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Published: 18 July 2014

There are some overused words in our American vocabulary. “Like” is one of them. It’s like so overused it like drives me like crazy sometimes. I know people don’t intend to use the word that often, in fact if they heard their conversation played back to them they may actually be annoyed. It’s just one of those troublesome struggles with language and communication. There are many more but that one is like really annoying. But Jesus used the word “like” in a different way. He used the word a number of times to make a point about the Kingdom. He used a number of analogies to help the listener get a clearer picture of Kingdom life. He started with things the listeners would know already to inform them about things they would not know. For example, He taught that the Kingdom of God is “like” a mustard seed. It is small and after it is planted in the ground it eventually sprouts, grows and after a few years it’s big enough to hold birds in its branches. In other words, people could expect the slow, organic growth of the Kingdom to be normal…not phenomenal. These short Kingdom stories that we will study this week are all “like” that. They reveal information that we would otherwise not know but we can grasp the information based on other things we know. There are many ways that God is speaking today…gardening, baking, treasure hunting and fishing are just a few. Do you have ears to hear?

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Published: 09 July 2014

Many moons ago, while I was a student at Cass City High School, I was a member of the FFA.  Future Farmers of America exists to educate “up and coming farmers” in the culture of Ag.  Agriculture is a way of living with the land; a way of life fast disappearing in the age of Agri-business and Agri-science.  As a member of FFA we had a whole hour of our school schedule dedicated to Ag talk and Ag life; the field trips were a riot and the day I was left behind at MSU is a story for another time.  One day, in class, a fellow student asked a question of our teacher…”Mr. Clark, why do some farmers grow corn in their beans?”  This kid was obviously a city slicker or from another planet.  The rest of us—brilliant farm kids—all rolled our eyes and moaned.  I think someone even threw something at the kid.  Mr. Clark, with a smirk, patiently explained to the neophyte that the corn was not planted there on purpose but was called “volunteer corn.”  That field had probably been planted to corn the previous year and some spillage occurred during harvest allowing some seed to sprout and grow in the following year.  Of course I knew this because my dad sent us to the fields with hoes to eradicate any volunteer corn.  It was at this time that Mr. Clark also gave us the definition of a “weed.”  “A weed,” said he, “was any unwanted plant.”  In the case of the volunteer corn, the corn was a weed.  As I was meditating on the text for July 13, (The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares) I thought about that enlightening moment in Ag Class.  While I was experienced enough to know the answer to that question I have some other questions that still plague me.  For example, “Why does God allow evil people to co-exist among the righteous?”  “What should we do about this?”  “Is this mayhem ever going to end?”  Of course our Master Teacher has answers for our questions and for those who have ears to hear, the answers are both comforting and a bit alarming…check it out in Matthew 13; Lord willing, we’ll study it further on Sunday.  “Wheat or Weeds?”