Bread alone

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 31, 2011, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 32:22-31

Psalm 17:1-7, 15

Romans 9:1-5

Matthew 14:13-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

I want to take us back briefly to the first Sunday in Lent and the temptations of Christ. The Lord has just been in the wilderness forty days and forty nights. He is famished and he is ragged. This is when the tempter comes and says “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus is not one to be taken by such an obvious ruse. He answers, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Now, it is a little more than four months later and now Jesus tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat.” In a bit more than a season we move from Jesus being tempted to make bread from stone to Jesus telling his disciples they’re going to make bread out of nothing at all.

Of course there’s a difference, there’s always a difference. It could be as easy as this; we don’t live by bread alone. We need bread, but we need more than bread. In Matthew 4 Jesus says we live on every word that comes from the mouth of God, and with these words from Matthew 14, Jesus affirms that bread is still important.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow wrote a paper called “A Theory of Human Motivation” in the journal “Psychological Review.”[1] This paper’s basic concept, a standard for business students for generations, later became the basis of his book “Motivation and Personality.” Maslow separates needs into a hierarchy. His stages of needs are physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. He considered this a hierarchy because he believed the lower level needs needed to be met before the higher ones. In a way, he says that it’s impossible to dream about being all you can be when you don’t have a roof over your head. As Maslow would say it, without having physiological needs met, self-actualization is impossible.

Maslow would then agree with Jesus, bread alone isn’t enough, but bread itself is still necessary. We need more than bread, so what more do we need?

“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” The happening that Jesus had just heard was the beheading of his cousin John the Baptist. Jesus had just heard the gory details of a little girl who had capriciously taken the head of the prophet at the whim of her mother. It was normal for Jesus to take time alone to rest and recover from the daily grind; but between grief for his cousin and fear that he may be the next target, I imagine Jesus withdrew with a sense of urgency.

This gives us our first lesson, we need to pull back from time to time. We need to rest and we need to recover. This is the purpose of Sabbath. Sabbath is a time to rest and recover. It is a time to give thanks for life and worship the one who gives life. Often in this world, we burn the candle at both ends, Jesus teaches that we need to snuff out the wicks, cool down, and preserve ourselves. When we do this, we are open to renewal from the Spirit.

As we read though, this is one of those times when the crowd won’t let the Lord be. He knew that the needs of the people were greater than his own at this moment. He landed at a secluded place. He saw the crowd. He saw the sick and the infirm. He saw the grieving and the heartbroken. He saw people who had lost everything they had and he saw people who were losing hope. They prayed he was their hope. He knew that he was their one true hope. He came to them and had compassion on them.

Here’s a wild thought, in this use, to have compassion is a verb. It’s a combination of having pity and having sympathy that leads the person who feels these things to do something about it. It’s one thing to have sympathy or empathy or any one of a dozen other feelings, but without following up with action, there’s nothing more.

Jesus had compassion on them and healed their sick.

At this point, I imagine the disciples like the staff of a powerful politician or business leader; maybe even a rock star. In this case, I imagine the staff needing to get their leader to an important vote or meeting or show; or in the case of Jesus, his disciples were getting their leader away from the craziness of Galilee for a quick vacation. There’s a time and a place for everything and now was time to get out of Dodge. Fortunately for them, they were able to couple their want to get away and start their vacation by saying “it was getting late, they were in the boondocks, and people had to get somewhere to get some dinner.” Since both are true, you always go with the one that sounds better.

Here’s the turning point, Jesus says “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” The quick inventory showed that Mother Hubbard was better able to feed so many children than they were to feed the masses. They had five loaves of bread and two fishes and that was all she wrote.

Not to be discouraged, Jesus asked for the meager meal they provided; he looked up, gave thanks and broke the bread. Then he directed the disciples to feed the masses. In the end, all were satisfied. What a wonderful phrase, “all were satisfied.” And from the meager beginnings of five loaves and two fishes there were twelve basketfuls of pieces left over.

As I have been going on lately, this is the time in the story when we decide who we are. Jesus is God, of course. Our second lesson answers the question “So who is represented by the disciples and who is represented by the crowd?” Let me give you everybody’s least favorite answer, it depends. It depends because there are times when we are the crowd being discipled and there are times when we are the disciples doing the work.

Let’s begin with the crowd, there’s no talk of these people having a covert agenda. They truly wanted to be in the presence of the Lord, the one who has compassion and heals the sick. There is no mention of a scribe or Pharisee waiting to jump out of the bushes and quiz Jesus on theology or polity. There is no mention of Romans or other gentiles who would not know what these signs meant to the faith. There is no mention of anybody who was dragged along when they wanted to stay home and play video games.

On top of that, everyone who was there had a reason to need the compassion of the Lord. These are people who needed a miracle in their lives. They knew where to find a miracle too, this is why they followed the Lord.

One of the great truths of our life is that we all need a miracle from time to time. For some the miracles are things like health, food, and shelter; things that are basic needs on Maslow’s hierarchy. Needs that left unmet lead to anguish and misery. Needs that left unmet lead into a spiral of despair and danger. From time to time we all need a miracle. These are the sorts of miracles Jesus was performing when he came ashore. He healed and just as important, he showed compassion.

The people who followed Jesus were for the most part the dregs of society. This is because the rich and powerful didn’t want anything to do with him. He told the rich young man to sell everything and give it to the poor then he will be able to have riches in the kingdom of heaven. The rich and the powerful behaved like they didn’t need Jesus because they could take care of their own needs. The poor knew they needed Jesus in their lives. The poor knew better, and Jesus had compassion for them.

As there are times when we are the crowd, needing healing and compassion, there are times when we are the disciples too. Now, I don’t think there are times when we are supposed to tell the Lord our God that he’s late for a very important date. Jesus will keep his own time. There are times though when we will be handed a small chunk of bread and told to feed more people with it than we can imagine.

