Crops of Glory
Stories
Contents
"Crops of Glory" by C. David McKirachan
"Clarity and Healing" by C. David McKirachan
"Identical Bodies" by Frank Ramirez
Crops of Glory
C. David McKirachan
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Parables are used to make us think. There are no neat, straightforward messages coming out of them. If we hear them, it is our prejudices speaking. Parables instruct us to “consider…” It is a hefty instruction. It points us toward journeys inviting us to pay attention to simple actions and situations. And at the same time to see the miracle of that which is beyond our small understanding, there within the mundane, within the mud of our everyday normality. ‘Consider’ invites us to allow that miracle to be present and possible, transforming what is before us into the presence of eternal truth. It’s there, if we are willing to ‘consider’.
This parable asks us to consider a farmer, sowing seed. Farmers are strange people, impractical folk. Their labor is founded on hope. President Obama, before he was president wrote a very good book. Read it if you haven’t. The title applies here: The Audacity of Hope.
I think, too often we see hope as a whimsical attitude. Someone who hopes is wishing, and we pay little attention to characters like Jiminy Cricket. This is the endeavor of children, or people who are less interested in the hard realities of planning, discipline, careful investment, understanding limitations, and knowing when to fold our hands (that’s poker hands, not prayer). Sure, we hope. But what difference does it make?
Yet the apostle says, “faith, hope, and love abide, these three…” Well, if hope is such a whimsical and iffy attitude, where does that leave faith and love?
Farmers invest in hope, sometimes borrowing to do so. They risk all they have in the possibility of a harvest that is risky at best. Then they work around the clock to improve the conditions of growth. That’s audacious. There is nothing whimsical about their investment or their work. Yet it is founded on hope. Audacious hope.
The curse, ‘may you live in interesting times’ is full blown in ours. To minister to people beset by plague, the evil of racism, the progressive destruction of our planet, and leadership that refuses to deal with truth, let alone the visions of democracy or human rights is like trying to build a community on a battlefield. Even when you try to help, something blows up in your face. Hoping in this day and age is impractical. Our people are frustrated, angry, fearful, and depressed. And so are we. How can we bring them good news when we are all mired in this mess?
And yet, “The sower went out to sow…”
We have to be willing to be farmers, against all the odds, against all the pests and lousy soil and nay-sayers and blind guides and false prophets. We have to be willing to hold fast to what it is we have been called to do, to bring nourishment to the very characters who tell us we’re fools. We have to be willing to believe that though we don’t know the answers or have the solutions, we do have seed to sow. We have to be audacious in our hope.
At the end of this parable is a crop report. Now, many of you have never taken interest in crop reports. But to some of you they are more important than our leaders’ Twitter accounts, or even the Dow Jones.
I worked in a farm town recently. There, the weather, the price of cotton, peanuts, soybeans, and conditions for harvest were issues for prayer in corporate worship. Crop reports are big deals to those who work with seed and dirt.
The crop report at the end of the parable is something we rarely consider. Of course, things will go well. It’s a parable. Well, for a farmer these are fairy tale level statistics. They are miracles. Just imagine them as percentages for growth for investments, or better yet people in the pew. That’s nuts. Yep. Sure is.
And that’s the promise given to those who are willing to be audacious hopers.
I’ve never had those kinds of statistics in my churches. But I have learned to consider, to see within the mud and mess of day to day living the miracles that burst into bloom and yield crops of glory.
Keep on sowing.
* * *
Clarity and Healing
C. David McKirachan
Romans 8:1-11
Whenever I walk into a church building for the first time, my first instinct is to go into the worship and go into the pulpit. I hold onto it and scan the sanctuary, trying to get the feel of the place. I never noticed my habit, until I was visiting a congregation to have a job interview. One of the search committee members, who’d been showing me around asked me, with some puzzlement, what I was doing there. I stood, rubbing my thumb and middle finger together, “Trying to get a feel of the place.” And as I said it, I realized something was going on that would be hard to describe to a search committee, especially considering what I’d picked up. And that made me very conscious of my instinctual habit.
