weeds, wheat, and time

Mary of Magdala

There is a mine south and east of here once called the Irish Mag., from the false association of this woman of Galilee with a woman caught in adultery or a woman anointing Jesus' feet with precious oil. She was as desperate as the woman about to be stoned, she was as grateful as the woman preparing Jesus for his Burial.

What we do know about her is her dilemma and distress, her deliverance and dignity restored, her response of love and faithful follower-ship, and her witness to the one who delivered her from demons and who was himself to lead us all from death to life.

She was a witness: one of the last to see him living and the first to see him raised. She was a witness; the messenger to the apostles of the risen Lord, the first to proclaim the good news.

What we know of her helps us sort out the meaning of this strange parable of the wheat and the weeds. The farmer takes a puzzling course. He could have had the workers pull or hoe or poison the weeds once they'd sprouted and been spotted. But instead his patience and wisdom led to something that makes more sense if we realize Jesus was talking about a harvest of souls - and that the time was ripe.

Remember, he said that "the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few." (Matthew 9:37, Luke 10:2) The harvest time is now - for Mary of Magdala. A woman worn down by afflictions, she becomes one of the greatest of disciples.

Magdala is a small ancient town site along the lakeshore of Gennesaret better known in the Bible stories as the Sea of Galilee. On the west side of the lake south of the incoming stream of the Jordan are a series of places well known to pilgrim: Capernaum (where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law) then Tabgha (the multiplication of the fishes), Ginosaur, and Magdala. Inland from the ancient site is a modern Arab/Israeli village, Migdal. Recent excavations show the importance anew of these small ancient villages.

Along the lakeshore where Jesus first began his ministry, proclaiming and healing, he encountered this woman. (Luke 8:2, Mark 16:9) And something extraordinary happened. He encountered her in the midst of her affliction with unconditional love. He never confused her quandary with the person that God loved. And as a result of this personal encounter with Jesus her dignity was restored. She became an icon of hope for all who are broken in heart or spirit or body or mind.

And this freedom, and her devoted discipleship, prepared her for something even more extraordinary. For she was a witness - one of the last to see Jesus living, and then - the first to see him risen. A personal encounter with Jesus that transformed the world. For she, the first witness of the resurrection, was sent by Jesus to proclaim the good news to his apostles, the ones commissioned to take this message to all peoples.


St. Paul's, Tombstone.

July 23, 2017. Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.
Proper 11. Year A. Track 2.
Isaiah 44:6-8.
Psalm 86:11-17.
Romans 8:12-25.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.
The Parable of the Weeds of the Field (the Wheat and the Tares).

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene (July 22)
Judith 9:1,11-14
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
John 20:11-18
Psalm 42:1-7

"Mary Magdalene: Icon of Hope" by Jennifer Ristine, RC. http://www.magdala.org/2017/07/mary-magdalene-icon-hope/ accessed July 22, 2017.

the anticipation of things not seen

When our nephew was four years old, his parents announced the family was going to Disneyland during spring break. One night, in the middle of the night, about three o’clock in the morning, his mother awoke to the sound of little feet in footie pajamas padding lightly down the hall to the kitchen.

What are you doing?

I want to see the b’wochure about Dizzlieland!

He was so excited he could not wait until morning.

That is what hope does for us. It is the anticipation of things not seen, not know. For hope in what is seen is not hope – we hope for what we do not see.

And with faith growing in us we wait for it with patience.

With patience: because we trust in the Lord, we are able to wait – though we get all excited about it.

We wait for what is emerging – for that which is coming into being – which we do not yet see.

That is what “emergent” means – something that is becoming real, coming into our lives, that cannot be altogether explained by what we already know

We have to wait for it – and see. That is where trust comes in – and conquers fear.

Trust in God; do not be afraid. That is the message of the angel so many times when God’s messenger announces that something new is coming into being in the world.

And we can respond not only with trust, with hope, but without fear.

Remember the angel that appeared to Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, before John was born. Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son and he will bring to Israel the good news of the coming of the Messiah.

And remember Mary – hail to thee, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, the Angel proclaimed. Something new is coming, some One new is coming into being – and you are called to be the bearer, the God-bearer indeed, mother of the Anointed, God’s only begotten Son: Jesus.

Be with me as you say, Mary replies, in obedience and faithful response. And so a new order of the ages begins, with the Word, the Son of God, come into the world.

May it be with me as you say…

Paul in the Epistle to the Romans that we hear this morning continues the proclamation.

