Sunday, July 27, 2014 (full size gallery)
Overcast and rainy at the beginning of the day through the 9am service and then tapering off of the rain. We had 9 at 9am and 30 at 11am. We had two sets of family guests – Charles relatives from Washington and Andrea
We celebrated Howard and Millie’s wedding anniversary coming up this week and Eunice’s birthday who is away at the beach.
At 11am the congregation learned a Methodist Hymn, "In the bulb there is a flower ". Some of the lyrics follow -"In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."
The message today through the lectionary, particulary the Parable of the Mustard Seed and Leaven Bread was to look beyond first impressions for a deeper meaning to a hidden promise, hinted at in the hymn. As the sermon stated, "In most places in the Bible, yeast or leaven, when it appears, is not a good thing—it usually represents sin or evil." But here the mustard seed grows into a beautiful tree and yeast provides the basis for an abundance of bread. She used the story of Sarah in Genesis able to make enough bread for 150 people.
The lesson is to look at that which may seem worthless or downright unpleasant. "Seek out the mold, the mustard seed, and the yeast in your life." It may yield hidden treasure, a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. "…God can use the weed seeds and yeast and mold in our lives for transformation rather than destruction. " She used the example of the discovery of penicillin.
It takes some wisdom which was part of the Old Testament lesson – the prayer of Solomon for wisdom. "Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?"
Overhanding this week is the 100th anniversary of World War I (July 28). We said a prayer in remembrance and on for peace. This week’s email discussed World War I in several ways-story, poetry, song and a discusion of the origins.
The sermon is here, the readings and the bulletin.
Canon Lance Ouseley writes this week from the Diocese of Olympia on this week’s lectionary:
Resources for the mission of the Church establishing God’s kingdom in the world are abundant, yet often hidden from our "view." Through fear, monocular focus, or leaving the Holy Spirit out of the equation we can overlook blessings and assets available to us for the building up of God’s kingdom in our midst. There is a common theme of an element of surprise and revelation in our readings this week that can be utilized to reflect on the "hidden" blessings in our lives available to us that can have powerful results in the world.
Our reading option from 1 Kings gives us a surprise in Solomon’s response to God’s granting him a blessing of Solomon’s choice. Instead of requesting traditional assets that could secure a king’s dominion Solomon asks God for wisdom with "an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil." This request is presented to us as a surprise response and as
Solomon’s reign unfolds his wisdom becomes the agent for acquiring the material assets that further the welfare of his people and his legacy. Young Solomon’s insight presents unfolding blessings from a humble and unexpected response.
In our reading from Romans this week Paul address all the powerful forces expected to defeat the human spirit with the unexpected truth "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." This unconditional Love can be hard for us to understand with the prevalence of low self-esteem and feelings of unworthiness of love in our contemporary culture. This often is rooted in knowledge of our own shortcomings. But the "love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" is greater than any of our shortcomings or sinfulness. It may be easy for us to proclaim the Jesus is the Savior of the world, yet difficult with our self-knowledge to accept that Jesus has redeemed us and absolved us from "those things which we ought not to have done and things left undone" that needed to be done. So it is with the Holy Spirit working in us that we are to be blessing to the world, no matter how unforeseen or unexpected!
In Matthew this week Jesus presents us with a string of short analogic parables about the kingdom of heaven that derive from unexpected and "hidden" blessings present in God’s reign. Jesus explains that the mustard seed diminutive in size is the root of a tremendous blessing that grows into a hospitable home for the full diversity of avian. Here from a small and unexpected resource the kingdom grows into a haven of respite and restoration for the poor, the weary traveler, the foreigner and the weak. The analogy of the small amount of yeast hidden in the mass amount of flour offer us an illustration of looking for what we have at hand no matter how little to leaven ministry to feed the world nourishing them with food and the love of Christ. From humble beginnings God’s kingdom can and will take root and grow, if only we will get into the metaphorical and real kitchens of the kingdom to bake the bread leavened with God’s love. The parables of the hidden treasure in the field and the pearl both speak of something hidden from view that is worth all that we have. Jesus challenges us to prioritize our lives placing the realization of the kingdom of heaven as most important though it is invisible in its "not yet" state. I wonder if we are willing to invest all that we are and all that we have in the "not yet" so that we can help to advance the revealing of God’s kingdom to the whole world. Jesus also presents us with the parable of the great net which brings in all the "fish of every kind." This all-inclusive net receiving "fish of every kind" illustrates the universal reach of God’s love. It also shows us that not all will accept and reflect God’s love in the world. We should note that the parable does not single-out one type of fish that accepts or rejects God’s love. This emphasizes that God’s love is available to all and is accepted (and rejected) by some who might be unexpected to us! Lastly Jesus tells us that those who are "trained for the kingdom of heaven" leave no resource un-utilized for the advancement of God’s kingdom in the world. We should not hold anything back, no matter how small or insignificant we might think the resource is, because it just might have the power of a mustard seed or a little leaven!
What unexpected seeds of the kingdom of heaven might be hidden in your plain sight?