Then we went into the meeting and they asked me a bunch of questions, showed me pages of budget figures and attendance and demographic information, all with a sense of satisfaction and pride. Things were looking up. I asked about their prayer life. The response was halting. “Well, we do.”
How do we judge the health of a church? We usually count the health of a church. We count money, buns in the pew, buildings, missions. Things of the flesh. It’s what our culture teaches. It’s at the center of most of our anxieties and joys. Or should I say satisfactions. Real joy doesn’t rise from bank accounts. And even the satisfactions are temporary.
When we ask for prayers from the congregation, invariably they are prayers for health and safety issues. And when we call that to peoples’ attention, we get looks of confusion and consternation. ‘What else are we supposed to pray for?’
In session meetings, how often do we pray? The job description of elders is to be the spiritual tiller of the church. Are we? Or are we a board of directors of a non-profit corporation doing nice things and singing songs once a week? If, as the moderator we have the temerity to conduct Bible study and devotions at the meetings, we are reminded we have a heavy docket. Or perhaps as caring pastors, we’re the ones having the forethought to cut down the devotions in consideration of the elders’ fatigue.
We are people of the flesh. We rarely adventure beyond the issues and needs of the flesh. We are tangled in time, money, power issues, efficiency, popularity, and etc.
Looking back on my ministry, I would have done well to rub my thumb against my middle finger to test the waters before I invested, or refrained from investing my own energies, before leading the family of faith that ’a way.
Michael Jackson said in one his songs, “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change.”
In this season of wilderness and disruption of the normal, perhaps we need to do more than consider taking care of the needs of the flesh. Perhaps we are being called to seek priorities that cannot be counted.
I would recommend a journey into prayer, not asking for anything except clarity and healing for our own souls. That’s where power comes from, power to offer others clarity and healing for their souls. Invite others to spend time together in silence in the sanctuary. (Observing social distancing. You might get a few that snore.) Look at Jesus’ prayer life. Consider what it means to build your ministry on the Holy Spirit. If there’s a time for silence in your worship, let it go for a minute. (I instructed lay leaders to count to 30, slowly. It’s a beginning.) If there is no time for silence, consider it. Preach on our need for the spiritual gifts and how to be open to them. Be in dialogue with the congregation and with the Holy Spirit.
I hate how-to-books and I’m beginning to sound like one. But this has been my struggle and in many ways my salvation. Funny about that.
By the way, I didn’t take the job. The numbers were right, but there was something… something more important, missing. I felt a bit of a tug about that. Maybe I should have gone further into it. Maybe I was being called to go into a pagan city and preach. It worked for Noah. But I’m just not a numbers kind of guy. And when I rubbed my thumb and finger together, it felt… You know what I mean. I hope.
* * *
Identical Bodies
by Frank Ramirez
Genesis 25:19-34
According to some experts there are several different kinds of twins, but most of us are familiar with the two most common varieties: fraternal and identical twins.
Fraternal twins are the result when two eggs are fertilized at the same time. Identical twins share the same egg.
Mark and Scott Kelly comprise one of the most famous sets of identical twins. They were born on February 21, 1964. The future astronauts were five years old when they watched the first moon landing, Apollo 11, on July 20, 1969, at their home in West Orange, New Jersey. At the time, however, neither was particularly interested in astronautics.
They were active in high school sports, participating in swimming, track, baseball, and football. They were co-captains of the swim team.
Mark and Scott followed different paths for some years, but both eventually received advanced degrees, ended up as military pilots, and both were accepted into the astronaut corps in 1996.
Mark flew four times on the space shuttle, logging over 54 days on those missions. He was actively involved in the construction of the International Space Station. His most difficult flight was his last, STS-134, which launched in May of 2011. This had nothing to do with the actual mission. Earlier in the year his wife, Congressional Representative Gabby Giffords, was badly wounded in an assassination attempt. At first, he was mistakenly told she had died from her wounds. When he discovered that wasn’t true, he devoted himself to her difficult recovery. Ultimately, she encouraged him to fly his last mission. That flight featured the first call to the space shuttle by a pope (Benedict XVI) and a papal blessing for the Giffords.
