Treasure New and Old

What treasure new and old is God calling forth in you?

© Seth Olson 2020
July 26, 2020—Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

1 Kings 3:5-12
Psalm 119:129-136
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33,44-52

You may find a video of this sermon by clicking here (sermon begins at 14:40).

Jesus asked, “Have you understood all this?” The disciples answered, “Yes.” And Jesus replied, “You liars!”

Okay, that’s not how the story went, but come on, the followers of Jesus understood all these parables. They had wise and discerning minds like God granted King Solomon? Are we joking here? The disciples who would soon after Jesus’ crucifixion be hiding in some apartment over a garage in the outskirts of Jerusalem comprehended the magnificent profundity of their rabbi Jesus and his stories… This seems hard to believe, right?

I still don’t think we get what Jesus was saying in most of his parables and we’ve had 2,000 years of practice. However, this lack of full understanding is okay. As Saint Paul put it in our epistle, the Spirit helps in our weakness and intercedes with sighs too deep for words. As we breath in these parables, we gain new insights each time we hear them. Our understanding of the parables moves because parables themselves move. They curve, like parabolas. And, why wouldn’t they?

We are not talking about something static, but the dynamic, ever-expanding, enriching enigma that is the Kingdom of God, the Reign of Christ. Like grasping for an eel, holding onto exactly what the Kingdom of Heaven is remains a slippery endeavor. But, as we struggle God is with us and if God is with us and for us, who can be against us?

Still, we wonder, what’s the Reign of Christ like? Jesus told us and still tells us over and over again. He said, it’s like…

It’s like a mustard seed. That one seems easy enough. It starts small, but given time and light and water it grows. Soon it’s not only good for itself, it’s good for others. Some might rest in its shade. Whew, that sounds nice! Don’t we all want that right now—to rest in God and the shade of what God provides? What else?

The Reign of Christ is like yeast. Oh, we get that one! Maybe those disciples weren’t lying. We put yeast in with flour, water, salt, maybe honey, give it a mix, and put it somewhere warm—what happens? It expands. It grows. Okay, so the Kingdom of God is growing. What else is it?

The Kingdom of heaven, that is where God reigns, is like a treasure. Yes, it is! We can get behind that. Who doesn’t like the idea of finding buried treasure?[1] We yearn for discovering such a gift in our lives. But… if I’m being honest. That parable sounds confusing. The standard interpretation is that one person found, then buried treasure, while another sold everything to go buy the field. This seems to make sense. But, it almost sounds like one person found, then buried treasure, then that same one went and sold everything to reclaim the buried loot. That makes no logical sense, but even that sounds like life in Christ. Listen: sometimes we have to gain it all, then lose it all, just to gain it all again… If you disagree, may I suggest the Book of Job!

Regardless when we compare God’s Kingdom to treasure what we know is that all of us are in search of something that is so captivating that we will give up everything else to take hold of it. That’s definitely what life in Christ is like. We must become less—selling what we have—Christ must become more—taking hold of the treasure.

This happens in a spiritual, but very real way to each of us in Baptism. There we die, so that we might be reborn through Christ and in Christ. RAD! That’s radical, but that’s the Reign of Christ! What else is it like?

The Reign of Christ is like an episode of Antique Roadshow. Wait, that’s not right. That’s not what Jesus said. Still a collector appraised a pearl of great value and upon realizing its value she had to have it. Is this not what the Kingdom of heaven is like? Life with Jesus is so compelling that we want to stop everything else we are doing so that we might live in this new way. That sounds so good right now!

At this very moment don’t we want nothing more than to give away all the craziness of the last five months, so that we might live an abundant life? Except maybe that doesn’t mean we actually give away the last five months or that we have to wait to go somewhere else. Rather, maybe we live this life in a new way right here, right now. In this Gospel lesson, Jesus repeatedly said these things are like the Kingdom of heaven, and now seems like the right time to tell you that heaven is not something that only happens after we die or some other place where we will go.

The Kingdom of heaven started even before the foundation of the universe and it has never stopped. This abundant life permeated the ages of Creation, it lingered in our first parents, and our faith parents (Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, Moses, Elijah, and Elisha), the prophets, teachers of wisdom, and martyrs. This life became most clear ironically enough in the death and then resurrection of Christ Jesus. So, when the theologian Belinda Carlisle sang, “Oh baby do you know what that’s worth, Oh heaven is a place on earth,” she was not just making a sensational earworm of the 80’s, she was also telling us the truth of the matter. The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom here on earth.

What else is it like? Well the Kingdom of heaven is like a net that is cast into the sea and it collects all kinds of fish. As it is brought to the boat, there’s a discerning moment that makes little sense if any at all. The good fish are put in baskets. The bad fish are thrown out. Jesus unpacks this story by saying the angels will collect the righteous ones, while the evil ones are thrown into the fire. However, if we play this story out, aren’t the good fish that are put into baskets actually the ones who are thrown into the fire when they are cooked? And, aren’t the bad fish actually thrown back into their natural habitat where they can live? What does this mean, Jesus?

