Lev. 26:27-42; Eph. 1:1-10; Matt. 22:41-46

Questions abound today.  Every scripture reading today leaves me with questions bubbling up.  Honestly, half the time I am not sure what God is saying to me by the time I write a Morning Reflection.  Questions come, and by the afternoon hopefully some answers from scripture follow.

Today it is a flurry of strange readings.

In Leviticus we hear of the grave price of disobedience of the Sabbath and Kosher laws, that leads not just to death, but God piling the carcasses of the people on an altar!  It is often difficult to figure out what God is up to in this Wilderness Survival Guide, which forbids tattoos, clothes of mixed fibers, eating shrimp, and then requires the stoning of disobedient children.  It was a book to help that small band of followers make it though the 40 years of desert wandering alive.

In Matthew, on the heels of the Pharisees asking Jesus about the greatest commandment, he has a question for them that leaves them dumbfounded.  He asks about the Messiah and whose son they think it is.  They answer David.  Then he asks “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord?”  They have no answer for him.

The Ephesians passage seems to help me find some peace about the first two readings: “He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

Paul has a way of reminding us that we have one foot on earth and one foot in heaven.  Things of this world are not going to make sense!  But that does not mean we ignore them or cast them aside, but help to see them in context.  (See how that was helpful in Leviticus too!?)  The goal with everything, including Kosher laws, is to ask the purpose of the Law and not lose sight of them – but whether they bring us closer to God and to neighbor.

What does God want from us?  These days we are threatened with poverty around the world.  What are we supposed to do?   Shut ourselves off from world hunger and homelessness?  Horde all our money for ourselves?  Build fences?  As families break apart how are we to read the Law in a way that can help people see their way forward into true family values?

What is God’s will for us in this dark time, so that we may help usher in the fullness of time?  How have we answered the questions of this generation and yet missed a key component?  What is that key component?

Is the Church called to stand up and flex its political power?  When are we to sit idly by, and when are we to step up and take on the principalities and powers?

Deep in the cracks of our scriptures today, these questions seep to the surface and they beg to be asked.   I leave these answers for you.

-Matt

Lev. 26:1-20; 1 Tim. 2:1-6; Matt. 13:18-23

Do these following words sound familiar? “Who is in a position to condemn?  Only Christ.  And Christ rose for us; Christ reigns in power for us; Christ prays for us.”  These words are a common Assurance of Pardon in the Presbyterian Church.  Today in 1 Timothy we encounter the fullness of its power.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life….For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and the world: the man Jesus Christ.”

Christ prays for us…intercedes on our behalf.

I cannot tell you the comfort it brings to me to know that Jesus in our intercessor.  His care and concern for us goes well beyond his life or even his death, but continues for us today.  In fact, through our baptism, we have been grafted into Christ, and he is a part of us and we are a part of him.

This is why we pray in his name, because we are remembering that through Christ that we have come to be in a mystical union with God.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, through prayer, just as with the sacraments, or preaching, or foot-washing, we can be vaulted to heaven in a bond with God that cannot be broken.

I love hymnody and often scripture has spoken most powerfully through the gift of music.  The hymnbook also preaches.  Today is one of those days, where one of my favorite hymns captures the essence of the mystical bound of love that is shared in 1 Timothy.  The last verse of The Church’s One Foundation:

Yet she on earth hath union (“she” meaning the church)

with God the Three in One,

and mystic sweet communion

with those whose rest is won.

O happy ones and holy!

Lord, give us grace that we

like them, the meek and lowly,

on high may dwell with thee.

May God fill our hearts with the power of prayer, where we can experience the mystical union and great love that God has for us.  May we also grow into God’s desire for our life, and find a centeredness that radiates peace forevermore, that we may dwell with God in that mystic sweet communion in the here and now.

-Matt

Lev. 25:35-55; Col. 1:9-14; Matt. 13:1-16

Ordinary Time.  Such a strange term. Used to describe the vast amount of time following the 50 days of Easter.  If you’ve been hanging out in the church a while, we take down all the white banners, put up green ones, and we enter into this long, green season that last most of the summer, into the fall, right up until Advent.  It is marked by scripture readings that emphasize growth, faith, and maturing in Christ.

Today’s Gospel reading fits right into that overarching theme of Ordinary Time, with the Parable of the Sower.  Matthew explores the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.  In the parable of the sower some seed falls on good soil, some on rocky soil, the birds eat some seeds, the sun scorches other seedlings, some fall amongst the thorns.

With Jesus telling the story you know there is going to be a twist.  One of those twists is that the parable appears to be about “people who hear parables.”  Some folks get it, some don’t.  I suppose I was always one of the inquiring kids in confirmation that simply DIDN’T get it.  What did Jesus really mean?

Here it becomes abundantly clear that “getting it” is of utmost importance.  If you do not understand the secrets of the kingdom, not only do you not produce fruit, but you yourself may be scorched or pulled up.

I can get very animated in Thursday Noon Bible.  I remember doing that about the parables a while back, trying to steer people away from turning parables into analogies.  Simply reducing it to analogy and assigning parts, it losses its depth of meaning.  But here in Matthew’s gospel is one of the rare examples we have when Jesus later explains his own parable (although it is explained later and not in today’s passage).

It is clear the kingdom of heaven is headed toward abundant growth.  Jesus makes it clear that some seed will bring forth a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  And some in the crowd, namely the disciples, are hearing and “getting it.”  But notice the growth of the crowd itself!  The crowd is so great Jesus is now in a boat, with the people gathering on the shore to hear him.

Is Jesus reflecting on the growth of his message?  Perhaps.

He is talking to farmers.  These are people tied to the land, and they know about abundance.  They know that growth happens exponentially.  If the secrets of the kingdom are like this seed, the possibility for those secrets getting out like wildfire are all the more likely.

This is the abundance of the good news of the gospel – that anyone can come to this text and learn about the gracious abundance God has in store for us, learn the secrets of the kingdom, and live into a new life.  When taken in conjunction with the rest of the good news, we realize we have been grafted into the heart of Christ (more farming analogy!) and that Jesus is the true vine.  We realize that the secrets of the kingdom are Jesus himself!

My perspective on this parable has changed over the years!  Has that ever happened to you?  So here is my new perspective – that it is primarily a story of good news – that the words themselves are good soil, and provide a foundation for my own words and actions to be rooted in something great – into Christ, who brings about a flourish of divine intervention in our lives.

-Matt