Nov 24th: Extraordinary Gratitude, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Extraordinary Gratitude with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Ordinary People With Extraordinary Hearts A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Ephesians 3.20.
Come as you are this Sunday – whether in person or online – and join us as we explore the Parable of the Sower. Discover how God’s radical generosity can transform even the most unlikely soil. Together, let’s be inspired to “astonish a mean and angry world with acts of kindness.” All are welcome.
Transcript:
Steven: St Thomas Aquinas wrote, fear is such a powerful emotion that when we allow fear to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts, and we forget who we are. One of our greatest challenges right now is to not forget who we are, we need to make sure the worst in the world does not change the best in us. Maya Angelou said, my wish for you is that you continue, continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean and angry world with your acts of kindness, we need a really good theology right now, a theology that affirms and calls forth the best of us. We need to remember who we are, and one of the best ways to remember who we are. Is to remember who God is. A while back there was, there was a man standing in the corner of highway 20 and 27th Street by Barnes and Noble with the same stern look as my mother when I knew I was in trouble. You know, my mother could make me feel guilty before I even knew what I had done to feel guilty about this man with the severe look on his face was holding a sign that said, Are you saved? Repent now. And across the street by the Shell Station were two teenage girls with the exuberance of one too many white mochas from Dutch Bros, and they were dancing a Taylor Swift holding a sign that said, free car wash. Now my car wasn’t dirty, but my soul took over the wheel, intuitively, knowing I needed to wash away the gloom their dance troupe decided to spend a Saturday afternoon spreading love, kindness and good vibes. What why I asked, just because, come on, what’s the catch? Are you selling tickets for an upcoming performance? Nope. They said, there’s just so much anger. We wanted to give people a reason to smile and remember they’re still good in the world. Now, these teenage girls reminded me. They reminded me of a story Jesus told about a sower of seeds who extravagantly wastefully scattered seeds across a field, seeds that fell on good soil and bad soil alike. And before I read the story, I want to remind us that the that the purpose of Jesus’s life was not to change God’s mind about us, but to actually change our mind about God, introducing us to a God of extravagant, generous, unconditional love. Now, Jesus was always inviting people to stretch and and move beyond what they think they already knew. That’s why Jesus frequently spoke in parables. The word parable literally means alongside there were stories thrown off to the side, and if we’re to catch the meaning, we need to move. Chances are, if you think you understand the story Jesus is telling, you don’t. You’re being invited to stretch beyond what you think you already know. So with that in mind, here’s the parable Jesus told of a sower of seeds from the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around Jesus that he got into a boat and sat in it while all the people stood on the shore. Then Jesus told them many things in parables, saying a farmer went out to sow seeds. As he was scattering seeds, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did had did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no roots. Other seeds fell among the thorns which grew up in. Choked the plants. Still other seeds fell on good soil where it produced a crop 160 30 times what was sown. Whoever has ears lit them here. Now, a traditional reading of this parable assumes that we are the soil and and the story is really about us and the quality of the soil of our souls. I mean, don’t we assume most things are about us? The truth is, the truth is, I do recognize myself in the story. I have days when I when I can be, when I can be, the hardened path closed off with a defended heart. I am certainly rocky ground at times with shallow soil and no roots. I I felt small seeds of love, hope, faith snatched away as I’ve experienced grief, depression, doubt. I felt my faith at times spring up quickly, only to wilt. I’ve certainly had moments where it seems the weeds are choking the life out of me. I’ve fallen among thorns and brambles caught up in pain, worry, fear, and some days, especially lately, the soil feels scorched by the oppressive heat of life and the suffering and injustices that continue to threaten the most vulnerable there are at times it seems like the seeds of peace don’t stand a chance in the combative soil of our culture. Now I can recognize myself and in all of the soils that Jesus describes, sometimes in the course of a single day. How about you? But when we read this parable, assuming the story is about us analyzing and and judging the worthiness of our soil. That actually makes for a really cynical story. I mean, self reflection is a good thing, but I don’t think that’s the story