6.16.24 Sunday Drive to Church

[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Pastor Wolf Mueller and this is the Sunday drive to church for Sunday, or what day is it? June 16. [00:00:11] The Pentecost a 8th Sunday and Pentecost proper six B, if you're paying attention to that kind of stuff. Beautiful. In fact, I would call this Sunday tree Sunday because the scripture passages are all, well, almost all about the picture of a tree. [00:00:30] This picture comes up in the Old Testament in the two parables from Jesus in the psalm as well. So we'll talk about that as well. But first, let's pray the collect for today. [00:00:42] This is in fact, did I say this is the jetlag edition of the Sunday drive to home? Sunday drive to church? I probably said it already and don't even remember. We just got back today. [00:00:54] If we've got some time at the end, I'll tell you about our adventure. We all, I think all 14, all 18 of us from St. Paul were booked on this beautiful direct flight to come home yesterday, and they canceled the flight. And so we were flung to the winds. Everyone in every different direction. I think we've all made it back to Austin. I'll tell you about that later. But more important stuff, the collect for this Sunday is the collect for the word. It's a collect that you'll recognize. We pray it often. [00:01:24] It's one of the collects that's included for the Vespers service. I pray it all the time before Bible studies. In fact, it was a collect composed for the Book of Common Prayer by Thomas Cramener, and he wrote it for the third Sunday in Advent, the Sunday that has romans 14 in it, that by the patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. [00:01:52] He wrote this collect for that Sunday, and the Anglicans call that Sunday word Sunday. We don't have that collect on that Sunday, but apparently we have it this Sunday. [00:02:02] It's a prayer that we would inwardly digest the word of God. Well, let's pray. Blessed Lord, since you have caused all holy scripture to be written for our learning, grant that we may so hear them read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. All right, we're into it on tree Sunday. The Old Testament is Ezekiel 17, beginning with verse 22, which is the Lord talking to his exiled people. Remember that Ezekiel was the prophet of exile by the rivers of Babylon. [00:02:45] 5586 Nebuchadnezzar comes and grabs all the people. In fact, three sieges of the people, the last great siege of Jerusalem being 586 and the destruction of the temple. And Nebuchadnezzar is carting all the people off to Babylon, or they're scattering all over, like Jeremiah is down to Egypt, and they're going kind of every which way, except for Jerusalem, hardly anybody is staying there. And so here's Ezekiel, who's preaching in exile. Remember, the big vision of Ezekiel is the throne of God with wheels on it, which is this great comfort that the Lord's presence can travel with the people into exile. It's also a warning that the Lord's comfort that the Lord's presence can leave, he can drive off. [00:03:36] But here he's talking about how he's going to grab the people and bring them out of exile with this beautiful picture of taking a clipping of a twig and planting it on a mountain. So can you imagine that you go to visit one place and you see a tree there, and you just take a clipping from that tree, and then you bring it home with you, and you plant it, and it starts to grow there. Thus says the Lord God, I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs, a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain, on the mountain height of Israel. I will plant it that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird in the shade of its branches. Birds of every sort will nest, and all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. [00:04:40] And here's the great preaching of law and gospel that is a theme through all the prophets and especially Ezekiel. He says, I bring low the high tree and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord. I have spoken. I will do it. The Lord is the one who lifts up the lowly and casts down the haughty. And so it is with this parable is that this, this branch, this high branch is humbled. But then it's planted on top of the mountain and it grows. So. So this is the picture of the church, first with the Lord bringing back his people to Jerusalem, but most especially with the Lord planting Jesus right there. [00:05:24] And I think the best picture of this twig planted on the mountain in Israel is the cross with Jesus hanging on it. In fact, if you wanted to. Can you imagine a picture like that? Here's the cross of Jesus. Jesus hanging a crucifix on Golgotha, and underneath it it says, I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. There is the church established in the death of Jesus, and then it expands to where all the birds are gathered into it. This is the picture of the Holy christian church, where people from every tribe and tongue and nation find refuge and peace. [00:06:05] So the Lord has established his church. All right, now that's going to be the basis of Jesus parable. In fact, we have two parables in mark, but let's first look at the psalm. I'm looking at psalm one here, and it says, oh, psalm one has this characteristic of putting two pictures