More On The Spiderweb

Comments to the spiderweb analogy:

Reader #1:  “What a lovely metaphor - I like it!  I don't know if this fits, but from a different perspective: the web gives life (to the spider), and also represents the interconnected of all things - the cycle of life and death (the spider needs the web to survive - and the flies and other things that get caught in it are part of that.”

Reader #2:  “Wow,  This is really awesome!  It is such a good comparison.  I believe that many of us have been connected and unconnected from God's web at times in our lives.”

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8)

Our family entomologist, reader #1, gives the perfect biblical metaphor for the truth that Paul writes about in Roman 8 ....nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. 

Yesterday God was the spider -- the master builder of the journey call life.  The one who connects all of his creation together with him.  God was also the web that draws people into his way of living.

It is a picture, of the interconnectedness, of the original design for God’s plan, on how we were created to exist in the world.  It is a perfect image of the paths of life.  All moving out from the center.  Like the spider, we all need the web to survive.   And God needs us for the truth of his love to survive in this crazy world.

What I particularly like about Claudio’s -- the family entomologist -- description is that the flies, and other creatures, get “caught” in the web of life and “are part of it.”  

That is how it happened centuries ago when Jesus came to correct the Israelites exclusive attitudes about outsiders -- the so called “unclean” of the world.  He came to bring them all together in God’s web.  

To build on that,  people -- creatures of all kinds -- get caught by the attraction to God’s love expressed and lived out in the world by all his children.  

The unfortunate thing is that often what others see — observe — in God’s people is not always love.  Rather,  they see and hear a lot of judgment, and rules, and fingers pointing.  Finger pointing at “sinners.”  That is, those who don’t ‘believe the way they “should,”  according to the finger pointers way of thinking.  

Those creatures hide the wonderful web of life,  They throw a shadow of over it.   A dark shadow that clouds the delicate formation designed by the master builder. 

When that happens it is more important than ever, for those caught in the web, to live more connected to the precious truth of God’s gracious love and forgiveness.   By living that truth out-loud, in gracious and loving ways everyday, through their actions and ways of speaking.

  

To be clear, it is a tough position to be caught in at times..  But the master builder shows us how to live with his ever persistent manner of building .  Ever so slowly and surely binding all things together, patiently waiting at the center for the cycles of life to unfold.  Holding tight to all those who get caught in the fold of his gracious web.

The Spiderweb Of Life

24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good (Gen. 1:24-25)

My mind is playing with one of God's tiny creations -- the spider and its delicate looking web.  And how God uses the possibilities of what tiny offers.  

Today's blog will give you some insight into how this pastor’s mind works early in the morning when it is trying to listens to God.  

I am thinking about spiderwebs; because when I took my dog Jake out this morning to water the lawn, I saw a spiderweb on the hedge by my sidewalk.  It was almost perfectly symmetrical.  It is amazing to me how a thing so small is able to construct something so perfect.  Spiderwebs have always fascinated me.  They are so dedicate looking and yet so tough to break without getting caught. 

So I came into the house and googled how a spider web is created.

So, you may be wondering, what does this have to do with God and faith?  Well, for one thing, everything on earth has to do with God!!!    But the way the spider builds her web kind of reminds me of how God’s Spirit grows our faith from birth to death.  Starting from a tiny seed, that becomes bigger and stronger, grow ever so slowly through life towards death.  

When I look at a spiderweb I see the movement of time it take to build -- or weave.  As all of lifes experiences and struggle, building one beside the other.  A conglomeration of many knoxs and lengths that are woven together into one’s life.

What isn't usually seen, by the human eye, is how the spider has carefully placed the structure points together with the bridge threads, anchor thread, frame threads and other points to secure the success — the strength — of her structure.   

The web is usually constructed at night in most cases.  

My analogy, in all of this, is that the spider is God. Who places each structural points to secure the web.  The center is God’s foundation point. The web itself is our life. The circles represent how God moves us through our lives with his careful assistance. The circular shape and connecting threads are the path of our living.  At the center of the web God holds it all together.

