16 Pentecost (Year A)
Genesis 50
St. John’s, West Seneca
September 13, 2026
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
The story of Joseph is well-known, immortalized as it is in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. You know the story. Father has a son with most favored wife; other sons are jealous, sons find way to get even; most favored ends up most favored in a foreign land; years later, as favored one had predicted, sons need food; find that most favored son now in power.
Joseph, the first son of his father Jacob's favored wife, takes center stage late in Genesis. A precocious, no-expense-spared child, he incurs the wrath of his 10 older brothers with dreams, or rather, his interpretation of them. He dreams that in various ways his brothers will one day bow before him, and being the gifted person that he is, goes and tells his brothers as they are out working. Those brothers did not have long fuses, and one day, after Joseph received a special coat, they plan to rid themselves of this annoyance. One day they throw him into a pit, and seeing a caravan in the distance, sell him into slavery. Then, in order to persuade their father, they make up a story about Joseph being wounded and killed by a wild animal, going so far as to dip his coat in blood as evidence.
They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Joseph lands in Egypt, is situated in the house of Potiphar until Potiphar’s wife accuses him of sexual assault, whereupon, once again, he’s a prisoner. Here is where his life takes a turn. Two of his fellow captives are former employees of the Pharaoh, and each has disturbing dreams. Joseph, whose dreams got him into trouble at home, and having the gift of dream interpretation, decodes their dreams accurately; one is executed and the other is returned to Pharaoh’s favor. Joseph begs the latter to remember him.
Like any good story, the servant forgets, until some time in the future. It is now Pharaoh’s turn to be harassed by dreams, and Joseph is recalled from prison to interpret and give counsel. His forecast that there will be seven years of plenty and seven years of scarcity strikes the Pharoah as true, and Joseph is soon promoted to watch over the granaries that will soon be filled.
And it comes to pass. Scarcity comes not only to Egypt, but also to Canaan. Joseph’s brothers have to travel to Egypt for grain. Joseph recognizes them instantly, while the brothers remain unaware. Is this where the forgiveness happens?
No. He accuses them of being spies, and when they explain their situation, Joseph demands that one must stay – Simeon – and the others can go, but they must return with the youngest brother…Benjamin. And he does give them grain, but after receiving their payment, places it in the bags. And by the way, Joseph overhears all this discussion as his brothers don’t know that he can understand them. He hears regret about what they did. He also weeps.
And so they return to Jacob, who is bereaved and refuses to send Benjamin, until the grain runs low. This time, he allows Benjamin to go, and sends the money from before and new payment, plus a gift honey and pistachios.
Joseph invites them to his house, and the brothers get nervous again. Joseph inquires about the “old man,” is he well? When he sees Benjamin, he is overcome and must leave the room to weep.
They dine and Benjamin receives five times the amount. Once again, they leave, with sacks of grain and once again with their payment. This time Joseph has his silver cup placed in Benjamin’s bag. Of course, they are followed and Joseph demands that Benjamin stay, as he is the one who has the cup. Judah begs Joseph, telling him that if they return without Benjamin, they fear their father will die.
“Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me; do not delay. 10 You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 I will provide for you there, since there are five more years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have will not come to poverty.’ 12 And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them, and after that his brothers talked with him.”
Jacob comes to Egypt to live out his days, and after his death, his ten sons are once again wary that Joseph will punish them, and so present themselves as his slaves. Joseph – in a remarkable act of forgiveness - says this: “Even 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.”
But what is this thing called forgiveness? As we see in the Genesis text, it is a spiritual struggle, a process which is done sometimes quickly, other times, slowly, gradually, taking years. But there is a common theme.
- "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." — Maya Angelou (often attributed to Lewis B. Smedes)
- "Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die." — Anne Lamott (or Maya Angelou)
- "Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred." — Corrie ten Boom
- "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." — Mahatma Gandhi
- "Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were." — Cherie Carter-Scott
- "When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future." — Bernard Meltzer
- "Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning." — Desmond Tutu
You will have noticed that with these sayings you are the one set free. That is what needs to be learned. Joseph’s road to forgiveness is not immediate. He needs time. Even though he has a high position in Egypt, and has it all, that youth who was sold into slavery still has a voice. But…
- He finds that he is the prisoner who is now set free.
- He finds that the key to unlock what came before is to forgive.
- And he is strong, so Joseph forgives. And in that moment, he becomes larger.