Scott also flew four missions to space, but he accumulated a staggering 520 days in space, including two long duration missions on the International Space Station. Like his brother, his final flight that attracted the most attention, though not for shattering reasons. Scott Kelly spent a year in space as part of a medical experiment which partnered him with his twin brother Mark, who by that time had retired from the astronaut corps. He was the earthbound partner in the experiment. The purpose of this long duration mission, in preparation for future flights to Mars, was to study the effects of long duration space on the human body.
It was already known that space flight can have a negative effect on the human body. Bone density deteriorates. Muscles lose their tone. Some cognitive activities become more difficult. There are also changes in the microbiology and DNA of space travelers. Those who spend any time at all in space must adhere to a rigorous and unremitting program of exercise.
Scientists believed having a pair of twins involved in the experiment meant that the effect of space flight on one body could be checked against a mostly identical body on earth.
During the long flight, the two brothers underwent medical examinations simultaneously in space and on the earth. They regularly drew blood samples. Following the mission, scientists studied the results. It was clear that Scott’s body was greatly stressed by his time in space. His genetic material underwent some changes. His immune system had to work especially hard. His upper body, his head, and his blood vessels experienced swelling. His eyes changed shape. He also grew taller over the course of the mission.
Upon his return to earth after 340 days in space, Scott recovered from some of these effects, but recovery was painfully slow in some respects. There were psychological effects as well. Scientists are still discussing ways for future astronauts on long duration flights to avoid the worst of these effects.
One of the interesting things about this set of twins is their parents waited years to let the boys know who’d been born first, They didn’t want one twin to feel superior over the other because of a matter of minutes when it came to who was the elder of the two. As it turned out, Mark was the one who was born first.
Contrast that to the story of Jacob and Esau. The two started fighting in the womb, so much so that their mother despaired. Moreover, the question of who was born first meant a whole lot more. As their mother was told, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23). That rivalry tore a family apart.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 12, 2020, issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Crops of Glory" by C. David McKirachan
"Clarity and Healing" by C. David McKirachan
"Identical Bodies" by Frank Ramirez
Crops of Glory
C. David McKirachan
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Parables are used to make us think. There are no neat, straightforward messages coming out of them. If we hear them, it is our prejudices speaking. Parables instruct us to “consider…” It is a hefty instruction. It points us toward journeys inviting us to pay attention to simple actions and situations. And at the same time to see the miracle of that which is beyond our small understanding, there within the mundane, within the mud of our everyday normality. ‘Consider’ invites us to allow that miracle to be present and possible, transforming what is before us into the presence of eternal truth. It’s there, if we are willing to ‘consider’.
This parable asks us to consider a farmer, sowing seed. Farmers are strange people, impractical folk. Their labor is founded on hope. President Obama, before he was president wrote a very good book. Read it if you haven’t. The title applies here: The Audacity of Hope.
I think, too often we see hope as a whimsical attitude. Someone who hopes is wishing, and we pay little attention to characters like Jiminy Cricket. This is the endeavor of children, or people who are less interested in the hard realities of planning, discipline, careful investment, understanding limitations, and knowing when to fold our hands (that’s poker hands, not prayer). Sure, we hope. But what difference does it make?
Yet the apostle says, “faith, hope, and love abide, these three…” Well, if hope is such a whimsical and iffy attitude, where does that leave faith and love?
Farmers invest in hope, sometimes borrowing to do so. They risk all they have in the possibility of a harvest that is risky at best. Then they work around the clock to improve the conditions of growth. That’s audacious. There is nothing whimsical about their investment or their work. Yet it is founded on hope. Audacious hope.
The curse, ‘may you live in interesting times’ is full blown in ours. To minister to people beset by plague, the evil of racism, the progressive destruction of our planet, and leadership that refuses to deal with truth, let alone the visions of democracy or human rights is like trying to build a community on a battlefield. Even when you try to help, something blows up in your face. Hoping in this day and age is impractical. Our people are frustrated, angry, fearful, and depressed. And so are we. How can we bring them good news when we are all mired in this mess?
