The Church of St.
Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
July 26, 2020
Year A, Proper 12:
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 29:15-28
Psalm 105 1-11, 45b
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33,
44-52
The Power of Smallness
If
you’ve been joining us for the past few Sundays you know that we’ve been
hearing a series Jesus’ parables.
And
today we reach the end of that series with an overabundance of parables – there
are so many images I’ve had trouble figuring out where to begin!
Jesus suggests
God’s kingdom is like a tiny mustard seed growing into the greatest of shrubs
and even a tree where the birds can nest.
The kingdom is
like yeast, just a little bit makes a whole lot of bread.
Like a treasure
buried in a field or a pearl of great value, the kingdom is worth more than all
that we have.
My favorite moment
from this passage comes at the end when Jesus asks the disciples if they have
understood all the parables that he has presented.
At least to my
ears, their quick “yes” sounds a little like when a schoolteacher asks the
class if they understand the lesson. Maybe some really do get it but then there
are always others who look around nervously, don’t want to be the first one, or
even worse, the only one to say “no.”
So, they nod “yes”
desperately hoping that they won’t be called on to explain what they supposedly
understand.
(That was usually
me in math class!)
The truth is that
although the parables use everyday imagery, they’re not really meant to be
easily understood.
We’re meant to
spend time with the parables, to ponder them, to play around with the images.
The parables are
meant to overturn our expectations, to help us see the world more like how God
sees the world.
And, it turns out
that God sees the power of smallness.
And, God uses
the power of smallness.
And, that’s very
good news for us, especially these days.
The other day I
was interviewed about my experiences with Jersey City Together.
As
many of you know, Jersey City Together is our local community organizing
effort, drawing together all different kinds of people from across the city,
working to improve housing, education, and public safety.
And,
also as many of you know, I’m a big believer in Jersey City Together – which is
now expanding into a statewide effort – New Jersey Together – because I believe
it’s the best way for us to make, as the late great John Lewis liked to say,
“good trouble.”
Anyway,
during the interview I was asked what I see as the challenges faced by the
organization.
After
thinking for a moment, I said that not just Jersey City Together but all of us
face a challenging set of intertwined crises, and it’s unwise, and probably
impossible, for us to deal with any of them in isolation.
There’s
Covid-19, of course, which for the moment is more or less under control here
but is raging in other parts of our country and many of our leaders – many of
our people – seem to be unwilling or unable to do what’s necessary to slows the
spread of this dangerous disease.
There
are all the people who have lost their jobs and often their health insurance –
and a lot of these jobs aren’t coming back soon, or maybe even ever.
There
are all the people, including some in our own congregation, who won’t be able
to make the August rent or pay their mortgage, or who are already homeless,
squeezed into motel rooms, desperately looking for more permanent shelter.
And,
what about our schools? What happens if they really can’t reopen for in-person
instruction or have to come up with some kind of half and half schedule,
leaving parents scrambling to find childcare?
Oh,
and the Federal Government has deployed paramilitary forces wearing
camouflage but no identifying badges or insignias to battle protesters on the
streets of Portland - and there are threats to send these shadowy forces to other cities, as well.
How
would we respond if they came here?
And,
then there are the important, but maybe slower-moving, events that usually
don’t make the news, like how it’s been a red-hot summer in the arctic,
spelling big trouble for all of us, especially in low lying areas. Just the
other day, during a rainstorm (a big storm but it wasn't a hurricane), large parts of Jersey City and Hoboken were
under water.
So,
yes, we face a very challenging, and, yes, frightening, set of intertwined
crises.
And,
it would be understandable and so very easy for us to throw up our hands or to bury our heads in the sand, giving in to feelings of
frustration, weakness, and fear.
Maybe
some of us already have.
But,
first of all, as St. Paul understood so well and wrote to the church in Rome, we
don’t fear because we know that nothing “will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And,
second, if we think we’re powerless, we are quite wrong.
I first learned
about community organizing at a weeklong training that I took about 13 years
ago.
