Saturday, August 21, 2010

Summer Reading 4 ~ The pearls and the tresure!

The Pearls and the Treasure
As we come to the end our summer reading in Matthew 13, we are going to look at 2 short parables that Jesus gives to again talk about the kingdom of God. Matthew 13:44-46.

There really are just two lessons we need to learn from these parables, and they are so important that Jesus makes them pretty clear, but before we look at these two lessons, let’s make sure we know what Jesus means when he talks about the kingdom of heaven. Books have been written about what Jesus means when he refers to the kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God, for me the kingdom of heaven is not heaven, or the life we live when life in this world is over, the kingdom of heaven is the life God wants to experience here and now. The kingdom of heaven is a life that is filled with love and joy, it is a life where we find purpose and meaning in all that we do and it is a life where justice and mercy are extended and experienced by everyone.

The kingdom of heaven is what Jesus offered people when he forgave them, healed them, fed them and sent them off with joy to live a new life and that’s the life God wants us to be able to experience each and every day. Ultimately this kind of life is only found in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, so experiencing the kingdom of heaven is found when we accept God’s grace and love offered to us in Jesus. It’s found when we accept Jesus as Savior and trust him as our Lord. One of the verses I come back to again and again is John 10:10 where Jesus said, I have come so that you might have life and life abundant. The kingdom of heaven is that abundant life that only Jesus can offer, in fact offering us the opportunity to experience the kingdom of heaven is why Jesus came.

So the kingdom of heaven is the life God wants for us and these two parables offer two important lessons about this life. The first is that it is available to us, but we have to be willing to look for it. Look at the parable of the pearl; it says the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. The merchant went out searching for the pearls. He didn’t sit at home and wait for someone to offer him pearls he went out and searched for them and the kingdom of heaven is out there for us if we are willing to search for it. We won’t find the life God wants for us by just sitting at home and watching TV, we have to be willing to look for God. We can experience a new and God-filled life if we want to, but we have to be willing to look and our search needs to be informed.

Think about the merchant again, he wasn’t looking for just any pearls he went out to find fine pearls, he wanted good ones which meant that he had to know the difference between ordinary pearls and fine ones. The merchant had to know something about pearls; he had to know what made them good, he had to know where to look, he had to know the right people to talk to, he had to do his homework so that his search didn’t end up being haphazard or random. If we want to find the kingdom of heaven and experience the abundant life God has for us, we not only need to be willing to search for it, but we need to be informed. We need to know what we are looking for and where to turn to find it.

Being informed in our search is the same lesson we learn in the parable of the hidden treasure. When we read this parable we might think that the man just happened to be walking through a field when he came upon the treasure, but that is not how people would have heard this story. In Jesus day there were no banks and there were no safety deposit boxes, so when people accumulated wealth they would often bury it on their property. Do you remember another story Jesus tells about giving each person a certain number of talents – or money. One of the servants given the money went and dug a hole and buried what was given him so he would lose any of it, and that is exactly what people did when they got a treasure, they would bury it for safe keeping, but when these people died, those treasurers would often be lost or forgotten and when someone would buy that piece of land, the treasure would often be uncovered. Over time so many treasures had been buried in the ground that people would often go searching for these riches and if they found them, they would bury them again and then buy the property to get the treasure.

Most likely this is what Jesus was talking about. A man went out and searched for some treasure and when he found it, he was so overjoyed that he went off and bought the property to get the treasure. Just like the merchant of pearls, this man went looking to find something. Maybe he had done his homework and so he knew which fields to look in to find some treasure. The truth we see in each of these parables is pretty clear, to find the treasure – the people had to look for it, and if we are going to find the kingdom of heaven, if we are going to find the abundant life that God has for us, then we need to go looking for it.
To say it more simply, if we want to find God we have to look for him. It’s not that God is hiding so he can’t be found, but God isn’t going to invade our lives every moment of the day, sometimes God simply waits on the sidelines for us to come and find him. So the question is: are we looking for God? Are we searching for God in informed and intentional ways? If we are, then we will find him because that is the promise God makes us in Jeremiah 29:12-14.

If we search for God we will find him, but the search can’t be half hearted, it can’t be random – it has be to be with our whole heart. So let’s think about what it means to faithfully search for God and the kingdom of heaven with our whole heart. If we are serious about finding God, then our search has to be filled with Desire, Determination and Discernment.

