Twelth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 14.

Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19);
Luke 11:1-13
 

I don’t know how you live, whether you lock your doors in the day or in the night.   When I grew up nobody seemed to lock anything much.  It is the custom now often to alarm houses and lock them, though often the back door stays unlocked during the day, especially if you live in the country like we do. 

We still trust our neighbors to look out for us.  They do. Whenever we are away from home we know Josephine, who lives over the road, will keep an eye on our place and will check out even the sound of someone coming on our property.  There are some funny tales from friends about her care.  She is our 70+ year old security alarm.

We seem to be increasingly a culture of fear.  Once we told fairy tales…Hansel and Gretel,  Jack and the Bean Stalk. They all have a motif of fear. If you are not good, not careful, something will get you. If you are ingenious enough you will get free.

Just before we got obsessed on TV with who has talent, there came police dramas, Vampire movies, where even the innocent should be afraid.  Yet wait long enough, good and just things happen.

Perhaps this strengthens us when real fear comes.  We know where to turn…Police, fire, ambulance.  Perhaps it also makes us numb to the cost of fear. We grow less sensitive to the stranger as a possible source of good. Perhaps it stunts our compassion, our actions of kind regard.

If you think about it fear is often used to control us…fear of punishment, of embarrassment, of loss of place in society.  Fear underlies peer pressure, the notion we will not fit in or be cared for.

The upside of this fear is it is more like regard.   Show regard for better choices and you will be fine, unpunished, valued.

When Scripture speaks of “Fear of the Lord” it is this sort of fear.

It is better translated as reverent regard for the Lord.  It holds out an understanding that we live inside a relationship of expectation. God expects something of us and we, of God; behaviors that display who is superior and who is dependent.  Right relationship yields what we might expect.

In the Isaiah reading we see God in a judgment stance. The people’s worship is viewed as empty and thus rejected.  This is worship without the attendant actions…justice and care for the weak.

“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 the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”   Isaiah 1:16-17

If this was a political sermon I would be raising issues about the choices our government is making to lower human services.  But I do not know you that well and will not go there.

There is an invitation to argue this out with God.  It is an invitation into relationship.  The promise is that the people will see their sin and find forgiveness (Sins are crimson but will be cleaned to the white of wool) and growth are the reward.

In the Gospel two weeks ago, Jesus spoke of God, who cares for daily needs.

In last week's Gospel we learned how greed offends God in the story of brothers fighting over possessions; in the farmer who had an over abundance and so built bigger barns. Thus his occupation with greed obliterated God from his life.

Jesus warns if this is your life, woe to you when the end comes if you have neglected a charitable outlook and actions.  He ends on a note of fear which is correct if one forgets daily regard, God’s charity, kindness reflected in one's actions, and thus falls prey to God’s justice.

Then in today’s Gospel Jesus speaks to his closest followers thus:

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. (Abandon greed, avoid over attachment to possessions, care for the poor and those in need).  Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Luke 12:32-34 

In this world where we alarm our houses and alarm our hearts, Jesus says be careful you may lose something of greater value, your relationship to each other, to God, to eternity.

This is no empty or easy teaching for Jesus.  It is already clear that the religious authorities are set on edge by Jesus’ teaching.  They will arrange his arrest and take his life. They will take it because the reign of God is costly and He is proclaiming its demands and its power to save our deepest persons…our souls, that part where we long to align with God’s will.

Jesus' followers will be equally disturbing to those in authority.  Choices will have to be made and these will set some at dis-ease.

They might expect others are out to get them. The early followers will choose to sell possessions to aid each other.  That will be the cost of discipleship, following Jesus.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  That treasure is relationship.

This then is followed by two teachings on preparedness for God’s coming and God’s will.  Light the lamps of charitable care, be vigilant and action-ready for the call of God as if you are waiting for a master’s return.  Jesus states that God always comes at God’s schedule.  No one expects the coming, but one cannot be ready and active unless you live ready and active.

Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus teaches that those who enter God’s reign are not the ones who could see no one in need to whom they should respond.  Rather it is those who actively clothe the naked, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and/or visit the bereaved or the lonely. In other words those who look out for the powerless, the broken, those in any need.  Actions of mercy are essential to God’s people and reign.  Remove the alarms from our hearts, he teaches, and then act.

There are things we fear in life.  Our health can vanish away. Sometimes we fear that our homes will be made unsafe.  We seem always to fear the unknown terrorist these days.

There are criminal elements…and also police and firemen and medical teams.  You can stay stuck in this fear if you want. 

Or you can live by its antidote: Regard God, care for your neighbor,    look for those who hurt or have less than you, care for them.  

That care is like a lamp and it will lead you to the heart of God.

There alone you are always safe.

Eleventh Saturday after Pentecost, Proper 13: By These We Lead

Lessons: Psalm 87, 90; 2 Samuel 12:15-31; Acts 20:1-16; Mark 9:30-41

Leaders sin and fall short like the rest of us.  Sometimes it is their undoing.  Sometimes it is part of their making.  By the time we get to this chapter of 2 Samuel, it is clear David sins and not in a small way.  His sin is personal, adultery, and public, misusing the army to bring about his own desired end, again adultery and planned murder.  Yet as a monarch he gets away with it.  Well on the public level he does.  On the private and spiritual level he pays a price indirectly.  The child born of his adultery falls ill and none of David’s fasting and abasement before God will this time change the prophesied outcome.  The child dies.  Oddly to his servants he then rises from dramatic prostrations before God, washes, changes wardrobe, worships before a just God, eats, takes time to console his wife in intimacy and goes to the next leadership task. He models that even a leader, one who has boldly sinned, must face the cost of the sin and go on to his/her duty.  There is a war at hand and a people who are to be lead and governed.  It is not insignificant that there is the pause to worship and thus seek his place before God as a supplicant as opposed to angry self righteousness. 

I cannot help but think of Bill Clinton and his domestic and staff sin with Monica. I cannot help but think of Anthony Weiner. Both were caught in their sin.  I do see a difference.  One is more repentant as I see it.  One has not yet learned the tragic path of his choice.  That is a critical difference if one is to lead.

In the Gospel we also have a lesson on leadership.  It is an odd juxtaposition that Jesus has just described the cost of his vocation and his leadership.  As a leader he shares his vision of what is to come, the betrayal, the death, the wait, the resurrection. There is no sign the disciples make sense of this and neither would we.

While this description is going on the disciples are diverted by their own concerns or reaction.  They are discussing who among them is greatest.  We do not have the content of that discussion only Jesus' next leadership task.  It is not frustration or anger expressed but a noticing that a deeper lesson is now needed.

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”  Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”  Mark 9:35-37

This vulnerable member of society is placed before them, a child.  Subject to adult authority, childhood diseases which can kill and where Jesus has frequently offered healing, this is the sign of a leader, to notice and care.  Notice the Child is not his own but belongs to another.  Notice the welcome is in Jesus' name, not their own.  The welcome becomes a welcome of God in their midst.  Jesus will go on to say as small a thing as going to your well and offering a cup of water in light of Jesus' coming and character will produce a gracious reward in the reign of God.

We all lead somewhere, in the playground of our youth, the gatherings we call family, the offices where we have some authority however small, in the arena of our neighborliness, somewhere we all have authority however great or small. The question is where do we lift another who has less or show concern for one who has more. Where do we see what is vulnerable and go to the well of our heart/mind and find a Christ-like action and bring it about…even just a wee act of awareness and kindness.  By these we lead.

Eleventh Friday after Pentecost, Proper 13, You are the Man.

The Penitence of David, with David and Nathan, from a psalter, 10th century

Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France

   The Penitence of David, with David and Nathan,

from a psalter, 10th century

Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France

Lessons: Psalm 88; 2 Samuel 12:1-14; Acts 19:21-41; Mark 9:14-29

Years ago my daughter, then four or five, was asleep.  I took the moment literally to go across the street from the Rectory to the drug store for a quick purchase only to come home and find her crying by the door.  “You left me all alone.” She cried on and on.  I felt so neglectful and guilty and a little defensive. I had only crossed the street for five minutes but to her I had abandoned her and she felt it greatly.  

