Tag: Matthew

Trinity 7: Wheat & Weeds

19/7/26

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

We might be in Ordinary Time in the church calendar but our readings are anything but. Matthew has recorded Jesus’ agricultural parables of the good and generous sower scattering his good seeds on different types of soil. Paul starts probably the most difficult chapter in his letter to the Romans with the bold and joyful declaration that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. It is in the Spirit where true life and peace are found

While these images are beautiful and full of joy they have a shadow in them. A warning for us. The easier option would be to ignore the shadow warning and carry on with joy. In this week’s readings, the heat is getting turned up. To the good news of last week is added some bad news.

In Matthew’s Gospel we still have a generous sower sowing seed in his field. This time though, he is limiting the sowing to his field only. The other sower appeared to scatter seed everywhere, regardless of soil conditions.

This sower is narrowing his focus down. Both the sowers are references to God. We see God as desiring his love and word to go everywhere, be flung to the farthest reaches. We also see God focusing on a particular field.

My back garden has some magnificently tall weeds growing in it at the moment. It needs some weeding and my neighbour and his mower to do a job on it. I find weeding an immensely satisfying job. I am not always a careful weed-er but rather take the position that anything I do not want growing in a particular location is a weed. I would stop short of classifying myself as an enemy though.

The field in our Gospel reading has an enemy who sows weeds into the good wheat. A little research tells us that the literal weeds (which many scholars believe is darnel, also known as “false wheat”) are not harmless. They are poisonous. These weeds mimic the look and colour of nourishing grain, but they are fake. Their seeds can cause illness and even death if consumed in large quantities.

This is evil! We are not to deny or gloss over the evil that exists in the world. Debie Thomas writes, ‘In other words, there is nothing enlightened about denying the reality of evil in our world and in our midst. We are, like the field in the parable, both mixed and messy. Each of us individually, our faith communities corporately, and our world in its entirety, contain wheat and weed, good and evil, the fruitful and the poisonous.’

The existence of evil in the world brings a lot of questions. We might think that God should stop it, step in and intervene. Of course. However, we then need to be prepared for God to root out the evil in our own individual hearts and minds. Would we really want God to rule the world directly and immediately so that every thought and action was weighed, instantly judged and potentially punished?

These parables are about waiting. Waiting for the seed to take root and grow. The sower is watching, probably with frustration, as the weeds grow alongside his wheat. Waiting for the harvest to come.

So often we are like the servants who want to go out and pull up the weeds. Clear the field of them. The sower is emphatic that this is not what he wants. The weeds are to stay until the harvest comes. The danger being that the good wheat could be uprooted and the good crop could be lost.

For Jesus’ followers who heard this parable, they did not want to wait. They wanted Jesus to act, to bring about restoring the kingdom and Temple as they thought. Remove the Romans, get a Jewish king back and all would be well.

Patience is required. Patience on the part of the sower who watches what is happening to his crop. Patience for the servants who want to pull up the weeds immediately. Patience on the part of God who does not want to see a field full of weeds. But God does not enjoy the thought of declaring the harvest time too soon and destroying the wheat along with the weeds.

Those who cause sin and all evildoers will be harvested at the end of time. This is as serious as it gets. Some people will be harvested for the evil they have done and punished for it. It is but for the grace of God that (I hope) many of us will not. We should want all people to be the good seed of the children of the kingdom.

For the creation, as Paul writes in Romans, waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. We wait to be set free, free to become the people God created us to be. Not only us but the whole of creation. Paul calls us to hope for salvation. This hope is often unseen and we have to wait patiently.

Trinity 5: Making up the Rules

5/7/26
Trinity 9

Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

I am never quite sure how to start sermons about sin. I have heard a good number on the topic; some have started rather bluntly with ‘you bunch of sinners!’. Others have led down the garden path with a gentle introduction of the topic and then dropped the hammer. I have not decided which I prefer.

This morning I am talking about sin. Your sin. My sin. Our sin. This is not solely because we are overly sinful or that you need a telling off from the front. Both readings this morning talk about Jesus and his coming to set people free. Free from what? Sin.

The word sin often gets used in the wrong context and has lost its meaning. In contemporary culture it used to advertise chocolate, alcohol, lingerie – all the ‘naughty but nice’ things. Sin is positioned as something indulgent but not necessarily dangerous. Sin in the church context can feel judgmental and outdated. Again we want to soften it.

How do you define sin? When you hear the word what immediately comes to mind? Is it only the naughty things we do? Is it harmless?