Maybe it means the last will be first and the first will be last. Maybe it means that the analogy was lost in translation. Or maybe it truly is an invitation into introspection as we discern what parts of our lives are in right relationship with God and neighbor, and what parts need to be thrown out?

Now, all of these interpretations regarding Jesus’ parables may be edifying, beautiful, and helpful. And yet, there exist many other explanations about any one of these descriptions of the Reign of Christ. Truth be told you may interpret any one of these stories in a completely contradictory way than I just did. And, that’s okay!

Instead of arguing about it what might be more useful is looking to where these stories point us. They are intended to inspire us to see God’s Reign here among us. To understand that God is, as our collect put it, our ruler—that is the standard of measuring abundant life. And, God is our guide who helps us pass from temporal to eternal and to see that heaven and earth truly comingle in every moment.

So, maybe we can spend some time thinking what are the modern parables that will help us to know God? The Kingdom of heaven is like a facemask that shields us from harm. God’s Kingdom is like heroic healthcare workers that tirelessly give and give and give again to save others’ lives. It’s like a police officer and a protestor hugging in the street. It’s a pandemic—not of sickness but of compassion. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a UPS driver bringing treasures of all kinds, which reminds me.

There’s one more parable left. After Jesus asked the disciples if they understood all this, which sure (shakes head) we get all this stuff, right? (NO!) Well, then, the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus tells us is like… but that’s not what he said? Jesus said, the scribes who have been trained for the Kingdom of Heaven are like a master of a household who brings out treasure new and old.

This parable is the most important parable we heard today. Mostly because I believe we are in a moment within the history of our world, the history of the Church (Capital C), and the history of our church (All Saints) in which we need to hear this message. We need to embody this story. We must live in this very parable. We are scribes—I know usually they are the foils in stories about Jesus, but not here. We must become these ones who look for and study our world, as we search for insights into what the Reign of Christ looks like. Some of it will look like the treasure we had before this pandemic—hold fast to that which is good! And, some of it will be novel—sing to the Lord a new song! We need it all!

Sometimes we think that because God is eternal and Christ’s love is changeless and the Spirit is always near that we must not change; however, that’s not true. The Church has always been changing and evolving since it began. It didn’t just stay in people’s homes around the Mediterranean. No, it spread and grew and evolved. Some of those changes haven’t been good and some of them have made all the difference. Likewise, some of those things onto which we have held haven’t benefited us, and that is like carrying around a suitcase full of things you don’t need. So, now on this blursday in this season of coronatide, I invite us all to become scribes who are in search of the Reign of Christ all around us.

What forgotten spiritual treasure do you want to bring out that will help you to see heaven on earth? What new gift do you have to share in this moment that helps you to see Christ’s Reign alive and well? We need to find treasure new and old here in the middle of the COVID pandemic, here during this pandemic of racism, here in this transitional time in our parish! Search for the treasure both new and old, and when you find it, share it! For as our Bishop Kee has repeatedly reminded us, we must hold fast to that which is good and sing to the Lord a new song. Amen.

[1] Thousands went in search of Forest Fenn’s buried treasure over the last decade: https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/07/05/forrest-fenn-treasure-colorado-national-monument-dinosaur/

Knit Together

Sometimes during sermon prep, I overlook the collect. If you are unfamiliar with the term, a collect is a prayer said at the beginning of a Holy Eucharist service with the purpose of drawing together or collecting the concerns of the people, the liturgical flavor of the season, and the themes of the readings. When writing a sermon on a given week, or when writing a blog about the upcoming Sunday’s liturgically assigned readings, I often skip right to the Gospel lesson—only later do I check out the First Lesson, Psalm, and Second Lesson. I almost never even consider the collect as a part of sermon prep, but this week is different.

Many churches throughout mainline Protestant Christianity will celebrate All Saints’ Sunday this week. (The actual celebration is on Friday, November 1st, but the Episcopal Church also encourages celebrating this occasion on the following Sunday.) The collect for All Saints’ Day captivates my attention and my imagination because of the descriptive language associated with God, the important role of all the saints, and the aim (or telos) of us as followers of Christ. Before going any further though, here’s the collect in its entirety:

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, 245).