Desire: do we want to find God? Do we want God to be an integral part of our lives? Do we want the life God wants for us? If we don’t have a desire for God, we will never search in ways that help us find Him. The merchant wanted to find pearls, the treasure hunter had a desire to find riches – they were motivated, now true their motivation was money and wealth, but they were still motivated. Are we motivated to find God? Do we see all the good things that a life with God can bring us? If not then maybe that needs to be our first order of business. If we don’t see the value in having God in our lives, then we need to stop and think about all the things that a life with God has to offer us.

A relationship with God through Jesus Christ can bring peace. Knowing God is for us can bring us confidence and assurance in a world that is always changing and uncertain. Knowing that God forgives can free us from the guilt and the shame of sin. So many times we go through life carrying a burden of failure that we never feel really free to enjoy life. A life with God can free us from that burden. A life with God can also bring a deep sense of meaning and purpose. So much of life seems fleeting and meaningless and yet we were created to make an eternal difference in the world. We were created to shine the light of Christ into the darkness and that light, the light we shine makes a difference. When we begin to hear God’s voice and feel God’s power at work in our lives we can begin to tap into that deeper sense of meaning. It may not come from our job or our family, it may come in the mission and ministry God calls us to. There is value in a relationship with God that goes far beyond eternal life, there is a true abundant life waiting for us right now, do we desire that life?

Without a desire to experience God’s kingdom, we won’t search for it, so we need to have desire, but desire alone won’t get us anywhere. Just wishing or wanting something won’t make it happen, we have to be determined to make it happen. In other words, if we want to find God we need to put in the work to find him. The merchant had to search out the stores or suppliers to find fine pearls. Or maybe he had to go down to the sea and talk to the divers who pulled up the oysters. The merchant had to do something to find the pearls, he had to turn his desire into determination if he was going to find the pearls. And the treasure hunter couldn’t just sit at home and dream of finding the treasure, he had to take that desire and turn it into hard work and he had to search through the fields, maybe even dig up a few empty holes until he found the riches.
It’s not enough to want to experience God; we have to search with some determination. In Jeremiah it says if we search with God with our whole heart, we will find him. Sometimes I think this is where we are weak. We want the relationship with God, but we don’t want to work at it. We want to experience God’s grace and mercy, but we don’t want to work at putting ourselves in places where we can experience that life. We want to know our purpose but we never really take the time to think about it or search out God’s plan for us. Sometimes we just aren’t very determined. God is so clear with us, if we will search with our whole heart – if we are determined, we will find God and the kingdom of heaven and we will experience the life God wants for us.

Not only does our search take hard work it also takes some discernment. The merchant had to know the difference between a cheap pearl, a good pearl and a fine pearl. The treasure hunter needed to know the signs of a good treasure. A man from my church in Lewisburg loved to hunt for treasure. He had a metal detector and he went all over Lewisburg, all over Union County actually looking for treasure. Over the years he learned to discern the difference between something insignificant and something important. Many times he could tell by the sound of the metal detector, but he also studied coins so when he found one he knew what was valuable and what wasn’t. We need to learn to discern the voice of God. We need to learn what message comes from God and what message doesn’t come from him and this kind of discernment requires time and effort. Are we willing to read God’s word so that when we hear God speak we recognize his voice and so when we see God’s kingdom we will recognize it and join in?

Now the second lesson that these parables make clear to us is that the kingdom of heaven, this life God wants for us is valuable. A relationship with God is priceless; it is so good that we should be willing to give all we have to get it. The merchant went out and sold all he had to get the pearl and the treasure hunter sold all he had to buy the property. What they each found was so valuable that they were willing to give all they had to get it. Jesus is telling us here that the life God has for us is better than anything we can possibly imagine. The life God wants us to experience will bring more peace, more grace, more love, more power, more purpose, more life than we can possibly imagine, in fact it is so good that we should be willing to let go of everything to get it. But it’s not just that, this life God offers is so good that we should joyfully give up everything we have to get it. Look at the parable of the pearl again, it says when the merchant found the pearl it was with JOY that he went and sold all he had. In other words it wasn’t even a sacrifice – he joyfully gave it all it because he knew what he was getting was so good.

So many times when we think of giving everything up for God we think only in terms of the suffering and sacrifice required, but here God says, we should joyfully give it all up because we know we are getting something of such great value. And it really isn’t just eternal life, it’s a new life here and now, and it’s a life filled with joy and love and meaning. I have shared this before, but for me, I am a follower of Jesus today not because he offers me the gift of eternal life, but because I began to see just how great life here can be with Jesus. I saw people totally committed to Christ who were having more fun, experience more purpose and filled with more peace and power than other people around me and I knew that was the life I wanted. I searched for it through Bible Studies, retreats, mission trips, times of fellowship and worship, I searched diligently and found it in Jesus, but to get it I had to let go and trust Jesus completely. I had to accept Jesus as savior and trust him as my lord in order to begin to take hold of that new life. I haven’t regretted a moment of it. It is with great joy that I can still say that…

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands,
I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

Than to be a king of a vast domain,
Or be held in sin’s dread sway,
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
this world affords today.