That
was a quite while ago but I remember the person leading the training telling us
that he hated the word “empowerment” – you know, how well-meaning people say
that they want to “empower” poor and oppressed people so that they can stand up
for themselves and improve their lot in life.
He
said “empowerment” is condescending because it denies the basic truth that the
power is already here inside of us. The power is already here among us.
And,
isn’t that the message of Jesus?
The
kingdom is here.
We have all been
given a treasure that might be harder to see than the tiny mustard seed, but
it’s a treasure even more beautiful than the most perfect pearl.
Our
job – our job together – is to allow our God-given seeds to grow abundantly.
God sees the power
of smallness.
And, God uses the
power of smallness.
Last
week some of our church’s lay leaders and I met with the bishop and a couple of
other diocesan officials to talk about the legal unification of St. Paul’s and
Incarnation and the sale of Incarnation’s former home on Storms Avenue.
I
had expected it to be kind of a nuts and bolts business meeting but Bishop
Hughes and her team are still relatively new and so they didn’t really know “our
story” – didn’t know how our two churches have come together as one.
So,
we told them our story.
And,
as we were talking I thought about how this beautiful story started so small,
started with Incarnation shifting its Sunday service to 3:00 in the afternoon which
meant that Rev. Laurie and I were able to serve as supply priests once a month,
giving us the chance to get to know each other better.
The
story continued with us all having an end of summer party at Liberty Park –
with us walking the Way of the Cross together on Good Friday – with Incarnation
and St. Paul’s celebrating the holiest days of the year together.
Each
of those events was small and didn’t necessarily seem like they were leading to
anything big down the road and, yet, almost without us even noticing God was
taking our two tiny seeds and growing something new and wonderful.
And,
when it was time to decide our future, none of us could ignore the magnificent
tree standing in our midst, a tree that provides shelter for us even during
these very stormy days.
God sees the power
of smallness.
And, God uses the
power of smallness.
In
my sermon last week I mentioned “Freewheeling Wednesday” at our Triangle Park
Community Center, where some 50 or 60 kids received a free bike or scooter,
plus a helmet, plus free food and even free ice cream!
As
I said last week, it felt like the kingdom of God.
The
other day, Sue and I were driving down through Greenville. Since I had some donated
clothes in my trunk, Sue suggested we try dropping them off at the center. It
was a little late in the afternoon and I wasn’t sure the center would still be
open but it was worth a try.
Now,
“Freewheeling Wednesday” had been a special event, carefully planned, with
police protection and even a closed street, but this time we got to see
Triangle Park on an ordinary hot summer day.
Some
young men were clustered in the park while there was a police car stationed at
the corner. The cops and the guys seemed kept an eye on each other but the cops
only took action when a car was parked in the bus stop.
I
would say the atmosphere was tense.
And
yet, sure enough, the center was still open and busy.
Food
had just been distributed and people were looking through the clothes rack and
browsing the book cart on the sidewalk. Moms and kids were still around, maybe
not quite ready for another day of summer camp to be over.
As
I think back, I remember how we opened the center without really knowing what
it was going to be, not even sure what it could be. We opened it with some
money and some hope and faith.
And,
the center itself is so small! Those of you who’ve been down there, you know
it’s just a small storefront and yet from that small seed a magnificent tree
now stands in long-neglected Triangle Park, providing shelter during these very
stormy days.
God sees the power
of smallness.
And, not only
that, God uses the power of smallness.
So, here we are.
I don’t need to
tell you that we are in big trouble and there are some real dangers ahead and
it would be understandable and so very easy for us to throw up our hands or to bury our heads in the sand, giving in to feelings of
frustration, weakness, and fear.
But, the kingdom
is here.
Nothing can
separate us from the love of God.
And, we have all
been given a treasure that might be harder to see than the tiny mustard seed,
but it’s a treasure even more beautiful than the most perfect pearl.
Our
job – our job together – is to allow our God-given seeds to grow
abundantly.
God sees the power
of smallness.
And, God uses the
power of smallness.
Amen.
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