Breaking News - July 26, 2020

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

The Parable of the Leaven

33 Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Dragnet

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, 48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth,separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

51 Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?”

They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

In this era of breaking news I admit that I watch the state and county dashboard looking for the next update, breaking news, xyz number of new cases for the state of Texas, or Galveston County. Breaking news, a new stimulus package has been approved. 

Matthew is called the church friendly gospel because it puts the church in a good light. Jesus doesn’t get as upset with the disciples as he does in say the gospel according to Mark. This passage we read together is a part of the third discourse in Matthew, often called the parabolic discourse. Jesus gives a lot of parables when he teaches so that he can use plain language for plain people making it easier for them to understand. He also spends a lot of time talking about the Kingdom of heaven, the kingdom is important to Jesus as a matter of fact in Matthew chapter 4 one of the first things he says after coming out of the wilderness is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Something that is both already and not yet. The work of Jesus is done, but Jesus is also coming back again. The order of the kingdom has been set, but Christ coming in his final victory is on the way. Already and not yet, kind of like watching a blowout in the early part of the game, you know who is going to win in the end, it just hasn’t happened yet. 

The order has been set but there are still some things to be done and Jesus is trying to explain it over and over, in Matthew chapter 13, he uses several examples talking about mustard seeds and yeast, merchants, fish on and on. The interesting thing is that there is some bad mixed in with the good we want to see in all these examples. A mustard seed is small, can almost be forgotten, leaven is representative of evil, oh yes the leaven during the Bible times was bread that was sat to the side and left to spoil, then they take that spoiled bread and mix it in with bread they are trying to break. Not enough leaven and the bread is no good. Too much leaven and everybody has food poisoning. The fish that are mentioned, the word literally means rotten in the Greek. Merchants don’t have a good reputation either, during the Bible times merchants had a reputation similar to used car salesmen now, all these parables have something in common, there is some bad mixed in with the good, and there is going to be some separation coming soon. I think about that when I look at today, there is some bad mixed in with the good, that is why we are still having a public health crisis as we speak in this country. 

Bad mixed in with good, you can say that about a lot of things, this world is some bad mixed in with good, the church is some bad mixed in with some good. Sometimes though it will seem like the bad outweighs the good, that the good is so small that it can’t make a difference. 

The good news is that God can take what little you have and do more with it than you ever could. God will provide the increase, you just have to use what little you have for him. That small amount of leaven in the text makes for three measures of bread. Three measures is over 10 gallons today, that is enough bread for 100-150 people. The mustard seed although small and sometimes forgotten can make a bush that can grow 10-15 feet tall. The things that the rest of the world may see as worthless has value to you and God and that is all that matters. The men in the text went fishing and pulled out a great haul. If God gave you the vision go forth with that vision even if the world around you seems against you. If you know God and you know your stuff it will be alright. Pearls were in held in high regard during the Bible times and now. 

That hidden treasure is salvation, it may not be valuable in everybody else’s mind but it is important to us. We have to be like the scribes that Jesus mentioned as well. The scribes were people who knew the word of God. They had to because they would copy it. We ought to know our word as well. Spend time with the Lord, spend time with his word. 

There will be some separation, the good news is that there is still time to turn your life over to Jesus. God loves you, God wants what is good for you. 

A Pillow for the Promise - July 19, 2020

Genesis 28:10-19 NKJV

Jacob’s Vow at Bethel

10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep[a] you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place [b]Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

I’ve been on a new health kick because of the pandemic, I have been walking, running at a local track and even purchased a new bike that I ride for exercise. But I keep reading that one of the best things I can do for my health along with the exercise, and dieting, is sleep. Without enough regular sleep, you run the risk of gaining weight, becoming depressed, and increasing your chances of heart disease and stroke. Journalist Maddie Stone wrote that, you need sleep “in order not to feel like garbage the next day.” Sometimes the healthiest activity is no activity. Just stop working and go to bed! 

Recently, a whole industry has grown up around the importance of getting a good night’s sleep. Popular sleep-trackers such as Fitbit and the Oura Ring can give you insight into how well you sleep at night. I have a CPAP machine that helps me when I sleep and I can check my phone the next day and see how many hours I slept, how my breathing was that night and if I got some quality sleep. One stage of quality sleep is what is called Rapid Eye Movement or REM sleep. In this sleep stage, your brain activity becomes similar to what is seen in wakefulness. This is the stage in which you are most likely to dream. According to Maddie Stone, “Research suggests that REM and deep sleep together play an important role in memory consolidation and stabilization.”

