WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:07.280 Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and blessed be God's family now and forever. 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:08.240 Amen. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:10.160 Let's pray together. 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:16.480 Almighty God, do you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:27.519 Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord. 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:28.480 Amen. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.000 The Lord be with you, and also with you. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:33.679 Let us pray. 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:41.840 Almighty God, the foundation of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:50.960 Have compassion on our weakness and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:58.719 Through the worthiness of your Son Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 00:00:59.039 --> 00:00:59.679 Amen. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:02.960 A reading from Genesis. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.079 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:10.000 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night because the sun had set. 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:15.359 And taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:24.159 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set upon the earth, at the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:35.359 And the Lord stood beside him and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac, and the land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring. 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:49.599 And your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and all the families of earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:58.640 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:04.239 And then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:12.960 And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:22.479 And so Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil onto the top of it, and he called the place. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.960 The word of the Lord thanks be to God. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.360 Lord, you have searched me out and known me. 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:34.240 You know my sitting down and my rising up. 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:36.639 You discern my thoughts from afar. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:42.400 You trace my journeys and my resting places, and are acquainted with all my ways. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:49.120 Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, but you, O Lord, know it altogether. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:54.879 You press upon me behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:57.680 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.560 It is so high that I cannot attain it. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:03.759 Where can I go, O then, from your spirit? 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.240 Where can I flee from your presence? 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:10.319 If I climb up to heaven, you are there. 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:15.039 If I make a grave, my bed, you are there also. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:26.159 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand hold me fast. 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:35.120 If I say, surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night, darkness is not dark to you. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:41.919 The night is as bright as the day, darkness and light to you are both alike. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:45.599 Search me out, O God, and know my heart. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:48.719 Try me and know my restless thoughts. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:55.280 Look well whether there be any wickedness in me, and lead me in the way that is everlasting. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:59.039 A reading from Romans. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:08.960 Brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:14.639 But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:18.959 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:26.959 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:35.600 When we cry, Abba, Father, it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:48.160 And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if, in fact, we suffer with him, so that we might may also be glorified with him. 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:55.680 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:20.480 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility not of its own, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:26.879 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now. 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:39.040 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:41.600 For in hope we are saved. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.439 Now, hope that is seen is not hope. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.079 For who hopes for what is seen? 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:54.000 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:57.279 The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:46.319 Another parable Jesus put before the crowds. 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:01.839 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:09.199 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, Master, did you not know good did you not sow good seed in your field? 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:11.759 Where then did these weeds come from? 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.959 The householder answered, An enemy has done this. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:18.879 The slaves said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them? 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:24.800 But the householder replied, No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:36.399 Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:44.159 And then he left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples approached him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:52.720 Jesus answered, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom. 