As young children, our first experience with good and evil begins with fairy tales.

Good fights against evil and wins, as good is God-given.
Fairy tales by Tumanian, Andersen and others breed us with love, beauty, justice and compassion.

"Once upon a time, there lived a king and a queen. They were walking in the woods.Then they got lost and didn't know what to do. Then an old lady came up to them and said, "Where are you going?" "To get some bread for a party at the castle," they said. The old lady gave them some bread and showed them how to get back to the castle. Everyone went to the party and had fun." -- Lost in the Woods by Joey Taylor

We grow and our experiences mature as we read more complex books.

We learn the good does not always win; sometimes evil gets the upper hand.

"One day when we came back from work, we saw three gallows rearing up in the assembly place, three black crows. Roll call. SS all around us; machine guns trained: the traditional ceremony. Three victims in chains--and one of them, the little servant, the sad- eyed angel. The SS seemed more preoccupied, more disturbed than usual. To hang a young boy in front of thousands of spectators was no light matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was lividly pale, almost calm, biting his lips. The gallows threw its shadow over him. This time the [head of the camp] refused to act as executioner. Three SS replaced him. The three victims mounted together onto the chairs. The three necks were placed at the same moment within the nooses. "Long live liberty!" cried the two adults. But the child was silent. "Where is God? Where is He?" someone behind me asked. Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting. "Bare your heads!" yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping. "Cover your heads!" Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue-tinged. but the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive...For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "Where is God now?" And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is He? Here He is--He is hanging here on this gallows." That night the soup tasted [like] corpses." -- Night by Elie Wiesel

I was thinking about these things when I read the parable of the weeds among the wheat which always screamed judgment to me. I think that's because in Jesus' explanation of the parable he says, "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This proved to me that at the end of the days there will be judgment on those who are evil and those who are good will be saved from the fiery depths of hell.

Yet after further reading and research. I realized that this is about judgment but not ours ... God's judgment. This means it's not our job to tell people which ones they are. We are the ones being judged and no where does it say that we are to judge others. The separation of wheat and weeds is a divine task for a divine time. When the smoke finally cleared in my head I realized that this parable really tells us that God is not doing much about the weeds at this time; God is kind of resistant to make that judgment call now, he is waiting for the end of the age. But wouldn't it be great if there were only wheat left? It would almost be a utopia. But nope, Jesus tells us that the wheat and the weeds are to grow up together. When it is time to harvest God will do the work only God can do. Until then, we have to learn to live with one another. Good and evil.

I don't personally believe in evil in the world and yet when I actually open my eyes and take in the world around me I must pause and consider the possibility. Sometimes we ask, as the man asked of Elie Wiesel, "Where is God?" What does this tell us about God? Why does God let such awful things happen to innocent people? If God would stop evil when we wanted him to though, then what is stopping him from taking me out right here and right now? What stops him from passing judgment on me when I lie, when I gossip, or when I do not honor my parents? In God's eye who is the wheat and who is the weed? In the eyes of God my own sins may be the same as the people we call evil, a weed.

I guess the good news of this parable is that God knows the difference between wheat and weeds and waits until the end of days to do anything about it. God's judgment is yet to come. Thank God.

Looking Deeper

As the Church delves into Advent - the anticipation and expectation of the long awaited Messiah - we at True North will be delving into the Kingdom of God/Heaven passages from Matthew, a ten week sermon series entitled Looking Deeper. The bulk of these kingdom passages are shortly after the Sermon on the Mount series; Jesus leaves the house and sits by the seaside and a large group of people begin to gather. Seeing the crowd, Jesus begins preaching and teaching them many things in parables. The kingdom parables are arguably the most difficult passages to interpret. Matthew 13:24-30 will be the first parable we look at, that of the weeds sown among the good seed. Matthew 13: 31 and 32 focuses on a very small mustard seed or pine nut that grows into a very large tree. Moving on through the Sermon on the Mount, we will look at Matthew13: 33 and the comparison of God's kingdom to yeast. Matthew 13:44 describes the Kingdom of Heaven to be like a treasure hidden for a long time in a field. The halfway point is Matthew 13:45-46, the flawless jewel. The second half of the series begins with Matthew 13: 47-50, the fishing net that is culled by angels. An owner of a house or general store is used to describe the kingdom in Matthew 13:52. For the remaining three lessons we will journey with Jesus from Capernaum to Galilee to Judea and then into Jerusalem. Matthew 18: 23-35 is a rather long telling of the wicked servant who begs for forgiveness yet refuses to forgive his fellow servant. And we've all heard the tale of the gregarious estate manager in Matthew 20:1-16 who pays the same wages to all workers, be it for an hours labor or 9. And finally, we round out this series with Matthew 22:1-10, the great wedding banquet where the staff was ordered to bring in the dirge of the streets when the invited guests all decline the invitation.

Many of these parables and stories are very difficult to understand. The metaphors and analogies between the kingdom of heaven and the normal almost mundane items encountered in everyday life are easy to miss or mis-interpret. Come join us as we delve into what the kingdom of heaven is (or isn't). Come ... we are all Looking Deeper.

