Pentecost VI - Lynn Campbell

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

In the name of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

When I was in college I played on our school’s volleyball team. Being on the team felt like a full time job. I was in the gym at least once a day, ate dinner each night with my teammates, and traveled the east coast for games. We were in training and it took complete focus. If I or another team member didn’t do our part, the entire team suffered. Being in training affected every decision I made during that time in my life.

All of us are in training for something much more important than any sports team. We are in training for the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells his disciples, “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of this treasures what is new and what is old.” Trained for the kingdom of heaven. What exactly does that mean? And what is this Kingdom we are in training for? We are told what it is like. It is like a tiny mustard seed that when hidden in the ground and properly cared for will grow into a large shrub providing shade for the people and a home for the birds. It is like a fine pearl, that because of its great value, the merchant willingly sells all that he has in order to posses it. It is like yeast that is carefully mixed with flour and allowed to leaven. As is often the case in scripture, we don’t have an easy answer. Rather, Jesus engages our imaginations. We are invited to reflect on what this kingdom of God is like, while knowing that it is certainly far better than anything we could imagine.

We know that Jesus has inaugurated the Kingdom of God. We know it is of great value and is slowly breaking through the ground, slowly rising. The kingdom is here. Yet we also know that the kingdom is not fully present. If we have any doubt of this, all we have to do is look at the news and see the terror experienced by those in Norway on Friday. Hatred and violence are still alive. The kingdom of God is already present, yet not full realized. So, we continue to pray, “they kingdom come” and we continue to be a people in training for the kingdom. In his book “God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Times” Archbishop Desmond Tutu articulates what it is we are in training for, what God has initiated. He writes of his hope for a church and a society in which:

“people matter more than things, more than possessions; where human life is not just respected but positively revered; where people will be secure and not suffer from the fear of hunger, from ignorance, from disease; where there will be more gentleness, more caring, more sharing, more compassion, more laughter; where there is peace and not war.”^[i]

What a beautiful illustrations of the Kingdom of God. THIS is what we are in training for. THIS is what we are called to make real.

As Christians we do not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting passively for the bread to rise or the seed to grow. We are invited to plant and nurture the seeds, to mix the yeast into the flour, to be the hands and feet of God in this world. We are called to do our part to bring about God’s kingdom of justice and peace. It is in Christian community that we train for this work of kingdom building. How are we, as individuals and as members of Christ Church, being called to contribute to the Kingdom of God that is already present, yet not fully realized?

The Rev. Stephanie Spellers, a priest in our Diocese, recently wrote an article that sheds light on this question.^[ii] She argues that the church is called to be a community that embodies, proclaims, and serves the Kingdom of God. Through our participation in Christian community we are saying yes to embodying, proclaiming, and serving the Kingdom. We are saying yes to the desire to be part of bringing about a church and a society like the one Archbishop Tutu describes.  At Christ Church we embody the Kingdom in our worship each time we welcome a stranger, recognizing the face of Christ in that person. When we treat one another with respect, when we cross boundaries and enter into relationship with someone we perceive as different, when we practice the reconciling love of God, we are embodying the Kingdom. When Skip invites everyone to share in the Eucharistic feast, we are embodying the Kingdom. We don’t do this perfectly, but we are in training to embody the Kingdom with greater authenticity.

As people who embody the kingdom, we are also challenged to proclaim it. This isn’t just the responsibly of those of us in the pulpit. It is a responsibility we all share. The life-giving message of Jesus, the dream of God’s world of justice and peace, is good news. It is good news that we are compelled to share with people outside the walls of the church.

And as a community we are called to serve the kingdom. We are challenged to put the work of justice and peace building at the center of all we do. As we hear in Micah: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” We do this in our work in Haiti and in Boston. We do this through our ministry with shelter cooking and each time we bring a meal to a fellow parishioner who is sick.

This really just scratches the surface of what it means to embody, proclaim and serve the kingdom. It is my prayer that as a community of faith we will engage more deeply in this mission and discern together how God is calling us to live more fully into dream of God.

I want to close with an illustration of just one of the ways in which members of our congregations are embodying, proclaiming, and serving the kingdom. Many of you know of Susan Retik, a resident of Needham, who lost her husband in the attacks of 9/11. In her grief, she did not turn in on herself, but instead turned to the women of Afghanistan. Susan co-founded Beyond the 11th, an organization that empowers widows in Afghanistan who have been afflicted by war, terrorism, and oppression and who have no means to feed, clothe, or shelter their children. To raise money for this organization Susan began “Beyond the Bike,” a bike ride that honors all the victims and rescuers who lost their lives on 9/11 but also celebrates the countless acts of courage and humanity that have marked the decade since.

Two of our parishioners, Janine McGuire and Katie Chiappinelli, are in training for this event. Janine will bike the 270 miles from Ground Zero to Boston and Kate will join the bikers for the last 25 miles. These two women are examples of what it looks like to be in training for the Kingdom. They, along with the many other bikers, are embodying the kingdom with each petal of their bikes, they are proclaiming the possibility of a more just world and they are serving the kingdom through the money and awareness they raise. They are crossing the cultural, political and religious boundaries that exist between us and the Afgani people and they are carrying God’s reconciling love into the world. They are doing the work of the Kingdom.

