Teddy Bears and Wildflowers

As I was preparing for the service today, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a sermon that was the equivalent of Teddy Bears skipping through alpine meadows picking wildflowers and making bouquets to give to people?”

“I wonder what the Gospel for this week says…”

Hypocrites! You honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me!

“Well gee…. That’s not terribly uplifting. Let’s see what the Epistle reading has to say today…”

Do not be hearers of the word only, and not doers. Don’t be like people who look in the mirror and forget what they look like. Act according to what you claim to believe.

“Okay. Guess it’s time for another sermon on introspection and self-examination.”

Now, you might be wondering why the summer months have such an abundance of lectionary items that speak to wrestling with our faith. You see, the season of the Church year starts in Advent, with the anticipation of the Messiah. We hear the story of the bouncing baby Jesus at Christmas, his naming on January 1st, the epiphany to wise men from the East, his baptism, his ministry, his suffering, his death, and ultimately his resurrection on Easter. Then we see how the disciples and the early church responded to this dramatic event at Pentecost, and how their response to what had happened helped to shape the future of the world.

And then…?

Then we get into the season after Pentecost, often called “Ordinary Time.” In agricultural communities in the northern hemisphere, this season often coincides with the growing season, and especially with the harvest. And so you will find all sorts of references to spiritual growth, to planning for the future, to dealing with difficult situations, you name it. 

If the first half of the church year is all about Jesus and his identity, his mission, his sacrifice, and ultimately our redemption, then the second half of the year is all about our response to the knowledge of who Jesus is and what he accomplished. And also how that knowledge should inform every aspect of our lives, from how to respond to someone who wrongs us, to how to understand our finances in the light of God’s provision and grace, to planting seeds for a harvest – both physical seeds, as well as spiritual seeds.

That’s the church year, in a nutshell.

Those of you who grew up in small towns may remember that one kid – or maybe a few more than one – that everyone referred to as a “bad seed.” That is to say, everyone knew that there was something terrible inside this kid that made him a terror around town, and someone people wanted to avoid at all costs. Let’s call him Timmy.

And then this kid grows up, and the young man Tim becomes what law enforcement like to call a “repeat offender.” When something bad happens in town, his house is the first place they go. They figure that if anything bad happened, it had to come from this one, because, “There’s something wrong with him on the inside. Ain’t nothing good going to come out of that one.”

We all probably know of someone who fits that description, and we all know how to spot people who come close to that description. Because we are generally halfway decent judges of character, and can see when people have merely made an error in judgment or had a momentary lapse in their moral compass versus those who seem to be filled with scum and villainy at their core. We recognize that it was what was inside of them that defiled them and the world around them. They may use pretty words, and make promises to be better, but ultimately, their words and actions are always on opposite ends of the spectrum.

That’s what the Gospel and the Epistle are getting at today

Only the central figure in the passages today is not Timmy or people like him.

It’s me. It’s you. It’s all of us.

We are all halfway decent judges of character, and can see when people like Timmy have just made an honest mistake, or if they are rotten deep within their core. But we are much less capable of judging ourselves with such clarity and focus.

We say one thing, but do another. We know the truth of the Gospel, but ignore it when we’d rather do something else. We look in the mirror and we see the beautiful image of Christ within us. We see that we are Children of God and made in God’s image.

And then we turn away from the mirror, and instantly forget who we are. And we act according to our own desires and wishes.

In the book of Galatians, we hear that the Fruits of the Spirit are Love, joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. These fruits grow from seeds, and those seeds come from the truth of the Gospel message about the identity, mission, death and resurrection of Christ. 

And they will only grow if the soil gets tilled and aerated, if the weeds get pulled, and if the soil gets watered. 

This part of the church year fits into the real world cycle of agricultural harvest, but the lectionary focuses us on the spiritual harvest. It asks us to till the soil of our souls and minds, pulling up the weeds of our own self-interest, tossing out the rocks that stand in the way of growth, so that the Fruit of the Spirit can take root and grow within us. We don’t want people to see dry and rocky soil full of weeds. What we want is a garden of abundance so that people are blessed by the sweet fragrance of Christ that grows out of us.

Or, to put it another way.

When people see our lives in action, do they see a “bad seed,” a “repeat offender,” a person who says one thing and does another? 

Or do they see us like a teddy bear, frolicking in an alpine field, filled with the fruits of the spirit, gathering wildflowers to give to them as a gift?

[This sermon was delivered at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Wickenburg, AZ on September 1, 2024.]