They Put the “FUN” in Dysfunction! Genesis 50:15-21

Posted on September 18, 2023 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by the Rev. Patrick H Wtisley, D.Min. on September 17, 2023.

Hear the main point of today’s message: God thrives in the messes we create for ourselves. God thrives in the messes we create for ourselves. Let’s look at how that is presented biblically.

One of the most owned but least read books in existence is the Bible; it’s on many nightstands or bookshelves but too often simply remains there. We have forgotten that an unread Bible on a shelf is nothing more than a book. It becomes holy scripture when and only when a person asks the Spirit for guidance as they open the pages and begin to engage with the words on the page. It has always fascinated me as a pastor with over three decades of ministry under my belt because the Bible is full of such “whopping good tales!” as my old Hebrew professor, David Gunn, would say. When people tell me that the Old Testament does not relate to them, I have to stifle a chuckle. Today’s reading is a good example of this.

Our Hebrew text actually begins back in chapter 37. 2 where we read, “This is the story of the family of Jacob” and it’s a story that spans the next 13 chapters of the book of Genesis. It describes a family system that models all families, really. Jacob’s family, frankly, puts the “fun” in the word dysfunction. Beginning with daddy Jacob himself who we have already learned has had a deceptive love/hate relationship with his own brother, Esau, and whose parents Isaac and Rebekah played their own sons off one another, the story of Jacob’s family simply perpetuates the family messiness onto a new generation.

Jacob has twelve sons of varying ages. Typically, the oldest son gets their daddy’s blessing and lion’s share of the inheritance, but Jacob has tossed that out the window and plays favorites. Genesis 37.3 tells us, “Now Israel, i.e., Jacob, loved Joseph more than all his other children.” Apparently, it was common knowledge in the family as we are told his brothers, “Hated him and could not speak peaceably to him” (vs. 4). Jacob even made Joseph an extravagant and flowing robe for him which was just a visible reminder of how much more loved he was by daddy. For today’s scripture text to make any sense, it’s vital we know the gist of this Story.

Daddy has the brothers out taking care of the livestock and we quickly learn that Joseph is a tattletale on a few of the brothers who were slacking off on their job (vs 37.2). I’m sure that went over well with his siblings. It was at this point that Joseph had a few dreams that indicated that in the future, all eleven of his brothers, even his mom and dad, would bow down in obeisance to him. This went over really well to the point Daddy Jacob chided him.  Over time, the 11 brothers are out tending the livestock and Jacob sends Joseph out on a mission to go check on his brothers and see how things are going.

Murillo, Bartolome Esteban; Joseph and His Brethren; The Wallace Collection; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/joseph-and-his-brethren-209489

The brothers see him coming in the distance and say to one another, “Here come that dreamer…let’s kill him and say some wild animal ate him.”  The eldest brother, Reuben, talked them down off that cliff and convinced them to simply rough him up a bit and sell him as a slave, which they did. They stripped him of his robe, threw him in a large pit, dipped his robe in animal blood to show Daddy Jacob what had happened, and sold Joseph to some foreigners who later sold him to some Egyptians.

Pharaoh’s captain of the guard bought Joseph for himself and was immediately impressed with the young man’s wisdom. The captain’s wife was impressed with what a good-looking, strapping young man he was and tried to seduce him several times, but Joseph stood his principles and said, “No!”  Frustrated, she lies and says Joseph attempted to be inappropriate with her by making unwanted advances and has Joseph thrown into prison.

There is a refrain throughout the Story where we read, “The Lord was with Joseph” (vss. 39.2, 21), and Joseph being Joseph, impressed the warden of the prison who essentially turns over the prison to Joseph to run and oversee.  Some thirteen years go by, and Joseph now 30, gets summoned to Pharaoh to interpret some of Pharaoh’s strange dreams. Joseph tells Pharaoh his dreams mean there will be seven years of agricultural abundance which will be followed by seven years of famine and drought. Pharaoh was impressed and put Joseph in charge yet again, and we read only Pharaoh was more powerful than Joseph. Joseph stores up grain for seven years and when the drought comes, we hear how the entire world in the Mediterranean basin came to Egypt to purchase food.

