The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost-The Rev Melanie Lemburg
The Rev. Melanie Dickson Lemburg
25th
Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 28A
November 19, 2023
What kind of life does God want you to
live? Or, what does it look like for you
to participate in the Kingdom of God right here, right now?
Our gospel reading for today is the 2nd
in a set of 3 parables in the late chapters of Matthew’s gospel. Jesus has made his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem. He has taught in the temple,
fought with the Jewish religious leaders, and he tells this series of three
parables immediately before he once again predicts his death in two days. We heard the first of the three parables last
week—the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids, who get into a fight
about having enough oil in their lamps to light the way of the late-arriving
bridegroom. We have our parable for
today, about slaves who are entrusted with talents from their master, and then next
week, we’ll get the third parable in this series—the parable of the Great
Judgement, when people will be separated before the judgement seat of the Son
of Man based on how they treated people in extremis. With increasingly more urgency, Jesus is
trying to teach his followers and us about what it means to participate in the
Kingdom of God here and now. He’s trying
to get people to ponder what kind of life God wants each of us to live
individually and together as a community.
The first parable (from last week-the
one about the bridesmaids) shows that God wants us to live a mindful, joyful
life. Today’s parable shows us that God
wants us to live a daring, fruitful life.
And next week’s parable (which, spoiler alert!, is the grand finale) shows
us that God wants us to live a generous compassionate life.[i]
I asked our Wednesday congregation to
reflect on a time when they took a risk, stepped out in daring that resulted in
a more fruitful spiritual life. And we
shared lovely stories about how people stepped out in faith differently to take
a risk, how God called them forward in their lives out of their comfort, and
how their spiritual lives have been forever shaped by that experience. All of the stories acknowledged, in some way,
the vulnerability that their daring, their risk required. Because with the risk
of doing something new there is always the very real possibility of failure.
Now I’m someone who really doesn’t like
to fail. And so what jumps out at me in
today’s parable (besides some of the significant problems with the whole
scenario of asking slaves who are powerless to step into a role that they haven’t
been given clear direction around and haven’t been prepared for and then
punishing the one who fails) is just how enslaved to fear the one slave is—how his
fear of failure and punishment keeps him from thriving. And then he ends up failing and being
punished anyway.
A few weeks ago, I went to a conference at
Kanuga as a part of my continuing education and formation. But unlike most continuing ed conferences I
attend, this one wasn’t church sponsored.
It wasn’t on church leadership or conflict or any other helpful tools
for my ministry tool-box. This was a
purely secular conference that is titled “Life is a Verb Camp.” I signed up because two of my favorite writers—Carrie
Newcomer who is a poet and songwriter and poet and essayist Ross Gay—were listed
as the keynote speakers. So, I took at fairly
safe risk (I mean, it was at Kanuga, so how weird could it be, right?) and I
went all by myself. The goal of the
gathering is to create an annual, camp-like experience for adults to help
nurture courage, creativity, compassion, and community, and, I’m not going to
lie, it certainly had its weird moments.
But the founder, a writer named Patti Digh told us that she invites poets
to be the keynote speakers every year because “poets help us see the world
differently.” And I found this to be so
very true.
There is no way I could have anticipated
the gifts I received from this small risk of attending this new, slightly strange
gathering. I’ve started writing poetry
again. I used to write poetry all the
time in my younger years, but the more sermons I wrote, the fewer poems poured
forth from me. And with that writing has
come a deepening in how I look at the world around me; it has brought a new
intentionality to my experiences and encounters and a reflectiveness that
requires the slowing down of my spirit.
It has definitely been a stretching of my spirit and a deepening in my
relationship with God and with others.
So, your questions this week to consider
are “What kind of life does God want you to live? What does it look like to participate in the
Kingdom of God here and now? Reflect on a time that you took a risk, stepped
out in daring, that resulted in a more fruitful spiritual life for you. And look for opportunities either this week
or into Advent to step out a little in risk, in daring, in faith.”
And since I try not to ask you to do
things that I’m not willing to do, I’m going to close with a poem that I’ve
written recently. It’s about a time when
I took a risk here with y’all, and you met me exactly where I needed to be met,
and how I saw it transform all of us.
An Ode to the
Church
by Melanie Lemburg
She sat curled
small on a bench
behind the open
door of the church.
Are you sad, I
asked.
And she nodded.
Would you like a
hug?
She did.
And clung to me
like the poor motherless
child she was.
Would you like
more hugs?
She nodded.
Well, watch this!
And I put my faith
in my flock
filing out of
church.
Poor Kurt was our
first victim.
I opened my arms
wide
and he hugged me,
maybe a little reluctantly.
Her eyes luminous,
she
mirrored
and hug after hug
rained down
on her-
manna in her
wilderness.
And suddenly Charlotte
stood
before us
on the arm of her
sister.
(Charlotte’s
super-power is hugging.)
Full body-arms pulled
tight
in a squeeze of
delight-enough
to lose yourself.
We have never been
more the church,
the bride, the
body of Christ,
than on that day
when we
transfigured
the holy handshake
line
into a holy hug
line
together
for the motherless
child in
each of us.
[i] Much
of this reading of these three parables together was inspired by this week’s Salt
Lectionary commentary: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/11/9/be-daring-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-twenty-fourth-week-after-pentecost
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