Summer Reading 3 ~ The Mustard Seed

The Parable of the Mustard Seed
Jesus must have liked mustard seeds because he not only talks about them in this parable, but he also talks them when he tells us about how important it is to have faith. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we would be able to say to the mountain “move” and the mountain would move. If we have just a little bit of faith, then according to Jesus, nothing will be impossible for us, but let’s be clear that faith needs to pure and complete without any hint of doubt. When Jesus talks about a mustard seed in this parable, however, he isn’t talking about how much or how little faith we need, and he’s not talking about us moving mountains. Jesus uses the image of a mustard seed to talk about the kingdom of God. So what does Jesus mean when he says that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed? Well, let’s look at the mustard seed again. We know that in Jesus day it was recognized as one of the smallest of all seeds but it grows into a very large tree, or more accurately a very large bush. The mustard plant in time will be so large that it will provide shelter for all the birds of the air.

In making this comparison, one of the things Jesus is trying to communicate is that the kingdom of God isn’t going to appear overnight, it will take some time. A tiny mustard seed doesn’t become a large tree overnight, it is a long slow process of growth and development, and the kingdom of God breaking through and taking hold in our world isn’t going to happen overnight, it will also be a long slow process. Think about the time when Jesus tells this parable. It is still early in Jesus ministry but he has repeatedly said that the kingdom of God is at hand. The people were beginning to see the reality of this kingdom in the miracles and healings that Jesus performed. People’s lives were being changed and there was a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about what was taking place and people were looking for even greater things to come. What people really wanted to see the new of life of God’s kingdom become the norm for all of life. Every day they wanted to see around them and experience with in the them the healing, strength, justice and love that that would come with God’s kingdom, but that new life wasn’t going to happen instantly.

The seeds of the kingdom of God were being sown by Jesus, he is teaching people what the kingdom of God is all about and how they can live it out and Jesus is giving people a glimpse into what it will look like, but as Jesus said, the kingdom of God was close, or close at hand, but it was going to take some time to be fully established. None the less, from these small beginnings something was taking place that was going to change the world. Or to use the image that Jesus offered, from this small seed a large tree will grow, but it won’t happen overnight.

So one reason I think Jesus tells this parable to his disciples is to teach them to be patient. Jesus didn’t want them to get discouraged when things didn’t happen as quickly as they would like them too. So it was a parable that taught patience and it still teaches patience today because it reminds us that we still need to wait on God. If we are looking for the kingdom of God to break into our lives, if we are looking for God’s presence and God’s power to manifest itself in our lives in practical ways that will bring forgiveness, healing, hope and the power of God’s love, the temptation is for us to look for God to bring it all today.

I don’t know about you, but there are those times when I pray for things to change, and when day after day, week after week things don’t change, I get discouraged. Or I look to God to bring about his purpose and plan in some situation and then I struggle to find it.. We pray for healing and it doesn’t come in the time or in the way we want it to come, we pray for jobs and they don’t come when or where we want them. We pray for reconciliation in relationship, or forgiveness within our families but then all we continue to experience is the pain of brokenness and loss. When this is what we see and experience, it is easy to get discouraged and begin to wonder if anything is happening at all. It is in these moments we need to remember the mustard seed because the mustard seed reminds us that God is at work, but we need to give him some time. A seed doesn’t become a great tree overnight; it takes time. Think about it, it can often take a generation or two for a tree to reach it’s full potential.

Being patient and giving God time is the same message we hear in the parable of the yeast. When we bake bread we can’t work the yeast into the dough and then just bake it, we have to give the dough a chance to rest and the yeast some time to work. With some bread you have to punch the dough down and then let it rest and rise all over again. It’s not easy to rest and wait on God, but it is often the way that God works. Over and over again God has called people to rest and wait. God didn’t immediately take the people of Israel from Egypt into the Promised Land; it was a 40 year journey. It took a generation for the people to get there. Abraham was promised a child, but that child didn’t come for years and years, and then think about Noah. Noah really had to wait on God. You may not have thought of this before, I’m not sure I really had, but Noah wasn’t in the ark for 40 days, it rained for 40 days, but then all that water had to subside. Once the water went away and the ark came to rest on dry ground you would have thought Noah would have been able to leave the ark, but no, once again God said wait. It was several months before Noah was able to leave the ark after the ark hit dry ground. Some people have calculated that Noah was on the ark for 377 days, that’s over a year. Time and time again God calls us to wait on him.

