has explained the parable of the four types of soil that receive the seeds planted by the sower.  He explained that  the seed is the word of God that is thrown out by the farmer, God.  Our parable today continues in this line of thinking and talks about the growth of the garden, the kingdom of God, but there are some twists that make me think of our tale, “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

      “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.“

God, the farmer, scatters seed on the ground but Mark adds the interesting detail that there is no master plan about how that seed is going to grow.  Mark does not mention details about the care of the garden.  In fact the owner seems distant and on a trip like other parables.  We do not read about workers in the field.  We do not read about fertilizer and care.  We do not read about prayer and fasting.  There is no moral judgment about whether the soil is good or bad.  We just read that someone scatters seeds.  Jack’s mother throws the beans out the kitchen window and they grow.   

      God sends out his word indiscriminately.  We do not need to be good or needy or praying or doing whatever to receive the word of God. God spreads his Word to anyone and everyone, not because we are good, not because we are good soil, and not because we are special.  God’s word is spread because God is good and he is generous.  He knows his word will land on four types of soil.  Some soil will be hardened but that does not stop God.  He loves all soils and gardens.  He loves Bethany’s Garden.

      From the parable of the mustard seed we learn part of the value of the seed.  It grows into a tree or large bush that blesses and shelters the birds of the air.  Yes, he scatters the seed generously but he does not spread the seed without hope.  He wants a harvest.  He wants plants to grow and he wants those plants to shelter his creation.  It may feel like the times you hear the word of God are random but when that word takes root in your heart, God is beginning to work in your life.  He does not share the seed just so you can feel good and cozy.  God is building a kingdom and you are his person.

       God does not micromanage the growth of the seed.  According to the parable, night and day the farmer goes about his business while the seed grows.  It feels to me like there is a sense of partnership.  The tiny mustard seed is growing into what it was designed to be.  The plant grows in phases.  First a stalk sprouts up. Then a head forms.  Lastly the full grain forms and matures.   

I’d like to have a little fun with the fairy tale.  Jack does not just look at this plant in his yard anymore than we, by keeping a Bible on our coffee table, contribute to our spiritual growth.  Jack climbs the beanstalk.  I do not want to make this sound like works but faith is a journey and is a growing relationship.  As young Christians we start to interact with our unseen spiritual partner by developing spiritual disciples like reading the Word, going to worship, sharing, helping, praying and discovering our talents. But these spiritual habits are a bit dodgy. We are not always consistent and we encounter hills and valleys.  It might be compared to Jack’s  first trip up the beanstalk when he returns with some gold coins. 

 Climbing that beanstalk the first time has blessed him with coins but he has also learned a lesson.  There is a giant at the top of the beanstalk who wants to kill him.  As young Christians we learn about spiritual warfare with evil, about withstanding temptations, and harder lessons like forgiveness.  Some believers stay “carnal Christians” needing to be fed milk and never learn to eat meat.  We can stay like a small child throwing a temper tantrum when we don’t get what we want from God and we can become frustrated when the formulas we form for how to live life don’t work and we can stall in our spiritual growth.  Like Jack, as we first start our journey of faith, we gather some coins that help us live but often life then calls us to another trip up the beanstalk, digging deeper into the Word and learning to apply it. For me that started when we left all the security of life in America and went to live in a famine relief camp in Kenya.  Suddenly I was challenged to communicate faith and live with people who lived on the verge of starvation.  We might say baby Christians are in the “stalk” phase of faith when they are  young and forming new disciplines.  Faith is like coins in our heart that we spend when needed.

Jack makes a second trip up the beanstalk and again encounters the giant but this time returns home with a goose that lays a golden egg. Faith is not just hard principles we apply to life like those coins but faith is living, interactive and dynamic.   I’d like to think that this is when faith begins to become part of us and we no longer are breaking bad habits from our former life but we are becoming comfortable with the rhymes of our faith journey.  Perhaps times of meditation are becoming normal.  We know which hymns or music to turn to when we need encouragement.  Prayer is becoming a regular part of our life.  We have developed a friendship group of trusted advisors who we can go to when we feel the giant chasing us. We might say our faith is not just a stalk we cling to in times of trouble but has become a head defining us.   It seems though that there is always a growing edge to our faith journey.