All who are led by the Spirit of God are his children. We did not receive a spirit of slavery – we are not automatons bound to obey a remorseless will. We have been adopted as sons and daughters, freely embraced and freely embracing God as loving parent. We are children, heirs; joint heirs with Christ.

And the whole of creation leans into this promise, groans with birth pangs, as it were, to bring forth the glory of God in this world.

Birth pangs: for the glory does not come without suffering. Jesus himself suffered as he waited in the garden anticipating death – but he trusted, and obeyed, and received the gift he now shares with us: the resurrection hope, the freedom from bondage to decay – the completion of life that is beyond death – because we know in the hope of the resurrection that Christ is alive – eternally present to the Father and we will be caught up in that glory as well.

Death does not get the final word. And even now coming into being in this world God’s kingdom comes – with our own hands, our feet, our hearts, our voices.

Working in us is the hope of glory – know that what is emerging in this world is not an emergency to panic us or make us fearful. We may not know what it will look like, what the future will hold for us – but we know that, as God reassures us through the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans for your good and not for evil, that you may have a future with hope.”

That you, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, will show in your lives the hope that you have.

That all may be well, that trusting in God, who is faithful and steadfast to love us, we shall see faith fulfilled in love, and hope completed in glory, and we in our lives will show that we are free to worship him without fear, witnessing with our words and our deeds to the glory of the presence of the Lord.

Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; knit my heart to you that I may hold your name in awe and wonder. I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart and glorify your name forever more.

Amen.

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Isaiah 44:6-8
Psalm 86:11-17

Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

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Stairway

“Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” (Psalm 139:1, BCP)

God knows all that can be known; He is present in all places; no one can escape His reach.

God knows the whole of your life and activity.

God is in control and will be your guide, your shield, and your savior; he will help you, wherever you go.

You cannot escape from God – he is bound to find you everywhere you go.

He is present even in the womb.

His thoughts are unfathomable.

God is all knowing.

And he is just.

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“Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28:15, NRSV)

God is everywhere and you cannot escape from it. You need not; he is wise and glorious. His love for you, and his care for you, is unshakeable. He will never leave you. He will always guide you, protect you, be by your side – whether you feel his presence or not, God is always there. Indeed, he has promised, from ages old in time and history, to be the fulfiller of the promise: through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob all the families of the earth shall be blessed and in them shall find their blessing.

That hope of the world, that promise, comes to us from God in Jesus Christ. He is the one, as Paul exhorts us to grasp, who brings reconciliation, renewal, renewal, the one who brings us a vision of hope, of freedom, and glory in God. In Christ is the hope of the resurrection.

All things were made through him and in him all things will reach their completion.

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"Jacob left Beer-sheba, and set out for Haran. He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it." (Genesis 28:10-13, JPS)


The vision of Jacob – the stairway to heaven – is a vision of connectedness.

God and Man at Bethel – the place of God’s choosing, not Jacob’s. It is holy because God is there. Because God is there, Jacob honors it and consecrates it.

For perhaps the first time in his life, Jacob feels a sense of awe, of the presence of the holy.

What are our lives for? For our own purposes? No – for the purposes of God. We are God’s creatures, through and through he knows us; he fashions us, and carries us – covers us – through life and at the end he welcomes us home into eternity. We are called only to grow in relationship with God, to live responsibly, … responsively, in answering God’s call to a devout and holy life.

“I don't know Who — or what — put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone — or Something — and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”— Dag Hammarskjöld (29 July 1905 - 18 September 1961), Markings (1964).


At some point in life, as Dag Hammarsjkold saw, we have a chance to say YES to God, to life, to God’s call to life in abundance. To something beyond ourselves.

This call – to life, to respond to God in his love with our own faithful obedience and trust – is at the heart of what Paul is saying, and what Jacob lived.

Here was a man, who tricked his brother, outwitted his father-in-law Laban (stay tuned, for further episodes in this summer’s saga), and – well, who would have thought he would be a patriarch, one in whom all nations would be blessed? And yet here he is: encountering God at the House of God.

His response first is AWE – praise, worship – and as we will see, in further episodes of our story (and his), that he goes forward from this point in faith.

His trust in God is complete, by the end: he has followed the path of God’s law, covenant, promise, and come to fulfillment of his own role in God’s plan.

We do not know what our own roles will be or are, entirely; what we know is that we should act faithfully, responding in awe to God’s presence, responding in confident faith to God’s guidance, responding in obedient surrender to his Lordship, responding in thankfulness to his endless Grace.

“For all that has been — Thanks. For all that shall be — Yes.”—Markings.

In the name of God, the merciful Father, the compassionate Son, the spirit of Wisdom. Amen.


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