We are Stuck on the Wrong Question

Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” 

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

What are we to do about evil?  That seems to be the question.  Evil IS a thing!  Whether you choose to acknowledge it or you choose to pull your covers or cope up over your head and ignore it… Evil remains a thing either way.  So what are we supposed to do about it?  God, we are told, is only sowing good seeds, so there is clearly an “enemy”… an “evil one”… the “devil”… whatever… planting evil among God’s good.  But again, “What are we supposed to do about it?”

We see “the enemy” sows evil in the tricksiest of ways.  The weeds sown in this parable were a particular, poisonous weed that looks EXACTLY like wheat as it begins to grow in the field.  Those who sow evil in this world plant it knowing it will not spread without help.  So they sow evil in a way that tricks those of us who are inclined to fight against evil into unwittingly helping them with their dirty work.  In our zeal, we end up inadvertently doing harm along with the good… pulling up wheat along with the weeds.  

And while many get duped into helping spread evil while trying to do good, others… the ones Jesus calls “children of the evil one”… are recruited to spread evil by way of trauma, manipulation, lies, and fear.  Still the question remains… What ARE we to do about evil?  

Well, first, it seems this parable teaches us we are NOT to hide from it or ignore it.  Both farmer and slaves all saw what happened.  They recognized what it was, talked to each other about it, and they named it out loud, without fear, calling out clearly: “An enemy has done this.”  

So we too are to bravely look out the window and see it!  We are to recognize the evil and publicly bring it to the attention of others.  We are to name it in a Jack Webb, “just the facts, ma’am” sort of way, that neither sensationalizes the evil nor sweeps it under the rug.  We are not to worry about who might get angry or about institutional self-preservation when we point it out.  We are simply to shout it out!  “That is evil.”  

But calling it out?  That can’t be all… can it?  Come on!  What are we to DO about evil?  Well, this is where this particular parable becomes excruciatingly hard because this parable teaches us that once we’ve seen evil, recognized it, and publicly called it out… we are… to let it be.  You heard that right.  We are to let it be.  

Oh, I know!  I don’t like it either!  The quote* “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing” pounds on the inside of my head in protest!  Yet this parable INSISTS that even those of us who set out to be as careful, diligent, and attentive as is humanly possible as we work to rip evil out of the world… we will ALL inevitably, albeit unintentionally, end up doing more harm than good!  The best thing we can do, this parable INSISTS, is… to let it be.  

Jesus’ explanation is really clear.  The work of separating evil from good is work that is well beyond our mortal pay grade.  It is work only the angels have the skills to accomplish, and it is work to be done at a time determined by, and under the direction of, the Divine.  

BUT… BUT… BUT… does that mean there is NOTHING that WE are to DO to fight against the evil overtaking our world!?!?  Jesus’ answer seems maddeningly clear. “NO”… there is nothing we are to do to fight against the evil in our world beyond seeing it, drawing others’ attention to it, and then publicly and fearlessly naming it.  Going head to head with evil, trying to overpower evil, pushing back against evil… all of it will only assist the evil in making the situation worse.

So, that’s it then!?  The answer to the question, “What should we do to fight against evil?” is just… let it be?  Really?  Really!?

Really.  But “What should we do to fight against evil?” is not the only question we can ask.  I think Jesus told this parable to get us asking a different question.  To get us to stop asking “how do we fight AGAINST evil?” and instead start asking a better question, like… “what can we do… FOR good?”

While it turns out there is nothing for us to do when it comes to fighting AGAINST evil, there is an abundance of things we can do when it comes to working FOR good!  We can love our neighbor.  We can do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.  We can lift up the widow and care for the orphan, feed the hungry, heal the sick, and welcome the foreigner.  

Evil’s nature is to invite us into fight after fight after fight knowing that all the time we spend fighting evil, will be time we are NOT working for the good that Jesus knows can actually transform the world.  AND… every time we accept Evil’s invitation to a fight, we will also inevitably be ripping out some of the good, even while we’re trying our hardest to only get rid of evil!  

This parable is teaching us that fighting against evil head to head is not our fight.  As hard as it is to hear, we need to let that fight go.  We are neither called to that fight, nor are we equipped for that fight and when we get drawn into that fight, it always, always, always makes things worse.  

This parable tells us plainly, fighting against evil is angel-level work.  Jesus himself is asking us to let the angels take that fight!  Our work… beyond fearlessly seeing and naming and calling out the evil that we see, is NOT to work AGAINST evil, but to work FOR the good.  We are to do as John Wesley is often quoted as saying**… “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”  Let anyone with ears listen.  Amen.  

* Quote is often attributed to Edmund Burke without any evidence he really said it.