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:57.679 The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:00.879 The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:06.000 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:18.639 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all the causes all the causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:22.320 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:24.879 Let anyone with ears listen. 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:30.399 The gospel of the Lord, praise to you, Lord Christ. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:41.600 This week we get to hear a second parable from Matthew, and just like last week, it has to do with seeds, with wheat, um, and sowing. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:47.440 And uh particularly this week, the new edition is with weeds and where they came from. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:55.600 And uh, you know, I think it's probably best to start out before we look at the parable, uh, to look at this incredible story about Jacob. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:59.679 And we've been following uh the cycle through, beginning with Abraham. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:07.600 We got to hear how Jacob had stolen the birthright from his brother, although, of course, you can really never supplant your birth order. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.200 There's nothing you can do to be the firstborn if you weren't. 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:18.399 Uh so it's this sort of Faustian tale about Jacob spending his whole life trying to be somebody he never can be. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:21.679 Well, right before this, he's put on the goat skins. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:28.000 He's tricked his father, who blatantly favored his brother Esau, out of the blessing. 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:33.200 And his brother Esau got so mad he said, I'm going to kill you. 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.440 And so Jacob is on the lamb and literally on the run. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:46.799 Uh particularly because the stories say that Esau is sort of like uh a hulking man beast, uh, similar to the He-Man character, Beast Man. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:51.919 Uh, he is born covered in red hair, says the scriptures. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:56.480 Uh he's a hunter, and Jacob is well a smooth operator. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:04.799 So uh he runs and runs and runs and runs, and he's left the boundaries of his father's house. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:10.879 He's traveled further than he's ever been, uh, and he hasn't done it in in a scenic way. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:20.559 He's done it uh huffing and puffing, and now he finds himself exhausted, and he puts a rock down in the middle of the desert and he goes to sleep. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:23.679 And he has a dream, and dream might not be the right word. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:25.759 I have all kinds of crazy dreams. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:30.080 He has one of those visions uh after which he wakes up. 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:38.320 The vision felt more real to him, I would put to you, than what he was seeing and experiencing with his eyes. 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:47.360 This is like he opened his third eye and saw the depth of reality that our physical eyes don't always see. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:12:08.240 And in that reality, there's a stairway to heaven, as then Led Zeppelin would say, a ziggurat, which is really just a step pyramid that goes from earth to outside the atmosphere, and up and down the steps travel the word says angels, which really just means in Hebrew messengers. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:11.279 So God is in constant communion with the earth. 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:16.159 And here Jacob says, look, this is where the messengers are touching down. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:25.840 This place, a place I've never been, a place that is wild and unkempt and probably pretty dusty and dirty and undeveloped. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:35.679 This place where the messengers touch, this wild, dusty place, Jacob calls Bethel, which means the house of God. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:43.120 And he says this incredible phrase, surely God was in this place, and I never knew it. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:51.919 And I want to tell you already, this has to be for me the punchline for what Jesus has to say about weeds and wheat. 00:12:52.399 --> 00:13:14.000 You heard me say last week, and I'm going to stick to this, to stick to my story, that my dad, who has a botany degree and spent a lot of time developing a commercial nursery, and I spent a lot of time with him doing it in high school at really pretty low wages, would often say that a weed is just any plant you don't want. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:18.879 And so in the middle of a grain field, a rose is a weed. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:23.600 In the middle of a rose garden, a pear tree is a weed. 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:27.440 Whatever you don't want is a weed. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:31.600 In the story, um, the seeds are all good. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:37.440 You know, seeds are not ordered from Seed Saver's Exchange, they're not bought from Monsanto. 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:44.639 What's happened is the grain from last year produced enough to sell, and there were some seeds left over. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:47.279 It's proven it's good grain. 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:48.480 They sow it. 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:50.879 And then there are plants they don't want. 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:52.879 We don't know what kind of plants they are. 00:13:53.039 --> 00:13:56.480 Maybe they're thistles and brambles, maybe it's mint. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:58.159 Um, we don't know. 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:07.759 But there are the workers can tell that there are things in the wheat field that are not wheat, and that can make a problem. 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:14.159 It could undermine root systems, they could grow faster and create unideal shade conditions. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:24.080 Uh they take up property and resources when uh on arable land when there are limited resources of water and property on arable land. 