Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, July 20, 2014

Jacob’s Ladder (Detail), Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696-1770

Jacob, a conniving trickster, got himself in trouble and now is on the run. He fears the murderous wrath of his angry older twin Esau, whom he has tricked out of his inheritance and their father’s blessing. Now he stops to rest, dreams an amazing dream of angels, and then hears God’s voice repeating the promise that God gave to his grandfather Abraham and to his father Isaac: God is with him, and his offspring will fill the Earth. Did God reward Jacob’s trickery? No. God knows that we aren’t perfect. God works with broken, troubled people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob … and us.

Psalm: Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23

When Jacob ran from angry Esau, he might have prayed something like this Psalm that tradition attributes to the hand of King David: God loves us and knows everything about us. We may run from God, but we can’t hide. No matter where we are, God will lead us, hold us and keep us.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-25

This Pentecost season, from mid-June through mid-August, we follow Paul through his letter to the Romans as he talks about what life in the Spirit of Christ looks like. Summing up his argument in today’s passage, he reiterates: If we live by our own selfish desires, we die. But if we live in the Spirit through Christ, loving God and our neighbor even as we suffer with Christ – as the Roman Christians had suffered through persecution – we are glorified with him and become children of God.

Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Jesus was a carpenter, not a farmer, but he sure did tell a lot of parables about farming, planting, growing things. Following immediately after last week’s parable about the sower, he moves on to a discussion of weeds in the wheat field. It would be all too easy to read threats of hellfire and damnation into Jesus’ interpretation of this parable, but we don’t have to go there. Read to the end and be reminded that God will reward the righteous, those who practice the love of neighbor that Jesus asks us to practice to help create God’s kingdom on earth. Will we be weeds, or will we be ripe, nourishing wheat?