Now, let’s get back to Daddy Jacob and those amoral brothers. Verse 42.2 has Jacob telling his treacherous boys, “I hear there’s grain in Egypt. Why do you keep staring at one another – get down there and get some provisions!” They do. When they arrive, they don’t recognize their baby brother; the baby brother, however, recognizes his brothers and is bilingual now as well. Joseph speaks Egyptian and Hebrew and knows all too well what the brothers are up to. For the next several chapters Joseph manipulates his brothers by holding one of them hostage while they go home and tell Daddy Jacob all that’s going on. Joseph later learns how hard all of this has been on his daddy, tricks his brother one more time by hiding money and a silver cup among their supplies, and has them arrested and brought into the palace. He watches all his brothers groveling about and pleading for mercy that there is a big misunderstanding and it’s at this point, Joseph loses it. He has a breakdown and comes clean with his brothers about who he is. “I am Joseph. Is daddy still alive?” The brothers had nothing. They were speechless. He reassures them, “Don’t be angry with yourselves…God sent me here before you to preserve you. God sent me before to preserve you a remnant on earth and to keep you alive…so it was not you who sent me here, God sent me before you” (45.4-12).

In an incredible act of grace and forgiveness, Joseph forgives them and has them go and bring their father and their families back to Egypt for their survival. This brings us to our text for the morning in Genesis 50.15-21. Hear the Word of God:

Genesis 50:15-21

15Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?” 16So they approached Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this instruction before he died, 17‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.”19But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?20Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. 21So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.

Even after all Joseph has done, even after all those years the families lived in Egypt together, his brothers still didn’t trust him. The make up a lie to say, “Daddy gave us this instruction that you are to forgive us.” Lawd. Really? And once again, Joseph assures them it’s all okay. He reminds them, “Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do me harm, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people.” Scholar John Wright comments, “The eleven sons of Israel lie in their apology to Joseph. In fear for their well-being, they create a fictitious account of their father’s petition to Joseph. They manipulate Joseph so that he might not retaliate against his earlier mistreatment.[1]

I began this message with the comment that God thrives in the messes we create for ourselves. Our Story this morning bears that out. Joseph’s brothers intended to harm him stemming from their jealousy. Yet, we learn through the entire Jacob family narrative that “The Lord was with Joseph.” God never left Joseph’s side and was in the thick of the mess his other brothers were stirring up.  The word “intended” in Hebrew has several nuances to it. On one hand, it can mean “planned” to do Joseph harm. Yet, the same Hebrew word can be interpreted as “imputed” or “reckoned” so that God took what the brothers planned but transformed it into something positive.[2]

Beloved, reflect upon the messes in your own life. Perhaps they were caused because of poor decisions you have made in the past. Perhaps like me, you come from a family who puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunction and suffer trauma from abuse, neglect, or rage. Maybe you’ve lived a healthy life only to find out you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, and you look heavenward and say, “Really, God? What’s up with this?” Whatever mess you have been in, are in, or will ever be in pales with what God is doing in and through that mess.  God is in the midst of redeeming that mess and turning it into good just like the Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 8.28 that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose…if God is for us, who is against us? Who will separate us from the love and forgiveness of Christ? Shall hardship, distress, persecution, famine, poverty, cancer diagnosis, dysfunctional family systems, a rotten boss, or violence? No! Nothing can thwart the redemption of all these things! God is working in our messes helping us to make sense of the nonsense. Isn’t that what Good Friday and Easter are about? God works in the midst of our brokenness to bring about new life. Easter gives us new eyes to see the subtle movements of God’s loving Providence and care.

Poet/author/professor Patricia Schneider wrote a book about this entitled, How the Light Gets In. Writing as Spiritual Practice. In a poem called, Ending, she writes, “Beginning is a gift that comes unbidden, but ending can be crafted as an art.”[3]

Beloved, through Christ, we’ve been given new eyes to see God working in the messes of our lives. Let’s ask the Lord to help us craft those messes into art, into something that is beautiful and useful. In the Name of the One Who is, was, and ever shall be. Amen.  Pray with me…

© 2023 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 400 Glen Street, Glens Fall, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls, NY, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship: Year A, Volume 3, Season After Pentecost by Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, et al. See https://a.co/2mDu6Xn.