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:27.919 So they say, look, there's stuff we don't want. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.879 We know you sowed good seed. 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:32.960 So how'd that happen? 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:40.960 And uh, you know, I don't know that any farmer knows how that happens, except quite honestly, uh the winds carry seeds. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.600 The birds carry seeds. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:48.799 Uh sometimes things can lay dormant on the ground and and and they come up. 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:58.240 Uh it's funny because very rarely, I think, in agriculture would a farmer say an evil person came and put those weeds in there. 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:03.519 Uh instead, it sort of just happens and you deal with it. 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:10.080 Here Jesus is undermining what people would expect by saying, an enemy has sown seeds. 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:14.879 Well, since the enemy did it, shouldn't we go gather the seeds of the enemy out? 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:24.960 Shouldn't we try to uproot and plant, uh supplant and be outraged and yank out everything we don't want from the grain field? 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:35.360 And the master says, no, because with all that outrage and uprooting, you might in fact uproot some of the plants we do want. 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:48.320 So instead, let everything grow together and we'll decide at the end which things should be bundled and burned and which should be brought into the barn. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:16:00.639 Now, this is a really interesting response because what would happen if some of those quote-unquote weeds, plants you don't want, end up producing fruit that's valuable even if it isn't grain. 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:05.200 Surely the master wouldn't burn that up, but would bring it into the barn. 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:12.000 This is where it's really interesting to kind of think through these parables and how they might have been heard and how we might continue to hear them. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:22.080 Um, Jesus is really concerned if he is the master about uh how we deal with things we don't want. 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:34.480 And whether or not I put to you things we don't want might still be able to offer nutrition for the things that we do and for the world that we've been called to serve. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:37.200 He promises in the explanation. 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:44.000 He sort of unpacks this and says, the weeds are children of the evil one, and the one who saws them is the devil. 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:47.120 And I put to you, remember that this is the Greek word diabolos. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:51.600 Diabolos means libeler or slanderer. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:17:03.039 Somebody who says something about another person in order to diminish or impugn or to hurt their dignity and character. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:10.559 So the things we don't want in the field are accusation and removal of dignity. 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:19.759 And I want to suggest to you that it by doing that move, Jesus has totally reversed the way that we normally hear this parable traditionally. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:30.240 Traditionally, weeds are bad people and grain are good people, and I put to you, I don't know anybody that is entirely in one camp or the other. 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:44.720 And I want to suggest that if I ever had to identify that, what I leave out is God's eye room for surprise, because God is able to see potential in each and every human being, even though I sometimes can't. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:48.480 And if you're like me, there are people who have surprised you. 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:58.640 That is, you thought there was no good in them, and maybe it was accidental, maybe it was something that they calculated. 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:03.119 Maybe just your judgment was wrong, but they showed up and surprised you. 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:12.000 And if it had been up to you to just uproot and be done with them, you would have missed uh the holiest kinds of surprises. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:22.960 The opportunity for reconciliation in new life, and your life would have been impoverished by your uprooting a plant you didn't want. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:29.200 After all, a weed is just a plant you don't want. 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:36.480 So Jesus goes on to say, hey, seeds of accusation, children of the devil. 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:48.880 I want you to think of children of the devil, uh, children of the slanderer, as not people, but as the seeds that we sow that are about accusation and disminishment. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:59.039 Seeds like gossip, seeds like flattening people down to say, like, well, if that congressperson says this, they must be evil. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:04.160 As if human beings are entirely evil. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:12.319 When I was living in Germany, there was a film called Der Untergang, which in English is the downfall, and it chronicled the last few days of Hitler's life. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:20.960 And it came out, and uh the German public was in was incensed over it because it showed Adolf Hitler being nice to his secretary. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:25.759 And uh the German outcry was that this man was evil incarnate. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:31.759 And so they they they sought to try to ban the film or to um to boycott it. 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:38.640 And of course, in the film, uh Hitler is not painted as a saint because he's kind to his secretary. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:47.279 He's painted as a human being that makes some dreadful choices and along the way is nice to his secretary. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:52.799 And I wouldn't suggest to you this parable might be about that. 00:19:53.519 --> 00:20:04.720 And there's really something interesting about not just having a revisionist history, but revising history so that we remember the full humanity of persons. 