There isn’t an organization on earth that hasn’t screamed “we can’t do that, we don’t have” this or that or the other thing. When I worked at the University of Arkansas the new Chancellor wanted to implement sweeping changes to increase the academic standing of the university. I heard my secretary say, “We can’t do that.” When I asked her why, after some hemming and hawing she said “This is Arkansas!”[2]

She said “This is Arkansas” in the way that sounds like “We aren’t capable of the sort of excellence the Chancellor wants.” Yes, the University of Arkansas will never be the Oxford of the Ozarks, it isn’t meant to be, but that is doubly true if the attitude is “we can’t.” To say that there is no excellence to be had will surely lead to that end.

When a church says “we can’t do that” there is only one holy reason to come to that conclusion. The only suitable reason to say “we can’t do that” is that we aren’t called to do that.

     

The disciples were probably thinking of themselves “We don’t have the power, we don’t have the resources to do this.” Thanks be to God that the Lord did have the power and made them able to distribute enough bread that everyone was satisfied. It is by God alone that the disciples could do anything. Nothing is impossible with the Lord God. Because the disciples were obedient; doubtful maybe, curious surely; but because they were obedient they were able to do God’s work in the world for people who needed it.

There is one more character in the story, the bread. I won’t go into how psychologists and theologians and physics experts say the bread multiplied. Honestly, stories abound and I don’t know the answer. What I do know is that God’s grace, God’s power, and God’s bounty are far beyond what we can imagine. Our way of thinking about the loaves and fishes says the food Jesus started with might feed a few families. It wouldn’t feed a clan. It wouldn’t even begin to feed the masses. Yet it did. This is the power of God’s glory, a bounty of love that overflows in ways that meet all of our needs. Ways that make it so all are satisfied.

Again, isn’t that a great phrase? All were satisfied.

“Satisfied” is wonderful. It can mean two things, it can mean that they were filled with food or it can mean that they felt a sense of inward satisfaction. It is quite probable that the people were filled both physically with bread and eternally with the Spirit of God.

Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. How’s that for glory, in this case bread is not bread alone, it is the word of God. Wouldn’t that surprise ol’ Maslow? Actualization comes from the source of the living God who provides for the physiological needs. The source that fulfills the first level of needs is the same as the source that fulfills the pinnacle of needs. And he does it all with five loaves of bread and two fish.

We need bread in our lives. We need to keep our bodies strong and healthy. But we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, this is the joy of the Lord’s Supper, when Word becomes God and with simple bread God feeds the people until all are satisifed.

Connecting ourselves to the narrative, there are days when we are the people. There are days we need to be fed because we are not able. There are also days when as the church we are called to be the disciples who share God’s bread with the crowds. There’s nothing wrong with being one or the other. From day to day or moment to moment we can move seamlessly from crowd to disciple and back again. That’s just the way of life.

What is important is that there are no days when God is not God; when Jesus is not Lord; when the Spirit does not empower; and when we live by bread alone. Thanks be to God.

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[1] Maslow, Abraham, “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psychological Review, volume 50, 1943, pages 370-396. Accessed at http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm, retrieved July 30, 2011.

[2] True story, mores the pity.

Knowing Your Audience

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 24, 2011, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 29:15-28

Psalm 128

Romans 8:26-39

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

I have mentioned that I use something called the Revised Common Lectionary to pick the readings we use in worship each Sunday. One of the glorious things about the lectionary is that it is used by many denominations and many congregations. If you were at another Presbyterian church today, the odds are very good that you will hear these same scriptures. It’s one of the ways the Church connects as the Body of Christ. Of course you won’t hear the same interpretation in each place, and that’s glorious too. Different sermons are a part of the glory of how God works in different places.

Matthew’s gospel takes his community into account when he uses the phrases “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God.” Matthew’s gospel was written for first century Jewish Christians. Because of his intended audience, Matthew’s gospel uses the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” 31 times and “Kingdom of God” just five. As for the other gospels, you won’t find “Kingdom of Heaven” in any of them. The other gospels use the phrase “Kingdom of God” 48 times.

Scholars say for the purpose of describing the kingdom, “Kingdom of Heaven” and the “Kingdom of God,” are interchangeable, but what is true to scholars was not true to Matthew’s congregation. So why use one over the other?

Something peculiar to Jews and Jewish Christians is that many will not say the word “God” lest they take the name of the Lord in vain. So Matthew’s gospel takes special care to avoid mention of God by name. Matthew’s gospel was written with such a distinct nod toward the sensitivities of Jewish Christians that over 85% of mentions of the kingdom use “Kingdom of Heaven.” As for the other gospels, this was not a concern. Matthew knew who he intended to hear this gospel and worked hard to make sure the language didn’t get in the way of the message.

Getting back to the Revised Common Lectionary, today’s reading presents a bit of a problem. Today’s reading is two different pieces from Matthew’s gospel containing five different parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, surely interpreting five different parables is a big enough problem. Each of these parables could be the subject of a sermon on its own. But that’s what I want to bring to your attention today.

Today I want to focus on the parables’ audiences. Just plucking these verses out of the gospel like the editors of the lectionary did; it looks like they were addressed to a single audience. This is not so and it’s important to know who was intended to hear each of these parables because of what they mean to their intended audience.

The first two parables, the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, were intended for the crowds that were listening to Jesus. A different audience, Christ’s disciples alone, received the parables of buried treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net cast into the sea. These are two completely different and specific audiences who were meant to learn specific lessons about the Kingdom of Heaven from their specific parables.

The lessons of the mustard seed and the yeast are odd at worst, scandalous in their most glorious.

Let’s start with the fact that the parable of the mustard seed is loaded with factual errors! To start, mustard, while it’s a teeny-tiny seed, wasn’t the smallest known seed. Orchids were grown and harvested in this time and their seeds were then and are still now smaller than the mustard seed.