[2] See Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 4: Season after Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ) (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) by David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor. https://a.co/6eETDm

[3] Patricia Schneider, How the light gets in. Writing as spiritual practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 200.

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Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is? Romans 13:8-14

Posted on September 11, 2023 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered by Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min. on Sunday, September 10, 2023.

This morning, I want to see if you can finish this sentence from an old, well-known tune from the band Chicago.

As I was walking down the street one day

A man came up to me and asked me

What the time was that was on my watch,  

And I said…

Does anybody really know what time it is?

(Care about time) does anybody really care?

Both of our texts this morning are blinking large letters on broadside billboards that read, “YES!” Time is vital. Time is precious and not to be wasted. The time is now!

Our reading from Exodus 12 with its description of the first Passover describes how the Hebrew people are to eat their dinner their final night in Egypt. The Lord tells Moses and Aaron to share with the people that, “You shall eat it fully dressed and ready for a road trip with your car packed, your napkin tucked into your collar so as not to spill on your shirt, your shoes are on, your car keys are in one hand and you’re scarfing down dinner with the other. You’re to eat it hurriedly as though an unwanted guest was about to knock on your door!”[1]

The Apostle Paul is focused on time as well. Turn in your Bible to Romans 13:8-14. His words express a sense of urgency that in light of what God in Christ has done for us, we are to shed the past and focus on the present and fast-approaching future. He talks about how we are to get dressed for this present and impending time. Paul reminds us how we are to invest in the time we have. Hear the Word of the Lord.

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

11Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 Let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.[2]

As we wade into our texts this morning, we are provided the essential reminder of how we are to live our lives in this crazy world of conspiracy theories, self-indulgence, and devastating earthquakes. Sadly, this one thing is often lacking in our churches as well as in the halls of Congress or State houses.

https://images.app.goo.gl/nbAPbJgaZMbiBxr59

You and I have one job to do and that’s it; yet, more often than not, we fail miserably at it. It’s like looking at a picture of a Department of Transportation worker painting new lines on fresh asphalt. The driver drops his cigarette on the opposite floorboard and bends over to grab it. As he does so, his left hand turns the steering and the line skews hard left for several feet before he steers it back to the center of the road.  We can hear the supervisor telling the line-painter: You had one job, and you blew it! All you were to do was paint a straight line! This is what Paul is reminding us. It’s what Jesus tried to bring home with the disciples.

What’s the one job we are asked to fulfill? Love. Love God and love each other. Pretty basic. Pretty simple. Jesus collapses the 613 Jewish laws that are prescribed in the Old Testament and boils them down to two: Love God. Love neighbor.[3] Pretty basic. Pretty simple. Or is it?

We might think to ourselves, “Well, I’m no axe murderer, am I? I’m not cheating on my partner! God has blessed me richly, so I don’t need to steal anything from anyone!” It’s relatively easy for us to say we don’t cheat, kill, or steal but can we really say it’s easy to love? I think not, at least not in the sense Jesus outlined and Paul reinforces in today’s text.

It’s easy not to go kill someone. It’s much harder to demonstrate love towards a person you believe has hurt or wronged you even if they are a fellow church member. It’s easy not to steal something but it’s harder to love that person who committed a home invasion and stole your grandmother’s antique gold watch. It’s easy to not cheat on your spouse but it’s harder to love the partner who has cheated on you and has trashed your trust through a tryst. Love is flat-out difficult!

Remember beloved, the love Paul and Jesus are talking about is not wrapped up in sentimentality; it’s not some gushy, sweet emotion about how we feel towards each other. Biblical love, agape, is a sticky and at times prickly love because it’s an active verb that demonstrates an act of our will. Love is inconvenient. Lord is hard. Love costs us something. Love sacrifices something. Love is purposeful. It’s volitional and at times may not even be very enjoyable. Love is often hard but yet, it’s the bar that we each must clear if we call ourselves “Christian.”

I want you to take a moment and reflect with me. Look around this room at all the faces of people gathered this morning. I bet you like and love every single one of them, don’t you? Isn’t that right? I mean, we’re a church! Of course, we love and like everybody in it! We’ve never had disagreements or shown angst towards each other, have we? We always get along with each other and agree with everything the other believes and does, don’t we?

