Sunday, June 13, 2021

Third Sunday after Pentecost
Ezekiel 17:22-24
Psalm 1
2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (11-17)
Mark 4:26-34

I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.

I visited an aunt in Colorado a few years ago and did some fun activities around Denver while I was there. One day I took the scenic trip up to the top of Mt. Evans, a 14,000 foot mountain in the Rockies. The twisty road with hairpin turns is the highest paved road in North America. It road climbs thousands of feet as you travel through multiple landscapes, including tundra. There is a point on the trip, as is true on all high mountains, when the trees disappear completely. They simply cannot grow at such high altitudes. There is not enough soil for their roots and not enough seasonal warmth for them to grow strong enough to survive the harsh winter weather. The wind is another problem, with sustained winds of twenty or thirty miles an hour and extreme winds that could compete with tornados or hurricanes. The conditions are too harsh for large plants, though the flora that does grow is beautiful.

If you are lucky, you might even find a herd of mountain sheep or goats along your path. You need to climb a long, steep path from the parking lot to the summit of Mt. Evans, a trek I did not make. I was foolish and forgot to pack a coat, and though the temperature in Denver was a hot 90 plus degrees, it was only about 50 degrees up there. I also found the thin air at that altitude made it difficult to breathe. But the views were still spectacular. You could see mountain tops and valleys for miles in every direction. It was a cloudy day, but still clear enough for me to be impressed with God’s amazing creativity on earth. You can clearly see the tree line; from that distance, it almost seems like the difference between life below and no life above.

I thought about this trip as I read today’s Old Testament lesson from Ezekiel. Listen to the words of the prophet, “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will also take some of the lofty top of the cedar, and will plant it. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.’” God is able to do what seems impossible. He can plant trees on those high mountain tops where they naturally do not grow.

God can do the impossible. He can even use remarkable voices to help us see and hear the word He has for us. A few years ago when I was actively ministering on the Internet, I had an acquaintance who had become an atheist. He was once a Christian, actively involved in the ministry of his church, but something happened to destroy his faith. We conversed via email for a long time. He asked a million questions but didn’t accept the answers I could give. He rejected the idea that some questions have only faith answers. I never quite understood why he continued to talk to me. I hoped he would see the love and mercy of God again, but I’m not sure what he wanted from our discussions. I don’t think he wanted to destroy my faith, although many of his questions were difficult. The lack of answers can be a faith breaker for many people.

Did my friend want to find God’s grace again? I’m not sure, but his questions certainly helped me seek God’s Word for myself. I may not have found suitable answers for him, but the search made my knowledge of God and my faith stronger. I gained confidence as I gained knowledge, and I was better able to share God’s grace with those who were questioning God. I learned a much from this former-Christian-atheist. He had an insight into the scriptures that was beyond the norm. It is still sad that his insight didn’t help him know God or love him. There’s always hope. Perhaps God still has work for him to do as an unbeliever, helping others grow strong enough to share God’s word with the world. I sometimes wish I could talk to him again, to see where he is twenty years later and to see if I now learned a better way to share those faith answers so that he might believe.

Today’s Old Testament passage is a promise to do the impossible. Israel had turned away from God. The kings had lost their way. The people were no longer worshipping only the God of their forefathers. They were not doing justice or living as God intended them to live. The only way to get their attention was to use the nations of the world. God gave Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians the power to defeat Israel in Jerusalem and take the king captive. The king made a vow with Nebuchadnezzar, and the Babylonians did not destroy Jerusalem. But the king thought he could be unfaithful to the covenant he made with Nebuchadnezzar, so he sought the help of Egypt. Egypt did not help Israel. As a matter of fact, Egypt helped with the destruction of what little was left. God allowed this to happen because the king was not faithful to the vow he made in God’s name.

So, the parable found in Ezekiel 17 tells the story of this time in the life of Israel. Our passage takes this story in a new and unexpected way. God will take a shoot and make it grow where it can never grow. A shoot clipped from the top of a cedar tree will not grow on the top of a mountain. Even if that snippet could grow, it wouldn’t grow into a vine. But, just as God could use a non-believer like Nebuchadnezzar to bring His people back into His heart, He can also bring life to that which should be dead. He does this so that the world will know that He is God. God turns the world upside down so that we can see His power and His mercy and His grace.

Sometimes that power and mercy and grace is found in the unexpected. We don’t always have the patience to wait for God’s plan to come into fulfillment. We can only go forth in faith knowing that God does know what He is doing. God is faithful. He will do the impossible that He has promised to do. He can make a cutting turn into a haven for hope. He has made Jesus Christ, who was cut and replanted through the cross and the tomb, bring life to the world. He has turned the world upside down.

I graduated from High School forty years ago (on Thursday) and a committee is working out the details to our reunion. I am trying to decide if I can and will go home. Reunions of any sort are often difficult gatherings to attend, especially when there are people who are comparing the successes of the other guests. But we have to ask the question, “What is success?” Is success defined by the size of a house or a bank account? Is it defined by the accomplishments of children or the length of a relationship? Is someone with a corporate job more successful than a struggling artist?