- He changes his future and makes a new beginning
This whole world is in need of forgiveness for one thing or another. Today Jesus goes even farther, telling us to forgive 77 times, and reminding us that it is non=negotiable. It is part and parcel of the Lord’s Prayer. No matter what we think, forgiveness is about the present and the future. We want to live our lives with God, not with those who hurt us in the past. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
14 Pentecost (Year A)
Romans
St. John’s, West Seneca
August 30, 2026
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
Each morning, one of the tasks of the chaplains is to offer a prayer to the hospital on the overhead system. In order to make this a bit easier on those crazy mornings, I pulled together 31 prayers, one for each day, and put them in a binder. That way, if crunched for time, there will be less stress.
It works well. I have prayers from Julian of Norwich, St. Benedict, Luther, a Native American prayer. On Friday, as I turned to the prayer for the 28th of the month, I once again pondered: where does the time go? And so, going back into my archives of illustrations that I want you to recall, I found this.
“I want you to imagine this. Your bank, beginning tomorrow, will credit your account each morning with $86,400. There is a catch. It will carry no balance from day to day, and each night whatever you fail to us will be deleted. Gone, wiped clean. What would you do? You would spend every cent!
"Each of us has this bank, and its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day there is a new account opened. Each night the remains of that day are burned. If you fail to make the most of the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is not drawing against “tomorrow.” You are to live in the present on today’s deposits. How will you use it? How much sleep? How much laughter? How much worrying? When Robert Fulghum wrote ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN, with its famous “to do” list, I think he was on to something. Warm cookies and milk are good for you. You should live a balanced life. Taking a nap isn’t always a bad idea either. And so you must make choices. Invest your time so as to get from it the utmost in health, joy and success! The clock is running.
"Now, you might well ask yourself, what is a day? There are those days and weeks we would like to forget. What’s a minute here or there, or an hour? What is the big deal?
"Consider these.
- If you want to realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
- To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
- To realize the value of ONE WEEK, as your pastor about the progress of his or her sermon.
- To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask someone in any hospital waiting room, whether it be an ER, or a surgical waiting area.
- To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who just missed a flight.
- To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
- To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, just ask any of the Silver Medalist that we have seen during the Olympics...”
Time does indeed fly. We who with such care record events and birthdays with parties and festivities, do we every really think about what it is we celebrate? Do we indeed celebrate the day? Another year? Or do we celebrate life? A great theologian once said “there is only one miracle. It is life.” Or as Rabbi Abraham Heschel says: “Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.”
That is what Paul is saying today. As Christians, with a great gift to share, use your time well.
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
This is a how-to guide for us. And what is most important to remember is that we do not fight fire with fire. We do not use the weapons or tactics of our enemies. We do not give as good as we get, responding with equal or greater force when attacked. We do not overcome evil with evil. Instead, we “overcome evil with good.”
This is not easy. Or is it? If we turn our thoughts and actions to the author of time, God, we can do more. We’ve all heard the saying: Time’s a wastin'. So look for a reset in your life, or an adjustment to how you spend your time. That is what the difficult times call for.
Have an inner conversation with God, with the One who has our time in his hands?
If we can acknowledge that our lives and our times are in the hands of God, that God’s love flows through us, then Paul’s words become easier.
Let love be genuine.
Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
Serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction;
Persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints;
Pursue hospitality to strangers.
That balance of 86,400 seconds begins each day. Let’s use them for living, not just existing. Live life to the fullest, filling our days with a bit of everything, work and worship, play and relaxation, study and rest, always with God at the very center...
The great hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote that “time, like an ever flowing stream, soon bears us all away…”
Treasure every moment you have, because in the end, time waits for no one. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
*Homiletics, August 30, 2026
11 Pentecost (Year A)
I Kings 19:9-18
St. John’s, West Seneca
August 9, 2026
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
In today’s First Reading, we see Elijah, disheartened, ready to give up. So what happened to bring him to this place? Frederick Buechner wrote an essay on Elijah, one that I have enjoyed for years and he sums it up perfectly.
“In the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal to see whose God was the real article, Elijah won the first round hands down. Starting out early in the morning on Mt. Carmel, the prophets of Baal pulled out all the stops to get their candidate to set fire to the sacrificial offering. They danced around the altar till their feet were sore. They made themselves hoarse shouting instructions and encouragement at the sky. They jabbed at themselves with knives thinking that the sight of blood would start things moving if anything would, but they might as well have saved themselves the trouble.