Sin is not limited to our actions but also our thoughts and words. We can also sin by not doing what we should do. In the words of the confession we seek absolution for the things we have left undone.

Sin has much to do with our attitudes. Any attitude that says ‘I don’t need God – I can do this myself’ or any action, thought, word that separates us from God. Anything that puts us out of sync with God can be considered sinning.

Sometimes it does not take much for that to happen. In the Romans reading Paul has caught the idea that we are often in conflict with ourselves. We know what good we want to do, but somehow we do the opposite. Paul is lamenting his own state; ‘I do the things that I do not want to do and the things I don’t want to do – I do!’ Anyone else?!
Part of the difficulty with this Romans passage is that we do not know if Paul is talking about his life as a pious Jew before his conversion or if he is talking about his life as a Christian after his Damascus Road experience.

Whatever the answer is; Paul is talking about the power of sin and the inability of human nature to break free from its strangle-hold. This is true for all human beings; regardless of religious stripe or belief. Even if people wanted to break free from sin, they would find that their good intentions were frustrated by sin. This is a very human response!

There are two dangers that we can fall into when it comes to sin. The first is that basically everything we do is sinful or has some element of sin in it. I am not sure if this is the case.

Secondly and more worryingly is that some people think that they do not sin at all ever. They may have convinced themselves that whatever wrong or unjust things they do aren’t really a sin. It can be excused away without confronting their actions.

If we are honest with ourselves and with God, we know that we do things, say things, think things that are wrong, that separate us from Him. We might be able to convince ourselves that whatever we thought, said or did was not all that bad when compared to what other people do or say or that the person affected deserved it. We are only playing a game with ourselves and making up the rules to suit us.

This is what Jesus is referring to in Matthew’s Gospel when he describes this generation like children sitting in the marketplace calling to one another. They were playing games and making up the rules as they went in regard to Jesus and John the Baptist. John didn’t eat or drink and they accused him of having a demon. Jesus ate and drank and was accused of being a drunk and glutton. You can’t win!

We sometimes hold ourselves to different standards than we do other people. We make up different rules for us and for them so we can let ourselves off the hook far more easily than others.

But when we compare ourselves to Jesus we all fall a long way short. We might look pretty good compared to murderers, robbers and maybe even our neighbours. However that is not the standard that Christians are held to. It is the standard of Jesus. The next time you find yourself getting a bit uppity with someone else, check to see if you do that thing that they are doing!

Another problem with sin is that we do not want to get caught. We don’t want others to know about the things we do, say, think that are less than honourable.

The author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (wrote the Sherlock Holmes books) once played a practical joke on 12 men. They were all very well-known, respected and honorable men. He sent each of them a telegram, with the same message: ‘Flee at once. All is discovered!’ Apparently within 24 hours they had all fled the country!

We all want to avoid shame and embarrassment; we have done and said things that we would not want others to know about. We often put up barriers around us to avoid the possibility of being found out. We don’t want people to think less of us or badly of us.

Paul laments doing those things that he doesn’t want to do – anybody can relate to this?

Whether it is a package of biscuits, what we watch on TV, the next drink or the deeper things such as unforgiveness, anger, lack of charity, and anything that we worship more than God needs to be addressed and treated seriously.

What do we do?
We start by recognising the sin in our lives. This is what Paul is doing as he realises the conflict within himself. Jesus points out to the child-like generation who make up rules and play their silly games.

Not just recognise – but name it. Not easy but necessary.

When are you tempted to fall into sin? Some of the most comforting words ever to fall from the mouth of Jesus are ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’

When you are stressed out, angry, anxious, hungry, not getting enough sleep; in other words weary and burdened. All these conditions can push us into making bad decisions that can lead us to sin. Jesus is saying come to me and I will give you rest.

Recognising it – identifying when it might happen and taking it to Jesus.

Leave a moment…

Trinity Sunday: Can You Handle the Truth?

31/05/26
Trinity Sunday

Isaiah 40:12-17, 27-31
Matthew 28:16-20

The first Sunday after Pentecost is always Trinity Sunday. That special day when we are meant to celebrate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity: God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Celebrating foundational Christian doctrine might not sound all that exciting, but it is!

It is always worthwhile to remind ourselves about the essence of our Christian faith after the seasons of Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. The church year now rolls along until Advent as the big festivals are complete.

The Church has marked Trinity Sunday since the mid 800’s. It was instituted to speak against the heresies of the early church as they worked out how to understand the nature of Jesus; was he only a man? Was he divine? A combination of both? How could the church understand and explain how God can be three and one.