Right. Of course, we don’t! It’s yet another reminder of how difficult it is to hear Paul’s words today. It’s a reminder to us that sure, we hear Jesus remind us to be like the Good Samaritan and love the stranger, but Jesus doesn’t have to go to church, go to work, or go to school with Milly or Tim like I do! Loving the stranger is one thing; liking, much less loving the people I know is totally different; oh, if Jesus only knew them like I do!

The deal is, he does.  He also knows you and me. He knows how hard it is for us to love each other. His first disciples didn’t get it and he knows we won’t or cannot either. But this is what Jesus does expect of us. He expects us to imitate the way he lived his life among people who both adored him and those who hated him. This is what Paul means in verse 14 when he literally says, “Get dressed in the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are to try to imitate Jesus’ love for and towards others. The demand is to pick up our crosses and follow him, imitate him. Sometimes those cross-bearing acts are outward and obvious. Sometimes, those cross-bearing acts of love are more subtle.

Let’s not kid ourselves; it was hard for Jesus to verbally express love to all the people. As he was beaten and interrogated in the presence of the self-righteous religious leaders, he showed his love through his silence. When interrogated by Pontus Pilate and others in the Praetorium, he expressed his love in silence. As he was nailed to the tree and heckled, mocked, and spit on, he showed his love by quietly praying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

This morning, we experience the most paramount expression of Jesus’ love: The Lord’s Supper. This is my body, broken for you. Take and eat. This is the cup of salvation given for you, sealed with my blood. Take and drink all of it in remembrance of me.

Are we to simply remember what Jesus did? Oh my, no. We are to imitate what Jesus did. Jesus does not ask us to do anything that he hasn’t done. Himself: We are to break ourselves for others like Jesus did. We are to give our life-blood to others like Jesus did. In so doing, we actively love God and love our neighbors. In so doing, we put on and get dressed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Does anyone really know what time it is? Does anyone really care? It’s time to get dressed in our Lord Jesus Christ and love those we meet every day.

In the Name of the One Who Is, Was, and is Yet to Come. Amen.

© 2023 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 400 Glen Street, Glens Fall, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls, NY, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] See Exodus 12:11.

[2] The New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV), copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3] See Leviticus 19:18 and Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

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Patriot Day Prayer for the 9/11 Service Held at the Glens Falls, NY Fire Station

Posted on September 11, 2023 by patrick h wrisley

This morning I was given the privilege to help preside with Deputy Chief Izzy Modert and Captain Ric Stafford at the 22nd September 11th Remembrance Ceremony in Glens Falls, NY. Below is the prayer I offered for those of us who gathered in the rain. I was also introduced at the new Chaplain for the Glens Falls Fire Department.

Photo of FDNY Firefighter Tim Duffy by Allen Tannenbaum

God, the One who is, was and ever shall be, we gather in the dreariness of this morning and are reminded of the shadows of pain, loss, and disbelief those moments twenty-two years ago caused. Unimaginable images were burned into our minds and the scars of the day are indelibly etched in our lives.

On this Patriot’s Day, we gather to pause and remember the souls of those who died in the Towers, the Pentagon, and Flight 93; we commit them to your loving and gracious care and ask you would assuage the grief their families still feel.  We commend to you the firefighters, the EMTs, and the police officers who didn’t think twice about running into the buildings in order to save the myriad of strangers who were stunned with shock or wounded. These men and women sacrificed themselves in order to save the lives of others. Some, whose courage we remember and celebrate, never made it out of the towers. Others who did get out are now fighting the illnesses caused by the destructive smoke, chemicals, and debris that blanketed New York that day; we pray for their comfort, healing, and continued courage as they struggle to live healthy lives.

God of redemption and healing, come and dwell in Spirit among your broken people. Transform our tears of sadness into steadfast resolve to work for peace and reconciliation where we live.  Where there is still anger, hatred, and resentment, in your grace and mercy fill us with patience, peacefulness, and forgiveness. Bring comfort to those people whose lives have been scarred by 9/11 and to those who on this day remember the death of a loved one.