Jack makes a third trip up the beanstalk and encounters the giant yet again but this time returns home with an enchanted harp that can speak truth to him.  We can use our imaginations now and compare that harp to our growing ability to interact with the Holy Spirit as our faith speaks into our lives.  I do not understand “the gift of the Holy Spirit,” to be only speaking in tongues and therefore  a sign of salvation or a spiritual tool for some.  As Lutherans we believe that the Holy Spirit comes at the moment of faith or baptism.  The Spirit is not additional but is always present with us and available to us but we grow in our ability to hear the Spirit speaking and leading us.  We grow in our marriages, in our friendships, in our jobs and in our faith.  We have moved beyond stalk and head to becoming a full grain. 

The parable indicates that the seed that is thrown out by God is always growing even as the kingdom of God is always growing whether we see it or not.  It is growing within us and around us.  God gives life and God intends for us to grow.  Likewise the little mustard seed will grow into a great bush.  The disciples needed to hear that as I’m sure they felt like a little seed in their world and we need to hear that God is using our small deeds to make a mighty kingdom that will shelter many.

Perhaps this is the point when we reflect and ask ourselves if we are “stage appropriate.”  Am I mature physically but a child spiritually needing to be fed a bottle of milk, only happy when God’s word blesses me?  We can act like that child throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery store when Mom does not buy the cereal we want.  It is embarrassing.  God offers us his word but it is up to us to eat and digest and as we grow the kingdom grows.

31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet 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.”

Mark gives us a second parable this morning in our text.  He compares the kingdom of God, not to a beanstalk, but to a mustard seed.  It starts as a small seed but grows into a large bush that shelters the birds.  How interesting that he does not compare the kingdom to the Cedars of Lebanon or to a beautiful flower.  He compares the kingdom to a rather scruffy plant that grows in lots of environments, is hard to root out, and which is used in multiple ways to bless people.  It is medicinal.  It is good for flavoring food.

That plant produces fruit. Those original disciples impacted their world.  We do not know the end of the ripple when we throw a rock in a pool of water.  Even as a cruel word cannot be taken back and produces great pain, an act of love multiplies.  The Chinese say the flap of a butterfly’s wing affects the wind around the world.  God’s plan is to produce a kingdom, not our wealth and happiness.  Let us not be fooled.  Growth is unseen, occurs in phases, and is meant to produce a kingdom under God’s principles. Jack’s treasures help him be a meaningful person in his family and world.

Growth is about community.  The mustard seed grows into a bush that offers a place for birds to nest and rest.  Bethany’s Garden produces food that impacts our whole area and draws people together in community.  Sharing the fruits of our faith is certainly blessing but I think this parable also says there is the blessing of sheltering and protecting others until the seeds can work in their lives.  Just a thought.

Our more modern parable adds the reality of “the giant” that wants to stop Jack. Jesus does not address the Evil One in this parable but in other parables he talks about weeds being planted at night and growing with the good seeds.  Evil will coexist with good until the harvest. 

29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

      The seed grows and matures and then there is a day when the farmer realizes it is time to harvest.  The parable says clearly, “when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”  Ouch.  That’s hard to hear.  We don’t want to think of a day of accounting.  We prefer to focus on the love of God for everyone.  What that will look like is not shared but the parable says there will be a day of harvest.  The beanstalk will be chopped down, not by Jack but by God.

          The harvest is a natural event that is dependent on when the farmer knows it is time.  Death is never welcome and we would like to think that one more day or year would be nice but the farmer makes the decision on when to harvest.  The harvest in this parable is not the farmer going through his garden and picking and choosing which plant to pick but I would understand it to be more like the end of the growing season.  It is not personal but it is inevitable.  Some plants will be ready and others will not be quite so ripe. We have been warned.  Are we listening?

