Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
The Marvel movies have become such a big part of our current pop culture. My favorite of these is Captain America: Winter Soldier.
In the movie, Captain America is working for the fictional law enforcement agency SHIELD to help maintain order in this crazy world.
And here I’ll have some *spoilers* for the movie. Mostly minor ones.
As Captain America continues to work on a case for SHIELD, he learns that an evil Nazi organization from his World War II days is back and has infiltrated SHIELD. Captain America learns, after being attacked by several of his former friends at SHIELD, that it’s hard to know who to trust.
But some do make it clear which side they are on. There are those who attack him, but there are those who also listen to him, even though he is marked as a fugitive by SHIELD command. At one point, one agent is pressured into letting loose a killer weapon on the general population. And even though he knows the agent telling him to do this will shoot him if he doesn’t, he says “I’m sorry, I can’t. Captain’s orders.”
And it’s that action that forces everyone to choose their side. Are they on the side of good with Captain America, or are they on the side of the evil Nazi’s?
It’s their actions that say who they are. Whose side they are on. Which side they really belong to.
In the parable we hear this morning in the Gospel, we have a field sowed with good seeds, until an enemy comes in and plants weeds in the field too, just like SHIELD was infiltrated by evil agents.
And just like with SHIELD, it takes some time to recognize what has happened. It would’ve taken until the harvest was almost grown to realize that weeds had been planted with the good seed.
The lesson of both these stories, the story of SHIELD and the parable of the Kingdom this morning, is meant to be cautionary. Because just like the weeds and evil agents, there are causes of sin and evil doers in our midst.
But this isn't to be simply polarizing. To make this an "us vs. them" issue. Because often times, those hidden causes aren't just those around us, but the causes of sin can, instead, be in ourselves.
The parable this morning, in this way, is just like the Parable of the Sower last week. It's not simply telling us the way things are because they can never change. It is telling us a story to warn us. To get us all to stop and think. We are being called to stop and reflect this morning, as individuals and as a community, about whether we are doing the best to be followers of our captain, that is of Jesus Christ our Lord.
And just like the SHIELD agent did with Captain America in Winter Soldier, that means we have to listen to what Jesus is telling us and to let that guide us forward in our life with Him.
And as we listen to the Gospel, here is what we see: Though we sinned and rejected Him time and time again, God chose to come down and be one of us. He chose to die on the cross for us so that we could turn back to Him. So that we could be in relationship with Him. His power, as Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, was made perfect in weakness, the weakness of a human death and suffering. And we know that Christ Jesus was lifted up so that we could be lifted up to be back in relationship with Him.
In following Jesus, we are called to make our lives into signs that point back to Jesus. That means trying our best to bring all under His banner, not polarizing one another from the truth. It means showing the same life-giving compassion that Jesus Christ showed us.
And what it doesn't mean is allowing ourselves or others to sit comfortably in our lives. Because Jesus didn't allow us to sit comfortably with ourselves. Hence the parables meant to shake us out of our old patterns and get us to think about what we are doing. No, we are called to give up the old ways of sin and death that drew us away from God, as Paul has been constantly reminding us in Romans this summer, and turn back to follow His will and not our own in life. And His will is for us to live in right relationship with both God and each other.
As our parable this morning says, we are still growing. There is still time. But what will that time bring? Will we be the ones who follow God as best as we can, or will we be those stumbling blocks trying to prevent ourselves and others from being closer to Him?
And that is why we have stories like this. To make us stop and reflect. To ensure that we are on the right path to serve God. That means we are called to reflect as individuals on what we can do to better serve God in the world. It means that we are called to be welcoming and try to bring all in to know Jesus better. And it means that just as Jesus was there to pick us back up from our sinful ways, we are there for others in our community, whether it is here in this church, in this town of Greensboro, or in the wider world, to help them turn back to be in right relationship with God and with us. That doesn't mean allowing ourselves or others to live comfortably as we are, but instead to push forward and do our best to serve God better in the world.