In the midst of our busy world where we expect instant results and quick transformations it is not easy to wait and so maybe some of the most powerful and yet difficult words of scripture come from Psalm 46:10 where God says, Be still and know that I am God. It’s funny, we may know that verse really well, but we may not know the larger context from which it comes. Look at Psalm 46:1-3. What is the picture we have here? It’s a world in turmoil, and it’s not just the rocks and seas that are in upheaval, it’s the tribes and the people. There is uncertainty and problems that people are facing and in the midst of all this fear, brokenness and confusion God says be still and know that I am God.

At the very moment when we may want to work harder, push further and run faster to get ahead and make things right relying on our own power and strength is the very moment God says stop and wait. Be still and know that I am God. Know that I am with you and know that I am here to help you. Look at Psalm 46:4-9. In the middle of the turmoil God is the one who brings peace, strength, health, power and new life, and that is exactly why we are supposed to wait, because ultimately it is God who brings us life. Ultimately God is the one who will bring to us the power of his kingdom.

Think back to the mustard see. Who is it that turns that seed into a tree? Is it the farmer? Is it the land owner? Is it the birds of the air that find rest in the branches? No – it’s God. And who is it really that makes the bread to rise? While the women may mix in the yeast, they don’t make the bread rise, the bread rises as it rests. The bread rises as it waits. God is the one who takes that yeast and makes it do it’s thing. You see, this is not just a parable of patience; it is also parable of trust. It’s not enough for us to be still we also need to know God and knowing God means trusting God to do his thing. Knowing God means trusting God to bring us the all the new life that we will experience in his kingdom.

Can we trust God to answer our prayers in his time? Can we trust God to work out his good purpose in our lives? Can we trust God to bring forgiveness and life in his way and in his time? We may not get the answers we want and it may not come as quickly as we want them, but can we trust God to bring his kingdom into our lives? While we might say YES with all our heart and soul that we do trust God, the kind of trust we are talking about is not easy because it calls us to do something which in many ways goes against our nature. The kind of trust called for in this parable is a trust that requires complete surrender to God.

Again, think about that mustard seed, how does it grow into a tree? Can it grow into a tree and still remain a seed? No. For a mustard seed to become a tree it must die, and the yeast can’t remain yeast in the middle of the bread, it has to break down completely, we dissolve yeast in water and once it has yielded itself to the dough it can make the bread rise. So not only is this a parable calling for us to be patient and trusting, but it is also calling us to surrender ourselves fully to God. If we want to experience the kingdom of God in our lives, if we want to experience the full power of God at work within us then we have to be willing to give ourselves completely to God, and that really does go against our nature at times. God created us to be strong and work hard and care for those around us and so it’s hard sometimes to let go of doing things on our own and trust God to be at work in our lives, but we have to because it’s when we start holding back from that we stop growing. It’s when we hold back from God that we stop living and experience the fullness of life that God offers us, and the same is true for us as a church. When the church holds back from God and decide to play it safe instead of surrendering ourselves fully to him and the work of his kingdom we begin to die.
I don’t believe that the decline of the church today is due to a lack of money, or the lack of people who need to hear about the love of Jesus , the decline of the church is due to the church being unwilling to give ourselves fully to Jesus. Every time the church tries to play it safe and hold on to what we have, the church will fail. It is only when the church gives itself fully to God that we begin to experience the power of God’s kingdom in our midst, in our community and in our world. It’s only when together we surrender ourselves to God and embraces what God wants for us that the kingdom of God grows both inside us and outside of us. It’s only when the mustard seed dies that it becomes a tree that can provide a place for the birds of the air and it is only when we are willing to die to ourselves that we will be able to offer life to others.

If we look at the history of the early church in the book of Acts, we find the church growing when people were willing to die to themselves. The church grows in number and in power and influence when people let go of their fear, their need to be in control and even their money and possessions. Look at the growth of the church in Acts 2:44-46. The early church didn’t hang on to what they had, they shared it, they gave it away, they died to themselves and surrendered to God and when they did that, look what happened, the Lord added to their number – the tree grew, the bread rose, the kingdom of God expanded into the world.
I’m thankful for the example that many of our mothers and fathers in the faith have given to us. They gave their time, their energy, their money as well as their patient faith and trust in Jesus so we could be here today. They gave of themselves so that the kingdom of God could keep growing in their lives, but they surrendered fully to God so that the kingdom of God could be experienced in our lives and our world today. So the call for us is to trust God through these uncertain times and step out in faith to give God all that we can and all that we have and all that we are so that in his time his kingdom may come. We may not feel like we have a lot to offer, but remember a mustard seed is pretty small, so whatever we have to offer to God today, let us offer it to God with faith and trust that in his time and in his way, God will use us to bring about his kingdom.