Today’s readings invite us to think about order and power.  David is confronted by the prophet Nathan about his use of power.  It is so delicate an approach to tell a story of a man with much who takes the little of a poor man to entertain his guests.  It is only a sheep but it is the only one the poor man owns.  Why would a person take the little of another when already he has so much, sheep to spare, wealth to lavish?

David rises in fury and says; "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity."

Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” 2 Samuel 12:5-7

Never has the pronouncement, “You are the man,” been so piercing and so true.  Yet so often we need to hear these words as we reflect on our role and place.  The day my daughter announced, “You left me all alone.” I needed to hear it.  I had not prepared her to cope with aloneness or know how to feel safe.  To this day this tale is told and has meaning for her and me and her mom.

When we hold power, and we all do, we hold responsibility for those who live in relationship to that power.  This is a simple truth of adult life and those who grow toward this phase of life. 

One of the most impressive aspects recently of attending an Eagle Scout pinning was to listen as young men 14-19 were given their awards.  We heard not only about the project they planned and executed, we saw how they had been mentored, and learned how they had taken initiative, guided others, and come into responsibility and action as young leaders.  They each took their power as a Scout with opportunity, skill, hope, vision and learned to plan, coordinate others' abilities, and work to a good end.  They embodied what it is to lead for the good of the larger community.

We see the same in Acts.  A riot takes place over the possible loss of income from casting silver idols, mini-temples and the goddess Diana.  The budding Christian faith is seen as the enemy and perhaps it was the enemy of an idol-worship driven economy. Finally the town clerk, a man with power to be heard over the crazed crowd now quieting, reminds them there is an order by which we deal with perceived threats. It is in the courts and the government assembly.  Otherwise the very ones lodging the complaint may be arrested on charge of riot. 

Speaking to power is important and is best done in orderly patterns. Sometimes it will be done by showing one in power that they have misused that power.  It can be a parent who forgot to ready his or her child to know safety. It can be a king, a president, a national or state assembly that has abused its station or neglected the greater good.  There is a season to try or legislate what is best for all or a particular subgroup in relation to all.  There are times when we orderly create the future. There is also a season to take on a prophetic voice and speak truth either very directly or by story so those who hold or take power see the full ramifications of their action/s.

In North Carolina just now there has grown up a movement called “Moral Mondays.”  It has taken shape to bring to the legislature a different perspective about the cost of cutting taxes and underfunding education and welfare of the whole but in particular the poorer elements of society.  Since there is a perceived deaf ear in the legislature, these protests are orderly, outdoors and now moving beyond the capital to the regions of the state.  How well they well achieve a hearing is not yet clear.  Is the legislature a “David”, is the Congress?  Always.  Sometimes they earn a corrective.

Is the crowd gathered like the riot in Acts?  Not yet, but there is an energy afoot seeking to be orderly.  It could erupt but has not done so yet.

Sometimes power needs the quieter voices to see its self and how we perceive its function.  “You are the Man,” is not always a compliment of a job well done.  It can be an accusation of failure at the depth of responsibility we have assumed.

Eleventh Thursday after Pentecost, Proper 13, Experimenting with Truth

For the Transfiguration see Tuesday’s blog

Lessons: Psalm 83; 2 Samuel 11:1-27; Acts 19:11-20; Mark 9:2-13

Bathsheba with David's messenger,
as the king watches from his roof, 1562 Jan Massys

We all know that we can get away with a little non-truth, an occasional lie, or silence or lack of confession of truth.  In fact sometimes it seems the only or best option.  Perhaps it is related to our desperation.

I remember vividly a moment in childhood when I went on a truth jag.  All kids lie sometimes and I was no exception.  Something had penetrated my awareness and I had decided it was best to tell the truth always. I was perhaps eight or nine.  It might have been Sunday School but this part is lost.  Then there was the day with shaving cream.  I had entered my parents' bathroom, found an aerosol can of shave cream and one press and the can seem to explode in my hand. I cleaned as best I could but I must have not done so well.  When Dad came home from work and found the tell-tale signs he was not happy.  "Who has been in our bathroom?” Did he roar?  Whatever, I was not going to admit it was me and neither were my two innocent brothers.  Somehow it was decided it had to be my elder brother because he got punished.  Now I was never going to tell because I would get double the punishment.  But the question remains, was it the lie that made Dad so angry?  Would I have gotten just a lecture if I had confessed to begin with?  It was well over a decade before I told the truth.