On this Patriot Day, God please displace the rancor and disunity our national leaders have proffered and replace them with grassroots civility, unity, and dialogue that have been the hallmark of our great nation. On this day, we pray we will remember all that is good, precious, and beautiful about our nation, and may the Spirit reweave us into the people and country you dream us to be.

Lord, as we remember those who served and died in the past, I ask your tender but ever-so-strong blessing upon the men and women who serve our community today. Surround them with your angels to keep them from harm, send the Spirit to their families who worry about them when they are away on duty, and give their captains and chiefs wisdom beyond their imagined capacity.

Now, Gracious One, we enter into a moment of silence as we lift and remember those who gave their all on this solemn morning….

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My final sermon at First Pres FTL: Final Thoughts, Colossians 4:2-6

Posted on July 24, 2023 by patrick h wrisley

Our morning text comes from Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae. Colossians is a letter written to a church in what is today’s Turkey. His letter focuses on two primary issues confronting the church at the time. You see, some rogue teachers and preachers were infiltrating the church with some bad teaching. On one side, there were those who were using philosophical arguments indicating Jesus was not really who he said he was, i.e., the living embodiment of God – Immanuel. On the other side were those who said that if you want to know Jesus, you had to know “the secret handshake”; in other words, these folks taught in order to have a relationship with Jesus, you must be taught secret knowledge about Jesus. It’s known as the ancient heresy, Gnosticism.

Now at the end of all of Paul’s letters, he takes time to give special encouragement to the letter’s recipients and circles back around to highlight one more time the letter’s key themes. Today, let’s read Colossians 4:2-6. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Colossians 4:2-6

2Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 3At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, 4so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.

5Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.[1]

His final thoughts to the Church is Colossae are evangelistic in nature and he is urging the community to focus on prayer. It’s not just prayers in general but prayers for the Spirit’s alertness as to when and as to how to share the winsome news of Jesus Christ. Specifically, the Church is called to pray for Paul and his companions that the door of opportunity will be thrown open for them to share that faith even though he is in prison.

The second issue he reminds them of is to be mindful of how they, the Church, present themselves to the larger community. He realizes that people outside the Church will not only judge the Church but more importantly, will judge Jesus by how those of us in the Church act and through what we say or don’t say and how we say it.  The Message paraphrase has verses five and six reads,

Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.

American Christianity, insert Church, provides two good contemporary examples of the Church’s failure to make the most of the opportunity in speaking the winsome Gospel of renewal to our culture with appropriate words and with grace. This summer, our sisters and brothers in the Southern Baptist Convention declared that women in the church are to be seen and not heard. Sadly, women can teach Sunday school and head up the nursery but god forbid they stand in the pulpit and declare the Gospel! If they do, the church will be kicked out of the convention. The two largest Baptist churches in the nation left because they valued women’s leadership.[2]

The other scenario where the Church has not conducted itself wisely with seasoned, appropriate words of grace is with the gay community. The church for centuries has failed miserably and has exchanged the winsome words of love and Christ’s reconciling work for words that build walls of exclusion and hate. There have been former pastors of this very church in years past who had the gall to look at a gay man in the eyes and tell him, “You need to leave this church. Your kind isn’t welcome here.” When I heard this man share his story with me, my heart broke.  What does it communicate to the world when the church says it welcomes the broken, the homeless, the sick, the aged, the migrant but if you’re gay or different than me, there’s no room for you here? I thank God those days are over in this church! One of the things I leave here grateful for is that under our time together, First Presbyterian has become a welcome and affirming congregation for all of God’s children. We are a church whose members follow the banner of Jesus Christ; in the wake created by following Jesus together, we learn to love and better understand one another as we go. The flag we will rally behind, whether you’re gay or straight, is the banner of the Cross of Christ as we take it out in the world in mission!

So, these are some of Paul’s final thoughts directed to the church in Colossae. I want to offer you, beloved, my final thoughts to you. What is it I want you to remember after I am gone?

Whether or not you were aware of it, for the last almost six years I have been sharing the core values I wanted you to marinate in while I was here. If you were astute, you recognized that I do things a little differently as a pastor. As Paul spoke of seasoning our words with salt, I want to share with you six different seasonings I add to every worship service in order to marinate and season your soul with what I think are priorities in our walking the Way of Jesus. This is how I personally, week after week, try to make the most of every opportunity to declare the winsome Word wisely.

