Getting Lost in the Woods

  In today’s lesson from Mark’s gospel we see Jesus teaching the gathered people about the kindom of God. (1 & 2)  The first parable compares the kindom of God to a seed, which someone has scattered on the ground, and after several days notices that the seed has sprouted and seems to grow more every day.  The one who scatters the seed has no idea how this seed is transforming.  It would seem the earth herself is producing the stalk, then the grain, and then the full grain head.  With time, the grain becomes ripe and is harvested.  The second parable compares the kindom of God to a mustard seed,  which when scattered on the ground grows somewhere between 6-20 feet tall, and with branches stretching as wide as 20 feet. (3)  How incredible that such a tiny seed could grow into such a massive plant, as well as become a habitat for area birds. So what is Jesus getting at with all this talk of seeds?  It would seem he is trying to tell the gat...

Today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures contrasts two different responses to the voice of God. Let’s begin by looking at the story of Eli and his household, which begins a couple of chapters earlier.  Eli is the established leader in the temple, and he is anything but ideal.  Hannah, Samuel’s mother, comes into the temple to pray at the beginning of 1 Samuel, and Eli confuses her prayer for drunkenness  (1:12-18) .  An indication of his dimming senses and grossly off balance intuition. ( We likely have all experienced getting away from our self-care and relationship routines--with God or loved ones.  When we do, things easily can get off balance and we begin missing things that might seem obvious to onlookers).  Possibly of far greater concern is Eli’s complete and utter failure at managing the behavior of his sons, who serve as priests in the temple.  His sons have completely misunderstood the responsibilities of priestly ministry.  They are a...

  If there is one place we will nearly always encounter God, it is in the wilderness.  There are few, if any other, people to be found.   Nor is there much in the way of human-made structures.  Instead, we find dust, sand, and soil; various types of vegetation; even a few creeping, crawling creatures.  And if we dare to quiet our hearts and listen, we will find God.  Which lets face it, can be terrifying.  ​ If we face the voice of God, we might risk discovering something about ourselves or our world which might require us to shift, change, and grow.  We’ve seen it happen again and again throughout scripture.  Jacob’s wrestling match; Hagar and the angel; Moses and that burning bush; the Israelites wandering for forty years; and of course, John the Baptist.  The wilderness is a place of isolation and revelation.   Yet the wilderness is not always a physical place.  One preacher  recently suggested that the wilder...

​In Exodus , we witness how a shifting political landscape leads to the oppression of the Israelites.  As we listen to the story: We often empathize with the Israelites’ suffering.  We are inspired by the courage of the reluctant prophet God calls to lead them.   We are filled with hope by the liberating acts of our God, as the Israelites escape Pharaoh's wrath to become refugees wandering in the wilderness.  As we take in every moment of this story, we can easily imagine ourselves as the Israelites and root for these underdogs, joining in the cry to  “Let my people go.”   Yet I can’t help but wonder whether we are wrong to self-identify with the Israelites.  What if our forebears have mistakenly woven this biblical narrative into our own American history?  You know the stories as well as I do.  Many of the settlers that first reached these shores did so as they fled religious or ethnic persecution.   Things began to go awry wh...