Saying that the mustard plant becomes a tree isn’t accurate either. It produces a great shrub, up to ten feet tall, but it isn’t a tree in any sense of the word. A mustard plant is an annual plant, not a perennial like a tree. When mustard goes dormant at the end of the growing cycle, it’s the end, not so for trees.

Where a large shrub is like a tree is that it can provide food and shelter for the most unexpected of visitors. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a shrub to protect life, but Jesus points out that this one does.

So what was Jesus doing with this parable? Jesus was saying that great things come from humble beginnings. Jesus was making a point of contrast, from a tiny seed comes something large enough to provide food and protection. Something extravagantly large comes from something infinitely minuscule. From the smallest seed, from the smallest action, from the briefest nod, the world can be changed.

There’s an old saying, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; because it’s the only thing that ever has.”

The lesson of the leaven has its own scandalous elements.

Let’s begin with the yeast itself. The Jews would have been shocked by the kingdom being like anything with yeast. Since the days of the Passover, bread with leaven was unholy. With the celebration of the Passover meal, the Seder, a liturgy is followed. During the celebration, someone will ask if all of the leaven is out of the house. To this day, Jews will keep one piece of leavened bread in the house so that there is something to throw out. To this audience, yeast is not holy, not at all. Yet Jesus says that the kingdom is like yeast worked into the flour.

The next bit that would have shocked the listeners was the woman. Only men worked in the temple, what could a woman do that would be useful to the kingdom of heaven? She was the one who hid the yeast in the flour.

The amount of flour was also shocking. We read three measures. In amounts that mean something to us, that comes to seventy pounds. In volume, that would come up to ten gallons. Once the yeast began doing its job, the mass and volume of the dough will increase far beyond what it was before the woman and the yeast did their work. That amount of dough would be able to make bread for between 100 and 150 people.

The parable of the leaven has three things no one would have ever expected, the yeast, the woman, and the amount; the impure, the unorthodox, and the overflowing. Jesus was making the point that the Kingdom of Heaven will not be what we expect. All that we can imagine the Kingdom to be is merely a poor reflection of what we find.[1]

Along with the parable of the wheat and the weeds we heard last week, these are the messages that were intended for the people outside of our Lord’s inner circle. God is sovereign. The kingdom is extravagant. The kingdom provides protection to all who seek its shelter. The kingdom is unorthodox; God will not be contained by our expectations. The kingdom is ever expanding.

It is also important to note that all of these parables deal with God’s actions in creation. It is only God who can grow a plant from a seed. It is only God who can make yeast do what yeast does. This becomes more important when talking about the next two parables where the focus moves from the contrast of small beginnings and cosmic impact to personal encounter with the Kingdom.

Where the parables of the mustard seed and leaven are made up of several elements conveying different facets of the parable, the parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value are to be taken as wholes. In these parables, the Kingdom of Heaven is like the entire story of the treasure and the entire story of the pearl of great value.

As for the parable of the treasure and the pearl of great value, they tell the disciples the same thing, the Kingdom is present, it’s glorious, and its price is dear. To have it you must be willing to give everything. Both of the treasure and the pearl parables say this. Like Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, the parable is repeated differently to emphasize its truth.

For as much as their object is the same, the human subject is different. Both the ploughman digging the earth and the merchant buying pearls are doing their regular day jobs. They’re taking care of business, and this is where their similarity ends. The man who found the treasure wasn’t looking for it. Maybe he has plowed this same field for years without finding the treasure, but in the wink of an eye the treasure finds him more than he finds it. When he sees it, he knows its value and knows what he has to do to have it.

As for the merchant, his business is pearls. He is looking for great and wonderful pearls. Then he finds one that is far beyond what he could ever hope or imagine. Like the ploughman he knows the value of his find. He also knows what he has to do to have it.

Jesus is reminding the disciples that the kingdom is their business, a business that requires their all.

As for the final parable, the parable of the great catch of fish, this one is similar to the parable of the wheat and the weeds showing that in the end of the age there will be a separation of the good and the bad. Like in that parable, the difference between good and bad is made by God and carried out by the angels.

When these lessons are shared, Jesus asks if they have understood all these things. Jesus asked if they understood that they would have to give everything. He asked if they knew the creation would be judged, and them along with it to which they say “Yes.” Jesus then told them that every teacher who has been instructed about the kingdom is like the owner of a house who brings out his treasure, the old and the new.

This means that those who teach need to know about the ancient covenants and the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Today we would say they need to know their Old and New Testaments.

So why did Jesus have different messages for the crowds and the disciples? Jesus answers this very question from the disciples in verses 11 and 13 of this chapter: “He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.’ The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’” As this was true when Jesus said it, so it is true today.

Earlier I said Matthew knew who he intended to hear this gospel and worked hard to make sure the language didn’t get in the way of the message. Jesus knew his audience and so did Matthew. As this was true it Matthew’s time, so it is true today.

Here in worship the interpretation of scripture is presented differently than it is in Sunday School. In Sunday School you would explain the parables differently to younger children than you would older children than you would teens. You would explain scripture to life-long Christians differently than you would to new Christians. Each of these folks is at different stages of intellectual, social, and spiritual development, so using the same illustrations for each of these groups is ineffective.

You also interpret the word differently to church members and the Session because Session members have different roles in the body of Christ; their role involves the responsibility of ruling. Not all are called to the same role in the church, so the word and the lessons should be presented as differently today as they were between the crowds and the disciples then.

Still the word is the word.

A professor in Austin once asked his Introduction to Preaching class “If the sermon were an arrow and the target represented the gospel, where should we aim?” He said to aim at the center, aim at the heart of the gospel. I later told him that I didn’t like his “target” analogy. I said that with different listeners being at different places in development to aim at the dead center would miss many.

I suggested turning the target on its side, shooting through every layer until reaching the heart of the gospel. Yes, it’s a more difficult shot in archery and preaching, but when done right it reaches all people. I believe this to be part of my call, being able to share the gospel with anyone I meet. It means that I have to be sensitive to them, and sensitive to what they are ready to hear and do with what they hear.

