Sunday, July 19, 2020

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Genesis 28:10-19a
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
Second Reading: Romans 8:12-25
Gospel Reading: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

Entangled and uninhibited.  That is the story of the wheat.  The story is not about separating out the wheat from the weeds.  It is not about determining which is wheat and which is weeds.  It is not about trying to un-entangle the wheat from the weeds.  No, it truly is a story about the wheat.  And it is about what the wheat does.  It grows.  Yes, it grows.  The wheat is to grow—that is its role.  It is to grow—and as it grows it will continue to be entangled.

That is the job we are to do.

Wheat is to grow. 

That is the task.  To grow uninhibited.  Entangled and uninhibited.

This moment in the life of the church is a moment of growing—entangled with each other—uninhibited and entangled as we discover what is next for us and how we will grow entangled together. 

This time of pandemic and structural shifts in our culture is not a time of waiting for the church.  We are not to “wait until all this is over” or until “it all blows by.”  No.  This is a season of growth.  Entangled with our reality and uninhibited by constraints of our own making—this is a season, oh you wheat you—of growth.  So, grow.  Go on—grow.  Grow—entangled and uninhibited—for surely the Lord is in this place!

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk