Yesterday's Gospel came from Matthew 13 again, and amongst a collection of parables was one comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to "yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour until it was all leavened."
For a while we lived in Corpus Christi, Texas. One day while tropical storm Doris was raging outside, I decided to try my hand at making bread. This was in the days before bread machines. We dissolved the yeast in warm water, added milk and sugar (as I recall), then kneaded it into the amount of flour Betty Crocker called for. Then we set the dough aside and waited for it to rise. After what seemed like forever, I kneaded the dough again, and set it aside for its second rise. Again we waited forever. Then I decided that it had "doubled in size," formed it into a loaf pan and baked it. The result was approximately the size and consistency of a brick.
I got all kinds of suggestions about what went wrong. Perhaps the yeast was no longer "active." Maybe the water had been too hot and had killed the yeast. "Never bake during a hurricane," I was told, "the atmospheric pressure is too low for bread to rise properly." (That doesn't even make sense to me.)
The next time I tried baking bread we followed Betty's instructions exactly the same way we had before. But this time I was less anxious and gave the yeast time to do its work. The dough did rise, gloriously, and the bread was actually edible.
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast.
In baptism we pray that God will fill an infant, child or adult with God's "Holy and life giving Spirit." Then we kneed the dough. Sunday school, confirmation classes, service projects, even mission trips, are just kneading. The real miracle is taking place unseen from us, and if we don't rush the baking, the results can be wonderful.
What do you think?
Mike+
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Judgement or Judging
Yesterday's propers included a reading from Matthew 13 commonly called the parable of the Wheat and Tares. No one knows what a tare is nowadays, so the NRSV calls them weeds.
In the parable, the Kingdom of Heaven is like land owner who sews good seed, only to have an enemy come after him sewing weeds. When the wheat and weeds rise up together his servants express dismay, and offer to pull up the weeds. The land owners tells them not to. In their zeal to pull up the weeds, they will also destroy the wheat. He says that at the harvest he instruct that the weeds be harvested first, and bound together and burned. Then the wheat will harvested and the grain gathered into his barn.
A similar message is found in another parable of the kingdom. In this one the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a fisherman who hauls in a net full of fish, some good and some bad. After the fish are brought ashore the good fish and the bad fish are separated.
The message of these two parables seems to be multifaceted. First, there is a difference between good and bad. Second, there will be a time when the good and bad are separated, the good for entrance into the kingdom, the bad for expulsion. Third, judging between the good and the bad (deciding who is in and who is out of the kingdom) is not a human prerogative. Only the angels (whose only will is God's will) get to separate the wheat from the weeds, or the good fish from the bad. Perhaps that is because our understanding of good and bad are so imperfect.
"Judge not lest ye be judged... "
At the same time, there are abundant scriptures that call for us to separate ourselves from people and conduct that would lead us from God. I think of Psalm 1, "Happy are they who have not walked in the way of the wicked," or of Paul's admonition that we are, "in the world but not of the world," or ultimately of Paul's command to the church in Corinth (2nd Corinthians) that they should expel a man who persisted in a particularly flagrant sin.
We are not to judge, but we are to show good judgement. How do we find a balance between these two seemingly contradictory teachings?
For me, if I error, I think is should be on the side of refraining from judging others. I will always try to show good judgement about my personal conduct and associations, but I am grateful that the decision about who is in and who is out of God's Kingdom is not mine to make. God will do the judging, and much will happen between now and the time when that judging takes place.
What do you think?
In the parable, the Kingdom of Heaven is like land owner who sews good seed, only to have an enemy come after him sewing weeds. When the wheat and weeds rise up together his servants express dismay, and offer to pull up the weeds. The land owners tells them not to. In their zeal to pull up the weeds, they will also destroy the wheat. He says that at the harvest he instruct that the weeds be harvested first, and bound together and burned. Then the wheat will harvested and the grain gathered into his barn.
A similar message is found in another parable of the kingdom. In this one the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a fisherman who hauls in a net full of fish, some good and some bad. After the fish are brought ashore the good fish and the bad fish are separated.
The message of these two parables seems to be multifaceted. First, there is a difference between good and bad. Second, there will be a time when the good and bad are separated, the good for entrance into the kingdom, the bad for expulsion. Third, judging between the good and the bad (deciding who is in and who is out of the kingdom) is not a human prerogative. Only the angels (whose only will is God's will) get to separate the wheat from the weeds, or the good fish from the bad. Perhaps that is because our understanding of good and bad are so imperfect.
"Judge not lest ye be judged... "
At the same time, there are abundant scriptures that call for us to separate ourselves from people and conduct that would lead us from God. I think of Psalm 1, "Happy are they who have not walked in the way of the wicked," or of Paul's admonition that we are, "in the world but not of the world," or ultimately of Paul's command to the church in Corinth (2nd Corinthians) that they should expel a man who persisted in a particularly flagrant sin.
We are not to judge, but we are to show good judgement. How do we find a balance between these two seemingly contradictory teachings?
For me, if I error, I think is should be on the side of refraining from judging others. I will always try to show good judgement about my personal conduct and associations, but I am grateful that the decision about who is in and who is out of God's Kingdom is not mine to make. God will do the judging, and much will happen between now and the time when that judging takes place.
What do you think?
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Getting started.
My hopes are to build a blogspot that can be accessed by the members of Christ Episcopal Church in Medway, MA and Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Hopkinton, MA to engage our faith on a regualr basis. My tentative plan is to post a reading on our faith tradition, from the lectionary or an issue of timely interest, add a few thoughts to it and invite conversation.
This might end up as a virtual Sunday School for adults.
Fr. Mike
My hopes are to build a blogspot that can be accessed by the members of Christ Episcopal Church in Medway, MA and Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Hopkinton, MA to engage our faith on a regualr basis. My tentative plan is to post a reading on our faith tradition, from the lectionary or an issue of timely interest, add a few thoughts to it and invite conversation.
This might end up as a virtual Sunday School for adults.
Fr. Mike
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