I grew up in a time of polio, measles, whooping cough epidemics and suffered from chronic hay fever.  I lost a whole year of schooling becase of sickness which included some home quarantine.  As time went by vaccines were created and I noticed that there were no longer kids at school with irons on their legs becase of limbs damaged by polio.  I also read about Sonja Davies surviving tuberculosis because of the discovery of antibiotics and I read Dr Murray Laugesen’s book about the widespread vaccines he carried out in India.  Furthermore, as a Christian Thought and History major, I am aware of the devastating pandemics that have killed people in the past.

Therefore, when I saw a news clip of a man racing to get out of the heat from multiple funeral fires of covid victims in India I certainly believed we had a worldwide pandemic. 

Our government announcing quarantine measures were certainly restrictive but seemed reasonable in the face of a new pandemic and I was inclined to believe that Covid was real. 

I also expected science to produce a vaccine and in this world of rapid communications and sharing of information I expected that to happen a lot quicker than such discoveries had been made in the past.   

What I didn’t expect was that people would claim that the pandemic was a hoax and vaccination was a plot to insert microchips into the population so they could be monitored and controlled. 

It seemed like the news media, the world health organisation and governments had sown good information and strategy into our world.  Then when nobody was looking, an enemy, or several enemies had sneaked into the internet and sown weeds. 

I am reminded of a Larsen cartoon where a heavenly master-chef, obviously with a perverted sense of humour, is shown seasoning a newly created world.   ‘This will make it interesting’ he thinks as he shakes the seasoning from a container labelled ‘jerks’.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells a parable with a very similar theme that begins:  

‘He put before them another parable: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.’  (Matthew 13:24,25)     

Those tending the crops are instructed not to try and pull out the weeds becase the risk damaging the intended crop, and my amateur efforts at gardening have proved that risk on numerous occasions.  As has the unfortunate instances when I have been drawn into an argument with someone convinced of their point of view no matter how silly it seems.  

In fact the book of Proverbs tells us ‘It is better to meet a mother bear robbed of her cubs than to meet some fool busy with a stupid project.  (Proverbs 17:12)

The important point of the parable however is that Jesus is explaining, for his unique time, which we can see has many similarities with our own time, that God has liberally seeded the human population with good people. 

Through greed, self-centred carelessness or whatever some of those seeds have grown into weeds.  Matthew blames ‘the evil one.’

But the real message of the parable is that the divine realm comes into being in a world of chaos, a world like ours, where good people and jerks exist alongside each other.  We must also remember that no matter how universal the parable’s message is, it is set in Jesus’ time and place.

Burton Mack writes that ‘the attractiveness of early Christianity is best explained as one of the more creative and practical social experiments in response to the loss of cultural moorings that all peoples experienced during this time’.^[1] 

Mack goes on to explain that the temple-state as a model of civilisation had been honed to perfection by three thousand years of fine tuning clashed with the collapsing Hellenistic or Greek age.  That confrontation of cultures was stabilised by the brutal efficiency of Imperial Rome which was also evolving.  We can therefore see why the idea of the ‘Kingdom of God’ was so attractive to the people buffeted and disillusioned by change.  Mack writes of Jesus in his prologue: 

His followers did not congregate in order to enhance their chances of gaining eternal life for themselves as solitary persons.  They had been captivated by a heady, experimental drive to rethink power and purity and alter the way the authorities of their time had put the world together.^[2]   

Reading of the clash of cultures, decay and disruption of long-established civilisations and the chaos of different ethnicities and languages it is understandable that there would be experimentation with alternative ways of ordering society.  What is both encouraging and challenging however is that that first century clash of cultures also sounds very like our own time. 

Jesus dream for such a world, the dream that lead him to speak to his disciples is spelled out in in the first chapter of Marks Gospel. ‘Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying ‘the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.’ (Mark 1:14)  

Dreams are important, dreams for a better world or the dreams for a vaccine for a deadly pandemic.  Dreams are the beginning of change.

The prophet Joel wrote about dreams:

Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.  (Joel 2:28) 

That statement is also quoted in Peter’s speech in Acts (Acts 2: 17) after the apostles receive the Holy Spirit at the festival of Pentecost.

In a more contemporary setting in the musical South Pacific Rodgers and Hammerstein have Bloody Mary sing ‘If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?

Our reading from Genesis tells us of Jacobs dream and, like our own weird dreams, it comes at a time for Jacob of fear, chaos and apprehension.