In 2 Samuel, David gets himself in a bind created by lust and lie and power.  Any adult who has lived long enough knows these temptations. With soldiers off to war Bathsheba might have been lonely, David is idle enough for lust run amuck and holds both power of force and of position and we know not which took control.  An afternoon of lust, a child conceived, a plot to cover it over by returning her husband Uriah home for battle to satisfy his natural desires, happen in course. If this works all is covered over for now.  But Uriah honors the custom that men at war save their sexual energy for the battles ahead.  He alone remains honorable and set to his task.  His honor despoils David’s plan to save his pride, his privilege, sense of entitlement. 

This all results in David’s next plan to set Uriah to the front of battle where he is sure to die.  Die he does.  Mourning is entered into and marriage follows. 

Yet this marriage from its inception is all based on deception and lie.  It is based on a King covering his tracks too late; avoiding a duel of honor or self knowing that is humbled by sin admitted.  It is based on a woman either not desiring the honorable thing or disempowered to reach for it.  Once the initial deed is done, she by law should be stoned to death, and we know Jesus would later condemn this law and practice.  

This is of course more than shaving cream.  Yet perhaps the road to here begins as simply as my own lie gone unnoticed and undervalued.  Knowing my brother had been punished in my place worked on me for a long time.  Not enough perhaps but I never forgot that I had caused this even if I undervalued it.

There are moments in life when we just need to own up to our mistakes, our self centered calculations, be they lust or greed or self preservation at another’s cost.  We have to own up to them inside ourselves first.  We choose how we sit with them yet we do well to know they fall under God’s all seeing nature and our own.  We then choose how we accept our actions and decisions.  Sometimes this is a confession to those injured.  We must be careful we do not do this just to feel we are now honest and open without regard to the damage we do.  Sometimes we must hold them alone because of the potential next layer of damage we may cause a loved one.  In this case we still know we have acted wrongly and this may be its own cost.  Sitting with this may be our teacher.  The danger is when we will not sit with it to learn wisdom.

Speaking for me, I have learned a host of lessons by self honesty, by sitting with my decisions.  Sometimes I have been left honorable, sometimes not so much so.  Understanding I am always visible to God and often others has brought me to self examination.  This has brought me to confession to at least God and self and sometimes to one I have injured.  This can invite us to wisdom and future responsible action.

If David had stopped at the first lust, none of this story would exist.  If he had stopped at fathering a child, there might have been a stoning.  If he had accepted his human failure, he might not have orchestrated a death equal to murder.

However much I thought I was just preserving myself from a more powerful father, I wish I had told the truth and spared my brother.  But I did not and I carried the guilt and that made me more careful of the truth in the years ahead.

Eleventh Wednesday after Pentecost, Proper 13, Headlocks or the Kingdom of God

Lessons: Psalm 119:97-120; 2 Samuel 9:1-13; Acts 19:1-10; Mark 8:34-9:1

“He said to them, 'Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.'” Mark 9:1

I have always viewed this as factual, like there was to be this historical moment when the Kingdom arrived. But what if it was figurative?  What if the promise of this Kingdom of God was interior?  Now that has possibility.  What if what Jesus was onto was another switch in our power center like when he begins today?

“He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’”  Mark 8:34-35

Let’s face it; we love power even when we are trying not to.  We learn it early.  Getting into a parent’s good graces can be power.  Getting your brother in a head lock when you are not allowed to punch him, well that is power too.  An allowance is economic power, even when we are told it is to teach us to make choices and be responsible. I know that one because I was so long without one and had to be creative in acquiring money, which largely came by rearranging my father’s penny pile and removing a few.  He only seemed to notice if I got greedy or if one of my brothers and I were up to this at the same time unaware of the other.  That would bring on another confrontation with power.

