17th sunday in ordinary time

What Are We Looking For?

Tell Him you're ready to go in!

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field"

Matthew 13:44

A certain man went to Church one Sunday.  He frowned when the organist missed a note during the opening hymn.    He stared menacingly at two adolescents talking to each other when the congregation was at prayer.

During the Scripture Readings he kept looking impatiently at his watch.  When the collection basket was passed he felt that the usher was watching to see how much he gave.

During the sermon, he felt mighty pleased with himself when he caught the preacher making a slip of the tongue.

He was tight-lipped during all of the hymn singing.

As he slipped out a side door during the closing hymn, he muttered to himself, "That was terrible.  What a bunch of clods.  Never again!"

A certain other man went to Church one Sunday He was edified by the organist's moving rendition of "Amazing Grace."

He marveled at the sight of a father exchanging hugs with the little child draped over his shoulder.

He had but one thought when the collection basket was passed: "Some of what I give will be used to serve the needy.  Am I giving enough?"

He listened attentively to the Scripture Readings which spoke of God's incredible love for the human family.

He heard something in the sermon that helped him with a question that had bothered him for a long time.

He enthusiastically joined in the singing of the closing hymn of praise.

As he left the Church, he said to himself, "How good it is to be here and share in the experience of the Presence of God!"

Both men had gone to the same Church, on the same Sunday, and each had found exactly what he was looking for.

We who have gathered today in this Church, what are we looking for?  As members of the community of Christ, as followers of Jesus Christ, what should we be looking for?  What should come first in our lives?  Should material concerns be our first priority: "What are we to eat?  What are we to drink?  How are we to be clothed?" (Mt. 6:31).  No, that is not priority one in our lives, Jesus tells us.  "It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things," He says (Mt. 6:32).  "Your Heavenly Father knows you need them all.  Set your hearts on His Kingdom first ... and all these other things will be given you as well" (Mt. 6:33).

The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found (Mt. 13:44).

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it (Mt. 13:45).

When Jesus tells us that the Rule of God is like a buried treasure, He is not saying that it is beyond our reach or hard to find.  Rather, He is telling us what we should be looking for.    We know, after all -- and for certain -- the Gospel Truth that the Rule of God is the Rule of Love; that our rule of life is to love; that doing well is to love well.  And we learn to treasure it; we learn to treasure it enough to live it.  And the more we learn about it, the more we realize the urgency of it.  The Kingdom of God, The Kingdom of Heaven, the Reign of God, the Rule of God, the Rule of Love is now.  

We read in Mark's Gospel that Jesus began His public ministry of proclaiming the Good News from God, saying, "The Kingdom of God is close at hand.  Repent, and believe in the Good News" (Mark 1:15).  These words are just as relevant to us now as they were to Jesus' followers twenty centuries ago.  This is the time of our fulfillment!  The Rule of God is close at hand.  The Rule of God is present to us now!  Our faith in the Lord's Gospel is to be reflected in the way we live now!

Jesus is not asking us to reject our earthly world in favor of some out-of-this-world ethereal kingdom.  Rather, He invites us to embrace the world, to participate in our earthly affairs and our human relationships as He did: in the holy spirit of sacrificial love.

"Follow Me," Jesus bids us.  "Follow Me into the Kingdom of God.  Follow Me and place yourself, without reservation, under the Kingship and Rule of the Father."  Now is the time to get it all together under God's Rule -- your physical and your emotional well-being; your relationships; your job; your concern about the world out there.  It's all there ready to take on new meaning in your life because God rules over you now.  This is what makes life exciting and beautiful and good.  Jesus bids us, "Follow Me," not from "up above" somewhere, or "way out there" somewhere, but here-and-now.

"You've been naughty all day," said an exhausted, exasperated mother to her little girl.  "How do you expect to get to Heaven?"  The child replied, "I'll just keep opening the door and slamming it closed.  After a while they'll say, 'For goodness' sake, make up your mind, either go in or go out.'  And I'll go in."

Jesus comes right into our midst to tell us that "All the way to Heaven is Heaven."  He stands among us, arms outstretched, ready to receive us.  Follow Him to the threshold of God's Kingdom of unspeakable love.  Tell Him you've found what you've been looking for!  Tell Him you're ready to go in -- right now!  

Tell Him you're ready to love others as He has loved you -- right now!

God is speaking to you right now!