Jacob’s deceit of his brother turns dangerous as Esau threatens to kill him and he is forced to flee.  But isolated from his family and fearful of his brother he has a dream that assures him of God’s presence.  The dream also reinforces his father’s dream that they will be fathers of a great nation. 

Jacob later wrestles with God in another dream and is the father of Joseph of amazing Technicolor Dream Coat fame.

Dreams are what pulls this family out of intergenerational domestic violence and abusive family relationships and opens the future to successive generations.  Dreams are the first step in new beginnings and dreams are the first step in making dreams come true.

Jacob marks the place of his dream as a ‘thin place’ a place where heaven and earth meet.  However, the main point of Jacob’s dream is that we can be forced to move away from where we are comfortable but that does not move us away from God.  That is a hard lesson to grab hold of and when the descendants of Abraham and Isaac are taken into exile in Babylon they sang ‘How could we sing the LORD’S song in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:4)

Throughout history people have seen God as their god belonging to their territory. 

People who, like Jacob, have had an experience of God in a dream or vision have, like Jacob, marked the spot where that happened and then people have made pilgrimages to those places in the hope of having a similar experience. 

In similar hope people have built spectacular buildings in the hope that God will come and live in them.  Another descendant of Jacob, King David wanted to do that.  But Nathan had a dream in which God told him to ‘Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?  I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle’. (2 Samuel 7:5,6): 

Of course, David’s son built the temple because he was politically astute and had a vision of stable government held in tension between sacred moral values symbolised by the temple and his absolute monarchy symbolised by the Palace. 

Special places are also good for religious tourism and if you Google ‘thin places’ you will quickly get several lists of places where people have felt the presence of ‘the other world’ even without a ladder.  Places where the barrier between this world and the spirit world is so thin that visions and theophanies can pass through.

The whole point of Jacob’s dream was that leaving home did not separate him from God.  Even cheating his brother did not separate him from God.  

We need to also remember the divine realm does not come into being through a violent revolution or even a landslide victory in an election.  The divine realm comes into being by the dreams of people and the thoughts provoked by the parables and teaching of people.  In seeking the divine realm we must recognise that good and bad lives alongside each other.

The divine realm comes into being in a world of chaos, a world like ours, where good people and jerks exist alongside each other. 

Different personalities like Jacob and Esau struggle for their place in the world and their understanding of power, authority and inheritance.  But even Jacob and Esau can be reconciled through dreams and wrestling with God. 

God’s realm continues to move towards reality, God’s realm is always at hand as the good seed of the human condition dream dreams and wrestle with their own vision of God.  That is how people become the truly human citizens of God’s Realm.

Our dream must always remain to be the good seed called to struggle and grow amongst the weeds of our world. 

We must dream because if we don’t have a dream, how we gonna have a dream come true?  Above all, our dreams must open our minds to possibilities beyond our wildest expectations.   

---

[1] Burton L. Mack Who Wrote The New Testament: The Making of the Christian Myth (New York: HarperOne 1989) p.19.

[2] ibid. p.12

 “Going to Seed”  (Matt 13:1-9. 18-23)

Parables can be an incredible way of teaching.  Scriptures show us how time and time again, Jesus would use a simple story to provide a glimpse of something profound about God.  And most of the time, parables are not explained, we are invited to figure out for ourselves “what was that all about?”  We must scratch our heads and consider what does this story say to me?   And we may well find different meaning at different times.  Parables are vivid, memorable stories, often we “feel” them with our senses before we understand them with our minds.  They are pieces of art that we can look at and then look at again and each time see something different.   (Are there any farmers or gardeners here today? Already we have a sense of what Jesus is talking about.)

In Jesus’ story he speaks of seeds and here we have an image of God as a reckless planter, scattering seeds like a child blowing on a puffy dandelion…the little seeds blowing in all directions…God not giving a thought to where they will land…if they will take root or grow, blowing on it regardless, in the process dotting the landscape with flowery weeds that will pop up in droves in unexpected and difficult places. 

This passage shows us how God gardens in a different way than humans.  When we take the time to plant something we take a lot of care in making sure the soil will be receptive. We take into account the amount of sunlight, the acidity of the soil, the amount of water needed. We don’t want to waste seed, space, or time. But God just lavishly scatters seeds. God throws seeds all around. There are God seeds just everywhere. Some will grow and some will not, but God just keeps scattering good news, blowing dandelions, knowing that they will spread and grow and change the look and shape of the landscape.  If your lawn is like mine- weeds seem to be every where!

