Most every Sunday, as I prepare to preach, we recite the 14 verse of the 19th Psalm;

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.

But this morning, these words have a very particular meaning for me.  I love to preach; in fact, it is what I enjoy most about being a minister and being your pastor.  The privilege I have to stand here before you is one that I take seriously and most of the time, spend a great deal of time in preparation.  This week was one of the more difficult times to be able to stand here, but stand here I must.

I have preached after such horrific events as the Newtown Shooting and the Shootings at Virginia Tech.  Like it or not, preachers are called upon to try and make sense of the events that happen in the world.  We, as caring Christians, cannot shut ourselves off from the rest of the world, we have to engage the world, our world, and try and make a difference in that world.

I had no idea, when I chose this passage and title of this sermon, over a month ago, that we would be, once again, embroiled in troubled times.  My original plan was to talk about this passage, one of my favorites by the way, as a way to begin to frame the discussions we need to have faith in times of change and uncertainty mostly surrounding the pastoral transition that we are now in.  Then events began to unfold, and I decided to switch positions a little and discuss possible nuclear war, the Charlottesville happened, and all bets were off.

Let me state right here right now in as precise a term as I can, I condemn any acts of violence, any acts of racism.  I condemn Nazis and those marching through the streets of an American city shouting Nazi slogans and giving the one handed Nazi salute.  I condemn those shouting “the Jews will not replace us” and all of the other white supremacist language that was used yesterday on the street of an American city.  The images of young, white, American males walking through the streets of an American city, carrying torches and giving the Nazi salute made my blood run cold.  I want to make the point very clear, all of these things not only fly in the face of what it means to be an American, but it is also counter to what it means to be a Christian. I do not care what political party you belong to or what candidate you vote for; I hope we can all agree that Nazis and white supremacists have no place in the United States of America! I am publically calling on our President and all of our leaders, church and civic, to denounce these terrorists, Nazis, and White Supremacists.  In the words of the Governor of Virginia, there is no place for you in the United States of America!

Today, those young men, and possibly some women, will be sitting in churches praising the same God we worship, after they unleashed vileness and hate on the streets of an American city.  They will continue to use Scripture, as some pastors have done this week to support the annihilation of a race of people, to justify their hate and their violence.  It is time that they are called what they truly are, terrorists.  I am truly sorry if this language offends you but, it has to be called what it is and given a name and that name is hate, and that name is terrorist.

Friday night a group of interfaith clergy gathered at an Episcopal Church in Charlottesville to pray for the city and to pray for what, they all knew, was going to happen on Saturday.  I knew many of those people in that church, in fact, I was going to be in that church Friday night.  While they were singing and praising God, they began to see a crowd gathering outside the church, carrying torches and shouting threats to the clergy peacefully gathered inside.  Secret Service and local police came into the church and told them to stand away from the windows and not to leave the building as their safety could not be guaranteed. This was a frightful situation for those gathered inside in peace to pray to the Prince of Peace, and have a mob of Nazi terrorists, shouting racist slogans at them through the walls of the house of God.  Are we in troubled times, yes we are.

So preparing for what I was going to say today took a much different path than the one I had intended.  But the message to me was clear, have faith, speak the truth, do what is right, God is with me to calm the troubled storms raging inside of me, and that kept me awake most of the night.  As the Psalmist says in Psalm 19; “O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

But let us continue to look at this Psalm for these should not be words that we say, but they should be words that we believe and words that we take to heart.

Let the words of my mouth….  I have to own my part of racism and the hatred that we saw on the streets yesterday.  Like many of you, I have told a joke or two, I have made comments about people and laughed.  I have listened to others do the same and did not speak up.  Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in your sight.  Are the words we speak acceptable in the sight of God?  Sometimes I know mine are not, and that contributes to the hate.

And the meditations of our hearts… Before the words are spoken, before the actions are taken, they have to form in the mind and in the heart.  The ancients believed that the heart was the soul, it was the window to what a person was truly feeling.  We have all said things that we regret and wish we had not said.  In a fit of anger words come out, but those words would not have come out if we were not thinking them or harboring them in our hearts.  Sometimes I know my heart is not as pure as it should be, and that contributes to the hate.

