Well, What’s the Hold Up?
“Well, What’s the Hold Up?”
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, August 11, 2019
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Luke 12:32-40
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Sandpoint, Idaho
When you make a stew the pot simmers with a variety of ingredients. Sometimes you just keep throwing things in because they seem interesting, like chunks of carrots, or cloves of garlic, or whatever the pantry and cabinets have sitting around that may have something to contribute to the long, slow cooking as flavors mingle, intertwine, and congeal into a delicious stew that tastes just right on a stormy day.
Sometimes preaching is like that, or reading scripture passages with more than a surface level, passing glance. Like opening a pantry and staring, pondering over scripture sometimes allows certain words or phrases to stand out, to shimmer, or wiggle for attention. By focusing on those, by throwing them in the pot, so to speak, their unique qualities start to emerge, possibly in ways that bring out life’s lessons.
This morning as we look at Isaiah, for example, what at first may appear judgmental and harsh, as it simmers, it also reveals the more subtle makings of a faith lesson, teaching aspects of God, and what our role is in living in relationship with God in this world.
Words like, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” While we may not be directly pulling triggers or swinging machetes, we live in a society that perpetuates violence and militarism. Every year in the United States over a trillion dollars supports this from public funding. Maybe this phrase in Isaiah catches us God-fearing Americans, because we assume God is listening to us when we pray, and the very money used to support the world as it is has “In God we Trust” printed on it. Yet God, in this passages, challenges notions like this, saying we are living as hypocrites who are corrupted and blinded such that we ignore the blood on our hands. How does a phrase like this simmer in the pot?
Yet there are other phrases, which continue the movement away from harshness into encouragement. Words like, “Wash yourselves…. Make yourselves clean…. Remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice,… rescue…defend…plead…” These are all actions we are capable of, and God is simply wanting us to live into our created potential.
Adding in more items to the stew, other phrases shimmer, like “If…you shall; if (you are willing and obedient)…you shall (eat the good of the land)… but if (you refuse and rebel)…you shall (be devoured by the sword)…” These continue to build the flavors of our calling. It’s as if God is saying, “What are you waiting for, wake up and live like I made you, as loving creatures in relationship with me and others, not just the ones you know, but strangers and aliens too, and enjoy what I intend. Stop self-inflicting unnecessary suffering, unneeded pain, and unwilling hearts. Rest your heart in me, and all will be well.”
You mean we have the potential to change our hearts? And change the world? We have a choice that will lead to delicious blessing, and it’s important to make that choice because the other choice only brings destruction? Must be an important choice! Sounds like there’s a lot at stake! This could be daunting, for it sounds like a tremendous responsibility, to learn more of what a blessed life entails, and how to let go of things that may look good or feel safe, but actually bring us or others harm. Navigating what is good and what is evil will take discernment.
The message from Luke is similar because on one level it sounds threatening but in other ways is actually encouraging. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” How do they know? How do they know that we’re a little flock in the larger scheme of things? What can a little flock trying to live in God’s Presence, trusting God’s love, possibly do in a world controlled by multinational corporations and governments during not an agrarian age, not an industrial age, not an information age, but a militaristic age? Where your treasure is, there your heart is also? The Father’s good pleasure, not to give to the larger cycles at work, but to give you the kingdom. Must be an important flock, worthy of being a minority movement!
Suzanne Guthrie reflects on the words, “For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom!” She asks, “If that is so…then the hold up is…? What IS the treasure? Where is my heart’s desire found? The unfailing treasure is eternal and found in the present moment. But because of layers of misplaced values accumulated through life, finding the treasure may require a kind of quest. But ultimately the treasure is found within our very selves. There’s the insight to take back into the world. And the world? Throughout scripture, God’s heart is with the anawim, ‘the little ones’ who seek God for deliverance; the poor, the widow, the orphans, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the sick, the stranger, the maimed. Jesus also embraced these as the bearers of the kingdom, and the church’s treasure, too, is found among the poor. […] Find the treasure within and know the treasure manifested in others. Some of us may have to change our idea of treasure. May you find and know your true treasure!” (http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper14c.html, an online preaching resource).
She also quotes Teresa of Avila, who wrote The Interior Castle, in 1577 as a guide for spiritual development through service and prayer.
Teresa says, “How can I explain the riches and treasures and delights found when the soul is united to God in prayer? Since in some way we can enjoy heaven on earth, be brave in begging the Lord to give us his grace in that he shows us the way and strengthen the soul that it may dig until it finds this hidden treasure. The truth is that the treasure lies within our very selves.”
There it is again, the treasure is within us. God wonders what we are waiting for, even as God gives grace for the journey into deeper faith, sustaining Presence in the moment, and action that’s based on unity, love, and goodness.
In Luke as we read about the slaves in relation to their Master who is enjoying a wedding feast we notice there’s a connection between “waiting” and “action.” In talking by story about the spiritual life, Jesus says, “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting….”
In the contemplative stance, there is a connection between waiting, which is prayerful watchfulness, and action, of living in ways that build on the blessings of internal, heart-filled, inner growth and unity.
Finding and knowing Divine Presence within is kind of like gardening, trusting there’s a seed that grows. Even if the soil is dark, it also contains everything needed for growth: nutrients, moisture, depth. One of the things I do in the fall is put garlic cloves in the soil, cover them up, and wait. Winter comes, the snow piles up, the ground freezes, the spring rains melt it away and turn the soil to a muddy mess, and yet the first thing that sprouts in the garden is garlic. Even before I get planting other seeds, the garlic bed is green and reaching to that sunshine as passing showers welcome a new season. While the rainbows spread, the cloves expand exponentially and one planted clove becomes an entire head of new garlic. Even the flower, called a “scape” is edible, and in August it’s time to dig up the garlic and celebrate God’s abundance.
Permaculture is an ethic of regenerative agriculture and society that has various Principles. One of them involves sharing, the idea being that if food is grown and a harvest is reaped, others may benefit and the larger society shares the prosperity. It was amazing this week that just as I was reflecting on this, considering my garlic which I’ll share with you today, my phone rings and it’s my neighbor wondering if I want some apples from their tree. I went over and they gave me some apples, along with a few red tomatoes from their vines. Bringing them home, Shawna and I had BLT’s for lunch, compliments of their home-grown tomatoes, and bacon from our locally raised pork (from the Dassault Family Farm out on Lakeshore Drive), and organic lettuce. An amazing lunch from shared generosity and local farmers.
So today, as a hand’s-metaphor for God’s exponential blessings and goodness, which are found within, and as we give our hearts to God’s loving Presence, as we wait in the Lord, our faith transforms us and calls us to action as we respond to God’s leading in the world. Take two heads of garlic. Take two, one for cooking and enjoying in the food you prepare and eat. Roast it, fry it, put it in a chicken, soak it in a soup. However you cook with garlic, do so thankfully for the ways God grows within you as love. Use the other head for planting. Break it up into single cloves, and in the fall, plant each clove a couple inches down in the soil. Then wait. Enter the silence. Claim the darkness as you give God room to work in your soul. By taking these heads of garlic, we are also participating in the Permaculture principles of sharing the harvest, of earth care and supporting one another. Enjoy and be blessed!
As we share encouragement through shimmering words of God, may divine, humble, vulnerable love, be treasured and shared, NOW, even as forever. Amen.