LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com
Date: Sept. 24, 2023
Scripture Lessons: Exodus 16:1-18, 31 and Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon: Re-Programming
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells
Is this a simulation? That is a main theme of the novel Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Are the characters living in a simulation of some kind? The story involves life on Earth in the early 1900’s. It involves life on Earth in the 2020’s. It involves life on Earth in 2203. But there is more. The story also involves the first moon colony, the second moon colony, and the far colonies. And the book features time travel as well as space travel. And the question reappears, is this a simulation? What is reality?
In the novel Sea of Tranquility, one of the characters becomes involved in time travel to try to sort out an anomaly. He goes to different locations and different eras and interviews people. It takes years of training to prepare for this because he needs to learn about the time in history, the setting, the context, and the people, so that he can interact appropriately.
To me, the church, faith, religion, the Bible are our training ground for life in the reality of God. Here we learn what it means to be part of the Beloved Community here on Earth. And while it may not involve time travel, it certainly can involve preparation for life in a different kind of reality.
In the New Testament, we see Jesus defining the nature of the reality of the realm of God, the commonwealth of God, the kin-dom of God, the reality of God. Jesus is defining, describing, and creating an alternative reality, different in many ways from the reality of those who hear his message. And this alternative reality, the reality of God, exists within people, and among people who choose, or are called, to be part of that reality.
Again and again, Jesus is remembered for teaching people, “the realm of God is like” and then he tells a story. Like the one we heard this morning. A parable. A story that creates a reality through multiple messages and meanings. Jesus makes it clear that the realm of God involves being part of a reality very different from the social values, circumstances, and arrangements of the seeming reality around us. We might say heaven on Earth, or on Earth as it is in heaven. The reality of God here in our midst.
In the gospel lesson we heard this morning a story involving labor and wages is used to convey a message that in God’s reality people are not primarily economic beings. We are not primarily defined by work. There are countless ways, day in and day out, in our current society, that people are defined by economics, finances, and money. Economic value is the primary standard for defining worth. That is the main source of human value in our culture. In the story of the laborers, Jesus undermines that reality. He creates an alternative reality in which each and every person is valued and taken care of. Regardless of economic utility. And in the story we heard, that offends some people. Just like it does today.
Living into the reality of God in its many dimensions takes training and that is part of the ministry of the church. Here we learn to live in that different reality, in that beloved community. We learn, and experiment, and practice, and examine, and test what it is like to live in the reality of God. And given the gap between the reality of God and the reality around us, it can be a lifelong journey this learning to trust the reality of God within us and among us.
We see some of the implications of that learning process in the story that we heard from Exodus. The people have been liberated from slavery and are traversing the wilderness en route to a new home that will be an embodiment of the reality of God in its fullness. This time in the wilderness is needed as a time of re-training. The people need to become disentangled from the system of oppression and slavery even though it provided them with homes and food and water which they find lacking on their sojourn through the wilderness. So much so that they find themselves longing for Egypt. For slavery.
And during this wilderness transition, they plead and grumble and each time God provides what they need. It is a time to learn to trust and depend on God, their liberator. But the lessons are hard learned. Today, we heard about the quail and manna. The people are hungry and have no food. And suddenly they are provided with food that literally falls out of the sky. Enough for everyone. To eat their fill. Day by day. And even still, observe the sabbath. And are they jumping for joy about this? Are they stunned with gratitude? Oh no. This training in the wilderness, being weaned from oppression to liberation, it takes time. It is hard to learn to live in the reality of the generosity of God instead of the entrenched bonds of slavery.
While the people expect the desert to be barren, empty, it turns out to be filled with the glory of God. The God that has brought the Hebrews out of slavery is continuously providing for them. But they find this hard to see. And even harder to trust. As the story is told, the forty years in the wilderness provides the time for most of the people who were actually adult slaves in Egypt to have passed on. The attachments to the old system dying with them.
In the story we see that it takes time, experience, and patience on the part of God to bless these people with a new reality. They must be trained and encouraged and nurtured into a new reality. The reality of God.
And we see the same process taking place in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus teaches and heals and embodies the reality of God, the realm of God, so that people can become accustomed to that new reality. It’s not time travel. It’s not geographical travel. But it is travel to a different moral, religious, and spiritual realm. The traversing of a huge chasm from the cultural reality we have created and accepted to the reality of God which is our true forever home where all are cared for and provided for. God makes life possible for all. All receive what they need to flourish and thrive.
Where are we on our journey to the reality of God? Well, how do we react when confronted by lavish grace? It’s fine when we benefit. But when others benefit? Are we offended? How are we progressing at giving up our ledgers and accounts and score keeping? How are we doing at living in a reality in which people are not defined by their economic productivity? A reality in which things are not fair. NO. A reality which provides for all. How are we doing with all of that?
In the novel Sea of Tranquility, a main character, Gaspery, goes to the Time Institute for training for time travel and it takes years of preparation. To me, we come to church, week after week, year after year, and here we acclimate ourselves to the reality of God. We come here to be schooled in grace. To recalibrate our orientation from rugged individualism to the communal good. From the lure of making sure we have provided for our future, you know you need at least a million dollars to retire, we’re told, to trusting that all are to be provided for day by day by day. Here we learn not to grab our due but to celebrate when others benefit from good fortune. Here we come to be weaned from our false notion of independence to reveling in our dependence upon all that is being provided for us.
Here we are schooled in grace that strips away privilege. And entitlement. And we learn to glory in all that we are being given. Each and every day. And here we are invited to be generous so that we partner with God in creating a new reality and we experience our giftedness and blessing. Here we come to learn to accept the offense of grace: Yes, others get more than they deserve. And we are among them. This all takes time and training.
There is a story told of two friends who were walking down the sidewalk of a busy city street during rush hour. There was all sorts of noise in the city; car horns honking, feet shuffling, people talking! And amid all this noise, one of the friends turned to the other and said, “I hear a cricket.”
“No way,” her friend responded. “How could you possibly hear a cricket with all of this noise? You must be imagining it. Besides, I’ve never seen a cricket in the city.”
“No, really, I do hear a cricket. I’ll show you.” She stopped for a moment, then led her friend across the street to a big cement planter with a tree in it. Pushing back some leaves, she found a little brown cricket.
“That’s amazing!” said her friend. “You must have super-human hearing. What’s your secret?”
“No, my hearing is just the same as yours. There’s no secret,” the first woman replied. “Watch, I’ll show you.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out some loose change, and threw it on the sidewalk. Amid all the noise of the city, everyone within thirty feet turned their head to see where the sound of the money was coming from.
“See, she said. It’s all a matter of what you are listening for.” [“The Cricket Story,” contemporary North American, in Doorways to the Soul: 52 Wisdom Tales from Around the World, edited by Elisa Davy Pearmain.]
May we listen for the gospel, for the Divine dream of love, and let that create and define our reality on Earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
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