How do I start every worship service? Do you remember? “Shhh. Listen!” I always call for us as a community to become silent, still, and expectant. “Shhh. Listen! The Holy Spirit is in this place!” Each week I begin our worship service by reminding us we are now entering God’s time and we are to be alert and aware of the Presence of the Spirit in our midst. I want us to prepare ourselves to expect God to show up and make a difference in our lives.

The second bit of seasoning I add each Sunday is to then remind us of whose Presence we are in: In the Name of the One who is, who was, and who is to come, grace and peace to you in the Name of Jesus Christ, good morning. First, I call us to be silent but then I remind us whom we are to look for: Jesus. We are not looking for “Six Principles for Spiritual Living” or anything like that; no, Church, we are called to look for and encounter our Lord Jesus. Our faith begins and ends with the man from Nazareth.

The third subtle value I have tried to instill in you is that when we say the Lord’s Prayer, we are to end it on a high note, not a low one. It’s a powerful prayer straight from the lips of our Lord and so often Church, we pray it, “for thine is the kingdom, power, and glory…amen.” Friends, the early church made a point of adding doxology at the end of this prayer! It’s to end on a high note because it so succinctly reminds us how we are to live our lives in God and with one another. “For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, FOREVER! AMEN!” It ends on an expectant upbeat!

This fourth one is probably the one you will most remember. How do I greet you from the pulpit each week? “Good morning, saints! Good morning, sinners!” I had one man tell me that my saying this week after week was hackneyed; I smiled and said that’s okay – you’re still in one of the groups!”

Why do I say this each week? Is it simply to get a chuckle out of you before I start preaching? Nope. I greet you that way because I want those of you who feel all high and mighty in your faith to remember you are as much a broken mess as everyone else. I want to those of you who feel you are worthless and unlovable to remember you are a dearly loved adopted child of God. The Church is a microcosm of the larger world but with this one difference: Christ-followers understand and acknowledge who we are as redeemed sinners and that we stand equal with everyone in need of God’s loving grace.

The fifth and sixth values I’ve tried to marinate you in are usually thrown in the rue together. One is an invitation. The other is a blessing. I learned this from the late W. Frank Harrington of the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. I worked as one of his associates decades ago. He was not the easiest person to work for or get along with, but he did love the Church and those who worked for him learned a lot.

Frank always gave an invitation at the end of the service. We Presbyterians might grumble that it feels too ‘Baptist’ and we are above the need to belabor the obvious that we are invited to come and walk with Jesus. What I have learned over the years is there are very few Mainline pastors, albeit Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, or Episcopalian that invite people to contemplate an offer to follow Jesus or learn what that even means. It doesn’t have to mean Reid plays fifteen stanzas of Just As I Am until someone throws in the towel because they have had enough and grovels down the center aisle and gets “slain in the Spirit.” No! It’s just a simple invitation to you that says, “If your week really sucked, if you are in crisis at home or at work, if you are in the depths of grief and are at your wits-end, Jesus is gently knocking at the door of your heart, and he wants to come and in and visit with you.” In training younger pastors, I remind them if they do this, they will speak to someone in the congregation who now knows it is safe to come and talk about their faith and learn about Jesus.

Coupled with my invitation each week, I give a blessing. The final bit of seasoning I pull out of my cupboard is to declare God’s blessing upon you. “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord shine his face upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face upon you and smile brightly, gently, giving you the peace of Jesus Christ.” 

It drives me nuts when I hear pastors screw up this great Aaronic blessing[3] when they say, “MAY the Lord bless you and keep you. MAY the Lord Shine his face…MAY the Lord turn his face upon you…” One, they’re quoting it incorrectly but more importantly, they are taking a declarative charge and are making it just a mere possibility.

“God might or might not bless you and keep you. God might or might not shine his face or lift his face upon you.”   Andrew Pervus, Professor of Reformed Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary says we have taken a declarative blessing and have watered it down into a vacuous optative maybe or maybe not. By misquoting Moses from the Book of Numbers, pastors have blessed congregations with nothing more than a big, empty “Good luck! Because God may or may not be with you!”

