Pentecost 3 – Year B – 14
Jun 2015
Grace to you and peace from
God our Father, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for this
meditation is written in the 4th Chapter of the Gospel according to
Mark: Verses 26-34 and (Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 and Corinthians 5:1-10)
You know, if it were up to
me, all who visit our church would come back every
week and become members. If it were up to me, all the people who join
our church would never move away and leave us. If it were up to me, our
church would have outgrown the building years ago and be in a bigger one.
But maybe that’s asking too
much. Perhaps my goals are too ambitious. So let’s make them a little smaller.
If it were up to me, all of us would have a faith so strong it could
never be shaken. If it were up to me, all the folks who have fallen away
from our church would come back, and all who are experiencing trials and
troubles would be made whole and healthy once again. If it were up to me,
I would always have the answers to your questions, and always know just the
right thing to say when you come to me for comfort or counsel. If it were up
to me, you and our church wouldn’t have any problems – no doubts, no fears,
no crises, no difficulties, no knock-the-wind-out-of- you surprises. Only joy
and peace and all things pleasant and nice. If it were up to me.
If it were up to me, wouldn’t our church be great?
Well actually, no!
Because even though I may think such a church would be great, and you
may think such a church would be great, and the world may think such
a church would be great – the truth is, we don’t know what makes a church
great. The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the
ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he
knows not how. Or in other words, it’s not up to me . . . or you. It is
God’s Church, and only He can grow it. Only He knows how.
And the good news we heard
today is that He is. Through the seed of His
Word He is working in the world, He is working in the Church, He is working in
your friends and family, and He is working in you. Even if you can’t see it, if
the growth is all underground. Even if you don’t know how. Even if it seems as
if the very opposite of growth is happening. It is God’s kingdom, God’s
Church, and He is growing it.
Which means that God knows
when we need peace, and He also knows when we need struggle in order to grow.
He grants growth and He prunes. He knows when to make the sun shine,
when to make the rain fall, and yes, even when to apply the manure! He
makes the seed of His Word grow in His time, not our time. We may want it to
grow sooner, and faster, and stronger, and bigger. But we cannot do it. We
know not how. But He whose seed it is, knows. And He can grant growth.
And His promise to you today is that He will. For as the Lord said through the
prophet Ezekiel: “I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”
And do we need that
promise! For as Christians, and as the Church, how easy it is to lose our
confidence in the Lord and in His Word. How easy to think that we know better,
that we can do it, or worse, think that we have to do it. Through
programs and methods and social sciences. Or, since our District Convention
starts this week, by just getting the right people elected or the right
resolutions passed. Those things aren’t necessarily bad, but to rely on them .
. . that’s when doubt and worry and fear take over; that’s when we become
burdened and weary. And not only in the church, but in our lives as Christians.
Because we’ve forgotten or lost confidence in His promise: “I am the
Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”
But did you notice how good
that sounded? God is growing His church.
And that’s not just now, but think back through the history of God’s people,
all the way back to the beginning. We keep messing it up, but did God not do
it? Did He not keep and preserve and grow His kingdom? From Adam and Eve,
to Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph: did God not do it? From Israel in slavery
in Egypt, to the time of the Judges: did God not do it? From David to
Solomon to the people of God hauled off as prisoners of war: did God not do
it? From a small band of 12 apostles, through persecutions and martyrs, to
a little monk in Wittenberg: did God not do it? From communist countries
that tried to stamp out the church but couldn’t, to Muslim countries that now
try to behead the church, but can’t: is God not doing it? And still
today: is God not doing it? For what credit can you take for being here,
at this time, in this place? What credit can we take for this church? Did I give
my children faith? Did God not do it? Is He not working? And will He not
continue?
Now to say that is not an
excuse for inaction or laziness on our part. To think that if
God’s doing it, then we can
just sit back and not do anything at all. No! Rather, it is an invitation to
live our lives and our vocations in faith. To keep reaching out and doing
all we can for each other, but to do what we do in faith. To not get
discouraged if we don’t see the results, but to scatter the seed of God’s Word,
and know that He will grant the growth. It’s His Church, and He’ll grow
it.