Jesus is telling here. Jesus didn’t tell such straightforward, unimaginative stories. Jesus told stories that turned familiar things upside down, inviting us to see with a different lens, and making this parable about us. Now that’s a familiar lens. You know, we should beat ourselves up. We should feel guilty about the quality of our soil. We don’t measure up. We’re not enough. We should do more. You know, if we could just get our act together, be better people, be better Christians, we might then be good soil worthy to receive the seeds of God’s love. Do you notice that we have a tendency to turn our relationship with God into a transaction? If I do x, I will then earn God’s favor. If I confess, pull those weeds, promise to take better care of the soil, then I will become good soil and worthy to have the seeds of God’s love take root. But if we make the story about us assuming God is the sower, God is an angry farmer, constantly judging the quality of the soil, and woe to those whose lives waste the seeds that God has scattered and feeling judged ourselves, we then have a tendency, we have a tendency to judge the quality of other people’s soil. There’s so much judgment. There’s such a lack of generosity of spirit in our culture right now, even in our churches, it makes me wonder, what image of God do people hold? So what if this story Jesus told isn’t about us and our shortcomings, our weaknesses? What do we notice if we change the focus of the story from the quality of the soil to the heart of the one scattering the seeds. Well, the first thing we notice is that the sower scatters seeds generously, extravagantly, wastefully, and the. Seeds fall on good soil and bad soil alike. Now, if I were sowing seeds personally, I’d want greater odds of success. I’d want to make sure the seeds landed on fertile soil, this generous, extravagant, wasteful scattering of seeds. Now that would have to stop you. Don’t waste good seed on unproductive soil, that’s that’s just bad farming. We’re certainly told in our society that there are people who aren’t worthy of our time, our investment. You know, we are told there are people less worthy because of the color of their skin, their education or economic status, their gender, their sexual orientation, whether or not they hold legal documents, whether they have a roof over their heads. There’s an idea that has taken root in this world that some people are less worthy than others, but when we shift our lens to the sower of the seeds in the story, we actually notice the sower pays very, very little Attention to the condition of the soil. The Sower doesn’t worry whether it’s productive or unproductive soil. The Sower doesn’t actually seem worried about the odds of success or failure. The Sower isn’t stingy with the seeds. With wild abandon, the sower generously scatters handfuls of seeds across the field, because that’s who the sower is, and that’s what the sower does. And lamot said, When I begin to realize that fear has taken over my life, it’s a sure sign I need to start giving and to give more than I’m comfortable giving. So I will go and find some homeless mothers, and I will hand out 10s and 20s. Love doesn’t stop to evaluate whether someone is worthy of our love, or whether, whether there’s enough love, just loves, practicing radical generosity, she said, is the best way to bring something of God into the world, and the best way to remember the best version of myself. Now, to us, the sower appears to be recklessly inefficient, extravagantly wasteful. But what if that’s actually the hope and beauty of the story, the nature of the sower is to be radically generous and trust the seeds of goodness can take root in any kind of soil. The Sower assumes the best and not the worst. The Sower believes everyone is deserving, regardless of the current quality of their soil. The Sower isn’t stingy stingy, but operates from a place of abundance. The Sower focuses on giving without any expectation of what he or she may get in return. Just imagine for a second, just imagine if we reflected the same kind of that radical generosity in the world. This kind of radical generosity, trust sowing seeds on a rock may actually yield something, because sometimes a tree does grow out of a rock, and flowers do grow out of concrete friends. We’re living in a remarkably, remarkably challenging and painful moment. If ever there was a time to scatter seeds of radical love and generosity, it’s now. Now. It’s tempting to let fear rule our hearts and our lives. We need to remember who God is and who we are. We need to double down on those sacred practices that will ensure the worst in the world. I will not change the best in us. Do you remember the two teenagers high on white mochas from Dutch Bros dancing to Taylor Swift wanting to wash my car for free, just because that afternoon, they helped me see the heart of God. The next time you’re asked, Are you saved? You just might reply, you know, I’m going to leave that in the hands of a God of generous and extravagant love. I’m too busy spending my life trying to astonish a mean and angry world with acts of kindness, because that’s who I am, and that’s what I do. May it be so.
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