[And if I am failing to make this connection with you, please tell me or, if it makes you more comfortable, a member of the Session so they can tell me. Session members can tell me your concerns without telling me your name.]

In different ways, this is important for all of us. We have to know our Lord and our audience. Whether we sit on the Session, teach a Sunday School class, or listen to a friend who needs a shoulder to lean on; we need to be ready to share the gospel in a way others are able to hear. This way we can share the gospel making sure language doesn’t get in the way. This is the word of the Lord.

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[1] The following paragraph was cut for time consideration: In Austin, the evangelism professor had us read a text that laid out the kingdom of heaven from the perspective of a suburban megachurch pastor. I told that professor that I thought this author’s vision of the Kingdom of Heaven looked like Central Market, the Texas based gourmet mega-grocery store. I told him I thought it would look more like Fiesta, the huge Hispanic grocery store with a bank, salon, taqueria, and groceries a gringo like me wouldn’t know how to prepare on a bet. I believe this pastor imagined the kingdom like the American suburban dream. I think it will be more than I can know or imagine.

Them

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 17, 2011, the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 28:10-19a

Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

Romans 8:12-25

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

John Calvin, the theologian whose ideas about God and the church form the root of Presbyterianism, was a lawyer in Geneva. It would go to figure that the theology developed by a lawyer would have a constitution. This month, on Calvin’s 501^st birthday, after approval at the last General Assembly and by more than half of the Presbyteries, the denomination began using a new Form of Government. What you may not know is that the  Book of Order’s Form of Government is not the most important of the church’s ruling documents. That honor belongs to scripture of course. As for the constitution, it’s subordinate to scripture and the Form of Government beginning its second part.

The first part of the constitution is the Book of Confessions. The confessions are historic documents written to help the church understand the scripture, the church, and their place in the world at the time they were written. They were written to help the church interpret scripture. While they were written for a specific time and place we also understand they still contain truth that is worth learning and using today.

The Book of Confessions has nine confessions; the first two are from the ancient church. These are probably the most familiar to Christians. The Apostles’ Creed, the words we say when I ask us to state what we believe, is one of the two.[1] There are four confessions that make their way to us from the Reformation. These are still important because they were the church’s responses to the great split between the Roman and Protestant churches. The third group is made up of 20^th Century confessions. These confessions tend to be more tightly focused toward specific events and challenges to the church. The last of these is called “A Brief Statement of Faith.” It was accepted by the church following the reunification of the two largest branches of the Presbyterian Church at the 1991 General Assembly.

I want to talk about one of the confessions of the Reformation for a moment, the Second Helvetic Confession. What makes this confession distinctive is not its use of what we believe, but of what we don’t believe and how we feel about people who believe differently. For example, only eight paragraphs into the confession (and considering this confession has 259 paragraphs “eight” is “only eight”) we have the declaration that “We detest all the heresies of Artemon, the Manichaeans, the Valentinians, of Cerdon, and the Marcionites,” who didn’t think about scripture the same way the author did in 1566 when this was written.[2]

Throughout the text we detest, condemn and just plain disagree with Monarchians, Novatians, Patripassians, Anthropomorphites, Manichaeans, Marcionites, Pelagians, Jovinians, Epicureans, and Stoics. Individually we detest, condemn and just plain disagree with Florinus, Blastus, Praxeas, Sabellius, Paul of Samosata, Aëtius, Macedonius, Arius, Michael Servetus and dozens of others most people never knew existed. This is before we detest, condemn, and just plain disagree with Jews, Muslims, Catholics and Anabaptists.[3]

So what’s this got to do with the wheat and the weeds?

One of the things that makes the parable of the wheat and the weeds interesting is the way it has been used and misused over the centuries. Its most common misuse is reading too much into it and drawing conclusions it was never meant to draw.

One of the misuses of this parable is to defeat evangelism. There is good seed and there is bad seed. From the good seed comes the sons of the kingdom and from the bad comes the sons of the evil one. This leads to something called double-predestination, the thought that some are destined for heaven, others for hell, and there’s nothing to be done about either. I can see how to jump to this conclusion, but it’s not the object of this parable.

Another is to look at the behaviors of the sons of the evil one and say that they can’t be changed. Some use this parable to say there is no sense trying to influence bad behavior because there is no changing fate. In the same vein, there is a certain conceit among the self-declared sons of the kingdom over the sons of the evil one. Conceit should never be part of the Church. These beliefs are two sides of the same coin and are not the object of this parable either.

Perhaps the worst use of this parable is when individuals and churches try to separate the wheat and the weeds on their own. On this subject Dan Krotz, a friend from the Ozarks who contributes to the local newspaper, a local free advertiser, and The Huffington Post, writes:

A local church is spending time and money bashing Catholics, to what end I can't say, but given everything that is going on in the world it's a bit startling to see. At its best, it reminds one of certain ego-centric tent revivals of the late nineteen fifties; at its worst it cultivates a sense of religious superiority that is done at the expense of both religion and humanity itself.[4]

The author is a light hearted man, a serious thinker, and a member of the First Christian Church of Berryville, Arkansas who believes God “frequents churches that keep tidy lawns and refuse to house Praise Bands.”

He points out how Christians separate the wheat from the weeds every Sunday, but really shouldn't. “In my own view” he writes, “a true spiritual self only emerges after often long periods of succeeding at loving the self-righteous, immoral, hypocritical wing nut who sits in an adjacent pew every Sunday for the sole purpose of depressing you.”

He isn’t beyond noting the reason we shouldn't separate wheat and weed is that the shoe is often on the other foot writing, “Frequently, you are the self-righteous, immoral, hypocritical wing nut sitting in an adjacent pew, and that is really depressing.”

So, if this isn’t what this parable is about, then what is it?