**No one can find where Wesley said this in this way all at one time.  It is probably a quotable consolidation that developed over time from things he often said. 

Like a Bony-eared Assfish

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

"But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
    we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

“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, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus asked, to what should we compare this generation?  It is like a bunch of petulant, peevish, irritable, huffy, sullen, sulky, testy and touchy students hurling artless, idiotic, unimaginative, hackneyed, tedious, sluggish and moronic insults across the playground of the Remedial School for the Terminally Imbecilic.

THAT is what Jesus’ generation was like!  In Jesus’ generation the rulers probably took Cicero’s parable of the Sword of Damocles and renamed it the Sword of Dumocles thinking they were clever… oblivious to the irony!  They probably explained that they just took out the “a” and replaced it with a “u” because people who listen to Greek parables are dumb… get it?  They’re dumb!  

Fortunately for you and me… OUR generation has evolved… is wiser… more sophisticated… more mature… better educated… honorable and well mannered.  NOT!  On the contrary, our generation seems to have the smarts of the Bony-eared Assfish, a real deep-sea fish which is often listed as nature’s top contender for the least intelligent vertebrate on the planet.  

And you know what?  Living in a world where so many people and our country's leadership make the Bony-eared Assfish look like a Mensa candidate, leaves a person… WEARY.  Continuously and repeatedly working to rise above the schoolyard antics of the Remedial School for the Terminally Imbecilic is physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausting.  It is a HEAVY burden.

So how are we supposed to do this?  Our country continues to punch itself in the face… and, by the way, when you Google “punching yourself in the face” the first search result you get back is “Help is Available” with a link to a self-harm hotline!  And how I WISH calling that number would help!  

So preacher man!  What IS the answer?  For that, I’m going to need to defer to my Boss.  And I’m not talking about Kelly, or my mom.  Not a bishop either… moving diagonally, sadly won’t help any of this!  No.  For this… we need Jesus.  The way to live among THIS completely Wack-A-Doo generation… led by the very bottom of the class of students from the Remedial School for the Terminally Imbecilic, and not be drown in an American Flag Blue colored pool of despair, is to yoke ourselves to Jesus.  

The lesson tells ALL who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens to come to Jesus, and Jesus will give us rest.  The lesson today reminds us to BIND OURSELVES to Jesus who is gentle, humble, instructive and comforting rather than continuing to bind ourselves any longer to our phones, to doom-scrolling or to swimming laps in a pool which reflects only the chartreuse hues of malpractice and gross neglect.  

Okay then preacher man, what does THAT look like?  Well, binding ourselves to Jesus… yoking ourselves to Jesus… can look like a number of things but UNBINDING ourselves from the phone probably IS the best place to start.  After that, sitting outside and letting the breeze blow through your hair (or around the place your hair used to be) and remembering that the breeze IS the Holy Spirit, which Jesus himself sent to be with us always…  That’s not a bad way to yoke yourself to Jesus.  Prayer and meditation are millennial favorites of many of the most Jesus-connected folks from history.  Those who sport outfits like this would remind you that the Sacraments are also an excellent way to connect with Jesus… having the Body and Blood of Christ running around inside you is, after all, pretty connected! 

 

But, if you are looking for relief from this unhinged, unglued, unbalanced, unzipped, nutty as a fruitcake, sophomorically malignant world… the best thing I can recommend… the best thing Jesus himself recommends… is to hook yourself one notch more closely… to this bunch... to this community.  To the people gathered right here… to the folks sitting all around you today… who are together… in some mystical way… the living, breathing, loving Body of Christ.  

I know, I know… you personally don’t feel much like the Body of Christ yourself and to be honest… you're not!  None of us are by ourselves.  But somehow… TOGETHER… WE REALLY ARE the Body of Christ… and together… in some mysterious, wonder-filled way… hooking more deeply into this compassionate, genuinely loving, kindness-giving community of people will, I truly believe, give your soul the rest that all of our souls so desperately need in these most troubling times. 

Are you weary?  I am.  Are the burdens of this world too heavy?  They are for me!  Then let's go to Jesus.  Let's sit and be still in his presence.  Let's unload our worries on him in prayer.  Let's commune with him in the sacraments and scooch just a little bit closer to the loving folks sitting all around us in the place, and the Body of Christ WILL give our souls some very much needed rest.  Amen.  

Lessons from the Redneck Riviera

Matthew 10:40-42

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

I grew up in Northwest Florida.  They called it the Redneck Riviera because that’s where all the redneck Alabama families would go to vacation.  You know, now that I think about it, Kelly’s from Alabama… and her family vacationed there.  Hold on!  Wait a minute!  Could my Kelly be from a Redneck Alabama family?  What?  

