Trinity Blog

¹¹ He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ ¹⁴ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ ¹⁵ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. ¹⁶ Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. ¹⁷ Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. ¹⁸ Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.’ 1 Kings 19:11-18

If I have to pull any more weeds from my flower beds and garden, I am going to scream.  I feel like I have done nothing but pull weeds this entire summer and, in a few days, they grow back, plus some that were not there before.  We get a little rain and some warm weather, and they grow in abundance.  Covering them with mulch helped for like five minutes.  Using my Weed Wacker helped for about a week and then I must do it again.  I am at that point where I don’t care what grows and what anything looks like, I am done.  Until the leaves start.  Grrr.

Elijah was also done.  Not done picking weeds but he was burned out from trying to lead Israel from following and worshipping Baal.  He just has his great victory over the hundreds of Baal’s Prophets, but the Queen runs him out of town.  He’s done.  He leaves the country and runs back to God’s Mountain as a tired and frustrated failure of a prophet.  As disciples we can also become done in frustration and burnout.  We tried and nothing worked.  We need more people and more excitement.  We gave of ourselves and nothing much changes from week to week.  The weeds continue to grow, we try new things, and nothing stops.  Like Elijah we are done.

But God is not done with Elijah, nor with us for that matter.  God tells Elijah to meet him on the mountain and Elijah complies.  After the wind, the earthquakes, and the fire pass by, God comes, and Elijah comes out to meet him.  God asks him why he is here instead of being back on the job?  Elijah gives him a reason which looks totally like an excuse: everyone left you/me.  Amid his burnout, Elijah goes from advocating and working toward the goal of a Baal-less society to attending to God.  From working and toiling to conversation and prayer with God.  Instead of focusing on the plan and how to get there, Elijah focuses instead on God and enters a state of attending on God. 

What if we should also, who find ourselves in a similar place to Elijah, cease our fruitless, frustrating, and failed plans to instead attend to God?  What has changed around us and what might we need to change how we do things?  Attending to God and a new possibility and new potentials instead of spinning our tired wheels in the mud in frustration.  Asking ourselves God questions in discernment instead of endless organizational questions, which may not have an answer, about more members, more resources, and more building repairs.  Like Elijah when the plans or programs stop working and maybe never did, we should stop and instead attend to God.

What Elijah gets is a new focus, a new purpose, and a new call.  Instead of fighting the Baal prophets and Queen Jezebel, Elijah is called and commanded by God to go anoint another King, who will rule justly over 7000 faithful Israelites.  What is our new focus, new purpose, and new call?  The plans and programs don’t work, but we do have loving, connectional people.  How do we engage our neighborhood with what we do have?  How do we adjust the leaders and resources we do have?  How do we become covenantal people on mission, not just CEO’s and middle managers of yet another dying institution?  God’s answer is not what we want, but what we need: new focus, new calling, new energy, new tasks. 

We all get tired and burned out as disciples of Jesus Christ.  We all end up exactly like Elijah.  But while Elijah was done, God was not done with him, nor us.  But instead of running headlong to our destruction because we cannot imagine doing things a new way, we can stop the frustrations and life-taking ways from previous times.  Instead of doing things the same old way, we can attend instead to God and a new focus and energy.  Instead of going back to the failed mission, Elijah accepts the new purpose of God and finds renewal.  We can do likewise; to attend to God and to perhaps see and discern the emerging possibilities God is creating.  But we need to attend to God and the new opportunity, instead of putting our heads down and running in mud.  We might be done, but it might be done with the way things were, not the new things that God is doing.  Let us in faith attend to God and God’s emerging Kingdom instead of toiling in the failed enterprise.  God is not done with us, but let us be done with ways things were. Amen.

³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. ⁶ We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; ⁸ the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.  Romans 12:3-8

We find ourselves in football and marching band season once again.  The sounds of the drums playing the cadences.  The sun reflecting off the sousaphones.  The color guard twirling flags and batons.  The brass section providing deep tones while the woodwinds creating a soaring descant.  But for the performance to be moving to the soul, all the performers must mesh.  No one section or group is enough to drive home the music, they must all contribute and do so complementing each other.  When the band works well together the result is breath-taking and soul-forming.  The band must mesh.

Just as it is with a marching band, so too is it with the church.  People and congregations must mesh.  Each person or group or community is insufficient by themselves but must contribute to the greater whole and must do so complementing each other.  Ministers administering Word and Sacraments.  Elders leading in wisdom and discernment.  Deacons giving care and compassion.  Teachers nurturing in patience and knowledge.  Advocates working toward justice and peace.  Each provides an invaluable piece of the whole and only when each contributes and complements each other does the result become breath-taking and soul-forming.  Each must mesh.