And yet, “The sower went out to sow…”
We have to be willing to be farmers, against all the odds, against all the pests and lousy soil and nay-sayers and blind guides and false prophets. We have to be willing to hold fast to what it is we have been called to do, to bring nourishment to the very characters who tell us we’re fools. We have to be willing to believe that though we don’t know the answers or have the solutions, we do have seed to sow. We have to be audacious in our hope.
At the end of this parable is a crop report. Now, many of you have never taken interest in crop reports. But to some of you they are more important than our leaders’ Twitter accounts, or even the Dow Jones.
I worked in a farm town recently. There, the weather, the price of cotton, peanuts, soybeans, and conditions for harvest were issues for prayer in corporate worship. Crop reports are big deals to those who work with seed and dirt.
The crop report at the end of the parable is something we rarely consider. Of course, things will go well. It’s a parable. Well, for a farmer these are fairy tale level statistics. They are miracles. Just imagine them as percentages for growth for investments, or better yet people in the pew. That’s nuts. Yep. Sure is.
And that’s the promise given to those who are willing to be audacious hopers.
I’ve never had those kinds of statistics in my churches. But I have learned to consider, to see within the mud and mess of day to day living the miracles that burst into bloom and yield crops of glory.
Keep on sowing.
* * *
Clarity and Healing
C. David McKirachan
Romans 8:1-11
Whenever I walk into a church building for the first time, my first instinct is to go into the worship and go into the pulpit. I hold onto it and scan the sanctuary, trying to get the feel of the place. I never noticed my habit, until I was visiting a congregation to have a job interview. One of the search committee members, who’d been showing me around asked me, with some puzzlement, what I was doing there. I stood, rubbing my thumb and middle finger together, “Trying to get a feel of the place.” And as I said it, I realized something was going on that would be hard to describe to a search committee, especially considering what I’d picked up. And that made me very conscious of my instinctual habit.
Then we went into the meeting and they asked me a bunch of questions, showed me pages of budget figures and attendance and demographic information, all with a sense of satisfaction and pride. Things were looking up. I asked about their prayer life. The response was halting. “Well, we do.”
How do we judge the health of a church? We usually count the health of a church. We count money, buns in the pew, buildings, missions. Things of the flesh. It’s what our culture teaches. It’s at the center of most of our anxieties and joys. Or should I say satisfactions. Real joy doesn’t rise from bank accounts. And even the satisfactions are temporary.
When we ask for prayers from the congregation, invariably they are prayers for health and safety issues. And when we call that to peoples’ attention, we get looks of confusion and consternation. ‘What else are we supposed to pray for?’
In session meetings, how often do we pray? The job description of elders is to be the spiritual tiller of the church. Are we? Or are we a board of directors of a non-profit corporation doing nice things and singing songs once a week? If, as the moderator we have the temerity to conduct Bible study and devotions at the meetings, we are reminded we have a heavy docket. Or perhaps as caring pastors, we’re the ones having the forethought to cut down the devotions in consideration of the elders’ fatigue.
We are people of the flesh. We rarely adventure beyond the issues and needs of the flesh. We are tangled in time, money, power issues, efficiency, popularity, and etc.
Looking back on my ministry, I would have done well to rub my thumb against my middle finger to test the waters before I invested, or refrained from investing my own energies, before leading the family of faith that ’a way.
Michael Jackson said in one his songs, “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change.”
In this season of wilderness and disruption of the normal, perhaps we need to do more than consider taking care of the needs of the flesh. Perhaps we are being called to seek priorities that cannot be counted.
I would recommend a journey into prayer, not asking for anything except clarity and healing for our own souls. That’s where power comes from, power to offer others clarity and healing for their souls. Invite others to spend time together in silence in the sanctuary. (Observing social distancing. You might get a few that snore.) Look at Jesus’ prayer life. Consider what it means to build your ministry on the Holy Spirit. If there’s a time for silence in your worship, let it go for a minute. (I instructed lay leaders to count to 30, slowly. It’s a beginning.) If there is no time for silence, consider it. Preach on our need for the spiritual gifts and how to be open to them. Be in dialogue with the congregation and with the Holy Spirit.