The kingdom is something we are all in training for- it doesn’t matter our age or our physical abilities. I know I can’t bike 270 miles, but there are so many other ways God is calling me and God is calling each of you to embody, proclaim and serve the kingdom. I pray that we will each find new ways of being in the world. I pray that together we discern new ways of bringing the message of Christ’s reconciling love into the world, so that God’s kingdom will come.

[i] Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 63.
[ii] Spellers, Stephanie, The Church Awake: Becoming the Missional People of God.

Pentecost IV - Lynn Campbell

Isaiah 55:10-13, Mt 13: 1-9, 18-23

Today’s Gospel reading is a familiar one to many of us. So familiar, in fact, that it’s easy to tune out. It’s easy to sit back and passively let the words fall on us with little active engagement with them. We might be tempted to start thinking about the grocery list or what we are going to do after church this morning. That is the danger with familiar stories. But it also goes against the very words and message of Jesus’ parable. This story from the Gospel of Matthew is often referred to as the Parable of the Sower. But it also seems to me to be the Parable of the Soil. The soil and the sower. The one who receives and the one who shares. It is a call to hear and understand the word of God and to share it abundantly with others.

On Friday I was at my aunt’s house in New Hampshire. I was outside admiring her beautiful garden filled with wonderfully alive plants and flowers. I pointed out my favorite- a blue hydrangea tucked back in the corner. She explained to me, who knows nothing about gardening, that she has been trying to get it to flower for years with no success. She finally determined it must be because of poor soil. So she took her hoe and started to do the slow work of breaking up the soil. Then she bought some cow manure and mixed into the soil. Now, the hydrangea is blooming beautifully for all to appreciate.

It took some hard work before the soil was ready to bear fruit. But in time, it did. And the same goes with each of us. I imagine that we all have some hardness in us, maybe from past hurts or present pain, that needs to be broken open. Maybe “the cares of the world and the lure of wealth” threaten to strangle the word of God in us, just as it did with the followers of Jesus 2000 years ago. If so, it is time to open our hearts to the life-giving power of God in our midst- to seek some “fertilizer” to add into the mix of our lives. It might be some time of quiet reflection, a walk along the beach, reflection on the weekly scripture, or looking with wonder at creation through the eyes of our children. All of this allows the seeds of God to sink deeper into us, so that it will take root and grow abundantly.

God’s word sowed in each of us is active. It doesn’t just come to us to rest passively. It is a creative force within us and the world. Isaiah in today’s first reading compares the word of God to the rain and snow that falls to the earth and does not return to the heavens until it has watered the ground allowing new growth to come about. Like the waters from heaven, the word of God does not return to God empty. In the words of Isaiah, “it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” We need to trust that these words are true. The seeds of God, the word of God, are at work in us and the world. The seeds of God, taking root in us, require us to act with urgency and with love. Hearing leads to understanding and to action. We are called to join God is the life-giving work of being a sower.

At first glance the sower in today’s Gospel doesn’t appear to be a very good farmer or example to us. What kind of farmer flings seeds carelessly, without concern for where it will fall? It seems wasteful to throw seeds into soil that is hardened, thorny or shallow. The gardeners in our midst this morning, I’m sure, would tell us this isn’t the way to produce a fruitful harvest. But our ways are not God’s ways. We are finite; God is infinite. We act with fear; God acts with hope. We see scarcity; God sees abundance.

It is not our responsibility to judge the worthiness of the soil before throwing the seeds of God. We share the seeds of God’s love and mercy as freely as they were shared with us. Even if it seems like a lost cause. It might be these “lost causes” that end up truly hearing and living out God’s word. I think of Oscar Romero a man who served as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador in the late 1970s. Romero was caught up in the “lures of wealth.” He enjoyed the comfort and influence that came with being friends with the rich and powerful. It wasn’t until the assassination of a fellow priest, who worked tirelessly for the rights of the poor, that Romero began to both hear AND UNDERSTAND the Gospel message of justice and peace for the first time. The seeds that had been planted in Romero began to bear fruit in his advocacy for the poor of El Salvador. The people around Romero hoped and prayed the seeds of God would take root in what appeared to be thorny soil and they did. Many came to see themselves as beloved children of God who deserve to be treated with dignity because of Romero’s work. Romero heard and lived out the word of God and shared it with others. Sadly, in 1980, Romero was also assassinated for his decision to stand with the poor.

The seeds of God are not given for our personal benefit. They are shared with the world for the benefit of the world. They are the seeds of the Kingdom of God that is in our midst. So, not only do we take care of the word of God within us, we work to share it with others. By doing this we participate in the creative, live-giving mission of God. We help to bring God’s work of building the kingdom of justice and peace to fruition. And, ultimately, that is what the work of sowing seeds is all about. It is about God’s vision for the world. In the words of today’s collect I pray that we “may know and understand what things we ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amen.