|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Joshua 24:1–2a, 14–18 |
Psalm 34:15-22 |
Ephesians 6:10–20 |
John 6:56–69 |
There is an old folktale, which I suspect, came from Hasidic tradition, that tells of a young couple who bought an abandoned farm that had been ravaged by the scourge of war. Over the years they nursed the land and brought it back to fruition. In a valley where a sweet spring was said to have been, they planted shrubs encircled by young trees, and enriched the soil. As the years went by, however, there was never any evidence of water. Eventually, the couple died and the land passed to another; and in the next generation, in the center of a tall grove of trees the couple had planted as saplings so long ago, when the snow had melted after a long winter, a bountiful and sweet spring appeared.
People of faith are called to be planters of seed. That was demonstrated last Sunday in the baptism of Vivian Hedges. This afternoon Nancy Radloff and her brave adult helpers will welcome some of the younger members of our parish to a weeklong choir camp. That, too, is all about planting seeds. This week, Cornell and Ithaca College are welcoming thousands of freshmen and hundreds of fledgling graduate students. Yes, that involves planting seed for a harvest not yet seen. Whether it involves preparing children for responsible adulthood, protecting the environment, adding knowledge to enrich and benefit humanity, or adding to a legacy of wider understanding and justice, people of faith participate and initiate things they never create, or fully control or even complete.
Parents cannot guarantee how their children will turn out, teachers cannot be sure what paths their students will follow, farmers cannot regulate the temperature or amount of rain in a growing season, and scholars and researchers do not exactly know what their endeavors will produce. Yet we are willing to be parents, teachers, mentors, public servants, farmers and scholars because of trust in a future harvest.
Jesus loved to teach by telling stories. It appears that when he was in Bethany, a village outside of Jerusalem, he told the story of the talents in which the owner of an estate entrusted allotments of his property to three servants. When it was time for an accounting, the first servant who received a certain amount, came forward and showed that he had used what he had been given to increase the owner’s assets. The second servant came forward with the amount given to him, and showed that he had done the same. But the third servant did absolutely nothing with what he was given, and hid it in the ground. With the first two servants the owner was pleased, because they had understood that what they had been given was given in trust and that they were expected to live a life of trust. The owner was furious with the third servant who did absolutely nothing and had acted as if he hadn’t been given anything of value at all. So the owner dismissed the servant who had done nothing saying, “Because you rejected to use my gift, you will lose your use of it, while those who trusted in my gifts will receive more.”
Note this isn’t a story with Jesus approving the prevailing condition of the world s where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The owner did not commend the first two servants because of the amount of acorns they had gathered. Indeed the owner said that what the servants had gathered were small things. Small, little things! The servants were commended because of their trust.
Jesus teaches us that if you wish to live as fully as God intended, God’s gifts must be appreciated and used. If you do not exercise your muscles they become weak. If you don’t actively use your brain, your cells will deteriorate, if you don’t draw water from a well, the veins will clog up and the well goes dry, if you don’t sow seed, the harvest never comes. If you refuse to have confidence in the Christian enterprise, your vision of the commonwealth of God will weaken and grow dim.
That’s what the Gospel passages the past few weeks are about, too, emphasizing that active trust in living as a member of Christ’s body is vital to any community of faith. Yes, in some sense this is a sermon about stewardship.
So in a few hours, it’s off to camp, to learn how to cooperate live with others, to be challenged with new music and sing new songs, to sow seed, to prepare for a bountiful harvest and build up the Body of Christ.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