"Although it was like beating a dead horse, Elijah couldn't resist getting in a few digs. "Maybe Baal's flown to Bermuda for the weekend," he said. "Maybe he's taking a nap." The prophets whipped themselves into greater and greater frenzies under his goading, but by mid-afternoon the sacrificial offering had begun to smell a little high, and there was still no sign of fire from above.
"Then it was Elijah's turn to show what Yahweh could do.
"He was like a magician getting ready to pull a rabbit out of a hat. First he had a trench dug around the altar and filled with water. Then he got a bucket brigade going to give the offering a good dousing too. Then as soon as they'd finished, he got them to do it again for good measure. By the time they'd finished a third go-round, the whole place was awash, and Elijah looked as if he'd just finished swimming the Channel. He then gave Yahweh the word to show his stuff and jumped back just in time.
"Lightning flashed. The water in the trench fizzed like fat on a hot griddle. Nothing was left of the offering but a pile of ashes and a smell like the Fourth of July. The onlookers were beside themselves with enthusiasm and, at a signal from Elijah, demolished the losing team down to the last prophet. Nobody could say whose victory had been greater, Yahweh's or Elijah's.”
Yes, Elijah is riding high off his duel with the prophets of Baal. But Queen Jezebel was now an avowed enemy and she was determined to get even with Elijah for what he had done to her priests. A woman scorned, a queen no less, with an army at her disposal. What is Elijah to do?
He ran and hid out on Mt. Horeb. Again, as before the priests of Baal, he awaits a word from God. While Elijah had certainly won the first round, so to speak, he allows his ego to take over. After all, it had been quite the sight, and as we all know, a great victory makes it difficult to come back down to earth. And so he vents his anxiety to God. He is outraged that he has now been chased out and is on the run, seemingly with no one to defend him. Feeling alone, forsaken by God, he finds a cave. And then God finds him, and asks what he thinks he’s doing. Elijah answers: “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
In other words, Elijah reminds God what a faithful prophet he's been and yet here he is: overworked and underpaid, underappreciated, undervalued.
God listens and instructs Elijah to watch and wait, because He is going to pass by. What happens next is a series of events: a wind so great that rocks are split apart, then an earthquake, then fire. Just like with the prophets of Baal. But not the presence of God. All this is a prelude to the power of the presence.
Buechner concludes with this: “Again the lightning flashed, and after that a wind came up that almost blew Elijah off his feet, and after that the earth gave such a shake that it almost knocked him silly. But there wasn't so much as a peep out of Yahweh, and Elijah stood there like a ringmaster when the lion won't jump through the hoop.
"Only when the fireworks were finished and a terrible hush fell over the mountain did Elijah hear something, and what he heard was so much like silence that it was only through the ear of faith that he knew it was Yahweh. Nonetheless, the message came through loud and clear: that there was no longer any question who had been the star at Mt. Carmel and that not even Elijah could make the Lord God of Hosts jump through a hoop like a lion or pop out like a rabbit from a hat.”* 1 Kings 18-19
Believe it or not, this is the story of our lives. Frank Sinatra sings in "That’s Life": “You’re ridin’ high in April, shot down in May.” No one wins all the time. Not even the great Elijah who needs to be reminded of who God is and what God promises.
It’s a matter of listening for the voice of God. The question for the day is this. What do we listen for? What do we seek? How do we persevere, remain resilient when it all goes awry?
The gift of God’s presence and word are enough to transform all of us, no matter how scared we are, no matter our own social standing. God can take the worst of circumstances and change it completely, making it upside down, holy work.
The gift of God’s presence and word, the call and equipping of the divine, sends prophets back to stand up to the ones who wish them dead and gives the newly-freed from whatever ailed them back into the very place that had left them for dead. It is what God does
“God asks us: What are you doing here? Wherever we have fled, from whatever we are hiding, God wants to know: What are you doing here? We are free to pour out our hearts to the Lord who loves us and knows everything regardless. Go ahead: give a litany of lament, sing a psalm of suffering, shout a cry of utter dismay. The work is hard. The results abysmal. The people you sent us to are stiff-necked and stubborn. The powers we face cruel and strong. The weak are trampled upon and the rich get richer. Every day the news seems grim. We are outnumbered and afraid. Why not just end things right here, in the wilderness, under a bush or on this mountain, in the dark, damp, desolate cave?