Tonight John talked about wounds, pain, hurt, brokenness.
I have a friend who self-harms. She is in immense pain that springs forth from her inner being - past hurts that are so incredibly difficult that she hasn't been able to reconcile, to forgive, to move forward with her life. She has undergone 80+ electroconvulsive treatments in the hopes of sustaining her own life. Her depression is such that she battles suicidal thoughts each moment of each day. The ECT treatments are her fight to live - her life line. I shudder each time she returns home from a treatment, thankful that she is alive for another day but heartbroken that her life has become ... what, this barely definable existence. She is deeply wounded and I ache for ways to help her heal.

John mentioned tonight a teen who, out of desperation and despair, took her own life. The devastation the family is left with ... the grief, the pain, the loss. She was wounded deeply and has left her family broken and just as deeply wounded. How he wished for ways to help her toward healing, to now help them find healing.

Wounds are destructive, especially those that can't be seen; those wounds of the heart, the spirit, the soul. How do you heal a broken heart? How do you piece together a shattered spirit ? How do you touch a hardened soul?

I know something of this type of pain - having my own deep wounds that have left me scarred, shattered and fragmented. I know something of the brokenness and the ache that lead people to the drastic - to reach conclusions that seem to be the only logical way to find release ... escape. My friend escapes in ECT. The young girl found a more permanent escape. And myself - I struggle daily with the ideation of escape and I fight just as hard for life, but I have hope. I have God who speaks love and life into my ears. God who is himself pained and wounded, sacrificed and sacrificial. How else can God both understand and heal? How else can I understand and heal but to be the wounded healer?

From my brokenness I believe that God will use me to reach many who are as wounded as I. God commissioned the twelve to preach, teach, and heal. God has commissioned me as well - tonight I believe that through the words of John, God has commissioned each of us that were present. All of us there at True North tonight have been before God wounded and in pain. God is sending each of us, broken as we are, to heal the downtrodden, the broken-hearted, the poor in spirit. How? From the place of our own woundedness where we will be able to compassionately touch another wounded person; then together we will walk the path to healing. Together we will make our way to wholeness, we will make our way to God.

Peace to you all this evening,
memonica

While reading up on the our next scripture passage - Luke 9: 1-6, I stumbled upon this devotional published by the Catholic church:

Jesus sends out the Twelve to extend the work that he himself has been doing. The Twelve have walked, watched, and heard the Master for an extended period of time: in effect, they have been in training. Now, while the Lord is still with them, he sends the Twelve out on a sort of supervised training. Jesus sends them out to calm troubled souls, heal sick people, and announce the good news. He asks them to work in perfect freedom, unaffected by material concerns and grateful for any kind of generosity that comes their way. The work of the Church begins here in this passage, for what the Lord charged the Twelve to do, he charges us to do: in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, to tell of the good news, heal people who hurt, not be picky, and accept the good that come to us with gratitude.

I like the way this reflection focuses on the fact that Jesus supervised the training of the disciples; I believe that is what the church is  called to do as well ... supervise the training of the disciples. As I mentioned in my previous blog, supervise by doing (by example) - not merely by telling. Jesus didn't send the disciples out to do the work until they had walked with, heard or listened to, and watched or witnessed the Master himself. So the church needs to go from within the doors of the building to beyond, into the world; out to heal the sick, spread the good news, and prepare for the kingdom of heaven. And while we the church are doing these things we are making disciples who are walking beside us, listening to our words, witnessing our works, and learning from our example.

Now you might ask yourself "what do I  have to offer to someone who is at the bottom of a pit of self destruction"; after all most of us are not doctors or psychologists. But in fact we have the tools that we need to be healers.

In the Gospel Jesus sends the twelve apostles to "calm troubled souls and to heal the sick as well as to preach the good news". They were just twelve ordinary people with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No university degrees, no manuals on how to say the right thing at the right time. Just twelve people who put their trust in Jesus and received their words and courage from the Holy Spirit. We too can do the seemingly impossible - with God's help, the courage of the Holy Spirit, and the guidance of the church.

I believe that John would agree with me on this one.
Amen. So be it.

Let's go and accomplish great things.

Blessings,
memonica

Tonight we heard from John about a bit of his frustration with the church, or at the very least his frustration with some churches. Some churches are "saltless salts" or "invisible lights". While studying about why grace this morning during Sunday School I asked about Christian discipleship. The great commission of Jesus to his disciples was to go into the world and make disciples of all but what exactly does that mean? John's own thoughts to that question was that the church is supposed to teach, train, and lead by example. We shouldn't simply bring people into the community and tell them how to be a disciple of Christ and then leave them to figure it out how on their own. The church should be a place that brings people into community where they can walk beside and help along with and be "brought up" in the way of discipleship through and in the work of the church (my interpretation of John's words!).

We at True North want to be the church that lives by example - that brings people into community and then teaches about Christian discipleship through the works that we do and offer opportunities for discipleship. Come with us and together we will do the work of Christ here on earth. Yes you can do your part on your own and make some kind of difference to one or to a few but if we work together, pool our resources, imagine how much more we can accomplish and how many more people we can reach.

The opportunity is now - Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. we will be distributing food bags to those who qualify through the Emergency Food Assistance Program. On Friday, at 1:00 p.m. we'll be bagging the non-perishable food items. Please, join us as we teach though example the work of Christ and what discipleship means.

Blessings,
memonica