Notice how God isn’t stingy in anyway. God doesn’t assess our worthiness before scattering seeds of love, grace, and mercy. God throws them all around. I wonder if we shouldn’t be a little more like that. We judge the soil, prepare it, and alter the soil. We dig, fertilize, and water, and then if the timing is right and the weather is favorable we gingerly place the seed in the ground. And then we take a great deal of pride in whatever harvest we get. But God doesn’t garden like that. God lavishly, foolishly, wastefully throws the seed of Word, grace, mercy, and love, everywhere. Miraculously, the results God gets, the harvest God produces is tremendous. In Jesus’ day a farmer, on a good year might expect a four or five fold return, but Jesus says the return from God’s method is thirty, sixty, one hundred fold—an incredible harvest that would more than provide for the farmer and his family.

I wonder if we should try God’s way of planting for a change. I wonder if we shouldn’t just throw around some seeds of mercy, grace, and love even if the soil doesn’t appear to be that receptive to them. I wonder if we might not be surprised by the harvest, its bounty and location. No doubt birds will eat some and thorns choke others but maybe that is not our concern. Maybe we should just keep on lavishly, foolishly, wastefully, even, scattering the seed of God’s word…seeds that contain the makings of good news and forgiveness…seeds that will inevitably produce a huge harvest…seeds that will change the look and feel and shape of the whole landscape once they take root…seeds that have the potential to feed the masses…seeds that will ultimately make beautiful the most desolate of places. God scatters these seeds…everywhere, and maybe we should, too.

I picture God blowing puffy dandelions, thrilled as they float and land and take root and spread in the most unexpected places, just weeds to many but treasured flowers to little children and others foolish enough to take notice of them—foolish enough to pick them and give them away—foolish enough to make wishes and blow them in the wind. God doesn’t judge the state of the soil, its worthiness or potential, God just lavishly, foolishly, wastefully scatters the seeds of God’s grace, mercy, and love, delighting in giving them away because God knows the harvest will be awesome, and incredible. God knows that it will change the whole landscape. God knows that those seeds will take root and make beautiful the most unexpected places, popping up like dandelions thriving despite birds and rocks and thorns…implanting in people’s hearts and producing fruit in even the most barren of places.  (Bring out dandelions.) 

Maybe, just maybe, we should, blow on a few more dandelions; wastefully throw around some small pieces of promise. Maybe, just maybe we shouldn’t worry so much about the state of the soil. Maybe, just maybe, we should trust the power that created it, the one who put power within the seed and just go out and delight in the throwing. Maybe, just maybe, the world will listen and be transformed.

The good news is, that there is no one right way of to share the faith.  As we embrace the parable for our lives, let us consider ourselves as being the sower.  The seed then becomes the ways in which we try to live a meaningful and faithful life in this world.  Think about your efforts at making a living, raising a family, the time you have invested in trying to do something worthwhile.  These are like seeds that we have sown, some which succeed and some of which don’t.  Some seeds fall on good ground and something it falls amidst the rocks and the thorns. 

The Parable calls us to be realistic.  To accept that we win some and we lose some.  We do and will experience good days and bad days.  We can control what we do, but we can not control the results of what we do.  Sometimes, no matter how hard we work, no matter how sincere we are, no matter how efficient we are, we are going to run into dead ends and thing re not going to come out as we planned our hoped.  We are to sow the seed, do our best and leave the rest up to God.  Faithfulness is found in the sowing, the sharing, the taking a risk that something good might happen, just because of a simple small act that we might do, like planning a seed. 

Implied in the parable is another question for all of us;  “If life is that way, why do you persist in expecting success from all your efforts?”  There is no contract that guarantees success, if we adopt the kind of mindset that we have not done something “right” to get what we’ve got, then maybe we can begin to see life in new way.  (then maybe we’re open to grace) The passage does not explain why things go wrong, why there are infertile, unproductive soils.  In the Bible evil is not explained; it remains a mystery.  The parable assumes that some things will go wrong, not all seed will take root. But there too, is good news.  Good seed is not held only for good soil.  God’s grace and blessings are everywhere.  God makes efforts in all places, and so should we.  