"God responds to us: Get up. I am here. I am with you. Always. Go.”
Can you listen? Can you tune your ear to make God’s voice familiar?
Let me illustrate.
A Midwesterner from the farm was visiting his college roommate in New York City. Walking near Times Square one day, the farm boy suddenly remarked, "I hear a cricket."
"You're crazy," his city friend replied. "It's the noon rush hour, and in all of this traffic noise you heard a cricket? C'mon, man!"
"No, I did hear a cricket," the visitor insisted. Focusing more intently, he walked to the corner, crossed the busy avenue and looked all around. Finally he approached a shrub in a large cement planter. Digging beneath the cover mulch, he found his cricket.
His friend couldn't believe what he had seen. But the friend from the farm said, "My ears are no different from yours. It simply depends on what you have learned to listen for. Here, let me show you."
He then reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a handful of change, and dropped the coins on the sidewalk. At the sound of the money hitting the pavement, every head along the crowded block turned.
"You see what I mean?" the visitor said, as he began picking up what was left of his coins. "It all depends on what you are listening for."***
Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
*Buechner, commenting on I Kings 19
**—Jill Duffield, reflecting on the desperate circumstances of the fleeing Elijah in 1 Kings 19, in “Looking into the Lectionary for June 23, 2019,” email from the Presbyterian Outlook.
***Homiletics, -As told by Donald J. Shelby, Santa Monica, California, "Hear Here!"
8 September 1991, 1-2.
9 Pentecost (Year A)
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-50
St. John’s, West Seneca
July 26, 2026
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
“The parables at the end of Matthew 13 are brief, evocative snapshots, presented in a staccato, rapid-fire fashion.” That is true.
The question for the day is “What is the kingdom of heaven?” Note: not, what is heaven? What is the kingdom of heaven? Jesus is speaking about the heavenly rule over all things. Each example provides an answer to that question, in its own way.
So, what is the definition of “kingdom of heaven?” “The kingdom of heaven is not so much a spiritual reality beyond this world, as a spiritual reality that’s breaking into this world.” In other words, bringing heaven to earth. You have heard me speak of “thin space,” the boundary between heaven and earth. For Jesus, this was thin, meaning that God was always near. Matthew begins with Jesus proclaiming that “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Which means that Jesus wants us to wake up and be aware of this reality and that God is near in our daily, ordinary lives. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware.
Jesus understood the power of everyday image. And in today’s gospel, we see it over and over, with not just one or two examples, but five. What are we to learn about God and the kingdom of heaven, so much so that Jesus uses example after example?
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 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 an make nest in it branches.”
God’s truth is an overwhelming concept, one that theologians have talked and argued about for centuries, hammering out their views into volume upon volume of books. But what Jesus did is what I call the “Reader’s Digest” version, taking that immensity of God and his ways, and making it far more easy to remember. Jesus was using his “like” stories to soften the truth about the kingdom, because Jesus knew the enormity of divine will and the infinity of God was far beyond the comprehension of the average Galilean …or us, the people of a postmodern, 21st century world.
Listen to the first “like” Jesus uses in this week's Gospel lesson. The kingdom of heaven is ... "like a mustard seed." The kingdom compared to a tiny mustard seed. That image turns our own ideas of ourselves upside-down. We like to think that we are a strong tree, unwavering. Yet Jesus takes this small mustard seed and how it becomes “the greatest of shrubs” where birds can make a nest.
“Some biblical scholars think Jesus’s mustard plant is what the botanists call 'black mustard' — more of a shrub, really, than a plant. Occasionally, it grows as large as 6 feet tall.2 Black mustard is essentially a weed — the sort of plant gardeners with a sense of humor refer to as a 'volunteer.' No self-respecting farmers would let it grow up in their fields. Once established, it’s difficult to root out.
"But here’s what’s different in Jesus’s parable. In his telling, the farmer intentionally sows the mustard seeds! 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field …' Go figure! It’s like Jesus is saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a bunch of dandelion seeds that someone sowed on the front lawn.'
"Why would anyone go and do a crazy thing like that — sowing dandelion seeds? Anyone who’s ever knelt on a lawn with gardening gloves and one of those little rooting-out tools knows how rapidly they spread, and how persistent they are. But maybe that’s exactly what Jesus is trying to tell us about God’s heavenly realm! The seeds of heaven may seem tiny and insignificant, but once they take root in the ground, there’s no stopping them.”
