Matthew 13 | At Water’s Edge

Abundance

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Betsy

One of the interesting things about life is negotiating the personalities of individual members in a group. In families, offices, institutions, and churches, people fall into different and sometimes opposing categories when it comes to taking a risk. Some are optimists, some are pessimists, some are risk-takers, others have a serious aversion to taking chances, some are followers, and some are leaders. If you ever want to see this in action, attend your church’s Finance Committee meeting. As the saying goes, “it takes all kinds.”

To put it another way, some are Tiggers and some are Eeyores. Tiggers see abundance. Eeyores see scarcity. One’s ability to take risks is firmly grounded in which one you are.

I fall into the risk-taking, glass always full, Pollyanna-lives-in-my-soul category, so I am always grateful to be balanced by the risk-averse folks who keep us in line and counsel caution. But sometimes God’s plan involves taking great leaps of faith.

I love the interplay between Jesus the risk-taker and the disciples, who are seriously risk-averse in this well-known story about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

Matthew 13 (Contemporary English Version)

¹³After Jesus heard about John, he crossed Lake Galilee to go to some place where he could be alone. But the crowds found out and followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd. He felt sorry for them and healed everyone who was sick.

Jesus saw the sick and felt sorry for them. What a beautiful statement of who Jesus is. He had tried to get away from the hustle and bustle of Messiah-life, and was probably feeling very burned out. I can relate, and I bet you can, too. If we all had a chance right now to get away to a place by the lake to just rest, I bet we would cherish that. But Jesus, ever mindful of people’s needs, tended to the large crowd.

¹⁵That evening the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This place is like a desert, and it is already late. Let the crowds leave, so they can go to the villages and buy some food.”

¹⁶Jesus replied, “They don’t have to leave. Why don’t you give them something to eat?”

Here is the risk-taker at work. He tells the disciples that the people don’t have to leave because the disciples can give them something to eat. The Eeyores in the group looked at each other and likely thought the same thing: “W-W-With what??”

Jesus was teaching them to appreciate what they had and realize that everything we have is subject to multiplication. The trick is to offer it to the One who will multiply it for our good.

¹⁷But they said, “We have only five small loaves of bread and two fish.” ¹⁸Jesus asked his disciples to bring the food to him, ¹⁹and he told the crowd to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and handed it to his disciples, and they gave it to the people.

In the Savior’s hands, the meager resources are offered to heaven and blessed. They provided so much food that there is an abundance of twelve large baskets of leftovers. God is never a God of scarcity, but always a God of abundance.

²⁰After everyone had eaten all they wanted, Jesus’ disciples picked up twelve large baskets of leftovers.

²¹There were about five thousand men who ate, not counting the women and children.

The question for us today is, where are YOU offering your resources? Don’t be fooled. Just as the Lord can multiply what you offer him, so too can the Enemy. If all you offer is hate, violence, anger, selfishness, and vitriol, you can be sure the Enemy will take that and multiply it in a hurry.

But when you offer love, compassion, prayer, generosity, and peace, heaven will bless and multiply that in great abundance.

The choice is yours. What’s in your basket?

God’s Daily Abundance by Michelle Robertson

The Smallest Seed

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Betsy

We are supposed to be having Vacation Bible School right now at my church, but of course the pandemic has changed that. It is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I have always had the role of storyteller at VBS, and the creative fun that ensues with sweaty, wiggly kids is one of the best parts of being a pastor.

Today’s parable took me back to a time when I was working with two off-the-wall pastors at VBS. We shared the story time, and I suggested we create a “growing plant” to use for this parable. You make it by rolling folded sheets of newspaper into a tight roll, and then cut slits from the top of the roll about half way down through all but the outer sheet. Then you tape around the base to secure it. When you reach inside and pull out the very center sheet, it grows into a large tree-like thing. If you use enough paper, it can be over six feet tall.

So I prepared several of these to use with each group, and the three of us took turns telling parts of the story.

Well, if you’ve ever been to VBS, you know that toward the end of the week and by the end of the day, the participants get punchy. So do the pastors. So at our last session, as I was pulling the paper out and making the tree grow, the narrating pastor decided to change the story and described how the mustard tree attacked the farmer. On cue, the other pastor grabbed the tree and pretended it was attacking him. His academy award-winning performance included the tree pushing him down as he wrestled with it, causing him to roll off the steps of the chancel and down the center aisle.

Well, that’s one way to tell the story! The kids LOST it. I still laugh at the memory of it!

³¹He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³²Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

The applications here are endless.

With a tiny grain of hope, life is renewed.

With the smallest seed of faith, peace is restored.

With just a little perseverance, a door is unlocked and you are set free.

With one man’s actions on a cross two thousand years ago, an entire world was saved.

With one word gently spoken, a lashing out of anger is prevented.

With one small act of kindness, a day is made.

With one selfless move, an accident is prevented.