We mature into fuller ways of acquiring and using power or influence be it relational, physical, economic, intellectual and the list can go on.  I remember once admiring how educated the children of my African immigrant friends all became.  I was told that the key lesson they taught their children was that everything can be taken from you but not your mind. One might debate that point, but it does help focus the young. 

The issue however is not our love of power or our need of power but how we use it.  This is what Jesus is onto.  Use your power in a way that is not self obsessed but God oriented and sacrificial and you will find that rather than ending up last you will become and what you will become is like me.

The point is illustrated in the reading from 2 Samuel.  David has secured his kingdom.  He has desired to build a temple for God but that was one day granted and the next day denied, so he and his kingdom might meditate on the core truth that God travels with God’s people and is not domesticated in some house. Today he wonders if there is anyone left of Saul’s line.  It is important to remember that common wisdom and practice was to kill all who might have claim on the throne.  But David is asking the question from a different angle.

"Is there anyone remaining of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?" 2 Samuel 9:3

He discovers hidden away is the son of Jonathan who was Saul’s son and David’s most faithful friend.  Long and short is he not only finds and befriends him and lets him live.  He restores him to property and thus great freedom and shows great care.  Perhaps this was a moment of David tithing his power to compassion.  Perhaps it was a way to reflect back to his kingdom the kindness of a settled life.  Perhaps it was a moment of being Godlike not for power's sake but more deeply.  Here he basically forgives the past, Saul’s linage as David forever intents to share table with Mephibosheth son of Jonathan. David has this Godlike or God reflective moment he embraces.  David will soon show a less redeemed side but in this moment he is at his best.

And that is how it is with most of us.  I no longer put my brother in a headlock either physically (he could easily best me today) or emotionally.  We delight in each other.  I no longer steal pennies or more.  I have learned the joy of sharing, living in my economy and wondering if something is asked of me how this promotes God’s work in the world.  While I enjoy my mother’s good graces, I now aid her from mine, but more I see that is how I am to be with all who come my way and have some success getting past myself.  When I fail, I hope to see it, name it and do better the next time round. 

That I believe is what Jesus asks of us when he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  When we fail, we hope to see it, name it and do better the next time round.  Forgo making the excuse and learn to live more deeply.  Make a regular effort to review our lives and we will grow toward Christ’s reign.

Who knows, perhaps before we taste death we will know the power of the Kingdom of God come close to fully within our living.

By the way Rod, sorry for all the headlocks.

The Feast of the Transfiguration, Eleventh Tuesday after Pentecost, Proper 13

Lessons: Psalm 2, 24; Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-4; John 12:27-36  

Today is the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus, a key event in the life of Jesus and central in the Synoptic Gospels. In each of these Gospels it is a pivotal transition point for it reveals who Jesus is in his depth and theologically, the Son of God. The story is one of ascending the mountain; entering prayer; Jesus turns to dazzling light; Elijah and Moses appear in conversation; the desire to house, keep the moment, overcomes Peter; the voice is heard, "This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him." The moment ends. This occurs as the midpoint of Jesus' public career in each Gospel.

David Flowers has noted the following moments caught in each of these Gospel accounts.

It is of… importance to notice that each of the Synoptic Gospels places the transfiguration within the same sequence of events:

(1) Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah; (2) Jesus commands the disciples not to tell anyone; (3) Jesus predicts his coming suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead; (4) Jesus calls his disciples to follow him sacrificially; (5) the transfiguration; (6) Jesus commands the disciples to keep quiet until after his resurrection; (7) a discussion on the coming of Elijah (except in Luke); (8) the miraculous healing of a demonized boy; and (9) a second prediction of the passion of Christ.

Those who simply seek the historical Jesus too often play light with this moment because it is puzzling to rational historical telling and yet it is deep in its theological content. 

Yet any one of us who lives a deep and meaningful life knows there are moments of our transition, our becoming, our inner knowing that are other than rational.  There are moments when we see past our factual self to our meaningful self. We are all the poorer if we cannot grasp and honor them.

