Month: July 2008

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Date: Pentecost X (Proper 11) + 7/20/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In this great parable chapter of Matthew’s Gospel we need to listen carefully and not confuse especially the two parables having to do with sowing seeds. For, in the first parable of the Sower the seed is the Word of God. The point is that the Word of God is the all-sufficient means of His redeeming and saving sinners. In today’s parable of the wheat and the weeds the seed is not the Word of God but the children of the kingdom, Christians themselves! It is to say that you are the planting of God in His field of the world.

The parable of the wheat and the weeds shows how God is active in establishing his redemptive rule among men in the world even as the archenemy and author of sin and death, the devil, seeks to undermine that rule. Frustration and discouragement threatens Christians as they observe what may seem at times like a losing battle. How does one hang on to the hope of salvation in a world that calls evil good and good evil, denying that there is anything from which we need to be saved? How can we continue to forgive others including our enemies when it’s easier not to mention more satisfying to criticize, judge and condemn? How can we know and live in love amid so much lovelessness? Our faith values and believes in life triumphing over death even as we dwell in a society that has cheapened life and embraced death by the elimination of 47 million unborn children through legal abortion (1973-2006), and that apparently does not include the related killings of assisted suicide or euthanasia. We thank God for his design and gift of marriage and the family even while the devil succeeds in convincing people that sex outside of marriage is not only okay but to be expected and even encouraged, accepting couples living together without marriage as somehow “normal” and many other related issues. This is the picture Jesus was painting when he gave the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Continue reading “God Planted You”

Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Date: Pentecost IX (Proper 10A) + 07/13/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

I guess I’m just “too literal” for my own good. Have you noticed what (it seems to me) is no more than a “knee-jerk” greeting these days? Instead of saying, “Hello,” “Good morning (or afternoon or evening),” or “Greetings,” or “Good day,” it seems most people say something to the effect of “How you doin’?” Now that sounds to me like a question. And I assume a person asking a question does so with some interest in an answer. Of course, most people don’t really think that a person, especially a stranger, is really interested in an evaluation of the degree of your satisfaction with your health or well being at the moment and so most of us, if we answer the question at all, just slough it off with an equally disingenuous, “Fine.” Should you actually begin to answer the question with some evaluation of your physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, vocational or psychological condition, most supposed questioners would probably look at you as if you were crazy. That most people don’t expect an answer is betrayed by the fact that, usually immediately after they ask that question, they just keep talking. So I guess when someone greets you with the question, “How are you doing?” probably the best thing is just to smile and nod your head and say nothing, which will not strike the person greeting you as at all strange, and then any real conversation can commence.

With the text today of the Parable of the Sower, the seed and the soil, before us I’m here to ask you, in all seriousness, that question, “How are you doing?” For it seems this parable was spoken at a moment when there was some question as to the progress or effectiveness of Jesus’ preaching and teaching. As we have seen there was doubt and even resistance to Jesus’ ministry among people in general beginning to grow in chapter 11. Then, of course, St. Matthew reports in chapter 12 that there was the increasing antagonism of the Pharisees and the scribes heating up to the level even of accusing Jesus to be in league with the devil. Finally, even His mother and his brothers (few of whom if any at the time believed in Him) seemed to be questioning where things were going with all the increasing controversy over Him. Was Jesus really following the best path, employing the most efficient means, choosing His words carefully enough, communicating effectively with his audience? Was he unnecessarily offending or turning people off to His message? Maybe He needed to take a break, cool His jets, reevaluate His methods and His message. It was in this context that Jesus spoke the Parable of the Sower or of the seed and the soil. Continue reading “Hahyadune?”

Text: Matthew 11:25-30
Date: Pentecost VIII (Proper 9) + 7/6/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

When our Lord Jesus Christ spoke these most comforting, inviting, empowering Gospel words, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” He was speaking, frankly, out of a bit of exasperation. We could call chapter 11 of Matthew’s Gospel “the great doubt chapter,” beginning with John the Baptist in prison sending his disciples to ask Jesus whether He really is the Messiah or if they should look for someone else. Whether it was the Baptist himself or only his disciples who doubted, Jesus invited faith as He pointed to His works and said, “blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Then as they returned to John, Jesus turned to the crowds around Him and quizzed them as to their faith and opinions and doubts. He pointed out how people generally had things quite upside down, saying, “for John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard.’” Then it was as if His blood pressure had reached its limit as “He began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.” “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum…if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

It was at that moment, and with that intense emotion, that the Lord of life, mercy and grace said a prayer; but a prayer that transformed into a gracious invitation. At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” What things? Well, think about it. First John the Baptist’s disciples were doubting, then there is a more general confusion among the people, and there is resistance to hear, to repent and to believe. “These things” are everything that has to do with the Gospel of salvation. And that they are variously hidden or revealed says that the way of this salvation is by faith. And furthermore that this thing called faith is a gift of God worked through His Word. Continue reading “Check, Please”