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed it with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
First a small mustard seed, now the kingdom is from the domain of women’s work. The kingdom compared to something as mundane and menial as making the dough for the daily bread. Bread baking was not only woman's work, it was servant's work - a daily burden necessary to keep the most basic dietary staple on the table.
Like the mustard seed, this tiny spore of yeast added to flour shows the power of the kingdom. Again, a tiny thing shows how the kingdom can be made great.
When we struggle to understand these theological truths, we tend to look to the unusual, the outstanding, something that gets people’s attention and serves as a wake-up call to God’s presence. We want to hear stories about miracles, first-century as well as modern-day miracles. We want bells and whistles, a grand production. But Jesus does something else; his method was to soften God’s power and presence by wrapping it in the everyday. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says over and over, is far more intimate and at hand than any once-in-a-lifetime act of divine intervention.
It’s the same with the next examples, the treasure in the field, and the pearl of great price. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus is saying, is already present in our world. It may be hiding in plain sight, but in such a way that not everyone can see it. Having glimpsed its presence, we have only to reach out and claim it for our own.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.”
Here, too, the gifts of God — the signs of the inbreaking kingdom of heaven — are present among us in great abundance. In Jesus’s time, a net was used rather than a fishing line. The catch was great, but had to be sorted out. Jesus explains this much as he did with the wheat and the weeds. God invites all together, but still, the good will be separated from the evil.
There you have it, the kingdom of heaven found in the ordinary mustard seed and yeast. Or treasure hidden in the field, or a net. Our task is to look at our own lives and discover how many "kingdom-likes" there are in it.
Is the kingdom of heaven like one of my mom’s circle group, women who had been together for so long that not only do they know each other, but the children as well. And they always found something new to talk about.
Is the kingdom of heaven like the one who always volunteers and shows up?
Is it like the security guard who greets everyone with a “Good morning” and a smile?
“Earth is crammed with heaven” and we can learn to recognize it. The kingdom of heaven is breaking in on us every day, and not in a grand production, but in the ordinary and the mundane, or in what only we can see. Jesus’s words come rapid fire, but with images we understand. My hope is that His words wake us up so that we can bring heaven to earth. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Homiletics, What’s Heaven Like? Sunday, July 30, 2023
8 Pentecost (Year A)
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
St. John’s, West Seneca
July 19, 2026
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
Nine years ago…
“If you've ever shaken a bit of dry parmesan cheese from a can onto your spaghetti and meatballs and mused that it kind of looks like (and maybe even tastes like) sawdust, well, it turns out you might be more right about that than you think.
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration … busted a cheese manufacturer in Pennsylvania for marketing its product as '100% real parmesan' when it actually contained no parmesan at all. In reality, consumers were sprinkling a mixture of imitation cheese and trimmings of other cheaper cheeses like Swiss, white cheddar, Havarti, and mozzarella on their pasta.
"To be fair, a lot of cheese manufacturers do use cellulose in their parmesan because it acts effectively to keep the cheese from clumping (and saves consumers from taking the time to grate their own cheese).
"The problem for … corner-cutting manufacturers is the percentage of cellulose they actually use. The cheese industry considers 2 to 4 percent cellulose as an acceptable and safe level, but some of the parmesan you might be buying off the shelf at your local grocery store may contain as much as 8 percent.”*
That's a lot of fake filler. In today’s parable, someone has planted “filler” in with the wheat. Evidently, it was not uncommon in Jesus’s time for a landowner to undermine another landowner by messing with his crops. There was even a law on the books forbidding the practice. And what made it illegal was that the weed often used was named “darnel,’ a variety of ryegrass that looked like wheat in the early stages. Once the grain “headed out,” one could see that it was not wheat. But by that time, it was too late, and the wheat and the weeds would be entwined. To pull out one was to pull out the other.
You can understand why the servants were upset. At the beginning of the season, they would have prepared the field by pulling any weeds so that the crop would have the ideal soil in which to grow. It’s not unlike today when farmers prepare the fields for the seed.
