Becoming Blessedly Scatterbrained

Ezekiel 17:22-24; Mark 4:26-34

            Becoming blessedly scatterbrained is a good and faithful thing.   I’ll explain what I mean by this in just a few minutes.   Let’s first focus our brains on the origin of the New Testament word we translate in English as “parable.”  

            It’s rooted in two Greek words.     The first word is “para” which means “beside,” and the second word is “ballo” meaning “to cast or throw.”     So we can say that “parables are stories thrown alongside our lives.”[i]   Jesus did a good amount of this throwing alongside the lives of his disciples.   He did so, as one of my Presbyterian colleagues has pointed out, “to stimulate his audience’s imagination so that they might perceive the power and presence of God in a new and immediate way.”[ii]    He used these symbolically spoken, comparisons driven, economically worded, paradoxical parables to teach and reinforce awesome holy truth. 

             In this morning’s Gospel passage, we read of Jesus tossing out twin parables about the word kingdom as it relates to God.   What does your mind remind you about concerning kingdoms?    Beyond all the King Arthur images that might quick bob up to the surface, what you are reminded about is likely not terribly different than what came to mind for the first disciples who lived under the brazen reign of Roman emperors and whose own Jewish history was steeped in complex stories of King David.    We think of lands and ruling people that have all the privileges and perils of greatness and power.   We think of maintaining and consistently feeding certain social systems, no matter the human cost.    We think of growing kingdoms in terms of conquering other rulers and peoples.    

            To the ears of those who directly heard Jesus speak parables about God’s kingdom, and to ours today, the message is clear – God’s good rule and reign is greater than any worldly one.   By way of His God-in-person presence, Jesus made it clear that the holy kingdom was very directly, radically, and redemptively breaking-in.  It does so to take over unjust, sin-swamped ruling structures and to restore God’s loving order and great hope to all God’s children.   I really like that when it comes to God’s kingdom, some Christians prefer to call it God’s kin-dom since it is truly about being and respecting and growing the diverse family of God’s beloved community in Christ.  

            For those first century folks being pressed down by the giant thumb of Roman authority – with its deifying of human emperors, it’s idol worship, it’s hungry lions and such – this was amazing and radical news.  It doesn’t take much imagination for us to sense how much they must have wanted to receive and to be part of immediate, miraculous results as the good greater power promptly trumped the lesser.   It doesn’t take much imagination to realize they wanted to do whatever it took to make God’s fair, beautiful, inclusive kingdom grow.   Their role and responsibility in this holy revolution is what Jesus is addressing in the twin-parables of this morning’s text in Mark.   What he had to say, however, did not sound like any brave-hearted battle cry of William Wallace.

            He used the commonly understood language of farming to get his unexpected holy point across.    In our scientifically enlightened age, many of us here know what is needed to cultivate good soil.  We can explain in great detail the stages and variables of crop growth.   For Jesus and his hearers in their time, it was enough to just know that a farmer scatters seed and then lived with the day and night however-long-it-takes process of patiently waiting for the earth to mysteriously produce of itself.   It was enough to know that the sowing of something tiny and seemingly insignificant – such a simple mustard seed – can grow into a very great shelter for life.   

            These twin-parables – of the seed scatterers and the mustard seed – seem straightforward enough.   But it required human imagination then and still does today to see and accept that the almighty, eternal, egalitarian power of God works in this way.    It does not conquer and expand by violent, oppressive force.   The seeds of it – in the form of the love Jesus taught by word and personal example -- need to be sown from faithful hands, but those same hands then need to patiently fold together and trust in God alone to produce holy-timed harvests.   For the first Christians and every Christian ever since, this teaches us completely trust in Jesus while we await with great faith the further breaking-in of God’s reign of love, peace, and justice.