God is also the web in my imagination. 

When we stay connected to that perfectly built web of bridge threads, anchor thread, and frame threads. And if we don’t try to break the cycles -- our life is secure in God’s care.  But even when we try to break out, from time to time God, like the web, is there to pull us back in.

I don’t know, I think that gives us a fairly good imagination about how our faith unfold.

The Kingdom Of God Is A Messy Mix

One reader commented on my blog thought from yesterday.

Reader:  Maybe all these references about small things making a big difference means I can quite working so hard and worrying so much about whether or not I am faithful. Taking a blessed breath and sitting quietly letting God given ingredients work might be a better choice. Stressing and striving are exhausting.

=====================================

By golly I think you’ve Got it!  

You have hit the nail smack on the head!  So, every morning tell yourself just that!  Because you are correct! 

Now we can talk about this next part of Matthew 13 where Jesus talks about the other side of the story.  What happens after all of life’s choice are made.  After we have worried about our lack of perfectness.  After we have decided the imperfectness of others.  After we have tried to take on God’s job of working his possibilities, in that  tiny seeds of faith, he planted in us from the very beginning of our lives.  

Then, remember the temptations Jesus faced just after he was baptized?  All four temptations  were to replace God.  When we judge ourselves and others we yield to those same temptation.

47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."( Matt. 13:47-51)

51 "Have you understood all this?”  Jesus asks his closest disciples.  

Now remember, all of these little parables used unacceptable analogies to talk about what the kingdom of heaven was like.  Which tells me that we are living in a world full of fish of every kind! That is what the kingdom of heaven is like.  Lot and lots of imperfect kinds of humans!  The good, the bad and the ugly!  All mixed together until the harvest.  So, we have to be extremely careful about being the judge of what is “bad” — “evil”  and “good” —  or “righteous”. 

It is not our job to divided the catch.  The angels will take care of that one day.  We are here to live in the amazing grace of God!  We are here to trust in his activity in our lives.  Trust that he will keep us with him;  guiding and supporting our desire to be his child. Trust/faith is the only thing that counts!  Not worry,  not striving,  not working hard to be good.  

What makes up the kingdom of heaven is this messy mix in us of weed and wheat.  

That is what the kingdom of heaven is like!

A Call To Correct My Wording

One reader corrects my words:  My apology to the readers of this blog for once again exaggerating the facts. 


"The majority, of our population, is drawn more to the exaggerated embellishment of awful."

That's a sentence that came off the page and caused me to ponder this morning!

I wonder.

Over and over I hear (or read) of people tuning out on the news.  Of being tired, filled up, and frustrated with the news.  I wonder about the ‘majority’ being drawn to exaggerated embellishment of the awful.  Is it truly that many of us, or has the awfulness caused so many to stop listening.  To reject the awfulness of reading day after day.  So some at least turn away.  I wonder how many.

Then I feel the power of reporting the awfulness of the activities along our border.  I see the response: the gatherings of people who react to, to think about the awfulness in positive ways - speaking out.  Standing up. Saying No.  I see that good people do take action in the presence of awfulness.  They do respond.

Some try to say this awfulness is exaggerated.  Or worse - it’s all lies. But the awful truth, the facts, speak otherwise.  Some are drawn to find out more about the awfulness.  Some are shocked to realize it is happening closer to home than they realized.  Some are moved to take part in saying No.  Sometimes being drawn to the awfulness brings about such love that it shocks those who are so sure of their opposing views.

Maybe the awfulness we are drawn to causes us to look inside to our own assumptions, views, ideas.

Just thoughts this morning.

What Difference Does It Make?

47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."( Matt. 13:47-51)

So what have we learned about the kingdom of heaven these last few blogs?  What have we learned from the tiny seed of a weed, the leavening granules of yeast, treasures and pearls? 

Has any of that caused your mind to wonder?   