We get married perhaps, exchange vows, honor them, are tempted elsewhere, figure our ring; remember we are deeper than our drives.  Or perhaps we forget this depth, act to our betrayal, see what we have done, who we have hurt, struggle to be reconciled or not.  Somewhere in there we taste our depth and wonder at our worth if we are at all people of depth.  Even if we have traveled life unmarried, we are often deeply befriended and there are moments we see into ourselves and wonder at our value.  So often these are moment when we achieve some hallmark and are invited into our meaning, a degree attained, a child born, a death perhaps, a crisis that causes pause in our routine self.

In the Gospel of John, the last of the Gospels, there is no recorded Transfiguration per se and yet there is the energy of Transfiguration throughout. This final Gospel speaks from the theological meaning of Transfiguration and assumes it a fundamental. God is continually revealing God’s will in Jesus' speech, actions, being. It is the theological motif of this Gospel from its beginning, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” (1:14).

Thus in the Gospel for Evening Prayer we hear Jesus pray from this place of deep knowing.  It occurs as the mysterious final days in Jerusalem open which happens to be the midpoint of John’s Gospel.

"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—'Father, save me from this hour?' No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."  John 12:27-29

This day celebrates a reality that is fundamental to the Christian faith and beyond the bare bones of a search for the historical Jesus.  The inner or eternal Jesus is what we worship, what seeps into us, beckons us through sacred Word and sacrament, desires to inhabit our actions and infuse our heart/minds.  This Jesus intends to cooperate with the eternal ordering of creation such that we see the way to be God’s light and life in all our doings offered, forgiven where that is needed, transformed by significance.  Thus when I make a vow, act in the world of care and daily commerce, pray and go still, there is offered me meaning and depth.

He means nothing less than to work for our slow progressive change into his likeness.

This is no minor feast.

Eleventh Monday after Pentecost, Proper 13, Consequence

Lessons: Psalm 80; 2 Samuel 7:1-17; Acts 18:1-11; Mark 8:11-21

Many of us born before 1982 may well remember a show called Truth or Consequence.  It began on radio in 1940 and finished on TV in 1988.  The premise was simple.  An off-the-wall question that no one would be able to answer correctly or a bad joke before "Beulah the Buzzer" sounded in about two seconds.  If the contestant could not complete the "Truth" portion, there would be "Consequences," usually a zany and embarrassing stunt. From the start, most contestants preferred to answer the question wrong in order to perform the stunt.  The stunt often involved some heartrending moment like a reunion with a long-missed loved one.  You might say that the grace of being willing to make a gentle fool of yourself for others' lightness was a personally rewarding moment.  The show would often end with the line, "Hoping all your consequences are happy ones."

I am reminded they are not.  As we grow we test our lives and sometimes we get burned because we miss a better decision which becomes the ground for better decisions to follow if we are alert.

Today’s Gospel follows several healings and the feeding of the four thousand.  You would think that was an ample sign that God is up to something rather amazing in Jesus.  Yet the reading begins;

“The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, 'Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.' And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.”  Mark 8:11-13

The disciples are warned to be wary of the “leaven of the Pharisees.”  They miss the image and wonder who forgot the loaf of bread.  Jesus slaps his figurative brow and wonders how they could miss the wonder and meaning of the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand.  It reminds me that there are consequences of being amazed and refusing to notice.  Jesus' response to the Pharisees is essentially that if you will not see the signs of God already present do not expect more of them. This testing doubt as a base line is the “leaven” to be avoided.

The core leaven of the faithful life is that God is, that God is generous to any who will notice and that generosity is creative compassion, relationship.  If we trust that, we will see wonderful things in self and each other and we will be drawn to create more of them.  We will forgive the foolish things and stay focused on the better part of each other.  The consequence is a deeper contentment in life and usefulness.

We can of course choose to avoid this leaven.  There are consequences here as well.  Contentment may elude us.  Generosity may not grow. We may disconnect from a sense of deeper purpose or only find it much later in life.  This can ripple deep in us.

I think it is time to go out and garden and notice today’s share of miracle. I look forward to the consequence.