Signs Along the Way Sermon by W. Dreyman Holy Trinity Church, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ July 27, 2014 Time after Pentecost Lectionary 17

Transcription

1 1 Signs Along the Way Sermon by W. Dreyman Holy Trinity Church, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ July 27, 2014 Time after Pentecost Lectionary 17 The Kingdom of heaven is like... Oh, how we want to know what the Kingdom of heaven is like as we participate in this journey we call life. What the Kingdom of heaven is like are signs along the way for this trip. Jesus teachings on the Kingdom of heaven are largely found in parables, that is, in brief stories that are hints about the nature of the Kingdom. It is like a mustard seed, so small you can barely see it on the ground. Yet, it grows into a hearty annual bush that supports bird life in its branches. It is like yeast that a woman places a small amount in flour, adds a little water, kneads, and behold: the entire loaf is leavened. Did you ever see that episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy is baking bread and in the chaos of what becomes of the kitchen she places 13 packets of yeast in the loaf (not the three called for in the recipe) and the oven shakes and quakes and out bursts an 18 foot loaf of bread! The Kingdom, or as one commentator describes it, the Empire of heaven, is all around us, but we do not see it. Yet, it surprises us when it appears. The Empire of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field that a man joyfully sells all he has to buy the field. Or it is like a

2 2 merchant who sells everything he has for that single priceless pearl. The Empire of heaven is of such value that we are invited to give all that we have for this treasure, this priceless pearl in our midst. Discovering a treasure in a field involves not only the joy of taking it in. It includes a responsibility to bring it forth. Ann and I spent a week earlier this month with my sister in Portland, Maine. We were blessed with good weather for most of our visit. A couple of the days were unusually warm. One afternoon we attended the matinee performance of a musical about the life of John Chamberlain, a Maine legend of the Civil War era. We took in another performance of fiddling in the French Canadian style that was held at the Public Library in downtown Portland. We had a memorable lunch at a picnic table overlooking the Atlantic Ocean from a shady area of a park in Cape Elizabeth. This is the best table in the park, the group packing up their belongings told us. Enjoy your time here! A few minutes after they headed for their cars, I noticed a bag by the rocks. It was a couple bottles of wine on ice, a treasure in a field! We could still see the people in a distant parking lot, so Ann threw the bag over her shoulder and headed for their cars. They were still talking to each other when she arrived. Is this your bag? Yes, that is our bag, it

3 3 has wine we didn t drink because of park rules. Thank you very much for bringing it back to us! Ann talked with them a while and then returned. They waved to us as they pulled out. We had found a treasure, but it wasn t ours. Maybe the real treasure was the brief contact with friendly strangers. On Wednesday evening, we did something unexpected. We attended a City Council meeting in South Portland, my sister s hometown. She had been encouraged to come by area residents and to consider speaking. The topic: The Alberta, Canada oil companies want to pipe crude oil onto ships for transport to other countries through South Portland. There were five hundred people at the meeting, half of them wearing light blue shirts that said, Clear Skies. The other members of the crowd were from a pipeline company in South Portland. Their red shirts said More Jobs. The blue shirts were largely older residents from town, a few doctors, and an assortment of people of all ages. The red shirts were burly workingmen and their families, again, mostly employees of the pipeline company. They were arguing about a treasure in a field in Alberta: The Tar Oil Sands. The blue shirts talked about the danger to air quality and water resources if the export of crude was permitted. The red shirts talked about the longstanding support of the community for industry and the effect on jobs

4 4 that was being considered. The blue shirts talked about the heavy crude crossing a watershed that provides drinking water for 20% of the State s population. The red shirts talked about their record of safety and that the concerns were being over exaggerated. All of this caused me to think back to my childhood and remember my father who did business with oil companies. I know what he might have said about this issue. It is a case of NIMBYs Not in my back yard, he might have said. Then I listened to the blue shirts who realized that this was not a relevant argument as far as the City Council was concerned, but who nevertheless argued against the use of tar sands oil because it is so dirty. Burning oil sands crude will effect global warming in a major way. They seemed to be taking the position of NIABY Not in anyone s backyard. Then a woman came to the microphone dressed in a tee shirt that she had made by sewing a red shirt and a blue shirt together in a creative way. Clear Skies it said, More Jobs it declared. She spoke of the need for the community to recognize that both sides had valid concerns. Which side would you choose? How would you come to terms with the Canadian interests, the local workers, and the danger to air and water quality? For me it was vacation. I was happy just to listen. Yet discovering a treasure in a field not

5 5 only involves the joy of taking it in. It includes a responsibility to bring it forth. We finished our vacation with my sister by meeting up with three cousins and their families on a lovely New Hampshire lake. Two of those cousins own four speedboats. We road on two of them on a beautiful, sun filled day, not thinking of where the gas came from that powered us over the waves. It was vacation. The smallness and growth of the Empire of heaven and its preciousness in our lives cannot be separated from the way we respond to that gift and live. God loves us! We are called to love each other! Not just here in church, but we are called to love the stranger. As we see in South Portland, it is not a simple affair. How do you tell a worker and his family that concerns for environmental safety must take priority? How do you tell an elder that those jobs are worth the risk to air and water or to global temperature rise? There are no easy answers. So, we pray and do our best to stay in dialogue, to stay connected as a community, remembering that discovering a treasure in a field involves not only the joy of taking it in. But it includes a responsibility to bring it forth. Amen. References: Sundays and Seasons 2014 and