Beloved, I want you to know that you know that you know that as you leave worship, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost’s blessing is wrapped around you like a warm coat on a cold winter’s night. There’s no maybe about it.

Shhh! Listen! The Spirit of God is in this place! Saints and sinners, with a spirited doxology of gratitude and love, it’s been a privilege to serve you in the Name of the One Who is, Who was, and Who is to come. Amen.

© 2023 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1]New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] See https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/southern-baptist-convention-bans-female-pastors-ejecting-several-churches-in-the-process#:~:text=Southern%20Baptist%20Convention%20bans%20female%20pastors%2C%20ejecting%20several%20churches%20in%20the%20process,-Jun%2015%2C%202023&text=The%20Southern%20Baptist%20Convention%20moved,leadership%20roles%20in%20its%20churches.

[3] Numbers 6:23-26. The great priestly blessing.

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Forget the Soil; Let’s Talk About the Seed! Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Posted on July 17, 2023 by patrick h wrisley

This morning we are picking back up in the Gospel account from Matthew. Go ahead and turn in your Bible to Matthew 13 and we are going to start with verse one. Matthew 13 is a highly packed and dense chapter filled with7 parables, 7 brief Stories that outline for the disciples what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.

The Kingdom of heaven is a term Matthew likes to use when describing Jesus’ work among us; instead of giving a profound theological lecture on what the Kingdom of heaven is like, Jesus uses storytelling to get his point across. Aristotle, the great philosopher, taught his students that before you teach, give a speech, or engage in discourse, the speaker must know his or her audience and speak to them in ways that they will understand. Well, this is precisely what Jesus is doing in Matthew 13. He uses parables, brief sayings whose content is quickly relatable to the common person. Jesus is telling Stories about farming and nature itself that his audience could connect with. Yet, parables are funny things. Sometimes they are easy to understand while at other times, they cause the listener to give a doggie head tilt and force them to dig deeper than the prima facia meaning of the text. In a parable, the Story always points to something deeper than what is seen at face value. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

                  13.1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.2Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow.4And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!” —

             18“Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”[1]

As far as parables go, Jesus really begins with a softball. We do not have to dig too hard to learn that Jesus describes four different ways people respond to the Kingdom of heaven. First, there are those whose lives are too busy or full to even hear the Stories; all their cares, the little birds of their life, come down like pigeons who walk around at their feet snatching up anything that happens to fall to the ground.

Second, there are those rocky people who hear about the Kingdom of heaven but have no interior root system that helps interpret for them what Jesus and the Kingdom are like. To put it another way, these are the people I call Chreasters, those people who come to Church on Christmas and Easter. They do not try to grow their faith whatsoever but simply come to church as part of a social expectation placed upon them by their family or culture “that it’s the right thing to do.” These are the parents who make promises at their children’s baptisms to raise their kids up in the church and teach them the doctrines of faith in order to help them learn about Jesus but then never show up to church again after their kid’s baptism.

Next, there are those people who receive the seed, but the Good News about Jesus and the whimsical Kingdom of heaven gets choked out by the cares of the world. Instead of pushing roots down and out to find nourishment, these people succumb to the pressures of the day, the job, the kids, the finances, or their neighbors, and their faith is choked out like a fighter in the ring for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Fourth and finally, there are those who receive the seed, make room for the seed to take root and grow, care for the seed, and watch it produce an incredible harvest. The seed gets the opportunity to do what it was designed to do and that is multiply and yield new life! Jesus reminds us that these are the people who hear and understand the message and put it into practice.

Let’s pause a moment. The way we typically hear this parable is to personally identify with one of the soils in the Story. We hear the parable read and start clicking off in our head, “OK, I’m not the hard-pack road; I’m not rocky and have depth; I turn to God when I’m in a scrape and don’t let the cares of life choke my faith; and, lastly, by god, I’m in church this morning listening to a sermon, so I obviously have good soil and demonstrate faith to others!” I always find it funny how people hear this Story and for the most part, identify and place themselves in the “good soil” category simply because they are doing churchy things. I have to chuckle because that is exactly what the Pharisees and scribes and all the uptight religious folk thought in Matthew 12 preceding our text this morning. The churchy-folk were put off when they found out Jesus was really talking about them and as we read in Matthew 12:14, “But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”