15 Sunday in ordinary time 

"Happy are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear"

Matthew 13:16

On a spring day, a week-end gardener showed an out-of-town visitor the packets of seed he had received through the mail.  The rainbow colored packages promised huge, juicy, tasty vegetables of every kind.  "This will be my best garden ever," boasted the backyard farmer.  Late that summer the same out-of-town friend dropped by for another visit.  "How is your garden doing?" he asked.  "I'm sorry to say it hasn't done very well," the gardener replied.  "That's a shame," sympathized the visitor.  "What's the problem?  Bad soil?  Pests?  Dry weather?"  The gardener shook his head.  "Then maybe your seed was the problem," the visitor suggested.  "Yeah, I guess the seed was the problem," the gardener admitted.  "You see, I never got around to planting any of it!"

Getting the seed into the ground can sometimes be the hardest part of farming, and that was especially true in first-century Israel.  In the days of Jesus, eking a harvest from the land was a back-breaking struggle.  The land itself was the first obstacle.  Palestine is hilly country, and much of the tilling is carried out on steep slopes.  Often the slope had to be terraced to hold the soil in place.  The soil itself was fertile enough, but extremely rocky.  And clearing the field of rocks was a never-ending task.

An old Arab story says that God enlisted two angels to assist in the creation of the world.  God gave each of the angels a huge bag of stones to scatter evenly all over the world.  Unfortunately, as the angels were flying over Israel, one of the bags burst and spilled half of the world's rocks into that little country -- and farmers have been digging them up ever since!

A second obstacle was the climate.  The five months of burning heat in Israel can sometimes pass without a single drop of rain.  On the more cool days, when dew condensed in the evening, the farmer would rise earlier than usual to cultivate the soil in order to keep the moisture from evaporating too quickly.

Finally, there was the challenge of getting the seed into the soil.  Seeds were not planted in careful rows. The sower hung a bag of seed on a pack-animal, tore a small hole in the bag, and then led the animal back-and-forth through the field, spilling seed with every step.  Sowing by hand was harder work, but gave better coverage with the precious seed.  But even when sown by hand, much of the seed fell in places where it was impossible to take root.

In today's Gospel -- the "Parable of the Sower" -- Jesus reminds us that seed sown in good ground will be more productive than seed sown in barren ground, or ground laced with thistle and weeds.  Jesus likens the seed to the Word of God, and the ground in which it is sown to the people to whom the Word is addressed.  We discover that God, in a sense, sows indiscriminately.  His Message is not planted in a single corner of the earth or in a particular society on earth.  All God's children -- that means all people, everywhere -- are constantly being addressed by God's Word, in one way or another.  But the Word will flower and bear fruit only on the good ground.  The seed can generate new life only on soil that is properly conditioned to receive it.  Jesus' immediate audience understood this good ground to be the heart and soul of any serious person whose true feeling about God was expressed in morning and evening prayers. (called the "Shema").  The Shema began with these words:

Listen, Israel! Yahweh, our God, is the one Yahweh.

You shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your strength.

That's where it all began with the serious Jew in Jesus' time.  And that's where it all begins with us, in our time.

The depth of God's plan for our fulfillment is beyond our present understanding -- but not beyond our imagination.  Remember imagination is a gift of God.  Let it soar!  Learn to expect the unexpected from our Gracious God!  The good God never ceases to sow His seed.  His voice can be seen, but only if you are searching.

"Happy are your eyes because they see; your ears because they hear!"  God is speaking to you right now!  Imagine that!

"Yes My yoke is easy, and My burden light"

Matthew 11:30

A preacher stood before the congregation and received the offerings at the conclusion of the collection.  After staring forlornly into the basket, the preacher said to the gathering, "Our latest advertising campaign has been a great success.  We have advertised that the poor would be welcome in this Church."  Then, glancing once more into the nearly empty basket he added, "and obviously they are here today in large numbers!"

Advertising: every company or group that deals with the public wants to be recognized and remembered.  Each may come up with a memorable slogan, or perhaps a celebrity endorsement.  Sometimes a visual symbol captures the consumer's attention, a design or a trademark that will be unconsciously absorbed by the public.

For instance, what restaurant is brought to mind by golden arches? What entertainment empire is represented by a loveable mouse?  What product is carried home in the rain by a little girl with an umbrella? 

