Trinity Blog

There will be no video service on July 4 and July 11 while Rev. Mong is on vacation.

Mark 6:45-52

⁴⁵ Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.  ⁴⁷ When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. ⁴⁹ But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; ⁵⁰ for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, ⁵² for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

As a boy, I went on a three-day canoe trip in Southern Ohio.  The first two days were spent on a lazy jaunt down a local river with the third to be spent on the Ohio River.  As an impressionable young boy, I was dreadfully afraid of sinking in my canoe.  We had all of our belongings in our canoe and I was afraid of tipping over and losing all of my things on the bottom of the Ohio.  We never made it to the Ohio River though, as the second night some local drunks untied our canoes and sent them down river without us in them.  But that is another story. 

Just as I was afraid of my boat tipping over and/or sinking, so too were the disciples afraid of their boat sinking.  Having embarked in their boat in an attempt to cross the Sea of Galilee, the disciples find themselves being bombarded by both wind and waves.  Being threatened by the severe weather, the disciples fear for their lives.  Will they take on water and sink?  Will they tip over and drown?  Fear gripped the hearts of the disciples stronger than any rope or strap.

Are we also not afraid of sinking?  Maybe not a literal sinking, unless on a boat cruising down the Ohio River.  But maybe a sinking nonetheless.  Perhaps, your job is not providing enough means to live upon.  Perhaps, your family relationships are not as healthy as you would like.  Perhaps, your purpose in life is starting to decay.  Perhaps you are suffering a loss or change of some kind.  Whatever our life’s situation is are we not afraid of having all that we have and all that we are fall apart?  Are we not all afraid of sinking?

But, God has given us a balm for our fear.  God has given us a Word of Hope.  To the disciples floundering on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus speaks, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.  By walking on the water, Jesus not only terrified the disciples, who thought he was a ghost, but he also reassured the disciples, by having authority over the water and wind.  God reassures his people that he still does have authority over all things.  In plain terms, God says as Jesus Christ, relax, I got this. 

If God said this to the disciples floundering on the Sea of Galilee, does God not also say this to the disciples floundering wherever they are?  To all of us who are threatened by something, who are afraid, who are anxious, God speaks a Word of hope in Jesus Christ, by telling us, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.  We who are sinking are recipients of a Word of assurance from God telling us that even while we might be sinking, God has authority over the things in this world dragging us under. 

It seems then that is precisely when we are sinking and being dragged under, that we find ourselves being caught by the hand of Christ.  Not only caught by the one who has power and authority over all things, but caught by the one who has the love to bother reaching out for us in the first place.  In those moments of our sinking into the depths, we find ourselves being saved by the hand of God, the man Jesus Christ who loves us to the point of saving us. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, if we possess such a Savior, with love to match his power.  Then let us be not disciples of little faith watching only the waves and the wind.  Let us become disciples of a greater faith watching only Christ.  Let us not sink into the depths of fear, but let us sink into the depths of Jesus Christ.  Let us choose more faith, and less fear.

Mark 4:26-29

²⁶He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

We live in a technological world with wonders and blessings.  Whether we talk about the technology that refrigerates or cooks our food, or the technology that allows a wi-fi connection in our cars, or the technology that allows us to travel to Mars and Venus, we will in a world of tremendous blessings thanks to technology.  But do we as the users of that technology understand and comprehend how these things work?  Do we understand the properties of freon in our fridges or the thermodynamics in an air fryer?  Do we comprehend the infrared waves of a wireless connection or the physics behind interstellar travel?  We might partake of these technologies, but do we understand and know how they work?

So too is it with the Kingdom of God.  As those baptized into Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit we live in and enjoy the wonders and blessings of the Kingdom of God, but do we understand how and see the progress of that same Kingdom?  We do not understand the laws of statics and dynamics in physics, but we enjoy cars and planes.  We do not understand how the Kingdom of God grows and progresses, but we enjoy the wonders and blessings, nonetheless.

In the parable of the seed, the Sower sows the seed on the ground and then time would pass, the seed would grow, and he does not know how.  Many ministers and preachers over the years have preached the Word of God and this is most likely the idea behind the sowing of the seed.  But at the Word has been preached and heard, No one knows how that Word does its work or its result.  Some people respond to that Word, and some people are irritated and offended by that same Word.  That Word will change the lives of some that hear it and in the lives of others it will ricochet like a rubber ball on a hard surface. 

Perhaps the good news of the parable is that God alone activates and implements His own Kingdom.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  The progress and growth of the Kingdom lies alone in God’s purview as the earth alone produces the crop from the seed.  The Sower must watch and wait.  This can be good and bad.  The earth will always grow the seed, God will always grow the Kingdom.  No human must progress the Kingdom or advance the Kingdom, God alone bears the ability and the responsibility to advance the Kingdom.  And since God alone progress it, the Kingdom will always progress.

When it comes to the progress of the Kingdom, we as the citizens of God’s Kingdom have a two-fold problem: timing and control.  We want progress now, but God’s Kingdom progresses when God wants it.  God is patient and takes time to progress the Kingdom.  We are not patient, and we want it now and we want our progress in chunks not in tiny steps.  The other problem is control: we want our results and not God’s.  We want vengeance not justice.  We want favoritism, not free grace for all.  We want pride not humility.  We want prosperity not blessings.  We want… not gratitude that God gives.  Progress now, and my kingdom not God’s.