At St. Martin’s Presbyterian Church, we are interested in growing our church.  The vision statement says so very nicely.  “St. Martin’s is an inclusive Christian congregation, sharing in the love of Christ, building one another up in joyful faith, reaching out in love to people around and beyond us, and encouraging care for God’s creation. 

Wanting to grow in mission.  You have a good thing and you don’t want to keep it just for yourselves.  There will be many things that we try in the times to come, some may be glorious failures and flash in pan, some may never take off, some may lead to tremendous growth.  As people of faith, part of our identity is to be sowers of seeds, people willing to take the risk of planting where things may or may not grow, for that foolish risk is faith in action.  It says yes, I believe something good will happen here.

The parable shows us we should not focus our questions of why do some things go wrong, but rather on why do something succeed?  Where do good things come from, if it is not us then who?  That points us to GOD!! We are sowers and some things in our control will fail and other things will succeed, and sometimes beyond our imagination, and always beyond our deserving some seed will take root and grow.  We are the sower – that’s all.  We can only do so much and we will only succeed only so often.  But that’s OK in fact that is the way it’s supposed to be.  God is in charge of the rest.  No matter how hard we try we can not get rid of chaos, we can not bring order into mystery.  We are called to go seed, and to trust in the Creator.  Amen.

“Yes; it really is true…There is enough love to go around”

(The story of the Tax Man and the Pharisee. Luke 18: 9-14)

Today we come to Jesus’ intriguing story about two men who just happen to be in the same place at the same time. They’re in the Temple…

And on the face of it these two men couldn’t be less like one another …one’s a tax collector…he works for the hated Romans who currently occupy Palestine – it’s a military occupation remember…the other’s a Pharisee a fully paid up, card-carrying member of the Jewish Teachers’ Union.

One of them – the tax collector man is regarded as a collaborator of the occupying forces – a Quisling; almost certainly despised and probably feared by the Jews; the other, an honourable teacher highly regarded as a wise and respected community leader.

Both of them ‘pray’…the Pharisee with his abundance of good deeds is thankful; The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

The tax gatherer simply asks for mercy. ¹³ “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”

And there we have it…two men as different as chalk and cheese. Or so we might be tempted to think.

I’m pretty sure that over the years I’ve thought of it like that.

But now, having thought about it a bit more carefully and I suspect more generously I think I’ve been wrong.

So I’d like to try and put the record right if I can.

So we start by asking why would Jesus have told a story like this?

Well, you’ll recall that Jesus is really interested in only one thing thru’out the whole of his ministry…the arrival of what he called the Kingdom of God…this arrangement between people where life would be lived gracefully, generously and mercifully…

where care for the person sitting next to me here in church or on a bus or airplane ….or the person standing in line in front of me,

or the person I might pass while pushing my shopping trolley along the aisle in the supermarket, is as important as anything I might wish for myself.

This isn’t a new idea of course … the Hebrew prophets had been banging on about it for centuries …a way of living that reflected the generosity of their God…Yahweh.

But by and large the pleading and urging of the prophets had eluded the nation as a whole – generally the pleading and the predictions of the prophets – the spokespeople for Yahweh went unheeded – for some reason they didn’t get it – and many regarded the military occupation of their land as some sort of divine retribution while life went on with people believing – at the same time – that there was no need for anyone to be any different.

^18;9-12 So (Jesus) told (t)his (next) story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people…two men went to the Temple to pray…

(One of them, a) Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

And as we catch a sniff of what looks like pompous self-promotion we might be tempted to say (under our breath of course!)  “Oh, good on you…well done you. Didn’t you do well” We might even be inclined to side-line him – to dismiss him – as someone who isn’t very nice…a bit conceited perhaps.

The (other, a) tax gatherer simply asks for mercy. ¹³ “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”

And it’s likely that we might be tempted to think “Now there’s a really good man. He gets it” Chances are we might even identify with him – for we know ourselves well!!

And if we did this we set up an understanding of this story that we’re so familiar with.

Because it’s the way Luke ends the story;

“This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God”.

Our sympathies are very likely to be with the tax man and not the Pharisee. The sinner turns out to be a saint…while the saintly Pharisee turns out to be…well less than a saint – we might think he was up himself … a bit of a snob.

Which is where our hearing of the story usually ends and we tend not to hear the rest of what Jesus says…

If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you’ll become more than yourself.”

