Today we celebrated the fifth Sunday after Pentecost using the following Bible readings: Isaiah 44: 6-8, or Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 Psalm 86:11-17, and the New Testament Romans 8:12-25, Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.
Our lector was Richard Sturgeon.
Today we prayed for all the survivors and the victims of that terrible tornado in Joplin as well as the devastation all over our country.
The parking area at the Church will be worked on this week and ready to finish the cement work so please do not park in that area. You will have to park among the trees on the opposite side of the Church.
It is an age old question: Why is there evil in the world? In the parable of the wheat and the weeds Jesus suggests that both grow together until the harvest. With Paul, we long for the day that all creation will be set free from bondage and suffering. Having both weeds and wheat within us, we humbly place our hope in the promises of God, and from the Lord’s table we go forth to bear the fruit of justice and mercy.
Pastor Wayne’s sermon today was based on the gospel lesson, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, the parable of the wheat and weeds. Weeds it seems will always be with us – in our fields, in our flower and vegetable gardens, and in our lawns. Weed control is a mega buck business. Co-habitation doesn’t’ seem acceptable.
How reflective this is of life. How well we can visualize the parable in today’s gospel. How well we can see the weeds i.e. the evils around us and their tempting, tantalizing flowers. How well we can see and know the weeds that persist in our own personal lives.
We ask the age old question – why must there be weeds in my life? Why must there be evils, an element of noxious weed i.e. sin in my life? What can I do, what forces can I gather to rid myself and the world around me of weeds, of sin?
Where in lies my hope?
With Matthew we learn all we can do is humbly place our hope in the promises of God. It is that hope for the day of harvest that is the good news of the gospel. It is the good news of being made a child of God by His word in the waters of baptism. It is the good news of being made clean, free from sin, free from weeds that choke us to death that we receive in the bread and wine of communion. There is not a herbicide we can come up with ourselves to free us from sin and its end in death. Only the power and sacrifice of Jesus as the Christ can make us free and promise us that on the day of harvest we will come into His presence weed free with singing and shouts of Hosannas and Alleluias.
That is the good news that somebody has given us, that we now have, that we are commissioned to share with all we can.
The parable gives us hope, in that what we declare to be weeds, God has the power to declare righteous, right up to the harvest. There is wheat within each of us as well as those all-too-visible weeds. From this patchy crop God can fashion a miraculous bread, transforming each of us by the pure wheat of this holy offering, making us into beings shaped by hope.
As the old saying goes – be patient with me, God hasn’t finished with me yet. I am not yet what I shall be. Are we not asked to be the same with each other?
Don’t give up hope yet. God hasn’t.
Monday at 5 p.m. the Sunshine Singers will meet at the church.
Wednesday 8:30 a.m. people will meet at the church to go to an exercise class.
Thursday, 9:30 a.m., Women’s workday.
We wish to welcome all visitors and the new members that have joined us.
Please come join us Sunday, as we have adult Bible study and children Sunday school at 9:30 a.m., and the church service at 10:45 a.m.
Communion is the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month and potluck luncheons are on the 1st and 3rd Sunday after the service.