This morning, I invite us to hear this parable from a different perspective. Instead of hearing it and applying it to ourselves individually, let’s hear it as I think Matthew originally intended. Remember, Matthew was writing his Gospel for members of the early Christian church. It’s a Story meant to tell second-generation Christians who Jesus was and what he came to do as well as to paint the picture of how the Church is to keep the Story alive and growing in the community. The First Nation’s Version of the New Testament captures this beautifully in verse 19; it’s a translation that was written by the Indigenous peoples of our country. It reads, “The seed in this story is the message from the Great Spirit about his Good Road.”[2] Our indigenous brothers and sisters call the “Kingdom of heaven” in a way that cuts through all theological double-talk. The Kingdom of heaven Jesus speaks of is called the “good road.”  The seed in the Story is the message, the Word, from God about living and moving upon the Good Road now, and it’s written to and for the Church!

Church, how well are we walking, living, and moving along the good road? What type of dent in the world are we knocking out for the Kingdom of heaven right here in Broward County and beyond? Church, how well are we abiding by Jesus’ first word in today’s Story?

The very first word Jesus utters is this: Hey! Pay attention! Listen! (13.3) He then repeats in verse 18, “Listen up!” Church, he’s talking to us. Dale Bruner, a retired professor from Whitworth University in Washington, says today’s parable about the seed and the soil gives the moral imperative that the church’s primary responsibility in life is, “to listen with one’s life to the Seed of the Word of God.”[3]

Church, are we listening? Are we giving room for the seed of the Kingdom, the Good Road, to find root and nourishment? Have American Christians become so dull to a living faith they ceased being Church at all? Church, have we become too rocky and impenetrable that we are reticent to give up “the way we always did it” and allow new seeds to be planted and grow? Church, have we become too focused on how many butts are in the pews and what our financial condition is that we are choking out God’s exciting, winsome plans for planting the Good Road through us? Church, are we collectively and are you individually as a part of the community, cultivating deep into your spiritual soil so that when the Seed of Christ’s Word lands in your heart and life it will find the conditions to grow and multiply?

Bruner sardonically reminds us, “Matthew’s Jesus is aware that probably the major scandal in Christianity, not least for Christians themselves, is that comparatively few live as such.” In other words, our Story reminds us that only 25% of us who comprise the Church even get it.[4]  As another commentator writes, “A seed contains forces of life and transformation. It encapsulates potential; but as potential, its actual future is open.”[5] Church, what open future shall we grow?

Church, forget the soil. Let’s focus on the seed, the gospel of Jesus that promises we can live on God’s Good Road right now. Church, let’s put ourselves in the character of the sower in our Story. How well are we with all reckless abandon throwing seed of the Kingdom upon every inch of ground we see leaving its growth to God’s Spirit? That, Church, is what we are called to hear. That’s what Jesus is demanding we listen to and act upon.

Back in the 1980s, scientists in Norway began storing seeds endemic to Norway in an abandoned coal mine on the island of Spitsbergen. Since that time, it has evolved to become the Svalbard Global Seed Vault where seeds from around the world are kept safe in order to protect the world’s global food supply.[6] Beloved, for too long, the Church has behaved as though we are a spiritual version of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, keeping the winsome seed of the Gospel, the Kingdom of heaven, the way of the Good Road, hidden and locked away for safekeeping. Beloved, our world is literally dying; the ocean temperature off our beach hit 98 degrees! Sea life cannot survive that long term. Our world is dying from wars and acts of hate and violence. Beloved, we need to open the doors and spread the Story of Jesus as winsomely, enthusiastically, and purposefully as possible! Oh, how the world needs Jesus!

And all of God’s sweet children say, Amen!

© 2023 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] First Nation’s Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021). See the article at https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/september/first-nations-version-indigenous-bible-ivp-translation-wild.html.

[3] Dale Frederick Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary. Vol. II: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), 8.

[4] Ibid., 19.

[5] Feasting on the Gospels–Matthew, Volume 1: A Feasting on the Word Commentary by Cynthia A. Jarvis, E. Elizabeth Johnson. See https://a.co/aUrHlrX.

[6]See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault. Accessed July 16, 2023.

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