Summer Reading 2 - The Wheat and the Weeds

The Wheat and the Weeds
As we continue our summer reading of Jesus parables, we turn today to the parable of the wheat and the weeds found in Matthew 13:24-30.  And like Jesus did with several of his parables, he explains what this means in Matthew 13:36-43. 

I’m wondering if this has this ever happened to you, you are working on your computer, reading an email or searching for something on the internet when a window opens up that says your computer might be infected with a virus? The information looks real. The logo and name look like the anti-virus software already installed on your computer, so you take a minute to read the information and as you reading it another window opens that says this program is already scanning your computer looking for more problems, which of course it finds. Suddenly you read that dozens of malicious virus and spyware programs are on your computer and they need to be removed. Conveniently a message appears that tells you if you buy this software program you can clean your computer up immediately, or you can hit a button that says “no thanks – let my computer remain infected” which sounds like a horrible thing to do. If this has happened to you then you that the reality is that by this time it might already be too late because the virus or spyware may already on your computer and it seems to take a lot to get it off.

This has not only happened to me, but I know it has happened to several people in the church and what is so evil about this virus is that they created it to look exactly like something we already have on our computers. The name and logo they use look so similar to the anti-virus program already installed on many computers that we think it has be to legitimate so we don’t immediately shut things down. What we see happening, however is actually a virus that begins to either slow down or take over our computers. That virus is a weed and it is exactly like the weeds Jesus talks about in this parable because just as the virus looks like a real anti-software program, so does the weed Jesus refers to here looks almost identical to the wheat.

When Jesus talks about a weed growing up among the wheat he is not talking about a dandelion in a field of grain that can easily be detected and removed. The weed that Jesus is talking about is a special weed called darnel. Darnel is a poisonous plant that before it ripens looks exactly like wheat. In fact, the only way you can distinguish darnel from wheat is to wait until each plant matures because the head of grain in each plant is a different shape and color.

So scattering darnel in a field of wheat was an evil thing to do because the owner of the field might not notice the weeds growing until it is too late and once the weeds have taken hold, they crowd out the wheat, reduce the crop and become a nuisance for the farmer to get rid of. It’s just like that computer virus, once the virus hits, it crowds out the space on our computer for other programs to work, reduces the efficiency of the computer and becomes a huge nuisance for us to get rid of. What’s interesting to know is that the planting of darnel in a field of wheat was not an uncommon occurrence in Jesus day; in fact it happened often enough that the Roman’s had a special law prohibiting this very act, so when Jesus tells this parable, the people knew exactly what he was talking about, but what are the deeper spiritual truths that God wants us to learn from this story of the wheat and the weeds?

The first truth we learn here is that weeds are going to be a part of life. If we look at Jesus’ interpretation of the parable we see that the weeds are the children of the evil one; they are the people who cause us frustration, hurt and pain. They are those malicious, often evil people who surround us at times and make our lives difficult, and we find them everywhere. We find these weeds in the workplace, our neighborhoods, families and yes, even in the church.

I hate to say this, but one of the most miserable persons I have ever met in my life was a member of the church I served in Altoona. He was simply an evil man who did his best to stir up trouble and his evil intent could be seen in the moments he chose to do this. Minutes before worship was to begin on Easter Sunday this man came up to me and asked me how to bring charges against our district superintendant. They had not seen eye to eye on an issue and so moments before worship on Easer Sunday, where we celebrate the power of love and forgiveness, he asked me how to bring this good and faithful man down.

There are weeds all around us and one of the things Jesus is saying in his parable is that the weeds are always going to be there. Notice that Jesus doesn’t call for the weeds to be pulled up the instant they appear. The weeds remain. God is not simply going to remove all the evil people from the world or from our lives at this moment, as much as we may want him to. We’ll look in a moment at why Jesus doesn’t remove all the weeds immediately, but for now let’s just understand that there will be weeds in our lives so we need to learn how to deal with them. We need to learn how to draw upon the strength and the patience God gives us so we can endure with weeds around us.

You know, even Jesus had weeds in life, in fact; Jesus had weeds with in his own close circle of friends. Think about it, Jesus traveled with his disciples for three years and these disciples were his closest friends and strongest allies. These were the people who supported Jesus in all he did and they worked for his cause. They looked and acted like loyal, dedicated, faithful men, but not all of them were. There was one who was going to betray him and Jesus knew it. Jesus knew that Judas would be the one to hand him over to be crucified and yet even knowing that, Jesus didn’t uproot him, he didn’t kick him off the team.

