|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| 1 Kings 3:5-12 |
Psalm 119:129–136 |
Romans 8:26–39 |
Matthew 13:31–33, 44–45 |
When I began to take my young sons camping, I taught them the one constant rule that I had been taught when I was a young camper, too. You always leave your campsite a better place than how you found it. It didn’t matter whether you just stayed overnight or for a couple of days, you still had the obligation to improve what you had found. Sometimes the previous campers in the spot we picked had been pretty sloppy and we worked hard picking up the scraps of paper or cigarette butts that had been carelessly tossed about. Other times, previous campers had obviously carefully cared for the campsite. Of course, these places were a joy to stay in, but we always found something to do. It may have been gathering and leaving behind a larger pile of firewood, or improving the fireplace. One time we widened and deepened the canoe slip and smoothed out the small sandy beach. In one sense every place we stayed at required a different evaluation of the situation and an appropriate response. Yet we always left, knowing that those who followed would find it a better place, even if they and we would never meet.
The larger lesson isn’t about camping, of course. I must admit I’m not sure I passed on much of the love of wilderness camping anyway. Today, if given the choice, my sons would inevitably choose staying at five star hotels with Jacuzzis and health spas over a beautiful secluded camp spot where the loons call to each other at dusk across a quiet lake and cell phones never penetrate. Yet I hope that the larger and more important lessons of our camping practices have stayed with them and will be passed on to their children. Namely, that you have a duty to endeavor to leave this earth a better place, wherever you happen to live, in the time given you. People of faith are those who believe in God’s love for humanity and their future. People of faith are those who trust in the worth of the human enterprise. People of faith are able to recognize the connection between their actions and the good will and grace of God. This love, trust and recognition of connections happen through rain or shine, pleasant or unpleasant surroundings, and whether one is settling in for twenty-four hours or twenty-four years.
The past few weeks the Gospels at one level have described Jesus teaching lessons based an ancient small-scale agricultural society. Today’s Gospel is a collection of Jesus’ sayings that the Gospel editors thought essential to convey, even though the actual sermons or teaching that Jesus had originally used with them had been lost or forgotten. Of course these lessons, too, are not primarily about agriculture, fishing or small town life. By the time the Gospels were written and disseminated, Christianity had spread far beyond life around the Lake of Galilee. The link to Palestine was rapidly disappearing as more Christians lived in the towns and cities of the greater Roman Empire than on the farms and villages of rural Galilee. The Gospel editors knew that these stories and sayings were important and worth remembering because they all dealt with life’s much larger issues and the lessons were easily transferable.
The specific sayings in today’s Gospel touch on the questions of what is meaningful in life and what is valuable in pursuing. In some way or another, Jesus is always asking us to explore such questions. There is not only one way of doing this. One of the ways art and music institutions serve a higher purpose is not simply to teach students how to paint or how to play, but how to discern between art and music of greater worth and that of lesser value, between that which speaks to generations across time and cultures, and that which is merely transitory, sensational or shallow. Of course, I think if Jesus lived as a rabbi today, every summer he would likely take his disciples camping to teach them that you always leave your campsite a better place than you found it and then perhaps after they got back, even to build a sermon around it.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