If you don’t get enough sleep you are not going to feel good the next day. But even worse, you are going to miss some valuable dream time, in which your brain does very important work. Dreaming bring the ancient times is how God spoke to people sometimes so I would think people would want to dream. In the text we encounter Jacob while he is having a dream during a stressful time. Jacob was one of the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, and he had reason to be stressed. We find Jacob in Genesis chapter 28 after he has tricked his twin brother Essau out of his birthright. Jacob then learns that his brother plans to kill him so he has has to “get out of dodge” and quickly.  If anyone would be having a sleepless night, it was Jacob. Jacob is leaving Beersheeba a place rooted in tradition and headed toward Haran a more metropolitan city and Jacob may not know it yet but he is hitting a turning point in his life. 

Jacob is in a rough place in his life, no longer surrounded by friends and family, nor familiar places he is out on his own. Jacob feels the need to rest. Jacob stuck between a rock and a hard place, some of his own doing, some not his fault. You have to be careful who you listen to in situations because they may mean well but end up telling you to so something that will hurt you in the long run. Secondly you have no idea how someone is going to react to what you do to them, I don’t think Jacob and Rebekah thought that Essau would want to kill Jacob for his actions. Be careful who you listen to, and be careful how you treat people. My heart hurts for how some people are talking to others during this time, and it hurts for those who don’t want to talk at all.

Jacob stops where he is to rest and used a rock as a pillow, an ordinary item for an ordinary task. Jacob uses that pillow to try and get some rest. An ordinary place, or so he thought, but Jacob comes in contact with the divine. God shows up to talk with little old Jacob, show him something great, and tell him something even greater. There is where Jacob has a dream, he sees angelic beings going up and down this ladder. Literally means casted up. Jacob saw the angels going up and down the ladder, they were connecting with God. This connection to God is better than the one they tried in Genesis 11, because this connection is God made not man made. We can try to do things on our own but when God gets involved, it is way better than if we try to do it ourselves. Here, Jacob sees something being done by God that man couldn’t do, and even better, God speaks to Jacob. Jacob the trickster, he who grabs by the heel, Jacob on the run for his life, Jacob who doesn’t have any family or friends right now, God still speaks to this same Jacob, no matter how messed up Jacob was, God still wanted to talk to him. God wants a relationship with us, and God is a loving God full of grace, God came to Jacob in grace, not beating him over the head for what he did. Just like God came to Jacob in grace, he comes to us in grace. God wants to talk to us just like Jacob. 

Not only does God talk to Jacob, God tells him that the very place you are standing will be yours, it will be yours and your decedents. Jacob doesn’t have anyone yet, he stopped by here by chance, or so he thought but the promise came before the provision. He is running for his life right now, hiding, resting, but God is telling him he is going to get through this hard time and own the very place he is standing later. Not only that, but God lets Jacob know that God will be with him until the promise has been kept. God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should seek cause to repent. God’s word does not return to him void, so if God said it, God will do it. A word from the Lord takes us from lonely, to surrounded by people, a word from the Lord takes us from hiding on some land to owning the Land, a word from the Lord will make it alright. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord stands forever. 

Jacob’s response was praise, Jacob realized he had experienced God at this place and built an altar.  Jacob found his place of worship, sometimes you have to find your place of worship. With God, the ordinary can become extraordinary and the secular can become sacred. A pillow became the altar. Jacob although encouraged, is still in a place of pain and turns it into a place of worship. Jacob found his place of worship. 

I am reminded of a song by Marvin Sapp called Place of Worship, track 9 on his album Thirsty if you are scoring at home. In that song he talks about finding you place of worship. 

Go find your place of worship

Look into your pain and find your praise

Every low place in your life

Prepared you for your hard place

Every tear you cried is water for

The garden of your victory

And even though you're in the valley,

Victory comes through your adversity

Go find your place of worship

Go to God in the middle of your problems, he won’t turn you away, God loves you. God wants a relationship with you, God comes in grace, God promises you he will not leave you. Take your rest in the Lord and know that it will be alright.  

I'm Tired of Talking- July 5, 2020

Matthew 11:16-30 New King James Version (NKJV)

16 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

Woe to the Impenitent Cities

20 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

Jesus Gives True Rest

25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the oneto whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

I confess during this pandemic, and during this social uprising that I grow tired of talking. I’m just tired, tired of people calling this disease a hoax while people I know die, go in to comas, get placed on ventilators. Tired of people acting like racism doesn’t exist, care more about a beach being closed than people’s access to civil rights. They care more about statues for people who  I am just tired. You give people your experience with an issue, they say that people need to look at both sides, or they say that what happened was a one off, an isolated experience. You give them facts, studies, statistics they say the numbers are fake. It becomes a draining work, the people I’m talking to never seem satisfied, and it has me using my energy in places that I don’t need to use them, and it feels wasted. 