We begin answering this question with the truth that this parable is about the end times. This parable is about the harvest at the end of the age. Jesus begins the parable with the characters and their props. There is a man who sowed good seed in his field. There is an enemy who came in the dark of night and sowed weeds among the wheat. Soon there is both wheat and weeds in the field. Finally there are servants who call their master a bad farmer. (This is my snarky interpretation of the servant’s question “Didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?”)

When the servants ask if the master wants them to take care of the weeding now, he says “no, wait until the harvest because to do anything now will do more harm than good to the crop.” But when it comes time for the harvest, collect the weeds first, burn them, and then collect the wheat into sheaves and bring them into my barn.

Again, like last week, we like to know who we are in the parable. Jesus says the farmer is the Son of Man, the field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The sower of the bad seed is the devil and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are the angels.

By the way, our word “angel” comes from the Greek word for “messenger.” So the angels carry out God’s commands; they can only do as God instructs them. They base their decision on what to do with the wheat and the weed on the command of the great farmer.

Before going on, I want to share an old joke, when asked who’s who in a parable, the best answer to the question “Who is God?” is “God.” As much as folks want to cubby-hole God into definitions that come from our own biases and even snippets of scripture; in the end, God is God and God can only be God.

In the case of the parable, we are told the one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man, a phrase Matthew uses to indicate Jesus. It is right to describe Jesus as a sower of good seed in this parable, but for the grand scheme it’s too narrow. God is God and God can only be God. Further, only God can be God.

The good news is that since only God can be God, we don’t have to be God. What this means for us in this parable is that it’s not up to us to separate the wheat from the weeds in the field or at the harvest. We don’t have to make that judgment. In fact, we aren’t qualified to make that judgment. We just don’t have the information or authority to judge who is wheat and who is weed.

We can see when life is bearing good fruit and when it isn’t, and this is important for us; but even with that we still don’t know enough to judge who will be thrown into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Presbyterian Church has had a time recently reworking its Form of Government. It seems that people who believe one thing are constantly pitted against people who believe something else. Ever since I have been in the pew the big question has been about leadership and sexuality. Before that it was about leadership and gender; and before that it was about leadership and race; and that takes us back over 100 years.

Each time questions of this-or-that and leadership have come up over the last 100-plus years, there have been folks in the denomination on both sides of these arguments who have said that people who believe the other way are dead wrong and should be rooted up like the weeds and burned just like Matthew says.

This is the point Dan Krotz was making when he pointed out that not only do you sit next to a “self-righteous, immoral, hypocritical wing nut,” but “frequently, you are the self-righteous, immoral, hypocritical wing nut sitting in an adjacent pew.”

So since we don’t have to be God, we don’t have to judge the differences between the wheat and the weeds. None of us have the means or the authority to judge that anyone is among the weeds, so let’s not even try to make that judgment.

Judging behavior: yes. We do need to say “that’s good” or “that’s not good” for us. But as for judging eternal damnation: no. That’s up to God alone.

The church, from the days before the Second Helvetic Confession has been saying we are not “like them.” Well we need to be more than just “not them.” Being “not them” is a judgment of division. We need to be “us” and we need to be “us” with God. It is unity in Christ, not division, where strength lies.

On the subject of sexuality and leadership, my best friend from seminary and I disagree, and I don’t see anything in the near future that will make us agree. Instead of using this to divide us we have chosen to focus on what makes us “us.” We focus on what we share.

We believe that Christ is the head of the Church (this time with a capital “C”). We believe Almighty God has given the Christ all rule and authority. We believe Almighty God has given Him all power in and on earth in this age and in the age to come.[5]

We believe Christ gives the church life.[6] We believe Christ is the Church’s hope[7] and foundation.[8]

We believe in what the Scots Confession calls the Great Ends of the Church: the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.[9]

These are the kind of things that can unify all Presbyterians. These are the kind of things that can unify all Christians. These are the kind of things that can unify all people. These are the kind of things that can unify the wheat of the field.

There are many things that scripture tells us, but sometimes scripture gets taken to places it wasn’t intended to go. Sometimes scripture is used to separate us from the Novatians, the Sabellians, the Anthropomorphites, the Pelagians, the Stoics, the Jews, the Muslims, the Catholics, and the Anabaptists; and even when it’s right, that’s not what this parable is about. This parable isn’t about us judging the wheat and the weeds. It’s not about the wheat trying to change the weeds. It’s not even about stopping the bad seed from entering the field.

This parable is about the harvest at the end of the age. This parable is about the fact that there is wheat and there is weed in the world. This parable is about God being God and how when the time comes only God has the authority to separate the wheat from the weeds.

Focusing on what makes them “them?” Well, that’s not going to get any of us anywhere. In fact, it always causes problems when mere humans try to do the work that is God’s alone.

So let’s let God be God. Let’s let God send messengers at the end of the age to separate the wheat from the weeds. In the meantime, we are called to be who we are. We are a people who believe God is sovereign above all. We believe Christ gives the church life.  We believe Christ is the Church’s hope, and foundation. We believe the Great Ends of the Church make life in Christ worth living. That’s what brings us together. That’s what makes us “us.”

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[1] I preface the Apostles’ Creed by saying, “And now let us state what we believe using the words of the Apostles’ Creed.”

[2] The Second Helvetic Confession, “The Book of Confessions, Study Edition.” Louisville, KY” Geneva Press, 1996. Text citation 5.008, date information from page 85.

[3] The original text says “Mohammedans” instead of “Muslims.”

[4] Krotz, Dan, “Catholic Bashing.” Carroll County News Blogs, http://www.carrollconews.com/blogs/1250/entry/42453, retrieved July 12, 2011

[5] PC(USA) Form of Government, http://oga.pcusa.org/pdf/proposed_amendments.pdf, F-1.0201

[6] Ibid. F-1.0203

[7] Ibid. F-1.0204

[8] Ibid. F-1.0205

[9] Ibid. F-1.0304. For more information about the Great Ends of the Church see the Scots Confession, PCUSA Book of Confessions, Section 3.18.