Reference to the Trinity is woven through our services; each time I or we say ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit‘. We repeat it each week in the Creeds. The entire Christian story is retold in the Eucharistic prayer before Communion; listen for the references again this morning.

It is difficult to understand and at some point needs to be believed as part of the mystery of God. But don’t simply jump to that conclusion (or not) as tempting as it is!

The doctrine of the Trinity sets out to tell the whole truth about God, even though it is difficult. The full Christian story is that God created the world, redeemed it through Jesus and is present in the world and our lives through the Holy Spirit. All equal, all the same.

From theologian Alistair McGrath,

‘Let’s pretend that God is simply someone up in heaven, who made the world. That’s the way many Greek philosophers thought about God. It’s not a difficult idea. So why don’t Christians just adopt this simple view of God? The reason is clear. This may be an easy idea to understand, but it is a totally inadequate view of God, from a Christian point of view. Why? Because this scaled-down God is the distant and far-removed creator of this world, who never becomes directly involved in its affairs. And Christians know that God just isn’t like that. For Christians, God entered into this world in Jesus of Nazareth: “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). Good theology is about telling the full story, and enabling us to see the full picture. And that means weeding out inadequate ideas about God.’

Trying to deepen our understanding of the Trinity, should help us to expand our faith ideas of what it is to be a Christian. How? The Trinity should challenge us with the truth about God. Being a Christian is not solely about turning up to church or simply being a good person. The truth of God will always be more than our minds can cope with.

The truth of God will always convict and remake us. We are created in God’s image as everyone is. We cannot remake the image to suit ourselves. It is an image we are to grow and mature into.

Secondly, the Trinity shows us that God is dynamic. God is on the move. He flows, he dances. This proves that the idea of a distant God is inadequate. We pray and worship, we believe that God is creator and lord, we know that the Spirit guides and moves us to action.

We see the action of God in Isaiah 40. The Israelites are in Babylon by force as the prophecies of the coming exile have come true. Jerusalem fell to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 587 BC. This section is dated from the 540’s.

Isaiah is addressing people who have suffered the trauma of exile after 40 years. There is a new generation who did not know the ‘old’ Jerusalem. The writer is bringing hope and comfort to the community whose exile is coming to an end by the grace of God. He is reminding them of God’s vastness: a God who can measure the waters in the hollow of his hand, enclose the dust of the earth in a measure, and weigh the mountains on scales. Nations are like a drop from a bucket.

The writer makes the case that God can be trusted to save the exiles. He wants to and he can. God is the source of power and will renew the strength of the exhausted and weary. Isaiah is imploring the old generation to tell the new generation about God.

Jesus’ final commandment to his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel is to ‘Go! Make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ They were not to stay still in Jerusalem and never change. Thank God they did go. God is always waiting and watching over us. He wants us to move and change; to become the people He created us to be.

Now some who heard Jesus that day doubted, hesitated. Why? Maybe they were not sure of what they were seeing? Was it really Jesus? Or a vision? They were not the first people who had trouble recognising the post-resurrection Jesus.

Disciples are learners and followers; if you want to learn and follow then you are in good company. We need to make more of them. This is not about securing more members to the group but securing wholehearted commitment to Jesus, to the Trinity. We do that by following the example of Jesus and being open to the work of the Spirit in our lives. What might that look like for you?

Take comfort in the words of Jesus, ‘I am with you always, to the end of age.’ The Trinity is not something we will ever fully understand but it is an attempt to tell the full story of God. Not the absent one but the God whose love and presence can be known here and now in the ordinary every day.

God is not forgetful or careless. No one who measured the water in the hollow of his hand or weighed the mountains on a scale lacks attention to detail. Remember that God is inexhaustible. God is unending energy. Jesus is unending energy. The Holy Spirit is unending energy.

Lean into God for comfort and encouragement. Lean into Jesus and follow his example. Lean into the Holy Spirit and ask for energy and imagination. Lean into each other as we continue to learn and grow together. May we be transformed by the Trinity.

Lent 1: Three Questions

The Temptations of Christ, 12th century mosaic at St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice.

22/2/26
Year A – Lent 1

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” – Charles Baudelaire (French poet & essayist).

“Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.” – Billy Sunday (American evangelist & professional baseball player)

“The devil hath power / To assume a pleasing shape.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” – Oscar Wilde.

Scripture tells us repeatedly that the devil is the father of lies. In the wilderness or in the Garden of Eden there is nothing on offer but lies. We see the devil at work in the Genesis and Matthew readings which are always set for the first Sunday in Lent. It is a reminder that the devil/evil/darkness/temptation has been around from the beginning. No one is immune from it, not even Jesus. We have to learn to be aware of it and stand against it. The quotes chosen this morning give a glimpse of how others have contended with the devil.