Unfortunately, many people define success by material things. It was happening in Corinth with those who were in opposition to the work Paul was doing with the new Christians there. They were claiming greater success because they were being paid and were thriving in their positions in the church. However, Paul refused to be paid. He preferred to give the Gospel to the people for free so that no one could question his integrity. To Paul, success was not about how much he had gathered in material wealth but how well the people who have heard his message were living. Were they disciples of Jesus Christ? Were they sharing the Gospel with others? Were they glorifying God with their gifts both material and spiritual? Were they loving as Christ loved and living as Christ lived? Had they been transformed by the Gospel message into a new creation whose desires were the same as God?

Those who are at peace are those who are content in their circumstances: the guy who loves his work even though it isn’t a high paying job, the woman who is happily single, or the couple that loves their imperfect children and their small apartment. They are not conforming to the expectations of the world, but living happy in their circumstances today. That’s the upside down world that God wants for us. As for Paul, he was confident in God’s grace and could continue to do the work he was called to do even though it seemed to some that he was a failure. He knew that God knew him and to Paul, that was all that matters.

Paul was like that treetop that God planted on the mountain. Who would have ever expected a man like Paul who was so adamantly against “The Way” in the beginning to become the great minister who did so much to spread the Kingdom of God around the world? His work two thousand years ago laid the foundation for many churches and his letter continues to help us learn and understand what it means to be the Church.

Now, we know that Paul’s accomplishments are actually God’s accomplishments through him. I would never have been able to make my friend believe in God again. Though I could encourage him and share my faith, only God could have accomplished the impossible change of heart that was needed for him to have faith again. But God blesses us with opportunities and gifts to help cut off those treetops and to plant them on mountaintops. He uses our hands and mouths to do the impossible.

Jesus used parables as a way to explain the kingdom of God to those who would listen. Parables are not always understood by those who hear them. Even the disciples, who knew Jesus intimately, often did not understand what He was saying. He had to explain it to them later, in private. What’s the point of telling stories that do not help someone come to faith? I think parables are meant to make people think, to make us reach beyond our comfort zone, to seek answers to questions that are brought to light by the story. What is the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, like? What does it mean that the kingdom of God grows in impossible places? What does it mean that the kingdom of God is small but grows large and provides protection for creatures of the earth? What is the kingdom of God? These are the kind of questions my former-Christian-atheist friend asked that helped my faith grow. It is in thinking about these questions that we draw near to God.

Parables are not meant to give us answers, but to guide us in asking questions. Faith is not something that is tangible. It isn’t something we can describe in so many words. It isn’t something that is the same for you and for me. It isn’t even the same for each of us throughout our lives. Paul writes, “...for we walk by faith, not by sight...” I will never fully understand the kingdom of God until I dwell in my eternal home. Until that day, Jesus will continue to tell me stories that make me think about what it means to me today. If the kingdom of God is like a man who spreads seeds, am I a seed? Am I the man? There have been times in my life when I have been both. I’ve been the one sharing the stories of Jesus with others. I am also a seed that continues to sprout and grow. The point here is that the God does the part that we can’t. We can’t make others become Christian. We can’t even make ourselves into a Christian. God does the work. Who among us would ever be a Christian without God’s help? God can do the impossible.

It is interesting that in the Gospel lesson we don’t really see that it is God doing the work. The kingdom of God is like a man casting seed. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, planted in the ground. We see in the first parable that the man who cast the seed does not know how it happens to grow. He sleeps and rises, but the seed grows without his help. The mustard seed is small but grows to be something big enough for birds to dwell. This happens without the help of any man.

Seeds can be cultivated by nature. Seeds are spread by the wind. They drop into the ground. Plants in the wild die, but new plants grow in their place. In these stories, though, the seeds are planted. What is amazing about this is that we know that God is at work in the growing of those plants, and yet He calls us into partnership. He calls us to plant seeds. He asks us to help Him with the work He is doing in this world. He can do it alone, just as He saved Israel from Babylon, just as He took that tender twig and made it grow in impossible conditions, He can make His Kingdom grow without our help. But He wants our help. He wants us to be a part of it. He makes us colleagues. He calls us to use our gift and His creation to plant seeds and help them grow.

Advertising is designed to make us want something and to do so in a short amount of time. A good ad, whether it is on television, in a magazine or on the radio, catches our attention. It makes us look twice. It makes us study the information so that we will go after this thing they are selling. If an advertisement doesn’t catch our attention, it will never make us go buy the item. We tune out or run to the bathroom when an ad appears on television. We flip over to the next page if the print ad is too boring. We change stations if we aren’t interested in an ad we hear on the radio. Some ads are so annoying that we turn down the sound until it is over.

Advertisers spend a great deal of money every year trying to get our attention. Some strategies work. I’m sure most of us can think of a jingle that we remember from the past. Who will ever forget some of the classic characters in advertising: Mr. Whipple, the “Where’s the Beef” lady, Mikey.