I’m always amazed when I stop and remember that Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him, and yet Judas was there when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Jesus washed Judas’ feet and shared with him the bread and cup of the last supper. Jesus knew that Judas was a weed, but he didn’t uproot him, he allowed him to remain as part of the group of disciples and by doing this one of the things Jesus says to us is that there will be people around us who will be difficult and even destructive. There will be people who will look and act like our friends and confidants, but in time they may be the ones who will let us down, desert us, even betray us. There will be people around us who we will struggle with and God isn’t going to just uproot them the moment they appear, but God will give us the strength to learn how to deal with them.

For a moment, let’s also expand our understanding of these weeds and see that they aren’t just the people who cause us problems; they can also be the problems themselves. We will all face problems in life. Just when things seem to be going well there will be an obstacle, some unforeseen issue that will rise up and cause us problems, and God doesn’t come along and uproot these problems the moment they appear. We live with all kinds of weeds that crowd out the good things we want in life. We live with disappointments and confusion, we wrestle with unmet expectations and as much as we want God to take it all away and make everything right, that is simply not the way God works. There are those times when God is more interested in strengthening us so we can deal with the weeds, or maybe God wants to help us understand that the weeds, no matter how bad they are, can’t destroy us or take God’s presence and power and grace from us.

So the first truth this parable tells us is that there will be weeds in our lives. People and problems will come along that will challenge us, disappoint us and frustrate us and God isn’t going to just remove them when they first appear. The second truth we learn from this parable is that it is not our job to figure out who the weeds are; it is not our job to be the judge. Look at the explanation to the parable again (13:37-39). Did you notice that we are not the harvesters? We are not the ones who identify the weeds and pull them up, we are the wheat and so our job is to be wheat. It is not our job to judge who is evil. It is not our job to decide who is in and who is out, it is our job to simply be wheat and Jesus says that the wheat are the children of the kingdom, the wheat are children of God and so our job is live like children of God. We are to live in such a way and love in such a way that people see Jesus in us. So instead of pointing fingers at others, we need to spend time looking in a mirror and making sure that we are faithful in following Jesus.

Now this doesn’t mean we don’t speak out against sin and uproot injustice when we see it, that is part of what it means to faithfully serve God in this world, but we need to spend more time focusing on ourselves and less time judging the actions and attitudes of others. Again, Jesus had to face this issue with his own disciples. After the resurrection Jesus is spending time with his disciples and in John 21 we find Jesus talking to Peter explaining to him what is going to happen to him as he gets older (John 21:18).

Now none of this sounds very good and I’m sure Peter is struggling to accept what this means for his life when he sees his friend John in the distance and so Peter asks Jesus, hey, Lord, what about him? What about John? What is he going to have to go through? Is he going to have to go through all this too? And look at what Jesus says to Peter, (John 21:22) If it is my will that he remain until I come again, what is that to you? You just follow me. In other words, Jesus is saying, don’t compare yourself to others, just do what I ask you to do. Don’t worry about what will happen to others, don’t worry about what they will get and what they won’t get, just be wheat.

We need to spend more time being the people God calls us to be and stop worrying about others. In his sermon on the mount Jesus told us to not worry about the speck of dust in our neighbor’s eye but to work at taking out the plank out of our own eye. We aren’t supposed to judge others, we need to just take care of ourselves, and live as children of light. Listen to this charge found in Colossians 3:12-17. This is part of what it means to be wheat – this is what we need to be focused on, living lives of love, forgiveness, peace and grace. In our families, at our jobs and in our community if we would worry more about living faithful lives as children of God, we would have a better community. What it means to be wheat is that whatever we do, in word or deed, we do in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the father.
There is another truth this parable teaches us that in many ways could be the foundation of it all. While we often think of this as a parable that talks about the coming judgment, and it is, the day of judgment is coming when the angels will separate out the weeds from the wheat and the weeds will be destroyed while the wheat will be gathered into the kingdom of God, but maybe we also need to read this as a parable of grace. Let’s go back and ask ourselves the question, why doesn’t Jesus want the weeds pulled up immediately? Why let them grow? The answer is given in Matthew 13:29.
Jesus is clear that he doesn’t want the weeds pulled up right away because he doesn’t want any of the wheat to be destroyed. If the weeds are pulled up too soon, some wheat might be pulled up as well and more than anything Jesus wants the wheat, he wants us, to grow and mature. Think about it, there are times in all of our lives when inside or outside we might not look a lot like wheat and if in that moment we are judged, we could be pulled up and destroyed. We all stumble and fall at times; we will struggle to hold onto our faith. We won’t always live like the children of light, but God doesn’t give up on us and uproot our lives, instead God gives us the blessing of his patience and the gift of time.
God give us time to repent and turn back to him. God gives us time to accept his grace and the love he offers. God’s gives us time to draw from his power in ways that can change our lives. That the weeds aren’t pulled up immediately isn’t a sign that God doesn’t care about what we are going through; it is a sign of God’s grace and love for us. God is so patient with us and God’s love is so strong that he waits for us. God waits for us as we wander from him and wrestle with him. God waits for us as we struggle with the problems and the people in our lives. God waits for us as we try not to judge others but instead love and forgive them. And as he waits, God nurtures us with grace and love.