I confess that while listening to what was taking place yesterday I was angry and I began to hate those that were perpetrating the violence.  Then that subsided, and I started to pray and to feel sorry for the anger that is inside each of those people marching on the street.  People created, just like the ones they hate, in the image and likeness of God. Born with a soul that is precious in the eyes of the Lord. And it made me truly sad, no I was depressed, and it hurt, and it still hurts at this moment.

There has always been, and always will be hatred in this world we live in but that does not mean we have to accept it and we have to normalize it.  As Christians, we have an obligation to do something about it.  But what can we do?

Earlier in the week I was involved in a discussion about prayer and that we needed to pray for the nation and we needed to pray for the leadership not only of our country but all nations.  In a time of trouble, we need cool heads at the top to attempt to find a solution but also to reassure us that all will be well.

In the Gospel this morning the apostles were sacred out of their minds. The storm was raging all around them, and then, they got a glimpse of Jesus, and he calmed the water, and he calmed their souls.  We are the hands and feet of Jesus in this world, and we need to be the ones walking on the water of hate and despair bringing calmness to people, starting with us.

I am a firm believer in the power of prayer, but our prayer has to move us to action.  Prayer is not enough.  Jesus prayed, and then he went out and did something, and that is the example he has left for us to follow.  We pray, and we do, that is how it is supposed to work.

We can start by denouncing hate and racism in our own lives.  We truly cannot control the thoughts and actions of another person, but we can control the thoughts and actions of us.  We need to root it out of us in any way we can.  We truly need to surrender it to God and work with God and help us, especially in these troubled times.

We can walk away.  When we hear someone start with hateful speech about someone or a race of people, or begin to tell a joke that is off color, get up and walk away.  You do not have to say anything but if you can say something, do say something and let them know it is unacceptable in your sight and your hearing.  Scripture is full of examples of calling out behavior that is unacceptable, and we have to do it.  I know judge not…. You are not judging; you are calling it what it is hate.  But we have to speak the truth in love because love will win in the end.

Mahatma Gandhi told a crowd of people to “be the change what you wanted to see.” If we want the world to be more loving, we have to be more loving.  If we want the word to be less hateful, then we need to be less hateful. It is the ripple effect, and it works.

The Jesuit Priest James Martin said this yesterday on Twitter and let me be clear that I agree with him, “racism is a sin and all Christians, all people of faith, should not only reject it, not only oppose it but fight against it.” And the battle begins right here and right now.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we read; There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (3:28) Let me add to that there is no longer black nor white, Protestant nor Catholic, American nor other countries, democrat nor republican or any other label that we will use to divide for we are all one in Christ Jesus.

Let us pray:

“God and father of all, in your love you made all the nations of the world to be a family, and your Son taught us to love one another. Yet our world is riven apart with prejudice, arrogance, and pride. Help the different races to love and understand one another better. Increase among us sympathy, tolerance, and goodwill, that we may learn to appreciate the gifts that other races bring to us, and to see in all people our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. Save us from jealously, hatred and fear, and help us to live together as members of one family at home and in the world, sons, and daughters of one Father who live in the liberty of the children of God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Book of Common Order, Church of Scotland

Last week, we spent time discussing seeds and soil and how both need to be the best they can be to produce the best harvest.  Today we turn our attention to the harvesting of those seeds in yet another agricultural parable by Jesus.

Parables were, and are, wonderful tools for illustrating the idea being put forward by Jesus and others.  Jesus was a master at using parables in his teachings with his disciples and others.  He used examples from everyday life including this one today about weeds being sown in with the healthy plants, but there is always a purpose to the illustrations, and it is our job to discover what those are.

Jesus presents us with a picture of a field of wheat and tells us that this is an idyllic picture of heaven.  While everyone was asleep, some folks came in and sowed some bad seeds to spoil the crop.  Now the question becomes what do we do about this?