     
P. S.

 33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it;

Interestingly, Mark adds a post script after these two parables.  I love it.  Jesus spoke in parables in ways the people could understand.  From our early ages we learn the fairy tales of our culture. These stories teach us great truths in simple stories even young children can love and cherish.  Mark adds that Jesus spoke to his hearers as they “were able to hear.”  God knows we are simple people like Jack working in a world of want and chased by giants in our adventures.  Jesus shares “as we are able.”  He is not comparing us to the Biblical heroes but sees us as we are, seeds growing into a mighty bush that shall shelter God’s kingdom.

During Pentecost we ask ourselves how the truths of these parables apply to our lives.  God has generously blessed us with his word.  Are we growing in our ability to use it?  Are we stage appropriate in our spiritual growth or are we waiting like a child wanting our own way?  It is easy to forget that others might be just in the stalk phase of spiritual growth.  We can mistake spiritual immaturity for insult.  May we be gentle with others and with ourselves. There will be a harvest someday, perhaps sooner than later, but our prayer is that we will faithfully grow where God has planted us, caring for those God has put in our midst, and giving him the glory. 

Thank you Lord for working with us.

Let the people of God say, “Amen!”

Psalm 92 (O Most High) Lyric Video

Tomorrow the psalm of the day is Psalm 92.  It opens with, “It is good to praise the Lord.”

• I can rejoice at the work of his hands: sunrises, sunsets, laughing children, faithful pets and friends.
• I can rejoice at the wisdom of his Word: beautiful psalms, wisdom literature, exciting tales of the defeat of evil, and stories of lives changed, healed and resurrected.
• I can rejoice that evil will be defeated: God will bring justice for the oppressed, suffering is temporary, God’s enemies will perish.
• I can rejoice that the righteous are blessed into old age.

V. 15  they declare, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock and there is no wickedness in him.”

Let us listen to this psalm and prepare our hearts for tomorrow.

Yesterday the Teacher warned us to listen when we enter the presence of God and not to use a lot of empty words.  He further defines this thought today as he continues and warns us about make verbal promises, vows, to God.

4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.

The Teacher continues by saying it would be better to not make a vow rather than vow and not fulfill the promise.  A vow is a solemn promise to do something.  It reminds me of our poor track record with marriage vows.  About 43% of first time marriages for both ends in divorce, 60% of second marriages fail and 73% of third marriages end in divorce.  At the same time we soon realize that New Year’s resolutions seldom last th whole year .  I listened to a high school graduation speaker recently and all those youthful promises of being friends forever.  I could feel the cynicism in my heart.  Scams somehow sneak into our computers.  Politicians offer what they cannot deliver.  Oh my.  Are there people of integrity that we can trust.

The Teacher reminds us that God is a being of integrity who keeps his promises and does not idly threaten us.  When we bring our concerns to God, we are not chatting with a friend over coffee.  So let us pray today for all those who have been burned by schemes, by false promises, by wedding vows gone sour and hurt by the betrayal of friends.  Lord, lay your healing hand on those wounds that make it so hard to trust again.  And, Lord, help us to be people of integrity so that we can be trusted to keep our word.  May our “yes” be yes and our “no” be no.  Thank you for forgiveness for the times we fail.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

The Teacher tackles the topic of aloneness.  He bemoans a person without a spouse or without a child to inherit the fruit of his or her labor.  He realizes it is double trouble because not only does a person not have someone to share profits with but the person also does not have the companionship that comes from marriage or friendship.  He calls it not only meaningless but also “a miserable business.”

Friendship is a blessing. Besides companionship, friends are there to help us when we have trouble, pick us up when we fall down, and a source of physical warmth when it is cold.  Take a moment and name a couple of your friends.  Can you name three ways that they bless you with their friendship?  Perhaps you might send them an affirmation of what they mean in your life.  Most people like to get a thank you note or a surprise email or a flower or even a smile and a verbal affirmation, “I appreciate…!”  thank you, Lord, that you no longer call us servants but call us friends. 