            We human beings are such industrious doers.   We have tried and true methods for producing the results we need, want, expect, demand.  We trust in these methods and in ourselves for carrying them out.    As another pastor puts it, “Being busy and dogmatic makes a lot of sense to us. It fits with our normal way of being human. We achieve all sorts of goods by working hard and committing ourselves to our values: well-run offices, good grades, better schools, the politicians of our choice, svelte figures, neatly trimmed lawns, and so on.”[iii]   And I know this industrious tendency certainly holds true in church life as well.  We want to know exactly how to “sow seeds” that will produce “the harvest” of more church members, more money coming in, more of whatever it takes to help us feel the local and national and global church future is secure. 

            Yes, it can be terribly hard to abide in what Jesus taught in these parables.  It feels flat out unnatural to sow, let go, and let grow in God’s grace.   The timing, depth and breadth of God’s growing kingdom is not in our control.  Once we’ve obediently scattered the Good News of Jesus Christ in every field we find ourselves in, we wait on the real power to sprout.   The grace of God is all-sufficient.  In this we place our most deeply faithful trust.

            The lesson of this parable also comes into play with regard to our parenting and grandparenting.     Mindful of this morning’s parable and today being Father’s Day, my seminary preaching professor, Dr. Alyce McKenzie, offers the following perspective –

            “Some parents are too controlling and want to tell the seed exactly what kind of plant to become.  Some parents are too lax and don't help create good conditions for the seeds to grow. While other parents are like the sower in the parable of the growing seed, they sow and wait with patience.”[iv]    As a parent in the “garden” with two daughters and a step-son in hand (so to speak), I can certainly relate on all three of these counts!  As I aspire to sow and wait with patience, I’m daily reminded of how very much I deeply trust in the gracious power of Jesus Christ alive in our lives.

            Now, back to the idea of becoming blessedly scatterbrained.    We’ve been reminded that our daily discipline as Christians is to scatter Gospel seed on the grounds of our lives.  And, again, today’s twin-parables teach us that we have to then loose our control about what happens next.   We must truly trust God is cultivating it all.    As I interpret this, we have to become blessedly scatterbrained – that is, we have to have an obedient mind always at the read to scatter the seeds, but then this same mind has to become less organized, less in control of direct outcomes.    The flightier in faith we become after we sow, the deeper our trust in God’s power to bring about holy flourishing!

            To bring this home more, and as a final illustration, let’s briefly consider last Sunday’s wonderful and successful Fairmount Country Fair.   This wasn’t just a festival … it was also and more importantly faithful farming.     It wasn’t just an event fostering family fun and helping church funds.  It was witness to our Gospel presence in this community and to our Christian commitment to faithfully work together in scattering seeds of loving welcome and hospitality.    And now that it has ended, we trust that the grace of God that inspired us to sow will then sprout up in the lives of all who gave time to planning, presenting and attending.    Let’s be blessedly scatterbrained about it, let’s realize this was more than a community event … it was a faithful happening to God’s glory and for the sake of God’s kin-dom.  Amen!

           

           

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[i] Bartlett, David L. and Taylor, Barbara Brown (2011-05-31). Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Kindle Locations 5155-5156). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition

[ii]ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/What-Good-Fathers-Know-Alyce-McKenzie-06-11-2012.html

Jesus Mail

Psalm 103:1-13, 22, 2 Corinthians 3:1-6
                                                                                                    

While I was attending Summit High School, I briefly worked for Burgdorf Realtors and then a small art gallery.   Too much alphabetical filing as an office clerk and then too much pressure moving super expensive gold-leaf frames inspired me to different employment.   So I settled into over two years of employment working for a small, local, family-run stationer and office supplies store.  

Perhaps it’s because I like creative ways of organizing tasks and schedules, artistically well-done presentations, and lots of variety when it comes to everyday tools such as pens and pushpins, I have to say I really liked most everything about selling office supplies.    I even liked moving endless and heavy amounts of boxes full of reams of copy paper because it made scrawny, bespeckled me feel young and strong.    The only thing I didn’t particularly like was the store swamping that took place every late August, when kids would come in to buy school supplies, many times paying with sweat-drenched scrunched up bills pulled out of the bottom of stinky sneakers!