 According to an old legend, in the years before he began His public ministry Jesus was renowned for His skill in making yokes and, so the story goes, a yoke hung over the door of Jesus' carpentry shop as a symbol of His expertise -- a trademark.

A yoke is a wooden bar which fits over the shoulders of a pair of animals and fastens under their necks to allow them to pull a wagon or a plow.  In the First Century, a carpenter first hewed out the yoke in rough form and would finish the job by fitting it precisely to the beasts who would wear it.  Obviously, a poorly made yoke would chafe and rub, but a well-fitted yoke would ride comfortably on the beast's neck and shoulders.

When Jesus says, "My yoke is easy," the words might also be translated, "My yoke fits well."  One noted Scripture scholar supports the legend that those words might have been the advertising slogan of the family carpentry business that Jesus shared with His father, Joseph.  

Whether or not there is any truth to these legends, in today's Gospel Jesus does hold up a yoke as a kind of trademark, not of His skills as a carpenter, but as a trademark of His ministry.  A yoke isn't a very attractive symbol.

All of us are born to wear a yoke, and we have no say in the matter, except to choose which yoke we will wear.  Many people choose very poorly.  For instance, sin can be a yoke.  Sin can become our master.  We can become slaves to sin.  In Paul's letter to the Romans, the Apostle says, "I am sold into slavery under sin.  I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."  This is the plight of everyone who submits to the heavy yoke of sin.

All of us have our own personal laundry lists of sins -- unforgiveness, greed, disloyalty, self-centerdness, to name just a few.  But no matter which one of those yokes we try on, we soon find that it chafes and debases.  And it wears us down spiritually to the point where we are ready to cry out with Paul, "Who will rescue me?"  Paul then supplies his own answer.  "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ!" he says.  For it is Christ alone who sets us free, and breaks every oppressive yoke.  But Christ does not liberate us so that we may romp irresponsibly through life.  He liberates us from the abrasive yoke in order to fit us for His own yoke.

The yoke of our Savior is different from all the others.  The other yokes are hard; His is easy.  The others chafe us raw; His fits us perfectly.  The others are a heavy burden; His burden is light.  And there are several reasons why Christ's yoke is light.  

First of all, when we take up that yoke, we are motivated by love.  Sin drives us; Christ leads us.  Perhaps, for this reason, the word "slave" is not an appropriate way in which to speak of our relationship to Christ.  Oh, we certainly belong to Him. We serve Him.  We conform our will to His.  But we're not slaves.  A slave serves his master out of fear or necessity or coercion.  We serve Christ out of love and devotion.  Obedience is our choice.  Love can prompt us to do the hard things, the unpleasant things, the lowly things.  In fact, those jobs that no one could ever force us to do, we will undertake joyfully for the sake of those we love.  To follow Christ is to be yoked in his service, but love cushions the yoke.

There's a second reason why Christ's yoke is light.  The yoke of Christ is in harmony with our nature.  The yoke of Christ is in harmony with our purpose in life.  The yoke of Christ is in harmony with our deep desire for wholeness of life.  Christ's yoke is light and easy, not only because that yoke is tailor-made for us, but also because we are tailor-made for that yoke.  To suppose that discipleship is an irksome weight around our necks is like pitying the birds for having to carry around those burdensome wings!

Lastly, and most importantly, the yoke of Christ is light because that yoke is not carried alone.  A First Century yoke was typically made for two.  When we are yoked in the service of Christ, we are also yoked in the grace and strength of Christ.  The Lord who commands us to bend our necks to His yoke treads beside us and puts His own shoulder to the task.

There are two ways to ease a burden.  One is to take away some of the weight.  The other is to add to the strength of the one who bears the weight.  That is the way of Christ.  He respects us too much to lower the standards of the Kingdom for our convenience.  He loves us too much to belittle us.  He doesn't always give us small jobs or easy tasks.  Sometimes what He requires from us is staggering and frightening.  But whatever the job, Christ always gives us the strength to do it.  And having done it, we find ourselves to be stronger than before.  When the load is too heavy, Christ joins in our struggle.  When the burden is beyond us, Christ is beside us.  If we belong to Christ, the journey is never too hard, never too lonely, because we do not shoulder the yoke alone.  

"Yes, My yoke is easy, and My burden light," says the Lord.  This is His very trademark -- His golden arches, His advertising symbol, so to speak.  And being Lord of all, and Lord of all Truth, He never engages in false advertising!