Scattering

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 10, 2011, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I apologize for not having audio available for this sermon. Something happened while recording so the audio is not available.

Genesis 25:19-34

Psalm 119:105-112

Romans 8:1-11

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

When preaching the parables, the greatest danger is over simplifying the gospel. With our reading this morning not only are we blessed with the parable, we are also blessed with its interpretation from the mouth of the Lord himself. But if there is one thing we can say about the Lord, it’s that his words are never as simple as they first appear. Often the word of the Lord is laced with wisdom it takes a lifetime to discover.

There are several ways to look at parables. The most common way is to decipher them like a code. The parable is offered like a puzzle which is then solved.[1] It is also the easiest and most enduring way of interpreting parables.

This parable is actually built like a code. The first half of today’s reading is a word problem, and the second half is the solution.

There is nothing wrong with reading this parable like a code. But if this is all there is to the passage then we would be cheating ourselves and the One who gave it to us. It would not be a very deep or involved reading of the passage either. If this “code” was all there was to biblical interpretation we’d be singing hymns now, but there is so much more. So let’s go back over the reading and see how the parable deciphers itself:

“When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.”

This seems easy enough, what is sown is the message about the kingdom; this is the seed. The path is the heart of anyone who hears the message and does not understand. The bird is the evil one. The seed would have as much trouble penetrating and germinating on the hard and crusty path as it does being understood by someone who has become hardened, so it becomes bird food. So far so good? Let’s continue...

“The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.”

Without roots the plant cannot be nourished, it becomes scorched and withers away. All right, this is someone who hears and is excited about the word, but when they face obstacles because of the word they fall away. This is someone who starts living in the Word, but after facing abuse for the sake of the word they choose to rejoin the big bad world. Nice flowers, no roots, dust in the wind. Well, next...

“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”

There’s one big difference between the rocky soil and the thorny soil. It’s the difference between the soil itself and what pops up through it. It’s the difference between the world’s climate and the world’s worries and temptations.

Nothing grows in rocky soil for long. Everything on it withers and dies on a hot summer day. So where rocky soil represents the obstacles of the world, the thorny soil is like someone who has sprouted roots and is growing, but is overcome by the woe of the world or by the lure of riches and glory. And like leaves and flowers tangled in thorns, as they try to grow they are ripped and torn from the way of the word until they too fall away. Okay, finally...

“But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

In biblical times, one bushel seed could produce between seven-and-a-half and fifteen bushels at harvest.[2] Jesus tells them that compared to these harvests, the harvest of the kingdom can be between two and fourteen times greater than they could hope or imagine. Jesus tells his disciples that the word of the kingdom produces a bountiful harvest when it falls on good soil; this is the harvest of the heart that hears the word and understands it.

So much for my interpretation of the “Parable of the Sower,” I have just used around 500 words to say what Matthew did in fewer than 165; but it’s not much of an interpretation. It’s like waterskiing over the parable, fast and shallow.

In fact, there are other things worth considering this morning. Getting back to parables in general, one of the most common questions about any parable, especially when trying to decipher the code, is “who am I in this story?” To answer that, we need to review the elements of the story.

The bird is the evil one, the interpretation tells us this. Now what if the evil one is not the devil per se? There is much more evil in this world than what is directly perpetrated by “The Accuser.”[3]  Minions pop up all around us to steel the seed from the soil, the voices of those who love us and even our own voices can become accusing. One well meant but ill-tempered warning can easily become a thorn that grows as big as a spike.

What is sown, the seed, is the word of the kingdom. According to the Swiss theologian Karl Barth, the Word of the kingdom is the word written, incarnate, and proclaimed. The Word sown in the field is the word of the scripture, and the word incarnate is the life of Jesus Christ, and the proclaimed word beginning with sermons and lessons. Of course it does not come in sermons and lessons alone, our personal proclamation is the witness of our lives.

As for the sower, the Lord is the one who sows the seed that began it all by spreading the seed of creation. This is obvious in scripture. But here’s something important, we are also called to be sowers with the Lord. What the Lord begins we are called to continue. This is what Mr. Al was talking about during today’s children’s sermon.[4]

This puts us in a precarious situation, we are the sower who shares the word of the kingdom with the world and our lives are the seed. This is the sort of interpretation that challenges us to dig deep to share the word of the kingdom with all the world. Didn’t I promise you there was more to this than a simple code?

Last week was a fun week to be Presbyterian. The largest assembly of Presbyterians outside of the General Assembly was held in Indianapolis last weekend. Simply known as the “Big Tent,” this weekend featured eleven major Presbyterian conferences including the Evangelism and Church Growth Conference, the Healthy Ministry Conference, the National Elders Conference, and the World Mission Matters Conference along with a score of other smaller meetings.

At one of the events, the Reverend Jill Hudson reported one of the biggest challenges facing churches is learning how to be effective in reaching new generations. She reported that in her opinion the church has missed the boat on people born between 1964 and 1981, the people collectively known as Generation X. She said because the church focused on baby-boomers rather than the emerging generations “we already have all the Gen Xers we are likely to have in church.” She continued “What we need to learn now…are skills in reaching the generations younger than Gen Xers.”

Reverend Hudson asks “How does the church get ahead of the curve, rather than behind it? The church will need to become multicultural, high tech, high sensory and high touch, interwoven with images and music. To become such a church requires that leaders blend a love of Jesus Christ with a desire to make faith relevant to the culture.”[5]

For those who wonder what’s wrong with the images Jesus used in scripture, it is important to remember that the people who heard the Parable of the Sower were familiar with agriculture, way more familiar than most of us are. The images of the seed and the soil were something they knew intimately. They knew the relative yield numbers that I shared with you; but for the most part, we don’t.