Many people are convinced that the devil does not exist. We can invite him in. Evil is not always unattractive at first glance. We are our own devils and cause much of our own destruction.

In Genesis, the devil takes the form of a serpent, more crafty than any other animal God had made. The serpent takes an effective and basic approach to deception: casting doubt. Did God really say… Eve knew what God had said, she repeated it verbatim. The serpent carried on telling Eve what would happen which was a lie. She ate the fruit (not necessarily an apple), gave some to Adam and the rest is history.

At the heart of the fall of Adam and Eve is disobedience resulting from lies and deception. Most of our personal problems, the world’s problems stem from lies, deception and ultimately disobedience. Who should we be obedient to? Who should we disobey? What lies have we fallen for?

In Jesus’ baptism, his identity is revealed by God as being his son, precious and beloved. The Spirit then leads him into the wilderness where that truth is powerfully tested and assaulted by the devil. Jesus is not treated as we might expect post-baptism. If you have been to a baptism recently you may have experienced a lavish celebration after the event! There is no cake or bouncy castle for Jesus, no lingering in the glory of baptism for him.

One explanation for Jesus’ temptation is that he had to determine what kind of Messiah he was going to be. Jesus was at the very start of his public ministry; He might as well start as he means to go on.

I want to briefly look at the temptations that Jesus faced and ask three questions that I had not ever considered before.

Stone to Bread

Jesus’ temptation begins after his forty days and nights in the wilderness; likely at this weakest point physically, spiritually and psychologically. Many of us may know the restorative power of a nap and a snack to change perspective. The first need the devil attacks Jesus with is for physical food. Tell this stone to become bread and Jesus of course could do that. There is nothing quite like having hunger satisfied quickly.

The question is: what is truly nourishing for you? If we are thinking about food I am reminded of family meals with everyone around the table. The nourishment of conversation, laughter, being with the people we love. So often we eat junk, we are marketed cheap calories and convenience that do not satisfy our souls or bodies.

We can also ask this spiritually – what nourishes your soul? As you are here this morning I would guess that coming to church does. I know for myself that I am nourished at the Communion table, in times of prayer and reflection. I want you to be fed spiritually, to take this seriously. Do we trust that God and His Word will sustain us?

Jump and Let the Angels
The second temptation is also about trust in God as the devil wants Jesus to put God to the test. This never ends well! Sometimes we put God to the test too when we try to bargain with him, ‘I’ll do this, if you’ll do that.’ We bargain because of our need for safety. Human beings are hardwired for survival and to do that we need to be and feel safe.

The second question is: What is true safety? For a number of years I saw safety in my Canadian passport and credit card with a high limit. If it all went wrong here in the UK, then I could go. Be home again by dinner tomorrow. A growing number of people in this country carry weapons; young people with knives. Is that true safety?

This is driven by fear; I was afraid of failing, running out of money, not having a job or not liking what I was doing. Often fear is far greater than any perceived enemy. God is more than capable of handling our questions, our doubts, our anger and even our temptations. They need to be handed over to him though. What is not acceptable is dangling these things, threatening to do them in order to make God responsible for our actions.

True safety has nothing today with weapons and passports; it has to do with trust. Trusting that God is with us, we are loved. No need to jump off the cliff.

Worship Me and All is Yours

It is very difficult to imagine that Jesus would be tempted to worship the devil. This final temptation is about power. People crave power and the devil knows this. We want to be in control of our own lives, destinies, plans. Adam and Eve were tempted by the prospect of power. They believed, with no proof at all, that eating a piece of fruit would make them like God.

The serpent convinced them that there was more to God than he was letting on. Surely just living the good life in the garden was not all that God wanted. Really? The idea that we can become our own ‘god’ is pervasive in current culture. We want to be powerful, image is everything. Is it? People are falling down all over the place – so get torn down, others throw themselves down.

The third question: What is true power? We learn again and again, or we fail to learn again and again, Jesus’s own central teaching: true power has nothing to do with governments or kingdoms or popularity contests or how many people you can command. True power is the mysterious path that Jesus walked. It comes with no guarantees. It is self-giving surrender, the strangest of paradoxes, and it leads to the cross.

Lent can be a wilderness season of sorts as we make time (or should make time) to examine where we are at with God. To ask ourselves what is truly nourishing? What is true safety? What is true power? Jesus was able to answer the devil at each turn with scripture from Deuteronomy. Maybe we need to brush up on what the bible says (or doesn’t)! Maybe we need to think again about where our trust lies.