before us. I think we've talked about psalm one on the Sunday drive to church podcast before, and of course, I never ever want to repeat myself. So you have to go back and find. No, I'm just goofing around. [00:06:43] But the picture of psalm one, so just to touch on it briefly, it's the contrast between, well, it's two pictures. On the one hand, there's this tree planted by a stream of water so that it's always watered and provided for, and its roots go down deep and the leaves are always green, and it's always bearing this abundant fruit when it's time for the harvest. That's one side. And then on the other side is the picture of the chaff that's like that flimsy kind of stuff that's around the husk of wheat that you have to kind of peel away to get to the kernel of the wheat. And the way they would get to the chaff is they would actually take the wheat and they'd hit it with these numb chuck like things, or walk on it or thresh it or whatever. And this little shell would, would come loose, and then they'd throw the grain in the air and the chaff would just blow away. It's so light, you think, like a dandelion seed or something like that. So on the one hand is this tree that's rooted, and on the other hand is this chaff that's that. So light it floats with the slightest breeze. And the psalmist says, the man who delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in season. Its leaf doesn't wither all that he does prosper, the wicked. On the other hand, they're like the chaff that the wind drives away, so the wicked won't stand in the judgment. Sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. [00:08:31] So there's that contrast of the, of the, of that fruitful tree, which is the one who meditates on the word versus the wicked that are just blown away by the slightest breeze. Now that that tree picture is going to continue, so let's skip the epistle now, we want to come back to it, but let's go to this mark passage. [00:08:53] Mark chapter four, verses 26 to 34. Now remember, we're kind of settling into the summer session of year B of the three year lectionary. So, oh, I don't know, back in the seventies, sixties, they, they started this three year lectionary, and it was, it was hanging around before, but it really kind of latched on after Vatican II. Anyway, it's three years and it's your ABC, and year a really leans into Matthew, b into Mark, c into Luke, and John comes in, especially with the festive seasons and also to supplement year b with Mark. So we get a lot of John also this year. [00:09:35] But now that we're past the festive season in the church year with Advent and Christmas and Epiphany and Lent and Easter and Pentecost and Trinity, now that we're into the summer season, into what's sometimes called ordinary time, we're going to really sort of read through the Gospel of Mark. So you'll notice that we're Mark chapter three, mark chapter four, mark chapter five. We're just kind of going through and picking up all those parts of Mark that we didn't get to before. And really, as it's walking through Mark, it's picking the Old Testament lessons to match. So the two parables that Jesus is going to tell here, when the lectionary committee was thinking about what to do, they were like, oh, here's the tree theme. And so they looked for that preaching in the prophets. They looked for that in the psalms. The epistle is a little bit different. The theme of the epistle is not draw. They're kind of doing a continual reading in the epistle as well. So if the theme from the epistle and the theme from the Gospel matches up, it's because it's all from the Bible and the Holy Spirit is inspiring at all. But really they're sort of marching their way. And we're in two corinthians. So you'll notice sometimes during the summer that the epistle lesson and the gospel lesson don't have a lot of thematic relationships, and that's by design. They're trying to do this, what they call lectio continuum. Just try to read through the text so you can sort of get your head around it. So you'll notice that we're doing that with two corinthians, and then we'll be on to another epistle. And we're just kind of working through them. We're not reading every word in them. They'll skip passages here and there. And it's interesting to note what they skip as well. I think that's also very interesting, but that's why there's not as strong as a connection thematically between the epistles and the gospel. Anyway, Mark, chapter four, verses 26 34. And Jesus said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how the earth produces by itself. First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain and the ear. But when the grain is ripe at once, he puts in the blade, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Now, this is an interesting thing. It's not often that Mark has something unique. In other words, when you're comparing Mark with Matthew and Luke, it's most often that you're looking at the unique things in Matthew or the unique things in Luke. Mark has mostly shared stuff. But this kingdom, this parable of the kingdom being like a man who sows seed and then just sleeps and it grows, and he doesn't know how, is unique to the gospel of Mark. And it's really a quite beautiful and simple parable. It's good for us to think about. Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a man is like a farmer who puts the seed in the ground and then it grows, and he doesn't know how it grows. And this is so important because it's what this kind of here's just a little pet peeve of mine is that there's so many experts who come around to the church and present a formula about how the church grows. [00:13:03] Here's why the church is shrinking. Here's how the church should grow. Here's what you're supposed to do. And that is directly against the wisdom of this parable. Jesus says the farmer doesn't have any idea how the grain grows. It just does. And so it is in the kingdom we're supposed to sow the seed. Preach the word, and then the Lord will give the growth. This is how Paul says it when he's talking to the Corinthians. I planted apollos watered, but God gave the growth. It's God who does it. And so it's not our business to figure out how the church grows. In fact, it's not even our business to figure out how the Holy spirit works. Faith, he just tells us faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So our job is to get the word out there as much as we can and to press the word into people's hearts and minds and ears, especially when the Lord's word is answering the questions that they're asking, and to, and to get it to people. And then it grows. [00:14:09] It's a beautiful parable. And then Jesus has another parable. With what can we compare the kingdom of God? Or what parable shall we use for it? It's like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds of the earth. Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make their nest in its shade. [00:14:29] This is grabbing that picture from Ezekiel. And Jesus is saying, the kingdom of heaven is like this, remembering that he is that plant that shoot that comes from the stump of Jesse. That's how Isaiah preached it. And that he becomes this huge tree that gives shade and rest. How beautiful. And then the epistle. This is from two corinthians five, one to ten, and then eleven to 17. Optional beautiful texts here. The first is Paul talking about death and this section, one corinthians five, beginning with the first verse, is one of the most helpful verses about death and what happens when we die. We know that death is the separation of body and soul. We put the body aside. The soul goes to the face of Jesus. But Paul says that doesn't mean that we're naked. Like we're putting away the body. So we're unclothed, but actually we're further clothed. He says, we know that if the tent, our earthly home, is destroyed, and he's talking about the body, here we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we're still in this tent, we groan, being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. How about that? Mortality swallowed up by life. [00:16:02] He who has prepared us for this very thing as God, who's given us the Spirit as a guarantee. This is a common understanding of the Holy Spirit as a down payment for the Resurrection, which is a beautiful picture, because part of the glory of Adam and Eve is that they possessed the Holy Spirit in full measure in that perfection that they had at the beginning, and they lost the Spirit in the fall. But now it's being restored to us by baptism and by our christian life. And then it talks about how we all have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We talked about that a few weeks ago with the athanasian creed. And then, in fact, he says, we all have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And he says in verse eight, we are of good courage and would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. [00:16:47] Paul knows that to die is to face the Lord. But he's not afraid of that. He knows that because of the blood of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins, that the day of judgment for the Christian is a day of reward and blessing. He longs for that day. [00:17:05] And then he says, he goes on to say, for the love of Christ controls us. This is down in verse 14, because we have concluded this. Now, this is an amazing thing. [00:17:15] Paul is going to say that the death of Jesus is going to shape how we view everybody else. [00:17:24] We've concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore, all have died, and he died for all that. Those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised. [00:17:42] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. [00:17:51] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Now, what does this mean? [00:18:02] When we think about our neighbor or the other person, how do we think of them? I mean, most often we think of them according to their vocation. So that person is my friend, or that person is my pew neighbor who sits next to me in church, or that person is my actual neighbor, or that person is the guy who sells me beans at the grocery store or whatever. [00:18:28] But Paul says, no, we think about each other differently. When we look at every person, we think about them as created by God, bearing the image of God, as fallen, bearing the image of Adam. But then he says, also as died for by Christ, so that every single person that I interact with, that I talk to, that I've, that I pass on the side in the sidewalk, every single person that I interact with is died for by Christ. Christ died for all. So we