Or maybe the question is would these stories about the greatest kingdom, the largest territory -- the place of God -- make the nightly news?  Would  these stories, with no kings or corrupt leaders or military might, or silver or diamonds or expensive things be of interest to the general public?  Just stories about common things and common ordinary people baking bread, or  worrying about weed invested fields.  Even have a possibility of making national head lines?

I suppose that if you were a great journalist,  you might write stories of the terroristic action of the invasive mustard seed’s success.   Or the corruptive take over, of the bread flour, by the yeast intruder.  Possibly a  miraculous story about the of one tiny seed, or grain of yeast, polluting the entire universe.  But still, it would fall short of the human imagination for the dramatic.  

The majority, of our population, is drawn more to the exaggerated embellishment of awful. 

How do stories about that which grows in secret where no one can perceive its activity — its possibility — tweak the attention of our population today?  Or, what would make the kingdom of heaven meaningful in our diverse and complicated culture?

I’ll ask again!  So what have we learned about the kingdom of heaven?  What have we learned, that is, that can truly makes a difference?

What Is The True Treasure?

44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.(Matt.13:44-46)

We have here the human search!  

The search to find something that will solve all our problems, and being to our lives what we have been looking for happiness -- peace, joy, calm -- and financial security.  
                          More than enough.  
                                                        And more.  

That one thing that will take away all worry and challenges in life.

That has been  the quest, of the human-soul, since Adam and Eve bit into the fruit of that forbidden tree.   
                                       The pursuit of happiness.  
                                           The quest for knowledge. The search for meaning.

The interesting thing here is that in the discovery of a treasure, and finding the pearl, or getting the father's ring, rendered nothing else.  Just an object, something to hold on to.  

It says:  he went and sold all that he had and bought it. a he went and sold all that he had.  Everything he had to get this one precious object.  

Interesting!  

The point of these parables, about the kingdom of God, is that it is worth more. More than all we can ever possess. 
                                                   That is the treasure  
                                                       It alone is worth everything.  
                                     

Try selling that idea to a culture that thrives on greed and power.  A humanity hungry for getting a head, being on the top of the ladder and having all the best toys!  

Jesus will never ever make the most likely to succeed list.  

Who wants to follow a guy who talks against the worldview? 

Who tells us to share what we have; and to be sure to look out for the other     
guy?  
        Who tells us: 
                           To forgive others who hurt you!
                                Take time to smell the roses!  
                                     That the simplest of needs are enough!
                                           To stop working so hard for what doesn’t matter!  
                             
                                  
You know, the interesting thing is, the least likely choice for living on this earth, is the most precious.  

Our ultimate security, peace and calm is found in the God Jesus came to teach us about.  

There is no power, no source, no hope more real than the God who created it all.

We have it all! 

And yet we keep on searching! 

Interesting!

Tiny Can Make Big And Bigger

I am still not finished with yesterdays blog.  But I had this response to my visit to Jesus parables and want to honor it.  

"The mustard seed charm with the verse was the first one I received upon Confirmation.  Comforting to know that even that little bit of faith can get us through.  Think I will start to rely on the little bit of faith that I seem to have now and perhaps it will grow with a little faith from me and a lot of help from God."

I was also given that tiny symbol of God’s precious promise as a little girl.  I had it around my neck for years.  Now, as I think about it, I can’t remember what ever happened to it.  

Faith does not have to be strong or big.  Just there in its own way.  God is just grateful that we have faith no matter how large or small.  That is part of what Jesus is referring to in these parables — the power of small.  The other day we heard the power of the mustard seed.  Today we hear about yeast.

33 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." 

We use yeast all of the time.  Right?  In bread, pizza dough, cakes etc.  We don’t even think about it, unless it doesn’t work.  As long as it does what we desire we’re good.  However in Jesus day, and before,  yeast was a not so desirable ingredient.  

The Greek word for yeast is ‘zyme'.  Zyme is a corrupting agent.   Something that is unclean, not pure.  And runs parallel to moral impurity.  Yeast was not to be used in Jewish food in any way.

The other day we read that Jesus used the mustard seed — a weed producing element — to refer to the kingdom of heaven.  Now he uses the sinful little granules of yeast to do the same.  Both the tiny seed and the tiny granules make bigger!  Both were undesirable to the Jewish faith.  

The point in both parables is that it doesn’t take big to make bigger.  That small can make big, and maybe even faster.  That tiny can create possibility and change.

The people of the Jewish faith would instantly have paid  attention to both of these unlikely analogies.  They would not have appreciated either.  We in todays world don’t even give it a second thought.  They are both considered almost generic, with no real influence in our thinking.  When actually we might be wise to pay attention.  These two tiny elements help us to finally understand the potency of a small, but sincere, faith.  

I have used this quote before from Mother Teresa: “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”  

I am thinking that one of things Jesus was getting at was that all of us, with our tiny faith, can make the kingdom of heaven grow — come alive.  Maybe not as fast as the mustard seed grows or as yeast grows; but grow none-the-less.

Because without the actions of the faithful down through the centuries God’s Kingdom would have died.  When we act, and speak, with God’s love in our hearts others take notice.  And that is one way the kingdom grows!

It is this love -- this faith -- that seems to be missing in our national activity today.

A Call For Protest

I received this message in my email this morning:

“This is what is on my mind these days.  Yesterday was quite an experience.

The press reported “several hundred” people were at this interfaith vigil in Sheridan.  My first impression at being part of this was, “we are free to do this”  My second realization was that this freedom can so easily and swiftly be taken away.  This was a positive peaceful experience, but landed hard on my mind in the middle of the night and even more today.  It’s all so wrong.

A little of what was officially announced at the 2-hour vigil at the Sheridan federal prison yesterday:

123 men were moved to the federal prison in Sheridan in mid-May. They came from more than 16 countries including India, Nepal, Peru, Russia, Honduras, Guatemala, Armenia, China and Brazil.  More than half of them are from India.  All were seeking asylum.  Along with hundreds of others waiting at the southern border they were removed and sent to prisons across the US.  In Oregon, 300 pro-bono attorneys are waiting to serve these people, but as of yesterday had not been allowed access.  Details of individual stories (especially men who are separated from families) aren’t known yet.

A letter from a public defender stated detainees at Sheridan are locked in triple-bunked cells for up to 23 hours per day, meals are small or of low nutritional quality, medical care is lacking, phone calls are expensive or unavailable and language barriers persist. 

These people may not know where they are, may not have a common language with their cell mates, and have no contact with the outside world. This is happening in a small rural town more 50 miles from Portland.”

Parents separated from children.  Fathers separated from their families. And our president says it is a United States law.

One of the posters, in the crowd last evening in Sheridan Organ, quoted the message of welcome on the Statue of Liberty:  “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”   Then the question was asked:  Is this no longer true?

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God(Mic. 6)

What is happening in our nation is so against what God’s requires of us.

Those people, present at that silent protest, of the opposite of what God asks,  were witnessing the way God wants all of us to act against the injustice and unkind behavior mandated by our president (not capitalize on purpose).   Who is using human lives to get what he wants.  I would call it blackmail!  But even worse, it is inhumane and evil.

As a matter of fact separating children from their parents, and fathers from their wive and children, runs parallel to what Hitler did by separating families in Germany.  

And yet, government leaders use the Bible, as permission, to do so.  I believe that Hitler did something quite similar.  Only he called God’s call for justice  “dangerous.”

The question I have to ask is:  When will the murderous torture begin?    

It is time for our population to begin to rise up in, a not so silent, protest.  It is time to invade our politicians with point blank messages of revulsion.   Demanding an immediate halt to the illegal rule of power our president is taking.

What is happening in our nation today is un-American and rapes the dignity of our country’s core values.

My prayer is that God will invade this mislead government with a powerful invasion of policy; radically adjusting its intentions and politically based protection of “the party.”

Won’t you pray along with me?

Possibility Begins Small

In the next few days  we will investigate the possibilities of growth in God’s Kingdom through the the parables of the mustard seed; and the yeast that fills the flour with the possibility.   What I am hoping, in this discussion, is that you will see some commonality.   As well as some insight into how God works.  Some of it will be easy to read.  Some of it will give you pause. 