Anyway, that area of Florida has every species of poisonous snake that lives in the United States, all in one place.  I’m also Gen X which means I was often out in the woods for 10 to 12 hours every day in the summer completely unsupervised, mostly barefoot, and totally feral.  That combination developed in me a VERY fined-tuned sense of situational awareness.  I NOTICE what’s going on around me at all times!  I can FEEL if there is something or someone close to me.  Knowing every step you take can be potentially deadly turns out to be a very effective way to learn to notice what’s going on around you.

Moving North, I noticed people’s situational awareness was less developed.  In Maine, where there are no poisonous snakes at all, there seemed to be no situational awareness at all.  I know correlation does not mean causality, but when you push your cart up to someone blocking the whole aisle at the supermarket and they remained completely oblivious to your presence?  I mean, if I was a snake, I would have bit ‘em!  

Anyway, I tell you all that, because I think the very first step in Welcoming the “Little Ones” or anyone else, for that matter, is NOTICING THAT THEY ARE THERE!  WE NEED TO SEE THEM.  WE NEED TO SEE THE OTHER IN ORDER TO WELCOME THE OTHER.  

And we need to notice them.  We need to see them.  Not for what they can do for us.  Not as potential movers of the needle, drivers of efficiency, or optimizers of work flow.  NO!  We need to notice them as fellow human beings… in communion with us, in communion with creation, and in communion with the Divine.  We need to notice them for their ability to care, love, mess up, repent and tell the truth.  We need to notice them, not for what in them can be mined, manipulated, and monetized, but as beloved children of God.  We need to notice the other, as a living WONDER… A MIRACLE, made in, and reflecting nothing less than the image of the Divine.

In his recent encyclical, Pope Leo writes that the quality of a civilization is measured not by its power, but by the care it offers: reading stories to a child; keeping company with an elderly person; making a home welcoming.  

Philosopher Jim Stump reflecting on what the Pope wrote says “These are not inefficient tasks waiting to be automated. They are practices through which we become human.”  He says, “Maybe one day AI will read stories (to children) with flawless pacing and perfect voices.  Maybe it will keep an elderly person company with inexhaustible patience.  Maybe it will recommend the ideal arrangement of furniture, lighting, and music to make a home feel welcoming.  Fine.  But WE still need to read to children.  WE still need to sit with the elderly.  WE still need to make places hospitable for others with our own hands and attention.  If we outsource care itself, WE lose something — maybe not for the person on the receiving end (though I’m not convinced of this yet), but certainly for the person who would have given care.”

I think the "something" we loose, when we fail to NOTICE the other, is connection… not just with a fellow human being… but with the God… with the Holy… with the Divine.  I believe that developing, growing, nurturing, and practicing the skill of NOTICING… the skill of genuinely SEEING the other is honing the tools needed to welcome the prophet, welcome the righteous, welcome the little one, welcome Jesus, AND welcome the One who sent him.   

Now, if you wanted to practice NOTICING, you could move to North Florida and walk around barefoot all summer.  A less potentially deadly way to practice noticing would be to look directly into the eyes of the person you are talking to long enough to register their eye color.  Determining their eye color isn’t the point.  The point is that the 4 or 5 seconds it takes to register someone’s eye color turns out to be the same 4 or 5 seconds it takes for us to profoundly SEE the other and for the other to FEEL profoundly and deeply seen.

The world is super busy, always rushed and driven for what it calls efficiency.  Let’s slow it down.  Let’s take time to sit together with our shoes off, touch grass.  Let’s pause to consider what was just said rather than racing to respond.  Let’s sit and look into the eyes of the other, tell stories, laugh, be at ease with one another.  I believe that in doing that we will come to notice, sitting right there in front of us is a creation which contains and reflects the image of the Divine… THE IMAGE OF THE DIVINE… for crying out loud!  And once we see that... welcoming them, caring for them, giving them what they need to fully live… not just what they need to get by, but what they need to live abundantly… will become as simple as handing someone a cold cup of water.  Amen. 

Bruce

 Hosea 5:15—6:6

I will return again to my place

  until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.

  In their distress they will beg my favor:

 “Come, let us return to the Lord,

  for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;

  he has struck down, and he will bind us up.

After two days he will revive us;

  on the third day he will raise us up,

  that we may live before him.

Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;

  his appearing is as sure as the dawn;

 he will come to us like the showers,

  like the spring rains that water the earth.”

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

  What shall I do with you, O Judah?