These were not ordinary weeds that might grow up between our plants that we spent some much time preparing, no these are the really bad ones, and there are many, many of them.  Since we determined last week that you all have planted things in the ground before you have some knowledge of weeds in your garden.  Weeds are bad and remove much-needed nutrients from the main plants, and if they are not removed, they will eventually take over the entire garden.  But, we use caution when we are removing those plants, so the central plant is not uprooted as well.  Jesus is urging caution here.

You see, as I mentioned already, these are not your average weeds, these weeds look and act just like the wheat that was planted, and it is challenging to distinguish between them, and the farmer is fearful that his crop will be destroyed if an attempt is made to remove the weeds.  He tells them to let it grow together and at harvest time the work will be accomplished.

But this story is not just about our garden, Jesus tells us it is a comparison of the Kingdom of God or, in other words, the church and our own lives.

There is a clear distinction being made here between good and evil and what we are to do about it.  Sometimes our own lives resemble the farmer’s infested field, with weeds and wheat intertwined in our souls, our hearts, and our minds.  Our personal experience may be more subtle as countless distractions derail us. Sometimes our jobs can seem weed infested and under assault. Like the servants in the story today, many people face the challenge of separating the weeds from the wheat in our workplaces.

Jesus faced this same dilemma in his own life. Just before this parable, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his faith, try to trick him and they begin their plot to destroy him. They look like real leaders, but they are false and deadly as any weed can be.

Jesus and the author of the Gospel today know full well that weeds can infest the community itself. There are many warnings of false messiahs and false prophets and those who lead people astray; these have been described as antagonists in the church.

Church antagonists are the ones who believe in their heart of hearts that they are doing the right thing.  They always complain about how things are being done but never offer any solutions or when asked to serve in leadership decline the offer to assist in making the situation better.  They are the ones who threaten to withdraw their financial support until the community does what they want, the way they want it done, and when the leadership bends to their demands simply continue to demand more.  They are the church bullies that want to decide who is in and who is out of the communion of God and with God as if their lives are so special that God has ordained them for the task. They believe that the church is theirs and that they know better than God how things should be run. We are all aware of these antagonists because at one time or another it has been us.

But the parable also cautions us not to act too quickly or rush to judgment.  We may not always be able to spot the right plant from the wrong plant.  Just as the farmer cautions his servants not to remove the weeds until harvest time to not uproot the good plants along with them. The farmer tells them to be patient and wait for the harvest, and we must do the same in the church.

There is a story of a gardener who was moving plants from one part of the yard to another.  This gardener was in a hurry to get the job done and realized, the next day, which they had, in fact, moved weeds rather than the good plants and had to start all over again.

This parable points out to us the difficulty we have in distinguishing the good from the bad, wheat from weeds, loyal opposition from heresy, healthy conflict from destructive antagonism. The patience that we are being cautioned is not an excuse for inaction or conflict avoidance.  Later, in this same Gospel, Jesus outlines how to deal with poisons behavior within the community (18:15-17). If the behavior continues and does not change, they are to be separated from the community as the Reapers separate weeds from wheat at the harvest.

This may sound harsh and perhaps even unchristian, but Jesus knows what happens when this type of behavior, the weeds in the garden, are not dealt with they will spread and infest other fields. But the parable ends with the knowledge that there is one who is stronger and smarter than the ones who sow the weeds.  We are cautioned to rely on God in our work; the church belongs to God we are just the caretakers of it.

How do we determine the good from the bad, we ask God to direct us and show us and also for guidance how to deal with it.  We should be in constant prayer for the Church and for those whom God has put in leadership both spiritual and temporal of the Church.  Each decision that is made should be made after asking the question if this what God wants us to do?  If we rush to judgment or react too quickly, we might just pull up the good with bad.

God is still speaking to and through His church; we just need to listen.

Show of hands, how many of you have ever grown anything in the ground?  Okay, so many of you are like me and have, from time to time, planted something in the ground to see if it would grow.  Sometimes it would grow big and tall, and other times it would just wither and die.

In my previous church, I had a rather large garden that I planted all sorts of plants in.  Of course, I had to have tomatoes but also planted a variety of squash and cucumbers.  I was always going to try corn but it never actually happened.