Luke tells us that Jesus told this story to his disciples. I think then that what Jesus is saying is that the habit of judging other people negatively isn’t a trait the fits with Jewish values…remember that we’re talking here about a story told by a Jew to Jews…

and I’m pretty sure that we can make the jump to saying that judging other people negatively is not a trait the fits with Christian values either…it’s a human trait and one which we all to commonly fall for.

But while this is an important point – a moral point – that’s not the major talking point of this story.

The major point emerges out of a problem which you’d never guess after hearing this morning’s bible reading.

The problem is v¹⁴ “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God”.

Both men were in the Temple which it seems is a safe place where both seek solace and comfort; let’s assume that both were genuine in their prayers…both wanted Yahweh’s recognition – they both want to be understood – both were likely lonely and isolated. Both of them are searching for  the same thing… peace of mind and since they’re both Jews they were almost certainly also seeking the acceptance of Yahweh – who recall is the God of the covenant…that agreement made by Yahweh that he is on their side and watching their backs.

To put it simply…they both want to be loved.

Did both of them find what they were looking for?

Well I’m pretty sure the answer is “Yes” and the reason is that there is – tucked away in v 14 a small and confusing Greek preposition…it’s the word  “para” from which we get our words ‘paradox’ and ‘parallel’ even – believe it or not – ‘parable’.

As well as this verse 14 is disputed – scholars debate whether or not it was even part of the original story and interestingly, we could remove the verse and the story loses none of its meaning…It adds nothing to the story line.

For reasons that no one quite understands or can explain, Luke gives the Pharisees bad press – thruout his gospel.

So…the way the story’s told by Luke, the Pharisee ends up looking like the bad guy while the taxman ends up looking sweet.

And that’s because the translators have used that little Greek word para to suggest

some sort of antagonism…one against the other…and so we get;

“This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God”.

But consider the other way this word is used….it’s also used to suggest some sort of juxtaposition…where two things are placed close together  in contrast to each other.

Now if there’s any truth in that, the text should read …“This tax man, and the other (alongside him, the Pharisee), went home made right with God”

One translation has this…..“To you I say, descending to his house, this one is justified alongside the other.” And like any good parable that would’ve been a revolutionary idea to devout first century Jews.

These men were different in almost every way possible yet they walked on parallel tracks when they found themselves in the Temple seeking Yahweh’s blessing. Remember they’re very likely looking for the same assurance – the same blessing…why else would they be there?…both were sincere both were devout…and both sought relief from the same Yahweh.

For Jesus finishes the story with these words

“If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you’ll become more than yourself.”

 Or to put it in simple English….”If you’re a bit sniffy and regard yourself as better than the next person sooner or later you’ll come a cropper, but if you’re comfortable with who you are in your own skin you’ll be better than just OK”

So that’s the good news.

But wait….there’s more and …it may be the greatest challenge of this parable…we are part of a community.

Said like that it sounds rather obvious but think about for a moment…

We  form  and belong in a community where we live in the plural…we pray in the plural “Our Father…give us….Forgive us….”

We live in a community where each of us is responsible for the other…and that means that the sin of one of us can impact – negatively –  every other one of us.

And it means that the good deeds of one us can have a positive impact on the lives of every other one of us. And the good any one does can rub off onto me and protect me…and you too of course.

The Jews have this wonderful notion of ‘zechut avot’…Hebrew for ‘stored up protection’…the idea that allows others to be justified….made right with God. This is the passionate belief held by Jews that even if we sin – and we will – the benefits of the good deeds of Abraham  and of Isaac and of Jacob the could be transferred to us!

Does that sound fanciful?

Well it sounded like an a great idea to Paul – who you’ll recall promoted himself as the Pharisee supreme – when he proposed that it was the faithfulness of Jesus the Christ that allows us to be justified – made right with God.

“Yes … it really is true…There is enough love to go around”

Enough for tax collectors and Pharisees. It’s the same love that wrapped itself around these two men as they walked home.

Now we don’t know what happened to these two men after they left the Temple … its an outside chance but they may have gone home together for pizza and a cold beer? And established a community of two where they shared blessings because of their shared gratitude. It’s possible that as a result of their longings and petitions they were now enfolded by the grace of Yahweh.

“I’m not religious, but I do love the concept of grace, of a gift so profound that it could never be earned or deserved. And so when I cite grace here as the final and most important force in friendships, I mean it in two ways. One is the forgiveness that we offer each other when we fall short. The other is the space that creates for connections—and reconnections—that feel nothing short of miraculous”.

(The Atlantic June 2023)