 Your love is like a morning cloud,

  like the dew that goes away early.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

  I have killed them by the words of my mouth,

  and my judgment goes forth as the light.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

  the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Have you seen the movie, Bruce Almighty?  It’s not new.  You may have, in fact, rented it from Blockbuster… perhaps even on VHS!  Eeek!  Bruce, played by Jim Carrey, wanted to know what it felt like to be God, played by Morgan Freeman.  So, God obliged and among other things, Bruce used his new-found powers to part his tomato soup like it was the Red Sea.

But Bruce was not the first character to be shown what it feels like to be God.  The first was Hosea.  God wanted the prophet Hosea to understand what it felt like to be God in relationship with God’s people.  So, God had Hosea get married to the town’s most infamous prostitute.  Apparently what it feels like to be God, in relationship with God’s people is… “interesting” from the start.  

God tells Hosea to treat his spouse with an abundance of love, grace, generosity, and tender care, no matter what, BECAUSE, that’s how God treats God’s people… no matter what.  So that’s what Hosea does.  But Hosea’s wife… she loves the nightlife, she’s got to boogie… so off she goes, leaving Hosea.  Apparently, part of what it feels like to be God in relationship with God’s people is feeling… unappreciated… unwanted… abandoned.  

Still though, God does not direct Hosea to give up on her.  Instead God tells Hosea to go out and find her, no matter how far she’s gone.  That turns out to be easier said than done, but Hosea does eventually find her.  She’s gotten herself sold into slavery, but Hosea buys her freedom.  And apparently, all of that too is what it feels like to be God, in relationship with God’s people.  It feels like a perpetually repeating search and rescue operation for a less than grateful spouse.  

At this point, maybe you’re wondering if this story arc will eventually reveal some deeply hidden gratitude… some wonderful and redeeming qualities in Hosea’s wife that have at long last been cracked open by Hosea’s unwavering love and devotion?  No.  We’re not getting any of that.  Apparently, that too though, is how God feels in relationship with God’s people.  It feels like giving a Divine-Sized investment of love, kindness, generosity and care… and getting a return on that investment from God’s people of… bupkis, squat, nada, zilch, zip, nothing.  

And yet, Hosea learns that God remains undeterred.  God’s character is not changed by the ungrateful response of God’s people.  God continues to be God, regardless of how God’s people respond and that means God always continues doing Hesed, because Hesed is the core of God’s character.  

Hesed, as you might have guessed, is a Hebrew word and it isn’t easy to translate.  In the Hosea passage it is translated as Steadfast Love.  When Jesus uses Hosea’s words in today’s Gospel it gets translated as Mercy.  In other places it might be translated as compassion, righteousness, loving-kindness or faithfulness, just to name a few.  All are correct.  None are complete.  It’s a word that’s used to describe what God is like… which is probably why we have trouble pinning down it’s full meaning.   

But Hesed is the way God works in Creation.  

Hesed is how Jesus dealt with the tax collectors and the sinners… and even the Pharisees.

Hesed is how Jesus cared for the hemorrhaging woman.

Hesed is the way Jesus cared for the devastated father whose daughter had died.

Hesed is how Jesus cared for his dead little girl.

And HESED is how God deals with the likes of you… and even the likes of me!  

God deals with us, exclusively with steadfast love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, healing and life.  Giving more generously than Oprah ever imagined giving out cars!  

God deals with us this way NOT because of who WE are, but because of WHOSE we are… Because of WHO God is.    

WE are God’s beloved and we remain God’s Beloved, no matter how many times we wander off to boogie… in spite of our chronic drought of gratitude… in spite of our profound shortage of “redeeming qualities”… God loves us.  God refuses to let us go.  God comes and finds us when we’ve gotten ourselves hopelessly lost.  God lifts us up when life face plants us in the muck.  God will spend any amount to buy us out of our stuck-ness.  AND God will do all that… all of that… REGARDLESS of our response!  Because doing HESED is the very core of God’s true character!  

We live in a time where people invoke God’s name but insist that God acts in ways directly opposed to God’s true character.  We live in a world where God’s name is used to insist that compassion is weakness, cruelty is power, and our fellow human beings only have value if they can be monetized. 

Hosea is here to remind us what God is REALLY like.  Who God REALLY is.  Hosea is here to remind us that God is full of compassion, full of loving kindness, full of steadfast love and full of mercy for ALL of creation… EVEN for the parts of creation that make themselves the most difficult to love.   

God has, and always will, shower us with Hesed… regardless of  how we respond, because THAT is God’s true character.  As we grow in the understanding of the enormity of that gift, we have the opportunity to emulate God’s character ourselves, and show Hesed to the people WE meet each day.  When we are able to do that… and granted, the world makes that a very challenging ask… but when we can do that, we do nothing less than show the world the true face of God, and THAT is a face this world is desperate… desperate to see.  Amen.