Some of my favorite radio commercials were the Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” spots. These commercials used the worst (or the best, depending on how you look at it) of beer-drinking American men and paid tribute (or made fun of) the things that they did as if they were heroic in their enterprises. Take, for instance, “Mr. T-Shirt Launcher Inventor” whose t-shirt launcher could send t-shirts into the nosebleed section of the stadium. Actually, anywhere the t-shirts fly is the nosebleed section. Or how about “Mr. Rolling Cooler Cooler Roller” whose rolling cooler was so big that it could fit enough food to feed an army, a cooler for the guy who “has everything but a friend to help him carry the cooler.” These commercials were hysterical, and we always become very quiet when we were in the car and heard the music start because we wanted to hear which “American hero” they were singing about that time. The commercial itself rarely had anything to do with beer, but there was no doubt to which company has sponsored the ad.

Some commercials aren’t so easy to understand. There was a car commercial a few years back which, to be honest, I can’t even remember the brand name. At the end of the commercial you were left scratching your head in wonderment: what was that all about? I think sometimes the advertising creators want to leave us confused so that we’ll have to think about the commercial and watch it even more closely the next time it is on. I’m not sure those campaigns work very well, most people just tune it out, which is why those campaigns don’t last very long.

Advertisers like to tell stories. They don’t always focus on the product itself, like the Bud Light radio spots, but in the end you know what they are selling. Sometimes it is better to tell an interesting story, to get people thinking, to make them search out the product in other ways, because then they will become more invested and really consider buying the item.

Jesus was selling something, too, but sometimes when we hear the stories He told, they make little sense to us. What does a seed have to do with the kingdom of God? If you aren’t a farmer, the agricultural references might be pointless. And we look at these stories and know that they aren’t completely true. Yes, a plant grows without the help or knowledge of man, but what farmer doesn’t put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into his farms? We know that the mustard seed isn’t really the smallest seed and we also know that it doesn’t usually grow so big that the birds can build nests in it. Yet, these parables have long helped us to understand that God is in control and that He has begun a great thing with just a tiny seed. We know this because we’ve studied these tests, thought about it and learned what it might mean physically and spiritually.

Though the parables on the surface are just stories, they cause us to think more deeply about what Jesus is saying and to take ownership of the information He is sharing. He often explains these parables to the disciples, and we benefit from their confusion. But it does us well to look beyond the story and think about what it meant not only for the disciples and early hearers, but also for us today.

Paul invites us to live lives pleasing to God. He faced difficult times. As a matter of fact, there were many who wanted his ministry to fail. He was attacked, not only about his faith but also personally. People in Corinth were trying to undermine his work and the seeds he had planted, but Paul did not give up. It would have been much easier, and better, to be in heaven. He would have preferred experiencing the promised life in the eternal presence of God. He wanted to be with Jesus. I know how he felt. But he knew that there was still work to do. He was a partner with God in the kingdom that He had established in the here and now. The kingdom of God might be something we will experience in the future, but it is also right now.

Paul writes, “Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him.” Even though he wanted to be home with the Lord, he stayed to continue the work Jesus called him to do: planting and nurturing the seeds of the kingdom. We want to be with the Lord, especially at times when it seems like the work we are meant to do is impossible, but we have work to do. We go forward in faith knowing that for God all things are possible.

The psalmist writes, “Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in Yahweh’s law.” It is in God’s grace that we have the freedom to truly be what God has created and redeemed us to be. We learn from the psalmist that the righteous will live a fruitful life in God’s kingdom.

Psalm 1 was likely written by the person who gathered and organized the psalms as we know them today, possibly Ezra. Ezra was a relative of the last high priest of the first Temple in Jerusalem, had been in Babylon and returned with the rest of the exiles. Ezra reintroduced the Jews to the Torah. In Nehemiah 8, they read the Torah and expounded upon it to the people, who stood all day for the reading. Remember, they were in Babylon because they had been disobedient to God’s Word, so God allowed the Babylonians to take them into captivity. After seventy years, they returned to Jerusalem to begin again. God is the God of second (and third, and fourth, and a hundredth chances.) The focus in the Psalms of the Law is Ezra’s reminder that Israel should not go back to the path that led them into exile. The legalism that came after the exile (and was rampant by the time Jesus was born) was overcompensation, but the extreme legalism is just as bad as lawlessness because it leads to self-righteousness. The key is to trust in God.

God sees the world much differently that we do. He sees it through love, through mercy, and through grace. God can see goodness in the midst of darkness, He can see potential where there seems to be none. That’s why He can take a tender twig and made it grow in impossible conditions. He sees differently because He sees beyond the surface and into the heart of man. He sees beyond the moment. He sees His creation without the cloak of sin and death. In Christ we are given a vision of what God sees in us and in others. Life in Christ means we are meant to see the world through eyes of faith, to see it with love, mercy, and grace and to act accordingly.

God is doing amazing things. He brings life and in the blink of an eye He can make nothing something spectacular. God has promised to do the impossible and He did it. He did it in and through Jesus. He is still making all things new. He has called us to dwell in the shadow of His grace and to produce fruit in keeping with His forgiveness. He is taking the seeds that we have planted and He is bringing them to life. He is also making the seeds in our hearts grow. We are a new creation in Christ, called to live in the freedom of His Kingdom, partners with Him in the salvation of the world.