Taking a look at the descriptive language in this prayer, we discover God’s intimate role in the lives of the saints. After the opening address, “Almighty God,” which provides a powerful portrayal of the Divine, the collect turns to a much softer active verb to depict God’s role in tying the saints together. “You have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship…” (italics added for emphasis), the collect says. Here I imagine the Thursday knitting group, which meets here at All Saints, as they make prayer shawls that will be taken to sick babies, worried parents, and aging parishioners alike. God as Creator is not bringing us, the saints, together via thunderbolt and lightening (very, very frightening), but instead through calmly weaving us into a pattern beyond our comprehension. What’s the pattern? Our Almighty Knitter binds us together such that we actually become the Body of Christ. To borrow one of my liturgy professor’s favorite questions, “Isn’t that RAD?!”

This form that God weaves us into has the shape of the Mystical Body of Christ, but we see this pattern not only in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, but also in the lives of all the saints. Our collect does us a disservice when it says, “Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living.” Why is this a disservice? Well, when we describe the saints as blessed and when we say that they live godly and virtuous lives we mistakenly discount our own experiences as saints.

Recently I’ve been on a tear trying to hear as many parishioners’ stories as I can. Using Mary Parmer’s Invite Welcome Connect model as inspiration, I’ve been asking people what brought them to God or the Church, or when they have felt welcomed or like they belong (either in the Church or elsewhere). The powerful responses in the form of life-altering stories help me to see the shape of Jesus’ life and the shape of the Saints’ lives in the lives of everyday, ordinary people. I believe this is true precisely because the capital S Saints “are just folk like me” and you, to borrow a line from Lesbia Scott’s famous hymn. Virtuous and godly living then is not something that was only aspired to by people who lived a long time ago or those who currently reside in a hermitage, but rather as we become students or disciples of Jesus, we learn that we too can walk this way (talk this way) of love. We too are called to journey with Christ, Saints, and saints into abundant life, what we sometimes call the life eternal.

Finally, the collect provides us who pray these words with an aim for our lives. Virtuous living simply put is rightly aimed living. The way we find our aim is by living together in community, studying Holy Scripture and other texts, worshipping God by participating in Holy Sacraments and sacramental rites, and by allowing God’s grace to penetrate even into the most broken parts of our existence. When we take part in communities that work, pray, study, eat, and worship together, then one beautiful outgrowth we receive is values by which we can live our best life (a phrase that has seeped into the parlance of social media).

Within the All Saints (Sun)Day collect we discover that the aim of us the pray-er is to be knit into the Mystical Body of Christ (full stop). The mechanism through which this happens is God’s grace—God unconditionally loving us first. And, our response is to follow the pattern of the Saints who followed the pattern of Jesus the Christ. We follow this pattern best by becoming part of a community with virtues that align with the life of Christ and the lives of the Saints (and the saints). The by-products of this type of living, according to the collect, are ineffable joys and a full life prepared by God. (These joys by the way are unexplainable happiness, not something else, like was thought on an episode of How I Met Your Mother). So, you may be wondering though, what’s the catch?

It’s easy to read this collect and feel a bit inspired. Still, there’s the reality that, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. So, how do we get this life with indescribable happiness? How do we become like the Saints? How do we model our lives in the form of Christ? How? Well, I do not know for sure, but I do know two things. First, the good news is that God loves us first. There’s no way to opt out of God loving us. God's love is unconditional, all-encompassing, limitless, timeless, and beyond measure. Second, our response is to do to God and neighbor exactly what God does to us—love without limit. This second part can be tough though, and this is where the saints come into the picture.

The Saints of the Church and the saints in your church are folk just like you and me. And, they didn’t always get loving God and neighbor right. What matters is that we continue to practice. When we mess up we turn back to God and reconcile (when possible) with our neighbor. But, just because we mess up it doesn’t mean we stop loving. For God who loves us completely inspires us through the lives of each other and on All Saints Sunday we are reminded that each one of us is a saint to someone else. So, don’t ever give up. Don’t ever stop receiving and giving the love of God because our Almighty Knitter is always weaving us together through the fabric of Christ’s self-giving love.

Out of Time

Some topics no matter how many times I think about them always intrigue and confound me: how the techies have crammed so much firepower into the laptop at my fingertips, the length of our intestinal tracts within our bodies (eww gross), and how long ago it was that the light from stars began traveling towards us. It is this last one that really baffles me. In fact, just about every time I go camping, I find myself lost in an almost out of body experience, as I contemplate time and those celestial bodies. Maybe I would describe this more accurately if wrote that I find myself at those times in an out of time moment.

This coming Sunday is the end... of the Church Year, which is another out of time experience. Come November 27th we will begin the season of Advent when we prepare for the coming of Christ. Advent (with roots from the Latin verb to come or to arrive) bids us to look back at Christ's first coming, while looking ahead at Christ's coming again. We typically overlook that Christ is actually coming to us in this very moment, at this precise second, as you read these very words. (TRIPPY!) This Sunday, November 20th, provides a similar opportunity.