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:07.200 And I say this every year on All Saints Day. 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:14.160 Sometimes it's easier to call somebody a saint after they're dead because we don't know how annoying their other habits were. 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:15.519 We didn't have to live with them. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:23.519 We were just able to see big developments that came out of their lives when in fact they might have driven their spouses and their children crazy. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:28.559 And um, I don't think it's putting people down to lift that side of history up. 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:35.039 Instead, what I think is it's saying is God's grace is in the middle of fields that have plants we don't want. 00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:44.079 And if we go around just uprooting things and uprooting people, we miss a the opportunity to be surprised. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:52.160 We diminish our own humanity by uprooting things in other people that uh we can't possibly uproot out of ourselves. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:21:03.920 Again, we heard the Apostle Paul say that a few weeks ago in his letter to the Romans when he said, Wretched man am I, the good I want to do, I don't do, and the bad I don't want to do, I end up doing. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:17.839 I think this is a really good description for the kind of fields we are in which we have seeds planted in us that we may not have asked for and are really hard, hard to uproot. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:21.920 And sometimes uprooting them would be a loss for the entire field. 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:30.240 But more than that, I think uh being so worried about that takes us out of the harvest for the kingdom of God. 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:46.079 Uh, the truth is uh I think we're asked as imperfect beings to still offer the nourishment we can for the world and be willing for nourishment to come out of people and places that we decided are weeds. 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:59.599 And I wonder if next time we're incensed uh with a politician, with somebody in our neighborhood, we couldn't try ask God. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:09.920 In fact, to give us a vision like Jacob, so that we're able to say at the end of it, surely God was in that person and I didn't know it. 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:15.759 Surely God was in that place and I didn't know it. 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:33.680 I think sometimes we get so caught up in identifying grain in plants we want that we forget that God is not confined to our wants, that God's will is greater than ours, and that every week when we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, Your will be done, not ours. 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:39.599 And what's interesting in the story is God wants a lot of plants that we don't want. 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:48.000 And I suggest to you our call this week is to slow down our tendency to uproot or diminish. 00:22:48.160 --> 00:23:25.440 And that maybe, just maybe, God is Jesus is describing this week in this parable that the children of the accuser, of the devil, of the slanderer are those words and deeds that come from our own mouths that would uproot people because they don't look like us, talk like us, present like us, vote like us, worship like us, age like us, have abilities like us, or sexual preference that we have. 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:37.839 And I think the story is saying in the middle of your cognitive dissonance and your conflict and your challenge, be less hasty. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:50.160 Be less hasty to go around pulling up plants you don't want that God has essentially engineered the planting and developing of. 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:55.359 This happens in the book of Acts, uh, and we don't get to read it for some time. 00:23:55.519 --> 00:23:58.079 Uh there's a crisis in the Jewish community. 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:00.880 What do they do with these people who follow Jesus as the way? 00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:03.519 And one rabbi says, you don't do anything. 00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:06.960 If what they're saying comes from human beings, it won't last. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:12.000 If it's from God and you try to oppose it, you will be flattened. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:17.279 So let its nutrition, let its fruit speak for it. 00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:23.599 And um, I think that can be really, really hard in the times that we're facing. 00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:49.359 But I want to put to you, I think there is some holy wisdom in the idea that uh God asks for these things to be able to grow and that we make decisions based on their fruit when there's been enough time, and that we open ourselves to being surprised, to having our labels and our stereotypes and our prejudice reversed. 00:24:55.039 --> 00:25:09.200 And of course, all of this has to be taken with moderation, because I think the truth is sometimes we have the tendency to drift toward an extreme and say, well, everything in the world must be the way God wants it, if that's what you're saying, and we shouldn't do anything about it. 00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:11.599 And of course, that's not what I'm saying. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:19.519 I'm talking about the difference, though, um, between the seeds that we sow that are children of the devil. 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:33.200 Those are our words and our attitudes and our recalcitrance and our unwillingness to say that God was in a particular place that we couldn't imagine, and thanks be to God, God's there. 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:44.640 And the other extreme of going around and rooting people up, and in so doing, there's no root left in ourselves. 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:51.519 We've created standards we could possibly never live up to, and that frankly God doesn't delight in either. 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:59.279 And so we live in this balance in which a hungry world honestly doesn't need a monoculture. 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:01.440 They don't just need wheat. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:05.599 They need fruit and they need fiber and they need vegetables. 