And that brings to mind one of the tasks that I did each spring. Not weeding, but fanning wheat. In one of the storage barns, wheat from the previous year, the previous harvest, was stored. Each spring, my dad would get the fanning mill so that my sister Joan and I could fan the wheat to separate the wheat from the chaff. As always, something gets in there during the harvest. The mill is not a huge piece of equipment, about 4 feet high, two feet wide; ours ran on electricity. My sister would fill a bucket with wheat, turn it into the top of the mill. The wheat would filter down, passing between two screens going in opposite directions. The fanned wheat came out at the bottom and I would shovel it into a farm wagon. The wagon is about ten to twelve feet long, seven feet high, five feet wide. I texted my sister for the measurements and she agreed that I remembered it correctly. It takes a long time from the first shovel to the last and we would work on this after school or on the weekend. It is not necessarily hard work, but hot, dusty, and just tedious. Now, this is done so that the wheat is not deterred when it begins to grow, as even a bit of chaff gets in the way. This was done is ancient times as well, and my internship pastor’s wife had a basket that was used for this specific purpose.
But as Jesus tells it, after the preparation of the soil and the planting was done, an enemy snuck into the fields and deliberately planted weeds among the wheat. By the time anyone noticed, the damage had been done, for the crop as well as the reputation of the landowner.
The parable says that there was so much of this fake wheat that the servants were amazed and wondered where it had come from. They knew their master had always focused on the best. And he pointed out: "An enemy has done this.”
The landowner's servants are ready and willing to go out and pull up these weeds. But he understood that this could be harmful and do more damage than good. The roots would be intertwined. Much better to wait until the harvest when the wheat – easily recognizable – could be harvested.
“…it would be fairly easy for the reapers to tell the difference at that point, because darnel doesn't grow as high as wheat when it matures. The harvesters could cut the wheat just below the head and leave the darnel to be cut separately. Even then, the darnel would serve a purpose. In a land where wood was scarce, the weeds would be bundled and used as fuel for actually baking the bread that the real wheat made possible (v. 30)!”
The disciples needed more after hearing this. Jesus explains and says: wait. At the time of the harvest, all will be sorted out. Jesus is simply saying this: Leave the weeds to me. You just worry about growing up as wheat. Now that is a request that is very hard to follow, as we make judgments all the time about who is in and who is out. We live in a rush-to-judgment world. Whether we admit it or not, we make micro-judgments all time about our neighbors and co-workers, those we have never met, never dreaming that they might be the wheat and we the weeds. Last week I mentioned that we Americans tend to think of ourselves in the heroic role, never a Judas, rarely a Thomas. We think we can tell the difference, but it is not always that visible. It is God who sees all.
And we do the same in the church. We judge some for being too progressive, some for being too traditional. Some churches are judged for embracing doctrinal errors, others for appearing not to have any doctrine at all. Some are condemned for not caring for the poor, others for caring only for the poor. And the list goes on and on.
No wonder, then, that Jesus counsels us to hold off on the weed-pulling “for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them”.
That is the most common interpretation of this parable: that Christians should not pronounce judgments. While accurate, it may limit how we think of the wheat and the weeds.
What this parable tells me is that God is at work in the entire world sowing us - children of the kingdom. And just as God is at work in the world, so also is the enemy or the devil. The parable suggests that we need to coexist as God’s people right along with those who are not with God. The kingdom is hidden in the here and now: both wheat and weeds will be present at the end. The fact that the two cannot be distinguished illustrates that we cannot be sure who will be God's chosen in the end. Appearances are deceptive -- those who appear as wheat may be weeds and those who appear as weeds may be wheat. Only in the judgment "at the end of the age" will the two be identified and separated. So, we must live according to God’s plan, and let God do the separating.
That’s the good news. Growing up, when the fanning of the wheat
Getting back to the filler in the cheese, perhaps the best question we can ask ourselves is this: are we authentic, real, as we go out in the world? Or are we filler, looking like the real thing?
God sees all and is at work in the world sowing among us. Our job is to be what Jesus asks of us. Love God first with all our being, love our neighbors as ourselves. Let anyone with ears listen! Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
*Illustration and quotes taken from FAKE FOOD, FAKE FAITH, Homiletics, July 23, 2017.
was done, with a wagon filled with good grain, I saw the chaff left behind in a nice pile. But did some get in and deter good growth in one part of the field? Only at the harvest could you see the result.
7 Pentecost (Year A)
Matthew
St. John’s, West Seneca
July 12, 2026
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Parables offer a different perspective, a new worldview. They give us a glimpse into God’s world and what God is like. They heal our ears and our eyes so that we might hear and understand, see and perceive. Parables are not meant to test human intelligence.” Thank goodness!