I hate how-to-books and I’m beginning to sound like one. But this has been my struggle and in many ways my salvation. Funny about that.
By the way, I didn’t take the job. The numbers were right, but there was something… something more important, missing. I felt a bit of a tug about that. Maybe I should have gone further into it. Maybe I was being called to go into a pagan city and preach. It worked for Noah. But I’m just not a numbers kind of guy. And when I rubbed my thumb and finger together, it felt… You know what I mean. I hope.
* * *
Identical Bodies
by Frank Ramirez
Genesis 25:19-34
According to some experts there are several different kinds of twins, but most of us are familiar with the two most common varieties: fraternal and identical twins.
Fraternal twins are the result when two eggs are fertilized at the same time. Identical twins share the same egg.
Mark and Scott Kelly comprise one of the most famous sets of identical twins. They were born on February 21, 1964. The future astronauts were five years old when they watched the first moon landing, Apollo 11, on July 20, 1969, at their home in West Orange, New Jersey. At the time, however, neither was particularly interested in astronautics.
They were active in high school sports, participating in swimming, track, baseball, and football. They were co-captains of the swim team.
Mark and Scott followed different paths for some years, but both eventually received advanced degrees, ended up as military pilots, and both were accepted into the astronaut corps in 1996.
Mark flew four times on the space shuttle, logging over 54 days on those missions. He was actively involved in the construction of the International Space Station. His most difficult flight was his last, STS-134, which launched in May of 2011. This had nothing to do with the actual mission. Earlier in the year his wife, Congressional Representative Gabby Giffords, was badly wounded in an assassination attempt. At first, he was mistakenly told she had died from her wounds. When he discovered that wasn’t true, he devoted himself to her difficult recovery. Ultimately, she encouraged him to fly his last mission. That flight featured the first call to the space shuttle by a pope (Benedict XVI) and a papal blessing for the Giffords.
Scott also flew four missions to space, but he accumulated a staggering 520 days in space, including two long duration missions on the International Space Station. Like his brother, his final flight that attracted the most attention, though not for shattering reasons. Scott Kelly spent a year in space as part of a medical experiment which partnered him with his twin brother Mark, who by that time had retired from the astronaut corps. He was the earthbound partner in the experiment. The purpose of this long duration mission, in preparation for future flights to Mars, was to study the effects of long duration space on the human body.
It was already known that space flight can have a negative effect on the human body. Bone density deteriorates. Muscles lose their tone. Some cognitive activities become more difficult. There are also changes in the microbiology and DNA of space travelers. Those who spend any time at all in space must adhere to a rigorous and unremitting program of exercise.
Scientists believed having a pair of twins involved in the experiment meant that the effect of space flight on one body could be checked against a mostly identical body on earth.
During the long flight, the two brothers underwent medical examinations simultaneously in space and on the earth. They regularly drew blood samples. Following the mission, scientists studied the results. It was clear that Scott’s body was greatly stressed by his time in space. His genetic material underwent some changes. His immune system had to work especially hard. His upper body, his head, and his blood vessels experienced swelling. His eyes changed shape. He also grew taller over the course of the mission.
Upon his return to earth after 340 days in space, Scott recovered from some of these effects, but recovery was painfully slow in some respects. There were psychological effects as well. Scientists are still discussing ways for future astronauts on long duration flights to avoid the worst of these effects.
One of the interesting things about this set of twins is their parents waited years to let the boys know who’d been born first, They didn’t want one twin to feel superior over the other because of a matter of minutes when it came to who was the elder of the two. As it turned out, Mark was the one who was born first.
Contrast that to the story of Jacob and Esau. The two started fighting in the womb, so much so that their mother despaired. Moreover, the question of who was born first meant a whole lot more. As their mother was told, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23). That rivalry tore a family apart.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 12, 2020, issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