13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

Chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes ends with the Teacher pointing out that a poor youth who is wise is better than an old king who is foolish.  I immediately thought of David who ascended to the throne from being a shepherd, following Saul, the first king of Israel.  The contrast between the two men was obvious in their trajectory of their life stories that we read about in the books of 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Samuel.  But then the Teacher laments that the youth who became king was opposed by later followers.  I wonder if he is thinking about David’s son Absolum who tried to steal the throne from his father.  Political intrigue plagued David’s life.  The Teacher summarizes, ”This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

It is interesting to read this paragraph because we who can look back on the records of Saul, David and Solomon as kings also read about the hand of God working in these mens’ lives.  The part I find interesting is that David who was obviously a flawed character, a warrior with blood on his hands, adultery with Bathsheba and then orchestrated her husband’s death, and yes the conflict with his son Absolum is also called and known as  “A  Man after God’s own Heart.”  God obviously did not gauge David by his good and bad deeds but by his love for God and his deep repentance when confronted with his sin.  

David is a “rags to riches” story that we love to hear but more important than his social and political accomplishments (and failures) was the integrity with which he handled his spiritual life. I find hope that God is a being who cares about the real me and not just my resume and that he somehow does not give up on me, even in my darkest hours. 

Perhaps today you are weighed down by a past stage in your life that you wish you could erase or perhaps you struggle with a habit that just seems to keep defeating you, the Biblical greats had struggles too and God worked with them.  Let us pray for people struggling with addictions, people who must live with the results of the foolish choices they made, and those who struggle with mental illness.  Lord, have mercy on us in our weakness.

5 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

2 Do not be quick with your mouth,
    do not be hasty in your heart
    to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
    and you are on earth,
    so let your words be few.

3 A dream comes when there are many cares,
    and many words mark the speech of a fool.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-3

A saying from Uganda says, “One who talks, thinks; but one who keeps silent, thinks more.”  We might advise a person to think before the person acts.  The Teacher changes his tone at the beginning of chapter five of Ecclesiastes.  We are advised to listen when we approach the God of the universe.

I hate to think of just how many times have I spoken hastily and regretted my harshness and have had to ask forgiveness?  I don’t know how many times but I do know I am guilty. Unfortunately, my kids remember too.  The Teacher reasons that just as when we are worried we often have trouble sleeping and rehearse the speech for the next day for that person who misunderstood us or perhaps we have to face that angry child, the student who just doesn’t seem to get the point,so in the same way too many words “mark the speech of a fool.”  During this season of political speeches, we tire of all the words and doubt the promises.

Let us read these verses again and pray for the grace to calm our hearts and listen when we are in the presence of the Holy – be that at church, walking in nature, or listening to our music.  Lord, give us ears to hear and help us guard our mouths.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:

10 If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.

11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone?

12 Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

The Teacher tackles the topic of aloneness.  He bemoans a person without a spouse or without a child to inherit the fruit of his or her labor.  He realizes it is double trouble because not only does a person not have someone to share profits with but the person also does not have the companionship that comes from marriage or friendship.  He calls it not only meaningless but also “a miserable business.”

Friendship is a blessing. Besides companionship, friends are there to help us when we have trouble, pick us up when we fall down, and a source of physical warmth when it is cold.  Take a moment and name a couple of your friends.  Can you name three ways that they bless you with their friendship?  Perhaps you might send them an affirmation of what they mean in your life.  Most people like to get a thank you note or a surprise email or a flower or even a smile and a verbal affirmation, “I appreciate…!”  thank you, Lord, that you no longer call us servants but call us friends. 

13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

The Teacher, author of Ecclesiastes, now turns his thinking to the meaninglessness of all the oppression that takes place in our world.