A wilderness season, however challenging, will never be wasted if we believe and know that God is with us, that those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, that our identity lies in being His beloved son or daughter. If we can hang on to that, then whatever the wilderness throws at us, whatever illusions we live under can be overcome.

2nd before Lent: Worry?! What me?

8/2/26

2nd Sunday Before Lent 

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Matthew 6:25-34

Sometimes when I walk through the churchyard I think about all of the deceased who are resting in peace around us. I wonder about their worries and how they have now all come to an end. Nothing like a little chastening from the great beyond to give perspective to the current worries! 

A considerable worry is the way that people are being treated across the world. Today is ‘Racial Justice Sunday’ which marks the 32nd anniversary of the racially-motivated murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence in Eltham, south-east London. This is to be a time for all churches to remember, reflect and respond to the importance of racial justice, and an opportunity to give thanks for the gift of human diversity and commit to ending racial discrimination. I am worried I haven’t done anything about this and have not paid very much attention to this real and pressing need in our society.    

We live in a worried world and we always have; probably much more worried now than we have ever known. What can we do to combat our worldly worries? Hopefully this morning there are a few useful suggestions. 

How many of you worry about things that don’t ever happen? I think a lot of people tend to worry about things that won’t ever happen. Could not possibly happen – but it might. So worry about it! Let’s throw that on the pile too! 

The Old Testament reading for today is Genesis chapter 1 & 2 which tells the story of creation. I deliberately chose Genesis to help us take a grander view of the world. Whatever we make of the Genesis account of creation, we are given a view of God that is huge. 

God the creator of everything who made something out of nothing, brought order to chaos, called things into being and they were. God saw that everything he did was good. The big things like the wind and water, light and darkness, sea and sky right down to seeds to birds to the things that creep along the ground. God took his time to do all these things.

Seven times in the creation story we are told we come from a God who sees. God steps back from his work and he looks, he notices each tiny piece. We also come from a God who creates new things. On each of the six days in creation, God made something new. 

He still does today! We wake up every day and there are new things in the world. The snowdrops and daffodils, the tiny buds on the trees. Nothing goes unnoticed. God’s mercies are new every morning. God is also big enough to take on our worries, our cares. Cast your cares on him.

As Christians we need to continually learn and re-learn to trust in the providence of God. Jesus uses the birds of the air and the lilies of the field as an example. Birds and lilies cannot provide for themselves. Birds neither sow nor reap. Lilies cannot toil nor spin but are beautifully made. We are of more value to God than these.

Matthew 6 will hopefully soothe our worried souls. This is part of the wider Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is addressing a crowd of people for whom worry was evidently a part of life too. Jesus is speaking to the practical needs of food, drink, clothing and housing. Very real issues to an impoverished crowd. Very real issues to many people today.

Jesus is trying to give his listeners some perspective on their worries by giving them a bigger picture of life. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing? We are of value to God; more than the birds are and he looks after them.

If we can believe in our great value to God, it frees us from much worry. I’m not sure many things compare to the challenge of ceasing to worry. Maybe one reason why it is hard to stop worrying is because we have so many prime opportunities to practise. Yet we will never overcome worry by eliminating reasons to worry. It does free up time and space to get on with living.

One of my Grandmothers was of Mennonite German descent and she had a saying that loosely and more politely translated from low-German to English was: ‘don’t wee before the water comes.’ What she meant is that we are not to get anxious before there is something to get anxious about.

Jesus would tell us that when these situations arise, and they will, we are to go to him. Jesus sums up the futility of worry in verses 25 & 26; we cannot add a minute to our life by worrying. The paradox is that there will always be something to worry about.  

Simply put, worry is not particularly helpful. Even when we seem to worry about ‘important things’; even when we worry in the name of love it will accomplish nothing. 

Well then, what are we supposed to do?! It seems that we need to change our perspective by seeking the kingdom of God. How do you do that? A starting point may be to learn to turn our worry effort into prayer. Have a conversation with God; that is what prayer effectively is. He already knows what we need. Prayer is the way to access those needs, to build a relationship with the one who created us. 

Is it possible to reframe our worries into hopeful waiting by seeking the kingdom of God? I hope so! There are endless things to worry about, no question. Worrying will not eliminate the things we worry about. It will not add any hours to our lives. Seeking God and his kingdom, remembering we are part of something bigger that also waits to be free gives hope. This will add eternity to our lives and that is well worth waiting for. 

I am going to end with a poem by American poet Mary Oliver… 

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And I gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.