Further, the yield today of good hybrid seed in well prepared soil is 200 grains per seed.[6] If you know modern yield numbers and not the ancient it would seem the word of the kingdom would be limiting. We know better than that, but without proper reference it could be taken the wrong way. Jesus was culturally relevant and our call is to continue that today.

Writing for the Presbyterian News Service, Jessica Reid talked about a small group of folks who turned an old bus stop shelter into a greenhouse. The banner above the headline proclaimed “Faith meets action for Big Tent young adults.”

Jordan Akin, a college student from Little Rock, AR, said. “There’s no grocery store here, so all the people around here have is unhealthy or processed food, so, this is important and I wanted to help.”

There are neighborhoods like this in Marshall too. There may be a small convenience store, but what usually goes out the door is gas, beer and cigarettes. They might have microwave food or deep fried burritos, but frankly, that’s not really food.

Akin and four other young adults were taking part in a unique trip to Urban Mountain Farms in Indianapolis. Through a combination of service and prayer, the organization is cultivating a garden to provide fresh produce for an underserved and impoverished area of the community.

The “field trip” was organized by Adrian McMullen as part of the Pathways Conference at Big Tent. The conference focused on discipleship exploration and leadership development for youth, young adults, and collegiate ministry leaders.

McMullen said “Through this work, [these young adults] are putting their faith into action physically, not just through spiritual acts. They care about eco-justice, and they care about social issues, so this program integrates the two. It meets them where they are in their faith journey.”[7]

Faith into action, it is as the book of James says, faith without works is dead.

There are dozens of other stories that can be shared about what happened at Big Tent but this is enough to say that these were just two types of seed scattered in Indianapolis by sowers from the Presbyterian Church (USA) last weekend. The seed really can’t be separated from the sower. This is the word of the kingdom of God being shared here on earth, the place where the kingdom breaks into our lives like lightning on an oak tree.

As much as we are the sower and the seed, the church is the soil. Through the Holy Spirit, the church has now and forever been ordained to bear the fruit of the word in the world. We are called to act with love and peace and compassion in a sinful and broken world. As a seed is not able to sprout in mid air, only when we are planted in the soil of church can we possibly bear fruit, but the church is not always the good soil.

The church should be the good soil, but it can also be hard and crusty like the path. It can be rocky. And it can be filled with thorns. For the church to become good soil, it must be cultivated. These days, preparing a garden takes more than simply throwing seed. The ground must be tilled and tended to be productive. A garden becomes fruitful when prudently fertilized and watered.

We participate in cultivating the soil as we celebrate the sacraments. In remembering the waters of our baptism and receiving the spiritual food of the Lord’s Supper we are prepared by God. Through this work of God, the fields are cleared of rocks and thorns.

As we just heard, summer camp is a great way to prepare the soil too.[8]

Spiritual disciplines including study, worship, prayer, fasting, stewardship, and celebrating the Sabbath are other things we do to clear the fields of rocks and thistles so that we may grow. These are some of the disciplines which help us become more fertile and fortify the soil so that we may bear fruit.

Only when our lives are good seed, only when we are a generous sower, only when the ground is properly prepared, and only when we cooperate and participate in the tilling of the soil can we accept the word and participate in the work of the kingdom. When the people of God, are firmly rooted in the good soil of the church we are nourished.

So let us work the soil and prepare it for good seed; this is one of the responsibilities of the sower. We must be receptive and responsive to the call of God in our lives. Then we will be able to take root in the word in the soil of the church, and bear the fruit of the Spirit. Then we will have an abundance of seed to scatter on the world. This is what God wants for all of us. The word is sown, the gift is freely given, the soil is here. Let us thrive in it.

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[1] Long, Thomas G., “Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible.” Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989, page 96.

[2] Hare, Douglas R. A., “Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Matthew.” Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1993, page 152-153.

[3] “ha satan” is the Hebrew phrase for “the accuser”

[4] Today’s Children’s sermon was from Elder Al Key with the story of Johnny Appleseed.

[5] Cox-Holmes, Erin, “Is better ever enough?” http://www.pcusa.org/news/2011/7/1/better-ever-enough/, retrieved July 2, 2011

[6] “How many grains of wheat on a stalk,”http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080426145223AA6zCbE, retrieved July 6, 2011

[7] Reid, Jessica, “Faith meets action for Big Tent young adults.” http://www.pcusa.org/news/2011/7/2/faith-meets-action-big-tent-young-adults/, retrieved July 2, 2011

[8] We had just heard a Minute for Mission from the kids who went to Summer Camp at Camp Gilmont in Gilmer, Texas. Visit Gilmont at http://campgilmont.org/.

I Went to a Garden Party

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on July 3, 2011, the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 24:34–38, 42–49, 58–67
Psalm 45:10–17
Romans 7:15–25a
Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Jesus has just finished, well, for the time being I guess, just finished instructing the disciples; then he went to preach and to teach in the towns of Galilee. Before our reading today, Jesus has just met with the disciples of John the Baptist. The Lord has confirmed his identity to John’s disciples by reminding them of his acts declaring actions speak louder than words. He has also told the assembled crowd that John is the prophet who is more than a prophet. As the last prophet to declare the coming of the Lord, John was in essence the last of the Old Testament prophets. But there were many in the crowd that did not hear or accept the words of John or the words and actions of Jesus. So Jesus looks at the crowd and as the old saying goes, this one’s for you.

Jesus gives the word to this generation. He rightly tells the crowd that they expected one thing and got something completely different. This did not please them.

The crowd played the flute, but John did not dance.

The crowd sang a dirge, but Jesus did not mourn.

This isn’t code speech at all. When the holy people got John the Baptist, they didn’t want his harsh words and chilling indictments. John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.” The people expected one thing and got another. Instead of “shining, happy people” they got the prophet in a leather poncho eating bugs. While the bugs he was eating were within Jewish dietary requirements, they surely weren’t the kind of food the temple leaders ate.