I will write about the possibility in a tiny seed.

31 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matt. 13)

First of all the mustard seed is an unwelcome seed that finds its way into a bag of good seed.  It is one of the fastest growing seed in the arid soil of Israel.  It not only grows fast but it grow larger than most weeds.  Like a tree!  It is something the farmer would not want in his field!

So this analogy might seem a little strange since Jesus has just talked about the problem of the wheat and the weeds growing in the farmers field.  And yet Jesus seems to be saying, to his listeners, that the kingdom of heaven is like a weed.  Something not so good.  Or maybe he telling them that it is not the weed itself but the seed that is like the kingdom of heaven?   The kingdom of heaven is meant to grow like that tiny weed-seed grows — fast and large.  The seed is the beginning of what can be. Possibility! The kingdom of heaven begins tiny in us.  And as we grow our little seed of faith grows too.  

Think about this!  Jesus is teaching the people, who followed him around, that the seed — the possibility of faith —  is present in Jesus the story teller.  And as people listen the seed can grow within them.  And faith becomes alive in one person at a time.  

Faith becomes more and more evident as people listen to the seed of life itself.  That is the way the kingdom of heaven begins among the people of God.  

Through all the little seeds, planted in each individual by God's Spirit, God's Kingdom grows into a wide universe of believers.  A universe filled with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Indians, Sikhs, and all the other groups that strive to live in faith to the Great Creator God. 

Just one persons opinion! 

What do you think?

What Is Good And What Is Evil? And Who Says So?

 

34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world." (Matt.13;34-35)

I am putting the cart before the horse in these next few discussions.  I pulled verse 34-35 out of a short series of parables Jesus told in chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel.  Because for some strange reason, only recently, have I discovered the profound  importance of the parable.  I have preached on them for years and never actually put, together in my mind, the insight they bring to understanding who God is and what the Kingdom of God truly means to our living here on this earth.

The parable, as I have said before, is a two sided story that is meant to  open peoples mind to a deeper, maybe broader, truth.  I’ll say the parable is meant to open people’s mines, to the importance of knowing God.  Knowing what God wants from all of creation.  And how God works within the world.  And what he expects from us.

I will begin this journey, into the puzzles created by Jesus’ parables, by talking about the weeds sown in the wheat field. A complex parable about our world filled with both good and not so good people; and how the farmer chose to let them all grow together until the harvest.

 My quandary is this verse:  41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers,

These are the questions milling around in my brain: What are is the basis, or origin, of sin and evil?  Where does it come from?   What causes evil to occur?  And how do we truly define this evil force that seems to roam the world?  And, how do we rid the world of this evil without ultimately damaging the good around it?  Those are just a few of the things that trouble my idealistic mind about the weeds and wheat.

This parable also has engaged my mind in many circular conversation on ''what if."  

What if the weeds stay and the good seed — the wheat — would have a positive influence  on the nature of the evil weed?  

Or what if the evil weed would eventually win and damage the entire crop?  

Or, what if we — you and I — would ever stop, for a moment, and ask ourselves the question: What is wheat and what is weed in me?  

And, what if the big evils in our world began with the tiny evils we all are guilty of from time to time?    

What if the little white lie, or passive aggressive word, begins small and then  grows into bigger lies and move aggressive actions?   

Where does the big huge evil word, or action, come from?  What are the things that the son of man will be collecting?  

And then,  when will we ever to see the results?  

This parable was told centuries ago.  Yet clearly a story of our world  today.   We live daily with the good and not so good.  With a force of evil that most certainly does roam the face of the earth.  

So I am wondering this morning.  What we can do to say no to such un-good activity?  I am wondering if we have become just too complacent to the activity in our own environment?  Too willing to let slip-by the wrong that is spoken and/or displayed?  Ignoring it as if it didn’t matter.

Let anyone with ears listen! 

24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' 28 He answered, "An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he replied, "No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.' “ (Matt. 13)