But perhaps the more sinister problem we face is not the temptation to play God and control the growth and progress of a kingdom not our own, but the temptation to see the world degenerating instead of progressing and to trip headlong into despair and despondency.  The famer does not know how the Kingdom grows, and when we cannot understand how God’s Kingdom can grow when our world is decaying, we despair.  The earth produces the crop, and when we see no results or progress without our senses and cannot hasten that growth despite our efforts, we lose heart.  The Kingdom cannot be seen to grow, and we cannot help it do so.  This happens and we lose hope. 

My friends, the good news of God’s Gospel is that even when we cannot see God’s invisible Kingdom and even when we cannot aid God’s Kingdom that seems to be deteriorating, we neither need to or can do anything about it.  God alone bears the responsibility and the capacity to not only progress the growth of God’s Kingdom when it does not look it is or to preserve His Kingdom, when it is taking on water.  And because the responsibility rests on God, His Kingdom will endure, and His Kingdom will be finished.  We may not know how, nor the ability must speed things up, but we can merely enjoy the blessings of having the Kingdom.  In plain words, we must learn to wait in faith, and hope in the Work and Nature of our God.  The Sower had to wait and to trust in the earth.  We must wait and trust in God. 

Ezekiel 37:1-14
¹The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord. ⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. ¹¹Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ ¹²Therefore prophesy, and say to them, thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”

My grass is starting to turn brown.  We are at that point, perhaps a little early in the season, where drought starts to happen and things that depend on the rain start to turn brown and dried up.  This is good news for having to mow grass, but perhaps not so good news for our water bills as we must daily water our gardens and fill our swimming pools.

This idea of being dried up and brown can also happen to us.  We can easily become dehydrated of our life and light, and even our fluids if the temperature is warm enough, through the difficulties and circumstances of our situations in life.  We can lose the passion for a full life.  We can lose the ambition to seize the day instead sitting in our easy chairs watching television.  We can lose our light and zest for the resurrected life by the increasing chaos of our society.  We can lose our faith for discipleship by the overwhelming changes to our life together.  The changes in our worship, the adjustments in our community, and the transitions in our families can easily dry us out and leave us without life, light, and love.

When this happens, we are exactly like Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dried bones, mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.  Our minds need no stretch of the imagination, to see ourselves like Israel as a people dried up from life, to perceive ourselves as a society where hope is lost, to identify ourselves as a people cut off completely from God and each other.  Perhaps the factor that consumes our motivations and energies is the pandemic, or perhaps the social upheaval, or even the poor economy, but we can relate to the valley of dry bones, because like them we are dried up and brown, hopeless, and despairing and isolated and insulated from those we love.  We are the dry bones.

Just as God spoke to them through Ezekiel so too it is with us.  Ezekiel spoke hope and life into their death, we could use some too.  I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.  When our Spirits are at their driest and life is scarce and light and hope nonexistent, this is when the God who creates out of nothing breathes life in again.  When we are and have nothing, God is at God’s greatest, by filling us with the Spirit of Christ and the dead come to life.  Bones to Bones with tendons connecting, tissue surrounding organs, skin covering muscles and ultimately breath indwelling us, the dried up and brown, is renewed and restored to life.  A valley of bones through God’s Spirit became a valley of living people; a church of tired and lifeless walking dead, through the same Spirit of God become a community of living and loving people. 

Like Israel we also are not left in the valley of defeat.  The purpose of resurrecting God’s people. was so that they might have the place God has chosen for them, and I will place you on your own soil.  For Israel that soil was the promised land of Canaan, which Babylon had conquered. For us it might not be literal soil, perhaps it will be, but the soil to which God has chosen for us is the Kingdom of God.  The entire creation is now God’s soil and all of ground and water and sky is once again returned into and under the Power and Reign of God; to give each of us a place and a purpose in this world.  As God’s stewards, we have been given life to be responsible and care for that life before God, to bring God glory. 

That Glory to which we are destined for is a knowledge that Yahweh is God, and we are merely his creatures, then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.  We are not self-created, self-determined, or self-ruled, we are creatures in the hands of a Loving and Almighty Creator.  When we are brought back to life by the Breath of the Creator, the only conclusion we may have is that God alone creates; we did not bring ourselves back to life.  When we are given purpose and hope by the Election of the Creator, the only knowledge we may have is that God alone determines and chooses; we did not determine and choose our places.  When we are given discipleship and community by the Love of the Creator, the only attitude we may have is that God alone rules and sustains; we do not rule or sustain God.  God is Creator and we are created.

My friends, we can all experience and relate to the valley of bones and perhaps that metaphor best describes us right now.  But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God will put Jesus’ Spirit within us, and we will live and we will be given a place and position in God’s Kingdom.  Through Grace and Power God can turn us from a corpse pile to a living, and loving community.  God did it for Israel, God is doing and will continue to do it for his Church.  All for purpose that all might know that Yahweh is God and God is for us.  Let us begin our resurrection from dried up and hopeless bones, to living, and joyous disciples on their way to God’s Glory.  Amen.