Parables are “kernels of grace” that inspire us to continually be amazed and awed by God’s generosity. That is what this parable of the Sower does. God continues to sow, with reckless abandon.
Being raised on a farm, the first thing I notice is the one who sows, or plants. He is not filling a planter and sowing in neat rows as farmers do now. He is not digging small holes and covering the seeds with dirt. It is not like the planting of seeds today, as those like my brothers, with state-of-the-art tractors with calibrated seeders scientifically planting the seed at the right depth. Rather, the Sower is just tossing seed recklessly. In the first century, that was the common practice and much seed was wasted; Sowers broadcast it widely. And even if some of those seeds hit the path and are gobbled up by birds, the sower just keeps sowing.
That is what Jesus was doing with his teaching, his words. He was broadcasting the word. He spoke to all who could hear. Some passed on by; some were entertained. Others disagreed, and some just said “no.” Jesus simply planted—and he wants his disciples – and us - to do likewise.
So we need to hear the rest of the parable.
"Other seeds fell on rocky ground," says Jesus, "where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away." "other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”
One of the interpretations of this parable is that Jesus is calling us to be good soil, to be ready for the Sower, who sows with abandon, as God loves with abandon. And so, when you hear the Word, don’t be like that path, that is hard, with no depth. There is very little chance that you will grow there.
And you don’t want to be “rocky ground” either, taking root, but lasting only a while, and when bad times come, is gone.
As for that thorny soil, in which "the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word?” Avoid that as well.
Be the good soil, hearing the Word and letting it guide your life.
So, if you have ears, listen! As one pastor wrote:
“Jesus is not just describing different types of soil or circumstances of life. He is describing our inner geography. These are the various landscapes of the human heart. We have met these in others and discovered them in ourselves. We are rarely just one type of soil. We are all four. The four soils are descriptive of how we live and relate to others and to God. Jesus’ interpretation of the parable, when he tells what happens to the seeds, describes the consequences of each kind of life.”
How true! It’s been noticed that in American Christianity, we seem to see ourselves as the hero. We think we are like Queen Esther rather than the scheming Haman. We could never be like Elijah and just hide in a cave. And should God call us somewhere different, we could never be like Jonah and go the other way. Or like Peter, who denies Jesus. And never Judas, who betrays him.
Of course we are the good soil. This parable does invite us to take a look at ourselves, to reflect on our lives and examine who we are and what we hope to become. While we all want to believe that we are that “good soil,” the truth is that at times, we do become entangled in the lure of what the world has to offer. And the world offers more than we could possibly need. Or we say we want to tithe, or be more involved, but somehow, it never comes to pass. Still good soil?
Examining how we use our lives is not a bad use of our time, but we might be missing the point of the parable. Are we -the soil- at the center of this story?
You see, the “what kind of dirt are you” question is not the only way to read this parable. That question may just be a decoy that distracts us from another way to understanding.
There are different types of soil, but the sower continues to sow the same seed with seemingly equal toil, equal hope and generosity. What strikes you immediately about the character of the Sower? Yes, he seems a bit careless, but also hopeful. He knows that at least some of the seed will fall into the good soil, and that is all he needs.
The sower does not consider the soil’s quality or potential. There is no soil left unsown. No ground is declared undeserving of the sower’s seeds. This is not about the quality of dirt. It’s about the quality of God, the divine sower.
So the parable has two things to say: First, be good soil, grow deep and sure, and if you find yourself lagging, keep working. The other is our discipleship, our witness to others. And here is where the rubber hits the road. Just as the seeds does not always produce, not everything will work as we go about our work in the church. Some ministry ideas just don’t take root, as on the road. Some get started, but never go deeper. Some ministries get involved fast and furious, but fail when the “world” lures them away. In my devotions for this week, a colleague wrote:
As for the disciples…“That pretty much describes what people did with his word, and what people yet today do with the gospel word. But neither Jesus nor the disciples forced or manipulated people to hear, nor did they let different receptions stop them from sharing God’s news. Neither should we.”
God is prodigal, extravagant with His love and mercy. The sower continues to sow through us. Let’s be prodigal as well with our ministry and in our lives. Take a few chances and plant with reckless abandon our words and our actions. As God is prodigal, so let us be with the good news of God’s abundant and amazing grace. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
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