With one smile, a stranger decides to hang on for another day.

With one quick phone call, a lonely person is comforted.

The question for us today is, where is God calling you to be that one small thing? What little effort on your part could turn things around for someone else?

You are the mustard seed. Go and plant peace, hope, and love in someone’s heart. You can make all the difference in someone’s day today.

Thick as Thistles

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Betsy

Once upon a time in jolly old England, I met a dog named Muffin. Muffin belonged to my boyfriend, and I met her when I had just arrived from the States on a trip to meet his parents. They were stationed in London with the US Navy at that time. Muffin took one look at me and said, “Nope.” I am actually very good with dogs, and so I was quite frustrated over my inability to win Muffin’s heart. I suggested we take her for a long walk along the creek. I was sure that I could convince her to adore me.

Instead, I ended up in a large patch of thistles. Long, spiny, SPIKEY, flesh-eating thistles. Thistles that penetrated my hands, arms, and legs in the spots where I had landed when Muffin….bless her little canine heart….PUSHED me down. Deliberately. With malice aforethought!

Oh, she was a clever girl! She waited for just the right time to jump on me, at the exact moment that my boyfriend made a move to put his arm around me. She played it off like an uncharacteristic display of happy excitement. I wasn’t fooled. She was jealous. Down I went, and I believe that she truly WAS uncharacteristically happy to see me….as I laid splayed on the ground, bleeding from the thorny spikes.

Jealousy had won the day for a dog named Muffin. On the other hand, I married the boyfriend. WHO’S THE WINNER NOW, MUFFY???

Matthew 13 (The Message)

^24-26He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.

²⁷“The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’

²⁸“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’

“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’

^29-30“He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”

I love the fact that the thistles are the bad guys in this story, too. As Jesus will explain, the thistles in the field represent the subjects of the Devil, who is the enemy. An enemy who sows in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep.

³⁶Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

^37-39So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

The thing about thistles is that they are deceptively pretty. They add color and texture to the sides of the creek, and their shape is like a soft Pom Pom. That is, until you get to the spikes.

The Devil and his minions are much the same. They are the pretty people, the people who are colorful and successful and don’t follow the same rules as the good seeds. They are the ones enjoying their affluence in the sun and their entitlement by the cool waters. They don’t do time, pay their taxes, obey the law, or have a moral code. They are ones who seem to be winning all the time.

Thistles, beware. Your time is coming.

^40-43“The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

This is the Word of God, for the good seeds of God. Thanks be to God.

If You Have Ears

Posted on July 9, 2020 by Betsy

Our foray into Matthew’s gospel today brings us to a familiar parable. If you spent any time in Sunday School or VBS, you may recall the well-known “Parable of the Sower.” It is a cautionary tale about seeds, soil, sowing, and harvesting. But mostly it’s about listening. If you have ears, pay attention.

I love the scene that Matthew sets in the first paragraph. He describes the cool lake in Galilee, the excited crowds eager to hear Jesus speak, and how Jesus turns a boat into a pulpit to deliver his message.

Matthew 13 (The Message)

That same day Jesus left the house and went out beside Lake Galilee, where he sat down to teach. ²Such large crowds gathered around him that he had to sit in a boat, while the people stood on the shore. ³Then he taught them many things by using stories.

Pandemic pastors can relate. We have had to turn desks, kitchen tables, office studies, empty sanctuaries, pick up trucks, and back yard picnic tables into instant pulpits. My colleague and I even turned a graveyard, a beach, and a staircase at a baseball field house into instant pulpits. When God’s message needs to be heard, any pulpit will do. If you have ears, pay attention.

He said:

A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. ⁴While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. ⁵Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn’t very deep. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have enough roots. ⁷Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked the plants. ⁸But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants produced a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as was scattered. ⁹If you have ears, pay attention!

One of the things I appreciate about this particular parable is that you don’t have to try to figure it out. Jesus is very clear and straightforward in how he wants us to interpret its meaning.

¹⁸Now listen to the meaning of the story about the farmer:

¹⁹The seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message about the kingdom, but don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches the message from their hearts. ²⁰The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it right away. ²¹But they don’t have deep roots, and they don’t last very long. As soon as life gets hard or the message gets them in trouble, they give up.

Does this describe you at any point in your life? Hearing, but not listening? Things got hard, so you gave up? I know it describes me. God calls us to listen to his Word deeply enough that it takes root in our hearts and especially our actions…which speak louder than words.

²²The seeds that fell among the thornbushes are also people who hear the message. But they start worrying about the needs of this life and are fooled by the desire to get rich. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything.

Or maybe you’re in the thornbushes. You know what God is saying to you, but your concern over your day-to-day life, your worries, or your desire for more material comfort chokes out the message.

²³The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and understand the message. They produce as much as a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was planted.

The message is simple. Be the good ground. Hear, understand, grow, and plant seeds in others.

If you have ears, pay attention!