“I saw the tears of the oppressed—

and they have no comfort;

power was on the side of their oppressors—

and they have no comforter. (Ecclesiastes 4:1)”

“And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another.  This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 4: 4)”

The Teacher notes that the foolish are too lazy to work, not wanting to disturb their own peace,  and yet those who work are often motivated by envy.  He concludes that this cycle is also meaningless.  There does seem to be a spectrum of motivation to work that runs from a lazy, I don’t care about anything attitude, to a greedy, envious desire to possess more and more.  One person is satisfied with little effort while the other is never satisfied.  A valid question is raised here.  What motivates me to reach out beyond my comfort zone?  

As a new widow who is reinventing life, I realize I don’t get out of bed in the morning to get a cup of coffee for my husband, jump in the shower to rush off to work, hustle children to school, nor plan to grab a moment with a friend as I look at my busy social calendar.  Being busy has been a way of life and so retirement and widowhood are a major change of pace.  Being in school years ago structured my life and then I graduated.  The birth of a child, a move to a new home, town or job, or even a medical diagnosis can throw us into a restructuring to our time.  We may not know oppression but we do need to be aware of the forces motivating us.

I am reading the book The Four Winds that talks about how a family is upturned by the dust bowl years.  It is heart wrenching.  In the face of the oppression from nature, from the rich, from poverty the mother and her two children hold themselves together as “the explorers club,” moving from Texas to California, from comfortable farmers to immigrant laborers, and battle envy just to stay alive.  Let us take a moment to look at our hearts to ask what motivates our busy life styles.  Where we are envious, Lord forgive.  Where we are insensitive to the needs of others, Lord forgive.  Lord have mercy on those struggling to survive in relief camps and those ravaged by wars and natural catastrophies.  Lord, have mercy.  May we never be too lazy to help someone in need. 

First Reading: Deuteronomy 5:12-15

12Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Psalm: Psalm 81:1-10

Raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob. (Ps. 81:1)

 1Sing with joy to God our strength

  and raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob.

 2Raise a song and sound the timbrel,

  the merry harp, and the lyre. 

 3Blow the ram’s horn at the new moon,

  and at the full moon, the day of our feast;

 4for this is a statute for Israel,

  a law of the God of Jacob.

 5God laid it as a solemn charge upon Joseph, going out over the land of Egypt, where I heard a voice I did not know:

 6“I eased your shoulder from the burden;

  your hands were set free from the grave-digger’s basket. 

 7You called on me in trouble, and I delivered you;

  I answered you from the secret place of thunder and tested you at the waters of Meribah.

 8Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you:

  O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

 9There shall be no strange god among you;

  you shall not worship a foreign god.

 10I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

  Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:5-12

5We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 7But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Gospel: Mark 2:23—3:6

23One sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” 25And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” 27Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

 3:1Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” 4Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Children’s Sermon   Jesus says to the man in the Temple in our text today “Stretch out your hands”.  We have a game with the same name.  I bet you have all played this game.  Stretch out your hands to your friend.  One person is palms down and the other is palms up under the hands of the first.  The one on the bottom tries to quick slide his hands out, flip them over the top hands and slap them.  Or the bottom person can move one hand to cross over to slap the opposite hand of the friend.  How many would agree that stretching out your hands to another can be a bit of a scary posture.  You might get hit hard and that hurts.  Jesus today tells a man to “stretch out his withered hands” in front of everyone and exposes the man’s weakness. Pentecost is about learning how to stretch out our hands to God, not to receive a slap but a healing.

Let us pray:  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

The first Sunday in Pentecost we read about Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night.  This triggered a conversation about the rebirth that is needed to understand the Kingdom of Heaven. We cannot see God and we cannot see the wind.  Both are real and dynamic.  So even as the Israelites turned to the snake on the pole in the wilderness and were saved, we turn to Christ on the cross and are saved.  Jesus started changing our thinking from Law to Gospel.  Our Pentecost journey starts with putting our hands on top of Christ’s nail pierced hands and learning to sense and anticipate his movements and synchronize our response to his. 

 Last week we looked at three groups of people who came to Jesus by day: the gawkers, the power aware people like the Scribes, and the groupies who think of Jesus as belonging to their group and don’t want to share.  All the people so far are entering the game with Jesus in some way but I suspect they are feeling like their hands are in some way being slapped for falling short.  We might say that the object of the game is to not be slapped but to be so synchronized with the other person so that we can anticipate the move and respond correctly. 

Today’s text revolves around that dance.  Faith is a response to the first three commandments of the big ten that we studied in Luther’s Small Catechism and that are found in Exodus 20.  #1: You shall have no other gods before Me. #2: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God, in vain. #3: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  The religious leaders question, 

“Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” 

The disciples are walking through a grain field on the Sabbath and plucking heads of grain.  They are confronted about their actions.  The Sabbath became a “thing” when the Ten Commandments were given to Moses.  A whole body of laws had grown up defining what God meant by commanding us to remember the Sabbath and honor it.  At creation we are told that God created in six “days” and on the seventh rested.  That seventh day of rest became known as the Sabbath and obviously did not mean he stopped interacting with his creation but the belief was that he stopped “work” and that needed to be defined.  We don’t want to offend the God who created and sustains us.

The disciples were not confronted for stealing because the Jews were to leave the edges of their fields for the poor and the traveler to get food.  The disciples were confronted because plucking heads of grain was considered harvesting which was defined as work.  Many of us can remember when stores were closed on Sunday, the day we now celebrate as a kind of Sabbath.  In Kenya we often fasted for Sunday dinner, eating a bowl of popcorn and listening to a tape of a service from the States as we listened to the lions roar in the distance.  During elections, everyone fasted.  Turn to your neighbor and share a special tradition in your family that made Sunday a bit special and restful.

Jesus confronts the criticism of the religious leaders by referring to Scripture, 1 Samuel 21, and King David.  David, not yet king, is fleeing from King Saul who wants to kill him.  David goes to Nob, a town about two miles north of Jerusalem where the Tabernacle is.  The priest gives him bread that has been consecrated for only the priests and gives him the sword of Goliath whom David had killed.  Jesus seems to be challenging the leaders with their own history that shows that the laws of God are more than strict, rigid rules to judge us.

It reminds me of the Tales of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.  In the first book, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, four children from London step through a “thin place” in time and end up in Narnia.  The great golden lion Aslan oversees Narnia.  The children have adventures with the Wicked White Witch who has made the kingdom always winter but never Christmas.  Aslan gives his life to fulfill the code of the land and the children are distraught.  The next day, they are met by Aslan resurrected who tells them there is a “deeper magic” written before the dawn of time, “ if an innocent being willingly offered his own life in place of a traitor’s, the deeper magic would reverse death itself and restore them to life.”  Jesus is trying to help us see that a deeper magic that we call grace is at work in our world today.

Jesus is asking us to reflect on how we understand the game “Stretch out your hands”.  Do we think God gave the Law because he wants to slap our hands and make us red and sore or is he inviting us into a game that grows relationship?  That is a tough question.  We associate the game with red hands and pain.  We associate games with winners and losers, with right and wrong.  We associate laws with police, courts, and judges. We want to associate God with love but at the time of Jesus, pleasing God was associated with the Law.  Good people were blessed and the man with the withered hand was obviously a sinner as was the man born blind.  People came to the Temple or church with sacrifices for their sins.  We open our services with confession and absolution – forgiveness.  We know we have flubbed up last week and we don’t want to stretch out our hands and have to show it to everyone.  Could it be that Jesus pulls the example of King David from history to challenge them and us to see grace in the Old Testament, the deeper magic?

