This morning we have two lessons from the Old Testament and from the Gospel that are about God’s provision. So I’d like to explore those two lessons and think about what it means that God will provide. I have to confess to you from the outset that the times in my life when I have been in challenging and difficult circumstances and someone has stepped up and said, “Don’t worry, God will provide;” that hasn’t really been a great comfort to me…
Where were you? Where are you? And where are you going? Those are three questions I’d like to share some thoughts on this morning as we gather on this tenth anniversary of 9/11, September 11, 2001. Where were you? Where are you? And where are you going? It seems there’s a certain part of us, whenever there’s some historic event that happens in our lives, we remember where we were when we heard about it or discovered it…
Since I had done the Memorial Day homily, I thought it was only fitting to bookend the summer by volunteering to do the Labor Day homily as well. I honestly can’t believe that the summer is about over. I don’t know about you, but I still have some more summer left in me. But our kids are back at school and Fall is fast approaching. I am certainly not sorry that I volunteered to do today’s homily, but I have to admit that today’s Gospel is in many ways one of the most difficult passages to interpret in the whole of Matthew’s gospel…
Increase in us true religion. Hear that phrase in the opening collect? It’s a catchy kind of phrase; it almost sounds like, “Give us that old time religion.” It’s a phrase that we can pay some attention to; there’s some depth to it. What is true religion? It’s been said in the Christian tradition that there is a perception that what Christianity is about is worshiping Jesus. And yet when we look at the scriptures, there’s no instance where Jesus ever said to anyone, “worship me…”
Thousands and thousands of years ago a young Hebrew boy was born to a woman. His mother kept her son for three months before realizing that he would have a better chance of survival if she stuck him in a basket and put him down the river rather than trying to keep him hidden from those who would seek to destroy young Hebrew boys. As God’s portion would have it the baby was found and drawn up out of the water by Pharoh’s daughter who took him as her own son…
You may have noticed the parenthesis around verses 10 to 20 of the gospel. They indicate that that portion of the reading is optional today. I think that first portion deserves consideration on its own, a homily for another day. Besides, I find the second portion much more of a challenge to understand, don’t you? It may not be pretty but let’s take a look at an unattractive portrait of Jesus and his disciples…
Have you ever been caught up in a time when everything was moving faster than you could track and you felt like things could fall apart at any minute and maybe like you are hanging on for dear life? Probably it’s just me … I don’t know, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to this day today, with the week I have had. You know how much I love my job, and of course the danger of loving what I do so much is doing too much…
Have you ever wrestled with God? That’s what that first reading is about, from Genesis. Jacob as is described, wrestles with God. Jacob is about to encounter his brother Esau. He doesn’t have the best of relationships with Esau. He’s afraid of meeting Esau. He sends his family across the river, but he spends the night before crossing the river. And it is described that he goes through this wrestling experience. He struggles with God. And yet, during the struggle he doesn’t know who this is…
When I was preparing for ordination about 30 years ago, I spent what was known as an Anglican year at the Virginia Seminary in Alexandria. In order to gain experience I assisted with Sunday services at St. Dunstan’s in Bethesda, MD. One of my duties was to give the children’s homily at the family service. So Saturday afternoons would often find me in the children’s section of the seminary library, looking for inspiration for something to say that would hold a child’s attention even for a few minutes…
I would like to paint three images, or pictures from our lessons today. I believe that they have a common theme … reminding us that we are heirs – that we are children of God, reminding us that we can indeed encounter God in our lives, even bear the fruit of God’s blessings in our world, and finally, and most especially in our Gospel lesson, reminding us that indeed, all of us are God’s children, the wheat and weeds together, and that God asks us to wait for our encounters with God, to wait when things go wrong, to wait for the blessings of God which indeed will come to us…