But we all too often imagine the connections in our own congregations and how each person must contribute and complement each other.  The dynamics can also be across congregations.  We at Trinity and Eastside have come to learn and perceive this dynamic.  Elders mesh with elders.  Deacons mesh with deacons.  Teachers mesh teachers.  Advocates mesh with advocates.  Cooks and planners mesh with cooks and planner.  Each provides an invaluable piece of the whole and only when each contributes and complements each other does the result become breath-taking and soul-forming.  Trinity and Eastside must mesh.

Over the summer months, we at both churches have begun exploring what it means to mesh as one Church across congregations.  We worshipped together in rotating worship spaces.  We combined mission committees rotating meeting spaces.  We shared our various activities with the other church.  We learned to be hosts and guests to the other church.  We ate together, we prayed together, we assembled around God’s Word together.  We worshipped together and we worked together.  Trinity and Eastside meshed.

In the next six months, how do we continue to mesh and perhaps even expand?  Could it be more integrated worship?  Could it be more fellowship activities?  Could it be sharing duties across boards and committees?  Could it be including the other churches in the city or even county?  Yes, it could be.  But it will take you, and it will take you choosing to mesh with others instead of choosing isolation.  I know too well the anxiety and risk it takes to enter such a space.  But, if we are following Christ in faith, we push through the fear and vulnerability and follow anyway in courage.  And the results might just be breath-taking and soul-forming.  We just might mesh.  Let the Church play on!  Amen.

44 ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  45 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.  Matthew 13:44-46

We have a store in the local mall, where a person can buy, sell, or trade movies, video games, comic books and many other things.  You can purchase a new DVD, yes, they still make and sell those.  You can trade in a well-played and finished game for another.  You can sell your old comic books for cash, yes, they still deal with cash.  But in this store, one can find just about anything and for the right price take it home.

Perhaps then, we can understand what is transpiring in our two parables about the Kingdom of heaven.  Both parables contain a person finding something of great value, a treasure, or a pearl, and in their desire to “have” the item, they sell everything they have in order to buy the item.  These parables describe a trading, the treasure for the money, just like buying a new movie, or trading in an old game, or selling your old Gameboy.  One person gives up something, the money or the property and gains the treasure or pearl.  The other person gives up the treasure or pearl to gain the prize.  But both parables describe a transaction or trading and paying a high price, they sold everything to gain the treasure because it was worth it.

Perhaps one of the main ideas for disciples to learn from these parables is the breaking from the old to obtain the new.  Everything is sold to gain the Kingdom of Heaven.  Now, this does not mean that it can be bought or sold, we know faith is how we enter and obtain the Kingdom of Heaven.  But the point is instead that to gain the Kingdom of Heaven, by faith, one must make a complete break with the old: everything old for the Kingdom of Heaven.  We break from the previous life and the previous lifestyles and the previous attitudes, and the previous goals to receive the new life, the new lifestyle, the new attitude, and the new goals.  Everything goes because the Kingdom of Heaven now comes.  God breaks the old life, to give us, by faith, the Kingdom of Heaven.

But when the Kingdom of Heaven breaks into our world and God breaks us from the old, many great conflicts begin over and within us.  The first is the desire for possessions.  We just simply want more stuff and someone in our community is selling it to us.  Advertisements are in every aspect of our line of sight.  Buy this coffee.  Buy this car.  Buy this phone.  And we become ensnared by the race with our neighbors over who can have more and have it before someone else gets it.  To make a break with this desire, God replaces the desire for more stuff with the desire to let go of our earthly possessions and share them in love.  God makes this great break in our lives, which is quite simply giving sacrificially, instead of taking greedily; and we struggle daily to do it.

The second great struggle within us, when God breaks-in our lives is our desire for fame and admiration.  We want to be known and to be admired.  Whether on stage as a performer, or on TV as an actor or actress, or having the highest gamer score or the most followers on social media, Human beings have an endless thirst to be known and to be admired by as many others as possible.  But what we see in the Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus leaving the throne to ascend a cross, and this Crucified Jesus breaks-into our worlds.  Instead of seeking honor and glory, we can take the least dignified places and be content with the less reputable situations.  Instead of wanting a throne, we can carry our cross. God makes this break in our lives, which is quite simply seeking the Glory of God instead of the glory of “me;” and we struggle daily to do it.