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:09.200 And our failure sometimes to see it is not God's failure. 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:13.759 It's a failure of our imagination and of our heart to grow bigger. 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:28.480 And this is why I think Paul is trying to say to us this week: look, don't live by what you see alone, because as we know, we've been doing this in the Science Forum, our standard of judgment is skewed. 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:32.720 Our observation point is not all observation. 00:26:33.519 --> 00:26:39.119 Paul says, work really hard to cultivate that third eye of Jacob. 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:51.039 To allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised by the presence of God in the people and places that your former mind would not allow it to be. 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:56.640 Thank God when it shows up in surprising and wonderful ways. 00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:11.839 Be ready for it, and I would dare say, if we can even cultivate the value of expecting God to show up in places and people we don't like, we'll be better off for the journey, and so will the rest of the world. 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:17.759 Let us renew and reconsider our faith in the words of the Iona Creed. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:31.519 We believe that God is present in the darkness before dawn, in the waiting and uncertainty where fear and courage join hands, conflict and caring link arms, and the sun rises over barbed wire. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:36.880 We believe in a with us God who sits down in our midst to share our humanity. 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:45.279 We affirm a faith that takes us beyond a safe place, into action, into vulnerability, and onto the streets. 00:27:45.680 --> 00:28:03.359 We commit ourselves to work for change and put ourselves on the line, to bear responsibility, to take risks, live powerfully and face humiliation, to stand with those on the edge, to choose life and be used by the Spirit for God's new community of hope. 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:04.319 Amen. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:21.680 The prayers of the people in peace, let us pray to the Lord, saying, Lord, have compassion for the holy church of God, that it may be filled with truth and love, and be found without fault at the day of your coming. 00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:48.319 We pray to you, O Lord, that Lord have compassion, for all the holy people of God, for all bishops and other ministers, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops, for Michael, our presiding bishop, for Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the clergy in our community, Mike, Craig, Bill, and Lillian, we pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion. 00:28:49.279 --> 00:29:24.960 For all who fear God and believe in you, Lord Christ, that our divisions may cease, and that all may be one as you and the Father are one, we pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion, for the mission of the Church, that in faithful witness it may preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, we pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion, for the peace of the world, that a spirit of respect and forbearance may grow among nations and peoples, we pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:36.480 For those in positions of public trust, especially Donald, our president, and Greg, our governor, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person. 00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:52.079 We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion, for the poor, for the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer, for refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:30:03.440 We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion, for this congregation, that we may be delivered from hardness of heart and show forth your glory in all that we do. 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:20.640 We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion for our enemies, and those who wish us harm, and for all whom we have injured or offended, for ourselves, for the forgiveness of our sins, and for the grace of the Holy Spirit to amend our lives. 00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:24.960 We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:47.759 For all those who have committed themselves to our prayers, for our families, friends, and neighbors, especially Chris, Larry, Jerry, John, Jerome, Susie, Ted, Andrea, Kevin, and Ron, and those of the congregation which is to name at this time silently or aloud. 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:58.240 We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion. 00:30:59.039 --> 00:31:11.839 For all who have died in the communion of your church, especially harlot, and those whose faith is known to you alone, that with all the saints they may have rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal. 00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:16.160 We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion. 00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:26.480 Rejoicing in the fellowship of all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another, and all our life to Christ our God, to you, O Lord our God. 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:34.079 For yours is the majesty, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory now and forever. 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:35.039 Amen. 00:31:35.359 --> 00:31:39.359 The peace of the Lord be always with you, and also with you. 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:53.119 And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 00:31:53.359 --> 00:32:04.720 Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:09.839 For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. 00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:10.799 Amen. 00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:22.960 May God, who by the Holy Spirit caused those of many languages and world views to proclaim Jesus as Lord, strengthen your faith, and send you out to bear witness to God in word and deed. 00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:30.480 And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this day and remain with you forever. 00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:31.440 Amen. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:36.480 Alleluia, Alleluia, go in peace to love and serve the Lord. 00:32:36.799 --> 00:32:38.079 Thanks be to God. 00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:40.240 Alleluia, Alleluia.