Year A Proper 11 20 July 2014
Genesis 28: 10-19a Psalm 139: 1-12, 23-24 Romans 8: 12-25 Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43
This Sunday is the 6th after Pentecost and it causes me to reflect on how we might be feeling six weeks after a major event.
The day of Pentecost brought an awakening to its recipients like that of a new birth. The scales were dropped from their eyes and they were empowered with courage and wisdom. They knew they were God’s chosen vessels and they had a purpose and an anointing by God himself to do the job. But let’s bring this to a personal level and imagine it was us who were there being brought to new life by the Holy Spirit…. Where are we at when the passage of time has passed?
I suspect we all suffer from an identity problem where we know we belong to God but we are unsure of our place in God’s kingdom. Mostly we are not aware of this, and I think we are a little like Jacob in our first reading.
Jacob was the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham… the twin brother of Esau. Now, Abraham knew that he was chosen and blessed by God. Isaac knew that he was chosen and blessed by God. Jacob, however, was the second born of the twins. He doubted that he had any blessing and that which he did have in the way of birth-right or blessing was obtained by deceit and cunning. I’m guessing that he was told of the family blessing and promises of God, but I’m also guessing that Jacob doubted that these were in any way something that would be his unless he could manipulate and contrive. He was not aware that he was already chosen – he really did not comprehend his true identity in the kingdom of God.
It is also worth noting that Jacob set out on his journey alone. It seems quite possible that his father did not understand the true God-given identity of Jacob. His father preferred Esau and naturally may have assumed that God’s blessing and choosing was on him. Why I mention this, is that there are often people in our lives, God-fearing and spirit-filled, good people, who will not see our God-ordained identity, just as Isaac did not realize God’s anointing on Jacob. We can’t base our identity in the kingdom of God on anyone else’s perceptions, but only on God’s calling and God’s say so!
That night, in his loneliness and doubt, Jacob dreamt of a structure that ascended to heaven and the Angels were going up and down.
Genesis 28:13-15 “There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.””
There is nothing conditional about this promise that God makes to Jacob and Jacob wakes in awe of the place naming it “Bethel” meaning house of God. This is only the beginning of Jacob’s interactions with God, because he, like us, is a creature of habit and it takes a long time for the truth of God’s sure calling to sink in. Jacob acknowledged that place as being sacred, but it seems he did not yet understand the nature of God as the psalmist did:
Our Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 139.
Psalm 139:7-10 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
In our Gospel reading Jesus tells the story of the parable of weeds and he explains it. He is the one who sows the good seed and the good seed are the people of God’s kingdom. Now, I want us to realize that good seed is not weeds. No matter how poorly growing or how stunted or diseased, the good seed are still the people of the kingdom of God. In fact the reason that there are growth problems with good seed can be the influence of weeds, but the parable goes on to tell us not to deal differently with the weeds, but to nurture both so as to give the best growth opportunities for the seed without damage, which is what could be caused by trying to deal with the weeds.
I suspect that in the past people may have been critical and judged poorly growing seeds as being the weeds…. Trying to take things into their own hands, thinking they are helping God by weeding out the weeds.
Our Gospel makes it clear that the job of weeding is not ours. This is the job of the Angels. A very real reason it is NOT our job is that we would surely mistake the good seed for the weed. This is where Jacob and Esau were at before God made it clear. Jacob thought of himself more as a weed growing alongside the seed chosen for the kingdom.
The calling of God in our lives is sure. He doesn’t call us and then change His mind. He doesn’t choose us, anoint us, give us a promise of a future and then change His mind. He sees down the tunnel of time and all that we will do in the future, the good, the bad and the ugly, and if He has called and chosen us, then you can be absolutely assured that this is an unconditional call.
Romans 8:14-17 “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
We all have a personal “Pentecost”; a time when the scales fell from our eyes and we became aware that God chose us…. But it may have been a while ago. Have we forgotten our identity in the kingdom of God? Have our circumstances or other people caused us to doubt our reality? We need to look to God’s word and the stories of those like Jacob and realize the truth; We are called, we have a purpose and a future, an amazing identity as a child of God. We need to begin and or continue to walk confidently in this truth. Hardships of life are a given, but knowing who we are in Christ gives us strength is hope eternal.