But I find to be the greatest struggle of all is when God breaks-into our families.  We must remember first that we are to love and to love even our enemies, this includes our families.  But when God takes hold of us, our families lose their hold over us.  God becomes the priority not the advancement of the family name, reputation, and success.  This also means that we are free from the difficult and unchosen relationships that families bring: failing parents, special needs children, broken marriages.  We can still love them, but not because we “have to”, but because we “can” and the freely given love will always be greater and more complete than a forced love.  But God makes this break in our lives, which is quite simply the Family of God instead of the family of “____;” and we struggle daily to do it.

Friends, not one of us is without these and more great conflicts as disciples of Jesus Christ.  We all struggle with loving God and each other instead of possessions, fame, and family.  But the point of the parables of the treasure and pearls is that God is the one who makes the break between the old and the new.  The Kingdom of Heaven comes, the kingdoms of sinful people go.  The Gospel is that through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we can trade one for the other because God has assaulted those kingdoms and overcome them.  The daily challenge then becomes living into this break.  As if the hold on us of our possessions, our fame and our families is broken, and the Kingdom of Heaven has invaded.  The challenge of discipleship is trading in the old life for Jesus’ new one.  Buy, sell, or Trade?  Faith and obedience say Trade!  Amen. 

24He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Matthew 13:24-30

I know some flowers by sight, but others I need help with.  This becomes very problematic when I am weeding my flower beds for the first time every Spring.  All the plants are beginning to grow, including the weeds.  I want to keep the flowers and I want to pull the weeds.  The problem is I cannot always tell which is which.  I have to ask someone who knows better than I what is a flower and what is a weed.  But at times I mistakenly pull a flower while grabbing a weed and when the weed is growing amid the flower, I pull out both.  Keeping the weeds away from the flowers is not always easy.

Perhaps then this is why Jesus cautions his disciples about weeding out people instead of weeds.  They ask Jesus, do you want us to go and gather them?  And he responds with No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.  You try and pull weeds and you get flowers instead; you try and pull the weed growing in the middle of the flowers and you get both, the same happens with people.  The moment you try and exclude an unbeliever and you will exclude the believer also.  The moment you try to remove the enemy among the brothers and sisters is the time you remove everybody; and we cannot run the risk of harming a brother or sister.

The difficult lesson is that the church has both wheat and weeds or children of God and children of the evil one in it.  We have in our worship services and in our membership both people of faith and people of rebellion.  At times we think we can tell which is which, but what we can never do is to remove the problem makers and keep the siblings in faith.  We will always damage the good to remove the bad.  We will always cause trauma in our fellow believers by removing the unbelievers; and we must never do anything to harm our siblings in Christ.

Does this mean that the Church will always be this way?  No, Christ promises a time when the grain and weeds will be separated, it just isn’t now, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.  At Christ’s return, the Angels are commanded to separate the believers from non-believers, one to blessing and the other to destruction.  But the point is that today is not harvest day.  It will come, and soon, but as long as we are waiting for the Judgement Day, that day is not to-day.

So, what day is to-day?  Let both of them grow together until the harvest.  Up until harvest time the farmer does everything to nurture the growth of the grain, even if the weeds grow instead.  One can till the soil, one can administer fertilizer, and one can irrigate the fields.  But the task is to plant and grow, not to harvest.  Until Judgment Day, the church’s task is to plant and grow, not to separate.  That time will come, but to-day is about planting and growing: to till the soil of the human heart with love, to administer to the barren mind the fertilizer of hope, and to irrigate the deserted soul with the water of faith.  But it’s growing time, not harvest time, and both grain and weeds can grow, both believers and unbelievers together.

But to only grow instead of judge takes patience on the part of Christ’s people.  Patience to “put up” with people.  Patience to suffer the slings and arrows of difficult and even adversarial people.  Patience to plant God’s Word of love in a hateful heart.  Patience to spread hope over a mind filled with conspiracies and suspicions.  Patience to water faith over a soul unable to trust and depend.  But it will take patience to plant and grow.  But the gospel is not that we must achieve patience, who could do that?  The gospel is that through the grace of Jesus Christ, we can receive his patience as a free gift.  This means that we can put up with each other: to till, to fertilize and to irrigate people, both challenging and easy because it is the patience of Jesus Christ living in us.  This means that until Christ returns, let us nurture instead of judge.  Let us plant and grow instead of judge and pull.  Amen.