Texts: Matthew 13:44-46; Revelation 22:1-3a

Speaker: Joel Miller

See below for the Faith Journey Reflection from Sarah Martin prior to her baptism

There’s part of me that’s a bit envious of those two anonymous folks in those two short parables about the kin-dom of heaven.  They both find something so valuable – a treasure, a pearl – they gladly trade in all they have so they can have it. 

Envious probably isn’t the right word.  Envy is number 2 on the traditional list of 7 deadly sins.  Hopefully I’m not approaching the realm of the deadly sinful.  A more positive spin might be that I’m admiringly intrigued with this idea: That there might be one thing that completely reorients one’s desires, goals, thoughts and actions into a singularly focused joyful existence.  Like it says in Matthew 13:44: “Then, in his joy, he went and sold all he had and bought the field (that contained the treasure.)”

Wouldn’t that be something: to know – deep in your soul – that only one thing matters, and the purpose of your life is to tend to that one thing as long you live?

If you hear these parables and set out searching for an actual treasure in a field, or an actual pearl of great value, let’s agree that you’ve missed the point.  It’s not a thing at all Jesus is pointing to.  It’s this non-thing, which he refers to as the kingdom of heaven, or as Mark and Luke call it, the kin-dom of God.  It’s a big enough idea Jesus needs not just these two parables, but many parables to illustrate what it might be.  Matthew alone contains 11 parables that include the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like…”  Each of them point to a present reality – not some future existence – a present reality…

Texts: Genesis 1:31, Luke 9:28-36

Speaker: Bethany Davey

“God saw everything [God] had made: it was supremely good. There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31, Common English Bible (CEB)

“About eight days after Jesus said these things, he took Peter, John and James, and went up on a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes flashed white like lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, were talking with him. They were clothed with heavenly splendor and spoke about Jesus’ departure, which he would achieve in Jerusalem. Peter and those with him were almost overcome by sleep, but they managed to stay awake and saw his glory as well as the two men with him.

As the two men were about to leave Jesus, Peter said to him, ‘Master, it’s good that we’re here. We should construct three shrines: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ –but he didn’t know what he was saying. Peter was still speaking when a cloud overshadowed them. As they entered the cloud, they were overcome with awe.

Then a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him!’ Even as the voice spoke, Jesus was found alone. They were speechless and at the time told no one what they had seen.” Luke 9:28-36, CEB

Happy Pride Sunday! What an honor to preach today, and what joy it brings me that our CMC community honors June’s Pride season each year. Across Columbus, Pride flags wave in the breeze, businesses rainbow-fy their windows and community events abound. Many of us will join in the Pride Freedom March and celebrations this coming Saturday, June 20th.

This year, Stonewall Columbus chose the Pride theme, “Until We’re All Free,” which begs the question: who is…

Texts: Exodus 3:1-14; Matthew 13:33

Speaker: Joel Miller

What if I told you I’ve seen the burning bush.  Not a burning bush, but as Ohio State fans can surely appreciate, THE burning bush.  In person, on location, with my own eyes.   The one our Bibles say Moses saw so many years ago.  I’ve seen that burning bush. 

I was 22 years old.  It was my senior year of college.  It was a study abroad semester, in Cairo, Egypt.  Over one extended weekend, we made a trip into the Sinai Peninsula to climb THE Mt. Sinai, or A Mt. Sinai.  No one’s quite sure.  At the base of this Mt. Sinai is the world’s oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, also containing the world’s oldest continuously operating library – St. Catherines Monastery.  And inside the walls of St. Catherines, in an open air space is the burning bush. 

In case you’re wondering, it’s pretty big – over ten feet wide.  It’s a species of bramble – Rubus sanctus.  It is claimed that it won’t grow in any other area of the Sinai Peninsula.  You do, like Moses, need to take off your shoes when you’re near it to honor holy ground.  And it is not, as you may have guessed, on fire.  It’s green.  It’s a bush.  And it may, or may not, be the very bush in the very location that changed the life of Moses, the Jewish people, and the world.  It did not, especially, change my life.   

The story of the burning bush is pivotal in the biblical narrative.  Remember that at this point Moses is not a young man.  He was a baby in the Nile River when Pharaoh’s daughter found and adopted him and raised him in the palace.  He was a grown man when he saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating…

Texts: Exodus 22:6; Matthew 5:1-6

Speaker: Joel Miller

When fire breaks out | and catches in thorns | so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed | the one who started the fire | shall make full restitution.

These words appear in Exodus 22 in a section my Bible labels as “Laws of Restitution.”  These laws detail how to respond to theft and property damage within the community.  Some of them get pretty specific. 

For example, if you steal an ox or a sheep, and you slaughter it, or sell it, and, of course, you get caught, you owe the owner five oxen or four sheep.  But if you still have possession of it, you have to give it back plus two of your own oxen or sheep.  And if you can’t afford this, if you don’t have a couple animals to spare, you have to sell off your foundational asset, your body, your labor, to make full restitution.  All that packed into one verse, Exodus 22:1

Other laws deal with livestock grazing over a boundary line, who owes what if a borrowed work animal is injured or dies, how to respond if someone digs a pit, doesn’t cover it, and a donkey or oxen falls in and gets hurt.

The cultural setting for the one about fire breaking out is this:  It was common practice then, and even now, to have a row of thorn bushes around fields.  A hedgerow.  These were low cost, low maintenance, multipurpose fences.  They marked boundary lines and kept wild and domestic animals out of the field.  If you’ve ever heard the biblical phrase “a hedge of protection” (Job 1:10), it comes from this practice.  It was also common practice to burn a field after the harvest.  It cleared the stubble, and the ashes…

Texts: Numbers 11:24-30; Acts 2:1-8; 14-18

Speaker: Joel Miller

There’s a story in the Torah, the book of Numbers, chapter 11.  The Israelites have just left Mt. Sinai.  Moses has communed with God and given them the Ten Commandments.  But he’s getting frustrated – with the people.  They’re complaining.  They’re hard to lead.  None of this was Moses’ idea anyways.  He’s overwhelmed.  Something has to change, and the Lord has an idea. 

Moses is instructed to a select group of elders – 70 of them.  Yahweh says, “I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.”  Moses is skeptical, but also kind of desperate.  He goes with it.  He calls these elders together.  He takes them outside the encampment and has them circle up around the tent of meeting, which was the place Moses would go to meet with the Lord.  Kind of a mobile mini temple.  A temple for nomads.  They circle up around this tent of meeting, and sure enough, Yahweh comes down in a cloud and takes some of the spirit that was on or in Moses and distributes it to the 70 elders.   The spirit rests on them, comes alive within them.  They begin prophesying.  They are spirit possessed, in a good way.      

There is a bit of a hitch.  Someone forgot to do a head count.  Two of the 70 either hadn’t checked their messages or were lagging behind.  They’re still back in the camp, with the people, not gathered at that special tent of meeting with Moses, the others, and the Lord.  But when the spirit rests on all the elders out there, it still comes on…