As a stationer, we of course sold a good variety of high quality stuff … the nicely weighted, watermarked kind colored in bright white, beige, and a respectable looking light blue.   This quality of paper was and I assume still is properly required for resumes, official correspondences with the company letterhead, letters of recommendation, and such.  I’m quite sure that when I the associate pastor of my home church wrote a recommendation letter to Princeton Seminary admissions on my behalf, it was on some nice stock and not the standard sheets that live in photocopiers.   

I’m reliving some of the 1980’s out loud here because the historic context of today’s passage from 2 Corinthians has to do with letter writing.  Specifically, it’s about letters of recommendation.    In the very socially stratified culture of the ancient Roman Empire, such letters had great power to cement deals between people and to build up human institutions.  Like today, they would be sent from someone with a certain credibility and authority to attest to the character and qualifications of the person being recommended. 

Such letters also came into play regarding leadership in the early church.  They were carried by certain people who wanted to gain acceptance and authority and influence in ecclesial circles.   I can’t say I know where or by what authority these certain people came from.  And I can’t say what motivated them, though from our New Testament reading we can assume any number of them were sinfully self-promoting.    I understand such individuals would especially show up where a Christian community was in conflict.    They would arrive, some letter of recommendation in hand, and declare their authority as apostles – as followers of Jesus Christ carrying the Gospel to the world.  

          

One such conflicted congregation that received this attention was in the ancient Greek city of Corinth.   It’s been said that a moral cancer had been eating away at the vitals of this faith community[i]  and that the “difficulties faced by the Corinthian church are legendary.”  In addition to moral laxness, there had been fighting among various factions, arguing over spiritual gifts, abusing of the Lord’s Supper, and, to my main point this morning, following after interloping leaders.[ii]  

    

Interloping is a fun word, isn’t it?  By definition, interlopers are those who thrust themselves into the affairs of others.   And this seems exactly the right label for those letter-carrying opportunists of the early church.   We can say this because the person that planted the Corinthian church was none other than the Apostle Paul, who had lived there in Corinth about 18 months (Acts 18:1-18).

        

Given his clear status as the authentic apostle of Christ in the early church, the fact that the Corinthian Christians were a conflicted mess proved to be quite a problem.   In addressing this, Paul had to do two things at the same time -- he needed to reestablish his credibility and authority as their church leader by finding a way to discredit the interlopers, and he also needed to pastorally empower the congregation and help them get themselves back on track to rightly loving and serving the Lord as he had taught through the clout of his holy calling.

His attempt to do is found in today’s lesson.   These words reveal how he turned the entire cultural practice of letter-of-recommendation writing inside-out.    He did so emphasizing that it is the Spirit of the Living Lord that directly recommended and commissioned him and thus his “letter” was carried in and shared from his heart, mind and soul.   As the church planter, as their pastor, Paul made it clear that no human recommendation of apostolic authority counted and thus should be dismissed.  

Then, shifting focus away from what could have been interpreted as egotistical posturing and self-glorification, Paul further turned things inside-out by including every person in the community.    The faithful authority the Living Spirit of Christ had “written” on his heart was also being “written” on the heart of every member in the church community.   All, he preached, are in ministry together, all are living letters of the Lord.    All have the gifts needed to work together to recommend and mail the Good News of Jesus across their congregation, into their homes, and out into the culture-at-large.

Empowered today by this same teaching, how are you a letter written by Christ to be delivered everywhere you go?   As Paul taught elsewhere in his writing to the Corinthians (2:5-11), how are you behaving in the concrete ways of forgiveness, comfort and love?  How is your obedience in the Lord more than just a private affair and one that is known and read by many?  Inspired by Paul, I need to ask -- in what ways have I helped you and can I further help you to deliver your Jesus mail?