I guess you could say that
the reason we don’t always believe that is that sin has made us spiritually
colour blind. When we look around, we don’t always see a kingdom of God that
looks lush and green, but sometimes looks downright brown and dead. In us, in
others, and in the Church. When we’re going through struggles, when we see
what’s happening to others, when we see all the nonsense going on in the Church
around the world today! . . . But you know, that’s how it is with God; that’s
what we’re going to see sometimes and the way it’s going to seem sometimes,
because growth for God starts with death. He kills in order to
make alive. That’s what we heard from the prophet Ezekiel in conjunction
with God’s promise: “I bring low the high tree, and make high the low
tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish.” And the
foremost example of that is the cross, where the Son of God was put to death
and then planted in the ground. I dare say that things never looked so dry and
dead to the Apostles and for the Kingdom of God than that Saturday between Good
Friday and Easter morning.
But from that tree of
death, from that seed planted in the ground, came life. Life from the dead. And
though it may have looked like only a tiny mustard seed in the course of world
history at the time, in that dry Good Friday tree made green on Easter Sunday
was packed the death of all and the life of the whole world, the entire
forgiveness of every sin, the resurrection of all the dead, and the
reconciliation of the world to God! You might not have been able to see it at
the time, all may have looked dead and dry, but God was planting Paradise
again. A new tree of life for the life of the world.
And so it is still today,
in you and me and all wherein is planted the seed of God’s Word. For where God
plants His Word, He plants His cross, His death and resurrection. He brings you
low in order to raise you up. He dries you up in order to make you green. He
kills in order to give life. That whatever in us is working against Him - our
sin, our pride, our desire for self-sufficiency; our reliance on our numbers,
our income, or our members; our desire to be the master of all that we have -
be brought low, be dried up, and die, that we may be raised up to life in Him.
And no ordinary life, but eternal life. That is why, as St. Paul says, “we
walk by faith, not by sight.” For our sight is colour blind! Our sight
may judge the work of God wrongly, and think things dry and dead and lost. But
faith trusts the promise of God. That things are not as they look or seem, but
are as God says they are.
Friends, God is working,
and growing His Church. His ways may seem as small as a mustard seed to us, but
do not be deceived. The Word of God you speak to others, the water of Holy
Baptism, the word of Holy Absolution, and the body and blood of Jesus in Holy
Communion are giving life and granting growth. For in all these things is not our
power, but the power of the Gospel, the power of God. The power of the
death and resurrection of Jesus, forgiving sins, raising the dead, and giving
faith. Faith to know it’s not up to me. Faith to believe that what I see today
may not be the way things are tomorrow. Faith to rely confidently on Him and
His ways to build His Church, and to save me. For only He can do it.
Martin Luther is known as
the Father of the Reformation! But to
me his greatness came in his profound sense of his own non - necessity.
He once remarked, “While I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer, the
gospel runs its course.” That’s faith. He could preach the Word and then
cheerfully step down from the pulpit, take off his robes, and have a glass of
Wittenberg beer confident that the Word is at work, doing its killing and
making alive thing. No frenzy. No worry. He was active, but he knew who he was,
a sinner. And he knew who God was, the Saviour. And so he lived in forgiveness,
trusting not himself, but the Word to do its work. And even have his little
glass of Wittenberg beer in peace.
Herein lies a lesson! There
is much to do and much to worry about in this world, but in the end, we cannot
even save ourselves, let alone others. But there is One who can, and who has! We
have His forgiveness and life. He has planted His Word in our heart and made it
grow. And He is keeping us. We have His promise. And though we may feel as
small as a mustard seed in this world, and think that all that we can do is
just as small – remember that that mustard seed that we have and that we
scatter is one powerful seed!
For that seed is the Word
and power of God to forgive sin and raise the dead; the Word and power of the
cross, the Word and power of His love. So scatter that seed recklessly, sow it
with joy, and at the end of the day, sit down and have your little glass of
Wittenberg beer. Relax. Trust. Rest in the branches of the cross. Our Saviour
is working. In us. In others. In the world. Doing all that is necessary, all
that we need. This is the promise of God’s Word, of our Baptism, of the Body
and Blood of Jesus Christ. Amen
Now the peace and love of
God which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Merv James
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