I find it interesting that this is the passage for the lectionary this week. The text in Matthew falls right after what scholars call the second major discourse. Before the passage read some disciples of John, while John is in prison by the way, have come to Jesus asking him, “are you the one or should we search for another?” Is Jesus the savior, or do we need to keep looking? Seriously? John baptized Jesus, God opened the skies when John did it, not only that but the Spirit came down like a dove on Jesus, God spoke and said this is my son in whom I am well pleased… but the people still had some questions. Not people who heard about it, but people who were actually there. Like kids playing games and in the middle of the game, the somebody changing the rules of the game so that they can have a better chance of winning. John and Jesus had the same goal they just went about it differently. John talked about judgement and and condemnation, John was talking in Matthew 3 when he said. 

Matthew 3:12 New King James Version (NKJV)

12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 

Separating the wheat and chaff and burning up the chaff. 

Jesus talked about liberation and restoration Jesus responded to the question by saying 

Matthew 11:4-5 New King James Version (NKJV)

4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Jesus hears the people talking and asking questions, and turns to talk to everyone and starts where we picked up in the reading. Talking about this generation not wanting whatever was put in front of them to bring them to God. While people look at this passage and think it is Jesus vs. John, it is really God vs. society. This generation is finding a problem with everything put in front to them. 

I think about a conversation that sports analysts Will Cain and Bomani Jones were having about Nascar driver Bubba Wallace. For those who may not know Bubba Wallace is the only African American driver in the Cup races for Nascar. His driving crew found a noose in the garage he was supposed to use for a race in Talladega. Nascar got the FBI involved to investigate a possible hate crime. After the investigation of both Nascar and the FBI they found that the noose had been in the garage since late 2019, but that was the only garage that had a noose. Nascar searched over 1000 garages at all the race properties and found only 11 garages had knots tied, and only one had a noose tied. The FBI determined that no hate crime had been committed. Nascar fans already mad that their beloved confederate flag had been removed from properties wanted to call this a hoax. Will Cain said that false claims empowers racist Bomani said no racism empowers racists. They had a long conversation where Will Cain did not really back off his point arguing that any mistake Nascar made hurts the movement. Here is my problem, if I have to pitch a perfect game, dot every ‘I’, cross every ’t’, for you to even acknowledge racism, you don’t want to acknowledge it in the first place. 

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 winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

This approach, to duck the conversation, or point out how wrong someone is in their approach, is what Dr. King was talking about when he said the greatest opponent to civil rights was not the KKK or White Councilor but the so called “moderates.” People find a way to not be all the way in. 

The cities that Jesus mentioned Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, Jesus performed miracles there, they were supposed to be the “good” cities, the cities that had their acts together, they saw the miracles God performed. Those cities had people who intellectually understood and believed in the miracles Jesus did, but did not repent. Repent in the Bible is a psychological term, literally to change your mind, change the way you think. Have some actions that prove you don’t feel the same way. People in those cities intellectually processed what Jesus did, but did not change their lives behind it. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but I won’t live my life like it. I believe that people shouldn’t go hungry but I’m not trying to go down to the food bank and volunteer. I believe domestic violence is wrong but I’m not supporting a battered women’s shelter. I understand homelessness is a plight we have to fight as a community but I don’t want them coming by my church.  I’m not racist believe that racism is wrong but I won’t actively support people or organizations who speak on it. All talk, no action and I’m tired of it. 

In the silence, some other people fill the space, that is why a Priest in Carmel Indiana can fix his mouth to say that the Black Lives Matter movement are "maggots and parasites”

https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/03/carmel-indiana-priest-suspended-after-calling-blm-organizers-maggots/5371221002/ 

Because the so called silent majority is looking for someone to be perfect before they even consider hearing the argument we get others making these kinds of comments.

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 winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

During a week of patriotic celebration, how can we fail to reflect on the ways in which our own generation understands—and fails to understand—the reasons for dancing and the reasons for weeping. We are so often and so easily lulled by the other songs and voices of our culture. Not only do we miss the moments that matter; we regularly dance when we ought to mourn for a world whose burden is heavy and for a people who need rest.

Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) . Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

Although Jesus says cities like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, had opportunities, saw miracles and did not repent, cities like Tyre and Sidon will be better off in the day of judgement. Because although they are labeled bad cities because they can turn around and still be considered good. 

To turn a phrase God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Jesus speaks on helping the lowly, the innocent, the children, those who do not have their act all the way together.  

Karl Barth insisted that righteousness always requires favoring the “threatened innocent, the oppressed poor, widow, orphans and aliens…. God always stands unconditionally and passionately on this side and on this side alone: against the lofty and on behalf of the lowly; against those who already enjoy right and privilege and on behalf of those who are denied and deprived of it”

Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) . Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

Jesus Yoke is easy and burden light, Jesus is inviting us to work in him for life giving work for the kingdom. His yoke is easy and burden light, not because it is absent a struggle, but because there are no man-made unnecessary burdens put on you. No one moving the goalposts, changing the rules, not accepting you even though you keep changing things to make them feel better. Jesus work in discipleship is to elevate us all.