  We know that the priest who shared the bread with David and the priest’s whole family were slain by King Saul.  Breaking of rules in the kingdom of this world brings punishment and opens us up to accusation but Jesus is stretching not only our hands but also our hearts to understand that sometimes there is “deep magic” that takes the cruel punishments of law and transforms them into resurrection and life.  David and his men ate the bread and lived to become King.  The speeding man did get his wife to the hospital in time for medical help in birthing.  The policeman who shot the intruder did stop an intended rape.  The doctor who cut out the tumor delayed the progress of cancer.  We do not always see the whole picture and the leaders were focusing on the breaking of the law about working on the Sabbath and missing the bigger point.  

“The sabbath was made for humankind, 

and not humankind for the sabbath;”

Jesus continues to clarify.  We are back to the chicken and egg tension of two weeks ago.  Which came first, the creation of people or the creation of Sabbath?  There is no need of a Sabbath if there are no people but if God had not created, would there have been a designation of a Sabbath?  We cannot grow into relationship with God unless we place our sin stained hands on his nail pierced hands.  It is as we confront our sinfulness and humble ourselves that the condemnation of death is transformed into resurrection.  The Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between God and his creation.  He never gives up on us and never walks away from the game.

Perhaps we think of Sundays as times to sleep in or spend time with the family, or go for a bike ride. We can recharge our spiritual batteries without going to church.  But when we come to church we may not hear the best sermon but we go through those traditional disciples of confession, prayer, communion, worship and fellowship.  Many times it may be flat but then sometimes a word triggers the truth we need to hear to face the next week.  The routine of worship becomes a ritual that grounds our week in the grace of God and away from the slaps of life.  We are reminded,  “13 You yourself are to speak to the Israelites: ‘You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 31:13. “

Jesus and the crowd move into the Synagogue.  The leaders are not happy and are still wanting to catch Jesus breaking the Sabbath.  Mark says that Jesus is angry.  We often think that Jesus only gets angry during Passion Week when he visits the Temple in Jerusalem and chases out the money changers.  Our text today says that Jesus is angry when he sees the leaders’ hardness of heart.  They are standing in the Temple and Jesus is asking if the Sabbath, even if seen as a Law, was meant for good or bad.

“Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, 

to save life or to kill”

It seems to me that Jesus is asking a question that might be like asking who is buried in Grant’s tomb.  The answer is obvious but the leaders go silent, refusing to testify that the Sabbath is not a game of slapping but a game of relationship.  The Sabbath is about life.  Jesus is angry and calls the man with the withered hand forward and tells him, “Stretch out your withered hands.”  WOW.  I don’t know about you but I am guessing you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.  

The man who has been slapped with the label of “sinner” must choose if he is going to put his withered hands in the hands of Jesus.  For me, this is a hugely challenging scene.  Am I going to put everything that defines me as a sinner, that which I have done and that which I have not done, into God’s hands?  It is so easy to be like Nicodemus and be confused.  It is so easy to be a gawker and enjoy watching Jesus heal others.  It is easy to debate where the power comes from like the Scribes.  It is easy to think Jesus is not in my group.  But when Jesus calls us to “stretch out our hands,” enter the dance with him, I hear him calling me to faith and not to judgment.  The kingdom of heaven works by a deeper magic that was decided before the dawn of time and not by the rules of this world where we may or may not move fast enough.  Jesus is calling us into healing that the whole world can see.  The man was restored. The Pentecost journey involves us in the “deeper magic,” a journey of restoration as we stretch out our hands and lay them on the nail-pierced hands of our Savior.  We can trust that God loves us.

Let the people of God say, “Amen!”

 As I pondered Ecclesiastes 3 this week, I thought of this song that is based on a poem that was written by St. Francis of Assisi in 1225.  He based his poem on Psalm 148.  More recently William Henry Draper put it to music about 1919.  It was written for a children’s celebration.  The words are the second oldest words used in our hymns.  The Teacher struggles with the seeming meaninglessness of life as he observes all the circles of life and the inability to control whether the inheritor of our toil will be foolish or righteous.  This hymn draws us to the vastness of our universe and the vastness of God’s creation that praises him.  Let’s sit back for a moment and enjoy.  Blessings.

All Creatures Of Our God And King – David Crowder Band