17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Homily preached at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, Indiana)
(Homily preached at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, Indiana)
Genesis 29:15-28
Psalm 105
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Often times…Most times
when I go to make Chocolate
chip cookies
I find myself confronted by
my brown sugar
That is…I find it, not in
soft measurable form
But in concrete form…hockey puck form
Or maybe for those of you who
don’t bake
It might be like setting out
to get a fix-it job done
and realizing that you need
trips to two different hardware stores first
The point is…I have a homily…I
do
But I have a few brown sugar
rocks to work through
there are a few things that need
attention first
#1:
You know the phrase ‘Bait and
Switch’
It is when all the glossy and
sleek marketing
let’s you believe you are
getting one thing…
and then it comes in the mail
and it bears little resemblance to what you thought
you were paying $49.95 for!
Laban understands this
tactic!
Yikes! What about that
Genesis text?
Laban, Jacob, Rachel and
Leah…and let’s not forget Zilpah!
Honestly I don’t know what to
say about it.
But I have to say something
because it is a horrifying story…isn’t it?
I mean…beyond the Bait and Switch, something we can
actually understand in today’s world…
There are the women…
The absolutely invisible
women - with no voice at all.
They are just property
Property that is judged on
beauty
And then given as objects…part
of a bartering negotiation
Now I know that was thousands
of years ago…I know that
But it is also sacred
scripture
This and other such texts
have been used through the years to justify all sorts of non-Gospel ways of
living
So…Here is what I can say
Hearing this story today
Challenges me/us to listen…
carefully
Listen to the stories that
meet our ears everyday
Old stories, stories in the
news, family stories,
stories I hear
and stories I tell…
I am challenged to listen carefully
for the voices that are not
invited to speak
The voices that would most
certainly tell the story differently
Brown sugar rock #2
This week I have been at a
preaching conference in Southbend
And the subject of one of the
talks was how preaching really is a conversation because
We all have an outer voice…we
know about those
We also have an inner voice …And
we know about those as well…
We know about our inner voice
...but I’m not sure we pay
much attention to it really
So as I was listening to some
preaching…it WAS a preaching conference
And the homilist said
something like
“All preaching is a gift of
grace…or all preaching is filled with the Holy Spirit”
something like that
I heard my inner voice!
which…because of earlier talk…I
was paying special attention to…
I heard it say:
“I don’t think we’ve been
listening to the same preaching”
Now…Yours is talking right
now…right?
Maybe it is saying: ‘Where IS
she going with this???”
So let’s pause and I ask you
to try and recall
what your inner voice was saying
when you heard the phrase
“and throw them into the furnace of
fire,
where there will be wailing and gnashing
of teeth”
…
We heard it last week too!
Was your inner voice active? Mine was.
Did you feel all warm and
fuzzy inside?
Or did your ears perk up like
they do when they hear
Plain ole mean and nasty!
I can tell you that I have
never heard a sermon on the wailing and gnashing of teeth!
What does it mean?
My confession is
that…considering literary hyperbole
And even though it sounds
harsh and mean
I like it…or at least I
believe
It offers a valuable insight,
a corrective even…albeit in very stark terms.
These end-times judgment
passages
remind us that life matters.
Our choices matter.
The way we live and the way
we love matters.
They remind us that there is
something ultimate at stake.
What is so very clear in
these passages
is that this is ‘an end of the age’ activity
and this judgment belongs exclusively to GOD
I believe that is why we come
here
Doesn’t our very gathering
give witness to the fact that
we believe that our lives,
our choices, the generousness
of our loving…
doesn’t being here say: ‘YES,
we know it matters?
We know that something is at
stake…something ultimate?
And, doesn’t our presence
testify that
by golly, we are trying our
darndest to keep getting better at it!
And we church people
are honest about something
else
We have found that it is
easier to get better at ‘kingdom living’ with a little help from our friends
Okay
Brown sugar rocks out of the
way
5 and a half parables to go!!
5 and a half parables…
all nibbling around the
mystery of this kingdom of heaven…kingdom, reign, realm…
The kingdom of heaven is
like…
The kingdom of heaven is
like…
Can you finish that with a
parable of your own?
In my life…in my
experience…the kingdom of heaven is like…
It is hard isn’t it?
5 and a half parables…but it
is 3 and 4 that caught my imagination
1 and 2 play with the
hiddenness and invisibility of the kingdom highlighting the promise of growth.
But 3 and 4 have a different
emphasis.
My grandmother/Mommom on my
father’s side…the Italian side
married…by an arranged
marriage…at the age of 14.
And at 15 came the first of
eight children – 6 of which survived
My grandfather worked his
whole life in the slate quarries of eastern PA.
I suppose you would call them
poor
But they didn’t think so
Every square inch of their
postage stamp sized lot was filled with something useful
Something to eat or to
trade…there was a chicken coop, grape vines, fruit trees and a plentiful garden
Mommom loved music…she was
always singing
…rolling out pasta and
singing…keeping rhythm with her rolling pin
Somehow…she managed it, that
each of the children received music lessons.
For my Dad it was the
clarinet…he loves the clarinet
But he hated that he had to
pay for his lessons with eggs,
or vegetables, or berries.
He recalled to me recently
how he used to complain to his Mom
“why can’t we pay with real
money like everyone else does”
The Kingdom of heaven is like a mother who sacrifices
much to share the joy of music with her children…even though they don’t get it.
The kingdom of heaven is like
something that happens…something people do for
the joy of it!
The kingdom is like the
hidden treasure
Unexpectedly found…but not
just that…
It is like selling everything
for the joy of it!
The kingdom is like being on
the hunt and finding what one truly desires.
And then giving everything
over for the joy of it!
We are here…In part…Because
The Kingdom of heaven is like
us
the people of St Stephen’s gathered
on Sunday
gathered to give thanks and
praise to God as the assembled body of Christ
in this little corner of New
Harmony Indiana
The kingdom of heaven is like
the people of St Stephen’s gathering
Because we really do want to
be better at taking this sweet taste of the kingdom…
out there.
And the Kingdom of heaven is
more than that even
The Kingdom of heaven is the
hope of what might happen out there when we do
The kingdom of heaven is both a gift and a promise
Perhaps Matthew knew already
back when he was writing his gospel
That we would need lots of
parables about the Kingdom
Perhaps he knew
how much we would need to be
reminded
that it is near…very near
Even when it seems so absent.
The Kingdom of heaven is
like…
The kingdom of heaven is
like…dot dot dot
It is a good exercise to fill
in that blank…
Let’s do it
Let’s all try it this week
My guess is that in the stuff
of daily life
We will find the makings of some
really good Kingdom parables
And maybe if we practice scripting
them
We will, in fact, notice the
sights and sounds of the kingdom more crisply.
Not rose colored glasses but kingdom-colored
glasses
We will hear stories from the
perspective of the silenced ones
…the Leah’s and the Rachel’s
and the Zilpah’s
We will remember that what we
do,
and how we think, and how we love matters
…or else;)
And with all that practice
Perhaps when we find or
stumble upon the kingdom of heaven
in a field, or in an oyster, or in a stranger…
the sacrifice of giving over our all won’t feel like a sacrifice at
all
It will just be for the joy of it