So let’s not just read this parable, let’s allow this word of Christ to dwell within us. God loves us with such great patience that we are able to not just endure the weeds, but overcome them with God’s mercy and power. So let us be wheat, let us be the children of God.

Summer Reading ~ The Parables of Jesus

The Sower and the Seed
I’m not sure what it is about summer, but I tend to read more during the summer than the winter. Maybe it’s the vacations I take which gives some added down time to read, or maybe it’s the fact that there’s not much on TV during the summer and the college football and basketball seasons are over, I don’t know, but I do tend to read more during the summer and this summer I picked up a series of books that I have probably read at least 5 times. It’s not that they are such great classis of literature, they aren’t, they are just good stories with likable characters who embark on a journey of good verses evil with good always winning in the end.

I’m not sure what your summer reading list has on it, but I hope that during the next month you will take some time to read some of the greatest stories ever told, not the classics of literature, but the parables of Jesus. Jesus was a master storyteller. He didn’t just gather huge crowds because he could perform miracles and provided food for free; people flocked to Jesus to hear what he had to say. Jesus told stories that not only engaged people hearts, minds and imaginations, but he told stories of such deep spiritual truths that the hearing and reflecting on those stories changed people’s lives. For the next few weeks are going to look at some of these great stories and reflect ourselves on the parables found in Matthew 13. While the stories might be familiar, they still speak spiritual truths that can shape our hearts and lives if we allow them to.

Read Matthew 13:1-16. Before we look a the parable itself, let’s first ask the question why did Jesus speak in parables? Why did Jesus use these stories to convey deep spiritual truths? That was the question the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 13:10 and here is Jesus response (13:11-16). I have to say, this response really does not clear things up very well and it can be easy to misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is not saying that he speaks in parables so that people can’t understand him, he actually is saying the opposite. Jesus speaks in parables to help people understand.

I believe there are two reasons Jesus used parables to help people understand the truth about God. The first is that parables used ordinary everyday language that people understood. In Jesus day most of the teaching and preaching sounded more like lawyers talking about the finer details of the law. The Scribes and Pharisees were actually called the teachers of the law and what they did was gather together to dissect the law found in the Old Testament. They taught people how to apply the law to every part of their lives and they looked for all the loopholes there might be to try and plug them up. For the crowds of people who were not educated, this kind of teaching and preaching left them on the outside unable to understand anything about God. The parables Jesus told, however, used stories and images that everyone could understood. People knew about farming so they understood what happened when a sower went out to sow seeds. They had seen seed fall on hard ground and rocky ground and good ground. They knew the size of mustard seeds and how to cast nets into the sea so when Jesus used that language, people could understand and begin to comprehend the truth of God.

There is a second reason Jesus taught in parables and that is what he is getting at in Matthew 13:11-16. What Jesus is saying here is that when a heart is open to God, the parables open up the floodgates of understanding in the heart and mind of those who are listening. Look at verse12 (read), now the Message translates that this way, Whenever someone has a ready heart, the insights and understandings will flow freely but if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. In other words, if people are open to hearing what God has to say the parables reveal deep spiritual truths that change people’s lives, but if people are not open to what God has to say, then the parables make no sense and the truth is hidden from them. It’s not that Jesus is hiding any truth from the people, it’s not that he doesn’t want them to understand, but he says that for them to understand they need to have open hearts. Jesus not only says that here, but isn’t that the first image in Jesus parable of the sower? Look at Matthew 13:4.