When I first began the garden I just dug out a patch of the earth and planted some stuff, and that worked out okay but not great.  Then I read an article about the benefits of raised beds and enhancing the soil.  So, I went to the Home Depot, and I purchased some lumber, and I built several raised beds.  I was keeping chickens at the same time, so I would compost their output and turn it into the richest soil I had even seen.  Now, too much of a good thing can be bad so trying to find the right balance is necessary.

The garden flourished, but it needed constant tending.  Each day I would spend some time out in my garden weeding and tending to all sorts of things, the more I managed, the better it grew and the better the output was.  If I let it slack, even for one day, the weeds would take over, and all would be lost.

Our gardens are like our spiritual life and today’s Gospel passage points us in that direction.

At first glance, we want to focus, as we are directed, on the seeds that the sower is throwing around.  My first thought is that he is not very careful with his seed if it is not falling on the best ground and he is wasting a lot of money.  I would also guess that he is growing some cover crop like clover or winter wheat and he is not too concerned with where it lands.  Cover crops can be useful as they hide imperfections from the world, but they can also enrich the soil.

But nothing is said about the seed itself of the soil that the sower is sowing the seed in.

A bad seed can ruin everything, in the garden and our spirituality.

When I was gardening, I would select the best plants I could find.  I was never very good at growing things from seed so I would seek out the best plant material.  Plants that were native grown and local are always the best as they are used to what we have around here for soil.  Wrong plant equal bad output it’s just that simple.  Large scale farming is the same.  The farmer selects the seeds by first going through the pile and picking out the bad ones, no sense in wasting time on the wrong things.

But what about the soil?

If the soil is not balanced correctly, nothing will grow.  Soil balance is interesting and if a high yield is what you are seeking then spending time on the soil is the way to go.

At the start of every season, soon after the frost would pass, I would be out in the garden turning the soil and warming it up in the sun.  In the fall I would have turned in the rich compost that had been heating up all summer and now that compost needed to be turned through the whole of the bed.  Turning the soil also introduces air into the equation, and that is important as well.  But the main reason is a hard soil makes it difficult for the new plants to grow.  The tiny, delicate roots have a difficult time if the soil is too hard and water will not penetrate as deep as it should.  Sure, the plant will grow, but if a high yield is what we are striving for, then the soil needs to be at peak performance.

All of this is the same in our spiritual life, and the most important part is that it requires daily care and maintenance.

For some, our spiritual life is like the rock ground.  Sure there is some soil in-between those rocks, and maybe something will grow there if it happens to land.  Some of our spiritual lives are like the pavement.  We are so locked into what we believe that nothing will penetrate that hard outer shell.  Underneath the soil is fertile but the word never actually gets there through that hard surface.

For some, we are like the thicket full of weeds and thorns that when we hear something that just might be different from how we think of things, we choke it off and do not want to hear it.

We are all there and have all been there at one time or another.  This parable is not about the seeds it is not even about the sower; it’s about the soil and how we prepare it.

Just like the soil in my garden the soil of my spiritual life needs constant attention.  I need to introduce new material to it each day and turn it over.  If we grow the same thing, in the same patch of ground, year after year eventually that plant will no longer grow in that spot.  Our spiritual life needs to continually be refreshed and turned so that the output will be at its highest.

So how do we do this?

A simple routine of Scripture reading will go a long way.  If we read Scripture each day, and the amount is not important, the important thing is that we read every day, we will start to notice an improvement.  There are all sorts of helps for us.  There is the Our Daily Bread that we make available.  There are numerous websites that will send you a small portion of Scripture each day, and of course, you can just open the book.  Don’t have one?  Just ask, we have plenty hanging around here and would be happy to give you one.

Listening to sermons in another way to feed the soil, not just mine and not just from people that you like or agree with, listen to a preacher that comes from a different philosophical position that you do.  As much as these guys grind my gears now and again, I do learn something from them, and they do cause me to think and to think outside the box.  Again, putting the same old stuff in will not make the yield any different.

The important thing to remember is that our spiritual life, like our gardens, needs daily maintenance.