When the holy people got Jesus, they wanted someone who was a more reserved, more reverent. The last thing they wanted was some drunken glutton drawing attention to himself, especially considering the low-life’s he was hanging out with. He’s way too far out on a limb dealing with sinful men and (shocking) sinful women.

When the holy people met both men, they would have preferred someone who would tell them what they wanted to hear, what they expected to hear.

Isn’t that always the way it is?

As sure as the people were unhappy with the oddball prophet from the wilderness, they weren’t too happy with the one who followed him either.

You just can’t please everybody, can you? You act like an Old Testament prophet and the people tell you to lighten up. You lighten up and the people tell you you’ve gone too far and need to reel it back in a notch.

John just doesn’t fit in with what the mainstream establishment considered to be proper. Jesus doesn’t fit in with the mainstreamers either and upsets all worldly wisdom. In the end Jesus reminds the crowd that “wisdom is proved right by her actions.”

Rick Nelson is a name some of you will remember. He was a TV star in the 1950’s with his parents, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson (a big band leader and vocalist in the day) and his brother David on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Rick became a pop star in the late 1950’s singing songs like the Fats Domino classic “I’m Walkin’.” In the mid 60’s Rick’s tastes turned more toward the country rock sound that was becoming popular. This new sound had the sad effect of losing many of his old fans who loved the 50’s sound while not gaining any new fans because they were suspicious of his 50’s pop idol status.

This came to a head at Madison Square Garden on October 15, 1971. Rick and his band were on a bill with other pop and rock stars of the 50’s at an old time Rock and Roll Revival show. When the other acts on the bill came to the stage in their costumes from the era, Rick and his band didn’t. They came to the stage in longer hair wearing their stage clothes from their current tour that reflected their current country rock sound. They played their old hits, but then started playing their new stuff too. The new music was not well received. Ultimately Rick and the band left the stage to a chorus of boos. This inspired his last hit song, “Garden Party.”



The chorus goes like this:

But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.

As Nelson sang, you can’t please everyone. Jesus says, “You say John had a demon and I’m a glutton and drunkard who hangs out with tax collectors and ‘sinners.’” Rick sings ya got to please yourself. Jesus doesn’t go there though.

Instead of pleasing himself Jesus is concerned with pleasing the Father. “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

Jesus sings, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please the Lord.

He goes on. Praying to the Father, Jesus also tells the crowd that the Father has committed all things unto him. No one comes to the Father except through the Son.

This is what makes Christians distinctive from everyone else on earth; we come to the Father through the Son. As for me, I believe in God the Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth, in Jesus Christ his only begotten Son our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Some say there are other ways to serve God, but as for this house we will serve the Lord.

Jesus then promises he will reveal the father to all whom he chooses. The glorious news for the world is that Jesus wants everyone to receive the Father. Jesus chooses the world to receive the Good News; the kingdom of God is near.

Jesus invites us come. There is not one of us who is not weary or burdened and Jesus promises us rest. He invites us to take his yoke and learn from him. He promises he is gentle and humble in heart. In Him we will find rest in our souls.

Jesus tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. I don’t have to tell you that this doesn’t always seem true for the disciples of the Christ. Many are forced to surrender all they have, even their lives for the truth of Christ the Lord. But there is something special about the type of yoke Jesus mentions.

The standard oxen yoke of the first century hasn’t changed a whole lot. It’s not unlike the covered wagon yoke of the nineteenth century. What makes this so special is that the yoke was designed for two animals. It’s not one but two oxen who take the yoke to pull the plow or wagon. Jesus uses the yoke as a model telling us that we are not in this alone. We aren’t called to take up our yoke; we are called to take up his, with him.

The joy of this yoke is that there is always one lead animal and one follower. As Jesus tells us to take up his yoke; we are to join him as he leads us to do the work he has already begun, work that continues today. Jesus continues his work today, the work begun in his life and death and resurrection continues. God never stops. God never stops creating.

Scripture says God never changes. This is true. What scripture never says is that God is done with us. Scripture does not say human understanding of God’s wisdom ended in Eden, the sharing of the Law, or the word of the Prophets. If the work and Word of God was absolutely complete with the resurrection then the Epistles would not have been necessary to further explain the Good News to the early church and us today.

There is new work being done in Jesus Christ everyday. It is seen in fresh water projects in Central and South America. It is seen in building projects in the Ninth Ward and Joplin, Missouri. It is seen here in Marshall in how we help feed people through My Friend’s House.

The new work being commanded at the end of Matthew’s gospel in the Great Commission is explained here in Matthew 11. How do we go and make disciples? First we take the yoke of Christ and go where he leads.

There is something new being done in Christ. The last verse of “Garden Party” speaks to this.

If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck,
But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck.

In the song, Rick Nelson sings that if all he was going to do is go to garden parties, sing nostalgia shows and become a relic of the Rock and Roll era of the 1950’s, he’d rather do something else. I believe God is saying this too. If we put God in a box on a shelf, ending God’s good work of creation and redemption in the dust of the first century, he’d rather be driving a truck too.

Whenever we believe that the wisdom of the first century is the end all and be all of our faith, whenever we think that God quit creating after the Eden story of Genesis, whenever we think that the work of the Spirit ended with the Pentecost; we need to think of this Garden Party. Jesus will not be contained by low expectations bound to the specter of history.

Jesus is creating new music. Jesus calls us to dance. We are to take up the yoke and follow, not to take up the yoke and just stand there. As I said when I began, “Jesus looks at the crowd and as the old saying goes, this one’s for you.” Our question is are we part of the generation who will not hear the tune Jesus is playing or are we willing to dance as he plays.

Jesus continues to lead us today. Jesus continues to call us to follow. So now it’s up to us. John prepares the way. Jesus calls the tune. Jesus and John show there are times to mourn and times to dance. It is up to us to follow whichever music or Lord calls.