9 Pentecost

 

July 30, 2023

 

1 Kings 3.5-12; Romans 8.26-39; Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52

 

+ Yesterday was an important anniversary in the Episcopal Church.

 

49 years ago, on July 29, 1974, eleven women were ordained to the Priesthood in the Church of Advocate in Philadelphia.

 

Now, hearing that now, in this day and age, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

 

But in 1974, they were the first women ordained to the Priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

 

And it was a BIG deal!

 

Those eleven women, known as the Philadelphia 11, changed everything.

 

 Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard (who was from Minnesota, where she would serve until her death in 1981), Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig broke the barriers of the Episcopal Church.

 

It changed everything.

 

Some of you here today remember well when those women became priests.

 

Some in the Church cheered.

 

Some definitely did not.

 

And for Episcopalians in the 1970s, when society was being unended, when Prayer Book revisions were being introduced, women in leadership roles in the Church were at the forefront.

 

Let’s look at our Mary & Martha Window.

 

Look at those dates.

 

Our first female Lay reader was in 1970.

 

Our first female Senior Warden was in 1971

 

Our first female acolyte was in 1972.

 

And by the way, July 29 is an important day liturgically int eh church.

 

It is the feast of. . . Sts. Mary and Martha.

 

Now, for us, here, now, almost 50 years later, we celebrate this event.

 

We rejoice in it.

 

You have heard me say how many times? What would our church be without women like the Philadelphia 11.

 

They have saved the Church.

 

They opened the door for generations of women’s leadership in the Episcopal Church.

 

Just for a moment, imagine what the Episcopal Church would be like right now if women hadn’t been ordained.

 

It’s awful even to ponder.

 

But all of this was not without a price.

 

That day in Philadelphia, as joyful as it was, was also a day of fear.

 

There death threats made against those women.

 

There was a bomb threat in the church.

 

People were furious over it all.

 

Those women feared for their lives for what they did.

 

And yet they went there that day knowing full-well what doing so might do to them.

 

They did what they did bravely, but with fear in their hearts.

 

Because they did what they did, because they faced their fears, because they listened to the prophetic Voice of God in their lives and in the life of the Church, we as a Church have been not only enriched, but  revitalized.

 

Their lesson to us, 49 years later is a clear one.

 

Under no circumstances should we let fear win out.

 

We know fear.

 

Politically, religiously, personally, there’s a lot fear at work in our lives right now.

 

Real fear.

 

But what is most shocking to me is how so much fear, so much anxiety, so much darkness, can come forth from some seemingly small, other-wise  insignificant actions.

 

We all don’t have to face death threats and bomb threats to fear real fear in our lives.

 

Sometimes—more often than not—it is the small things that affect us most.

 

In our Gospel for this morning, we heard the Kingdom of God being compared to several small things: mustard, yeast, treasure, pearls and a net to catch fish.

 

The gist of these parables is that something small can make a difference.

 

Something small can actually be worth much.

 

As I pondered this these last few days, I realized that Jesus really is, as always, VERY right on with this.

 

When we do a bit of good—like planting a little bitty mustard seed—a lot of good can come forth.

 

But, we also realize that a little bit of bad can also do much bad.

 

A little bit of fear can grow into something out of control.

 

And I’m not just talking about the news and the government.

 

Or a former President

 

We all live with various forms of fear.

 

Fear of the future.

 

Fear of change.

 

Fear of things that are different, or strange, or that don’t fit into our confining understanding of things.

 

Our fear of these kind of things can be crippling.

 

We sow the small seeds of fear that grow into larger ugly plants of fear when we when wallow in that fear, when we let fear grow and flourish into a huge, overwhelming weed.

 

When we let fear reign, when we let it run roughshod through our lives, we see

bitterness and anger following.

 

We become bitter, complaining, nitpicky people who by doing so, expose our own fear and privilege.

 

Our reading from the Hebrew scriptures is a great example of how we should respond to issues of fear.

 

In our reading from the 1 Kings, we find God telling King Solomon that anything he asks will be granted.

 

This would be something most of us really would want God to say to us as well.

 

If God spoke to you and told you that anything you prayed for would be granted, what would you ask for?

 

I know a few things I would ask for.

 

And most of those things we ask would be normal.

 

But Solomon doesn’t ask for the normal things, if you notice.

 

Solomon asks God for the gift of understanding.

 

And that is the gift God grants Solomon.

 

And to us too!

 

When we ask for the gift of understanding, God usually seems to give it.

 

As long as we are open to the gift.

 

The fact is, most of us aren’t open to understanding.

 

We are too set in our ways, into believing we know what is right or what is wrong.

 

But when we ask, when we open ourselves to this gift, God gives us the Holy Spirit. 

 

And how do we know when the Holy Spirit is given to us?

 

We know the work of the Holy Spirit, by the Spirit’s fruits.

 

Those fruits blossom into real, tangible signs.

 

But when we resist the Spirit, when we resist the movement of God, we find ourselves trapped—in fear, in bitterness, in anger.

 

But it is not an option for us as Christians to be stuck and trapped in fear. 

 

How can we fear when we hear Paul say to us in his letter to the Romans:

 

“if God is for us, who is against us.”

 

We cannot let fear rule our lives.

 

After all, who will separate us from the love of God?

 

Will any of the hardships of life be able to defeat us or separate us from the love of God?

 

“No, in all these things we are conquerors through him who loved us.”

 

Nothing—not “death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, not things to come, not powers, not height, not depth, not anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

(By the way, I am convinced that this might be the most powerful scripture we have as Christians!)

 

After all, when we get stuck in fear, when we let ourselves be separated from the love of God in our lives, that is when we hinder the Kingdom.

 

It prevents the harvest from happening.

 

It prevents growth from happening.

 

It makes the Church—and us—not a vital, living place proclaiming God’s loving and living and accepting Presence.

 

Our job is to banish fear so the Kingdom can flourish.

 

The flourishing of the kingdom can be frightening.

 

Like the mustard seed, it can be overwhelming.

 

Because when the Kingdom of God flourishes, it flourishes beyond our control.

 

We can’t control that flourishing.

 

All we can do is plant the seeds and tend the growth as best we can.

 

Rooting our endeavors in God’s love is a sure guarantee that what is planted will flourish.

 

Because rooting our endeavors in God’s love means we are rooting our endeavors in a living, vital Presence.

 

We are rooting them in a wild God who knows no bounds, who knows no limits and who cannot be controlled by us.

 

Rooting our endeavors in God’s love means that our job is simply to go with God and the growth that God brings about wherever and however that growth may happen.

 

When we do, God banishes our fears.

 

So, let us help God’s Kingdom flourish!

 

To be righteous does not mean being good and sweet and nice and right all the time.

 

To be righteous one simply needs to further the harvest of the Kingdom by doing what those of us who follow Jesus do.

 

It means seeking understanding from God.

 

It means planting good, small seeds.

 

And in those instances when we fail, we must allow the mustard seed of the Kingdom to flourish.

 

And when we do strive to do good and to further the kingdom of God, then we be doing what Jesus commands us to do.

 

The Kingdom will flourish.

 

And we can take some joy in knowing that we helped, working with God, to make it flourish.

 

And, in that wonderful, holy moment, we will know the fruits of our efforts.

 

And we—like the kingdom of which we are citizens—we will also truly flourish!

 

Let us pray.

Holy and loving God, plant in us the seeds of your love so that your love will flourish within us and in all whom we encounter in this world; we ask this in the holy name of Jesus. Amen.