The last Sunday of the Church Year gives us the opportunity to look back at when through Jesus God initiated the reign of Christ. This Sunday gifts us with a time to look ahead at how we hope God will come more fully to reign over this world. And yet, just like Advent we often miss the opportunity for Christ's reign to take hold in this very moment. The opening collect (prayer) for this coming Sunday speaks from a place seemingly outside of time and lays out just what the Church hopes the reign of Christ brought/brings/will bring into this world:

"Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

As this world feels more and more separated by politics, race, religion, economics, gender, sexual orientation, and nationality, the sins of division enslave us. The tendency is to close ourselves off into echo chambers that will say what we want to hear and agree with our already entrenched stance or perspective. However, the Reign of Christ, which underlays all of reality already, invites us to be freed from the constraints that rip us from one another. While this coming together sounds wonderful and hopeful, it is not something that is easily accomplished, especially at this precise moment.

The more I read of post-election America, the more I speak with friends, family, and parishioners, and the more I experience this self-isolating world, the more I realize just how hurt everyone is. On all sides of all issues there is hurt, and not just a little bit of it. Some feel they have lost their country. Others feel they never belonged to it in the first place. Some feel worthless without work, while others feel neglected because of the color of their skin. Some dread the direction of the nation, while others fear that they will no longer be able to practice their Faith. Some even feel pain enough to inflict violence upon others, and those survivors then have to feel the pain of that violence. As we feel more and more divided these sins of separation will cling to us and isolate us even more. And yet, there is hope, although it is a sobering hope.

Instead of some triumphant passage of Jesus riding into the Holy City with fanfare or a powerful healing that Jesus performed the passage for this Sunday is Luke's telling of the Crucifixion. We remember the reign of Christ through the power that Jesus displayed in choosing to lay down his life, forgiving those who tortured and killed him, and inviting even the criminal next to him into Paradise. Jesus transformed a moment of complete isolation into the opportunity to draw all of creation together to be healed and for the reign of Christ to be most fully revealed. Division is not healed through might, nor is estrangement overcome through a better argument, nor by yelling or threatening another can we honestly persuade someone to earnestly change. A hurting world requires all of us instead to lay down our own lives, so that we might pick up our crosses and follow Jesus into the full reign of Christ. This means more listening and less talking, more openness and less stubbornness, and more cooperation and less competing over who's right and who's wrong.

The reign of Christ has begun... will you be a part of it?

Graft in Our Hearts

One of my best childhood buddies at Camp Winnataska exhibited some odd behavior. Now, I’m not one to talk, as I once caused quite a fuss when I got splashed in a canoe because I was supposed to be in the dry boat (I know, I know I was am a dork!). My friend, Stephen, was odd in some other ways though. He moved from Tennessee to Arizona, but kept coming back to camp every summer, and so he had a different accent than everyone else. He was not used to the humidity, so he took way too many showers for camp. Plus, there was something else.

During a trip up to Gatlinburg, TN Stephen had gotten his ankle caught in one of the ski lift chairs. As a result of the emergency accident he had to have immediate surgery. The doctors had to take a section of his skin from his buttocks to cover his torn up ankle. Not only would my friend readily show the gruesome ankle injury, he was known to show from whence that flesh had initially come (at least in the boys’ cabin)! This was the first time I had ever heard of a skin graft and to this day this type of procedure fascinates me.

I am struck by the fact that doctors can take skin from one part of our body and use it to patch another part of us. I am amazed that surgeons acting quickly can harvest the organs from a deceased person to give life to another human. I am uplifted by the enormous number of people that show up to give blood to help others when disasters strike. While I do not understand all of the nuances of the science behind these life-giving events, I can (and we all can) marvel at the gift that comes from someone making a sacrificial gift and life-saving action for someone else. I wonder if this works on a spiritual level as well.

This coming Sunday’s Collect (opening prayer) has some real beauty within it:
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, 233, Italics added for emphasis.)

In particular the italicized part halts me. The word graft calls to mind those life-giving efforts that require skill, speed, and care. When we pray that God graft in our hearts the love of God’s Name we are undergoing a spiritual procedure that may manifest itself in multitudinous ways! The love that God plants in our hearts will hopefully “increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works.” However, what I take away from this is not these potentially fantastic results, but a realization about the One who places this love in the first place.

God loves us so much and so freely that God was willing not just to take our own flesh to graft in our hearts, but to place God’s own flesh within us! God came to dwell here among us to show us the way back to home to God, to make all things holy, and to show us the fullest extent of love. The procedure that all of Creation underwent when Jesus exhibited a love that was and is stronger than sin, separation, and even death was and is an eternal grafting of this type of love on our hearts and into the very fabric of the universe. May we all be so bold as to remember that our hearts, our souls, our bodies, and our entire selves are not merely our own, but are our God’s and possess within their being the imprint of God's love. Within us God grafted the love that exists eternally may we allow it to grow and transform us!