no longer regard anyone according to the flesh. [00:19:07] And for those who are baptized, they are those who will be raised in glory. [00:19:13] So that every single person, when you get to church, every single person around you, all these people who are baptized, these are the ones who will be radiant with the glory of life and Christ and his power on the last day. [00:19:31] And we now begin to regard each other not just according to creation and fall, which is already great, but also according to the death and the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection that is to come. [00:19:48] If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. [00:19:56] This is eschatological language, language of the last day. And Paul says it's already happened. I mean, we think that we long to be further clothed, like Paul talks about, but because we are baptized, because we belong to Jesus, that already is ours, and this is how we regard one another. [00:20:15] It's amazing. [00:20:17] Just amazing. All right. Hymn of the week is creator spirit, by whose aid. This is an old hymn. [00:20:25] Robanus Morris wrote this. He died in 856. [00:20:32] Creator spirit, by whose aid the world's foundation first were laid. Come visit every humble mind. Come pour your joys on humankind from sin and sorrow. Set us free that we, your living temples be so. This, it's a prayer. As all these Pentecost hymns are prayers that the Holy Spirit would come. Now this brings a question. Why are we always praying for the Holy Spirit to come? Because don't we think that the Holy Spirit came already when we were baptized? And this is one of the mysteries of the christian life, that the Holy Spirit, and this has to do with the very essence of the Holy Spirit. As the one who proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is proceeding. That the Holy Spirit has come to us in baptism, given us the gift of faith. He dwells in us. We are his temple temples of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in first corinthians, so the Holy Spirit is in us. No one. [00:21:28] We can't believe for a single moment and thank the Lord for all his gifts, for a single moment without the Holy Spirit working that in our hearts. And yet we are always praying that the Holy Spirit would come and fill us and, and strengthen us and give us his wisdom and his gifts so that the Holy Spirit is always here and also on the way and especially on the way as needed for the vocations that we're called to. So we've talked about this, especially on Pentecost, how the Spirit is a spirit of order, and so the Holy Spirit has ordered us, has put us in this world to love and serve our neighbor, and that the Holy Spirit doesn't leave us as orphans to do it on our own strength. But rather the Holy Spirit comes to fill us with his strength and his gifts so that we might be able to serve and love our neighbor in these ways. So it's a beautiful, beautiful hymn, all these, I mean, look at all these Easter or these Pentecost hymns. Come Holy Ghost, creator blessed come Holy Ghost. Oh, same hymn. Come Holy Ghost, God and lord. That's the Luther one. Holy Spirit, light divine, shine upon this heart of mine come down, o divine love Holy Spirit, the dove sent from heaven, etcetera. All these Pentecost hymns are these beautiful prayers to the Holy Spirit. And they're reminders. This is a good thing to remember, that we pray to God the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that while most of our prayers are most often prayed to God the Father, they are also prayed to God the Son and God the Spirit. And this is a good reminder of that. All right, that's what you got. Looking forward to you. [00:23:12] Not right now. Look at this, 23 minutes. All right, 1 minute. I'll tell you the story. We were supposed to fly, it's Saturday, I'm recording this. [00:23:19] We're supposed to fly from London to Austin yesterday, on Friday, and we got to the airport and that flight was canceled. So they were half rebooking us all on totally different flights. So who knows? Some people went through Chicago, some people went through Houston, some people went through, a couple people went to LA, from London to LA to Chicago to Austin. [00:23:45] We went to New York and we were supposed to fly Friday night to get in at midnight. But we were sitting there waiting for that flight and it kept getting later and later. 839 o'clock, 930. 10:00 12:00 1255 and then 06:00 a.m. this morning. And then we got a text at 230 this morning saying, your flight has been canceled. Nothing about a new flight. So we finally, at 330, called and they said, oh, we changed the flight number, but you're leaving at six. So it got, got in around ten this morning. So what a wild trip. Anyway, we made it back. God be praised, and looking forward to seeing you all in just a few minutes when you get to church. So God be praised for his gift and his kindness. I'll tell you a little bit more about some of the visits that we made for the churches in England and Ireland. Oh, wow. And Scotland tomorrow morning at Sunday school. And then Lord Willin will also be back into Hebrews, picking up at Hebrews, chapter nine, verse nine, where we did our long excursion on the conscience. We'll go back to that text and pick it up there. All right, see you soon. God be praised.