It’s an interesting and fresh perspective to see our congregation as a holy mail room.    It helps me take an inventory of all the faithful words and actions that come in and that go back out to God’s glory.  And, you know, in a delightful play on words, it reminds me of our baptisms, where we are “signed and sealed,” not to mention “delivered” as Christ’s own forever!  Amen.

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[i] http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1531-corinth-a-troubled-church

[ii] Bartlett, David L. and Taylor, Barbara Brown (2011-05-31). Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Kindle Location 2450). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.

It's God Calling on Lines 1, 2, and 3!

It’s God Calling on Lines 1, 2 and 3!”

Psalm 29, Isaiah 6:1-8

Trinity Sunday, June 3, 2012

Rev. Rich Gelson, Fairmount Presbtyerian Church

 

            

You’ve heard people talk about being “called” by God, right?   I know I use this wording whenever asked why I chose to become an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA).  I’ve made lots of education and career decisions that at various times seemed to be leading me in any number of directions, but I firmly believe they have all been under God’s purposefully influencing guidance.  More specifically, I say my sense of “calling” from God is why I am passionate about preaching the Bible and leading worship, about spiritually companioning any and all people, about loving our neighbors through selfless service, about small groups being the backbone of congregational health, and about Sunday School and youth ministry being critically important heartbeats for every church family’s present and future.   

           

More generally this morning, I’m wondering what you all start thinking about when I proclaim on behalf of the total witness of our Scriptures that every single one of us is uniquely called by God.    How and where does it happen that any of us flawed human creatures dare to admit that we’ve been, and continue to be, contacted and called by the Almighty?  

            

Before we consider this further, let’s reflect a moment on some ways we contact each other in this day and age.    E-mails.  Text messages.   Facebook updates and chats.   Written notes.  Greeting cards.   Talking on the phone.   Face to face interactions with loved ones, friends, colleagues, and work associates that are in person or by way of a real-time computer video services such as Skype.  In fact, just this past week Simon Kamande, who visited us from Nairobi, Kenya last year, and I began trying to set up a live video chat sometime soon.

            

I believe God, the Father, who created each of us and who redeems each of us through Jesus Christ, the Son, is fully present in all our human interactions through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.   In this way God does connect with us through every face-to-face, ear-to-ear, text-to-text, email-to-email communication.  Yet I haven’t met anyone who has straight up received a phone call or a text or a Skype request or an email or written letter or a full in-person face to face from any person of the Holy Trinity.    I don’t find this to be how God “calls” us, though a “call” may well happen as a result of those interactions.     I do enjoy joking about how my email address @gmail stands for God.mail!  

             

In all the ways they happen, “call” stories have a wonderfully mysterious and profound tone to them – whether they are about God calling someone to a particular career, church home, path of service, friendship, or committed loving relationship.   They can immediately or eventually make perfectly good sense to the people receiving and responding to them.   A brief further word of personal witness -- I believe with all my heart, mind, and soul that I received the gift of a holy vision while in my first year of graduate school.  This happening changed my career path from mental health professional to pastor.   And I am similarly convinced that I “heard” God offer a word of strong confirmation to me very early on in my relationship with my wife Stefanie.   If you take time to listen faithfully to people, especially those you love and trust, I do believe you’ll hear honest stories about how they believe God has communicated more or less directly with them at critical moments in their lives.  

            

Today’s passage from the Book of Isaiah is one person’s call story.  It’s as totally unique and curious as any of ours.   Yet I believe it also teaches how and where God most constantly contacts and calls on each of us.   This is a generally well known bit of the Bible, but since it always sounds quite bizarre, let’s quickly review …

            

This call story is about God directly contacting one particular person at one particular time in the ancient history of the Hebrew people and of the world.    God did so in order to call this person, Isaiah, to become a mighty prophet.    As we read it and hear it, the holy contact comes by way of Isaiah suddenly seeing God seated on a great throne in a heavenly court.   Flying all around the throne are several fiery, smoky, six-winged celestial beings shouting mighty praises to God the Father, Son and Spirit -- “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”   These essentially angelic beings were doing what Psalm 29 teaches us all to do.  