In his explanation of the parable, Jesus tells us that the seed being sowed is the word of God, you could even say that the seed is the truth of God contained in the parables and the different types of soil are the different types of hearts and lives that hear this word. If a heart is not open to God’s word, then the truth and the meaning of the parable is lost, it’s like a seed that falls upon a hard path and is taken away. But if the heart is open, the seed is able to sink in and take root. Now what is so encouraging about this is that the truth of God does not require us to have a mind that understands everything, we simply need a heart open to God. Reading the word of God does not require us to have a PhD, or even a Master of Divinity; to understand the life changing truth of God simply requires a heart that is open to what God has to say.

I have heard so many people say that they don’t read the bible because they can’t understand all that they are reading, trust me I know what you mean. I don’t understand all that I read either, but what Jesus is saying here is that grabbing hold of God’s truth doesn’t require a brilliant mind - it just requires a hungry heart. Are we open to hearing the word of God? Do we want to know God’s truth? Are we ready for the life changing power of God’s word to shape our lives? Do we just want to know more about God and more of God? If we do, then when we read the Bible, the insights and understandings will flow freely.

Being open to God may be the first step in allowing God’s word to change us, but it is not the last, Jesus goes on in his parables and talks about the seed that falls on rocky soil (13:5-6). The problem here is that the seed was never able to take root so when the sun came out the plant died. For the word of God to take root in our lives we can’t just listen to God’s word with our ears, we have to listen with our hearts; we have to apply what God says to our lives. We have to let God’s word take root in us, we have to let it sink deep within us and allow God’s word to give direction to our lives. For example, it’s not enough for us to hear about the grace and love of God, we have to make that grace and love our own.

Have we accepted the love of God for ourselves, do we know that God has forgiven us and that God loves us more than we can possibly imagine? I have a friend who serves a church and in the course of the past year he has talked to several of his parishioners who have shared with him that they just can’t believe that God has forgiven them of everything. These are people who have been in church their entire lives, they have heard the word of God weekly, maybe read it daily for years but they have not allowed that word to take root. They have not allowed the truth of God’s love and grace to sink in and take hold of them so when problems have sprung up their faith has not helped hem. They have had nothing to hold on to during tough times because they never really accepted and acted on God’s word, so when the sun came out, their faith was scorched and died.

It’s not enough to just hear God’s word with an open heart, we have to take God’s word and apply it to our lives and I believe it all starts with accepting God’s love and grace for ourselves. Allowing God’s word to shape our lives means understanding that first and foremost we are forgiven for our sin and that forgiveness means being set free from the guilt of sin and the hold that sin has on us. Accepting God’s love and grace also means stepping out into life with the confident assurance that God goes with us and more than that, that God has a plan and purpose for us. It means that like Paul we can face any problem or storm in life with confidence because we trust the promise that God is not only with us but that God is with us to save us. When we allow God’s word to truly live with in us and when we live it out in our lives, we find the strength to overcome.

As we seek to apply God’s word to our lives we also need to make sure that we keep God’s word a priority. It is only the consistent reading, reflection and application of God’s word that will help us keep all of our priorities right and that is what Jesus is talking about in the third seed and soil he mentions in Matthew 13:7. When we allow something else to become a priority in life over God what we are doing is giving room for it to grow, and the more room we give it to grow, the less room there is for God. It’s like weeds and thorns growing up in a field. The more room they take, the more they choke out the good plants. So we need to keep the word of God a priority in our life. We need consistent time reading God’s word and every day we need to apply that word to our lives. The more we keep God’s word as a priority, the more our priorities will be straight. Let me repeat that, the more we keep God’s word a priority in our lives, the more our life’s priorities will remain straight. It just happens, the way a healthy lawn keeps out the weeds.

So what is God’s truth we hear in this parable? Jesus first says that all we need to understand the word of God is an open heart eager to understand God’s truth. Then we need to apply God’s truth to our lives so that our faith can help us during difficult times in life, and then if we will consistently read and reflect on the word of God - our priorities in life will remain straight and our faith will remain strong. If we will do all of this, then life will be good and that is the message of the last seed Jesus talks about, Matthew 13:8.

The good soil produced a crop and God’s word can produce in us a strong and faithful life if we will read it, accept it and live it out in our lives. Does this good crop mean everything in life will go well for us and that we will not face any problems or obstacles? No, the sun will beat down and the weeds will grow up, but the word of God can help us overcome the problems and find the strength and the peace to endure them. I have been struck recently by a study I read that said that the reading and reflection of Scripture is the number one catalyst for spiritual growth for all people. Being new to the faith or a life time follower of Jesus didn’t matter, the #1 catalyst for spiritual growth was the reading and reflection of scripture. We all need to make the reading and reflection on God’s word a daily part of our lives, so we need to make God’s word part of our summer reading, if we will, our faith will grow and our lives will change.