The Cross and the Sword

It's so good to be a Presbyterian this morning! I hope it's good to sit next to each other. I grew up in a ministry family and my dad ran a Presbyterian Camp. Every summer we would travel around with this camp that was for youth groups - middle school and high school. We had this same group of youth leaders around us each summer and I'd say they are the people that helped show me grace, and mercy, and my grade school/elementary years. They showed me the Lord and I came to Christ during that season of life through these awesome southeast, kind of Georgia area, youth pastors. It was wonderful. I eventually went to Montreat College and it was a wonderful place to continue to walk with the Lord. (And that is in North Carolina.)

I was thrilled to come to Cody in 2021 and eventually to connect with your church through Mina. Mina was my MOPS leader (Mothers of Preschooler's) parent. I came to MOPS pregnant about a year or so after Robert and I moved to work at Thomas the Apostle Center. And now I have a 2 and a half year old and I have one on the way. I am so so thankful for the ladies at MOPS and the ministry that is so intentionally held in Cody. It's a beautiful reminder of God's woven community of support for our lives. Mina was one of my MOPS moms this year and we had a couple moments of chatting about my subbing and preaching moments in Cody for this very special moment at one of our brunches.

Over breakfast with our mom's table a guest who grew up in Ethiopia shared all about her up-bringing. Next thing I knew, Mina being Mina, was pulling out her Bible and getting us all a lesson on the original Ethiopian Christian; the Ethiopian eunuch. Little did she know that I was lined up to guest speak...

When Wendy was doing the church announcements today I thought she was going to say the church van had been upgraded for a snow plow, but I guess that got missed.

I'm a lawyer by trade and I've spent the majority of my career in trial courts. Trial lawyers often like to research human history, psychology, sociology; especially if they practice in front of jury's. They're doing that really to figure out the most effective way to present their case. A few years ago Dr. Cooper Abraham published an article for the Alliance of Academic Internal Medicine called, 'Lectures for Adult Learners.' In which he states that the attention span for an adult learner typically begins to wane after about 15 minutes. Preparing for my message today I've tried to keep that guideline in mind. But, I'll be honest, I had no intention of delivering a message during this pulpit supply season. Jake my husband, who is graciously staying at home with our three kids so I can up here uninterrupted; he's the teacher between the two of us. I try to stay in my lane. I feel more comfortable doing that. However, a few people di encourage me to speak during this pulpit supply season. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that they hoped that I would talk about my parents that passed away a few years ago, and many of you knew. But, that's just not quite the message that was put on my heart. So, while my parents do make a cameo today, I hope those folks won't be disappointed.

As most of you have seen, and undoubtably heard, I have three kids. Our oldest, Colt, is six, Scout is four, and Gaines is going to be 2 in just a couple of days. Being a parents makes you question a lot about yourself. I can certainly say that since becoming a parent I've become much more self reflective. I've been caused to think a lot about who I am, how I came to this point, and it's through this introspection that...

It is such a pleasure to be back with you today. I'm excited to be here. I loved that song. That was sung during the offering. That song was actually sung at my wedding. It was special to hear that - thank you for singing that Wendy. It's great to be here on the 4th of July weekend. I think you all get brownie points for coming to church the Sunday after the 4th of July because it is a very busy full week, especially here in Cody.

Today is my third weekend talking to you guys, and we're going to continue the theme I've been using of talking about parables. When I was young I heard a story about a couple of guys who were out in the woods hunting. When one of them suddenly grabs his chest and falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are rolled into the back of his head. The other one whips out his cell phone and calls 9-1-1. He gasps to the operator, "I think my friend is dead! What do I do?"

The operator responds in a very calm measured voice, "Okay, but before we do anything we need to make sure he's dead."

There is silence, and then a loud gunshot.

Then, the guys voice comes back on the line, "Okay, now what?"

I have no idea if that story is true. It's very likely made up. But, it definitely got your attention.

The point is when we tell stories, which is what parables are, we not only need to hear what's being said, but we need to understand the meaning behind those words. The images, the story that Jesus is painting. Today of all days - this is going to be true. Because, we're going to look at a parable that gets to the heart of one of the most fundamental elements of our world-view. Which is our sense of justice.

There's very few things ingrained in us as much as justice. One of the phrases I've never had to teach my children, "That's not fair."

Justice makes us feel like there's an order and a meaning to life. It gives us this sense of control and peace. Thus, one of the most frustrating things for us in faith is when God doesn't seem to be operating according to the rules of justice.

Jesus addresses this frustration head-on in the parable we're going to look at today. In Matthew Chapter 20. And, it's a critical learning opportunity for us to learn to trust God, and to be at peace with what He's doing in the world even when it doesn't make sense to us. This parable has the potential to be a complete world-view...

I'm going to share about another parable this morning. Parables are famous stories that actually woven into the history of the world. Jesus is a wonderful storyteller. Even people who don't know Jesus or don't know anything about Christianity often know certain parables that Jesus spoke of; they've heard about The Good Samaritan, they've heard about The Prodigal Son. These stories that Jesus told a few thousand years ago live on today.

Today we are going to look at The Parable of the Fig Tree, found in Luke 13. I want to frame this a little in the beginning to hopefully help us get something out of it this morning. We often hit different times of the year where we look back and say, 'How fruitful was I?' The natural places for this are usually January - when we usually do a New Year's Resolution. Or August - when we start a new school year. And, we look and examine those areas of life where we excelled, or where we were fruitful, also, where we were not as fruitful, or maybe not fruitful at all.

To extend the analogy, today you are a tree and I'm a tree, and we're all trees. And, this is God's vineyard. We're all fig trees to be specific. It's a good time for us to look back at the previous season and just see how we're doing. And, then ask, 'How many figs were on my tree last year?,' 'Was I fruitful?', 'Did I bear good fruit in the last year?'

I know this is not a typical time we would do this, but we are in summer, and we have maybe a different schedule...

Let me begin with a parable. The parable begins this way - there was an angry multitude of people standing before the thrown of God on judgement day. They objected to being judged by God. They said, "How can God judge us? What does God know about suffering?"

They demanded to know that answer. An olive skinned woman pulled back her sleeve and revealed a tattooed number from the Nazi concentration camp in which she was a part of. There was a black man in the crowd and he lowered his collar, and asked, "What about this?" His neck was scarred from rope burns he had been lynched. Out of the crowd many voices were raised in complaint against God for allowing such suffering in a world God had made. How lucky God was to live in a place of shelter, and peace, and joy, when so many of His children were suffering. So, they formed a committee, which tells me there were a lot Presbyterians in that group. And, the members of that committee: there was a Jewish person, a black person, a person of illegitimate birth, a prisoner from one of the Siberian slave camps, and an untouchable from the country of India. They consulted with one another and they discerned certain requirements that they would lay down before God to judge any of them. God would have to suffer what they would suffer. So, they would challenge God to live on earth as a human being, because God was God they placed limitations on how God could use divine power. Here are the requirements this committee came up with.

1) He would have to born a Jew

2) The legitimacy of His birth would be questioned from the day He was born.

3) He would be required to champion a cause so just and so radical that it would cause a consensus to develop among the established among the religions of His day and they would join hands in eliminating Him.

4) He would be required to try to describe what no man has ever experienced or seen - what God was really like.

5) He would be betrayed by His close friends, He would be indicted on false charges, and tried by prejudice jury, and convicted by an ambivalent judge.

So the committee came back to the crowd and said let Him see what it would be like to be terribly alone and abandoned. Let Him be tortured let Him die. Let Him die in a humiliating fashion being associated with thieves.
Each member announced the portion of their requirement that they were privileged to announce.