            

Isaiah, understandably, is awe-struck and overwhelmed to be witnessing this heavenly scene.    More specifically, he feels that because of his sinful human nature, he is very much unworthy and spiritually unclean to have been granted this great heavenly glimpse.    So he cries out a bold confession of this.   This then triggers an even more amazing ethereal experience as he senses one of the fiery, smoky, six-winged celestial beings – called a seraph – flying straight to his face and placing a burning hot piece of coal on his lips.  It does this while also offering a word of forgiveness.   It seems the wound of the sinfulness Isaiah confessed with those lips had been spiritually cauterized.   

           

Then, there’s more!   Before the call story scene ends, the newly pardoned Isaiah also experiences God speaking directly to him!  Representing the entire Trinity, he hears a voice rather rhetorically ask, “Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?”    Isaiah’s reply is immediate, faithful and famous – “Here I am, Lord, send me!”

            

This particular call story is nicely summed up by one contemporary Bible teacher with these words – Isaiah “knows he is unworthy to serve, yet what other option does he have here at the throne of God? This is not the time to say no; it is the time, in Isaiah’s words, to say woe. “Woe is me! I am lost.”  There is a deep mystery at work here, and it profoundly upsets Isaiah’s equilibrium. But in the upsetting, Isaiah is able to confess his sin, be cleansed of his guilt, and receive a clean heart. Only then can he hear God’s call with clarity.”[i]

           

I don’t know how well you can relate to experiencing seeing God enthroned in heaven.  I don’t know how well you can relate to seeing seraphs and having them speak and act in a way that offers you pardon for your sin.    My guess is it’s all too strange, and so you don’t really relate to it terribly well.    But I’m also guessing – no, let me say that I trust in faith -- that you do strongly relate to the great praise for God shouted by these seraphs, and that you do understand what inspired Isaiah’s enthusiastic reply of “Here am I, send me!”     I believe it’s why you are here in worship right now – and being in worship is the big, not-to-be missed point of this Bible passage.    In the midst of the strange and mysterious things you read about, do not overlook the fact that we are told it all happened while Isaiah was in worship on one particular day in his life.    It may well have been a day for him back then like today is for us – rather ordinary until a holy in-breaking summoned a strong commitment.  

            

 So let’s go back to the question I asked several minutes ago.   How and where does it happen that any of us flawed human creatures dare to admit that we’ve been, and continue to be, contacted and called by the Almighty?   It happens whenever and wherever we are actively worshipping the God of our biblical faith – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

            

As Fairmount Presbyterian Church, as Faithful People in Christ in this particular time and in this particular historic place, this very hour every Sunday is where we are gathered together in faith to sing holy, holy, holy praises, confess our sin, seek and receive forgiveness, and hear a fresh call to loving service through God’s Word.    Here we are!   And our worship doesn’t ever cease, for God’s sanctuary is building-less and boundless.   So when we leave this beautiful sanctuary, just as Isaiah left his worship space long ago, our faithfully committed hearts and minds go with us into our daily lives to spiritually influence the whole world for God’s sake.   

           

We go forth from here as long-time members and friends of this faith community.  One of us will go forth (hi, Emma!) as a freshly professed and confirmed part of the FPC fold.   We all go, I hope and pray, feeling spiritually renewed and urgently called to bear good witness to our Christian faith through our words and actions in all times, places, and social circles.   

            

We are all heavenly beings amongst a great diversity of heavenly beings called according to God’s purposes.   I’m glad, as perhaps are you, to not be of the fiery, smoky, six-winged variety.   Though how wonderful to also respond to the instruction we find in Psalm 29 --  “Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.”  And how wonderful as well to celebrate Psalm 29’s benediction as we too pray, “May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”  Amen.  

           

           

           

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[i] Bartlett, David L. and Taylor, Barbara Brown (2011-05-31). Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Kindle Locations 1113-1115). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.